THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. A View of the Fanatick Faction of England As also the Ends and Reasons of publishing these Papers in these Times Pag. 1. CHAP. II. A Brief of the divers Ends in desiring to have this Parliament called Of the true Cause of the Contempt and Hatred of the Clergy among the People and what makes the Churches differences irreconcileable p. 3. CHAP. III. What use the Fanaticks have made of Parliaments and the ways whereby that Faction in this Parliament and Kingdom have endeavoured to make the Clergy contemptible and odious to the people p. 8. CHAP. IV. The Fanaticks Arts of framing Accusations to the Parliament against the Clergy and their manner of proving their Charges p. 12. CHAP. V. A View of the New Judges of the thus accused Clergy Their condition and their judging of Doctrines in their Committees for Religion De facto de jure p. 17. CHAP. VI. The Censures of these Judges against the Clergy and the true Reason thereof p. 21. CHAP. VII Of Parliamentary changes in Religion Of the Policy and ways for the destruction of Religion by this Parliament wrought by the long conspiracy and combination of the Fanaticks of England here laid open p. 26. CHAP. VIII A concluding Parallel between the Popish Persecution in Q. Mary's time and this Fanatical Persecution p. 35. PERSECVTIO VNDECIMA Or The CHURCHES Eleventh Persecution Being a Brief of the Fanatick Persecution OF THE PROTESTANT CLERGY OF THE Church of England More particularly within the City of LONDON Begun in Parliament Anno Dom. 1641. And Printed in the Year 1648. But they mocked the messengers of God and misused his Prophets till the wrath of God arose against his people and there was no remedy II. Chron. chap. 36. vers 16. Re-Printed in the Year 1681. And are to be sold by Walter Davis in Amen-Corner near Pater-Noster-Row CHAP. I. A View of the Fanatick Faction of England As also the End and Reasons of publishing these Papers in these Times WHat miseries the Fanatick Faction so long lying like the Canaanites as Thorns in the sides of our Israel would bring upon this Nation England wanted not Ezechiels Watchmen to foretel and the Story of these Times hath proved their Prophesies wanted no Truth but Quos perdere vult Jupiter eos dementat prius Otherwise it were strange to think that of two Factions viz. Papists and Fanaticks mortally hating each other distinctly incorporated from the Church of England and both of them destructive to it the one like cunning Pick-pockets should set the Eyes of the people so busily to look after the Religion of the other and in the mean time rob them of their own and by the same Principles like Firebrands in the Tails of Sampsons Foxes looking divers ways alike endanger the Established Religion The one Faction was made most odious to the people the other seemed most Religious and the due execution of Penal Laws against Popish Recusants hath been accounted Zeal and Justice but any legal Penalties inflicted on Fanatick Recusants was cryed down for Cruelty and Tyranny and made the Judges reproach nor would the people endure to hear the name of Fanatick Dissenters mentioned in a Pulpit which now to drown together with their own folly in countenancing or non-conceiving the Fanaticks designs the more Loyal Party have invented the new name of Round-head the Nobility Gentry and generally all sorts of people accounting the Fanatick Faction a simple inconsiderate Party well meaning People tender Conscienced Christians such as deserved pity rather than punishment little remembring our Saviours Caveat against Wolves in Sheeps clothing which in Demosthenes Fable laying all the breach of publick Peace between them and the Sheep upon the Dogs which were set to watch the Sheep-folds till the seduced Sheep for quietness sake delivering up their Keepers for a Sacrifice to the Wolves too late found their own Folds exposed to such danger as Wisdom might have easilier prevented than it could afterward remedy What else have the causeless clamours of the Fanaticks meant for this many years against the Bishops and the Clergy of England who in our Saviours phrase of Pasce oves watched over the Flock of Christ but to smite the Shepherd that so the Sheep might be scattered Like that of Tully Civium perditorum scelere pulsus à Delubris is qui illa servarat Religionum Jura polluta in Larium sedibus edificatum est Templum licentiae And what havock hath been made among the Sheep since the City-Fanatick-Tumults cryed out No Bishops and armed Fury hath forced thousands of the Clergy from their Flocks the almost Ruines of the Church and of three Kingdoms sufficiently witnesses a just Judgement of God upon a People long contending with their Priests and mocking and mis-using the Prophets and Messengers of God till like the Jews the wrath of God fell upon them and there was no remedy and all this vengeance executed by a generation of Vipers eating out the Bowels of their Mother Church and Country wherein they have long lurked stiling themselves for above twenty years last past I can witness the only people of God the Meek of the Earth Christs little Flock Weak Brethren crying out against Bloud-thirsty Papists for taking up Arms against Kings and Princes and who but those Fanaticks the devout observers of the Fifth of November their only Holy-day in hatred of the Gunpowder Treason though that Gunpowder was never carried in Bandaliers and fired in the Face of the King for the safety of his Person and their daily Sermons were against Persecution yet now themselves weak Christians till so well Arm'd are become the only and most bloody Persecutors having slain more thousands of Protestants in England under colour for fighting for the Protestant Religion than Queen Mary condemned Scores within the like compass of years The truth is the Fanaticks of England have long conceited themselves to be the only people of God like the Jews and a man might swear by their Actions they are Jews indeed and not Christians and all other men not of their Tribe to be the wicked of the World and Gods Enemies Egyptians and Amalekites That so whatever favour was done to any of their Faction they thought themselves nothing beholden to any man for it but they would say God Decreed them to do it so that they could do no otherwise and what ever Justice was done to any of their Tribe was accounted cruelty and persecution of Gods people But whatever Injustice or Cruelty they acted upon their Neighbours better Christians in good sooth than themselves they called it Justice and Zeal for Gods Glory fulfilling Gods Decree and can in their Canting Language the Language of Canaan as they stiled their abusing of Scripture phrase flatter themselves that they must wash their Feet in the Blood of the ungodly and binding Kings in Chains and their Nobles with Links of Iron sit smiting their fellow Servants and fellow Subjects against
Doctrines and Disciples Indeed to divide the Church-lands amongst their Tribe as the pretence was of taking away the Bishops Lands to maintain preaching Ministers and to invade other Mens Livings and to have the sole Government of the Church in their Hands this is that which they call setting up of Jesus Christ in his Throne the World now see what their aim was at first in calling this the Parliament of their Prayers 5. All sorts of Sectaries in England were earnest for this Parliament because they had conspired to pack it for their Designs against the King and the Church as hereafter will be shown 6. The Common Lawyers pleaded for a Parliament that themselves might snatch an Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction into their Courts to advance their Law above the Gospel as they have done crying up their Idol-Law to be above the King a Creature above his Creator then what are the Lawyers who have the Law in their own Hands the Breast of the Judge or the Breast of the Court as they phrase it is the supreme Power And truly for these many years last past have the Lawyers enslaved both King and People by the Charm of Law Law 7. The Country People generally fancied that a Parliament would free them from paying of Tythes which produced several Petitions to that purpose from several Counties 8. All sorts of Trades and Companies in London hoped for Iome encrease of their Trading if a Parliament were called and yet who more crying out against Monopolies and Patents than these Citizens Who are the greatest Monopolilizers in this Kingdom and scarce any Incorporation in London but had some Petition ready for this Parliament with confidence that nothing must be denied for the advance of Trade And all sorts of People dreamed of an Vtopia and Infinite Liberty especially in Matters of Religion nay scarce any man but had some Design of Private Interest excep the Ancient Orthodox Clergy who foresaw what a Misery the heighth of a Faction would bring on the Church by a Parliament And yet after 5 years Sitting in this so Idolized Parliament no sorts of men but have missed their Ends their Ministers especially verifying that Prophesie of Dr. Bancroft For all the Outcries that Church-Livings might be employed to the Maintenance of Eldership well may they procure in some other Age the further impoverishing of the Church but they shall be sure to be little the better for it And generally instead of being eased of their Grievances they have been plagued by this Parliament as by the Flagellum Dei a Rod of their own making to scourge this Land for their murmuring against Moses and Aaron their Contempt of the King and the Priest into which Crying Sin an Hypocritical Faction hath been long drawing this People by wounding the King through the sides of the Church as knowing well that if they could destroy Monarchy in the Church Episcopal Government in England being indeed the King 's Spiritual Militia and that most povverful as commanding the Consciences of Subjects by planting in Rebellion for Religion they should soon vveaken the Povver of the King 's Temporal Militia as vvoful Experience hath taught us this made the Masters of the Faction alvvays set up the Church as the Butt and the Bishops Sleeves as the White chiefly aimed at by all sorts of People to shoot their Bolts against that to have the Bovv ready bent and the Quiver full of sharp Arrovvs even bitter vvords against the Church grevv to be the only Wisdom and Religion in fashion O ye scandalous Clergy and O ye bringers in of Popery was the belching of every open mouth when the greater sort had deeply swallowed other manner of Gall for which they took up the common cry against the Clergy only to colour their deadly Spleen bred upon Temporal Distempers which the world takes no publick notice of as yet but were the true causes of the Contempt and hatred of the Clergy among this Generation whereby the Fanatick Faction very inconsiderable for Number drew multitudes who hated their by-ways in Religion to their assistance The first and main Engine buzzed into the people long before this Parliament was That the Bishops and the Clergy were the Instruments for the Kings intended Tyranny the common saying in Terminis was that the Clergy are all for the King that is the Clergy seeing your Fanatick Spirit of Darkness working in the Children of Disobedience would by their Preaching to fear God and the King according to the Scriptures have prevented the ruines which they foresaw this Faction would and now have brought upon this Kingdom to this purpose what a fiery pair of multiplying Spectacles did the Faction put on the Noses of the people furiously looking on Dr. Manwarings Sermon till the Face of the Body Politick began to fire in a former Parliament not quenched even to the beginning of this but continually kindled against him and some others not above three more Divines who preached the Kings Prerogative like Divines if Scripture which they so cry up for their own ends in 1 Sam. 8. or the practice of the Kings of Judah may be Judge more than the Supremacy of the Lawyers would brook or the jealous Worshippers of Meum and Tuum in England could endure should be true This was the kindle-coal that the Faction bellowsed to that flame that must consume not only those particular men but even the whole Clergy Root and Branch as in Scotland the Feud of some discontented Lords against some particular Bishops vowed revenge on the whole Church this fire of malice was the fire from Heaven which confirmed their Covenant and made it the pattern in the Mount for Englishmen to follow This added to the name Baals Priests and such other reproaches of the Clergy among the Fanaticks the new Scoff of Cesans Friends This made the popular Earl of Essex say in this Parliament that he never knew but one Bishop in Parliament stand up for the good of the Commonwealth the old phrase of Rebellion and when Nat. Fiennes made Speeches in Parliament and printed them with the Title of unparallel'd Reasons to shew that Episcopacy was an Enemy to Monarchy the Lord Say his Father and Godfather to the Fanatick Faction printed a Speech That the Bishops were too much for the King and therefore were to be thrown out of the Parliament the most applauded Speech amongst the Commonvvealth party vvhose sense it spoke out to the full and vvas the Core of the Canker bred in them against the Church and unto this score do the Clergy ovve their eight years persecution and their continued Banishment from their Livings for fear they should preach the people novv undeceived into obedience to their King A second Cause vvas the sacrilegious thirsting after the Church-lands by some in this Land vvhose Grandfathers having svvallovved long Leases or perhaps some forged Deeds of Church-lands the Wax sticks still on the Childrens Stomachs that no vvonder
suffered to be Christian have so much Faith as to believe that in the face of a Christian Nation nay nay a pure Reforming Religious Christian Parliament the Ministers of Jesus Christ should be doomed to ruine for saying in effect Christianus suum See here a Catalogue of Crimes charged upon the Clergy collected out of the first Century authorized to be Published in Print by the Parliament Bowing at the name of Jesus Examples 33. 43. Setting up the name Jesus in the Church Ex. 72. 83. Preaching against Sacriledge Ex. 22. Bowing the Body in Gods House Ex. 7. Assisting the King and exhorting Subjects so to do Ex. 33. 43. Reading the Kings Proclamation in Churches according to the Kings Command Ex. 28. 34. 52. Appointing the 43. Psalm to be sung Ex. 29. Preaching against not coming to their own Parish Church Ex. 21. 35. 38. Reading and having Popish Books Ex. 88. 55. Seen in Company with Papists Ex. 88. It were endless to reckon particulars in this kind of Accusations as wearing the Surplice using Ceremonies praying for Bishops all now cryed down for Superstition and Popery But in every Petiton Malignancy against the Parliament was the Burden of the Song this indeed made any Doctrines to be censured Superstition and Popery a Crime would puzzle all the Divines and Lawyers in Christendom to expound were they Strangers to the Proceedings of this Faction this Malignancy being nothing else but for Subjects to be suspected of being constant in Religion towards God and Loyalty towards their King this is the unquestionable definition of Malignancy against the Parliament and what Christian much more a Clergy-man would plead not guilty to these objected Crimes or be ashamed of these condemned Popish Doctrines And when by these tricks they had cruelly committed many of the Clergy into noysome Prisons forcing others to fly the like cruelty by forsaking their Habitations and Estates their Wives and Children they sequestred them for non Residence first force them to fly and then to punish them for flying It 's pity to omit their pretty fashion of sequesting Mr. Freeman of London It is this day ordered by the Committee for plundered Ministers that all the Profit of James Garlick-hithe be sequstred into the Hands of c. from Mr. Freeman the present Incumbent till cause be shewn to the contrary O the excellent Justiceof the new Saints of the Reforming People of God! executed by Club-law and by the Sword of War which these weak Christians by the help of a mis-guided Commonwealth-Party have raised to empower themselves to force the Consciences of all men now themselves are grown so strong to a new Covenant the Fanaticks last Engine to ruine the Church and to destroy the Clergy Root and Branch A Solemn League and Covenant the Fanatick Antichristian Idol set up in the Temple of God hung up in all the Churches of London a Covenant like that in Isaiah with Death and an Agreement with Hell A Covenant made by the Fanaticks of two Nations in defiance to God and the King to the Destruction of the Religion of their own Mother Church and of all Loyalty to their King the Father of their Country A scandalous Covenant maliciously studied and laid for a meer Snare and Rock of Offence to the Estates and Consciences of the Clergy and People of God that Scandal in the Abstract Scandalum datum praebens proximo occasionem ruinae the proper work of the Devil insomuch that at a general Summons of the Gentry and remnant of the Clergy of the County of Surrey for the taking this Covenant some chief Actors of the Faction when they saw that with several Salvo's and Liberty to take it in any sence with mental Reservations and considerations that it was but a forced Oath and such like mincings many men and some of the Clergy loving this present World took the same said they were sorry to see some take it whose Estates they hoped to have caught by this Hook And although the Authors of the Covenant knew the Clergies greater Obligations than other men by Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy to the King and by Oaths of Canonical Obedience and by several Subscriptions upon Record to the present Church and by their stricter Tie of Conscience and greater knowledge of the Function of Episcopacy from whence themselves received their own Holy Order which from our Saviours and the Apostles days was without Interruption for 1500 years and still is continued in all Christian Churches where Rebellion started not the Scruple and the Sword ever since maintains the Heresie yet none were so much pressed and urged to take this Covenant in Terminis to destroy Bishops as were the Clergy and the refusal thereof was ipso facto loss of any Clergy-man's Livings and Livelyhood nay so barbarous were this Faction that their Committee for Composition at Goldsmiths Hall would not admit the Lord Bishop of Winchester lately deceased to compound for his sequestred Temporal Estate for no compounding for Spirituals is allowed but Sequestration is indeed Deprivation with these men unless he would take the Covenant and swear to destroy himself and his own sacred Function yet these were the men who have so cried out against Oaths ex officio and against forcing the Consciences of men and give this reason why the Liturgy must be taken away because it gave Offence to some mens Consciences and these are the men who cried down the Clergy for Innovations and now punish them because they will not move but as these Fanaticks have rigidly practised all those things which themselves so much abhorred teaching the World a new Art how to commit any villany securely by first railing against that Sin which they intend to commit so may they be a warning to all Christian Princes how they suffer the Church or State-Goverment to be spoken against be the pretence never so pious or seemingly Religious CHAP. V. A view of the New Judges of the thus accused Clergy their condition and their judging of Doctrines in their Committees for Religion de facto de jure HAving given the world a short view by which the rest may be guessed of the Fanaticks arts and tricks of making the Clergy their adversaries and inventing accusations against them whom as hainous Malefactors they have taken upon them to judge as they pretend by Law and by the Justice and Wisdom of the High Court of Parliament for Reformation of Religion it 's not unseasonable to shew the world a true Character of these great Judges in their personal Relations as well as their political capacity of judging de facto de jure And surely men who were strangers to the designs of this Faction would think by the high strains of publick Acts pretending Reformation of Religion there were some Oecumenical Counsel now sitting or at least some great Convocation of Grave and Learned Bishops and Clergy of England who were wont to have the judiciary power in Church-matters long before
any Parliaments were in England famous for their honest Lives and by their great knowledge able to judge not vote Religion up or down but O Tempora O Mores the Grave Bishops of the Church are by tumults driven from the Parliament the Convocation by subtelty of a pretended praemunire and by fury are cryed down hereby all the Clergy of England are silenced at one not any one Church-man admitted to consult or act in matters Ecclesiastical the Keys are snatched by violence from the Apostles hands to whom Christ gave them and are hung at the girdles of meer Lay-men most of them illiterate men assembled in Parliament a mixed multitude of all professions wherein as Sir Robert Naunton hath observed in King James's Raign since the Fanaticks began their Plot were 40 who never saw Twenty years of age and many such were chosen into the House of Commons yet upon any one of these Votes as Votes go now adays the peace and Religion of a Nation may depend But to give a just account casting out the most of the Nobility and about two hundred of the House of Commons men of greatest Estates therefore more like to seek the welfare of their Countrey than their own private interests which were driven from the House where they sate but as Cyphers and counting the multitudes of Tradesmen and Merchants of London and other Incorporations packed into this Parliament to carry a Vote besides the many Lawyers Mercenary men and most of them Recorders and so servants to Incorporations making Laws for themselves to get Money by together with a few engaged Knights and Gentlemen famous for hauking and for hunting after Lectures and Whore-houses many of them having sold off their Houses in the Countrey and took others at London to follow the Fanatical Plot more diligently and the sum of these make up the Fanatical Faction in the Parliament stiling themselves the Parliament of England And now the Souldiers by a counterfeit Seal have recruited the House with no small number of Colonels and Officers when indeed they have turned the Parliament out of doors and turned themselves Apostates in Religion and have shared the Lands of the Church to make themselves a fortune not to mention their vicious Lives which might make up truer Centuries nor their Hypocrisie Lyes and breaking of Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy yet these are the men usurping all power both of Church and State who are become the supream Heads of the Church and of all Church-matters which none of them ever understood yet these also parties have made themselves Judges of the Religion Doctrine Function and Estates of all the Clergy of England Miles Corbet the Recorder of Yarmouth who Indicted a man for a Conjurer and was urgent upon the Jury to condemn the party upon no proof but a Book of Circles found in his Study which Miles said was a Book of Conjuring had not a Learned Clergy-man told the Jury that the Book was but an old Almanack I have been present at a Committee for Religion consisting of five or six Tradesmen and Merchants of London and an ignorant Lawyer in the Chair yet these have judged Doctrines by whole sale executing Ecclesiastical jurisdiction in an high act viz. Absolving Ecclesiastical persons suspended by their Diocesan Bishop as it were in a parenthesis with an O yes Ye that will have these three Ministers of Wales I confess I have forgot their names to have Liberty and Licence to preach say I Ye that will not say no! Which being thrice repeated and answered I I these three suspended Ministers were by this Vote perfectly absolved no doubt In the mean time at this worshipful nay honourable Bar was a heavy complaint against a Grave Divine of Blasphemy which he had preached viz. That the Virgin Mary was the Mother of God and at a day appointed for Voting had not a Divine whispered some of these Committee-men had this Doctrine been Voted Blasphemy so easily might the sacred Ephesine Counsel have been condemned by this learned Committee for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and condemning Nestorius for Heresie and Elizabeth in the first of St. Luke should have been as guilty of Blasphemy for calling the Blessed Virgin the Mother of her Lord. And when a Reverend Doctor and Master of Jesus Colledge in Cambridge who was charged with Blasphemy at Sir Robert Harlows Committee for writing Honour God with thy substance on the Bason for Alms made answer by asking whether it was not rather Blasphemy in them to call a sentence of Scripture Blasphemy it was replyed by a boy-Member of that Committee Will ye suffer him meaning the Doctor to answer by questions At another time I heard one of these Committees cry out what a miserable condition these people were in who lived under such a Minister who as the Article was had preached that Original sin was washed away in Baptism which was there derided at as Popery In brief to never so true Doctrines the Chair-man saith they sit not there to dispute Up started Captain Ven a Tradesman of London and asked a Divine justifying at their Bar his Doctrine to be true and Orthodox did you preach these Doctrines answer I or no! whether they be true or false leave that to us to judge So the case standeth with the Divines of England let any ignorant hearer suppose an Apprentice Boy I have known it accuse any Clergy-man the gravest Doctor in Divinity of preaching Doctrines which the Boy thinks are false or Popish Doctrines to the House of Commons or Committees shall the Divine be sent for perhaps by a Pursivant justifie his Doctrine he must not though never so true the House supposeth it to be false erroneous Popish or scandalous because complained of answer he must did he preach it I or no Whether it be true or false they will not dispute hit or miss they will vote and that 's enough to make any Doctrine true or false Popish or scandalous and thereby to imprison the person of Christs Minister and to seize on his Estate to out him of all his Freehold and Livelihood and to spoil him of his goods O si tanta potestas sit stultorum sententiis ac jussis ut eorum suffragiis rerum natura vertatur cur non sanciunt ut quae mala sunt pro bonis habeantur yea so senslesly conceited have this Lay Parliament Parliamentum indoctorum been of themselves that some of them have said since they had read the Scriptures in English why should they not be able to judge of Divinity as well as the best Doctors And to have desired that Doctrines complained of in Petitions to these Lay-Committees might be referred to the Judgment of Learned Divines about London would have been taken for an high contempt of their Committee for Religion and of the power of Parliament as a Member of that Committee told one who made the Motion in private to him where such are become
having made the distinction between the Kings Prerogative and the Subjects propriety between Church and Common-wealth as well as between meum tuum among fellow-Subjects and were the Kingdom Elective as England was never yet well might that Roman Emperours Speech be applyed Vestrûm quidem erat eligere pòst autem meum est imperare vestrum est obedire But that all power of the Church in Doctrine and Discipline should be originally in the people that is the rude multitude is a new opinion framed by affection and made Religion by politick engagements only to serve the present designs for now the Fanatical Lecturers having obtained their ends against the Bishops by vox populi their own Doctrine dispute the power with their Lay-masters in Parliament who by their help getting the Sword and by that the strongest power are not like to forego the same upon Vox populi But did not violence so crowd up this Lay-Parliament and Committee for Religion that in their Chairs no room is left for Gods word to take place they might know that the Priests lips shall preserve knowledge and not the peoples lips and that by tying up the lips of the Priests Gods Law saith Deut. 17. v. 8. That man which shall do presumptiously and not hearken to the Priest shall dye Nor did the people teach the Apostles but surely the Apostles taught the people and Ruled over the people in Word and Doctrine since to them Christ gave the Keys Christus dedit non populus Otherways St. Pauls Rod was a meer brag and so was his jurisdiction the rest will I set in order when I come which also he commended to Timothy and Titus and the other Bishops and Deacons for governing the Church whereof the first Synod at Jerusalem consisted and to prevent the mistake of Lay-Elders in that Synod it 's said afterwards of Judas and Silas that they also were Prophets and of the Clergy were all general Counsels of Christendome made up to whom Constantine said judiciary power especially in Doctrines did belong and this was the established Law of the Christian world the benefit whereof St. Ambrose pleaded against Auxentius and it 's known upon such grounds Luther refused the judgment of the Emperours Court appealing to a Counsel concerning his Doctrine The word Presbyter almost Englishing itself Priest as was the Ecclesiastical sense of the word both in the New Testament and Ancient Writers both Christian and Heathen which Amianus Marcellinus a meer Historian describeth Christiani ritus Presbyter never Englished in the Grammatical sense till design translated it so in our English Testament and by those Translators never intended to be wrested to Lay-Elders as the non-Doctors of this Generation will have it to signifie But I forget my self that I dispute against a Sword and such Adversaries who told their King they sate not to be ruled by Presidents but to make Presidents to the world and truly they have been as good as their word But I hope they will regard the judgment of a Protestant Martyr in this case for the shedding of whose Blood the Parliament made an Ordinance for repentance when the Papists in Queen Maries Raign urged Mr. John Rogers that the Parliament had established the Romish Religion of what force said this godly Martyr may we think these Parliaments are which establish contrary Laws to condemn that for evil which before they had decreed for good it's better to obey God rather than man making Religion which like Tullies Lex Naturae nec tolli nec abrogari potest become Leges Seiae Apuleiae quae unico Senatus versiculo puncto temporis sublatae sint And should the House of Commons assume this power in Religion Religion like Englishmens clothes would ever be cutting into some new fashion as any Faction ariseth in the Kingdom but that this Faction in Parliament may blind the eyes of the world indeed to strengthen and support themselves till they should become absolute Masters of England when they had been long tampering with Religion at last they found policy necessitating them some need of using Clergy-men yet in such a monstrous way as the Christian world never heard the like by a new thing called an Assembly of Divines not summoned by the Kings Writ and Authority expresly against the Statute of Hen. 1. nor chosen by the Clergy but plucked out of each Members pocket and by vertue of Hocus pocus jugled into a Conventicle-Synod on purpose for all forced Synods have ever more of private interest than the publick good of the Church to help out with some new Religion as their Masters which hired them with 4 s. per diem shall appoint Yet lest these Divines such as they be New-Englanders Amsterdamians Pedants and Trencher Chaplains to whom were some ten learned Clergy-mens names joyned as Seals who never came there in person should take any authority to themselves the Faction in Parliament have jusled in Thirty of their Lay-Members another Vote can make them thirty more as Members of this Linsy-woolsie Synod to help up a side but to make all sure their Parliament Masters have ordered that this Assembly yoaked like an Oxe and an Ass to till the Holy-Land must meddle only with what shall be propounded to them from the Houses of Parliament and when all is done their conclusions shall not bind till the Parliament give leave and consent and saith the Ordinance not Law whereby this Learned Synod is created and bridled these Divines must tell them what is most agreeable to Gods word and when the Parliament is thus certified what Gods Law is the House of Commons will vote whether it shall be obeyed or no Such an Omnipotency over Gods Law over the Church and the King hath this Faction usurped since this Parliament to plant in Christs Kingdom and the power of Religion and Reformation as their specious pretences at first were turning the Spanish cloak of Religion into the English Proverb of playing the Devil for Gods sake CHAP. VI. The Censures of these Judges against the Clergy and the true reason thereof THese are the Grapes of this long-promised Fanatical Canaan gathered from such pretended holy-Thistles at whose growth while some labourers in Gods harvest too late repenting connived doubting that they were some weak and tender Vine-branches and others of more discerning spirits seeking to weed them out pricked their own fingers they grew like Jothams bramble such Kings over the Trees that they have banished the Vine and the Olive peace and plenty and to plant in the stinking Elder have burned up the goodly Cedars of the Church root and branch and the field of Christs wheat choaked with the tares which the envious man hath been long sowing in this Land now grown to their harvest to whose sheaf like Josephs dream must every sheaf make obeisance else the upstart bramble-King sends fire to devour them as it hath already torn the whole coat of the Clergy as
forsake it Mary le Bow Mr. Leech sequestered and dead with grief Mary Bothaw Mr. Proctour forced to fly and sequestered Mary Cole-church Mary-Hill 1. Dr. Baker sequestred pursuivanted and imprisoned 2. Mr. Woodcock turned out and forced to fly Mary Mounthaw Mr. Thrall sequestered and shamefully abused Mary Somerset Mr. Cooke sequestered Mary Stainings Mary Woolchurch Mr. Tireman forct to forsake it Mary Woolnoth Mr. Shute molested and vext to death and denied a Funeral-sermon to be preached by Dr. Holdsworth as he desired Martins Ironmonger-lane Mr. Sparke sequestered and plundered Martins Ludgate Dr. Jermin sequestered Martins Orgars Dr. Walton assaulted sequestered plundered forced to fly Mr. Mosse his Curate turned out Martins Outwitch Dr. Pierce sequestered and dead Martins Vintry Dr. Rives sequestered plundered and forced to fly Matthew Friday-street Mr. Chestlin violently assaulted in his house imprisoned in the Compter thence sent to Col chester Goale in Essex sequestered and plundered Maudlins Milkstreet Mr. Jones sequestered Maudlins Old-fishstreet Dr. Griffith sequestered plundered imprisoned in Newgate when being let out he was forced to fly and since imprisoned again in Peter-house Michael Bassishaw Dr. Gifford sequestered Michael Cornhil 1. Dr. Brough sequestered plundered Wife and Children turned out of doors his Wife dead with grief 2. Mr. Weld his Curate assaulted beaten in the Church and turned out Michael Crooked-lane Michael Queenhithe Mr. Hill sequestered Michael Querne Mr. Launce sequestered Michael Royal Mr. Proctour sequestered and forced to fly Michael Woodstreet Mildred Breadstreet Mr. Bradshaw sequestered Mildred Poultry Mr. Maden sequestered and gone beyond-sea Nicholas Acons Mr. Bennet sequestered Nicholas Cole-abby Mr. Chibbald sequestered Nicholas Olaves Dr. Cheshire molested and forced to resigne Olaves Hart-street Mr. Haines sequestered Olaves Jewry Mr. Tuke sequestered plundered and imprisoned Olaves Silverstreet Dr. Boosie abused and dead with grief Pancras Soper-lane Mr. Eccop sequestered plundered forced to fly Wife and Children turned out of doors Peters Cheap Mr. Vochier sequestered and dead with grief Peters Cornhil Dr. Fairfax sequestered plundered imprisoned in Ely-House and the Ships his Wife and Children turned out of doors Peters Pauls-wharf Mr. Marbury sequestered Peters Poor Dr. Holdsworth sequestered plundered imprisoned in Ely-House then in the Tower Stephens Colemanstreet Stephens Walbrook Dr. Howel through vexation forced to forsake it sequestered of all and fled Divers since turned out Swithings Mr. Owen sequestered Thomas Apostle Mr. Cooper sequestered plundered sent prisoner to Leeds Castle in Kent dead with grief Trinity Parish Mr. Harrison In the 97 Parishes within the Walls besides St. Pauls Outed 85. Dead 16. Parishes without the Walls ANdrew Holborn Dr. Hacket sequestred Bartholmews Great Dr. Westfield abused in the Streets sequestred forced to fly and dead Bartholomew Less Brides Parish Mr. Palmer sequestred Bridwel Precinct Mr. Brown turned out Botolph Aldersgate Mr. Booth sequestred and plundred Botolph Algate Dr. Swadlin sequestred plundred imprisoned at Gresham-Colledge and Newgate his Wife and Children turned out of doors Botolph Bishops-gate Mr. Rogers sequestred Dunstans West Dr. Marsh sequestred and dead in remote parts George Southwark Mr. Rogers sequestred Giles Cripplegate 1. Dr. Fuller sequestred plundred imprisoned at Ely-house 2. Mr. Hutton his Curate assaulted in the Church and imprisoned Olaves Southwark Dr. Turner sequestred plundred fetcht up Prisoner with a Troop of Souldiers and after forced to fly Saviours Southwark Sepulchres Parish Mr. Pigot the Lecturer turned out Thomas Southwark Mr. Spencer sequestred and imprisoned Trinity Minories In the 16 Parishes without the Walls Outed 14. Dead 1. In the 10 Out-Parishes CLement Danes Dr. Dukeson sequestred plundred and forced to fly Covent Garden Mr. Hall sequestred and forced to fly Giles in the Fields Dr. Heywood sequestred imprisoned in the Compter Ely-house and the Ships forced to fly his Wife and Children turned out of doors James Clarkenwel Katherine Tower Leonard Shoreditch Mr. Squire sequestred imprisoned in Gresham-Colledge Newgate and the King-bench his Wife and Children plundred and turned out of doors Martins in the Fields Dr. Bray sequestred imprisoned plundred forced to fly and dead in remote parts Mary Whitechappel Dr. Johnson sequestred Magdalen Bermondsey D. Paske sequestred Savoy 1. Dr. Balcanquel sequestred plundred forced to fly and dead in remote parts 2. Mr. Fuller forced to fly In the 10 Out-parishes Outed 9. Dead 2. In the Adjacent Towns THe Dean and all the Prebends of the Abbey-church Westminster but only Mr. Lambert Osbaston sequestered Margarets Westminster Dr. Wimberly sequestred Lambeth Dr. Featly sequestred plundred imprisoned and dead a Prisoner Newington Mr. Heath sequestred Hackney Mr. Moore sequestred Reddriffe Islington divers Ministers turned out Stepney Dr. Stampe sequestred plundred and forced to fly In the adjacent Towns besides those of the Abbey-Church and Islington Outed 7. dead 1. The Total of the Ministers of London within the Bills of Mortality besides Pauls and Westminster turned out of their Livings by Sequestration and otherwise 115. Whereof Doctors in Divinity above 40. And the most of them plundered of their Goods and their Wives and Children turned out of doors Imprisoned in London and in the Sips and in the several Goals and Castles in the Countrey 20. Fled to prevent Imprisonment 25. Dead in remote parts and in Prisons and with grief 22. About 40 Churches vold having no constant Minister in them Vsque quo Domine Rev. 6. 10. CHAP. VII Of Parliamentary changes in Religion Of the Policy and ways for the destruction of Religion by this Parliament wrought by the long conspiracy and combination of the Puritans of England here laid open BUt what safety can be to England when Lay-Parliaments shall presume to meddle in Religion hanging Reformation of Religion as a Curtain to the Parliament-windows making it the Stalking-horse to their temporal ends and by respects the ruines of Three Kingdoms in our days can sufficiently witness changes of Religion being ever the Laities punishment as well as the Clergies affliction as might be proved by the English story ever since Parliaments have been but instrumental or active thereunto Henry the 8th begat the policy to whose Lust and Tyranny how soon did the Parliament turn Pander covering many a foul fact under the fair face of Reformation burning Papist and Protestant both at one Stake by Bill in Parliament without any Tryal Edward the 6th of Nine years old his Parliaments twice altered Religion according to the two Grandees Sommerset and Dudley In the first of Queen Mary the Parliament punished the same Religion by Fire which themselves had so lately established Upon coming in of Queen Elizabeth the Parliament changed Religion again and within few years made it death for a Priest to reconcile any man to that Religion which Parliaments had so zealously restored that in the space of twelve years four changes of Religion were made by Parliaments in Englond more than ever were made by any Christians throughout the world in 1500 years before But what policy in the Laity drew on those contrary changes
Engine and name of Parliament to cover their Fanatical Combination and Conspiracy which they have been so long contriving to raise to its height by these means following By incorporating themselves into a Church as distinct from the Church of England as the Papists have been they have set up an upstart Ministery of Lecturers they made publick collections of Monies for their silenced Ministers under pretence of poor Ministers they have had their Feoffees intrusted with great sums of Monies raised among themselves for furtherance of their designs witness the plot of buying out of Impropriations to plant in men of their own Tribe to whom St. Antholins in London was the Nursery they had their mutual intelligence throughout the whole Kingdom and ingrossed almost all the inland Trade to men of their Faction they took up a canting language to themselves which they called the Language of Canaan abusing phrase of Scripture thereby to understand one another to colour their seditious practises they had their Emissaries whereof simple Robin the Bible-Carrier was one or Scouts to give notice where men of their Tribe preached so that not any one of their Ministers could come to London from the farthest parts of England but found entertainment in the City for whose Randevouz a Widow whom Alderman Pennington Marryed kept an Ordinary in White-Friars where many of them lodged in Doctor Prestons days and when any of these preached in any place in London or thereabouts they wanted not a crowd of followers And as these were busie in the Church so their close Committe-Masters in those days were not idle in the State much correspondency held with the Brethren of Scotland and before any Wars began in either Nation Mr. Hamden went yearly into Scotland as I have heard some of his Neighbours in Buckinghamshire say they had their Counsel Tables sitting in several parts of the Kingdom Knightly's House in Northamptonshire Lord Sayes House wherein was a room and passage which his servants were prohibited to come near where great noises and talkings have been heard to the admiration of some who lived in the House yet could never discern their Lords Companions that in King James's days a great Mistriss of the Faction who afterwards changed her House to come to Black-Fryars to live under the Gospel as they called their Lecturing Parishes whose House was much frequented by Lord Say and the Earl of Warwick Mr. Pym c. could say That their party was then strong enough to pull the Kings Crown from his head but the Gospel would not suffer them but not long after the Gospel was put into a posture of War when so many Military yards in London Westminster and Southwarke and other places about sixteen years since grew into much request whither Lord Brooke much resorted whom I have seen entertained there with whole Vollies of Muskets that Fanatical Goliah armed cap à pe yet shot in the eye which himself bragg'd should see the Millenary fools Paradise begin in his life-time and all Sectaries in London on a suddain entred themselves and drew on others to be listed in those Artillery-Gardens to exercise feates of Arms for pastime as some were drawn in against a time of need was the Reason given by some Brethren of those days which it should seem onely themselves foresaw better than other men and as their designes ripened Captain Forster a Vintner behind the Exchange was employed by the City-Faction to send over sea for Skippon a confiding Brother to the Cause to be Captain of the London Artillery Garden who was since this Parliament made Major General of the City Rebels flamming the rest of the Londoners that a Stranger was sent for to prevent emulation among the City-Captains upon an election a fair preparatory for the invasion of the Scots to force the King to call a Parliament which all men were made so much to long for because the Faction had plotted to pack it for their designs This made the Earl of Warwick write from York to his Friends in Essex about the Election of Knights and Burgesses for this Parliament alledging That the Game was well begun Mr. Pym rode a Circuit into divers Counties to promote Elections of men of the Faction and Sectaries went from place to place to cry down the nomination of any who belonged to the Kings Service and to give Votes for men of the new Religion and notorious opposers of the King or the Clergy whose names the Faction had privately before listed whereby divers Citizers and Lawyers were chosen for Burgesses in Parliament by those Incorporations which they never had any relation to nor knowledge of but by some rebellious opposing Moses and Aaaron the King or the Priest witness Mr. Bagshaw and Mr. White two Lawyers chosen for Southwarke the one a Feoffeeman censured in the Star-Chamber the other a Seditious Law-Reader against Bishops not long before like the four Burgesses of London chosen upon four such grounds Alderman Soame for his imprisonment in denying of Ship-money Vassall for his obstinacy against Customs Craddock for the Cause of New-England Alderman Pennington for his known zeal by his keeping a fasting Sabboth throughout his Shrivalty Lecturers also came thrusting into Elections of the Clergy wherein they had nothing to do as having not whence to pay Subsidies for men into the Convocation with whom came some Citizens to Christ-Church in London to hear how the Plot took in the Election but having no hopes to pack up a Convocation they made a Rendevouz of many Scandalous and Schismatical Lecturers and such as Doctor Burgesse whom guilt made Parliament-Converts and Vassals at Mr. Calamies House in Aldermanbury till strengthned into a new Assembly at Westminster as a Counter Convocation or Conventicle from whence the Faction in Parliament received informations concerning Religion and hereby did they communicate their intelligence and designs with directions how these their Ministers might by degrees prepare the people for their work that I have heard their Auditors say that by the Sundays Sermon or a Lecture they could learn not onely what was done the week before but also what was to be done in Parliament the week following besides the information which their Pulpits gave the people for coming in tumults to the House for Justice from a Juncto of these Ministers came that insolent order of directions thrown into Church-wardens houses by unknown hands how to take the first Protestation from one of these Clubs came the Sâ—nectymnuan Libels which got the Authors round sums of Money to make their Religion shine in the world ut ipse MarcionT Evangelico aliquando credidit cum pecuniam in primo calore fidei contulit Reformers in Luthers time did not so if Scoperus the Emperors Secretary said true at a Diet at Ausburgh Nor may we forget how the Faction in London packed up a new Common-Councel removing ancient grave men to foist in young and mean fellows but zealous for the Cause not an Office in
the Minister's Wife proud if clad better than her self and as for habit so for place and precedency every Gossip could prattle that a Ministers Wife had no place though the Law is that all Wives shall take place according to their Husbands These Petticoat Quarrels bred much envy to the Clergy but majorcum superbia with far greater pride And besides that Laici Clericis oppido sunt infesti 4. So generally peevish and fanaticiz'd were the people that not any particular discontent or personal Quarrel with any private Clergy-man but these Bishops these Parsons the whole Coat began their furious threats of Revenge and for these many years hath the opposing the Bishops or regular Clergy been made the sign of a Babe of Grace and a professor of pure Religion and since this Parliament been the ready way to preferment as the sure Character of a fast Friend to the Parliament that divers have not only been afraid to show their wonted Neighbourhood to their Parsons but have grown active against them only to secure themselves from suspicion of Malignancy by being known to converse with a Malignant or sequestred Minister These and such like matters have thickened the mists of scandalous Clergy◠and bringing in Popery cast before the Peoples eyes to widen the Breach into an impossibility of Reconciliation These seven years sad experience persuading me that the great Controversies of Christendome as of latter days so in elder Ages about the Arrian Heresie under Constantius Synod against Synod to revoke the Nicene Decrees and that other Division about the Celebration of Easter under Commodus were but some State Stalking-horses or at least maintained with such Vehemency for politick ends whereof Church History hath taken no Cognizance like the two Golden Calves of Presbytery and Independency set up in our days to cover Jeroboams policy for a new Government Presbytery being thought at first a Cloak large enough to serve all turns till new designs started up Independency both equally destructive to the old way which though woful experience hath proved the best way and most men at the bottom desire yet because it consisteth not with their rash temporal Ingagements they furiously oppose could we else think that Christians and Countrymen should engage in a Bloody Civil War to demolish a Cross or put down an innocent Ceremony to deshoy a Bishop of a Diocess and set a Pope in every Parish A meer Book-man of this Generation can find little difference above-board all sides professing they fight for the same things which surely made Dury and Dr. Mosely and Dr. Gibbons take so much pains and travel to seek Reconcilement in Religion but alas G. Cassander H. Grotius may write Votum pro pace Ecclesiastica Romish Priests may hazard their lives to reconcile Protestants and Protestants hope to convert Papists Church men may fast and pray and write and preach for Peace but all to no purpose Can they reconcile the King and the Pope's Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastical Can they secure a Rebell against a King in Power Can they make Agreement between Publick-Faith Debts and Bishops Lands and Delinquents Estates Take away Temporal Differences and Church Controversies among Christians might soon be ended for what have the engaged men of this Generation long whispered and now speak out to the Citizens desirous of a Treaty for Peace while the pretence is Religion should the King be restored to his Throne what security can they Traytors have for their Necks and Estates What shall become of their Ordinance-Law Should Bishops come in again what shall become of our Moneys for the purchase of their Land The City Publick-Faith-Mongers tremble to think that their Debts will be desperate Souldiers say if peace come their Triumphs will be spoiled should the Kingdom be setled and every man enjoy his own the Fanatick Ministers cry out what shall they do who have intruded into other mens Livings These thoughts fright the Presbyterian Lecturers and the Assembly of Divines who these Twelve Months have been preaching against this Army into a zealous Union with this Independent Army yea with Turks or Jews or any Religion in the World consisting with their usurped possessions would they joyn rather than suffer the old Religion to be restored These these are the true Reasons that continue the differences of our Church to such a difficulty if not impossibility of reconcilement and when for such ends men have employed Conscience no wonder in presecution thereof what cruelty injustice and Tyranny is used as mediums for obtaining such wicked purposes whereof you have a small view in this following Discourse CHAP. III. What use the Fanaticks have made of Parliaments and the ways whereby that Faction in this Parliament and Kingdom have endeavoured to make the Clergy contemptible and odious to the people HOW old the Fanatick grudge is against the Church of England the Discourse of the Troubles of Frankford can tell the World and truly since Sacriledge hath been cryed up for Reformation hath that same Spirit of Darkness been tampering in Parliaments to make them their Engine for the work of destroying the Church under colour of Reformation that Archbishop Whitgift that holy meek man in Queen Elizabeth's days lying very sick and being told of a Parliament called out of his pious care for the Church prayed God that he might not live to see that Parliament as near as it was and God heard his Prayer and although as Lord Verulam confesseth the Parliament of England oweth some satisfaction for the many injuries and unjust oppressions formerly done by them to the Church yet since the first breach so thirsty were the Members after the remnant of the Church Lands few Parliaments but have rather sought to increase that debt till the Church be quite undone to this purpose how have the Fanaticks who for these many years have had the vogue of the people opening their mouths wide after any Game to which one of their Beagles should lead the trace superstitiously longed for Parliaments because their Plots and hopes were to pack them for their design against the King and Church as now they have done which made the Presbyterian Sectaries and all other sorts of Fanaticks so idolize this Parliament calling it the Perliament of their Prayers and a frequent Pulpit Title for the House of Commons was the House of Gods and the House of mortal Gods and truly they were an House of Gods like the Heathenish Roman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an House of Gods of all Countries the Images of English Sectaries for they do but represent and it 's but fitting that new Gods should have new Priests heaping up to themselves Teachers after their own hearts lusts no marvel then if the Ministers of Christ grow out of request and all the malice and slanders and cruelty of these new Gods be racked on those who would teach the people to serve the true God rather than men But God forbid but that the vvorld
the whole Parish though the major part of the Parish yea I have known it three parts of four in a Parish have never seen any such Petition but disclaimed it under their hands And the basest Mechanicks hand to a Petition how false soever so it were against a Clergy-man was received with favour and with Mr. Speakers Thanks for their love to the Parliament and could bring upon any Minister of Christ more chargeable and vexatious Summons and attendance on the Parliament or Committees and oftentimes longer Imprisonment than the Report or Testimonials of all the other better Parishioners could free him from nor were there any honest Orthodox Clergy for all else were accounted the Parliaments Friends who groaned not under the Insolency of this proud domineering Faction daily threatning them with Petitioning against them in Parliament which was then thought a most dreadful business though the people had never so long known their Parsons Learning and Honesty but as Mr. Selden a Member of the House then told a Person of Honour Learning and Honesty were sins enough in a Clergy-man in these days 3. Having thus sent into Countrys for ugly shapes and skins of Beasts to dress the Clergy in for the peoples sight no marvel if as the Heathens served the Christians they now set Dogs to bait them countenancing all those who opposed the established Worship of God and suspending the due Administration of the same by an imperious Order of the House of Commons only in defiance to the Kings Proclamation then set forth for the due celebration thereof and also of an Order of the House of Peers for the same purpose and in many Churches have some Members of their private Authority forbid the Priests to read Divine Service others in contempt thereof put on their Hats during the Reading of Prayers which gave such encouragement to the Rabble-Rout of that Faction in the City that in divers Churches unheard of Violences were offered to Ministers officiating in full Congregations by a few Sectaries yet scarce durst any man either rescue the Minister or defend their own Religion and it 's too well known how a few called Zealous young Fellows with their Wenches rushing into any Church in London could have set up a Psalm and thereby sing a whole Parish out of their Relegion a Trick they had from the Dutch Rebels and Anabaptists into such a lukewarmness vvere most men grovvn towards Gods Service but as this vvas made the Shiboleth to try the Fanatick Friends so vvas the contemning of the Established Religion a ready vvay to make all the constant Professors of that Religion contemnned also and who should be constant in Religion if not the Clergy 4. A Fourth way to make the Clergy odious to tht People was their abetting all Outrages and Affronts done to the Persons and Functions of the Clergy insomuch that upon their sending for Burton and Pryn and Bastwick Three Champions or Fanatick Beautifews and the audacious Riots and Tumults attendin their return to London without controul the Faction took such Encouragement having found their Strength in the House of Commons in their contempt of the Priest that a Divine in his Habit could not walk the Streets of London without being reproached in every corner by the name of Baal's Priest Popish Priest Caesar's Friend and the like Scoffings nor durst Parishoners shew their wonted love toward their Spiritual Father nay scarce durst they come to hear him preach without hazard of being accounted a Malignant if he were so conscientious as not to change his Religion as these Sectaries would have him and now New England so vomited up her Factious Spirits that Merchants in London began to complain that all Commodities in New England were fallen to half their former price and each Damm and Sink of Religion pumped into our wholesome Streams those who as Witches do their Baptism had renounced their former sacred calling to the Priesthood yet now returned the only admired Church-men and were by Orders of the House of Commons either forced into other Mens Churches as Lecturers or thrust into sequestred Parsonages their Fellow Subjects Free-hold which before themselves had cried down for Antichristian 5. A fair Introduction to the reproachful Usage of the Clergy at Committees in the face of their own Parishioners for having found the forwardness of the people by their first foisted Order aforesaid to serve them in their Designs the Faction in the House procured a large Committee for Religion as they called it the Fanaticks main Engine against the Church dividing it into many Sub-Committees as Mr. White 's Committee Mr. Corbet's Committee Sir Robert Harlows Committee Sir Edward Deering's Committee and divers others upon pretence of hearing the multitudes of Petitions daily brought in against scandalous Ministers as the term was which Committees were made as several Stages for continual Clergy-baitings mine Ears still tingle at the loud Clamors and Shoutings there made especially at the Committee which sate at the Court of Wards in derision of grave and reverend Divines by that rabble of Sectaries which daily flocked thither to see this new pastime where the Committee-members out of their vast Priviledge to abuse any man though their Betters some Members of the Convocation whose priviledges are and by Law ought to be as large as those of the House of Commons without controul have been pleased to call the Ministers of Christ brought before them by Jaylors and Pursevants and placed like hainous Malefactors without their Bar bare-headed forsooth sausie Jacks base Fellows brazen fac'd Fellows and in great scorn hath the Cap of a known Orthodox Doctor been called to be pulled off to see if he were not a shaven Popish Priest and upon a Parson's Evidence for one of his Parishoners That he was no Papist whose Evidence in such cases is and ought to be Authentical it was replied by a Committee Have you no Witness but a base Priest And to some Eminent Doctors in Divinity of the City of London viz. Dr. Baker Dr. Brough Dr. Walton giving Testimony in a cause then before them it was said by a Citizen Member of that Committee Isaac Pennington what shall we believe these Doctors for And Sir Robert Harlow going to his Committee-Chair the Chair of the Scorner bragged to his Friend How he would bait the Dean of Christ-Church and after such like Usage with chargeable and long Attendance de die in diem on these Committees as many Clergy-men as were brought to the Stake to be voted right or wrong were sure to be outed of their Livings else their good and godly People were not pleased that the Souls of many honest and faithful Ministers of Christ were so filled with the scorn of the proud who thus had them in Derision that they died for very grief as did Dr. Halsy and Dr. Clarke and divers others CHAP. IV. The Fanaticks Arts of framing Accusations to the Parliament against the Clergy and
Judges of Divinity When Lawyers perk into a Chair for Religion and Coblers preach both alike lawful no marvail if Religion be voted illegal and the Priests be thought to go so awry and in these times to the Lawyer must the Divine go if he will preach without fear of being made a scandalous Minister or imprisoned for every Sermon I have known some twenty shillings Fees given to a Lawyer to plead at the Committee for Religion in the behalf of some Doctrines preached in a Sermon for which the Preacher never got twenty pence no defence being left for the Priests Doctrine or officiating in sacris unless allowed by an Act of Parliament or some common Law-trick insomuch that a Learned Doctor of Divinity being accused of Popery for calling the Communion-Table an Altar alledging the Scripture in the Hebrews Habemus Altare we have an Altar of which they may not eat meant of the Christian Eucharist could not hereby be acquitted of the Popery but producing the words of an Act of Parliament of Edward the Sixth yet unrepealed calling the Eucharist the Sacrament of the Altar the Committee for Religion were fully answered And several Actions at common Law of Assault and Battery were brought against a Divine in Essex who out of zeal to Gods house as the Priests did with Vzziah thrust some people out of his Church who sending for Cakes and Ale from an Ale-house were prophanely carousing on the Lords Table in the Church yet could not this Crime be admitted a lawful plea in the Common Law to save the Minister harmless from being overthrown in the Action but consulting with a Lawyer he was advised to plead his institution and induction into the said Church where the fact was done and so by a Rule in the Law that any man may thrust another out of his House if he behave himself uncivilly therein the Minister was secured from the Actions of Assault and Battery so that would our Saviour now beat out the buyers and sellers from the Temple the Lawyers would afford an Action against him of Assault and Battery And not long before this Parliament did the Lawyers find out ways of Indicting Clergy-men at the publick Assizes for standing up at the Creed or for denying to give the Sacrament to people obstinately refusing to kneel at the receiving thereof and to come up to the Rails about the Holy Table that I have known some Sectaries in London command their servants to go to the Sacrament and to sit in the lower places of the Church to try whether the Minister would bring the Sacrament to them in their seats that so they might have an Action of Law against the Minister or else complain against him to the Parliament nor will it be too long a digression to remember a former vent of the Fanaticks malice in a Parliament at the beginning of King Charles his Reign urging strongly a motion of making Adultery death in a Clergy-man but not in any other person purposely to throw scorn on that profession and how safe any Clergy mans life should have been may the conspiracy of the Lady Laurence witness against a grave Divine which the justice of the Star-chamber found out and censured righteous judgment no doubt is to be expected when such a malitious Faction shall get power to make themselves Judges of the Clergy as now they have done Good God! have our Preachers been these Eighty years confuting the superstition of the Papists to be made the stalking horses to a Sacrilegious Superstitious and Rebellious Faction by whom themselves are at last crowed down for Papists under the same pretence of Reformation having been taught to hate Popery without discretion no marvail if such people now question their Teachers and think they have forfeited their power and knowledge to them whom they have taught no better and what use these men have made of this pretended power let their own actions testifie But that they may seem to be no usurpers of any power at first they derided at Episcopacy or Monarchy but that is not the subject of this discourse to be Jure Divino though never so plain in the 10. of St. Luke by Christs Election of 12 Apostles and 72 Disciples of an inferiour order out of which Mathias was in the first of the Acts preferred to be numbred with the 11 in the room of Judas and were there any scruple who more fitting to resolve the doubt than those who lived in the Apostles time as did Ignatius whose works as also the continued succession of Bishops in all Christian Churches for 1500 years together were argument enough to those who have not denyed their Faith forgetting their Creed I believe the holy Catholick Church And against such men a Christian ought not to dispute But now began new principles of Divinity to be broached by the new State-Chaplains vid. That the Law of nature bade the Parliament that is the House of Commons the peoples Representatives to reassume all power into their hands it being so universally complained of that the King and the Bishops had abused their trust intending to ruine the Kingdom and destroy Religion the two great bugbears wherewith the Fanatical Faction who felt the pulses of the people beating strongly after property or Religion kept the people continually affrighted and it being as generally believed for qua volumus facile credimus that all power in Church and Common-wealth was derived from the people and their Representatives and not from God immediately Aristotles Politicks is made Scripture for this new Divinity and surely an excellent Religion will nature teach Christians to justifie what they have or shall do so manifestly against the Law of God and man If this argument be not strong enough their Lecturers who were wont in former Parliaments also to attend the House of Commons door making Legs to the Members in transitu praying their Worships to remember the Gospel by which they meant their Presbytery these preach to them that their power to Reform Religion is Jure Divino why forsooth because the people called them thereunto and vox Populi est vox Dei was their beloved unquestionable Oracle indeed vox populi cried up Rebellious Absalom against his King and Father Vox populi cryed against our Saviour Crucifie him Crucifie him Vox populi called for the Golden Calf from whence to the silver-Smiths of Diana Scripture may teach us that Argumentum pessimi turba and that in Religion vox populi is rather vox Diaboli than Dei. Yet this vox populi must choose our Religion and Religion-makers but who gave the people power to choose the Kings writ for Elections then all power is not in the people nor can any Electors invest their Elected with the jus Tertii for nemo potest plus juris transferre in alium quam ipse habet the power of the Kings and of the Church being not in the peoples power to commit to their Trustees Laws
and what miseries this Nation felt thereby may afford more truth than these times can bear and therefore is omitted Yet in all these Parliaments was the stamp of just that is Royal Authority though how justly executed I say not and therefore ought to be obeyed active or passive nor in any of these Parliaments or ever since till this Parliament were the Clergy one of the three Estates of the Realm the best conservators of Religion quite excluded with convocations of the Clergy though legally chosen by the Kings Writ not forced up out of a Renegado house-creeping Ministry by Lay-votes who had the judiciary cognizance of matters of Doctrines as one hath observed in a discourse to answer the Popish Slander cast upon our Religion that it is a meer Parliamentary Religion Though it cannot be denied but that fury against the present Clergy because they would not comply with the prevailing party to extol the present Change and in later Parliaments the Puritan-policy having influence even upon Court-counsels have too much bound up the power of the Keys and left the Clergy little liberty but to grant Subsidies But never did the Laity in Parliaments grasp at the power of the Keys till the Puritans getting strength in the House of the Commons nibled at the Church-power under the name of a Lay-Committee for Religion which King James connived at little thinking whereto that ill example would grow in his Son's days hanging St. Peters Keys at Lay-mens girdles thereby as we now see locking up the Priests lips and shutting up Church-doors to the sequestring of Almighty God from his holy Habitations and by an Army of Subjects in rebellion against their King taking away the daily Sacrifice out of the Temple for the Reformation of Religion the old pretence to colour politick designes thereby to take away the shame of whatever cruelty shall be acted to advance the same never remembring that of St. Paul We must not do evil that good may come of it What fit Judges of Religion Parliaments have been and are like to be let us hear again Mr. Rogers that famous Protestant Martyr when it was objected to him that he ought to be a Catholick because the Parliament had established the Popish Religion Of what force saith he are Parliaments which establish contrary Decrees condemning that for evil which before they had established as good and the Parliaments of later times have been ruled by the fancy of a few Henry the 8th established what he pleased by Parliaments In Edward the 6th the Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland bore all the stroke and did not all things sincerely And for the Parliaments of Queen Elizabeth what by her politick moulding of the Parliament and her infinite popularity and her Armies who durst Vote against her pleasure Besides as one observeth her Parliaments consisting of grave men did do the Queens work and in that the Kingdomes business no thoughts of opposing Prerogative under pretence of Property or distinguishing between the service of the Crown and of the Commonwealth as two divers yea contrary things till the Fanaticks began to make Parliaments as Cock-pits and pitched fields for fighting against the King and the Church under the notion of standing up for the Subjects Liberty which made King James say that he could never find any joy in his Parliaments calling them in scorn and anger Five hundred Kings And the wise Earl of Arundel lately deceased then prophesied that Posterity would have cause to curse those Fanaticks in former Parliaments who upon such undutifulness caused their breach of which as also of the Parliaments of King Charles Sir Robert Naunton hath observed That half a dozen of popular discontented persons such as with the fellow that burned the Temple of Diana would be talked of have swayed all the Parliaments as Lord Say Mr. Pym Hambden Stroud and other Parliament-drivers as the Army Declarations stiled the XI Presbyterian Impeached Members who have lived to sit in this Parliament to see the flames of their own kindling almost consume the Church and these three Kingdoms by their reviving Nadab and Abihu's strange Fire by their presumption in medling with matters of the Church to the subversion of Religion under pretence of Reformation which how politickly wrought by the long combination of an hypocritical Faction we come now to speak of more particularly The former Examples of alteration of Religion and of compassing secular ends and designes by pretence of Reforming Religion having beaten out a ready way for any change no sooner began the Fanatical Faction to appear and by their furious pretence of Loyalty and hatred of Popery under Queen Elizabeths policy to ballance the Popish party then not weakned enough in the Kingdom for her security suffered to take head but presently they began to Libel the Bishops and the Church of England and to poison the people in most corners of the Land but chiefly in London with Geneva Doctrines and Pamphlets Supplications are made to the Queen and to the Privy-Council but especially to the Parliament Petions pretended to be subscribed by 100000 hands put up against Bishops Remonstrances and Admonitions are directed to the Parliament to advance the Presbytery as the holy Discipline but finding little countenance to such a phrensie they fell into such Libelling and Menacing the Queen the Council and the Parliament that in their heat the fire of Sedition began to appear so that to quench it in the spark the Queen made severe Laws against them and by hanging Penry condemned with Vdall and Barow who were pardoned brake the neck of their Plots and turned their brags into preaching of preces lachrymae as the onely arms for Christian Subjects and into Doctrines of humble obedience and patience till indeed they could pack an House of Commons for their purpose as some Pamphlets of those days advised the Brethren their party in Parliament being then inconsiderable or at least not able to carry on their work by their own strength and probably those Laws had for ever purged this Kingdom of this new plague had not an old sore unexpectedly broke out in the Gunpowder Treason so apparently plotted by Papists though the Actors intended to have laid the Saddle on the Fanatical Horse but little sooner than they deserved as we now see that to permit the other was counted the best way to cure this and as it sever hapneth the common hatred of any Faction gives great advantage to its contrary So now the Fanaticks full glad of such an occasion began busily to revive their suspended hopes of their Reformation strengthned also by their united brethren of Scotland as that in all Parliaments since through King James's too much love of peace and Archbishop Abbots affected popularity upon some Court-disfavour and by other Courtiers emulation by the subtelty and hypocrisie of the Faction they have gained ground till they have driven the Church and the King out of Three Kingdoms by the
as the onely hinderers of Reformation of Religion thereby indeed to lessen the numbers of Votes likeliest to oppose the Fanatick Faction These Tumults daily increasing upon the countenance they found from the Parliament where they were bid to come like men that is with Swords by the Rabble of Porters and Apprentises daily sent by their Masters but chiefly by their Mistresses with Clubs and Swords to cry for Reformation at the Parliament-doors The Faction in London having also combined to shut up their Shops for many days together and perswaded others to do the like upon some pretended fears but the truth was to make the poor people in and about the City a pretence to mutiny for want of work so heightned the Faction in the House of Commons that they sent up Mr. Hollis to the House of Peers to demand the Names of the dissenting Lords that so they might expose them to the peoples fury as they posted the dissenting Members of the House of Commons in the case of the Earl of Strafford The Ring-leaders still to the Rout were Dr. Burges the onely scandal to his profession in all London as his Parishioners of Watford can tell and the Spiritual Courts of London-Diocess also Capt. Ven who sent Tickets by Porters and Emissaries to raise these Myrmidons and Sir Richard Wiseman who with this confused Army assaulting the Bishop of Lincoln's house in Westminster had his brains dashed out with a stone from the wall and was buried at the collected charges among the Apprentises The House of Peers thus daily assaulted without and wanting no false Brethren within was not like to hold out any long Siege the very doors and Lobby and entries being so crowded with the Tumults that none can pass in or out without a kind of leave from the Assailants who upon the word given of the approach of any popish or disaffected Lord as the phrase was would in derision cry out Rome Rome but when any whom they accounted well-affected was to pass by they would cry Make way Make way a free Parliament all this while insomuch that some Lords had their Cloaks torn from their backs at the Parliament-doors Nor could the Bishops one of the three Estates in Parliament or Popish Lords as they called them come to the House without apparent hazard of their persons which made the Bishops as Pares Regni solemnly to protest against all Acts done in their absence till the Parliament should be restored to liberty as Mr. Speaker hath lately done and the Members who lately fled to the Army upon their return have nullified all Votes Orders Ordinances made since their forced absence by like City-Tumults in the year 1647. Hereupon the faction in the House of Commons furiously impeach the protesting Bishops of High-Treason and twelve Bishops were at once committed to the Tower to gag their Mouths that they might be easilier robbed of their Votes and Purses as afterwards they were the Treason not yet proved The Bishops and Popish Lords thus thrown out of the Parliament and the rest of the Royal Nobility terrified were forced to withdraw themselves from the Parliament leaving the Vote of the House of Peers to the Faction galloping in its fury yet for all those affronts done by the City-Tumults at the Parliament-doors to shew how truely it hath been ever said of the Fanatick That he will not Swear but he will Lie as also the assaulting of that Loyal Lord-Mayor's house by the same Tumults in the midst of the City and notwithstanding their furious marching through the City in return from the Parliament-house whose Guard they called themselves and bragged how they were thanked by the Members for their love to the Parliament with Links and loud Clamours timely alarming the Goldsmiths of Cheapside to shut up their Shops and notwithstanding the nightly Tumults about pulling down Cheapside-Cross and the Trained-Bands marching day and night about the City to keep the peace A Coopers Apprentice on Breadstreet-hill pulling off the Legs of our Saviour's Picture on the East-end of the Cross in the act fell on the Iron-bars but told his Master that some of the Watchmen hurt him with an Halbert concealing the truth till after ten days torture seeing no hope of life with horrour he confessed his fact lamenting Gods judgment upon him and died of the wound whose death so terrified the Tumults from that action that they never attempted the Cross any more upon my own knowledge And in the first of King Charles when the same Cross was beautified a Fanatick who broke the Neck of the Babe in the lap of the blessed Virgin within three nights after had his Neck broke and left dead in the streets near the Cross no man knowing how it came to pass At Tukesbury in Gloucestershire I have seen the Grave of a reforming Zealot who demolished the Cross and made the Cross-stone wherein was our Saviour's Picture an Hog-trough All the Piggs and the Sow which drank therein died the first night and the man drowned himself in a Well over an Hog-trough which stood by the Well as the Spiritual Court of Gloucester can witness and many yet living in Tukesbury can justifie this story Yet did the Faction in Parliament tell the King and the world in print in answer to the Kings complaining of those Tumults That they saw no Tumults but that the concourse in Westminster-hall used to be as great in Term-time By these means the Fanatical Faction in the Parliament having conquered the Vote of both Houses and forced the King to fly began soon to declare their Legislative power in publishing their imperative Vote That the Subjects of England were bound to obey the Ordinances of both Houses of Parliament as a Law in case the King should deny his Royal Assent But knowing such Votes were not like to find universal obedience as their designes required the next and last thing they entred upon was power to execute those Votes which their success by the late Tumults ready for a War heightned them to demand under pretence of putting the Militia of the Kingdom into such hands as the Parliament that is the Fanatical Faction should think fit which to obtain one would think it might spend the faith of a Christian to believe what ridiculous fears and jealousies of Invasions from abroad and secret dangers at home were suddainly bruited by the Faction up and down the Kingdom Fears of Invasions by the Danes by the French by the Irish fears of Papists in London when the Faction knew they had scarce left one in the City but in Prisons Mr. Pym's Plague-plaister the discovering of a Plot by a Taylor in a Ditch fears of blowing up the Thames with Gun-powder to drown the City and Parliament the House of Commons fired by Papists an Army of Papists at Black-heath in Kent an Army of Papists in Lancashire Horses trained under ground at Ragland the Midnight Alarm in London and parts adjacent that the King was