Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	child_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	157	3	9.9741	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44826	The benefit of a well-ordered conversation as it was delivered in a sermon preached June 24th. 1682. On a day of publick humiliation. As also a funeral discourse upon the three first verses of the third chapter of Isaiah; occasioned by the death of the worshipful Major General Denison; who deceased at Ipswich, Sept. 20. 1682. By Mr. William Hubbard. To which is annexed an Irenicon or a salve for New-England's sore: penned by the said major general; and left behind him as his farewell and last advice to his friends of the Massachusets.	Hubbard, William, 1621 or 2-1704.; Denison, Daniel, 1613-1682. Irenicon.	1684 (1684)	Wing H3208; ESTC W9576	81,919	262

so strong of injustice cruelty and oppression he is ready to pull up the hedge of his Protection and lay them wast or leave them to final extirpation T was said the cry of the sins of Sodom ascended up to heaven and it was so loud a cry that they pierced the very seat of the Almighty and pulled down vengeance from Heaven and what were their sins Pride which is the mother of Contention and Cruelty marches in the van the filthy Lusts of intemperance bring up the Rear so as righteous Lot and his Family are almost crushed between them as between two Mill-stones Gibea and Benjamin are ripe for judgment when they will go about to maintain iniquity by a Law instead of seeing Gods Salvation they and all their Confederates shall feel his indignation and know that the righteous Lord loveth righteousness As before when in the dayes of the old World the Earth was fill'd with violence viviter ex rapto their unrighteousness opened the Flood-gates of Divine vengeance which carried them all away with a Flood And not long after when in the dayes of Nimrod the great Grandchild of Noah the Inhabitants of Shinar proclaims War with the Almighty and bid defiance against Heaven God blasts their vain enterprizes and makes them see their own confusion instead of his Salvation 4. The next Branch of a well ordered conversation is that which concerns our selves viz. Sobriety and Temperance which according to the assertion of the Apostle Paul is part of that Doctrine which brings Salvation along with it wherever it is put in practice As we find it expressed Tit. 2.12 And here lies the greatest danger of a professing People Open unrighteousness is restrained by the severe Laws and Edicts of civil Nations where Intemperance and Prophaneness may appear with open face upon the stage Injustice in civil affairs as it is obvious to humane and common observation so is it more apt to be restrained and punished as standing in direct opposition to the commerce and traffick of Nations every one will be ready to bring a stone to fling at an Oppressor Thief or Robber but now the Lusts of Intemperance are more secretly and silently carried on undermining those Banks that seem to keep it in and insensibly by degrees like the Ivy sucking out the heart and life of the Religion of those whom it seems to compass about and embrace These Lusts of the Flesh secretly eat out the life of holiness and damps the heat of our zeal They are also the more apt to prevail upon the minds of the uncautelous because they are seated in such things as for the matter of them are not unlawful yea are both natural and accessary which made one sadly complain In licitis perimus omnes When Israel could neither be enchanted by Sorcery nor corrupted by Idolatry yet they may be charmed by the Syren of sensual delights for when the people had committed carnal Fornication with the Midianitish Women they are easily led on to commit spiritual Adultery with their Idols Solomon might speak it by experience as well as by observation of the strange Women that strong men have fallen down wounded by her When the Devil came to assault our Saviour he found nothing in him to fasten his Temptations upon there was no combustible matter for his fiery Darts to sieze upon but when he comes to David though never so holy a man he finds something to fix upon especially when he lay at an open Guard having ungirt himself and laid aside the Armour of light A chast conversation coupled with fear is the best security against those Lusts of the Flesh that war against our Souls The seeds of Piety and vertue are in as much danger of being choaked with these Weeds of Intemperance as by the Thorns of Covetousness and other Lusts of like nature 5. There are other Branches of a well ordered Conversation very necessary to bring about this Salvation of God Sometimes Prophaneness and Impiety may get such an head in places that it is not possible to suppress or bear them down without an eminent degree of zeal God was so provoked with the sensual lusts of Israel at Baal-peor that if it had not been for the zeal of Phinehas that Generation as commendable as they were had seen but little of the salvation of God it was his zeal that stayed the Plague from consuming the People If our zeal be not as hot as fire it will easily be quenched by these Fleshly Lusts Eli did not want a principle of holiness and the fear of God but he wanted the holy passion of zeal to actuate and exert it No man had ever more experience of seeing the Salvation of God than David and what man did ever declare more zeal against sin and for the Glory of God and casting off the works of iniquity doth he not engage that a vile person shall not tarry in his sight and him that telleth lies he would cut off If such be suffered saith Solomon by the Ruler all his Servants will be mislead Then farewel Gods Salvation The Church of Laodicea lost her dignity for want of zeal and is severely threatned for this defect Be zealous and repent or else I will spue thee out of my mouth Rev. 4.16 a cold dull un-active luke-warm spirit will in a little time lose the very life of godliness when in the primitive Church the love of many began to wax cold it was a presage of their Desolation which soon after came to pass But here we must look to our zeal that it be not mingled with too much wild-fire for the wrath of man will never work the righteousness of God The Lord Jesus was as became the Lamb of God meek and lowly of heart yet was admirably zealous against Hypocrisie and secret iniquity T is good to be zealously affected in a good matter sayes the Apostle And so also in a good manner The Disciples were zealously affected against them that did not follow them this was not in a good matter nor was their zeal to be commended that forbad them bringing little Children to the Lord Jesus And if the Angel that contended with the Devil about the body of Moses had brought rai●ing accusations there had been a defect in the manner Zeal is an holy affection and will thrive best in a meek and quiet spirit No man so meek upon the face of the Earth as Moses and yet no man was found so zealous as Moses in reforming the Idolatry of the People when he set every man against his fellow that was gulty of the fact and at last grinding the Idol to powder that they might drink it down that so eagerly had drunk down that cursed Worship The zeal of Moses was far more acceptable to God than that of Jonah or Jehu It is not the hot fiery curst tempers in a place that will maintain and keep up the purity of Religion and good order so well as that which proceeds

Pillars of the House the Foundation of the Building if these fail what can the righteous do more It was the poor and wise child that delivered the City although his wisdom was neither remembred nor rewarded It is time for the faithful to cry help Lord when the godly ceaseth and the faithful man faileth from among the children of men What would have become of the Kingdom of Judah if it had not been for Jehojadah when Athaliah got the upper hand They that desire or endeavour Reformation shall then be accounted treacherous and prosecuted accordingly The cause of removal of such as these is the sin of those they belong unto For the transgression of a People many are the Princes thereof They are hurried out the World by untimely deaths and others of less use are sent in their room Righteousness exalteth a Nation but sin is the reproach of any people If the righteous are taken away from the Earth it is because evil is coming upon them If God begins to cut Israel short in the Reign of Jehu's Posterity it is because of their Idolatry If Josiah be cut off by an untimely death it is because of the cry of the sins of Manasseh that Justice can no longer forbear their punishment In such cases of general Apostasie or notorious publick Iniquities the few Righteous that are left shall only deliver their own souls they shall not be able to keep off the Judgment from others It was for the sins of Ahaz and his people that the Kingdom of Judah was made bare and stripped of all their worthy men And when Noah is housed in the Ark let the old World look to it When Lot is escaped to the Mount let Sodom beware When poor Christians are gotten into Pella let Jerusalem be warned When Austin is called out of Hippo. When Pareus is taken out of Heydelberg the barbarous Enemies shall soon come and take possession USE I. Although Death be the common Calamity of all men and one of the Ordinances of Heaven that are more certain and immutable than any of the Laws of the Medes and Persians from which none are excepted For t is said to be appointed for all men once to die yet the providence of God is alwayes to be observed in taking away men of use and worth in the places where they are Some are taken away more immediately as were Enoch and Elijah found and as Moses and Aaron in a more than ordinary manner yet in a way of mercy to the persons themselves though in a way of Judgment to the places or people they belong unto So is the name of Methuselah interpreted by many that as soon as ever he should die the dart of Gods vengeance would fall upon the earth as it is observed that the Flood hapned the same year wherein he died There are Worthies of God at times upon the earth of which the World is not worthy they are for a while standing in the gap to keep out evils from breaking in upon the places where they are but as soon as ever they are removed calamities immediately break in upon the places from whence they were taken The people of Judah were ripe for Judgment in Manasseh's time and for his sins but when after all the long-suffering and patience of God under Josiah's Reign for a considerable time there seems little amendment in the body of the people he is at the last hastened out of the World by a violent death when Gods Judgements can be no longer forborn Others like David having served their Generation fall asleep by the Will of God but ordinarily it may be observed and known when men of parts and of great use in Church or Common-wealth are taken away in Gods displeasure 1. When they are taken away by a violent death as probably those were in Ahaz his time which seems to be intended in the Text if not for their own sins yet for the sins of them whom they belong unto T is said that bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their dayes as was verified in Joab Abner Amasa Absalom and others 2. When they die in their youth or Flower of their age or in their full strength before they come to be aged and gray headed As may be seen in Abija the Son of Jeroboam and Abijam the son of Rehoboam who though he was successful in his Wars yet his heart was not right with God 3. When they are taken away in times of eminent danger when they might have been of eminent use if their lives had been spared as is expressed in those doleful Lamentations of Jeremiah the breath of their Nostrils Lam. 4.20 The anointed of the Lord is taken in their pits under whose shadow we said we shall live among the Heathen If Jehosaphat and Hezekiah's lives had been drawn out a little longer how much evil in an ordinary way had been prevented which broke in upon their people immediately after under their wicked and degenerate issue Thus when a people are degenerate are grown sensual secure prophane and regardless of Gods honour and their own duty it is just with God to remove away those who by their piety prudence and prayers have been instruments to keep off Judgments and Calamities from breaking in upon the World The Angels tell Lot They can do nothing as to the executing the Judgment of God upon Sodom until he be come out of the City The Deluge is kept off the World till all the Righteous of the former Generation are gathered to their Fathers in peace and an Ark is prepared wherein Noah the sole righteous person left alive and his Family are to be secured from the impending Calamity 4 When the Righteous are taken from the evil to come Isa 57.1 in a way of mercy to themselves but of judgment to others God had determined to punish Judah for the sins of Manasseh but Josiah shall not live to see it he shall be gathered to his Fathers in peace as Huldah the Prophetess tells him i. e. before that general Calamity intended in former Prophecies should come upon the Land to break the Kingdom in pieces although himself as a just chastisement of God upon him for his wilfulness in not taking counsel of God by his Prophets and neglecting the mind of God intimated by his Enemy died a violent Death to the amazing astonishment of those he left behind 5. When men that have been of eminent use in their times and places are Idolized and Adored by their followers When the honour due to the supreme Agent is given to his Instruments God will have men know that he stands in need neither of their wisdom nor of their courage and that he can carry on his designs and fulfil the counsel of his own will without as well as with means by weak means as well as by the more likely and most probable or powerful means He knows how to make his Jacob arise when he is fallen the lowest of

all He can save Israel without the help of a Jonathan The Battle is not alwayes to the strong no more than the Race to the swift When Moses is dead he can raise up a Joshua that shall subdue the Cananites and bring his Israel into the full possession of the land of Canaan It hath been generally observed that when men dote on their fellow creatures and too much admire the gifts and rare endowments of men that God either removes them out of the World or else blasts their beauty or confounds their wise policies turning them into foolishness as he did Achitophels How did the whole body of the people of Israel dote upon Absolom who by his beauty and courtesie had stollen away their hearts until they saw him first hanged up as a monument of Divine vengeance upon him for his horrid Murthers Parricide Rebellion Pride and Ambition and then hurled under a rude heap of stones in the wild woods as unworthy of a better Sepulchre If the Sons of Josiah begin to pride themselves in their extraction or relation to the famous Josiah King of Judah he will deal with them as with despised broken Idols and order them to be buried with the burials of an Asse without the Gates of their own or any other Royal City It was said that Gustavus Adolphus the famous King of Sweden did on this account presage his own fall not long before his last and fatal Battail at Lutzen telling his Chaplain Dr. Fabritius he believed or thought God would ere long take him away because the people did so over-value and deifie him For after his death the Swedes not only kept the field at that Battel but continued victorious against the Imperialists as if God would have the world know that he needed not the help of any king or Captain on earth to carry on his designs It is here also to be known that God is said to take away not only those he he removes into the other World in an extraordinary manner as was mentioned before or those who by his immediate stroak are smitten in a judicial way as David's Child The Corinthians for abusing the Lords Supper but even those who die by ordinary sickness or other usual casualties for their death is ordered by the providence of God without which as our Saviour tells us not an hair of our heads shall fall to the ground By what means soever such changes come to pass they are ordered by his counsel who is wonderful in working and who suffers nothing to come to pass but what himself hath fore-ordained before any of us had a being in the World USE II. Prudent men are of excellent use in the places where they are else it would not be such a sore Judgment to have them taken away They are as a stay a staff for others to bear upon which when it breaks they are ready to fall to the ground If any desire to know who are to be accounted wise men they may learn by the character given to the heads or chief Leaders of the Tribe of Issachar they are men that have understanding in the times that know what Israel ought to do The School-men say Prudentia est ratio agibilium ad quam requiritur quod homo sit bene dispositus circa fines quod quidem est perectum appetitum That a man knows what is upon every exigent needful to be done and that he hath his heart prepared and fixed to set upon that practice of what right reason determines is best to be attended So it is said Prudentia est oculus cujuscumque virtutis The eye that directs the hand to act and the foot to walk in the path of virtue or in the way that is right Men of the greatest knowledg are not alwayes men of the greatest Wisdom or Prudence As the Embassador of the Spartans once told the Athenians who were more eminent for their knowing of things than the rest of the Grecians Athenienses scire quoe recta sunt sed ea facere nolle That they knew those things which were right but they would not practise them Now there are many ingredients necessary to the composition of a wise man or one that in the Text is called a Prudent man 1. The first Ingredient is Sagacity or a spirit of discerning and quickness of understanding that makes a man to be fore-sighted to look into the penetralia of a case or difficulty to see afar off to discern events in their causes and consequents in their antecedents as Solomon saith Prov. 22.3 The wise man foreseeth an evil and hideth himself when he that is dull and weak sighted passes on and is punished The Lord commended the unjust Steward because he had done wisely he is not commended for using of deceit and falshood but for his Wisdom in foreseeing the danger of being put out of a Stewardship and having no where to betake himself in a time of distress so it is said the wise mans eyes are in his head as in the watch Tower to look round about and discern what may be approaching afar off The fear of the Lord is the beginning or principal part of this Wisdom as t is said of Pharaohs Servants upon the threatning of the Hail He that feared the Lord made his Servants and his Cattle flee into the House before hand David's wisdome traces Joab in all the Woman of Tekoaes wiles There is in some persons an oracular kind of wisdom that they can discern the most secret kind of things and find out the abstrusest difficulties whereby they can discover the true nature and state of the most hidden things Solomon finds the way to pass a right Judgment in a very difficult case by the secret affection of the natural Mother to her own child whence the people observed the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment this was by a natural sagacity whereby he was able to judg of things by their causes and effects In like manner did Solomon judg● of Adonijah's hidden Rebellion by hi● tampering about Abishag as an over act that discovered a secret intent in hi● heart to turn about the Kingdom to himself by his intimation that the Kingdom of right did belong to him So did he by a like depth of wisdom pass such a prudent Sentence upon Shimei which though good and favourable in it self yet was so warily circumstanced that it became a Trap to take an old Sinner in and bring upon him the punishment justly due without breaking David's word 2. Another part of wisdom is to pitch upon the right manner after the end is discovered many a man fails in the compassing or bringing about the great and main design of his own happiness and security for lack of this wisdom He that foreseeth the evils if he doth not betake himself to a right shelter may be overtaken therewith though he hath foreseen it When Israel saw his wound he sent to King Jareb so did Ahaz but