Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	work_n	world_n	year_n	619	4	4.6399	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91466	The fruits of a fast, appointed by the churches gathered against Christ and his kingdom, who go about to mock God with their outside-worship, and appointed fasts, and dayes of voluntary humiliation. Or, A declaration of the persecution of a messenger of the Lord, by a people who go under the name of Independants, in Essex, who have set themselves in the enmity of their spirits to oppose the truth of God, calling it a lye, and persecuting his messengers as deceivers, and wanderers, wherein their persecuting spirits is made manifest, and them to be in Cains generation, and stranges to the spirit of Christ, which vener persecuted, and so are noen of his, Rom.8:9. And also, of the unjust dealing of Judge Hills, ... And also, severall queries, that was sent ot the priests and magistrates, shich may be serviceable for them, or any other to answer, whom they do concern. / By ... James Parnell.	Parnell, James, 1637?-1656.	1655 (1655)	Wing P530; Thomason E854_14; ESTC R207483	31,427	32

him in newness of life that in me his workmanship might appear to the confounding of the heathen who know him not he by his power kept me and gave me strength to bear his Cross and despise the shame so that neither foul words nor faire words could cause me to deny what God by his grace had wrought in my heart but by his power he carryed me above the raging waves of the tempestuous sea so that I knew that he that was in me was greater than he that is in the world yea and out of my kinred and acquaintance I came and became a stranger to them that loved not the truth yea and presently I came to see the Priests of the world by their fruits and the fruits of their Ministry which was cursed from God and therefore profited not the people at all but when the Lord by his power had changed and converted my heart unto himself the Priests became mine enemies and said I was deluded whenas before when I lived in the vain conversation of the world they took no notice of me either to reprove me or instruct me but as they went on in a customary way for again and lucre speaking against sin in the generall but not reproving it in particular but was as deep in it in their lives as others and so what they preached down with their tongues they upheld in their lives and countenanced in their conversations and so from them I turned whom I saw had gotten a form but denyed the life and power and I sought for a people with whom I might have union and there was a people with whom I found union a few miles from the Town where I lived whom the Lord was a gathering out of the dark world to sit down together and wait upon his name but we was the objects and reproach of the countrey and was accounted as the off-scourings of the world but in all this we saw the Scriptures fulfilled and that we might thus suffer if we would live godly in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 3.12 and here was our confidence and strength which carryed us above our sufferings as knowing it greater riches to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season and about this time I was about 15 years of age afterwards I was called forth to visit some friends in the North part of England with whom I had union in spirit before I saw their faces and afterwards I returned back to my outward dwelling place and remained in my outward calling and the Lord all this time stil more and more perfecting and encreasing his work in my heart which by his power he had begun in me by his pure power bringing forth his truth in me and making known his wil unto me until by his power he opened my mouth to declare his truth in the world stil I continued in my outward calling and also in the work of the Lord as not being called far from my dwelling place and when I was betwixt 17. and 18. years of age I was moved in my spirit to go to a place about fifteen miles from my outward dwelling place southward amongst a people to whom the Lord was making known his truth not knowing when I went out of going farther than that place but when I was there I was moved of the Lord to come on to Cambridge and in obedience unto the Lord I came to see what he had to do for me not knowing one soot of the way but as I was directed neither knowing when I came there where to be received but had heard before of two of my friends that was there whipped caused by the Mayor that then was onely for declaring the truth as they past through the town against the deceipt thereof neither did I know but it might be my portion also when I came there but without conferring with flesh and blood I passed on my journey and he that called me forth went along with me and did direct me and when I came there I found these that was worthy that received me and also I found a friend whom the corrupt Rulers had put in prison for the same testimony which I also was sent to declare and before I had continued there the space of fourteen nights VVilliam Pickering the Mayor of Cambridge committed me to Prison for publishing two Papers the one against the corruption of the Magistrates and the other against the corruption of the Priests at the time of their commencement as they call it and there they kept me in Prison the space of two Sessions and tossed me from Prison to Dungeon and had nothing to lay against me whereby to prove the breach of any Law but when I came to the last Sessions they called a Jury to prove the Papers to be scandalous and seditious Papers and they was nigh two hours about them but could not prove it but came and said that they found nothing but that the Papers was mine which I had before owned in the open Court and there was my name to them to testifie the same and so they was crossed in their intentions and their plots came to nought then they committed me back to Prison again and after the space of three dayes they sent me away with a Passe under the name of a Rogue yet durst not give me the Law which belongs to Rogues but had me away with Clubs and Staves and I could not see the Pass until I was three miles out of the town where I lodged that night and the next day there came a Justice of peace from Cambridge who knowing me to be innocent of what was laid to my charge so he witnessed the Passe to be false and took it back to Cambridge and so I was set free And not long after I went to Cambridge again and went abroad preaching and declaring the truth freely in the Countries about and many I found that received the truth gladly but more enemies yet nevertheless Truth spread and conquered over its enemies there I continued labouring in the work of the Lord about the space of halfe a year in the Countries about Cambridge and from thence I was moved of the Lord to come into Essex where I heard of the people that was seeking the Lord and when I came there I found those that were worthy who received the truth gladly and there I continued freely declaring and preaching the truth from place to place sometimes in the Synagogues and was haled out by the Priests party that the Scripture might be fulfilled upon that Generation yet nevertheless I continued in constant preaching of the word to the consciences of the people freely and publickly in severall plains of the Countrey notwithstanding much opposition both of Priests people and professors and much did the truth prevail in the hearts of people to the glory of God the father of truth which did make glad the hearts of many who

first Chapter of the Thessalonians and the first verse where the Apostle writeth to the Church of the Thessalonians which is God the Father then paleness struck the face of the Diviner neither would any of his fellows stand up to justifie what he had taken in hand and this was it wherein I said he blasphemed to say the Church in God was non-sence then there was one Priest Stellum a Magician of Aegypt who stood up in the enmity of his spirit and accused me with severallys slanders which hardned Pharoahs heart so that you corrupt rulers would not suffer me to clear my self from what he had accused me withall but the Magician got up into the seat of Divination and was going to his abomination a●d then the RULERS called to me to put off my hat then I bid you call to the Priest to put of his cap. And thus may all see the blindness and ignorance of Priests and People who are offended at a hat and not at a can and this is as the vain traditions of the Pharises who observed the washing of Pots and cups and such like things making clean the out-side which Scripture Priest VVillis who said the Church in God was non-sense brought in reference to the people called Quakers because they do not put off their hats in respect or worshipping of mens persons but let any who hath understanding consider which is more Traditional for a man to keep his hat on his head for which end it is made as also his shooe for his foot his glove for his hand or the putting off these things in observation of customes Mat. 15.7 8 9. and reverencing mens person for all which there is no Scripture therefore a vain Tradition of Man and thus they teach for Doctrine the Traditions of Man therefore in vains do you worship God who come neer him with your lips and with your mouths but your hearts are farre from him Iohn 5.44 in the unbeliefe seeking honor one of another and observing vaine Traditions and customes as did your forefathers whom Christ pronounced woe against who were his Persecutors and in whose steps yee are found and therefore read your portion And thus while you are crying against the Scribes and Pharisees for observing vaine Traditions and customes and their strictness in their observations and yet Persecutors of the Iust you also are found the same who are set up in the chiefest place of the Assembly Mat. 23. as they were and called of men Master as they were stand praying in the Synagogues as they did teaching for Doctrine the Traditions of men as they did and are strict in your Observations and calling of Assemblies and in your set-times of VVorship and appointed Pasts and days of Humiliation and yet are persecutors of the just as they were yea in the very height of your VVorship the bitterness of your spirits appeared but is this such a Fast as God hath chosen Nay it is abomination his Soul loaths it and hee will judge the cause of the Innocent upon you Hypocrites and be avenged of you his Adversaries and give you your portion with Vnbelievers in the Lake that burneth prepared of old for Cains Generation in which you are found by the Eternall Light of God which cannot lye which will rise up in Iudgement against you at the last day though now you stumble at it and are offended at it yet then shal you behold him whom you have pierced though with Lamentation and Sorrow of Minde when there is none to deliver you from the wrath of the Almighty and this is answered and witnessed in your Consciences Then the occasion of my passing out of the Steeple-house was this when I could not have liberty to speak in the vindication of the Truth against gain-sayers ye would have had me have stood with my hat off the time the Priest was praying which Worship I denied and therefore could not be conformable to it and so I said before I would stay to fulfill your wills I would pass out of the Steeple-house and many came out after me but not of my calling and many that I knew not and yet you are not ashamed to fay my followers And again That I went into the Common High-way and there kept with the people unlawfully together as you affirm is a very abominable Lye especially for men of your profession to tell which many can witness against for I was passing on the way quietly without disturbance towards my friends house from whence I came not purposing to stop until I came there but that he that writes himself Dyonisius VVakering came hurrying in amongst the people and clapped me on the back and sail He arrested me in the Name of the Protector and there stopped me and the first words that I spoke was VVhere is thy VVrit and so the people gathered about and thronged much but that any gave out menacing and threatning speeches J cannot say neither whom they was spoken against but any that owns me it is wel-known they are not men of such boystrous spirits but rather are made willing to to be reviled then to revile for from me no other example they have as hundreds will acknowledge but VVakering if the was true to that of God in his conscience he would confess how I laboured in his presence to still the people when he had violently laid hands on me and given the occasion and so let all take notice that there was no disorder nor disturbance until the Magistrate came and laid violent hands on me tending to the breach of the peace and against the Law and this is the fruits of your hypocritical fast and voluntary humiliation 3 Accusation And also you accuse me That I could give no good account of my last settlement or of my life and conversation Reply As for my life and conversation let it preach forth it self and them that can accuse me let them and as for my settlement it is in the Lord where I have found a habitation and so am no vagabond nor wanderer though I challenge no propriety in the earth because my Kingdome is not of this world though you accuse me that I appear unto you to be an idle disorderly person and before you set me down Iames Parnel Labourer and thus you utter forth your folly with your changeable minds but I am a Labourer in the Gospel of God in which work none can tax me with idleness since I came into these parts but if I had been more idle in the same ye would have been more pleased for it is my great Labor and Diligence in this work of the free Gospel and the prosperity thereof in the overturning and lay open the deceits of deceiving and deceived men that torments you who are the shelterers of the false Prophet whom you carry in your bosome because he cries peace unto you when the Lord cries woe yet nevertheless it is but for a time for the hand of

should pay one penny for the liberty of my body in this cause would be as much as if I paid the whole fine which thou hast unjustly laid upon me for therein I should own my self a Transgressor where I am not guilty and also a bought liberty is bondage to my spirit but my liberty under thy bonds is bondage to thee which liberty thou canst not rob me of with all that thou canst do for it is the free gift of God which none can take away though thou wilt not allow me in thy bonds to have the outward liberty that thou allows to Thieves and Murderers and Fornicators that is to have my friends and acquaintance to come to seeme wherein the very heathen wil condemn thee who when they had committed Paul to prison said Forbid none of his friends and acquaintance to come to fee him Acts 22.24 Therefore now read how thou exceeds the Heathen in persecution and injustice though I am a free-born subject in England therefore let the life of all the Christians condemn thee who never was persecutors And this of the Lord I was moved to write which is the VVord of the Lord unto thee whether thou wil hear or forbear in the peace of my conscience I do rest in the VVill of God Known to thee by the name Iames Parnel And now a few words unto you who call your selves gathered Churches who go under by the name of Independants in Essex you are gathered by the wil of man and are joyned by the wil of man and so stands in the will of man and are upheld by the wil of man by which you are begotten but stil alive in the worlds nature in the worlds customes fashions and traditions in the worlds fellowship words and waies and rudiments only differing from others in judgement opinion or profession wherein is your life in high notions and feigned apprehensions and false applications and glorious expressions and customary duties and vain Traditions which all appertains to the great Image which all the world worships by which they are deceived whose head is gold and brest of silver and thighs of brass and legs of Iron and feet part Iron and part clay and in the same nature ye are found with the world the day doth declare it and you to be the enemies and strangers to the light which is not of the world which is now come into the world testifying against the world and the deceit of the world the deceivers in the world and the profession of the world and this is the condemnation of the world Iob. 3.19 that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evill in which evil you are found despising and sett●ng at nought the Corner-stone and standing in the enmity of your spirits and joyning with the powers of the earth to persecute the life and power which now is manifest in the earth and is come to discover your empty shadows forms and fair shews of godliness but without life and power which you have set up in your imaginations and thereby are deceived and blinded and led in blindness so that you cannot see the light nor receive the substance now it is come and made manifest but stands up in your wills and wisdome to oppose the same and persecute it in the enmity of your spirits as if you hoped to kill the heir that the inheritance might be yours and therefore because you do despise this day of your visitation and reject slight the glad tydings which now are come to them that dwel upon the earth and revile and reproach persecute and slander the faithfull messengers of the Gospell rejoycing your hearts in their sufferings by you and amongst you therefore the Lord will rayse up a people out of the dust gather them from far to bear testimony unto his name and bear witness against you yea and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the kingdome of the Son and you and such as you shall be cast out into Tophit prepared of old for hypocrites and unbelievers therefore now read your portions ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts cars who do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost as did your fathers so do ye but the greater wil be your condemnation who go about to mock God with your wil-worship with your calling of Assemblies and Solemn Meetings with your appointed Fasts and dayes of voluntary Humiliation with your long Prayers and feigned duties all which is done out of the Light and so are your own works acted by selfe for selfe But who hath required these things at your hands it is all abomination to the Lord his soul loaths it for your sacrifices are as Cain's for your are found in Cain's nature envying and persecuting the righteous yea the witness lies slain in your streets therefore wo is unto you who go on in the way of Cain for upon you shal come all the righteous blood shed from righteous Abel until now and your professions stinks in the nostrils of the Lord for you have lift up your hands against him and his Annoynted opened your mouths in blasphemy and false reports against the truth yea you are blinde and stumble at the noon day you come neer the Lord with your lips but your hearts runs awhoring after other Lovers and you know not the only true God that dwels in Temples made without hands whose worship is in spirit and in truth but would limit the unlimited under your wils as if he were not a God of might but that you could controle him with the arm of flesh but be not deceived God is not mocked such as you sowe such shall you reap and your end shal be according to your works Gal. 6.7 for our God is a God of Judgement and Justice wil avenge the cause of the innocent upon you his adversaries yea and though your Teachers do cry peace peace unto you because you put into their mouths and so daubs you up with untempred morter that you cannot see your wound and so heals you slightly yet you shal know that our God is a God of Truth and his word shal stand for ever and their sorcery shal appear and their witchcraft shal be laid open and the cup of fornication wherewith they have made drunk and deluded the Nations shal be taken from them and the cup of the wrath of the Almighty given them to drink their reward and then shal you behold the Harlot with whom you have committed fornication who now lies in your bosomes bewitching you with a golden cup with whom you have defiled your garments then to be cast into the bottomless pit where you shal all be tormented together who now partake of her pleasures and thus shal you fal amongst them that fal in the day that I visit you saith the Lord. And all you my dear friends you scattered and despised ones in and about the County

of Essex whom the Lord by his powerful word is now gathering out of darkness into his marvellous light out of the Kingdome of this World into the Kingdome of his dear Son whom he is seperating unto himself to walk before him in holiness that you might know him and he might know you in the light of his countenance whose faces he hath turned to words Sion to seek after a Land of Rest unto your wearied Souls which hath been tossed to and fro from mountain to hil in this cloudy and dark day seeking rest but finding none but now is the day of beauty broken forth nigh you even in you yea glad tidings is come unto your wearied souls by which a pure love is begotten in you to the everlasting truth which hath been freely declared amongst you by the messengers of the most high who hath reached the witness for God in your consciences which doth seal the same upon your hearts which your teacher is and unto it you hearken and are abedient in which light all stand stil behold the work which the Lord hath begun amongst you and you shal have no cause of discouragement though the sea do rise and the raging waves do swel as if they would swallow all up yet it is limited by the unlimited it shal but foam out its own shame And as I had a time to preach the truth amongst you to the convincement of many so also now I have a time to seal the same with patient suffering in the bonds of the Gospel that you may see that it is no other but what we are made able and willing to seal with patient suffering yea with our blood if we be called to it as many of us hath done in this Nation though it be called a Land of Liberty but it is for Iniquity but truth and equity are strangers in it therefore are persecuted but you that are found worthy to receive these strangers happy are you though the raging Sodomites compass you about for to cause you to cast out these strangers that they may work their wils upon them yet be faithful and fear them not but cast out your darlings before them stand in the faith of the God of truth equity and you shal see the Sodomites struck with blindness that they shal not be able to prevail against you but when they are weary with striving they shal be made to sit down in sorrow so shal it be fulfill d which of old was prophesied that no weapon formed against the faithful shal prosper but woe unto them that lift up their heel against them therefore I charge you all in the name of the God of truth be faithful valiant bold for the truth received and as you have received it so walk in it that you may profess no more in word but what in life you seal that the light may be preached forth in your lives shine forth in your conversations to the glory of the father of lights and the confounding of the heathen who profess God in words but in life denies him be willing that self shal suffer for the truth and not the truth for self for the truth was ever sealed with persecution since Cains generation had a being upon the earth and so own the Cross and despise the shame and give up your selves to suffer for the truth received all you that would follow the Lamb to the Land of rest and through many trials you wil wax strong and bold and confident in your God for God is not known what a God he is until the time of tryal and all keep your meetings in the name and fear of the Lord God waiting for his power in the obedience to his Light which in your consciences doth reprove you when you do amiss that in it you may wait and watch over the foes that are of your own house that you may know the warfare begun in your hearts against your spiritual enemies and so the God of Power manifest himself amongst you by his mighty power bringing down all that in you which opposes him would not that he should reign over it and exalt his own seed in your hearts establish you in righteousness that his image you may bear and he shal be your God and you shal be his people And so in the unchangeable Truth I rest in unity with all the faithful in the glorious liberty of the Sons of God though in outward bonds for your sakes Known to all that can read me in spirit I.P. FINIS