Selected quad for the lemma: father_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
father_n	know_v	see_v	son_n	19,837	5	5.8352	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26686	A call to Archippus, or, An humble and earnest motion to some ejected ministers (by way of letter) to take heed to their ministry that they fulfil it.	Alleine, Joseph, 1634-1668.	1664 (1664)	Wing A965; ESTC R5254	20,344	32

and yet do you let your Talents lie unoccupied Are not you the Physicians of the Churches and when should they ply their Patients unless when in most danger to be infected with the mortal Plague and common Leprosie of the Times In a word Are you Nurses and yet deny your Sucklings your brest Fathers and yet will not give bread to your Sons that ask it Watchmen of the Lord and yet neglect your fearful Charge Who would not tremble at those dreadful Injunctions Ezk. 3. 17. and 33. 7. whereby we are required to give men warning or else if they should perish their blood shall be required at our hands Finally Hath not the Lord ordained you to be his Prophets and shall not your souls be moved neither at the thundering Charge at the entrance nor the sweet Promise in the close of those piercing and powerful words Jer. 1. 17 18. Thou therefore gird up thy loins and arise and speak unto them all that I command thee be not dismayed at their fears lest I confound thee before them For behold I have made thee this day a defenced City and an iron Pillar and brazen wals against c. And they shall fight against thee but shall not prevail against thee for I am with thee saith the Lord to deliver thee The passage seems like the stormy Wind the amazing Earthquake and the Fire of God in the Vision of the Prophet ending in the sweet soft and still Voice O let the Words of the living God work either upon your Fear or upon your Hope Suffer us to stay you a while with a few serious Questions which in all humility we do request you to let your grave considerations dwell for a time upon We beseech you let not our importunity be grievous nor our words seem tedious in so pondrous and important a case But to prevent misunderstandings in what we say we must be forced more than we would to lengthen by premising a three-fold Caution We would not be so understood in any thing as if we did undervalue the Sufferings of our most deserving Brethren or were unthankful to God or them that they have so manfully stood for the TRUTH and resisted the strong Temptations to sinful compliance even to the peril of their Families the loss of Goods and Livelihood and their beloved Imployment amongst their dear People We must we do and shall while we live bless the Lord for this their Courage and Constancy that they have kept the Word of His Patience and have not denied His Name And have born their publick Testimony against the Corruptions of the times though we are forced with submission to mind them what pity it is that they that did run so well should not reach to the end of their race We would not be understood as if we did lay the blame of silence upon all our Fathers and Brethren that have been thrust out for Conscience towards God We know there are of them and that not a few Glory be to God that are harder at work than ever labouring in season and out of season by night and by day whose Reward is with the Lord yea a great Reward and their praise throughout all the Churches We would not have what we speak of the present Ministry to be understood de omni We may not without grievous breach of Charity deny but some few alas too few are pious sedulous as well as singularly endowed with learning and abilities but we speak only of the generality and would to God their lives and labours would confute our too just complaints After these Cautions we humbly subjoyn a few moving Questions Whether you think in your hearts that the Ministry that now is will ever keep up the Power of Godliness O that we could but charitably believe it But who can deny his senses Alas how should Christ's Kingdom and Interest and the Power of Holiness be suported by these hands If Idleness will do it if Ignorance will do it if Loosness will do it if Malice will do it then these men will bear up the Power of Godliness Do you not know that too many of them hate it both name and thing do not they plainly make it not the Prize they aim at but the But they shoot at These things are a Lamentation and shall be for a Lamentation In this we know you are sufficently convinced Whether you can see Religion sinking falling dying away and you never put your hands and shoulders to it and yet be blameless Fathers and Brethren you are the shoulders that must bear up the Ark of the Lord. Do not your hearts tremble for the Ark of GOD Do you see it falling and yet withdraw your shoulders and keep your hands in your bosomes you would condemn that man deservedly as void of Christian Charity yea common humanity that should not take up his neighbour and labour to chafe and rub and recover him to life when fallen down by you in a swooning fit Fathers where then are your Bowels where are your Compassions and your Zeal for the Interest of Christ and Holiness If you see Religion it self in this swooning fit and hast not with your utmost help will the Lord hold you guiltless if you should altogether hold your peace at such a time as this Whether there will a blessing follow him that keepeth in his Corn in a time of Famine Behold England is crying unto you in her Famine as Egypt to Joseph for with you is the store for the Lord's sake open the store-houses Now or never stir up your Gifts we seem to hear the fainting souls of the forsaken starving Flocks comming and crying to you as they to him O give us Bread for why should we dye in thy presence We seem to see the famishing cheeks approaching you and calling for relief expostulating as they Wherefore should we dye before thine eyes Give us Food that we may live and not dye Gen. 47. 19. For the Lord's sake bear with us to be a little plain with you Are your souls sensible of the Famine upon the Land or are they not if not as we cannot we dare not we do not think so of you Fathers for we doubt not your Integrity with God you were we will not say no Fathers but not so much as true Children or Members of the Church having no Natural Affection no Christian Sympathy If you are indeed sensible of the Famine how can you keep in the Corn Surely the Voyce of God to a withholding-Minister seems like that Lam. 2. 20. Arise Cry out in the Night in the beginning of the Watches pour out thine heart like water before the Lord lift up thine hands towards him for the life of thy young children that faint for hunger in the top of every street It grieves us to urge what yet we cannot keep in Fathers we reverence you from our hearts but cannot

these If he forbid you the Pulpits he doth not forbid you your neighbours houses Why are they no more visited may you not preach to a private Family or single person And such was our Saviours and the Apostles preaching oft-times You might be the shorter and the oftner this way and this would be a likely means of doing no little good if painfully followed Though you are forbidden to set open the Windows and keep Publick Trading yet what hinders but that you may have a private Warehouse Is it forbidden you to write out a Sermon once or twice a week and send it amongst your People and let it be read in their Families and Copies conveyed from hand to hand This some have done and this would be a Testimony to your People of your constant care for their souls and that you are willing to do what you thought you lawfully might whereas now they will say they see the contrary Object 2. But Abiathar's quiet Secession is objected who 't is said when thrust out of the Office of the Priesthood did not turbulently busie himself in doing the work of that Office but retired to a private life and dwelt quietly in his own house Sol. This is not an Objection for the friends of our Call and Office to make the case between him and us being so wonderfully disproportionate as we might many wayes shew We shall instance but in four things 1. Abiathar as it seems had no right to the Priesthood for it did by right belong to another Line For Abiathar was of the line of Eli who it is not known how he came to the Priesthood Whereas Zadok put in in his room was the son of Phinehas and heir in a direct line to Aaron and so seems to have the right of Priesthood belonging to him both by lineal descent being the proper heir to it and also by God's special Promise 2. Abiathar was put out by two Princes who were inspired by God and who knows but they may do it by extraordinary direction by David who anointed Zadok Priest in his room while he was yet living and also by Solomon ratifying his Fathers Act. 3. When Abiathar was thrust out Zadok not Hophni or Phinehas was put in his room a man owned and beloved of God sufficiently yea eminently fitted for the Work so that he might recede without fear of miscarrying of the Work of the Lord by the ignorance or wickedness of him that it was entrusted with Were this the case here that your Work were put into the hands of the best of men and like to be better carried on by those to whom 't is now committed than before Yea if it were not like to sink and fail we should not think our selves so much concerned to offer these ungrateful lines unto you 4. Above all Abiathar had forfeited his place by his Treason so that the King might justly have cut off his Person and Priesthood too for he was a man of death 1 Kings 2. 26. and the Sentence of death Solomon is thought to have held him under so that he should be only upon his good-behaviour and responsible for his crime upon any new provocation Object 3. But it 's further said This will be a great occasion of Separation if Ministers set up in private and draw away a great part of the People from the Service of God in Publick Sol. 1. The Separation be upon others who when we were quietly setled in the administration of Church-Ordinances in a more pure and reformed sort are come in upon us and have possessed our Places and Pulpits and thrust us by the places of publick Convention We continue still but in the same station and the same work watching over our Flocks and administring according to our Office with no other difference but only that the place is altered which being at the Magistrates dispose we quietly left it according to our duty upon his command 2. Yea your not preaching will occasion Separation indeed for whither will the People run headlong if not stayed and guided by the interposition of your wisdom and prudence Your moderation will be the likeliest means to keep them from extreams for you are they that have their hearts by others they will not be guided For this experience affords abundant instances and too sad proof People every where joyning themselves to the greatest of Separatists rather then they will rest satisfied with liveless Jejune sapless Administrations offered withal by hands so unclean and in vessels so impure as somewhere they are 3. What is done in private may be so prudently and inoffencively managed as to the season as that in case you and others are so satisfied you and they may orderly and timely attend what is done in publick and shew your readiness to Unity and Peace though you bear your Testimony against the Corruptions that are on foot evidencing your non-acquiescence in such impure and imperfect modes of Administration and Ignorant and Ungodly Dispencers as too generally use them 4. The most commendable endeavours after Christian Unity must be conjunct with a study of Gospel-Purity and the Power of Godliness together with the testifying of our vehement anhelation after it and our vigorous endeavours in all lawful and peaceable means for the obtaining of it But how this should be evidenced and effected not to mention the hardning of others to think they are in the right and all is well when men do fully jump in with all that is on foot and acquiesce in it looking for no farther help we cannot well understand Obj. 4. But it is added That this will destroy God's Publick Worship and alienate men from it Sol. 1. It is not the place but the company conveened that makes the Worship to be publick The Meeting is publick and so the Worship publick though the place may not be publick Else there was no Publick Worship in the time of great Persecution when the Assemblies of Christians Met by stealth in private houses 2. It hath been already shewed that there is a possibility of doing this without neglecting the Ordinances of God more publickly dispensed Obj. 5. But there is a secret and most forcible Objection yet behind which we fear lies with many at the bottom though it come not so freely out That this is against our safety and will certainly expose us to Persecution and for a man to adventure himself for an opportunity or two to so great a hazard as to become a miserable Captive and a prey to the Sons of violence seems but folly Sol. 1. Why then do you neglect that of your work which would not expose to Pesecution cannot you dwell with your People and keep the oversight of them and watch to see when danger approaches and give them warning though more privately whereby to prevent their Ruine We humbly conceive it is a part and no little part of a Ministers duty personally to