Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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B23169
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To those that have been formerly in authority, and have broken covenant with God & man. By G.F.
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Fox, George, 1624-1691.
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1660
(1660)
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Wing F1963; Interim Tract Supplement Guide 4105.de.2[3]; ESTC R28014
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6,082
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8
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ever blind And now you may see what is come upon you now see if your Teachers can save you who have Preached and Prayed for you and that they would stand by you with their Lives and Liberties and that they would stand in the gap Now see how they have deceived you whose hedg now is laid down to the ground And have you not imprisoned and persecuted many for coming to you and warning you of those things which now are come to pass upon you Therefore now you may see that when you had power you did not do good in your age and so had not a praise neither a good Saviour in the hearts of the honest upright and innocent for had you stopt the shedding the blood of the innocent persecution and oppression the Lord would have stood by you for that will be the greatest thing upon you stopped the violence of the wicked from imprisoning them and these things will follow you to your beds and on you lye heavy yea the heaviest thing as ever you did besides all your unjust dealing and bad actions and dealings in the Nation to people that had regard to you and that were against you And now all ye PRIESTS and PROFESSORS you may see what good you have done among people and you who have been the cause of casting so many of the servants of the Lord in prison and cast out of the Vineyard and now are you turned out your selves and mind your vineyard how you found it and how you left it and see if you be at peace with the unrighteous mammon and now you have not power but are become as weak as water and have not strength neither are you to rise except you repent And Friends you have brought the Nation to be like a great Sea and in it hath been like Whales to swallow up you have been the bad examples and patterns who have pretended the greatest profession and preaching that ever was in England before but that you have dishonoured and that which God hath given to you is quenched and you would have broken both order edification and comforting amongst Gods people but now hath God broken you reproved you for touching his Anointed and harming his Prophets and you have been the example of persecution to all the Dominion of England yea to all Nations who have been the greatest professors of Christ with your lips but now your hearts and inward parts and skirts hath God brought to light and made you as bare and as naked as the servants of the Lord that went among you as a signe of your nakedness and siripping which some of them you abused and cast into prison I say went naked before the people was carried into captivity as a signe to them as many have done to you and some in sackcloth and ashes upon their heads and still you rebelled and persecuted the Lords Prophets though some with hypocriticall hearts would promise fair but perform little Now is a skilfull people come vpon you and now is the woes and plagues which we have often declared come upon you which the servants of the Lord have cryed WOE to England WOE to the corrupt Magistrates WOE to the Priests and to the Hypocrites and fair Pretenders and not Doers Now you may see the end of your false Prophets and Priests that daubed with untempered morter Now where is your wall they made what have you now to cover your heads lye they not bare now are you not all become weak as water and faint-hearted that dare not stand to your own principles so as you have been examples and paterns of persecution to all Nations of the innocent in the height of your pride and vanity are now become a hissing to all Nations in your fall which the pride went before which you were often told of Oh wo is me for you That mercy from the Lord you may find in this great deep dark day of confusion among you who are like Babilon confounded who hath long drunk the Saints blood the Kings of the earth must hate the Whore as the Reâ—elations the Scriptures must be fulfilled and that 's but beginning your Dalilah hath cut your locks who has lulled asleep in her lap who rose and shook your selves and thought to have been as at other times This was said to you before your eyes was put out â—ou set a grinding but now you must see if you can work in the Mill but your state will hardly be found Sampsons therefore consider your selves and see if they were not your friends that warned you of the things that is come upon you who in the day of your prosperity would have stopt the cry of Wisdom in your gates and they that reproved sin in your gates which you Magistrates did not keep down was become a prey amongst you your goals you fill'd almost in every corner of the Nation with the innocent and peaceable people and of such as obeyed the command of Christ and could not sweare you thrust out of you Courts and Places and thrust them into Goals that would have done truth at yea and nay The houses of thousands of Families have you suffered to be rifled and spoiled by the Prieâ—s with a company of club-men like a troop of Robbers In all your Courts Assizes and Sessions have you caused the innocent to be haled up and down by an unrighteous ministry that they did no work for and so brought iniquity upon your Throne Likewise men of 60. or 80. l. a year who reproved sin in the gates and likewise sober women you have whipped as vagabonds and so have been examples to Nations to Whip Banish Prison Kill Burn and drink the blood of the innocent and so Christ hath not been your example who saves mens lives And besides thousands you have suffered your Prieâ—â—s and People to drag out of your Steeple-houses by the hair of the head knockt down lay for dead shed their blood cast into prison besides thousands of meetings of the people of God have been by your people tumulted many there windows broken houses pull'd down and men pulled out of the meeting by the hair of the head when they have been at prayer which has been a dishonour a shame to Government And how many formed lies have been invented amongst you and by your Priests that the Quakers was rising to cut your throats and now what good does your refuge do you and what is become of your refuge makers are not the Quakers now tryed and proved and must not now your refuge of lies go to the pit with you and was not the people of God called Quakers your friends in warning you of all this that is come to passe though you persecuted them and trod upon them and cast them out for the Lords names sake and because they trembled at his word but now he shall appear for their sakes and you shall be ashamed and the thousands and multitudes that have been persecuted by you for not doffing hats to you and respecting persons in which you went beyond all Christianity yea the very Turk in pride and ambition and now you may see what you have been covered withall now you have the substance of it and you may see how the life of Religion you have lived out of and out of the life of Christ and the Apostles and now you may see that God hath stained and laid in dust that glory and honour of yours which you would have had friends to bow down to and persecuted them because they would not give it you and because they would not bow down to your will-worships but worshipt God in Spirit and Truth And was not persecution ever blind and Persecutors and now you may see into what Ditch you are fallen And have you not a reward according to your workes you cannot say but you were warned both by God and his people and were in a wilfull rebelling against both and so the Lord will make you to know his Arm and Power and his hand stretched out which layes down the Mountaines with the Valleys and layes down the sturdiest Oak and slayes the fattest Bull View the hand that does this and Power of the Lord Whether would not now many of you be glad of a Rock and a Hole in the earth to hide your selves in when the Lord is risen to shake terribly the earth now must you not own Quakers whether you will or no and for all your persecution towards us we freely say the Lord forgive you and that from him you may find mercy in this day of your misery and whether now night is not come upon you that hath been told you that your walking is there and now have not you treachery enough who in it has been found both to God and Man plain dealing men were become an abominable thing among you for how many fair promises had you promised to the Nation over and over and how long did the Lord spare you and did you not betray the innocent people of the Nation Now mind and consider whither that hath brought you selves and learn to do so no more but repent All men shall be at their wits end about their Religion and Profession which be out of the Life Power the Prophets and Apostles were in and in heaps and confusions and distractions one setting up and another plucking down And this is the work out of the Life and Power And before the Lord destroyed Jerusalem he long warned them as he hath long you and neverthelesse the Lords Arm and Power will and shall be seen in this Nation And did not the Lord warn fend Prophets among the people before he destroyed them and did not they persecute them as you have done and so cast the Lords Servants out of the vineyard like the Jews untill at the last they were cast out themselves and so you who have betrayed the Nation and power at last what you sowed that you do reap From one that loves all souls and the good of all people which is eternall George Fox