Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A35699
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Denus petition to the Lord General Cromwell with his Protestation and engagement : also, his description of the house of God and original priesthood : whereunto is annexed The ministerial duty and The personal reign of the saints.
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Denus.
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1651
(1651)
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Wing D1068A; ESTC R26116
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23,636
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34
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iniquity with our God nor respect of persons nor taking of gifts and he charged them saying Thus shall ye do in the fear of the Lord faithfully and with a perfect heart and what cause soever shall come to you betwixt blood and blood betwixt law and commandment statute and judgement let them not trespasse against the Lord. Look upon this all ye that have contrary to this holy Law which is the written word of God given so long since to judge the earth this word of Sion shall throw down all your witchcrafts of Jesabel and your night-Spels of subtilty for ye have not judged according to the holy word of God Some may say Woe to you Judges Lawyers and Juries for destroying the declaration and truth of Gods word changing it into your own forms and not proving all Causes by Scripture all your legal rudiments must fall at the appearing of Sions glory and shall cause all your Rivers in Egypt to dry up for his word and the Saints must judge the earth and your unstable justice shall fall and come to nothing when the word of God shall be every mans true testimony to restore and to redresse to bring again and to reduce to settle all things to their ancient Oiginal which have been so long traduced from their place And without all question the godly of the people shall govern meaning the remnant of the Tribes out of Sion For I will cleanse your bloud I am the Lord that shall rore from thence and utter my voice and the earth shall shake but I will be the hope and heritage of Jacob He will be jealous for his land and have pity by his redeemed that they may have justice from God out of Sion And I cannot see how any other law can be warrantable but onely this word of God and to deny all mens mixture which are but ordinances of men and legal 1 Cor. 6.1 Dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the Saints As if he should say will you bring your selves within the danger of the cursed laws of the Gentiles And in Vers 2. he saith Know you not the saints shall judge the world and we shall judge Angels much more the things that pertain to this life Joel 3.2 the Lord saith He will plead with all nations for the heritage of his people saying behold I will raise them out of the place where ye have sold them And elsewhere he saith I will restore unto you the years the Locusts have eaten the Canker-worm the Caterpiller and Palmer-worm which I have sent amongst you As if hee should say I will take away all the devourers that have led you captive which have seduced the simple carying on causes in Latin and in an unknown tongue This is not that law which the Apostle James declareth in his second Chapter saying So walk and so speak as you may be judged by the law of liberty which is Sion to try all your actions by and so to be justified by Gospel truths which is contrary to the laws of men And wicked men ought not to bear sway for God will have a community to communicate justice to all according as truth shall guide them to this law of liberty and Gospel freedom and not by mens ordinances that must fall For mercy shall rejoyce over judgement and shall glory over all oppression We cannot finde by either law or Gospel that men should die by any outward act of theft but the ancient records of God manifest only restitution and if the person be not able to restore then be a servant or slave to the person whom hee hath offended The Lord saith He that killeth with the sword shall die by the sword shewing that by murther bloud shall touch bloud it were good if legal cruelty were restrained as yet it hath not but in short time provided by our God we shall have truth established in our borders with mercy and justice to remain in our streets it hath been a long time mixed with Wormwood by rigorous and cruel laws being enacted that any malitious man that would swear against another man whether it were right or wrong as many times by way of supposition not considering the danger of an oath or whether it be right or wrong the Oath being passed the Jurie presently findeth it the plaintiffe having no way to prove the wrong done but his own Oath by an inditement under the King to prove the theft making the King his grand witness which hath been an intollerable mark of the beast and all ye Jury-men may be ashamed and cover your mouths for all the bloudy Verdicts you have given up look to it for God will call you to an accompt for all your works in that you have set the King to prove mens actions which hath been a lying testimony when the King hath been far distant from the Bench ye corrupt Judges and simple Jury-men it hath evidently appeared by some that hath been wrongfully and hastily put to death a miserable spectacle before your eys and this is a fin that will lye heavie upon Judge and Jury-men when ye shall take the King for a witness as if he were present to prove the felony this is a high principle for a knave to work his will to prove the felony done to the Plaintiff but draw the Curtain there the King hath something else to do then to come and prove your unjust act A miserable heathenish law and Turkish the Turk can but demand a mans life and what is it else to do in this We see plainly the King may be enriched by such a law as for bringing in either to himself or some other Lord of a Mannor felons goods which freedom they have purchased from him that is gone And this law cannot be satisfied with mans life but wife and children must be utterly undone and all taken from them by the lord of felons goods O down with this Babylon I wonder the world doth not violently pull her down for they cannot be contented to take the things that were stoln which is all they can have but they will have all then all shall be mine so that the thing is although he never stole before and the fact be of small value yet he must lose his sweet life and die as a dog which is a base inhumane and salvage cruelty Turkish and not Christian-like the just God and Lord Jehovah will surely confound such doings Some have been by relation prepared for the ladder and yet by accident the right theef hath been taken and for the same fact hath suffered death a heavie thing it is unto that Jurie that shall censure a man to death by an indictment under his own pretence by an indictment in the Kings name yet we do not justifie theft but that it should be lawfully proved as all other trespasses be under two witnesses every truth shall be established for one witnesse which
so denied to go forth which caused the loss of life And it hath been a woful spectacle in the worlds eye when it hath been apparently known that some devouring Nimrods have bought out many poor souldiers pay some for 4 1 5 1 or 6 1 in the score and all for want of justice Their cries will come up to the God of heaven I beseech your Excellence promote true justice for Gods cause and fear no human flesh and the Lord will be your arm of defence Oh Army of the Lord Esay 1.26 I will restore thy judgments as at the first and thou shalt be called the City of Righteousness when Sion shall be redeemed with justice and when you shall redeem the oppressed judge the fatherless and plead for the widow then the Lord will delight in your works of piety Now that it may please you to take into your consideration and to move our Parliament upon the Lords designe that both they and you may be called blessed in the act of Restoring Ezek. 47.14 the Lord declareth saying Ye shall one inherit as well as another Meaning the Earth or the Land which is the Lords Verse the 22 he saith Ye shall divide the Land by lot for an inheritance And lastly he saith What Tribe soever the stranger sojourneth in there ye shall give him his inheritance Now the clamation of our poor Israel is for want of Commons to plant and build upon and this being alienated and estranged from them by cursed Ahabs which now do enjoy Naboths Vineyard and spoil our good Commons The Lord hath sent me to move you upon this object that they which have possessions should not take away the Commons from the poor Common wealth of Israel but that they which have no inheritance should have their Lots in the Commons as it is their right by Creation from God the Prophets Esay Jeremy and Ezekiel shall be tilled and become as the garden of Eden Joel 3.2 I will plead with them for my people Israel and for my heritage which they have cast lots for my land and parted it among the Nation Now if your Excellency please to help the Lord against the mighty then he saith Joel 2. I will restore to you the years that the Locusts have eaten the Cankerworm the Caterpiller and the Palinerworm which I sent amongst you Lastly That you would please to fall and kneel at the appearing of the Lord when he shall set up his Ordination or Determinate Power then all your subordinate powers must fall then he that is least in the world shall be greatest in his Kingdome and he that overcometh shall rule the Nations Let the high praises of God be in your mouth and a two edged sword in your hand to destroy sin for a spiritual and temporal Justice So I rest your poor petitioner to command Denus to the restored Church in the Isle of Pathmos A Protestation and Engagement I Am ingaged for the Cause and shall lay down my life and dearest blood and will do it in case of conscience for the defence of the everlasting Gospel though humane Lawes do fail and mens ordinances come to nothing yet how unchangeable is the Law of God in his ordination Christ at his first appearance destroyed every mans law and ordinances and thereupon wounded the Beast saying All power is given me in heaven and in earth Go teach all Nations as if be should say every law statute and ordinance of man is at an end yet many strive for earthly and humane power and cause the sword to rule by a law which is not the Law of God to kill and keep alive although for common trespasses making their own wills a law contrary to the law of Sion and we hold up the sword by a law and a law by the sword which is not good our Lord saith he that killeth with the sword shall dye with the sword He in Genesis Whosoever killeth Cain his blood shall be required seven fold and Revel 11. Whosoever killeth them shall be so killed tt is better for a man to dye an Anatomy then to be a man-slayer to take away life and free Creation from any of the Creatures of God and to lord over them by cruelty Our Saviour saith offences will be but woe be to them by whom they do come it were better a milstone were hanged about his neck and cast into the Sea then to offend in bloud robbery or any such thing by legal cruelty pretending a law above the Gospel and Records of Christ to his Disciples which law to maintain is not so ancient as that order of Melchizedeck made to Abraham by a promise though the law was given by Moses yet faith and truth came by Christ So that under the name of Melchizedeck or under the name of Christ he the Lord hath alwayes put an end to mans ordinances according to his Divine Ordination and I know no law of man that can stand before the Law of God in Sion there is but one Law and one Law-giver which gift to us is the free Gospel as James saith So speak and so walk that ye may be judged by the Law of liberty which is the Word of God for an outward record called by David his Statutes Divine meaning the Old and New Testament by way of cauâ—â—â—â— that every godly Magistrate should lay the Bible book before him to convince every sinne and errour of the offender and not to use any other book of mixture compounded together lest they adde or diminish from Gods Word or Commandment for then and at that time the Bible shall be the chief Statute to maintain Freedome and Justice it is not your statutes of Winchester London or Magna Charta so Evangelical or ancient that can stand when the power of Christ appeareth and shall shine out of the East unto the West and from the North to the South so that all the Nations shall see his glorious appearing which is his testimony of Light to me a sufferer for the Gospel of Christ and I know not whether by imprisonment or losse of life the prison is but freedomes purgatory and it shall at the last conquer hell and Freedome shall have victory by his statutes Divine it is for the Law of God that I dye daily and am much killed in my dear Desires I stand up for the liberty of the Gospel and Freedome of the Creation and to plead for the Kingdome of Christ and the inheritance of the people which I hope you will not hinder me of Our Saviour saith Matth. 10. Fear them not for there is nothing hid that shall not be known and I cannot but declare the things I have seen I am not onely ready to suffer your imprisonment but to suffer death or any torture for the Cause I mean for the Law and Liberties of the Gospel of the Lord. I am a faithful witnesse of God I fear not your Famine Distresse or Death I am the person to raise