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
A67361	Divine meditations upon several occasions with a dayly directory / by the excellent pen of Sir William Waller ...	Waller, William, Sir, 1597?-1668.	1680 (1680)	Wing W544; ESTC R39417	76,156	224

according to the true value of the mettal and as brass coine O my Soul learn this wisdome use pleasures as pleasures and whilst thou laiest hold on these follies do as Solomon did retaine the wisdome to know they are but follies Do not set thine eyes upon that which is not or which if in any sence it be is never at such a consistence but that even whilst it is it may be said it was so fluid that like water the more it is embraced and grasped the more it slips away But look up and consider the things here below which are seen are temporary and of short continuance but the things which are above and which are not seen are eternal Those and none but those are the true pleasures which are at Gods right hand for evermore MEDITAT XVII Vpon the sight of a fair horse well mannaged WHat a noble Generous creature is this and how answerable to that character of a brave goodly horse which was delivered by God himself out of the whirlwind His crest seems to be clothed with thunder the glory of his Nostrils is terrible he swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage and saith among the trumpets ha ha he mocketh at fear he paweth and reioyceth in his strength and is ready to go on to meet the armed men as if he smelt the battel afar off and heard the thunder of the Captains and the shouting God seemeth if I may so speak to take pleasure in describing this peice of his own workmanship setting forth as in the description of the Leviathan his parts and his power and his comely proportion Where God thinks it not fit to conceal the commendation of his works they ought to be had in remembrance and to be glorified by us All thy works praise thee O Lord and thy Saints shall bless thee in all thy works O my Soul praise thou the Lord as in other things so in this particular opperation of his hands which he himself hath praised and ranked with the cheif of his wayes It may be matter of just admiration even to the most knowing persons to consider how the strength and fierceness of this creature is subdued and subjected to the service and mannagement of a weak infirme man who is so far unable to cope with such an enemy upon even tearmes that he cannot withstand the kick of his foot Lord what is man that thou shouldst thus magnify him and put the fear and dread of him upon all thine inferior creatures and deliver them into his hand Certainly they are injurious to nature or rather to the God of nature that think man ill dealt with because he is not so long lasting as most vegetables are nor so strong and active as many sensitive creatures are not considering that the great creator aiming at a higher end in man is in these lower faculties less intent and elaborate as having in that excellent gift of reason wherewith he is indued not only repaired and compensated those defects unto him but exalted him above all other creatures and inabled him thereby to command their parts and qualities wherein they exceed him and to make use of them for his own service But what merit is there in man that should thus mount him and set him on horse-back It is true in his creation God innobled him by impressing the Signature of his own Image upon him and by giving him that dominion over the workes of his hands but man being in honour continued not but by his prevarication fell whereby he became not only like the beasts that perish so that they might say man is become like one of us but inferiour to them and subject to their annoyance to be mischeived and maistered and as it were to be ridden by them All other creatures retaine the honour and dignity of their creation all that host so the word of God calls it all that army of creatures doth punctually observe the discipline and pass upon the duty imposed on them by their maker and act accordingly but man only who was commissionated general of that army could not command himself but being misgoverned by his own corrupt affections did imbase and abbasterdise that noble kind wherewith God had honor'd him O the riches of free grace the reprobate Angels sinned but once and were immediatly and irrecoverably damned the sensitive creatures never sinned and yet are subdued to the bondage of corruption Man whom God had made little inferiour to the elect Angels and superiour to all the works of his hands in this sublunary world he doth nothing and can do nothing of himself as of himself but sin in every imagination of the thoughts of his heart and hath thereby rendered himself justly liable to death and hell and yet as if God had loved him better then himself it pleased him to give himself his only begotten Son Coessential Coequal with himself to be a ransome for his sins and by the all-sufficiency of that redemtion and attonement to re-invest him in his former command here and to intitle him to the Kingdom of Heaven hereafter O the depth How much should man love to whom so much is given and so much forgiven I cannot but have a charity for those poor ignorant people who upon the first sight of horse men took the men and the horses to be but one and the same creature But taking them as they are distinct who would not think but that as it was in the vision of the living creatures and the wheels the Spirit of the one were in the other and that one Soul acted both So doth the beast answer to every the least motion of the rider and obey his mannage What is is this but an emblem of sence guided by reason This horse may pass for the representative of a well governed man The great Moralist made that use of the description of a brave serviceable Horse in Virgil to apply it to the Character of a gallant person professing that if he were to commend Cato he could not express his constant regular noble carriage in better tearmes How beautiful is vertue and a well commanded courage in a man when the bare shaddow of that gallantry tho so far short is so well becoming even in a beast But we have a caveat given us Not to be as the horse which is exemplified in our turning to our own precipitate courses as the horse rusheth heedlesly into the battel and in our pampering and fomenting our corrupt affections when like fed horses we neigh after our lusts What a beast is man when he suffers his sense to transport him beyond his reason Surely so much worse then the horse and mule which have no understanding as he hath an understanding which he himself hath imbrutishtand abased below his Species He is brutish as the Prophet saith in his very knowledg The man may ride the horse but so long as the sense rides the reason the beast rides the man In vain doth he

alwayes pleasing how many times have mine eyes wounded my heart when they have seen what they would not have seen nay which is worse how many times have they corrupted my heart when they have seen what they should not have seen at the best various objects are but a distraction to the mind and by raising vain desires bring it to a needless indigency inducing a want of many things which we want not There is a kind of innocency in seeing nothing It is a comfort and an inestimable one that in the want of the use of my bodily eyes I have the benefit of a spiritual eyesight so that although I cannot see as Cats and Bats and Owls do yet I can see as Saints and Angels see no interpositions can hinder an intellectual prospect Be it never so dark I can without the help of a Candle look into my self and in the sense of my wants looks up to God and find a clear lightsome passage through Jesus Christ to the throne of his grace But what do I say I can O my God pardon the presumption of that language of my self as of my self I can do nothing but sin I am darkness there is a midnight within me and I can only see that I cannot see It were not only a blindness in me but a remaining sin to boot if I should say I see Who so blind as they that are perfect It is in thy light alone that I see light Thy gracious illuminating eye is mine eye sight Lord let me ever enjoy the continuance of that aspect and then in the darkest condition though it were the shadow of death I shall not be afraid of any terrours even the night shall be light about me or if it be not it shall be light with me Sorrow may endure for a night but joy will come in the Morning and in a morning that shall never see night In the mean time O my God though I can see nothing here but darkness and obscurity it is my safety that thou seest me it is my happiness that I can see thee what can I wish for more in this world then to be safe and happy return again unto thy rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee MEDITATION II. Vpon the Sun-rising TRuly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the Sun look out O my Soul and see a miracle and no wonder Behold that glorious ruler of the day as a bridegroom coming out of his Chamber deckt with beauty and excellency If this great luminary had never shewed it self abroad till now and were now to be seen but as a rarity this once with what a Persian adoration should we be ready to welcome it and with what dejected countenances should we bid it farewel Now that we see it every day we scarce take notice that we see it once certain it is that we heed it nothing so much as any unusual Meteor or fiery exhalation so much more prone are we by nature to be taken with new than with worthy if ordinary objects And yet upon a just account all things considered Gods ordinary works which are established in a constant course are more wonderful than those extraordinary miracles which we most admire for the standing still of this Sun at Joshua's arrest was not in it self so stupendious as the daily progress thereof that being so vast a body as it is it should in the compass of a few hours circulate the World Lord give me a true sense and apprehension of thine eternal Power and Godhead and of thine invisible things in the things that are made even for common use and which thou hast distributed unto all Nations under the cope of Heaven that so as all those works praise thee in the determinate order of their services I may likewise constantly give thee praise for them not only because thou hast made them beautiful and excellent in their kinds for thine own glory but because thou hast made them ordinary and common for the good of all thy creatures How doth this morning light revive and cherish all things and give them as it were a resurrection from the dead and a new being But even now they were buried in obscurity and before I can well recollect my self they appear in their proper colours and stand as a garment new made up O thou Sun of Righteousness arise upon my Soul with healing in thy wings and scatter those shaddows of darkness that have so long benighted me enlighten the eyes of my understanding and so renew and quicken me by the influence of thy grace that thy light may be a new life unto me that I may live yet not I but thou that livest in me That Philosopher said truely if the Sun were wanting it would be night for all the Moon and Stars for nothing but the Sun can make it day And it is as true in a spiritual consideration if it were not for Jesus Christ the light of the world notwithstanding all the illumination we can receive from reason and sense we should be still in the dark and therefore some have observed that our Saviour was born on the fourth day of the week which was the same day of the week wherein the Sun was created as to shew that he was that Sun of Righteousness and that true light that lighteth every one that cometh into the world What a general blessing is this beneficent planet and how is the divine nature of God emblematically represented by it It is good unto all it riseth on the evil and on the good and without regard of persons shineth upon the poor mans Cottage as well as upon the Princes Pallace and nothing is hid from the influential heat thereof Lord this is a Copy of that universal Goodness which is originally in thy self but with this difference that what the Sun doth as to the fomenting and cherishing of inferiour Bodies it doth it as a natural agent necessarily and insensibly but what thou dost is voluntarily and freely done out of thine infinite love and goodness to thy Creatures Thou art the Fountain of all blessing and the God of all praise Lord work upon my corrupt nature by the influence of thy grace that I may be conformed unto thee in the extension of mine affections unto all in a way of doing good not only to my neighbors and such as love me but to mine enemies to those that curse hate and despightfully use me that so I may approve my self a true child of my father which is in heaven and be perfect even as he is perfect But yet this beneficence of the sun worketh not alike upon all those gracious beams that soften the wax do but harden the Clay and as they make the flowers smell the sweeter so they operate no further upon the Dunghill then to make that the more fetide and noysome It is a sad thing to be hardened by mercies and to