Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	call_v	good_a	great_a	3,277	5	2.6620	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25844	The armies vindication of this last change wherein, is plainly demonstrated, the equity, power and right of the army to settle these nations upon the foundations of righteousnesse and freedome : together, with answers to the most material objections made against them.		1659 (1659)	Wing A3719; ESTC R13587	14,976	25

THE ARMIES Vindication of this last CHANGE WHEREIN Is plainly Demonstrated the Equity Power and Right of the Army to settle these Nations upon the Foundations of Righteousnesse and Freedome TOGETHER With Answers to the most material Objections made against them I will also make thy Officers Peace and thy Exactors Righteousnesse Esa 60. v. 17. Published by special Command LONDON Printed by T. M. and are to be sold at the Grey-hound in Paul's Church-yard 1659. The Armies Vindication of this last Change THe late King by his Writ called the long Parliament and that not by any voluntary act of his own but as forced thereunto by the coming of the Scots with an Army into England This Representative thus Convened were the Body of the People of whom he was Head But afterward the King instead of joyning himself with this great Counsell through pretended fears and jealousies did most unnaturally separate and estrange himself from it withdrawing Protection from the People forfeited all obedience due to him as King For as much as he betook himself to force and acts of open Hostility by setting up his Standard by which he put himself into the condition of a private Person laying claim to no more than he could purchase to himself by force and Military Power Thus wholly laying aside his Civill Government turning it into a Military at length he as Saul perished by his own sword by sheathing it in the bowels of his own body politick By this means the Parliament became possessors of the Soveraignty Greatness Honour and riches of the King whereby there was a plain transmitting or translating of power from the King to the Parliament the peoples Representatives who at that time was as a nursing Mother to succour and tenderly embrace the well-affected and good people of the Nation by which means the hearts and affections of all the people of God in the land were gathered up to and went along with them because they were a Bulwark to keep Tyranny and Oppression from all that did adhear unto them and gave encouragement and Protection in the external Exercise of Religion and the service of God These things not being forgotten we cannot but mention the long Parliament with Honour The Parliament not being able to go on in their work without the assistance of an Army were forced to make several Appeals to the people whose Representatives they were and those of them that were well-affected to the cause of Religion and Liberty willingly accepted of the Parliaments Call and did joyn a helping hand by concurrance of their good affections and prayers also by their purses and persons to carry on the great work that was on foot The Parliament being thus constrained to constitute a Military body different from their own and to make a Power of much greater force and strength than that which was Civill The power and greatness of the Parliament did hereby necessarily descend into the Army and the good people thus called to their assistance and adhearing to them and they themselves became a lesser and more inferiour power by pouring out and devolving their greatness and strength into another Society of men more formidable than themselves and their acting as it were in away of subserviency to them for what considerable thing did the Parliament else but to raise money for the Army and supply it with such necessaries that were sutable to their work and designe The Army being thus taken out of the good people of the land and united in such a formidable body obtained great Victories and successe and through the rich mercy and blessing of God overcame all their Enemies in the three Nations the King and his party together with the Irish and Scots were wholly subdued This being done there was no legall form of civill Government left the King being taken away both in Person and Office the House of Lords dissolved the Soveraignty must needs fall into the hands of the People from whence it first sprange The Kings party and such as were Neuters having lost their Right and Priviledge the good people imbodied in an Army together with those that adheared to them must of undoubted right be receptable of all Power and Soveraignty For all greatnesse and Authority that takes its rise from the people when its shattered and broken must necessarily return thither again as retyring to its true Centre As the Sap of a Tree after it hath put forth it self into the Branches and comes to be nipt by Winter storms its course is to sink down again into the root so it fares with all Governments Honours and greatnesse in the world when they are broken and ruined they dissolve into their first principle and beginnings The principal thing to be cleared is that the Soveraignty should resolve it self more into the people imbodied in an Army than into the peoples Representatives in Parliament To evince this consider that the Parliament had no legall Constitution or Right to Government by any law of this Nation that 's most evident the Office and Person of the King being taken away the House of Lords being dissolved as I said before It was not in the power of the Commons being but a third State in the Government to Constitute themselves a Commonwealth without some new act of the people to make them so unlesse they had a Power of themselves inherent that they might doe such things as was never intrusted them by those that chose them The Kings Writ calling them and the Peoples election waxed old and antiquated as out of date And hence their standing as a Government after the death of the King was onely as they were upheld by the power and necessity of the Army and when they were of no farther use to the Nation they were by the Army gently laid aside and the great approbation the people gave to their dissolution did clearly recall their former elections and all further trust reposed in them The next thing is to prove that the Army is the principall body of the People in whom the Soveraignty doth at present reside That such a power should naturally descend into the Army and much superiour to that of the Parliament that raised them will appear by all humane and divine reason I. The Members of the Army for the most part of them were raised out of the ordinary and common bulk of the people which are the greatnesse and strength of the Nation in whom lies the greatest and the most common Interest of the whole with all its concernments II. The Army were such as did answer the call of the Parliament when they made their appeal to the people for to judge of their Cause Now to whom I make an appeal I make him superiour to my self I set him as a Judge and Lord over me thus did the Parliament by their Declarations to the people calling upon them to be Judge of their own Rights and Liberties These of the Army being more valiant than others in

of the Lord it was not an arm of flesh that could do this but a Divine presence the Word and the Arm of the Lord going along with an Army Thirdly Consider the necessity of an Army and that in these respects First the ancient Hedge of Civil Power is broken down and mens hearts and minds full of rage and revenge the army is the onely bridle to restrain it and is as a wall of fire to keep the exhorbitant and beastly fury of evil-minded men that they would exercise upon a remant of people that God would preserve in the Land Secondly it is a time of breaking and pulling down all worldly Constitutions God is staining the pride of all glory and treading down strength for this reason God gathers his people into the form of an Army as he said to his people of old Ier. 51.20 Thou art my Battle-axe and Weapons of war with thee will I destroy Nations and break Kingdomes And again Fear not thou worm Iacob and ye men of Israel I will make thee a sharp threshing Instrument that hath teeth and thou shalt thresh the Mountains and beat them small and make the hills as chaff thou shalt fan them and the wind shall carry them away and the wilderness shall scatter them Isa 41.15 The Lord seemed to sleep in former days suffering his people to lie under oppression but now he awakes as in ancient days cutting Rahad and wounding the Dragon breaking the bands and bringing his people from under Egyptian burthens This cannot be done but by an Army Thirdly our condition at present is not a fixed Station but a posture of direct motion we are upon our March from Egypt to Canaan from a Land of bondage and darkness to a Land of Liberty and Rest Now the Army is a Body of Activity of life and motion and so fit for such a Work being full of Spirit and vigor inlarged in love and kindness separated from the old Forms and Customes of the world so that while the Lord leads us in a troublesome wilderness in dark and ruff pathes amidst wilde beasts and enemies on every side How comfortable is it to all good people to be led by the hand of an Army in the ways of Justice and Freedome Fourthly The Army being as the Sword of Gideon before whom three Nations fell in whom there is Majesty Justice and Protection they are engaged to dispose and frame an Order of Government for these Nations would not the King and his party think you had they prevailed made his own terms and that without controul And have not the Army the reason to secure themselves their Friends their Estates Lives and Liberties by the best security they can possibly provide for them it 's reason that they which give Protection should give Law This also must be done by the Assistance of an Army That which subjects the Army most to contempt and reproach is that they hardly own that Power that God and nature hath given them it being the most Superiour the most absolute in the world but how can the world own it so when it doth not own it self this renders it inconsisting with it's own being and it 's own Actings This is the true reason of present Troubles and Perplexities but let the Army but own it 's own Power and it 's own Friends and it need not to fear it's success and happiness The Law of the Land the Priviledges of Parliaments old and rotten Customes not regarded Hence those of poor low and drossie spirits cannot own you nor love you but those that can see beyond the vail of these outward things that know what true liberty and peace is and what the Foundations of Righteousness are these know how to have charitable Opinions of you and your Actings therefore be in union with such as these and your Foundation cannot be shaken by any opposition whatsoever 10. Obj. In the last place many complain that upon every change we look for much but the Issues Effects are very little Ans We always expect more from men then they are able to give us as for instance Some think a Free Parliament will do the work because they have been usefull heretofore but let any man rightly consider the Temper of the people how Malignant some how Neutral others how divided and broken the rest of men are at this day this remedy by Parliament would prove but a killing distemper it might wound us but could not cure us Again others expect much from such such men in the Army but we little consider how much darkness and blindness possesses mens minds how little knowledge they have of the Kingdom of Christ which is at the very Birth and no man knows how to give it a deliverance Neither do we well consider how unfit the world is to receive that which is truly Righteous and good being froward stubborn and perverse The work of Righteousness shall be peace only to those that embrace Righteousness with love and liking Now alas what can we expect more from man then to be diligent in his place to exercise humane wisdome to keep peace and the like The best Government we can expect from man will be mixt having something of Christ and his Kingdome and something of humane prudence and of a worldly concernment Expect no more then this and you may not be deceived To conclude with a word to the Army First Open your bosomes and hearts to all the people of God in the Land that ace one with you in your Cause and Interest your strength lies in perfect union with them The Governors of Judah shall say in their hearts the inhabitants of Jerufatem shall be my strength in the Lord of Hosts their God Zech. 12.15 Judah that had formerly many populous Cities and great Armies being now without Walls and almost without Inhabitants yet even they shall with courage and with confidence say the Inhabitauts of Ierusalem be they never so few or dispised shall be our strength This also will be the strength of the Army A sirme Union with the Faithfull here you can never loose your Interest he that will save his life shall loose it but he that will thus loese his life shall save it Secondly and Lastly be sure you make some progress in your way by every opportunity Wherefore cryest thou unto me saith God to Moses by this question God doth not find fault with his Prayer or Supplication for the people but rather the Lord doth hasten them to action Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward saith he and I will fall in with my power miraculously to preserve my people and destroy their enemies Then let it be the work of those in power to pluck up eveoy plant the Father hath not planted let no destroying interest remain God saith to you as to Israel of old Go up and possess the Lond which I have sword I will give you Go on reform the Law and Ministry purge all Courts of Judicature break every Yoke ease all burthens banish all profaneness release the Prisoner releeve the poor Fill the Land with Righteousness what ever is good holy just Honourable let it be brought forth and exercised and the Lord your God will go before you he will fight for you according to all that he did for you in Egypt And your Enemies shall bow at the soles of your feet they shall call you the City of the Lord the Sion the holy one of Israel Isa 60. You see besides your encouragement you have reward in your Work FINIS