Master Wilcocks of Goudhurst in Kent These and many others having done nothing worthy of death or of bonds are inserted iâ—to the blâ—ck â—ill of scandalous and superstitious Ministers for preaching nothing but obedience to Soveraigne Authority and points consonant to the Holy Scriptures and the Doctrine of the Church of England as it stands established by Act of Parliament I confesse Master In golds by aggravated his crime of preaching for obedience by setting forth the Doctrine of our Church in six Homilies established by Parliament for the use of every Parish against Rebellion and the oathes of Supremacy and Allegeance with the Protestation and an Epistle prefixâ— to light the people unto their duty for which he was sent for up the second time with a Troope of Horse but escaping from them he came of his owne accord to his prison desirous to make his answer which they â—â—nd no leisure yet to hearken 〈◊〉 Nay they will not permit that holy man Master Thrush-crosse to tâ—ach White-Hall to continue loyall and Protestant He seem'd to taske the Justice of this bloudy Warre with reflection upon this new designe and presently an inquisition is made after him and the Sunday following a Guard is set upon every Gate if noâ— for other malicious ends likewise to fright him from the Pulpit This is their account of scandalous Ministers whom they would have either rooted out or silenced Another project to advance Religion was the taking the Clergy off from Temporall imployments and this is stretcht so farre that they are reputed Excentrickes as moving out of the sphere of their calling if they study to preach downe Rebellion and disobedience And yet all the world knowes their owne Clergy have been as active instruments here as Mr Henderson in the State affaires of Scotland Doctor Burgesse we find him at every turne and Mr Iohn Sedgewicke must be made Members of a Sub-Committee for advancement of monies Nay the Doctâ—râ— who hath obtained the Title of a Colonell this Military Commencement for riding to encourage the work with his case of Pistols was so officious as to assist Plundering at the Globe Taverne in Holborne And there is not a designe but thâ—se men have a singer in it and of their tongues more then their share Wee have seen how faithfull they have fought for the Church they promised and protested they did as much and they have done no lesse for the King and Kingdome That this waâ—â—e was for the defence of the Kings Person is such a pretence as honest men are ashamed of and all men laâ—gh at unlesse you can perswade them you teach your bullets to distinguish as nicely as your selves between the Kings Personall commands and his Person Those that have heard it delivered for sound doctrine and without controll that the King might have been killed in the crowd with a good Conscience and have seen what Regiments and Troops were most aimed at according to Captaine Blagues directions at Keinton battell and heard the bullets sing about His Majesties eares cannot believe you did more then complement when you stiled His royall person Sacred unlesse you can change the property of Sacred Persons as well as of Sacred things which you goe about though all men account it Sacriledge to alienate And how should wee believe you would fight for the defence of His Person when you seize upon all His provision that if you cannnot do it by the sword you may murder him by famine But admit they fight not for the defence of his royall person yet they may fight for his Crowne and Dignity this hath been much pretended to and that they did so in some sence may very well be believed But in earnest how can we be perswaded they tender the Honour of the Crowne when they imploy their Rabbies to satisfie if it were possible mens consciences in a wilfull and groundlesse disobedience by returning ill languages to sober and solid arguments against it How doe they maintaine Prerogative when they pretend to a power Coordinate with their Soveraigne and set up men to cleare the Title for them though they have no evidence but such as was never seen by our wise Ancestours The very name of Monarch implies a soleship of Government to them that understand it If the Monarchy be mixt 't is not so as if the Soveraignty were shared amongst diverse for that were a meerâ— Bull But this mixture consists of these two ingrâ—dients viz. setled law and where a law is not setled the discretion and prudence of the Governour In making lawes wherein their chiefe power consisteth they may propound and consent but it lies still in the Kings power to refuse or ratifie If the power of the three Estates be Coordinate and the rule hold as the Fuller answer will have it Coordinata se invicem supplent Coordinates supply one another he presently brings the three Estates into the House of Commons and they delegate the power to a close Committee and so makes them a Court of Record to give oath commit and sentence at their pleasure as they have done too many and every Vote of theirs though the King and the Lords dissent from it by vertue of this power of Supplying inherent in them shall be made an Act of Parliament And if the King be brought thus low shall he stand there shall he not from Coordinate be brought a step lower and be made subordinate why yes that is another Doctrine He is Vniversis minor a Subject to all his Subjects and those mistakes which were so often condemned as breaches of their priviledge were nothing else but so many acts of His Majesties disobedience And His people being greater then hee and above him may take his owne Forts and Armes to reduce and compell him Was there ever any Iesuite out-went them in defending the rights of Kings Some are so tender of His Majesties Crowne that they are not ashamed to say the oath of Alleagiance was never made to bind the Protestants but the Papists onely If they fight not for the rights of the Crowne perhaps they fight for the rights of Parliament That hath been pretended too yet who ever broke the Priviledges thereof more then tumults of their own countenancing and raising The carriages which themselves onely have managed have brought Parliaments under so much prejudice and disparagement that the ceremony of a due reverence will be as much denyed unto them as unto any thing else till some other course be taken to restore them to their Ancient reputation Their Plea for the Lawes of the Land is no lesse vaine for if they had any Law for their proceedings there should bee no need of so many strange wilde and never-before-heard of Ordinances Insomuch as the Contra-Replicant confesâ—esseth on their behalfe in this manner Nothing has done us more harme of late then this opinion of adhering to law onely for our preservation It would be good to adde more arbitrary power to the Earle of
the very Becons that being set on fire themselves with their prodigious blazes have raised so many Countries in Armes to their owne ruine These are the grand Projectors to raise men and money making their Ministry but a Pander to Rebellion Their stratagemes have beene to awaken them by sounding this Alarm in their eares That Gods cause the Protestant Religion Lawes Liberties Properties Priviledges of Parliament yea their lives with the lives of their deare wives and children ly all at the stake They went a step higher in the beginning perswading them they were to fight for the defence of the Kings Rights and to rescue His Sacred Person from the hands of the Cavaliers so in a disgrace they termed His Majesties Illustrious Nephewes with the chiefe Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdome who as they said had surprized Him When they were supplied with men animated by these devices what course did they leave unattempted to raise money to maintaine them Under the name of the publike faith a chest that is bottomelesse and insatiable they have erected a new lotterie to cheat our faith and begger the publike From hence the adventurers were sure to carry away nothing but blankes the prizes being designed for themselves and the Officers that were neere them some of which are not ashamed to sound the Trumpet for it When the free Contrbutions were exhausted from Voluntiers men came to be prest to these prodigall expences After they had lent some they were justly paid the use by having the rest taken from them Men were not onely forced to part with their own but to disburse others money also or committed to prison for their refusall This was â—anghâ—rne and Vivians case who were committed to Colchester Goale for denying to pay 2000l which was due to the Prince from them and yet the Receiver plundred of the money These men are no lesse carefull for the maintenance of the Kings children then of his Majestie provided it may be done by taking away their Revenues and thus all the Rights as well of King as People have beene secured by an Antiphrasis of Parliament When the Merchants were in dispute about the lading of the Ship called Sancta Clara these charitable men that love no strife betweene brethren umpir'd in the businesse and to reconcile the difference seized upon the goods which must not be redeemed to the use of the right owner under the loane of 20000l I pray God they have not this trick to comprimise all the differences of the Kingdome To raise money they have robbed both the Church and the Spittle six thousand pounds being collected for the repairing of S Andrewes Holborne were fetcht away by the Earle of Manchester and others in the night If this Church fall they have ingaged themselves to build God a new house in bloud We reade of Hezekâ—ah that he gave all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord to make his peace with a forreigne and idolatrous King but for subjects to take Gods money to wage Warre against a pious Prince we beleeve this may be made one of the first precedents They have not beene more favourable to the mysticall then to the materiall Temples of God A great collection was made for the reliefe of the poore Protestants in London Derry and besides those vast summes raised by Subsidie for the Armies there this was all converted to the use of this bloudy War whilest those our miserable brethren are ready to perish as many that went before them in their distresses To recompence them from this wrong they have imployed their Preachers to advance another collection for them which comming into the same hands we suspect will be conveighed the same way They tooke like care for the disposall of that collection made for Brainceford for the poore of the Parish have not beene a farthing the better for it hitherto and we beleeve the Spring will have so well recovered them that their Physitians will thinke it needlesse to administer what was so long agoe provided for them Whether these men that would have no summe passe by their owne bagge care more to relieve the poore then Judus did may appeare by diverse instances amongst the rest they brake into the Hospitall at Gilford in Surrey and tooke 400l from them and a fine device was lately set on foot to raise another summe There is a pretence for poore children to be sent over to get good breeding in New-England a collection must be made for them and this must be committed to the hands of their trusty and well-beloved Alderman Pennington which is like to be imployed to the use for which it was pretended as faithfully as those summes gathered for London Derry and Branceford were Now lest the peoples zeale should wast with their purses they keepe them warme by a continuall breathing of reports upon them If Letters come that speake but upon heare-say they first expunge so much of the relation as might tend to the discouraging of their party and then publish them as the History of some great defeat and if need be as there is need enough they have their Observatour to write Commentaries upon them lest the people should mistake the rare passages of Gods providence on their side Another while they declaime against the Kings Army as Popish forgetting that their good wroke is supported by men of any Nation or Religion and that the Lord Say and the Lord Brookes two leading Cards of that faction have often protested they would dispence with all sorts of Religions though now they make an exception of the true Protestant so they might exercise their owne freely and that such a generall Toleration ought to be granted is their avowed opinion and indeed their independency cannot consist otherwise for if I be accountable to none I will use what Religion I please without controule It hath been well observed that when there hath beene any businesse of consequence to be debated in the Houses they have still had the good fortune to be encouraged by the newes of some strange successe or exasperated by some great provocation suggested by such as made the discovery for advantage But they have beene so provident as to lay reports of this nature at a considerable distance that they might not be confuted before the present turne were served Thus wee were made beleeve whilest His Majesties Army was in Yorkeshore and in those remote parts that they consisted of none but Papists and Delinquents but this mist cast before the peoples eyes to blind them was soone dispelled by the rayes of our Soveraignes piety as He drew neare us And however the Earle of Newcastles Forces lie all under the same scandall now yet as great a cloud as this hath vanish'd into nothing and 't is possible they may draw so neare us that notwithstanding their duty and alleagiance have brought some Papists into that Army we may distinctly understand that the Masse which they say is so commonly used
good graine in this life and therefore hath reserved the thorow-purging of his floore till his owne comming unto Judgement A little breaking in of the salt waters makes our helds more fruitfull Our chief care must be to keep out Inundations and the way to doe that is to keep the bankes up and to keepe them sound not to levell them The Houses did once thinke it convenient to declare by Votes which we see religiously observ'd in other things that they intended the abolishing neither of the Liturgy nor of the Church-Government And truely if wee perceive Voteâ— which have presum'd â—o challenge so much respect and veneration from us created onely to serve turnes upon occasion and carried Pro and Con as emergent advantages are administred they will presently lose their repuâ—ation amongst us of being infallible and gives us hopes that upon the more mature deliberation of second thoughts at least all groundlesse Votes apparently and experimentally dâ—structive to the Kingdome shall bee recalled And for the Government of the Church being purg'd of some abuses wee professe wee like the Preachers â—dvice so well and have found their principles so pestilent that we would not willingly meddle with them that are given to change unlâ—sse we can see better Arguments produced though this last of the sword hath been the strongest to move us We are of their opinion that having dranke old Wiâ—e cannot desire new for they know the old is better And it is not an idle observation that since they fell from pruning to rooting up their endeavours have been almost miraculously blasted by an immediate and remarkeable curse upon them If there be any that thinks this order in the Church is not worth the strife about it and that our Religion may consist without it let them with a sad and serious heart ponder these Considerations 1. That instead of these by the independent way a Pope and however a Bishop will be set up in every Parish 2. That there was no other Government though perhaps some other qualifications in it heard of in the Church of God till about 100 yeares since insomuch as some of no small note for learning and piety stand in great doubt whether there can be any lawfull Ordination and consequently any lawfull Ministry without it These who make up a farre more considerable party in this Church then those who have already separated and therefore ought in the first place by all the rules of Christian charity to have their scruples satisfied upon the rooting out of this Ancient Government must needs abandon our Communion 3. That the true Protestant Religion establisht in the Church of England was never so much undermin'd and blemisht whilest some of the Bishops slept and others were too active as it hath been by new sprung up Sects and monstrous opinions since their office was suspended 4. That the next Orders like to be quarrel'd at if it be not too evident they are quarrel'd at already will be the Nobility and the Gentry and if we should allow the argument against the Order of Bishops that the Protestant Religion and the generall safety of the Kingdome may consist without them may not the same argument with as good reason be taken up against the other by the meaner sort of people who shall have hopes to share their estates amongst them till all degrees be levelled Lastly That the argument of the dispute is not so much whether Bishops or no Bishops as whethâ—r a King or no King for we must hold the negative if Subjects may be allowed by force of Armes when they cannot get the Kings consent to pull downe any piece of his settled Government With the Fathers they pretend to thrust out the Children and those are commonly deciphered under the notion of scandalous Ministers The truth is it were well for the Church of God if all that were such were thrust out of her bosome But they have stretcht the Word to such a latitude that if they should goe on there would scarce be found an Orthodox man in the Kingdome out of this Catalogue For there are a company of scorners and terrible ones That watch for iniquitie that make a man an offender for a word and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate aud turne aside the just for a thing of nought Isa 29. 20 21. Is hee loyall according to the obligation of divers oaths sundry times repeated by him He is a scandalous Minister Is he a man well affected to the present Government c. or to peace he is a dangerous man and scandalous In the interim they set up their railing Rabshachaes that blaspheme God and slander the footsteps of his Annointed in such sort as their Prayers and Preaching are a very scandall except enmities seditions reviling of Gods Ordinances and Ministers when practised by them with the countenance of a party in both Houses cease to be workes of the flesh If we should forme comparisons wee should find moates in some mens eyes made greater by the multiplying-glasse of malice which they make too much use of then the bâ—ames that are most conspicuous in the eyes of others In some men they persecute their humane frailties and indiscretions whilst they protect others whose offences are died in graine Master Pigott amongst other such like Articles was accused by some few seditious men of the Parish of S. Sepulchres for drinking a Beere glasse of White-wine with a Lemmon and Sugar and though vindicated by the testimony of 600 of the aâ—â—est men had his reputation blasted with no credit to his witnesses by Master Corbet who sate then in the chaire of Examinations I had like to have called it the seat of the scornfull and gave his hand afterwards that he was unworthy to exercise his Ministry by which meanes he hath since been put by two Lectures at Alhallowes Berking and Broad-street I make no question they have met with some scandalous enough I doe not excuse them But others they have prosecuted whom they might with much more honour have acquitted and given a checke to their too officious and troublesome neighbours Look we upon such as are in most favour and esteem with them we shall find they have trode their shooes awry aswell as others We may â—et Doctor Burgesse in the front and because he was so busie to pick holes in the coates of his brethren and rackt up the very ashâ—s of the dead to discover their corruptions we shall be the bolder to remember him not only of a man that was a Pluralist but of one that the High-Commission looked upon for Adultery And of one that with continuall suites of Law vext two Parishes and must have been calculated in the Black-bill if he had not taken himselfe off by his good service against Bishops Doctor Downing a reputed weathercock that turns which way soever the wind of his owne humour or ambition blowes him sometimes a great suitor to be the Earle of Straffords
Peace Have they the two Houses not us as at such advantage that they may undoe us every houre Truly till we had found they had made so ample proofe of their ability that way we had thought it had been but a Paradox or at most but an Article of their State-Creed We never dream't it would have been made a piece of their Commandements We must confesse you sweetned the cup before you gave us our bane in it Our restraint is mollified by the fine terme of securing our persons we pray this securing may not be extended to cutting of our throats And for our estates you are too mercifull to destroy them at one blow you will have but a twentieth part at once that they may consume and bleed to death gently What comes freely from us you accept of kindly and we had thought you had given us the publike faith for an Acquittance till we see you come now againe that we might not have been couzened to pay the same score twice over But we must tell you when we are come to our ruine it will be all one to us whether we were led by the backe staires with Ceremony or thrown down headlong to it And we take it more unkindly to be led downe by those we put in trust then if we had been maliciously precipitated by others And if you have forgotten the Antidote you gave us we meane the Protestation it workes too much upon us to be forgotten and by vertue of that we shall joyne our selves to repell that violence which hath been too long offered to the property of our estates and liberty of our persons Having taken this strict view of so many particular pretences and finding them but colourably alledged what aires can we imagine they should heare so pleasing in the sound of the Drum and Trumpet to be witch them to continue this most unnaturall and most bloudy Warre And what advantage will accrue to the whole Kingdome for we would not be engaged further in the quarrell for particular mens ends and benefit to countervaile the charge of our expences Is it the Militia that we fight for and will nothing make you forbeare the use of the sword till you have gotten the full power of it then we must professe His Majesty hath not given so much as a colourable ground for this quarrell unlesse it be thought ground enough for his subjects to quarrell on that His Majesty does not as unreasonably resigne up all his just rights as you demand them of Him If His Majesty delights in Peace and to see His Subjects flourish under it as the long experience of His gracious disposition sheweth what use have you for a Militia I pray God restore us to that happinesse which we enjoyed when the sword and sheath too were both in the Kings own keeping Is a Warre the way to conquer the Kings affections and doe wee thinke to force Acts of grace from Him Your sword is like to be the way which God hath appointed for you to make Him glorious but remember you may have need enough to find Him gracious and therfore provoke His Majesty no further unto a just severity Is the quarrell continued for Delinquents then you should have done well to have the set King a precedent in delivering Alderman Ponnington and the rest to a legall tryall That would have been a faire invitation to His Majesty to have resigned up those that are about Him to the proofe of their innocency And whatever the Authour of Plaine English and other seditious and schismaticall Clergy-men that cannot be preferred for their merit and therefore seeke it by faction what ever these men are affraid of if you have retained the integrity of honest men and worthy Patriots you may dare to abide the issue of a present Accommodation And let me tell you if those about His Majesty laying downe their relation to the House of Parliament the priviledges whereof if any were to this purpose are as common and beneficiall to them as to your selves offer to submit to a legall tryall as Subjects should doe when the Government and knowne Lawes may have their free course and you being under as high a charge can plead nothing but priviledge of Parliament for your justification and in the interim refuse to submit to the like legall tryall you must needs be reputed Delinquents indeed whilest they are cleared by the verdict of every impartiall Judgement And if you have gone so farre beyond and against the Law that you are growne affraid to be try'd by it what shall we conclude from hence but this that you have undertaken this Warre in the prosecution of some new designe and not as hath been all this while pretended for the security of our old Protestant Religion Rights and Liberties That this designe was the subversion of the ancient Government of the Church and Kingdome is upon these grounds more then probable That a change was aim'd at in the Church no man can deny and it is made evident 1. By the suspending of all Ecclesiasticall Lawes and Censures according to ancient Constitutions insomuch as Incest Rapes and all Vices have gone unpunished and this Jubilee of Indulgence hath drawne all offender's to comply with them 2. By setting the people a-worke for some Close-Committee was the first wheele that moved this businesse to petition against the present Government and Service of the Church 3. By the Bill long debated and since concluded on for the abolishing of that Government 4. By the chiefe persons countenanced and imploy'd in the businesse who were Brownists Anabaptists and all sorts of Sectaries and Schismaticks The Patrimony of the Church was to be alienated under a pretence of establishing a preaching Minister throughout the Kingdome but the truth is if their zeale had been but in a seventh degree so hot for that good work as it was for fighting for a bad one they might have finisht it for a twentieth part of that charge which they have in a desperate fury put the Kingdome to Now we beleeve if the Revenue of the Church were at their disposall they would change those colours which they have worne so long for fashion-sake and make the religious charity of their Ancestors for the advancement of Gods worship under a learned Ministry serve onely to dis-ingage their publike faith which is not like to be a saving faith otherwise When the Government of the Church had been subverted the designe then was to be put in execution upon Monarchy This is not a groundlesse conjecture if we consider there evidences 1. That Declaration upon the Earle of Straffords suffering with this caution that it might not be drawne into example for the future Certainly this was with an eye to that subversion of Government which themselves I mean the Projectors of this designe intended that being more guilty of the same crime by vertue of such a Declaration they might be secured from the punishment 2. The pulling downe of so