Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	let_v	lord_n	praise_v	3,254	5	9.4067	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97126	The good-vvill of Him that dwelt in the bush: or, The extraordinary happinesse of living under an extraordinary providence. A sermon preached before the Right Honourable, the House of Lords, in the Abbey Church at Westminster, on Tuesday, Iuly 22. 1645. At their publike thanksgiving for the good successe given to the Parliaments forces, under the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax in the west. /	Ward, John, d. 1665.	1645 (1645)	Wing W774; Thomason E293_16; ESTC R200163	33,640	44

faithfullnesse else we should perish hourly in our divisions distempers and the provocations wherewith we tempt the Lord We are filled with drunkennesse we dash one against another and yet his eye pitieth and spareth and we are not perished we are divided divisions are multiplied the Kingdome divided within it selfe the Church divided within it selfe and yet behold we stand We read in the word that a Kingdome divided within it selfe cannot stand we read also and who trembles not at the reading It is easier for Heaven and earth to passe then one title of the Law to fail What shall we say hath God revoked his word hath he repealed his sentence surely he suspendeth it and we hope it may passe away unfulfilled England may be the instance of exception from that generall rule a Kingdome divided within it selfe cannot stand Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisedome and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgements and his wayes past finding out We are a froward and perverse generation we do not receive correction we are sick of our remedies impatient of our cure discontented with our mercies murmuring at our deliverance lingring back in our hearts to our former bondage not beleeving the Lord for all the signes which he hath shewed amongst us yet the Lord bears with us in great patience forbears to turne our enemy breaketh not in upon us to destroy us but gives us liberty to humble our souls and pray before him and suffers himselfe to be intreated and proclaimes his Name The Lord the Lord gracious and mercifull slow to wrath abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands pardoning iniquity transgression and sin and that will by no means clear the guilty Oh that we could make haste and bow and worship and glorifie God and be thankfull Truly if we bring all our story into view we shall finde nothing on the part of men but wickednesse or weaknes madnesse and folly and on Gods part nothing but wisedome and power grace and patience mercy and truth met together and justice shining in an infinitie of goodnesse To gather the whole matter into a short summe Confusion hath or might have covered us but together with the smoak of the furnace a lamp hath been seen to walke between the divided pieces many evident testimonies of the goodnesse of our God condescending in the remembrance of his Covenant to walke amongst us in paths of mercy and truth The fire hath broken out into a flame and it hath taken hold upon us round about and we are no better then a dry bush before it and yet by the good will of God abiding among us as when he dwelt in the bush destruction is inhibited intercepted and prevented daily The presence of God in the glory of his majesty hath been so tempered as to us like the spirit moving upon the waters at the creation it is refreshing reviving and we hope refining and reforming or at least preparing for the production of order and peace with truth while to our adversaries set as briars and thornes against him in the battell our God is a consuming fire Now what shall we say to these things Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse for his wonderfull workes to the children of men May I say it again and again treble the repetition as the Psalmist doth on like and lesse occasions Psal. 107. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse and for his wonderfull works to the children of men Oh that I could lift up my voice as the Angel his trumpet at the opening of the seals and perswade to come and see that we may together magnifie the worke we behold and exalt the praises of our God Come and see the work of the Lord what desolation shall I say nay rather what prevention of desolation what preservation he hath wrought in the Land There is desolation I confesse and great terriblenesse in the desolation but there is abundance of goodnesse outshining it in the extraordinary wayes and workings of deliverance by the good will of our God Come and see the worke of the Lord The worke of the Lord is great done openly before us as on a theatre a manifold worke of mercy done in wisedome fearfully and wonderfully done and is worthy to be sought out and pried into of all them that have pleasure therein there is a mine of blessings folded up in it and there may be a mint of pleasure and profit in the contemplation How precious should the thoughts of God in all of it be unto us Who so is wise will consider these things and he shall understand the loving kindnesse of the Lord Let us make observation of that wherein our God is glorious and we are advantaged of every thing whereby he makes himselfe known and we are or may be made blessed in the course of his extraordinary providence over us for good and pause and dwell upon the contemplation with meditation with deep and serious consideration with all intension and elevation of the heart alwaies Let the worke and praises of God be celebrated with admiration praise him according to his excellent greatnesse indeed there is no praise comely proportionable to the transcendent excellency of Gods majesty but admiration praise waiteth upon thee saith the Psalmist or as the Hebrew more significantly hath it praise is silent or silence before thee it is impossible to comprehend much lesse to expresse all that belongeth to his praise our eyes can as well read and measure the greatnesse and brightnesse of the lights in the firmament of Heaven as our hearts can discerne and display the glory of God Who can utter all the mighty acts of the Lord who can sh●w forth all his praise as the bright shining of the Sun beams in a reflection by a glasse is far lesse then the lustre of the Sun it self and the return by an Eccho is very imperfect and short of the voice when much is said and many speak together so the glorifying of God by men is infinitely disproportionable to the excellent glory that shines in his marvellous works the best praise of his providence is humble acknowledgement with reverence and adoration Let us therefore praise him according to his excellent greatnesse And let us publish his praises and not hide them in our hearts but together with the burning on the hearth let there be light and heat shed abroad that others also may be provoked to glorifie God and be thankfull I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty and of thy wondrous works I will declare thy greatnesse They shall speak of thy glory and talke of thy power they shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodnesse And as much as in us is let us propagate the glory of God to posterity and ages to come one generation shall praise thy works to another

and shall declare thy mighty acts And herein my Lords ye have the advantage of all that hear me this day Ye may command these things to be written even a book of the warres of the Lord for the generations to come that the people which shall be created may praise the Lord Ye may appoint dayes of Thanksgiving when remarkeable passages of providence minister occasion thereto and if the God of our mercies should make the warres to cease and this miserable distration to end in an happy reconciliation and reformation ye may ordain an anniversary remembrance thereof as the Jews did their dayes of Purim that the memoriall of the good will of God in this wonderfull deliverance may not perish from the land and peradventure another age may finde cause to make a Secular commemoration of the multitude of mercies which are forming in the womb of this extraordinary providence and shall in time be brought forth for the advantage of posterity for we hope the foundations are now laying for many generations and the dayes come when it shall no more be said the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt no nor the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the North at the least as to that which is already past for we wait yet a further accomplishment of that Prophecie But the Lord liveth that separated his people and brought them up from under the papal bondage and servitude which spiritually is Sodome and Egypt and Babylon and delivered their souls from the fierce anger of the Lord The Lord liveth which hath judged the great whore that corrupted the earth with her fornications and hath avenged the bloud of his servants at her hand Amen Hallelujah Surely the time approacheth when the memory of those wonderfull works shall be swallowed up in the celebration of this and this deliverance and the course of Gods speciall extraordinary providence at this season in favour of his Church shall be esteemed more miraculous then those of old and the glory of this shall dimme the lustre of those The mean while when God appears to us by such signals of his presence as of late and there is occasion either to contemplate or to celebrate such wonderfull manifestations of his good will as this for which we assemble to blesse his name this day let us not forget the admonition which God gave Moses when he turned aside to see this great sight Put off thy shoes from off thy feet a double caveat One to deny our selves not only in curiosity and vanity of minde but in all low earthly sensuall reasonings and passions such as are incident to brutish men who know not and to fools who understand not the deep thoughts and mysterious wayes of God in his judgements so some allegorize the phrase because the shoes go next the earth and gather dirt and to elevate the minde and heart above all that 's common and which a naturall carnall and politick wisedome which is from below would suggest and as if we were in the mount of transfiguration to have high and spirituall and heavenly apprehensions and stirrings of heart in all humble and holy reverence adoring the majesty of God both in that which we behold and that which we cannot yet comprehend waiting till he further interpret himselfe Verily God is with us nigh unto us else how is all this befallen us and whence are all these miracles the miraculous victories beyond all expectation so lately so often given in unto us The marvellous works done before us are apparently wrought out not by the heads or the hands of men but by the finger of God or rather his mighty hand and out-stretched arm and are none other then evident pledges of his nearnesse to us in good will as when he dwelt in the Bush The other is to lay aside all emulation contention vain jangling about the merits of men the praise or dispraise of the men of Gods hand and in all humility to resign up all pretences of claim or interest into the hands of God for in this way of resignation of right we sometimes find this Ceremony used so some understand that expression in Exodus and it may be applied to this purpose viz. 1. That the parties themselves whom God honoureth in the service would give him all the praise and let none of the fat of the peace-offering cleave to their own fingers but cause it to bee burnt on the Altar to the Lord Not unto us not unto us but unto thy name be the praise And to speak plainly for God there is none other cause for what is or hath bin praise worthy besides the successe and who knowes not who sees not that the event is of God When Gideon and his servant heard the Midianite and his fellow tell one another the Dream and the interpretation thereof how a Barley-cake tumbled into the Host of Midian and fell upon a Tent and smote it and over-turned it that the Tent lay along and they saw the carriage of the businesse the next day in the battell to answer it what could they do lesse than wonder and worship well might their hands be strengthned to the war but it had been extream madnesse and impudence to have gloried in themselves and would have been revenged as on Herod The spoyles of a victory may be divided amongst men but the honour of a victory especially such as ours have been of late belong to God alone It is his glory he is a jealous God and will not give it to another It is his Crown he that will set it upon his owne head or will not lay it down before the Throne of God and the Lamb the Lord will loose his shoe from off his foot and spit in his face And secondly That standers by and lookers on doe look off look up above the instruments of Providence to God who giveth victory in the day of Battel neither quarrelling nor idolizing men or means both which are equally sacrilegious and abomination before the Lord Do ye think the Israelites had done well or would it have been accepted of God if they had made odious comparisons between Moses and Ioshua if they had decryed as indeed they murmured at Moses because by his hand they were led about many years in the wildernesse and met with many difficulties and disasters and their carcases fell and they consumed daily and came short of their hopes and on the other hand had lift up Joshua because under his conduct the enemies were over-thrown and their walled Towns and strong holds were gained and they prospered in every undertaking Had this been to acknowledge the hand of God either in judgment or mercy Doubtlesse God is not honoured where there is strife and variance and emulation in such a way as this If there be a miscarriage at any time and