Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	bless_v	lord_n	praise_v	4,649	5	10.4003	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62602	A sermon preach'd at the Cathedral Church of Worcester upon the thanksgiving-day, April 16, 1696 by W. Talbot ...	Talbot, William, 1658 or 9-1730.	1696 (1696)	Wing T124; ESTC R9963	17,703	30

to see a plentiful Country turned into a barren Wilderness a free People that had many valuable rights made Slaves and dependants upon the Arbitrary Will of a Tyrannical Conquerour a pure Religion extirpated and Idolatry and Superstition set up in the room of it This must have been the miserable condition in which we should all have been involved If any think they should have fared better than their Neighbours upon the account of their own great Merits on the fair promises they may have had from abroad they have very wrong notions of Popish Gratitude and French Trust Alas Papists have engross'd all merit there is no such thing in Protestants and Promises made to the prejudice of the great Monarch or Holy Church are not to be kept All they could have hoped for is that if they would have gone some few steps further and turn'd their Religion they might possibly have been treated as the new Converts are in France but otherwise all the mercy to have been expected would have been this to have been eaten last though it has not always been so instances are not wanting where those Protestants that have been most zealous and forward in setting up a Popish Prince have been the first that had cause to repent of it In short whatever is dear to us as men English Men and Protestants must have been wrested from us 't is not to be supposed that being driven on by Rage and Revenge as well as Avarice and Ambition they should have used softer methods here than they do in their other Conquests where they tinge the Rivers with Blood where Sword and Fire devour all before them and if they would but totally extirpate the rational Inhabitants of the Country and leave none but the four footed ones of the Field and Forest the Beasts of burthen the Beasts of prey they would make very proper Subjects for such a Government But though God suffered them to go so far as they did in their Hellish Enterprize that the proof of it might be clear beyond denial or doubt yet was he pleas'd so seasonably to discover and defeat it that the mischief falls only on their heads that devised it and we may say with Israel he has not given us as a prey to their teeth our Soul is escaped as a Bird out of the Snare of the Fowler the Snare is broken and we are escaped with them let us also join in making such grateful returns to the Divine Goodness as the great Mercy calls for 1. Let us look up to God as the Author of it I do acknowledge it is not always safe or easy to determine what events are to be ascribed to God's special efficacious Providence and as the Lords doing and what are not yet in some there are such visible marks of Discrimination that a Man must be willfully blind if he does not distinguish them I may not at present enter upon this Argument and shall only say that in occurrances which are brought about unexpectedly but seasonably for the deliverance or good of a Church or Nation professing God's true Religion without their privity or assistance by invisible or incompetent means or by the Ministry or Instrumentality of such things as are only or immediately under the direction and government of God in such cases not to trace the out-goings of the Almighty where his footsteps are so plain is to be more stupid or Atheistical than the very Heathens Ps 126.2 Exod. 14.25 In our deliverance I will remark but two things which must lead us to God as the Author of it The design against the King's Life was prevented only by the discovery voluntarily made by some of those who were to be concern'd in the execution of it and the Invasion or Descent upon us was hindred by our Fleets being in such a readiness to guard our own Coasts and block up our Enemies in their Harbours But to what shall we ascribe all this was it through our Policy or Conduct that we had such a Fleet at home Were they not to have been gone long before to the Streights and stopt only by a contrary strange Wind which has hardly been known at that Season of the Year to sit so long in that quarter And to whom shall we attribute this but to him whom the Wind and Seas obey who brings the Winds out of his Treasures and makes them blow under Heaven whither he lists And what was it that made the discoverers confess the designed Assassination when 't was so near being Executed were they not Papists who are not generally over tender of the Blood and lives of Hereticks when their destruction may promote the good of Holy Church were they not engaged and encouraged in it by some of their Priests and no doubt assured if they lost their lives in the attempt of Eternal Life in Exchange and how came the Christian the Gentleman the Man to be too hard for the Papists Conscience Honour or Pity to be too strong for their Religion what or who touch'd their hearts and melted them into remorse and Confession Who but he who only knows and alone can change the heart take away the heart of stone and give one of flesh Him therefore let us acknowledge to be our Saviour and Deliverer and say if the Lord himself had not been on our side when men rose up against us they had swallowed us up quick when they were so wrathfully displeased at us 2. To him let us in the second place pay the tribute of praise and thanks for it this is what he expects call upon me in the day of trouble and I will hear thee and thou shalt praise me And very reasonable certainly for any benefit bestowed brings the person that receives it into debt to his Benefactor and thanks is the least part of payment if God has rescued us from the very Jaws of Death how ought we to glorify him both in Soul and Body which he has redeemed How should we excite all the powers of our Soul and Members of our Bodies to join in his praise Praise the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his holy name who saveth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with mercy and loving kindness Awake also my Glory my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness O Lord and my Lips shall praise thee Has he preserved to us our Churches where we may have liberty to worship him in Purity and the beauty of Holiness has he secured to us those swept and garnisht Houses from the return of the evil spirit and shall not the Tribes go up thither to worship to give thanks to his holy name Has he continued to us a service in our own Language and shall we not join in it when we may sing with the Spirit and with the understanding also and can say Amen at the giving of thanks Have we still access to him through the Mediation and Intercession of our great High Priest only