Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	good_a	king_n	subject_n	3,003	5	6.4581	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58041	Mercurius Rusticus, or, The countries complaint of the barbarous outrages committed by the sectaries of this late flourishing kingdom together with a brief chronology of the battels, sieges, conflicts, and other most remarkable passages, from the beginning of this unnatural war, to the 25th of March, 1646.	Ryves, Bruno, 1596-1677.; Barwick, John, 1612-1664. Querela Cantabrigiensis.; Wharton, George, Sir, 1617-1681. Mercurius Belgicus.	1685 (1685)	Wing R2449; ESTC R35156	215,463	414

MERCURIUS RUSTICUS THE COUNTRYS COMPLAINT Recovnting the sad Events of the late unparalleld REBELLION Christ Church Coll Ox Canterbury Minster Trinn Colledge Comb Countess of Rivers plundered pag 11 S r John Lucas house plundered pag ● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hous plundered pag 31. A Bonfire for the voting downe Episcopacy pag. ●6 〈…〉 pag 81. Warder Castle defended by a Lady pag 41. Mercurius Rusticus OR The COUNTRIES Complaint of the barbarous Outrages committed by the SECTARIES of this late flourishing KINGDOM Together with A brief CHRONOLOGY of the Battels Sieges Conflicts and other most remarkable Passages from the beginning of this unnatural War to the 25 th of March 1646. Together with A brief CHRONOLOGY of the Battels Sieges Conflicts and other most remarkable Passages from the beginning of this unnatural War to the 25 th of March 1646. Jer. 15.13 Thy substance and thy treasure will I give to the spoil without price and that for all thy sins even in all thy borders LONDON Printed for R. Royston Book-seller to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty and are to be sold by R. Green Book-seller in Cambridge 1685. THE PREFACE VVHen the sins of this Kingdom were ripe for punishment the Divine Justice permitted a great part of it to be besotted with Discontents either wholly causeless or such as His Majesty was pleased to remedy with Grants so unmeasurably gracious as could not otherwise be justified than by their importunity that demanded them and His Majesties Royall tenderness of his Subjects peace and safety These Grants were so far from satisfying those whose broken fortunes and boundless desires would not permit them to live without a Civil War that they make of them no other use than thereby to strengthen themselves to demand more till at last they broke out into a most unnatural Rebellion The people alwaies apt to cherish murmurs and invectives against their Princes and now grown wanton with the fruits of a long peace incline to Abners mind and think the war which yet they knew not but a sport Therefore with a great facility they imbrace the design and the baits to cover the Hooks with are the preservation of Religion and the vindication of Liberty And howsoever they cannot reconcile their practise with Gods command which under pain of damnation forbids all Subjects to resist their King yet they are so wedded to that interest which they challenge in Religion and Liberty that for Gods command if they cannot untie the Knot they resolve to cut it Do but assure them that the forbidden fruit will make them as Gods and they will eat it though it be forbidden do but perswade them that to take up arms against their Sovereign is the way to secure their Religion and Liberty and they make bold with God for once to choose their own way for so good an end From so desperate Resolution had they had but Morall justice they might have been kept back by the improbability of those calumnies whereby His Majesty was traduced as intending to alter Religion and infringe their Liberties Or had Religion to which they do so Zealously pretend had that potent influence upon them it might have taught them that Religion cannot be defended by transgressing Gods commands which are the Rule of it But if nothing else yet even regard to their own pretensions the defence of Religion and Liberty should have wrought in them a detestation of Rebellion which is so contrary to both For as an eye had to Gods dominion over us should exact obedience to his commands though never so much to our prejudice So the meditation of his infinite goodness ought to win it from us because his commands enjoyn us onely what is for our good if we could see it He would not have forbidden Subjects to defend Religion against their King by force of Arms but that he knew as Rebels can be no friends to Religion so it gaines love and admiration by the innocent patience of those that profess it whereas Bloodshed Force and Rapine the fruits of Rebellion procure Hatred or Hypocrisie And for Liberty it is for the good of mankind to forbid the assertion of it by Subjects Arms taken up against their Prince both because that pretence would otherwise be used by those that have a design to make the abused people their own slaves and because Rebellion doth more violate the Subjects liberty than is morally possible for the worst Prince in times of peace to do This truth was known before by speculation to a few whose endeavours to infuse it into the distempered peoples minds had the fate of Cassandraes predictions to hit the truth and want belief till these sad times have at last verified it by a costly experience That this may be more universally beneficial you have too plentifull a harvest of Instances collected in the insuing Relations wherein may evidently be seen that this War which the multitude was so fond of as the only means to preserve Religion and Liberty hath been almost the utter ruin of them both Here you shall find these great pretenders to Religion suppressing that which themselves confess to be Divine Truth Debarring poor prisoners the comfort of joyning their prayers together enforcing men to take Oaths of blind Obedience to whatsoever they should afterwards command them turning out Clergy-men above all exception and placing most scandalous and insufficient wretches in their rooms darting from their invenomed mouths most horrid Blasphemies against our blessed Lord and Saviour abusing the service of God and profaning not only the Form of it the Book of Common Prayer against which they have a professed quarrel but even Gods own Word the holy Bible which they pretend to reverence Here shall you behold them not only like those Canes Sepulchrales violating the bones and ashes of the dead to make the world know that they believe what some of their fellows openly profess that of those sometime living Temples of the holy Ghost there shall be no resurrection but exercising their fury on the Churches of God which they have defaced with Barbarous rudeness defiled with more than beastly nastiness and as if contrary to their wont they had studied the Book of Maccabees to find out and out-do the most Heathenish wickednesses therein related they have polluted the very Altar with their whoredoms The Independents at whose door the most part of these profanations of the Houses of God must lye will hardly make the world believe they are in earnest when they plead for Liberty of Conscience in Religion while they thus deface the places where it should be taught and practiced And as ill can the Presbyterians make good their pretended zeal to Religion and the Nurse of it Learning having almost extirpated one of the most flourishing Universities of Christendom Then for the other point the Subjects Liberty the following Narrations will plainly shew that it hath not been spared by those that would be accounted the Champions of it when the violation of

persecutors to make a full return of the kindness which he found resolves rather to expose his own Person as the subject of their fury than his Kinsmans house and so he did for out he goes unto them and now having retrieved the Game they pursue him with a high advanced din and confused clamour At last when all other means to escape their fury failed he made a voluntary captivity his safety and took the Common Gaol for his Sanctuary Having thus thrown Master Honifold into Prison not so much the Ignominy of the place where they had lodged him or saciety of contempt of Gods Minister which they had cast upon him as the want of more day-light sets an end to this days Frenzie They part for the present but resolve to meet next morning and so they do a day or two are too scanty to act their boundless malice Being met their next plundering expedition is to the Countess of Rivers house at S. Osyth a rich prize There they enter the House and being entred they pull down cut in pieces and carry away her costly Hangings Beds Couches Chairs and the whole Furniture of her House rob her of her Plate and Monies They tear down her Wainscot Leads and Windows they leave not a Door nor so much as a Bar of a Window behind them The Countess with her Family forewarned of their intentions to come thither made an escape and retired to her House at Melford in Suffolk Thither within a day or two they pursue her Essex is too narrow to bound the madness of the Essex Schismaticks in Suffolk they meet with some that are as mad as themselves Few Counties the more is the pity but can yield Companions in such Outrages From thence she hardly escapes with her life she abandons her House and leaves it to the mercy of these new ministers of new Justice who not only rifle the House but make strict search for her Person And that you may guess what spiritual men they were and likewise in what danger this Honourable Person was in they express themselves in this rude unchristian language That if they found her they would try what flesh she had From whence she fled to St. Edmunds-Bury where the Gates were shut against her an hour at least at length she was suffered to lodge there that night and next day with a strong Guard she was conveyed out of Town and so keeping her self as private as she could made an escape to London Her losses at both her Houses were valued at an Hundred thousand pounds at least though some that knew the rich Furniture that adorned both affirm it to be no less than an Hundred and fifty thousand pounds besides her Parks in both places were utterly spoiled One of these Plunderers whose name was Bowyer was apprehended in London selling some of these Goods in the very act and for this committed to Newgate as a Felon two of the Countes's Servants entring into Recognizance to give in Evidence against him for the King but upon his Petition to the House of Commons it was ordered he should be discharged without paying any Fees which was done accordingly And 't was but an oversight that his prosecutors had not been laid in his place and publick thanks decreed him for his zeal to the Cause Mr. Stevens Parson of South-Hamfield in Essex hearing that the Plunderers of that County were coming on him took Horse and fled and so saved both himself and his Horse for he knew that both were sought after The Father being fled the Children left to their own providence bethink how to secure those little pieces of Plate which each had received from the bounty of their Godfathers and Godmothers neither time nor acquaintance could give them latitude of much choice where to hide it and thinking any place safer than their own House they run to a poor Woman their Neighbour and there with her they deposite their whole Treasure When the Plunderers came and found that the Birds were flown having intelligence or as some say but suspecting that the poor Womans house might hide Mr. Stevens his Goods they go to her House and demand them The Woman denies that she hath any of Mr. Stevens his Goods hereupon one of the Plunderers strikes her on the head with a Club with such violence that her Brains came out at her Nostrils The poor Woman being thus murthered the bloody Murtherers insult over her and say that the just hand of God was upon her for lying against her knowledg and denying those parcels of Mr. Stevens his Goods that were in her possession so usual a thing it is with these men to blaspheme God and intitle him to all those wickednesses which they commit on others Mr. Edward Symmons Parson of Rayne in Essex in the Months of June and July 1642 Preached against the sin of Rebellion and Disobedience and against traducing the King slandering the footsteps of Gods Anointed and refused to promote the Civil-War then begun by stirring up the People to contribute Money Plate and Horses to the maintenance of so unnatural so destructive a Division as most of the Ministers of those parts did This as it was more remarkable in him so it was more heinously taken from him in regard of his former intimate acquaintance with Mr. Stephen Marshal Parson of Finchingfield in Essex the great Incendiary of this unhappy War and had given him the right hand of Fellowship Hereupon he was sent for to the House of Commons by a Pursevant and was told That he being an Honest Man but of a different judgment from the Sence and Vote of the House did more prejudice to the good Cause in hand than a hundred Knaves and therefore would suffer accordingly Which saying since that time hath been plentifully made good and verified in many particular Oppressions and Sufferings unjustly inflicted on him and his whole Family First He was Imprisoned and most illegally deprived of his Liberty for no other cause but because he would not contrary to the dictate of Religion and his own Conscience countenance and promote an accursed Rebellion against his gracious Sovereign Secondly He was referr'd after to the Committee for Scandalous Ministers thereby to blast his Credit and Reputation in his Ministery a most diabolical and divelish Course and a work of him who is the accuser of the Brethren to defame honest Orthodox Ministers with the odious name of Scandalous and Malignants though made so neither by error in Doctrin Wickedness of life or Debauchness of conversation but by the malignity of a Vote knowing that by this means such Ministers doctrines and Testimonies will be of little or no credit afterward with the vulgar for had it been Scandal in a true and proper sense which they indeavoured to take away out of the Church they would never have brought over his head so scandalous so infamous a man to be Lecturer in his Cure as they did for to the wounding of Mr. Simmons

false Perspectives of slander and falsehood which they hold before their eyes Coleman speeds to London and complains to that Conventicle which call themselves a Parliament against Mr. Gibb for so foul an Affront put upon them by Publishing the Kings Declaration presently being servilely Observant to every base informer they dispatch several Pursevants to apprehend Mr. Gibb he seeing the Storm coming as wise men do hides himself after some time of retirement advised unto it by his friend he goes to London where by the great mediation of friends and paying fees to the sum of 30 l. he was dismissed upon engagement to be forth-coming whensoever they should call for him There is none so insolent and intolerable as a base mean man started up into command or authority we cannot give you a greater instance than in that beggarly Captain Ven Citizen of London made Colonel and Commander in chief of Windsor-Castle who doth not only assume to himself the propriety of his Sovereigns house dating his Letters to Jezabel his Wife From our Castle at Windsor and building some additions to the Deans lodgings as if he meant to set up his rest there and make that his habitation when no place in that Royal Castle is fit for such a Couple but the Cole-house and even that too good for them but as if there would never come a time to call him to an account he doth use the Gentlemen and Soldiers taken by the Rebels and sent Prisoners thither with that cruelty and inhumanity as if they were Turks not Christians for the Gentlemen that are Prisoners there are not only kept from Church nor permitted to receive the Sacrament neither from their own Preachers nor from any friend whom they could procure to do that office for them nay they were not permitted to joyn together in devotions in their private lodgings but each man a part and if this petty Tyrant could have hindred that intercourse which every particular devout Soul injoys with his God this Atheist would have hindered that too And because the sedentary Solitary Lives which they led there were prejudicial to their healths they earnestly entreated Ven that they might recreate themselves in the Tennis-Court near the Keep and offered to be at the charges of a Guard if those high walls and the many guards about them were not thought sufficient to secure them but yet were denied Nay when the Sheriff of Sussex was brought Prisoner from London to Windsor very lame though his Chirurgion offered Colonel Ven to be deposed that on the least neglect his Leg was like to gangreen yet after he came to Windsor he was forced to lie with the rest of the Knights and Gentlemen on the ground many nights at last shewing his leg to Ven he confessed that he never saw a more dangerous lameness and promised to acquaint the Earl of Essex with it and the Sheriff himself being acquainted with the Earl presuming on some interest in him wrote unto him to acquaint him with his condition and earnestly entreating him that he might be sent to London and disposed of though in a Dungeon for a week that he might have the assistance of his own Physitian and Chirurgion offering to give any security and be at any charges to assure him of his safe return to render himself true Prisoner but neither the sense of his misery nor his earnest sollicitations could prevail with his Excellency And if the Knights and Gentlemen who had money to bribe that compassion which they could not intreat found no better measure at their hands what then think you were those heavy pressures under which the poor common Soldiers groaned there were in the Castle eight poor Soldiers to whom the Sheriff of Sussex allowed eight shillings a week yet notwithstanding because they refused to take the wages of Iniquity and serve under the Rebels Colours and fight against their Sovereign they starved them insomuch that being released that they might not die in the Castle coming into the air three of them fell down dead in the streets three more recovered as far as Eaton where a good Woman for five shillings a week given for their relief by the Sheriff of Sussex gave them entertainment and when the Sheriff made his happy escape he left them alive There was a poor man living near Moore Park whom when Prince Rupert was in those parts commanded to shew him where the Pipes lay which conveyed water to the Castle for this crime they apprehend him and commit him Prisoner to the Castle where they fed him with so slender diet that they even starved him and when upon his Wives tears and lamentable cries that she and her Children were like to starve at home while her Husband starved at Windsor they having no subsistence but what he got by the sweat of his browes he was released he was not able to stand on his legs and whether dead since we have no information There was at the same time in the Castle one Lieutenant Atkinson Prisoner who suffering under the same want of necessary food sent to his Father humbly petitioning for relief his Father though a man of good estate returned answer that unless he would take profered Entertainment from the Parliament he should lie there rot and starve and be damn'd for him He finding no pity from his Father where Nature and Religion bade him expect it petitioned the Gentlemen in the Keep for bread as many others daily did and on his Petition had monies sent him but died starved two daies after and left this just ground to the World to make this Observation That where Puritanism prevails it cancels all Obligations both of Religion and Nature and never fails to make men guilty of that sin which is in the number of those which the Scripture tells us shall heap wrath on the end of the World the want of natural affection Mercurius Rusticus c. X. Master Chaldwel and his Wife barbarously used by the Rebels at Lincoln and his Servant Murthered Mr. Losse Parson of Wedon Pinkney in Northampton-shire himself and the Church infinitely abused on the Lords day by some Rebel-Troopers of Northampton c. WIlliam Chaldwell of Thorgonby in the County of Lincoln Esquire and Justice of Peace being an aged Gentleman yet his Loyalty and desire to serve the King in his just Wars made him over-look his infirmities so that he resolved in person to come to his assistance To this purpose he provided four horses compleatly furnished of which the Rebels having intelligence they surprize him and seize on his horses In February 1643. some Rebel-Troopers came to Mr. Chaldwells House and demanded entrance which he denying unless they could shew some Commission from the King they presently broke up his Hall windows and forcing his entrance apprehend his Person yet his Person is not all they come for they begin to plunder his Goods and the first thing which they lay hold on was some Linnen lying on the Hall

Stalls scratching and scraping the painted Walls Sir William Waller and the rest of the Commanders standing by as spectators and approvers of these Barbarous Impieties yet for fear lest in the Schismatical frenzy the sword in mad mens hands might mistake Sir William Waller a wary man as he is and well known not to be too apt to expose himself to danger stood all the while with his sword drawn and being asked by one of his Troopers what he meant to stand in that Posture He answered that it was to secure himself you know it is written the wicked are afraid where no fear is for though the People made him an Idol in London yet being no Popish but a Puritanical Idol for they have their Idols and their Idolatry as much as the Church of Rome there was no danger to his person to be mistaken for an object of their Reformation at Chichester The same Trooper added also That if his Colonel in the Low-Countries were there and Commanded in cheif he would hang up half a dozen of the Soldiers for examples sake it not being the custom of the Low-Countries though long time hath made their enmity inviterate and added much to the animosity of the parties to Plunder Churches it being a mutual stipulation between the Spaniard and the Hollander that what Town soever should by Conquest pass from the possession of one Nation to the other though the Conquerour had the free Plunder of the Town yet Churches with their ornaments and what ever was conveyed into them should be Inviolable the Church being Sanctuary to whatsoever was under its Roofe and if they would have any thing thence it was to be purchased at a valuable Price These good intimations of moderation from a man of less Command but more Religion than Sir William prevailed nothing with him to restrain the outragious madness of his fellow Rebels Having therefore made what spoyl they could in the Cathedral they rush out thence and break upen a Parish-Church standing on the North side of the Cathedral called the Subdeanery there they tear the Common-Prayer Books both those belonging to the Church and likewise those which were left there by devout persons which did usually frequent divine service and because many things in the Holy Bible make strongly against them one did contradict and condemn their impious practices they marked it in divers places with a black cole 't is more than probable that the 13. Chapter to the Romans did not escape their Index Expurgatorious for certainly if that be the word of God as undoubtedly it is they cannot so far withhold the truth in unrighteousness as not to read their doom in that word they shall judg them at the last day here they stole the Ministers Surpless and Hood and all the linnen serving for the Communion and finding no more Plate but the Chalice they steal that too which they brake in pieces to make a just and equal divident amongst themselves for an Engineer of theirs Robert Prince a French man with a wooden leg afterwards shewed the foot thereof broken off and when complaint was made of these barbarous outrages Capt. Keely replyed that he knew not whether all this were not done by Order or no. About 5. or 6. days after Sir Arthur Haslerig demanded the Keys of the Chapterhouse being entered the place and having Intelligence by a treacherous Officer of the Church where the remainder of the Church Plate was he commanded his servants to break down the Wainscot round about the room which was quickly done they having brought Crows of Iron for that purpose along with them while they were knocking down the Wainscot Sir Arthurs Tongue was not enough to express his joy it was operative at his very heels for dancing and skipping pray mark what Musick that is to which it is lawful for a Puritan to dance he cryed out there Boys there Boys heark heark it Rattles it Rattles and being much importuned by some members of that Church to leave the Church but a Cup for administration of the blessed Sacrament answer was returned by a Scotch man standing by that they should take a wooden-dish and now tell me which was farthest from a Christian either this impure Scot or that blasphemous Atheist who seeing the massy Plate and rich ornaments wherewith the Christian Altars were adorned in the Primitive Church in indignation and scorn of Christ belched out En quam preciosis vasis Mariae ministratur Behold with what costly vessels the Son of Mary is served what further spoyl and Indignity they have since done to that House of God and the habitation where his honour dwelt is yet uncertain Mercurius Rusticus c. III. The Rebels defying God in his own House their Sacrilege in stealing Church Plate and goods their irreverence towards the King by abusing his Statue their heathenish barbarity in violating the bones and ashes of dead Monarchs Bishops Saints and Confessors in the Cathedral Church of Winchester c. THE next instance which I shall give of the Rebels Sacrilege and Profaneness is in the Cathedral Church of Winchester which City as it was the Royal Seat of the King of the West Saxons in the time of the Heptarchy so was it the Seat of the Bishops of that People after Kenwalchus King of the West-Saxons not brooking the Barbarous broken expressions of Agilbertus his Bishop divided this large Diocess between Agilbertus and Wina and leaving Agilbertus to reside at Dorchester caused Wina to be consecrated Bishop of Winchester Before we tell you by whom and in what manner this Church was robbed and spoyled of its ornaments and beauty it will not be impertient while it may serve as an aggravation of their impiety briefly to set down by whom this Church was built and so richly adorned as lately we saw it This magnificent Structure which now stands was began by Walkelinus the thirty fifth Bishop of this Sea which work left imperfect and but begun by him was but coldly prosecuted by the succeeding Bishops untill William Wickham the magnificent Sole founder of two S. Mary Colledges the one in Oxford commonly called New Colledge the other a Nurcery to this near Winchester came to possess this See He amongst many other works of Piety built the whole Nave or body of this Church from the Quire to the West-end the Chappels on the East-end beyond the Quire had their several Founders The hallowed Ornaments and utensils of this Church being many rich and costly were the gifts of several benefactors who tho their Names perhaps are not recorded in earth have found their reward in Heaven This Church was first differenced by the Name of S. Amphibalus who received a Crown of Martyrdom under the Persecution of Dioclesian Next it exchanged this name for that of S. Peter and again this for that of S. Swithin the eighteenth Bishop of this See Last of all it was dedicated to the Holy Trinity whose blessed name is now called

as I shall appoint Given under my hand and seal the 26. of Feb. 1643. E. Manchester To the President or Locum tenens of _____ Colledge BY vertue of an Ordinance of Parliament entituled An Ordinance for regulating the University of Cambridge and the removing of Scandalous Ministers in the seven Associated Counties giving me likewise power to eject such Masters of Colledges as are scandalous in their lives or doctrines or do oppose the proceedings of Parliament I do eject _____ from being Master of _____ Colledge in Cambridge for opposing the proceedings of Parliament and other scandalous acts in the University of Cambridge And I require you to sequester the Profits of his Mastership for one that I shall appoint in his place and to cut his name out of the Butteries and to certifie me of this your act within one day Given under my hand and Seal the 13. of March 1643. E. Manchester To the President and Fellows of _____ College in Cambridge This we hope will satisfie the indifferent Reader concerning the truth and ground of our Sufferings II. But lest a second mistake should arise that supposing them to be true yet they are not perhaps so great as we pretend because that for the most part we have given but a sleight glance at them we held it very requisite to give this further Advertisement 1. That in matters of this nature a man ought not to macerate his Soul too much by reflecting on his own misery lest the Devil thereby get an advantage upon him to tempt him to a melancholy despair 2. Though we desire hereby to move every compassionate Christian to a fellow-feeling of our miseries yet have we endeavoured as much as we could to forbear the long insisting upon particulars lest we should offend his ears instead of moving his compassion For as in Musick the harshness of a discord may be admitted if it be not too long produced so have we studied to temper those harsh notes to the tender ear of the Christian Auditor by making a speedy transition from one to another 3. We had so many matters of complaint and might have many more if we had been all together to confer our Sufferings that this small Remonstrance would have swelled to an Iliada malorum a just Volum if we had not purposely endeavoured to comprise an Ilias in a Nutshel by instancing only in some and reducing those to as small a model as possibly we could And to this end also we have used as much plainness of speech in our expressions as ingeniousness of the truth of the thing it self And indeed if we should but a little have indulged our Pen the liberty of a Rhetorical flourish we should thereby have made our sufferings which in themselves are almost beyond belief to have seemed altogether incredible III. But our greatest and last fear is lest the intolerable weight of those heavy pressures under which we have so long groaned have perhaps extorted from us some expressions which may not seem altogether to become persecuted Christians And in this we submit our selves wholly to the candour of the charitable Reader desiring him to interpret all things in the best sense For tho we have used our endeavours to avoid all manner of expressions which might seem to savour of malice yet carrying about us those passions which accompany flesh and blood it is impossible but we should sometimes slip We know very well and acknowledge that Prayers and tears are the only defensive weapons of a Christian against persecutions And if anything which is not fully consonant hereunto hath passed from our pen we desire it may be imputed to our many infirmities seeing we are still ready to pray for our Persecutors that God would open their eyes that they may yet see and repent of those many and great wrongs which they have done to him his true Religion and Service to his Anointed our gracious Sovereign as also to us in particular and other their fellow-fellow-subjects Which if it would please him to grant unto them we might quickly recover the temporal peace of this distracted Kingdom and they the possibility of enjoying everlasting peace in the Kingdom of Heaven 1 PET. 4.16 If any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalf ACT. 5.41 They departed from the presence of the Council rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name JOHN 16.33 In the world ye shall have tribulation but be of good cheer I have overcome the world Aug. in Psal. 93. Bonilaborant quia flagellantur ut filii maliexultant quia damnantur ut alieni Idem in Psal. 125. Sicut qui seminat per hyemem non deterretur ab opere propter hyemem Sic nos pressura mundi non debemus a bono opere deterreri quia qui seminant in lachrymis in gaudio metent Querela Cantabrigiensis OR The Universities Complaint THough an Apologie for our long silence might better become us than any other form of Prefacing yet were there some that thought it better to sit down in the shade of cool patience and sweeten the sad prospect of our own miseries by reflecting on the great publick woes of this Kingdom than incur the suspicion of querulous natures such as are apt to cry out only at the imagination of being hurt But seeing our miseries are real and our sufferings not so much intended against us as against that famous University whereof by right we are still actual Members and that the adverse party hath hitherto made so much advantage of our tameness as to steal away our livelyhood from us and conceal the Theft though our own Mothers mouth be stopped by violently seizing her press and thereby not suffered to speak but like Apollos Statue of old just as the evil spirit speaks in her which at this time utters little else but disloyalty and Rebellion yet seeing it hath pleased the hand of providence to give us this happy opportunity freely to bewail our own miseries We are at length resolved to do Justice to these Mens iniquity and our own innocence that our fellow-subjects may know and if they leave so much learning as to speak in another language the whole World may hereafter understand how and by what Arts the Knipperdullings of this Age who think shortly to make themselves Kings of this Sion have reduced a glorious and renowned University almost to a meer Munster and have done more in less then three years then the Apostate Julian could effect in all his Reign viz. broken the heart-strings of Learning and learned men and thereby luxated all the joynts of Christianity in the Kingdon The particulars whereof and the barbarous courses taken to bring these designs to effect as we shall truly and impartially set them down so we fear not to appeal to any impartial Judg whether if the Goths and Vandalls or even the Turks themselves had over-run this Nation they

him we may justly receive at his hands heavier Judgments than these yet our Innocence will plead Not Guilty to the face of any Man who shall object against us any Civil Misdemeanors whereby we can more justly be deprived of our Fellowships than any free Subject in England of his fee Simple if they please to say he is guilty of Misdemeanors And as it hath pleased our gracious Master whose Ministers we are to make us examples though but of suffering to the rest of our Brethren So we hope he will continue unto us his grace of humilation under his mighty hand as an earnest of his exalting us in due time And in the interim that he will lay no more upon us than he shall be pleased to strengthen our infirmities to bear And that he will still preserve unto us a good conscience that whereas our persecutors speak evil of us as of evil doers they may be ashamed that falsly accuse our good conversation in Christ. FINIS Mercurius Belgicus OR A briefe Chronology of the Battels Sieges Conflicts and other most remakable passages from the beginning of this Rebellion to the 25 th of March 1646. Together with A Catalogue of the Persons of Quality slain on both sides CICERO Incerti sunt exitus pugnarum Marsque esi communis qui saepe spoliantem jam exultantem evertit perculit ab abjecto Printed in the Year 1685. The Preface Readers YOU have here a canded and impartial Epitomy of an unnatural War Subjects banding against their lawful Prince Brother against Brother and Father against Son Read but the said ensuing Story and therein consider the number and quality of Persons slain the destruction of Houses and Families the desolation of Cities and Towns the increase of Widows and Orphans the Tyranny and inhumanity of our new Legislators over their own Fellow-Subjects and you will easily conclude of these as Cicero did of Sylla's time Nemo illo invito nec bona nec patriam nec vitam retinere potueirt In earnest it may well be wondred whence these men have their minds God nor man nor Nature ever made them thus To be short the Reader may here see the flux and reflux of Fortune de la Guerre now this party flourisheth and that goes down anon that flourisheth and this goes down as if the guilt of our sins were drawing a heavy Judgment from Heaven upon this Land and these Rebels were ordained for the instruments of it But let us hope for better And particularly that God in the richness of his mercy will look down upon these macerated Kingdoms and periodize these distractions That Religion may again flourish in its purity maugre the Plots and impieties of all Seditiaries and Schismaticks That His Sacred Majesty may be re-established in His just Rights and Prerogatives that Parliaments may move in their own and known Centre the Ancient Laws of the Land re-inforced and freed from fellow-fellow-subjects Tyranny and Arbitration and the Subject re-estated in his Ancient Liberties freed from Murder Rapine and Plunder which that we may quickly see let it be the Subject of ever good Christian Prayer Memorable OCCURRENCES since the beginning of this REBELLION Anno Dom. 1641. IN December 1641. The House of Commons published a Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom therein setting forth all the errors of his Majesties Government a meer design to alienate the affection of his Subjects from him The tenth of January following his Majesty with the Queen Prince and Duke of Yorke left White-hall and went to Hampton Court to avoid the danger of those frequent tumults then hazarding the safety of his Royal Person February the 23 d. the Queens Majesty took shipping at Dover having been driven before from White-hall by the frequent tumults of the Rebels And soon after His Majesty went to New-market and from thence to Yorke where after the Rebels had Guards for three Months before the Gentry of the Country raised a Guard for his Majesties Person Anno Dom. 1642. MAY the 20 th it was voted by both Houses That the King intended to levie War against the Parliament which they did on purpose to excuse themselves for raising a Rebellion against His Majesty as appeared within few days after July the second the Kings ship called the Providence Landed in the Creek of Kenningham near Hull till which time His Majesty had not a Barrel of Powder nor any Arms or Ammunition whatsoever July the 12 th the pretended two Houses Voted that the Earl of Essex should be General of their Army and that they would live and die with him August the first the Earl of Essex caused all the men then raised being in number about 10000 to be committed to Officers and divided into Regiments which men had been raising ever since the 12 th of July 1642. at which time he was made General of the Rebels August the sixth the Earl of Bedford having fruitlessely besieged the Lord Marquess of Hertford in Sherburn Castle for four days before retreated to Yevell the Noble Marquess sallied after him and with a small number fell on that great body of the Rebels Kill'd above 140 whereof 9 Commanders took divers Prisoners and routed the rest so as he marched away and after divided his small Forces going himself into Wales and Sir Ralph now Lord Hopton into Cornwall of both which there followed so good an effect August the 22 d. His Majesty set up his Standard Royal at Nottingham for raising of Forces to suppress the Rebels then marching against him September the 23 d. Prince RUPERT with about 11 Troops of Horse gave a great overthrow to the Rebels in Wikefield near Worcester where Colonel Sands that commanded in chief received his mortal wound Major Douglas a Scot and divers other Captains and Officers slain and drowned Captain Wingate a Member of the House of Commons with four Coronets taken and two more torn in pieces This body of the Rebels was observed to be the flower of their Cavalry October the 23 d. was that signal great battel fought between Keynton and Edg-hill by his Majesties Army and that of the Rebels led by the Earl of Essex wherein the Rebels lost above 70 Colours of Coronets and Ensigns and His Majesty but only 16 Ensigns and not one Coronet The exact number that were slain on both sides in this Battel is not known But it is certain that the Rebels lost above three for one Men of eminence of his Majesties Forces who were slain in the Battel were the two Noble and valiant Lords Robert Earl of Lindsey Lord High Chamberlain of England and George Lord D. Aubigney Brother to the Duke of Richmond and Lenox Sir Edmund Verney Knight Marshal to His Majesty with some other worthy Centlemen and Soldiers but besides these three named there was not one Noble Man or Knight kill'd which was an extraordinary mercy of Almighty God considering what a glorious sight of Princes Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Barons Knights and