Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	death_n	king_n	scotland_n	3,763	5	8.3529	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51062	The moderate Independent proposing a word in season to the gathered churches, the Episcopal and Presbyterian parties tending to their humiliation for what is past, to be reconciled to each other for the time to come, and joyntly to acquiesse in the determinations of this present Parliament, as to the government of church & state / by Salem Philalathes ...	Philalathes, Salem.	1660 (1660)	Wing M2325; ESTC R16471	30,990	34

conscientious and pious men to be offended at the persecutions of the Prelates and their superstitious injunctions and innovations and consequently what need there was of a Reformation in Church Government Sir Edward Deering my Lord Digby and others of their own party have declared by the former quotations But how this blessed work hath miserably miscarried in all our hands hinc illae lachrimae I know the Presbyterian party are apt to say if we Independents had not interposed this work of Reformation had gon on with speed their Government had been setled in the Nation not considering that the progresse that they had made therein by the sword would like the Commonwealth we have been raising all this while require the continuance of the same to support and bear it up at vast charges The Government aforesaid being not only dissatisfactory and displeasing to our late King but to the greatest part of the Nobility Gentry and Commons of the Land besides our selves especially as universal conformity thereunto by the Covenant was intended Now to avoid these extreams into which we saw both others run before us even of a violent absolute and universal compulsion of conformity that nothing in Matters of Religion might be urged that might go against our Consciences and that according to our Principle that particular Congregations are Independent and subject to no Censure from any other Church but that of non-communion We have given a boundless lawless toleration to all corrupt and erroneous Opinions from the Anti-Trinitarian to the Quaker wherein though we have run into much Confusion and Disorder yet have we therein come nearer to the Judgment of Mr. Hales before quoted than either the Presbyterian or Episcopal Party themselves who in his Discourse about dealing with erring Christians doth neither approve of the High Commission Court or of a Covenant to swear down the Extirpation of Errour Heresie and Schisme * Or any other way of severity For saith he P. 55. Severity against and separation from Heretical companies took its Beginning from the Hereticks themselves and if we search the Stories we shall find that the Church did not at the first arising thrust them from her themselves went out And as for severity that which the Donatists sometimes spake in their own defence Illam esse veram Eccclesiam quae persecutionem patitur non quaefacit She was the true Church not which raised but which suffered persecution was de facto true for a great space For when Heresies and Schismes first arose in the Church all kinds of violence were used by the erring Factions but the Church seemed not for a long time to have known any use of a sword but only of a Buckler and when she began to use the Sword some of her best and chiefest Captains much disliked it The first Law that ever was made in this kind was enacted by Theodosius against the Donatists but with this restraint that it should extend against none but such as were tumutuous and till that time they were not so much as toucht with any mulct though but pecuniary til that shameful outrage committed against Bishop Maximian whom they beat down with Bats and Clubs even as he stood at the Altar so that not so much the Errour of the Donatists as their Riots and Mutinies were by Imperial Lawes restrained Thus sar Learned Pious and Moderate Mr. Hales of whose Judgment had the Episcopal Party been in the time of their Government these troubles in the Church had never been raised nor had these miseries come upon the King and Kingdom And were but what he hath written seriously pondered by considering Christians of all Parties it would pluck up the cause of all our Divisions by the roots As I shall therefore commend to you all * Who shall be called to advise about matters of Religion his Works set forth by Mr. Pearson aforesaid so this one particular Passage more amongst the rest It is not saith he p. 54. It is not the variety of Opinions but our own perverse wills who think it meet that all should be conceited as our selves are which hath so inconvenienced the Church Were we not so ready to anathematize each other where we concur not in opinion we might in hearts be united though in our tongues we were divided and that with singular profit to all sides It is the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of peace and not Identity of Conceit which the Holy Ghost requireth at the hands of Christians This short Quotation giveth us a true account of the Cause and Cure of all our Church Dissentions and Divisions Now that these Rents and Schisms may not grow wider but be healed up and I hope therein offer the sense of very many Church-Members I say I shall humbly propound this expedient Let but the Episcopal and Presbyterian Parties abandon and renounce their Principle of universal Conformity and compulsion and we of the Gathered Churches ours of a universal toleration and liberty for Conscience They exercising no other compulsive power over tender Consciences than what they are furnished with from the Word of God and we expecting and requiring no other liberty from them than what the Word of God allowes us And no doubt but we shall find the Son of Righteousness arising upon us with healing under his wings and give us all that unity of Spirit which is the Bond of Peace though we have not Identity of Conceits and Apprehensions and will make us all to be of one Heart though we are not all of one mind By what way of Government this may be best effected I leave to the Advice of an Assembly of Religious and Learned Ministers of all Parties whom no doubt the Parliament will speedily summon and to the Result and determinations of the Parliament thereupon in reference to Church-matters I hope all sober and moderate Independents if not very weak in judgment or strongly possest with prejudice and many other corruptions therein will humbly submit to acquiesce therein And not only so but also to the judgment of that great Council in reference to what they have voted not only of the way of Government by Monarchy but also to the Government of his Majesty Whose Gratious Declaration of a free and general pardon to all his Subjects how faulty soever excepting only such as shall be here after excepted by Parliament which cannot now be many considering the chiefest are gone down into the dust And also of Liberty to tender Consciences and that no man shall be disquieted or called in question for differences of Opinion in matters of Religion that do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom I say these Offers of Grace and Mercy from his Majesty whom many of our Consciences tell us we have so much offended and exposed to such great afflictions and Sufferings should now melt our hearts through great contrition and penitential remorse for what is past and work us to Resolutions of all due Loyalty and Subjection to his Government for the time to come and that not for fear but for Conscience sake Methinks God having as we ought to judge in Charity by his Gracious expressions turned his Royal heart towards us how should it turn our hearts to be Loyal towards Him and make us now to make good what I now believe 〈…〉 by his Royal Father in the Advice he gave to him before 〈…〉 when Prince In his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Wales saith he None will be more Loyal and Faithful to you and me than those Subjects who sensible of their Errours and great Injuries shall feel in their own Soules most vehement Motives to Repentance and earnest desires to make some reparation for their former defects Nay this Confidence his Late Majesty had of his most offending Subjects that he further saith in the said Advice For those that repent of any defect in their Duty to me I believe ye shall find them truly zealous to repay with Interest that Loyalty and Love to You that was due to Me. Surely by what I have so largely insisted upon in all this Discourse we of the Gathered Churches cannot be so stupid but needs must be brought to a sense of this that we have been exceeding defective in our Duty to the Late King The Presbyterian Party in England and Scotland about the Late Kings Death and since have Some of them suffering death and banishment c. testified their Repentance for their Defects in their Duty to the Late King by their Loyalty to his Majesty Methinks we should no longer lie under the same reproof as they did 2 Sam. 19. 12. Wherefore are ye the last in bringing back the King Well nunquam sera est ad bonosmores via Let us therefore though we have set out after others yet let us overtake them in the speedy and vigorous expressions of our Repentance for the Defects of our Duty to the Late King by our Love and Loyalty to our present Soveraign Let our Contentions now be turned into this Christian emulation which Party of us shall be most pious towards God most Loyal toward the King and most loving to one another And then no doubt if our waies please the Lord he will make not only our enemies to be at peace with us but us to be at peace amity with all dissenting brethren they with us will give us favour in the eyes of the Authority of the Nation the King and Parliament AMEN FINIS In the Integrity of my heart have I done this Gen. 20. 5. Salem Philalathes and a Church-member