Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A87937
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A letter from a Presbyterian of qualitie, to his friend in the country, concerning an engagement in this new vvarre.
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Presbyterian of qualitie.
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1648
(1648)
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Wing L1430; Thomason E455_8; ESTC R202812
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2,767
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7
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A LETTER FROM A PRESBYTERIAN OF QVALITIE TO His FRIEND in the Country concerning An Engagement in this New VVARRE July 28 LONDON Printed in the Year 1648. A LETTER FROM A PRESBYTERYAN OF QUALITY TO His Friend in the Country concerning An ENGAGEMENT in this New WARRE Sir THe receipt of yours brought with it much contentment in that I understand thereby the condition of Affaires in your Parts But as to satisfying that part of your Letter which requests me to give you a like account of our present condition here and what my opinion is of an engagement in this new War I must plead an utter disability Yet to shew you what a supremacy of power you have over me or rather what vertue is in your Command I have given you my slender sense which though it be not flourished by a Rhetoricall pen yet I 'le assure you it comes from an uncorrupted heart You may remember at the beginning of the late War when you engaged your person and I my purse for the Parliament how many Declarations were published by the Parliament of their reall intentions to settle Religion in its purity to make the King a glorious King to Establish a firme Peace c. All which were confirmed by those sacred ligaments the Protestation and Covenant which made me I must confesse for some time a great admirer of the Parliament and their proceedings When the War grew towards an end and that the Royall Party was expulsed I found sensibly in all parts of the Kingdom a working Factious party of Independents and you know what those are a Gallemaufry of all Sects blended together these by the power and instigation of the two Generalls who had the Sword in their hands and of some prevalent Members in the House of Commons scru'd themselves into all Offices and Employments had their Levites in all Counties especially in London to poyson the people with their Doctrine and indeed began to be and actually were as violent against us whom the world call Presbyterians as against the most rigid Cavaliers witnesse the expelling the 7 Lords and the 11 Members the imprisoning the Lord Major and Aldermen with diverse other worthy Gentlemen and Commanders And instead of settling Peace an Army was kept on foot meerly to awe and tyrannize over the Kingdome and though some Forces were disbanded in severall Counties yet they were such onely as that prevailing Faction could not confide in Yet when the world began to see what an Independent Idoll they were setting up then ever anon the Members would set out some Ordinance or other Papers which should blinde the people with a belief that they intended to settle Church-Government and Treat with the King when the truth is they like watermen look'd one way and row'd another as little intending either of those as any good to our Party But Sir the people I say thus perceiving which way this worme of Independencie began to gnaw this City and the Countries adjacent Petitioned for a Personall Treaty and you have heard what usage the Surrey Petitioners found at Westminster among those bloud-hounds of the then Guard nay when they faw how their Petitions were sleighted and their Petitioners abused Kent Armes and then Essex The Grandees at Westminster seeing the dis-affection of the generality of the people to their designe and that our Brethren the Scots were resolved to come in to our assistance began to turne Cat in pan and fawne upon us again hoping to make a Syncretisme a conjunction of these two Parties against the Common Enemy as they call the professed Royalists knowing themselves too weak to deal both with the Scots and them To this purpose they re-call their Votes against the 7 Lords and 10 Members release the Citizens and others that were imprisoned and gave particular instruction to some of their chief Ministers about London to call upon a re-union against the common Enemy in their Pulpits and to cement the breach between them and us as much as might be And when their Member-ships perceived that this City was minded and necessitated in these new commotions to name a Generall and raise some Forces for their own preservation and well knowing how much the name of an Independent is hated in their Common Councell and that their eyes were upon Skippon they laid this pretty Engine to entrap the City Skippon who had formerly been sleighted and laid aside by the Army as smelling too much of a Presbyter had a good round summe given him and other promises sufficient to make so unstable a man one of their Neophytes which being greedily accepted Skippon had order to act his part thus By any meanes not to discover any inclination in himself towards Independentisme till such time as the City had embosomed themselves to him and setled him in the Employment then and not before to cast off his Vizard This he hath done to purpose and abused the City sufficiently by many underhand practices for which he has lately been called to an account by the Common Councell and hath utterly lost his former repute Now Sir could these Grandees withall their art and daubing and with their money-baites make us take the hook and so by enduring the Dust and Sun quiet the present distempers as we did the former we should soon be in our former Condition the Army would be again brought to London to awe the Parliament our cheif and uncorrupted Members re-expelled our Citizens re-committed and our City enslaved This with much more which might be added were it not for exceeding the bounds of a Letter hath made my Conscience cleerly satisfied that we ought by no meanes to adhere in this new War to these Anarchists these Babel-Builders but rather to side with the Kings Party for though you and I perhaps may not relish all that the Cavaliers professe yet trust me Sir I think the worst of their tenents ought to have preference before the best of the Independents and of two Evils you know we are to choose the least Besides this is not the old War nor the old Quarrell but new in both the Quarrell is not now betwixt the King and His Parliament and that for extirpating Bishops and evill Councellours but betwixt the King the Noblesse most of the Commons of the Land of the one part and a few factious Members puffed up with lust and ambition and all the Sectaries of the Kingdome on the other part and this whether Religion or no Religion King or no King Law or now Law This hath made the Scots according to our Covenant come into our assistance for setling Church-Government and re-Enthroning the King This hath made the Lord Willoughby of Parham whom I hold to be a person of much Honour Conscience accept of the Vice-Admiralship under the Duke of York this made Generall Laughern and Collonell Poyer Revolt from the Dominion of these Levelling Saints This hath made the greatest part of the Mariners and Seamen Ancher their Ships in a better Haven and their Consciences in a better Cause And this I hope hath or will make all true Subjects endeavour the restoring of His Majesty to His Crown and Dignity and the destroying of this Independent brood the Army and their Adherents since it is now evident that they would have no Religion but a miscellany of Sectaries no King but Anarchy no Lawes but their own wilde and unlimitted Wills And what a Visitation they intend to this Famous City if Colchester could once be theirs and what Armes and other preparation their Brethren of this City make for their aide and abetments as it is apparently known so we hope the wisdome of the Common Councell will take speedy care timously to prevent This I dare say is the sense of may thousands in this City For since the Houses recede from their Covenant and Principles t is good reason we should withdraw our affections from them In which number is London 21 July 1648. Sir Your most humble Servant FINIS