Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	good_a	king_n	scotland_n	3,261	5	8.2381	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77534	Two remarkable letters concerning the Kings correspondence with the Irish rebels. The first by Digby in the Kings name to the Irish Commisioners. The second from the Lord Muskery one of those Commissioners in answer to Digby. Also a full state of the Irish negotiation at Oxford now treated, set forth in the rebels propositions, and the Kings particular concessions. Published according to order.	Bristol, George Digby, Earl of, 1612-1677.; Clancarty, Donogh MacCarty, Earl of, 1594-1665.; Bristol, George Digby, Earl of, 1612-1677. Two letters of his sacred Majesty.	1645 (1645)	Wing B4785; Thomason E300_8; ESTC R200255	11,715	16

Interpretations For say the people these pretences of conscience are either feined or unfeined in His Majestie if they be unfeined then how shall our side ever trust him If Conscience will not permit Him to grant us Churches now in his greatest conflictations though to redeem his Crown what will He grant us when he has no further use of us at all And if for State reasons not known to all the world He can now so treat millions of that Religion which is so precious to Him How can He want the like pretexts to oppresse us whom He esteems hereticall in so high a degree when the face of things shall change Again if these Pleas of Conscience be feined what side can ever trust him at all T is safer for us to live under a King that is of any Religion which may limit and bind his conscience with some certain Laws whatsoever they be then to serve a Master that either has no Religion or no such Religion as can hold his conscience in any subjection T is probable the Protestants themselves will agree to this as well as Papists My Lord the Irish have hitherto generally beleeved the King to be a Roman-Catholick in his heart and only constrained to dissemble the same and so the main current of his actions here have assured them but now these professions made so sanctimoniously at such a time of exigence as this give stronger assurance of the contrarie and yet neither so can they be freed from all doubts and fluctuations For say they can that conscience which checks not at the granting of a toleration without Churches by taking away all penall Laws and allowing other great immunities suffer such shipwrack at our demands of Churches for the free exercise of our Religion we should deal unfaithfully with ourselves if we should not acknowledge that the King in his Concessions already by granting us such a share in the Legislative Military and Judiciall power and by taking away former penalties has condiscended to as much as can truly conduce to the propagation of our Religion that which we request further is but for the more ease or pomp or better accommodation of such as professe our Religion This therfore creates the more intricacy in the case and makes the matter more irreconcileable when we behold that the complemental or ornamental part is abjured so solemnly as repugnant to conscience and yet the more substantiall virtuall part is agreed to without reluctance Thus as our doubts so our fears multiply for we well know that if the King bona fide have so high an esteem of his own Religion He must have as low a one of ours and the consequence will be when the tye of a promise shall hereafter come into competition with such an esteem when it shall be disputed whether the Kings ingagement to us do in some degree empeach or hazard the Protestant Profession or no and if it do then whether such an ingagement be rescindible or no a Protestant Casuist will easily unloose his Conscience But the King threatens to joyn with the Scots c. how odious soever if we accept not of his Propositions without further debate Surely my Lord if the King does joyn with the Scots c. this Kingdom hopes to be otherwise protected and if it were wholly exposed to the mercy of the Protestants yet it sees not how it has merited to be cut off from all reconciliation more then the King and his Oxford party has nay it presumes very far that it shall give a better account for its pursuing its naturall interests then such as have been more unnaturall can In the last place my Lord wheras you seem to wonder at the Irish as changed from their former aimes and us that were Commissioners as transported beyond our former promises and expressions The Answer will be very ready For had we received lesse satisfaction in due season before we had expended so much blood time and treasure in this warre it had been equivalent to a greater proportion now given us or had that been of grace given which the Sword has by its own dint gained a charge of ingratitude might have been laid upon us if we had further extended our demands But I shall not need to inlarge upon this Subject or to represent things otherwise to your Lordship then a Letter will permit if I should I should seem to out-run your Lordships nimbler apprehension or to utter my own conceits instead of the speeches of the people I am more afraid of prolixity and therfore heartily wishing your Lordship may make good use of these Avisoes for the better mollifying of his Majestie I kisse your hands and assume the honour to list my self My Lord Your humble Servant Mu●kery To a Friend in the Countrey SIR I have gotten Copies of two Letters not yet divulged which I here send you as worthy of your perusall The first from Digby to the Rebels is true and authentick the other I suspect to be counterfeited but so as it comes very neer to truth Out of both you will find what distance there is and what has caused it betwixt the King and his good Catholick Subjects of Ireland They as well as we of England and Scotland are liable to vicissitudes in the Kings favour according to turns of his endlesse designes They were monstrous prodigious unparalell'd Traytors They are now loving loyall good Subjects but if they make not haste to cut throats here as well as they have done in Ireland they may probably ere-long change their style again for that which we have now and perhaps we may be restored to that which they have now There 's nothing impossible to a Proclamation dated at Oxford if Montrosse do not hinder it Neither of these Letters discover any thing to me I alwayes apprehended what I here find this onely I wonder at The King still takes no notice of that which is the Rebels true End and Intent nor do the Rebels of that which the King shoots at Yet t is impossible that the King should think the Irish cordially devoted either to the defending of Protestantisme or inlarging of Prerogative and t is improbable now they should think the King to be in Arms for introducing of Popery or establishing their old Tanistry and other barbarous customes Both having contrary intentions the King thinks to out wit the Irish and this the Irish cannot be ignorant of the Irish think as far to over-reach the King and the King cannot but suspect the same yet still in debates both proceed and alledge other matter whilest in the mayn they seem to make a 〈…〉 both in deceiving and in being voluntarily deceived This it is to forsake the beaten road of policie and to wander in the blind mazes of subtilty or rather perfidie after all that sea of Protestant blood which it has cost the King to comply with Papists now he is driven to a new consultation whether it be safer for

Two Remarkable LETTERS Concerning the KINGS Correspondence with the Irish REBELS The first by Digby in the KINGS Name to the Irish Commissioners The second from the Lord Muskery one of those Commissioners in Answer to Digby Also a full state of the Irish Negotiation at Oxford now treated set forth in the Rebels Propositions and the Kings particular Concessions Published according to Order LONDON Printed by F. Neile dwelling in Aldersgate-street 1645. My Lords and Gentlemen HIs Majesty having long expected a conclusion of a happie peace within your Kingdom and his Affairs having highly suffered by the failing of his Expectations from thence cannot choose but wonder what the cause is of it calling to mind those fair professions and promises which you made unto him when you were imployed here as Agents And knowing well what power and Instructions he hath long since given my Lord Lieutenant to comply with you for your satisfaction as farre forth as with Reason or Honor his Majesty could in civill things or with Prudence or Conscience in matters of Religion and in the latter as to the utmost of what for any wordly consideration he will ever be induced to so did he conceive nothing lesse then what you declared unto him you were perswaded the Catholicks would be satisfied withall Nay ought not in their own Interest to seek more in the present condition his Majesty was in lest further concessions might by confirming former scandals cast upon his Majesty in matters of Religion so 〈◊〉 to the hearts of his faithfull and loyal adherents to make them abandon him which as it would draw inevitable ruine so were you rightly apprehensive that when the 〈◊〉 should by that means have prevailed here that must soon after bring a certain destruction upon your selves What the change of Principles or Resolutions are his Majesty knows not but he finds by the not concluding of a Peace there that your party it seems is not satisfied with the utmost that his Majesty can grant in Matters of Religion that is the taking away of the penall Laws against Roman-Catholicks within that Kingdom And his Majestie here hears that you insist upon the demands of Churches for the publick exercise of Religion which is the occasion that His Majesty hath commanded me to write thus frankly unto you and to tell you that he cannot beleeve it possible that Rational and prudent men had there been no Propositions made to the contrary can insist upon that which must needs be so destructive to his Majesty at present and to your selves in the consequences of his ruine that is inevitably to be made a prey to the _____ of these Kingdoms or to a forraigne Nation Wherfore my Lords and Gentlemen to disabuse you I am commanded by his Majestie to declare unto you that were the Conditions of his Affairs much more desperate then they are he would never redeem them by any concession of so much wrong both to his Honor and Conscience It is for the defence of his Religion principally that he hath undergone the extremities of war here And he would never Redeem his Crown by ratifying that there So that to deal clearly with you as you may be happie yourselves and be happie Instruments of his Majesties restoring if you would be contented with Reason and give him that speedie assistance which you well may so if nothing will content you but what must wound his Honor and Conscience you must expect howsoever his Condition is and how detestable soever the _____ of his Kingdom are to him he will in that point joyn with them the Scots or with any of the Protestant Religion rather then do the least Act that may hazard that Religion in which and for which he will live and die Having said thus much by his Majesties command I have no more to adde but that I shall think my self very happy if this take any such effect as may tend to the peace of that Kingdom and make me Your Affectionate humble Servant GEO DIGBIE My Lord VVE have here received your last of this July instant wherby we understand the Kings utmost resolution concerning the free use of our Religion in this Kingdom What publick Answer will be returned to it I cannot tell as yet but I in the meantime hold it my dutie to pre-acquaint your Lordship with the inclinations of the people and the very first motions which are likely to sway the judgements and resolutions of our wisest Patriots This I hope your Lordship will accept of as an argument of my affection to your self and make use of as a point of zeal to his Majesties service My Lord t is great matter of amazement to the vulgar amongst us to hear That His Majestie does principally undergo these extremities of warre for defence of the Protestant Profession and that He will rather forfeit His Crown then ratifie the Catholick Faith in Ireland or do any the least act that might hazard that Religion in which and for which He is prepared to live and die If His Majestie had insisted onely upon maximes of Honor or publick utility though they do not hold either of them really valid in this case things would have been far more easily digested but when Pleas of Conscience are so much pressed divers that pretend to much reason here seem to be exceedingly scandaliz'd For as for matter of utilitie His Majestie it should seem has waighd strictly in the scoles as well all his Catholicks in Ireland and elsewhere as that part of Protestants which adheres to Him in England and Scotland and that party of Protestants in value as He distinguishes overpoizes the Catholicks This is a thing that makes them wonder at his scoles or suspect his eyes and senses For t is suppos'd here to be out of all question that if the King did not declare himself so pendulous and equilibrious betwixt Catholicks and Protestants those supplies which He would receive from Catholicks would far out-vie all those of the Protestants and put the difference beyond all further dispute Next they take to heart matter of Honor and how say they can He expect more Honor in the eyes of a poore part of Protestants by being soyled and kept in miserie as He now is then in the eyes of all the chief Countreys of Europe by prevailing and over-bearing those wretched Round-heads which He now so much professes to detest You will say his faith is more strongly ingaged in Honor to those Protestants which now follow Him to protect them then to the Queen to defend those of her profession If this be so we have not been kindly dealt withall for either the King has profest more to the Queen or the Queen which has some influence upon his Honor has profest more to us then was just for her to do in the Kings name But the last and chiefest consideration is the consideration of Conscience and this as was said before perplexes most of all and begets the most untoward