Selected quad for the lemma: blood_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
blood_n	holy_a	jesus_n	lord_n	5,323	4	3.5692	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62103	A vindication of King Charles: or, A loyal subjects duty Manifested in vindicating his soveraigne from those aspersions cast upon him by certaine persons, in a scandalous libel, entituled, The Kings cabinet opened: and published (as they say) by authority of Parliament. Whereunto is added, a true parallel betwixt the sufferings of our Saviour and our soveraign, in divers particulars, &c. By Edw: Symmons, a minister, not of the late confused new, but of the ancient, orderly, and true Church of England.	Symmons, Edward.; Symmons, Edward. True parallel betwixt the sufferings of our Saviour and our Soveraign, in divers particulars.	1648 (1648)	Wing S6350A; ESTC R204509	281,464	363

our Saviour did with praiers in our mouths for them which it may be through Gods working may have a like effect after our death as Christs had to the conversion of some of them the conversion of those 3000. Act. 2. is held to be a fruit of Christs prayer upon the Crosse and Sauls conversion of Stephens prayer at his death so who knowes but our meeknesse our patience and our prayers at such a time may be effectuall to a like purpose even to draw some of our persecuting Countreymen from their bloudy and rebellious way into the paths of Christ and of his Gospel yea whether we live or die if we can do Christ and the King service no other way let us resolve and endeavour to pray down their and our enemies by praying for them And by all meanes while breath is in us let 's have a care so to live as we may still credit our righteous cause and as becometh those that are designed to slaughter for Jesus sake and for the Doctrine which he left us Holy bloud believe it will prove of harder digestion to them then prophane that they had killed the holy and the just one was that which afterward pierced the hearts of these mens elder Brethren when time was I say no more But the Lord strengthen and guide us all in our Christian and Loyall way by his grace and spirit that though we be a people robbed spoiled snared in holes hid in prison-houses driven to banishment and exposed for a prey yet we may walk before our God in all humilitie and well-pleasing to the restauration of his Gospells honour the inward comfort of our own spirits in the midst of miseries and to the conviction and shame of our unnaturall Countrey-men who seeke to take away our lives also from us Soli Deo Gloria Amen Amen May 26. 1646. A POST-SCRIPT to the READER THis Book was prepared as now you have it and might have seen the light within lesse then the compasse of that year wherein the Libell which it Answers was first published had there been at hand the convenience of a Presse and strength to bring forth But 't is no small advantage which the enemies have against Truth and the King that with them is both liberty and ability to vent what they please whereas with us is neither Had we but halfe the like helps encouragements and powers which they have had the world should see that the King hath Subjects and the Truth Defenders There hath been a further alteration of Affaires to the worse on the Kings side since this Book was written as may be collected from many passages therein and divers particulars concerning the enemies deportment here expressed have so fallen out as foreshewn for indeed 't is no difficult matter for any man acquainted with their spirits to fore-speak their doings Had there appeared any change in them to the better nay had their growth but promised a probability of more Christianity and duty in their future then hath been in their past Actions or then was here prognosticated of them this publication perhaps having been thus delayed had been still suspended though in very deed there is no reason why for such a cause it should have been quite stifled seeing that their Libell which it confuteth is divulged printed reprinted and still sold to the Kings darkening and defamation Besides many other scandalous and vile Pamphlets have been and are daily sent forth on purpose to damp his Lustre and to staine his Glory yea and translated too they are into other Languages that he might appear deform'd and spotted to the eye of Forraign Nations which because they have not been Answered with a like industry on our parts Strangers have thought yea and affirmed that nothing could be said for him because nothing was scil to their capacitie we have say they read in our owne languages many Bookes against him but none in his behealfe it must be acknowledged in very deed that this way the enemies have been more diligent in defaming then we have been in defending the King though in our own tongue there hath been abundance written in his justification and to their detection The Protestants of other Countryes unto whom the Kings bosome was alwayes open in their distresse towards whom his bowels alwayes yerned and for whose reliefe his commands went often forth to all Churches in his Kingdomes to make Collections how have they at least too many of them by meanes of those industrious Lies and Libels opened their mouthes and stretch'd forth their tongues against him And how are we that suffer with him and for him or rather for the Truth maintained by him esteemed of in our banishment amongst them are we any other but objects of scorn and taunting to them 't was our delight but 't was our duty and our work is with the Lord to obey God and him in contributing to their necessities in the day of their visitation but they take pleasure in this of ours to wound our very wounds and to enlarge our sorrows yea every way to help forward our affliction at what a distance have they looked upon us because the hand of God is out against us what bitter words have they darted at us and which is to our great griefe against the Sacred Person of our Soveraign with what violence and confidence doe they ignorantly undertake to justifie the false reports of his enemies against him Nay how is our Church it selfe the late glory of Christendome and of the whole Earth despised and slighted by them in this time of our persecution The Papists on the one side scoffingly ask us where is now your God where is your Church become you may now freely boast of its Invisibility if you please you have a ground for it c. And our Brethren on the other side that outwardly professe the same Faith with us and from whom we expected better they act Edoms part as reproachfully upon us crying out against our Church and the Government thereof down with it down with it even to the ground For they the Protestants of France in speciall are willingly perswaded by those Letters and Pamphlets sent them out of England that the Professours of the true Religion here before this Parliament begun were kept in a like underly condition as themselves are in their own Country though those French Congregations allowed in England might in their gratitude to our King have given them a better and more true information had they so pleased But upon this conceit they in France apprehend this Warre here against the King to be undertaken only to recover Liberty to worship God in the right manner that is to say after the French Mode or Discipline as they think at least and are made to believe and most people loving their own wayes and fashions best though lesse perfect then their neighbours cannot but wish good luck to all such as are stooping towards them and rejoyce for

Personall Estate to be disposed of as their own How they have executed all Regall Prerogatives How they call all those that do adhere to the King Rebells and Traitours and pursue them as such with fire and sword How they Hunt the King up and down the Kingdome as if he were become an out-law seeking to murder and destroy him How they now of late do all in the name of the Parliament Onely though at first til the people were fully seduced by them and ingaged with them they did use the Kings Name together with it doth not at all this speak plainly that they thirst to drink the Kings bloud and desire to have it shed or spilt 5. Consider how in their Notes in this their accursed Libel pag. 44. they tax the King as faulty for his Soliciting the King of Denmark and other Protestant Princes as they speak to assist for the supporting of Monarchy doth not this plainly infer that they have concluded against the Government here in England and so by Consequence against the Monarch himself Doth it not evidently declare that they account him King no longer and that all the Supremacy is now in themselves Which being supposed and withal that he according to their Votes seekes the ruine of his people whose safety above all things must be regarded It follows of necessity that they desire the Kings Destruction and would have it apprehended that they do but their duty to the Kingdome in desiring it 6. Consider how they do as in their Pamphlets and Sermons compare the King to Saul Ahab Nero and the like so in their malicious Notes upon his Letters here pag. 48. they compare him to Richard the third the most bloudy and unjust man that ever swayed the English Scepter which plainly speaks that they would have people take him to be such a one and to have no more true right to the Crown then that Richard had and that themselves would be as glad of his death as Hen. the 7. was of the death of that Tyrant If these particulars amongst many others that might be propounded be considered on I doubt not but all reasonable men wil yeeld that I have done the Authours of this Libell right in my interpretation of their intentions expressed in those their words against the King But that I might not leave the least scruple in the hearts of any wel-meaning people that yet remain drunk with a good opinion of their Honesties and do in Charity think it impossible that men pretending so fair and having so great a name in the world for Religion should be so Diabolical and have such Hellish designes I wil further yet indeavour their satisfaction for I doe publikely profess mine aymes are to do the work of Christ in laying open mens Hypocrisie that mine abused Country-men for whom Christ died might not longer be deceived which work by Gods grace I shal faithfully pursue though I meet in the end with Christs reward at their bloudy hands for my labour Wherefore I wil shew First that there is no impossibility at all in the matter notwithstanding their specious pretences which they make and then it wil further Evidence the verity of what I have said from their own Tenents My Argument for the first is this Whatever hath been already may possibly be again for sayes Solomon The thing which hath been is that which shall be and that which is done is that which shall be done But such men there have been who had a name to be alive when they were dead in trespasses and sins who said they were Jewes called themselves Gods people and were so accounted by others when in very deed they were of the Synagogue of Satan therefore 't is not impossible but such men may be also in these dayes which are the last dayes and therefore the worst the very dregs of time For proof of the Assumption let us remember the Scribes and Pharisees in the Gospel they had as great a name in the world then as these persecutors of the King have now and were as wel thought on by the vulgar in whose opinions they were farre enough from those villanies which notwithstanding Christ did sufficiently discover to be in them Nay the people though themselves were imployed as under-instruments in the very business were so bewitched with a good conceit of their Pharisaical rulers whom they counted the Worthies of their Nation that they would not at first beleeve that they had any purpose to kill Christ for when he said why goe ye about to kill me the people replied Thou hast a Devill Who goeth about to kill thee they good folkes conceived that their Holy and wise Rulers did onely provide for the safety of Church and Common-wealth and endeavoured Christs Reformation whom they apprehended to be an irregular man one that would not submit His Judgement to the Great Councell at Jerusalem nor be ruled by their Votes and Orders Nay the very Pharisees themselves like these our men would not owne their own malice against Christ for when Pilate would have delivered him into their hands to have done with him as they pleased O no cry they 't is not lawfull for us to put any man to death they had rather some body else should doe it for them we are too holy to defile our selves with His bloud out of pure love to piety and to the peace of the Kingdome we have proceeded thus far against Him and have been at great Charges with the Souldiers to apprehend Him and though you can finde no fault in Him yet you may be sure on it if he had not been a Malefactor we would not have brought him before you No no if we could otherwise have reformed Him we would not have troubled your Lordship with Him But will you please to heare His Conditions Why He would be a King and Rule over us and if He be let alone He wil ruine the whole Kingdome and bring destruction upon the Temple too and to spoyl our Religion He bestowes strange Language and Titles upon us the Great Councell the Worthies of the Nation who are a company of Holy and unblameable men witnesse all the people He calls us Hypocrites Vipers and Painted Sepulchers and the like which we return not again but consider with sorrow that these expressions come from a Jew Seduced out of his proper spheare One that hath left the Society He ought to be withall and keeps Company onely with publicans and Sinners ungodly persons whose counsells he followes and hath set himself in the seat of the scornfull For we take all his Sermons against our Ordinances and doings to be but onely invectives and scornes against us whereby He exposeth us to be contemned of the people as if according to His saying we made the Law of God of none Effect by our Traditions When indeed none can be more zealous for it then we are and thus you see what a Person He is and what

all power and authority and what ever else is good upon the earth of right belonging unto them as their proper inheritance though hitherto it hath bin kept from them by usurpers such as Kings and Princes are and all others that be not of their Faction therfore if now by any means they can but be stated in their own rights it is very probable that they wil see the whole Kingdom destroyed rather then part with the same again for the Israelites did never deliver back the Aegyptian Jewels after they had once borrowed them nor did they ever resigne to Og the King of Basan his Kingdom any more when once they had gotten possession of it Ergo because these good hands are such sure hands such hold-fasting hands they would have the Militia setled in them Indeed we do remember that for the space of two seven years before this unhappy Parliament did begin vulgar hearts were seasoned with this Doctrine that Gods people only have a right to the things of this life and all others Kings and all are but usurpers of what they do enjoy and therfore may justly be dispossessed of the same by them who call themselves the people of the Lord. But we do not believe this to be a true Doctrine because Christ hath said His Kingdom or that which properly belongs to his people is not of this world Therfore we conceive the Argument and reason built upon the same to be neither substantial nor sufficient but only a bare pretence to gul the ignorant and to seduce the simple 2. They desire as they say to have the disposal of the Militia that so they may go through-stitch with their Reformation as they call it For say they it is an hard task we have undertaken and like to he long in doing for we shal meet with many rubs and therfore have need of Power to remove obstructions Indeed we grant that Rome was not built-in one day it was many years before she had gained her present height of wickedness and before ●he could reach the same she did wrest the Militia out of the Emperours hands wherby she was able to bring her Soveraigns neck under her Popes feet by making him glad to hold the stirrup And now a like design being here on foot it must be pursued in a like method the Militia must first be seised upon beside the doctrine of Christian obedience hath bin so long rivetted into peoples hearts that though it be shrewdly shaken already by these Militia-men yet it is likely to settle and appear again unless they have the strength continued in their violent hands to suppress and keep under the growth therof And then further too that Publick form and manner of worshipping God wherin people have bin bred and nourished in the Church hath bin so decent and Reverend that this beastly and slovenly way which these New Reformers as they call themselves would introduce in the room therof is never like to be wel digested and therfore as the Papists on the one side have need of a bloudy Inquisition to uphold their ridiculous fopperies and superstitious vanities in their worship of God so these on the other side have as much need of the Militia to maintain and force their unhandsome carriages and proud undecencies in their serving of him But these men pretending to reform a Christian Church do they not make use of a wrong instrument Was the Militia of kingdoms ever appointed of God to such an end We have always believed that the Word was the ordained mean for such a purpose the Sword of Christs mouth and not of mens hands must both cut sin from Christs members and subdue his enemies Had these men set up a faithful teaching Ministry in all parts of the Kingdom we might have hoped for some good by them but as that Pope who cast away his Keys and betook himself to his Sword so do they betake them to their iron and steel they desire the Militia of the Kingdom with which they persec●te and destroy the faithful Preachers and this they call Reformation Indeed Antichrist and Mahomet went this way to work for the erection of their Religions and our men coveting and exercising a like power to a like end may be truly called their Disciples whom they imitate we would fain have them declare unto us how this course which they take and which it seems by this their desire they are resolved to proceed in can possibly consist with that Religion whose root is truth whose branches are charity and whose fruit is good deeds both towards friends and enemies we find in Micah the Lord complaining of some wicked Heads of the people and false Prophet who jugling together did endevour to build up Sion with bloud and Jerusalem with iniquity and had got the Power and Militia into their hands to that purpose and that the silly people might think that God was wel pleased with that their way they would saies the Text lean upon the Lord and were so impudent as to say the Lord is among us or on our side But how did the Lord take this at their hands It follows in the next Verse For your very sakes saies God to them Sion shal be plowed like a field and Jerusalem shal become heaps and by those unfit means wherwith they pretended to build up the same was brought to pass its destruction Wherfore doubtless this second Reason which is alleaged to get the Militia setled in their Hands is not only weak but extreamly wicked and tendeth not to Reformation but to the destruction and ruine of Christian Religion and of the Nation Thirdly They pretend it would be for the Peoples greater preservation to have the Militia of the Kingdome setled in their own good Hands for say they we stand for the People we are the men whom the People have chosen and therfore it is most likely that we shal imploy the strength of the Kingdom best to the Peoples safety which above all things is to be looked unto Thus they speak and wel have they evidenced their pretended care for us the People since they got the sword into their hands for therwith the first thing they did for our preservation was Mustapha or Mahomet or Amurath-like to cut off fair Irenes head with whom indeed the whole Nation had formerly too much wantonized and what have they done beside but often strewed our fields and high-ways with heaps of mangled carkasses and filled our Channels with the spilt-out bloud of our murdred Country-men O wo wo and alas they have done that quod nulla posteritas probet quod nulla taceat what true English heart without most bitter Lamentation can think or speak of their doings What persecution What banishment What confiscation of goods What corporal bondage Yea What cruel tortures What merciless burnings What secret murders What publick massacres have they committed upon the people of this Nation only because they refused to renounce

to discover Hypocrites that men might beware of them They are these 1. If the King can be gotten to settle the Militia in their hands all the Injustice and unlawfulnesse of the war on their side will be thereby cancelled and whatsoever they have done against him and his subjects will be Authorized as found and good their crafty seizing upon it at first and their violent use thereof since to the destruction of so many will go for worthy deeds and the King will be judged to have been much to blame in making any opposition against them and for his calling them Rebells His own Act will be the eating of those his own words and speake them to have been His most humble dutifull and obedient subjects all the while they fought against him yea and all they did in that kinde to have been done out of pure love to His Good and Glory and for the benefit of Church and Common-wealth And then too if withall the King shall but confer some new Titles of Honour upon their Chieftaines as when time was he did upon Lesley for this they expect and intend to demand too then they shall appeare White all over and who will dare to say to the contrary and full as good subjects almost as their Brethren the Scots That is one Reason 2. If they can get the King to settle in their Hands that depositum of Power and Authority which God hath intrusted in His they shall bring him as they desire into their own condition and make him such a one to God as themselves have been and are to him whereby Gods displeasure may be so far kindled against him that he may permit them having all the power in their hands to bring their endeavours fully to passe in destroying Him and His posterity and then the world shall be taught to beleeve that Heaven hath punished him for such His sin and confirmed with its blessing all their sayings and doings against him that God was of their minde all the while as now by the success is most apparent Honesta quaedam scelera successus facit saies Seneca the highest Villanies if succesfull shall be accounted vertues and these men care not to obtain truths but opinions warrant 3. They desire the Militia may be settled in their hands quia omnis in ferro salus est their whole safety consists therein it is the Nurse of their wealth and the sole Anchor of their security for O si pateant pectora virûm quantos intus sublimis agit fortuna metus what great feares have these mens High fortunes created in their Bosomes could we but view their insides They dare neither trust the King nor yet the Countrey that trusted them for should the strength be in any hands but their own they might be called to an account for all their doings the Law might be in force again and Justice suffered to shew her face Treason should sit no longer in the seat of Religion Truth might appear above-board and Peace be restored unto the Nation and Order might come again into fashion Yea had the King His power again He might call a Parliament a true Parliament a free Parliament which is a thing that they quake to think on for then like a Company of poore Hope-losts they should stand below and look up to that place of Honour where erst they sat and have so much abused and who in their condition can indure this Nemo Hercule nemo No mervail therefore if they desire to hold fast the Militia in their own hands 4. Should they part with it they should not onely degrade themselves of their present Honour and disarme themselves of safety but of their wealth and riches too for all is now at their Command the Lands Estates the goods and Fortunes of all their Country-men which the Militia of the Kingdome hath invested them with a right in and possession must be maintainted by the same meanes as obtained But should the Militia return into the Hands of the right owner Honest men would enjoy their own as before and they who are now so Gay would remaine stark Naked like Jack-daw in the fable when every bird had re-assumed her own feathers And then further too their pleasures would also cease that sweetnesse they feel in shedding of bloud would be no more which very want would be as bad as death unto them their Natures are now so accustomed unto it In a word as Amos speakes they have gotten them Hornes by their own strength or sleight and the Hornes are the defence of the Head the Militia are these Hornes and should they part with that they fear they should not keep their Heads long after and therefore great reason they have rather to desire the settlement of it for ever in their own Hands But with their favour what reason hath the King to trust them that will not trust Him them with His weapons upon that experience He hath had of their love and kindnesse Who will not trust Him with His own Can it be imagined that they will imploy them otherwise then they have done considering what their delights are Nay may it not be expected that they will make Him the Author of all their Evill which from thenceforth they shall doe when by His consent the power is once settled in their goods Hands Surely they that used His name to the raising of so many men against Himself to the killing of so many of His Subjects when He openly opposed them will not scruple to doe all their mischeif under His Name and Authority when they have so faire a pretence for it Nay should the King doe in this as they would have Him may not the Just and Holy God account Him a partaker with them in Evill His Majesty by His own pious confession hath smarted under the Hand of God for His consenting though doubtlesse against His will to the shedding of Straffords innocent Bloud and should He againe after His Humiliation for that by a new consent make Himself guilty of many more Blouds the continued Anger of the Almighty might be too heavy a burden for Him to beare No doubt but they are and will be the more importunate for His consent now because they see His heart hath smot Him for His consent then for how ever it was blattered much at the beginning by those of their faction against forcing of tender Consciences yet verily we beleeve there were never men that delighted more in offering violence to the Soules and Consciences of the righteous then themselves do wherefore should His Majesty yeild to them in this particular it would be in singultum cordis a corrasive to His Heart for ever and therein a glory unto them and also it would argue too great a distrust in Gods defence of Him and be a mean to delay Gods punishment from falling upon the heads of these lofty Rebells And besides all this His Majesty hereby shall give way to the settling

of these things I beseech you Nay consider O all yee people of all sorts whether you think in Conscience these your new Rulers with their crew be the very meek Ones of the Earth as they account themselves to whom the intire right and possession of all earthly blessings and inheritances doe appertaine whether it be a true position which since the Militia hath been in their hands they have been bold to maintain viz. that right by Conquest is the best Title else Gods providence would not permit them to be successefull and whether if that Tenent be maintained any one of you all can promise to your selves the use and comfort of any thing that is either left unto you or purchased by you let this also be thought upon 9. Consider whether in any thing these men have performed what at first they promised whether Religion be better setled the Church better reformed and united the Common-wealth more flourishing the Subjects more happy then when they took these matters into their hands you were told by them as you well know when they first inticed you to engage your selves with them in this Warre that the same would be quickly over and oft-times since when they came to borrow more money of you have they not pretended continually that the worke was almost done if you would but come off well and afford another good pluck it would be quite ended they promised also when they moved unto the warre that they would exact nothing against your wills from you no God forbid that they should use any violence they desired that men should do freely and without constraint only what themselves pleased they were all for the freedome of the Subject but have they proved as true of their words as you did of your Assistance have they used no enforcements to get your money since that time or are your miseries concluded and your expences yet at an end Are the Scots paid all their Arrears Is Ireland reduced to obedience or as quiet as at their first meeting Is the King setled in his proper Rights and Dignitie as was pretended and the Subjects in their Liberties Is Judgement and Justice executed in our Gates and oppression driven from our Streets and every thing removed that may provoke Gods further displeasure Nay doth not the late prevailing of these men speak rather a neernesse of Gods more heavie Curse upon us and a beginning rather then a finishing of your sorrowes Is it not probable that God will take the matter into his owne hand by Plague or Famine and call both them and you to a reckoning for that Christian bloud that is spilt by you without lawfull Authoritie Or are not all the Nations of the world Gods Instruments and cannot he employ some of them to punish you for your punishing others without a warrant from his Vicegerent or cannot he send a spirit of division amongst your selves as once between Abimilech and the men of Sichem after that by conspiring together they had prevailed against the House and Family of Gideon sure bloud and oppression are crying sinnes in Gods eares and the Judge of all the world will doe Justice and 't is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of God when he is angry consider in your hearts of these things 10. Consider the conditions of your chief Leaders in speciall and of their Faction in generall whereunto you have adhered whether they be such as becomes the Gospel of Jesus Christ or rather whether in your observation they be not such as the Apostles Paul and Peter prophesied should be in the worst men of the last and worst times Have they not shown themselves a covetous self-seeking Generation did they not at the first seek and sue with all their strength and policie for the dignity to be chosen Parliament-men and have they not since placed themselves in the best Offices of the Kingdome are not many of them that were leane and bare before grown plump and fat and shining are they not in the mannagement of their prosperity and successe boasters proud supercilious and scornfull persons have they not often blasphemed Gods Word by perverting the same to their owne purpose have they not shew'd themselves disobedient ingratefull without naturall affection to their Countrey and friends are they not manifest promise Oath and Protestation Breakers doe they not daily approve themselves to be false accusers of others fierce-spirited in persecuting their unjust and mischievous accusations also to be Traytors heady high-minded having only pretences to Godlinesse without any true power thereof And further are they not despisers of Government presumptuous in their wayes selfe-willed not fearing to speake evill of dignities doe they not run the black course of reproaching their betters as well as the red of cruelty against their brethren Now the Apostles tell us that all such conditioned men are reprobates concerning the true faith and made to be destroyed and doe you thinke that there is safety in being of their society Againe are they not of that number whom Esay the Prophet mentions whose hands are defiled with bloud and whose fingers with iniquitie whose lips have spoken lies and whose tongues have uttered perverse things is not wasting and destruction in all their wayes have they not refused to know and to own the way of peace And now if they be such consider whether you are like to gaine any thing by adhering to them seeing that their egges are Cockatrice egges whereof whosoever eateth dyeth and their webs are spiders webs which shall never become Garments to cover themselves much lesse others Be serious I beseech you deare Christians in thinking of these things and let not their Religious pretences their many fastings and thankesgivingdayes make you think ever a whit the better of them for Satans Ministers have come in the shape of Angels of light before now it hath been the old custome of Hypocrites to deale thus with God Almightie by fastings and thanksgivings to uphold their reputation for their Fastings read Esay 58. chapter and for their Thankesgivings see Jer. 7. where 't is said of them that they could steale or plunder murder and shed bloud speak falsly and commit adultery yea and worship Baal as some do now the Militia or God of forces and yet sayes the Lord they come and stand before me in my House and say we are delivered to do all these abhominations they acknowledge Gods deliverance and perhaps his assistance of them but so as if the same had been vouchsafed on purpose that they might be and continue to be the Actors of those villanies so in Esay ●6 there is mention made of others that were frequent in their oblations to God and as appears vers 5. had just as these men doe hated their Brethren and in a pretence of zeale to Gods name had cast them out of their possessions though they were such as truly feared the Lord and

of Christians is the best Sacrifice to God and of a like Religion with the Assassines among the Mahumetans who deeme it Soveraign devotion puritie of manners and the readiest way to Paradise for to kill those of a differing opinion to themselves and of the same faith with the Donatists of old who held none to be Gods children but themselves and made it both their position and their practice occidere quenquam qui contra eos fecerit to kill and make away whoever durst oppose their doings or was conceived to be any hinderance to their growing Faction But what warrant you have for these things we know not sure we are you have none from the Old or New Testament delivered by the Prophets and Apostles from God to the Church what to this purpose will be found in your new Bible which as reports goes you are about to set forth we cannot yet tell nor can we imagine how you will escape that threatning of God Bloudy and deceitfull men shall not live out halfe their dayes God accounteth mans bloud so precious a thing though you have set a low rate upon it that he requires the unjust spilling of it from the unreasonable creature and would not allow the knowne Murderer the Sanctuary of his Altar Therefore we are confident that when he maketh inquisition for bloud he will remember you to your smart and sorrow for all your Pietie and will call you to an account for that and all your other evills with so much greater severity as Conscience hath been pretended to such high and open violations of Sanctity and Holinesse In a word your Piety is an enemy to Truth for it persecuteth that 't is an adversary to Peace for it opposeth that 't is a foe to Order for it hath pull'd downe that it will allow of no Bishop no King like that of the Pope it must be above all or that of Lucifer it will admit of no Superiour it hath not onely defiled the whole Land with bloud but the whole bloud of the Land with Treason for scarce a Family throughout the whole Nation but some one or other of it has been drawn by you into this Conspiracy insomuch that Norfolke I feare can no longer boast of her 100. Houses of Gentlemen never yet attainted Cheshire I am sure by your meanes has lost for ever her ancient glory which was that it was never stained with the blot of Rebellion but alwayes stood true to their King and to his Crown whose Loyalty Richard the second so farre found and esteemed that he held his Person most safe amongst them and by Authoritie of Parliament made that County for this cause a Principality stiling himselfe Prince thereof doubtlesse when these things come to be considered upon in after-Ages most odious will your names be to succeeding generations To conclude your pietie hath merited for you those Titles which S. Paul bestowes upon Elimas the Sorcerer Act. 13. 10. and it being attended with so much knowldge I feare it hath advanced you to that high pitch which those Pharisees in Christs time were ascended to whom our Saviour intimateth to have committed that sinne which should never be pardoned in this world nor in that to come and so it hath made you capable to be given over ad Hospitalium incurabilium as Erasmus spe●kes But my prayer for you is and shall be as Peter prayed for Simon Magus that if it be possible you may be pardoned and that the wickednesse of your hearts and wayes may be forgiven you And to this purpose I desire you all who like them Mat. 21. 45. doe conceive your selves concerned in these my words that you would but consider of this short advice which I shall propound unto you and then say Amen to a short Collect which I shall make for you My advice is this that upon your serious thoughts of these things which as Gods Minister I have said unto you you would remember what poor wormes what Grashoppers what graines of dust your selves are in compare with that great God whom you oppose by your endeavours to pull downe his Annointed the King and his Spouse the Church and whose eternall curse hangs over your heads which together with the odium of the whole Nation will o're-whelme you speedily if you doe not by your more speedie and unfeigned Repentance prevent the same And thereupon cast downe your loftie looks and stout hearts lay aside your high stomacks and in an humble selfe-denying way throw your selves down at the feet of your Soveraigne yea if it be in the habit and posture of those men of whom you may read 1 King 20. 32. it will be so much the better for believe it you have farre more reason to doe it in that manner to your King then those Syrians had to doe so to the King of Israel and resolve with your selves that if your lives be granted you will spend the remainder of them solitarily in practising the duties of Penitentiaries this is mine advice to you which by Gods grace may prevent Hell if imbraced by you my Prayer followes in these words O omnipotent and Almightie God to whom nothing is impossible be thou pleased to magnifie thy power and thy mercy in converting these men bring them upon their knees good Lord before thee before their Soveraigne and before the Nation and perswade their proud and rebellious spirits to begge pardon of all for their evils done and to beseech the supplications of the whole Church and Kingdome unto thee for themselves and to this end let them feele that Hell which is in their owne bosomes let the bloud which they have shed cry and the evills they have committed roar within them let them seriously think of those devouring flames of those everlasting burnings upon the worme that never dieth and upon the fire that never shall be quenched as their sinnes have abounded towards thee so let deare God thy grace be more abounding towards them it will be to the greater glory of thy goodnesse at the great day to have pardoned such great sinners as these be when every Saint shall extoll thy mercy to his owne particular selfe if they shall come forth among the rest and say but to us to us God hath been more mercifull then to all others in his forgiving us more and greater evills O remember holy Father thy Sonne came into the world to save chiefe sinners and these are such and his bloud is able to wash away the deepest staines even those of these men therefore for his sake grant pardon if possible unto these bloudy and rebellious persons Amen And thus Gentlemen I have as Christ's Messenger discharged mine office to you in telling you plainly of your transgressions I thought though perhaps others may not be of my mind this time of your height and greatnesse to be fittest for this performance for if not now I know not when had been the season when your night which is drawing