Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	church_n	heaven_n	triumphant_a	1,523	5	11.0842	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46900	Three sermons preached the first in Richmond Church, August 17. 1690. on the most happy accession of Their Majesties, King William and Queen Mary to the Crown. The second in Mortlake Chuch in Surrey March 3. 1694. on the death of our late most gracious soveraign lady the Queen, of blessed memory. The third in Mortlake Church, April 16. 1696. being the day of Thanksgiving unto Almighty God, for discovering and disappointing the horrid and barbarous conspiracy to assassinate His most gracious Majesty's royal person: and for delivering this kingdom from an invasion, intended by the French. By Christopher Johnson, M.A. and school-master of Richmond in Surrey. Printed to prevent mistakes concerning the author.	Johnson, Christopher, b. 1657 or 8.	1696 (1696)	Wing J770BA; ESTC R216574	43,561	66

Heaven hath with all Choler and Wrath vomited out of his Mouth whole Floods of Persecutions one rolling incessantly upon the back of another to overwhelm the Church in final Ruin and Destruction And to make the Ocean of her Miseries as it were incomprehensible and beyond thought how have many of the Roman Emperors and greatest Potentates of the Earth added a Red Sea thereto by shedding the Blood of the Saints without end or measure The Primitive Christians felt the smart first and their Fellow-servants have been partakers of their Sufferings frequently unto these Days And those who would come out of Babylon that they might not be partakers of her Sins nor receive of her Plagues have had a restraint put upon them that they should not so that when persecuted in one City or Kingdom they could not enjoy the Priviledge given them by Christ in his Gospel to flee into another Now if we hear Zion bemoaning her self thus over all the Evils and Calamnities brought upon her for all the hurt and havock that the Church of God hath suffer'd from the beginning of the World unto this Day besides what she fears may yet happen and by some diffidence arising thereby she should question whether her Basis or Foundation be so strong that it shall remain perpetually firm for the time to come against the force and fury of her implacable and restless Foes For her Comfort and to resolve her Doubts herein let her know that all her Loss is Gain Those that die for their good Faith go from Warring and Fighting here in the Church Militant unto the Mother Church of all Triumphant in Heaven Those that amidst a World of Miseries below were Faithful unto Death ascend into Regions of Bliss above to receive Crowns of Eternal Life Neither is the number of her Members extenuated or diminished on Earth by their departure from us for the Testimony of Christ according to that common saying Sanguis Martyrum est semen Ecclesiae the bare Letter whereof is That the Blood of Martyrs is the Seed of the Church which the sence and meaning construes thus That the more the Church of God is persecuted the more at last she multiplies Like good Seed cast into good Ground it brings forth Thirty Sixty and an Hundred sold And often not only is the number augmented but their Faith is the more vigorous and active too for Marcet sine adversario virtus sed crescit sub pondere their Faith doth fade and fail and is not so lively and brisk as when quickened by the Power and Trials of the Enemy as Rome when Carthage was destroyed fell to Luxury But under the pressure and weight of Sufferings it gets ground and becomes of a more diffusive Nature and therefore the Exercise and Trials of the Faith of the Best Men are meant of God for good And furthermore the Church is to remember that her Sins are the cause of all her Sorrows without which she would have neither Pain nor Grief nor any Enemy could Molest or Trouble her For it is still with her as it was in the Days of the Judges of Israel And we read in the second Chapter of their Book that the People feared the Lord all the Days of Joshua and all the Days of the Elders that out-lived Joshua and so long it was well with them but afterwards it is said The Children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Baalim And they forfook the Lord God of their Fathers c. The ill Consequence whereof was this The Anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he delivered them into the hands of Spoilers that spoiled them and he sold them into the Hands of their Enemies round about So that they could not any longer stand before their Enemies Whithersoever they went out the Hand of the Lord was against them for Evil as the Lord had said and as the Lord had sworn unto them and they were greatly distressed Now Sin was the cause of all this Trouble and so it hath been and will be the Origin and Fountain of all Misery And therefore it is the Duty of the Church and People of God to submit unto his Chastisements without complaint or murmuring because they deserve them and it may be want Correction to make them better And then also we are to bear the Cross patiently as did Christ the Author of our Salvation that so having our share with him in Sufferings we may be partakers of his Glory But yet could not all these Enemies nor all the mighty numbers of them since the World began root out the true Church of God from having a Being in the face of the Earth neither shall they so prevail so long as the Sun and Moon endure but when they have done all they can they shall themselves bear the Punishment They shall reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken Man and be at their Wits-end when the Mischief intended by them to others shall fall on their own Heads And therefore though they should seek to destroy Jacob by Inchantments and Israel by Divination and also to that end should use Pious Frauds and Religious Stratagems against the Church with many fair and specious pretences outwardly build Altars and offer Sacrifices even whole Hecatombs without number on them Though they should present Heaven with never so many Gifts and Dedicate all the Gold of Ophir unto it and pray Night and Day unto God unto Angels and Saints and join thereto never so many Ave Maries unto the Blessed Virgin and Court her with never so many Titles of the greatest Honour and Power in Heaven creating her Queen Regent there with full Authority over her Son to make him do whatsoever she shall command him Yet not all this nor much more that they can do shall any whit prevail Nothing thereof shall serve their turn against that Holy Church they would destroy but she shall stand firm against all the Attempts of her Enemies whatsoever they be though their Folly that is so great be Converted into Fury and their Malice be thereby the deeper yet in their fiercest Rage shall they be weak and like Water spilt on the ground or as the Dust before the Wind so shall the Angel of the Lord scatter them For surely there is no Enchantment against Jacob neither is there any Divination against Israel which introduceth my Second Proposition That the Church hath been and shall be enabled to abide in safety by the Protection and good Providence of God For it is He that keeps her as the Apple of his Eye It is the Eternal God that is her Refuge It is he that beateth down all her Enemies and beareth her on Eagles Wings above them all and brings her unto himself And it is God that maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers Flames of Fire in their order to attend on every good Member of his Church and surround them all with Horses and Chariots of

Crowning with Glorious Success His Present Most Excellent and Sacred Majesty our Most Gracious Sovereign and Rightful Lord KING WILLIAM For whom all Praise Adoration and Thanksgivings which the Finite and Weak Understandings and Faculties of Mortal Men can give unto an Infinite Being an Immortal and Omnipotent God are a Tribute due unto Him But though God be always Merciful there are Sons of Belial who will be most Wicked will Murmur and Repine and even Despise and Cross the Divine Goodness and will not have Him to Reign over us whom God hath appointed to be our King and hath made next to Himself our Mighty Deliverer Against whom nevertheless that there should be Men Living under the Benign Influences of His Merciful and Happy Government who Conspire with Gall and Bitterness of Spirit not only to Dethrone Him but Insidiously and Basely in a most Barbarous and Inhuman manner to take away His Sacred Life by the Assassination and Murder of His Royal Person notwithstanding all his Clemency and thereby to make way for a Foreign and Arbitrary Power to rush in upon these Nations of Great Britain and Ireland to the Destruction of our Religion Laws and Liberties It would seem incredible to Men of Reason and Ingenuity be to them more than a Paradox but that it is no longer in the dark being now clearly discovered and the Good God be Blessed and Praised therefore the Mischief most providentially prevented Wherefore Sing we every one with holy David in the front of this Divine Canticle Ver. 2 3. or Psalm The Lord is my Rock and my Fortress and my Deliverer The God of my Rock in Him will I trust He is my Shield and the Horn of my Salvation my high Tower and my Refuge my Saviour Thou savest thine Anointed and Us from Violence And again join we with the Royal Psalmist in a joyful Hope and Confidence in God in Acclamations of Benedictions and Praises unto Him evermore rejoicing and saying The Lord liveth and blessed be my Rock and exalted be the God of the Rock of my Salvation Which words are part of holy David's Song of Deliverance this Chapter and the 18th Psalm being of one and the same substance but run with a little variation of reading in some parts wherein that great Saint then but Militant did Celebrate the Solemnities of an holy Triumph and Praise to the God of his Salvation who had preserved his Person from the great Dangers that had threatned him from the violent Hands of Saul and other his Inveterate Enemies who had by various Snares and Stratagems sought his Life for thus we find the Preface or Inscription to this Thanksgiving Hymn of the sweet Psalmist of Israel And David spake unto the Lord the words of this Song in the Day that the Lord had delivered him out of the Hand of all his Enemies and out of the Hand of Saul And with such a lofty strain of Melody and delightful Harmony has he run through this his Noble Anthem as must needs Charm his chief Musician both in setting and playing the Tune proper to it And also with a Ravishing Delight raise and exhilarate the Spirits of the whole Choir those concern'd therein either with Vocal or Instrumental Musick those that sang or those that play'd on the Organ Harp or Cymbal c. chearing and refreshing even the Hearts and Souls of all then present And most grateful are his Acknowledgments of God's Gracious Benefits unto him flowing from many of his Holy and Essential Attributes from his Free and Immense Goodness and Mercy his Incomprehensible Wisdom Infinite Justice and Power and that great Providence which attended him through so many various Scenes of Troubles in the most difficult Stages of his Life Very expressive also is he of the Sense he had of the Dangers he escaped Such like as those out of which God Blessed be his Holy Name for it lately deliver'd our Most Gracious King even the Waves and Snares of Death the Floods of ungodly Men their deep and subtil Plots and Conspiracies their violent Stratagems and Devices as unavoidable as Floods and Inundations of Water are till God puts a stop to them by his Omnipotent Command Hitherto shalt thou come and no further When after such a wondrous and special manner he is pleased to be present as holy David hath set him forth with the highest flights of Divine Rhetorick using many exalted Metaphors to express the same as of the Earth trembling and shaking as also the Foundations of Heaven it self being put into the like terrible Commotions with such Thunders and Lightnings Storms and Tempests of his Wrath as aforetime had really destroy'd the Enemies of his People And then after many Blessed Eulogies and Seraphical Raptures of Holy and Eloquent Dictates from that Spirit which taught him how to pray unto as well as to praise his Mighty Deliverer he closes the whole Encomium with glorying in the God of his Salvation and yet further Returns of Blessing and Thanksgiving to him part whereof the Text doth especially denote unto us The Lord liveth and blessed be my Rock and exalted be the God of the Rock of my Salvation For the Interpretation and Explanation of which and for our present Edification on this Day of a General Thanksgiving throughout this Nation for His Majesty's Blessed Deliverance and our Happiness thereby I shall observe these Two following Particulars First Holy David's Joyful and Triumphant Acknowledgment of God and his Providence in the former words The Lord liveth Secondly His grateful Return to God of Benediction and Praise or Exaltation for his Wondrous and Powerful Deliverances of him from the Mischiefs formed against him Emphatically expressed in the following parts of the Text and blessed be my Rock and exalted be the God of the Rock of my Salvation First The Lord liveth is a Recognition of God and His Providence even with an Extasie of Joy The Royal Saint being Transported thereby into Triumphant Acclamations in consideration of God's Potent Deliverances and Manifold Benefits through abundance of various and critical Circumstances of his Race under the Sun frequently rescuing him out of the very Jaws of Destruction as they were ready to tear him in pieces as from Saul's Javelin at one time his and other wicked Mens Instigations their Combining Plots and Snates and Conspiracies to snatch away his Life at other times For all which he might with great Reason pronounce The Lord liveth As for Deliverances from great and apparent Dangers especially from the intended Mischief of Bitter Enemies it is very proper for Men to express their grateful Sentiments in these or words of like consonance and import There is a God a God that Ruleth all a God that helpeth in time of need yea and when we are Poor and Naked Blind and Lame that without him we should be remediless being our selves neither able to see the approaching Destruction nor to ward off the Blow if we have time to see it