Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	england_n	reform_a	4,212	5	9.5265	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85018	A happy handfull, or Green hopes in the blade; in order to a harvest, of the several shires, humbly petitioning, or heartily declaring for peace.	Fuller, Thomas, 1608-1661.	1660 (1660)	Wing F2437; Thomason E1021_17; ESTC R208465	46,178	87

two hundred and fifty when the remaining Members charged the Army with the guilt of that force and sent to the then General of the Army for the restitution of those excluded Members which was denied them how many and manifold have been the miseries and calamities under which these Nations have laboured and do stil labour is evident to all equal minded men The godly Ministers of the Gospel despised The Ministry it self villified Tythes and other means of their maintenance particularly in Ireland taken from them and mis-applied the Protestant Religion shaken and almost overturned Anabaptists Quakers and other Sectaries set up and countenanced Heresies and Schisms increased The fundamental Laws of the Land trampled upon and an Arbitrary Government endeavoured to be introduced The Civil Rights Properties and Liberties of the people in their persons and estates broken in pieces Impositions and Taxes on the people without example laid and increased in an excessive manner and measure whereby thousands of Families have been ruined and enforced to beg their bread Manufacture at home discouraged publick Trade and Commerce abroad interrupted The Nations become deeply indebted and generally impoverished the reformed Protestant Churches abroad exposed to great danger wanting the wonted support of England which under God was the Bulwark and chief strength of the Protestant Religion throughout all Christendome and finally the English Nation which was alwayes deservedly in so high honour and estimation at home and abroad as it was a bridle and terrour to their Enemies and a countenance and support to their Friends and Allies is now become we tremble and grieve to have so just cause to speak it a scorn and dersion to all Nations round about us and all this is brought to pass to satisfie the Avarice Ambition Lusts and fears of a few inconsiderable persons of Anabaptistical and other Fanatique spirits who have made it their business to occasion still one trouble on the neck of another so to imbroil and continue the Nations in Division War and bloody confusion that sober men might not have time or leisure with maturity of judgement or counsel to look into the inwards of their designs or actings And after we had beheld all this with bleeding hearts and calling to minde that when in December 1648. the said force was put upon the Parliament the then remaining Members sent sundry times to the General to know why he imprisoned their Members and desired him to set them at liberty which was not done and we gathering from all this that if the House were once freed from the force of an Army and they again restored to Freedome and Liberty of sitting and and acting they would then upon the firmer grounds in conscience of their duties to God and their Country and in testimony of their high resentment of that breach of priviledges of the Parliament have taken into the House those excluded Members and filled vacant places by due and orderly Elections of the People and after so many years unhappy interruption unite again in a full and free Parliament and there assert the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament and Liberties of the people which from the very beginning of the War of England have been not the least ground of their contest with the late King and ever since and joyn their counsels and endeavours for restoring these Nations to peace and tranquillity And thence it was that on the 14. day of December 1659. several Officers of the Army here on the behalf of themselves and those under their Commands by their joynt Declaration declared and published their stedfast resolutions to adhere to the Parliament in defence of its Priviledges and the just Rights and Liberties of the people of these Nations as Men and Christians In which Declaration afterwards concurred the whole Army of Ireland but now finding much contrary to our expectations that when the Members of Parliament now assembled at Westminster were in Decemb. 1659. by an extraordinary providence restored to their Freedome and Liberty of sitting and acting as in Parliament and that divers of those formerly excluded Members of Parliament on the 27. of Decem. 1659. as they had formerly done in May 1659. offered themselves to discharge their Trusts for the several Counties and places for which they were Elected and formerly served those their Fellow-members assembled at Westminster did not onely deny them admittance but also voted and ordered the utter exclusion of all the excluded Members with this further addition that none of them should be chosen in future Elections to sit in this Parliament whereby they have a more unnatural violence taken away from above the one half of the people of England their Representatives in Parliament and limited and abridged in a high degree the Liberty and freedome of the people in further Elections which denial and order of theirs in a time when they were under no force is so much the more strange in regard that in December 1648. when they were under a force they transferred that guilt for themselves to the Army and pretended a willingness to re-admit those Members if it were in their power as is formerly mentioned And whereas Lieut. Gen. Ludlow had placed in Ireland several Officers who are Anabaptists and persons of the like fanatique spirits many of whom had been very active in the late conspiracies and actings of the factious part of the Army in England even against those Members of Parliament now sitting at Westminster of which Officers so placed by Lieut. Gen. Ludlow it was found necessary to purge the Army and to put in their places persons more soberly minded and well affected to the Parliament yet after all that done and after Lieut. Gen. Ludlow stood justly deservedly charged with High Treason the said Lieut. Gen. Ludlow himself and some others of the like principles with him were by a report from the Councel of State proposed to be appointed to governe not onely the Army but also the whole Nation of Ireland to the astonishment of the people and Army here to the unsetling of those persons so well deserving to the hazard of the peace of the Nation and Army and which is above all to the endangering even of Religion it selfe And here it is observable that those Members now sitting at Westminster by their Declaration of 23. of January 1659. since their restitution to their present liberty of sitting have published that extravagant Councels and actions have engaged the Nations in a great debt and charge which it seems necessitates their laying a new increase of charge on the Nations and yet so indulgent they are to those persons that in a high degree created that necessity of so unreasonably charging the people and whose estates might well bear a great part of that burden as without so much as any suit made to them by those Delinquents they granted them indempnity for their persons and estates whereby it seems the said Members now sitting at Westminster hold it fit that those who are

of sober spirits and offended not the Parliament should out of their estates pay for those extravagant mens Delinquency rather than the Delinquents themselves And although the said Lieut. Gen. Ludlow and Miles Corbet Esq together with Col. John Jones and Col. Mat. Tomlinson stand impeached from hence most justly of High Treason and that charge against them being known to the House and there remaing yet they have admitted two of those persons namely the said Lieut Gen. Ludlow and Miles Corbet actually to sit in the said House And now the greatness of those miseries which have befaln these three Nations in General by such late actings in England and those heightned with many aggravations in the circumstances of them too many and too long to be repeated as it hath begotten in us and in all good men in the three Nations deep impression of astonishment and horror so it is evident that if it be any longer continued it will perpetually nourish dishonour to God grief to all god men and we doubt and fear utter infamy and destruction to the three Nations In contemplation whereof and considering how God hath in his justice blasted all attempts that since the year 1648. have been made for re-setling of these Nations in peace and tranquillity and that after all the trials and various changes of Government which we have in all that time with much long-suffering and patience endured there is no way visible to us under Heaven whence deliverance may be probably wrought or expected but from the care and wisdome of a Free and full Parliament in England which by the experience of all former ages hath been found the best and only expedient for providing remedies to be applied to so great and general mischiefs arising in Church or State And considering also that the marks of the true Reformed Religion according to the Word of God and of the fundamental Laws of the Land and of our now dying Liberties and Freedome are not yet so utterly razed and defaced but that some footsteps of them do yet remain so as by the wisdome of a full and Free Parliament they may be again renewed and firmly re-established and considering likewise that our hopes of having the said excluded Members restored and of new Elections to be made for vacant places whereby there might be a full and free Parliament as there was on Decem. 5. 1648. and the antient and long contested Liberties of the people might be asserted are much contrary to our expectations and contrary to the fundamental Laws of the Land and indeed contrary to all justice and become frustrated and considering further how unjust and unreasonable a thing it is that of above five hundred Members whereof the Commons House of Parliament usually consisted there were but four and forty or thereabouts when that fatal Vote passed for the keeping out the aforesaid excluded Members by the prevalency of a major part of the said 44. persons not much exceeding those who voted then on the contrary side which assumes to it self the Supreme Authority not onely of England but also of the three Nations without president or example of any former age there being above two hundred and fifty which stand eleven years excluded without so much as the least offer of an Impeachment against them in all that time which unexampled and unparallel'd assumption in those men is not possible to continue but by the force of an Army poisoned with Anabaptistical and corrupted principles to the continual grief and unsupportable burden and charge of the three Nations And besides that act of the aforesaid persons chasing away for so it now appears about two hundred and fifty Members of above five hundred chosen by all the several parts of England according to the known Laws of the Land to represent the whole Nation in Parliament and after the forcible exclusion of so many that the four and forty persons remaining amongst whom we believe there are some worthy Patriots who are not so fully concurring in the actings of the rest of their number as violently over-voted them which is a further aggravation of the others guilt should dare to usurp to themselves as is formerly mentioned contrary to all the Laws the Supreme power not only of England but also of Ireland and Scotland is a thing which none but Conquerors or Tyrants would attempt and in all circumstances is so hideous and monstrous to be endured by a Free people formerly famous to all the world for wisdome and valour as the English Nation have been as it will be incredible to all posterity And lastly considering that as in all Ages and more particularly since the beginning of the late horrid Rebellion in Ireland our Brethren in England have abundantly manifested a tender and compassionate sense of the condition in Ireland and were careful to relieve us in our lowest estate as bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh which we do and shal ever acknowledge with humble thankfulnesse and as a debt which we well know to be due from us to them above all people in the world shall be for ever as tender of their happinesse and welfare as of our own which indeed is involved in theirs and without whom Ireland cannot be happy We therefore remaining constant in the reasons of our said Declaration of Dec. 14. 1659. for adhering to the Parliament in defence of its Priviledges and the just Rights and Liberties of these Nations all which we see now are apparently more and more violated by the not admission of the said excluded Members and by not filling the vacant Places whereby the House might be full and being freed from force might uninterruptedly Act according to their Judgements and Consciences towards re-setling the peace of these Nations which otherwise in all humane probability can never be restored to Peace and Tranquillity We do therefore declare for a full and free Parliament in England consisting not only of those that sate on Oct. 11. 1659. but also of all such of the Members of Parliament imprisoned excluded or withdrawn in December 1648. as are yet living whom we desire may be restored to the freedome and liberty of sitting and acting according to the Trust committed to them by the several Counties and places which did chuse them that so they may be no longer debarred from discharging their said Trust and that vacant places may be speedily supplied by free and due Elections of the people yet so as none of the persons to be Admitted or Elected be any of those who have been in Arms or otherwise aiding abetting or assisting the late King or his Son in the late War against the Parliament and that the House being so filled may proceed unanimously to consult the best meanes for re-setling the Peace of the Nations the re-establishment of true Religion the surest foundaon as of all righteous Government so of all the happinesse of a Nation the fundamental Lawes of the Land whereby all mens rights

and Nations for want of a setled Government and Free Parliament have many years by-past been violently rent in pieces wasted consumed made the very hissing scorn laughing-stock of all Neighbour Countries whether Friends or Foes Christians or Infidels and thereby exposed to the justly dreaded hostile Invasions of combined forraign Romish Adversaries whose Emissaries have been very active instrumental in our late Combustions and Changes being now deeply sensible of the deplorable desperate condition and imminent ruine not onely of our own Persons Families Posterities but of our dearest exhausted enthralled dying Native Country and Protestant Religion too far dearer to us than our Lives or private Interests the preservation whereof is the Supreamest Law and calling to our minds the first publick ends and causes for which we took up arms since totally perverted subverted oppugned by ambitious self-advancing Commanders Officers of the Army and others contrary to their Trusts and Commissions with the manifold Oaths Protestations Vowes Solemn League and Covenant and other Sacred as well as Civil Obligations lying upon our Consciences engaging us all in our several places and callings in this day of Englands trouble and extream danger to put our helping hands and best advice to obviate those Perils and remove those Disorders Grievances Confusions which menace utter desolation both to her and us if we should any longer fit stupidly silent or unactive in our spheres like persons altogether uninterested or unconcerned in these perillous times of unprefidented exorbitancies usurpations tyrannies over our Persns Estates Lawes Liberties and Parliaments themselves by ambitious turbulent Self-seekers and Incendiaries and of universal decay of trade by Sea and Land Have thereupon conceived it our necessary bounden duties in this sad posture of our Sacred and Civil Concernments both as Christians and English Freemen by this our joynt REMONSTRANCE to tender to the rest of our English Brethren throughout the whole Nation of what rank calling or condition soever such just legal safe rational honest and Christian Proposals as through Gods blessing upon our and their unanimous vigorous prosecution of them against all self-ended Opponents may redeem us from our present Bondage Dangers Schisms Confusions frequent Rotations of publick Government and restore our tottering Church State Kingdoms Religion to their pristine Unity Tranquillity Purity Stability Dignity Felicity and secure them against all future Concussions and Convulsions For which end we all passionately desire and shall unanimously and cordially endeavour by all lawful meanes within our Orbs 1. That a legal full and free Parliament of England may be speedily summoned according to the prescription of 16 Caroli c. 1. enacted for this purpose not hitherto put in execution and that free Elections of able Knights Citizens and Burgesses by and of all well-affected persons to Peace and the old Parliaments good Cause to represent them therein may be no wayes disturbed nor restrained by force of Armes or otherwise 2. That the said Parliament may safely freely meet at Westminster on the third Monday in January next to consult of vote and settle the Peace Government of our distracted Churches and Nations without the interruption disturbance force or dissolution of any Commanders Officers or Souldiers of the Army or other tumultuous persons whatsoever under pain of being declared prosecuted executed as Traitors and Enemies to the Publique 3. That the full power of the Militia both by Sea and Land be delivered up to this Parliament on the first day of their Convention therein for the better assurance of their free and peaceable Session and not continued as a distinct body or interest in opposition contradistinction or super-inspection but in real subordination to the Parliament and people 4. That the whole frame and settlement of the Government of our Nations be entirely referred to the Parliaments unanticipated consideration the proper Judges thereof without any antecedent restrictions presciptions or impositions by the Army-Officers or any others 5. That the Supreme Management of all Civil Politique Military Affairs and appointment of all great Officers of State and Ministers of Justice shall be in all the surviving Members of the long Parliament without secluding any as in a General Council of State and Safety only who are all desired to meet for that purpose till the New Free Parliament shall assemble and no longer 6. That the preservation of the Peace Government of each County shall be in the hands of such Sheriffs Conservators of the Peace and other antient Officers as the Free-holders of every County shall publickly elect in their County-Court according to their antient Rights and Liberties and of every City and Corporation in the Mayors Sheriffs Bailiffs and other Officers elected by them according to their Charters Customs and in none other Officers imposed on them till the Parliament shall take further Order therein 7. That no Taxes Contributions Excises Imposts New Customs Militiaes or other Payments whatsoevet shall be henceforth imposed assessed levied upon or paid by the people but by their common grant and consent in free and full Parliament by Act of Parl. under pain of High Treason in the Imposers Assessors Collectors and voluntary payers thereof this being the peoples indubitable Birth right acknowledged declared confirmed by manifold Acts and Declarations old and new 8. That such an Act of Indempnity may be agreed on and assented to in this Parliament by common consent as may secure and indempnifie all persons whose future peaceable deportment till this Act passed shall demerit it 9. That care may be therein taken for the speedy satisfaction of all just arrears of all Officers and Souldiers duly listed before the 7. of May last who shall peaceably and dutifully submit to the free convening and safe sitting of this desired Parliament That all others who shall tumultuously oppose or interrupt the Summoning Assembling or Sitting thereof shall forfeit all their Commands Arrears Indempnity and incur the penalty of Traitors and publick Enemies to the Parliament and Nation 10. That an effectual course may be taken for the setled old maintenance succession protection and encouragement of a godly learned painful Orthodox Preaching Ministry throughout the three Nations 11. That due care and order may be taken for the speedy detection banishment and execution of the Lawes against all Jesuits Seminary Priests Freers and other Romish Emissaries or Seducers whatsoever employed to divide corrupt seduce the people and the Oath of Abjuration duly tendered by Justices of Peace and other Officers to all persons who shall be accused and justly suspected to be such for their better detection 12. That the causes of the great extraordinary decay of all sorts of Trade Merchandise Shipping Scarcity of Bullion Coin with all frauds and abuses in Manufactures dilatory vexatious proceedings extortions in Courts of Law and Equity may be diligently enquired into redressed punished and the great destruction and waste of Timber in all parts inhibited under severe penalties 13. That all Treasurers Receivers Collectors Farmers of any