And to this purpose they have impudently given out in Ireland Sometimes o The Irish Remonstrance p. 5 48 4â— 77. that His Majesty was personally though disguised present with the Rebells there Sometimes p Ibid. p. 6. that he was dead and that the young King went to Masse but most commonly that which they did was by the q Ibid p. 45 48 56 Kings authority and that they had the Broad-Seale for it and that it was the Kings pleasure r Ibid p 68. that all the English should be banished and loose their goods because the Queenes Priest was hanged before her face And that there was a Covenant betwixt the Irish and the Scots upon these tearmes that the Irish should never take part with the English against the Scots nor the Scots with the English against the Irish And * Ibid. p. 38. that all the Scottish Nation was joyned with them for the extirpation of the English So that the †Ibid. Scots were to leave never a drop of English blood in England and that the Irish had command to leave never a drop of English blood in Ireland and that for that purpose they had the ‖ Ibid. Earle of Argiles hand together with the hands of the greatest part of the prime Nobility of Scotland And that many might more readily come into an Association in their damnable League and might carry it on with more courage and higher hope of happy successe they coyned such comfortable Lyes as these That there was an Army to come to their aide from Spaine * Ibid p. 10. another of no fewer then 40000. from France another from a Ibid Flanders that b Ibid p. 54. Dublin was taken and that the distressed in Ireland might have no hope of succour in England or Scotland they told them that there was the like c Ibid. p. 35. stirres in both these Kingdoms meaning that the Papists pursued and prevailed over the Protestants there as they did in Ireland a thing then no doubt both in their desire and designe and like to be also in their indeavour when they might begin with hope to goe on with successe And that they might have the more colour for their bloody combination these seditious Seeds-men gave out that the Puritane Parliament in England was the cause of all this in that they have made an d Ibid. p. 4â— Act that all Papists in Ireland must goe to Church or otherwise be hanged at their owne doores and therefore they began with the Protestants first least they should begin with them who had resolved to e Ibid. p. 35 45. murther all the Papists throughout the Kingdome and yet like odious hypocrites as they be they sometimes f Ibid. pretended that if the Lord Lievtenant of Ireland that last was had not been put to death by the Parliament they had not made this Insurrection whereas indeed they held and hated him as the most heavy-handed Deputy that was set over them though Protestants had as great cause to complaine of the weight of his hand as Papists had if not greater and plotted this mischiefe as upon Confession is recorded g Ibid. p. 35. â—â— seventeene yeares before their Rebellion brake out Their hatred of the best Protestants under the name of Puritans is notorious throughout the three Kingdom of England Scotland and Ireland but they hate them most where they thinke they are most able to doe them hurt that 's in Parliament and therefore they have been alway forward to falsifie their Acts and Intentions to blast that venerable Assembly with the blackest calumny they can conceive and to doe as desperate acts against them as the Devill himselfe can put into their heads h King Iames premonit p. 328. King Iames chargeth them with three Lyes together of the Act of Parliament concerning the Oath of Allegiance and all the Kingdome yea all the Christian world knoweth their devillish malignity towards that most Honourable Court in the Powder-plot i King Iames his second Speech in Parliament p. 501. purposely devised against the place of their meeting that where the crull Lawes as they call them were made against their Religion both place and persons should be blowne up at once which plot had it taken effect they purposed to have laid it on the k Speeds Chron. lib. 10. p. 1252. col 2. Puritans And what they could not then bring about by that secret satanicall treachery they have of late attempted and undertaken by open Warre and the Warre we now see translated out of Irish into English and their hate and spight written in Capitall Letters with the blood of English Protestants I am not so vainly presumptuous as to present such particulars as these to instruct the sage and prudent Senators of this most High and Honourable Court who see and fore-see a thousand times more and further into the Popish mistery of Iniquity with all the Engins that are working under it then many thousands of such private persons as my selfe can possible conceive but by such a breviate as I have brought in to make some more cautelous resentment of Popish plots in the common people and of their common perill thereby if there be not a very watchfull jealousie in the great Counsell of the Kingdome over them and a zealous and unanimous industry of all true-hearted Protestants to disappoint them but I shall meete with them againe before we part Thirdly The Miseries and Mischiefes of Warre being such as have been shewed it cannot but well become every good and wise man to shew himselfe disaffected to it and much troubled for it as well as by it So did the Prophet when he bewailed the condition of his time by the oppression and desolation of Warre as out of this Chapter I have told you and to doe all good offices they can to promote peace as the Parliament by their many humble and pressing Petitions and other prudent addresses to his Majesty have indeavoured to doe yet so as well became their piety and prudence as to desire no peace but such an one as whosoever treats of it admits of God to be of the Quorum in it and in ballacing the conditions on both sides will suffer his glory and the conscionable discharge of their trust to the King and Kingdome to make downe weight in the finall determination thereof against which an agreement would prove but a conspiracie for betraying of trust But for a peace upon such tearmes as those we now mentioned that Englishman who would not like Ionah when to appease a tempest and save a Ship from splitting he was content to be cast into and swallowed up of the Sea Ion. 1.12 willingly lay downe his life is not worthy to live And the more zealous should every one be of making up the breach of peace by how much more worthy they are who are divided and betwixt whom the neerest Union that can
abroad here was the sanctuary of refuge hither was the resort and no other way found for a foundation of peace And for a returne of all loyall and affectionate observances to his Majesty on the Parliaments part you with your right Honourable colleagues have professed your resolution * So in the Declaration of both Houses March 12. 1642. to keepe your selves within the bounds of faithfullnesse and allegiance to his Royall Person and his Crownes ¶ The Parliaments second Remonstrance p 1. to provide for the publike peace and prosperity of his Majesty and his Realmes protesting in the presence of the all-seeing Deity that it still hath beene and still is the only end of all your counsells and endeavours wherein you have resolved to continue freed and enlarged from all private aimes personall respects or passions whatsoever And your * Ibid p. 11. earnest desire of his Majesties returne to London that upon it you conceive depends the very safety and being of both his Kingdomes and therefore you have protested you will be ready to say or doe any thing that may stand with the duty and honour of a Parliament which may raise a mutuall confidence betwixt his Majesty and your selves as you doe wish and the affaires of the Kingdome doe require And to the same purpose againe ¶ Ibid p 13. we intend say you to doe whatsoever is sit to make up the unpleasant breach betwixt his Majesty and parliament By such expressions as these carrying most cleare and legible Characters of your Loyalty and Love to his Maiesty you have righted your Reputations against all iust cause of suspition of Popish tenets or intentions against his Person and his Crowne and have gained the beleefe of all good Subiects that you spake in sincerity when you said * In the third Remonstrance or Declaration of the Parliament May 26. 1642. p. 4. You suffered not such things to enter into your thoughts as all the world knowes the Papists have put into act whereof I shall shortly give instance in my other Sermons upon this Text which some worthy Members of your Honourable Society have required to the Presse And so upon confidence in your fidelity have ingaged their affections and all their Interests both for the present and the future under the conduct of your most prudent Counsels and commands accounting it a most fickle unfaithfullnesse and finally destructive to the foundation of our English Government if they who have voted your Election to places in Parliament should upon any Malignant surmises against you desert either their due obedience to you or just and necessary defence of you though with the hazard of their estates and persons Against such assurance as you have given of your faithfull allegiance to his Majesty your zealous Constancy in prosecution of a perfect Reformation of Court City and Country from prophanenesse and Popery importeth no colour of contradiction at all though some whose condition most requires it distast and desire to wrest it to some such misconstruction but carrieth with it an exact conformity to what you have professed For what better proofe of integrity in what you undertake then your pressing to promote the prosperity of the King as well as of the Kingdome And what meanes more conducible unto that end then Religion and Justice As S. Augustine sheweth where he saith * Neque noâ— Christâ—anos quoâ—â—â—aÌ„ emperatores â—deo foelices dâ—cimus quia vel diutiùs imperarunt c. Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 5. c. 24. We account not Christian Emperours happy because they have raigned long or because they have had power to suppresse insurrections or oppresse their enemies nor because they have dyed a quiet death and left their children to raigne after their decease †Sed foelices eos dicimus si justè imperarunt si inter linguas sublimitèr honoranâ—um et obsequia nimis humiliter salutantiam non ex tolluâ—â—uâ— sed se homines esse memnerint si suam potesâ—aâ—eÌ„ ad Dei â—uiâ—uâ— c. â—bid But we call them happy if they rule with justice if among the tongues of those that too highly extoll them or too humbly salute them or too obsequiously serve them they remember themselves to be but men if they apply their power so as to make it most serviceable to the honour of the divine Majesty if they feare and love and worship God and more love that kingdome where they need not feare competitors or consorts then that wherin they may be afraid of them * Sâ—â—uxuâ—iâ—â—aÌ„â—ò eis est castâ—gâ—â—â—â— quâ—nâ—â— possi◠〈…〉 â—upiditatibus 〈◊〉 quam 〈…〉 imperare Ibidem if they so much more refraine from luxury as being without restraint of others they may be more free unto it and bad rather raigne over evill concupiscence then Countries and Nations ¶ Tales Christianos imperateres dicimus esse foelices Ib. Such Christian Emperours saith he we call happy and happy surely are the people who are governed by such an one as so governeth himselfe And for your zeale against the prevailing of Popery and for the advancement of the Protestant Religion it makes most for his Majesties honour and safety not only in respect of piety but of policy for that wise State man the Duke of Rohan in his Treatise of the Interest of Princes and States makes his observation of the State of England in these words ‖ The Duke of Rohan his Treatise of the Interest of Princes and States p 58. Besides the Interest which the King of England hath common with all Princes he hath yet one particular which is that He ought throughly to acquire the advancement of the Protestant Religion even with as much zeale as the King of Spain appears Protector of the Catholick And what zeale that is he hath showed before in the * Ibid â— p 4. ad nonam Interest of Spain Notwithstanding all this there be some men who deeply guilty of deceit themselves will never be satisfied with any evidence of sincerity in other men with such there is no security in the Prerogative of the King nor the Priviledge of Parliament against in urious traducement since nothing beareth sway with them but their self-conceit or particular advantage or which is worse their virulent spleen against the better part which stirreth them up to reproach them as tumultuary busie-bodies who doe but bring some buckets of water to quench a burning which they have treacherously kindled against their own Country and as confidently and not more innocently to cry Sedition Sedition against the most loyall and true hearted Subjects of Royall Maiesty as Athaliah did Treason Treason 2 Kin. 11.14 When Sedition is their raigning sin as treason was hers and that the worst Sedition of all others for what can be worse then that and theirs is such which separateth those in iudgement affection and locall mansion who for the two first should alwaies and for the third should very often
give in the * First Remonstrance p 18 19. first Remonstrance of the Parliament in these words The Popish party enjoyed such exemptions from the Penall Laws as amounted to a Toleration besides many other encouragements and Court Favours They had a Secretary of State Sir Francis Windebank a powerfull Agent for the speeding of all their desires a Popes Nuntio residing here to act and governe them according to such influences as he received from Rome and to intercede for them with the most powerfull concurrence of the Forraigne Princes of that Religion By his autherity the Papists of all sorts Nobility Gentry and Clergy were convocated after the manner of a Parliament New Iurisdictions were erected of Romish Arch-bishops Taxes levyed another State moulded within this State independant in Government contyary in interest and affection secretly corrupting the ignorant or negligent professours of our Religion and closely uniting and combining themselves against such as were sound in this posture waiting for an opportunity by force to destroy those whom they could not hope to seduce If compliance with Popery should advance so many degrees in every 12. or 13. yeares space as it hath done since the yeare 1628. they that have been solicited for above threescore yeares in vaine to abate some at the best indifferent Ceremonies for more conformity with the reformed Protestant Churches might within a Jubile of the †A Iubile of 25. yeares shortened from 50. by Sixt 4. Anno 1475. Bucholz p. 425. shortest size become as compleate Papists as any reside at Rome or Rhemes And what an incentive of wrath Idolatry is we may conjecture by the neere relation betwixt God and his people as by the conjunction of Wedlock Hose 2. ver 16 19. whence Idolatry is accompted by God spirituall whoredome Ezek. 16. ver 22 26 28 32 35 38. Hose 2.1 2. which enkindleth the rage of jealousie against the disloyall party for jealousie saith Solomon is the rage of a man therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance he will not regard any ransome neither will he rest content though thou givest many guifts Prov. 6. ver 34 35. And that the wrath of a jealous God is not more remisse in such a case then that of a jealous man we may be sure of by the patheticall expression of the Prophet Nahum God is jealous and the Lord avengeth the Lord avengeth and is furious the Lord will take vengeance of his adversaries and he reserveth wrath for his enemies Nah. 1.2 and he counteth those rather his adversaries and enemies who breake covenant with him as the Iewes did in their Idolatrous desertions of him then the most notorious transgressours that never entred covenant with him as the Sodomites and therefore doth Ierusalem or the Prophet in her Name complaine the punishment of the iniquity of my people is greater then the punishment of the sinne of Sodome Lament 4. ver 6. and so indeed it was if we limit our consideration of it to a temporall calamity for that of Sodome in that respect was but of one sort and it was sodaine quickly at an end whereas the Jewes by warres famine and captivity indured many kinds of misery vehement in degree permanent in time whereof they would have taken a sodaine death for a certaine remedy by what Element or instrument soever The second particular sinne is the breach of the holy rest of God in the violation of the Sabbath which was never so prophaned with heart and hand and foote and tongue and pen and presse as of late yeares it had beene sixteene hundred yeares from Christ downeward have not disgorged so much gaule against the Sabbath nor spent so much Inke or brought forth so many tracts of detraction of the divine dignity and holy duties of that day as these last 40. yeares have done and is it not just with God that those who would justle his religious rest out of it's right should be restlesse in their condition as the Jewes complained our necks are under persecution we labour and have no rest Lam. 5.5 by continuall agitations of hostility The reformed Churches never throughly reformed in this point though of late better then they have beene have been grievously scourged and the more it is like for this sin and we since we have been deformed like them and would conforme to them in their liberty on the Sabbath but will not indure any of their strict discipline of manners we have beene made partakers of their pressures The third provoking impiety is the contempt of the Ministery wherein the dishonour of the divine Majesty is involved Luk. 10.16 and with him his ordinances his word and Sacraments and whatsoever he hath consecrated as serviceable to the glory of his name and salvation of his people and when were Ministers more contemned then of late yeares they have been when by greater numbers or by greater persons or in deeper degrees of disgrace and disdaine and yet are even at this day I deny not but divers of our Tribe have been entertained with a civill respect in regard of their good parts as for their wit or learning eloquence of speech elegancy of carriage perhaps somewhat too Court-like and for their riches or refference to great persons their siding with some potent party in times of faction And I confesse the Bishops have found great friends to support their preeminency as well the Temporall as Ecclesiasticall which of old and even of late at the “ Praedicationis munus quod Episcoporum praecipium est Concil Trident Sess 24. c 4. Councell of Trent was thought to consist rather in the Pulpit then in the Chaire But abstracting from these and such like secular plausibilities if a Minister have set himselfe in good earnest to preach and presse sound doctrine to the conscience and punctually to exemplifie it in his owne life and conversation if as an Embassadour from Christ as he is by his calling 2 Cor. 5.20 and as in duty he ought he deliver all the councell of God Act. 20.27 lest keeping back any part of it he should be guilty of the blood of souls v. 26. if he have taken the boldnesse to admonish and rebuke the rich as well as the poore as he may and must doe 1 Tim. 6.17 Iames 5. ver 1. if in the administration of the Sacrament he have endeavoured to put difference betweene the holy and prophane the uncleane and the cleane Ezek. 44.23 to keepe such as are like doggs and swine Mat 7.6 from the holy Table of the Lord least they should eate and drinke their owne damnation 1 Cor. 11. and have not denyed to deliver the consecrated symboles of the body and blood of Christ to such as made scruple of the gesture enjoyned by the Canon though otherwise most worthily prepared for the receiving thereof * That this is no time-serving Denet my discourse is witnesse penned and perused by divers learned Divines 14 years agâ—â— to prove that â—h