ought not so to have interessed your selfe in them 1. The parties oppos'd and in collision against one another in this warre are on the one side the Kings Majesty assisted by the most considerable part of the Nobility and Gentry and Commons and all the Clergy that are indeed the true English Protestant Clergy and on the other side No King nor so much as an usurping pretended King but onely Subjects or such as ought to be such and have often sworne they will be such and among them the only forward persons are Sectaries such as abhorre the established Doctrine and Discipline of our Church as appeares in that wheresoever almost that Army comes there is all the violence and despight imaginable exercised against the Leiturgy and Ceremonies of the Church and persons of Church-men witnesse Canterbury Worcester Winchester Salisbury and the other day Lambeth And herein I accuse you first or rather I desire you that you would permit your owne thoughts to accuse you I doe not yet say to condemne you but accuse you that you have forgotten or wilfully transgressed the duty of a minister of the Gospell of Peace in being forward to kindle a warre of what nature or with what pretences soever Do you in the Gospell Master S. Marshall which is your Commission find any encouragements or which is more any command to foment Warre From whence are Warres in generall and fightings among you S. James will answer Come they not even {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} from your lusts which warre in your Members Christ our Master indeed sayes that he came to send fire and the sword upon the Earth shewing not what he intended or commanded but what through the wickednesse and malice of Satan and prophane men would be a consequent of the preaching of the Gospell even that Gospell which is not withstanding the Gospell of meekenesse and patience and charity viz that the enemies thereof would expresse all possible fury and rage against it For that fire as appeares in the text is the Baptisme of persecutions wherewith Christ himselfe and his followers were to be baptized a warre wherein he and they were to be patients only and not agents he came not to put the sword into the hands but into the bowels of his owne servants You stand therefore accused for being active your selfe and encouraging other Christians to be active and invaders in this warre for being a most unchristian Baptizer of Christians with this fire But secondly the accusation against you for being a fomenter of warre in Subjects against their lawfull Prince acknowledged for such both by you and them is farre more heavy and pressing I know you have pretty distinctions whereby you can gaine applause of your hearers by dividing the King from Charles Stuart and defending the one by murthering the other but remember now it is God your own conscience before whom I accuse you who will prove Judges too cunning for such distinctions For Gods sake therefore lay your hand upon your heart and aske your owne soule what pretence or excuse can be found for this in any law either of the Kingdome of England or Heaven Is there any one word either in the Common or Statute Law which allowes an English Subject with Armes in hand to resist the King in person Is he not indeed and as you have often sworne to acknowledge him the supreame Monarch in his dominions does not all exercise of coercion and power from all Courts issue by his writ Have not all subordinate Magistrates their power from him and therefore are they not with respect to him meere private persons Do the two Houses of Parliament themselves in all their addresses petitions c. unto His Majesty assume any other title unto themselves both severally and joyntly but onely your Majesties most humble and faithfull Subjects These things being so you knowing them to be so I beseech you next search diligently the Gospell find but one clause where you are allowed or where the least suspicion may be given you that you may hope that you may in any case be allowed to dispence with this your duty to His Majesty and I will confesse that you and your friends only have shewed your selves good Subjects and good Christians and that all we who pray for him and wish him victory in this warre are Traitors to him and Apostates from Christianity But no such thing appearing as you too well know for I wish for your owne sake that it were but ignorance that has made you so zealous in the cause as you have been how can you read or but think upon the beginning of the 13 Chap. to the Rom. without horrour and secret wishes that S. Paul had had no inke to write words that will prove so fatall against you Is that Chapter Master Marshall a part of that Covenant by which you must be judged at the last day And can you hope to appeare with any confidence when that Chapter shall be charg'd upon you Consider Sir from whom has the King His power is it not from God Does not S. Paul say expressely he is the Minister of God His Vice-gerent to exercise some Acts which not the consent of all the men in the world have right to invest him with For he beares the sword that is the power of life and death Has any man power over his owne life to relinquish it at his pleasure And it being sure he hath not can he communicate to another the disposition of his owne life over which no man but God only or they to whom God delegates his power have Authority no certainly Master Marshall There is no power at least no such power but of God the powers that are are ordained of God Insomuch that you will not find any example of Capitall punishments in the world exercised by any till God gave that power to man which to my understanding he first gave and then only in the case of murder to Noah Gen 9. 4 5 6. so that before it was under a dire punishment forbidden to kill even that murderous wretch Cain himselfe The people then though they choose the person of their King which questionlesse they did by direction from God at the first yet not they but God only gives him this supereminent power over life and death with regard whereto doubtlesse he call's Kings and all supreame Governours especially Elohim and saith By me Kings raigne whosoever therefore saith S. Paul resisteth resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation These will prove sad words Master Marshall to a dying man that is guilty he hath in so high a nature resisted and taught others to do so too Especially considering that these precepts of obedience were by S. Paul given to us Christians at a time when the world was governed by such prodigious Tyrants as no History mentions the like either before or after them as if God intended
A LETTER OF Spirituall Advice Written to Mr STEPHEN MARSHALL IN HIS SICKNESSE By One of his Brethren in the Clergy Mart. 1. M.DC.XLIII Printed in the Yeare M.DC.XLIII TO Mr STEPHEN MARSHALL SIR WHen I heard of your sicknesse though considering the wofull miseries of the times I do usually rather congratulate with men their happinesse whom God seemes to favour so much as to call to himselfe and to his owne rest from being spectators or actors or sufferers in these calamities wherin this Kingdome is involved yet I assure you I found in my selfe such a different apprehension of your state from that of other ordinary sick men that I thinke you will not wonder if all the Kings Subjects who wish good successe unto His Majestie in this warre cannot impute your visitation to any thing but to the just severity and revenge of Almighty God upon you for having had so strong an influence upon the ruine of this Kingdome and Church For Sir is it not apparent that among others your eminent gifts of preaching have beene made use of for the kindling of those flames of Rebellion and civill warre and most unchristian bloudshed Have not you with all the earnestnesse and as you call it zeale imaginable perswaded your Hearers to a liberall contribution for the maintaining of this unnaturall warre Have not you forsaken your owne charge to accompany and strengthen the Generall of your Army in his resolution and attempts against the just power and life of his and your Anoynted Soveraigne Does not the whole Kingdome impute almost all the distractions and combustions therein as much to the seditious sermons of the Preachers of your faction as to the contrivances of those persons who set you on worke Let your own conscience be your own judge in this matter and it will tell you that if all these new designes should succeed to your wish if there should happen a change in government either of Kingdome or Church you would thinke your selves wrong'd if you should be defrauded of being acknowledged very effectuall instruments in that change These things therefore being so you cannot accuse of uncharitablenes those who think these designes not only unjust but ruinous both to Justice and Religion if they attribute it to Gods mercy to them and vengeance on you if he take out of the world such a fire-brand as you are Sir whether your sicknesse be unto death or no I know not I am sure those sinnes without unusuall and miraculous mercy will prove sinnes unto death in all those that are guilty of them and die without repentance and amendment and satisfaction to Gods Church for the scandall of them And upon this ground I how unworthy soever yet by my profession being one of your brethren and companions in the ministry of the Gospell thought it my duty to beseech you in the bowells of Christ to take a survey of your present condition with other eyes then heretofore I doubt you have done And to take it patiently from me though a stranger to your person if I offer you some hints which your owne better understanding will make use of for a more exact discerning apprehension and judgement of the nature of this businesse now to be decided by the sword which though it prevaile to your owne wish yet it is not the sword or victory will justifie you before Gods Tribunall Remember Sir it is not a Close Committee pack't together of your owne freinds or faction that must determine the cause betweene God and you neither are they any new invented fundamentall Lawes of Kingdome or Nature that are to be your rule but only the Lawes of the New-Covenant And from them it is that I intend to suggest unto your thoughts arguments which I desire you impartially to examine to the end that when you appeare before the throne of Christ you may be able to justifie your selfe either that you have fulfilled your duty or if you have failed therein yet at least that you have fail'd after a reasonable and prudent examination by that Rule I suppose you will not assume such infallibility of judgement to your owne person or party as to thinke that the right is so unquestionably on your side that nothing can be objected against you that deserves to be considered since at least an equall part of the best judgements in the Kingdome and most learned persons in the Church are your adversaries in this cause And which ought to be of great moment with you since a farre greater number of the Members of both Houses though perhaps through negligence or feare not now sitting in Westminster do protest against these proceedings Let it but be granted that all those which oppose you have some seeming probability on their side and then I am sure you will judge it necessary especially for a dying person if that be your present condition to be suspicious of himselfe and to hearken to all objections and to use all prudent meanes for settling of his conscience before he depart out of the world If you looke upon this warre and surely your minde will not be so busie other waies but sometimes you will looke upon this war the result of your late-two-yeares sermons the effect of all those published lying Pamphlets and discourses of forged conspiracies feares and jealousies now so confessedly groundlesse that they are become a Proverbe of vanity it cannot be avoided but you will have now and then some accusing thoughts among others they will not be all altogether excusing or justifying I pray you give mee leave to marshall in order before your eyes certaine accusing thoughts and put it to the tryall of your owne heart whether they doe with any force or justice accuse you I assure you I will take upon mee no further then to accuse you for it is God onely must be your Judge and I beseech him to prepare you for that judgement and to performe it with all possible elemency and mercy You have at last Sir obtained one end of all your endeavours your watchings and fastings and prayers and Sermons you see there is at length a warre inflameing the whole Kingdome you have obtained that it be put to the tryall of fire and sword whether God will so blesse both these as by their meanes to purge this Kingdome and Church of the staines which you suppose are in them both and set up that pretended Scepter of Christs Kingdome the Presbytery or independency we know not yet whether is design'd Now in this warre now raised I shall principally consider the condition of the persons betweene whom it was waged and the grounds and pretences thereof and from thence raise such Articles of accusation as I must needes feare you cannot chuse but answer guilty unto them at the barre of conscience And these I will consider with an intention not so much to interpose mine owne judgement concerning the legality of them as desireous to shew that you as a Preacher of the Gospell
Judge that you have made him who came not to destroy mens lives but to save them a pretence for the shedding of so much bloud as hath beene and probably will be spill'd If it should chance mens eyes should be opened and that this should be acknowledged an unlawfull cause of warre whom can you expect that those poor soules who have died in the very gall of bitternesse and rancour of Rebellion should curse but such Ministers as you who have told them but most falsly that such a way of exposing themselves to death was not onely acceptable but absolutely commanded by Christ himselfe Sure Sir War is a businesse of so infinitely deep concernment that it ought not to be undertaken but upon grounds evidently lawfull and warrantable A War therefore for Religion and against a lawfull Superiour against whom the Gospell so apparently forbids resistance must be proved lawfull at least by as many and evident Texts as those are which seeme to discommand it O Sir where are those Texts Why is not one Gospell quotation produced for this purpose Not one Master Marshall not one single one that to any thinking considering Christian will seem of any kinde of moment at all Is it incogitancie or ignorance in you Ministers that there is such want of the Gospell in these points No certainly it is meer guilt or rather a clear confession that you can finde nothing in the Gospell whereby the Professours thereof may be encouraged to defend it this way However let it be supposed that the lawfulnesse hereof might be maintained in some possible cases yet it cannot be denied but that patience so oft commanded and blessed by Christ is at least a lawfull thing to be practiced too Now that you say Religion and Truth is persecuted and if patience against any persecutours certainly then against a lawfull King when he turnes persecutour How then comes it to passe that neither you nor any of your partie should exhort men to patience or martyrdom now Is it out of conscience that you dare not Will not the Gospell warrant such exhortations thinke you For shame Sir let it be confessed at last that whatsoever other pretences may seem specious and popular yet that this of Religion which notwithstanding boulsters up all other and when the rest fail recruites many of your decayed Regiments yet that this I say is so farre from making this War lawfull that it selfe is more unlawfull than the War But if Christian Religion might be thus defended must Discipline therefore be so defended must no crossing no kneeling no ceremonies no prescribed prayers be so defended or at last speak out Plain English in this point too Is it indeed the English Protestant Religion of the Kingdom that you would thus defend why did the King ever persecute the Religion of the Kingdome Did he ever or any by his command burne the Liturgie damne the Articles and Canons abominate the Homilies of the Church Do his Souldiers tear Surplices and threaten to murther the wearers of them For starke shame then say not that you defend the established English Protestant Religion against the King that King who scarce ever was once absent from his own solemne Prayers and Sermons By the way remember Master Marshall your uncharitable suspicions your unreasonable groundlesse declamations against his Majestie in this point of Religion are yet farre more unexcusable than before But to take the maske quite from off your faces remember that this King whom you know to be so constant a lover of the Religion wherein he was bred yet this King in a charitable religious compliance with you offers to yield to any reasonable alterations and to take away whatsoever doctrines or practices may seemingly be offensive to tender consciences onely I believe he would be unwilling to have that exposed unto the world for the confessed Religion of the Kingdom which shall be agreed upon by an Assemblie over-voted or over-awed by such as professe themselves at least strangers if not enemies to this Church for let the effect of such a meeting be what it will it cannot be called the Religion of England it is but at most A Religion for England Therefore for Gods sake let the King be stiled in this War not an Invader but onely as it is apparent he indeed is A Defender rob Him not of the Title of his Crown for does He take up Armes either for any new additions to his former Prerogatives for any new Lawes to the prejudice of His Subjects liberties or for any new Articles of Religion which he has a minde to introduce by the sword Would he infringe any old Lawes or Priviledges or Articles Have not you forced him to unsheath his sword meerly to prevent innovations in all these Which is then the invading and which is the defending side If you be sicke enough to be weaned from worldly respects I shall not desire a fitter person to answer this question Now these are Sir the principall Heads or Articles of crimes of most of which I must needs confesse I doubt and I hope in Christ I shall not be found uncharitable though I should chance to be mistaken that you M. Marshall are guiltie For Christ his sake thinke sadly on them and advise with some grave and holy men of our Clergie as well as your own such as are M. Shute D. Oldsworth c. These are matters Sir that certainly deserve all possible examination And you who I believe would not trust an ignorant Lawyer though your friend and fellow Sectarie about your estate you should in reason at least be as carefull of your soul And withall I pray you take this also into your consideration that if you prove indeed guilty of these things as I must fear your are then if it should happen that God should deal so mercifully with you as to convince you of them and to give you repentance for them it will be likewise most necessary that you should endeavour to satisfie Gods Chuch for this extreme scandall given by professing your repentance and attempting to undeceive others And who knowes whether since those crimes how fearfull soever in their own nature yet were the effects chiefly of ill education and prejudices in your judgement not Christ or want of love to him who knowes I say whether Almighty God may not be pleased to accept of even a death-bed repentance for them I hope Sir you will be pleased to write or cause to be written some few words in answer to this For so much methinkes charitie backe again to me who professe my selfe contrary to you in all these points will require from you For certainly either these things which I call accusations are extreme great vices or extraordinary vertues they cannot possibly be things indifferent so that one of us in the state we both are must needs want some speciall Christian Graces without a concurrence of all which you know there is no possible salvation Now if you be so pleased to extend so much charitie to me you shall make your own conditions either of secrecie or what else you please onely my desire and expectation is that I may hear some thing from you if at all by the xvith of this present moneth Now the God of mercie and comfort be with you and repair all the breaches of this poor Kingdom and Church I am Sir Your Brother and Servant in Christ Iesus 1o Martii 1643. FINIS Deut. 17. 16.