Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	act_n	authority_n	parliament_n	1,080	5	6.8266	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37366	A declaration of the army of England vpon their march into Scotland signed in the name and by the appointment of his excellency the Lord General Cromwell and his councell of officers, Jo. Rushworth, secretary.	England and Wales. Army.	1650 (1650)	Wing D637; ESTC R29702	7,520	20

together the end is to be preferred before the means Now that there was a reall inconsistency between the end and the means and that the lesser did fight against the greater is your own judgment who in a Book of yours called A necessary and seasonable Testimony against Toleration say thus of the two Houses pag. 12. And doubtlesse the Lord is highly dis●leased with their procoedings in the Treaty at Newport in reference to Religion and Covenant concerning which they accepted of such Concessions from His Majesty as being acquiessed in were dangerous and destructive to both Had we not then appeared against these Concessions and likewise against those of both Houses who acquiesced in them had not Religion and Liberty both been destroyed which now by the blessing of God are preserved And if that action concerning the Parliament deserve a charge yet least of all from your selves who when you saw the Parliament which sent Duke Hamilton with an Army into England proceed in waves destructive to Religion and Libetty you counte nanced and acted with those that rose up for publique safety though contrary to Acts of Parliament and called a new one excluding whom you thought fit all which was done by virtue and authority from the Committee of Estates then sitting at Edinburgh which indeed was no Committee if you respect formalities the breach whereof you so often charge upon us being constituted of such persons as by Act of the foregoing Parliament had not legall right to sit or act therein they not having taken the Oath for faithfull discharge of the trust reposed in them in reference to the late Engagement against England injoyned by that Parliament to be taken by every Member of the Committee at his first sitting or else to have no place or vote therein as is fully set down in the Commission for the constituting of that Committee of Estates We could more particularly set forth how the Committee of Estates there sitting according to the litterall sence of the aforementioned Commission was broken and driven away by that force raysed and acted by you as aforesaid but we spare not seeking to justifie our actions by yours but to shew that you have done the same things for presevation of Religion and Liberty which you so highly charge as evill upon us And therefore we further desire you seriously to consider That the inconsistency of our Religion and Liberties with the Kings Interest and former constitution of Parliament did not arise from our yealousies or pretences but from the hardnesse of the Kings heart and the backsliding of the greater part of those that were intrusted in the Parliament by their acquiescing in those Concessions and endeavouring immediately to bring in the King upon them We therefore reckon it no breach but a Religious keeping of the Covenant according to the equitic thereof when our Parliament for Religion and Liberties sake and the Interest of the people did remove the King and Kingship As also we assert our selves Keepers of the Covenant when the competition hath been between the forme and substance if we have altered some formes of the Government in part for the substance sake As for the Presbyteriall or any other Forme of Church Government they are not by the Covenant to be imposed by force yet we doe and are ready to imbrace so much as doth or shal be made appear to us to be according to the Word of God Are we to be dealt withall as enemies because we come not to your way Is all Religion wrapt up in that or any one Form Doth that name or thing give the difference between those that are the Members of Christ and those that are not We think not so We say Faith working by love is the true Charactor of a Christian and God is our Witnes in whomsoever we see any thing of Christ to be there we reckon our duty to love writing forch more plentifull effusion of the Spirit of God to make all those Christians who by the malice of the World are diversified and by their own carnall mindednesse doe diversifie themselves by severall names of Reproach to be of one heart and one mind worshipping God with oue consent We are desirous that those who are for the Presbyteriall Government should have all freedom to enjoy it and are perswaded That if it be so much of God as some affirme if God be trusted with his own means which is his Word powerfully and effectually Preached without a too busie medling with or engaging the Authorities of the World it is able to accomplish his good pleasure upon the minds of men to produce and establish his purposes in the World concerning the Government of his Church And as for the Blasphemies and Heresies wherewith some Statists amongst you have laboured to brand us We can say That we doe own those sound Grounds and Principles of the Christian Religion Preached and held by the Generality of godly Ministers and Christians of these later times abhorring from our hearts and being ready to beare our witnesse against any detestable Blasphemies and Heresies lately broken out amongst us we have already punished some amongst us for Blasphemy and are further ready to doe it but how uningeniously we have been dealt with by some amongst you and of our own Countrymen in heaping Calumnies upon our heads to render us vile and odious to our Brethren yea and the whole world we leave to God to judge who will ●e trust in due time make these things manifest But were Presbytery thus to be contested for and that in upholding it all Religion did and would flourish yet how improbable it is That the course taken by those in authority with you will produce the things you desire to say no more let your own experiences 〈◊〉 little minde you What pretenders were some Lords and other persons in the North of Ireland whilest they mingled the Presbyterian with the Kingly Interest and the Ministers by their Preaching seduced the people from their Obedience to England under the same pretence But no sooner had those persons got the power into their own hands but they shook off the Ministers by threatnings causing some of them to quit the country and in generall discouraging the exercise of the Government there declaring plainly by their actions that it was but aide vice to draw on the Royall Interest those very Persons that did get power into their hands under those pretences in mediately joyned with Owen Roe O Neale and these bloody Irish Rebells upon the Kingly Interest It will not be unfit to mind you also how the Nobility and some of the Ministers of Scotland Preaching and crying up a War against England under pretence of the Covenant did thereby lay the foundation to Duke Hamiltons getting the command of that Army who over numbring them in Parliament power and friends and by the advantage of Malignants thrust all that you could call the good party out of power and authority himselfe getting