Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	day_n	heart_n	people_n	10,406	5	4.5799	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A84598	The good old cause dress'd in it's primitive lustre, and set forth to the view of all men. Being a short and sober narrative of the great revolutions of affairs in these later times. By R. Fitz-Brian, an affectionate lover of his country.	Fitz-Brian, R.	1659 (1659)	Wing F1068; Thomason E968_6; ESTC R207693	12,497	16

brought backe the glorious displayings of our revived comforts When reason was p●sled and could not discern the least probability of succour when our enemies triumphed that their mountain stood strong and that they had so firmly seated themselves as that it was impossible for them to be removed the Divine power and goodness which befool's the wisdome of the wise works contrary to humane appearances overth●ew their confidences as in a moment And wo●king wonders for his people exalted them from the dunghill unto a condit●on of em●nency and enlargement It is a delight to consider what a lively generous active spirit was poured out in those daies upon those good hearts which befo e had suffered hard things who being awakened by the ar●sing of the glory of the Lord upon them did pray believe and act vigorously to reduce this disordered shattered Naton unto a posture of a sixt and happy settlement The eminent Worthies then assembled in Paliament did sweat and toil and thought no hardship's too much to be undergone no difficulties too great to be encountred with to promote and accomplish a perfect Reformation How much do succeeding generations owe to them for all their diligence and sedulity for all their watchings and pains-taking for all the affronts and scorns which they endured The fruit and success whereof we are at this day reaping and enjoying It cannot be thought but that so great a work undertaken in such a distempered dreggy juncture of time should meet with strong oppositions and that many great Mountains should then stand in the way as hard to be removed as they were powerfull to darken and overshadow those small beginnings Hence was it that all sober and good men knowing themselves deeply concerned in those concernments and that all that was dear to them was wrapt up in the happy and uninterrupted proceedings of the Parliament they did to their utmost capacities endeavour to strengthen their hands and did bring in several materials to advance so excellent a structure The Parliament is no other than the high and supream Court of Judicature entrusted with the rights and liberties of the Nation and they acting singly for the good and advantage of those whom they represent and to redress all oppressions and grievances lying upon them They ought to challenge all their endeavours their counsels and their abillities to assist and support them in that work It would be a prodigie in the constitution if the Parliament should betray and sacrifice the Native freedomes of their Country unto the exorbitant will and lust of any person or Authority And it would be as g eat a senslesness and stupour in the people if by deserting the Paliament they suffer them to sinke and be ruined whilst they are contending with any Malevolent power that rises up to inslave them There was in these virgin daies such a mutuall strict and lovely harmony and agreement as this between the Parliament and the honest unbiass●d peop●e of the Nation whe●eby it came to pass that the management of the affairs then in their hands though intricate and perplexed enough and forcibly resisted yet made so succesfull a progress It was the great aim of those worthy Reformers to take away every thing that had the impress of usurpation upon it And as prophaneness and superstition had their birth and rise together and availed mutually to rivet and establish each other in the Commonwealth so was their extirpation and downfall together All that will-worship All those supe●st●tious rites and observations of daies and places All those exactions that had been prest upon the consciences of tender Christians all Innovations whatsoever not warranted by a Divine rule all prophane rioting disorders and excesses and all sports and pastimes the bane of youth and the poyson of good manners not consistent to a well-guided Commonwealth These and whatsoever else was contrary to sound Doctrine to an holy conversation and was an offence to good men were removed and taken out of the way And ●hey did not onely cleanse the outside and pare off some superficiall excrescencies but they pierced into the very heart and marrow and by mak●ng the vitals sound they endeavou●ed to prevent the return of such destruct●ve maladies That great Tree which had spread it self not onely to the hurt of ●he Nation but even to the terrour of all gracious spirits had not onely some of it's lofty boughs lopt off but was even pluckt up by the very roots They w●ll knowing that superstition and rigour would in time have pullulated and budded forth afresh had any of that Episcopall stemme been left remaining This was a great atchievement very unfeis●ble in the eye of reason but God who levells Mountains and m●kes rough things smooth put it in the hearts of the Nobles to effect it and the people were willing unto the work And as it was an inlet and a necessary precedency to their great mutations that were to follow so it could not be compast without a dreadfull noise such unexpected and unusuall shakings being ever accompanyed wi●h the fury and displeasure of the mighty ones Nor did they terminate onely here contenting themselves to take away those things and that Jurisdict●●n out of which as out of a corrupt Fountain those disorders had issu●d But they proceeded also to call into question those persons who by their evil counsells had been the Author of al● our m●chiefs There is no greater Plague to a Commonweal●h than the swarm of Sycophants and evill Counsellours who are still exciti●g ●he Prince or chief Magistrate to tread upon all Lawes and to incroach upon the peoples rights who being it may be in some things obnoxious themselves to the censures of the Law can never think themselves safe but by walking in irregular extraordinary paths and by diverting the stream of all things into the channel of Absoluteness It was therefore the wisdom of our Worthies in Parliament not onely to degrade and remove such from their places and imployment but to bring the most notorious offenders in that kind unto condigne punishment That as they had publiquely offended so they might publiquely answer it at the barre of Justice under the stroke of which some of them fell though not without a mighty crackling and payd the punishments due to so great enormities Whereby there was as well publique satisfaction given to the Nation for the past in juryes it had sustained as a terrour and discouragement left to such as should succeed from attempting the like practises for the future Sect. III. The Cause in its first rise and production IN the pursuit after a thorow Reformation as a regard was had to the great interests and concernements of the people of God that their Consciences should not be under Snares and Yoaks by reason of rigid impositions nor their persons subjected to the Tyranny of any insulting Jurisdiction So the just Liberties of the Nation in things of a civill respect were industriously contested for and

to the one sometimes to the other party There was much blood spilt much treasure exhausted and yet a desired and happy end thereof was to the eye of reason as remote and far distant as ever But in a good and beautifull season well known to the wisdome and love of our God to whom we had silently committed our selves and our cause There was on a sudden the breaking forth of a mighty presence the displayings of an invinsible spirit to decide the Controversie And when men failed some deserting and proving treacherous some designing the ruin of the Instruments engaged in the worke and almost all contemning them as uncapable to carry it on Even then did the Lord exalt himself and accompanying those poor despised ones even to wonders blessed them with uninterrupted successes It was then when the Providence of God contrary to all humane appearances and beyond their intentions had modelled and brought together his own people and imbodied them in an Army to effect his great designes It was by these that he thrash'd the Mountains that he hew'd downe the towring Okes that he brake the insulting tyranicall powers And whom he particularly singled out from amongst all others to accomplish the great Affaires then on the Wheel As if he distinctly pointed out thus much that he had reserved for them the honour of the day that it was peculiarly for their sakes that he had brought about those unexpected Revolutions That as they had been the chiefest sufferers and been trampled upon by the haughtinesse of those insufferable Oppressors so they should be the chiefest and most eminent that should at once both worke those deliverances and enjoy the fruits of them And though they were of different apprehensions and judgements in some things pertaining to the Conscience yet they were all indifferently made use of and in the bonds of strictest love united in the carrying on of that common Cause And there was not the least inconsistency but that they might still have mutually joyed in the Advantages arising from thence without jarrings and discords untill the day should dawn that by the revelation of Truth in its clearest appearances expelling all mists and mistakes they might firmly fix and center in one heart and in one mind Sect. 5. The interposall of a jurisdiction as destructive as the former AFter that this righteous Cause had been so triumphantly owned and witnessed unto even beyond the face of a deniall After that the name of God had been so lifted up and magnified in the vindication of it that all the adverse Forces were scattered and broken with all their Complices and Adherents After that we had risen up to full grown expectations that we should undoubtedly reape the blessings of our long and difficult contests and of the expence of all our toll treasure and blood There presently brake forth a furious fiery party which endeavoured to erect a Dominion as rigid and as destructive to the Peace and Liberties of the people of God as ever that Power was which had been formerly extirpated who breathing out threatnings and being of fierce spirits twisted severe rods for our backes and layd impositions upon our consciences as heavy and grievous to be born as those were under which the former generation had miserably groaned It is well known to what an height the Presbyterian jurisdiction did all on a sudden Mount how ruggedly they dealt with many precious tender hearts that could not in all things conform to their prescriptions And as if they had set themselves not onely to equall but even to outvy the Episcopall Tyranny they cast into prisons such as did encourage and frequent Christian meetings in private houses Wherein they did very little differ from their Predecessours the Bishops who branded the spirituall communion of the Saints in those daies with the name and crime of Conventicles They exacted Tythes without remorse they arrogated to impose Articl●● of Faith to be necessarily owned and believed suitable to the narrow limits of their darke understandings They condemned for blasphemy errour heresie and sectarism all such opinions as did in the least differ from their over-weening conceits and apprehensions and assuming as it were an infallibility to their dictates and interpretations They prosecuted all dissenters with fire and sword and suited for them respective punishments according as their Arbitrary and enraged wills did hurry them They ambitiously aspired to seat themselves in the chaire and like the Episcopal Grandeur they encroach't over the civill power setting their foot upon it and wieling it at once both to serve their own Interests to execute the severity of their injunctions They grasp't after a Lordliness to inslave the Nation under their girdle and as their pride inconsiderate zeal and hot tempers did sway them they laid the foundation of a most bloody and insupportable persecution It was strange to see how all our hopes were dasht on a sudden how the heavens were overcast and the serenity which we rejoyc'd in for a season was obscured with the interposall of a thick dark cloud What a poor and barbarous requitall was it to the Army and to those good Hearts that had borne the burden of the day that had willingly hazarded themselves in the vindication of the just liberties of the Nation to be put to this streight for their conscience sake either to imbrace a prison or else to chose an exilement from their native comforts relations and into remote and forraign countries How dissonant was it not onely to all Ingenuity but even to the very ends and intrinsick intendments of their ingaging at first in that quarrell to have the name only changed but to be really under as great yokes pressures and burdens to have arbitrarinesse oppression unrighteousnesse and slavery perpetuated under as strong enforcements as they were before the beginning of these differences Yet surely if we will not betray and forfeit our understandings we must needes say that the power which then had risen up with a new shape as dreadfull and dangerous as that former was which had been abandoned and subdued Sect. VI. The cause in it's second appearance explained and enlarged BUt in this difficult perplexed juncture the Lord of glory who had great discoveries of Love and goodnesse to dispence forth did not then desert his people nor their cause He was pleased to take that advantage to advance their's and the Nations concernes to an higher and more flourishing State than at first was in the eye I had almost said in the wishes of our Reformers The Army therefore groaning under those unjust provocations Having bleeding hearts for the enthralments and sufferings of their fellow-bretheren being excited and awakened by the Lord being assisted with the united prayers and counsells and strength of his people they did seasonably interpose And according to the duty incumbent on them and to the opportunity offered them They did endeavour as well to remove the miseries then impending and threatned as to