Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prince_n	lord_n	put_v	trust_v	2,318	5	9.5906	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61207	The spiritual chymist, or, Six decads of divine meditations on several subjects by William Spurstow ...	Spurstowe, William, 1605?-1666.	1666 (1666)	Wing S5097; ESTC R22598	119,345	208

Israels Path to Canaan and the Waters a Wall on each hand but both are made the Aegyptians grave The Earth opens her Mouth to swallow up Corah and his Company but it helpes the Woman in her flight by opening its mouth to drink in the Flood which the Dragon sent forth from his Mouth to destroy Her The Trees of the Field fight for David and contribute to his Victory more than his Army for it is said that the Wood destroyed more than the Sword An Oak Arrests Absolom in his flight who is caught and hanged in it as if it would point out what was the just reward of his Treason and Rebellion against his King and Father But an Oak succours our Prince in his retreat from the strength and power of a prevailing Enemy and though it can ●ender no Wreaths or Crownes to him yet it spreads forth its Armes to receive him and keeps him in so much safety as to deliver good Men of their Feares who were afflicted for his Jeopardy and to disappoint others of their hopes who were Vainly Confident that he would be found either among the number of the Slain or of the Prisoners But God was seen in the Mount making his Escape to be far more wonderful in every Mans eyes than their Victory Who then would not Adore and Fear such a God at whose Beck Fire Water Trees of the Field yea and all Creatures become Enemies or Friends as he pleaseth to make them A second step is the consideration of Gods absolute Soveraignty over all Potentates and Kings of the Earth who as Elihu expresseth it Breaketh in pieces the Mighty without number and sets others in their stead How full are the Sacred Chronicles of strange Vicissitudes and Changes which God hath made in the Crownes and Scepters of Princes Sauls Kingdom is taken from him and given to David Rehoboams is rent in twain and of twelve parts two onely possessed by him Athalia she usurpes the Throne and destroyes the Seed Royal Joash is slain by a Conspiracy Manasseh is bound in Fetters Zedekiah hath Judgment given against him to take his farewell of the light in beholding the slaying of his Sons and then to have both his eyes put out How easie were it to fill a Volume in this kind but what need we search further into History have we not seen as sad Spectacles as we can any where read h●th not Royal Blood been shed upon a Scaffold to the shame and reproach of Religion have we not seen Persons of mean extractions leaving their Cottages and dwelling in Kings Pallaces when Soveraignty hath been forced to take up the lodging of a Crow have we not seen that disquieting Prodigie of Servants upon Horses and Princes walking like Servants on foot Now to what end doth God thus shake the Mountaines and make the greatest in Power to be as the Chaff of the Summer floores is it not to stain the Pride of the Arm of Flesh and to let every one know that Power belongeth unto the Lord and that it is better to trust in the Lord then to put confidence in Princes A third step or motion discovers to us how easily God can hide Persons and things from Man when Man can neither hide Counsells from God nor yet himself Adam runs from God and seeks shelter among the Trees of the Garden but God findes him out he sowes Fig-leaves together to cover his Nakedness but God espies it The Wings of the Morning can carry no Man to such a distance as that God shall not behold him nor the pitchy darkness of the Night make such a Covering as he cannot look through to whom the darkness and the light are both alike The onely way for a sinner to hide himself from God is to hide himself in God But with what facility and variety of wayes can God secure and keep those whom Men design to destruction David and ●ix hundered Men are in the sides of the same Cave into which Saul enters and he perceives it not Joash is hid ●ix years in the Temple miraculously from the bloody Sword of Athaliah and our Sovereign is no less wonderfully for some dayes preserved in an Oak as in a Sanctuary though his Enemies make a most strict search for him there being no Nation or Kingdom under their Power whether they did not send to seek him and though they took not an Oath of them that they found him nor yet they proclaimed ample Rewards to any that would discover him We read in Judges of an Angel that sate under an Oak and may we not well presume that this Oak which had a Prince in the top of it had also an Angel at the bottom of it if we well weigh the Eminency of the deliverance A fourth step gives us to behold the rich Mercy and the great Faithfulness of God who though he doth afflict yet doth not forsake who as he casts down so he raiseth up as he taketh away so also he graciously restored Was ever Prince reduced to sorer straits Did he not at once conflict with dangers of Life Poverty Banishment disappointment of Counsells and a daily setting back of his hopes by new difficulties and emergences that did arise and yet how wonderfully did God make these Mountaines to become a Plain the confused noise of Warriours in Battel was not heard Garments rolled in Blood were not seen neither were the Firr-trees terribly shaken in the Field all was effected not by might nor power but by the Spirit of God The Temple in which there was neither Hammer nor Axe nor any Tool of Iron heard was not built in a more calme and still manner than his Throne was Erected And he who was as a Stone rejected for a long time by certain Builders at length became the Head-Stone of the Corner May we not then well say this is the Lords doing it is marvellous in our eyes Let me therefore make here a pause and in stead of a further progress say as Moses did I will stand and see this great sight a Prince once disguised in a poor and mean habit and now clothed with Robes of Majesty once an Exile from three Kingdomes and now possessing the just Royalties of them all Once necessitated to climbe an Oak to preserve his own life and now daily ascending the Throne to give out the Lawes of life and of death unto others O what a web of wonders are here of which God hath made garments of Praise and Salvation for him whom many judged to be not onely smitten but forsaken of God Admiration methinks now is better then words and silence in an awfull beholding of these things is more expressive then a free speaking of them I shall therefore break off this Meditation which I cannot happily end adding onely this short Prayer That the good will of him that dwelt in the Oak as well as in the bush may still be seen in the blessings that come from him upon the Head of our

off your Armour till you put on your Robes It is made to be worn not to be laid up nor yet to be laid down because our VVarfare and our Life are both finished together till then there is not a Truce much less a Peace for to be expected Sooner may we contract a league with Poysons that when taken down they shall not kill or with fiery Serpents and Cockatrices that they bite nor then obtain the least respit in this VVar in which the Malice of Cursed Devils is as unquenchable as the fire of Hell to which they are doomed Lord therefore do thou who art the Prince of Life the Captain of Salvation to all thy People who hast finished thine own VVarfare and beholds theirs enable me to VVrastle that I may neither faint nor fall but prevaile unto Victory shew fo●th thy VVonders in Me whose Strength is Perfected in VVeakness that I may overcome the VVicked One. And though the Conflict should be long and bitter yet make me to know that the sweetness of the Reward will abundantly Recompense the Trouble of the Resistance and the Joy of the Triumph the Bloodiness of the War Meditation LIX Vpon going to Bed HOw like is the frail Life of Man to a Day as well for the inequality of its length as the mixture that it hath both of Cloudes and Sun-shine VVhat a kinde of exact Parelia are Sleep and Death the one being the ligation of the Senses and the other the Privation of them And of how near a kin is the Grave to the Bed when the Scripture calls it by the same Name when the Clothes that cover us do the like office with the Mould that must be cast and spread over us VVhen therefore the Day and the Labours which Man goeth forth unto are ended and the darkness of the Night disposeth unto Rest what thoughts can any better take into his Bosome to lie down with then to think that Death like the Beasts of the Forrest may creep forth to seek its prey and that when it comes there is no resistance to be made or delay to be obtained It spares no rank of Men but slayes the rich as well as the poor the Prince as well as the peasant The Glass that hath the Kings Face painted on it is not the less brittle neither are Kings that have Gods Image represented in them the less mortal And whether it comes in at the window or at the door whether in some Common or in some unwonted manner who can tell Many oft times fall asleep in this World and awake in the other and have no Summons at all to acquaint them whither they are going And yet though every Mans condition be thus uncertain and that his Breath is in his Nostrils where there is as much room for it to go out as to come in how few do make their nights repose to serve as a memorial of their last rest on their Bed to stand for a model of their Coffin Some pervert the Night which was ordained to be a Cessation of the evils of Labour to make it a season for their greater activity in the evils of sin They devise as the Prophet saith iniquity upon their Beds and when the morning is light they practise it because it is in the power of their hand Other are easily brought asleep by the riot and intemperance of the day owning their unhappy rest not to the dew of nature but unto the gross and foul vapours of sin which more darken and eclipse their reason than their sleep their Dreames having more of it in them than their Discourse Others again by their youth and health seem to be seated in such an elevation above death as that they cannot look down from their Bed into the Grave without growing dizzy such a steep Precipice they apprehend between life and death Though this distemper doth not arise from the distance between the two termes but from the imbecillity of their sense which cannot bear the least thoughts of a separation from those delights and pleasures to which their Soules are firmly wedded VVhen therefore the most of men are such unthrifts of time and like careless Navigators keep no Journal or Diary of their motions and other occurrences that fall our VVhat need have others to make the Prayer of Moses the Man of God their Prayer So teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom He who was Learned in all the Sciences of the Aegyptians desires to be taught this point of Arithmetick of God so to number as not to mistake or make any error in the account of life in setting down dayes for minutes and yeares for dayes A Man would think that a little Arithmetick would serve cast up so small a number as the dayes of him whose dayes are as the dayes of an hireling few and evill and yet it is such a Mystery that Moses begs of God to be instructed in it as that which is the chief and onely knowledge Yea God himself earnestly wisheth this wisdom to Israel his People O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end Can we then render the night more senseless or keep the Bed unspotted from those Impurities that are neither few nor small then by practising duely this Divine Art of numbering our dayes which is not done by any speculation or prying into the time or manner of our death but by meditating and thinking with our selves what our dayes are and for what end our life is given unto us by reckoning our day by our work and not by our time by what we do and not by what we are By remembring that we are in a continual progress to the Chambers of death no Mans life being so long at the evening as it was in the morning Night and day are as two Axes at the root of our life when one is lifted up the other is down without rest every day a Chip flies off and every night a Chip and so at length we are hewen down and fall at the Graves mouth O what a wide difference is there between those that lie down with these considerations in their Bosomes and others who pass their time in pleasures and allow not the least portion of it to think what the issues are that a day or night may bring forth How free are their Conversations from those sensualities and lusts which others commit in the day and lie down with the guilt of them in the night How profitably do they improve their time who count onely the present to be theirs and the future to be Gods above those that fancy youth and strength to be a security of the succeeding proportions of their life yea how comfortable is death to those who are in daily preparation for it as well as in expectation of it above what it is to others who are surprized by it in the midst of those delights in which they promised