Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	bishop_n	church_n	presbyter_n	1,708	5	10.0860	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42490	Megaleia theou, Gods great demonstrations and demands of iustice, mercy, and humility set forth in a sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons, at their solemn fast, before their first sitting, April 30, 1660 / by John Gauden ...	Gauden, John, 1605-1662.	1660 (1660)	Wing G364; ESTC R16267	41,750	78

ΜΕΓΑΛΕΙΑ ΘΕΟΥ Gods great DEMONSTRATIONS AND DEMANDS OF Iustice Mercy and Humility Set forth in a SERMON PREACHED Before the Honourable House of Commons at their Solemn Fast before their first sitting April 30. 1660. By JOHN GAVDEN D. D. Prov. 21.3 To do Justice and Judgement is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Clem. Alex. Apud nos quo religiosior quisque eo justior Minuts Fel. de Christ LONDON Printed by J. Best for Andrew Crook at the Green-Dragon in St. Pauls Church-yard 1660. TO THE Honorable the Speaker and other Members of the House of COMMONS NO sooner had I done my duty to Gods commands and yours Honorable and worthy but blessed be God you presently applied to do your duty to God the King and your Country with such Justice Mercy and Humility that you have by an astonishing joy revived the sunk spirits of all just merciful and humble men in these three Kingdoms who had for many years been sorely depressed and almost despaired under the importune injuries of some insolent and proud Masters who with Cesar or Pompey were impatient of any superior or equal yea with Lucifer and Antichrist they exalted themselves above all that were called God in the British Honour and Authority advancing their unjust and merciless ambition so high that at last it fell not by force so much as its own weight and that just confusion which God brought upon those Babel-builders whose foolish building had indeed many pinacles of fanatick opinions and projects daily starting up yet but one great Tower or Mole whose moorish or sandy foundation was tumult and violence its line and measure fancy and providence its materials the lives and estates of its Countrymen its cement the blood both of Kings Priests and People The gracious and glorious God who alone doth wonders hath by the Justice Mercy and Humility of the two Houses of Parliament added to the most renowned Generals humble valour and loyal courage soon made Nehustan of those brazen Serpents and Idols which were made up of subtilty and hypocrisie violence and impudence 7. In a few days even before I could print what I had preached we have lived to see that holy Motto under the Kings Arms made good Exurgat Deus dissipentur inimici Let God arise and his enemies shall be scattered Psal. 68.1 The royal Dieu mon Droit God and my right hath like Moses his Serpent devoured the Serpents and rods of those Magicians who usurped all things yet nothing more falsly and unjustly than that Inscription Deus nobiscum God with us when indeed they had neither his Word nor the Laws of the land with them with the like vain and arrogant ostentation did Dionysius boast of the gods good will and approbation when after his sacrilegious pillaging one of their Temples he had a very fair gale of wind to carry him and his booty home by sea Certainly nothing is more remote from Gods gracious presence and the power of godliness than that brutal power and inordinate might which is carried on with penal prosperities and successes but without any right as to Law and Justice which are the only rules and boundaries of good conscience also the soul and life of all righteous Government void of which the other is but cadaverosa potentia a putid carkass of prevalent usurpation which stinks in the Nostrils of God and all good men But You even You are those True Worthies who by your just loyal and humble agnition of and submission to the Kings lawful Authority have made Mercy and truth meet together yea righteousness and peace kiss each other You have fulfilled in the affirmative that old and ambiguous verse which I remember to have heard many years before our sad troubles which ends with Nullus In which Negative the time-serving Astrologasters and others strongly fancied they found a fatal period of the British Monarchy at least of the Stuartian royal family O how must it make those Diviners mad to see what I long ago hoped would be the meaning of it that King who was made and esteemed as Nullus a persecuted expulsed and as much as lay in humane malice a nullified King to see him reign as surely and gloriously as any of those royal Predecessors did who under the emblems of other words made up that strange verse To which so benign an interpretation and event there wanted not some providential omens and signatures as first that star which appeared a little after noon on the day of the Kings birth of which there were many eye witnesses in London and Westminster Next were those meddals of silver which were then coyned with this Inscription Hactenus Anglorum nulli to denote that Prince to be the Nonsuch who alone had the glory to be born Heir apparent to these three British Kingdoms Nor was his signal preservation after Worster-fight a small pledge of Gods special protection whose usual methods are to build up to an unwonted height and conspicuity of glory there where he lays the deepest foundation of earthly affliction I confess I cannot sufficiently with you and all good men admire the wonderful revolutions and intricate ridles of Gods providence punishing us justly for our sins yet relieving us mercifully from our sufferings We are yet in extacies of joy and wonder as those that dream hardly believing the strange undeserved and unexpected dispensations of God toward us in which he hath made that precious stone which some builders refused to become the corner the capital and crown-stone of the building the only center and stability of that Arch in which the loyalty and love the joy and hopes of all good Subjects and true English-Protestants do meet and six May you go on prosperously and unanimously under the Banner of the most high God to compleat your religious loyal just and valiant Counsels not only to establish his Majesties Throne and our civil rights in Truth Mercy and Peace but also to cleanse and repair the Temple the Church and house of the living God whose miserable dilapidations and sordid ruines in doctrine devotion discipline order and government are such that you cannot but pity to see all things sacred covered with dust and the Ministery of the Church both Bishops and Presbyters almost buried with the rubbish of factions confusions dissentions and despiciencies I confess this Church-work ought as the Kingdom of God to be first in every good Christians intention as no doubt it was and is in yours But you are not to be blamed by any unseasonable severitie if as to point of execution you first applied your selves in the present distress of our times and affaires to settle and secure as to the main those things which belonged to your civil rights and National peace The exigents or extreamities of which not bearing any delayes do sufficiently justifie your indeavors to preserve the ship of the State in which the Church is imbarqued which

being almost Ship-wrackt and sincking it had been a very preposterous zeal to have left the vessel to have contended with the Rocks and Sands by a superdevout diligence to save the lading or goods in it Alas we had been much to seek for a reformed Church in a ruined State Your discreet and orderly diligence took the right method in making way for religion by civil justice nor need you fear the dictates frownes and censures of any Anastarchusses whose piety like Jacobs might hope to have supplanted this just necessary and honest policy of restoring our civil laws and royal authority by which our Religion as Cristian and reformed was best established The setling or reforming of religion in all its duties and devotions discipline and decencies together with its order and Government is a work which requires not only time but that leisure which is attended with a calme and steddy posture of civil affaires Men cannot build Gods Temple till they have first washed their hands and purged the land of innocent blood No prudent piety can think such a storme as we were in was a meet season for Church reformation It would only fit those who might hope to fish best for their parties opinions in troubled waters knowing their projects and models to be less consistent with the true interests and pristine welfare of this Church and State doubtless they must have made strange work of Church and reformation before ever they had owned and restored the Master-builder the King who is supream Governour of it under Christ as to all extern order and Authority We hope and pray that God will shortly give both his Majesty his Parliaments and his loyall people such rest on every side as may be most apt for those sacred and serious concernments of the Church and true Religion which require first Justice as to the rights of Christ and his Church both Bishops Presbyters and People Secondly they require mercy as to that remission moderation and condescention in things not necessary to the being and well being of religion which either tender consciences or weak but humble and harmless Christians do require yea and expect agreeable to Christs care of his little ones and the Apostles regard to weak brethren yea and the Kings gracious expressions touching his regard to such that they may not be needlesly offended superciliously despised or rigorously oppressed in matters that are neither of faith nor morality Lastly Religious composures require an unfeined humility and self denying as the proper rule and measure and of all Church-work that nothing may swell out beyond the plumline of verity and charity order and decency use and edification either in the substances or circumstances of Religion nor yet in the controversies of it In all which blessed counsels and endeavours there will be need and use of the assistance of the best heads the honestest hearts and the softest hands which the Church of England affords not only in the Nobility and Gentry the Lords and Commons but also among the Clergy who are no doubt the Angels or Intelligences most proper for those motions and that spheare of Religion But we hope by the good hand of our good God upon his Majesty and your loyal counsels for the best of blessings a wise constitution and well ordered administration of religion both as Christian and reformed which will be the greatest glory and stability of all estates As you have given to Cesar the things that are Cesars so no doubt you will be ready to give to God the things that are Gods In which just and humble retributions you will both shew mercy to many thousands of souls and obtain mercies for your own for which ends as you have the prayers and thanks of all worthy persons so you shall never want mine whose freedome in speaking and writing I presume your sound minds can bear as abhoring to keep your Ministers like Parots in a cage as at no great charge so only for the pleasure to hear them speak Your honor is that you hear and know and do the will of God in which that you may enjoy his eternal rewards is the Prayer of Your humble servant in Christ I. GAVDEN May 12. 1660. Books written by Dr. Gauden and sold by Andrew Crook at the green Dragon in St. Pauls Church-yard 1. HIeraspistes A Defence for the Ministry and Ministers of the Church of England 2. Three Sermons preached on publick occasions 3. Funerals made Cordials in a Sermon preached at the Interment of the Corps of Robert Rich Heir apparent to the Earldom of Warwick 4. A sermon preached at the Funeral of Dr. Ralph Brounrig Bishop of Excester Decemb. 17. 1659. with an account of his Life and Death 5. A Petitionary Remonstrace in the behalf of many thousand Ministers and Scholars {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sive Medicastri Slight healers of publique hurts set forth in a Sermon Preached in St. Pauls Church London before the right honorable Lord Mayor Lord General Aldermen Common-Council Companies of the honorable City of London Febr. 28. 1659. being a day of Solemn thanksgiving unto God for restoring the Secluded Members of Parliament to the house of Commons And for preserving the City as a Door of Hope thereby opened to the fulness and freedom of future Parliaments The most probable means under God for healing the Hurts and recovering the health of these three Brittish Kingdoms Magna Dei postulata Gods great Demonstrations and Demands Set forth in A Sermon preached at a Solemn Fast April 30. 1660. before the Honorable House of Commons Upon MICAH 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do Iustice to love Mercy and to walk humbly with thy God I Am not so ignorant of my infirmities Right Honorable and Beloved as to have adventured on so great a province before so noble an Assembly in such an important time and on so short warning if my obedience to Gods call in your commands had not swayed more with me than any confidence of my own sufficiency whose greatest ambition is to walk humbly with my God in the amplest services I were able to do for his glory his Churches peace and my Countries welfare I well understand the great importance of this Parliamentary Convention as to the peace and setling of this Church and State all things sacred and civil are imbarqued in your counsels and adventured on your Justice and Mercy your piety and Humility your Equanimity and Moderation You under God are the Ark in which the weather-beaten and scattered remains of our Religion Laws Estates Liberties Peace Honors and Lives are deposited so much of them as hath escaped the tedious tempest and the terrible deluge of our sad troubles and confusions these last score of years in which the windows of heaven the just wrath of God and the fountains of the great deep the lusts and passions of mens