which they desired onely in some things should be reformed employing some Bishops and others of the Clergy to consider of what things might be altered for satisfying tender Consciences that many of the Clergy also as well as other Subjects well-willers to the King were so possessed that though they saw Arms raised against the King and all his Forts Ships and Revenues seized on in defiance of his Majesty yet would they not believe that the Parliament intended the King any hurt or evil at all yea divers were not dispossessed of this fond credulity till the Votes of imprisoning and of no further addressing to the King were published And now when they can neither help themselves nor their King cry out upon Hypocrites and say they will never believe Parliaments any more though it 's not safe for them to say so or whatere more they think such is now the liberty of the Subject and indeed so willing were the major part of the House of Commons to be lulled asleep into a pleasing dream of Reformation by clipping the wings of Prerogative and paring the Bishops nails and taking down the pride of the Clergy as the Fanatick buzzed pretences were to which all parties were marvelously ready like the Horse in the Fable yielding his back to the Saddle to be rid of the Deer that he might have all the pasture and by extolling the honour and authority of that House whereof themselves were also Members till the Faction by planting in their Instruments for Chair-men of Committees and into all places of action so rid the more moderate party of the House beyond their own stay who now grown weary and feeling the Spur in their own sides began too late to take heed and to think to shake off their hot-Spur-riders but indeed threw themselves out of their so-longed-for Parliament for upon any Speech or Motion contrary to the sence of the Faction the parties moving were called presently to the Bar or committed to the Tower or expelled the House and others were terrified hereby or by the Tumults out of the City led up by Dr. Burges and Capt. Ven to the Parliament-doors to see that the Godly Party for so their Faction was called in the House might not be out-voted Dr. Burges said at the Parliament-doors of the Multitudes and Tumults of the City-Rabble These are my Band-dogs I can set them on and I can take them off again Oh brave Cornelius That by these means above two hundred shortly after were forced out of the House to leave the Faction absolute Masters of the Vote in the House of Commons and House of Peers also little thinking that the Clergies persecution which themselves sate so long winking at would prove their own just punishment by suffring a Faction to grow so powerful without so much as protesting against their injustice and oppression But rather assisting the Faction to imprison in the Tower twelve Bishops upon a false charge of High-Treason onely because they did their duty to their eternal honour like Christian Bishops and lovers of their Countries welfare in solemnly protesting as pares Regni against such violence and wickedness though with apparent hazard of their persons and Estates Nay when these driven Members of Lords and Commons again assembled at Oxford by the Kings Proclamation upon the second Invasion of the Scots for number in both Houses exceeding those who were left at Westminster almost 200 Commons before they had sitten five weeks besides the Royal presence of the King very probably might have recovered this Kingdom by calling themselves a Parliament as the eyes of the Kingdom upon them did expect which drew over some Members from Westminster and more would have followed to have joyned with them in Parliament and as in all reason they might have as well as they did demand and take upon them all priviledges of Parliament But the Fanatick spirit brought thither in Mr. Bagshawes Lawyers pouch or maintained there before at the Brethrens charge was busie there also in fomenting fears and jealousies that they must not set the King a precedent to break Laws vid. the forced Act of continuance of this Parliament in it self void for fear they should make the King too great and such courses they took in imitation of the Faction at Westminster that they complained to the King of a Divine who in a Sermon historicè related the Story of Charles Martel his inventing Rebellion Sacriledge and Parliaments and Secretary Windebank lately come from France to the King was forced suddenly to return into France to prevent the odium which might have fallen on the King by protecting him whom they also intended to have questioned that well might his Majesty call them his Mungrel-Parliament whose negligence and wilful blindness hath twice undone the Kingdom But to return to the Members at Westminster whom we left Conquerors of the Vote in the House of Commons whose Agents were set on work throughout the Kingdom especially in London to muster up their Forces without which they could neither long keep the Vote so gotten nor could make their Votes of any power or authority the House of Commons being of it self no Court of Judicature having no power to give an Oath nor to imprison any of the Kings Subjects except their own Members but to consult and transmit their Proposals to the House of Peers to whose joynt Results the Kings Royal Signature puts life and makes it Law or an Act of Parliament The next work therefore to which success heightned them was to try their strength in the House of Peers for concurrence to their designes to which Lord Say had long tutored his Pulpit-Lords and other discontented popular Lords were hoped easily to be drawn seeing the people so extol the proceedings of this Faction in the House of Commons though they intended to go on with their work without the Lords concurrence if they could not have brought them to their Bow as indeed they have made no other use of the House of Peers than to cover and countenance the Fanatical practices with the Name and Title of both Houses of Parliament and of Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament setting the Lords in the first place like Cyphers in Arithmetick to advance the following numbers for what meant the new phrase in Pulpits and Pamphlets of the House of Gods and of the Worthies of the Land but onely the House of Commons and what more frequently buzzed into peoples heads than that the Lords sate but for themselves the Commons sate for the good of all the people and were therefore more to be regarded and maintained But for a formality and shew of Legal proceedings in a Parliamentary way Mr. Pym is sent into the City to make Speeches against Obstructions in the Body politick that Reformation could not go on till they were removed which soon raised the City-Tumults to petition the Parliament that the Bishops and Popish Lords might be thrown out of the House of Peers
Doctrines and Disciples Indeed to divide the Church-lands amongst their Tribe as the pretence was of taking away the Bishops Lands to maintain preaching Ministers and to invade other Mens Livings and to have the sole Government of the Church in their Hands this is that which they call setting up of Jesus Christ in his Throne the World now see what their aim was at first in calling this the Parliament of their Prayers 5. All sorts of Sectaries in England were earnest for this Parliament because they had conspired to pack it for their Designs against the King and the Church as hereafter will be shown 6. The Common Lawyers pleaded for a Parliament that themselves might snatch an Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction into their Courts to advance their Law above the Gospel as they have done crying up their Idol-Law to be above the King a Creature above his Creator then what are the Lawyers who have the Law in their own Hands the Breast of the Judge or the Breast of the Court as they phrase it is the supreme Power And truly for these many years last past have the Lawyers enslaved both King and People by the Charm of Law Law 7. The Country People generally fancied that a Parliament would free them from paying of Tythes which produced several Petitions to that purpose from several Counties 8. All sorts of Trades and Companies in London hoped for Iome encrease of their Trading if a Parliament were called and yet who more crying out against Monopolies and Patents than these Citizens Who are the greatest Monopolilizers in this Kingdom and scarce any Incorporation in London but had some Petition ready for this Parliament with confidence that nothing must be denied for the advance of Trade And all sorts of People dreamed of an Vtopia and Infinite Liberty especially in Matters of Religion nay scarce any man but had some Design of Private Interest excep the Ancient Orthodox Clergy who foresaw what a Misery the heighth of a Faction would bring on the Church by a Parliament And yet after 5 years Sitting in this so Idolized Parliament no sorts of men but have missed their Ends their Ministers especially verifying that Prophesie of Dr. Bancroft For all the Outcries that Church-Livings might be employed to the Maintenance of Eldership well may they procure in some other Age the further impoverishing of the Church but they shall be sure to be little the better for it And generally instead of being eased of their Grievances they have been plagued by this Parliament as by the Flagellum Dei a Rod of their own making to scourge this Land for their murmuring against Moses and Aaron their Contempt of the King and the Priest into which Crying Sin an Hypocritical Faction hath been long drawing this People by wounding the King through the sides of the Church as knowing well that if they could destroy Monarchy in the Church Episcopal Government in England being indeed the King 's Spiritual Militia and that most povverful as commanding the Consciences of Subjects by planting in Rebellion for Religion they should soon vveaken the Povver of the King 's Temporal Militia as vvoful Experience hath taught us this made the Masters of the Faction alvvays set up the Church as the Butt and the Bishops Sleeves as the White chiefly aimed at by all sorts of People to shoot their Bolts against that to have the Bovv ready bent and the Quiver full of sharp Arrovvs even bitter vvords against the Church grevv to be the only Wisdom and Religion in fashion O ye scandalous Clergy and O ye bringers in of Popery was the belching of every open mouth when the greater sort had deeply swallowed other manner of Gall for which they took up the common cry against the Clergy only to colour their deadly Spleen bred upon Temporal Distempers which the world takes no publick notice of as yet but were the true causes of the Contempt and hatred of the Clergy among this Generation whereby the Fanatick Faction very inconsiderable for Number drew multitudes who hated their by-ways in Religion to their assistance The first and main Engine buzzed into the people long before this Parliament was That the Bishops and the Clergy were the Instruments for the Kings intended Tyranny the common saying in Terminis was that the Clergy are all for the King that is the Clergy seeing your Fanatick Spirit of Darkness working in the Children of Disobedience would by their Preaching to fear God and the King according to the Scriptures have prevented the ruines which they foresaw this Faction would and now have brought upon this Kingdom to this purpose what a fiery pair of multiplying Spectacles did the Faction put on the Noses of the people furiously looking on Dr. Manwarings Sermon till the Face of the Body Politick began to fire in a former Parliament not quenched even to the beginning of this but continually kindled against him and some others not above three more Divines who preached the Kings Prerogative like Divines if Scripture which they so cry up for their own ends in 1 Sam. 8. or the practice of the Kings of Judah may be Judge more than the Supremacy of the Lawyers would brook or the jealous Worshippers of Meum and Tuum in England could endure should be true This was the kindle-coal that the Faction bellowsed to that flame that must consume not only those particular men but even the whole Clergy Root and Branch as in Scotland the Feud of some discontented Lords against some particular Bishops vowed revenge on the whole Church this fire of malice was the fire from Heaven which confirmed their Covenant and made it the pattern in the Mount for Englishmen to follow This added to the name Baals Priests and such other reproaches of the Clergy among the Fanaticks the new Scoff of Cesans Friends This made the popular Earl of Essex say in this Parliament that he never knew but one Bishop in Parliament stand up for the good of the Commonwealth the old phrase of Rebellion and when Nat. Fiennes made Speeches in Parliament and printed them with the Title of unparallel'd Reasons to shew that Episcopacy was an Enemy to Monarchy the Lord Say his Father and Godfather to the Fanatick Faction printed a Speech That the Bishops were too much for the King and therefore were to be thrown out of the Parliament the most applauded Speech amongst the Commonvvealth party vvhose sense it spoke out to the full and vvas the Core of the Canker bred in them against the Church and unto this score do the Clergy ovve their eight years persecution and their continued Banishment from their Livings for fear they should preach the people novv undeceived into obedience to their King A second Cause vvas the sacrilegious thirsting after the Church-lands by some in this Land vvhose Grandfathers having svvallovved long Leases or perhaps some forged Deeds of Church-lands the Wax sticks still on the Childrens Stomachs that no vvonder
their manner of proving their Charges THe Reports of these new Spanish-English Inquisitions being spread abroad in City and Country so fleshed these Hounds in their Parson-hunting as their own phrase was and so terrified the rest of the Clergy that by this success the Masters of the Game began to heighten on their Designs of planting in a new Ministry not only as foisted Lecturers but as endowed Church-men the more strongly to make them Servants for their work especially in London whose Clergy bore the heat of the day in this persecution for not six Parsons or Vicars in all that City but abhorred these ungodly courses that two or three Reformers in a Parish usually demanded no smaller matter of their Parson than that he should resign up his whole Livelyhood at once viz. his Living otherwise they would threaten to fetch him up to the Parliament which Threats so far prevailed with many of blameless Lives and Conversation that to avoid the trouble and charges and the infinite Scorn and Vexation at Committees and the Shame as then it was accounted of being ranked among scandalous Ministers gave up their Churches viz. Mr. Mason Dr. Howel Mr. Ward Dr. Pierce Dr. Hill Mr. Paggit Mr. Hanslow c. And all others sought to change their Livings for some more quiet place And I have heard some of these malicious Londoners not ashamed openly in the face of a Committee to profess and without controul That they would never give over vexing their Parson till they had worried him out of his Living And so much have these Factions prevailed that scarce any Parsons or Vicars in that City are left unsequestred what Justice can any expect from such Committees who have taken upon them to be Judges of the Clergy against whom they have so openly declared themselves Parties and Adversaries For scarce any of the persecuted Clergy but can name some particular Members of this Faction in the House of Commons and so by consequence of these Committees also who have been active not only as Representatives but as chief Promoters and Authors of their Troubles some by giving Instructions what to lay in Petitions against them others have drawn up Articles and Petitions and have sent them to Parishes to be subscribed and to seek out Witnesses if they could to prove them nor scarce durst any Parishoner deny his hand though he knew nothing of the Charge for fear of being accounted a Malignant and to some Parishoners refusing to subscribe because they could prove nothing of the Accusations it hath been replied Set you your Hands leave us to prove the Charge till two or three Presidents in this kind from these new Legislative hands had made a Case for some Lawyers Table-book that the known way of petitioning against a Clergy-man was to go to such a Lawyer or such a Solicitor who for his Fee could furnish any Clyent with Accusations against any Clergy-man whatsoever but perhaps some will say those Articles were not true against their Minister they could not prove them That is no matter the Lawyers can warrant those Clyents harmless for say they the Parliament that is the House of Commons put not men to their Oaths not allow any Costs or Dammages upon default of Proof though their Accusation or Charge against their Minister be never so foul never so false and the Ministers Charges never so great to name but one instance in this kind Dr. Cousins the Reverend Dean of Peterborough and Master of Peter House in Cambridge upon a motion made in the House of Commons by the Lord Fairfax that the Doctor had enticed a young Scholar to Popery vvas committed to the Sergeant at Arms to attend daily till the House should call him to a hearing after Fifty Days Imprisonment and Charges of Twenty shillings per diem besides being exposed to the scorn and houtings of the City Sectaries vvho daily flocked to the Doors of the Parliament to shew their readiness to serve them upon hearing the said Doctor made it appear some Members also bearing him vvitness that the Doctor being then Vice-Chancellor of the Vniversity had most severely punished the Party whom upon Examination he had found guilty by Recantation and by expelling him the University yet no Cost or Dammage by way of Reparation was allowed to the Doctor by the House of Commons This is the Justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature in England and a great shew of Justice had these Accusations if like a Chancery Bill any one particular laid were proved though it vvere but malignancy against the Parliament a Crime never heard of till the Fanatick Faction in Parliament voted That to obey the King was High Treason this new Priviledge of Parliament so agreeable to Gods Lavv Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour advised some Parishioners to put in some odious Crimes against their Parson amongst the smaller matters they had laid othervvise said he the House will not regard your Petition no matter whether ye can prove them or not and vvhen some of the honester party not then crowded from the House of Commons upon often experience of such slanders uncontrolled moved that according to Reason and Common Justice vvhosoever brought a false Accusation against any man should Lege talionis be punished as the Accused should have been if guilty the Faction in the House rejected that just Motion pretending that such an Order would discourage Petitioners and a Chair-man being told by Dr. Sterne Master of Jesus Colledge in Cambridge upon the like occasion that the Committee vvere bound by Gods Lavv not to countenance a false Witness according to the Ninth Commandment replyed to the Doctor that he should not teach them whot to do yet every week as soon as some wicked Design ripeneth for a colour do these men Vote and Ordain mightily for keeping the Sabbath-day when lying and false witnessing will no longer advance their Cause they will Vote it may be as much for this Commandment also nay in stead of reproving false witness the Faction in Committees have found out shifts to help out a Reforming Lyar or else to salve up the business with further proof to be produced hereafter or making consequences and inferences upon a false or doubtful Testimony lest their good people as they called their Agents should be discouraged but for sureness sake Orders were often pasted on the Doors of the Committee forbidding entrance to any but those of their own Faction witness the Committee in the Exchequer Chamber about the Smectymnuan Libel or the Grand Petition against Episcopacy where all other Divines were turned out for Spies as their phrase was but some stayed long enough to hear heavy Charges weakly proved viz. That Episcopacy was an Enemy to Parliaments and to the Laws of the Land How proved think you Why a single Witness is produced saying that he heard a Doctor in Divinity of Sussex speak some words against the Parliament Ergo
Judges of Divinity When Lawyers perk into a Chair for Religion and Coblers preach both alike lawful no marvail if Religion be voted illegal and the Priests be thought to go so awry and in these times to the Lawyer must the Divine go if he will preach without fear of being made a scandalous Minister or imprisoned for every Sermon I have known some twenty shillings Fees given to a Lawyer to plead at the Committee for Religion in the behalf of some Doctrines preached in a Sermon for which the Preacher never got twenty pence no defence being left for the Priests Doctrine or officiating in sacris unless allowed by an Act of Parliament or some common Law-trick insomuch that a Learned Doctor of Divinity being accused of Popery for calling the Communion-Table an Altar alledging the Scripture in the Hebrews Habemus Altare we have an Altar of which they may not eat meant of the Christian Eucharist could not hereby be acquitted of the Popery but producing the words of an Act of Parliament of Edward the Sixth yet unrepealed calling the Eucharist the Sacrament of the Altar the Committee for Religion were fully answered And several Actions at common Law of Assault and Battery were brought against a Divine in Essex who out of zeal to Gods house as the Priests did with Vzziah thrust some people out of his Church who sending for Cakes and Ale from an Ale-house were prophanely carousing on the Lords Table in the Church yet could not this Crime be admitted a lawful plea in the Common Law to save the Minister harmless from being overthrown in the Action but consulting with a Lawyer he was advised to plead his institution and induction into the said Church where the fact was done and so by a Rule in the Law that any man may thrust another out of his House if he behave himself uncivilly therein the Minister was secured from the Actions of Assault and Battery so that would our Saviour now beat out the buyers and sellers from the Temple the Lawyers would afford an Action against him of Assault and Battery And not long before this Parliament did the Lawyers find out ways of Indicting Clergy-men at the publick Assizes for standing up at the Creed or for denying to give the Sacrament to people obstinately refusing to kneel at the receiving thereof and to come up to the Rails about the Holy Table that I have known some Sectaries in London command their servants to go to the Sacrament and to sit in the lower places of the Church to try whether the Minister would bring the Sacrament to them in their seats that so they might have an Action of Law against the Minister or else complain against him to the Parliament nor will it be too long a digression to remember a former vent of the Fanaticks malice in a Parliament at the beginning of King Charles his Reign urging strongly a motion of making Adultery death in a Clergy-man but not in any other person purposely to throw scorn on that profession and how safe any Clergy mans life should have been may the conspiracy of the Lady Laurence witness against a grave Divine which the justice of the Star-chamber found out and censured righteous judgment no doubt is to be expected when such a malitious Faction shall get power to make themselves Judges of the Clergy as now they have done Good God! have our Preachers been these Eighty years confuting the superstition of the Papists to be made the stalking horses to a Sacrilegious Superstitious and Rebellious Faction by whom themselves are at last crowed down for Papists under the same pretence of Reformation having been taught to hate Popery without discretion no marvail if such people now question their Teachers and think they have forfeited their power and knowledge to them whom they have taught no better and what use these men have made of this pretended power let their own actions testifie But that they may seem to be no usurpers of any power at first they derided at Episcopacy or Monarchy but that is not the subject of this discourse to be Jure Divino though never so plain in the 10. of St. Luke by Christs Election of 12 Apostles and 72 Disciples of an inferiour order out of which Mathias was in the first of the Acts preferred to be numbred with the 11 in the room of Judas and were there any scruple who more fitting to resolve the doubt than those who lived in the Apostles time as did Ignatius whose works as also the continued succession of Bishops in all Christian Churches for 1500 years together were argument enough to those who have not denyed their Faith forgetting their Creed I believe the holy Catholick Church And against such men a Christian ought not to dispute But now began new principles of Divinity to be broached by the new State-Chaplains vid. That the Law of nature bade the Parliament that is the House of Commons the peoples Representatives to reassume all power into their hands it being so universally complained of that the King and the Bishops had abused their trust intending to ruine the Kingdom and destroy Religion the two great bugbears wherewith the Fanatical Faction who felt the pulses of the people beating strongly after property or Religion kept the people continually affrighted and it being as generally believed for qua volumus facile credimus that all power in Church and Common-wealth was derived from the people and their Representatives and not from God immediately Aristotles Politicks is made Scripture for this new Divinity and surely an excellent Religion will nature teach Christians to justifie what they have or shall do so manifestly against the Law of God and man If this argument be not strong enough their Lecturers who were wont in former Parliaments also to attend the House of Commons door making Legs to the Members in transitu praying their Worships to remember the Gospel by which they meant their Presbytery these preach to them that their power to Reform Religion is Jure Divino why forsooth because the people called them thereunto and vox Populi est vox Dei was their beloved unquestionable Oracle indeed vox populi cried up Rebellious Absalom against his King and Father Vox populi cryed against our Saviour Crucifie him Crucifie him Vox populi called for the Golden Calf from whence to the silver-Smiths of Diana Scripture may teach us that Argumentum pessimi turba and that in Religion vox populi is rather vox Diaboli than Dei. Yet this vox populi must choose our Religion and Religion-makers but who gave the people power to choose the Kings writ for Elections then all power is not in the people nor can any Electors invest their Elected with the jus Tertii for nemo potest plus juris transferre in alium quam ipse habet the power of the Kings and of the Church being not in the peoples power to commit to their Trustees Laws
if they cannot be vvell till like the Vine-dressers in the Gospel they hate and mis-use the Lords Servants nay desire to kill the Heir that the Inheritance may be theirs vvhose blasted Posterity hath no little hopes of recruiting their scattered Estates out of the old Reserve of the Church Publick hatred being the ready vvay to make the Church-Lands their private prey For this purpose have the Lay-brethren continued the practice of their Faction in Q. Elizabeth's days in clapping silenced Ministers and Non-conformists and Lecturers on the back and follovving their Sermons setting them at the upper end of the Tables and seeking by all means to prvcure them Credit and Favor vvith the People not that they cared for them or for Religion or for Christ himself but hoping that by the violent Course vvhich they savv these men run into the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy vvould grovv so odious that it vvould in time be a small matter to dispossess them of all their Livings vvhereof some portion might come to their shares Which publick hatred of the Clergy was not a little increased upon a Jealousie occasioned by the Activeness of some Bishops and others of the Clergy in seeking by Law to recover some Church-revenue out of the Usurpers clutches otherwise mentioned in this Book that they began to argue if the Clergy should advance in the Favour of the King and the People their preaching against Sacriledge may prevail to the touching of their Copyholds and it 's the unhappiness of the Clergy that most of their Lands are occupied by Men grown too great by their Leases to be accounted Farmers and as much regreating the name of Tenants to such Landlords whom they think they may command And this bred the like hatred in London and other Incorporations and Nests of the Faction against the City-Clergy upon their suit for increase of Tithes in City-Livings which are generally of very small value and depend upon peoples Benevolence a thing of dangerous consequence in a Kingdom upon the Statute of Hen. 8. allowing two shilling nine pence per pound of the Rent of houses which Statute to evade the Lawyers and Scriveners have invented a plain Cheat by a Lease and a Lease that Houses of 50 l. Rent per Annum shall scarce pay 5 or 10 s. Tithe per Annum which so netled the Purse-proud Londoners accounting Tithes but as Gift or Alms that they would rather spend at Law or give a Lecturer of their own choice twice as much as their full Tithe came to than pay their Dues to the Parson a Word made their Scoff that Two shillings nine pence was an usual Nick name for any Divine as he walked through the Streets though the Clergy in their moderate Rates demanded not above twelve pence per pound and this seeking by Law to recover their due was call'd by the covetous World Tâ—â— covetousness of the Clergy 3. There was another sin of the Clergy as much talked of that was forsooth The Pride of the Clergy what was that Why Time having spent the old Stock of Sir John's planted into Churches in the hurly-burly days of Queen Elizabeth Illiterate Mechanicks and such who could but Write and Read and gather in Tithes for the Patron 's use with Curchees for some Wages for their Journey-work hereby villifying the Sacred Function as in these our Times and men of Worth and Learning sprung into their places Peace of the Church bringing Religion into request and Credit so that some Noblemen Gentlemen and men of Estates began to spend on their Children as much as would make them rich in another Calling only to fit them for the Priesthood besides Lands of Inheritance or money left as their Portions These were not like to betray the honour of the Church and of the Sacred Function to become the continual servants of men who especially in London thought Stipends of 40 l. per annum enough for any Clergy-man though he had Wife and Children Sir N. R. a Rich Alderman being desired to encrease his contribution to a Minister because he was a man of much Merit answered if the Minister were an Angel from Heaven he should have of him but ten shillings per Quarter And that any of the Clergy should be made Justice of the Peace or Officer of State as indeed who so fit to keep Love and Peace among Neighbours And I have heard the Officers and Retainers to the Treasury confess that they were never so well used as when a Bishop was Lard Treasurer was made such an Eye-sore in the Peoples Sight by the Faction especially the swarm of Lawyers not taken notice of though put into Commissions men of a meer Mercinary profession raising great Fortunes upon the Sins and Ruines of their Country unlike to prove Justices of Peace who live by â—â—aking Contention and Strife among Neighbours and from that small happy number of Lawyers in England Anno Domini 1555. which John Stow mentioned but two men of Law at the Kings Bench Bar and at the Common Pleas but one Serjeant yet had they nothing to do all that Michaelmas Term and yet no tempus belli have increased into an Incorporation of many thousands of rich and potent Leading men in all Corners of the Kingdom many advanced in the esteem of the People by their opposing the King's Prerogative under pretence of Law That not the King but their Law kept every man in his Right though since the King hath been eclipsed these seven years whom hath their Law kept in their Right Therefore when Judge Cook told King James that the Law kept the Crown upon his Head the King well replied Thou lyest Traytor it is I that maintain the Law And as malicious Enemies have too many Lawyers been to the Church knowing well that if the Clergy should grow into esteem and power to be Justices of the Peace they would plant in Charity and so spoil the Trade of Lawyers whose private gain hath been stiled the flourishing of the Law that not a Lawyer in a Parish but commonly was the Parson's busie Enemy and it is still in the Lawyers hearts and mouths that the Archbishop would have hindered their Law Did not such Interests facilitate belief he that had seen the habit of the Clergy in our days would wonder wherein lay the pride of the Clergy for who wore plainest Garments were most maligned but I forget the pride of the Wives of the Clergy in their Apparrel Those that were guilty I excuse not yet I must profess I knew very few thus justly taxed but such was the pride of English Women especially the Gentry that with much scorn and envy they would look at a Clergy-man's Wife if cloathed as well as themselves though their Birth and Portions and their Husband 's temporal Estate were known able to maintain it sometimes better than the other and in London every Woman whose Husband perhaps paid but twelve pence Tyth per Quarter thought
the Minister's Wife proud if clad better than her self and as for habit so for place and precedency every Gossip could prattle that a Ministers Wife had no place though the Law is that all Wives shall take place according to their Husbands These Petticoat Quarrels bred much envy to the Clergy but majorcum superbia with far greater pride And besides that Laici Clericis oppido sunt infesti 4. So generally peevish and fanaticiz'd were the people that not any particular discontent or personal Quarrel with any private Clergy-man but these Bishops these Parsons the whole Coat began their furious threats of Revenge and for these many years hath the opposing the Bishops or regular Clergy been made the sign of a Babe of Grace and a professor of pure Religion and since this Parliament been the ready way to preferment as the sure Character of a fast Friend to the Parliament that divers have not only been afraid to show their wonted Neighbourhood to their Parsons but have grown active against them only to secure themselves from suspicion of Malignancy by being known to converse with a Malignant or sequestred Minister These and such like matters have thickened the mists of scandalous Clergy◠and bringing in Popery cast before the Peoples eyes to widen the Breach into an impossibility of Reconciliation These seven years sad experience persuading me that the great Controversies of Christendome as of latter days so in elder Ages about the Arrian Heresie under Constantius Synod against Synod to revoke the Nicene Decrees and that other Division about the Celebration of Easter under Commodus were but some State Stalking-horses or at least maintained with such Vehemency for politick ends whereof Church History hath taken no Cognizance like the two Golden Calves of Presbytery and Independency set up in our days to cover Jeroboams policy for a new Government Presbytery being thought at first a Cloak large enough to serve all turns till new designs started up Independency both equally destructive to the old way which though woful experience hath proved the best way and most men at the bottom desire yet because it consisteth not with their rash temporal Ingagements they furiously oppose could we else think that Christians and Countrymen should engage in a Bloody Civil War to demolish a Cross or put down an innocent Ceremony to deshoy a Bishop of a Diocess and set a Pope in every Parish A meer Book-man of this Generation can find little difference above-board all sides professing they fight for the same things which surely made Dury and Dr. Mosely and Dr. Gibbons take so much pains and travel to seek Reconcilement in Religion but alas G. Cassander H. Grotius may write Votum pro pace Ecclesiastica Romish Priests may hazard their lives to reconcile Protestants and Protestants hope to convert Papists Church men may fast and pray and write and preach for Peace but all to no purpose Can they reconcile the King and the Pope's Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastical Can they secure a Rebell against a King in Power Can they make Agreement between Publick-Faith Debts and Bishops Lands and Delinquents Estates Take away Temporal Differences and Church Controversies among Christians might soon be ended for what have the engaged men of this Generation long whispered and now speak out to the Citizens desirous of a Treaty for Peace while the pretence is Religion should the King be restored to his Throne what security can they Traytors have for their Necks and Estates What shall become of their ordinance-Ordinance-Law Should Bishops come in again what shall become of our Moneys for the purchase of their Land The City Publick-Faith-Mongers tremble to think that their Debts will be desperate Souldiers say if peace come their Triumphs will be spoiled should the Kingdom be setled and every man enjoy his own the Fanatick Ministers cry out what shall they do who have intruded into other mens Livings These thoughts fright the Presbyterian Lecturers and the Assembly of Divines who these Twelve Months have been preaching against this Army into a zealous Union with this Independent Army yea with Turks or Jews or any Religion in the World consisting with their usurped possessions would they joyn rather than suffer the old Religion to be restored These these are the true Reasons that continue the differences of our Church to such a difficulty if not impossibility of reconcilement and when for such ends men have employed Conscience no wonder in presecution thereof what cruelty injustice and Tyranny is used as mediums for obtaining such wicked purposes whereof you have a small view in this following Discourse CHAP. III. What use the Fanaticks have made of Parliaments and the ways whereby that Faction in this Parliament and Kingdom have endeavoured to make the Clergy contemptible and odious to the people HOW old the Fanatick grudge is against the Church of England the Discourse of the Troubles of Frankford can tell the World and truly since Sacriledge hath been cryed up for Reformation hath that same Spirit of Darkness been tampering in Parliaments to make them their Engine for the work of destroying the Church under colour of Reformation that Archbishop Whitgift that holy meek man in Queen Elizabeth's days lying very sick and being told of a Parliament called out of his pious care for the Church prayed God that he might not live to see that Parliament as near as it was and God heard his Prayer and although as Lord Verulam confesseth the Parliament of England oweth some satisfaction for the many injuries and unjust oppressions formerly done by them to the Church yet since the first breach so thirsty were the Members after the remnant of the Church Lands few Parliaments but have rather sought to increase that debt till the Church be quite undone to this purpose how have the Fanaticks who for these many years have had the vogue of the people opening their mouths wide after any Game to which one of their Beagles should lead the trace superstitiously longed for Parliaments because their Plots and hopes were to pack them for their design against the King and Church as now they have done which made the Presbyterian Sectaries and all other sorts of Fanaticks so idolize this Parliament calling it the Perliament of their Prayers and a frequent Pulpit Title for the House of Commons was the House of Gods and the House of mortal Gods and truly they were an House of Gods like the Heathenish Roman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an House of Gods of all Countries the Images of English Sectaries for they do but represent and it 's but fitting that new Gods should have new Priests heaping up to themselves Teachers after their own hearts lusts no marvel then if the Ministers of Christ grow out of request and all the malice and slanders and cruelty of these new Gods be racked on those who would teach the people to serve the true God rather than men But God forbid but that the vvorld
should knovv vvhat arts of lying and slandering and false accusing to make the King and the faithful Clergy of England odious to the people has been raised as the Scaffolds to build this second Babel vvhich though no longer looked upon than vvhile in present use yet if faithfully recorded vvill be as precious Monuments in the Eyes of vvise men vvhen they shall see if God hath not given up this Nation to make Lyes their Religion Truth triumphing in the ruines of such ill founded Structures hovv this Fanatick Faction blasphemed their King I leave to better Pens though they used the same means therein as their experience had found serviceable for their vvicked ends against the Church vvhich devices I have collected out of their Printed Papers or mine ovvn Observations at Committees and elsevvhere The Foundation of the Fanatick Babel being laid by packing their Agents into this their forced Parliament as shall be hereafter declared and their long preparing of the people for their Work by setting the People a madding after this Parliament the whole Kingdom 's Ruine as I heard a London Divine in June 1642. accused at a full Committee to have prophesied as since it hath appeared That the Counties had chosen a Company of Hot-headed Men into the House of Commons who would prove the Ruine of this Kingdom The Foundation being thus laid the first Scaffold to the Building was made by railing Speeches within the Houses by Priviledge of Liberty of Speech to abuse any persons their King have not they spared by some particular Members stuffed full of malicious and bloody Eloquence Let the Sword reach from the North to the South quoth Sir Edward Deering rather than his phantastical new Church-Government should be hindered reviling the established Form of God's Service under which they were bred and born blasting the sacred Function of the Ministry of Christ by which they were made Christians and publishing those Speeches in Print on purpose to infect the People and fire their minds ready enough to catch any such Sparks and this railing against the Clergy was the only way to be made a Chairman of a Committee or to be designed for some great Preferment and to be the worshipful Golden Calves of the People the only Ambition of those popular Speech-makers who little dreaming of the Fanatick Plots as wise Statesmen as they pretended to be to which themselves opened the Gap kindled the fire which others of meaner condition but of different intentions blew up to such Flames as since hath burned the Kindler's own Nests The Lord Digby proclaimed Traytor banished and made the publick hatred of the Fanaticks The Lord Faulkland killed at Newberry Fight Mr. Nathaniel Fiennes condemned to die by Martial Law for the good service he had done the Parliament his Masters Sir Edward Deering who made this motion in the House of Commons with great applause to burn the late Canons made in the Convocation and stamped with the King's Authority by the Canon-makers own Hands not long after had those same his Speeches burned by the publick Hangman himself expelled the House and forced to flie the Fury of the People under a Priest's Coat and read Prayers in a Church for a disguise and became an earnest Suitor for a Deanery viz. of Canterbury when he had so railed against Deans and Chapters upon no other ground but report as himself confessed but missing this Preferment turned Apostate from the King to whom he had fled to those whom himself had called Rebells and Traytors yet rejected by them also for his labor and soon ended his days with grief and scorn Mr. Pym and John White the Libelling Centurist who died distracted crying out how many Clergy-men their Wives and Children he had undone and others have been cut off in the midst of their rage against God's Ministers Fair warnings to other such like Rabshekahs who yet have time to repent But these Speeches so applauded and other men imitating them made a fair way for a second Story of the same Scaffolding for this new Building by Remonstrances and Declarations published in the name of the House of Commons which usually ranked the Papists and the Clergy together as Enemies to the Kingdom and in that mid-night Remonstrance in the name of the House of Commons Assembled in Parliament was it in terminis laid down That none of the Clergy were preferred but those who preached wickedness and profaneness yet was no particular person named nor truly could be named guilty of so heavy a charge but Audacter Calumniari haerebit aliquid was their Plot and all the miseries and Grivances of the Kingdom were laid on the Bishops and the Prelatical Party as the new phrase was when the Authors of that Black Remonstrance knew that the Clergy of the Church of England had not nor could have any Vote or hand in those matters they being such of which the Clergy did equally complain which besides the House of Commons voting the Clergy in Convocation guilty of a Praemunire accusing also twelve Bishops of High Treason committed to the Tower on purpose only to stop their Mouths from claiming their Priviledges which as part of the Parliament belong unto them was enough to have raised hatred to a second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 considering the Religious Faith the people then had of the Reports of their new Gods as Pulpits call'd the House of Commons which so far possessed a Gentlewoman used to their Lectures that she durst not in Conscience take Phystek-without an Order of Parliament from the House of Commons such a Brother we read of in Dodona's Grove who would not believe his Creed because there was no Act of Parliament for it And at the beginning of this blessed Parliament did the Fanatick Faction in the House of Commons Print and publish a foisted Order carefully dispersing the Copies throughout the Kingdom in the Name of the House of Commons assembled in Parliament to stir up indeed to invite all active men as they phrased the men of their Tribe to accuse Ministers making this one crime and scandal to be complained of That a Clergy-man had two Livings though according to the Laws of the Land Which Order though disclaimed within the Walls of the House of Commons yet not countermanded by any publick Act of the House so willing were all sorts of men in the House to see the Clergy abused notwithstanding that high affront and dishonour of their House so wrought abroad in all parts of the Kingdom that not any Knave or Fool in a Parish whom reproof for sins had made the Ministers Enemy but now thought himself commanded yes and bound in Conscience to obey to fly in the Face of Gods Minister and his Spiritual Father that within a short space above two thousand Petitions were brought in against the Clergy so readily had they pack'd their business two or three of the Fanatick avowed Instruments in a Parish presenting Petitions constantly styled The Petition of
and the latter part was proved because a Bishop said that he would hinder Mr. Burton's Prohibition but did not hinder it as Burton there confessed these were the only Proofs of such high Charges there alledged to make Episcopacy and the Bishops odious and as if all these ways were not â—now to make the Clergy of England stink in the Nostrils of a seduced people let the world consider what scandalous Libels have been written by the Fanaticks against the Clergy and those Authorized by the Parliament among multitudes to name but one though in that hundred I mean the first Century written by Mr. John White a Lawyer and a great Chair-man for Religion with an Epistle canting in Scripture phrase applying the words of the Holy Ghost to the proper works of the Devil who is called the envious man and the accuser of the Brethren hear this John White generally charging the Clergy of England to be dumb Dogs men swallowed up with Wine and strong Drink whose Tables are full of Vomit Whoremongers Adulterers Buggerers that change the natural use into that which is against Nature Priests of Ball Bacchus Priapus c. Horrid Crimes or horrid Slanders Did ever any Popish Jesuite so revile the Clergy of England I need not pray the Lord rebuke him for God hath long since cut him off in the midst of his rage against the Church such ungodly practices raving rnd condemning himself at his dying hour for his undoing so many guiltless Ministers and let any man judge if that first and only Example of Buggery prove not John White and his Abettors the true Sons of the Father of Lyes who was a Lyar from the beginning for either the party was found not guilty why then sequestred Or guilty why then not punished by death according to Law It is not to be imagined that the Fanaticks would conceal the shame of any Clergy-man when they so raked each Dunghill and corner to discover it but that such an instance if proved should have been triumphantly stretched to further their glorious Reformation and whether the party so accused was not some years before this Parliament cleared by the Justices of the Peace for Sussex who sifted out that Fanatick Plot against him as one of those Justices told me I refer the Reader to the then Justices of that County but for a general Answer to that scandalous Libel this Truth without question may be said That not any one person in that Century hath had any legal Tryal at all but condemnati quoniam accusati and the Justice of these times is satis est accusare otherwise what man in his Wits could believe that Adulteries Fornications and such deeds of Darkness could be proved as this John White affirmeth in the Margin of his Epistle by seldom less than six or seven Witnesses unless so many saw what this vvorthy Member did with his Neighbours Wife in White Fryars which made his ovvn Wife so jealous of this Mr. White her Husband But why suspition of incontinency only from looks as in that Century Example 49. or from leading vvomen into dark places as Example 18. by one vvhose house standeth in a dark Alley in London or vvhy to be seen in company vvith Papists vvhich the Lavv requires of Clergy-men as in Example 75. and 88. should be such Charges and Crimes as to ruine a man and his vvhole Family or used as an Argument to make the whole Clergy odious let any Christian judge I have been present vvhen a grave and learned Divine hath been accused at a Committee for an Adulterer and a Drunkard the proof of the former was only kissing a Woman in the presence of Company and the other was the drinking of only one half Pint of Wine and so unchristian a scrutiny hath been made for accusations and pretended proofs of Crimes against the persons of the Clergy that besides Accusers and those known Schismaticks and Adversaries allow'd to be both Parties and Judges and Witnesses also Agents in Parishes have baen employed in going from house to house with Parliament Warrants summoning and terrifying all Men and Women nay Servants I have knovvn it vvhom they could hear vvere acquainted vvith such Ministers and at Committees the Neighbours and familiar Friends so summoned have been urged ex officio to speak not only to Articles laid in Petitions but also have had their Consciences sifted to make them confess some Crime or Report or suspition of a Crime If the Parish afforded no Evidence nor their old Acquaintance down they sent in some mens Causes to the University to hunt out some Scandal in the time of their Ministers abode there nor have some Clergy mens Lives and Conversation from their Cradle been left unsearched I could name particulars to get something vvhereof to accuse a Clergy-man at the Parliament So that any Report of a Crime committed tvventy years before this Parliament as in that Century Example 58. or before taking of Holy Orders or being possessed of a Church or any Crime which Justice had long since taken cognizance of and censured as Example 72. or any rash vvords never so privately spoken have been novv reaped up to make a Ministers scandal and the whole Ministery scandalous Another trick of false Accusing accounted a just way of charging Clergy-men vvas a fallacious vvresting of Words quite contrary to the sense of the Preacher A Reverend Doctor whom I could name vvas accused in Parliament that he had Preached about fourteen years before this Parliament that the Bishops when they took away the Mass took away all Religion upon hearing the Doctor produced the Sermon and made it appear that he Preached at that time it being the publick Assizes at York that men must not think that the Bishops when they took away the Mass took away all Religion Another Divine was accused of Popery viz. that he had Preached that the intention of the Priest was of the Essence of the Sacrament when he Preached it only Historicè and confuted the Opinion at the same time But if no proofs could be found of Crimes and Vitious Conversation in a Clergy man then came in the politick Counsel of the Heathenish Presidents against Daniel We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel except we find it against him concerning the Law of his God under the made odious crimes of Innovations Superstition Popery a Sin not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without transgression of any Law Statute Act of Parliament Order or Ordinance of both or either Houses nor would the Faction publish any Rule to measure what should be accounted Innovations Superstition or Popery and what not but with these false Traces they cunningly kept up the loud Cries of their People against the Clergy making thereby so large a Snare that not the most zealous Protestant Divines who had been all their Life times preaching against Popery and Superstition could possibly escape if but accused Good God! can Posterity if they may be
suffered to be Christian have so much Faith as to believe that in the face of a Christian Nation nay nay a pure Reforming Religious Christian Parliament the Ministers of Jesus Christ should be doomed to ruine for saying in effect Christianus suum See here a Catalogue of Crimes charged upon the Clergy collected out of the first Century authorized to be Published in Print by the Parliament Bowing at the name of Jesus Examples 33. 43. Setting up the name Jesus in the Church Ex. 72. 83. Preaching against Sacriledge Ex. 22. Bowing the Body in Gods House Ex. 7. Assisting the King and exhorting Subjects so to do Ex. 33. 43. Reading the Kings Proclamation in Churches according to the Kings Command Ex. 28. 34. 52. Appointing the 43. Psalm to be sung Ex. 29. Preaching against not coming to their own Parish Church Ex. 21. 35. 38. Reading and having Popish Books Ex. 88. 55. Seen in Company with Papists Ex. 88. It were endless to reckon particulars in this kind of Accusations as wearing the Surplice using Ceremonies praying for Bishops all now cryed down for Superstition and Popery But in every Petiton Malignancy against the Parliament was the Burden of the Song this indeed made any Doctrines to be censured Superstition and Popery a Crime would puzzle all the Divines and Lawyers in Christendom to expound were they Strangers to the Proceedings of this Faction this Malignancy being nothing else but for Subjects to be suspected of being constant in Religion towards God and Loyalty towards their King this is the unquestionable definition of Malignancy against the Parliament and what Christian much more a Clergy-man would plead not guilty to these objected Crimes or be ashamed of these condemned Popish Doctrines And when by these tricks they had cruelly committed many of the Clergy into noysome Prisons forcing others to fly the like cruelty by forsaking their Habitations and Estates their Wives and Children they sequestred them for non Residence first force them to fly and then to punish them for flying It 's pity to omit their pretty fashion of sequesting Mr. Freeman of London It is this day ordered by the Committee for plundered Ministers that all the Profit of James Garlick-hithe be sequstred into the Hands of c. from Mr. Freeman the present Incumbent till cause be shewn to the contrary O the excellent Justiceof the new Saints of the Reforming People of God! executed by Club-law and by the Sword of War which these weak Christians by the help of a mis-guided Commonwealth-Party have raised to empower themselves to force the Consciences of all men now themselves are grown so strong to a new Covenant the Fanaticks last Engine to ruine the Church and to destroy the Clergy Root and Branch A Solemn League and Covenant the Fanatick Antichristian Idol set up in the Temple of God hung up in all the Churches of London a Covenant like that in Isaiah with Death and an Agreement with Hell A Covenant made by the Fanaticks of two Nations in defiance to God and the King to the Destruction of the Religion of their own Mother Church and of all Loyalty to their King the Father of their Country A scandalous Covenant maliciously studied and laid for a meer Snare and Rock of Offence to the Estates and Consciences of the Clergy and People of God that Scandal in the Abstract Scandalum datum praebens proximo occasionem ruinae the proper work of the Devil insomuch that at a general Summons of the Gentry and remnant of the Clergy of the County of Surrey for the taking this Covenant some chief Actors of the Faction when they saw that with several Salvo's and Liberty to take it in any sence with mental Reservations and considerations that it was but a forced Oath and such like mincings many men and some of the Clergy loving this present World took the same said they were sorry to see some take it whose Estates they hoped to have caught by this Hook And although the Authors of the Covenant knew the Clergies greater Obligations than other men by Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy to the King and by Oaths of Canonical Obedience and by several Subscriptions upon Record to the present Church and by their stricter Tie of Conscience and greater knowledge of the Function of Episcopacy from whence themselves received their own Holy Order which from our Saviours and the Apostles days was without Interruption for 1500 years and still is continued in all Christian Churches where Rebellion started not the Scruple and the Sword ever since maintains the Heresie yet none were so much pressed and urged to take this Covenant in Terminis to destroy Bishops as were the Clergy and the refusal thereof was ipso facto loss of any Clergy-man's Livings and Livelyhood nay so barbarous were this Faction that their Committee for Composition at Goldsmiths Hall would not admit the Lord Bishop of Winchester lately deceased to compound for his sequestred Temporal Estate for no compounding for Spirituals is allowed but Sequestration is indeed Deprivation with these men unless he would take the Covenant and swear to destroy himself and his own sacred Function yet these were the men who have so cried out against Oaths ex officio and against forcing the Consciences of men and give this reason why the Liturgy must be taken away because it gave Offence to some mens Consciences and these are the men who cried down the Clergy for Innovations and now punish them because they will not move but as these Fanaticks have rigidly practised all those things which themselves so much abhorred teaching the World a new Art how to commit any villany securely by first railing against that Sin which they intend to commit so may they be a warning to all Christian Princes how they suffer the Church or State-Goverment to be spoken against be the pretence never so pious or seemingly Religious CHAP. V. A view of the New Judges of the thus accused Clergy their condition and their judging of Doctrines in their Committees for Religion de facto de jure HAving given the world a short view by which the rest may be guessed of the Fanaticks arts and tricks of making the Clergy their adversaries and inventing accusations against them whom as hainous Malefactors they have taken upon them to judge as they pretend by Law and by the Justice and Wisdom of the High Court of Parliament for Reformation of Religion it 's not unseasonable to shew the world a true Character of these great Judges in their personal Relations as well as their political capacity of judging de facto de jure And surely men who were strangers to the designs of this Faction would think by the high strains of publick Acts pretending Reformation of Religion there were some Oecumenical Counsel now sitting or at least some great Convocation of Grave and Learned Bishops and Clergy of England who were wont to have the judiciary power in Church-matters long before
having made the distinction between the Kings Prerogative and the Subjects propriety between Church and Common-wealth as well as between meum tuum among fellow-Subjects and were the Kingdom Elective as England was never yet well might that Roman Emperours Speech be applyed Vestrûm quidem erat eligere pòst autem meum est imperare vestrum est obedire But that all power of the Church in Doctrine and Discipline should be originally in the people that is the rude multitude is a new opinion framed by affection and made Religion by politick engagements only to serve the present designs for now the Fanatical Lecturers having obtained their ends against the Bishops by vox populi their own Doctrine dispute the power with their Lay-masters in Parliament who by their help getting the Sword and by that the strongest power are not like to forego the same upon Vox populi But did not violence so crowd up this Lay-Parliament and Committee for Religion that in their Chairs no room is left for Gods word to take place they might know that the Priests lips shall preserve knowledge and not the peoples lips and that by tying up the lips of the Priests Gods Law saith Deut. 17. v. 8. That man which shall do presumptiously and not hearken to the Priest shall dye Nor did the people teach the Apostles but surely the Apostles taught the people and Ruled over the people in Word and Doctrine since to them Christ gave the Keys Christus dedit non populus Otherways St. Pauls Rod was a meer brag and so was his jurisdiction the rest will I set in order when I come which also he commended to Timothy and Titus and the other Bishops and Deacons for governing the Church whereof the first Synod at Jerusalem consisted and to prevent the mistake of Lay-Elders in that Synod it 's said afterwards of Judas and Silas that they also were Prophets and of the Clergy were all general Counsels of Christendome made up to whom Constantine said judiciary power especially in Doctrines did belong and this was the established Law of the Christian world the benefit whereof St. Ambrose pleaded against Auxentius and it 's known upon such grounds Luther refused the judgment of the Emperours Court appealing to a Counsel concerning his Doctrine The word Presbyter almost Englishing itself Priest as was the Ecclesiastical sense of the word both in the New Testament and Ancient Writers both Christian and Heathen which Amianus Marcellinus a meer Historian describeth Christiani ritus Presbyter never Englished in the Grammatical sense till design translated it so in our English Testament and by those Translators never intended to be wrested to Lay-Elders as the non-Doctors of this Generation will have it to signifie But I forget my self that I dispute against a Sword and such Adversaries who told their King they sate not to be ruled by Presidents but to make Presidents to the world and truly they have been as good as their word But I hope they will regard the judgment of a Protestant Martyr in this case for the shedding of whose Blood the Parliament made an Ordinance for repentance when the Papists in Queen Maries Raign urged Mr. John Rogers that the Parliament had established the Romish Religion of what force said this godly Martyr may we think these Parliaments are which establish contrary Laws to condemn that for evil which before they had decreed for good it's better to obey God rather than man making Religion which like Tullies Lex Naturae nec tolli nec abrogari potest become Leges Seiae Apuleiae quae unico Senatus versiculo puncto temporis sublatae sint And should the House of Commons assume this power in Religion Religion like Englishmens clothes would ever be cutting into some new fashion as any Faction ariseth in the Kingdom but that this Faction in Parliament may blind the eyes of the world indeed to strengthen and support themselves till they should become absolute Masters of England when they had been long tampering with Religion at last they found policy necessitating them some need of using Clergy-men yet in such a monstrous way as the Christian world never heard the like by a new thing called an Assembly of Divines not summoned by the Kings Writ and Authority expresly against the Statute of Hen. 1. nor chosen by the Clergy but plucked out of each Members pocket and by vertue of Hocus pocus jugled into a Conventicle-Synod on purpose for all forced Synods have ever more of private interest than the publick good of the Church to help out with some new Religion as their Masters which hired them with 4 s. per diem shall appoint Yet lest these Divines such as they be New-Englanders Amsterdamians Pedants and Trencher Chaplains to whom were some ten learned Clergy-mens names joyned as Seals who never came there in person should take any authority to themselves the Faction in Parliament have jusled in Thirty of their Lay-Members another Vote can make them thirty more as Members of this Linsy-woolsie Synod to help up a side but to make all sure their Parliament Masters have ordered that this Assembly yoaked like an Oxe and an Ass to till the Holy-Land must meddle only with what shall be propounded to them from the Houses of Parliament and when all is done their conclusions shall not bind till the Parliament give leave and consent and saith the Ordinance not Law whereby this Learned Synod is created and bridled these Divines must tell them what is most agreeable to Gods word and when the Parliament is thus certified what Gods Law is the House of Commons will vote whether it shall be obeyed or no Such an Omnipotency over Gods Law over the Church and the King hath this Faction usurped since this Parliament to plant in Christs Kingdom and the power of Religion and Reformation as their specious pretences at first were turning the Spanish cloak of Religion into the English Proverb of playing the Devil for Gods sake CHAP. VI. The Censures of these Judges against the Clergy and the true reason thereof THese are the Grapes of this long-promised Fanatical Canaan gathered from such pretended holy-Thistles at whose growth while some labourers in Gods harvest too late repenting connived doubting that they were some weak and tender Vine-branches and others of more discerning spirits seeking to weed them out pricked their own fingers they grew like Jothams bramble such Kings over the Trees that they have banished the Vine and the Olive peace and plenty and to plant in the stinking Elder have burned up the goodly Cedars of the Church root and branch and the field of Christs wheat choaked with the tares which the envious man hath been long sowing in this Land now grown to their harvest to whose sheaf like Josephs dream must every sheaf make obeisance else the upstart bramble-King sends fire to devour them as it hath already torn the whole coat of the Clergy as
as the onely hinderers of Reformation of Religion thereby indeed to lessen the numbers of Votes likeliest to oppose the Fanatick Faction These Tumults daily increasing upon the countenance they found from the Parliament where they were bid to come like men that is with Swords by the Rabble of Porters and Apprentises daily sent by their Masters but chiefly by their Mistresses with Clubs and Swords to cry for Reformation at the Parliament-doors The Faction in London having also combined to shut up their Shops for many days together and perswaded others to do the like upon some pretended fears but the truth was to make the poor people in and about the City a pretence to mutiny for want of work so heightned the Faction in the House of Commons that they sent up Mr. Hollis to the House of Peers to demand the Names of the dissenting Lords that so they might expose them to the peoples fury as they posted the dissenting Members of the House of Commons in the case of the Earl of Strafford The Ring-leaders still to the Rout were Dr. Burges the onely scandal to his profession in all London as his Parishioners of Watford can tell and the Spiritual Courts of London-Diocess also Capt. Ven who sent Tickets by Porters and Emissaries to raise these Myrmidons and Sir Richard Wiseman who with this confused Army assaulting the Bishop of Lincoln's house in Westminster had his brains dashed out with a stone from the wall and was buried at the collected charges among the Apprentises The House of Peers thus daily assaulted without and wanting no false Brethren within was not like to hold out any long Siege the very doors and Lobby and entries being so crowded with the Tumults that none can pass in or out without a kind of leave from the Assailants who upon the word given of the approach of any popish or disaffected Lord as the phrase was would in derision cry out Rome Rome but when any whom they accounted well-affected was to pass by they would cry Make way Make way a free Parliament all this while insomuch that some Lords had their Cloaks torn from their backs at the Parliament-doors Nor could the Bishops one of the three Estates in Parliament or Popish Lords as they called them come to the House without apparent hazard of their persons which made the Bishops as Pares Regni solemnly to protest against all Acts done in their absence till the Parliament should be restored to liberty as Mr. Speaker hath lately done and the Members who lately fled to the Army upon their return have nullified all Votes Orders Ordinances made since their forced absence by like City-Tumults in the year 1647. Hereupon the faction in the House of Commons furiously impeach the protesting Bishops of High-Treason and twelve Bishops were at once committed to the Tower to gag their Mouths that they might be easilier robbed of their Votes and Purses as afterwards they were the Treason not yet proved The Bishops and Popish Lords thus thrown out of the Parliament and the rest of the Royal Nobility terrified were forced to withdraw themselves from the Parliament leaving the Vote of the House of Peers to the Faction galloping in its fury yet for all those affronts done by the City-Tumults at the Parliament-doors to shew how truely it hath been ever said of the Fanatick That he will not Swear but he will Lie as also the assaulting of that Loyal Lord-Mayor's house by the same Tumults in the midst of the City and notwithstanding their furious marching through the City in return from the Parliament-house whose Guard they called themselves and bragged how they were thanked by the Members for their love to the Parliament with Links and loud Clamours timely alarming the Goldsmiths of Cheapside to shut up their Shops and notwithstanding the nightly Tumults about pulling down Cheapside-Cross and the Trained-Bands marching day and night about the City to keep the peace A Coopers Apprentice on Breadstreet-hill pulling off the Legs of our Saviour's Picture on the East-end of the Cross in the act fell on the Iron-bars but told his Master that some of the Watchmen hurt him with an Halbert concealing the truth till after ten days torture seeing no hope of life with horrour he confessed his fact lamenting Gods judgment upon him and died of the wound whose death so terrified the Tumults from that action that they never attempted the Cross any more upon my own knowledge And in the first of King Charles when the same Cross was beautified a Fanatick who broke the Neck of the Babe in the lap of the blessed Virgin within three nights after had his Neck broke and left dead in the streets near the Cross no man knowing how it came to pass At Tukesbury in Gloucestershire I have seen the Grave of a reforming Zealot who demolished the Cross and made the Cross-stone wherein was our Saviour's Picture an Hog-trough All the Piggs and the Sow which drank therein died the first night and the man drowned himself in a Well over an Hog-trough which stood by the Well as the Spiritual Court of Gloucester can witness and many yet living in Tukesbury can justifie this story Yet did the Faction in Parliament tell the King and the world in print in answer to the Kings complaining of those Tumults That they saw no Tumults but that the concourse in Westminster-hall used to be as great in Term-time By these means the Fanatical Faction in the Parliament having conquered the Vote of both Houses and forced the King to fly began soon to declare their Legislative power in publishing their imperative Vote That the Subjects of England were bound to obey the Ordinances of both Houses of Parliament as a Law in case the King should deny his Royal Assent But knowing such Votes were not like to find universal obedience as their designes required the next and last thing they entred upon was power to execute those Votes which their success by the late Tumults ready for a War heightned them to demand under pretence of putting the Militia of the Kingdom into such hands as the Parliament that is the Fanatical Faction should think fit which to obtain one would think it might spend the faith of a Christian to believe what ridiculous fears and jealousies of Invasions from abroad and secret dangers at home were suddainly bruited by the Faction up and down the Kingdom Fears of Invasions by the Danes by the French by the Irish fears of Papists in London when the Faction knew they had scarce left one in the City but in Prisons Mr. Pym's Plague-plaister the discovering of a Plot by a Taylor in a Ditch fears of blowing up the Thames with Gun-powder to drown the City and Parliament the House of Commons fired by Papists an Army of Papists at Black-heath in Kent an Army of Papists in Lancashire Horses trained under ground at Ragland the Midnight Alarm in London and parts adjacent that the King was
grant Order after Order yet all is to no purpose for say the Committee we must not displease our Friends they mean their Masters who under pretence of long prayers can devour whole houses and starve other mens Wives and Children by invading their possessions kept from the right Owners by Club-law And truely their Ordinance for the fifth part doth generally prove but a meer mockery to the Wives and Children of the Clergy in the midst of their heavy Persecution and a Snare to draw them into expence of their last groat in hopes to get their so-fairly-promised morsel that as I have known very few obtain it effectually so have many of them after some years of chargeable and vexatious attendance been wearied out buying at too dear a rate their Repentance of believing of hoping for any Justice or mercy from the Fanatical Faction From whom may all Gods people pray Good Lord deliver us FINIS De Legib. lib. 2 Hosea 4. 4. 2 Chron. 36. 16. * Mr. Stone of Saint Clements Eastcheap sent Prisoner to Plymouth by Shipping Mr. Chislen of St. Mathews Friday-street sent Prisoner to Colchester Castle Doctor Griffith committed to Newgate and divers others * Dr. Martin and Dr. Stern Masters of Colledges in Cambridge Doctor Fairfax of St. Peters Cornhil ‖ Divers starved to Death in Winchester-House †Dr. Raughleigh Dean of Wells murdered by his Jaylor Dr. Antil wounded and died of his wounds in Taunton Castle The sury of these Times have forced the concealing of some Persons and Circumstances for theirs and the Authors security Strada de Bello Belg. Hist of the Council of Trent Survey ch 20. Arch-bishop Laud's Speech In the Star Chamber Bishop Ross's Scottish Declaration 1648. Unparallel'd Reasons by Nat. Fiens Lord Say's second Speech Survey of Discipline cap. 11. * Bishop Jewel in his Sermon to the Queen †Bancrofts Survey of Discipline Socr. schol lib. 2. Euseb lib. 5. cap. 21. Mr. Calamy Dr. Temple ◠Tim 4. 3. In Lyme-street in London Sir H. S. St. Michael Cornhil St. Giles Cripplegate Vide vitam Jacobi Andre◠Dr. Halsy Dr. Fell. Miles Corbet Chairman against Mr. Brooks Sir Henry Mildway and Mr. Ash against Dr. Walton Dr. John Cousins †Mr. Nicols Mr. Edwards against Dr. W. before the Fanaticks had driven out the more moderate Party from the House of Commons Dr. D. In the Margin of that Epistle Quorum esse videre est esse bibere Jer. 5. Rom. 26. Isaiah 28. 7. Daniel 6. 5. Preface to the Directory * Mr. Brookes of Yarmouth Dr. Sterne * Mr. Rous. * Mr. Cheslen of St. Matthew Friday-street Cicero delegibus lib. 1. * Mr. Vaughan Dr. Cosin * Mr. Adams In Durham The Observator Seneca de vitâ beat 2. Malachi 7. Deut. 17. 8. 1 Cor. 11. Acts 15. Fox 3. pag. 127. old Edition Lord Sayes Laws Judges 9. R. Barns T. Gerrard S. Jeronimus Martin Mar-prelate †Admonition to Parliament answered by Dr. Whitgift Vorax written by Stub a Lawyer brother-in-Brother-in-law to T. Cartwright * Dr. Chap. to Field 1587. Everights horse whom they had borrowed for Faux er tull adversus Marcion lib. 4. History of the Counsel of Trent * Old Jury Kings Declaration 12 Aug. Oxford mungrel-Mungrel-Parliament Jan. 1641. Sir Rich. Gurny The policy in abolishing Liturgy Survey of Discipl cap. 21. N. D. or 3 conversions of England 3 part pag. 149. Fox Acts and Non. To Dr. Martin they sent a Ticket in Prison at Ely-house who desired them to take the twentieth part so that they would promise to send him the remaining nineteen parts of that Estate which they supposed him to have The Wife of Dr. P. hath been 3 years to the expence of almost 100 l. to obtain her fifth part but could not prevail
THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. A View of the Fanatick Faction of England As also the Ends and Reasons of publishing these Papers in these Times Pag. 1. CHAP. II. A Brief of the divers Ends in desiring to have this Parliament called Of the true Cause of the Contempt and Hatred of the Clergy among the People and what makes the Churches differences irreconcileable p. 3. CHAP. III. What use the Fanaticks have made of Parliaments and the ways whereby that Faction in this Parliament and Kingdom have endeavoured to make the Clergy contemptible and odious to the people p. 8. CHAP. IV. The Fanaticks Arts of framing Accusations to the Parliament against the Clergy and their manner of proving their Charges p. 12. CHAP. V. A View of the New Judges of the thus accused Clergy Their condition and their judging of Doctrines in their Committees for Religion De facto de jure p. 17. CHAP. VI. The Censures of these Judges against the Clergy and the true Reason thereof p. 21. CHAP. VII Of Parliamentary changes in Religion Of the Policy and ways for the destruction of Religion by this Parliament wrought by the long conspiracy and combination of the Fanaticks of England here laid open p. 26. CHAP. VIII A concluding Parallel between the Popish Persecution in Q. Mary's time and this Fanatical Persecution p. 35. PERSECVTIO VNDECIMA Or The CHURCHES Eleventh Persecution Being a Brief of the Fanatick Persecution OF THE PROTESTANT CLERGY OF THE Church of England More particularly within the City of LONDON Begun in Parliament Anno Dom. 1641. And Printed in the Year 1648. But they mocked the messengers of God and misused his Prophets till the wrath of God arose against his people and there was no remedy II. Chron. chap. 36. vers 16. Re-Printed in the Year 1681. And are to be sold by Walter Davis in Amen-Corner near Pater-Noster-Row CHAP. I. A View of the Fanatick Faction of England As also the End and Reasons of publishing these Papers in these Times WHat miseries the Fanatick Faction so long lying like the Canaanites as Thorns in the sides of our Israel would bring upon this Nation England wanted not Ezechiels Watchmen to foretel and the Story of these Times hath proved their Prophesies wanted no Truth but Quos perdere vult Jupiter eos dementat prius Otherwise it were strange to think that of two Factions viz. Papists and Fanaticks mortally hating each other distinctly incorporated from the Church of England and both of them destructive to it the one like cunning Pick-pockets should set the Eyes of the people so busily to look after the Religion of the other and in the mean time rob them of their own and by the same Principles like Firebrands in the Tails of Sampsons Foxes looking divers ways alike endanger the Established Religion The one Faction was made most odious to the people the other seemed most Religious and the due execution of Penal Laws against Popish Recusants hath been accounted Zeal and Justice but any legal Penalties inflicted on Fanatick Recusants was cryed down for Cruelty and Tyranny and made the Judges reproach nor would the people endure to hear the name of Fanatick Dissenters mentioned in a Pulpit which now to drown together with their own folly in countenancing or non-conceiving the Fanaticks designs the more Loyal Party have invented the new name of Round-head the Nobility Gentry and generally all sorts of people accounting the Fanatick Faction a simple inconsiderate Party well meaning People tender Conscienced Christians such as deserved pity rather than punishment little remembring our Saviours Caveat against Wolves in Sheeps clothing which in Demosthenes Fable laying all the breach of publick Peace between them and the Sheep upon the Dogs which were set to watch the Sheep-folds till the seduced Sheep for quietness sake delivering up their Keepers for a Sacrifice to the Wolves too late found their own Folds exposed to such danger as Wisdom might have easilier prevented than it could afterward remedy What else have the causeless clamours of the Fanaticks meant for this many years against the Bishops and the Clergy of England who in our Saviours phrase of Pasce oves watched over the Flock of Christ but to smite the Shepherd that so the Sheep might be scattered Like that of Tully Civium perditorum scelere pulsus à Delubris is qui illa servarat Religionum Jura polluta in Larium sedibus edificatum est Templum licentiae And what havock hath been made among the Sheep since the City-Fanatick-Tumults cryed out No Bishops and armed Fury hath forced thousands of the Clergy from their Flocks the almost Ruines of the Church and of three Kingdoms sufficiently witnesses a just Judgement of God upon a People long contending with their Priests and mocking and mis-using the Prophets and Messengers of God till like the Jews the wrath of God fell upon them and there was no remedy and all this vengeance executed by a generation of Vipers eating out the Bowels of their Mother Church and Country wherein they have long lurked stiling themselves for above twenty years last past I can witness the only people of God the Meek of the Earth Christs little Flock Weak Brethren crying out against Bloud-thirsty Papists for taking up Arms against Kings and Princes and who but those Fanaticks the devout observers of the Fifth of November their only Holy-day in hatred of the Gunpowder Treason though that Gunpowder was never carried in Bandaliers and fired in the Face of the King for the safety of his Person and their daily Sermons were against Persecution yet now themselves weak Christians till so well Arm'd are become the only and most bloody Persecutors having slain more thousands of Protestants in England under colour for fighting for the Protestant Religion than Queen Mary condemned Scores within the like compass of years The truth is the Fanaticks of England have long conceited themselves to be the only people of God like the Jews and a man might swear by their Actions they are Jews indeed and not Christians and all other men not of their Tribe to be the wicked of the World and Gods Enemies Egyptians and Amalekites That so whatever favour was done to any of their Faction they thought themselves nothing beholden to any man for it but they would say God Decreed them to do it so that they could do no otherwise and what ever Justice was done to any of their Tribe was accounted cruelty and persecution of Gods people But whatever Injustice or Cruelty they acted upon their Neighbours better Christians in good sooth than themselves they called it Justice and Zeal for Gods Glory fulfilling Gods Decree and can in their Canting Language the Language of Canaan as they stiled their abusing of Scripture phrase flatter themselves that they must wash their Feet in the Blood of the ungodly and binding Kings in Chains and their Nobles with Links of Iron sit smiting their fellow Servants and fellow Subjects against
the Law while they pretended to Judge according to the Law this being the Old Character of A Fanatick a Strangers Angel a Neighbours Plague a Saint Abroad a Devil at Home but his Children ye are saith our Saviour whose works ye do The Devil was a Lyar from the beginning and the Accuser of the Brethren and who have done the works of such a Father you may here know by a taste of the First Fruits Sower Grapes of their long promised Canaan a glimpse of their Clergy-hating the Foundation of Fanatick-Babel-Reformation and what an Harvest of misery to this Nation hath followed such beginnings when Judgement begins at Gods House may be gathered into Volumes by better Pens It 's enough from a private Hand in such Times as these if any short Copy can be set forth for others to follow and to shew the Fanaticks that all men do not sleep but some stand watching still to give the World warning of such Hypocrites especially considering that is no Records of the particulars of the Tyranny of these Times hath been extant to the World though all honest Protestants have much desired it Time indeed not bearing Truth from a Protestant hand As also considering the multitude of Scandalous Pamphlets Parliament Speeches Centuries Declarations published all and faced with Authority of Parliament the Supreme Court of Justice in England Title enough to charm the World especially Posterity into a belief of such Authentick Records should no particular Counter-work of Truth be left to oppose such slanders For as yet there is none and probably if either an Act of Oblivion should happen or time waste away the present Clergy who by reason of the fury of this Age dare not write their own Sufferings nor by reason of their being so scatter'd can bring them to a general Collection never any may come forth whereby the Fanatick lyes and shameful slanders of the Clergy of this Generation would pass for currant Truths when as the Faction themselves know and cannot but acknowledge as I have heard some of them say that they could never have taken a worse time against the Bishops of England whose personal honest Lives Learning and Piety was so eminent that indeed it made clamours against them the more violent like that against our Saviour Away with him away with him when the Question was asked what evil hath he done that so they might remove them by Tumults against whom they could not work their Designs by Law And for the persecuted Clergy of the Church of England I am confident it is their hearty desire and I dare in their Names make this solemn Appeal to Posterity if ever God send times for Justice in England that after so cruel and barbarous sufferings by banishments and manifold imprisonments some in noysome and foreign Jayles among Thieves and Felons Some in Ships under Decks neer smothered Some starved and dead in Prison others murdered in Prison All of them sequestered spoiled of their Goods and Estates and Houses to the ruine of their Wives and Children also that they might obtain a legal Tryal to know what evil they have done that it may appear whether scandalous Accusers and scandalous Judges have not made a scandalous Clergy and not found them such This being left them their only comfort in their Miseries that they suffer as Christians not as Evil Doers but for Righteousness sake as God and their own Consciences bear them Witness and these ensuing Lines though rude yet true may not a little prove to any impartial Reader to the satisfying also of that newly started Objection by the House of Commons against a Personal Treaty with the King viz. the bringing in again of Scandalous Ministers CHAP. II. A Brief of the divers Ends in desiring to have this Parliament called Of the true Cause of the Contempt and Hatred of the Clergy among the People and what makes the Church differences irreconcileable PRivate Interests and Advantages are ever the grounds of usurped Power and why Lay-men in this Parliament have presumed to intermeddle with matters of Religion and to monopolize all executive and judiciary Power in Doctrine and Discipline of the Church which God knoweth they never understood under pretence of Reformation of Religion Mr. Hampden one of the prime Grandees of the Fanatick Faction hath satisfied the World in his Answer to a Private Friend asking him why they so much pretended Religion when indeed Liberty and Property and Temporal Matters were by them chiefly intended Should we not said he use the pretence of Religion the people would not be drawn to assist us And truly it were pity that Posterity should be left without some memento of the private Interests and Designs of all sorts of people in this Kingdom in themselves different yet all concentring in this one word Reformation to build the Babel of this Generation Not much unlike the hatching of the Belglek Troubles Nobilitas cum Plebe conspirant rem suam curant dum publicam curare videntur Such desires in calling the Council of Trent have been translated into an English madness and superstition in longing for this Parliament which all men fansied such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 medicamentum to each private Malady that not any Humour in the Body Politick or itch in the Breech of the Kingdom but was kept clawed by Mr. Speakers Thanks and large Promises of Redress of their Grievances Even the London Porters Petition received much Thanks from the Parliament and proffers of easing them of their Burdens A fair opportunity had the Great Ones to work their ends over other mens Shoulders 1. The Court emulation for even the Kings House and his Council were poysoned with Fanaticism thought by a Parliament to remove the Favourites that so upon their Ruines themselves next in place might be advanced What also was the sin of the Archbishop and the Earl of Strafford against whom this Parliament was set on fire with heat of Envy but they being greatly loved of their King for their faithful Service to his Majesty the Church and their Country 2. The Country Nobility long discontented with their Court-Banishment as it were hoped by a Parliament to new model the Court and exchange places To this end the Propositions continually clamour that all the Privie Council and all Officers of State may be in the disposal of Parliament that is of Lord Say and his Faction 3. The Gentry of England by a Parliament into which the Gentry used to be called till of late besides their private Preferment and Revenge thought as did the Free-holders and all sorts of people to be eased of Monopolies Taxes never remembring that they paid no Subsidies and especially of an intended Tyranny which the Fanatick Faction with continual Alarums so drummed into the Peoples Ears even to a Frensie of ridiculous Fears and Jealousies 4. The Lecturing House-creeping-Ministers prayed zealously for a Parliament thereby hoping to set up their new-fangled