Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	lord_n	sin_n	3,005	5	4.4939	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79754	A remonstrance and declaration of the Generall Assembly of the Church of Scotland, concerning present and imminent dangers, and concerning duties relating thereto.	Church of Scotland. General Assembly.	1649 (1649)	Wing C4252; Thomason E569_6; ESTC R206279	12,468	16

those Laws timously upon these that oppresse them that they may find real redresse of their just grievances and complaints and be encouraged to bear those burthens which cannot be avoided As the Parliament have begun so we hope they will continue to purge out all these from trust that are not of known integrity and affection to the cause of God and of a blameless and Christian conversation and that they and the Officers of the Army in their respective places will seriously minde and speedily and resolutely goe about the removing from the Army all malignant and scandalous persons and also the removing of Sectaries when any shall be found therein that they may give reall evidence that they did not deal deceitfully with God in the day that they engaged themselves thereto Albeit we hope and pray that those who bear charge in our Army will from the remembrance of the Lords goodness to them and the honour that he hath put upon them endevour to carry themselves faithfully and straightly yet it cannot be unseasonable to warm them to ●●ke heed of tentations and to beware of snares that they be not drawn to indifferency or neutrality in the cause of God much lesse into connivance at or compliance with the courses and designes of malignants or Sectaries but to stick closely by the same and to be zealous against all the enemies and adversaries thereof and it concerns Souldiers to be content with their wages and to doe violence to no man but as they are called unto the defence of the cause and people of God so to behave themselves in such a blameless and Christian a way that their carriage may be a testimony to his cause and a comfort to his people so shall our Armies prosper and the Lord shall goe out with them But most of all it concerns the Ministers of the Gospel whom God hath called to give warning to his people to look to their duty It is undeniably true that may of the evils wherewith this Kirk and Kingdom hath been afflicted in our age have come to passe because of the negligence of some and corruptions of others of the Ministry whilst some fell asleep and were careless and others were covetous and ambitious the evil man brought in Prelacy and the Ceremonies and hah facre promoted the Service Book and the Book of Cannon and the course of backsliding and revolting was carried on untill it pleased God to stirre up the spirits of these few who had stood in the gap to oppose and resist the same and to begin the work of Reformation in the Land since which time the silence of some Ministers and complyance of others hath had great influence up on the backsliding of many amongst the people who upon the discovery of the evill of their way complain that they got not warning or that if they were warned by some others held their peace or did justifie them in the course of their back-sliding We can look upon such Ministers no otherwise then upon those that are guilty of the blood of the Lords people and with whom the Lord will reckon for all the breach of Covenant and defection that hath been in the Land The Priests lips should preserve knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts but such have departed out of the way and have caused many to stumble at the Law therefore hath the Lord made them contemptible and base before all the people according as they have not kept his wayes but have been partial in his Law because they have lost their savour he hath cast out many of them as unsavoury salt but such as have been faithfull as he hath preserved them from the violence and fury of men so hath he verified his word in their mouths both against his enemies and concerning his people and his work and makes them see though not all their desires concerning the Gospel and the work of God in the Land yet very much of the fruit of their labour by preserving the doctrine and all the Ordinances of Jesus Christ in their parity and adding in some measure thereto the power and life thereof We do therefore charge all the Ministers of the Land before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom as in every thing to be ensamples of a good conversation and to walk without offence that the Ministry be not blamed so to take heed unto the Flock over which the holy Ghost hath 〈◊〉 them ever-seers to declare unto them all the counsell of God and to give them timous warning concerning every danger and duty and to hold forth unto them the solid grounds of reall comforlation by which they may be encouraged and comforted in all their tryals and afflictions that they may be free of the blood of all men and have this as a ground of rejoycing even the testimony of their consciences that in simplicity and godly pureness not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God they have had their conversation in the world and have exhorted and comforted and charged every one committed unto them as a Father doth his children especially Ministers ought to be carefull to be much in discovering the temptations and pressing the duties of the times that those who are under their charge may know what to avoyd and what to imbrace and pursue If all the Watchmen in the Land shall give warning and blow the Trumpet at once it shall not be easie for enemies to prey upon the people of God We know no cause why any whom God hath called to preach the Gospel should be affraid to speak boldly in the Name of the Lord since God hath given so manifest a testimony of hi● care and protection in preserving them these yeers past who have striven to be faithfull to him who hath called them from all the fury and malice of the haters of the work of God and of the Kingdom of his Son Jesus Christ who hath promised to be with his servants unto the end of the world Albeit the Land be involved in many difficulties and compassed about with great and imminent dangers yet there is hope and ground of consolation concerning this thing the Lord is in the midst of us and we are called by his name our ears hear the joyfull sound of the Gospel and our eyes see our Teachers We behold the arm of the Lord stretched out daily in working salvation for his people and answering their desires upon their enemies by terrible things in righteousness although we be but few in number yet the Lord of Hosts is with us and 〈◊〉 the power of his strength we shall be able to prevail although our Land be filled with sin yet we have not been forsaken of the Lord our God but he hath always had compassion upon us and delivered us in all our distresse although some of understanding fall it is but to try and to purge and to make white even to the end because it is yet for a time appointed although many cleave to us by flatteries yet there be a remnant who keep their integrity and the Lord shall do good to these that be good but such as turn aside to crooked ways shall be led forth with the workers of iniquity The Lords people in England and Ireland who adhere to the Cause and Covenant may be perplexed but shall not despair they may be persecuted but shall not be forsaken they may be cast down but shall not be destroyed and although uniformity and the work of Reformation in these lands seem not only to be retarded but almost pluckt up by the roots and the foundations thereof razed yet the seed which the Lord hath sown there shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward The zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall perform this A. Ker. FINIS

A REMONSTRANCE AND DECLARATION OF THE Generall Assembly OF THE Church of Scotland CONCERNING Present and Imminent Dangers and concerning Duties relating thereto EDINBVRGH Printed by Evan Tyler Printer to the Kings most excellent Majesty 1649. And Re-printed at London for Robert Bostock dwelling at the sign of the Kings-head in Pauls Church-yard 1649. Edinburgh 27. July 1649. Sess 27. A seasonable and necessary Warning and Declaration concerning Present and Imminent Dangers and concerning Duties relating thereto from the General Assembly of this Kirk unto all the Members thereof THe Lord who chooses Jerusalem in a furnace of Affliction hath been pleased since the beginning of the work of Reformation in this Land to exercise his People with many tryals All that desired to keep a good conscience were not long ago under many heavy and sad pressures from the insolency and oppression of a prevailing party of dis-affected and Malignant men who under a pretext of bringing the King to a condition of Honor Freedom and Safety did carry on an unlawful Engagement against the Kingdom of England and if the Lord had not been merciful unto his People they were like either to have been banished out of the Land or to have bin kept in a perpetual bondage in their consciences persons and estates But he whose Messengers those men had mocked and whose Word they had despised did bring them down suddenly in a day and restored liberty and peace unto his people a mercy and deliverance which as it ought to be remembred with thankfulness and praise so may it engage our hearts not to faint in troubles and straits that do yet abide us but to trust in the name of the Lord who both can and will deliver us still out of all our afflictions Albeit we do now enjoy many rich and precious blessings wherein we have reason to be comforted and to rejoyce yet it were to shut our eyes if we should not see our selvs involved in threatned with many and great dangers at home and from abroad It is matter of exceeding great sorrow to think upon the ignorance and profanity the impenitency and security that abounds still in the Land notwithstanding all the gracious dispensation of the Gospel and means of grace in such purity and plenty that none of the Nations round about us can boast of the like and of all the long-suffering patience of the Lord and of all his sharp rods wherewith he hath afflicted us from year to year and of all the mercies and deliverances wherewith he hath visited us and of our late solemn confession of sins andengagement unto duties sealed with the renewing of the Covenant and the Oath of God Which some men have so far already forgotten as to return with the dog to the vomit and with the sow to the puddle and many signs of inconstancy and levity do appear among all sorts and ranks of persons who seem to want nothing but a suitable tentation to draw them away from their stedfastness Our Army is not yet sufficiently purged but there be still in it Malignant and scandalous men whose fidelity and constancy as it is much to be doubted so is the wrath of the Lord to be feared upon their proceedings and undertakings without a speedy and effectual remedy That prevailing party of Sectaries in England who have broken the Covenant and despised the Oath of God corrupted the Truth subverted the sundamental Government by King and Parliament and taken away the Kings life look upon us with an evill eye as upon those who stand in the way of their monstrous and new-fangled devices in Religion and Government and though there were no cause to fear any thing from that party but the Gangrene and infection of those many damnable and abominable errors which have taken hold on them yet our vicinity unto and dayly commerce with that Nation may justly make us afraid that the Lord may give up many in this Land unto a spirit of delusion to beleeve lyes because they have not received the love of the Truth Neither is the Malignant party so far broken and brought low as that they have abandoned all hopes of carrying on their former designs against the Covenant and work of Reformation beside many of them in this Kingdom who are as Foxes tyed in chains keeping their evil nature and waiting an opportunity to break their cords and again to prey upon the Lords people There be standing Armies in Ireland under the command of the Marquess of Ormond the Lord Inchiqueen the Lord of Airds and George Munroe who forgetting all the horrible cruelty that was exercised by the Irish Rebels upon many thousands of the English and Scottish Nations in that Land have entred into a Peace and Association with them that they may the more easily carry on the old designs of the Popish Prelatical and Malignant party and the Lord of Airds and George Monroe have by treachery and oppression brought the Province of Vlster and Garisons therein under their power and command and have redacted our Country-men and such as adhere unto the Covenant and cause of God in that Province unto many miseries and straits and are like to banish the Ministers of the Gospel and to overturn these fair beginnings of the work of God which were unto many a branch of hope that the Lord meant to make Ireland a pleasant Land But which is more grievous unto us then all these our King Notwithstanding of the Lords hand against his Fathers opposition to the work of God and of the many sad and doleful consequences that followed thereupon in reference to Religion and his Subjects and Person and Government doth hearken unto the counsels of these who were Authors of these miseries unto his Royal Father and to his Kingdoms by which it hath come to pass that his Majesty hath hitherto refused to grant the just and necessary desires of this Kirk and Kingdom which were tendred unto him from the Commissioners of both for securing of Religion the Liberties of the Subject his Majesties Government and the Peace of the Kingdom And it is much to be feared that those wicked Counsellors may so far prevail upon him in his tender years as to engage him in a war for overturning if it be possible of the work of God and bearing down all those in the three Kingdoms that adhere thereto which if he shall do cannot but bring great wrath from the Lord upon himself and his throne and must be the cause of many new and great miseries and calamities to these lands It concerns a Nation thus sinful and loaden with iniquity and involved in so many difficulties and dangers by timous repentance and unfained humiliation to draw neer to God and to wrestle with him in Prayer and supplication that our sin may be pardoned and our iniquity done away and that he would establish the Land in the love of the Truth and inable every one in their station to do their duty boldly