the said Dr. Ker further declares That he was very near the said Sir Phelim when he was upon the Ladder at his Execution and that one Marshal Peak and another Marshal before the said Sir Phelim was cast off came riding towards the place in great haste and cried aloud Stop a little and having passed the Throng of Spectators one of them whispered with the said Sir Phelim and the said Sir Phelim answered in the hearing of several hundreds of whom I was one I thank the Lieutenant-General for his intended mercy but I declare before God and his holy Angels and all you that hear me that I never had any Commission from the King for what I have done in Levying or Prosecution of this War and do heartily beg your pardon c. To the Testimony whereof the said Dr. Ker did subscribe his Seal Febr. 28. Anno Dom. 1681. Sir Henry Vane's Letter to the Lords Justices concerning some Informations of Danger in Ireland Right Honourable HIS Majesty hath commanded me to acquaint your Lordships with an Advice given him from abroad and confirmed by his Ministers in Spain and elsewhere which in this Distempered Time and Conjuncture of Affairs deserves to be seriously considered and an especial Care and Watchfulness to be had therein which is That of late there have passed from Spain and the like may well have been from other parts an unspeakable number of Irish Church-men for England and Ireland and some good old Soldiers under pretext of asking leave to raise Men for the King of Spain whereas it is observed among the Irish Friars there a Whisper runs as if they expected a Rebellion in Ireland and particularly in Connaught Wherefore his Majesty thought sit to give your Lordships this Notice that in your Wisdoms you might manage the same with that dexterity and secresie as to discover and prevent so pernicious a Design if any such there should be and to have a watchful Eye on the Proceedings and Actions of those who come thither from abroad on what pretext soever And so herewith I rest Your Lordships most humble Servant Henry Vane Whitehall March 16. 1640. The Original Letter was found among the Papers of Sir John Parsons one of the Lords Justices Moreover Archbishop Vsher saw a Letter of the King 's own Writing to the Lords Justices to the same purpose about the same time as he affirm'd to Bp. Hacket who relates the thing in the Life of Archbishop Williams part 2. p. 19. So that there can be no colour of his Majesty's designing such an Insurrection against which he often repeated his Solemn Protestations published Declarations and made many Overtures to the Parliament of England for the Suppression of that Rebellion concerning which his Meditations in the Twelfth Chapter of his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he says enough to satisfie any but an Infidel as first That the Sea of Blood which had been there barbarously and cruelly shed was enough to drown any Man in eternal infamy and misery whom God should find the malicious Author or Instigator of its effusion and that there was nothing that could be more abhorring to him being so full of sin against God disloyalty to himself and destructive to his Subjects Yet some Men saith he took it very ill not to be believed that what the Irish Rebels did was by my privity at least if not by my Commission But these knew too well that it is no news for some of my Subjects to fight not only without my Commission but against my Command and Person too and yet to pretend they fight by my Authority and for my Safety But as I have no Judge but God above me so I can have comfort to appeal to his Omniscience Which he doth with this Imprecation in a Soliloquy immediately following in these words If I have desired or delighted in the woful day of my Kingdoms Calamities if I have not earnestly studied and faithfully endeavoured the preventing and composing of these bloody Distractions then let thy hand be against me and my Father's house And the Restoration of his Son in so wonderful a manner seems strongly to assert the Father's Innocency The beginning and progress of that barbarous Massacre will appear in divers Authentick Papers in Mr. Nalson's Collection part 2. p. 543. But I need mention no more concerning the King 's obstinate aversion to Popery then what he says in the following Letter to the Heads of the Popish Party A Letter by the King's Order to the Lord Muskerry c. HE tells the Rebels Your Party it seems is not satisfied with the utmost that his Majesty can grant in Matters of Religion that is the taking away the Penal Laws against Roman Catholicks in that Kingdom and his Majesty hears that you insist upon the Demands of Churches for the Publick Exercise of your Religion which is the occasion that his Majesty hath commanded me to write thus frankly unto you and to tell you That he cannot believe it possible that rational and prudent Men had there been no Professions made to the contrary can insist upon that which must needs be so destructive to his Majesty at the present and to your selves in the consequences of his Ruin Wherefore my Lords and Gentlemen to disabuse you I am commanded by his Majesty to declare unto you That were the condition of his Affairs much more desperate than it is he would never redeem them by any Concession of so much wrong both to his Honour and Conscience It is for the defence of Religion principally that he hath undergone the Extremities of War here and he will never redeem his Crown by sacrificing it there So that to deal clearly with you as you may be happy your selves and be happy Instruments of his Majesty's Restoring if you will be contented with Reason and give him that speedy assistance which you well may so if nothing will content you but what must wound his Honour and Conscience you must expect that how low soever his Condition is and how detestable soever the Rebels of this Kingdom are to him he will in that point joyn with them the Scots or any of the Protestant profession rather than do the least act that may hazard that Religion in which and for which he will live and die Having said thus much by his Majesty's command I have no more to add but that I shall think my self very happy if this take any such effect as may tend to the Peace of that Kingdom and make me Your affectionate humble Servant Cardiff Aug. 1. 1845. This Lord also at the time of his Execution did most solemnly as he hoped for Salvation declare the Kings Innocency as to that War When the Reader hath seriously considered the import of this Letter I earnestly intreat him to read the second Meditation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 relating to the Death of the Earl of Strafford and I dare appeal to his Conscience of what quality soever he
did conclude his own Prayer with it a great part of his Auditory would presently depart out of the Church as if it were impossible for them to be edified by such a Preacher as had no better Gift of Prayer And thus to make a thorough Reformation they first agreed on no more Addresses unto God before they Voted no more Addresses to the King The Creed and Commandments suffer the same Indignities being generally omitted in their Publick Worship and in many places especially at their Lectures scarce a Chapter of the Holy Scripture read to the People the whole Exercise being made up of Extemporary Prayer and Preaching the best of their Sermons if I may account them so that are printed and were preached in the greatest Congregations on most Solemn Occasions abounding with such Invectives against the King such Arguments and Motives to Rebellion and Shedding of Blood as will be an indelible Reproach to the Presbyterian Party who so taught others the Doctrine of Resisting their Superiours that they soon felt it to be practised against themselves who had broken down all the Fences of Government and opened those wide Breaches by which so many Heresies and so great Confusion overflowed the Nation so that the Pulpit-Drums exceeded those of the Field in doing Mischief drawing on more Souls to Destruction than the other did Bodies Mr. Baxter p. 43. of his Life tells us what Chaplains were in Essex's Army Abundance of famous excellent Divines were Chaplains to his Army Stephen Marshal and Dr. Burgess to Essex 's Regiments Obadiah Sedgwick to Col. Hollis Calibut Downing to the Lord Roberts John Sedgwick to the Earl of Stamford Dr. Spurstow to Hamden 's Mr. Perkins to Col. Goodwin 's Mr. Moore to the Lord Wharton 's Adoniram Bifield to Sir Henry Cholmley 's Mr. Nalton to Col. Grantham 's Mr. Simeon Ash to the Lord Brooks Mr. Morton of Newcastle to Sir Arthur Haslerigge with many more These were the first Incendiaries Boutefew's that first kindled and continued the Wars and such of the King's Friends as escaped the mouth of the Armies Swords were sentenc'd to a worse Death by the Sword of these Mens mouths In the Year 43. when the Parliaments Army were worsted and weakned by the King and they thought themselves in danger of being overcome they intreated help from the Scots who taking advantage of their straits brought in the Covenant as the Condition of their help Thus Mr. Baxter p. 127. of his first Plea who confesseth it was contrived as a Stratagem of War to bind the Faction in both Nations in a Confederacy against the King and strengthen the War against him for the doing whereof they pawned their Souls to each other as his Majesty observes in the Chapter of the Covenant And if it be considered by how many Solemn Oaths and Protestations the Subjects of both Nations as well as by the Laws of God and Nature were obliged to defend his Majesty's Person and the Laws and Government established it will appear to be true as Mr. Philip Nye observed concerning the Covenant That for Matter Persons and other Circumstances the like hath not been in any Age or Oath we read of in Sacred or Humane Story But it did the work for which it was designed it brought in the Scots Armies by by the promised hopes of dividing the Church Lands upon the Extirpation of Episcopacy and was as fatal to the King as to the Bishops For the King's Forces being broken he withdraws from Oxford where he was besieged and commits himself to the Scots Army who sollicite him to take the Covenant and sign their Propositions for the Presbyterial Government Henderson is sent to dispute the point with the King and he being baffled Mr. Cant Blaire and Douglas endeavoured the same but more by railing than reasoning with him One of them besides many rude expressions in his Sermon before the King called for the 52 Psalm which begins thus Why dost thou Tyrant boast abroad Thy wicked works to praise Whereupon the King presently stood up and called for the 56 Psalm which begins thus Have mercy Lord on me I pray For men would me devour Which the People readily sung leaving the other And the Commissioners of the General Assembly resolved That if the King be excluded from Government in England for not granting the Propositions concerning Religion and the Covenant it was not lawful for that Kingdom to assist him for the Recovery of the Government Nay they threaten to deliver him up to the Parliament of England as shortly after they did for 400000 l. for the raising of which Sum an Ordinance is past for Sale of the Bishops Lands at Ten years value Nov. 16. And by another Ordinance Febr. 8. none were to bear any Office Civil or Military that refused to take the Covenant The Parliament having gotten the King in their power thought themselves very secure and therefore resolves to disband the whole Army Horse and Foot and to send a good part of them for Ireland which so startled the Army that they began to take new measures And first they demand their Arrears for 56 Weeks Next that a Declaration against the Army March 13. might be recalled and they secured for what had been done in the late Wars which things at a general Rendezvouz they petition the Parliament for who being under great fears Vote all that was desired But the Army had a farther design and by 1000 Horse under Cornet Joyce seize the King's Person and detain him in the power of the Army which was Cromwel's design who though he sate with the Members at Westminster and protested there with Execrations against himself and his Family that he was ignorant of the Fact yet he told his Considents that having got the King into his hands he had the Parliament in his Pocket And presently he falls to purging of the House impeaching Eleven of the chief Presbyterians of High Treason and secluded them the House and afterward got the Militia of London into their hands for the Army being drawn up on Hounslow-heath marched up to the Parliament House and gave it a second purge of many more Members and marching triumphantly through London did demolish their Works and never left till he had setled the Parliament to his own liking But to return to Mr. Baxter Four years he says he was a Member of the Army part of which time by what follows will appear to be after that the Independent Party was predominant and the Army new modelled yet he tarried with this Army under Cromwel until the King was murthered and till Richard the Protector was cast out of the Government by those that had placed him in it Hear what Mr. Baxter says p. 14. of his Answer to Bagshaw Is it possible for any sober Christian in the World to take them to be blameless or these to be little sins What the violating of the King's Person and the Life of so good a King and the Change
have more sound and loyal Principles of Government and Obedience And yet they have preacht and publisht to the World the same Doctrines which were voted January the 4th 1648. That the Representative of the People in Parliament have the Supream Power of the Nation and whatever is enacted or declared for Law by the Commons in Parliament hath the form of a Law and the People are concluded thereby though the Consent of King and Peers be not had thereunto Which Votes were passed in order to the King 's Trial. Were not they the King 's most Loyal Subjects that carried on a War against him until they made him their Prisoner and then used him as a captiv'd Slave denying him the liberty of a Man the society of Wife Children and any Attendant whom he could trust and of a Christian denying him the assistance of his Chaplains leaving him no Comfort that might make his Life desirable but perpetually baiting him with the Covenant and such unreasonable Propositions as they knew before-hand the King could not in Honour or Conscience comply with Being thus bound and chain'd the Independants take him out of their hands and put an end to his Sufferings Salmasius a great Presbyterian himself truly represents the Case If a Thief says he p. 353. of his Defensio Regia apprehends a Traveller disarms him robs him of his Money and leaves him naked and fast bound to some Tree and some ravenous Beast finding him in that condition kills and devours him to whom ought the cause of his Death to be imputed to the Thief or to the Beast And he concludes Ita justum Regem sanctum extinxere Presbyteriani These disarmed him of his Militia these bought and sold him as a Captive these covenanted to preserve his Life with a Condition of his preserving their Religion which when he should refuse they thought themselves bound by Covenant to desert him The Army in a Remonstrance from St. Albans Novemb. 16. say that Whereas it might be objected that the Covenant obliged them to preserve the King's Person They say It was with this restriction In the preservation of the true Religion Religion and Publick Interest were to be understood the principal and supream Matters engaged for the King's Person and Authority were inferiour and subordinate which being not consistent with the preservation of Religion and Publick Interest they were by the Covenant obliged against it And what was it less that the Commissioners of the General Assembly of the Scots resolved on viz. That if the King were excluded from Government in England for not granting the Propositions concerning Religion and the Covenant it was not lawful for that Kingdom to assist him for the recovery of his Government yet this is that Solemn Covenant for the obligation whereof Mr. Baxter so contumaciously pleads against the Authority of the whole Nation And upon these and such like Proposals from Scotland the Parliament vote That no more Addresses be made from them to the King nor any Letters or Message received from him And That it should be Treason for any person to receive Letters from the King or deliver any to him without leave from both Houses And were not these the King 's most Loyal Subjects Or what Body or Party of Men have in Mr. Baxter's sence more sound or loyal Principles of Government and Obedience How often and how deeply this incomparable King was wounded at the heart by those barbarous Declarations of the Parliament and Presbyterian Incendiaries as if he were a witless worthless faithless Person not to be trusted in his most Solemn Protestations against his Intentions for Tyranny and Popery is beyond any Man's expressions but his own These had often murdered him in his Honour and Reputation before his last Execution Nor could his last Speech silence those malicious Blasphemies he was no sooner dead but he was executed in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as much as lay in the power of his Adversaries rob'd of that immortal Jewel more worth than his Crown though no Man was so qualified for such pious and excellent Meditations as himself Those two Disputes about Episcopacy against Henderson and a Junto of Presbyterians at Newport of which his greatest Enemies could not deny him to be the genuine Author sufficiently shew his great Abilities both for Learning and Acurateness of Stile of which Debates the Bishop of Worcester says that his Majesty understood the Constitution of our Church as well as any Bishop in it and defended it with as clear and strong Reasons whereof that Learned Bishop made great use against Mr. Baxter's opposition of Episcopacy p. 271 280. of his History of Separation Yet from the beginning of the War to the end of the Life of that best of Kings and I may add to the end of Mr. Baxter's Life no one hath endeavoured to defame him more and render him odious to Posterity than Mr. Baxter by charging him with granting Commissions to those Irish Papists that massacred Two hundred thousand Protestants of which more hereafter Though Mr. Baxter was disabled to combate any longer with the Sword yet is he resolved to do it with the Pen which he dips not in Gall and Vinegar but in the very Poyson of Asps to keep open the Wounds of the expiring Church To which end he endeavours to draw his Neighbour-Ministers into an Association and procures the Worcestershire Agreement the design of which you may see in Mr. Baxter's Gildas Salvianus which was intended as a Humiliation Sermon to those that would enter into the Association not that they should humble themselves but the Clergy that yet adhered to the King For one effect of it was the promoting a Petition That notoriously insufficient and scandalous persons and as such Mr. Baxter represented the Loyal Clergy though as himself observes in the same Book the Synod of Dort called them Stupor Mundi the Astonishment of the World by reason of their Eminency should not be permitted to meddle with the Mysteries of Christ especially the Sacraments Upon which Petition as Mr. Baxter hath been told there issued that rigid Proclamation for Silencing all sequestred Ministers and forbidding them not only the Exercise of their Ministry but of keeping any Schools c. A design as witless as it was wicked for Mr. Baxter notes in the Preface to that Book That it had been put to a Vote in Parliament to take away both Ministry and Maintenance which was carried in the Negative by two Voices only yet like another Sampson he is pulling down the Pillars of that House whose Ruines would bury himself and all his Order A little taste of his Malice at that season must needs distaste the impartial Reader One sort that will be offended at me says he are some of the Divines of the Prelatical way as indeed they all justly might for reproaching not as by hear-say but from sight and feeling first the Silencing of most godly able men the Persecution even
of the peaceable the discountenance of godliness and the insulting scorn of the profanest in the Land And many hundred swearing drunken ignorant scandalous negligent Ministers are cast out and we have now many humble godly painful Teachers in a County And as for the People he says in the same Epistle to his Gildas That most of them wherever he came did make Religion and reading the Sacred Scriptures or speaking of the way to Heaven the matter of their bitter scorn and reproach He spares not to Revile the Royal Martyr as if he intended to justifie his Murder King Charles saith he by the Bishops instigation kept Mr. Pryn long in Prison and twice cropt his Ears for writing against their Masks and Plays and the high and hard proceedings of the Prelates though the Archbishop whose Head they cut off for less shewed greater Crimes of which he was proved guilty in his Speech in the Star-Chamber This was not such a fast as God required to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burthens to break every yoak and to let the oppressed to free This was the Hypocrite ' s fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness and to make their voice to be heard on high Isai 58.4 in the words of the proud Pharisee God I thank thee I am not as other men nor as this Publican as will appear to him that reads chap. 4. sect 1. and p. 154. where he raileth intolerably against the Rulers as Haters of practical godliness and of all that would but speak seriously of Heaven and tell Men of Death and Judgment and spend the Lord's day in preparation thereto that did but pray in their Families or reprove Drunkenness or Swearing What could any Papist say more to disparage the Church of England As to the inferiour Clergy he says p. 157. The Churches were pestered with abundance of meer Readers Drunken Profane and Debauched Men and many that had more plausible Tongues made it their chief business to bring those they called Puritans into disgrace So that I must needs say I knew no place in those times for he speaks of Men and Places within his knowledge where a Man might not more safely have been drunk every Week than to have gone to hear a Sermon if he had none at home Nor doth he spare those that died long before his memory p. 143. What Toys and Trifles did the ancient Reverend Fathers of the Church pester the Church with And what useless Stuff are many of their Canons composed of Three lamentable Vices did the Prelates of the Church commonly abound in Pride the Root and Contention and Vain-glory the Fruit c. to p. 149. where he is not ashamed to tell the World what Troubles the first Nonconformists raised at Frankfort against those Reformers and Confessors that were Exiled for maintaining the same Worship and Liturgy for the defence of which many Bishops and Ministers were suffering Martyrdom under the Papists No sooner were they the Nonconformists called home saith he p. 150. but some of them were so intemperate impatient and unpeaceable that some turned to flat Separation and flew in the faces of the Prelates with reviling Yet Mr. Baxter doth the same and accounts the requiring of Uniformity in the same or a better Worship to be a Persecution As for his Brethren he professeth to believe That England never had so able and faithful a Ministry since it was a Nation as at this day viz. Decemb. 4. 1655. in the heat of Rebellion yet he affirms Sure I am the change is so great within these Twelve years that it is one of the greatest joys that ever I had in the World to behold it But for the Prelatical Party he brings in some saying They are all empty careless if not scandalous and ungodly men And may we not conclude as Mr. Baxter doth p. 167. This is not a confessing sin but an applauding those whose sins they pretend to confess Mr. Baxter calls this Book Gildas Salvianus but he might have more truly entitled it Excidium Britannicum for that followed on it How Mr. Baxter can be excused from the guilt of Schism in the departing from the Communion of the Church after his Ordination and Subscription and Solemn Vows then made for more than Twenty years before the Impositions and Penalties enjoyned by the Secular Powers which he pleaded in his justification after the year 63. will be a very difficult if not an impossible work to him that considers Mr. Baxter's circumstances and actings I shall therefore only shew the heinous nature of that Sin as described by Mr. Baxter himself p. 741. of his Christian Directory That Schism is a sin against so many clear and vehement words of the Holy Ghost that it is utterly without excuse Whoredoms and Treason and Perjury are not oftner forbidden in the Gospel than this That it is contrary to the very design of Christ in our Redemption which was to reconcile us all to God That it is contrary to the design of the Spirit of Grace and the Nature of Christianity a sin against the nearest bonds of our highest relations a dividing of Christ or robbing him of a great part of his Inheritance That it is accompanied with Self-ignorance Pride and Vnthankfulness to God That Church-dividers are the most successful Servants of the Devil and serve him more effectually than open Enemies That it is a sin which contradicteth all God's Ordinances and Means of Grace a sin against as great and lamentable Experiences as almost any sin can be and this is a heinous aggravation of it that it is commonly justified and not repented of by those that commit it and the more heinous that it is commonly fathered upon God Therefore remember this that Schism and making Parties in the Church is not so small a thing as many take it for Yet this pious Man to keep his Proselytes from ever returning or repenting for Schism tells them in the Preface to his Plea for Peace That more like truth hath been said for the lawfulness of Anabaptism Polygamy Drunkenness Stealing and Lying in case of Necessity than any thing he ever yet read of for a full Conformity as he their describeth it Behold here the great Charity of Mr. Baxter which he extends rather to the Congregations of Schismatical Anabaptists and such as live in those detestable sins of Polygamy Drunkenness Lying and Stealing than to the most Solemn Assemblies of Conformists to which yet he hath often joyned himself in Communion How great soever his Knowledge was how strong soever his Faith yet wanting Charity the Sacred Scripture assures us that such a Man is but as sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal In the year 1658. just Ten years after that the best of Kings suffered by the worst of Men Mr. Baxter sets forth his Grotian Religion and through Grotius's sides strikes at the Head and Members of the Church of England with one blow For
much as one Collect but instead thereof they petition for a Reformation both of Doctrine and Discipline and particularly they petition his Majesty that some Learned Godly and Moderate Divines of both Perswasions indifferently chosen may be employed to compile such a new Form as they there described or at least to revise and effectually reform the old c. The King denies the first part of making a New Liturgy and tells them he had in his Declaration of Octob. 25. expressed his esteem of the Liturgy of the Church of England but grants the second and authorizeth certain Persons to advise upon and review the said Book comparing the same with the most ancient Liturgies And if reason be to make such reasonable and necessary alterations corrections and amendments as should be thought needful c. with this special caution Avoiding as much as may be all unnecessary abreviations of the Forms and Liturgy wherewith the People are acquainted And how thankfully was this received Mr. Baxter tells us That he drew up another Liturgy a Petition for Peace and Concord and a Reply to the Answer of the Bishops to their Exceptions This new Liturgy though he confesseth it had many imperfections and needed to be amended being the hasty off-spring of eight days yet he pedantically calls it their more correct Nepenthes and protests before God and Men against the dose of Opium which was by the Bishops prescribed i.e. the Liturgy which the King recommended to them as that which plainly tended to cure their Disease by extinguishing of Life and to unite them in a dead Religion Dr. Reynolds he confesseth blamed them for offering a new Liturgy instead of additional Forms but they would have their New or nothing And tells the Bishops If these be all the abatements and amendments you will admit you sell your innocency and the Churches peace for nothing which is indeed somewhat cheaper than that for which his Brethren sold the King and those other things to boot I have heard it credibly reported by some Reverend persons there present that that Treaty might have had the desired effect of Concord had not Mr. Baxter so obstinately resisted Particularly the Learned Bishop of Chester told Mr. Isaak Walton that Dr. Sanderson said There was a certain person there Mr. Baxter knows whom he meant that appeared to be so bold troublesome and illogical as forced the meek Doctor to say with an unusual earnestness that he never met with a Man of more pertinacious Confidence and less Abilities in all his conversation And the Reverend Bishop of Worcester in his Letter p. 13. affirms That Mr. Baxter's furious eagerness to engage in a Disputation to which his Brethren shewed themselves unwilling did wholly frustrate the way that tended to an amiable and fair compliance His Petition for Peace then was like his Pleas now meer threatning and reviling Take heed says he p. 5. how you drive men by Penalties upon that which they judge doth tend to their Damnation And p. 14. The denial of their desires would renew all our troubles p. 18. they tell the Bishops of unmerciful Impositions Nor did they deal better with the King whom they desired to leave out of his Declaration these words We do not in Our Judgements believe the practice of those particular Ceremonies we except against to be in it self unlawful that is we account them unlawful They tell the Bishops in the close of the Second Paper If they will grant those favours it would revive their Hearts to daily and earnest Prayer for their prosperity But p. 12. Should we lose the opportunity of our desired Reconciliation it astonisheth us to foresee what doleful effects our Divisions would produce which we will not so much as mention in particular lest our words should be misunderstood And p. 117. of their Reply As Basil said to Valens the Emperour that would have him pray for the life of his Son If thou wilt receive the true Faith thy Son shall live which when he refused he said The will of God be done with thy Son So we say too If you will put on Charity and promote the Churches Peace God will honour you but if you will do contrary the will of the Lord be done with your Honours Now what greater insolency could they have used if the King had been as low as his Father and the Bishops as obnoxious as Mr. Baxter and his Brethren And who but Mr. Baxter could have thought by a hasty work of eight days done in opposition to his Majesty's Commission and as he confesseth against the advice of some of his more sober Brethren to justle out the Liturgy composed by many Martyrs and Confessors and approved of by the Reformed Churches ever since the Reformation as his Majesty tells him in that Declaration To which though they now say they would have submitted yet could they not then at his Majesties request read any part of the Liturgy though they confessed they could have used almost the whole But instead thereof his Majesty complains in that Declaration of their restless Spirits who continued their bitterness against the Church and endeavoured to raise Jealousies against his Majesty and unseasonably Printed Published and Dispersed a Declaration to his Majesties reproach Their whole Petition was a Pharisaical Remonstrance of their own Godliness and Abilities and the Profaneness of such as were not of their Perswasion besides their frequent and fearful outcries of Persecution and Sufferings when themselves had been the Persecutors for Twenty Years together and as yet had suffered nothing but from their own guilty Consciences and just fears Well might the Loyal Party have answered those Complaints as once their Independent Brethren did Is there the least shew of Oppression Sorrow or cause of Complaint except it be that you are not suffered to oppress vex and gall your Brethren that joyn not with you Can you feed upon nothing but the Blood of your Brethren that though you are as capable of all Preferments even Bishopricks and Deanaries as any of the Loyal Clergy you complain of Slavery and Oppression because you cannot enslave and lead into Captivity Is this to kill you with the Sword that you cannot again kill your Brethren with the Sword See more to this purpose in the Pulpit-Incendiary printed 1648. p. 45. Your Renowned Protector Oliver speaks home to you at the dissolution of the Parliament 1654 in these words Is it ingenuous to ask Liberty and not to give it What greater Hypocrisie than for those who were oppressed by the Bishops to become the greatest Oppressors themselves so soon as the Yoak was removed And his Majesty in the Chapter concerning the Ordinances against Common-Prayer to this effect I see that those are the most rigorous exactors upon others to conform to their illegal Novelties who were least disposed to the due obedience of lawful Constitutions So that I know not whether they sinned more against their Consciences by violently opposing Our established