Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	aaron_n	speak_v	zion_n	42	3	8.2313	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97126	The good-vvill of Him that dwelt in the bush: or, The extraordinary happinesse of living under an extraordinary providence. A sermon preached before the Right Honourable, the House of Lords, in the Abbey Church at Westminster, on Tuesday, Iuly 22. 1645. At their publike thanksgiving for the good successe given to the Parliaments forces, under the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax in the west. /	Ward, John, d. 1665.	1645 (1645)	Wing W774; Thomason E293_16; ESTC R200163	33,640	44

our Counsels or our Armies either erre or prosper not it is our duty to fall upon our faces and humble our souls and enquire of the Lord and if any that offer themselves willingly be more successefull our hearts may be towards them but Blesse ye the Lord Judge 5. 29. 3. I may adde a third caution to the two former viz. That all pomp and triumph be layd aside in the dayes of our rejoycing and thanksgiving not that I judge it utterly unlawfull but altogether unfit and unseasonable Ringing and Bonefires and such solemnities are for Tear-lesse and bloodlesse Victories over a forreigne enemy rather than in civill war where they that get the day must needs possesse the victory as the eleven Tribes did that over the Benjamites with cryes and tears the conquerors cannot behold the slaughter of the enemy but it must repent them for their brethren because the Lord hath made a breach in their own Nation perhaps their own families nor look upon the gain of the Conquest but as David did upon the water which the Worthies fetched from out of the Well of Bethlehem which was by the gate Is it not the bloud of the men that went in the jeopardie of their lives It would be poured out before the Lord Secondly When all this is done there is yet a further use to be made of this Doctrine for we shall finde that where the man after Gods own heart readeth upon the Law of thankfulnesse He interprets it thus He that offereth me praise glorifieth me and he that ordereth his conversation aright So that God is not glorified unlesse there be a care of composing or disposing our way as well as a sacrificing of Confessions and unto this also the Doctrine is an engagement For if an extraordinary peculiar providence be an extraordinary peculiar blessing then without controversie there is super-induced upon us at this season a very great obligation to walke worthy the Lord to have our conversation according to the way of God in compassion of us For whom much is done of them much is looked for Else we shall return evil for good and may be sure to hear of it as Israel also did Deut. 36. 6. Doe ye thus requite the Lord oh foolish people and unwise Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee hath he not made thee and established thee To say nothing of what we read to this purpose almost every where in the Books of Moses we may hear the Prophet preaching it very plainly both the Duty upon this very ground and the aggravation of the sin in the case of perversnesse and the recompence of the errour upon supposition of the provocation Isa. 63. 8. He said Surely they are my people children that will not lye So he was their Saviour q. d. He took them into Covenant he admitted them into the neerest relations in this case lesse could not be expected then that in all ingenuity they should have abhorred to degenerate into any false way or fail to be an holy people In all the reason of the world one would think they should have reckoned themselves bounden to answer the loving kindnesse and faithfulnesse of the Lord in all holinesse and righteousnesse of conversation before him all their dayes Upon these termes he took upon him their protection So hee was their Saviour That they might observe his Statutes and keep his Lawes for so the Psalmist expounds it and if ye read on to the eighth verse ye will finde the rest But they rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit therefore he was turned to be their enemy and he fought against them The equity is so manifest as nothing more needs to be sayd in it Onely if you desire to know what it is that God requires and we ought to returne you may finde it if you looke in the glasse whereinto the species of the children of Israels face is shed I mean the story of their Rebellions We may read our duty in their perversnesse and see where to wash our selves by their spots Doubtlesse ye have heard of their provocations and the issues of them they are gathered together into very short summe Psalme 95. ye may finde them a little more enlarged and particularized in the 78 and the 106 Psalms Or if ye please that I may run over the History before you in a few words wee shall the more readily discerne what to amend 1. They did not abide in that good disposition wherein they received the first tydings and tokens of Gods good will to them When Aaron had spoken all the words which the Lord spake unto Moses and had done all the signs in the sight of the people The people beleeved and when they heard that the Lord had visited them and looked upon their afflictions then they bowed their heads worshipped But in the next chapter they lightly depart from that acknowledgement upon the first discouragement where they found themselves in an evil case because of their tasks they met Moses and Aaron and sayd The Lord looke upon you and judge because ye have made our savour to stink in the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants to put a sword in their hands to stay us And again at the Red-sea when they saw the great work which the Lord had done upon the Egyptians they feared the Lord and they beleeved the Lord and his servant Moses but they soon forgate his works and his wonders which he had shewed them and trusted no more in his salvation Secondly They bare all difficulties with great impatience and murmured upon every tryall at the increase of their burdens the approach of the enemy the bitternesse of the water the want of bread the want of water when they had not meat for their lust when the Spies brought an evil report upon the Land when the way was tedious and they must go about At every turn upon all occasions they complain and rebell and tempt the Lord Thirdly They quarrell their deliverers while they were yet in the Land and charge the injuries and oppressions done them by their enemies upon their best friends In the Wildernesse they are envious and mutinous even Aaron and Miriam are drawn into the conspiracy They misunderstand and misapply the judgments of God the executions done upon the factious and seditious they impute to Moses and Aaron as bloudshed and murther When the earth had opened and swallowed up Corah and his company the next morning all the Congregation murmure and tell them to their faces Ye have killed the people of the Lord Fourthly They repine at their deliverance even when it was far advanced and despise the salvation of God and made an attempt to return into their old servitude so base were their spirits as they had rather have abidden under nay returned into their cruell bondage so they might have had their fish and their onions then be saved by miracle if they must be

of the brest and the wombe which are the other part of the legacie of Joseph be all by the good will of God Yet it may well be denied to be the truth held forth in this Text doubtlesse something divers from all those some singular thing in the failing of them supplying their absence recompensing that want is intended by the Holy Ghost here viz deliverance in trouble and deliverance from trouble deliverance wonderfully and fearfully wrought out 1. Else there were nothing here to answer that of Gen. 49. 23 24. support and succour in times of danger and distresse The Archers sorely grieved him shot at him hated him but his bowe abode in strength and the armes of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob 2. The word rendred good will may also signifie any thing whereby God will manifest his grace and good pleasure and so the Septuagint takes it here 3. The other word also translated dwelling may import such a dwelling as when the cloud abode on the Tent of the Congregation and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle a residence in grace and power testified by some open manifestation worthy the majesty of God a neighbourhood or neernesse for protection and safeguard in a glorious way and is so interpreted by the Prophet Isa 4. 5 6. And the Lord shall create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion and upon her assemblies a cloud and smoake by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night for upon all the glory shall be a defence 4. It is a plain allusion to the miracle recorded Exod. 3. A Bramble for such was the bush God made choice of for the more apt expression of the mysterie and manifestation of the miracle A Briar a most contemptible and combustible shrub all on a light flame yet neither withering nor perishing but green and flourishing in the very fire A just embleme both of their low estate in miserable oppressions nigh unto ruine utterly unworthy to be beloved and of the wonderfull worke of God by his great wisedome and power saving them from the mischief of the Aegyptians craft and cruelty and redeeming them from under their hand by great judgements Ye know the vision Exod. 3. 2. and the interpretation thereof vers. 6 7 8 9 10. and the story that we read in the Chapters following what was then shewed what was spoken and what was afterwards done in pursuance and performance thereof Unto that gracious providence figured and promised in that apparition Moses hath an eye in this Text praying the like for Josephs posterity in like case of hazard and danger and bequeathing it to them as the best part of their portion for to strain it to the preservation of the virginity of Mary in the conception and birth of Christ the triumph of our Saviour crowned with thornes or the incorruption of his body in the grave under the dominion of death as the Popish Commentators do or to restrain it to the Prophecie of Ahijah to Jeroboam as some other expositors because he had rule over the charge of the house of Joseph is altogether unwarrantable if not absurd Having thus found the meaning of the Text I beleeve your thoughts out-runne me and take up the doctrine before me A peculiar extraordinary providence in favour of a wretched people in whom is neither might nor worth is an extraordinary peculiar blessing both the whole series and webb of such a providence and every remarkable passage of it Every overture of mercie and grace in a time of trouble every assay of deliverance though the salvation be not presently perfected nay though many crosse providences intervene that raise many difficulties and make the present state more grievous more perplexed yet if God revive his work and there be such things done by his hand as carry in them a testimony of his compassion a pledge of his faithfullnesse an evidence of his neernesse to relieve and rescue it is to be acknowledged a very great happinesse When a nation is not worthy to be beloved and the rod of Gods displeasure is put into the hands of bloudthirsty and deceitfull men and they help forward the affliction and there be little or no probability of better condition by men or means if then the Lord will make offer and tender of his good will and one may discerne in his workes in his waies a gracious propensitie and purpose to redeem though in the prosecution thereof there be such various and uneven dispensations of providence as may give occasion to the enemy to be hardned and insolent and the other side to be discouraged and dejected yet if God so temper his judgements as his own people shall feel the benigne and comfortable and the Adversary the hurtfull and destructive effects thereof he will step in to restrain or inhibit or prevent the fraud or fury of the enemy and take the advantage of their animositie and attempts to glorifie himselfe in shewing forth his wrath and making his power known upon them and the mean-while continue to protect and repeate and multiply wonders in favour of his people to the confusion of the adversary it must be confessed a very great mercy transcending the good of peace and plenty Though that may be doubted which some have affirmed that the brightnesse of the flame of the fire in the bush did darken the brightnesse of the Sunne at noon-day yet this must be believed that the blessing of adversity is better then the blessing of prosperity What ever the opinions of vain men may be concerning this thing yet all those who have stood on the same side with the Spirit and word of God have ever been of this judgement Let us hear two or three speak for all the rest 1. What else can we make of that expression of Ezra words that come from the very heart root and speak affection to admiration And hath given us such deliverance as this Why what was this deliverance that he could not finde words to expresse it 'T was but a deliverance in the shell barely disclosed deliverance in the blade not the ear in the spring not the harvest they could not then eat of the fruit of it as the light in the twilight not the noon neither light nor darke or rather both in a mixture and vicissitude The books of Ezra and Nehemiah will informe you or if it be too much to read the story the Psalme will tell us Their captivity was turned yet so as they needed to pray still turne again our captivity O Lord they were not restored to that from which they were fallen either for number of people abundance of wealth or liberty or beauty of order in the Civil or Ecclesiasticall state more persons had fallen in some one battell before the captivity then were inrolled at their returne from Babylon David alone of his own proper good had contributed more