Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	church_n	day_n	time_n	20,034	5	4.0316	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B08801	To all the churches of Jesus Christ, called to be saints through the immortal seed which dwelleth in you, and shall be with you for ever. Grace be with you, and peace from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ.	Collier, Thomas, fl. 1691.; Strange, Nathaniel.; Glass, Thomas.	1657 (1657)	Wing C5300A; ESTC R224213	4,403	1

out your time your strength your zeale while you have been asleep in the lap of this Dali●●h your locks have been cut off and you are but as other men that whoever beholds you may say what singular thing do ye now then lay to heart these crying abominations of Sion the generall complaint in almost all the Epistles the world is too beautiful Satan hath shee l them the Kingdoms of the earth and this hath Bewitched them and their minds are much oh too much alienated from the Lord. Oh brethren the lot is fall●n upon this as a troubler of Israel and that for which you have fallen before your enemies bring it out now and stone it before the Lord yea raise up such a heap upon it as it may never appear more that God m●y make this Valley of Ach●r a door of h●pe This iniquity hath been apparently written upon your for●heads witness your ●emisness i● meetings your neglect of the poor Sain●s and of the Ministers of Christ whose daily complaints and addresses are living monuments of this raigning abomination your cruelty to servants children exacting all their labours but take no time to counsell them instruct them to shew them that are without Christ that miserable estate wherein they are that their souls may be the better for you and they bound to blesse God on your behalf And to commune in the Lord with them that are in Christ that their souls might be comforted edified and encouraged to walk with God in their places This hath made professors families so dry useless unprofitable Saints communion so little tending to edification This ●in eats out all that divine sweetness of regenerating and sanctifying grace We have mou●ned in that we have had so great a hand in this trespass in not bearing so faithful a testimony against it in our miyistry but slavish fear of being accounted selfish or the like hath stopt our mouth untill the mouth of this iniquity hath almost devouring the poor Churches of Christ Oh we would not consult with this flesh any longer but in our places and desire by these to provoke all the ministring brethren every where also to be faithfull to the Lord and their poor Churches to bear a faithful testimony against every evil way that is hated and abhor'd of God what censure soever they may meet with all from men That of slothfulness carelesness another reigning evil from these two as the root springs many other dangerous hurtful practices the great hinderances of our works in our Families the Churches and our own Souls And because they are evils rooted deeply in the heart it is hard to get them out And we have by experience found how well they are able to bear with testimony against them with Reproo●s and Counsels and yet lie close they are Sermon-proof and Epistle-proof so strong that they have wrested all weapons out of the hands of Saints and Ministers that have been formed against them Now we desire we may no longer rest in a testimony of words but proceed to take some effectual course that sin or sinners may be purged out of the house of God In order to this we desire the Churches that they would set some day or days apart wherein they may bewail these iniquities and pollutions of Sion before the Lord and to bring their souls into a through sence of them also that the ministring brethren would without respect of persons bear their constant testimony in their ministry and from house to house night and day warning every one to flee from those abominations that at least they may deliver themselves from the blood of souls having declared to them the whole counsel of God And if still it be persisted in and plain proofs of it in the ways and works of the professors of Christ we leave it as the Churches special duty to pursue it by dealing with it until sin or sinner be purged away We shall leave it to the Lord and those with whom the Lord hath intrusted with his Oracles to be further opening and alledging those things whose words we desire may be heeded Another ●vil we had thought to have spread before you for want of opporunity we shall now omit yet desire you may lay it to heart look over again our former Epistles and that from Chard we have laboured in vain that which hath been brought forth hath been to so little purpose And now brethren our hope is in your obedience in those things we hope we shall rejoyce in you nay we do rejoyce in our hope of you in this hope we commit you to the Lord and to the word of his grace who is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified We remain Yours dearly to love in and ready to serve you for Christ Jesus Thomas Collier Nathaniel Strange Thomas Glass From the meeting of the Messengers of the Churches in Tiverton this 18 day of the 7th moneth 1657. signed by us in their names and by their appointment We have appointed our next meeting at Dorchester and desire the Churches to send their Messengers to be there the 2d day at night of the 2d week of the 3d month vul May 1658. London Printed for Thomas Brewster at the three Bibles in Paul's Church-yard 1657.

To all the Churches of Jesus Christ called to be Saints through the immortall seed which dwelleth in you and shall be with you for ever Grace be with you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ Dearly beloved Brethren WE hope it is on our hearts to live and die with you as those that are joyned to the Lord and each to other by the will of God members of that one body built up through that one everlasting spirit a holy Tabernacle for the living God Neither is it the least part of our joy to be serviceable unto you who are our joy and the delight of our dear Jesus Surely we have been made in much sense to say to the Lord our goodnesse extends not unto thee but if as a few poor worms we may be usefull to thy excellent ones to help them on to the end of their faith the salvation of their souls it shall be enough unto us And for this we would labour night and day warning every one of you striving with you and together with you with God for you that every one of you may be presented perfect in Christ Jesus This design and honest desire of our souls hath brought us together from far to ●it before the Lord in this place where we have been taking upon us to speak to God though dust and ashes Yea we have been encouraged to spread before your Father and our Father the several weights that lie upon you and us Wherein we have not been without hope the Father hath not taken advantage through our confessions to condemn us in his presence or to upbraid us but hath smiled upon us notwithstanding And though we have been ready to cry out we are cut off from before thine eyes yet hath he heard the voice of our supplication And it is no small addition to our comfort while we think of it that while we carried the yokes and burdens of whole Sion and have been as the souls under the Altar crying How long Lord holy and true why doth this Chari●t wheel make so ●●ng tarrying the Lord hath lightned us while we have thus looked unto him Neither shall we be ashamed to say to you Rejoyce oh Daughter of Sion behold your King he commeth in righteousness and in peace to give an expected end We have told our Father and your Father that we could not be satisfied with life for our selves peace for our selves white robes for our selves unless Sion also might be made partaker of the salvation of God And in this we hav● had some faith and some revivings have attended our souls in the hope of his mercy and now as we have been faithfull for you to God so we would now be faithful for God to you We have been arraigning the abominations of Sion b●fore the bar of the most High we have been crying for Justice from the throne upon every sin for strength and light to purge out every persisting impenitent sinner as enemies and traytors to the crown and dignity of our Lord Jesus More particularly we have been spreading out our hands before the most High and have made confession of those reigning abominations in our own souls and in the Churches that light spirit living short of the true light and sense of Gods Majesty in his Churches and among his Saints from whence proceeds that vanity and carelesness which doth so much attend them We have bewaild that wretched worldly spirit that plucks down the Saints from their excellency and leaves such blacknesse upon them which renders them so uncomely in the eyes of men We have bewaild that coldnesse and deadness that is upon our selves and upon the Churches That formality in holy duties that indifferency that Laodicean spirit that is fallen in upon us while we have be●n ●ry●ng Let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it let the counsel of the Lo●d come that we may know it and all this wh●le h●ve been drawing iniquity with the cords of vanity having been in a great measure as without the sence of the work so without the true travail of soul which this work should put us into For these things our souls have been bowed down And some have been made to cry out O● that our heads were a 〈◊〉 and our yes were us rivers of tears that we m●ght weep f●r the in●quity of the daughters of Sion Behold for this our souls have been in distresse our bowels have been ●●oubled our hearts have been turned within us we have taken off our ornaments we have been breaking and bleeding and have been crying out for more ●ighs because the crown is fallen from Sions head by reason of her iniqui●y We have been bewailing personall iniquity congregationall iniqu●ty national ●niqui●y family iniquity cl●s●t ●niquity we have by search found poor Sion as it were witho●t soundnesse from the crow● of the head to the sole of the f●●o●full of bruises and putrified sores And now we call upon you that tremble at the word of God to come unto us take heed oh take ●●ed of being unsensible of poor Ja●ob● trouble take heed of stretc●ing y●ur s●lv●s on your b●ds of Ivory of drinking you wine in bowls in cha●ting at the sound of the viol ano●●●ing you● s●lves with the chief Spices a●d forget that J●s●ph is in affliction your poor nat●on your poor familys your poor Churches your own poor ●culs are in distresse heaven and earth seems to frown ●rouble within and terrour without these things are come upon thee and who shall comfort thee Oh c●me down sit in the dust call your solemn assemblies pr●cla●m fasts and w●ep bitterly before the Lord f●r all your abomin●tion You have but as it were played with God you have not tr●mbled in his pres●nce you have been wa●ton before him having been without the terror of his Majesty therefore you have confessed and have delighted to word it out with the Lord but alas you have no sooner gon away but you have forgot what manner of men and women you were and thought no more on your prayers Oh how often have you mocked God but oh be not deceived God will not be mocked It appeares already how God takes it at your hands and now once more you have sent us hither and once more our father hath smiled upon us for we have begged him to save us yet this once more and truly we tr●mble If it should be as at other times what will the Lord doe in the end thereof the hope that is in Israel concerning this th●ne li●● in your putting from you that accursed thing Oh now if you would pursue this pride this worldliness this coldness and slothfulness your personal neglects your family neglects the Lord might yet be intreated to return and have mercy upon us that we might be healed Oh that now these things might ●e laid to heart How d●th the world as a canker eat out your affections to the Lord Jesus eat