Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	affliction_n	great_a	sin_n	1,620	5	5.2580	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88183	Englands weeping spectacle: or, The sad condition of Lievtenant Colonell John Lilburne : crying to all who have any conscience or compassion, for assistance and deliverance from his unjust, long and cruell sufferings. Wherein (as in a glasse) all Englishmen may see the slavish condition, unto which (after so much blood, time and treasure spent) they are yet by perfidious men (who vowed and promised to deliver them from all tyrannie and oppression) still most wofully subjected.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.; Walwyn, William, 1600-1681, attributed name.	1648 (1648)	Wing L2107; Thomason E450_7	11,140	15

ENGLANDS weeping spectacle OR The sad condition of Lievtenant Colonell John Lilburne Crying to all who have any conscience or compassion for assistance and deliverance from his unjust long and cruell sufferings Wherein as in a glasse all Englishmen may see the slavish condition unto which after so much blood time and treasure spent they are yet by perfidious men who vowed and promised to deliver them from all tyrannie and oppression still most wofully subjected Prov. 11.26 Matth. 26.44 45 46. The righteousnesse of the upright shall deliver them but transgressors shall be taken in their own wickednesse Then shall they also answer him saying when saw we thee an hungry or athirst or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister unto thee Then shall he answer them and say verily I say unto you in as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these ye did it not to me And these shall go into everlasting paine and the righteous unto life etenrall Printed in the Yeere 1648. Englands weeping Spectacle or the sad condition of Lievtenant-Colonell JOHN LILBURNE Crying to all who have any conscience or compassion for assistance and deliverance from his unjust long and cruell sufferings CErtainly in it selfe and to a sound and vertuous mind nothing is so sad so irksome and grievous as the unjust sufferings of an honest and faithfull man who for his hatred to oppression and love to the just Liberty of his Countrey is made a prey to Tyrants and the subject of their scorn pride and malice And if this be so as it must needs be Paul testifying that for a good man some would even dare to die thereby signifying his excessive griefe when vertue and goodnesse suffers and in this respect who can forbeare to weep that considers the long and cruell sufferings of M. Lilburn which were not for any unjust action nor for obtaining some particular good to himselfe but in the constant pursuance of the generall good of this long-betrayed and inslaved Nation When first he began to understand himself had he been like unto most young men of his age and time who either wast their abilities on vaine fantastick pleasures or hunt after the sordid rewards of ambition and covetousnesse minding little else but the pride vanity and luxury of a sinfull life mixt at best only with a forme of Godlinesse without the power or life thereof no doubt but he might soone have come to have been a man of this world to have been some body in the City and place where he was bred and have enjoyed those contents which most men seeke either in honour or profit But it seems his conscience was soon awakened upon his Masters call God to whose service he had dedicated himself made him to know betimes that he had other work for him to doe and being called he neither suffered the motions of God in his conscience to be choaked with the cares of this world nor the deceitfulnesse of riches nor consult with flesh and blood but as Moses he chused rather to suffer affliction in pursuance of a just cause then to injoy the pleasures of sin for a season Hereupon he finding all Authority corrupted and perverted from the true end the preservation and freedome of the people to its contrary the ruine vexation and bondage of the people his conscience presently sets him awork waving all selfe-respects to the discovery thereof by printing and publishing of bookes whereby to open the understandings of men and stirring them up to a timely prevention of that intolerable bondage which he perceived to be coming fast upon them Whilst he was thus employed the Lordly Bishops and corrupt States-men whose wickednesse was laid open through his endeavours did by the craft of their officious instruments and trechery of fained friends lay hold of him and proceed against him in Star-Chamber where after most corrupt proceedings he is put to that vile Oath Ex Officio enjoyning him to answer to all such questions as they should demand even to Articles against himselfe which being contrary to nature reason Law and Religion he absolutely refuses to answer insists upon his right and declares the illegality and abominable wickednesse of such proceedings For refusing whereof they sentence him to be whipt at a Cart from the Fleet-prison to Westminster-hall and there to be set on the Pillory for many houres to be a wonder to all men and with what malice this cruelty was executed how bloodily he was whipt how cruelly gagg'd and after that how barbarously he was used in his imprisonment in the Fleet would be no lesse sad then tedious to rehearse yea and is of it selfe sufficient had his sufferings ended there even to make every true-hearted English-man with the Prophet Jeremy to wish that his head were a well of water and his eyes fountaines of tears that he might weep day and night that any government pretending Christianity should be so inhumane or any people professing the knowledge of God or common equity should be so sottish as to stand by observe and suffer such inhumane cruelty whereof the particulars have been so fully and frequently related that it is needlesse here to repeat them these are times wherein Christians are not Children in knowledge but rather in conscience and practice or else this weeping Spectacle would make their heats to bleed and burne within them till they had found out some way of deliverance for him But did his sorrowes end here No but as the injustice and cruelty of his adversaries abated not his courage as they supposed and expected but rather increased and heightned his resolution according to the nature of true Christian fortitude so hath the same ever since moved him with undaunted courage to stand in opposition to the oppression and injustice of the times and by that meanes begotten him more and greater affliction even principally from the Parliament it selfe who pretended not onely to deliver him but all England out of all kind of bondage and oppression It 's confest they began well like true Christians indeed in delivering the captive and setting the oppressed free whereof he was one and it was well for them he was so for he was no unthankfull one but immediately occasion so requiring ventured his life for their preservation against Lunsford and his crue of Ruffians at Westminster where the Parliament of England that had preserved him was by his speciall meanes under God preserved the greatest number that were there even Sir Richard Wiseman himself being there by his incitement who notwithstanding is since too much forgotten and where this our weeping Spectacle was then a bleeding Spectacle to all beholders and for which and much more both before and since all true lovers of Englands Liberties are beholding to him and had not things then as well as since been done by halves and deceitfully our troubles had then ended or at least not halfe so long indured And how sensible

certainely resolve upon it that that man whosoever hee be doth thereby shew himself but a counterfeit and is not to be trusted in the day of thy necessity Instance but one if thou canst O thou officious flatterer who hath stood firme for Englands true freedome that hath despised him thy Patrone Cromwell himselfe stumbling at this stone he is fallen like Lucifer yea and all that steere his unsteedy course doe they not stagger and reele up and downe like so many drunken men and finde no certain path wherein to walke or set their feet since they forsooke the streight way of this just and impartiall man Mr. Lilburne O England or rather thou true part of England that knowest best what just freedome is when thou wouldest know whether thou art bond or free whether those thou trustest with thy freedome power and authority deale well or ill with thee or whether they be just or unjust thou needest not runne to the King nor Parliament neither to the House of the Kings Lords nor to House of the Peoples Commons neither enquire of thy Lawyers nor of thy Priests or Judges but look onely on him consider his just cause peruse his Writings and deferre not to give judgement that they are altogether become abhominable and reprobate to every good work that there is none of them that doth good no not one their throat is an open Sepulchre not only in swallowing up thy good men greedily like a Whale and devouring thy goods insatiably like Bell or rather like hell but with their tongues they speake nothing but lyes of him and the cause for which he suffereth and yet promoteth for thy peace and freedome Look look upon him all yee that passe by yea stand still I say and look steadfastly on him his wife and children Is it not a weeping spectacle and are there no teares yet in thine eyes Whilst thou beholdest it Looke steedily on his bloody stripes terrible gagging cruell imprisonment and barbarous usage and likewise upon his actions and sufferings since Were these unparalleled sufferings not at all because most of them were some yeares moneths or weekes agoe Surely O friends yee seeme by your practice to thinke so if it were otherwise whence comes so great an alteration in you though there be both a constant and couragious progresse in him For no sooner entred he into any one of his afflictions formerly but ye flockt about him like so many Bees at a hive like friends and true comforters indeed so that every one thought well or ill of themselves as they comforted or neglected him And seeing yee have found them all as step-mothers that have weaned you from him O then returne returne revive in love there being no oppression nor burthen nor affliction so great as the neglect of friends to one oppressed burdened and afflicted for a just cause in prison Be not you therefore after all the greatest but lend him your societies your comforts your counsels and assistance as at the first whenevery one was ready to runne ride petition or do any just thing for his encouragement or enlargment And never look that England shall be free or that any good is really intended to this Nation till this worthy man be set at liberty with full reparations for his foule injurious and unjust sufferings and be sure ye neither neglect nor delay your endeavours to effect it whatever it cost you as he accounteth nothing too deare or precious for you for if any one suffer all ought to suffer with him nor think your selves religious either in your Fasts or Feasts or any thing else as in using all lawfull meanes which possibly may deliver the Captive and set the oppressed free Isai 586. This indeed may cost you something for ye are like to go through many difficulties to obtaine it but for these and the like ends have ye your abilities and without ayming at such thinke not your religious exercises enough which costs you little or nothing O! therefore never cease till yee procure him either free enlargement with reparations or a Legall tryall that England may cease to mourne any more over this weeping spectacle FINIS

relation and more strongly contracted to the Lords and great ones of the Nation then to the Commons or such faithfull patriots as Mr. Lilburn which being discerned by him sooner then by other men and that their practises tended not to a common good he spares neither paines cost nor hazard forthwith to discover their delusion as well as he had done other mens formerly to the world and finding his old friend Cromwell to have been a chief instrument in destroying the ends of their engagement he neither flatters nor spares him nor any other but layes all their actions naked to the view of the world fore-shewing that which since is come to passe and which now every man sees and many feels though then few or none would believe Yet through the policie of those arch-deceivers Cromwel Ireton and their apostate instruments in stead of amending their faults turn this his honest plain and impartiall dealing to his ruine for they possessed all his lovers and friends in City Country and Army that the man was frantick little better then one at Bedlam that he really drives on the Kings designe and to others upon whom such speeches could not work they give out that he was a rash inconsiderate man and that nothing would satisfie him but onely to bring all this Nation to Anarchy and confusion By all which their subtle workings they blinded the eyes of those that had them in admiration for their specious shewes of devotion and Religion under which veil they deceived most men and securely went through with destroying the ends of the Armies engagements declarations remonstrances yea vowes and protestations to God and man and whereby they have made the most honest and well meaning Army that ever was in the world and the most valiant best beloved and most hopefull of all the people to be accounted the greatest deceiver and oppressor and so the greatest object of all scorn contempt and hatred And this the Army and all good people got by believing those great mens false reports and unjust censures of Mr. Lilburn and exchanging his faithfull and timely advices for their delusions and as this brought extream evill upon all honest men so especially upon him for those men having thus by their Arts and sophistry overcome his reputation they by slanders and reproaches in all places so alienated the hearts of those who formerly had comforted him in his sufferings and supported his necessities that himself his wife and children have been many times since in such eatremities as is incredible to all except those onely who know how vile their slanderous reproaches had made him in the eyes of most men And when notwithstanding all their malice by his invincible diligence he had lately procured so much liberty as to follow his own businesse and sometimes to go out of his prison how soon did they pick occasion in stead of being prisoner to the Lords from which he might justly and rationally expect to be delivered speedily by the Commons to make him the prisoner of the Commons and for what cause even for promoting a petition for the universall good of the whole nation as any honest man will easily discern at the first reading thereof yea such a petition as unto which whosoever is an enemy is not nor cannot be Englands friend Being thus a prisoner again and hereby losing more friends as who that suffers and hath necessities are not subject unto doth he now faint and sink under this addition of weight and sorrow to his former affliction No he ceases not day and night to make this injustice and cruelty known to the deceived world still writes prints and publishes both his own just cause and their malicious and cruell dealings so plainly so powerfully and couragiously that some who formerly had been his enemies now are so farre convinced of his integrity that they both love and honour him to the shame of his backsliding friends and are by his faithfull councel preserved from a snare unjustly layd for their destruction Certainly if any man in the world hath the unvaluable comfort of an impartiall publict active sincere persevering Conscience this man hath and yet of all men in this Nation whether under the former or present Government is not this he that is designed to live perpetually in prison For what way possible is there for his enlargement when the King Bishops Privie Councel Starr-chamber and High Commission ruled all then who more then he was judged worthy of whips torture imprisonment and death Those Lords that first pretended to stand for the liberties of the people judge him most worthy of bonds and the House of Commons who pretended more good to the people then ever their predicessors did yea and both of them were preserved by his meanes under God in their greatest danger and had fewest to take their parts yet it plainly here appeareth that never any one man hath received more hurt from them more palpable wrong then he hath The present Clergyman that thrust out the former even for their cruel persecuting of him and such as he is do not afford him so much as one good word nay they raile on him and persecute no man more those Lawyers that formerly suffered in opposition to some kinds of oppression having forsaken their first love and with Demas embraced the honours and profits of these times make sport at his sufferings and use their utmost power to continue heighten and increase them Those Judges that sit in place of such as were removed for Injustice and who are bound by Oath Law and Conscience either to see him delivered or brought to a legall Tryall by 12. sworne men of his Neighbours by whomsoever he is imprisoned yet seeme to think it neither perjurie in themselves injustice to him nor robbery to the people to deny him this which was never denyed to the veriest Villaine Rogue Malefactor Thiefe or Traytor in Newgate and which since this Parliament began was granted to Maquier and Machmahoone the Irish Rebels which he hath set forth at large in his book called the Law-Funerall to the eternall infamy of those Parliamentary Judges And this hath been his portion for no other thing but for being the most constant vigorous unwearied friend to Englands liberty and the deadliest enemy to its bondage and slavery of any man whatsoever Nor will any person Authority or State ever prove a true friend to this Nation that continues an Enemy to him or otherwise then Tyrants and Oppressors that still domineere and tyrannize over him as their Predecessours in oppression the Bishops and Starr-Chamber-men did before them He is thy true touchstone O England thou needest no other to try either thy Gold or drosse though any man appeare or glister never so faire if such a one but speake against him or insist onely on some harsh and yet true expressions in his Books or any naturall infirmities as is the manner of those hypocrites that doe him most mischief thou maist