better habitation And thus we see that to argue from success is but a weak kind of Arguing nay these very men that now use the same in their own behalf were wont to say heretofore when others have prevailed against their faction The mâ—re Knaue the better luck I know no reason but that Proverb is stil as tâ—â—e as ever â— But I shal now shew in the next place that the worst men have always â—in wont to plead this Argument Two or three examples amongst many shal be alleaged to this purpose The Scripture tels of â—â—bsakeh when he moved the people of Jerusalem as these men do us to make a general revolt from Hezekiah he pretended that God had set him on work and had said Go up against this land and destroy it and his main Argument was his Masters extraordinary great successe to which purpose he reckoned up as our enemies do a great many Cities Towns and Castles which he had taken as Hâ—nah and Arâ—â—â—d Sepharvaim Henah and Ivaâ— And so the Turke argue at this day against the Christians that their Religion excels ours because they have prospered better and prevailed more then we have done And in like sort the Independent faction may urge the same thing against the Presbyterians here amongst â—s for they have been the most succesful and if the Argument be good then down must go the Presbytery as wel as Episcopacy râ—â—t and branch and the Parliament have erred in Voting for it yea and the Covenant taken to conform the Government of this Church to that of Scotland becomes frustrate and of none effect But to proceed As Raâ—sâ—akeh and the Turks so the Popish Bishops in Qu. Maries time did insist much upon this Argument as Master Fox witnesseth they would urge upon the Martyrs their extraordinary successe which they and their cause had by King Edwards death and Queen Maries coming to the Crown against such great endevours to the contrary these very men who now use the same Argument in their own behalf wil not allow that it was sufficiently good then in the behalf of the Papists I â—il mention but one example more and that is of Pope Alexander the third who as story speaks him was none of the best men when he had prevailed against the good Emperour Frederick the second his Liege-Lord as these have done against their King by getting a great victory against him wherein most unfortunately his son was taken prisoner for redemption of whom the Emperour was forced to prostrate himself upon the ground and yeild his neck to be troden on and to acknowledge Alexander to be rightful Pope which by reason of a schisme was before denied and to restore what ever had been taken during the war on his part when I say the Pope had brought him to all this and to such like things would these men now bring their Sâ—veraigâ— as is evident by the Doctrine of their Preachers who tel the people that God wil bring the necks of Kings under the feet of his Saints that is as they interpret under the feet of their faction then did He the said Pope insult and glory as these already begin to do in his Extraordinary great success and made it his Argument to perswade the foolish world after these mens fashion that his cause was Gods and that God had favoured his quarrel as the most just and lawful Henry King of England and Lewis King of France were both in the Seduction in token whereof being both on foot they held the Bridle of the Horse on which the Pope rode the one with the right hand and the other with the left And thus also we see that the worst men have bin wont to use this kind of Arguing which our Adversaries now think to be so good and do stand so much upon But from this consideration we for our parts shal beware of being swayed by it or of judging Gods love or hatred from outward Accidents fools only build upon such foundations Evil is the touch-stone of Good and often gets the better of it to try goodnesse Constancy The Arke was taken Prisoner by the Philistines it doth not follow thereupon that God did hate the same no more doth it now follow that he hates the King because he lets his Enemies for the present prevaile against him For Israels sin God suffered the Arke of his glory to be obscured for a season so for our sins it is that our Soveraign is afflicted And let not these Insulters perswade themselves that our Allegeance is so weakly knit that it can be looâ—ened with this Argument we are not of them that draw back nor yet of them that blush not to affirm that so long as the King is able to protect them they are bound to serve him but no longer these waters of affliction that have so plentifully showred down upon his Head are not able in the least degree to quench the heat of our love they are as oyle rather to inlarge the flames of our affections the Enemies success against him and ill usage of him doth but make him appear in our eys more like our Saviour and so locks our hearts the faster to him And let these King-Tormentors know that God hath an hook for their Noses and a Bridle for their lips and the things that are coming upon them make hast Nulla sors lâ—nga est the weather-cock may turn alieno in lâ—co haud stabile regnum est there is no constant sitting in anothers seat ima permutat brevis Hora summis who knows what a year a month or a day may bring forth quos foelices Cyntâ—ia vidit vidit miseres abitura dies Great and wise Agamemnon professed that he had learned by his victories 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that great things are overturned in a monent Troya nos tumidos fecit nimium feroces saith he Troyes Conquest hath made us proud and cruel fierce and haughty Et Stamus nos Danai loco unde illa cecidit we the Conquerours are in the same condition from whence she fel Hodie mihi cras tibi is the Motto of all Mortals our portion of sorrow we have to day they shal have theirs to morrow the times may so alter that Affliction may chance to stand again for a mark of Gods Children even in their Calender res Deus nostras celeri citatas turbine versat And so I have done with this particular and come to that which these Libellers adde in their next words Having minded us of their late extraordinary successe in the field they proceed and say Yet stil this Clandestine proceedings against us here condemning all that are in any degree Protestants at Oxford as also granting a Tolleration of Idolatry to Papists indemnity to the Murderous Irish in a close trading way for meer particular advantage cannot be defended by any but by the falsest of men Papists and by the falsest of Papists Jesuites SECT XVII
And hence also it is that they have balked the triall of men by established Law and conceiving themselves above it have shunned to punish for those faults which the Law condemneth and to shew the Omnipotency of their power have passed sentence of death where the Law condemneth not though Scripture teacheth that where is no Law there is no Transgression the giving way to which very thing was and is a trouble to the Kings Conscience and the cause of His first dislike of their Courses witnesse their owne words which are to this purpose The King adjudged Strafford worthy of death yet not for Treason as it was Charged upon him but not being able to save his life without using force and finding force very dangerous He left him to the block against Conscience as is now alleadged That the King adjudged Strafford worthy of death for any thing is more then we heard before nor have we any reason to beleeve the same now upon the bare report of these men yet to doe them a courtesie we may suppose it to be as they say for the present and then it followes as all may see that they doe not Charge the King for desiring to save Straffords life absolutely for they say the King himself judged him worthy of death but for being against his suffering for Treason So that in brief the Kings sinne only was according to the Testimony of His most deadly Enemies He would that Strafford should have suffered death only for his faults and not for that whereof he was not guilty As became a righteous Judge the King would have had His Great Councell to have done Justa Juste Righteous things in a Righteous manner as conceiving that way of proceeding to be most acceptable unto God and most likely to continuate his blessings upon the Kingdome but being not able by faire meanes to perswade them to that and considering that to use force might be a remedy worse then the disease the bloud of many innocent persons might be spilt to save one and yet perhaps the power and the malice of the Adversary being so High that one not saved neither He was constrained against His Conscience to leave him to the block and for His being so tender Conscienced in this case He is thought worthy of Scorne by these men His most Religious Obedient and loving Subjects He left him to the Block against Conscience say they as is now alleadged But indeed they have sufficiently by these their words acquitted the King to the whole world of having a voluntary hand in the spilling of Straffords innocent Bloud for so it may be called because he was innocent of that for which he suffered though in some other respects if it were true as they say he might be adjudged guilty and like them that cried his bloud be upon us and upon our Children they take the matter wholly upon themselves for which we thank them and for which we beleeve that God in his due time will remember them By those their words they have also well hinted to our understandings how farre and in what sort the King hath walked in the Councells of the ungodly to the ruine as they say almost of three Kingdomes To which purpose they proceed further in the same place and say Canterbury remaines in the same case and now remorse of Conscience or rather the old Project of altering Law Suggests to the King that if no restraint be used Straffords President will cast Canterbury and Canterburies all the rest of the Conspiratours and so the people will make good their Ancient freedome still Had these men remembred where all the old Projectors and Monopolizers now sit and on which side they doe Militare or had they bethought themselves how unable they are to instance in any one good Law which the King did ever alter they would certainely have omitted their malicious Parenthesis But by their putting it in they give us to see that they will not forget their old Project of casting their owne faults upon the Innocent But what doth the Old project of altering Law suggest to the King Why say they that Straffords President would cast Canterbury But had not they provided a remedy against that suggestion by ordering that Straffords President should be no President to cast others by in after times If there be any vertue in their owne Order or rather Honesty in them that made it we cannot see how Straffords President could be any prejudice to Canterbury For who shall urge it against him but onely themselves that made it uncapable of being urged We cannot possibly suppose that were the King such an alterer of Law as they would have it beleeved that he should desire an alteration of that Ordinance to the dammage of Canterbury nor is there any other Law capable of alteration as we conceive whereby Straffords President might hurt him But when that Ordinance was made the Authors of it had respect only unto themselves for intending then to go in those wayes for which they had condemned Strafford they did wisely provide that his President should not be in force in after-times against themselves Nor indeed did they then know they should need to make any use of Straffords President against Canterb or against any other of the Conspirators which they talk of the mens heads were full of businesse they could not fore-see or fore-think of all things at once nor did they remember things past when this particular passage was written and authorized to be published but it makes for my purpose and helps me well to evidence to the world what good Hearts they beare unto their Soveraigne And what strong Arguments they have to prove him to be an Alterer of Law But the main thing we learn from those their words is this though Hatred will not let them speak it in modest termes when the King perceived by their proceedings with Strafford what the Course was which they would take with Cauterbury and the rest whom malice and faction would make Delinquents and observed their designe to have him to concurre with themselves in condemning the Righteous which he found his Conscience would never digest for it being of a more Divine and tender temper then theirs was smitten with sad remorse for what was already done though sore against his will and fearing if he walked any longer though by enforcement in those their Councells Gods wrath might fall down more heavily yet upon him and his three Kingdomes He therefore removed himself from their Assembly this is the thing which they intimate unto us And here let us with Reverence and admiration observe the hand of the Almighty God over-ruling the tongues and pens of these men they had formerly taxed the King for leaving and abborring as they were pleased to speake his seat in Parliament which they suggested he did on purpose to speake destruction to his people but here unawares it seemes unto themselves God makes them declare
a most Heavenly work to rid the earth of him and a service most acceptable unto the Lord when Raviliack was demanded by his examiners to declare the reason moving him to his attempt he answered That the reasons why it was requisite to kill the King they might understand by the Sermons and Pamphlets of the Preachers Wel Sirs we all know the meaning both of you and of your Prophets and therefore as Elias from the Lord did charge Ahab with the death of Naboth because the letters provoking to it were signed with his seal so do I from the same Lord charge you with all those evil opinions and hard conceits which are already kindled in the mindes of any against the King by the meanes of this Pamphlet because 't is published by your Authority Yea if any further mischief shall befall his Sacred Majesty upon the same at your hands will the Judge of Heaven and Earth require it and know you further that the guilt of all the blasphemies reproaches scornes slanders which are spit out against the King either in this book or any other published by your leave and Order without your deep repentance and humiliation shal be heaped upon your Souls at the day of Reckoning even as if your own selves had been the Authors of them for nil interest sceleri an faveas aut facias to favour and to doe in this case is all one nay the Apostle speaks as if those who appove of other folks ill doings were in a degree worse then the Actors themselves and given up in a further measure to a Reprobate sense Qui non vetat peccare cum potest jubet saies the wise Heathen not to prevent a mischief when one may is directly to command it to be done Gentlemen for as your souls friend I would fain have you recover again that Title I charge you before the living God and Jesus Christ who shall one day sit in judgement upon you to ask your Consciences in secret whether it be not a sin and a wickednesse to speake evil of the Ruler of the people to act Shimei's part against Gods Anointed whether to write or publish such Pamphlets as this be the way to Honour the King in the eyes of his people Whether you have thus learned Christ from the Church of England Whether you ever met in Gods word with any saying or example to warrant you in this way of proceeding And I require you also as you will answer it before the Lord to ask your own hearts whether to Authorize such a work as this to the Kings defamation be a Christian work Honourable and becoming the dignity of a Parliament whose actions ought al to be glorious and presidentiall Nay is it an Act prudentiall in you thus publikely to own and countenance this prolem populi this abominable thing which the very Parents and Authors of are ashamed to father What will you say 't is one of the Priviledges of Parliament you fight for to Authorize things against the King against your own Allegeance end Protestation surely ab initio non fuit sic former Parliaments disdained to own such a Priviledge to tread in such pathes Or will you say you are more Omnipotent then those your Predecessours were who never had those brave advantages that you have true nor never did desire them But can your new Omnipotency make that which is evil in it self turn good by your Authorization I pray where had you this large Commission Who gave you this Authority Christ in whose hand is all power never did let your Chaplains prove it if they can or your Consciences affirm it if they dare Nor will that Writ which called you together and fixt you in your Spheare at Westminster tell you that the King the fountain of power under God did place you there in this sort to exercise your Activity against him your Patent therefore by which you have Authorized this work of darknesse must needs come ab Inferno And can you expect that the Judge of quick and dead will at the great day pronounce well done good and faithfull Servant unto you for doing Satans work for executing his Commission O how much better will you finde then it had been if you had wrapt up your Talents in a Napkin and in the meane time how much more had it been to the dignity of that High Court of Parliament which you pretend so much to stand for if you had but left out the name Parliament and said Published by speciall Order of the Rebellious faction in the two Houses at Westminster But now I have begun to take upon me to speak unto you O you lofty men let me ask you a question more to a like purpose What reward or commendation can you expect at Gods hand for maintaining your Beadsman Britanicus to libell against his Soveraigne to teach and excite by his weekly books the ignorant and seduced vulgar throughout the Kingdome to joyn with him in reviling and laughing to scorn their publike Father now your selves have most unjustly thrust him into affliction Dare you say his expressions are not vile O let me beg pardon of my Soveraigne and of all modest men if to the shame of these mens faces and to the increase of indignation in all godly spirits against their courses I doe with detestation repeate over here one of his passages published to the world on Monday the 4. of August 1645. Where is King Charles What is become of him Some say when he saw the storme comming after him as far as Bridgewater he came away to his dearly beloved in Ireland Yes they say he ran away out of the Kingdome very Majestically Others will have him erecting a new Monarchy in the Isle of Anglesey A third sort say that he hath hid himselfe it were best send Hue and Cry after him If any man can bring any tale or tidings of a wilfull King which hath gone astray these four yeares from his Parliament with a guilty Conscience bloudy hands and a heart full of broken vowes and protestations if these marks be not sufficient there is another in his mouth for bid him speak and you will soon know him then give notice to Britanicus and you will be payd for your paines GOD SAVE THE PARLIAMENT O you Men of Westminster is this your Beadsman that prayes for you that works for you that is maintained and cherished by you then these are the scornes of your hearts the flouts of your Spirits that are vomited up by his mouth and pen if not why have you not hang'd the villain or rather torn him in pieces with wild horses Are not you they that call your selves the Kings most Humble most dutifull and most Loyall Subjects Are not you they that would be accounted the Holy just most Christian and unerring Parliament have you not talked much of reforming our Church and Government and will you countenance and favour such persons Is this the Reformation you
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
His Merits are Beleeve it Sir unlesse some speedy course be taken with Him Caesar in whom the Supreame power is now seated and whose servants the people now are will be wronged and the whole Church and Kingdome wasted and destroyed and this we will boldly say who ever doth not joyn with us against bim is neither a friend to Caesar nor to the Common-wealth we are all for the Publick good and to preserve that we desire that this our King or rather this man that says he is our King may be crucified To this purpose was the Pharisees accusation against our Saviour of this disposition were their Spirits against the Son of God as Scripture teacheth notwithstanding their Religious pretences and that opinion of holinesse which the world had of them it need not therefore be thought an impossible thing that there should be men of a like spirit and of a like esteem in these days and that they should endeavour a like mischief against their Soveraigne Nothing but the Heart bloud of Christ would satisfie those his Enemies and can it be any thing but the very heart bloud of the King which these men thirst after indeed they do not lay any worse things to the Kings charge for I will do them no wrong then those others did to the charge of Christ And this for the first There is no impossibility in the matter 2. The truth of my interpretation of their meaning is Evident from the Tenents which they mention as proper to themselves at least as differing from ours Wee say they in our Tenents do annex no Infallibility to the seat of a King in Parliament as the Romanists doe to the Papall Chaire since all men are subject to errours These men desire as we learned by their Pulpit Doctrines of us that people should beleeve that those who are for the King do think of him as the Romanists do of the Pope that he cannot Erre which opinion by these their words they would have the world know that they disclaim and truly so do we as much as they for we never did nor yet ever dare we give the King so undue an Attribute nor would His Majesty suffer the same were any of us so sinfully disposed For we boldly affirm that never King was more Christian then He in yeelding himselfe culpable even in some matters wherein others could see no errour that so if possible he might give his Enemies satisfaction and purchase peace unto his people But whether it be so or no they conceive and report that to be our Tenent and we on the other side apprehended theirs to be that infallibility is rather in the Parliament without a King then in the Seat of a King in Parliament And our Reason is there hath been more Infallibility professed in Parliament since the Kings absence from Westminster then ever was before when either himself or any of His Predecessours have been there And though the Parliament hath been erroneous and faulty herefore by reason of the Kings faction mixt therein for by that name are modest and Loyal Gentlemen now called yet that being now purged away and driven from thence Errour also is vanished with it and Infallibility hath taken up its dwelling there ita praedicant ita clamitant And yet by the way we must tell the world we beleeve the King hath some friends still within the wals at Westminster even as Christ had at the Jews Councell Table although like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea they are over-powred and reviled when they speak truth and Conscience But to the matter We must tell these men that Scripture affords us better Testimony for the Kings not Erring then it doth them for theirs Solomon saies The Kings Heart is in Gods Hand and a Divine sentence is in His Lips His mouth transgresseth not in judgment We finde not the like expressions in behalf of an headlesse Parliament but because Solomon was a King himselfe He spake they say in his own case and therefore not much to be regarded but we will not contest with them at this time about his Authority we rather yeeld because all men are subject to Errour that a King may Erre and we adde further that a Parliament consisting of men may erre too and this Combination of Conspirators which to the high disgrace of the Supreamest Court some call the Parliament doth Erre most abominably both from Gods Law and the Law of the Land and this in very deed is our Tenent And let them deal ingenuously with us say whether they do not so hold of the Parliament though not of the King as the Romanists doe of the Pope whether by their Tenents the Parliament hath not the same power over Kings and Kingdomes as the Pope hath by the Tenent of the Jesuits The Jesuites hold that the Pope may dispose of Princes and Crownes for the service of God the good of the Church and salvation of Souls And do not these hold that the Parliament may both order the King and dispose of His Kingdome as they shall think meet for the advancement of their Cause which they call Gods pro salute populi Romanas Episcopus Zacharias Regem Franciscorum non tam pro suis iniquitatibus quam pro eo quod tantae potestati erat inutilis à regno deposuit c. By vertue of which Canon say the Jesuits the Pope hath power to depose Kings be they Hereticall or Catholick of vicious or vertuous lives if in his judgment he findes them unfit and some others more capable of Government And do not these men beleeve the Authority of Parliament to be as irresistable as that of the Pope and their Votes to be as ful of vertue as his Canons and altogether as Authentick even to the deposing of Kings and disposing of their Kingdomes Eudaemon Johannes in his Apologie for Henry Garnet teacheth that Subjects may be loosed from their Oath of Allegeance and then they cannot as Emanuel Sa affirmeth be held guilty of Treason though they conspire the Kings death because He against whom they conspire is not their Master or Lord they being formerly absolved from his obedience And hath not the same Doctrine been both taught and practised by these our opposers Have not they loosened people from their Oath of Allegeance to the King and then put them in Armes perswading them that 't is no Rebellion to fight against Him The Jesuits in their Chamber of Meditation taught as John Chastell who gave Hen. the 4. of France a stab in the mouth confessed upon examination that it was lawfull to kill that King and that He was now member of the Church nor ought to be obeyed or held for King untill he had received approbation from the Pope And one of them in his Apology for the said Chastell hath these words vulnerando Henricum Burbonium non voluerit laedere ant occidere Regem etiamsi se talem dicebat in quo praeter imaginem
upon you Moses and Aaron cryed those Grand Rebells when themselves onely did so And one who had sold himselfe to work wickednesse layed it to the charge of good Elias that he troubled Israel because his guilty Conscience told him that the Prophet and all other honest men beside had cause to accuse him for so doing and this is the very case of these men who as we see have done nothing in this particular without President and example though we confesse in respect of the Circumstances these men are more bitterly scornfull then ever any were that we read of in Scripture or elsewhere It was bitterly done of the Philistimes when they had weakned Sampson and brought him into an afflicted condition to mock and scorne at him in his misery yet they did not in those their mocks charge him with scorning them And the Persecutors of our Saviour did deal bitterly with him when in derision they Crown'd him with Thornes put a Reed into his hand in stead of a Scepter called him King bowed the knee to Him and then advanced him upon a Crosse instead of a Throne yet they did not at that time in their scoffing and flouting expressions say that His Crosse was the Chair of the Scornfull and that he being fastened to that did sit in the Scorners seat and scorne at them But these men are pleased even thus to deale with their King and Soveraigne as all the world may see by their Language so that the King hath cause to complain in the words of the Psalme Our soule is exceedingly filled with the scornings of them that be at ease and with the contempt of the proud And we his Subjects will pray in his behalfe as the Psalmist in another place Let the lying lips be put to silence O Lord which thus cruelly thus disdainfully and thus despightfully speake against the Righteous And we are confident as the Wiseman sayes that the High and Holy God scorneth at these scorners and hath prepared heavy judgements for them SECT VI. First of the Kings Errour in following evill Councellours and who they were His Majesty scorn'd at by the Libellers for his tendernesse of Conscience and hopes in Gods Justice 2. The folly and falshood of the Libellers Charge against Strafford and Canterbury 3. The Enemies acquit the King of having a voluntary hand in Straffords death 4. They hint the right Reason of his withdrawing from Westminster THe next particular which these honest and good men as they would be accounted doe charge their King withall is that He hath walked in the Councells of the ungodly to the ruine almost of three Kingdomes Indeed it cannot be denyed the King hath been exceeding unhappy in his Councellours and himselfe doth intimate that his walking after their advise hath been a main cause of Gods judgment upon this Kingdome His words to this purpose are these Paper 22. Nothing can be more Evident then that Straffords Innocent bloud hath been one of the great causes of Gods Judgement upon this Nation by a furious Civill Warre both sides being hitherto almost equally punished as being in a manner equally guilty but now this last crying bloud being totally theirs I beleeve it is no presumption hereafter to hope that his hand of Justice must be heavier upon them and lighter upon us looking now upon our Cause having passed by our faults This Christian and pious ackowledgement of the King these men scoff at in their Notes upon it and deride at that remorse of Conscience which his Majesty discovers for his permitting the shedding of Straffords bloud He left him say they to the Block against Conscience as is now alleadged and again Remorse of Conscience suggesteth to the King c. Yea and they doe seem to glory in what themselves did do to the spilling of it and to rejoyce that none but themselves had a hand in the death of Canterbury Yea and further how slightfully if not scoffingly doe they speak of the Kings mentioning Gods Hand of Justice in the businesse Their words are these Pag. 49. The King in his Letter of Jan. 14. takes it as evident that Straffords innocent bloud has brought the Judgement of this Civill warre equally upon both sides both being equally guilty thereof His meaning is that he and his side was as guilty in permitting as the Parliament was in prosecuting But now for Canterburies bloud that being totally put upon the Parliaments score he doubts not but the Hand of Justice will from henceforth totally lay the weight of this guilt upon the Parliaments side Yet the Kings words are I beleeve it is no presumption hereafter to hope that his hand of Justice must be heavier upon them Considering the time when this their scornfull Comment upon the Kings expressions came forth viz. immediately after their Victory at Nazeby field by their Victorious Sir Thomas Fairfax for so they call him we understand their sence to be this The King talks of Gods Hand of Justice and doubts not but the same will from the time of Canterburies death lay the weight of the guilt of bloud totally upon our side Victorious Sir Thomas Fairfax hath answered him sufficiently in that particular and declared to the world what his hopes in Gods Justice are come to well let him please himselfe still in those fancies so long as we have the â—â—nd of Victorius Sir Thomas Fairfax on our side we will give him leave to flatter himself in that Hand of Justice he speaks of c. And yet let these scoffers of these last times that say Where is the promise of his comming for since the father fell a sleepe all things continue as succesfull as they did before let them I say know that Gods Justice may awaken soon enough to their Confusion Quod defertur non aufertur the longer the blow is in comming the heavier will its fall be Fortuna belli semper ancipiti in loco est the day of the Lord will come suddenly upon them as a thief in the night Quos dies vidit veniens superbos hos dies vidit fugiens jacentes But they go on in that place and inform us who those ungodly ones were whose Councell in this other place they say the King has followed to the ruine almost of three Kingdomes Their words are these The truth is Strafford and Canterbury were the chief firebrands of this war the two ill Councellours that chiefly incensed the King against the Scots and endeavoured to subject all the three Kingdomes to a new Arbitrary Government and are now justly executed for attempting the subversion of that Law which the King has perfected since Because dead folkes cannot speak for themselves and because it is so Voted therefore Strafford and Canterbury were the chief fire-brands of this war and so for truth it must be taken though one of them was quite extinct a year before this war begun and the other kept by his
second had neglected to observe his Fathers Testament and therefore as one under Gods curse ought meritoriously to be dealt withall as Edward the second was first deposed and then put to death and so would they make use of that Act of his in fortifying themselves another way to do him a further mischief but God we trust will prevent them and guide him And thus we have seen the true reasons of their first Proposition concerning Abolition of Episcopacy And we hope if His Majesty be forced as Henry the third was to subscribe to any thing against his will he will do as some of the Martyrs have don in a like straite first of all require of them that urge these unreasonable propositions upon him before he signes them to imprecate publikely and in a solemn manner upon themselves and posterities all the demerit of guilt and sin which shall be incurred at Gods Hand by such a subscription If their Consciences think there be no sinne in the matter they will easily doe it but if they refuse it will manifestly appear to the whole world that they are most devillishly minded thus to presse the King to things unlawfull In the next place they require the settling of the Militia of the three Kingdomes in good hands by advise of Parliament SECT XIIII 1. Their unreasonablenesse in desiring the Militia to be in their sole disposall Four weak and dangerous pretences for it 2. Four true Grounds of this their demand 3. How sinfull and dangerous a thing it would be to the Church People and Kingdome if the King should grant it IT is to be noted the Militia not of one but of three Kingdomes they must have all or none as Moses would not leave an Hâ—ofe behinde with King Pharoah so these will not leave a weapon with the King They will have the whole Militia of the 3. whole Kingdomes settled say they in good hands But what Hands are those If gentle peaceable and Religious hands are such then was the Militia of the Kingdome in good hands before untill by the fraud and violence of these demanders it was wrested thence But if by good Hands they mean such as have now griped the same into their possession God forbid that the King should ever willingly yeild it should be setled there or that the people of the Kingdome should ever consent thereto for so they might pull the guilt of that Innocent bloud which hath already and is still likely to be shed by it while so setled upon their owne heads It was alwayes till now without scruple beleeved for an undoubted truth that those hands were the best which Gods Word and the Law of the Land so judged and committed the Militia into and those were only the Kings no law Common or Statute can be shewed whereby it was ever setled elsewhere And in Gods Word Kings though Heathens are intituled Gods sword-bearers in respect of their office to execute punishment upon evil doers In the story of Israels Government we read of King Sauls selected band which himselfe alone made choice of and of Davids Worthies and of his appointing Captaines over hundreds and over thousands the Militia it seemes was in his sole hands then Himselfe made Joab the Generall of his Hoste and displaced him again at his own pleasure Indeed we know that the forme of Government in the Jewish Common-wealth is much slighted and scorned at by our new State-mongers as weak unperfect and unfit for this Nation the Government of Heathen Rome is in their Judgements the most absolute and this is that say they which they aspire after But we are of opinion that God Almighties wisdome is better then theirs is or then that of the Heathens was and we believe that those State-Governments are the only best and most fit for Christians that come neerest unto that which God himself contrived and prescribed unto his own people and we well remember when ours here held a neer conformity unto that we best flourished Nor can we conceive why the same we had should be more unsuteable to the Nation now all upon the suddain then heretofore but only because these Innovators have at the present unfitted people for Gods Yoak by making them Rebellious And for this reason it seemes we must now forsake the direction of Gods Word and of Law established to listen after a certain new advise from these few men who call themselves the Parliament who as if all wisdom were lodged in them must take upon them to Nominate some New good hands to settle the Militia of the Kingdoms in for after-times But we are confident before-hand they wil like him that chose himself Pope determine only for themselves and judge their own hands the best of all others though alas the whole Kingdom hath felt the Contrary by smarting experience But may it not be imagined that men so excessively wise are ful of reason what therfore may the grounds be of this unreasonable demand the like to which I never met with in any story and doubtless should it be granted the King as himself says wel should remain But the outside but the picture but the sign of a King For in the Militia of the Kingdom consists the Kings power his Authority and to yeild to the setling of this in any hands but his own were to yeild up his Crown it self his very Kingdom Now therfore by what right or reason they should claim the Kings Crown I cannot imagine unless perhaps they have bargained for that right which the Pope had therunto by King Johns resignation The story saies that the King received it back of the Pope to hold from thenceforth in fee farm of Him and his Successours for the yearly rent of a 1000 Marks Now perhaps upon the Kings non-payment of the said rent they have gotten the Popes right conveyed to them and do bottom this their demand upon it and that strict intelligence which Lenthall the Speaker brags that himself keeps with the Cardinall Mazarine may peradventure be about the setling of the said conveyance but this is a secret which the people must not know of or wil not believe nor wil I press it upon them and therfore they have other pretences and say they demand it 1. Because those good Hands which the Parliament wil make choice of to settle the Militia in are sure hands that is hands that may be trusted which wil never part again with what they have once griped or laid hold upon never a pack of Knaves in the world shal be able to cheat them of their Magazines their Ships their Towns and Castles if once the whole power of the Kingdom be at their disposing they wil not take mens words nor believe their Oaths nor credit their Honesties as the King hath done nor wil they be so scrupulous as he hath bin of giving occasions of suspicion to his inferior Subjects Besides themselves being as themselves say Gods Children have
of the maine Pillars of this rank faction where in like sort were present some of their Chaplaines and amongst them there was one Scholler who I think truly was an honest man at that present and verily I beleeve doth stil so continue he being like that Disciple which was known to the High Priest well acquainted with the Company and therefore might speak more freely to them and amongst them then another man could be suffered to doe and indeed so did He moved them to this purpose while they were at Supper or sitting at Table Gentlemen you have begun a Civill Warre in this Kingdome and you are come bere into the Country to draw us further to your assistance by requiring us to Associate with you You shall doe well to declare what it is that you doe bottome your Warre upon and what is the cause of this your undertaking that Seeing your Grounds to be lawfull and good we may with the better Conscience concur with you for though we take you to be wise and honest men yet it doth not become us to yeild you our blind obedience in a matter of so High concernment as this is Say therefore I pray for what cause doe you wage this Warre Is it for Religion Can you complaine of any restraint in that Are not the Temples open Have we not Liberty to Preach and professe the whole Truth of God Is true Religion so freely exercised in any Nation under Heaven as here Is not the King himselfe a Protestant â— Hath he not granted you a power to devise for its continuance and a promise of his concurrence with you to establish and settle it as strongly as you please What can you hope to get more by Warre concerning this thing then you may have nay then is offered to you in a way of Peace Wherefore declare I beseech you whether it be for Religion that you fight and if so what Particular in Religion it is that you would have us joyne with you to maintaine and defend One of the Members that thought himselfe the best speaker undertooke to Answer the Schollar for the Chaplaines poor soules were posed they sat stil and said nothing though some of them had been as far as Edge Hill And at length did after some shuffling fairly confesse being thus urged that in very deed it was not Religion they fought for the Doctor asks Why do you then pretend it to be so unto the people His answer was we shall never else win the people to us Well but what is it then replyed the Doctor Is it the Abolition of Episcopacy that you so contest about You know God hath sufficiently manifested his approbation of this Government by his so abundant blessing of this Church and Nation under it none in the world hath thrived better nor so well under any as ours hath done under this you know also that the King hath given you leave to punish or to see punished in a regular way all persons that have miscarried themselves in the execution of that Government without exception of any He hath given you power to see that all abuses in Discipline be removed yea and what ever is liable to exception in our Canons and Lyturgie to be altered for the ease and satisfaction of tender Consciences yea He hath yeilded to you for prevention of injustice afterward the taking away the High Commission and hath left it to you to purge all Ecclesiasticall Courts beside and as a pledge of Assurance against all growing Corruptions he hath enacted a Trienniall Parliament for the calling of ill officers and faulty Church Governours to an examination every three yeares before your selves Now do you think that notwithstanding all these particular Considerations that the Abolition of Episcopacy is a thing of that grand necessity as to imbroile this whole Nation and Kingdome in its own Bloud The Member being convinced also by these Reasons of this particular answered Truely it was not but as the former so this pretence also was to be used to winne and hold the people Why then sayes the Doctor will you tell us what is the cause why you fight The Wiseman answered to bring Delinquents to punishment and so for ought I know the disputation ended for this is all that I heard of it But I would have any of them all to name six Delinquents if they can that were so declared to be when they raised their first Forces some 3. or 4. persons perhaps fled the Kingdome but must the whole Nation bleed for that reason 'T is true indeed they fell afterward to make Delinquents apace and all that would not renounce the Doctrine of Christs Gospell which is a Doctrin of Loyalty and obedience and which they had alwayes been instructed in all that would not abjure their Oath of Allegeance break that Protestation lately imposed by these very men which was to maintaine defend the Kings Person Honour and Estate are looked upon as Delinquents and persecuted as such with fire and sword yea divers of the Members of both Houses who had to speak in these mens owne phrase so much Conscience and goodnesse in them as not to desert their trust in Parliament to their King and Country by giving up themselves to their wills are all become Delinquents too upon the suddaine and to bring all these to punish nent that Justice of Parliament may passe unto them are these Warres said to be undertaken and pursued and when they have by their Votes put all them to death whom they have done wrong unto perhaps they will sit still and be quiet but not before Well fare the good King yet He named six notorious Delinquents whereas these men never named any and when he saw he could not have the Justice of Law against them rather then make any further disturbance he declined their prosecution indeed he is blamed for his so doing by these men as was noted before but O that they had had the grace to have been guilty of such an errour And thus much by way of digression in the case of Delinquency I now return to their Story They tell us that the Answer returned to the foresaid Propositions was That if these things were granted the King should remain but the out-side but the picture but the sign of a King which very Answer they say was the Trumpet of War and the sound of defiance scil in their ears who had a great lust to quarrel now they had got weapons but their misery was the King stil crosses them for He would not permit it to be so owned Stil say they He saies He intends not to fix any disloyal design upon both or either House of Parliament He is rather most confident of the Loyalty good Affections and integrity of that great Bodies good intentions but the malignity of the design He saies hath proceeded from the subtile informations mischievous practices and evil Counsels of ambitious turbulent Spirits not without a
reproved so sharply their hypocrisie and base carriages and even thus hath the King been dealt withall His actions have been watched his words misconstrued his graces neglected yea obscured and himselfe censured for his followers by them that have forced him from their own society for his not allowing their unjust proceedings when Christ was at Jerusalem those his Enemies stirred up the people to be tumultuous against him and to throw stones at him when therefore he had withdrew himselfe from thence they whispered surmizes and suspitions of him what thinke you say they that he will not come up to the feast so that whether he were present or absent he could not please them they were never content till they had him in the condition of a Prisoner and then how they used him the Scripture shewes And even this hath been directly the Kings condition when he was at Westminster Tumults were raised and stones and blasphemies cast against him when he was retired from thence they mouth it as fast in suggesting misprisions what think you say they that he comes not to the Parliament nay let him but offer to goe thither again why they will none of him but are ready to cry He comes to torment us before the time unlesse they may seize upon him in the nature of a Prisoner nothing will give them satisfaction and how they will use him then we may easily conclude by their former dealing with him and language of him 7. Christs Doctrine though uttered with better Authority then that of the Scribes was lesse regarded he and that too were both slighted and despised his complaint was if I tell you the truth you will not believe me nay they forbad the people to heare him the Devill is in him cry they why heare you him they would have their owne example the sole rule for all men to go by in their regards and thoughts of him Have any of the Rulers or Pharisees believed on him because they had not they expected that no bodie else should thus they dealt with our Saviour and have they not even so done with our Soveraign are not his Dictates and Commands though uttered with farre better Authoritie then the Votes and Ordinances of his Enemies of lesse observance are not they and himselfe too slighted and contemned may not he also complaine though I tell you the truth you will not believe me do not the Heads of this Faction against him expect that all mens credit to him and carriage towards him should be ordered by the square of their owne example Hath it not been cried doe any of the Worthies of Parliament believe him or give respect to any thing that proceeds from him Are not all men brought into a wretched and cursed condition that doe not in this conforme themselves and their judgements to the Parliament practice I would to God all these particulars were not too evident 8. Christs enemies not only hated and abused him but for his sake all that loved him all that were instruments of others believing in him it is said Joh. 12. that they consulted how they might kill Lazarus also because by reason of him many believed in Jesus and most urgent were they with our Saviour about his Disciples asking him of them because they would have had him betrayed them into their own hands which he knowing their malice would by no meanes do nay this was his onely request when he delivered up himselfe into their hands that his Followers might but have their lives spared I say unto you I am he and if you seeke me let these go their way And in this the King also is Christs direct Parallel for all his friends are hated in like manner for his sake those that are instruments of working a good opinion towards him are persecuted to the very death and to the end they might wreake their malice upon such they have been urgent with his Majestie to deliver up his friends into their hands which the King according to Christs example thinks by no means he ought to doe yea and when he hath offered up himself unto them as wee know he hath done he hath made only Christs request that his friends may go away in peace and safety but this would not be granted for 't is Bloud Bloud Royall Bloud and Loyall Bloud and Christian faithfull Bloud which these bloudy and deceitfull men thirst after nor will a little measure of it satisfie their greedy appetites 9. Yea and as those enemies of Christ would have no man to love or confesse him so not to conceal or hide him from themselves who desired above all things to lay hands upon him and therefore they set out an Ordinance against harbouring or concealing of him requiring and commanding that if any man knew where he was they should discover him And truly so have the Enemies of our King done set out a like Order to a like purpose though with farre more severe and cruell penalties to the contemners of it witnesse their very words Die Lunae May 4. 1646. Ordered that it be and it is hereby declared by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled That whâ—t person soever shall harbour and conceal or know of harbouring and concealing the Kings person and shall not reveale it immediately to the Speakers of both Houses shall be proceeded against as a Traytor to the Common-wealth and forfeit his whole estate and die without mercy 10. In a word as Christ was belyed slandered betrayed bought and sold for money reviled mocked scorned at spit on numbred among transgressors and judged to be such a one from his great misery and from the successe his enemies had against him and at last put to death even so hath the King been used in all respects by his rebellious people who have alreadie acted all the parts which the Jewes acted upon the Son of God the last of all only excepted which may also be expected in the end from them when oportunity is afforded they have baited him weekly for four years space at the stake of scorn emptied the froth of their scurrilous wits upon him and spit out the scum of their ulcerous lungs against him they have crown'd him with Thornes and then derided at his sorrows fastned him to his Crosse as I may fitly speak and then bad him come downe from it no man could possibly be more vilely used then he hath been numbred he is to this very day among transgressours and crucified between Theeves on both sides yea many of those that suffered with him have been tormentors also and abusers of him and like that wicked Thiefe even because he did not help them when he could not have rail'd upon him 11. And further as Christ was thus afflicted by his open enemies so to greaten the burthen of his sorrowes he was too much troubled with the contestations of his own followers who strove for places of preferment
against all sence and reason nay they have plainly inferred as hath been observed that they seek his ruine because he is a King and would maintaine Monarchy He that makes himselfe a Monarch or a King is no friend to the Parliament Well when he is dead as I think no wise man expects otherwise but that they will murder him openly or secretly shorten his dayes if they can get him and God doe not in a miraculous manner againe deliver him for as nothing but Christs Crucifixion would please the Jewes of old so nothing but the Kings extinction will satisfie the malice of some in this Age but I say when he is dead we shall in this one thing imitate Pilate and publish to all the world his accusation and cause of his death This shall be his Title Carolus Gratiosus Rex Angliae CHARLES the Gratious King of England was put to death by the Pharisaicall Puritans of his Kingdome only because he was their King and in many respects so like unto Jesus Christ the Worlds Saviour I wish with my soule and I pray with my heart that they may yet at length prevent us in this by their unfeigned Humiliation for the wrongs they have done him and by their right acceptance of him and obedience to him Thus have I shown in many particulars how fitly the Kings sufferings doe parallel with those of Christ I might instance in more but I hope the well disposed from this which hath been said will of themselves make observation of the rest I might here also evidence on the other side How his Majesties Enemies doe resemble him whom themselves call Anti-christ in their conditions yea I could by comparing their doings in this their generation with the worst Acts of the worst of Popes in severall Ages demonstrate to the world that these men of all men are most like them but mine aymes are not so much to decypher them as to offer a true presentment of the King unto his people to declare his vertues and wrongs which they labour to conceale is rather my work then to proclaim their ungodlinesse which indeed speaks it selfe loud enough without my discovery And truly had it been possible for me to have healed the wounds made by them upon my Soveraignes Honour without laying open their corruptions I should not have mentioned them so much as I have done for my delights are not to be stirring in such obscene and stinking puddles But all men know that he who takes upon him to justifie the Righteous must of necessity condemne the wicked the goodnesse of the one cannot be vindicated unlesse the vilenesse of the other be detected specially when they thus stand in competition wherefore omitting what might be spoken of them to this purpose I shall rather as Christs Minister apply my selfe to speake unto them after I have uttered a few words to those well-meaning Common people who have been seduced by them whom in the first place I desire to listen to mee SECT XXVII A serious and Brotherly Discourse to the seduced and oppressed Commons of this Nation their dangerous condition related divers and necessary considerations propounded to their thoughts to disswade them from persisting in their present way Their Objection of keeping their late Oath and Covenant Answered COuntrey-men and fellow-Subjects you see I have dealt with you as Pilate did with these people of the Jewes whom the subtill Pharisees had prevailed with to be their instruments in seeking Christs ruine for the desiring to divert them from further proceeding in so evill a way against so just a Person brought him forth before their eyes crowned with Thorns and arrayed with sorrowes and bad them Behold the man supposing that the sight of his griefs already suffered by the wrongs and abuses already offered would make them desist from offering more So I desiring with my soule as God is my witnesse to stop you in this your ungodly way which the craftie Pharisees of these times have thrust you into and to stay you from furtheir endeavouring your Kings destruction have set him before your eyes in the same sad and afflicted condition that Christ was in and whereinto your selves alas have helped to bring him Now I beseech you all Behold the man consider how much you have wronged his innocence already and abused his goodnesse and whether you have not shewne unkindnesse enough unto him who hath been unto you the Author of so much good so many yeares together You will say had we lived in the dayes of Christ we would not have joyned with the Pharisees in persecuting and abusing him and his Disciples and yet you are partakers in the like evills will you disallow of such things against your Saviour and yet act them against your Soveraigne Have you any other evidence against the King then those people had against Christ the bare testimony and report of his deadly enemies or have you any better warrant from Gods Word to rise up and cry out against the one then those had to do so against the other surely you have not O foolish people therefore and unwise who hath bewitched you who hath perverted you I know you 'l say even they whom we thought we were bound to follow scil our Teachers and our Leaders true and God shall require your bloud at their hands but in the meane time if you die in this way you will die in your sin for as Esay sayes the Leaders of this people cause them to erre and they that are led by them are destroyed that is are in the undoubted way unto destruction and what will you doe at the end thereof Perhaps your consciences are yet asleep so was Judasse's till his worke was quite done his Master murthered and himselfe received his wages but then it began to open indeed and so to roare within him that it debarred him quite from all contentment in his money for he brings that back to them who had employed him and makes his moan unto them and perhaps expects comfort from theâ—â— but they having served their turnes of him left him in the bryers whereinto they had brought him and rejected his complaint with a quid hoc ad nos what is it unto us see you to it their owne consciences did not yet stirre nor had they any respect at all to the troubles of his spirit Now truly friends this will be the condition of many of you when you have damn'd your soules in serving the lusts of these men and think to enjoy comfort in that wages of iniquity the Estates of other men which you gape after and is promised unto you as the price of bloud then will the doores of your consciences be unlocked the sence of your guilt will make you as sick as he was both of your rewards and lives and then if you lament and cry we have sinned in spilling innocent bloud the bloud of our Soveraigne or the bloud of our Countrey-men that never
did hurt or harme unto us they that brought you into these miseries however they courted and encouraged you before will reject your complaints with a quid haec ad nos you should have looked to these things before hand for Pharisees will be Pharisees unto the worlds end It is a fearefull thing to be given up to shed bloud King James would say if God should leave him to kill a man he would think God did not love him and I believe your selves were of the same opinion all the while the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which commandeth love to enemies did season your hearts but what a strange alteration is there now in your dispositions since the Doctrine of Devils hath been preached unto you for no other is this of butchering your brethren of killing slaying and destroying then the doctrine of him who is a murtherer from the beginning you would not have been hired heretofore to have acted the executioners part which is a lawfull office upon a Malefactor condemned by lawfull Authority so tender you were of shedding bloud but now you make no scruple at all of it you are greedy and thirsty many of you to spill the bloud of Innocents only for their constancy in that Doctrine of Obedience and Loyalty to the King which your selves also in Christs Schoole have been instructed in meerly upon the temptation and motion of them you call the Parliament who have no more Authority over the lives of men without the Kings allowance then your servants have over yours nay which is more strange yet you are bewitched by their seduction to think that in killing your Brethren you do God service though our Saviour fore-speaking of this very particular shewes the ground of this ill opinion to be only ignorance of God and want of knowledge Nay not only those that have been Agents or Souldiers in this Rebellion but in like manner all you who have willingly contributed Plate Moneyes Horses or any thing tending to the advancement of it I feare you are under the guilt of bloud and will be indicted one day at Gods barre as accessaries to all these evills that have been committed against the King and against your brethren all the men and all the women that brought in their Salts Spoones Rings and Thimbles by the suggestion and perswasion of false Teachers must hold up their hands at Gods Tribunall as guilty persons for doing things by the seduction and example of others so cleane contrary to that light of the Gospell which so many years together had been taught unto them O friends strong and strange is the delusion that is fallen upon you and thick is the veile that is over your eyes farre are you gone without looking back and most difficult is it yet to perswade you to it I have often feared with my selfe that place in Esay to have too neer a relation to you The hearts of this people are made fat their eyes dim and eares heavie and to continue so till the Cities be wasted without an inhabitant the houses without man and the Land be utterly desolate I beseech you in the bowels of Jesus Christ think seriously upon the matter O that I could perswade you to it while there is time for repentance and save your selves at length yet from this untoward generation break their yoak from off your necks renounce their societies have no more to doe with them read mark and ponder upon that place Prov. 1. 10. to the 20. Verse and remember from whence you are fallen and return to your Loyalty O Countrey-men Return return and to provoke you more earnestly hereunto consider with your owne hearts of these particulars 1. Whether this way wherein you have gone be not directly opposite both to Christs Doctrine and example doth not the Gospell command to give tribute to whom Tribute is due feare to whom feare and Honour to whom Honour belongeth and doth it not teach that all these appertain to the King and yet have they not all been with-held from him was not our Saviours practice in this particular most remarkable for our imitation He wrought but one money miracle while he was on the Earth and that was to have wherewithall to pay Caesar his Homage and himselfe sayes he did it least he should offend so carefull was he not to displease the King and being tempted at another time to give some countenance for with-holding the Kings Rights disclaimed the motion and cryed out redde Caesari quae sunt Caesaris Deo quae sunt Dei inferring that God and Caesar in such matters go together to injure the one is to wrong the other for God hath commanded that Caesar be honoured and that all which is his be rendred to him Now whether you and your Leaders have done according to this doctrine and example let your own consciences judge 2. Consider whether this way wherein you have gone be not also contradictive to the Law of the Land The denyall of the Kings Supremacy in this Kingdome hath been wont to be accounted so heinous an offence that he who is guilty of it is judged by the Law to die as a Traytor And the doing of any thing in prejudice of the Kings Authoritie as the raising of Forces without him nay the having but thoughts of mischief towards him though they never breake forth into Action is reckoned by the Law for no lesse then High Treason and some have suffered death for such things nay further yet the bare instilling misconceits of the King into the people to with-draw their affections from him hath even in this very Parliament been cald High Treason Now whether the Kings Supremacy not only in things Spirituall but also Temporall be not denied and whether by your opposition to his Majesties Person and commands and by whispering yea by open speaking evilly of him and consenting to what hath been written against him you have not made your selves guilty of that grand Crime let your own consciences also determine unto you 3. Consider whether it be not against common equity to practice the taking away from any one that which comes unto him by lawfull inheritance succession or just election whether you would not so judge it if any should divest you of what was left you by your Parents and whether the Kings Authority and Revenews which you with others have endeavoured to dispossesse him of be not of the same Tenure and held by the best Title indeed if men come to power and Authority by fraud and violence as your new Masters have done the case is otherwise lives lost in conspiring the downfall of such may be reckoned well sold every man in common equity were there no tie of duty or allegeance is to help him to right that suffers wrong but to concurre in oppressing the Supreme Magistrate and in taking from him what belongs unto him if conscience be suffered to make report it will be confessed to be the
reason of the Abolition of Episcopacy that the Fathers of Gods Church might not have power to punish and suppress such kind of offenders 2. Because Episcopacy is the upholder of truth and order this is evident enough to be another reason themselves cannot deny that the same was first ordained established in the Church for a Remedy against Heresies Sects and Schismes which even in the Primitive times began to spring up among Christians the Smectymnists themselves confesse this and also for the maintaining of Order and Decency in Gods worship and service wherfore truth and order being the things which these men purpose to suppresse and destroy as appeares by that in-let which they have given to all false Doctrines and Teachers and by that confusion which they have set up in all places therefore a necessity lyes upon it Episcopacy must be Abolished as being a main obstruction to that their intendment or undertaking This is the second 3. Because Episcopacy is a great friend to Monarchy a maine supporter of it King James upon experience and observation was wont to say No Bishop no King which saying those that found most fault with it do now endeavour to make good unto the full for they intend the utter destruction of Monarchy in this Kingdome as will appeare by their words anon a form of Government indeed which their Faction have alway maligned and laboured to destroy King James in his Basilicon Doron pag. 4. which he made before he was King of England complaines of the men of this faction then in Scotland how they did use to calumniate him in their popular Sermons not sayes he for any evill or vice in me but because I am a King which they think the Highest evill and againe they informed saies he the people that Kings and Princes were naturall enemies to the Liberty of the Church and could never patiently beare the yoake of Christ which hath been the very Doctrine of these times Wherefore that wise King was most specially carefull all his dayes to countenance and establish Episcopacy in all His Kingdomes not onely as the main preserver of Religion but also as the speciall upholder of Monarchie and he layes it as a charge upon his Son to imitate him therein And indeed these innovators know full well that they cannot bring their designes to effect against Monarchy without the Abolition of Episcopacy for this keeps downe those unruly fiery spirits of the Ministry which are used as chief incendiaries in all State Combustions this restraines them from reproaching their betters and Speaking evill of Dignities this maintaines that Common form of Prayer in this Church established by the use whereof as by a daily Sermon of obedience peoples hearts are seasoned with Duty and Loyaltie in that they are taught continually to acknowledge God to be the onely Ruler of Princes and the Kings Heart to be in Gods Hand who alone must be sought unto to guide and dispose the same in that also we are all taught as we are subjects daily to consider that it is Gods Authority which the King hath and that we are faithfully to serve Honour and humbly obey Him in God and for God Viz. because God hath so commanded and because He is in Gods own stead by his appointment and ordination over the people And by many other such like Divine and Godly expressions people are taught in their use of that book to make profession of their Duty Loyaltie unto their Prince all which make directly against these men and their designes therefore Episcopacy the upholder of this book as the main impediment to their Project down the Common-prayer Book too without any reason at all alleadged on their parts that take upon them to be the Abolishers In a word Episcopacy with her Common-Prayer Book will not admit Treason to stand in the first rank of Christian vertues as these new-Reformers would have it nor be held the fairest and shortest way to Heaven Ergo She and that too must be both Abolished to make way for the downfall of Monarchy in this late most flourishing and happy Kingdom This is the third Reason The 4. is because the King at His Coronation did take a Solemne Oath to maintain Episcopacy it being the Government then established in the Church and the endeavours of these men are not only to destroy the Kings Honour by their Tongues and Pens His Body and Estate by their violence and oppression but also His Soul if they can possibly by forcing upon Him the guilt of perjury which if they could effect beside that unappeaseable grief which in so tender a Conscience as the Kings is they know they should create they would also purchase to themselves an Argument for confirmation of those their slanders already cast out against him to the same purpose viz. that he is regardlesse of keeping his Oath and Promise And besides too if they can make him their Instrument to ruine the Church of God which he loves so dearly and to destroy Monarchy and Kingly Government whereby himself and his posterity are supported if they can make him their Agent to ruine himself it will speake them admirable gifted and to have out-gone all the Machivillians that ever were before them most worthy therefore and fit to enjoy the Supremacy in the State and to be feared of all people And then further yet if they can get the King at their motion to Abolish Episcopacy they shall occasion him to break the Charge which his Father layed upon him to the contrary in his Basilicon Doron which he calls his Testament The Charge and Caveat there given is in these words Take heed my sonne of those Puritanâ— which aime â—t a parity who are the very pests in Church and Common-wealth whom no deserts can oblige no Oathes or promises binde they breathe nothing but Calumny and Sedition aspiring without measure railing without reason and making their own imaginations without warrant of the Word the square of their Conscience I protest before the Great God and since I am here as upon my Testament t is no place for me to lie in that you shall never finde with any Hye land or Border-theeves greater ingratitude more lies and viler perjuries then with these phanatick spirits And suffer not the Principals of them to brooke your Land if ye like to sit at rest except you would keep them for to trye your Patience as Socrates did an evill wife These were the words of the Kings Father wherefore should His Majesty let these men with his good will and approbation be principall in the Church and yeild for this purpose to their desires in abolishing Episcopacy God doubtless would be much offended with him for not minding the Commandement of his Father Yea and peradventure too these his tempters would goe neer afterward to suggest unto his Subjects for they have mouth and fore-head enough to do it that the King like his Predecessour Edward the