Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	king_n	kingdom_n	majesty_n	5,039	5	6.1083	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85789	The nullity of the pretended-assembly at Saint Andrews & Dundee: wherein are contained, the representation for adjournment, the protestation & reasons therof. Together with a review and examination of the Vindication of the said p. assembly. Hereunto is subjoyned the solemn acknowledgment of sins, and engagement to duties, made and taken by the nobility, gentry, burroughs, ministry, and commonalty, in the year 1648. when the Covenant was renewed. With sundry other papers, related unto in the foresaid review.	Guthrie, James, 1612?-1661.; Wood, James, 1608-1664.	1652 (1652)	Wing G2263; Wing W3400; Thomason E688_13; ESTC R202246	280,404	351

could not have loosed yet it would have lessened the difficulty and strength of the Argument but even after the Moderator was chosen and the Assembly now formally constitute these men were all allowed to sit as Members and to be Judges in every thing that come before the Assembly for many dayes together before the Assembly had judged of the exception nay which is more before their proceedings were approven by the Assembly they sate as Judges to give vote and sentence upon this very exception propounded against themselves the same being one of the speciall reasons contained in the Protestation which was condemned before the proceedings of the Commissioners were reported and approven we said that it would not have loosed the difficultie because the thing which was Desired was not the Tryall and Discussion of the Exception instantly before the choice of a Moderator but that accordingly as was done in reference to other Members excepted against so these should be laid aside and not allowed to vote untill the Assembly being constitute take in consideration and discusse the the same which they were so far from doing that they did peremptorily reject it and admit him to vote which was in effect to reject the exception wholly and to determine either that it was not relevant or else that it was false both which were absurd 1. Because to say that it was not relevant was to contradict most clear light of reason and to say it was false was to approve the Commissions proceedings before tryall of them or hearing what was to be said for verifying the exception Object They could not be debarred untill they were found judicially scandalous 1. Because they were many of them men of approven integrity in all their former carriage 2. This had been to fasten an imputation nay a kind of censure upon them before they were found guilty 3. It had been to make way for a bad preparative to remove a number of able and faithfull men out of a Judicatory whensoever it should please any to come in against them with any such alleadgeances Ans All these things are clearly enough answered already yet for further satisfaction we shortly reply that though a Judiciall tryall and sentence may haply be required for removing one who is already a received member of a constitute Judicatory yet it s not in regard of the members of a Judicatory yet to be constituted or in regard of members yet not admitted for if it were so then it would follow either that no Judicatory could constitute it self but behaved to have some other Judicatory to judge of the constituent Members of it or else that it behoved to constitute it self of scandalous persons notwithstanding of timeous information given of these scandals and exceptions propounded against the persons under the same why they could not sit till these scandals were purged 2. It destroyes the common order and directorie of procedour in the constitution of all Judicatories 3. It contradicts the current and constant tenor of the practices and proceedings of the Generall Assemblies of this Kirk in order to their constitution who have alwayes removed persons against whom exceptions were made till they took tryall of the same though there were no Judiciall sentence at the propounding of them produced for verifying of them As for their former integrity we shall not deny to sundry of them that testimony But as it is not the first time in the Kirk of Scotland that men of understanding have fallen to prove others so neither did their former carriage when they fell from their stedfastnes perswade others to wink or be silent at their defection and for the fastening an imputation or kind of censure upon them It was much better and more safe and reasonable supposing what is alleadged to fasten a just imputation upon them then to fasten an unjust and remeadilesse prejudice upon the cause But would not their being vindicated after triall have made their righteousnesse shine more brightly And for the preparative it is already answered That it is not sufficient to propound things by way of exception but that they must be relevant for the matter and probable for the truth because of scandal or presumptions or persons offering to verifie and instruct All which were in the present case 3. Reason That is not a lawfull f●ee Assembly where there is not liberty and freedom to vote in the matters agitated and debated therein But the Meeting at S. Andrews had no liberty nor freedom in the chief matters that came in consideration to wit the Publick Resolutions and Proceedings of the Commission as it is manifest from these particulars 1. The Commission had in their Remonstrances and Papers stirred up the Civill Magistrate against such as did differ from them in these Resolutions and Proceedings and accordingly the Civill Magistrate had confined some Ministers to wit these of Sterlin upon that accompt and had made Lawes and Acts of Parliament appointing all such to be proceeded against as Enemies to Religion and the Kingdome 2. The Commission had by their Warnings and Papers to Presbyteries stirred up Presbyteries to censure such and cite them to the Generall Assembly and accordingly the Presbyteries did cite many of them 3. The Kings Majesty wrote to the Assembly a Letter inciting and stirring up to punishment and censure these who differed from the Publick Resolutions and his Commissioner did second the same by a Speech to the Assembly intimating that he hoped that such a course should be taken with them as that all others might be deterred from doing the like hereafter none of all which things that Meeting did resent but first were silent thereat and afterwards did approve them Object It was not any prelimiting of the Assembly in the freedom of their voices for the King and his Commissioner to stir them up to their duty against these who differed and should not obey the Assembly Nay it was incumbent to the King and his Commissioner to do so as it is incumbent to the Judicatories of the Kirk to stir up the Civil Magistrate to his duty Ans If the King and his Commissioner had kept themselves within the bounds spoken of in the Objection lesse could have been said but whilst the Assembly had not yet medled with the Publick Resolutions and proceedings of the Commission either to condemn or approve them they stirred up of the Assembly to punish and censure not these who shall differ from the Assembly in their Acts and Conclusions but these who differ from the Commission in their Acts and Conclusions 4. Reason That is not a free Assembly wherein persons allowed by the Acts and Policie of the Kirk to speak their Consciences are denied liberty so to do But so it was in the Assembly at S. Andrews that such persons were denyed that liberty Persons allowed to speak in an Assembly are not onely Ecclesiastick persons having calling and power to vote therein but others also are allowed to propone

indeed to be determined not relevant in that circumstance of time when it was proponed It is no answer at all First Because the Assembly could have judged thereof before the choosing of the Moderator other Assemblies severall times having so done and this same Assembly did judge the relevancy of sundry exceptions as to the laying aside of the Commissioners yea the irrelevancy of this same exception by the Authors own concession in these very words by what authority they could judge the relevancy of one exception by the same authority they might have judged the relevancy of another and by what authority they could reject it as irrelevant by the same authority they could have discussed it relevant or not relevant Secondly Because it was also urged after the choosing of the Moderator but was not then condescended unto but the Commissioners against whom it was proponed were still allowed to sit as Members of the Assembly without having any regard to that exception which gave probable grounds to think that the rejecting of it before the choice of a Moderator upon that pretext was but a meer pretext because a Moderator now being chosen it was still rejected and therefore rejected as simpliciter irrelevant without reference to any circumstance of time as appeareth by condemning it in the Protestation But it may haply be said That by the circumstance of time when it was proponed he means all the intervall of time that was between the proponing of it and the judging of the Commissioners proceedings If so it was relevant in no circumstance of time it being proponed meerly in order to their removall for that intervall of time when their proceedings were now approven and condemned it would have been very impertinent and uselesse to propone any such exception He would let his Readers know in what circumstance of time it was relevant As to the removing of the Commissioners before judging of their proceedings for if any circumstance of that time it was relevant the Assembly did wrong in not finding it to be so and if in no circumstance of that time it was relevant as to that effect he doth but triffle with his Readers in telling them that it was not relevant in that circumstance of time it was proponed it had been candide and fair dealing to have told them that it was relevant in no circumstance of that time or not relevant at all but this would not have been well digested VINDICATION SO we shall now passe to the next ground of the Protestation what is contained in the Writer of the second Paper his replyes to the first objection or other Objections is either nothing to the infringing of our answer or cleared by what hath been said already only this much I adde These men who he saith hath fallen from their stedfastnesse and made defection at which others could not wink because of their former integrity some of them have been stedfast in the truth and Cause of God when others that accuses them knew it not some of them we doubt not will by Gods grace give testimony of their stedfastnesse in it in their suffering condition when some that accuses them may be will be found or already are tampering about and devising glosses how they may with some colour shuffell themselves loose from Articles of the Covenant And the Writer shal never be able to instance that they have made defection in their late Resolutions either from any Article of the Covenant or from the truth of Religion in any head thereof Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government received and established in this Kirk or from practising according to that truth I mean by any Publick allowed practise or course contrary thereunto for as for person all failings add short commings in particular duties they know themselves to be but men compassed with a body of death and we doubt not but they are as far from Pharisaicall justifying of themselves as others As to the other partculars mentioned in the Protestation ' that they stirred up the Civill Magistrate against such as were unsatisfied with their Proceedings It s contrary to truth as shall be cleared afterwards there alleadged prelimitating of the Assembly is cleared before as it formed and inlarged in the second Paper The Meeting at St. Andrews had no liberty nor freedome to vote in matters agitated and debated therein which is alleadged to be manifest from the particulars that the Commission had in their Remonstrances and Papers stirred up the Civill Magistrate against such as did differ from them in their Resolutions and Proceedings and accordingly the Magistrate had confined some Ministers viz. those of Sterline upon that accompt and had made Laws and Acts of Parliament ordaining all such to be proceeded against as enemies to Religion and the Kingdom 2. The Commissioners had by their Warnings and Papers to Presbyteries stirred up the Presbyteries to censure such and cite them to the Generall Assembly and accordingly the Presbyteries did cite many of them 3. The Kings Majesty wrote to the Assembly a Letter moving and stirring them up to punish and censure those who differed from the Publick Resolutions and the Commissioner did second the same by his speech to the Assembly intimating that he hoped such a course should be taken with them that all others may be deterred from the like thereafter none of these things that Meeeing did resent but were silent thereat and afterwards did approve I Answer To the first particular it is contrary to the truth that the Commission had in their Papers stirred up the Civill Magistrate against such as did differ from them about their Resolutions and Proceedings the Writer if he would have dealt ingenuously and faithfully either with the Commissioners or with such as was to read this Paper he should have instanced or produced some at least one or two for he speaks as if this had been done in sundry Papers passages out of their Papers bearing this 2. That the Civill Magistrate did confine as the Writer termeth their requiring them to stay at Perth for a space untill their businesse should be cognosced the Ministers of Sterlin being stirred up thereunto by the Commissioners and that he confined them upon that accompt viz. That they differed from the Publick Resolutions both are affirmed wrongfully and contrary to the truth the real story of that businesse was this in summe The Committee being informed that the Ministers of Sterlin were in their publick Doctrine and otherwise practising the hindering of the Leavies according to Publick Resolutions and moving sundry persons in the Garrison of Sterlin to quite and desert their charge which tended to the endangering of the whole Land and particularly that Garrison the only Bulwark of the whole land under God the Committee represented the matter to the Commission of the Generall Assembly shewing them that they could not permit that Garrison to be endangered yet in regard they were Ministers they desired the Commission to take a dealing with them first

him by breaking the Oath and Covenant which we have made with him and that we may be humbled before him by confessing our sin and forsaking the evil of our way Therefore being pressed with so great necessities and straits and warranted by the word of God and having the example of Gods people of old who in the time of their troubls and when they were to seek delivery and a right way for themselvs that the Lord might be with them to prosper them did humble themselves before him and make a free and particular confession of the sins of their Princes their Rulers their Captains their Priests and their People and did engage themselves to do no more so but to reform their wayes and be stedfast in his Covenant and remembring the practise of our Predecessors in the year 1596. wherein the Gen. Assembly and all the Kirk Judicatories with the concurrence of many of the Nobility Gentry Burgesses did with many tears acknowledge before God the breach of the National Covenant engaged themselves to a reformation even as our Predecessors and theirs had before done in the Gen. Assembly and convention of Estates in the year 1567. And perceiving that this Duty when gone about out of conscience and in sincerity hath alwaies been attended with a reviving out of troubles and with a blessing and success from Heaven We do humbly and sincerely as in his sight who is the searcher of hearts acknowledge the many sins and great transgressions of the Land We have done wickedly our Kings our Princes our Nobles our Judges our Officers our Teachers and our People Albeit the Lord hath long and clearly-spoken unto us we have not hearkened to his voice albeit he hath followed us with tender mercies we have not been allured to wait upon him and walk in his way and though he hath striken us yet we have not grieved nay though he hath consumed us we have refused to receive correction We have not remembered to render unto the Lord according to his goodness and according to our own vowes and promises but have gone away backward by a continued course of back-sliding and have broken all the Articles of that solemn League and Covenant which we swore before God Angels and Men. Albeit there be in the Land many of all ranks who be for a Testimony unto the truth for a name of joy praise unto the Lord by living godly studying to keep their garments pure and being stedfast in the Covenant and Cause of God yet we have reason to acknowledge that most of us have not endeavored with that reality sincerity and constancy that did become us to preserve the work of Reformation in the Kirk of Scotland many have satisfied themselves with the purity of the Ordinances neglecting the power therof yea some have turned aside to crooked wayes destructive to both The prophane loose and insolent carriage of many in our Armies who went to the Assistance of our Brethren in England and the tamperings and unstraight dealing of some of our Commissioners and others of our Nation in London the Isle of Wight and other places of that Kingdom have proved great lets to the work of Reformation and setling of Kirk government there wherby Error and Schism in that Land have been encreased and Sectaries hardened in their way We have been so far from endeavoring the extirpation of Prophaness and what is contrary to the power of godliness that prophanity hath been much winked at and prophane persons much countenanced and many times imployed untill iniquity and ungodliness hath gone over the face of the Land as a flood nay sufficient care hath not been had to separate betwixt the precious and the vile by debarring from the Sacrament all ignorant and scandalous persons according to the Ordinances of this Kirk Neither have the Priviledges of the Parliaments and Liberties of the Subject been d●ly tendered but some amongst our selves have labored to put into the hands of our King an arbitrary and unlimited power destructive to both and many of us have been accessory of late to those means and wayes whereby the freedom and priviledges of Parliaments have been encroached upon and the Subjects oppressed in their Consciences Persons and Estates Neither hath it been our care to avoid these things which might harden the King in his evil way but upon the contrary he hath not only been permitted but many of us have been instrumental to make him exercise his power in many things tending to the prejudice of Religion and of the Covenant and of the Peace and safety of these Kingdoms which is so far from the right way of preserving his Majesties Person and Authority that it cannot but provoke the Lord against him unto the hazard of both nay under a pretence of relieving and doing for the King whilst he refuses to do what was necessary for the House of God some have ranversed and violated most of all the Articles of the Covenant Our own consciences within and Gods judgments upon us without do convince us of the manifold wilful renewed breaches of that Article which concerneth the discovery and punishment of Malignants whose crimes have not only been connived at but dispensed with and pardoned and themselves received unto intimate fellowship with our selves and entrusted with our Counsels admitted unto our Parliaments and put in places of Power and Authority for managing the publick Affairs of the Kingdom whereby in Gods justice they got at last into their hands the whole power and strength of the Kingdom both in Judicatories and Armies and did imploy the same unto the enacting and prosecuting an unlawful Engagement in War against the Kingdom of England notwithstanding of the dissent of many considerable members of Parliament who had given constant proof of their integrity in the Cause from the beginning of many faithful testimonies and free warnings of the servants of God of the supplications of many Synods Presbyteries and Shy●es and of the Declarations of the Gen. Assembly and their Commissioners to the contrary Which engagement as it hath been the cause of much sin so also of much misery and calamity unto this Land and holds forth to us the grievousness of our sin of complying with Malignants in the greatness of our judgment that we may be taught never to split again upon the same Rock upon which the Lord hath set so remarkable a Beacon And after all that is come to pass unto us because of this our trespass and after that grace hath been shewed unto us from the Lord our God by breaking these mens yoke from off our necks and putting us again into a capacity to act for the good of Religion our own safety and the Peace and safety of this Kingdom should we again break his Commandment and Covenant by joyning once more with the people of these abominations and taking into out bosome those Serpents which had formerly stung us almost unto death This as it would argue great

means of but I do well know that the men of that Meeting who are most slandered as the plotters and contrivers of such things had neither head nor hand nor heart in that Paper and if I rightly remember I heard it asserted by the Author of it there was no other head nor pen in it but his own these who know him wel may think that he hath that much ability as to reach the stile contrivance and concept●ons in these Articles and therefore whilest the Author speaks these things by the way he hath gone a little out of the way That which he would have chiefly observed in this passage is To what purpose in this place are brought in these unfaithfull men the Prelates who minding th●i● own things c. and such an inference made thereupon as tendeth to bear all in hand that shall happen to read the Protestation that the Brethren that have been lately and are opposite ●o the Protesters have been and are treading the steps of these unfaithfull men the Prelates and heir mentioned practises and shrewd suggestions as he cals them on which he w●xeth hot in the Vindication of his Brethren and in recriminations upon others but I desire him and others who read these things in sobernesse of m●nde to consider first that the estimation which the Protesters have of the ability and godlinesse of sundry of the Brethren who have been and are opposite to them in the Publick Resolutions is above exception and manifest I hope to the Consciences of these Brethren themselves 2. That this needs not nor ought not to hinder them to give their judgement of their way in order to the Publick Resolutions if so be it be done without personal reflections so far as is possible 3. That as the Author hath distinguished before there is a difference between mens intention and their work men may be treading the steps of defection as these unfaithfull men the Prelats did who yet do it not with an unfaithful and prelatical mind even as in these same very times of the course of defection that was carried on by the Prelats there was sundry able and godly men ingaged therein without whose help it could not have been so easily nor unobservedly to many carryed on by the multitude of carnall and corrupt men who would have been but a small credite without these other 4. That if the Protesters had had to do with these onely whose faithfulnesse integrity honesty and constancy in the truth have been so wel known and sealed by God they had haply expressed themselves some other way but they had to do in this particular with all those who owned the publick Resolutions and amongst these were many yea not a few active leading men members of or assisting unto the Commission in these things and in the Meeting at Dundee who were deeply engaged in the Prelaticall way as not onely their subscriptions in the Bishops black Book which is yet extant and can be produced if need were but also the tenour of their carriage for a long time did witnes and I fear it of not a few that though they seemed to forsake these things with the changes of the time yet have they not repented thereof unto this day not that I would fetch all those whose names are in that black Book and others the like books and who were involved in these courses under that compasse I know that sundry of them have from their very hearts repented of and do from their souls abhor that way I mean even of these who are for the Publick Resolutions but this Church hath been so s●nsible that there is cause to think otherwise that she hath several times given warning thereof in her publick Papers and who knoweth not that throughout all the Land these who had been most indifferent and luke-warm in the Cause of God greatest underminers of it most Prelaticall in the times of the Bishops most Malignant in James Grahams time and in the time of the unlawfull Engagement and most designing and active to carry on the Treaty with the King in a wrong way and without security to Religion yea and such as were scandalous in their life and conversation were for the most part amongst the most zealous and violent for the Publick Resolutions and are so still now the course it self being evill and envolving a foundation of defection owned and countenanced and zealously promoted by all the lukewarm Prelaticall and Malignant scandalous men in the Land was there not doolfull experience of such backsliding in the time of the Prelates to be stirred up in our selves and to Protest and testifie to others against things though sundry godly men were engaged therein nay the more need there was to speak plainly least their ability and godlinesse should be a snare to any 5. Whatever the Author is pleased to alledge the Protesters do not despise any of those who have been honoured of God to stand constant against Prelats usurpations and for the Liberties of Assemblies they acknowledge that they owe much to such and though they cannot but testifie against the ill of the Publick Resolutions yet they do retain a honourable Impression of these persons and of what is good in them 6. If it were fit to compare sundry of the Protesters are in nothing yea in none of these things which the Author mentioned as praise worthy behinde with the very chief of these who have appeared for the Publick Resolutions but both of them are by the grace of God that that they are 7. That none of the Protesteers for any thing that I know did take unwarrantable orders from the Prelats and do more to accept one who hath often in private and in Publick acknowledged and is still ready to acknowledge the sin of that way in which he was bred up from his youth and therefore did it ignorantly through unbelief who because of the exceeding riches of the mercy of God in recovering him out of that snare holds himself the more bound to be vigilant and zealous against all desertions for the time to come this man hath forbidden me to say any more to the Author in answer to these things but these words dignus ego qui patior indignus tu qui faceres tamen and to leave the explication to his own conscience 8. It had been fairer dealing in the Author to have discovered or named the Prelaticall steps that some of the Protesters have troden these years past and not thus to have asserted without any proof or instance which he thinks a fault in matters of lesse moment The steps that these men have troden these years past in their Publick Actings for of these I take the Author to mean were for the matter the same that were troden by himself and by sundry leading men in the Publick Resolutions who were also leading men in all these steps from the highest to the lowest and I do not think though not a few be he is come that

with the publick Resolutions and to signifie to him That if he were not satisfied with these Resolutions the Presbytery could not be answerable to give him a Commission for sitting in the Assembly but behoved to chuse another These Instances may suffice for verifying of what is alleadged in the former Debates concerning the influence that the Letter and Act of the Commission of the General Assembly had upon several Presbyteries and Synods and Persons therin in the Election of Commissioners to the Assembly 1651. and in Citing of these who were Dis-satisfied with the publick Resolutions and therefore it shall not be needful to trouble our selves or the Reader with the bringing and setting down of more of this kind PAPERS betwixt the ASSEMBLY and COMMITTEE Offers and Desires from the Committee of Estates Presented by the Earle of Glencarn the Thesaurer Depute Archibald Sydserf to the Gen. Assembly AS we cannot but with sad hearts regrate that notwithstanding of the many endeavors of and great pains taken by the Parliament and Committee of Estates for removing of Differences and offering all just satisfaction to the Desires of the Commissioners of the General Assembly concerning the necessity and lawfulness of this present Engagement yet they have all hitherto proven ineffectual and Divisions betwixt us are rather increased then lessened so we cannot but here promise to our selves better Success from the wisdom of this grave and venerable Assembly especially whilst our consciences bears us witness that in all our undertakings we have nothing before our eyes but the glory of God in the first place and in the second the good and preservation of Religion and next therunto the safety of his Majesties Person now in danger and the pursuance of the same ends of our Covenant which hath been sealed with the blood of so many of our friends and country men And that our sincerity and reallity in all these may be manifested to all the world we are content now again at this time not only to renew all these offers which were formerly made by the Parliament to the Commissioners of the Gen. Assembly for the security of Religion but hereby we offer to grant what further security the General Assembly shall be pleased to demand in reason of us for Religion And although we cannot lay negatives and restrictions on the King but must as obliged in conscience and duty endeavor his Rescue that he may come with honor freedom and safety to some of his Houses in or about London yet we are most willing to give what Assurance can be demanded for our selves and our Army even by an solemn Oath if so it shall be thought fit by the General Assembly that we shall not be satisfied and lay down Arms until Religion be secured in all his Majesties Dominions according to the Covenant Therfore out of the deep sense we have of the great danger that the further growth of these Divisions may bring to Religion the Kings Majesty and to these who doth sincerly wish the settling of Presbiterial Government in all his Majesties Dominions We cannot but desire you seriously to weigh the sad Consequences may ensue if at this time there be not found amongst you some who will endeavor to heal and not to make wider the Breaches betwixt Church and State to remember that no such effectual help can be yeilded at this time to that as to have the hearts and consciences of the people preposessed with prejudices against the Resolutions of the Estates and their so pious and necessary Engagment And for this cause to the end these unhappy Differences may spread no further we do intreat you would be pleased to appoint some of your Number to meet with such as shall be appointed by us for Composing these mis-understandings betwixt Church and State And likewise for so cleering the Marches betwixt the Civil and Ecclesiastick Power in these Questions hath been Debated betwixt the Parliament and the Commissioners of the Gen. Assembly as the Kirk may be freed of all scandals in medling with Civil Business and the Estates from the scandals of Erastianism And seeing our desires herein are only to remove all jealousies betwixt the Church and State and to witness to the world our unfained intentions to do al that is in our powers for the most satisfaction of the Gen. Assembly We do desire that ye would be pleased to forbear the emitting of any Declaration either to this Kingdom or the Kingdom of England relating to our present Engagement and proceedings considering how unseasonable it may prove whilst our Army is in the Fields against the great obstructions of any Enemies to our Reformation to do any thing may encourage and strengthen the hands and hearts of that who doubtless will encourage themselves in their own wayes the more they have ours disapproven by you And as their unhappy differences and divisions have already so wrought upon the hollow hearts of some of our Countrymen as to move them to rise in Arms against the Parliaments Forces and of some to run and joyn themselves with these so much the more wil these be strengthned and encouraged against us by their hearing of our Divisions We do likewise desire That before the Gen. Assembly proceed to any approbation of the actions of the Commissioners of the Gen. Assembly That in these things that may relate to the present Engagement and to these Questions hath been Debated betwixt the Parliament and them we may be first hard All these we desire for no other end but that these untimely Differences and Rents now grown to so great a height as that they threaten the ruin both of Church and State may by the blessing of God in the spirit of Meekness be cu●ed and bound up That neither Malignants on the one hand may have occasion to laugh at our Divisions nor on the other hand encouraged and strengthned against us But that we as formerly may go on in one way being all engaged in one Cause for one and the self-same Ends And so may receive a blessing from the Lord of Peace and Order which hates the instruments of Division and Confusion upon all our endeavors for advancing the blessed work of Reformation and for bringing to an happy end all the Miseries and Confusions now which these Lands hath been so long toiled and consumed with Before the Assembly give any Answer to the Paper produced from the Honorable Committee of Estates The Assembly thinks fit to enquire at the honorable Persons who presented the Papers If the Committee of Estates have any new Objections against the Proceedings of the Commission of the late Assembly or only the same Objections made by the Parliament or their Committees before Sic subscrib A. Ker. The Committee of Estates do make this Return to the Paper of the Gen. Assembly That they have just and material Exceptions against the proceedings of the Commissioners of the Gen. Assembly besides any formerly made by Parliament or