intelligence with the Cardinall Mazarine Though I will not swear saies he that Lenthall says true yet I am sure 't is fit for thee to know Pap. 1. Here was another Clandestine businesse And further he doth consult with her about supplies of Men Monies and Powder for defence of his life against them of Westminster Pap. 3. and gives her direction for the conveyance of it in some other Papers a businesse Clandestine and shrewd too And in Paper 6. he assures her in private that Hertogen the Irish Agent was an arrant Knave a particular which might concerne the men of Westminster and touch them more close then perhaps every body will yet beleeve Besides in most of these Letters we shall finde the King and his Queen comforting and supporting each other under their heavy burdens with mutuall intimation of perfect love and patheticall expressions of conjugall affection All which are notable proceedings indeed against them at Westminster and great obstructions to their endevours which are to breake the Hearts of both and sinke them to their graves presently And thus we see the nature and danger of the first particular in the Charge concerning Clandestine proceedings which are so evident that we can say nothing against it The 2. followes the proof whereof is more and obscure and that is condemning all that are in any degree Protestants in Oxford by which they would have it beleeved that the King is so great an Enemy to Protestant Religion that his very friends at Oxford who have forsaken all they had for his sake are hated by him for their Religion sake so many of them as are Protestants in any degree But how this is manifest in these his Papers we are to seek for though these men have forehead enough to affirme it yet their fortune is not good enough to prove it Indeed we find the King in his Letters to Ormond Paper 16. and in his Directions to his Commissioners at Uxbridge taking great care and giving strict Charge for the preservation of his Protestant Subjects in Ireland but in no place can we see so much as a sillable tending to the condemnation of Protestant Religion But these men cannot leave their old trade of Taxing the King with their own Conditions Heaven and Earth can witnesse that never was there in England greater enemies to Protestant Religion then themselves have been never was there so much Protestant Bloud spilt in this Nation since the beginning of the world as hath been by their meanes within these foure years Never was London so full of Prisons never the Prisons so full of Protestant Divines Protestant Nobles Gentry and Christians of all sorts as they have been since these good men kept Court at Westminster Besides how they have Countenanced and brought into the Church all kinde of Sects and Heresies to the ruine of Protestantisme which the King for the Honour and Health thereof was alwayes carefull to suppresse and keep out How have they maintained and preached Doctrines of Devills scil of strife murder of Brethren Rebellion against Princes oppression of neighbours and practised the same which are all directly opposite to the Religion of the Protestants How have they abolished the Book of Common-Prayer established by Parliament to be the Protestants publick forme of Worshiping and serving God in this Kingdome Had the King done but any one of these things or were he not himselfe a most constant and zealous Professour of Protestant Religion in his daily practice these men might happily have had some Colour for this their confident Charge against him and so to have created suspitions of him But seeing all things are so cleare contrary we learne onely thus much from this particular on their charge that they are men whose hearts are not overspiced with honesty They passe not what they say nor with what face so they say no truth The third particular which they load their King withall is Tolleration of Idolatry to Papists which they speak as if Idolatry sub eo nomine were already allowed and set up by the Kings Authority in contempt of God and true Religion and so doubtlesse they would have it apprehended Reasonable men will yeild that there is a difference betwixt Idolatry and the Penalty thereof the penalty may be suspended altered or taken away for the time and yet the sinne it selfe not tollerated or allowed These doubty Champions will not yeild that their Parlia have granted a tolleration to Adultery though they have abrogated the penal Lawes against that sin and so taken away the meanes to punish it Nor can they prove that the King hath promised any more to Papists then the Parliament hath already granted to fornicatours In their after-notes where they make repetition of this matter they referre the Reader to Paper the 8. for their ground of it In which we finde the King relating to His Queen how the English Rebells had transmitted the Commands of Ireland from the Crowne of England to the Scots an expression worthy by the way to be observed by all Englishmen that regard the honour of their Nation considering that the King Himself is a Scot and that the men of Westminster intend if they cannot kill Him to thrust Him and His Children as some of their Hang-bies have whispered to His Ancient Inheritance in Scotland when they have made use of His People of that Nation to help to destroy His Kingly Power here not one Scot of them all shall have any footing or any more to doe in this Kingdome I say considering this every true Englishman hath cause most highly to reverence the King for His Justice unto and His care of the dignity of the English Crown But to proceed the King tells His Queen that by that Act that base and ignoble act He found Reformation of the Church not to be as they pretended the end of this Rebellion and concludes it would be no piety but presumption rather in Himselfe not to use all lawfull meanes to maintaine His righteous Cause And as one mean to that purpose not thought of before He gives His Queen leave to promise in His Name that all penall Lawes in England against Roman Catholicks shall be taken away as soone sayes He as God shall inable me to doe it upon this Conditiion so as by their meanes I may have so powerfull assistance as may deserve so great a favour and inable me to doe it Now how truly from these words that accusation is collected let the Readers Judge Here they see is no absolute grant or tolleration of Idolatry as they pretend but only a conditionary promise of withdrawing the penall Statutes against the Papists His Subjects if by their meanes He may be delivered from this bloudy raging and malicious persecution of the Puritans and settled in His power and throne again And well may the Papists expect as much favour from the King for such a service as Adulterers have had already from the Parliament gratis Nor perhaps
That 't is an heinous crime and sin in the King to endeavour to maintain Monarchy or to solicite any Princes though Protestants and of his owne nearest bloud and Alliance beside to aide him therein 3. That all Princes are contained and included in the King of Denmarke for in the Kings soliciting him he solicites all them Whence by the way we may also observe how provident these times are in providing for the credit of their future Clergy for 't is doubtlesse for their sakes that an Argument à singularibus ad universalia is here amongst other like stuffe made paâ—â—able and good by Authority and speciall Order of Parliament Concerning the Religion of these men it hath been made apparent already that the fruits and effects of it speake it to be such a one as deserves the hatred of all men though it cannot under any proper name be the object of the Kings opposition for no man can directly say what it is themselves are not yet resolved upon it nor what to call it But whatever is the ground of the Kings opposing them 't is evident that the Cause of their resisting him which I hope all Christian Princes will take speciall notice of is for Monarchy sake he would maintaine Monarchy He will not tamely admit the downfall of Monarchy in this noble Kingdome which these men as appears by their owne words would faine effect and therefore they thus persecute him and exclaim upon him nor are they either ashamed or affraid to intimate the same to the whole world let all the Monarchs of the Earth take it as an open defyance if they please they thinke themselves able to grapple with them all yea they and their faction where ere they prevaile are resolved not to leave a Monarch standing I desire of all you His Majesties Subjects of Great Brittain and Ireland who have unfortunately been seduced by this faction but to observe well this discovery which themselves have made by this passage of their own intentions they have told you oft and perhaps may tell you againe by some impudent speech or declaration that they intend still to maintaine true Religion and Monarchy in this Kingdome to have a King over them and that they be only ill tongues Enemies to Parliaments that say otherwise c. But I beseech you beleeve not a word they say to this purpose for God hath here made their owne tongues and pens to betray their Hearts for your sakes that you might speedily withdraw your selves from their seduction and not be their Instruments to embrew your hands in the bloud of your Soveraigne and to take from him his Inheritance who hath alway defended you in yours with peace and plenty till by their fraud and violence he was disabled and how have you enjoyed your selves and comforts since let your experience speak it to your owne Hearts Be you assured from what you have felt that Monarchy is the Protection of this Nation and of you the good people in it call but to minde the daies past when a Monarch only had the Militia in his disposing quà m placide poâ—ens dominusque vitae how pleasingly powerfull was he in the use of it with what innocent hands did he sway the Scepter How unbloudy was his whole raigne How tender and sparing of the lives of his Subjects Populus iste non bella nôrâ—t non tubae fermituâ— truces non arma gentes cingeres assuêrant suas muris nec urbes we knew not what Warres or Alarums meant nor did we need weapons to protect our selves nor Walls to defend our Cities pervium cunctis iter every man might travaile safely communis usus omnium rerum fuit there was a common use of all Common blessings yea and every man beside without disturbance enjoyed the comfort of his own Labours But since Monarchiall Government hath been obscured by these mens introduction of themselves upon the Stage of Action what hath been in practise amongst us but all kind of Oppression Tyranny Injustice and Villany whereof I heartily wish that your Experience did need my further information wherefore I pray take speciall notice of this passage 't is published you see to the world by Authority of Parliament yea by their speciall Order and therefore you have reason to beleeve it to be the true intent of their Hearts and the rather because 't is so agreeable to all their Actions yea though the contrary should be told you hereafter by the same Authority Be it known I say unto you all and remember it well the end of all these warres and fightings against the King is to destroy Monarchy in this Kingdome and to keepe you the free-borne Subjects of it in this turbulent slavish and underly condition whereunto a few of your Tyrannicall fellow-Subjects have already brought you they tell you sometimes that 't is the Militia of the Kingdome onely which they would have settled in good hands and the King shall be King still but your experience have taught you that no hands are so good as his neither can the Kings bare Title be able to defend you in your possession They tell you that they will defend you but you have payed for so much wit as to judge of what you shall have by what you have had already from them therefore as no man having tasted old wine straightway desireth new viz. if he be also acquainted with the relish of the new for he saies the Old is better so you having had a sufficient tast of both Governments the Monarchicall and the other new one which we cannot yet tell by what name to call have no reason by any meanes to allow of this since you are so sure that the old is better In a word let this Conclusion be rooted in your Hearts which experience hath in part confirmed unto your senses that as the Moone and Starres would fall infinitly short of that bright Lustre which now they have if the Sunne were stripped of his abundant shining so take from the King his Royall Prerogative let him be as a King and no King and all the people great and small will quickly feel that from his flourishing Condition proceeded all their happinesse I shall not here need to spend time in shewing the Excellency of Monarchy above all other Governments and the fitnesse of it for this Nation abler Pens have done that abundantly since the beginning of this unreasonable Rebellion only this I say to introduce any other forme into this Kingdome is a new thing never yet in being here and therefore I apprehend such an Act to be a perfect opposition unto Gods revealed will whosoever be the Agents in it for as the saying is Qui mala introducit voluntatem Dei oppugnat revelatum in verbo qui nova introducit voluntatem Dei oppugnat revelatum in rebus and therefore I advise all Statesmen consulere providentiam Dei cum verbo Dei to take Councell of Gods Providence as well as of
soon after they tell us the King sent them a message to state the differences between them on both sides promising that when they shall be digested into a body fit to be judged of it shall appeare what He will do In this sure the King was in a great errour thus to send to them about composing differences when their intended work was to make and widen them rather wherefore wholly neglecting that particular The House of Commons say they the Lords refusing to joyne did onely in Answer thereto requiâ—e the Tower of London to be at their disposing and withall for the King ever saved as little by delaying to grant their first demands as by yeelding to them they require now that the Militia of the whole Kingdome be put into such hands as they should recommend to which the King makes a reply which is also to be reckoned among the rest of his faults in these words as themselves testifie That the Militia by Law is subject to no Command but His owne which He will reserve to Himself as a principall and inseparable Flower of His Crowne and professes to take care of peace and the rights of the Subject equally with His life or the lives of His dearest Children He further also conjures them by all Acts of Duty and favour received by hopes of future mutuall happinesse by their love of Religion the Peace both of this Kingdome and Ireland not to be transported with feares and jealousies Surely here was enough from the mouth and hand of a Religious King to have prevailed with any that had not before entred into a Covenant with Hell But say these men the Parliament could not because they would not beleeve themselves secured by these professions and asseverations and the King would not because He could not understand that the setling the Militia at this time in confiding Hands to prevent Civill War was any other then the taking the Crown from his Head Hinc illa Lacrymae say they So they are resolved it seemes at the very first to raise a Civill War unlesse the King would beleeve that he might put more confidence in other men then in himselfe and that he might maintain his Crown and dignity without having any Command over the Militia Well yet notwithstanding all these affronts put upon His Majesties faithfulnesse and these contempts of His gratious Asseverations The King say these men neverthelesse persists to declare his abhorrence of the Irish Rebellion frequently inciting the Parliament to send succours which made them more averse thereto lest the King should please himself in thinking they regarded Him or his desires in any thing which indeed would have been a very Grand errour in him Then they relate How the King abjures any privity to plots and designes against the Laws and makes strict Proclamation for putting them in execution against Papists who were reported to be the plotters that so if possible He might give satisfaction But the Parliament being resolved do still pursue their own designe and as if it had been the onely Businesse for which the King by his Writ did call them together they still urge Him to settle the Militia upon them And as they remember us upon his refusall so to do thoughts of peace being laid aside they seazed upon the Towne of Hull His Magazine of Armes without his leave and held it out against Him and so taught him to seize upon New-Castle And now say they the Warre being thus far advanced yet it is not agreed which part was put to the Defensive and as it seemes to resolve this the 19 Propositions were dispatched to the King which indeed were the meanes of Light to thousands in this Kingdome of discovering the scope of their intentions namely to be to ruine the King and to bring him into a worse Condition then his meanest vassals Many men whereof my self was one did conceive from the grosnesse of them that they had been divulged by the speciall endeavoâ—rs of the Kings friends in the House for to discover to the world the unreasonablenesse of the then growing turbulent faction to the end that peoples spirits might be awakened to appear generally against the same in the defence of the Honour the Rights and Liberty of their Soveraign SECT XXV 1. Their Pretences of bringing Delinquents to punishment made a ground of the Warre The King acknowledged by his Enemies to be on the defensive part 2. His Majesties good opinion a long time of the Parliament objected as a fault against Him by themselves 3. The King makes no Warre against His Parliament Evidenced This Conspiracy of Traitours at Westminster no true Parliament fully proved The Conclusion of the Answer to the Libell BUt the maine thing in those 19. Propositions say these men were Reformation of Church-Government that power Military and Civill might be put into confiding Hands and that Justice of Parliament might passe upon Delinquents We grant they were for these three containe all the rest But here I must beg leave of the Reader to digresse a little to speake a word of this last particular having discussed at large of the two first already They had or have two Reasons for their requiring of the King that Justice of Parliament might passe upon Delinquents 1. To punish the Kings Errour in his requiring the Justice of Law against six of their Members it shall cost Him the Estates and lives of all his friends if they can bring it to passe that He may the better remember hereafter to do no more so His fault was so great and high in desiring that half a dozen of them might be tryed by Law that it cannot be expiated without His yeelding up many thousands of his friends yea of all that love him to be condemned without Law by bare Vote which they call Justice of Parliament from which Good Lord deliver us 2. To out-voice the Kings demand forementioned for if they should not shew zeal against sinne in calling themselves for punishment to be done upon Delinquents the world would think that the six Members whom they rescued from a legall triall which the King would have had them unto might be very faulty and that His Majesty had just reason to take Armes to bring both them and their abetters to it but to prevent this they by affirming they take up Weapons to bring Delinquents to punishment do avow the War to begin on their side and so leave the King to be Defender Although I must tell the world that this devise of bringing Delinquents to Punishment was resolved upon to be a chief ground of the Warre some certaine moneths after the War was begun I beleeve I could name the place and time when it was first taken into Consideration and upon what occasion and though I nominate not the Persons yet I may tell the story Upon a time diverse of the Members were met together at a certaine easie Lords House in the Kingdome who was also in his Country one
Personall Estate to be disposed of as their own How they have executed all Regall Prerogatives How they call all those that do adhere to the King Rebells and Traitours and pursue them as such with fire and sword How they Hunt the King up and down the Kingdome as if he were become an out-law seeking to murder and destroy him How they now of late do all in the name of the Parliament Onely though at first til the people were fully seduced by them and ingaged with them they did use the Kings Name together with it doth not at all this speak plainly that they thirst to drink the Kings bloud and desire to have it shed or spilt 5. Consider how in their Notes in this their accursed Libel pag. 44. they tax the King as faulty for his Soliciting the King of Denmark and other Protestant Princes as they speak to assist for the supporting of Monarchy doth not this plainly infer that they have concluded against the Government here in England and so by Consequence against the Monarch himself Doth it not evidently declare that they account him King no longer and that all the Supremacy is now in themselves Which being supposed and withal that he according to their Votes seekes the ruine of his people whose safety above all things must be regarded It follows of necessity that they desire the Kings Destruction and would have it apprehended that they do but their duty to the Kingdome in desiring it 6. Consider how they do as in their Pamphlets and Sermons compare the King to Saul Ahab Nero and the like so in their malicious Notes upon his Letters here pag. 48. they compare him to Richard the third the most bloudy and unjust man that ever swayed the English Scepter which plainly speaks that they would have people take him to be such a one and to have no more true right to the Crown then that Richard had and that themselves would be as glad of his death as Hen. the 7. was of the death of that Tyrant If these particulars amongst many others that might be propounded be considered on I doubt not but all reasonable men wil yeeld that I have done the Authours of this Libell right in my interpretation of their intentions expressed in those their words against the King But that I might not leave the least scruple in the hearts of any wel-meaning people that yet remain drunk with a good opinion of their Honesties and do in Charity think it impossible that men pretending so fair and having so great a name in the world for Religion should be so Diabolical and have such Hellish designes I wil further yet indeavour their satisfaction for I doe publikely profess mine aymes are to do the work of Christ in laying open mens Hypocrisie that mine abused Country-men for whom Christ died might not longer be deceived which work by Gods grace I shal faithfully pursue though I meet in the end with Christs reward at their bloudy hands for my labour Wherefore I wil shew First that there is no impossibility at all in the matter notwithstanding their specious pretences which they make and then it wil further Evidence the verity of what I have said from their own Tenents My Argument for the first is this Whatever hath been already may possibly be again for sayes Solomon The thing which hath been is that which shall be and that which is done is that which shall be done But such men there have been who had a name to be alive when they were dead in trespasses and sins who said they were Jewes called themselves Gods people and were so accounted by others when in very deed they were of the Synagogue of Satan therefore 't is not impossible but such men may be also in these dayes which are the last dayes and therefore the worst the very dregs of time For proof of the Assumption let us remember the Scribes and Pharisees in the Gospel they had as great a name in the world then as these persecutors of the King have now and were as wel thought on by the vulgar in whose opinions they were farre enough from those villanies which notwithstanding Christ did sufficiently discover to be in them Nay the people though themselves were imployed as under-instruments in the very business were so bewitched with a good conceit of their Pharisaical rulers whom they counted the Worthies of their Nation that they would not at first beleeve that they had any purpose to kill Christ for when he said why goe ye about to kill me the people replied Thou hast a Devill Who goeth about to kill thee they good folkes conceived that their Holy and wise Rulers did onely provide for the safety of Church and Common-wealth and endeavoured Christs Reformation whom they apprehended to be an irregular man one that would not submit His Judgement to the Great Councell at Jerusalem nor be ruled by their Votes and Orders Nay the very Pharisees themselves like these our men would not owne their own malice against Christ for when Pilate would have delivered him into their hands to have done with him as they pleased O no cry they 't is not lawfull for us to put any man to death they had rather some body else should doe it for them we are too holy to defile our selves with His bloud out of pure love to piety and to the peace of the Kingdome we have proceeded thus far against Him and have been at great Charges with the Souldiers to apprehend Him and though you can finde no fault in Him yet you may be sure on it if he had not been a Malefactor we would not have brought him before you No no if we could otherwise have reformed Him we would not have troubled your Lordship with Him But will you please to heare His Conditions Why He would be a King and Rule over us and if He be let alone He wil ruine the whole Kingdome and bring destruction upon the Temple too and to spoyl our Religion He bestowes strange Language and Titles upon us the Great Councell the Worthies of the Nation who are a company of Holy and unblameable men witnesse all the people He calls us Hypocrites Vipers and Painted Sepulchers and the like which we return not again but consider with sorrow that these expressions come from a Jew Seduced out of his proper spheare One that hath left the Society He ought to be withall and keeps Company onely with publicans and Sinners ungodly persons whose counsells he followes and hath set himself in the seat of the scornfull For we take all his Sermons against our Ordinances and doings to be but onely invectives and scornes against us whereby He exposeth us to be contemned of the people as if according to His saying we made the Law of God of none Effect by our Traditions When indeed none can be more zealous for it then we are and thus you see what a Person He is and what
there is any such Combination opposed by the two Parliaments of England and Scotland as these men mention is more perhaps then the Readers have heard of before or then they do yet beleeve upon the bare affirmation of these Relaters who are but men all men are Subject to Error Indeed we have heard of a most ungodly and unlawfull Association betwixt those whom they call the two Parliaments and certaine other people in England and Scotland The tenour of which is if I rightly apprehend never to lay downe Armes nor to admit of Peace till they have accomplished their owne ends upon the King and his Friends and satisfied their Lusts upon them And to defend and assist with their lives and fortunes all those whoever they be without exception that shall joyne with them against the King his Party So that be they Papists Turkes Jewes Heathens Atheists Arrians Irish Tigres Devills of Hell if they do but joyne with them against their King and those that Honour him as Gods Annointed for this very cause and reason they have bound themselves by Oath they have vowed and protested to defend and maintaine them with their lives and fortunes even till death and never to forsake them If there be a more generall illegall and irreligious Combination then that is which any others have entred into these relaters should have done well to have given the Reader a Copy of the same who otherwise must apprehend them in these their words to be only at their old vomit againe Because they cannot possibly devise more evill and mischiefe to Charge upon others then themselves do practice against others therefore they still impute unto others their own iniquities or else their guilty Consciences makes them fancy that they see their own pictures in other mens faces But we will not omit to observe the ingenuity of these men though it be but a little intimated in those their two words Almost and Some they do not say all the Papists in Europe absolutely all the prelaticall Court faction without any limitation have entred into this fancyed Combination But all the Papists in Europe almost and some of the Prelaticall and Court faction the word almost doth exclude all the Papists that either are or may be under the Parliament Pay and Service and the word Some may excuse those of the Prelaticall or Court Faction that hold intelligence with those at Westminster and are men of like complexion with them dissemblers disobedient unthankfull treacherous heady and high-minded however they carry themselves to outward appearance And truly we beleeve that if these tale-tellers would but speak out when the fit of ingenuity is upon them they would confesse and acknowledge that if any Papists in the world any of the Bloudy Tigers of Ireland will but joyne with those whom they call the two Parliaments against the King and that little flock which for Conscience sake remain Loyall to him they shall be accepted and absolved presently from what is past they shall be reckoned Papists no more Bloudy Tigers of Ireland no more but all good men and true in a moment and have free leave yea and money too to act over againe their bloudy Tragedies here in England Or if any of the Court Faction of what Religion or conversation soever will but vouchsafe to be more vile and wicked then ever they have been and be hired as Judas was to betray their Master or to render up to his Enemies those places of Defence committed to their Trust and so come off from the King to their Parliament side they shall be welcome and Voted good all upon the suddaine Truly we never heard of any yet that had the Conscience to act the part of a Traitour or of a villaine against God his Prince and Country but hath been accepted by them and as was said we beleeve if our subtile and suspected Brethren would but speake out when the moode of ingenuity is upon them they would confesse as much But the Reason as we conceive why they yoke Papists Irish Tigers and the Court Faction thus together and affirme them to be entred into a Combination is this Because they would that the common people should have an equall odious esteem of each of these three sorts whom they would also should be apprehended to be the onely persons that maintaine and uphold the King and whom the King doth only respect and adhere unto therefore they would that we unto whom they direct their speech should decline him and his Cause and joyne with themselves and their faction against Him that and them In Answer to which I shall only declare in a word what our judgements and opinions are of each of these three sorts of people 1. Concerning Papists we the Persecuted and Loyall Protestants of this Kingdome doe more abjure their Religion then these men do that speak so bitterly against them though we do not think it lawfull to enter into a Combination to root them out of the Earth by shedding of their Bloud no though they should enter into such a one to destroy us for we have no warrant in the Gospell so to doe T is the Word of God that is ordained to suppresse false Religions and not the Sword of Man Fire Sword and Pistolls are the Weapons of Antichrist and not of Christ. And because of their Religion we are heartily sorry that there are any Papists in the Kings Armies for that scandall which ignorant people take by them through the perverse suggestions of the crafty Adversary who from hence take occasion to keep their affections enstranged from their Soveraigne Not that hereby any scandall is justly given by His Majesty for we hold it not only Lawful for him to make use of those of that Religion but also necessary yea it would be a sinne against God if being assaulted by Theeves and Rebells he should not use the meanes for his own Preservation and imploy for his own defence all those whom God hath submitted under his Government for that purpose there is no man if he should be assaulted by Robbers and Murderers but would make use of the aide of a Turke to save his life Yea these very men themselves we see can hire Papists from other Countryes to help them to destroy their Soveraigne and is it not meet and reasonable that the King should permit Papists his owne Subjects to help to preserve him from such their violence Indeed we are ashamed and blush that Papists should out-goe any that beare the name of Protestants in duty and obedience to their King that any whom this Church hath bred should so desert their Soveraign in his danger who hath protected them in theirs as that he should need the help of Papists Sorry we are at the heart that this occasion is given to have any of another Religion to defend the Defender of our Faith against the basenesse and violence of those persons whom he hath defended in the profession
reason of the Abolition of Episcopacy that the Fathers of Gods Church might not have power to punish and suppress such kind of offenders 2. Because Episcopacy is the upholder of truth and order this is evident enough to be another reason themselves cannot deny that the same was first ordained established in the Church for a Remedy against Heresies Sects and Schismes which even in the Primitive times began to spring up among Christians the Smectymnists themselves confesse this and also for the maintaining of Order and Decency in Gods worship and service wherfore truth and order being the things which these men purpose to suppresse and destroy as appeares by that in-let which they have given to all false Doctrines and Teachers and by that confusion which they have set up in all places therefore a necessity lyes upon it Episcopacy must be Abolished as being a main obstruction to that their intendment or undertaking This is the second 3. Because Episcopacy is a great friend to Monarchy a maine supporter of it King James upon experience and observation was wont to say No Bishop no King which saying those that found most fault with it do now endeavour to make good unto the full for they intend the utter destruction of Monarchy in this Kingdome as will appeare by their words anon a form of Government indeed which their Faction have alway maligned and laboured to destroy King James in his Basilicon Doron pag. 4. which he made before he was King of England complaines of the men of this faction then in Scotland how they did use to calumniate him in their popular Sermons not sayes he for any evill or vice in me but because I am a King which they think the Highest evill and againe they informed saies he the people that Kings and Princes were naturall enemies to the Liberty of the Church and could never patiently beare the yoake of Christ which hath been the very Doctrine of these times Wherefore that wise King was most specially carefull all his dayes to countenance and establish Episcopacy in all His Kingdomes not onely as the main preserver of Religion but also as the speciall upholder of Monarchie and he layes it as a charge upon his Son to imitate him therein And indeed these innovators know full well that they cannot bring their designes to effect against Monarchy without the Abolition of Episcopacy for this keeps downe those unruly fiery spirits of the Ministry which are used as chief incendiaries in all State Combustions this restraines them from reproaching their betters and Speaking evill of Dignities this maintaines that Common form of Prayer in this Church established by the use whereof as by a daily Sermon of obedience peoples hearts are seasoned with Duty and Loyaltie in that they are taught continually to acknowledge God to be the onely Ruler of Princes and the Kings Heart to be in Gods Hand who alone must be sought unto to guide and dispose the same in that also we are all taught as we are subjects daily to consider that it is Gods Authority which the King hath and that we are faithfully to serve Honour and humbly obey Him in God and for God Viz. because God hath so commanded and because He is in Gods own stead by his appointment and ordination over the people And by many other such like Divine and Godly expressions people are taught in their use of that book to make profession of their Duty Loyaltie unto their Prince all which make directly against these men and their designes therefore Episcopacy the upholder of this book as the main impediment to their Project down the Common-prayer Book too without any reason at all alleadged on their parts that take upon them to be the Abolishers In a word Episcopacy with her Common-Prayer Book will not admit Treason to stand in the first rank of Christian vertues as these new-Reformers would have it nor be held the fairest and shortest way to Heaven Ergo She and that too must be both Abolished to make way for the downfall of Monarchy in this late most flourishing and happy Kingdom This is the third Reason The 4. is because the King at His Coronation did take a Solemne Oath to maintain Episcopacy it being the Government then established in the Church and the endeavours of these men are not only to destroy the Kings Honour by their Tongues and Pens His Body and Estate by their violence and oppression but also His Soul if they can possibly by forcing upon Him the guilt of perjury which if they could effect beside that unappeaseable grief which in so tender a Conscience as the Kings is they know they should create they would also purchase to themselves an Argument for confirmation of those their slanders already cast out against him to the same purpose viz. that he is regardlesse of keeping his Oath and Promise And besides too if they can make him their Instrument to ruine the Church of God which he loves so dearly and to destroy Monarchy and Kingly Government whereby himself and his posterity are supported if they can make him their Agent to ruine himself it will speake them admirable gifted and to have out-gone all the Machivillians that ever were before them most worthy therefore and fit to enjoy the Supremacy in the State and to be feared of all people And then further yet if they can get the King at their motion to Abolish Episcopacy they shall occasion him to break the Charge which his Father layed upon him to the contrary in his Basilicon Doron which he calls his Testament The Charge and Caveat there given is in these words Take heed my sonne of those Puritanâ— which aime â—t a parity who are the very pests in Church and Common-wealth whom no deserts can oblige no Oathes or promises binde they breathe nothing but Calumny and Sedition aspiring without measure railing without reason and making their own imaginations without warrant of the Word the square of their Conscience I protest before the Great God and since I am here as upon my Testament t is no place for me to lie in that you shall never finde with any Hye land or Border-theeves greater ingratitude more lies and viler perjuries then with these phanatick spirits And suffer not the Principals of them to brooke your Land if ye like to sit at rest except you would keep them for to trye your Patience as Socrates did an evill wife These were the words of the Kings Father wherefore should His Majesty let these men with his good will and approbation be principall in the Church and yeild for this purpose to their desires in abolishing Episcopacy God doubtless would be much offended with him for not minding the Commandement of his Father Yea and peradventure too these his tempters would goe neer afterward to suggest unto his Subjects for they have mouth and fore-head enough to do it that the King like his Predecessour Edward the
to that purpose A serious expostulation with them about the same and of their maintaining a base fellow to deride and scoffe at their Soveraigne in his affliction pag. I. Sect. II. Of the pretended end of publishing the Libell the true end thereof hinted Their blasphemy against God noted How these Letters of the King might have been made use of as Evidences of truth and Loyaltie Of what stock and lineage the Authors of the Libell discovered themselves to be Of their subtilty and of that spirit and meeknesse which they boast of How aptly for themselves they alleadge the Example mentioned by S. Jude pag. II. Sect. III. The Kings great and true affection to his people Evidenced How farre divers of them that call themselves His Great Councell are from proving themselves his good Counsellors The ten Rules or Precepts whereby they have proceeded Of the Language and Titles which they complaine of and how truly the name Rebell belongs unto them The true cause of their great grief and sorrow so often mentioned An impudent Charge against the King propounded by the Libellers pag. 23. Sect. IV. The Nature of their Charge opened Their villanous and bloudy Scope therein clearly Evidenced and proved How perfectly in their Tenents they hold with the Jesuites in the points of King-killing and King-deposing fully declared pag. 34. Sect. V. The falsity and injustice of the said Charge against the King manifested in all the particulars Who they are that sit in the Scorners Chair The Enemies reasons and ends of Charging the King with their own Conditions pag. 49. Sect. VI. Of the Kings Errour in following evill Councellours and who they were His Majesty scorned at by the Libellers for his tendernesse of Conscience and hopes in Gods Justice The folly and falshood of the Libellers Charge against Strafford and Canterbury The Enemies acquit the King of having a voluntary hand in Straffords death They hint the right Reason of his withdrawing from Westminster pag. 56. Sect. VII What that Liberty is which the pretended Parliament doe maintaine And what that Religion may be which they are about to set up Reasons to prove it may be the Popish Reasons to shew it may be the Turkish Six Arguments to prove it cannot be the Christian Protestant pag. 67. Sect. VIII Of the feigned Combination against the Parliament Our Judgement of the Papists and of their assisting the King Our abhorment of the Cruelties of the Irish. How they are out-gone by the English Rebels our Opinion of the Court-faction of what Flock we professe our selves to be How the Libellers and their side call themselves the more beleeving sort of people pag. 77. Sect. IX The slander laied upon us to be Enemies to Parliaments and Reformation Confuted Of pretended Miracles Revelations and new Lights The taking the Kings Cabinet in Battaile no Miracle The Libellers Argument to prove an impossibility of forgery in their Parliament pag. 85. Sect. X. Of that perspecuity and Modesty which the Libellers boast to be in their owne Annotations Their pretty confident way of perswading all men to be of their Opinions Their Reasons why they did not Publish all they had against the King pag. 94. Sect. XI Censuring Superiours unlawfull Why the Enemies must continue to slander the King How easie a thing it is for wicked men to deprave the best writings Of the Kings integrity and goodnesse And of Englands happinesse under him The maine Particulars of offence under his Government nominated No just matter of blame from them can now be objected to His Majesty pag. 102. Sect. XII The Adversaries industry to finde things unbeseeming the King in his Letters The Letters freed from any such thing Certaine Christian considerations propounded to the Readers to Evidence the same Of the Rebels pertinacy in their Rebellious way their endeavours that the Kings promises might neither be beleeved nor performed pag. 111. Sect. XIII Of their 3. Propositions at Uxbridge 4. Pretences for their Abolition of Episcopacy 4. True Reasons of that their impious requests pag. 123. Sect. XIV Their unreasonablenesse in desiring the Militia to be in their sole disposall 4. Vain pretences for it 4. True grounds of this their demand How sinfull and dangerous it might be for the King to grant it pag. 135. Sect. XV. Of their Vindicating the Irish Rebels how fully they have done it already in one sence and how glad we should be if themselves would go and do it in the other their true intent in that demand opened pag 157. Sect. XVI Of the Enemies late sufferings of their strange patience of their extraordinary great successe the true grounds thereof Successe no argument of a good cause The wicked have been alway wont to use that argument pag. 156. Sect. XVII Another charge against the King confuted of clandestine proceedings The Kings condemning all that be Protestants at Oxford a most impudent and malicious slander His Toleration of Idolatry another The occasion of the Kings promising liberty of conscience to Papists The reasonablenesse of that promise at that time and upon that occasion The objection of the Kings former resolution to the contrary answered as also his promise not to abolish the laws against them pag. 174. Sect. XVIII The King granting indemnity to the murderous Irish another slander The necessity reasons of making peace with the Irish at that time The conditions upon which that peace was to be made this Act not contradictive to any of his former expressions against their detestable doings The vanity of their charge against the King for going in a close trading way Two sufficient evidences of his Majesties sincere and constant affection to the Protestant Religion The whole charge against the King most truely retorted upon the objecters pag. 185. Sect. XIX Of the enemies malicious devises to scandalize the King with favouring the Irish Rebellion detected confuted The Kings requiring secresie of the Queen and Ormond in the matters writ to them justified The Rebels blasphemy against Gods Providence and in asking Gods blessing upon their Libell noted pag. 193. Sect. XX. What good use might have been made of the Kings letters Of the faults laid to the Queens charge specially in loving her Husband pag. 198. Sect. XXI Of the Kings fault for loving his wife The manifest and mâ—â—cious falsifications and perversions of divers of the Kings eâ—pressioâ—s to his Queen noted pag. 207. Sect. XXII Of the Kings fault in labouring or indevouring to uphold Monarchy His Majesties soliciting the King of Denmarke to this purpose no whit contradictive to his former resolutions of not calling in forraigne aide pag. 214. Sect. XXIII The Libellers Cavils at the word Mongrill Parliament at the Commissioners at the Treaty at Uxbridge and at the Kings pawning his Jewels answered His Majesties affection and goodnesse to his subjects for want of other matters objected as a fault against him by these Libellers pag. 220. Sect. XXIV The story of the Rebels unchristian behaviour towards
respect Herein I have according to the very Letter of it with my power maintained and defended 1. The true Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England against Popish Tenents and Innovations 2. His Majesties Royal Person Honour and Estate according to mine Allegiance And 3. The Power and Priviledges of Parliament together with the true Rights and Liberties of the Subject Yea I have here endeavoured with all faithfulnesse to vindicate the Dignitie of that High and Supreme Court from the scandall of Rebellion Oppression Injustice and other evils which to its great disgrace have been practised under its venerable Name and thereby so much as in me lieth I have freed it from the merit of that Odium which is wrought in Peoples hearts against it For indeed the very name of Parliament is grown more hatefull to many of the vulgar through their ignorance then ever that of Starre-Chamber or High-Commission was and they wish and pray through their folly that the same may be quite abolished as those others are I have also herein opposed and endeavoured to bring by discovering their wickednesse to condigne punishment those evill workers who by Force Practice Councels Plots Conspiracies and every other way have done things contrary to all those things in the said Protestation contained All which I promised and vowed to do in a lawfull way which is that of my Calling even with the hazard of my life as well as of mine estate which is lost already and this my Conscience sayes I shall not fully do unlesse I publickly own my doings by prefixing my name unto them Thirdly I considered with my self that by concealing my name I should seem in a sort to be ashamed of that Truth which I professe to maintain and of following my Master Christ in his way of detecting Hypocrites and wicked men He saith of himself that in secret he had spoke nothing that is He was no back-biter no whisperer against any in private corners He spake openly against mens evill doings and was never ashamed to acknowledge his own Doctrines And he hath said too that I cannot be his Disciple that is approved indeed unlesse I follow him viz in his very way doing his work after his very manner though I meet with his Crosse in the doing of it which also I must take up chearfully after his example be it with the losse of my life it selfe He lost his before me Fourthly I considered that my Book is likely to prove more serviceable by mine open acknowledgement of it the writings of that couragious and learned Judge Master David Jenkins are believed to have done the more good by the setting his name unto them nor did I think it comely that any man should appeare more resolute for the Law of the Land then the Ministers of Christ are for the Law of their God For mine own part I am sure I should shew my selfe most strangely ungratefull to the Almighty and distrustfull of him after so large an experience as I have had of his mercy and goodnesse if any feare of danger should make me upon this occasion obscure my self My former Books though plain by his gracious blessing were not unfruitfull among many of my Countrymen unto whom my name as of late I perceive is not so distatefull that I should think them unwilling to see it in print again and from any hurt by those that took offence at them my God hath hitherto protected me as he hath often done praised be his Name from the mischiefs of being beaten and pistolled often threatned by some of the prophaner sort of our Cavalleers for my free preaching against their blasphemy and dissolutenesse their selfseeking lust-pleasing and King-neglecting basenesse Now after Davids way of arguing He that delivered me from the Lion and the Beare can also c. He is the same God still if I can but believe He can yea and will preserve in the midst of danger wherefore though it was once in my mind viz. when I was at a great distance both to conceale my name and also to keep out of their reach as may appear by that passage page 275. yet now being returned amongst them I have for these reasons altered my resolution in that particular And again beside these Reasons I had in my heart also these Reasonings What if I do suffer is it not for a King a gracious King to whom I have sworn Allegiance and under whose Protection I have laboured in Gods Vineyard Is it not for a Church a mother-Church that admitted me first Christs Member and afterwards Christs Minister is it not for keeping the Protestation that Protestation tendred to me by the Parliament when it was a Parliament is it not for discharging my Conscience and Office for telling people of their sins according to Gods Command for detecting Hypocrites after Christs own example and shall I by suffering for the same do any other then with Simon of Cyrene help my Saviour bear his Crosse Have I yet resisted unto bloud as many before me have done Ought I not to be willing to lose life it self for my Brethren to redeem them from the wayes of sinne and errour May not haply this their redemption be effected sooner by suffering then by preaching Is not my exclusion and debarment from an appointed place to preach in a kind of a call or setting aside to sufferings Could Saint Paul have wished himself even separate from Christ if on that condition he might have united his Countrymen unto him and should not I be willing to go to Christ for the gaining of mine Am I not Christs own to be disposed of for his service Did not he buy me for that end Did not he honour me with the dignity of being one of his Ministers of purpose that I should bear witnesse of his Truth is it any new thing to suffer for the sake of that Shall I if thereunto called be the first that have attested the same unto the world Beside what advantage will the Adversaries get to themselves by being cruel to me Shal they not rather confirm thereby to the world what I have written of their conditions Nay shall not those whom I have detected onely in the generall by their being angry at me expose themselves to be known particulatim nominatim and shall hey any whit strengthen their Dominion by my ruine Shall they not rather hasten their own thereby Was not the reigne of the Popish Bishops here in Queen Maries dayes the sooner at its period in the judgements of all men for their persecuting those Reverend Bishops and Ministers who opposed their sinnefull wayes and sealed wiâ—â— their bloud that Doctrine and Lyturgie which is now a pulling down in this Kingdome These and such like also were the reasonings of my spirit concerning this matter of prefixing my name to this Vindication But perhaps some of you will say Ad quid perditio haec what needs all this waste of
their very names as well as their acts unto Posterity as Fox hath done the Persecutors in Q. Maries time to their eternall infamie For my selfe I doe not name any person unlesse those that have named themselves in Print already nor doe I speak so expresly of any particular as they in their Libel doe of the King although there is never a villany cruell act or blasphemous expression quoted in this Discourse but the persons by whom spake or done and the places where might have been set down punctually But my opposition is not against Men but Sinne which I hate in all and in the best most I pray for the persons of the worst and I desire all men to joyne with me in so doing for these Reasons First Christ commands us to pray for them that despightfully use us 2. We are Christians in whom as the sight of an enemies misery must awaken pity so of his sinne must kindle Prayer 3. They are our Countrymen as those Israelites were to S. Paul that thirsted for his blood therefore like him we must endeavour their salvation 4. They have deserved this duty at our hands though unawares unto themselves for by their ill usage of us they have thrust us farther under Gods wing then we were before and made us more sensibly to feele the heat of his love and to taste the comfort of his Providence to be better acquainted with God and Christ then ever perhaps we should have been had we alwayes lived at Peace in our possessions Many of us had learned to abound before though not to want but these have taught us that too and to see the vanity and ficklenesse of earthly prosperity they have loosned our hearts much from the world and made us think of heaven more seriously and doth not all this deserve our prayers Nay and farther God expects we should as by this course we may discover a better spirit to be in us then is in them and that we serve a better Master And againe his Gospel being now under foot he looks that we should raise up its honour from the dust againe in praying for these very men according to the tenour of it we have cause to suspect they have sinned the sin against the holy Ghost at least many of them but we are not certaine thereof and therefore we are bound to pray for them this is mine exhortation to all men and the grounds of it upon which I build mine owne practice and let not any think notwithstanding my zeale against mens sins that I dare be otherwise affected then thus unto their persons Last of all if any shall think me worthy of blame for not plainly expressing mine own name seeing that I find fault with the Authors of the Libel for concealing theirs Let such know that t is not because I am ashamed of it or of my worke but my reason is this I am an obscure and meane person and my name can no whit advance the credit of my labours but perhaps even debase it rather yea amongst too many of our owne side as they are accounted who having fleshed themselves with the monies of the King or the spoiles of his people can wallow in luxury while he is in misery and deride at meane persons for being affected for him Besides the subscribing my name in regard of my low condition is likely to be more vexatious to the great men whom I seeme to oppose then perhaps my Book it self may be for this by Gods grace may be conceived as it truly is but a defiance against their ungodly courses whereas that may be taken as a contemptuous affront against their very persons nor would I willingly increase sin or rage in any If any desire to know what I am let this satisfie I am one of those weak and despised things which God sometimes makes use of to confound the Mighty A Member I am and a Minister of the Ancient and true Church of England One that equally hates Idolatry and Superstition in Gods Worship and Service as I doe Indecency and Profanenesse I am one that can live under another Church-Government in a State where 't is established by the Supreame Magistrate with more quietnesse I believe then they can or will doe that fight for an alteration in this Kingdome although in my judgement I doe and shall prefer Episcopal Government above any other in the world as being in my conscience most Scripturall and Orthodoxall I am one that loves not to hear Calvin railed upon by them that never read him for I judge him to have been a great instrument of Gods glory though I think him not infallible I entitle not my self unto him nor to any man else I am a Christian and that 's my glory I have bid defiance by Gods grace to the worlds malice and to the Devils works and have manifested the same against one of them in this my Vindication which I here commend to the candid acceptance of all you my fellow-subjects of England Scotland and Ireland for whom I pray that you may be all such excepting in sins and miseries as my selfe am Phil'anax Philopatris May 30. 1646. In regno nati sumus Deo parêre libertas est The Protestation Ordered to be generally taken Die Merc. 5. Maii. 1641. I A. B. doe in the presence of Almighty God Promise Vow and Protest to maintain and defend as far as lawfully I may with my life power and estate the true Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the doctrine of the Church of England against all Popery and Popish Innovations within this Realme contrary to the same Doctrine and according to the duty of my Allegeance His Majesties Royall Person Honour and Estate As also the Power and Privileges of Parliament The lawfull Rights and Liberties of the Subject and every person that maketh this Protestation in whatsoever he shall doe in the lawfull pursuance of the same And to my power and as far as lawfully I may I will oppose and by all good wayes and meanes endeavour to bring to condigne punishment all such as shall either by Force Practice Councels Plots Conspiracies or otherwise doe any thing to the contrary of any thing in this present Protestation contained And further that I shall in all just and honourable wayes indeavour to preserve the Union and Peace between the three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland And neither for hope feare nor other respect shall relinquish this Promise Vow and Protestation A VINDICATION OF KING CHARLES OR A Loyall Subjects duty c. SECT I. 1 Of the supposed Authors of the Libell 2. Of the Authorizers thereof and their speciall Order How fit the same should be recalled A president propounded to that purpose 3. A serious expostulation with them about the same and of their maintaining a base fellow to deride and scoffe at their Soveraigne in his affliction THe first thing observable in that disloyall pamphlet is the plurall manner
his head where he lies asleepe then I 'le returne them to him again that he may perceive that I had an advantage to have done him hurt but not an heart or Conscience disposed thereunto and I 'le rebuke Abner the General of his Hoste and the rest of his Captaines for guarding the Sacred person of their Soveraigne and the things that concerned him so neere no better And indeed even thus did David doe and we know what an happie successe he had of his so doing The Kings heart hereupon melted towards him and He yeelds him to be a righteous man a wronged person and pronounceth a blessing upon him Blessed art thou my Son David thou shalt doe great things and also shalt still prevaile We do conceive that if the surprizers and publishers of these Papers had gone in this way of David it would have been more to their credits more becomming that Gospel which they pretend to professe and the duty of Christian subjects then that course is which they have taken and we also beleeve that if they had been as Honest men as David was indued with as innocent and Loyall hearts towards their King as He they would have done after his manner and we desire that they would aske their own Consciences whether in this particular themselves be not directly of our opinion But seeing 't is so apparent that these men are of a contrary spirit unto David notwithstanding their great pretences to Religion and seeing that God hath suffered them thus fully and foulely to discover their false hearts by their publication of these Papers We for our parts may conclude more truely it would be a great sin in us against the Mercies of God to conceale and not to take yea and to give publike notice to the world of this Evidence of the truth of their inward malice and wickednesse against their Soveraigne which he so gratiously hereby hath permitted to us that we might not be Seduced or misled by them But they go on and say Nor dare we smother that light under a Bushell but freely hold it out to our Seduced Brethren for so in the spirit of meeknesse labouring to reclaime them we still speake that they may see their Errour and return into the right way The Apprehension and hope of these men is to discover unto us by this their light which they so freely hold out unto us some nakednesse in their Father It seemes they are of the Generation of Cham for he in like sort did freely hold out unto his Brethren what he ought to have hidden and concealed But because they tell us they dare not doe otherwise we their Brethren before we yeeld up our selves to be led by them desire to know who it is that keepes them in such great awe that they dared not rather to have acted the parts of Shem and Japhet which we conceive had been more to their own credit and benefit and more to the comfort of their posterity We do not remember any punishment denounced in Scripture against those that conceale the imperfections of their Father we are plain men and love to deal plainly specially with those that offer themselves thus freely to guide us and therefore we must tell them that we suspect them from this word we dare not to be under Satans bondage for he it is that rules by feare He it is that compelleth those that be in Captivity under him to doe wickedly according to his lust and will to transgresse Gods Holy word and to run themselves upon his heavy curse yea He it is that forceth his servants so that they dare do no otherwise surely we beleeve these men cannot shew a better reason for their calling us Seduced then this is for us to hold them suspected and therefore by this Title from henceforth we shall be bold to call them our Suspected Brethren And the Light by which they would shew us our Errour as they call it gives us further to apprehend how justly they deserve this Title for who but men whom the God of the world hath blinded would think that the Kings Errours for such onely in their imaginations is the light which they here so liberally and freely hold out unto us should be a glasse sufficiently able to discover to us our faults Gods word and law was wont to be the sole glasse and rule for such a purpose By the Law comes the knowledge of Sin saith the Apostle therefore they must shew us either that the Law is out of date in these times grown faulty and unsufficient or else that the same doth allow us to withdraw our Duty and Obedience frow our Soveraigne upon the sight of his supposed or real Errours that God therein commands us to adhere to him with this limitation unlesse he be guilty of such and such failings except they can shew us this we are resolved not to forsake our old light to be guided by a new thus devised and held out unto us by our Suspected Brethren But by the way why do they call us their Seduced Brethren we conceive because they judge us simple in compare with themselves and in that regard very capable of seduction they make themselves as sure of us as if they had already seduced us and therefore they call us their Seduced Brethren we confesse our inferiority unto them in this respect for as the Serpent was more subtile then all the beasts of the field so they in their generation are wiser then we and do deserve the Title of Subtile and crafty Brethren as well as of Suspected But we must tell them ex magnis ingeniis magni errores great errours have not come but from great wit they were Gyants and Lucifer that highly rebelled against God and S. Augustine adviseth magis tibi metue cum in intellectu habitat Diabolus quà m cum in affectionibus for an erroneous Devil in the understanding will quickly prove a furious Devil in the affections as experience teacheth therefore we will be content to be esteemed simple still yea to be numbred if they please among those whom Plutarch saies were rudiores quam qui poterant decipi for so we hope the Devil will have more to doe to intrap us the Simple then he hath had to captivate and inthrall them the Subtile for as Esay saies their wisdome and understanding hath perverted them and caused them to rebell and from their wisdome doubtlesse their hopes doe arise to reclaim as they call it or rather to pervert us by their Labours for so they tell us they labour to reclaime us viz. from the Errours of Loyalty and Christian Obedience But they tell us they labour in the spirit of meeknesse that they Labour we beleeve their Predecessours have done so before them who have travailed Sea and Land to make others the Children of Hell as well as themselves but that they have any acquaintance at all with the spirit of
Sacriledge if possible 7. Authorize all base Libells all scandalous and lying Pamphlets that any one hath a minde to publish against Him though they be such as not onely the Authours themselves but the very Devill himself would blush to own 8. Kill Slay and Destroy all that love Him and think well of Him suppresse reproach ruinate banish imprison or murder all those Ministers of God that shall dare to alleadge Gods Word in their Kings behalf and fail not to shew speciall favour and countenance to all such Preachers as have mouth and forehead to belie Him and to defame Him from the Pulpits and that will speake of Him as if He were an Infidell an Idolater an Apostate 9. When you have brought Him to a most low and desolate condition be sure you Flout lustily at Him and hire fellows that are skilfull in scorning to write weekly Pamphlets on purpose to expose Him to be Ludibrium Hominum opproâ—rium Populi for this was the condition of Christ His Saviour to which He as well as others who are Godly must be conformable 10. Let all your Consultations be only to throw Him down from that Excellency wherein God hath set Him although to bring the same to passe you hazard the destruction of all His Kingdomes But be sure you hold your own still call your selves His Great Councell and when ever you write unto Him let it be in this submissive form and stile We your Majesties most Humble and most Loyall Subjects considering with great grief and sorrow of Heart c. Can any men that have but the least spark of grace or modesty in them affirm that the Councellours who walk towards their King according to these or such like rules do deserve the name of the Kings Councell Truly we who are accounted Seduced having been brought up in the plain honest Protestant Christian Religion dare not either think or say they do we know there will come a day when all men shall be judged according to their works and therefore in the mean time our subtile Brethren must pardon us if we so judge of men for the present as their works speak them nor indeed dare we so much disparage the most High and most Honourable Court of Parliament in England to which alone the Title of the Kings Great Councell belongeth as to fasten the same upon such a Disloyall Hypocriticall unchristian and bloudy Faction as this now above-board is and which walketh according to the fore-mentioned Rules But what are those Titles or Language which in these his Letters we may see the King bestowes upon his Great Councell as they call it we find him therein Lamenting their pertinacy complaining of their Stubborunesse and bewailing the perversenesse of their spirits as Christ could not look upon such conditioned persons without Grief and Anger so the King cannot speake of them without sorrow and indignation for they were once his people though now they have plucked their necks from under his yoak perhaps sometimes he calls them by the name of Rebells and is there not a cause did not Christ call some that walked in such wayes as they goe in Vipers and Children of the Devill When the Jewish Nation whom God had formerly owned for his people did act the part of an Impetious whorish woman he called her Harlot 't is fit every thing should be called by its owne name and that the name Rebell is proper to them whom the King entitles with it we are able to shew by such strong Arguments as these their Champions for all their Subtilty can never answer for what ever wickednesse is or has been in any Rebels of former Ages is superlatively apparent in these men Let themselves but say what things do make and denominate a Rebell and it shall be Evidenced clearly that themselves have the same Conditions Are they Rebells that lift up a violent hand against the Supream Magistrate or that open a foul mouth against Him or that publish and Authorize base Scandalous Pamphlets to His defamation and dishonour that violently break all Laws both Humane and Divine If any one of these or all these together be the properties of Rebells then these men are compleatly qualified for the Title Or again is it the custome of Rebells to slight the Kings Authority to deny Him to be Gods Anointed to rob Him of His rents and revenues to cheat Him of His Arms His Ships His Castles and Hearts of His people to hunt Him up and down his Kingdome like a Partridge upon the mountaines If these be the Actions and works of Rebells then these men above all men have fully merited to be so called In a word if Absalom and Achitophel if Sheba the son of Bichri if Korah Dathan and Abiram were Rebells in their Generations then so are these in this for these have done over all the same things which every of them did do though with greater impudence and violence Nay if Satan himself in his seduction of our first Parents did act the Rebell against the Almighty then also have these against their Soveraign for they have directly proceeded in his method and way as might be shewed in all the particulars But these Examples are all so Evident in Scripture to peoples eyes that I shall leave the matter wholly to their own observance and listen to what these men say further having told us of Language and Titles which the King bestowes upon his Great Councell they adde Which we return not again but consider with Sorrow that it comes from a Prince Seduced out of his proper spheare What the King bestowes we have heard already what they return we shall see anon only in the first place we cannot but observe their Sorrowfull Consideration because 't is a phrase in great fashion even with them also whom they call his Great Councell who have many a time and oft told the King in their letters to him of their own great griefs and sorrowes But let their Consciences speak what is the true ground of their sorrow is it not this Because they that are able to doe so much to the Kings damage to raise so many Armies against him of his own people to corrupt so many of his Officers and Commanders for to betray the places committed to their trust should not yet by all their injurious and contumelious dealings which have been more then was ever offered to a Christian Prince by Protestant people be able to break his heart and sink him to his grave still they see he is strengthened by the help of God to beare his burden and they have heard haply of that his pious expression viz. Though God hath pleased to lay on me a greater Burden of Affliction then upon other Princes my Predecessours yet withall he hath in his goodnesse inlarged unto me an answerable measure of patience Let their own Consciences speak whether in very deed their grief doth not spring from this Consideration For if
nihil Regis quam quod genere Regio ortus erat In striking Henry of Burbon his intention was not to kill the King howbeit he called himselfe King sithence he had nothing left but the appearance of a King being of the bloud Royall Our Anabaptisticall Crew have their Chambers of Meditation too or their Conventicles where they meet with their disciples to whom they suggest as also they do in their Pamphlets and Sermons that the King is no true member of the Church because he dissents from them but a persecutor of it and is no longer to be obeyed or held for King then the Parliament or representive Body of the Kingdome in whom the Supreame power is inherent shall allow him so to be and therefore being now deciared by them to be an enemy to the Kingdome and one that seeks the peoples ruine he is to be accounted but as another man and hath but the bare Name or Title of a King as being borne of that family and stocke which formerly swayed the Scepter Now my Argument from all this stands thus who ever maintains that the Pope or Parliament may at pleasure alter Kingdomes exempt people from their Oath of Allegeance and arm them against their Prince do maintain that people in such a case may kill their King But this as appeares by their doctrine and practice is the Tenent of these men as well as of the Jesuites Ergo these men also by their Tenents hold it lawfull to kill the King The minor is proved already and the major is evident to sense and reason for no man wil doubt but a King from whom offer is made to take away his Kingdome will take Armes to maintaine his right and will labour to reduce them to Loyalty that stand armed against him and in so doing 't is impossible but he must run the hazard of his life since in defending himself he is resolute as in Conscience he is bound to be not to lose his Kingdome which God hath committed to his care without the loss of his life it self But perhaps some wil say that in some of their books and Sermons they disclaim killing the King yea though he were an Heretick or a Tyrant I answer the Romish Jesuites their Brethren in some of their books also have condemned not onely the murdering of Princes but also Rebellion against them though Hereticks and Tyrants but they meane sine permissu superiorum it is not lawful for a private man to do it say they of his own head untill he be permitted by his superiours but having leave and countenance from them if sentence and judgement be once passed that the King is a Tyrant or an Heretick or not capable to govern then obedience to the said judgement is to be given as to the voice of Christ So these when they speak against King-killing and Rebellion are to be understood until the King be declared by Parliament to be an Enemy to the Kingdome and to seek the ruine of it but when this is done then men may not onely arm themselves against him but kill him if possibly they can and by so doing they do but the Command of God and helpe the Lord against the mighty These be the nicetyes of Romish Jesuites and English Pharisees by which they inchant men they protest Solemnly that they allow not the murdering of Kings No not they but herein lies the craft they acknowledge none for Kings but whom themselves please to allow and maintain that to kill a King whose Government they cannot brook is not to kill a King but a man as they say masked under a Regall Title But indeed some of their faction have been more plain in their expressions and disclaiming this jugling distinction have declared their Tenents in down right English even as Parry of old affirmed that because Elizabeth stood excommunicated by the Pope he might lawfully kill her And as Catesby stood to it openly that because the Pope had not allowed the Catholiks to receive James for King the Powder-Treason was a work of Piety And as Raviliak affirmed that He had reason to kill Henry of Burbon because he would make warre against the Pope and so by consequent saies he against God for the Pope was God even so in this plain downright fashion we have had some of our Parliamentarians express their judgements and intentions that because the Parliament hath declared against the King 't is no sin to kill him yea they have professed that themselves would do it if they could reach him so long as he is in this condition not received or allowed on by the Parliament yea Raviliack-like they have affirmed that He wars against the Parliament and so by Consequent against God and therefore it would be a work not onely lawfull but also pious for to kill him such expressions have often fallen from the lips of many severall persons among them who might be named if we did Belligerare Hominibus magis quam vitiis And thus the people do now see how those who pretend to keep them from Popery do lead them into the deepest ditch and most Hellish puddle thereof themselves call the Jesuites the worst of Papists and yet hold with them in their worst of Tenents onely the difference is this the Jesuites place power and infallibility in the Pope and these place it in the Parliament for though these our Subtile Brethren will not like Romanists make a Pope of the King yet they will make one of the Parliament whose members are as perfect in their Seats as Pontifex is in Cathedra But I remember a distinction which the Secretary of Charles the 5. used to some English Ambassadours who upon his complaint of Pope Julius the 3. his foul play with the Emperour demanded of him how he being a Papist could excuse this unkindnesse of the Pope towards his Master He answered that the Pope was an honest man but Julius the 3. was an Arrant Knave so saving the Honours of the Right worshipfull as they are Members peradventure as they are men they may be subject to errours and be esteemed of according to their merits SECT V. 1. The falsity and injustice of the said Charge against the King manifested in all the particulars 2. Who they are that sit in the Scorners Chair 3. The Enemies reasons and ends of Charging the King with their own Conditions BUt we having now seen the Nature of their Charge we will consider also the Verity of it or the falsity rather for we apprehend it as false as foul as injurious as High were it all true yet according to Christian Religion and the doctrine of the Bible it were a great sin in them thus to object it For is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked or to Princes ye are ungodly When Saint Paul understood Ananias to be the Ruler he confessed he had done ill in calling him whited wall though indeed he was no better But
the true reason of his departure thence to be that he might not speake destruction to his people but safety and Honour still if possible that he might not imbrew his hands in the bloud of innocent and Loyall Subjects against Law and Conscience yea surely lest the rest of that guilt of bloud which he saw was likely to be spilt should be charged upon the Head of him and his posterity He withdrew himselfe from their society and did for the present even abhorre to be amongst them When God pleaseth we see he can make men speak truth whether they will or no. And truly let any man who hath Conscience judge in the matter whether the King did not do prudently and conscientiously in his forsaking them when he perceived their purpose and resolution was to have him sit there amongst them onely with a Reed or Pen in his Hand to signe and own as his Act and Deed whatever they alone should vouchsafe to do that so they might cast the blame and Odium of all their Injustice afterwards upon him which is most apparent they would have done if he had stayed for being by his departure frustrate of such their intentions they seem to cast it all upon the people by those words if no resistance be used Straffords President will cast Canterbury and Canterburies all the rest of the Conspiratours and so the people will make good their ancient freedome still As if the people of their own accords without being requested thereunto or sollicited by others for the upholding and making good some Ancient Priviledge which they formerly had enjoyed and now if the King were able to make resistance were in danger to be deprived of Had desired that those men Strafford and Canterbury should be put to death onely by their Votes and not by Law Indeed I read that in Heathen Rome the People had such a Custome to voice men to death and such men they should commonly be as had done the Common-wealth best service and from the Custome perhaps it was that Pilat a Romane Magistrate did permit the people of the Jewes against all Law and right to voice Christ to be crucified But I never heard that the people of England were wont to do so in any age till this new Arbritrary Government was set up And we beleeve it will be easier for these Libellers to make the people as the world now goes with many of them Pagans and Jewes in such desires then to prove that any such Custome did ever yet hitherto belong unto them nor will it availe much to the peoples comforts at the great day or to their own securities in the mean while if now they should purchase any such Priviledge But I leave the People to consider of this matter themselves and returne to these King-accusers who have themselves well answered their own accusation against their Soveraigne and declared the true Reason of his leaving his Seat at Westminster to which they might have added another viz. Gods calling him from thence both by his Word and Providence 1. By his Word which a King as well as another man is bound to observe and give heed unto My Sonne if sinners entice thee consent thou not if they say let us lay wait for bloud let us lurke privily for the innocent without cause c. My sonne walke not thou in the way with them refraine thy foot from their path for their feet run to evill and make haste to shed bloud 2. By his Providence in his permitting the tumultuous people to rise against him and to force him from thence Consule providentiam Dei cum verbo Dei sayes one and when with the Word Providence concurs there is doubtless a speciall call from heaven But the King having these grounds of withdrawing himselfe some may wonder why in that former place they so heavily charge him to have walked to the ruine of his three Kingdomes by abhorring his Seat and Councell as if his leaving that were the sole cause of all our woe I answer in a word Their reason I conceive is because the King being of a soft and tender conscience is unwilling to beare the guilt therefore he shall whether he will or no if they can help him to it beare all the blame being unchargeable of reall evils he shall be burdened with imaginary the Devill and his Members desire no greater advantage against those they hate then to see them meekly scrupulous nor doe they please themselves better in any thing then in loading with slanders and tormenting the righteous when they see them to be in an afflicted condition Shimei cursed his Soveraigne and falsly called him A bloudy man and the destroyer of Sauls house because â—e saw him in a low condition So these men fancie they may say any evill against their King because he is in an afflicted condition they may speak to his farther griefe because he is already grieved But as David in that place sayes so say we It may be the Lord will look upon the affliction of his Anointed and will requite good the sooner to him even for these their accursed and false scandals of him And O our God our eyes are towards thee we will waite for thy salvation And thus I hope I have now made it apparent that there is as little of Verity as there is of Piety in that reproachfull Charge which these ill disposed Libellers these Martin Mar-kings have cast upon their Soveraigne now we shall observe how they proceed They address their speech to the Reader in generall whom they suppose to be either a Friend or an Enemy to their cause and say If thou art well affected to the Cause of Liberty and Religion which the two Parliaments of England and Scotland now maintain against a Combination of all the Papists in Europe almost especially the bloudy Tigres of Ireland and some of the Prelaticall Court Faction in England thou wilt be abundantly satisfied with these Letters here Printed and take notice how the Court hath been Cajold by the Papists and we the more beleeving Protestants by the Court SECT VII 1. What that Liberty is which the pretended Parliament doe maintaine 2. And what that Religion may be which they are about to set up Reasons to shew it may haply be the Popish or peradventure the Turkish 3. Six Arguments to prove it cannot be the Christian Protestant THe Reader may be well affected to that Reformed Religion which Gods holy and pure Word teacheth which the Church of England this fourscore yeares last past hath pulikly professed and to that Liberty which Christianity alloweth which the Subjects of this Land above any other in the World most happily have enjoyed under their Soveraigne Princes and which the Parliaments of this Kingdome before this have concurred in the establishing of and yet no way affected to that cause of Liberty and Religion which these men speake of Nay if the Reader may judge of Liberty and Religion by its
also noted the same that this was the course which Julian the Apostate took in his dayes He having a purpose as these have to ruine the profession of Christianity Used not the sword as Dioclesian did though these indeed to make the work more speedy doe act Dioclesian too but he took away the means of the Clergies subsistance knowing full well that if maintenance once failed the number of Preachers would not long continue The said Julian also would tell the Bishops and Pastors when he stripped them of all they had that in so doing He had a speciall care of their soules health because the Gospell commended Poverty unto them Such like flowts at the Doctrine of Christ doth often fall from lips of the Apostates of these days 5. By their pulling downe all Christian order and formes of publicke Worship and Service tending to decency and edification by casting down defiling and defaming the Houses of God turning many of them into Stables Slaughter-houses Prisons and Jakes they have made close-stooles of Fonts and Pulpits and done as bad to Communion Tables they have rent the holy Bible in pieces scorned at the Sacraments Baptized Horses robbed Churches of Sacramentall Utensils as Plate Linnen calling it Idolatrous and Superstitious because it had been only used in Christs service nay the poore innocent Bells because they have been the meanes of calling people together to Worship God and to adore the Saviour of the World must be pulled down and turned into Guns that they may be another while Instruments of destruction to the Members of Jesus this indeed as I read was the manner of the Turkes when they tooke Constantinople they melted the Bells into Ordnances In a word what ever evill or impiety the Enemies were wont to slander our Church withall these men have acted or suffered to be done by those whom they maintaine insomuch that now the Priests of Rome shall not speak only lyes as heretofore when they tell the people That in England they abolish Church Sacraments the meanes of Salvation they either raze or rob Churches wheresoever they come and make Stables of them that they will neither have Temples nor forme of Religion nor doe they serve God any way yea the English Nation is growne so barbarous that they are very Canniballs and devoure one another God knowes my Soul abhorres to thinke much more to name those things that are acted done amongst as nor should my pen be fouled with the mention of them were they not visible to so many eyes and did not necessity of defending impugned Truth and an abused Church restraine me But I would have all the Papists understand for to that end do I thus speak that we who are of the true Protestant Christian Religion do abhor and loath these practices as much as any and are persecuted to death by them that do them for our dislike of them 6. By their suppression and demolition of all Monuments of Christianity that there might be seen no more tokens of it in the Kingdome as if they intended that no man should be able hereafter to say this Land was once Christian The very festivall times when the Birth Death Resurrection Ascension of our Saviour is commemorated which next to the Preaching of Gods Word and Administration of the Sacraments have been the most speciall means to confirme mens faith in the History of Christ these they have inhibited and forbidden as if they hated his very remembrance Gods wisdome appointed the Feast of Passeover to be kept as an Ordinance for ever among the Jewes to minde them of their deliverance from Aegypt and to be a mean to assure their Children in after-Ages of the truth of that great mercy And the Church conceiving that our deliverance from sinne and Satan by the Birth Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ to be as a great a deliverance as that other and to deserve as well to be remembred did also apprehend that way or mean to be the best to convey the notice of it to Posterity which Gods owne Wisdome devised and that was by celebrating Annuall Festivalls in memoriall thereof but these men it seemes have resolved to the contrary for they will not have the same kept any longer in remembrance Nay that miraculous Thorne at Glassenbury which was wont to celebrate the Festivall of Christs Nativity by putting forth its leaves and flowers was cut in pieces by these Militia men that it might no longer Preach unto men the Birth day of their Saviour But what doe I speake of dayes and times and teaching Trees the very Doctrine it selfe which Christ himselfe taught and practised viz. the Doctrine of Peace Patience and passive obedience unto Princes is reckoned obsolete and uselesse by these men it was publickly maintained by a certaine worthlesse Member at a great Committee in the Checquer Chamber that such Doctrines were out of date in these dayes and had been onely proper to former times when the Church was in a low Condition and under the Persecution of Heathen Emperours Nay these men would not that any true Christian Protestant should have leave to live to relate unto posterity the Doctrine of his Saviour as seemeth by their doings their thirst for Protestant Bloud appeareth to be such as if they desired that all of that Profession in the world had but one Head that so they might cut it off at one blow for they have shed already more of it within these foure yeares then ever was shed in Great Brittaine since the world began and that for no other cause that we yet know for they never durst come to dispute it with us then for holding to the Doctrine of Christs Gospell because we will not contrary to that lift up our hands with them against our Soveraigne By these particulars and many others which I might alleadge it is evident what ever they pretend to the contrary that their endeavours are to destroy the Christian Protestant Religion Our Saviour doth warrant us to judge of men by their fruits wherefore t is no marvaile if the Reader being a true Protestant Christian be not well affected to that cause of Liberty and Religion which the two Parliaments of England and Scotland do seeme to maintaine SECT VIII 1. Of the feigned Combination against the Parliament 2. Our judgement of the Papists and of their assisting the King 3. Our abhorment of the Cruelties of the Irish and how they are out-gone by the English Rebells 4. Our Opinion of the Court Faction of what flock we are 5. How the Libellers call themselves the more beleeving sort of people BUt the Reason insinuated by our Subtile Brethren why men should be affected to that their cause is taken from the Consideration of the Persons against whom as they say t is maintained viz. against a combination of all the Papists of Europe almost especially the bloudy Tigres of Ireland and some of the Prelaticall and Court Faction in England That
in the truest and best sence because they do not do the workes of a Parliament Those Jewes in the Gospell were not Abrahams Children in Christs sense which was the truest and the best because they did not doe Abrahams Workes they called themselves indeed his Children in respect of the flesh or walls as I may say that did inclose them which they had from Abraham But Christ calls them A Generation of Vipers and Children of the Devill for all that because they went about to kill and destroy Him their King and Soveraigne which thing sayes he did not Abraham may not we esteem of this Parliament as our Saviour did of those Jewes since there is such a similitude betwixt them both in words and manners we know that Christ did well enough approve of those Children of Abraham who did Abrahams Workes notwithstanding his dislike of those in particular whom he speaks against so may we notwithstanding our dislike of this Parliament highly esteem of another which shall do Parliamentary actions Now the Works or actions of a Christian Parliament are to Heal and not to make breaches in a Church or State to settle Religion and peace not to destroy either to make and confirm good Laws not to null them to suppresse all sects and false opinions not to give free liberty unto them to consult for the Kings Honour and dignitie not to countenance and Authorize base Libells to his defamation to advise for the wealth and flourishing condition of the Subjects not to impoverish or to ruine them these and such like have been and properly still are the works of Parliaments and to such conditioned Parliaments we are no enemies we account a true Parliament our Palladium the strength of the Kingdome we have the same opinion of it as the Trojans had of their Palladium they held their City invincible so long as they kept their Palladium inviolate so might our Nation have been reckoned under Gods protection invincible if these unhappy men had not perverted the power and priviledges of that most High and Honourable Court But alas never was Noble Nation so abused and destroyed as this is and hath been per Catulos istos Catilinarios I may truly call them who have been the instruments of infection to this so much desired meeting who if the God of Heaven do not oppose and subdue we are never like to have any more Parliaments which is one of our greatest feares if these men prevail they will assuredly never have any above them that shall call them to a reckoning be they never so lascivious in evill never so mischievous or destructive of good Now must every one that disrelisheth the courses of this Parliament be judged an Enemy to all Parliaments Truly 't is too unreasonable too harsh a censure but 't is our Burden and we must bear it And yet this is not all for we are sentenced to be Enemies of Reformation too an Enemy to Parliaments and Reformation But do these two go always together May not a man possibly be a friend to the one and no wel-wisher to the other We have heard of some that have been well affcted to Parliaments and yet not to Reformation But this we apprehend is only added to exasperate the peoples rage against us that with the more violence and speed they may dispatch us as being Enemies to all that good is Indeed if Parliaments and Reformation were as they ought to be unseparable Companions then He or they who were friends to the one were also friends to both of necessity But these very men will confesse and say that in Queen Maries dayes there was Parliament and Deformation and so wofull experience tels us there is now Yea and Depopulation too of Houses families and men and Devastation of true Religion and Law The Reformation if they so call it by this Parliament is such a one as Nebuzaradan Steward to Nebuchadnezzar made at Jerusalem when he threw down the walls both of the City and Temple we confess to all the world we are enemies to this kind of Reformation and so hope shall ever be But to that which is of sin and evill whether in Church or State we are most affectionate friends do humbly beg of God to this end that he would please to settle the King in his Throne and give him such a Parliament as may have grace truly and intentionally not in pretence onely to go about it sed de his satis onely we doe observe from hence before hand how our Bill of indictment shall run if these men lay hands on us what those Crimes are which the people shall be made beleeve we are put to death for Because we are enemies to Parliaments and Reformation to God and all good men yea and wilfull on our Enmity too we would not be reclaimed by any meanes no not by the help of Miracles or such Revelations as these are But what is this we hear Miracles and Revelations pleaded in these dayes and by these men Are not these of that number who were wont heretofore to cry out against the Papists because wanting the written word to justifie their way they alleadged Miracles and Revelations See the strength of Resolution in these stout Champions rather then submit to Scripture to their Soveraigne to the Truth to Reason they will joyn hands in this also with the Papists whom they have formerly so much condemned and being brought to a like strait will make use of like Arguments to warrant their own proceedings I confess Astonishment did much possess my spirit for a great while at their courses so directly contrary to Gods plain word till at last I met with a certain Sermon preached by one William Bridge and ordered to be Printed by a Committee of the House of Commons subscribed by John White wherein the Preacher speaking of Reformation now so much talked on teacheth the people that 't is a sin in them to look that it should be effected in Gods ordinary way or to expect that Gods assistance should come as in former times to the furtherance of it for saies he now God is working extraordinarily and to tie him to ordinary ways and means in such times as these is to tempt and to limit God this he repeats over three or four times for peoples better observance and then concludes positively that ' t is the second great sin that hath made a stoppage in Englands mercies this tempting of God by expecting reformation in an ordinary way though it was wont to be accounted a tempting of God to expect his help in ways extraordinary His ful sense I suppose in those his expressions is as if he had spoken more fully out thus My beloved Brethren Gods word was indeed heretofore the rule and square to order your course by and because therein you find no warrant to rebel against your King to kil slay and destroy your Brethren to go in such ways as the Parliament hath voted
purpose do stil detain it from him Our observation of them hath been this They wanting matter to make their King odious to the world as they desire he should be did labour all they could to disable him from doing as he had said and purposed that so they might upon his failing have some pretence to tel the people he was perfidious and a Promise-breaker 2. Whether the Kings promises when first made were not intended performable only upon the Condition of their Faith and Obedience who now tax him and whether they have performed their duties in those particulars we conceive that as Gods promises so the Kings are made upon such supposals If ye be willing and obedient saies God ye shal eat the good of the Land but if ye refuse and rebel ye shal be devoured by the sword and again The Lord wil be with you while you be with him but if ye forsake him and walk contrary unto him He wil forsake you and walk contrary unto you If the Kings promises should be more absolute then Gods they might be sinful and so a sin to keep them though he had power beside faith and obedience doth not only make people capable of the thing promised but doth also inable the party promising to make his intended goodness manifest It is said that Christ could do no mighty works in a certain place because of the peoples unbelief Did mens unbelief weaken Christs hands and can it strengthen those of the King I conceive no man can justly tax the King of any breaches in this kind unless they can shew that his promises were absolute and notwithstanding their continuation in Rebellion and opposition against him or at least can name some one particular of them for which they took his word and waited on him in the way of obedience which he did not perform to the uttermost of his power 3. Whether those men who take such pains to have the King accounted it in the world a Promise-breaker be themselves free from the same crime whether they have been precise and punctual in keeping all their Oaths Promises and Protestations made unto the King If not it may be suspected that their Policy is greater then their Honesty and that they hope to cloud their own fault by means of this dust which they raise against the King as conceiving that men wil not be so uncivil as to think them guilty of that which with so much mouth and fieriness of Spirit they censure in the King And yet verily many are of opinion that it cannot be shewn from any story that there was ever a like pack of perfidious wretches under the cope of Heaven professing the Christian Protestant Religion that have broken more Oaths of Allegeance Bonds of obedience and Protestations of Loyalty then these have done Again I do further advise the Readers that if from any passages in these Letters they shal conceive they see in the King some failing concerning his trust and dependance on God that he doth not so totally cast himself upon his strength and providence as in their thoughts it be seemeth the Anointed of the Lord and as at the beginning of his troubles he resolved to do but seems to look out for other helps as of Forreiners and people of another Religion which in their apprehensions is not so proper for him a Protestant Prince to make use of Yet before they passe a rigorous censure against him after the manner of these men Let them also consider of these three particulars 1. That the King is in the state of Mortality and so hath frailties in him as wel as others Nor was it ever known that Faith was at all times alike strong and lively in the best believers somtime they have relied wholy upon God but somtimes again they have been ful of doubtings specially when afflictions have bin hard upon them and God seemed to stand afar off David at some time thought that God had quite cast him off and forgotten him though somtime again he could say that God was his salvation and when Peter that great Apostle felt himself sinking his Faith failed him Now considering how tedious bitter and heavy the Kings afflictions have bin we who are more frail should rather magnifie and admire the strength of Gods grace in him that hath supported him so far and so long then condemn him for his weakness the best of us perhaps had despaired and bin distracted or dead long ere this under the like continuance of a far lesse burden 2. That necessity is a Tyrant and forceth men beyond their wils and purposed inclinations and therfore Seneca wel Magnum imbecillitatis nostrae patrocinium necessitas quae omnem legem frangit it breaks all laws and resolutions and thrusts a man with a kind of Authority into by-paths it did David when notwithstanding Gods particular promise to settle him in the Throne of the Kingdom and after a large and frequent experience of Gods delivering him from Sauls rage he said I shal one day perish by the hand of Saul and thereupon used that which is now counted an indirect mean for his preservation the help of Forreiners and men of another Religion He sought protection from Achish king of Gath and indeed behaved himself in his court being there also put to his shifts somwhat unseemly And so Abraham notwithstanding God had promised him his special guard wherupon he had the more reason to be confident and to depend upon him yet being in a strait to save his life used an undirect mean two several times and hazarded the loss of his Wives Honour Our King hath had no such personal and special promises of Gods preservation as those holy men had therfore if he had bin so weak in faith as some wil happily apprehend him yet had he shewn himself therein but the son of David the son of Abraham It would doubtless better become the best of us to pray with the Psalmist Let not the rod of the wicked lie alway upon the back of the Righteous lest the righteous put forth his hand unto wickedness then to condemn or censure a righteous Prince for his putting forth his hand for forrein help in a cause of this nature when he is in danger to be deprived both of life and Kingdom but more of this hereafter 3. Let it be remembred how highly guilty of hiring and impolying forrein aid these his Accusers with their faction are who oppose his Majesty notwithstanding that great strength of ships arms wealth and men which are at home under their Command they have the aid of all men whomsoever they can get or hire to help them in spoyling the King they called in the Scottish Nation to this purpose and it is wel known by divers where neer thirty of their men being at once taken together Prisoners were found upon examination to be of six several Nations and all Papists wherfore then may
Chaos First down with a well governed Church then with a wel ordered State and then a Butcherly confusion follows presently not onely in one but in all places But I shall take the boldness to make a few queres about the particulars SECT XIII 1. Of their Propositions at Uxbridge Foure Pretences for their Abolition of Episcopacy 2. Four true Reasons of that their sinfull request 1. WHy the Abolition of Episcopacy Was not their pretence and promise at first to make the Church Glorious and according to the Pattern of Primitive times and was not the Church then Governed by Bishops Was not the Doctrine and Discipline of this particular Church settled here in King Edwards dayes by Bishops who sealed the same afterward with their bloud and hath ever any particular Nationall Church so flourished as this hath here done under that Government did the first establishers of any other Ecclesiasticall Discipline ever give so reall and substanciall a Testimony of confirmation as these did to what they had in this kind done Or was their work ever approved with a like measure of Gods blessing Hath ever any one Church since the Ascension of our Saviour brought forth in four-score years space so many learned men defenders of verity and oppugners of Antichristianity So many able Preachers and expounders of holy Writ so many knowing Christians and well gifted people of all sorts as the Church of England hath done under the Government of Episcopacy And must it now be abolished in all haste For what causes I pray Pretences they have which we will first consider on and their true reasons afterward 1. They say because t is Impious Unlawfull and Antichristian Were then those Martyr Bishops Cranmer Ridly Hooper Latimer Farrer all Antichristian Were Jewell Downam Andrews Abbot King and many others of that Order that writ against Antichrist all themselves Antichristian Must Gods Wisdome now receive a check for suffering his Church to flourish thus long under a Government Antichristian Will this new Generation undertake to teach the Almighty also to rule his Flock and Family better then He hath hitherto done by their Abolition of Episcopacy Indeed some of them have taught that Hierarchie it self was Antichrist though Scripture speaking of Antichrist calls him a man of sin not a sinful Order if Hierarchy were any such thing but no marvail that those who think they can teach God himself do take upon them to contradict the Scripture O but say they the Romish Religion is Antichristian and the Government of that Church is by Episcopacy And yet this Government is more Ancient then that Religion as now professed and therefore that Religion cannot make it Antichristian Nor is that Church Antichristian because of that Government but rather because the precepts of men there like our Ordinances of Parliament here are preferred before the Word of God The Bishops there are called Antichristian because like our men of Westminster they are such abrogators of and such dispensers with Gods Lawes and such tyrannous exactors and importuners of their owne Because like them they are or have been at least some of them so treacherous in their pretences so barbarous in their executions so contrary in their doings to the meek and milde Doctrine of Christs Gospell breathing forth cruelty fire and sword against those that are not of their own opinion though no otherwise offending them then in their desiring to amend them Because they are in their conditions so like unto those that would from amongst us abolish Episcopacy therefore are the Bishops in the Romish Church called Antichristian and for no other reason Their Second Argument or pretence why Episcopacy must be Abolished is because say they all other Reformed Churches have abolished Bishops and till we have abolished them too Reformation will not be perfect in this Nation This Reason is false Or were it true yet the conclusion from it is most untrue The Churches in Denmark Swevia and Poland do retaine Episcopacy after the manner of the Greek and Russian Churches and those of Africk and the Easterne Countries And for those particular Churches that have abolished that Government it is first to be enquired before there be a conformity to their practice whether therein they have done well or no and whether since that time they have thrived better without it then we have done that have enjoyed it If it be remembred what is recorded to be said at the meeting at Dort to our English Divines by some of them that were sent thither from those other reformed Churches concerning their own unhappiness in respect of the want of such an Episcopal Government as ours was and concerning our Churches felicity in its enjoyment therof perhaps it would be concluded that this similitude aymed at with other Churches is only in misery and imperfections and that those other so admired Churches come short of ours in perfection of Reformation and not ours of them and of this opinion doubtless were those wise and learned Divines of the Religion as they are called in France who petitioned the Cardinal Richlieu as I have heard credibly reported that they might be permitted to have Bishops over their Congregations But he answered No for then you would have at least the face of a Church among you That learned Gentleman Sir Edwin Sands tels us in his Europae Speculum that the Papists are more awed with the Reformation of Religion in England then with that in any other Country and have bin says he more busie in their attempts against our Church as conceiving it to be most perfect of any other in regard of that peaceable and orderly alteration introduced therein which was not says he in a tumultuous headlong way as was that in other Churches but by the general consent of the Prince and Realm representatively assembled in solemn Parliament as also in regard of the continuation of the Government by Bishops and vocation of Ministers which the inconsiderate weakness of other Churches did not retain or rather the violent wickedness of profane men coveting the Churches possessions would not suffer Thus he But now we have amongst our selves some above-board who it seemes are resolved though with the destruction of Church and Kingdome to free the Papists from their Ancient dread they will have all things here as they are and have been in other Churches that former orderly Reformation which did so awe the Adversary shall be over-done and made perfect by an heady tumultuous innovation our Government by Bishops shall be quite abolished even root and branch and all the Churches Revenues shall be imployed to prophane uses that so we may be fully conformable to other Reformed Churches this is the issue of their second Argument Their 3. Pretence to the same purpose is this Bishops must be abolished because they have been specially of late such enemies unto and Persecutors of Gods People viz. those of their Faction For as if they were all Kings of China they
to discover Hypocrites that men might beware of them They are these 1. If the King can be gotten to settle the Militia in their hands all the Injustice and unlawfulnesse of the war on their side will be thereby cancelled and whatsoever they have done against him and his subjects will be Authorized as found and good their crafty seizing upon it at first and their violent use thereof since to the destruction of so many will go for worthy deeds and the King will be judged to have been much to blame in making any opposition against them and for his calling them Rebells His own Act will be the eating of those his own words and speake them to have been His most humble dutifull and obedient subjects all the while they fought against him yea and all they did in that kinde to have been done out of pure love to His Good and Glory and for the benefit of Church and Common-wealth And then too if withall the King shall but confer some new Titles of Honour upon their Chieftaines as when time was he did upon Lesley for this they expect and intend to demand too then they shall appeare White all over and who will dare to say to the contrary and full as good subjects almost as their Brethren the Scots That is one Reason 2. If they can get the King to settle in their Hands that depositum of Power and Authority which God hath intrusted in His they shall bring him as they desire into their own condition and make him such a one to God as themselves have been and are to him whereby Gods displeasure may be so far kindled against him that he may permit them having all the power in their hands to bring their endeavours fully to passe in destroying Him and His posterity and then the world shall be taught to beleeve that Heaven hath punished him for such His sin and confirmed with its blessing all their sayings and doings against him that God was of their minde all the while as now by the success is most apparent Honesta quaedam scelera successus facit saies Seneca the highest Villanies if succesfull shall be accounted vertues and these men care not to obtain truths but opinions warrant 3. They desire the Militia may be settled in their hands quia omnis in ferro salus est their whole safety consists therein it is the Nurse of their wealth and the sole Anchor of their security for O si pateant pectora virûm quantos intus sublimis agit fortuna metus what great feares have these mens High fortunes created in their Bosomes could we but view their insides They dare neither trust the King nor yet the Countrey that trusted them for should the strength be in any hands but their own they might be called to an account for all their doings the Law might be in force again and Justice suffered to shew her face Treason should sit no longer in the seat of Religion Truth might appear above-board and Peace be restored unto the Nation and Order might come again into fashion Yea had the King His power again He might call a Parliament a true Parliament a free Parliament which is a thing that they quake to think on for then like a Company of poore Hope-losts they should stand below and look up to that place of Honour where erst they sat and have so much abused and who in their condition can indure this Nemo Hercule nemo No mervail therefore if they desire to hold fast the Militia in their own hands 4. Should they part with it they should not onely degrade themselves of their present Honour and disarme themselves of safety but of their wealth and riches too for all is now at their Command the Lands Estates the goods and Fortunes of all their Country-men which the Militia of the Kingdome hath invested them with a right in and possession must be maintainted by the same meanes as obtained But should the Militia return into the Hands of the right owner Honest men would enjoy their own as before and they who are now so Gay would remaine stark Naked like Jack-daw in the fable when every bird had re-assumed her own feathers And then further too their pleasures would also cease that sweetnesse they feel in shedding of bloud would be no more which very want would be as bad as death unto them their Natures are now so accustomed unto it In a word as Amos speakes they have gotten them Hornes by their own strength or sleight and the Hornes are the defence of the Head the Militia are these Hornes and should they part with that they fear they should not keep their Heads long after and therefore great reason they have rather to desire the settlement of it for ever in their own Hands But with their favour what reason hath the King to trust them that will not trust Him them with His weapons upon that experience He hath had of their love and kindnesse Who will not trust Him with His own Can it be imagined that they will imploy them otherwise then they have done considering what their delights are Nay may it not be expected that they will make Him the Author of all their Evill which from thenceforth they shall doe when by His consent the power is once settled in their goods Hands Surely they that used His name to the raising of so many men against Himself to the killing of so many of His Subjects when He openly opposed them will not scruple to doe all their mischeif under His Name and Authority when they have so faire a pretence for it Nay should the King doe in this as they would have Him may not the Just and Holy God account Him a partaker with them in Evill His Majesty by His own pious confession hath smarted under the Hand of God for His consenting though doubtlesse against His will to the shedding of Straffords innocent Bloud and should He againe after His Humiliation for that by a new consent make Himself guilty of many more Blouds the continued Anger of the Almighty might be too heavy a burden for Him to beare No doubt but they are and will be the more importunate for His consent now because they see His heart hath smot Him for His consent then for how ever it was blattered much at the beginning by those of their faction against forcing of tender Consciences yet verily we beleeve there were never men that delighted more in offering violence to the Soules and Consciences of the righteous then themselves do wherefore should His Majesty yeild to them in this particular it would be in singultum cordis a corrasive to His Heart for ever and therein a glory unto them and also it would argue too great a distrust in Gods defence of Him and be a mean to delay Gods punishment from falling upon the heads of these lofty Rebells And besides all this His Majesty hereby shall give way to the settling
ill spoken of the same reason may be given for the enemies prevailing of late against the Kings men Though I doe not say that all on the Enemies side are free from this hellish sinne or so respectfull of Christ and God as the Turkes are in this particular for there are with them even with them also most horrid swearers and most execrable blasphemers but their evills hurt not us as our owne doe nor are so mis-becoming their Cause as ours are to that which we maintaine And indeed never any good undertaking had so many unworthy attendants such horrid blasphemers and wicked wretches as ours hath had I quake to think much more to speak what mine eares have heard from some of their lips but to discover them is not my present business a day may come when the world may see that we who adhere to the King for Conscience sake what ever is said of us to the contrary have as truly hated the prophanesse and vilenesse of our own men as we have done the disloyalty and Rebellion of the Enemy For indeed the truth is betwixt them both as betwixt two mil-stones the King his Cause and our selves too are ground in pieces and were the matter well opened it would appear that both those and these have had but one and the same end even to satisfie their owne lusts and enrich themselves with the ruines of their King and Country But without all question neglect of Religion and want of Discipline hath weakned and undone the Kings Armies O had His Sacred Majesties Commands and Orders for the exercise of both been put in Execution the Enemy had never been able to have stood before us 3. Popular Fury which is like the rushing of mighty waters comes also in to the making up of this Land-floud which gives the Adversary such occasion of glorying the Addition of the many though it can adde no true credit to their Cause yet it makes the successe appear extraordinary The People sayes Jeremy are foolish and know not Gods way and our Saviour sayes the Multitude walke in the broad way they are led much by mouth and noise and incline alwayes to the strongest their delights are to lift up those that are already up and to throw downe lower the already downe with them the winner hath alwayes praise let a man get power or prosperity how he can he shall not want vertue in their opinions A notable Testimony of this we have in that propheticall vision Rev. 13. wherein is foreshewn what shall fall out in these latter times we are there told of a certain Beast with many Heads whom all the world wonder after in regard of his Power and Authority which notwithstanding was not lawfull or rightly come by as the Text infers For the Dragon or Devill did give it to him and not God yet such was the blindness and fury of the People that they did worship and adore him for it And by the way let us here note that Satan is sometime said to give power by Gods permission as well as God and as that power which is gotten by honest and lawfull meanes is Gods gift of which kinde was that of Pilat though abused by him it was conferred upon him by the voluntary designement of Caesar the Supream Magistrate and therefore our Saviour saies it was of God or from above So that strength and Authority on the other side which is obtained by unlawfull courses is the gift of Satan and such was that of the many-headed Monster forementioned He is said to have received power from the Dragon because by fraud violence and unjust wayes he had gryped a great strength of the Militia into his hands whereby for a season he was succesefull in many designes Yea sayes the spirit vers 7. He made Warre with the Saints and overcame them He prevailed over men of all sorts small and great rich and poore free and bond and compelled them to receive a Marke or to take a Covenant and no man might live and trade buy or sell in all his Quarters that scrupled at it And in regard of this his great Power and success together all that dwelt upon the earth or in the Countries where he had to doe those onely excepted sayes the Text whose names were written in the booke of Life did worship the Beast wondered after him and admired him saying who is like unto the Beast who is able to make Warre with him And no doubt but the Beast did admire himselfe too for such his greatness and success among the People whose foolish and froward access indeed did make the same so extraordinary These I conceive are the chief causes of that prosperity which the enemy so much glories in what invisible reasons there be in Gods secret Councell for his permitting this I cannot tell but sure I am though the Adversaries may have received their power as that beast did to doe as they have done yet Gods Hand it selfe is in the Judgement as 't is a punishment And indeed we have sinned one with another and therefore are justly punished one by another we had made this happy and rich Kingdom the stage of our wickedness and therefore it is become unto us an Acheldama or field of blood and should God make it an Hell also for ever to torment us in it would be but our due merit and his true Justice Let us give God his due glory He is righteous in all his doings The Judgement indeed hath falne hitherto most heavy upon the Kings Family and Party and this I beleeve is of Gods speciall permission too but whether because Judgement doth usually begin at Gods own house or because we on that side are in the generall so sinfull and the best of us so little affected with these nationall miseries and so little humbled under our own I cannot tell Gods Councells are a great deep But let this be confessed to our shame of which I wish we could take more unto our selves for this is a time and season to do it in I thinke since the world began there was never so great a Judgement lesse laid to heart wherein so many are concerned then this is by us Alas Alas Who amongst us yet speaketh aright Who repenteth him of his wickedness Who lamenteth for his sin Who smites himselfe and sayes What have I done Every one in a manner still goes on â—in his old course and runs desperately upon his owne ruine even as the Horse that wanteth understanding rusheth into the battle We have those that seeme to hate Religion as much as the Rebells doe Loyalty yea that make Religion a mark of Rebellion even as they on the other side do make Rebellion a mark of Religion Nay I would they did not hate both Loyalty and Religion too sure they use those worst that are to both these best affected we must needs think that God hath an high indignation against such persons and disdaines sure
will the King appear so aboundantly culpable in this case as these men would have Him if these 3. following particulars be well considered upon 1. The lawfulnesse of using the ayde of Papists specially being His own Subjects in case of life and extremity of which I have spoaken somewhat before to which I referre the Reader All that the Enemy can object is the Kings Resolution to the contrary at the beginning of this Rebellion His words to this purpose they faile not to alleadge in the end of their observations Pag. 55. where also they tell us that the King made a strict Proclamation for the punishing those of that Religion that should presume to list themselves under Him and that a way by Oath was prescribed for discrimination of them and instructions granted to the Commissioners of Array in all places to dis-arme them All which doth but speak His Majesties full purpose of keeping his Resolution for the King doubtlesse did verily beleeve till experience taught the contrary that Protestant Religion had such a power in the hearts of those that pretended so much unto it that they would never suffer Him their Soveraigne and protectour to stand in need of the help of Papists to defend Him And these men in the same place confesse that at the battle of Edge-hill the Papists were taken into the Kings Army of meere necessity and they alleadge in scorne the excuse as they call it which the King gave for the same namely that by law they were prohibited Armes in time of peace and not in time of Warre which distinction say these bore date long after the Warre begun but that was want of invention only perhaps so for who could have beleeved that men of their pretendings should prove so highly vile and base as they have done in driving their King to such exigents or that the People of our Religion should prove so ingratefull as to leave their Soveraigne and protector so desolate as that contrary to His own Resolution He must be forced in defence of His life to use those of another Religion and be put to excuse Himself by that distinction This makes me remember that in Seneca when Hercules familie was abused Ingrata tellus nemo ad Herculeae Domus auxilia venit vidit hoc tantum nefas defensus Orbis 2. The time when this Letter unto the Queen was writ wherein this promise was made and the occasion moving thereunto The time His accusers confesse was March 5. 1644. immediately after the breaking up of the Treaty at Uxbridge when all hopes of peace by way of an accommodation were frustrate and dissolved when the Kings affaires were very low and the enemy high having newly taken the Town of Shrewsbury one of His Majesties best Garrisons And the particular moving him at that time to think of this meane of procuring assistance from his Subjects of that Religion was as appeares in the Letter His discovery that the English Rebels had so much as in them lay transmitted the command of Ireland from him to the Scots Which might easily perswade him that their purpose was to take that of England unto themselves and so his whole Authority in all his Dominions being totally rent from him and divided amongst them he was like to be but a Sans terrae or a Cipher signifying just nothing in his three Kingdomes which also spake plainly to his Conscience that it was nothing lesse then Reformation of Religion what ever was pretended that the Puritane Rebels aymed at upon which considerations he concluded with himselfe as the Letter infers That it would be no Piety at all but plain Presumption in him to neglect any lawfull meane for defence of himselfe and that authority which God had entrusted him withall or still to stand upon scruples which word the malitious Observatours Pag. 45. would have the people take speciall notice of and truly what is it but a Scruple a needlesse Scruple for any to question whether a Protestant Prince should use the helpe of Papists in case of necessity to defend himself in his naturall rights and Royalties it being not onely lawfull but according to his Office and duty to preserve his Crown and Dignity by the help of his Subjects of what Religion soever they being by the providence of God lotted under his Government as the proper meanes and Instruments for that very purpose Wherefore now at length though the King had not hitherto as himself saies though of this meane scil with intent to use it yet upon this occasion and consideration I give thee leave says he to promise in my name that I will take away c. 3. The thing promised which is the taking away the penall Statutes against the Papists provided that in this his necessity they afford him that powerfull assistance as shall inable him to do it And truely if extraordinary successe be such a full proof of a good cause as these Libellers would now have it and the King by the assistance of his Popish Subjects should obtaine the same against his Puritan Rebells then their cause and Religion must for another while be concluded the best and this Argument being fore-swallowed much wrong should they have in the worlds deeme if at least He whom they have enabled should not suffer them to enjoy the free use of it under his protection And besides if we do but consider the Carriages of the Rebells themselves what allowance they have given and what promises they have made to men of all Sects and Religions for to purchase their assistance in taking from the King his inheritance and Authority What advantages they have made of the Kings fore-mentioned purpose and promise not to use the ayd of Papists How they have sued for that assistance which he resolved against and have entertained many of that Religion into their Armies and what proffers they have made to those whom they could not prevaile with to help them only to sit still and not help him I say if we consider of these things this promise which the King made will not appeare so unreasonable to men of understanding as these would have it But they Accuse the King afterward for offering this to the Queen in behalf of the Papists without either her or their request It may be easily beleeved that they have sued for it heretofore Besides if it be but considered what the fashion of the world is now come to be since the Puritans pricked up their ears Namely to Capitulate and bargain with their King for what they shall have and what he will grant before any duty or service shall be afforded to him and then too if it be remembred what large and unreasonable demands the Kings worst deserving subjects do require at His hands onely for the purchase of life and peace to himselfe and his people No man will wonder if the King do think the Papists will look at least for Liberty of Conscience and Religion under him when by their
meanes the land is restored to tranquility and the King to his Crown and dignity For doubtlesse the Religion of the Papists is as dear to them as the Religion of Miles Corbet Edmund Prideaux and Zouch Tate the three chief examiners of the Kings Letters is to them and may with as little detriment to any Church or State be tollerated And besides the Penalty which the King promiseth to take away is not as I conceive to be levied upon the Papists meerely because such for it may be exacted upon others also though of another Religion if they be guilty of these particulars Scil. if they shall refuse to take the Oath of Supremacy and Allegeance to the King 2. If they shall Raise disturbance in the Church or State 3. If they shall Seduce the Kings Subjects from their Religion and Obedience 4. If they shall Refuse to come to Church once in a month at least or to hear Divine service 5. If they shall many of them together Keep private Conventicles and meetings in such cases onely as I conceive the Laws are in force against Papists and against all men else as equally of what Religion soever Wherefore let any man of understanding and justice speak whether these fault-finders themselves be not under the same Penalties as deeply as ever were the Papists Have not they renounced the Oath of Supremacie and Allegeance to the King by making a new Oath and placing the Supremacy in the Heads of their faction Have not they raised such distractions and Rebellions in Church and State as the like was never known Have not they had their private meetings in all places of the Kingdome and seduced thousands of the Kings Subjects from their duty and obedience Do not they refuse to come to Common-Prayer Nay have they not Abolished the same out of Churches that no man at all might come unto it May they doing these things and indeavouring the Kings destruction withall be freed from the Penalty of these Laws And may not the Papists remaining in their due obedience and assisting their Soveraigne against his Enemies according both to Law and duty reasonably enjoy the same freedome though peradventure they come short of one of the particulars which perhaps too is not so much out of Malice as in these others but out of ignorance and mis-information and that is not coming to Common-Prayer to which neither can they come now if they had a mind because it is taken away by those very men who would have the Statutes still in force against the Papists for not allowing of that which themselves with all contempt and scorn have abolished But in the last Page of their Notes they Object in this case also the Kings resolution and promise not to Abolish these Lawes but to joyn with his Parliament in suppression of Popery In answer to which let what hath been said already be well remembred and withall how they that call themselves His Parliamant have not suffered the King to concurre with them but have opposed and persecuted him ever since he declared that his Resolution to the end he might not be able to pursue the same Yea How themselves have compelled him in the continuance of his affliction to do that which they cry out upon him for have endeavoured all they could to force him further had not a great measure of Divine grace upholden him He may justly complaine of them as David did of some in his time They have driven me out from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord saying go serve other gods They have done what they could to violence him from his Religion and to force him to be a Papist according as they voiced him Never Prince had greater temptations and inforcements yet never Prince was more constant in his Religion blessed be the Majesty of Heaven for him A perpetuall disgrace will it questionlesse be to Protestant Religion in the eyes of all the world beside that any pretending to it should shew themselves so unworthy as to suffer so gratious a Prince to stand in need of Papists to defend him much more that they should by ill usage force him with such promises to seek their ayd but that they should accuse him also for doing the same after they have inforced him to it we must needs cry out O nullo scelus credibile in aevo quodque posteritas neget the Height of their villany is the only advantage they have that it wil not be believed by posterity Wel I say let all those particulars be thought upon by all sober men of this Age and if they be not sufficient in their judgments to plead the King Excusable in this case then let them remember as they were advised before that the King is a man as others are and in his extremity he declared himself to be the Son of David and the Son of Abraham SECT XVIII 1. The Kings granting indempnity to the murderous Irish another Slander The necessity and Reasons of the Kings yeilding to a Peace at that time with the Irish And the Conditions upon which that Peace was to be granted This Act not contradictive to any of his former expressions against their detestable doings 2. The Vanity of their Charge against the King for going in a close trading way Two sufficient Evidences of His Majesties sincere and constant affection to the Protestant Religion 3. The whole Charge against the King most truly retorted upon the Objectors WE come now to the fourth particular in their Charge which is say they granting indempnity to the murderous Irish. This is collected as they tel us in their after-notes from the Kings Letters to Ormund Pap. 16. 17. 18. 19. in all which I assure the world there is no such word or phrase to be found as I wil or I do grant indempnity to the murderous Irish Indeed I find therein his Majesty consenting to a peace with the Irish and he sets down the reasons necessitating him thereunto which these honest Observatours have totally omitted to take notice of lest there should have bin no appearance of blame at all in their accusation in which they do altogether as wisely as Satan did when he spake Scripture to our Saviour for he did omit but only so much of the sentence as would if expressed have made that part alleaged nothing to his purpose And of this all men shal judge for I wil set down in the Kings own words the grounds moving him to write to that purpose unto Ormund Paper 16. Ormund THe impossibility of preserving my Protestant Subjects in Ireland by a continuation of the War hath moved me to give you these powers and directions that is one ground A 2. follows in these words It being now manifest that the English Rebels have as far as in them lyeth given the Command of Ireland to the Scots that their aym is at a total subversion of Religion and regal power and that nothing else wil content them or purchase Peace
thing covertly in their lives nor seek themselves in any matter But how close and selfish they have indeed been in their proceedings I have hinted already and the world hath too sharp a sense of it Had the King from the beginning bin more close and reserved perhaps ere this he had quite blown them up at least as by a counter-mine had given a check to their proceedings and therein done no other then what became a politick General whose wisdome 't is to out-go his Enemies in their own way and to beat them at their own weapons But the Kings sincere and plain dealing hath added much through their wickednesse to his own undoing and yet now at length writing but a few words in private to his own Wife about his own necessary preservation because he did not acquaint them with it before-hand he is inveighed against and cried out upon for trading in a close way for meer particular advantage But the thing they intend chiefly by these words is to perswade the world which is also the main drift of their whole Libell that the design which the King drives at is to advance Popery to this end he useth clandestine proceedings against them at Westminster the only supporters as must be believed of Protestant Religion and condemneth as they say all that be in any degree Protestants at Oxford granteth tolleration of Idolatry to Papists and indemnity to the murderous Irish which in regard of his many Protestations to the contrary he being ashamed to own openly is fain to betake himself to a close trading way to pursue and accomplish In Answer to which grand Calumny I shal only set down the extract of a Letter closely sent indeed that the world may most truly discern the Kings close trading way by his Majesty to the Commissioners in Ireland immediately after Nazeby Battail when he was in Wales and in a most low condition written by the hand of the Lord Digby his Majesties Secretary I wish I had the ful Letter it self to set it down verbatim for I confesse this to be but the abstract of it which I received from a Gentleman of most approved truth and Candour as he did only bear the same in memory which notwithstanding he is confident is but little if at all differing from the Original My Lords and Gentlemen HIs Majesty hath Commanded me to let you know that according to your promise and agreement with him he long since expected your aide and doth much wonder you should neglect him and your selves so much as to retard it because immediately after His your ruine must necessarily follow but He is informed that taking the advantage of His low Condition you insist upon somthing in Religion more then formerly you were contented with He has therefore commanded me to let you know that were his condition much lower then it is you shal never force him to any further concessions to the prejudice of his Conscience and of the true Protestant Religion in which He is resolved to live and for which He is ready to die and that He wil joyn with any Protestant Prince nay with these Rebels themselves how odioâ—s soever rather then yeild the least to you in this particular I refer it to all mens Consciences whether this be not a sufficient evidence of his Majesties sincerity and affection to the Protestant Religion considering the estate wherein his affairs stood when this Letter was written and also whether it doth not fully confirm the truth of what I said in effect before viz. That what ever concessions were made to the Papists and Irish were rather by the inforcement of the Puritan Rebels then by any inward affection of His Majesty to their Religion But indeed it was needlesse to have alleaged any other of his secret Letters for this Evidence For these which the Adversaries have here published and declared to be Evidences of truth do manifestly speak to this purpose we read in the eighth Paper how the King tels the Queen that He differs from Her in nothing but Religion Are not these the Kings own Words which themselves have published Was not this Letter sent as wel as the rest in a close trading way as they call it Do they think the King ever intended it should come into their hands And when they laid aside many other Papers as not fit for publication at this time was not this thought fit to be divulged by their own wise selves Is not this one of those Evidences of Truth they speak of in the beginning which to have concealed would have bin a great sin against the mercies of God Truly I dare boldly say that neither the King for himself nor any of his friends in his behalf could possibly have given a better evidence to the abused Subjects of this Nation that His Majesty is a true Protestant then this is which his Enemies have given by their publication of that Letter Surely the Finger of God was in it For peoples more clear understanding and notice of it I wil set down the Kings Words as they stand in the Letter Writing to his Queen about that businesse of Ireland fore-mentioned he speaketh thus I need not tel thee what secresâ—e this businesse requires yet this I wil say that this is the greatest point of confidence I can expresse to thee for it is no thanks to me to trust thee in any thing else but in this which is the only thing of difference betwixt us and yet I know thou wilt make as good a bargain for me even in this I trusting thee though it concern Religion as if thou wert a Protestant O what a discovery is here made of the Kings sincerity in his profession When for an obligation upon his Queen to make a good bargain for him he tels her in his most bosome expressions that he trusts her to do it for him a Protestant as if her self were one The world may here see though these Observatours themselves who have helped us wil not that in the closest way of trading according to their own phrase which the King useth he tradeth as a Protestant and acknowledgeth in his most secret Letters to his Queen that there is a difference though it be the only difference between Him and Her in matter of Religion And thus have I vindicated my Soveraigns Honour against this particular Charge also of his enemies and do expect that I have hereby procured to my self though not deserved from these men and their Faction whose basenesse I have in part detected the imputation and Title of the falsest of men a Papist yea of the falsest of Papists a Jesuite for it was voted and concluded before hand that whosoever should do as I have done should be so accounted But notwithstanding all that I have said in the Kings behalf yet this I confesse to these men so much as concerns the position in general I am wholly of their opinion viz. that whoever is guilty of those
four things scil Of Clandestine proceedings against the Honour and being of Parliament Of condemning all that be Protestants in any degree Of granting a Tolleration to Idolaters And of indempnity to Murderers or that goes in a close trading way to effect those things for meer particular advantage cannot be defended by any but such as deserve the imputation of the worst men And therefore I am of opinion that all those who take upon them to defend the men now above-board who under the name of Parliament have not only undermined the King their Soveraign but also the Parliament it self in destroying its Priviledges which they pretend to stand for who have condemned all to be Popishly affected that are in any degree Protestants at Oxford calling them by the odious names of Malignants Papists Devils and Dogs who have not only granted a Tolleration of Idolatry but set it up and persecuted with fire and sword banishment and confiscation all that wil not commit the same themselves whom they call the Parliament are the Idol whom all the people of the Kingdom must fall down unto and worship who have also granted indempnity to the murderous Irish. For I would have them but speak out and say of what Nation and Religion their Plunket is of Nay let them tell the world if they dare what promises have been made from them by their Instruments in a close trading way unto that Plunket and Muskerry whom they Tax their King for shewing countenance unto upon condition they would but sit still and not helpe their Soveraign Who also have further yet in a close trading way cozened us their fellow Subjects of all we had that was dear unto us our Religion Liberty Peace Wealth and Friends for their own meere particular advantage that themselves might rule alone and bear the sway over our Soveraign and our selves over our Consciences and Estates which they spoile and sell away according to their pleasures I say I doe verily beleeve that whoever they be that shall take upon them to defend these men under what colour and pretences soever are as bad as the worst of men yea falser then the Papists then the Jesuites But we will listen now to what these men adde farther they say Hitherto the English have had Commission to Chastize the Irish and the Irish have had the like to Chastize the English both have spilt each others bloud by the Kings Warrant yet as both hath been in part owned so both hath been in part disowned and the King himself hath not appeared with open face in the Businesse SECT XIX 1. The Enemies malitious devises to Scandalize the King with favouring the Irish Rebellion detected and confuted 2. The Kings requiring secresie of the Queen and Ormond in the matters writ to them Justified The Libellers Blasphemy against Gods Providence â—and in as king Gods Blessing upon their Libell noted THe English have had Commission to Chastize the Rebellious Irish and the Irish have had the like to Chastize the Rebellious English both have spilt each others bloud by the Kings warrant and what harm is there in all this The King is the Minister of God and bears the sword sayes the Apostle to execute wrath upon them that do evill and therefore so far forth as the same hath been managed to the punishment of Rebellion whether by English or by Irish under his command and Authority the King hath with open face owned it But in as much as the same hath been used by the one or other against himself His Crown and Dignity against the Law against His Loyall Protestant subjects to the hurt or damage of them and their Religion the King hath both secretly and publikly disowned ever and still doth For why should he sinne against God His own Conscience and honour in taking upon himselfe the scandall of others doings as those that call themselves his great and wise Councell desire he should who themselves commit the sinne and would have him beare all the blame for this is their way of Honouring their Soveraigne in the eyes of His people And to this purpose when at first by decolation of Strafford the Irish Governour they had put that wild and unruly people into a fit Capacity and proximate potentia of Rebelling and perhaps too in their close trading way wherein for their own particular advantage they are of all men living most skilfull had helped to draw that power into Act to the end the people of this Kingdom whom they were to use to another purpose might not so soon suspect them guilty of so much evill they published abroad that the Rebells in Ireland had the Kings warrant for all their bloudy doings to put some colour upon this devilish slander they printed certain examinations as they cal'd them of certain inferior men women who reported as they tell that they heard some say they heard from others who received it perhaps from 3. or 4. persons that some Commanders among the Irish Rebells had affirmed that themselves had the Kings Commission for what they did Which thing if any of the Irish Rebells did say or affirme what wonder is it do not all Rebells use to pretend the best authority for their own wicked doings have not even they of Westminster themselves rais'd all their forces of men and monies against the Kings person under the Kings own name was not the King and Parliament the onely word in use with them at the first though now the Kings name is left out for they apprehend the people to be so deeply lock'd with themselves in guilt and bloud that they dare not leave them I dare boldly affirme it that many thousands of our English had never been ingulpfed in those Rebellious wayes wherein they are had they at first but been acquainted with the devises of Rebellious Heads but now things are come to that height that they know not how to disingage themselves without a present ruine from them who have engaged them But hence I say it plainly appeares to be no wonder if the Irish Rebels did pretend the Kings Authority also in the beginning of their accursed undertaking though whether they did or no I cannot tell for I did not hear them only this I am sure of that they who published and printed those reports in this Kingdome did hope thereby to work as indeed they did a disaffection in many people against their Soveraigne that so themselves might be strengthned with their concurrence in their intended project against him and all his friends that sided with him with whom I may affirme they have even dealt as the Cyclops in Homer did with Ulisses and his Associates who findeing no reason to misuse them yet having a great desire to feed upon them would needs perswade that they were Pyrats So these not knowing any sufficient reason to quarrell with the King and his friends or to stir up the people against them yet having a great hunger after
themselves in the hearts of these very men and of their Masters at Westminster that they may look with better eyes then ever yet they have done upon Charles their Soveraign whose honour they have pierced and may have better breathings then ever they have had after Christ their Saviour whose Gospel they have scandalized Amen SECT XX. What good use might have been made of these Letters Of the faults laid unto the Queenes Charge specially in loving her Husband I Have done with their Prologue to the Kings Letters and in a manner with their Annotations upon them too which for the most part containe but the same over againe with the mixture of more malice therefore in examining the one I have also in a sort dispatched the other Nor doe I love any more then needs must to busie my selfe in repetitions There are I confesse a few particulars in these their Annotations which as I remember have not been touched upon in the discussion of the former Generall these I shall cull out and only shew them which will be enough and so leave them to the world to be judged of They begin at the end of the Kings Papers their Observations thus Much use may be made of these Precedent Papers and many things therein will appear very worthy our notice In which they speak truth and had not themselves been of too spiderous a nature they might have made much good use of them indeed and have noted from them such dexterity of understanding such undantednesse of resolution such fortitude of spirit in adversity such conjugall faith and affections such paternall care and pitty to his people and such true Christian patience and piety to be in their Soveraigne as cannot be altogether Paralell'd at this day in any Prince of Christendome In a word these Papers speak our King to be compleatly a Councellour a Souldier a Gentleman and a Scholler and had he but trusted to himself more and lesse to the advice of others in the management of his Affaires thousands of his Subjects from these his Letters are most confident that his enemies had not now been triumphant But the notice of such mattters serveth not the turnes of these men nor can their coloured eyes see any thing of this nature in these Letters faults and errors only are thought worthy their observance of which they fancy they have espied great plenty in the King and Queen both The Queens faults though for shew sake they have branched them out into many particulars may all be reduced to one and that is Loving of her Husband Indeed they begin their Complaints against Her with saying She is implacable to our Religion Nation Government but they can instance neither in word or action to make the same appear conjecturall only they tell us afterward of her great care that our Bishops be provided for and the blessing of God be upon her for it they hope that people doe still beleeve that Bishops were enemies to all good and therefore if the Queen doth but manifest any respect to them in their present affliction and persecution it doth sufficiently speak her implacablenesse to our Religion Nation Government Well I wish with my soul that the men of Westminster had proved themselves no worse affected to our Religion Nation and Government then the Queen hath done for then I am sure they had all still been in a most flourishing and happy Condition But the Queen being the Kings Wife must help to bear her Husbands Burden of blame as well as Sorrow even as it shall please these His vassalls to cast it on Her Indeed they tell us also afterward out of Paper 27. that the Queen desires the disbanding of the Parliament in which perhaps they would have her thought an Enemy to our Religion Nation Government But we shall first read Her words and then we may judge whether they import such an interpretation the Queen writing to the King from York saith I understand to day from London that they will have no cessation and that they treat at the beginning of the two first Articles and afterward of the disbanding of the Army certainly I wish a peace more then any and that with greater reason but I would the disbanding of the perpetuall Parliament first and certainly the rest will be easily afterwards I doe not say this of mine own head alone for generally those that are for you and against you in this Country wish an end of it These be the Queenes words entirely She desires a peace more then any and in order to that she wisheth a disbanding of the perpetuall Parliament because otherwise peace is never likely to be had and this is not the judgement of herselfe alone but of all in generall that are both for and against the King in that Country wherefore if this be an Argument of the Queenes enmity against our Religion Nation Government then all those that are both for and against the King in that County of York-shire are Enemies as well as she because they joyne with her in wishing an end to the Warre and restoration of peace unto the Kingdome But by the way I wonder why they should Tax the Queen with implacablenesse to our Government is not that of our nation Monarchiall and that of our Church Episcopall and her Husband the Head and upholder of both can the Queen then be beleeved to be disaffected to either of these the men doubtlesse have lost their senses together with their Loyalty Concerning her Majesties affection to our Religion and Nation let me be bold though one of the meanest upon this occasion to give a Testimony unto my Country-men from mine own experience Those English Protestants who have been in France in these times of persecution cannot but witnesse the same with me and say That the Queen hath been to the uttermost of her power a most tender carefull nursing Mother both to our Religion and Nation in that her Native Kingdome for by her sole meanes and great industry we had places allowed us to meet together to serve God in even publickly after the English manner in each of which Gods Word was faithfully Preached on the Lords Day and truly read together with Divine Service twice a day throughout the week wherunto she was careful that her own Servants of our Nation and Religion whereof she hath many should duly and constantly resort which great priviledge and favour to us was looked on with much regret and spleen by some Jesuited Papists who wickedly reproached Her Majesty for the same exclaiming upon her for a Lutheran and a Protestant even because she had manifested such love to our Nation and Religion in providing for us these Sinagogues which rebukes and reproaches she good Princesse was content for our sakes to bear with meeknesse and patience undoubtedly it may be easily believed from this sweetnesse and goodnesse of her nature after her receipt of so many abuses from some amongst us that had our
deportments towards her been such as our Religion commandeth she might ere this in all probabilities have preferred the same before her own even as she hath done our Nation many have heard her at a wel furnished Table say one of these Dishes in England with my Husband and Children might I but enjoy it there in peace would please me better and be sweeter to me then all this plenty in this place So great is her affection to our Nation whose great ingratitude and unkindnesse to her so unbecoming the Gospel the Lord pardon Let the Reader pardon this digression her Majesties wronged Innocence and the truth did extort it from me I return now to her Accusers from whom I learn That her Majesties main and proper fault is Loving her Husband and this I confesse they Evidence at large from many quotatious out of her several Letters as first they say she performs the office of a Resident for him in France and is restlesse even to the neglect of her own health to assist him against them his Enemies 2. She vows they say to die by famine rather then fail him in her faithful endevours 3. She confines not her Agency to France but sollicites other Princes also for shipping in his aid 4. She sends Armes into Scotland to Mountrosse and many such like particulars they alleage which doth abundantly evidence this her fault of loving her Husband Nay and the most heinous matter of all is the Counsels which she gives him namely to be suspicious in his Treaties with them who have deceived him so much already to take heed of his own safety amongst them and not to think himself safe any longer then he defends his friends that have served him for which they quote Pap. 31. these they call Counsels of very pernicious Consequence of which nature also is that manifestation of her Judgment that peace cannot be safe to the King without a Regiment for his Guard a la mode de France say they they might as wel have said a la mode du Parliament and of all this they alleage their punctual proofs out of these Letters wherefore 't is very plain that the Queen is guilty of a most dear and tender affection to the King her Husband and in order to him she desires the welfare of all his friends and for this cause is deemed by these men a fit object of abuse and hatred But truly if I did not evidently see them to be given up to blindnesse of mind by reason of that malice which is in them I should much admire at their folly in these their exceptions against the Queen I dare say that Henry Burtons Wife or John Basticks Wife might have done ful as much for their husbands when time was had they bin in a like capacity and bin no whit blamed by these men for the same Nay they should have been commended rather for such Testimonies of their faithfulnesse and affection O but the Queens fortune is to be the Kings Wife and therefore she must not look to find such grace and favour in the eyes of these jolly men as to have that in her not censured for a fault which in mean women is entitled virtue Nay I am further confident that if this truly royal Mary Wife to our Soveraign Charls had like that Queen Isabella wife to our Edward the 2d. joyned issue with some of the Enemies against the King her Husband she should have bin in as high account with these as that other was with the Rebels of those days her difference in Religion should have bred no dis-affection at all in them towards her for 't is not so much an unity in that which they desire and aime at as to all is plainly apparent from that multiplicity of Religions allowed amongst them if there be but a facile community another way in things more sensible it wil abundantly serve the turn to give satisfaction to these blessed Reformers But because the Queen is Chara fidaque marito dear and faithful to her Lord and Husband therefore must she be exclaimed upon and hated yea hunted and forced out of the Kingdom by certain wise and wel-bred Gentlemen as they would be accounted that rule the rost at Westminster who if they could but lay hands upon her would also murder her for with open mouth they have charged her already with no lesse then Treason Treason against the New-state forsooth even for her affectionate adherence unto the King her Husband in these times of his affliction Observe it I beseech you and consider well of it O all ye Princes and Nobles of the world and all you that are true Gentlemen of what Nation and Kingdome soever and say whether you ever read or heard of the like Behold here a most Royall Lady of most noble and high Vertues and incomparable parts Great Henries Daughter Sister to the late French King and Aunt unto the present and Queen of England who hath been defamed sclandered reviled railed upon shot at persecuted and driven to banishment brought upon the publick Stage for a Traitour condemned and threatned with death and forced to fly into other Countries to preserve her selfe in being like that woman in the Revelation from the face of the Dragon and all this onely for her faithfulnesse and loyal affections to her Husband in his distresse consider of this thing I beseech you and speak your minds And you my Country-men of England in general examine your thoughts and then say Hocciâ—e est Humanum factum aut inceptum Is there any Generosity nay any Humanity in such dealings Can you imagine that such demeanours towards such a personage will be ever chronicled to our Nations praise or read by posterity with approbation Was ever such harsh and hellish usage offered by the hands of English men before now to a daughter of France Duke Reiners Daughter Wife to that good though most unfortunate King Henry the 6. was used much better by Richard the third she had no such despights offered to her person because a woman and though she brought much forrein aid into the Kingdome yet was she not as I read ever accused of Treason for the same she was raâ—her interpreted to have done thereby her proper duty to her Husband no man I am sure can say that our Protestant Religion allows of this behaviour or that our holy Mother Church did ever feed any of her Children with such nourishment as should cause them to break out into such exorbitancies Her milk was alwaies seasoned with the Doctrines of Humility Reverence Civility Gentlenesse Affability and gratiousnesse of conversation to people of all sorts even to inferiours and to enemies Much more to superiours and to friends Surely if this our once most generous and courteous Nation had not now in too great a measure layed aside common Humanity as well as grace were there but this one reason which I shall name it would be abundantly enough to make this Queen most dear
the King vows Constancy to the Queens grounds and documents was written Jan. 2. 1645. when there was a way making for the Treaty at Uxbridge And a Rumor of somewhat the King would do had beed presented to the Queen as appears by the Letter in the ugliest form which also Her love to Her Husband might make more affrightfull perhaps it was that He would trust his person among them But what ever it was it seemes the Queen had writ thereof unto the King in Her former Letter and receives his Answer in these words IF thou hast not Patience to forbeare judging harshly of my Actions before thou hearest the reasons of them from me thou mayest be often subject to be doubly vexed first with slanders then with having given too much eare unto them To conclude esteeme Me as thou findest Me constant to those grounds thou leftest Me withall Now from hence they gather that The King vowes Constancy to the Queens grounds and documents as if at Her going away She had left certain Grounds and Documents as rules of direction for the King to go by whereas the words are not to the Grounds Thou leftst with Me as then they ought to have been but to those Thou leftst Me withall that is which I had formerly resolved upon thou shalt finde me constant in my ways and purposes I am still the same I was when thou leftst Mee and thou shalt never find Me swarving from the Grounds of Conscience Justice and Honour which Thou knowest Me to be balanced withall Let the world now judge of the Honesty and truth of these observatours by this their manifest forgery and of the Honour which the Parliament have purchased to themselves in publishing this Observation by Speciall Order The 38. Paper from whence they conclude that the Kings Councels are wholly managed by the Queen and nothing small or great is transact without her privity and consent begins thus Deare Heart I Never till now knew the good of Ignorance for I did not know the danger thou wert in by the Storme before I had an assurance of Thy happy escape I think it not the least of my misfortunes that for my sake Thou hast run so much Hazard in which thou hast expressed so much Love to Me that I confesse it is impossible to repay by any thing I can doe much lesse by words but my Heart being full of Affections to Thee admiration of Thee and impatient passion of Gratitude to Thee I could not but say something leaving the rest to be read by Thee out of thine owne Noble Heart By which words we see that the Letter was writ to the Queen after She had lately been in a great danger by Sea even to the hazard of Her life for the Kings sake and had thereby as also by Her discreet and faithfull management of affaires for Him beyond the Seas given the largest testimonies of Her true Affection as in his judgement could possibly be given Now therefore if in his Passion of Gratitude to use his own phrase he had professed to make Her of His Councell in all His Affaires yea and that He would thenceforth think it a wrong to Her to do any thing without Her I beleeve it would have been with men not disposed to quarrell a very excusable errour Some more expressions then ordinary or Conâ—ugall indulgence are allowable to any wife after so great an affright and danger as must needs be supposed the Queen was in to revive and lighten Her Spirit again But to a Queen to a Kings daughter to a Lady of such splendour and parts that had run so great an Hazard as a greater could not be imagined for the love of Her Husband what wel-bred Gentleman under the Sun but will blush to say that any expression of esteem can be too Honourable or too High to be used unto Her But if we look further yet into the Paper unto the words which they ground their observation upon we shall find them â—ttered upon another particular occasion for when His Majestie had testified his joy in gratulating His Queens delivâ—â—ance He discourseth to Her of another matter scil of His being persecuted it is his own word for places with importunity of suitors whereby He was put to a kind of distresse for an evasion that he might not if possible offend any by granting to some what others also gaped after for alas such hath been the Condition of our good King that He hath been forced to feare to offend and such hath been his infelicity that too many of those that served him did more seek themselves then him proposing as himself saies in another place severall recompences to themselves for their paines and Hazard in this Rebellion and if to one was granted what others expected and sued for these being frustrate of their expectations conceiving themselves slighted have grown sullen upon it and no more service would they do Nay peradventure dis-service rather to revenge themselves upon him and happy had it been if all Suitors for places had been discarded at their first appearance For doubtlesse those of best desert and most faithfulnesse have had more modesty and wisdome then to persecute and torment the King with any such selvish motions in these times of distraction as might any way tend to his disadvantage But the King tells the Queen in that his Letter of those his straits and how he delivered himselfe I answered saies he that having professed to have thy advise it were a wrong to thee to do any thing before I had it This is all yet from hence these nimble-witted spacious conceited fellows make shift to collect all this long matter and that plainly too as they think It is plain say they here that the Kings Councels are wholly or altogether managed by the Queen though She be of the weaker Sex born an Alien bred up in a contrary Religion yet nothing great or small is trans-acted without Her privity and consent and for this see Paper 38. Truly I hope all the world sees that this adds but little more to the credit of the Authorizers of this Pamphlet then the former observation did And thus have I also discovered the vanity of their exceptions against the King for his loving the Queen SECT XXII Of the Kings fault in labouring to uphold Monarchy His soliciting the King of Denmark to this purpose no whit Contradictive to his former resolutions of not calling in forrein aid ANother Grand particular beside this they have against Him and that is His imploying Collonâ—ll Cockram to solicite the King of Denmarkes assistance Whence they Conclude thus He makes not onely Papists our Enemies for Religion sake but all Princes though Protestants for Monarchy sake From whence all people must learne and beleeve three things 1. That 't is onely Religion and nothing but their Religion which the King doth oppose these men for yea and for their pure Religion it is that he makes Papists their Enemies 2.
his Word in cases of this Nature But I returne again to these men Who would have us by these their words of His Maj. soliciting the King of Denmark and in him all other Princes to take notice that he calls in forraign Aide which fault they amplifie over and over in other places for though themselves may without offence or sinne call in another Nation and hire them with I know not how many 1000. Pounds a moneth to help them cut the throats of their Country-men yea and may make use of any forreiners in the world of what Nation Religion or Spirit soever they be to help them to destroy and pull down Monarchy yet the King may not without exclamation desire the aide of a Protestant Prince no not of his neerest Kinsman the King of Denmark to uphold the same But what is the reason that the King must be confined to this restraint themselves walk so much at Liberty Why they tell us at the end of their notes that the King had made resolutions and promises that he would never bring in forreine forces Which themselues indeed never did nor ever intended for doubtlesse they resolved at first to bring their defignes to passe by any meanes and rather then faile to get assistance Flectere si superos nequeunt Acheroâ—â—a movere and therefore themselves are free and do as they please whereas the King is entangled in his own promises They say Pag. 58. As to the bringing in of forrain forces The King Mar. 9. 1641. in his Declaration from Newmarket saith Whatsoever you are advertised from Rome Venice Paris of the Popes Nuncios soliciting Spain and France for forrain â—ydes We are confident no sober honest man can beleeve Us so desperate or senselesse to entertain such designes as would not onely bury this Our Kingdome in soddain destruction and ruine but Our Name and Posterity in perpetuall scorn and infamy Also they tell us of other words which the King spoke some three weeks after to the same purpose which indeed as I take it do expresse the inward ground and Motive that caused him to speak the former viz. We have neither so ill an opinion of Our own Merits or the Affections of Our Subjects as to think Our self in need of forraigne force Also August the 4. in his speech to the Gentry of York-shire the King acknowledgeth say they that He is wholly cast upon the Affections of his people having no hope but in God His just cause and the love of his Subjects Now these observators having quoted these three expressions of the King do conclude saying What distinction can now satisfie us that neither Irish French Lorraiâ—ers Dutch Danes are forreiners To which I answer First for the Irish they are no more forreiners then the Scots are nor in some respect so much for Ireland hath been a dependant unto the Crown of England many hundred yeers before Scotland was and then for French Lorraiâ—ers Dutch and Danes I shall answer concerning them when they are landed for the Kings assistance and in the meane time it would be but just that they should satisfie us that neither the Irish Scots French Burgâ—ndiâ—â—â— Dutch Wallâ—ns Italiâ—ns that are already in their Armies are neither Papists nor Forreiners as I said before the time and place is known to many where neere 30. of their men being taken were examined and found to be of six severall Nations all forreiners and all Papists But these words of the King alleadged by these men against Him do plainly discover to every honest eye that His Majesties designe was never to use any but His own Subjects nor did He think it possible and the rather in regard of His own good merits that people so long instructed in Protestant Religion should ever prove so ungratefull as to force Him their Prince to stand in need of forreigne assistance and therefore the Heads of the faction having in their malicious policy to work feares and jealousies against Him told the people that the Popes Nuncio that great Bulbegger was soliciting both in Spain and France the Kings businesse for forreigne aides and of this they said they were advertized from Venis and Paris yea and from Rome it self with which it seems they held intelligence even from the very beginning Now to remove this foolish vanity and to retaine a clearnesse in His peoples hearts the King expressed himself in that sort unto them assuring them that they were all forgeries against Him and that he did wholly cast Himself upon the Affections of His people and was confident that no sober man could beleeve Him so senselesse as to entertaine such a designe which would have been so detrimentall both to Himself and His Kindom and in very deed if before he had tryed his own people he had called in such Armies of Forreiners as they reported it must needs have been confessed a desperate part in him a mean to have brought a suddain Destruction upon his Kingdome and a perpetuall Infamy upon His Name But if after three yeares as long as was allowed to the fig-tree in the Gospell the King finding his Subjects unfaithfull and cold in their affections towards him Nay more perceiving by so long experience that their endeavours were to take from him both his Life and his Inheritance yea and his Honour too and that they abused his good opinion of them by mis-interpreting his professions unto them and conceiving him tyed thereby from using others help for defence of himselfe and Monarchy I beleeve if he had or should alter his Resolution and call in any Prince in Christendome to his assistance in the maintenance of Regall Authority which God hath intrusted him withall and of that Government which as the most absolute God established among his own people and hath alway blessed this Nation under He being utterly disabled to do it otherwise it should be reckoned by the Almighty at the great day if any fault at all but among his infirmisies Yea and if destruction thereby should fortune to come to the whole Kingdome the whole infamy and guilt thereof should be charged upon the Heads of these his most perverse and injurious people even as that of Jerusalem by Titus Vespasian is laid upon the seditious that were therein even unto this day But my humble prayer to the Almighty is that he would yet please to spare us and to bestow his grace at length upon the people of this land that they might cease provoking his Divine Majestie to punish that way this so Horrid a sin and so High abuses to his own Annointed And thus I have done also with this particular SECT XXIII 1. The Libellers Cavills at the word Mongrill Parliament At the Commissioners for the Treaty at Uxbridge At the Kings pawning His Jewels answered 2. His Majesties Affection and Goodnesse to His Subjects for want of other matters objected as a fault against Him by these Libellers IN the third place they accuse the
King for a slight esteem of his friends at Oxford whom they would fain seduce from him to which purpose they take great advantage from a word they finde in one of his Letters scil in Paper 13. which they dresse up for their own purpose with 2. more of their own adding according to their wonted honesty and affirm them to be spoken by the King and applyed to the persons of his friends But in answer to this matter or word rather I shall alleadge the Copie of a Letter writ by His Majesties own hand to Secretary Nicholas about the same I received it also from the mouth of the forementioned Gentleman of whom I had the former which to another purpose I have set down He had the perfect Copies of both though at a great distance but he had so well observed them that he was confident he failed but little if at all in remembring the very words Which to this particular were thus I Am very sorry that I have been so unfortunate to have my private Letters taken by the Rebels but if all mens private thoughts were seen as mine are I beleeve I should appeare as innocent as any it may be that many expressions in those Letters might have been prudently omitted but if one be well understood I care not although the rest take their fortune and that is concerning the Mungrell Parliament at Oxford indeed when I was disturbed in mine Affaires by Sussex and his faction in my passion I writ so to my Wife but both by the precedent and subsequent clauses of that Letter it may easily be understood that I meant it of him and his adherents And indeed let the Letter be read and to an equall eye it can appeare no otherwise to be intended then his Majestie hath expressed Yet these lyers in wait do collect from thence and tell the Lords and Gentlemen at Oxford that the King despiseth them all and that onely for their retaining some little Conscience to Religion and because they be not wicked enough to serve his purpose fully that is as they say afterward to think and act the same things which the inhumane Irish Rebels or the worst forreigne Enemies of our Religion and State could wish to be done and thereupon they compare their Soveraigne the most Religious and Gratious Prince that ever this Nation had to Richard the third who first rejected and then beheaded the Duke of Buckhingham because when he had furthered him in deposing and dis-inheriting the two Princes he was not wicked enough say they to consent also to the Murther of them and to advise the Lords and Gentlemen to take warning by the Dukes example and timely to turn away from the King unto goodnesse that is to their society it is sufficient only that I have related what they say that villany needs no further discovery or Confutation Onely I adde this those Lords and Gentlemen whom they labour to seduce and whom love and Conscience hath ingaged to their Soveraigne are not capable to be drawn from him by these mens insinuations or driven from him by their violence How cheerefully have they all Hazarded yea many of them sacrificed their lives for Him How joyfully have they endured the spoyling of their Goods for His sake With what admiration do inferiour men behold the cheerfullnesse and contentednesse of great persons in great afflictions and are ready daily to cry out unto them O Christians most truly Noble How much better have you learned Christ then we have done Assuredly as never Prince was more unhappy in many of His people then ours is so never was any more Happy in others of them then He hath been more truly beloved more sincerely affected even by some of all sorts and this Himself hath so well acknowledged and merited from us that our grief is that we have no more Fortunes and Estates to lose nor more lives then one to adventure for Him The Libellers doe but labour in vaine if they think to draw us from our obedience Another thing they lay to His Charge in these words He seekes Treaties in shew and wins upon the people by that shew yet chooseth such Commissioners and binds them up with such instructions that all accommodation is unpossible The Rancour of this Accusation needs no Confutation neither for how reall His Majesty hath been in his endeavours for Peace Heaven and Earth can witnesse yea the very choice of his Commissioners as these men well know notwithstanding their perverse Cavills sufficiently proves it being persons of such approved Honour and candid affections to their Country that none in the Nation goes beyond them and let the Directions which the King gave them be viewed by all men and judged of whether they be such as speak all accommodation impossible unlesse with the most unreasonable men living who will have no Peace O how oft as the world knowes hath His Majesty tendred them pardon for all their unrepairable wrongs done against him if they would but let Him and his People live in quiet yea How oft hath he been heard in secret to say O that I knew what I might doe to satisfie these men In very deed what these Libellers are pleased to report of the Kings Commissioners was true of those that were sent from the men of Westminster they were tyed up as themselves in open conference at Uxbridge did not stick to acknowledg whereas the King declared openly that he meant not his Directions to his Commissioners should be obligatory only by them he did acquaint them with his sense and left them free to themselves to doe that which became men of Honour and all this the Authors and Authorizers of this Libell knew well enough therefore from this their Accusation we onely learne of what great use sometimes to some men are brasse browes and hard foreheads They accuse him also for pawning the Jewels of the Crowne their Anger is because they escaped their fingers they can see no Errour in themselves for robbing him of all things elâ—e and bringing him to such a distresse as he was forced to part with them for supply of his necessities but they observe a great fault in him for not suffering himselfe to perish rather then Pawne his owne Jewels that these men want nothing but matter appears by this and will be more evident by and by For having vented as much Poyson as their venemous skill would serve them to suck out of the Kings inoffensive Letters to lengthen the Catalogue and make the heap shew bigger they begin to object as faults against him diverse of his former most affectionate expressions and desires for the good of his people hoping that now they have imbittered mens hearts against him with their virulent lies and perversions even his greatest indulgencies will appear distastfull The first of which they instance in is his profession Dec. 2. 1641. which they say was in these words I am so farre from repenting of any Act done this
they And thus may we say of them they were once a true Parliament at their first constitution and meeting but now they swarm so much in evils are guilty of acting and authorizing so much wickednesse that they have plainly un-Parliamented themselves and are become no true Parliament but even the Throne and Synagogue of Satan Besides a true and compleat Parliament as every one knows consists of Head and Members of King and People and as a man without an Head is no true man so a Parliament without the King is no true Parliament Indeed if the King should come to Westminster and sit amongst them and they behave themselves towards him yet at last as becometh Christians and Members of that Honourable Court I know no reason but they may by the Kings mercy and favour recover again that truly honourable Name and Title Though some affirm when both the Speakers fled from them in regard of these late tumults that according to Law the Parliament was dissolved The true Parliament they say ran away and that which now remaineth is an Adulterous Parliament a very Junto and there must of necessity be a new Writ from the King to the making of a true Parliament But I leave that to be argued by the Lawyers My observation only shall be of Gods Hand in that businesse First that themselves were driven away from the Houses in the same manner as by their procurement the King and His friends were formerly Secondly that the Almighty by his permissive Providence hath exposed them who thought and called themselves a perpetuall Parliament to be denied to be any Parliament at all by their own Adorers and to become a publick scorn and derision by the means or assistance of those that had so many years together paid their devotions to them Let all the world admire Gods wisdom And let all that fear the Lord praise his holy Name And thus all may see whither I have brought these men or rather more properly whither they have brought themselves by this their impertinent and peremptory question How can the King deny us the name of a Parliament They are proved to be no true Parliament by the witnesse of Jesus Christ who is Truth it self by the testimony of S. Paul in a like case by the judgment of all Reformed Churches in Christendome and by the evidence of their own dear selves and faction in their way of opposition unto other parties Wherefore stil may His Majesty in truth and with a good Conscience say as He did at first We again in the presence of Almighty God Our Maker and Redeemer assure the world We have no more thought of making War against Our Parliament then against Our own Children And He may desire stil no longer to enjoy the Protection of Almighty God upon Himself and His Posterity then He and They shal solemnly observe the Laws in defence of Parliaments for as yet He hath done nothing against His high Court of Parliament nor ever wil He for according to His owne acknowledgment He and that are like Hypocrates twins they wil live and die together And let them not die but live O Lord our God Let the King live that Parliaments may not die save thou Him that this Kingdome may still be blessed with them and in thy pitty to this poor Nation break thou in pieces this confederacy of rebellious men who do so earnestly endevour the destruction of both Put thou a period to this false Parliament which they resolve shal be perpetual in despight of Thee O God and of thine Anointed that we may have the benefit of a true one for the mending up of those great breaches which have been made by these Conspirators upon our Religion our Laws and natural Liberties yea and upon our high Court of Parliament it self This grant O thou mighty Majesty of Heaven an Earth for thine own Honour and Justice sake and for the sake of Christ our Saviour Amen A TRUE PARALLEL BETWIXT The Sufferings of our SAVIOUR and our SOVERAIGN in divers particulars TOGETHER WITH 1. A Brotherly Discourse to the Seduced and Oppressed Commons 2. A Ministeriall Admonition to the Troublers of our Israel 3. A Consolatory Speech to the Truly Loyall-Hearted And A Post-script to the Reader There is also prefixed in this Edition a Preface unto the Parallel to give satisfaction to those who took some offence at it By the Author Printed in the Yeere 1648. TO THE READERS Readers I Thought it requisite in this new Edition to prefix a few words to this following Parallel because I understand that some few persons through inadvertencie have taken offence thereat and affirmed of me that out of my zeale to flatter the King I had blasphemed Christ in comparing them thus together Yea some of them upon their bare view of those words in the Title A Parallel between the sufferings of our Saviour and our Soveraigne have presently shot their bolt as men byassed with ignorance and prejudice use to doe and rejected the whole Book as unworthy their further inspection Now though the ready and friendly acceptance which the same hath found with the Church and people of God doth speake me cleare in the opinions of most so that I need not say any thing to vindicate my selfe from the inconsiderate censure of these few yet because Soules are precious things and I am forbidden as a Brother to suffer sin to rest upon any and commanded as a Minister to instruct with meeknesse them that oppose or are contrary minded therefore I must not slightly and with contempt of them passe by their errour as they doe my Booke but will speak somewhat for their satisfaction or better information in the thing which they take offence at The two crimes which at one breath I am charged withall are Blasphemy and Flattery Concerning the first may my Accusers please to know That I understand not the word Parallel as Mathematicians doe though perhaps if I did I should not in the judgement of learned meâ— transgresse much for with them a Parallel is a Parallel be it at as great a distance as betwixt Heaven and Earth but I intend it not in so exact and strict a sense I take it onely in its ordinary acceptance as t is commonly used amongst us viz. for a similitude a likenesse or a resemblance May they also please to consider that the persons betwixt whom the Parallel is made are Christus Dominus Christus Domini our Saviour and our Soveraigne T is true as they object the one is the Eternall Son of GOD and the other a Mortall man yet Christ was Man too and as Man He suffered He was in all Miseries like unto us and therefore sure He cannot Blaspheme that sayes another may in miseries be like to Him Nay every true Christian must hold Parallel with Him the Captaine of our Salvation in such things and be conformable to Him in some measure and degree 't is
vindicating my Lord the King from the aspersion of these men whereby they endeavoured to besmeare his Honour in their malicious Notes upon his Letters they aymed to make him as the Philistims did Sampson an object of contempt and scorne but their pillars being false and therefore weak whereon their building stood the same is fallen most heavie downe upon their own heads they hoped to portray him forth according to the Image of him in their owne minds by wresting his expressions to the highest pitch of misconstruction and charging upon him their own conditions but through Gods help those filthy Garments they arrayed him with are taken off and sent home to their proper owners And what â—s to be done now having uncloath'd the King shall I so leave him as many false friends have done that would not be so comely wherefore I will present him once againe as habited in another mantle more truly his then that other was though put upon him for the most part by the same men in opposition of that Act of theirs which I have undone I will set him forth in Christs Robes as cloathed with sorrowes and shew what a perfect similitude there hath been and is between our Saviour and our Soveraign in the foure last years of both their sufferings Such entertainment as Christ had such usage as he met withall from such conditioned enemies and such friends such temptations as he was assaulted with such wrongs and for such things such causes of sorrow and of complaint in all particulars even in specie hath our King had in the like manner observe I pray you and mark it well O all you Loyall English Scottish and Irish and you will say that never Prince had a more perfect fellowship with the Son of God in this worlds miseries then yours hath never was Christs yoke better fitted for any never did any beare a greater measure of his burden And if nearenesse in condition here fore-speaks a nearnesse of conformity in the life to come as the Apostle teacheth then think with your selves from what you observe how superlatively glorious above other Kings will yours be at Christs appearing First of all was Christ rejected of his owne people so the Text sayes He came to his owne and his owne received him not nay so farre were they from so doing that they denyed the Holy and Just one and desired a Murtherer to be granted to them This hath been directly the Kings case He hath been rejected by his owne people who have refused to own him for their King denying the Supreme power to reside in him which they have laboured to take from him yea with open mouth they have cryed out we will not have this man to reigne over us we are none of his Disciples we are for the Parliament they have preferred Murderers and Robbers before him chusing rather to live under the bloudy and iron yoak of such then to submit themselves to his most just gentle and easie Government 2. Did Christ complain that the foxes had holes and the birds of the aire had nests but himselfe had not where to hide his head and may not the King take up the same words all that was his is taken from him craftie Foxes and ambitious Kites have seized as a prey upon his Houses and Habitations when his Majesty at the beginning of these Troubles had travelled from Shrewsbury to Wrexham in Denbighshire and being to returne the same night he dismissed the Gentry desiring his stay with these words Gentlemen Goe you and take your rests for you have Homes and Houses to go unto and beds of your owne to lodge in and God grant you may long enjoy them but I am deprived of those Comforts I must intend my present affaires and return this night to the place from whence I came 3. Was Christ tempted in his necessity to distrust God to turne stones into bread for his present sustenance and hath not the King been tempted so to doe sure little else have they allowed him to live upon Was our Saviour moved to take desperate courses to cast himselfe down yea to humble himselfe unto his Creature and was he offered to be made a glorious Prince if he would so doe to have the Kingdoms of the world bestowed upon him by one that had no right to give them All men know that such assaults and such motions with such like profers by such persons have been made and put and tendered to our Soveraigne 4. Was not Christ accounted a deceiver of the people called a fellow an impostor a Malignant one that had a Devill and railed upon in all places whispered out of credit where ere he came by a Pharisaicall brood who sought only to themselves mens praises and hath not the King been so called intitled esteemed and used by a like selfe-seeking generation Indeed Christ and the King have like conditioned Enemies great pretenders to Religion and in that regard of great repute among the people were and are the the chiefe opposers both of the one and of the other the great Sanedrim or Counsell at Jerusalem were the Heads of the Faction against Christ and plotted all his miseries they made Decrees against him and his Followers and molested those that did confesse him they stirred up the people to cry out upon him and countenanced all men in speaking evilly of him they hired the Souldiers and men of warre to go out with swords and staves against him and as if he were a thiefe to apprehend him And hath not the Sanedrim or great Counsell at Westminster been the Authors of all such things against the King as Scripture affirms the one so alas doth experience confirm the other 5. As Christ was opposed by men of severall Sects and Factions as by Pharisees and Sadduces who were at odds enough between themselves yet banded together against him So is the King assaulted by men of severall Religions and Opinions as by Presbyterians and Independents who are divided sufficiently inter se yet both united in their oppositions against him nay as the prophane Herodians were admitted Associates with the precise Jews in their conspiracies against Christ so the most vile cursers and prophane swearers being apprehended likely by their greatnesse wealth or friends to further the designe have been admitted by these pure conceited fellows into their combination against the King and advantages taken from their private discontentments to hook them into their Association 6. As Christ was watched in all he did and perverted in all he said if any thing that proceeded from him could be wrested to a wrong sence it should be surely done but no notice at all would be taken of his Vertues or his Miracles yea he was oft accused for his eating and drinking with Publicans and sinners even by these men that would allow him no other Company for they had thrust him out from among themselves because he disliked and
through their own easinesse they had been perswaded into such bondage under such Masters as did nothing but pill and oppresse them and would afford no justice or remedy unto them upon their complainings Nay and yet this was but the least part of their punishment the worst is behind vers 13. Therefore sayes the Lord viz. because they willingly walked after the Commandement or were so easily perswaded to take a wicked Covenant I will be unto Ephraim as a moth and to the House of Judah as rottennesse i. e. my Curse shall consume them and their Families as a moth doth a Garment or as rottennesse doth a thing that is already putrified Consider I say whether this may not in some sort concerne you and if you think it may I beseech you deare Countreymen renounce speedily that sinfull Oath which you have too unadvisedly taken least as oppression hath already overwhelmed you so the moth and rottennesse from the Lord doe also seaze upon you Say not you a Confederacy any longer with them that have confederated against your Church and King neither feare you their feare God is yet gracious and will pardon what is past if you repent therefore let him only be your feare let him be your dread And your King also is gracious ready upon your return to Loyalty like the Prodigals Father to remit your unkindnesse and to receive you with gladnesse let him also be the object of your Reverence and let the desires of your soules be to rejoyce his spirit now after this time wherein you have so sadded and afflicted him that so at last yet he may give up his account with joy which will surely be most for your profit And now for those your Teachers who have seduced you both from Gods blessing the warm Sun too of outward prosperitie which did so comfortably shine upon you undoubtedly they were Satans Ministers in Angels shapes as once he made use of Peters tongue to tempt our Saviour so now he hath of theirs to deceive you and observe them well their gilt ere long will fall off and their good report will die before them And deare Countrey-men let me not be thought to boast overmuch if after S. Paul's manner I compare my selfe with them to your cogitations and opinions Are those your Preachers Englishmen so am I are they Protestants at least in your esteem so am I are they Ministers of Christ think you know this that by the favour and grace of God so am I and perhaps may say that through divine assistance I have given as true a proof of my Ministery among some that know mee as they have done I have been in labours as aboundant and in reproaches for Christs sake more in prison as frequent in dangers of death as often in as many perils by Robbers by mine own Countreymen by false brethren as the best of them And therefore I hope I may obtaine credit with you as well as they I tender your salvation I dare confidently say for Christ my Masters sake as truly as they do I have no design at all of mine own upon you to get your moneys or ought you have I aime only God is my witnesse to free you from the snare wherein you are intangled I am a stranger to you and so am content to be untill the great day when we shall all meet before the great Judge to have our hearts opened and our works manifested And I doe beseech you God knowes I write this with teares and begge of you even in the bowels of our Saviour and for the sake of those your precious soules which he purchased with his dearest bloud that you would but be advised to consider seriously of what I have said unto you my prayer to the Almighty is and shall be that you may but accept of the same with a like heart and spirit as 't is propounded say but you Amen to this my petition and we shall be againe of one mind and judgement And O let us not let us not my deare Brethren thus continue fighting one with another or divided one from another for if we do we shall ere long be destroyed one by another but let us lay aside all malice against one another and all evill speaking one of another Sirs we are Brethren why should we strive and quarrell after this sort to the sport and scorn of all that dwell about us and to the obloquie and disgrace of our Holy Religion O let our contention I beseech you only be like that of the Vine and Olive which of us shall beare best fruits and not like that of the Bryer and Thistle which of us shall be most mischievous and unprofitable And so Countreymen I conclude my speech unto you with this Prayer for you Pater ignosce illis quia nesciunt quid faciunt Father of mercies forgive the people of this Land who have been seduced into this Rebellion against the King their sinnes committed in the same for they know not what they have done lay not the evill unto their charge but wink at their former ignorance and open their eyes now at length and henceforth to see their errour and blesse these considerations unto them to that end and purpose for Christ Jesus sake Amen And be you assured Sirs that not only my selfe but also many others whose bloud you have thirsted for whose Estates you have gaped after and whom divers of you have been wont to entitle with the odious names of Malignants Papists Devils and Dogges doe dailie pray to this purpose in your behalfe for we apprehending you to be in the same condition and state as S. Paul was in while he yet went breathing out threatnings against the Church of Christ doe thinke it our dutie to approve our selves such as he was when he prayed for the persecuting Israelites his Brethren according to the flesh that they might be saved we conceive of you as he did of them that you have a zeale though not according unto knowledge this our Religion teacheth us to doe and thus to think And so God be with you SECT XXVIII A faithfull and Ministeriall Admonition to the Troublers of our Israel scil the Factious Members of the pretended Parliament at Westminster who are Evidenced to be neither Patriots to their Country Wisemen nor good men Their Religion discovered to be nec una nec vera nec bona IN the next or second place I shall assume the boldnesse to speak a little unto you O you men of Westminster and I pray observe my words if Providence shall please to bring this my Book unto your view And first let me desire of you not to be angry if I speak rather to profit then to please you forbearing altogether those false and clawing expressions which your adorers use when they addresse themselves to speak unto you I dare not tell you of any Humble tenders of my constant Devotion to serve you in your way
for I am sure 't is not the way of Christ and God nor can I humbly acknowledge your great Labour and endeavours imployed these many yeares in the Reformation and preservation of Church and Common-wealth for I know no such matter but rather the direct contrary I love not to jeere you for such language to you I take to be none other then a plaine jeering of you nor can I tell how to give flattering Titles I am one of Christ's Messengers and have a charge to tell you aloud of your transgressions and of your sinnes perhaps there are but few that will in all things do it so plainly as I have done or shall do but as it is my duty so I thank God it hath alwayes been my custome and care to keep a good Conscience in this matter and though I am guilty of many sinnes for which the Lord be mercifull unto his servant yet praysed be his grace I never had any inward check for any knowne flattery of any in the serious discharge of my calling I hope I may without presumption say that I am as free from that sinne as Luther was from that of Covetousnesse I make no question if you can gripe me you the guilty Faction I meane will deale with me as your Fore-fathers did with my Master Jesus for my going in this his way of plainly detecting Hypocrites and evill men and therefore I shall keep my selfe out of your power so long as I can and doe pray that if it be my portion at last when mine hour is come to fall within your reach I may have strength and patience from above to endure the paines of death which I shall confidently look for at your bloudy hands though let me tell you one thing and it shall be only that which blessed Sanders the Martyr told your brother Stephen Gardiner you were best to take heed of shedding innocent bloud for truly it will cry And as Jerome of Prague did his Enemies at the Councell of Constance so shall I cite you to answer for it before the Tribunall of the most High and just Judge Well this being premised I doe now addresse my selfe unto you for the present in this manner Be it knowne unto you O you unhappy men you have been the principall instruments of all our woes and have given life and motion to all our miseries you are they that have most highly scandalized the Gospell of the Sonne of God by your acting under the profession of it most horrid evills as if that had countenanced you in your so doing you are they that have turned this well-ordered Common-wealth into a confused Chaos and have laboured with all your might to pull down the prosperous Government of this most renowned Church you are they that have persecuted and defamed a most pious King and exposed to eternall disgrace and suspition the Religion of the Protestants you have suppressed silenced banished murthered and undone many thousand Preachers and Professours of it you are they that have deceived your Countrey in abusing that trust which they imposed in you you would be accounted Patriots forsooth but you have acted the part of Butchers rather both upon the soules and bodies of your Countrey-men you would be thought wise men but your wisdome hath been only shown in ill doings you would be esteemed holy persons but where then is that harmlesness that undefiledness which should have appeared in you you have been full of bloud-guiltinesse yea of Rebellion which as the Scripture sayes is like the sinne of Witchcraft Majestie and Mercy were wont to be the strongest guards against Treason till your dayes but you have violently burst through that double fence and pierced through the privie maile of Innocence too Majesty Mercy and Innocence all have been rather as a prey to invite your evill natures then any guard to keep you back from offering violation O to what an high pitch have you ascended what transcendent impieties what blouds and blasphemies have you countenanced and committed quis talia fando temperet à lachrymis who without flouds of tears is able to expresse or think of what you have acted First for the Title of Patriots which you thirst after O had you been advised by your King had you closed with your Soveraign when he at first committed things to your care to order rectifie and settle for our good had you minded that work for which you met and made that your businesse as he would have had you how should we all have rejoyced in the very mention of you as of Patriots indeed how should we have hugged your names in our affectionate memories and conveyed them to Posterity with a charge to keep in everlasting Honour As Adam and Eve were our undertakers or representers in Paradise so were you in Parliament and as God to them so the King to you gave a Liberty over all the Plants and Creatures in his Garden restrained you in nothing save onely from one particular thing which was the forbidden fruit but nothing would satisfie your ambitious reach save onely that whereby you have brought upon us all Gods heavie curse and all kinde of miseries O how farre were you from the disposition of honest Joseph who being tempted to meddle with that which belonged not to him was with-held by the consideration of that great trust which his Master had reposed in him and of that liberty and authority which in all things else was granted to him And how did God soone after reward this his faithfulnesse by advancing him to as great Authority over the whole Realm as he had before over one Family wherein also all but the Throne was at his disposing in that only sayes Pharaoh I will be above thee which he good man was farre enough from seeking after for his endeavours only were to settle Pharaoh more firmly in it and to advance his wealth and dignity as the story at large tells us by which meanes he procured honour and favour sufficient to himselfe both with God and Man he lived desired of all and died lamented by the whole Nation O I say that you had had the wisdome and the grace to have imitated this Joseph this good Councellour of State you were tied in as great engagements of gratitude as he but you without any other temptation save only the corruption of your owne hearts have laboured to ravish from your Lord and Master his reserved jewell of Majestie and to rob him of his wealth and of the hearts of his people yea and to invest your selves with that Honour and esteem which with your strongest studies you ought to have fastened eternally to his Crown and Diademe Therefore you must never think however your flatterers doe bedawb you that you shall ever be dignified by good men with that Title of Abraes as Joseph was or be reckoned for Patriots of your Countrey I have read that true Patriots have these foure conditions 1. They will
our Saviour did with praiers in our mouths for them which it may be through Gods working may have a like effect after our death as Christs had to the conversion of some of them the conversion of those 3000. Act. 2. is held to be a fruit of Christs prayer upon the Crosse and Sauls conversion of Stephens prayer at his death so who knowes but our meeknesse our patience and our prayers at such a time may be effectuall to a like purpose even to draw some of our persecuting Countreymen from their bloudy and rebellious way into the paths of Christ and of his Gospel yea whether we live or die if we can do Christ and the King service no other way let us resolve and endeavour to pray down their and our enemies by praying for them And by all meanes while breath is in us let 's have a care so to live as we may still credit our righteous cause and as becometh those that are designed to slaughter for Jesus sake and for the Doctrine which he left us Holy bloud believe it will prove of harder digestion to them then prophane that they had killed the holy and the just one was that which afterward pierced the hearts of these mens elder Brethren when time was I say no more But the Lord strengthen and guide us all in our Christian and Loyall way by his grace and spirit that though we be a people robbed spoiled snared in holes hid in prison-houses driven to banishment and exposed for a prey yet we may walk before our God in all humilitie and well-pleasing to the restauration of his Gospells honour the inward comfort of our own spirits in the midst of miseries and to the conviction and shame of our unnaturall Countrey-men who seeke to take away our lives also from us Soli Deo Gloria Amen Amen May 26. 1646. A POST-SCRIPT to the READER THis Book was prepared as now you have it and might have seen the light within lesse then the compasse of that year wherein the Libell which it Answers was first published had there been at hand the convenience of a Presse and strength to bring forth But 't is no small advantage which the enemies have against Truth and the King that with them is both liberty and ability to vent what they please whereas with us is neither Had we but halfe the like helps encouragements and powers which they have had the world should see that the King hath Subjects and the Truth Defenders There hath been a further alteration of Affaires to the worse on the Kings side since this Book was written as may be collected from many passages therein and divers particulars concerning the enemies deportment here expressed have so fallen out as foreshewn for indeed 't is no difficult matter for any man acquainted with their spirits to fore-speak their doings Had there appeared any change in them to the better nay had their growth but promised a probability of more Christianity and duty in their future then hath been in their past Actions or then was here prognosticated of them this publication perhaps having been thus delayed had been still suspended though in very deed there is no reason why for such a cause it should have been quite stifled seeing that their Libell which it confuteth is divulged printed reprinted and still sold to the Kings darkening and defamation Besides many other scandalous and vile Pamphlets have been and are daily sent forth on purpose to damp his Lustre and to staine his Glory yea and translated too they are into other Languages that he might appear deform'd and spotted to the eye of Forraign Nations which because they have not been Answered with a like industry on our parts Strangers have thought yea and affirmed that nothing could be said for him because nothing was scil to their capacitie we have say they read in our owne languages many Bookes against him but none in his behealfe it must be acknowledged in very deed that this way the enemies have been more diligent in defaming then we have been in defending the King though in our own tongue there hath been abundance written in his justification and to their detection The Protestants of other Countryes unto whom the Kings bosome was alwayes open in their distresse towards whom his bowels alwayes yerned and for whose reliefe his commands went often forth to all Churches in his Kingdomes to make Collections how have they at least too many of them by meanes of those industrious Lies and Libels opened their mouthes and stretch'd forth their tongues against him And how are we that suffer with him and for him or rather for the Truth maintained by him esteemed of in our banishment amongst them are we any other but objects of scorn and taunting to them 't was our delight but 't was our duty and our work is with the Lord to obey God and him in contributing to their necessities in the day of their visitation but they take pleasure in this of ours to wound our very wounds and to enlarge our sorrows yea every way to help forward our affliction at what a distance have they looked upon us because the hand of God is out against us what bitter words have they darted at us and which is to our great griefe against the Sacred Person of our Soveraign with what violence and confidence doe they ignorantly undertake to justifie the false reports of his enemies against him Nay how is our Church it selfe the late glory of Christendome and of the whole Earth despised and slighted by them in this time of our persecution The Papists on the one side scoffingly ask us where is now your God where is your Church become you may now freely boast of its Invisibility if you please you have a ground for it c. And our Brethren on the other side that outwardly professe the same Faith with us and from whom we expected better they act Edoms part as reproachfully upon us crying out against our Church and the Government thereof down with it down with it even to the ground For they the Protestants of France in speciall are willingly perswaded by those Letters and Pamphlets sent them out of England that the Professours of the true Religion here before this Parliament begun were kept in a like underly condition as themselves are in their own Country though those French Congregations allowed in England might in their gratitude to our King have given them a better and more true information had they so pleased But upon this conceit they in France apprehend this Warre here against the King to be undertaken only to recover Liberty to worship God in the right manner that is to say after the French Mode or Discipline as they think at least and are made to believe and most people loving their own wayes and fashions best though lesse perfect then their neighbours cannot but wish good luck to all such as are stooping towards them and rejoyce for
not likely to be quickned by such endeavours yet our duty is to have respect to after Ages to prevent that the spirits of Posterity be not stained with a false opinion of our King as doubtlesse they also are like to be by those Bookes and Libels of the enemy conveyed unto them unlesse as much or more of ours be left too to present him in his true character to their knowledge Without question we that are now alive shal never scape the censure of succeding Generations viz. to have been too basely sluggish and faint-heared if such transcendent villanies should be acted in our dayes against our King our Religion and so many of us and many of us should not be found to have layed open the enemies basenesse to their faces nay when they that come after us shall apply themselves to write the History of these our times how will they be able truly to depaint these superlative Hypocrites in their due colours if plenty of our Books be not extant to this purpose to hint the notice of their true conditions Let no man therefore plead that writing will do no good as if silence could doe more or had done any I know indeed that much hath been writ already more a great deal then hath or may be read for the enemie hath set forth many threats and orders against such as shall sell or buy the same and hereupon many are discouraged from writing more And perhaps too many have feared to Publish what they have further written lest they prove obstructers to a desired Peace and so doe dammage to the Publike in regard of the enemies height and greatnesse but sure these men know not the spirits of this kinde of enemies with whom we have to doe who are such as will neither know nor own the way of peace but having made themselves crooked wayes to walk in as the Prophet speaks have no judgement in their goings their condition is Satan-like to triumph most where least opposed and to be most vexatious where they have least occasion resist the Divell and he will flie so hold these at open defiance let them know you scorn and contemn them for all their greatnesse as vile persons set the glasse of Gods word before their eyes make them know themselves and let the World know them 't is the only way to make them calmer and to bring them into order whereas say nothing against them and they 'le proclaime that 't is because we have nothing to say and that our consciences tell us they are in the right and so we are silent against our wills Surely the best and most Christian charity that can be shewn them is to reach unto them the proper fruit of their own wayes to feed upon for could they be but fild with shame they might be brought to seeke God And suppose they turn again and rend us for our love and use us the worse for our endeavouring to make them better what new thing shall they doe did not the Pharisees even the same in their dealings with our Saviour and shall not they by doing so confirm more fully to the world that to be true which we have written of them should they chase us up and down the Kingdome with their bloud-hounds to destroy us would it not become them better to hunt fleas then to hunt Kings nor could it be to the advantage of them at all or of their cause but of the truth rather and of us if they should prevaile against us even to kill us upon this occasion that which we maintaine is not the first of Gods truths that hath been sealed with bloud some think that every of his commands at one time or other must be so confirmed and why may not the fifth Commandement at this time as well as the second was in the dayes of Queen Mary to every thing there is an appointed season Whosoever is in the streight and narrow way must look for oppositions and discouragements but faith which over-commeth the world is able to carry through all them Christ was opposed in all he did as much as possible he could be by man he met with contradictments in all his intendments and undertakings even from friends sometimes as well as enemies Master spare thy selfe sayes Peter to him the like must we expect if we follow him but should not this rather evidence the divinity and justice of our way unto our own consciences then be any case of damping to our spirits Non nobis nati sumus we are not our owne nor must we be men of private spirits specially in these times Nay we must take paines and be content not to see the fruit of our labours but that others should reape the benefit of our sowings when we are gone After the death of Christ and his Apostles their Doctrine and Writings did most good in the world and so perhaps may ours when we have ceased to be are no more seen God hath promised his blessing first or last to honest endeavours but we must tarry Gods time Wherefore you in the first place to whom God hath given inward abilities up and be doing with the same and be confident the Lord will be with you Remember how they that imployed their gifts had more comfort at the reckoning day then he had who had hid his talent in a napkin You secondly that have outward strength be not backward to assist the weak in bringing to light unable births give none occasion to think or say those that had or look to have the greatest share in the Kings happinesse when the sun shines upon him are least regardfull of his Honour when the times are dark and cloudy You thirdly that refuse to further or countenance works of this nature I beseech you also doe but disdaine to hinder And you lastly who ere you be that look for salvation from the Lord rest your selves in him wait patiently for him fret not because of evill doers nor be you envious against the workers of iniquity for their present prosperity in their way they shall erelong be cut down like the grasse and wither as the green hearb be you in the fear of the Lord all the day long and be certain your expectation shall not be cut off He that testifieth these things saith surely I come I come quickly Amen even so come Lord Jesus The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all Amen The End The Contents of the chief particulars discoursed of in this Booke PREFACE The Reasons 1. Of the Authors undertaking this worke and at this time 2. Of his speciall zeale against the sins of this faction which he opposeth 3. Of his prayers for their persons 4. Of his former intentions to conceale his name Sect. I. OF the supposed Authors of the Libell Of the Authorizers thereof and their speciall Order How fit the same should be recalled A president propounded