Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	christian_a	great_a	true_a	4,979	5	3.9921	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31788	The Kings Maiesties answer to a late petition presented unto him by the hands of Mr. Alexander Henderson, from the commissioners of the Generall Assemblie of the Kirk of Scotland with their humble remonstrance and renewed petition to the Kings Most Excellent Majestie, from their meeting at Edinburgh, June 2, 1643.	England and Wales. Sovereign (1625-1649 : Charles I); Charles I, King of England, 1600-1649.; Ker, A.; Church of Scotland. General Assembly. Commission.	1643 (1643)	Wing C2098; ESTC R35826	16,804	32

occasion to publish to the world Our practice and resolution in the true protestant Reformed Religion and wee are verily perswaded there is no one Subject in either of our Dominions who at all knowes Us and hath observed our Life but is in his soul satisfied of our Zeal and unremoveable Affection to that Religion and of our true dislike of and hearty oposition to popery And as wee willingly consented at our being in Scotland to all acts proposed to Us for the discountenancing and Reforming the Papists in that our Kingdome so by our Proclamations for the putting of all Lawes severally in execution against Recusants and by not refusing any one Bill presented to Us to that purpose in this Kingdome and by our perpetuall and publique professions of Readinesse with the advice of Our two Houses of Parliament prepared for Us in a deliberate and orderly way to finde some expedition to perfect so good a worke or conceived wee had not left it possible for any man to believe Us guilty of tolerating any part of the Romish Tyrannie or Superstition or to suspect that the Conversion of our dearest Consort was not so much our desire that the Accession of as many Crownes as God hath already bestowed upon us would be more welcome to us then that day A blessing which it is Our daily prayer to the almighty to bestow upon Us. But we might well have expected from the Petitioners who have in their solemne Nationall Covenant literally sworne so much Care and safety of Our Person and cannot but know in how much danger that hath bin and still is by the power and threats of Rebellious Armes that they would as well have remembred the 23 of October as the 5 of November and as well have taken notice of the Army raised and led against Us by the Earle of Essex which hath actually assaulted and endeavoured to murther Us which wee know to abound in Brownists Anabaptists and other sectaries and in which we have reason by the prisoners we have taken and the evidence they have given to believe there are many more Papists and many of those forraigners then in all our army as have advised Us to disband out of the army of the Earle of New castle which is raised for Our defence the Papists in that Armie who are knowne to be no such number as to endanger their obtaining any power of building their Babell and setting up their Idolatrie and whose loyaltie he hath reason to commend though he was never suspected for favouring their Religion not before that of Protestants but of such as rebell under that Title And whose assistance is as due to us by the law of God man to rescue Us from domestick Rebellion as to defend us from forraigne invasion which we think no man denyes to be lawfull for them to do But we do solemnly declare and protest That God shall no sooner free us from the desperate and rebellious armes taken up against Us but we shall endeavour to free our selves and King dome from any fear of danger from the other by disarming them according to the laws of this Land as we shall not faile to send our Commissioner to the Assembly at the time appointed for it by the laws of Scotland To conclude We desire and require the Petitioners as becomes good and pious Preachers of the Gospel to use their utmost endeavours to compose any distraction in opinions or misunderstandings which may by the faction of some turbulent persons bee raised in the minds of Our good Subjects of that Our Kingdome and to infuse into them a true sence of Charitie Obedience and Humilitie the great principles of Christian Religion That they may not suffer themselves to bee transported with things they do not understand or thinke themselves concerned in the Government of another Kingdome because it is not according to the customes of that in which they live But that they dispose themselves with modesty and devotion to the service of Almighty God with duty and affection to the obedience of us and our laws remembring the singular Grace Favour and Benignitie We have alwaies expressed to that Our Native Kingdome and with brother-therly and christian charitie one towards another And Wee doubt not but God in his mercy to Us and them will make us instruments of his blessings upon each others and both of us a great measure of happinesse and prosperitie to the whole nation FINIS To the Kings most excellent Majesty The bumble Remonstrance and renewed Petition of the Commissioners of the Generall Assemblie of the Kirke of SCOTLAND from their meeting at Edinburgh the 2. day of June 1643. AS the manifold and pressing necessitie of the duetie of our place and trust did constrain us in these distempered and dangerous times in most humble manner To direct our earnest supplication to your Majestie for such remedies as wee conceive to be most fit for us to propone And being applyed by your Majesties owne hand might both for cure and prevention prove most effectuall So are we enforced by the same necessitie growing daily to the greatest extremitie In all humilitie and earnestnesse To renew not only our prayers to God but our Petitions to your Majestie For Sions sake can we not hold our peace and for Jerusalems sake we will not rest untill the righteousnesse thereof go forth as brightnesse and the salvation thereof as alamp that burneth But because in your Majesties answere to our former Petition wee meet with a multitude of prejudices and exceptions against us and our humble desires wee will crave leave first to remove these out of the way Acknowledging the full expression of them by your Majestie to be no small favour and being confident after we have expressed our selves in the truth and integritie of our hearts both to give unto and to receive from your Majesties Justice and goodnesse the greater satisfaction And first although there bee good reason for printing of Answers and Replyes the Petition being before printed yet wee acknowledge that your Majestie hath just cause to finde fault with that publishing of our Petition in print which is mentioned in the introduction to your Majesties answer And if it had been done by our Commandement counsell or knowledge we had not only given your Majestie just provocation and fallen in an errour contrary to the nature of a Petition and to the right disposition of Petitioners but also had used means contrary to our own ends in publishing a programme of our diffidence of obtaining our desires or in giving a publick testimony that we were aiming at some other thing then what we professed to seek And therefore wee are so far from excusing that forme of doing that we judge our selves to be wronged thereby Another fault much more intollerable is objected against us The bitternesse and sharpnesse of some expressions which may bee interpreted by your Majesties well affected Subjects not to be so agreeable to that regard and

Irish-rebellion beseeching God to manisest your Sacred Majesties innocencie to all the world They made mention of the miseries of Ireland for no other end but to represent the danger of your Majesties Kingdomes through the prevailing power of the Popish faction The British Papists at this time being animated by the same spirit working upon the same principles enraged with the same furies breathing out the same threatnings and slaughter aiming at the same ends and emboldened with the same presumptions with the Papists of Ireland their confederates And withall to present our earnest desires for a pacification that both the armies may bee sent against that horride rebellion and peace restored to all your Majesties Dominions The expression in our Petition of Unitie in Religion we have borrowed from the Article in the Treatie accorded unto by your Majestie from the Declarations of the Parliament and from the Generall Assemblie By which is meaned no other thing but one Confession of Faith one common directorie for worship and one Gate chisme The Papists may know that the true Kirk in all ages hath been troubled with differences and contentions as great as any now against the reformed Kirks which many of the godly have lamented and studied to compose and as it was written of some hereticks of old They themselves sacrifice in schisme and dissention and greet the world with the name of peace whom they drive from the peace of their salvation They therefore cannot hence authorize their scandall against the reformation yet the smallest differences of practise and diversitie of the expressions are matter of strife to the contentious of hinderance of edification to the ignorant of stumbling to the weake and of grief to the godly when thereby they see against religious Unitie and Christian love the bowels of the Kirk rent assunder and people scandalously divided in some parts of the worship of God All which evil might be perfectly cured in all your Majesties dominions the mouthes of Papists scopped schisme and separation hereafter prevented and the face of the Kirke filled with true beautie and splendor to your Majesties greater glory and the greater terrour of all your enemies by this blessed and never enough desired Unitie in Religion Without which tender consciences being freed from constraine may bee in some degree eased by your Majestie but shall never have rest and be satisfied nor shall the rent of the Kirk arising from different or contrary practises be cured but shall from time to time increase Concerning uniformity in Kirk government our hopes thereof and of the unitie of Religion grounded upon the Article of the Treatie made this Kirk and Kingdome to enter into the more strict amitie and friendship with England And that the amitie and friendship builded upon such a foundation might be the more firme and durable they have since pressed the same by their Petitions and Declarations in all humilitie and love without any bitternesse of expression Onely they have declared the government of the Kirk by Assemblies in their strong and beautifull order and subordination to bee by divine right and that as Prelacie is confessed in this your Majesties answer to be by the rule of humane policie so to bee almost universally acknowledged by the Prelates themselves and their adherents to be but a humane institution introduced by humane reason and setled by humane law and custom for supposed conveniencie which therefore by humane authoritie without wronging any mans conscience may be altered and abolished upon so great a necessity as is a heartie conjunction of all the reformed Kirks a firme and well grounded peace between the two Kingdomes formerly divided in themselves and betwixt themselves by this partition wall and a perfect Union of the two Kirks in the two Nations which although by the providence of God in one Island and under one Monarch yet ever since the Reformation have been at greater difference in the point of Kirk government which in all places hath a powerfull influence upon all the parts of Religion then any other reformed Kirks although in nations at greatest distance and under diverse Princes Papacie is the greatest cause of schisme in the Christian Kirk and Episcopacie devised by man to bee a cure the greatest cause of schisme in the reformed Kirks As the mutuall relation and conjunction of true Ecclestasticall and Civill government is a corroboration of both so do we conceive that both are much weakened in their proper functions by that intermixture of the Ecclesiasticall government with the Civill State And as wee know the principles of Prelacie to be Popish and contrarie to the principles of Reformation So have we reason to beleeve That such an intermixture is not for your Majesties honour while they maintain and professe that Monarchie cannot subsist without Prelacie And that Prelacie had not been cast out of the Parliament if it had been profitable there And thought fit to bee altogether abolished if it had not been an unprofitable burthen to the Kingdome and pernicious to the civill State and common wealth As is contained more fully in the Declaration of both Houses of Parliament to the Generall Assemblie The following of humane inventions without and against Scripture and the ambition and covetousnesse of Kirkmen were observed of old to bee the corruptions which made many to call upon the Pope and the chiefe guides of the Kirke at that time for a reformation but all in vaine for that had been their own ruine to which in humane reason they would never willingly have consented That upon the same causes and corruptions there is a necessitie of the reformation of the Kirk of England Is as unanimously confessed as it is universally acknowledged that it is unlikely if not impossible to be obtained in the regulate and ordinarie way Upon the reason exprest afterward in your Majesties answer Because in the common and ordinary way the passion or interest of particular men will impose upon the publict For what greater privat interest then benefits and dignities Who more interessed in these then Bishops Deans Arch. deacons and such ordinary members of the convocation And ho can be more sueyed and by assed with passion then such as have this interest Whether this bee applyable to the Parliament whose places and dignities are uncontroverted and unquestionable it is not for us to judge but this we know when the corruptions of the Kirk are grown to such an height that she can neither beare her diseases nor endure the remedies it is the dutie of the magistrat and civill authoritie by the advice of the more sound and sincere part of the Kirke and Ministrie to endeavoure a reformation since no reformation worthie of that name can be expected from the corrupt Clergie nor hath at any time Religion been that way in any tolerable measure reformed When the evils are extraordinary the remedies must bee other then ordinary Scripture reason and experience of the Kirk teach in such an exigence of

reverence which is due to your Majesties person and the matter it selfe to be reprochfull to the honour and constitution of that your Majesties Kingdome Whether the matter of the Petition be reproachfull shall aferwards in the particulars appear But for the expressions we have examined the whole Petition and can finde no word of that kinde Wee rather did feare the censure of fauning and flattering words which your Majestie may remember were sometime put upon our supplications Our desire was to keepe within the bounds of that liberty which beseemeth the Ministers of Christ and if any word have escaped us which we cannot see it was contrary to our intention for wee know that we should neither speak evill of dignities nor unreverently unto them The like report hath beene made to your Mejestie of our preaching and prayers but when the de lators are tryed they will be found either malicious against us for reproving their faults Or having no other way of insinuation too officious to your Majestie or to others whom they desire to please or so blinded with self-love that they thinke Preachers should speak like Parasites or so undiscerning that when we professe our desire to the reformation of Religion in England and Ireland we are fansied by them to preach or pray against the King and his royall authoritie Wee fear God and honour the King And have learned not onely to put a difference betwixt God and the King but also against the old sophistication now revived betwixt the pictures of the Emperour and the images of the false gods craftily insert into them and know the way how to honour the King without such a mixture and confusion Slownesse to beleeve an evill report and the constructing of things doubtfull is one of your Majesties royall praises of which the faithfull Ministers of this Kirk desire against slanders and suspitions to have the experience which will prove profitable for your Majesties honour and obedience and our peace and quietnesse As the north winde driveth away rain So doth an angrie countenance a back biting tongue Righteous lips are the delight of Kings and they love him that speaketh right Concerning the interposing of the Generall Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland and our intermedling by commission from them in the affairs of the Kirk of England We humbly intreat your Majestie to consider of the reasons of this our doing 1. Although the Kirks of one Nation be distant in place from the Kirks of another Nation yet are they united in heart and spirit and are generally but one body and Kirke and must as Sisters of one Mother keepe the unitie of the spirit in the bond of peace whence ariseth the communion of all Gods graces and blessings amongst the Kirks that they may not only help comfort and refresh but advise admonish exhort warne and reprove one another so farre as need requireth and their Christian love and abilitie reacheth Yet avoiding both ambition and confusion there being a coordination between Kirkes of diverse Nations but no subordination We have not presumed to passe the limits of this Christian communion having proceeded by way of charity and in a ministeriall or rather brotherly manner not by authority or Magisterially by way of humble supplication to your Majestie Declaration to the house of Parliament and advice and exhortation to such of our brethren of the Ministerie as were best known unto us very farre from usurpation or jurisdiction 2. Our humble petition to your Majestie and our Declaration to the Parliament were nothing els but a prosecution of the demand made by the Commissioners of this Kingdome and a pressing of the answer given by your Majestie and the Parliament in the last treatie which filled us with hope of what was then demanded since followed by diverse Declarations and now again desired 3. The experience of the sufferings of this Kirk from the doctrine for me of worship and government of the Kirk of England Doth beget feares of the like hereafter which maketh our petition to be unto us a necessare meane of self preservation 4. Our encouragements from your Majesties Letter to the Generall Assembly and the Declaration of the house of Parliament desiring them to concur in petitioning your Majestie for setling one confession of Faith one directorie of the publike worship and one Catechisme in all the three Kingdomes as a meane to advance the honour and service of God enlarge the greatnesse power and glorie of the King confirme the peace securitie and prosperitie of all his good Subjects make way to the relief and deliverance of the poore afflicted Kirks abroad and to the totall abolishing of the usurpation and tyrannie of Rome 5 The paterne wee have of this Christian duty both by word and wryting in the Kirk at Jerusalem and the Kirk at Antioch which was first crowned with the name of Christians The one of which were Jewes and the other Gentiles And in diverse other Kirks recorded in Scripture many Precedents also in antiquity before the Kirks did contend for primacy or knew any preheminence one over another Many examples of other reformed Kirks And the practise of the Kirk of Scotland diverse times after the Reformation wryting into England against the ceremonies and for union against the Papists and their confederats banded together by the bloudie league of Trent These and the like reasons wee conceive did sufficiently authorize us in all that we have done not as Directors or Judges but as supplicants and humble advisers In that day shall there be a high way one of Egypt into Assyria from one Kirk and Nation of the Gentiles to another And the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians whom the Lord of Hostes shall blesse Upon this and the like grounds have letters been sent professedly between some godly loyall and peaceable Ministers of the Kirk of England and the Generall Assembly here and their Commissioners One of the means intended for the good of Religion in both Kingdomes against Sects and Shismes admitted and approven by your Majesties Commissioners in the Generall Assembly and which for the forme of doing is innocent and may bee profitable unlesse the matter bee nocent and hurtfull and thereby deserves censure Wee wish we were able by our Letters Declarations or Petitions To reduce all the reformed Kirks to a perfect conformitie to suppresse all the Heresie Superstition and Tyrannie of Papists and the Paganisme of Turkes and Insidels and would not doubt of your Majesties Roy all approbation not withstanding all the Lawes standing to the contrarie and plea's could be made for their antiquitie happinesse and stabilitie Common arguments and collours pretended for every Religion and of late answered to the full in the point of Episcopall government from the verity of Scripture which is true antiquity and the onely solide ground of the happinesse and stabilitie of Religion and government of the Kirk The Petitioners were far from laying upon your Majestie any Imputation of the