Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	blood_n	body_n	jesus_n	12,126	5	6.1739	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92852	England's preservation or, a sermon discovering the onely way to prevent destroying judgements: preached to the Honourable House of Commons at their last solemne fast, being on May, 25. 1642. By Obadiah Sedgwicke Batchelour in Divinity and minister of Coggeshall in Essex. Published by order of that house.	Sedgwick, Obadiah, 1600?-1658.; England and Wales. Parliament. House of Commons.	1642 (1642)	Wing S2372; Thomason E150_22; ESTC R212706	31,012	58

take it to study the Law to study Conscience to study the Gospell to study mercies to study judgements to study Christ to study all that after all our hearts may bee broken for our sinnes that so God may not breake away from us but continue to be our God and that judgements which looke so blacke upon us may be broken off and plots contriv'd against us may breake asunder and all spirituall and earthly mercies may breake downe in mercy upon us And thus much bee spoken with a respect unto every one that heareth mee this day I have besides all this a particular errand from God to you who are publike persons and have summond me this day unto Vse 2. this publike worke me thinkes that the Lord speakes to you in some respect what once he spake to the Prophet Ieremiah Chap. 1. Verse 10. See I have this day set you over the Nations and over the Kingdomes to roote out and to pull downe and to destroy and to throw downe And blessed bee the Lord and blessed bee your soules and blessed be your endeavours that notwithstanding the infinite difficulty of the worke and the Malignant contrariety you meet with yet your hearts are undaunted and resolved to finish the work as Honourable as ever Parliament undertooke and as profitable to Church and State as ever Christians enterprised your armes shall bee made strong by the blessing of the everlasting God of Iacob let popish and malevolent and ignorant persons say or doe what they can Give me leave 1. To represent unto you The work of the Parliament some publike plots of fallow-ground which you blessed be God have begun to breake neverthelesse they need yet a more full breaking up Secondly to present in all humble fidelity unto you some few intimations and directions 1. The publike plots of Fallow ground which need a further breaking up are especially foure 4. Grounds to be broken up 1. The first lies directly in the valley of Hinnom and it is Idolatry a piece of ground which lies too much in every Shire of this Land what County is there where much Popery is not Sirs you must breake this ground up or it will breake our Land up There is not such a God-povoking sinne a God-removing sin a Church-dissolving sinne a kingdomebreaking sin as Idolatry the soule of God abhorres it down with it down with it even to the ground 2. The second lies neare to Beth-Aven and it is superstition which is but a bawd to grosse Idolatry As rife in practise even now notwithstanding all that you have said and done as if a Parliament had never opened a mouth against it If a due and carefull inquiry bee made I question not but you shall find in too many Churches and publike places as many Altars and as many Crucifixes hanging over them and as many Tapers on the Altars and as much bowing towards the East and Altar almost as many and as much as when you began this Parliament 3. The third lies just upon the coasts of Egypt that Land of darknesse And it is ignorance a very large circuit of ground this is many many places of this land there are which lie Fallow to this day never any husbandman nor Plow have entred in to breake up those grounds A most lamentable thing that since Iesus Christ came into the world and since the Gospell is come into this Land after severall scores of yeares yet how many Parishes in Wales and in the North and in other Counties which scarsely have enjoyed this much mercy as to heare one solid soule working Sermon concerning Christ and salvation by him O Sirs let your hearts bleed in pitty to these poore soules liberties I confesse are precious and so are our estates and so are bodies and lives ô then what are soules what are precious soules which did cost the most precious bloud of the Lord Iesus Christ The fourth ill plot of ground lies on Mizpah or if you please on Mount Taber for there the Priests 4. were a Net and a Snare Hosea 5. 1. And this is an idle and an evill ministry Sirs mistake me not I speake not of our Ministers indefinitely I know that wee have as godly as learned as painefull as profitable Ministers as any in all the Christian world but I speake onely of such whose speciall gifts consist in one of these two things either quietly to read out of a booke and discreetly to gather up their Tythes or malevolently to discountenance all godlinesse and raile against the Parliament Ah worthy Sirs It would amaze any ingenuous man to travaile such a Country as England and passing through many Parishes this after all is his Diurnall the Patron is Popish the Minister is an Idle Dunce or else a drunkard or else a swearer or else a scoffer preaching all holinesse out of his pulpit out of his Church out of his family out of his Parish and his people are like unto him and love to have it so And thus what betweene the Idle Minister and the evill Minister the poore people never come to knowledge or without which knowledge never comes to any thing they never come to the love and practise of any saving good These are the principall fallow grounds in this Land which need your care and paines 2. Now follow the Intimations and directions which I humbly present unto you 1. B Breake them up If ever you will quit your owne soules and the trust reposed in you and 4. Directions about the breaking up of ill grounds the whole land of Judgments spiritual and corporall If ever you desire to gaine ground in your publike intentions for good for the Lords sake breake up these Fallow grounds 2. But then in the next place goe very deepe with your Plow or else you will never breake up these grounds the deeper the better As all good is most strengthened so all evill is most crushed in its causes Take heed of shadow-worke and surface-plowing Gods eyes are upon you and so are the eyes of judicious men which can distinguish twixt scraping and breaking our misery will be but finely laid asleepe a while if your plow goes not deepe Doth a little cringing move you ô then let grosse Idolatry heate and burne your soules Doth boldnesse in a questioned Minister displease you ô then let his grosse wickednesse stirre you utterly to disburden poore peoples soules of him ô let sad complaints have quicke and full redresses 3. And goe over the Fallow grounds which you have broken goe them over againe Yea and againe Fallow grounds must be often broken up with the Plow Even the actions of the most judicious receave more ripenesse by review by often doing wee grow into a better acquaintance with what is to be done our first doings are rather trialls and enterprises the second doings ever prove the best worke besides that our affections also are oftimes too quicke for our eyes the desires of doing some

bee broken for your sinnes nothing that you doe shall finde favour with me all the rest is but as wood and fire the Lambe the Sacrifice of a Contrite heart which is that I look at and for is wanting Get thee behinde me said Jehu to the severall messengers what have you to doe with peace Confessions and prayers are the messengers of our soules to God but unlesse the sinful heart be broken they will never be messengers of peace If any of you would angle in a River would you throw in a naked line only would this be to any purpose Sirs I know well that if a Fast bee rightly performed it hath as many promises of blessings and mercies See Esay 58. As any religious duty whatsoever Nay and I thinke that you never read in all the Bible nor yet in experience of its right performance without some sudden and remarkeable Testimony of Gods gracious acceptance and answer But then breaking of hearts ever accompanied those prevailing and victorious Fasts as you may Reade in Iudges and Samuel and the Kings and Ezra and Nehemiah c. And for my part I should not scruple the assecution of any convenient mercy nor the diversion of any impendent evill if once with all our Fastings there were also a breaking up of our Fallow grounds If GOD could in this command our hearts we might then in some sense command our God 3. Thirdly Have wee not all of us sufficient cause to breake our sinfull hearts Should sinnes should calamities abroad should dangers at home breake hearts all these may then worke upon us our sins have broken the heart of CHRIST and are such as have broken off God from a people and have broken many Churches downe Can you bee ignorant of the professed Idolatry in this Land of the horrid blasphemies of the over-flowing drunkennesse of the Sabbaths profanation c. And if wee looke at calamities abroad why as Iacob said Ioseph is not and Simeon is not so may we say Bohemia is broken up and the Palatinate is broken up and IRELAND is breaking up and yet the hearts of sinfull England will not bee broken up Nay if wee looke at the dangers hovering like a Cloud over this Land and dropping already in manifold and sundry divisions in manifold plots in manifold and severall contradictions and even readie to breake forth O LORD let it not breake forth in a bitter intestine Warre amongst our selves where every mans sword shall bee against his brother and the Child may kill the Parent or the Parent kill his Child bowels sheathed in bowels No man scarce secure in his owne Family our sins are bringing this upon us and yet our hearts will not breake for these sinnes The God of all Wisdome and mercies breake our hearts that so this judgement may not doe that which all our forreigne enemies hitherto could not doe Breake downe our Church and Nation 4. And if judgements should breake in upon sinners before hearts are broken for sins good Lord what where are they Dudilius relates a sad story of Bochna a woman who had but two sonnes and whiles she was walking with the one towards the River she heard the other crying out and hastning back shee found a knife sticking in him which kild him quickly then she returnes to her other child thinking to solace her selfe in an onely child but he in her absence was fallen into the river and drowned both lost at once Ah Sirs we have but two children a Soule and a body what an heavie losse will it bee to lose both these at once To bee cut off by an angry enemie and to be cast off by a mighty God! To lose a life and at the same time to lofe an eternall life To lose safety and salvation at once T is true that if a sinners heart be broken by grace there is no question of mercy but when an impenitent sinners life is broken by judgment his hopes are gone and his breaking of it for ever 5. Fifthly Wee shall assuredly be broken off if we be not broken up Beloved There are two vile malignities in an unbroken heart First It is one of the greatest of spirituall judgements ô said a Reverend man once if I must be put to my option I had rather be in Hell with a sensible heart then live on earth with a reprobate minde so I say an hardned and unbroken heart is in some respect a judgement worse than Hell for as much as one of the greatest sins is farre greater in evill then any of the greatest punishments Secondly It is the immediate and unavoydable forerunner of the greatest of temporall judgements He that hardens his heart shall be destroyed suddenly and that without remedy Prov. 29. 1. Observe that place There is no lesse then destruction which is not a particular and imperfect dammage but it is a compleate ruine and this destruction is certaine shall not may perhaps bee destroyed but when Suddenly I but the sinner wil shift it off withstand it No but hee shall bee destroyed without remedy His destruction shall not be prevented you may reade all this in the old World and in Pharaoh and in the Iewes before the Babylonian Captivitie and afterwards in the Roman divastation which hath lasted these 1600 yeares 6. But now where are our broken hearts I know not what to say my heartakes within mee ô that it could bee broken because hearts are generally unbroken Sinners are secure Consciences are seared wickednesse is bold sinnes are a delight and pastime God is not seene nor feared in his judgements in His warnings in His dealings Reformation is abhorred Humiliation most know not what it meanes and if they doe it is distasted Serious thoughts of our sinfull wayes who takes them up sufficient time for selfe-examination who makes it for himselfe every man runnes on in his course loves as hee did lives as he did And never knew a trouble in his soule nor a teare in his eye either for his owne or for the sins of others all his dayes And what will the end of all this be O that God would pittie us this day and breake our hearts for us though it bee so irksome and contrary to our flesh and bloud It is better said a Father to dye one death then to live and feare all deaths better it is to suffer the heart to bee broken then to expose our selves to all sorts of Judiciall eternall breakings ô Lord said dying Fulgen. Dapaenitentiam postea indulgentiam make mee a penitent sinner and then let me find thee an indulgent Father Never looke for great mercies for long mercies for any mercies with unbroken hearts we are not good we can doe no good we can expect no good till our sinfull hearts be broken O Christians be perswaded this day to get broken hearts God can do it for you and will doe it for you if you will but use the means and seeke unto him spare time and