Linguistic DNA - Concept Modelling Demonstrator

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	church_n	rome_n	separation_n	2,835	5	10.7415	5	false

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62890	The rebels plea, or, Mr. Baxters judgment concerning the late wars in these particulars : viz. the originall of government, coordinate and legislative power in the two Houses, third estate, force upon the Houses in 1642, principles the Houses went by at the beginning, destructive to monarchy, covenant, reasons for submitting to the late government.	Tomkins, Thomas, 1637?-1675.	1660 (1660)	Wing T1838; ESTC R32811	35,816	50

kept in the Irish Rebells declared for the King we should have been butchred by them when they had conquered Ireland The Right of the people to resist their Prince having been examined we now come to the reasons upon which they did it 1. Shipmoney Not to insist upon the frequent practises of our Kings in that nature the consent of so many venerable judges the abundant care the King took to be informed the employments of it to those worthy ends for which it was raised were enough with al ingenuous minds if there were any miscarriages in the getting at least to excuse them But some men with their Loyalty put of their good nature with their Religion loose their civility But Mr. B. ought to have known that the King had relinquished his claim to Shipmoney before the Warr and therefore that could not be a cause of it Kings may confesse and forsake their faults yet some subâ—ects will not forget them Praticall serious godlinesse was a scorne That was not part of the kings cause but it was very suspicious to see men solemnize a few fasts and think that entiled them to eat other mens bread all their lives after to scruple at being like prophane Absalon who wore long hare yet immitate that good man Absalon that could pay his vow and Rebell devoutly The new Orders in the Church amount to no more then this Those to whom the administration of Ecclesiasticall affairs belong to by the Laws of this land observing some neglect order rudeness in the performance of divine service appointed for its future decency some ceremonies neither commanded nor forbidden in the word of God but some of them were used in the Church of Rome whereupon they were esteemed or at least wise called Popish All that can possibly be said against this is that it is unlawfull to use any thing in Divine Service for which there is neither command nor example in Scripture when by the way the latter confutes the former supposing there may be imitable examples in Scripture of things uncommanded there which would make the black and white caps as much Antichristian as the square one Or secondly it is lawfull to use it but not if it be enjoyned but this cannot be said by Mr B. who pleades for the Civill Magistrates Power in matter of Religion though I think he is scarce resolved to allow him any thing may be called Power but that sure is of a strange nature that ceases to be lawfull when it is commaded by a lawfull Magistrate Or thirdly The being used in the Church of Rome makes it unlawfull to be used in the Church of England A very pretty principle truly we must differ from them when we have reason and when we have not reason when they reproach us with separation out of pride humour novelty the most rationall way to acquit our selves sure is to make it appeare we gladly will come as neare to them in Doctrine and Discipline as they will to Truth and pure Antiquity We did not in those things conform to Rome but to the Primitive Church and reduce those things as it were ex postlimino to their native innocent usage from which no additionall corruption of any abroad can rationally debarre us The last is a trim devise That the King would have destroyed us by the Irish Rebels who professed to raise Armes for the King Sect. 10. I suppose Mr. Baxter can tell of some in England who professed to fight for the King yet never had his Commission It seems the King must suffer as the Earle of Strafford was said to doe not for what he had but what he possibly might have done hereafter The War against the Parliament was just upon as good a ground we feared they would undo the Church and State with their Army of Sectaries whom they countenanced when he did not the Rebels in Ireland If the King had made use of the money raised for the relief of Ireland in the War at home when the poore Protestants were like to starve for want of it as the two Houses did he might have been thought to have abetted that Rebellion The Parliament could make such an inhumane Order for divertion of that money from the use it was raised for and when the King sent to them to revoke it for their own credits sake if not for the lives of his poor Irish subjects they according to their usuall rant Voted his messuage a breach of priviledge and made use of that mony to fight against him and yet they would be thought friends to the Protestants in Ireland If inferiour Courts of justice may prosecute the execution of their sentence in severall cases against the Kings will and the Sheriff may raise the power of the County to assist that execution much more may the highest Court but the former is true ergo The Argument is this If the Sheriff may raise the posse CommitatÃ»s when by the law he is enabled so to do ergo the two houses may though the Law doth not enable them raise the posse regni Courts of judicature may use such force as doth not disturbe the peace of the Nation ergo the two houses may raise a war is a far fetcht consequence Again The house of Peers is solely the Court of Judicature the major part of which were evidently with the King The summe of the next three leaves is The warr was not against the Kings person or authority nor to change the Government of King Lords c. nor to take away the magistrates power in matters of Religion as appears by Protestation solemne league Covenant Declarations When I consider their Declarations for the King and their actions against him all I can gather is that notwithstanding their bitter remonstrances of the State of the Kingdome their unworthy unexampled ripping up and publishing to the vulgar all the faults and infelicities of his raigne which Parliaments were in a greater measure the cause of in not yeelding seasonable supply without taking any notice of the satiafaction made and care taken by him for prevention of the like for the time to come or the happy dayes men now remember they then enjoyed by which wayes it is easily to render any Government odious to the credulous and undiscerning populacy notwithstanding all this and the seditious invectives of Pen and Pulpit The King stood so clear in the eyes of all men that the being against him was a thing that they durst not own Though they spoyled him of his goods and endeavoured to do so of his good name ruined his friends preferred his most enraged enemies chased him from place to place they said to bring him to his Parliament when they caught him would not let him come thither though they deprived him of all authority as a King by taking it into their own hands his liberty as a man by imprisonment as an husband by keeping him from his wife as a father from his Children as a Christian

civilly bitter it allowed him as much ceremonious Royalty as might put him in mind of what he had been About Dec. 1647 for want of something else to do they treat with the King but he must grant foure previous propositions the first and last of which would serve to dethrone him and the other two to affront him which certainly they would never have asked had they not resolved to be denied But great ills cannot be maintained but by acting greater they would not allow the King any power because they feared what they deserved as it is usually seen that they that sin beyond all example think they sin beyond all possibility of forgivenesse so these though they might have had the greatest provision for their safety themselves could imagine so that they needed fear nothing but guilty consciences thought the King and themselves could not both be secure Wherefore on the third of January the Kings refusall tofigne the bills was wholy debated it was strongly urged how the King by denyall of those bills had refused to protect his people viz. by denying to part with the Militia without which it is impossible he should protect them so much as a constable can upon which score their subâ—ection was no longer due it was time for them to think how to settle the Nation without him accordingly upon mature deliberation they frantickly resolve upon it and on the seventeenth of January Vote They will never make any addresses more to the King nor receive any message from him May Breviarium Hist. Parl. p. 18. At the beginning of the War it was necessary for them though they did act quite contrary to say they would make the King a great and glorious King and it was not impossible but some fools might beleeve them but that after these Votes passed publâ—shed and maintained in a declaration set out to that purpose suitable usage they should dare to this day to professe they alwayes were for the King his Person and Authority is arrogantly monstrous unlesse at the same time they voted away their Princes liberty they thought they could vote away his Peoples reasons too It is true they afterwards recalled those Votes and sent some termes to the King which the necessity of affaires caused him to condiscend to but if it he remembred what previous concessions there were what an odious preface how harsh the Propositions were to the disparagement as well as the undoing of all his friends what fear themselves were then in of their own army will think the King obliged to thank them only when he hath nothing else to do How well the Pretences for the King have been seconded with unfit performances hath been in some measure seene the next enquiry must be about the Peers whether the pulling the sun out of the firmament hath been an effectuall way to make the starrs shine more gloriously The Bishops at the beginning of the Parliament were at the least so many Barons if not the third state and had as undoubted a right to fit there as the law could give to any man or men of this Nation they were a more ancient I add and a more considerable part of the Parliament then the whole house of Commons as having part of the judicative power in them which the other had not yet were they affronted menaced and endangered by tumults which the Lords would have suppressed and the Commons encouraged But of this before The Lords seeing the Commons would not joyne appoint a writ by the advice of the Judges to be directed to the Sheriffs and Justices upon divers statutes which issued accordingly to suppresse and hinder all tumultuous resort in obedience to which the Justices and other ministers appoint the Constables to attend about Westminster to hinder that unlawfull conflux of people which the Commons without any conference with the Lords to know upon what reason or what Law that writ was grounded Vote it a Breach of priviledge and send one of the Justices to the Tower Ex. Col. p. 53â— The Bill concerning the Militia a most considerable bill was sent to the King by the house of Commons alone notwithstanding the express refusall of the house of Peers as themselves confesse Ex. Col. p. 59. However they may talk they were for the old constitution of King Lords and Commons it is evident the grandees were for neither full and free but so many of each as would serve their turne After the bill for the Militia had been rejected twice in the house of Peers it was contrary to all law reason Presidents forced upon them again and to fright the Peers into agreement it was said there That whoever would not consent c. was an enemy to the Commonwealth and the same day Mr. Hollis contrary sure to the freedom of Parliaments demanded to know who were against it much to this purpose may be read in Ex. Col. p. 547. 548. What was that ridiculous proposall that the minor part of the Lords might joyn with the Major part of the Commons That threatning Petition that they might protest against the dissenting Lords and that other that the good Lords might sit in the same house with the Commons but devices to aw the Peers What was the unparliamentary course of forcing bills upon the House of Lords after severall times being cast out but a down right telling them they were resolved to take no deniall The House of Commons made an order against an established Law concerning the Common Prayer the Lords made an order for the observance of it which the Commons very mannerly declare against the nineth of September Ex Col p 526. The house of Peers was certainly of very great authority when an Order of theirs in behalf of an established law was not equivalent to one of the lower House in direct opposition to an established law Again The protestation being so early whatever the meaning was the termes in common prudence ought not to be too offensive but presently they perceived that their surest friends the haire-brained Sectaryes would not endure to be bound to observe the Doctrine of the Church of England Whereupon those words in the protestation were explayned by a declaration of the house of Commons onely to be intended onely so sar as it is opposite to Popery The house of Peers taking an Oath to be too sacred to admit of so jugling an interpretation refused to joyn with them in it Presently the house of Commons who would accept of the Peers assent when it might be had and when it could not would act without it so excellent observers were they of the ancient constitution voted it by their sole authority That all people who would not take that Protestation so interpreted unfit to bear any office in the Common-wealth After all these actions I hope a few good words will not acquit them Nor will it signify any thing with intelligent men what is next urged That The Covenant was for King and

Parliament The Covenant is lyable to more exceptions then at present I am willing to take the very designe was extreamly scandalous and as great a blow to Religion I am perswaded as it ever receiâ—ed in the world as representing it to be the parent of the worst of vices rebellions sacriledge and perjury some men have adventured to teach that God is the author of all sin these men come very neer them that can do the worst of Villanies upon his score fear God and break his commandements and all upon the newly revealed Doctrine of Piety and Plunder Surely Humility Patience self-deniall taking up the Cross loving enemies praying for persecutors are things commended only to pusillanimous and morrall men Hath the spirit that came down upon Christ in the forme of a Dove appeared since in the shape of a Vulture or a Roman Eagle was it weaknesse not religion that kept the primitive Châ—â—stians obedient must whatever they said about Rebelion be construed with this tacite reserve untill we have an opportunity We read in Scripture of a blessing laid up for those who in defence of Christ and his truth part with their Lands Houses or Life but not of any for those who upon that score invade other mens That there were no rewards appointed for those who killed Tyrants Buchanan esteemed it as a defect in policy and it is one in religion too He might as easily observed it to be an omission in the Law of God as man The quarrel was not then about Doctrine so much as discipline our articles were esteemed Orthodox our discipline not appostolick enough Their discipline in terminis in Scripture and as a command to introduce it with fire and sword in defiance of Prince and Laws are surely to be found in the same chapter These tender Consciences are very prety things that dare not conform to an indifferent Ceremony in obedience to all the authority the law of England takes notice Civill or Ecclesiasticall without an expresse command or example of Christ or his Apostles and yet without either can take up arms against their Soveraign plunder and slay all whose Consciences are not of the same size The Covenant not to mention upon what grounds they who at first Idolized it do now look upon it as an abominable Idoll lyes open to very just and very many material Obâ—ections It being my businesse onely by the by I shall onely intimate those that are so obvious that they cannot escape a very ordinary observer First It is directly contrary to the Oath of Supremacy formerly taken wherein they swear the King to be the oâ—ely supream Governour in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporall which power they there swear to defend and by resolving to reform the Church without nay against his direct Command they now as absolutely with an Oath too deny it Secondly It is contrary to the Oaths of Canonical obedience to their Ordinary Bishops Chancellors c. which those of them which had entered into Orders took and conscienciously observed by swearing their utter exterpation a Government they by subsciption testified to be lawfull which judgement many of them were known never to change till it was their interest the late usuall season of conversion so to do And some think a good Bishoprick would seduce many of them to their old errour again Thirdly Ecclesiasticall affaires never were nor can be by the law of England which they broke even in this very act of Covenanting for the laws as they said consulted on in Parliament but onely to have the civill Sanction and that after the law is expresse they have been determined by the Clergy in Convocation See The Reformation of the Church of England Justified a whole book to that purpose Now whether the Assembly of Divines being not called by the King who alone hath power by the Law to do it nor elected by the Clergy who alone have power to send the true Convocation not dissolved may be called The Clergy in Convocation I will leave to any one to determine and onely observe that as in other illegall Acts the late Powers proceeded according to their example so in this particularly Their naming what members they pleased without Election of the Clergy to sit in the Assembly was a fit President for Oliver Cromwel to call whom he pleased without choice of the Country to sit in the little Parliament The State and Church was pulled down the same way Fourthly The Covenant could not be imposed according to the Doctrine of the long Parliament who Ex Col. p. 859. tels us Men are not to be compelled to be sworn without an Act of Parliament which certainly the Votes of the two Houses are not I shall not prosecute these things any further but observe some few particulars in the Covenant it self and onely wonder with what face not to say with what Conscience men the professed Champions of our Liberty and of no part so much as our Consciences in regard of Oaths imposed even by an unquestionable Authority could on the sudden use such barbarous rigour toward the freeborn people of England for not taking that Oath which themselves had according to the fore-cited Doctrine no power to impose and the others had the â—ommand of the Prince Law and unanswered Reason to refuse at least they could say what themselves once thought enough it was against their Consciences We shall now examine whether there is any amends made in the Materiall Cause for the faultinesse of the Efficient and there is a presumption that it is so sure such good men would not involve their Country in the miseries of a War resist their Prince but in an order to a thing that was very excellent if not necessary That assertion in the Preface which gives chief countenance to the undertaking is a most horrible falsity that it was according to the Commendable practise of these kingdomes in former times and the example of Gods people in other Nations England hath behaved her self so commendably that it is impossible to make it out to have been her practise whosoever swears it to have been untill he can produce his instances if he doth not meet with very charitable persons will be looked upon as one horribly Perjured The Churches of God if there were any before Presbytery Rebelled into a being whose examples may be Rules to us must be either the holy men before the law under the law or the Primitive Christians beofore Religion was made a Bawde to Interest He that thinks there can be a thing fetcht from their doings in favour of this league let him serve that cause so far as to attempt The History of Covenants and see how many examples he can produce of Fighters with their Prince for not introducing a form of Worship they better liked of than what was by law established The Covenants we read of in Scripture were not against the King but with the King nor when the Kings refused doe we

read that the Prophets ever exhorted the People to such attempts But no remedy â—here is men must be undone unlessâ— they will swear with hands lifted up to Heaven this matter of fact though they do not know it to be so nay though they know it not to be so and which is prodigiously strange One of the first arguâ—ents that commended it to the world is a direct contraâ—iction to this assertion when the Covenant with a Narrative tells us that there never was such a Thing seen in the world before It might be observed that Errour is far incorporated with her Tenents that what is true in it self is false when they speak it as almost the very first word All living under one King according to the Declaration of May 26. 1642. and the â—octrine that â—ustified the War from being Treason though against the King beâ—ause he was not King in his Personall but Politique capacity i. e. the two Houses to war against whom by that law was Treason according to this I say we have three Kings in as much as we have three Parliaments in the three Nations and in my weak judgment appointing all Officers Declaring who are Offenders and uncapable of mercy resolving to reform Church and State according to their own modell against the Kings expresse Will and Command are no great evidences of living under him The first Article is To endeavour the preservation of the Religion of the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Discipline c. The Reformation in England Ireland according to the word of God the best example of the best Reformed Churches and to endeavour to bring the three Kingdomes to uniformity in Church Government c. By those words according to the word of God They use to mean prescribed in it upon which where do you finde such or such a Ceremony was the common Question But so the forms of worship in Scotland used in Marriage Burial Preaching Discipline by Classes Assemblies higher and lower are not so well known in England muchlesse so clear in the word of God that every Artisan can in an instant be so assured that they are there as to swear it in judgement this Oath is by so much the more oppressive intolerable that it is not satisfied with a quiet submission to and a patient enduring of their intollerable insolencies in which respects it is more barbarous than the Engagement but obliges every man zealously and constantly to premote it There is in this Article more jugling then is tolerable in so sacred a thing as an Oath their friends being of so severall parties neither of which would be content the Church should be reformed according to the others modell There are several words put in which that party which wit or strength or accident shall set uppermost at last may interpret to their own sense iâ— eâ— advantage To please the Presbyterians The Church of Scotland Doctrine and Government is sworn to be preserved and all the three Kingdomes to be brought to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Confession of â—aith Church-Government Directory c. Now this can be compassed no otherwise then by reducing all to the pattern of Scotland that being before sworn to be preserved But that the Sectarian Brethren of no sort may be displeased the word of God is expressely said to be the rule by which each Sect were sure of carrying the cause their own way and if any had a peculiar fancy to New-England or any other Church he thought better of the term of the best reformed Church secured him to them and he was by that assured the day was approaching wherein the men of his perswasion should triumph That the Covenant was taken in the various senses and with different hopes every one knows and that the ambiguous penning gives each party ground for it it is fondnesse to deny To please those who were for Church-government they Covenanted against Schism but least they should displease those who were against Church Government they could never be brought to proscribe nor while they had use of them to fight against the King so much as to tell who were Schismatick Surely Conscientious men who had sworn to extirpate Schisme Heresie and whatever was contrary to godlinesse would have thought Antinomians Anaâ—aptists c. or some other of those hard names that then swarmed about the City to have come under that head but in the same sense as fighting against the King is being for him being against Schismaticks is putting Armes and Offices into their hands The Common enemies this Oath engageth men against must not be explained too far least it discourage their best friends Papists and Prelatists may safely be named for the rest Mr. Henderson explicated them to be the Syrians and the Babylonians The second Article is to extirpate Archbishops Bishops c. whom there being no need I shall not at present plead for only this That Government in the judgment of very many Covenanters Clergy and Lay was inexpedient onely and not unlawfull upon whom the guilt of Perjury lyes very heavy for breaking their former Oaths leavying War against their King disturbing the peace of the Nation turning so many gallant men convict of no crime but their lands which other men had a minde to be guilty of and they had as good a right to as the law of England could give and all upon the sole point of inexpediency Into this point I shall dive no further but take some small notice of the reason here rendred for this certainly illegall Act of pulling down that Government of the Church without the Kings Authority lest they be partakers of other mens sins I doe not apprehend that ever I read words more destructive to every Government and to the peace of every Nation in the world they sound thus Whensoever there is a Government or form of worship in the Church which we doe not believe to be according to the word of God we are bound in Conscience nay they of another Nation are as the Scots were to us who upon this Reason Vow to extirpate our Bishops to take up Arms though it be against our King and reform for if we doe not we make our selves guilty of other mens sins A proposition that creates a perpetuall Apology for crafty men and justifies nay necessitates the vilest attempts of deluded ones The Anabaptâ—â—s in Germany did the Separatists in Queen Elizabeth's dayes attempted no more then this warrants If this Doctrine were true I wonder the Prophets and Priests of old that lived under Idolatrous Princes were nor carefuller of their own souls and lift up their voice like a Trumpet in another sense than the Scripture mentions them to have done There cannot easily be imagined greater occasion for such irregular proceedings if they are at all justifiable in any Nation then in the Jewish their Princes being so often and so strangely guilty of Idolatry a crime clearly by their law described and forbidden yet we

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