Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	able_a	great_a	zion_n	104	3	8.9113	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89578	A sacred record to be made of Gods mercies to Zion: a thanksgiving sermon preached to the two Houses of Parliament, the Lord Major, Court of Aldermen, and Common-Councell of the city of London, at Christ-Church, June 19. 1645. Being the day of their publike thanksgiving to almighty God for the great and glorious victory obtained by the Parliaments army under the conduct of Sir Thomas Fairfax in Naseby-field. /	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1645 (1645)	Wing M773; Thomason E288_36; ESTC R200112	25,316	41

not for a long time had a more reall rejoycing heart then you now feele for the mercy which this day wee meet to celebrate and commemorate Now would you know what you should doe what you should render unto the Lord what would bee the comeliest and most excellent sacrifice in this day of your praise and rejoycing before God Surely there is nothing comparable to this That you provide that of all those great things which the Lord hath wrought for us all possible praise and glory may bee set upon the head of our Lord Jesus and abide unto succeeding Generations Some such work as might preserve his honour in the present and succeeding ages were worthy such a great assembly worthy of the name of a day of their Thankesgiving I am perswaded your hearts are so warmed with the unexpected Victory that you would readily swear with David to take no rest untill you were doing that very Work if once you knew what it were I shall tel you Even in doing that where in his glory is most concerned in all ages and that is the setting up of his Kingdome the purgation reformation of Religion setting up his Ordinances in purity providing that his Church may bee governed and ruled by his own laws according to his owne Word This would indeed bee a lasting Monument of your thankfulnesse This wee should all study and to this every thankfull heart may contribute something but none so much as you Right Honourable Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament by whose appointment and for whole furtherance in this work I stand here this day God hath put into your hands the greatest opportunity and meanes of providing for all the glory that he expects from England while the world stands that he did put ever into the hands of any The measuring line and plummet of his house is put into your hands as once it was in the hand of Zerubbabel From you he seems to expect what portion himselfe shall have in England for time to come what kind of Subjects hee shall have what Worship shall bee offered to him what kind of Guests shall sit with him at his Table by what lawes his house and people shall be governed hee seems now to put into your hands what unto the end of the world hee may expect from the Kingdome of England in the way of his Ordinances not onely the managing of a Kingdome of men but of the Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus seemes now to bee in the hands of the two honourable Houses of Parliament Now when such opportunities as these are in your hands to doe such great things for God how silent should all slesh be till this worke be done how hush't and laid aside should all your other businesses bee your own estates and priviledges and private interests or any thing that concernes your selves names or families how should they all be waved and set aside till all that bee done from which Jesus Christ shall receive glory in all ages If then Right Honourable and Beloved any of you should after all the mercy God hath bestowed upon you make it your worke to feather your own nests build your owne Houses and let the House of God lie waste or hinder the setting up of this Work in purity and perfection if you should make a slight businesse of the Worke of Religion and cause the authority of the Gospel and Kingdome and Ordinances of Christ to vaile bonnet to the lusts and liberties of poore sinfull Men and decline the setting up of the authority of his Scepter lest the corruptions of Men should be brought under the yoake more then they are willing you will provide ill for Christs honour ill for the Church worst of all for your owne souls in betraying the cause of Religion and spoyling the most glorious opportunity of advancing the honour of Christ that ever men were betrusted with these thousand yeares But if you shall resolve so to goe through with it that there shall not need a reformation to come the second time I meane in stablishing the rule for Faith VVorship and Government as neere as can be found out by the VVord all carnall considerations set aside should you but doe this that it may bee set up in the Kingdome and transmitted to posterity God will then acknowledge you really thankfull and that you have done as much for his honour as hee expects from any mortall men and posterity shall confesse that as you are the most remarkable Parliament for Gods owning you protecting and saving you so God received more glory from you then from any former Parliament Josiahs praise should be verified of you ●ever the like went before you or followed after you I therefore humbly beseech you Right Honourable Lords and noble Gentlemen whilst now your hearts are warm with this mercy all of you are ready to say with David what shall I tender to the Lord what shall I give the Lord for all his mercies towards us take this cup of salvation resolve to pay your vowes the vow you made that you would endeavour the reformation of Religion according to the word of God and to the nearest conformity with the best reformed Churches Goe on zealously and impartially with it let the successe bee what it will work belongs to us successe belongs to God therein shall you in truth give unto God and our Lord Jesus Christ that glory and prase which a Parliament should give him other people must come short though wee all are interessed in this Mercy and are equally bound to provide for his honour yet our meanes are shorter wee move in a narrower spheare Some of our endeavours must bee in our own Families to make them better Others in a Pulpit to make our Congregations better few of us though raised to our highest are able to do any great things for his glory but if the Lord enlarge your hearts to doe your worke aright the whole Christian world in her severall ages shall be able to give glory unto him by your improvement of these mercies which our God hath given us And a little further to provoke you unto it consider seriously of these three things First in all our great conflicts these huge shakings of the Nations and combustions the Lord hath no designe in any of them but onely the building up of his Church and answering his peoples prayers his heart is set upon nothing else You indeed contend for Liberties and Laws and justly you may doe so and the rather because the liberty of your Religion stands and falls with your laws but God can looke upon England as well if it were in slavery as in freedome he regards neither of them further then slavery and freedome hath relation to his Church and the welfare of it if all other his works were buryed as one day they shall resolve into the Chaos out of which they were taken God cares not one whit sobeit that

A SACRED RECORD To be made of GODS MERCIES TO ZION A Thankesgiving Sermon Preached to the two Houses of Parliament the Lord Major Court of Aldermen and Common-Councell of the City of London at Christ-Church June 19. 1645. Being the Day of their Publike Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the Great and Glorious Victory obtained by the Parliaments Army under the Conduct of Sir THOMAS FAIRFAX in Naseby-field By Stephen Marshall B. D. Minister of Gods Word at Finching-field in ESSEX Exod. 17. 14. And the Lord said unto Moses Write this for a Memoriall in a Booke and rehearse it in the Eares of Joshua m Psal. 44. 1. Our Fathers have told us what Works thou didst in their dayes in the times of Old Psal. 78. 4. Wee will not hide them from their Children shewing to the Generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderfull Works that he hath done London Printed by Rich. Cotes for Stephen Bowtell and are to be sold at the sign of the Bible in Popes-head-Alley TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE THE LORDS and COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT YOur time is so taken up with the important Worke of rescuing these bleeding Kingdomes and the Church of Christ in and with them that I am sure you are not at leisure to read long Epistles and were I able in a Dedication to write what might very much kindle your zeale provoke your whole inward man and thereby further your great Work I conceive it were onely to tell the world what counsell I thought might doe you good and therefore in stead of studying to present you with an Epistle which few of you would read I doe onely obey your Order and at your Command publish to the view and for the use of all and present unto your selves this plaine Sermon Preached unto you upon the day of your late Thanksgiving unto God for one of the greatest mercies the Victory and what came with it duly considered that God hath bestowed upon our unworthy Nation these many yeares What else I desire to have pressed upon your hearts I chuse to doe it when I am called at any time to Preach unto you or rather to beg it for you at the Throne of Grace where you and your great Work are every day as by many thousand others humbly remembred by Your most obliged Servant STEPHEN MARSHALL Die Veneris 20. Junii 1645. IT is this Day Ordered by the Lords in Parliament Assembled That Mr. Marshall one of the Assembly of Divines who Preached yesterday in Christ-Church London before the Members of both Houses of Parliament and in the presence of the Lord Major Aldermen c. of the City of London is hereby thanked for his great pains that he took in the said Sermon it being a day of Publike Thanksgiving within the said City and Lines of Communication for the late prosperous successe of the Parliaments Forces under the Command of Sir Thomas Fairefax And that he is hereby desired to Print and Publish the said Sermon which none shall presume to Print or re-print but by Authority under his own hand Jo. Brown Cleric Parliamentorum Die Veneris 20. Junii 1645. ORdered by the Commons assembled in Parliament That Sir Peter Wentworth and Sir William Masham doe returne the Thanks of this House to Mr. Vines and Mr. Marshall for the great paines they took in the Sermons they yesterday Preached at the intreaty of both Houses before the said Houses the Lord Major and Aldermen at Christ-Church in London And that they be dered to Print their Sermons And it is Ordered that none shall presume to Print their Sermons but such as shall bee authorized under their hands writing H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com. I doe appoint Stephen Bowtell to Print my Sermon Stephen Marshall A THANKESGIVING SERMON PREACHED To the two Houses of Parliament June 19. 1645. PSAL. 102. 18. This shall bee written for the Generation to come and all the People which shall bee created shall praise the Lord Right Honourable and Beloved I Have formerly in two Sermons opened the two Verses immediately going before this Text The first of them before the Right Honourable the House of Peeres The latter before the Honourable House of Commons and there shewed at large that these two Verses did containe two Circumstances which alwayes accompany the Lords Work of building up of his Church and they are rendered as two Arguments why all the world should stand in admiration of it The one is because when ever the Lord builds up Zion Hee dotb appeare in his Glory hee appeares like himself magnifying all his Attributes The other that he does then return a gracious answer unto the Prayers of his afflicted People These two were handled in the valley of Baca the valley of Teares upon dayes of Humiliation that out of them you might receive some strength in your mourning after the Lord to help you to wait upon him while you are at his Work building the Street and Wall of Hierusalem in a troublesome time But now the Lord having in great measure given a gracious experience and fruit of those two in this late great and unexpected Victory and Mercy wherein God hath appeared in his Glory and answered his Peoples Prayers in our exceeding low condition his Providence having also called me by your choice to meet you in the valley of Beracah the valley of Blessing to praise God for this I could not thinke of a fitter Text then of the very next words to those that helped you in the dayes of your Mourning which containes the use which the Church in all ages shall make of the Lords building up of Zion And though my time for preparation hath been very short yet I am incouraged because I have been taught of God that a Peace-Offering to himself is easily found And I have often found from you that my poore endeavours how weak soever being the best I have have never been rejected And therefore without further Apology and Preface let us consider of the words as they thus lie This shall bee written for the Generation to come And the People which shall bee created shall praise the Lord Here are you see two Sentences And for the Interpretation of them some Expositors doe conceive that the first Sentence containeth the use that the Generation who receive this Mercy shall make of it They shall Write it for the good of Posterity The second they think containes the use that the future Generation shall make of former Mercies that are thus written and and transmitted to them The People that shall bee created shall praise the Lord the unborn Generation shall praise God for it But others and I think more rightly doe conceive that both sentences are meant of the same individuall People and that the one of them is but an Exegeticall interpretation of the other or rather the first of them is an expression of one way how the redeemed of the Lord shall

Leicester taken in againe and other tydings are come out of other parts of the Kingdome some mercies about Taunton others about Chester hath our God cast them in that this day might be as a day of Jubilee to us Shall not God have glory for all this shall not our hearts bee lifted up to give him praise Would God have a Chronicle written that the ages to come may stand amazed at it and shall we that see these things and enjoy them thus unexpectedly confine and pen up our praises to one day of Thanksgiving and not have our whole heart and our whole life filled with studies and endeavours to exalt him let this be our first Use if we should write them in a Book to provoke others then surely we should write them in our hearts to provoke our selves to praise him The other Use I would make of it is this That seeing the Lord would have his wonderfull Works written for the Generations to come Let the Honourable Houses of Parliament looke upon it as a duty they owe unto God and to the present and future age to provide that these glorious and admirable works which God hath done for England and Scotland since the beginning of our troubles may faithfully bee transmitted to posterity you hear God hath appointed it for a law and an Ordinance that the generations to come should know his wonderfull Workes and it 's both due and expected by one age from another it hath been the received Opinion of wise men that the World is more beholding to them who write Histories then to any men living except onely those that did the excellent Works which the others writ Tully tells you that History is the witnesse of time the light of truth the life of memory the school-Mistris of ourlife c. When yet alasse all their Histories were written with ignorance vanity passion partiality and gave very little help to our main businesse to teach us the administrations of God and the way hee hath taken in carrying on his Church which is the Kingdome of our Lord Jesus Christ But now by the true and faithfull setting forth to the World what the Lord hath done for us you should honour God and advantage his Church as much as in any thing that you can possibly doe unlesse it be the building of the Church it self Never could more excellent things tending to advance the goodnesse wisdome power and mercy of God bee manifested to the world then this story of our times would afford The Jews have a saying That when God destroyed all the World there was a Copy of all kept in the Arke with Noah and after the Floud was gone this Copy was re-printed and spread over all the world The meaning was that the Creatures that were kept there did fill all the world with Creatures of the same nature that the World had before Truly I have often thought that were all the Copies in the world lost of Gods admirable dealing with an unworthy people except only those mentioned in the Scripture there might be a re-impression of them out of the admirable things that God hath done for us since these publike caelamities came upon us and all the world might learn sufficient out of our Story what a God our God is and learn to know and trust and fear him forever give me leave onely to name some Capita rerum some heads of things which is fit the World should read and know They should read of a Parliament called together by a strange providence and when they were called God dealt with them as hee commanded Ezekiel to deale with his own haire Ezekiel 5. one third part of it to be thrown away into the wind another to be burnt in the City and another to be againe purged and refined and kept in the skirt of his garment They should read of 4 or 500 Commons and multitude of Peeres some of them passing through the fire some scattered into all the corners of the land seeking to destroy the Nation that had entrusted them and a remnant left behind fined and refined and humbled again and again and kept to do wonderfull things for the Lords glory and his peoples good They should likewise read of Army after Army and fight after fight which wee have had with our Enemies of every one whereof they should be able to say what my Noble Lord said immediately after Kynton fight That there was never any thing wherein there was lesse of man and more of God They should acknowledge in all wee have done there was little of man and much of God There they should likewise read how this famous City and all the Countries where the Gospel had prevailed have faithfully stood to God and his cause even to their owne exhausting in the midst of infinite discouragements and how the rest that were nursed up under Popery and superstition both Lords and Commons and Gentlemen and whole Counties did endeavour to fight themselves into slavery and labour to destroy the Parliament that is themselves and all that is theirs There they should read how God broke all our crutches we leaned upon our Counsels our Treasuries our Armies and never prospered us really till he had deeply humbled and made us to look to himself onely for help how he brought the two Nations into a Covenant with him and set them upon a work of Reformation of Religion and carryed on that work in a troublesome time in a time of Warre better then in likelihood it would have been in a time of Peace There they should read the fruits and effects of Prayer how he suffered his Almighty hand to be as it were directed by it They should see what strange Plots were discovered prevented detected how God made some of our strong Holds to be easily delivered and others of no strength little lesse then miraculously preserved against all the Force of the enemy how usually God made our losses to bee our gaine and did us most good by undoing us compelling us often to say Perissemus nisi perissemus wee had been undone if we had not been undone and how our enemies that rose against us evermore found their gaine to prove their losse and that which raised them up highest instantly laid them lowest What shall I say they shall in a thousand particulars read in this Story our folly and Gods wisdome our weaknes and Gods strength our divisions and confusions and Gods ordering them all to serve his holy ends They should read such things as I am confident no History in the world is able to hold out the like Now I beseech you is it not pity that these things should be lost shall we deprive the world posterity of these things Serimus arbores we plant Trees which may beare fruit to after ages and shall we not doe this which like Nebuchadnezzars tree would beare fruit to all the world or shall wee hazard them to bee written by a lying or unskilfull