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	let_v	see_v	12,443	5	3.3866	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70503	A sermon preached before His Majesty at Whitehall March 9th, 1661 [i.e. 1662] by ... B. Lord Bishop of Peterborough.	Laney, Benjamin, 1591-1675.	1662 (1662)	Wing L345; ESTC R5541	15,960	44

press it is evident The Jews that were willing enough to entertain the doctrine of Christ yet were not so easily drawn to part with those Rites and Ceremonies to which they had been so long accustomed and upon so good authority To humour these Simon Magus and his Disciples set up a medley of both Religions that they might be Christs Disciples and Moses too Against this doctrine St. Paul sets himself especially in his Epistles to the Romans and Galations If they have taken upon them to be Christians let them stand 〈◊〉 that and not look back again to the flesh having begun in the Spirit Gal 3.3 For behold I Paul say unto you if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing Gal. 5.2 To claim from hence liberty from any other men or lawes then the Jews they might as well say Christ hath here given them liberty not to be Christians For Christians we cannot be unless we obey the Lawes and Government of those that Christ hath set over us To use our liberty in this case our Apostle in the 16. verse of this Chap. hath adjudged it to be no better then a cloak of malitiousness 1 Pet. 2. And for those Consciences which are so tender that every Church-law pinches and galls them they do without reluctance binde their own Souls Every private man can do that which we will not indure the Church should do He that promiseth any thing is bound in conscience to perform it though before he took that bond upon him he had his Christian liberty not to do it Before Anunias promised to sell his estate and give it to the Church he was free St. Peter told him so Acts 5.4 Was it not in thine own power Yet after that it was not in his power to make use of that liberty for his conscience was bound And if a promise may do this much more a vow or an oath If a man vow a vow unto the Lord Numb 30.2 or swear an oath to bind his Soul Numb 30.2 the Soul may be bound he shall not break his word he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth If a man should be so unreasonable as to say his conscience may be bound by himself but not by any else Do not they themselves as their manner is in their Sermons bind over their hearers to answer for them at the day of judgment and what a heap and load of Sermons must then ly upon their consciences though the truth is they bind none but themselves and that to repent for corrupting Gods Word and misleading the people into Faction Sedition and Disobedience to say no worse Let us seriously consider and compare that which they would avoid with that which they indeavour to set up in the room of it They would avoid first the power of the Church in her Laws and Censures as a domineering over mens consciences and a lording it over Gods inheritance But if they look upon it with an impartial eye they shall find all contrary nothing but moderation as first in the very stile of the Church that there might be no harsh words The laws by which they govern are not call'd laws but canons that is rules to guide rather then force 2. Church-punishments are not call'd poenae but censurae not that they are sweetned with good words only but with real benefit for they are not as temporal punishments ad vindictam but ad disciplinam for the amendment not revenge of sin 3. The temporal judge if not Soveraign cannot pardon the felony though he would The Ecclesiastical judge cannot but pardon though he would not Ecclesia non claudit gremium redeuntibus is a rule in the Court Christian The Church refuseth none that will return and repent There is no such rule in secular Courts that the thief or murtherer upon repentance may be pardoned And by Church-Canons in elder times it was deemed an irregularity to be present at a sentence of blood Not that it is a crime to be so but as the Canon speaks propter defectum lenitatis that nothing in them might seem to be of harshness or cruelty The highest and most terrible of all Church-censures of which men seem to be most impatient how harmless and gentle is Excommunication If he be not guilty clavibus errantibus he is never the worse for it the bonds fall off of themselves if he be guilty he may be the better for it if he will When St. Paul judged the incestuous Corinthian to be delivered unto Satan 1 Cor. 1.3 and this was thought to be Excommunication somewhat more yet this was for his benefit for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit might be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Verse 5. verse 5. What is there in all this that should fright us from our obedience But now let us see what on the other side they would set up in the room of this A liberty of Conscience forsooth from the fetters of laws that they might not serve God in bonds like slaves but freely That they may preach what they will and as long as they will That they may pray how they will and fast when they will That they may stand and kneel where and when they will Indeed a true arbitrary Will-worship instead of a lawful orderly serving of God a confusion of all But they hold themselves wrong'd to be charged with will-worship for that they do all by Reason and the Scripture and the Spirit Yet for all that pretense they are still under that charge because all these are at their own wills what sectary is there that with a wet singer cannot nay doth not challenge Reason the Scripture the Spirit and Conscience to be for him when he will And why do they allow these to guide them and not the Shepherds but because these are at their beek and will but the Shepherds are not And therefore because they cannot command them they would be rid of them that so they might without control Lord it as they will But I shall trouble you no longer with our Shepherds or their Adversaries but for a conclusion and caution reflect upon our selves for though Christ hath comitted the cure of our souls to others he hath not taken it from ourselves The Shepherds were given for a help to ease us in it not to ease us of it Every one may and must be by a concurrent care a Shepherd and Bishop to himself and then here I shall take leave only to put you in mind of your Diocesse your Souls that ye be not our Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this Epistle 1 Pet. 4.15 that we mistake not our Cure for there be other things we have as great affection for as our Souls I wish we had not The rich glutton in the Gospel when he said to his soul Soul take thine ease thou hast much goods laid up for thee c sure he mistook his body for his soul Luke 12.19 for there was nothing in his barns that could feed that This is no greater an error and mistake then we dayly commit our selves to go no farther then this present time Lent if there were any thing left of it among us but the name charges the soul by prayer and fasting to sit and prepare it self to meet our Lord at the Resurrection When we plead our constitution and bealth against it it shews we are no ill Curates of our bodies whatsoever we be of our souls Yea that which hath a better title to be our souls will not lie within this Cure the intellectual and principal part of the soul and the inriching it with the knowledge of Arts and Sciences speculative and practick by which all our affaires and the greatest of all the affaires of the world are governed which imploy the souls best vertues and indowments and for which none but great noble soules are sit Yet this is not the soul for which Christ died and is to be our Cure For when we have gained this and all the world besides we may lose our souls The Holy Ghost takes no other notice of these then as if they were but bodies and indeed for their continuance they are no better for they perish with our bodies the greatest wits and wisest conduct lie buried in their dust with them not will they appear again for us in that world where the soul is most concern'd In a word the Scripture owns no losing or saving to the soul but in that condition which must live and continue for ever Nothing is worthy that name that is not immortal Yet I must recal my self when I said these mortal souls that is in their temporal condition are not within our Cure to get it may be not but to use they are The meanest of them all our Saviour expresly commits to our charge Make you friends of unrighteous Mammon that they may receive you into everlasting habitations Luke 16.9 Things everlasting are proper for the soul And if you shall make you friends likewise of your honours powers and knowledge for the advantage of Gods honour and service certainly they will do as much for you as Mammon can For thus these mortals do put on immortality these corruptibles do put on incorruption 1 Cor. 15.54 You may in this sense make a soul out of your bodies by the chast sober and temperate use of them And so our bodies and all else become the proper Cure of our souls and in the discharge of that care we may expect the blessing of good Shepherds as well as that of good Sheep And when the chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a crown of Glory that sadeth not away 1 Pet. 5.4 FINIS