Selected quad for the lemma: state_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
state_n	great_a	king_n	secretary_n	1,238	5	9.7864	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76758	Mene tekel, or, The council of officers of the Army, against the declarations, &c. of the Army. Wherein is flatly proved by the express words of the Armies declarations, that the sixth article of the * late address of the said council of officers to the Parliament, point-blank changeth the cause of liberty of conscience, from the good old one, to a bad new one; from that which at first, and all along the Army engaged in, and for, and declared to that which they engaged against. Moreover, that the imposition therein is agreeable neither to the Armies solemn declarations and engagements, nor to liberty of conscience, nor to the Scriptures of truth, but is contrary to them all ... Geo. Bishop.	Bishop, George, d. 1668.	1659 (1659)	Wing B3000; Thomason E999_13; ESTC R207833	40,890	51

MENE TEKEL OR The Council of Officers of the Army Against The Declarations c. of the Army WHEREIN Is flatly proved by the express Words of the Armies Declarations that the Sixth Article of the * May 12. 1659. late Address of the said Council of Officers to the Parliament point-blank changeth the Cause of Liberty of Conscience from the Good Old One to a Bad New One from that which at first and all along the Army engaged in and for and Declared to that which they engaged against MOREOVER That the Imposition therein is agreeable neither to the Armies solemn Declarations and Engagements nor to Liberty of Conscience nor to the Scriptures of Truth but is contrary to them All. DIRECTED To the said Council of Officers for their Convincement AND PUBLISHED For the Information of all who are concern'd in the Cause of Liberty GEO. BISHOP Heù quantum Mutat●sab illo For if I build again the things I destroyed I make my self a Transgressor Gal. 2. 18. LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Tho. Brewster at the Three Bibles by Pauls 1659. TO THE COUNCIL OF THE Officers of the Army FRIENDS HAving seen Your late humble Petition and Address to the Parliament and considered the Matter and Language of the Sixth Article I was grieved in my spirit for your sakes to see that ye should be so quickly removed from your Stedfastness to the Good Old Cause contained in your Declarations and engaged in a New as this more than seems to be and I shall shew it you by and by even that of your enemies in opposition to the former and so provoke the Lord to anger against your Selves whose loving kindness hath so tenderly visited you when ye cryed unto him because of your Oppression who heard and delivered you Therefore bear with me whilst in bowels of love I lay before you the one and the other to the end that ye may see your State and be recovered out of the Snare in which ye are taken captive by the subtilty of men who lay in wait to deceive and so repenting the judgment of God which is ready to break forth may be turned from you Ye know Friends that the Good Old Cause was chiefly Liberty of Conscience which being oppressed by the Bishops and that Generation cryed out so loud as raised the first War on the Bishops and Kings part to oppress and keep it under on the Parliaments to defend and deliver it and the Liberties of the Nation which with the Liberty of Conscience were bound up and joyned together as two lovely Twins that cannot be divided but with the mutual Suffering if not the Dissolution of each other The Bishops Yoaks of Wood being taken off some who but now Suffered under them rise up in their steads to oppress Conscience and these prepare other yoaks yoaks of Iron for the necks of their Brethren who Suffered in and with them and together fought for equal Liberty and nothing would serve these who Suffered themselves but yesterday as it were for Conscience but to bring the Consciences of all others to their size the Souls of all to their Diametre or square who differed from them or the Nations must swim in blood and peace be denied them as if the Cause engaged in had been that they might have Liberty and that it was so to be and as of right and the Consciences of all others made their Slaves and Vassals a more arrogant and unsufferable Usurpation in these than the Bishops by how much the more they cryed out against and opposed it in them Hence it came to pass that they so soon divided from the joynt prosecution of the common Cause of Liberty to the hazzard of the publick distinguishing themselves and others into terms and things and endeavouring the setting up their private upon it with such imperious Lordliness as no Age hath pararell'd and when as the most desired peace was trilling down the Mountains of Blood to the weary Inhabitans of these Nations who had tugg'd hard for it through the extremities of War it must all be turned back again and the Bloody issue again opened and the common Enemy joyned with after he was overthrown King and Irish and Scots raised up and assisted for that purpose against those of their Brethren who continued faithful and were blessed of God because they were so blest against their wills and endeavours to the contrary to the overthrowing of the common Enemy and never would they be at rest so strange was their itch at the Consciences of others and so insatiable their desires to be dealing with the Souls of men who yet injoyed the Liberty of their own raising and carrying on War after War till they were all vanquisht and their whole strength together broken down at Worcester which quickly ended the Wars in these Nations Thus Friends briefly as to the Cause or State of the Case in reference to Liberty of Conscience and the publick Contest thereabouts in which how deeply ye were concerned viz. in the former as Puritans Non-conformists and factious Fellows so called and persecuted in common with the rest in the latter as Hereticks and Schismaticks I shall not nor need I further to repeat These things I may well presume are engraven in you in an indeleble Charecter Nor shall I treat how honest men in these Nations joyned with and assisted you for this purpose as in a common Cause wherein they and you were so equally concerned as that One could not fall or miscarry without the dammage or the detriment of the Other how readily they flowed to you whilst that moved you to any extraordinary actions and what grief of heart it occasioned to them and sufferings when ye have at any time swerved therefrom is manifest the things are fresh and but of yesterday the late Revolutions speak them sufficiently but this I shall shew you plainly out of your own Declarations and in your own words how this Article changeth the Cause from the Old to a New from a good Old one to a bad New one from that in which at first and all along ye engaged for and in to another to that against which ye engaged And this I shall endeavour to do with as much brevity as the weight of the Case will admit not clogging ye with a large Recital of all that ye have said in this particular though what ye have taken liberty to speak ye should endure to hear But contracting the proof of what I have laid down to two of your Declarations as my two instances or witnesses viz. The great Remonstrance St. Albans Nov. 16. 1648. and your draught of the Settlement of the Nation Whitehal Jan. 15. 1649. Both drawn up by you and presented this Parliament upon two of the most weighty occasions ye then had met withal and the greatest Subjects The one the the bringing of the King to justice and changing of the Government into that of a free State or Common-wealth

of the Lord what hath since been attempted and for that I also knew and observed the workings of him and he knew it that miss-led you from Worcester fight to that time yea I observed how that Principle entred and wrought from the time of his and many of your falling under the King by an Heart of unbelief assoon as he and you were delivered by the Spirit that rose in the Souldiery and the inferiour Officers at Triploe Heath from the Major party in Parliament which voted you Traytors unheard for your Innocent Petition intended to be presented them by your General for things necessary to you as Souldiers and ordered your disbanding as aforesaid which spirit as I have said he and many of you falling under viz. upon distrust how as the case stood then with you ye should be able to carry it against King and Presbyter in Parliament who and their interest ye expected would be united against you he being at that time in their custody upon that your new Engagement not minding the Arm that had delivered you so oft and but then had wrought your Deliverance to a Miracle and so taking into your Custody out of the Parliaments the King whom ye had opposed the Spirit of the King or of Absoluteness Monarchy or King-ship against Civil Liberty under which he and many of you fell then entred him and many of you as that of the Priests or the Spirit against Religious Liberty or Liberty of Conscience ye falling under it by an heart of unbelief assoon as ye were delivered hath now into you viz. upon diffidence how as was now your case ye should buckle with the same generation engaged against ye in Parliament and ye expected would be much more now upon that their Dissolution who ordered the Dissolution of your Counsels and ye know what that signified even the Dissolution of you should ye lay aside their Coersive Principle in matters of Religion held forth in their intended Declaration for a Fast May 1659. And consequently the Priests upon that your new state or condition not considering your former and but then astonishing Deliverance and so taking the Principle which ye had engaged against out of the Parliaments Declaration into your Address ye fell under it as I have said and it entred into you that Spirit of absoluteness being entred into him who had so withstood it and cut it down it never rested till as time opportunity would admit it had wrought it self into that Head-ship in him thorough multitudes of disguises as it was at his Death where It buried his Name and his Memory and his valiant Acts together with his Carcass in the Pit of Infamy and the Common-Wealth which he trampled upon and despised and made so inexpressibly to suffer in order to this end is rose over him as the same Spirit against Liberty of Conscience Mark what I say and remember for the time to come will do by as many of you as shall not speedily repent we will be to you out of whom it is not purged till ye die and Truth the Dominion of God in and over Conscience Liberty of Conscience which that Spirit in this your Article hath trampled upon and despised and all the Blood that hath been shed for it and against which it purposely provided as in that Article and laid a foundation therein to work it self Lord over Conscience or Lord as I may say over the God of the spirits of all flesh who is Lord alone of Conscience as the other endeavoured over the Common-Wealth and will through notable disguises yea more notable than have been yet endeavour and make to suffer in order to this end beyond what hath been or will be after it I say Truth the Dominion of God in and over Conscience Liberty of Conscience shall when it is as yea more unlikely than was the late case of the Common-Wealth yea I may say impossible as to men rise over your graves and carcasses and Spirit and Rule for ever The Lord hath spoken it and the things make hast blessed is he that endures to the end the same shall be saved ye may think these things strange but the time is at hand I say I was not for but against the late Interruption because it was not only foreshewn me by the Lord even what hath since come to pass yea that he would never return as there are that can testifie to whom I then told it but I knew and was within the Curtain of his Cable or misterious proceedings in order thereunto and did often put checks to his carreir in that attempt though single and alone for though I signified it to some Members of Parliament whom I could trust and proposed a plain way for the prevention thereof yet they had no heart thereunto and at length seeing how the design hastened to an Issue and that no Spirit appeared in them whose proper work it was to endeavour to crush it and having no other way before me in behalf of the Common-Wealth the Committee of the Coucil of State for Examinations and Discoveries of which I was Secretary being unrevived by reason of a vote for that purpose obtained of the New Counsel November 1652. by him for the security of his design I caused it to be devulged yea the very day when it would be and on which it was done if so be such an Alarm might raise up a Spirit in the Parliament to prevent it which it did not nor could any thing hinder it for the thing was of God for the stayning of the pride and glory of Man and the bringing about of his mighty works of wonder for the glory of his Name who alone will be known to be King and to Rule in the Earth Since the Interruption what I have done and suffered I speak not my life is given me for a prey after all the Secret huntings after my blood and my entegrity is with me having a Testimony among men as with the Lord that as from the beginning I never betrayed nor acted contrary to my Principle nor was induced thereunto upon any Temptation whatsoever neither valuing my life nor what I had in relation to the Common-Wealth so I have continued to this day mourning with them that mourned and weeping for them who wept for it When the late hour was I felt your burthen and the weight of the powers of Darkness which sought to overwhelm and obstruct you and the power of God wrought through me which overcame your difficulties and overthrew your enemies even at the very instant as there be that can bear me witness to whom I signified here what was doing at the time of its Action ye being delivered I waited and with much gladness of heart received whatsoever the Lord shewed me and required to write in order to your direction and sent it to you that ye might be preserved which was the earnest desire and breathing of my Soul yea that it might have

upon which ye pretend to build now that ye are returned thither again The other your asserting after the then Wars and the Justice done on the King and the change of the Government thereupon what your selves and the People did expect and ought to reap of Liberty therefrom and Right as to All. First in the Sum of the Publick Intrest which had been the great Subject of the contest all along in the late Wars drawn up by you in your said Remonstrance and laid down as that which ye say the King had all along opposed to set up his and his posterities Will and Power and whereupon ye ground your charge against him ye assign nothing in the least of power in Parliaments that there was or ought to be any such or that it was any part of the Contest to impose in matters of Religion or Conscience but charge him with the opposing the Reformation intended and endeavoured by the Parliament as their proper work of what he had imposed in matters of Conscience and Religion For the proof of this see what ye have said Remonstrance pag. 14 15. The sum of the publick Interest say ye of the Nation in relation to Common Right and Freedome which hath been the chief subject of our Contest and in opposition to Tyranny and Injustice in Kings and Others we take to lie in these things following That for all matters of Supream Power or concernment to the safety and welfare of the whole the People have a Common or Supream Council and that the power of making Laws Constitutions and Offices for the Preservation and Government of the whole and of altering repealing and abolishing the same for the removing of any publick grievànce therein and the power of final Judgment concerning War or Peace the safety or welfare of the People and all Civil things whatsoevir here 's not a tittle of Religious without further appeal to any created standing Power and the Supream Trust in relation to all such things may rest in that Supream Council By this it is plain that to Settle or Create a Power in Parliaments to impose in matters of Religion or Conscience was no part of the publick Interest in contest in the Wars Now that the King had imposed in matters of Conscience or Religion and opposed the Reformation intended and endeavoured by the Parliament of what he had so imposed Here what ye also say in your own words The Matters aforementioned say ye * Remonstrance St. Albans page 18. to the Parliament being the main parts of Publick Interest originally contended for on our parts and them that engaged with you viz. the Parliament and thus opposed by the King for the Interest of his Will and Power many other particular or special Interests have fallen into Page 20. the contest on each Party As first on the Parliaments part to protect and countenance religious men and godliness in the power of it Who hath discountenanced and put such out of protection Now to the witness of God in you all I speak To give freedome and enlargement to the Gospel for the encreasing and spreading of Light amonst men Who endeavours to stop it now To take away those corrupted Forms of an out-side Religion and Church-Government whether imposed without a Law or rooted in the Law in times of Popish ignorance and Idolatry or of the Gospels dimmer light Who establishes such now whose light is dim now By means whereof chains and snares were laid upon conscientious and zealous men Who have laid chains and snares for such men now And the generality of the People held in darkness and superstition and a blind Reverence of persons and outward things fit for Popery and Slavery Who holds them so now and fits them for such And also to take away and loosen the dependance of the Clergy and Ecclesiastical affairs on the King Who hath put it on the Magistrate yea as the bottome of a Free State declared so now Which the craft of both in length of time had wrought for each other How crept it in and by whose craft hath it wrought it so and in so short a space now Which several things were the proper subject of the Reformation endeavoured by the Parliament Who hath pray'd the Parliament to do and at whose address and request have they done the contrary now Contrariwise on the Kings Party Whose Party is it now become and Interest Who is it now that hath laid a foundation for the following particulars The Interest was to discountenance and suppress the power of godliness or any thing of Conscience obliging above or against humane and outward Constitutions to restrain or lessen the preaching of the Gospel and growth of light among men To hold the Community of men in a darksome ignorance and superstition or formality in Religion with an awful Reverence of Persons Offices and outward dispensations rendring them sit subjects for Ecclesiastical and Civil Tyranny And for these ends to advance and set up further forms of Superstition or at least hold fast the old which had any foundation in the Laws whereby chains and fetters might be held upon and advantages taken against such in whom a zeal or Conscience to any thing above man should break forth and to uphold and maintain the dependance of the Clergy and Church matters on the King and greatness of the Clergy under him Who hath done and is doing all this now And in all these things to oppose the Reformation endeavoured by the Parliament Who hath set the Parliament now to oppose the very Reformation themselves endeavoured of which ye say it was the proper subject Read these things in the spirit of honesty in which ye wrote it and then read your selves and see how you are in a moment as it were beguiled and surprized after all and darkened into the Kings Interest as ye your selves have here stated it out of and from the Parliaments doing your selves the very things with which ye here charge him and for which among other things ye took him off The matters are so plain and obvious as they need no further demonstration Consider them seriously in the fear of God for it is no slight thing that ye are deceived into But that on which doth hang the guilt of all the blood that hath been shed in the late Wars ye have given Judgement against your selves in the Case in this your Judgment against the King I shall close this instance with your own words in the close of this particular pag. 21. In all or most of which respects say ye of what hath been repeated it hath been the great happiness and advantage to Parliamentary and publick Interest that it hath been made One very much with ●●e Interest of the godly or for the name whereof it hath been so much derided the Saints as on the other side the Kings one with their greatest opposites By occasion whereof God hath been doubly engaged in the Cause