Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	hold_v	king_n	scotland_n	4,230	5	8.8042	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77459	A briefe relation of the present troubles in England: vvritten from London the 22. of Ianuary 1644. to a minister of one of the reformed churches in France. VVherein, is clearely set downe who are the authours of them, and whereto the innovations both in church and state there doe tend. Faithfully translated out of the French.; Letter concerning the present troubles in England.	Tully, T. (Thomas), 1620-1676.	1645 (1645)	Wing B4630; Thomason E303_1; ESTC R200287	52,984	69

whole Body of the Clergy chased away divers of the Peeres despoiled others of their Estates and Authority sparing none but such as will be then Fellow-traitours In breife the former indeed advanc'd their Rebellion under a pretence o● maintaining the publique Liberties but they expos'd not all the Kings that were to succeed to the madnesse and cruelty of the People as these men doe I know you have often seene divers of their Positions but I have reserv'd one to this 〈◊〉 which is worse then all the rest They maintaine That Subjects may in ●●●suanc● of their Liberty take 〈◊〉 Armes and employ all their strength against any that shall endeavour is reduce them to slavery That there is no yoake of which they may not lawfully rid themselves whosoever imposed it whether some Conquerour or their owne naturall Prince That nature it selfe dictates unto the whole world the recovery of it's lost liberty notwithstanding any former contracts or any lawes to which they have sworue obedience or even the expresse approbation of some preceding ages That whosoever shall have power enough and not employ it to that end men should be so farre from startling at their back rardnesse that on the contrary they are to hold them for no other then Rebels against that nature which commands them to dispense in this case with all former obligations whatsoever Sir were not this ground enough for all the Magistrates in the Universe to arme against such Pests as these You will now rest fully satisfied that 't is not Religion they fight for and that by the conservation of those Priviledges they talke of they intend nothing but the ruine and destruction of such as are in Authority over them What else can we expect from such maximes They who complaine so much of abusing Monarchy have infringed all the rights of it themselves There was a Parliament in Scotland held in despight of the King and the Acts of it are daily put in execution contrary to his expresse commands which is utterly to abolish all Regall Power and to annihilate the Fundamentall Lawes of the State This Parliament in England was indeed conveencd by his Authority but they bound his hands from dissolving it when he ought and would have done No sooner were the Members met but he was chased from London and they upon this possesse themselves of the Houses Forts Castles Ports Navy and Ammunition of their Prince They put the Earle of Strafford to Death upon pretences of their owne devising that so they might have some colour for the designe against the person of their Soveraigne They have forced his consent to an Act which infringeth all the prerogatives of the Crowne They will needs have the disposall and ordering of his family murther his friends and trusty Ministers and so hinder all from being such They will clip his Revenues as they please not suffer him to dispose of vacant offices They will not allow him any power in Church-affaires bereave him of his Bishops that so they may render him uncapable of discerning all factious contrivances under colour of Religion and consequently of all meanes to prevent the execution of them At this very present they are consulting how to deprive him of his Wardships which you know is one of the fairest Flowers of the Crowne of England and the most proper character of Soveraignty I have almost spent my selfe in limning you the designes and practices of these men but I hope you will not be weary in perusing and weighing them I have besides many things of great consequence to tell you which I reserve for some better opportunity when I may have more leisure and liberty then is allowed me at this present In the interim let me earnestly request you to make what use you can of the truth of this Relation in behalfe of Reason and Justice In God's name employ your utmost endeavours to blast those false pretences of Zeale and Religion that none of ours be carried away with them I beleive it was to that end you desired this Letter from me which I have dispatched towards you in persuance of your commands and withall to satisfy my Conscience I will say nothing what is like to be the successe of our Ambassadour here You may easily guesse by this Relation The H●ll●●●●rs have as weake hopes as we and I 'me confident both of the● desire to testify unto the world their love and inclination to Peace although some accuse them of an aversonesse from it and that all their designes tend to the nourishing of this Warre But certainly they desire to see and end of it were it but for this reason that the King of England might engage himselfe in the interests of Germany and employ his strength there in behalfe of all the oppressed Princes those especially which are more neare unto him I will discourse with you more at large upon this when I shall have the opportunity to give you an account of those other passages mentioned in your Letter In this and all things else you shall reade the constant desire I have to assure you that I am unfeinedly From London Jan. 22. 1644. Sir Your most humble and most affectionate Servant FINIS

moderation and to indeavour the recalling of some humanity into the mindes of men is the ready way to be accounted a Malignant and they that have attempted any such matter have beene used accordingly Witnesse the many Members of Parliament who being returned thither upon a free Election according to the Lawes of the Land have neverthelesse beene chased thence some by the bare Votes of such as complyed with the popular madnesse and others by some out-rage or injury done to their persons And how many of these have for their honesty and integrity sate in six or seven Parliaments with a generall applause What kinde of People now have they substituted in their places Even such as the lawes of the Realme did ever exclude thence ●● the knowen instruments of malice and fury They have not indeed quite suppressed the House of Peeres but they have notoriously vilified it in so much as they will no longer allow them a share in the publique consultations No share I say there being but two or three of the Lords left to their liberty and that for no other reason but because they combine with the faction The rest are forced to swimme with the streame and they have not spirit enough to contradict the major part in any thing though their Conscience prompt them never so much unto it Things could ne'r have come to this passe had not the Bishops beene outed and therefore as I informed you before they begun at them a peice of the most notorious violence and injustice that ever was heard of condemned by all the honest men I know that are acquainted with the Principles of Christianity and the Lawes of a well-grounded Policy agreeable to both which they were first seated in Parliament and ought to have beene continued there as the only Pillars to support Order and Uniformity and consequently to hinder the State from falling to peices especially to prevent the downefall of Monarchy all other formes of government being hereso utterly repugnant to it But I ground not only upon those advantages which Monarchy enjoyes in their conservation to worke your dislike of those that outed them nor upon the sole interests of the whole Church which was so much concerned to keepe them in their places I stand altogether for their personall rights which are as ancient as those of the State the Bishops having as strong a title to a place in Parliament as either the Lords or Commons For if with the rest of the Clergy they make a part of the State as undenyably they do who can question their share in the rights of the State So that to exclude them is to set up one distinct State in the midst of another which is all one as to dismember and divide the same State from it selfe and by consequent to engage it to its owne inevitable destruction Besides as the Nobility and the Clergy though both concurring cannot without violation of the Publique Right exclude the Commons from publike conventions where Lawes are to be made for all so neither can the Nobility and Commons though both agreeing debarre the Clergy no more then the Clergy and the Commons can exclude the Nobility The case being thus who sees not that in the expulsion of Bishops all the rights of the State are infringed that this is the act of an unruly multitude which being empoysoned with a spirit of Libertinisme did at the first extort the approbation of those Lords that stayed amongst them and then rewarded their Cowardice with the losse of their Power and reducing them unto such a low contemptible condition that they could scarce be more vilified were they quite expelled the House Weigh a little I beseech you with what pretences they ma●ke this outrage They will needes perswade us that Holy orders are inconsistent with secular employments and that it is a thing below the Ministers of the Gospell to intermeddle in civill Affaires To which purpose they quote us severall passages of Scripture and urge with all the example of a certaine Church man whom Cyprian would not allow any commemoration because he had taken upon him to be Guardian to a ward But this rigour which they presse so hotly upon the Clergy is neither consequent nor character of true Sanctity 'T is indeed the issue of an Anabaptisticall braine Henderson and Marshall two of their most able and expert Divines proclaime to the world by their secular employments in England and Scotland that they make but a mocke of these Arguments and that they beleeve those of their profession may without wounding their conscience or transgressing the rules of Christianity embrace all opportunities to promote the good of the Church though it be in the conduct of temporall affaires They have their generall Commissions as if they had never entered upon holy Orders by which they are enabled to heare and determine any matter of State even to the advanceing of a warre But granting these men the inconsistence they dreame of would not you concurre with me in this that though the Bishops Votes in Parliament be not simply necessary as a part of the civill government yet they ought to be granted them as the undenyable consequent of that universall priviledge which all free-borne Subjects enjoy which is not to be bound by any Law they never assented to either in their owne persons or by their proxies Besides it was ever till now thought but reason and equity that to such conventions where both spirituall and temporall affaires are to be joyntly agitated there should be summoned not onely your secular Sca●●●-men to judge of the utility or as they phrase it here the convenience of Lawes nor such onely as are skilfull in that profession to give verdict of their legality but withall some wise and honest Divines to judge for matter of piety in enacting them The truth is these cavillers bewray both in their speeches and in all their proceedings an absolute incapacity of any sound judgement blindly hurried on to an alteration of government out of a fond conceite that their designe will succeed so fortunately as to leade the dance for all the people in Europe to follow to which they sollici●● them in their Covenant But they have more wit I trow then to be their Apes They have better rules to follow of their owne especially we Protestants of France * When they of London were told that the rigorous courses they ●ooke against the Papists here would sooner or later be practiced upon the Protestants in France their answer was Let others looke to themselves and let us alone for looking to our selves with whose inter●●s those Gentlemen were very little affected when they used the Papists with so much inhumanity so as it seems they would not acknowledge us for their brethren or that their charity was very cold towards us We have learned both from Christ and his Apostles the Doctors of the Church and all our first Reformers that such as be Incendiaries either

horrible thing that they should plot the destruction of Her soule and endeavour to extend the fruits of their Rebellion against Her in another world Will you not say it had beene enough to persecute Her in thi● but I have not yet told you all They have also basely and insolently stained Her Reputation and in a way which all honest men will account no better then parricide attempted to murther a Princesse a Daughter of France to whom the winds and the sea had shewed more pitty but an houre before And yet forsooth they must needs have all the Reformed Churches to make them their Precedent inviting us whom they ranke among such as groane under the yoake of Anti Christian Tyranny to The expresse words of the Covenant joine with them in the same or like Association and Covenant and to use our utmost endeavours for the recovery of Peace and quiet in every part of Christendome What is this but to sollicite us to shake off the yoake of Soveraignty to deny all subjection to our Princes and at once to destroy both their Authority and their Persons For all which they pretend the Advancement of the Kingdome of Christ 'T is indeed mightily advanced since these men who call themselves his Disciples have subverted all secular Authority amongst them scattering abroad such positions as ought to render them odious to us in as much as they convince them before all the Powers of God's establisHing to be sowers of sedition Libertinisme and Rebellion But granting them that all this combustion they make in the world is to advance the Kingdome of Christ Have they any warrant from the example of the Primitive Christians to pursue that ●nd by such meanes no it was never in their thoughts to arme themselves so much as against those Pagan Monsters whose calmest d●meanour towards them farre surpassed in rigour and cruelty all the outrage and persecution which we can be imagined to have s●ffered from any of our Princes for above five hundred yeares together Saint Peter was reprov'd for presuming to defend his Master with the sword This example l'me sure is authentique nor is that of the Christians under the Emperour Julia● much inferiour to it Their number was great and their power formidable but their Religion restrained them from employing it against their Prince though in their owne defence Please you to call to minde the Theban Legion Doubtlesse they had all heard and weighed that injunction of our Saviour But I say unto you that ye resist not evill They had learned also that the Powers are ordained of God and that whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the ordinance of God Not as if that prohibition to resist Princes implyed a Command of obeying them against Conscience All that can be deduced thence is this That in case they shall persecute their Subjects out of any considerations whatsoever whether sacred or civill it were better to endure a thousand deaths then to lift up a hand against them The crime of these men will appeare farre more horrid if notice be taken that the King against whom the combination is made did never attempt the least innovation either in Religion or Liberty I speake onely of England As for Scotland I am not ignorant what hath passed there of which I intend to give you a particular relation They cannot produce any innovation here Indeed the a It is to be presumed that the Author being a stranger was too faire transported with the vulgar outcryes against this worthy Prelate whose many pious actions the sincerity of whose intentions had he truly known he would readily have given another character of him And when he shall understand and consider his constant perseverance to Death in the same resolutions of zeale for the true Protestant Religion and exemplary loyalty to his King for which he became a willing sacrifice no doubt but he ●ill be as ready to retract this rash censure as we to admonish Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was shrewdly suspected to have beene contriving some That weake ill-temperd and fondly ambitious soule would perhaps have presumed to be tampering had he continued longer in place which is therefore now the principall charge against him But as for the King what signall demonstrations hath he not ever given the world of an extreame a version from Popery How many Protestations hath he made of sticking close to the Protestant Religion How carefull is he to performe all those duties to which the Faith he professeth obligeth him He hath filled the Churches and Sees with men whose piety knowledge and conversation are patternes worthy the imitation of the most Orthodox Christians His house hath ever abounded with men of Learning and Honesty Besides what would it advantage him to reestablish Popery Is he weary of being a free Monarch Would he do homage againe to Rome and acknowledge a Soveraignty above his owne The Interests of his Crowne as well as those of his Conscience would not suffer him to entertaine such a thought But this is not all he would have cause to feare a farre greater mischeife from Scotland which all the advantages he could hope for from all the Papists in the world would never be able to counterpoise He must further shake off them of the Palatinate and in doing that forfeit all his reputation in Germany He must breake with Denmarke Nay he must not entertaine any commerce either with his nearest allyes or his dearest freinds The marrying of his Daughter to the Prince of Orange's Sonne is a pregnant evidence of his affection to the Protestant Religion But to make good their Calumny they accuse him of favouring Papists and yet who knowes not that the exchequer was never fuller with their composition-money then now In the Reignes of King Edward Queene Elizabeth and King James they were not used with halfe the rigour When this King shewed them most favour it came short of what they have done But I pray by what principle of Christianity are we bound to destroy such as are of a different Religion There is no forceing of any man's beleife none that can subdue the Liberty of the soule God onely excepted Our French Kings are well instructed in this point they might with a like equity destroy or banish us as here they do Papists did they not know that the conscience neither can nor ought to be forced Most true it is that the Protestants in France never attempted any thing upon the persons of their Princes what violence soever hath beene practic'd upon them by such as abused their Authority on the contrary for all their sufferings they have made it legible to the world that they would rather part with all the bloud in their veines in their defence then hazard the least drop to be revenged of them even then when some strange counsells had prevailed with them to signe their destruction A very pressing consideration wherewith to refute all pretended interests of Religion and to procure