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	time_n	word_n	15,308	5	4.0545	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44840	The good old cause briefly demonstrated with advertisements to authority concerning it, to the end, all persons may see the cause of their bondage, and way of deliverance.	Hubberthorn, Richard, 1628-1662.	1659 (1659)	Wing H3223A; ESTC R14167	10,984	17

THE Good Old Cause Briefly demonstrated WITH ADVERTISEMENTS TO AUTHORITY Concerning it To the end All persons may see the Cause of their Bondage and way of deliverance A Cause in this Common-Wealth hath been much pleaded and contended about by Words and Weapons Some have called it Liberty of Conscience but the Light in the conscience the Light of Christ the Lords true Witness in the soul can no man reach for by it as obedience is yeilded thereto is received the Greater and more Marvelous Light of life as being of it and one with it even Grace for Grace the ingrafted Word able to save the soul which increaseth with the increasing of God and so is changed from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord whereby he subdueth all things unto himself and therefore failing herein many men have run violently upon the Bodies and Estates of others whereby divers persons have suffered Imprisonments and cruel deaths some banishments some left their native Countreys and outward Relations and sought where peaceably to inhabit and serve the Lord in other Lands while the generality of the people have been kept in blindness and bondage ignorance and errors by following dumb Idols even as they were led By others the said Cause hath been and is called The Cause of God and Religion and so hath been much contended for by a material Sword wherein likewise have been mistakes some seeming to be for one Religion Opinion or thing and some for another the one pure and undefiled Religion remaining still the same that ever it was but not so contended for by those that are exercised therein for that is the Work of God in the Light of Christ in the conscience in the soul a spiritual hearing the voice of the beloved Son of God the true Teacher the one High-Priest set over the houshold of God who leads from such Acts of violence upon that account to suffer freely for his Name and so be made perfect in him to worship him walk with him and be one with him and obey him in all his Commands and not yeild to his Enemy in any thing or do to another that he would not be done unto This only can please God And this Religion and spiritual Worship is not of man nor taught by man but by the revelation of Jesus Christ with the mighty Power of God and can neither be set up nor pulled down by any material Sword or outward force for in this man's Wisdom Power Strength or Righteousness hath no place but is so contrary to it that whensoever any man takes upon him herein to command order direct or defend he mars all that ever he meddles with as said the Apostle Who hath known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him The Saints have indeed the mind of Christ and every one gives account of himself to God the heavenly Father that hath committed all Judgement to the Son and all Power in Heaven and Earth whereby to subdue all his Enemies under his feet and when all things are become subject unto him then shall the Son also be subject to him that did put all things under him that God may be all in all This Cause hath of late been stiled The Good old Cause it is like for that it hath met with outward interruptions the revival of which in an especial manner concerns you much entrusted therewith and interested therein in the Parliament and Army because that by your Orders and Actings much blood hath been spilt and treasure spent about it which as you hearken to and keep in the light of Christ single-hearted calm quiet flexible and pliable to do the will of God will be seen and felt with what that calls to you for Consider That the Sword Civil and Military in your hands unexpectedly at such a time as this is not to be born in vain much less to be turned against the innocent neither ought you to fall out about it but to use it soberly in the fear of the Lord for the punishment of evil-doers and praise of them that do well not to justifie the wicked nor condemn the just to take off the heavy burthens to quiet mens spirits and thereby prevent their inclinations to seek outward help any other way for so is the Will of God whose Justice you are to see or cause duly executed that the Earth continue not always filled with violence fraud and unquietness whose Will you seem to desire and pray may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven If therein you be in earnest you will manifest it in Actions of true love to him with all your hearts souls minds and strengths and to us your Neighbours as to your selves that you may be blessed in your deed for you may see that God will not be alwayes mocked with Words give to him all your Honors Wisdoms Power and Strength that he may become your Fear Dread and Counsellor and renew you therein day by day on all occasions as the redeemed of the Lord the repairers of the breaches of many generations a people sought out and not forsaken such as he may delight to honor in his service In the next place give me leave to say That the occasion of the Kingdoms or Nations quarrel with the late King and his Party when they took up Arms against us was in a defensive way for our Rights and Liberties also called the Priviledges of Parliaments and Liberties of the Subjects then so exprest and so understood which the King alwayes opposed by his Negative Voice in order whereunto the Militia was desired or demanded from him thereby to have prevented the shedding of Blood with the Charges and Consequences of War and We the People invited to enlist and maintain each other in Arms upon which Account and for which Cause We freely brought in our Moneys Plate Horses Arms and other Habilliments of War and many choice spirited-men as freely adventured their lives with all that was outwardly near and dear to them Liberty of Conscience so called and Religion seeming therein included and you now again brought together are of them that first eminently appeared for that Cause laid the foundation of it and brought us into the way of a Common-Wealth in order to it and have seen much of the Lords Presence and Power owning it in the hearts and hands of his servants so that though it hath been outwardly obstructed men have not prevailed against it by fraud nor force but split themselves upon that Rock Wherefore take you diligent heed to that light which would lead you into and keep you and guide you in the way of the Lords clearness that you may follow him fully as you have said to lay the Top-stone upon that foundation and the people then cry Grace Grace to it and never more repent of their charge or loss for it when they shall truly and indeed be setled and surely defended in their Rights and Liberties in Persons and Estates

Lord so called Oaths or Swearing contrary to the Command of Christ and several other things too many here to mention contrary to our Rights and Liberties though nothing so grievous as those which more especially concerns our Liberties and Freedoms in the Worship of our God and obedience to him at all times and in all places Now if there be some persons that are so in love with slavery as to desire to continue in the said bondage and account it their liberty so to remain as natural to them because so kept from their youths up and their Fathers before them be pleased to permit such to have that their Liberty under Antichrist until they shall be willing to be otherwise free but let it be by their own Act and Deed otherwise that would be to them bondage let such hire and maintain their own Ministers out of their own purses as they please or can agree provided always that they to be hired be such as are not profess'd Enemies to the publike peace and that they meddle not at all with matters of Civil Government thereby to make others unquiet then may you permit every man freely to enjoy the fruits of his own Land Stock and daily labours without trouble concerning that tedious and vexatious Tax called Tythes so great a scruple in many mens consciences and thereupon finde the generality of us the People freely willing to part with moneys for redeeming Impropriations payment of Souldiers Arrears and other publike Debts and then most freely may you charge money on us for the payment thereof upon so just and valuable considerations It is like there are some other persons that are weary of this Bondage and would be released but dare not yet say so because they see not the way wanting faith in those things which speedily are to be accomplished And it 's also like here be many wise men after the flesh that will not easily be perswaded that this is the way to Peace and our Liberties Now to such I say Remember what you read that Christ said Whatsoever you would that men should do unto you so do you unto them c. Be you willing to put this into practice that it may appear you would learn of Christ for it is not he that saith Lord Lord but he that doth the will of the heavenly Father Is there any thing more equal and just then that all men should hire pay their own Ministers alias servants Would you not have that liberty and be so done unto And were this way speedily put in practice though but for a time you would see this work so great a change in mens minds and manners as divers will not yet believe though it be told them or never so plainly demonstrated to them but rather take offence because of some self-interests and herein I beseech you to take diligent heed lest any of you should be exalted in your selves and think this a kind of arrogancy in me or disparagement to your Wisdoms or that you have not need of Monitors in these times when so great things have been done and suffered upon this very account of Liberty and when the Lord Jesus Christ with thousands of his Saints rides on gloriously conquering and to conquer treading down all Rule and all Authority contrary to him under his feet that which many wise men and Kings have desired to see and yet have not seen it which the Martyrs in the Marian dayes under the bloody Prelates and Priests lifted up their hearts and hands to God for with strong cryes as we have cause to believe frying in the fire and many others in some of your dayes have freely also parted with their mortal lives for dyed in faith but enjoyed not these promises God in mercy having provided better things for us in these times Times I say wherein the worst of men are made manifest wherein the blade springs up and the Tares appear Times wherein the Lord gives people for his people even Nations for their lives that Christ Jesus may rule and reign in righteousness and bring forth his people with joy his chosen with gladness There hath been times when some of you at least have sought him and would have owned him in any appearance refuse him not now in his embraces and tenders of love in those that have embraced him though he doth appear in a despised people where none of the wise men of this world looked for him to whom he is become a Son and a Shield their Righteousness Strength and exceeding great Reward Let it appear if your delight be in the Saints that are on the earth in such as excel in vertue In the Apostles dayes and some years since it is evident that the one onely true pure and undefiled Religion was a plain thing though a great mysterie of godliness and well understood and known by the professors thereof to come down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness nor shadow of changing who of his own will begets sons and daughters with the Word of Truth c. which is his work in the conscience in the soul wherein the Saints obeyed him with diligence delight But since men have invented forms of words in their own wills they have departed from the light and lost the substance and power of godliness and become strangers to the life of God through the ignorance in them because of the blindness of their minds the great things of his law seeming to them a strange thing The true light of Christ in the conscience in the soul that whereby being ascended up on high he draws all men unto him is despised and evil spoken of by such as satisfie themselves with reports and a sound of words without life As for instance let every man consider seriously in that called Baptism It hath been oft said and repeated That therein you make a solemn Vow Promise and Profession That you will forsake the Devil and all his works the vain pomps and glory of the world with all covetous desires of the same and the carnal desires of the flesh that you will not follow nor be led by them and that you will not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ crucified But manfully fight under his Banner against Sin the World and the Devil and so continue Christs faithful Souldiers and Servants to your lives end dying unto sin and living unto righteousness daily mortifying all evil and corrupt affections following the example of Christ to be made like unto him c. and yet how most live in their lusts pride filth and all manner of abominations like the fool that said in his heart There is no God using the true words of Christ That unless a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God praying also That God would grant that which by nature you cannot have c. When will you deal truly with God and your own souls that your own and your Teachers hypocrisie may be by you clearly seen and the great Athiests of this age made manifest that can or dare so to handle holy things without feeling And lastly take this for a Maxim that wheresoever any earthly King Prince Monarch Potentate Power or Authority be he or they never so wise learned or religious shall establish any Religion so called Worship or Discipline or be extolled stiled deemed esteemed or taken to be Head of the Church Defender of the Faith or shall take upon him or them to give Commands or Directions concerning the Worship and Service of God according to his or their best Wit Skil and Cunning that is an Usurpation upon the Prerogative and Authority of Christ Jesus the Head of his Body the Church King of Saints and the one Law-giver able to save and to destroy and such Religion and Faith thereby acquired stands in the Wisdom and Authority of man and not in the power of God being Antichristian deceitful and vain whereby the people become vicious and wickedly hypocritical and that Religion and Church-Government with the Commands Doctrines and Opinions so established serve for Political ends silenceth the Voice of Christ in peoples souls and consciences and causeth them to become formal frequent and unruly talkers of God Christ and the Saints conditions as they have read or heard say contenders about words and questions boasting themselves in things they never saw c. and is dangerous to civil Society and Government the occasion of so great strife contention and bloodshed in all Nations and Ages of Antichrist and no certain assurance of peace or safety can be there either to Magistrate or people but confusion of minds and each in continual fear of other This hath caused so great distances between men so much wicked State-policy on the one hand and Treachery against men in Authority on the other hand Distractions and heart-burning one against another as also such deceit that men for outward peace sake are even necessitated to teach their tongues to flatter lye and dissemble each with other and it opens a door unto any person that gets into Authority by means of the Teachers of such a Religion to put the people into discontents against others and exalt himself to rule alone by his own will in a tyrannical way over them or to set the people one party against another to shed each others blood by Wars about such Religion or Religions when that may serve to usher in some like design upon which account of design for the most part is the impressing of men for forreign Wars What else makes the persons called Papists dangerous in a Common-Wealth and to dwell among Is it not their established Religion Church-Government and Discipline whereby they esteem extol and by all means uphold the Pope as Head of their Church Defender of their Faith c and slight scorn contemn hate and seek to take away the lives of others differing from them therein as Hereticks and have not the Prelates and Priests practices here been of the same or like kind and Presbyters also out of the same root of a muzled formal and Antichristians Religion made supported and maintained by man and mans Authority differing from Popery in some Opinions Observations and external performances R. H. The third Month 1655. THE END LONDON Printed for Thomas Simmons at the Bull and Mouth near Aldersgate 1659.