such Rebells those who exceeding their cruelty in the Gospell not onely abuse the Servants but have murdered the Lord of England's Vineyard Mark 12. pursuing his Heir apparent even unto Resolves of his death that so the Inheritance may be solely in their possession This O God thou hast seen O keep not silence O Lord of our salvaion Hide thy servant our Soveraign and all his loyall Subjects from the conspiracy of the wicked and from the rage of these bloody men that compasse them about with words of hatred and fight against them without a cause Were not I say this Principle granted as it is by all Governments it would out of necessity follow that Maxims of Rebellion and Treason were implicitely contained in such a fundamentall constitution not maintained I say that a Government lawfully established must so remain untill alteration be made by the self-same fundamentall Power which established the same Such a shadowy Government being like an Image whose head 's compos'd of gold breast of silver thighes of brasse but all this supported onely by leggs and feet of clay easie to be uncontrollably-shivered in pieces by the least malitiously-seditious and ambitious touch Although I must confesse that when ambitiously-seditious spirits complot the ruine of an established Government such-like destructive tenents as these of which I shall give an instance practised by the rebellious Polititians of our daies are divulged to deceive the common people and invite then to their assistance As that the two Houses may assume a power c. in case of the King's default in governing That the two Houses have power to dispose of the Militia in case the King consent not although it be to enable the One twentieth part of his Kingdom with power to destroy the other Nineteen parts Himself and Royall posterity That the King must consent to whatsoever the two Houses shall propound although never so irrationall irreligious and prejudiciall to Himself and subjects That in case his Majesty will not condescend thus the two Houses may exercise the Regall power not onely without him but against him Pretty Principles indeed equally destructive to people governed as to Kings and Governours ruling Neverthelesse it is true that these and such like Tenents a these are are not professedly nay not so much as implicitely maintained by any Power whatsoever either just or unjust but are onely pretendedly divulged I say to catch the lesse-knowing multitude into a Pecuniary and Souldiery assistance the better to effect the ends of such ambitious Designers The truth of this being made good and plainly appearing to every willing eye that will peruse it and unprejudiced judgment that will remain satisfied with reason Let us with the eyes of our judicious memory fixed upon what is already premised lay the †Cr. Fact Arm. Hous present ruling Power in one scale and their Actions Edicts and Ordinances in another and then judge whether or no the actions of these worst of men weigh not down their own judgments with a self-condemning weight For that they have plotted nay effected a forcible destruction of an established Government contrary to the Principles of all Governments Law of God Reason and of the Kingdom swimming to their ends in continuall streams of English Christian blood untill at last they arrived at the destruction of our †C. R. I. our Royall Fountain is lachrymabile verum too too sad a truth so appearing also by what I have already written That the same ruling bloody power since they have had the sole power to Rule have declared all those to be Traitors and Rebells in their construction against them who shall oppose them in this their unjust possession of the King's Majesty's most just Rights and undeniable Power their own Ordinances or rather bloody Acts confirm it true witnesse that cruell piece of cruelty murdering massacre of those Martyrs on earth now glorious Saints in Heaven Sir Charls Lucas Sir George Lisle the Lord Capell the Earl of Derby Sir Henry Hiae Colonel Andrews and severall others whose loyall actions onely endeavoured to relieve the oppressed and restore unto us our Religion Laws and Liberties the ends of all just Wars In brief take both these together in this plain undeniable Syllogism They are Rebells and Traitors deserving to die an ignominious death upon the Gallows this is the sense of their Ordinances and finall result of their bloodily erected High Court who shall disturb the * Governours or Government of their Common-wealth Bloody Fact say they These very persons have not onely disturbed but ruined the whole fabrick of out Government murdered the sup ream Governour the King destroyed the Kingdom and its Laws by bloody Arms Oppression and Tyranny Ergo these are Rebells and Traitors deserving to die an ignominious death upon the gallows by their own confession practises and commands Thus Reos confitentes habetis secundum sua ipsorum verba fiat Justitia They plead guilty may justice be done according to their merits Yet because non sanguinis homo may they by repentance find mercy c. Now consider my abused Country-men Where are the men who style themselves conquerors Or who can be so senssesse as well as heartlesse to tearm them so when as according to the construction of reason they confesse themselves to be but Rebells and Traitors Indeed many unjust Conquests there have been in the world which truly were as a prudent * K. James King styleth them but furta regalia latrocinia speciosa Royall robberies occasion'd by the boundlesse ambitious spirits of some Princes who many times have been repayed with the losse of their own Kingdoms But did you ever read or hear that rebellious Subjects bloody Traitors mounted into a commanding power by the mis-employed wealth and deceived assistance of their fellow Subjects were ever styled Conquerors over them More plainly for I would not have the people of England swallow such grosse absurdities supposing themselves out of a just necessity ingaged to subscribe to this unjust Power Therefore By way of a brief repetition That there was at first a conspiracy and designe of changing the Government of the three Kingdoms by force if not willingly condescended unto by his late Majesty Witnesse 19 Propositions cum reliquis is so plain that the meanest capacity cannot but condescend to it as truth That this designe was veyled with specious pretences thereby to deceive the judgments of the multitude and create a military assisting power I have also made good That in common reason without these pretences it had been impossible for these Conspirators to have compassed their ends any rationall man will I am confident confesse For Can any man beleeve that if these rooting-Plotters in the very beginning of this Fatall Parliament for then it had the face of such a Court had declared to the World their intentions to extirpate Episcopacy abolish the book of Common-Prayer alter the goverment of England nay to Murder the
King and Destroy his Royall off-spring infringe the liberties of their Persons and Estates burden them with Taxes upon taxes and domineer onely by the Tyrannizing Sword Can a man be so senselessy Stupid as to Suppose that any one man in England would have contributed the least assistance tending to such destructive ends Surely not Their Plotts had been as abortive-births dead in the very womb Like letters written on Sand invisible at the next windy blast and themselves had met with the reward of Traytors in the Originall of their Treason But I say they must out of a Politick necessity by Pretences of a reformation c. prepare the Common people for a Compliance and upon their deceived Compliance hammer out by degrees their ugly Plot to a perfection Away then with your most blasphemous entitling God's approbation to your Succeeding Villanies when as it is not Smiling Providence that waites upon your designes as you would make the people beleeve but the Graduall Effects of your politick Knaveries and methodical Treasons Indeed the All-just and wise God hath long suffered you to deceive the people of England and them to be so deceived But Gods designe thereby is to Chastise them for their instability and disobedience in not valuing or else lightly esteeming the blessings of Peace and punish them for their not prizing the Enjoyment of the Gospell of Peace and that you your selves by your additionall Sinnes might be left inexcusable at that great day of Account when the Judg of Heaven and Earth shall pronounce that unrepealable doom Ite Maledicti Go ye Cursed into Everlasting burnings Again to make this appear more plain take a further hint of their Rebellious Method which course had they not observ'd they could have done nothing tending to the acquisition of their designed Ends. In the first place they though falsly suggested into the Multitude's beleif an alteration of our religion on his Majestie 's part And these ungrounded Pretences made way for Jealous and Suspicious thoughts among the Common people and these though caussesse Jealousies occasion the Multitude constant in nothing but in Inconstancy to Stagger in their Sworn Alleagiance In the next Place following Machiavells irreligious rule Vehementer increpate et aliquid adhaerebit they back them with lying invectives ray ling exclamations against his Majesty his indeed Peaceable Just Merciful Government whereby the affections of many began to totter their dutie to shake their needlesse fears to encrease Again they Publickly cry'd up themselves though most untruly as Assertours Maintainers and Preservers of our Religion and the Lawes And these false allures attract the Aguish Judgments of too too many to incline to them in their belief and blinded Obedience Againe the more to ingratiate themselves with the Common People and hoodwinck them with Suppositions that they were Persons affecting Justice they Presse for Execution of Pretended Justice upon some Supposed Delinquents who indeed were no other but immoveable Loyall Rocks hindering their Progressive Rebellious Plotts And upon this account the incomparable Earl of Strafford and the unparallel'd Archbishop of Canterbury two main supporting pillars of Church and State were offered as bloody sacrifices to the common people's ignorant zeal and the conspirator's designes In the next place they vilifie the honour of the King's person advising the rabble of the City rudely to press into his Court bawling for Justice which never was denyed and by this means the respect and honour due to his Majesty was weakened the ill-manner'd people following the counsell of their teachers apt schollars of their black mouth'd master the devill began to revile the King despise Dominions and speak evill of Dignities With these and such like additionall insolent deportments of the City-scum his wearied Majesty was enforced for his own safety to leave London After which these rooting-Plotters persecute him with dethroning Propositions under the notion of Reformation delivered most commonly out of a Cannon's mouth or mockingly tormenting him with * vid Collect Parl. Ord. humble and loyall Petitions of Subjects presented upon the point of a bloody Sword Pretty Subjects indeed Thus thus England thou wast gull'd into a rebellious Army to bring to passe their Conspirator's designes upon the score of thy own destruction the losse of our peace dishonour of our Religion ruine of the King's Majesty and the Laws of England This done Blasphemy the Pulpit-Dragoons must interest the Deity in their quarrell Rebellion must be styled The Cause of God O horrible blasphemy as if the righteous and all-just God gave precepts for the commission of the most unrighteous unjust Caedem faciunt Scriptur aâ—um ad materiam suam and wicked actions that ever were committed To this bad purpose they cut and mangle multiply and diminish the holy Scriptures wresting them to a corrupt sense proper onely to their designes notwithstanding that Anathema Revel 22. vers 18 19 If any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book and if any shall diminish the words of this prophecy God hall take away his part out of the book of life And by this means the poor people were seduced in matter of conscience obeying the politick Pulpit-directions quite opposite to the commands of God and their own former judgments and practises All this while Lying Dissimuâ—â—tion the rooting Engineers of State were busily busied in abusing the King and cheating the people senslesly in their Declarations dividing the power of the King from the King's person as if there possibly could be in a true sense the exercise of a Kingly power without the person of a King But seasonable it was for them so to do when as they unjustly made use of power without nay contrary to his commands and maintained Armies to fight against his Person Next to this Perjury succeed new obliging Oaths and Covenants correspondent to the sense of their designe and dissonant from the legall rationall and religious sense of all former lawfull Oaths witnesse their Negative Oath their first and second Vow and Covenant with their last and worst the Engagement all which must be as chains to the people's consciences with which being once shackled many of the Pulpits speak nothing but a performance of these Oaths and Engagements in the Rooters destructive sense as if such politick State-Engines carried more truth in them than the Scriptures themselves Thus they made human policy Mistresse of Divinity nay to tyrannize over her Indeed the Scots-Covenant as it was styled carried a compound sense in some Articles speaking seemingly-loyall and religious pretences but they were but seeming ones although in other nothing but an enforced change of both Ecclesiasticall and Civill Government Which compared with precedent and subsequent actions even untill his Majesty was snatched away from the Presbyterian Power Isle Wight maketh me grieve with admiration and admire with grief at many who still
I am differenced from a slave Yet I notwithstanding these bulwarks of my freedom do subject my self life and estate to the arbitrary commands perverse resolutions wicked actions and corrupt affections of these * men whose will are their Lawes whose Religion is Rebellion Faction â—n ep whose Faith is Faction whose protection is destruction whose preservation is desolation whose justice is tyranny and oppression whose greatest mercy is the extreamity of cruelty And shall I commend you for such your subscriptions No I commend you not but rather advise you to be mindfull how much herein you have degenerated from the former honour of English-men earnestly desiring you a last to return to your first practised principles of loyall valour and Christian fortitude As the same is now established without a King and House of Lords Engagem That is King Capell Canterbury with the rest Sir Geor. Lisâ—â— c. Chaloner Thomson Alder. Garraway as they have begun to settle it upon the already-laid foundation of Royall Blood the murder of not a few Noble-men and Lords the death and imprisonment of severall reverend Bishops learned Doctors and other Pastors of the Church of Christ the destruction of many Knights and Gentlemen the ruine of some Aldermen and Citizens of London and severall penitentiall deceived persons first of their own party with the losse of many thousand English-men's lives all whose bloods have been shed to mix with the cursed * Lime of these persons by which Designes with the additionall assistance of their sacrilegious Church-plunderings they suppose their usurped power wil be the closer cemented But good Father cut them off in the height of their hopes let not these bloody men prosper any longer lest the Heathen blaspheme and say Where is the God of England As the same is now established without Engagent a King and House of Lords without a King and House of Lords there is the bloody extirpation of England 's antient Government That is as they resolve for as yet it is not established to accomplish the establishment thereof intending rather than restore the Nation to its former Government by King Lords and Commons to continue this their bloody building upon the utter destruction of those remaining ruines of the Nobility Gentry Clergy and Commons of England The corruption of the two once flourishing Academies Oxford Cambridge famous for the purity of doctrine excellency of discipline now pestered with heresies schisms and factions that so their Church hereafter it God shall suffer them for the punishment of Englands sins long to continue may be as apt to instruct the people in all manner of errours as they to govern them by all kind of wicked rules of policy Upon the ruine of all Learning destruction of all Arts overthrowing of all Schools and Nurseries of good education that so ignorance may be once more famous or rather infamous in this Nation and we again shake hands with the Papists concluding Ignorance to be the mother of Devotion and by degrees confirming the common people into a belief of such blind doctrins Upon the utter extirpation of the purity of the Gospell and the Orthodox preachers thereof by the advancing ignorant Lay-men to be directors of others toward heaven when too sad a truth it is they know not how to set one true step forward leading undoubtedly thither themselves until at last all divine Precepts shall be commanded attendance upon their principles of Policy and England at last by their means usher in the Pope and his whole Antichristian faction the only way of his re-enter for be assured all the back doors are wide open ready for his re-admission nothing wanting but a fit opportunity for his more generally visible appearance for long he hath and at this present still doth covertly walk sometimes under a silly Independent long-wasted doublet sometimes ruffling it in a long sword watching his c. for entrance upon England's stage Again upon the breach of all the priviledges of Corporations Protege Londinum Domine upon which rush in a confusion of Trades and poverty unawares thereupon stealeth upon City and Country and by this Per scelera semper sceleribus tutum estiter the Faction gain souldiers their onely supporters Nay much I fear their desperate resolves may extend to the firing of Cities Towns Villages a promiscuous destruction of whole Families not minding the innocent cries of Infants the wooing tears of the Widow and Fatherlesse the pittifull complaints of the Aged because they being men passed beyond the limits of reconciliation never resolving upon repentance will not apprehend themselves secure but by the additionall commission of greater sins But O Lord God Almighty let not these wicked men have their desire Rescue thy poor distressed flock from these devouring woolves Protect thine own Vine the truly Christian Protestant Church of England and all members thereof from the rooting Bores of the Antichristian Forrest the destroying wiles of subtle Foxes that so they may live to praise thy Name from generation to generation whose mercies endure for forever Thus having made it plainly appear that the very act of subscription to the Engagement is absolutely unlawfull as also that without a serious repentance the Subscribers wil pul upon themselves the guilt of a complication of all those monstrous sins already committed by the Grandees of the bloody Faction And if they actually persist therein by their actions adhereing to them will be liable to give an account for all the innocent English blood that for the future shall be shed by these destroying Rooters Besides they will but continue instrumentall supporters of Englard's continuing miseries if not hastening procurers of its utter desolation Which may the God of heaven out of his infinite mercy prevent But here I meet with an Objection or rather a propounded Question What would you have me do I am but one Should I not subscribe the Engagement and swim in the same stream with each successive faction I fear that I should lose my estare O my Brethren a strange Question That is a cheap Religion sure of little esteem that must rather be parted with than a little pelf to preserve it Are your souls of no greater value than thus eternally to be battered away upon grounds of fear that you shall lose your wealth which cannot benefit you after death Remember and weigh well that place Revel 21. There among other sinners you shall find that the fearfull are cast into hell that is such who for fear of men losse of their estates will bid adieu to the God of heaven and his commands You could in the beginning of this bloody war upon no rationall grounds but vain pretences of Polititians deceiving you for their own ends One it and One it freely in your persons and purses even untill many united multiplyed themselves into severall Armies And now finding your selves so much abused and deceived by these Rooters can you not One