Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	know_v	let_v	lord_n	3,357	5	3.9065	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34914	A fore-warning and a word of expostulation unto the rulers, magistrates, priests of England, and her dominions, uttered forth from the spirit of the Lord, that they may read, weigh, and consider.	R. C. (Richard Crane)	1660 (1660)	Wing C6811; ESTC R24283	5,193	8

A Fore-Warning And A WORD OF Expostulation Unto the Rulers Magistrates Priests of England and Her Dominions uttered forth from the Spirit of the Lord that they may Read Weigh and Consider LONDON Printed for Thomas Simmons at the Sign of the Bull and Mouth near Aldersgate 1660. A Fore-Warning AND A WORD OF EXPOSTULATION Unto the Rulers Magistrates Priests of England and Her Dominions c. GIve ear O ye Rulers of England and her Dominions who are now exalted of what degree or quality soever diligently hearken to the reproof of the Lord which is uttred concerning you is it not for you to do Justice and Equity in this Nation and to undoe the heavy burden which hath been and is born amongst the people knowing that for leaving this thing undone your Predecessors the fore-going power was rejected of the Lord and think ye that if ye be found in the same steps and walking in the same path that the same hand which is the righteous hand of the Lord will not reach you and bring you down though you be never so high and may think your selves never so sure and though you may in your thoughts strive with Eternity yet know your day is comprehended in it and must have an end assuredly Therefore stay a little and consider honestly in the sight of God let us reason together for what cause is it think you the Lord hath brought you into power and exalted you is it because the Lord hath a love to you more than any other or is it because the Lord is well pleased with your doings or is it because your Righteousness exceeds theirs that are rejected and cast out before you let that which is just in all your consciences judg and answer me whether it be for all or any of these things forementioned if it be then what means all these abominations which are of late excercised and as it were free toleration of them for there is no restraint at all by any man in power high or low laid upon them but the Flood-gates or rather the Hell-gates of wickedness are opened wide truly it is very hard to he uttered the several wickednesses committed as Stage-plays and other plays Bear-baiting Bul-baiting leading the poor creatures up and down the streets drest with Bells and Ribons Bag-pipes playing before them multitudes of men women and children following them leaping shouting and rejoycing now this is publikely done to the amazement of all that fear the Lord and the private wickednesse is exceeding hard to be uttered as Drunkennesse Whoring Thieving Murthering Revelling Blaspheming God Scoffing and Deriding all that fear him When I have beheld many of these things my heart hath even melted within me to consider the end of them for truly I must bear my Testimony in the fear of the Lord that the tenth part of the wickedness now committed was not committed in the time of the fore-going Power though the Lords controversy is with them and he hath brought them to Judgment Therefore see search and read this is my advice if your Righteousness exceeds not their's you can in no wise escape the Judgment of God who is Just and renders to every one according to their doings and if the hypocrite be brought to Judgment who said and did not what will become of the open prophane read with that of God in you and then you will understand for I tell you the sin of the hypocrite and the sin of the open prophane is all abomination in the sight of God and for judgment though it may be the stroak may be heavier upon the one then upon the other read I say and then you will know your Condition and think not that in this day the returning to your abominable broth and Swins flesh which the Lord spued out many years since will be an acceptable sacrifice in this day of the Lords great Manifestation and appearance who is risen in great might and Power to confound and dash in pieces root up consume and burn whatsoever the Heavenly God hath not planted for into the fire must it be cast which burneth for ever And you who are the Ministers of this which the Lords curse is to wo wo from the Lord is your portion and better it had been you had never been born then to grieve Gods good Spirit in you and all his children by doing that which the witnesse of God in you condemns for Oh you prophets of wine and strong drink have you been hid in the earth these many years are you now moved out of your holes if your worship were the worship of the Spirit then where hath been your Testimony all this while The true Ministers of the Gospel who speak by the spirit of God concluded woe to themselves if they preached not the Gospel it was not the powers of the earth could silence them but they were obedient to Gods commands but dumb Idoll Shepheards have you been and so you are And think not because you have the Powers of the Nation on your side that your wares will come to a better Market than your Ancestors if so good for the day is dawned and the Sun is risen which is the Light in thousands of men and women and hath discovered the Marchant of Babylon with his deceitful wares so that no more of them will be bought of you for ever glory to God and Immortal praises of all his be given for ever and ever who hath made bare your skirts and so appears your shame and nakedness to all And as to your long Robes Vestures and Girdles you flutter up and down the streets in you find neither rule nor example in Scripture of any of the Ministers of the Gospel that wore such for distinction yet there were such as wore long Garments but they were deceivers and know this is your Figure which you wear you dumb and speechless do you intrude into the house of the good Man to the supper which he hath prepared you are by him found dumb and he hath pronounced against you to be bound hand and foot and to be cast into utter darkness this is your sentence from the Lord and the type of your Girdles And as to the Power that gives you life and vigour in this thing I say a day is given them though it be a day as in Winter yet a work they have to do for the Lord who hath ordained them as a Rod and a Scourge to chastise his people by and hath filled them as a Vyal with his wrath which is to be powred upon that Spirit that hath dealt treacherously and rebelled against Gods manifestation and so just it is because the Lord hath appointed it and when the Rod hath finished and he that appointeth it saith it is enough then into the fire shall it be cast Therefore consider what you are and how you are in the hand of the Lord for assuredly the Lord will plead with the Rulers and Priests of this Nation

and a day of howling and bitter lamentation is to you instead of your joy and pleasures which you so eagerly pursue and was it not better for you to repent of the evil in your selves and then make laws for the suppressing it in others which if it was truly done from the principle of God in you it might put a stop or at least set bounds to this floud of wickedness which in these few months past hath over-flowed this Nation for which cause the Lords fierce wrath is kindled against it and except true repentance be made manifest from you with amendment of life he will certainly excecute his vengeance upon you and who shall defend and deliver you it is not your arme of flesh you so much boast of can do it for they have been tryed by men and have several times fallen into the hands of men but it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Lord if so who shall deliver for strong is the Lord who Judges And know that Gods Judgments came upon the foregoing Powers because they laid weights and burdens heavy to be born upon the seed of God wheresoever it did appear and Imprisoned many of the Servants of the Lord because for conscience sake they could not conform to the worlds vain and wicked customes and because they could not for Conscience sake pay Tithes to maintaine the National Hireling-Belly-Priests these things with many other they sought occasion by to Persecute and Imprison the Innocent Lambs of Christ Jesus and would be Lords over the consciences of men which thing is accursed of the Lord for it is not the Place or Duty of any Magistrate whatsoever or any other to impose any thing upon the Conscience of any for the Lord alone is he that doth exercise the conscience Now I know you will own the saying in Scripture which saith do unto every man as you would be done unto your selves and if you practise the same you will allow us the same liberty as you your selves have that is not to be forced to this way of worship or the other or any thing whatsoever which concerns conscience for you your selves would not be so served And I tell you plain we challenge the same liberty as you enjoy as to matter of Worship and Religion and if we be debarred of it the Lord God that pleads our cause will give us it whether you will or nay For I know that your Church and Religion as you call it cannot be settled without persecution and truly I believe unto death but the Scriptures must be fulfilled where there was a generation said had we lived in the Prophets dayes we would not have put them to death but the same generation put Christ the great Prophet to death and so you will say now had we lived in Queen Maryes days we would not have put the people of God to death who suffered Martyrdome yet imprison and persecute them now though not by open burning because your day is not yet fully come so you manifest your selves to be of the same seed upon which all the righteous blood hath been charged from Abel even to this day so one seed the Persecutor one seed persecuted the one of Cain from all generations the other of Abell from all generations so now read your selves of one of these seeds for of one of them assuredly you are and your fruits declare the seed your selves you cannot hide from the Witnesse of God in your own consciences neither from it in ours Therefore make not your finger as heavy as their Loynes that the Lord hath cast out before you for as your sins exceeds theirs so will your judgement exceed theirs for just is the Lord And further know that the Lord is cutting his work short in righteousnesse in the earth and is quick and swift in his jugdements therefore think not your foundation is more sure then those that are gone before you when the Lord comes to plead with you for your abominations did you never take notice how thick the changes of Government have been in this Nation of late years And what think you of it Was it only to make room for you If you think so you are highly mistaken Now had your power been more righteous more just more holy and more for freedom and liberty then those that are gone then I should have both believed and confessed that the Lord onely in love ordered the Government to you and established your Throne for righteousnesse holynesse meeknesse equity freedom and liberty in matters of conscience the Lord God ownes and loves and it is that he will set up in the earth in despite of all that opposes it Therefore in vain it is Oh Rod of Gods wrath to contend with him in whose hands thou art for assuredly Gods justice will take hold on thee and know also that thy reward and wages thou hast and shalt have at the hand of the Lord for thy service is thy pleasures and delights to the full satisfaction of thy desire and what canst thou have more thou Rod of Gods Justice Thou being out of the sense of him who hath appointed thee This is for thy service For Israels Rod was appointed of the Lord and for his service he had the spoile of Jerusalem and the Land and this honour was he honoured withall but there was a time when he was had in remembrance with the Lord and was called to an account and then into the fire was he cast read and consider I do not speake these things in contempt of your power or in upbraiding you concerning these things which I have mentioned Rulers or Priests the Lord is my witnesse for I am subject unto it for conscience sake but my Spirit is grieved within me and my soul vexed and burthened to see the abomination and wickednesse exalted in so high a measure since the comming in of this Power truly this City of London is as ripe for fire and brimstone from Heaven as Sodom was for fulnesse of bread and idlenesse was Sodoms sin consider what is the great sin of this City is it not so that the greatest part of her Inhabitants knows hardly what to eat and what to drink or what to put on is this the end of plenty or doth this answer the end of him that gives it surely it is given to serve the necessity and not the unlimited lust cast your eyes abroad in the Creation and see if every creature doth not condemn your selves for I know not one creature that doth not answer the end of his Creation but man and so the good creatures of God will rise up in Judgment against you in the day of the Lord consider these things in the dread of the Lord oh ye Rulers and Magistrates for it lyeth at your doores before the Lord hath sealed his Decree which is gone out against you which is near at hand to be done for the Lord hath purposed it and your condition calls for it and remember you are warned by one who suffereth with the seed of God in you which is held in strong bondage under the particulars above mentioned And lay it to heart for it highly concerns you Rich. Crane The good man is perished out of the earth and there is none upright amongst men they all lye in wait for blood they hunt every man his brother with a Net that they may do evill with both hands earnestly the Prince asketh and the judge asketh a reward and the great man uttereth his mischeivious desire so they wrap it up Micah 7.2 3. THE END