Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A53752
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A plain sermon preached to a country congregation in the beginning of the late rebellion in the west published for the instruction of country people in their duty to the King, and the refutation of some slanderous reports raised upon the preacher / by Vin. Owen.
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Owen, Vin.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing O832A; ESTC R20886
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19,128
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36
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A Plain SERMON Preached to a Country Congregation In the beginning of the late REBELLION IN THE WEST Published for the Instruction of Country People in their Duty to the King and the Refutation of some slanderous Reports raised upon the Preacher By Vin. Owen LONDON Printed and Sold by Randolph Taylor 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—â—â—ners-Hall 1685. AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER THis plain Sermon Preached to a Countrey Congregation without any design of making it public was drawn from me by the Clamors of some People against it and the Aspersions they cast upon me for it The Occasion of Preaching it was this when I first heard the news of the late Rebels in the West I thought it my Duty to put my Parishioners in mind of their Duty to the King and to endeavour to confirm them in their Loyalty against all such Temptations as they might probably meet with from evil minded men To that end I preached the greatest part of what is here Printed the next Lords day hoping that it might do good and being Confident that it would not give the least offence because I had more then once upon some Occasion or other either in Preaching or Catechising delivered the same things for substance and offended no body by it But within two days after I was told that some of my Parishoners had said I had made a bad Sermon the Sunday before a Sermon that had little of the Gospel in it but why they thought so or what they faulted or who those wise men were I could not learn from him that told it me And the next day there was a Report brought to my House from a Village seven miles distant That I had Preached the best and greatest part of my Parishoners out of the Church This great lye I could not but wonder at and being told that it was one of my own Parish that brought it thither and had probably carried it further it was some trouble to me And upon second thought I resolved to Preach the same Sermon again as near as I could in the very same words the next Lords day presuming that some of the more ignorant sort of People had misunderstood my words or that there was great need of inculating the same things to prevent if it were possible the rising of any Seditious or Rebellious thoughts in any of them or to suppress them if they were already risin which some Storys that were scattered abrord the Countrey and were but to easily believed by the common sort did make me afraid of Accordingly I did so adding in the close some few things upon the same Subject But before that work was ended I was informd that I was become the talk of the County and inquiring upon what account I heard it was for preaching Popery and it was said by many that I was turning Papist if not turned and it was added that I had great Correspondence with a Gentleman of the Popish Religion in my Parish sent him News and received News from him dayly though I had not seen nor heard from him in several Months and he was at that time as I was informed in Warwickshire and it was said in a Popish house not three-miles from me That I had Preach'd that the Pope was Supream Head of the Church How I resented these slanderous Storys the Reader may easily guess That in a Parish where I had lived several years and taken no little pains Preaching and Catechising Constantly every Lords day and sometimes on other days when I had wronged none but obliged all so far as in me lay where I had not been exact in requiring my dues nor vexed any with Law Suits how obnoctious soever they were to them where I had spent almost all I had received in Hospitality and Charity where I had forgiven many wrongs and sometimes so past them by as not once to mention them to those that did them leaving them wholly to the Reproofs of their on Consciences and it short where I deserved not the least ill will as many will bear me witness for which I must for ever glory to God and I speak it not out of a humor of boasting but as constrained to it to convince my slanderers of the greatness of their sin That in such a Parish I say I should find any so blockishly ignorant in matters of Religion so heedlss and inconsiderate as to call that Popery which was downright against it or so ill affected towards me as to raise and spread abroad such slanderous Reports against me at such a time and when they could not but know that if the Rebels had been able to have brought their forces amongst us the Reports would have exposed me to their Fury and in all probability have cost me my life if they could have gotten me into their Hands or that they should be so ill affected towards the King when I am sure they had been taught better as for his sake to Persecute me thus with their Tongues all this I belive the Readerr will think was no light Affliction to me And yet this was not all for as I had reason to believe that I had lost all my labour of Love with many of them and saw them in the ready way to lose their own Souls so by what I heard from some of my Reverend Brethren concerning the Carriage of the people towards them I saw plainly that the Enemies of our Religion would draw no small Advantage from thier Humor and Doings and that they were taking a direct Course to deprive themselves of that Religion they seem so fond of But how sadly soever I resented all this and more then this I resolved to keep my Resentments to my self and never to declare them to any and had done so I beileve if it had not come into my thoughts that my seeming unconcernedness might be interpreted to my prejudice and made an Argument against me that I was indeed very much inclined towards Popery Having therefore changed my Resolution and begun to unbosom to my self to some of my Friends they told not that the best if not the only way the Report being carried so far to wipe of those Aspersions and to make the slanderers ashamed was to Print my Sermon This Advice though not approved at first I resolved at length to follow upon these Confederations That I was concerned to wipe them of if I desired to do any good in the Countrey the name of a Papist being no less hated by the generality then that of the Devil and becoming every day more odious to them by the Storys that go about with how much truth I know not of the threatning Speeches and insolent Actions of some of them That the Sermon plain at it is contains wholsom instructions and may do some good with Gods blessing both among Protestants and Papists for that some of both sorts will read it who have read nothing else upon this Subject I am very Confident That some who are too apt