A96239:13
A letter from the Assembly of Divines in England, and the commissioners of the…
A letter from the Assembly of Divines in England, and the commissioners of the Church of Scotland, written, and sent by order of the honourable House of Commons assembled in Parliament, to the Belgic, French, Helvetian, and other reformed churches. Translated into English, and now published with the several inscriptions to those churches. By order of the said House.A letter from the Assembly of Divines in England, and the commissioners of the Church of Scotland, written, and sent by order of the honorable House of Commons assembled in Parliament, to the Belgick, French, Helvetian, and other reformed churches. Translated into English, and now published with the severall inscriptions to those churches. By order of the said House.
London: printed by Richard Cotes for Ralph Smith, 1644
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Letter: A Letter from the Assembly of Divines in England, and the Commissioners of the Church o…
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Right Reverend and dearly beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ,
Right Reverend and dearely beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ,
WE the Assembly of Divines and others, called and convened by the Authority of both Houses of Parliament of England, with the Commissioners sent from the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, do heartily salute you in the Lord. We doubt not but the sad reports of the miseries under which the Church and Kingdom of England do bleed, and wherewith we are all ready to be swallowed up, (the cup which the righteous Lord hath given us to drink) is long since come to your ears. And it is probable that the same instruments of Satan and Antichrist, have endeavoured by their emissaries to present us as black as may be among your selves; who by falsehood and lies endeavour every where to put fair glosses upon their own bloody designs, and to reproach our strugglings after a more thorough Reformation ⟨image 3⟩⟨p. 1⟩[…] ⟨p. 2⟩of Religion in the Church of England, according to the Word of God, and our just defence of our lives, liberties, and Religion, against their cruel and unjust violences. And we sometimes doubt whether we have not been wanting to our own innocency and your satisfaction, in being thus long silent, from giving you a faithful, though sorrowful, relation of the state wherein we stand. But pardon us dear Brethren, if this Cup of trembling, wherewith our spirits have been filled to amazement, and our wrestlings with extreme difficulties ever since our meeting, have hindered us from that which we long since knew to be our duty. And give us leave now a little to ease our grief, by pouring our hearts into your bosoms, while we relate the desolation made by an Antichristian faction, who amongst us have still been hindering the work of Reformation, and withal introducing and cherishing of Popery; and are now arrived at that strength, and have prevailed so far against us, that if the Lord, whose judgments are unsearchable, and whose tender mercies are innumerable, do not speedily help us, we shall even altogether be laid waste by them.