some of the Aldermen Protested against them as having no thought of either shuting out the Mayor or making the Committee so absolute as they found the two Houses had done Whereupon it was mov'd that the Houses might be Petition'd to reverse the Order But that being carryed in the Negative Ven produces another Order for the adding of Skippon to the Committee for the Militia which was carry'd without much Difficulty The Court of Aldermen reflecting upon the Indignities cast upon the Mayor and Government of the City Petition'd the House apart from the Commons that the Mayor and Sheriffs might be nominated of the Committee but to no purpose For they knew Sir Richard Gourny was a person of two much Honour and Loyalty to comply with their Designes After this Repulse several of the most Eminent Citizens both for Worth and Estates Petition'd the Two Houses in their own Names for the Removall of That Scandal but there was no relief to be had and they were barbarously treated for their pains over and above Sir George Benyon to his Honour as the framer and chief Promoter of that most reasonable Petition was fin'd 3000l Disfranchiz'd in the City never to bear Office in the Kingdom to be Committed for two year to Colchester Goal and at the end of the Term to give security for his good Behaviour Methinks the bare Recital of This Inhumane Insolence should turn the Bloud of every honest Citizen This Committee was now becom the masters of the Militia they remov'd Sir Richard Gourny and put Pennington into his place they make Ordinances to pass for Laws and Rebellion to be a point of Conscience they persecute the Orthodox Clergy Oppress their Fellow Citizens and the whole Nation and where they have not Credit to borrow they make use of their Power to Take away living upon the Spoil without any regard to the Laws either of God or Man And to shew the world that as the Faction had subverted the Government of the City so they intended to perpetuate the slavery See as follows Vicesimo Octavo Februarii 1648. An Act of the Commons of England in Parliament Assembled For Removing Obstructions in the Proceedings of the Common-Council of the City of London THe Commons of England in Parliament assembled do Enact and Ordain and be it Enacted and Ordained by the Authority aforesaid that in all times to come the Lord Mayor of the said City of London so often and at such time as any 10. or more of the Common-Council-men do by Writing under their hands request or desire him thereunto shall summon assemble and hold a Common-Council and if at any time being so required or desired he shall fail therein then the ten persons or more making such request or desire shall have Power and are hereby Authorized by Writing under their hand to summon or cause to be summoned to the said Council the Members belonging thereunto in as ample manner as the Lord Mayor himself usually hath done and that the Members appearing upon the same Summons being of the Number of 40. or more shall become a Common-Council And that each Officer whose duty it shall be to warn in and Summon the Members of the said Councill shall perform the same from time to time upon the Warrant or Command of ten persons or more so authorized as aforesaid And it is further Enacted and Ordained by the authority aforesaid that in every Common-Council hereafter to be assembled the Lord Mayor of the said City for the time being or in his absence such Locum tenens as he shall appoint and in default thereof the Eldest Alderman present if any be and for want of such Alderman or in case of his neglect or refusal therein then any other person Member of the said Council whom the Commons present in the said Council shall chuse shall be from time to time President or Chairman of the said Council and shall cause and suffer all things offered to or proposed in the said Council to be fairly and orderly debated Put to the Question Voted and Determined in and by the same Council as the Major part of the Members present in the said Council shall desire or think â—it and in every Vote which shall pass and in the other Proceedings of the said Council neither the Lord Major nor Aldermen joynt or Separate shall have any negative or distinct Voice or Vote otherwise then with and among and as part of the rest of the Members of the said Council and in the same manner as the other Members have and that the absence and withdrawing of the Lord Major or Aldermen from the said Council shall not stop or prejudice the proceedings of the said Council And that every Common-Council which shall be held in the City of London shall sit vnd continue so long as the Major part of the Council shall think sit and shall not be dissolved or adjourned but by and according to the Order or Consent of the Major part of the same Council And that all the Votes and Acts of the said Common-Council which was held 13 January last after the departure of the Lord Mayor from the same Council and also all Votes and acts of every Common Council hereafter to be held shall be from time to time duly registred as the Votes and Acts of the said Council have used to be done in time past And be it further Eâ—cted and Ordained by the Authority aforesaid that every Officer which shall sit in the said Council shall be from time to time chosen by the said Council and shall have such reasonable allowance or Salary for his pains and service therein as the Council shall think fit And that every such Officer shall attend the said Common-Council and that all Acts and Records and Register Books belonging to the said City shall be extant to be perused â—od searched into by every Citizen of the said City in the presence of the Officer who shall have the Charge of keeping thereof who is hereby required to attend for the same purpose Hen. Scobel Cler. Parliament Take notice that the Vote of Common-Council in the Act above-recited of Jan. 13. 1648. when the Lord Mayor went off and dismissed the Court was a Treasonous Vote for the speedy bringing of the King to Justice You have here the State of the New-Model'd Government of the City and effectually of the whole Nation together with the Methods of Hypocrisy and State that brought us into that miserable Condition And what were they but Canting Sermons Popular Petitions Tumults Associations Impostures and Disaffected Common-Councils We have likewise set forth how these Advantages were gain'd with their Natural Tendency to the Mischiefs they produc'd And who were they that promoted and brought all these Calamities upon us but men of desperate Fortunes and Principles Male-contents broken Tradesmen Coblers Thimble-makers Dray-men Ostlers and a world of this sort of People whose Names are every where up and down
A SEASONABLE MEMORIAL IN SOME HISTORICAL NOTES UPON THE LIBERTIES OF THE PRESSE and PULPIT WITH THE Effects of Popular Petitions Tumults Associations Impostures and Disaffected Common Councils To all Good Subjects and True Protestants LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in S. Pauls Church-yard 1680 A Seasonable MEMORIAL c. THis Title may perhaps give the Reader an expectation if not a Curiosity to hear more then the Authour is willing to tell him For it is his intent only to expose the Mistery of the Contrivance of our late Troubles without the names of the Persons and to shew that the great work of Destroying three Kingdoms was only the Project and Influence of a Private Cabal and that the Rebellion it self was excited and carry'd on by the Force rather of an Imposcure then of a Confederacy The Generality of the people being powerfully and artificially Possess'd by the pretended Patrons of our Religious and Civill Liberties that Popery and Arbitrary Power were breaking in upon us and the design promoted by the Interest of a Court-Faction It could not chuse but create in them the tenderest affection imaginable for the one Party and as violent a Detestation for the other Especially considering that the Person and Authority of the King were as yet Sacred and uot any man open'd his Mouth but for his Honour and safety the Purity of the Gospel and the Peace of the Kingdome For such was the Reverence the Nation had at that time for the King and the Law that the least word against the Government had spoyl'd all This Double-refining spirit came into the World even with the Reformation it self when by flying from one Extreme to another it left the Truth in the middle which Calvin himself rakes notice of in a Letter to the Protector in Ed. 6. There are two sorts of Seditious men says he speaking of the Papists and the Puritans and against both these must the sword be drawn For they oppose the King and God himself It was the same Spirit that mov'd the Distemper afterward at Frankfort and the same still that made such havock in Scotland and flew in the face of Q. Eliz. her Parliaments and Councill till she was forced to suppress it by Severity and Rigour Her successor King James after a long Persecution in Scotland and a fresh attempt upon him at Hampton Court by the same Faction took them up roundly once for all and so past the rest of his days in some measure of quiet But the Plot succeeded better under King Charles when taking advantage of his Majesties necessitys with the Infinite goodness of his Nature that made him apt to believe the best of all men and a Popular mixture in the House of Commons that was still ready for their turn they pursu'd him with Remonstraâ—ce upon Remonstrance through four Parliaments and at last by the help of the Act for the continuance of the Parliament Tumultâ— and that Execrable Libel of Dec. 15. 1641. Entitled A Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdome they accomplished their ends under ehe Countenance of the Fifth By what steps and Methods they gained their Poynt comes now to be consider'd Their first advance toward a Sedition was the introducing of a Schism by distinguishing themselves under the Name of the Godly Party from the rest of the Nation which they found to be the safest way of approach and the most plausible expedient To this end they brought in Lecturers over the Heads of Parochial Ministers whose maintenance being dependent upon the Faction made them wholly at the devotion of their Patrons They had their Emissaries also in all Corporations and Populous parts of the Kingdom that were appointed as Feoffees to deal for Impropriations under the charitable pretext of making a better Provision for the Ministry And these were men of publick business in the World as Clergy-men Lawyers c. well known and made famous for their Zeal by the Reputation of so pious an Undertaking By this project they advanced considerable Sums of Money but the Incumbents little the better for it For either it stuck to the Feoffees fingers or it was applyed to other uses and with the Tithe of a Parsonage in one place a Lecture was set up in another After the Choice of fit Instruments their next work was to secure them from any trouble of Church-Censures To which end they bought some Headship or other in an University for some Eminent man of their own way for the training up of Novices in their Discipline And then they had a kind of a Practical Seminary at St. Antholines in London where their Disciples were in a manner upon a Probation for Abilities and Affections and out of this Nursery they furnish'd most of their New-bought Impropriations These young Emissaries of theirs had their Salary and were subordinate to a Classis or Clero-Laicall Consistory to be transplanted at their pleasure And yet this Consistory did not so strictly confine themselves to their Own Members but upon Letters Testimonial from the Patriarchs of the Party that such or such a man was fit for their turn or had given proof of his fidelity to the Cause by undergoing some sentence for contemning the Orders of the Church and persisting Obstinately in that disobedience to such a man I say in such a Case they commonly allow'd a Preference And the better to avoid the danger of the Spiritual Courts they made it their business to provide Commissaries of their Own Leaven where they had any special Plantation And Lastly to make sure of their Agents that they should not fall off when they had serv'd their own turns they kept them only as Pentioners at pleasure and liable to be turn'd out at any time either if they cool'd in the Holy Cause or fail'd of Preaching according to the direction of the Conclave Let it be noted here by the by that the design and mischief of those Lecturers when they could nor so well Congregate in Private Meetings is in our days supply'd if not outdone by a greater number of Conventicles to the very same Intent and God grant it prove not with the like effect They were as yet but upon the Preparatory to the great work of their Thorough Reformation which in plain English was the Dissolution of the Government So that the Pulpits had nothing more to do at present then to dispose and accommodate the Humours and Affections of the People The Common Subject of the Pulpit and they all sung the same Song was First to irritate the Multitude against Popery which had been well enough if they had not Secondly by sly Insinuations under the Notion of Arminianism intimated the Church of England to be leaning that way By this Artifice the People were quickly brought into a dislike of the English Communion and by degrees into as fierce an Aversion to the One Church as to the Other Now whatsoever the Government Lost the
next place after that they assaulted his Person seiz'd his Revenue and in the Conclusion most impiously took away his Sacred Life At which rate in proportion they treated the Church and the rest of his Friends and laid the Government in Confusion For the compassing of these accursed ends they still accommodated themselves to the matter they had to work upon They had their Plots and false allarms for the simple their Tumults for the fearful their Covenants was a Receptacle for all sorts of Libertines and Malecontents But the great difficulty was the gaining of the City which could not be effected but by embroyling the Legal and ancient Constitution of that Government For there was no good to be done upon the Imperial Monarchy of England without First confounding the Subordinate Monarchy of the City of London and creating a perfect Understanding betwixt the Caball and the Common-Council which was very much facilitated by casting out the Loyal and Orthodox Clergy and teaching all the Pulpits in London to speak the same Language with Margarets Westminster But let us consider the Government of the City of London First in the due and Regular Administration of it and then in its corruptions and by what means it come afterwards to be debauch'd The City of London was long before the Conquest Govern'd by Port-Reeves and so down to Richard the First who granted them several Priviledges in acknowledgment of the Good Offices they had render'd him But the First Charter they had for the Choice of their Own Mayor or Government was confer'd upon them by King John in these words Know ye that we have granted to our Barons or Freemen of our City of London that they may chuse unto themselves a Mayor of themselves And their following Charter of Henry the Third runs thus We grant also unto the said Citizens that they may yearly present to our Barons of the Exchequer we or our Heirs not being at Westminster every Mayor which they shall first chuse in the City of London to the end they may be by them admitted as Mayor In a following Charter of Ed. 2. That the Mayor and Sheriffs of the City aforesaid may be chosen by the Citizens of the said City according to the Tenour of the Charter of our Progenitors sometimes Kings of England to that end made and not otherwise The Charter of Hen. 8. runs to the Mayor Commonalty and Citizens of London Conjunctim The Charter of Ed. 3. is thus We have granted further for Us and our Heirs and by this our present Charter confirm'd to the Mayor and Aldermen of the City aforesaid that if any customs in the said City hitherto obtained and used be in any part Difficult or Defective or any thing in the same newly happening where before there was no remedy Ordained and have need of amending the said Mayor and Aldermen and their Successours with the assent of the Commanalty of the same City may add and ordain a remedy meet faithfull and consonant to reason for the Common profit of the Citizens of the same City as oft and at such time as to them shall be thought expedient We have the rather cited these clauses in favour of the Lawfull Government of the City in regard that they have been so often and so earnestly perverted another way The Charter we see is directed to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City the Power is granted to them to propose the making or mending of Laws as they see occasion only by the affent or dissent of the Commons they are ratifyed or hindred And those Laws are only Acts of Common-Council that is to say not of the Commonalty alone but of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons in concurrence Some there are that mistake the word Conjunctim and would have Jointly to be Equally as if one could not have a greater interest or Authority and another a lesse though in a Joint Commission The Power in short of summoning and Dissolving Common-Councils and of putting any thing to the question does legally reside only in the Lord Mayor And the Active Power in the Making of a Law and the Negative Voice in the Hindering of a Law have been by long Prescription and usage in the Lord Mayor and Aldermen And these being customs of the City every Freeman is to support and maintain them by the Obligation of his Oath And in farther proof that the Lord Mayor and Aldermen are by their Charter invested with the Powers aforesaid We shall need only to enform our selves who they are that in case of any publick Disorder are made answerable for the Misdemeanour Richard the Second granted a Commission to enquire of all and singular Errours Defects and Misprisions in the City of London for want of Good Government in the Mayor Sheriffs and Aldermen of the said City And for the Errours Defects and Misprisions in their Government sound they were fin'd 3000. Marks the Liberties of the City seiz'd into the Kings Lands and a Warden appointed to govern the City till in the end the Duke of Glocester prevail'd upon the King to reinstate them We have here given you a short view of the Orderly Government of this glorious City which is perchance one of the best qualify'd Establishments both for King and People under the cope of Heaven We are now coming to lay open by what Arts and Contrivances it came to be corrupted and in a manner to lay Violent hands upon it self Which is a story that may serve some for curiosity and others for Edification The People being extreamly discomposed in their minds upon the Apprehension of Popery and Arbitrary Power and shaken also in their Allegiance upon a strong Impression that it was a design in their Governours themselves to introduce it It was no hard matter to inveigle them into Petitions for Relief Protestations Associations and Covenants for the Common defence of themselves in the preservation of their Liberties and Religion and into a favourable Entertainment of any plausible pretext even for the Justification of Violence it self Especially the Sedition coming once to be Baptized Gods cause and supported by the Doctrine of Necessity and the unsearchable Instinct and Equity of the Law of Nature And all this too Recommended and Inculcated to them by the men of the whole World upon whose Conduct and Integrity they would venture their very Souls Bodies and Estates Being thus perswaded and possess'd the coming in of the Scots serv'd them both for a Confirmation of the ground of their fears and for an Authority to follow that Pattern in their Proceedings both causes being founded upon the same Bottom and both Parties united in the same Conspiracy So that this opportunity was likewise improved by all sorts of ayery Phantastical Plots frivolous and childish reports to cherish the Delusion And now was the time for Tumults and Out-rages upon publique Ministers and Bishops nay and upon the King himself till by Arms and Injuries they
Faction Gain'd And those Pedantique Levites that brought so many dreadfull Judgments upon this Nation themselves were by the Credulous Tumultuary Rabble cry'd up and Idolized as the very Moses's that stood in the Gap to avert them Having by this means render'd the Government Odious and given some credit to the Schism their next Instruction was to make Proclamation of the Numbers the quality and the sobriety of the Persons aggriev'd to possesse the one side with a confidence and the other with an apprehension of their strength Thousands of Souls ready to Famish they cry for want of the Bread of Life How many Insufficient negligent and scandalous Pastors How many Congregations destitute of able Faithfull Teachers Preaching in season and out of season and labouring in the Word Alas they dare not consent to any Addition to or Diminution of Christs Worship or to the Use of the Inventions of Men in Gods Service They desire only the Freedom that Christ and his Apostles have left unto the Churches and to serve God according to the Example of the best Reformed Churches abroad This is the Case of Thousands of the upright of the Land Let it be understood that the Press all this while kept pace with the Pulpit only now and then there started out a Party upon the Forelorn to make Discoveries and try the Temper of the Government Some scap'd and others were taken and censur'd as Leighton Burton Prin and Bastwick who only shewed themselves inconsiderately before their Friends were ready to Second them We shall see now how they changed their stile with their Condition and how their boldness encreased with their Interest Their grievances at first were only a dark and a doubtfull Prospect of Popery and Popish Innovations afar off and an anxiety of thought for the calamities that were coming upon Gods People through the corruptions of the Times But success opening their Eyes they are coming now to discover more and more Popery nearer hand They find the Church-men to be Popishly affected the Liturgy to be no other then an English Mass-Book the Hierarchy it self and all the Courts and Officers depending upon it to be directly Anti-Christian They charge his Majesty to be Popishly affected and all that will not renounce him to be either flat Papists or Worse imposing Protestations Covenants Engagements of Confederacy against both King and Church and Oaths of Abjuration as the Tests of a Loyall Protestant passing an Anathema upon any man that interposes betwixt their malice and their Soveraign They prostitute the Sacred Function for Mony they suck the blood of Widdows and of Orphans By violence taking possession of Eighty five Livings at one clap out of Ninety seaven within the Walls of London exposing so many Reverend and Loyal Divines with their Families to the wide World to beg their Bread They Preach the People into Murther Sacriledge and Rebellion they pursue a most gracious Prince to the Scaffold they animate the Regicides calling that Execrable Villany an Act of Publick Justice and Entitling the Holy Ghost to the Treason If this General recital of the Rise and Progress of their Actings be true the Reader has here before him the Issue and the drift of their pretended Scruples the Exposition of their Protestations Covenants and Designs wherein it cannot but be observ'd how their Consciences widen'd with their Interests And this may serve to satisfy any man whither People are then a going when they come to tread in the same steps But however for a further support to the credit of this Memorial we shall now subjoyn some undeniable Evidences of the whole matter out of their Own words and Writings where we shall finde Mr. Hookers saying made good in the Preface to his Ecclesiastieal Polity What other sequel says he can any wise man imagine but this that having First resolved that attempts for Discipline without Superi ours are Lawfull it will fellow in the next place to be disputed what may be attempted against Superiours But now to our Proofs which we shall give you from Point to Point and from the very â—abbies of the Schism First As to the CHURCH Gods people says Burton lie under Bondage of Conscience in point of Liturgy 2dly In bondage of Conscience under Ceremonies 3dly Of Conscience under Discipline 4ly Of Conscience under Government How the Presence and Preaching of Christ did scorch and blast those Cathedrall Priests that Unhallowed Generation of Scribes and Phariees Prelacy and Prelaticall Clergy Priests and Jesuits Ceremonys and Service-Book Star-Chamber and High Commission-Court were mighty Impediments in the way of Reformation The Scots were necessitated to take up Arms for their just Defence against Anti-Christ and the Popish Priests Now to the LITURGY The Service of the Church of England is now so dressed that if a Pope should come and see it he would Claim it as his own And again what credit is this to our Church to have such a Form of Publique Worship as Papists may without offence Joyn with us in This we have from the Smâ—ymnuans themselves E. Cal. and Stephen Marshall being part of the Club. Now says Bishop Hall If the Devil confess Christ to be the Son of God shall I disclaim the Truth because it passeth through a damned mouth And what did they give us in exchange for this Form of Publique worship but a Directory without either the Decalogue or a Creed in 't Let not the pretence of Peace and Unity cool your Fervour or make you spare to oppose your selves unto those Idle and Idolized Ceremonies against which we dispute Their next fling is at the HIERARCHY it self The â—lastring or palliating of these Rotten Members Bishops will be a greater dishonour to the Nation and Church then their cutting off and the Personall Acts of these Sons of Belial being connived at become National sins The Roman Emperors wasted the Saints in Ten several Persecutions but all these were nothing in Comparison of this destroyer All their Loyns are not so heavy as the little finger of Antichrist The Prelacy of England which we swore to extirpate was that very same Fabrick and mode of Ecclesiasticall Regiment that is in the Antichristian World And again As thy Sword Prelacy hath made many Women Childlesse many a faithfull Minister Peoplelesse so thy Mother Papacy shall be made Childlesse among Harlots your Diocesses Bishoplesse and your Sees Lordlesse Pag. 51. Carry on the work still leave not a Ragg that belongs to Popery Lay not a bit of the Lords building with any thing that belongs to Anti-Christ but away with it Root and Branch Head and Tail till you can say now is Christ set upon his Throne Were they not English Prelates that conspired to sell their Brethren into Romish slavery 'T is not partial Reformation and Execution of Justice upon some Offenders will afford us help except those in Authority extirpate all Achans with Babylonish
Garments and Orders Ceremonies Gestures be rooted out from amongstus Trouble they will bring upon us for the time to come if they be not now cut off Pag. 36. As to the KING and his PARTY what a sad thing is it my Brethren to see our King in the head of an Army of Babylonians refusing as it were to be called the King of England Scotland Ireland and chusing rather to be called the King of Babylon Those that made their Peace with the King at Oxford were Judases of England and it were just with God to give them their Portion with Judas Here follows next their Opinion of the COVENANT The walls of Jerico have fall'n flat before it the Dagon of the Bishops Service-Book brake its neck before this Ark of the Covenant Prelacy and Prerogative have bow'd down and given up the Ghost at its feet Take the Covenant and you take Babilon the Towers of Babilon and her Seaven Hills shall move It is the Shiboleth to distinguish Ephramites from Gileadites Pag. 27. Not only is that Covenant which God hath made wiâ—h Us founded upon the Blood of Christ but that also which we make with God Pag. 33. See now the TENDERNESS of these men of tender Consciences Whensoever you shall behold the hand of God in the fall of Babilon say True here is a Babilonish Priest crying 〈◊〉 alas alas my Living I have Wife and Children to maintain Ay but all this is to perform the Judgement of the Lord. Pag. 13. Though as Little ones they call for pity yet as Babilonish they call for Justice even to Blood pag. 11. We are now entring upon the State of the WAR wherein you will finde in the first place who sounded the Trumpet to it To you of the Honourable House Up for the Matter belongs to you We even all the GODLY MINISTERS of the Country will be with you The First Enginiers that batter'd this great Wall of Babilon who were they but the poorer and meaner sort of People that at the First joyn'd with the Ministers to raise the Building of Reformation Here is an Extraordinary appearance of so many Ministers to encourage you in this Cause that you may see how real the Godly Ministry in England is unto this Cause This was upon calling in the Scots And again If I had as many Lives as I have hairs on my head I would be willing to Sacrifice all those Lives for this Cause Ibid. You shall read Numb 10. that there were two Silver Trumpets and as there were Priests appointed for the Convocation of their Assemblies so there were Priests to sound the Silver Trumpets to proclaim the War And Deut. 20. When the Children of Israel would go out to War the Sons of Levi one of the Priests was to make a Speech to encourage them Nor were they less cruel and fierce in the Prosecution of the War then they were forward in Promoting it In vain shall you in your Fasts with Joshua lie on your faces unless you lay your Achans â—n their Backs In vain are the High Praises of God in your Moâ—hs without a Two edged Sword in your hand Pag. 31. The Bâ—od that Ahab spar'd in Benhadad stuck as deep and as heavily on him as that which he spilt in Naboth The Lord is pursuing you if you execute not Vengeance on them betimes Pag. 48. Why should life be farther granted to them whose very lifâ— brings death to all about them pag. 50. Cursed be he that with-h ldoth his Sword from blood that spares when God saith strike c. pag. And let it not be now pretended that this War was not Levy'd against the King for they both disclaim his Authority and even the opposing of him on expresse terms It is lawfull says Dr. Downing of Hackney in a Sermon to the Artillery Men for defence of Religion and Reformation of the Church to take up Arms against the King It is commendable says Calamy to sight for peace and Reformation against the Kings Command And Case again Why come not in the Scottish Army against the King If the Devil can but once get a Prophet to leave Gods service for the Kings he hath taken a Blew already and is ready for as deep a Black as Hell can give him pa. 28. But what do they say all this time to his AUTHORITY The Parliament whom the People chuse are the Great and only Conservators of the peoples Liberties pag. 2. They are the chief Magistrates pag. 38. All those that fought under the Kings Banner against this Parliament fought themselves into slavery and did endeavour by all bloudy and Treacherous ways to subvert Religion and Liberties pag. 9. The Lords and Commons are as Masters of the House pag. 22. The Parliament of the Common-wealth of England without the King 1651 were the Supreme Authority of this Nation The Houses are not only requisite to the Acting of this Power of making Laws but Coordinate with his Majesty in the very Power of Acting pag 42. The Reall Sovereignty here in England was says Baxter in King Lords and Commons pag. 72. And those that conclude that the Parliament being Subjects may not take up Arms against the King and that it is Rebellion to resist him their grounds are sandy and their Superstructure false pag. 459. 460. The next Point is their Animating the MURTHER of the KING Do Justice to the Greatest Sauls Sons are not spar'd no nor may Agag or Benhadad tho' themselves Kings Zimri and Cozbi tho Princes of the people must be pursu'd into their Tents This is the way to Consecrate your selves to God pag. 16. The Execution of Judgment is the Lords word and they shall be cursed that do it negligently And cursed shall they be that keep back their Sword in this Cause You know the story of Gods Message unto Ahab for letting Benhadad go upon Composition pag. 26. But you shall now hear the MURTHER of his Sacred Majesty press'd more particularly in these Words Think not to save your selves by an unrighteous saving of them who are the Lords and the Peoples known Enemies you may not imagine to obtain the favour of those against whom you will not do Justice For certainly if you act not like Gods in this particular against men truly obnoxious to Justice they will be like Devils against you Observe that place 1 Kings 22. 31. compared with Cap. 20. It is said in Chap. 20. that the King of Syria came against Israel and by the mighty power of God he and his Army were overthrown and the King was taken Prisoner Now the mind of God was which he then discover'd only by that present Providence that Justice should have been executed upon him but it was not Whereupon the Prophet comes with ashes upon his face and waited for the King of Israel in the way where he should return and as the King passed