Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	good_a	king_n	prince_n	3,500	5	5.4628	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56284	Scotlands holy vvar a discourse truly, and plainly remonstrating, how the Scots out of a corrupt pretended zeal to the covenant have made the same scandalous, and odious to all good men, and how by religious pretexts of saving the peace of Great Brittain they have irreligiously involved us all in a most pernitious warre / by H.P. ...	Parker, Henry, 1604-1652.	1651 (1651)	Wing P421; ESTC R40061	65,174	82

are not qualified by the Covenant to do these honorable things in England Alas if the Covenant does not add any new qualification to us to serve Religion and our King I hope no man will suspect that it takes away any such qualification from us as we had before And I hope ther 's no man here but thinks before any Covenant taken he had a warrant and capacity good enough to do honorable service to his Religion and his native Prince Let me speak plainly and bluntly I doubt these scruples do not arise against us as we are Scotch men and so have no power of judging in England but rather as we are of such a party in Scotland that the Kirk dares not confide in us this is lamentable halting before God Let us not therfore be driven into any unmanly irresolution by logicall niciti●s and School-puntilioes let us beleeve that such just ends as we aime at inservingour God and Prince have just avenues belonging to them and that God ha's not hedgd in or inscons'd goodnesse from the approaches of men as he did once the Tree of Life My Lord and Gentlemen shall pure reformed Religion want an Advocate in this presence no it were labour lost here to recommend the excellencies of her you all are confident you cannot but be certaine that God hath rather sent a Cherubim to invite and wast you to her assistance in England then to affright you and drive you from her embraces with a flaming Sword Then as for the King you have a greater interest in him then the English have and he ought to have a greater interest in you then he has in the English Let me tell you if you should prove oblivious of his favours he might upraid divers of you with your Fields and Vineyards as Saul did once his Benjamites Do we not all know that his graces towards us ha's made him the lesse acceptable to the English and does not the whole world taxe us of our ill requitall at Newcastle I speake of that in your ears what can be said then either we must requite him better and acquit our selves better now or all generations to come will call us ungratefull and unjust and for my part I cannot ever construe the Covenant as that it intends to render us ungratefull or unjust T is true the enterprise we goe upon must cost blood and fall heavie upon some of our fellow Covenanters in England it were else impossible almost it should be great and honorable let this be our comfort the work is great and honorable and being so it must be acceptable to God and that which God accepts cannot but be fea●able for Qui dat finem dat media Let the justice of this war fix our resolutions upon the pursuance of it and when we are upon its pursuance let us pursue it wisely and strenuously as becomes Souldiers let no scruples defraud us of the opportunities and advantages that attendit for such in war are irrecoverable pretious to be brief let us not be held up with Treaties by the English Commissioners let us not wave Langdale nor leave Berwick and Carlisle to the Enemy when we are in peace let the laws of peace order us when we are in war let the Maxims of war sway c. the rather for that advantage lost in peace may be regained but an error committed in war can never be redeemed The next Gentleman was of a different opinion from either of these and you may suppose his Oratory was as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen YOu have heard how much may be said for a present war with England and how much may be said against it you have heard in what extreams the arguments both of a meer Souldier and a meer Scholler run and now having heard both and compar'd both you may the better extract out of both that which is truly counsellable at this present and that doubtlesse teaches warily to decline both extreams The Gentleman that spake last maintained well the justice and necessity of the worke that is to be done such a service to God and the King cannot but be just and necessary and our Covenant cannot obstruct any thing that is of it self just and necessary therefore to oppose our Covenant against this war is to undervalue our Covenant and to entangle our selves in such nicities as are more fit for the Schools then this Senate On the other side the Gentleman that spoke first interposed some necessary advertisements about the manner of our prosecuting this high undertaking not fit to be neglected for doubtlesse it concerns Gods honor the safety of the King and the perpetuall peace and safety of these Nations that this affair be wisely managed as well as it is religiously intended We all know that the taking of some advantages in war if they be at too far a distance with Religion may prove our disadvantages and so the parting with some opportunities in some cases may be a gayn of better to us hast ha's overthrowne some undertakings as well as delay others Wherefore I desire leave to counterpoise with a little moderation that which hath been pressed by both the Gentlemen that spoke before me And First t is my humble motion that the Kirk here may have all possible satisfaction given them in the forming and heading of this Army and in the conduct and steering of the great designe forasmuch as without this condiscention we cannot expect their concurrence and without their concurrence we cannot expect that readinesse or confidence in our Friends at home nor that stupidity consternation in our enemies abroad as is to be desired Secondly That if wee admit not the English Commissioners to treate and then allow three moneths warning after the end of that Treaty yet we may instantly dispatch away an Expresse to the Parliament of England with particular demands and a cleere denunciation of warre within a moneth if those particulars be not instantly agreed to Thirdly That some reasonable space before wee march a Declaration may be emitted to satisfie our Friends in England with our sincere intentions towards them and that the buisines of the Kirke being setled and the King reinthroned wee have no intention to intrench upon the priviledges of the Parliament there or to breake that bond of confederation and union that was intended to be confirmed by the Covenant Fourthly That Langdale may be countenanced at a distance and with much reservation and that no other use may be openly made of Him then of a Forlorne Hope to seize the English frontire Garrisons for our use and to ingage upon other the like hazardous services How well these things are calculated for the Meridian of Edenburgh I leave every man to guesse freely but this is certain there were few in the Scotch Parliament who gave their judgements the first way many went the second way and all went the third way except onely in complying with the Kirke and if there be

vertue in it why do they brandish it so ludicrously onely to dazle our weak eyes The next Objection of the Scots is that we have not onely sequestred a great part of Christs spirituall power and detained it in Lay hands but have also abused the same power tolerating thereby and countenancing all manner of heresies which is directly contrary to our covenanted Reformation Our Answer is that we are neither intensively nor extensively lyable indeed to this objection For 1. all sects and scandals are not permitted by us nothing is more distant from truth then this suggestion All grosse sins and seducers are supprest with as quick severity as ever nay since the Norman Conquest there have not been so many sharp Laws made against Adultery Swearing blaspheming Sabbath-breaking and open prophanation as have been made within these few yeers All the remission and relaxation that our Parliament has indulged of late is only towards tender Consciences where men comport themselves civilly and inoffensively towards their neighbours and attempt to innovate nothing in the Church for perturbing of Religion and even in this also we havenot extended our indulgence so far as the united States of the Netherlands have and divers other Protestant Princes in Germany The truth is we do not finde such danger in Erastianisme Independentisme Anabaptisme Round-headisme c. as our rigid Presbyterians suspect and this would not dislike the Presbyterians themselves if they were men willing to do to others as they are willing others should do to them for they themselves are sensible that we can never desire more gentlenesse from them to us then is now shewed by us to them 2ly That toleration which we are accused of is but a non persecution in its most intensive degree for we use all Christian means besides force to reduce such as wander and divide from us and we are far from cherishing schismes and broyls either in Church or State Our Saviours own parable allows us where weeds have gotten head and are as numerous as the standing corn rather to spare the weeds for the corns sake then to indanger the corn for the weeds sake Howsoever it would be some charity in our traducers if they would advisedly consider how the growth of our weeds came at first to be so rank amongst us and thereupon joyn with us in humiliation for it not exult over us in scorn and derision Upon the first defiance given by the King to the Parliament half the Clergie at least fell away from this cause and before that rent could be sowde up there happened a second distance betwixt us and the Scots partly upon a royal and partly an Ecclesiasticall account and that distance drew on as great a revolt of the Clergie as the former And how can any man imagine but that strange disorders must needs follow and abound in a Church so deserted When the dressers of the Vineyard do not onely quit their charge but throw down the mounds how can it be expected but that Bores and Foxes should break in And indeed the Parliament is still ill beset for either they must deny preaching to the people to three parts of foure or else they must yeeld the Pulpits to their seditious Enemies and to such as shall seek to wound the Magistrate through the souls of the people This being the Parliaments hard case it may better become the Scots to whom may be attributed a great part of these disturbances to afford some pitie and help then to adde miserie to our miserie This is sufficient to plead for our indulgence let us onely advise the Presbyterians not to take unjust offence thereat or to stumble into the contrary extreme T is wofull to see how rigidly the Ministers carrie themselves towards the poore people in many places and what an absolute discretionarie power they challenge in many places over the ordinances of God There are many Parishes in England where the people have not been admitted to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper nor some Infants to the Sacrament of Baptisme for a long time This deserves much bewailing for certainly God gave these rich Legacies to the diffusive body of his Church for the spirituall comfort of the meanest servants of his and not to that which cals it self his representative body to be a trade and monopolie for their advantage in this world But I have done if the world now finde cause to condemne us of dealing treacherously with the Covenant and our fellow-Covenanters in that we have not submitted to the Scots and for their sakes disclaimed our own judgements and interests to gratifie the King and the Presbyterian Clergie with our perpetuall servility let us fall under their condemnation Or if the world can justifie the Scots as pursuers of that union freedome and fidelity which was aimed at in the Covenant when they made themselves our Lords to give us Laws in our own Dominions and when they did not onely raise sedition here in our own bowels but came in with an Army of 20000. men to devour us let them stand upright here and injoy their wished Triumph Our finall assurance and comfort is there sits a Judge in heaven who can neither deceive nor be deceived a Judge that hears all appeals made above and does right at last to all that groane under oppression and injustice belowe Of the Scoch Warre VVEe have seen how the Covenants waxen nose has been turned and moulded into many forms wee see now cause to suspect that 't was made so large at first and compacted of such materials that like the Grecian wooden Horse it might tear our walls the wider upon its entrance and discharge the more discords and dissentions amongst us after its entrance was procured We see it was intended by the honest party in England for cement to unite the Nations in a more arct faithfull confederation then ever our Ancestors knew but the couching of it was obscure and left liable to so many false glosses that it soon became {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Our brotherly offices of Assistance soon degenerated into harsh expostulations harsh expostulations begat secreet feudes and secreet feudes heightned themselves into open hostilities The question is only when open war commenced betwixt these Nations Whether the Scots first invaded us by their Duke Hamilton above two years since or whether the English first invaded Scotland this last summer under the command of the Lord Gen. Cromwell For a year or two after reception of the Covenant in England a good correspondence was kept betwixt us the Scotch Commissioners sat in our Committee of Lords and Commons at Darby house whereby they were admitted into the knowledge of our highest and secretest affaires and had opportunity to frame parties amongst us for promoting of their own Interests Out of these kindnesses sprung our first unkindnesses for the more honour was given to the Scots the more still they thought was due and the more they thought was due the

worse use they made of all that was or could be given them So all jealousies could not long be supprest for in time some of our Lords and Commons saw cause to conceale some things concerning this State from them and this was extreamly ill taken and indeed no otherwise then if it had been a reall piece of injustice to the Kingdom of Scotland but moderation as yet kept both within reasonable bounds Mr. A. Henderson was then living and conversant in those businesses and surely he was a man of an Apostolicall spirit and though a great lover of his Countrey yet He knowingly durst not interpose in an ill action for his Countreys advantage and I am perswaded He did very good offices and kept us from further jars during his life and if He had lived longer would have prevented much of what has hapned since Besides Presbytery the Scotch Clergies darling seemd plausible at first to the English and soon grew indeared to our Synod and for a good space it got such footing in England that the Scots had no cause of dissatisfaction in that behalf The King also the other darling of the Scotch Nation till about the latter end of Summer 1645. prosperd so that He more slighted the Scots then He did us and so about him there was no great cause of animosities and if any did appear they were more easily to be digested But when the English Army under the Lord Gen. Fairfax had in one Summer defeated and utterly broken two very great Armies of the Kings and taken in divers other considerable Cities and strengths without any help at all from the Scots many emulous considerations began to breed strange alienations in the hearts of our brethren The easie warfare of the Scots all this while had afforded them besides good store of pay and plunder an absolute signiory over the Northerne Counties our Northerne men tell us wofull stories till this day and now they saw that rich service or rather absolute dominion was likely to come to an end they thought sit to strengthen themselves in Berwick and Newcastle and they got Carlile also by very foul play in spight of our Commissioners as if they were resolved and certain to have a dispute with us Likewise in 1646. when Oxford grew straitned and unsafe to the King and when it was visible also that Presbytery after so many years experience did not altogether rellish with the English the Scots presently resolved as was related before to expound the Covenant in favour of the King at least for setling and securing their arrears and making a commodious retreat out of England Accordingly that Article which provided for the Kings interest served their interest wel enough and war so well commented upon by them that it held us at a bay till their contract was perfected and then after a long dispute very chargeable to our Nation at the instance of an Army and 200000 li. they delivered up Newcastle Barwick and Carlile and took time to study the Kings Article a little longer In the year 1647. there was no notable businesse for the Souldier England took a little breath having nothing to do but to squench the few remainders of war and Scotland kept at home to share the late gotten spoiles of England yet this year there past some new cajoleries betwixt the Scots and the King and some contests betwixt the Scots and us about the King and no doubt the next years action was now in forging and all preparatory hammers were on working And now enters the memorable year of 1648. a year never to be forgotten by the English in regard of the unparralleld dangers that then overspread it and the unspeakable mercies of God that then protected it All the enemies of this poore Common-wealth were now in a solemn conjuration against it In Ireland all was held past recovery Ormond the Parliaments revolted servitor was complying with the bloody Irish and betraying his own Religion into the bargain to get some of their forces into England in Wales in Kent in Essex in Surrey great bodies of men rose up some upon the old Royall account some upon a new whilst many also of the Navy fell away from the Parliament to make the case the more desperate No lesse then 40000 English did their endeavours this Summer to make way for Hamilton from whom by good intelligence doubtles they expected 20000 Scots Great was the goodness of God that all these confederates could not be in a readiness at one and the same time and that all the Forreign Princes round about us which favoured them could not be assistent to them that yeer God had so ordained it that the Welsh should be reduced before the Scots entred or else our condition had been altogether hopelesse in the eye of reason But to the Scoch businesse The Solemn League and Covenant was now brought under a new debate in the Parliament of Scotland and the main matter in question was how they could be absolved of that holy stipulation if they did not imploy all their power to reform Religion and to restore the King in England and for the fuller agitation and ventilation of this matter severall grave harangues by persons affected severally were drest and we may well imagine to what effect Agent of the Kirks party seeing the Parliament filled with so great a party of the Hamiltonians is supposed to begin My Lords and Gentlemen The Covenant presses us all to endeavour the reformation of Religion and the restauration of the King in England by a brotherly way of Assistance in our severall places and callings and so as that these ends of the Covenant may stand and agree with all the rest But withall it behoves us to use a great deal of caution and circumspection in a matter of so high importance wherein the honour of God and good of the Nations is so religiously involved not to be mistaken either in the mark we all shoot at or in the arrows we are to shoot As for the point of Religion I am perswaded it wants reformation in England and I beleeve I dissent not therein from any here but this scruple sticks by me I doubt whether I am so properly a Judge in England of Religion as I am in Scotland and if I am not then I fear I step out of my place and calling whilest I take upon me there to reform by force which sure the Covenant requires not but excludes in expresse terms The account of my scruples I give thus first if we are now judges of matters Ecclesiasticall in England we are so constituted by the Covenant for before the Covenant we pretended to no uch thing and in the Covenan● it self I finde no such constituting words 2ly if the Covenant creates us Judges in cases Eccles it creates us the same in all other things civil military and judiciall for all the interests of the King and Subjects in Parliament and out of Parliament are inclosed within the