Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
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A37366
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A declaration of the army of England vpon their march into Scotland signed in the name and by the appointment of his excellency the Lord General Cromwell and his councell of officers, Jo. Rushworth, secretary.
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England and Wales. Army.
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1650
(1650)
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Wing D637; ESTC R29702
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7,520
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20
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together the end is to be preferred before the means Now that there was a reall inconsistency between the end and the means and that the lesser did fight against the greater is your own judgment who in a Book of yours called A necessary and seasonable Testimony against Toleration say thus of the two Houses pag. 12. And doubtlesse the Lord is highly disâ—leased with their procoedings in the Treaty at Newport in reference to Religion and Covenant concerning which they accepted of such Concessions from His Majesty as being acquiessed in were dangerous and destructive to both Had we not then appeared against these Concessions and likewise against those of both Houses who acquiesced in them had not Religion and Liberty both been destroyed which now by the blessing of God are preserved And if that action concerning the Parliament deserve a charge yet least of all from your selves who when you saw the Parliament which sent Duke Hamilton with an Army into England proceed in waves destructive to Religion and Libetty you counte nanced and acted with those that rose up for publique safety though contrary to Acts of Parliament and called a new one excluding whom you thought fit all which was done by virtue and authority from the Committee of Estates then sitting at Edinburgh which indeed was no Committee if you respect formalities the breach whereof you so often charge upon us being constituted of such persons as by Act of the foregoing Parliament had not legall right to sit or act therein they not having taken the Oath for faithfull discharge of the trust reposed in them in reference to the late Engagement against England injoyned by that Parliament to be taken by every Member of the Committee at his first sitting or else to have no place or vote therein as is fully set down in the Commission for the constituting of that Committee of Estates We could more particularly set forth how the Committee of Estates there sitting according to the litterall sence of the aforementioned Commission was broken and driven away by that force raysed and acted by you as aforesaid but we spare not seeking to justifie our actions by yours but to shew that you have done the same things for presevation of Religion and Liberty which you so highly charge as evill upon us And therefore we further desire you seriously to consider That the inconsistency of our Religion and Liberties with the Kings Interest and former constitution of Parliament did not arise from our yealousies or pretences but from the hardnesse of the Kings heart and the backsliding of the greater part of those that were intrusted in the Parliament by their acquiescing in those Concessions and endeavouring immediately to bring in the King upon them We therefore reckon it no breach but a Religious keeping of the Covenant according to the equitic thereof when our Parliament for Religion and Liberties sake and the Interest of the people did remove the King and Kingship As also we assert our selves Keepers of the Covenant when the competition hath been between the forme and substance if we have altered some formes of the Government in part for the substance sake As for the Presbyteriall or any other Forme of Church Government they are not by the Covenant to be imposed by force yet we doe and are ready to imbrace so much as doth or shal be made appear to us to be according to the Word of God Are we to be dealt withall as enemies because we come not to your way Is all Religion wrapt up in that or any one Form Doth that name or thing give the difference between those that are the Members of Christ and those that are not We think not so We say Faith working by love is the true Charactor of a Christian and God is our Witnes in whomsoever we see any thing of Christ to be there we reckon our duty to love writing forch more plentifull effusion of the Spirit of God to make all those Christians who by the malice of the World are diversified and by their own carnall mindednesse doe diversifie themselves by severall names of Reproach to be of one heart and one mind worshipping God with oue consent We are desirous that those who are for the Presbyteriall Government should have all freedom to enjoy it and are perswaded That if it be so much of God as some affirme if God be trusted with his own means which is his Word powerfully and effectually Preached without a too busie medling with or engaging the Authorities of the World it is able to accomplish his good pleasure upon the minds of men to produce and establish his purposes in the World concerning the Government of his Church And as for the Blasphemies and Heresies wherewith some Statists amongst you have laboured to brand us We can say That we doe own those sound Grounds and Principles of the Christian Religion Preached and held by the Generality of godly Ministers and Christians of these later times abhorring from our hearts and being ready to beare our witnesse against any detestable Blasphemies and Heresies lately broken out amongst us we have already punished some amongst us for Blasphemy and are further ready to doe it but how uningeniously we have been dealt with by some amongst you and of our own Countrymen in heaping Calumnies upon our heads to render us vile and odious to our Brethren yea and the whole world we leave to God to judge who will â—e trust in due time make these things manifest But were Presbytery thus to be contested for and that in upholding it all Religion did and would flourish yet how improbable it is That the course taken by those in authority with you will produce the things you desire to say no more let your own experiences 〈◊〉 little minde you What pretenders were some Lords and other persons in the North of Ireland whilest they mingled the Presbyterian with the Kingly Interest and the Ministers by their Preaching seduced the people from their Obedience to England under the same pretence But no sooner had those persons got the power into their own hands but they shook off the Ministers by threatnings causing some of them to quit the country and in generall discouraging the exercise of the Government there declaring plainly by their actions that it was but aide vice to draw on the Royall Interest those very Persons that did get power into their hands under those pretences in mediately joyned with Owen Roe O Neale and these bloody Irish Rebells upon the Kingly Interest It will not be unfit to mind you also how the Nobility and some of the Ministers of Scotland Preaching and crying up a War against England under pretence of the Covenant did thereby lay the foundation to Duke Hamiltons getting the command of that Army who over numbring them in Parliament power and friends and by the advantage of Malignants thrust all that you could call the good party out of power and authority himselfe getting
A DECLARATION OF THE ARMY OF ENGLAND Vpon their March into Scotland Signed in thâ— Nâ—me and by the Appointment of his Excellency the Lord Generall CROMWELL and his Councell of Officers Jo. Rushworth Secretary Newcastle Printed by S. B. 1650. A DECLARATION of the ARMY of ENGLAND upon their March into SCOTLAND To all that are Saints and Partakers of the Faith of Gods Elect in Scotland WE the Army of England doe from the bottome of our Hearts wish like Mercy and Truth Light and Liberty with our selves from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ Although we have no cause to doubt but that the Declaration of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England bearing Date the 26 of June 1650. And Published to manifest to the World the justice and necessity of sending their Army into Scotland may satisfie all impartiall and uninterested men in all the Nations round about us the matters of Fact therein contained being true and the Conclusions made from thence and the resolutions thereupon taken agreeable to the Principles of Religion Nature and Nations And therefore it may seem to some if not improper yet superfluous for us their Army to say any more Yet however out of our tendernesse towards you whom we look upon as our Brethren and our desire to make a distinction separation of you from the rest as who through the cunning practises of some wicked and designing men byassed by particular Interests or for want of a true and right Information and Representation of the great and wonderfull transactions wrought amongst us and brought to passe by the meer finger of our God may possibly be scandalized at some late actions in England and thereby be involved in that common cause so much from Heaven declared against by blasting all Persons and Parties that at any time in the least under what pretence or disguise soever ingaged therein and so with them to become partakers of their miseries We have therefore thought sit to speak to some particulars and that as in the presence of the Lord to whose grace and in the dread of whose name we doe most humbly appeale and who should we come to a day of engagement will be a sore witnes against us if we utter these things in hypocrisie and not out of bowels of love to perswade the hearts and consciences of those that are godly in Scotland that so they may be with drawne from partaking in the sinne and punishment of evill doers or that at least we might exonerate our selves before God and Man do Remonstrate as followeth And for as much as we beleeve many godly People in Scotland are not satisfied with the proceedings of this Nation concerning the death of the late King the rejection of his Issue the change of the Government and severall actions conversant thereabout Although it cannot be supposed that we shall in this Paper meet with all objections that may be made these very particulars alone requring more lines then we intend in the whole Yet we briefly say That we were engaged in a warre with the said King for the defence of our Religion and Liberties and how many times Propositions for a safe and well-grounded peace were offered to him and how often he refused to consent thereto you well know which according to humane accompt he might have closed with had not the righteous God who knoweth the deceitfull heart of man and is the preserver of mankinde â—specially of his people in his secret judgement denied him a heart to ascent thereto By which refusals he made it appeare that nothing lesse would satiâ—fie then to have it in his own power to destroy Religion and Liberties the subversion whereof he had so often attempted That He was a man guilty of more innocent bloud in England Ireland and Scotland even of those he ought to have preserved as a Father his Children then any of his predecessors or we think then any History mentioneth the guilt whereof he brought upon his Family by solemne appeales to God That the Sonne did tread in the Fathers steps and pursue his designes destructive to Religion and Liberty That a Party in Parliament false to God and to their trust were willing and did endeavour to betray the cause into the late Kings hands That a remaining party desiring to be true to God and to the people that intrusted them out of integrity of heart and fearing that the high displeasure of God would fall upon them if they had not done it did bring to justice and cause to be executed the said King did reject the Person now with you did lay aside the House of Lords an estate not representing the people nor trusted with their Liberties Yet at that time very forward to give up the Peoples Rights and obstruct what might save them and alwaies apt enough to joyne with Kingly Interest against the Peoples Liberties whereof we wish you have not like sad experience and did for the good of the people resolve the Government into a Common-wealth And having done all this that they are not accomptable to any other Nation is sufficient to say to you except it be to excite you to rejoyce in this wonderfull work of God and to be thankfull to him for so much deliverance as you have thereby and leave the rest to the State of England to whom it doth only and properly belong who have manifested their regular proceedings therein according to the true and equitable intent of the constitution of England and the Representors of the people in Parliament in their severall and respective Declarations if they be looked into to which we referre you Besides it is worthy consideration with how many providences this Series of action hath been blest which would require a Volume to recount If Treaties be urged against us It is easie to say by whom they were broken and how eminently even by the then full Authority of the Parliament of Scotland and the Invasion by Duke Hamilton and yet that not the first breach neither And if it be said That hath been Protested against and revoked since we aske doth that make up the breach so as to challeng England still upon Agreements and Articles you know as to right it doth not except you suppose that England made their bargaine so that Scotland might breake and England remain bound whereas it is a known Law of Nations that in the breach of the League by the one Party the other is no longer obliged If the Couenant be alleaged against us this may be said by us with honesty and clearenesse Religion having therein the first place civill Liberties the next the Kings Interest and consitution of Parliament the last and these with subordination one to another The Covenant tyed us to preserve Religion and Liberty as the ends of it even when these were inconsistent with the preservation of the Kings Interest and the frame of Parliament because when the means and the end cannot both be enjoyed