Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	king_n	people_n	power_n	15,452	5	5.2145	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97308	A word to the officers of the army. Unto you who at first were raised up by a mighty spirit, to go forth with the sword in your hands, to recover some long lost liberties of the good people of England, from under the tyranical powers of Kings and Bishops; unto whom was truly given the title of the Lords Host, because you went forth in his name, and for his people, and therefore were crowned with wonderful successes, and victories, over your enemies, unto a perfect conquest, even unto you is this word of truth.	Zachary, Thomas, d. 1686.	1657 (1657)	Wing Z4; Thomason E929_4; ESTC R207621	5,358	8

A WORD TO THE OFFICERS of the ARMY Vnto You who at first were raised up by a mighty Spirit to go forth with the Sword in your hands to recover some long lost Liberties of the good People of England from under the tyranical powers of Kings and Bishops unto whom was truly given the Title of the Lords Host because you went forth in his Name and for his People and therefore were crowned with wonderful Successes and Victories over your enemies unto a perfect Conquest even unto You is this W●●d of Truth nouemb 23 1657 YOU have been weighed in the ballance of Justice by the Spirit of the Lord in many of his Servants and are found too light having not been faithfull to the end to effect those great things which were written in your hearts to doe your righteousnesse hath proved like the morning dew it is now vanisht your light is gone out like the snuffe of a candle you who once were as a sweet savour unto the good people of the Nation are now become like salt that hath lost its first savour and is fit for nought having neglected to carry on the work of the Lord have ended in your selves featherd your own nests and lie down at ease and hereby have exposed your selves your names your professions prayers fastings promises and ingagements to the scorne and reproach of your very enemies and the worst of men through the Nation and to the great griefe of the best whose hearts have mourned for you and this because you stand not and abide in that Counsell and Spirit of God in which you first went forth to be servants unto him in carrying on the great work of Reformation but have united your selves and complyed with the old corrupt powers and Interests of the Nation and thereby caused the great Work of God put into your hands to go backward and now stand wholly in your own powers and wills and therefore hath there been a rent among you that those who were most faithfull departed from you and are as Witnesses of God against you Pray consider with your selves a little whether the great Ends be effected for which you took up the Sword if you say they be That our Enemies are conquered and the grand Enemy received justice and that Antichristian power of Bishops laid flat and the pride and glory of our Nobles stain'd Answ It is true and by a mighty power was this done but was it persons you contended with onely or the corrupt state of things there was indeed a deep wound given by you but it was not deadly for you your selves are curing that wound which once you made you conquered persons and took possession of their spirits and entered into their power and if any corruption were destroyed with them is it not revived in you and hath not the Spirit of Kings and Nobles a great resurrection in you and your conquest outwardly over them could not be more compleat then their conquest over you through the help and power of the God of this world who hath made you even drunk with their spirit and hath allured you to follow their steps If we consider a little the originall and ground of the late War was it not that the King and Bishops did take too much upon them the King he illegally imposing Ship-money upon his Subjects and some other things And the other imposing Lawes upon the consciences of men which were grounds of suffering to many and did breed a generall discontent in the good people of the Land which grew so high that it broke forth into publick speeches and at length unto open War But the principall ground of the War was not so much from the King apart or any Acts of his which tended to the oppression of his Subjects it would be a strange thing so to imagine for it could never have quit cost but the remedy would be manifest to be a thousand times worse then the disease Therefore we must lay it upon the King as in Conjunction with that Antichristian Clergy the state of Bishops and all their body of Hirelings his giving power to them to Lord it over the mindes and consciences of men And this power growing to a height of corruption and being swollen big with pride and designes of evill unto any that stood up against them and could not conforme to them even then did the speciall providence of God put a period and stop to that Spirit Now the But of Malice of King Court Bishops and Nobles with all their Officers under them in conjunction with the ignorant profane and superstitious people of the Land was the poor People of God dissenting from them and therefore were persecuted in their Courts as Schismaticks and Hereticks who rent from the Church and these then bore the names of Puritans Separates Brownists Anabaptists c. then a very contemptible generation of men generally poor and despised yet even these were witnesses of God in that and against that corrupt generation and were then accounted the troublers of England when they medled not with matters of state or power but were quiet in their severall places praying for a Change till God opened a door for their liberty upon other occasions Now behold your originall and where your true Interest lies and where it is l●st It lies in the broken poor despised People of God dissenting from the worlds worship and wayes while you were true to th●m and their liberties you did abide in your first Principles faithfulnesse but in as much as you have quit that Interest you have forgotten your selves and your own originall and are fallen from the truth by making a league and friendship with this world which always stood directly opposite to Christian liberty Again minde where the witnesse of truth lies it generally is under the Cr●sse and Sufferings God hath his Witnesses for himselfe in every generation even in that generation which once appeared to have passed away were many of you witnesses for him against that corrupt state of things and therefore did you with many more in the Nation lie under shame and reproach and suffered from that power severall wayes Now while the witnesse lives there is no compliance or friendship with this world becau●e it is the great matter witnessed against for the world is a state by it selfe and is that which stands apart and distinct from the Spirit and Kingdome of Christ and is in direct opposition thereunto and therefore can never be owned by the true Spirit because it would swallow up all into it selfe and bring the Kingdome of Christ under it assuming all power and Authority over the minds and consciences of men and commonly and outwardly expresses it selfe in pride and pomp thrones and dominions which is evermore attended with oppression and cruelty and the God of this world rules in it as the very soule of it Now in as much as you have entered into union and complyance with this spirit of the world

you have quit your old Interest and lost the witnesse of God which is too too manifest among you that you are back sliders from the truth grown proud and lofty and swollen big with honours and greatnesse having drunk deep of the Spirit of this world which you once in your low estate witnessed against If I may compare you with the former power that you fought against will there appear much difference or will you in the least be gainers by it surely not but great lo●sers for to speak of the Nation in generall what the advantages are by your Conquest that is so plaine it needs not be mention'd that the burthens Taxes Excise and Customes extraordinary doe plainly render us in a far worse condition then in any late Kings reigne But that which might have made most for your advantage and would have been a sufficient return for all outward losses had you remained faithfull had been the procuring and setling the Spirituall Liberties of the People of God so far as they be externall under the severall administrations of the Spirit in their severall and different formes in Religion wherein they walk peaceably that no civill power might have mingled it selfe with the Kingdome of Christ for the bringing in any forceable Reformation therein and the subjecting of it to any outward and secular power and herein was a great price put into your hands to have been as a wall and Bulwark to the People of God and a protection from the violence of the w●●ked and profane People that so light and truth might have had a more free and easie entrance among us But since your declining and falling from your first love and zeale and that the Earth hath come over you and choaked your witnesse you have given up that power once in your hand and so lost the price having no heart thereto are grown carelesse and corrupt in judgement and so have suffered a great breach to be made upon Christian Liberty by your selves and by most in power in the Nation in permitting and causing so much Persecution of that poor despised and righteous people called Quakers which most Prisons in the Nation doe witnesse and it is not possible for you to set free your selves and the Nation from the guilt of their many and cruell sufferings and yet many of these were of you and from you and are your surviving witnesses that when and where you left they came forth not with your gallant words and lofty notions to please their hearers but with brokennesse of spirit in humility and selfe-denyall neglecting and quitting all the honours and profits of this world that would not consist with a Disciple of Christ a People just in their dealings among men deceiving none opp●essing none desiring no mans silver or bread for nought and yet even these findes as hard measure from you as they might from Turks And if inquiry be made of what Laws they have broken what is their trasgression the answer commonly is because they are Quakers and sometimes because they will not put off their hats sometimes for coming into your Churches and making some reply to the Minister for preaching false doctrine to the people which is their grand crime And for these and such like Offences as you judge them are they drag'd to Prison and there often are worse used then the common rogues so that if strangers should hear of their sufferings onely they might suppose them to be great plotters of mischiefe against the State and some notorious and wicked persons but for a sober strict quiet and conscientious people thus to suffer under you and those in power in the Nation doth plainly discover you that you have forgotten that liberty of conscience which once you professed and practised for how oft did many of you when you were in your zeal for truth go into Congregations and reprove the Ministers for hirelings and for the false doctrine they preached and enter their Pulpits and Preach your selves is it a crime now and was it not then or did the Ministers then onely preach errours and not now or doe you believe in your consciences that you were of more understanding to know truth and error then these people are or is it not a plain compliance with them to strengthen your Interest by them Pray consider I am sure of this that you would have accounted that Justice of Peace an enemy to the State and to the truth and a great Persecuter that should then have sent some of you to Prison or caused you to be whipt or put to hard labour for your so doing but the power was in your own hands that the pesecuting spirit in Justices which now acts did not then dare to appear and as all that zeal for truth in you is slaine by the God of this world so doth the persecuring spirit arise in those that have power in the Nation as well as your selves and you doe now by your apostacy give life and spirit to them who did not dare formerly to manifest themselves And now things are so turn'd about that a man may with much more safety and security go hear an Episcopall Minister and the old Common Prayer again then go to a meeting of these innocent People for unto one is safety but to the other perpetual danger either by the rude multitude or by corrupt Justices Further what strange provision is made to make these People transgressors by Acts of Parliament the one for disturbing publick Preachers as you esteem it the other to suppresse them as rogues and vagabonds what plottings and contrivings are there now to spread their nets to catch and undermine these righteous servants of God And this may be truly said that the number of these sufferers have been more under this present power then of all the Sectaries put together in the whole reigne of the late King And if some speciall power and providence of God doe not step in to stop and allay this Antichristian spirit that is full of enmity and big with persecutions O' England England thou art like to be stain'd with the bloud of the Innocent But doe not deceive your selves for though you revive Kings and Nobles Lawyers and Priests and summon these with the worst of the people to your assistance that you may hold up a rotten state of things yet notwithstanding the work of the Lord must go on and is carried on by a contemptible people whom you despise though not by might or power but by the Spirit of the Lord. Therefore Oh that you might be warned not to touch any of the Lords annoynted ones for whatsoever you doe against them will be found in his appearing to be against him and truly there is great cause to believe that if Christ himselfe should appear now in person you would deal as hardly with him as with other the Servants of God cast him out of your Synagogues hale him to Prison take him up as a rogue or vagabond to be whipt or set to hard labour for know that it is but the same spirit that would doe it to the least of his Disciples as to himselfe Therefore you who have the least tendernesse left and the least sence of your back slidings stand still and seriously consider what you are doing whose Interest you serve and you will then see your work ended or stuck in the mire that your locks are cut and strength is gone that the God of this world hath bribed you and hired you to his service that you are posting back again to serve him under Kings Princes Nobles and Bishops that they who hated you may shake hands with you and say Are you also become one with us Even thus are you departing and departed from your old Interest and marring your selves to a Harlot that will prove false to you and deceive you at last But notwithstanding the Confederacy Combinations Counsells and designes of all the powers on Earth to keep Christ out of his Throne yet will the Lord exalt his Son in the midst of us and the Scattered dust of Sion shall live and reigne with him in the midst of her Enemies T. Z. LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert at the Black-spread-Eagle near the West end of Pauls 1657.