Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	love_n	love_v	neighbour_n	2,121	5	9.0617	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25844	The armies vindication of this last change wherein, is plainly demonstrated, the equity, power and right of the army to settle these nations upon the foundations of righteousnesse and freedome : together, with answers to the most material objections made against them.		1659 (1659)	Wing A3719; ESTC R13587	14,976	25

was by an Executive Authority the Parliament took upon them while they owned themselves to be the Legislative power going about to turn out Nine Eminent Officers upon a Criminal Account without any tryal or so much as a hearing it being a high piece of Injustice so to do The old Protector would alwayes labour to satisfie any dissenting Officer before he would dismiss him from his Command If these Nine had gone off quietly they should suddenly have had more fellow-sufferers the design being to breake the whole Conduct of the Army who had as it were a natural Right to their Places being such as had hazarded their lives and the like Now for these to have suffered themselves to be thus trodden under foot and together with themselves the interest of all good people had been a greater crime then can at this time be laid to their charge 8. Object In the next place 't is said by some That if self-love particular interest and necessity had not stirr'd the general good would not so much moved them To this I answer Ans First as to self-love as 't is mentioned in 2 Tim. 3.2 is an Evil when it is either fixed on wrong object or runs after a good object inordinately But self-self-love in its due latitude and measure is no sin but a virtue rather because 't is made the Rule whereby we must regulate our love to others Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self If then it be a duty that I love another it is also necessary I should love my self This Principle of self-self-love duly regulated is so necessary that the World could not subsist without it for from the same Principle that I love my self I love another and if I did not love my self I would not love mankind for that I love my own flesh my life my good name and the like from the same principle I com to love the body the life the credit of another so that take away self-Self-love self-preservation and you take away mercy love and tenderness out of the World No man ever so hated his own flesh as to suffer it to be trodden down by pride and injustice if it lay in his power to redeem himself Secondly the same may be said of particulor interest If any particular interest be a prejudice to the whole I must pass it by but when it is for the good of the whole I am bound to stick fast to it Now 't is evident that together with the Interest of those Nine Officers with others that share in the Conduct of the Army lyes wrapt up with it the Interest of all honest men for if such as had with the hazard of their lives rescued the people from slavery and bondage should have delivered up their place of Office which is so naturally and providentially their own have given up their own with our conquering Sword into the hands of others it had been a high breach of trust committed against the good people of this Nation Thirdly Lastly as to an Act drawn forth through Necessity it may be very acceptable to God when our Wil is brought to consent to a necessiry We come to chuse obedience being called thereunto by an Act of Providence so that when necessities meet with an obediencial frame of heart necessity become a virtue as we say and obedience thus drawn forth by an Act of Providence is as acceptable with God as Obedience grounded upon Gods Word In the last of John Christ tells Peter he should be carried whither he would not There was a necessity but his Will being drawn forth to meet the Necessity made it acceptable with God Sometimes nay often God works greatest things by mans necessities for as necessity hath no law so it needs none being a Law to its self 9. Obj. In the ninth place that which is strongly opposedly opposed is That we should be ruled by the Sword Ans The Sword its true when it is drawn forth to kil and destroy to eat flesh and dring bleod 't is a dark and most sad dispensation but as 't is onely used to keep down inraged Enemies and keep off destruction and when it 's accompanied with Wisdom and Goodness with Righteousness and Justice then it comes to be good and desirable But what do we speak of a Government by the Sword Is the Government of the world any other Have not Emperours Kings and Commonwalths their Militia's to force obedience when their Civil Sword is contemned being blunt and dul Do they not draw the Military Sword which is far sharper Did not the late King draw this Sword to force the Scots to uniformity All the Government of the Sword is but this That a convenient number of the Forces be kept under pay to keep down a turbulent Enemy and to protect honest men in their Rights and Liberties that would live in peace if they could This is all the Rule of the Sword Are not the Civil Administrations of Justice kept up and exercised amongst us Is not every man secured in his peculiar rights Since I have mentioned the Sword I shal speak a little of it First consider the Sword is the Original and beginning of all Governments in the world and is the onely Protection and Preservation of them Whither do Emperors Kings or Common-Weelths retire themselves in case of tumults and insurrections but unto a Military Power there being onely succour and defence They cannot in such cases subsist but as it were resolving into their first principles the Sword from whence they had their first rise Secondly Consider what special hand of Providence raised the Sword first It was not man but God raised up his People into an Army when they were at peace and quiet The King being great in Worldly Pomp and Glory did bend all the force of his Government to oppress a poore harmless people that could not live in the Nation unless they would defile their consciences these lived as sheep among Wolves and were as Doves and Lambs they had no horns to push or hoofs to tread under they had no sword to destroy but were willing to lye down under all their oppresions But the Lord calling forth these to war that not from a private spirit but with the stamp of publike Authority the Lord raised up their spirits and made them men of War like himself who is stiled the Lord of Host The Lord took his people as he did David from the sheepfold to make them men of War put a mighty spirit into them affording a great manifesttion of his own presence going along with them before whom all earthly Powers are fallen and broken to pieces Thus the Lord cloathed himself with Zeal as with a garment and hath indued his people with such Masculine virtue and strength that their Horns have been as Iron and their Hoofs as Brass whereby they have threshed the Mountains and the Hills as Chaff And this hath not been by Might and Power but by the spirit

of the Lord it was not an arm of flesh that could do this but a Divine presence the Word and the Arm of the Lord going along with an Army Thirdly Consider the necessity of an Army and that in these respects First the ancient Hedge of Civil Power is broken down and mens hearts and minds full of rage and revenge the army is the onely bridle to restrain it and is as a wall of fire to keep the exhorbitant and beastly fury of evil-minded men that they would exercise upon a remant of people that God would preserve in the Land Secondly it is a time of breaking and pulling down all worldly Constitutions God is staining the pride of all glory and treading down strength for this reason God gathers his people into the form of an Army as he said to his people of old Ier. 51.20 Thou art my Battle-axe and Weapons of war with thee will I destroy Nations and break Kingdomes And again Fear not thou worm Iacob and ye men of Israel I will make thee a sharp threshing Instrument that hath teeth and thou shalt thresh the Mountains and beat them small and make the hills as chaff thou shalt fan them and the wind shall carry them away and the wilderness shall scatter them Isa 41.15 The Lord seemed to sleep in former days suffering his people to lie under oppression but now he awakes as in ancient days cutting Rahad and wounding the Dragon breaking the bands and bringing his people from under Egyptian burthens This cannot be done but by an Army Thirdly our condition at present is not a fixed Station but a posture of direct motion we are upon our March from Egypt to Canaan from a Land of bondage and darkness to a Land of Liberty and Rest Now the Army is a Body of Activity of life and motion and so fit for such a Work being full of Spirit and vigor inlarged in love and kindness separated from the old Forms and Customes of the world so that while the Lord leads us in a troublesome wilderness in dark and ruff pathes amidst wilde beasts and enemies on every side How comfortable is it to all good people to be led by the hand of an Army in the ways of Justice and Freedome Fourthly The Army being as the Sword of Gideon before whom three Nations fell in whom there is Majesty Justice and Protection they are engaged to dispose and frame an Order of Government for these Nations would not the King and his party think you had they prevailed made his own terms and that without controul And have not the Army the reason to secure themselves their Friends their Estates Lives and Liberties by the best security they can possibly provide for them it 's reason that they which give Protection should give Law This also must be done by the Assistance of an Army That which subjects the Army most to contempt and reproach is that they hardly own that Power that God and nature hath given them it being the most Superiour the most absolute in the world but how can the world own it so when it doth not own it self this renders it inconsisting with it's own being and it 's own Actings This is the true reason of present Troubles and Perplexities but let the Army but own it 's own Power and it 's own Friends and it need not to fear it's success and happiness The Law of the Land the Priviledges of Parliaments old and rotten Customes not regarded Hence those of poor low and drossie spirits cannot own you nor love you but those that can see beyond the vail of these outward things that know what true liberty and peace is and what the Foundations of Righteousness are these know how to have charitable Opinions of you and your Actings therefore be in union with such as these and your Foundation cannot be shaken by any opposition whatsoever 10. Obj. In the last place many complain that upon every change we look for much but the Issues Effects are very little Ans We always expect more from men then they are able to give us as for instance Some think a Free Parliament will do the work because they have been usefull heretofore but let any man rightly consider the Temper of the people how Malignant some how Neutral others how divided and broken the rest of men are at this day this remedy by Parliament would prove but a killing distemper it might wound us but could not cure us Again others expect much from such such men in the Army but we little consider how much darkness and blindness possesses mens minds how little knowledge they have of the Kingdom of Christ which is at the very Birth and no man knows how to give it a deliverance Neither do we well consider how unfit the world is to receive that which is truly Righteous and good being froward stubborn and perverse The work of Righteousness shall be peace only to those that embrace Righteousness with love and liking Now alas what can we expect more from man then to be diligent in his place to exercise humane wisdome to keep peace and the like The best Government we can expect from man will be mixt having something of Christ and his Kingdome and something of humane prudence and of a worldly concernment Expect no more then this and you may not be deceived To conclude with a word to the Army First Open your bosomes and hearts to all the people of God in the Land that ace one with you in your Cause and Interest your strength lies in perfect union with them The Governors of Judah shall say in their hearts the inhabitants of Jerufatem shall be my strength in the Lord of Hosts their God Zech. 12.15 Judah that had formerly many populous Cities and great Armies being now without Walls and almost without Inhabitants yet even they shall with courage and with confidence say the Inhabitauts of Ierusalem be they never so few or dispised shall be our strength This also will be the strength of the Army A sirme Union with the Faithfull here you can never loose your Interest he that will save his life shall loose it but he that will thus loese his life shall save it Secondly and Lastly be sure you make some progress in your way by every opportunity Wherefore cryest thou unto me saith God to Moses by this question God doth not find fault with his Prayer or Supplication for the people but rather the Lord doth hasten them to action Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward saith he and I will fall in with my power miraculously to preserve my people and destroy their enemies Then let it be the work of those in power to pluck up eveoy plant the Father hath not planted let no destroying interest remain God saith to you as to Israel of old Go up and possess the Lond which I have sword I will give you Go on reform the Law and Ministry purge all Courts of Judicature break every Yoke ease all burthens banish all profaneness release the Prisoner releeve the poor Fill the Land with Righteousness what ever is good holy just Honourable let it be brought forth and exercised and the Lord your God will go before you he will fight for you according to all that he did for you in Egypt And your Enemies shall bow at the soles of your feet they shall call you the City of the Lord the Sion the holy one of Israel Isa 60. You see besides your encouragement you have reward in your Work FINIS