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	power_n	4,568	5	4.9588	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94277	The Scotch souldiers speech concerning the Kings coronation-oath.	Montrose, James Graham, Marquis of, 1612-1650, attributed name.	1647 (1647)	Wing S963; Thomason E387_2; ESTC R201491	10,572	18

THE SCOTCH SOULDIERS SPEECH CONCERNING THE KINGS Coronation-Oath Printed in the Yeare 1647. THE Scotch Souldiers Speech concerning the Kings Coronation Oath GEntlemen fellow Souldiers though as a Scotchman I may be plaine and a Souldier blunt yet I hope as a Christian I shall be honest and as a Subject loyall in the expression of that duty which by the Laws of God of nature of the Kingdome of gratitude and of humanity is due to one who is by Soveraigne Majesty our King by birth our Countryman by education a Protestant by profession and actions a most pious Prince and by his gratious compliance with us confident in our loyalty the confluence of which obligements hath made all the powers of heaven and earth to stand as it were in amaze being big with expectations to see how well or ill we deport our selves in this businesse of such high concernment Who knowes but that the divine providence hath sent his Majesty to us that we might be made the happy instruments of a well grounded peace and of restoring Religion to its purity the Church to its Rights the King to his Prerogative and Lawes to their chanell the Nobility and Gentry to their honours and estates and the people to their Liberties if we resolve upon these things we may crown our Nation with honour but if unworthy thoughts possesse our soules we may justly feare that although salvation may come some other way yet we and our party shall perish It is true that we have an hard game to play but having the chiefe triumph trump in our owne hands besides so many honours we shall prove but ill Gamesters if we be not gainers by the deale and give Religion and Justice their due besides the saving of our owne stakes but for the effecting hereof it behooveth us to looke with our owne eyes and not through those spectacles or prospectives through which others present matters unto us we have hitherto been made beleeve that the end and design of all this war was to fetch the King from his evill Councellour to his Parliament of England his Majesty very often yea even beneath the dignity of so great a Prince desired to comply with them but they instead of accepting his Majesty voted him a prisoner his Majesty having honoured us with his Royall presence there are now no evill Councellours about his there are no Armies to animate his non-compliance what is now the rock of offence beleeve it all the circumstances of this War considered we may justly feare that we have been made but a stale to the designes of those seditious Schismaticks who are now the obstacles of the Kingdomes peace and that they like the Ape made use of the Cats foot to plucke those Chesnuts out of the fire which themselves had designed for their owne palat It behooves us now duly to examine the businesse and we are bound according to the trust reposed in us by his Majesty to vindicate his Majesties Rights and to see her restored to all his legall Prerogatives but shall I tell you the true causes of this present difference and that which we may upon good grounds suspect to be the true occasion of this most horrid and unnaturall War His Majesty at his Coronation in England tooke an Oath in these words I will maintaine and preserve to you the Bishops and to the Churches committed to your charges all Canonicall privileges and I will be your protector and defender to my power by the assistance of God as every good King in his Kingdome in right ought to defend the Bishops and Churches under their government then laying his hand on the booke on the Communion Table He saith these things I have before promised I shall performe and keep so helpe me God and the contents of this booke Here is an Oath able to strike terrour and amazement into the hearts of all the due circumstances there of being considered as well as feare and reverence in his Majesty about the performance of the same it is taken by Gods Anoynted in Gods House at Gods Table upon Gods Booke tendred by Gods Ministers to defend Gods Rights in the presence of Gods people and that with the imprecation of Gods curses and forfeiture of Gods blessings so that if ever any Oath could properly by way of eminency be called the Oath of God this is it His Majesty therefore out of his Princely piety conceiving himselfe bound in duty to God in honour to the Church in Justice to His Subjects and in obedience to Christian principles to maintaine his Oath refuseth to consent to the root and branch bills against the Episcopacy but some whom I will not name forgetfull of his Majesties honour and conscience and resolving to execute their owne designes in altring the government of the Church have raised a Militia and called us into their ayd thereby to force a compliance from his Majesty and the Royall Party with them And now what soule is not astonished what heart doth not bleed whose eares do not tingle to heare that we unhappy we should under the pretence of holy Covenants be made the instruments of such horrid impieties What could the devill and all the fiends of hell have thought on more impious then perjury what more obnoxious to the Church of God then Sacrilege what more rebellious then by force of Armes to compell the King to both what more blasphemous to God and scandalous to Christianity then to do all these things under the name pretence of Religion what was God the God of truth when he gave us the Precept of performing all our Vows and is he now become the God of Perjurie did God detest the withholding of Tythes and Offerings as robbery done to himselfe and is he now become a Patron of Sacrilege did he enjoyn subjection to Superiours as to his owne Ordinances and that upon paine of damnation and is he now become a Generall to Rebels whereby to force the King against his Oath and conscience Heare ô heavens and hearken ô earth if ever any such thing were committed that a great Councell of a Kingdome of Christians of Protestants of Subjects of those that were sworn to defend the Kings rights should countenance tumults connive at assaults upon his Majesty examine the circumstances of his birth to prove Bastardy in him that thereby they might remove him and his Royall Posterity from the Crown raise a Militia against him vote him that he was seduced by evill Counsell that he sought the destruction of the Parliament to bring in Popery and to rule by an arbitrary way vote his Royall Consort to be guilty of high Treason for her loyalty murder his Nobility destroy his Gentry oppresse his Subjects wincke at the blasphemous hew-and-cries of Britannicus and vote his Majesty to prison because out of a pious and princely resolution he is fully bent to maintaine his Oath rather to part from his life and Crowne then from that Religion and Government