Selected quad for the lemma: word_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	feed_v	flock_n	shepherd_n	3,009	5	10.4867	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70985	The reign of the whore discovered and her ruine seen her merchants the priests examined, and with the Romish church (their elder sister) compared and found agreeable in many things ... : some queries also for those people that pay tythes, and priests that receive tythes, to consider and answer : and whereas their cry hath been loud against us the people of God called Quakers, that we are Jesuits, and Jesuitical, in tryal they are found false accusers, and of the same stock and generation themselves ... : also the sustance of a dispute which was the 15th day of the 2d month, called April 1659, at the Bridge-house in Southwark, between VVilliam Cooper, VVilliam VVhitaker, Thomas VVoodsworth, VVieles, Watkins, Cradicut, and others who profess themselves ministers of Christ, and some of the people call'd Quakers ... / written in that which gives to see over all the popish train ... W.S.	Smith, William, d. 1673.; Burrough, Edward, 1634-1662. Following letter containing the substance of the dispute.	1659 (1659)	Wing S204A; ESTC R33983	31,593	40

whom you her Merchants have built your Ships and set up your Trade by the Authority of the Beast which rose out of the same place the Whore sate on He that hath Wisdom let him understand I say By the Authority of this Beast who hath seven heads ten horns ten Crowns upon his horns upon his heads the name of Blasphemy unto whom the Dragon gave his power have you and all Parish-Masters and others of the Whores choice Merchants in whole Christendom sate and advanced your Trade above and beyond all the Crafts-mens Trade beside in the whole World And this may appear plain to the view of all people if these few particulars following are considered First You have got a Market-place where none must sell any Wares but your selves though it be never so much better then yours neither must any come into your Market-place to give freely to poor people whose souls are ready to starve for want of the Bread of life notwithstanding they buy of your deceitful Wares Secondly You have had and some of your Brethren still have a compulsive Law to compel and constrain all people within such a compass or quarter to come to your Market-place and buy of you and none other Thirdly Whether those people within such a compass or quarter or parish come to your Market or no or receive any of your Merchandize notwithstanding you will make them pay as much as if they did or else you will take or cause to be taken from them violently it may be three four or five times as much as the price was you first set upon your Commodities Fourthly Though your Merchandize be never so deceitful and insufficient yet none must refuse them neither will you bate of your price and if any come to see the deceitfulness and insufficiency of what you sell at a very deer rate and declare against it that people might not be deceived and defrauded always with deceitful words and devillish Doctrines you wil sue such at the Law for slanderers and get one of the Beasts Horns that hath a Crown upon it to grant you 100. l. damage or some other punishment as whip or prison or banishment or life if ye can get it for the Whore loves blood and so doth her Merchants and children Fifthly Another thing that makes your Trade exceed all the Crafts-mens Trade beside in the whole World is That when poor people have bought your Merchandize and paid you or at least are liable to pay you you take them home again in your Pockets or Bibles or Note-Books and lay them up in your Ware-house to wit your Liberary and as you see occasion and opportunity you carry them to Market again and they wil yeild you as much as they did at the first and yet after you have sold your Imagery Work over and over you can trim it and dress it a little and put the title Doctor of Divinity to it or Batchellor of Divinity or Mr. William or Mr. John such a one Ministers of God's Word at such a Church in such a place and find a Chapman some Bookseller or Printer or other to give you money for it Much like this might be mentioned but this is sufficient to let all people which are not quite blind see wherein this whores Merchants trade exceeds all other Arts Crafts and Trades in the whole world And also the reason may here be seen wherefore these Parish-Masters and others of Mystery Babylons Merchants strives and petition that their trade may be upheld even in this Nation under this notion Propagate or hold up the Gospel when if they would speak as they mean it is thus Propagate hold up or maintain our Mothers Authority by which Authority we have had a good trade a great while and our profits hath been great and our incombs sure and let the Romish Churches our elder Sisters her Institutions Ordinations Customs Manners Practices and Places stand else we shal have no certain Trade for if we lose our Elder Sisters Law which gives us Tythes and that compels people to buy our Gospel we shal be undone peoples hearts are so hard they wil give us little freely though they have been and stil are our Auditors and we have taught them some ten some twenty thirty or forty years yet we are afraid if we lose our elder Sisters Law that those that have been our constant customers would hate us much of our price and those that do not like our Doctrine and Church-discipline and our chargeable Gospel will give us nothing at all is not this the very language of your hearts whose cry is Propagate the Gospel let that which searcheth your hearts and discerns the secret intents thereof the light of Christ in your Consciences answer for the Gospel is Christ the power of God which propagates or holds up all things and 't is ignorance and blasphemy to cry and petition to an arm of flesh to propagate this Gospel but 't is another Gospel that they who have brought it are accursed that wants propagating and this shall all your Merchants of Babylon know in the dreadfull day of the Lord our God when all the blood you have drunk and Tortures and Racks Whips and Prisons Stocks and Inquisitions and other carnal weapons you have used to propagate your Gospel shall rise up in Judgement against you then will ye cry to the Rocks and the Mountains to fall upon you to hide you from the Wrath of the Lamb And now is the wondrfull day at hand wherein the Wolves Bears and Lions shall be afraid and seek to hide themselves from the presence of the Lamb Consider this all ye hirelings that rend and tear and make a prey upon the innocent lambs of Christ for to serve your own bellies and covetous unchristian greedy desires how greatly do you dishonour the name of Christ in calling your selves his Ministers have not you and all your Brethren the Popish Christians in whole Christendome sent an ill savour throughout the Nations and Regions round about you yea and many of those you count heathens shal rise up in judgment against you even against you who have the sheeps cloathing the Prophets words Christs vvords the Apostles words but inwardly ravened from the Spirit of God in your selves and so have appeared devouring wolves and destroyers of the sheeps life scatterers of the flock of God hear the Word of the Lord by the mouth of his Prophet Ezekiel against such as you Wo be to the Shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves should not the shepherds feed the flocks ye eat the fat and ye cloth you with the wool ye kill them that are fed but ye feed not the flock the diseased haue ye not strengthened neither have ye healed that which was sick neither have ye bound up that which was broken neither have ye brought again that which was driven away neither have ye sought that which was lost but with force and with cruelty have ye

ruled them c. Ezech. ch. 34. There is much in these words and this hath been your work as fully and as truly as ever it was the false shepherds work in the time of the Prophet Ezechiel and now is the Lord manifestly appearing to be against ye shepherds and requiring his flock at your hand and is causing you to cease from feeding his flock and also from feeding your selves of his flock and delivering them from your mouths and gathering them from all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day according to Ezechiels Prophesie and this is the Lords own work in this his mighty day and all the hirelings and wolvish Shepherds in whole Christendome shall not be able to withstand and hinder the accomplishing and fulfilling of this the Lords purpose though Gog and Magog beast and false prophet ioyn together yet the Lamb and the Saints shall have the victorie and the Plagues upon the Seat of the great Whore shall be poured and the tongue of the Egyptian sea shall be dryed up and the waters which hath overflowed the highest Mountain shall abate and be dried up and the ship-masters the Parish-masters trade shall fail And thou O Mount Seir because thou hast had a perpetuall hatred and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by force of the Sword in the time of their calamity in the time that their iniquity had an end therefore as I live saith the Lord God I will prepare thee unto blood and blood shall pursue thee sith thou hash not-hated blood even blood shall pursue thee c. This is the portion of Cain who was a murtherer from the beginning whose sacrifice is the fruit of that ground which is cursed and which the dew of heaven never descended upon nor the blessing of the most High was ever appointed for And out of this ground out of this earth in which Cain is a Vagabond springeth and ariseth that spirit that can offer a Sacrifice and murther when he hath done and that this spirit is manifest in and among you the Nationall Priests is very evident and sufficiently proved by your own fruits acts and deeds within these few years yea and the cry of innocent blood hath entred the ears of the Lord against you even against you both Priests and people who notwithstanding your pretences of worshipping God have envy the root of murther in your hearts and violence in your hands and while you regard iniquity in your hearts your very prayers are abomination and stinks in the nostrils of the Lord 'T is the Whore and her Merchants that thirsteth after the blood of creatures under the notion of hereticks and that murthers men about matters of Religion the Christians and Christian Ministers never did so neither did they wrestle with flesh and blood but you and the papists are found wrestling with flesh and destroying mens lives and not saving them and you shall have your reward together according to your Work A few Queries for all that own Tythes due to the present Priesthood and for the Priesthood that takes them to consider and answer 1. TO vvhat end do you the people pay tithes and to vvhat end do you the Priests take tithes is your end according to the Lavv of God that gave the tithes to the first Priesthood then people vvhy do you not see them improved to that end and Priests vvhy do you not let them be improved to that end and vvas not the end vvherefore tithes vvas given that the Widovvs Strangers and Fatherlesse might be relieved and maintained by them as vvell as the Priests And had not the Widovvs Strangers and Fatherlesse as much Right to the Tithes as the Leviticall priests had and had they not their maintenance out of them so that there need not be a beggar among them Was not the priests gates to stand open that the Widovvs Strangers and Fatherlesse might be relieved 2. Did not that Lavv of God that gave Tithes to this end ordain a place to put them in a Store-house into vvhich Store-house the people brought them else they robbed God and vvere they not to be taken out of this Store-house as the Widows Strangers Fatherlesse and Priests had need of them and was not this Store-house called Gods House read Mal. 3. 10. How comes it to passe if not by the order of the Pope Bishops and Cardinals and the rest of the popish train that there is no Store-house in whole Christendome so called to put the Tithes of the Land in nor no Widows Strangers and Fatherless relieved according to their necessities out of the Tithes but pope chief Magistrate and priests have and would have them all brought into their own house and how many of their gates stand open that the Widows Strangers and Fatherlesse and poore might passe freely in and take part of the Tithes with them do they not more frequently lye begging at their gates when they are shut and lye about the Streets begging and crying for bread and at the Steeple-houses there is a hideous dolefull noise for bread many times was it so in the time of the Law which commanded Tithes from the people did not the Lord make the Tithes give the poore the Widows the Strangers the Fatherlesse and priests also enough and now people that pay Tithes and priests that receive Tithes whom do you imitate and follow if not the Popish train are not you unlike both Jews and Christians did the true Christians ever pay or receive Tithes 3. Is not this a monstrous Priesthood that hath rose up since the dayes of the Apostles who denied the first priesthood that devours and impropriates all the Tithes to themselves and will not allow the Poore the Widows Strangers and Fatherlesse any share with them of the Tithes though they may be ready to starve for vvant of food and Raiment is not this monstrous priesthood in Christendom vvho call themselves Ministers of the Gospel exceedingly stained and laden with the blood of the poor of the Widows of the Strangers and Fatherless And you the people how can you be clear in paying your tithes to such a priesthood that do not let their gates stand open nor have no Store-house nor that do not improve them to that end that they were improved to in the time of the Law are not all your Tithes given and received to a worse end notwithstanding you say you are Christians and live in the glorious day of the Gospel then they were given and received in the time of the Law How many thousands of poore of Widows Strangers of Fatherlesse and beggars are there in thy borders O Christendome which want relief which the Law of God that gave Tithes to the Priesthood which God ordained provided for by the Tithes that were brought into the Store-house Why must a greedy covetous proud priesthood that is not like the priesthood under the Law nor the Ministers of the Gospel swallow down and devour