Selected quad for the lemma: nation_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	church_n	king_n	rule_v	1,351	5	9.4691	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77067	The labyrinth the kingdom's in: with a golden threed to bring it forth into light, liberty, and peace agen. Being a brief but impartial history of the good and evil of the former, later, and present power of the nation, as it relates to God and the people. The result is a plea for the restauration of all in Christ (the kingdoms rest,) who is expected to appear more in the present, then in any former power of the nation. / By R. Bacon, a lover of mankinde.	Bacon, Robert, M.A.	1649 (1649)	Wing B369; Thomason E541_26; ESTC R204342	33,585	52

they sink again into it This their way is their folly which too is made manifest sooner or later yet their posterity they that come after them in power and place approve their sayings see a delight in their mouth as it is in the margin they have as it were one mouth and are in effect the same in a new and another seeming better disguise the same Spirit appearing in another form one evil generation and power of men opposing another Sect. 9 The Lord therefore rebuke the evil Spirit that seeks to undoe deceive and misguide the Army into those courses that may any way tend to shut up the way of men to Christ their Savior who is pretended to be among them more then among other people and those that went before them that it may be said of this King I mean not either King Charls whose person yet I loved and prayed for or as the Country people speak King Fairfax or Cromwell but King Jesus a King that is a Saviour and in that he is a Saviour a King for every one worthy of the name honor and title of a King is a Saviour a Saviour not only of his friends but his very Enemies King Charls would indeed have saved his friends so but corruptly called but he being corrupt and ignorant of the true pattern Christ would fain have destroyed his indeed but supposed Enemies let not the present Kingly power of the Nation in the Army for there it is interpretatively and by way of Execution let not them dance after his pipe and do the thing he did and have since condemned him for that is to say Let not them be the Saviours of their friends only or men of one side this is not the true Spirit of Christ or of Government but let them even be Saviours to and of those yea even of those that would in their ignorance and unbelief have destroyed them This is truly noble Christian and worthy of men of high place and power let them be a Sanctuary of rest to all even the persons of all Roundheads and Cavaliers yet withall standing as a Cherubin of light right truth life peace and glory to keep the way of that tree of Life a true Christian Magistracy form'd according to the pattern in the Mount whereby may be opened unto men that long expected and looked for paradise of Truth and Peace meeting together and giving rest to the Nation and that no thing or person may be admitted that may bring any evil into it for the defilement and disturbance of it Sect. 9 This this is the business the present power have to doe being reserved and kept as in the secret of God to such a time and purpose as this that they might evidence to all both friends and foes that there is indeed such a presence of Christ and the true anointing among them they have all this while held the world in hand with that it may be said of this Presence even of this Anointing among you this King in the Army to the whole Nation on the one side and on the other none excluded from the grace and benediction of it behold a King God himself in Spirit shall reign in righteousnesse and Princes for such are the children of the true Church in all lands shall rule in Judgment that is to say not ignorantly and in the dark not knowing what they doe as the manner of the Rulers of the earth is being drunk with Error they stumble in Judgment then shall a man that is to say every one that lives in the heavenly MAN be for an hiding place what to one sort of men only that 's Jewish a course that hath undone us all this while but to every man though to the evil or lust of no man a hiding place I say from the wind and a covert from the Tempest as the rivers of water in a dry place such is for certain the state of the Royall party and in the next place the Presbyters and many others that are bitter and grieved in Spirit in one word as the shadow of a great rock in a weary Land which how welcom it is in a Land of drought as this Nation is in respect of peace and rest they know that have been by experience sensible of the one and other By this it would appear to all the world that you have skill not onely to kill and to destroy which hath been your work for the most part hitherto but that you have heard and learned of the Father of mercies how to save which is that one and onely thing the whole Kingdom is in expectation of from you that it may be said of you Saviours not destroyers are come up upon Moun Sion the true seat and place of Government to judge the Mount of Esau that is to say the evill of all men by the spirit of judgement and by the spirit of burning Let the Kingdom and all in it first taste of your good that is to say your mercy meeknesse forbearance seeking not your own but others profit even the profit of your very opposers whereby you wli lindeed appear to be of the onely true Royall bloud even of the seed Royall of God and Christ himself say yea you have much more cause to say of your selves then Saul had to say of himself in the first day of his power when the people came and clamoured in the ears of Samuel as the people of England so call'd have of late in the ears of the Army immoderately and to excesse to have justice not divine justice for they know not most of them what that means upon the person of the King saying Who is he of the King or Parliament's side that said or shall say Shall Saul reigne over us Shall the Army power prevail over all sorts of men in the Land as you know there is much murmuring Bring the men that we may put them to death Let Saul's Answer be yours I confesse you pretend to a conformity to a better pattern David who though he were annointed to succeed Saul against whom there is no question but David might have had as much to say as you have had against Charles Stuart late in title King of England yet David your pattern abhorred the thought of taking away his life as you also according to the grounds of true Christian Religion ought the forenamed and late King And Saul said There shall not a man be put to death this day for to day the Lord hath wrought salvation in Israel Let not your morning glory the glory you seek be stained with the blood of any especially the blood of war in the time of peace be not so hasty hot and violent in condemning the Powers went before you before your right●ousnesse integrity innocency honesty ability impart●●l●●y and bowels of mercy pity and compassio● toward the p●● and f●the●●ss be justified on all hands to be of a nature exceeding the pretence of others Let the

evill then of the King and Parliament is opposed either by the good or evill of the Army The evill of the Army though it doth and may oppose the evill of both though not as evill the lusts leading and reigning in the Army may be brought forth in a way of zeal for justice and under a pretence of righteousnesse peace truth liberty to oppose lusts of another name and cognisance in the King and Parliament this contest is but like Satan's going about to cast out Satan whereby his kingdom is no wayes weakened but confirmed evill in the Army nourisheth and promotes evill in the King wrath malice revenge in the one maintains and upholds it in the other SECT 3. This then is the iron gate and door of brasse and steel that shuts righteousness truth peace and love out from the view peace and rest of men in them by this the King and Bishops ruled and by this they were ruined too The same course took the Parliament and were brought into the same Labyrinth as was the King And so far as the Armie walks by this rule they run the same hazard will split themselves upon the same rock yea are for the present in respect of that principle in the same M●ander in the same pit where is no water but that which moistens fastens fattens that evill root and bitter in them whence comes forth nothing but weeds briers and brambles the fruit of the first earth which is under the curse and is eternally to passe away whereby they are a vexation and torment yea divels to themselves and all sorts of men in the Land SECT 4. That then that is worthy of applause in the Army in their present undertakings is their good or rather the goodnesse of God in them opposing the evill or rather the evill One in King and Parliament This alone is to be reckoned among the Saint● as we hope they are as the common enemy of the Land this is onely worthy of all opposition let this be withstood to death and bonds It 's a great mistake and by all means to be removed out of the hearts and mindes of men that the sword of steel or the instruments of war have gotten them successe and victory over the other side nay it hath been the word of the Lord the counsell and presence of God helping the one and opposing the other Thou hast loved righteousnesse and hated iniquity saith the Psalmist of Christ or the Annointing in the Church therefore God even thy God hath annointed thee with the oyl of gladnesse above thy fellows that is thou getst the better upon this account and art too hard for all other Companies and Armies of men whatsoever because of this CHAP. VIII Of the door of hope was opened to the King and is to his party in the valley of Achor or forlorne state of trouble they are in Sect. 1 TO conclude The case then of the King Parliament Army and all estates of men in the Nation was is this 1. Of the King he had the Kingdom and in it all that was comprehended all the glory fulnesse beauty and riches in it the head and foot himself his Queen his Crown his Children his great Estate Attendance Honour Glory People c. But all this in the flesh in and after or according to the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts which like an ignis fatuus led him and all of the same spirit with him huc illuc after severall objects of rest and delight all which yet perished in the use it being in respect of his way of enjoying of it but as the grasse of the field or corn upon the house top which withereth before it be grown up nothing is in it but that which is earthly sensuall and divelish all appearances are of a like nature but not of one and the same form all from beneath some black and some white Divels his fearing one and following the other hath not suffered him to enjoy any lasting rest Sect. 2 The Almighty then hath by the losse of all the Kings glory greatness his Queen his Servants yea and since his naturall and bodily life shut him up so that he hath had no liberty in the aforenamed enjoyments as to the outward fleshly or sensuall man this was therefore to the King in respect of the old man the valley of Achor that is to say the valley of trouble but in respect of his Person and Gods intendment yea and the longing prayer and endeavour of all good men in whom is the sure and lasting mercies of God and the bowels of Jesus Christ it was to him and 't is to all his friends and those that took part with him for a door of hope In this wildernesse of trouble in respect of the outward man God returns which thing I will not deny and gives in again into the heart of the King together with himself * For the fulness of all things is in God in Christ all things his Crown his Queen his Kingdom c. but washed and made white that he might enjoy them eternally and without interruption in him Sect. 3 And to this he was and those they call the Royallists are in a greater propinquity and more likelihood to attain unto then many either of the Parliament or Army who are like Capernaum lifted up in a glorious fig-leave profession as high as heaven their turn will be next to be hurled down to hell the hell in which the King was whiles many of that side the by-word especially of the professing people shall be lifted up to heaven and made to sit with God in Christ in heavenly places for there shall come from East and West and places and conditions most remote and shall sit with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God and the supposed children of the kingdom cast out For God will not though it may be man would contend for ever neither will I saith he be alwayes wroth for the spirit should fail before me and the souls which I have made For the iniquity of his covetousnesse was I wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart I have seen his wayes and will heal him I will lead him also and restore comforts to him and his mourners For the language of Christ is to this day in the Church speaking as 't is written The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath annointed me to preach good tidings to the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound This I professe my self to be daily in expectation of according as it is written The first shall be last and the last first the Jews and those that professe the knowledge of God after the letter shall be provoked and made ashamed by a foolish

which is the same in all ages Jesus Christ our Lord following the Lamb whithersoever he goes whose words and lives are a continuall witnessing to Christ by whom is pulled down in all ages the partition wall betwixt Iews and Gentiles the stricter and looser sort of men that equal access may be for both to God by him they being all alike good or alike bad before him CHAP. IV. Of the Confusion or trouble that came upon the Army and the whole Kingdom upon the Eclipse of this Sun SECT 1. THus Christ in his light truth and glory is again crucified that I say not dead and buried even in the Army it self whence it followes that in this darke and gloomy day such is the state of all things in the deniall of Christ who is the only life and light of man I say in this dark day or night rather for in the absence of the Sun the day is as the night the wilde beasts break forth again and come abroad first in Wales having this Spirit form'd and moulded in them by the like appearing in a great though not so great a degree first in the Parliament notwithstanding the great shaking of it like the fig-tree by the march of the Army to their door by which some of those many unripe and useless Figgs and fruit fell to the earth and not only in them but even in the Army it self professing a better spirit dealing with too much roughness and occasion of provocation with those quondam-Parliament Colonels Laughorue Poyer and Powell who not being led with good words or good dealing which they call good payment out of their command as they might have been scorned which yet was their pride and error to be commanded out of all and therefore put all upon the adventure and have since for their folly lost all and are now prisoners expecting the sentence of Death upon some of them Now though the Army the honest faithfull and victorious Army for comparatively I have alwayes accounted it so were a scourge not only to them in Wales but them too in Kent Colchester the great Army of Scots that bubble of of an Army though they consisted they say of above two millions of men headed there by Duke Hamilton and the like comparatively nearer at home by the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Holland I say though it be apparent that the Army was a scourge and a sharp one too to these last and dying fainting re-onsets of those that would but were not appointed of God to live and rise again and therefore stronger was he that fought against them then he that engaged in them SECT 2. Yet it cannot be denied by any good Christian or any true principles of Christianity but that they also were a scourge yea a bitter and sharp one too discovering the evil of the Army to themselves awakening the good principles that lay buryed in them so that I may boldly say They were the rod of God chastising them there being I beleeve to speak the least many hundreds of them lost their lives and of them many an honest and good man So that though the Army see many and grievous offences in those given into their hands this Summer yet certainly they have cause if they look into themselves to complain of their own giving too much occasion though unvoluntarily their own errors having too great an influence like some malignant Stars to engender the like errors in others so that upon the matter which I mention that they might not boast either before God or men and while they complain of others faults they would remember their own and be more faultless themselves before they be over-hasty and violent against the faults of Others I say what have they done but punished their own errors upon the backs of others though according to State-rules they were greater offendors then themselves CHAP. V. The divers kinds of fruit brought forth this summer like Jeremiah's figgs some very bad some very good SECT 1. THe fruit brought forth in this Summers engagement which use to be either good and so for the health of men or bad tending to the nourishment of evill humors and deseases in the bodies and minds of men was indeed like Jeremiah's figgs some very good even like the figgs that are first ripe but the other very bad that they cannot be eaten they were so naught the bad were so naught that there was little or no discerning of the good the bad were of three sorts whereof the first was very pleasant and desirable in the eye of sense but very pestilent to the heart and stomack and this I call either first the underhand dealing of the Scots with the English and the English with them they both with the King and the King with both by which his person was wronged and the evill principle too much nourished in him by its like in th● Parliaments of both Kingdoms who must needs be access●ry and so guilty of the evill is so violently and without mixture of mercy charged also on him the appearance of this fruit being very pleasant in the eyes of most was desired by most and therefore the most and best were deceived into the liking of it and have since found it to be of an evill nature so that this was another door opened to the corrupt principle of the King to come out at and manifest it self to his prejudice for had he not been thus complyed with first by the Army since by the Parliament and Scots it might through the manifold afflictions that have been upon him with the blessing grace and mercy of God which is alwayes open to him have been more apparently mortified in him so that heer it again appears the King's fault may be devolved on those that strenthned it in him aswell as charged on him alone they being no more righteous then he SECT 2. The second sort of bad and evill fruit I call all those perishing hopes of all those appeared again in A●mes this summer They having been both Scots and English like the multitude the Prophet speakes of Isa 29.7 8. that fought against Ariell that is the Lion of God which is as much to say as the Israel or Church of God for the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Nations in the midst of many people a as Lion among the beasts of the forrest as a young Lion among the flocks of sheep who if he go through both treadeth down and teareth in peeces and none can deliver I say all the Armie and engagements this summer that have come up against the Lion of the tribe of Judah this Ariell the Church in Christ Christ in the Church they all hath been as a dream of a night vision that they have seen as when an hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty or when a thirsty man dreameth and behold he drinketh but he awaketh as they have done at their scattering