the other that we and the whole Kingdom may enjoy that happiness which we cannot in an ordinary way of providence expect from any other Fountain or Streams than those from whence were the poyson of evil Counsels once removed from about them we doubt not but we and the whole Kingdom should be satisfied most abundantly The Philosopher * Seneca asserts That all Nations are most ready not only to guard and defend their King though old or decrepit but to preserve his life with the hazard of thousands of their own not out of any basenesse or frenzie but because it is their own interest and safety Ille est enim vinculum per quod Respublica cohaeret ille spiritus vitalis quem haec tot millia trahunt nihil ipsa per se futura nisi onus praeda si mens illa imperii subtrahatur * Rege incolumi mens omnibus una Amisso rupêre fidem Hic casus Romanae I may add Anglicae pacis exitium erit hic tanti fortunam populi in ruinas aget Tamdiu ab illo periculo aberit hic populus quamdiu sciat ferre fraenos quos si aliquando abruperit vel aliquo casu discussos reponi sibi passus non erit haec unitas et hic maximi Imperii contextus in partes multas dissiliet idemque huic urbi Dominandi finis erit qui parendi fuerit which we have found true by sad experience Ideo Principes Regésque non est mirum amari ultra privatas etiam necessitudines Nam si sanis hominibus publica privatis potiora sunt sequitur ut is quoque carior sit in quem se Respublica convertit Olim enim ita se induit Reip Caesar ut diduci alterum non possit sine utriusque pernicie nam ut illi viribus opus est ita et huic capite Therefore let Nedham Rogers or other Pseudo-politicians scrible what they please to flatter any prevalent ambitious covetous faction or Grandees whatsoever yet if all our antient Parliaments Lords Commons Seneca our own experience God himself or Solomon the wisest of men of Kings may be credited Prov. 24. 21. c. 28. 2. Eccles 8 2 3. c. 12 13. Hos. 10. 3 7. Hab. 1. 10 14 15. Ezech. 37. 19 to 28. Zach. 9. 9. Lam 4. 20. there is no other probable safe speedy way to prevent our ruine cloze up our breaches settle our Church State upon lasting foundations and recover their pristine honor wealth peace unity prosperity but by restoring our hereditary King and Kingship the real Interest of all England and of Scotland and Ireland too both as Men and Christians which we ought in prudence justice conscience dutie pietie loyaltie now zealously constantly unanimously to pursue against all contradictions oppositions of any private persons parties self-interests whatsoever who if they had any true fear of God any conscience of their former Oathes Protestations Vows Covenants Declarations Remonstrances any Loyaltie to their hereditarie King any bowels of compassion or cordial affection to their Native Countries peace safety ease settlement or zeal to the Reformed Religion would like that heroick publike spirited Pagan Roman Emperor * Otho chuse rather to make a voluntary sacrifice of themselves and all their usurped power as he did against all the dissuasions of his Army Soldiers Friends relinquishing the Empire to Vitellius his competitor than imbroil the Empire and Romans any longer in bloudy destructive wars not against Hannibal Pyrrhus or any other common Enemies of Rome but against the Romans themselves wherein both the Conquerors and conquered did but weaken ruine and destroy their own Country Nation by their contests and make themselves a derision prey to their forein Enemies as our Grandees do now For the Negative That the late revived yet unformed Commonwealth and its future establishment to prevent a Relapse to Kingly Government neither is nor can be Englands true interest as men or Christian is evident by the premises and these ensuing Reasons 1. It never was once in imagination or projection of the Parliament or Army before the year 1648. but only of the Jesuites Campanella and our Spanish French Popish adversaries purposely to ruine our Protestant Kings Kingdom Religion 2. It was professedly disclamed * voted declared against as Treasonable and destructive to the being of Parliaments and fundamental Government of the Kingdom when objected by the Kings party 1642. and propounded to the House by the Levellers and Agitators by both Houses of Parliament and the General Council of Officers in the Army in June July August November 1647. 3. The Commonwealth contested for as Englands Interest is as yet but only Ens in potentia or meer Chaos a rudis indigestaque moles b without form and void and darkness is upon the face of it the chief Sticklers for it being not yet accorded what kinde of creature it shall be and much divided both in their debates judgements affections opinions concerning it Some would have it to be an c Aristocraty others a Democraty many a Theocraty some an Oligarchy Many are for a Roman some for an Athenian others for a Lacedemonian not a few for a Venetian another partie for a Helvetian or Dutch Commonwealth Some for a vast body with two heads others for a head with two bodies a third sort for a body without any head printing against each others models with much eagerness Now that such an Individuum vagum rude Chaos and Commonwealth as this not yet agreed upon should be Englands Interest and THE GOOD OLD CAUSE as Rogers Nedham Harrington and others would make men believe is not only a Fancy but Frenzy to assirm seeing Englands Interest was ever in being since it was a Kingdom and their Vtopian Republike like the Chymists Philosophers-stone never yet in esse but in fieri or fancy at the most and a meer NEW NOTHING as their Mercuries inform us 4ly The late unshaped revived Commonwealth and pretended Free State at its first erection like a prodigious All devouring unsatiable Monster raised our monethly contributions from 30. to one hundred and sixscore thousand pounds contribution each moneth and since its new revival hath raised a whole years tax upon our exhausted purses in 3. Months space and then imposed no lesse than one hundred thousand pounds each Moneth in lieu of the former 35 thousand besides Excises Customs New intollerable Militiaes amounting to thrice as much more Besides it consumed all the Crown-lands Church-lands publike Revenues of our 3. Kingdoms with thousands of Delinquents estates all alienated dissipated being more expensive oppressive wastefull to our Nation in ten years space than all our Kings since the Norman Conquest or Saxon line only to make us greater slaves to our late Mercinary Army Servants Fellow Subjects than ever we were to our beheaded King or any of his roial predecessors whose a loyns were nothing so heavy as their little finger chastising us with
A Brief Necessary VINDICATION Of the Old and New SECLUDED MEMBERS from the false malicious CALVMNIES AND Of the Fundamental Rights Liberties Privileges Government Interest of the Freemen Parliaments People of England from the late avowed Subversions 1. Of John Rogers in his Un-christian Concertation with Mr. Prynne and others 2. Of M Nedham in his Interest will not lie Wherein the true Good Old Cause is asserted the false routed The old secluded Members cleared from all pretended breach of trust The old Parliament proved to be totally dissolved by the Kings death The sitting Juncto to be no Parliament and speedily to be dissolved by the Army-Officers The Oathes of Supremacy Allegiance Fealty to the King his Heirs and Successors to be still binding continuing The New Commonwealth to be the Iesuites Project Ch. Stewart not sworn to Popery as Nedham slanders him The restitution of our Hereditary King and Kingly Government not an Vtopian Republike evidenced beyond contradiction to be Englands true Interest both as Men and Christians and the only way to peace safety settlement By WILLIAM PRYNNE of Swainswick Esq a Bencher of Lincolns-Inne Jer. 51. 9 10. We would have healed ENGLISH BABYLON but she would not be healed forsake her and let us go every one to his own Country for her judgement reacheth unto heaven and is lifted up even to the skies The Lord hath brought forth our righteousness come and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God Ps. 63. 11. But the mouth of them that speak Lies shall be stopped London Printed and are to be sold by Edward Thomas at the Adam and Eve in Little Britain 1659. A brief necessary Vindication of the Old and New secluded Members c. ON the 17. of this instant September during my private retirement in the Country for my health and quiet I received 2. Books fraught with malicious calumnies bitter scoffs insufferable Reproaches against my Self and other secluded Members yea destructive to the very fundamental Rights Liberties Privileges Government Interest of the Freemen Parliaments and Realm of England for which we have so many years contested The 1. of these thus intituled A Christian Concertation with M. Prynne M. Baxter M. Harrington for the true Cause of the Commonwealth c. by J Rogers A most scurrillous Pasquil fraught with absurd impertinencies conjuring canting new-coyned a swelling words of vanity odious comparisons bitter scoffs rayling Epethites b loathsom stinking obscene Queres defiling the very air c boyish tricks playing with mens names and reputations which he d severely censures in others yet is most guilty of himself displaying him to be rather a e conjuring Sorcerer than Gospel-Minister an Apostate scoffing Lucian than sober real Christian standing much in need of the f several Pills he prescribes Mr. Baxster to purge his filthy stomack spleen brain heart pen from such rotten stinking humors for the future almost every page in his book being either g Scandalum Magnum or Scandalum Magnatum to use his own expressions often distilling from him but his h egregious flattery of his own faction The 2. Interest will not lie Or a View of Englands True Interest by Mar Nedham which had he intituled Interest will lie Or a View of Englands False Interest by Mar. England it had been a true Character of it The first most furiously chargeth me and my secluded companions in the Van the later in the Rear The one with whole Vollies of fired squibs more like a Whiffler than a Muskateer shooting nothing but wild-fire and i bitter words without bullets The other like a Trumpeter rather than a Trooper sounding a fierce charge against us with his Trumpet without wounding us with his Lance or Sword which are very obtuse To avoid prolixity impertinence and repetitions I shall reduce all the material Differences between us into 6. distinct Questions wherin I shall refute what they have published relating to my self the other secluded Members the Rights Privileges Interest of our Parliaments and Nation with all possible Brevity omitting their personal scoffs and scurrilities The 1. Question between J. Rogers and Mr. Prynne wherein Nedham hath no share is but this Whether the Defence maintenance of the true Protestant Religion the Kings royal person authority government posterity the privileges and rights of Parliament consisting of King Lords and Commons the Laws Statutes of the Land the Liberty Property of the Subject and peace safety of the Kingdom were the only True and Good Old Cause for which the long Parliament and their Armies first took up Arms in 1642. and continued them till the Treaty with the King 1648. as Mr. Prynne asserts and proves like k a Lawyer by punctual Evidences Witnesses Votes Declarations Remonstrances Ordinances of both Houses yea of the Army-Officers Generals Council during all the wars in his Good Old Cause rightly stated his True and perfect Narrative The Re-publicans and others spurious Good Old cause briefly and truly anatomized and in his Concordia Discors Or whether the erecting of a New Commonwealth and Parliament without a King and House of Lords and Majority of the Commons House upon the ruines of the late King Kingdom Parliament since 1648. to 1653. and the reviving of it May 7. 1659. by some swaying Army-Officers and the farr Minor part of the old Commons House confederating with them by meer armed power secluding the greatest Number of the surviving Members and whole House of Lords Which J. Rogers endeavors to prove like a Logician without any evidence witness but his own Ipse scripsit though l professedly disclamed by both Houses of Parliament and the Army too in sundry printed Declarations as the highest scandal never once entring into their loyal thoughts When this Logician with all his Sophistry Anatomy Pills Physick can make that which was never in being but since 1648. as we all know and himself asserts in his Concertation p. 7 9. to be the Good Old Cause in being m long before the last Parliament of King Charles for whose defence they first took up arms in 1642. Or that cause which never once entred into their thoughts and was professedly disclamed till 1648. to be the cause they proclamed and fought for from the wars beginning he must yeeld up his Spurious Good Old Cause as desperate his scurrillous Goos-quils to use his n own words dashing the GALL of his ink upon Mr. Prynnes former papers to little purpose in this particular but to blot them a little not to answer them a line nor the Argument of them in the least The 2. Question is this Whether Mr. Prynne with the Majority of the Commons House and whole House of Peers were forcibly secluded the Parliament by the Army for any real breach and forfeiture of their trusts in 1648. or ever legally impeached convicted thereof either then or since before any lawfull Judicature This Rogers briefly and not very positively
thereupon forfeit his Kingship and Crown and became a private person and enemy dissolved the Constitution both of the Kingdom and Parliament and not only violated all Law in the branches but plucked up the very root of it in destroying the Parliamentary Establishment as much as in him lay and thereby introduced another Law of Arms From whence he deduceth 3. Conclusions 1 The Justice of secluding the Members 2ly The Sufficiency of the authority that condemned and executed the King 3ly The Legality of the remaining Members continuing and sitting as the Parliament and Supreme Authority of England which after the Kings beheading and other Members and Lords seclusion descended and was transmitted to them by the Law of war for the people This he determines to be Law and Reason too sufficient to convince both Royallists and Presbyterians of the Lawfulnes of the Power and present sitting acting as a Parliament by those few Members at Westminster secluding all the rest To which I answer 1. That if the Kings death by Law Reason dissolved the Parliament in an orderly cause because his writs of summons abated by his death they could not treat with him concerning his and his Kingdoms affairs nor he consent to any Bills after his decease Which he freely grants Then by the self-same Reason Law his violent death must dissolve this Parliament as I have largely proved 2ly If the Kings levying war against the Parliament did actually dissolve the very Constitution Law of the Parliament and Kingdom and made him no King at all but a private person which he layes for his foundation then it must necessarily dissolve the Parliament and Kingdom too and make them no Parliament no Kingdom at all as well as himself no King For how can the Parliament continue when its very Constitution is dissolved 3ly By this Position it inevitably follows that we had neither King Parliament Kingdom nor any Laws at all but only of Warr from the beginning of the wars or first battel at least between the Kings and Parliaments forces many years before his death But this the King kingdom Parliament the sitting as well as secluded Members both Armies and our whole 3. kingdoms ever denied in all their Votes Orders Ordinances Declarations Remonstrances Petitions Treaties Propositions whatsoever from 1641. till December 1648. and Nedham himself in his Diurnalls and Mercuries In all which the Parliament both Houses and Army-Officers stiled him their KING and the King and his party ever stiled them the Houses of Parliament Therefore this position must be a most Notorious Falshood wherein Interest doth grosly lie 4ly Those he stiles the honest faithfull Members in their very Votes of Non addresses passed by force and fraud in their Knack for the Kings tryalâ— Impeachment Proceedings Sentence of condemnation against him after our seclusion in their Declaration of 17 Martii 1648. after his death and sundry other Papers ever stiled and acknowledged him TO BE KING and ENGLAND HIS KINGDOM notwithstanding the wars between him and the Parliament Therefore the very war did not Vnking nor make him a Private person nor dissolve the Constitution of the Kingdom and Parliament else there could not be a war against or between the King or Parliament if the war it self unkinged him unparliamented them and dissolved all their constitutions 5ly No person by the a Law of God Nature Nations the Great Charter Laws Statutes of England and Votes of Parliament ought actually to forfeit or to be ipso facto deprived of his Office Freehold Liberties Estate Life without a legal proceeding tryal conviction judgement attainder Much less then the King himself the Supreme Magistrate and Governor of the Realm in whom all have a common interest unkinged and made a private person or publike Enemy and totally deprived of his Crown and Soveraignty Therefore his actual levying war against the Parliament without before any legal impeachment conviction or sentence of deposition could not unking nor make him a private person as the cases of Edward the 2. and Richard the 2. and the b Parliaments which deprived them of their Kingships after their resignations clearly resolved against this Jesuitical new Doctrine 6ly If the King by his bare levying war against the Parliament actually lost his Kingship and became a meer private person before any sentence of deprivation then by the self-same reason law every Traitor levying war or conspiring against the King every Murderer Theef Felon corrupt Judge Justice Mayor Sherif Inferior Officer by the very committing of Treason Murder Felony Adultery Bribery Injustice and breach of their respective trusts should be actually attainted of those offences their Lands Offices presently confiscated without any Indictment trial verdict judgement against them yea every act of Adultery by any Husband or Wife should actually dissolve the bond of marriage for ever without and before any Sentence of divorce between them which * Mr. Wheatly publikely recanted as a dangerous error And how destructive such new Nedham Interest Law would prove to all mens lives liberties estates yea to every mans soul since every act of sinne by like consequence should actually damn and make even Saints themselves to fall totally and finally from Grace and Gods favor let all judicious men resolve 7ly If this be Law then had the King and Parliament upon any Treaty after the wars accorded he ought to have been new proclamed installed crowned King again and the Parliament resummoned by new writs 8ly He confesseth this to be the very principle of Barclay the Jesuit from whom he borrows it p. 34. Therefore his present Parliament and Republike built thereon are purely Jesuitical by his own confession 9ly This Jesuits position is not so bad as his He speaks not of every Civil war made by a King upon his Subjects for which there may be just occasions but only of a King warring upon his people of purpose to extirpate and destroy them which he saith it seems almost impossible any King should be so mad as ever to attempt Which the King in his war against the Parliament by his victories proceedings against the Prisoners Members Towns he took during the wars in sparing all their lives actually really and oft times verbally and professedly disclamed in all his Proclamations Speeches Remonstrances Messages to and Treaties with the Houses Therefore his war against them did neither unking him nor make him a private person and publike Enemy by this Jesuites resolution 10ly If the Kings war against the Parliament did really unking him then certainly the Generals Army-Officers and Armies actual levying war upon both Houses of Parliament by secluding securing the Members and King did really uncommission and unarmy them and made them no Officers no Army at all but a rebellious rout and all Members concurring with them therein no Members no Parliament at all The sequel is infallible Therefore Nedham must either now disclaim this desperate Jesuitical position with all his 3. Treasonable
others They doe not violate their Protestations Vows Covenants nor yet break their Oathes Whether of them are the greatest Hypocrites Impostors let the world now judge The 5. Question between J. Rogers and me alone is this Whether the Jesuites and our forein Spanish French and other Common Popish Adversaries were the Original Plotters and Vnder-hand fomentors of the change of our antient Hereditary Kingship and Kingdom into a NEW COMMON-WEALTH and of the late Exorbitant violent Proceedings against the Kings Parliament and secluded Members to accomplish this their design Mr. Prynne hath abundantly proved the affirmative by punctual Testimonies out of Parsons Campanella Watson Clerke Richelieu's Instructions Conte Galeazzo the Lord Digbies and others Letters Mutatus Polemo and other Evidences by pregnant Reasons and Demonstrations both à priori et posteriori in his Speech Memento Epistles to his New Discovery of Free-State Tyranny Jus Patronatus Seasonable Vindication The Republicans Good Old Cause anatomized and in his Narrative p. 18 19 20. 40 to 64. 85 to 89. These Evidences a J. Rogers neither doth nor can deny in any particular only he contradicts the Conclusion as not sufficiently warranted by the premises when as most judicious Protestants of all professions and degrees who have seriously perused them are abundantly satisfied and conclude the contrary to this Johannis ad oppositum who bestows whole sheets and volumes of rayling Epithites Scurrilous scoffs unchristian a obscene Queres and sarcasmes upon me only upon this accompt that I have translated the Odium and guilt of the contriving fomenting the late Gunpowder Treason which blew up our King Kingdom Parliament Lords House and Kingly Government to erect a New Republike from the Protestants to the Jesuits and those of their religion who plotted the old one and would have fathered it on the Puritans had it taken the like effect as this hath done which I thought would have deserved thanks rather than such reproachfull usage from such a Zealet as he pretends to be But since he will needs appropriate the glory and honour of this last Powder-Plot transcending the former to those worthies for whom he pleads and to himself and his disciples and allow the Jesuites a many of whom he confesseth are doubtlesse in England under disguises and folding-dores p. 35. no share at all in its projection or execution I shall no waies envy them this new Garland wherewith he Crowns their Temples let them wear it in triumph to their graves or Tiburn I shall not envy them this new Crown of glory of which they are so ambitious that Rogers spends many leaves p. 27 to 37. to evade the Authors I quote to prove the Commonwealth a spurious issue of the Jesuits projection by his impertinent answers to them 1. He endeavours to evade my quotations of Parsons and Campanella the first projectors of turning our English Kingdom into an Holland Commonwealth by the agency of the Jesuits confederating with Anabaptists and other Sectaries agreeing with them in Antimonarchical principles by the help of a prevalent seduced party in the Parliament house when purged reformed after Parsons new model and by raising wars tumults in the Realm and then infusing this Principle into the Common Soldiers people and every Precâ—pe or factious multitude getting the Title of a Publique State or Helvetian Commonwealth to examin their Soveraigns by what Title they hold their Crowns and to alter change the course inheritance and succession of the Crown and publike Government at their pleasures and disseise the right heirs general to the Crown and put them to their Formedon to recover them To which he answers 1. That these their Politicks were calculated to the State of the Nation as it was in Queen Elizabeths time when they writ to divide us with factions and divisions at home stir up the seeds of an inexplicable irreconcilable war between England and Scotland to deprive King James of the Crown of England to promote the Spaniards interest and hinder the English from infesting his Fleet and Indies Ergo the Jesuites were not the original projectors of turning our Kingdom into a Common-wealth though he produceth none else before or besides them nor yet prosecuted this design so long since laid afresh as I have proved they did in 1647. and 1648. for the self-same ends in substance by the self-same means and instruments 2ly He saith I should prove that This this is the same Commonwealth they plotted then in every circumstance I prove it produced by the same instruments means pattern they prescribed and that it pursued the same ends designs which is sufficient and punctual The rather because himself and those he pleads for are not yet agreed what form or kinde of creature their new Common-wealth shall be they being much divided about it as himself attests who spends some sheets against Mr. Harringtons and others Models of it 3ly He adds their design proved abortive in Qu. Elizabeths reign and in the powder-plot against King James What then Ergo they pursued it not since as I prove by late pregnant Testimonies and more than probable arguments is a meer inconsequent 4ly He objects the Jesuits Commonwealth admits no toleration of Religions never was against Kingship and the Office of it as theirs is nor hath any similitude with Jesuitism All false the Jesuits pleaded alwayes for i a free toleration of religion in England that themselves might be tolerated though they deny it elswhere they are k professed enemies to the office as well as persons of all Protestant yea and most Popish Kings and projected to make up a Common-wealth upon this account in opposition to Kingship it hath similitude with Iesuitism both in its principles witness those of Barclay and Mariana cited by Nedham whereon he founds it and in its practices of murdering Protestant Kings blowing up Parliaments absolving Subjects from their Oath and Allegiance c. by which it was founded supported revived What else he allegeth is but meer Froth of his wanton brain and scurrillous pen unworthy reply Only because he calls upon me for more evidence if I have it to prove his Good Old Cause and Commonwealth a Plot of the Iesuites I shall gratify him herein 1. Hugh Peters himself very well acquainted of late years with the Jesuits persons plots principles practices in his Letter to a great Army-Officer quoted by himself p. 12. stiles it A Cheat of the Iesuites put upon the Army and that with much regret of heart and spirit 2ly A grave Protestant Gentleman of the Temple last Trinity Term riding up to London meeting with a Popish Gent. of his acquaintance on the way they discoursing of these last Revolutions and changes of Government the Protestant told him that these alterations were but the Plots and productions of the Jesuites and those of his Religion who did but laugh at us in their sleeves to see what fools they made us At which the Papist growing somwhat angry He
Religion the best profession of which I have ever estéemed that of the Church of England in which you have béen educated Yet I would have your own Judgement and Reason now seal to that sacred Bond which education hath written that it may be judiciously your own Religion and not other mens Custome or Tradition which you profess In this I charge you to persevere as coming nearest to Gods word for Doctrine and to the Primitive examples for Government with some little amendment c. Your fixation in matters of Religion will not be more necessary for your Souls than your Kingdoms peace when God shall bring you to them c. If you never see my face again I do require and intreat you as your Father and your King that you never suffer your heart to receive the least check against or disaffection from the Religion established in the Church of England I tell you I have tried it and after much search and many disputes have concluded it to be the best in the world not only in the community as Christian but also in the sperial notion as Reformed keeping the middle way between the Pomp of superstitious Tyranny and the meanness of fantastique Anarchy The scandal of the late Troubles which some may object and urge to you against the Protestant Religion established in England is easily answered to them and to your own thoughts Kéep you to true principles of Piety Vertue and Honour you shall never want a Kingdom For those who repent of any defects in their duty towards me as I fréely forgive them in the word of a Christian King so I believe you will find them truly zealous to repay with Interest that Loyalty and Love to you which was due to me In summe What good I intended do you perform when God shall give you power Next in urging how long he was under the wing of his Mothers instructions in France but a few Moneths space at most and what a Nursery Flanders hath been for him since which is the most Jesuited place in the world as his principal reason to perswade both Papists and Protestants to believe him sufficiently affected if not sworn to Popery as if he had been there educated by his own voluntary election and not necessitated yea forced thither by the Army-Officers and those in late and present power professing themselves the most zealous Protestants and eminentest Saints full sore against his will The General Council of Army-Officers in their Remonstrance of Novemb. 20. 1648. presented to the Commons House as they demanded the King to be brought to speedy Justice so they propounded That the Prince and Duke of York might be declared uncapable of any trust or government in this Kingdom or any Dominions thereunto belonging and thence to stand Exiled for ever as Enemies and Traytors and to die without mercy if ever taken or found within the same After his Fathers beheading when he was called in and crowned King by his Protestant Subjects in Scotland where he took the Solemn League and Covenant according to their Oaths Covenant Duty Laws and principles of the reformed Religion our Republican Grandees and their Gen. Cromwel by a bloudy unchristian unbrotherly invasive war expelled and kept him out thence and out of England too and all his other Dominions by force of arms after the battel of Worcester Septemb. 3. 1651. From whence he was forced to fly disguised to save his life into France where he landed at Newhaven Octob. 2. and some weeks after departed into Holland to the Princess of Orange his Sister a Protestant residing with her and other Protestants there remote from the company and seducements of his Mother and all Jesuites Papists that might any wayes seduce him in his religion living wholly upon the charity of forein Protestants his own Protestant Subjects then and since swaying being so stupendiously unjust uncharitable as not to allow him or his Brothers one farthing out of all the Lands and Revenues of his 3. Kingdoms for their necessary support in forein parts and making it High Treason for any of his Protestant Subjects to contribute any thing towards their support in this their distressed condition so conscientiously did they practise these Gospel precepts Mat. 5. 44 45. c. 22. 21. Rom. 12. 13 19 20 21. c. 13. 1 to 12. c. 15. 26 27. 1 Cor. 16. 1. Matt. 25. 34 35 36 37. for which they may justly expect that fatal sentence v. 40 to 46. Yet not content herewith to deprive Him his Brethren and followers both of the relief company comfort of all their Protestant Friends and Allies in the Netherlands and force them thence into Popish Quarters to the hazard of their Souls as well as Lives exasperate them all against the Protestant Religion and enforce them if possible unto Popery they engaged themselves and the English Nation not only in a most unchristian bloudy costly destructive warr with our antient Protestant Brethren of Scotland til they had totally subdued them but also with our old Protestant allies of the Netherlands which war continued from Jan. 1651. til April 1654. almost to the ruin of both Nations then O. Cromwel concluded a Peace with the Dutch on these terms sufficiently evidencing the true ground end of that bloudy war That Charls Stuart with his Brothers followers adherents should be forthwith banished out of the Low Countries and none of them permitted to reside there or return thither again Upon which by command from the States these distressed Exiles were forced to remove into France much against their wills having no other place of safety to retire themselves to where they enjoyed the company of their Mother and relief of their Popish allies as likewise the comfortable Christian Society Charity assistance of their French Protestant Friends Churches Ministers Ministry to confirm edifie them in the Reformed Religion which Cromwell and their English inveterate Enemies maligning endeavoured to expell them thence and by quarrelling with the French and entring into an intimate League with Cardinal Mazarine by the agency of Sir Kenelm Digby a Jesuited Papist concluded a Peace with France in Novemb. 1655. upon this condition That Ch. Stuart with all his brothers followers adberents should be forthwith removed out of France and all the French Kings Dominions and not permitted to return or reside therein Being thus driven out of Holland and France from the Society of all Protestants they were necessitated sore against their wills to cast themselves upon the protection and charity of the Spaniard and fly into Flanders having no place else to rest their heads and there to sojourn among Papists and Jesuites in great danger and extreme necessity where to their immortal Honour the Admiration of all true Protestants and Papists too and the Envy of their Protestant malicious persecutors who forced them thither they constantly adhere to and publikely professe the Protestant Religion and will not be seduced from it to Popery notwithstanding the
some of their Priests Friers and Iesuitical faction with these and other like practices fully charged and proved against them in Iesuitarum per Vnitas Belgii provincias negotiatio printed 1616. Hospinian and Ludovicus Lucius Historia Jesuitica Speculum Jesuiticum and others as well Papists as Protestants For their heading Sects and the late Quakers I have divers instances besides those published to evidence it and for their deportment in relation to the Kings death and the change of our Government this one instance may satisfie them and others When the King was executed before Whitehall Jan. 30. 1648. Mr. Henry Spottesworth riding casually that way just as his head was cut off espied the Queens Confessor there on Horseback in the habit of a Trooper drawing forth his sword and flourishing it over his head in triumph as others there did at this spectacle At which being much amazed and being familiarly acquainted with the Confessor he rode up to him and said O Father I little thought to have found you here or any of your profession at such a sad spectacle To which he answered There were at least forty or more Priests and Iesuites there present on Horseback besides himself and that one end of his and their coming thither was That if the King had died a Roman Catholick he might not want a Confessor had he desired one This the Gentleman now dead and his Sister whom the Confessor oft sollicited to turn Papists within few daies after and at other times seriously related to a Bencher of Lincolns Inne his familiar acquaintance who oft reported it to me and others using it as one chief reason Why they refused to turn Papists and because they also found the Jesuits and Popish Priests both before and after the Kings death had divers meetings about London to alter the Government and disinherit the Kings posterity Which compared with their releases from Imprisonment and free liberty they enjoyed ever since the Kings death til now under the New Republike whiles divers Protestant Ministers Gentlemen Noblemen and some Members were under close restraints With the late proviso in the Proclamation of Iuly last occasioned by my Narrative for Banishing Iesuites Priests and such Cavaliers of the Kings party who had not compounded the principal parties aimed at by the 1. of August under pain of High Treason Provided that if any of them Jesuites or Popish Priests a Traytors by sundry Laws yet in force as well as Protestant Cavaliers made Traytors only by this New proclamation equally ranged with Iesuits Priests and only inquired after should submit themselves to the present Government and give security for their obedience and peaceable deportment that this proclamation should not extend unto them but that they might still continue amongst us Since which I hear of sundry Protestant Ministers Gentlemen Noblemen and some secluded Members secured imprisoned prosecuted in most Counties which every Diurnal is fraught with but not with one Iesuit or Popish Priest yet apprehended though there be multitudes of them in England Which New Evidences compared with those in my Narrative and other publications will I trust fully satisfie all disinteressed persons in this grand Question til time shall discover further proofs as it doth each year to resolve this controversie if these be not sufficient As for 1. Rogers and his Disciples they deny the Jesuits and Popish party to have any share in our late Changes because they would monopolize the honor and reward thereof to themselves alone witnesse this querulous passage to his revived High Court of Parliament p. 96. We can tell you that no men in England did more if so much move run write méet counsel pray sit up night and day to effect your return into the place of Trust where you now are than those whom you grieve slight frown upon and do least for in point of justice conscience or encouragement This is grievous and must needs prove dangerous to the whole at the last And p. 119. We have suffered Bonds banishment plunderings perils of life liberty estates 5 or 6. years together in many prisons one after another and yet no reparation restitution provision or encouragement for holding out like Fortresses against so hard a siege All this for the Cause and Commonwealth worthy of thanks at least who have béen Instruments of your Restitution but these are slighted by friends and foes the Pipers Dancers and Devisers of New Forms to trouble us with that are rather the Incubus than Incumbents of a Frée-State If this his Complaint be true it is either a just punishment of God upon him and them for their Innovations Prov. 24. 21 22. or an Evidence the Jesuits and Romanists had a greater share and activity in the Cause and our Changes than He and his Wee which makes them so much slighted and them in greater favor than before The last Question professedly handled by Nedham obliquely by Rogers the substance of both their Pamphlets is this which concerns me as an English Freeman briefly to debate that the World may judge whether I and other secluded Members be so * Bedlam-mad or such Breakers of our Trusts and Enemies to the publike as they scandalously report us Whether our old hereditary Kingly Government and restitution thereof to the Right Heir or late yet unformed revived Commonwealth and future establishment thereof to prevent a Relapse to Kingship and Kingly Government be Englands true publike Interest as Men or Christians What I formerly alleged in my Speech and Memento 1648. Anatomy and Narrative 1659. in defence of Kings and Kingly Government and the mischiefs of a Republike to which these Antagonists have not answered one syllable is sufficient to resolve this Question I shall only adde thereto by way of Supplement 1. In the affirmative That the restitution and preservation of our old hereditary Kingly Government by Common consent especially upon the substance of the late Kings large Concessions in the Isle of Wight is the only true publike Interest of England both as Men and Christians As Men 1. Because it is that form of Government which all our Predecessors in this Island whether Britons Saxons Danes Normans English have constantly embraced continued maintained as all our * Historians assert from its first plantation by Brute till 1648. except during their sore bondage under the Roman Emperors and their Deputies in all publique changes revolutions as the best safest freest happiest universallest antientest honorablest durablest divinest least inconvenient least oppressive and most agreeable to the temper welfare desires liberties of the people of all other forms of Government whatsoever 2. Because all our Great Councils Parliaments in all ages as their proceedings Acts Canons and Writs of Summons attest have constantly maintained continued established defended Kings and Kingly Government as their only publike Interest wherein the unity peace wealth welfare safety liberty property and hereditary succession of all the Subjects and their posterity in their Lands
and Inheritances * most principally and specially above all other wordly things consist and rest whereupon they have most carefully and vigilantly ‖ provided for the security of the Kings royal person succession heirs successors the rights privileges jurisdictions prerogatives lands revenues of the Crown and Kingly Government against all Treasons conspiracies insurrections rebellions attempts whatsoever to destroy disinherit suppresse alter subvert impair them or any of them by sundry successive Acts of Parliament sacred Solemn Oathes Obligations Securities of all kinds in all ages till 1648. and the last Parliament of Kings Charls whereof most now sitting were Members by more solemn †printed Oaths Protestations Vows National Leagues Covenants Petitions Votes Remonstrances Declarations Ordinances than any or all precedent Parliaments whatsoever as I have elswhere proved at large and the imprisoned and secluded Members too in their Vindication 3ly Because the manifold incessant intestine and forein Wars Insurrections Tumults Divisions Factions Revolutions Alterations Subversions of Governments Parliaments Republikes Legal Processe proceedings the unconstant fluctuating condition of our State and Civil affairs the intollerable doubled trebled quadrupled Taxes Excises Imposts Militiaes and other Exactions amounting under our former and present Free State to one intire subsidy every week in the year when as our former publike Taxes under our Kings exceeded not usually one subsidy or fifteen in 2. or 3. years space the infinite unspeakable Oppressions Rapines Plunders Sequestrations Confiscations Forfeitures of our Offices Lands Estates Imprisonments close Imprisonments Confinements Banishments illegal Restraints Executions of our persons ransacking of our Houses Studies Writings and other grievances outrages violences we have suffred by Unparliamentary Conventicles arbitrary tyrannical Committees new High Courts of Injustice Army-Officers Souldiers Sequestrators Excise-men and other Instruments of Oppression the Sales dissipations of all the Crown Lands Rents and standing publick Revenues of our 3. kingdoms which should defray the ordinary expences of the Government of Bishops Deans Chapters and many thousands of Delinquents lands estates woods timber without any abatement of publike Taxes the impoverishment destruction of most of the antient Nobility Gentry Corporations throughout our 3. Realms the infinite decay of all sorts of Trade by Land and Sea of publick and private justice truth honesty integrity charity amity civil society hospitality neighbourhood friendship the inundation of all sorts of vices treachery perjury hypocrisie cheating lying dissimulation subornation of perjury false accusations forcible ejectments detainers robberies murders treasons destruction of Houses Timber Parks Woods Ponds Forests with other miseries tending to publike desolation we have felt suffred groaned under without intermission or any hopes or probability of redresse with sundry other incroachments upon the City and Country in the Freedom of their Elections of Mayors Aldermen Officers Knights Citizens Burgesses and the frequent securing secluding of Parliament Members forces upon Parliaments themselves to interrupt dissolve them ever since the abolishing of our Kings Kingly Government the erection of a pretended Free State or Commonwealth and prologues thereunto compared with Judges 17. 6 c. c. 18. 1 c. c. 21. 25. Ezech. 19. 12 13 14. c. 21. 27. c. 29. 14 15. Hos. 3. 4. c. 10. 3 7 15. Are an infallible experimental sensible evidence and demonstration that Kings and Kingly Government are Englands true only publike interest as Men That it is so as Christians is apparent 1. By Gods own promise to his Church and people under the Gospel * That KINGS shall be their nursing Fathers and QUEENS their nursing Mothers more particularly †KINGS OF THE ISLES chiefly verified of our Island as I have evidenced in my Narrative p. 84. and Sir Henry Spelman in his Councils and Epistle to them and none other kinde of Governors expressed by name but they in sacred Writ 2. By the 1 Tim. 2. 1 2 3. I exhort therefore that First of all supplications prayers intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all men for KINGS and for all in eminent places under them that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour Compared with Ezra 6. 10. c. 7. 23. Jer. 9. 7. Which duty of making Supplicatious prayers intercessions for Kings and Emperors whether Pagan or Christian Heterodox or Orthodox Protectors or Persecutors the Churches Christians Saints of God in all ages places kingdoms have constantly conscientiously practised as their Interest and the principal means prescribed by God himself for their quiet peace good welfare safety prosperity increase in godlinesse honesty and well-pleasing unto God their Saviour whose * loving kindnesse is better to them than life and their greatest felicity as I intend to evidence in a particular Treatise Neither hath the Church and people of England been inferior to any others in this duty as I could abundantly evidence by ancient Canons Missals Processionals Liturgies the a Clause Rolls in the Tower and other testimonies with the praiers used at our Kings Coronations before the Reformation of Religion which I pretermit and shall give you only a brief touch of their loyalty and practice since we became Protestants At the respective Coronations of King Edward the 6. King James and King Charles there were sundry excellent servent Prayers and supplications powred out to God with ardent affections on their behalfs wherein all the Prelates Clergy Nobility Gentry people present at this solemnity prayed frequently for the KINGS long life health wealth honor safety prosperous reign victory over all his Enemies increase of all royal graces b vertues for all temporal spiritual blessings and eternal glory in heaven c. to be abundantly powred forth upon his own royal person and likewise for the increase and succession of his royal posterity in the throne in all ages in these ensuing words in 3. several praiers Establish him in the Throne of this Realm Visit him with increase of children that his children may be Kings to rule this Kingdom by succession of all Ages Let the Blessings of him that appeared in the bush descend upon his head and the fulness of his blessings fall upon his children and posterity Let his horn be exalted as the horn of a Vnicorn by which he may scatter his enemies from the face of the earth The Lord which sitteth in heaven be his Defender for ever and ever through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen After sundry such prayers and his Coronation all the Spiritual Temporal Lords present kneel down and do their Homage to him in these words I become your Man and shall be faithfull and true and troth bear unto you our Soveraign Lord and to your heirs Kings of England of life and limb and of earthly worship against all men that now live and die And I shall do and truly knowledge the service of the Lands which I claim to hold of you So God help me
Scorpions in new arbitrary tyrannical Committees High Courts of Justice and other exorbitant Judicatures when as our Kings corrected us but with rods It hath subverted our Kings Parliaments Peers Laws Liberties Properties Great Charters legal Courts Writs Seals Commissions Judges Justices Sheriffs Officers Coyns Government destroyed our publike and private wealth Trade Unitie Amitie Peace Timber Palaces Woods Shipping and many thousands of our gallantest Sea-men Land-men by bloudy wars with our Protestant Brethren Allies and brought us to the very brink of ruin in all our Civil Concernments as Men As Christians by its toleration fomentation of Sects Heresies of all sorts it hath shaken undermined in a great measure the very Deitie of God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost the Trinitie of Persons and Unitie in the Godhead the Authoritie Divinitie of the Scriptures all the Articles of the Creed the Sacraments Ministers and Ministrie of the Gospel the Fabricks of many the Freeholds of all the maintenance of most of our Churches Ministers all now meer Tenants at sufferance and removable sequestrable taxable at our Republican Grandees pleasures yea their new Heralds Baylifs to proclame in Chnrches whatever they prescribe under pain of ejectment or their heaviest indignation In brief the introduction of our unshaped Republike by Perjurie Treacherie Violence bloud fraud Injustice destruction of our Protestant Kings Lords Parliaments hath made many zealous professors of Religion Jesuites in their policies principles practises a Atheists in their works Christ himself and the Gospel as the Atheistical Pope esteemed them a meer Fable in the repute of many yea the Protestant Religion a meer seminary of Treason Rebellion Sedition Hypocrisie Perjury Disloyalty Villany Ataxy Antimonarchy and the zealous Professors of it the meer firebrands of Rebellion Sedition high Treason against their Soveraigns in the estimation of b Foreign Jesuits Papists and Popish Princes who endeavour their total extirpation throughout the world as such And can it be then Englands true Interest as Men or Christians 5. J. Rogers himself the Grand Champion for the Good Old Cause and Commonwealth in his Concertation p. 100 103 104 116 117. informs us That Commonwealths are alwayes subject to frequent changes and alterations every one more oppressive tyrannical cruel bloudy prejudicial destructive to the peoples Liberties properties lives than the others instancing in the Romans and Athenians which committed the greatest outrages upon the people being little better than a daily Massacre of the most eminent Worthies and Hangmen Tormentors of the Commons Which Vicissitudes Alterations proved the Athenians utter destruction and may be a fair warning to us because the Causes of such mutations are the most dangerous Commotions which tend to the Ruine of All as he proves out of Aristotle Polit. l 5. c. 1. for prevention whereof he prescribes 12 Considerations unable to cure the fluctuating uncertain state and mischief of a Commonwealth of which we have already had and shall sodenly have again sufficient experience And can a Commonwealth then be Englands present or future Interest in any sence In brief as it is the beautie safety interest of every natural living body whether of men beasts fowls fishes or creeping things to have only one head to govern one Soul to animate it by Gods own most divine and wise institution a two-headed bodie being an unnatural uselesse Monster and a double-souled man creature unstable in all his wayes Jam. 1. 8. So it is the safetie beautie interest ligament of every Politick bodie whatsoever Hence we find not only in all Monarchies but in all Republikes themselves one Master over every Family one Mayor over every City one Rector over every College School Hospital Fraternitie one Sheriff over every County one Governor over every Province one Rector over every Parish Church and Congregation as there is but ‖ one King Lord Head Mediator Jesus Christ over the Catholike Church one Pilot over every ship one Admiral in chief over every Fleet and in Armies themselves one General and Chief Commander over every Army Brigade Partie one Colonel over every Regiment one Captain over every Companie Troop one Governor over every Fort Garison both abroad and at home a Pluralitie of Lords Masters Generals Governours Rectors c. being alwaies in all and every of these not only dangerous troublesom inconvenient chargable but distractive and destructive too as all Ages Nations have concluded from reason and experience Therefore a Monarchical hereditarie Kingly Government let Rogers Nedham and our Innovating frantick Republicans prate what they will must be Englands true and only Interest honor safety felicity both as Men and Christians so long as there shall be but * one Sun in the heavens to rule the day and one Moon the night Monarchy and One-nesse being the only Ground ligament of Peace Unity Safety both in Church State but Polarchie the cause of ruin confusion as God only wise resolves against all brain-sick Novellers Ephes. 4. 3 4 5 6 1 Cor. 8. 6. c. 12. 4 5 6 11 to 31. Pro. 28. 2. Isay 19. 2 3. c. 9. 19 20 21. Ezech. 37. 22 to 28. 1 Kings 14. 30. c. 15. 7. 16. Let this last Question be now put to all the Freemen of the English Nation and of Scotland Ireland too whom it all alike concerns and the a Army with those b now sitting have formerly voted TO BE THE ONLY SUPREME AUTHORITY OF THE NATION and themselves to be but their Servants not their Soveraigns and therefore cannot in reason justice conscience deny them or any of them the freedom of their voices herein in the present juncture of our affairs and then I dare pawn my reputation life against my Antagonists I shall have above a thousand voices concurring with me to one consenting with them And having both Vox Populi and Vox Dei too thus suffragating with me in the Supreme universal Parliament of all English Freemen without the House I hope no private Persons not commissioned by the peoples free elections will presume to contradict or repeal their Major Vote within the Commons House though they have thrice secluded me out of it by armed guards before any legal Accusation trial or conviction whatsoever from pleading of this their publike cause therein which I wholly submit to their Universal Censure and Decision till we can gain a full and free much-desired legal Parliament in both houses to resolve this doubt which Gods wonder working Providence I trust will ere long effect by dashing the Army and their new Juncto sudainly in pieces against each other and turning them all out of dores with greater contempt violence hatred dissipation than before April 20. 1653. It being a principle in Law Policy Nature Eodem modo quo quid constituitur dissolvitur and a just Judgement of God to cast them out of the House for their most treasonable Vsurpation of a Regal and Parliamental power over the whole three Kingdoms and secluding