Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	bishop_n	king_n	part_n	2,994	5	4.2601	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52751	The case of the kingdom stated according to the proper interests of the severall parties ingaged : I. Touching the interest of the King and his party, II. The interest of the Presbyterian party, III. The interest of the Independent party, IV. The interest of the citie of London, V. The interest of Scotland, not extant before now : a peece of rare observation and contexture, wherin all men are equally concerned.	Nedham, Marchamont, 1620-1678.	1647 (1647)	Wing N380; ESTC R40043	15,667	18

upon what ground and by whose meanes things were thus carried concluded then there was no way to get into the Nation but upon the ruine of our Bishops which must necessarily follow if they could introduce the Presbiteriall government which themselves had received in Scotland and this they found was no hard matter to effect since there were many that way affected in England and their affections highly inflamed by reason of the rigorous dealing and tyrannicall pride of some Clergy-men which rendred their whole Order and government odious to the more tender consciences prepared the people hood-winkt to entertain any change though to their own prejudice This being on the other side immediately resented by the Bishops they judged it best to be before-hand with the Scots and first to try their patience and Pick a quarrel on purpose to tame them by force a new Liturgie was contrived sent and imposed upon them the offer whereof bred so much indignation in the one party as a refusall did in the other both glad enough of the occasion that a war immediately ensued wherein though the King were ingaged on the Bishops part yet the Scots got most of Honour and the war being ended much money and reputation among their friends in England which so indeared them that a new rupture falling out betwixt King and Parliament they had an easie in-let to build themselves with high confidence a more sure interest than ever in this Nation which was accomplisht by the mutuall ingagement of the Parliaments of each Kingdom to other as brethren in the firm bond of a League and Covenant By which lant-skip of discourse it appeares as the Scots have now attained the pitch of their desires by a fast foot in the fat soyle of England through mutuall Covenanting which hath been long a contriving and earnestly struggled for so they ought to prosecute the Covenant the vitals of their hope with all due respect tendernesse and caution according to the rationall drift of it toward the people of England lest their proceedings become odious and themselves be kick'd off again with disdain and enmity Therefore I shall present them with a few considerations First let them be pleased to remember that the people look upon them but as inferiours and therefore must needs swell high with indignation if they busie themselves over-much in the affaires of England knowing in how high scorne it was taken that they should claime an interest as once they had the boldnesse to doe in their Papers given into the Parliament in disposals of matters meerly relating to our welfare And since all men know that though they were admitted to ingage here necessity so requiring it as equals and competitors in the same cause the Kingdomes being supposed equally involved in the same common danger yet were they indeed but Mercenaries in pay of the English Parliament who might have had Germans or Swissers at the same rate perhaps no more prejudice to the Country Secondly I must confesse it behoves the Scot predicant if possible to see Episcopacy cashiered root and branch and their owne form stated here in a sure succession that so a correspondence being cherished between Clergy of the same garb and humour in both Countries they may freely tosse thunder-bolts of excommunication on both sides to gratifie each other and so be able to terrifie all Lords and Gentry that dare be averse in either Kingdome and promote such onely to places of trust whose poorer spirits will vassallize their Birth and Genius to serve their ends And I confesse it behoves such great ones as have already link'd themselves in design with the Clergie to stick close to them a while for their owne credit and security except they can handsomly retreat with speed yet both English and Scotch Gentry of this gang may consider that such a course cannot stand long in England where being Myriads of more generous soules than in Scotland they must alwaies expect a flying out into any extrems that yeeld the least hope of an advantage to throw their riders Thirdly if the Scots plead conscience for extirping the Government by Bishops as bound thereto by Covenant yet seeing Bishop is every jot as wholsome a word and as much Scripturall as Presbyter and that our weaker Brethren in England are wedded to that Forme as more tolerable than any other and more sutable to the Lawes and Constitution of the Monarchie I suppose that the admission of a Bishop mortified regulated and pruned of his superfluities will no whit clash with the sense of the Covenant For it is plaine that the scope of it is not against Bishop in the Abstract but in the Concrete as laden with an accumulation of Deanes Deanes and Chapters Prebends Chancellours Commissaries c. though if these also were admitted again as I cannot see how they may be well refused yet the Scots for their part and those of their party here in England having endeavoured their utmost to extirp it they have done all that the Covenant requires though it be not effected But seeing most in England will not be content without it and nothing but another Conquest can force any other upon them me think rationall men should sit down content with a discharge of their consciences in having seriously endeavoured the extirping it to their power further then which the Covenant doth not binde them rather then aime at an impossibility in reason or venture a sad score upon conscience in imbroyling two Kingdomes again to an inevitable ruine of a third which can never be justified from Scripture in the behalf of Principles of Faith which are the substance of Religion much lesse upon point of Disciplin which is but the shadow Fourthly if a designe be followed to force their Government upon this Kingdome so generally detested by reasonable men the war cannot possibly bee long-liv'd here where the thing contended for is so ill befriended but must of necessity be translated toward Scotland where it had its Originall And though the Scots need not feare being valiant enough and having one advantage above all other men in possessing little that may invite men to a conquest yet it will be chastisement enough to be beaten home kept there from their usuall way of thriving by intercourse with England Fifthly since that their Presbyterie is more of the World and so like to be more troublesome to it than Episcopacy it will bee an occasion to the English to prye into the grounds of the Scots so earnest pressing that government upon them and finding by the Proeme of this particular draught which wise observing men cannot be ignorant of that wordly respects first made them bring it in hither the greater part of men here which are worldly will endeavour to preserve themselves against all such worldly incroachments under pretence of Religion and though it be presented in a new dresse call●d Reformation yet since it must prove no other than an Assassination of the Monarchie and a Reducing of the old Privado's which oppressed us at Court to overwh●lm us with new ones quite throughout the Kingdom it is like that the love of ●ingly Government so surely imprinted in this Nation and jealousie of Liberty will render men implacable to all that keep a hand in a rigid Presbyterie urge them to apply desperate remedies to be cured of it as the grand canker-worm of our English interest Sixthly to designe that upon a people which their constitutions will not beare ordinary Braines must conceive can have no ground in policie unlesse there be some certainty which way to master them and therfore the Scots and their favorites may do well to consider how they can go through stitch with the busines against a generous people impatient of the yoake It is not in England as in Scotland where men are poore and so the more easily inslaved and led about to serve the ends of the Grandees amongst them but being rich and sensible of their freedomes will entertain no more here from the perswasions of men than what they can make visible by reason as conducing to the generall good so that the ground-work of all actions must be laid according to the peoples inclination and not the faction of particular men be they never so potent in wealth or wisedome By this rule they may judge what their friends are able to doe for the Presbyterian cause in England Lastly since most men un-interrested that way are of a contrary mind I wish them to consider that if by striving against the streame they lose their hold now it can never be recovered again upon the same pretence and perhaps many ages will hardly afford the like and therefore if the Scots shall proceed to scrue themselves in by their engineers of the Clergy more Lordly already then the former to the oppression of Episcopall and * Loquor ad sensum vulgi Independent consciences and indeavour to found them with an Antichristian power upon the blood of both Countries by a new war the ancient Antipathy must needs revive and bee reared againe like Adrian's wall as a perpetuall Barr betwixt the Nations From whence I may conclude the case thus standing that the only interest of the Scots is to preserve themselves in the opinion of the people of England by a moderate and faire construction of the Covenant in behalfe of a Presbytery which being by Covenant to be judged according to the word of God they have the lesse reason to stand for their own way here because they take little besides the bare name of Presbytery out of the word and so having no pretence to found a quarrell but only upon some parcels of the letter of the Covenant I see no reason they have to be angry if the English give them leave to inioy their owne in peace at home and in the meane time take leave to settle things here for the good of this State in Church Government as they judge answerable to their principles according to the Word whereupon they apprehend the Covenant was first intended framed and founded And so the heat of controversie being laid by a brotherly condescension on both sides in matter of religious concernment the peace and union in all civill respects may be established and kept inviolable betwixt the Kingdoms Dirno aedifico muto quadrata rotundis FINIS

their owne Bookes of Discipline Secondly touching the Kings Friends which are of two Sorts viz. the Bishops and their Clergie the Courtiers with the Gentry they must expect lesse from the Presbyter than the King himselfe may For as They would leave the King nothing but a name without Substance so they will allow the Bishops neither Name nor Substance and inslave the Gentry in their own Lordships by a new way of par●chiall Tyrannie For if so be they conforme not then they must expect in a short time to see the meanest of their Tenants become their Masters in judicature and so what Solomon cals a great Vanitie will be a Prime mystery in this new Government Hence then we may conclude that the Kings Interests lead him to close rather with the other party called Independent as the onely means to f●ee him and his friends from the former Inconveniences and that for these following Reasons First because they are the onely friends to Civil government in the World leaving it wholly in the hands of the Magistrate pleading exemption in nothing but their Church-way Whereas the Presbyters claim not onely a distinct power in Church-affaires as you may read in that Branch of the Synods late confession which speakes of Church censures but they borrow also so much from the Magistrate as will in able them to compell mens Consciences And so under this cunning Pretence that the Magistrate is bound to use or lend his power to support their arbitrary constitutions the Proofes whereof they Fish out of the Judicials of Moses and some places of the Gospell misapplyed in some of their Articles lurkes the great Mystery of Iniquity whereby They gaine a power even over the Magistrate himselfe who in this case must use the sword for conscience sake wheresoever they please to Advise or Command him And so both King and Parliament must give way and compell others to submit to whatsoever they shall ordain in their Generall Assembly as for the well-governing of the Church Secondly because it is easie for th● King to mingle Interests with the Independents and oblige them w … that which is denyed them by the Presbyter viz. Liberty of conscience In which Particular he ought also to pretend great tendernesse it being his owne case at present to suffer by many pressing Importunities to take the Covenant and passe things of high Importance wherein he is not satisfied the refusall whereof upon Scruple of Conscience is the only cause of his non-accesse to the Parliament Thirdly because the Independent Principles lead them to admit rather of Monarchy than any other Government as being that under which they presume of greater Inlargements than when Many rule who are usually most apt to gratifie a faction in the Nationall Church with accruments of worldly pomp and power the better to support their own in the State Fourthly Here is a doore of Hope opened this way for the Bishops and their Clergie with all that are for the Liturgie and that Government Whereas if Presbytrie take place in a Nationall mode then there will be Form against their Form and Policy against their Policie which when it shall be actually twisted with that of the State can never be removed without length of time and extreme difficulty Where observe by the way how it was ever the grand mystery which Satan set on work in the hearts of those who glory in that usurped Title of Clergie first to introduce a plausible politique prudentiall way of Government in the Church as the only pattern brought out of the Mount then to gain it a sure being and repute with men thy were wont to take in some of the power of the World to countenance it and force a Submission thereto by all under the old specious pretext of Decency Conformity and Order and lastly to make all fast the Custome was to mingle Interests with the State or the Prince as the Bishops lately did with our Kings and the Presbyters doe now with some great Ones and the City and so their Fundamentalls being once poys'd with the others then whosoever shall presume to move the one must shake the other and presently incurre the brand of seditious disturbers of States and Kingdomes Which hath been no meane artifice of the Devill in all times to uphold his Kingdom in the hearts of men against the Kingdom of Christ In this Particular the Bishops and Presbyters have been alike faulty But if these have time to supplant the Bishops as they are in a fair way and over-act them at their owne game They are left for ever without remedy But Fifthly by an immediate Close with the Independent and abandoning that cursed Principle of universall Compulsion as well in opinion as practise since there is a numerous sort of people in the Kingdom that will not be satisfied without the old external Form of Diocesan Liturgie it 's clear then that Independents may help to Instate Them in that Forme again upon some visible assurance that themselves shall be left at Liberty rather then be trodden down by a Mornivall or two of Tyrants no lesse monstrous perhaps for Ignorance than pride in every parochiall Inquisition The last Reason is because the Kings Vnion with this party may so abate the fury of the Presbiter that whether Peace or War ensue those of the Court Councell and Gentry excepted from pardon and the rest that have not yet Compounded cannot continue long at this distance without some probable hope That Humors altering and by the mediation of some the rest being brought to a more moderate temper it may be no hard matter to reconcile all within the Limits of an Act of Oblivion And so for these Reasons I conceive we may boldly affirme That since the King hath no hope of remedy from his Friends here at home or abroad his true Interest at present is by some meanes or other to close with that Partie in this Kingdome which they call Independent The Interest of the Presbyter and his Party PResbiterie was no sooner born at Geneva but it was nurst up here in England in the Wishes of many as Heir apparent of Episcopacie For it 's usuall ever in all wordly Church-reformations as well as those of the State to finde some men either out of conscience or envy disaffected to the settled Government Out of Envy when they misse of that Preferment which they expected by a change out of conscience when they see a greater glory of Light and Purity beyond it and therefore will not live by it but beside it or above it The truth whereof Experience hath told us in all the degrees of Reformation in this Kingdom from Popery to Prelacie from the Bishop to the Presbyter And I shall willingly allow the Presbyters who reckon themselves for the old Puritans of England so much charity as to think their disaffection proceeded meerly from a conscience well-informed because I observe now an Impressa of divine glory and excellency in

Spirit which they esteeme sufficient to constitute and maintain a Church without any assistance from the Kingdomes of the world whose power they leave entire unto themselves The Summ is this both Bishops and Presbyters by their Church-policy stand Competitors with the Magistrate and Independents leave all to him save only the Kingdom of Christ which if you will take his own word is not of this world and so can be no trouble to it unless His be first troubled by it By this description then it appears that the Government contended for by the other two is but meer Policie and since their Politicks render them utterly irreconcileable Independencie which owns no Policie becomes the ballancing power betwixt them And as it behoves either of the two to strive to weigh down the other by a timely Close with It So the only Interest of Independency is to embrace that party where an union procures most Indulgence and little or no scandal which I conceive may be expected rather from the Royall Episcopall party then the other upon these following Grounds First Though principles of Faith should sway the Presbyters to brotherly amity with the Independent yet by their driving so furiously upon terms of discipline and through their eagernes upon uniformity in the Letter slighting that glorious unity in the Spirit which is the very life of Christian profession they give little hope of favour but rather expectation of a fiery Tryall seeing th●y begin to heat the Furnace already Secondly though Bishops stand at a great distance Yet setting aside that grosse mixture of Ceremonies their discipline were far more tolerable notwithstanding they had power to exercise it to the utmost with compulsion because Tyranny cannot be so great in the hands of few as many So that if hereafter in case Presbytery be setled our former plagues be not a thousand times trebled upon us we must acknowledge our present freedom only to the courtesie and goodnes of our Taskmasters But if corrupt times come on as who can assure us they will not since the old mystery of iniquity is now in the world under a new Forme What then will become of our posterity when the yoake shall be fastned to our necks by an Act of Parliament Thirdly though the Episcopall are enemies to both Presbyters and Independents yet considering these have been extream civill in using their victories and may now most oblige them in their lowest condition and it being possible that both their interests may stand together with discretion entire then if Bishops quit the exorbitant compulsive power and the King give assurance against it for liberty of Conscience the enmity betwixt him and the Independent may be soon extinguished Fourthly there can be no scandall to the Independent by such an union of interests since the Woe-following scandall belongs to them alway by whom the grounds of Scandall are necessitated And therefore that the Scandall may clearely report upon Presbyter as I proved before it must the Independent ought not to admit of a Breach till the Red Dragon begin to play Rex till the Whore prepares to dye her Scarlet a new and the pale Horse of imprisonment and exile threaten a Range about the Streets Lastly though th●s discovery of Interest may seem to portend ruine to the Parliament yet it is far otherwise For Independents ought not to looke upon it so as to neglect them in whose priviledges and safety all Liberty is involved But with all tendernesse to have regard unto them as the onely Rampire against all kinds of Tyranny since all proceedings thence against them as Hereticks and Schismaticks c. are actuated only by some particular men whose designes being laid in the darke Time alone must discover But that which will crowne Independent Interest and which is indeed true Parliamentary Interest though Presbyterians drive another way is to reconcile the King upon such honourable Termes that as he and they are in all reason obliged to down with the Dagon of a rigid Presbytery so the ingagement may be managed with such Caution for the safety of the Parliament and assurance of Liberty in time to come as may remove all Iealousies and lay a sure foundation for a lasting Peace The Interest of the City of London THis City bears the name of the Metropolis of England the Royall Chamber the grand Emporium the universall Exchange for Traffick so that her sole Interest is a free Trade whereby having acquired large Demesnes in all Parts she maintaines a considerable influence upon the whole which makes her stand on tip-toe looking down with disdain upon all as unable or unworthy to stand in competition with her single Selfe This conceit hath been much heightned by those large Contributions thence which have been the very Sinews of the War against the Royall Party so that it 's to be feared the Huge Animal having found its own strength may prove Rampant and contemne the Bridle unlesse a little corrected by Reason Therefore I thinke meet to lay down these ensuing considerations First that what they have hitherto done must not be look't upon as done by their own strength and Riches but only as these received an Authority of Parliament to give life unto the Action without which as then so all designes now or hereafter must prove abortive Secondly though the Citiz●ns pretend Religion to be the only necessary Appendix to that Trade by clasping both together with a rigid Presbytery and suppose this the more pleasing safe way because they are made beleeve it is Divine yet if they please to looke more narrowly upon the Scriptures and the procedings of their Priests they may learne the Scope of their State-Divinity is only to drive a Trade in the Ministry upon them and their Estates which the City shal soone find when the Presbyterian Charter is once confirmed by Act of Parliament Thirdly if onely even rekonings make long friends then it 's like this hot love to a Presbyterie may end in a Divorce before the three yeares end especially when the Accompts shall be cast up betwixt Clergy and Laity that worm-eaten Reverend Cheat of distinction betwixt Brethren It 's true indeed some of them shall be admitted to a partnership in the Tyranny and this is the very De-coy to allure them on but usually the preaching Presbyter swayes All and he is a very silly one indeed that knowes not how to do it since they either stand or fall according to his Report of their good Complyance in the opinion of the generall Assembly that Holy of Holies where the Lay-Vulgars must not enter which neat contrivance of invisible Clockworke will be sure to have a wheele going in all affaires of the Kingdome But Fourthly Suppose that the Lay-Elders themselves should have fair Play from the Priests yet what comfort will that be to the rest of the Parish who must be in little better condition then gally-slaves when the Eldership shall have an Oare in every Boat And