Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	government_n	kingdom_n	3,695	5	5.8013	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96590	The discovery of mysteries: or, The plots and practices of a prevalent faction in this present Parliament. To overthrow the established religion, and the well setled government of this glorious Church, and to introduce a new framed discipline (not yet agreed upon by themselves what it shall be) to set up a new invented religion, patched together of Anabaptisticall and Brownisticall tenents, and many other new and old errors. And also, to subvert the fundamentall lawes of this famous kingdome, by devesting our King of his just rights, and unquestionable royall prerogatives, and depriving the subjects of the propriety of their goods, and the liberty of their persons; and under the name of the priviledge of Parliament, to exchange that excellent monarchicall government of this nation, into the tyrannicall government of a faction prevailing over the major part of their well-meaning brethren, to vote and order things full of all injustice, oppression and cruelty, as may appeare out of many, by these few subsequent collections of their proceedings. / By Gr. Williams L. Bishop of Ossory.	Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672.	1643 (1643)	Wing W2665; Thomason E60_1; Thomason E104_27; ESTC R23301	95,907	126

THE DISCOVERY OF MYSTERIES OR The plots and practices of a prevalent faction in this present PARLIAMENT To overthrow the established Religion and the well setled Government of this glorious Church and to introduce a new framed Discipline not yet agreed upon by themselves what it shall be to set up a new invented Religion patched together of Anabaptisticall and Brownisticall Tenents and many other new and old errors And also To subvert the fundamentall Lawes of this famous Kingdome by devesting our King of His just rights and unquestionable Royall prerogatives and depriving the Subjects of the propriety of their goods and the Liberty of their persons and under the name of the Priviledge of Parliament to exchange that excellent Monarchicall government of this Nation into the Tyrannicall Government of a faction prevaling over the major part of their well-meaning brethren to Vote and Order things full of all injustice oppression and cruelty as may appeare out of many by these few subsequent collections of their proceedings By GR. WILLIAMS L. Bishop of Ossory Printed in the Yeare M.DC.XLIII TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTIE Most Gracious Soveraigne THough the wisest man in all the Kingdome of Persia saith great is the truth and stronger then all things yet the father of lies hath now plaid his part so well that as the Prophet saith truth is fallen in the streete and equity cannot enter in and your Majestie whom the God of truth hath anointed his sole vicegerent to be the supreame protector of them both in all your dominions hath accordingly listed up your standard against their enemies and I may truly say of you as Menevensis saith of that most noble King Alfred Si modò victor erat ad crastina bella pavebat Si modò victus erat ad crastina bella parabat Neither doe I beleive that Lucans verse can be applied to any man better then to your Majestie Non te vidère superbum Prospera satorum nec fractum adversa videbunt As the height of your glory and prosperity never swelled your pious heart so your greatest crosses and adversities never dejected your royall spirit But as the Prophet saith of the Captaine of the hoast of the Lord so I say to you that are his Lieutenant ride on with your honour or ride prosperously because of the word of truth of meekenesse and righteousnesse the people shal be subdued unto you and because the King putteth his trust in the Lord and in the mercy of the most highest he shall not miscarry especially while he fighteth as he doth the battaile of the Lord in defence of the Church of Christ who hath promised to be his shield and buckler which is the daily faithfull prayer of Your Majesties most loyally devoted Subject and most faithfully obliged servant GR. OSSORY To the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of ENGLAND Most deare Christian Brethren and fellow Subjects I Call God for a record upon my soule that I have proceeded in this Discovery of Mysteries to discharge my duty as my conscience directeth me and if I perish Iperish the Lord hath hitherto most mercifully preserved mee I have read of an ingratefull begger that when a pious man seeing his nakednesse and having a full web of cloth did freely give him as much as was requisite to make him a faire garment yet he was no wayes satisfied therewith but would have violently snatched all the web in despite of the right owners teeth and shall we that have so freely received so many acts of grace from our King more then ever any other King hath granted exact so much more as to make him no King In the life of Henry 3. presented to King Iames pag. 29. Choron Santh Albam or a King of no power like Henry the 3. in the Parliament at Oxford where the good King met so many undutifull demands that he was forced to render up to their rebellious will his royall power and when others managed the State he was left a cypher alas who hath bewitched us when men do rent the regall justice they make themselves of so many Subjects whilst they live in duty totidem tyrannos when they have left their loyalty and promises made by men which can not say they are at liberty are weake when force hath no power to make a just interest Therefore let not a faction prevaile to destroy us all I assure my selfe most of our two Houses of Parliament are very noble and very pious and many of them would willingly yeild to His Majesties perswasions for accōmodation but our Saviour saith a little leaven leaveneth the whole lumpe and a small faction may insensibly seduce if it were possible the very elect I will appeale to your owne consciences if we have not a most religious and a most gratious King if he hath not aboundantly granted his favours to all this Kingdome if the faction doth not still demand what he may lawfully and ought justly to deny then I beseech you let me not become your enemy for speaking truth let not the kingdome be made more miserable and the Church more despicable by your assisting of such a faction to the new moulding of them and let it not be thought strange that we beleeve one seditious schismatique in a Parliament may prove a treacherous rebell against his King and this Traytor may possibly seduce many those many not unlikely to prevaile to infect the major part of both Houses and if so * Shall we deeme them a Parliament and thinke it fitter to have them Jvdged by themselves then by the knowne lawes of the land then the first plotters of so great a mischeife having so far transcended the limits of truth and justice to wound their consciences and to confound the State that they know not how to retire and thinke they can not finde grace is it any wonder that such men with Iudas run on from bad to worse from worse to worst of all till at last they come to the highest step that hell can teach them But we being Gods olive though some of the Branches be broken off Rom. 11.17 yet I hope God hath not cast away his people and therefore if you take not pleasure in wickednesse and love not to become more miserable let us all feare God honour the King forsake the rebels and defend the Church so the God of all mercy will yet be mercifull unto us that we shall finde grace both with God and our King which is the hearty prayer of Your most affectionate Christian brother that doth most heartily wish your happinesse GR. OSSORY Christian Reader AS this Treatise was ready for the Presse I lighted upon Os ossorianum wherein I saw neither learning nor truth nor modesty nor honesty nor any one thing worth reply but a most distempered rage and moody choler that transported the silly man beyond his sence for omitting those his rarest passages which some discreete welwiller of the man collected in

words of Exodus Put off thy shooes from thy feet for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground he doth just like the eldest son of his dear father the devill as Tertullian calleth Hermogenes primogenitum diaboli most falsely and shamelesly charge him with the wearing of consecrated slippers which was never done but is one of those scurrilous invented imputations of this malicious Accuser of his brethren now thrown at him whose shooes either for learning or pietie I am sure this rambling Arguist and railing Rabsheka is not worthy to bear and for the service of God in our Churches Musicke ever used in the Church thogh the holy Prophet which was A man according to Gods own heart praised God in the beautie of holinesse upon all the best instruments of musicke and commanded us as well in the grammaticall sense as in the my sticall sense Psal 147.1.149 3. 150 3 4 5. to sing praises unto our God with Tabret and Harpe to praise him in the sound of the Trumpet in the Cymbals and dances upon the well tuned Cymbals and upon the loud Cymbals yet this zealous Organomastix gives us none other Title than Cathedral Roarers and Squeakers Pag. 14. and good reason it is he should be very angry with roaring and squeaking in Churches for that having been possest of a very competent Living with cure of soules these four or five yeeres together if I am not mistaken in the Authour he never yet either read or preached in that or any other Church so necessary is non residence and so usefull are dumbe dogges when they are willing to snarle and barke against Government and Religion but it is strange to me that such a divine harmonie which hath made others sober Musicke how usefull should make this spawn of the red Dragon mad for we know some Lawgivers commanded children to be taught 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodorie Epist l. 2. Plutarch de Musica after the grave composed tones of the Doricke way ad corda fera demulcenda to soften the fiercenesse of their dispositions and All mentis fervorem temperandum to cool and allay the hear and distempers of their mindes as Achilles was appeased in Homer Niceph. l. 12. c. 43. and Theodosius was drawn to commiseration luctuoso carmine by a sad poëm sung to him at supper when he intended the utter destruction of Antioch and the Scripture testifieth the like effect of Davids harpe in King Saul yet all this sweet and hallowed aire which ravisheth devout soules hath onely filled this envious Malignant with nastie windes and stinking expressions So contrary to the words of God himselfe Exod. 3.5 and against the judgement of all Divines and the practice of all Saints â primordiis ecclesiae from the first birth of Gods Church Pag. 15.18 he most ignorantly denieth any place to be holier than another which makes me affraid that Heaven with this man and his faction is deemed no holier than Hell or the Lords day no holier than monday no more than they hold the Church holier than their barnes or the holiest Priest though he were Aaron himselfe the Saint of the Lord holier than the prophanest worldling for I finde no difference that they make either of persons times or places but such a commixtion of all things as if they intended to reduce and bring the whole world into that confused Chaos which God first created before he disposed the parts thereof into their severall stations But I am loath to spend any more time about this ignorant ' Argument that is as all the rest of their Writings are as full of railing and unsavoury speeches as any mortall pen can diffuse therefore Heave him to do with his heart and mouth as that Morussian Cabares whereof he speaketh did with those Churches which the Gothes and Vandales had defiled Thus you have some and I might adde here abundance more of their absurd impious Doctrines which their ignorant simplicitie produced and their furious zeal published out of mis-interpreted Scriptures not that all these points are taught by every one of their Teachers but that all these many more are taught and maintained by some one or other of them as I could easily expresse it if it were not too tedious for my Reader but the bulke of my Book swels too big and their fancies are but Dreames fit for laughter and I brought these onely as Vineger to be tasted and then to be spit out again CHAP. X. Sheweth the great Bug-beares that affrighted this faction the four speciall meanes they used to secure themselves the manifold lyes they raised against the King and the two speciall questions that are discussed about Papists 5. 5. The setling of the Milit. a. FOr the setling of the Militia and putting the whole Kingdom in a posture of Defence as they termed it 1. They dreamed of a desperate Disease 2. They devised an empericall way to cure it and 1. 1. The disease The Disease was a monstrous fear of Poperie and the re-establishment of abolished superstitions in our Church to invade their consciences and of the Papists with fire and sword to wast their estates and to take away their lives and liberties and through that groundlesse feare they looked on the innocent ceremonies that were established in the Church as dangerous innovations and introductions to idolatrie And in the State they feared the practised wayes and endeavours to produce an arbitrary government by our advancing of a boundlesse prerogative even to the dispoyling of the Subject of his property and robbing him of the benefit of the laws these were their feares And the grounds of these feares were lying fictions and most scandalous detractions and defamations for their invented letters that should come from Holland and from Denmarke and some other places beyond the Seas where we were better believe them then go try whether they were true wh ich informed them sometimes of a fleete of Danes sometimes of another Nation that should come to assist the King for the setting up of Popery and the securing of himselfe in a tyrannicall and arbitrary government over them What terrible things frighted them and every day almost produced a discovery of new treacheries against the Parliament what terrible things frighted them as the stable of Horses under ground for indeed they were invisible Horses such as Elisha's servant saw terrifying their guilty consciences and that of the Taylors in Moore-fields and the like horrid machinations that were to come against them I know not from whom and God knowes from whence which things how false they were time which is the mother of truth hath long agone made manifest and ridiculous to any man that is not bewitched with these lying fancies therefore lest these dreames of their distempered braines should be too soone descryed and so prove defective to produce their intended project they alleadge the Queene is a Papist and I would to God they were

omnium sapientum seniorum populorum totius regni per praeceptum regis Inae and in the second Charter of King Edward the Confessour granted to the Church of Saint Peter in Westminster How former times respected the Clergie it is said to be Cum concilio decreto Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Comitum aliorumque suorum optimatum with the councell and decree of the Archbishops Bishops Earles and other Potentates And so not onely the Saxon Kings but the Norman also ever since the Conquest had the Bishops in the like or greater esteem that they never held Parliament or Counsell without them And surely these Princes were no Babes that made this choice of them neither was the Common wealth neglected nor justice prejudiced by these Governours And whosoever shall reade mores gentium or the pilgrimage of Master Purchas Livie Plutarch Appian and the rest of the Greek and Latine Histories I dare assure him he shall finde greater honour given and farre lesse contempt cast upon the Priests and Flamins the Prophets of the Sybils then we finde of this faction left to the Servants of the living God who are now dealt withall worse than Pharach dealt with the Israelites that took away their straw and yet required their full tale of brickes for these men would rob us of all our meanes and take away all our Lands and all our rights and yet require not only the full tale of Sermons and Service as was used by our Predecessours but to double our files to multiplie our paines How the Clergie are now used and to treble the Sermons and Service that they used to have of our forefathers more than ever was done in any Age since the first Plantation of the Gospell and when we have done with John Baptist the utmost of our endeavours like a shining and a burning lampe that doth waste and consume it selfe to nothing while it giveth light to others they onely deal with us as Cartiers use to do with their packe horses hang bels at their eares to make a melodious noise but with little provander lay heavie loades upon their backes and when they can bear no more burdens take away their bels withdraw their praises call them Jades exclaim against their lazinesse and then at last turne them out to feed upon the commons and to die in a ditch and thus we have now made the Ministers of Christ to be the emblems of all miserie and in pretending to make them more glorious in the sight of God we have made them most base in the eyes of all men And therefore the consequence of this Act is like to prove most lamentable when the people considering how that hereby we are left naked of all comfort and subject to all kinde of scorne and distresse and how that this being effected is but the praeludium of a farre greater mischiefe they will rather with no great cost make their children of some good Trade and their children will choose so to be than with such great costland more care and yet little hope to bring them up to worse condition than the meanest of all Trades The Clargie alone are deprived of Magna Charta or the lowest degree of all rustickes when as they can challenge and it shall not be denied them to have the priviledges of the Law and a propertie in their goods which without their own consent yielded in their persons or their representours cannot be taken from them and the Clergie onely of all the people in this Kingdom shall be deprived of the right and benefit of our great Charter which so many famous Kings and pious Princes have confirmed unto us and when we have laboured all the dayes of our lives with great paines and more diligence to instruct our people and to attain to some competencie of meanes to maintain our selves and our families we shall be in the power of these men at their pleasure under the pretence of Religion contrarie to all justice to be deprived of any part of our freehold when we shall have not one man of our own calling to speak a word in our behalfe on no Seat of Justice throughout the whole Kingdom O terque quaterque beati queis ante ora patrum contigit oppetere O most miserable and lamentable condition of Gods Ministers I must needs speak it though I should die for it and if some did not speak it I thinke the stones would crie against it and proclaim it better for the Clergie were their hope onely in this world never to have been borne or at least never to have seen a book then to fall into the hands and to be put under the censure of these men that do thus love Christ This Act more prejudiciall to to the future times than now by hating his Ministers who as I said before by this one Act are made liable to undergo all kinde of evils which shall not onely fall upon the present Clergie for were it so our patience should teach us to be silent but also to the increase of all prejudices to the Gospell more than my foresight can expresse in all succeeding Ages And therefore I may well say with Jeremie Jer. 5.9.29 Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this And we need not wonder that such plagues calamities and distresses have so much encreased in this Kingdom ever since the passing of this Act and yet the anger of the Lord is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still and I fear his wrath will not be appeased till we have blotted this and wiped away all other our great sinnes and transgressions with the truest teares of unfained repentance These are like to be the consequences of this Act and yet our good King who we know loved our Nation and built us a Synagogue and was as I assure my selfe most unwilling to passe it was notwithstanding over-perswaded considering where thirteen of the Bishops were even in prison and in what condition all the rest of them stood in question whether all they should stand or be cut down root and branch to yield his assent unto the Act though if the case in truth were rightly weighed not much lesse prejudiciall to his Majestie than injurious to us to be thus deprived of our right How the King hath been used ever since this Act passed and exposed to all miseries by excluding us from all Civill Judicature and I would to God the King and all the Kingdom did continually consider how his Majestie was used ever since the confirmation of this Act for they no sooner had excluded the Bishops and Clergie out of their right but presently they proceeded and prosecuted the designe ever since to thrust out the King from all those just rights and prerogatives which God and nature and the Lawes of our Land have put into his hands for the government of this Kingdome neither was it likely to succeede any other wise as

Act of Pacification for their assistance to withstand their King and to overthrow our Church it is apparent to all the world how perfidiously they dealt with God and man and how treacherous their thoughts were from the beginning both to the King and Kingdom Yet as we found our Brethren of Scotland howsoever these men bevaved themselves in their secret intentions to have carried themselves none otherwise than as wise rationall and religious men in all the Treatie so I assure my selfe they will hereafter still continue both faithfull unto God and loyall unto their King and as they perceived not their intentions at the first so they will not now joyne with them in any Association of Rebellion to withstand their own Liege Lord and to change the established Lawes and Religion of our Kingdom but will rather live in peace and happinesse in their own Land than by forsaking their enjoyed quietnesse to involve themselves in the unhappinesse of a desperate War in another Countrey 2. 2. The compelling of all people to ●…ak their new ●amed Protestation After they had thus endeared themselves unto their Brethren of Scotland they framed a Protestation to maintain and defend as farre as lawfully they might with their lives powers and estates the True Reformed Protestant Religion his Majesties Royall Person honour and estate the power and priviledges of Parliament the lawfull rights and liberties of the Subjects and every person that should make the same Protestation in whatsoever he should do in the lawfull pursuance of the same and to their power and as farre as lawfully they might to oppose and by all good wayes and meanes endeavour to bring to condigne punishment all such as shall either by force practise counsels plots conspiracies or otherwise * Which word is like the c. in the Canonical Oath do any thing to the contrary of any thing in the said Protestation contained and neither for fear hope nor other respect to relinquish this promise vow and protestation In which Protestation though no man can espie the least shadow of ill prima facie at the first reading thereof yet if you look further and search narrowly into the intentions of the composers the frame of the Protestation and the practise of these Protestors ever since the framing of it you shall finde that Desinit in piscem mulier formosa supernè these men are no Changelings but as like themselves as ever they were for 1. As it was intended so it succeeded 1. To terrifie the Papists and to raise a rebellion in Ireland it terrified the Papists and made them so desperate as almost to despair of their very being as concerning the place where or the manner how they should live which thing together with many other harsh and hard proceedings against many of them and the small countenance which they shewed unto a very moderate Petition that the Papists exhibited unto them hath driven abundance of them into Ireland whom I saw my selfe and there consulting with the Irish which were then also threatened by the Agents of this faction there that ere long they should be severely handled and brought to the Church whether they would or no or pay such a mulct as should make them poor what course they should take in such a desperate condition wherein they were all like to be ruined or to be rooted out of all the Kings Dominions they concluded what they would do to defend themseves by a plain Rebellion So this course against them hath been the leading card as some of them confessed of that great Rebellion which being kindled as some Sectaries in England expected they thought they would so much the more weaken the King by how much the more combustion should be raised in each one of his Dominions and therefore notwithstanding all the Kings gracious Messages and wishes unto the House of Commons which I wish all men would remember how affectionately he desired it to hasten to releeve that bleeding Kingdom yet still they protracted and neglected their redresse and at last passed such Votes made such Orders and procured such Acts as rather respected themselves and their posteritie to get all the land and goods of the Rebels to themselves that were the Adventurers than the relieving of us that were distressed and would as I told some of the House of Commons rather increase the Rebellion than any wayes quench that destroying flame And this was as it succeeded and as you see hereby most likely intended a most detestable plot for the kindling of that Rebellion and continuing of that bloody War in Ireland without which they knew this Rebellion in England could never have gained so much strength as it hath 2. 2. To gaine all Sectaries to their side By their large expression of what religion they protested to defend not the Protestant religion as it is established by Law and expressed in the 39 articles of the Church of England but as it is repugnant to popery and taught perhaps by Burton Burges Goodwin Burrowes or the like Amsterdamian schismatickes they opened the gap so wide and made Heaven gate so broad that all Brownists Anabaptists Socinians Familists Adamites and all other new England brood and outlandish Sectaries what soever that opposed popery might returne home and joyne with them as they have done since to overthrow our established Church and state And this plot to increase their own strength was as craftily don and is as Detestable as the other which to weaken the King in England caused a rebellion in Ireland 3. 3. To descry their owne strength By their illegall compelling and forcible inducing of all the people in the Kingdome to take the same or to be adjudged ill affected and popish and after the Lords had rejected the imposing of it they by their Declaration which shewed that what person soever would not take it was unfit to beare office either in Church or Common wealth prevailed in this plot so that they descried the number of their owne party they understood their own strength and they perceived thereby many things which they knew not before for now they had with David numbred Israel and so far as the wit and policy of the Devill had instructed them they had searched into the secrets of all hearts 4. 4. To insnare all the simpler sort to adhere unto them Having compelled the people to take it they have hereby insnared all the simpler sort and tender consciences to sticke unto them when they tell them and presse it upon their soules that they have made a Protestation to maintaine the priviledges of Parliament and the Liberty of the Subject and therefore they are bound to adhere to the Parliament to the uttermost of their power and so by this equivocall Protestation they have seduced thousands into their Rebellion and led them blindfold unto destruction Butto let you see not the syncerity of their hearts The mystery of their iniquity but the mystery

and can hardly believe the Christian world in any age no not under the Gothes and Vandales can parallel it with an example of like abominable and atheisticall villanies yet to this day uncensured and I am heartily sorry that it should be told in Gath or Ascalon in any forraigne Nation that our English People should have any such Sect amongst them so void of all humanitie so destitute of all thoughts of a Deitie and so full of all incredible impieties And therefore I must use the words of the Prophet Jeremie Ier. 5.9.29 Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord or shall not my soule be avenged on such a Nation as this or is it any wonder that there are such Warres such bloody Warres such barbarous rapines and that these miseries do still continue amongst us when we not onely proceed to commit but also to defend and justifie these and the like abominable wickednesse Rom. 1.32 Heb. 10.31 and have pleasure in them that doe them for it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God 5. 5. Branded the true Protestants and advanced Anabaptists Under the colour of advancing the true Protestant Religion they have branded the best Protestants even those that have most learnedly both preached and written against the Church of Rome and all her erroneous tenets and were not long since registred in the classe of Puritanes and for that cause kept under water for Papists and superstitiously Popish and so Malignants and opposers of the true to be established Religion and they have encouraged and promoted to the Livings and Livelihoods of the most Orthodox and Canonicall men Anabaptists and Brownists and other Sectaries of most desperate opinions that as Saint Bernard saith of the like Multiplicati sunt super numerum as the Caterpillers overspread all the Land of Egypt so these are multiplied in every corner without number and these tares have almost choaked all the Wheat in Gods field and do preach most desperate Doctrines destructive both to themselves their proselytes and all the truest Protestants throughout all this Kingdom when as Sedition and rebellion besides their other damnable Doctrines condemned by the Church must ever be at one end of their Sermons and published in their Pamphlets as for instance you may finde in the bloody bookes and firie writings of the darling Secretaries of thered Dragon that warreth against the Saints Stephen Marshall Master Bridges Jo. Goodwin Burroughes and the rest of the Locusts * Qua glomerantur in unum innumera pestes Erebi Claud. that are sent out of the bottomlesse pit to seduce the People of God and to lead them headlong unto perdition But let me advise the Servants of Christ to remember their Saviours words To beware of false Prophets Matth. 7.15 they shall deceive many and many love to be deceived by them those whom God hath given up That they should believe a lye 2 Thess 2.10 Qui infatuati seducuntur seducti judicabuntur but you that desire to escape their snares may know them by their fruits The Authours advice which are Rebellion against their King and rayling against their Governours Perjurie against God by the breaches of those Oathes which in the face of the Church they have taken both to the King and to their Superiours Three notes by which we may know the false Apostles and a wilfull perverting of the sacred Scriptures to the perdition of their Proselytes besides many other bitter fruites that worse than any Aconite are able to poyson any Christian soul that do but taste of their Philtra's or if you will believe these Apples of Sodom to be as sweet as they seem fair then remember by what markes the Prophets and Apostles tell us that we may know them 1. 1. Note Jer. 23.21 Such as run before they be sent as Weavers Tailors and the like that never had any calling or Authoritie to enter upon this sacred Function 2. They went from us but are not of us 2. Note 1 Iohn 2.19 such as were called but then forsook their first love and apostated from the Church and like ungracious children did throw dirt in their mothers face or like the brood of Vipers do labour to gnaw out her bowels and here let the world judge whether we went from them or they from us whether we or they apostated from that Oath and profession which all and every one of us did make when we entered into holy Orders 3. These false Prophets saith the Apostle 3. Note 2 Tim. 3 6 Gen. 3.1.6 do lead simple or silly women captives just as their Master first seduced Eve and she Adam so do these and because they have lesse worth than can attain to the height of their ambition you may see most of them by women raised to great fortunes and their pride disdaineth to be obedient or if they fail of such wives yer are they swelled with envie which is as rebellious in these as pride is in the other 6. Under the pretence of making our Clergie more spirituall and Apostolike 6. Ordered to take away all the revenues of the most worthy Clergie they have voted away most of our temporall estate the Lands and Lordships of the Bishops Deanes and Prebends and the Pluralities of those persons that possessed double Benefices and made their Order that no man should pay any rent or any dues unto any of the fore-named persons And by this taking away the free-hold of the Clergie now in present which they hold with as good right and by the same Law as the best Lord in England holdeth his Inheritance and this discouragement of Learning for the time to come they thought to make our Clergie Angelicall but have proved themselves I will not say diabolicall but most injurious unto the Church of Christ by committing an Act of as great injustice and as prejudiciall to the Common-wealth as can be found among the Pagans for what can be more unjust or more inhumane than to take away my Livelihood which is my very life in mine old age without any offence of mine for which I had laboured all the dayes of my life And what consequence can this produce than that which succeeded in the like case in Jeroboams time Sublatis studiorum praemiu ipsa studia pereunt C. Tacit. 1 R●g 12.31 Matth. 15.14 when he robbed the Priests and Levites of their inheritance ignorance and barbaritie and the basest of the people to be the Preachers of Gods Word whereby the blinde do leade the blinde untill both do fall into the ditch as I can testifie some of our greatest Nobilitie intended to make their sonnes Priests and Bishops while the glorie of Israel and the beautie of our Church remained un-obscured and now contempt and povertie being enacted and ordered to be their portion those resolutions are vanished and the Vniversities can bear me witnesse the lowest Gentrie are not so

so truly religious and void of hypocrisie in their profession as she most gracious Queene is in her religion then they say the Bishops are all Papists Deanes and Prebends are of the same stampe and all the Kings Chapleines that were preferred by the Archbishop were either close papists or profest Arminians which are but Cosen germanes unto the other Arminianism being but a bridge to passe over unto popery And with these and the like false slanders against the King Queene and Clergy they so bewitehed most of their well meaning brethren of the same house and amazed all the simplet sort of people of this Kingdome with these feares and filled them with such jealousies with those pamphlets that they caused to be printed and dispersed every where that they were at their wits end for feare of this lamentable alteration of their religion and deprivation of their liberties 2 2. The Cure The disease being thus spread like a gangrene over all the parts of the body of this Kingdome they like skilfull Physitians devise the cure and that is the preparation of a Militia and this militia they would have put into such hands as they pleased such as they might confide in and I wish the whole Kingdome knew who those men were and who they are that they doe confide in for I know 1. Some of them are poore men of most desperate fortunes if bankrupters may be termed such 2. Others to be most factious and scismaticall men addicted to Anabaptisme and Brownisme and other worser sects as amongst the London Commanders Ven Manwaring Fawlke Norington Bradly Bast and the rest whereof there are twise as many schismaticall and as it is conceived beggarly sectaries as are right honest men among them and if we looked among their Lords and all the rest of their nomination throughout the Kingdome I doubt we shall find some of them to be just of the same condition And because the King to whose care and trust God had committed all the people of this Kingdom and not to them that are called by the King and chosen only by men and that only for this time and of whom he will require an account of the lawes and religion whereof he made him keeperand defender and not of them thought most rightly that this Militia should be commited rather to such men as he might confide in as it was in the raigne of Queene Elizabeth and His Father of ever blessed memory rather than to any that they should name which was to disrobe himselfe of all his regall power of the chiefest garland of his royall prerogatives without which he could hold his Crown by no better a tenure then durante beneplacito and to put the sword out of his owne hand into the hands of them that could not love him because they could not trust him as they alleaged and what reason had he to trust them that were causelesly so distrustfull of him they startled at this deniall And because the King of heaven had by this time opened the Kings eyes God openeth the Kings eyes to let him see what hitherto he could hardly imagine that these men to whom he had granted for the good of his Kingdome so many acts of grace and favour as never any King of England did before and had very graciously offered to commit to the hands of their owne choosing so large a share of the Militia as might have rendered the whole Kingdome most secure if security in a iust and legall way had beene all that they sought for had their intentions far otherwise then they pretended and that not only the government of the Church was intended to be altered and the governours thereof destroyed but himself also was hereby disrobed of those rights which God and the lawes of the land had put into his hands and the Kingdome brought either into a base tyranny or confused anarchie when all things shall be done according to the arbitrary power of these factious and schismaticall men therefore he utterly refused to grant their desires and most wisely withstood their designe Whereupon these men put their heads together How they strengthened themselves to make their ordors firm with out the king to consult how they might strengthen themselves and make their ordinances firme and binding without the King and to that purpose having by their former doings gotten too great an interest as well in the faith as in the affections of the people in confidence of their owne strength they came roundly to the businesse and what they knew was not their right as their former Petitions can sufficiently witnesse they resolve to effect the same by force but as insensibly as they can devise as 1. To seize upon the Kings Navie to secure the Seas 2. To lay hold upon all the Kings Magazin Forts Townes and Castles 3. To with-hold his moneyes and revenues and all other meanes from the King 4. To withdraw the affections and to poyson the loyalty of all his Majesties Subjects from him And hereby they thought and it must have beene so indeed Psa 30 6 except the Lord had beene on his side they had made their hill so strong that it could not be moved and the King so weake and destitute of all meanes that he could no wayes subsist or relieve himselfe as a member of their owne House did tell me for 1. 1 Earl of Warw●ck made vice Admirall They get the Earle of Warwicke to be appointed Vic-admirall of the Sea and to commit all the Kings Navie into his hand and to take away that charge from Sir Iohn Pennington whom most men believed to be farre the better Sea-man but more faithfull to his King and the other purer to the Parliament 2. 2 Sir Iohn Hotham put to Hull for the Magazine They fend Sir John Hotham a most insolent man that most uncivilly contemned the King to his face to seize upon the Kings Magazine that he bought with his own money when they might as well take away my horse that I paid for and to keepe the King out of Hull which was his owne proper Towne and therefore might as well have kept him out of White-hall and was an act so full of injustice as that I scarce know a greater 3. 3 They detained the kings moneys Esay 1 23. Because moneyes are great meanes to effect any worldly affaire and the sinews of every warre when as men and armes and all other necessaries may be had for money some of them and their followers shew themselves to be just as the Peeres of Israel companions of thieves meere robbers which forcibly take away a mans money from him they take all the Kings treasure they intercept detaine and convert all the Kings revenues and customes to strengthen themselves against the King 4. Because their former Remonstrances framed by this faction 4 They labour to render the king odious by lyes of the ill government of this Kingdome though in some things

veritatis occidi We conceive this to be so execrable an act and so odious to God and man that we are made thus miserable and abused beyond measure to have our Religion which is most glorious our Laws that in their own nature are most excellent The miserable consequences of their wicked doings 1 Mischiefe and our Liberties that make us as free as any Subjects in the World under false pretences and the shadows of religion lawes and liberties to be eradicated and fundamentally destroyed whereby 1. We are made a spectacle of scorne 1. Mischiefe and the object of derision to our neighbour Nations that formerly have envied at our happinesse and we are become the subject of all pitty and lamentation to all them that love us 2. As in the Roman civill wars in the time of Metellus 2. Mischife the the son did kill his own Father so now by the subtilty of this faction we are cast into such a war as is 1. A most unnaturall War the son against the Father and the Father against the Son the Earle of Warwick fighteth for the Parliament and my Lord Rich his Son is with the King the Earle of Dover is with the King and my Lord Rochford his Sonne with the Parliament so one brother against another as the Earle of Northumberland with the Parliament and his brother with the King the Earle of Bedford with the Parliament and his brother with the King Master Perpoiat with the Parliament and the Earle of Newark with the King Devoreux Farmer with the parliament and his brother Thomas farmer together with his brother in law my Lord Cockain with the King and the like and of Cosens without number the one part with the King and the other with the parliament and if they doe this in subtilty to preserve their estate I say it is a wicked policy to undoe the kingdom which all wise men should consider 2. A most irreligious war when one Christian of the same professed religion shal bath his Sword and wash his hands in the bloud of his fellow Christian and his fellow protestant that shal be coheire with him of the same Kingdome 3. A most unnaturall irreligious and barbarous Warre when the Subject shall shal take Armes to destroy or unthrone their owne liege a Religious and most gracious King 3. 3 Mischiefe The Service of God in most Churches is neglected when almost all the ablest gravest and most O thodox Divines and Preachers are persecuted plundered imprisoned and driven to fly as in the time of the Arian or Donatist which was worse than the heathen persecution from City to City to wander in Desarts from place to place to save themselves from the hands of these Rebels against the King and persecuters of Gods Church which is a most grievous and a most cruell persecution far more generall than that of the Anabaptists in Germany or of Queene Mary here in England the Lord of Heaven make us constant and give us patience to indure it 4. 4 Mischiefe The whole Kingdome is and shall be yet more by the continuance hereof unspeakably impoverish'd and plunged into all kind of miseries when the I'ravailer cannot passe without feare nec hospes ab hospite tutus the Carrier cannot transport his commodity but it shall be intercepted the Husbandman cannot till his ground but his horses as my selfe saw it shall bee taken from the Plough and his Corne shall bee destroyed when it is ready for the Sickle which must be the fore-runner of a famine that is ever the Usher to introduce the Plague and Pestilence and all other kind of grievous Diseases and these things put together doe set wide our gates and open our ports to bring forraigne foes into our Coasts to possesse that good Land whereof we are unworthy because with the Israelites we loathed Manna we were weary of our peace and happinesse we would buy armes and be voluntiers and every Town being too wanton would needs traine and put themselves into a posture of defence as they termed it to be secured from their owne shadows and though the King told them often there was no cause of their Jealousies and therefore forbade these disloyalties yet just like the Jewes they were willing to be deceived by this miserable faction that contrived that Act whereby they have persidiously over-reached both our good King and the rest of our wel-meaning brethren either to perfect their designe or else to make themselves perpetuall Dictators and to betray the felicity of all our people under the name of Parliament which though as I said before I honour and love as much as any of the truest Patriots of either House both in the institution and the right prosecution thereof that is as it was constituted to be the great Councell of the Kingdome graciously called by his Majesties writ considently to present the grievances of the people and humbly to offer their advice and counsels for their reformation yet I doe abhorre those men that would abuse the word Parliament only as a stalking-Horse to destroy all Acts of Parliament and I hate to see men calling the fanatique actions of a few desperate seditious persons the proceedings of Parliament and others making an Idol of it as if their power were omnipotent or unlimited and more than any regall power their judgement infallible their Orders irreprehensible and themselves unaccountable for their proceedings to be so besotted with the name of it that this bare shadow without the substance for it is no Parliament without the King and the Major part of both houses is either banished or imprisoned Ingeniosus ad blasphemiant or compelled to reside with his Majesty should so bewitch us as Master Smith blushed not to say nothing could free us from our dangers but the Divinity of a Parliament out of our owne happinesse to become more miserable then heretofore this Kingdome hath ever beene by any civill War for if you will consider the Treasons and rebellions the injustice cruelty and inhumanity the subtilty hypocrisie lying swearing blasphemy prophanesse and Sacriledge in the highest pitch and many other the like fearefull sins that have been committed since the beginning of this Parliament by the sole meanes of this faction and observe the ill acts that have beene used by them to compasse things lawfull and the wicked acts that have beene daily practised to procure things unlawfull when by bloud and rapine and the curses of many fatherlesse and widowes they have gotten the Treasures of the Kingdome and the wealth of the Kings loyall Subjects into their hands and wasted it so that their wants are stil as notorious as their crimes wee may admire the miracles of Gods mercy and the bottomlesse depth of his goodnesse that the stones in the streets have not risen against them or the fire from Heaven had not consumed these Rebels that thus far and thus insolently had tempted Gods patience and provoked him to

anger with such horrible abominations 5. The fifth mischiefe As Jerusalem justified Samaria so this Faction hath just fied all the Romanists and shewed themselves worse Christians lesse Subjects and viler Traitors than all the Papists are for these facticus rebels justifie their Rebellion and to the indeleble shame of their profession they maintain that it is not only lawfull but that it is their duty to bear Armes and to w●ge War against their King when the King doth abuse his power whereas the Doctrine of the Church of Rome * Christopherson tract contr rebell Rhemist in Nov. Test p. 301. Goldastus de Monarchia S. Imper. Rom. to 3. Dr. Kellison in his Survey Aquin de Regim Princip c. 6. Concil Constan Sess 15. Stephan Cantuar. Ando 8. H. 3. Tolet. in summa l. 5. c. 6. Gr. Valentia p. 2. q. 64. Bellar. Apol. c. 13. Lessins l. 2. c. 9. Serrarius Azorius c. utterly denieth the same and concludes them no Children of the Church that do it and Doctour Kellison giveth this reason for it because Faith is not necessarily required to Jurisdiction or Government neither is authority lost by the losse of Faith therefore it is not lawfull for any Subjects to rebel against their King though their King should prove a Tyrant or should apostate from the Faith of Christ so that now the Papists boast they are better Subjects than these rebellious protestants and therefore I fear that this Faction Defendens Christum verso mucrone cecîdit By their unjust defigne to propagate the Gospell have most grievously wounded the Faith of Christ and given a more deady blow to the protestant religion than ever it had since the reformation when it is impossible that the true religion should produce rebellion And therefore seeing we are free borne Subjects and persons interessed in the good and safety of this Kingdome as well as any of them we must crave liberty to expresse our grievances and to crave redresses and seeing my selfe am called to be a Preacher of Gods Word and a Bishop over many of the soules of my brethren for which I must render an account to my God both for my silence when I should speake and speaking any thing that should not be spoken I resolved to feare my God and neither out of flattery to the King and his party nor out of hatred or malice to those factious men but as I am perswaded in my conscience fully satisfied and guided by Gods Truth to set forth this discoverie of these mysteries what danger soever I shal undergoe and if I shal become their enemy for speaking truth I shal fare no worse than S. Paul did and it shal be with them if they doe not repent as it was with the Israelites Ezek. 7 25 27. When their destruction commeth they shal seeke peace and shal not have it but calamitie shal come upon calamitie CHAP. XV. Sheweth a particular recapitulation of the Reasont whereby their Designe to alter the Government of the Church and State is evinced and a patheticall disswasion from Rebellion ANd thus I have set down not any thing to render these men more odius then they are If I have beere mis-informed of any thing that shall appeare false I shall not blush to retract it by an ingenious confession or to abuse my Reader with falshood or uncertainties but to report what I knew and what I collected out of the present writings of best credit and attested by men of known truth and integrity whereby it is most apparent to any discerning eye that the faction of Anabaptists and Brownists and some other of the subtillest heads in the House of Commons had from the first convention of this Parliament secretly projected this designe and insensibly to the rest of their wel-meaning brethren prosecuted the same to alter and change the ancient government both of the Church and Kingdom which the author of Sober sadnesse proveth by these subsequent reasons Sober Sadnes p. 44 45 46. as for the first 1. By suspending all Ecclesiasticall lawes and censures Their designe to change the Church Government proved 4 waies which indulgence of all vices hath drawn all offendours to comply with them 2. By setting the people on worke to petition against the present Government and the Service of the Church 3. By the Bill concluded for the abolishing of our Government 4. By the chiefe persons countenanced and employed by them in that businesse who are Anabaptists and Brownists and all sorts of Sectaries he evinceth their designe to change our our Church Government and to convert the patrimony of the Church which our religious Ancestors dedicated for the advancement of Gods worship not to establish learning and a preaching Ministery as they pretended but to dis-ingage their publique faith which otherwise would never prove a saving faith And I wish there might be none about His Majesty that pretending great loyalty unto him doe comply with them herein and either to raise or to secure their owne fortunes would perwade S. Paul to part with S. Peters keyes so he may still hold the sword in his hand or to speake more plainly to purchase the peace of the Common-wealth with the ruine of Gods Church but for this let me be bold 1. To crave leave to tell His Majesty it was not His sword that hath brought him from a flying Prince out of Westminster and as yet unsecured at Nottingham to be a victorious King at Edge-hill and immediately to be the terrour of all the Rebels in London but it was God whose Church and Church Service he defended that protected him hitherto and gave him the victory in battaile and let him be assured that he which is yea and amen wil be his shield and buckler stil to defend him from the strivings of his people and to subdue them that rise against him while he defendeth them whose eyes next under God are onely fixt on him to be as God hath promised their nursing father 2 To assure those that would suffer the Church to fall or perhaps sell the same out of a by-respect unto themselves that taking their rise from the fall of the Church or laying the foundation of their houses in the ruine of the Clergy they doe but build upon the sands whence they shal fall and their fall shal be great 1 Reg. 16.34 ●…sh 6.26 when the successe thereof shal be as the successe of the City of Iericho that was built by Hiel who laid the foundation of it in Abiram his first borne and set up the gates thereof in Segub his youngest sonne and had her destiny described by Joshua and all the possessions that they shall get shall prove Acheldama's fields of blood and we hope God will raise deliverance to his Church from some better men when as they and their fathers house shall all perish and shall stink in the nostrils of all good men for their perfidiousnesse in Gods cause But if any man