Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	law_n	liberty_n	parliament_n	4,902	5	6.1958	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29852	The Lord Digbies designe to betray Abingdon carryed on for divers vveeks by an intercourse of letters. Which are here published for the satisfaction of all men, by Sergeant Major Generall Brown. Together with the cipher which the Lord Digby sent him for that purpose.	Browne, Richard, Sir, 1602?-1669.; Bristol, George Digby, Earl of, 1612-1677. aut; Bernard, Nath. Nathaniel. aut	1645 (1645)	Wing B5145; ESTC R212391	25,574	39

Now he begins to leave off single selfing of it and Wee's it by authority asking me the lowest price of Abingdon and my self and thus being a slave himself he ventures to buy and sell Abingdon and Conscience and Faith c. Methought his-part was a pretty long one but he tarries two Scenes longer before any other enters so I was faine to personate still as followes SIR My doubts and feares on one side and my hopes on th' other are various as the motives which first engaged me in this present Action If there be any thing of Secrecy in our Letter discourses I conceive it unsafe to admit a third man I am glad you promise me to deale no longer in generalls a thing desired I shall conclude with your own words That there is no just or reasonable thing you can propose in which you shall not be satisfied more I will not say at present but that I am Your humble Servant Rich. Brown Abingdon Nov. 16. 1644. My deniall of a third man which I conceived would make them suspect me lesse pretending the danger of it though my maine ayme was not to meddle in any thing but what was under their hands made them confident and bid a little higher as in this SIR Since you have given me leave to deale with you in particulars I must begin with you upon this Foundation That you do believe or will be so just as to shew reasons to the contrary the satisfactions whereof shall make faith of the Professions and Protestations made by the King of his Resolutions to defend the true reformed Protestant Religion established by Law the Liberty and Property of his Subjects and just Priviledges of PARLIAMENT And then that you will be so far from opposing him in this that you will like a good Christian and a good Subject assist him therein And that you may know how good an opinion His Majesty hath of you if he may know your resolution by me you shall be left to your own election in what way you will serve Him for the present either in Abingdon or by finding some meanes to remove to London or by imediatly comming over to Him you best knowing which way He may receive most advantage by your service And for your Recompence you shall be a Barone● Have any other Testimony of His Majest●es favour and value of you and any place of trust your self shall propose and what other reward you shall desire within His Majesties power to grant The truth is I finde as I have before intimated that though you are looked on here as a shrewd enemy yet you are valued as one who carries himself most like a Gentleman and who proceeds more civily then any of that party although Sir William Waller told our Lord Generalls Lady when he sent Her home hither t' other day having been his prisoner she were best to go such a way about least she fell into the hands of that Rogue Browne who would use Her like a Clowne You will pardon this intimation which proceeds from my respects of you and to assure you that this proceeds not from some private heat only betwixt your honor and the Knight but from the naturall ingratitude of that party I have sent you here enclosed a Copy of the Lord Sayes Letter written with his own hand whereby you may guesse at your future respects with them you now defend to your own and the hurt of ●s all I will trouble you no further at present then to assure you there is one only third person privy to this who hath full authority to undertake for His Majesty and who is Honorable and so honest that he will see all particulars performed I am still Sir Your most obliged Servant N. Bernard Nov. 19. 1644. Postscript Sir if you desire it I shall help you to other Letters written by the same Lords hand hereafter requesting that they may be returned if it shall bee desired Whilst I am writing the Letter is for some other purposes remanded to be conveyed to Banbury but I assure you of them if you shall distrust me at present though the want of them hath retarded the messenger two dayes I pray God make you ours with your will I pray God keep you from being ours against your will This was done artificially one while he stroakes me with promises from Oxford presently he pricks me with wrongs done at London but as th' one pleased me not so th'other troubled me not I conquered the flattery of the one and owned not the injury of th' other But seeing now be quotes a third Honourable customer authorized by the King to cheapen me I thought it good for our workes sake which more wanted time to bid that man of Honour welcome into my warehouse too and slighting Bernards offers as being to little sent him this SIR It will be needlesse to give any Reply to that foundation you begin with which must necessarily be involved in the Issue of this our Treaty nor as yet to pitch upon any particular way wherei● my service may be most advantagious since they to whom I resign my self may dispose of me to what shall be thought fit And although I am not sway'd by mercenary respects yet I looked for a greater Argument of that Estimation you say I am in with you then the proposed reward which doth not equalize what I am And that I urge nothing my self you must attribute to that necessary discretion which ought to be in a businesse of so great consequence I shall proceed no further at present then to desire immediate intercourse with that Honourable person you mentioned that from him I may have more speciall grounds of assurance in that whereon I adventure so much I am asham'd at the ingratitude and contempt you acquaint me withall from them of whom I have deserved better And desire for my more full satisfaction you will send me the originall of those Letters you speak of which may prove of singular advantage and which I asure you shall be returned by the same Messenger I am Sir Your assured Friend and Servant Rich. Brown Abingdon Nov. 22. 1644. My Lord Digby having now his properties all on and himself ready to issue forth makes Bernard write once more desiring what I was resolved not to yield to Secrecy That so in case he acted not well and his part did not take he might not be hist off but go out like a mute in a maske So saith this of the 25. of Novemb. NOble Sir My desire to expresse how dearly my engagements from you stick to me I have done what I could to your advantage on this side whereon to live or dye ●o my Conscience is the only way to be caereris paribus safe Temporall and Eternally To satisfie your desire of intercourse with that Honourable person immediately there wants nothing but your Answer to that request in plainer tearmes which I made the 4. of Nov. Namely whether we may be

by this next you will think he had his Congedeslier his black Box already for converting me He quotes the Kings Excommunicates ipso facto as he calls it the Kingdoms and Da●nes the Parliament as confidently as if he had been Priest at Lambeth and not Lecturer at Wooll-Church witnesse this divine charitable composure SIR I am commanded to let you know that His Majesty cannot but wonder that you who being recommended to him for many worthy parts and actions declaring you no stranger to vertue and Noble qualities as one no way aspersed with any infamous factions inclination in your self in times past one whom he nor his former Government hath ever wronged He having never taken the Staffe of Lord Chamberlain from you nor were you ever fined 1500. l. in the Star-Chamber at the suit of Sir Thomas Reynolds as the case is of Essex and Waller wherein yet he denies that either of them were wrong'd or injuryed no Wife taken from you in his Fathers dayes nor your Father beheaded in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth That you who was never thought of so broken or low a fortune as some Scotish Reformers That you who were so far from a Schismaticall spirit that you have obliged Orthodox Divines now his cosufferers to bear you an Honourable Testimony That you to whom he never so much as in thought intended other then good when occasion offer'd it self That you whose moderation in other things hath witnessed that you neither want valour nor courtesie That you should not onely joyn with but lead on his Subjects armed against his Life his Crown and Kingdom when he hath declared with so much vehemency and to his knowledge inward integrity and sincerity his resolutions to perform all your desires concerning the true Reformed Protestant Religion and just Rights of Parliaments the Liberty and property of his Subjects when there is nothing left that may be desired by equall and just-dealing men but he hath yielded to That you should be one of them that will never trust him till by their meanes he be kill'd or made a Prisoner or which is worse such a slave as must never say No or I will advise to any thing he shall be required He desires you to make the case your own and to judge whether you could without defence suffer all that you have to be violently taken from you c. Or whether you could finde out a way that you would think were it your case more equall and just for you to go in I am therfore in my way appointed to let you know that that place Prov. 24.21 is part of that Word of God which shall one day judge the World and doth ipso facto Excommunicate that Party which you are insnared with That that place 2 Tim. 3.5 expresly commands you to turn away from such notwithstanding their form of Godlinesse And that you are looked upon as Mordecai did on Esther chap. 4. vers. 14. as one advanced for such an occasion as this to restore the King to his Subjects and his Subjects to their King I should have come secretly to you to have given you evidence of what I told by the last concerning Injuries you suffer by your own side and to have made Honourable and advantagious Propositions to you both for your own and the Kingdoms good with the way of assurance But though your Letter did infinitely adde to you Yet the newes of hanging some of ours at Abingdon hath stopt my Commission and somewhat daunted my resolution to the present Onely I would pray you to furnish with a reasonable account in your defence Sir your most faithfull Servant Nath Bernard Nov. 8. 1644. Had it not been that we saw a direct necessity of whilng with him This Letter which they made bitter with those Ingredients to try how it would worke had made me breake off with such an unsufferable Rabsheca but on we went and I returned this SIR T is true I never countenanc'd but ever abhorr'd all Faction nor do or shall I side with any contemning lawfull authority neither can I beleeve that revenge is the cause why the Lord Generall or Sir William Waller are in Armes I am assured they as my selfe have no other ends but the Kings and Kingdoms good and am confident the Parliaments aymes are the same and will appear so in the end otherwise I should turne my sword against them or any that should s●eke His Majesties life or to imprison His person I shall in nothing more willingly adventure mine then in rescuing Him in both sh●ll chearfully hearken after all honourable and advantagious Propositions which may prove my own and the Kingdoms good I deny that any of your party in Abingdon have been hang'd nor shall any except by Order of Parliament I have alwayes given order for christian usage of all prisoners with me and wish you would do the like by ours Sir you have twice fill'd your Letters to me with Riddles which till you make plain to my understanding I will say no more I am Sir Your loving Friend and Servant Rich. Brown Abingdon Novemb. 11. 1644. Postscript Sir I hold it unsafe for your self to come any more to me your last being here was much distasted I must desire the Reader to know that now all my Letters went to His Majesties eye as their Letters afterward tell me and must necessarily carry seeming answers to demands and therefore my hardest taske was to compile innocent words such as would carry double with some seeming satisfaction such as these My design in hand I hope to bring all to passe as I desire Settle my aff●i●es at London What I have undertake● I will perform c. All which are but new Anagrams of my old resolutions which I was much afraid they would finde out and therefore tooke the advantage of working hard and a day or two after heard from him in these NOble Sir This is the last time I will trouble you with any generalls which you are pleased to call Riddles And since you thinke it not safe for my self to wait on you I am commanded to entreat you would expresse your doubts and feares on one side and your hopes and desires on th' other viz. The motives whereupon you engaged so much worth as we finde in you in the present action that if we can give you no satisfaction we may suspect our selves to have gone amisse To this end I am further to beseech you to assure safe accesse and recesse to a discreet third person that shall wait upon your Honor for those purposes which I have already intimated whereby you shall perceive how much I have laboured to evidence that your favour● have inviolably obliged Your most humble Servant N. Bernard Water-E●ton Nov. 15. 1644. Postscript I have authority to tell you and you shall speedily and exactly finde it made good to you that there is no just or reasonable thing you can propose in which you shall not be satisfied