Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	charles_n	king_n	stuart_n	2,711	5	13.1708	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80898	A declaration of His Highnesse the Lord Protector for a day of publick thanksgiving	England and Wales. Lord Protector (1653-1658 : O. Cromwell); Cromwell, Oliver, 1599-1658.	1658 (1658)	Wing C7067; Thomason E1073_5; ESTC R208257	3,282	9

A DECLARATION OF HIS HIGHNESSE THE Lord Protector for a day of publick THANKSGIVING OLIVARIVS DEI GRA REIPVB ANGLIAE SCOTIAE ET HIBERNIAE PROTECTOR LONDON Printed by Henry Hills and John Field Printers to His Highness 1658. A DECLARATION OF HiS HIGHNES the Lord PROTECTOR for a day of Publick Thanksgiving WE being conscious of the Mercy of those dispensations which have come very thick upon Vs within the space of Five moneths last past cannot but think Our Self obliged to call for a Day of Thanksgiving in these Nations which that it might be the more seriously and spiritually performed We have thought it meet to make a brief Remembrance and as it were in a Glass to represent the state of Our Affairs as they stood much about the beginning of the time before mentioned and summarily to rehearse those things which God hath wrought for Vs within that time that so all such as fear God and are wise to observe these things and thereby understanding the loving kindness of the Lord may have their hearts and mouths filled with his praise It is well known that the last Parliament did by Adjournment meet the Twentieth day of January last past and that these Nations had very good hopes by those preparations made in their former Sitting that We should have gone on upon those Foundations to an happy Settlement But those hopes were soon dashed through the intemperance of some mens Spirits Notwithstanding it was throughly represented that the old Enemy had a design of an immediate Invasion with an Army consisting of Papists and Atheists upon the accompt of Charles Stuart in conjunction with the King of Spain in whose Counsels it was agreed more adviseable to give Vs work in England rather then that We should assist the French to engage them in their own Countrey It being also at the same time most visible that diverse of the inferiour sort of people set on by men of the same Spirit with them before hinted at and naturally fluctuating were enclined to dangerous commotions seeing the disputes were more readily taken up and improved then the putting in execution and prosecuting the agreements before made and that the Army seemed to have some unsettlement in it self partly arising from the before mentioned disappointment partly from the great wants which were upon them and fears of being necessitated to take free Quarter upon the People then which nothing could be more abhorrent to them the Trade of the Nation and Our Honour at Sea ready to be hazarded and lost for want of due Supplies We being forced to keep Our men of War out at Sea not having money to pay Our Mariners when they came in In the mean time Our Neighbours every where preparing greater Fleets then usual and even they in Flanders themselves having made ready a Fleet of above twenty men of War at Ostend for the transporting of Charles Stuart and his Spanish Forces to invade Vs. In order whereunto divers of Our Garrisons were by Bribes endeavoured to be gained for receiving the said invading Army and Insurrections designed and laid in several Counties by the Malignant Party to rise in assistance of the said Invasion accompanied also with that desperate design of firing the City of London and seising upon the Treasure that could be found there which wicked Plot was managed by many Colonels and other chief Officers who were to head this Tragical Action All which hath been made evident as well by clear proofs against as by the confessions of divers of the persons engaged therein some of which have already suffered the paines of Death and further Examinations touching others are still going on that all the world may see that these things have not been matters of invention or surmise but real and demonstrable truths and things that as they heighten greatly the danger so also the recital of them tends to Our end in making this Narrative which is the magnifying of the good hand of God towards Vs in Our deliverance And lastly which did not the least afflict Vs We had cause deeply to apprehend that the Lords hand was upon Vs in that Epidemical sickness which was so long continued upon the Nation and lay sore upon the City of London and in the marvellous unseasonableness of the Spring threatning Vs even with a deprivation of the fruits of the earth and consequently with a sore famine That this hath been the danger hanging over the head of these Nations no honest or ingenuous man can deny And therefore let us now consider in what State and Condition We are and what the Lord by his own Arm and for his own Names sake hath wrought for Vs. It is very true We are not yet setled but it hath fared with Vs as with the burning Bush though We have for these five Moneths last past and longer too been in a burning condition yet We are not consumed We yet live in the enjoyment of a sweet peace to praise the Lord in hope of better things We are not yet weltring in bloud It appears that as God was in the midst of the Bush so he hath been in the midst of Vs and therefore We are not consumed He disappointed the Invasion by giving Vs timely notice of the Enemies preparations and of the place thereof by means of which Our Ships were layed to break their designe He discovered to Vs their attempts to gain Our Sea-garisons into their hands and disappointed them He revealed the conspiracies in the Counties in order to Insurrections and prevented them He brought to light also the bloudy and hellish design for the destruction of the City of London by fire and sword and hath brought the guilty persons under judgement for the same He hath given Our Souldiery a spirit of union of honesty and integrity so that notwithstanding the great temptations of want upon them and the contrivements to divide them to the praise of God We speak it they retain that good old spirit that hath carried them through all their difficulties Those that have had too much distemper upon them through murmuring and discontents are We hope at least some of them sensible of the evil thereof and instead thereof both Counties and Cities have testified a very contrary spirit a spirit owning mercies blessing the Lord for them and thirsting after the continuance of them and for a just settlement As for that sore Visitation how hath the Lord upon the prayers of his poor People ceased that and t is not without remark that the two weeks Bills of Mortality immediately after the Fast upon that occasion were brought to the half of what they were the week before and did amount not to more discernably then in the healthiest times And as to the evils threatned by the unseasonableness of the spring the Lord hath so contradicted our fears that We are all of Vs to be convinced by sence that the hopes of greater plenty hath been seldom seen upon the face of the Earth And lastly in that place where the Enemy layd all his designs from whence to invade Vs and to give Vs trouble and had brought it to that pass for the heightning of their confidence both there and here that they were ready even to triumph as having as good as obtained their wishes even there hath the great God abased them and brought them low in a signal victory gained by the French and Vs over them In which success the French themselves have owned much to the honour of the English Nation not without admiration observing that the English on Our part should behave themselves with so much valour and undaunted resolution and the English on Charls Stuarts part more cowardly then any in the Spanish Army The Lord also hath in the same place given Vs a Port Town not the worst in Flanders which We beg we may make use of to the glory of God and the good of the Christian cause These things being thus how could We forbear for the honour of God to give you a remembrance of them And how can you and We forbear the returning of our humblest and heartiest thanks to the Lord How can We refraine any longer from breaking forth into the high praises of Our God for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Let the redeemed of the Lord say so Let Israel now say so Let them now that fear the Lord say that his mercy endureth for ever And when We have with our mouthes and with our hearts thus blessed God let Vs like a People blessed by him keep in our hearts a thankfull remembrance of these and all other Our mercies giving glory to God and Christ through the spirit seeking the Peace and the truth for evermore We have therefore thought fit to appoint Wednesday the one twentieth day of July instant to be a day of Publique Thansgiving unto the Lord for these great and eminent mercies to be observed in all places within England Wales and Town of Berwick upon Tweed and do Command and require all Ministers and Pastors to give notice thereof in their Congregations on the Lords-day next before the said day of Thanksgiving and that upon the said day of Thanksgiving they do read this Declaration in their respective Congregations And We do hereby prohibite the keeping of all Fairs and Markets upon the day aforesaid Given at White-hall this third day of July 1658.