which they desired onely in some things should be reformed employing some Bishops and others of the Clergy to consider of what things might be altered for satisfying tender Consciences that many of the Clergy also as well as other Subjects well-willers to the King were so possessed that though they saw Arms raised against the King and all his Forts Ships and Revenues seized on in defiance of his Majesty yet would they not believe that the Parliament intended the King any hurt or evil at all yea divers were not dispossessed of this fond credulity till the Votes of imprisoning and of no further addressing to the King were published And now when they can neither help themselves nor their King cry out upon Hypocrites and say they will never believe Parliaments any more though it 's not safe for them to say so or whatere more they think such is now the liberty of the Subject and indeed so willing were the major part of the House of Commons to be lulled asleep into a pleasing dream of Reformation by clipping the wings of Prerogative and paring the Bishops nails and taking down the pride of the Clergy as the Fanatick buzzed pretences were to which all parties were marvelously ready like the Horse in the Fable yielding his back to the Saddle to be rid of the Deer that he might have all the pasture and by extolling the honour and authority of that House whereof themselves were also Members till the Faction by planting in their Instruments for Chair-men of Committees and into all places of action so rid the more moderate party of the House beyond their own stay who now grown weary and feeling the Spur in their own sides began too late to take heed and to think to shake off their hot-Spur-riders but indeed threw themselves out of their so-longed-for Parliament for upon any Speech or Motion contrary to the sence of the Faction the parties moving were called presently to the Bar or committed to the Tower or expelled the House and others were terrified hereby or by the Tumults out of the City led up by Dr. Burges and Capt. Ven to the Parliament-doors to see that the Godly Party for so their Faction was called in the House might not be out-voted Dr. Burges said at the Parliament-doors of the Multitudes and Tumults of the City-Rabble These are my Band-dogs I can set them on and I can take them off again Oh brave Cornelius That by these means above two hundred shortly after were forced out of the House to leave the Faction absolute Masters of the Vote in the House of Commons and House of Peers also little thinking that the Clergies persecution which themselves sate so long winking at would prove their own just punishment by suffring a Faction to grow so powerful without so much as protesting against their injustice and oppression But rather assisting the Faction to imprison in the Tower twelve Bishops upon a false charge of High-Treason onely because they did their duty to their eternal honour like Christian Bishops and lovers of their Countries welfare in solemnly protesting as pares Regni against such violence and wickedness though with apparent hazard of their persons and Estates Nay when these driven Members of Lords and Commons again assembled at Oxford by the Kings Proclamation upon the second Invasion of the Scots for number in both Houses exceeding those who were left at Westminster almost 200 Commons before they had sitten five weeks besides the Royal presence of the King very probably might have recovered this Kingdom by calling themselves a Parliament as the eyes of the Kingdom upon them did expect which drew over some Members from Westminster and more would have followed to have joyned with them in Parliament and as in all reason they might have as well as they did demand and take upon them all priviledges of Parliament But the Fanatick spirit brought thither in Mr. Bagshawes Lawyers pouch or maintained there before at the Brethrens charge was busie there also in fomenting fears and jealousies that they must not set the King a precedent to break Laws vid. the forced Act of continuance of this Parliament in it self void for fear they should make the King too great and such courses they took in imitation of the Faction at Westminster that they complained to the King of a Divine who in a Sermon historicè related the Story of Charles Martel his inventing Rebellion Sacriledge and Parliaments and Secretary Windebank lately come from France to the King was forced suddenly to return into France to prevent the odium which might have fallen on the King by protecting him whom they also intended to have questioned that well might his Majesty call them his Mungrel-Parliament whose negligence and wilful blindness hath twice undone the Kingdom But to return to the Members at Westminster whom we left Conquerors of the Vote in the House of Commons whose Agents were set on work throughout the Kingdom especially in London to muster up their Forces without which they could neither long keep the Vote so gotten nor could make their Votes of any power or authority the House of Commons being of it self no Court of Judicature having no power to give an Oath nor to imprison any of the Kings Subjects except their own Members but to consult and transmit their Proposals to the House of Peers to whose joynt Results the Kings Royal Signature puts life and makes it Law or an Act of Parliament The next work therefore to which success heightned them was to try their strength in the House of Peers for concurrence to their designes to which Lord Say had long tutored his Pulpit-Lords and other discontented popular Lords were hoped easily to be drawn seeing the people so extol the proceedings of this Faction in the House of Commons though they intended to go on with their work without the Lords concurrence if they could not have brought them to their Bow as indeed they have made no other use of the House of Peers than to cover and countenance the Fanatical practices with the Name and Title of both Houses of Parliament and of Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament setting the Lords in the first place like Cyphers in Arithmetick to advance the following numbers for what meant the new phrase in Pulpits and Pamphlets of the House of Gods and of the Worthies of the Land but onely the House of Commons and what more frequently buzzed into peoples heads than that the Lords sate but for themselves the Commons sate for the good of all the people and were therefore more to be regarded and maintained But for a formality and shew of Legal proceedings in a Parliamentary way Mr. Pym is sent into the City to make Speeches against Obstructions in the Body politick that Reformation could not go on till they were removed which soon raised the City-Tumults to petition the Parliament that the Bishops and Popish Lords might be thrown out of the House of Peers
Doctrines and Disciples Indeed to divide the Church-lands amongst their Tribe as the pretence was of taking away the Bishops Lands to maintain preaching Ministers and to invade other Mens Livings and to have the sole Government of the Church in their Hands this is that which they call setting up of Jesus Christ in his Throne the World now see what their aim was at first in calling this the Parliament of their Prayers 5. All sorts of Sectaries in England were earnest for this Parliament because they had conspired to pack it for their Designs against the King and the Church as hereafter will be shown 6. The Common Lawyers pleaded for a Parliament that themselves might snatch an Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction into their Courts to advance their Law above the Gospel as they have done crying up their Idol-Law to be above the King a Creature above his Creator then what are the Lawyers who have the Law in their own Hands the Breast of the Judge or the Breast of the Court as they phrase it is the supreme Power And truly for these many years last past have the Lawyers enslaved both King and People by the Charm of Law Law 7. The Country People generally fancied that a Parliament would free them from paying of Tythes which produced several Petitions to that purpose from several Counties 8. All sorts of Trades and Companies in London hoped for Iome encrease of their Trading if a Parliament were called and yet who more crying out against Monopolies and Patents than these Citizens Who are the greatest Monopolilizers in this Kingdom and scarce any Incorporation in London but had some Petition ready for this Parliament with confidence that nothing must be denied for the advance of Trade And all sorts of People dreamed of an Vtopia and Infinite Liberty especially in Matters of Religion nay scarce any man but had some Design of Private Interest excep the Ancient Orthodox Clergy who foresaw what a Misery the heighth of a Faction would bring on the Church by a Parliament And yet after 5 years Sitting in this so Idolized Parliament no sorts of men but have missed their Ends their Ministers especially verifying that Prophesie of Dr. Bancroft For all the Outcries that Church-Livings might be employed to the Maintenance of Eldership well may they procure in some other Age the further impoverishing of the Church but they shall be sure to be little the better for it And generally instead of being eased of their Grievances they have been plagued by this Parliament as by the Flagellum Dei a Rod of their own making to scourge this Land for their murmuring against Moses and Aaron their Contempt of the King and the Priest into which Crying Sin an Hypocritical Faction hath been long drawing this People by wounding the King through the sides of the Church as knowing well that if they could destroy Monarchy in the Church Episcopal Government in England being indeed the King 's Spiritual Militia and that most povverful as commanding the Consciences of Subjects by planting in Rebellion for Religion they should soon vveaken the Povver of the King 's Temporal Militia as vvoful Experience hath taught us this made the Masters of the Faction alvvays set up the Church as the Butt and the Bishops Sleeves as the White chiefly aimed at by all sorts of People to shoot their Bolts against that to have the Bovv ready bent and the Quiver full of sharp Arrovvs even bitter vvords against the Church grevv to be the only Wisdom and Religion in fashion O ye scandalous Clergy and O ye bringers in of Popery was the belching of every open mouth when the greater sort had deeply swallowed other manner of Gall for which they took up the common cry against the Clergy only to colour their deadly Spleen bred upon Temporal Distempers which the world takes no publick notice of as yet but were the true causes of the Contempt and hatred of the Clergy among this Generation whereby the Fanatick Faction very inconsiderable for Number drew multitudes who hated their by-ways in Religion to their assistance The first and main Engine buzzed into the people long before this Parliament was That the Bishops and the Clergy were the Instruments for the Kings intended Tyranny the common saying in Terminis was that the Clergy are all for the King that is the Clergy seeing your Fanatick Spirit of Darkness working in the Children of Disobedience would by their Preaching to fear God and the King according to the Scriptures have prevented the ruines which they foresaw this Faction would and now have brought upon this Kingdom to this purpose what a fiery pair of multiplying Spectacles did the Faction put on the Noses of the people furiously looking on Dr. Manwarings Sermon till the Face of the Body Politick began to fire in a former Parliament not quenched even to the beginning of this but continually kindled against him and some others not above three more Divines who preached the Kings Prerogative like Divines if Scripture which they so cry up for their own ends in 1 Sam. 8. or the practice of the Kings of Judah may be Judge more than the Supremacy of the Lawyers would brook or the jealous Worshippers of Meum and Tuum in England could endure should be true This was the kindle-coal that the Faction bellowsed to that flame that must consume not only those particular men but even the whole Clergy Root and Branch as in Scotland the Feud of some discontented Lords against some particular Bishops vowed revenge on the whole Church this fire of malice was the fire from Heaven which confirmed their Covenant and made it the pattern in the Mount for Englishmen to follow This added to the name Baals Priests and such other reproaches of the Clergy among the Fanaticks the new Scoff of Cesans Friends This made the popular Earl of Essex say in this Parliament that he never knew but one Bishop in Parliament stand up for the good of the Commonwealth the old phrase of Rebellion and when Nat. Fiennes made Speeches in Parliament and printed them with the Title of unparallel'd Reasons to shew that Episcopacy was an Enemy to Monarchy the Lord Say his Father and Godfather to the Fanatick Faction printed a Speech That the Bishops were too much for the King and therefore were to be thrown out of the Parliament the most applauded Speech amongst the Commonvvealth party vvhose sense it spoke out to the full and vvas the Core of the Canker bred in them against the Church and unto this score do the Clergy ovve their eight years persecution and their continued Banishment from their Livings for fear they should preach the people novv undeceived into obedience to their King A second Cause vvas the sacrilegious thirsting after the Church-lands by some in this Land vvhose Grandfathers having svvallovved long Leases or perhaps some forged Deeds of Church-lands the Wax sticks still on the Childrens Stomachs that no vvonder
if they cannot be vvell till like the Vine-dressers in the Gospel they hate and mis-use the Lords Servants nay desire to kill the Heir that the Inheritance may be theirs vvhose blasted Posterity hath no little hopes of recruiting their scattered Estates out of the old Reserve of the Church Publick hatred being the ready vvay to make the Church-Lands their private prey For this purpose have the Lay-brethren continued the practice of their Faction in Q. Elizabeth's days in clapping silenced Ministers and Non-conformists and Lecturers on the back and follovving their Sermons setting them at the upper end of the Tables and seeking by all means to prvcure them Credit and Favor vvith the People not that they cared for them or for Religion or for Christ himself but hoping that by the violent Course vvhich they savv these men run into the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy vvould grovv so odious that it vvould in time be a small matter to dispossess them of all their Livings vvhereof some portion might come to their shares Which publick hatred of the Clergy was not a little increased upon a Jealousie occasioned by the Activeness of some Bishops and others of the Clergy in seeking by Law to recover some Church-revenue out of the Usurpers clutches otherwise mentioned in this Book that they began to argue if the Clergy should advance in the Favour of the King and the People their preaching against Sacriledge may prevail to the touching of their Copyholds and it 's the unhappiness of the Clergy that most of their Lands are occupied by Men grown too great by their Leases to be accounted Farmers and as much regreating the name of Tenants to such Landlords whom they think they may command And this bred the like hatred in London and other Incorporations and Nests of the Faction against the City-Clergy upon their suit for increase of Tithes in City-Livings which are generally of very small value and depend upon peoples Benevolence a thing of dangerous consequence in a Kingdom upon the Statute of Hen. 8. allowing two shilling nine pence per pound of the Rent of houses which Statute to evade the Lawyers and Scriveners have invented a plain Cheat by a Lease and a Lease that Houses of 50 l. Rent per Annum shall scarce pay 5 or 10 s. Tithe per Annum which so netled the Purse-proud Londoners accounting Tithes but as Gift or Alms that they would rather spend at Law or give a Lecturer of their own choice twice as much as their full Tithe came to than pay their Dues to the Parson a Word made their Scoff that Two shillings nine pence was an usual Nick name for any Divine as he walked through the Streets though the Clergy in their moderate Rates demanded not above twelve pence per pound and this seeking by Law to recover their due was call'd by the covetous World Tâ—â— covetousness of the Clergy 3. There was another sin of the Clergy as much talked of that was forsooth The Pride of the Clergy what was that Why Time having spent the old Stock of Sir John's planted into Churches in the hurly-burly days of Queen Elizabeth Illiterate Mechanicks and such who could but Write and Read and gather in Tithes for the Patron 's use with Curchees for some Wages for their Journey-work hereby villifying the Sacred Function as in these our Times and men of Worth and Learning sprung into their places Peace of the Church bringing Religion into request and Credit so that some Noblemen Gentlemen and men of Estates began to spend on their Children as much as would make them rich in another Calling only to fit them for the Priesthood besides Lands of Inheritance or money left as their Portions These were not like to betray the honour of the Church and of the Sacred Function to become the continual servants of men who especially in London thought Stipends of 40 l. per annum enough for any Clergy-man though he had Wife and Children Sir N. R. a Rich Alderman being desired to encrease his contribution to a Minister because he was a man of much Merit answered if the Minister were an Angel from Heaven he should have of him but ten shillings per Quarter And that any of the Clergy should be made Justice of the Peace or Officer of State as indeed who so fit to keep Love and Peace among Neighbours And I have heard the Officers and Retainers to the Treasury confess that they were never so well used as when a Bishop was Lard Treasurer was made such an Eye-sore in the Peoples Sight by the Faction especially the swarm of Lawyers not taken notice of though put into Commissions men of a meer Mercinary profession raising great Fortunes upon the Sins and Ruines of their Country unlike to prove Justices of Peace who live by â—â—aking Contention and Strife among Neighbours and from that small happy number of Lawyers in England Anno Domini 1555. which John Stow mentioned but two men of Law at the Kings Bench Bar and at the Common Pleas but one Serjeant yet had they nothing to do all that Michaelmas Term and yet no tempus belli have increased into an Incorporation of many thousands of rich and potent Leading men in all Corners of the Kingdom many advanced in the esteem of the People by their opposing the King's Prerogative under pretence of Law That not the King but their Law kept every man in his Right though since the King hath been eclipsed these seven years whom hath their Law kept in their Right Therefore when Judge Cook told King James that the Law kept the Crown upon his Head the King well replied Thou lyest Traytor it is I that maintain the Law And as malicious Enemies have too many Lawyers been to the Church knowing well that if the Clergy should grow into esteem and power to be Justices of the Peace they would plant in Charity and so spoil the Trade of Lawyers whose private gain hath been stiled the flourishing of the Law that not a Lawyer in a Parish but commonly was the Parson's busie Enemy and it is still in the Lawyers hearts and mouths that the Archbishop would have hindered their Law Did not such Interests facilitate belief he that had seen the habit of the Clergy in our days would wonder wherein lay the pride of the Clergy for who wore plainest Garments were most maligned but I forget the pride of the Wives of the Clergy in their Apparrel Those that were guilty I excuse not yet I must profess I knew very few thus justly taxed but such was the pride of English Women especially the Gentry that with much scorn and envy they would look at a Clergy-man's Wife if cloathed as well as themselves though their Birth and Portions and their Husband 's temporal Estate were known able to maintain it sometimes better than the other and in London every Woman whose Husband perhaps paid but twelve pence Tyth per Quarter thought
Judges of Divinity When Lawyers perk into a Chair for Religion and Coblers preach both alike lawful no marvail if Religion be voted illegal and the Priests be thought to go so awry and in these times to the Lawyer must the Divine go if he will preach without fear of being made a scandalous Minister or imprisoned for every Sermon I have known some twenty shillings Fees given to a Lawyer to plead at the Committee for Religion in the behalf of some Doctrines preached in a Sermon for which the Preacher never got twenty pence no defence being left for the Priests Doctrine or officiating in sacris unless allowed by an Act of Parliament or some common Law-trick insomuch that a Learned Doctor of Divinity being accused of Popery for calling the Communion-Table an Altar alledging the Scripture in the Hebrews Habemus Altare we have an Altar of which they may not eat meant of the Christian Eucharist could not hereby be acquitted of the Popery but producing the words of an Act of Parliament of Edward the Sixth yet unrepealed calling the Eucharist the Sacrament of the Altar the Committee for Religion were fully answered And several Actions at common Law of Assault and Battery were brought against a Divine in Essex who out of zeal to Gods house as the Priests did with Vzziah thrust some people out of his Church who sending for Cakes and Ale from an Ale-house were prophanely carousing on the Lords Table in the Church yet could not this Crime be admitted a lawful plea in the Common Law to save the Minister harmless from being overthrown in the Action but consulting with a Lawyer he was advised to plead his institution and induction into the said Church where the fact was done and so by a Rule in the Law that any man may thrust another out of his House if he behave himself uncivilly therein the Minister was secured from the Actions of Assault and Battery so that would our Saviour now beat out the buyers and sellers from the Temple the Lawyers would afford an Action against him of Assault and Battery And not long before this Parliament did the Lawyers find out ways of Indicting Clergy-men at the publick Assizes for standing up at the Creed or for denying to give the Sacrament to people obstinately refusing to kneel at the receiving thereof and to come up to the Rails about the Holy Table that I have known some Sectaries in London command their servants to go to the Sacrament and to sit in the lower places of the Church to try whether the Minister would bring the Sacrament to them in their seats that so they might have an Action of Law against the Minister or else complain against him to the Parliament nor will it be too long a digression to remember a former vent of the Fanaticks malice in a Parliament at the beginning of King Charles his Reign urging strongly a motion of making Adultery death in a Clergy-man but not in any other person purposely to throw scorn on that profession and how safe any Clergy mans life should have been may the conspiracy of the Lady Laurence witness against a grave Divine which the justice of the Star-chamber found out and censured righteous judgment no doubt is to be expected when such a malitious Faction shall get power to make themselves Judges of the Clergy as now they have done Good God! have our Preachers been these Eighty years confuting the superstition of the Papists to be made the stalking horses to a Sacrilegious Superstitious and Rebellious Faction by whom themselves are at last crowed down for Papists under the same pretence of Reformation having been taught to hate Popery without discretion no marvail if such people now question their Teachers and think they have forfeited their power and knowledge to them whom they have taught no better and what use these men have made of this pretended power let their own actions testifie But that they may seem to be no usurpers of any power at first they derided at Episcopacy or Monarchy but that is not the subject of this discourse to be Jure Divino though never so plain in the 10. of St. Luke by Christs Election of 12 Apostles and 72 Disciples of an inferiour order out of which Mathias was in the first of the Acts preferred to be numbred with the 11 in the room of Judas and were there any scruple who more fitting to resolve the doubt than those who lived in the Apostles time as did Ignatius whose works as also the continued succession of Bishops in all Christian Churches for 1500 years together were argument enough to those who have not denyed their Faith forgetting their Creed I believe the holy Catholick Church And against such men a Christian ought not to dispute But now began new principles of Divinity to be broached by the new State-Chaplains vid. That the Law of nature bade the Parliament that is the House of Commons the peoples Representatives to reassume all power into their hands it being so universally complained of that the King and the Bishops had abused their trust intending to ruine the Kingdom and destroy Religion the two great bugbears wherewith the Fanatical Faction who felt the pulses of the people beating strongly after property or Religion kept the people continually affrighted and it being as generally believed for qua volumus facile credimus that all power in Church and Common-wealth was derived from the people and their Representatives and not from God immediately Aristotles Politicks is made Scripture for this new Divinity and surely an excellent Religion will nature teach Christians to justifie what they have or shall do so manifestly against the Law of God and man If this argument be not strong enough their Lecturers who were wont in former Parliaments also to attend the House of Commons door making Legs to the Members in transitu praying their Worships to remember the Gospel by which they meant their Presbytery these preach to them that their power to Reform Religion is Jure Divino why forsooth because the people called them thereunto and vox Populi est vox Dei was their beloved unquestionable Oracle indeed vox populi cried up Rebellious Absalom against his King and Father Vox populi cryed against our Saviour Crucifie him Crucifie him Vox populi called for the Golden Calf from whence to the silver-Smiths of Diana Scripture may teach us that Argumentum pessimi turba and that in Religion vox populi is rather vox Diaboli than Dei. Yet this vox populi must choose our Religion and Religion-makers but who gave the people power to choose the Kings writ for Elections then all power is not in the people nor can any Electors invest their Elected with the jus Tertii for nemo potest plus juris transferre in alium quam ipse habet the power of the Kings and of the Church being not in the peoples power to commit to their Trustees Laws
having made the distinction between the Kings Prerogative and the Subjects propriety between Church and Common-wealth as well as between meum tuum among fellow-Subjects and were the Kingdom Elective as England was never yet well might that Roman Emperours Speech be applyed Vestrûm quidem erat eligere pòst autem meum est imperare vestrum est obedire But that all power of the Church in Doctrine and Discipline should be originally in the people that is the rude multitude is a new opinion framed by affection and made Religion by politick engagements only to serve the present designs for now the Fanatical Lecturers having obtained their ends against the Bishops by vox populi their own Doctrine dispute the power with their Lay-masters in Parliament who by their help getting the Sword and by that the strongest power are not like to forego the same upon Vox populi But did not violence so crowd up this Lay-Parliament and Committee for Religion that in their Chairs no room is left for Gods word to take place they might know that the Priests lips shall preserve knowledge and not the peoples lips and that by tying up the lips of the Priests Gods Law saith Deut. 17. v. 8. That man which shall do presumptiously and not hearken to the Priest shall dye Nor did the people teach the Apostles but surely the Apostles taught the people and Ruled over the people in Word and Doctrine since to them Christ gave the Keys Christus dedit non populus Otherways St. Pauls Rod was a meer brag and so was his jurisdiction the rest will I set in order when I come which also he commended to Timothy and Titus and the other Bishops and Deacons for governing the Church whereof the first Synod at Jerusalem consisted and to prevent the mistake of Lay-Elders in that Synod it 's said afterwards of Judas and Silas that they also were Prophets and of the Clergy were all general Counsels of Christendome made up to whom Constantine said judiciary power especially in Doctrines did belong and this was the established Law of the Christian world the benefit whereof St. Ambrose pleaded against Auxentius and it 's known upon such grounds Luther refused the judgment of the Emperours Court appealing to a Counsel concerning his Doctrine The word Presbyter almost Englishing itself Priest as was the Ecclesiastical sense of the word both in the New Testament and Ancient Writers both Christian and Heathen which Amianus Marcellinus a meer Historian describeth Christiani ritus Presbyter never Englished in the Grammatical sense till design translated it so in our English Testament and by those Translators never intended to be wrested to Lay-Elders as the non-Doctors of this Generation will have it to signifie But I forget my self that I dispute against a Sword and such Adversaries who told their King they sate not to be ruled by Presidents but to make Presidents to the world and truly they have been as good as their word But I hope they will regard the judgment of a Protestant Martyr in this case for the shedding of whose Blood the Parliament made an Ordinance for repentance when the Papists in Queen Maries Raign urged Mr. John Rogers that the Parliament had established the Romish Religion of what force said this godly Martyr may we think these Parliaments are which establish contrary Laws to condemn that for evil which before they had decreed for good it's better to obey God rather than man making Religion which like Tullies Lex Naturae nec tolli nec abrogari potest become Leges Seiae Apuleiae quae unico Senatus versiculo puncto temporis sublatae sint And should the House of Commons assume this power in Religion Religion like Englishmens clothes would ever be cutting into some new fashion as any Faction ariseth in the Kingdom but that this Faction in Parliament may blind the eyes of the world indeed to strengthen and support themselves till they should become absolute Masters of England when they had been long tampering with Religion at last they found policy necessitating them some need of using Clergy-men yet in such a monstrous way as the Christian world never heard the like by a new thing called an Assembly of Divines not summoned by the Kings Writ and Authority expresly against the Statute of Hen. 1. nor chosen by the Clergy but plucked out of each Members pocket and by vertue of Hocus pocus jugled into a Conventicle-Synod on purpose for all forced Synods have ever more of private interest than the publick good of the Church to help out with some new Religion as their Masters which hired them with 4 s. per diem shall appoint Yet lest these Divines such as they be New-Englanders Amsterdamians Pedants and Trencher Chaplains to whom were some ten learned Clergy-mens names joyned as Seals who never came there in person should take any authority to themselves the Faction in Parliament have jusled in Thirty of their Lay-Members another Vote can make them thirty more as Members of this Linsy-woolsie Synod to help up a side but to make all sure their Parliament Masters have ordered that this Assembly yoaked like an Oxe and an Ass to till the Holy-Land must meddle only with what shall be propounded to them from the Houses of Parliament and when all is done their conclusions shall not bind till the Parliament give leave and consent and saith the Ordinance not Law whereby this Learned Synod is created and bridled these Divines must tell them what is most agreeable to Gods word and when the Parliament is thus certified what Gods Law is the House of Commons will vote whether it shall be obeyed or no Such an Omnipotency over Gods Law over the Church and the King hath this Faction usurped since this Parliament to plant in Christs Kingdom and the power of Religion and Reformation as their specious pretences at first were turning the Spanish cloak of Religion into the English Proverb of playing the Devil for Gods sake CHAP. VI. The Censures of these Judges against the Clergy and the true reason thereof THese are the Grapes of this long-promised Fanatical Canaan gathered from such pretended holy-Thistles at whose growth while some labourers in Gods harvest too late repenting connived doubting that they were some weak and tender Vine-branches and others of more discerning spirits seeking to weed them out pricked their own fingers they grew like Jothams bramble such Kings over the Trees that they have banished the Vine and the Olive peace and plenty and to plant in the stinking Elder have burned up the goodly Cedars of the Church root and branch and the field of Christs wheat choaked with the tares which the envious man hath been long sowing in this Land now grown to their harvest to whose sheaf like Josephs dream must every sheaf make obeisance else the upstart bramble-King sends fire to devour them as it hath already torn the whole coat of the Clergy as
and what miseries this Nation felt thereby may afford more truth than these times can bear and therefore is omitted Yet in all these Parliaments was the stamp of just that is Royal Authority though how justly executed I say not and therefore ought to be obeyed active or passive nor in any of these Parliaments or ever since till this Parliament were the Clergy one of the three Estates of the Realm the best conservators of Religion quite excluded with convocations of the Clergy though legally chosen by the Kings Writ not forced up out of a Renegado house-creeping Ministry by Lay-votes who had the judiciary cognizance of matters of Doctrines as one hath observed in a discourse to answer the Popish Slander cast upon our Religion that it is a meer Parliamentary Religion Though it cannot be denied but that fury against the present Clergy because they would not comply with the prevailing party to extol the present Change and in later Parliaments the Puritan-policy having influence even upon Court-counsels have too much bound up the power of the Keys and left the Clergy little liberty but to grant Subsidies But never did the Laity in Parliaments grasp at the power of the Keys till the Puritans getting strength in the House of the Commons nibled at the Church-power under the name of a Lay-Committee for Religion which King James connived at little thinking whereto that ill example would grow in his Son's days hanging St. Peters Keys at Lay-mens girdles thereby as we now see locking up the Priests lips and shutting up Church-doors to the sequestring of Almighty God from his holy Habitations and by an Army of Subjects in rebellion against their King taking away the daily Sacrifice out of the Temple for the Reformation of Religion the old pretence to colour politick designes thereby to take away the shame of whatever cruelty shall be acted to advance the same never remembring that of St. Paul We must not do evil that good may come of it What fit Judges of Religion Parliaments have been and are like to be let us hear again Mr. Rogers that famous Protestant Martyr when it was objected to him that he ought to be a Catholick because the Parliament had established the Popish Religion Of what force saith he are Parliaments which establish contrary Decrees condemning that for evil which before they had established as good and the Parliaments of later times have been ruled by the fancy of a few Henry the 8th established what he pleased by Parliaments In Edward the 6th the Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland bore all the stroke and did not all things sincerely And for the Parliaments of Queen Elizabeth what by her politick moulding of the Parliament and her infinite popularity and her Armies who durst Vote against her pleasure Besides as one observeth her Parliaments consisting of grave men did do the Queens work and in that the Kingdomes business no thoughts of opposing Prerogative under pretence of Property or distinguishing between the service of the Crown and of the Commonwealth as two divers yea contrary things till the Fanaticks began to make Parliaments as Cock-pits and pitched fields for fighting against the King and the Church under the notion of standing up for the Subjects Liberty which made King James say that he could never find any joy in his Parliaments calling them in scorn and anger Five hundred Kings And the wise Earl of Arundel lately deceased then prophesied that Posterity would have cause to curse those Fanaticks in former Parliaments who upon such undutifulness caused their breach of which as also of the Parliaments of King Charles Sir Robert Naunton hath observed That half a dozen of popular discontented persons such as with the fellow that burned the Temple of Diana would be talked of have swayed all the Parliaments as Lord Say Mr. Pym Hambden Stroud and other Parliament-drivers as the Army Declarations stiled the XI Presbyterian Impeached Members who have lived to sit in this Parliament to see the flames of their own kindling almost consume the Church and these three Kingdoms by their reviving Nadab and Abihu's strange Fire by their presumption in medling with matters of the Church to the subversion of Religion under pretence of Reformation which how politickly wrought by the long combination of an hypocritical Faction we come now to speak of more particularly The former Examples of alteration of Religion and of compassing secular ends and designes by pretence of Reforming Religion having beaten out a ready way for any change no sooner began the Fanatical Faction to appear and by their furious pretence of Loyalty and hatred of Popery under Queen Elizabeths policy to ballance the Popish party then not weakned enough in the Kingdom for her security suffered to take head but presently they began to Libel the Bishops and the Church of England and to poison the people in most corners of the Land but chiefly in London with Geneva Doctrines and Pamphlets Supplications are made to the Queen and to the Privy-Council but especially to the Parliament Petions pretended to be subscribed by 100000 hands put up against Bishops Remonstrances and Admonitions are directed to the Parliament to advance the Presbytery as the holy Discipline but finding little countenance to such a phrensie they fell into such Libelling and Menacing the Queen the Council and the Parliament that in their heat the fire of Sedition began to appear so that to quench it in the spark the Queen made severe Laws against them and by hanging Penry condemned with Vdall and Barow who were pardoned brake the neck of their Plots and turned their brags into preaching of preces lachrymae as the onely arms for Christian Subjects and into Doctrines of humble obedience and patience till indeed they could pack an House of Commons for their purpose as some Pamphlets of those days advised the Brethren their party in Parliament being then inconsiderable or at least not able to carry on their work by their own strength and probably those Laws had for ever purged this Kingdom of this new plague had not an old sore unexpectedly broke out in the Gunpowder Treason so apparently plotted by Papists though the Actors intended to have laid the Saddle on the Fanatical Horse but little sooner than they deserved as we now see that to permit the other was counted the best way to cure this and as it sever hapneth the common hatred of any Faction gives great advantage to its contrary So now the Fanaticks full glad of such an occasion began busily to revive their suspended hopes of their Reformation strengthned also by their united brethren of Scotland as that in all Parliaments since through King James's too much love of peace and Archbishop Abbots affected popularity upon some Court-disfavour and by other Courtiers emulation by the subtelty and hypocrisie of the Faction they have gained ground till they have driven the Church and the King out of Three Kingdoms by the
Engine and name of Parliament to cover their Fanatical Combination and Conspiracy which they have been so long contriving to raise to its height by these means following By incorporating themselves into a Church as distinct from the Church of England as the Papists have been they have set up an upstart Ministery of Lecturers they made publick collections of Monies for their silenced Ministers under pretence of poor Ministers they have had their Feoffees intrusted with great sums of Monies raised among themselves for furtherance of their designs witness the plot of buying out of Impropriations to plant in men of their own Tribe to whom St. Antholins in London was the Nursery they had their mutual intelligence throughout the whole Kingdom and ingrossed almost all the inland Trade to men of their Faction they took up a canting language to themselves which they called the Language of Canaan abusing phrase of Scripture thereby to understand one another to colour their seditious practises they had their Emissaries whereof simple Robin the Bible-Carrier was one or Scouts to give notice where men of their Tribe preached so that not any one of their Ministers could come to London from the farthest parts of England but found entertainment in the City for whose Randevouz a Widow whom Alderman Pennington Marryed kept an Ordinary in White-Friars where many of them lodged in Doctor Prestons days and when any of these preached in any place in London or thereabouts they wanted not a crowd of followers And as these were busie in the Church so their close Committe-Masters in those days were not idle in the State much correspondency held with the Brethren of Scotland and before any Wars began in either Nation Mr. Hamden went yearly into Scotland as I have heard some of his Neighbours in Buckinghamshire say they had their Counsel Tables sitting in several parts of the Kingdom Knightly's House in Northamptonshire Lord Sayes House wherein was a room and passage which his servants were prohibited to come near where great noises and talkings have been heard to the admiration of some who lived in the House yet could never discern their Lords Companions that in King James's days a great Mistriss of the Faction who afterwards changed her House to come to Black-Fryars to live under the Gospel as they called their Lecturing Parishes whose House was much frequented by Lord Say and the Earl of Warwick Mr. Pym c. could say That their party was then strong enough to pull the Kings Crown from his head but the Gospel would not suffer them but not long after the Gospel was put into a posture of War when so many Military yards in London Westminster and Southwarke and other places about sixteen years since grew into much request whither Lord Brooke much resorted whom I have seen entertained there with whole Vollies of Muskets that Fanatical Goliah armed cap à pe yet shot in the eye which himself bragg'd should see the Millenary fools Paradise begin in his life-time and all Sectaries in London on a suddain entred themselves and drew on others to be listed in those Artillery-Gardens to exercise feates of Arms for pastime as some were drawn in against a time of need was the Reason given by some Brethren of those days which it should seem onely themselves foresaw better than other men and as their designes ripened Captain Forster a Vintner behind the Exchange was employed by the City-Faction to send over sea for Skippon a confiding Brother to the Cause to be Captain of the London Artillery Garden who was since this Parliament made Major General of the City Rebels flamming the rest of the Londoners that a Stranger was sent for to prevent emulation among the City-Captains upon an election a fair preparatory for the invasion of the Scots to force the King to call a Parliament which all men were made so much to long for because the Faction had plotted to pack it for their designs This made the Earl of Warwick write from York to his Friends in Essex about the Election of Knights and Burgesses for this Parliament alledging That the Game was well begun Mr. Pym rode a Circuit into divers Counties to promote Elections of men of the Faction and Sectaries went from place to place to cry down the nomination of any who belonged to the Kings Service and to give Votes for men of the new Religion and notorious opposers of the King or the Clergy whose names the Faction had privately before listed whereby divers Citizers and Lawyers were chosen for Burgesses in Parliament by those Incorporations which they never had any relation to nor knowledge of but by some rebellious opposing Moses and Aaaron the King or the Priest witness Mr. Bagshaw and Mr. White two Lawyers chosen for Southwarke the one a Feoffeeman censured in the Star-Chamber the other a Seditious Law-Reader against Bishops not long before like the four Burgesses of London chosen upon four such grounds Alderman Soame for his imprisonment in denying of Ship-money Vassall for his obstinacy against Customs Craddock for the Cause of New-England Alderman Pennington for his known zeal by his keeping a fasting Sabboth throughout his Shrivalty Lecturers also came thrusting into Elections of the Clergy wherein they had nothing to do as having not whence to pay Subsidies for men into the Convocation with whom came some Citizens to Christ-Church in London to hear how the Plot took in the Election but having no hopes to pack up a Convocation they made a Rendevouz of many Scandalous and Schismatical Lecturers and such as Doctor Burgesse whom guilt made Parliament-Converts and Vassals at Mr. Calamies House in Aldermanbury till strengthned into a new Assembly at Westminster as a Counter Convocation or Conventicle from whence the Faction in Parliament received informations concerning Religion and hereby did they communicate their intelligence and designs with directions how these their Ministers might by degrees prepare the people for their work that I have heard their Auditors say that by the Sundays Sermon or a Lecture they could learn not onely what was done the week before but also what was to be done in Parliament the week following besides the information which their Pulpits gave the people for coming in tumults to the House for Justice from a Juncto of these Ministers came that insolent order of directions thrown into Church-wardens houses by unknown hands how to take the first Protestation from one of these Clubs came the Sâ—nectymnuan Libels which got the Authors round sums of Money to make their Religion shine in the world ut ipse MarcionT Evangelico aliquando credidit cum pecuniam in primo calore fidei contulit Reformers in Luthers time did not so if Scoperus the Emperors Secretary said true at a Diet at Ausburgh Nor may we forget how the Faction in London packed up a new Common-Councel removing ancient grave men to foist in young and mean fellows but zealous for the Cause not an Office in