Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	assemble_v	king_n	parliament_n	11,796	5	6.7701	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85485	The progresse of divine providence, set out in a sermon preached in the Abbey Church of Westminster before the house of Peers, on the 24th of September, 1645. being the day of their monethly fast. / By William Gouge, one of the members of the Assembly.	Gouge, William, 1578-1653.	1645 (1645)	Wing G1393; Thomason E302_25; ESTC R200284	30,328	48

THE PROGRESSE OF Divine Providence SET OVT IN A SERMON PREACHED In the Abbey Church of Westminster before the house of PEERS on the 24th of September 1645. being the day of their Monethly FAST By William Gouge one of the MEMBERS of the ASSEMBLY ECCLES. 7. 8. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Inest omni utenti ratione naturaliter appetere potiora Bem de diligendo Deo LONDON Printed by G. M. for Ioshua Kirton next Goldsmiths-hall in Foster-lane MDCXLV Die Veneris 26. Sept. 1645. IT is this day ordered by the Lords in Parliament assembled That M. Doctour Gouge who preached on Wednesday last before the Lords of Parliament in the Abbey Church Westminster it being the day of the publike Fast is hereby thanked for his great pains he took in his said Sermon and desired to print and publish the same which is to be done only by authority under his hand Iohn Brown Cleric Parliamentorum I Appoint Joshua Kirton to print my Sermon and none else William Gouge TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE House of PEERS Assembled in PARLIAMENT RIGHT HONOURABLE AS in sundry other ages and places so in this age and place wherein we now live hath my Text been verified and that within the compasse of these last five years in every of which God hath done better unto us then at our beginnings and we have great and just cause to hope that he will yet continue to doe better and better It was an especial evidence of Gods good providence that the great Counsel of England was called at that time that it was called The State of Church and Common-wealth was so farre out of order and the disorder in both so backed as without a Parliament it would not it could not in mans apprehensions have been redressed The Reformation that was then intended by that Parliament being by some envious eyes espied a dissolution thereof was procured But that and other former dissolutions of Parliaments necessity forcing another Parliament soon after to be called occasioned an Act to prevent inconveniencies which may happen by the untimely Adjourning Proroguing or dissolving of this present Parliament What better thing rebus sic stantibus ut tunc nunc could have happened to this State The good consequencies that have happened thereupon are evident demonstrations of Gods minde still to do better and better for us It would exceed the proportion of a Dedicatory Epistle to reckon up the particular instances of the Divine Providence encreasing time after time for the better unto us and that by vertue of this present Parliament they are so clear and evident as none but such as take notice of nothing can be ignorant of them and none but envious and malignant spirits can conceal or pervert them When might the good Providence of God have been better discerned in protecting the persons upholding the spirits directing the counsels and prospering the endeavours of such as were assembled in a Parliament then in this When might the like Providence of God have been better discerned in stirring up mens mindes encouraging their spirits enabling their bodies and preserving their persons for maintaining a cause then in this cause that is now maintained by the Parliament Of them who with a single eye behold the footsteps of the Lord in the Counsels of our Parliament it may justly be said They have seen thy goings O God the goings of my God my King Have not our Armies had successe beyond expectation even to admiration What a stop hath been set to Superstition How good a progresse hath been made in Reformation And may we not yet hope that God will doe better unto us then at our beginnings Gods promise is the ground of hope and my Text sheweth that God hath promised as much Goe on Right Honourable and put forth your utmost endeavours for bringing on those better things that yet remain Where their is Hope there endeavours use to be most earnest For Hope stirreth up mens spirits to set upon great things Though the full accomplishment of the remaining better things should be reserved to a future age yet it becomes us to be as earnest in prosecuting them according to the ability and opportunity that God doth give us as if we our selves were sure while we live to have the fruition of them Experience sheweth that to be true which of old was said of the provident husbandman that he planteth trees which may be usefull in an other age But I hope that God will let you see and enjoy the fruit of your Counsels and of our desires This shall be the continuall prayer of Your Honours humble Servant and Oratour William Gouge THE PROGRESSE OF GODS Providence EZEK. 36. 11. I will doe better unto you then at your beginnings AMong other evidences of Gods speciall providence and care over his Church this is an especiall one that he ever afforded unto it sufficient means to instruct it in his will and to direct it in the way to happinesse When at the beginning he made man he did not only write his law in his heart but also revealed means of standing in his happy estate or falling from the same Instance the two Sacraments in Paradise the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil When men encreased into a Family God ordained the first-born both to be a Governour and also an Instructour of the Family When the Church multiplied into a Nation God set apart the twelfth part thereof namely one Tribe of twelve to be ordinary Ministers therein These he distinguished into Priests and Levites When that Politie ended be ordained Pastors and Teachers to be ordinary Ministers in his Church to the end of the world Of old in extraordinary times and upon extraordinary occasions God endued men with an extraordinary spirit who were stiled Prophets such an one was Ezekiel to whom I suppose more extrordinary visions and revelations were made known then to any other He was raised up in most corrupt and said times even when God was forced to doe his work his strange work and to bring to passe his act his strange act He prophesied in Babylon whither he was carried captive when the Babylonians first entred into Jerusalem and took away many of the sacred and precious vessels of the Temple together with a great part of the treasures of that house and of the King and Princes and carried them together with Jehoiakim the King and many of the Princes Priests and people into Babylon There he also continued after that the said Babylonians had again entred into the said City broke down the walls thereof burnt the house of God and all the houses in the City and carried away the remainder of the vessels of the said Temple and of the treasures therein together with Zedekiah another King and the remainder of Princes Priests and people About the same time Jeremiah was raised up to bea Prophet among that

be accounted a good beginning wherein many rejoyced but no publike reformation was wrought thereupon About an hundred and fifty years after the Lord did better then at that beginning For he stirred up both King and Parliament to goe further in suppressing Popery and advancing the Gospel Witnesse that Act of Parliament in Henry the eight his dayes whereby the Popes usurped authority in England was taken away and liberty given to the King to reform abuses crept into the Church The King by vertue thereof sent out injunctions for removing images reading the holy Scriptures and performing all divine Service in English preaching Gods Word Catechising children and observing other duties of piety so as the Gospel began to shine forth somewhat brightly in England Only it was much obscured by an other Act of Parliament even in that Kings time which established Transubstantiation communion in one kinde private Masses Auricular confession Vowes of chastity and prohibiting Priests marriages 3. About seven yeares after that King being dead and his Sonne King Edward the sixth a childe of nine yeares old yet another Iosiah set on the throne God did better for England then before For the foresaid Act commonly called the scourge with six strings was repealed and a more thorow reformation established But even then many of the peoples hearts so lingred after Romish superstition as the Israelites did after the high places in the raigne of Asa Iehoshaphat and other good Kings so as this goodly reformation continued but six yeares For God tooke away that good young King After whose death a popish bloody Queen utterly defaced the foresaid Reformation and brought in that darke cloud of Popery which overshadowed this whole Land 4. God being mindefull of his goodnes to his Church within five yeares after raised up blessed Queen Elizabeth in whose raigne that darke cloud of Popery was more thorowly dispelled then ever before and Religion in regard of the truth and soundnesse of doctrine was restored to as full an integrity as ever it was in the Christian Church since the Apostles time A grave learned and judicious out-landish Divine giveth this testimony of Queen Elizabeth that under her that was granted to her Kingdome which he knew not whether it were given to any other Kingdome or no namely an intire profession of the pure and sincere doctrine of the Gospel More learned and stout Champions were in her raigne raised up to maintaine the same faith then ever before in this Kingdome 5. There is yet another reformation now begun in this Land which being added to the former evidently demonstrates that God doth intend better things then at our beginnings This is the Reformation of the Discipline and Government of the Church concerning which the foresaid judicious Divine thus saith If to the profession of true Doctrine a full reformation of Ecclesiasticall Discipline be also added surely I see not what England can more desire If any shall object that in many respects the state of our Church hath growne worse and worse I answer that by reason of our sluggishnesse want of zeal and unworthy walking of that light which God graciously afforded clouds of errour and superstition gathered together as by the negligence and wickednesse of the Israelites the Canaanites were not utterly destroyed but proved to be snares and traps unto them and scourges in their sides and thornes in their eyes Yet God did time after time remove those impediments and cause the light of his Gospel more and more brightly to shine forth Why then may not we yet looke for better things then at the beginning of our Reformation and hope that as then the Doctrine of the Gospel was restored to the purity of it so the Government also of the Church be restored to its purity Comfort your selves in these sad times with this hope 6. Gods reserving his better things to the later times ministreth unto us who have been reserved unto these later times much matter of gratulation The least of us which live in this Kingdome of God stiled for the celestiall excellency thereof the Kingdome of Heaven The least of us I say is greater then he of whom it is said Among them that are borne of women there hath not risen a greater Had we lived in the ancient former times and believed the promises of things exhibited in these times how should we have enquired and searched after them The Prophets so did How should we have desired to see them Many Prophets and Kings so did How should we have rejoyced to see this day Abraham so did Now that we are reserved to live in this time to hear see and enjoy these better things should not our hearts be filled with praises and our mouths opened to utter the same God hath made an abundant recompence unto us who live in these later dayes for putting off our time of living in this world so long It is to our unspeakable advantage and benefit and shall not God have the praise thereof True believers now have greater cause then old Zachary had to sing and say Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people Yea then old Simeon had to say Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation These old men saw but the Sunne-rising of the Gospel We see it shining forth in the full brightnesse thereof Should not we then be thankfull even for the times wherein we live Well may I from the fore-mentioned Doctrine raise an Exhortation of worthy walking that is of carrying our selves answerably to this good Providence of God in reserving us to the enjoying of better things This worthy walking in generall is much pressed in Scripture We charge you that you would walke worthy of God who hath called you to his Kingdome and Glory We cease not to desire that you might walke worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing I beseech ye that ye walke worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called This word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} worthy doth not intend any merit but a meer meetnesse no condignity but a congruity and correspondency to that whereunto it is referred This is evident by that phrase which the Baptist useth where he exhorteth to bring forth fruits worthy repentance which our last and best Translators thus turne Fruits meet for repentance And in the margin thus Fruits answerable to amendment of life If in that place {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} worthy should be taken for any matter of desert it might be thus translated Fruits which deserve repentance that is such as are to be repented of And what are those fruits thinke ye surely evil such as those whereof the Apostle thus saith What fruit had you then of those things whereof you are now ashamed For the end of those things is death A catalogue of