taught the inslaved subjects of this Kingdom to write and that in their own blood I will only point ye to some few for your better direction in examining the rest which are very numerous Isaiah Chap. 3. from ver. 1. to ver 10. and from ver. 12. to ver. 16. Chap. 9. from ver 13. to the end Chap. 19. ver. 2. 3. Chap. 24. ver. 1. 2. 3. Chap. 34. ver. 2. 3. 5. 6. Chap. 59. from ver. 2. to ver. 16. Jerem. 4. ver. 20. 21. 22. Chap. 4. from ver. 1. to ver. 18. and from v. 26. to the end Chap. 6. from ver. 7. to ver 16. Ezek. Chap. 22. from ver. 4. to ver. 14. and from ver. 18. to ver. 23. and from ver. 25. to the end Michah Chap. 2. from ver. 1. to ver. 12. and Chap. 3. throughout I have directed you to such places as doe divers of them record the sinnes as well as the punishments of such and such people because they are the sorest punishments where any people are delivered up to commit such sinnes and such sinnes are the assured forerunners of the most destructive miseries as wel as the causes of them And whereas I have cited but here and there 〈◊〉 portion of Scripture you can scarce turne amisse any wâ—… where judgements are mentioned as inflicted or threatned 〈…〉 what is so mentioned is either in part or in the whole 〈…〉 fulfilled upon this Nation or the fullfilling thereof 〈…〉 a little time may be now justly feared there being so little signe of repentance the onely meanes to prevent it to be found amongst us And what County of this Kingdome hath cast in more to the filling up the measure either of this Nations iniquities or their other miseries then you of this And do ye think that ye shall goe unpunished No I pray God that you be not made to drink the very dregs of the cup of Gods fury and vengainee and to wring or suck them out as Isaiahs expression is or as Ezekied expresseth it that thy sisters cup the cup of which the other parts of this Kingdome have alreadie drunk and are now a drinking be not given into thy hand and thou made to drink deep and large till thou be laughed to scorne and had in dirision till thou be filled with drunkennesse and sorrow with the cup of astonishment and desolation Your late madnesse and sottishnesse in imbroyling your selves in a new Warre and in imbruing your hands in your Brethrens blood when you might have avoided it is a terrible simptome of such drunkennesse And this brings me without any interruption from the Consideration of the state and condition of your fellow-subjects in Generall to the consideration of those your fellow-subjects in particular against whom ye now bear armes For Christs sake and your owne consider well who they are against whom yee are now risen with so much and so strange fury and violence Are they not such as besides their being created after the Image of their Creator and yours an Argument of power sufficient to deterre any that bear the same Image from attempting ought against the blood of such especially if that one terrible sentence were but thought on AND SURELY THE BLOOD OF YOUR LIVES WILL I REQUIRE AT THE HAND OF EVERY BEAST WILL I REQUIRE IT AND AT THE HAND OF MAN AT THE HAND OF EVERY MANS BROTHER WILL I REQUIRE THE LIFE OF MAN WHOSO SHEDDETH MANS BLOOD BY MAN SHALL HIS BLOOD BE SHED for in the Image of God made he man Besides that I say are they not such as for whom Christ who was the expresse Image of his Father shed his most precious blood and doe by their being Christians carry in them the Image of Christ And doe you not tremble to shed their blood for whom Christ shed his or can yee call your selves Christians and yet persecute and murther those whom Christ calls his and that must be acknowledged by your selves to be more his then your selves if you would not measure your selves onely by your selves but by those rules which Christ hath prescribed why Christ accounts the persecuting and afflicting of such as the persecuting and afflicting of himselfe and so the shedding of their blood will be reputed as the shedding of his To come a little neerer you though no relation should be nearer or dearer to you then that of Christian Are they not Christians of the same particular profession of Faith with you at least so many of you as call your selves Protestants and professe to be of the same Faith with the established Church of England And will ye take the Swords Pâ—stolls Poynadoes and other bloody instruments out of the Jesuites and Jesuited Papists hands and clap them into your fellow-Protestants sides that they may hereafter with their knives cut your throats Ye have indeed divers of you that you might render them the more odious and those whom ye have ingaged against them the lesse suspicious and the more bloody raised rumor upon rumour lie upon lie and slander upon slander and cast them all upon them particularly that grand cheating slander wherewith the poore people have been so often fooled into blood that the principall men among them by name the Earle of Norwich and the Lord Capell are great Papists whereas the Kingdome knowes and so do many of you that raised and fomented that lie that both these right honourable personages are as sound firme religious Protestants as any in this Nation and if you were but as farre from Poperie as they you would both abhorre so to bely them and tremble to appeare in Armes against them And what I say of those two may I am confident be avouched and will be by those that know them of the rest of those Worthies that are with them infinitely beyond what can be affirmed of the most select Regiment yea Troop that the adverse Army can â—ull out But I speake only of those two because the people have spoken most of them and they are best knowne to mee and indeed so well knowne are they to mee that I should have been more guilty of bearing false witnesse then they of raising such a false report had I not vindicated their Honours from such a notorious calumnie And now that they are named suffer me to interpose this one word more concerning them If there be any thing besides their known loyaltie that does exasperate the factious seditious party against them 't is their eminent and approved firmenesse and immoveablenesse in the Protestant Religion And if they should miscarry in this action which I shall with all earnestnesse and constancie as all that wish well to this languishing Church and state ought to do pray that they may not the Protestants would find as great a losse in them as in any of their Peeres within the three Kingdomes But I have severed them too long from their honourable and ever to be honoured society and fellow-Souldierie Are they not all or the
therefore that other must needs be so cruell and uncharitable as never to forgive me that wickednes Why Though God did leave thee to thy self and so thou through want of Grace didst deal most injuriously and wiâ—kedly with another yet thou canst not without injury to the Spirit of God conclude that therefore he will also leave that other so to himselfe as that he shall revenge hiâ— selâ—e on thee The King is the minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evill And therefore having done that which is evill yea most abominable evill thou hast cause to be afraid as the Apostle there argues But withall as thou art there told he is also a minister of God to thee for thy good and therefore if thou wouldst not be afraid of the power doe that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same Cease to doe evil and learn to doe good break off thy Rebellion and return to thy Allegiance and thou shalt finde that the King will be to thee not a revenger to execute wrath upon thee for thy evill because that thou hast forsaken and abhorrest thy self for it but a gracious receiver of thee to mercy because thou art returned to thy dutie and art resolved to persevere in that dutie for the King knows well that mercy as well as truth preserves a King and his throne is upholden by mercy But suppose the King were not so eminently inclined to mercy and forgivenesse as he is Remember what he tels you who was a King himselfe The Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water he turneth it whithersoever he will and therefore doe but you turn to the Lord and to your duty and you need not feare but the Lord will turne the Kings heart to you for your good They that despaire of Gods shewing them so much mercy upon their repenting of their iniquity as to turne the Kings heart to them so as to remit unto them what they have deserved to suffer temporally how can they hope for so much greater mercy from God as that his own heart should be so turned within him as the Prophets expression is as to remit to them what they have deserved to suffer eternally if they despaire of Gods mercy in the lesser degree how can they hope for his mercy in the greater God does t is confessed oftentimes chastise and afflict and so make use of men as his instruments for that purpose temporally those whose sinnes he pardones and forgives eternally As Daniel Job c. But then they are not such as despaire of finding mercy in a temporall deliverance but such as hope for mercy in a deliverance temporall if God see it good for them and waite in faith and patience Gods will and pleasure in it Gods mercy is infinitely greater then mans and so the cruelty of men may be feared where the mercy of God is hoped for and relied on but that feare where t is as it should be does not banish the hope of deliverance from that crueltie that is most feared David chose rather to fall into the hand of God because his mercies are great then into the hand of man That is when David had sinned and had his choyse of temporall iudgements for that sin offered him by God he chose rather to have a temporall judgement of Gods more immediate inflicting by his owne hand such as the plague is then a temporall judgement inflicted by the hand of man such as the sleeing before enemies and being pursued by them is and yet by the way when David did at any time as he did often fall into the hand of man he never dispaired of deliverance from that hand but on the contrary patiently waited for it and confidently expected it But David did not chuse so to fall into the hand of God rather than the hand of man as to adventure to doe any thing which was displeasing to God and so to run the hazard of his punishing him either with temporall or eternall judgements rather then to venture the displeasing of man and so to suffer what he could lay on him which is the case of too mâ—ny in these dayes No David knew well what I beseech you all to consider that in that sense t is a fearefull thing to fall into hands of the living God infinitely more fearefull then to fall into the hands of the most cruell of men To descend yet lower for men in dispaire descend very low and he that would lend them his hand to recover them must follow them close Let it be supposed as I am confident t is yet but a supposition that the abuâ—â—d mercy and â—lemency of the King should be turned into the extremity of rigoâ— severity and being injured by thee beyond expression he should exccute vengeance on thee beyond moderation T is acknowledged that he that is a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evill may himselfe doe evill and pull Gods wrath upon himselfe By his executing wrath upon another for he may sooe â—…termixe too much of â—is owne wrath with it but if he should thou must willingly submit to the execution thereof and leave the sinne of his executing it to himselfe to answer for and him to God to be called to that answer But t is a crime to be abominated by all men upon feare of anothers punishing thee otherwise then thou wouldest or perhaps then he should for thy wickednesse already committed to proceed on therefore in thy wickednesse and to adde to it the just desert of greater punishment for the preventing as thou thinkest that punishment which is too great Vengeance is the Lords and he will repay recompence every one according to their deeds if not by one revenger or executioner of his wrath to bee sure by another and the suffering patiently by the hand of him whom thou hast injured though his hand should be heavy may not only be a quieting to thy conscience in giving such satisfaction to the person himselfe wronged and to the Law but it may be also such an acceptable satisfaction to divine Justice it selfe through him that hath otherwise fully satisfyed it that no fâ—…r satisfaction shall be required of thee for those injuries thou having made such satisfaction to him unto whom thou didst them And let this sâ—…ce in answer to the distrust of the Kings 〈◊〉 I have but a few words to adde concerning the Kings Party who are by divers more distrusted then the King and then I close up this first Consideration How the Kings loyal and faithful Subjects who in obedience to Gods command and in conscience of that duty in fidelity to the established Religion of the Church of England in testimony of that fidelity in love to their Soveraignes supereminent Graces and vertues and in gratitude to God and him for his exercising them in his regall and Christian goverment of them
to your Soveraigne and there is none that have hazarded their lives and lost their liberties and estates for him their Religion Lawes liberties and propertie but would be ready and willing upon a resettlement of all these without any more blood and other publike calamities to catch at and embrace any reasonable propositions and kisâ—e the beautifull feete of such propounders As therefore yee have tryed many other waies for procuring peace and they have all failed you â—o be intreated for Christs sake who is the Prince of peace and the propitiation for our sinnes to make tryall of this way of acknowledging your sinnes and forsaking them which never yet failed any and which is so infallible as that God himselfe gives that as the reason of his giving over people when their sinnes are come to their full measure and they ripe for ruine to blindnesse and heardnesse of heart least they should be converted and be healed implying that if a people did turne from their sinnes unto him he could not but heale them Turne thou us O Lord and we shall be turned Turne thou us and we shall be healed Let that be your dayly prayer to God Come lâ—t us returne unto the Lord For he hath wounded and he will heale us he hath smitten and he will bind us up let that be your constant exhortation to one another and practise your selves what you shall so exhort others And the Lord heare and accept you in both Having repented of your sinnes and in particular of your Rebellion Blood guiltinesse and other iniquities and impieties attending them The next thing that you are besought to consider is the present state and condition of Religion here in this Kingdome That the Church of England in its Reformed established Religion was not onely a defence and refuge but the glory and honour of all the Reformed Churches in Christendome cannot justly and therefore I hope will not be denyed by any of those Churches if it should wee are able to evince it out of the mouths of their own most learned and eminent Preachers and Professors And had not those unhappy diâ—â—sions breaking out as they did prevented it the Christian world had in all probabilitie ere this seen the happy fruits thereof in the harmonious and of them and us much desired conformity of other reformed Churches especially the more Eastern as well in Discipline as Doctrine so far as conformity in Discipline could have been conveniently observed in severall Nationall Churches This the Tobiahs and Sanballets of the Church of Rome have known and maligned so long that their attempts against this Church and the established Religion thereof have been more and more industriously and eagerly prosecuted then against any Church whatsoever though they have not omitted any opportunitie of practising their complotted designes upon any of the Reformed Churches or the members thereof And having tryed all the other wayes and courses that they could invent and some of them such as I hope will never be forgotten of this Nation Some few yeares before the beginning of this Parliament Cardinall Richeleiu the Politique favourite of France and gracious sonne of Rome used all his art and skill to kindle a fire against us in Scotland which art and skill of his prospered too much there by the unskilfulnes and imprudence of some of our managers of Church affairs here in England No sooner was that fire kindled but Emissaries of Rome were â—ent thither to inflame it and the better to effect it some of them pretended great love and affection to a new Reformation of that Kirke even to a seeming disclaiming and detesting of their own About the same time there were not a few of those Incendiaries dispatcht hither into England to practise upon those of this Kingdome that were disaffected to the established Government of this Church or that distasted some new rites and practises too much favoured and countenanced by some of the Governours thereof and so far had they within a short time crept into the favours and Counsels of some leading men of each sort that this Church and State began to be much distempered Insomuch that our most Gracious and Religious Soveraign next under Christ the prime defender of our Faith and nursing Father of our Church and Common-weale whom they had many other wayes assaulted but found impregnable was perswaded for the peace and safety of both his Kingdoms to call a Parliament and within a while after for the peace and security of all his three Kingdomes the third being also then inflamed to derive unto them greater liberty of continuance but otherwise not of any power then ever Parliament had and as we finde by sad and wofull experience then they had grace to make good use of The Jesuites and Jesuited party finding this advantage and feeling by the Pulse of the chief of the disaffected and discontented part of that great Assembly how their hearts stood inclined they applyed themselves to them in all wayes and services possible One Jesuite well known to the most reverend and Religious the Primate of Ireland his Grace was a constant Tabler and Counsellor to the Lord Brooks an active furious driver on of the mad factious peoples desperate turbulancâ—â—s Others applyed themselves to others whom I forbear to name Only one passage I must not omit Before those worthy members of the honourable Houses of Lords and Commons that held firm to their duty and allegiance were forced from the tions so bold were those Romanists grown that an honourable member of the House of Commons was earnestly importuned by one of them an acquaintance of his to recommend a Pettion to the House in behalf of the Romish party for the taking off all penall laws from them which he refusing to doe and expostulating with the Gentleman about it as suspecting that he came to intrap him and to render him more distastfull to the factious party and so more disserviceable to his King and Country the Gentleman replyed that he was very much mistaken â—â—t â—hat Petition would findâ— better acceptance in the House then he thought for And accordingly it being soon after presented there by another who may be presumed to account it an honour to him to be known by such a motion viz. Mr. MARTIN it was seconded and entertained by some of the greatest pretenders of Reformation in that assembly till one of courage and esteem stood up and said He was sorry that he had lived to see a Petition of that nature finde such favour in that place wherein those prudent lawes against which it petitioned had been upon so good and just grounds and with so much wisdome and deliberation framed and thereupon it was for that time waved and laid aside Since that how far the Jesuites and Jesuited party have proceeded and succeeded in their prosecuting of that designe of a toleration is sufficiently visible in the fruits thereof to every seeing eye But because the greater part of men
will neither see nor heare or if they doe dare not speak what they see or heare how prejudiciall or destructive soever it be to Religion or ought else that good is I shall in the cause of Religion adventure a little further in the discovery of the designes of those professed enemies thereof I have been assured by a person of Honour that the Protestants of France had towards the beginning of these unnaturall and unchristian wars resolved upon a Declaration against the Parliament and Subjects of England their taking up of Arms against their King and had published it had not the forenamed Cardinall dashed it and underhand wrought them to too much approbation thereof rendering by that one subtill act of his the said Protestants odious to their own Soveraign for approving such Antiregal Antimonarchicall attempts and also advancing thereby his own designe of fomenting our destructive divisions But to return neerer home Who but the Jesuites and Jesuited Papists began that Rebellion in Ireland And who but their favourors here in England drove it on to that height by making those Rebels desperate in selling their lands and Voting them and theirs to ruine past all hope of mercy by detaining the King from going thither in Person to quiet that Rebellion when he so graciously offered it and so piously endeavoured it by diverting those fair full free running streames of bounty and liberality flowing all this Kingdome through towards the reliefe of the distressed Protestants of Ireland into those foule black bloody rivers of Warre and Rebellion overflowing this whole Kingdome to the wasting and weakening if not to the ruining and destroying of the now despised Protestants of England and lastly by the with-holding and delaying all along from the first to the last the necessary supplies of men moneys armes and other provisions from that Kingdome notwithstanding the Kings often and often calling upon the Houses to be mindefull thereof and conjuring them thereto as appears by his many Messages and Declarations to that purpose and notwithstanding the loud and dolefull cryes of the Protestants of that Kingdome from the greatest to the least so constantly ecchoing in their ears If the Jesuites and Jesuited Papists of this Kingdome had not their hands deep in all this and too prevalent a power with those that had the power of ordering that businesse better let any man that knowes one hand from another judge But to come yet nearer those incendiaries of Nations and perturbers of the peace of Christendome are fowly belyed by one whose brother hath been one of them these many yeares and he himselfe is now theirs and was then litle better If there were not in and about the Citty of London and in and neere the Armies about 3 weekes or a month before that heavy blow at Nazeby above sevenscore Jesuites and other Romish Priests known the most of them to him which kept correspondence diverse of them and gave intelligence to them at Westminster and served them both in keeping off assistance from the King from Princes of their Religion and in betraying the Kings counsels and the resolutions of his Army which they by their instruments and favourers crowded into those quarters got knowledge of to the adverse party so that they could draw the kings Army into what part of the kingdome they pleased and there fight them or not fight them as they saw the advantage Insomuch that a Noble Colonell of the Kings Party and a man of good estate and credit being then a Prisoner in the Counter in Southwarke and having there fed at his table and preserved the author of this information that had been a prisoner in the same prison but was then by his Brothers meanes set at liberty was about that time before mentioned advised upon those grounds and some other by the said informer and that in gratitude as he affirmed knowing no other way of acknowledging his bounty and liberality towards him forthwith to make his composition and peace with the Parliament for that the King would without all peradventure yet the King was at that time in as high and hopefull condition as ever he had been in from the beginning of these warres be brought very low Strange propheticall counsaile at that time had not the counselour had too strong presumption to conclude from And now to speake a litle upon mine own more immediate knowledge Travelling beyond the seas in the company of a Romish Priest borne in England and another English Gentlemen of the same religion after some warme dispute between us I was told by the Priest that I need not be so hot and zealous for my religion for so said he we have now as good cardes to shew for our Religion in England as you have for yours for we perceive you are a Protestant of the established Church of England and if you and such as you doe ever enjoy your Religion there againe it must be by a Tolleration and so shall we enjoy ours I replyed that I hoped God would disappoint them of their hopes but since that I found they had too much cause so to presume for I was no soonet arrived here in England but being constrained to attend some Parliament men at Westminster I heard a Gentleman who by his habit and discourse seemed one of credit and trust among the Romanists soliciting another Gentleman whose Father had been a Parliament man but was then dead for the assisting him by his friends in the promoting of a Petition for a Toleration of their Religion and he told him amongst other discourse what progresse he had made therein both with some prime Commanders of the Army and with divers members of the House of Commons whose names for the present I conceale and that he had delivered three Petitions to that purpose into the hands of three of the House of Commons who had uâ—dertaken the recommending them to the House and promised him theâ—… best furtherance therein so that he did not much doubt of the successe but yet should be obliged to him if he would be pleased to contribute thereto 〈◊〉 party solicited replied He should doâ— him any servicâ— and the Petition desired no more then he apprehended to be according to the judgement of the times in point of liberty of Conscience when I heard this and observed how liberty of Consâ—â—â—nce was every where contended for I no longer wondered at the cooling Cards which â—hâ— Priest gave me for I pâ—â—ceived they of his part had plaid their Cards so well that they might affordâ—d any of us the knowledge of suâ—h a triumph not did I then thâ—… it strange which but a few dayes beâ—ore I admired that so many Jesuits and othâ—r Priests did daily flock into this Kingdome from France Flanders and the Countries adjacent and all by the way of Hâ—lland there having been nine or ten such newly shipt at the Briâ—â— under the same â—onvoy if not in tâ—e Vâ—siâ—li that Master Stricâ—laâ—d tâ—e Parliaments Agent for Hâ—llanâ—
came over in about Micâ—aâ—lmas last and multitudâ—s 〈…〉 more have been thâ—â—â— and in other Parts of the Lâ—… past for England within fâ—w moneths when God 〈…〉 many worthy Ministers of the Church of England drâ—… the Sâ—as choose rather to endure some hardship 〈…〉 â—â—rangers then yet to adventure the hazard of worse 〈…〉 own Country Tâ—â—se things I thought it my 〈…〉 with as I have done others already upon â—…ns both in publike and in private and though perhaps they may be sleighted by some engaged with the Sectaries calling themselves Protestants or quarrelled by others that are professed Papists I solemnly avouch before the Almighty God of truth that I have not falsifyed in the least particular of what I have spoken upon mine own knowledge nor varied so far as my memory would serve me from whaâ— others and they men of known honour and honesty have informed me I know well that t is a foule sinne to speake wickedly for God or to talke decestfully for him as Job somâ—times intimated to his friends and I abhor to be câ—arged with a Romish trick my self whilest I endeavour to discovâ—… of theirs Had divers of this Nation but that courage and spirit as to speak what they know to this purpose and but that love and zeale to the established Protestant Religion as to thinke it worthy of their adventuring that courage and spirit which they have in that service you would finde that all this little that I have said is scarce the gleanings to their harvest or an handfull to their Barnsfull for the clearing this discovery of the Jesuits and Jesuited Papists having their hands deep in all our miseries and a desperate designe upon our Religion And let such take heed that God doe not one day require it at their hands in vengeance for that they did it not when he required it of them in dutie I know there are some in this Kingdome of the Romish Religion that have given ample and honourable testimonies of their Allegiance and fidelity to their Soveraign and of their love to their Country for which they deserve all Christian and civill respect and honour that can be shewn them and that makes me so often to use that limitation of Jesuites and Jesuited to distinguish them from such which as hath been often and truly said like Sampsons Foxes look contrary wayes to our furious Separatists and other Sectaries but joyn with them in the setting this Kingdome on fire But t is to be feared that if Religion should come again to be contested for betwixt the Protestants and Papists here in England which God of his mercy forbid the most moderate and loyall amongst the Popish party would loose no advantage that they could catch or lay hold on for the exalting of their own Religion and the pulling down and destroying ours And t is certain that since the first Reformation of Religion in this Kingdome they never had so great advantages given them to that purpose It was a frequent â—aying of an ancient and knowing Dr in Cambridge that had very much observed as well as too much served the times in alteration of Religion and I have heard it severall times cited by a most learned and reverend Professor of that University in his Commencement Orations That if ever Popery came into this Land again to have any power it would be by the Precisian called then the Puritan And what an open broad way the Precisians or Puritans properly so called have made for Popery to march in or to use the Prophet Ezekiels expression how they have opened the sides of this Church to those enemies of that Faction to enter and repossesse her and what arms and amunition of all sorts they have furnished them with and what ayde and encouragement of all kindes they have given them to make good their entrance and keep their possession is very deplorable to consider and much more deplorable that t is not considered as it should The most learned and acute Divines and Artists are driven from the Schools and Colledges in both Universities The most Orthodox and conscientious Pastors and Teachers are forced from their Pulpits and Pastorall charges The most reverend and renowned Bishops are cast out of their Bishopricks and Episcopall power and jurisdictions and all these are robbed and deprived of their lively-hoods and necessary subsistance yea many of them of their lives and all others that shall succeed them of all hopes of any honourable encouragements And what then may not the enemies of our Religion doe when so much is already done to their hands towards the undoing of this lately most flourishing but now linguishing Church of England Who shall dare to take up the weapons or venture on an encounter with the Adversary whâ—n all our â—toâ—t Champions are gone and onely Children and weaklings with unexpert Tradesmen and Mechanicks are left to graple with Giants and experienced warriers Take away the encouragements and you take away the sâ—…ws of warre who will goe to war at their own costs especiall when they know where good pay and good preferment too are to be had in another service There are too few that serve God out of pure zeale and meer conscience In the combate between the Flesh and the Spirit the Flesh ought to be mortified and kept down as much as possibly may be but in all incounteâ—s wherein the Flesh is to joyn with the Spirit against a third adversary there t is best to let the Flesh have its necessaries yea and its honest allurements and encouragements to or else the Spirit will be but ill assisted and served by it It hath been severall times attempted and the poore simple Country people have been put upon it and incited to it with much earnestnesse and no little deceit That all Tithes should also be taken away from the Clergie and the Ministery be provided for by way of Pension or Benevolence And truely were I one of the Church of Rome or wisht well to the returning of her power and tyranny into this Nation I would now after the taking away of Bishops lands and revenues with the other dignities and honourable maintenance of the Church most sacrilegiously torn from the Governours and Ministers thereof labour and endeavour nothing more For then to bee sure none should dare to speake ought in Pulpits no nor whisper ought anywhere else against any errour or heresie or against any vice or wickednes whatsoever that should finde any favour or countenance in his Parish or in any of his parishioners of power and ability for fear of being cut short in his allowance if not for the present yet at the next Session of Commissioners who would perhaps be so wise of themselves as to think the case might otherwise be some of theirs or to be sure that would be intimated to them as it hath been too often suggested unto Juries in tryals for Tythes And then doubt not but the Popish party would be
Antichrist then the sending of a people 〈…〉 that they should believe a Lâ—e there needs 〈…〉 for the demonstrating how fouly and grosly we 〈…〉 been so dâ—luded and are contented if not desirous still so to be I remember well and shall do whilest I have breath what I heard fall from the mouth of that Apostolicall I wish I might not in that particular say that Propheticall Preacher the matchlesse Primate of Ireland matchlesse for the Graces of God in him as well as for that Grace of Primacy conferred on him in one of his constant Lords day Sermons in Oxford I feare not said he those Feltmakers Weavers Coblers c. that are risen up amongst us sowers of Sedition and broachers of Heresies and Errours but those with whom I feare we shall have the strongest struggling are those Giant-like Jesuits trained up men of warre from their youth these these are they whom we have all cause to feare as those with whom wee shall have the last and sorest pull for our Religion God grant it prove not so But if we go on in the rending and tearing out one anothers thoats and the Hereticks and Schismaticks go on in their rending and tearing the very bowels of our Church who can expect lesse Who is there that hath read or heard of Christs way in planting and propagating of his Gospell of truth and in acquainting men with the mysteries of Godlinesse and of the way of Antichrist in planting and propagating his Doctrine of lyes and in possessing men with the mystery of iniquity that can expect from Seâ—…s of Heresie and Schisme sown by the enemy in the furrows of mens hearts filled with malice and all uncharitablenesse and watered with the bloods of so many thousands of their fellow Christians any other Harvest then of Popery and Antichristianisme Be ye then supplicated O all yee that have any love unto or care of the preservation of the true Protestant Religion to take the sad deplorable condition thereof into your most serious consideration and speedily to apply your selves with all your art and skill and with all your might and power to the resisting and countermining of its openly professed and secretly conspiring enemies and to the ayding and assisting of its known and by these late persecutions and temptations throughly tryed friends Think soberly and sadly with your selves God's cleansing your thoughts from all selfe-favour and brother-prejudice being first implored whether they to whom in the beginnings of these miseries you first adhered and who then made you so many faire and large promises and tooke some solemne Protestations Vows and Oathes in the presence of God to Defend and Maintaine the true Established PROTESTANT RELIGION have made good those promises Protestations Vows and Oaths yea or no If they have what meanes the lowing and bellowing of such herds of notorious abominable Hereticks of all sorts and the bleating and bawling of such flocks of furious Schismaticks of all cuts in every corner of this Kingdome Yea what meane those favourable exeuses and defensive Apologies published to the Kingdome in one of the late Declarations in answer to the Scots that complained thereof What meanes also their suppressing and silencing of all or the most of the known religious Orthodox Protestant Preachers throughout the Kingdome sequestering their livings and clapping them up into Prisons and then setting up Antinomian Anabaptisticall Socinian Jesuiticall and other notoriously hereticall Teachers and lying Prophets in their roomes What meanes the blasting of the established Doctrine of the Church of England as being corrupt and erroneous such as needs Reformation What meanes the blaspheming the Lords Prayer and Apostles Creed commonly so called and rejecting them from being publikely used in anie Congregations And what meanes the casting out and condemning the whole Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments which had so often and so long been found and made use of as one of our strongest out-workes and fortifications against Popery and other Heresies as well as an incomparable and unparallelled rule and forme of publike Worship and Devotion In a word what meanes the entertaining of Petitions for the Toleration of Popery forbearing only the granting them their requests till the people be a little better prepared by that Doctrine of Liberty of Conscience Bethinke your selves also whether they to whom ye now give up your selves to serve with your lives and estates and joyne with in all their rebellions and bloodie enterprizes have not sufficiently declared their disaffection unto yea and their hatred and detestation of the true Protestant Religion What meane else their retaining only such Chaplains amongst them as hold far more principles of the Popish Religion then Protestant and have expressely renounced the established Protestant Religion of the Church of England Or why doe they like those Rebells against the house of David make to themseves both high places to worship in and Priests of the lowest of the people to minister unto them And why do they proclaime the liberty of being of any Religion or of no Religion at all rather then of the established Religion of our Church If there be anie so stupid as to thinke that the leading-men either at Westminster or in the Army or their active Adherents are at the present men of other affections and resolutions more then what the present oppositions and their want of power to withstand them and to crush the opposers to pieces do constraine them to dissemble I shall admire their stupidity and lament their weaknesse unlesse they can produce some better evidence of their retracting their former errors of their repenting of their former iniquities and of their returning to their God and to their duties then their own bare words so often broken and contradicted by their actions And yet which of you can shew so much as the Armies words for any good intended by them either to this Church or Common-wealth or so much as to you of this County that have hazarded your honours estates lives and fortunes And for the promise of those at Westminster call but to mind the successe of that Petition of the Ministers of this County and of Essex presented to both Houses in these dolefull termes That your solemne League and Covenant your great and glorious victories the expectation of the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas the longing desires of our Brethren of Scotland the Humble Petitions of the Reverend Assembly and the great City of the Kingdome the pressing miseries of the Orthodox and well affected Ministers and people in the Country here is a Letanie of conjurations indeed enough to conjure any that would come within compasse of any figure cry aloud to your Honours for the settlement of Church-Government according to the word Then followes For the want of this it is Right Honourable that the name of the most high God is blasphemed his precious Truths corrupted his Word despised his Ministers discouraged his Ordinances vilified Hence it is
most of them men of known tried integrity and honesty and many of them your very next neighbours and have they not so proved themselves by their Declarations Remonstrances and actions Do they not all professe clearly that they have and do ingage themselves in this present undertaking only for the defence and preservation of the established Protestant Religion for the delivering their Soveraigne from bondage and imprisonment and from being murdered therein for the restoring of his Majesty to his lawful Government just rights and throne in Parliament for the maintenance of the known Lawes of the land and the rights Liberties and properties of their fellow-subjects and for the procuring and setling of a firme and happy peace in this miserably divided and allmost utterly ruined Kingdome would to God that the Army which call themselves the Parliaments when they please had declared or would out yet declare halfe so much and give such assurance for the performance thereof as those Worthies will give and then it might be hoped that these unnaturall warres would soone be ended But when so many of that Army have so openly declared and proclaimed the contrary to all these and some of them have been bold to say that they fought neither for King nor Parliament and that they had above sixty thousand to be at eight houres warning to fight both against King and Parliament and have given very observable earnests of their having too many in a readinesse by their sudden raising such considerable Troopes and Regiments of such and wholly such within very few daies It is high time for all those that would not bee gull'd cheated or forced out of all those forenamed comforts and honours to betake themselves to their armes for their defence maintainance and contiâ—uance And what a staine shame and reproach will it be to you of this Countie and to your Posterities after you That when such men of such knowne honour and integritie and of such approved firmnesse and fidelity to their Religion King and Countrie like those renowned Worthies eternized by the Spirit of God to memory and imitation jeoparded their lives to death in the high places of the field for the defence and maintainance of those very truths and rights which ye your selves have often sworne and protested and doe still pretend and prosesse to defend and maintaine and that against the most base perfidious pernicious seditious tray terous bloodie tyrannous professed and proclaimed Enemies thereof yee not onely deserted them and came not out to their helpe To the helpe of the Lord against his and their adversaries but rose up and came out against them and cast in your lot with those Adversaries that lay waite for blood for the blood of Kings Princes Priests and people and lurke privily for the innocent without a cause not considering that by so doing ye lay wait for your owne blood and lurke privily for your owne lives And so my poore Countrey-men I come a little closer yet to your selves and to the consideration of your owne state and condition and then I shall commend you to Gods mercy if by your repentance ye shall render your selves capable thereof How little you of this Countie have beene sensible of the miseries and distresses of your fellow Subjects and Brethren and how much you have contributed to them I leave to your owne conscience to examine and to your selves to judge your selves for them Onely take these two conclusions along with you as two inseparable consequents of those two premises First That mers not being sensible of their brethrens miseries and so not taking warning by them pulls so much the more certaineand â—ore judgments upon themselves they that remember not Texts of Scripture enough to that purpose consult those in the margent Secondly That when God hath made use of any people to scourge others by for their sinnes and iniquities as he usually does of the worse to scourge the better he does constantly cast that his rod into the fire and punish that people the more severely by whom he hath severely punished others and one principall Reason thereof is because they whom God makes use of as his scourge to others doe with Gods chastisement or vengeance for their sinnes constantly intermix their owne malice and other iniquities in chastifing and taking vengeance on them And this conclusion you have confirmed in each circumstance by many remarkable and cleare examples as one of the Bookes of the Prophets namely in Ezekiels Prophesie As in Gods dealing with the Ammonites the Moabites and those of Mount-Seir the Edomites and the Philistines Ezek. 25. with those of Tyrus chap. 26. with those of Zidon chap 28. with Pharoah and all Egypt chap. 29. and with the rest of the heathen chap. 36. All which people had beene at severall times scourges to the people of Israel and Judah and are in that relation there called to an account adjuged by God to those judgements And though you may from these sad conclusions see evidence enough of your hastning Calamities yet there are other visible symptomes of your approaching Miseries which may perchance more awaken you as crying yet somewhat louder unto you and at lesse distance either to repent speedily or to expect swift destruction suddainly As first What thinke ye will be the inevitable consequents of your late ingagement against those Worthies of our David before but never too often named to their honour and your shame those English Heroes those Lords Knights Gentlemen Yeomen and others in renowned Colchester the most inferiour of which companie carries better blood in their veines because untainted then the proudest Adversarie that fights against them and I trust God will preserve it as preciously and the Citie wherein they are High exceeding high alreadie is the Honour of that Citie for being the Citie wherein Lucius Helena and Constantine the first Christian King Empresse and Emperour in the world were borne And it may please the Lord in his mercâ—e notwithstanding our multiplied iniquities crying so loud for the contrarie to rayse its honour yet much higher by making it the Citie wherein King Charles the most Religious of Christian Kings the Established Religion of the Church of England the Helena or Empresse of Christian Religion and the Incomparable Lawes and Liberties of this Kingdome which for equitie and Christianitie deserve the Crowne Imperiall of the World shall be preserved from ruine and be restored to their priâ—â—inâ— glory The same Almightie God that wrought that first great Work in that Citie is all-sufficiently able there even there to accomplish this second And we humbly beseech him that neither their nor our â—innes may separate betweene his blessing and their Loyall and Christian indeavours to that purpose and whatever the successe be that that Citie nor those Worthies that are in it may never want their due honour nor his gracious protection and comforts But suppose the worst Suppose that by your ingagement against that Citie and those