Master Wilcocks of Goudhurst in Kent These and many others having done nothing worthy of death or of bonds are inserted iâ—to the blâ—ck â—ill of scandalous and superstitious Ministers for preaching nothing but obedience to Soveraigne Authority and points consonant to the Holy Scriptures and the Doctrine of the Church of England as it stands established by Act of Parliament I confesse Master In golds by aggravated his crime of preaching for obedience by setting forth the Doctrine of our Church in six Homilies established by Parliament for the use of every Parish against Rebellion and the oathes of Supremacy and Allegeance with the Protestation and an Epistle prefixâ— to light the people unto their duty for which he was sent for up the second time with a Troope of Horse but escaping from them he came of his owne accord to his prison desirous to make his answer which they â—â—nd no leisure yet to hearken 〈◊〉 Nay they will not permit that holy man Master Thrush-crosse to tâ—ach White-Hall to continue loyall and Protestant He seem'd to taske the Justice of this bloudy Warre with reflection upon this new designe and presently an inquisition is made after him and the Sunday following a Guard is set upon every Gate if noâ— for other malicious ends likewise to fright him from the Pulpit This is their account of scandalous Ministers whom they would have either rooted out or silenced Another project to advance Religion was the taking the Clergy off from Temporall imployments and this is stretcht so farre that they are reputed Excentrickes as moving out of the sphere of their calling if they study to preach downe Rebellion and disobedience And yet all the world knowes their owne Clergy have been as active instruments here as Mr Henderson in the State affaires of Scotland Doctor Burgesse we find him at every turne and Mr Iohn Sedgewicke must be made Members of a Sub-Committee for advancement of monies Nay the Doctâ—râ— who hath obtained the Title of a Colonell this Military Commencement for riding to encourage the work with his case of Pistols was so officious as to assist Plundering at the Globe Taverne in Holborne And there is not a designe but thâ—se men have a singer in it and of their tongues more then their share Wee have seen how faithfull they have fought for the Church they promised and protested they did as much and they have done no lesse for the King and Kingdome That this waâ—â—e was for the defence of the Kings Person is such a pretence as honest men are ashamed of and all men laâ—gh at unlesse you can perswade them you teach your bullets to distinguish as nicely as your selves between the Kings Personall commands and his Person Those that have heard it delivered for sound doctrine and without controll that the King might have been killed in the crowd with a good Conscience and have seen what Regiments and Troops were most aimed at according to Captaine Blagues directions at Keinton battell and heard the bullets sing about His Majesties eares cannot believe you did more then complement when you stiled His royall person Sacred unlesse you can change the property of Sacred Persons as well as of Sacred things which you goe about though all men account it Sacriledge to alienate And how should wee believe you would fight for the defence of His Person when you seize upon all His provision that if you cannnot do it by the sword you may murder him by famine But admit they fight not for the defence of his royall person yet they may fight for his Crowne and Dignity this hath been much pretended to and that they did so in some sence may very well be believed But in earnest how can we be perswaded they tender the Honour of the Crowne when they imploy their Rabbies to satisfie if it were possible mens consciences in a wilfull and groundlesse disobedience by returning ill languages to sober and solid arguments against it How doe they maintaine Prerogative when they pretend to a power Coordinate with their Soveraigne and set up men to cleare the Title for them though they have no evidence but such as was never seen by our wise Ancestours The very name of Monarch implies a soleship of Government to them that understand it If the Monarchy be mixt 't is not so as if the Soveraignty were shared amongst diverse for that were a meerâ— Bull But this mixture consists of these two ingrâ—dients viz. setled law and where a law is not setled the discretion and prudence of the Governour In making lawes wherein their chiefe power consisteth they may propound and consent but it lies still in the Kings power to refuse or ratifie If the power of the three Estates be Coordinate and the rule hold as the Fuller answer will have it Coordinata se invicem supplent Coordinates supply one another he presently brings the three Estates into the House of Commons and they delegate the power to a close Committee and so makes them a Court of Record to give oath commit and sentence at their pleasure as they have done too many and every Vote of theirs though the King and the Lords dissent from it by vertue of this power of Supplying inherent in them shall be made an Act of Parliament And if the King be brought thus low shall he stand there shall he not from Coordinate be brought a step lower and be made subordinate why yes that is another Doctrine He is Vniversis minor a Subject to all his Subjects and those mistakes which were so often condemned as breaches of their priviledge were nothing else but so many acts of His Majesties disobedience And His people being greater then hee and above him may take his owne Forts and Armes to reduce and compell him Was there ever any Iesuite out-went them in defending the rights of Kings Some are so tender of His Majesties Crowne that they are not ashamed to say the oath of Alleagiance was never made to bind the Protestants but the Papists onely If they fight not for the rights of the Crowne perhaps they fight for the rights of Parliament That hath been pretended too yet who ever broke the Priviledges thereof more then tumults of their own countenancing and raising The carriages which themselves onely have managed have brought Parliaments under so much prejudice and disparagement that the ceremony of a due reverence will be as much denyed unto them as unto any thing else till some other course be taken to restore them to their Ancient reputation Their Plea for the Lawes of the Land is no lesse vaine for if they had any Law for their proceedings there should bee no need of so many strange wilde and never-before-heard of Ordinances Insomuch as the Contra-Replicant confesâ—esseth on their behalfe in this manner Nothing has done us more harme of late then this opinion of adhering to law onely for our preservation It would be good to adde more arbitrary power to the Earle of
many Courts of Justice which were thought to be of very good use in the time of our wise Ancestors and if there be no way of Reformation left when exorbitances are crept into Courts and Callings but their extirpation as their practice hath been of late what will the doome be of the Supreme Court and the severall callings of the Kingdome with a notable blow at the Councell-Table These may relieve a part of the Subjects from some pressures but if something be not setled in their roome may encourage others in lioenciousnesse and prove the Prodromes as we see by these beginnings to the ruine of our Monarchy 3. The nineteen Propositions whereby the King was demanded to lay downe His Crowne to compound for His Peace with them 4. That expression so little understood and so much talk't of in many of their papers of a power of resuming the trust which is falsly pretended to be derived unto His Majestie by the meere humane pactions and agreements of the politique body of the people And 5. According to this Doctrine their pretending to and usurping of the power of the Militia both by Sea and Land 6. Their actuall exercising of this power in disposing of offices having made their Speaker Master of the Rolls Lastly that expression of the Gentlemen to Sir Edward Deering when he was privie to some of their Cabinet consultations That if they could bring downe the Lords to the House of Commons and make the King as one of the Lords the worke were done It seemes they intended to reserve the honour of the Chaire for His Majestie when they had taken downe His Throne and it might have been His good fortune to have had a casting voice though he is now denied His negative one amongst them This plot was laid and this designe in agitation though it be a night-piece which few have hitherto discover'd fully before the Warre commenced and in order to this worke without doubt the Militia was first exercised and the Scots a second time invited But we hope their Commissioners that tasted so much of the late feast will not encourage their brethren to the fray When wee consider these things adding to them those bloudy Treasons uttered publikely without checke as well against the whole Line of the Bloud Royall as against the sacred Person of our Soveraigne and those severall assaults made upon them our haire begins to stand upright on our heads and our consciences often reflect upon our oathes of Allegeance and Supremacie together with our late Protestation whereby we stand obliged to our utmost power to maintaine His Majesties Royall Person Crowne and Dignity against all treacherous practices that may ruine dishonour or impaire them and so by Gods help we will doe And finding His Majesties late Propositions as His Messages formerly so just and reasonable as nothing can be more and yet so little listened after for our peace We advise all our Knights and Burgesses to vote no more against our gracious Soveraigne or the peace of the Kingdome that they make no further use of our owne trust to murder us for 't is not our sense that they should proceed to shed the bloud of the ungodly as they terme them when they meane all such as dissent from their wilde opinions And as we doe protest against such Ordinances as are made against the King or without His consent so shall we withdraw our trust and power of representation from such as shall goe on to abuse it And finding no possibility of peace till the packe that contrived this new designe and this Warre in order to the effecting of it be new shuffled we shall joyntly labour to shuffle that packe and dissolve that knot wherein we see our miseries are tryed and after due election of new Members into their places resolve to call them to a strict account for betraying our trust interrupting our peace and violating all our ancient liberties and shall not doubt of the assistance of all good men to effect it PSAL. 5. 6. Thou O God shalt destroy them that speake lies The Lord will abhorre both the bloud-thirsty and deceitfull man FINIS
that they may the better subvert his Government before their owne designe could bee effected Whilst all their preparations are for battaile His Majesty labours still for peace to which He once againe invites them by a Message sent from Reading But they are now growne deafe on both eares to Propositions of that nature and the very name of Accommodation for we know the man that said he hated it is become odious and malignant They breath forth nothing but challenge and defiance against His Majesty and these men that could cheerfully entertaine suitors of any condition or any mans procuring whilst their Courtship was taught to wooe them not to embrace what was-fit or profitable for the Kingdome but what their own affections had made choice of in order to the satisfying of their ambition Now they grow coy and frowne upon all such as sollicite them in the name of peace as if she were so farre from being an ingredient in it that she were the onely obstacle to our happinesse First the bleeding miseries of the Kingdome of Ireland which must wholly be laid upon the score who have obstructed their reliefe through these distempers of their owne raising spurr'd them on to frame their sad Complaints into Supplications to which his Majesty lent a gracious eare and offered to contribute assistance in any way that could be propounded to Him but the two Houses who were formerly very angry that they might not have all the honour of reducing that wretched Kingdome afforded little pity lesse aid unto them many bitter discontented spirits raising seruples and murmurings at the Petition instead of applying themselves to the reliefe of their distresses for the present or to make a peace with His Majesty as was desired whereby they might bee enabled to assist them for the future Then the many prodigious tokens of our ruine here at home began to awaken us and make us sollicitous for our owne safety The most substantiall Citizens meeting together in no other ominous or formidable posture then with gloves on their hands to move a Petition for peace and they are accused for committing a riot and imprisoned whilst forces sent to assault and murder them are interpreted by their great Doctors of the Law to keep the peace of the Kingdome These men that have so long beguiled the people with false Alarmes and never more then by pretending to have bent all their endeavours to work a good understanding and reconciliation with His Majesty have been so farre from giving countenance to Petitions of that nature that all their endeavours have been and sometimes by Messengers directed on purpose to strangle them and such Gentlemen as have been imployed in their Countrey on such errands have for that service-sake been plundered their Horses taken from them as our neighbours of Essex are able to depose and the authority of the Houses by which they were taken either cannot or will not be effectually exercised to recover them but an appeale must be made from them unto the close-Committee But what is there no excuse to be alleadged to take off the blemish of this action Truly their web is not of so plain a spinning but they have many pretty coloured threds runne thorow it They 'le tell us ' T is no more needfull for the people to spurre them on to their duty then lawfull to direct them in it such Petitions are sawcy breaches of their Priviledges They have the sole power to judge of sense and reason and the dangers of the Kingdome Indeed they have most reason to be acquainted with the nature of those dangers that were first premeditated and since of their owne actuall forging Certainly as these men have laboured to thrust out both our eyes that we might not see so they would extinguish our memories that we might remember nothing They should engage some of their instruments to teach us an Art of forgetfulnesse in behalfe of many Acts in the time of their owne reigne as well as an Art of memory in behalfe of some sufferings under the reigne of our Soveraigne at least they shall have voted an oblivion that their owne late practices of encouraging Petitioners of another straine as bold and directory might not rise up to their condemnation But why should it be reputed a breach of good manners for Petitioners to suggest the meanes of their owne redresse Every man knowes best where his owne shooe pinches Necessity stands not upon Ceremonies and doubtless Beggars may be choosers when the choice is Whetherthey will submit to their owne ruine against Law and Equity or maintaine those Rights wherewith they are legally invested under the Protection of a gracious Soveraigne against the spoile and rapine of an Arbitrary power Well! if men that have lived under the dominion of Mars and Sol being taught by their effects to put a difference betwixt them finding the first to be incomparably most malignant begin to desire to be look't upon with a more propitious influence If it be imputed for a crime to these men to Petition that the storm without doubt raised by spirits in whom the Prince of the ayre worketh who worketh in all the children of disobedience might be calmed that they might enjoy their old comfortable Sun-shine Yet me-thinks a motion for Peace which no State till our dayes condemned for an ill Minister made by one of their owne Members might have past without exception That grand Assertor of the publike liberty who in civility gave the King the title of a Soveraigne when he kept the Authority to himselfe and confounded the undoubted Rights of the Crowne with the never-heard-of Priviledges of Parliament we meane Sir Iohn Hotham who out of a remorse of conscience that he had been the prime instrument of this combustion or out of an apprehension of an unlikelihood of prevailing cursed himselfe moved no lesse then three main wheeles at once to set forward the work of an Accommodation Those Letters of his to the Earles of Northumberland and Holland and to the Speaker of the House of Commons had been as well worth the peoples reading if they had had a purpose to let the people see any thing tending to their peace and happinesse as those from the Earle of Stamford of the totall defeat which he had given Sir Ralph Hopton of the truth of which the Houses have since been sufficiently informed Or those other of the Lord Fairefax interlined with an ordinary glosse and so printed for the benefit of the setters forth But these from Sir Iohn Hotham did not speak to the sense of the Lords and Commons that use to sit in Merchant Taylors Hall at midnight and therefore were not fit to be communicated And if we enquire how they were accepted we shall find that they had but little better welcome then the Retitions of peace had to both Houses Such a jealousie is presently raised against him that though he had committed Treason against his King to become their faithfull servant
the very Becons that being set on fire themselves with their prodigious blazes have raised so many Countries in Armes to their owne ruine These are the grand Projectors to raise men and money making their Ministry but a Pander to Rebellion Their stratagemes have beene to awaken them by sounding this Alarm in their eares That Gods cause the Protestant Religion Lawes Liberties Properties Priviledges of Parliament yea their lives with the lives of their deare wives and children ly all at the stake They went a step higher in the beginning perswading them they were to fight for the defence of the Kings Rights and to rescue His Sacred Person from the hands of the Cavaliers so in a disgrace they termed His Majesties Illustrious Nephewes with the chiefe Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdome who as they said had surprized Him When they were supplied with men animated by these devices what course did they leave unattempted to raise money to maintaine them Under the name of the publike faith a chest that is bottomelesse and insatiable they have erected a new lotterie to cheat our faith and begger the publike From hence the adventurers were sure to carry away nothing but blankes the prizes being designed for themselves and the Officers that were neere them some of which are not ashamed to sound the Trumpet for it When the free Contrbutions were exhausted from Voluntiers men came to be prest to these prodigall expences After they had lent some they were justly paid the use by having the rest taken from them Men were not onely forced to part with their own but to disburse others money also or committed to prison for their refusall This was â—anghâ—rne and Vivians case who were committed to Colchester Goale for denying to pay 2000l which was due to the Prince from them and yet the Receiver plundred of the money These men are no lesse carefull for the maintenance of the Kings children then of his Majestie provided it may be done by taking away their Revenues and thus all the Rights as well of King as People have beene secured by an Antiphrasis of Parliament When the Merchants were in dispute about the lading of the Ship called Sancta Clara these charitable men that love no strife betweene brethren umpir'd in the businesse and to reconcile the difference seized upon the goods which must not be redeemed to the use of the right owner under the loane of 20000l I pray God they have not this trick to comprimise all the differences of the Kingdome To raise money they have robbed both the Church and the Spittle six thousand pounds being collected for the repairing of S Andrewes Holborne were fetcht away by the Earle of Manchester and others in the night If this Church fall they have ingaged themselves to build God a new house in bloud We reade of Hezekâ—ah that he gave all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord to make his peace with a forreigne and idolatrous King but for subjects to take Gods money to wage Warre against a pious Prince we beleeve this may be made one of the first precedents They have not beene more favourable to the mysticall then to the materiall Temples of God A great collection was made for the reliefe of the poore Protestants in London Derry and besides those vast summes raised by Subsidie for the Armies there this was all converted to the use of this bloudy War whilest those our miserable brethren are ready to perish as many that went before them in their distresses To recompence them from this wrong they have imployed their Preachers to advance another collection for them which comming into the same hands we suspect will be conveighed the same way They tooke like care for the disposall of that collection made for Brainceford for the poore of the Parish have not beene a farthing the better for it hitherto and we beleeve the Spring will have so well recovered them that their Physitians will thinke it needlesse to administer what was so long agoe provided for them Whether these men that would have no summe passe by their owne bagge care more to relieve the poore then Judus did may appeare by diverse instances amongst the rest they brake into the Hospitall at Gilford in Surrey and tooke 400l from them and a fine device was lately set on foot to raise another summe There is a pretence for poore children to be sent over to get good breeding in New-England a collection must be made for them and this must be committed to the hands of their trusty and well-beloved Alderman Pennington which is like to be imployed to the use for which it was pretended as faithfully as those summes gathered for London Derry and Branceford were Now lest the peoples zeale should wast with their purses they keepe them warme by a continuall breathing of reports upon them If Letters come that speake but upon heare-say they first expunge so much of the relation as might tend to the discouraging of their party and then publish them as the History of some great defeat and if need be as there is need enough they have their Observatour to write Commentaries upon them lest the people should mistake the rare passages of Gods providence on their side Another while they declaime against the Kings Army as Popish forgetting that their good wroke is supported by men of any Nation or Religion and that the Lord Say and the Lord Brookes two leading Cards of that faction have often protested they would dispence with all sorts of Religions though now they make an exception of the true Protestant so they might exercise their owne freely and that such a generall Toleration ought to be granted is their avowed opinion and indeed their independency cannot consist otherwise for if I be accountable to none I will use what Religion I please without controule It hath been well observed that when there hath beene any businesse of consequence to be debated in the Houses they have still had the good fortune to be encouraged by the newes of some strange successe or exasperated by some great provocation suggested by such as made the discovery for advantage But they have beene so provident as to lay reports of this nature at a considerable distance that they might not be confuted before the present turne were served Thus wee were made beleeve whilest His Majesties Army was in Yorkeshore and in those remote parts that they consisted of none but Papists and Delinquents but this mist cast before the peoples eyes to blind them was soone dispelled by the rayes of our Soveraignes piety as He drew neare us And however the Earle of Newcastles Forces lie all under the same scandall now yet as great a cloud as this hath vanish'd into nothing and 't is possible they may draw so neare us that notwithstanding their duty and alleagiance have brought some Papists into that Army we may distinctly understand that the Masse which they say is so commonly used
most eminent and glorious of all Protestant Churches If His Majesty consents not to all this and to something more upon the advice of a grave and learned Synod for the satisfaction of tender consciences but recedeth from His many free and gracious offers to that purpose then let those bitter and scandalous imputations of inclining unto Popery be never washt away from Him But if this be one of the maine Arguments of His Majesties taking up just necessary and defensive Armes against Anabaptists Brownists and Sectaries who have already throwne downe the hedge and now fall to pillaging of the grapes of the Lords Vineyard and that with countenance and encouragement from a party in both Houses then we may conclude we approach very fast unto Atheisme and Prophanenesse and are fallen into those times which Sir Walter Raleigh speakes of in his Historie of the Word B. 2. Chapt. 5. sect 1. speaking of the care that Moses had of all things that concerned the worship and service of God which care of his all ages have in some degree imitated Yet sayes he and we may say so more truly it is now so forgotten and cast away in this super fine age by those of the family By the Anabaptists Brownists and other Sectaries as all cost and care bestowed and had of the Church wherein God is to he served and worshipped is accounted a kind of Popery and as proceeding from an Idolatrous disposition insomuch as time would soone bring to passe if it were not resisted that God would be turned out of Churches into Barnes and from thence againe into the Fields and Mountaines and under the Hedges and the offices of the Ministers robb'd of all dignity and respect be as contemptible as these places All Order Discipline and Church-Government left to newnesse of opinion and mens fancies yea and soone after as many kindes of Religion would spring up as their are Parish Churches within England Every contentious and ignorant person clothing his fancy with the Spirit of God and his imagination with the gift of Revelation insomuch as when the Truth which is but one shall appeare to the simple multitude no lesse variable then contrary to it selfe the faith of men will soone after die away by degrees and alll Religion held in scorne and contempt Doth not this directly hit the temper of our times wherein the conformable ministry is generally discountenanced ignorant and seditious persons men of all qualities and professions sâ—t up like Jeroboams Calves to out-face rhem Wherein all sorts of Conventicles forbidden by Law are tolerated and frequented by those that ought to punish them wherein men will take upon them to be Magistrates and declaime against the publike worship and service of God as it hath stood ever since the Reformation in the Church of England and shut up the doores of the Mother-Church if it bee lawfull to use any name of reverence and authority besides the name of a Parliament that the solemne service of God may not be administred as it hath been for a president to other Churches wherein men are imprisoned and cannot be inlarged unlesse they will promise to forbeare the use of the Common-Prayer the Crosse in Baptisme and kneeling at the holy Communion wherein the holy Apostles of our Saviour are unsainted as if we now doubted of their salvation all this and more then this can be proved against Alderman Pennington If wee look into the House lest their Members should not bee infected fast enough with this pestilent disease the Preachers of their choosing were for the most part notorious schismaticall Separtists And for the Synod of their owne setting forth after a new translation for feare the Clergy should have sent men that were too orthodoxall they deprived them of their rights forgetting their Protestation or taking them to be not the Subjects intended in it and made choice of as many men as they could get under no remarkable character but for their ignorant novelty and factious singularity of opinion If we look upon the men they most confide in we shall find them of the same stampe or else their prisoners must not be committed to them Doctor Leyton an old Scottish Preacher stigmatized long since for Sedition Gaoler at Lambeth House Dillingham a notorious Brownist with his wife and family Goaler at London-House Devenish the Keeper and Randall the Porter both Conventicle-Preachers at Winchester-House and the Porter at Ely-House can deliver as much extemporary Sedition as the best of them If we look into their Army wee shall find their intemperate zeale not without encouragement from some great ones hath transported them not onely to the prophanation of Churches defacing of Monuments tearing of holy Books and decent Vestments but even to the murdering of the true sonnes of the Church for ioyning in her devotions as the late example at Lambeth evidenceth Wee see then what is done for the defence of the true Protestant Religion as it stands reformed and establisht in the Church of England This Religion is pretended but another is practiced and in order to this new one for the old hath consisted with the old government Episcopacy must be rooted out and to this end they have used the most Reverend Bishops for no other crime then for being of that function as whilome the enemies of the Gospell did the holy Martyrs of Jesus Christ when they clothed them in the skins of wilde beasts to animate the dogges to teare them so the Fathers of the Church have been set forth under the most scandalous and ignominious character to inrage the people against them And although they are as farre from discovering as from agreeing what they would have in the roome of it yet this must downe that 's concluded and though a Synod be desired as the most competent Judge of such Controversies yet this is to be convened onely for colour fake the work must be done or rather undone before they be consulted with or assembled We may expostulate though they will not allow their Votes how unreasonable soever to be disputed How came Episcopacy that hath stood so long a piller in the house of God to grow so diametrically opposite to the truth or peace of the Gospell Was not our Religion reformed under that Government and hath not our Church and State flourish't to the envy of our neighbours under it If some tares have sprung up under it have they not sprung up much faster and spread further under other formes of Government beyond the Seas If inconveniences have crept in through that wall which if not of Christs own is doubtlesse of his Apostles building much more through those low hedges of their setting up who hhve no grounds besides their owne fancies to plant them on There is a necessity of emerging offences and tares will grow amongst the Wheat untill the Harvest or else our Saviour hath deceived us His wisdome sees that the very chaffe may contribute something to the benefit of the
Essex for saith hee till I see him look't upon and served as a temporary Dictator and the bounds of his Commission to be onely thus Ne quid detrimenti capâ—â—t Respublica cavere I shall never think the Parliaments safety sufficiently provided for The Law then is not the thing you fight for for you fight against it And the Judges sit in the House for Ciphers as the Clergy in the Convocation Doe you fight to maintain the Liberty of the Subject Indeed you stand deeply ingaged to doe your best for that for it was never so infringed since the Conquest as it hath been by your selves since you have taken the charge of the Militia If we calculate the number of Prisoners who have been committed this yeare we shall find hundreds restrained of their liberty most unjustly for Master Pym told us in the name and as the sence of both Houses in that speech at Guild-Hall That it is against the rules of justice that any men should be imprisoned upon a generall charge when no particulars are proved against them and yet we know no particulars were proved or alleaged against the Lord of Middlesex the Lord of Portland c. How many men petitioning for inlargement when no charge could bee brought against them have notwithstanding been detained in prison because they had not contributed to the maintenance of the warre And if it be so farre from truth that any particulars have been proved that not so much as a generall charge hath been produced then either Master Pym in the name of the House abuses the sence of the House or else thâ—â— imprisonment is against the rules of justice But perhaps these rules of justice are made in favour of Isaac Pennington and his three fellow-Citizens Kimbolton and the five members Such men as these that are members of the House or engaged in their service these men may not be imprisoned upon a generall charge though it be a charge of High Treason And yet I must tell you if this be a true maxime of State it is the greatest Soloecisme that can be imagined and I am sure contrary to the practice of all Indiciall proceedings upon criminall causes For if there should be no imprisonment upon a generall charge before particulars are proved then there can be no Commitment before some kind of tryall and â— Constable could not apprehend a felon though he had a warrant for it without offending against the rules of Justice for his apprehension is an imprisonment and yet no particulars proved which sayes Mr Pym speaking the sence of both Houses is against the rules of Justice Well! if such an imprisonment be against the rules of Justice we are taught from the prisons the way to the unjustest Court extant And if those rules had been as well observed on the behalfe of all His Majesties good subjects as they have been soundly preached to some of them there had not been that need as wee see there is of a Monthly conseâ—ration of new prisons But perhaps the fence of the House is that the King cannot commit to prison upon a generall charge when no particulars are proved His Majesties power hath been cut very short of late But the Houses being more indulgent to their owne priviledges may Carve themselves a power of a greater latitude and they have carved themselves very freely of the prerogative of the Crowne and as occasion serve declare and use it They may commit upon a due information without any proofe of particulars and this is a new created priviledge of the House of Commons which heretofore could commit none but their owne Members Master Pym in his said speech declares the practice of the House That they never have committed any man but such men as by due information and perhaps not so due neither they conceived to be seditious persons and like to trouble the peace of the State What â— against the rules of Justice to imprison any men upon a generall charge though of high treason when no particulars are proved and in his next observation but one men committed upon Informations and conceipts what is become of the rules of justice now or what is become of the Gentlemans memory If he hath forgot his owner rules of Justice so suddenly we may cease to wonder that he hath forgot the rule of our law which he so much magnified in his speech upon the Attainder of the Earle of Strafford But what have they committed no man but such as by due information they conceived seditious I beleeve none but such as they conceived seditious Conceit doth much and if they conceive a man so they never travaile long before their Sergeant playes the Mid wife and assists them to bring him forth such as they had conceived him to be But we much doubt whether this were alwaies by due information for we know some that after three weeks imprisonment and no hearing put in baile and within a forthnight returned out of the Countrey continued in prison a good while longer and at last the information was found so undue that they were dismissed And we have seen an Order under Master Lawrence Whitakers hand that such Gentlemen should be moved to bring in the accusation against such prisoners and if none could be â—ound that then they might be discharged When the high Sheriffe of Essex pleaded he had done nothing knowing innocence was wont to be a faire excuse the Speaker told him They did commit him for prevention Where is the due information now upon which prisoners are committed Nay these great Assertors of the subjects liberty have restrained the gray haires to their great hazard Alderman Backhouse not so rich as honest And Archdeacon Hilliar though above 80. yeares of age and so infirme that he had been a long time bed-rid for refusing to pay down 800. 1. was carried five miles from Exceter to be shipt away to the endangering of his life And Sir George Whitmore very aged was shipt away for Yarmouth and could not have the liberty of a Coach for his health though he promised to be at the charge of any guard they should think fit to send down with him Have not some Parliament men come upon the Bench and forbad the Judges granting of Habeas Corpusses Can we then think these to be the practices of men that stand for the liberty of the Subject If they have forborne us in the libertie of our Persons they have paid us in the property of our Goods Since they have applyed the sword we are so farre from recovery that the Incision they have made renders our cure worse then ever our disease was Our property received a little scratch by the point of prerogative before but now by the priviledge of Parliament the point of the sword hath made the wound desperate When we read this question propounded by one of their great Clerkes in his answer to the frivâ—lous paper for so he is pleased to stile the Petition for