Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	lord_n	love_v	saint_n	5,636	5	6.4232	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85177	The oppressed close prisoner in Windsor-Castle, his defiance to the father of lyes, in the strength of the God of truth. Occasioned by some late, scandalous and slanderous reports, raised and dispersed to the dishonour of that noble cause, wherein he (with others of the Lords servants) is so deeply engaged. As also, a seasonable word, concerning the higher powers: concerning the payment of taxes and tribute-money by the saints to those powers: and how far a minister of the Gospel may intermeddle in state-affairs without sin. / By Chr. Feake, in his prison-watch-tower.	Feake, Christopher, fl. 1645-1660.	1654 (1654)	Wing F572; Thomason E820_10; ESTC R202087	97,195	127

house or otherwhere I were bound to stand upon my guard in such a case as men do every day against Theeves and Robbers c. 3 I am subject to them also for wraths sake partly and partly for conscience sake in point of Taxes I would refist others who should demand any part of that wherewith the Lord hath blessed me by inheritance or otherwise neverthelesse I would be very glad to live under a Power that would not be a Raiser of Taxes and hope to see Judges as at the first and Counsellors as at the beginning Isa 1.26 before I dye 4 I give honor where it is due I understanding it to be due but when persons are not known how can it bee known what is their due or what respect belongs unto them and I conceive this is an owning of Powers likewise 5 I am willing also to be afraid of the Powers if I am found to be an evill doer hereafter and this made out to me by the word of God And what is due to others of the children of men I desire to give or render to them according as is meet for I would owe no man any thing but love and the Lord help and quicken●es all up to love to love the Lord and to love all the Saints yea the Lord make his people to increase and abound in love one toward another and towards All Men as it is written 1 Thess 3.12 Before I pass to the next Section it seemeth requisite that somewhat from the Scripture should be spoken concerning the time of the end of those Yokes of Bondage whereby the best people have been oppressed by the Kings of the Earth from King Saul● time unto this day For it is very probable that the intelligent Reader doth remember that I hinted such a poynt in the Introduction to this Historical Epitome of those Burthens whereof I have been speaking Quest Saying What hope is there of an end of these burthens But when shall the Lords people be a free people when shall the Oppressor cease when shall the Extortioner be hindred from taking of our Substance we had thought this New Model would have continued as they begun to be our Deliverers from Monarchical and other Tyranny but we have learned Every man is a lie and lighter than vanity Psal 62 9. and therefore we will no longer relie upon an arm of flesh What doth God the Lord speak to his people in this matter c. Answ 1. It is apparent and plain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bu●chered or sl●ughtered so the word ●ig●ifie●h Jugulo to cut the throat as Butchers do with sheep Rom. 8. ●7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are counted as sheep for the slaughter-house The Roman Empire was like a slaughter house the first 300 years Ezra 9.8 that as the souls of the Saints slain in former ages for the Word of God and for the Testimony which they held do continue to cry HOW LONG O LORD HOLY AND TRVE so the living Saints who also are lively and sensible of the present persecutions and imprisonments of their Brethren do Eccho to the voyce of those who have died in the Lord and for the Lord HOW LONG O LORD HOLY AND TRVE 2. But then consider that as it was with the godly Jews upon their return from their captivity in Babylon so it is with us who but a few years ago came out of Babylon in part and but in part And Ezra's words will wel express our present state or at least as it was some few years since For a little space or for a moment grace hath been shewed us from the Lord our God to leave us a remnant to escape and to give us a nail in his holy place that our God may lighten our eies and give us a LITTLE REVIVING IN OVR BONDAGE For we were Bond-men yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the Kings of Persia to give us a REVIVING to set up the house of our God and to repair the desolations thereof and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem Yet afterward this fair first-fruits of redemption was blasted for in the first of Nebemiah a bitter complaint is brought which may answer our condition likewise The remnant that are left of the captivity are in great affliction and reproach Nehem. 1.3 the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down and the gates thereof are burnt with fire Thus you see their little reviving from their bondage and OVR LITTLE REVIVING FROM OVR BONDAGE comes afterward to be extinguished in reference to Church-work the Temple-work could not go forward the walls and gates being broken down and burnt with fire and this is our complaint also And as for our outward Liberties and Estates Nehem. 9.37 Nehem. 10.28 The Kings have Dominion over our Bodies and over our Cattle AT THEIR PLEASVRE and we are in great distress as were those Jews at that time Namely such as had separated themselves from the people of the Lands unto the Law of God Observe that description they separated themselves c. and so let the Disciples of Christ do at this day unto the LAW OF THEIR GOD ALSO for this is expected from them by the Lord. The consideration of this NEW UNEXPECTED TYRANNY under which we groan doth cause many poor hearts to fear our deliverance is not near and the rather they fear it because the famous NEW MODEL with whom the Lord was so eminently when they were about his work are so exceedingly degenerated that they have espoused the old quarrel and the old interest under the ill-favored disguise of another kind of Kingship which yet is not another but the same in principle in spirit and in operation Answ 3. Wherefore do you indeed desire to know whether or no the Lord will shortly turn again the captivity of Sion Psal 126.1.4 as the streams in the South would you in good earnest have skill and understanding in this matter Then in the next place take my Brethren the Prophets for an example particularly the Prophet Daniel Dan. 9 2. See 1 Per 1.11 Searching wh●● or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did sigu fie when it restified before-hand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow Rev. 17.17 who understood by Books the number of the years when the desolation of Jerusalem of holy Jerusalem should have an end The Teachers of the people are exceedingly to blame that they do not fore-warn the people to come out of Babylon and engage against the Kings of the Earth with all their might But what do I mean to charm the deaf Adder it is not for their interest to discover the nakedn●ss of the searlet Whore much less to exhort the people to strip her naked and make her desolate that she and her lovers the ten Horns or Kings may no longer oppress the

of that this Cause wherein I am engaged with my fellows and companions is absolutely and unquestionably the Best and most Honorable Cause of all Causes whatsoever agitated and disputed at this day in all the world Wherefore I will now add no more but this He that believeth maketh not haste shall never be confounded And Christ is precious to them which Believe even in a Prison in a Dungeon upon the Scaffold upon the Cross anywhere every-where to that MOST PRECIOUS ANOYNTED ONE be Honour Glory and Dominion now and for ever And let all that love him in sincerity say Amen in full assurance of faith and hope even in the presence of all Opposition whatsoever Amen and Amen The End Here followeth an extract of that Letter to the Congregation which did immediately precede that Epistle which being so unworthily used did occasion such a noise among the foes and friends of Jesus Christ our Lord and which is now explained as you have read The Imprisoned Elder A Servant of the Lord Jesus from his Watch-Tower in this House of Bondage sendeth greeting to the Brethren which meet together in Warwick Lane London Well-beloved Brethren in our dearest Lord I Desire earnestly on your behalf all and all maner of Communications of Grace from Heaven whereby you may in all Things grow up into him who is the Head even unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ For undoubtedly you having received the Lord Jesus as a PRINCE and a SAVIOUR in the light and power of the glorious Ministration of the New Testament cannot but acknowledge that all your Happiness is derived from the love of the Father through him in whom dwells the fulness of the Godhead Bodily c. Now concerning the Things whereof you wrote unto me in your late Letter This I say and testifie in the Lord for a further Confirmation of the Truth mentioned by you and for the Encouragement of such honest Hearts who through faith and patience are in the number of those which wait for the kingdom of Heaven and for the Consolation of the true Israel for which I am bound with this Chain That although my Name be cast out as vile I am separated by the New-fashion'd King and his Council from the society of the Saints in which through mercy I so much delighted yet I bear record before this Congregation to the praise of the Lord that it is the best condition that I ever tasted of and enjoyed onely one sharp Thorn which I cannot forget hath been made use of to keep my spirit in a Gospel-decorum lest otherwise I might have been lifted up above measure through that abundance of ravishing glory which I have been ready very often to be overwhelmed withal And yet let the Saints take diligent Heed that they do not expect much from me when I am delivered for it may be Brethren These extraordinary visitations from on High are intended but for my Prison-state and for my succour and support while I am thus suffering from all sorts of men I have indeed desired earnestly that the Spirit of Christ may according to his Office and our Lords promise bring to my remembrance what the Lord hath spoken to me since I was Close-Prisoner and what I have seen and tasted and heard and handled of the word of life for I cannot write it down though I attempt it Therefore I beseech you let there be prayer made on my behalf and on your behalf which is more on the Lords behalf that God would open to me a Door of Utterance from that very moment he sets open the Prison-doors to speak forth that mystery of Christ for which I am in bonds and that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak And whereas you expect I should offer or propound A way to you that may be conducible to my Inlargement I desire you to understand that it was never in my Heart to direct you what to do for the obtaining of my Liberty for it is contrary to that light and those principles whereby I walk in this condition My Judgement is if there be not Light and Love and Courage enough in a Church of Saints to prompt them to the use of Lawful and Honorable Means for the Redemption of their Officer out of Captivity it is Best for him still to lie in Bonds for it concerns them above all other people to endeavour his deliverance out of the House of Bondage if they Judge his presence needful and useful in the midst of them Also in Answer to that Marginal Note in your Epistle I shall be plain with you It is no way proper for me to appear for the obtaining of my own Liberty in a private way and rather then do it I shall through the strength of Christ be contented to suffer Close-Imprisonment in this blessed Cause during this mans reign although it should last as long as Athaliah's who usurped the Chief Government for about the space of twice three yeers and an half It is true my sufferings are many and great and there is a multiplication of Grievances and Injuries every day and hour of the day And as the Chief Captain said with a Great sum would I obtain my freedom if I were imprisoned upon a Common Account but as the Case stands I say again I shall not give place by subjection for a moment or do Any thing more or less that is unworthy of me the Prisoner of the Lord in such a precious Cause as This the Lord standing by me and fully strengthening me for all the treasures and riches of the New Court and of all the Kingdoms of the Earth in to the Bargain And Brethren I have reason for what I write in this particular for first the Lord was with me in a most sweet and glorious manner while I preached those Truths for which I suffer His presence was also with me most Comfortably from the first moment I was apprehended by the Pursevant till I was committed hither And all this time of my long and wrongful Imprisonment he hath not left me nor forsaken me in the least praised for ever be his glorious Name And should I leave and forsake such a Lord Protector and such a Comforter by any base Compliance with the Kings of the Earth and their Parasites would not that Spirit be grieved by which I am sealed to the day of Redemption should not the Name of the Lord be blasphemed and the faces of the Choicest followers of the Lambe gather paleness and shame surely these Considerations are prevalent with me And in this further I much rejoyce that I can do nothing against the Truth but for the Truth Besides the former grounds of not stirring or moving for mine own liberty in the ordinary way I finde not upon search that those servants of the Lord who were Prisoners and Innocent did ever petition or use other ordinary means to the Chief Governours for their own Liberty Joseph did not Hanani did not Jeremiah did not nor John the Baptist nor Peter nor Paul that I can finde And surely there is very good reason for it if we could search it out I conceive these which follow may be given as some grounds of it 1. Innocent Prisoners suffering as they did whom I have mentioned know they have to deal with Tyrants and unreasonable Persecutors and what will such as these hearken to unless the Prisoners do submit to their lusts and satisfie their arbitrary wills and pleasures 2. They glorified God all the while they were suffering Bonds and Imprisonments The service of their Master was promoted all that time and being in Gods way why should they covet to go out of so good an Imployment 3. The Prisoners and Martyrs of the New Testament follow the example of Christ and tread in his steps when they patiently indure persecution for the Truths and Righteousness sake without making unworthy applications for their liberty 4. If it becomes us not to use the means and devices of the world to prevent Imprisonment but cheerfully to come when we are sent for before Kings and Councels for Christs sake and his Gospels how unseemly would it appear for us after a short time to use means to get out again after the manner of other men who are in bonds upon other Accounts I shall proceed upon the other part of your Letter the next week if God permit and in the mean season I beseech you and exhort you in the Lord See that you walk circumspectly as it is written not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the dayes in one sence are very evil Wherefore be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is Prayer and Praise is to be continued for The 7 day of the 8 month 1654. Yours in Christ CHR. FEAKE FINIS

The Oppressed Close Prisoner In WINDSOR-Castle HIS DEFIANCE TO The Father of Lyes In the strength of The God of Truth Occasioned by some late scandalous and slanderous Reports raised and dispersed to the Dishonour of that noble Cause wherein He with others of the Lords servants is so deeply engaged AS ALSO A Seasonable Word concerning the Higher Powers concerning the payment of Taxes and Tribute-money by the Saints to those Powers And how far a Minister of the Gospel may intermeddle in State-Affairs without sin By CHR. FEAKE in his Prison-Watch-tower Prov. 25.18 19. A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour is a M●ul and a Sword and a sharp Arrow Confidence in an Unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joynt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zor coram Dario. London Printed for L. Chapman at the Crown in Popes-head-alley 165● The Preface THat space of time which remains to that old Serpent the Devil and Satan before the beginning of the thousand yeers being but short * Which according to my computation will expire within less then 50 yeers from this yeer 1654 It is no marvel that he is so much inraged at the Woman and that he continues to go forth to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony of Jesus Christ My expectations also are abundantly confirmed that the poor Nations will be most sadly deceived by him for the forementioned space of time insomuch that whilst the power of his Sophistry and Seduction is upon them they will freely expose themselves and all that is dear unto them to extream hazards for his service The certain and particular knowledge of these things doth much affect my heart with pity and I would gladly be at work with others to give forth Antidotes among the children of men But behold he hath by divine permission cast me and some other Brethren into Prison that we might be tried and I have had tribulation neer ten months of days a great part of which time I have also been shut up in a very narrow compass from the common air and which is far worse from the sweet society of the Saints But my dear Lord bids me be of good cheer and exhorts me most lovingly to be faithful to the DEATH and he will give me a CROWN OF LIFE Those most incouraging communications from Heaven whereof my soul hath had more sweet and plentiful experience then in any condition formerly will have I am perswaded a very effectual influence upon my spirit to cause it to bear up against all the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Devices and Wiles or Methods of that wicked one yea through Christ strengthning me having taken the shield of faith I shall be able to quench all those fiery darts * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are shot against me to cause me to fall or quit the field and so desert that most noble Interest wherein I have with my fellow-workers unto the Kingdom of God been so long and so publickly engaged against the Kings and other Supream Powers of the Earth The cunning craftiness of this God of this world and of his Pursevants for the Devil also hath his Pursevants or Messengers deceitful Workers * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 11.13 hath raised and spread false reports and slanderous reproachful rumours as if I also had recanted as if I had renounced my Principles that now I begin to droop these lyes have begotten strange effects in the mindes and affections of the simple who are apt to believe every word and of the adversaries who would greatly rejoyce if it might be found a Truth Assuredly it is mater of some importance in this conjuncture of time for every one of the faithful followers of the Lambe to be fellow-helpers to the Truth * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3 John 8. and to the cause and work of Christ which ere long shall have a most glorious resurrection although so many like the souldiers and Priests of old when the Lord of glory was dead and buried desire they may lie in the grave of oblivion so as never to rise again If it were onely a personal reproach particularly intended against me and reflecting upon me alone a poor inconsiderable instrument in the Lords hand I could through grace have borne it patiently without answering again according as I have endured a thousand for neer this ten yeers both in City and Country but this reacheth to the heavens * Captutinter nubila condit and rides p●st through the Nations to the dishonour of my Lord and Master the Lord Jesus Christ whose I am and whom I serve and to the further disparagement of that known great affair of His which hath been so slighted of late yeers by the quondam zealous assertors of it Wherefore if I should altogether hold my peace at this time as Mordecai said to Hester and in this matter how could I give an account with comfort to my Lord the King of Saints when he shall make enquiry after the service he expects should be done by me in my day for his Name and his Kingdom according to the trust he reposed in me when he did first chuse and call me forth to suffer for his sake But before I proceed to the business intended by me I shall declare so far as I have attained true intelligence in the general the first and last occasion of all this noise both among the Churches and elsewhere and then subjoyne a plain-hearted explication of those Truths concerning the matter in controversie which have sweetly wooed and won my understanding and judgement such as they are to entertain and to improve them as God shall providentially administer opportunity by the teachings of his Spirit But if in any circumstance I should miss the white at which I aim it must be imputed to my present incapacity of obtaining a full Relation partly because I am still a close Prisoner notwithstanding my present breathing in the open air and so cannot converse with such as would give me a more perfect and punctual Narrative in matter of fact as also because there hath been as it was always in the like cases a monstrous multiplication of new mishapen births even every day That Congregation which I am over in the Lord sent not many weeks since an Epistle to me testifying their love in the Lord and that brotherly sympathy with me in my sufferings which is meet withal signifying they should rejoyce to be serviceable to Christ and me in obtaining my enlargement if they did but once understand what means to use in order thereunto but they could not do what their souls desired to do without owning the Powers in being the doing of which said they is accounted a bowing of the knee to the Image of the Beast This last mentioned passage gave me just occasion according to my Office as

Brethren when others despised them and wished no good unto them they preferred them before themselves esteemed them above all the Armies that had been before them in any age since Christs time Taxes were not Taxes Burthens were not Burthens great payments were light matters every three or six months when others paid their proportions out of Fear THIS REMNANT parted with their estates in Love we did not complain as others For all this while they behaved themselves like very choice Instruments in the Lords hand Oh the honourable mention made of them before the Lord the Saints Bucklers under God against Tyranny our Protectors and Defenders as an Army against our sworn enemies friends of Christ and his Interest they appeared most notably resolved to cleave to the work of the Lord against Babylon so far as we could perceive we verily thought with our selves by their prayers speeches and discourses their Declarations Promises Appeals to God c. That it had been almost impossible they should ever prevaricate with the Lord and his people Hereupon I say it was plainly seen how some people carried themselves and how differently from others we gave not grudgingly or out of necessity * 2 Cor 9.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not with grief and sorrow because we must part with it but cheerfully that they might as from their brethren be incouraged to proceed as they had begun Thus it continued while Worcester Victory and a good space after because we hoped after they had rested and secured their spoyls and arrears c. we should find them rouze up again wherefore the Lambs followers continued their payments with a good will I can speak for my self and I beleeve many others did so for when the Parliament grew sluggish and carelesse of the work of Christ now their own turn was served we had ground to beleeve that those who had seen the wonders of the Lord in so many Battels Sieges Victories would not have given over so glorious a work and service for Christ against the man of sin and his Adherents and for which they had been so well recompenced both by God and man The new Model decline in zeal to the Cause of Christ and his people But DALILAH DECEIVED SAMPSON And the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride have caused the mighty men of War to fall If they had dealt fairly with their faithful Brethren and told us the truth namely That the Lord was not with them as in times past if they had ingenuously confessed that though they had overcome the men of the world yet the world bad overcome them as we saw plainly some of us it had if they had let us understand from themselves that which we feared would afterwards appear that they would deliver us no further that they could not advance one step further against the scarlet Whore and the Kings of the earth who commit fornication with her that they were not spirited to follow the Lamb any further because they had gotten Farms and Palaces and Parks which they must look after and fall to building and planting c. as in the dayes of Noah and as it will be before the coming of the Son of Man I say If they had freely opened their bosomes to us in these matters as some of themselves must now needs say there was cause they should It is very probable we should have dealt with them in an honest Christian way and have perswaded them to have given incouragement to their Brethren whose hearts God had made willing to proceed in that glorious Warfare which they had thus far and thus happily begun and carried on The new Model had warm cloaths applied to keep life and heat in them And indeed some few of us did follow them with warm cloaths to get heat into them and to quicken them to the work of God and further told the chiefest of them though there was a withdrawing in some yet others were resolved to promote this honourable Design against the kingdom of the Beast Some brethren in danger for pressing forward the work but being betrayed by some of our own number we were we perceived taken in a snare to the danger of some of our lives if the Lord had not prevented But for them to decline in their affections to this noble Cause more and more The new Model pull down what they had built and build again the things they had destroyed to lose ground every day and yet to keep the Sword in their hands nay to exact the full sum of the Taxations as formerly and yet to suffer the Enterprise to slide back insensibly into the same or a worse condition than before Nay more than this for the NEW MODEL to build again the same things they had destroyed for the famous Commanders in that new Model to set up old M●narchy under a strange notion and uncouth Title The new Model sets up old Monarchy in a new disguise and persecere those who will not fall down and worship the Image which they have set up contrary to their own ingagements against the very appearance whereof they had so frequently and so solemnly ingaged and declared And yet further to command us also who were their firm friends and brethren in all their streights to shut our eyes and beleeve as the Court beleeves upon pain of imprisonment and if we put them in mind of their Apostacy of their deceiving the Saints and mocking of Christ presently to say Take him Jailor Oh this is not to render to the Lord according to the benefit done unto them this is not to recompence their brethren according to the kindness they have ever been ready to shew unto them So that truly The little remnant unwilling to be charged again as in time of the first Army because all things go backward upon consideration of that which went before I must needs say I cannot so freely pay Taxes and give them wages now as formerly when they minded or pretended to mind the things of Jesus Christ the liberty of the Saints and the calling of that bloody City that cruel City to an account for all those massacres murthers and slaughters and other cruel usage of our forefathers and of the present generation of Saints now suffering exceedingly at home and abroad by her Paramors and Lovers the Kings other Tyrants of the earth and I am confident many Saints are unwilling of Neverthelesse Yet rather than resist they do still part with their estates though not so freely as formerly to deal plainly with all men that shal read or hear these things My Principles and that light which I have received from the good word of God did cause me to surrender and give up my body and my goods without resistance yea I have paid heavy Taxes during this my unjust imprisonment also even as when I was at liberty and let the powers proceed to oppresse me