Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n
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A51062
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The moderate Independent proposing a word in season to the gathered churches, the Episcopal and Presbyterian parties tending to their humiliation for what is past, to be reconciled to each other for the time to come, and joyntly to acquiesse in the determinations of this present Parliament, as to the government of church & state / by Salem Philalathes ...
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Philalathes, Salem.
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1660
(1660)
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Wing M2325; ESTC R16471
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30,990
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34
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what was written by Mr. William Sedgwick in his Book called Justice upon the Armies Remonstrance Wherein were many Passages which would we have hearkened unto as coming from an intimate friend might have prevented those woful confusions and revolutions of Government that have since befallen the Nation and that reproach that is come upon Religion But he as soon fell from those serious convictions he tendred to our Party And by his Book called A new View of the Armies Remonstrance which he made to issue out after the other unsaith what in his Book aforesaid he had presented in many passages thereof I wish from my soul that we had hearkned to those many Christian Counsels that were given us in those daies And that although we could not through prejudice receive them from the Parties above-named yet that we might have considered what our Friend in Justice upon the Armies Remonstrance said unto us But though it be too late in reference to what is past yet that we may not through the high opinion that we have of our own waies as to the Piety and Justice of them that all others have been injurious to us and we are the only innocents of this Island Which as I have said before is the great impediment to that Moderation and Christian Condescention which I desire may be amongst us That we may no longer I say persist in the Justification of our selves for what is past and desist from any further endeavours of interrupting the Publick Peace and Settlement of these Nations for the time to come that we may be delivered from those corrupt and destructive Principles to all Civil Government which many of us are infected with that we may not too much deject our selves at these our present disappointments as if now a Knife were put to the Throat of the Publick Interest of the Nation as some have spoken in plain English I shall present you with some remarkable passages in our aforesaid Author Justice upon the Armies Remonstrance which may be of singular use to us for those ends and purposes aforesaid Considering they come from one who is neither of the Episcopal or Presbyterian Party I shall begin with what I named last in the first Place as being that which I find doth most perplex our Spirits That now by the Current of the times the publick Interest of the Nation for which we have so long contended in our late wars against the King and his Family is like to fall to the ground and our Government by a Common-wealth to return to King-ship again in the same Family Now to undeceive us and deliver us from this fundamental errour consider what Mr. Sedgwick saith in his Justice upon the Armies Remonstrance p. 22. saith he In the proposing of such an Interest as ye hold forth to be the ground of the Quarrel namely the things before expressed ye lie grossely For these things as ye propose them were never thought of in the beginning of the Quarrel Yea the Parliament and we also protested to the contrary never to alter the Government never to alter the Fundamental Laws yea to protect and defend the Kings Person c. For saith he p. 9. That which ye offer is not the publick Interest but your own particular Interest It is very clear that this is not half the Interest of the Kingdom t is much too narrow for a rich honourable Nation Generally ye know the people of England desire Peace Setled Religion Established Truth Freedom of Trade and this with his Majesty their King that he may Govern them according to their honest and known Lawes that they may live in Prosperity and Honour For your devised things ye propose the people know them not and less affect than know them They are invented only to please and secure your selves And to pull down Monarchy ye are but a part And alas an Inconsiderable Part of the Kingdom not one of an Hundred will own what ye set down for the Publick Interest a diseased Part ye are a Bone started out of his place a Piece of Timber gone from the whole Frame of the Kingdom which is large and consisteth of King Lords and Commons with innumerable excellent Branches that grow from these Further p. 11. This is a great fault that ye all along carry the Publick Interest in opposition to the King which is a wicked thing to divide them which God hath joyned wherein ye indeed destroy and mangle not only the Kingdom but the Word Interest which is of a uniting signification Interesse is to be in or amongst each other The Publick hath his Interest in the King and the King his Interest in the Publick for they have the same Esse or Interest which is to be in each other The King is in the People and the People in the King And though saith he ye will disjoyn your selves from Kings God will not who is the King of Kings neither will I. And therefore as he acknowledgeth p. 44. It is the Peoples right to have a King So of himself he saith I confess it is my Birth-right to have relation to a King and if I am denied it I am denied my native right And saith he in the same page For the King against whom ye go in full cry I have this to say to check your violent course That he had and hath a true lawfull right in the Kingdom and to the Kingdom and as good as any man hath to any thing he possesseth His Crown Revenue and Dignity is as truly his Birthright and inheritance as another mans house or lands and he that denieth this is wilfully blind These quotations do sufficiently evidence how much we have been mistaken and that the publick interest hath not been driven on whatever hath been pretended But because I find that many of us are dull and slow of heart to believe it Out of my unfained desire that you may lie under the same Convictions I now do my self as to this particular I shall present you with a passage out of the said Author which speaketh very plain English Saith he Pag. 23. I must deal plainly with you and my self too it is so grosse that it cannot be concealed That we had Designs of Particular Interest and advantage when we began the Warre therefore the publick interest of the Nation hath been but a pretence There was this in our minds and hath been in our minds continually That the King and his party were wicked men and not worthy and fit for their places and power they had And that we were the Saints the Godly and they did properly belong to us That the Saints are to have the high places of the earth and that now is the time for these things to be performed and that no body is now fit to administer Justice to rule over men but our selves And therefore we were alwaies glad of any of the Kings waies that tended to difference and breach Glad when he left his
Parliament and took Armes thinking he was running to his own destruction that he would split himself and his party by it and that we should have the spoil of them and have an opportunity to obtain our ends And though we complained of the Kings obstinacy really we have been alwaies glad of it because that it led to his destruction And the Kings not yielding at this time ye know was thirsted after by us meaning at the time of the Treaty in the Isle of Wight And ye would not stir by force to seclude the major part of the Members out of the House of Commons and so to interrupt the Treaty till the King manifested a willing mind to accommodation Peace being alwaies held destructive to our ends or the recovery of our rights the whole Kingdom for we think our selves the only true Lords unlesse the King would take part with us and become one of our Saints And that this was all the change of heart was expected appeareth by another passage of our Author aforesaid that speaketh to purpose indeed Pag. 27. Ye say the Kings heart is not changed to which I answer Ye expect that he should turn not to God but to your selves to your own form of Religion and Government and cannot account any thing a change but yielding to your own Way Which if he should he would be seven times more the child of the devil May other passages to this purpose I might have collected out of the said Book but these I hope will now undeceive such of us as have been plain hearted and did believe what was with much confidence affirmed That the Cause which of late years hath been pleaded for since the Interruption of the Treaty was for the Publick interest of the Nation that the Liberties of all Gods people were imbarqued therein Especially considering who maketh this discovery of these private ungodly designs which have from the beginning been driven on by many that look upon themselves as the only Saints One as I have said before neither of the Episcopal or Presbyterian party Let therefore the Consideration of these particular passages not only humble us deeply for what is past but rectifie our judgements for the time to come incline us to the publick peace and settlement of the Nation and free us from those corrupt and destructive principles to all Civil Government with which many of us I fear by what I have observed are leavened and corrupted And to this purpose I shall from all these before recited collections lay before you these undeniable Conclusions flowing from the premises aforesaid 1. The first Conclusion then that I desire you to observe with me from the Collections aforesaid is this That the Good Old Cause in which we first engaged with the Parliament was to preserve and not to subvert the Fundamental Lawes and Government of the Nation to protect and defend the Kings Person and Family and not to ruine and destroy the same 2. That the Publick Interest of the Nation consisteth in being governed by their King according to their known Lawes and that this is their Birth-right 3. That the Crown-Revenue and Dignity of the King are as righteously his Birth-right as any other mans House or Lands are his 4. That to divide between the Interest of the Publick and the King terming it only the Interest of Charles Stuart as we have done of late years is a very wicked and ungodly thing 5. That to change the Government into a Common-wealth was to pervert that righteous Cause in which we first engaged and was an invention to secure a guilty Party and altogether against the publick Interest of the Nation 6. That the real or supposed wickedness of a Prince or People is no Scripture Ground for those who are or do profess themselves to be more holy to usurp Dominion over them and to get the Government of the Nation into their own hands The five former Propositions our aforesaid Author hath expressed in Terms and may be plentifully confirmed by the several Remonstrances and Declarations of the Parliament our several Oaths and Obligations and by the Protestation which was so generally taken by the known Lawes of the Land and many other waies besides But this sixth and last being only declared as a Principle upon which many took occasion from the Differences between King and Parliament to act thus desperately to the ruine both of Prince and People Because as Mr. Sedgwick saith there was this in our minds that the King and his Party were wicked and so unworthy of the places and power and we were the Saints c. Being through mercy converted from this destructive Principle of Government with which many of us are more or less corrupted besides the fifth Monarchy men in whom it reignes I hold it my Duty to strengthen my Brethren against the Power and Contagion thereof That therefore which I meekly offer to your Consideration is this That this aforesaid Principle of invading the Rights either of Prince or People because wicked and ungodly is expresly against the written Word of God in the Old and New Testament contrary to the Examples of Christ and his Apostles of the Primitive Christians and to the Judgment of all Reformed Churches and derives its Pedigree and Original from the Devil and that Roman Antichrist which we profess so much to hate and abhor All this you shall find at large proved by that Reverend and Holy man * In an Assize Sermon of his preached above 30 years since bound up in his Works Mr. Robert Bolton who being dead yet speaketh fully against this wretched Principle Wherein you shall find that Bellarmine Father Bennet and other of that Jesuitical Party and Popish Crew were the Founders and Authors thereof I shall only add that our Saviour whose Disciples we all profess our selves to be when he commanded us to give to Caesar the things which are Caesars doth plainly evidence that Caesar which was the Name by which all those Pagan Princes and Roman Emperors were called they had notwithstanding their Impiety their dues and rights which did belong to them and we are all commanded and enjoyned to give to them their rights and dues But to take their Rights and Dues away from them upon the A warning piece for England especially for London in the famous Hystory of the frantick Anabaptists Printed 1642. pretence of their Impiety or our Saintship is to be found no where but in the History of John of Leyden who with his Disciples whilst the City of Munster the Prime City of Westphalia was besieged out of which they had driven many of the Inhabitants without respect of age or sex running throughout the Streets in Troops crying out Get ye hence all ye wicked if ye mean to save your lives p. 9. They also published a Book called the Restitution wherein they affirmed this Doctrine That Christ shall have a Kingdom here upon earth before the Day of Judgment wherein