Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	house_n	sir_n	william_n	3,051	5	7.6129	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89583	A sermon preached to the Honorable House of Commons assembled in Parliament: at their late solemne fast, Januar. 26. 1647. at Margarets Westminster. / By Steven Marshall, B.D.	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1648 (1648)	Wing M780; Thomason E423_27; ESTC R204300	29,725	48

Die Mercurii 26. Januar. 1647. ORdered by the Commons Assembled in Parliament That Sir William Massam doe from this House give Thanks unto Mr. Marshall for the great paines he tooke in his Sermon Preached on this day at Margarets Westminster before the House of Commons it being a day of Publick Humiliation and that hee be desired to Print his Sermon wherein hee is to have the like priviledge in Printing of it as others in the like kind usually have had H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com. A SERMON PREACHED TO THE HONORABLE HOVSE OF Commons Assembled in PARLIAMENT At their late solemne Fast Januar. 26. 1647. At Margarets WESTMINSTER By Steven Marshall B. D. London Printed by Richard Cotes for Steven Bowtell at the signe of the Bible in Popes-head Alley 1647. TO THE HONORABLE HOUSE OF COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT THE Lord hath cast us into times in which the foure Windes strive upon the great Sea a great part of the World hath little leasure for any thing but storming of Townes and strong holds and taking in of Kingdomes and Countryes in our Land of Peace we also of late have cryed out of VVar and Violence and although those winds have through Gods goodnesse in a great measure ceased blustring yet the Sea hath not left rowling Animosities yet remaine too great Paroxysmes very sharpe and pursuits of worldly interests extreame eager here like Jehu wee drive furiously magno conatu nugas we throw feathers with the whole strength of our arme vaine men that lean too hard on a weak reed unwise builders who lay too great a weight upon a slight foundation make such trifles our Master-peeces that when we come to review our work wee must be inforced to say Materiamsuperavit opus that wee have overdone it laboured too hard for that which satisfieth not and caused our eyes to fly upon that which is not and therefore that wee had been more wise if wee had been lesse earnest and more happy if wee had not effusissimis habenis let out the strength of our desires and endeavours after those things which prove vanity and bitternesse in the latter end Odit Deus nimis vehementes impetus odere cives gratior est moderatio Because Morall vertue is circa res medias therefore the Philosopher rightly placed it in a Mediocrity sure I am the Grace of Christ perswades to a moderation a weanednesse a remissnesse in suth things as these in which wee have not so much need of the spur as of the Bridle But if the metled horse bee so upon his speed that hee cannot be held in it would bee a peece of our best skill to guide him in a safe way and to turn the violent stream that cannot bee stopt into a right channell This was the design of my weake endeavours in this short Sermon to stay the man that runnes so violently down the hill earth-ward and hell-ward and if it might be to turn his face and heart that if he cannot with so much speed yet with more contention and earnestnesse he may get u pthe hill heaven-ward In which endeavor omne valde tuum al thy might is too weak al speed tooslow and greatest earnestnesse too faint Against sin all that carefulnesse indignation fear vehementest desire and hottest zeal yea and revenge that the Apostle speaks of are not over much but onely malo nodo malus cuneus a sharper wedge for a knotty peece which will require our best strength to drive it in so as to pierce an hard heart For Gods truth an earnest contending is not too impetuous For the Church of God the rearing up of Ierusalems wals a Satagentia is not enough a Nehemiahs intense earnestnes is deservedly imitable For Heaven if by striving to enter in at the strait gate by giving al diligence at last we come to have an abundant entrance our labour will not exceed our reward In this work of the Lord if you abound your labour wil not be in vain in the Lord and may my poore paines any whit herein quicken your endeavours to get to heaven your selves and by your helpe to have others goe along with you to enter your selves into that Kingdome and by your authority with a sweet violence to compell others to come in as it is the prayer so it will be the rejoycing of Your humble Servant STEVEN MARSHALL A SERMON PREACHED To the Honorable the House of Commons at the Monethly Fast Januar. 27. 1647. MATTH. 11. 12. And from the dayes of John the Baptist untill now the Kingdome of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force THat you may the more cleerly understand the scope of our blessed Saviour in these words be pleased to observe that in the beginning of this Chapter Iohn the Baptist had sent two of his Disciples upon a message to Christ not for his own information but for the confirmation of his Disciples who were too much addicted to himself that they might be satisfied in receiving Christ to be as he was the promised Messiah by seeing and hearing what he did and taught as soon as these Disciples of Iohn were gone Christ turnes to the multitude that were about him and from the 7. verse of this Chapter to the 16. verse doth make a notable discourse wholly concerning Iohn the Baptist and there are two parts of Christs speech concerning Iohn First A blaming of the levity and inconstancie of the people in their respect towards Iohn for they had magnified him so not long before that they were ready to have received him as their Messiah but now Iohn was grown no body with them this our Saviour doth bitterly taxe And the argument whereby he reproves them lies in such a distribution as this is Either you were very foolish in magnifying Iohn when there was no such worth in him or you are extreame vaine and light in withdrawing your hearts from him that was so worthy at first to be received the first is not to be granted therefore the second must needs be true what went you out into the Wildernesse to see was it a Reed shaken with the wind did you goe as children doe to see rattles and toyes no but wee went to see and heare Iohn the Baptist and what in him a man cloathed in white raiment alas Iohn was no Courtier no we went to him as to a Prophet I so he was saith Christ and more then a Prophet the greatest Prophet that ever the world saw and the greater is your fault in slighting of him In this as in a glasse you may see the levity and inconstancy of people who contemne him to day whom they admired yesterday and that doctrine which this day they esteeme as a treasure they by and by abominate because indeed Athenian-like they imbrace it not because true but because new thus it hath been of old and thus it is to this day he who to day

the Kingdome of Heaven the advancing of it is a matter of the greatest concernment unto the whole Kingdome of any thing that ever you can be employed in when you have thought all that lies within your compasse there is nothing of that concernment to the Kingdome as the Kingdome of Heaven is for why you know the greatest part of our well being here upon earth lies in the things of Gods Kingdome and the whole sum of our everlasting well being in Heaven to eternity is wholly to be taken from the Kingdome of Heaven not from any outward things that you can helpe us with and as the things concerne us for our well being so these are the things will bring other things with them set up the Kingdome of Heaven throughly in the Kingdom of England and you shall say of it as Nabals servants said of Davids men when they lay with them all the while the men were with us they were a wall about us that we lost nothing none could hurt us nay it wil be a wal of fire to England Salvation will God provide for wals and Bulwarks to you I fear not to speak it to wise men that the four Seas of England and if to them were added wals of brasse of 20. cubits high thick about England and all your Souldiers as the sons of Anak they could not give that security to the Land which the Kingdome of Jesus Christ would be to it Let the Gospell flourish let Religion prosper let that goe on and salva omnia that will secure all other things to you the very Heathens saw this by the light of nature you cannot read of one Lawgiver amongst them but ever counted the matters of the worship of their Gods and of Religion to be of greatest advantage to their states and therefore counted Religionso sacred a thing that they made their Kings Princes alwaies their chief Priests that the care of the Gods might not be neglected it is true these poore blind wretches knew not God and worshipped Devils and therefore miscarried but yet thus much we may learn from them that even in their judgments nothing so secures a Nation as Religion Now when wee have the cleer light of the Gospel and so many examples before us and so many promises from Heaven can we expect the like succor and help from any thing else as from the advancement of that Sixthly Know ye for certain you never shall bee able to breake through your difficulties and to settle this poor Land in Peace unlesse your whole heart be sincerely set to advance the Kingdome of Heaven you shall not prosper in other work I know it grieves your hearts and it grieves those that love England to see how you labour in the fire and what pains you take and still the end of one trouble is the beginning of another our clouds return after the rain and when wee think we are going to moore our ship wee are instantly ready to dash against new rocks up and down we are and England appeares to our eyes as a dying fading plant certainly the Lords anger is not yet turn'd away from England there is somewhat provokes him God grant that we may search whether it be not somewhat like that in the 1. of Haggai that the house of God was not regarded as it should be I doe acknowledge here before you my heart is overwhelmed with grief oftentimes when I look upon our unsetled condition but could I once see and might it appear that the Lord had let it so really into the hearts of our Parliament that they could with all their might buckle to the work of God sincerely and faithfully to enquire what God would have them doe in the cause of Religion and doe it to the utmost I think all my feares would vanish I should say we went forward when wee seemed to goe backward wee prospered when we seemed to be overthrown I could say to my own melancholy spirit as Luther said to Melancthon Ego miserrimas istas curas quibus te consumi scribis vehementer odi c. I doe extreemly hate saith he those cares that thou sayest doe consume and tear thee it is not the greatnesse of our danger but the greatnesse of thy infidelity that is the cause of it it is the cause of God that we are ingaged in So mee thinks I could resolve that the enemies of England of the Church of God would quickly bee where they should bee that is made the Lords footstoole and we should triumph over them break through all if the Lord would but incline the hearts of those hee hath called to it to goe through-stitch with the things of the Kingdome of Heaven and therefore I most humbly beseech you fall to it and in it doe as Baruch did of whom you may read in the 3. of Nehem. 20. that he did build the wal earnestly and Tremelius reades it accendit se he sets himself a fire to it he stirred up himself he did not stay till others stirr'd him up but hee provok'd himselself to it doe it with all your might and doe it throughly too do not make a patch'd businesse of it the Lord made that once a curse to the Ministers of Israel that they healed the wounds of the people slightly therefore that I may speak plain English search Gods Word and find not what may be agreeable to humane policy but search what God would have you own and set up what he would have you oppose and what hee would have you beat down what hee would have you indulge how far hee would have you indulge it by what rules it should be done get a clear light in these things for the Scripture is able to make every man of God perfect in all his workes get this and fall to it throughly and God Almighty will be with you the Lord will yet blow over the clouds you are afraid of and will prosper your work in your hand but truly if you doe neglect it and shall not bee faithfull to the Lord in it beleeve it though our misery and ruine may be protracted and beaten off and kept off for a time it wil return upon us and come in like the huge breaking in of waters and like a great breach in a high wall whose mine comes suddenly therefore because you cannot do the rest of your work without it let this be the main Seventhly I 'le but name the two other and lay this to heart likewise That a great part of those miseries that the Kingdom of Heaven lies under at this day in England have broke out since the cure of it was committed to your hands I doe not say through your fault the root of these humors was in the sick bodie before and in such confused times as hath appear'd in Germany and other places abundance of disorders doe come in especially in times of War but because God hath blessed you and inabled