Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	grace_n	king_n	lord_n	2,963	5	3.6667	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96590	The discovery of mysteries: or, The plots and practices of a prevalent faction in this present Parliament. To overthrow the established religion, and the well setled government of this glorious Church, and to introduce a new framed discipline (not yet agreed upon by themselves what it shall be) to set up a new invented religion, patched together of Anabaptisticall and Brownisticall tenents, and many other new and old errors. And also, to subvert the fundamentall lawes of this famous kingdome, by devesting our King of his just rights, and unquestionable royall prerogatives, and depriving the subjects of the propriety of their goods, and the liberty of their persons; and under the name of the priviledge of Parliament, to exchange that excellent monarchicall government of this nation, into the tyrannicall government of a faction prevailing over the major part of their well-meaning brethren, to vote and order things full of all injustice, oppression and cruelty, as may appeare out of many, by these few subsequent collections of their proceedings. / By Gr. Williams L. Bishop of Ossory.	Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672.	1643 (1643)	Wing W2665; Thomason E60_1; Thomason E104_27; ESTC R23301	95,907	126

so truly religious and void of hypocrisie in their profession as she most gracious Queene is in her religion then they say the Bishops are all Papists Deanes and Prebends are of the same stampe and all the Kings Chapleines that were preferred by the Archbishop were either close papists or profest Arminians which are but Cosen germanes unto the other Arminianism being but a bridge to passe over unto popery And with these and the like false slanders against the King Queene and Clergy they so bewitehed most of their well meaning brethren of the same house and amazed all the simplet sort of people of this Kingdome with these feares and filled them with such jealousies with those pamphlets that they caused to be printed and dispersed every where that they were at their wits end for feare of this lamentable alteration of their religion and deprivation of their liberties 2 2. The Cure The disease being thus spread like a gangrene over all the parts of the body of this Kingdome they like skilfull Physitians devise the cure and that is the preparation of a Militia and this militia they would have put into such hands as they pleased such as they might confide in and I wish the whole Kingdome knew who those men were and who they are that they doe confide in for I know 1. Some of them are poore men of most desperate fortunes if bankrupters may be termed such 2. Others to be most factious and scismaticall men addicted to Anabaptisme and Brownisme and other worser sects as amongst the London Commanders Ven Manwaring Fawlke Norington Bradly Bast and the rest whereof there are twise as many schismaticall and as it is conceived beggarly sectaries as are right honest men among them and if we looked among their Lords and all the rest of their nomination throughout the Kingdome I doubt we shall find some of them to be just of the same condition And because the King to whose care and trust God had committed all the people of this Kingdom and not to them that are called by the King and chosen only by men and that only for this time and of whom he will require an account of the lawes and religion whereof he made him keeperand defender and not of them thought most rightly that this Militia should be commited rather to such men as he might confide in as it was in the raigne of Queene Elizabeth and His Father of ever blessed memory rather than to any that they should name which was to disrobe himselfe of all his regall power of the chiefest garland of his royall prerogatives without which he could hold his Crown by no better a tenure then durante beneplacito and to put the sword out of his owne hand into the hands of them that could not love him because they could not trust him as they alleaged and what reason had he to trust them that were causelesly so distrustfull of him they startled at this deniall And because the King of heaven had by this time opened the Kings eyes God openeth the Kings eyes to let him see what hitherto he could hardly imagine that these men to whom he had granted for the good of his Kingdome so many acts of grace and favour as never any King of England did before and had very graciously offered to commit to the hands of their owne choosing so large a share of the Militia as might have rendered the whole Kingdome most secure if security in a iust and legall way had beene all that they sought for had their intentions far otherwise then they pretended and that not only the government of the Church was intended to be altered and the governours thereof destroyed but himself also was hereby disrobed of those rights which God and the lawes of the land had put into his hands and the Kingdome brought either into a base tyranny or confused anarchie when all things shall be done according to the arbitrary power of these factious and schismaticall men therefore he utterly refused to grant their desires and most wisely withstood their designe Whereupon these men put their heads together How they strengthened themselves to make their ordors firm with out the king to consult how they might strengthen themselves and make their ordinances firme and binding without the King and to that purpose having by their former doings gotten too great an interest as well in the faith as in the affections of the people in confidence of their owne strength they came roundly to the businesse and what they knew was not their right as their former Petitions can sufficiently witnesse they resolve to effect the same by force but as insensibly as they can devise as 1. To seize upon the Kings Navie to secure the Seas 2. To lay hold upon all the Kings Magazin Forts Townes and Castles 3. To with-hold his moneyes and revenues and all other meanes from the King 4. To withdraw the affections and to poyson the loyalty of all his Majesties Subjects from him And hereby they thought and it must have beene so indeed Psa 30 6 except the Lord had beene on his side they had made their hill so strong that it could not be moved and the King so weake and destitute of all meanes that he could no wayes subsist or relieve himselfe as a member of their owne House did tell me for 1. 1 Earl of Warw●ck made vice Admirall They get the Earle of Warwicke to be appointed Vic-admirall of the Sea and to commit all the Kings Navie into his hand and to take away that charge from Sir Iohn Pennington whom most men believed to be farre the better Sea-man but more faithfull to his King and the other purer to the Parliament 2. 2 Sir Iohn Hotham put to Hull for the Magazine They fend Sir John Hotham a most insolent man that most uncivilly contemned the King to his face to seize upon the Kings Magazine that he bought with his own money when they might as well take away my horse that I paid for and to keepe the King out of Hull which was his owne proper Towne and therefore might as well have kept him out of White-hall and was an act so full of injustice as that I scarce know a greater 3. 3 They detained the kings moneys Esay 1 23. Because moneyes are great meanes to effect any worldly affaire and the sinews of every warre when as men and armes and all other necessaries may be had for money some of them and their followers shew themselves to be just as the Peeres of Israel companions of thieves meere robbers which forcibly take away a mans money from him they take all the Kings treasure they intercept detaine and convert all the Kings revenues and customes to strengthen themselves against the King 4. Because their former Remonstrances framed by this faction 4 They labour to render the king odious by lyes of the ill government of this Kingdome though in some things

for we know full well from the practise of all former parliaments that seeing the three States are subordinate unto the king p. 48 in making lawes wherein the chiefest power consisteth they may propound and consent but it is stil in the kings power to refuse or ratifie and I never read that any parliament man till now did ever say the contrary but that if there be no concurrence of the king in whom formally the power of making of any law resideth ut in subiecto to make the law the two Houses whose consent is but a requisite condition to compleat the kings power are but a livelesse convention like two cyphets without a figure that of themselves are of no value or power but ioyned unto their figures have the full strength of their places p 19 20 21 which is confirmed by the viewer of the Observations out of 11. Hen. 7.23 per Davers Polydore 185. Cowell inter Verbo prerog Sir Tho. Smith de republ Angl. l. 2. c. 3. Bodin l. 1. c. 8. for if the kings consent were not necessary for the perfecting of every act then certainly as another saith all those Bills that heretofore have passed both Houses The Letter to a Gentleman in Gloucester shite p 3 and for want of the Royall assent have slept and beene buried all this while would now rise up as so many lawes and statutes and would make as great confusion as these new orders and ordinances have done And as the Lawyers tell us that the necessity of the assent of all three states in Parliament Lamberts Archeion 271. Vid. he Viewes p. 21. is such as without any one of them the rest doe but loose their labour so Le Roy est assentus c●o faict un act de Parliament and as another saith Nihil ratum ha● betur nisi quod Rex comprobarit nothing is perfected but what the King confirmeth But here in the naming of the three States I must tell you that I find in most of our Writers about this new-borne question of the Kings power a very great omission that they are not particularly set downe that the whole Kingdome might know which is every one of them and upon this omission I conceive as great mistake in them that say the three States are 1. the King 2. the House of Peeres 3. Which hee the three States of England the House of Commons for I am informed by no meane Lawyer that you may find it upon the Rowles of Hen. 5. as I remember and I am sure you may find it in the first yeare of Rich. 3. where the three States are particularly named and the king is none of them for it is said that at the request Speed l 9 c 19 p. 712. Anno 1 Ric. 3 and by the assent of the three estates of this Realm that is to say the Lords Spirituall the Lords temporall and Commons of the Land assembled it is declared that our said Soveraign Lord the king is the very undoubted king of this realm wherein you may plainly see the king that is acknowledged their Soveraigne by all three can be none of the three but is the head of all three as the Deane is none of the Chapter but is caput cepituls and as in France and Spaine so in England I conceive the three estates to bee 1. the Lords Spirituall that are if not representing yet in loco in the behalte of all the Clergie of England that till these anabaptisticall tares have almost choaked all the Wheat in Gods field were thought so considerable a party as might deserve as well a representation in Parliament as old Sarum or the like Borough of scarce twenty Houses 2. The Lords Temporall in the right of their honour and their posterity 3. The Commons that are elected in the behalfe of the Countrey Cities and Burroughs and what these three States consult and conclude upon for the good of the Church and kingdome the king as the head of all was either to approve or reiect what he pleased and though we finde with some difficulty as the viewer of the Observations saith where the Parliament is said to be a body consisting of King Lords and Commons ergo without the king there is no Parliament yet herein the king is not said to be one of the three states but the first and most principall part that constitutes the body of the parliament p. 2● 25. H 8 21. but John Bodin that had very exactly learned the nature of our parliament both by his reading and conferring with our English Embassador as himselfe confesseth saith the States of England are never otherwise assembled no more then they are in the Realmes of France and Spaine then by parliament write and the states proceed not but by way of supplications and requests unto the king Bodin de repub l. 1. c. 8 and the states have no power of themselves to determine or decree any thing seeing they cannot so much as assemble themselves nor being assembled depart without expresse commandement from the king In all this and for all the search that I have made I finde not the king named to be one but rather by the consequence of the discourse to bee none of the three but as I said the head of all the three states for either the words of Bodin must bee understood of two states in all the three kingdomes which then had beene more properly termed as we call them either the two Houses or the Lords and Commons or else they must be very absurd because the three states if the king be one of them can not bee said to be called by parliament writs when as the king is called by no writ nor can hee be said to supplicate unto himselfe or to have no power to depart without leave that is of himself Therefore it must needs follow that this learned man who would speake neither absurdly nor improperly meant by the three states 1. The Lords Spirituall 2. The Lords Temporall 3. The Commons of the kingdome and the King as the head of all calling them consulting and concluding with them and dismissing them when he pleased And Will. Martyn saith King Hen 1 at the same time 1114. devised and ordained the manner and fashion of a Court in Parliament appointing it to consist of the three estates of which himselfe was the head so that his lawes being made by the consent of all were not disliked of any these are his words And I am informed by good Lawyers that you may finde it in the preambles of many of our Statutes and in the body of some other Statutes and in some Petitions especially one presented to Queene Elizabeth for the inlargement of one that was committed for a motion that he made for excluding the Bishops out of the House of peeres Such is the difference betwixt Queene Elizabeths time and our times the three states are thus particularized and the Lords Spirituall are nominated

vocatis more daret populis Because this was the custome of the Kings of Scythia Assyria Aegypt c. long before Moses and Pharonaus when municipall lawes first began to give lawes unto their people according to the rules of naturall equity which by the law of nature they were all bound to observe And though some Kings did graciously yeeld and by their voluntary oathes for themselves and their successors binde themselves many times to stricter limits then were absolutely requisite as William Rufus King Stephen Henry the fourth Richard the third and the like granted many priviledges perhaps to gaine the favour of their Subjects against those which likely had a better title to the Crowne than themselves or it may be to satisfie their people as the guerdon or compensation for the sufferance of some fore-passed grievances as Henry the first Edward the second Richard the second and the like yet these limitations being agreeable to equity and consistent with Royalty and not forcibly extracted ought in all truth and reason to be observed by them And hence it is that the Kings of this Realme according to the oathes and promises which they made at their Coronation can never give nor repeale any law but with the assent of the Peeres and People But though they have thus yeelded to make no lawes nor to repeale any lawes without them yet this voluntary concession of so much grace unto the people doth no wayes translate the legislative power from the King unto his assistants but that it is formaliter and subiectivè still in the King and not in them else would the government of this Kingdome bee an Aristocracy or Democracy and not a Monarchy because the supreame power of making and repealing Lawes and governing or judging decisively according to those lawes Cassan in catal glorlamundi are two of those three things that give being to each one of these three sorts of government Therefore the King of England being an absolute Monarch in his owne Kingdome as Cassaneus saith and no man can deny it the legislative power must needs reside solely in the King 22 Ed. 3.3 pl. 25. Vid. The view of a printed booke entituled Observations c. where this point is proved at large p. 18 19 21 22. ut in subjecto proprio and the consent of the Lords and Commons is no sharing of that power but only a condition yeelded to be observed by the King in the use of that power and so both the Oath of Supremacy and the form of all our ancient Statutes wherein the King speakes as the Lawmaker doe most evidently prove the same unto us Le Roy voit Neither durst any Subjects in former times either assume such a power unto themselves or deny the same unto their King for you may finde how the House of Commons denying to passe the Bill for the pardon of the Clergy which Hen. 8. granted them when they were all charged to be in a Premunire unlesse themselves also might be included within the pardon received this answer from the King that he was their Soveraigne Lord and would not be compelled to shew his mercy nor indeed could they compel him to any thing else but seeing they went about to restraine him of his Liberty he would grant a pardon unto his Clergie by his great Seale without them Sir Rich. ● in vita Her though afterwards of his owne accord he signed their pardon also which brought great commendation to his judgement to deny it at first when it was demanded as a right and to grant it afterward when it was received as of grace And yet the deniall of their assent unto the King is more equitable to them and lesse derogatory to him then to make orders without him and this manner of compulsion to shew grace unto themselves is more tolerable than to force him to disgrace and displace his most faithfull servants onely because others cannot confide in them when no criminall charge is laid against them And therefore for the Lords and Commons to make Orders and Ordinances without the King and in opposition to the King is a meere usurpation of the Regall power a nullifying of the Kings power and a making of the Royall assent which heretofore gave life to every law to be an empty piece of formality which is indeed an intolerable arrogancy in the contrivers of these Orders and the makers of these Ordinances a monstrous abuse of the Subjects and a plaine making of our good King to be somewhat like him in the Comedy a King and no King And where as no Subject and under favour be it spoken not the King himselfe after he hath taken his Oath at his Coronation is free from the observation of the established lawes yet they make themselves so farre above the reach of Law that they freed him which the Lord chiefe Justice Bramston had committed to Newgate for felony in stealing the Countesse of Rivers goods they hindered all men as we found in their journall from proceeding against Sir Thomas Dawes they injoyned the Judges by their orders to forbeare to proceed in their ordinary courses in the Courts of Justice contrary to the eaths of those Judges and some Parliament men came to the Bench to forbid the Judges to grant Habeas Corpuses which is as great an iniquity and as apparent an injustice as ever was done by any Parliament And that which is a note above Ela The most abominable wickednesse of these factious Rebels above all that could be spoken whereas the Law of God and man the bonds and obligations of civility and Christianity tie us all to be dutifull and obedient unto our King in all things either actively or passively and no wayes for no cause violently to resist him under the greatest penalties that can be devised here and damnation hereafter yet these men contrary to all Lawes doe injoyne us and compell us as much against our consciences as if they should compell us with the Pagan tyrants to offer Sacrifice unto Idols to war against our most gracious Soveraigne whom we from our hearts doe both love and honour and they proscrible us as malignants and as enemies to the Common wealth if we contribute not money horse and armes to maintaine this ungodly war Ps 50.22 August contra Faust l. 22. c. 75.76 and so become deadly enemies unto our owne soules O consider this yee that forget God lest for tearing us he teare you in pieces while there is none to helpe you for considering what the Apostle saith Rom. 13.1.2 And what Saint Augustine saith ordo naturalis mortalium paci accommodatus hoc poscit ut suscipiendi belli authoritas atque consilium penes Principem sit and lest men should thinke they ought by force of armes to resist their king for religion he answereth that objection by the example of the Apostles isti non resistendo interfecti sunt ut potiorem esse docerent victoriam pro fide

in the Earse of Essex his Campt either to take counsell and follow the advice of those secret Sectaries and the masked enemies both of the Church and State that as yet insensible unto him were such in the bosome of his Court and most slily aymed at a further mischiefe then his Majestie could have imagined as now it appeareth by the consequences of this Parliament or else to hazard the dangers that his then open foes were like to bring upon his people And I assure my selfe eyes of flesh that cannot pierce into the mysteries of the hearts and our secret thoughts could see no further nor make any better election then His Majestie did that is to call a Parliament which the hearts of all the Kingdome called and cryed for and which in former times by the wise institution and right prosecution thereof was found to be the Panchreston or as the Weapon-salve an antidote to cure all the diseases and to heale all the bleeding wounds of this Kingdome though of late we have sensibly felt the unhappy ending of some of them which perhaps may be some accidentall cause of some part of this unhappinesse here was His Majesties faire minde and an act of speciall grace for which all His Subjects ought most thankefully to shew themselves loyall unto Him when He preferred their safety before the prosecucuting of his owne resolutions But Decipimur specie recti we are many times deceived by the shadow of truth and betrayed under the vizard of virtue for as God produceth light out of darkenesse and good out of evill so wicked men like the spiders doe sucke poyson from those flowers whence the Bees doe extract honey and these subtle-headed foxes whereof many of them had unduly got themselves elected into the House of Commons and there factiously combined themselves together to doe their great exploit to overthrow the Government both of Church and State and minded to make the Parliament House like Vulcans Forge where they intended to contrive their iron net that should be able to hold fast all sorts of people from him that sitteth upon the Throne to him that walloweth in dust and ashes turned the hopes of our redresses to our extreame miseries when in stead of rectifying our abuses they intended principally to worke our ruine in our just apprehension though perhaps our happinesse in their owne mistaken conception And as the Apostle saith Knowne unto God are all his workes from the beginning and he hath eternally decreed how and by what meanes to bring them all unto perfection so the Devill beings Gods Ape and the wicked treading in his steps doe first mold their designes and intentions in the Idea of their owne braines and conclude the workes they would have done in their owne conceipts and then they frame to themselves the meanes and wayes whereby they are resolved to produce and perfect all those mis-shapen embryoes that they conceived and so these factious men this brood of vipers that would gnaw through the bowels of their mother from the first convention of this Parliament had resolved upon their plot and contrived among themselves what great good worke they would by such and such meanes bring to passe And that was as I hope this subsequent discourse will make it plaine to all The designe plot of the faction of Sectaries that will not be wilfully blinde the subversion of the ancient government both of this Church and Kingdome and to introduce a new Ecclesiasticall Discipline and to frame a new Common wealth much like if not worse then that of our neighbours in the Low-Countries Gratum opus agricolis a brave exploit and a great worke indeed beyond the adventure of Junius Brutus that expelled the Kings but left the Priests alone that purged the corrupti●… on of the royall government but medled not with the religion of their Bishops and Prophets and beyond the undertaking of Martin Luther that pulled downe the pride of the Pope and all that Romish Hierarchie but ventured not to trample upon the Scepter of Kings and the Imperiall government which he held sacred and inviolably to be obeyed for these men perceiving how God had so wisely ordered these governments among his people to assist each other that the one can neither stand nor fall without the other as it is fully and truly shewed in the Grand Rebellion therefore as Caligula wished that the people of Rome had but one necke that so he might dispatch them all unoictu with one stroke so these men would overthrow both governments and destroy both King and Priest both Church and State at one time with one clap with one thunder-bolt And so they should be famous indeed though it were but like the fame of Herostratus that burnt the Temple of Diana or of Raviliac that killed the King of France of Nero that destroyed his mother or Oedipus that murdered his owne father for a man may be as notoriously famous for transcendent villanies and nefarious impieties as another is for his rare vertues and supereminent deeds of piety as in History Thersites is as well knowne for his base cowardice as Achilles for his heroicke valour and in the Scripture Judas for his treachery is as notoriously knowne as Saint Peter for his fidelity therefore these men goe on with this great designe and to effect the same I finde that they aymed at these two speciall things 1. To take away all the lets and impediments that might hinder them They aymed at two things 2. To secure unto themselves all the helpes and furtherances that might advantage them For 1. As a Vineyard that is well hedged 1. To remove the impediments of their designe or a Citie strongly fenced with walls and bulwarkes cannot easily be laid wast and spoyled before these defences be destroyed so the wilde boares cannot devoure the grapes of Gods Church and swallow downe the revenues of her governours and the Rebels cannot pull the Sword out of their Soveraignes hand and lay his Crowne downe in the dust so long as the meanes of their preservations are intire and not removed therefore these men endeavour to eradicate all the impediments of their designe and they saw foure great blockes that were as foure mighty mountaines which their great faith their publique faith being not yet conceived must remove before they could plant their new Church and subvert the old government of this Kingdome and those were 1. The Earle of Straffords head Foure impediments of their designe 2. The free judgement of the Judges 3. The power of dissolving the Parliament 4. The Bishops votes in the House of the Lords For as the heavenly Angels could doe nothing against Sodome while righteous Lot was in it so these earthly Angels the messengers of Abaddon can never effect their ends to overthrow the Church and State to make them as Sodome full of all impurity and villany untill these foure maine stops be taken away and therefore CHAP. II. Sheweth

their projects might be removed that so at last their sinnes like the sinnes of the Amorites by little and little growing unto the full might undergo the fulnesse of Gods vengeance which as yet I feare was not fully come to passe for till the Parliament was made perpetuall the things that they have done since were absolutely unimaginable because that while it was a dissoluble body How the faction hath strengthened it selfe they durst not so palpably invade the knowne rights either of King or Subjects whereas now their body being made indissoluble they need not have the same apprehension of either having strengthened themselves by a Bill against the one and by an Army against the other and therefore all the dissolutions of Parliaments from the beginning of them to this time have not done halfe that mischeife as the continu●ance of this one hath done hitherto and God onely knowes what is to succeed hereafter But seeing themselves have publiquely acknowledged in their Declarations that they were too blame if they undertooke any thing now which they would not undertake if it were in His Majesties power to dissolve them the next day and they have since used this meanes which was given them to disburthen the Common-wealth of that debt which was thought insupportable What many wise men do say to plunge it irrevocably into a farre greater debt to the ruine of the whole Kingdome to change the whole frame of our government and subjecting us to so unlimited an arbitrary power that no man knowes at the sitting of the House what he shall be worth at the riseing or whether he shall have his liberty the next day or imprisonment many wise men doe say they see no reason that this trust being forfeited and the faith reposed in them betrayed the King may not immediately re-assume that power of dissolving them into his owne hands againe and both our unjustly abused King and out much injured people declare this act to be void when as contrary to their owne faith and the trust of the King they abuse it to overthrow the fundamentall Lawes of this Kingdome though I could heartily wish that because it still carrieth the countenance of a Law the faction would be so wise as to yeeld it to be presently dissolved by a Law CHAP. IV. Sheweth the abilities of the Bishops the threefold practice of the faction to exclude them out of the House of Peeres and all the Clergy out of all civill Judicature 4. THere was one stop more that might hinder The fourth impediment of their designe or at least hardly suffer their plots to succeed according to their hearts desire and that is the Bishops votes in the upper House nay they cannot endure to call it so but in the House of the Lords for they rightly considered therein these 2 speciall things 1. their number 2. their abilities which are 2. maine things to stop and hinder many evils For 1. They had 26. voices which was a very considerable number and might stop a great gap and stay the streame or at least moderate the violence of any unjust prosecution 2. They were men of great learning men of profound knowledge both in divine and humane affaires and men well educated a cunabulis that spent all their time in books and were conversant with the dead that feared not to speake the truth and have wearied themselves in reading Histoties comparing Lawes The abilities of the Bishops and considering the affaires of all Common-wealthes and so were able if their modesty did not silence them to discourse de quolibet ente to untie every knot and to explaine every riddle and being the immediate servants of the living God set apart as the Apostle speaketh to offer Sacrifice and to administer the Sacraments of God to prepare a people for the Kingdome of heaven it ought not and it cannot be otherwise imagined by any child of the Church that is a true beleever but that they are men of conscience to speake the truth and to doe justice in any cause and betwixt any parties more then most others especially those young Lords and Gentlemen whose yeares do want experience Pardon mee good Lords for so plainly speaking truth and the course of their lives some in hawking and hunting and others in dicing and bowling and visiting blacke-friers play-house or perhaps in worser exercises doth sufficiently shew how weake their judgement must needs be in great affaires and how imperfect their conscience is as yet in holy things I hope not to be preferred before these grave and reverend men And therefore lest these grave men should prove great hinderances of their unjust proceedings before any of their worst intentions be well perceived there must be an exclusion of them from Parliament and from those Lords whose consciences and knowledge they may then the better captivate and bring them the sooner to side with them for to effect their great designe And it is a world of wonders to see with what subtlety and industry with what policy and villanie this one worke must be effected It would fill a volume to collect the particulars of their Devices I will reduce them to these heads 1. They used all meanes to render them odious in the eyes of all people 2. A threefold practice against the Bishops They brought the basest and the refuse of all men watermen porters and the worst of all the apprentices with threats and menaces to thunder forth the death and destruction of these men 3. Upon a pretended treason they caused 12 of them besides the Arch-Bishop that was in the Tower before to be clapt up at once into prison where they kept them in that strong house untill they got it enacted that they should be excluded from the upper House and both they and their Clergy should be debarred from the administration of any secular act of Justice in the common-wealth 1. They endeavoured to make them odious unto the people 2 wayes 1. In making that Order or giving that notice unto the people that any man might exhibit his complaint against scandalous Ministers 1 To make the odious tvvo wayes 1 Way and he should be heard which invitation of all discontented sheepe to throw dirt in their Pastors faces was too palpably malicious for our Saviour told us we should be sent as sheepe into the mids of wolves but here is a sending for the wolves to destroy the Shepheards and it came to passe hereby that no lesse then 900 complaints and petitions were brought in a very short space as I was informed by some of their owne House that feelingly misliked these undue proceedings against many Learned and most faithfull servants of Jesus Christ that were therefore hated because they were not wicked The Ministers why persecuted and persecuted because they were conformable to the Lawes of the King and the Church And the rest of our calling that were factious seditious were both countenanced and applauded

omnium sapientum seniorum populorum totius regni per praeceptum regis Inae and in the second Charter of King Edward the Confessour granted to the Church of Saint Peter in Westminster How former times respected the Clergie it is said to be Cum concilio decreto Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Comitum aliorumque suorum optimatum with the councell and decree of the Archbishops Bishops Earles and other Potentates And so not onely the Saxon Kings but the Norman also ever since the Conquest had the Bishops in the like or greater esteem that they never held Parliament or Counsell without them And surely these Princes were no Babes that made this choice of them neither was the Common wealth neglected nor justice prejudiced by these Governours And whosoever shall reade mores gentium or the pilgrimage of Master Purchas Livie Plutarch Appian and the rest of the Greek and Latine Histories I dare assure him he shall finde greater honour given and farre lesse contempt cast upon the Priests and Flamins the Prophets of the Sybils then we finde of this faction left to the Servants of the living God who are now dealt withall worse than Pharach dealt with the Israelites that took away their straw and yet required their full tale of brickes for these men would rob us of all our meanes and take away all our Lands and all our rights and yet require not only the full tale of Sermons and Service as was used by our Predecessours but to double our files to multiplie our paines How the Clergie are now used and to treble the Sermons and Service that they used to have of our forefathers more than ever was done in any Age since the first Plantation of the Gospell and when we have done with John Baptist the utmost of our endeavours like a shining and a burning lampe that doth waste and consume it selfe to nothing while it giveth light to others they onely deal with us as Cartiers use to do with their packe horses hang bels at their eares to make a melodious noise but with little provander lay heavie loades upon their backes and when they can bear no more burdens take away their bels withdraw their praises call them Jades exclaim against their lazinesse and then at last turne them out to feed upon the commons and to die in a ditch and thus we have now made the Ministers of Christ to be the emblems of all miserie and in pretending to make them more glorious in the sight of God we have made them most base in the eyes of all men And therefore the consequence of this Act is like to prove most lamentable when the people considering how that hereby we are left naked of all comfort and subject to all kinde of scorne and distresse and how that this being effected is but the praeludium of a farre greater mischiefe they will rather with no great cost make their children of some good Trade and their children will choose so to be than with such great costland more care and yet little hope to bring them up to worse condition than the meanest of all Trades The Clargie alone are deprived of Magna Charta or the lowest degree of all rustickes when as they can challenge and it shall not be denied them to have the priviledges of the Law and a propertie in their goods which without their own consent yielded in their persons or their representours cannot be taken from them and the Clergie onely of all the people in this Kingdom shall be deprived of the right and benefit of our great Charter which so many famous Kings and pious Princes have confirmed unto us and when we have laboured all the dayes of our lives with great paines and more diligence to instruct our people and to attain to some competencie of meanes to maintain our selves and our families we shall be in the power of these men at their pleasure under the pretence of Religion contrarie to all justice to be deprived of any part of our freehold when we shall have not one man of our own calling to speak a word in our behalfe on no Seat of Justice throughout the whole Kingdom O terque quaterque beati queis ante ora patrum contigit oppetere O most miserable and lamentable condition of Gods Ministers I must needs speak it though I should die for it and if some did not speak it I thinke the stones would crie against it and proclaim it better for the Clergie were their hope onely in this world never to have been borne or at least never to have seen a book then to fall into the hands and to be put under the censure of these men that do thus love Christ This Act more prejudiciall to to the future times than now by hating his Ministers who as I said before by this one Act are made liable to undergo all kinde of evils which shall not onely fall upon the present Clergie for were it so our patience should teach us to be silent but also to the increase of all prejudices to the Gospell more than my foresight can expresse in all succeeding Ages And therefore I may well say with Jeremie Jer. 5.9.29 Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this And we need not wonder that such plagues calamities and distresses have so much encreased in this Kingdom ever since the passing of this Act and yet the anger of the Lord is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still and I fear his wrath will not be appeased till we have blotted this and wiped away all other our great sinnes and transgressions with the truest teares of unfained repentance These are like to be the consequences of this Act and yet our good King who we know loved our Nation and built us a Synagogue and was as I assure my selfe most unwilling to passe it was notwithstanding over-perswaded considering where thirteen of the Bishops were even in prison and in what condition all the rest of them stood in question whether all they should stand or be cut down root and branch to yield his assent unto the Act though if the case in truth were rightly weighed not much lesse prejudiciall to his Majestie than injurious to us to be thus deprived of our right How the King hath been used ever since this Act passed and exposed to all miseries by excluding us from all Civill Judicature and I would to God the King and all the Kingdom did continually consider how his Majestie was used ever since the confirmation of this Act for they no sooner had excluded the Bishops and Clergie out of their right but presently they proceeded and prosecuted the designe ever since to thrust out the King from all those just rights and prerogatives which God and nature and the Lawes of our Land have put into his hands for the government of this Kingdome neither was it likely to succeede any other wise as

Act of Pacification for their assistance to withstand their King and to overthrow our Church it is apparent to all the world how perfidiously they dealt with God and man and how treacherous their thoughts were from the beginning both to the King and Kingdom Yet as we found our Brethren of Scotland howsoever these men bevaved themselves in their secret intentions to have carried themselves none otherwise than as wise rationall and religious men in all the Treatie so I assure my selfe they will hereafter still continue both faithfull unto God and loyall unto their King and as they perceived not their intentions at the first so they will not now joyne with them in any Association of Rebellion to withstand their own Liege Lord and to change the established Lawes and Religion of our Kingdom but will rather live in peace and happinesse in their own Land than by forsaking their enjoyed quietnesse to involve themselves in the unhappinesse of a desperate War in another Countrey 2. 2. The compelling of all people to ●…ak their new ●amed Protestation After they had thus endeared themselves unto their Brethren of Scotland they framed a Protestation to maintain and defend as farre as lawfully they might with their lives powers and estates the True Reformed Protestant Religion his Majesties Royall Person honour and estate the power and priviledges of Parliament the lawfull rights and liberties of the Subjects and every person that should make the same Protestation in whatsoever he should do in the lawfull pursuance of the same and to their power and as farre as lawfully they might to oppose and by all good wayes and meanes endeavour to bring to condigne punishment all such as shall either by force practise counsels plots conspiracies or otherwise * Which word is like the c. in the Canonical Oath do any thing to the contrary of any thing in the said Protestation contained and neither for fear hope nor other respect to relinquish this promise vow and protestation In which Protestation though no man can espie the least shadow of ill prima facie at the first reading thereof yet if you look further and search narrowly into the intentions of the composers the frame of the Protestation and the practise of these Protestors ever since the framing of it you shall finde that Desinit in piscem mulier formosa supernè these men are no Changelings but as like themselves as ever they were for 1. As it was intended so it succeeded 1. To terrifie the Papists and to raise a rebellion in Ireland it terrified the Papists and made them so desperate as almost to despair of their very being as concerning the place where or the manner how they should live which thing together with many other harsh and hard proceedings against many of them and the small countenance which they shewed unto a very moderate Petition that the Papists exhibited unto them hath driven abundance of them into Ireland whom I saw my selfe and there consulting with the Irish which were then also threatened by the Agents of this faction there that ere long they should be severely handled and brought to the Church whether they would or no or pay such a mulct as should make them poor what course they should take in such a desperate condition wherein they were all like to be ruined or to be rooted out of all the Kings Dominions they concluded what they would do to defend themseves by a plain Rebellion So this course against them hath been the leading card as some of them confessed of that great Rebellion which being kindled as some Sectaries in England expected they thought they would so much the more weaken the King by how much the more combustion should be raised in each one of his Dominions and therefore notwithstanding all the Kings gracious Messages and wishes unto the House of Commons which I wish all men would remember how affectionately he desired it to hasten to releeve that bleeding Kingdom yet still they protracted and neglected their redresse and at last passed such Votes made such Orders and procured such Acts as rather respected themselves and their posteritie to get all the land and goods of the Rebels to themselves that were the Adventurers than the relieving of us that were distressed and would as I told some of the House of Commons rather increase the Rebellion than any wayes quench that destroying flame And this was as it succeeded and as you see hereby most likely intended a most detestable plot for the kindling of that Rebellion and continuing of that bloody War in Ireland without which they knew this Rebellion in England could never have gained so much strength as it hath 2. 2. To gaine all Sectaries to their side By their large expression of what religion they protested to defend not the Protestant religion as it is established by Law and expressed in the 39 articles of the Church of England but as it is repugnant to popery and taught perhaps by Burton Burges Goodwin Burrowes or the like Amsterdamian schismatickes they opened the gap so wide and made Heaven gate so broad that all Brownists Anabaptists Socinians Familists Adamites and all other new England brood and outlandish Sectaries what soever that opposed popery might returne home and joyne with them as they have done since to overthrow our established Church and state And this plot to increase their own strength was as craftily don and is as Detestable as the other which to weaken the King in England caused a rebellion in Ireland 3. 3. To descry their owne strength By their illegall compelling and forcible inducing of all the people in the Kingdome to take the same or to be adjudged ill affected and popish and after the Lords had rejected the imposing of it they by their Declaration which shewed that what person soever would not take it was unfit to beare office either in Church or Common wealth prevailed in this plot so that they descried the number of their owne party they understood their own strength and they perceived thereby many things which they knew not before for now they had with David numbred Israel and so far as the wit and policy of the Devill had instructed them they had searched into the secrets of all hearts 4. 4. To insnare all the simpler sort to adhere unto them Having compelled the people to take it they have hereby insnared all the simpler sort and tender consciences to sticke unto them when they tell them and presse it upon their soules that they have made a Protestation to maintaine the priviledges of Parliament and the Liberty of the Subject and therefore they are bound to adhere to the Parliament to the uttermost of their power and so by this equivocall Protestation they have seduced thousands into their Rebellion and led them blindfold unto destruction Butto let you see not the syncerity of their hearts The mystery of their iniquity but the mystery

prosecute against the law of God and man Rev. 2.10 because the Lord commandeth us to feare none of those things that we shall suffer but to stand in our integrity unto death and we shall be crowned with the crowne of life 3. They have discharged the Apprentises and servants from their Masters services 3. How they discharged the apprentices and compell them to fight and have either compelled or perswaded them to serve in their army against the King and that without the consent and against the will of their masters and dames yea sometimes against the commands of their owne parents which I speake from their owne mouthes 4. 4. How they imprisoned out men without cause They have imprisoned very many hundreds of most able and most honest men even so many that the Prisons are not able to containe them but they are faine to consecrate the greatest houses in London to become Prisons as the Bishop of Londons house Ely house Winchester House Lambeth house Cresby house the Savoy and the like And this they doe for none other cause but either for performing the duties of their places and dischargeing their obedience to his Majesty as the last Lord Maior Gurney which deserved rather to be commended than committed if we believe many that were present at his tryall or petitioning unto them as Sir George Bynion Copmplaint p. 8 and Captaine Richard Lovelace and Sir William Boteler of Kent because they did not therein flatter and approve their present wicked courses or intending to petition unto the King for reliefe of these lamentable distresses as those Gentlemen of Hertford-shire and Westminster or for being as they conceived disaffected unto their disloyall orders A strange thing and iustice beyond president not the like to be found among the Pagans that where no law can condemne a man for his affections when no action is committed against law men shall bee robbed of their estates and adjudged for malignants which is also a crime most generall and without the compasse of any Statute and then for this now created sinne to bee condemned and imprisoned and therein to remaine without tryall of his offence perhaps as long as the Archbishop of Canterbury And this wonder is the rather to bee wondered at because it is the sence of both Houses M. Pym in his Speech at the Guild-hall if wee may believe Master Pym that it is against the rules of iustice that any man should be imprisoned upon a generall charge when no particulars are proved against him for never charge can be more generall than to be all affected or a malignant or a man not to be confided in where of you finde ten thousand in the City of London and many hundred thousands in the Kingdome and therefore when we finde so many persons of honour and reputation imprisoned only upon this surmise without any other particular charge so much as once suggested against them as was the Lord of Middlesex the Lord of Portland and abundance more and detained in prison because they were ill affected in that they have not contributed to the maintenance of this warre we see how insensibly they have accused themselves to have laid this insupportable punishment beyond the desert of the transgressors and against the rules of all iustice and how they have forgotten their protestation and exceedingly infringed the liberty of the Subiects whereof they promised to bee such faithfull procurators CHAP. XIII Sheweth the proceedings of this faction against the Lawes of the Land the Priviledges of Parliament transgressed eleven speciall wayes 3. 1. Their proceedings against the lawes FOr the Lawes of our land which are either private as those chiefly which belong unto the Parliament and are called the Priviledges of Parliament or publike which are the inheritance of every Subiect you shall find how they have invaded and violated each one of these for 1. 1. Against the priviledges Parliament Touching the Priviledges of Parliament we confesse that former Kings have graciously yeelded many iust priviledges unto them for the freedome of their persons and the liberty of their speeches so they be free from blasphemy or treason of the like unpardonable offence but such a freedome as they challenge though for my selfe I confesse my skill in Law to be unable to distinguish the Legitimate from the usurped yet in these subsequent particulars I find wise men utterly denying it them as 1. When they forbid us to dispute of their Priviledges 1. Denying us to dispute of them L. Elismer in post nati and say that themselves alone are the sole Judges of them when as in former ages they have been adjudged by the Lawes of the Kingdom when Thorpe the Speaker of the House of Commons hath been committed and detained Prisoner upon an Execution and the House confirmed that fact 2. 2. Committing and putting out their Members Complaint p. 11. When the Members of the House of whose elections and transgressions against the House or any of their fellow Members or the like the House is the proper Judge which ought to have as free libertie as any of the rest upon any emergent occasion are committed as Master Palmer and others were or put out of the House as Sir Edward Deering the Lord Faulkland Sir John Culpepper Sir John Strang wayes and others have been voted hand over head for speaking more reason than the more violent partie could answer or in very deed for speaking their mindes freely against the sense of the House or rather against some of the prevalent Faction of the House which we say is no Priviledge but the pravitie of the House to denie this just Priviledge unto those Members that were thus committed or expelled for hereby it doth manifestly appear that contrary to the practice of all former Parliaments and contrary to the honour of any Parliament things were herein debated and carried not by strength of argument but by the most voyces and the greater number were so farre from understanding the validitie of the alleaged reasons that after the Votes passed they scarce conceived the state of the question but thought it enough to be Clerkes to Master Pym 3. Denying their Members to be legally tried for any capitall crime Vide Dyer p. 59.60 Crompton 8. b. 9 10 11. Elism post nats 20 21. The viewer p. 43. and to say Amen to Master Hampden by an implicite faith 3. When they deny the Members of their House or any other imployed by them in this horrid Rebellion should be questioned for felonie treason murder or the like capitall crimes but onely in Parliament or at least by the leave of that House whereof they are Members or which doth imploy them for by this meanes any Member of their House may be a Traitor or a Murderer or a Robber whensoever he please and may easily escape before the partie wronged or complainant can obtain this leave of the House of Commons and therefore this is

these infernall instruments to insinuate their assistance unto the Scots and their allurements of them to invade our Kings Dominions to ensnare the Irish and to provoke the Papists to such a Rebellion as hath been the utter ruine and destruction of many millions of men to obscure the glory of this noble Kingdome to alter the Discipline and corrupt the Doctrine of the most glorious and the purest Church that professeth the Name of Christ and to bring us all and all our posteritie to extreme miseries to suffer yet more then we have endured or that can be hitherto imagined and considering those bloody Treasons that have beene publikely uttered and openly practised against the sacred Person of our Soveraigne I may justly say that as the sinnes of the Israelites and their impetuous calling for a King moved the Lord to send them a King in his anger so our sinnes and our impatient crying for a Parliament made our God to send us a Parliament in his wrath that will never turne for our blessing till we returne to God from our sinnes for when I consider on the one side the pietie and goodnesse of our King the justnesse of his cause and the most ready and cordiall valour as well in the common Souldiers as the Commanders of a full and sufficient Armie and on the other side the multitude of disloyall and seduced Subjects the vigilancie and subtiltie of their Commanders with their unlimited wayes to get monies and on both sides the desire of too many not for the honour of the King nor the peace of the Kingdome to end the War but to continue the same for their own advantage untill the wealth of Lawyers Clergy and Gentrie be transplanted to the possessions of other Masters I am affraid it wil prove an heavie judgement and therfore lest our obstinacie in our sinnes should procure the continuance of Gods anger which being removed will soone remove all our miseries let me perswade all conscientious men especially the Gentry and all other understanding men howsoever the Citizens that deceive the Kingdome of their wealth delight to be deceived in their faith that would not be cheated of their Religion by these factious Mountebankes and that would not provoke God to say I have no pleasure in them to turne from their rebellious courses to listen no longer to those furious fire-brands that out of their now Divinity contrary to the Doctrine of all the ancient Fathers and all the Orthodox and grave Preachers of this Kingdome do incite the People unto this unnaturally bloody War and to slander the foot-steps of Gods Anointed because they know him not and to remember the Oathes of their Allegiance and Supremacie together with their late Protestation whereby they stand obliged to their uttermost power to maintaine his Majesties Royall Person Crowne and Dignity against all treacherous practices that may any waies dishonour or impaire them and then I presume their consciences will disavow the proceedings of these Proj●ctours protest against all their Ordinances that are made against or without the Kings consent advise all the Knights and Burgesses to Vote no more against their Soveraigne and to make no further use of the trust they reposed in them to murder us and our fellow Subjects under the pretence of shedding the bloud of the ungodly or if they still goe on to abuse that trust to make us yet more miserable to withdraw themselves and their trust and power of representation from them and to joyne their uttermost assistance unto his Majesty to protect him that he may be enabled to protect us and to overwhelme the Robels into the same pit which they have made for us And this may be by dissolving the knot of factious members wherein we see our miseries involved and to make elections of new members into their places that with the rest of the Lords and Commons which were faithfull both to the Church King and Kingdome shall call them to a strict account for betraying our trust interrupting our peace opposing his Majestie and violating all our ancient liberties Or if a better way may be found let us follow the same to Gods glory and to produce the peace and happinesse of this Kingdome lest if we persist obstinately in this wilfull rebellion to withstand Gods Ordinance to oppose his anointed and to shed so much innocent blood we shall thus fighting against heaven so far provoke the wrath of the God of Heaven as that the glory of Israel shall be darkned the honour of this nation shall be troden under foot and be made the scorne of all other nations round about us and the light of our Candlestick shall be extinguished and we shall all become most miserable because we would not hearken to the voyce of the Lord our God which I hope we will doe and do most earnestly pray that we may doe it to the glory of God the honour of our King and the happinesse of this whole Kingdome through Iesus Christ our Lord to whom be praise and dominion both now and for ever Amen AN APPENDIX THe man of God speaking of transcendent wickednesse Deu. 32.2 saith Their Vine is of the Vine of Sodome and of the fields of Gomorrah their Grapes are grapes of Gall their Clusters are bitter their Wine is the poyson of Dragons and the cruell venome of Aspes and I beleeve never any wickednesse des●rved better to be clad with this elegant expression then that threefold iniquity 1. The unparallel'd Vote 2. The intolerable Ordinance 3. The damnable Covenant which the rebellious faction in Parliament have most impiously contrived to make up the full measure of their impiety since the writing of my discoveries for 1. Omitting that horrible practice of those rebellious blood-thirsty Soul lie's that did their best to murder their owne most gracious Queene this faction seeing how God prevented that plot voted this most loving and most loyall wife to be impeached or High Treason for being faithfull to doe her uttermost endeavour which will be her everlasting praise to assist her most deare and Royall husband their owne Liege Lord and Soveraigne King in his greatest extremities against a virulent mighty faction of most malicious Traytors the strangest Treason that ever the world heard of 2. They made an Ordinance for the composing and convocating of such a Synod whereof I said somewhat before of Lay men ignorant men factious men traiterous men and such concretion of heterogeneall parts like Nebuchadnezzars image gold brasse and clay all mixed together and all so ordered limited and bridled as it is expressed in the 5. and 6. page of their Ordinance by the power of both Houses where there are such abundance of Schismaticall and seditious members that I should scarce put the worst sensitive soule to professe that erraticall faith or any bruit beast to be guided by that Eccl●…asticall discipline that such factious Traytors as some of th●… are like to be proved should compose or cause to be co●posed 3. They composed a forme of a sacred Vow or Covenant 〈◊〉 they terme it or as it is indeed the Covenant of Hell a Covenant against God to overthrow the Gospel of Christ under the name of Christ which Covenant is the Oyle that swimm●… uppermost upon the waters that is the Oyle of Scorpions or as Moses saith the poison of Dragons so lately wringed and d●…fused farre and neere to defile and destroy millions of soules when forgetting their faith to God and the Oathes of their Allegiance so often and so solemnely taken by many or most of them to be faithfull unto their King they shall be compelled which is one degree worse then the vow of them that bound themselves with a curse neither to eate nor drinke till they had killed Paul so hypocritically so perjuredly so rebelliously 〈◊〉 horribly and so bloodily to make such a fearefull Vow and such an abominable Covenant so wickedly contrived that without great and serious repentance spitteth forth nothing but fire and brimstone and can produce nothing else but hell and damnation to all that take it especially to them that will co●pell men to be thus transcendently wicked as if they would send them with Corah quicke to Hell All which triplicity of evil I shal leave to some abler and more eloquent pen to be set forth more fully in the right colours that being suff●ciently displayed they may be throughly detested of all good men Amen O Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to to keepe thy Lawes ERRATA Page 24. lin 11. for malicious read heavy pag. 98. lin 1. rea● somewhat like him c. FINIS