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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	king_n	people_n	5,231	5	4.6713	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85121	A plain-dealing, and plain-meaning sermon, preach't in the parish church of St. Nicholas, Bristol, April. 6. 1660. Being the day appointed by the Parliament for publique fasting and humiliation for the sins of the nation, &c. Together with a prefatory epistle, and subsequent vindication both of the sermon, and author. Wherein (besides an apology for home and plain-preaching) you have something offered to allay the heat of thier stomacks, and to temper the tongues of those, who (being ignorant in scripture) reproach and revile Presbytery and Presbyters. With some hints at Satans subtlety, and the mischief of those people, who brand zeal for God and truth (in free, home, and faithfull preaching) with the reproachful names of anger, passion, and railing.	Farmer, Ralph.	1660 (1660)	Wing F443; Thomason E1025_5; ESTC R208684	39,155	50

a blessed and good King He shall be a shelter a covering he shall be all in all to a distressed people Jer. 23.5 there it is said Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will raise unto David a righteous branch and a King shal reign and prosper and shall execute judgement and justicein the earth in those days Judah shall be safe and Israel shall dwell safely and this is the name whereby he shall be called The Lord our righteousness This is spoken of the Lord Jesus Christ he that is the King of Kings he shall rule in Righteousness And he or they that Rule under him must rule in Righteousnesse Let us not then look so much as most do after wordly peace and freedome and temporal deliverance from present burdens as after spiritual peace and freedome from everlasting torments not so much to enjoy perishing comforts as to have the comforts of everlasting enjoyments And then may we expect the performance of what is promised in the close of our Text. After two dayes will he revive us in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight We shall live not onely temporally comfortably and happy but a life heavenly and everlasting we shall be happy to all eternity Then as it follows shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord more of Gods minde and of his mercies and he shall come unto us as the raine as the early and latter rain upon the earth which being parched with drought receiveth it in readily fructifieth and bringeth forth abundantly Come then let us all return unto the Lord for as he hath torne so will he heale and as he hath smitten so will he bind us up FINIS HEre 's my Sermon now where 's my sin What 's my Charge with which I have been so I cannot say whether more ignorantly or maliciously traduced why its three-fold I have preacht against the King and the coming in of the King So some My whole Sermon drives at this The coming in of the King would bring in prophanenesse so others A third sort say I am angry Now to answer to these distinctly And first I have preacht against the King and his coming in I ask wherein how doth that appear I will come as close and as speedily as I can to my Charge I mean to that part of my Sermon from whence they might suppose me criminous I shall therefore passe over almost one halfe of it for that was but by way of Explication And it concern'd others Israel That troubles not no preaching at a distance and speaking of other mens faults and reproving them that bites not as much as you will of that But this home-preaching and treading too close upon our heels This gauls this vexes this troubles us Why what 's the matter what 's the matter Did not you say That because by our sins we had left God therefore God had left us And did you not say That our Kings and our Princes heretofore and our Princely Priests and Bishops had been as snares upon Mizpah and as nots upon Tabor their high places and great offices And how have they not rag'd and tyranniz'd c. And did you not beseech us that we should not let the apprehensions of our present greater sufferings cause us altogether to forget our former iniquities And did you not advise us that upon that day of our solemn Humiliation wherein we sought to God for settlement that we should not forget the cause and ground of our unsettlement Here 's enough to answer at once and together and I think this is my greatest charge And now what of all this Let me ask you by your cavilling against this Don't you discover your ignorance Is it not plain you are not acquainted with the Scripture Or that you take no notice or understand not what you read or hear That you are meer strangers to the nature and manner of a true Fast Is not a fasting day especially publique generall and such solemn Fast dayes a day wherein to humble our soules before the Lord by a hearty sincere and impartiall confession and acknowledgement of all our sinnes And being a generall day of Humiliation through the whole Land to confesse and be humbled for the sins of the whole Land in general And in such a day are not the sins both of Princes and People both past and present to be remembred and acknowledged And that not onely in generall termes which is mostly slight and overly but punctually and particularly of those sins they were guilty of and lay under This is if you know not as it seems you do not for your better information and as I desire Reformation Do but read the instances of the Solemn Fasts recorded in Scripture and you will be wiser hereafter I reser you for this more particularly to those three most Solemn Fasts which are there recorded Ezra 9. Nehem. 9. and Dan. 9. And see and observe the manner of the celebration and whether their particular sins were not enumerated confessed and bewailed And had we of this Land and Nation no sins to be remembred to be confessed Are you so forgetfull or were you ignorant of them Are we not unsetled Are not our foundations of government overturned Do not the pillars of the Nation tremble Is it not a Judgement Do I not say so much And what were there no sins that are the causes of it Do such great and heavy and generall judgements befall a Nation both King Princes Priests and People without sin procuring them you dare not say so And were there no sins in England but the sins of the people What was the Popish Match and the building of Houses and Chappels thereupon for Idolatrous and superstitious worship What was the countenancing and exercise of that false worship even in the Kings own dwelling And were not our Communion Tables turn'd into Altars with superstitious cringings and bowings towards them and in some places wax Tapers set upon those Altars and second Service which the people could not 〈◊〉 there performed How was the zealous profession of Religion under the nickname of Puritanisme discountenanced and disgraced How did the Court-Bishops especially the Bishop of Canterbury Dr. Laud vex perplex and ruine men in their High Commission Court and Star-Chamber How would drunken and prophane Ministers if but zealous for Ceremonies give the checke to and upon the least occasion trouble and sue the best Knights and Gentlemen in the Country even for trifles and be therein upheld and countenanced by those Court-Bishops Insomuch that when the Knights and Gentlemen were assembled in Parliament and had opportunity to be revenged upon them they ding'd them quite down without mercy or consideration I need not tell you what courses were taken that the King might be maintained without Parliaments and so with out the love of his Subjects and rednesse of their grievances I could name much more you that liv'd in those

upon a Nation or person will you say that the evill of sinne was not the preceding and the procuring cause I know well that God doth sometimes punish the sinne of Princes in and upon the People and the sin of People in and upon the Princes but then both of them have sinned And though it may be the sin of the one hath been more provoking then the sinne of the other yet when God comes with sweeping judgements upon all surely all have had a great share in sinning And whether the sins of our Princes or the sins of the people have brought these heavy judgements upon us God the Judge of all the earth best knows I shall not take upon me to determine it for what am I that I should step into the Chair of the Almighty but yet let it be considered From that very time that those three eminent men stood in such a disgraceful and opprobrious manner upon a pillory at Westminster like Rogues and Cutpurses Let me tell you since that time neither the King nor his party prospered I mean those three worthy professors of the three noble Sciences Divinity Law and Physicke But yet surely the sins of this Land were ripe for judgement or else the judgement would not have been so universal and generall Hath not that dreadful judgement threatned and denounced of old been most sadly fulfilled upon us Isa Ch. 3. begin Behold the Lord of hosts doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water the mighty man and the man of war the Judge and the Prophet and the prudent and the ancient the Captain of fifties and the honourable man and the Counsellors the cunning Artificer and the eloquent Oratour And I will give children to be your princes and babes shall rule over them And the people shall be oppressed every one by another the child shall be have himselfe proudly against the ancient and the base against the honourable c. Hath not this been and is it not this day sadly verified Is not contempt of Magistracy and Ministry grown to an insupportable height Hath not this I say been sadly verified in these our dayes And is it not because our sins have been universall We will not 〈◊〉 the fault upon one head but take it upon all for we have all contributed to the common heaps of sin and its infinite mercy that we have not been involved all in the common destruction And have not we we of this City Magistrates and Ministers Parents and Children Masters and Servants have we not all had a hand in the provocation more or lesse Can we forget that torpor indifferency lukewarmnesse and neutrality in our Magistracy that heretofore gave occasion to that flood of Heresie and Blasphemy to come in amongst us and to make their seat here to the poysoning of the Country round about us And as for the people of this City let me not be unfaithfull towards them Sirs you complain that your Trade is decayed and that you are ready to break many of you and I think you don 't lie Your Trade hath so forsaken you that you are ready to forsake your Trades And what is the reason Surely God doth not leave a people but upon some occasion Truly when God forsakes Tradesmen no marvail if they forsake their Trades without God none can prosper Tradesmen may work hard and fare hard and go mean in habit rise up early go to bed late and cark and care and get nothing unlesse the Lord be with them Vnlesse the Lord keep the City the watchman watcheth in vain c. Psal 127. Why now a general forsaking of God will cause the Lord to depart generally from you And beloved that I may not dwell altogether on generals not to mention that drunkennesse and prophanenesse Sabboth-breaking blasphemous Oaths and bitter Execrations Pride contempt of Magistracy and undervaluing of our Superiours which upon this losse of government is now sadly returning again upon us I say to let these alone which yet do too evidently stare us in the face and not to speak to them Do not the people of this City in general have they not for a long time departed from God and forsaken him in his Ministers and servants whom he calls and sends forth into his Vineyard I will not now enter upon that common place of that comfortable and honourable incouragement that is due to the Ministers of the Gospel It 's so clear a truth that in plain reason you cannot gainsay it And yet how infamously famous is this City above all other Cities in this Nation in this particular Beloved let me not be counted your Enemie for telling you the truth as you know I do and dealing thus plainly Surely sirs 't is forsaking God to forsake his servants and he will not take it kindly I might mention other sins whereby we have gone away from God and so caused him to go away and forsake us And if God forsake us no marvail if we be in a broken and distracted condition See this 2 Chron. 15.1,2,3 The spirit of the Lord came upon Azariah the son of Obed and he went to meet Asa and said unto him heare me Asa and all Judah and Benjamin the Lord is with you whilst you be with him If you seek him he will be found of you but if ye forsake him he will forsake you And see then their sad state after Beloved when God goes away with the honey of pity and mercy he leaves such a sting of wrath and judgement behind him that it shall vex and torment the very soules of a people And then shall they finde that it is a sad and a bitter thing to forsake the Lord And now beloved what remains but that we having forsaken the Lord we return again unto him Come let us return again unto the Lord for he hath smitten and he will heale c. Come let us return Returning is nothing but repenting and both of them do intend amendment He that amends repents and he that repents returns you shall find them oft put together in Scripture So Ezek. 14.6 Thus saith the Lord repent and turne your selves from your idols and turne away your faces from all your abominations So in Chap. 18. of the same Prophesie Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby you have transgressed make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will you dye O house of Israel If you repent of the evill of sin God will repent of the evill of punishment And if you return from your evill wayes God will return to you in mercy and tender compassion Come then let us return Return return O England Return O Bristoll Return O thou my soule and all you beloved that hear me this day Return unto the LORD our God for we are broken by our sinne Chap. 14 1. Watchman what of the night saith the Lord by the Prophet

A Plain-dealing and Plain-meaning SERMON Preach't in the Parish Church of St. Nicholas Bristol April 6. 1660. Being the day appointed by the Parliament for publique Fasting and Humiliation for the sins of the NATION c. Together with a prefatory Epistle and subsequent Vindication both of the Sermon and Author Wherein besides an Apology for home and plain-preaching you have something offered to allay the heat of their stomacks and to temper the tongues of those who being ignorant in Scripture reproach and revile Presbytery and PRESBYTERS With some hints at SATANS subtlety and the mischief of those people who brand Zeal for God and Truth in free home and faithfull preaching with the reproachful names of Anger passion and Railing Ezek 33.30 Also thou son of Man the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of their houses c. Psal 35 11. False witnesses did rise up They laid to my charge things that I knew not Matth. 5.11 Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall s●y all manner of evill against you falsely for my names sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you LONDON Printed by S. Griffin and are to be sold by Thomas Wall by the Tolezey in Cornstreet in Bristol 1660. To the strenuous Assertor of his Countreys Rights Will Pryn Esquire a chosen Member of the High Court of Parliament Sir I Am now upon an Appeal to the World but not to all the world for all are not competent Judges But in my judgment I take you for the fittest man in the world to determine whether I have spoken against the King or his coming in in this ensuing Sermon You whom the late King honoured with the title of the Cato the impartial Cato of this age You whom neither fear nor flattery nor persecution can by as from the truth You who have militated more and conquer'd more in the Kings behalf by your pen then many Regiments of souldiers by their pikes musquets To you I appeal in this matter were it matter of Doctrine I durst make you my Vmpire for I know your ability that way Witness that excellent Book of yours of the Perpetuity of a regenerate mans estate But my appeal to you now is upon matter of fact discretion whether my discourse were scandalous or unseasonable Sir you are acquainted with the Topicks and proper seats of argument in all kinds deliberative demonstrative perswasive You can discern whether I have sinn'd against the law of the Preacher Had you been in the Country this Sermon had waited upon you for your Deleatur or Imprimatur before it had gone unto the Press But mine and the Book-sellers apprehensions that your greater manifold occasions now that you are in London would not offer us such a time of leisure w th you as to peruse it before-hand hath with held me from that attempt Yet I could not with-draw from my resolutions to crave your just decision If you find me guilty strike out your name and disown the dedication which would be a sorer blow to me then all the opposings of my Calumniators But if you find me innocent then let my Sermon with its Appendices goe forth with your auspicious tutelage I have one thing to beg of you and that is That the good old Cause may not be forgotten And I shall beg of God whose cause it is a blessing upon you and upon the great Councel whereof you are a chosen Member that the Lord would make you repairers of our breaches and restorers of our paths to dwell in These are the desires and prayers of him who is Sir Yours most ready to serve you in all Christian Offices R. A FARMER From my house in Bristol April 30. 1660. A Prefatory Epistle to the Reader IT S not the least part of our work who are Ministers of the Word to suit our Texts and Subjects And in both in a good sense to observe that direction in Rom. 12.11 as the Vulgar Latine reads it to serve the time That is to suit our discourses to the season to the occasions times and persons wherein we live and to whom we are to preach Solomon the wisest Preacher that ever was Jesus Christ the wisdome of God himselfe excepted tells us that words spoken in season i. e. according to the time occasion and condition of the persons spoken to are like apples of gold in pictures of silver very good very pleasant Prov. 25.11 And he also tells us that Preachers who are wise and would teach their people true and saving knowledge they must be heedful and carefull not to utter as many pretended Enthusiasts do quicquid in buccam venerit but to seek out compose and to set in order what they are to treat on Eccles 12.9,10 And to find out acceptable delightful taking winning words and matter In the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verba voluntatis i. e. such words and matter as might captivate and take the wills and affections of their Auditors And as the Apostle phrases it 2 Cor. 10.5 bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ And this I conceive in great part was that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that craft subtlety and cunning that the Apostle in preaching used to catch the Corinthians 2 Cor. 12.16 Being crafty I caught you with guile He carried himselfe so both in matter and manner that he drew them on and brought them over to that he desired In sum he did what he told them elsewhere He became all to all men that he might save some 1 Cor. 9.22 In the Greek the word men is not In the Originall it runs thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am made or become all to all I apply my selfe to all times and all persons I use all means to save some in and by the exercise of my Ministery And truly this hath alwayes been in my eye and this way I have ever approv'd of And to my poor ability followed in the course of my Ministery having finished a Text and Subject it hath sometimes put me to as carefull thoughts what to preach next as how to preach Especially upon speciall and extraordinary occasions I have been sollicitous to take all advantages that might bring and win over those I preach to to the truth to be proposed And being invited to the observation of the last solemn Fast I accordingly made choise of the Text which was the subject of the Sermon following How apt and pertinent let wise men judge I lookt with a sad eye upon our manifold breaches and our more sins the cause of those breaches And yet considering the Lords gracious dispensations in the wonderfull and unexpected turns of providence I was under some hopefull expectations that the Lord would also heale our breaches if our wilfull obstinacy and

impenitence did not hinder and with-hold so great a mercy And the people in generall and my selfe in particular being in an apprehension and expectation of the Kings being brought unto the throne I thence took occasion in my discourse to suggest such things as I conceiv'd might be profitable and conducent to what I intended which was to in vite them to repentance But as he said of Bookes Pro captu lectoris habent sua fata libelli According to the understanding of the Reader so do books find entertainment So may we say of Sermons According to the understanding of our Auditors so are our Sermons accepted or rejected Nay not onely according to their understanding but many times and with most according to their ignorance humours fancies interests It was always so even with Christ and his Apostles Some believed their preaching and some mock'd and derided Some reproacht belied and slandered both them and their Doctrine Thus it hath fared with me not onely at other times but also at this time And it is some comfort to me that I am not alone But that my betters find no better entertainment from their Auditors it makes me think it is not our fault but theirs And because it doth so much quadrare so suite with my condition I will make so bold as to lay the complaint of a most eminent able and godly learned Preacher in his own words before you not being able to do it in better language It is the Reverend Dr. Gauden in his Sermon preached in St. Pauls Church London before the Lord Mayor Lord Generall c. Feb. 28. 1659. Being a day of Solemn Thanksgiving c. Wherein intending to deale faithfully and plainly Having proposed his Text after a few words he makes this entrance in page 2 3 4. of that Sermon to this purpose He seems very apprehensive of the danger and difficulty of free preaching in these times wherein as he observes people are not onely impatient to be touched freely and searched throughly but are also prone to plead as the Devills in the Gospel who had possessed the poor man now a long time against all health and recovery Many men being like Cantors and Lazors Canting beggars in love with their wounds and ulcers As getting their living more easily by keeping them open raw and running then if they should quite heal them up And he takes notice of the tenderness of many mens minds who are onely for lenitives and oyles for soft smooth supple applications even to their most desperate hurts But he professes to chuse not to preach at all then to preach timerously and precariously as if he should ask men leave to be honest or were afraid to speak the word of God to them And he further sayes When he is called to speak in Gods name he must be Parrhesiastes as well as Ecclesiastes I am sayes he to do it as a work-man that needs not to be ashamed either for his ignorance or cowardise or indiscretion And whether men will hear or forbear the whole counsel of God must be delivered in its season so as becomes the words of soberness and truth For the Church and Pulpit must not be a sanctuary for insolency nor a Burrow or retreat for rudeness No however men become our enemies for speaking the truth yet it 's better so then to have God our enemie for smothering it when it is just and seasonable And such it is when necessary and soveraign to heale the hurt of a Church or State Thus that reverent person And then complains It hath been his fate frequently to offend some men when he hath been most intent to serve them by Texts and Sermons which he thought most apt useful and innocent And then gives in three Texts which he preacht upon on 3. several great and special occasions One before the King another before the long Parliament the third elsewhere And of all three says he though wholsome and innocent Texts and I hope accordingly handled yet I heard some unpleasing eccho's and reflexions The sore and itching eares of some men in all ages are such that they will not endure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 healing or sound and wholsome doctrine though the pain ariseth from the sores and inflammation in themselves and not from the plaister and hand which honestly applyes it Yet they are prone as in fell boyls and acute tumours when but touched though but gently to fly upon those that are next them and cry aloud O you hurt me when the hurt is within and from their selves and their sound parts will endure free and rough handling such as are unfound do most want it And therefore if we will be faithfull to God to our own souls and our hearers we must not flatter their sores to their ruine but rather choose to heal them though at present we be thought to hurt them Nor sayes he farther shall our labour of love be in vain either in the Lord or before good men who at length will find by experience that the wounds of a friend which let out the putrified matter of painful tumors are better then the kisses of an enemy which do infidis cicatricibus cuticulam obducere Skin over with unfaithful scars the ill-searched ill-purged Ulcers of mens hearts and lives I hope this worthy person will pardon me that I have made so bold with him as to borrow so much from him I shall pay it him in those respects and honour I owe unto him for his noble disposition and temper And I rather chuse thus to do as hoping his worth will add more weight then if it had been delivered in my own words And see what is here delivered in the Sermon was but as a prophesie what befell this good man and good Preacher afterwards For in his Epistle Dedicatory to the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Court of Common-Councel who gave him thanks for his Sermon and intreated him to print it he tells them he heard some more offended at the plain-dealing he used which possibly sayes he was from their over-rawness and soreness more then from my roughness As I aym to do things faithfully personally so decently and discreetly Nor do I thinke I am to learn of those Censorious Cato's how to preach any more then they will learn of me to buy and sell or how to fight and war And he says No man may wonder if he dare to reprove those sins which some dare to do or to approve but dare not hear of or repent And that his parrhesia and freedome of speech as a man a Christian and a Preacher was such as became his feeling of the publique miseries the desire of the Publique tranquility and the sense of that fidelity he did owe to God his Countrey them to whom he preacht and his owne soul And the Lord knows my owne soul can and doth attest the same in my poor weak labours and indeavours also Though infinitely short in worth of this most