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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	sin_n	world_n	2,522	5	4.6350	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48098	A letter from the protesters with an answer thereunto, from an asserter of the authority of the two late general assemblies, at Dundee and Edinburgh.	Asserter of the authority of the late general assemblies of Dundee and Edinburgh.	1653 (1653)	Wing L1538; ESTC R9563	23,439	32

Judicatories and from thence as from Aarons head did run down by his-beard to the uttermost skirts of his garments were we not then for a name of praise amongst the Churches abroad and the rod of Discipline in our hand a terror to every thing which exalted it self against truth and pietie at home Then did the work of Reformation come on apace untill the head-stone was ready to be put upon it with shoutings crying Grace Grace unto it The Vine brought out of Egypt planted amongst us did fill the land the hills were covered with the shadow of it and the boughs thereof were like the goodly Cedars She sent forth her boughs unto the sea and her branches unto the river But now alas the case is altered we are as members disjointed as an Army routed the Authority of CHRISTS Courts weakened and all this is the more terrible that our own hand hath been in the transgression our hedges are broken down so that all they that passe by do robe and spoile the Boar out of the wood doth waste and the wilde beast out of the Forrest doth devour the Foxes and little Foxes do spoile the Vines with tender grapes and there is none to take hold of them We do also regrate with you that groundlesse prejudices and needlesse jealousies are so readily received and intertained and so hardly removed and that alienation of minde and affection doth so much increase Those seems to be the latter times indeed concerning which it is foretold that because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall waxe cold Only it appeareth from what followeth in yours that what guilt is herein ye intend to fasten it all upon us and to purge your selves wholly of it Thus we take up your meaning and doubtlesse others will do so also while ye adde that Hereby it commeth to passe that clear and evident Truths concerning the Lords controversie with the Land are not received in simplicity of heart but are by many laid aside as unworthy to be taken notice of a thing which those of your judgement do usually charge us with But for your selves ye professe it is your hearts desire so to walk with your Brethren as may be unto edification and that ye may do nothing which may heighten the difference Thus all those forenamed evills must be fastened upon us To all which we return this Answer 1. As we conceive ye neither will nor yet can positively clear your selves from having your own share in those things as well as others Surely ye do not really think that there is no groundlesse prejudices nor needlesse jealousies received and entertained by those of your Judgement nor no place given to alienation of mind and affection and if so we wonder much why then do ye so regrate these evills as it is evident ye would fasten them wholly upon us How is it that ye who presse so much taking with guilt upon others do not freely own your own share in this common and uncontroverted guiltinesse 2. We do not purge those of our Judgement but as usually falls out in Church divisions so it is possible way is given by many to prejudices and jealousies but we are sorry we have reason to say your way doth free them from the imputation of being altogether groundlesse We can hardly conceive but if ye seriously consider ye your selves will judge that there is great ground of jealousie given to these of our Judgement from severall things in your carriage As namely for your crying out so much against that which we conceive to have been our duty as the main Cause of Gods Judgement and Kingdome-ruining sin from your asserting in Print to the World that we are for the same very thing men scandalous and unworthy to sit in a General Assemblie If ye speak this much when for number ye are comparatively so few and destitute of all power what can be expected your Principles will lead you unto if once ye had that fulnesse of power which ye aime at 3. How groundlesse so ever our jealousies be we must crave leave to clear our selves of that unchristian effect which ye have expresly affirmed to have followed upon them The searcher of hearts knows no groundlesse prejudices nor alienation of mind and affections hath so prevailed with us as to reject clear and evident Truths concerning the Lords Controversie with the Land as unworthy to be taken notice of We desire to believe that the fear and dread of the Almighty shall never so far forsake us But 4. what ye mean by these clear and evident truths concerning the Lords controversie and rejected by us we cannot well conjecture We can hardly think that ye mean the poynts of controversie under debate betwixt you and us ye know what ye hold in those are not clear and evident truths unto us and we believe unto none of the Forraign Churches We desire to know if ever such Tenets were vented for Truths in any part of the Christian World as that it is not lawfull for the lawfull Magistrate to imploy the Body of his Subjects for the Lands defence against an unjust Invasion or that we may not be concurring according to our Place unto the investing of any with the power of Magistracie what ever otherwise be his right unto it untill he give convincing signes of a reall change or that it is unlawfull to join in Camp fellowship with these whom we may have even the nearest Church fellowship with Such and many such like are no clear and evident Truths unto us But if ye mean other Truths concerning the common and uncontroverted guiltinesse of all ranks of Persons within the Land such as Contempt of the Gospel Pride Oppression Uncleannesse Despising of Ordinances Self-seeking under publick pretences ye know we do receive such Truths and stirre up the Land to mourn for them though we know many who looks on those as sins not to be taken notice of in a Publick Fast except those other things under debate and of lesser moment what ever truth be in them be acknowledged also Ye Professe your scope in Writing unto us is that sin and transgression may be acknowledged by us ye needed not have excused your attempting of this towards us by your doing the like unto others We are glad indeed how freely ye do acquit your selves according to your Vocation unto all men and are confident when what ye have done unto others of this kind shall be made as publick as this to us hath been a long time since it will speak for it self But what ever ye have done or not done unto others your Writing unto us had been most acceptable if so it had taught us what we know not your smiting of us should have been a kindnesse For attaining the end by you Proposed ye conceive it a good and ready way to look back where we were when these differences began particularly ye mention our by past work of purging corrupt men from the

Ministery and the profitable fruits thereof together with the sad effects hath followed upon the interuption of it by the abounding of scandalous Ministers and Elders which ye lament so much the more as that what hath been already done of this kind is condemned by many In answer to which we wish indeed we may all look back where we were when these differences began Our Generall Assemblies were then terrible as ane Armie with Banners inferiour Judicatories and Persons of all ranks walking in their due subordination unto those whereby the weeds and stones of all sorts were gathered out of the Lords Vineyard which now almost every where abound 2. We grant that the House of God ought to be purged and that not only from men of scandalous lives but also of dangerous and erroneous principles but we are sorry that ye labour so much to fasten upon us the hindering of this so good a Work ye know the weakning of our Authority makes purging Work for the time but very little usefull Men are now taught and ye know by whose example to submit no further to Church Censures nor what seemeth good unto themselves Our purging work must have Union going before it or else it is to little purpose so that these who have begun and continued our wofull Rent most are greatest retarders of this necessary work and so deepest in that guilt which you so much at all occasions do charge upon us 3. We know not who those are who repents of the by past work of purging possibely some conceive an inconvenience and danger to continue it in the same way wherein it was formerly used but for what we know there is none of our judgement against the thing it self It may prove hazardous indeed to give unto a Quorum of some few men most of them being very young inexperienced and unacquainted with our Discipline a constant power renued from time to time to sit down upon whole Synods and Presbyteries and cast out and hold in whom they please especially at this time when through our wofull Rent there is so much mutuall irritation of spirit and as your selves grant so many groundlesse prejudices and needlesse jealousies together with so much alienation of affections We are very confident it shall not be made appear that Ezekiel threatneth the neglecting of purging only by such a meane as this so with all respect to your Wisdome and parts ye might as we conceive have omitted the citation of that place as to this purpose As for your two Papers mentioned in yours as containing the causes of GODS dreadfull wrath and the sins of the Ministry which ye recommend unto us we have not as yet so acurately perused them but from the generall view we have taken we finde what is the great work of these books to wit to convince us of the sinfulnesse of the Treaty publict Resolutions c. And in order to our conviction herein ye recommend to us the perusall of the Covenant Engagement Remonstrances Declarations of this Kirk For Answer We have perused many of them all and most of all the Word of Truth the perusall whereof why it is not recommended by you at least among the rest we wonder much But we cannot finde from all or any of these that sinfulnesse in these things which ye charge them with We finde the Treaty with the King approven by Covenant Remonstrances Declarations so that if ye had cited but one passage of any of these seemingly against it we should have cited ten really for it We finde the publict Resolutions also approven by these to wit The Commissions Answer to the Quaeries proponed to them by the Committee of Estates some of which Answers in these is 1. It is lawfull for a Magistrate to imploy the body of his Subjects for the Lands defence especially providing none of them be put to such Trust as may be prejudiciall to the work of GOD which ye know was expresly provided for in the Commissions Answer 2. That a Parliament may take off civill mulcts alter or shorten dyets for admitting unto or debarring from Trust providing they actually imploy none but these who are of known good affection to the Cause of GOD. These are the publick Resolutions so much cryed out against and these wee darre not condemne except vvee vvould depart from the Word of Truth We finde also what the Commission did in receiving of Malignants to give Ecclesiastick signes of Repentance to be justified by the Acts of preceeding Assemblies especially the Assemblie 1649. where many of your judgement did sit as Members We finde that Assembly did injoin the Commission to processe these who were upon the unlawfull Engagement even to Excommunication if they did not offer signes of Repentance We find the Commission 1650. walking by the same steps in their receiving of them to the Communion of the Church which the same Assembly in the same place doth prescribe and if they failed in one circumstance why do ye not make it known So that while ye say that they were notoriously walking in their accustomed prophanenesse and enimity unto the Work of God even when the Commission did receive them is more then can be made good we mean that they were so walking notoriously unto the Judicatory who received them and ye know Church Judicatories are to judge only according unto what is made notour unto them If ye say their walking so was notour unto others then we ask why did not those others follow Christs rule with them Was there any of the whole bulk whom any of you did admonish and for their pertinacy delated them unto the Church as the Word of God and the Generall Assembly did excite all to do This ye know ought to have been first done before ye had thus charged CHRISTS Court with prostituting the Ordinances of Repentance unto the lusts of corrupt men That severall of these whom the Commission did then receive have since proclaimed their dissimulation reflecteth nothing upon us no more then the carriage of diverse of your Judgment who have tread in the same steps with them of late doth reflect upon you Besides this we may say that the greater part of those at whose receiving ye professed your selves most stumbled have given as great a proof of their sincerity by their after actings and sufferings for the Covenant and Cause as any others have done since that time Ye proceed and wish our selves may search what sinfull courses have been taken to promove these Publike Resolutions but least we should not search or happily after searching not find ye put us in mind of severall particulars to which we give this return 1. If any Censures have been imposed upon Ministers without a preceeding Act and practise of our Kirk in such like cases then let the Imposers bear the blame 2. For any particular Acts made by the Assembly at Dundee against Professors for their opposition to the Acts thereof they not being particularly instanced