Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	henry_n	john_n	sir_n	21,582	5	7.4928	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53738	The true way to loyalty a sermon preached by John Owen, chaplain to the Right Honourable Henry, Lord Grey of Ruthin.	Owen, John, chaplain to Lord Grey of Ruthin.	1684 (1684)	Wing O825A; ESTC R219358	19,692	36

THE True Way TO LOYALTY A SERMON PREACHED By JOHN OWEN Chaplain to the Right Honourable Henry Lord Grey of Ruthin LONDON Printed for Samuel Eddowes at the Three Chairs next Door to the Fleece Tavern in Cornhil MDCLXXXIV To the Right Worshipful Sir Jonathan Raymund Knight And Alderman of the City of LONDON SIR THE great and many Obligations which I have received from your self and good Lady made it easie to determine to whom I ought in Duty to direct this Discourse as a publick Testimony of my Gratitude and Thankfulness And truly I have had a very great Longing for some time to meet with an Opportunity of paying my Respects to you in some eminent visible way to the end the World might see and know what a grateful Sense I have of those Favours which I am never able to requite But there was another Consideration which did mightily prevail with me to ascribe this Sermon to your Patronage and that is the Agreeableness of this Subject of Loyalty with your Practice and Inclinations who gave sufficient and the most convincing Proofs of it in a time of Tryal when Loyalty was going down the Wind and when some People who had no just or material Objection against Sir Jonathan Raymund upon account of his fitness to serve the Publick yet reflected upon his Loyalty as his Crime and that which in their Opinion did spoil all other Qualifications But Sir This has much redounded to your Honour and Reputation among all good Men that you did so slight the Censures of some malevolent People who had ill Will against you for no other Reason but because you had such good will to His Majesty and his Government as to shew your self such a brave Example of steddy and unshaken Loyalty in unstable Times and one that out of pure Choice would undertake to come in in the very heat of the Day and steer the Affairs of a great City when the Government was in great Distress and pester'd with powerful and implacable Enemies on all sides Nay such is your Love of Majesty and Zeal for Loyalty that you are promoting it in all Companies wherever you come and as I have particularly observed you take singular Care to train up your Children the same way and encourage nothing more both in Children and Servants than Loyalty to the Government 〈…〉 such is your Temper and Humour that you 〈…〉 not easily admit any as your Friend or Ser●●●● 〈◊〉 who is not a true and trusty Subject Your House seems to me a kind of School and Seminary of Loyalty and you have so large a Stock and Treasure of it in your Self and Family that you are able to plant and furnish a whole Town But I fear I may be thought a Bold and Conceited Man for venturing such a plain and easie Discourse into the World when there are Numbers of excellent Discourses upon this very Subject which are no less elegant than profitable But as to this I dare undertake to vindicate my Self and Sermon too forasmuch as the Subject I now treat on is so great and excellent in it self that it needs no Flourishes or Advantages of Oratory to recommend and set it off And I humbly conceive that the plainer it is the fitter it will be for the plainer sort of People which are most numerous and if others shall blame me for not whetting my Style and using that Tartness of Expression which is now the modish way of treating all Dissenters and Persons that appear disaffected to the Government I answer That Severity in any sort is much against my Nature and that I have studiously declined all Satyr and Invectives for this very Reason Because I have known many hardned by that means but never any converted And now Sir not to detain you any longer I here present you with a plain Discourse of Loyalty and the true and only way to preserve all People in Obedience to Authority which as I am confident it will gain your Favour and Protection for the sake of its Subject so I hope it may do some general Good in the World in that way it is designed which is the earnest Wish and principal Aim of SIR Your most humble Servant JOHN OWEN TITUS 3. vers 1. Put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers to obey Magistrates to be ready to every good Work THIS Text is in the nature of a standing Monitor and perpetual Remembrancer to us of the Subjection and Obedience which we owe to our Superiours And I suppose that the Apostle takes occasion to preach up this Doctrine of Obedience the more because it was commonly suggested in the first Days and Rise of Christianity that it was a Religion which brought perfect Freedom and Liberty along with it and which tended to level all Orders and Distinctions of Men as high and low bond and free Master and Servant and so make every Body alike Gentlemen that is it was taught and maintain'd by a vile sort of Men call'd Gnosticks That Christianity was a brave frank and generous Religion whose main Design was to dissolve all Ties and Obligations of Obedience and set all People free from a state of Subjection And therefore we may observe how that the Apostle out of an extraordinary Care to prevent this growing Error and Mistake which People were so prone to fall into by reason of a natural Love and Desire of Liberty takes the Pains in several of his Epistles to discourse this Matter plainly and fully and more especially in part of the fifth and sixth Chapters of the Ephesians He there runs through all those Bonds and Relations wherein we stand ingaged to one another either as Husband and Wife Master and Servant or Father and Children and shews how that the Gospel Liberty and Priviledges do not consist in bursting these Bonds asunder or in untying the Knot of Government and Obedience whereby we are knit together in mutual Relations and Dependencies Nor do the Doctrines contain'd in the Gospel teach any thing tending to such Licentiousness and Disorders nor in the least prompt or encourage Men to lessen or draw off their Obedience to their Superiours of what Quality or Degree soever they be but on the contrary 't is manifest that there are no Doctrines so auspicious and friendly to Government that do so much preserve the Rule and Order of it or fasten the Bonds and Ligaments of Humane Societies in a due Subordination of one part to another as the Doctrines of Christianity which would have a very happy Influence upon Government and the Peace and Order of the World in case they were as truly practised as they are plainly taught and delivered in the Gospel But though Religion does so well provide for the Safety and Peace and Security of the Government yet of late Years Loyalty and Obedience have been things very much out of Fashion and Request and Doctrines which some could not hear or bear with any Patience The Truth is