be presumed to account it an honour to him to be known by such a motion viz. Mr. MARTIN it was seconded and entertained by some of the greatest pretenders of Reformation in that assembly till one of courage and esteem stood up and said He was sorry that he had lived to see a Petition of that nature finde such favour in that place wherein those prudent lawes against which it petitioned had been upon so good and just grounds and with so much wisdome and deliberation framed and thereupon it was for that time waved and laid aside Since that how far the Jesuites and Jesuited party have proceeded and suceeded in their prosecuting of that designe of a toleration is sufficiently visible in the fruits thereof to every seeing eye But because the greater part of men will neither see nor heare or if they doe dare not speak what they see or heare how prejudiciall or destructive soever it be to Religion or ought else that good is I shall in the cause of Religion adventure a little further in the discovery of the designes of those professed enemies thereof I have been assured by a person of Honour that the Protestants of France had towards the beginning of these unnaturall and unchristian wars resolved upon a Declaration against the Parliament and Subjects of England their taking up of Arms against their King and had published it had not the forenamed Cardinall dashed it and underhand wrought them to too much approbation thereof rendering by that one subtill act of his the said Protestants odious to their own Soveraign for approving such Antiregal Antimonarchicall attempts and also advancing thereby his own designe of fomenting our destructive divisions But to return neerer home Who but the Jesuites and Jesuited Papists began that Rebellion in Ireland And who but their favourors here in England drove it on to that height by making those Rebels desperate in selling their lands and Voting them and theirs to ruine past all hope of mercy by detaining the King from going thither in Person to quiet that Rebellion when he so graciously offered it and so piously endeavoured it by diverting those fair full free running streames of bounty and liberality flowing all this Kingdome through towards the reliefe of the distressed Protestants of Ireland into those foule black bloody rivers of Warre and Rebellion overflowing this whole Kingdome to the wasting and weakening if not to the ruining and destroying of the now despised Protestants of England and lastly by the withholding and delaying all along from the first to the last the necessary supplies of men moneys armes and other provisions from that Kingdome notwithstanding the Kings often and often calling upon the Houses to be mindefull thereof and conjuring them thereto as appears by his many Messages and Declarations to that purpose and notwithstanding the loud and dolefull cryes of the Protestants of that Kingdome from the greatest to the least so constantly ecchoing in their ears If the Jesuites and Jesuited Papists of this Kingdome had not their hands deep in all this and too prevalent a power with those that had the power of ordering that businesse better let any man that knowes one hand from another judge But to come yet nearer those incendiaries of Nations and perturbers of the peace of Christendome are fowly belyed by one whose brother hath been one of them these many yeares and he himselfe is now theirs and was then litle better If there were not in and about the Citty of London and in and neere the Armies about 3 weekes or a month before that heavy blow at Nazeby above sevenscore Jesuites and other Romish Priests known the most of them to him which kept correspondence diverse of them and gave intelligence to them at Westminster and served them both in keeping off assistance from the King from Princes of their Religion and in betraying the Kings counsels and the resolutions of his Army which they by their instruments and favourers crowded into those quarters got knowledge of to the adverse party so that they could draw the kings Army into what part of the kingdome they pleased and there fight them or not fight them as they saw the advantage Insomuch that a Noble Colonell of the Kings Party and a man of good estate and credit being then a Prisoner in the Counter in Southwarke and having there fed at his table and preserved the author of this information that had been a prisoner in the same prison but was then by his Brothers meanes set at liberty was about that time before mentioned advised upon those grounds and some other by the said informer and that in gratitude as he affirmed knowing no other way of acknowledging his bounty and liberality towards him forthwith to make his composition and peace with the Parliament for that the King would without all peradventure yet the King was at that time in as high and hopefull condition as ever he had been in from the beginning of these warres be brought very low Strange propheticall counsaile aâ— that time had not the counselour had too strong presumption to conclude from And now to speake a litle upon mine own more immediate knowledge Travelling beyond the seas in the company of a Romish Priest borne in England and another English Gentlemen of the same religion after some warme dispute between us I was told by the Priest that I need not be so hot and zealous for my religion for so said he we have now as good cardes to shew for our Religion in England as you have for yours for we perceive you are a Protestant of the established Church of England and if you and such as you doe ever enjoy your Religion there againe it must be by a Tolleration and so shall we enjoy ours I replyed that I hoped God would disappoint them of their hopes but since that I found they had too much cause so to presume for I was no soonet arrived here in England but being constrained to attend some Parliament men at Westminster I heard a Gentleman who by his habit and discourse seemed one of credit and trust among the Romanists soliciting another Gentleman whose Father had been a Parliament man but was then dead for the assisting him by his friends in the promoting of a Petition for a Toleration of their Religion and he told him amongst other discourse what progresse he had made therein both with some prime Commanders of the Army and with divers members of the House of Commons whose names for the present I conceale and that he had delivered three Petitions to that purpose into the hands of three of the House of Commons who had undertaken the recommending them to the House and promised him their best furtherance therein so that he did not much doubt of the successe but yet should be obliged to him if he would be pleased to contribute thereto The party solicited replied He should doe him any service and the Petition desired no more then
And what a justification would this be to all their assassinations what a satisfaction to their desires what a staine and wound to the Protestant Religion and what an advantagious service to the Romish and what vengeance of vengeances must it needs pull upon this whole Nation that have had so often and so loud warnings of it and do not as by severall oaths and manie other bonds they are obliged hazard their owne lives to prevent it but still contribute towards it by assisting those that contrive and complot it 2 Chron. chap. 3 5. Lam. 4.20 It is recorded of Josiah one of the best Kings of Judah that being taken in the pits of the Aegyptians as Jeremies phrase is and slaine by them both the Prophet Jeremiah lamented for him and all Judah even the singing men and the singing women spake of him in their lamentations for a long time after his death and they made them an Ordinance in Israel it seems the remaines of Israel joyned with Judah in that mourning for the lamenting of him And this was such a great mourning that the Spirit of God speakes of the greatnesse of it many yeares after Zech. 12.11 But should our Josiah which the Lord of Lords and King of Kings of his mercy forbid be slaine by those Aegyptians that have him now in their pits not onely our Jeremiahs our great Prophets but all the Prophets and Prophets Sons throughout this Nation the lying Apostatizing Prophets only excepted that have deserted their Religion upon that destructive alteration suggested yea and all the men women and children of these three Kingdomes that wish well to the Protestant Religion and the good of these Kingdomes would excessively lament it unto all posterities though we have too much cause to believe that we should never obtaine an Ordinance for it from those Ordinance-makers that now beare rule beware then in time and that time is very short You have had such triall of King Charles his fidelity and firmnesse to the Protestant Religion as never Prince gave the like and I hope never Prince either in this or any other Nation shall be put to the like for he hath had as great and as strong temptations as prosperity and adversity in the height and depth of both could court or torment with even such as would have made a Luther or a Calvin a Cranmer or a Ridley or anie other of the most renowned confessors or Martyrs of the Reformed Religion either to have sunk or shrunk under them or else would have rendered them far more glorious then their confessions or suffrings did or could render them though they want for no accesse of Glorie on Earth or reward in Heaven Beware then I say in time for if King CHARLES should come to resist unto blood as he hath alreadie often done to the extremitie of hazard of it and that Royall Religious blood of his should be shed by you that professe your selves to be of the same Religion with him if of anie at all either by your contributing money horse armes personall assistance or ought else to those that thirst and hunt after his blood and to the resisting of those that seek with the expence of their own to save it or else by their not contributing what is in your power to the hazzard of your own lives for the preservation of his still in such known hazzard for they that preserve not blood from being shed when it is in their power to preserve it are undoubtedly guiltie of shedding it Besides the deep everlasting staine that you would thereby bring upon the Protestant Religion such a guilt and horror would withall seize upon your soules when God should come to set your sinnes in order before your eyes as doubtlesse he will sooner or later that if ye did not like some Murtherers beleeve that whatsoever ye lookt on Psal 50.21 ye behold King CHARLES his bleeding sides and whatsoever ye eat or drank ye tasted King CHARLES his Blood yet would ye wish ten thousand times over that you had lost everie drop of your own bloods and of the bloods of those that are most yours that ye had but done your dutie in time for the preserving of his Of all blood-guiltinesse take heed of being guiltie of the blood of a King for as he that is guiltie of anie mans blood is in that guiltie of more bloods then the blood of one and therefore the Scripture speaking of the shedding of blood does commonly if not constantly use a word that signifieth bloods in the plurall number so they which are guiltie of the blood of a King are in that guiltie of the bloods of a whole Kingdom everie Subject losing blood in the losse of his Soveraign Yea what if I should say that they which are guiltie of the blood of their King are to be reputed as guiltie of doing their utmost to shed the blood of God if I may so speak after the manner of men or of Christ himselfe I should not need to be put to prove it if what is most true be but confessed namely that Kings are Gods immediate vicegerents and the most representative image of his Majestie Psal 82.6 and therefore called Gods which may be one reason if not the main one why the shedding of the bloods of the most wicked of Kings by anie of their own Subjects hath been alwaies so publikely and severely avenged as in severall stories is recorded But above all abhorre the thought of being guiltie of King CHARLES his blood least in it you prove not only guiltie of what is alreadie told you but also of more Protestants bloods then have yet been shed since the Reformation as well as of the best that ever ran in anie veines And to you my deare Countriemen I adde this one short caution more Take you heed least as your Ancestors the religious Protestants of this Countie are highly honoured in the Acts and Monuments of our Church and in the Annales of our Common-weale for the discharging their dutie in that height of equitie and fidelitie as to be the prime aiders and assisters of Soveraigntie in the setling and establishing the last and for persecuting the professors of the Gospell the worst Popish Prince that ever swaied the Scepter of this Kingdome so ye your selves be eternally stigmatized by all records of Church and State for deserting your dutie and becoming the abetters and maintainers of Rebells and Traitors in the deposing and murdering for that 's known to be their designe of the last for so 't is resolved if they can compasse their resolutions and the best Protestant Prince that ever yet swayed this or anie other Scepter whatsoever Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things And so I passe from the King to your fellow Subjects and your selves and with the consideration of the severall and joynt present State and condition of both I shall conclude this faithfull and faire warning
the most inferiour of which companie carries better blood in their veines because untainted then the proudest Adversarie that fights against them and I trust God will preserve it as preciously and the Citie wherein they are High exceeding high alreadie is the Honour of that Citie for being the Citie wherein Lucius Helena and Constantine the first Christian King Empresse and Emperour in the world were borne And it may please the Lord in his mercie notwithstanding our multiplied iniquities crying so loud for the contrarie to rayse its honour yet much higher by making it the Citie wherein King Charles the most Religious of Christian Kings the Established Religion of the Church of England the Helena or Empresse of Christian Religion and the Incomparable Lawes and Liberties of this Kingdome which for equitie and Christianitie deserve the Crowne Imperiall of the World shall be preserved from ruine and be restored to their pristine glory The same Almightie God that wrought that first great Work in that Citie is all-sufficiently able there even there to accomplish this second And we humbly beseech him that neither their nor our sinnes may separate betweene his blessing and their Loyall and Christian indeavours to that purpose and whatever the successe be that that Citie nor those Worthies that are in it may never want their due honour nor his gracious protection and comforts But suppose the worst Suppose that by your ingagement against that Citie and those Worthies in it their Enemies should prevaile over them to their and this whole Kingdomes further weltering in blood must not their and the rest of the blood of this Kingdome be charged upon your score When as if you had but sat still and not ingaged against them as you were by many bonds never to be cancelled obliged to doe there had not beene in all probalitie at this time any Enemies to Peace or thirsters after Blood that durst to have showne themselves so throughout the whole Nation And therefore what will God say or doe unto you when he comes to make inquisition for blood to avenge it This is the bloody Countie that had Peace layd at their feet and trampled on it that had Peace brought home to their doores and not onely shut it out but called to bloodie Warre to enter in that had many thousands of their fellow Brethren and Neighbours that would have ventured their lives to have preserved them in Peace and they chose rather to lose many of their owne lives to take away some of theirs They loved not Peace therefore it shall be farre from them they delighted in Warre therefore shall it cleave close to them and they thirsted for blood therefore shall they be drunke with their owne blood Doe not thinke that I speake more in Gods Name then I have warrant from Gods Word for though ye have bin too long used so and abused by such lying Prophets Search the Scriptures and observe from thence what God speakes of the shedding of blood and you I find that I speak very sparingly as having regard to your infirmities For there God tells you That shedding of blood is one of those crying sinnes which makes a land to mourne and every one that dwelleth therein to languish Hos 4. v. 2.3 That blood defileth the land and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein or there can be no expiation for the Land but by the blood of him that shed it and that If a people would have God to dwell among them they must not so defile the land which they inhabit Numb 35. v. 33.34 That the shedding of innocent blood is such a sinne that of all other horrid sinnes the Lord will not pardon 2 King 24. v. 4. And therefore no satisfaction was to be taken for the life of a murtherer which was guiltie of death but he was to be surely put to death Numb 35. v. 31. with a multitude of other sayings on that subject that are to be trembled at by the Rebellious Subjects of this Kingdome 'T is true if a man killed any person unawares there were Cities of refuge appointed by God for such a one to flye unto from the avenger of blood but Oh my poore Countrey-men what Cities of refuge can ye fancie to your selves who wilfully murther your brethren And what lesse can the King say of you then this or to this effect The Countie of Suffolke 't is the most Rebellious Countie of all my Dominions For when one of my Kingdomes moved not against me when a second rose up for me and when the third Petitioned for me from almost all parts and tooke up Armes for me in most parts they of Suffolke neither Petitioned for me nor moved for me but rose up against me and when Rebellion was expiring its last poysonous breath they hazarded their owne lives to prolong its life and to preserve the lives of those Rebells that seeke nothing more then to take away mine When thousands of my Loyall Subjects were indeavouring to fetch me out of my Cruell Bondage and Imprisonment then they helpt to besiege and imprison to kill murther those very Subjects and when others with them were making what haste they could to set my Crowne againe firme on my head and to restore me againe to those Rights Honours and Comforts which I was wont to injoy they did what they could to throw my Crowne back againe to the ground and to keepe mine Honour still in the dust and me from all hopes of enjoying any Rights or externall Comforts here in this life Thus have they indeavoured to continue and adde to my Miseries who have therefore indured such Miseries in such Extremities because I would not yeeld to the delivering up of them amongst others to extreme Slavery and Tyranny Thus have they not onely fought against me without a cause but for the love that I had unto them they take now my contrarie part and have rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my good will But I give my selfe unto Prayer Stirre up thy selfe and awake to my judgement even unto my Cause my God and my Lord. Judge me O Lord according to thy righteousnesse and let them not rejoyce over me Psal 35. Let them not say in their hearts Ah so would we have it Let them not say We have swallowed him up Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoyce at my hurt Let them be clothed with shame and dishonour that magnifie themselves against me Let them shout for joy and be glad that favour my righteous Cause yea let them say continually Let the Lord be magnified which hath pleasure in the prosperitie of his servant and my tongue shall speake of thy righteousnesse and of thy prayse all the day long Amen Amen But what then will all the other Counties of England say of you O bewitched besotted Countie of Suffolke They that had lived in peace and plentie all these times when in the most
Counties of this Kingdomes like those Territories spoken of by Azariah 2 Chron. 15. there was no peace to him that went out nor to him that came in but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the Countries and Countries was destroyed of Countrey Citie of Citie and that might still have enjoyed those mercies themselves and have bin the happie instruments of restoring the like mercies to their Brethren in other afflicted distressed Counties They even they have pulled Warre and all the miseries and calamities that attend it upon themselves and have prolonged and increased the afflictions and distresses of other Counties They who were formerly honoured with that Eulogie of being alwayes forward in promoting the Gospel Fou. Act. and Mon. and had now an oportunitie offered them of being the preservers and deliverers of the Gospel from such blasphemous hereticall Antichristian reproachers opposers and impugners thereof as scarce any Nation since the promulgation of the Gospel were ever invested with the like They and few others but they at that time have joyned in a Confederacie with those reproachers opposers and impugners of the Gospel against those who indeavoured with their lives and estates the vindicating and re-establishing of it They that had bin informed beyond further questioning and assured beyond all doubting of the horrid Plots Conspiracies and resolved Designes of that Armie called the Parliaments and their abettors against the Libertie and Life of their Religion against the Crowne and Life of their King against the Power and Priviledges of Parliaments against the Rights and Properties of the Subjects against the Justice and Equitie of the Lawes yea and against the very Orders Degrees of Men and how farre they had proceeded in all these insomuch that besides their former Oathes and Protestations taken for the opposing of such and bringing them to condigne punishment they did very lately professe and declare for the generalitie of them upon all occasions and in all meetings an universall abhorring and detesting of that very Armie and their adherents with all their cursed wayes and courses They O what a bewitching stupifying Devill is the Spirit of Rebellion they have listed themselves in the same Armie fought for them and with them in the same encounters run on with them in the same madnesse and given up themselves to them as their slaves and vassals And therefore O my soule come not thou into their secrets unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united Give them shame for their honour and let them that have bin so false to their owne King and Kingdome to their inexpressible Dammages if not Ruine be removed into other Kingdomes for their hurt to be a Reproach and a Proverb a Taunt and a Curse in all places whither they shall be driven The Lord of his mercie give you grace to prevent this sad Curse from your neighbouring and other Counties as also your Kings sore displeasure and Gods heavie indignation before mentioned and all by a speedie returning to God and your dutie and doing those things which belong to your peace honour and safetie and to the peace honour and safetie of the persecuted Protestant Religion your oppressed King and this otherwise perishing Kingdome I know there are very many amongst you in this Countie of very much Religion and Loyaltie Honour and Honestie O that God would but give you that Spirit and Courage which is required in the exercising of those excellent indowments and without which those excellencies will be of little benefit to others or comfort to your selves nay they will aggravate your shame here and your confusion hereafter For your poore countreymen will say as many of them have alreadie said If such and such had in due time shewne themselves to be what they seemed and wee thought them wee had shewne ourselves to have bin other then what we are now thought and are And you know to whom God gives most of them he requires most and it will be lesse tolerable in the Day of Judgement for those that knew their Masters will and did it not and had their Masters favour and made no good use of it to his service then for others therefore stirre up these graces in you and improve them to your Lords best advantage And truly I doe not despaire of many others of you that doe now walke or rather run in most desperate wayes and courses But if you shall goe on let me tell you what further Curses and Judgements doe yet threaten and hang over you All the bloud as I before intimated that shall be shed by this your ingagement by whomsoever it be shed will be justly charged upon you and the Cryes and Curses of the Widowes and Fatherlesse made so by your folly and madnesse and of the Fathers and Mothers made Child-lesse will crie loud in the eares of God against you Woe unto that bloudie Countie will such and such and such a poore Widow say for had it not bin for them I had not bin now berest of my deare Husband nor my poore Infants of their deare Father Cursed be that Rebellious Countie will such and such and such a poore Fatherlesse Child say for had it not bin for them my honoured and tenderly loving Father that had escaped the Sword all these sad Warres through till then had then returned home in peace to my disconsolate Mother and me and wee had had peace ere this in all our borders For ever detested be that pernicious Countie of Suffolke will such and such and such Parents say for had not their Swords made us Childlesse wee had now enjoyed those sweet Pledges of our Loves and Comforts of our Age which now wee are deprived of O let not the seditious Countie of Suffolke will Men Women and Children say be named amongst the other Counties of this Kingdome but with some brand of infamie and dishonour for had it not bin for them our Swords had ere this bin turned into Sythes and Sickles and our Speares into Rakes and Forkes and we had bin reaping and gathering in our Corne and our Hay and our other fruits of the earth with joy and gladnesse and refreshing and solacing our selves therewith in rest and quietnesse whereas now our troubles feares are increased and we see little hopes of reaping ought but the accursed fruits of their and our owne wicked doings or if we should we have lesse hope of enjoying it but that others will eat it up and devoure it Reward thou them therefore O Lord as they have served us 'T is true none ought thus to imprecate vengeance on you but to pray for you which have thus despightfully used them and theirs but if in the bitternesse of their soules such Curses or Complaints to God against you shall fall from them and God shall not suffer them to fall to the ground he himselfe having denounced such Curses upon such practises and you by yours so justly deserving them poore soules what can ye
plead for your selves or who will regard your plea Againe as it is to be feared that some will deliver ye up to God for his avenging their sufferings and wrongs on you and yours so it is not to be slighted what others may doe in prosecuting their owne revenge on you for how may every Countie of this Kingdome be inraged against you when they shall see that you thus desert them in all their endeavours and labours for Peace and Truth and joyne with those that are the vowed enemies of both Who knowes whether all the other Counties may not like those other Tribes of Israel when the Tribe of Benjamin struck in with those sonnes of Belial that had abused the poore Levits Concubine and refused to deliver them up to Justice when their Brethren demanded them Judg. 20. arise as one man and come against you to battaile And though perhaps like those Benjamites you give them a foyle or two at the first yet at the last being the more incensed smite you with the edge of the Sword as well the men of every Village as the beast and all that come to hand and set on fire all your habitations that they come to The like sinnes in Israel and England have beene often and often punished with the like punishments In the next place thinke of the evill that is comming to you though we hope it will be to the good and peace and happinesse of this whole Nation besides out of the North and that great destruction Lift up your eyes saith the Prophet unto them of Judah and behold them that come from the North What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee for thou hast taught them to be Captaines and chiefe over thee Shall not sorrowes take thee as a woman in travaile Jerem. 13. v. 20.21 The same may I say to you word for word and every one of you if you will may see cause enough why I should say so 'T is often threatned in Scripture as an aggravation of judgements That God will give up such or such a people into the hands of strangers And it must be confessed That 't is most just with God to give you up into the hands of strangers who have so unworthily deserted your owne King and fellow Subjects and the justice of God will be somewhat the more remarkable in his giving you up to those Northerne strangers of all others because they were they whom ye your selves formerly called in and contributed so liberally to their comming in to your assistance against your King though ye pretended to them that it was to fight for him And therefore now it must needs be the more observable justice both in God and them that they should come in of themselves to the assistance of the same King and his faithfull Subjects against you that deserted him and them so shamefully and have thereby discovered your former hypocrisie other iniquitie so notoriously And let me further tell you That if those Strangers should not avenge the King and Kingdoms wrongs sufficiently 't is to be believed some other Strangers more fierce bloudy cruell shal do it For remember I beseech you that famous and pertinent Story of Gods dealing with the men of Judah when they deserted their King though the most wicked of Kings Ahaz by name because he was brought low and made a confederacie with those two tayles of those smoaking fire-brands Rezin and Pekah For that very cause as God by his Prophet gives the Reason Isa 8. did the Lord threaten to bring up upon the men of Judah the King of Assyria and all his hosts called there his glory compared to the waters of an over-flowing river strong and many and that he and they should passe thorow Iudah and should over-flow and goe over and reach even to the neck c. which was all accordingly done as you may finde by comparing Isa chap. 7. and 8. with 2 Chron. chap. 28. and 32. And do but observe further how God Isa 8. from v. 9. to v. 16. scornes and mocks at the men of Iudah's associating themselves and joyning their forces with others against their owne King and how earnestly he calls upon his Prophet not to walke in the way of that people himselfe and to instruct others not to joyn in confederacie with them nor to feare their feare nor be afraid which is the principall cause of such Rebellious Confederacies but to sanctifie the Lord of Hosts and to let him be their feare c. promising them safetie that shall avoyd such a Confederacie threatning ruine to such Confederates and to those that joyn with them So spake did the Lord then and he is the same Lord still changeth not and they that commit the like sins may justly fear the like punishmens And now answer to that question which God by the same Prophet though in another chapter propounds unto you unto you my lamented Countreymen who have joyned in a Confederacie with those who as the Prophet describes them with a woe to them prefixed Isa 10. decree unrighteous decrees and that write grievousnesse which they have prescribed to turn aside the needy from judgement and to take away the right from the poore c. that widowes may be their prey that they may rob the fatherlesse What will ye do in the day of visitation and in the desolation which shall come from far to whom will ye flee for help and where will you leave your glory Jer. 17. v. 5. Psal 5. v. 6 Will you flee to the Army for succour Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme especially such men and such flesh that are themselves so neer a curse But ye shall not need to flee to them for they will flee to you or come to you and will be the first that will helpe to devoure you For if the Army should swallow up Colchester which God of his mercy keepe them from and so Essex be wholly worsted where must they give themselves and their Horses the next bait but in the well stored houses and faire pastures of Suffolke And who must recruit their consumed army with more men but they who have furnished them with so many Give the Devill or any of his Imps but a little that gives them power over all that ye have and now that they have gotten you into the same way with them they 'l find allurements enough to draw you on or fears enough to frighten you on or force enough to drive you on as far as they please Then if other Counties rise up against them joyn with the Northern Army which private as well as publike interest will perswade them to unlesse God should give them up to a reprobate sense as he hath done some of you Suffolke must then be the Stage of War at least Suffolke-men must be the chiefe Actors on that Stage and to be sure the most desperate parts of that Tragedie
to the height of cruelty and proceeded against them onely by Votes and Ordinances or by illegall Judges and unwarrantable Juries and other unheard of proces Or to bring the answer yet closer If the Rebellion and Blood guiltinesse of this Nation be to be charged upon the King and his loyall Subjects why doe they of the other part that have shewn so much mercy to them despair of all security or at least distrust all the security that can be given them against the known established Laws of this Kingdome What need they any act of Indemnity or Oblivion What need they any Pardon from the King or any security against him or his party Let the King live and the Law run in her course might be their wish rather then any's But alas their Consciences tell them That if the King and his party should return to their own just power and rights again and the Laws of this Kingdome to their due force and vigor and they should be no more mercifull to them then they have been just to them or then the Laws are favourable to their courses they and theirs would indeed as they say be but in a miserable condition But whereas they from thence resolve That therfore surely 't is their best course to stand still upon their justification and to go on to the last as hitherto they have done That is but a deceitfull as well as an impious resolution Impious it is and that so hideously impious that I will spend no more breath in declaring the impiety of it then by telling you that this is despaire worse then Caines Gen. 4. for when he had slain his brother and God had told him of the cry of his brothers blood and what panishment he must suffer for it he did not resolve to go on in his shedding more bloods but the guilt of that blood which he had shed did so torment him that he was afraid that every one that should find him would shed his blood and therefore I know not with what desperate wicked resolution to match this unlesse it be with that of Judahs before mentioned though in other words and from another text when they returned this answer to the Prophet Jeremiah Jer. 2.25 There is no hope No for I have loved strangers and after them will I goe And I may say of them that so resolve v. 26. as the Prophet saith of those of Judah in the next words As the theife is ashamed when he is found c. so will they be ashamed when God shall in his inquisition for blood and other iniquities 1 sal 37. finde them out and bring them to shame they their Kings for they have set up many Kings for one their Princes their Priests their Prophets And for the deceitfulnesse of this resolution â—o Doe but rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him not fearing thy selfe because of him who prospereth in his way because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to passe c. and behold yet within a little while and the wicked shall not be Yea thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall not be And though the wicked still plotteth against the just Ih. and gnasheth upon him with his teeth Yet the Lord shall laugh at him for he seeth that his day is comming And that sword which the wicked have drawn out to slay such as be of upright conversation shall enter into their own bea rt But I desire to forwarn and not to forejudge and therefore suffer a word of expostulation before I return you back this objection so answered as I desire it Why do any of you despaire of your safetie and securitie if you should now return to your obedience and dutie Doe you distrust the mercy of the King The truth is your foule breach of Faith to him and your high Rebellion against him have been such as would provoke the meekest and most mercifull Prince that ever lived even Moses himselfe to excessive wrath and indignation Yea so farre was Moses provoked by a lesse Rebellion then this that he that had so often interceded with the Lord for that people when the Lord was ready to destroy them Num. 16 did in the heat of that Rebellion pray against them at least against the ring-leaders of them But what was sometimes said of the Kings of Israel in generall That they were mercifull Kings 1 Kings 20. v. 31 is most true of the present King of England in particular He is a mercifull King indeed few Kings ever matcht him for that grace It hath been made a great objection against him that he is too mercifull and this to be sure He hath been so mercifull all these merciless times through as well as formerly that the presuming upon his mercy above his enemies justice hath seduced not a few that have professed themselves to be his friends to joyn with his enemies and they have not been ashamed to say that they would rather hazard their lives and all that they had upon the hope of his mercy then expose ought of theirs to the power of his adversaries And if the censure of his reall friends indeed as well as his pretending be not extremly out of the way King Charles his mercy hath been occasionally by others abusing it none of the least advantages to his Enemies for their bringing him and his to so much misery and yet for my part though it were so I verily believe he will be no looser by it in the end if he be not a saver by it already For the God of mercy will not nor hath not already let that mercy of his go unrewarded And for mercifulnesse hereafter Surely the mercies of God to him in his miseries and afflictions and the good which those afflictions and miseries sanctified unto him have wrought in him will not render him lesse mercifull then before but rather far more as having therein tasted so much of the sweet fruits of his former mercifulnesse O most pious and gracious Prince how hath he oftentimes wept for griefe at the folly and madnesse of his Subjects in these Rebellious times and how much more would he now weep for joy to see any of them acknowledge their folly and madnesse and to return to their wits and to their duties without doubt if that were done they should not need to crave or beg his Pardon He would prevent them by proclaiming it before they should aske it Luke 15. and like the Father of the Prodigall representing God the Father himselfe he would run to meet them if he saw them comming though afar off and weep on their necks before they could throw themselves at his feet yea and think no entertainment to deare for them though some of his other Sonnes that have all this while obeyed and served him should perchance murmure at it An my deare Country-men King Charles hath not left out of his prayers that petition of beseeching
I have but a few words to adde concerning the Kings Party who are by divers more distrusted then the King and then I close up this first Consideration How the Kings loyal and faithful Subjects who in obedience to Gods command and in conscience of that duty in fidelity to the established Religion of the Church of England in testimony of that fidelity in love to their Soveraignes supereminent Graces and vertues and in gratitude to God and him for his exercising them in his regall and Christian government of them and this whole Kingdome for so many yeares together and which must not be forgotten in the discharge of the many naturall and civill bonds of Allegiance and for the performing of those many sacred and solemne vowes and oathes made to God for the strengthening those bonds have adheared unto and assisted his Majesty in the defence of the established Religion in the preservation of his sacred person Honour and dignity and in the maintainance of his just power rights and prerogatives together with their own and your just lawes liberties and properties How I say those faithfull and loyall Subjects of the King for their adhearing to and assisting of their King upon these grounds in these wayes and to these ends have beene reproached slandered plundered hunted up and down imprisoned sequestred banished sold as slaves and for slaves starved hanged and otherwise murthered their wives and children abused oppressed forced to live upon the charity of others or otherwise made weary of their lives are things so well known to your selves and to the world that if there be any thing that makes you to doubt of the charity of the Kings Party t is the consciousnesse of your owne Parties unchristian unexampled cruel barbarous in-sufferable and with any but God and them unpardonable dealing with them and theirs And therefore if any of you should come into their power and they should exercise that power upon you to their utmost of fury and vengeance they could not deale so ill with you as you have done with them except they should act over your owne Tragicall practises upon your selves and yet still they would come farre short of you because they should doe what they so did but by way of recompence where t is first deserved and they thereunto deeply provoked whereas you did it only in pure malice without any desert or provocation at all more then what your owne false feares and jealousies fained and fancied And if they should march your crucltie as farre as they were able and reward you according to your wayes and according to your doings which is Gods usual way of dealing with men when no other way will doe good on them As it would be most just with God so the most of men would be ready to justifie them in it and so should I if these two cautions or conditions were truly observed 1. If they had Gods command for it 2. And if they could doe it without intermixing their own revenge with it But because they have no assurance of the former and may be assured that they cannot observe the latter and therefore how glorious or just soever it is for God to use whomsoever he please as the executioners of his vengeance upon others yet t is but unhappy and uncomfortable for any to be made such instruments and executioners upon these and such like reasons I tremble to thinke of any such retaliation and I have many other reasons to assure me that they will abhorre to practise it For how ill soever you and your lying Prophets have voyced them or how deeply soever ye have reprobated and damned them the Kings party have to my knowledge been better instructed both from Christ and his Gospel and from those dispensers thereof which you for other ends forced unto them as also from their very sufferings which you without cause have loaded them withall They have beene taught to recompence to no man evill for evill Rom. 12.17 Mat. 6.15 Mat. 18.12 they have beene taught that if they forgive not men their tresspasses neither will their father forgive them theirs They have been taught to forgive their brethren not till seven times but till seventy times seuen They have been taught that how highly soever their fellow servants have sinned against them yet in respect of their sinning against their own Lord and and theirs t is not so much as the debt or dammage of an hundred pence to ten thousand talents Cap. cod and therefore as they hope to be forgiven of their Lord their trespasses so can they from their hearts forgive their fellow servants and brethren their trespasses In a word Mat. 5.44 They have beene taught to love their enemies to blesse those that curse them to doe good to those that hate them and to pray for those which despitefully use them and persecute them Thus hath their Master and his Ministers taught them whilst your Masters and their and your new teachers Jud. 5.23 Ier. 48. v. 10. Exo. 32. v. 20. have corrupted and perverted severall Texts of Scripture to in-courage you in blood and crueltie As Curse ye Meroz Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not c. Cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood Consecrate your selves to day to the Lord every man upon his sonne and upon his brother Rase it Rase it even to the foundation or as another translation reade the words Down with it downe with it even to the ground c. Ps 137. And happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones Neither have the sufferings of the Kings party taught them any other lesson For knowing what a double blessing is pronounced and a manifold reward is promised to such sufferers as they have beene As blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousnesse sake for theins is the kingdome of heaven Mat. cap. 5. v. 10 11 12. and againe Blessed are yee when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evill against you falsly for my sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you They would not part from their clayme to that blessing and their interests in that reward and so loose the honour and comfort of all their sufferings by seeking revenge on their revilers and persecutors for ten thousand times more than you or your estates could advantage them This I know to be the resolution of some of that party and I have good cause to beleeve it will be the practise of very many for they could never have suffered so much and so chearfully had not these and the like principles of Grace beene in them And therefore it may well be hoped that he that hath layde such a foundation in them will perfect the building Phil. r. 6. and he that hath begun so good a worke in them
such cause only they made use of that suggestion to further their mischievous designe of murthering the innocent had at last the Romans brought upon them indeed and were utterly ruined by them The factious tumultuous people of this Nation have in all other things the most resembled the pharisees that ever did any people God of his mercy grant that they do not also resemble them in this 3. Next to the consideration of the dangerous and deplorable condition of Religion here in this Kingdome be pleased as many of you as have any spark of Religion in you timely to consider the state and condition of your King I forbeare the assaying any description of his condition because 't is so well knowne and so far beyond the being comprehensible in a description by the best of Artists as I likewise abstaine from all Epithetes or Periphrases to set it out by or to set mens passions on worke to condole it the condition of our King being above all sympathie of passion even of his most loving and compassionate Subjects as well as expression of language of the most fluent and passionate of Orators I have heard it objected against a reverend and deare brother-sufferer in these times though without any just cause alledged that he ascends too high when he compares so many of our Kings sufferings with some of our Saviours which I am assured he did neither with the least intent of flattering his Majestie then in no condition to be flattered nor without all due feare of approaching neer the verge of Blasphemy then and ever so much abhorred by him but on the other side with all due honour to our blessed Saviours sufferings and with no small comfort to the King and to all that suffered with them that his sufferings were and are so conformable to them and he himselfe therein to his and our Saviours image And although I sleight the objection Phil. 3.10 Rom. 8.29 yet I shall avoid the occasion of having any such throwne in my way and because I may not without some scandall taken make use of any such comparison I shall not compare them at all with anie other sufferings there being none other that ever I have read or heard of that do in all respects match them Take them therefore in their bare narration thus Charles King of Great Britaine the first of that name the only surviving Son and the immediate successour to his royall Father King James to whom this whole Kingdome by their Representatives in Parliament after a large commemoration of the inestimable and unspeakable benefits as they truly called them powred upon this Nation by his becoming our King 1. Jacob. 1. and after great and high expressions of joy and rejoying at the same not forgetting their thanks to Almighty God for that blessing as also after a modest repetition of that their Soveraignes personall gifts and graces and the assured fruits and effects thereof which they had tasted in that little time of his Government together with an humble and hearty profession of constant faith obedience and loyalty to his Majesty and to his Royall Progeny made this acknowledgement and promise in these very words We therefore your most humble and loyall Subjects the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled do from the bottome of our hearts yeeld to the diuine Majesty all humble thanks and praises not onely for the said unspeakable and inestimable benefits and blessings before mentioned but also that he hath further inriched your Highnesse with a most Royall Progenie of most rare and excellent gifts and forwardnesse and in his goodnesse is like to increase the happy number of them And in most humble and lowly manner do beseech your most excellent Majesty that as a memoriall to all posterities amongst the Records of your high Court of Parliament for euer to endure of our Loyalty obedience and hearty and humble affection it may be published and declared in this high Court of Parliament and enacted by authority of the saute that we being bounden thereunto both by the Lawes of God and man doe recognize and acknowledge and thereby expresse our unspeakable joyes that immediately upon the dissolution and decease of ELIZABETH late Quéen of England the Imperiall Crowne of the Realme of England and of all the Kingdomes Dominions Rights belonging to the same did by Inherent birthright and lawfull and undoubted succession descend and come to your most excellent Majesty as being lineally justly and lawfully next and sole Heire of the Blood Royall of this Realme as is aforesaid And that by the goodnesse of Almighty God lawfull Right of Descent under one Imperiall Crown your Majesty is of the Realmes and Kingdomes of England Scotland France and Ireland the most potent and mighty King and by Gods goodnesse more able to protect and gouerne us your louing Subjects in all peace and plenty then any of your noble Progenitors And thereunto we most humbly and faithfully submit and oblige our selues our Heires and Posterities for euer untill the last drop of our bloods be spent And do beseech your Majesty to accept the same as the first fruits in this high Court of Parliament of our loyalty and faith to your Majesty and your Royall Progeny and Posterity for euer O the shamelesse degeneration and falsification of these times CHARLES to whom his Subjects each one for himself and in particular every Member of the House of Commons when he was admitted a Member of that House solemnly sware That he did testifie and declare in his conscience that he the Kings Highnesse is the onely supreme Gouernour of this Realm and of all other his Highnesse Dominions and Countries as well in all Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall things or Causes as Temporall c. And that he would beare Faith and true Allegiance to the Kings Highnesse his Heires and lawfull Successors and to his power assist defend all Iurisdictions Priuiledges Preheminences Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highnes His Heires and Successors c. as followes in the Oath of Supremacy as also againe in the Oath of Allegiance That he would beare Faith and true Allegiance to His Majesty his Heires and Surcessors and him and them would defend to the uttermost of his power against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoeuer which should be made against his or their Persons their Crowne and Dignity by reason or colour of any sentence of Excommunication or Depriuation made or granted by the Pope c. or otherwise and would do his best endeauour to disclose and make known unto His Majesty his Heires and Successors all Treasons and traiterous conspiracies which he should know or heare of to be against him or any of them Oh the damnable perjury of these times CHARLES whose Person Honour and Estate the same Members of the House of Commons did on May 3. 1641. in the presence of Almighty God promise vow and protest to maintain and
will be put upon them as hath bin alreadie practised though when ought of spoyle chanceth to fall to their lots which is but a cursed lot God knows like that of Achans wedge the lots shall be so ordered That the old Souldiers that have born the heat of the day will like the Lyon in the Fable challenge the prey as their due and that by many Lyon-like arguments as the poore beasts have lately found to their griefe Thus like the broken staffe of reed Egypt to Israel the Army if thou leanest on it will be the first that will gall and pierce thee and who can expect other Isa 22. v. 2 then that the treacherous dealer should deale treacherously and the spoyler spoyle which the Prophet calls a grievous vision If any of you shall complaine thereof who will not be ready to return you answer in the Prophet Jeremiahs words Hast thou not procured this unto thy selfe Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee this is thy wickednesse because it is vitter because it reacheth unto thine heart Jerem. 2 17. 4.18 Nay will not your own hearts return this answer to your selves And how then will ye be ashamed of your trust and expectation and of those lying Prophets and other Seducers that incited you thereto Neither will it be any ease to you at all to say Wee were perswaded and drawn on by such and such for those such are such as ye will blush to name It being no small addition to your shame that ye should suffer your selves to be gulled fooled by such unworthy inferiour base fellowes even those of the lowest of the people and Priests like to them such as many of this Countie would formerly have scorned to have seen in the same room with them except it had bin in a Shire-house or Towne-house at a publike Assise or Session yea such as should they now be but pluckt and stript of all that they have cheated and stolne by Sequestrations Collections of Excise and other illegall Taxes they would be the most contemptible of Monsters Now adde to all these Judgements but one more which me thinks I should not speake of nor any man of compassion heare without crying out with the Prophet Isaiah once and againe My loynes are filled with paine pangs have taken hold upon me as the pangs of a woman that travelleth I was bowed downe at the hearing of it I was dismayed at the seeing of it my heart panted fearfulnesse affrighted me the night of my pleasure hath he turned into feare with me chap. 21. v. 3 4. or as 't is in the next chapter v. 4. Looke away from me I will weepe bitterly labour not to comfort me c. Behold a terrible devouring Famine is hastning upon this Kingdome this Countie is most likely to drinke deepest of that Cup of Gods furie so farre as Gods unsearchable Judgments can be guessed at by mans shallow reason and observation How neere a Famine is to the doores of other Counties is best knowne to God and them onely this is knowne to every one that knowes ought of Gods Word and wayes That when God hath brought the Sword upon a people to avenge the quarrell of his Covenant and that people doe not repent of their transgressing his Covenant but instead thereof transgresse it more and more as we have generally done in all Counties of this Kingdome for ought that I could either see or heare 't is Gods usuall course then to send both a Plague and a Famine too upon such a people that they may devoure what the Sword spares So God professes to doe Levit. 26. and Deut. 28. and in sundry other places But for this Countie unlesse we shut our eyes as we have done too often we cannot but see a sore Famine already at our doores and ready to breake in upon us suddenly The Sword we drew our selves against our selves when it would have bin otherwise in all likelyhood quiet and since we drew the Sword God seemes to have bent his Bow in the Clouds as it were with the Bend towards us as though upon our forgetting our Covenant with him so much he would forget his Covenant with us so farre as to destroy us with Raine though he never will again destroy the world so Never was this Countie so richly furnished with all sorts of Graine in their fields and they so hopefull as they were this yeare which makes me to feare a Famine the more for when God intends to bring his fore Judgements upon a people he usually takes that for his time when men least thinke of any such thing and when there is most expectation to the contrarie which renders his Judgements so much the more sore as when there is most shew of peace and securitie then does God if provoked commonly bring the Sword and so when there is most expectation of plentie and fulnesse that time does God make choyse of to send a Famine because as I but now said the Judgement is most sore when the contrarie is most expected and then also is the hand of God most seene in it and the Judgement best discerned to be from his hand which are the two principall reasons that some later learned Divines have given from S. Ambrose and others why God sent the generall Deluge in the Spring time when all things were in their flourishing glory and the Season most unlikely for such a Floud But to returne if this be a digression to what I was saying Never was this Countie so richly furnished with all sorts of Grain and they so hopefull as they were this year till they began to imbrue their hands in their brethrens blouds and since that even from that very time if the observation of many more beside my selfe doe not faile us the Lord hath caused it to raine upon these parts whatsoever it hath done upon other in such a manner and measure and for so many dayes together as the like hath scarce ever been or at least hath not been transmitted to us by any tradition or record that I could meet with insomuch that the faire-promising chearefully flourishing Corne-fields of this Countie are now likely to afford little other Harvest but what as the Prophet sometimes threatned will be an heape in the day of griefe and desperate sorrow Isa 17.11 And what then will ye doe when the Armie hath devoured that little which remaines of your old store and consumed what they can get of your new for they will be first served though you all yours starve Other Counties will be so far from supplying your wants if they should be able that they will scarce pittie them or you and a commanding Navie at Sea will hinder all foraine Kingdoms from bringing any reliefe to you and you from setching any from then Then perhaps when your children shall crie for bread and ye have none to give them and they shall swoone away in the streets or poure