Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	kingdom_n	law_n	scotland_n	3,190	5	8.6459	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A83952	Englands condition considered, and bewailed. Wherein, the obstructions of peace, and the wayes essayed to effect it are rightly stated, and argued, between the Parliament, and the Scots Commissioners. With many observations on their late papers, concerning the foure bils, and propositions sent to the King. Imprimatur, Gilb. Mabbot.		1648 (1648)	Wing E2954; Thomason E423_6; ESTC R201918	16,879	20

have the Militia in the hands of the King and the Parliament and Kingdom lye again at his Majesties feet for a generall pardon for so they shall soone if once he get that power And now since I am falne on this it will not be much out of the way to spend a word or two in distinguishing how farre Scotland is to meddle in the concernments of England by the Treaty Let this be laid as a foundation that let the union be never so nigh it doth not necessarily imply a communication of properties there are intire and proper incommunicable Priviledges which are reserved to both As between man and wife which is the nighest conjunction there are titles and honours which are proper to each person which both have the benefit of but not the particular propriety in The union between England and Scotland can be only in those things which are of common concernment to both which belongs to the very being and well being of the union they are notwithstanding two Kingdomes and have distinct Lawes and Priviledges peculiar to each and which neither may meddle in Novv let it be seriously vveighed that to presse our union too farre even to an introaching on the properties of one another is to make our union uncomfortable and to lay a foundation for a breach Now vvhat concernes us in particular and doth not touch on the Interests of the Kingdome of Scotland must be left to the Parliament to determine as vvhat concerns them to their Parliament That which concerns us are especially our Lawes the Priviledges of Parliaments the Militia and these are so ours as that you may turne Scotland into England and make an Identity between us before they can meddle with them and doubtlesse the Parliament cannot choose but resent it highly that any Commissioners either of Scotch or of any Kingdome in the world shall take upon them to declare and protest against the sending those things in Propositions vvhich is their birth right and undoubted Priviledge and which they can have no competitors in without the highest breach of their trust And the Commissioners might as well have protested against any Ordinance made by the Parliament for Excise or against their making a new great Seale as against any of these foure Propositions vvhich are solely the concernments of England and have not so much as the least aspect on the Interest of Scotland nor influence upon the Treaty between the Kingdomes And as to that clause in the Treaty vvhich saith that we shall not make either peace or warre without each others advise and consent It must be still meant in these things wherein our mutuall Interests are contained for else we have covenanted our selves into a faire condition that the Scots negative voyce though in those things which essentially concerne our own Kingdome may hinder our happinesse as they please so that we must be beholding unto them for their consent in that vvhich God and nature hath invested us withall How much should vve have been overseen to deny his Majesty a negative voyce knowing the hazard of it and give it to the Scots You see how our exigencies have brought us into inconveniences vve have of our indulgence and brotherly respect made them privie to all our Counsels and Priviledges and they now claime an Interest in them I doubt that if this Parliament be dissolved our Brethren will challenge the right of calling the next that vve shall neither have Law nor Priviledge without their consent The last year they claimed a Right to the disposing of the Kings person in England and novv they claime a Right to dispose of the Parliament and their transactions though purely in matters of our own Kingdome They begin fair if the progresse be sutable vve shall have neither Law nor Liberty but what the Scots Commssioners shall vote for us But that by the by though they make it the great scope of their Declaration We have now seen our misery how vve lye at the brink of great dangers some would divide us into more parties then all the wise men among us know how to make up and what advantage men are taking daily to make the Breaches wider while others lie at the catch to disadvantage us Let us now see vvhat may doe us good if we be not past cure we have been long time in warre its time for us novv to think of a peace and I know that is in the expectation of all men Peace is a sweet word especially after war yet we had it a long time and could not prize it we have been long unacquainted with it and now have lost the way to it we all agree on the thing if we could on the termes Indeed to some the name of peace is as an unpleasant sound there be fish that cannot live but in troubled waters others love peace but have too common apprehensions of it I love peace and I hate it I love it as I find it wrapt up in the armes of truth I hate it as it s in iniquity and on base termes let others take it I shall not envie them I would men loved truth as I love peace I love that peace which may requite the bloud which hath been shed to purchase it such a peace as may keep God and the Gospel with us any other will be but a foundation of a future warre It s better suffer a little to settle a good peace It s better suffer a little longer then get a peace that will end in greater warre We know what vvill be the worst to stand to such conditions as may produce a solid peace but we knovv not vvhat will be the end of an unsound peace Divers as they have desired so have assaied to bring forth peace the wayes and means with the ends they act are not so consonant wee will a little consider what is proposed in such a transaction The Parliament and the Scots are the great Agitators of this work but with different principles and ends as we shall see anon the Parliament stick to the way of Propositions only those for security turned into bils the Scots urge a personall treaty and therefore have followed it hard that no other way may be thought on yea have protested against the Parliaments way of Addresse though they so far condescend as to bring down the number of Bils to four and to treat the rest Let us consider soberly which way is most likely to effect the end In generall I much question whether the Queen of Hearts and the King of Clubs will make a good match especially when the Queen of Diamonds is competi●resse But especially this must be taken in what the nature of that peace is we are to indeavor That peace which must make us happy must be a safe honourable and well grounded Peace The Question is whether in a personall treaty according to the Scots indeavor such a peace may be established they urge much for it and quote

ENGLANDS CONDITION CONSIDERED AND BEWAILED WHEREIN The obstructions of Peace and the wayes essayed to effect it are rightly stated and argued between the Parliament and the Scots COMMISSIONERS WITH Many observations on their late Papers concerning the foure Bils and PROPOSITIONS sent to the KING In bellis civilibus etiam post partam victoriam non statim pax sed varius metus discordia Tacitus lib. secun Hist Imprimatur Gilb. Mabbot LONDON Printed for Robert White Jan 18. 1648 ENGLANDS CONDITION CONSIDERED AND BEWAILED IT is no time to make Apologies and Prefaces to have Epistles dedicatorie and unto the Reader to write under the Rose or to shadow discourses with darke and knotty resemblances wee have been premising and prefacing all this while plain English is best for we are like else to lose our own Dialect shortly The name of Liberty of Subjects and Priviledges of Parliaments will soone be worne out as the old Saxon language and refined into Prerogative and Tyranny And our lawes which were first written in French are like for better understanding them to be reprinted in the same with the Scots marginall notes I am soone fallen into a lamentable discourse before I am aware and my trembling pen would faine hasten over it But I must be serious Distractions and confusions in States and Kingdoms are not trifles He that will view the condition of poore England had need have a heart made of wax and eyes of water and bovvels of compassion If men knew vvhere they are come to they would soone know how to thinke themselvs miserable wee have gone a seven years march in a State disguise and after a long round are fairly reduced into our old condition and it were well say some if vve are no worse the scene is changed but the play the same That noble and gallant spirit which heretofore wrought in true English hearts for liberty and Priviledges is now down and the old unmanklike pusillanimitie come upon us with an addition of stupidity and insensiblenes we have lost our bloud and now we are like to lose our hearts we have been almost destroyed by a civill warre and may be undone by unsound peace But I must be cautious I shall be accounted a foole for my labour yet I must be honest I shall only speak what wise men think and honest men feele if more were done lesse would be spoken Our greatest worke hath been to undoe our selves we have acted magno conatu magnas nugas sowne the winde and brought forth the whirlewind Certainly we have lost that reflect act of our understanding by which they say the rationall soule is made happy Recollect your selves what you have been doing so long a time where you are going vvhat new designs are on you We have escaped the Spanish Inquisition we hope But hovv nigh you are to France and Scotland you little thinke What is become of that golden fleece Liberty vvhich you so gallantly fought for where are the trophies of your conquest vvho will pitie us We have seen our maladie but know not our remedy we know how to be miserable and have found out an easie way to it but yet cannot see our way to be happy Our enemies are conquered and now vve are falling out vvith our friends It s harder to reconcile our ovvn party then to destroy the Kings Our wounds are opened none wholly cured our nakednesse discovered and nothing to cover it What shall become of poore England wee have wonne liberty but dare not weare it the victory is got but we cannot agree about the spoyle Formerly we knew our enemies now vve neither know them nor our friends Seven years experience of tumults and war is sufficient one would think to learne us the way to a happie peace vve have not wanted time or wayes to know our enemies and our friends Providence hath helpt us through a bloudy warre and now division would help us to a dishonest peace But these are too melancholy meditations if men had been as honest as they pretended to be wise vve should have no such sad things to work upon But let us warily consider how vve are come into this condition on whom lies the fault Aske our grandees who stear at the Helme Some blame one some another I blame none and yet all I have nothing to say to particulars vve have too much in generals Some lay the fault on his Majesty And the truth is he hath enough to be charged withall yet since the conquest he hath been under restraint and could not so possitively hinder except you grant him his negative voyce yet he cannot be altogether excused he hath done what in him lies in such a condition his private influences and negotiations have not been ordinary but we have too much to charge him with on the old account Others lay the blame on the Parliament and here we shall not want Votes they say they have sought themselves not the Kingdom but wee may give our enemies too great advantage of us by such jealousies It s true they are the rock to which we have lookt for our salvation they have promised us our liberty they can procure it and it were to be wished they could wash their hands cleane of all things yet all must not be laid on the Parliament but a faction in it they are a great body made up of divers and unsutable spirits and labour with abundance of infirmities and passe through those difficulties vulgar eyes see not yet to be plain more might have been done then is had some of them been lesse imployed and interessed in affaires more would have been acted for us those sad retreats they have made of late is too ominous of great distempers even among them but I shall rather pray for them then speak any more of their frailties Others wipe away all blame from both and lay all on the Army poor men they have born the heat of the War and now must needs have the blame of the Peace it s our misery that we have none to distrust but these which have been most faithfull but yet it may be they are not wholly free though I think in an equall distribution little will come to their share they have been good servants what they may prove when they become masters I know not some mens conditions alter their spirits but we have little cause to suspect them where ever the blame lies the misery is like to lye on us the truth is It hath been the designe of some to bring us where we are and the ill foresight of others we cannot go so far back as to question the truth of our cause God hath cleared that from heaven but some men may question their principles God hath acted for us in the VVar and now men act in the Peace we have not come into this condition per saltum as many Dunces are made Doctors but have gradually insensibly been led into it by the cunning

to preserve and settle Religion in power and purity by countenancing the professors of it and discountenancing the opposers by this Treaty the Bishops themselves might be likely to be accommodated and those outcasts brought in State And the second stated end was to bring Delinquents to justice an Act of Oblivion will not satisfie the just expectations and ingagements of the Kingdome and we shall still by it keepe the fuell of the same fire or worse within us they will not so forget us though we doe them but when they grow up with us will take their advantages to be quit with us if we do not justice on them God will on us Can wee expect by such a Treaty that the King will ever suffer them to be plucked from his bosome whose new Titles and Punctilioes of honour he will not suffer to be taken from their persons It is certain we cannot be safe as long as they get heart this generation will retain the seeds of this discontent Impunity will but incourage them to act more when they have oportunity yet still as much favour as can be shewn with the safety of the Kingdome must justice must be distributive and proportionable to the persons and faults In a word such a peace we must have as may not let the guilt of blood be upon us It can never enter into any serious heart that the issue of all this blood and the naturall product of all this stirres should be a slight and overly accommodation Doubtlesse God hath had his end as well as men theirs and that hath been working out and we ought to expect it with faith and patience not run our selves on uncertain rocks and skin over our sores when we may heale them but no more of the Personall Treaty the golden bait our Brethren have laid before us we shall have enough of it to our griefe if ever providence should permit such an overture only let me adde this I know not why if the Parliament have made war without the King nay against his consent they may not make peace without him especially seeing he refuseth to grant that which they judge essentiall to our happinesse we conclude with this That the sending honest and wary Propositions for his Majesty to grant is the best and safest way to procure a setled peace if he be obstinate it must be done without him there is no Medium the Kingdome cannot alwayes languish But our brethren will not only have a personall Treaty the best way to peace but adde the disbanding of the Army without which the grant of the former will not serve This Proposition they urge from the tendernesse of the sense they have of the taxes and burthens of this Kingdome in regard of free-quarter and Contributions for this thanks must still be returned but I wonder our Brethren lost their sense of Englands burthens in the North where besides free-quarter and plunderings they laid such a sesse that the fish in the sea could not scape their tax However I am glad they are come to their senses at last we hope they will be sensible to abate some things of their hundred thousands we owe them out of brotherly assistance the reflections on those gallant men of the Army I will not mention it s a sad thing that faithfulnesse should be the ground of suspition and the object of envy Whereas they say that they expected on the disbanding of their Army in Scotland we should disband ours It s a wonder with what face of reason they could urge that seeing that we have work to do which they have not they know the ends of keeping up their Army and we know ours the Parliament are not bound to give an account to the Commissioners why they keep up their Army and though they are pleased to say there is no use for them now they must know they go about to make use for them England was the first seat of War and most distempered and that will not settle us which will Scotlan we have conquered our enemies persons we had need have an Army to keep down their spirits What is the matter our brethren have such an eye at this Army Is it because they have been too faithfull Have done too much service which they would fain have the honour of It may be they have conquered those which our Brethren were in hopes to conquer and get the spoil of It may be the reasons are because the London Apprentices and Reformadoes may more handsomly come and beset the Houses of Parliament and make them V●●e in the old Militia and cr●● down Independents and such like tricks but I hope they are more serious and therefore I recall my words it is that the Parliament may be disbanded more handsomly and be made the next burthen to the Kingdom and the Scots may have a new Covenant with the King to be his Loyall Subjects If the Army become a burthen the Kingdome may thank them and their Party who could not carry it so fairely and wisely as to disband them Honourably at first The violence and rashnesse of those men gave them ground enough of distaste then and still ground of jealousie let peace be setled they will soon disband Its reason that if they have fought for peace they should not disband untill they see tearms agreed on and things put in a hopefull way of security for the Kingdom and themselves they have made many proposals for the good of the Kingdome and if they have failed in circumstances we may well overlook that now they are freed of their popular Counsell we may well be free from Jealousies of them If in any thing they have miscarried it s because some of them have been at court as well as the Scots Commissioners but I have said too much on these things more then will please I am sure I wish they would give lesse occasion to the Parliament and English men to make Anti-Declarations There only remaines to add what we are to indeavour particularly for the stablishing of a well grounded Peace I know wiser men have it in hand I wish they may in their hearts also I only offer something to inform the people what they must stick to if they will finde the way to peace The first thing must be the settlement of Religion in the power and purity of it and in this our Brethrens order of giving it the preeminence is to be commended but I hope by Religion they do not only mean the Presbyterian Government Ministers must be sent out to preach the Gospel and inform poor souls in the things of Christ this will be a good foundation of our happinesse The second thing mainly to be eyed is the preservation of the Union of the two Kingdoms by all the lawfull wayes we can according to the true intent and proper sense of the Covenant the strengthening of such a mutuall correspondence between us will increase our happinesse yet care must be taken