Jones for being at so great expence to redeem the prey out of their hands and did but watch an opportunity to make him know how sensible they were of this their loss This Parliament being called and these men made Members of the Lower House they quickly perceived that this wished-for opportunity was now come wherein they might pervert publick Justice to private revenge quickly learning to exercise that Arbitrary unlimited power over their fellow Subjects which the prevalence of a dangerous Faction had put in their hands According to the general practice since this Parliament they accuse Mr. Jones of some Anti-parliamentary passages in his Sermons which his Judges understood as little as his Accusers Nay perhaps it was with him as with many of his Orthodox Brethren the same men were both his Accusers and Judges However any or no accusation we know have served these mens turns to bring Godly and Learned Ministers to the Bear-baiting of a Committee and to put them into the expensive custody of a Serjeant at Arms so it was with Mr. Jones they first pretended some Crimes and on these pretences they commit him Prisoner to a Serjeant at Arms. Having deprived him of his Liberty and put him into a consumption of his Estate by the unreasonable unlimited exactions of Parliament Goalers they then think him reduced to such a condition as to be willing to hearken to a Composition on any terms At last vexed to an agreement he is to enjoy his Liberty and Peace on this mutual stipulation They are to pardon him the errour of his Doctrine to deliver up his bail being with two Sureties Parliament men bound in a Bond of two thousand pounds and to give two hundred pounds towards his charges Mr. Jones must resign his lately recovered Cure of Tuifordton to make way for a Clerk of their own which to avoid farther molestation to his very great prejudice he was inforced to condescend unto After in September 1642. Mr. Jones riding to Taunton in Somersetshire accompanied by one of the Prince's Servants who wore his Masters Colours was for that reason together with that Gentleman immediately after his departure from thence apprehended and like a Felon brought back to the Castle where he remained Prisoner three weeks and could not be released without the earnest solicitation of his friends and his Wives humble and often petitioning the Earle of Bedford In November last suffering under continual molestations and out of all hope to live peaceably at home he resolved to put himself under the protection of Sir Ralph Hoptons Army then in Cornwal To this purpose he furnished three Horses and Arms proportionable and set forward to deliver them up to his Majesties service but unhappily in the way thither he was intercepted by the Earl of Stamfords Forces under the command of Captain Gould taken Prisoner robb'd to the value of 80 l. the Plunderers leaving him not so much as a boot to ride in By these he is led Captive to Liskard in Cornwal where they kept him three days in which time he and another Minister with him with his servant had but one pint of Beer for their sustinence being kept without either fire or light and for one night had their hands bound behind them and had been still kept in the like bondage had not God in mercy rescued them by Sir Ralph Hopton after the famous Battle of Liskard During the time of their imprisonment they offer them Conditions on which they may purchase their liberty viz. to pay three hundred pound to take an Oath never any more to assist the King with Horse Arms or Money But being delivered on far better terms he was not long after imprisoned for giving God publick thanks for his deliverance Afterwards seeing that Religion it self was but abused being made the Cloak of these mens Hypocrisie and Treasons and that they did fast but to strife and debate he did not observe the Fast every last Wednesday in the Month with that strict observation as was expected from him by that Faction hereupon some of them put him in mind of it Good Friday coming on presently upon the last Wednesday in April he desired his Neighbours and Parishoners to keep that ancient Fast injoyned by the Church in Commemoration of the bitter Death and Passion of Christ and the better to invite them to that days solemn Humiliation he preached to them twice that day Though Sermons be all their Religion yet two Sermons on Good Friday received and practised by all Churches in all Ages till of late a Jewish observation of one day hath shouldred out the religious observation of all other days he was convented before the Sessions where Edmund Prideaux a Parliament man and a pretender to this Law prest this his Obedience to the Church most violently against him malitiously affirming that he did it to affront the Parliament and to advance Popish Superstition and Innovation and that therefore He see what it is to be a Parliament man would make him an Example to the World and as the times then were God as he threatned Israel provoking us by foolish people was like enough to have done it had not Mr. Jones prevented him by withdrawing himself and so declined the evil intended against him Yet we may not omit one thing though it were so heinous a Crime in Mr. Jones not to observe one of their Wednesdays Fasts yet Mr. Darke Minister of Musbury in the same County and a man of that Faction could command his men to follow the Plough that day and yet was never thought fit of a Reprehension nor so much as a Brotherly Admonition and no wonder for tho heretofore Actions did Qualifie persons and denominate them by the Sectaries new Divinity they make Persons to Qualifie Actions those things which are sins in others lose their Nature and their Name in a Child of God and they will take it very ill from you not to be so reputed though living in the most notorious scandalous sins that defile the Soul and lay wast the Conscience of man But to return to our story From the beginning of this Parliament till God by the glorious and no less than miraculous Victories of Sir Ralph Hopton restored some Peace to that miserably distracted Country Mr. Jones was not permitted to live quietly at his own dwelling they threaten to hang him and burn his house which they plundered no less than seven times and not content with this they threaten to carry away his aged Father Prisoner being no less than 86 years of age and had been as good as their word for in mischief they seldom fail of their promises had not the Women of the Parish in detestation of so great barbarism rescued him out of their hands And after that memorable defeat of the Rebels at Stratton in the edge of Cornwal by the brave Sir Ralph Hopton Mr. Jones returned to his own house fearing no danger from the fitters of that broken Army but
willing to be too long is my self I was born and baptized in the bosom of the Church of England established by Law in that profession I have ever since lived and in that I come now to dye This is no time to dissemble with God least of all in matter of Religion and therefore I desire it may be remembred I have always lived in the Protestant Religion established in England and in that I now come to dye What clamours and slanders I have endured for labouring to keep an Uniformity in the external service of God according to the Doctrin and Discipline of this Church all men know and I have abundantly felt Now at last I am accused of High Treason in Parliament a crime which my Soul ever abhorred this Treason was charged to consist of these two parts An endeavour to subvert the Laws of the Land and a like Endeavour to overthrow the true Protestant Religion estabâ—â—shed by Law Besides my Answers to the several Charges I protested my innocency in both Houses It was said Prisoners protestations at the Bar must not be taken I can bring no witness of my heart and the intentions thereof therefore I must come to my Protestation not at the Bar but my Protestation at this hour and instant of my death in which I hope all men will be such charitable Christians as not to think I would dye and dissemble being instantly to give God an account for the truth of it I do therefore here in the presence of God and his holy Angels take it upon my death That I never endeavoured the subversion either of Law or Religion and I desire you all to remember this Protest of mine concerning mine innocency in these and from all Treasons whatsoever I have been accused likewise as an Enemy to Parliaments No I understand them and the benefit that comes by them too well to be so But I did mislike the misgovernments of some Parliaments many ways and I had good reason for it for Corruptio optimi est pessima there is no corruption in the World so bad as that which is of the best thing in it self for the better the thing is in nature the worse it is corupted And that being the highest Court over which no other hath jurisdiction when t is mis-informed or misgoverned the Subject is left without all remedy But I have done I forgive all the World all and every of those bitter Enemies which have persecuted me and humbly desire to be forgiven of God first and then of every man whether I have offended him or not if he do but conceive that I have Lord do thou forgive me and I beg forgiveness of him And so I heartily desire you to joyn in Prayer with me O Eternal God and merciful Father look down upon me in mercy in the riches and fulness of all thy mercies look upon me but not till thou hast nailed my sins to the Cross of Christ not till thou hast bathed me in the blood of Christ not till I have hid my self in the wounds of Christ that so the punishment due unto my sins may pass over me And since thou art pleased to try me to the uttermost I humbly beseech thee give me now in this great instant full patience proportionable comfort and a heart ready to dye for thy honour the Kings happiness and this Churches preservation And my zeal to these far from Arrogancy be it spoken is all the sin human frailties excepted and all incidents thereto which is yet known to me in this particular for which I now come to suffer I say in this particular of Treason but otherwise my sins are many and great Lord pardon them all and those especially what ever they are which have drawn down this present judgment upon me and when thou hast given me strength to bear it do with me as seems best in thine own eyes and carry me through death that I may look upon it in what visage soever it shall appear to me Amen And that there may be a stop of this issue of blood in this more than miserable Kingdom I shall desire that I may pray for the People too as well as for my self O Lord I beseech thee give grace of repentance to all Blood-thirsty People but if they will not repent O Lord confound all their devices defeat and frustrate all their designs and endeavours upon them which are or shall be contrary to the Glory of thy great Name the truth and sincerity of Religion the establishment of the King and his posterity after him in their just rights and Priviledges the honour and conservation of Parliaments in their just power the preservation of this poor Church in her truth peace and patrimony and the settlement of this distracted and distressed People under their ancient Laws and in their native Liberties And when thou hast done-all this in meer mercy for them O Lord fill their hearts with thankfulness and with Religious dutiful obedience to thee and thy Commandments all their days So Amen Lord Jesus Amen and receive my Soul into thy Bosom Amen Our Father which art in Heaven c. January the 11 th Sir Henry Gage Governour of Oxford marched thence with a party of horse and foot towards Abingdon with intention to raise a Fort at Cullom bridg but Brown having treacherous notice of the design was prepared accordingly which begat a hot skirmish wherein the Rebels lost Major Bradbury and at least 30 others slain and on His Majesties part not above 7 common Soldiers but by great misfortune Sir Henry Gage himself marching in the front of his men did here receive a fatalshot whereof within few hours after he dyed His Body was afterwards interred at Oxford with funebrious exequies and solemnities answerable to his merits who having done His Majesty special service was whilst living generally beloved and dead is still universally lamented His daily refreshed memory makes me trespass on the Readers patience with this ELEGY Upon the never-enough lamented Death of Sir HENRY GAGE the most desired Governour of OXFORD SO Titus called was The Worlds delight And straight-way dy'd The envious Sisters spight Still the great favourite The darling head Unto the Fates is always forfeited Our Life 's a Chase where tho the whole Herd fly The goodlyest Deer is singled out to dye And as in Beasts the fattest ever bleeds So amongst men he that doth bravest deeds He might have liv'd had but a Coward fear Kept him securely sculking in the rear Or like some sucking Colonel whose edg Durst not advance a foot from a thick hedg Or like the wary Skippon had so sure A suit of Arms he might besieg'd endure Or like the politick Lords of different skill Who thought a Saw-pit safer or a Hill Whose valour in two Organs too did lye Distinct the ones in 's ear th' others in his eye Puppets of War Thy name shall be divine And happily augment the number Nine But that the Heroes
under deck without liberty to come to breath in the common Air or to ease Nature except at the courtesie of the rude Sailors which oftentimes was denyed them In which condition they were more like Gally-slaves than free-born Subjects and men of such quality and condition and had been so indeed might some have had their wills who were bargaining with the Merchants to sell them to Argiers or as bad a place as hath been since notoriously known upon no false or fraudulent information And now that we are mentioning our Reverend and worthy Heads of Houses we may not omit what our long exile from the said University will not suffer us otherwise than by certain Report to be apprehensive of Namely that a very great number of them are since in the same condition with us that is deprived of all and banished Particularly the Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of Exeter against whom their malice could invent no more than that he was a Bishop nor pretend any thing but that being Vice-chancellour he did according to his Office Preach a learned and pious Sermon in S. Maries Mar. 27. 1645. being the day of His Majesties most happy inauguration To whom we may add that most Reverend and learned man Doctor Collins His Majesties Professor of Divinity whose extraordinary worth and pains had continued him in that place almost thirty years and made his name famous and his person desirable in every Protestant University in Christendom and yet his Loyalty and conscience caused our new pretended Reformers to think him unworthy so much as of a Country Cure for they sequestred likewise both his Livings though since as we hear they have restored him to his Professors place which none of them are able to discharge and he living in their Quarters durst not deny Thus likewise have Doctor Comber D. Pask D. Cosins and D. Lany been deprived of their several Masterships and Livings and some of them also Plundered of their goods though all of them be very eminent for their Learning Prudence Judgment and Piety among all that knew them and have no prejudice of them And for conclusion as the Epitome of all we add D. Holdsworth whose universal approbation put him upon the troublesom office of Vice-chancellorship for three years together in the beginning of these troubles yet before his Triennial Office was expired his person was seized upon and imprisoned first in Ely-house then because they thought that was not expensive enough though they had Plundered him of all they thrust him into the Tower only for his Loyalty in seeing His Majesties Commands executed for the Printing of such Declarations at Cambridge as were formerly Printed at York which though the Committees before which he appeared have always objected against him as Licensing the Kings Books yet hath he ever denied it for the manner though not for the matter professing himself before them not to be so saucy as to offer to License any thing which His Majesty Commanded to be Printed but yet still enjoyning the Printer as he would answer the contrary at his peril that the thing might be performed according to His Majesties Command And that the whole Body of the University might fare no better than the Heads not long after the carrying up of the first three they gave us an Argument of a sad presage What was like to become of that Ancient and famous Seminary of Learning and Religion when those Root-and-Branch-men chose that place for the prime Garison and Rendezvouz of their Association whereby the subtile Enginiers of the great pretended work of Reformation hoped not so much to gain security to their disloyal actions by any fortifications of that Town which it never was capable of as now plainly appears as some countenance and authority rather which they had more want of from the sacred name of an University to be listed Theirs By this means instead of carrying us all to London Goals thanks be to our multitude not their mercy they found a device to convey a Prison to us and under colour of Fortification confin'd us only in a larger inclosure not suffering any Scholars to pass out of the Town unless some Towns-men of their Tribe promise for him that he was a Confider as they call it And after this intrenchment for almost two years together we are forced with unspeakable grief of mind to think what prophanations violences outrages and wrongs our Chappels Colleges and Persons have suffered by the uncontrolled fury of rude Soldiers notwithstanding two several Protections to the contrary one from the House of Peers the other from the Generalissimo the Earl of Essex It is grievous to our memories to recount how our Vice-chancellour and Heads of Colledges solemnly assembled in Consistory being many of them threescore years old in an exceeding cold night till midnight without any accommodations for food firing or lodging and for no other reason but only because they could not in conscience comply or contribute any thing to this detestable War against His Majesty Yet they notwithstanding all terrours and ill usage the day following this their imprisonment did constantly unanimously avouch and declare before the then General of the Association That it was against true Religion and good Conscience for any to contribute to the Parliament in this War Whereupon our Learned and Reverend Professors two of Divinity and one of the Law the very Junior whereof as well as the other two had faithfully discharged his place almost so long as that by the Imperial Laws his own profession ever since Valens the Emperour he might have challenged to have been Comes Imperii yet all the encouragement any of them could get from these was perpetually to be harrowed by Plundering and tedious imprisonment to betray their Loyalty Learning and Consciences to the advancement of this present Rebellion till at last that Reverend man whom Posterity will honour henceforth as much for his Loyalty as his Learning Doctor Samuel Ward a man of known integrity and universal approbation even amongst those who were his adversaries in this Cause took the wings of a Dove to flie away and be at rest whose dying words as if the cause of his Martyrdom had been written in golden Letters upon his heart where breathed up to Heaven with his parting Soul GOD BLESS THE KING And though the grave resolution of all the Reverend Professors of Divinity and Law in so famous an university ought to be more sacred and powerful with them than the noise of their new Teachers and obstreperous American Lay-lecturers yet they are not ashamed after all these upon mature deliberation and consultation with the rest of the Learned men of that famous University have publickly and unanimously declared their proceedings to be flatly contrary to Christian Religion and Loyalty and have stood therein even to imprisonment and death to perswade the silly abused multitude that all is for the Defence of His Majesty and the
him we may justly receive at his hands heavier Judgments than these yet our Innocence will plead Not Guilty to the face of any Man who shall object against us any Civil Misdemeanors whereby we can more justly be deprived of our Fellowships than any free Subject in England of his fee Simple if they please to say he is guilty of Misdemeanors And as it hath pleased our gracious Master whose Ministers we are to make us examples though but of suffering to the rest of our Brethren So we hope he will continue unto us his grace of humilation under his mighty hand as an earnest of his exalting us in due time And in the interim that he will lay no more upon us than he shall be pleased to strengthen our infirmities to bear And that he will still preserve unto us a good conscience that whereas our persecutors speak evil of us as of evil doers they may be ashamed that falsly accuse our good conversation in Christ. FINIS Mercurius Belgicus OR A briefe Chronology of the Battels Sieges Conflicts and other most remakable passages from the beginning of this Rebellion to the 25 th of March 1646. Together with A Catalogue of the Persons of Quality slain on both sides CICERO Incerti sunt exitus pugnarum Marsque esi communis qui saepe spoliantem jam exultantem evertit perculit ab abjecto Printed in the Year 1685. The Preface Readers YOU have here a canded and impartial Epitomy of an unnatural War Subjects banding against their lawful Prince Brother against Brother and Father against Son Read but the said ensuing Story and therein consider the number and quality of Persons slain the destruction of Houses and Families the desolation of Cities and Towns the increase of Widows and Orphans the Tyranny and inhumanity of our new Legislators over their own Fellow-Subjects and you will easily conclude of these as Cicero did of Sylla's time Nemo illo invito nec bona nec patriam nec vitam retinere potueirt In earnest it may well be wondred whence these men have their minds God nor man nor Nature ever made them thus To be short the Reader may here see the flux and reflux of Fortune de la Guerre now this party flourisheth and that goes down anon that flourisheth and this goes down as if the guilt of our sins were drawing a heavy Judgment from Heaven upon this Land and these Rebels were ordained for the instruments of it But let us hope for better And particularly that God in the richness of his mercy will look down upon these macerated Kingdoms and periodize these distractions That Religion may again flourish in its purity maugre the Plots and impieties of all Seditiaries and Schismaticks That His Sacred Majesty may be re-established in His just Rights and Prerogatives that Parliaments may move in their own and known Centre the Ancient Laws of the Land re-inforced and freed from fellow-subjects Tyranny and Arbitration and the Subject re-estated in his Ancient Liberties freed from Murder Rapine and Plunder which that we may quickly see let it be the Subject of ever good Christian Prayer Memorable OCCURRENCES since the beginning of this REBELLION Anno Dom. 1641. IN December 1641. The House of Commons published a Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom therein setting forth all the errors of his Majesties Government a meer design to alienate the affection of his Subjects from him The tenth of January following his Majesty with the Queen Prince and Duke of Yorke left White-hall and went to Hampton Court to avoid the danger of those frequent tumults then hazarding the safety of his Royal Person February the 23 d. the Queens Majesty took shipping at Dover having been driven before from White-hall by the frequent tumults of the Rebels And soon after His Majesty went to New-market and from thence to Yorke where after the Rebels had Guards for three Months before the Gentry of the Country raised a Guard for his Majesties Person Anno Dom. 1642. MAY the 20 th it was voted by both Houses That the King intended to levie War against the Parliament which they did on purpose to excuse themselves for raising a Rebellion against His Majesty as appeared within few days after July the second the Kings ship called the Providence Landed in the Creek of Kenningham near Hull till which time His Majesty had not a Barrel of Powder nor any Arms or Ammunition whatsoever July the 12 th the pretended two Houses Voted that the Earl of Essex should be General of their Army and that they would live and die with him August the first the Earl of Essex caused all the men then raised being in number about 10000 to be committed to Officers and divided into Regiments which men had been raising ever since the 12 th of July 1642. at which time he was made General of the Rebels August the sixth the Earl of Bedford having fruitlessely besieged the Lord Marquess of Hertford in Sherburn Castle for four days before retreated to Yevell the Noble Marquess sallied after him and with a small number fell on that great body of the Rebels Kill'd above 140 whereof 9 Commanders took divers Prisoners and routed the rest so as he marched away and after divided his small Forces going himself into Wales and Sir Ralph now Lord Hopton into Cornwall of both which there followed so good an effect August the 22 d. His Majesty set up his Standard Royal at Nottingham for raising of Forces to suppress the Rebels then marching against him September the 23 d. Prince RUPERT with about 11 Troops of Horse gave a great overthrow to the Rebels in Wikefield near Worcester where Colonel Sands that commanded in chief received his mortal wound Major Douglas a Scot and divers other Captains and Officers slain and drowned Captain Wingate a Member of the House of Commons with four Coronets taken and two more torn in pieces This body of the Rebels was observed to be the flower of their Cavalry October the 23 d. was that signal great battel fought between Keynton and Edg-hill by his Majesties Army and that of the Rebels led by the Earl of Essex wherein the Rebels lost above 70 Colours of Coronets and Ensigns and His Majesty but only 16 Ensigns and not one Coronet The exact number that were slain on both sides in this Battel is not known But it is certain that the Rebels lost above three for one Men of eminence of his Majesties Forces who were slain in the Battel were the two Noble and valiant Lords Robert Earl of Lindsey Lord High Chamberlain of England and George Lord D. Aubigney Brother to the Duke of Richmond and Lenox Sir Edmund Verney Knight Marshal to His Majesty with some other worthy Centlemen and Soldiers but besides these three named there was not one Noble Man or Knight kill'd which was an extraordinary mercy of Almighty God considering what a glorious sight of Princes Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Barons Knights and
MERCURIUS RUSTICUS THE COUNTRYS COMPLAINT Recovnting the sad Events of the late unparalleld REBELLION Christ Church Coll Ox Canterbury Minster Trinn Colledge Comb Countess of Rivers plundered pag 11 S r John Lucas house plundered pag ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hous plundered pag 31. A Bonfire for the voting downe Episcopacy pag. â—6 〈…〉 pag 81. Warder Castle defended by a Lady pag 41. Mercurius Rusticus OR The COUNTRIES Complaint of the barbarous Outrages committed by the SECTARIES of this late flourishing KINGDOM Together with A brief CHRONOLOGY of the Battels Sieges Conflicts and other most remarkable Passages from the beginning of this unnatural War to the 25 th of March 1646. Together with A brief CHRONOLOGY of the Battels Sieges Conflicts and other most remarkable Passages from the beginning of this unnatural War to the 25 th of March 1646. Jer. 15.13 Thy substance and thy treasure will I give to the spoil without price and that for all thy sins even in all thy borders LONDON Printed for R. Royston Book-seller to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty and are to be sold by R. Green Book-seller in Cambridge 1685. THE PREFACE VVHen the sins of this Kingdom were ripe for punishment the Divine Justice permitted a great part of it to be besotted with Discontents either wholly causeless or such as His Majesty was pleased to remedy with Grants so unmeasurably gracious as could not otherwise be justified than by their importunity that demanded them and His Majesties Royall tenderness of his Subjects peace and safety These Grants were so far from satisfying those whose broken fortunes and boundless desires would not permit them to live without a Civil War that they make of them no other use than thereby to strengthen themselves to demand more till at last they broke out into a most unnatural Rebellion The people alwaies apt to cherish murmurs and invectives against their Princes and now grown wanton with the fruits of a long peace incline to Abners mind and think the war which yet they knew not but a sport Therefore with a great facility they imbrace the design and the baits to cover the Hooks with are the preservation of Religion and the vindication of Liberty And howsoever they cannot reconcile their practise with Gods command which under pain of damnation forbids all Subjects to resist their King yet they are so wedded to that interest which they challenge in Religion and Liberty that for Gods command if they cannot untie the Knot they resolve to cut it Do but assure them that the forbidden fruit will make them as Gods and they will eat it though it be forbidden do but perswade them that to take up arms against their Sovereign is the way to secure their Religion and Liberty and they make bold with God for once to choose their own way for so good an end From so desperate Resolution had they had but Morall justice they might have been kept back by the improbability of those calumnies whereby His Majesty was traduced as intending to alter Religion and infringe their Liberties Or had Religion to which they do so Zealously pretend had that potent influence upon them it might have taught them that Religion cannot be defended by transgressing Gods commands which are the Rule of it But if nothing else yet even regard to their own pretensions the defence of Religion and Liberty should have wrought in them a detestation of Rebellion which is so contrary to both For as an eye had to Gods dominion over us should exact obedience to his commands though never so much to our prejudice So the meditation of his infinite goodness ought to win it from us because his commands enjoyn us onely what is for our good if we could see it He would not have forbidden Subjects to defend Religion against their King by force of Arms but that he knew as Rebels can be no friends to Religion so it gaines love and admiration by the innocent patience of those that profess it whereas Bloodshed Force and Rapine the fruits of Rebellion procure Hatred or Hypocrisie And for Liberty it is for the good of mankind to forbid the assertion of it by Subjects Arms taken up against their Prince both because that pretence would otherwise be used by those that have a design to make the abused people their own slaves and because Rebellion doth more violate the Subjects liberty than is morally possible for the worst Prince in times of peace to do This truth was known before by speculation to a few whose endeavours to infuse it into the distempered peoples minds had the fate of Cassandraes predictions to hit the truth and want belief till these sad times have at last verified it by a costly experience That this may be more universally beneficial you have too plentifull a harvest of Instances collected in the insuing Relations wherein may evidently be seen that this War which the multitude was so fond of as the only means to preserve Religion and Liberty hath been almost the utter ruin of them both Here you shall find these great pretenders to Religion suppressing that which themselves confess to be Divine Truth Debarring poor prisoners the comfort of joyning their prayers together enforcing men to take Oaths of blind Obedience to whatsoever they should afterwards command them turning out Clergy-men above all exception and placing most scandalous and insufficient wretches in their rooms darting from their invenomed mouths most horrid Blasphemies against our blessed Lord and Saviour abusing the service of God and profaning not only the Form of it the Book of Common Prayer against which they have a professed quarrel but even Gods own Word the holy Bible which they pretend to reverence Here shall you behold them not only like those Canes Sepulchrales violating the bones and ashes of the dead to make the world know that they believe what some of their fellows openly profess that of those sometime living Temples of the holy Ghost there shall be no resurrection but exercising their fury on the Churches of God which they have defaced with Barbarous rudeness defiled with more than beastly nastiness and as if contrary to their wont they had studied the Book of Maccabees to find out and out-do the most Heathenish wickednesses therein related they have polluted the very Altar with their whoredoms The Independents at whose door the most part of these profanations of the Houses of God must lye will hardly make the world believe they are in earnest when they plead for Liberty of Conscience in Religion while they thus deface the places where it should be taught and practiced And as ill can the Presbyterians make good their pretended zeal to Religion and the Nurse of it Learning having almost extirpated one of the most flourishing Universities of Christendom Then for the other point the Subjects Liberty the following Narrations will plainly shew that it hath not been spared by those that would be accounted the Champions of it when the violation of
able to give any other answer to their Query protests his ignorance and that if the discovery might save his life yet he could not redeem it so for he knew nothing concerning what they asked him inraged that the man could not Prophecy for without that gift he could not resolve them they suddenly hoise him up to the top of the house and letting go their hold they let him as suddenly fall to the ground Being fallen there he lay for dead without any expression of life but these barbarous Rebels hoping that there may yet remain some life in him whereon to practise further cruelty stand by the man and watch him and at last perceiving that he was not dead but that he began to stir and breath presently they put burning matches between his fingers hoping by this way of Torment to extort a discovery from him but in vain the extremity of this Torment indeed though half dead as he was made him cry out and roar in a very lamentable manner which a Maid-servant of the house hearing and affrighted at the noise ran to her Master and told him that certainly the Rebels were murthering the man in the house of Office hereupon Mr. Walker hastened out and when he came to the place found the conjecture of his Servant true and amazed at so horrid so inhumane a spectacle interceded for the poor man and earnestly desired them not to defile his ground and habitation with innocent blood instead of desisting they return the Aegyptians answer to Moses Who made thee a Ruler and a Judg bad him be silent and withdraw or else they threatned to use him in like manner Mr. Walker fearing that those perjured persidious Villains which keep their words in nothing else might yet be punctual in performance of mischief not daring to commit himself to their mercy left them and went imto his house where the Quarter-Master to the Rebels lay sleeping while the Troopers were acting this cruelty him he raiseth from sleep and tells him what the Troopers were doing without who something moved at the Relation went out unto them and took them off from farther prosecuting their barbarous intentions But whether or no the man on whom all this cruelty was acted survived this barbarous usage is uncertain As amongst the many blessings wherewith it pleased God to advance the City of London far above all other Cities either of this or other Nations of the Christian World one was their Clergy for a more pious learned and laborious Ministry no people ever enjoyed even their Enemies themselves being Judges So amongst the many crying sins whereby that proud rebellious City hath provoked God to give them up to a Reprobate sense and hardness of heart to their own destruction certainly the contempt and oppression of their Clergy are none of the least as before the lest Parliament began a main part of their Religion was to strive with their Priests and to rob them of their maintenance by all possible arts of deceit and fraud so as soon as the Parliament was sate and the basest of the People were set loose to worrey their Ministers though never so blameless never so Orthodox if they did not conspire with them to innovate both Church and State the Citizens of London shewed themselves most forward in Petitioning against their Ministers yet at first pretended to molest such only who had expressed greatest zeal to the Order and decency of Gods worship professing that for the rest there was no thought to trouble them but at last having put to flight or imprisoned those they go and discover plainly that whatsoever is a Friend to the Protestant Religion as it is established in the Church of England is their Enemy how many have they silenced imprisoned or banished from their Cures whom heretofore they did magnifie for the undaunted Champions of the Protestant Religion and stout opposers of those supposed pretended innovations which they vainly imagined were the eager endeavours of some men to impose upon the Church he that knows London and hath frequented the most thronged Congregations there cannot be ignorant that Mr. Ephraim Udall Parson of S. Austins in the Old Change near S. Austines Gate is a man of eminent Piety exemplary Conversation profound Learning indefatigable Industry Preaching constantly every Lords Day twice and for the Winter half year if not the whole year preaching a Lecture at his own Parish every Tuesday in the Afternoon and if I am not mistaken every Saturday before the first Sunday in the month a Preparatory Sermon to the blessed Sacrament of the Sords Supper and besides all this he is a man of an affable courteous peaceable Conversation amongst his Neighbours in a word he was a man of their own vote and is without prophanation be it spoken a shining and burning light and his people for a while much pleased themselves in their choice and were content to walk by his light but when he found himself mistaken in the ends and intentions of the heads of this Rebellion when he saw that the zeal of some did degenerate into madness and frenzie and that the endeavours of others under the pretence of Reformation was to bring in Anarchy and Sacriledg to devour Gods Portion and the poor remainder of the Patrimony of the Church he did strongly and powerfully bend both his tongue and pen against them against Sacriledg he published that learned Tract called A Coal from the Altar against Anarchy he declared himself for Episcopacy and the established Lyturgy and published another Book called Communion Comeliness in which by many impregnable Arguments he proves a high Conveniency if not a necessity for that most laudable custom of having Rails about the Lords Table These were in the Schismatiques opinion Crimes enough to unsaint a man nay had S. Paul himself been now in the flesh and preached against Sacriledg and Anarchy there is no doubt but there would have been some found to petition against him and John White sitting in the Chair as undoubtedly he had been voted a scandalous Minister at a Committee but because when these Books were published Injustice and oppression did not march so furiously nor were grown so frontless and impudent to seize on innocency it self not slurr'd with slanders and calumnies Mr. Udall sate something quiet some murmurings there were but his former Reputation in the City bore him up against the Obloquy of private discontent the Faction found it no easie matter to brand Mr. Udall with Popery or Popishly affected or these slanders to make any impression in that estimation which the people had of him but at last when they came openly to defie their Sovereign the Lords Anointed and it was almost Treason but to name the 13. Chapter to the Romans it was a fit time to silence and remove Mr. Udall for neither Doctor Gouge his Church at Black Fryers or Mr. Goodwins in Coleman-street were half so full before this Parliament began as Mr. Udalls hath been since
the present but also the future propagation of Religion and Learning is concerned have drunk so deeply the dregs of their malice For besides the cutting down of our Walks and Orchards contrary to their own Generalissimo's Orders of War they have cut down the Woods and Groves belonging to our Colleges and sold them before our eyes to a great value when by an Ordinance they were declared not Sequestrable And which was likewise contrary to an Order they have seised and taken away the Materials of our intended buildings to the worth of three or four hundred Pounds in Timber which our pious and charitable Benefactors had out of their devotion conferred towards the re-edifying of an ancient College which Time had impaired And to shew what violent passions they are transported withal they have pulled down demolished and defaced five or six fair Bridges of Stone and Timber belonging to several Colledges and have spoiled a good Walk with a new Gate pertaining to one of our Colleges upon pretence of keeping out Cavaliers and yet for forty shillings they would fain have been hired to spare it and cast up a Work beyond And let the World judg whether this was not done to get the countenance of a Contribution from a College to their Fortifications and consequently to this War against the King But as if Bridges and materials for Building were nothing they have yet proceeded further even to the very Structure it self of one of the fairest Colleges in our University which they Plundered the true owners of for above sixteen months together as an especial argument of their love to Learning and have converted all the old Court thereof into a Prison for His Majesties Loyal Subjects which before the other was built has contained above three hundred Students at a time not suffering any whom it concerned to remove any Bedding or other goods whereof the Goaler could make any use or benefit but renting them all out together with the Chambers at above five hundred Pounds per Ann. And as if spoiling of one College were not enough their malice has since extended it self to all the rest in Quartering multitudes of Common Soldiers in those glorious and ancient Structures which our devout and Royal Founders designed for Sanctuaries of Learning and Piety but were made by them mere Spittles and Bawdy-houses for sick and debauched Soldiers being filled with Queans Drabs Fiddlers and Revels night and day Which black deeds of darkness being divers times complaned of by us to their Officers and the particular men shewed them who had thus lewdly abused our Colleges none of these new Reformers were ever punish'd nor the holy Sisters removed nor so much as called before any that then bore rule among us By which means see what Religion they fight for and what a glorious Reformation we may expect they have dishonoured Cod countenanced leudness scandalized modest and civil men and driven from us or poisoned among us those young Students which were left To this we may add how they have torn and defaced those Reverend buildings pull'd down and burned the Wainscot of our Chamb. Bed-steeds Chairs Stools Tables and Shelves for our Books so as they may now have some plea for multiplying of Goals if the Liberty of the Subject shall so require And when their ragged Regiments which had lain lowzing before Crowland nigh a fortnight were commanded to Cambridge forthwith the Colleges are appointed for their Kennels and fourscore were turned loose into one of the least Halls in the University and charged by their Officers to shift for themselves who without any more ado broke open the Fellows and Scholars Chambers and took their Beds from under them But when the Kings Prisoners taken at Hilsden-house were brought famished and naked in triumph by Cambridge to London some of our Scholars were knockt down in the streets only for offering them a cup of small Beer to sustain nature and the drink thrown in the kennel rather then the famished and parched throats of the wicked as they esteem'd them should usurp one drop of the creature And it is much to be feared thay would have starved them in prison there if a valiant Chamber-maid had not relieved them by force trampling under her feet in the kennel their great persecuter a Lubberly Scotch Mayor What should we mention moreover how we have been over-whelmed with insupportable Taxes extorted from us by Plundering seised not by any of our own Body but which is directly contrary to our established privileges by the Arbitration of a few confiding Aldermen our professed Enemies who instead of that gratitude which very nature requires at their hands now repay us with unsatiable malice and Envy which properties of their shave since commended and qualified them to be appointed Commissioners and Judges to strip us of our estates and livelyhoods And when neither our consciences nor Estates could extend any further to defray their imposts for our very Chambers which their Soldiers then possessed and burnt besides all excises weekly payments Taxes fifth and twentieth part upon all our Revenues and other such new terms of property and liberty all the favour we can expect from them is quietly to be thrust into Prison without further abusings And although all these are but sad theams to be thus far inlarged and dilated upon yet they think they can stop the noise of all these just complaints with their usual grinning objection that several of our Students are in the Kings Army making that to be their crime to which if their own innate Loyalty did not draw them yet their haughty and heathenish usage would of necessity drive them for who had not rather fall upon the bed of honour and assert with his dearest blood his Religion Loyalty and Liberty than live a slave under them to set his surviving foot-steps upon the graves and ashes of expired Loyalty Nobility Gentry Clergy and Civility it self And now to tell how they have prophaned and abused our several Chappels though our Pens flowed as fast with vinegar and gall as our eyes do with tears yet were it impossible sufficiently to be expressed when as multitudes of enraged Soldiers let loose to reform have torn down all carved work not respecting the very Monuments of the dead And have ruin'd a beautiful carved structure in the University Church though indeed that was not done without direction from a great one as appeared after upon complaint made to him which stood us in a great sum of Mony and had not one jot of Imagery or Statue-work about it And when that Reverend man the then Vice-chancellour told them mildly That they might be better imployed they returned him such Language as we are ashamed here to express Nor was it any whit strange to find whole Bands of Soldiers tâ—â—ning and exercising in the Royal Chappel of King Henry the sixth Nay even the Commanders themselves being commanded to shew
the right way for at this day the Blind lead the Blind and if they go on both will certainly fall into the ditch For my self I am and acknowledg it in all humility a most grievous sinner many ways by thought word and deed and I cannot doubt but that God hath mercy in store for me a poor penitent as well as for other sinners I have now upon this sad occasion ransacked every corner of my Heart and yet I thank God I have not found among the many any onesin which deserves death by any known Law of this Kingdom And yet hereby I charge nothing upon my Judges for if they proceed upon proofe by valuable witnesses I or any other innocent may by justly condemned And I thank God though the weight of the sentence lye heavy upon me I am as quiet within as ever I was in my life And though I am not only the first Arch-Bishop but the first man that ever died by an Ordinance of Parliament yet some of my Predecessors have gone this way though not by this means For Elphegus was hurried away and lost his head by the Danes and Simon Sudbury in the fury of Wat Tyler and his fellows Before these S. John Baptist had his head danced off by a leud Woman and S. Cyprian Arch-Bishop of Carthage submitted his head to a persecuting Sword Many examples great and good and they teach me patience for I hope my Cause in Heaven will look of another dye than the colour that is put upon it here And some comfort it is to me not only that I go the way of these great men in their several Generations but also that my Charge as foul as 't is made looks like that of the Jews against S. Paul Acts 25.3 For he was accused for the Law and the Temple i. e. Religion And like that of S. Stephen Acts 6.14 for breaking the Ordinances which Moses gave i. e. Law and Religion the holy place and the Temple vers 13. But you will say do I then compare my self with the integrity of S. Paul and Stephen No far be that from me I only raise a comfort to my self that these great Saints and Servants of God were laid at in their times as I am now And it is memorable that S. Paul who helped on this Accusation against S. Stephen did after fall under the very same himself Yea but here is a great clamour that I would have brought in Popery I shall answer that more fully by and by In the mean time you know what the Pharisees said against Christ himself If we let him alone all men will believe in him Et venient Romani and the Romans will come and take away both our Place and Nation Here was a causeless Cry against Christ that the Romans will come And see how just the judgment of God was they crucified Christ for fear lest the Romans should come and his death was it which brought in the Romans upon them God punishing them with that which they most feared and I pray God this clamour of Venient Romani of which I have given no cause help not to bring them in for the Pope never had such a Harvest in England since the Reformation as he hath now upon the Sects and Divisions that are amongst us In the mean time by Honour and dishonour by good report and evil report as a deceiver and yet true am I passing through this World 2 Cor. 6.8 _____ Some particulars also I think it not amiss to speak of And first this I shall be bold to speak of the King our gracious Sovereign He hath been much traduced also for bringing in of Popery but on my Conscience of which I shall give God a very present account I know Him to be as free from this charge as any man living and I hold Him to be as found a Protestant according to the Religion by Law established as any man in this Kingdom And that he will venture His life as far and as freely for it and I think I do or should know both His affection to Religion and his grounds for it as fully as any man in England The second particular is concerning this great and Populous City which God bless Here hath been of late a fashion taken up to gather hands and then go to the Great Court of this Kingdom the Parliament and clamour for Justice as if that great and wise Court before whom the Causes come which are unknown to the many could not or would not do Justice but at their appointment A way which may endanger many an Innocent man and pluck his blood upon their own heads and perhaps upon the Cities also And this hath been lately practised against my self The Magistrates standing still and suffering them openly to proceed from Parish to Parish without check God forgive the setters of this with all my heart I beg it but many well meaning People are caught by it In S. Stephens case when nothing else would serve they stirred up the People against him and Herod went the same way when he had kill'd S. James yet he would not venture upon S. Peter till he found how the other pleased the People But take heed of having your hands full of blood for there is a time best known to himself when God above other sins makes Inquisition for blood and when that Inquisition is on foot the Psalmist tells us That God remembers but that is not all He remembers and forgets not the complaint of the poor that is whose blood is shed by oppression verse 9. take heed of this It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God but then especially when he is making Inquisition for blood And with my Prayers to avert it I do heartily desire this City to remember the Prophesie that is expressed Jer. 26.14.15 As for me behold I am in your hand do with me as seemeth good and meet unto you But know ye for certain that if ye put me to death ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon your selves and upon this City and upon the Inhabitants thereof c. The third particular is the poor Church of England It hath flourished and been a shelter to other neighbouring Churches when storms have driven upon them But alas now it is in a storm it self and God only knows whether or how it shall get out and which is worse than a storm from without it is become like an Oak cleft to shivers with wedges made out of its own body and at every cleft prophaneness and Irreligion is entering in while as Prosper spakes in his second Book De vitae contemptu cap. 4. Men that introduce prophaness are cloaked over with the name Religionis Imaginariae of Imaginary Religion for we have lost the Substance and dwell too much in Opinion and that Church which all the Jesuits machinations could not ruin is fallen into danger by her own The last particular for I am not