Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	great_a	king_n	scot_n	9,204	5	9.7215	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93064	The dignity of kingship asserted: in answer to Mr. Milton's Ready and easie way to establish a free Common-wealth. Proving that kingship is both in it self, and in reference to these nations, farre the most excellent government, and the returning to our former loyalty, or obedience thereto is the only way under God to restore and settle these three once flourishing, now languishing, broken, & almost ruined nations. / By G.S. a lover of loyalty. Humbly dedicated, and presented to his most Excellent Majety Charles the Second, of England; Scotland, France and Ireland, true hereditary king.	G. S., Lover of loyalty.; Searle, George, attributed name.; Sheldon, Gilbert, 1598-1677, attributed name.; Starkey, George, 1627-1665, attributed name.	1660 (1660)	Wing S3069; Thomason E1915_2; ESTC R210007	99,181	247

for their justification sake yet to keep them from open Reproach I easily believe Mr Milton that nothing was wanting on the part of our Regicides that the same was not only meditated and attempted but brought to perfection and put in execution in France being begun as you say in Burdeaux and Paris But without doubt the protestant interest never had such a blow among Christians by profession as they had by this Act. How was this formerlie the blot of the Jesuits that they taught and allowed the murther of their Princes if once excommunicated by the Pope And yet how ashamed were the Papists ever to own such a tenent although they might consent to such a practise and be guiltie of it How were the Gunpowder Traitors branded by our divines and Professors with marks of infamy upon this score Yet now behold a Protestant King not treasonably conspired against but murdered and that not designed and brought about by a private unseen blow of Gunpowder or stab with a Dagger from a private hand as English King James was designed for destruction by our English Papists and French Henry was actuallie slain by a Ravilliack But stand amazed O ye Heavens for ye beheld it blush O thou great light of the day which then sawest it this Protestant Virtuous Picus KING was solemnly cut off at his own doore by his own Subjects who claimed then the name and usurped then the power of the Representative Body of the English Nation the PARLIAMENT or Supream Authority of ENGLAND Nor did they for this Action to excuse it plead such a thing as the Popes pardon or dispensation as the Papists did acknowledging in that such an act to be in it self unwarrantable and unjustifiable but they stile themselves the only true Assertors of the Peoples Libertie and the faithfullest part of Englands Representatives and therefore the Common wealths most constant and firm Patriots Nay no man could have any protection from the Lawes that did not by Engagement justifie this Act no Minister injoy his Living unlesse he give his post consent to that which but six years at most before he had to avoid the like penaltie Covevanted and entred into League Vowed and Protested against Solemnly and with hands lifted up to the most High God This a man may believe if he will be an Atheist to be Englands restitution to its Religious and Civill Liberties but he of discretion that reallie believes so may easilie be brought to yeild Light to be Darkness and Darkness Light Conscience and the fear of God expectation of happiness in Heaven and fear of Hell to be onlie juggles Now what Prince that is not mad would trust a Protestant in power nay tollerate him in his Dominions if these are Protestants indeed who are neither to be believed when they swear nor confided in if they can but get an opportunitie That will swear Alegiance to and murther the same King and that not secretlie but openlie nor seek to excuse it when done but justifie plead for extol and commend it as a performance worthy ren●wn and fit to be trasmitted down as an example to posterity But let all who truly fear the Lord say of these as Jacob of his two bloody Sons Simeon and Levi who kild only their Neighbour Idolatrous enemies who had deserved their hate by ravishing their Sister and were part of the Nations that were to be destroyed utterlie by Jacobs seed yet with whom they in colour at least were then about to make a league of friend-ship and among whom they lived peceably O my soul come not into their secrets and to their counsailes mine honour be n●t thou united for in their wrath they slew their Soveraign Lord the King and in their self will plucked up to their utmost the whole Royal root and dugge down the wall of Government and destroyed the foundations the Lawes Boast not then Mr. Milton how taking this example was with the like spirited Mock Protestants but really damnable Rebels in France for from such a spark as this was kindled that fire which formerlie wasted and consumed the Hugonites of Paris and of late the Waldenses in Piedmona and Savoy Guilty art thou O treacherous Perjured Apostate Rump of all this bloud the former of which thou hast justified and the latter been instrumentall in causing to be shed Blessed be God who hath clipt your wings Pared your Hornes Broken your Talons by which you soared above the reach of justice and pushed at and griped most horribly whoever durst but speak or write against your execrable murthers rapines and Sacrilegious Villanies And I hope that Christian Princes will in time be made to understand and given to see that this and the like actions of yours are not consonant to the te●●nts of any true Protestants Be confounded then and for ever silenced ye self-condemning wretches who when at the beginning of the warre such a design was charged upon you by the Royall l●yall partie you rejected it with imprecations and were sedulous with the rest of your fellow members of the Commons house and the whole house of Peers to acquit and clear your selves from such an aspersion as you then called it with detestation yea I am confident that then many of you before your consciences were since by monstrous impieties cauterized and rendred past feeling did cordially abhor what you since have acted and endeavoured to compel all men ministers especially to approve of and justifie and by a post engagement to consent to in opposition to former Covenants and Protestations to the contrarie I do verily believe I say that then you would have declard against it with horror and trembling however the Devil bad counsel and worldly gain have since insnared and corrupted many of you Come we from what you have done in our name to take a survey of what you have procured to us thereby for although the end is but a fallacious rule to judge actions by nor is it wisdome to determine concerning the thing done that it is good or bad by the event and success of it yet it is a perswading motive to repentance and amendm●nt of such courses which we are convinced to be evil when we find the smart of them and see evident our condition to be bad at present and worse and worse in likelyhood to be expected every day It is likewise a good conviction and very sutable to and seasonable for such who will not believe but these our present miseries are only the fore-running throwes of a glorious Birth and off-spring of which they seem to perswade ●hemselves and would have us to believe that we are not only in Expectation and certainty but in the present fruition and possession to wit Liberty both religious and Civil in respect of which Kingship is a Yoak of Bondage thraldome Vassalage slavery and infelicity Good Lord was ever such ridiculous folly such wilful madness known or seene Have we any Liberty in civil things but if we please

to antidate our Ruine and beggery to spend all one year or two before our new found Patriots of never before heard of Liberty squeeze all out of us and get all from us Have not the Keepers of our Liberties like theevish Promethews dealt with our Liberties as he did with Pandoras Box Let fly among us only plagues and miseries and now they keep all close when there is left only hope and scarcely that in the bottome Where is there any reality of Liberty in any of our injoyments either civil or religious and yet that Oh that is pretended as a sufficient reward and price of our last bloud and expended Treasure In our Courts what unsettlement and upon every change what turning out of office whoever would not comply with the horrible villanous practises by which each interest supplanted another Look backward to the first gaining of this Nominal Freedome and you shall find many Judges discarded Sergeunts at Law layd aside Counsellours their Gownes stript over their eares Attorneys turned from the Barre Sollicitours and other attendants on the Law made uncapable of either publique imployment or preferment in a word all Officers of the Law in Civil as wel as Common courts of Judicature put out of place and by consequence cut off from all means of lively-hood upon no other ground then because their Consciences would not permit them so farre to sleight their duty of allegiance to which they were likewise engaged by a sacred and indispensable Oath as to take another league and covenant a vow and a protestation in their judgments Crosse to the former here was Liberty if ever with a plague and vengeance I doubt not but this with other things hath been the cause of the many Judgments since that poured forth and still continued upon this perjured Nation How was the Solemn League and Covenant obtruded upon all men that had any thing to be plundered of And what Liberty had they in case of refusal except we will account turning out of place of either honor or profit the Imprisonment of mens persons for a long time with barbarous cruelty during their imprisonment the violent taking away their estates by Sequestrators to be libertie No man could be permitted to crosse the Seas in almost any capacity whether of Merchant or Factor or passenger unlesse he would first swallow this potion Where then I would gladly be enformed lay our Liberty Unlesse we will confess and that God knowes and we have all felt it is the truth with Cicero Nomina rerum perdidimus jamque licentia militaris libertas appellatur We have left the true names of things since now the Souldiers petulancy is calthe Peoples Liberty And if we had such cause to complain of the beginning of these our distracted calamities when you seem to give the Army this Character that they were undeceived and in their own power with what reason may we lament and bewail the following times and changes which have been ever since And yet the peoples liberty hath been the thing cryed up Continually What think you Sir of the Engagement what agreement hath it with the Covenant And yet that must be taken or no judge must continue in office no Army Officer in Command no Minister must preach nor School-master teach School nay nor any man have the benefit of the Land either as Plaintiff or defendant And call you this Liberty Mr. Milton I confesse the tameness of our English Nation beyond any former either Antient or modern president gave the Rump liberty of perpetrating and persisting in never before heard of Villanies with as much impunity as impiety but accursed be that Liberty from the Lord which will only give a company of Villaines liberty to be as much Bloudy perjurd murderers and unjust oppressive Robbers as they please but abridge all other of former means of living unlesse they will assent to and approve of these actions or else appear so The end of all this is impoverishment of the Nation losse of Trade decay of Ingenious Arts and manufactures the ecclipsing of our former credit esteeme and reputation in the eys of our neighbouring Nations That we may truly say of England Our glory long since is departed from us How did the Rump first by secret complyance and complots animate the aspiring Commanders in the Army and then betray all their Counsel to them So that the Great Counsell of England the Glory of our Nation the foundation and fountain of our Laws having first made warre with their KING and those who stuck to him constant and faithfull were soon divided among themselves and the greater part thereof at last betrayed and turned out of doors by a small number of their own fellows who with a mutinous Army to back them assume the Supream Authority of England into their own hands and declare and act accordingly cashiering the house of Peers cutting off their KING disabling his posterity and to secure themselves in this unparelleld treason and rebellious innovation form an Engagement to be true to the Common wealth as it was then Established without a KING and House of LORDS This and these like actions and declarations you call just generous and magnanimous and such as gave hopes of a glorious rising Common wealth this you call our happily fought for and succesfully attained Liberty but I with more truth and reason know and shall justifie these actions to be rebellious perfidious and treacherous the declarations to be but heraulds for infamous perjury and discovered men made impudent by victorious successe who with faces of brass blushed not at what the Sunne could not but blush who declare their sinnes like Sodom and think Villanies because prosperous are heroick actions and noble performances What palpable prevarication is it Sir for you to give this for the happy End of the many and bloody battels and skirmishes which were fought between the two Armies of the King and Parliament Was the warre begun on such a design or wit●●hat pretence If not when came it to be the cause Mr Prynne in his historicall relation of things as they were acted in his vindication of the secluded Members cites their own votes consultations resolvs and messages to from the chief Officers of the Army and by all makes it apparent that the House of Commons were so farr from making that to be the mark shot at in their contest with the King that many daies were Elapsed before they could make up the Quorum of a House of Commons nor was the number of Rumpers to the very last greater then to argue our folly and misery and to aggravate their impudent imperiousnesse in curbing a Nation formerly so famous for valour so long a time and of our shame this is none of the least part that now hopes of our deliverance through Gods great mercy is appearing one should have so much confidence as to appear in publique and to court us not only to keep on but be in love with

our present shackles and to declaim against our formerly enjoyed most happy Government of KINGSHIP And as this fag end of the English House of Commons was inconsiderable in number so was neither their quality likely to argue an excellency in what they set up beyond what we before were governed by for first the two hou●●s after the end of the warre had frequently treated with the King and also had upon a late yea their last treaty determined and concluded that his Majestys answers were so farre satisfactory as to proceed upon the settlement of the Nation This last treaty was occasioned by the Petition of the Citizens of LONDON the remonstrance of severall Ministers the addresses of many Counties with severall thousand subscriptions in concurrence with that Petition of the Londoners To this the sad distractions by a long bloudy warre did seeme not only to agree but also to inforce Well the two Houses being petitioned and addressed to remonstrances made and sent them Reason inviting Religion binding the necessity of the Nations calling for it petitions pressing in a word no other safe discreet honest way appearing treat with the King God so orders his heart that they receive if not plenary satisfaction yet so much as they vote his Majesties answers a ground on which to proceed to the settlement of the Nation The RVMP by help of the mutinous Army dismember four parts of five of their Fellow-members and unhouse all the Peers then Vote against this Vote as a breach of Trust in the Voters not considering they were the major part of the House but presupposing themselves the better part that had thus out-witted and by Force secluded the other greater But if so it is strange that the number of the RVMPERS was so long a making up and so small at last Good God! what a condition was this Nation come to that of so many who were Representors of the People so few should have the justice and magnanimity to perform such an action or approve it afterwards if it were indeed just and Magnanimous as Mr. Milton would have it The whole House of Peers although excluded by an after Vote yet they spontaneously adjourned rather than to have a hand in so base and so barbarous an Action Against which the godly Divines undauntedly protested the conscientious Citizens and Countrey-people joyntly dissented by Petitions the Scotch Nation equally concerned with the English declared and thereupon Preclaimed and Crowned their Hereditary King by Succession CHARLES the Second whom God preserve The Irish Nation not the Rebels disowned so irreligious Treason and take up Arms Where then is the Justice of abolishing Kingship The Peers have an Interest in the King to whom many of them are allyed and Kinsmen and whom he in Honour vouchsafed to call Couzins he is the Fountain of their Honour and they therefore an House of Parliament by Priviledge and Prerogative Yet they are of us our Lords and our Kinsmen by Estate and ability far above us yet bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh What Justice was there in Discarding them Mr. Milton and cheating them of the thing fought for when in their custody and possession after they had born a considerable burden of mannaging the Warre Put all the Cost together and they bore their full share and therefore of due Justice ought to have had a Voyce in disposing of his Majesty after the Warre who had reduced him to that Condition by Warre But alas The Scots had expressely declared that they would have the King to be Treated with with Freedome and Honour and the Nobles with the Commons had Resolved his Majesties Answers to be satisfactory so far as to proceed upon them to settlement of the Nation What Justice then can be pretended that one part of six if so much of the House of Commons should destroy the KING and abolish Kingship Will you say the Army would have it so Then it was so far from being just and magnanimous as it was neither but contrary to both What more unjust then for a few to carry on a bloudy Treason with perjury not only in contradiction to but exclusion of four times the number of their Fellows and the whole House of Peers equal in Power to them and their Fellows put together at least so far equal as that their Nay was a bar to any thing the others would have enacted or repealed What more sordidly cowardly then for fifty or threescore Commoners who with their Fellowes and the Lords had mannaged Seaven years War against the King and all his Forces now in complyance with a few Army Officers to betray their Trusts their Fellow-members the Priviledges of Parliament and all that is sacred honourable to murder their King break all their Oaths and Vowes only to satisfie the Exorbitant Lust of some few aspiring Army Grandees who all of them were their Servants Raised Armed Commissionated Impowered and Payd by them for other ends then to be commanded by them to act things contrary both to their Oaths and Consciences Could they who but few years before had ingaged England in a bloudy quarrel and called in the Scots to their assistance and all to defend as they pretended the Priviledges of Parliament when their lawfull KING their sworn Soveraign demanded but five of their Members to a Legal tryall upon a Just Charge which he proffered against them suffer their Servants who received their pay and had been sworn to their Obedience to secure imprison and detain forty at a time of their Fellow-members and after exclude and drive away nigh two hundred more How then did they adjourn and continue to sit in a Committee in London till that pretended and in comparison of this not imaginable Force was removed And now can they keep their seats and continue sitting Then they resolved into a Committee now they remain as an House nor remain only but act nor act alone but prescribe Qualifications to such as shall be readmitted to sit by which it is apparent that they were not compelled by force of the Soldiery to what they did although that had convinced them of pusillanimous Cowardise in stead of Magnanimity but they complotted with contrived and invented what the Rebellious Soldiery acted among whom all were not alike to be taxed for the then Generall now the Lord Fairfax was so far from contriving or countenancing that he was unsatisfied with those proceedings against his Majesty which was indeed as after appeared evidently the sole Plot of OLIVER the Copper-nosed Saint and some other Schismatical Army Officers together with a few treacherous perjur'd Commoners who forcibly secluding most of their number and the House of Lords willingly adjourning till this bloudy Tragedy might be over unlesse by God prevented and so Disavowing the Murder had the Honour to be infamous by themselves an stained with Sacred Royall Blood I grant you Mr. Milton that these Patriots as you style them did this but while they did not

Bloud and thou O righteous God give them Bloud to drink and let that be their portion for they are worthy of it But by the way I question not but the sober modest and pious Presbyterians will see your Delusion You urge not Queen Elizabeths aversenesse to their Reformation as accounting it to be indeed Reformation Your contrivance to eject Hirelings out of the Church by taking away Tythes shewes how well you like them or any other true Gospel Preachers when you discover it to be your design to have all Maintenance for the Ministry to be paid out of the publique Exchequer for so what could be expected more from such Preachers then was found in Ahabs Prophets who eat their Bread at his Wife Jezabels Table It is a fatal Plot against Religion to have the Maintenance of all its Ministers to proceed as a State Gratuity bestowed upon them in requital of their pains and labour For what could be hoped in such a case but that all must turn State-pleasing Preachers or begge and who upon that score would educate their Children that they might be capable of the Ministry or what conscientious man durst adventure on that Profession in which he must goe against the light of his Conscience or begge But I shall leave this as having I suppose spoken to it satisfactorily your next whining complaint against Monarchy is that Episcopacy and it are inseparable To which an Answer is ready that Mr. Milton is grossly mistaken It is certain that Monarchy is where Bishops have no place not are so much as known witnesse the Persian Tartarian Turkish and Indian Monarchies and Bishops on the other hand have been for many years owned and acknowledged and to this day are in place and esteem among those who are not under Kings witnesse the Popish Cantons in Switzerland the Venetians Genoeses and Hamburghers which last are a kinde of Republique although they owe and pay Homage to the King of Denmark By which it is evident that the Crown may return without readmitting the Mitre and it is likely that Episcopal Lordly power will hardly get footing again in the Nation the Barons and other Nobles in Parliament who were alwayes firm to Monarchy still opposing and endeavouring to lift out the Lords Spiritual from having jurisdiction among them as is evident by very many of their Speeches to that purpose to this day publiquely extant yea and his Majesty consented to the divesting them of all but their Title and Office submitting their Lordly Jurisdiction and Revenues to the disposall of the Parliament Concerning whose Office and extent of Power it is not now convenient nor seasonable to argue and dispute nor Wisdome to determine without Disputation only I shall adde that if Monarchy and Episcopacy were necessarily inseparably link'd it were a strong argument for the excellency of that sort of Church Government but the contrary is most manifest namely that what Government Kings most approve is by them chiefly countenanced or at least what the consent of most Divines under their Jurisdiction confirms as most agreeable to Scripture that is permitted and allowed So the Presbytery prevailed in Scotland to the ruine of Episcopacy yet Kingly Government was not upon that account rejected by them Adde to this that most of the Presbyters in the Nation interceded for the Kings life protested and Remonstranced against his Death and the Scotch Nation the most strict Presbyters reputed treated with received and Crowned our Hereditary now living King Charles the Second Son to his murdered Father and yet readmitted not Episcopacy This only I shall say that as a just splendid Monarchy may be limited so as to consist together with the most absolute and reall true Freedome of a flourishing State so a pious Church overseeing Episcopacy and a Godly moderate Presbytery are res diversae nomine tantum only nominally differing but really the same Call the Bishop and the Presbyter by one name and let the wisest gravest and most Exemplary pious be reputed the Moderator of the rest and let him be accounted worthy of double honour and have it and I see no remaining reall ground of animosity but that both like Christian Brethren may goe hand in hand together to oppose the common Enemies of the Church both Popish and Sectarian As for that blessing which you take notice of Mr. Milton that the Plague hath been for so long a time a stranger to London it is a great mercy and so to be acknowledged but I suppose your conclusion from thence that our Government during this time hath been more well-pleasing to God then formerly is most pitifully extorted and therefore for shame you do but obscurely bring i● in however it is clearly to be collected from your words that you mean so Gods usage with his People is not to be expounded recording to that Pattern of yours His own people the Jewes before they were to enjoy the Blessing promised to Abraham Isaac and Jacob to them and their seed after them were first brought down into Egypt and there indured sore bondage before this Promise came to be accomplished That a great Plague began the Reign of King James and a greater the Reign of his murthered Son Charles in Gods usual way of dealing with his people if it were significant might argue an Elation of spirit in those two Princes in respect to the numerousnesse of the Subjects of the Kingdome of England which was lately united to the Scottish Diadem in King James the first Scotch King that swayed the English Scepter But withall it argued those Princes with David to be persons in esteem with God and therefore to chastise them he took them into his own hand cutting off many of their Subjects which went very near to their hearts as being the Fathers of the Nation and so they were affected with the Death of their Subjects as a Parent is with the Funerals of his children But when the Nation waxed wanton against God through surfetting on his blessings and rendred him not the thanks that was due to his Name for so happy an union of two Protestant Nations and increase of Mercy in the successive Reigns of three scarce before parallel'd Princes in our Nations at least so succeeding one another and so long continued the last being for wisdome piety true valour and yet Christian patience not to be matched by any that went before him to whom as under God the main prop and hope of our happinesse the Lord had graciously given a plentifull and most promising Off-spring we I say being not only brutishly ingratefull for but profanely despising these so rare Mercies it pleased God to deprive us of them suffering this our Josiah to be not slain by Pharaoh necho but murdered by his own Subjects and as much as in them lay branch and root to be cut off in one day blowing in his anger at once both in Church and State taking away the antient and honourable in both and suffering the

conceive anticipated any material Objection that might be made for future in behalf of one or against the other I shall now conclude with you wishing you heartily true repentance and a sound minde Rayling against Majesty when insulted over by the permission of God and casting scurrilities in the face of Gods Anoynted is the mark of a Shimei let his profession of Religion be what it will and if God ever come to awaken your Conscience in mercy or in judgement you will finde such a like reproof in your breast as cursing Shimei had from Solomon Thou knowest all the wickednesse that is in thy heart and which it is privy to c. out of the abundance of which you belched forth your filthy Expressions against him of whom those who are truly pious fearing God and the King give a different Character But I hope all who are indeed wise will be enabled to judge of persons and things You say what you write is the Language of the Good Old Cause I am sure what I write is the Language and according to the sense of Good Old True Christians and of the Scripture What you wrote you wrote no more you say then if you had written to stocks or stones And what I reply to you or to the Ring-leading Rumpers I am confident I write to such that is scared Consciences and stony breasts but as you hope your writings out of those stones may raise up some Children unto Liberty so I hope these my Writings may meet with some who in simplicity are following Absalom in Hebron being by delusions won to desert their lawfull KING in Jerusalem I mean following an Vsurping Aspirer in contempt of true Authority and the true Church deserting their True KING and rejecting the true means of Grace to be only found in Zion But those who are True and Cordial Subjects and Sons to their King and of the Orthodox Protestant Church know that David whom Shimei reviled was a man after Gods own heart and one whom the Lord chose to make an Everlasting Covenant with so different is the esteem of good men being made by divers sorts of persons As an Eye that is distempered and bloud-shot dazles at the Sunne or any clear Light seeing by it nothing but bloud terror and amazement nor can abide to behold it but looking down on the green Earth is more contented and pleased So guilty mindes or restlesse spirits cannot endure the lustre of Majesty but go poring upon and admiring that which is more sordid and neerer the Earth as suting best to their capacity To both which the Poet thus alludes and shewes the fate of each Sapiens domin abitur astris Vir Terrae pronus sensibus is suberit But I hope these terrae filii will be no longer Remora's to our long wished for and expected Deliverance Settlement and Joy which that it may come certe citò both surely and speedily is and hath been my prayer and I hope every Cordiall Subject and loyall Breast in England Scotland and Ireland will say Amen A PERORATION To his EXCELLENCY the Lord Generall MONCK and his OFFICERS AND TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE The Two HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT Which are shortly to meet and Sit at WESTMINSTER Most Honourable LORD HAving in defense of Regall Government against Mr. Milton's Ready and Easie way to establish a Free Common-wealth brought by Gods good help and assistance my ●ntended task to an end it remains that I now addresse my self to your Excellency in a paraeneticall or congratulatory way for what you have through Gods blessing been instrumental in bringing to passe We are all deeply sensible and thankfully acknowledge that the Righteous God for our many and great sins had corrected us and brought us into such a state and condition as this Nation never before was in since it first was known to be a Nation to thi● day He had cut off from us the Ancient and the Honourable had deprived us of our happy Governors broken our once matchlesse peaceably setled and long happily Government Had set Ephraim against Manasse Manasseh against Ephraim and both against Judah so that the Syrians before and the Philistims behinde did all seem to devoure our Israel with open mouth Yet for all this his fierce anger was not turned away but his hand appeared stretched out still against us Our Kingdome was divided rent and tottering one part against the other the Son envying and betraying the Father and one Brother another so that there was neither peace nor truth among us Our Church also was broken almost to pieces with Schismes Factions and Heresies our profession scandalized with damnable Errors and Blasphemies so that we had scarce the face of a true Church left among us Our Principles were tainted and corrupted with the crying sins of murther sacriledge cruelty of pression hypocrisie rebellion and perjury breach of faith Vowes Covenant and Oaths with hard-heartednesse and impenitency that it was hardly to be discerned if any spark of true Religion and power of Godlinesse remained in this every way guilty Nation or no whose hands were deeply imbrued and beyond washing stained with the sacred bloud of Majesty nor was the cruelty perpetrated upon the Father so repented of as to give glory to the God of Heaven but it was continued upon us and justified by us in the rejecting of his whole Royall Lyne and Issue and neglecting his necessitated Orphons and Widow although by profession we owned our selves Christians and boasted of a far greater Light then had shone upon any of our Ancestors or Predecessors Yet among them in a time not much removed from Paganisme perjured Harold permitted Edgar the true Heir of the Crown to injoy a large part of his Estate and Revenue and to retain the title and command of Earle of Oxford one of his subordinate titles had he been Crowned KING as Harold by Oath engaged to Edward the Confessor he would see performed when Edgar came to years and in the mean time himself would only assume the Title exercise the Office and execute the Charge of Guardian or Protector of him during his minority notwithstanding which perjuriously he himself Usurped the Crown Deposing the right Heir howbeit left him the Title and Dignity of Earle of Oxford with a large Revenue so farre was he from conspiring against his life though he aspired unjustly contrary to his Oath to his Crown But among us Saints by profession enjoying the greatest light which ever appeared since the Apostles time is found Harold's perjury exceeded fourfold and his cruelty a thousand fold For besides one Oath of Allegiance and another of Supremacy given to all also another Oath sutable to the former at Admission to sit in Parliament the Authority of England which was subordinate to the King in order to manage a War against him with whom they were called to consult and to whom and his Queen with his whole Royal Issue they were sworn to be true to preserve his

that as you have happily begun so by means of the already convened Parliament which in few daies is to begin its sessions you may be instrumentall in the great work of setling these Nations once more upon a sure Basis of lasting peace and settlement England Scotland and Ireland call to you with stretched forth Arms not in a dream as the man of Macedonia did Paul but waking in affectionate addresses and sigh forth their desires groan out their wants before your Excellency saying come help us We are but as water spil upon the ground which cannot be gathered up again because the banish'd is not called back from exile nor the heir restored to his right we were robd my Lord of our King not legally deprived of him by such who usurped the Title and Authority of the supream power of England but upon examination were found not to be so but were proved Lyars we crave him in whom we al have an interest which yet we never forfeited however we were opprest in it by the audacious impiety of the Rumpers Now then what hinders but he may be restored to us and we to the enjoyment of him My Lord we beg humbly your assistance herein and blessed be God we find such incouragement and resolution both from your excellency and your officers together with the unanimous Consent of your whole Army viz. that you will acquiesce submissively in the determination and resolution of the Parliament Blessed be God who hath put such a determination in the heart of the General and such a concurring agreement in the whole Army That we once more find an Army acquiefcing in the resolves of not prescribing work and giving Lawes to the Parliament This next to God is to be attributed to the prudence and upright heartednesse of the Generall in whom these three Nations have already begun to be and I hope nay I question not will in due time be made under God compleatly happy For my part considering to what a height of malapert unrulyness the souldiery in England had arrived in these almost twelve years of Apostasy and Rebellion which was grown very familiar to most I seriously protest that I wonder so much toward settlement could possibly be performed in these Nations in so little time considering how many and great Commanders in the Army differ as much from the pious Principles of his Excellency the Lord Generall and the submissive truly Christian temper of his under Officers as light doth from darknesse by which is more then ordinarily confirmed that true saying of the Poet Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis My Lord England Scotland and Ireland and the neighbouring Nations take notice and we who are concerned desire gratefully to acknowledge the great difficulties and intricate perplexities God hath carryed your Excellency through in order to the bringing to passe what we see From whose high merits the fiery spirited friends to the Rump would detract and asperse you with unfaithfulness to them from whom you received a Commission We all know that are sober what you did and how they ingaged your honour in dishonourable pieces of service we know how your Excellencie declared against the force that lay upon them through the ambition of Lambert Desborough Fleetwood and other aspiring Army grandees and that if any other force lay upon them so as to render them not a Free Parliament you would endeavour to remove it This your excellency fully performed when you restored the secluded Members to liberty of sitting without excluding forcibly the worst deserving Rumper nor could it have been made good otherwise The Rumpers once layed the blame of the Members seclusion on the Rebellious Mutinous Army by whose means and power it is certaine that was first effected however since it appeared to be a plot of the fagge end of the Commons House with the rebellious Grandees of the Army who would be under no yoak None that was wise could expect other from your Excellency who was once one who hazarded your life in actuall defense of his Majesty Now my Lord I respect your excellency as so grave wise and judicious that you would not engage Life fortune reputation and all that was dear to you but where you were conscientiously satisfied of the J●stice of the Cause Yea and the worst of your Honors friends own that you continued to his Majesty actively or passively constant beyond being compelled or wonne by force or flattery so long as his Majesty had either hopes or any visibly appearing on his side But after when all was lost had you followed him with the rest into Exile you could have been but a burthen at least no advantage to his Majesty or his friends could have come thereby But as Hushai Davids friend pretending to stand for Absalon defeated for David the counsail of Achitophel yet did nothing but what became a pious honest man and faithfull Subject and friend So your Excellency by taking command of an Army after the War was ended with a resolution stil never to fight against his Majesty by managing also the Navy as Admirall against the Dutch and Spaniard by leading an Army in Ireland against the Rebels and in Scotland with an Army Governing the Nation with wisdome and in peace you have been made under God instrumentall to doe that in order to a true firm settlement without bloud which for above these twelve years hath been prayed for without answer and endeavoured in vain with the loss of the lives of many and the estates of thousands This is the Lords doing for which your Excellency deserves by a Statue of Brasse and a Monument of Marble to be made famous to all posterity I know the fame Soul lodgeth in your Noble Brest now as did then the same Loyall bloud runs in your veins and I am assuredly confident that so soone as interests can be so reconciled and pacified as that between his Royall Majesty and his Subjects who by sufferings have learned Wisdome to prize a good pious Prince for the future there may be no jealousie on either side there will be no obstacle remaining to hinder our long wayted for happinesse In hope and certain expectation of which I shall and I doubt not but all sober men in these three Nations will wait for the two Houses determination and I beseech God that all difficulty may vanish before the Parliament which is now shortly to fit as smoake is driven away and disappeares before a smart gale of wind or as snow melts before the Sunne so let all obstructing disputes I beseech God wast away to nothing AND thus Noble and Honourable Senators I am brought in Order to addresse my self unto your pious Wisdome and Religious Discretion having already made an acknowledgement to his Excellency the Generall for two Causes First because he under God was the immediate and next cause of this your Convention to the disappointment of the Rumpers who intended this last time to have Earbored the