their new Major General how well they understood their trade chose that place to train in whether in policy to conceal their Mistery or out of fear to betray their ignorance or on purpose to shew their Soldiers how little Gods house was to be regarded let the World conjecture And one who calls himself John Dowsing and by vertue of a pretended Commission goes about the Country like a Bedlam breaking glass windows having battered and beaten down all our painted glass not only in our Chappels but contrary to Order in our publick Schools College-Halls Libraries and Chambers mistaking perhaps the Liberal Arts for Saints which they intend in time to pull down too and having against an Order defaced and digged up the floors of our Chappels many of which had lain so for two or three hundred years together not regarding the dust of our founders and predecessors who likely were Buried there compelled us by armed Soldiers to pay forty shillings a College for not mending what he had spoiled and defaced or forthwith to go to Prison We shall need to use no more instances than these two to shew that neither place person nor thing hath any reverence or respect amongst them A Fellow of one of our Colleges was violently pluckt from the Communion as he was ready to receive that holy Sacrament before the solemn Election of a Master of that College and thrown into Goal to the great disturbance of the Election And at another * College the Communion Plate was sacrilegiously seised upon and taken away from the very Communion Table notwithstanding it was upon a former Plunder restored to the said College by an Order from the Close Committee of the 18. of Septemb. 1643. under the hands of the Earl of Pembroke Earl of Denbigh Lord Say Lord Howard Sir Wil. Waller and Mr. Pym. And yet all these actions of theirs were but preparatory Pills to dispose our whole Body for its final Purge of Reformation when ever they should please to think it sick of us And that is this last act which is none of the least arguments of this our sad complaint For although we were seldom in any freedom for any time near these three years from some Protestation Oath Association Vow and Covenant c. menaced upon us yet this last only brought with it the fatal doom of our final extirpation though we must have leave to wonder that all Liberty of Conscience should be denied us by them who latety pleaded nothing else against the established Ecclesiastical Laws and now pretended partly to fight for the same But indeed the Covenant was not the true cause but the pretence only for our Ejection for that is the word of Art for this newly invented Mistery as appears by several writs issued out under hand and seal without mention of refusing the Covenant The thing was absolutely determined by a peremptory decree to plant a new University for propagating at least if not inventing a new Religion And to that end the old one must be removed at least so much of it for the present as might hinder this great design Only some means and plausible pretences were yet wanting The first that was attempted was to summon all those that were absent to return within ten days But then they were so far to seek for reasons of Ejection as that after almost half ten days more study all they could insert in their writ was For opposing the proceedings of Parliament and other Scandalous Actions in the University Their tongues thereby testifying their minds though perhaps out of incogitancy which are so furiously set upon their great work of Reformation as to punish the opposing Scandalous Actions with the loss of all a mans livelyhood Whether they were ashamed of the phrase or not we know not but they had very good reason to be ashamed of the Act being so different from all shew of Justice as to enjoyn impossibilities in commanding men to return within twelve days after issuing the summons which at that time were above two hundred miles distant and had two Armies to pass through all the ways or enjoyning them to be resident at Cambridge whom themselves at the same time kept fast Prisoners at London And yet for non-appearance for no man knows any other cause these must be Ejected But though this be not so plausible yet they have a sure reserve their Solemn League and Covenant which coming from their dear Brethren of Scotland they think no penalty too great for refusal of it And this because it carries in its frontispiece a pretence of Rrformation comes not alone but though without any visible Order accompanied with a new Legislative fangle called an Oath of discovery but indeed was an Oath of Treachery a wild unlimited device to call whom they would before them and make them accuse their nearest and dearest Friends Benefactors Tutors and Masters and betray the Members and Acts of their several Societies manifestly contrary to our Peaceable Statutes formerly sworn unto by us which provide against all faction and sedition which these men only hunt after viz. Non revelabis aliquod secretum Collegii Non malum aut damnum inferes Collegio aut cuilibet Sociorum And apparently reviving the Oath Ex Offishio as their Commissioners spell it abolished this present Parliament to accuse our selves For what is it else to accuse our own Societies and Corporations whereof our selves are parts and members And though we would not any whit derogate from the Oath Ex Officio as it is used this day in most Christian Kingdoms and Common-wealths nay even in Scotland and Geneva and may be of excellent use if not stretched beyond the due limits of Law yet this Oath of Discovery all we think except one or two refused perceiving that thereby the design of a second Century was to be promoted for they finding no accusation or crime objected against any of us where with to colour their ugly purposes which they had already plotted in private against us and yet their Covenant must be for Reformation they resolved to shrive us with an Auricular Confession sanctified to the Cause that so we might help them out with their malice which was otherwise like to be born blind though hitherto it hath been Eagle-eyed over our most venial slips And forthwith upon refusal of this Oath was their Solemn League and Covenant urged upon us We cannot but signifie by the way that seeing it must be tendered to the University as their Printed instructions told us we hoped it should have been to the whole body Statuteably assembled either to admit of or otherwise humbly to shew reasons of denial but they were wise enough to foresee what entertainment such stuff was like to find from all the Learned men of so famous an Unversity and were not willing it should be blasted with their Universal refusal And therefore contrary to our hopes a selected number of particular
Gentlemen of all Orders were not only present but engaged themselves against the Rebels as much or more than Common Soldiers which they most cheerfully did by example of His sacred MAJESTY whose Royal undaunted Courage put life into every man exposing His Sacred Person to so much danger as all good men do tremble to remember His Royal Sons the two young Princes CHARLES Prince of Wales and JAMES Duke of Yorke being also in the field in very much danger if God whose cause it was had not covered their heads in the day of Battel The Rebels as they had few men of quality to lose so those they had were sensible of their guilt which then they expressed by their flight some sculking into holes and Saw-pits and others running out before they were well in the field They lost of note the Lord St. John eldest Son to the Earl of Bullingbrooke Sir Charles Essex with many inferiour Officers October the 27 th His Majesty to compleat his Victory in Keynton field drew his whole Army before Banbury but after the firing of one piece of Ordnance the Rebels submitted to His Majesties mercy which were in number about 800 Foot of the Earl of Peterboroughs and Lord Says Regiments with 10 Colours and a Troop of Horse and yeilded the Town and Castle to the King at which time the Earl of Essex with his shattered Force were crept over the River Aven into Warwick full eight Miles backward from the place where they were beaten there to secure those few he had left under the protection of the strong fituate Town and Castle leaving behind him above 20 Waggons loaded with Powder and other Ammunition November the 12 th His Maiesty after four hours fight forced the Town of Brainford where Lieutenant Colonel Quarles that commanded in chief was slain and at least 400 more of the Rebels kill'd and drowned as many taken Prisoners with little loss to His Majesties part these thus taken and kill'd were observed to be the best foot Soldiers the Rebels had November the 13 th being Sunday certain of the Rebels had come down the Thames from Kingston with 13 pieces of Ordnance which so soon as they could see they fired against Sion house and His Majesties Train of Artillery but did little or no harm Whereupon Order was presently given for drawing down some Pieces into the Meadow and to the River side against them which was accordingly done and likewise a Demy-Cannon planted near the South-end of the Town All which were so judiciously plied that they shot through their Boats and Barges and at last fired the Powder in one of them which blew up divers of the Rebels Those Rebels which escaped took them to their heels leaving behind them their mangled Boats and Barges with all their Ordnance and the remainder of their Ammunition on which His Majesty presently seised and afterwards made an honourable and safe retreat to the City of Oxford December the 5 th His Majesties Forces under the command of Lieutenant General Wilmot having his own Regiment of Horse with the Lord Grandisons and Lord Digbies and Sir William Pennimans and Colonel Blagues Regiments of Foot and Colonel Ushers and Colonel Grayes of Dragoons took the Town of Marlborough defended by Robert Ramsey a Scot and about 500 Foot Ramsey and divers of the chief Rebels brought Prisoners to Oxford all their Arms taken and four Colours On the same 5 th day the Earl of Newcastle laid siege to Tadcaster where at that time was all the strength of the Rebels in Yorkeshire excepting Hull and by several assaults on the Town from Ten of the Clock in the morning till Seven at night kill'd Cap. Lyster and about 60 more of the Rebels who found such hot service that they stole away in the night to Cawood and Selby leaving Tadcaster fortified for His Majesties service January the 19 th a great Victory was obtained by the Lord Hopton near Bodmin in the County of Cornwal where was slain in the pursuit 200 of the Rebels and 700 taken Prisoners amongst whom was Sir Shilston Colmadee and eight Colours good store of Ammunition an five excellent brass Guns and one of Iron January the 22 d. the Lord Hopton assulted Saltash forced the Town where he took Ten pieces of Ordnance 700 more Prisoners 4000 Arms and a Ship with sixteen pieces of Ordnance January the 27 th certain of the Rebels under the command of Master John Hampden to the number of 1800 Foot and seven or eight Troops of Horse with two pieces of Ordnance came before Brill and made an assault upon it But were so bravely repulsed by His Majesties forces there under the command of Sir Gilbert Gerard the then Governour thereof that they made all possible hast away His Majesties Horse having the pursuit of them for above 4 miles about 80 of them being sound dead and betwixt 40 or 50 men wounded which they had left together in a private House February the 1 st Lieutenant General King and Lieutenant Geâ—eral Goring coming from Newcastle with a great Convoy of much Arms and Ammunition and being faced at Yarum with 400 Foot three Troops of Horse and two pieces of Ordnance of the Rebels fell upon them slew many took the rest of the Foot and most of the Horse Prisoners with their Ordnance and Baggage February the 2 d. Cyrencester or Cicester in Gloucester-shire was taken by his Highness Prince Rupert with the loss of less than 20 men of his Army there being above 300 of the Rebels slain and near 1200 taken Prisoners Of Colours taken one Coronet two of Dragoons and fourteen Foot Ensigns together with all their Ordnance Arms and Ammunition February the 13 th the QUEENS Majesty left the Hague and went to Sciveling And on the 16 day Her Majesty imbarked again in the Princess Royal of Great Brittain And on the Sunday after came within sight of Flamborough-head February the 20 th She cast Anchor in the Harbour of Burlington-bay And the 22 d. day following upon fight of 1000 of his excellency the Earl of Newcastle's Horse landed at Burlington Key Fibruary the 24 th in the morning four Ships and a Pinnace in the Rebels service which came over night into the Road made above 100 great shot at the houses in the Key for two hours shooting Cross-bar-shot and Bullets of twelve pound weight all of them aiming so near as they could at the house were the Queen lay Insomuch that her sacred Majesty was forced to make what hast she could out of Her Bed and to get under an hill to save Her life from the fury of those Bloody Rebels who endeavoured to Murther Her But God Almighty preserved Her Majesty both by Sea and Land March the 18 th and 19 th was a great Battel on Hopton-heath in Staffordshire wherein Gell and Brereton two cowardly Rebels were routed by His Majesties Forces under the command of the Right Honourable Spencer then Earl of Northampton in which fight
growing Hemp and there lay on the Ground almost 20 Hours without Meat or any sustenance so that what with fright and dampness of the Earth some of them contracted dangerous Sicknesses and hardly escaped with Life The Terrour which fell upon the Country thereabout was so great that the neighbouring Justice of Peace durst not grant his Warrant to search after any of Sir Richard's Goods though earnestly intreated to it And the Neighbours were so ill used and threatned to extort confession from them where Sir Richard was or where any of his Goods were conveyed that some swooned for fear some fell mad and some died Certain it is their carriage was so barbarous that it inforced Mr. Jo. Crew one of the Company to profess his dislike and to tell the Lord Brooks and the rest That they being Law-makers should not be Law-breakers nor make such precedents as would discover their intentions and render them odious unto the Country Since that knowing Sir Richard to have put himself for preservation of his Life under his Majesties Protection they have caused his Pond-heads to be digged down and have destroyed all his Fish they have cut down his Woods and seised on all his Lands or made them utterly unprofitable unto him for they will not suffer any Bayliff or Servant of his to take any care of his Estate but have often sent parties of Horse to seise on them or kill them At a place called Kings-harbour near Hounslow-heath three Soldiers under the Command of the Lord Wharton came into a House to drink going away they of the House demand Money for their Drink So unexpected an affront did so incense the Soldiers that one of them told his Companions he would shew them how they set Houses on fire in Ireland and so put his Carbine into the Thatch and discharged it set the House on fire and departed The General ESSEX returning from London came by as the House was on fire complaint is made unto him that the owner of the House was undone but all in vain his Excellency was not at leisure to do Justice The Countess of Rivers who as you heard in the second Weeks Relation was Plundered to the value of an Hundred thousand or an Hundred and fifty thousand pounds finding her abode here unsafe having lost her Goods and her Person in danger to secure her self resolved for a time to abandon her Country and rather expose her self to the hazard of Travel than commit her self to that protection which the contemned Laws now afford To this purpose she obtained a Pass to go beyond Seas While she was in preparing for her Voyage Mr. Martin Plunder-master General he that so familiarly speaks Treason and steals the King's Horses or doth any thing plunders the Countess of her Coach Horses notwithstanding a Warrant from the Lords House to secure them And when this Warrant was produced to stave off this Parliament Horse-taker he replied That if the Warrant had been from both Houses he would obey it as coming from the highest authority in England sure this man was born with Treason in his Mouth but since it came But from the Lords he did not value it When this Warrant could not prevail the Countess obtains a Warrant from the Earl of Essex to have the Horses restored unto her again but Mr. Martin to overbear all procures an Order from the House of Commons to keep them This Honourable Ladies Goods were seised on though Licensed to pass by the Lords and searched and allowed by the Custome-House At Pebmarsh in the same County of Essex on the Lords Day divers of the Parliament Voluntiers came into the Church while the Parson Mr. Wiborow was in his Prayer before Sermon and placed themselves near the Pulpit and when he was in his Prayer one of them struck divers times with his Staff against the Pulpit to interrupt him and while he was in his Sermon in contempt of the place where they were and the sacred action in doing they were almost as loud as the Preacher to the great disturbance of the Congregation No sooner was the Sermon ended and the Parson come out of the Pulpit as far as the Reading-desk but they lay violent hands upon him rent his Clothes threaten to pull him in pieces in the Church With much intreaty they spare him there and permit him to go into the Church-yard he is no sooner come thither but they assault him more violently than before Mr. Wiborow seeing the Constable who all this while stood a spectator of his hard usage calls unto him and charges him in the King's Name to keep the Kings Peace At his request they did a little forbear him But before he could get half ways Home they assault him again and demand the Book of Common-Prayer which he used in the Church That which was found by the Parish being torn in pieces before which he refusing to deliver up unto them they reek their fury on him They tug and hale him and vow to kill him unless he deliver up the Book of Common-Prayer to their pleasure he stoutly refuseth Hereupon they fall upon him strike up his Heels and take it from him by force and so carry it away in triumph Mr. Blakerby a silenced Minister heretofore preaching at Halstead in the same County told them That to bow at the Name of Jesus was to thrust a Spear into Christ's side and such Ministers as signed Children with the sign of the Cross did as much as in them lay to send such Children unto the Devil When the Earl of Essex and the rest went from Reading to London after the unhappy to say no more surrender of that town they left there a Committee consisting of none but City Captains and Tradesmen these according to the authority committed unto them summon all the able men of the Parishes thereabout to appear before them at Reading and Assessed them at their pleasure In Marlow they Assessed one Mr. Drue at 1000 l. they fell to 500 l. he refusing to pay was Imprisoned but the Prison being most nasty and loathsom denied the accommodation of Bedding was forced to pay 300 l. Mr. Horcepoole they assessed at 200 l. Mr. Chase a man plundered before at 40 l. 20 pound was offered but nothing will be abated of 30. Eliot a Butcher at an 100 l. and Imprisoned Cocke a Baker at 20 l. Mr. Fornace the Vicar not suffered to speak for himself because a Malignant at 10 l. and paid seven John Langley 10 l. Thomas Langley 20 l. William Langley 5 l. and Wilmot his Servant 5 l. John More 80 l. Hoskins a Shoomaker 5 l. Cane an Innkeeper 7 l. Rates so Illegal or had they been Legal so unequally proportioned to these mens Estates that had Ship-money been still on foot it would not have drawn so much Money out of their Purses in forty or fifty years as this Blew-Apron Committee at Reading removed some seven or eight Degrees from the Close Committee at Westminster
extorted from them at one clap O that we were but so wise as to compare our Conditions certainly then we could not but acknowledg the just wrath of God upon us for our Ingratitude murmuring so much when we had so little cause and bless God for the return of our former Peace though with all its Grievances and those maliciously aggravated Mr. Giles Thorne Batchellor in Divinity and Parson of S. Cutberts in Bedford was upon Sunday in the beginning of August last 1642. apprehended in his Parish Church immediately after he came out of the Pulpit having preached three Sermons in the Town that day by the Lord Saint-Johns Troops who lay then in Bedford and in a very boysterous manner carried away to an Inn in the Town not permitted to go home to his House to visit his Family nor any of his Friends suffered to come to him The next day he was carried away to London where when he had lain more than three Weeks under the Messengers hands he was brought to his Trial at the Bar in the Lords House Accusations are framed against him out of Sermons preached nine years before Witnesses are produced to prove the Articles who so well remembred what they were to say that they were fain to read their Depositions out of Papers which they brought in their hands Mr. Thorne gives so full an Answer to all the Objections that the Lords pronounce themselves satisfied and him Innocent only the Lord Say disputes with him and the Earl of Bullingbrooke grumbles at him At length it is pretended that there is another Witness in the Country that can say somewhat especially if it be written down in a Paper as it was to his fellow Deponents Hereupon he is committed to the Fleet there to remain till that Witness can be prevailed with to find leisure to come up About three Weeks after the Witness appears and is Sworn and contrary to the Rules of that Court is sent to be examined by a Clerk Mr. Thorne with much ado obtains a Copy of his Depositions which upon view contain no new Matter but what he had before answered unto and cleared Hereupon he Petitions again for a Sentence he is ordered to attend the House After a chargeable attendance of many days with his Keeper he is called the Cause reviewed upon the review the Earls of Pembroke Holland Clare and divers others affirm that in their consciences they had Acquitted him at the first hearing and now upon the review found nothing to alter their opinion and therefore thought it fit he should be Discharged But well fare a good Neighbour at a dead life The Earl of Bullingbrook objects That he is a man of a Malignant spirit that he hath great Interest in the Affections of the People amongst whom he lives and therefore if Inlarged and remitted Home may do much prejudice to the good Cause in hand upon these just and weighty Considerations Mr. Thorne is remanded to the Fleet Since that time he hath used the assistance of many Friends drawn many Petitions humbly desiring that he might be heard Or if the great Affairs of State would not afford their Lordships so much leisure that he might have leave upon Bail to go down to attend his Cure until their Lordships should please to call for him But was so far from obtaining his desire that he could never get so far towards it as to have his Petition read His Parishoners sensible of his Oppression and their own Injury being bereaved of the comfort and labours of their own Pastor sent up a Petition subscribed with three hundred hands to the same effect that Justice might have a free uninterrupted course either to Condemn or Absolve him but all in vain So that for ought we yet understand he is still a Prisoner and for any thing we are informed to the contrary he is without hopes for Enlargement though his Judges have pronounced him Innocent And now would you know the true cause of all this Oppression Know then that it is possible for the High Court of England â—o be made the Instrument of private Revenge For Sir Sam. Luke divers years since suing Mr. Thorne in the Star Chamber it was Mr. Thornes unhappiness to get the day of him an injury which Sir Samuel could never forget and did now revenge it by the help of the Earl of Bullingbrook the Lord Saint Johns Son and his own interest in the House This story hath been attested by some that were both Ear and Eye-witnesses of these particulars and let me be substituted Prisoner in Mr. Thornes place if he for ought I know know any thing that I know this or intended to make it known to the World Mercurius Rusticus c. V. Warder Castle gallantly defended by the Lady Arundel against Sir Edward Hungerford and his power His persidiousness in breaking the Articles of Surrender His barbarous usage of the Lady her Children and Goods Mr. John Bykar a Vicars Son murthered at Coventry Mr. Abraham Haynes Robbed Abused and unjustly Committed c. ON Tuesday the second of May 1643. Sir Edward Hungerford a chief Commander of the Rebel in Wiltshire came with his Forces before Warder Castle in the same County being the Mansion-House of the Lord Arundel of Warder But finding the Castle strong and those that were in it resolute not to yield it up unless by force called Colonel Strode to his help Both these joyned in one made a Body of 1300. or thereabout Being come before it by a Trumpeter they summon the Castle to surrender The reason pretended was because the Castle being a Receptacle of Cavaliers and Malignants both Houses of Parliament had ordered it to be searched for Men and Arms and withal by the same Trumpeter declared that if they found either Money or Plate they would seise on it for the use of the Parliament The Lady Arundel her Husband being then at Oxford and since that dead there refused to deliver up the Castle and bravely replied That she had a command from her Lord to keep it and she would obey his command Being denied entrance the next day being Wednesday the third of May they bring up the Cannon within Musket shot and begin the Battery and continue it from the Wednesday to the Monday following never giving any intermission to the besieged who were but 25 fighting men to make good the place against an Army of 1300. In this time they spring two Mines the first in a Vault through which Beer and Wood and other necessaries were brought into the Castle This did not much hurt it being without the foundation of the Castle The second was conveyed into the small Vaults which by reason of the intercourse between the several Passages to every Office and almost every Room in the Castle did much shake and indanger the whole Fabrick The Rebels had often tendered some unreasonable conditions to the Besieged to surrender as to give the Ladies both the Mother and the Daughter
am confident the honourable Houses of Parliament being rightly informed herein will provide against the like abuses and impieties in other places in the mean time we submit with patience to the providence of him who can and will bring good out of evil which is the earnest Prayer of Christ-Church Cant. Aug. 30 1642. Your Lordships most Obliged Servant Thomas Paske WHat effect this just complaint wrought how it prevailed either with that Lord to whom it was addressed or with the pretended Houses of Parliament whose authority and assistance was implored to prevent further outrages either here or elsewhere we have too clear testimony not only in the like sacrileges and prophanations every day acted without any the least check or restraint from the heads of this Rebellion but more especially from their Votes and Ordinances for the abolishing all remainders of Popery and Superstition as they call it in all which Intelligi malunt quam Audiri they would have their creatures understand more than they speak being certain politick Litotes in which minus dicitur plus intelligitur signifying more than the Grammatical construction will permit an carry in them a hidden secret sense and meaning which their own Emissaries know how to interpret and inlarge according to the full intention of the Authors But before we pass from the relation of this horried Sacrilege committed on the Church of Canterbury I could not free my self from being guilty of that great sin of obscuring the great manifestation of Gods Justice if I should in silence pass over that most examplary vengeance which persued to death that unfortunate Gentleman Col. Sandys the ringleader to that Rebellious rout which were Actors in that more than Barbarous outrage Whether the cunning perswasions of others or his own ambitiom first imbarked him in this fatal undertaking is uncertain but as himself confessed on his death-bed to a friend and Kinsman of his who asked him what he meant being a Gentleman of so fair an Estate to ingage himself in this Treason he answered That he was so far drawn in before he was aware that he knew not how to come off without the danger of his head So usual it is for one sin to ingage the sinner for a second having therefore once lifted up his hand against his Sovereign the Lords Anoynted he thought the way to be secure from the punishment of Rebellion was to presevere in his crime and go on in Rebellion in pursuance therefore of so black designs being Colonel of a Regiment of Horse in Sept. 1642. with the rest of the Rebels Army under the Conduct of the Earl of Essex he advanced towards Worcester and making some excursions with ten Troops of Horse from the body of their Army at Wickefeild near Worcester accidentally were met by Prince Rupert accompanied by Prince Maurice and some others Lords and Gentlemen of His Majesties Cavallry being thus by chance met The Prince glad of any opportunity to express the braveness of his resolution charged the Rebels with incomparable valour In this short but fierce conflict Colonel Sandys was wounded and being dismounted his Horse became Prisoner to the Kings party Being thus wounded and as then was conceived mortally he began to reflect upon himself and finding so little warrant in his now unbiass'd conscience for his undertaking which had brought him into this condition his perplexed Soul brake out into many sad expressions of remorse crying out Woe Woe to evil Counsel and happy are they that do not take it And being put in mind by a Reverend Doctor in Divinity and Chaplain to Prince Rupert of the heinousness of the sin of Rebellion he acknowledged himself to have faln into that sin and that God was just in his Judgments for finding him out in his iniquity professing withal his hearty sorrow and repentance for it whereupon the Doctor replyed that if he recovered perhaps the same perswasions from others or inconsiderateness in himself might again ingage him in his Rebellion at which words a little lifting up his hand he professed He would rather have it cut off then ever again lift it up against the King He freely acknowledged the Justice of the Kings cause and that he had observe the blessings of God to accompany it and when the Doctor desired leave to testify his Repentance to the world he freely gave him leave asking God and the King forgivness praying for a blessing upon him and his proceedings In this mind he continued while Prince Rupert and the Kings forces with him staid in Worcester and whether after the Earls possessing himself of Worcester by the impetuous sollicitations of those Murtherers of Souls those Factors for Hell their Schismatical Lecturers who make men twofold more the Children of the Devil than themselves he fell off and turned Apostate from his newly resolved Loyalty as repenting of his Repentance is uncertain Those that were about him and saw his weakness ever declining from the first hour he received his wounds must testify to the World that he had neither strength of hand to write nor so much composedness of spirit to be the Author of that Spurious Supposititious Vindication Published in his name Oct. 11. 1642. He being whatsoever that forgery pretends as unable to vindicate himself with his Pen as his sword but if he had his heart as well as hand subscribing to that Atheistical resolution where they thus bring him in foaming out his own shame The Apprehension of death never hitherto so nearly touched me but if God shall once restore me to my former strength I shall by his help with as much alacrity and I hope courage endeavour to defend and maintain with my dearest blood this so good a cause meaning this present Rebellion as ever I was at first engaged in it If I say they had his heart as well as his hand to that Resolution I am afraid it was too evident a Symptom of a wretched man given up to a Reprobate sense which of all spiritual judgments questionless is the greatest and might justly call for those Torments of body which afterward as a Gangreen devoured and eat up his flesh and those pangs of Conscience which I am afraid were but the earnest of a worse condition to insue for as the Psalmist saies As for such as turn back unto their own wickedness the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity Psal. 125.5 but I Remember that of S. Paul Judg nothing before the time until the Lord come 1. Cor. 4.5 And therefore while on Supposition I writ my fears positively I determine nothing not knowing whether God might not give him the grace of Repentance at the last which if he did he only I dare say that gave the Grace knew of it concerning his eternal condition therefore I shall leave him to the Judgment of that Righteous God that judgeth Righteous Judgment and gives to every man according to his works and only inform the World in what condition
took 2000 Prisoners with all the Horse Arms and Ammunition which either the Rebels found in the Town or brought thither with them Hereupon the Rebels deserted the Town of Hallifax and presently after Sir Hugh Cholmely fell upon Beverly and took it for his Majesty July the 5 th Master Tomkins and Master Challoner were most barbarously Murthered by the Rebels in London for their Fidelity to his Majesty And the same fifth day there was a fight on Landsdown-hill betwixt His Majesties Forces under the command of the Marquess of Hartford and the Rebels under Sir William Waller who after 11 hours fight stuck their lighted matches in the hedges and ran quite away leaving behind them above 500 Musquets 14 barrels of Powder a whole Stand of Pikes with good store of all sorts of Arms. Their Foot were absolutely routed and all dispersed his loss of Officers and horse was great many hundreds of his men were killed His Majesties forces having the pillage of the field And here was that most valiant Knight Sir Bevill Greenvill unfortunately slain in the Front of his men with some others of less Quality The 13 th of July about four a Clock in the Afternoon the King and Queens Majesty met at Edge-hill where the Rebels had received their main overthrow and the same day and hour His Majesties Forces under the Command of the Lord Wilmot Lieutenant General of the Horse the Earl of Carnarvon the Earl of Crawford and the Lord Biron obtained another great and strange victory upon Round-way-down with 1500 horse and two smal pieces of Cannon only wherewith they totally routed the Rebels Army under the Command of the old-beaten Soldier Sir William Waller consisting of above 2500 Foot and 2000 Horse besides 500 Dragoons with 8 pieces of Brass Ordnance slew 600 of them in the place took above 900 Prisoners all their Cannon Arms Ammunition Waggons Baggage and Victual 28 Foot-Ensigns 9 Cornets and left not one Rebel but what was either killed taken Prisoner or narrowly escaped Upon the 24 th of July his Highness Prince Rupert having joyned his Forces to his Brothers and the whole body of their strength being brought together they sate down before Bristol and began their Batteries And the 26 day with unexpressible valour they gained the Out-works and the 27 day following the City and Castle was delivered up to His sacred Majesty with all the Ordnance Arms and Ammunition At this siege were slain on His Majesties part Sir Nicolas Slanning one of the Lunsfords with some few others and that valiant Lord the Lord Grandison did here receive a wound August the 3 d. Corf-castle in the Isle of Purbecke which had been so often before besieged by Sir Walter Earle but had always beaten off the Rebels and killed their Cannoniers was once more fallen upon by the Rebels who were so bravely received by Captain Laurence that 60 of them were kill'd in the place the rest hearing of the most valiant Earl of Carnarvons approach ran away Soon after the Earl of Carnarvon Summoned Dorchester which was thereupon delivered up to his Lordship with all the Arms Ammunition and Cannon which were disposed of for His Majesties use About the 9 th of August the Castle and Isle of Portland were reduced again under His Majesties command And the Town and Haven of Weymouth and Melcombe submitted to His Majesty August the 20 th Colonel Jo. Digby defeated the Rebels of Biddeford and Barnstable killed 100 of their Foot took 211 Officers and common Soldiers Prisoners most of which were miserably wounded two pieces of Ordnance six barrels of Powder 400 weight of Bullet 200 and a half of Match and above 300 Arms besides all the Foot-Officers horses Pursued their horse to the very works of Biddeford and returned victoriously without the loss of more than one man not one of the rest of his Soldiers being so much as hurt all that day Upon the 2 d. and 3 d of September the Towns of Biddeford Appleford and Barnstable delivered up their several Garrisons to His Majesty Upon the same 3 d. of September Prince Maurice gave a very hot assault upon the City of Exeter and battered the Walls whereupon the Rebels desired Parley but refusing the conditions the assault was afterwards eagerly pursued and the next day after won the great Sconce turned the Ordnance there against the Town Whereupon the Rebels craved to be admitted unto those conditions which before they rejected and obtained the same delivered up the Town and Castle to the Prince his Highness with all the Ordnance Arms and Ammunition after it had been blockt up and besieged about six weeks September the 17 th the Rebels Army stealing out of Gloucestershire towards London surprised part of a new raised Regiment of His Majesties horse at Cirencester but were overtaken by Prince Rupert with His Majesties horse near Auburne in Wiltshire where he gave them two charges the one by a commanded Party under Colonel Urrey the other by the Queens Regiment commanded by the Lord Iermin who performed it so well on the Rebels whole Army that many great bodies of Foot were routed and many of them slain in the place without any loss to His Majesties Forces save two common Soldiers killed and the Marquess de la Vienville taken Prisoner who was afterwards Murthered by the Rebels in cold Blood and the Lord Digby and Lord Iermyn lightly wounded by which two charges the Rebels Army was so retarded that His Majesty had time to overtake them with his Foot and on Wednesday after the 20 th of this month upon an Hill near Newberry and Enborne-heath His Majesty fought with the Rebels who were seated in the most advantageous place imaginable yet in despight of all their Cannon Foot and Horse His Majesty beat them from their ground gained the Hill and one piece of their brass Ordnance and quickly routed all their horse upon the Heath The most that were killed in this fight of His Majesties Forces exceeded not the number of 300 though above 600 of the Rebels were slain and a very great number wounded In this fight were slain the most Noble and valiant Earl of Carnarvon the Earl of Sunderland the Lord Viscount Faulkland Col. Morgan Captain William Symcots with some other Gentlemen and Commanders After this fight the Rebels were further pursued and routed again so as they fled into Reading where they durst not stay but left the Town for His Majesty September the 25 th That pernicious confederacy called the National covenant was taken by the Members of the House of Commons at Westminster in S. Margarets Church October the 18 th the Pince of Harcourt Lord Ambassadour Extraordinary from the French King and Queen Regent after he had been most barbarously used in his passage by the Rebels came safe into Oxford where he had entertainment more suitable to the worth of so great a Personage In this month of October His Majesties Forces under the command of the Lord Widdrington
Sir Charles Lucas Col. Porter and Col. Tillier Prisoners In this Battel were slain on His Majesties part the Lord Cary Sir Thomas Metham Col. Ewer Col. Townley with some others of note and about 1500 common Soldiers On the Rebels part were slain Sir Charles Fairfax younger son to the Lord Fairfax with many other of their Commanders and at least 3000 common Soldiers This done the Rebels rally and sit down again before Yorke which was valiantly defended for three weeks after by Sir Tho. Glenham and then delivered upon honourable conditions to march away with Arms Bag and Baggage which conditions were most persidiously broken by the Rebels July the 6 th The Lord Hopton routed 350 of the Rebels near Warmister which were pursued above 20 miles by Sir Francis Dodington July the 15 th The King came to Bath with his Army which day the Queens Majesty arrived safe at Brest in Britanny notwithstanding 50 great shot made at her by Batty the Rebels Vice-Admiral July the 23 d. The King made His speech to the Summersetshire men on Kings-moore who came in to His Majesties assistance very cheerfully July the 31 st Middleton the Scot furiously assaulted Denington Castle and received a most shameful repulse leaving dead behind him one Col. eight Captains one Sergeant Major with many inferiour Officers and Soldiers August the 1 st His Majesty with his Army passed into Cornwal over Tamar at Polton bridg in pursuit of the Earl of Essex whom he had now chased through Devonshire August the 25 th The King gained from the Rebels the Castle of Lestithiel where their Army lay strongly encamped and in it took Col. Butler and some others Prisoners August the 30 th The Rebels horse in the night passed between His Majesties Quarters and fled towards Plymouth August the 31 st The Rebels Foot making towards Foy were beaten from five pieces of their Ordnance September the 2 d. The Rebels being deserted by their General the Earl of Essex who with the Lord Roberts fled to Plymouth in a Cock-boat the night past this day yeilded up to His Majesty all their Train of Artillery viz. 49 pieces of fair brass Ordnance 200 and odd barrels of Gunpowder with match ball c. proportionable above 700 Carriages and betwixt eight and 9000 Arms. His Majesty out of his wonted Clemency granting them their lives September the 5 th His Majesty having obtained so compleat a victory over the Rebels did as formerly after the defeat of Waller from Tavestock send his second message of Peace to Wistminster In the beginning of this month His Majesties forces in Scotland under the command of his Excellency James Lord Marquess of Montrosse and General Major Mackdonald who not long before landed in that Kingdom with 1000 Irish obtained a great victory over the Rebels there upon Newbigging Moore near S. Johns Town where were kill'd above 1200 Rebels among which was the Laird of Rires and some others of note and seven brass Pieces taken this done His Majesties forces pursued them to S. Johns Town and took it and therein and in the battel took 2000 of the Rebels Prisoners with two pieces of Ordnance more all their Arms Ammunition and Baggage and this done with the loss of not above 60 men on His Majesties part The Rebels in this battel were commanded by the Earl of Tullibairne the Lord Drummond the Lord Elcho and Sir James Scot of Rossy their word was Jesus no Quarter And within a fortnight after this success his Excellency the Marquess of Montrosse and Major Gen. Mackdonald obtained a second victory over another body of Rebels in that Kingdom commanded by the Lord Forbes Burly and others near Aberdeen wherein the Marquess kill'd and took Prisoners at least 1000 with three pieces of Cannon and all their baggage without any considerable loss on His Majesties part among the Prisoners taken by the Marquess there was Sir William Forbes of Craigyvar and John Forbes of Boynly with others of note And soon after the Marquess took the Town of Aberdeen with all the Ordnance Ammunition and Arms and many of the fugitive Rebels therein September the 11 th The Garrison of Basing after 18 weeks siege wherein the Rebels lost many hundreds of their men was relieved from Oxford by Sir Henry Gage Septemb. the 12 th Ilfercombe in Devonshire rendered to General Goring for His Majesty September the 17 th Barnstaple in Devonshire that had revolted upon the Earl of Essex this approach submitted to His Majesty and obtained from him their second pardon September the 23 d. Col. John Fines having besieged the Castle of Banbury above a month before hired his men to storm it in five places in all which they were shamefully beaten off with great loss October the 7 th in the night Sir Richard Greenvile took the Town of Saltash by storming wherein 400 Rebels were kill'd and at least 300 taken Prisoners with their Arms this Town had been quitted by His Majesties forces not long before without any considerable loss October the 25 th The Earl of Northampton and Sir Henry Gage raised the siege of Banbury Castle fell upon Col. John Fines his flying Troops slew about 60 of them took above 100 Prisoners with about 200 horses one piece of Ordnance all their Ammunition and many Arms. October the 27 th The Rebels having thus lost two of their Armies called the third under the Earl of Manchesters command out of the Associated Counties and forced other Regiments out of London to withstand the King who was now advanced to Newberry with part of his Army where the Rebels apprehending a great advantage in regard that the rest of His Majesties forces were not come up fell upon His Majesties quarters but were beaten off with the slaughter of above 1000 of their men whereof Major Urrey with some other of their prime Commanders were part with the loss of Sir Anthony St. Leager and less than 100 others on His Majesties side who had the pillage of the field here the valiant Earl of Cleveland was casually taken Prisoner having his horse first kill'd under him November the 6 th His Majesty had his rendezvouz on Bullington-green betwixt Wallingford and Oxford November the 9 th His Army came to Dennington Castle which since His Majesties marching thence had been again besieged by the Rebels and raised the siege the Rebels not daring to withstand his Army November the 17 th The King having some days expected the Rebels who it seems were loth to hazard the last stake advanced towards them to Hungerford upon whose approach the Rebels left the field Whereupon His Majesty sent Sir Henry Gage with a party to supply the wants ef Basing that had been besieged all this Summer by five Colonels and their Regiments but the Rebels had raised the siege before his approach November the 19 th Monmouth that had lately been betrayed by Kirle was bravely regained by the Lord Herbert and Ragland wherein was taken the Rebels whole
A party of Rebels near Uttoxeter in Staffordshire were routed by His Majesties Forces who slew Captain Watson their Commander in chief with Captain Hard-staffe and divers others and took 60 Prisoners but more Horses and good store of Arms. In this action His Majesty lost Captain Sares only of Note and three Troopers Feb. 26 th His Majesty sent a ninth Letter to Westminster to desire an Answer of his former Letters still pressing for Peace Feb. 16 th The strong Castle of Corf which had been lately relieved was delivered into the hands of the Rebels by the Treachery and perfidiousness of one Lieutenant Colonel Pitman March the 2 d. A party of His Majesties Forces from Oxford entred the Town of Abbington seised upon the Ordnance and Magazin yet for want of a sufficient supply were forced to retreat with some Prisoners and few slain on either side March the 12 th The Lord Hopton being much overpowered by the Rebels in the West was necessitated to accept of Conditions for the disbanding his Army c. March the 21 st the Lord Ashley commanding a Brigade of horse and foot from Worcester-shire which were intended for Oxford were set upon by an aggregate body of the Rebels on the edg of Gloucestershire and defeated the foot most taken with my Lord himself and some of the horse the remainder escaped and got to Oxford Thus had His Majesty two Armies defeated in less than a fortnight yet we are confident when Almighty God hath sufficiently punish'd the sins of this Nation he will in his good time restore a pious King to his just rights and his bleeding Kingdoms to peace and union in despight of all Sectaries and Opponents March the 23 d. His Majesty never weary in acting any thing tending to Peace sent his tenth Message to this effect That in case he might have the faith of his two houses of Parliament for the preservation of his Honour person and estate and that liberty might be given to all those that do and have adhered to His Majesty to enjoy their Estates without any sequestration or being compelled to take any Oaths not enjoined by Law he would then disband his forces dismantle his Garrisons return to and reside with his two Houses of Parliament c. And could more be offered by or expected from a Gracious King If the Ears of the Parliament continue deaf to so reasonable a motion the World will easily perceive their intentions are not conform to their often professions And His Majesty will be abundantly cleared before God and man for any ensuing miseries that shall by want of an Accommodation befal these Kingdoms whereunto God of his goodness afford Peace and Truth Reader THere remains now nothing to compleat this short sad story but a Catalogue of the Persons of Note slain in these last four years not to speak of those many thousands of inferiour Rank which may well challenge even from an adamantine heart the tribute of a bleeding eye the rather since there 's hardly any story can parallel these calamities which if truly resented will exact from all good Christians an earnest and continual supplication that Almighty God would please to avert his anger from us and set a period to these distractions A Catalogue of the Names of all or the most part of the Lords Knights and men of Quality slain or Executed by Law-Martial on both sides since the beginning of this Unnatural War to the 25 th of March 1646. On His Majesties part slain EArl of Lindsey Earl of Northampton Earl of Carnarvon Earl of Sunderland Farl of Litchsield Earl of Kingstone Marquess de Vieuville a French man Lord Viscount Faulkland Lord d' Aubigny Lord John Steward Lord Grandison Lord Cary eldest Son to the E. of Monmouth An Outlandish Lord slain at Nottingham who was a near kinsman to the Prince of Orange Sir Edmon Verney Sir Bevill Grenvile Sir Nicholas Slannyng Sir Richard Lawdy Sir Ingram Hopton Sir William Butler Sir William Clark Sir Thomas Metham Sir Anthony Maunsell Sir Anthony St. Leger Sir Henry Gage Sir John Girlington Sir William Mainwaring Sir John Digby Sir William Crofts Sir John Smith Sir Thomas Gardiner and his Brother Sir Peter Brown Sir Thomas Dallison Sir Bernard Ashley Sir Richard Crane Sir Richard Hutton Sir Gilbert Gerard. Sir William Wentworth Sir Cha. Blunt by Mutiny Sir Jo. Scudamore in a Duel Colonel Blague Col. Windebank Sir Job Cademan Executed by Martial Law The first for Treachery the second for Cowardise and the third Beheaded at Bristol for killing an Officer there Col. Howard Col. Lunsford Col. Trevanian Col. Morgan Col. Eure. Col. Cavendish Col. Townley Col. Herne Col. Ferdinando Stanhop and Col. Stanhop Sons to the Earl of Chesterfield Col. Marrow Col. Prideaux Col. Mynne Col. Mannyng Col. Slaughter Col. Bernard Col. S. George Col. Taylor Col. Bawd Col. Carnaby Col. Bentall Lieut. Col. Markham Master Sackvile Son to the Earl of Dorset Persons of Note slain on the Parliaments part where the Reader may observe that as His Majesty had on his side ten Gentlemen at least for every one on their side it must by consequence follow that he must lose many more of Note than they THe Lord S. John eldest Son to the E. of Bullingbrook Lord Brook Sir Charles Essex Sir William Fairfax Sir Charles Fairfax Sir John Meldrum Major Gen. Crawford Col. John Hampden one of the 5. Members Col. Sands Col. Armyne Col. Thornton Col. Lister Col. Meldrum Col. Malevory Col. Cockeram Lieutenant Col. Stanley Lieut. Col. Quarles Lieut. Col. Harrington Lieut. Col. Gurdon Major Dowglas Doctor Scudamore Executed on the Parliaments side by Law-Martial not to speak of the E. of Strafford and the Arch-Bishop of Cant. Sir Alexander Carew At LONDON Sir John Hotham and his Son At LONDON Master Tomkins At LONDON Master Chaloner At LONDON Master Bourchier At BRISTOLL Master Yomans At BRISTOLL FINIS THE TABLE OF Mercurius Rusticus ARcher Preaches Rebellion up and Gentry and Learning down pag. 35 Articles of Surrender broken 49 51 65 76 Sir Henry Audley Plundered 13 14 B. Doctor Bargrave Plundered 79. c. dies of grief 81 Barnard an ungrateful Schismatick 145 Sir Tho. Barrington for bids the Preaching of Divine Truth 20 21 Master Bartlets house five times Plundered 186 c. Doctor Beale Doctor Martin Doctor Sterne imprisoned and barbarously used on Ship-board 132 Beale a Rebel Plundered by the Rebels 91 A Bear more merciful than the Rebels 94 Bible abused 213. Blasphemy 43 123 124 Sir Wllliam Boteler Plundered 7. His Steward tortured 10 Bowlstrodes Prayer 157 Sir Wil. Brooke stormes a Gally-pot 9 John Brown tortured 3 Burton intruded into Mr. Chestlins Living 177 Master Bykar Murthered because he was a Parsons Son 57 C Sir Ralph Canterills man Tortured 149 Cathedral Churches Prophaned and abused at Canterbury 119. Rochester 136. Chichester 139. Winchester 146 c. Westminster 154. Exeter 158 159 Mr. Chaldwel and his Wife barbarously used and his Servant Murthered 104
it might satisfie either their Lust their Covetousness or their Cruelty Their Lust hath prompted them not only to threaten Rape but with violence to attempt it and to wound and murther those upon whom they could not effect their beastly purpose To satisfy their Covetousness they have unmercifully robbed of their fortunes and exposed to the extremest want not only those that were their opposites and able to hurt them but those whose sex age and condition might have melted stones into pitty women children the sick the aged women in labour and even those of their own party Their Cruelty hath not contented it self with the murther of those they hated but as if they had been the professed Schollars of that inhumane monster whose Maxim was Perimat Tyrannus lenis in regno meo mors impetratur they have insulted over the persons and lives of their fellow Subjects with most exquisite Tortures whipt some to Death and starved others they have made it a Crime in some that they were neighbours to those whom they persecuted for their Loyalty and punished others for shewing them mercy nay to shew that their ambition was to choose out the sharpest executioners of their Tyranny though with the hazard of rendring the names of Christians odious for their sakes to the professed enemies of Christendom they had once designed divers of prime worth and quality both of the Clergy and the Gentry to be sold for slaves to their brethren the Turks at Argiers And so full of contagious venome is their malice that it hath made Parents unnatural to their own children suffering them to perish by Famine because they refused to Rebell against their Sovereign To conclude their malice hath so far transcended all bounds that they have done mischief where they were not invited by any benefit to themselves or any other only for the delight they took in doing it burning houses spoyling goods destroying Books Evidences and Publick Records to the prejudice of Posterity the disturbance of Possessions the obstruction of Justice and the impairing of Learning only to make themselves Sport they have by breaking Articles of surrender by offering savage force to the persons of messengers for Treaty and to the goods and houses of foreign Ambassadors broken the Sacred Laws and disturbed the Commerce of Nations and that nothing might be wanting to the height of their villanies by the rude defacing of the Pictures and resemblances of His Majesty their Sovereign they have declared their wicked intentions against his Sacred Person Now if any shall indeavour to acquit the Grandees of the Faction by laying all the fault on private men or inferiour Officers and shall averr that if complaint had been made to the Parliament redress would have been given let them know that by reading this Book it will appear that the bad success which wronged persons found is a sufficient evidence that others should have lost their labour in complaining For even their Justice was so obstructed by that Faction that the best remedy of the foulest injuries was but Eli his correction of his sons a cold admonition and sometimes a direct denial of Justice yea and the goods of the sufferers given as a reward to those that did the wrong Wherefore since our imagined Sickness hath led us into a needless course of Physick wherein we have almost purged and bled to death if we love our own safety better than the gain of those that live upon our ruins let us at last be wise and give over the Physitian In a word we shall promise in the sight of God and remembring that Lyers are in the number of those against whom the gates of the new Jerusalem shall be shut to deal in the ensuing stories with all candor and ingenuity not out of a desire to render the actors of these impieties odious or abuse the Reader either with falsehoods or uncertainties but to report nothing but what hath been examined and attested by men of known truth and integrity And that the world may see what violent affections these Sectaries brought to these hostile Acts we shall begin with the times of peace when the King had no formidable Army to inflame their Jealousies nor these men provoked to cruelty by any foregoing injuries The Scene is Essex and the first man that shall be tendered to your view is Sir John Lucas MERCURIUS RUSTICUS OR THE Countries Complaint c. I. Sir John Lucas and Mr. Newcomin a Minister barbarously used by the Brownists and Anabaptists of Colchester Sir John 's House plundered his Mother Lady and Sister abused and committed to the common Goal The unhumane usage of Sir William Boteler in Kent his House plundered and his Servants tortured c. ON Monday Aug. 22. 1642. Sir John Lucas intended with some Horse and Arms to begin his Journey towards the North to wait upon the King which purpose of his being on Saturday by a treacherous Servant discovered to John Langley of Colchester Grocer and Captain of the Trained Bands He with Henry Barrington Brewer and Alderman of the Town spent the next day being Sunday in riding to Coggeshall Bocking Bayntree Halsteed and other Towns of their own Faction to communicate to them the knowledg of it and invite them with strong guards of Muskets to beset the ways and intercept him in his Journey and did also by the assistance of the Mayor set a guard of Colchester Trainband on Sunday night about his house Sir John Lucas intended to begin his journey early by one or two a clock on Monday morning supposing he might so pass mith most privacy and no opposition but the back gate at which he thought to issue out was no sooner opened but a strong guard from under a hedge present themselves and one of them discharged his Musket as a Warning-piece to the Town where the Alarm is presently taken the Drum strook up and the whole Town raised the Voluntiers of which there were 400 or 500 then in Town gathered to serve under the Earl of Essex and Lord Say brought up the Beacon by direction of Dan. Cole Alderman fired and Horsemen into all parts sent forth to call in the Country against the Cavaliers in Sir John Lucas's house The house is presently beset with at least 2000 people and two pieces of Ordnance are brought to make a Battery at last they rushed into the house and the first man they seize upon is Mr. Newcomin Parson of S. Trinity Parish in Colchester they tear his cloaths off his back beat him with their Cudgels and Halberts and with infinite exclamations carry him in triumph through the chief streets of the Town by the way entring into a wild but very serious consideration not whether he should dye for that they had resolved at first but to what death to put him one votes drowning another stoning another bids beat out his braines At length having consulted with Alderman Cole they carry him to the common Goal commanding the Jaylor to
in the Protestation to abolish Popery of which in their opinion wearing the Surpless was a part Many attempts they made upon the Doctor and his Curate affronting them both in officiating Divine Service and administration of the Sacraments but they being countenanced by a considerable part in the Town the Sectaries could not effect what they desired until at last in the Months of June July and August 1642. they were animated by the coming of the Forces raised in Essex Suffolk and Norfolk For as they raised each Company it was sent to Chelmsford the common Rendezvouz and there staied until they were made up three hundred or four hundred and so sent to London In all the time of their stay there the Doctor lay at the mercy of the Soldiers who egg'd on by the Brownists and Anabaptists of the Town used his House as their Quarter consumed his provisions for his Family and commanded there as Lords Amongst many Outrages committed by the Soldiers Three are most remarkable First Upon a Fast Day they send a Command to the Doctor that he should not pray for the Bishops nor so much as make mention of them in his Lips nor use the Book of Common-Prayer if he did they threaten to pull him out of the Pulpit and tear him in pieces The Doctor not intimidated by their Threat gives order to his Curate to read the Prayers appointed which accordingly he did The Soldiers right bred being Volunteers of Colchester and Ipswich and rightly designed too for my Lord Sayes's own Regiment fit Soldiers for such a Leader irreverently fit with their Hats on make a noise to drown the Curates voice nay they call to him to come out of his Calves Coope meaning the Reading-Desk and make an end of his Pottage The Curate remembring that advice of our Saviour Not to cast Pearls before Swine nor holy things to Dogs gives over reading unwilling to expose the holy Worship of God to so foul Contempt and Scorn Having thus silenced the Curate their Commanders looking on they violently take the Sacred Bible to tear it but being reproved for it by Sergeant Major Bamfeild then present they exchange the Bible for the Book of Common-Prayer Having it in their power in solemn Triumph they carry it into the Streets and that which holy Martyrs inspired by the Holy Ghost composed and sealed the truth and sanctity of it with their dearest Blood these Savage Miscreants rent in pieces Some of the leaves they tread under feet some they cast into the Kennel some they pissed upon and some they fixed on the end of their Clubs and Cudgels and in a Triumphant manner marched with them up and down the Town Secondly About a Week after when the Doctor was in the Chancel there to Interr the Corps of a Gentleman lately deceased these Soldiers rushed into the place with an intent to bury the quick with the dead to put the Doctor into the same Grave which they had done for no other reason but because he used the Form prescribed by the Church at burial of the Dead had he not been powerfully rescued by his Parishoners Lastly When the glad Tydings were brought to Chelmsford that Episcopacy was voted down by the House of Commons all usual expressions of an exulting joy were used amongst the rest Bonfires were kindled in every street but most of the Fuel was violently taken from the Doctor 's Wood-yard And now the pile raised and the fire kindled they want nothing but a Sacrifice this they resolve shall be the Doctor himself To this purpose the Separatists of the Town assisted by two Companies of Soldiers in the Evening assault him in his House seise upon his Person and are ready to carry him to the Fire there to throw him headlong into the midst of it But some of his Friends having information of the design go and acquaint the Commanders with the bloody intentions of their Souldiers who presently take a Guard and rescue the Doctor out of their power as soon as ever they had seized on him Since that oppressed and worried every day by these ravenous Wolves he was forced to forsake his Charge as many other godly Ministers are and to fly for his Life leaving his Wife and eight Children to the mercy of the Rebels who have deprived his Family of all their Livelihood and exposed them to extream want Nay they have several times broken violently into his House under pretence to search for him and have held Pistols cocked and Swords drawn at the Breasts of his Children and Servants charging them upon their Lives to reveal where the Doctor was It was lately certified from thence by a chief Member of that Town and no friend of the Doctors that he finds the case there to be far worse than he expected for while they hoped that the power being Traiterously wrested out of the King's hand they should have shared it amongst themselves they find that either the power is fallen into their hands that are far beneath them or else hath raised these men up far above them for as he writes The Town is governed by a Tinker two Coblers two Taylors two Pedlers c. And that the World may see what a Systeme of Divinity these Coblers and Taylors are like in time to stitch together and what Principles they intend to Rule by I shall here set down certain preparatory prelusory Propositions which they usually Preach for Preach they do to their infatuated Disciples and by them are received as the Divine Oracles of God And you shall have them in their own Terms viz. First That Kings are the Burdens and Plagues of those People or Nations over which they Govern Secondly That the relation of Master and Servant hath no ground or warrant in the New Testament but rather the contrary For there we read In Christ Jesus there is neither bond nor free and we are all one in Christ. Thirdly That the Honours and Titles of Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Lords Knights and Gentlemen are but Ethnical and Heathenish distinctions amongst Christians Fourthly That one man should have a Thousand Pounds a Year and another not one Pound perhaps not so much but must live by the sweat of his Brows and must Labour before he eat hath no ground neither in Nature or in Scripture Fifthly That the Common People heretofore kept under Blindness and Ignorance have a long time yielded themselves Sorvants nay Slaves to the Nobility and Gentry But God hath now opened their Eyes and discovered unto them their Christian Liberty And that therefore it is now fit that the Nobility and Gentry should serve their Servants or at least Work for their own Maintenance and if they will not Work they ought not to Eat Sixthly That Learning hath always been an enemy to the Gospel and that it were a happy thing if there were no Universities and all Books burnt except the Bible Seventhly That any man whom God hath as they call it Gifted may be
in the Christian World but such is the barbarousness of the pretenders to Reformation that upon Wednesday the 14. of this instant June the Souldiers by the appointment and encouragement of one whom in these degenerous Times wherein the dregs of the People are made Commanders for the advancement of Rebellion men call Colonel Purefey a man of a mean desperate Fortune but by the means of the late Lord Brooke chosen Burgess of Parliament for Warwick and who had the greatest Influence in seducing that unhappy Lord to this desperate Rebellion in which he miserably perished did beat down and deface those Monuments of Antiquity and not content with this by the same Command they break down the Cross in the Market-place not leaving one stone upon another Purefey all the while standing by animating and encouraging them until they had finished their so barbarous Work In which the World may observe that these men are the sworn Enemies not only of pretended Superstition but of the Ensigns of Nobility and Gentry that if their Diana I mean their Parity may take effect Posterity may forget and not read the distinction of Noble from ignoble in these venerable Monuments of ancient Nobility there being in these Windows something indeed to instruct a Herauld nothing to offend the weakest Christian. Mercurius Rusticus c. VII Doctor Cox barbarously used by the Earl of Stamford at Exeter contrary to the Law of Arms. The unheard-of Cruelties committed by the Lord Grey of Groby and his Souldiers on the person house goods and servants of Master Nowell in Rutlandshire Dr. Bargrave ill intreated by Col. Sands in Kent c. AFter the great and happy Defeat given by the Victorious Sir Ralph Hopton to the Devonshire Forces at Starton it pleased the Commanders of His Majesties Forces to entertain thoughts of Clemency towards the remainder of the Rebels To testifie to the World therefore that there was nothing more in their desires than a Thrift of Christian Blood and withal to heap coles of fire upon their heads to conquer them by kindness whom they had often conquered by the sword by their Letters they signifie their readiness to close up those wide rents between them by a Treaty And that a Message of Peace might be well suited with a Messenger they sent the Letters by Dr. Cox Doctor of Divinity who attended by a Trumpeter came to Exeter that Sunday in the After-noon The Trumpeter as the manner is gave the Town warning as soon as he came within sight of the Guard and presently an Officer came to receive him who blind-folding him with a Handkerchief pinn'd over his Eyes conducted him through the City unto the Earl of Stamfords House having admittance there the Doctor takes off his Handkerchief but accidentally did not dispose of the pin that fastned it but still kept it in his Hand the Earl had no sooner set his eyes upon the Doctor but presently he reviles him and calls him all the reproachful Names he could imagine and swore that he would hang him instantly but first to extort a confession from him he offers a Knife or Dagger to his Breast demanding an answer to some Interrogatories the Doctor not affrighted with such rough usage replies very discreetly That he had received commands to deliver certain Letters from the Commanders of the Cornish to those of the Devonshire Army but that he had no Commission to satisfie any different and by-demands this denial to answer together with after dinner inflamed the Earl and put him into a new fit of Railing and for variety sake he did intermix the opprobrious names with many menaces and offers of stabbing him In the end seeing that this harsh welcome could effect nothing nor awe the Doctor to make any discovery he demands the Letters the Doctor that he might clear his hands and so dive into his Pockets suddenly put the Pin which he held in his hands between his lips hereupon one Baxter a Serjeant-Major of the City observing the motion of his hand but not perceiving what it conveyed to his mouth cryed out What doth the rogue eat there he swallows Papers of Intelligence With this the Earl forgetting the Gravity and serious Deportment of a Peer of the Kingdom of England began in an antick manner to leap and skip and frisk crying out Treason Treason he comes to betray the City Courage my brave blades and so turning to the Doctor he set his Dagger again to his Breast and demanded what it was that he had put into his mouth The Doctor mildly and softly putting his hands to his lips took the Pin thence and shewing it to his Lordship said It is a Pin my Lord. The Serjeant-Major thinking to intercept the supposed Intelligence going down the Doctors throat instantly flies to him took him by the throat and griped him so hard that he had almost strangled him The Earl himself most unworthily crying out Cut the Villains throat cut it nor did he command another what he would not do himself for with his own hands he offered his Knife thrice at the Doctors throat to cut it but the Doctor still put it by God who is a present help in trouble restrained the Earl and delivered the Doctor out of his hands Nor was it his hap to suffer from Honorable hands only the standers by are not idle but follow so leading an example as if he had been sent for from Cornwall to Exeter on no other errand than to be made the City scorn and the subject whereon their wanton insolency should vent it self every one in the Room had a fling at him some with their fists beat him about the head others scratch his face one with his fingers boars his ears to his extream torment another with his fingers rakes in his mouth hoping there to find some Papers of Intelligence one tears his hair another forces his hand down his throat and the thing for which they make this strict search is Intelligence some scrole of Intelligence Sure there is much want of Intelligence in their own heads that made such strict inquisition for it in another mans Well this pursuit of Intelligence so long they continue and so eagerly that the Doctor fainting under so barbarous usage was ready to give up the Ghost and for fear he should dye under their hands they leave him a sad emblem of that entertainment which the Messengers of Peace find from the men of this Generation Let that rebellious City remember and tremble at that condolement of our Saviour over the like sin O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee I am unwilling to go on and read her destiny and therefore shall return to the story Having in this unchristian manner insulted long enough upon the Doctor they divert their rage and spend the rest of their Fury on the Trumpeter and having either before in part breathed out their madness or not thinking the poor Trumpeter so
all in his house should have liberty to depart whither they pleased Thirdly That none should enter the House but Commanders But this generation of Truce-breakers that keep Faith neither with God nor man and break Oaths faster then ever Sampson did his Cords whom nothing can tye fast but a Halter the strongest Obligation for a Traytor were no sooner entred the House but presently they seize on Master Nowell and Master Skipwith as their Prisoners and whereas by the Article of agreement none were to enter the House but Commanders and since if the Article had been kept unviolated there were like to be as many Thieves within as without doors Therefore Commanders and Common Souldiers Common Souldiers and Commanders all Thieves enter the House and rifle it They take away his Goods cut the Ticks of his Beds burn the Feathers tear in pieces his Accounts Writings and Evidences and That which we have not read in the black Catalogue of the outrages of the Rebellious Irish was attempted by these for in the Examinations upon Oath of those that report the miserable Sufferings of the poor Protestants in Ireland and the barbarousness of the Irish published by Order of Parliament we do not find that God gave them up to so roprobate a sense as to commit or attempt any Rapes give the Devil his due this sin we find not laid to their charge But these blessed Reformers whom they have not blushed blasphemously to call The Host of God and Christs Armies and Champions of Religion added this to the rest of their innumerable Wickednesses That they attempted to ravish two of his Maid-servants one was dumb but fourteen years of age another had her knee put out of joint striving to resist a Villain in so Beastly an attempt In a word their practices were generally so Wicked so Impious that one that stood Spectator of all passages and observed strictly what was done affirms That Mr. Griffith whom some call Prince Griffith was the only civilized Man amongst them Having committed these Inhumane Acts among the Living they go into the Church among the Dead and there deface a goodly Monument which this noble Gentleman Mr. Nowell had erected for his deceased Wife deeply wounding the living Husband by spoiling that Memorial which he had consecrated to the dear memory of his dead Wife Having ransacked all from the living to the dead they carry away Mr. Nowell and Mr. Skipwith Prisoners to London and commit them to safe Custody in the Lord Peters his House before mentioned in Aldersgate street where they remained Prisoners for a long time Colonel Sandyes in his perambulation of Kent bestowed a Visit upon Dr. Bargraves House then Dean of Canterbury the Dean himself then being from home Sandyes came late in the Night and the whole Family were in Bed they soon raise the House and where they did not find they make an entrance forcing Mistris Bargrave a virtuous good Gentlewoman whom their hasty Summons had permitted to cast only her Night-gown about her to wait upon them from room to room not suffering her to turn aside though she for Modesty sake requested that favour at their hands to draw on her Stockings unless they might stand by and see it done They rudely rush into Mistris Boys her Chamber the Widow of Dr. Boys Dean of Canterbury a Gentlewoman about fourscore years old there they seize upon a Cabinet of hers and break it open though the good Old woman would very fain have had it spared and offered them the Key to open it they find in it forty five pounds in Old Gold which she had laid by to bestow as Legacies upon her Friends this they hug and call their own She intreats them to forbear it and directs them to her Will which was laid up with the Gold and in that they might see how she had bequeathed it Upon perusal of the Will they find that she had made Dean Bargrave her own Brother her Executor this they pronounce a Crime of so high a nature that nothing could expiate the guilt but the forfeiture of the Gold and the Cancelling of the Will but by the earnest mediation of Mr. King one of their Company at length they are perswaded to restore the Gold and spare the Will From hence they go to the Chamber where young Mr. Bargrave the Deans son did lodge Sandys valiantly breaks his Sword which hung at his Beds-head before his face and calling him out of his Bed sends him Prisoner to Dover-Castle Soon after the Dean hastning home to comfort his distressed Family Sandys hears where he was lodged at an Inne at Graves-end and as he was undressed and ready to go into Bed Sandys and thirteen of his Souldiers press into his Chamber with their Swords drawn and command him to yield himself a Prisoner which the Dean having neither power nor will to resist did accordingly having without any reason given brought him a Captive to London they commit him Prisoner to the Fleet where after he had lain three weeks he was at last released without ever being examined or so much as called to the House After this Sandys writes I blush to mention so degenerous a Pamphlet a Book and was not ashamed to call it His Travels into Kent unworthy his Predecessors to strain the name of Sandyes with such Travels In this worthless Commentary the Register of his perpetual Infamy amongst other things he fastens the Note of a debauched drunken young Fellow upon young Mr. Bargrave a Gentleman of so ingenuous a Countenance so modest and sweet a Temper that he deserves a far better Character The old Dean a Grave and learned Gentleman heart-broken with these Injuries soon after dyes the World in the mean time Condemning Sandyes not so much for his Barbarity as Ingratitude in dealing thus with him who had not many years before been a special means to save him from the Gallows when he was Indicted for a Rape at the General Affizes at Maydstone But you know the old Proverb Save a Thief from the Gallows and he will cut your Throat Mercurius Rusticus c. VIII Master Swift Parson of Goodwich in Herefordshire his Wife and ten Children most inhumanly dealt with by Captain Kirle a stony-hearted Rebel The Duke of Vendosme plundred at Uxbridge with other frauds and abuses committed by the Rebels c. WHen the Earl of Stamford was in Herefordshire in October 1642. and pillaged all that kept Faith and Allegeance to the King information was given to Mistris Swift Wife of Mr. Thomas Swift Parson of Goodwich that her House was designed to be plundered To prevent so great a danger she instantly repaired to Hereford where the Earl then was some ten miles from her own home to Petition him that no violence might be offered by his Soldiers to her House or Goods He most nobly and according to the goodness of his Disposition threw the Petition away and swore no small Oaths That she should be plundered to morrow
able to give any other answer to their Query protests his ignorance and that if the discovery might save his life yet he could not redeem it so for he knew nothing concerning what they asked him inraged that the man could not Prophecy for without that gift he could not resolve them they suddenly hoise him up to the top of the house and letting go their hold they let him as suddenly fall to the ground Being fallen there he lay for dead without any expression of life but these barbarous Rebels hoping that there may yet remain some life in him whereon to practise further cruelty stand by the man and watch him and at last perceiving that he was not dead but that he began to stir and breath presently they put burning matches between his fingers hoping by this way of Torment to extort a discovery from him but in vain the extremity of this Torment indeed though half dead as he was made him cry out and roar in a very lamentable manner which a Maid-servant of the house hearing and affrighted at the noise ran to her Master and told him that certainly the Rebels were murthering the man in the house of Office hereupon Mr. Walker hastened out and when he came to the place found the conjecture of his Servant true and amazed at so horrid so inhumane a spectacle interceded for the poor man and earnestly desired them not to defile his ground and habitation with innocent blood instead of desisting they return the Aegyptians answer to Moses Who made thee a Ruler and a Judg bad him be silent and withdraw or else they threatned to use him in like manner Mr. Walker fearing that those perjured persidious Villains which keep their words in nothing else might yet be punctual in performance of mischief not daring to commit himself to their mercy left them and went imto his house where the Quarter-Master to the Rebels lay sleeping while the Troopers were acting this cruelty him he raiseth from sleep and tells him what the Troopers were doing without who something moved at the Relation went out unto them and took them off from farther prosecuting their barbarous intentions But whether or no the man on whom all this cruelty was acted survived this barbarous usage is uncertain As amongst the many blessings wherewith it pleased God to advance the City of London far above all other Cities either of this or other Nations of the Christian World one was their Clergy for a more pious learned and laborious Ministry no people ever enjoyed even their Enemies themselves being Judges So amongst the many crying sins whereby that proud rebellious City hath provoked God to give them up to a Reprobate sense and hardness of heart to their own destruction certainly the contempt and oppression of their Clergy are none of the least as before the lest Parliament began a main part of their Religion was to strive with their Priests and to rob them of their maintenance by all possible arts of deceit and fraud so as soon as the Parliament was sate and the basest of the People were set loose to worrey their Ministers though never so blameless never so Orthodox if they did not conspire with them to innovate both Church and State the Citizens of London shewed themselves most forward in Petitioning against their Ministers yet at first pretended to molest such only who had expressed greatest zeal to the Order and decency of Gods worship professing that for the rest there was no thought to trouble them but at last having put to flight or imprisoned those they go and discover plainly that whatsoever is a Friend to the Protestant Religion as it is established in the Church of England is their Enemy how many have they silenced imprisoned or banished from their Cures whom heretofore they did magnifie for the undaunted Champions of the Protestant Religion and stout opposers of those supposed pretended innovations which they vainly imagined were the eager endeavours of some men to impose upon the Church he that knows London and hath frequented the most thronged Congregations there cannot be ignorant that Mr. Ephraim Udall Parson of S. Austins in the Old Change near S. Austines Gate is a man of eminent Piety exemplary Conversation profound Learning indefatigable Industry Preaching constantly every Lords Day twice and for the Winter half year if not the whole year preaching a Lecture at his own Parish every Tuesday in the Afternoon and if I am not mistaken every Saturday before the first Sunday in the month a Preparatory Sermon to the blessed Sacrament of the Sords Supper and besides all this he is a man of an affable courteous peaceable Conversation amongst his Neighbours in a word he was a man of their own vote and is without prophanation be it spoken a shining and burning light and his people for a while much pleased themselves in their choice and were content to walk by his light but when he found himself mistaken in the ends and intentions of the heads of this Rebellion when he saw that the zeal of some did degenerate into madness and frenzie and that the endeavours of others under the pretence of Reformation was to bring in Anarchy and Sacriledg to devour Gods Portion and the poor remainder of the Patrimony of the Church he did strongly and powerfully bend both his tongue and pen against them against Sacriledg he published that learned Tract called A Coal from the Altar against Anarchy he declared himself for Episcopacy and the established Lyturgy and published another Book called Communion Comeliness in which by many impregnable Arguments he proves a high Conveniency if not a necessity for that most laudable custom of having Rails about the Lords Table These were in the Schismatiques opinion Crimes enough to unsaint a man nay had S. Paul himself been now in the flesh and preached against Sacriledg and Anarchy there is no doubt but there would have been some found to petition against him and John White sitting in the Chair as undoubtedly he had been voted a scandalous Minister at a Committee but because when these Books were published Injustice and oppression did not march so furiously nor were grown so frontless and impudent to seize on innocency it self not slurr'd with slanders and calumnies Mr. Udall sate something quiet some murmurings there were but his former Reputation in the City bore him up against the Obloquy of private discontent the Faction found it no easie matter to brand Mr. Udall with Popery or Popishly affected or these slanders to make any impression in that estimation which the people had of him but at last when they came openly to defie their Sovereign the Lords Anointed and it was almost Treason but to name the 13. Chapter to the Romans it was a fit time to silence and remove Mr. Udall for neither Doctor Gouge his Church at Black Fryers or Mr. Goodwins in Coleman-street were half so full before this Parliament began as Mr. Udalls hath been since
First therefore they Plunder his house they take away his Library and Houshold-stuff Then they remove him from the Execution of his Ministery and sequester the profit for a Levite of their own Thirdly they sought for him to commit him close Prisoner being aged of very weak and infirm body his strength exhausted with continual labours in Preaching the word of God visiting the sick and in execution of their ministerial Functions in performance of which in his own person few of his Brethren were more conscientious And lastly they cast him out of his dwelling house But when they came to seize on his house they found one impediment which unless they could find some art to remove they could not take full possession of it Mrs. Udall besides the infirmities of age was lame and it had been monstrous inhumanity to take her by violence and carry her out of her house not knowing where to dispose of her but in the open street Therefore to gain her consent and prevent clamour until the feat was done they tell the good old Gentlewoman that the Parliament had a tender respect unto her years and to her present infirmities and therefore though they had ordered to dispossess her of that house yet they did not mean to leave her harbourless but had out of the abundance of their goodness provided another house to receive her She good old Woman neither awed by fear nor won by their perswasions and promises was taken up by two men brought in by him that had broken open three locks and entred the house by force and carried out of her house into the street there they set her down in a Chair and so leave this weak infirm Matron of a long time not accustomed to the open air nor being able to go out of doors in three or four years before unless unto the Church exposed her a sad spectacle of the Rebels cruelty to the mercy of Wind and Weather The Rebels in their march towards Gloucester seized on Sr. Tho. Hide a Bedfordshire Man whose sordid Covetousness had made him so far forget all Duty and Loyalty to his Sovereign as that he refused to assist him either in his Person or his purse but because either his Estate lay nearer to the Power of the Rebels than to the Kings Protection a Consideration which in these Atheistical rebellious times is admitted as a just Apologie either for Neutrality or ready Compliance with the Rebels so far as to submit to all Taxes and Impositions laid on them a most traiterous and irreligious liberty and dispensation of Conscience which if all men had made use of the Kings Crown might long before this have been thrown down to the ground Or else conceiving it a very unlikely if not an impossible thing for the King to withstand their power who had not only by Lies and Slanders stoln away the hearts of the People but had seized on all his Castles Towns Forts Magazines did contribute to the Rebels aid and wholly complied with them not so much out of judgment as fear thinking that this compliance would be the security of his Estate and turn to his great advantage but his Wealth was so well known that bare Compliance and small Contributions must not serve his turn he must bleed more freely They seize him the Twentieth part and that highly set This demand struck his heart like pangs of death and he that was so forward in petty assistances now discovered the love of himself to be more than that of the holy Cause and refused to part with more monies wherefore in recompence of his former good deeds they seize on his Person and carry him captive in their Army and suffered his Servant to walk along by him leading a horse in his hand while his Master the Knight was chained arm to arm with another Prisoner and was compelled to beat it on the hoof Thus did he march for three days on foot coupled with another Prisoner and that Prisoner as we are informed is Doctor Stubbing Doctor in Divinity whom likewise the Rebels gathered up in their march and taking him from his Cure added him to the number of their Captives So soon can these Rebels forget former aids if men do not comply with them and answer their expectation in every thing and indeed what measure their dearest friends are to expect from them if they fail them in any particular not running into the same excess of Madness and Treason as they do and shall not shew themselves ready at a call to their perpetual infamy contrary to the Religion which they profess the Oaths which they have taken and the solemn Protestations which they have made rush into the damnable sin of Rebellion and give the right hand of fellowship to the Rebels here to assist them in so unnatural a War against their own gracious native Sovereign we may fully learn by a Prayer for now they have turned their very Prayers into sin being no better than very Libels and Pasquils lately made by Mr. Bowlstrode Son to Colonel Bowlstrode a factious Rebel of Buckinghamshire before his Sermon at Horton near Colebrooke which that you may see what Spirit of Prayer and Supplication it is of which they boast and that the Nation whom it concerns may see what opinion the factious Preachers here have of them unless they will serve their vile purposes and ingage themselves as deeply which God forbid in the present Rebellion as themselves we have here inserted Thou hast O Lord of late written bitter things against thy Children and forsaken thine own Inheritance and now Lord in our misery and distress we expected aid from our Brethren of the neighbouring Nation the Scots I mean but good Lord thou knowest that they are a false and perfidious Nation and do all they do for their own ends and not for our good if therefore good Lord their coming into the Land at this time be for our good bring them in speedily if otherwise keep them out for they are a false and perfidious Nation There was present at Church at that time one Mr. Kenada a Scotch man who being drowsie was wakened by a friend that sate by him to hear the devotion of the Preacher who hearing his whole Nation thus publickly blasphemed by this contemptible Zelot spake out in the Congregation saying I think the man is mad and certainly Mr. Kenada was not a jot mistaken to think him mad that should thus rashly in the face of a solemn Congregation traduce a Nation and if there be amongst the heads of the Rebellion in whose power he is any care of the honour of that Nation we doubt not but we shall shorly hear of some exemplary Punishment inflicted on this incendiary between the two Nations and heightned according to the nature of the Crime If any man doubt of the truth of this Relation whether it be a fiction or a thing really done he may consult Mr. Kenada or any of Horton Parish who
ordered the Parishoners to pay their Tiths Tillat a Linnen Draper one of the Citizens that was sued refused to obey the Lord Mayor's Decree and therefore the time limited in the Decree being expired the Lord Mayor according to the power given him by the Statute of the 37 of Hen. 8. committed Tillat to Prison without Bail or mainprize until he did submit to the sentence as the Statute gives him power But see the Justice of the great pretenders to the maintenance of the Laws of the Land Tillat had not stood committed many days before two of the House of Commons as the Keeper of Newgate sayes in the name of the House of Commons command him to be set at liberty which accordingly was done though he were in upon Execution and the Debt not satisfied every man wondring at but no man daring to question so illegal an action When this way took no effect they joyned their Purses to vex him with an Action of Ejectment threatning to spend five hundred pounds but they would out him of his Living but presently deserted those intentions as not seizable After this they slaunder him for Preaching Popery and Arminianism which unjust scandal so prevailed in the City that he could not pass the streets without affronts and jeers put upon him they disswade his Parishoners from hearing him telling them that they would be damn'd if they lived under his Ministery they branded them with the name of Malignants if they frequented their own Church and procured them to be deeply Taxed in all Sessments In a word that nothing might be wanting to their own malice and Mr. Chestlen's vexation they threw menacing Libels into his House laid wait in the Pewes of his Church while others provoked him to express himself in the great differences of the times hoping to intangle him in his words and examined his Conversation in the very places where he lived even from his Childhood to that time hoping to find something whence to frame an Accusation against him When all these malicious Courses would not effect the thing they aimed at they go from house to house for hands to a Petition against him to the House of Commons pretending that he had Preached false Doctrin and made it the subject matter of their Petition and if any man refused to subscribe as many did because they could not testifie the truth of the Petition in their Spirit of meekness they called them Malignants Papists and Enemies to Religion however it is too well known that two or three men though the very dregs of the People petitioning against Orthodox Ministers have in the judgment and acceptance of the Faction of the House of Commons out-poised the rest of the Parish though infinitely beyond them as in Number so in Quality their Testimony being rejected with much acrimony and sharpness when the other Libels have gained credit and reputation with them Therefore about March 1641. The Schismaticks of Mr. Chestlens Parish presented a Petition against him to the House of Commons in the name of the whole Parish though three parts of four protested against it under their own hands When it was presented Pennington and Venne earnestly urged that it might be read pleading in their drivelling railing Oratory that he was a very dangerous man fit to be looked after To satisfie their Importunity the Witnesses who as their manner is were never sworn and yet were both Witnesses and Accusers were produced and examined at the Bar and upon examination the Petition was thrown out as frivolous but like eager bloud-hounds not giving off the pursuit for being at one loss upon Easter Eve to shew the World that malice is part of a Puritans preparation to the Sacrament when the House was very thin the Protestants of the House being in their Closets close at their devotions to prepare themselves for the great Feast at hand and when all private businesses by order of both Houses were laid aside for as yet all opinion of the sanctity of the ancient Festivals of the Primitive Church those venerable anniversary memorials of Gods great blessings to mankind was not lost amongst them Pennington and Venne prevailed to have this foiled ejected Petition to be revived and read again in the House and the Patrons of Justice and Integrity being then absent the Petition was referred to the Committee for scandalous Ministers so they are pleased to call all Orthodox conscientious Ministers who abhor their Rebellion and refuse to comply with them in their seditious practices and that no time might be lost in Easter-week the Committee sate purposely for this business to which there was a full confluence of seditious Schismatical People from all quarters of the City that so nothing might be wanting to this Triumph while Mr. Chestlen was thus tied to a tedious chargeable attendance God to whom appertain the Issues of death smote Tillat the main promoter of Mr. Chestlens troubles with the Plague of which he died with whom also for the present died Mr. Chestlens trouble and vexation and though some that think that all acts of providence are aimed point-blank at them having such an oportunity as this would interpret this to their own Interest as a sign of personal favour to them yet not daring to press into the hidden will of God nor making our selves of familiar acquaintance with his Counsels I shall not make any inference from hence but leave every man to abound in his own sense only thus much we say Tillat being dead the hot prosecution of Mr. Chestlen for a while lay dead too when all these endeavours could not re-estate Burton in the Parsonage some of the Factious of the Parish combine to make him their Lecturer and perhaps better approved of him as their Lecturer than their Parson to this purpose cunningly and on feigned pretences they get some subscriptions of the Parishoners and annexing them to a Petition for which they were never intended preferred it in their own names and the names of the rest to the House of Commons that Burton might be their Lecturer which was no sooner proposed than granted and an Order presently drawn up to give Burton power to Preach in Mr. Chestlen's Pulpit which Mr. Chestlen resolutely opposing kindled such Coals against him as afterwards fired him out of the City for since Mr. Chestlen will not give way to Burton to be partner with him in his Pulpit they resolve to give him possession of the whole by removing Mr. Chestlen totally from his Cure To this purpose Mr. Case sends to the Faction in Mr. Chestlen's Parish to frame some accusation against him in obedience to so ghostly Counsel Mr. Chestlen is presently accused to the House of Commons for Preaching a seditious Sermon on Sunday the 23. of October that very day whereon the Battel was fought at Edge-Hill The subject of the Sermon in truth being nothing else but an earnest exhortation to his Parishoners to perswade them to constancy in the Protestant Religion
suddenly start up not only into its primitive beauty and Lustre but out-stripped all other places as in the number and sumptuousness of Private Houses so especially in the magnificence and splendor of Religious houses amongst which two were most famous far exceeding all the rest viz. Christ-Church bujus pertinacissimus aemulus as learned Cambden speaks the eager rival of Christ-Church St. Augustines This Church by the injury of Sacrilege and time two greedy devourers lies almost buried in its own Ruines presenting nothing else to the eye of the beholders but a sad spectacle how spatious and ample a structure it once was when now a piece of it hath the honour to be stiled though seldom imploy'd as the Kings House But Christ-Church placed as it were in the Navel of the City raiseth it self to so great a Majesty and Stateliness that Erasmus a man not too much taken with magnificence in this kind I am sure not doting on it saies that this doth present it selfe with so Majestick state ut procul etiam Intuentibus religionem incutiat that it occasions that devotion which should be used there and strikes a sensible impression of Religion in their hearts that behold it though a far off and at a distance This Church built in old time as Beda saies by the faithful and believing Romans and by King Ethelbert given to Augustine in process of time needed the like Piety to support it as at first built it and works of that Nature in those days did not long lye neglected for want of benefactors Lanfranke therefore the thirty third Arch-Bishop of this Sea whether more famous for repairing of decaied Churches as this of Canterbury Rochester and S. Albans or his indefatigable pains in correcting the corrupt translations of the Holy Bible scattered every where through the Kingdom in his days is uncertain William Corbet or as others will have it Corbois the thirty sixth Arch-Bishop of the same Sea reedified the Quire and the upper part of this Church and the Piety of succeeding Bishops built and joyned the Nave or body to the Quire and brought it to this Magnificence and splendor in whih we now see it But what our Fore-fathers thought Religion to build up we their degenerous posterity think Piety to pull down so that while some leading Atheists enemies to God and his Religion and reprobate to every good work are busy to Vote and cry down Episcopacy with the Sacred Hierarchy Root and Branch their Emissaries incouraged and set on by them first deface these Churches and in the next place will utterly ruin them that so the places where God is worshiped being demolished the revenue that maintains the worship may become a prey to these Sacrilegious Cormorants But my God shall make them like a wheel Now how the Rebels behaved themselves in their first attempt in this kind on the Cathedral Church of Canterbury under the conduct of Colonel Sandys I cannot better express than in the passionate elegancy of Reverend Doctor Paske one of the Prebends and at that time Subdean of that Church to the Earl of Holland the most ingrateful and most unthankful of men My ever Honoured Lord DId it not conduce unto the Publick I should not presume to interrupt your Lordships weighty affairs but the long experience of your Lordships zeal for Religion and vigilancy for your University of Cambridge hath assured me of your Lordships Patronage of our whole Church in general and as the case now stands of this Mother-Church in particular we expected peace but have found much trouble from the Troopes sent amongst us with what barbarousness they have behaved themselves at Rochester and in other parts of this County I leave to the Relation of others and beg your Lordships patience only to be informed what hath happened here with us and wherein I am more neerly concerned by my Office in the absence of the Dean Colonel Sandys arriving here with his Troops on Friday night presently caused a strict watch and Sentinels to be set both upon the Church and upon our several houses to the great affright of all the Inhabitants this done Sergeant Major Cockaine came to me and in the name of the Parliament demanded to see the Arms of the Church and the Store-powder of the County which I presently shewed him when he possessed himself of the Keys and keep them in his own custody the next morning we were excluded the Church and might not be permitted to enter for the preformance of our divine Exercises but about eight of the Clock Sir Michael Livesey attended with many Soldiers came unto our Officers and commaded them to deliver up the keys of the Church to one of their Company which they did and thereupon he departed when the Soldiers entering the Church and Quire Giant-like began a fight with God himself overthrew the Communion-Table tore the Velvet cloth from before it defaced the goodly Screen or Tabernacle-work violated the Monuments of the Dead spoyled the Organs brake down the ancient Rails and Seats with the brazen Eagle which did support the Bible forced open the Cupboords of the Singing-men rent some of their Surplices Gowns and Bibles and carryed away others mangled all our Service-books and Books of Common-Prayer bestrwing the whole Pavement with the leaves thereof a miserable spectacle to all good eyes but as if all this had been too little to satisfie the fury of some indiscreet zealots among them for many did abhor what was done already they further exercised their malice upon the Arras hanging in the Quire representing the whole story of our Saviour wherein observing divers figures of Christ I tremble to express their blasphemies one said that here is Christ and swore that hee would stab him another said here is Christ and swore that he would rip up his Bowels which they did accordingly so far as the figures were capable thereof besides many other Villanies and not content therewith finding another statue of Christ in the Frontispiece of the South-gate they discharged against it forty shot at the least triumphing much when they did hit it in the head or face as if they were resolved to crucifie him again in his figure whom they could not hurt in truth nor had their fury been thus stopped threatning the ruine of the whole Fabrick had not the Colonel with some others come to the relief and rescue the Tumults appeased they presently departed for Dover from whence we expect them this day and are much afraid that as they have already vilified our Persons and offered extream indignity to one of our Brethren so they will Plunder our Houses at their Return unless the care of the Major the Colonel and some Members of the House of Commons Sir Edward Masters and Captain Nut now with us who have promised to present their knowledg to that honourable House do prevent the same Your Lordship will be pleased to pardon my hasty expressions which proceed from a grieved heart and I
was to know and foresee in him what end attends those who forgetting all Religion and Loyalty shall lift up their hands against their God in Sacrilege and against their Sovereign in Rebellion Mercurius Rusticus c. II. The Cathedral Church of Rochester violated the Sacrilege and prophaneness of the Rebels under Command of Sir William Waller and Sir Arthur Haslerig acted on the Cathedral Church of Chichester c. AS when the Spirit brought the Prophet Ezekiel into the holy Temple he led him from place to place and each place entertained him with greater Abominations than the former so that the farewel to the last Vision and the invitation to the next is Turn thee yet again and thou shalt see greater Abominations than these so having brought you in the Cathedrals of this Kingdom Temples in despite of Atheists Rebels and Anabaptists of God too and having shewed you the Abomination of desolation in one of them viz. in Canterbury the first instance of their accursed rage and having viewed that I must now lead you on as the Spirit did the Prophet from place to place and the incitement may be the same for though you have seen great prophanations in the former relation yet you shall see greater Abominations than these The next instance of the Rebels profaneness which I shall offer unto you is in the Cathedral of Rochester recompensed for the smalness of ' its revenue with the honour of ' its antiquity as boasting of Ethelbert King of Kent a common Founder to this Church with those of Canterbury and London The unhappy loss of Earnulphus History the thirty second Bishop of this See deprives us of that light which discovered the various condition of this Church how long in the beginning it struggled with ' its own poverty and in after ages with the injuries of time and War remaining some Years in a kind of widowhood without the government and superintendency of a Bishop till at last Gundulfus the thirtieth Bishop of this See reedified this Church from the ground and brought it into that magnificence in which we now see it to which pious work he brought so good so vigorous affections that as Maelmesbury records of him Praevenerat vivacitas Gundulfi omnium successorum diligentiam Gundulphus alacrity in that work did so prevent the piety of his successors that he hardly left them any place in this kind wherein to exercise their bounty Little did the overflowing zeal of our Ancestours to the house of God like that of the old Israelites pouring out their wealth and precious things to adorn the Tabernacle in so great measure that Moses was fain to publish a Proclamation to restrain their liberality for the stuff they had was sufficient for the work to make it and too much Exod. 36.6 7. little I say did they thnik when they did this that what they thus bountifully gave unto God should ever while this Kingdom remained Christian become a prey to those which as Tertullian speaks Gentes agunt Christi nomine have not so much as a form but the bare usurped name of Christianity which they fully and pollute with those worse than heathenish crimes of Sacrilege and Prophaneness had the Sacrilege lately commited at Canterbury been applauded by the People to gain whom no arts though never so repugnant either to Religion or common honesty were left unattempted certainly this Church which next stood in their way and immediately after Canterbury tasted of their fury had been utterly demolished and offered up a sacrifice to Popularity But Plundering being then but a stranger in England newly arrived here from desolate Germany especially Plundering of Churches which heretofore were held inviolable Sanctuaries for offenders but much more for their own innocent ornaments this made a general outcry every man detested so foul impiety nay their own party some of them not yet so deeply leavened with their Anabaptistical Doctrines nor given up to so reprobate a sense to believe monstrous lyes for truth did not onely not approve but sparingly condemn the Fact and the general vote of the People awakened by Doctor Paske his Letter declared it barbarous and wicked nay the dislike of such proceedings grew to so great a height that some wise men were deceived into an opinion that the Houses would punish the offenders for the present and publish an Order to restrain the like outrages for the future and indeed though some good men Members of both Houses did earnestly desire it yet by experience they quickly found how unequal they were to effect any thing in which they had not the concurrence of the heads of the Faction which ruled in both Houses but much less when they rowed against the stream and had them for their adversaries The Rebels therefore coming to Rochester brought the same affections along with them which they express'd at Canterbury but in wisdom thought it not safe to give them the same scope here as there for the multitude though mad enough yet were not so mad nor stood yet so prepar'd to approve such heathenish practices by this means the Monuments of the Dead which elsewhere they brake up and violated stood untouched Escutcheons and Arms of the Nobility and Gentry upbraiding eye-fores to broken mean Citizens and vulgar Rebels remained undefaced the Seats and Stalls of the Quire escaped breaking down onely those things which were wont to stuff up Parliament Petitions and were branded by the Leaders of the Faction for Popery and Innovation in these they took liberty to let loose their wild zeal they brake down the rail about the Lords Table or Altar call it which you please and not only so but most basely reviled a now Reverend Prelate who being lately Dean of that Church had for the more uniform and reverend receiving of the blessed Sacrament set it up with the odious name of Rogue often repeated they seized upon the Velvet Covering of the holy Table and in contempt of those holy Mysteries which were Celebrated on the Table removed the Table it self into a lower place of the Church in this perfect Disciples of that profane Author of the Book called Altare Damascenum who in the 718. p. devoutly resolves thus De loco ubi consistat cur solliciti cum quovis loco vel Angulo extra Tempus Administrationis collocari possit Concerning the place where the Lords Table shall stand what need we to be sollicitous when out of the time of administration of the Sacrament it may be set aside in any place or obscure corner And to shew what Members they are of the Church of England they strewed the Pavement with the torn mangled leaves of the Book of Common-Prayer which with the Book of Homilies and the 39 Articles makes up the third Book wherein the Doctrin of the Church of England is fully containad understanding that the Dean that then was was to Preach on Sunday morning Colonel Sandys and Sir John Seaton that false Traiterous Scot sent unto him
we spkae with our Tongue The Preface And now that the string of our tongue is untyed our earnest desire is that none of these its sorrowful expressions may be mis-interpreted by any And to that end we have perfixed this advertisement to prevent three mistakes which are all we can possibly imagin the malice of our greatest Enemies can any way fansie against this our Remonstrance I. The first is That perhaps it may be groundless because we have not therein set down the express words either of those Protections by which we might securely have expected an Indemnity or of those Orders by which we suffered To which we answer that the reason hereof was partly to avoid tediousness and therefore we gave onely some short hints in the margent And partly because being despersed we could not possibly have the true Copies of all of them by us And to publish any thing that was but supposititious could not consist with our constant endeavour still to maintain the truth notwithstanding whatsoever difficulties to the contrary But yet to prevent all mistakes as near as we can we have here inserted the true Copies of such as we had by us whereby the indifferent Reader will not onely guess at the rest but also easily imagin what rigour and malice there was used in the execution of them which we assure him are as much or more than he can possibly fansie For they being to deal with an Vniversity which then had a reverend esteem over the whole Kingdom must counterfeit Jacobs voice as much as possibly he could in their Orders though their hands were far rougher than Esau's in the execution of them And accordingly though now it is too apparent it was but only in mockery we had sent us these two following Protections Die Sabbati 4. Mar. 1642. THE Earl of Holland Chancellour of the University of Cambridge having this day represented in the House the present condition of the said University the Lords in Parliament apprehending that through the publick distractions and by reason of great multitudes of Soldiers resorting from several places to the Town of Cambridge some disturbance might happen to the quiet and studies of the Scholar For preventing therefore of any such mischief have thought fit to declare the esteem and care they have of that ancient and noble Seminary of Learning and have accordingly Ordered that no Person or Persons whatsoever shall presume to offer any outrage or violence either by themselves or others unto any the Colledges Chappels Libraries Schools or other buildings belonging to the said University or to any the Scholars or publick Ministers thereof Nor plunder purloin deface spoil or take away any the Books goods chattels or houshold-stuff of or belonging to the said University or any Col. there or to any Scholar or publick Minister thereof under any colour or pretence whatsoever as they will answer the contrary to this House at their utmost perils And that Divine Service may be quietly performed and executed throughout all the said University according to the settlement of the Church of England without any trouble let or disturbance until the pleasure of the Parliament be further signified Provided nevertheless that this Protection shall not extend to stop any due course of Law or proceeding of Parliament that may or might have had its course if this Protection had not been granted And herein ready obedience is to be given by all such whom this doth or may concern as they will answer the contrary at their perils Jo. Brown Cleric Parliamentorum THese are to will require and command you and every of you to forbear under any pretence whatsoever to prejudice or offer any dammage to the University of Cambridge or to any the Schools Colledges Halls Libraries Chappels or other places belonging to the said Universities by plundering the same or any part thereof in any kind whatsoever Hereof fail not as you will answer the contrary at your perils Given under my hand and seal the 7. day of March 1642. Essex To all Colonels Lieutenant-Colonels Captains and all other Officers and Soldiers of the Army under my command These indeed were our Protections but they were blasted in the bud by this following Warrant THese are to authorize you to enter into the houses of all Papists Malignants and other Persons whatsoever that have or shall refuse to appear at Musters or to contribute according to the Propositions of both Houses of Parliament or refuse to enter into the Association and to seize upon all such Horses Arms and Ammunition as shall be found in their custodies and to apprehend their said Persons and them to be brought before me or any one of the Deputy-Lieutenants of the County and in case of Resistance to force the same Commanding all Mayors Sheriffs Captains Trained-Bands and other inferiour Officers whatsoever to be aiding and assisting to Colonel Coke herein Dated Feb. 23. 1642. Gray of Wark To Col. Coke Lieutenant-Col Bryldon or any other of his Officers This Warrant was issued out the more suddenly and prosecuted the more violently in regard that our Protections were then in procuring But the rigorous prosecution of this made those to be of little or no use more than the name unless it was to shut the Stable door after the Steed was stoln For under pretence of Papists Malignants c. there was scarce a Scholar in all the Vniversity which escaped examination And lest our Colledge Chappels Libraries or Treasuries or even the privatest Cabinet therein or in any of our Chambers or Studies should perchance have been converted into Stables for Horses or Magazines for Arms and Ammunition they searched them all so strictly and plundered them all so throughly that nothing which they liked escaped their fingers our ancient Coins not excepted When we had seen their unparallel'd rigour herein and how we were slighted when we made our just complaints against it we did not much regard whether they had any Commission or not for whatsoever they did to us afterward But like Christian sufferers when they took our Cloaks we forbad them not to take our Coats also and when they took our goods we asked them not again For we did plainly see that we were destinated to ruin and that all these were but previous dispositions to take us down and fit us for the great stroke when they should please to lay it upon us And therefore omitting all the rest though we could insert some we shall here only add two other Warrants mentioned hereafter The one their general Summons the other their first form of their Writs of Ejection THese are to will and require you upon sight hereof to give speedy advertisement viis mediis modis to Master Fellows Scholars and Officers of your Colledge to be resident in your said Colledge the 10. day of March next ensuing to give an account wherein they shall be required and to answer such things as may be demanded by me or such Commissioners
him we may justly receive at his hands heavier Judgments than these yet our Innocence will plead Not Guilty to the face of any Man who shall object against us any Civil Misdemeanors whereby we can more justly be deprived of our Fellowships than any free Subject in England of his fee Simple if they please to say he is guilty of Misdemeanors And as it hath pleased our gracious Master whose Ministers we are to make us examples though but of suffering to the rest of our Brethren So we hope he will continue unto us his grace of humilation under his mighty hand as an earnest of his exalting us in due time And in the interim that he will lay no more upon us than he shall be pleased to strengthen our infirmities to bear And that he will still preserve unto us a good conscience that whereas our persecutors speak evil of us as of evil doers they may be ashamed that falsly accuse our good conversation in Christ. FINIS Mercurius Belgicus OR A briefe Chronology of the Battels Sieges Conflicts and other most remakable passages from the beginning of this Rebellion to the 25 th of March 1646. Together with A Catalogue of the Persons of Quality slain on both sides CICERO Incerti sunt exitus pugnarum Marsque esi communis qui saepe spoliantem jam exultantem evertit perculit ab abjecto Printed in the Year 1685. The Preface Readers YOU have here a canded and impartial Epitomy of an unnatural War Subjects banding against their lawful Prince Brother against Brother and Father against Son Read but the said ensuing Story and therein consider the number and quality of Persons slain the destruction of Houses and Families the desolation of Cities and Towns the increase of Widows and Orphans the Tyranny and inhumanity of our new Legislators over their own Fellow-Subjects and you will easily conclude of these as Cicero did of Sylla's time Nemo illo invito nec bona nec patriam nec vitam retinere potueirt In earnest it may well be wondred whence these men have their minds God nor man nor Nature ever made them thus To be short the Reader may here see the flux and reflux of Fortune de la Guerre now this party flourisheth and that goes down anon that flourisheth and this goes down as if the guilt of our sins were drawing a heavy Judgment from Heaven upon this Land and these Rebels were ordained for the instruments of it But let us hope for better And particularly that God in the richness of his mercy will look down upon these macerated Kingdoms and periodize these distractions That Religion may again flourish in its purity maugre the Plots and impieties of all Seditiaries and Schismaticks That His Sacred Majesty may be re-established in His just Rights and Prerogatives that Parliaments may move in their own and known Centre the Ancient Laws of the Land re-inforced and freed from fellow-subjects Tyranny and Arbitration and the Subject re-estated in his Ancient Liberties freed from Murder Rapine and Plunder which that we may quickly see let it be the Subject of ever good Christian Prayer Memorable OCCURRENCES since the beginning of this REBELLION Anno Dom. 1641. IN December 1641. The House of Commons published a Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom therein setting forth all the errors of his Majesties Government a meer design to alienate the affection of his Subjects from him The tenth of January following his Majesty with the Queen Prince and Duke of Yorke left White-hall and went to Hampton Court to avoid the danger of those frequent tumults then hazarding the safety of his Royal Person February the 23 d. the Queens Majesty took shipping at Dover having been driven before from White-hall by the frequent tumults of the Rebels And soon after His Majesty went to New-market and from thence to Yorke where after the Rebels had Guards for three Months before the Gentry of the Country raised a Guard for his Majesties Person Anno Dom. 1642. MAY the 20 th it was voted by both Houses That the King intended to levie War against the Parliament which they did on purpose to excuse themselves for raising a Rebellion against His Majesty as appeared within few days after July the second the Kings ship called the Providence Landed in the Creek of Kenningham near Hull till which time His Majesty had not a Barrel of Powder nor any Arms or Ammunition whatsoever July the 12 th the pretended two Houses Voted that the Earl of Essex should be General of their Army and that they would live and die with him August the first the Earl of Essex caused all the men then raised being in number about 10000 to be committed to Officers and divided into Regiments which men had been raising ever since the 12 th of July 1642. at which time he was made General of the Rebels August the sixth the Earl of Bedford having fruitlessely besieged the Lord Marquess of Hertford in Sherburn Castle for four days before retreated to Yevell the Noble Marquess sallied after him and with a small number fell on that great body of the Rebels Kill'd above 140 whereof 9 Commanders took divers Prisoners and routed the rest so as he marched away and after divided his small Forces going himself into Wales and Sir Ralph now Lord Hopton into Cornwall of both which there followed so good an effect August the 22 d. His Majesty set up his Standard Royal at Nottingham for raising of Forces to suppress the Rebels then marching against him September the 23 d. Prince RUPERT with about 11 Troops of Horse gave a great overthrow to the Rebels in Wikefield near Worcester where Colonel Sands that commanded in chief received his mortal wound Major Douglas a Scot and divers other Captains and Officers slain and drowned Captain Wingate a Member of the House of Commons with four Coronets taken and two more torn in pieces This body of the Rebels was observed to be the flower of their Cavalry October the 23 d. was that signal great battel fought between Keynton and Edg-hill by his Majesties Army and that of the Rebels led by the Earl of Essex wherein the Rebels lost above 70 Colours of Coronets and Ensigns and His Majesty but only 16 Ensigns and not one Coronet The exact number that were slain on both sides in this Battel is not known But it is certain that the Rebels lost above three for one Men of eminence of his Majesties Forces who were slain in the Battel were the two Noble and valiant Lords Robert Earl of Lindsey Lord High Chamberlain of England and George Lord D. Aubigney Brother to the Duke of Richmond and Lenox Sir Edmund Verney Knight Marshal to His Majesty with some other worthy Centlemen and Soldiers but besides these three named there was not one Noble Man or Knight kill'd which was an extraordinary mercy of Almighty God considering what a glorious sight of Princes Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Barons Knights and
above 300 of the Rebels were taken and kill'd at the least 200 more wounded abve 300 of their Horse taken four pieces of Cannon and a case of Drakes with some Ammunition here was the most Noble and valiant Earl of Northampton unfortunately slain with C. Middleton and some few others on His Majesties side March the 23 d. Grantham was taken in by some of His Majesties Forces under the Command of Colonel Charles Cavendish wherein were taken 360 Prisoners with all the Captains and Officers three foot Ensigns two Cornets together with three loads of Arms and Ammunition And afterwards the works demolished Anno Dom. 1643. APRIL the third Prince Rupert entered and possessed that seditious Town of Burmingham wherein was 300 Foot and two Troops of Horse who being gallantly charged by the Welch-men in less than half an hour forsook their Breast-works and retired to their Barricadoes within the Town wherein they found such slender defence that they took them to their heels and that so fast that though they were pursued as soon as the Prince had possessed the Town yet few of their Horse were overtaken only about 80 of the Rebels were kill'd and as many Prisoners taken together with about 150 Musquets and betwixt 4 and 500 Swords and three Colours In this service the Noble Farl of Denbigh received a wound whereof he afterwards died April the 11 th there was a fight near unto Ancaster in the County of Lincoln betwixt the Kings Forces under the command of Colonel Cavendish and the Rebels of that County under young Hotham their then General in which fight the most part of the Rebels were slain and taken Prisoners their General put to flight and their whole Body totally routed On the 21 st day being Friday the Close at Lichfield after three weeks siege and the loss of some men was yeilded up to Prince Rupert together with the Ordnance and Ammunition all sorss of Arms except the Horse-mens Arms and a certain number of Musquets and all such Treasure which had been formerly conveyed in thither and did not properly belong to the Soldiers there These Soldiers were part of those Forces under the command of the late Lord Brook a great Leader in this Bebellion and a maliciious enemy to the Church who was kill'd in his assaulting this Church by a shot into the eye on S. Chads day who was the first Bishop of this See in memory of whom this Cathedral was built and called S. Chads Church The last day of April his Excellency the Earl of Newcastles Forces encountered with and totally routed a whole Body of the Rebels consisting of above 3000 men which were going to relieve the Town of Leeds killed 150 of them in the place took 240 Prisoners three pieces of Ordnance together with all their Victual and Ammunition May the 6 th James Earl of Northampton the true Heir of his Fathers Loyalty and valour encountered with a Body of the Rebels in Middleton Cheny Town-field near Banbury consisting of about 700 Foot and five Troops of Horse where he wholly routed their Foot killed 217 upon the plain took above 300 Prisoners all their Ordnance and Ammunition 416 Musquets 150 Pikes and above 500 Swords pursued the fugitive Horse and killed and took many of them the rest made what hast they could to Northampton In this fight his Lordship lost but three men and those not of any note Nor had above one Officer so much as hurt Upon the 16 th of May the Lord Hopton assaulted the great Rebellious Body then intrenched near Stratton on the Borders of Devonshire fought with them full ten hours and having spent his Ammunition insomuch that he had not powder left to serve one hour longer fell upon the Rebels with Swords Pikes and Musquets stocks And with unexpressible valour wholly routed the Rebels Army killed many hundreds of them in the place wounded many more took 1700 Prisoners whereof above 30 Commanders all their Cannon being 11 pieces of Brass Ordnance and 4 of Iron 2 Morter pieces 75 Barrels of Powder with Shot and Match proportionable betwixt 2 and 3000 Arms and 3000l in mony there being not above 46 of the Kings Forces killed and hurt and amongst those not any one Commander or Gentleman of Quality May the 23 d. The Queen was most traiterously voted a Traitour for her love so exemplarily expressed to the King Her Husband May the 30 th Master Robert Yeomans and Master George Boucher two Citizens of Bristoll were there publickly Murthered by Colonel Nathanial Fines for their Loyalty to His Majesty June the 18 th 1643. His Highness Prince Rupert beat up the Quarters of the Rebels at Postcombe and Chinner in Oxfordshire killed some 50 of the Rebels there Quartered took about 120 Prisoners almost all their Horses and Arms and three of Sir Samuel Lukes Dragoon-Cornets obtained a great victory in Chalgrove field and utterly defeated the Rebels Horse-men and Dragooners slew divers of their Commanders especially Colonel John Hampden one of the five Members accused of high Treason who in this fight received his mortal wound in this very Chalgrove field where he first Mustered and drew up men in Arms to put in execution the Rebellious Ordinance for the Militia On Friday the last of June His Excellency the Earl of Newcastle obtained a great victory against the Northern Rebels under the Lord Fairfax upon Aderton-heath within the County of Yorke In which fight my Lord soon put the Rebels into such confusion that they could not be reduced again into any Order until he had gained all their five pieces of Cannon which he presently turned against them the sight whereof did so terrifie them that they made what hast they could towards Leedes But finding that his Excellencies horse had intercepted that passage their last shift was to recover Bradford which was done in such a disorderly manner that his Excellency in the pursuit of them killed and took above 2000 whereof above 1500 Prisoners As for their General Fairfax he with much adoe made shift with one poor Troop of Horse to get at night into Leeds leaving the rest to the mercy of the Victor July the 1 st The Earl of Essex being with his Army at Tame in Oxfordshire sent Colonel Middleton with 500 horse and Dragoons to Padbury to way-lay Prince Rupert and his Forces from returning from Buckingham to Oxford while Essex with his Army fell on the Prince but Sir Charles Lucas by his Scouts discovered the Rebels design and accordingly met them with three Troops of his own Regiment wherewith he routed all Middletons 400 horse and Dragoons pursued them to their pass at Werthillbrook followed them through the foard in despight of all their Musquettiers there slew above 100. took 40 Prisoners and prevented the Rebels hopeful design The same day the Marquess of Newcastle besieged Bradford bestowed upon it above 40 shot from his great Artillery and the morrow after made himself Master of the Town In which he
May the 30 th The Rebels attempted to cross the River Charwell at Gosworth-bridge but were gallantly repulsed by a small party of His Majesties Forces that had the guard of that pass May the 31 st Waller attemping to pass Isis at Newbridg and being then repulsed retired to Abingdon where he to revenge himself demolished Abingdon Cross defaced the Church burnt all the Tables and Chess-boards in Abingdon and Plundered most of the People of their goods June the 1 st The Rebels did attempt in several places at once to cross the river Charwell but could speed at none being still beaten off with great loss and particularly at Gosworth-bridg where they lost above 100 men June the 3 d. His Majesty perceiving the Rebels intention to besiege Oxford left a sufficient strength for defence thereof and to disburthen the City of unnecessary force marched with the rest of his Army this evening towards Worcester June the 4 th the Earl of Essex perceiving the Kings Forces drawn away passed Charwell with his Army and hearing of His Majesties departure from Oxford hastned after but upon Campsfield near Woodstock there fell upon his Army such a prodigious and violent storm of hail and rain accompanied with such terrible thunder and lightening for the space of two hours that some of them took occasion to say that the Conjurers at Oxford had engaged all their Familiars to work them a despight there being some hail as big as Nutmegs Others more nearly touched with an apprehension of the wickedness of their actions confessed that they suffered the violence of Heaven No such storm being seen at Oxford nor in any the adjacent Villages But the besotted Rebels contemning this presage from Heaven went on to their own ruin June the 5 th The Earl of Essex went this day as far as Chipping-Norton after the King June the 6 th But unwilling to lose his labour any longer returned to Burford where he deputed Sir William Waller to proceed in the adventure of King-catching that himself might have the sole honour of taking in Lestithiell June the 11 th Dudley Castle which had been gallantly defended by Lieutenant Col. Beaumont for three weeks before was relieved and the siege raised by His Majesties Forces sent from Worcester who took two Colours of the Rebels horse two Majors of Foot two Captains three Lieutenants kill'd about 100 in the fight and took above 50 common Soldiers Prisoners without any considerable loss on His Majesties part June the 12 th Col. Gage with some forces from Oxford took in Borstall house a Garrison of the Rebels in Buckinghamshire June the 18 th His Majesty in Worcestershire having intelligence that the Rebels Armies were now severed whilst Sir William Waller to get before the King ran into Staffordshire resolved to reinforce himself with the Regiments left at Oxford and encounter Sir William to which end he returned and came this day to Witney June the 20 th His Highness Prince Rupert being then in Lancashire clearing the County Colonel Shuttleworth with 400 Rebels came to beat up some of his quarters and fell in at Blackburne Where that vigilant Commander Sir Charles Lucas was so ready for him that he killed and took above 100 of the Rebels making the rest run for their lives June the 22 d. Sir William Waller having run himself out of breath gave over the pursuit of the King the rather for that His Majesty was provided for him Whereupon His Majesty directed his march towards the Rebels associated Counties and came this night to Buckingham where he received the joyful newes of His Queens safe delivery of the Princess Henrietta who was born at Exeter the 16 th of this month June the 25 th Sir Charles Lucas hearing Colonel Shuttleworth had gathered 300 horse and 100 Dragoons at Colne on the Borders of Yoreshire marched to him and fell on with such skill and courage that he totally routed all the Rebels both horse and Dragoons had execution for three miles wounded Shuttleworth himself who with very few others escaped all the rest Sir Charles killed and took and brought their Colours with the Prisoners to Prince Rupert June the 26 th Waller to recruit his weary Army from the Garrisons of Gloucester Warwick Coventry Northampton and Kenelmworth-castle had this day a rendezvouz in Keinton field whereof the King having notice turned his march towards him and quartered this night at Brackley June the 28 th This day the King coming before Banbury found Waller drawn up in Battalia Westward from the Town on the side of Crouch hill taking advantage of the hills bogs and ditches June the 29 th His Majesty discerning that Waller would not come into the plain nor could be assaulted as he lay but with much disadvantage removed somewhat Northwards to see if thereby he could draw him from his station which succeeded accordingly for Waller likewise advanced on the other side the River whereupon the King at Cropready marched further off the River leaving the Bridg in hope to draw them over which Waller greedily apprehending as an advantage put over 2000 horse and a great body of foot with 14 pieces of Cannon The Rebels being thus divided were immediately charged by the Kings Rear the brave Earl of Clevelands horse and Sir Bernard Astleys foot routing all that had past the Bridg whilst the Earl of Northampton charged the rest of the Rebels horse that were fording over In this fight were slain at least 300 Rebels and many of them taken Prisoners with their 14 pieces there were slain on His Majesties part two gallant Knights Sir William Butler and Sir William Clarke and not above 14 common Soldiers besides and so much for Wallers Army this Summer July the 3 d. The King having thus defeated one of the Rebels Armies bent Westwards after the other and came this day to Evesham to refresh his Soldiers after their hard duty from whence he sent to Westminster his message for Peace of the 4 th of July In the beginning of this month his Highness Prince Rupert marched out of Lancashire with a considerable Army for the relief of Yorke which had been two months besieged by an aggregate body of Rebels consisting of the Earl of Manchesters Army the Lord Fairfax and the Rebellious Scots under command of Lesley The Prince had no sooner relieved Yorke but drew forth after the Rebels and in Marstone Moore there began a terrible fight wherein his Highness had at first much the better took the Rebels Ordnance and many of them Prisoners insomuch that Lesley and the Lord Fairfax thinking all had been lost fled many miles from the place where the Battel was fought and never came to the remainder of their Armies till two days after the fight but in conclusion whether by fate which attends the event of War or by neglect I know not the fortune of the day turned and the Rebels recovered their lost Ordnance and took some of the Princes baggage and with it
Committee 14 pieces of Ordnance with store of Arms and Ammunition 30 Officers and common Soldiers proportionable whereby South-Wales is much secured November the 23 d. The King having thus victoriously defeated two of their Armies and driven away the third came to Oxford to entertain an overture of Peace certain Propositions being the same day come thither from London having disposed of his Army to their Winter Quarters November the 26 th A Vote passed by the members of the House of Commons at Westminster for the utter abolishing and taking away of the Book of Common-Prayer with intention to set up a new device to be called a Directory in its room December the 13 th His Majesty out of his wonted desire of Peace sent the Duke of Richmond and Earl of Southampton to the Houses of Parliament at Westminster for a Treaty as the best expedient for Peace About the middle of this month Helmsley Castle in Yorkeshire which had been gallantly defended during 16 weeks siege by Capt. Jordan Crosland and some others was delivered up to the Rebels under command of the Lord Fairfax upon honourable conditions to march away the Governour and Officers with their horses and Arms the rest without Arms. In this siege the Defendants amongst others made one remarkable salley wherein they took Sergeant Major General Forbs a Scot Prisoner with divers others here did Sir T. Fairfax also receive a shot in the Shoulder from the Castle December the 22 d. Colonel Eyre with some horse from Newarke took two Troops of horse at Upton belonging to the Rebels of Nottingham brought the Men Colours Horses and Arms all safe to Newarke December the 23 d. Sir Alexander Carew was beheaded on Tower-hill by Martial Law for intending to deliver up the Island at Plymouth to His Majesty he was observed to be most violent against His Majesty in the beginning of this Rebellion but it should seem he had of late some disposition to be a convert which made his fellow Members think fit to dispatch him to another World December the 24. Sir William Vaughan Governour of Shrawarden Castle for His Majesty fell on a party of Rebels at Welch Poole cammanded by Sir John Price kill'd some wounded others took 47 Prisoners 64 horse and many Arms. December the 28 th A party of the Lord Gorings Forces took Master Blakes house at Pinnel near Calne in Wiltshire and in it 59 Rebels but more Arms. December the 31 st The Members at Westminster Voted Sir Thomas Fairfax to be their new General cashiering the Earl of Essex with whom they had formerly sworn to live and die January the 1 st Young Hotham was beheaded on Tower-hill and Sir John Hotham his Father the morrow after both by Martial Law Here the Reader may take notice of a special mark of Gods judgment for the 23 April 1642. when old Hotham denied His Majesty admittance into Hull he held up his hands and prayed God never to prosper him or hiis posterity if he were not His Majesties Loyal Subject And now see both Father and Son adjudged by their fellow Members and condemned by their own beloved Marshal Law for intending to deliver up Hull to His Majesty The same first of January the Lord Astley took Lypyate House in Gloucestershire and in it 45 Prisoners with all their Arms Victuals and Ammunition Soon after this Sir Marmaduke Langdale totally routed Col. Ludlowes Regiment of horse at Salisbury took five Rebel-Captains Prisoners besides under-Officers and 80 common Soldiers 150 Horse and Arms with there Colours Ludlow himself hardly escaping January the 10 th The Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was beheaded on Tower-hill It would be too long here where we aim at brevity to set down the particulars of his imprisonments the preposterous proceedings against him in his Trial and his pious magnanimity at the time of his death his Sermon on the Scaffold whereof here follows a true copy will satisfie the World that he died innocently and which is more that His Majesty hath been unjustly accused of an inclination to Popery Good People THis is an uncomfortable time to Preach yet I shall begin with a Text of Scripture Heb. 12.2 Let us run with patience that race which is set before us Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and it set down at the right hand of the Throne of God I have been long in my Race and how I have looked to Jesus the author and finisher of my Faith He best knows I am now come to the end of my Race and here I find the Cross a death of shame but the shame must be despised or no coming to the right hand of God Jesus despised the shame for me and God forbid but I should despise the shame for Him I am going apace as you see towards the Red-Sea and my feet are now upon the very brink of it an Argument I hope that God is bringing me into the Land of promise for that was the way through which he led his People But before they came to it He instituted a Passeover for them a Lamb it was but it must be eaten with sour Herbs I shall obey and labour to digest the sour Herbs as well as the Lambe And I shall remember it is the Lords Passeover I shall not think of the Herbs nor be angry with the hand which gathereth them but look up only to him who instituted that and governs these For men can have no more power over me than what is given them from above I am not in love with this passage through the Red-Sea for I have the weakness and infirmities of flesh and blood plentifully in me And I have prayed with my Saviour ut transiret Calix iste that this Cup of red Wine might pass from me But if not Gods will not mine be done and I shall most willingly drink of this Cup as deep as he pleases and enter this Sea yea and pass through it in the way that he shall lead me But I would have it remembred Good People that when Gods Servants were in this boisterous Sea and Aaron among them the Aegyptians which persecuted them and did in a manner drive them into that Sea were drowned in the same Waters while they were in pursuit of them I know my God whom I serve is as able to deliver me from this Sea of Blood as he was to deliver the three Children from the Furnace and I most humbly thank my Saviour for it my Resolution is now as theirs was then They would not worship the Image the King had set up nor will I the imaginations which the People are setting up nor will I forsake the Temple and the truth of God to follow the bleating of Jereboams Calf in Dan and in Bethel And as for this People they are at this day miserably misled God of his mercy open their Eyes that they may see
and the Muses strive To own thee dead who wert them all alive Such an exact composure was in thee Neither exceeding Mars nor Mercury T was just tho hard thou shouldst dye Governour Of th' Kings chief Fort of Learning and of War Thy death was truly for thy Garrison Thou dy'dst projecting her Redemption What unto Basing twice successeful spirit Was done th' hast effected here in merit The Bridg was broken down The Fort alone GAGE was himself the first and the last stone Go burn thy Faggots Brown and grieve thy Rage Lets thee out-live the gentle grasp of GAGE And when thou read'st in thy Britanicus The boasted story of his death say thus The Valour I have shewn in this was Crime And GAGES Death will brand me to all Time In this month a fair new Ship called the John of London belonging to the East-India Merchants was brought to Bristol by the Loyalty of Capt. Mucknell and the rest of the Officers and Mariners of the Ship for His Majesties service wherein were 26 pieces of Ordnance mounted 17000. l. in Mony besides some other good Commodities For which good service the said Captain Mucknell had the honour to be the first Knight that ever the Prince of Wales made And within a few days after another Ship called the Fame of London of burthen 450 Tuns with 28 pieces of Ordnance mounted was by Tempest forced into Dartmouth where she was seised on for His Majesties service as lawful prize being bound for Dover or London The Ship had been abroad 4 years and was now returning homewards from the West-Indies laden with Bullion Oyl Couchaneille and other rich Commodities to the value of 40000 l. at least January the 30 th The Treaty began at Uxbridg wherein the candour of His Majesties reall intentions and desires of Peace was very perspicuous For His Majesty did not only Arm his Commissioners or any ten of them with a very large and powerful Commission to treat of conclude and settle a firm Peace in all His Dominions but did also by Proclamation appoint a solemn Fast on the 5 th day of February then next for a blessing on that Treaty with a Form of Common-Prayer set forth by His Majesties special Command to be used in all Churhes and Chappels within this Kingdom One of which Prayers drawn by His Majesties special direction and dictate I here afford the Reader The Prayer O Most merciful Father Lord God of Peace and Truth we a People sorely afflicted by the scourge of an unnatural War do here earnestly beseech Thee to command a Blessing from Heaven upon this present Treaty begun for the establishment of an happy Peace Soften the most obduarte hearts with a true Christian desire of saving those mens blood for whom Christ himself hath shed His. Or if the guilt our great sins cause this Treaty to break off in vain Lord let the Truth clearly appear who those men are which under pretence of the Publick good do pursue their own private ends that this People may be no longer so blindly miserable as not to see at least in this their Day the things that belong unto their Peace Grant this gracious God for his sake who is our Peace it self even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen February the 9 th Sir Walter Hastings Governour of Portland Castle for His Majesty took the great Fort at Weymouth and within two day after Sir Lewis Dives took the middle Fort and Town of Weymouth and in a skirmish there slew Major Sydenham a forward Rebel with some others This Town and Forts were not many days held by His Majesties Forces but were as unfortunatey lost as happily gained Februâ—ry the 15 th Rowdon house neer Chippenham in Wiltshire after 9 days siege was taken by His Majesties Forces and in it 120 good Horse above 200 Foot with their Arms and provisions Col. Stevens the Mock-sheriff of Gloucestershire six Captains and above 20 inferiour Officers all at mercy February the 20 th The Lord Macguire an Irish Baron was executed by the common hangman at Tyburn by command of the Members at Westminster In the History of which execution recorded in many of their own Pamphlets written then and upon that subject the Reader may observe two Questions asked by Mr. Gibbs one of the Sheriffs of London and answered by that Lord the very instant before his death The first was Whether he knew of any Commission the King had granted to the Irish Rebels for the commotion they had raised in their Country he answered That he never knew nor heard of any The second was Whether there was not some agreement made by the Irish Commissioners before the Rebellion first brake out with the Recusants of England He answered That to his knowledg there was never an one in England either Catholick or Protestant that knew of it but one and he was an Irish man and a Protestant and he came to the knowledg of it but by chance not at he was an actor in it Out of which and out of that delivered by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury on the Scaffold immediately before his death the World may evidently see His Majestly irrefragably cleared by two acts of the Rebels own cruelty from two of the most scandalous aspersions by which the malice of these forging Rebels hath from time to time endeavcured to make His sacred Majesty odious to His People Salutem ex inimicis nostris may the King well say seeing his Enemies actions turned to his justification quite contrary to their intendments The first was an imagined inclination in His Majesty to Popery The second a pretended commissionating of the Irish Rebellion In the first the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury In this the Lord Macguire both at their very dying hours have rendred His Majesty as innocent as the Rebels intended him odious I say innocent because we know the worst of Rebels cannot but credit those Persons especially testifying at such time when they were immediately after to give an account of all their actions to the knower of all hearts Nor can any one believe but the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who was daily conversant with His Majesty in matters of Religion must needs know the very depth of his heart therein And the Lord Macguire who was privy to the first motion of the Irish Rebellion must likewise of necessity have known of the Kings Commission if any such thing had been February the 22 d. The Treaty at Uxbridg was broken up though His Majesty sent a particular message and his Commissioners did earnestly desire that the same might be continued In this Treaty His Majesties Commissioners condescended much but those of Westminster would abate nothing of the rigour of their first unheard-of Propositions which was the cause the Treaty took no better effect February the 22 d. The Town of Shrewsbury was by treachery in the night delivered to Col. Mitton the Rebellious Governour of Wem Here you may see the Rebels Master-piece in hatching this treacherous Plot
only Religion but right Reason might have told him and the rest That their Sin was to take an unlawful Oath it had been no sin to break it while Master Hinton lay thus in the Goal one Master Besanno a Counsellor at Law interceded for him and earnestly intreated that he might be removed from the Common Goal and committed to safe Custody in some Chamber in the Town but could not prevail at last after three Weeks Imprisonment upon Mr. Besanno's request seconded by Mr. Brian heretofore a Jurate of Hasting but now removed to Battell as too honest for such a Fraternity as he left behind him Mr. Hinson was sent with a strong Guard to Colonel Morley by whom he was transmitted to London to Learned Miles Corbet who committed him to the Custody of a Messenger and having no particular accusation but a general charge and finding no hopes to be brought to a hearing but perceiving himself designed as others before him had been to long attendance and vexatious delays he withdrew himself from his Tyranny and Oppression and escaping to Oxford put himself under the Kings Protection As the Rebels in their march towards Glocester passed through Chipping-Norton in the County of Oxford a Woman of that Town whose zeal to the King and the justice of his Cause could not contain it self though in the midst of his Mortal Enemies said in the hearing of some of the Rebels God bless the Cavaliers so are all good and faithful Subjects called by the Rebels this expression of the poor Womans affection to the King and his Loyal Subjects in so innocent a Prayer so highly incensed the Rebels that to punish so heinous a Crime presently they tyed her to the tail of one of their Carts and stripping her to the Middle for two miles march whipped her in so cruel a manner with their Cart-whips that her Body in many places was cut so deep as if she had been lanced with Knives the torment being so great as much as her straight bounds would give leave she cast her self on the ground so to shelter her self from their stripes but in a most barbarous manner they dragged her along insomuch that her Legs and Feet were so torn by the Stony rough ways that her Flesh was worn off in many places to the very Bones at last having far exceeded the number of stripes limited by God himself in the Law of Moses though given by the hand of Justice Forty stripes he may give him and not exceed Deut. 25.3 they left her a lamentable spectacle of their Cruelty in this miserable condition lay this poor Soul for some few days and since died of those wounds which she received from them The blood of this Innocent mingled with the rest shed by their hands crying loud with them under the Altar Revel 6.10 How long O Lord holy and true dost thou nou judg and avenge our blood on them that dwell on earth Mercurius Rusticus c. XVI Burton Prinne and Bastwick three Arch-Schismaticks unjustly freed from a just Censure The commiting and removing of Mr. Chestlen from S. Matthews Fridaystreet to make way for Burton contrary to all Law and Equity c. AFter that bold affront offered and that without Check or Controul to publick Justice and the known Laws of the Land in those Triumphant Reductions of that Triumvirat of seditious Schismaticks Burton Bastwick and Prinne from their several confinements It was no hard matter for the World to guess what measure the obedient Sons of the Church of England might expect when that spurious degenerous Brood which most undutifully cast dirt in their Mothers face and in their Scurrilous Libellous Pamphlets proclaimed her a Harlot became the Darlings both of the heads of the Faction in Parliament and the People And though it seemed good to the heads of the Faction by restoring these turbulent men to brave that Authority by which they were justly censured yet being restored all were not thought to be of equal concernment As for Bastwick if any man labouring under any Indisposition besides that to the present established Government had a mind to be a Patient and put himself into the hands of a Mad-man he might do as he pleased at his own peril every man was left to the liberty of his own choice So for Prinne if any man desired to retain him of his Counsel it was lawful for the Client to give and him to receive his Fee but all this was but voluntary no man was constrained to be a Patient to the one nor a Client to the other for the intended Rebellion might well go forward though Bastwick never wrote an Apothecaries Bill or Prinne pleaded at the Bar But for Burton a main Engine to promote the design in hand it concerned them to restore him not only to a Liberty of the exercise of his calling at large but likewise to invest him in his former Cure in particular from which by the just sentence of Law he was ejected To this purpose no arts were left unattempted by the under Agents for the heads of this Rebellion to restore Burton to his Parsonage of S. Matthews in Friday-street London by unjust molestations they endeavour to weary out Mr. Chestlen that succeeded him but not immediately in it to relinquish his Cure and make way for this Trumpet of Sedition that so what was not feizable in Law might yet be effected by horrible injustice and oppression First therefore some of Mr. Chestlens Parishoners but Burtons old Disciples levened with his Schismatical Doctrin deny to pay him his Tiths or any other accustomed Duties nor are they content with their own denial but by earnest perswasions and other means they labour to draw other men into the like obstinacy and perversness nor did they stick openly to profess that they did this that by unjust vexations they might weary out Mr. Chestlen and make way for Burton hereupon the Ecclesiastical Court being suppressed which otherwise have cognizance of the Causes of Tiths of London nor can there any prohibition be justly granted as Coram non Judice the Statute only enabling the Lord Mayor to be Judge if the person grieved think fit to appeal unto him but no way disabling the Ordinary or abolishing his power Mr. Chestlen petitioned as the Statute in that case provides the Lord Major that then was Sir Edmund Wright To the hearing before the Lord Mayor came little Isaac Pennington no ways interested in the cause but only to give countenance to Mr. Chestlen's Parishoners being there he openly reviled Mr. Chestlen calling him Saucy Jack Brazen-fac'd Fellow and the like nay he threatned the Judge thinking by this to stave him off from doing Justice who bravely scorning the threats of so contemptible a Mushrome in a just indignation replied What shall I be afraid to do Justice and indeed the event shewed that he was not afraid for upon a full hearing of the Cause the Lord Mayor gave sentence for Mr. Chestlen and