Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	act_n	great_a	parliament_n	3,586	5	6.2777	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57866	A vindication of the Presbyterians in Scotland, from the malicious aspersions cast upon them in a late pamphlet, written by Sir George Mackenzie late Lord Advocate there, intituled, A vindication of the government in Scotland during the reign of King Charles II, &c. by a lover of truth.	Rule, Gilbert, 1629?-1701.	1692 (1692)	Wing R2234; ESTC R11921	23,811	33

the Dissenters Charge when it it Notorious that the greatest part of the Parliament Army was at first made up of the Church of England yea that of them few save the Laudian Faction joined King Charles I. a great part of whose Army at least the Officers of it were Roman Catholicks and 't is no less certain that the Body of the Parliament of Scotland upon that Kings imposing the Service-Book to be Read in one of the Churches of Edenborough entred into a League to defend themselves from any further Oppression or Tyranny that should be offered But the Reader may easily perceive by this what credit this Gentleman deserves whose Prejudice has so far benighted his Understanding as to avouch Lies so easily discoverable 't is a plain Indication that he will take a far greater Liberty in things less obvious to Mens Knowledge His third Reason is That this Caution was much more Just in Scotland than in England because Dissenters in Scotland were more Bigotted to the Covenant which is a Constant Fond for Rebellion But why the Covenant should be so tho I am no great stickler for it I cannot understand since among other things it binds the Takers thereof to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the Preservation of the true Religion by which no doubt they mean governing the Church by Presbyters c. And suppose this be an Oath made by the Majority of People as what is Ratified by Parliament must always be judged to be why should this be more inclinable to Rebellion than an Oath made to maintain Episcopacy and the Ceremonies And suppose a King should violate this latter Oath and endeavour to introduce either Popery or Presbytery it needs not now be questioned especially since our Loyal Gentlemen declared that the Reason why those Honest Orthodox Highlanders raised their Rebellion was because Presbytery was Establisht in Scotland I might say further that it was none of the least Reasons of King James's Abdication that he endeavoured to overturn the Church that he would not meet with much more favour from their Hands than at the most Bigotted Covenanters I remember I have Read that Mahomet in his Alcoran where he restricts his Votaries to such a number of Wives has yet a Reserve for himself And brings in God speaking thus At tibi O Prophet elicet quot vis ducere cum iis concumbere c. and so would have his Laws tye up the People but not himself I do not see those Gentlemen a whit more reasonable If Dissenters stand up in their own Defence against Tyranny it is resisting the Lords Anointed a Sin that will undoubtedly Damn them but if they play the same Game tho without the minutest Provocation or least shew of Reason for it as in the Case of the Highland Rebellion 't is no such matter they must restore their Church Rights c. His fourth Reason is That the Posterior Acts made against Field Conventicles were the necessary Product of new Accessional Degrees of Rebellion This is manifestly false since as above that at Pentland Hills in 1666 was the Effect of the Oppression those poor People groaned under and that at Bothwell-Bridge was begun in defence of their Ministers Life and Peoples Liberty and when they had once killed some Soldiers there was no safety for them to expect but what their Arms could purchase to them This Gentleman says afterwards That the Governors can say that no Man in Scotland ever suffered for his Religion But what means the Bleating of the Cattel then Were not Major Turner and several others sent to quarter upon those of the West on Free Quarters besides that they were forced to pay 6 d. a day prior to any Rebellion If this was not Persecution for Religion the Immortal of France to whom I dare say our Author bore no small respect has been basely traduced by Republican Spirits So that were this Gentlemans Paper strictly canvast it might be justly questioned whether there were more Lies or Sentences in it His Malicious Instance of Renwick shews the Inveteracy of his Hatred against the Presbyterians and he might as well have forbore the mentioning of it For I have been credibly informed that Renwick was a Romish Priest and spared on that account 't is not unlikely that he might weaken the Presbyterians by keeping up Divisions among them But that they insisted for his Life when we have it of a Person who is not wholly abandoned to his Passions and who will make Conscience of saying nothing but what is Truth we shall have some reason to give Credit to it He next endeavours to render them more odious by shewing how little they had to pretend for the justifying of their Dissent since there were no Ceremonies enjoin'd in the Episcopal Church there But our Gentleman might have forbore the taking upon him the Office of a Casuist which he seems so ill qualified for For all the Publick Ministers there since the beginning of the Civil Wars till King Charles's Restauration had taken the Covenant which obliged them not to own Diocesan Episcopal Government And there is no doubt but any Honest Man would think himself bound to disown it till such time as he were convinced that the Matter of the Oath was unlawful Now they having or at least believing they had a dispensation from God to Preach the Word 't is not to be supposed they would think themselves discharged from that Office because they were prohibited to Preach by the Bishop And 't is easily supposeable their Hearers had no great liking for the Bishops Curates especially since at the Restauration a very few excepted they were guilty of Breach of Oath the Matter whereof they could never yet prove to be sinful And if any Person be reputed Perjur'd every Honest Man shuns any Commerce with him Much more if a Man be of so Sacred a Function as is a Preacher of the Word who that has any thing of Religion in him will so much as Countenance him Besides since many of the Laity did take the Covenant and obliged themselves to disown Episcopal Government it needed not so much have startled him if he had any Conscience himself that those People would not hear the Publick Ministers till such time as they were satisfied of the unlawfulness of the Oath since hearing them duely and ordinarily might have seemed to be a down-right Violation of it Besides 't is not improbable that those who are of Opinion that that Office crept into the Church contrary to Christs Institution might more scruple at that than at any Ceremony whatsoever But the Gentleman by what he adds in the end of this Paragraph contradicts himself as if he were in a Frenzy for if the best of their Ministers and almost all the People Communicated as he says Why is he at so hard Labour to shew the Unreasonbleness of their Dissent from the Publick Churches As to what

restored Episcopacy But I would know what these Disorders were Why resisting the Lords Anointed and not suffering him to tyranize at pleasure It is sufficiently known that both the Parliament in Scotland and that here in England immediately after the Restauration to shew their Detestation of the former Parliaments Proceedings and their Zeal for unbounded Monarchy took very unaccountable Measures and inconsiderately betrayed the Priviledges of the People and did what lay in them to Tempt Kings to become Tyrants and so as they repeal'd the Covenant they made a Declaration which at last was as generally Imposed as it was whereby they obliged Men to declare upon Oath That it was Unlawful upon any pretenc● whatsoever to take up Arms against the King or any Commissioned by him And to this Oath and the Preaching the Joyful Tidings of of Passive Obedience we owe all the Miseries we have suffered since It is certain that this Oath was made Principally as a Trap for the Dissenters as being the only Persons charged with the Guilt of the War against King Charles I. tho' it is sufficiently known that in England at least the greatest part of the Church of England except we will restrict it to those few hundreds now that have not bowed the Knee to that Baal of the Pe●ples to use the Jacobites canting expression with some other of the Honest Vicar of Brays Principles their Well-wishers joyned with the Parliament if it be but considered that the Number of Dissenters now is not the Third of the Inhabitants of England when it is far greater than it was at the beginning of the Civil War But behold the Justice of God! For he made this Oath which they designed as a Whip to chastise others a Rod for their own Backs and suffered them to run on so far in their inconsideration that in the End they found themselves obliged to Justifie by their Practice what before they had by a Law condemned in those Honest Patriots both here and in Scotland that stood up for the Liberties of the People And this was not only the practice of Laymen but even some in the Highest of the Spiritual sphere did so far Justifie the Proceedings of both those Parliaments as to take Arms against the Lords Anointed with a Nolumus Leges Angliae Mutari Nor were there any that we know of that at that time disapproved or at least declared against Subjects joyning with his present Majesty against King James and the Scripture says He that is not against us is for us Nay did not even our Tender conscienc't scrupling Bishops refuse to sign an Abhorrence of his present Majesties Undertaking and to declare that it was Unlawful upon pain of Damnation as was formerly sounded from our Wooden Pulpits I had almost said by Wooden Priests for any of the Subjects to joyn with him against the late King Iames the then Lords Anointed All which plainly indicates to us how miserably the People had been bubbled out of their Priviledge by Gentlemen whom of all other it might have been least expected from So that had it not pleased God in his Goodness to make their Copy hold to be touched we had been for ought can be seen to the contrary precipitated into Irremediable slavery I shall not here Trouble the Reader with a Parallel of the two Kings Illegal Proceedings it having been so effectually done already that Reason is fully satisfied in the point It is sufficient to remark that we were willing to part with that Doctrine we so much valued our selves upon when a regulating our Practice by it seem'd to threaten us with a storm A plain Indication that it was but a Bait to fish Benefices and a Trap to catch simple People in What he says That that Parliament restored Episcopacy so much the more because that ' Government had in no Age nor Place forced its way into the state by the Sword is much of a Piece with the Rest and there 's scarce any will believe that that was the Parliaments Motive All that can be said with respect to the Bishops not forcing their way into the state is only because they never had so strong a Party in that Kingdom and that all the Kings that set them up there were grasping after an Arbitrary Government for all the reason King James the I. there the VI. gave for the Expediency of Bishops there was that he had not sufficient strength on his side to ballance the Parliament c. therefore that it was requisite there should be Bishops to vote for him in Parliament But whatever this Gentleman subtly suggests the World is not so simple now as to believe that they would not use their Utmost Efforts either to Introduce or support themselves It is sufficiently known what they have done to preserve themselves in that Countrey and how much they forwarded Arbitrary Government there it plainly appearing that the pretended Axiom which they cunningly invented No Bishop no King as to the Scotch Bishops ought to be No Arbitrary King is known to every Body that is any wise seen in affairs of that Kingdom And further it can be proved beyond all contradiction that all the Persecutions and Oppressions that were perpetrated in that Kingdom are owing not so much to Lauderdale or any Minister of State there some of whom acted only that they might not be turned out tho' that will never Justifie them as to those Spiritual Gentlemen If the Presbyterians asserted their Government to be Jure Divino t is no more than what not a few Episcopal do and tho in true speaking both may be in the wrong yet if Churches be to be regulated as they were in the Apostolical Age tho' the Presbyterians cannot pretend to a Jus Divinum yet they may lay claim to an Apostolical President which was always reckoned good Justification for any Practice in the Church For even St. Peter for whose Authority over the rest the Roman Catholicks so eagerly contend calls himself a Fellow-Elder 1. Pet. 5. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Elders that are among you I exhort who am a Co-elder as that word may be rendred And St. Paul whom others pretend to have been the Head Bishop never calls himself otherwise than a Minister Apostle Servant or Preacher and subscribes himself every where the salutation of me Paul c. And 't is observable that the same St. Paul Acts 20. 17. sent for not the Diocesane Bishop or Bishops as some would have it but the Elders of the Church of Ephesus and had there Been any Diocesane or Diocesanes then at Ephesus I do not see how St. Paul could have cleared himself from being an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Busie Body in other Mens matters as that word is rendred 1 Pet. 4. 15. when he sent for the Elders without acquainting the Bishop or Bishops But it is most remarkable that when he is exhorting them how to acquit themselves v. 28. he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉

so extreamly to be aggravated if some People said so Let us but imagine that as the King of England takes an Oath to maintain the Church and should afterwards destroy and overthrow the whole Constitution thereof and set up another That none of the Church of England would in this case say that he had forfeited the Crown is more than any will now believe And if so then this Learned Author has mightily exposed his Weakness in so basely misrepresenting some Presbyterians for that which some of other Communions would have been guilty of under the same Circumstances 'T is as false an Insinuation as ever proceeded from the Father of Lies That the Army that was defeated at Bothwell-Bridge was gathered to defend the Murtherers of the Archbishop of St. Andrews It is sufficiently known that that rising was occasioned by the late Martyr Dundee as some of our Orthodox Gentlemen reckon him his going to seize the Ministers and Hearers at a Meeting at Lowdon-Hill That those that were at the Meeting sent out some of their number to entreat him to let them conclude their Work and they would dismiss themselves speedily and peaceably That he would give no audience to their Request whereupon such of them as had Arms who were not above his Number drew out to meet him received his Fire and afterwards gave this Orthodox Jure Divino Champion so warm Entertainment that he was glad to scamper they pursued them near to Glasgow and the Kings Forces that were there being fitter to Fight against Naked Men and Women than against such as had Arms left the Place so as they had Liberty to enter and afterwards invited all their Friends to come in to their Assistance And if any of the Archbishops Murderers were there that can no more militate against them than King Davids admitting a great many Persons that were guilty of several Crimes could against the Lawfulness of his Design And tho some approved of their Fact yet 't is certain a far greater number disapproved it The Indemnity he mentions which was granted them after Bothwell-Bridge was very short lived tho no other Provocation was given by them than that our Orthodox Clergy could have few or no Hearers while they were kept up And our Gentleman non insanit sine ratione while he says that the Parliament finding that those Ministers Preaching up Rebellion had occasion'd all this danger to King and People tho 't is true that there have been Parliaments in Scotland that I believe would not be very unlike to the Orthodox Lady H. who hearing a Ministers Text repeated that preached at a Meeting said That the very words of the Text were Treason yet all the while nothing of this was proved tho it was an easie thing in those days to call any thing Rebellion however there was a specious pretence for the Parliaments so doing since they going away from those Ministers who preached little else but Loyalty to the Prince a great part of some of whose Weekly Studies was to enure themselves and train up their People in the Duties of Loyalty viz. to Drink the Kings Good Health and Confusion to Whigs and Men of Republican Principles and to those Preachers who insisted mainly on that which is due to the Soveraign of Heaven and Earth which amongst all the Honest Heathen had always the good luck to be called Sedition and Rebellion they might well be jealous lest they should shrink a little in their Loyalty He next brings the Plot upon the Stage as another Effect of their Field-Preachings But since the World has now discovered so much Cheat in that part of it which was said to be managed here which at least was the most considerable it sufficiently shews how little stress is to be laid on what an Orthodox Scotchman whether of the Clergy or Laity says to some of whom it needs not be doubted but a Jesuite may give the Right Hand of Fellowship for their Excellent Improvements in those Noble Arts of speaking above and besides the Truth blackning their Adversaries and a feared Forehead as well as Conscience to advance any thing that may but support their Cause From the foregoing Narrative he draws this Inference That it is admired why the Government is taxed with so much Cruelty and the Acts themselves reproacht as Diabolical And to prove the Reasonableness of his Inference he first gives us to know that the Acts against Field Conventicles are the same with the present Laws of England and less severe than those made against Dissenters in Queen Elizabeth's time or those against the Calvinisis in Sweden We might ask this Defender of the Orthodox Cause if Dissenting Ministers were ordered to be put to Death for preaching in Meetings in Queen Elizabeth's time But to wave this we may with good Reason avouch that this Gentleman how good a Lawyer soever he was is none of the best Casuists for we are not to take our Measures from what any Protestants or Lutherans do but from the Word of God and according to the Dictates of true Christianity against which if a Parliament makes Acts such as all those are that tend to Persecution I do not see how they can be obeyed without Sin For to apply our Authors own Words p. 24. The Parliament by their Authority cannot make that fit which is inconsistent with Humane Nature c. And when he or any of his Party can prove that such Laws are consistent with the Word of God or the Principles of Christianity then and not till then can he justifie Proceedings in that Point He pretends that the Liberty of Preaching in Houses was taken away because of their Rebellions But were all the Presbyterians in Scotland guilty of those Rebellions Why then ought not those that were Innocent and lived Peaceably under the Government allowed the Liberty of Worshipping God according to their Consciences Had this been done and those only prosecuted that were guilty of those Rebellions then he might have had something to boast of but nothing like it was done but if any Person tho never so Loyal yet scrupled to join with the present Ministry no distinction was made betwixt him and the most turbulent Nay 't is sufficiently known that Women were not exempted from their Cruelty persons one would think that could never either by their Policy or Strength undermine the Government and a Sex that might have expected at least some Protection from the Severity of the Laws from such a Prince as King Charles the Second was but were Imprisoned Fined and some of them Executed His second Reason is Whatever might be said against such Acts in Countreys where Dissenters never entred into a War yet in this Isle where they overturned the Government and Laws and were upon every Occasion again attempting it so small a Caution cannot be accounted severe Where he maliciously and falsly lays the War against K. Charles I. both in England and Scotland only to