Selected quad for the lemma: master_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A89370
|
A most sad and serious lamentation over the heards-men of the flocke and people of God. Written in Germany in the yeare 1631. and printed there in the beginning of 1639. Now published in English, that all true-hearted-Christians in Great Britaine and Ireland, to whose hands it shall come, may take the same into their consideration.
|
|
1642
(1642)
|
Wing M2919; Thomason E137_24; ESTC R14075
|
13,017
|
18
|
sweete and comfortable babling These were a commending and magnifying the Heardsmen how they were entrusted with their staffe by so great a KING how worthily they did weld the same they were indeed the Crowne and Glory of the Sheepe What a deale of toyle and paines they tooke to lead and governe the Sheep by the same comforting and promising them instead and in the Name of that great KING though they neither knew nor were sent by him how the same KING was ready abundantly to reward their great paines-taking in his Royall Palaces for as for those daily refreshments which they now enjoyed according to their hearts desires during the attendance of their so weighty charge that was but a small trifling matter the best and true reward should follow them hereafter By this meanes namely the soothing of such Bablers these Heardsmen were mightily encouraged in all their wicked and licentious courses that they regarded neither the Will Charge and Order of the great KING nor the good of the Sheepe But now when as by all the waste of this excessive Pride and insolency the liberall Allowance of the great KING fell short of their expences then the Heardsmen began to forget that they were but Heards-men and Servants in trust and not Lords and owners of the flocke of the Sheepe and that they must be accomptable unto the great KING their Master that Wis 6. lob 24. Matth 18. 1 Sam. 8. entrusted them with this office of keeping and feeding the Sheepe and in these their blind-foulded hearts they wickedly perverted their originall instalment into their place and function even as the unrighteous Steward dealt with the Bills and pretended both Sheep Luk 16. Ezek. 29. 3 and pasture fold and flocke both Earth and the Rivers were all their owne they were the true proprietors and Lords of all securing themselves of force and violence according to their own pleasure and fancies and not according to the Order and Rule of the great KING to governe with rigor and severity not to the great KINGS or Sheepes but all to their owne Glory Profit and advantage Zeph. 3. Esay 46. And thus the Heards-men were turned into Lions Wolves Theeves and Murtherers building their Shepheards houses with sin and unrighteousnesse feeding and pampering themselves all their aymes and endeavours being set upon Covetousnesse and Rapin and to make prey and havocke of the Sheepe none daring to controule or demand them what are yee doing Amos 5. Ier. 12. Iam. 5. 1 King 21. But by the wiles and plots of Iesabel Naboth was put to silence nay to death rather than that he should maintaine the Right of the LORD and of his Sheepe pretending he had blasphemed GOD and the KING For their conceited selfe-willed Ratio Status or State Policy and arrogated greatnesse could not other wise endure it what were Soveraignty and Royalty else and what would become of the Reputation if they should not have an absolute and arbitrary Power to rule and command as they listed Mic. 2. Thus then they fell upon the poore Sheep with all the fiercenesse and cruelties they could devise not contenting themselves with the Wooll and Milke which they had alienated from the great LORD but fleyed off both skinne and flesh together and devoured it nay they brake their very bones and chope them in peeces as for the pot Mic. 3. and held it no sinne for they would not know of any other Lord and Master and the Vnder-keepers followed the same practise so that the poore dismayed Sheep were fleeced and torne and devoured on all hands At all this the lucre-tyed and belly-hired Babblers not only winked but they approved of it saying the Heards-men might doe it lawfully none ought to gainsay it but be ready at all times to yeeld and offer both Wooll and Milke nay body life and all They were the Heards-men appointed by the great Monarch to whom they would be responsible well enough the same was a rich and gratious Lord that would not deale so strictly with the Heards-men but easily passe by and pardon what they had done either too much or too little for he being a tender and merciful Master and they also the Babbless themselves had absolute power and authority to astoile and absolve the Heards-men of all such exorbitances in the name and stead of the great KING himselfe Therefore none should undertake to reprove or taxe them although they went not in the right paths and were somewhat harsh and froward they could not be so exict and precise under the weighty burthen of leading and governing all the slock and it were their duty also to entertaine their State Pompe and Magnificence for the honour and renowne of their great Master Thus presumptuously they reposed themselves in all their wickednesse Mic. 3. Zach. 11. greedinesse and cruelties upon the LORD GOD holding themselves no wayes guilty or lyable to judgement These vanities and wilfull courses having prevailed thus farre the Heards-men that were appointed here and there began to grudge and envy one another and it vexed them still in their soule when ever any saw another have a greater share of Honour Treasure Power or larger foulds and fatter pasture then they sought to provoke one another to Warne and every one to subdue and subjugate the other either by cunning Plots and practises or by open force and violence â—â—â—el 16. And this was caused and advanced chiefly by those hired and squeaking-frogs and babblers who did likewise exercise their peculiar enmities about their selfe-conceits and the manifold Idols of their fond opinions enticing and irritating their Masters to Emulation Iealousies Wrath and implacablenesse that every one must maintain his selfe-chosen Bablers and Idols and defend them to the utmost Yet the Heards-men were loth to hazzard their owne heads to 2 King 13. 29. goe see one another but they gathered together a great rabble of daring bloudy Mastives whom they had entertained before hand with the milke and flesh of the Sheep together with a number of other fierce and cruell Hounds and ravening Wolves and other wilde beasts These were not only to feed themselves together with and of the Sheep to fleece and fley them at pleasure that they might grow strong and gay and lusty by it but besides they were to lead and hale on the Sheep in mighty droves-unto the shambles or butcheries where they were barbarously set upon hewne hackt and massiened defeated chased disperied And there was appointed players and Minstrels Drummes and Trumpets that all the while the rage of this worrying and slaughter lasted must fill the aire with strong and chearfull noyles that the horrid and wofull cry of the miserable Sheepe might not bee heard nor pityed And the cunning perverse Bablers did not at all controul or check this manifest and open theeving robbing murthering but still endeavoured to maintaine their owne and that Warres and jars had alwayes been in the world
A most sad and serious LAMENTATION OVER THE HEARDS-MEN of the Flocke and People of GOD. Written in Germany in the yeare 1631. And Printed there in the beginning of 1639. Cum facultate ejus qui erat est erit EXOD. 3. REV. I. EZEK 19. 1 2. But make a Lamentation over the Princes and Prelates of Israel and thou shalt say What thy mother the Lyonnesse hath layne among the Lyons in the middest of the young Lyons shee hath multiplyed her whelps c. Now Published in English that all true-hearted-Christians in Great Britaine and Ireland to whose hands it shall come may take the same into their Consideration LONDON Printed for G. Thompson and are to be sold at his Shop over against Lincolnes Inne 1642. Ier. 50. Vers 6 7. Mr People have beene lost sheepe a forlorne heard their Heards-men or Pastors have caused them to errc they have wandred from the Mountaines they have gone from the Mountaine to the Hill they have forgotten their resting place All that found them have devoured them and their enemies said we have done none unrighteousnesse because that they have sinned against the LORD the habitation of Righteousnesse and against the Lord the Hope of their Fathers Wis 6. Elay 28. Deut. 17. Harken yee Heards-men and Stewards yee that Lord-it over the People attend and listen to the message which the LORD GOD doth send unto you yee that lift up your selves above your brethren Gen. 3 19. A Certaine great and mighty KING having appointed Heards-men and overseers-over the Flocks and Herds of all his Foulds and Pastures men that with all faithful diligence and in the sweat of their browes night and day should tend and tender their Charge seeke what is lost heale and comfort the sicke and seeble keepe the fat from harme that they become not a prey to the clawes or jawes of Wolves and other wild beasts but rather that they might grow fat and wel liking encrease and prosper and bring forth much fruit and gaine unto their King and master And this same King having likewise given a liberall and plentifull allowance unto the said Heards-men of foode and raiment and other sustance so that they had no reason at all to seise on the sheep their slecce milke flesh or bones or to estrange any thing from their Master but rather to feed and keepe the Flocke with all faithfulnesse both in the heate by day and in the cold by night like Iacob Gen 31. 40. Howbeit also these hearders had vowed and promised in exquisite tearmes how tenderly they affected the sheepe what care and paines they would take to guard and keepe the fame yet they performed and held nothing neverthlesse they would seeme and be reputed faithfull shepherds they were so well instructed by their Teachers in the Art of simulation and dissimulation and dissimulation and practised in falsehood and hypocrisie and when they said white or light they meant black Esay 5. and darke But when as they began to grow wanton in the enjoying of that plenteous entertainment which the bounty of their great and gracious Master had bestowed on them going about to hoard up glory and Treasure for themselves they chose Vnder-keepers and Vice-leaders and put off the paines of watching and feeding the Flocke from themselves upon others Zeph 1. 9. These under-keepers likewise sought their owne skipping over their Masters threshold bragging only of their Masters Interests struggling and striving to fill their owne and Masters houses with subtilties lyes and deceit with Robberies Rapine and ransaks glozing all such practises of theirs with a specious Title which they call the shepheards right and prerogative and shewing no pitty 1 Sam. 8. or tendernesse at all towards the poore sheepe but distressed flayed tore and devoured them greedily grievously utterly As for the Amos 5. Heards-men or Shepheards themselves they gave themselves over to their owne carnall pleasures continually and fully to satisfie the wilfulnesse of their own corrupt and inveigled reason They began to advance still the seate of violence in their Governments and all according to their own greedy lusts and appetites and not to conforme Amos 6. Wis 2. and frame their practise to the order of the great Monarch the LORD of Lords in keeping and feeding the Flocke committed to their charge They did eate early day by day and heated themselves Esav 5. Amos 6. with Wine drinking the same in Gilt and Silver and Crystall Bowles they slept on soft and precious beds and besides this voluptuous fare they had their Psalteris and Musicall instruments their Trumpets shoutes hollowings and jollities They disported themselves with the fowles and birds of the Aire and exercised a cruell Barue 3. and butcherly pastime with the beasts of the field with much care and painefulnesse as if the great King and Monarch had appointed this for their only imployment They sought out and entertained cunning Masters of pleasures that studied nothing else but to finde out new variety still of pleasures and delights for the Heardsmen in statoly sumptuous and far fetcht seasts and banquetings in gay strange and wondefull habits and accoutrements in dancing and sporting and other the like worldly and carnall wantonnesses and vanities so that they went continually but from one pleasure to another and nothing was more to be seene with these Heards-men but a continued course and enterchange of luxurie and bravery all pleasure delight and gloriousnesse the lust of the eyes the lust of the Amos 6. 1 Iohn 2. flesh and the pride of life Nay they grew to that passe of proud conceit and arrogant insolence in their revolted hearts that they did â—cornefully disdaine and set at nought the sheepe and Flocke of their Lord and Master never regarding nor looking after them unlesse it were to see them fleeced and fleyed with the sharpest Razers even unto bloud if not life and all yet condoling them out of a false and Mic. 3. Za. 11. hypocriticall heart how loath they were to proceede in this manner but they could no way remedy the same their estate and condition required and enforced it so Thus they went on still and multiplied their pride and luxury roabing and arraying themselves their wives Children and Servants with the gory wooll of the sheepe in costly garments with Gold Silver precious stohes without either scope or measure of all their riotous and chargeable profusions thus their perversnesse stil encreased advancing from one iniquity to another continually coveting to have it yet more glorious more gallat more sumptuous and were not at all troubled for the affliction and distresse of the sheep further more they hired also sundry wise men for themselvs filling their hands and seeding them largely with the Milke Wooll 1 King 12. 31. 2 Tim. 4. and Bloud of the Sheepe to preach lyes unto them and together with this Luxury to please and tickle their vaine eares with a curious artificiall