Wentworth was sent to the Tower Mr. Bromley and some others of the Commons committed to the Fleet. N. 25. In this Parliament it was enacted that If any Person should come to or be at any unlawful Assemblies Conventicles or Meetings under pretence of Religious exercise contrary to the Laws and Statutes made in that behalf c. that every Person so offending should be committed to Prison without Bail or Mainprise or depart the Realm at such time and place as was assigned with this Proviso N. 27. that if he departed not at the time appointed or come back without leave first granted he should suffer Death as in the case of Felony And when all other means failed these sharp Laws made against them and some severe Executions done upon them humbled the Ringleaders of them ruined the whole Machina of their devices and effectually promoted the Peace and Tranquillity of Church and State and the happy Preservation of Her Majesties Person to a prosperous and peaceable Reign And 't is believed that at King James's first coming to the Crown of England about the year 1603 the Presbyterians in both Kingdoms England and Scotland were brought so low Lib. 11. N. 1. that they might have been suppressed for ever without any great danger had that King held the Reins with a steady hand and not remitted so much as he did in the cares and severities of Government particularly in admitting the Presbyterian-petitioning and especially in that called the Millenary-petition because said to be Subscribed by a thousand hands when indeed it wanted some hundreds of it This Petition was for Reformation of sundry Ceremonies and Abuses viz. Cross in Baptism Church-Musick c. which occasioned the conference at Hampton Court where the King himself was present as Moderator N. 6. between the Episcopal and Presbyterian Divines the result of the conference was this sharp reprimand If this be all they have to say saies the King I 'le make them conform Conf. at Hamp Court p. 85. or I 'le hurry them out of the Kingdom or somewhat worse at the conclusion of the conference The Presbyterian Divines when they saw that they could not obtain their desires in such Concessions and Alterations as they disputed for they were notwithstanding not transported with heat and passion or any such bigottery as the modern Dissenters are on such occasion but ingenuously promised the Bishops their Antagonists That they would nevertheless reverence them as spiritual Fathers and joyn with them against the common Enemy Upon this Conference N. 8. the Kings Proclamation was issued forth commanding strict Conformity and admonishing all his Subjects of what sort soever Never after to expect any Alteration in the publick form of Gods Worship and things being accordingly put in Execution and the Government holding a hard hand upon them inconformity soon grew out of fashion again N. 10. Till the Gunpowder-Treason N 12. Presbytery out of Popery the second time from whence they took occasion to possess the People with fears and jealousies of new dangers from the Papists and by a shew of greatest Zeal for the Protestant Religion they got a Party in the House of Commons who by the specious pretences of standing for the Subjects Property and the Preservation of the Protestant Religion weakened the Prerogative Royal and advanced their own and by degrees got so strong in Parliament that at the beginning of the Reign of King Charles the first they were able to proceed from Council to Execution beginning their Embroilments first in Scotland by sending thither the English Liturgy and Book of Canons Sir R. Bak. Anno 1638. whereupon the Scots took up Arms declaring not to lay them down till the Presbyterian Religion was setled in both Nations they being incouraged so to do by some of the English Parliament Ibid. 1640. which the King understanding went to the House of Commons to demand five of their Members whom he accused of seditious Intercourse had with the Scots in that Insurrection And here began the first Eruption The King wanting Money to manage the War with Spain was forced to have almost continual Parliaments of which many Members being Scotized fell presently on Voting the Ship money unlawful the Convocation of the Clergy Illegal and their Canons void Bak. Chron. 1641. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 passed a Bill for taking away the Bishops Votes in Parliament Which when the King consented to he saies he never enjoyed comfortable day after they passed a Bill for a Triennial Parliament c. All which they forced from the King by terror of the Scottish Army which they kept in pay nine Months on purpose And tho the Lords and others at York in their Declaration Bak. Chron. 1642. protested before God and testified to all the World as they had often done before that they were fully perswaded that the King had no intention to make War upon the Parliament but that all his endeavours tended to a firm Settlement of the Protestant Religion the just Priviledges of Parliament the Liberty of the Subject c. yet they proceeded chiefly on pretence of the fear of Popery to wrest the Militia out of his hand as also the Tower of London the Navy Royal and all his Revenues using all Terror imaginable to affright his Subjects from Supplying or Assisting him In short a rebellious and most unnatural War being commenced which shed the Blood of so many thousands they reduced the King to consent to these and the like Proposals Baker Chron. Anno 1648. That the Presbyterian Discipline should be set up for three years in the interim of which they would endeavour the Settlement of Peace in Church and State That the Militia should be lodged into their hands for twenty years That the whole Government of Ireland both Military and Civil should be put into their hands That they should confer all Officers and all chief Magistrates of the Kingdom of England for twenty years And having thus got the whole Soveraignty to themselves they were willing on these most unnatural Concessions to comply with the King and voted a full agreement with him But alas too late they having by this time cut off his hands and feet empowered the Independent Army to cut off his Head And now when the Presbyterian Discipline was to be compleatly setled the Army which themselves had raised declare for the Independent Way and serve them as they had served the King turn them out of Doors and resolve upon nothing less then the Death of the King which was at first attempted by private Conspiracy with Poyson and Pistol by Captain Rolph Baker's Chron. Anno 1648. with the privity of Collonel Hammond and some other chief Officers of the Army But afterwards effected with such Hell-bred Solemnity and in such barbarous manner as to the everlasting reproach of the Protestant Religion Turks and Tartars have startled at Thus did they wade through the
Blood of men the best of men to destroy the Peace of the Church and to set up that Presbyterian Discipline which was no sooner up but down as that which will no more comport with the Constitution of the English Government than Popery or the Mussleman Faith And as this barbarous Regicidy so that which introduced it with so much Murder Perjury and Rapine I mean the Civil War which cost so many millions of Treasury and so many thousands of Mens lives was undeniably the effect of the Presbyterian Schism as is sufficiently acknowledged by the mouth of a modern Dissenter which is Mr. Baxter a dying man and therefore to be believed speaking to a Nonconformist whom he doth so orthodoxly and honestly write against Cathol Communion doubly Defended p. 31. If you know not saies he I do that the principles of Separation were the great cause of the Subversions and Confusions which brought us to what we have felt in England Scotland and Ireland for these forty years and if I may not have leave to say with Bradford Repent O England you should give me leave to repent my self that ever I preached one Sermon with any Biass of overmuch desire to please Persons of the accusing separating humour Thus Mr. Baxter in that late and last of all his Books But to proceed In conclusion of this War and Regicidy the men in Buff fell to Reformation-work in Churches which I cannot but take notice of in this place it being so exactly agreeable to the pattern of Julian the Apostate's reforming Christianity In Winchester Church Collonel Waller with some of his Regiment Hist of Presb. lib. 13. n. 23. threw down the Communion Table broke down the Rails and burnt them in an Ale-house strewed the pavement of the Quire with the Leaves which they tore out of the Common-prayer Book and whereas the remains of several Saxon Kings and Bishops had been by the care of Bishop Fox gathered into leaden Chests they scattered the Dust of their Bodies before the Wind and threw their Bones about the Church The very same that Julian the Apostate did to the remains of John the Baptist buried at Samaria He caused his Bones to be digged up and being mixed with the Bones of Beasts he burnt them to Ashes and scattered the Ashes before the Wind. N. 24 25. In the Cathedral Church of Chichester after they had picked out the Eyes of the portraitur'd King Edward the sixth saying in scorn That all the mischief came from him in establishing the Common-Prayer at first they fell to pillaging and plundering like the Goths at the Sack of Rome and when it was beg'd that they would leave but one Chalice for the use of the Sacrament it was answered A wooden Dish may serve turn The same words almost as of Faelix Colleague to Julian that renounced Christianity in complement to Julian who taking up the Communion-plate which the Religious Constantine had in piety bestowed upon the Church See here saies he in scorn what brave Cups and Vessels the Son of Mary is served in The Church of Exeter they turned into a Jakes leaving their filth on and about the Communion Table whereas the Apostate Julian did but piss against the Communion Table in a Church at Antioch and the Presbyter Euzoius reproved him tho an Emperor sharply to his face And in all this they wrote as after the Copy of the Apostate Julian so with the practice of the Donatist-Dissenters As Optatus relates that in Thipasa Opt. 55. ap Hist of Don. a City of Mauritania the barbarous Donatists assaulted an Assembly of the Orthodox Christians while they were at their Devotions and driving them out of the Church slew a great many of them the Bread of the consecrated Eucharist they threw to the Dogs who having eaten it by the just Judgment of God presently grew mad fell upon their Masters that gave it them and tore them to pieces But in the reforming the Church of Canterbury they exceeded Julian or the Donatists either N. 25. for finding there some Figures of Christ in the Arras-hangings in the Quire they did in the most literal Sence crucifie Christ in Effigie some swearing that they would stab him others that they would rip up his Bowels which accordingly they did so far as the Figures of Christ in the Hangings were capable of it The principal Instrument in framing this Reformation and Hammering out all that mischief of the War and Regicidy was a Tool called the Solemn League and Covenant as appears by the dying words of one of the chief contrivers of it Sir Henry Vane Speech p. 3. at his Execution on Tower-Hill That what the House of Commons did singly by themselves which was their Levying of War Murdering the King proscribing his Son Voting down Monarchy with much more which he saies lay yet in the breast of the House was but a more refined pursuit of the Covenant Thus Sir Henry Vane who being sent hence Commissioner into Scotland was one of the first Contrivers of it and therefore most likely to know the use and design of it and being then ready to die was most likely to speak truth But thus much is demonstrably true that the Covenant put them on altering the Government and that Alteration on the aforesaid Reformation as also upon Warring against the King and that War upon conquering and that Conquest upon Imprisoning and that Imprisoning upon Impowering a rude Conquering Army to Murder him So that their laying all on a rude conquering Army as Mr. Baxter doth is no other Plea for the Presbyterians not killing the King Plea for Peace c. than Pilates was for his Innocency in putting Christ to Death because he left the Execution of it to the Soldiers But to shew what an Engine this Covenant was against the Church what a Solemn piece of Perjury and what a snare of Souls what a mystery of Iniquity and what a bane of Monarchy 't is fit all Posterity should be instructed in these three Articles of it 1. That without respect of Persons they would endeavour to extirpate Popery and Prelacy i. e. Church-Government by Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans c. and all this not only contrary to the Kings Proclamation strictly forbidding it but contrary to an Oath previously taken by a great part of the Covenanters 2. That they would endeavour the discovery of all such as had been or should be Incendiaries Malignants evil Instruments c. whereby they bound themselves and others as the event shew'd to bear false against to Condemn and Murder the Kings best Friends as those that stood most in their way as the Earl of Strafford Arch-Bishop Laud c. 3. That they would preserve the Kings Person in the preservation of the true i. e. Presbyterian Religion and the Liberties of this Kingdom Which was in effect a covenanting to Rebel against the King if not to Murder him in regard that the Covenanters had already
declared from Pulpit and Press that the Religion and Worship established in the Church of England and maintained by the King was Popish and Idolatrous and that the Presbyterian was the only true Religion and that the King had actually invaded the Liberties of the Subjects c. and on this account this Article took in its limitations did in effect empower them to absolve themselves from their Allegiance and to take up Arms against the King So that if we consider this Covenant in these four circumstances the Subject-matter of it the Design and Occasion of it the Persons engaged in it and the manner of Imploying it it will appear to be Farewel Serm. p. 37. not only as Mr. Baxter calls it A dividing Engine an imposing on the Providence of God c. but as another Nonconformist called it A very nest of Villany and as another of them Nar. of the Covenant Mr. Phil. Nye Such a Covenant as was never heard nor read of nor ever the World saw and as yet this was made the Test of all such as were to be trusted or accepted And of the same stamp with these old Covenantiers are there great numbers at this day The certain men among us crept in unawares of whom Dr. Hickes gives this emphatical Mark Serm. at Worcest May 29. Preface That are for the King against his evil Councellors and for the Protestant Religion against the Church Of their barbarous Cruelties to'ards the Orthodox Clergy and others wherein they exceeded the Cruelties of the Donatists to'ards the Orthodox Clergy of those times see Aerius Rediv. lib. 13. Mercurius Rusticus c. No sooner had they battered down Episcopacy by their Westminster Ordinances and set up Presbytery in its stead but that beloved Discipline and Government whose settlement in England cost so many millions of Treasure and so many thousands of Lives in the turn of a hand was made sub to Independency and that soon dwindled into more Sects than ever old Donatism was such as Anabaptists Quakers Seekers High-Attainers c. Some of which would in all probability have become the prevailing Religion of the Nation had not the seasonable Restoration of King Charles the 2d prevented it By all which we are taught to look on it as what God hath written to us in Characters of Blood That no other than the Episcopal Government will comport with the Constitution of the English Nation And to shew yet further the agreement of these men with the Donatists and other Sectaries of old I shall conclude this Head with that Character which King James gave of them That tho they refused to be called Anabaptists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet they partook too much of their humour not only agreeing with them in that general Rule the contempt of the Civil Magistrate and in leaning to their Dreams Imaginations and pretended Revelations but particularly in accounting all men prophane that agree not to their Fancies in making as much commotion for every particular question of Church-polity as if an Article of the Trinity were called in question in making the Scripture to be ruled by their Conscience and not their Conscience by the Scripture in accounting every one as a Heathen and Publican and not worthy to enjoy the benefit of breathing much less to partake with them in the Sacraments that denies the least jot of their ground And in suffering the King People Law and all to be trodden under foot rather than the least of their Grounds be impugned He stiles them the very Pests of the Commonwealth whom no deserts can oblige breathing out nothing but Calumnies and Sedition Aspiring without Measure Railing without Reason and making their own Imaginations the square of their Consciences Thus doth King James Characterize the Presbyterians of his time exactly agreeing in every clause of the Character with the Donatists and the rest of the Ancient Schismaticks To all which he subjoins in the form of a Protestation That one shall never find in any High-landers or bordering Thieves greater Ingratitude more Lies and Perjuries than among these Phanatick Spirits as he calls them And because the Novatians the Donatists and other Schismaticks of old as well as of late have had the Denomination of Phanaticks given them and because 't is a notion that I have observed to be grosly misunderstood even by many great pretenders to knowledg especially of the Dissenters I shall subjoin this brief account of it PHANATICISM THE word is used to signifie false pretensions to Divine motion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Inspiration from God and is appropriate to those who in matters of Religion intitle God to Enthusiastick Fancies ascribe their whimsical perswasions unaccountable Humours and Phantastick Motions to the Suggestion and Impulse of the blessed Spirit of God that to defend an otherwise indefensensible Cause pretend to the aliquid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some impulse or motion from God Thus Donatus when he had a mind to engage the Circumcellians in any barbarous design his custom was to pretend that an Angel had appeared to him and assured him of immediate Answer to his Prayers for the Confirmation of his Party Oravit Donatus respondit ei deus saies Optatus 1. The grossest sort of Phanaticism is of those who pretend to the aliquid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the impulse of Gods Spirit for things in themselves sinful when men do intitle God to such Villanies as Fraud Treason Sedition c. As that of Donatus Aug. Ep. 165. passim who would pretend to conference with an Angel and Revelation from God telling the Circumcellions that he would seek God and give them Directions when he had a mind to put them on any Massacre Rapine or the like Of this sort was the Scotch Mrs. Mitchelson Spirit of Popery out of the mouth of Phanat. whom the Presbyterians of Scotland set up for a Prophetess She pretended to be inspired and that it was revealed to her by God that the Solemn League and Covenant was approved of by him and ratified in Heaven Speech at his Execution So Kid a Conventicle Preacher of Scotland hanged for Sedition in the year 1680 his calling the conceited strength and number of the Rebels the Lords power and presence and the strong hand of the Lord c. which is so far forth Phanaticism as it is an intituling the Power and Providence of God to Rebellion So also Coppinger in Queen Elizabeth's time after a strict Fast held for freeing of Cartwright Snape c. out of Prison and for success in promoting the Presbyterian Discipline in his Journey to'ards Kent he fancied Aeri Red. That he was admitted to a familiar conference with God that he received many Directions from him and particularly that God had shewed him a way to bring the Queen and all her Nobles to Repentance or to prove them Traytors to God c. Baker Chron. An. 1591. Of this Coppingers School