material Temples of God by breaking down Organs burning Rails and defacing the Monuments of the Dead but will ye go about to destroy the Spiritual Temple of the Holy Ghost not fearing that dreadful Sentence of the Apostle He that destroyeth the Temple of God him shall God destroy Could they not be content to tear the Book of Common Prayer in pieces and scatter the leaves all about the Church but will they also rend and dilacerate the living Members of Christs mystical Body Will they charge the Cannon with murthering Shot to destroy and dissipate whole Assemblies of Gods Servants met together upon his own Day to Worship him in his own House Do they think that their bare opposition to Popery will save them If that alone would give a Man a good Title to Heaven not only the Socinians Libertines Familists Antinomians and other damnable Hereticks but even the Jews and Turks would snatch Heaven from them and take it by force for these are as vehement Opposers of Popery as they are And howsoever the violent Opposition to Popish Superstition is all the Religion some of them have yet are they not at so deadly fewd with Papists as they would bear the World in hand for they shake hands with them in many of their Tenets and Practices both of them condemn our English Liturgy and profess Recusancy both of them Idolize their Teachers c. Who hath bewitched them that they should believe Bedlam shall be so far enlarged and the Spirit of Frenzy possess Old England that they should have the like success here as their cousin-germans the Anabaptists had at Munster though we envy them not their high preferment in the end After these fits of Convulsion are over and Peace setled in the Body of the Kingdom do they think the wisdom of the State will ever change our Holy Churches into their prophane Barns and Stables our Pulpits into their Tubs our linnen Ephods into their Aprons our Liturgy into their extemporary Enthusiasms our Learned Pastors into their ignorant Hirelings and our Apostolical Hierarchy into their Apostolical Anarchy But I will restrain my self and confine my Discourse Soon after this Sermon seven Articles were preferred against the Doctor to the Committee for Plundered Ministers by three Mechanicks who had formerly been Indicted for Brownists at the Sessions for the County of Surrey but after long attendance the Doctor was acquitted of them Yet at length these Sectaries wrought so powerfully that the Doctor must be committed to Prison how unjustly soever 't was enough that he was a Doctor and maintained the Religion established in the Church of England And accordingly on the 30 th of September 1643. he is committed to Peter-house his own House Library and Goods being first seized on and his Estate sequestred The Sunday after his commitment and for divers other Lords-days he Preached to his Fellow-Prisoners but after a while he was prohibited by Isaac-Pennington the pretended Mayor of London And though Sir George Sands Sir John Butler Master Nevile and other Prisoners of Quality Petitioned that he might continue his so doing yet it would not be granted See how this unjust Imprisonment is relished by a Forein Divine in these very words I Am sorry to hear of the close Imprisonment of that worthy Dr. Featly What He who is and ever hath been so stout a Champion for Religion to be so used by the Reformers thereof But let not the Disciple think it strange when his Master suffered so much cruelty from the great Rabbins of Israel Yours from my heart J. S. After the Doctor had been many Months stifled up in Prison and having a Certificate from his Physitian that he could not live long if he had not some fresh Air he Petitioned these Soul-enthralling Tyrants and at last obtained leave to go to Chelsey-Colledge for six Weeks upon good Bail to recover his Health but it pleased God to take him out of this World upon the 17. day of April 1645. being the very last day of the six Weeks limited for his return During his Sickness he gave himself wholly to Divine Meditations often bewailing with Tears the present state of the Church of England he made a Confession of his Faith to Doctor Leo and the Dutch Ambassadors Chaplain saying That the Doctrine which he had always Preached and the Books which he had always Printed against Anabaptists and other Sectaries were agreeable to Gods Word and that he would Seal the Protestant Religion as it was established and confirmed by the Acts of three Pious Princes with his Blood And being asked by some that came to visit him What he thought of the Covenant he said It was a damnable and execrable Oath made purposely to insnare poor Souls and full of Malice and Treason against our Gracious Soveraign And said he For Church-Government a thing now much controverted I dare boldly affirm That the Hierarchy of Bishops is most agreeable to the Word of God as being of Apostolical Institution the taking away whereof is damnable and that by consequence both the Presbyterian and Independent Governments are absurd and erroneous neither of them being ever heard of in the Church of God till of late at Geneva nor is there so much as any colour for them in Holy Writ It is evident said he that as the Priests in the Old Testament were above the Levites so in the New the Apostles were above the Disciples and that the seven Angels of the seven Churches in the Apocalypse were seven Bishops and that Polycarpus was Bishop of Smyrna and Timotheus of Ephesus And for the Laity no pregnant proof can be produced That they ever medled with the Priests Function or had any Power to ordain Ministers And these things said he I intended to have published to the World if God had spared me longer life which I might through his goodness have enjoyed had I not been unjustly Imprisoned which he several times reiterated to his Friends Anon after he Prayed thus Lord strike through the reins of them that rise against the Church and King and let them be as chaff before the Wind and as stubble before the Fire let them be scattered as Patridges upon the Mountains and let the breath of the Lord consume them but upon our Gracious Soveraign and his Posterity let the Crown flourish This said he is the hearty and earnest Prayer of a poor sick Creature With which and other such spiritual Ejaculations he expired FINIS MERCURIUS RUSTICUS OR The Countries Complaint of the Sacrileges Prophanations and Plunderings Committed by the SCHISMATIQUES ON THE Cathedral Churches of this Kingdom MATTH xxi 13. My House shall be called the House of Prayer but ye have made it a Den of Thieves LONDON Printed in the Year 1685. The Preface THE Author of the French History relating that horrid Rebellion of the Holy League in France the Prototype of the present Rebellion in England gives this definition or Character of one of those Zealots
willing to be too long is my self I was born and baptized in the bosom of the Church of England established by Law in that profession I have ever since lived and in that I come now to dye This is no time to dissemble with God least of all in matter of Religion and therefore I desire it may be remembred I have always lived in the Protestant Religion established in England and in that I now come to dye What clamours and slanders I have endured for labouring to keep an Uniformity in the external service of God according to the Doctrin and Discipline of this Church all men know and I have abundantly felt Now at last I am accused of High Treason in Parliament a crime which my Soul ever abhorred this Treason was charged to consist of these two parts An endeavour to subvert the Laws of the Land and a like Endeavour to overthrow the true Protestant Religion estabâ—â—shed by Law Besides my Answers to the several Charges I protested my innocency in both Houses It was said Prisoners protestations at the Bar must not be taken I can bring no witness of my heart and the intentions thereof therefore I must come to my Protestation not at the Bar but my Protestation at this hour and instant of my death in which I hope all men will be such charitable Christians as not to think I would dye and dissemble being instantly to give God an account for the truth of it I do therefore here in the presence of God and his holy Angels take it upon my death That I never endeavoured the subversion either of Law or Religion and I desire you all to remember this Protest of mine concerning mine innocency in these and from all Treasons whatsoever I have been accused likewise as an Enemy to Parliaments No I understand them and the benefit that comes by them too well to be so But I did mislike the misgovernments of some Parliaments many ways and I had good reason for it for Corruptio optimi est pessima there is no corruption in the World so bad as that which is of the best thing in it self for the better the thing is in nature the worse it is corupted And that being the highest Court over which no other hath jurisdiction when t is mis-informed or misgoverned the Subject is left without all remedy But I have done I forgive all the World all and every of those bitter Enemies which have persecuted me and humbly desire to be forgiven of God first and then of every man whether I have offended him or not if he do but conceive that I have Lord do thou forgive me and I beg forgiveness of him And so I heartily desire you to joyn in Prayer with me O Eternal God and merciful Father look down upon me in mercy in the riches and fulness of all thy mercies look upon me but not till thou hast nailed my sins to the Cross of Christ not till thou hast bathed me in the blood of Christ not till I have hid my self in the wounds of Christ that so the punishment due unto my sins may pass over me And since thou art pleased to try me to the uttermost I humbly beseech thee give me now in this great instant full patience proportionable comfort and a heart ready to dye for thy honour the Kings happiness and this Churches preservation And my zeal to these far from Arrogancy be it spoken is all the sin human frailties excepted and all incidents thereto which is yet known to me in this particular for which I now come to suffer I say in this particular of Treason but otherwise my sins are many and great Lord pardon them all and those especially what ever they are which have drawn down this present judgment upon me and when thou hast given me strength to bear it do with me as seems best in thine own eyes and carry me through death that I may look upon it in what visage soever it shall appear to me Amen And that there may be a stop of this issue of blood in this more than miserable Kingdom I shall desire that I may pray for the People too as well as for my self O Lord I beseech thee give grace of repentance to all Blood-thirsty People but if they will not repent O Lord confound all their devices defeat and frustrate all their designs and endeavours upon them which are or shall be contrary to the Glory of thy great Name the truth and sincerity of Religion the establishment of the King and his posterity after him in their just rights and Priviledges the honour and conservation of Parliaments in their just power the preservation of this poor Church in her truth peace and patrimony and the settlement of this distracted and distressed People under their ancient Laws and in their native Liberties And when thou hast done-all this in meer mercy for them O Lord fill their hearts with thankfulness and with Religious dutiful obedience to thee and thy Commandments all their days So Amen Lord Jesus Amen and receive my Soul into thy Bosom Amen Our Father which art in Heaven c. January the 11 th Sir Henry Gage Governour of Oxford marched thence with a party of horse and foot towards Abingdon with intention to raise a Fort at Cullom bridg but Brown having treacherous notice of the design was prepared accordingly which begat a hot skirmish wherein the Rebels lost Major Bradbury and at least 30 others slain and on His Majesties part not above 7 common Soldiers but by great misfortune Sir Henry Gage himself marching in the front of his men did here receive a fatalshot whereof within few hours after he dyed His Body was afterwards interred at Oxford with funebrious exequies and solemnities answerable to his merits who having done His Majesty special service was whilst living generally beloved and dead is still universally lamented His daily refreshed memory makes me trespass on the Readers patience with this ELEGY Upon the never-enough lamented Death of Sir HENRY GAGE the most desired Governour of OXFORD SO Titus called was The Worlds delight And straight-way dy'd The envious Sisters spight Still the great favourite The darling head Unto the Fates is always forfeited Our Life 's a Chase where tho the whole Herd fly The goodlyest Deer is singled out to dye And as in Beasts the fattest ever bleeds So amongst men he that doth bravest deeds He might have liv'd had but a Coward fear Kept him securely sculking in the rear Or like some sucking Colonel whose edg Durst not advance a foot from a thick hedg Or like the wary Skippon had so sure A suit of Arms he might besieg'd endure Or like the politick Lords of different skill Who thought a Saw-pit safer or a Hill Whose valour in two Organs too did lye Distinct the ones in 's ear th' others in his eye Puppets of War Thy name shall be divine And happily augment the number Nine But that the Heroes
in these Sufferings which did aggravate them beyond all example of Barbarity which this unnatural War now did produce and that was Rachels Tears Lamentation and Weeping and great Mourning a Mother weeping for her Children and would not be comforted because they were taken from her for the Rebels as you hear having carried the two Ladies Prisoners to Shaftsbury thinking them not safe enough there intend to remove them to Bath a place then much infected both with the Plague and the Small Pox The old Lady was sick under a double confinement that of the Rebels and her own Indisposition all were unwilling to be exposed to the danger of the Infection especially the young Lady having three Children with her they were too dear too rich a treasure to be snatched away to such probable loss without reluctancy Therefore they resolve not to yield themselves Prisoners for that place unless they will take the old Lady out of her Bed and the rest by violence and so carry them away But the Rebels fearing lest so great Inhumanity might incense the People against them and render them odious to the Country decline this and since they dare not carry all to Bath they resolve to carry some to Dorchester a place no less dangerous for the Infection of Schism and Rebellion than Bath for the Plague and the Pox. To this purpose they take the young Ladies two Sons the eldest but nine the younger but seven years of age and carry them Captives to Dorchester In vain doth the Mother with tears intreat that these pretty pledges of her Lords affections may not be snatched from her In vain do the Children imbrace and hang about the Neck of their Mother and implore help from her that neither knows how to keep them nor yet how to part with them but the Rebels having lost all bowels of Compassion remain inexorable The complaints of the Mother pitiful cry of the Children prevail not with them like ravenous Wolves they seise on the Prey And though they do not crop yet they transplant those Olive Branches that stood about their Parent 's Table A barbarous fact and such as must look out of Christendom for a precedent and hardly find it though among the Heathen except among the unwashed Turks who take Christian Children from their Mothers Breasts either to make a Seminary for their Guards of Janizaries or by desolation to make them Eunuchs unsuspected Guardians of their Concubines or if in Christendom amongst none but the Jesuits their Brethren a Generation whom they would be thought most to hate yet are known most to imitate Exod. 21. To steal a Man was death by the Law of Moses nay the Romans that saw by no other Light but that dim Spark of Nature discerned the equity of this Law as is apparent in their Lex Fabia de Flagiariis And though these men blanch the Inhumanity pretending that they rob the Mother to inrich the Church to bring them up in the true Religion it were worth the while to ask if they would vouchsafe an answer what they mean by the true Religion if they mean the Protestant or to speak more properly the Religion of the Church of England it is apparent they persecute that but suppose which we do not grant that they did bereave Parents of their Children to that purpose to bring them up in the true Religion yet cannot a good Intention warrant an unlawful Act nor ought they to do evil that good may come of it Nor do we find ether that the Church was ever pleased with such Accessions or that God did give a blessing to such unwarrantable Zeal When Sesibutus King of Aragon in the Year 600. prevailed against the Saracens and in a better Zeal than this but not according to knowledg compelled his Captives to be Baptized he quickly found his error by the want of Gods blessing upon his endeavours nay Gods dislike was so visible in the success that the Church of God observing it determined That the Children of Infidels not having the use and exercise of right Reason should not be Baptized Invitis Parentibus contrary to the consent of the Parents And the fourth Council of Toledo Cap. 56. disallowing the inconsiderate zeal of Sesibutus forbad to compel any man to the Faith under the censure of Anathema and determined withal that to baptize Children without the consent of the Parents is all one as to compel men of full age to be Baptized The same determination is cited and approved by the Canonist Dist. 45. Cap. De Judaeis and were it but consistent with the nature of this work it were easie to decry this Jesuitical Turkish practice by most impregnable Arguments both in the Schoolmen and Casuists But I must leave this to Men of the sacred Function and only beg leave to infer that if it be noâ—â—â—â—ful to baptize the Children of Jews Infidels or Hereticks without consent of their Parents Though without Baptism when it may be had there is no entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven certainly it must be far more unlawful being baptized to take them from their Parents to season their tender years with dangerous principles leading to Prophaneness Brownism Anabaptism and Rebellion A just indignation against so barbarous practice hath transported me in this argument farther than I intended though not so far as the heinousness of the fact deserves therefore if any man desires to be more fully satisfied of the power and interest which Parents have over and in their Children being an Inheritance given them of the Lord as the Prophet David and the possession of their Parents as Aristotle in his Politicks and the great violation of Justice in relation of the Laws of God Nature and Men in despoiling their Parents of them let him have recourse to that Learned and Elegant discourse of Petrus Aerodius Chief Justice or President of Aniou in his Book de Patria Potestate who being robbed of his Son stoln from him by the Jesuits to plant him as a hopeful Imp in their Society and not able to rescue him out of their power though he implored and had the King of Spain's assistance for thither he was carried pursues his Son with Arguments and Labours to recal him to his Obedience by laying before him his duty artificially Collected and strongly applied from the Laws Divine Natural and Moral and therefore to him I remit him and turn my discourse into its proper channel On Friday the 12 of May 1643. Mr. John Bykar Son to the Vicar of Dunchurch was with his Father in Law one of the High-Constables of Warwickshire at the Market at Coventry Being in a House in the City he received some rude affronts from a Soldier of that Garison He being a very civil man of good Moderation and it seems well instructed not to answer a Fool in his Folly or being reviled to answer again withdrew himself from the place to decline the insolent madness of the Soldiers and free himself
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
Children and his aged Father They threaten to beat down the House about their Ears unless they would yield possession to Mr. Atkins His Father for cutting down three Trees on the Glebe for necessary uses and an honest Parishoner for loving Mr. Simmons and plowing his Land were most maliciously handled and sent for up before the Committee in the Exchequer Chamber And when after all these Threats and Oppressions they still keep possession of the Parsonage House having no place else wherein to put their Heads at last May the 15 Watt Tyler I mean Watt Long whom some call Colonel Long came with some Troops of Horse and cast his whole Family out of Doors his aged Father his Wife and three Children the eldest but seven years old and his Servants and so gave possession of the House to Mr. Atkins He that desires to be better satisfied concerning this faithful Minister of God and what raised this Persecution against him let him have recourse to that Learned and Orthodox Book of his lately Published called A Loyal Subjects Belief worthy every Mans reading wherein he shall see a solid and satisfactory Answer to all those Arguments divulged by way of a Letter by Stephen Marshal the great Patriarch of Rebellion whereby he indeavours to maintain the Lawfulness of this present War against the King In which Letter you may see the true Character of a Cauterized Schismatick for as if he were afraid the World should not think him sealed up to a Reprobate sense and past all grace of Repentance he tells us that as soon as he hath recovered his Health much impaired by a hot eager prosecution of this Rebellion he intends to return with the Dog to his Vomit to sacrifice his strength to the service of the Cause and his Excellency in all which while he labours to free himself from the imputation of Madness and apologizeth against a prevailing Report that the horror of his guilt had distracted him he proves himself to be madder than ever the World took him Mercurius Rusticus c. III. The great increase of Brownists and Anabaptists at Chelmsford of late years Their abuse of the Church and Doctor Michelson Parson there Their Tenets in matters of Religion Master Cornelius a Minister Plundered c. ESSEX is a deep Country and though we have Travelled almost two Weeks in it yet we cannot get out We are now at Chelmsford which is the Shire-twon and hath in it two thousand Communicants all these are Parishioners of one and the same Church for there is but one Church in this great Town whereof at this time Doctor Michelson is Parson an able and godly Man Before this Parliament was called of this numerous Congregation there was not one to be named Man or Woman that boggled at the Common-Prayers or refused to receive the Sacramant kneeling the posture which the Church of England walking in the foot-steps of venerable Antiquity hath by Act of Parliament injoyned all those which account it their happiness to be called her Children But since this magnified Reformation was set on foot this Town as indeed most Corporations as we find by experience are Nurâ—eries of Faction and Rebellion is so filled with Sectaries especially Brownists and Anabaptists that a third part of the People refuse to communicate in the Church-Lyturgie and half refuse to receive the blessed Sacrament unless they may receive it in what posture they please to take it They have amongst them two sorts of Anabaptists the one they call the Old Men or Aspersi because they were but Sprinkled The other they call the New Men or the Immersi because they were overwhelmed in their Rebaptization In August 1641. there was an Order published by the House of Commons indeed by some leaders in a Committee for the taking away all Scandalous Pictures out of Churches in which there was more intended by the Authors than at first their Instruments understood until instructed by private information how far the People were to inlarge the meaning When this Order came forth there was standing in the Chancel a goodly fair Window at the East end untouched from the first foundation of the Church in which was painted the History of Christ from his Conception to his Ascension And to perpetuate the memory of the Benefactors in the vacant places there were the Eschochions and Arms of the ancient Nobility and Gentry who had contributed to the building and beautifying that fair structure In obedience to the Order the Church-wardens took down the Pictures of the blessed Virgin and of Christ on the Cross and supplied the places with white Glass But the Sectaries who understood the sense of that Order better than the Church-Wardens did rest very ill satisfied with this partial imperfect Reformation That therefore they might according to the phrase of the Times make a through Reformation on the Fifth of November in the Evening all the Sectaries assemble together and in a Riotous manner with long Poles and Stones beat down and deface the whole Window This exercise of an usurped power in the People without the lawful Magistrate like that which Andreas Corolostadius put in practice in the Reformation under Luther and was sharply condemned by him and indeed gave the unhappy occasion to that Schism which is hardly made up at this day stirred the spirit of the Doctor to inveigh the next Lords Day against popular tumultuous Reformations though to the better As being vitiated First By the defect of lawful Authority which cannot reside in the People Secondly In the intemperancy of the prosecution who commonly cast out one Devil by another abolishing Superstition with Sedition This so incensed the Sectaries thus to be opposed in their furious Zeal that they threatned the Doctor to ruine him if he preached any more on that subject And to let him see how welcome such Doctrine was unto them there was a Carbine discharged at a Window of that room where the Doctors usual abode was the Bullet passed through the place and in all probability had slain him had not the good Providence of God without which a Sparrow falls not to the ground diverted him unexspectedly from a business before known to be appointed for that place and hour This design frustrated about a fornight after one of these new Proselytes a young Clothier with others possessed with the same frenzy came into the Church immediately after Divine Service was ended laid violent hands upon the Doctor took him by the Throat and would have torn his Surplâ—â—â— off his Back and were so so inraged that had not some of his honest peaceable Parishoners come to his rescue they had in all probability endangered his Life But whom they could not wound with their hands they cut with their tongues as with a sharp Razor They revile him and call him Baals Priest and Popish Priest for wearing the Rags of Rome nay they cry out against him as a perjured Person that had violated his faith engaged
continue the Spoil until the next Day-light failed them until Wednesday night In this time they carry away the Wealth of the Town to Northampton and other places sparing none but those whose Tongues are framed to Shiboleth men of their own Faction whether they were active against them or stood Neuters By which Essay those Luke-warm men who stand Pendulous equally poised between Rebellion and Loyalty and know not which side to lean unto may guess what measure they are like to receive from the Rebels hands if ever they come to have them in their power In the Town two men especially suffer under these Free-booters Mr. Gray and Mr. Fisher from the first being Clerk of the Peace they take away the Commissions of Peace the Sessions Rolls together with his own Evidences and Leases all his Houshold-stuff even to his very Bed-cords leaving but one Sheet for his Wife and five Children His Wheat and other Corn they give to their Horses what they did not eat they threw into the Streets and trampled it in the dirt From the other they took Goods and other things amounting to a very great Sum And to compleat their wickedness to their Oppression they add Scorn for having taken away all that they could in derision they affix Protections in writing under Colonel Norwich his hand at his and some others doors forbidding any man to Plunder Generally what they could not carry away they spoil so that the Loss sustained by the Town is valued at Six thousand pounds They took Mr. Neile Prisoner and some Forty more amongst them they took the Vicar Master Jones a grave and learned man but lame and very sickly and having Plundered him of all he had they mount him on a poor Jade with a Halter instead of a Bridle the rest they tie two and two together and drive them before them to Northampton Mr. Gray as I told you was the day before led Prisoner to Welby from thence to Northampton where his Prison cannot afford him protection from the fury and rage of the Soldiers to make way to his death they threaten to pull down the House where he was confined And the Commissioners finding that he could not remain there with any safety were constrained to send him away Prisoner to London Being come thither Articles are framed and exhibited against him which being examined at a Committee and no proof at all made he was Voted to be discharged his Imprisonment yet to delude Justice and the Petition of Right the Chair-man could never find a time to make his Report to the House so that he remained a Prisoner for a long time On the 28. of January 1642. the Castle of Sudely upon Composition was delivered up to the Rebels there were Articles agreed on and sworn to but as he spake truly Children were deceived with Apples and Men with Oaths the Rebels as they swear to Articles for their advantage so they break them as easily for their advantage and make Perjury an easie uninterrupted passage to Theft and Robbery for these Rebels brake as many Articles as they swore unto they plunder not only the Castle the Seat and House of the Lord Chandois and Winchcombe a neighbouring Village to the utter undoing the poor Inhabitants but in defence of the Protestant Religion and vindication of the Honor of God they profane his House There is in the Castle a goodly fair Church here they dig up the Graves and disturb the ashes of the dead they break down the ancient Monuments of the Chandoses and instead thereof leave a prodigious Monument of their Sacrilegious profaneness for each part of the Church they find a peculiar way to profane it the lower part of it they make their Stable the Chancel their Slaughter-house Unto the Pulpit which of all other places in probability might have escaped their Impiety they fasten pegs to hang the Carcasses of the slaughtered Sheep the Communion-Table according to their own Language they make their Dresser or Chopping-board to cut out their meat into the Vault wherein lay the Bodies of the Chandoses an ancient and honorable Family they cast the guts and garbage mingling the loathsom Intrals of Beasts with those Bones and Ashes which did there rest in hope of a joyful Resurrection The Nave or Body of the Church was all covered with the dung and blood of Beasts and which was if it be possible a degree beyond these Profanations in contempt of God and his holy Temple they defile each part and corner both of Church and Chancel with their own Excrements and going away left nothing behind them in the Church besides Walls and Seats but a stinking Memory that part of the Parliament Army raised for the defence of Religion had been there Let that railing Rabshekah or jeering Sanballet I mean the Author of the ridiculous Pamphlet intituled One Argument more against the Cavaliers read this Story and then tell me which are most guilty of prophanation of Churches the Cavaliers or the Round-heads which were most profaned either St. Mary Maudlins in Oxford or the Church at Sudly Castle and yet this Dog sticks not with Shimei to bark at his Sovereign and blaspheme his Piety as if the Rebels brought from Cyrencester had been Quartered in this Church by his approbation who to expiate that guilt gave an hundred an fifty pounds to adorn and beautifie that Church The truth is there was a fault in the Commanders for lodging them in Churches who if they had had their due had been hanged for Rebellion their carcasses exposed to the Fowls of the air and the Beasts of the field that the Ravens of the valleys might have had their due portion and never suffered them to come so near the Church as to have the priviledge of Christian Burial in the Church-yard So even so let all the Kings enemies perish O Lord and let all the people say Amen In Saint Maries Church in Warwick and the Chappel commonly called the Earls Chappel adjoyning to the Choire of that Church are divers fair Monuments of the Beauchamps anciently Earls of that place which Family long flourishing there had been great Benefactors and Beautifiers of that Church whereof Thomas Beauchamp Earl of Warwick and Earl Marshal of England and one of the Founders of the most noble Order of the Garter in the Reign of King Edward the Third built the Choire now standing in the midst whereof is his Monument and adorned the Windows with the Pictures of Himself his Wife and Children which were many upon the Surcoats of the Men were their Arms skilfully depicted the Women having the like and Mantles over which were the Arms of their Matches their Husbands being the prime Nobility of those times The like Portraitures in Glass but much more rich and costly were in that stately Chappel before-mentioned In this stood the Monument of Earl Richard being Brass gilt and in the Opinion of judicious observant Travellers esteemed the rarest Piece erected for any Subject
Jones for being at so great expence to redeem the prey out of their hands and did but watch an opportunity to make him know how sensible they were of this their loss This Parliament being called and these men made Members of the Lower House they quickly perceived that this wished-for opportunity was now come wherein they might pervert publick Justice to private revenge quickly learning to exercise that Arbitrary unlimited power over their fellow Subjects which the prevalence of a dangerous Faction had put in their hands According to the general practice since this Parliament they accuse Mr. Jones of some Anti-parliamentary passages in his Sermons which his Judges understood as little as his Accusers Nay perhaps it was with him as with many of his Orthodox Brethren the same men were both his Accusers and Judges However any or no accusation we know have served these mens turns to bring Godly and Learned Ministers to the Bear-baiting of a Committee and to put them into the expensive custody of a Serjeant at Arms so it was with Mr. Jones they first pretended some Crimes and on these pretences they commit him Prisoner to a Serjeant at Arms. Having deprived him of his Liberty and put him into a consumption of his Estate by the unreasonable unlimited exactions of Parliament Goalers they then think him reduced to such a condition as to be willing to hearken to a Composition on any terms At last vexed to an agreement he is to enjoy his Liberty and Peace on this mutual stipulation They are to pardon him the errour of his Doctrine to deliver up his bail being with two Sureties Parliament men bound in a Bond of two thousand pounds and to give two hundred pounds towards his charges Mr. Jones must resign his lately recovered Cure of Tuifordton to make way for a Clerk of their own which to avoid farther molestation to his very great prejudice he was inforced to condescend unto After in September 1642. Mr. Jones riding to Taunton in Somersetshire accompanied by one of the Prince's Servants who wore his Masters Colours was for that reason together with that Gentleman immediately after his departure from thence apprehended and like a Felon brought back to the Castle where he remained Prisoner three weeks and could not be released without the earnest solicitation of his friends and his Wives humble and often petitioning the Earle of Bedford In November last suffering under continual molestations and out of all hope to live peaceably at home he resolved to put himself under the protection of Sir Ralph Hoptons Army then in Cornwal To this purpose he furnished three Horses and Arms proportionable and set forward to deliver them up to his Majesties service but unhappily in the way thither he was intercepted by the Earl of Stamfords Forces under the command of Captain Gould taken Prisoner robb'd to the value of 80 l. the Plunderers leaving him not so much as a boot to ride in By these he is led Captive to Liskard in Cornwal where they kept him three days in which time he and another Minister with him with his servant had but one pint of Beer for their sustinence being kept without either fire or light and for one night had their hands bound behind them and had been still kept in the like bondage had not God in mercy rescued them by Sir Ralph Hopton after the famous Battle of Liskard During the time of their imprisonment they offer them Conditions on which they may purchase their liberty viz. to pay three hundred pound to take an Oath never any more to assist the King with Horse Arms or Money But being delivered on far better terms he was not long after imprisoned for giving God publick thanks for his deliverance Afterwards seeing that Religion it self was but abused being made the Cloak of these mens Hypocrisie and Treasons and that they did fast but to strife and debate he did not observe the Fast every last Wednesday in the Month with that strict observation as was expected from him by that Faction hereupon some of them put him in mind of it Good Friday coming on presently upon the last Wednesday in April he desired his Neighbours and Parishoners to keep that ancient Fast injoyned by the Church in Commemoration of the bitter Death and Passion of Christ and the better to invite them to that days solemn Humiliation he preached to them twice that day Though Sermons be all their Religion yet two Sermons on Good Friday received and practised by all Churches in all Ages till of late a Jewish observation of one day hath shouldred out the religious observation of all other days he was convented before the Sessions where Edmund Prideaux a Parliament man and a pretender to this Law prest this his Obedience to the Church most violently against him malitiously affirming that he did it to affront the Parliament and to advance Popish Superstition and Innovation and that therefore He see what it is to be a Parliament man would make him an Example to the World and as the times then were God as he threatned Israel provoking us by foolish people was like enough to have done it had not Mr. Jones prevented him by withdrawing himself and so declined the evil intended against him Yet we may not omit one thing though it were so heinous a Crime in Mr. Jones not to observe one of their Wednesdays Fasts yet Mr. Darke Minister of Musbury in the same County and a man of that Faction could command his men to follow the Plough that day and yet was never thought fit of a Reprehension nor so much as a Brotherly Admonition and no wonder for tho heretofore Actions did Qualifie persons and denominate them by the Sectaries new Divinity they make Persons to Qualifie Actions those things which are sins in others lose their Nature and their Name in a Child of God and they will take it very ill from you not to be so reputed though living in the most notorious scandalous sins that defile the Soul and lay wast the Conscience of man But to return to our story From the beginning of this Parliament till God by the glorious and no less than miraculous Victories of Sir Ralph Hopton restored some Peace to that miserably distracted Country Mr. Jones was not permitted to live quietly at his own dwelling they threaten to hang him and burn his house which they plundered no less than seven times and not content with this they threaten to carry away his aged Father Prisoner being no less than 86 years of age and had been as good as their word for in mischief they seldom fail of their promises had not the Women of the Parish in detestation of so great barbarism rescued him out of their hands And after that memorable defeat of the Rebels at Stratton in the edge of Cornwal by the brave Sir Ralph Hopton Mr. Jones returned to his own house fearing no danger from the fitters of that broken Army but
Law Some of the Red-coats replyed Doth he so We will teach him another Lesson and make him leave those Popish Superstitions or he shall rue it Soon after they repair to the Church at Acton break open the Doors by force in the Chancel they find this Subscription on the Wall This Chancel was repaired and beautified such a year by Daniel Featly D.D. Rector which they utterly defaced Then laying hands on the Rails they dealt with them as Ducks do with a Frog tear them limbless and afterwards burnt them in the Street saying That if they had the Parson there they would burn him with his Popish Trinkets Soon after Colonel Urrey took up his Quarters at the Parsonage-house some of whose Soldiers whether willingly or by carelesness being in Drink is not certified lying in the Doctors Barn set it on Fire which burned the whole Barn full of Corn and two Stables down to the ground the loss being estimated by the Inhabitants at Two hundred and eleven pounds But to leave Acton and come to Lambeth where the Secretaries wrecked their spleen not upon Pales or Rails or the Fruits of the Earth as at Acton but upon the Bodies of Christs Servants on his own Day and in his own House and Court For February 19. 1642. even in the midst of Divine Service at the reading of the Te Deum laudamus four or five Soldiers rushed into the Church with Pistols and drawn Swords affrighted the whole Congregation out wounded one of the Inhabitants whereof he soon after died shot another dead as he hung by the hands on the Church-yard wall looking over to the Palace Court who might truly have said in the words of the Poet though in another sense Ut vidi ut perii It was gathered by many Circumstances especially by Depositions taken before the Coroner and by some Speeches that fell from their own mouths that their principal aim at that time was to have murdered the Doctor which 't is probable they had effected had not some honest Inhabitants premonished the Doctor who was at the same time on his way towards the Church intending to have Preached About the same time many of these Murderers were heard expressing their rancour against the Doctor thus Some said they would chop the Rogue as small as Herbs to the Pot for suffering Pottage for by that name they usually stile the Book of Common Prayer to be read in his Church Others said They would squeeze the Pope out of his Belly with such like scurrilous and malicious Language The Sunday sennight after this Outrage being the fifth of March the Doctor perceiving some Separatists at Sermon at Lambeth took occasion to speak as followeth IF ever Schismaticks and foul mouth'd Separatists were set forth in their native colours the Schismaticks of this age are Psal. 50.16 17 18 19 20. What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou should'st take my Covenant in thy mouth Seeing thou hatest instruction whatsoever thou pratest of Reformation and castest my words behind thee namely Prov. 14.21 Eccles. 10.20 Rom. 12.1 2 3 4. Heb. 13.8 9 17. 1 Pet. 2.13 When thou sawest a thief then thou consentedst with him and hast been partaker with Adulterers Thou givest thy mouth to lying and thy Tongue frameth deceit Thou sittest and speakest against thy Brother and slanderest thine own Mothers son For is not this their canting Language The Prelates of England are all Antichristian The Ministers Baals Priests The publick Service Idolatrous The Ceremonies Superstitious and the Sacraments corrupted with mans Inventions I take them at their word If this be true then is the Church of England no true Church of Christ then they which have received all the Religion they have from her are no better then Miscreants Pagans and Infidels in apparent peril of drowning in everlasting perdition because out of the Ark without God in this World because without his Church For as the Blessed Martyr Saint Cyprian soundly argueth against their Fore-fathers the Catharists Deum non potest habere Patrem qui Ecclesiam not habet Matrem And Church they have none for their Mother for they disclaim the true Protestant Church of England and the Popish disclaims them so they are mere A per se A's Independents like the horti pensiles in Lactantius and Mausolus his Sepulchre in Martial hanging and hovering in the Air. The Scripture sets forth the true visible Church of Christ upon Earth under the Emblem of a great Field a great Floor a great House a great Sheet a great Draw-net a great and large Foundation c. The Church shadowed out under these Similitudes cannot be their Congregation or rather Conventicles For as they brag and commend themselves wanting good Neighbors In their Field there are no Tares in their Floor there is no Chaff in their House no Vessels of Dishonor in their Sheet no Unclean Beasts in their Net no trash on their Foundation nothing built but Gold Silver and precious Stones They have not sate with vain Persons nor kept company with Dissemblers they have hated the assembly of Malignants and have not accompanied with the Ungodly they have not nor will not Christen in the same Font nor sit at the Holy Table for to kneel at the Sacrament is Idolatry nor drink Spiritually the Blood of our Redeemer in the same Chalice with the wicked Get ye packing then out of our Churches with your bags and baggages hoyse up Sail for New England or the Isle of Providence or rather Sir Thomas More 's Eutopia where Pluto's Commoner and Osorius his Nobleman and Castillio his Courtier and Vigetius his Soldier and Tully his Orator and Aristocles Felix and the Jews Bencohab and the Manichees Paraclet and the Gnosticks Illuminate ones and the Montanists Spiritual ones and the Pelagians perfect ones and the Catharists pure ones and their precise and holy ones are all met at Prince Arthurs round Table where every Guest like the Table is totus teres atque rotundus There are three Heads of Catechism and Grounds of Christianity The Apostles Creed the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments these may be more truly than Gorran his Postills termed aurea fundamenta which they go about to overthrow and cast down and when they have done it no place remaineth for them to build their Synagogues or Maria Rotunda's but the Sand in the Saw-pit where their Apostle Browne first taught most profoundly The Lords Prayer they have excluded out of their Liturgy the Apostles Creed out of their Confession and the Ten Commandments by the Antinomians their Disciples out of their rule of life They are too good to say the Lords Prayer better taught than to rehearse the Apostles Creed better liv'd than to hear the Decalogue read at their Service for God can see no Sin in them nor Man Honesty Tell me ye Bastard brood of Martius is it not sufficient for the conviction of your cauterized Consciences that ye wreck your spleen upon the
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
to command him to forbear the wearing of the Surpless and Hood to which Message the Dean stoutly and like himself returned this answer that if they would expect any Sermon from him they must permit him to appear in such Ornaments as the Church and his degree required and accordingly did so afterwards Sandys and Seaton coming towards the Church and hearing the Organs Seaton started back and in the usual blessing of some of his Country cryed A Devil on those Bag-pipes perhaps he never read so far in Davids Psalms where it is written Praise God upon the Srrings and Pipe Psalm 150.4 or if he had it is more than probable that it had been all one to him however this served them both as a pretence to cloke their Irreligion and refusal to joyn with that true Protestant Congregation While the Rebels were pulling down the Rails about the Communion-Table one of the Prebends of the Church Master Larken interposed and attempted to stay their madness by reason and perswasion but he quickly found that he did not only prophane Reason by urging it to S. Pauls Absurd unreasonable wicked men men made up of Incongruities but that he did it to the hazard of his life for one of the Rebels instead of returning a reasonable answer discharged a Pistol or Carbine at him to have murdered him at the very Altar but by the good providence of God he miss'd his mark Thus having done some spoil that they might render themselves not altogether unprofitable to their party and not daring for the present to do any more for fear of losing that party which they hoped to gain for that reason they left the Church but into what further outragious Impieties their Schismatical fury hath since transported them or what else they have practised on this Church to compleat their Monstrous Reformation is not yet made known unto us The third instance which I shall give of the Rebels Sacrilege and Profaneness is in the Cathedral Church of Chichester Successour in the honour of being the seat of the Bishops Residence to Sealesey for Wilfrid Arch-Bishop of York being driven into Exile by Egfrid King of Northumberland retiring himself into Sussex and finding the South Saxons wholly given up to Idolatry his Spirit like S. Pauls at Athens was stirred within him and knowing the unprofitable servants doom that Buried his Talent he Preached unto them the Gospel of Christ and Edilwalch King of those parts not long before converted to the faith by the perswasion of Wolfhere King of the Mercians willing that the same saving knowledg which he himself had imbraced should be imparted to his People seconded the pious endeavours of Wilfrid and therefore amongst other acts of bounty he gave the Arch-Bishop Sealesey for the palce of his residence Not long after Cedwalla Conquering Edilwalch built here a Monastery to the honour as Malmsbury saies of S. Peter and erected the Episcopal Chair where it stood fixt the succession of 22. Bishops or as others say reckoning Wilfrid Arch-Bishop of York for the first the succession of 23 Bishops from the year 711. the Reign of William the Conquerour 1070. at which time Stiganeus translated his Chair from Sealesey to Chichester and so became the last Bishop of Sealesey and the first of Chichester where the Episcopal power did flourish ever since until now in these last and worst days wherein while the heads of a Rebellious Schismatical Faction Vote down the sacred Function and Order of Bishops their Emissaries are mad to deface if not utterly to demolish their Churches To this purpose the Rebels under the Conduct of Sir William Waller entering the City of Chichester on Innocents day 1642. the next day their first business was to Plunder the Cathedral Church the Marshal therefore and some other Officers having entred the Church went unto the Vestery there they seize upon the Vestments and ornaments of the Church together with the Consecrated Plate serving for the Altar and administration of the Lords Supper they left not so much as a Cushion for the Pulpit nor a Chalice for the Blessed Sacrament the Commanders having in person executed the covetous part of Sacrilege they leave the destructive and spoyling part to be finished by the Common Soldiers brake down the Organs and dashing the Pipes with their Pole-axes scoffingly said hark how the Organs go They break the Rail about the Communion-Table which was done with that fury that the Table it self escaped not their madness but tasted of the same fare with the Rail and was broken in pieces by them At the East end of the Quire did hang a very fair Table wherein were written the Ten Commendments with the Pictures of Moses and Aaron on each side of the Table possessed with a zeal but not like that of Moses they pull down the Table and break it into small Shivers 'T was no wonder that they should break the Commandments in their representation that had before broken them all over in their Substance and Sanction they force open all the locks either of doors or desks wherein the singing men laid up their Common-Prayer-Books their singing Books their Gowns and Surplesses they rent the Books in pieces and scatter the torn leaves all over the Church even to the covering of the Pavement but against the Gowns and Surplesses their anger was not so hot these were not amongst the Anathemata but might be reserved to secular uses in the South cross I le on the one side the History of the Churches Foundation was very artificially pourtrayed with the Pictures of the Kings of England on the other side over against them are the Pictures of the Bishops as well of Sealsey as Chichester began by Robert Sherborn the 37 Bishop of that See and the Series brought down by him to his own times at his own Charges who as he made that of the Psalmist Dilexi decorum domus tui domine Lord I have loved the beauty of thy house his imprease and Motto so he made it his work and endeavour These Monuments they deface and mangle with their hands and swords as high as they could reach and to shew their love and Zeal to the Protestant Religion established in the Church of England one of those Miscreants picked out the eyes of King Edward the sixth's Picture saying That all this mischief came from him when he established the Book of Common-Prayer On the Tuesday following they had a solemn Thanksgiving for their success in gaining that City Men of Cauterized Consciences and given up to a Reprobate sense thus not only to take the name of God in vain but damnably to Blaspheme it as if he were the Patron of Rapine Blood and Sacrilege After the Sermon was ended as men not inspired by the holy Spirit of which they so much boast but possessed and transported by a Bachanalian fury they ran up and down the Church with their swords drawn defacing the Monuments of the dead hacking and hewing the Seats and
Stalls scratching and scraping the painted Walls Sir William Waller and the rest of the Commanders standing by as spectators and approvers of these Barbarous Impieties yet for fear lest in the Schismatical frenzy the sword in mad mens hands might mistake Sir William Waller a wary man as he is and well known not to be too apt to expose himself to danger stood all the while with his sword drawn and being asked by one of his Troopers what he meant to stand in that Posture He answered that it was to secure himself you know it is written the wicked are afraid where no fear is for though the People made him an Idol in London yet being no Popish but a Puritanical Idol for they have their Idols and their Idolatry as much as the Church of Rome there was no danger to his person to be mistaken for an object of their Reformation at Chichester The same Trooper added also That if his Colonel in the Low-Countries were there and Commanded in cheif he would hang up half a dozen of the Soldiers for examples sake it not being the custom of the Low-Countries though long time hath made their enmity inviterate and added much to the animosity of the parties to Plunder Churches it being a mutual stipulation between the Spaniard and the Hollander that what Town soever should by Conquest pass from the possession of one Nation to the other though the Conquerour had the free Plunder of the Town yet Churches with their ornaments and what ever was conveyed into them should be Inviolable the Church being Sanctuary to whatsoever was under its Roofe and if they would have any thing thence it was to be purchased at a valuable Price These good intimations of moderation from a man of less Command but more Religion than Sir William prevailed nothing with him to restrain the outragious madness of his fellow Rebels Having therefore made what spoyl they could in the Cathedral they rush out thence and break upen a Parish-Church standing on the North side of the Cathedral called the Subdeanery there they tear the Common-Prayer Books both those belonging to the Church and likewise those which were left there by devout persons which did usually frequent divine service and because many things in the Holy Bible make strongly against them one did contradict and condemn their impious practices they marked it in divers places with a black cole 't is more than probable that the 13. Chapter to the Romans did not escape their Index Expurgatorious for certainly if that be the word of God as undoubtedly it is they cannot so far withhold the truth in unrighteousness as not to read their doom in that word they shall judg them at the last day here they stole the Ministers Surpless and Hood and all the linnen serving for the Communion and finding no more Plate but the Chalice they steal that too which they brake in pieces to make a just and equal divident amongst themselves for an Engineer of theirs Robert Prince a French man with a wooden leg afterwards shewed the foot thereof broken off and when complaint was made of these barbarous outrages Capt. Keely replyed that he knew not whether all this were not done by Order or no. About 5. or 6. days after Sir Arthur Haslerig demanded the Keys of the Chapterhouse being entered the place and having Intelligence by a treacherous Officer of the Church where the remainder of the Church Plate was he commanded his servants to break down the Wainscot round about the room which was quickly done they having brought Crows of Iron for that purpose along with them while they were knocking down the Wainscot Sir Arthurs Tongue was not enough to express his joy it was operative at his very heels for dancing and skipping pray mark what Musick that is to which it is lawful for a Puritan to dance he cryed out there Boys there Boys heark heark it Rattles it Rattles and being much importuned by some members of that Church to leave the Church but a Cup for administration of the blessed Sacrament answer was returned by a Scotch man standing by that they should take a wooden-dish and now tell me which was farthest from a Christian either this impure Scot or that blasphemous Atheist who seeing the massy Plate and rich ornaments wherewith the Christian Altars were adorned in the Primitive Church in indignation and scorn of Christ belched out En quam preciosis vasis Mariae ministratur Behold with what costly vessels the Son of Mary is served what further spoyl and Indignity they have since done to that House of God and the habitation where his honour dwelt is yet uncertain Mercurius Rusticus c. III. The Rebels defying God in his own House their Sacrilege in stealing Church Plate and goods their irreverence towards the King by abusing his Statue their heathenish barbarity in violating the bones and ashes of dead Monarchs Bishops Saints and Confessors in the Cathedral Church of Winchester c. THE next instance which I shall give of the Rebels Sacrilege and Profaneness is in the Cathedral Church of Winchester which City as it was the Royal Seat of the King of the West Saxons in the time of the Heptarchy so was it the Seat of the Bishops of that People after Kenwalchus King of the West-Saxons not brooking the Barbarous broken expressions of Agilbertus his Bishop divided this large Diocess between Agilbertus and Wina and leaving Agilbertus to reside at Dorchester caused Wina to be consecrated Bishop of Winchester Before we tell you by whom and in what manner this Church was robbed and spoyled of its ornaments and beauty it will not be impertient while it may serve as an aggravation of their impiety briefly to set down by whom this Church was built and so richly adorned as lately we saw it This magnificent Structure which now stands was began by Walkelinus the thirty fifth Bishop of this Sea which work left imperfect and but begun by him was but coldly prosecuted by the succeeding Bishops untill William Wickham the magnificent Sole founder of two S. Mary Colledges the one in Oxford commonly called New Colledge the other a Nurcery to this near Winchester came to possess this See He amongst many other works of Piety built the whole Nave or body of this Church from the Quire to the West-end the Chappels on the East-end beyond the Quire had their several Founders The hallowed Ornaments and utensils of this Church being many rich and costly were the gifts of several benefactors who tho their Names perhaps are not recorded in earth have found their reward in Heaven This Church was first differenced by the Name of S. Amphibalus who received a Crown of Martyrdom under the Persecution of Dioclesian Next it exchanged this name for that of S. Peter and again this for that of S. Swithin the eighteenth Bishop of this See Last of all it was dedicated to the Holy Trinity whose blessed name is now called
the right way for at this day the Blind lead the Blind and if they go on both will certainly fall into the ditch For my self I am and acknowledg it in all humility a most grievous sinner many ways by thought word and deed and I cannot doubt but that God hath mercy in store for me a poor penitent as well as for other sinners I have now upon this sad occasion ransacked every corner of my Heart and yet I thank God I have not found among the many any onesin which deserves death by any known Law of this Kingdom And yet hereby I charge nothing upon my Judges for if they proceed upon proofe by valuable witnesses I or any other innocent may by justly condemned And I thank God though the weight of the sentence lye heavy upon me I am as quiet within as ever I was in my life And though I am not only the first Arch-Bishop but the first man that ever died by an Ordinance of Parliament yet some of my Predecessors have gone this way though not by this means For Elphegus was hurried away and lost his head by the Danes and Simon Sudbury in the fury of Wat Tyler and his fellows Before these S. John Baptist had his head danced off by a leud Woman and S. Cyprian Arch-Bishop of Carthage submitted his head to a persecuting Sword Many examples great and good and they teach me patience for I hope my Cause in Heaven will look of another dye than the colour that is put upon it here And some comfort it is to me not only that I go the way of these great men in their several Generations but also that my Charge as foul as 't is made looks like that of the Jews against S. Paul Acts 25.3 For he was accused for the Law and the Temple i. e. Religion And like that of S. Stephen Acts 6.14 for breaking the Ordinances which Moses gave i. e. Law and Religion the holy place and the Temple vers 13. But you will say do I then compare my self with the integrity of S. Paul and Stephen No far be that from me I only raise a comfort to my self that these great Saints and Servants of God were laid at in their times as I am now And it is memorable that S. Paul who helped on this Accusation against S. Stephen did after fall under the very same himself Yea but here is a great clamour that I would have brought in Popery I shall answer that more fully by and by In the mean time you know what the Pharisees said against Christ himself If we let him alone all men will believe in him Et venient Romani and the Romans will come and take away both our Place and Nation Here was a causeless Cry against Christ that the Romans will come And see how just the judgment of God was they crucified Christ for fear lest the Romans should come and his death was it which brought in the Romans upon them God punishing them with that which they most feared and I pray God this clamour of Venient Romani of which I have given no cause help not to bring them in for the Pope never had such a Harvest in England since the Reformation as he hath now upon the Sects and Divisions that are amongst us In the mean time by Honour and dishonour by good report and evil report as a deceiver and yet true am I passing through this World 2 Cor. 6.8 _____ Some particulars also I think it not amiss to speak of And first this I shall be bold to speak of the King our gracious Sovereign He hath been much traduced also for bringing in of Popery but on my Conscience of which I shall give God a very present account I know Him to be as free from this charge as any man living and I hold Him to be as found a Protestant according to the Religion by Law established as any man in this Kingdom And that he will venture His life as far and as freely for it and I think I do or should know both His affection to Religion and his grounds for it as fully as any man in England The second particular is concerning this great and Populous City which God bless Here hath been of late a fashion taken up to gather hands and then go to the Great Court of this Kingdom the Parliament and clamour for Justice as if that great and wise Court before whom the Causes come which are unknown to the many could not or would not do Justice but at their appointment A way which may endanger many an Innocent man and pluck his blood upon their own heads and perhaps upon the Cities also And this hath been lately practised against my self The Magistrates standing still and suffering them openly to proceed from Parish to Parish without check God forgive the setters of this with all my heart I beg it but many well meaning People are caught by it In S. Stephens case when nothing else would serve they stirred up the People against him and Herod went the same way when he had kill'd S. James yet he would not venture upon S. Peter till he found how the other pleased the People But take heed of having your hands full of blood for there is a time best known to himself when God above other sins makes Inquisition for blood and when that Inquisition is on foot the Psalmist tells us That God remembers but that is not all He remembers and forgets not the complaint of the poor that is whose blood is shed by oppression verse 9. take heed of this It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God but then especially when he is making Inquisition for blood And with my Prayers to avert it I do heartily desire this City to remember the Prophesie that is expressed Jer. 26.14.15 As for me behold I am in your hand do with me as seemeth good and meet unto you But know ye for certain that if ye put me to death ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon your selves and upon this City and upon the Inhabitants thereof c. The third particular is the poor Church of England It hath flourished and been a shelter to other neighbouring Churches when storms have driven upon them But alas now it is in a storm it self and God only knows whether or how it shall get out and which is worse than a storm from without it is become like an Oak cleft to shivers with wedges made out of its own body and at every cleft prophaneness and Irreligion is entering in while as Prosper spakes in his second Book De vitae contemptu cap. 4. Men that introduce prophaness are cloaked over with the name Religionis Imaginariae of Imaginary Religion for we have lost the Substance and dwell too much in Opinion and that Church which all the Jesuits machinations could not ruin is fallen into danger by her own The last particular for I am not