A85785:39
The magistrates portraiture drawn from the Word, and preached in a sermon at Stowe-Market…The magistrates pourtraiture drawn from the Word, and preached in a sermon at Stowe-Market…
The magistrates portraiture drawn from the Word, and preached in a sermon at Stowe-Market in Suffolk, upon August, the 20. 1656. before the election of Parliament-men for the same county. / By William Gurnall, M.A. of Eman. Coll. now pastor of the Church of Christ in Lavenham. Suffolk.The magistrates pourtraiture drawn from the Word, and preached in a sermon at Stowe-Market in Suffolk, upon August, the 20. 1656. before the election of Parliament-men for the same county. / By William Gurnall, M.A. of Eman. Coll. now pastor of the Church of Christ in Lavenham. Suffolk.
London: printed for Ralph Smith, 1656
Title page typeset from the transcription.
THE MAGISTRATES Portraiture Drawn from the WORD.THE MAGISTRATES Pourtraiture Drawn from the WORD.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Q. Thirdly, But why Judges as at the first?
A. To imply their present degeneracy from the primitive constitution, when first formed into a Commonwealth by Moses, or after in a Kingdom by David; where by the way we see, Note. The best constituted Governments are prone in time to degenerate. The nearer the Spring, the clearer the water: the farther the stream runs from its first source, the more muddy it is and troubled. And indeed as of States, so 'tis of Churches, purest at first planting, like Apples, fair and sound when first plucked from the tree, but in time speck and rot; The world we live in is a muggish and rafty air, the best things soonest decay in it: hence it is that God brings such revolutions upon Nations and Churches, one change is productive of another; First, they change in purity, and grow corrupt; Then God changes their peace and prosperity; yea, sometimes of their very form and visible constitution.
A. To implie their present degeneracy from the primitive constitution, when first formed into a Commonwealth by Moses, or after in a Kingdome by David; where by the way we see, Note. The best constituted Governments are prone in time to degenerate. The nearer the Spring, the clearer the water: the farther the stream runs from its first source, the more muddy it is and troubled. And indeed as of States, so 'tis of Churches, purest at first planting, like Apples, faire and sound when first pluck't from the tree, but in time speck and rot; The world we live in is a muggish and rafty aire, the best things soonest decay in it: hence it is that God brings such revolutions upon Nations and Churches, one change is productive of another; First, they change in purity, and grow corrupt; Then God changes their peace and prosperity; yea, sometimes of their very forme and visible constitution.
But we shall wave the points those considerations would afford us, and take up one Conclusion, which ariseth from the Subject matter of the Promise in general, and 'tis this.