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A82111
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A Declaration of several members of the churches of Christ
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1654
(1654)
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Wing D618A; ESTC R176607
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10,836
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10
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the exercise of his Royal Authority Therefore say they in p. 40. We beseech you in the fear of God look about you for our Lord Jesus is coming c. Now accordingly we have and do declare for this Royal Interest of Christ which ought to be set up which so much blood hath been poured out for like water in the three Nations This Cause of Christ was magnified by God in answering the Dunbar-Appeal against the King of Scots The English Army appealing to God according to the Act of Parliament 1648. declaring it High Treason to set up Charles Stuart or any Other Person Chief Magistrate in England or Ireland or any of the Dominions thereunto belonging And as our Appeal was for No King but Jesus by which were the greatest Victories obtained that we had the Scots Appeal on the other side was for A King or personal interest of Man c. Gods Answer was so full and wonderful on the No King's side but Jesus and according to the Act of Parliament upon which the Army marched against the King of Scots that all Scotland was given in in few months and their Armies destroyed And to use the very words of the Act of Parliament Die Martis 17 Septemb. 1650. this Answer was inriched with so many remarkable circumstances as is to be admired at by succeeding Generations evidencing such a divine presence as the Commonwealth can never be thankful enough for And that it was given in as a Seal or Confirmation from heaven of the justness of this Cause after solemn Appeals made on both sides to God himself the Righteous Judge in this War between England and Scotland and that God did so decide the Controversie himself was of such value and high consequence that Generations to come may taste the sweet of it c. Besides all this much more we might mention of their own for this Cause and Kingly interest of Christ which we are resolved to adhere to and if the Lord will enable us never to recede from but to live and die in it Neither is it a Resisting of Government as some say of us but a Reforming of it which our Principles lead us to according to the Word And seeing the Army and Parliament have often declared as pag. 7. of Declar. June 14. 1647. No resisting of Magistracie to side with Just Principles upon which Maxime they assisted the Parliament against the King and that it is one Witness of God in the world to carry on a Testimony against the Injustice and Unrighteousness of men and against the miscarriages of Governments when corrupted or declining from their Primitive and Original Glory We use their own words 'T is true Every soul must be subject to the higher Powers and it is in obedience thereunto that we are subject to Christ and stand by this his Cause as we do so long as the Controversie is not now with us between man and man as was wont to be in other Ages but it is between Christ and man Which of these two then shall have the absolute power of Government in the Nations And who are the resisters of the higher powers which are of God those that own or those that oppose Christ's claim Judge ye 2. Because the Boutefeus of the Times are ever blowing up the flames upon us and incensing the present worldly powers and others against us with their lying accusations and evil surmisings as the Adversaries did Ezra 4. and Nehem. 6. against Judah and Jerusalem to render them odious to Artaxerxes that they intended to Rebel when they had done their building and that if he suffered them to go on it would hinder his Revenue c. and so Sanballat sent Nehemiah word that he and the Jews intended to Rebel when they had done with the walls they were about and all this to weaken the hands of them that had a minde to work Therefore to avoid such jealousies and fears we do freely declare against all Carnal Plots Devilish Designes or Ungodly Combinations of Men whatsoever as inconsistent with those gracious Principles which have we hope carried us and yet do daily into a Spiritual Warfare and hot contest for this Cause of Christ by the Word Faith Prayer and Solemn Appeals unto our God the righteous Judge of heaven and earth And indeed being thus armed with the whole armour of God we dare as before wrestle with principalities and powers and through the grace of our God we are not afraid of their Armies or Numbers but although we have not the least Reliance on any arm of flesh yet we can bid defiance unto all the Enemies of this glorious Cause of Christ contended for by the Saints with those means that God's Word leads us unto for which our dear brethren are imprisoned and suffer persecution at this day Therefore in a just and necessary defence of what is dearer to us then our lives bought with price of the Blood of Christ and thousands of his dearest Saints we call Heaven and Earth to witness between Us and our Brethren that have denied us and this Cause For in Cases not clearly or properly under man's judgment or where it is not easie for man to give a certain judgement the Engaged upon sure Principles and Pretences do centre in Appeals to God for Judgement and so did the two Tribes and a half Josh 22. for that it is then the proper work of God to bear witness and give righteous judgement which as he hath always done soone or later clearer or darker after the Appeal is made to him so in this last age and part of the world he hath made more haste then formerly to judgement and given it more quickly speedily and terribly and made his own Arm so bare therein as all men might see it witness the foresaid Appeal at Dunbar In the same Cause the Appeal is now made by us again All which hath induced us to take up the Word of God Faith and Prayer by Solemn Appeals to the just Judge of heaven and earth in the like and the same Cause A few particulars of the Matter whereof take as followeth 1. About their Vows Declarations Promises Engagements made unto God for Christ and his interest Psal 66.13 14. Deut. 23.21 Eccles 5.3 4 5 6. in time of their great distress all which are they not broken both as to Magistracie Ministery Churches Liberty and the Right of the Saints of the most High We appeal to God 2. Whether an espousing of the fame or a like Interest with that which God hath destroyed before our eyes and rejecting this blessed Cause of Christ King of the Nations for a Personal Cause of Man as we now conceive Jer. 3.1 Mal. 2.11 be not a provocation of God in the highest degree and too full a testimony of the foulest Hypocrisie and Selfishness in them whose former Profession and Declarations obliged them to the contrary 3. Whether a persecuting and imprisoning some of the choicest and holiest servants