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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	lord_n	see_v	4,192	5	3.2926	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78553	An apology for the ministers of the county of Wilts, in their actings at the election of Members for the approaching Parliament. In answer to a letter sent out of the said county, pretending to lay open the dangerous designes of the clergy, in reference to the approaching Parliament. Wherein is shewed, the notorious falshood of the said letter: how injurious it is to the gentlemen elected: and the dangerous designe of it against the ministry. By some of the defamed ministers of the Gospel in the same county. Humphrey Chambers, D.D. John Strickland. Adoniram Bifield. Peter Ince.	Chambers, Humphrey, 1598 or 9-1662.; Strickland, John, 1600 or 1601-1670.; Byfield, Adoniram, d. 1660.; Ince, Peter, b. 1614 or 1615.	1654 (1654)	Wing C1914; Thomason E808_9; ESTC R207523	21,209	31

that Paul had brought him into the Temple and cried out Men of Israel help this is the man that brought Greeks into the Temple and hath polluted this holy place How much this is against the law of love he may doe wel to consider for love thinketh no evil It is storied of Cambyses he did but dream his 〈◊〉 should 〈◊〉 King of Persia and for this he put him to death so this man doth but dream of plots and designes of a subtile combination and a politique device and he presently concludes so it is and what he would do unto us if he had power in his hand it is easie to judge even that which to use his own words would make our cares to tingle and our hearts to ake which leads us from his Invective to his threatnings He tels us of an approaching storm and again as it was with the Prelates in entring their Protestation in the former Parliament they prepared a Rod to whip themselves with and digged a pit wherein they themselves did fall so will these men doe that which they have designed for upholding their corrupt interest will be the Ruine thereof and again those rigid and foolish men will not see the hand of God which is gone out against them but goe on in their vain waies of opposition notwithstanding they have been so often disappinted yea the work of the Lord shall prosper and God will ere long separate his faithfull Ministers and servants from this corrupt self-seeking generation of men And again though good men should be silent and sit still yet the Lord himselfe will shortly avenge the cause of his people and bring deliverance in a way which we think not of which will make the ears of some to tingle and their hearts ake In all these passages he doth threaten the Ministers shrewdly with what is comming upon them and no marvil Quicquid speramus facile Credimus he hopes to see the downfal of the Ministry and so easily believes it and it may be thinks it will never be well till it be so It is no new thing to meet with peremptory predictions of the ruine and downfal of the Ministry which yet through the goodnesse of our God have fallen to the ground without expected accomplishment and it is no smal mercy that God hath beaten out the Teeth of our Maligners that they only can bark and not bite that their tongues only and not their hands can reach us yet the world may see they doe what they can and therefore the Author here doth not so much Prophecy of as Project our ruine by rendring us odious both to the People by ranking us with the Prelates and also to his Highnesse and his Army by provoking them against us as being of that sort of men who have caused the late broiles and will yet againe imbroile the Nation in blood if God in mercy prevents not In which he deales with us and the rest of the Clergy of this Nation as he stiles them as the Persecuters did in the Primitive times with the Christians they put the bodies of Christians into the skins of wilde beasts and then set wilde beasts upon them for to tear them so he puts us into the shapes of his own conceits of his own apprehensions and his own slanders of purpose to make us ugly and to render us vile and contemptible that so the more easie way may be made for our ruine But our trust is in our God who knowes our hearts that he will in due time cleare our Innocency against those malicious suggestions and make it appeare to his Highnesse and his Army and to the whole Nation that as poor weak servants of Jesus Christ we desire joyntly to promote the Kingdome of Jesus Christ and the prosperity of the Commonwealth in which we live But he tells us we will not see the hand of God which is gone out against us but go on in our vaine wayes of opposition notwithstanding we have been so often disappointed To this we answer We feare we have been all of us too unobservant of the Lords hand both of chastisement and mercy too when it is lifted up over us but surely it is our blindnesse or else the Lords hand hath not been altogether stretched out against the contemned Ministry of this Nation in Judgement of latter times we think there was a time not long since when many sadly feared and others strongly hoped that the despised disowned Ministers of England should quite have shaken hands with their maintenance and Ministry together and had done so had not the Lord then appeared in the Mount wonderously and unexpectedly for the rescuing his poor servants We have often thought it our duty to acknowledge this work of God and to walke humbly carefully and thankfully before the Lord in regard hereof Our comfort and hope at the worst was that our Lord Christ hath his Stars of all magnitudes in his right hand and that unlesse he remove the Candlestick he will continue his Stars amongst us how much soever they be clouded by the reproaches of many adversaries and our hope and comfort still is that we have the same Lord who hath delivered us upon whom to trust that he will yet deliver us And we heartily blesse God for the instruments under him of our deliverance and we hope that they shall never have cause to repent they nor their posterity that they have rescued a poor despised Ministry from rapine and ruine The Author seemes to be desirous the world should think that he is no enemy to the Ministry but only to such as are corrupt self-seekers busie-bodies and therefore 1. He makes an honourable mention of some whom he calls faithful Ministers and saith God will e're long separate his faithful Ministers and servants from this corrupt self-seeking generation of men But if this corrupt self-seeking generation of men be the whole Clergy of the Nation as he seems all along to carry it then they stand all without the reach of his charity and cannot any of them obtaine so much from him as to hope that they are in the number of Gods faithful Ministers and servants yet we doubt not but that even amongst those whom he calls this corrupt self-seeking generation God hath many precious ones even amongst those whom he accounts as the filth and ●he off-scowring of all things Many faithful ones whose Ministerial abilities admirable successe in winning soules to God diligent and powerful Preaching sound and wholsome doctrine peaceable demeanour and holy and exemplary conversation doth distinguish them and separate them from a corrupt self-seekin● generation and this separation we doubt not but God hath already made in the hearts of those who are truly sensible of the many gracious workes the Lord hath wrought by them and who for their workes sake doe account them worthy of double honour 2. He prayes that God would forgive these men for they cause the Ministry of Christ to be evil

sorry or ashamed of being more active therein but the truth is upon a pressing occasion he was out of this Countrey for above a fortnight together and came not to his own house till the night before the election and not to Wilton till a great part of the company were gone unto the Hil on the day and at the time of the Election and so it fell out by providence that he had not opportunity to gather together a great number of people much lesse to teach them their lessons before hand By this the Reader may see how little truth is to be expected in the rest when there is so grosse an untruth in the beginning And we see evidently that the writer of this Letter watcheth for our halting and beareth us so much good wil as to take us up before we be down Secondly suppose it had been true of all the three Ring-leaders mentioned with the rest of their brethren as it is more particularly charged upon one of them who hath learned though he be by name reviled with the title of Scribe and Pharisee yet not to revile again but to commit himselfe to him who judgeth righteously that they were active and exceedingly bestirred themselves in that election busly intermedling with more then ordinary diligence and activity What is their crime how can they be truly charged as offenders and over busie intermedlers in that which concerns them not who are members of the same Commonwealth with others and therefore are as much concerned in the welfare thereof as any others In the peace thereof we shall have peace But it may be the crime is our more then ordinary diligence and activity To which we answer what we have now done is there not a cause Surely more then ordinary diligence and activity is very justifiable when the case is more then ordinary Can we expect to see another Parliament in which the Interest of all that is or should be deare unto us in this world as Christians and as Englishmen can be more concerned then in this present Parliament Nay are there not a generation of men amongst us who are acted by such principles as do manifestly tend to the subverting of Law destruction of Propriety and the utter extinguishing of the Ministry of the Gospel and shall we sit stil Another Charge is That we with the rest of our brethren of the Association taught the people gathered together by us their lesson beforehand to cry up onely those ten men named in our List To this we answer That there was a List given out of ten names we shal not deny neither do we know any just exception to be made against it we are confident the compiler of this Letter would have found no hurt at all in it if that List which he abetted and which many were brought violently to abet had been owned by us and followed by the Countrey in their election so as that the fault was this that we did not teach them to cry up their List but we demand any shadow or proof of this that we taught the people to cry up onely those ten men mentioned in that List which he cals ours which yet t was no more ours then those Gentlemen of the Countrey who were also concerned in it with our selves Nay we doe with much confidence affirm that it was often expressed to severall men that men were left to their free liberty if they were not satisfied in any of the ten to put in any other fit person or persons in their room and accordingly some did take that liberty Neither did we ever perswade any person to adhere to any of the ten further then upon the general account of their fitnesse to do their Countrey faithfull service and that was in truth the depth of our design that such men and such onely might be chosen Another charge is That we did teach the people to brand others as namely Lieut. Gen. Ludlow Col. Eyres c. who were nominated by approved faithfull men in the Countrey with the names of Anabaptists Levellers to render them odious to the generality of the judicious people by these false and malicious imputations Ans We do again demand proof of this charge that any of us did ever teach any one to brand Lieut Gen. Ludlow Col. Eyres c. with the names of Anabaptists Levellers we doe with confidence affirme that as we did not our selves so neither did we heare any other to put them into this dresse till we found them so clothed in the Letter But suppose that some did use those expressions will it follow that they were taught by us so to doe we thinke the leaders of their party would not take it well if we should charge upon them all those reproachful scornful and reviling speeches uttered by very many of their followers upon the place against such who might have expected better language from them We expected upon the mention of two in their List the Author would have given us the names of all the rest in my List and not have left us to spell out the meaning of an c. and to defend our selves from branding with reproachful names we know not who It were no difficult work we think to finde out the rest of the names in that List but since the Author of that Letter is pleased to conceal them we will not further provoke him by the mention of them It is true that List was commonly called by the company upon the place the Anabaptists List because the number in that List did either consist of such or some of the most notedst sticklers for it went under that denomination and so it wil not be strange that there should be frequent mention of the name Anabaptist yet we doe again deny that we did brand any of them with those names Anabaptists Levellers or taught others so to doe And thus the ground-work fails him surely then those other words to render them odious to the generality of the judicious people by those false and malicious imputations must needs be left to stand alone and signifie nothing onely because the words may be of good use if they be rightly applied we shal borrow them and retort them with much more clearness of truth The Authour in this Letter hath branded the faithfull Ministers of the Gospel not onely in this Countrey but throughout the Nation with the titles of a corrupt Clergie a corrupt self-seeking generation of men and divers such like reproachfull terms to render them odious to the generality of the judicious people by those false and malicious imputations Another charge at least insinuated against us is That some hundreds gave their voyces who were either Cavaliers or else of inconsiderable estates not worth 100 li. and therefore uncapable of choosing by the modle of the established government Although the words may be as wel applied to those that voted for his List and with as much truth as to the other side yet