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	time_n	10,440	5	4.2046	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88987	Christian liberty vindicated from grosse mistakes, occasioning so great divisions in England. Or, A tract, shewing what it is, and what it is not, the diversity of errours, a generall councell to be the meanes of beating them down, and how far forth conscience is to be born with, and the insolencie of the late remonstrants. Most earnestly recommended to the reading of the Right Honourable Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, and all those that through a mistake stand so stifly for the priviviledge [sic] of conscience at large, ... Whereunto is added an appendix of 17. questions, necessary to be discussed and be determined by the Assembly of Divines without delay, that every one may know what to hold and rest in, and the unnaturall divisions in the same body may cease. / By John Mayer, D.D. of Divinity.	Mayer, John, 1583-1664.	1646 (1646)	Wing M1421; Thomason E361_4; ESTC R201203	21,204	33

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY VINDICATED From grosse Mistakes occasioning so great Divisions in ENGLAND OR A Tract shewing what it is and what it is not the diversity of Errours a Generall Councell to be the meanes of beating them down and how far forth Conscience is to be born with and the insolencie of the late Remonstrants Most earnestly recommended to the reading of the Right Honourable Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament and all those that through a mistake stand so stifly for the priviviledge of conscience at large that they stop the course of Government establishing thus keeping a gap open to many great enormities to this day that taking better notice of the truth they may make no such stopage any more And whether some of them doe or no those Higher Powers may make a way by forcing within the Church which they cannot doe by perswasion Wherein God grant that all expedition may be used and good successe follow for his Mercies sake in Jesus Christ Amen Whereunto is added An Appendix of 17. Questions necessary to be discussed and be determined by the Assembly of Divines without delay that every one may know what to hold and rest in and the unnaturall divisions in the same body may cease By JOHN MAYER D. D. of Divinity LONDON Printed by Eliz. Pu●slow for Matthew Walbancke 1647. CHRISTIAN LIBERTY VINDICATED From grosse mistakes occasioning so great Divisions in England GAL. 5.1 Stand fast therefore in the libertie wherewith Christ hath made us free THere is no comfort to that of our Christian Libertie yet as out of the sweetest honey the Spider suckes Poyson so man out of this sweet comfort by turning it to an occasion of sinfull dissention to the corrupting of the soule For as it is now taken by some wee may say of it as August said of Drunkennesse Is not strife and contention by thee and are not wounds without cause by thee and are there not raylings blasphemies rednesse of the eyes dropsies plurisies and divers deaths So is not the disturbance of the peace of the Church by thee the dividing of Christs seamelesse coat by thee and by thee his beautifull Spouse the Church made full of wounds and blood So these as they who looke upon her have their affections alienated from her and their mouthes opened to blaspheme and speake evill of her To reforme this abuse then and to prevent the further increase of it give me leave to shew you what this libertie is First affirmatively and then negatively First It is a libertie purchased for all true beleevers by Christs most precious blood What Christian Liberty is from all the burthensome Rites and Ceremonies of the Law and from the servitude of our own lusts and of Satan and from everlasting death Here first I say it is a libertie purchased for all true beleevers by Christs most precious blood for we are redeemed not with corruptible things of gold and silver 1 Pet. 1.18 but with the precious blood of Christ by this word we here the faithfull being understood here and the word redeemed a freeing of us who before were in servitude and bands Secondly From all the burthensome Rites and Ceremonies of the Law Act. 15.1 From Ceremonies for so Peter calls them saying Why put yee a yoake upon the disciples neeks which neither we nor our fathers were able to beare our libertie herefrom is set forth Gal. 4.3 under the similitude of an heire atteining to full age before he was under tutors and governours but now he is free from this servile condition So we when we were children were in bondage under the rudiments of the world But When the fulnesse of time was come God sent his Son to redeem them that were under the Law Now then wee are at libertie from dayes before commanded to be kept whether new Moones or the Pasch Pentecoast or feast of Tabernacles or dayes set apart yearely for Humiliation and Attonement-making because they were set up onely to shadow out things to come or as a meanes of commemorating things past which were the greatest blessings imparted to Gods people under the old Testament The anniversary attonement was a figure of Christs blood shed whereby we attaine forgivenesse of our sinnes and reconciliation with God when he entred with it into Heaven as the High Priest with the blood of a Goat into the Sanctum Sanctorum The Pascall Lamb was both a figure of the Lamb of God that takes away the sinne of the world and a commemoration of that great benefit of being freed from their Aegyptian bondage The feast of Pentecoast of Gods miraculous putting them in possession of the Land of Canaan and consequently of the Corne then ready to be reaped which they sowed not the feast of Tabernacles of their miraculous preservation forty yeares in the wildernesse when they dwelt in Tents that of blowing Trumpets and those of new Moones both to figure out the Evangelicall Trumpet the preaching of the Gospel which sounded in all Lands to the beating downe of strong holds to commemorate the miraculous overthrow of Jericho by the sound of Trumpets of Rams-hornes 2 Cor. 10.4 and for a signe of God remembring them when they were to fight with their enemies Touching the Sabbath of the seven h day from the Creation it was also figurative of the rest comming by Christ unto all true Christian soules and commemorative of Gods resting from all his workes of Creation and therefore is no more to be kept under the N. T. he being now come even Jesus who is the Author of spirituall rest and peace as Joshuah gave rest in Canaan and a greater worke and benefit being now to be commemorated viz. of our redemption and restitution into the state of grace from which we fell by the sinne of Adam Wherefore we are at libertie from keeping that day also yet not so at libertie but that we are tyed to another viz. the Lords Day according to the example and practice of the Apostles and of Christians since because the commandement of keeping the seventh day is morall and perpetuall not Ceremoniall as of other Sabbaths And Heb. 4 4.5 the Apostle proving two rests or Sabbaths at two times one under the Old Testament the other under the new and concluding ves 9. There remaineth therefore a rest unto the people of God plainly intimateth a Sabbath now to be kept even the day wherein Jesus entered into his rest by rising againe from thenceforth never to suffer or travell about to teach and to worke miracles any more and hitherto of dayes Now for other Ceremonies and first of meats from which Gods people were tyed by his precept as namely All uncleane beasts fowles and fishes for so much as this was done in figure it being hereby adnumbrated that there were two sorts of people in the world cleane and uncleane Jewes and Gentiles which should continue thus distinguished till God should be pleased through Christ to breake downe

and therefore contrary to them forsake their Assemblies as the Separatists or they are to be left to their owne consciences who call in question the constant practice of the Universal Church ever since the Primitive times to this day as the Antbaptists O● lastly they who by their new Doctrine lay a foundation of Libertinisme as the Antinomians The consequence indeed is good therefore they ought in times past to have been left to their owne consciences who would not submit to the use of Ceremonies introduced by man into God publike Worship And I am perswaded that the most religious who lived then but departed before these troublous times had no further thing in their desires then the abolishing of them and of Lord Bishops their violent abettours and of Prayers reading in the Congregation and a Presbyteriall Government setting up and Canons and Constitutions to bee made by a Generall Assembly for the regulating of all particular Churches in the Kingdome Having therefore by Gods providence attained to all these things why should we instead of being thankfull to God therefore mutin and make new stirnes and troubles to the eclipsing of the glory of this our happinesse and to the retarding of a compleat blessed Reformation and Government setling for want of which Schismes and disorders doe so much abound in all places And why should yee that are the Higher Powers if such as dissent will not by any perswasion be moved to reconcile through a tender regard to cōsciences in these cases not to be regarded cherish any hopes in them of being tollerated in their singularities any longer Consider I beseech you what hath been said and provide that there may speedily be such an Assembly or yeeld unto your owne that power which belongs unto them suffering them to declare their judgement themselves touching Government and of all doubtfull cases to determine in things pertaining to their owne Profession and this being done by your Authority confirme it not suffering any impunè ferre that shall oppose or contemne the determinations thus made under any pretence whatsoever Thus peace and unity shall soone be restored to our Church which is so well pleasing to God and an end put to hellish dissentions impossible otherwise to be quelled and yee by being a meanes hereof under God as hee expects in regard of your place that yee should be shall be blessed and happy for ever And hit●erto or sinne and errour unto which no liberty is given by Christ Now thirdly I say that Christian liberty is not to shake off the yoake of the King and Parliament a Democracie being advanced above all according to a late seditious Pamphlet going under the name of A Remonstrance of many thousands being full of unparallell'd insolencies For Christians must be subject to the Higher Powers as all men that are but little conversant in the Holy Scriptures know and hereby purchase credit to their Religion which would otherwise become odious to Principalities keeping them far enough off from being nursing Fathers to Gods Church under the New Testament as it is prophesied that they should be They are the Ordinance of God and such an Ordinance as that whosoever resists them shall reape unto himselfe damnation as a resister of God It is not to bee inquired into what miseries the Kingdome hath suffered by Kings for so they did in the Kingdome of Judah and Israel yet nothing by any man of God intimated that they should attempt to shake off that yoake A King is sometime given by God by whom he reigneth in wrath and then hee must be endured till he that gave him releaseth the Kingdome of him againe For as David said even touching Saul who can lay his hand upon the Lords Anointed and be blamelesse And for a Nations being under a Monarch it was Gods owne constitution when he set up Moses after that Judges successively to rule in Israel untill the time that he gave them a King and when for their sinnes after the Reigne of many Kings they were carried away captive into Babylon Esa 1.23 the Lord promising at their returne from thence more pure golden times he saith that hee would restore them Judges as at the first and not put them into a Democraticall estate and by Princes as Judges one succeeding another they were ruled untill the time of Antiothus Epiphanes above two hundred yeeres which sheweth Monarchy to be of God and best for his people where it may be had and that they know not of what spirit they are that cry it downe And as for the Parliament which is the great Councell of the Land without which the King can doe nothing it is therefore to be understood also under the name of the Higher Powers that is both Houses and not one of them the other being nullified at the will of the people and therefore as Higher Powers to be submitted to and wherein they doe amisse to be sought to by petition that it may be reformed and not taunted and checked as underlings by the multitude yet the multitude is not by them to be contemned through pride but their grievances duly to be considered and their just desires satisfied which is the end of Parliaments that it prove not according to the saying Laesa patientia furor and in a mad fit what expectation that men should be moderated by reason and not rather breake out to the confusion of all which God avert for his Mercies sake Amen An Appendix of 17. Questions necessary to be discussed and determined by the Assembly of Divines without delay that every one may know what to hold and rest in and the unnaturall divisions in the same Body may cease 1. VVHether it be not best to have one set Form of Prayer to be publikely used throughout this Kingdom instead of the Old Liturgie as conducing most to Uniformity and to Unity and is most agreeable to the practice of other Reformed Churches and the judgement of our most judicious Calvin and others of great note in the Church of God The Prayer made by each Preacher in the Pulpit being short at ordinary times and onely ad appositum but the Lords Prayer not left out but once at the least used every day as ●s therein implyed that it ought to be for feare of cherishing that opinion of some that it is no Prayer but onely a pattern for direction 2. Whether it be not necessary for us all to have one Catechisme to avoid confusion by teaching divers in divers places and to be so short yet full that the meanest capacities may be capable of learning it and to injoyne the diligent teaching of it in every Congregation till that all have hereby some good distinct knowledge to salvation formed in them 3. Whether the celebration of the Lords Supper may be deferred at any time without limitation of time because the Passeover might not although it were so that some came to it not prepared according to the preparation of the

Sanctuary as in Hezekiah his time 4. Whether all the Communicants ought not to sit about the Table and not be left to this disjunction either at it or neere to it for then in one Church they may sit still to have it carried to them to other seates about and in another sit at the Table which tends to division in Christs Churches that ought all to goe by one Rule 5. VVhether the Minister ought not to forbeare giving the Bread to the Communicants before that be hath said all the words of institution touching the same because it is in the Directory said after these words Take eate here he shall give them the bread and whether his giving it ought to be any other then moving the vessell wherein it is towards them that each one after other may take it himselfe and then move it to the next till it comes to the neather end because these things are not sufficiently expressed 6. VVhy upon a day of Thanksgiving an afternoones meeting it intimated contrary to Nehem. 8.10 12. as though all the rejoycing then must bee spirituall and none civill which also hath beene used commonly Judg. 21.19 21. Hosea 2.11 Either 9.19 c. 7. Whether the keeping of the feast of the Nativity of our Lord ought to be altogether sleighted as superstitious sith it is of greater Antiquity by far then any other holy-days intituled from the Saints and although not commanded by the Lord in expresse word yet it is by consequence and commended by the Saints doing the like in former ages as by Ester and Mordecai appointing the Feast of Purim to be kept that the remembrance of the Jewes deliverance by Ester might never be forgotten And by Judas Maccabeus the Feast of Dedication graced by Christs owne keeping of it Joh. 10. And for the Antiquity consult with Chrysostome J●r●my and Augustine who lived before Gregory the first who had this fault that he was very superstitious and therefore this day and the Resurrection and Pentecost being kept before all Popish superstition by the testimony of the foresaid worthies cannot be taxable hoc nomine but for superfluity and excesse of riot onely then used which as chaffe let be winnowed away but let the VVheat remaine 8. VVhether the disorder of some of this or that particular Congregation in going commonly from that whereof they are members upon the Lords day may be tollerated where there is a faithfull and painfull Pastour as conducing to their more edification because this is pleaded yet to doe so is apparently evill the discouraging and quenching of the spirit in one Minister of Christ and puffing up of another a ground of disorder laying in many who are glad of such a pretext to goe for other ends c. Et non faciendum est malum ut inde proveniat bonum 9. VVhether being uncovered for reverence to God and his Ordinance in men in●●●me of prophesying ought not to be commended to the people because S. Paul speakes of it as asha●● and dishonour to a man to doe so as in praying so in prophesying 10. Whether the children of beleeving Parents ought not to bee baptized and whether sprinkling sufficeth without dipping and what solid reasons of both these 11. Whether Sureties are not rather to be accepted then rejected for somuch as we say Abundans cautela non nocet and many poore children have fared the better for their God-fathers or Godmothers 12. Whether both in administring this Sacrament and that of the Lords Supper it were not better to have a prescribed form of prayer then to commit it to each Ministers present conception because so this service must needs be unequally performed and by some very deficiently 13. Whether private meetings for preaching may be tollerated where the publike place is open because Christians met not in corners of old but being inforced through persecution about this Ordinance and this seperating is a condemning of our Congregations as impure and Antichristian 14. Whether persons justified by faith in Christ thenceforth are not lyable to sin any more 15. Whether Christs descent into hell be to be reteined as an Article of our Faith because it was out of the Apostles Creed in the Latin Churches for 500. yeares 16. Whether there be not a Catholike Church 17. Whether the Articles of our Faith and Ten Commandements have not need to be recited in the Congregation every Lords day Touching all these great satisfaction may be given to thousands by their determinations and convincing reasons and so most probably our Church-tempest will turne into a calme but otherwise it will probably rage more and more FINIS