Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	baronet_n	knight_n	sir_n	27,306	5	7.3237	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62275	A sermon preached at Reading, Feb. 25, 1672, at the assizes there holden for the county of Berks, before the Right Honourable Sir Edward Turner, Knight ... and Sir Edward Thurland, Knight ... by Joseph Sayer ...	Sayer, Joseph, 1630 or 31-1693.	1673 (1673)	Wing S797; ESTC R7938	19,707	42

A SERMON Preached at Reading Feb. 25. 1672. AT THE ASSIZES There holden for the County of BERKS Before the Right Honourable Sir EDWARD TVRNER Knight and Baronet Lord Chief Baron And Sir EDWARD THURLAND Knight One of the Barons of His Majesties Court of Exchequer By JOSEPH SAYER B. D. Rector of NEWBVRY LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun at the West-end of St. Pauls MDCLXXIII Rom. 13. part of the 5th Verse Wherefore ye must needs be Subject IT was not without great cause that the first Preachers of the Gospel viz. the blessed Apostles did insist so very much upon and did press with so much earnestness the Inferiours duty to his Superiour For they having preached a liberty in Christ Jesus some licentious Spirits began thereupon to think themselves free from all acts of service and obedience to their Governours thus abusing their Christian freedom to the great scandal and reproach of the Christian Faith by making it a pretence for the flesh Hence the Apostle St. Peter gives a large Exhortation in these words 1 Pet. 2.12 13 14 15 16. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well that in so doing you may have your conversation honest among the Gentiles that whereas they speak evil of you as of evil doers they may by your good works which they shall see glorifie God in the day of visitation For so is the will of God that by well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God In which words the Apostle plainly insinuates that there is no such inconsistency between the Magistrates Authority and our Christian Liberty as some might think there was That they might yea and ought to maintain the one and yet withal submit to the other That it were a shameful abuse of our Liberty and a very great dishonour to our Christian Profession under pretence of being Christians to refuse to do the duty of Subjects That Christ meant not to erect a Kingdom that should destroy or but disturb the Kingdoms of this World but to confirm them rather by injoyning Obedience upon stricter obligations and severer penalties than were formerly thought of such as are the declared will and pleasure of Almighty God under the penalty of his eternal wrath and damnation That the Liberty to which he calls the Subjects of his spiritual Kingdom is a Liberty like his Kingdom 't is a spiritual not a sensual freedom 't is a freedom to serve God not a freedom from the service of men That Christians as being all spiritual Kings are to rule over their own lusts and not live according to their lusts denying Subjection and Obedience unto Temporal Princes for that were to make their Liberty become a cloak for their maliciousness or their covetousness or licentiousness And as the Apostle St. Peter so his dear Brother this most blessed Apostle St. Paul not only charges it on his son Titus that he should put men in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers and to obey Magistrates Tit. 3.1 but he does it also himself in this Chapter Rom. 13.1 Let every soul be subject to the Higher Powers And not only minds them of their duty but presses it with such variety of Arguments that in the whole Book of God there is scarcely any one duty that is prest with so much instance and importunity as this is Which does argue both the great necessity of the thing and our averseness thereunto that by Nature i. e. Nature corrupted we can brook no Government for who is willing to be ruled and yet bear it we must a necessity is laid upon us we must needs be subject and that for these reasons Because 1. If we respect the Original Fountain or Efficient Cause of Government it has God for its Author That 's the Apostles first Argument for Subjection and Obedience to all Humane Authority taken from the Author Founder Instituter and Ordainer of such Authority Rom. 13.1 There is no Power but of God The person ruling may be sometimes such a one as that we cannot say he is of God God by his Prophet Hosea does complain of some Rulers They are set up Hos 8.4 but not by me their way of coming to the Government is by such means as God prohibits And the use of the Power may be as bad as the coming by it as in King Jeroboam who abused his Authority in making Israel to sin 1 Kin. 14.16 14.16 But the Power it self is always of God and he that comes to it lawfully is sent of God and therefore to such we must needs be subject For shan't we own that Power that has God for its Author Rom. 13.4 Magistracy is the Ordinance of God Magistrates are the Ministers of God therefore it is our duty to be subject to it and them This is the Apostles first Argument for Subjection and Obedience to Authority taken from the Author of it 2. A second Argument is taken from the advantage and comeliness of order whence God himself has his Title 1 Cor. 14.33 40. He is the God of order He is the Author not of confusion but of peace And he has declared it to be his will that all things be done decently and according to order which is the beauty of Nature the ornament of Art and the harmony of the World without which it can no more subsist than the body can without a due temperament of the humours Now the Powers that be Rom. 13.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are ordained of God God has ordered them as they are He has not only ordained them i. e. instituted and appointed them as we commonly understand the word but by him they are set in order and disposed into several ranks as it more properly signifies He sets up Kings in the highest place giving them the Supremacy and under them he sets up Judges Governours 1 Pet. 2.13 and subordinate Officers to facilitate that work by the assistance of many which would otherwise prove too heavy for any one mans undertaking 3. A third Argument is taken from the evil of sin that is contracted by disobeying Not to obey the Power is to sin against Almighty God 'T is a violation of the Command of the Supreme Law-giver Whosoever resisteth the Power Rom. 13.2 resisteth the Ordinance of God In opposing the one he rebels against the other He is a Rebel against God that rises up against his Prince or makes any opposition to the Governours that are sent by him The confederacy of Corah and his Complices against Moses and Aaron Num. 16.11 is called a gathering of themselves together against the Lord. 4. A fourth