Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	lord_n	people_n	4,203	5	4.5705	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30514	A declaration from the people called Quakers, to the present distracted nation of England with mourning and lamentation over it, because of its breaches ...	Burrough, Edward, 1634-1662.	1659 (1659)	Wing B5989; ESTC R15613	12,844	18

A DECLARATION From the PEOPLE CALLED Quakers To the Present Distracted Nation of ENGLAND With Mourning and Lamentation over it because of its Breaches and the Cause thereof laid down with Advice and Councel how Peace Union and Happinesse may be restored and all the present troubles removed LONDON Printed in the Year 1659. To the Present Distracted and Broken Nation of ENGLAND and to all her Inhabitants A Presentation and Declaration from the Seed of God and from the People called Quakers with their Sense and Knowledge published concerning the present Divisions and Confusions come to passe in the Land with the Causes thereof laid down and discovered and also good Councel and Advice held forth how Peace and Unity may be restored and how the present tribulations may be removed OH poor distressed Nation and full of troubles how art thou broken and divided how hath divisions distractions compassed thee about and entred into thy bowells and how are thy inhabitants and thy people divided even into hatred one against another and how are they filled as with mischiefe one toward another even as it were thirsting for the blood one of another Oh! how are thy Rulers and thy Subjects thy great men and thy poor confounded amongst themselves and how is the wisedom of thy wise men turned into folly and their union into present contention and how do they seeke the overthrow one of another and how do they lye in waite to be avenged one against another and how are the hearts of many filled with envy contention and revenge and love peace and unitie are farre away meeknesse patience and long suffering which ought to be among thy people seemes to stand afar off And oh Nation this is the day of thy trouble and the begining of thy sorrows And for as much as it hath pleased the Lord God Almighty to bring and suffer things thus to be brought to passe as if he would make our Nation a heape and suffer destruction upon it and having suffered the Rulers and great men to overturne and break down one another and to rend and tear one another from off the Throne pulling down others and setting up themselves even thorough their ambition and vaine glory and for corrupted ends to themselves wherby this our Nation is brought into present confusion and many are begotten thorough these things into fury heart burnings and malitiousnesse as if men were ready to devoure each one his neighbour and their Brother about Government and Rule being greatly divided and distracted in this matter some crying up one way of Religion and Church and Civil Government and some crying up another way being each one sort of people seeking themselves and the prosperitie of their own interests and to have their own desires accomplished but few seeking the Lord and to advance him in truth and righteousnesse And because of this there is no establishment in the Earth but strife and contention and heart burnings in the bowells of the Nation and great want of true love true unitie and true peace and all the contrary doth abound among the people because of which the Nation is subject to present misery even to bloodshed and murthers and liable also to greater judgments which may also come upon it because of these things all which we have deeply considered with mourning and with breakings of heart on the behalfe of the Nation the Land of our Nativitie we have seen we have seen the cause of thy distractions to be the Sins of thy Rulers and People and we have seen the effect of them to be dolefull and miserable unto thee except the hand of the Lord turne it backward And oh how do we mourn and lament to behold the out goings of men and the present condition of the People and Rulers in this the day of their trouble alass they do not behave themselves towards the Lord that his judgments may be turned away they do not seeke him in truth and righteousnesse they do not turne unto him with all their hearts neither do they tremble at his Word But they the rather reject his Counsell and despiseth his visitation and they seek themselves and exalt their own horne and loves the honour of this world and their hearts are hardned and the great men seemes to be utterly insencible of what the Lord is a doing but seekes great things for themselves and each one rejoycing in anothers fall and glorying in their advantages one over another one sort being first down and another sort comes up boasting themselves over the fall of their Enemies and not knowing that their time also is but very short And thus is our poor Nation tossed to and fro thorough the ambition of men who even makes a prey upon the poor peoples Persons and Treasure for their own corrupted ends and thy Rulers hath not had respect unto the counsell of the Lord but seemes to refuse the way of peace and even adds fewell to the fire of Gods wrath by heaping up one trausgression upon another and they receive not the instructions of the Almighty Behold oh Nation great trouble is upon thee and the men that should rule thee and which have pretended to govern thee they do not walk in the way of thy peace neither do they bring healing to thee These things we have considered and thus we lament over thee and over thy present State Oh Nation how are thou like an ungirded vessell that is ready to fall one piece from another and how art thou like a body without a head and all thy joynts out of order and what confusion art thou fallen into which is thy present State and art even ●s a widdow without a husband and art left comfortlesse unto this day and ready to devoure thy self thorough the envy that lodgeth in thy owne bowells though thou hast had Kings over thee and chosen the Parliaments and set up Protectors and Committees and Councels have bin creaated in thee to have bin as a defence upon thee and to have borne the Scepter of thy Government but alass these have all left thee and thou art now as alone and left in trouble and confusion and none of all these that have sitten on thy Throne have brought salvation unto thee but thou art left comfortlesse even as a widdow unto this day and the Staffe of thy hand hath peirced thee and thy strength and considence hath betrayed thee and them whom thou hast chosen have wrought no deliverance at all in thee even the men that thou thoughtest should have healed thee they have made thy wound more incurable and they in whom thou hast reposed trust they have been deceiptfull and treacherous in thee for many have sought themselves and who should be the greatest and they have trifled away many precious houres in vaine contentions about Government what it should be and who should Govern while as no good thing hath been effected by them but in the meane time of their delaies and while they

have been making themselves rich with the Nations Treasure and loved this worlds perishing honour and vaine titles the Nation hath starved for want of mercy and just judgment and the cause of its necessity hath bin forgotten and mercy and truth and the freedome of the people neglected and the cause of the faeherlesse widdow and stranger and the cause of the afflicted people have they not respected Oh Nation the men that have sitten on thy Throne they have left thee groaning yet under great oppressions wounded with the spirit of Tyranny yet un-cast out and thy people are yet unhealed but the breach hath been made wider even by that Spirit which hath possessed thy Kings thy Parliaments thy Protectors thy Councils thy Committees who hath proved unto thee Phisitians of no valew but have bin the encreasers of thy greefe and even because of their iniquities and the Sin of their ambition and oppression hath the Lord dealt thus with them and suffered them to dash one another in pieces and through judgment unto themselves and thee oh Nation are they at present ceased from thee and thou art left alone and without a deliverer in the Earth full of troubles and distractions oh that thou wouldest now look unto the Lord and seek him in righteousnesse that he may heale thee for there is none of all them that do pretend to Rule thee that do rightly proceed in the way of thy deliverance they do not apply healing balm unto thy wound they rather add unto the cause of thy sorow then removes it from thee their hearts are not aright before the Lord and how then shouldst thee prosper in their doings All these things have we veiwed and pittied the condition of our Nation and thus we do declare that the very cause of these things that are come to passe in thee is in that oh Nation thou hast sinned thou hast sinned and the cry of thy iniquities is come up before the Lord even the sinns of thy Rulers and thy People is the cause of Gods displeasure against thee and he is provoked through their transgressions in thee is found the blood of the innocent in thee is found the murther of Souls in thee is found treachery against God and hipocrisie and dissimulation with God and men in thee is found pride and oppression whoredome and drunkennesse stealing and murther in thee is found the very burthen of iniquitie and the full measure of transgression even the transgression of Gods whole Law deceit is found in the unsoundnesse of heart and unconstancy in all good things multitude of hypocriticall fastings prayers and services in thee is found even destroying sins of all sorts doth abound and thou hast provoked the Lord God by thy abominations Thy Rulers have bin oppressors thy Teachers deceivers of Soules and thy People are froward and perverse against the Lord in thee is found the men that judge for rewards and the Priests that preach for hire and the Prophets that divine for money thy fins are like Israells of old for number and greatnesse and thou hast lost Gods favour and gain'd his fury by thy own doings and thou art the very cause of this misery and hast brought it upon thy self and because thou art departed from the living God by thy transgressions therfore hath he confounded thee and turned thy wisdome into folly and he is departed from thee and out of thy counsells and men are left to the counsells of their own hearts and as it were ready to destroy one another Ruler against Ruler and Neighbour and Friend full of strife one against another and this is hapned unto thee as a judgment for thy iniquities who hast also neglected a glorious day of visitation thy Rulers and inhabitants have bin warned and the cry of repentance hath bin sounded towards them all by a despised people but warning hath not bin regarded but the Word of the Lord rejected by thy Rulers and People and loe what wisdome is there in them not so much wisdome from God as can preserve them but it may be just with the Lord to suffer them to drink the blood one of another even because they have finned against God and rejected his counsell therfore is this come to passe in the Nation for hadst thou oh Nation walked in the light of the Lord it had bin better with thee had every one obeyed the light in his own conscience and had every one sought the Lord and not himself had thy Rulers Ruled for God and had thy people bin Ruled of God then this day had not bin a day of trouble but it had bin a day of joy and sorrow and anguish had bin removed farr from thee and blessings had filled thy habitations And now wheras many wise men have bin advising and consulting the peace of this our Nation and they have given in their counsell for the removing these troubles yet peace and unitie seemes to be farr away and though they have sought peace for this nation yet they have not walked in the perfect way therof for innocency truth and simplicitie have bin wanting which God only will blesse and by flatteries and deceipts and the pollicy and wisdome of this world have they thought to make up thy breach but it cannot be for in the way of that proceeding will not the Lord be found in a needfull time and his presence hath bin wanting in their counsells and therefore the fruit of peace is not yet grown up this we have seen and therfore thus we do declare O Nation the inward cause of thy distractions must be removed even thy iniquities must be forsaken and thy transgressions repented of thou must forsake thy former waies and doings that are not right thou must leave off thy hypocrisies and flatteries with God and men thou must repent thee of thy profannesse and of thy profession also thy sin and thy righteousnesse must thou put away which are both abominations unto God thou must cease to do evill and learn to do well and thou must be uncovered of thy Sheeps cloathing thy large profession of Religion and the multitude of thy prayers and Sermons and the number of thy Oblations and Offerings these things have not bin pleasant unto the Lord from thee but because hrreof is he the rather provoked against thee and thou must be stripped of thy filthy garments and sett as in the day that thou wast borne before thou canst be cloathed with divine righteousnes and O Nation thou must be changed not in name only but in nature thou must be converted that the wrath of the Lord may be turned back from thee every inhabitant in thee must becom a fighter against the evil in his own heart and the plague therof must be sought out and removed the sin must be forsaken that judgment may cease and every one must cease to provoke the Lord and no longer vex his Spirit within them and every one must love the light of Christ in his own