Common-wealth And it appears by the Letters which were written See the Grand Design c. by Andreas ab Habernsield a Bohemian That Cardinal Richelieus Chaplain together with Cunaeus and divers other Romish Priests were employed here before the Civil War brake out to bring the King and the Archbishop of Canterbury that then was to Destruction And the Truth is the Jesuite could never hope for a more fair Opportunity of doing his Own Work among us Safe and Vndiscern'd than when he had turn'd the Nation into Factions and set every one of them to grapple with the Government So that things falling out just according to the Jesuites Directions the King being Murthered the Archbishop being Sacrificed and the Monarchy being changed into a Republick every Child may easily understand that it was not the Security but the Ruin of our Religion that was intended all along from the beginning Briefly If Rebellion be Religion then were our Pretending Reformers the Undoubted Patrons of it If the Destruction of the Church be the Preservation of Protestancy then were the Papists and They the Only True Protestants in the World If to cut off the Defender of the Faith if to Harass and Ruin the Ministers thereof if to banish all Order if to throw away all Forms of Divine Worship if to turn Oratories into Stables if to render the Service of God Ridiculous and Contemptible if to play the Hypocrites and to violate Oaths and by all instances of wickedness to bring a Reproach and Odium upon Christianity if such Religious Villanies as these did speak Men to be the True Friends and Patrons of Religion I am Sure no Age of the Church ever produced Such Friends and Patrons before though I cannot undertake but This Age possibly may produce the like 3. Next let us consider a little in what a Miserable case we were in respect of the Subjects Property to Defend which they pretended a Particular and more than Ordinary Zeal insomuch that thousands of Men were perswaded to believe that their Designs were Honourable to Secure every Mans Right and to make the whole Nation Great and Prosperous But were we not Cheated of our Hopes in that respect too While the King Sat Easie in His Throne every man Sat Safe in his Possessions and we were then as God be blessed we are now under our own Vines and under our own Fig-trees Paradise was in in our Land Prosperity was our Portion the King was our Guardian the Laws were our Security and every Mans Riches were his Own I pray what became of our Magna Charta when our Monarch and Monarchy were cut off Indeed we had Laws but like the Laws of Draco that were written in Bloud we had Courts of Justice such as were almost as Just and Merciful as the Thirty Tyrants of Athens and Estates we had in the hands of Sequestrators who Kept them Safe for us and our Estates yielded their yearly Fruits of Increase for Locusts and Caterpillars but Taxations we had none only such as we could not Pay nor any Grievances in the Nation greater then were our very Rulers 4. Nor Lastly did it Fare better with the Peoples Liberty whereof they profest to be the most Trusty and Faithfull Keepers See what became of it when the Crown was fallen For to Preserve our Liberties they made us Slaves and to keep all Arbitrary Power out they brought it in So that Vid. Delegat Scot. Chart. ult the Scots themselves in an Instrument directed to the Trayterous Juncto at Westminster in February Forty Eight upbraided them tartly for exercising that Tyranny Themselves which they pretended forsooth to remove all danger of by taking away the High Commission-Court and the Star-Chamber The Civil Liberty of a People is wrapped up in the Laws and this great Blessing we have had under our Kings that we have been dealt with according to those Laws to which we our selves have by our Representatives given our own Consent Happy are the People which be in such a case But what a miserable plight were we in when instead of One King we had an Army of Vsurpers and instead of a Golden Scepter to bow down to we had an hundred Iron Rods to be beaten with Yes it was a Glorious Liberty when the Scum of the Nation could Imprison without Reason could Kill without Law could Live without Religion could Tyrannize without Conscience could do every thing that was good in their own Eyes In short They had the Liberty to Plunder and Oppress and We had the Liberty to Beg or to Starve They had the Liberty to be Cruel and Savage and We had the Liberty either to be Dishonest or to be Hang'd Let us learn therefore to be Wise in time and in a Ticklish Age be carefull to distinguish between the Lamb-skin and the Wolf and having had the Experience of Former times to instruct us give great heed as to avoid our old Miseries so to forbear the old Methods which brought them about Let us not suffer our selves at any time to be Abused with a Shew nor to trust rashly to Pretenses because what Hath hapned may happen again and to tread in the Same track is the ready way to drop in the Same Snare And this I would crave leave to recommend especially to your Consideration who are Members of this Great and Honourable City because it is notorious that the Original and Growth of our Late Troubles and the Sin of This Day were all in a great measure owing to the wicked Practices of a prevailing Party here whose Confederacies in Treason did help strongly to give the Fatal blow to Three Kingdoms 'T was here that Traytours were Harboured and Carried in Pomp. 'T was here that Firebrands were thrown even from the Pulpit to inflame the whole Nation 'T was Hence that Petitions were presented against the Orders of the Church that Clamours were fomented against Church-men that Tumultuous Routs were sent to cry for Justice and to frighten the King from his own Palace 'T was hence that Associations against the Government were encouraged that a wicked Covenant was dispatcht abroad into all parts of the Kingdom that whole Treasures were issued out to begin the Rebellion and an Army raised too to carry on the Blessed Work of the day I do not care to instance in particulars do but Look into the Annals of the Times and you will Blush to see that so much Guilt was contracted within the Walls of London I cannot therefore without being wanting in that duty which I owe to God to the King and to your Selves but earnestly beseech you that you take great heed of those Means whereby the Crown fell once and both Dread and as much as Lyeth in you Labour to Prevent the Like Miseries as presently came upon the fall of it I should be Unjust to this City should I not own my confidence that there are now many as Loyal as Great as Brave Spirits in it as any Age could boast of and let me add it is both your Honour and the present Happiness of the Kingdom that there are so and God increase their Number Strength and Fortunes Yet we see what in such a great Body we cannot but Expect what different Interests and Parties there be and how Blind Some are I will not say Wilfully but yet so Vnfortunately that they do not discover the manifold Blessings of God wherewith they are Surrounded in the midst of some Discouragements However since I perceive men on All hands do profess themselves most Loyal and most Dutiful Subjects I hope it will be acceptable Counsel unto All if we Exhort you that ye Fear God and the King and never meddle with them that are given to Change In order thereunto Study to be Quiet and to do your Own business follow Holiness and Peace endeavouring by all possible means to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Let the Spirit of God rule in all your Hearts the Spirit of Love and Obedience the Spirit of Humility Vnity and Concord Let all Bitterness and Wrath and Envy and Clamour and Railing be put away from you with all Malice In fine Love the Brotherhood Fear God and Honour the King that so God may Bless us and make us once more an Happy Prosperous and United Nation and that neither We nor our Posterity may ever have cause to take up the Churches Lamentation in my Text The Crown is fallen from our Head wo unto us that we have Sinned FINIS ERRATA Note that these words Pag. 15. It is to be Observed too that a late Pamphlet entitled The History of Succession is an Abridgment of Doleman ought to have been put in the Margin
Natural duty of Allegiance vvhich every born Subject oweth his Prince vvhether he entreth into the Oath of God or no the falling of This Crown is justly accounted to the People of this Land to have been Rebellion Treason Murther and the Highest act of Parricide vvhich taking it with all its Circumstances perhaps was ever done upon a meer Man since the World was first Created And though there may be some who will not take up the Confession in the Text that they have Sinned either in laying the Crowned Head Low or in abjuring the interest of the Crown to the Worlds end but Lament for this only that the Imperial Diadem is not a falling the Second time yet the Sin of this day calleth aloud for Sincere Repentance from All and even from Vs vvho were neither Actors in it nor Abetters of it nor perhaps could have known it but by the hearing of the Ear. And to the end that our Repentance may express it self by Amendment of Life and may be attended with Watchfulness and Caution lest we fall under the same Guilt and smart under the same Calamity again that we may not be Wicked and Miserable hereafter 't is necessary that with the Prophet we reflect upon those Sins which formerly brought us under Both Wo unto us that we have Sinned 2. Now many Sins there were which cryed for Vengeance against this Nation but of these some were more Vocal and Clamorous than others and did more immediately and directly tend to the casting down of the Crown First The great Vnthankfulness of Men for so many Mercies It was that which so incensed God against the Jews that he delivered their Kings and Them into the hands of the Babylonians because he had carried them from the Womb and they delighted in Frowardness because he had nourished and brought them up and they turned Rebels because Jeshurun had been high fed and became wanton And this was our very case before the Civil Wars brake out God had blest us so in every Respect that nothing but our own Follies could have made us an Unhappy People In the Church we had a Faith that was free from all Corruption and Error Sacraments that were Duly and Entirely administred a Liturgy that was consonant to the Word of God a Government that had been transmitted to us by the whole Catholick Church from its first Ages Ceremonies that were but few and those warranted by the general Practice of the Primitive Christians In the State we had a Prosperous and Long Peace Laws that were a Terror to all Wickedness and a Security from all Oppression as much of Liberty as was consistent with Obedience and more than any other parts of the World did Enjoy a Monarchy that was both our Defence and Honour and to Crown all our Felicities a Prince whose Example was more Operative than his Laws whose Endowments as he was a Man whose Faith and Piety as he was a Christian whose Clemency Wisdom and other admirable Vertues as he was a King were enough to render him the Love of Mankind as well as a Pattern to all Princes and an Honour to the whole World In a word vvhatever Blessings were necessary to make us either a Religious or a Wealthy or a Potent or a Free Nation vve had our Portion of them in abundance and were Miserable only in this respect that as Now so Then we had not the Sense to See nor the Hearts to Value our own Felicities Hence it vvas that men vvere Peevish vvithout Reason and Troublesome vvithout End Hence it vvas that the Same Pretences vvhich are so Rife in this Age vvere so Fatal in that Our Regular Ministry vvas then traduced as if it were Popishly affected our Bishops as if they were an Vseless and Wicked Order our Doctrines as if they had been minted at Rome our Service Book as if it vvere a Translation of the Mass our Rites as if they vvere the Reliques of Popery and our vvhole Church as if it vvere given to Idolatry and Superstition And from the same base Principle of Ingratitude it was that the World was filled with Insinuations and Complaints as if the Liberties of the People were in Danger as if Religion was going out of the Land and Arbitrary Power coming in as if his Majesties Counsellors were Evil as if the Introduction of Popery and Tyranny were the Design and the King himself were consenting to the Plot. All which Vnjust and Malicious Suggestions though they were no other than the Arts of Vnthankful Spirits and though the World hath been since abundantly convinced of the Falshood thereof yet they were taken for granted then and so did naturally help forward the downfall of the Crown and the Sin of This day Secondly another way whereby Men Sinned in those days was by Publishing the Doctrines and Entertaining the wicked Principles of the Jesuites For seeing Religion and the Laws of the Land had provided Securities for the King's Life Person Power and Greatness they found no way left them to Prosecute their Evil and Bloudy Intentions but by poysoning the Kingdom with such Foreign Principles as these that the King 's whole Power is derived from the People that He is Such a Trustee and Servant as may be called to Account before the face of the World that if they Judge him to have been Vnfaithfull to his Trust they may Lawfully Depose him that if he be a Tyrant whereof they are the Judges they may and are bound to Kill him that it lyeth in them to Set up what form of Government they please and that the Crown is wholly at their disposal Many other Doctrins there are which bear affinity with These and which of Late have served to fill up a Leviathan a Plato Redivivus a Just and Modest Answer so called c. besides whole Loads of Intelligences and other Scandalous Writings wherewith the World is even now pester'd as if it were not enough to have intoxicated the People to have undone a Nation and to have pulled down the Crown Once For these were the Principles upon which those Delicate Protestants those Tender and Thin-skin'd Consciences those goodly Loyal and Dutiful Subjects acted when they fought against their King when they Hunted him upon the Mountains when they gave him a Crown of Thorns for a Diadem of Gold when they translated his Chair of State out of the Parliament-house into Westminster-hall and at his Palace erected him a Scaffold for a Throne and made him a Glorious Martyr whom they so often Swore they would make a Glorious King And yet these Principles were once the Proper Creed of the Jesuites and it was ever call'd Jesuitism till by going abroad to seek its Fortunes it changed its Name and came to be called the Purity and Power of Religion the Evangel of Christ the Faith of God's Kirk and the Law of the Holy Common-wealth Originally these Doctrines were taught by Mariana by Bellarmine by Azorius and divers Jesuites more
former times with any manner of Delight but out of pure Necessity that by seeing the Methods whereby the World was Deluded and the Throne Subverted in One Age we may learn to Beware lest we be led by the Nose and Trickt out of our Obedience and Loyalty in Another For it is a Pleasure and Pastime to some to play Pranks and to Shew how Dexterous and Artificial they can be at Cheating the unwary Populace and Hurling the World into Confusion Therefore if God in Vengeance for our Sins shall at any time Suffer our Government to Shake let us Remember Epicharmus his Rule and not be too Credulous nor be deceived with Popular Professions of Zeal and Conscience a thing which many times is Pretended just as a fine Shew is hung up upon a Sign-post only to draw in Custom When the late Unhappy Troubles were breaking out were there not Thousands of well-meaning Persons that were Impos'd upon and abused with False Notions and-Appearances As Truth came more and more to light did not many Desert that Cause which they found to be wicked and turn to the interest of the Crown Had not divers an Hand in the War who did not Foresee nor Dream that it would End with such a sad Tragedy and when the Fatal Blow was given did not the Generality of men Lament to see what a dreadful Issue things were brought to by the Subtle Designs of some and by the Rashness Easiness and Folly of others Why they are the maddest people in the World that will not be Disciplin'd into Wit nor taught to be Wary by their own Costly Experience especially when they have time to cast up their Accounts and to compare their Acquests with their Losses and have the greatest Reason to consider what Woes and Miseries did Presently and Naturally follow upon the falling of the Crown which brings me 3. To the third and last thing in my Text that woful Condition which the Prophet Lamented upon the Ruin of Their Government and which we were enthralled in upon the Subversion of ours The Crown is fallen from our Head wo unto us that we have Sinned I would intreat every Thinking man who is not in Love with Misery nor desirous to Court and Invite his own Ruin to consider Seriously whether the whole Christian World could shew another Nation which was so Miserable as this Poor Kingdom was before the Restauration of his present Majesty We drank off indeed the very Dregs of the Cup of Bitterness and which made it the Bitterer we mingled the Draught our selves We were not Forced as the Jews but Sold and that by our selves into the hands of the Babylonians This People were there own Captives Submitting to Tyrants of their own Making Purchasing their Slavery with their Bloud Contracting to be undone by Leagues Covenants Associations and other Acts and Deeds of their Own It is their Usual Fate who are given to Change that they commonly change One Government for a Worse and the quartering out of a Kingdom into a Common-wealth is but the drawing on of that Curse upon a Nation which King Solomon meant when he said that for the Transgression of a Land Many are the Princes thereof Pro. 28. 2. For as all Republicks have been originally Raised upon the Ruins of Monarchy so they who Erected them have ever Groan'd under the works of their own hands and there is not a Common-wealth in the World but may attest the Truth of that in Maximus Tyrius that Happy is that State which hath a King for its Governour We may easily see by some instances abroad that men are great Losers both as to their Spiritual and Temporal Interest by being Members of a State that is Popular and my Author hath rightly Observed of the State of the Low-Countries in particular that though they are happy in being freed from the Yoke of Popery yet having fought with the King of Spain about Two things Religion and Taxes they have so far prevailed in respect of Both that They have gotten all the Religions in Christendom and pay the greatest Taxes in the World But of all the People under Heaven This Nation most deserved to be Plagued with the Worst of Governments who would not be contented with the Best And the truth is we had Woes with a witness and were so Surfeited with Evils which Then we accounted Plagues that Wise men could not think we should ever long to be Sick with them again For whereas these things were promised us a Settlement of the Nation together with a Security for our Religion Property and Liberty let every impartial man look into the History of those Times and judge whether in every of these respects we did not receive a Curse instead of a Blessing 1. For a Setled we had a most Distracted Nation so that Rome it self that had Shifted its Government so often could not compare with this Little Island wherein there was such a Variety of Scenes We had Plague upon Plague as if our Land had been another Egypt save only in This that we could not find a Goshen in any part of our Country To day we had one form of Government and the next day another and every one a Plague nay to go on upon the Parallel not only our Waters were turn'd into Bloud but even Flies and Locusts and Lice and Frogs that croaked in the King's Chambers were the Plague Epidemical and which is worse Men were forced to Worship and Adore these Vermine and as at first they set them up so at last they bowed down before them 2. As for Religion the great Lesson which was taught us was to be Silly and Dishonest to have the Wisdom of the Dove and the Innocency of the Serpent Hence came such numerous Sects and Divisions in a short time as by the Confession of Some of That Party were never known before under that Government which they decryed as Antichristian Hence came Atheism the Daughter of That Age and the Monster of This for when Men found that the Quarrel was about Religion and saw that many Pretenders to it were Religious Cheats they were apt to Mistrust and for their Vices sake to Believe that the whole business of Religion was a Cheat too and so Mr. Hobbs was followed as a greater Apostle than St. Paul Let me add one thing more hence it came to pass that Popery hath gotten such Elbow-room among us For the Subtle Romanists easily perceived that there was no way for them to introduce their Religion into this Kingdom but by creating first such Factions and Schisms as in time would overthrow the establisht Government Therefore did Campanella the Jesuite advice the King of Spain to use this Project First to Divide De Monarch Hisp the English and then to perswade the Parliament to turn the Kingdom into a Common-wealth And in like manner Cardinal Richelieu counselled the French King To use all possible means to change the Monarchy of England into a
for many even of the Romish Priests have laid them to the charge of the Jesuites and Watson himself in the days of Queen Elizabeth laid them particularly to the charge of the Jesuite Parsons who had written several Seditious Books full of those Principles and in particular a Book entitled Doleman And that all Sober men among us may beware of those Principles and see how powerfully they did work throughout the whole Civil War then and how naturally they tend to embroil us in another and will necessarily do it when there is a fair opportunity I must observe unto you that That very Book of Parsons which had been written so many years before was in the Year Forty Eight printed again with another Title as if it had been newly Penn'd not by a Jesuite but a True Protestant It is to be observ'd too that a late Pamphlet entitled the History of Succession is an Abridgment of Doleman which plainly shews that those Traytors themselves were convinc'd in their Consciences that nothing could justifie the raising of the War and the destruction of the King but the Doctrines of a Through-pac'd Jesuite Thirdly It is certain that an Erroneous Devil in the Understanding will soon become a Furious Devil in mens Practice For those wicked Doctrines being once received presently shew'd themselves by innumerable acts of Sedition and that was another Sinfull way whereby the Crown fell The Government was Libelled every Order of Men in the Church was traduced the Loyal Magistrates and Gentry were threatned and expos'd Nobles were voted Guilty upon publick Fame and kill'd as it were by the strength of Peoples breath his Majesties Palace assaulted by Land and Water and himself forced to Fly in his own defence and all these mischiefs were mainly owing to those Hucksters of Sedition and Treason whose Fingers were daily employed to destroy the King with their Pens as Scotus's Scholars destroyed their Master with Pencils insomuch that being petitioned at Royston to return to his Parliament His Majesty refused for this Reason because the Scandalous Pamphlets that Swarm'd abroad had now brought his Person and Life into eminent danger Fourthly Nor did things stay here but to pull down the Crown from our head effectually an actual War is Levied and Arms are taken up which we cannot suppose to have been done without a direct Design against the King's Life it being altogether uncertain what the Fortune of War may be and how a Single Bullet may be directed as it hapned neer a Town of Cornwall where his Majesty narrowly escaped the next Man to him being shot by the Enemy Which high provocation notwithstanding that I may not omit a Singular instance of his Tenderness and Clemency though his Ordnance were ready planted to batter the place down he hindred the Attack with this noble Expression I understand said He that I have many Good Subjects in the Town and I had rather Spare the Lives of an hundred Rebels than venture the Hurting of one of Them Indeed the Hand of God was all along his Protection in the Field but no thanks to those whose very taking up of Arms was Murder in the Intent and if my Author Symmond's Vindication of the King pag. 90. doth not deceive me it is a memorable Relation which he tells us that at the Battel of Edge-hill his Majesties Souldiers took certain Letters whereby it was discovered that they who then called themselves the Kings most Loving and Obedient Subjects had hired one Blake to signifie by some Token the particular place in the Field where the King was that the shot might be directly level'd thither and that they might speak Home to his Heart out of the mouth of their Cannon 5. We have now seen Some of those wicked Means whereby the Calamity in my Text came upon us Ingratitude Jesuitism Sedition and actual Resistance and were not the Instruments thereof past all feeling methinks they should not stick to take up the Lamentation The Crown is fallen from our Head wo unto us that we have Sinned But yet all these Arts though Sinful would have been Ineffectual had it not been for Another wicked Course they took to Cheat the World into their Assistance I mean their palpable and villanous Hypocrisie Nothing is more Odious in the eyes of God than Hypocrisie and Dissimulation and yet what was pretended all along but the Glory of God the Honour of the King the Interest of Religion the Safety of the People and the Welfare of Three Kingdoms A specious Pretence and a very Raree-Shew in the Original But by too Sad and too Late Experience we found that 't was their Own Greatness and their Own Interest that was at the Bottom that Plunder and Sequestration were the things aimed at that the Church was to be Purged that is from its Possessions and that the Estate Dignity and Power of the Crown was to be Secured but meaning to Themselves In Forty One they did Remonstrate that they did not purpose or desire to abolish the Church Government and disclaimed all intentions of absolving men from that Obedience which they owed to his Majesty whom they profest they knew to be intrusted with the Ecclesiastical Laws as well as with the Temporal In Forty Two they Declared that they intended a due and necessary Reformation of the Government and Liturgy of the Church and to take away Nothing in the one or in the other but what should be Evil and justly Ossensive or at least Vnnecessary and Burdensome In Forty Three they Professed that their Army was designed to defend the King's Person Honour and Dignity and to hinder all change in Religion they Protested as in the Presence of God that they had no Intentions to offer violence to his Majesties Person or to hurt his just Power or to destroy his Monarchy In the Third Article of the Solemn League and Covenant they Swore to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and that they had no thoughts to diminish his just Power and Greatness And in Forty Six they declared that their sincere Intentions were to uphold the Ancient and Fundamental Government of this Realm by King Lords and Commons Now whether these were not Rank and Persidious Hypocrites let the World judg when instead of Reforming the Church Government they Abolish't it when instead of Revising our Service-Book they quite Remov'd it when in their Negative Oath they afterwards Swore neither directly nor indirectly to Adhere unto or Assist the King when they took away the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and Proclaimed such Traytors as did stand for them when they cashier'd the Noble House of Peers when they sought against the Kings Person attempted the shedding of his Sacred Bloud and at last drove him to the Scaffold all their Remonstrances Declarations Protestations Promises Vows and Oaths to the Contrary notwithstanding Beloved I have not searched into the Villanies of