Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	brethren_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	27	3	8.7514	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B10261	An exhortation to his dearely beloued countrimen, all the natiues of the countie of Lancaster, inhabiting in and about the Citie of London; tending to perswade and stirre them vp to a yearely contribution, for the erecting of lectures, and maintaining of some godly and painfull preachers in such places of that country as have most neede, by reason of ignorance and superstition there abounding: / composed by George Walker pastor of St. Iohn the Euangelists ...	Walker, George, B.D., d. 1651.	1641 (1641)	Wing W357A; ESTC R186166	17,398	26

aboue added vnto them Matth. 6.33 And in another place hee promiseth to such as renounce and forsake the things of this world for his sake and for loue to the Gospell that they shall receiue be sides life euerlasting in the world to come an hundr●th-fold more euen of these earthly blessings h●re in this life Mark 10.30 To which purpose we haue a most cleare restimonie of the holy Apostle Saint Paut a Tim. 4.8 where he saith that godlinesse is profitable vnto all things hauing promise of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come Vpon these sure and infallible grounds both of holy Scripture and common experience I dare be bold to assure you my deare Countri-men that if you heartily and vnseinedly desire to see your natiue Country and kindred flourish in all worldly wealth and earthly prosperitie you cannot for the obteining of your desire in all the world find a more ready way then this worke of piety which I here commend vnto you which as it tends first to plant the Gospell and true religion so it will draw on all other blessings by meanes of them Besides these motiues which arise from the consideration of the worke it selfe our natiue Countrie also and the nature and disposition of the people for whose vse and benefit this worke is intended doe moreouer afford and offer vnto vs many strong incouragements For wee are not to deale with a stubborne bruitish ill natured people like the wild Irish who naturally abhorre all ciuility and are so deuo●ed to their owne old fashions that things which in themselues are most reasonable decent and orderly they doe vtterly detest if they appeare to swerue from the corrupt and abominable customes of their Country and the traditions of their fathers The people of our natiue Country are generally of another constitution and of a contrarie but farre better naturall disposition although they are most constant in their resolutions while they conceiue and imagine them to be iust good and godly and doe follow that course of religion and life which they haue embraced for the best with strong affection and zeale yet naturally they are so ingenious and so reasonable and tractable that when good reason is shewed to them for the contrary they are ready as to conceiue and vnderstand it so to yeeld vnto it generally and for the most part onely some desperate reprobates and refractarie rebells excepted whom God for their wilfull reiecting of the truth hath giuen ouer to bee blinded and bewitched by the delusion and inchantments of Popish Priests and Iesuites and to be possessed by their diabolicall spirit And if we may giue credit to the learned historiographers who haue narrowly searched and taken a diligent survey of all the shires of this Kingdome and obserued and noted in their publike records and writings the manners of the people as the inhabitants of our Country of Lancashire are in bodily feature and outward forme generally more beautifull and comely then in many other Countries so in respect of the inward disposition of their mindes they are euery way answerable that it is a people of good vnderstanding quicke of apprehension well tempered in their wills and affections and ready to be ruled by reason So that if any shall object against this our good motion and oppose as a barre or obstacle against it the blind zeale and head-strong affection wherewith a great part of our natiue Country and many of our people in diuers parts thereof are carried away from the truth and true religion after Popish superstition and Idolatrie and shall from thence conclude that in all likeli-hood and probabilitie our contribution of money and the labours of our preachers shal be spent in vaine and for no profit on a refractarie and obstinate people who like deafe adders will stop their eares and refuse to heare the voyce of the charmers charme they neuer so wisely as they haue done heretofore euer since the first reuiuing of the Gospell and reformation of religion in this Kingdome I will answere that this which is objected as a barre or impediment is indeed none all to such as rightly vnderstand and consider it but on the contrary offers to our consideration speciall incouragements and motiues to further vs in this worke For first true Christianity teacheth vs to shew mercy and charity to our brethren in miserie and bondage and the greater we perceiue that their danger and miserie is wherein they remaine the more to be● moued inwardly with pitty and compassion towards them and rather then we will in dure the ●ight of their continuall extremities to make a desperate attempt for their deliuerance and to aduenture vpon a great hazard euen when there is little or no hope of their recouerie in outward appearance We haue many examples of Gods faithfull Saints recorded in the Scripture● to this purpose The penitent Israelites captiued in Babylon so often and so long as they remembred Zious desolation and the deplored estate of their natiue Country could joy in nothing but spent their time in weeping and in studying the good and prosperity of Ierusalem Psal 137. Queene Hester when her people the Iewes were in extreme danger by reason of a Commission or warrant sealed for the generall massacre and destruction of them all did run in a desperate hazard euen of her owne life and resolued for their deliuerance to attempt the recalling of the Kings vnchangeable decree saying If I perish I perish Hest 4.16 And godly Nehemiah when he had receiued intelligence of the great affliction and reproach of his brethren in Indea after their returne from captiuity and of the City and place of his fathers sepulchre lying wast and consumed with fire was so sad and heauy that he could not rest nor looke cheerfully on the King his Lord vntill by earnest prayer to God and petition to the King he had preuailed and gotten leaue to goe with a large commission for the repairing of Ierusalem Nehem. 1 and 2. Saint Paul the more stiffe-necked that he found the Iewes and the more zealous with blind zeale not according to knowledge the more he pittied them being his Country-men and the more he laboured by all meanes to win them and sought to saue some of them though it were with the losse of his owne life as appeares Act. 24.17 Rom. 9.1 2. And he who is the example of all examples and the patterne whom all Christians are bound to follow our Lord Sauiour Christ when wee all were in a desperate and wofull condition by meanes of our sinfull corruption and many sinnes rebelliously committed against God from which the whole world was not able to redeeme vs did not cast vs off but vndertooke a worke for vs and did vndergoe a burden vnder which all the Angells of God and all creatures would faint faile and sinke downe if it were laid vpon them And therfore as we desire to walke in the wayes of Gods Sainte

and to conforme our selues to our head Christ so let the great danger of our natiue Country and Country-men in which they lye and the slauish superstition and blindnes by which their soules as well as their bodies are held in captiuitie vnder the Pope and the Deuill stirre vs vp to vse this and all other meanes which God hath reuealed in his word and experience of all ages hath discourered to be helpfull remedies against all such maladies Secondly If we examine the cause of this head-strong blind zeale which ouer-spreades our Country and take true notice of the meanes which maintaine this Popish superstition and ignorance in our people they will appeare to bee such as may justly more incourage vs in this worke then any way dishearten or discourage vs from it It is true that some places Cities and Countries for some notorious pollution are hated and cursed of God and set apart to bee spectales of his wrathfull vengeance and examples of dreadful I desolation as the plaine Countrie and Citries of Sodom and Gomorrha And some people are reprobates whom God in his secret counsell hath rejected and therefore either doth with-hold from them all meanes of saluation esteeming them like swine before whom he will not cast the precious pearles of his word and saraments at all as we haue plaine examples Act. 16. where the Spirit sorbad the Apostles and would not suffer them to goe to preach in some Countries and to some people or else doth send his Gospell and the ministers of his word and sacraments vnto them not for their good to conuert them but as a curse for their greater condemnation to harden them as his word and miracles by Moses were sent to Pharaoh Exod. 7.3 and to be vnto them as the Gospell preached is to perishing reprobates euen the sauour of death vnto death 2 Cor. 2.16 Now when and where ignorance superstition and blind z●ale proceede from these causes and grounds they are desperate and incurable and whatsoeuer cost or labour is there bestowed proues vaine is like water spilt on the ground But sometimes ignorance blind zeale superstition and idolatrie are found to ouer-spread some Countries and strongly to possesse some people through want of means and good instruction because God suffers his word and Gospell to be with-held from them for a time either through the malice and negligence of their rulers and ouerseers vpon whom hee hath a purpose to execute his just wrath to the full by bringing vpon them the blood of many poore soules which through their default doe perish or else for to trie proue and exercise the charity of their brethren and neighbours who are called and conuerted already before them and haue receiued grace to bee Gods people whom the Lord hath a purpose to prouoke to pittie and charitie by setting before them such examples of miserable blindnesse which haue great neede of their helpe and commiseration In these cases the greatest ignorance most blind superstition and most head-strong zeale standing for errors and a false religion are not desperate but haue great hope of cure by the word of God and such meanes applied to them yea such head-strong zealous and superstitious people when the true and cleare light of the Gospell once shines vnto them by meanes of an able and powerfull ministery are by experience found to become no lesse but rather more zealous for the truth and for God and godlinesse then before they haue beene for falshood and errors And that this is the very case and condition of our natiue Country and of our blind zealous and superstitious brethren and neighbours inhabiting it appeares plainly by two strong and infallible arguments First that their ignorance and blind zeale proceede from want of ordinary meanes to wit the preaching of the word and good instruction experience plainely proues and no man can with any colour of reason denie For although our Country of Lancashire is one of the largest shires in this Kingdome yet it hath for the publike worship of God onely thirty six Parish Churches within the large circuite of it as our histories shew and some Parishes forty miles in compasse to my knowledge wheras some other shires not much larger then one dinision or hundred of Lancashire are knowne and recorded to haue two or three hundred Parish Churches in them and those farre better furnished with meanes for maintenance of an able ministery then ours are for example the hundred of Fournesse where I was borne which for spatious compasse of ground is not much lesse then Bedfordshire or Rutlandshire it hath onely eight Parish Churches and seuen of those eight are impropriate and the liuings in the hands of Lay men and in some of those Parishes which be forty miles in compasse there is no more ordinary and set maintenance allowed for the ministery of the word and sacraments but ten pounds or twenty nobles yearly And therefore though the people were naturally the most tractable vnder the Sunne no man could in reason looke for any thing but abundance of ignorance ruling among them till it please God to stirre vp the publicke state or the spirits of some godly priuate Christians to prouide some maintenance for the constant ministery of the word to be set vp and continued among them yea considering what large spacious walkes and how many couerts and lurking places there are in those thicke mists and shades of ignorance and darknesse for Iesuites and seminary Priests those sonnes and ministers of darknesse who commonly find best intertainment for their flattery and painted hypocrisie among such people as being naturally disposed to deuotion and religion are notwithstanding held captiue in ignorance for want of meanes and also finde most libertie and best roome to bestirre thmselues and greatest freedome from discouerie in those Parishes where there are no learned Preachers nor vigilant Pastors let reason judge how vnlikely and almost impossible it is for that people to be free from blind head-strong zeale and that Popish superstition and Idolatrie should not generally possesse them Secondly as Saint Paul argues for the nation of the naturall Israelites Rom. 11.1 and proues that they were not vtterly cast away of God because hee himselfe and diuers others of them were gathered vnto Christ by the Gospell and an elect remnant was found among them in the dayes of Christ and his Apostles when generally they persecuted the truth and seemed to be most opposite and stiffenecked So we may much more and vpon stronger grounds of reason argue for our blind superstitious Countri-men that they are not a reprobate people whom God hath cast away and giuen ouer to desperate blindnesse and obstinacy neuer to be conuerted because not onely we our selues being many haue by Gods grace extended plentifully vnto vs receiued the word and doe beleeue in Christ and professe true Christianity but also many noble worthies haue sprung vp and flourished in the Church of God and shined as lights through