Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	king_n	liberty_n	parliament_n	4,708	5	6.3048	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85121	A plain-dealing, and plain-meaning sermon, preach't in the parish church of St. Nicholas, Bristol, April. 6. 1660. Being the day appointed by the Parliament for publique fasting and humiliation for the sins of the nation, &c. Together with a prefatory epistle, and subsequent vindication both of the sermon, and author. Wherein (besides an apology for home and plain-preaching) you have something offered to allay the heat of thier stomacks, and to temper the tongues of those, who (being ignorant in scripture) reproach and revile Presbytery and Presbyters. With some hints at Satans subtlety, and the mischief of those people, who brand zeal for God and truth (in free, home, and faithfull preaching) with the reproachful names of anger, passion, and railing.	Farmer, Ralph.	1660 (1660)	Wing F443; Thomason E1025_5; ESTC R208684	39,155	50

eternally But that King Jesus will assuredly save them if he rule over them I hope you will not say this is a crime if you do the Lord make you wiser And this I think is all you have to charge me with in this matter and how wisely justly charitably Christianly let all wise men judge Confident I am what I delivered might have been spoken even in the Kings presence and he would not have been offended What would these captious hearers have said had I used such plain language as was spoken unto him at his Coronation in the Coronation Sermon Coronation Sermō preacht at Scoon Ian. 1651. by Mr. Rob. Douglas Printed at Aberdeen 1660. That his Father set himself in a hostile way to overthrow Religion Parliaments Laws and Liberties and in page 27. of the same Sermon they charge his Grandfather King James with foul defection and that he peresecuted faithful Ministers and that he laid the foundation whereupon his Son our late King says he did build much mischief to Religion all the days of his life And he tells him that the guiltiness of the transgression lies upon the Throne and Family and that is one of the sins for which he had professed humiliation very lately and advises him to take warning And in his Exhortation to the King page 32. he tells him There is too much iniquity upon the Throne by his Predecessors who framed mischief by a Law such Laws as have been destructive to Religion grievous to Gods people and page 36. he may say it freely That chief cause of the judgement upon the Kings House hath been his Grandfathers breach of Covenant with God and his Fathers following his steps in opposing the work of God and his Kirk within these Kingdoms He says They have broken the Covenant with God and men have broken Covenant with them Most cruelly and perfidiously says he they have invaded the Royal Family and trodden upon all Princely Dignity And therefore charges him in Christs name not to break Covenant if he do he assures him The Controversie is not ended between God and his Family but it will be carried on to further weakning if not to the utter overthrow of it Here 's plain dealing now what would our men have said to this matter Surely never a villain in England would have preached such a Sermon and yet such foolish sots have we in England to say so of a Sermon that hath none of all this nor any thing like in it But now Sirs to convince you of your perverseness and to let you see how like you are to those noxious creatures the Flies that flie-blow wholsome meat so are you It is usuall with them if there be any bruised place they are sure to light upon that first and there to sucke and feed themselves But if there be none they flie-blow so long till they have made it fit for their purpose So do you flie-blow discourses For whereas you charge me to be against the King and his coming in did I not say It was a judgement that we were removed from our ancient foundations And what could I mean or did I mean But the changing our government And did I not quote that place Isay 3. to the end of vers 8. as a dreadfull judgement most sadly fallen upon us And did I not afterwards say That as we had been under that curse and judgement so we might see that blessed morning promised to Gods people in the same Prophet Chap. 1. ver 25 26 27. Do but read the places and let any man say what could be thence intended And did I not pray for the hastning of that happy morning And when I quoted that place in 1 Sam. 12.19 to the end did I not in express words say That that place in all things did not run parallel with our condition But that in something it was pertinent to my purpose which was in the later part onely in that the peoples wickedness would destroy themselves the King and Kingdome And did I not in plain words say That that portion of Scripture held not parallell in that very particular in that it was said they sin'd in desiring a King with more to that purpose as you may see in the Sermon And did I not say That if it were the late Kings own sins which I did not nor dare I determine that brought that judgment upon him it was not just in them who did it And when I advised you to be more careful to bring King Jesus into your hearts then King Charles into the Throne did I not expresly and in these significant words say That the one was not opposite contradictory or destructive to the other But onely that King Jesus was to be prefer'd before him And that if he King Charles be minded to rule for him and under him did I not say If God and the great Council see it fit let him come and welcome Well the Lord forgive you and make you wiser and more discreet and bonest And I cannot passe by but must reprove you for one most abominable lie of some of you That I should pray in my Prayer That as the Lord had delivered us from one Devill so he would deliver us from another and that hereby I did mean the King Good Lord what a lying malicious Devill hath possest these people No these and such like prophane and ungodly wretches in an humane shape are the Devils I prayed against I prayd That as the Lord had graciously in a good measure delivered us from the devil of Hersie and blasphemie so that he would also keep us and deliver us from the Devil of prophanenesse And the God to whom I prayed knows that these ungodly wretches are all the Devils I prayed against and no other not having any thought apprehension or imagination of the King in this particular And so much to my first charge 2 Now for my second in which I shall be brief My Sermon say some drove all at this The bringing in of the King would bring in all prophanesse But did I any where say so Truly I needed not Prophanesse is in already in the Nation nor did I thinke the King would bring it in and I hope he never will But this I think all the ungodly and prophane people in the Nation have a very great and strong desire of the Kings coming in as hoping to have as much liberty to be prophane and to exercise it as they had before Oh! how hath the Parliament Acts and Ordinances hampered and chained and fettered these beasts They cannot swear or be drunk but they must pay for 't Taverns Innes and Ale-house must be shut on the Lords day all day long that they cannot tipple be drunk They must not walke in the streets nor in the fields on that day under a penalty and many of them have been sued and indicted for it and the like And oh How like wilde Buls in a net have they fretted and vext

a blessed and good King He shall be a shelter a covering he shall be all in all to a distressed people Jer. 23.5 there it is said Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will raise unto David a righteous branch and a King shal reign and prosper and shall execute judgement and justicein the earth in those days Judah shall be safe and Israel shall dwell safely and this is the name whereby he shall be called The Lord our righteousness This is spoken of the Lord Jesus Christ he that is the King of Kings he shall rule in Righteousness And he or they that Rule under him must rule in Righteousnesse Let us not then look so much as most do after wordly peace and freedome and temporal deliverance from present burdens as after spiritual peace and freedome from everlasting torments not so much to enjoy perishing comforts as to have the comforts of everlasting enjoyments And then may we expect the performance of what is promised in the close of our Text. After two dayes will he revive us in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight We shall live not onely temporally comfortably and happy but a life heavenly and everlasting we shall be happy to all eternity Then as it follows shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord more of Gods minde and of his mercies and he shall come unto us as the raine as the early and latter rain upon the earth which being parched with drought receiveth it in readily fructifieth and bringeth forth abundantly Come then let us all return unto the Lord for as he hath torne so will he heale and as he hath smitten so will he bind us up FINIS HEre 's my Sermon now where 's my sin What 's my Charge with which I have been so I cannot say whether more ignorantly or maliciously traduced why its three-fold I have preacht against the King and the coming in of the King So some My whole Sermon drives at this The coming in of the King would bring in prophanenesse so others A third sort say I am angry Now to answer to these distinctly And first I have preacht against the King and his coming in I ask wherein how doth that appear I will come as close and as speedily as I can to my Charge I mean to that part of my Sermon from whence they might suppose me criminous I shall therefore passe over almost one halfe of it for that was but by way of Explication And it concern'd others Israel That troubles not no preaching at a distance and speaking of other mens faults and reproving them that bites not as much as you will of that But this home-preaching and treading too close upon our heels This gauls this vexes this troubles us Why what 's the matter what 's the matter Did not you say That because by our sins we had left God therefore God had left us And did you not say That our Kings and our Princes heretofore and our Princely Priests and Bishops had been as snares upon Mizpah and as nots upon Tabor their high places and great offices And how have they not rag'd and tyranniz'd c. And did you not beseech us that we should not let the apprehensions of our present greater sufferings cause us altogether to forget our former iniquities And did you not advise us that upon that day of our solemn Humiliation wherein we sought to God for settlement that we should not forget the cause and ground of our unsettlement Here 's enough to answer at once and together and I think this is my greatest charge And now what of all this Let me ask you by your cavilling against this Don't you discover your ignorance Is it not plain you are not acquainted with the Scripture Or that you take no notice or understand not what you read or hear That you are meer strangers to the nature and manner of a true Fast Is not a fasting day especially publique generall and such solemn Fast dayes a day wherein to humble our soules before the Lord by a hearty sincere and impartiall confession and acknowledgement of all our sinnes And being a generall day of Humiliation through the whole Land to confesse and be humbled for the sins of the whole Land in general And in such a day are not the sins both of Princes and People both past and present to be remembred and acknowledged And that not onely in generall termes which is mostly slight and overly but punctually and particularly of those sins they were guilty of and lay under This is if you know not as it seems you do not for your better information and as I desire Reformation Do but read the instances of the Solemn Fasts recorded in Scripture and you will be wiser hereafter I reser you for this more particularly to those three most Solemn Fasts which are there recorded Ezra 9. Nehem. 9. and Dan. 9. And see and observe the manner of the celebration and whether their particular sins were not enumerated confessed and bewailed And had we of this Land and Nation no sins to be remembred to be confessed Are you so forgetfull or were you ignorant of them Are we not unsetled Are not our foundations of government overturned Do not the pillars of the Nation tremble Is it not a Judgement Do I not say so much And what were there no sins that are the causes of it Do such great and heavy and generall judgements befall a Nation both King Princes Priests and People without sin procuring them you dare not say so And were there no sins in England but the sins of the people What was the Popish Match and the building of Houses and Chappels thereupon for Idolatrous and superstitious worship What was the countenancing and exercise of that false worship even in the Kings own dwelling And were not our Communion Tables turn'd into Altars with superstitious cringings and bowings towards them and in some places wax Tapers set upon those Altars and second Service which the people could not 〈◊〉 there performed How was the zealous profession of Religion under the nickname of Puritanisme discountenanced and disgraced How did the Court-Bishops especially the Bishop of Canterbury Dr. Laud vex perplex and ruine men in their High Commission Court and Star-Chamber How would drunken and prophane Ministers if but zealous for Ceremonies give the checke to and upon the least occasion trouble and sue the best Knights and Gentlemen in the Country even for trifles and be therein upheld and countenanced by those Court-Bishops Insomuch that when the Knights and Gentlemen were assembled in Parliament and had opportunity to be revenged upon them they ding'd them quite down without mercy or consideration I need not tell you what courses were taken that the King might be maintained without Parliaments and so with out the love of his Subjects and rednesse of their grievances I could name much more you that liv'd in those

and raved at it Oh! that blessed book think they that most excellent book for sports on the Sabboth That was a good a blessed a merry time with us These people are like those Jer. 44.16,17,18 As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth to burn incense unto the Queen of heaven and to pour out drink-offerings unto her as we have done we and our fathers our Kings and our princes in the Cities of Iudah and streets of Ierusalem For then had we plenty of victuals and were well and saw no evill But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven c. we have wanted all things and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine Well sirs think as you will For my part I thinke that accursed book was none of the least provocations that drew down the judgements of God upon the Nation And yet how glad would many be of this licentious liberty re-introduced And oh for some good Court Bishops to help us in this particular against the Round-heads and these puritanical Presbyterians Beloved Reader I charge this upon the Court Bishops onely For confident I am there were many good and godly Bishops in the Nation who abhorred that execrable thing and yet this is the thing these miserable wretches look for And here let me not be mistaken or mis-reported as if I thought that none but prophane and godlesse persons look and long for the Kings coming No far be it from my soul For I am assured there are many godly and honest hearts sober and discreet persons who earnestly desire it and would be glad to see it But as for prophane and ungodly persons drunkards swearers whoremongers Sabboth-breakers despisers of Religion and godlinesse in the power of it upon what good account can they desire him I leave it to any reasonable man to judge Do they desire it either for the Kings good or their own good certainly no But they are sure if one party whom they how hate should prevail they shall still walke in their chains and fetters but from another they hope at least for freedome And should they be hampered and restrained by that other they would hate both alike For 't is not this person or that person this party or that which is the quarrel or offence But the old enmity of opposition and hatred between the two seeds of godly and ungodly And if the King be as by some he is reported which God grant godly and shall shew it by his curbing their wickednesse they will not like him long but would be weary of him And clearly the observation and information of their prophanesse the last Fast day is to me yea and to any considering person a sufficient argument of their ungodlinesse and these onely are the men I spoke of and desired to consider the vanity of their expectations That if it had been the will of God I might have been instrumental to undeceive but some one of them and see how they requite me for my labour But I shall not lose it And truly although these be the persons I chiefly aym at as most worthy of reprehension Yet since I am now discharging my conscience in this way of writing which I think not to do again I would beg leave to advise some of our more civill and moderate opponents in one particular 'T is too easie and familiar with many of you upon the least provocation sometimes without it to return upon us with the word Presbyterian by way of reproach as a Nick-name and to inveigh against Presbytery But Sirs do you understand what you do It 's true the Bishops have a long time kept the name and thing in a kind of silence under hatches But will you without passion and partiality and as in the presence of God for so I desire to deale with you be informed in the truth Then I must tell you this one thing the Scripture speaks more of and for Presbyters then Bishops Not that I bring this as an argument to prove Presbytery to be more sacred then Episcopacy For I thinke them both so alike and I intend not to handle that controversie My designe is to let you know if the Scripture may rule you you may as well speak scornfully of Bishops as Presbyters and of Episcopacy as of Presbytery For I tell you again the Scripture makes oftner mention of Presbyters then Bishops Now for your information and to clear this to you you must know that the word presbyter though we by use make it English is a Greek word which we in our English Bibles have always translated by the word Elder It comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Senex one that 's old And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Senior one that 's Elder And this word is used in Scripture sometimes in a naturall sense to signifie one elder in age and sometimes in an ecclesiastical sense for an Officer in the Church of Christ Now it was my purpose to have examined all the places in the Greek Testament where the word Presbyter is used and to have observed how many times it was used in an ecclesiastical sence signifying a Church-Officer But the day before the writing hereof there came very happily to my hand a Book lately published by one whose other workes praise him in the gate and this not a little scil Mr. George Lawson Politica Sacra which saves me some labour which I am willing to embrace at this time for hast-sake especially from such an Author And he tells me page 139. of that Book that he finds the word Presbyter in an ecclesiastical sence and notion about sixteen times in the New Testament And now as for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is sometimes translated an Overseer as Acts 20.28 and sometimes a Bishop I could quickly number them for 't is but five times used and one of them is spoken not of an ordinary Church-officer but of our Lord Christ Jesus 1 Pet. 2.25 So that I say the Scripture makes more use and more often mention of the word Presbyter then Bishop and therefore not so to be slighted and reproached or to be used as a terme of disgrace to any man unlesse you have a mind to disgrace the Scripture which thus honours Presbyters and Presbyterians above Bishoips Yea but Bishops are above them How know you that They were so and so have a long time that 's true But did the Scripture put them there Good sirs let no man be angry with me if I express my mind freely I mean not to make a quarrel of it nor contend with any man about it for I have better work to do then nodum in scirpo quaerere But where doth the Scripture put a Bishop above a Presbyter Let any man in the world shew me the place Shall I ask