Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	work_n	work_v	write_v	440	3	5.2807	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89565	Emmanuel: a thanksgiving-sermon preached to the Honourable House of Commons upon their solemn day of praising God for the victory obtained by the Parliaments forces in Southvvales. In the church of Margarets Westminster, May 17. 1648. / By Stephen Marshall B.D. minister of Gods Word at Finchingfield in Essex.	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1648 (1648)	Wing M753; Thomason E443_3; ESTC R204197	25,337	44

is miserable many a man with Sampson would bee content to perish upon condition that they whom they oppose might perish with them but that cannot be here no plot will take therefore let them alone meddle not against those men for whose sake God will be ingaged against thee this is one use The second is A use of comfort because Immanuel was with his people therefore saith he Feare not their feare be not dismayed sanctifie you the Lord of hosts in your heart he will be a sanctuary to you trust in him though he hide his face from the house of Israel In many words the Prophet here doth animate and incourage the servants of God in their greatest confusions which can possibly lie upon them not to let their faith in Immanuel goe but beare themselves upon him in the midst of all difficulties This also would I a little presse upon you because the Lord is thus engaged and will order all things for the ruine of his enemies and the good of his servants therefore in the mid'st of all our darknesses and difficulties hold your faith strong in Immanuels promises which are many hold you to them and feare not any feare of man I confesse when in my weaknesse I look upon the condition of these three Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland there is not in reference to the people of God a sadder spectacle upon earth presented to my eye Clouds of confusion hang over all our heads wee may say of our troubles as Leah said when shee had a son born shee called him Gad Behold said shee a troope cometh Troopes of misery break out against us and threaten the people of God in all these three Kingdomes the adversaries of the cause that we have beene engaged in were never more never so full of fury never so diligent they are like unto the Frogs that came out of the mouth of the Dragon and the false Prophet and the Beast that were to gather all the Kings of the earth to battaile against the Lambe setting their confederacies and sending their Emissaries into every corner into every corner of France of Holland of England and Scotland and Ireland where ever any confederacy may bee raised and wee at home are a most pitifull divided disjoynted people even we who have owned and joined in Gods cause as if wee were the children of Cadmus making it our worke to thrust our swords into one anothers bowels or like the brethren of Ishmael every mans sword is against us and our sword against them so that when I look upon the difficulties and dangers that doe inviron us seriously I see no more probability of our withstanding the invading ruine then it is for a levell of sand to withstand a Torrent of water that comes running upon it I say thus it appeares to mee when I look upon these things with carnall eyes I can then see no way but the wofullest confusion breaking in upon us which a Kingdom can be plunged in especially that the godly party are even like to be given up for a spoile and a prey all our foundations are out of joynt and our whole house seemes falling but what then Must we therefore sit downe and despaire No for Immanuel because of Immanuel wee may beare up our hearts still and to encourage you I pray you carry home these foure or five meditations First Know you for certain that there is not one of all these businesses not any of these designes and plots that are in hand against us but the best friend wee have in heaven and earth hath stirred them all no man could offer at you so much as a drawne Dagger if Jesus Christ did not draw it and put it into his hand and truly Gods people need not feare any great hurt from any designe that Jesus Christ hath his hand in the clouds which Jesus Christ raiseth will all drop fatnesse that is one Christ hath contrived them all and you may therefore look for good from them Secondly Know for certaine that in the greatest rage and fury that ever is found amongst wicked men Immanuel hath a negative voice hee is not onely privy to all the counsels that are but he hath a negative voice in them too If hee say nay all their yeas are not worth a farthing to advance their businesse wee use to say to the Papists that if a generall councel could be called in Christrendome no good could bee expected from it if the Pope bee allowed to have a negative voyce for certainly hee will never passe any thing that shall be against the Church of Rome Jesus Christ hath this negative voice you may demand over whom hath Christ a negative voice I tel you Over the Sun hee saith to the Sun doe not shine though the Sun be prepared as a Gyant to run his race if Christ doe but say doe not shine the Sun puts his head in a cloud He hath a negative voice over the Seas if he say to the Seas goe not there the raging waves of the Sea cannot stir it is an observation that Basil hath upon Egypt that the land of Egypt lies lower then the red Sea that the red Sea is higher then the land of Egypt so that there is no reason can be given why the red Sea doth not drown all Egypt and swallow it up every day but onely the Lord doth not give his voyce to it he hath said to the waves of it Hitherto ye shall come and here yee shall turne back up on a levell ground yea runne away from a lower ground and when the waves roare he but saith peace bee still and husheth them as a child Christ hath a negative voice over the Devill If the Devill would but goe into a hog and Christ say no you shall not goe he cannot enter into a Swine Hee hath a negative voyce over all mortall men in all their plots and conspiracies If hee say it shall not stand it is to no purpose certainly Beloved wee may beare up our hearts comfortably upon such grounds as these yea Thirdly as Christ contrives all and hath a negative voice in all so All these doe but work his work hee is not onely one of them but they are all his Agents too hee hath some worke to doe whatever it bee wherein hee imploys them and though hee let them worke according to their principles yet they all worke the work of the Lord the devills in hell worke the worke of Christ as well as the Angels in heaven the Pope of Rome works the worke of Christ as well as a faithfull Minister in a Pulpit doth I mean not that they doe it from right principles or doe it according to rule but de facto they doe nothing but what Christ will have done as the Iews and Romans did in crucifying Christ when they hung him upon the crosse they did nothing but what the Lords counsell had determined to bee done

the Nation against them this is the way of all Gods people they cry down the glory of the world the pleasures of the world the riches of the world the honour and pompe of the world they cry all down as a base thing and they profesle to lay up all their treasure elsewhere and therefore the world cannot beare it then add in the last place That all that is excellent in the Church is invisible and undiscernible by a carn all eye they have in them many things that will challenge respect and reverence but they are not seen all the outside is poore and base and mean and contemptible unattended unhonoured and for such a poore low sort of people to take so much upon them who have no worth in them that others can discern is intolerable no marvaile that the world bee against them this made the two Witnesses so hated Revel. 11. that though they were but two and they also cloathed in sackcloth yet they durst undertake to throw fire in the faces of all men who lived upon earth Upon such grounds as these there ever hath been in the hearts of all the enemies of the Church an incessant indeavour and an unanimous confederacy to ruin them and destroy them I note this but for these two ends briefly First That it may teach all the servants of Christ all the people of God what they must look for in this world while their lot is to live amongst worldly men they must looke for no other but plots and conspiracies and confederacies for their ruine and let it not bee hard It was so with the Lord himself Quod erat Christus erimus Christiani What Christ was we Christians must bee and it is enough to be like our Master while hee hee lived upon earth although hee never did hurt any walked unblamably pitied all helped all that came to him yet hee was not beleeved in his word he was reproached in his life hated in his person grieved in his Spirit the whole way of the world went against him and it must and will bee so with his servants while there is a devill and a devillish spirit in the world the gates of hell will bee working in one kind or other Non semper saeviunt Nerones sed nunquam cessat diabolus there are not alwayes raging Neroes but there are alwayes devils and devillish men every Abel shall be sure of a Cain and the Congregation of Christs people must bee opposed by the association of Malignant enemies But Secondly That which I would faine leave with you is this even a use of wisdome which all the servants of God should learn since there is such a confederacy and an harmony in the spirits and endeavours of all the enemies of Gods people for their ruine how should this provoke al the servants of Christ to associate and unite themselves together for their mutuall safetie certainly when Gebal and Ammon and Amalek and the Philistines and they that dwell at Tyre Asher and the children of Lot are all confederate against Gods people it were a starke madnesse for Ephraim then to bite Manasses and Manasses to bite Ephraim and both these to devoure Iudah O how uncomely and unseasonable a thing is it to find the people of God divided one from another and helping by their jealousies and divisions the hurt and raine one of another at that time when there is one soul and spirit possesses all their adversaries to destroy them how sad is it that we cannot learne that wisedome of our adversaries looke over all the world and you shall find that the generality of the world are all children of Babel children of confusion have severall interests one from another can undermine one another can fight one against another yet they all can and doe convenire in hoc tertio they all agree in this that when there is a businesse against the Church of God they will all be one against it Shall not the servants of God joyn together for their safety this duty of loving one another our Saviour presseth upon us by many arguments we have one God one Lord one Faith one Baptisme c. it was one of his last injunctions Love one another it 's the band of perfection c. yet all will not do it our great enemy knowes how open we lye to him when a spirit of division is got in they that have read the stories of the Church are able to prove it that next to Apostasie from God the divisions that have been found amongst Gods people have been the greatest means of their hurt and mischief God in mercy teach us now to learne our duty sure I am this exhortation was never more needfull and usefull then it is at this day and unto this nation where there are found a people a godly people for whom the Lord hath done admirable things greater then which he hath not done since he brought Israel out of Egypt and now after God hath done all this for us wee are tantum non swallowed up and should it prove so it must lie upon this our divisions have undone us when the Lord hath prevented our enemies wee have undermined one another and been jealous one of another and hated one another and that so bitterly that I have often with sorrow thought that in England this day it is not much better then it is in Turkie in this respect they who write of the state of the Christians among the Turks say this of them that their divisions are such one against another and their hatred so implacable that they love the Turke better then they love one another and that the Turke makes use of them as his instruments and informers to ruine one another and that if there were an Army of the one side able to cope with an Army of the Turkes he that shall expect to have but one good wish from the rest of the Christians to accompany them would be utterly deceived which saith a learned observer makes their bondage irrecoverable Alas that we should be so neer if in England that the divisions that are got in amongst the servants of God should make us like the Hieroglyphique of the Dragon and the Lion fighting one against another when the Griffin hangs over them to devoure them both when they have weakened wounded one another This is our present sad condition God in mercy amend it I have much adoe to keep off from further enlarging my complaint upon this wofull theam because our divisions beside all other mischiefes which attend them hinder us from prising and esteeming deliverances and the mercies which God bestowes upon us as in such a deliverance and mercy as we meet to praise God for this day many yea many honest and good men hardly know how to praise for it when the instruments of it are men from whom we are divided in our affections lest possibly some such respect should be offered them as we

before the foundations of the World were laid Nay I adde in the last place to strengthen you that as they work all of them the Lords work So The Lords work design is the good of his Church the calling the purging the preserving the building and nourishing and growth of the Church is all the work that Jesus Christ hath to doe when that is done the world ends and he resignes up the Kingdome into his Fathers hand now certainly if we can beleeve all these things may not our hearts rest quiet May not wee if wee be ingaged in a good cause may not wee I say with comfort and confidence put it into the Lords hand and let him doe what hee will I am perswaded the ground of all the diffidence and discouragement that is found amongst the people of God this day arises from their ignorance of the interest of Jesus Christ in these publick affaires and I know also that to those men that are but Politicians and carry carnall and worldly designes of their own such a lesson as this can be of no use nor stay to them for Jesus Christ is against them but for those that have a spirituall eye and would bee glad to have some prop to lean upon this may stay and quiet their hearts they may comfortably set down this conclusion their Adversary may have great power and strength but the Church hath Immanuel they have the wealth of the World the Church hath the wealth of Immanuel the wisdome care and goodnesse of Immanuel they have the whole world to joyn with them but we have Jesus Christ with us and that 's more non est consilium contra Dominum there is no counsell nor strength against the Lord therefore stay and quiet your hearts with these things especially this might stay us against our feares of having this tender plant of Reformation blasted and spoiled by the many enemies who oppose it it hath been Christs ordinary way to let his enemies set against his worke when it s but a tender plant when in all likelihood it may bee most easily spoil'd and he orders it so purposely to make men see and know that when they have vented their utmost rage and done their worst hee will carry it on in despight of them I conclude this use in the Prophets words in this place Sanctifie the Lord in your hearts fear not mens feare looke to Christ even though hee hide his face one word spoken by him can and will in due time quiet all these stormy waves and then Thirdly with which I will end This lesson is applyed here by the Prophet likewise For duty therefore saith hee Bind up the testimonie and seale up my Law amongst my Schollers and when any say to you seek to Witches or Wizzards or they that have familiar Spirits goe not after them but hold to Immanuels testimony the plain meaning of it is this that because the salvation and deliverance of the Church from all dangers comes onely from Immanuel therefore wee should bee carefull to ingage Immanuel to us hold close to his rules bind up Immanuels testimonies seale them up that is ratifie and confirme them let them onely be of authority among his schollers goe no 〈…〉 ayes of humane policies use not any devillish arts look not succour in any unlawfull way but hold you close to the rules of Christ that Immanuel may own you and you are well enough this is the last use I shall make of it because the Lord Jesus doth thus order all things for the welfare and good of his Church and people therefore if we would bee safe let us engage Jesus Christ closely let us hold him with us and wee are well enough and herein Honorable and beloved I more especially direct my speech to you that are called to be the great Councell of the Kingdome according to my poore understanding you never stood in more need of help then you doe at this day your enemies are very many and full of rage and fury and your friends truely they are but few and they divided amongst themselves they are jealous one of another and many of them jealous of you and what advice to give you so to steere your counsels and courses to give that satisfaction which I think you would bee glad to doe to honest men dissenting one from another the Lord knowes I cannot imagine what it should be it is a hard thing to say in these difficulties what you should doe in the wayes of humane wisdome to satisfie the people and to settle and save the Kingdome but I am sure my Text doth furnish mee with somewhat upon which I can pawn what ever is pretious to mee and venture my everlasting comfort upon it if the Lord direct you to take that course you may yet save your selves and this Kingdome that is hold Immanuel to you bind up Immanuels lawes and testimonies let Jesus Christ but be ingaged with you and he hath wayes to fetch all about again beyond what the heart of man can think of Truly the mercy which this day wee praise God for is a great pledge and 〈◊〉 to us how easily the Lord could doe it when with asmall handfull such a thing was done and at such a season able time when I am confident the Malignant enemies throughout the Kingdom had set and appointed to have had risings in every corner of the land which I conceive is the reason why they so cry it down as an untruth that they might hold up the spirits of them who run in the same way a little check to our Forces there would probably have made evill affected men in forty places of the Kingdome to have appear'd suddenly Now the Lord comming in thus unexpectedly and dashing them thus easily le ts us see how soone hee can turn the stream That you may therefore ingage Immanuel to own you I beseech you receive this humble advice which I give you in his Name doe you obey his will in it I dare promise you he will yet be with you and doe all your work for you Humble your selves deeply under that hand of God which is gone out against you God hath now layed you very low it 's true there was never Parliament of England upon which God hath powred so many favours so many deliverances and victories and it 's as true that there was never Parliament upon which God hath powred so much scorne the glory and honour of Parliamentary Authority seems now utterly lost and like the lost innocent state of man never more to be repaired but by an Immanuel none but Jesus Christ is able to repaire this dishonour and reproach scorn and hatred which is east upon the Parliament now if you expect any reparation from him you must put your mouth into the dust humble your souls acknowledg the Lord to be righteous in all the contempt that he hath powred upon you and that you have deserved far worse