Selected quad for the lemma: father_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
father_n	holy_a	son_n	spirit_n	92,207	5	6.2343	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54371	Christianity restored to its primitive purity, or the mercenary church reform'd being an abstract of a sermon, preached at Oak-wood Chappel in Surry, and at the Abbey Church in Bath June the 27th. 1699. Shewing that all true pastors must preach freely. By Jos. Perkins.	Perkins, Joseph, b. 1658.	1699 (1699)	Wing P1546; ESTC R221439	13,701	26

Hirelings because they flatter them but hate the true Pastors because they boldly tell the unpleasing Truth According as the Prophet Jeremiah has said cap. 5.30.31 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land The prophets prophesie falsely c. and my people love to have it so c. The Hireling sells his Sermons at as dear a rate as he can and we say in the Proverb Magis illa juvant quae pluris emuntur Things dear bought are good for Ladies those delicate people that cannot endure the severity of Gods Truth are best pleased with those temporizing fawning Chaplains that sow Pillows and daub with untempered Mortar A Hireling by corrupting the Word of God gets Preferment but a true Pastor like John the Baptist sometimes loses his Life for telling the Truth If Christ whipt out of the Temple such as Bought and Sold there What shall become of them that Buy and sell the very Temples themselves What shall become of them that Sell their very Sermons and Prayers c. What shall become of them that turn the holy Calling into a mercenary Trade for Gain I for my part am no Hireling but a Member of that pure and unspotted Church all whose Sons resemble their heavenly Father in giving Freely what he has freely given them For as God has freely given to us life and being and all things yea and his own Son Freely so does every one of his Children freely impart and communicate to each other 'T is not the Prayers nor Ceremonies nor Articles nor Homilies I Object against but the Pride and Covetousness of the present Church And therefore that Church wherein Preaching is made a Trade for gain that Church wherein Dignities are bestowed by Partiality that Church wherein there is no respect to Learning That Church which forbids Mariage that Church which Beats and Banishes her Pastors for Preaching the same sound Doctrine she pretends to maintain that Church wherein Buying and Selling of Parsonages c. are constantly practiced that Church that takes no Care of her own namely those of her own Houshold I do renounce with all the covetous Desires thereof as being fully perswaded that the nearer to this Church the farther from God Ad Concionatores Mercenarios Presbyter Argento conductus Rostra fatigat Praemia si tollas Presbyter ille silet Illum facundum fulvi spes reddidit Auri Hac dempiâ taciti Piscis ad instar erit Histrio Tibicen Cantores Causidicique Hi vocem vendunt Presbyteriq pij Unicus est Vates contemptus ridiculusque Officium tantum Praemia nulla petit Sol non conductus praebet sua lumina Mundo Et non conductus munere fungor Ego To the Mercenary Preachers In English thus By bribes of Silver Priest is Hir'd to Preach Take away those and ho'll no longer Teach Alass 't is Money makes him Eloquent His Voice is gone when golden Hopes are spent Actors and Fidlers Songsters Pleaders do Their Voices sell and so do Preachers too One Prophet vile and scorn'd yet has regard To th' Office only not to the Reward The Suns bright Flames to Mortals Freely Shine And whilst I Preach for nothing so do mine Loripedem Rectus derideat Aethiopem albus Juvenal The names of some of those Places where Jos. Perkins has Preached Freely Westminster Abbey 1 Lincolns Inn 2 Trinity Chappel 1 Oxenden Chappel 2 Knights bridge about 20 St. Fosters 1 St. Catherine Colemans 2 Wappin Chappel 1 Marabon 4 Hogidon Hospital 1 White Chappel 1 In Middlesex Teddington 1 Brentford 2 Fulham 1 Chelsea 6 In Surrey Kingston upon Thames 2 Peterson 1 Battersea 8 Tootin 6 Epsom 20 Ewill 20 Astead 3 Clannon 1 Oakwood-Chappel 9 In Kent Deptford 1 Woolwich where I was Banished 20 Eltham 1 Hampshire Winchester 1 Portsmouth 1 Kingston 1 Southhampton 5 Pear-tree 4 Abbots Ann 9 Amport 2 Wiltshire West-grimstead Essex Mersea Island Oxfordshire Coggs and other adjacent Places 3 Binsey 1 Hincksea 1 St. Bartholomews Hospital 7 Gloucestershire Wickwarr where I was Beaten for my Pains 14 Addersley 2 Newington 2 A Chappell near Newington 1 Bath Abbey 1 Bath Abbey 1 June 27 About 7 or 8 hundred times in all and yet I am not weary of well doing Ingratium dieas omnia dixeris FINIS The Author of this Book wears a white Scarfe and Girdle as the Badge of his Profession and to distinguish him from all Hirelings

very well Contraria inter se posita magis elucescunt Therefore that the People may have a better Opinion of their Doctor than of the Curate it concerns the Doctor to provide a Curate that Preaches worse than himself All Artificers as Shoemakers Taylors c. readily employ such Journey men as are most ingenious in their Craft But alas 't is quite otherwise in Priest-craft There the Pluralist in the matter of Mens Souls employ such Journey men Curates as are always worse than themselves Here I could instance in several Particulars but I spare their Names one of whom has thrust in a Thorn into his Cure to stop the Gap a sorry Fence God knows to keep the Devil out of his Parish And if Learned Men employ such sorry Curates What can we expect from such as have but little Learning And yet that there are many Dunces advanced to Dignities and Pluralities is an undeniable and palpable Truth It is obvious to every understanding Man's Knowledge and Observation That by Bribery Symony Affinity Consanguinity by Favour Friendship and base Partiality very indifferent Scholars and worse Preachers are hoysted up into eminent Places in the present Church whilst others that have more Honesty and better Learning are in a low and mean Condition And thus it comes to pass sometimes A Gentleman has a Presentation of a Living He breeds up one of his Sons at School his Son proves a Dunce yet for his Fees gets a Degree and Orders and then is Presented Instituted and Inducted into the Living which another deserves ten times better Another Marries the Patrons Daughter or Kinswoman or crackt Chambermaid and so climbs up into the Fold by S k Simony Very few or none come into Preferment for their Deservings and then they employ Curates like themselves and then the Church of God is like to be well served To prevent these and many other Abuses I wish that nothing were settled upon the Church by Law but that every Parishioner might give the Minister what he pleased and that the Ministers would think that Christ's Command to the Apostle concern'd them too Freely ye have received Freely give Were it thus none but Religious and Devout Persons would put themselves forward into the Ministry But now Preferment being settled upon the Church he that can get it has it whether he deserves it or no. The Riches of the Church are a Bait for Covetousness to Bite at and the more Covetous and Ambitious any Man is the more forward is he to thrust himself into the Ministry on purpose to serve his own base Ends. For when there is striving for greater Livings and fat Parsonages and but little seeking for Poor ones any Man may easily judge whether they seek the Flock or the Fleece the Salvation of Souls or their own Gain It is reported in Baker's Chronicles That the Prior of a certain Convent in England being dead many of the Monks made great Interest to the King to get to be Prior But the King took notice of one Poor Monk who never sought at all for this Dignity and asked him Brother what wilt thou give me to be Prior not one Farthing said the Monk for I can serve God as well and with more ease with what allowance I have already as if I were a Prior Well then reply'd the King I think thou art the fittest man to be Prior and thou shalt be Prior. And certainly that man best deserves to be a Priest or Bishop that least desires the Profit and he that desires it at all deserves it not at all He that makes Divinity a Step to raise his Fortune by is altogether unworthy of that high and honourable Office And yet alas the World is overspread with these Locusts who make Preaching and Praying the servile Instruments and Trades to get Riches by The present Church of England is quite different from the Christian Church in the Apostles times when they Preached Freely as Christ commanded them and their Flocks as Freely supported their Pastors Here was no pulling and halling of Duties from the Congregation by quarrelsom Suits of Law but all of them resembled God their Father in giving Freely to each other the Pastor his Spiritual to his Flock and they again as Freely their Temporal to their Pastor without the least strife or constraint God grant to us the same Spirit that we may be not only Professors of Christianity but Christians indeed and make it appear by our Works that we have not only the shew but the power of Godlyness Now let us consider the ill consequences and effects of this mercenary Trade of Preaching for gain All that do this are Hirelings and therefore no true Sheepherds And Christ tells us that the Hireling fleeth when he seeth the Wolfe coming because he is but a Hireling and so the Wolfe scatters and devours the Sheep Just so do all mercenary Preachers seeing the Wolfe of Popery or Persecution coming presently fly from their own principals giving way to the Wolfe For what cares the Hireling so long as he has his Hire He matters not which Master he serves God or Satan Whereas he that is content to Preach Freely and has no Preferment to lose has no temptation on him to make him tack about every time the wind Turns like the Vicar of Bray but stands immovable like a Rock in the midst of the Waves of this troublesome World This mercenary Preaching for gain hath caused a very great decay of Piety and Religion amongst all men For men observing the minds of their Teachers set upon this World are apt to believe that there is no other World and that the Resurrection a future State Heaven and Hell are but Chymera's and Fables invented by Priests as I have heard an Athiest affirm who told me One bird in hand meaning the present Life is better than two in the bush meaning the Life to come I am affraid that the Covetousness of Church-men Imbracing this present World has most powerfully taught Atheism and Irreligion Their Examples overthrow their Doctrine Quid verba audio facta cum video T is in vain to Preach against Covetousness which no man that has his mouth stopp'd with 2 or 3 Steeples can well do if it appear that our very Preaching is but a means to gain Riches and an effect of Covetousness it self This Preaching for filthy Lucre has in a great measure evacuated enervated and made void the Gospel of Christ so that it cannot have that influence upon the Hearts of men as it had in the primitive times when it was sincerely Preached without any other design save the honour of God and the Salvation of Souls And it will never recover its strength and efficacy again till it be Preached by such Persons as have indeed renounced the World and shew the same heroick and Apostolick Spirit that was in St. Paul and the other Apostles who had not an Eye to the World but only to God and his truth