Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	day_n	great_a	people_n	16,100	5	4.4671	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66214	Of our obligation to put our trust in God, rather than in men, and of the advantages of it in a sermon preached before the honourable society of Grayes-inn, upon the occasion of the death of our late Royal Sovereign Queen Mary / by William Wake ...	Wake, William, 1657-1737.	1695 (1695)	Wing W247; ESTC R4700	18,132	41

Of our Obligation To put our Trust in God rather than in Men and of the Advantages of it IN A SERMON Preached before the Honourable Society OF GRAYES-INN Upon the Occasion of the Death of our late Royal Sovereign Queen Mary By William Wake D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty and Preacher to the same Society Published at the Request of several of the Masters of the Bench and others that heard it LONDON Printed for R. Sare at Grayes-Inn-gate in Holbourn 1695. Psal. cxlvi 3 4 5. Put not your Trust in Princes nor in the Son of Man in whom there is no Help His Breath goeth forth He returneth to his Earth In that very Day his Thoughts perish Happy is he who hath the God of Jacob for his Help whose Hope is in the LORD his God IF ever any People had a just Occasion given them to enter upon those Reflections which these words naturally present to us and to consider How little dependance is to be placed upon the Best or Greatest among the Children of Men I may with confidence say that we of this Nation have at this time a most eminent Occasion given us by the Divine Providence so to do It has pleased God within these few days to deprive us of a most excellent Princess under whom we had flatter'd our selves that we should have long enjoy'd a more than ordinary Portion of Happiness and Prosperity A Person she was as by the Greatness of her Character qualified beyond most Others to have become a National Blessing so by the many incomparable Endowments God had bestow'd upon her in a singular manner disposed so to be And as this raised our hopes into some more than ordinary Expectations from her so that firmness of Constitution which she enjoy'd accompanied with a yet early and vigorous Youth seem'd to promise us that we should be many years blessed under the influence both of her Authority and of her Example But alas how suddainly are all these Hope 's cut off and our Expectations brought to an End And nothing left us but the sad Reflection how grievously mistaken we were in our Opinion of our own Happiness and how little trust is to be put in Any but that God who alone enjoys a Certainty of Being and therefore can alone with safety be depended upon In the words before us there are these two things that naturally offer themselves to our Consideration First That it is a vain thing to put our Trust in any Man be his Rank or Condition never so great upon this double Account 1 That his Power to help us is very small ver 3. And 2. His Continuance short and uncertain ver 4. And therefore to Trust in such a person must be to repose our Confidence in One who oftentimes cannot help us and in a little while will fail us Secondly That he who will place his Trust upon a sure foundation must place it upon God who alone is always able and will always continue in a Condition to help and defend us And First That it is a very vain thing to put our Trust in any Man be his Rank or Condition never so Great Because both his Power to help is very small and his Continuance short and uncertain And therefore to Trust in such a Person must be to build our Hope upon one who oftentimes may not be Able to help us and very probably in a little while will fail us This is a Consideration both so certain in its self and so Obvious even to the meanest Capacity that did we not see Men every day overlook it in their practice one might think it hardly needful to offer any Arguments either to Illustrate or to Confirm the Truth of it If 1 We consider the Power of the Greatest Persons to help us Alas How little is it at the Best And for the most part How useless to us In how many Cases does it surpass their Power to do us any Good And even in those in which it may seem the most in their Power to assist us yet how many Accidents may there fall out to prevent us from being at all the better for it It may be they are Unwilling to grant us what we desire of them Perhaps they are disposed to do Somewhat for us but they will not be perswaded to do so Much as our needs require And so spoil all the Advantage we hoped to have reaped from their Kindness to us for want of making their Supply suitable to our Occasions It may be they are willing to do All that we desire of them but not Presently They put off the time till at last by their delays their favour comes too late to us Or lastly It is possible that in a little while they may Change their Minds and with them their Affections towards us And so where we thought to have found a Friend we meet an Enemy One who is disposed rather to do us a mischief than to lend any Help or Assistance to us So Impotent so Trifling so Uncertain and Dis-ingenuous a Creature is Man And then What a Vanity must it be for any one to place his Trust upon the Interest or Authority the Love or Favour of such a One Who in the chiefest of our needs cannot Help us at all And in those wherein he is able to relieve us will be apt either altogether to fail us Or else to mix so much of Humane Frailty and Infirmity with his Favour as shall render it of very little Use and Value to us Nor let any one think that there is any Order of Men exempted from the force of these Reflections Even the greatest Persons lye open to them no less than those of a lower degree Their Power indeed is Greater and they can do much more for us than other Men. But yet still it is far short of our Wants And cannot answer one half of those Exigencies in which we shall stand in need of some one to Help and Assist us Their Minds are Mutable no less than Other Mens And they are by so much the more likely to Change in their Affections towards us by how much the more they are exposed to the Delusions of those about them who are still envious of such as they take into their particular Favour and will therefore be still endeavouring by all imaginable ways to bring us into Disgrace with them Their Favours are generally the Longest in Coming and the Hardest to be Obtain'd Whilst the very Formality which attends the Dispensing of them oftentimes Costs so much and causes such Delays as is utterly inconsistent with many of those Wants wherein we might otherwise promise our selves the most considerable Advantage from their Favour and Affection towards us And from all which we must therefore conclude That it is a very vain thing to place any confidence in Man upon this first Account viz. That the Power even of the greatest Persons to Help us is exceeding Small exposed