Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	law_n	nature_n	power_n	4,564	5	5.3735	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37365	A declaration of the army of England upon their march into Scotland as also a letter of His Excellency the Lord Generall Cromwell to the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland : together with a vindication of the aforesaid declaration from the uncharitable constructions, odious imputations, and scandalous aspersions of the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, in their reply thereto : and an answer of the under-officers and souldiers of the army, to a paper directed to them from the people of Scotland.	England and Wales. Army.; Cromwell, Oliver, 1599-1658.	1650 (1650)	Wing D636; ESTC R31359	33,504	46

Declaration which they undertake to oppose and thence deduce a twofold Inference First That the Army looks upon themselves as Saints Secondly That they suppose the number of Saints in Scotland not to be very great Doubtlesse it argues an assured confidence and that perhaps upon former experiences that their Dictates shall be received with an implicite consent by those whom they labour to deceive when in the very entrance they hold out such groundlesse Deductions as both these must needs appear to be to all that shall but onely view the Inscription of that Declaration When men are bound to believe the Generall Assembly before their own eyes and sense such Imposit●ons may passe and we know not in what state as to this things are for the present in Scotland For our part as we see neither of them i● the direction mentioned so we are not without good assurance of the first as to that part of the Army w●th whom they have to do in this Reply and for the latt●r heartily pray if it be so indeed That in Gods due time it may be otherwise And as we are no way moved with that breathing of the Spirit which acts in the Assembly charging the wayes of the Army as the issues of delusion or rashnesse and scandalous to the Gospel such terms being alwayes in readinesse for the use of all sorts of Assemblies so we suppose That the testimony of the numerousnesse of the Saints amongst them might have been spared untill the practise of the power of godlinesse had laid a conviction upon their Neighbours to have gone before them therein The sense of the Saints that are there concerning the proceedings of the Army we have indeed reason to suppose to be harsh and unanswerable to men of that heavenly call and that because they have too much captivated themselves to receive in upon trust such injurious and false Representations as in these Papers are made of them and their wayes without inquiry into the reality of things For deliverance from which bondage of spirit we desire seriously to commend them to the goodnesse of God and that in the use of Ordinances and Government of Jesus Christ which we pray That the Generall Assembly may neither slight nor despise Their Christian desire of Mercy Truth and Light to all the Saints of Scotland is in the next place retorted with a charge of Error Darknesse and Loosenesse upon them that hold it out To assume the title of Orthodoxy and soundnesse of opinion to mens selves and upon that account to charge others with Errors and Darknesse hath been found in all ages so great an advantage to any party whatsoever that hath assumed it that it were strange if the Generall Assembly should not use the same weapon to smite those withall whom they seek to render odious and destroy But to flourish it perpetually upon all occasions without giving any one instance of any one Error maintained by them whom they so charge or holding out no other rule to judge darknesse and error by but their own Dictates and Determinations is a course not a little savoring of that wisdom which is not from above The reference unto the Declaration of the Parliament which nextly they reply unto is passed over with a Magisteriall charge of the matter of that Declaration to be false in fact unjust in Law with sundry other such expressions as is evident they want not at any time when Truth and Reason may not be at hand But is it false in fact that the Nation of Scotland breaking all Treaties Covenants and Contracts between themselves and England invaded us with a powerfull Army to the hazard of our Lives Liberties and Religion Is it false in fact that the Commissioners of Scotland to●k upon them to protest against the proceedings of the supream Power of he Nation of England and laboured to withdraw the people from their obedience Is it false in fact that the Parliament of Scotland have taken home into their bosome him who is the engaged enemy of this Nation and in present actuall hostility against it Is it false in fact that they have promised to use their endeavours to restore him to that which they call his Right in England which cannot be effected without the ruine of the Common-wealth Are these and the like falsities in fact Or are not those men infatuated with a strange confidence of the stupidity of the residue of men that they dare so affirm Is it unjust in Law that dammage being done by any reparation and satisfaction should be required of them Is it unjust in Law for supream Magistrates to demand that by force and warre which is denied by Treaties in Peace Is it against the Law of Nature and Nations that Treaties and Compacts being voluntarily entred into by severall parties the Essentials of such Treaties and Contracts being infringed and violated by the one party that the other thereby should be set at liberty and be free Is it against the Law of Nature and Nations that the supream Power of the Nation though changed into the hands of others should be responsible for the miscarriages and dammages done by the former persons enjoying that same Authority Is it contrary to the Law of Nature and Nations for a people to seek their own preservation by preventing others from taking their advantages and opportunities who they are fully assured do seek and aym at their ruine Truly we cannot but wonder that men professing themselves Representators of so eminent a Church should be so carryed away with the love of corrupt and carnall Interest as to assert with confidence such notorious and palpable falsities The Lord we hope will teach them more the feare of his great and dreadfull Name whereof they often solemnly make mention in this their Paper before such things as these have wrought their ruine In the third Page they put it out of all question That the late King was obstinate in an evill way and that he was guilty of more innocent blood in England Ireland and Scotland then any of his Predecessors And could this Land be expiated from blood without revenging it upon the guilty Author of its shedding Have not the Scots more then once for lesse crimes taken off their Kings c. The Lord lay it seriously to their hearts whether they doe well to cry Murther Murther and stirre up all to revenge the death of him whom themselves acknowledge guilty of shedding the blood of so many Thousand Innocents And for the non-compliance of that Nation with the King in any of his undertakings the invasion in Forty Eight with sundry actings of the Commissioners and Assemblies for divers years will not allow us to give credit unto In the next place they say They will not question what the Parliament of both Kingdoms in a case of insuperable necessity might have done for the peoples safety as to the taking off the King nor the righteous jndgement of God in executing wrath upon him so

some of the Ministers of Scotland Preaching and crying up a War against England under pretence of the Covevant did thereby lay the foundation to Duke Hamiltons getting the command of that Army who over-numbring them in Parliament power and friends and by the advantage of Malignants thrust all that you could call the good party out of Power and Authority himselfe getting the command of that Army into England and leaving his brother and other Kinred in power in Scotland Thus upon the same ground and pretence to carry on the Kingly Interest have you been twice deceived and now he is brought in among you who hath turned every stone and tried all Friends and Allyes in Foreign parts endeavoured commotions at home by his wicked and Malignant Instruments commissioned Rupert the French and all that Pyraticall Generation who do spoyl take plunder and destroy our Ships and Trade at Sea and all to the end he might destroy the people of God and the peace of the Three Nations And now being by his Mother and the Popish Interests abroad councelled thereto hath made a compliance with you as his last refuge who even whilst he was treating with you had his heart set upon Montrosse and his Accomplices writing Letters and sending particular Orders to him and upon his Popish Army in Ireland to whom he had given Commissions and whom he still owned as his faithfull Subjects notwithstanding all the Innocent Blood by them shed and would never be induced to comply or close with the Covenant and Presbytery till utterly disappointed of all those his Malignant and Popish hopes and confidences Is there not now just cause for all good men with you to fear that one so bred so engaged and interested and meerly in such a way coming in to you doth but warch his opportunity to speak nothing of the weight of th● Blood of Saints under the Altar erying still for Vengeance upon him and that Family till by his influence upon your Army which you know how composed he may gain his ends upon you and how likewise the generality of the people of Scotland are affected is not unworthy of your most serious consideration nor of a friendly intimation from us But that which most awakens us is That notwithstanding all this and all the wrongs done to England from Scotland they refuse to do us right so that what wrongs soever we have or shall sustain must be without remedy and we also without security for the future as is sufficiently expostulated in the Parliament of Englands Declaration aforementioned and the seeds laid of a perpetuall War by taking our grand Enemy into your Bosoms and your engagement to Him in the late Treaty with Him to restore Him to the possession of England and Ireland and therefore we call Heaven and Earth to witnesse Whether or no we have not cause to defend our selves by hindring the present power of Scotland from taking their time and advantage to impose thus upon us And whether they have now any just reason to wonder at the approach of an Army to their borders and the taking some of their Ships by ours yea whether our coming into Scotland with an Army upon so clear a ground be any other then a just and necessary defence of our selves for preservation of those rights and Liberties which divine Providence hath throu●h the expence of so much blood and treasure given us and those amongst you have engaged they will if they can wrest from us unlesse it must be taken for granted That the Parliament of England ought to sit still and be silent whilst their ruine is contrived their Friends and Brethren destroyed by Sea and Land whom in Conscience and Duty both before God and Man they ought to preserve And now we come to speak to all those who are within the compasse of the Title of this Declaration that we undertake this businesse in the feare of God with bowels full love yea full of pity to the Inhabitants of the Country and if it shall please God to make Scotland sensible of the wrongs done to us and to give to the Common-wealth of England a satisfying security against future injuries we shall rejoyce But if that may not be obtained we shall desire such as fear God not to joyn or have to do with those who are the Authors and Actors of so much evill and mischief against their Neighbours And we dare say to the praise of God That that which moves us to this great undertaking is not any reliance upon the arm of flesh or being lifted up with the remembrance of former successes or the desire of accomplishing any designs of our own that we have forelaid but the full assurance we have that our cause is just and righteous in the sight of God looking at all precedent changes and the successes that have produced them not as the work of the policy or strength of man but as the eminent actings of the Providence and Power of God to bring forth his good will and pleasure concerning the things which he hath determined in the world And we are confident that as he hath hitherto gloriously appeared so he will still bearing witnesse to the righteousnesse of this Cause in great mercy and pity of the infirmities and failings of us his poor Creatures And we do most humbly implore his divine Majesty to give a mercifull testimony whether the actings of divers men amongst you have not proceeded from worldly interests together with the rancor and bitternesse of their sp●rits who we fear through envy at Instruments have refused to acknowledge his hand and goodnesse in the accomplishment of these great changes and whether ours have not come from the simplicity of our and other his poor servants hearts who we trust have desired though in the midst of manifold weaknesses to follow him in integrity through difficult paths having nothing but danger and ruine appearing to the flesh and little to encourage us saving those signall manifestations of his presence in those high acts of his Providence and the feare of his Name lest he going before we should not follow And this we can further adde That nothing is so predominant within us next to our duty to God nor to betray a cause to which he so much witnessed as the love we have towards those that fear God there who may possibly suffer through their own mistakes or our disability to distingish in a common calamity of which Christian love we hope we gave some proof and testimony when we were last in Scotland with this Army and were by God made instrumentall to break the power of those that then oppressed the Godly party there and were then ready at their desire to do every thing on their behalfe which might put them into the seat of Authority and Power whose consciences knows this is true and for which this late Act of Engagement to their new King against England is no good requitall nor their heaping upon us

unlesse we should thus retort it The purpose of the Scots is not for publique Liberty and common Safety but something that concerns themselves and therefore the great wheel of their Design is A Pretence of Religion and Reformation The next is like unto it charging them with A seeming holinesse and a reall treading under foot the Truth and Ordinances of God giving us full assurance That Conscience and a Christian spirit were very little consulted withall in this Reply in comparison of that cursed Maxim C●lumniare fortiter aliquid adhaerebit which seems to be the sole Rule walked by by them All the particulars of this parting charge being the issues of Envie Uncharitablenesse and Evill speaking Neither is the fifth of any better temper then those before about their conjunction with all sorts of persons for the pursuit of common Safety and Liberty and therefore bearing with different Judgements and Opinions in the things of God which being charged on them by those who have actually closed with him and admitted him to the Exercise of Regall Power amongst them by whom are imployed all sorts of profligate wretches blood-guilty Rebels Popish Idolators with whom the Assembly of the Kirk is now in actuall conjunction for the pursuit of one Design is not of any great weight unto us and as we could easily discharge them of this Imputation so far as to take off all just offence yet we cannot but declare That we think it much better to exercise-mutuall forbearance in some lesser Differences whilest the foundation is held and kept entire then to have amongst us an outward Uniformity as the issue of an Ecclesiasticall Tyranny which we wish the Assembly to free their Kirk and Nation in Further The Army hath neither usurped on or trodden under foot the Ancient Government of England which in the sixt place is charged on them but in their places have assisted to remove all Usurpations upon the Liberty of the People of England restoring it into the hands of the Peoples Trustees to whom of Right it doth belong actually leaving it instated in the hands of that Parliament wherein it was at the beginning of these troubles And as to the moulding of Scotland to the same frame mentioned in the last place the truth is That saving the earnest desire of our Souls that all who belong to Christ ●n that Nation may enjoy the Liberties and Priviledges purchased for them by Christ with our own Security from designed Evils We should be very indifferent into what mould or fashion that Nation be framed Thus having laid open the manifold Mistakes Falsities unjust Charges politick Insinuations unchristian Censurings and the like not onely Ungospel-like carriages but also uncivill Railings of this Paper of the Generall Assembly We shall close with our hearty Suppli●●t●ons That the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ would in his due time cast down all the earthly combinations of all sorts of men that set up themselves and their own corrupted Interest in the room of that Scepter of Righteousnesse which he hath given into the hands of his Son With this foregoing we have also seen an Answer of the Generall Assembly to the Declaration of the Parliament of England which also in due time the Lord assisting shall receive a full Reply That an Ecclesiasticall Assembly conveened for the Reiglement of the House of God should account it their duty as such to put forth Manifesto's and make Reply's to States and Armies in things of Civil Concernment relating to the publique Affairs of Nations would seem strange unto us were we not in some measure acquainted with the Constitution actings and assumed Power of the Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland which make them justly to be recko●ed to have a place among the Powers of this world and therefore called to this Imployment But that such a Frame and Structure of Ecclesiasticall Authority as is at present in Scotland erected such Administrations of Censures with corporall Penalties and an absolute subserviency of the Secular Power of their Nation for their pursuit and setting on that such a worldly Jurisdiction over the men of the world as is there exercised amongst them is the genuine issue of Reformation according to the Word of God we are not as yet able to apprehend rather it seems to savour of the old Babylonish Leaven which in due time the Lord will remove And we professe sincerely That although our hearts have been often pained within us for the many Errors and Misperswasions about the things of God with Blasphemies and Reproaches of his Name that have broken forth amongst us which we hope through his goodnesse are already in a great measure abated yet we cannot apprehend any such danger from them to the true Interest of the Lord Christ and the Gospel as from such Politicall Combinations to persecute and destroy all breaking forth of Light Truth that suit not their present apprehension Is it not from the misguiding of such an Interest that their Kings taking the Covenant is cryed up as such an acceptable Service and Worship of God when their own hearts know full well That he submitted unto it as a hard Imposition in a Civill Treaty for the change of his condition from Banishment unto a Crown which whither it may be looked on as the performance of a Duty in a Gospel-way We doubt not but the Assembly will one day be able to d●scern To the People of SCOTLAND Especially to those amongst them that know and fear the Lord from whom yesterday we received a Paper Intituled From the People of Scotland To the under-Officers and Souldiers of the English Army We the under-Officers and Souldiers of the English Army do send greeting AT the beginning of the late great and wonderful workings of God in these two Nations of England and Scotland we the under-Officers and Souldiers of the English Army now in Scotland were most of us if not all men of privat Callings and not at all interested in matters of Publique and State affairs but yet very many of us in whom the Lord had begun to reveal himself in the face of Jesus Christ were sensible of the Antichristian Tyranny that was exercised by the late King and his Prelates over the Consciences Bodies Estates of the true spiritual Church of Jesus Christ namely those that were born again and united to him by his Spirit who were then by that Antichristian Crue termed Puritans Sectaries Schismaticks c. and for not conforming to all the Canons Ordinances of their National Church were frequently imprisoned banished otherwise grievously molested at the pleasure of those that then ruled amongst us Under these sad sufferings of the People of God our souls mourned and understanding by the manifold gracious promises in the Word of God that a time of Deliverance was to be expected to the Church of Christ Destruction and ruine to Babylon our hearts together with all the truly godly in England were