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	word_n	2,775	5	4.0281	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96517	To the present authority of Parliament now sitting, and to all other rulers and officers belonging to this nation of England, who now bears chiefest rule. Some words of reflection to you all, touching those who bear rule before you, whom the Lord hath justly put down from their seats ... but this chiefly to you who are the present rulers [to] put you in minde of the cry of the neglect of the righteous; also to yourselves a warning and true admonition. / [by] Bryan Wilkinson.	Wilkinson, Bryan.	1659 (1659)	Wing W2217; ESTC R186582	8,216	8

lawes doth compel men to sin against their owne consciences so this doth lie upon you from the Lord that you do break off every such a yoke and that you neither make nor uphold such lawes ordinances acts or what you may call them as we have so deeply suffered by Namely any law for payment of Tythes or any law to limit the holy One in any kind what ever particularly that none be hindred as they be moved of the Lord to speak the word of the Lord in any place or assembly of people for in these two things especially hath many Magistrates and Priests who leaned upon them been the cause of many unjust sufferings though for their wicked covetousnesse the Lord hath smitten many of them both Now there is no question but you who are the present authority hath to do with this generation of men the Priests who have been such persecutors of us as the other Rulers had who were before you Now I say unto you as from the Lord that in his true fear you stand and that you joyne not with them whom the Lord is against who doth not profit the people at all but doth cause them to err as the false prophets did whom the Prophet Jeremy speaks against Jer. 23. 32. Now the Priests of England are such this is a true testimony against them whether you can believe it or no therefore be warned and take heed how you give your strength unto them for if you give it unto them you give it unto the harlot for they who preach for hire and divine for mony are adulterated from the Lord yet they will lean upon the Lord the Priests and false prophets who taught for hire did so in the Prophet Micahs daies Mic. 3. 11. the Priests of England doth so they preach for hire and saies is not the Lord among them But they lean upon the Rulers of Eng. for to compel people to hire them and divers of them have thrust themselves among a people and have forced them in some places by orders which they have got from the Rulers of the Nation or by some order from some other Priest above them which he hath had from the Rulers I say some of them have by compulsion come in to a parish against the peoples minde and when they are set down then from every house and from every quarter of the parish they begin to look for their gain but such the prophet Esay cals blind watchmen and greedy dumbe dogs and now these Priests who doth thus they will say my Parish and my people when many of the people are against him and some of these for conscience sake cannot goe to hear him at all and yet of such he will look for gain from is not here horrible things committed in the land Priests preaching for hire and bearing Rule by their meanes but what will ye do in the end saith the Lord. Now if you say tithes were given by God under the first priesthood and why may they not stand now for Ministers maintenance I answer no for who ever goes about to keep up Tythes under what pretence so ever doth deny Christ come in the flesh and so are the antichrists for the Apostle to the Hebrewes sayth Heb. 7. 5. that they who are of the sons of Levi who receive the office of the Priesthood have a commandement to take Tythes and in the 12 verse he saith the priesthod being changed there is made of necessity also a change of the Law in the 18. v. he saith verely there is a disanulling of the commandement going before now the law being changed the commandement disanuled which was for tithes which God commanded how can any who owns the Apostles Doctrine be subject to it and deny the Apostles doctrine and consequently Jesus Christ his coming in the flesh who is the sume of all things before spoken of who said unto those whom he sent forth freely ye have received freely give and those whom he hath sent forth obeyed his voice and when they returned again they wanted nothing and they were to go whither Christ sent them and not to thrust themselves into places nor to inquire after places and get places where they could or liked and there to sit down for terme of life or till they heard of another place which would be more for their profit O surely you cannot but see these things to be abominable and much it is that they themselves who would be accounted Gospel Ministers doth not blush to think of these things But surely they are very impudent for they have been sufficiently warned and the truth plainly declared to them and their false waies and practices truly declared against for which they do account us to be their enemies though nothing but the truth hath been spoken unto them And though you may count me so for telling you the truth yet whether you will hear or forbear this is truth unto you that if you go about to set up or to uphold such a Ministery or such a maintenance or such a worship as to make the old Masse-houses which the Papists built for their Idolatrous worship and make them your chief places of worship as the other Rulers did which were before you assuredly the Lord will be against you for these things and his presence will not be with you for he expects far greater things from you now then what you saw when you were chosen at the first of all nor will the Lord suffer that to stand by you for which he hath thrown others out before you for these old Masse-houses falsely called Churches the gleab land belonging them the tythes which hath been laid to them the augmentations revenues the bells that hangs in them and other maintenance dues customes and payments which are claimed as belonging them besides many practices in their way of worship in them are as truly seen now to be Idolatrous and contrary to the mind of God now in these daies as ever the groves the high places and the Idolatrous houses was in the daies of Israel and they have been as truly cryed out against as from the mind of the Lord as ever the other was by the true prophets of God in that age So now be wise and be instructed ye Rulers of the Earth that the mind of the Lord you may come to know and take heed how you go about to limit the Lord in any kind what ever for the Lord hath sought out and hath found out many now who doth worship him in spirit and in truth who neither can goe to one set place or another But as the Lamb guids them who is the leader of them whose voice they know and follow and after none other can they goe and such these Scriptures finds fulfilled that God doth not dwell in Temples made with hands So to you who desire to do the Lords will consult not with flesh and blood but do what is in your hearts for the Lord in the Lords counsel stand his will to know even to that turn to which discovers unto you the secrets of your hearts when you are alone and shewes unto you them things to be evil which no man can accuse you of and shewes you such a good way as you never yet walked in there is some thing in you shall find if you do but hearken and lend your eare unto it which will not flatter you in any thing in that principle stay your minds and from that principle do not goe and then you will know a true voice in your selves and by it you will know the true voice without But if from this principle you go then from the true voice you go in your selves and so will yeild to the wrong voice without which will lead you to set up that which the Lord is throwing down which is all fals waies false worships false worshipers which God is against and the Scriptures of truth doth declare against So of the beastly power take you heed for if you go about to uphold the false prophets who teaches for hire and runs when the Lord never sent them and so doth not profit the people at all and such as are persecutors and are found in the steps of Scribes and Pharisees your power will be no other but the beastly power which makes war against the Lamb But if you should do so the Lamb will have the victory But as you act from the spirit of God which is pure you will love all men without respect of persons and seek the peace and safty of all as to their persons and the overthrow of that which is evil in all And as for Ministers and Teachers for the Nation you need take no thought for the Lord of the harvest Christ must send forth and he will fit them for his own work without Schools of great learning or made by the will of man and no other can profit the people but such as he sends forth B. W. THE END

TO THE Present Authority OF PARLIAMENT NOW SITTING And to all other Rulers and Officers belonging to this Nation of England who now bears chiefest Rule Some words of Reflection to you all touching those who bear Rule before you whom the Lord hath justly put dow● from their Seats which words may be useful for so many o● them as have escaped the hand of the Lord as yet not to be utterly cut off before he proceed any further against them But this chiefly to you who are the present Rulers t● put you in minde of their neglect of the cry of the Righteous Also to your selves a Warning and true admonition Exalt ye the Lord our God and worship at his foot-stool for he is holy Psal 99. 5. Give glory to the Lord your God before he cause darknesse and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains and while ye look f●● Light he turn it into the shadow of death and make it grosse darknes● Jer. 13. 16. Bryan Wilkinson LONDON Printed for Thomas Simmons at the Bull and Mou●●s near Aldersgate 1659. Friends THE former Parliaments and Rulers which were before you now of late years who were worldly wise men and accounted by many even the wisdom of the Nation and these wise men the Lord God of heaven and earth the great wise God who is Lord over all yet not known nor comprehended by all the wisdom of the world he unto them in the time of their sitting and Rule did unto them send many faithful messengers servants and Prophets even righteous men rising up early early did the Lord send unto them in the beginning of their times of sitting and Rule and reign and by them these Rulers were often and faithfully warned time after time in their times while they bear Rule that they should Rule in righteousness and call to mind their former engagements and promises which they made unto the Lord and unto the honest hearted of the Nation in their way of worship toward God without restraint these things were often laid before them by divers of the Lords people called Quakers from a feeling condition of the want of these things being fulfilled But these Rulers which were before you they did nor regard the true messages but did sleight the Lords servants whom he did send unto them though Gods witness in themselves did often let them see that their message was true just and equal but their message being a crosse unto the wisdom of these Rulers who had lost the tenderness in which they promised take good notice of that their messages being a crosse unto their wisdom their worldly honours and worldly interest therefore instead of hearkening to the servants of the Lord these Rulers rather hearkened unto the Teachers of the Nation even the false Prophets who joyned with them for worldly interests and so went from the witness of God in themselves unto the counsel of their own hearts which were one with the false prophets without so the wisdom of God became foolishness unto them and so they broke Covenants with God and his people which formerly they had made Then began they to despise the Lords servants when they went from the reproof of the Lord in themselves so suffered them with the rest of the people of the Lord to be persecuted beat and whipped imprisoned and their goods to be spoiled by the Priests of the Nation and others through unjust Popish lawes which was set up and made by Popish governors for the maintenance and guarding of Popish Priests and these lawes persecuting Magistrates took hold of and persecuted them which bore a true Testimony for the Lord as they were moved by him though formerly they had hazarded their lives with many of these Rulers who gave them thus up into the hands of wicked men and so every one as they departed from iniquity and bore a testimony for God were unto this generation made a prey Nevertheless the threatnings scoffings and revilings the Barbarous and cruel oppressions hard yokes and heavy burdens beatings bruisings bloodshed prisons and persecutions which was inflicted upon us in this time of these Rulers neglect of true Justice all this did not take away our confidence which we have in the Lord but unto him was our cause and innocence committed and he of us hath never been sought to in vain I say in these times of our troubles the Lord was still our hope and these Rulers was still warned and our unjust sufferings laid often before them but they did not lend their ear so as to take off these oppressions but heardened their hearts and encouraged the Lords enemies and ours and so strengthened the hands of evil doers against us so that there was such cruel and horrible things committed in the Land upon us as never was heard of amongst a people who professed Christianitie and declared against Idolatrie But the Lord being displeased with their hypocrisie he broke these Counsellors one after another for they took not Counsel at him but against him and heardened their hearts and did not obey the voyce of the Lords messenges who time after time did warn them as they were moved of the Lord so the time of the Lords determination being finished and the cry of the oppressed waxing loud in his ears the Lord would no longer strive with them but in his wrath he rose up against them because they continued in Rebellion against him and some of them he cut off in his displeasure for turning from their righteousness and many of them he hath brought to shame which before they might have acted that when they did bear rule which God would have honoured them for and their names might have been in memorial from generation to generation among the Lords people and great things might have been done by them if their minds had been towards the Lord to have acted for him and not against him which would have crowned them with honour and not shame and the hearts of the righteous would have rejoyced and not have been made sad and the work of the Lord they would have put their hands to and not have been against it But the work of the Lord must go on in this day of his power and who can let it for wo be unto him that striveth with his Maker or against the Lord for he is jealous of his Name and none must be proud against him for in this day of his power he will bring down the loftie from their seats and the understanding of the prudent must come to nought But now to you who are the present Authoritie that you in your time do not forget the Lord for the time is come that every one must be tryed and now are you set up again that you may be tryed and now hath the Lord a great work in hand and if you will stand up for him he will be for you and with you to keep you together if you do not he will be against you