Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	call_v	church_n	day_n	11,835	5	4.5872	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59891	A sermon preach'd on the second of September being the fast for the fire of London, at the cathedral church of St. Paul's, before the right honourable the Lord-Mayor, aldermen, and citizens of London / by W. Sherlock ...	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1699 (1699)	Wing S3362; ESTC R33837	12,679	29

nay this they think can't be the Truth of the Case because the World is always very wicked and yet the Judgments of God are not always abroad in the World And therefore they suppose that when God does execute Judgments it is not Sin in general but some particular Sins which so highly provoke him and could they learn what they are and reform them they might see happy Days again And this sets men at liberty to favour what Sins they please to reproach and accuse each other and to charge all the Evils and Calamities they suffer upon one another without thinking of reforming themselves Thus to be sure it always is when there are differing Parties and Factions in a Nation who judge very differently of Good and Evil They will all confess they are great Sinners and it may be too many of all Parties are guilty of the same Sins but those Sins which are common to them all must pass for nothing because so far they are all agreed But then there are peculiar Party-Sins which every Party dislikes in each other and what they dislike they conclude God dislikes too and to these they attribute all the Evils they suffer As if the Judgments of God were not to reform the World but to decide some Party-Quarrels which will never be decided this way when every Party will expound Judgments in favour of themselves But all men see that this is to judge by a false and partial Rule This is neither Conscience nor Scripture for Conscience equally condemns all Sin and so does the Scripture too I grant tho there is always a great deal of Wickedness committed in the World God does not always inflict Publick Judgments which are commonly executed when Wickedness and Impiety is grown publick too when publick Government is remiss in punishing Wickedness or the Numbers and Power of Sinners are grown too great for the Correction of Publick Justice But we shall always find in Scripture that when God did inflict Publick Judgments he called for a general Repentance and Reformation and if this were not so no man could understand the Voice of the Rod without a Spirit of Prophecy But this deserves a more particular Consideration both with respect to those Sins for which God most commonly sends his Judgments when he sees fit to execute a Publick Vengeance and the necessity of an universal Reformation when the Judgments of God are upon us 1. The most general account the Scripture gives us of Publick Judgments is an universal Corruption of Manners Thus the Prophet describes the state of the Iewish Church when God threatned his Judgments against them Ah sinful nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers children that are corrupters they have forsaken the Lord they have provoked the Holy One of Israel they are gone away backward And the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint From the sole of the foot unto the head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores they have not been closed nor bound up nor mollified with ointment 1. Isa. 4 5 6. And in verse 10. he calls them The rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah When Wickedness is grown universal and hath infected all Ranks and Orders of men such a Nation is ripe for Judgment but it adds greatly to the Guilt and Provocation when men are not contented to be wicked without bidding open defiance to God and to all Religion Wo unto them who draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with cart-ropes Who deride all the Threatnings of God and even dare his Power and Justice That say Let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come that we may know it Who mock at the differences of Good and Evil and value the Reputation of their Wit and Philosophy too much to be cheated with such empty Names Wo unto them that call evil good and good evil that put darkness for light and light for darkness that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Wo unto them that are wise in their eyes and prudent in their own sight Who having first destroyed the eternal and essential differences of Good and Evil change their Names too at pleasure and think themselves the only Wise Men in the world for doing so This takes off all Restraints and gives the Reins to their Lusts and they live just as they believe without making any difference between Good and Evil. Wo unto them that are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to mingle strong drink who justify the wicked for a reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble and the flame consumeth the chaff so their root shall be as rottenness and their blossom shall go up as the dust because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel 5. Isa. 18 c. The like account we find in the other Prophets And when the state of a Church and Nation is so corrupt we need not enquire for what particular Sins God strikes but yet there were some Sins which God expressed a severer Indignation against and seldom delayed to punish such as their Idolatry and Contempt of the God of Israel of his Word and Prophets a Prophanation of his Worship Atheistical Notions of Providence and of Good and Evil or their abominable Hypocrisy in committing all the Lewdness and Villanies which men could commit and sheltering themselves in an external Form and appearance of Religion which the Prophets every where complain of To these Causes is owing the universal Corruption of Manners for it is impossible any Nation should so universally degenerate till they have either corrupted their Religion by Superstition and Hypocrisy or lost all sense of it and therefore this calls for a speedy Vengeance As for what more particularly concerns the Christian Church we may learn from the Epistles to the Seven Churches of Asia what it is provokes our Lord either severely to punish us or to remove the Gospel from us The Church of Ephesus though she had acquitted her self well in many things yet had left her first love had abated very much of her Zeal and Fervour for the Name and Religion of Christ. The Church of Pergamus is threatned for suffering those among her who taught Idolatrous Worship and fleshly Lusts And the Church of Thyatira likewise for suffering the Woman Iezabel to commit Fornication and to eat things sacrificed to Idols The Church of Sardis made a glorious and pompous Profession of Religion but without the true Life and Spirit of it she had a name to live but was dead And the Church of Laodicea grew very cold and indifferent even in the Profession of Religion as well as in the Practice of it she was neither hot nor cold but

Creatures if any Evil befals them without his Will and Appointment But Natural Conscience sees the Hand of God in all the Evils we suffer Whatever the visible and immediate Causes and Instruments of our Sufferings are a guilty Conscience takes notice of the Divine Vengeance the Terrors of God take hold upon him and he trembles before his Judge though he do not see him he is afraid of God when he feels only the Hands of men And what is the meaning of this What is the Language of these guilty Fears but that whatever the Rod be that strikes it is moved and directed by a Divine Hand that the Wickedness and Injustice the Wrath and Fury of Men is no other than the Vengeance of God For why should the Evils we suffer from men so terrify a guilty Conscience had we not a Natural Persuasion That all these Evils are sent by God whoever are the Instruments of them Thus it is natural in all such cases to fly to God for help Atheists themselves cannot wholly prevent this but when they are surprized with any sudden Dangers Nature is too quick and too powerful for their Philosophy and surprizes them into an acknowledgment of God and a Providence which they must do Penance for when their Fright is over Sinners who forget God in Prosperity fly to him in their Distress remember that God is their rock and the high God their Redeemer And if this be a Natural Acknowledgment of Providence as it certainly is it owns the Hand of God in our Sufferings as well as his Power to save for both equally belong to the Supreme and Sovereign Lord of the World and it is not merely his Power to help which makes Sinners fly to God in their distress but a sense of his Anger in what they suffer They do not fly to God as men do to a powerful Patron but as Criminals do to the Mercy of a provok'd Father or Prince When they fly to God it is to implore his Mercy as humble Penitents to appease his Anger that he may remove his Judgments and when we fly to the Mercies of God to remove the Rod it is an acknowledgment that it is he that strikes as well as he alone that can save And that Conscience judges right in all this however some men may attribute it to a Superstitious Education is evident from Scripture which expresly tells us That God doth whatsoever pleaseth him both in heaven and in earth That none can stay his hand or resist his will or say unto him What doest thou That there is no evil in the city which the Lord hath not done If Iob be stript of all his large Possessions in a day it is the Lord that gave and the Lord that taketh away If the mighty King of Assyria invade Israel and lay waste their Cities and Countrey he is the rod of God's anger and the staff in his hand is his indignation 10. Isa. 5 6. Affliction cometh not forth of the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground but God is the judge he putteth down one and setteth up another 75. Psal. 7 8. This shews us that whatever our Sufferings are it is God that appoints the Rod and then it must nearly concern us 2dly To hear the Rod what and to whom it speaks Now in this case also Conscience and the Word of God are the best Interpreters of God's Judgments The Rod teacheth another way but teacheth the same thing that Conscience and Scripture teach us that is it proclaims aloud the Evil of Sin and God's Anger and Displeasure against it and calls us to Repentance and Reformation of our Lives When the Judgments of God are upon us Conscience knows their Errand and calls all our sins to remembrance and sets them in order before us Nothing but Guilt makes us afraid of God and how quiet and secure soever Sinners are at other times the Judgments of God will awaken their guilty Fears and if men will hearken to the Voice of an awaken'd Conscience it will certainly tell them why God strikes and we cannot take a safer course than to reform those Sins of which our Consciences then accuse us All the Threatnings of Scripture are against Sin and all the Judgments there recorded especially Publick and National Judgments were inflicted for the Punishment of Sin and these are to be our Examples as they are the standing Rules and Measures of Providence God never punishes but for Sin though he may exercise particular good men with difficult Trials and therefore when bad men and a wicked Nation suffer they may certainly know the Cause they have sinned and God is angry and summons them to Repentance for this is the fruit of all to take away sin The Voice of Judgments is the same with the Voice of Conscience and the Voice of God's Prophets Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes Cease to do evil learn to do well seek judgment relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless plead for the widow 1. Isa. 16 17. This is plain enough and sufficiently known if it were but sufficiently laid to heart and this is all that we are concerned to know of the Judgments of God The secret and hidden Designs of Providence which many times surprize the World with unexpected Events are the Care of God and belong not to us till the Scene opens and we see what part is allotted us in it Whatever God be a-doing we have nothing to do but to amend our Lives which will remove the Scourge from us and entitle us to the Care and Protection of Providence Whereas to busy our selves with Politick or Prophetick Guesses at unknown Events to paint our Imaginations with black and frightful or with gay and charming Scenes of things as desponding Fears or sanguine Hopes inspire the Prophet can do us no good but may do a great deal of hurt to our selves and the World This is not the Voice of the Rod which makes no new Revelations to us but only awakens the Convictions of Conscience and enforces the Reproofs and Threatnings of the Word with such sensible and smarting Proofs of the Evil of Sin and God's Anger against it as will make all men consider who have not lost their Senses and many times restore Sense and Understanding to those who had lost them But this to some men will seem a very dull Account of God's Judgments which will neither gratify their Curiosity nor Ill Nature nor which they think worse leave them any excuse to palliate their Hypocrisy The Judgments of God declare God's Anger against Sin and call us to Repentance This men will own but do not like to hear it express'd in such general Terms as if when God sends his Judgments amongst us he were angry with us for all our sins and called us to repent of them all This they think hard that they must part with all their Sins to remove these Judgments