The Profest Royalist HIS QVARRELL WITH THE TIMES MAINTAINED IN THREE TRACTS viz. The Loyall Convert The New Distemper The Whipper Whipt Opus Posthumum HEB. 11. 4. He being dead yet speaketh OXFORD Printed in the Yeere 1645. TO THE SACRED MAJESTY OF KING CHARLES My most dear and dread Soveraign SIR BE pleased to cast a gracious eye upon these three Tracts and at Your leasure if Your Royall Imployments lend You any to peruse them In Your Three Kingdoms◠You have three sorts of people The first confident faithfull The second diffident and fearfull The third indifferent and doubtfull The first are with You in their Persons Purses or desires and good wishes The second are with You neither in their Purses nor good wishes nor with their desires in their Persons The third are with You in their good wishes but neither in their Persons nor Purses nor Desires In the last entituled The Whipper Whipt these three sorts are represented in three Persons and presented to the view of Your Sacred Majesty You shall find them as busie with their Pens as the Armies are with their Pistols How they behave themselves let the People judge I appeale to Cesar. Your Majesties Honour Safety and Prosperity The Churches Truth Unity and uniformity Your Kingdoms Peace Plenty and Felicity is the continued object of his Devotion who is SIR Your Majesties Most Loyall Subject Fra Quarles THE LOYALL CONVERT VIRG. Improbus haec tam culta novalia miles habebit Barbarus has segetes HOM. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OXFORD Printed by LEONARD LICHFIELD Printer to the Vniversity 1645. To the honest hearted Reader READER I Here protest before the Searcher of all hearts that I have no End either of Faction or Relation in this ensuing Treatise I am no Papist no Sectary but a true Lover of Reformation and Peace My pen declines all bitternesse of Spirit all deceitfulnesse of heart and I may safely in this particular with Saint PAUL say I speak the truth in Christ and lye not my Conscience bearing me witnesse in the holy Ghost that I neither walk nor write in craftinesse nor handle the holy Scriptures deceitfully Therefore if thy Cause be Iesus Christ in the name of Iesus Christ I adjure thee to lay aside all wilfull ignorance all prejudice all private Respects and Interests and all uncharitable censures Deale faithfully with thy Soule and suffer wholesome admonitions Search the severall Scriptures herein contained and where they open a Gate climbe not thou over a Stile Consult with Reason herein exercised and where it finds a mouth find thou an eare And let Truth prosper though thou perish and let God be glorified although in thy Confusion THE LOYALL CONVERT THE Kingdome of England that hath for many Ages continued the happiest Nation on the habitable earth enjoying the highest blessings that heaven can give or earth receive the fruition of the Gospell which setled a firme Peace which Peace occasioned a full Plenty under the gracious Government of wise and famous Princes over a thriving and well-contented People Insomuch that shee became the Earths Paradise and the Worlds Wonder is now the Nursery of all Sects her Peace is violated her Plenty wasting her Government distempered her People discontented and unnaturally imbroyld in her own Blood not knowing the way nor affecting the meanes to Peace Insomuch that she is now become the By-word of the Earth and the scorn◠of Nations The Cause and Ground of these our Nationall Combustions are these our Nationall Transgressions which unnaturally sprung from the neglect of that Truth we once had and from the abuse of that Peace wee now want Which taking occasion of some differences betwixt His Majestie and His two Houses of Parliament hath divided our Kingdome within it selfe which had so divided it selfe from that God who blest it with so firme a Truth so setled a Peace and so sweet an Vnity As that sinne brought this division so this division sharpned with mutuall Jealousies brought in the Sword When the Lyon roares who trembles not And when Iudgements thunder who is not troubled Among the rest I who brought some Faggots to this Combustion stood astonisht and amazed to whom the mischiefe was farre more manifest then the Remedy At last I laid my hand upon my heart and concluded It was the hand of God Where being plundered in my understanding I began to make a scrutiny where the first Breach was made that let in all these Miseries I found the whole Kingdome now contracted into a Parliament which consisted of three Estates A King a house of Peeres and a house of Commons by the Wisdome and Vnity whereof all things conduceable to the Weale-publique were be advised upon presented and established I found this Vnity disjoynted and growne to variance even to Blood The King and his Adherents on the party and his two Houses and their Adherents on the other The pretence of this division was the true Protestant Religion which both protested to maintaine the Liberty of the Subject which both protested to preserve the Priviledges of Parliament which both promise to protect Yet neverthelesse the first never profaned the second never more interrupted the third never more violated Standing amazed at this Riddle I turned mine eyes upon his Majesty and there I viewed the Lords Annointed sworne to maintain the established Lawes of this Kingdome I turned mine eyes upon the two Houses and in them I beheld the Interest of my Country sworne to obey his Majesty as their supreame Governour I heard a Remonstrance cryed from the two Houses I read it I approved it I inclined unto it A Declaration from His Majestie I read it I applauded it I adhered to the justnesse of it The Parliaments Answer I turned to the Parliament His Majesties Reply I returned to His Majestie Thus tost and turned as a Weather-cocke to my own weaknesse I resolved it impossible to serve two Masters I fled to Reason Reason could not satisfie me I fled to Policie Policy could not resolve me At length finding no Councellour but that which first I should have sought I hyed me to the Booke of God as the Great Oracle and ushering my Inquest with Prayer and Humiliation I opened the sacred leaves which not by chance presented to my first eye the 20. of the Proverbs v. 2. The feare of a King is as the roaring of a Lyon and who so provoketh him to Anger sinneth against his own soule Now I began to search and found as many places to that purpose as would swell this sheet into a Volume so that in a very short space I was so furnished with such strict Precepts backt with such strong Examples that my Iudgement was enlightned and my wavering Conscience so throughly convinced that by the Grace of that Power which directed me neither Feare nor any By-respects shall ever hereafter remove me unlesse some clearer light direct me But above all the Rest a Precept and an Example out of the Old
the better colouring of their malice well affected to the Cause All which in time will so encourage all Sects Factions Hypocrites and make Heresie so bold strong in this Kingdome that the true Protestant Religion will be under the detestable name of Popery even turned out of doores for company or at least so little favoured that it will be forced to shrowd it selfe in corners as those Sectaries did before these troubles were I but when things are setled and Iustice done upon the Popish Faction these Sectaries with their Sects will vanish like the Mist before the mid day sun and a true reformed Religion will be establisht to us and our Posterity You seeme by this Objection but a young State Physitian and a meere novice in the curing of a disease of this nature In some cases where the undisturbed humors keep their bounds distempers are quickly evaporated and being scatterd through the whole body every part breathes out some and Nature being able to truckle with the disease by her owne power relieves her selfe and in a short time rectifies the Body But upon a continuall confluence and gathering head of lawlesse humors she is so weakned that she hath no power to resist and lesse heart to struggle with her enemy but is forced to yeeld But the time you prefixe for the subduing of these numerous Sects is first when all things are setled secondly when the Land is cleared of Papists 1. For the first It is all one as if you had said When the body is in good health you will easily find a cure A rare Physitian In the meane while you will connive at this continued confluence of humors which makes it at length incureable 2. As for the second Take heed while ye goe about to cure a Fever you run not the Body Politick into a Dropsie with too much Phlebotomie But you will first cleare the Kingdome of Papists And who be they In your Accompt all such as stand for Episcopall Government a Government coetaneous with this our almost out-dated Religion All such as approve of the Book of Common Prayer a Forme establisht by many Acts of Protestant Parliaments All such as are passively obedient and loyall to his Majestie a duty commanded by Gods own mouth Of the Clergie all such as will not preach for blood although Ministers of the Gospel of Peace All such as will not take the Covenant to suppresse Bishops although they have formerly sworn canonicall obedience to their Ordinary All such as wil not encourage Subjects to resist the power of their naturall Prince although having taken the Oath of Allegeance and the late Protestation And to conclude all that have not contributed willingly bountifully and continually to this Warre and in a word that have any considerable Estates to pick a hole in If all Sects and Sectaries be not supprest till then we are like to have a comfortable Reformation But in case you onely meane such Papists as owne and acknowledge the doctrine of the Church of Rome Tell me what course would you take with theâ— Either you must banish them or disinherit them or take away their lives 1. If banish them It must be done either with the Kings consent or against it If against it you resist the power and he that resisteth shall receive damnation Rom. 13. If with it you make the King guilty of perjury who hath sworne to protect all his Subjects in his Coronation Oath 2. If disinherit them It must be done either according to the known Lawes of the Kingdome or against them According to the Lawes ye cannot for there is no Law for it If against them you transgresse what you pretend to maintaine in all your Declarations 3. If take away their lives It must be done either for a Cause or without a Cause If for a Cause shew it that the world may be satisfied If without a Cause you are guilty of murther Which course soever ye take you have not Christ for your example who quietly suffered the two Caesars being Idolaters not onely to possesse that Kingdome but to usurp it because God permitted them and permissively placed them there When the Disciples askt our blessed Saviour Didst not thou sow good wheat Whence commeth it that there be tares His answer was The evil one hath done it His pleasure being demanded whether they should weed them up his Reply was No Let them alone untill the harvest and then he would separate them A good deed may be ill done when either against command or without warrant Though God hath permitted the evill one to plant Papists among us yet he hath not authorized us to root them up nor yet to take the lives of any untill their actions come within the danger and compasse of the establisht Lawes of the Land We have presidents for the rooting out of Idolaters in the Scriptures which warrant us to doe the like You finde it no where but in the time of the Law at which time God immediately commanded it which kind of Warrants are now ceased Again In the time of the Law some were accompted Strangers And strangers had not the priviledges that brethren have Vsury was lawfull to be taken of strangers not of brethren Now in the times of the Gospel Christ hath made us all Brethren and called us by his own name Christians and what was lawfull then to be done to strangers is unwarrantable now to be done to Christians We are brethren Then Protestantisme and Popery may be consistent in one Kingdom and Gods name may be harmelesly prophaned with Idolaetry and superstition in the same place where it is truly and sincerely worshipt Your inference is not good It is one thing for a Prince to protect his subjects and an other to be partaker with them or to allow of their superstitions Kings cannot enforce Consciences though pitcht upon a false Religion All that Magistrates can do against them unlesse for Seducing which a particular Statute made Treason is to punish their purses for not observing his Statutes respectively or for exercising their Religion contrary to his Lawes But well it were if such a necessity of Connivance had no such subject to work upon How happy had it been for this unlucky kingdom if his Majesties most prudent and pious offer two yeare since propounded to us had been accepted in this particular That all the Children of his subjects of that Religion should be taken from them and educated in the Religion of the Church of England By which means the whole Kingdom in a short space of time would have been peaceably reduced to an Vnity in Doctrine And if the same course were taken with othe Srectaryes an Vniformity in Discipline also But our Kingdom must not expect an universall and through Reformation in all particulars till Catechismes be more strictly used and the entercourse of Embassadours which cannot simply be avoyded and Legers be restrained and strict statutes made
and cannot be compelled to give an accompt to any but to God Against thee against thee onely have I sinned That is to thee to thee only must I give accompt Though I have sinned against Vriah by my Act and against my people by my Example yet against Thee have I onely sinned You cannot deprive or limit them in what you never gave them God gave them their Power and who art thou that darest resist it By me Kings raigne But his Crowne was set up upon his Head by his Subjects upon such and such conditions Why was the penalty upon the faile not expressed then Coronation is but a humane Ceremony And was hee not Proclaimed before hee was crowned Proclaimed but what A King And did not you at the same instant by relative consequence proclaim your selves Subjects And shall Subjects condition with their King or will Kings bind themselves to their Subjects upon the forfeiture of their power after they have received their Regall Authority But the King hath by Writ given his power to his Parliament and therefore what they doe they doe by vertue of his Power The King by his Writ gives not away his power but communicates it By the vertue of which Writ they are called Ad tractandum consulendum de arduis Regni To treat and advise concerning the difficulties of the Kingdom Here is all the power the Writ gives them and where they exceed they usurp the Kings power being both against the Law of God and the constitutions of the Kingdom Well but in case of necessity when Religion and Liberty lies at the sâ—ake the Constitutions of the Kingdom for the preservation of the Kingdome may suffer a Dispensation Admit that But what necessity may dispence with the violation of the Law of God the deviation wherefrom is evill and Thou shalt doe no evill that good may come thereon But we take no Armes against the King but onely to bring Delinlinquents to condigne punishment And who are they even those that take up Arms for the Kings which an unrepealed statute 11. Hen. 7. acquites But admit Statutes may be broken and you seek to punish them Who gave you the power so to doe The Law And what Law denies the King power to pardon Delinquents God that hath put power into the hand of Majesty hath likewise planted Mercy in the heart of Soveraignty And will ye take away both his birth-right and his Blessing also Take heed you doe not slight that which one day may prove your Sanctuary But the King being a Mixt Monarch is bound to his own Lawes There be two sorts of Lawes Directive and Coercive As to the first he is only bound to make his accompt to God so to the second he is onely liable to the hand of God Who shall say unto him what doest thou But Kings now a dayes have not so absolute a power as the Kings mentioned in the Scripture Who limited it God or Man Man could not limit the Power he never gave If God shew me where till then this objection is frivolous But when Kings and their Assistants make an affensive and a destructive warre against their Parliaments may they not then take up defensive Armes It is no offensive War for a King to endeavour the Recovery of his surrepted right however are not the members of a Parliament Subjects to their Soveraign if not what are they If Subjects ought they not to be subject Gods people the Iewes that were to be destroyed by the Kings Command neither did nor durst make a defensive War against his abused power untill they first obtained the Kings Consent But admit it lawfull though neither granted nor warranted that subjects may upon such tearmes make a defensive war does it not quite crosse the nature of a defensive war to assaile pursue and dispossesse Whâ— you shot 5 peeces of Ordnance before one was returned at Edge-hill was that defensive When you besieged Redding which you after slighted was that defensive When ye affronted Basing-House was that defensive The warrantable weapons against an angry King are Exhortation Disswasion wise reproof by such are nearest to him Petition Prayer and Flight All other weapons will at last wound them that use them The Second Example was lest us out of the New Testament by Him that is the true president of holy obedience Our blessed Saviour whose Humility and sufferance was set before us as a Copy for all Generations to practice by The temporall Kingdom of the Jewes successively usurpt by those two heathen Princes Augustus and Tiberius two Contemporaries was his naturall Birth-right descended from his Tipe and Ancestour King David Had not he as great an Interst in that Crowne as wee have in this Common-wealth Was not Hee as tender eyed towards his owne naturall people as we to one another Was not the Truth as deare to Him who was the very Truth and the way to it as direct to Him that was the onely Way as to us Was not He the great Reformer Had the Sword been a necessary stickler in Reformation how hapned it that he mistook his weapon so Instead of a Trumpet hee lifted up his Voice Was Plots Policies Propositions Prophanations Plunderings Military Preparations his way to Reformation Were they not his own words He that taketh up the sword shall perish by the sword Nor was it want of strength that he reformed not in a Martiall way Could not hee command more then twelve legions of Angels Or had he pleased to use the Arme of flesh could not Hee that raised the dead raise a considerable Army Sure S. Iohn the Baptist would have ventured his head upon a fairer Quarrell and S. Peter drawn his sword to a bloodier end No question but S. Paul the twelve Apostles and Disciples would have proved as tough Colonels as your associated Essex Priests did Captaines and doubtlesse S. Peter who converted 3000. in one day would have raised a strong Army in six Our Blessed Saviour well knew that Caesar came not thither without divine permission In respect whereof He became obedient to the very shadow of a King and whom he actively resisted not he passively obeyed I but there was a necessity of his obedience and subjection to make him capable of a shamefull death No his obedience as well death was voluntary which makes you guilty of a shamefull argument But He was a single person We a representative body what is unexpedient in the one is lawfull in the other Worse and worse If our blessed Saviour be not Pepresentative Tell me whereof art thou a Member woe be that body politicke which endeavours not to be conformed according to the Head Mysticall He preacht Peace Your Martiall Ministers by what authority they best know proclaime Warre He Obedience They Sedition He Truth they Lyes He Order They Confusion He Blessednesse to the
the Arme of flesh could provide for the waging of an inconquerable warre whereon the money already expended makes no lesse figures then 17. Millions Sterl besides the Revenues of the King Queen Prince Duke of Yorke and the whole Estates of all such that take up Armes against them besides free Quarter and Souldiers yet unpayd His Majesty on the other side driven away with a few Attendants not having among them so many Swords and Pistols as these had Cannons wanting both Mony Horses and Ammunition onely what hee received from the piety of some beleiving Subjects whose eares were Pamphlet-proofe against all defamations and scandals cast upon sacred Majesty finding slender Provision in his own Dominions and that stopt or seized which came from forreigne parts No Shipping but what he purchast with the precious and extream hazard of his few but valiant Subjects No Armes but what he gained by the couragious venture of his own neglected life the subject of our continuall Prayers Yet hath God covered his head in the day of battaile and blest him with such successe that He is by the Divine Providence become a great Master of the Field and almost able to maintain fight with his own Ships at Sea The God of Heaven blesse him and prosper him and make his dayes as the dayes of Heaven that being here the Faiths defender he may still bee defended by the Object of that Faith Nor is the providentiall hand of God more visible in prospering him then in punishing his Enemies whose ruines may remain as Sea-marks to us and Pyramids of Gods Power whereof a touch Sir Iohn Hotham then Governour of Hull who first defied and dared his Soveraigne to his face what is become of him How stands he a Marke betwixt two dangers having nothing left him but guilt enough to make him capable of a desperate Fortune Master Hambden that first waged Law and then Warre against his own naturall Prince hath not he since these unhappy troubles began been first punished with the losse of children nay visited to the third Generation to the weakning if not ruining of his Family and then with the losse of his own life in the same place where hee first took up Armes against his gracious Soveraign was it not remarkeable that the Lord Brooke who often excepted against that clause in the Lyturgie From sudden death good Lord deliver us was slaine so suddenly who was so severe an enemy against Peace should perish in the same Warre he so encouraged Who so bitterly inveyed against Episcopall Government should be shot dead out of a Cathedrall Church who labouring to put out the left eye of establisht Government his left eye and life were both put out together How is Duke Hamilton scarce warme in his new Honour taken in his own snare having entangled his Lord and Master in so many inconveniences How is Holland whose livelyhood was created by his Soveraignes favour branded with a double treachery and like a Shittlecocke fallen at the first return and scarce able to raise himselfe by a sorry Declaration Is not Bristoll Fines who at his Councell of Warre condemned and executed innocent blood himselfe condemned pleading innocence at a Councell of Warre from the mouth of his owne Generall though finding perchance more Mercy then he either deserved or shewed But that blood that cryed to him for Mercy will cry to Heaven for vengeance And are not many more ripe for the same Iudgment whose notorious Crimes have branded them for their respective punishments How many of those blood-preaching Ministers have died expectorating Blood whilst others at this time labouring under the same disease can find no Art to promise a Recovery All whom I leave to possible Repentance and passe over Cromwell that profest defacer of Churches witnesse Peterborough and Lincolne c. and Rifeler of the Monuments of the dead whose prophane Troopers if Fame has not forgot to speake a Truth waterd their horses at the Font and fed them at the Holy Table that Cromwell Sandes whose sacrilegious Troopers committed such barbarous insolencies with his at least connivance in the Church of Canterbury and used such inhumane tortures on the tender brests of women to force confession of their hidden goods the golden subjects of their Robbery What can the first expect and what reward the other hath found I neither prophecie nor judge If these and such as they doe fight for the Reformed Religion God deliver every good man both from them and it Cursed be their wrath for it is fierce and their Anger for it is cruell These and of such many are they that whilst they pretend a Reformation need first to be reformed Nor do I in taxing this Army of such impious Barbarismes excuse or rather not condemne the other whereof no question too great a number are as equally profane whilst all together make up one body of wickednesse to bring a ruine on this miserable Kingdome for whose impieties His Majesty hath so often suffered I but His Majesties Army besides those looser sorts of people consists of numerous Papists the utter enemies of true Religion To whom the King hath sworne his protection from those hee may require assistance But unto all his people as well Papists as Protestants hee hath sworne his protection therefore from all his subjects as well Papists as Protestants he may require assistance Neither does he call in Papists as Papists to maintaine Religion as himselfe hath alwayes manifested but as subjects to subdue or at least qualifie Sedition The ayde of the subject is either in his person or in his purse both are requireable to the service of a Soveraigne Put case His Majesty should use the assistance of none but Protestants tell me would ye not be apt to cavill that he is favourable to the Papists neither willing to endanger their persons nor endammage their purses or at least that they are reserved for a last blow Or in case Papists should largely underwrite to your Propositions send in Horses Armes or other Provisions would you not accept it and for its sake their persons too Are you so strict in your Preparations as to catechize every souldier Or to examine first every Officers Religion Or having the proffer of a good Popish or debaucht Commander tell me should he be denied his Commission Remember Sir Arthur Ashton whom His Majesty entertaines by your Example These things indifferently considered it will manifestly appeare that the honest minded vulgar are meerly seduced under the colour of piety to be so impious as by poysoning every action of their lawfull Prince to foster their implicite Rebellion But in case your side should prosper and prevaile what then would then our Miseries be at an end Reason tels us No God keeps us from the experience Think you that Government whether new or reformed which is set up by the sword must not be maintained by the sword And how can Peace and Plenty bee consistent with perpetuall
Peace-makers They courage to the Persecutors He Blessedness to the persecuted They brand them with Malignity that call them blessed God was not heard in the whirlewind but in the still voice But his thoughts are not as our thoughts neither are our wayes like his wayes But whence proceeds all this even from a viperous Generation which hath long nested in this unhappy Island and those encreased Multitudes of simple soules seduced by their seeming sanctity who taking advantage of our late too great abuse of Ceremonies are turnd desperate enemies to all Order and Discipline being out of charity with the very Lords Prayer because it comes within the Popish Liturgie How many of these have lately challenged the name of sanctified Vessels for conteyning the poyson of unnaturall Sedition How many of these have usurpt the stile of well-affected for disaffected Peace How many of these have counterfeited the honour of good Patriots for largely contributing towards the Ruines of their Country How many does this Army consist of How for their sakes is Blasphemy connived at Sacriledge permitted How for their encouragement are Lyes and brasle-browd Impudencies invented nay publisht nay published in the very Pulpits and tolerated if not commanded even by them who perchance were this quarrell ended would throw the first stone 〈◊〉 them How many of our Learned Religious and Orthodox Divines who by their able Tongues and Pens have defended and maintained the true ancient and Catholique Faith and vindicated the Reformed Religion from the aspersions of her potent Adversaries are now plundered in their Goods sequestred in their Livings imprisoned in their persons if not forced in their Consciences whilest their wives and poor children begging their Bread are left to the mercy of these unmercifull times even for the encouragement of them whose pedanticke learning durst never shew her ridiculous face before an easie Schoole-man whose livelyhoods they unworthily usurpe not dispensing the bread of life but the darnell of giddy-headed fancie and sedition abhorring the way to peace and maligning those that ensue it I but we desire Peace so we may have Truth too What mean ye by having Truth The preservation of the Old Truth or the Institution of a New If ye feare the alteration of the Old having your Soveraignes Oath which you dare not beleive what other Assurance can you have The Blood you shed is certaine The change you feare is uncertaine It is no wisdome to apply a desperate Remedy to a suspected disease If the enjoyment of Peace depends upon a full Assurance of Truth our discords may beare an everlasting date God hath threatned to remove his Candlesticke and our wickednesse justly feares it And so long as we feare it shall we abjure Peace the blessed meanes to prevent it He that seeks to settle Truth by the sword distracts it Or is it a Truth ye want If so Is it of Doctrine or of Discipline If of doctrine Actum est de nostra Religione Farewell our Religion Or is it of Discipline Discipline is but a Ceremony And did the Lord of the Sabboth dispence with a morall Law for the preservation of an Oxes life or an Asses and shall we to alter some few indifferent Ceremonies allowed by the Parliaments of three pious and wise Princes and the practice of many holy Martyres who sealed the true Protestant Religion with their blood cry downe Peace and shed the blood of many thousand Christians Our seduced Protestants will have no set Formes of Prayer but what proceeds immediatly from their own Fancies This is their Truth Our Semi-Separatists will heare our Sermons if they like the Teacher but no Divine service This is their Truth Our Separatists will not communicate in our Churches nor joyâ—e in our Congregations That is their Truth Our Auabaptists will not baptize till yeares of discretion and rebaptize That is their Truth Our Antinomians will have no Repentance This is their Truth Our Independants will have an universall Parity This their Truth Good God when shall we have Peace if not till all these Truths meet But Christ sayes I come not to bring Peace but the Sword therefore for the propagation of Peace it is lawfull to use the Sword So He is termed a stumbling Blocke and does that warrant us to stumble So He sayes All you shall be offended because of me and does this patronize our Offences The Law is good and just Because then we had not knowne sin but by the Law is it therefore lawfull for us to sin God forbid Our Saviour brings the Sword among us as wholesome meat brings sicknesse to a weakely sicke stomack or physick to a body abounding with Humours not intentionally but occasionally Thus by your erronious and weak mistakes you make the Prince of Peace the Patron of your unnaturall Warre and the God of Truth the president of your unexamined errors But Almighty God the Champion of his own Truth and maintainer of his own Cause hath to more then common admiration appeared in this great enterprize He that delivered Israels handfull from the hand of Pharaohs Host hath shewed himselfe in the almost incredible proceedings of this heaven-displeasing Warre the briefe relation whereof may move those hearts that are not scared or stone to melt into a thankfull Acknowledgement of his Power and remaine as Monuments of his Mercy that children yet unborne may say hereafter God was here viz. The two Houses of Parliament made first a generall seizure of all the Armes Ammunition Castles Forts Magazines and Ships being the whole visible strength of this unhappy Kingdome to whom having now setled the Militia both by Sea and Land in their own hands tides of Proposition gold came in upon the Publicke Faith Monie like blood from the Liver conveyed through all the veines issued to make a large supply and where it stopt awhile mountaines of massie Plate from the vast Goblet to the slender Thimble this Faith removed into their safe possession And when the great Milch Cow began to â—lake they prest her Nipples and by hard streyning renewd the streame As Physitians evacuate the Body sometimes by Vomit sometimes by Purge sometimes by Phlebetomie sometimes by sweating sometimes by sluxing sometimes diuretically yet purge but the same peccant humour So did they first by Proposition then by way of Contribution now by way of Loane then by way of Subsidie no lesse then 50 at one time hereby way Assessement there by way of Twentieth part then by way of Excise one while by way of Sequestration then by way of Plunder but still the issue MONY And to work the better upon the Affections of the Multitude all this for the behoofe of King and Parliament for the pretended defence of God knowes what Religion Insomuch that Men came in like Swarmes to the next Tree or rather like treacherous Decoyes with their innocent Multitude into the Net and Horses without Number Thus were they supplyed with all necessaries which
Garrisons which must bee maintained with a perpetuall charge besides the continuall excursions and connived-at injuries committed by Souldiers judge you Or put the case this necessary Consequence could be avoided think you the ambition of some new States-men accustomed to such Arbitrary and necessitated power on the one side and the remaining loyalty of His Majesties dis-inherited Subjects watching all opportunities to right their injured Soveraigne and themselves on the other side would not raise perpetuall tempests in this Kingdome Or if such an almost unpreventable evill should not ensue think you such swarmes of Sectaries sweat for nothing Are their purses so apt to bleed to no end Will not their costs and paines expect at least a congratulatory connivance in the freedome of their consciences Or will their swords now in the strong possession of so great a multitude know the way into their quiet scabbards without the expected liberty of their Religions And can that liberty produce any thing but an establisht disorder And is not Disorder the mother of Anarchie and that of Ruine Open then your eyes closed with crasse and wilfull blindnesse and consider and prevent that which your continued disobedience will unavoidably repent too late But the truth is They are all Papists by your Brand that comply not in this action with you Admit it were so Are not Papists as tolerable for His Majesty as Anabaptists Brownists Separatists Atheists Antinomians Turkes and indeed all Religions and Factions nay Papists too for His Subjects These of His Majesties side come freely out of their Allegiance as Subjects Yours are preached in comming out of obstinacie as Rebels They at their own charges proportionable to their Abilities These like Iudas selling their Soveraignes Blood for ill paid wages Yet both sides pretend a Quarrell for the true Protestant Religion Good God! What a monstrous Religion is this that seeks protection from the implacable opposition of her two Champions His Majesty protests to maintain it The two Houses protest to maintain it O for an Oedipus to read this Riddle His Majesty addes one Clause more wherein if the other Party would agree the work would be at an end which is According to the establisht Constitutions by Oath taken by him at his Coronation And there the two Houses leave him contending for a yet undetermined alteration And for my part I dare not conceive such evill of the Lords Annointed and my Gracious Soveraigne as to feare him perjured Hath not His Majesty in the presence of that God by whom hee reignes imprecated the Curse of Heaven on him and his Royall Posterity Sub Sigillo Sacramenti too if He to his utmost maintaine not the True Protestant Religion exercised in that blessed Queenes dayes and propagated by the blood of so many glorious Martyrs at which time God blest this Island in so high a measure if hee preserve not the just Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberty of the Subject Nay more did not His Majesty so promise the severe execution of the Statute against all Recusants that if he failed he desired not the ayde of his good Subjects What inferiour person would not think his Reputation wronged not to take up confidence upon such terrible termes What notorious evill hath his Majesty perpetrated to quench the sparkles of a common Charity Consider O Consider Hee acts his part before the King of Kings whose eye is more especially upon Him He acts his part before his fellow Princes to whom he hath declared this his Imprecation Hee acts his part before his Subjects whose stricter hand weighes his pious words with too unequall Ballances Were he the acknowledger of no God yet the Princes of the earth if guilty of such a Perjury would abhorre him Or were all the Princes of the earth blind deafe or partiall would not he think his Crown a burthen to be worne upon his perjured brow before his owne abused people Or having renounced his Subjects ayde upon his faile could he expect that loyalty which now he wants upon a meen suspition But He is a Prince whom God hath crowned with graces above his fellowes A Prince whom for his Piety few Ages could parallell What Vices of the times have branded his Repute His Youth high diet strength of body and Soveraign Power might have inclined and warpt him to luxurious vanity as well as other Monarks whose effeminaries have enerved the strength of their declining Kingdomes How many would have held it a Preferment to be Attorny to his Royall Lust or Secretary to His Bosom Sinne Yet he remaines a president of unblemisht Chastity He might have pleased and pampered up his wanton Palate with the choise of curious Wines to lighten Cares which wait upon the regall Diademe Yet he continues the patterne of a chast Sobriety He might have magnified his Mercy and sold his Justice to reward a Service in pardoning offences committed by those of neare relation yet Hee abides the example of inexorable Justice These and many other eminent Graces and illustrious Virtues can claime no Birth from Flesh and Blood especially in those whose pupillages are strangers to Correction Nor is it safe Divinity to acknowledge such high Gifts from any hand but Heaven Which being so my Conscience and Religion tells me that Almighty God who is all perfection will not leave a work so forward so imperfect but will from day to day still adde and adde to his transcendent virtues till he appeare the Glory of the World and after many yeares be crowned in the World of Glory Martial lib. 8. Ep. 66. Rerum prima salus una Caesar. Post-script to the Reader NOw thou hast heard the Harmony of Scriptures without Corruption and the Language of Reason without Sophistry Thou hast not only heard Divine Precepts but those Precepts backt with holy Examples Neither those out of the Old Testament alone but likewise out of the New Being now no Matter left for thy Exceptions prevaricate no longer with thy own soule And in the feare of God I now adjure thee once againe as thou wilt answer before the Tribunull at the dreadfull and terrible day that thou faithfully examine and ponder the plaine Texts which thou hast read and yeelding due obedience to them stop thine eares against all sinister expositions and remember that historicall Scripture will admit no allegoricall interpretations If any thing in this Treatise shall deserve thy Answer doe it punctually briefly plainely and with meeknesse If by direct Scripture thou canst without wresting refute my Errour thou shalt reforme and save thy Brother If not recant thine and hold it no dishonour to take that shame to thy selfe which brings Glory to thy God 1. S. PET. 3. 15. Bee alwayes ready to give an answer to every one that asketh you a reason with meeknesse and feare FINIS THE NEW DISTEMPER WRITTEN By the AUTHOR of the Loyall Convert Hilar. de Trin. Lib. 4. Hoc habet proprium Ecclesia dum persecutionē patitur floret
divers Acts of Parl. in the dayes of Q◠Eliz. King Iames and King Charles our now gracious Soveraigne whom Almighty God long preserve But this establisht Discipline had no sooner being but enemies of which sort the devill hath alwayes instruments to nip the Plants of Religion in the Bud whose number daily since encreasing grew hotter and hotter in opposition and stronger and stronger in faction being too long for peace fake conniv'd at and at last too unseasonably and violently opposed insomuch that the disease in these our late dayes grew too powerfull for the Remedy so that the Distemper of our Church in that respect is growne so high that I feare Phlebotomy will rather produce a further languishment being already come to Madnesse then a Cure Nay so far have the Enemies of this establisht Government and Discipline given way to their exorbitant and refractory Opinion that they will neither allow the Matter nor the Forme nor the Authority and testimony of the Composers 1. Not the Matter though they cannot but acknowledge it in the generall to be very good yet because it was unsanctified by superstitious lips 2. Not the Forme because set and composed by Humane Invention 3. Not the Composers because Bishops and so though Martyrs for the Cause of God and his true Religion Members of Antichrist 1. As for their Exceptions against the Matter how ridiculous they are let Reason judge Have not superstitious tongues and eyes viewed and read the Scriptures in their very Originall and purity Shall therefore the Scriptures be disallowed Have not superstitious persons profaned our Churches with their Popish Doctrines Sacraments and Ceremonies and shall our Churches therefore be cryed downe or shut against the Ordinances of God because those Poets were Heathenish was S. Paul afraid to use their sayings Was the Spirit of God too blame to endite them Good things abused work evill effects upon the abusers but lose not their goodnesse by the Abuse 2. As for their Exceptions against the Forme being set and not conceived the Authority of the Scriptures I hope will answer God the Father warrants it God the Son prescribes it God the holy Ghost allowes it 1. God the Father warrants it in the Old Testament at the time of the Law by his command to Moses Numb 6. 21. where he gives him a set forme and words to blesse the people The Lord blesse thee and keep thee the Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee 2. God the Sonne prescribes it in the New Testament in the time of the Gospel Whe◠S. Iohn the Baptist had taught his Disciples to pray the Disciples of Jesus Christ whose house was called the house of Prayer humbly requested the fame boone from him who prescribed them that Forme which he had formerly used in the end of his Sermon Mat. 6. 9. which he intended not as a Model as some would have it but a very Prayer it selfe to be used in those very words as they were delivered Luke 11. 2. not After this manner but when ye pray 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say That he will'd the same words to be used is evident For his Disciples would be taught as Iohn taught his And how were they taught S. Iohn taught them the words onely he could not give them the Spirit to make an extemporary descant upon them So that being a direct Set Forme it warranted Set Formes which were used from the beginning of the Primitive Church from whence this part of our Discipline had her originall 3. God the holy Spirit allowes it Who dare question that the holy Spirit inspired S. Paul in all his Epistles written to the Churches In all which Epistles he concludes with this one Prayer The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ c. 3. As for their exceptions against the Composers of this Lyturgie who were no lesse then holy Martyrs and by Fire-light saw more Revelations then these Objectors did by day-light men of approved learning and true piety though some have impudence and spirituall pide enough to think their owne abilities and inspiratious to flye a higher pitch and Ignorance enough to acknowledge greater knowledge in themselves yet the most humble able and truly sanctified minds have alwaies had Martyrdome in so high reverence that they conclude that God that made their blood the seed of the Church and gave them the courage and honour to dye in the maintenance of the Truth would not permit that seed to bring forth such darnel of superstition or them to die guilty of those Errors they so resolutely cryed down with their dying blood 2. As for her government by Episcopacie the extirpation wherof being a great addition to her Distemper It hath as much or more Ius Divinum to plead then that which endeavours to demolish succeed it Presbyterie Both are but mentioned in the Scripture at large but no particular Rules for the executing the office of either which being left wholly as arbitrary it rests in the power of the Supreme Magistrate whom God hath constituted his Vicegerent to choose and establish which may best be found consistent with the Constitutions of the Kingdome and stand to most advantage with the civil Government But admit the Civil Government will stand with either When the Balances stand eavenly poised the least Grain turns it In things indifferent the smallest circumstance casts it This Island of Bitaine if we look back above 1400 yeares being a long Prescription when she first received the Faith was then governed by King Lucius whom God made a great Instrument for reducing of this Kingdome from Paganisme who sending to Rome and accommodated from thence with two Christian and learned Divines by their labours and Gods assistance upon them planted the Gospel At the beginning of which plantation Arch-Flamins and Flamins were put downe and in their roome Archbishops and Bishops were introduced which Government successively continued and flourisht through the reigns of many wise Princes confirmed by many Acts of Parliament since the Reformation exercised and approved by holy Martyrs and allowed of as most fitting until the yeare of our Lord 1641. At which time multitudes of the lower sort of people throughout this Kingdome petitioned and tumultuously troubled the Parliament so that some of the Members perchance according to their inclination and others for quietnesse sake consented to the abolition and extirpation of Episcopacy the unadviz'd Contents of their clamorous Petitions Now if these Governments Hierarchicall and Presbyteriall be indifferent these Circumstances First of the time when Episcopall Government began Secondly of the unintermissive continuance for so many Ages Thirdly the credit of the persons confirming and approving it me thinks should cast such a kind of necessity upon it that the other being an untry'd Government and having no consent or approbation from the Supreme Magistrate and being onely cryed in by the Ignorant multitude affected to novelties and change should have no wise friend to plead for
maligned so maliciously calumniated that I have thought good to cast away some Inke upon him not in vindication of the Doctor whose Conscience enlightned by the Scriptures needs no Champion but to rectifie the abused vulgar who by the help of such Pneumaticall Fantasticks have turnd their leaden apprehensions into Quick-silverd Zeale which hath swallowed up and devoured their duty to their betters their faire demeanour to their equalls and their charity to all Relations This unwo thy Pamphleter in the Progresse of his more unworthy work against this worthy Member uses that method which Bâ—elzebâ—b the prince of Flyes prescribes him who like a Fly buzzes through his whole Larder blowing here there but leaâ—ing such fruitfull corruption that in short time his whole store nay if possible the very Bread of life moulded by the hand of heaven which hee hath set apart in his margent would grow unsavoury He begins at the Dedication Epistle repeating the Doctors words then poysoning them with his owne Calumnies whereunto if â—ur Patience equall Readers will admit me by the name of a Replyer you shall have all woven together in one Loome Wherein I purpose not to load your eares with those his frivolous preambles and impertinences which would swell this Pamphlet beyond your Patience but suddenly to rush into the List. D. Burges Dedication Title To the Right Honourable WILLIAM Earle of PEMBROKE c. Calumniator Popery and Superstition at the first dash Dedication is a meer Pâ—pish Ceremony begun by the Antichristian Hierarchy derived from deo and dicatio which is a vowing to God It was first used when Steeplehouses or Meeting-places were built which Papists call Churches dedicating them to God or to those they honoured as much Saints whereof some of them are now roring in hell under which pretence they juggled holyness into them more then into Barnes or Stables Now this Book the Doctor dedicates to the Earle of Pembroke whereby he secretly acknowledges him either a God or a Saint If a God he blasphemes If a Saint he lyes for he was a Courtier and preferd the King before the Elect whereas Saints imitate God and should be no Respecters of persons in whose eyes Kings and Subjects are alike Replyer When Ignorance hath shot forth her shady leaves how quickly Impiety budds and then how suddenly Rebellion blossoms Ignorance first taught thee a false Eâ—imologie of a word then Impiety suggests a slight estimation of a Church and then Rebellion insinuates a disreputation of a King Now one lash more at schoole would have helpt all this by curing that Ignorance and letting you know that Dedication is derived from De here taken perfective and dicatio which is an offering or a presentation which two words joyned carry the sense of a full or totall presentation of this Book to whom he presented it Now Cal. where 's the Blasphemie or where 's the Lye â—â—t them even both returne to the base mouth from whence they came And that one lash more which might have cured thy Ignorance in time might save Gregory some labour and thee some paines in an undedicated Meeting-place D. Burges in the Epistle Dedicatory It viz. this Treatise speaks of Fire But such as was made to warme and not to burne any thing unlesse stubble Cal. I knew what temper your fire your zeale had luke-warme Master Doctor apt to receive warmth or flame according to the times Rep. It is the devils custome to leave out halfe the Text Let mee supply your defect Cal. To warme solid hearts Not to burne any thing but such stubble as you and then the sentence is perfect D. Burges Here is no ground for an Utopian spirit to mould a new Common-wealth no warrant for Sedition to touch the Lords Anointed so much as with her tongue No occasion administred to Ishmael to scoffe at Isaac no Salamanders lodge themselves here Cal. An Utopian spirit is a word of your owne coyning whereof I confesse my ingenious ignorance But I perceive this opinion which you pin upon Pembrok's sleeve admits rather of an old Popish Government then of the moulding of a New by an holy Reformation It makes such an Idol of your King whom you falsly tear me the Lords Anointed that it brands that hand with the aspersion of Sedition and that tongue with the guilt of Impiety that touches him whereas Kings are but men and wicked Kings but Beasts in Gods eye and the righteous have Gods power and may touch them nay and scourge them too But I feare your Zeal burnes now onely to light your Doctorship to a Deanery What you meane by Salamanders I know not Repl. You professe Ignorance Cal. in the beginning and ending of your learned speech and discover Treason in the whole Body The first Ignorance you pâ—ofessâ— is of an Vtopian spirit wherein I thus informe you It is a fanaticall spirit even your owne spirit by which you pray Nonsense by the houre preach Treason by the halfe day and ejaculate blasphemies every minute Your last ignorance is of the Salamanders wherein I thus instruct you They are the fierie spirits that dwell within your flaming bosomes by which ye murther under the pretence of piety rob by way of Religion and fling dirt in the face of Majesty by colour of zeale No wonder Cal. those spirits are unknowne to you when ye know not of what spirit ye are As for the body of your speech we leave it to the judgement of Authoritis D. Burges But here 's a flame that will lick up all angry wasps and inflamed tongues that presumptuously and without feare speak evill of dignities and of things they understand not railing on all not so free as themselves to foame at the mouth and to cast their froth on all that are neare without difference Cal. This your Flame courtly Master Doctor lights us to understand that your saintly Patrone had then some remarkable Living in his Gift or power to make you one of the Kings Chaplains in ordinary strengthned with the hopes whereof you thus magnifie dignities that is Kingship Lordship and Bishopship And I am verily perswaded if Amalâ—ck or Esau whom God cursed were in being your liâ—sy woolsy Zeale would endeavour to vindicate them from that Curse Or if Caiphas the High Priest were placed in office here you have a Pensill to paynt his Wall white enough for Paul to curse Repl. Cal. I feare you are one of those angry wasps the Doctor 's Zeal licks up and his Pen now above 19 yeares old discoverd your nest being a faction now in power and prophesied of above 1500 yeares since whose malepert sawcy and slovenly Tenets were well known to him to be the Ivie of the true Orthodox and Primitive Religion whose ambitious and fiery spirits hating all Government both in Church and State casting their foame and froth in the face of Majesty and Hierarchie without respect of honour or place his conscience enlightned and instructed by the holy Scriptures hated