Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	apostle_n	day_n	sabbath_n	13,396	5	10.0850	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30533	A message for instruction to all the rulers, judges, and magistrates to whom the law is committed shewing what just government is, and how far the magisrates power reacheth, and what the sword of justice is to cut down, and what it is to defend ... / E.B.	Burrough, Edward, 1634-1662.	1658 (1658)	Wing B6013; ESTC R25317	21,754	32

to be both accusers and Iudges of any one in any cause You have a late act for the taking up and punishing of idle loose and dissolute persons such as are vagrants and wandering Rogues vagabonds and sturdy beggars Now this Law is good if it be duly and iustly executed upon such as are truly guilty herein and it is right that sturdy Beggars and Rogues and idle and disorderly persons should be taken up from wandering and set on work in some good imployment in the Creation which may maintain themselves and prevent them from worse things But now you must take heed of iudging any to be such who are not really so for many of the servants of the Lord now as it was in generations past are moved to leave their own Country and dwellings and relations and goe abroad in the Nations to preach the Gospell of Christ and to bear witness of his name in the world to the turning of people from the ways of sin and death to the way of righteousness and truth and it may be such cannot give you an account or sufficient cause of their travelling abroad so as to satisfie you For that is lawfull in the sight of God which you may not iudge to be so for Gods ways are not mans ways neither his thoughts as mans thoughts Therefore I say unto you if you cause any such of the servants of the Lord to suffer by that Law you abuse your power and subverts the Law for such are not vagabonds nor idle dissolute persons nor Rogues nor sturdy beggars No more than Christ was who had no where to lay his head and the Prophets and Apostles were some of which had no certain dwelling place but left their Countries and relations and wandred up and down the world from town to town and from one Country to another even as the servants of the Lord doth by the same spirit at this day who can no more be truly judged for Vagabonds and Rogues c. than Christ and his Apostles could be who were a perfect example to us in these things For it is a lawfull occasion in the sight of God whatever you judge of it to travell up and down not being burthensome or chargeable to any to bear witness for the name of the Lord and against all sin and iniquity that people may be reformed and instructed in the right way Therefore you must make a speciall distinction in your iudgements between such as are Rogues and idle and dissolute persons who are hurtfull to the Creation and such as are innocent and harmeless and not of evill behaviour though you may through preiudice otherwise iudge of them this is to informe you herein that your iudgements may be according to God and not according to man neither with respect of persons Also you have another late Act for the Observation of the Lords day wherein is inserted that none shall wilfully maliciously or of purpose disturbe or disquiet the publick preacher or to make any publick disturbance in the Congregations Now the Law is good and it is right that all such be punished who doth maliciously wilfully or of an evill purpose disturbe or disquiet any man or people to the danger of breach of publick peace and let all such be punished according to their desert But yet you must take heed in this cause for many of the servants of the Lord are and may be moved by the power of the Lord to come into a Congregation or an assembly of people to declare against sin and iniquity and the ways of wickedness in people or to aske a question soberly of the teacher or to instruct people to edification in the way of the Lord or such like may they do as they are moved and yet not maliciously nor wilfully nor of wicked purpose For it was the Apostles practise and the practise of the Saints to goe in the Synagogues and meeting places and to dispute with the Teachers on the Sabbath days and sometimes they spoke to the people by way of exhortation and the people bid them speak on and yet these were not disturbers of the assembly neither were they malicious men or wilfull neither did they these things to any evil purpose and it was the practise of the Saints that all may speak one by one in the Church when they were assembled together and this is the practise of the servants of the Lord now and yet they cannot justly be condemned by your Law though they come into your assembly as they are moved of the Lord to object or reprove or exhort for they doe it not in malice towards any but in love towards all and they can no more justly be condemned than the Apostles and Saints in the Primitive times who were unto us a just example in these practises as you may read in the Scripture and you may as justly condemn them as us who are guided by the same spirit in the same things Therefore you have need to take heed of condemning the innocent by a Law least you bring innocent blood upon you and you must make a perfect difference between such as comes among you wilfully and maliciously and on evill purpose to disturbe and molest any man or Congregation and such who comes in the name and fear of the Lord who are moved of him contrary to their own wills and in love to all people And in these causes you have need of discerning and sound judgement least you condemn the guiltless and abuse your power and subvert the Law and so bring condemnation upon your selves And as you will answer it before the Lord in his dreadfull day cause not any to suffer through your envy and surmizings or false suspition through over-reaching the words of the Law to a wrong sense and to a wrong end Also it is inserted in the same Act against many evill things as drinking in Taverns Innes Ale-houses strong-water houses or to tipple unnecessarily or any other house c and also against travelling and walking on that day vainly and prophanely c. Now the Law is good that evill exercise be prevented and prophaneness in every respect on that day and on every day and that such be punished that are found in any evill exercise whatsoever But yet you must take heed that none of the innocent suffer hereby for many of the people of God may and doth travell on that day to meet together to worship God and to waite upon him to find his presence and to receive of his refreshments to their souls But this cannot be judged an evill practise or prophane travelling or breach of the Sabbath For we read of a Sabbath days iourney Acts 1. 12. where some of the servants of the Lord returned from Ierusalem to Mount Olivet which is a Sabbath dayes iourny so that such who now travels to waite upon the Lord on that day though it be severall miles to and from the place of meeting cannot iustly be iudged to be Sabbath-breakers no more than the Apostles who travelled a Sabbath days iourney in obedience to the Lord to

among people or to exhort them unto good and to follow Christ and to deny the wickedness of this world or such like as they are moved some are moved to reprove a hireling teacher who deceives the people and walks in the steps of the false Prophets and lives in pride and vanity and evill contrary to the doctrine and practise of Christ and the Apostles and this practise of the servants of the Lord in reproving evill and exhorting to good is called a disturbance of the peace and an unlawful practise and such like it is falsly judged by unjust men who knows not the spirit of the Lord nor the moving thereof and because of this many innocent men are caused deeply to suffer contrary to a good conscience and some are sent to the house of Correction there suffering cruell things from hard-hearted men and some are put in the Stocks and whipped and others fined and cast into prison and such like sufferings are unjustly imposed upon them and not for evill doing as I have said for though they reprove sin in teachers or in people or exhorts them to good whether in Steeple-houses Markets or other places yet they do not hereby wrong any mans person or estate neither is this any matter of wilfull wrong or to such an intent neither doth it disturb the peace nor is any unlawfull practise but onely out of a good conscience to God and man is it done and it is a matter of conscience to the servants of the Lord to do so and they cannot leave it undone least they should transgress the law of God in their own consciences because they are commanded of God so to do that people may be Instructed in the right way to God and be converted out of every false way and this is the very end of their work and their intent in doing it and they ought not in justice to suffer for it for it is according to the law of God and in reason and a good conscience and the Lord justifies them in it then that law and Iudgment must needs be corrupt and unjust which condemnes the people and servants of the Lord as for evill doers for obeying the commands of God and for the exercise of their pure consciences and no mans person or estate being wronged or Injured but onely sin and wickedness reproved and exhorted from And hereby thus is the law perverted and true Iudgment turned backward and the guiltless is condemned guilty and the guilty is set free and the obeying the commands of God and the excercise of a good conscience is unjustly iudged a transgression and this is a shame and will be great condemnation to such in the day of the Lord by whose Authority this is done even that the excercise of a good conscience even reproving of sin and exhorting unto that which is good to follow that and to forsake all evill should be iudged and punished as a hanious transgression in a nation and Common-wealth professing Christianity and pure Religion and this makes the sin much more great and unpardonable because the practise and faithfull excercise in Christianity and in the pure and true Religion is adiudged transgression condemned by such who professes the same thing in words and yet persecutes and punisheth the excercise of it in others and this shews them uniust iudges and hypocrits who causes the Servants of the Lord to suffer for the practise of that which themselves profess in words to wit Religion and Christianity for I affirme against all opposers whatsoever that it is a practise in Religion according to the Scriptures to goe into the Steeple-houses meeting places Markets Highways or other places and reprove sin and wickedness and cry against evill in Priests and people and exhort to good and to forsake evill and therefore it ought not to be prosecuted and punished but defended and maintained by the just Government of a Common-wealth and by just Laws and Magistrates for this the Lord requireth that justice and truth and true iudgement be exalted and the innocent and upright defended in all their ways of a good conscience and that evill doers and sinners and transgressors be condemned and righteously iudged Also many of the servants of the Lord doe deeply suffer and is deeply afflicted by iniustice for the exercise of a good conscience in other things as because they cannot put off their Hats and bow in respect to mens persons according to the vaine customs of the Heathen and because they cannot swear upon a Book by kissing it and laying the hand upon it according to the idolatrous forme and for such like causes because many cannot fulfill the lusts and wills of men that lives in pride and evill wayes in these and other things therefore are the people of God put to great sufferings though they deny not the honour due to all men in the Lord without bowing the Hat nor to affirme the truth in every cause in faithfulness without an oath now to keep on the Hat which is a cover for the head to keep from cold or heat for healths sake before any man whatsoever though never so great or noble is not any wrong or iniury to the mans person or estate before whom it is done but onely the high minde and the proud nature and that which is exalted above the fear of God which would be Lord over his fellow creatures that same is offended and troubled which bears not the image of God but of the Devil as Hamman was and would be bowed to and had in honour and respected because of knowledge or parts and proud gestures or apparell and the Children of the Lord cannot doe it nor give honour to him nor be subiect and pleasing to that man who is of that spirit and of that nature which is not of God but exalted in pride and vain-glory above the fear of God and against him and would be worshipped and had in honour and reverenced of his fellow-creatures who hath not so much riches in this world as he nor is so proud in apparell as he and because of that he looks to be bowed unto with Hat or Knee and is offended if he be not and then in his pride he rages and is vexed and seeks revenge against such as cannot honour him and respect him in his pride and vaine-glory but as I said this is not done as a matter of wrong unto any though the Hat be not bowed or put off but it is a matter of conscience unto the people of God and for a good conscience sake they doe deny and may not give obedience and honour and respect out of the fear of God to proud flesh and to men which is not in the fear of God which expects reverence out of the Lord and they know it is nothing else that is offended but proud flesh and an exalted mind and a man that fears not God neither walks in his ways I say it is nothing else nor any besides