Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A25836
|
The Army brought to the barre, legally examined, arraigned, convicted and adjudged that they are not the self-denying army, nor the restorers of our laws, liberties and priviledges, but obstructors to the happinesse of the King and people.
|
Andrew All Truth.
|
1647
(1647)
|
Wing A3709; ESTC R23376
|
10,959
|
16
|
THE ARMY Brought to the BARRE Legally Examined Arraigned Convicted and Adjudged THAT They are not the Self-denying Army nor the Restorers of our Laws Liberties and Priviledges but obstructors to the happinesse of the King and People James 3. 13 14. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge amongst you let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meeknesse of wisdome But if yee have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and lie not against the truth Printed in the yeare 1647. THE ARMY Brought to the Bar. IT hath been for these six years space and more the complaints of divers of the inhabitants of this Kingdom concerning the slavish servitude they endured under the King and his Cavaliers and there be others who complain of the servile bondage they groaned under by the Parliament and their Committees but now 't is justly to be feared that there is a yoke of servitude far worse then the two former preparing to be put upon the necks of all Englishmen by an over-ruling Independent Army who have assumed so much boldnesse and audacity having the power in their own hands to controule the Parliament City and whole Kingdome meerely to drive on their own interests and designes And our servitude is like to be very miserable if three things be considered 1 The condition and nature of the servitude 'T is a martiall servitude the worst of all what will not the sword in the hands of such an ignorant multitude doe our estates lives fortunes liberties and Religion will prostrate themselves at the glittering of a naked sword all shall be within the reach of a swords point to be disposed of according to their pleasures and commands 2 The qualifications wherewith the persons are endowed who must rule us Namely the Armies Agitators men of transcending knowledge and judgement especially one of them of whom by one that knows him I am credibly informed can neither write nor reade If we were to be governed by men found in judgement and experienced in the Laws of the Land we might expect a milder servitude but from them wee must expect according to education for as their breeding is so is their disposition we cannot expect a gentle usage from men of rude education but if these and such as they be men rightly qualified to give rules and Laws to a Parliament and Kingdom then I leave it all indifferent men to judge then this proverb shall be verified Sus Mivervam docet Ideots shall teach the learned and men scarce fit to be subject shall become our Rulers But yet let the Agitators and the rest of the Counsellors remember this that Malum concilium consultori pessimum 3 The third thing which will cause our servitude to be very miserable if it happens which I pray God I may never live to see will be the strangenesse and unwontednesse of it Wee were before happily governed by our King Charles our dread Lord and sacred Sovereign whose dayes God prolong but now we shall be miserably governed by many Tyrants who would fain be Rulers and Magistrates yet can scarce tell how to be men We were before governed and ruled by Monarchy we shal now be governed by Democracy how wil our English necks be accustomed to such unwonted and uneasie yoaks surely we must needs kick and winch which if we doe let them set fast being good-horse-men because Souldiers lest they be cast out of the saddle to the ground Quest But some may say and I doe verily believe many meerly upon that ground cleave to them that they have been the only Instruments under God of our preservation and safety and therefore their proceedings now may be warrantable Answ. 'T is true they have done very nobly through God in what they undertook yet one good act committed cannot be a veil to hide all other offences shall a villain be pardoned for murther because hee hath done some worthy deeds before God forbid shall a man for some brave exploit before performed be so far exempted as to escape punishment if hee be guilty of a crime No the more Noble and brave their former proceedings were makes their present undertakings seem more horrible for Nullius viri species vehementiùs accessit quà m quae ab initio habuit dulcedinem No Wine becomes more sowre then that which was at first the sweetest so they so long as they obeyed and honoured the Commands of the Parliament they were most notably victorious and successfull in all their enterprizes and none did better but now having revolted and become like sweet wine turn'd to vineger doing things neither warrantable by Law nor Reason in this none did worse Quest But again some may say there is no feare of any oppression or servitude when as all their Declarations Proclamations and Letters do signifie that they entend nay protest they will endeavour to preserve the prerogative and honour of the King to uphold the priviledge of Parliament to mayntain the Liberty of the Subject to establish a true and sound Religion and to settle a firme and lasting peace in this Kingdome and therefore before all these be established 't is not necessary they should disband Answ. 'T is true it cannot be denied that all their Declarations Remonstrances do signifie they do really intend or at least pretend all these and first they will endeavour to preserve the honour and prerogative of the King and to settle him in peace and happinesse in this throne which they will very hardly do for the very tenents and principles of an Independant run crosse and quite blank against King and Monarchy Now if such as go quite contrary to me may be said to go along with mee and if hee be accounted my advancer who endeavours to pull me down then will I believe that an Independant will preserve a King but againe if example may strengthen beliefe in this particular then this of Major Scot by name an Independant by Religion a Villain by his actions is most remarkable who if fame hath not forgot to tell truth being asked by Colonel Brown whether he were come to kisse his Majesties hand made answer Hee had rather follow him to the Gallows O monstrum horrendum informe ingens cui lumen ademptum Now if this mans opinion being an Independant may go for the rest man did I call him more fit to be termed a Devill I say if the rest agree with him in opinion being of one and the same Religion then 't is plainly seen which way their hearts and resolutions tend although their Declarations to delude the World seem and pretend to go quite contrary this is that Sect who being employed as a Factor by the Clothiers of Barfould in Suffolke runs away at one time with the value of 1500 pounds worth of cloth as I am credibly informed I omit to recount many more as that daring affront offered by Cornet Joyce in removing his Majesty from Holdenby contrary to the pleasure
trust the subjects of England can repose upon any Vote the Houses passes concerning them when as their votes are beat back again as I may say by the sword into their own mouthes or if they come forth they are not obeyed by a lawlesse and over-ruling multitude what fruits and enjoyements can the subject have of this Parliament when as their votes are made voyd and nulled though contrary to humaue reason and their own priviledges yet by the threatning power of an Independent Army And by this their actions they not only hinder the free course of the Parliament but they cause the people to loath Parliaments as long as this generation lasteth and if the Parliament shall vote what they desire our of feare or condicend what they propound out of love what English man will ever again honour a Parliament Furthermore I desire to know what security and hopes these subjects can have who are lenders of the Publique Faith for their mony so lent when as their greatest securities the Excise and Bishops lands and many other lies under the command of the sword of a revolting Army I wonder what liberty the Citizens can expect when Sir Thomas is the Merchants Cash-keeper and the Tradsmens shopkeeper pray God he gives a good accompt He commands all the Tower key is the picklock key whereby hee may enter every mans house at his pleasure I wonder what priviledge the Apprentices will reap by their freedomes when as every tag rag shagd souldier will be free of any trade in the City by the Armies Copy-hold Is the Liberty of the subject and the freedome of the City like thus to bee maintained Iudge all reasonable men to reason it is impossible that that which is deliberately enacted by the Parliament can be of force when it is repealed again by violence 4 Their Declarations c. Presents to the view of the world another false glasse which is that they will to their utmost endeavours procure to settle a firme and lasting Peace in this Kingdome I believe they they will use their utmost endeavours and doe but what to doe to procure all into their own clurches not to settle Peace and Vnity which if they do let their military preparations speak their daily listings of men there fetching Armes and Ammunition from the Tower of London the taking of Tilbury Blockhouses in Essex and their possessing themselves of many strong Holds in this Kingdome the placing Colonell Liburne Governour of Newcastle and yet for all that the City nor Kingdome must not raise a man for their own defence for fear of involving this Kingdome in a second war What means such acts as these bee such preparations for warre as these settlers of a happy Peace in England O reason speak the truth Fooles do you determine Can he which comes thrusting with a naked sword at my breast be tearmed the saver of my life Reason saies no and the same reason tels me that their present proceedings truly considered shall not neither ever can settle Peace in the land But if they intend to settle Peace for what purpose do they surround and incompasse London Londoners looke about you and their having the commands of some Forts thereof is it to confirme Peace beleive it they that strive to settle Peace by the sword distract it however if all these be the Mother of Peace I feare the child will be still-born or if it see the light it will not live long but will dye before the mother rises up or to speak plaine before the Armies layes down But if it prove contrary to expectation and reason that these their actions produce Peace it is a way newly found out which our statesmen never knew but they are Politians and Policy is but a circumstantiall dissembling pretending one thing intending another 't is like to prove such a Policy I feare their hearts doe turne tounges to give their tongues the lye in this particular 5. Lastly their Declarations professe that they will be establishers of true Religion in its purity If they be the guardions and establishers of our Religion Actum est de nostra Religione you may shake hands with true Religion if they settle true Religion it will bee the cleane contrary way and under pretence of allowance to tender consciences which they desire all Schismes Sects and dangerous Opinions will rush in that gap is so wide that many other Opinions destructive to the Common-waalth will rush in unavoydably Though I confesse in things meerly indifferent and no wayes prejudiciall to the Common-wealth a respect is necessary to bee had to tender Consciences but in things of great concernment the word of God not sincerely construed is to beare more sway then a tender Conscience for if a religion or any thing else seises a mans genius he wil flye to the Altar of a tender Conscience though he hath not a tender Conscience or rather none at all I say he will make Conscience the shelter and refuge for his villanies but in any thing which the word of God distinctly commands and reason and experience and examples confirmes in my opinion wee must not controle nor disobey it under pretence or coulor of a tender Conscience I pray God such ranging souldiers used hereunto doe not open this gap to let in all manner of fower footed beasts and two legged Monsters as themselves to graze in the flourishing field of our true Religion But if such actors and acts such these be the preservers of the Prerogative of the King the upholders of the priviledges of Parliament the maintainers of the liberty of the subject the setlers of a lasting Peace the Establishers of true Religion I shall desire to use but one clause of the Letany before it bids adieu to us and gives it Vltimum vale to the world which is from such Preservers Vpholders Maintainers Setlers and Establishers good Lord deliver us But rule they will for in reference to some Petitions presented to them they say this and this is the sense of the Army whereby they make their sense the supreame law of the Land And the unreasonablenesse of their proceedings is seene in two things 1. In this the tumult of the Apprentices on the 26. of Iuly forcing the Parliament to unvote what they had formerly voted and disturbing and affronting the members of both Houses which truly I do not allow must be by them tearmed a breach of the Parliaments Priviledges and the contrivers and abbettors thereof must bee proceeded against according to law and justice and themselves though gu 〈…〉 y of the same crime are scot free and escape unpunished and escape unpunished not because they have not merited any but because the sword sayes nay they shall not suffer 1 Now take a review of both their acts the Apprentices came 't is true in their persons and compelled the Members of Parliament to revoake what had been before voted upon the desire of the Army But Vollitur causa desinet