as the onely hinderers of Reformation of Religion thereby indeed to lessen the numbers of Votes likeliest to oppose the Fanatick Faction These Tumults daily increasing upon the countenance they found from the Parliament where they were bid to come like men that is with Swords by the Rabble of Porters and Apprentises daily sent by their Masters but chiefly by their Mistresses with Clubs and Swords to cry for Reformation at the Parliament-doors The Faction in London having also combined to shut up their Shops for many days together and perswaded others to do the like upon some pretended fears but the truth was to make the poor people in and about the City a pretence to mutiny for want of work so heightned the Faction in the House of Commons that they sent up Mr. Hollis to the House of Peers to demand the Names of the dissenting Lords that so they might expose them to the peoples fury as they posted the dissenting Members of the House of Commons in the case of the Earl of Strafford The Ring-leaders still to the Rout were Dr. Burges the onely scandal to his profession in all London as his Parishioners of Watford can tell and the Spiritual Courts of London-Diocess also Capt. Ven who sent Tickets by Porters and Emissaries to raise these Myrmidons and Sir Richard Wiseman who with this confused Army assaulting the Bishop of Lincoln's house in Westminster had his brains dashed out with a stone from the wall and was buried at the collected charges among the Apprentises The House of Peers thus daily assaulted without and wanting no false Brethren within was not like to hold out any long Siege the very doors and Lobby and entries being so crowded with the Tumults that none can pass in or out without a kind of leave from the Assailants who upon the word given of the approach of any popish or disaffected Lord as the phrase was would in derision cry out Rome Rome but when any whom they accounted well-affected was to pass by they would cry Make way Make way a free Parliament all this while insomuch that some Lords had their Cloaks torn from their backs at the Parliament-doors Nor could the Bishops one of the three Estates in Parliament or Popish Lords as they called them come to the House without apparent hazard of their persons which made the Bishops as Pares Regni solemnly to protest against all Acts done in their absence till the Parliament should be restored to liberty as Mr. Speaker hath lately done and the Members who lately fled to the Army upon their return have nullified all Votes Orders Ordinances made since their forced absence by like City-Tumults in the year 1647. Hereupon the faction in the House of Commons furiously impeach the protesting Bishops of High-Treason and twelve Bishops were at once committed to the Tower to gag their Mouths that they might be easilier robbed of their Votes and Purses as afterwards they were the Treason not yet proved The Bishops and Popish Lords thus thrown out of the Parliament and the rest of the Royal Nobility terrified were forced to withdraw themselves from the Parliament leaving the Vote of the House of Peers to the Faction galloping in its fury yet for all those affronts done by the City-Tumults at the Parliament-doors to shew how truely it hath been ever said of the Fanatick That he will not Swear but he will Lie as also the assaulting of that Loyal Lord-Mayor's house by the same Tumults in the midst of the City and notwithstanding their furious marching through the City in return from the Parliament-house whose Guard they called themselves and bragged how they were thanked by the Members for their love to the Parliament with Links and loud Clamours timely alarming the Goldsmiths of Cheapside to shut up their Shops and notwithstanding the nightly Tumults about pulling down Cheapside-Cross and the Trained-Bands marching day and night about the City to keep the peace A Coopers Apprentice on Breadstreet-hill pulling off the Legs of our Saviour's Picture on the East-end of the Cross in the act fell on the Iron-bars but told his Master that some of the Watchmen hurt him with an Halbert concealing the truth till after ten days torture seeing no hope of life with horrour he confessed his fact lamenting Gods judgment upon him and died of the wound whose death so terrified the Tumults from that action that they never attempted the Cross any more upon my own knowledge And in the first of King Charles when the same Cross was beautified a Fanatick who broke the Neck of the Babe in the lap of the blessed Virgin within three nights after had his Neck broke and left dead in the streets near the Cross no man knowing how it came to pass At Tukesbury in Gloucestershire I have seen the Grave of a reforming Zealot who demolished the Cross and made the Cross-stone wherein was our Saviour's Picture an Hog-trough All the Piggs and the Sow which drank therein died the first night and the man drowned himself in a Well over an Hog-trough which stood by the Well as the Spiritual Court of Gloucester can witness and many yet living in Tukesbury can justifie this story Yet did the Faction in Parliament tell the King and the world in print in answer to the Kings complaining of those Tumults That they saw no Tumults but that the concourse in Westminster-hall used to be as great in Term-time By these means the Fanatical Faction in the Parliament having conquered the Vote of both Houses and forced the King to fly began soon to declare their Legislative power in publishing their imperative Vote That the Subjects of England were bound to obey the Ordinances of both Houses of Parliament as a Law in case the King should deny his Royal Assent But knowing such Votes were not like to find universal obedience as their designes required the next and last thing they entred upon was power to execute those Votes which their success by the late Tumults ready for a War heightned them to demand under pretence of putting the Militia of the Kingdom into such hands as the Parliament that is the Fanatical Faction should think fit which to obtain one would think it might spend the faith of a Christian to believe what ridiculous fears and jealousies of Invasions from abroad and secret dangers at home were suddainly bruited by the Faction up and down the Kingdom Fears of Invasions by the Danes by the French by the Irish fears of Papists in London when the Faction knew they had scarce left one in the City but in Prisons Mr. Pym's Plague-plaister the discovering of a Plot by a Taylor in a Ditch fears of blowing up the Thames with Gun-powder to drown the City and Parliament the House of Commons fired by Papists an Army of Papists at Black-heath in Kent an Army of Papists in Lancashire Horses trained under ground at Ragland the Midnight Alarm in London and parts adjacent that the King was
coming against the City with an Army of Horse when his Majesty was lately forced to fly for the safety of his person The Votes of Lord Digby raising an Army at Kingston upon Thames when he had onely his Coach and six Horses The Votes that the King had raised an Army at York when some chief Actors said in my hearing at that time the Houses of Parliament knew that the King was not able to raise one hundred men The Earl of Warwick and Sir Thomas Barrington sent into Essex to raise the Country told the people in publick meetings that the Queen was landed with an Army of 13000 Papists It were endless to reckon up the multitudes of such Lyes and ridiculous Fears As also to think how ready people were to frame themselves to a belief thereof as given up to believe lies even with greediness when indeed the designe onely was for this Faction hereby to raise an Army to execute whatsoever themselves should conceive would advance their Plots of subverting Religion and Government of this Church and State under the specious colour of Reformation of all grievances whatsoever whereby they drew in to their assistance the Patriotical party also who were the far greater number throughout the Kingdom whose pulse beating wholly after Property desiring destruction neither of King nor Bishop but onely reformation of conceived excess of power was kept continually affrighted by alarms from the Faction that the King would make his Subjects all Slaves which to prevent they thought themselves necessitated to uphold this Parliament in any thing which they should act though never so abominable and unjust for fear if this Parliament should be dissolved they should never have any more Parliaments and these men once unhappily engaged especially the Londoners by vast sums of money which the Parliament had politickly drawn them to lend were bound to follow the Fanaticks madness onely to secure themselves and their publick-Faith debts insomuch that upon the burning down the Excise-house in Smithfield in the year 1647 by the rude Multitudes in the City about the time of the King 's coming to Holdenby it 's strange to think how these moderate men formerly desirous to have the King come to London were suddainly so affrighted with fears that if the King came nearer London surely the people would pay no Excise nor Taxes then how should their Publick Faith-debts be paid and gave advantage to the Faction in the name of the City to petition the Parliament that his Majesty might not come nearer London upon some pretences laid in that Petition but Money was the bottom of the business hoping by delay to make some surer bargain with their King but now too late they see their folly Thus by Hypocrisie Fraud and Violence misguiding the Patriotical party the Fanaticks of England grew so powerful raising an Army which of themselves they could never have done now commanded by most confiding Sectaries which the Citizens at first thought so inconsiderable supposing though they let them run on to do the work which they also desired in reforming State-distempers they could quell them at pleasure perswaded also that the War should last but one Moneth as Mr. Hamden told some Citizens but now they have lived to see the Banners six years displayed to plant in what Religion soever the strongest party of Sectaries with their Sword shall make good upon hopes of gain or fear of loss not likely by Citizens to be opposed and all other men in prosecution of their own different ends are forced to serve for Stales and Blindes for the Fanatical Masters to destroy the King and the Church by the loss of the liberty and property of the Subject on which all parties so doted and no sooner had the Faction their desires of an Army raised for their service but presently they began to execute their long dormient Votes of scquestring the Clergy from their Livings and by an insolent thing called an Ordinance of Parliament repealing five Acts of Parliament made in several Kings Raigns utterly abolished the sacred Liturgy the whole service of God out of the Church planting in room of it a new nothing a senseless Rubrical Directory that will serve all sorts of Religion but the true Religion which to destroy this new Engine was purposely invented meerly upon this wicked policy though other frivolous pretences are alleadged in the Preface to that new-fangled Directory First because in the Liturgy were more Prayers for the King than would consist with their Traiterous ends Secondly the abolishing of the Liturgy took away the daily service of God in Cathedrals and made them of no use a fair way to take away the Land of Deans and Chapters Thirdly the Scots called in for their assistance in time of need as also to engage all sorts of Sectaries to their aid against the King Fourthly their new-erected Ministery and Assembly of Divines and non-Divines at Westminster by abolishing the Liturgy thought to extol their own fame and estimation to the leading captive the people into ignorance the mother of blind obedience to whatsoever burden they should lay upon them from Jesus Christs Throne of their Divine Presbytery Thus as the State-Affairs in the Church came this change or rather destruction of Christian Religion in England like the great Beast in Daniel to whom an Army was given by reason of transgression whereby it took away the daily Sacrifice and threw the truth to the ground and it practised and prospered but what miseries have followed such policy not onely the persecution of the Clergy but the ruine of the Laity of our times can sufficiently witness groaning under all sorts of calamities that War and Rapine and Tyranny can bring upon a Nation when like the Israelites there was no King in England but a mysterious gunpowder-clouded King and Parliament viz. the Fanatical Faction and Conspirators fighting against God and the King under colour of King and Parliament the Riddle of this Generation three times altering they call it purging the House of Commons of Monopolists Malignants and Presbyterians to obtain the Vote and by a post-vote justifying three notorious Symptomes of a wicked Faction viz. the publishing an Order of inviting accusations against the Clergy in the name of the House of Commons which the House had not cognizance of the keeping the King out of Hull by Sir John Hotham which the House knew not of and the imprisoning the King in the Isle of Wight by Hammond for which he had no public korder but the sense of this Faction or some private directions from the Army CHAP. VIII A concluding Parallel between the Popish Persecution in Queen Maries time and this Fanatical persecution THus hath this Faction filled up the measure of their iniquity fulfilling the Prophesies and Predictions of wise wen who gave England warning of the mischiefs which they foresaw the Fanaticks would in time bring upon this Nation to name but two particulars Dr. Bancroft wrote in the
if they cannot be vvell till like the Vine-dressers in the Gospel they hate and mis-use the Lords Servants nay desire to kill the Heir that the Inheritance may be theirs vvhose blasted Posterity hath no little hopes of recruiting their scattered Estates out of the old Reserve of the Church Publick hatred being the ready vvay to make the Church-Lands their private prey For this purpose have the Lay-brethren continued the practice of their Faction in Q. Elizabeth's days in clapping silenced Ministers and Non-conformists and Lecturers on the back and follovving their Sermons setting them at the upper end of the Tables and seeking by all means to prvcure them Credit and Favor vvith the People not that they cared for them or for Religion or for Christ himself but hoping that by the violent Course vvhich they savv these men run into the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy vvould grovv so odious that it vvould in time be a small matter to dispossess them of all their Livings vvhereof some portion might come to their shares Which publick hatred of the Clergy was not a little increased upon a Jealousie occasioned by the Activeness of some Bishops and others of the Clergy in seeking by Law to recover some Church-revenue out of the Usurpers clutches otherwise mentioned in this Book that they began to argue if the Clergy should advance in the Favour of the King and the People their preaching against Sacriledge may prevail to the touching of their Copyholds and it 's the unhappiness of the Clergy that most of their Lands are occupied by Men grown too great by their Leases to be accounted Farmers and as much regreating the name of Tenants to such Landlords whom they think they may command And this bred the like hatred in London and other Incorporations and Nests of the Faction against the City-Clergy upon their suit for increase of Tithes in City-Livings which are generally of very small value and depend upon peoples Benevolence a thing of dangerous consequence in a Kingdom upon the Statute of Hen. 8. allowing two shilling nine pence per pound of the Rent of houses which Statute to evade the Lawyers and Scriveners have invented a plain Cheat by a Lease and a Lease that Houses of 50 l. Rent per Annum shall scarce pay 5 or 10 s. Tithe per Annum which so netled the Purse-proud Londoners accounting Tithes but as Gift or Alms that they would rather spend at Law or give a Lecturer of their own choice twice as much as their full Tithe came to than pay their Dues to the Parson a Word made their Scoff that Two shillings nine pence was an usual Nick name for any Divine as he walked through the Streets though the Clergy in their moderate Rates demanded not above twelve pence per pound and this seeking by Law to recover their due was call'd by the covetous World Tâ—â— covetousness of the Clergy 3. There was another sin of the Clergy as much talked of that was forsooth The Pride of the Clergy what was that Why Time having spent the old Stock of Sir John's planted into Churches in the hurly-burly days of Queen Elizabeth Illiterate Mechanicks and such who could but Write and Read and gather in Tithes for the Patron 's use with Curchees for some Wages for their Journey-work hereby villifying the Sacred Function as in these our Times and men of Worth and Learning sprung into their places Peace of the Church bringing Religion into request and Credit so that some Noblemen Gentlemen and men of Estates began to spend on their Children as much as would make them rich in another Calling only to fit them for the Priesthood besides Lands of Inheritance or money left as their Portions These were not like to betray the honour of the Church and of the Sacred Function to become the continual servants of men who especially in London thought Stipends of 40 l. per annum enough for any Clergy-man though he had Wife and Children Sir N. R. a Rich Alderman being desired to encrease his contribution to a Minister because he was a man of much Merit answered if the Minister were an Angel from Heaven he should have of him but ten shillings per Quarter And that any of the Clergy should be made Justice of the Peace or Officer of State as indeed who so fit to keep Love and Peace among Neighbours And I have heard the Officers and Retainers to the Treasury confess that they were never so well used as when a Bishop was Lard Treasurer was made such an Eye-sore in the Peoples Sight by the Faction especially the swarm of Lawyers not taken notice of though put into Commissions men of a meer Mercinary profession raising great Fortunes upon the Sins and Ruines of their Country unlike to prove Justices of Peace who live by â—â—aking Contention and Strife among Neighbours and from that small happy number of Lawyers in England Anno Domini 1555. which John Stow mentioned but two men of Law at the Kings Bench Bar and at the Common Pleas but one Serjeant yet had they nothing to do all that Michaelmas Term and yet no tempus belli have increased into an Incorporation of many thousands of rich and potent Leading men in all Corners of the Kingdom many advanced in the esteem of the People by their opposing the King's Prerogative under pretence of Law That not the King but their Law kept every man in his Right though since the King hath been eclipsed these seven years whom hath their Law kept in their Right Therefore when Judge Cook told King James that the Law kept the Crown upon his Head the King well replied Thou lyest Traytor it is I that maintain the Law And as malicious Enemies have too many Lawyers been to the Church knowing well that if the Clergy should grow into esteem and power to be Justices of the Peace they would plant in Charity and so spoil the Trade of Lawyers whose private gain hath been stiled the flourishing of the Law that not a Lawyer in a Parish but commonly was the Parson's busie Enemy and it is still in the Lawyers hearts and mouths that the Archbishop would have hindered their Law Did not such Interests facilitate belief he that had seen the habit of the Clergy in our days would wonder wherein lay the pride of the Clergy for who wore plainest Garments were most maligned but I forget the pride of the Wives of the Clergy in their Apparrel Those that were guilty I excuse not yet I must profess I knew very few thus justly taxed but such was the pride of English Women especially the Gentry that with much scorn and envy they would look at a Clergy-man's Wife if cloathed as well as themselves though their Birth and Portions and their Husband 's temporal Estate were known able to maintain it sometimes better than the other and in London every Woman whose Husband perhaps paid but twelve pence Tyth per Quarter thought
and the latter part was proved because a Bishop said that he would hinder Mr. Burton's Prohibition but did not hinder it as Burton there confessed these were the only Proofs of such high Charges there alledged to make Episcopacy and the Bishops odious and as if all these ways were not â—now to make the Clergy of England stink in the Nostrils of a seduced people let the world consider what scandalous Libels have been written by the Fanaticks against the Clergy and those Authorized by the Parliament among multitudes to name but one though in that hundred I mean the first Century written by Mr. John White a Lawyer and a great Chair-man for Religion with an Epistle canting in Scripture phrase applying the words of the Holy Ghost to the proper works of the Devil who is called the envious man and the accuser of the Brethren hear this John White generally charging the Clergy of England to be dumb Dogs men swallowed up with Wine and strong Drink whose Tables are full of Vomit Whoremongers Adulterers Buggerers that change the natural use into that which is against Nature Priests of Ball Bacchus Priapus c. Horrid Crimes or horrid Slanders Did ever any Popish Jesuite so revile the Clergy of England I need not pray the Lord rebuke him for God hath long since cut him off in the midst of his rage against the Church such ungodly practices raving rnd condemning himself at his dying hour for his undoing so many guiltless Ministers and let any man judge if that first and only Example of Buggery prove not John White and his Abettors the true Sons of the Father of Lyes who was a Lyar from the beginning for either the party was found not guilty why then sequestred Or guilty why then not punished by death according to Law It is not to be imagined that the Fanaticks would conceal the shame of any Clergy-man when they so raked each Dunghill and corner to discover it but that such an instance if proved should have been triumphantly stretched to further their glorious Reformation and whether the party so accused was not some years before this Parliament cleared by the Justices of the Peace for Sussex who sifted out that Fanatick Plot against him as one of those Justices told me I refer the Reader to the then Justices of that County but for a general Answer to that scandalous Libel this Truth without question may be said That not any one person in that Century hath had any legal Tryal at all but condemnati quoniam accusati and the Justice of these times is satis est accusare otherwise what man in his Wits could believe that Adulteries Fornications and such deeds of Darkness could be proved as this John White affirmeth in the Margin of his Epistle by seldom less than six or seven Witnesses unless so many saw what this vvorthy Member did with his Neighbours Wife in White Fryars which made his ovvn Wife so jealous of this Mr. White her Husband But why suspition of incontinency only from looks as in that Century Example 49. or from leading vvomen into dark places as Example 18. by one vvhose house standeth in a dark Alley in London or vvhy to be seen in company vvith Papists vvhich the Lavv requires of Clergy-men as in Example 75. and 88. should be such Charges and Crimes as to ruine a man and his vvhole Family or used as an Argument to make the whole Clergy odious let any Christian judge I have been present vvhen a grave and learned Divine hath been accused at a Committee for an Adulterer and a Drunkard the proof of the former was only kissing a Woman in the presence of Company and the other was the drinking of only one half Pint of Wine and so unchristian a scrutiny hath been made for accusations and pretended proofs of Crimes against the persons of the Clergy that besides Accusers and those known Schismaticks and Adversaries allow'd to be both Parties and Judges and Witnesses also Agents in Parishes have baen employed in going from house to house with Parliament Warrants summoning and terrifying all Men and Women nay Servants I have knovvn it vvhom they could hear vvere acquainted vvith such Ministers and at Committees the Neighbours and familiar Friends so summoned have been urged ex officio to speak not only to Articles laid in Petitions but also have had their Consciences sifted to make them confess some Crime or Report or suspition of a Crime If the Parish afforded no Evidence nor their old Acquaintance down they sent in some mens Causes to the University to hunt out some Scandal in the time of their Ministers abode there nor have some Clergy mens Lives and Conversation from their Cradle been left unsearched I could name particulars to get something vvhereof to accuse a Clergy-man at the Parliament So that any Report of a Crime committed tvventy years before this Parliament as in that Century Example 58. or before taking of Holy Orders or being possessed of a Church or any Crime which Justice had long since taken cognizance of and censured as Example 72. or any rash vvords never so privately spoken have been novv reaped up to make a Ministers scandal and the whole Ministery scandalous Another trick of false Accusing accounted a just way of charging Clergy-men vvas a fallacious vvresting of Words quite contrary to the sense of the Preacher A Reverend Doctor whom I could name vvas accused in Parliament that he had Preached about fourteen years before this Parliament that the Bishops when they took away the Mass took away all Religion upon hearing the Doctor produced the Sermon and made it appear that he Preached at that time it being the publick Assizes at York that men must not think that the Bishops when they took away the Mass took away all Religion Another Divine was accused of Popery viz. that he had Preached that the intention of the Priest was of the Essence of the Sacrament when he Preached it only Historicè and confuted the Opinion at the same time But if no proofs could be found of Crimes and Vitious Conversation in a Clergy man then came in the politick Counsel of the Heathenish Presidents against Daniel We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel except we find it against him concerning the Law of his God under the made odious crimes of Innovations Superstition Popery a Sin not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without transgression of any Law Statute Act of Parliament Order or Ordinance of both or either Houses nor would the Faction publish any Rule to measure what should be accounted Innovations Superstition or Popery and what not but with these false Traces they cunningly kept up the loud Cries of their People against the Clergy making thereby so large a Snare that not the most zealous Protestant Divines who had been all their Life times preaching against Popery and Superstition could possibly escape if but accused Good God! can Posterity if they may be
suffered to be Christian have so much Faith as to believe that in the face of a Christian Nation nay nay a pure Reforming Religious Christian Parliament the Ministers of Jesus Christ should be doomed to ruine for saying in effect Christianus suum See here a Catalogue of Crimes charged upon the Clergy collected out of the first Century authorized to be Published in Print by the Parliament Bowing at the name of Jesus Examples 33. 43. Setting up the name Jesus in the Church Ex. 72. 83. Preaching against Sacriledge Ex. 22. Bowing the Body in Gods House Ex. 7. Assisting the King and exhorting Subjects so to do Ex. 33. 43. Reading the Kings Proclamation in Churches according to the Kings Command Ex. 28. 34. 52. Appointing the 43. Psalm to be sung Ex. 29. Preaching against not coming to their own Parish Church Ex. 21. 35. 38. Reading and having Popish Books Ex. 88. 55. Seen in Company with Papists Ex. 88. It were endless to reckon particulars in this kind of Accusations as wearing the Surplice using Ceremonies praying for Bishops all now cryed down for Superstition and Popery But in every Petiton Malignancy against the Parliament was the Burden of the Song this indeed made any Doctrines to be censured Superstition and Popery a Crime would puzzle all the Divines and Lawyers in Christendom to expound were they Strangers to the Proceedings of this Faction this Malignancy being nothing else but for Subjects to be suspected of being constant in Religion towards God and Loyalty towards their King this is the unquestionable definition of Malignancy against the Parliament and what Christian much more a Clergy-man would plead not guilty to these objected Crimes or be ashamed of these condemned Popish Doctrines And when by these tricks they had cruelly committed many of the Clergy into noysome Prisons forcing others to fly the like cruelty by forsaking their Habitations and Estates their Wives and Children they sequestred them for non Residence first force them to fly and then to punish them for flying It 's pity to omit their pretty fashion of sequesting Mr. Freeman of London It is this day ordered by the Committee for plundered Ministers that all the Profit of James Garlick-hithe be sequstred into the Hands of c. from Mr. Freeman the present Incumbent till cause be shewn to the contrary O the excellent Justiceof the new Saints of the Reforming People of God! executed by Club-law and by the Sword of War which these weak Christians by the help of a mis-guided Commonwealth-Party have raised to empower themselves to force the Consciences of all men now themselves are grown so strong to a new Covenant the Fanaticks last Engine to ruine the Church and to destroy the Clergy Root and Branch A Solemn League and Covenant the Fanatick Antichristian Idol set up in the Temple of God hung up in all the Churches of London a Covenant like that in Isaiah with Death and an Agreement with Hell A Covenant made by the Fanaticks of two Nations in defiance to God and the King to the Destruction of the Religion of their own Mother Church and of all Loyalty to their King the Father of their Country A scandalous Covenant maliciously studied and laid for a meer Snare and Rock of Offence to the Estates and Consciences of the Clergy and People of God that Scandal in the Abstract Scandalum datum praebens proximo occasionem ruinae the proper work of the Devil insomuch that at a general Summons of the Gentry and remnant of the Clergy of the County of Surrey for the taking this Covenant some chief Actors of the Faction when they saw that with several Salvo's and Liberty to take it in any sence with mental Reservations and considerations that it was but a forced Oath and such like mincings many men and some of the Clergy loving this present World took the same said they were sorry to see some take it whose Estates they hoped to have caught by this Hook And although the Authors of the Covenant knew the Clergies greater Obligations than other men by Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy to the King and by Oaths of Canonical Obedience and by several Subscriptions upon Record to the present Church and by their stricter Tie of Conscience and greater knowledge of the Function of Episcopacy from whence themselves received their own Holy Order which from our Saviours and the Apostles days was without Interruption for 1500 years and still is continued in all Christian Churches where Rebellion started not the Scruple and the Sword ever since maintains the Heresie yet none were so much pressed and urged to take this Covenant in Terminis to destroy Bishops as were the Clergy and the refusal thereof was ipso facto loss of any Clergy-man's Livings and Livelyhood nay so barbarous were this Faction that their Committee for Composition at Goldsmiths Hall would not admit the Lord Bishop of Winchester lately deceased to compound for his sequestred Temporal Estate for no compounding for Spirituals is allowed but Sequestration is indeed Deprivation with these men unless he would take the Covenant and swear to destroy himself and his own sacred Function yet these were the men who have so cried out against Oaths ex officio and against forcing the Consciences of men and give this reason why the Liturgy must be taken away because it gave Offence to some mens Consciences and these are the men who cried down the Clergy for Innovations and now punish them because they will not move but as these Fanaticks have rigidly practised all those things which themselves so much abhorred teaching the World a new Art how to commit any villany securely by first railing against that Sin which they intend to commit so may they be a warning to all Christian Princes how they suffer the Church or State-Goverment to be spoken against be the pretence never so pious or seemingly Religious CHAP. V. A view of the New Judges of the thus accused Clergy their condition and their judging of Doctrines in their Committees for Religion de facto de jure HAving given the world a short view by which the rest may be guessed of the Fanaticks arts and tricks of making the Clergy their adversaries and inventing accusations against them whom as hainous Malefactors they have taken upon them to judge as they pretend by Law and by the Justice and Wisdom of the High Court of Parliament for Reformation of Religion it 's not unseasonable to shew the world a true Character of these great Judges in their personal Relations as well as their political capacity of judging de facto de jure And surely men who were strangers to the designs of this Faction would think by the high strains of publick Acts pretending Reformation of Religion there were some Oecumenical Counsel now sitting or at least some great Convocation of Grave and Learned Bishops and Clergy of England who were wont to have the judiciary power in Church-matters long before
any Parliaments were in England famous for their honest Lives and by their great knowledge able to judge not vote Religion up or down but O Tempora O Mores the Grave Bishops of the Church are by tumults driven from the Parliament the Convocation by subtelty of a pretended praemunire and by fury are cryed down hereby all the Clergy of England are silenced at one not any one Church-man admitted to consult or act in matters Ecclesiastical the Keys are snatched by violence from the Apostles hands to whom Christ gave them and are hung at the girdles of meer Lay-men most of them illiterate men assembled in Parliament a mixed multitude of all professions wherein as Sir Robert Naunton hath observed in King James's Raign since the Fanaticks began their Plot were 40 who never saw Twenty years of age and many such were chosen into the House of Commons yet upon any one of these Votes as Votes go now adays the peace and Religion of a Nation may depend But to give a just account casting out the most of the Nobility and about two hundred of the House of Commons men of greatest Estates therefore more like to seek the welfare of their Countrey than their own private interests which were driven from the House where they sate but as Cyphers and counting the multitudes of Tradesmen and Merchants of London and other Incorporations packed into this Parliament to carry a Vote besides the many Lawyers Mercenary men and most of them Recorders and so servants to Incorporations making Laws for themselves to get Money by together with a few engaged Knights and Gentlemen famous for hauking and for hunting after Lectures and Whore-houses many of them having sold off their Houses in the Countrey and took others at London to follow the Fanatical Plot more diligently and the sum of these make up the Fanatical Faction in the Parliament stiling themselves the Parliament of England And now the Souldiers by a counterfeit Seal have recruited the House with no small number of Colonels and Officers when indeed they have turned the Parliament out of doors and turned themselves Apostates in Religion and have shared the Lands of the Church to make themselves a fortune not to mention their vicious Lives which might make up truer Centuries nor their Hypocrisie Lyes and breaking of Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy yet these are the men usurping all power both of Church and State who are become the supream Heads of the Church and of all Church-matters which none of them ever understood yet these also parties have made themselves Judges of the Religion Doctrine Function and Estates of all the Clergy of England Miles Corbet the Recorder of Yarmouth who Indicted a man for a Conjurer and was urgent upon the Jury to condemn the party upon no proof but a Book of Circles found in his Study which Miles said was a Book of Conjuring had not a Learned Clergy-man told the Jury that the Book was but an old Almanack I have been present at a Committee for Religion consisting of five or six Tradesmen and Merchants of London and an ignorant Lawyer in the Chair yet these have judged Doctrines by whole sale executing Ecclesiastical jurisdiction in an high act viz. Absolving Ecclesiastical persons suspended by their Diocesan Bishop as it were in a parenthesis with an O yes Ye that will have these three Ministers of Wales I confess I have forgot their names to have Liberty and Licence to preach say I Ye that will not say no! Which being thrice repeated and answered I I these three suspended Ministers were by this Vote perfectly absolved no doubt In the mean time at this worshipful nay honourable Bar was a heavy complaint against a Grave Divine of Blasphemy which he had preached viz. That the Virgin Mary was the Mother of God and at a day appointed for Voting had not a Divine whispered some of these Committee-men had this Doctrine been Voted Blasphemy so easily might the sacred Ephesine Counsel have been condemned by this learned Committee for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and condemning Nestorius for Heresie and Elizabeth in the first of St. Luke should have been as guilty of Blasphemy for calling the Blessed Virgin the Mother of her Lord. And when a Reverend Doctor and Master of Jesus Colledge in Cambridge who was charged with Blasphemy at Sir Robert Harlows Committee for writing Honour God with thy substance on the Bason for Alms made answer by asking whether it was not rather Blasphemy in them to call a sentence of Scripture Blasphemy it was replyed by a boy-Member of that Committee Will ye suffer him meaning the Doctor to answer by questions At another time I heard one of these Committees cry out what a miserable condition these people were in who lived under such a Minister who as the Article was had preached that Original sin was washed away in Baptism which was there derided at as Popery In brief to never so true Doctrines the Chair-man saith they sit not there to dispute Up started Captain Ven a Tradesman of London and asked a Divine justifying at their Bar his Doctrine to be true and Orthodox did you preach these Doctrines answer I or no! whether they be true or false leave that to us to judge So the case standeth with the Divines of England let any ignorant hearer suppose an Apprentice Boy I have known it accuse any Clergy-man the gravest Doctor in Divinity of preaching Doctrines which the Boy thinks are false or Popish Doctrines to the House of Commons or Committees shall the Divine be sent for perhaps by a Pursivant justifie his Doctrine he must not though never so true the House supposeth it to be false erroneous Popish or scandalous because complained of answer he must did he preach it I or no Whether it be true or false they will not dispute hit or miss they will vote and that 's enough to make any Doctrine true or false Popish or scandalous and thereby to imprison the person of Christs Minister and to seize on his Estate to out him of all his Freehold and Livelihood and to spoil him of his goods O si tanta potestas sit stultorum sententiis ac jussis ut eorum suffragiis rerum natura vertatur cur non sanciunt ut quae mala sunt pro bonis habeantur yea so senslesly conceited have this Lay Parliament Parliamentum indoctorum been of themselves that some of them have said since they had read the Scriptures in English why should they not be able to judge of Divinity as well as the best Doctors And to have desired that Doctrines complained of in Petitions to these Lay-Committees might be referred to the Judgment of Learned Divines about London would have been taken for an high contempt of their Committee for Religion and of the power of Parliament as a Member of that Committee told one who made the Motion in private to him where such are become
days of Queen Elizabeth Certain hypocritical brethren of the Laity have clapped the Presbyterian or Puritan Ministers on the back followed their Sermons set them at the upper end of their Tables and sought by all means to procure them credit and favour with the people not that they cared for them or for Religion or for Christ himself but hoping that by the violent course which they saw these men run into the Bishops and the Clergy would grow so odious that it would be in time a small matter to dispossess them of all their Livings whereof some portion might come to their shares Another as true I find written Anno Dom. 1603. All wise men even among Protestants see that no Sect in the world can be more prejudicial and pernicious to another than the Puritan Sect is and would be to the Protestant if they could get the upper hand Yet these are the men who so fiercely have cryed out against persecution and against the cruelty of Papists making an Ordinance for Repentance for the Blood spilt in the days of Queen Mary never remembring the persecution of the Church in the Raign of Henry the Eighth which how this Generation have made their own sin I say not intitling their Faction onely to those Martyrs merits as their undoubted Heirs indeed cunningly to colour their pretence of fighting for the Protestant Religion and to enrage the people to a revenge on the Kings Party whom they laboured to make the world believe were the guilty off-spring of those Popish Persecutors whereas like the Jews while they build the Sepulchres of the Prophets they shew themselves to be the Sons of those who persecuted the Prophets And were those Martyrs now alive they would be the greatest Malignants and Delinquents of our days fit to be Plundered Sequestred Banished Imprisoned or Slain by bloody Votes because they would not obey the Parliament in changing Religion as is plain in the story of Mr. John Rogers and crime enough it is in these days to be constant to the Book of Common-prayer which those Martyrs in Queen Mary's time sealed with their Blood and hath ever since been continued in the Church of England till wholly abolished by an Ordinance of this Parliament whose cruelty as it hath slain more thousands of English Subjects than Queen Mary condemned scores so hath it far less shew of Justice or Legal proceedings all being now done coram non judice by upstart Committees and new-erected Judicatories never heard of in England before as also sine Lege by meer Arbitrary Votes and fancies of malitious Adversaries and Judges in their own cause nor were any in Queen Maries Raign condemned but by known Laws of the Land and legal Tryal with disputations and perswasions used to reclaim them from their supposed Errours but the Fauatick persecution is to hunt after matters of accusation not to reform Errours but to torment the persons of men condemnati quoniam accusati is their Justice And when the Faction had thus plundred and sequestred the Clergy of all their Estates for some years another fit of persecution was raised against divers of them from Goldsmiths-hall and Habberdashers-hall upon composition of their Temporal Estate where the Clergy were ever most spitefully used by those cruel Committees the Laity compounding for two years value but the Clergy seldom came off without four or five years purchase of their own Lands and Estate And because I intend not to swell into too big a Volume I 'll give you but one instance of the proceedings of Habberdashers-hall-Committee towards a Clergy-man to whom a Ticket was sent for 240 l. as the twentieth part of his Estate he coming within the ten days limited in their Tickets to the Committee for Mitigation proffering his Oath that all his Estate real and personal was not worth 200 l. could not be admitted to his protestation but was referred to the Committee of Lords and Commons for advance of Moneys whither applying himself the Door-keeper told him that he must not enter in till he was called Thus attending de die in diem the ten days were expired without his being called or his obtaining leave to pass the first or second doors which were duly locked by their Officers Hereupon according to the great Justice of Committee-Orders and Parliament-Ordinances he fell by course into their Messengers hands as their prisoner though at large for not making an end within the ten days After some weeks dancing attendance and feeing a Lawyer his Petition was read to which was annexed an Affidavit that his whole Estate was not worth 100 l. The Answer of the Committee was That until he should bring in the one moity of his Assessment viz. 120 l. according to the custom of that Committee he should not be heard which he not able to perform was sent for by their Pursuyvants and upon his Petition was ordered to bring in 50 l. and then to be further heard After some delay he moved again and was ordered to give present security to bring in 20 l. the next Committeeday or else to prison he must go presently which to prevent he was forced to borrow 20 l. and accordingly deposited it petitioning to be admitted to his protestation But the Committee told him they must observe Rules and ordered him to give security for the other 30 l. to be brought the next sitting or else he must go to prison telling him that if he were not worth so much when he came to hearing the money should be returned to him again whereupon he was again forced to borrow 30 l. more which he brought in accordingly but upon hearing was told that though the Ordinance did admit all men yet the custom of that Committee did not admit of Malignants to their protestation and so took all the borrowed 50 l. as the twentieth part of his Estate which he by Affidavit gave in to them was not worth 100 l. having been long sequestered and plundered of his Goods and by imprisonments and Egyptian years of Famine forced to spend his long-provided Store And just such a Cheat doth the Committee for plundered Ministers put upon the afflicted Wives and Children of the sequestered Clergy in their suing for the fifth part of their Husbands Living which an Ordinance of Parliament pretended to allow them If their Husband or Father hath two Livings their first trick is to tell them that they will allow them the fifth part of but one of them The next is that though the Ordinance run generally without any limitation yet they have secret instructions whereby they grant Orders for a fifth part with this proviso That if the sequestrator or Cutpurse shew not good cause to the contrary This draweth on much travel and charges on Lawyers and Sollicitors and Committee-Officers and the Parliament-Minister upon hearing pretending that the Living is of value little enough to maintain him or any frivolous Plea breeds a demur and although they