Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
england_n ambassador_n king_n send_v 11,843 5 6.7045 4 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A50913 A vindication of the government in Scotland during the reign of King Charles II against mis-representations made in several scandalous pamphlets to which is added the method of proceeding against criminals, as also some of the phanatical covenants, as they were printed and published by themselves in that reign / by Sir George Mackenzie ... Mackenzie, George, Sir, 1636-1691. 1691 (1691) Wing M213; ESTC R11146 43,490 68

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

A VINDICATION OF THE GOVERNMENT IN SCOTLAND During the REIGN of King Charles II. AGAINST Mis-Representations made in several Scandalous Pamphlets To which is added the Method of proceeding against Criminals as also some of the Phanatical Covenants as they were Printed and Published by themselves in that Reign By Sir GEORGE MACKENZIE Late LORD ADVOCATE There LONDON Printed for I. Hindmarsh at the Golden Ball in Cornhill 1691. A VINDICATION OF THE Government in SCOTLAND During the Reign of King CHARLES II. AGAINST Mis-representations made in several Scandalous Pamphlets THe Design of this Paper is neither to seduce others into Faction nor to make an Apologie the one being too Malicious and the other too Mean But because many honest and sincere Men have been abused by some late Misinformations whereby the Charity and Vnity of Protestants amongst themselves are much weakened therefore this Paper comes to set things in their true light by a bare Narrative which will be sufficient to reclaim those who are abus'd and to confute those malicious Authors who have endeavour'd to Reproach a whole Nation with Villanies of which none but these Authors themselves could have been guilty Because the Civil Government in Scotland was never bigot in that King's Reign therefore we shall not run back to consider Episcopacy or Presbyterie otherways than as they may concern the Civil Government Neither should we run so far back as to the Government of King Charles I. were it not to prove that these of the same persuasion who now complain were the first Aggressors and consequently what was done against them deserves rather the name of Self-defence than Persecution For clearing this it is necessary to represent that in the Year 1637 we liv'd under the most Pious and Orthodox Prince of the Age and yet a Rebellion was form'd against him as a Papist and a Tyrant by which all the Fundamental Laws were shaken and all honest Men ruin'd Neither needs there any other proof for this Assertion than the Records of Parliament General Assemblies and Iustice Court From the Records and Acts of Parliament it is undeniable that the power of nominating Judges Counsellors and all Officers of State the power of levying War and raising Taxes were usurp'd by the people Covenants were entred into by a part of the Subjects and by them impos'd imperiously upon the rest Leagues and Covenants were entred into with England Ambassadours were sent to Foreign Princes and States and even to France tho' little less terrible then than now exclaiming against the Injustice of the King justifying their taking Arms against him and therefore intreating the French Aid and Assistance The King himself was inhumanely deliver'd up to his Enemies and thereafter the Army that went in to defend his precious Life were declared Rebels all which was uncontravertedly inconsistent with the Laws of the Kingdom then standing From the Acts of the General Assembly it is clear that the Assembly 1639. refus'd to rise when dissolv'd by the King's Commissioner and most of the following Assemblies did both sit down and rise without his Warrand This Assembly threw out the Bishops and abrogated Episcopacy without Authority of Parliament tho' the Bishops were always the first of the three Estates of Parliament A new Oath was invented called the Covenant without the King's Authority and all Men Women and Children that were above ten years of age forc'd to take it and such as took it not were Excommunicated upon which all their Moveables or Chattels were Confiscated and they themselves being declar'd disobedient to the Laws were forc'd to fly The King 's Negative Voice was declared Illegal and the Acts made for assisting him in the Year Forty Eight were declar'd Void and Null by an unparallel'd Invasion the General Assembly imitating in this as in many other things the Church of Rome raised themselves above King and Parliament From the Records of the Iustice Court we find that the Estates made Advocates or Attorney Generals by their own Authority who prosecuted to death such as defended their own Houses by vertue of express Commissions from the King and such as rose in Arms for his Defence tho' they had both his Commissions and Remissions though the Iudes that Condemned them sat by vertue of that very King's Commission They not only borrowed vast Sums by meer force from private Men whom they never payed but also they were the first that brought in Free and dry Quarter Cess Excise and all these Publick burthens afterwards so much complain'd of when they were continued upon necessary Exigencies by lawful Authority we having neither formerly known Oaths nor Publick burthens under our gentle Kings against whom they so much exclaim'd as Tyrants because forsooth they kept them from being such All these Proceedings were not only condemn'd by the general Opinion of both Protestants and Papists abroad but stand yet condemned by express Acts of Parliament and by many Acts in the like Cases in Scotland and England and so nothing which can be alledged in justification of them deserves or needs an answer King Charles the Second being restored by almost the Universal consent of all the People the worst of whom grew weary of their Villanies The Parliament of Scotland being called they enquired very seriously into the occasion of such Disorders and soon found that they were all to be charged upon the Solemn League and Covenant and those who adhered thereto and therefore they endeavoured to perswade the Presbyterians to disown the Covenant all favour being promised to them upon that condition But finding that the Presbyterians generally thought themselves bound to own the Covenant the Parliament concluding that the same Men owning the same Principles would be ready upon occasion to act over again the same things therefore they by Vote which may be called unanimous seeing only four or five dissented restored Episcopacy and that so much the rather because that Government had in no age nor place forced its way into the State by the Sword but had still been brought in by the uncontraverted Magistrate without ever thrusting it self in by Violence and yet the Government did sustain Episcopacy as a part of the State but never as a Hierarchy wholly independent from it The Presbyterian Preachers had all along taught the People That as their Government was Iure Divino so the People might thereby be obliged to defend them and it under pain of Eternal Damnation even when Episcopacy was Established by Law and accordingly some of the People who retained that Principle frequented the Conventicles at which these Ministers Preacht whereupon the State fearing that the old Humour might ferment again into a Rebellion discharged under some small Penalties any above Five Strangers to meet in a Conventicle leaving thereby at once the free exercise of their Conscience in their Families and yet securing the State against such a total defection as might involve us in a New Civil-War which without doubt was all the State design'd