Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	word_n	world_n	worldly_a	417	3	7.6494	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58146	Blessedness, or, God and the world weighted in the balances of the sanctuary and the world found too light preached in a sermon at Paule, before the Right Honourable the Lord Major, Aldermen, and commonalty of the city of London, on a thanksgiving-day, for the prosperity of our navy in a conflict with the Spaniard, October 17, 1656 / by Francis Raworth ...	Raworth, Francis, d. 1665.	1656 (1656)	Wing R372; ESTC R18645	28,408	72

to the double Blessedness in it One interpretation proposeth it by way of competition Blessed is the people that is in such a case that is while others are annoyed with the Pestilence have prosperity while others are consumed by the Famine have plenty while others are destroyed and harrassed with Wars Tumults and Alarums have peace and quietness in their Borders sic aiunt ferunt This is the Popular rumor this is the onely Language and Dialect of the vulgar If they can but have these things they think themselves happy whatever become of Religion or of their immortal souls but David stands up as offended with this vote and verdict How now Is this true Blessedness to enjoy the shell without the kernel the Ring without the Jewel to live like a Beast and die like a Dog and having no portion in God afterwards to be damned like a Divel No no saith the Prophet this is a false Maxime a man may be thus imaginarily happy he may have riches honor plenty pleasures and the world at will and yet be really in a miserable case to all eternity But if you speak of happiness I will put you a better case Happy yea thrice happy is that people whose God is the Lord a notable Epanorthosis and correction of the Opinion of worldly happiness But the second interpretation more probably supposeth it to be spoken by way of subordination and comparison as if David had said You call poverty and disgrace miseries and you call riches and honor happiness Why let this be granted that there is some kinde of felicity in this world and that it is better to be rich then poor to be in honor then in disgrace I will not affirm that there is an inconsistency inchoherency between a possession in this life and a propriety in the next let it be so that a people in such a case is happy and so it is a Synchoresis or grant it is true what you say How happy then is that people that hath not onely peace without but peace within that hath a portion in this world but yet not this world for their portion that hath a title not onely to the streams and Creatures but also to the Fountian Creator yea doubtless happy indeed Well fare that man that Nation who in this sense have God to be their Lord and farewell the contrary Prop. The proposition from hence is That the greatest happiness in this world is not to have this world to be our happiness but in our Worldly happiness to have God to be our Lord. The truth whereof will the better appear by setting before your eyes as in a Table and by weighing as in scales the happiness of this world and the happiness of Gods people 1. We must make an Anatomy of the World view it and see what it bids towards happiness and without offence I presume I must personate the moral or meer worldly man and shew you the happiness of being in his case 1. Let health strength and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or good temper of body appear and indeed what is a velvet Pantofle to a dis-joynted foot a Velvet Jacket to a broken arm the most delicate vyands to a dis-eased Stomach The world my Beloved is like an Hospital of diseased Patients Here stands one man crying out of the Tooth-ach there sits another tormented with the stone there lies a third distracted with the Collick a fourth wracked with the Gout And who is there in this great Assembly that can say For my part I know not who you speak to I feel no distemper I bless God I ail nothing But how many are ready to complain with him that cryed out 't is true God hath set his Rain-bow in the Heavens his mark in the clouds that the world shall not again be drowned with water But what 's that to me that am like to be drowned presently So what is Peace and Tranquillity abroad when I have a burning fear within my body what is it to have plenty in the Land when I have a lingring Consumption and Feaver in my blood It is true there is never a gracious heart but would of the two rather be a Lazarus here then a Dives hereafter rather if God put it to his choice beg his bread on earth then his water in hell yet as to this world it is better to fare delicately then to be a Beggar to be a Dives then a Lazarus for a man to have work for God to do and to have ability of God to do it while others groan out their days and waste their precious time in languishments for others to have good blood running in their veins to have their bones as the Prophet speaks full of marrow and strength Who would not think himself happy to be in such a case Secondly What though a man have health if he enjoy not his Liberty I must confess It is better to be a Gally-slave at Algiere then to be a drudge to the Divel it is better to be a Cato in a Prison with shackels fetters about ones heels then a Caesar in the Senate house with a chain of Gold about his neck Yet how sweet is freedom not onely in Conscience but of Body Whom doth it not pity to see anothers Body to be a Gaol to his Soul and his House to be a Prison to his Body And who would not give the greatest sum with that Greek Captain in another sense to obtain this freedom Matth. 22.28 When I take a view of our weekly Bills of Mortality in London I finde a report of so many dying in one Parish of a Fever of so many dying in another Parish of a Consumption c. But when I cast my eye down to the bottom of the Leaf suspecting still that I should see some Funerals of the Plague contrarily for these 12. moneths and above I finde there nothing but Ciphers Ah Lord how unthankful are we for such a blessing when thou might'st as justly as suddenly turn our Ciphers into Figures cause our faces to gather paleness hang our streets with mourning and make us know what an happiness health and liberty is by the doleful and dreadful effects and restraint of the Plague and Pestilence Thirdly But what a case were man in though he had his health if he wanted Relations and Friends How comfortable is it in the Marriage state for a man to have his Table compassed about not with Thorns and Bryars but with Olive-plants emblems of peace How much better is it for a man to have so many children to call him Father then to have so many pieces of gold to call him Lord Therefore it is that when God would give us an Inventory of Jobs happiness he first sets down his piety A man fearing God but descending to his comforts in this life he begins with his children before his estate Item saith God Job had given him so many sons and daughters whereas certainly some

condition he that loseth that he cares not to enjoy and enjoys that he can't lose And in a spiritual sense he onely is such a man whose God is the Lord Methinks the words are here represented as Antiphanys Dialogue-wise The world begins Happy is he whose Sons grow like Olive plants yea saith David whose God is the Lord the World succeeds Happy is he whose Oxen are strong to labor and that Nation whose streets knows no complaining yea saith David whose God is the Lord still that is the note of a gracious heart as he rescribed back nothing but King of France King of France King of France and why happy such a man above a worldling 1. He that hath outward happiness in the world may not have a title to the Lord but he that hath God to be his Lord hath a title a spiritual title to the World The Corinthians were ready to quarrel about their properties I am of one from Paul saith one I am from Apollo said another tush said a third I care neither for Paul nor Apollo give me Cephas I am for Cephas The Apostle rounds them in the ear what saith he Is Christ divided will you contend for a part All men are gain not onely Paul Apollo Cephas but all things life death things present and things to come But by what tenure Why Because Christ is gain When we lost our Title to God we lost our comfortable title to the Creatures and no wonder the Creature rebels against us since we have rebell'd against the Creator The Creatures may justly say to unregenerate men that hunt after and dig for happiness in them I say Honors Riches Pleasures may say to such as Samuel did to Saul Why come ye to us since God is departed from you He is a Rebel that harboreth him whom the King hath Proclaimed a Traytor And what comfort can that soul have to lay his head in the bosome of any Creature when God himself hath turned his back on him But he that hath a new title to God hath a better title to outward comforts he holds them in capite God hath provided for him a Kingdom and therefore doth not grudge him crums How sweet are those mo●sels of bread that by Faith are dipt in Christs blood not that property comes by Grace but it is cleared up by Grace Many a man hath an Estate and a childe of God enjoys the comfort of it The worldly man may say This house this childe is mine by Creature right a Saint saith These are also mine by Covenant right but you may have all worldly happiness and not be happy Therefore secondly Grace claims a title to all the Ordinances of God Preaching is thy Chariot to bring the Lord down to thee Prayer and Meditation are wings to carry thy soul up to God It is generally believed and without scruple among the judicious that the visible and not the invisible Church is the prime and proper subject for the dispensation of Gospel Seals but his title to them that hath a right to Christ is indisputable He that can say the body and blood of Christ is his may challenge and claim the Bread and Wine that signifie those as his He that hath right to the Pearl hath right to the Casket He that is marryed to the King of Glory ought not upon any pretences whatsoever to be kept out of the Presence Chamber and from prayer while others stand like strangers without doors knocking and speaking to God at a distance as slaves to a master you have freedom to enter into the Palace of Heaven and cry Abba Father The Ordinances are the glory of a Nation and where ever God goes his Ordinances go too and where ere they reside and abide he abides too My Beloved God and his Institutions go and come from and to a Nation together as it s the honor of a Nation to say Jehovah-Nissi The Lord is our Banner in a Military sense for God to fight for us so a greater for others to say of any Nation Jehovah-Shammah The Lord is there in an Ecclesiastical sense The Ordinances are the comfort of the soul they are not as some new Anti-scripturists calumniate the Grave wherein Christ lies but the Throne whereon he sits as King of the Church and we were better lose our evidences for our Lands then part with the seals of the Gospel Is it then a small matter to have liberty to tread in Gods courts to sit under the tree of Life and dew of Heaven to have commerce with Angels to have communion with the Lord of Glory when thou art hungry to have freedom to run to Gods House for Bread when thou art distracted and troubled with doubts of thy Faith thy salvation to have recourse with David to Gods Sanctuary for resolution and that by thy title to the Lord as thy Lord Thirdly Thou hast moreover a propriety in all his Providences his Providences are thine for thy satisfaction if thou wantest enlightning he is thy Sun if defending he is thy shield if a Nation be fearful he is a wall of fire without if fainting he is a well of water within They may be without many things but we have the Broad-Seal of Heaven for it that they shall want no good thing Thou art in trouble and if thy Friend could but see thee How happy God is therefore Omniscient Thou art weak if thy Friend could help thee God is therefore Omnipotent El Shaddai All-sufficient If thou art weak he hath a shoulder to carry thee if feeble a bosom to warm and cherish thee He that hath him that is all hath all Secondly For thy security and that 1. To sustain thee If thou goest into the water I will be with thee if into the fire I le be with thee said God q. d. If thou burn I le burn too if thou drown I le drown too Hence it was that Israel was safe in the Red-sea and the three children secure in the Furnace God may cast his childe down and so his Nation yet not cast them away he often breaks your hearts that he may not break your backs 2. To order all for thee The Devil may turn Cordials into poyson but providence turns those poysons into Cordials again God hath his fairest ends in our foulest ways when temptations have sucked our corrupt blood away those Leeches shall be taken off when you are provoked to storm at God and quarrel with the seeming inequality of his ways are ready to judge his present carriage to your souls inconsistent with the hopes of election past or future glory Let despair vail and murmuring be tongue-tyed and consider the Lord thinks it better rather to bring order out of these spiritual disorders then not to suffer those disorders to be at all It s easier for vain man to wrangle with the Almighty and to set up in his pride an Anti-Providence in the world then rightly to discern what God is a doing we neglect

come to the Application of the Proposition and treat with your Consciences in these following Deductions or Conclusions First Conclusion from hence is a Vindication of that true Opinion that Gods people have of the false happiness of the World Wicked men are infiliciter felices unhappily happy you feliciter infelices miserable in your Imagination but happy really and indeed You rightly and righteously determine that a man may have a gay coat and a festered Conscience a great Estate in his hands but little or no true comfort in his heart that though Riches have not so much as the wings of a Sparrow in flying to us yet they when gotten make to themselves wings and that of an Eagle to flie away from us That worldly delights are but as a Snow-ball which being with much pains heaped up together melteth presently if the Sun do but shine out That restless man in wrestling and contending for what he desires is but like a childe running up and down in a pleasant Meadow after a painted Butterfly which when he hath taken all the recompence it affords is but onely to besmear his fingers You speak truly and soundly when you say That a dram of Grace is worth a pound of Gold that all the contents and Creatures in the earth are but meer Ciphers unless God be purposed to set on the first Figure That while a Diadem sitteth light on a Princes head it may for all that lie heavy enough on his conscience That there is no indivisible connexion between a Kingdom on Earth and a Crown in Heaven That a man may possibly swim in a Sea of Pleasures in this World and yet sink into an Ocean of wrath and Brimstone in the next That a man may be so honorable so rich so glorious while he lives that every man may be ready to say There goes an happy man yet that man when he dies for want of a configuration to Christ and title to God may be miserable to all Eternity Could men carry their estates beyond the Line of Mortality and with their money ●ee the Angels at last day to plead for them to prevent the Sentence of the Judge of Heaven and Earth or after that Sentence is pronounced bribe the flames of Hell-fire to be pitiful towards and not to prey on or torment them this were something for worldly happiness but when we see that there is no advantage though a man gain the whole world if yet he lose his own soul that all these sublunary felicities are consistent with Gods eternal indignation that these things neither singly nor joyntly can so much as asswage grief put off cares much less adjourn death or prevent Hell where there is no remission of sin no intermission of punishment where the pangs of the damned are not onely for the present intolerable but for the future interminable Who would not pray with a gracious heart Lord let me be rather miserable for a time as the world speaks that I may be happy for ever then that I should be happy for a season onely and after that miserable for ever Lord though I desire to be of the number of those Christians that have their hope and expectation in this world yet deliver me from those worldlings whose entire portion is in this world is this world Psal 17.14 Now we are ready to call the proud happy to lift up them high in our thoughts that are lifted up in the world but when Jesus Christ shall come to give to every man according to his works and in flaming fire to render vengeance to them that know him not on the one hand and on the other hand when he shall come to make up his Jewels that now are despised and to repair their reproaches before God in the sight and audience of men and Angels that now are triumphed over and trampled upon by men Who would deem himself happy at that day if he be not in their case whose God is the Lord The second Deduction Here we see as in a Looking-glass the false Opinion that worldly men have of true happiness or of the state of the godly How ready is a wicked man to compassionate the children of God Alas saith he To what purpose are these men so precise and exact It may be there may be a Judgement day it may be not and how miserable are they to provide for that which no man living ever saw while they neglect that which is obvious to their very senses Honors are certain riches are certain and while they expect their food they starve while they pretend after a Kingdom they go naked while they call God Father they want even the bread of children Whereas no man is miserable in another mans accompt but in his own You may possibly see a Joseph in Prison while Pharaoh keeps a Court a Job on a dung-hill while a Julian is on a Throne You may see them poor and reproached but did they ever tell you they were miserable and when they were without Estates and reputation that they wanted them to make them happy never say a childe of God is miserable till he say so of himself A wicked man may have Blessings and yet not be blessed and a childe of God may have curses still from men and yet not be cursed It s observed That men thus varyed their Opinion about happiness because they supposed the fruition of that whereof they were destitute would make them happy He that was poor said If I had but riches I should be happy and so riches came to be called happiness He that was in reproach said Oh! If I were but respected I should be happy and so respect and repute came to be called happiness He that was diseased said If I had my health I should be happy and so health came to be accompted an happiness The natural man is mistaken in his verdict the Saint saith I accompt all things loss and dung for Christ the natural man I accompt Christ loss and dung for any thing else in this life The Saint seeks for happiness in crosses Job 5.10 but the natural man or Philosopher will assoon seek for light in darkness heat in cold fire in water sweetness in gall and wormwood as for comfort in calamities Hence Christ reads a Lecture contrary to nature Not blessed are the merry but the mourners not the lofty but the weak not the Mammonist but the poor in spirit Matth. 5.3 Vos editis beatos esse pauperes Ergo ut tanto facilius f●atis beati omnia bona vobis adimimus Juliani scomma in Christianos factum Those eight Beatitudes are the eight Paradoxes of the world As Christ said He had bread to eat that his Disciples knew not of so the Disciples of Christ have an happiness to enjoy that the natural man knows not of The World should consider That a man can never properly be miserable till he lose that which made him happy You that call outward things