Selected quad for the lemma: nation_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	lord_n	people_n	zion_n	1,583	5	9.6197	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A84228	An examination of the Seasonable and necessarie warning concerning present dangers and duties, emitted from the commissioners of the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, unto all the members of that Kirk. June 25 1650. Which was printed at Edinburgh by Evan Tyler, by a servant of the Common wealth of England, and a lover of the armie.	Servant of the Common wealth of England, and a lover of the armie.; Church of Scotland. General Assembly. Seasonable and necessary warning and declaration.	1650 (1650)	Wing E3729; Thomason E608_13; ESTC R201955	37,035	48

AN EXAMINATION Of the Seasonable and Necessarie WARNING Concerning present DANGERS and DUTIES Emitted from the COMMISSIONERS Of the GENERAL ASSEMBLY Of the KIRK of Scotland unto all the MEMBERS of that KIRK June 25 1650. Which was Printed at Edinburgh by Evan Tyler By a Servant of the Common-wealth of England and a Lover of the ARMIE LONDON Printed by William Du-gard Anno 1650. 25 Junii 1650. Post meridiem A seasonable and necessarie Warning concerning present dangers and duties from the Commissioners of the General Assemblie unto all the Members of this Kirk 1 IF the eminencie of the danger and the necessitie of the dutie did not constrain us wee had rather chose to bee silent then to emit anie publick warning to the land within so few daies of the meeting of the General Assemblie but wee should not onely run the hazard of just blame from them but also bee conscious to guiltiness in our selvs if wee did not in a time of so great streight give warning to the Lords people both of their danger and of their dude 1 If you had well considered your danger before it was imminent and how necessarie it was for you to have prevented it by an ingenuous acknowledgment of your National guilt and just demerit by your perfidious and unprovoked Invasion of England against all the Treaties which were then in force but thereby dissolved and by a just satisfaction for the spoils and devastations your own Armie made where it came until it was destroyed and for the charge this Nation was at by occasion of it You might perhaps have now been silent and wee at quiet How just our War against you is and how clearly wee are necessitated to it the Parlament hath sufficiently evidenced in their Declaration And though wee cannot exspect you should acknowledg it it beeing not usual with you to speak truth to your own disadvantage yet the evidence is such as must needs convince you as wee are confident it will satisfie all others And if the conscientiousness you speak of bee a tenderness resulting from a cleer and pure light not tinctured with the dye and mixture of an Interest working a prejudice it might have put your reflections upon an other guilt and you might have thought your selvs worthie of blame that you had not given warning to your Parlament and People of somthing els to bee don besides your condemning men to the stool of hypocrisie that might have given the Common-wealth of England a better satisfaction and fuller reparation for and of the effects of your perfidie then that was like to do and might have proved a more effectual means to have prevented that danger which your own injustice and wickedness have involved you in 2 The insolent and strange actings of that prevailing partie of Sectaries in England these yeers past Warning in reference to Religion and Government are so well known and have been so often and fully laid open in the former Warnings Remonstrances and Declarations of this Kirk that wee need not now take up much time in representing the same Albeit the Reformation of the Church of England and the advancing of the work of uniformitie there in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government was the great dutie that the Lord called that Land unto and which all the people of God in these three Kingdoms did ingage themselvs in Covenant to endeavor to the utmost of their power yet doth that work so much desired and longed for by all the lovers of Sion in these Nations and all that concern's Religion lie in the dust altogether forgotten and despised by those men and in stead of the beautie and order that should bee in the hous of God a vast toleration of manie gross errors is allowed whereby so manie and so monstrous blasphemies and strange opinions in Religion have been broached and are vented in England as the like hath not been heard of almost in anie generation And though Monarchie and the power of Parlaments was the ancient and long continued Government of that Kingdom yet have those men usurped above the Parlament whose servants they were and by open violence driven away manie and imprisoned som of the Members thereof and have not onely taken away the Hous of Lords and destroyed the late King but also subverted Monarchie it self and turned the Foundations upside down and labor to wreath the yoke of their oppression upon the necks of our brethren in England not onely in regard of that which concern's their bodies and estates but also in regard of that which concern's their souls and consciences whereof that Ingagement that is now pressed in England is a present and publick testimonie being a sore bondage under which manie in that land now groan whose case and sufferings for the work of God wee desire not onely to remember daily before the Lord in our praiers and supplications but in everie thing to regard it as if it were our own being confident that such as love the truth and cleav to the Covenant in these Lands shall obtein mercie of God to bee faithfull in the midst of temptations and that the Lord will not suffer them to bee tempted above that they are able to bear but will give unto them the issue with the temptation 2 The wonderful and even miraculous goings forth of the most wise and merciful providence of our good God towards us in England Answer for these divers years past in this great work of delivering us from Tyrannie and setling us in a just Libertie notwithstanding all those strong fetters in which wee were imprisoned under it have been evidently written with the verie beams of the sun and exposed to the view of the world that there are scarce anie that have not acknowledged it is his work And for our parts wee desire to observ those glorious actings of his and with all humilitie to rejoyce in them God see 's not as man see 's and therefore act 's not as man act's nor rule 's the determinations of his wisdom nor the efficiencie of his power by anie of the conceptions or apprehensions of men That which you call The insolent and strange actings of the prevailing partie of Sectaries c might better perhaps bee called his work his strange work And though perhaps manie in this age whose particular concernments have been touched by this just hand of God the flowings of whose gall by their rebellious struglings under their chastizements hath disabled their Icterical eyes to see clearly his hand may as you do blaspheme that Providence and asscribe its glorious and harmonious working to the anomalous extravagancies of whom you pleas yet when the pangs of this birth shall bee over and the distempered humors com again to a just ballance even you as well as others shall see that it is his doing And after-ages will saie concerning these times What bath God wrought Wee cannot denie but you have been verie frequent in your Warnings and Remonstrances

determination of the whose Kirk of Scotland or of anie els ought to bee the ground of anie man's judgment bee the thing determined never so true until hee hath received the same truth into his own intellect and that it becom one with it And wee are of opinion there is no error wee hold that trouble 's you wors then this Wee denie not but there may bee manie among us in the Nation and in the Armie too that may bee more loos then wee desire they should It were to bee put among the wonders of the Age that there should bee an Armie so numerous as ours consisting all of men fearing God and walking accurately or to saie less fully-Civil yet this wee tell you they that are loos shall not bee encouraged in it by those who command them but where is your blushing all this while that you dare in this manner speak of the loosness of manie among us when all men know there are few among your selvs that are not so Did not you suppose that som of your books might com to bee read of those that have felt your Armies and conversed with your people and that know them as well as your selvs wee desire not to give you these close returns but wee may not hold our peace least wee bee thought to have nothing to replie and least you should deceiv conscientious people amongst us and make them believ you are the Lord's Inheritance his peculiar people a holie Nation and an Armie of Saints and all becaus the Commissioners of the General Assemblie have Cannonized them Will you saie your almost general drunkenness and healthing for the welcom of your King is not loosness or hath loosness another signification in Scotland then it hath in England What think you by that Action of som of your people that having taken som of our Mariners ashore going for water they were detein'd prisoners till they would drink your King's health on their knees is this the received Form of praying for your King among you do you think our Mariners were much edified with this holy conversation of your people wee hope your Directorie of vvorship hath no prescription of this kinde of praying Pen your things hereafter a little more circumspectly and do not necessitate us to stir your dunghil vvhich vvill make you stink in the nostrils of all good men You imprison and restrein the spreading of truth and compel the poor people to your Forms in which there is nothing of the power of Godliness your people are still slaves to profaneness becaus the truth is not held out to them which should make them free They are nourished in an opinion that the Kirk of Scotland know's all things whom they may consult upon occasion and never endeavor to store themselvs with principles that would effect their Reformation they have onely heard of God by the hearing of the Ear but if their Eie might see him they would repent and abhor themselvs in dust and ashes There is a learning and knowledg which is kept in memorie and this may well bee called other men's learning this act 's but little upon the possessor There is a knowledg in the understanding that is given by the shining in of the beams of light from the Spirit of God for it is the spirit of the Lord that give 's understanding this act 's according to its proportion by vertue of its union with the Intellect produce's necessarie effects if you would dispose your people into the waie of those Noëtical receptions you would finde their profaneness by little and little wear away but perhaps then also that dreadful reverence toward you their Oracles which while they practise all lookers on laugh at vvould decaie too if the Samaritans once hear Christ who vouchsafe's his secret teachings to all who have ears to hear they have not much more need of the discourses of the woman You tell us also of approving of errors in our selvs Wee would wish you to mend the expression let your unsanctified zeal to multiply heads and common-places of calumnie against us run you out into such ignorant expressions certainly Approving in English use is an act of the practical intellect do wee approve them as errors If not you say nothing wee denie not but great darkness in manie things remaine's upon us and you verie manifestly discover it doth so upon you too Wee may and you do approve manie things that are perhaps errors in themselvs but apparent truths to us and you No man approve's of an error quatenus they are little acquainted with the proportion of the intellect to truth that will say it receiv's anie thing under other notion Indeed in practice Interest sometimes swaye's profession and practice against judgment But the single and intrinsecal act of the understanding in giving the judgment is alwaies for truth according to the degree of its appearance and the measure of its own apprehension As you when you make a single judgment of your King do verily believe him to bee a Malignant notwithstanding his Covenanting as you have reason having seen manie others so before as your selvs tacitly insinuate in this Paper of which wee shall remember you in due place yet in the mean time you offer him to the people as a Convert becaus you hope in time to draw some advantage from him in order to England Here you apprehend right that hee is a Malignant yet you practise as if hee were not you are not deceived in your judgement made in your understanding you understand him right enough and though you hold out to the people that hee is converted which you know to bee an error yet wee shall not say you approve this error that is receive it in your judgments for a truth for you perfectly judg the thing is fals and an error You proceed with your heavie charge generally Magisterially enough that wee altogether neglect those things that concern the honor of God and the Kingdom of his Son Jesus Christ What altogether Wee confess wee have neglected those things too much and have our frailties which wee do not approve wee are but men and may have too much looked after our outward safetie as you have done after a Carnal domination under pretence of a spiritualitie yet wee conceiv there is more in your charge then will bee in your evidence And if wee com to examine the matter wee believ there will bee a difference in interpretation What is meant by the Honor of Gold and the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Wee suspect wee may not have the same opinion of them here on the other side of Twede where wee have heard the meaning is to give power to the several Kirk-Tribunals in Parishes Classes Provincial and General Assemblies to dominere over their Brethren at their pleasure that it is the honor of God that the Gods-men bee honored indeed thus wee have not and are confident never shall do anie thing for

change their form of administration in Government and exclude all others who have intrinsecally a power in nature to choos and establish such a Government as they judg most conducing to the end of its ordination the good of the people and to change it in whose or in part when it shall degenerate and not serv the end of its institution or when another shall bee discovered that will do it better They have don so in part and wee have don so as to Monarchie in the whole Wee are not bound to take from them the measure of our change and wee are confident wee shall not follow their example in their returning to their vomit And it seem's they were not so satisfied of their King that they durst trust him without a Treatie and a previous Agreement limiting his power but with us hee must bee absolute a Duke of Venice will serv them but here hee must bee a grand Signior a Sophie or a Mogull But wee know the meaning good offices profuse gifts and an accountles privie purs are fine things not to bee had by Scots in England and they may set their hearts at rest for having the like anie more Wee know Kings too vvell to bee troubled vvith them any more Wee knovv Princes are not such either conscientious or tame things as to bee bound by Treaties or to value any of their mis-called concessions longer than they serv their ovvn profit which they alwaies contra-distinguish from that of the people Wee vvould also ask these Commissioners of the Kirk vvhether they have not an inspection into all their Kings actions Whether hee bee a sheep without their fold and without their care If hee go astray must not hee bee brought home with a wholsome censure Whether any of his most publick actions will not com under your consideration as they are his dutie to God as a Christian Magistrate of which you onely will bee the Judges And upon that ground controle direct and censure him And certainly from this your paper wee have reason to suppose these will bee your actings for why should you bee more modest at home then you are abroad for with us you take upon you to determine of all things as if you had learned from Pius Quintus to mis-applie to your selvs that Text of Jeremiah I have set thee up over Nations to pluck up and to plant But to return to such a Monarchie as you will allow will not serv your young Monarchs turn and that you will finde if ever hee get quiet footing amongst you You complain of taking away the Hous of Lords and hope by that to engage all those to take your parts wee conceiv most of the Lords in England except som few that are mannaged by by your conspiring fellows the Presbyterian Ministers are more generous then to accept of a restitution by your means their remembrance of the Impudence Avarice and Ambition of the Court-harpies and Hors-leeches of your Nation make them abhor the thought of any more of your companie who are never welcom but where you are not known But you have som reason to bee tender for them as beeing Martyrs for your own caus for though that Hous was found by manie experiences to bee dangerous to the just liberties of the people and verie often to obstruct necessarie and profitable things yet 't is like they might have stood longer had they not been found to bee in your Cabal for the Invasion of England and in order to it had cast out an Ordinance that was sent up by the Commons for putting things in a posture of defence they liked it better the people should be unarmed that you might destroy them with the more eas and safetie And when your Armie had invaded us according to the Covenant no doubt did they not deny to pass anie Votes either against you or those among our selvs that as Traytors did or should adhere unto you Was it not time to take away this Enemie of the Common-wealth out of its power to do hurt when it was so dangerously disposed to make use of it to that end 'T is true there were a verie few of their number that protested against the perfidiousness malice of the rest but they were able to effect nothing and the best remedie against like evils for the future was judged to bee its taking away Wee must hereupon ask you one question about this Whether had you not once Lords of the Articles among you who had a previous negative upon all things that were to bee consulted in your Parlament without whose approbation nothing could bee brought into debate These you judged a prejudice to your just liberties and you removed them Did wee trouble our selvs to ask why you did it You thought them dangerous to your libertie and safetie and the Commons of England judged the Lords hous so and so removed them Why not wee as well as you May wee do nothing but in the verie same kinde and degree that you act before us How came wee into this pupillage to your prescriptions But why do the Scots talk so much of Hous of Lords in England when they know they have no such thing in Scotland They indeed meet in the Bodies as they call them that is the Noble-men by themselvs the Commissioners of Shires by themselvs and the Commissioners of Burghs by themselvs in these they propone and debate things as well originally as by reference which are determined by the major part of all collectlivè and conjunctly in their Hous of Parlament where the Lords have no distinct conjunct negative but are involved in and concluded by the number of Votes of the whole Therefore if the Lords have any advantage 't is by their reason in debate to convince not by their suffrage which is no more then any Commissioner of a Burgh Yet these men will bee Proctors for an Hous of Lords here It may bee imputed to their gratitude if you pleas though it bee a thing they seldom use several of that House were verie much their servants The next fault is they have driven away manie and imprisoned som of the Members of Parlament Here indeed is the thing that grieve's you your partie is cast out by whom you were wont to act all your fine things amongst us and you have no more hopes to effect any thing in Parlament as formerly But let me tell you a Mysterie you have no such reason to plead the caus of som of them who were not perfectly your Proselytes but were at close guard with you they intended to make use of your Faction for oppression of the faithful and good Patriots under the name of Independents which if they could have effected they would have cared as much for your Religion when they had serv'd their turns on 't as you do your selvs when you have made such uses of it Wee who know the men know well their Religion though to serv themselvs of you they

look well to your selvs and see if there bee not a great deal of that same thing among you that you take not notice of certainly 't is not confined to Rome and Romane vvorship 't is everie where more or less and grosly and formally where 't is little taken notice of Wee denie not but much of it is in England but you have taken your marks about it much amiss and know not at all wherein 7 The success of that partie provs not the goodness of their caus or that they shall prosper still Warning The Lord who it wonderful in counsel and excellent in working hath been pleased to put the rod of his anger and the staff of his indignation in their hand for executing of his wrath against Malignant becaus of the enmitie and opposition of that generation unto the caus and people of God But if they shall invade this land and exalt themselvs against the Lords inheritance and the people that are in Covenant with him For whose sake the Lord did cloath them with power for a time for taking vengeance upon his enemies Then shall they stumble and fall and bee broken in pieces Though the host of Senacherib did prevail against Samaria yet did they fall in Judah and hee did return with shame and was slain with the sword in his own land That partie hath as yet no caus to boast that God bath prospered them in Arms against the Covenant or against a praying people stedfast in the Lords caus following his way and waiting upon him for help and success All their encounters have hitherto been against Malignants and now the Lord having performed so much of his work against that generation who know's but the Sectaries day may also be coming and that when the state of the question shall bee changed God may turn his hand upon them and bring upon them the judgments of a broken Covenant as hee hath ever don to all that look that way 7 Wee acknowledg that greatness of success neither evidence's the goodness of a Caus Answer nor give 's assurance of its own continuance What success the merciful providence of God hath given to the Armies of this Nation we desire humbly and thankfully to acknowledg and rejoice in and rejoice not an our selvs or arrogate anie thing of prais or honor which is onely due to the Lord of hosts in whose hand wee were Instruments and of our selvs are nothing The Lord who is indeed wonderful in counsel and excellent in working hath been pleased to execute his wrath by us against Tyrannie and against that caus which you have now espoused And having now called our Armies also to go against an hypocritical Nation Wee shall proceed with confidence that wee shall also bee inabled to chastize their breach of Treaties and most wicked and perfidious Invasion of this Nation And do not think your distinguishing your selvs from Malignants will bee your shield against Divine justice as if there were none but that generation against whom his wrath were kindled And indeed should they prevail onely against and destroy that sort of people among you it would leav your poor land verie much unpeopled for wee verie well know you have fortie Malignants to one that is devoted to your Kirk You say that partie hath not yet prospered in Arms against the Covenant Wee need not fight with the Covenant it is com to nothing without it it was brought a little too near the Ark and 't is faln like Dagon and there let it lye But were there no Covenanters in Hamiltons Armie Was not that Parlament that sent them a Covenanting Parlament Can there bee such a thing in Scotland as a Parlament not Covenanting yet Dagon was then faln and had neither head nor hands it could neither advise nor help which hath Divine Ordination and Institution when it shall bee idolized provokes to jealousie him that will not give his glorie to another The Brazen Serpent was set up by Divine command and more wonderful effects wrought by looking upon it at Gods command then wee ever yet saw your humane invention of the Covenant produce where it hath been imposed yet when 't was made an Idol hee is commended that brake it in pieces and called it Nehushtam The Temple was astructure of Gods own contrivance and prescription and built and furnished with no small charge and there was in it greater mysteries then are perhaps of all men understood yet when the people made an Idol of it and put their confidence in it crying out The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord while they committed all abomination God gave up to destruction both it and them You have too much cryed up the Covenant and the Kirk of Scotland and taught the people to trust too much in them for the continuance or safetie of either of them And while you talk of a praying people wee are not much scar'd at it consider whether your prayers have not been your provocations wee mean not those onely which were offered up with your drink-offerings for the health of your King when you kindled so manie fires all over your streets if not to the Host of Heaven yet to Liber Pater and for the Heathenish celebration of those Lyaean Mysteries But wee mean also even those hypocritical houlings of your ignorant crouds when they keep time to your passion and the ebullitions of your dark zeal invoking vengeance from Heaven with a spirit of love and meekness no doubt becoming Gospel-administrations against the Sectaries who are men you know not onely your selvs have painted them black that you might with the more intention of heat and malice hate them These your horrible mis-carrings have quite lost you with all wise and good men onely with such Papers as these you still baffle your own people and keep them under slaverie and subject them to a danger which is by everie compassionate spirit to bee much pittied If you bee angrie at this plain dealing you may thank your selvs if you care not what you say to delude the people wee must tell ours the truth to undeceiv them And let not those few in Scotland who truly fear God for wee have heard there bee a few such though but a verie few bee kindled at this plain dealing which the pride hypocrisie of this Paper hath necessitated not least they should still bee wise not onely in their own conceits for of that cure wee have no hope but least they should still appear what they are not to the judgments of others and thereby dangerously deceiv them 8 Wee desire that not onely others Warning but the Sectaries themselvs may consider that when England was verie low and well nigh brought under the feet of the Popish Prelatical and Malignant Partie That this Nation was then much solicited for their assistance and relief and even by som of these who have since that time been verie active and instrumental for