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A35086 A declaration of His Highnes the Lord Protector for a day of publick thanksgiving with an order of His Highness Council in Scotland for the government thereof for a day of publick thanksgiving in Scotland. England and Wales. Lord Protector (1653-1658 : O. Cromwell); Cromwell, Oliver, 1599-1658. 1658 (1658) Wing C7068; ESTC R25359 4,180 11

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A DECLARATION OF HIS HIGHNES THE LORD PROTECTOR For a Day of Publick THANKSGIVING VVith An ORDER OF HIS HIGHNES COUNCIL in SCOTLAND For the Government thereof For a Day of Publick THANKSGIVING IN SCOTLAND Edinburgh Printed by Christopher Higgins in Harts Close over against the Trone-Church Anno Dom. 1658. A DECLARATION OF His Highness the LORD PROTECTOR for a Day of Publick Thanksgiving WE being conscious of the mercy of those Dispensations which have come very thick upon Vs within the space of five moneths last past cannot but think Our Self obliged to call for a Day of Thanksgiving in these Nations which that it might be the more seriously and spiritually performed We have thought it meet to make a brief Remembrance and as it were in a Glass to represent the state of Our Affairs as they stood much about the beginning of the time before mentioned and summarily to rehearse those things which GOD hath wrought for Vs within that time that so all such as fear GOD and are wise to observe these things and thereby understanding the loving kindness of the LORD may have their hearts and mouthes filled with His Praise It is well known that the last Parliament did by Adjournment meet the Twentieth day of January last past and that these Nations had very good hopes by those Preparations made in their former Sitting that We should have gone on upon those Foundations to an happy Settlement But those hopes were soon dashed through the intemperance of some mens spirits Notwithstanding it was throughly represented that the old Enemy had a design of an immediate Invasion with an Army consisting of Papists and Atheists upon the accompt of Charles Stuart in conjunction with the King of Spain in whose Councels it was agreed more adviseable to give Vs work in England rather than that We should assist the French to engage them in their own Country It being also at the same time most visible that divers of the inferiour sort of people set on by men of the same-spirit with them before hinted at and naturally fluctuating were enclined to dangerous Commotions seeing the Disputes were more readily taken up and improved then the putting in execution and prosecuting the Agreements before made and that the Army seemed to have some unsettlement in it self partly arising from the before-mentioned disappointment partly from the great wants which were upon them and fears of being necessitated to take Free-Quarter upon the People then which nothing could be more abhorrent to them the Trade of the Nation and Our Honour at Sea ready to be hazarded and lost for want of due Supplies We being forced to keep Our Men of War out at Sea not having Money to pay Our Mariners when they came in In the mean time Our Neighbours every where preparing greater Fleets then usuall and even they in Flanders themselves having made ready a Fleet of above Twenty Men of War at Ostend for the transporting of Charles Stuart and his Spanish Forces to invade Vs. In order whereunto divers of Our Garrisons were by Bribes endeavoured to be gained for receiving the said invading Army and Insurrections designed and laid in several Counties by the Malignant Party to rise in assistance of the said Invasion accompanied also with that desperate design of firing the City of London and seising upon the Treasure that could be found there which wicked Plot was managed by many Colonels and other chief Officers who were to head this Tragical Action All which hath been made evident as well by clear proofs against as by the confessions of divers of the persons engaged therein some of which have already suffered the pains of Death and further Examinations touching others are still going on that all the world may see that these things have not been matters of invention or surmise but real and demonstrable truths and things that as they heighten greatly the danger so also the recital of them tends to Our end in making this Narrative which is the magnifying of the good hand of God towards Vs in Our deliverance And lastly which did not the least afflict Vs We had cause deeply to apprehend that the Lords hand was upon Vs in that Epidemical sickness which was so long continued upon the Nation and lay sore upon the City of London and in the marvellous unseasonablenesse of the Spring threatning Vs even with a deprivation of the fruits of the earth and consequently with a sore famine That this hath been the danger hanging over the head of these Nations no honest or ingenuous man can deny And therefore let Vs now consider in what State and Condition We are and what the Lord by His own Arm and for His own Names sake hath wrought for us It is very true We are not yet setled but it hath fared with Vs as with the burning Bush though We have for these five Moneths last past and longer too been in a burning condition yet We are not consumed We yet live in the enjoyment of a sweet Peace to praise the Lord in hope of better things We are not yet weltring in bloud It appears that as God was in the midst of the Bush so He hath been in the midst of Vs and therefore We are not consumed He disappointeth the Invasion by giving Vs timely notice of the Enemies Preparations and of the place thereof by means of which Our Ships were layed to break their design He discovered to Vs their attempts to gain Our Sea-garrisons into their hands and disappointed them He revealed the Conspiracies in the Counties in order to Insurrections and prevented them He brought to light also the bloudy and hellish Design for the destruction of the City of London by Fire and Sword and hath brought the guilty persons under judgement for the same He hath given our Souldiery a spirit of union of honesty and integrity so that notwithstanding the great temptations of want upon them and the contrivements to divide them to the praise of God We speak it they retain that good old Spirit that hath carried them through all their difficulties Those that have had too much distemper upon them through murmuring and discontents are We hope at least some of them sensible of the evil thereof and instead thereof doth Counties and Cities have testified a very contrary spirit a spirit owning mercies blessing the Lord for them and thirsting after the continuance of them and for a just settlement As for that sore Visitation how hath the Lord upon the prayers of His poor People ceased that and t is not without remark that the two weeks Bills of Mortality immediately after the Fast upon that occasion were brought to the half of what they were the week before and did amount not to more discernably then in the healthiest times And as to the evils threatned by the unseasonablenesse of the Spring the Lord hath so contradicted our fears that We are all of us to be convinced by sence that the hopes of