finde that all their zeal and Covenanting with the high God is for no other end then to bring this easily deluded Nation under bondage to Presbyteriall Lords and Taskmasters The interest of England p. 16. Quaere 6. Whether the solemne League and Covenant may not prove the greatest mischief and snare unto the Kingdome in case its interpretation be wrested from the Parliament to the Presbyters new proselyte and his confederates that ever yet was invented since the Warres See also Dels scruples against the Covenant through the whole PPP 3 Remonstrance of many thousands p. 8 10 13 14 18. Also the interest of England p. 13. PPP 4 I spare to name the worshipfull and reverend instruments of this high contumely most unworthy of them PPP 5 Conscience cautioned p. 5. If the Scots stay and keep our Towns and Garrisons after voted out is it not Invasion Is it not the same to enter in hostility or in confluent numbers after voted out if they deliver not up the King when demanded without capitulation for they are our Army our servants and is not the king our States Prisoner Ibid. p. 12. All this is but to King the Scots under the colour of the Kings name to make them Kings of England and the English their slaves Quaeries Who is it that holds out c p. 1. Also black cloud in the North through it all PPP 6 Gangren third Part. QQQ The modest Queries concerning a printed paper p. 6. Abstruse and disputable points of Religion as that of free-will of the Trinity of the Hypostaticall union concerning the death of Christ concerning the state of the soul after death c. RRR Ibid. p. 1. Whether it be agreeable to the minde of Christ for men to inflict the heavy censure of death upon their Brethren for holding forth such Doctrines or opinions in Religion suppose contrary to admonition which for ought the said inflicters know except they make themselves infallible may be the sacred truths of God SSS Vide supra in the Histories of Becold and Muncer TTT M. Marshals Defence p. 75. It is most apparent that their Books even to this day do constantly defend that though Magistracy be an Ordinance of God as to them who are not under the dominion and kingdome of Christ yet Christ hath put an end to it among his own people taken away all Magistracy from among them that no Christian can be a Magistrate with a good conscience and that if Christians do live under any such they are to bear them but as other plagues and judgements are to be born TTT 2 Disswasive first Part p. 152. MMMMMM 3. VVV Ibid. p. 72. VV. XXX M. Williams informed me that Mistresse Hutchison in the first place she setled with her company after her banishment did perswade her husband to lay down the office of the Magistrate as that which was unlawfull for Christians to bear YYY The just mans justification p. 10. That you would think upon the grand murderer of England for by this impartiall Law of God there is no exemption of Kings Princes Dukes Earles Barons Judges or Gentlemen more then of Fishermen Coblers Tinkers and Chimney-sweepers upon his shoulders all the innocent bloud that hath in such abundance been shed in this Kingdom doth lie Numb 35.31 God saith plainly that there shall no satisfaction be taken for the life of a murtherer but he shall surely be put to death because Saul though a King slew some Gibeonites contrary to the Covenant made with them God sent a famine upon all Israel for three years for that very innocent bloudshed by the King And there was no expiation or satisfaction to be made therefore but by the bloud of him that had shed it and therefore because he himself was dead and his bloud could not be had seven of his sons of his own bloud must and was hanged up to make satisfaction therefore 2 Sam. 21.1 2 3 4. to the 9. See also Arguments proving that we ought not to part with the Militia Argument 10. According to protestations oathes and Covenants he ought to be brought to exemplary and condign punishment he being the greatest and most notorious delinquent in the whole Kingdome yea the originall fountain and wel-spring of all the Delinquents in the Kingdom giving Commissions to all the rest to kill murther and slay the innocent people Also Queries to finde out who it is that holds out in Arms against the State of England How can it be properly said that the English Creator the State of England can commit Treason against its own meeâ— creature the King their rebellious servant who hath stood it out in open hostility as long as possibly he could against his earthly Soveraign Lord King and Creator the State universall whose legall and formall representative the Parliament is ZZZ The Remonstrance of many thousands p. 6. Your Preachers must pray for him as if he had not deserved to be excommunicated all Christian society or as if ye or they thought God were a respecter of the persons of Kings in judgement we do expect according to reason that ye should in the first place declare and set forth King Charles his wickednesse openly before the world and withall to shew the intolerable inconveniences of having a Kingly Government from the constant evill practises of those of this Nation and so to declare King Charles an enemy and to publish your resolution never to have any more but to acquit us of so great a charge and trouble for ever and to convert the great revenue of the Crown to the publick Treasure The last Warning p. 1 2. None can shew one good Act that ever any King did voluntarily for the good of the people If ye will examine Stories or your own experience your self may produce thousands of oppressions murders and other Tyrannies though no condition of mankinde ever did so many so intolerable mischiefs though it cannot be said to what use they serve or that there is any use of them except to debauch and vex a people you hate those that would shew a more just and rationall way of Government then that of Kings Remostrance p. 16. If ye would in many things follow the Hollanders good example and make this Nation a State free from the oppression of Kings and the corruption of the Court c. AAAA The just man in bonds p. 1. The Lords are but painted puppies and Dagons that our superstition and ignorance their own craft and impudence have erected no naturall issues of Laws but the extuberances and mushromes of Prerogative the wens of just government putting the body of the people to pain as well as occasioning deformity Sonnes of conquest they are and usurpation not of choyce and election intruded upon us by power not constituted by consent not made by the people from whom all power place and office that is just in this Kingdome ought onely to arise BBBB Alarm to the House of Lords p. 4. This is
and their great Patrons in their debates for liberty except errours against the light of nature albeit none which never so evidently crosse the holy Scriptures HHH but M. Williams an Anabaptist long before Blackwood makes it a bloudy Tenet III and others of them proclaim it an unjust persecution to deny a full liberty not only to Turks Jews and most of hereticks but to idolatrous Papists and any others that can be named KKK They will not only have all these free from any considerable punishments but also from the least discountenance LLL or resentment of their wickednesse and left the grossest blasphemies might have been conceived capable of any civill censure behold they name Atheism it self and exempt it expresly from the hazard of all pain or shame MMM They presse a liberty for preaching and propagating openly all errors imaginable This liberty they extend not only to errours lockt up in the breast but also when they are openly by word and writ professed yea solemnly preached for they tell us that the necessary and just liberty of conscience is violate and a persecution is brought in if a Jesuit or a Turk or a Jew or a blasphemous Atheist be hindred to go to the most solemne places where the greatest multitudes of weak and easily seduced spirits do converse and there to proclaim what ever in conscience they think convenient for the propagation of that errour which they conceive to be truth NNN Yet they grant that error is a soule murder and a greater crime then the destruction of a King of a Parliament of a whole Nation For all this the same men do fully and freely grant unto us that errour is a greater wickednesse then any man can easily conceive That a false Teacher by seducing of one soul doth more reall hurt then if he should murther a King blow up a Parliament destroy the lives of a whole Nation yea of the whole world OOO Yet do they plead for so great a liberty to all errours as possibly can be for they spoyl the Magistrate of all power in any thing which concerns Religion that he may not with a look of his eye discourage much lesse with his hand restrain the most horrible blasphemer the most ravenous wolf to destroy the souls of all his Subjects PPP This immoderate love of licentiousnesse They hate the Covenant of a liberty to destroy their own souls by what ever errour they please to imbrace puts them upon a high degree of hatred and indignation against the solemne league and Covenant against the Scotish Nation whence it came as two great impediments to their quiet enjoying of that self-destroying and God-provoking liberty which so passionately they lust after though for fear and other base respects many of them have swallowed down the Covenant in such equivocall senses as are evidently contrary both to the expresse words and known intentions of the States which enjoyn it yet since the time their strength and hopes are encreased these of them who pretend to ingenuity and courage do not only with bitternesse reject it but it is now become the object of their publick invectives as the most unhappy plague that did ever come into England which they presse the State to recall as an act much to be repented of PPP 2 The Scots they were wont to account as Demi-gods They are injurious to the Scots embracing them as their very Saviours upon earth so long as the Episcopall party kept them in any fear that terrour now being past and the Scots beginning to urge though with all meeknesse and curtesie some performance of Covenants and Treaties they cry out upon them with all bitternesse and spleen they censure the Parliament for ever calling them in they load them with injurious calumnies for their very first contests in Scotland with the malignant and Episcopall party there the defensive arms of their Parliament and Nation they defame as an insurrection against the King of a few malecontents for the obtaining of their private ambitious designes neither do they make any better construction of the present Armes of the English Parliament PPP 3 The great sufferings of the Scots at home from the Irish Rebels and their own apostate brethren they proclaim to be the just deservings of their labours in England PPP 4 which they are pleased to vilifie and disgrace with the basest and most false slanders which the father of lies and malice is able to invent PPP 5 wherein they rest not till they have made the Scots open enemies and Traytors to England proclaiming a great deal of desire to have the next expedition of their glorious and invincible Army to kill destroy and subjugate those base Traytors PPP 6 that so they may be altogether free for their other much higher designs were it as in Sober-Sadnesse it was professed in a very solemne audience to go to the wals of Constantinople for the pulling of the grand Seignior out of his Seraglio to this height of dangerous fancy has their lust of Liberty already arisen All punishing of errour with them is persecution It is not a toleration a forbearance a dispensation which is sought for all this imports some power in the Magistrate about the object in the which the forbearance and toleration is craved but a just liberty to think speak and do in all matters of Religion whatever conscience howsoever informed dictates to be expedient the least restraint of so plenary a liberty they count the sin and injury of persecution The reasons whereby the Independents themselves in their very last papers do plead for this liberty to my ear sounds but harshly they tell us that those things which are cried out upon for errors are in matters obscure and disputable instancing expresly in the Trinity the union of Christs two natures the fruits of Christs death the power of free-will the state of the soul after death QQQ and lest any error should stand without the compasse of their liberty they tell us farther that no error is in any justice punishable because now there is not on earth any Apostle or Prophet or infallible Judge who can determine any question without possibility of erring RRR It may be scrupled whether meer conscience does enforce the Anabaptists and others to scrue up the point of their conscience-liberty to so high a pin They presse liberty of conscience much out of policy whether in their inmost sense they can maintain so catholick a liberty to all persons in matters of Religion or if haply some piece of policy may not induce them to strike so much upon this string at the present when they have but small hopes of attaining a liberty for themselves without the assistance of many others from whom they differ in many particulars of Religion It may be justly doubted if once they were come to be possessed of their own desires whether then they would be so carefull as now they professe for the freedom of
and pleaded for by too many and too eminent Patrons If those mens counsell might be followed The monster of Libertinism what at once should bee the condition of the Church of England It could not but by and by become the most hideous and wofull monster that ever any pious eye did beheld every two or three making up an Independent-Congregation for the setting up of what ever tenets and worship themselves please to invent albeit for no longer a time then every single person amongst them doe think fit They stick not to professe the lawfulnesse to erect at least the unlawfulnesse to disturb when erected in the most publick places Schools and Professions for the perswading of all the idolatries and blasphemies which either of old or this day have been among the Pagans Turks Jews or the most infamous hereticall Christians that so from England as an open fountain the streams of all those and if they be any more imaginable errours may be sent out to every other part of the Christian world adding That whoever is against this happy liberty is without all doubt a corrupt fleshly and unregenerate man ignorant of the grace of God whom the Magistrate is obliged to punish though by duty he is to protect all other in the free enjoyment and practise of all the dictates of their own minde The devill had never a more clear and downright way not onely to evert all Churches but to explode as a ridiculous scorn whatever looks like truth or has the least savour of any Religion The Sectaries having done with the Church proceed to the ovâ—rthrow of the State For all this there might be sâ—me hope of subsistence for Religion if those men when they have done their worst against the Church would be content to hold their hands off the State for it cannot be but where ever a truly Christian State doth stand it will shelter the Church and by no art no force so long as it hath any beeing for its sâ—lf will it exterminate the Lords inheritance The spirit that leads the Sectaries knowing this in all his long experience letteth them not rest in their designes against Religion but presseth them on for doing their endeavour to pull down the State likewise Wee need not speake of their declared rage against Vniversities and all Societies of Learning against the profession and person of all Lawyers against the Society of Merchant-adventurers against the Common-Councell and Court of Aldermen in the City of London all these things to them are corruptions and grievances to be extirpate But that which we are most affraid for is that with their whole strength they attach the known foundation of the whole State the High Court of Parliament The Parliament must be abolished It 's not onely the King who must bee cut in pieces with Agag and for his faults the whole royall race yea the very state and condition of Royalty and Monarchy must be razed and abolished for ever but also the House of Lords and the whole Peerage of England must follow the fortune of the King and with him fall under a perpetuall abolition yea the House of Commons it self the onely remainder of our hope must walk in that same way their House likewise must be pulled down about their ears The common people every individuall of the whole multitude must be set on the Throne of Soveraignty to mould themselves in a new fashion of State and frame to themselves a body of new laws by the hands of such persons as they may be pleased to set up for their Deputies in a new House of Commons When such dictates are put in print and under the eye of Authority daily in Pamphlet after Pamphlet sent out over the whole Land to open the eyes of the blinde with this new glorious light of the Kinghood as they call it of every individuall of the people as well beggers fools and rogues as the most vertuous wise noble and wealthy persons When such maximes are sweetly hugged in the arms not onely of the multitude but others of the best quality when the authors and abettors of so good and wise Positions are caressed cryed up rewarded with preferment in the State in the Army in the Countrey When their opposers receive hard measure are discountenanced rebuked deprived of favours by men in place and sometimes spoiled of their goods and knocked down by the professors indeed of a catholike liberty but truly the practisers of tyranny and persecution This being our known and felt condition upon how weak and tottering props the house of our Church and State doth stand may easily be conceived What I have said of our dangers needs no other proof then the sense of that which the eye and ear brings daily before every observing minde but the remedies of so eminent and imminent dangers require a pate of a much larger size then mine or any other such of mean and vulgar capacity Onely for curing of the first very dangerous evill The return of the King in equitable tearms is the best remedy of the one half of our fears I wish the continuance of the prayers of all the godly and of the endeavours of those in place to hasten the reconciliation of the King For this to my weak judgment seems the most hopefull remedy of all our fears which flow from the former fountain the reduction of his minde to our sense which I am not desperate but some more of our supplications to God and endeavours with men may bring to passe would in a moment bring to us with him the most considerable of that side and if any thereafter should delay to take from us what laws should be given them their obstinate folly did then put in our hand a fair opportunity to bring on their head the day of recompences and of â—ust vengeance for all their former misdemeanours By the blessing of God the return of the King upon equitable and just tearms for no other must be imagined might quickly sheath the sword in all the Dominions might give us a setled peace and put us in a fair way to repair in time the great vastations which this unhappy war has made in all the three Kingdomes and to recover our reputation in the world abroad which of a long time htah been buried through our domestick jealousies and distractions Our credit once set on foot we might quickly become so considerable as to attain to our wonted influence in all the great affairs of Europe for the reviving of our dead or dying friends and the bounding of the late excessive overflowings of our very high and lofty neighbours I grant the Lord is not tyed to any one channell when out of the fountain of his goodnesse he is pleased to send out the stream of any blessing whether to a Nation or a man onely Yet when I cast mine eye upon the ordinary course of his carrying humane affairs if you remove this mean and make the
declared his information thereof by God ten days before but the matter concerning his own person he had hitherto been silent yet all now being made publick by the mouth of another Prophet The splendour of Becolds Court he did submit himself to the will of God No minute of time was delayed the twelve Princes were cashiered the Catholick Monarch did choose his Chancellor Treasurer Secretary and other Officers of State and Court a fair high throne was set up in the Market-place and covered all over with cloth of gold Becold made for himself being a Taylor by his Trade very royall suits of most gorgeous apparell of the Priests vestments which he had robbed in the Cathedrall a stately Crown Scepter and Sword were prepared for him his Courtiers were all put in most sumptuous raiment no greater magnificence was to be seen at any Princes Court in the world QQ Thus Becold attained the top of his ambition and lust but the great skill was how to keep what was gotten for this end twenty eight Apostles were sent abroad to preach over the world obedience to the King of Munster the new Jerusalem but here was the misluck all of them but one who returned with the tidings were killed in the places where first they offered to preach His barbarous cruelty and hypocrisie In the mean time the Town begun to be pinched with famine one of the Kings Wives being delated for a word of compassion upon the starving multitude was brought forth to the Market-place and by Becolds own hand had her head struck off RR All the rest of his wives did sing a Psalm to God for this so excellent an act of Justice the King himself led all the fourteen in a dance through the streets of the Town it were long to recite all the acts of their villanous hypocrisie at last the patience of God broke out upon them One of the Kings Secretaries undertook to bring into the Town a supply of men and victuals when he was gone His unhappy end his way was straight to the Enemy he guided his Treason so cunningly that on a certain night he brought a party within the Town many were put to the edge of the sword the King and the principall mis-leaders of the people were taken alive the King was brought to acknowledge the most of his Errors SS he offered upon condition of his life to make all the Anabaptists in Holland Freezland and England to be quiet and give over their way but these vain promises were not trusted and so after some cruell torture he and Knipperdolling were killed and hung up in a cage of Iron upon the highest pinacle of the Cathedrall Steeple TT That same very year 1535. Amsterdam in hazard to be a second Munster the Anabaptists had a mighty design upon Amsterdam and very narrowly did misse of their intention to surprise that City to be a seat of as glorious a Kingdom as had been at Munster but God assisted the Citizens to prevent such a mischief albeit not without great losse for some hundreds were killed on both sides in these bloody uproars VV A woman Messias All this did not teach the Anabaptists wisdom still they did expect a new Jerusalem and an earthly Kingdom their Prophets filled the fancies of their people with this notion more then any other One of their women at Apezell in Suitzerland gave her self out for the Queen of the world and Messias for all women sending out her twelve she-Apostles for their conversion to her way XX I read also after the death of Becold of a second King in Vtrick who was no lesse infamous for crimes then his predecessors by open robberies he became rich with his own hands he kil'd his poor wife that he might marry her daughter YY Division and schismes were the Anabaptists ruine However the grievous absurdities of the Anabaptists both in their doctrine and practice as also the evident judgements which God man did pour upon them the very great industry which all the great and heroick Divines of that happy time of Reformation did use to reclaim them much retarded their progresse yet it is marvellous to consider their incredible increase in many parts of Germany and elswhere till God of his mercy did divide them among themselves and confound their Languages their divisions and subdivisions was that which most of all did weaken them and stop their course The difference betwixt the Monasterians and Battenburgicks After the taking of Munster one John Battenburg a bastard of a good Family born at Leyden made himself head of a strong party and pretended a Divine mission to propagate that earthly Kingdom ZZ which by the fatall calamity of his Townsman Becold and his friends at Munster had been a little interrupted betwixt the followers of this Battenburg and the remainder of the Monasterian Anabaptists arose the first discord Their sufferings and disappointments made them more sober and wary then the zeal of Battenburg could approve of for he professed that since the Gospel preached by Becold had been rejected by the world the time of mercy was now expired and nothing but wrath remained So that his commission from God was to kill all the world only those who did yeeld to his way and were rebaptized he might admit to be slaves as Israel did the Gibeonites AAA Upon those grounds his followers where ever they durst be bold did kill all whom they met with in the fields did rob and steal what ever came to their hand in Country villages broke in upon sleeping people pulled sundry out of their beds drowned them in the first waters or hanged them upon the first trees BBB They of Munster did not approve of all these practises therefore they were condemned as coldrife lukewarm hinderers of the Kingdom of Christ CCC This discord lasted for divers years till the Monasterians expired and the Battenburgicks were also rooted out as Robbers and murderers by the sword of the Magistrate The second division was greater one Melchior Hophman a Skinner or Glover in Suabland before the Tragedy of Munster The sect of the Hophmanists was a prime Leader of the Anabaptists In Strasburg about the year 1529 he seduced many he leaned much upon Enthusiasms and dreams DDD he fancied that Strasburg was appointed of God to be the new Jerusalem that himself and some others were quickly to get from heaven an extraordinary calling to an Apostleship EEE that so from that Town they might preach the Gospel to all the world which they were assured would in a short time be subdued to Christ by the power of the Spirit in their Ministery without any outward force FFF The violent tumults of Munster Hophman did not approve these were the inventions of his Scholar Mathie of Harleim which he did always mislike GGG albeit whilst that Doctrine of his scholar did prosper in Munster he durst not much contradict it but so soon as
all others for it has been seen when ever the sword of power has fallen into their hands that they have been as severe and cruell oppressors of all who did not absolutely without exception submit to their Laws as any Tyrants who yet have appeared upon the earth SSS But presupponing that their old principles bâ— now altered and their present Tenets about liberty of conscience be most conscientious and sincere which they upon no occasion will any more change the Magistrate had need to know whether the granting of all this liberty whereof we have been speaking willfully content them When the State hath denuded it self of the care and cognisance of the matters of the soul The granting of all this liberty will not assure the Magistrate of the Sectaries civill obedience and put these absolutely in the power of every mans own free will may it then expect obedience to its other Laws in things civill and temporall The Confessionists in this seem to be clear and freely to grant to the Magistrate in things civill all due obedience but that this is the generall sense of all the rest of that sect M. Marshall permits us not to believe for he tels us that the most of the Anabaptists are in their conscience against all Magistracy as well in matters civill as Ecclesiastick TTT In the time of their weaknesse for fear of trouble they can be silent and gâ—ve obedience to their commands without any question but when the days of their power shall come when the righteous shall inherit the Land which they long have been looking for and believes to be now at the doors the Magistrate must then lay down his rule give up his Government and be content to be ruled by the two-edged sword of their Saints which Germany did feel to be very sharp and ready to shed much innocent bloud The Tenets practise of the Sectaries destroy Magistracy The troublers of New England did not only plead for a freedom and immunity from all civill Laws the reasons whereof did not convince their consciences both of their lawfulnesse and expediency TTT 2 but were also ready if they had not been prevented by force of Arms in a very unjust and seditious manner to have risen against the State and to have cut the throats of their opposites VVV when after their banishment they were set down by themselves they could not indure Magistracy but put it down as a condition unlawfull for a Christian to undergo XXX But that which concerns this State now most to take heed of They professe their design to overturn from the ground the government of our State as now it stands is that growing Tenet of all the Sects among us wherein divers Anabaptists are with the first a declared aversenesse from all obedience to the present Magistrates and Laws and frequent motions to have the very fundamentals of the State government new moulded to their own fancies they do no more dissemble their detestation of Monarchy the King and all of his blood must be destroyed King Charles for his mis-government must lose his life this execution does not satisfie Justice YYY But for no time to come either the name or the King of royalty must be more heard of in England ZZZ Kings Lords are no more tolerable When thus far we have gratified the new moulders of our State will they then be content to be under the government of a Parliament without a King they assure us this is far from their purpose The Parliament as it stands is as rotten a body as the King an head at the first bout they pull down one of the two Houses and smother all the Lords the Peers are a pestiferous excrement of Kings and with them they must go packing AAAA The ground of all their dignity is wickednesse BBBB Their personall carriage has been corrupt CCCC The best of them are false Traytors DDDD Neither is the House of Commons any longer to be endured When that Paganish invention EEEE of King and Lords is abolished can we have assurance to get the House of Commons for our Governors if so our case were somewhat safe and comfortable but the new framers of our State tell us that the House of Commons when they are deprived of the society of their very ancient companions their old fellow Governours the King and Lords and themselves alone are become the whole and full Parliament of England they must not then expect to be rulers for they also have exceedingly abused their trust they have many ways abused the people Upon divers of their most eminent Members they cry out as Traytors FFFF upon the most as covetous self-seeking men GGGG upon all the Lawyers as pestiferous Members no lesse then the Bishops were in the House of Lords GGGG 2 upon many other of the Members as a faction adhering to the Lords in all their wicked designs GGGG 3 upon the whole House as the authors of greater evil to the people then either King or Lords or Bishops or any former oppressors did ever bring upon England HHHH They insist especially upon one of their ordinary Acts of insupportable Tyranny they have for many ages bound taxes by Law upon the back of the free-born people of England this is no longer to be endured IIII what the people thinks meet voluntarily to offer it may be received but to lay a necessity upon any to give for any use private or publick any more of his goods then himself the just owner is willing is an oppression too long connived at KKKK Of this great grievance the House of Commons has been the great instrument wherefore they also must be taught to know their place and to remember their condition that they hereafter may be content to be humble servants to their Soveraign Lords and Masters the free-born people of England LLLL to them they must be accountable and by them punishable toties quoties these their new Masters find them delinquents MMMM Our Masters are not here speaking what in some extraordinary cases The poorest begger in the Land has a share of the Soveraignty above the King and Parliament an intolerably oppressed people by the Laws of an unavoidable necessity are forced to do before they perish but of that which they affirm ought to be the ordinary perpetuall just and necessary case of England Kings and Lords must for ever be abolished a Parliament of Commons must for ever sit at the feet of their supream and absolute Lords the multitude of the people this present House of Commons must be dissolved NNNN and another presently put in its place which may sit no longer then one year OOOO A Trienniall Parliament is worth nothing PPPP A perpetuall Parliament a Parliament of longer continuance then one year is unsupportable QQQQ As in the Church all and every one of the Officers are to be under the jurisdiction and censure of the whole and every one of the members
of the City Provinces the whole Common-wealth was absolutely at his disposition only for his own assistance in the discharge of so incomparable a trust he did name for a helper and a second almost an equall a Master of Horse If we should come to this excellent expedient it were not hard for the people of the Sectarian party to fall without much deliberation upon a Dictator to whose valour and untainted fidelity they might without fear or the least suspicion commit the common safety and if merit may be regarded if boldnesse and diligence in pulling down old Tyrants whether Kings or Lords or Commons for the advancement of the people to their due place may be valued a Lievtenant a Master of Horse without difficulty might presently be found This much of their mind already they have declared that all good people of their own accord without any authority may arise in Arms as one man and when they are up they may choose for their Governor whom they please LLLLL and mould the State in what fashion they conceive to be most for their own good MMMMM and thereafter put the Militia during their pleasure in the hands of these to whom they dare trust the common safety providing they be known to be firm for absolute liberty of conscience NNNNN And among these he who runs may reade in their Books one glorious name in whose bosome the Dictatorian patent could not but fall only here is the hazard when Caesar was once possessed of the Dictators place he had the skill and the will also to keep in his own hand that highest command for ever And although the perpetuall Dictatorship was a little interrupted by his violent death in the midst of the Senate yet never did the command return any more to the people but in place of their expected liberty their government was changed into a most Tyrannick Empire As in nature so in State there is a constant vicissitude the corruption of one is the generation of another and that which ariseth doth post to its fall and corruption that a new plant may come in its stead The rash and heady overturners of States pull down the possessors that themselves may sit in their rooms but they are not well hot in their new places till the judgement of God and the unavoidable circulation which is and ever has been in all sublunary affairs casts them likewise out that their seats may be void to their pressing successors I confesse at my first sight of this Anabaptistick root The State in danger by the Sectaries principles the peoples supremacy at its first appearance above ground I was more afraid for it then for any other errour of the time for I apprehended if it did grow it might overturn the whole State from the very foundation and bring upon all the Land such a confusion as was unexpressible This apprehension as yet seems to me not altogether groundlesse for if this principle be driven on but a little further if the unwise and unjust multitude be flattered into a Supremacy of power and perswaded of a necessity were it but of a conveniency or of a meer lawfulnesse to put down Kings Lords and Commons and to set up what ever other Government they think meetest for their own safety and welfare I am in the opinion that some very mean born Gentlemen if they have but the skill and constancy for some little time to play the Cards right that now are in their hands are in as fair a possibility to attain the Dictatorship of England as Julius Caesar was to attain that of Rome some few years before the civill Warre But though they should attain all and much more then for the time themselves do intend or dare as yet desire The greatest purchace which the overturners of States usually make is a late repentance their reward may prove unworthy their labour It had been much better for Caesar and his Army that they had permitted the Senate to govern according to the former Laws the change indeed which he made in the State did advance him for a time to the highest degree of command and his friends to the most of their private desires yet ere long it brought upon him an untimous and cruell death and upon all the Romans a perpetuall slavery When the whole account is cast up the changers of State use not to be so great gainers but had they fore-seen the end and taken it into their reckoning they could easily have been content never to have begun their enterprise The Testimonies of the third Chapter A Fratlies Dipper Dipped in the Epistle to Downame these above all others have bestirred themselves since the waters were troubled and they boast in secret of their great draughts of fish the Papists of 20000 proselytes the Anabaptists of 47 Churches B M. Marshals Defence p. 76. The Confession is such a one as I beleeve thousands of our new Anabaptists will be far from owning at any man may be able to say without a spirit of divination knowing that their received and usuall doctrines do much more agree with the Anabaptists in Germany then with this handfull who made this Confession here in London C M. Black against Tombs Apology p. 14. I doubt lest that the community of these of that opinion in London will not be concluded by the subscription of these 15 persons many witnesses will affirm that such Doctrines are frequently broached in their congregations which stand in full contradiction to severall articles in that confession which you mention D Barrows Discovery p. 26. What communion is to be held with the Church of England can the name of a Church without blasphemy unto Christ be given unto them in these sins I have often wondred how any man of sound judgement could give them the name of a Church Ibid. in the Preface Let them save their soul out of this accursed false Church E Robinsons Apology p. 78. Convenit nobis quatenus reformatis Ecclesiia Belgicis aliis cum Ecclesia Anglicana in Articulis fidei hujus Ecclesiae nomine scriptis Vide Disswasive first Part p. 20 21. F Vide Disswasive first Part. p. 103 104. G William Kiffins Answer in Ricrafts Looking glasse for the Anabaptists p. 9. So long as you deny to follow the rule of Christ for the separation of the wicked from the godly and separating the precious from the vile we are bound in obedience to Jesus Christ to leave you whilst you remain obstinate to him England hath at this time in her as hatefull birds as any Nation whatsoever when these things do so appear is it not high time to hearken to the voyce of the Apostle Acts 2.40 to save your self from such a generation and to come out from them Rev. 18.4 H Declaration concerning the publick dispute by Benjamin Cocks c. p. 13. The baptism of Infants does deny Christ to be come in the flesh Cornwels Vindication of the Royall Commission
any thing contrary to our understandings and consciences so neither can we forbear the doing of that which our understandings and consciences bind us to do GGG Ibid. It is the Magistrates duty to tender the liberty of mens consciences which is the tenderest thing unto all conscientious men and most dear unto them and without which all other liberties will not be worth the naming much lesse enjoying and to protect all under them from all wrong injury oppression and molestation HHH Blackwoods Storming of Antichrist p. 23. Evill works committed against the light of nature and reason as the setting up of Mahomet or any other God beside the Creator of heaven and earth Atheism when any man shall boldly affirm there is no God Polytheism when men affirm many Gods blasphemy murder these and such like the Magistrate whether Heathen or Christian is to be a terror unto 2. These evill works which are against the light of Nations there is no Nation in the world but in it the Magistrate will punish those that speak against the God that they professe and against that which they think is Scripture so if any rail against Christ or deny the Scriptures to be his Word or no rule for us and so unsettle our faith this as I take it may be punished by the Magistrate III Williams Bloody Tenet of persecution for the cause of Conscience in the Preface to the Parliament p. 2. It is the will and command of God that since the comming of his Son the Lord Jesus a permission of the most Paganish Jewish Turkish or Antichristian consciences and worships be granted to all men in all Nations and Countries KKK Ibid. p. 19. I acknowledge that to molest any person Jew or Gentile for either professing Doctrine or practising worship meerly religious or spirituall it is to persecute him and such a person what ever his doctrine or practise be true or false suffereth persecution for conscience The compassionate Samaritane p. 16. The Anabaptists or Brownists or whatever Sect there is or may be LLL Liberty of Conscience p. 22. Such fines imprisonments or lesser punishments whatsoever are justly to be accounted force and that in the highest nature Ibid. p. 17. How incongruous and dangerous a way of proceeding it is to joyn profit or preferment hopes or fears threats or force to work upon the conscience Ibid. p. 23. In such Countries where the Inquisition ruleth or people are forced to go to Church upon penalties how small soever Compassionate Samaritane p. 5. Little can be done in their behalf unlesse liberty of conscience be allowed for every man or sort of men to worship God in that way and perform Christs ordinances in that manner as shall appear to them most agreeable to Gods word and no man punished or discountenanced by authority for his opinion unlesse it be dangerous to the State MMM Toleration justified p. 8 9. All Sectaries whether Presbyters Independents Brownists Antinomians Anabaptists c. have a like title and right to freedome or a toleration the title thereof being not of any particular opinion but the equity of every mans being free in the State he lives in and is obedient to matters of opinion being not properly to be taken into cognisance any further then they break out into some disturbance or disquiet to the State But you will say that by such a toleration blasphemy will be broached and such strange and horrid opinions as would make the ears of every godly man to tingle what must this also be tolerated I answer it cannot be just to set bounds or limitations to toleration any further then the safety of the people requires the more horrid and blasphemous the opinion is the easier it will be supprest by reason and argument NNN Liberty of Conscience p. 16. And what command finde we in the word of God which warrants us to imprison fine banish or put to death any one especially amongst Christians for difference of opinion in Religion many I know are so indulgent as to be contented that every man might enjoy his own conscience quietly but would not suffer them to have the free exercise of it to discourse or publish their opinions unto others but hereof I finde no ground in Scripture Saint Paul says 1 Cor. 9.16 A command is laid upon me and wo is me if I preach not the Gospel and our Saviour said unto S. Peter Acts 22.32 When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren so that the same God which commands me to try the spirits requires of me also that when I have found the truth I should not with-hold it like a candle under a Bushel Yea but some will say God requires you to teach the truth but you teach heresie in stead thereof and therefore you ought to be persecuted My answer is that I apprehend it to be the truth and do but discharge my conscience though it be erroneous desiring to see the warrant for persecuting such as teach or publish erroneous Doctrines which they in their own opinion thought had been sound OOO Bloody Tenet p. 56 57. Of these that fall into this dreadfull ditch both Leader and followers how deplorable in more especiall manner is the Leaders case upon whose neck the followers tumble the ruine not only of his own soul being horrible but also the ruine of the followers souls eternally galling and tormenting Soul-killing is the chiefest murder it is a truth the mischief of a blinde Pharisees blinde guidance is greater then if he acted Treasons murders c. and the losse of one soul by his seduction is a greater mischief then if he blew up Parliaments and cut the throats of Kings and Emperours so precious is that invaluable jewell of a soule above all the present lives and bodies of all the men in the world PPP Vide supra III. KKK LLL Also Bloody Tenet p. 54. Civill Magistrates were never appointed by God defenders of the faith of Jesus PPP 2 Innocency and truth justified p. 46. I told him I could not take the Covenant Englands Birthright p. 12. The Covenant was first ordained to beget unity between the Nations but as sad experience teacheth in its effects it produceth nothing lesse amongst us setting us at as bitter a Warre and contestation amongst our selves almost as we have with our professed Enemies who before this unhappy make-bate came amongst us were knit together in love Ibid. p. 29 30. O that the Parliament would give leave to some of their honest fellow-Commoners to remonstrate the inconveniency and mischievousnesse of this Covenant and I am confident it would easily and clearly be made appear to themselves so vile that they would never enforce it any more but rather recall it The last Warning p. 5 6. Such as only personate Religion to bring their ends about whose Religion indeed is prudentially and zealously to dissemble these are they that frame oathes and Covenants for you in such ambiguous expressions like Delphian Oracles you will
indeed I have for had I thought that the Parliament had had no rule but their own will to have walked by I should never have drawn my sword for them and for my part I know no difference betwixt Tyranny and such proceedings Ib. p. 3. Since the first of May last I have by authority from the House of Commons been three times imprisoned before ever I knew mine accuser or my accusation or ever was suffered to speak one word in mine own defence Ib. p. 14. Hear O heavens and give ear O earth and thou righteous God that lovest Justice and judgement and hatest and abhorrest oppression and cruelty which makest wise men mad put forth thy hand and do justice thy self upon the unjust and unrighteous Judges of this age whom the people have set up for their good namely to preserve their lives liberties and estates as their faithfull Stewards and servants and yet destroy what they would seem to maintain p. 17. Amongst those that would be thought their friends they are rob'd plundered spoiled opprest undone and destroyed by all sides and no remedy left for redresse but the little ones to be eaten up of the great ones in every place which makes poor mens lives a burden to them that they are ready to wish themselves back again in Egypt in their bondage and rather to have one Tyrant then many Alarum p. 11. These deceivable snares leading to worse then Egyptian slavery wherein we our poor infants on their mothers breasts others who know not the right hand from the left yea and our whole posterity are most pitifully catched and involved even as Gods own particular people the Jews were in the days of Haman except there come such a happy and speedy remedy as it pleased him in mercy then to send beyond the expectation of man IIII Gangren second Part p. 117. They teach that the people of God are a free people and what they do they should do freely and voluntarily and not to be assessed and rated by the Parliament compelled to pay rate upon rate assessement upon assessement KKKK Gangren second Part p. 122. It was laid to M. Oats charge then that he had preached against the assessements of Parliament and the taxes laid upon the people teaching them that the Saints were a free people and should do what they did voluntarily and not be compelled but now contrary to this they had assessement upon assessement and rate upon rate LLLL Remonstrance p. 1. Calling those their Commissioners in Parliament to an account how they have discharged their duties to the universality of the people their Soveraign Lord from whom their power and strength is derived and by whom ad bene placitum it is continued MMMM Ib. p. 3. We are your principals and you our agents to preserve the splendor and glory of that underived Majesty and Kingship that inherently resides in the people or the State universall the representation or derivation of which is formally and legally in the State elect or representative and none else whose actions ought all to tend to that end against encroachments usurpations and violences of all its creatures officers and Ministers in the number of which are Kings themselves from whom for whom they have all their power and authority as the execution of their will and minde for their good and benefit to whom they are acountable for the faithfull discharge of that trust reposed in them NNNN Birthright p. 32 33. Whether is it not agreeable to Law justice equity and conscience that there should be a Parliament once every year and more often if need require that seeing this present Parliament by reason of the extraordinary necessities of the Kingdom have sate four years many of the Members betrayed their trust and those that remain ingrosse Law-making and also Law-executing into their own hands contrary both to reason and to the meaning of the Law by which manifest abusing negligent and not true using the Laws oppressions mischiefs and grievances are no lesse if not far more increased then they were before the Parliament began many times by the powerfull interest of a faction in the Parliament to save some one two or three of their Members undeserving credits they so violate the known unrepealed and declared Law of the Land yea and their own Votes Ordinances Declarations Protestations as if they had never made them I say all these things considered ought not the free men of England not only to choose new Members where they are wanting once every year but also to renew and enquire once a year after the carriage and behaviour of those they have chosen OOOO Vide supra NNN PPPP Remonst p. 20. Nor do we value a Trienniall Parl. before 3 years come to an end grievances mischiefs may be past remedy QQQQ Birthright p. 30. We have just cause to fear they will set up an interest of their own destructive to the common freedom so make this present Parl. an everlasting Parl. the War a never dying War seeing it tends so much to the enriching of Parliament men their Officers RRRR Vide supra also Conscience cautioned p. 12. If neither Law nor Lords will allow the people to be saved then may they not be saved any way and both Laws and Lords fall before their Soveraign the people as Dagon did before the Ark rather then the people perish Birthright p. 32. I have heard it reported that self-denying Cromwel was about a design of getting a Committee set apart an order made published to the whole Kingdom that if any man were unjustly oppressed by any Member of Parl. Committee-man or any other Officers or Ministers let him bring his complaint he shall have a just and fair hearing and justice done not in words but in actiâ—ns upon the transgressor Interest p. 10. We know it is not Gods way to have respect of persons in judgment and that the doing thereof has frequently lost Gods favour and made States miserable Englands lameâ—table slavery p. 6. What became of that common and thredbare doctrine that Kings were accountable only to God what good effects did it produce No they are but corrupt and dangerous flatterers that maintain any such fond opinions concerning either Kings or Parliaments SSSS The Conqueror rob'd England of Edward the Confessors Laws and in stead of them set up the Dictates of his own will whose Norman rules practises to this day yet remain in the administrations of the Common-Law at Westminster Hall By reason of their tediousnesse ambiguities uncertainties the entries in Latin as bad as the French because it is not our own tongue their forcing men to plead by Lawyers and not permitting themselves to plead their own cause their compelling of persons to come from all places of the Kingdome to seek for justice at Westminster which is such an iron Norman yoke with fangs teeth in it that if we were free in every particular else