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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91187	A fresh discovery of some prodigious new wandring-blasing-stars, & firebrands, stiling themselves nevv-lights, firing our church and state into new combustions. Divided into ten sections, comprising severall most libellous, scandalous, seditious, insolent, uncharitable, (and some blasphemous) passages; published in late unlicensed printed pamphlets, against the ecclesiasticall jurisdiction and power of parliaments, councels, synods, Christian kings and magistrates, in generall; the ordinances and proceedings of this present Parliament, in speciall: the national covenant, assembly, directory, our brethren of Scotland, Presbyterian government; the Church of England, with her ministers, worship; the opposers of independent novelties; ... Whereunto some letters and papers lately sent from the Sommer-Islands, are subjoyned, relating the schismaticall, illegal, tyrannical proceedings of some Independents there, in gathering their new-churches, to the great distraction and prejudice of that plantation. / Published for the common good by William Prynne of Lincolnes Inne, Esquire.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1645 (1645)	Wing P3963; Thomason E261_5; ESTC R212456	96,461	90

Bocardo Sir Simon Synod New upstart frisking Presbiters Synodian Cormorants the Synodian Whore of Babylon the traiterous Synod called the Assembly of Divines presbiterian horse-leeches blood thirsty Cattle this great gore-bellied idoll called the Assembly of Divines Arch-Jesuiticall traytors the Jesuiticall and traiterous designes of the Synod our dissembly Doctors a Consistory of devils and the like These be the charitable modest Independent Epithites which this libeller bestowes upon them See next his libellous and blasphemous speeches against and censure of them and the good end his charity wisheth to them Page 1● The Synod is guided by the holy Ghost sent in a cloke-bagge from Scotland as of old from Rome in the Councell of Trent Because the Assembly have sadled the Parliament it is unlawfull for the Presbiters to goe on foot page 29. The traiterous Synod called the Assembly of Divines labours with might and main to establish and settle this traiterous spirit of persecution in the land page 35. 36. It is most certaine that this fellow whose name Sir Simon faineth to be Reformation is absolute Persecution so that had these Reformers but as much power as Queen Marie's Clergy their reformation would conclude in fire and faggot Judg. Oh insufferable Assembly I see 't is dangerous for a state to pin their faith upon the sleeve of the Clergy J. Reason Further my Lord whereas others are impoverished spend their estates engage and loose their lives in this Quarrell they are enriched and advanced by it save their purses and persons cram and fill their greedy guts too filthy to be carried to a Beare heap up wealth to themselves and give not a penny while others against whom they exclaime venture and expend all yea my Lord this great gorebelly Idol called the Assembly of divines is not ashamed in this time of state-necessity to gull up and devour more at one meale then would make a feast for Bel and the Dragon for besides all their fat Benefices forsooth they must have their foure shillings apeece by the day for sitting in constollidation and poore men when they had filled all benefices with good Trencher-men of their owne presbiterian Tribe they move your Lorpship that all Ministers may be wholy freed from all taxations that now the trade of presbiter is the best trade in England all are taxed and it goes free poore men that have no bread to still the cry of their children must either pay and goe in person to the warres while these devouring Church lubbers live at ease feed on dainties neither pay nor goe themselves but preach out our very hearts they make it a case of conscience to give all but wise men they 'le give none Let the sick the lame and maimed souldiers and those that have lost their limbs and begge in streets let women that have lost their Husbands let parents that have lost their children let children that have lost their parents and let all that have or suffer oppression and misery in and for the publike Cause consider this and be no longer ridden and jaded by Clergy masters but to give the devill his due one thing to their commendations I have observed that they are so zealously affected with the honour of their Cloth that 't were pitty to disrobe them of their cassock Garbe to be led in a string from Westminster to Algate in Leatherne Jackets and Mattockes on their shoulders and my Lord though some thinke they would doe the State more good in leatherne jackets and Mattockes then in long cloakes and cassockes yet my think they would doe the state better service with their canonical girdles were the knot tyed in the right place page 36. 37. Primacy Metropolitanisme prelacy c. are shrunk into the presbytery and our High-commission turned into an Assembly of Divines My Lord they have sate even till they have runne mad you might doe well to adjourne them to Bedlam for my Lord they are raging mad to have the innocent blood of the Anabaptists Brownists Independents c. My Lord they have over-studied themselves even wracked their wits to find out a Religion for us poore men they have beene mightily puzled about it it hath cost them the consumption of many fat pig chicken capon c. the infusion of many a cup of sacke to bring it to birth and after such dolorous pangs and bitter troubles for almost these two yeers who would have thought they would be delivered of such a ridiculous vermine called a Presbyter parturiunt montes nascitur ridiculus mus And now my Lord after this montanous delivery they are at their wits end what dressing to put it out in all the Taylors in the Kingdome are not able to content them what to doe they know not and now the matter 's worse then ever it was they had thought to have shewne the world it in the godly shape of Reformation but upon examination 't is found to be Persecution a sad event there is no way now but Bedlam for our Doctors it may chance to chastise them into their wits againe and then upon their second thoughts it may be they 're bethink themselves to put a blew bonnet upon'● and then it will passe from England to Scotland and Scotland to England againe without question or controle Page 93. Good my Lord have mercy upon me I beseech your honour even for the Clergy sake have mercy upon me consider my Lord that in my death is their ruine it will be the greatest inroad upon the Divines of Christendome that ever was made Oh! I beseech you my Lord. by the Mystery of their holy Convocation by their agony and bloody sweat by their crosse and passion at my shamefull approaching death and burial Good Lord deliver me By their glorious resurrection and assention from the Pulpit above the State by the comming of the holy Ghost to them in a cloak-bag from Scotland Good Lord deliver me By the late solemne League and Covenant by the 400. and 50. l. for the Copy of their Directory because they could get no more by all the fat Benefices and goodly revenues of the Clergy Good Lord deliver me Page 43. 44. It is the sentence of this Court concerning Sir Simon and Sir Iohn Presbyter who have thus Jesuitically endeavoured to pervert the Justce of this Court That Sir Simon be committed close prisoner to King Henry the eights chappell there to be kept in Parliamentary safe custody till the Great Assiges held in the first yeere of the Raigne of our Soveraigne Lord Christ when the Kingdom and the greatnesse of the Kingdoms under the whole Heaven shall be given to the Saints of the most high there and then to be arraigned with the rest of his holy Tribe whether universal national provincial or consistorial counsels or Synods whatsoever before his Highnesse the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and my Lord in the meane time to keep his Holinesse in action I beseech your Honour

to order under Mulcts and Penalties how we shall worship and serve God Section II. Comprizing their seditious scandalous libellous and daring passages against sundry Ordinances and Proceedings of this present Parliament in particular not to be paralel'd in any Age nor tolerable in this THeir intolerable libellous seditious passages of this nature are so many and various that I must branch them into severall Heads I shall 1. begin with their Invectives against the severall Ordinances of both Houses of Parliament for the regulating of Printing and suppressing the great late abuses and frequent disorders in printing many false scandalous seditious libellous and unlicensed Pamphlets to the great defamation of Religion and Government John Libourne in his unlicensed printed Libell intituled A copy of a Letter to Master Prynne thus declares against these Ordinances pag. 2 3. But being that you and the Black-coats in the Synod have not dealt fairly with your Antagonists in stopping the Presse against us while things are in debate yea robbing us of our Liberty as we are Subjects in time of freedome when the Parliament is sitting who are sufficiently able to punish that man whatsoever he be that shall abuse his Penne so that whilst we are with the hazard of our dearest lives fighting for the Subjects Liberty we are brought into Egyptian bondage in this and other particulars by the Black-coats who I am afraid will prove more cruell Task masters then their deare Fathers the Bishops who cowardly sit at home in my apprehension for no other end but to breed faction and division amongst the wel-affected to to the Parliament promoting thereby their owne interest which is Lazinesse Pride Covetousnesse and Domination endeavouring to lay lower then the dust a generation of men whom they falsly call Sectaries that have in the uprightnesse of their hearts without Synodianlike ends ventured all they have in the world for the good of the Parliament and the Common-wealth of England and who may bid defiance to all their adversaries that brand them with unfaithfulnesse so that by meanes of which I have not been able that way yet to accomplish my earnest desire and truly it argues no manhood nor valour in you not the Black-coats by force to throw us downe and tye our hands and then to fall upon us to beat and buffet us for if you had not been men that had been afraid of your Cause you would have been willing to have fought and contended with us upon even ground and equall termes namely that the Presse might be as open for us as for you and as it was at the beginning of this Parliament which I conceive the Parliament did of purpose that so the free borne English Subjects might enjoy their Liberty and Priviledge which the Bishops had learned of the Spanish Inquisition to rob them of by locking it up under the key of an Imprimatur in whose tyrannicall steps the Synod treads so that you and they think you may rayle at us cum privilegio and ranke us amongst the worst and basest of men as rooters up of Parliaments and disturbers of States and Common-wealths The scurrilous blaspemous unlicensed Libell stiled The Arraignment of Persecution thus contemptuously affronts jeers this Ordinance with the Parliament Synod and Directory in the very Title Page This is licensed and printed according to holy Order but not entred into the Stationers Monopoly and in the opposite page Die Saturni April 6. 1645. It is Decreed and Ordained by the Reverend Assembly of Divines now Assembled in holy convocation that Doctor Burgesse and Master Edwands doe returne thanks unto the worthy Author of this Treatise intituled The Arraignment of persecution for his pious endeavours and vigilant care he hath therein at the entreaty of this Synod And it is further Ordained that they doe desire him to print and publish the said Treatise forthwith and that it be recommended to the people as a divine Hand-maid to the right understanding of the Directory And it is yet further Decreed and Ordained that none shall presume to print or re-print the said Treatise but whom he shall authorize under his owne hand writing till this most holy Synod shall further Order Scribes Henry ROborough Adoniran Byfield I appoint my divine Cozin MARTIN CLAW-CLERGY Printer to the Assembly of Divines and none else to print this Treatise Young MARTIN MAR-PRIEST What more audacious jeering affront could be afforded to the Commons or Assembly then this feigned libellous Order In the Book it selfe page 2. Persecution had a thousand trucks above all the rest for to block up all passages stop all mouths and fortifie himselfe round he turned reverend imprima●ur and here the pursuer was at a stand for all was as fast as the Devil and the Presbyters could make it They sought to authority to o●en the Presse and still the Presbyters as the custome is were in the way that nothing could be done P. 10. This fellow Persecution stoppeth Presses whereby men cannot make their just defence suffers nothing to be licensed printed preached or otherwise published but what himselfe alloweth and having thus bound the hands and stopt the mouths of all good men then he comes forth in print against them like an armed man and furiously assaults them exaults and exalts himselfe over them faineth Arguments for them and then like a valiant Champion gives them a conquering Answer and thus puts them to flight and pursues them with revi●ings scandals forgeries and opprobrious nick-names as Anababaptists Br●wnists Independents Scismatiques Heretiques Thus he dealeth with the godly party How godly you are well appeareth to all the world by these your libellous seditious ungodly Pamphlets The libellous Book in pursuance of this stiled A sacred Decretall c. proceeds in the same language page 24. Lest they should fall upon our reare under pretence of suppressing the Kings papers we bounded the Presse with our Presbyterian compasse that they could not without hazard of plundering transgresse our reverend Imprimatur Then issued out witlesse scholastick Tractates against the Anabaptists c. Having thus neatly stopt their mouths we sophisticated their Arguments c. and then with our politick Answers we present them to the people with an Imprimatur JAMES CRANFORD or the like We imploy Doctor Featly's Devil a very reverend ten pound Sir John to make a discription of the Anabapti●●s c. and this foule spirit for the love he beares to the Black-coats at the Doctors decease transmigrated into old Ephram Pag●t seldome lyes the Devil dead in a dry ditch so that the good old man to confute the mortality of the soule hath made himselfe sure of an immortall spirit Many such scurrilous passages against the Ordinances for regulating printing made by both Houses speciall care and direction before the Assembly met are scattered in their libellous pamphlets which I pretermit wherein they write ●s if there were neither heaven

God-fathers and God-mothers Pers My Lord Master Ecclesiasticall supremacy and Master Scotch-government are my God-fathers Mistris State-ambition and Mistris Church-revenue are my God-mothers and I was sprinkled into the Assembly of Divines at the taking of the late SOLEMNE LEAGVE AND COVENANT Judg. 'T is strange that at the making of the late solemne League and Covenant blood-thirsty persecution should be anabaptized present Reformation then HERE 's A DESIGNE OF BLOOD IN THE COVENANT if under the name of Reformation the Clergy have infused the trayterous blood-thirsty spirit of persecution into it J. Human. My Lord there was never any Nationall or provinciall Synod but strengthned the hand of persecution and that under the vizor of Religion J. Reason As soon as these underling Divines are from under their Episcopall Taskmasters and beginning to encroach upon your Lordships power they presently take this notorious bloody traytor persecution stript by your Lordship of his High-commission habit and out of their zeale dresse him in a divine synodicall Garbe and change name from persecution and christen him Reformation so to engage your Lordship and the Kingdome of England and Scotland in blood to settle and establish bloody persecution BY COVENANT over the Consciences of honest and faithfull men to the State under the specious and godly pretence of Reformation page 39. By the late SOLEMNE LEAGVE and COVENANT good Lord deliver us The sacred Decretal runnes in the same straine page 13. 19. When we had introduc'd the Brethren of the holy League we so joyned their hands in the Synodian hands of Presbytery that their League could not be inviolate their COVENANT the bed of their contract undefiled if our presbitry were not concluded Martyn will tell the people that we contrive Oaths and COVENANTS meerly to ensnare and catch the people in our wiles make them carry a face of Reformation according to the Word of God and thereby betray their innocent subscription to our presbyterian construction John Lilbourne in the unlicensed printed Reasons of sending this Letter pag 4. complaines against the Parliament that the COVENANT was as earnestly prest upon tender consciences though their faithfulnesse were no what doubtfull as upon Newtrals and Malignants and refusing because of some expressions put from Offices of trust and publike imployments Yet most of our sectaries and Independents in immitation of the Cavaleers have entred into Ants covenants against this SOLEMNE COVENANT in their private Congregations to defend● and maintaine their owne Independent government even to blood c. whatever forme of government the Parliament shall establish the very extremity and height of seisme and sedition if not of professed rebellion against supreame Authority which makes them thus to villifie traduce and contemptuously refuse the taking of this SOLEMN COVENANT and plead exemption from it for feare of dis-ingaging so faithfull considerable A PARTY as they have in the Army who in time perchance will prescribe their new Church-covenants unto us or else exclude us from our Native soyle as now they doe from their Independent Congregations and the Sacraments unlesse we will submit unto them Section IV. Containing sundry scurrilous seditious libellous railing and blasphemous Invectives against the Assembly of Divines the Presbyterian Members of it and their proceedings though summoned nominated continued and directed in all things by Ordinances of both Houses of Parliament BEfore this Assembly met by Order of both Houses or had given intimation what kind of Ecclesiasticall Government they intended to fix upon our Independent sectaries not only petitioned for such an Assembly to be called but made meanes that as many of their party as possible might be elected Members of it But when at last they discerned the Assembly and Parliament to dis-affect their anomolous absurd Independent way as having no foundation in Divinity nor Policy and tending to utter confusion in Church State and thereupon to incline to a Presbiteriall government embraced by all reformed Churches in the Christian world upon this they presently begin to declaime against the Assembly and their proceedings in private and soon after to libell against them in-publike with such unchristian uncivill approbrious Billingsgate termes as I am confident no Oxford Aulicus or Satyricall cavaleere is able to paralell their very tongues and pens being doubtlesse set on fire of hell And not contented herewith they lately conspired together to exhibit a petition to the Parliament for present dissolving the Assembly and sending them hence to country cures to prevent the setling of any Church-government to which end they met at the Windmil Taverne where Lievteu Col. John Lilbourne a fit instrument for such a seditious designe sate in the chaire and Master Hugh Peter suggested the advice which was accordingly inserted into the Petition but the counsell-men smelling out the designe when the Petition came to their hands most discreetly left out that request as seditious and unjust which yet the libellous Author of Martyns Echho page 15. hath since in wish renewed in these scandalous termes You have as neere as you can made a third party in labouring by your Jesuiticall machiavilian subtilty to divide the Parliament contrary to the trust reposed in them from the godly party who have assisted them with their estates and blood and to deny those their faithfull friends of their just deservings their purchased freedomes which should they doe they would be branded as infamous to posterity even unfaithfull ungratefull c. at meliora spero I hope better of them if your wicked Machiavilian Assembly were but taken from them and sent to their particular charges In what sort they have libelled against them hath partly appeared in other Sections but I shall give you a more particular account thereof in this I shall begin with that most infamous seditious railing Libell intituled The Arraignment of persecution the whole scope whereof against the Assembly is thus boldly expressed in the very Title page The Arraignment of Master Persecution presented to the consideration of the House of Commons and to all the Common people of England In the prosecution whereof the Iesuiticall designes and secret encroachments of his Defendants Sir Simon Synod and the John of all Sir Johns Sir John Presbiter upon the liberty of the subject is detected and laid open by reverend young Martyn Marpriest sonne to old Martyn the Metropolitan printed by Martyn Claw-Clergy Printer to the reverend Assembly of Divines for Bartholinew Bang-Priest and are to be sold at his shop in Toleration-street at the signe of the subjects liberty right opposite to Persecution-court 1645. The seigned License and Epistle Dedicatory to the Assembly before it are altogether libellous as is the whole book against the Assembly and its Members I shall give you only a taste of some phrases and epithites in it viz. Such a holy such a reverend Assembly such a Quagmire of croaking skip-jack Presbiters A reverend synodian disguised with a sophisticall paire of breeches saving your presence in

a true married estate and condition even so say I the Church of England neither is nor never was truly married joyned or united to Jesus Christ in that espousall band which his true Churches are and ought to be but is one of Antichrists Nationall Whorish Churches or Cities spoken of Rev. 16. 19. Vnited joyned knit to the Pope of Lambeth as Head and Husband thereof being substitute to the Pope of Rome from whom he hath received his Arch-Episcopall power and Authority Pag. 18. Your Church is false and Antichristian Therefore if every Parish in England had power in themselves which in the least they have not to choose and make their own Officers yet for all this they would be false for a false and Antichristian Church as yours is can never make true Officers and Ministers of Iesus Christ and though that the Churches of the Separation want Apostles in personall presence to lay hands upon their Officers which lawfully they choose out from among themselves yet have they their Laws Rules and Directions in writing which is their Office and is of as great Authority as their personall presence Pag. 19. And thus have I sufficiently by the Authority of the Sacred Word of God proved all your Officers and Ministers false and Antichristian and none of Christs which if you can groundedly contradict shew your best skill chalenge I you and put you to prop to hold up your tottering and sandy Church and Ministry or else your great brags will prove no better then winde and Fables and you your self found to be a Liar Pag. 22. And as for these two things Of Conversion and confirmation or building up in the wayes of God which you speak of if you mean by conversion and opening of the eyes to turn them from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God or if you mean by conversion a deliverance from the power of darknesse and a translation into the Kingdom of the Son of God both of which the Apostles Ministry did accomplish in the hearts and lives of Gods people Act. 26. 18. Coll. 1. 13. I absolutely deny it that your Ministery in England doth this And therefore I desire you to declare what you mean by Conversion and prove your definition by the holy Scripture and also prove that you in England are so converted which when you have done I shall further answer you by Gods assistance and as for their building them up in the wayes of God as all true Shepherds ought to build up their sheep as Acts 26. 1 Pet. 5. Yet I deny it that your Ministers do it for how can they build them up in that which they themselves are ignorant of and enemies unto for as Jannes and Jambres which withstood Moses so do these men also resist the Truth being men of corrupt mindes and destitute of the truth 2 Tim. 3. 8. And do feed you with husks and Chaffe being neither willing to imbrace it themselves nor to let those that would as their constant preaching and speaking against the truth of God and the Kingdom of his Son doth witnesse c. I have taken the pains by the Word of God and demonstrable Arguments grounded thereupon to prove the Church of England Antichristian I do promise you I will by the strength of the Lord of Hosts for ever seperate from Church Ministery and Worship in England all and every one of them as Antichristian and false Yet thus much I say and do acknowledge and the Scripture proves it that God hath a people or an elect number in spirituall Babylon yea in the Kingdom of Antichrist part of which the Church of England is and none of them shall perish but be eternally saved yet I say it is the duty of all Gods Elect and chosen ones that are yet in the Whorish bosome of the Church of England or in any part of Antichrists Regiment to separate away from it and come out of it least God plague them for their staying there Pag. 23. All the Ministers of the Church of England are not true Ministers of Christ but false and Antichristian Ministers of Antichrist Pag. 24. And as for your Minor and Assumption which is that you in the Church of England do enjoy and outwardly submit your selves to the true worship of God It is most false and a notorious lie and untruth and as well might wicked Faux and the rest of the Gunpowder-Plotters say that they submitted unto Noble King James Laws and Scepter when they went about to blow up the Parliament House that so they might destroy him and all his for you do not only oppose and justle ou● the true worship of God and throw down and trample upon the Scepter of Jesus Christ his son but also you set up false and Antichristian Worship the inventer of which is the Devil and the Man of sin his eldest and most obedient Son Pag. 26 27. Now from that which I have said I frame these Arguments 1. That Worship which is of the Devils and Antichrists invention institution and setting up is no true Divine worship But the Worship of the Church of England is of the Devils and Antichrists invention institution and setting up as Revel 13. doth fully prove Ergo the Worship of the Church of England is no true Worship 2. That Worship which is a main means and Cause of pulling down the Kingdom of Iesus Christ and establishing maintaining and upholding the Kingdom of the Devil and Antichrist and sends more souls to Hell then all the wickednesse impiety ungodlinesse in the Kingdom doth besides is no true worship of God but ought to be detested and abhorred of all his people But such is the worship of the Church of England Ergo c. Pag. 29. I absolutely deny your Argument and affirme that your Religion neither is the true Religion nor that it leads men the true way to salvation Pag. 37 38. I groundedly and absolutely deny that either the Church of England is or ever was a true Church and till you have proved it true all the pains that you have taken in proving that it is possible for corruptions evil livers to be in a true Church is spent in vain and to no purpose and I am confident that you nor none else will ever be able to prove the Church of England true nor any other Nationall Church for Christ Jesus by his death did abolish the Nationall Church of the Iews with all their Laws Rites and Ceremonies thereof and in the New Testament did never institute no Nationall Church nor left no Laws nor Officers for the governing thereof but the Church that he instituted are free and Independent bodies or Congregations depending upon none but only upon Christ their Head Therefore Nationall Churches under the Gospel are of Antichrists that man of sins institution and ordaining who only hath ordained Laws and Officers of his own for the governing of them Therefore for you

the Court shall be censured upon or else which they most ayme at to have us contrary to knowledge and conscience acknowledge we have wronged them and there in open Court before the Countrey confesse our selves sorry for what we have done this is our misery yea if I shall speak much more write in our owne defence against their Independent Church laying open their factious and schismaticall government and their envying against our Church and Church government and Discipline though they have proofes and grounds sufficient by the word of God to convince them the which I could never yet see disproved by them together with my name annexed thereunto yet if he threaten me for boldnesse herein to have a Counsell Table called against me I am sure of it and there to bee baited and banded to and againe by a whole Counsell together with our Schismaticall Divines even as a Beare at a stake not one to speak one word in my defence nor in the defence of Gods cause but with an unanimous consent and voyce my writings exclaimed against pronounced Libels and ignominious and slanderous writings though none of them approved so to be nor disproved for the Truth I stand for yet shall I be censured by them for them bound to my good behaviour put in sureties and if at any time afterwards I shall divulge any thing either by pen or tongue against this Independent Church their Governours or Government Doctrine or the like I must then presently be declared infamous and lie in prison till to the contrary we heare out of England yea however for want of Sureties in this case to lie in prison notwithstanding till I can or doe put in Sureties the which I did for the space of five weeks to my great damage and charge and also detriment being an aged poore man of 74 yeares of age and five nights in the cold winter time almost drowned in the prison with raine and sore tempestuous weather having no shelter to save my selfe dry These with other things have I undergon too large for to relate and that chiefely from this White of this Independent Church Pastor I meane by his meanes for if hee sayit it must and shall be by our Rulers who indeed ought to be chiefe instruments in removing and casting out such venomous vermine out of both Church and Common-weal●● But how can it be expected when they themselves are inconfederacy with him and joyne hand in to work wickednesse therefore whoever speaks or writes against one doth it against all therefore with a cunning sleight they put it off as not being done in the behalfe of their Church but as that by it I labour the subversion of the peace of our Countrey as much as in me lay as though our Countreys peace rested wholly upon the planting of this their Independent Church whereby they have made more and greater breaches as can be manifestly proved then ever they will be able to make good both in Church and Common wealth yea in private families also the husband against the wife the wife against the husband the children against the parents the parents against the children and the like according as your selfe have worthily noted in your twelve Interrogatories Is not this a great misery in so little a spot even a handfull of people Oh miserable times Oh unhappy conditions Now if you demand a title or name of this their Church or from whence derived I cannot answer you for I suppose themselves know not only framed of their fancie and braines only to get themselves a name fame and popular applause and estimation of the world But thus much I am sure of it is derived partly from the Anabaptists partly from the Brownists but most especially from the Donatists having in it a smatch of each however they feign it to the Church of New England which as they say is the purest Church this day in the world yet come they farre wide of it so that it is but their saying not their doing But grant that they were in their way aright yet hold it we not requisite that their examples should be rules to us to walk by seeing that both the one and the other have beene constituted and erected by an indirect way without the advice and approbation of lawfull Authority of King Parliament and Synod the which our men say they are not to attend or waite upon Princes nor Parliaments leisures the cause being Christs owne and depending only and alone upon him and not upon any humane power and they his servants and Christ their Lord it refteth on them in his behalfe to doe it it being a spirituall and no carnall work And againe some of them have said it that Parliament and Synod can establish no other Church Discipline or Government then theirs unlesse they will goe contrary to the word of God this hath beene publikely delivered yea by the same party such stuffe hath beene delivered that hath made all modest and shamefull faces to blush eares to glow and hearts to grieve that hath heard it yea and that upon dayes of humiliation making divers people both objects and subjects openly to work upon thundering out punishments and judgements both spirituall and temporall against divers persons as though they had both swords in their owne power or as though they had absolutely knowne Gods secret decree and this hath beene held for sound and good Orthodox Doctrine when divers have repented of their hearing and these not once nor twice but often Infinite might I relate even from their owne mouthes which would make wise men admire but I must passe over them to avoyd tediousnesse to my selfe and trouble to you And that in your wisedome you may the better conceive of this their Church The first beginning was a certaine Feast held every week at severall houses which Feast they called a loblolly Feast which for the common fare of our Countrey is as our watergruell in England so they would have it but of a common food at which Feast each did strive to excell another in the difference of making it after they had once gotten a certaine number unto them and so of an ordinary food they made it extraordinary yea so extraordinary that some in few meetings were forced to sell the feathers out of their bedding for milk butter and creame to feed them withall and to make their Loblolly the more dainty and toothsome others againe to maintaine this Feast for one dayes entertainment themselves and whole family must pinch for it two or three months after by which Feast by the shew of neighbourhood or Feast of Love though never none was found in short time they encreased in every parish to a pretty number At which Feast also their bellies and stomacks being well gormondized the Minister propoundeth certaine questions unto them by way of catechising of his owne framing for halfe an howre which each had in writing one from another and

of all persons here and of whom he will certainly require it if such an evill as is threatned should befall through your neglect For although the great Antichrist and his Clergy did prevaile to perswade Christian Princes and Magistrates that the Government of the Church and care of Religion pertained not to them but to the Clergy and the like is now here preached amongst us yet I verily trust you entertain no such false principle For to establish true Religion to maintain it and to see that the duties of Religion be duly performed to God and man is almost all that the Law requireth and so is almost if not all the duty of the Christian Magistrate And this being taken from him and put upon the Clergy he may serve as an officer to execute what the Clergy shall decree but ceaseth in a manner wholly to be a Magistrate Thus commending you to the tuition and direction of Almighty God I rest March 6. 1642. Your Worships in all due observance RICH. NORWOOD An Advertisement to such here as have care of the Conservation of true Religion IT is and ought to be the principall care of every good Christian to conserve the knowledge and exercise of true Religion in himselfe and others being the one thing necessary But from this these times have much declined everywhere and even in our deare native Countrey so farre as called for a speedy Reformation or threatned ruine And seeing little hope of the one the latter was justly feared by many and by my selfe I confesse amongst others being the principall cause of my comming hither But the Lord hath mercifully stayed those feares and given us fresh hopes by the Reformation in so great a measure begun by the present Parliament which also they endeavour through many difficulties to accomplish more fully And considering how worthily they have begun and what great things they have effected above all expectation we have no cause to mis-doubt them nor to anticipate their Honourable proceedings but rather to attend what shall be determined by them especially considering that wee of this place as wee have not beene much burthened except by some Ministers so now we are altogether unburthened of the Ceremonies and whatsoever else hath usually beene offensive to good Christians in England For if we should set up a new Government or Discipline and forme of Religion here wee must alter it againe when wee understand out of England what forme the Parliament have or shall establish Some say no our Ministers are as supreame heads under Christ of their severall Churches here and not subordinate in these things Ecclesiasticall to Parliament or any other power upon earth whatsoever but this opinion savors too much of Antichristian pride and presumption Others say the Parliament will establish the same forme that our Ministers will set up here but these conjectures doe much wrong that Honourable Assembly for if the matter were so easie and evident that our Ministers here can presently determine it then what need the Parliament so long to debate and consider of it What need such consultation with the ablest Divines in England and many other from all parts And why hath there beene such difference of opinions touching this matter even amongst the most godly and learned in Christendome for these 100 years together I remaines therefore that wee must change againe when we heare from thence and considering what changes have beene made by some already if we should now make another change in setting up a new Discipline and shortly after another when we heare out of England such mutability would neither be safe for this place not suteable to the stedfastnesse of the Church and people of God which is the Pillar and ground of truth and must not be wavering and carried about with every winde of Doctrine c. The Apostle makes it a signe of a double minded man to be unstable in all his wayes and in the Epistle to the Hebrewes Be not carried about with divers and strange Doctrines c. And the Prophet saith Why runnest thou about so much to change thy wayes It will be answered we intend not to change but to the better but withall remember that such is alwayes the pretence and oft-times the intent in all Innovations whatsoever Therefore Solomon saith My sonne feare God and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change Not but that even the best Christians may al●er sometimes in some circumstances of Religion some good and weighty causes requiring it but it must not be through levity nor of an high minde nor for selfe ends A restlesse levity and that with contempt of Authority under pretence of greater and new lights is a dangerous signe of an Anabaptisticall spirit Therefore I say what we change ought to be done with the feare of God and the King In the feare of God namely according to his Word and with the feare of the King that is consenting with the Lawes and Soveraigne Authority set over us or at least not with an high hand in contempt thereof For every soule must be subject to the higher powers yea saith Chrysostome though he be an Apostle though an Evangelist though a Prophet Therefore I could wish as I have often perswaded that wee might stay for the determination of the Parliament in these things and likewise the approbation of the Company in those that concern● them But because some here are very impetuous and a further change is daily preached and pressed amongst us I have little hope to stop the violence of this streame Therefore to the intent we may understand and consider what to doe and as the saying is look before we leap I should in the next place desire as many others doe and as it concerns us all to desire of them and of our Ministers especially that they would be pleased to set down in writing whatsoever new thing in Doctrine or Discipline they would have us entertaine different from the practice or tenents of the Church of England that so each thing being well considered examined and adjudged by the Word of God we may entertaine or reject it accordingly I know there are sundry Objections alleadged and pretended more then I need to repeat or answer here For howsoever it is true that we are to submit our selves to the Word of God I meane the holy Scriptures in all things yet not so to men especially when they seek themselves in stead of Christ No though they tell us they are the mouth of God and sit in Moses chaire and therefore must be heard and obeyed and that the government of the Church belongeth to them next under Christ and that even Caiaphas though a persecutor of Christ yet when he had the place of High-priest he prophesied the truth And though they tell us we must not strive with the Priest nor reprove our R●prover and though they accuse us to have rejected and opposed more

the Ministry I have no such meaning neither doe I think a worthy Minister to be unworthy or unfit for other the most eminent Offices or callings in Church or Common-wealth were it not that he hath a most eminent calling already sufficient to take up the whole man and unmeet to be yoaked with other callings as the Apostle saith who is sufficient for these things And the Apostles doe reject such employments with a kinde of contempt saying It is not meat that we should leave the word of God to serve Tables and a little after we will give our selves continually to prayer and to the Ministry of the Word intimating that these things would hinder them from prayer and the ministry of the Word whereby it appeares they would not be Deacons nor take upon them any other Office in or over the Church but spend themselves wholly in the word and prayer the like might be manifested by sundry other Scriptures And the evill of it hath beene so generally observed in England that as I heard Queene Elizabeth when she had conferred upon a Minister authority and power to rule was wont to say I have spoyled a good Preacher to day And surely if we observe it the desire of Superiority and Dominion in or over the Church in Ministers and Clergy men and the readinesse of Princes and people to conferre it upon them hath been a principall if not the principall cause in corrupting Religion from time to time and of setting up the great Antichrist and many others as might easily be shewed if it were not an argument too long for this place Thus farre through the gracious assistance of God I have expressed my minde in this matter to the intent I might stop so much as in me lies the setting up of a new Discipline and Government of our owne framing seeing we are already freed of all those things that have usually beene burthensome and offensive to good Christians in England and that we expect daily the further determination and decree of the Honourable Assembly of Parliament in these things Or if I cannot prevaile so farre as to stop it yet that wee might look before we leap and understand well what we doe before we doe it Or if neither that may be obtained yet hence it will appeare that my selfe and some others deserve no blame much lesse such evill speeches as are usually vented against us by some because we will not rashly runne with them we know not whether And lastly I desire that this may be a publike testimony of my judgement in these things For to be present and heare them daily pressed and to bee alwayes silent is taken for a signe of consent and approbation March 1. 1642. RICH. NORWOOD Postscript SInce this Advertisement of mine came abroad though but a month what horrible forespeakings threatnings imprecations and censures have beene publikely denounced against me in severall parts of the Countrey I shall not need to repeat being too well knowne Neither will I answer them accordingly lest I also be like them I will only in the feare of God and by the comfortable assistance of his holy Spirit apply that saying How should they curse where God hath not cursed Or how should they detest where the Lord hath not detested And those words of David It may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction and doe me good for his cursing this day A desperate thing it is for men to blaspheme against some good light and what is it to acknowledge the good gifts and graces of God in those which they so bitterly preach against and to overwhelm them all with most foule and feigned susspicions and aspersions without cause As when they say Satan will not use profane and wicked men but he makes choise of those that are of good and able parts men of a religious life of a blamelesse conversation these close hypocrites he makes his instruments to oppose the Kingdom of Christ that is their intended Discipline c. with other like speeches I say it is very dangerous for men thus to give way to wrath and malice The Scribes and Pharisces did see and would no doubt have acknowledged the eminent gifts and graces that shined in our Saviour if he would have applied them to the establishing of their Faction But because he would not doe so they maliciously traduced him and said he had an uncleane spirit but he reproves their desperate wickednesse shewing how nearly they did approach or became guilty of the sinne against the Holy Ghost And let every man take heed how they doe cunningly fasten slanders or otherwise shew despight unto the spirit of Grace because it will not be subordinate unto their ends I could wish also they would consider the words of Marsilius Patavinus in his Book entituled Defender of the Peace Where speaking of those that presume to frame or presse Orders Decrees and other parts of Discipline without license of the true Law-giver or Prince and endeavour to draw people to the observation of them by surreptitious words as it were compelling them by threatning eternall damnation to such as transgresse them or denouncing execrations reproachfull speeches excommunications slanders revilings or other maledictions against them or any of them in word or writing such saith he are to suffer corporall punishment in a most high degree as conspirators and stirrers up of civill schisme or division in a Common-wealth For it is saith he a most grievous kinde of treason because it is committed directly against the Royall Majesty of the Prince and his Soveraigne Authority and tendeth to set up a plurality of supreame authorities or powers and so of necessity to the dissolution or overthrow of every civill Government They object also that I am but a Lay-man and therefore should not meddle with matters of Divinity applying that Proverb Ne sutor ultra crepidam and saying that even the Sunne Moone and Starres wherein he hath skill should teach him that lesson which alwayes move in their owne spheares except they be wandring starres for whom the blacknesse of darknesse is reserved for ever with many other bitter expressions But this is an old plea of the Popish Clergy to hold the people in ignorance and thraldome and should not be taken up by those that would seeme to be more opposite to Popery then Protestants are That eminent and blessed Divine Doctor Sibbes was of another minde who speaking in commendation of Mr Sherland that was no Preacher disdaines not to say he had good skill in controverted points of Divinity and that he was a good Divine And surely the calling of a Christian is of that importance that he must if need so require omit whatsoever calling he have besides to make good that one most necessary neither can he justly be charged to move out of his spheare whensoever he meddles with matters of Christianity and Religion especially such points as he is pressed to embrace and submit