Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	bishop_n	john_n	richard_n	14,102	5	9.2019	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28911	A sermon preach'd before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and aldermen of the city of London, at Guild-Hall chappel, on Sunday, Novemb. 13, 1692 by Richard Bowchier ...	Bowchier, Richard, 1660 or 61-1723.	1692 (1692)	Wing B3867; ESTC R19525	13,626	34

A SERMON Preach'd before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Aldermen OF THE City of London AT Guild-Hall Chappel On Sunday Novemb. 13. 1692. By RICHARD BOWCHIER B. D. Fellow of St. John's College in Cambridge and Chaplain to the Right Reverend Father in God Robert Lord Bishop of Chichester LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1692. TO THE Right Honourable Sir John Fleet Lord Mayor of London MY LORD WHen I was appointed to Preach before Your Lordship I little imagined That what was then delivered would have ever receiv'd Your Lordships Orders to be made Publick I am my Lord truly conscious to my self of the meanness of this Discourse but instead of making Apologies I here entirely resign my self to Your Lordship's Commands which both shews my Obedience and at the same time furnishes me with an excellent opportunity of telling the World with what a great Respect and Duty I am My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and most obedient Servant RICHARD BOWCHIER Galatians chap. 5. ver 25. If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit THE words seem to be an earnest and passionate Exhortation to the practice of a Religious and a Christian Life drawn from that particular and exact account of the Works of the Flesh and the Fruit of the Spirit which the Apostle has given us from the 18th to the 24th verse of this Chapter and the occasion of them in short was this As the Church of God has in all Ages been troubled with Men of corrupt Morals and pernicious Principles so in the very first beginnings of Christianity there rose up a sort of Men who as they were the first Hereticks we ever read of so for their damnable Opinions and wicked Lives have much out-done all others of succeeding Times They were Men in whom there appeared wonderful Falseness and Design and who taking always advantage of the Apostle's Absence had by their false and pleasing Doctrines almost every where corrupted that Faith which the other planted Thus we find that they immediately crept in amongst the Churches in the Vpper Asia where they made such speedy work in perverting the Gospel and had by new Scruples and false Suggestions so quickly shaken that Faith which at first seemed so well grounded in the Galatians as occasioned that mighty surprise in St. Paul to find such a sudden change and alteration amongst them I marvel saith he Galat. chap. 1. ver 6. that you are so soon removed from him who called you into the Grace of Christ unto another Gospel These Deceivers designing nothing but Ease and Interest urged vehemently on the new Converted Christians Circumcision and other Mosaical Rites not out of any Principle or a real Perswasion there was in them of the necessity of either but from a base and servile compliance to the humour of the Jews hoping this way either to gain their Favour or escape their Fury For they constrained others to be Circumcised Galat. 6.12 13. only least they themselves should suffer Persecution for the Cross of Christ for neither they themselves saith the Apostle who were Circumcised kept the Law but desired to have others Circumcised that they might glory in the Flesh And as it is easie and natural for Men who can once force their Consciences either for fear or Interest to stick at nothing afterwards how black or desperate soever it may be when they are prest to it by the like motives so these Men having once Preached up Circumcision for fear of the Jews made no scruple afterwards to declare it lawful to deny even Christ himself to avoid Persecution for him 2 Pet. 2.1 Thus denying the Lord who bought them These are the Men whom the Apostles point at in almost all their Epistles and on whom they bestow such black and dismal Characters as never could have been fastned but on the worst of Men Phil. 3.19 Enemies saith St. Paul to the Cross of Christ whose God was their Belly whose Glory their shame who minded Earthly things Without natural Affection Truce-breakers False Accusers Incontinent 2 Tim. 3 4. Fierce Despisers of those that were Good Traytors heady high-minded lovers of Pleasures more than lovers of God having a form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof St. Peter's Character is no less severe concerning them in his second Epistle whom he stiles Chap. 2. Natural brute Beasts spots and blemishes beguiling unstable Soulss Wells without Water Clouds saith he that were carried with a Tempest to whom the Mist of Darkness was reserved for ever Vngodly Men saith St. Ver. 4. Jude speaking of the same Persons turning the Grace of God into Lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ These are the coulours in which they are set forth to us by the Apostles of our Lord and as these Characters to be sure were exactly drawn from their Carriages so then there is nothing can be thought so wicked and abominable so contrary to Reason and so destructive to Religion as that of which these Men were guilty and of which they stand recorded infamous to all succeeding Times Pleasure and Interest being that great principle that inspired all their Actions they followed that to the uttermost And as Mens Inclinations and Desires commonly give a huge byass to their Understandings so they falsly interpreted and used that liberty which the Gospel had given them as an occasion to the Flesh pretending that Christ in effect had set them free from that strict and Religious course of Vertue and Goodness which he came on purpose to establish And thus indulging themselves in the most vicious practices and justifying what they did by high pretences of knowledge they were too far gone in conceit to be reclaimed themselves and too busie and malicious not to corrupt others by their Examples The Infection of these Mens Principles had like a strong Poyson diffused it self thro' the Body of all the Churches for the greatest part of Mankind being naturally unstable and not being able so easily to penetrate into the Designs and Artifices of false Teachers The greatest and most corrupt part of any Communion will commonly embrace and follow those Doctrines which suit best with their Pleasures and Interests And thus the case was now particularly in the Churches of the Galatians whose Character indeed is this That they did run well Gal. 5.7 but were afterwards so foolish and bewitched as not to obey the Truth Chap. 3. v. 1 before whose Eyes Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth Crucified amongst them For at the time of St. Paul's Writing this Epistle instead of adhering to that Gospel which he had at first so successfully Preached unto them and which he tells them in his own defence Ch. 1. v. 12. Was that which he received not of Man neither was taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ They were drawn off it seems by the