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
A90689	Englands season for reformation of life. A sermon delivered in St. Paul's Church, London. On the Sunday next following His Sacred Majesties restauration. By Tho. Pierce, rector of Brington.	Pierce, Thomas, 1622-1691.	1660 (1660)	Wing P2183; Thomason E1027_17; ESTC R203182	21,118	38

us therefore cast off those works of darkness and let us therefore put on the Armour of light As if he should have said At this very Time and for this very reason let us live better lives then we did before let us buckle up close to our Christian duties The Reformation of our manners will be the properest Answer to such a blessing Such also was the Reasoning which Moses used to the People Israel Did ever people hear the voice of God as thou hast heard and live Deut. 4. 33. Thou shall keep therefore his statutes that it may go well with thee v. 40. so again Deut. 8. 6 7. The Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good Land Therefore thou shalt keep the Commandments of the Lord Such was the reasoning of Zacharie in his divine Benedictus That the use we are to make of being saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us is to serve the Authour of our deliverance in holiness and righteousness all the dayes of our life What now remains but that we go and do likewise Not arguing thus from our late great changes Because the Night of our suffrings is well nigh spent and the day of Restitution is hard at hand let us therefore put from us the evill day and cause the seat of violence to come neer for now it comes to our Turn to oppress the poor and to crush the helpless and to call Our strength the law of Justice let us never so much as think of the afflictions of Joseph Let our joy run out into debaucherie and surfet into the braveries of vanity and the Injoyments of our lust or at the best let us express it by the making of Bonfires and Ringing of Bells by solemn drinking of bealths and casting of Hats into the Air whereby to make the World see that we are glad rather than thankfull But let us manifest on the contrary and let us do it by demonstration that we are piously thankfull as well as glad Because the Day of good things breaks in upon us Let us Therefore offer to God thanksgiving and pay our vowes unto the Lord Our Vowes of Allegiance and Supremacy Our Vows to assert and maintain our Charters Our Vows to live according to Law and obey the Canons of the Church But above all let us pay him our Vow in Baptisme by forsaking the World before we leave it by subduing the Flesh unto the Spirit by resisting the Divel untill he Flyes That whilst God is making all new without us we may not suffer our Hearts within us to be the only things remaining Old But rather on the contrary that we may prove we are in Christ by that demonstrative argument of our becoming new creatures which untill we do become we cannot possibly be in Christ 2 Cor. 5. 17. Do the two Twin Blessings of Peace and Plenty which have been for many years at so low an ebb begin to flow in upon you from every quarter Then let not your souls be carried away with the pleasant violence of the Tide Let not any Man seek great things for himself but rather study to deserve then to injoy them Make no provision for the Flesh whereby to fulfill the lusts thereof but put ye On the Lord Jesus Christ and adorne his Doctrine by a conformity to his Life Put on his Modesty and his Temperance in a perfect opposition to rioting and Drunkenness put on his chastity and his purenesse in opposition to chambering and wantonnesse put on his bowels and his mercy in opposition to strife and envy You know I told you in the beginning that Loyalty and Love are the two grand duties at which this Chapter doth chiefly drive And having been instant for the first in the former part of my discourse I think it a duty incumbent on me to be as urgent for the second For Love is part of that Armour my Text commandeth us to put on Nay considering that Love is the fulfilling of the Law in the next verse but one before my Text the armour of Light May be said to be the armour of Love too Love must needs be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the whole armour of God in as much as it comprehendeth the fulfilling of the law As one Scripture tells us that God is light so another tells us that God is Love and therefore the Children of light must be the children of Love too Then let the same minde be in us which was in Christ Jesus who when he suffered he threatned not but committed his cause to God who judgeth righteously And let us prove this mind is in us by our forbearing one another forgiving one another Even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us As we are stones of that temple in which the Head of the Corner is Christ himself He meant his Blood should be the Cement to fasten every one of us to One another and all together unto himself And since we see that Disloyalty is taking it's leave throughout the Land le ts rather shut the Door after it by Love and Unity then by breaches and Divisions open a way for its Return Let us effectually make it appear by the modest use of our Injoyments Pacem Bello quaesitam esse That we fought only for peace and Contended only for Union that the end of our strife was our agreement that we aimed at truth rather than victory or rather at the victory of Truth and Righteousness Let our generous deportment become an evidence that as the greatest of our calamities could not bow down our heads so the greatest of our injoyments cannot trip up our heeles That as Crosses could not deprive us of Hope and comfort so the Tide of our Prosperity shall but illustrate our Moderation But above all let us distinguish betwixt our weak and our wilfull Brethren Of some St. Jude saith we must have compassion making a difference But Others he saith we must save with fear pulling them Out of the fire That is we must save them even by making them afraid We must shew them the terrors of the Lord and fright them out of the way to Hell We must in any wise rebuke them and must not suffer sin upon them It is a rule amongst Musitians that if a string is but True 't is to be cherisht though never so grosly out of tune but to be broken if it is false because incapable of amendment Some are so Scandalous that we must not receive them into Our House nor bid them God speed For to bid them God speed is to partake of their Evil deeds 2 Joh. 10. 11. But there is nothing more Barbarous than not to hold from the breaking a bruized reed or from the quenching a smoaking flax Nothing but Pardon belongs to Penitents although they may have sin'd against us no lesse then seventy times seven It is an excellent

so shine before God and men that men may see our good works and God reward them That men may see our good works and glorifie God in this present world That God may see our good works and glorifie us in the world to come Thus you see Saint Pauls Divinity and way of teaching It is indeed a whole body of his Practical Divinity how ever summ'd up in so small a System For the whole Duty of a Christian doth consist in two things first by way of privation in casting off the works of Darkness in denying ungodliness and worldly lusts next by way of Acquisition in putting on the armour of light Living soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2. 12. For so the Apostle explains himself in the two verses after my Text Let us walk honestly as in the Day And how must that be why first he tells us in the Negative Not in rioting and Drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying not in any of those things which were yesterday forbid by his Majesties excellent Proclamation for these are some of the works of darkness the very worst use that men can make of a Deliverance next he tells us in the affirmative It must be by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ By sticking close to his Precepts and taking a copy from his example by having a fellowship with his death and a conformity to his sufferings For this is here meant by the Armour of Light And each of these is improved by three main circumstances First by the union of the one with the other they are not set with a disjunctive that we may take which we please Let us cast off or let us put on as if the one would serve turn without the other But tyed together with a copulative Let us cast off and let us put on neither of them must go alone We stand obliged to do them both by indispensible necessity nor must we flatter our selves that salvation is to be had upon easier terms Secondly by the inforcement of both together from the seasonable conjuncture of our affairs For because the Night is far spent we must divest our selves of darkness And because the Day is at hand we must apparell our selves with light Thirdly by the order in which these duties are to be done we must not put on the Armour before we cast off the Works But cease from dishonesty in the first place and talk of godliness in the second For a godly Knave is a contradiction in Adjecto The {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} hath the Precedency we must begin with casting off whatsoever is contrary to virtue And then comes in the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} we must proceed to the putting on whatsoever is opposite to vice We must not hope to serve two Masters which our Saviour tells us is impossible and which yet hath been the project of some years past erecting a Church for the one and also a Chappel for the other But first of all we must abhorr and forsake our Mammon that so we may rationally endeavour to cleave with steadfastness unto God Thus you see how the Text is ravelled out into Particulars And were I not really somewhat afraid to spend too much of my time in a mere division I would presently winde up all into three great Bottoms Whereof the first would provide against Hypocrisie the second against Indifferency the third against fainting as also against Procrastination And when Provision shall have been made for these four Things not onely zeal and Syncerity but also dispatch in our amendment and perseverance unto the end I know not what can be wanting either to satisfie the Text or to Edifie the souls of a Congregation But before I come to handle the usefull Inference of the Apostle which to do will be the business of more then one or two Sermons the time doth prompt me to make Advantage of his most seasonable Advertisement out of which he doth fitly deduce his Inference So opportune is the Advertisement as well to these as those Times that I may say in the very language though not in the very sense of our Blessed Saviour This day is this Scripture fulfilled in our Ears For We have had both our Jews and our Gnosticks too And are in the highest degree of hope to be rid of both Not I hope by their destruction like that alluded to in my Text but by their happy conversion and union with us For mutual love as well as loyalty is the thing that this Chapter doth chiefly aim at It presseth earnestly for loyalty from the first verse unto the eighth And as earnestly for love from the eighth verse unto the end By unavoidable implication it presseth for love throughout the whole but most expressly and on purpose in no less then four verses to wit the eight the ninth the tenth and the thirteenth We must not Insult over our enemies though we ought to give thanks for their disappointment The mouth of wickedness will be stopt when men shall see us the humbler for our advancement The noblest benefit of a conquest is the opportunity to oblige Rejoyce not saith Solomon when thine enemy falleth nor let thine heart be glad when he stumbleth lest the Lord see it and it displease him and he turn away his wrath from him Prov. 24. 17. From whence it is obvious to collect That to Insult over our enemies may do them good but all that we can get by it is God's displeasure The greatest care is to be taken in the present dawning of our day that it be not overcast with an utter darkness We have already had a long and a tedious night though not so long as the Apostles by twenty years A Night of sorrow and oppression A Night of disorder and confusion A night of Ignorance and Errour A night of Error in judgement and practice too To summ up all we have been seiz'd with a night of suffering which we had drawn over our selves by a Night of Sin It is so far from my purpose to make or widen the wounds of any that you will see before we part I do intend nothing but Healing But I must make an application as well of the Night as of the Day or else the parallel expected will be imperfect And as 't is reckon'd the greatest happiness to be able to say we have been miserable nay and St. Gregory call'd it a happy sin which gave occasion to such a Remedy as the coming of Christ into the world so 't will be usefull to reflect upon the darkness of the night which by the blessing of God is so very far spent the better to relish the injoyment of the glorious day which is now at hand To recount what we have suffer'd is no more then to consider how much we are able to forgive and for how great a deliverance it stands us upon to be thankfull

to the eighth verse of this Chapter you will see the great fitness of all I say and that my Text cannot be satisfied unless I say it For he that saith in this place by the Spirit of God Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers doth also say by the same Spirit Obey them that have the Rule over you who have spoken to you the word of God and who do watch for your souls as those that must render an Accompt And the Interest of the former is so entwisted with the later That untill our Bishops receive their Right though we are glad to have our King we may rationally fear we shall not hold him For ask I beseech you of the dayes that are past and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other if ever there were any such thing as This that a King could be happy without a Bishop Lord What an Epocha will it make in our future Kalendars when men shall reckon from this Year as from the signal Year of Restitution But then like that which Saint Peter mentions Acts 3. 21. The Restitution is to be general as well to God as to the People And you will find in Magna Charta which doth deserve to be imprinted in all your memories That all the Rights of the Church were entirely granted unto God They were granted unto God and that for ever Now of so sacred a force is the word For ever That if a Statute shall be made against the Liberties of the Church The Law of the Land hath provided against That Statute And by an Anticipation declares it Null Shall I guesse at the cause of so great a Caution It seems to be as for other Reasons so in Particular for This Because to alter that Government was as well against the Kings Oath as against the Oathes of both Houses which swore the Right of his Supremacy as well in all Ecclesiastical as Civil causes Besides that in the Judgement of the most eminent in the world for depth of knowledge in holy things The order of Bishops is by Divine Institution And if it is so in good earnest it will be dangerous to deal with the Laws of Christ as we reade * Agesilaus once dealt with those of Lacedaemon which he pretended onely to abrogate that he might not break them But whether so or not so a thing in Being and debate is to pass for good untill the Dispute shall be fairly ended And if an Errour must be adventur'd on either hand Religion tells us it ought to be upon the Right Would any know why I insist upon such a subject in such a place my Reasons for it are plainly These First I insist upon such a subject because my Text as I said doth exact it of me And because 't is my duty at least to wish That the day breaking forth may be full and lasting That the Repentance of the Nation may be impartiall and so to our SOVERAIGNS RETURN there may be added his continuance in Peace and safety I say in safety not more to his Person then his Posterity Not insafety for a season so long as men are well humoured but so long as the Sun or the Moon endureth And then for you of this Place who are an honourable part of the English Nation that which I take to be your Duty I think is your interest to endeavour The most I am pressing on you is this That you will labour for the means of your being happy If you think you cannot be happy with the establishment of the Prelacy I shall pray you may be happy at least without it and also wish I may be able to pray with Faith too Onely as often as I reflect on King JAMES his motto No Bishop no King and withall do consider its having been verified once and before our eyes I think it my duty to desire it may not be verified any more But that it may rather be here applyed what was spoken heretofore of the Spartan Lawes ut semper esse possent aliquando non fuerunt They onely ceased for a Time that they might continue to all eternity These are sincerely the very Reasons for which I insist upon such a subject Secondly I do it in such a place because I look upon This Assembly as on the Head and the Heart of the Royall City I look on the City as on a Sea into which the main stream of the nation runns Even the Parliament it self hath such a respect unto the City that if you plead for God's Spouse as you have done for his Anointed for which your names will be pretious with late posterity if you shall supplicate for a Discipline which is as old in this land as Christianity it self and stands established in Law by thirty two Acts of Parliament and without which you cannot live unless by living under the breach of your greatest charter they will not only be apt to grant but to thank you also for your Petition Having gone thus far in prosecution of the Advertisment That the Night of our suffring is fairly spent and that the day of our injoyment begins to dawn And having directed unto the means with submission be it spoken to all Superiours by which our Day is to be lengthned not only into a year but into an Age of Jubilee to be made a kind of perpetuall Sabbath a Day of Rest from those works which either wanted Light or were ashamed of it which either borrowed Darkness for their Cover or else which owned it for their Cause I humbly leave what I have said to his acceptance and disposall in the Hand of whose Counsell are all your Hearts T is more then time that I proceed to the general use of this advertisment to which I am prompted by the word Therefore as 't is a word of connexion betwixt the duty and the deliverance Our Apostle does not thus argue Because the Night of Oppression is now farr spent and the day of deliverance is hard at hand Let us therefore injoy the good things that are present let us stretch our selves upon beds of Ivory let us crown our selves with Rose-buds let us drink wine in bowles and let us dance to the sound of the viol let us leave tokens of our joyfulness in every street let none of us go without his share of voluptuousness for this is our portion our lot is this I say he doth not thus reason like the swaggerers and Hectors in the second chapt. of Wisdom and in the sixt of the Prophet Amos but on the contrary That the serious consideration of an approaching deliverance should be a double enforcement to change of life for such is evidently the force of the particle {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as that looks back on the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Because the night is farr spent and because the day is at hand {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} let