that passion which was so predominant and spreading against the Duke of York and will silence Our Pen-men or Pamphletteers who upon every turn were alwayes ready to furnish the World with their Bombast under this Notion No Popery No Slavery or by endeavouring to possess the Mobile or Vulgars with a Fear that Servitude would be the genuine Concomitant of a Popish Successor or King here and therefore they should Arm themselves against such a Danger and still keep to their old Maxime Libertas optima rerum The Liberty of the Subject should be their Helmet tho 't was as in the late Rebellion to the Warring against their Prince Deposing Him nay Murthering Him too ALAS These bold Proselytes of the Recorded Brutus I dare believe do not understand what Liberty means I mean with relation to Government but only have heard how great sway this Thundering Noun car Liberty ries amidst the giddy Crowd who need no other Bait to be thrown among them than the name of Liberty Now if by Liberty be intended What it is a Power of doing what one will it will turn then to Licentiousness 1. and that Government which has most thereof will be worst If thereby be meant a Power of doing what is convenient 2. it needs not be parted from Principality or Monarchy under which what is convenient hath no less place than under a Common-Wealth 3. And if thereby be understood a Power of Commanding others 't is so much less for the Common People which obey by how much their Servitude is extended to a number of Masters But 't is but a Chimaera which Men fain unto themselves to bring their Wits to pass and oftentimes to Sweeten the Beginnings of a Bitter-Servitude For my part I shall not endeavour further to define what Liberty is the undisturbed Fruition and the sweet Benefit redounding to Us all from it are Sufficient to ease me of that task no Nation in the whole Universe having the like as England How far the Needless Fear of losing this Liberty carried Us in the late times of Rebellion even to the utter Ruine of Families Estates and Lives nay at last of that Liberty too I have before shewed And therefore I shall conclude this Point with shewing what sorts of Men Our Great Libellers and Pamphletteers are The Character of a Pamphletteer according to the Character a Great Prince gave one of His Grandees who ran in the same Seditious Road. THEY are those sayes he who Term themselves Free and are so indeed in as much as they are not subject to Reason A People who see nothing but Faults because they seek after nothing else They blame the Sun because it offends their Eyes and know not that the fault is in their Eyes not in the Sun A Wicked Generation whose Fame lyes only in Defamation their Praise in Blaming their Greatness in Detraction They speak and write what ever comes next so it be bad enough Under a False shew of Liberty they would endeavor to Confound the True One and then to oppress it must follow They have no Means to raise themselves but by taking from others and so that they may appear Great like Women they care not whither it be by Flesh or a Chopine This Kind are the most pernicious to the whole World would sow Confusion make Princes become Tyrants raise Discords in Senates and fill Cities with Calumnies and Finally with Dead Men. I SHOULD say something too before I make an end of these Considerations Priviledge of Parliament concerning the Priviledges of Parliament so much talk't of and so little understood The Maintaining of the Priviledges which belong to that August Assembly is of so necessary and weighty a Consequence that without that the Liberty we have been talking of together with the Religion and Laws could not subsist But however it is to be understood when they are Kept within their due Banks and are Guided by the Law of which they with the King are the Fathers and when they encroach not upon the Dignity and Prerogatives of the Crown They are the Great Horologe by which is seen how Regular the Motions of the whole Nation go but if the Master-workman finds any Deficiency or Irregular Movements 't is in His Power alone to Take it to peices and Correct it Parliaments were ever held extream Necessary and of Great Use in this Land and rendred Us ever the more Formidable esteemed and reverenced Abroad by how much they Adhered to their Head the KING We have 't is true of late within these few Years seen more Change of Parliaments since especially the Discovery of the Popish Plot 77. and 78. than since the Happy Restauration of His Majesty the Reasons induced His Majesty to proceed so with them in their so Frequent Dissolutions is not for every person to enquire after neither shall I for my part pretend to search into much less discover I am only like an Honest Man and Loyal Subject to acquiesce in the Pleasure of my Prince and not to censure the Authority and Reasonableness of His Proceedings in the least particular THE most admirable and Princely Speech which His Majesty was Graciously pleased to make to the Parliament at Oxford will satisfy any reasonable or judicious Person by what Measures He has still proceeded and what Resentments He has been obliged to make of all their Proceedings which in the Second Word of His said Speech He stiles Unwarrantable tho He professes notwithstanding all He is not out of Love with Parliaments and never will as long as they take their Measures by the Law To let that be the Rule by which they Act as it is His and that then whatever they should offer should meet with His Gracious Acceptance IF a Rider put a rough Bit into a Horses Mouth which will not be Governed no Man blames Him for severity they blame the Horse rather because he will not be Ruled and yet Men are apt to call the Prince Cruel who would curb the Senate and call not the Senate Head-strong who will not obey the Prince A Senate or Parliament may Vote Redresses for Grievances suffered by the People whose Representatives they are but it is in the Prince alone to make those Votes Valid or of Force and therefore without His Stamp or Royal Assent no Vote or Resolve can pass currant made by them 'T is their Priviledge to offer Expedients but it is the King's Prerogative to assent to or except against them TO proceed according to the Fundamental Laws of the Land in redressing or at least indeavouring to redress those Grievances which render the Subject Male-content and uneasy and by this means to Accomodate and Silence any Misunder standings or Murmurs may be conceived against the Government and thus procure publick Peace Trahquility and Order I say for this end likewise were Parliaments constituted and thought necessary for the State But all This they were Priviliedged to do with a
dispose of it by Authority of Parliament desiring also That He would make His Abode near London and the Parliament The King 's absolute Refusal to their Second Petition for the Militia The Parliament's Publick Declaration hereupon and continue the Prince at some of His Houses near the City for the better carrying on of Affairs and preventing the People's Jealousies and Fears All which not being then fit to be granted and therefore refused they presently order That the Kingdome be put into a Posture of Defence in such a Way as was agreed upon by the Parliament and a Committee to prepare a publick Declaration from these Two Heads 1. 1. The Just Causes of the Fears and Jealousies given to the Parliament 2. 2. To consider of all Matters arising from His Majesty's Message and what was fit to be done IN the mean time the Bishops were so threatned and terrifyed by the Tumults and Rabble that Twelve of Them absented themselves from the House Protesting against all Laws Orders Votes The Bishop's Protestation Resolutions and Determinations as in Themselves Null and of Non-effect which had Passed or should Pass during their forced Absence desiring their Protestation might be Registred by the Clerk of the House of Lords But immediately after at a Conference between Both Houses it was agreed That this Protestation of the Twelve Bishops did extend to the deep intrenching upon the Fundamental Privileges and Being of Parliaments and presently after They are Accused of High-Treason seized and Ten of them Committed they were Accused of High-Treason seized and brought on their Knees at the Bar of the House of Peers Ten of them were Committed to the Tower and the Other Two in regard of their Age to the Black-Rod NOW the Parliament proceed to make Great Preparations both by Sea and Land and ordered the Admiral of England The Parliament now makes great Preparations both by Sea and Land Pamphlets dispers'd to Rigg the King's Ships and fit them to Sea and likewise all Masters and Owners of Ships were perswaded to do the like The Beacons were repaired Sea-Marks set up and extraordinary Posting up and down with Pacquets Pamphlets flew abroad and all the Other sad Prognosticks of a Civil War did appear THUS did Our late Execrable Troubles begin That were attended with all the Calamities of Domestick Broyls the Parliament every Day pretending to entertain New Jealousies and Suspicions of the King's Actions that so they might have a Pretext to Arm their Party which having done and provided Moneys for the Defraying the Expences of the War they unmasked Themselves and the King and all the Good People of the Nation began to discover That all their Assurances of making His Majesty the Most Glorious Prince that ever swayed the English Scepter was no otherwise to be understood than that they designed to Crown Him with the Crown of Martyrdom and that all the Out-cry they had made and the Fears and Jealousies they had spread abroad of the Loss of their Priviledges and the danger that Religion Liberty and Property were in was like Pick-pockets who bawl out and accuse Passers by of Picking their Pockets that so they might get a Crowd together and really deprive Them of what they had falsly accused Others of who not discovering the Cheat till it was too late and that all was gone had nothing left them but Regret for having been drawn into their Own and their Friends Ruine and Destruction AND now being come so far as to have a full but sad View of all those Devastations and Horrours of those Torrents of Blood and Mountains of Carkasses which are the usual Effects nay inevitable Consequences of a Civil War I must beg Leave to retire from so Deplorable and Dreadful a Prospect and give you a short Account of the Crew that occasioned all these Desolations and Miseries and from whence they sucked their Poysonous Principles with which they infected the whole State DURING the Reign of Queen Mary The Rise of the Presbyterians several of the Reformed flying the Persecutions of Her Government retired to Geneva where sucking in Doctrine and Principles that were no wayes conformable nor consistent with Monarchy at their return Home under Queen Elizabeth they spoke even with Adoration of the Discipline of that Place assuring and perswading People that It and only It was what was taught and directed by our Saviour and His Disciples and practised in the Primitive Times accusing all others of Impurity Superstition and Popery THE Iesuits quickly took notice of these Weeds in Protestanisme Taken Notice of by the Jesuits and took great Care to humour and cultivate them hoping that They One Day might cause such a Breach in Our Church as that they might enter through it and compleat Our Ruin And indeed these People what by the Forced Modesty and Austerity of their Lives what by the Novelty of their Doctrine and their being opposed by Publick Authority that was no wayes consistent with their Tenets they came at first to be Pittyed and then to be Loved and Admired by the Common People THUS growing at length to be very numerous that ever-tobe-admired Princess Queen Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth's Care to depress them thought fit to hinder this Contagion from spreading and by the Advice of Her Parliament as well as Her Council enacted very severe Laws against them and put several of them to Death as Disturbers of the Peace both of Church and State And though they expected more Favour under the Reign of King Iames King James did the like yet that Wise Prince thought fit to curb their Zeal and bridle their Invading Humour Notwithstanding having once allowed them a Conference and taking upon Himself to be the Arbitrator it rendered them so Insolent and Confident and brought their Party into such Repute that towards the Latter End of His Reign they began to have great Influence in the House of Commons which they dayly augmented and encreased by their seeming Abhorrence of Popery and Superstition But with everto-be-lamented Methods till at length by their Arts and Practices they brought into Ruin and Destruction that Prince and Government they all along pretended their whole Design was to Defend Support and Maintain and under the Cloak of Religion let in all Manger of Impiety Atheism and Superstition THE Great Influences the Doctrines of these Men have had amongst the Factious Parties of this Kingdom of late Times too since the Happy Restauration of His Sacred Majesty to the great Disturbance of the Publick Peace to the Dis-uniting the Members of the Church of England and raising Schism and Divisions in the Communities of Men in Matters of Religion to the utter Subversion of Religion it self nay Morality too I say of the Truth of This we have daily Demonstrations and Experiences of The Iesuits of Geneva and Those of St. Omers I dare affirm in their Damnable Tenets with relation to Monarchy and Episcopacy
Answer did not satisfie Him His Graces Answer and that since they trifled he would receive no more Messages from them In the mean time Our Canon with some Horse and Foot was brought down from the Body of the Army and posted not far from the Bridge The particular Account of the Fight being by me I shall Relate it here as I have it Word for Word THe Duke having put himself in the posture above-said A Relation of the Fight in Scotland commanded the Canon to Fire which it no sooner begun to do but the Rebels who were drawn up on the other side upon a rising Ground near the Bridge threw themselves upon the Ground to avoid the Shot Those that were posted upon the Bridge Fired at first pretty briskly but after Five or Six Shot of Canon they all ran away they upon the rising beginning first Our Men immediately seized the Bridge threw into the River their Barricadoes of Stones Cart-Wheeles and the like took a piece of Canon they had and followed them up the Hill but their Number being very small the Rebels rallied and faced them but had not the Courage to come down upon them Our Men came down again to the Bridge and one Shot more of Canon made the Rebels flye to their upper Line where they stood again In the mean time my Lord General passed the Army over the Bridge and drew up upon the Rising which took up some time and before we were quite in order the Rebels advanced upon Us and to appearance in very good Order When they approach't they espied Our Canon at Our Head and thereupon immediately shifted their Order and opened in the middle thinking it seems We were obliged to Shoot strait forward but Our Canon being turned upon them as they then stood and discharged Three or Four times they begun to Run again their Commander Robert Hamilton being one of the first and our Dragoons and the Highlanders advancing upon them it was a perfect Rout and they fled all wayes Our Men pursuing them Of the Rebels there were Seven or Eight Hundred killed and Eleven or Twelve Hundred taken which were afterwards brought prisoners to Edinborough THE Lord General behaved himself with extraordinary Conduct and Bravery and all the Officers Gentlemen and Souldiers carried themselves with great Chearfulness and Resolution But above all the Mercy of Almighty God was most signal in that tho the Rebels were near Seven Thousand Yet were they totally defeated without any loss to His Majesties Forces save of Two or Three private Sentinals Killed and some few Wounded THUS was extinguisht that furious Flame of Rebellion fed by Presbyterian Doctrines and Zeal to the destroying of so many poor Souls who obstinately refused the Mercy of their Prince and Dyed Martyrs as they call them for the Doctrine of King-killing I pray God divert them from such like Practices for the future and make them know That without Honouring the King we do not Fear God NOW to proceed to a Second Remark which is Episcopacy spoken against the great Hatred these sort of Men have had and now have against Episcopacy as well as Monarchy For as in those late Times the Bishops were ever an Eye-sore to the Scots and the Presbyterian Faction here and therefore the Church of England in its Government Liturgy Common-Prayer and Ceremonies was termed direct Popery and could not be entertain'd as any thing else and therefore to throw down this Rome as they called it destroy the Members of this Church and at the last the Head too was what was suitable to a Good Conscience and consistent with the Liberty of the Subject and the Protestant alias Presbyterian Religion So now adayes Men are so bold to call it the like and will not stick to say the King is a Papist and the Professors of this our Religion of the Church of England Romish or Popishly affected Nay it is publickly asserted That there is not one Bishop in England who was advanced to their Episcopal Dignity by any Protestant but Popish Hand And therefore say they They must needs have a great relish of that Leaven And as the Parliament in those times began to throw their Bolts at the Bishops and to shew their Dislike to that Reverend Apostolical Order and to that Authority and Honour which is due to them and their Right of Sitting in that August-Assembly they Vote That no Bishop should have any Vote in Parliament nor any Judicial-power in the Star-Chamber nor be concerned in any Temporal Matters c. So of late in the Tryal of the Earl of Danby the Commons in Parliament Vote the Bishops useless nay The Bishops Right of Sitting in capital Causes Disputed disown their Right of Sitting there upon Capital Causes c. They Dispute their Right of Sitting at that time and at all times of Session and divers Papers flew about concerning the Right of the Lords Spiritual to Sit in the Lords House or Vote in matters Judicial and others è contra were disperst abroad to the vilifying their Reverence and beating down their undoubted pretensions But the Wisdom and Prudence of Our Gracious Sovereign knowing well enough by sad Experience That they were Treading in the same Steps with their Old Fathers who began at the Church in order to the better subverting the State put an end to the Session After which we have but little News of them the Anti-Episcopates or Presbyters holding their Fingers in their Mouths and standing as mute as Metamorphosed Niobes SINCE the Mutterers against Episcopacy were thus silenced the Clergy have been pretty quiet tho sometimes we meet with a little Piece or two of Controversial Points thrown into their Closets or sent to them by the New found way of Dispatch and that 's the most they can do now They would have their Old Darling bear sway and would be dancing to Westminster to the Assembly of Grave Divines of which some Hugh Peters or Faringdon may be President I should say Moderator But here 's the Plague They have no long Triennial nor meet with such Concessions tho indeed they have had too many very gracious and great ones of late which have been too much abused as we shall take Notice of hereafter as their Fore-Fathes did nor have they a Durante Voluptate Parliament else you would find they would do glorious Things for the Good People of the Land and the Lord's Cause In Truth had these great Antagonists of the Bishops but what they Merit for either their scandalous stigmatizing them in private in their Conversations as well as in exposing them to the World with their spiteful Censures the Punishment which their Patrons Pryn and Burton and Bastwick Suffered in the late Times is too great a Favour and too mild a Resentment AND now I must hasten to Generals only I cannot choose but take Notice That these Times or the Men of them as if they were driven by the pure Dictates of a
Author of Peace was to be Propagated by His Ministers by the Sword OH the Blindness and wilful Obstinacy of Man Oh the Proclivity of the depraved Humane Nature to Errors and Abuses How is it that Thou Religion art thus mistaken How is it Thy Dictates and Sacred Rites are thus mis-construed and mis-applyed Dost Thou Teach Men such Horrid and Abominable Doctrines 〈…〉 That to Propagate their Empire and extend their Dominions Subjects should be absolved from Obedience to their Lawful Sovereign Princes impowering them to Depose Them or pull Them down from their Thrones take the Crown from their Heads and at last their Heads from their Bodies Dost Thou warrant Disorders Distractions and Discords in the Socieries or Communities of Men to the utter Subversion of Governments Laws and Liberties and to the totall Ruin of Kingdoms Dost Thou lead Men to Contrive the most Execrable Designes to hatch Treasons and to lay Plots and Conspiracies to Endeavour nay Perpetrate Assassinations Nay if they fail in These to kick at Authority and contemn the Laws asperse the Governor and vilifie the Government Are those Thy Precepts No no not at all nor in any wise consisting with My Nature as I am Profess'd by the Church of England Indeed Rome and Geneva may understand Me so and the World has felt they do ever understand Me so The Religion of the Church of England As I am Profess'd by the Church of England I command Her Preachers to endeavour to implant Virtue in Mens Minds To let Her Doctrine as it truly and purely is be Undefiled Orthodox and Evangelical Teaching Piety or our Duty towards God Justice or Love towards those in Society with us and primarily towards His Vicegerent our Lawful King and Governour and Sobriety or Love to our own Persons in living in the Practice of those Excellent Virtues of Temperance and Soberness which tends so much to the Glory of God and our own Comfort and Happiness Have not we then who have the Church of England for our Mother great Cause to bless God for those daily Influences of Divine Love and Comfort which we receive from Her That nothing but the Pure and Uncorrupt Milk of Sincere Piety and True Religion may be suck't from Her Immaculate Breasts But Alas What the Reverend Pious and Learned Arch-Bishop Laud said in his Speech upon the Scaffold before his Death speaking of the Church of England may be too aptly the more is our Shame applyed to Her at this Time This poor Church of England said that Reverend Prelate has Flourish't and been a Shelter to other Neighbouring Churches when Storms have driven upon them but Alas now it is in a Storm it Self and God knows whether or how it shall get out And which is worse than a Storm from without it is become like an Oak cleft to Shivers with Wedges made out of its own Body and that in every Cleft Prophaneness and Irreligion is creeping in a-pace Lib. 2. de Vitae Contem. cap. 4. while as Prosper saith Men that introduce Prophaneness are cloak't with a Name of Imaginary Religion For we have in a manner almost lost the Substance and dwell much nay too much a great deal in Opinion and that Church which all the Jesuits Machinations in these parts of Christendome could not Ruin is now fallen into a great deal of Danger by Her Own BUT hold Consider Is it Religion alone that hath thus distracted Men's Brains or is it Mistaken zeal that drives Men into these Madnesses Is there nothing else in the Grass that lyes Latitant and pricks us and makes us so uneasy Yes I fear there is a Serpent that stings us and makes us kick at Authority called as heretofore Liberty of the Subject 'T is this wounds our Stomacks Liberty of the Subject and without a little Aqua Tetramagogicon or an Indubitable Assurance of its being Preserved we cannot be at ease God God! Is there any People or Nation in Europe ever Bless'd with Greater Freedoms and more Undisturbed Libertyes than this Kingdom of England Or Is there found from the One Part of the World to the Other one People bless'd with such a Land A Land whose Constitutions make the Best of Governments which Government is strengthned with the Best of Laws which Laws are Executed by the Best of Princes whose Prince whose Laws whose Government makes Us the Happiest of all Subjects makes Us the Happiest of all People And what a late Learned Writer said speaking in the Praise of a Land and the Admirable Blessings of it may be said of England and I shall apply it according to his Words A Land sayes he of Strength England described as it now flourishes of Plenty and of Peace where every Soul may sit beneath his Vine unfrighted at the Horrid Language of the Hoarse Trumpet unstartled at the Warlike Summons of the Roaring Canons A Land whose Beauty hath surpriz'd the Ambitious Hearts of Forreign Princes and taught them by their Martial Oratory to make their vain Attempts A Land whose Strength reads Vanity in the deceived Hopes of Conquerors and crowns their Enterprizes with a Shameful Over-throw A Land whose Native Plenty makes her the World's Exchange supplying Others able to subsist without Supply from Forreign Kingdoms In it Self Happy and Abroad Honourable A Land that hath no Vanity but what 's the sweetest of all Blessings Peace and Plenty that hath no Misery but is propagated from that Blindness which cannot see Her own Felicity A Land that flows with Milk and Honey and in brief wants nothing to deserve the Title of a Paradise The Curb of Spain The Pride of Germany the Aid of Belgia the Scourge of France the Empress of the World and Queen of Nations In fine England is the Envy of all Nations the Ambition of all Princes the Terror of all Enemies and the Security of all Neighbouring States Thus far I follow the Steps of my Learned Author in this Encomium of the Land whereof we were both †Oh Fortundtâ—s nimium sua si bona norint Anglos Natives BUT Alas I find at the Bottom of the Role a Blot or Blur which as it were oblitterates part of the Account for all these Blessings and Happinesses are but as so many Steps towards her Woe or as so many Gaps to let in Pride Ambition c. as Foxes and Wild-Boars to eat up and tread down these her Flowers For Alas She renders her Self miserable by Not being Compact within her Self in Unity but is apt and prone to Civil and Intestine Broyls Did Her Children but cherish Brotherly Love and Charity Vnion the best Antidore against Evils and endeavour the maintaining a good and right Understanding one with another and not suffer every Private Man's Interest to disturb Publick Peace Utility and Order the Devil himself nor the Pope and all his Instruments can or will ever harm or molest us But that 's the Colliquintida that alwayes spoyls our Pot
Restriction so long as the Honour Dignity and Safety of the Crown was their first and immediate Regard and Care as I said before A Parliament is the Magnum Anglie Concilium The Great Council of the Land called together by the King as the proper and most genuine Means for the Consulting or advising of and providing against publick Evils wherein every private Man is concerned and in order to the Administring necessary Remedies And therefore to pretend that their Priviledges enable them to Act contrary to what their Head the King shall propose to them towards the Regulating Misunderstandings Composing Differences and the Securing Peace and Order is if it may be so said a Casting off that Supream Power which gave them those Priviledges and a Breach of the King's Prerogative And if once Regal Prerdgative is invaded the Regal Power will be in great Danger This we have lately had notorious Testimonies of and I hope and pray we may never see the like again THE last Dissolution of the Parliament met at Oxford perhaps doth and may Amuse the World exceedingly and drive them into a profound Admiration Unde hoc Whence proceeded His Majesties Displeasure But the Papers called Intelligences pretended to satisfy Us with a great deal and every Coffes-House Whisper'd out Reasons or at least Suspicions and Surmises upon it For my part I do and shall ever continue my Resolution in this particular which I mentioned but a little before That I think it mine and every Honest Man and Loyal Subject's Duty to Acquiesce in the Pleasure of my Prince and not to Censure the Authority or Reasonableness of His Proceedings in the least I mean so far as my Conscience shall give me leave I shall not therefore any further dilate on this point but Conclude with the saying of a Wife States-Man viz. Many things sayes He in the world resemble Smoak their Beginning is but small their End great And many things resemble the Wind whose Reginning is Boisterous and End Weak He saves himself from the former who suffers them not to Increase from the latter He who suffers them to Blow over Progress of Time may be expected in the One where the Other ought to be Smother'd in the Cradle HAVING thus far run thro Our proposed Parallel under those Three Heads of Religion Liberty and Priviledges of Parliament and therein shewn how dangerous they are to a Common-Wealth when mis-understood and mis-applyed As GOD knows they have been too much of late here in England the more is the pitty and Our shame I shall therefore in this place look back on the large Concessions and bountiful Condescentions of the late King which was so much abused and made as so many Helps towards the subsequent Evils and Ruine to this poor Kingdome of England and see how Our Times have met with the like and what unsutable Returns have been made to the Royal Grace and Favour THE pressing Necessities for Supplies of Money to the empty drain'd Coffers of the Royal Treasury thro a long War which I have spoken of before coming in a Time when the Subject's Purse was full and that now the Parliament City and the Disaffected Parties knew well enough was a fit time to perpetrate their Designs to bring the KING to their Beck to make Him condescend to what Terms they pleased Which to avoid Repetition of I desire the Impartial Reader to consider in the Beginning of this Discourse Where you see after that they had brought the KING to do what they demanded they at last to compleat all perswade the People that the KING meant to introduce Popery Arbitrary-Government destroy the Protestant Religion and the Liberty of the Subject The unwarrantable Practices of the Parliament 1640 41. c. This nettles the Giddy Crowd and induces them to believe that whatsoever the Parliament did was for their Good and according to Conscience and the like They forget their King 's Gracious Concessions and Graunts they stop their Ears to His crying Wants turn their Backs to His friendly and just Demands neglect His Authority despise His Dignity contemn His Administration of the Government thwart His just and lawful Proceedings and thus Topsy turvy per fas nefasque No King no Laws no Religion I mean of the Church of England In exitium rount NOW in brief His now Majesties Concessions Let Us examine Our own Times and here We shall find Mercy Bounty and Liberality still swaying the Scepter of these Kingdomes We see His Sacred Majesty was no sooner sat Him in His Throne and had graspt the Scepter in His Hand but He as soon begins to display the Influences of His Royal Bounty and Mercy by the Act of Oblivion The Act of Oblivion Granted whereby every Individual Person who had been Actors on that late Bloody Stage of Rebellion and Treason the Cruel and Blood-Thirsty Regicides or those who were the Unjust Judges and Murtherers of His Father of Blessed Memory only exempted from the Beginning of the Civil-War unto His Happy Restauration the New Epocha of our English Nation that Annus Restauratae Libertatis Nay to dispossess those who Held their Estates in Capite of the Fears of the just Demands and Pretentions so long a time 's Killing and Slaying had given Him upon their Tenures and Knight Service What vast Sums were coming to Him from the Court of Wards and Liveries c. which unless He remitted would render the Act of Oblivion in effect no Pardon since it gave not their Estates with their Lives His Majesty was Graciously pleased to prevent those Fears by Act of Parliament The Act of Parliament 12 Ch. 2. ca. 24. 12 Ch. 2. cap. 24. depriving Himself of the Richest Jewel of His Crown a Prerogative so truly Royal and so hugely advantagious That in the Judgement of the Learned in the Law The People of England were never truly Free till then WHEN thro repeated Affronts War with Holland Calumnies and Injuries He was forced to make War with the Hollanders for His own Honour We no sooner find Him informed That it was prejudicial to His People but He shuffles up a Peace upon very hard Terms for Himself when had He stood off but a little while the State of His Enemies being such He might have made what Conditions He would Peace made Nay further To shew His Love to His Good Subjects when He entred into a War for Injuries offered to them Vide The Articles of Peace in Aug. 1667. and those 1674. no Considerations neither Plague nor Fire which had then impoverisht the Land by the Loss of so much People and Money would induce Him to a Peace till ample Satisfaction made WHEN He had upon Advice Granted a Tolleration of Religion and was satisfied afterwards by the Parliament of the Dangerous Consequences of such a Liberty He immediately is induced to Recall it and did so The Act for Toleration of Religion made Did He not consent to
we Tread in their Foot-steps I pray God divert Us from such like Practises WE Read of Romulus that Famous Founder of Rome when the Sabins had Waged War against Him and had got by Stratagem into the City and had possest themselves of the Capitol and joyning Battle had Slain a great Leader and Captain of the Romans named Hostilius and by this means had caused them to Retreat and give Back Romulus Born along by them that Fled made a stand at last upon the Palatine-Hill and seeing the great Success the Sabines had and that now the Honour of the Romans was dwindling He Vows a Temple to Iupiter and there prays to him for Victory But to shew that Man's Industry was to go along in Concurrence with the Divine Power Romulus is not wanting in his own Endeavours by his personal Courage and prudent Conduct like a Valiant Captain and brave Leader and thus at last obtained Victory An Example of a Heathen Alas for Us Christians 'T is this alone which can save Us I mean a Recourse to the Divine Power to implore its omnipotent Goodness to Dispel those dark Gloomy Clouds which hover over our Heads and threaten Ruine and Misery To do which I am confident nay assur'd our Church hath no way been backwards both by Her dayly Summons and Calls and by the Preaching of Her Learned Pious Ministry The Church Doors are alwayes open and as it were by their Dumb Signs invite Us to enter there and Commune with our God by Prayer to intreat His Removal of His Iudgments from Us. But Alas In vain do Men call to Heaven many do Invoke it and yet do Hinder it they require help from Heaven and do Abandon themselves and by their Deeds contrarying their Words they shew not to Desire what they have intreated and to have Intreated that they might not be heard This is a Truth too palpable God knows and too notorious among Us now a-dayes We have a great many pretended Israelites but few Israelites indeed AY but say the People if we are like to have bad Times and if Evils are like to come upon Us and Desolation and Ruine threaten Us The Fault lyes not at our Doors nor are our Miscarriges the occasion but it is the Male-Administration of those at the Helm from whose Influences alone we receive or Good or Detriment which brings upon Us those Mischiefs that press the Nation And thus like the Milesian Phylosopher Thales who gazing up to behold the Stars and consider their Aspects and neglecting the Way wherein he walked thro his Intention or serious Contemplation fell into a Pit or Lake and there ended his Life and Speculation together Would Men but look into themselves and examine the Private Closets of their own Hearts they will there find Work enough and sufficient Reason for wondring Contemplation when their Consciences stand ready to Salute them with Nathan's Parable Thou art the Man Or 't is for thy Sins that the Land Mourneth that the Angel of God stands with his Sword drawn in his Hand ready to Cut it off in the midst it ' its Sins and leave no place for Reconciliation BUT Alas Men now a-days are grown to that Degree of Impiety that they are ready to Murther a Man for telling them the Truth To be sure if the Blasting a Man's Credit be a means to Ruine him they will not stick to do that and tho a near and intimate Friend with all the Mildness and Complacency in the World indeavour to insinuate a Sense of their miserable and deplorable Estate by all the methods Christian Piety and Charity can suggest yet if he touch them too hard upon the Wounded Part they are apt presently to throw back his Admonitions in his Face and with the ungodly Man the Psalmist speaks of Tush say they what Tellest thou me of Conscience or a Pious Life They are good Trades for a Leaden Spirit that can stand bent to every Frown and wants the Brains to make a higher Fortune or Courage to atcheive that Honour which might Write their Names in the Chronicles of Fame Pish sayes he Civil Honesty is but a fair pretence for him that has no Wit to play the Knave and makes a Man capable of a little higher Stile than Fool. Come come if my Conscience check me I 'le correct my sawcy Conscience till she stand as mute as Metamorphosed Niobe I 'le fear neither the Frowns of Princes nor the Mighty Hand of various Fortune I 'le pass my slow-paced Time in Melancholy-Charming Mirth and take the Advantage of my Youthful Dayes I 'le Banish Care to The Dead Sea of Phlegmatick Old Age. A Deep Sigh shall be High-Treason and a Solemn Look adjudged a Crime too great for Pardon And thus they go on in Sinning having as the Apostle sayes Seared their Consciences with a Hot-Iron IF a Pious Minister Preaching in the Church touch them to the quick by laying open the ugliness of Sin and the dismal Consequences of it and the Judgments which will inevitably fall upon Sinners Reprobate and Obstinate and perhaps occasionally Harangues against particular Sins of which they are too much inclined and prone to They hear Him whilst they are in the Church seemingly with great Attention tho they are impatient to be Dismist that they might be at their venting their opprobrious Censures of his Person and Doctrine and no sooner have they reach't their Houses but as soon as sat presently have at the Parson or as they usually stile him Mr. Doctor sayes One His words conduce not at all to Edification nor are the Motions of his Heart Sanctified He Adores Great Ones for Preferment and speaks too partially of Authority A sober Language in his mouth but the poyson of Aspes is under his Tongue Ah cryes a Second He feares God for his own ends He can hear an Oath from his Superiour without reproving him and sad Cursings without Rebuke He paints Devotion upon his Face whilest Pride is stampt upon his Heart 'T is indeed true sayes the Third He is quick-sighted to the Infirmities of the Saints and in his heart rejoyceth at our failings His studied Prayers shew him to be a high Malignant and his Jesu-worship concludes him Popishly affected He cryes up Learning and the Book of Common-Prayer but sayes nothing of Reformation He cringes and makes an Idol of the Name of Jesus and leans wholly to a Church-Government not honouring a Preaching Ministry He places Sanctity in the Walls of a Steeple-house and adores the Sacrament with a Popish-Knee Ah! sighs a Fourth Have we not a great deal of reason to separate from these Men and turn and absent our selves from their Congregations Ah! t is a great Mercy and Unspeakable Goodness of the Lord That he hath called us unto Him to know the Church of God in Truth and hath given us a Sin-killing Heart-healing Soul-convincing laborious Ministry to teach us the Wayes of Righteousness and hath separated us from these Idolatrous