Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	lord_n	people_n	sin_n	3,287	5	4.6566	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A82314	The city-ministers unmasked, or The hypocrisie and iniquity of fifty nine of the most eminent of the clergy in and about the city of London. Cleerly discovered out of two of their own pamphlets, one intituled, A serious and faithful representation; the other A vindication of the Ministers of the Gospel, in and about the City of London. Together vvith a prophesie of John Hus, touching the choosing of a new ministry; and an ancient prophetical farewel of Hildegards, to the old corrupt ministry. Both very useful for the knowledg of the long deceived nations. / By a friend of the Armies, in its ways to justice and righteousnes.	Dell, William, d. 1664.	1649 (1649)	Wing D920; Thomason E546_2; ESTC R206085	24,534	40

all the showres of Heaven aswell as all sorts of disvantages from men their courage was in no measure cooled but rather kindled and was not this like Eliahs sacrifice who being to offer sacrifice without earthly fire to make it evident that God was the Lord he first poured many buckets of water upon the wood till he filled the trench yet the heavenly fire came down and licked up all the water and burnt up the wood c. and then the people when they saw that said the Lord he is the God But our Clergy will not be brought to see and say any such thing notwithstanding such clear appearances of God seeing they conceive all these to be to their prejudice And so though they councell the Army to deny the experiences of God in all former providences and not to own his councell in them yet we will sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb saying Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God almighty just and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints who shall not fear thee oh Lord and glorifie thy name for thou only art holy for all Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy Judgments are made manifest Now in this matter of Providence they hook in the example of David who though he had through a providence an opportunity to have killed Saul yet refused to do it because he was the Lords anointed But this is a far different case from that of the Parliament and Army for why did God reject Saul viz. not for levying war against the people of Israel and murthering and slaying those whom he should have protected but for his unbelief and disobedience to God therefore was he rejected of God as you may see 1 Sam. 1. 5. and Samuel told him that the Lord had sought out another man after his own heart to be Captain of his people who should manage the Kingdome in the strength of faith and that was David And now David had no cause nor call to take away Sauls life for his sin that immediately concerned God having done the people no harme no nor yet for his seeking and hunting after Davids own life for a man in his own particular cause is not to avenge himselfe though he have opportunity seeing God hath said vengeance is mine I will repay and also if David had then slain Saul in the Cave he had slain him as a private man in his own cause and without the supream Authority of the people And so this of David and Saul sutes not to this case But suppose Saul had waged war against the people of Israel whom he ought to have protected and killed many thousands of the choisest of them and the Lord had delivered him into the peoples hands whether or no might not the people and heads of the Tribes have justly tryed him for his life and put Saul to death for a murderer there is no question at all to be made in this matter among just reasonable and unbyassed men But you are miserable interpreters of Scripture who will needs make them serve your own turn though their sense be clean contrary The second peece of your Councel is That it is not safe or them to be guided by impulses or pretended impressions of Spirit without or against the rule of Gods written Word This in it self is good Councel but falsly applyed For their impulses and impressions to use your own words were apparently from God and his Spirit and that according to his written word and to moral precepts as hath already been sufficiently declared And those of them that are godly are better able to judg of the vertues and influences of the holy Spirit which dwels in them and is truth and no lie and manifests it self to be so by its own light then they can that are destitute of the Spirit themselves and yet will be judging of the operations of it in others And for the rest of the Army that are not godly it is a wonderful thing to consider how God by a special influence of providence hath spirited them to the same work with his own people making the earth to help the woman as was foretold And so you might have reserved this part of your Councel also for a fitter occasion The third fragment of your Councel is That they sh●●●● not pl●●d necessity for doing thus If God had indeed brought them into a necessitie of doing this why should they not plead it yea and act accordingly God had strengthened them with his own power and subdued and brought down every person and party both in this and the other Kingdom by their hands who did or might stand ●● opposition to this work and so prepared the way for them ●● execute this high and impartial peece of Justice and if after all this they should have started aside like a broken bowe how should they as much as in them lay have utterly made v●●● all Gods former works which he manifested from Heaven 〈◊〉 this self same purpose Yea how had they also betrayed all the honest 〈…〉 the Kingdoms and among them the honest Presbyte●●●● themselves who have been seduced into this Sect in the simplicity of their hearts into the bloody hands of an inrag●● Tyrant Wherefore to preserve themselves innocent from the blood of all the godly and wel-affected in this Kingdom they were absolutely necessitated to this work Besides they were not at their own liberty to do this or not to do it but their hearts were so inclined by God to this work That they could not get off from it though they had 〈◊〉 desire And this blessed necessity as they were brought into it so might they well plead it You indeed according to your wonted ingenuity and candor call it a necessity to sin and a pretended necessity and a necessity contracted by their own miscarriages But you are used in speaking much to speak so little truth that hereafter but few will regard what you say Upon the whole ●●tter You exhort them to recede from their evil ways you like the false Prophets your predecessors calling good evil and evil good all along But they see what you say and are resolved not to take your judgment for infallible who have deceived both your selves and the Nations for so many hundred yeers together But God hath now remembred your iniquities and the reward of your works is at hand And therefore men shall name you no more the Priests of the Lord you shall no longer be called the Ministers of our God but you shall be cast off as the degenerate plant of a strange Vine even as the Vine of Sodom in the fields of Gomorrah whose Grapes are Grapes of Gall whose clusters are bitter whose Wine is the poyson of Dragons and the cruel venome of Asps And the Lord shall choose a new Ministry out of a new people formed by the Spirit who shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord and in

last of all the Presbyters these three Sects making up the NVMBER OF HIS NAME Now how unsafe this is for this State or any other to have another outward Kingdom besides its own with its power laws and government joyned and mingled with it which is not at all of it let any wise or rationall man judge For where there are two different outward powers in a Kingdom to wit Civill and Ecclesiasticall each will be striving for precedency as we see all along throughout the periods of Popery and Prelacy for the Ecclesiasticall State will think fit to take place of the Civil and the Civil will think much to have another outward Kingdom and Power above it self and so heart-burnings and contentions and wars arise as appears in all former Histories And so likewise for this new Sect of Presbytery which is the last round in the triple crown and so the least which is the comfort of it suppose the national Assembly of the Church an outward Society should excommunicate the Parliament an outward Society and the Church power with their adherents in this and the neighbour Kingdom set against the State power for when they are able no doubt but as they have been they still are and will be willing to uphold their Kingdom by force what work I pray would this soon be And if the Clergy now before they are masters of their much desired and longed for power are thus impudent and troublesome against the State what would they be if they sate upon their throne And therefore I desire the State would well consider it that it cannot be safe for it to have two externall Kingdoms Powers and Dominions in one Nation or Common wealth For it was never known yet but the Ecclesiasticall Kingdom did exalt it self above the Civil as oyl above the water and so it hath bridled and sadled and rode upon the Nations for many hundred years together But now it s hoped this Kingdom will ca●● off its proud rider and suffer him to get up no more And thus now it is plain that Presbyterie is the most dangerous Sect of any other to be tolerated in the State it not being s●fe for the power of the Kingdom to suffer any externall power in the same Kingdom that shall not slow from it and depend upon it And the power that flows from a State must be State-power it cannot be Church-power seeing nothing can give that which it hath not it self first Whereas they that hold Christs Kingdom to be spirituall and not of this world and that it is only to be managed by a spirituall power flowing from him whose Kingdom it is these people can neither be dangerous nor in the least measure troublesome to any civill State in the world And thus now I proceed from the reproaches they cast upon the Army to the Councel they give them And their Councel branches it self into three Particulars 1. That they be not too confident of former successes seeing God in his great judgment suffers men to prosper sometimes in sinfull courses c. Now for my part I must profess I greatly wonder that these could never yet see the most manifest presence and hand of God in the most admired and constant successes of the Army and have not hitherto been so convinced as to say with the Egyptian Sorcerers Sure the finger of God is here yea the right hand of his power and righteousness But it seems blindness is come upon them not in part but fully so that these above all others are the men who when the hand of God hath thus gloriously been lifted up would not see it but God in due time shall make them see and be ashamed for their bitter envy at his people But because they are so unlearned and ignorant in these successes and providences the manifest and mighty works of God I will minde them of something in this matter if yet any thing might at last prevaile to do them good God had a great work to do in this Kingdome for the true and reall Reformation both of Church and State and when this Councell of his first began to take place amongst us the King and all his Clergy and corrupt party of all sorts throughout the Kingdome being farre the more numerous rise up in all the strength they could make to hinder this work And yet this work being of God prevailes through his power and wisdome only and all that is opposite to it is thrown down Hereupon say the unbelievers this cause prevailed for behold what helps it had the major part of the Parliament the City of London the Scotch Army and above all the eminent Clergy of the City and else where who said of themselves they had done the Parliament as good service in their pulpits as their Armies in the field and therefore a cause thus supported and strengthned must needs prosper Hereupon the Lord because his work was thus hid by these instruments so that he had not the honour due unto his name he proceeds in another way and method and turnes the hearts of those to hate his cause who before had outwardly appeared for it so that now all the former friends of Gods cause are become the most deadly enemies of it the former enemies being still the same and so if God uphold his cause and people now sure all the world must acknowledg his hand for now the major part of the Parliament is directly against it and the rich and populous and proud City of London and a Scotch Army comes in against it more numerous then that which came in for it and the Clergy for causes well known tooth and naile against it and all these joyne in one work and Councell with the malignants though upon different ends against the work and cause of God and now alass what will become of it how can it escape perishing Yes it is Gods cause still though left never so desolate and so prospers as well all these being at last against it as when they were first for it And so the Malignants are overcome every where in field and City the numerous Scotch Army vanquished by a few the City subdued the Parliament purged and the Clergy confounded and the work of God like the Sunne in the Spring appears with beauty and comfort and yet these men cannot see the mind and councel and hand of God in all these things as if the fulness of outer and inner darkness were fallen upon them at once And yet a little farther for I take pleasure to mention the righteous acts of the Lord the last Summer when so many enemies rose up at once in so many severall places in Wales Kent Essex Lincolns●ire Huntingtonshire Surrey c. Some of which were at first quite shattered in pieces and others driven into fenced Towns and Cities and the poore Army 〈◊〉 without in the fields the Summer proved like a winter more cold and unseasonable and wet almost constantly yet for