Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	king_n	law_n	parliament_n	7,328	5	6.6868	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96590	The discovery of mysteries: or, The plots and practices of a prevalent faction in this present Parliament. To overthrow the established religion, and the well setled government of this glorious Church, and to introduce a new framed discipline (not yet agreed upon by themselves what it shall be) to set up a new invented religion, patched together of Anabaptisticall and Brownisticall tenents, and many other new and old errors. And also, to subvert the fundamentall lawes of this famous kingdome, by devesting our King of his just rights, and unquestionable royall prerogatives, and depriving the subjects of the propriety of their goods, and the liberty of their persons; and under the name of the priviledge of Parliament, to exchange that excellent monarchicall government of this nation, into the tyrannicall government of a faction prevailing over the major part of their well-meaning brethren, to vote and order things full of all injustice, oppression and cruelty, as may appeare out of many, by these few subsequent collections of their proceedings. / By Gr. Williams L. Bishop of Ossory.	Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672.	1643 (1643)	Wing W2665; Thomason E60_1; Thomason E104_27; ESTC R23301	95,907	126

Act of Pacification for their assistance to withstand their King and to overthrow our Church it is apparent to all the world how perfidiously they dealt with God and man and how treacherous their thoughts were from the beginning both to the King and Kingdom Yet as we found our Brethren of Scotland howsoever these men bevaved themselves in their secret intentions to have carried themselves none otherwise than as wise rationall and religious men in all the Treatie so I assure my selfe they will hereafter still continue both faithfull unto God and loyall unto their King and as they perceived not their intentions at the first so they will not now joyne with them in any Association of Rebellion to withstand their own Liege Lord and to change the established Lawes and Religion of our Kingdom but will rather live in peace and happinesse in their own Land than by forsaking their enjoyed quietnesse to involve themselves in the unhappinesse of a desperate War in another Countrey 2. 2. The compelling of all people to ●…ak their new ●amed Protestation After they had thus endeared themselves unto their Brethren of Scotland they framed a Protestation to maintain and defend as farre as lawfully they might with their lives powers and estates the True Reformed Protestant Religion his Majesties Royall Person honour and estate the power and priviledges of Parliament the lawfull rights and liberties of the Subjects and every person that should make the same Protestation in whatsoever he should do in the lawfull pursuance of the same and to their power and as farre as lawfully they might to oppose and by all good wayes and meanes endeavour to bring to condigne punishment all such as shall either by force practise counsels plots conspiracies or otherwise * Which word is like the c. in the Canonical Oath do any thing to the contrary of any thing in the said Protestation contained and neither for fear hope nor other respect to relinquish this promise vow and protestation In which Protestation though no man can espie the least shadow of ill prima facie at the first reading thereof yet if you look further and search narrowly into the intentions of the composers the frame of the Protestation and the practise of these Protestors ever since the framing of it you shall finde that Desinit in piscem mulier formosa supernè these men are no Changelings but as like themselves as ever they were for 1. As it was intended so it succeeded 1. To terrifie the Papists and to raise a rebellion in Ireland it terrified the Papists and made them so desperate as almost to despair of their very being as concerning the place where or the manner how they should live which thing together with many other harsh and hard proceedings against many of them and the small countenance which they shewed unto a very moderate Petition that the Papists exhibited unto them hath driven abundance of them into Ireland whom I saw my selfe and there consulting with the Irish which were then also threatened by the Agents of this faction there that ere long they should be severely handled and brought to the Church whether they would or no or pay such a mulct as should make them poor what course they should take in such a desperate condition wherein they were all like to be ruined or to be rooted out of all the Kings Dominions they concluded what they would do to defend themseves by a plain Rebellion So this course against them hath been the leading card as some of them confessed of that great Rebellion which being kindled as some Sectaries in England expected they thought they would so much the more weaken the King by how much the more combustion should be raised in each one of his Dominions and therefore notwithstanding all the Kings gracious Messages and wishes unto the House of Commons which I wish all men would remember how affectionately he desired it to hasten to releeve that bleeding Kingdom yet still they protracted and neglected their redresse and at last passed such Votes made such Orders and procured such Acts as rather respected themselves and their posteritie to get all the land and goods of the Rebels to themselves that were the Adventurers than the relieving of us that were distressed and would as I told some of the House of Commons rather increase the Rebellion than any wayes quench that destroying flame And this was as it succeeded and as you see hereby most likely intended a most detestable plot for the kindling of that Rebellion and continuing of that bloody War in Ireland without which they knew this Rebellion in England could never have gained so much strength as it hath 2. 2. To gaine all Sectaries to their side By their large expression of what religion they protested to defend not the Protestant religion as it is established by Law and expressed in the 39 articles of the Church of England but as it is repugnant to popery and taught perhaps by Burton Burges Goodwin Burrowes or the like Amsterdamian schismatickes they opened the gap so wide and made Heaven gate so broad that all Brownists Anabaptists Socinians Familists Adamites and all other new England brood and outlandish Sectaries what soever that opposed popery might returne home and joyne with them as they have done since to overthrow our established Church and state And this plot to increase their own strength was as craftily don and is as Detestable as the other which to weaken the King in England caused a rebellion in Ireland 3. 3. To descry their owne strength By their illegall compelling and forcible inducing of all the people in the Kingdome to take the same or to be adjudged ill affected and popish and after the Lords had rejected the imposing of it they by their Declaration which shewed that what person soever would not take it was unfit to beare office either in Church or Common wealth prevailed in this plot so that they descried the number of their owne party they understood their own strength and they perceived thereby many things which they knew not before for now they had with David numbred Israel and so far as the wit and policy of the Devill had instructed them they had searched into the secrets of all hearts 4. 4. To insnare all the simpler sort to adhere unto them Having compelled the people to take it they have hereby insnared all the simpler sort and tender consciences to sticke unto them when they tell them and presse it upon their soules that they have made a Protestation to maintaine the priviledges of Parliament and the Liberty of the Subject and therefore they are bound to adhere to the Parliament to the uttermost of their power and so by this equivocall Protestation they have seduced thousands into their Rebellion and led them blindfold unto destruction Butto let you see not the syncerity of their hearts The mystery of their iniquity but the mystery

the Communicants came to partake of those holy mysteries they were fain to returne home without it for want of Bread and Wine to administer it and yet now the Church Governours have not any power to redresse any of these abominable abuses 2. Under shew of reforming the Church discipline 2. Voted down all the governours of Gods Church and bettering the Government thereof they have voted down those very Governours the Bishops and their Assistants the Deanes and Chapters whose function was constituted by the Apostles and hath from that time continued to this very day as the most learned Archbishop of Armach Bishop Hull Master Mason Master Tayler and that worthy Gentleman Master Theyer and others have sufficiently shewed to all the world 3. Under the pretence of expunging Poperie 3. Vilified out Service-book which Bishop Jewell Bishop Parry Bishop Babington Bishop Bilson Bishop Morton Bishop Davenant Bishop Hall and abundance more of the Reverend Bishops have confuted expelled and kept out of our Church more than any yea than all their schismatical Disciples whose Learning was no wayes able to answer the weakest Arguments of our Adversaries the Service Book that is established by Act of Parliament and was by those holy Martyrs that lost their lives and spilt their blood in defence of the Protestant Religion and defiance of erroneous Poperie so divinely and devoutly composed as all the Reformation can bear witnesse and I am well assured the whole flock of these Convocants shall never be able without this to make any neer so pious must be totally cried down and hath been in many places burned used to the uneleanest uses and teared all to pieces and to let you see their abomination herein I must crave patience to transcribe that it may the more generally passe the Speech of Alderman Garroway where he saith pag. 7. Alderman Garreway pag. 7. Did not my Lord Maior that is Pennington first enter upon his Office with a Speech against the Book of Common Prayer Hath the Common Prayer ever been read before him Hath not Captain Ven said that his Wife could make prayers worth three of any in that Book O Masters there have been times that he which should speak against the Book of Common Prayer in this Citie should not have been put to the patience of a Legall triall we were wont to look upon it as the greatest treasure and the Jewell of our Religion and he that should have told us he wished well to our Religion and yet would have taken away the Book of Common Prayer would never have gotten credit I have been in all the parts of Christendome and have conversed with Christians in Turkey why in all the reformed Churches there is not any thing of more reverence than the English Liturgie not our royall Exchange nor the Navie of Queen Elizabeth is so famous as this in Geneva it selfe I have heard it extolled to the skies I have been three moneths together by sea and not a day without hearing it read twice the honest Mariners then despised all the world but the King and the Common Prayer Book How the Mariners esteeme the Liturgie he that should be suspected to wish ill to either of them should have made but an ill voyage and let me tell you they are shrewd youthes those Sea-men if they once discerne that the person of the King is in danger or the Protestant professed Religion they will shew themselves mad bodies before you are aware of it I would not be a Brownist or an Auabaptist in their way for And yet these men have so basely abused and are so violent to abolish this excellent Book and divine Liturgie that Many will not believe it though it should be told unto them Hab. 1.5 I would they did but reade that Act of Parliament which is prefixed unto the same to see if they regarded either the Law of God or Man the Religion of the Clergie that composed it or the wisedome of the Parliament that confirmed it 4. 4. Abused the images and pictures of the Saints and other holy things Under colour to shew their hatred to Idolatrie they have broken down the glasse Windowes of many Churches shot off the heads of the Images of the blessed Virgin and of our dear Saviour represented in her lap upon the porch of Saint Maries in Oxford thrown away the Pictures of Christ and of others his holy Apostles and Gods blessed Saints into the Rivers taken the Ministers Surplices to make Frockes to preserve their cloathes when they dressed their horses and in Worcester they have done what I am ashamed to speak and would loathe any modest ear to hear made the Pulpit and not farre from the Town the Fout their house of office as I was informed by one of the gravest Doctours and Prehends of that Church thrown down the Organs which cost above fifteen hundred pounds and taken the Pipes and Copes of the Prebends and gone round about the Streets with the Copes on their backes and the Pipes in their hands dancing the Moris dance so in Winscombe in Glocester shire they brake down the Organs and made that Church their Slaughter house when they killed certain Sheep that they had stolen and dressed the same upon the Communion table and in Lincolne Minster the Souldiers brought their horses into the Quire laid their hay upon the holy Table and made the House of God a Stable for their horses that did now eat their hay where the Christians did use to communicate the Bodie and Blood of Christ so that these men give their Saviour no better entertainment now in his glorie than the Jewes did when he came in his humilitie Luke 2.7 but he shall be still kept low and a Stable shall be good enough for his Mansion yet as in Canterburie they did but little lesse so in Winchester they added this to their former prophanations to take the ashes of those Saxon Kings that were kept in certain Urnes and threw them about the ground as if death it selfe could not appease their rage Scava sed in manes manibus arma dabant It would fill a whole volume to relate all the villanies that they did of this kinde the consideration of which prophane usage of holy places made a worthy Gentleman pathetically to set down these fervent speeches I would to God we had not cause to complain of the horrid and barbarous attempts of divers among us Christians I can scarce call them against some the mother Churches * Canterbury Worcester Winchester Glocester Chichester and many others who as if they had studied to affront the Almightie to his face and purposely with Manasses to anger him have not spared to prophane those goodly structures and irreligiously and Antichristianlike to deface the instruments there prepared and imployed in the service of the great God at the very thought whereof I tremble and stand amazed Master Theyer in his Treatise of Episcopacie p. 56.57

so truly religious and void of hypocrisie in their profession as she most gracious Queene is in her religion then they say the Bishops are all Papists Deanes and Prebends are of the same stampe and all the Kings Chapleines that were preferred by the Archbishop were either close papists or profest Arminians which are but Cosen germanes unto the other Arminianism being but a bridge to passe over unto popery And with these and the like false slanders against the King Queene and Clergy they so bewitehed most of their well meaning brethren of the same house and amazed all the simplet sort of people of this Kingdome with these feares and filled them with such jealousies with those pamphlets that they caused to be printed and dispersed every where that they were at their wits end for feare of this lamentable alteration of their religion and deprivation of their liberties 2 2. The Cure The disease being thus spread like a gangrene over all the parts of the body of this Kingdome they like skilfull Physitians devise the cure and that is the preparation of a Militia and this militia they would have put into such hands as they pleased such as they might confide in and I wish the whole Kingdome knew who those men were and who they are that they doe confide in for I know 1. Some of them are poore men of most desperate fortunes if bankrupters may be termed such 2. Others to be most factious and scismaticall men addicted to Anabaptisme and Brownisme and other worser sects as amongst the London Commanders Ven Manwaring Fawlke Norington Bradly Bast and the rest whereof there are twise as many schismaticall and as it is conceived beggarly sectaries as are right honest men among them and if we looked among their Lords and all the rest of their nomination throughout the Kingdome I doubt we shall find some of them to be just of the same condition And because the King to whose care and trust God had committed all the people of this Kingdom and not to them that are called by the King and chosen only by men and that only for this time and of whom he will require an account of the lawes and religion whereof he made him keeperand defender and not of them thought most rightly that this Militia should be commited rather to such men as he might confide in as it was in the raigne of Queene Elizabeth and His Father of ever blessed memory rather than to any that they should name which was to disrobe himselfe of all his regall power of the chiefest garland of his royall prerogatives without which he could hold his Crown by no better a tenure then durante beneplacito and to put the sword out of his owne hand into the hands of them that could not love him because they could not trust him as they alleaged and what reason had he to trust them that were causelesly so distrustfull of him they startled at this deniall And because the King of heaven had by this time opened the Kings eyes God openeth the Kings eyes to let him see what hitherto he could hardly imagine that these men to whom he had granted for the good of his Kingdome so many acts of grace and favour as never any King of England did before and had very graciously offered to commit to the hands of their owne choosing so large a share of the Militia as might have rendered the whole Kingdome most secure if security in a iust and legall way had beene all that they sought for had their intentions far otherwise then they pretended and that not only the government of the Church was intended to be altered and the governours thereof destroyed but himself also was hereby disrobed of those rights which God and the lawes of the land had put into his hands and the Kingdome brought either into a base tyranny or confused anarchie when all things shall be done according to the arbitrary power of these factious and schismaticall men therefore he utterly refused to grant their desires and most wisely withstood their designe Whereupon these men put their heads together How they strengthened themselves to make their ordors firm with out the king to consult how they might strengthen themselves and make their ordinances firme and binding without the King and to that purpose having by their former doings gotten too great an interest as well in the faith as in the affections of the people in confidence of their owne strength they came roundly to the businesse and what they knew was not their right as their former Petitions can sufficiently witnesse they resolve to effect the same by force but as insensibly as they can devise as 1. To seize upon the Kings Navie to secure the Seas 2. To lay hold upon all the Kings Magazin Forts Townes and Castles 3. To with-hold his moneyes and revenues and all other meanes from the King 4. To withdraw the affections and to poyson the loyalty of all his Majesties Subjects from him And hereby they thought and it must have beene so indeed Psa 30 6 except the Lord had beene on his side they had made their hill so strong that it could not be moved and the King so weake and destitute of all meanes that he could no wayes subsist or relieve himselfe as a member of their owne House did tell me for 1. 1 Earl of Warw●ck made vice Admirall They get the Earle of Warwicke to be appointed Vic-admirall of the Sea and to commit all the Kings Navie into his hand and to take away that charge from Sir Iohn Pennington whom most men believed to be farre the better Sea-man but more faithfull to his King and the other purer to the Parliament 2. 2 Sir Iohn Hotham put to Hull for the Magazine They fend Sir John Hotham a most insolent man that most uncivilly contemned the King to his face to seize upon the Kings Magazine that he bought with his own money when they might as well take away my horse that I paid for and to keepe the King out of Hull which was his owne proper Towne and therefore might as well have kept him out of White-hall and was an act so full of injustice as that I scarce know a greater 3. 3 They detained the kings moneys Esay 1 23. Because moneyes are great meanes to effect any worldly affaire and the sinews of every warre when as men and armes and all other necessaries may be had for money some of them and their followers shew themselves to be just as the Peeres of Israel companions of thieves meere robbers which forcibly take away a mans money from him they take all the Kings treasure they intercept detaine and convert all the Kings revenues and customes to strengthen themselves against the King 4. Because their former Remonstrances framed by this faction 4 They labour to render the king odious by lyes of the ill government of this Kingdome though in some things

true which the King ingeniously acknowledgeth and most graciously promiseth to redresse them yet in all things full of gall and bitternesse against the King could not so fully poyson the love and loyalty of the Kings Subjects as they desired especially the love of those that knew his Majestie who the better they knew him did the more affectionately love him and the more faithfully serve him they thought to doe it another and a surer way with apparent lyes palpable slanders and abominable accusations invented printed and scattered over all the parts of this Kingdome by their trencher Chaplaines and parasiticall Preachers and other Pamphleters some busy Lawyers and Pettifoggers to bring the King into an odium disliked and deserted of all his loving Subjects And what created power under heaven was able to dissolve that wickednesse which subtiltie and malice had thus treacherously combined to bring to passe Hereupon after many threatning votes 1 Lye that he intended to war against his Parliament and actuall hostility exercised against his Royall person the King is forced to raise a guard for the defence of himselfe and those his good Subjects that attended him then presently that small guard that consisted but of the chiefe gentry of the Countrey was declared to be an army raised for the subversion of the Parliament and the destruction of our native liberties an invincible army is voted to be raised the Earle of Essex is chosen to be their Generall with whom they promise both to live and die the Earle of Bedford Generall of the Horse moneyes are provided and all things are prepared to fetch the King and all delinquents or to be the death of all withstanders and that nothing might hinder this designe though the King in many gracious Messages attested by the subscription of many noble Lords that were upon the place assured them he never intended any warre against his Parliament yet they proceed with all eagernesse and declare all those that shall assist the King either with Horse money or men to be malignants and enemies unto the King and Kingdome and such delinquents as shall be sure to receive condigne punishment by the Parliament Hoc mirum est hoc magnum And among the rest of their impudent slanders this was their Master-piece which they ever harped upon that hee countenanced Papists and intended to bring Poperie into this Kingdom and to that end had an Armie of Papists to assist him But to satisfie any sensible man in this point I would crave the resolution of these two Questions 1. Two questions to be resolved Whether every Papist that is subject to his Majestie is not bound to assist and defend his King in all his dangers 2. Whether the King should not protect his Subjects that are Papists in all their dangers so farre as by the Law he ought to do it 1. All Papists bound to assist their King and accept of their service when himselfe is invironed with dangers For first I believe there is no Law that inhibiteth a Papist to serve his King against a Rebellion or to ride post to tell the King of a Designe to murder Him or any other intended Treason against Him or being present to take away a weapon from that man that attempted to kill the King because his not comming to Church doth not exempt him from his Alleageance or discharge him of his dutie and service unto the King and therefore if a Fleet from France or Spain or any other forreigne part should invade us or any Rebellion at home should rise against his Soveraigne and seck to destroy those Lawes and Liberties whereof himselfe and his Posteritie hath as good an interest as any other Subject I say he is bound by all Lawes to assist his King and to do his best endeavour both with his purse and in his person not onely to oppose that externall Invasion but also to subdue as well that home-bred Rebellion as the forreigne Invasion 2. 2. The King bound to protect dutifull Papists If a Papist should be injured his estate seized upon his house plundered and his person if taken imprisoned not because he transgressed any other Law but that he dispenceth not with the Law of his conscience to be no Papist and being thus injured should come unto his King and say I am your Subject and have lived dutifully I did nothing which the Law gives me not leave I have truly paid all duties and humbly submitted my selfe to all penalties and yet I know not why I am thus used and abused by my neighbours I am driven from my house by force of Armes and I have no place to breathe but under your Majesties wings and the shelter of your power therefore I beseech you as you are my King and are obliged to do your best for the safetie of your true Subjects let me have your protection and you shall have my service unto death I would fain know what the King should do in such a case denie his protection or refuse his service the one is injustice the other not the best wisedom especially if he needed service for as the Law of nature and of nations requireth all Subjects to obey their Kings and faithfully to serve them of what Religion soever their Kings shall be so Lege relationis every King is bound to protect every faithfull Subject that observeth his Lawes or submitteth to their penalties without corrupting of his fellow Subjects of what Religion soever he is because they are his Subjects not as they are faithfull Christians but as obedient men and he is to rule not over the faith of their soules but the actions of their bodies and it is an Axiome in Divinitie that Fides non cogenda and if Kings cannot perswade their Subjects to embrace the true Faith they ought not to cut them off so long as they are true Subjects and therefore with what reason can any man blame the King either for protecting them in their distresses or accepting their sevice in his own extremities I cannot understand And yet for the goodly companie of Papists which his Majestie entertaineth in all his Armies they cannot all make up so much as one good Regiment as an Officer in his Majesties Armie confidently affirmeth but it will serve their turne to taxe the King to lay imputations upon him even the very things that belong unto themselves as the whole summe of those things that are expressed in Englands Petition to their King Pag. 10. mutatis mutandis might truly be presented to the two Houses that have now almost destroyed us all and to make them mightie faults in him which are no faults at all in themselves because there is no fear of their favouringPoperie though as they have very many so they should have never so many more in their Armie 3. Lye that he caused the Rebellion in Ireland Another Slander they not onely whispered but also dispersed the same farre and near among the

in the Earse of Essex his Campt either to take counsell and follow the advice of those secret Sectaries and the masked enemies both of the Church and State that as yet insensible unto him were such in the bosome of his Court and most slily aymed at a further mischiefe then his Majestie could have imagined as now it appeareth by the consequences of this Parliament or else to hazard the dangers that his then open foes were like to bring upon his people And I assure my selfe eyes of flesh that cannot pierce into the mysteries of the hearts and our secret thoughts could see no further nor make any better election then His Majestie did that is to call a Parliament which the hearts of all the Kingdome called and cryed for and which in former times by the wise institution and right prosecution thereof was found to be the Panchreston or as the Weapon-salve an antidote to cure all the diseases and to heale all the bleeding wounds of this Kingdome though of late we have sensibly felt the unhappy ending of some of them which perhaps may be some accidentall cause of some part of this unhappinesse here was His Majesties faire minde and an act of speciall grace for which all His Subjects ought most thankefully to shew themselves loyall unto Him when He preferred their safety before the prosecucuting of his owne resolutions But Decipimur specie recti we are many times deceived by the shadow of truth and betrayed under the vizard of virtue for as God produceth light out of darkenesse and good out of evill so wicked men like the spiders doe sucke poyson from those flowers whence the Bees doe extract honey and these subtle-headed foxes whereof many of them had unduly got themselves elected into the House of Commons and there factiously combined themselves together to doe their great exploit to overthrow the Government both of Church and State and minded to make the Parliament House like Vulcans Forge where they intended to contrive their iron net that should be able to hold fast all sorts of people from him that sitteth upon the Throne to him that walloweth in dust and ashes turned the hopes of our redresses to our extreame miseries when in stead of rectifying our abuses they intended principally to worke our ruine in our just apprehension though perhaps our happinesse in their owne mistaken conception And as the Apostle saith Knowne unto God are all his workes from the beginning and he hath eternally decreed how and by what meanes to bring them all unto perfection so the Devill beings Gods Ape and the wicked treading in his steps doe first mold their designes and intentions in the Idea of their owne braines and conclude the workes they would have done in their owne conceipts and then they frame to themselves the meanes and wayes whereby they are resolved to produce and perfect all those mis-shapen embryoes that they conceived and so these factious men this brood of vipers that would gnaw through the bowels of their mother from the first convention of this Parliament had resolved upon their plot and contrived among themselves what great good worke they would by such and such meanes bring to passe And that was as I hope this subsequent discourse will make it plaine to all The designe plot of the faction of Sectaries that will not be wilfully blinde the subversion of the ancient government both of this Church and Kingdome and to introduce a new Ecclesiasticall Discipline and to frame a new Common wealth much like if not worse then that of our neighbours in the Low-Countries Gratum opus agricolis a brave exploit and a great worke indeed beyond the adventure of Junius Brutus that expelled the Kings but left the Priests alone that purged the corrupti●… on of the royall government but medled not with the religion of their Bishops and Prophets and beyond the undertaking of Martin Luther that pulled downe the pride of the Pope and all that Romish Hierarchie but ventured not to trample upon the Scepter of Kings and the Imperiall government which he held sacred and inviolably to be obeyed for these men perceiving how God had so wisely ordered these governments among his people to assist each other that the one can neither stand nor fall without the other as it is fully and truly shewed in the Grand Rebellion therefore as Caligula wished that the people of Rome had but one necke that so he might dispatch them all unoictu with one stroke so these men would overthrow both governments and destroy both King and Priest both Church and State at one time with one clap with one thunder-bolt And so they should be famous indeed though it were but like the fame of Herostratus that burnt the Temple of Diana or of Raviliac that killed the King of France of Nero that destroyed his mother or Oedipus that murdered his owne father for a man may be as notoriously famous for transcendent villanies and nefarious impieties as another is for his rare vertues and supereminent deeds of piety as in History Thersites is as well knowne for his base cowardice as Achilles for his heroicke valour and in the Scripture Judas for his treachery is as notoriously knowne as Saint Peter for his fidelity therefore these men goe on with this great designe and to effect the same I finde that they aymed at these two speciall things 1. To take away all the lets and impediments that might hinder them They aymed at two things 2. To secure unto themselves all the helpes and furtherances that might advantage them For 1. As a Vineyard that is well hedged 1. To remove the impediments of their designe or a Citie strongly fenced with walls and bulwarkes cannot easily be laid wast and spoyled before these defences be destroyed so the wilde boares cannot devoure the grapes of Gods Church and swallow downe the revenues of her governours and the Rebels cannot pull the Sword out of their Soveraignes hand and lay his Crowne downe in the dust so long as the meanes of their preservations are intire and not removed therefore these men endeavour to eradicate all the impediments of their designe and they saw foure great blockes that were as foure mighty mountaines which their great faith their publique faith being not yet conceived must remove before they could plant their new Church and subvert the old government of this Kingdome and those were 1. The Earle of Straffords head Foure impediments of their designe 2. The free judgement of the Judges 3. The power of dissolving the Parliament 4. The Bishops votes in the House of the Lords For as the heavenly Angels could doe nothing against Sodome while righteous Lot was in it so these earthly Angels the messengers of Abaddon can never effect their ends to overthrow the Church and State to make them as Sodome full of all impurity and villany untill these foure maine stops be taken away and therefore CHAP. II. Sheweth

in all their seditious courses and the more they railed against our Church Government the more they were favoured by these enemies of the Church Governours As to instance in both particulars as you may finde in the author of the Sober Sadnesse p. 33. Master Squire Master Stone and Master Swadlin which they have imprisoned and scarce allowed them straw to ly on Master Reading Master Griffith Master Ingoldsby Master Willcocks and many others having done nothing worthy of death or of bonds are inserted into the blacke bill of Scandalous and superstitious Ministers onely for preaching obedience to Soveraigne authority and other points consonant to the Holy Scriptures and those that are scandalous indeed as Doctor Burgesse the ring-leader of all sedition Doctor Downing that is reputed as variable as was Doctor Perne Master Calamy that is little better Master Harding a most vicious man Master Bridge a Socinian and Master Marshall not free from the suspicion of some unjust perswasions of the weaker sex many more such factious men are not onely dispensed with for all faults but also rewarded and advanced for their infidelity to God and disloyalty to His vicegerent this the author of the Sober Sadnesse affirmeth of them 2. 2 way By framing petitions themselves as it is conceived in the name of thousands of people from Cities and Countries that either never saw or never knew what was in them against Episcopacy and Episcopall men and then exhibiting the said petitions unto themselves and the rest of their seauced brethren to instigate others of their own faction that affected not Episcopacy and those offendors that by their Ecclesiasticall censure were justly punished and yet thereby unjustly provoked to hate them to frame the like petitions against this Apostolicall function and to make the world believe how odious these Reverend men were in the judgement of so many millions of men which were indeed most ignorant and simple Petitions against Episeopacie how un justly procured and which God knowes and themselves afterwards confessed knew not what they did nor to what end their hands were purloyned from them under fair pretences that were alleadged for the Reformation of some abuses but were subscribed to most scandalous Petitions which the poor men utterly renounced when they understood how unchristianly they were seduced so strange were their plots to make the Bishops odious And yet you must not thinke that these courses are more strange than true for our Saviour tels his Apostles that were men beyond exceptions full of inspirations and abundantly indued with the gifts of sanctification They should be hated of all men for his names sake and if you look into the sufferings of Saint Paul and the most horrible imputations that were so scandalously raised against the holy Fathers you need not admire so much to see these men suffering such things as the hands of sinners to be made the scorne of men and as the off-scouring of the people as they were not long since when the Bishops and the most learned Preachers might passe with more honour and lesse contempt at Constantinople among the Turkes or in Jerusalem among the Jewes than in the Citie of London among this brood of Anabaptists 2. 2. How the scumme of the people threaten them After they had thus brought them upon the Stage and used them thus strangely without cause they get Ven and Manwaring and others of the same Sect to gather together the scum of all the prophanest rout the vilest of all men and the outcast of the People such as Job saith Are not worthy to eat with the dogges of the flocke and as they came before for the Earle of Straffords head so now again they must come in great numbers without order without honestie against all Law and beyond all Religion with swords and staves and other unfashtonable though not inconsiderable weapons to cry no Papists no Bishops and if they had added no God no Devill no Heaven no Hell then surely these men had obtained if the Parliament could have granted their requests the summe of their desires and they would have thought themselves better than either King or Bishop but as yet they go no farther than No Papist no Bishop and by this they put the good Bishops in great fear and well they might be possest of that fear qui cadit in fortem constantem virum for mine eyes did see them and mine eares did hear it said What Bishop soever they met they would be his death and I thanked God they knew not me to be a Bishop Their furious assault upon Saint Peters Church in Westminster Then they set upon Saint Peters Church of Westminster burst part of the door to pieces and had they not been most manfully withstood by the Archbishop of Yorke his Gentlemen and the Prebends Servants together with the Officers of the Church they had entered and likely ransacked spoiled and defaced all the Monnments of the ancient Kings broken down the Organs and committed such sacriledge and prophanation of that holy place as their fellow Rebels have done since in Canterbury Winchester Worcester and other places whereof I shall speak hereafter the like was never seen among the Turks and Pagans and after these things what rage crueltie and barbaritie they would have shewed to the Dean and Prebends we might well fear but not easily judge I am sure the Dean was forced to hire armed Souldiers to preserve the Church for many dayes after for seeing these rioturs tumults could not as yet obtain their ends they came nay they were brought again and again and they justled and offered some violence unto the Archbishops Grace as he went with the Earle of Dover into the Parliament House which made him and the rest of his brethren justly to fear what might be the issue of these sad beginnings which they conceived must needs be very lamentable if timely remedie were not applied to prevent these untimely frights and unchristian tumults Therefore when no Complaints either to the House of Lords or Commons could produce any safe effects but rather a frivolous excuse than a serious redresse that they came to petition against the Government and not to seek the destruction of the Governours the Bishops were inforced and in my judgement flesh and blood could take no better course in such a case in such distresse and I believe it will be found wisdom hereafter to make their Petition for their securitie and Protestation against all Acts as null they might have added to them and whom they represented that should be enacted in their unwilling absence while they were so violently hindered from the House and it may be some word might passe in this Protestation that might be bettered or explained by another word yet on such a suddain in such a fright when they scarce had time to take counsell of their pillowes or to advice with their second thoughts Quae semper sunt saniores to watch for

vocatis more daret populis Because this was the custome of the Kings of Scythia Assyria Aegypt c. long before Moses and Pharonaus when municipall lawes first began to give lawes unto their people according to the rules of naturall equity which by the law of nature they were all bound to observe And though some Kings did graciously yeeld and by their voluntary oathes for themselves and their successors binde themselves many times to stricter limits then were absolutely requisite as William Rufus King Stephen Henry the fourth Richard the third and the like granted many priviledges perhaps to gaine the favour of their Subjects against those which likely had a better title to the Crowne than themselves or it may be to satisfie their people as the guerdon or compensation for the sufferance of some fore-passed grievances as Henry the first Edward the second Richard the second and the like yet these limitations being agreeable to equity and consistent with Royalty and not forcibly extracted ought in all truth and reason to be observed by them And hence it is that the Kings of this Realme according to the oathes and promises which they made at their Coronation can never give nor repeale any law but with the assent of the Peeres and People But though they have thus yeelded to make no lawes nor to repeale any lawes without them yet this voluntary concession of so much grace unto the people doth no wayes translate the legislative power from the King unto his assistants but that it is formaliter and subiectivè still in the King and not in them else would the government of this Kingdome bee an Aristocracy or Democracy and not a Monarchy because the supreame power of making and repealing Lawes and governing or judging decisively according to those lawes Cassan in catal glorlamundi are two of those three things that give being to each one of these three sorts of government Therefore the King of England being an absolute Monarch in his owne Kingdome as Cassaneus saith and no man can deny it the legislative power must needs reside solely in the King 22 Ed. 3.3 pl. 25. Vid. The view of a printed booke entituled Observations c. where this point is proved at large p. 18 19 21 22. ut in subjecto proprio and the consent of the Lords and Commons is no sharing of that power but only a condition yeelded to be observed by the King in the use of that power and so both the Oath of Supremacy and the form of all our ancient Statutes wherein the King speakes as the Lawmaker doe most evidently prove the same unto us Le Roy voit Neither durst any Subjects in former times either assume such a power unto themselves or deny the same unto their King for you may finde how the House of Commons denying to passe the Bill for the pardon of the Clergy which Hen. 8. granted them when they were all charged to be in a Premunire unlesse themselves also might be included within the pardon received this answer from the King that he was their Soveraigne Lord and would not be compelled to shew his mercy nor indeed could they compel him to any thing else but seeing they went about to restraine him of his Liberty he would grant a pardon unto his Clergie by his great Seale without them Sir Rich. ● in vita Her though afterwards of his owne accord he signed their pardon also which brought great commendation to his judgement to deny it at first when it was demanded as a right and to grant it afterward when it was received as of grace And yet the deniall of their assent unto the King is more equitable to them and lesse derogatory to him then to make orders without him and this manner of compulsion to shew grace unto themselves is more tolerable than to force him to disgrace and displace his most faithfull servants onely because others cannot confide in them when no criminall charge is laid against them And therefore for the Lords and Commons to make Orders and Ordinances without the King and in opposition to the King is a meere usurpation of the Regall power a nullifying of the Kings power and a making of the Royall assent which heretofore gave life to every law to be an empty piece of formality which is indeed an intolerable arrogancy in the contrivers of these Orders and the makers of these Ordinances a monstrous abuse of the Subjects and a plaine making of our good King to be somewhat like him in the Comedy a King and no King And where as no Subject and under favour be it spoken not the King himselfe after he hath taken his Oath at his Coronation is free from the observation of the established lawes yet they make themselves so farre above the reach of Law that they freed him which the Lord chiefe Justice Bramston had committed to Newgate for felony in stealing the Countesse of Rivers goods they hindered all men as we found in their journall from proceeding against Sir Thomas Dawes they injoyned the Judges by their orders to forbeare to proceed in their ordinary courses in the Courts of Justice contrary to the eaths of those Judges and some Parliament men came to the Bench to forbid the Judges to grant Habeas Corpuses which is as great an iniquity and as apparent an injustice as ever was done by any Parliament And that which is a note above Ela The most abominable wickednesse of these factious Rebels above all that could be spoken whereas the Law of God and man the bonds and obligations of civility and Christianity tie us all to be dutifull and obedient unto our King in all things either actively or passively and no wayes for no cause violently to resist him under the greatest penalties that can be devised here and damnation hereafter yet these men contrary to all Lawes doe injoyne us and compell us as much against our consciences as if they should compell us with the Pagan tyrants to offer Sacrifice unto Idols to war against our most gracious Soveraigne whom we from our hearts doe both love and honour and they proscrible us as malignants and as enemies to the Common wealth if we contribute not money horse and armes to maintaine this ungodly war Ps 50.22 August contra Faust l. 22. c. 75.76 and so become deadly enemies unto our owne soules O consider this yee that forget God lest for tearing us he teare you in pieces while there is none to helpe you for considering what the Apostle saith Rom. 13.1.2 And what Saint Augustine saith ordo naturalis mortalium paci accommodatus hoc poscit ut suscipiendi belli authoritas atque consilium penes Principem sit and lest men should thinke they ought by force of armes to resist their king for religion he answereth that objection by the example of the Apostles isti non resistendo interfecti sunt ut potiorem esse docerent victoriam pro fide

veritatis occidi We conceive this to be so execrable an act and so odious to God and man that we are made thus miserable and abused beyond measure to have our Religion which is most glorious our Laws that in their own nature are most excellent The miserable consequences of their wicked doings 1 Mischiefe and our Liberties that make us as free as any Subjects in the World under false pretences and the shadows of religion lawes and liberties to be eradicated and fundamentally destroyed whereby 1. We are made a spectacle of scorne 1. Mischiefe and the object of derision to our neighbour Nations that formerly have envied at our happinesse and we are become the subject of all pitty and lamentation to all them that love us 2. As in the Roman civill wars in the time of Metellus 2. Mischife the the son did kill his own Father so now by the subtilty of this faction we are cast into such a war as is 1. A most unnaturall War the son against the Father and the Father against the Son the Earle of Warwick fighteth for the Parliament and my Lord Rich his Son is with the King the Earle of Dover is with the King and my Lord Rochford his Sonne with the Parliament so one brother against another as the Earle of Northumberland with the Parliament and his brother with the King the Earle of Bedford with the Parliament and his brother with the King Master Perpoiat with the Parliament and the Earle of Newark with the King Devoreux Farmer with the parliament and his brother Thomas farmer together with his brother in law my Lord Cockain with the King and the like and of Cosens without number the one part with the King and the other with the parliament and if they doe this in subtilty to preserve their estate I say it is a wicked policy to undoe the kingdom which all wise men should consider 2. A most irreligious war when one Christian of the same professed religion shal bath his Sword and wash his hands in the bloud of his fellow Christian and his fellow protestant that shal be coheire with him of the same Kingdome 3. A most unnaturall irreligious and barbarous Warre when the Subject shall shal take Armes to destroy or unthrone their owne liege a Religious and most gracious King 3. 3 Mischiefe The Service of God in most Churches is neglected when almost all the ablest gravest and most O thodox Divines and Preachers are persecuted plundered imprisoned and driven to fly as in the time of the Arian or Donatist which was worse than the heathen persecution from City to City to wander in Desarts from place to place to save themselves from the hands of these Rebels against the King and persecuters of Gods Church which is a most grievous and a most cruell persecution far more generall than that of the Anabaptists in Germany or of Queene Mary here in England the Lord of Heaven make us constant and give us patience to indure it 4. 4 Mischiefe The whole Kingdome is and shall be yet more by the continuance hereof unspeakably impoverish'd and plunged into all kind of miseries when the I'ravailer cannot passe without feare nec hospes ab hospite tutus the Carrier cannot transport his commodity but it shall be intercepted the Husbandman cannot till his ground but his horses as my selfe saw it shall bee taken from the Plough and his Corne shall bee destroyed when it is ready for the Sickle which must be the fore-runner of a famine that is ever the Usher to introduce the Plague and Pestilence and all other kind of grievous Diseases and these things put together doe set wide our gates and open our ports to bring forraigne foes into our Coasts to possesse that good Land whereof we are unworthy because with the Israelites we loathed Manna we were weary of our peace and happinesse we would buy armes and be voluntiers and every Town being too wanton would needs traine and put themselves into a posture of defence as they termed it to be secured from their owne shadows and though the King told them often there was no cause of their Jealousies and therefore forbade these disloyalties yet just like the Jewes they were willing to be deceived by this miserable faction that contrived that Act whereby they have persidiously over-reached both our good King and the rest of our wel-meaning brethren either to perfect their designe or else to make themselves perpetuall Dictators and to betray the felicity of all our people under the name of Parliament which though as I said before I honour and love as much as any of the truest Patriots of either House both in the institution and the right prosecution thereof that is as it was constituted to be the great Councell of the Kingdome graciously called by his Majesties writ considently to present the grievances of the people and humbly to offer their advice and counsels for their reformation yet I doe abhorre those men that would abuse the word Parliament only as a stalking-Horse to destroy all Acts of Parliament and I hate to see men calling the fanatique actions of a few desperate seditious persons the proceedings of Parliament and others making an Idol of it as if their power were omnipotent or unlimited and more than any regall power their judgement infallible their Orders irreprehensible and themselves unaccountable for their proceedings to be so besotted with the name of it that this bare shadow without the substance for it is no Parliament without the King and the Major part of both houses is either banished or imprisoned Ingeniosus ad blasphemiant or compelled to reside with his Majesty should so bewitch us as Master Smith blushed not to say nothing could free us from our dangers but the Divinity of a Parliament out of our owne happinesse to become more miserable then heretofore this Kingdome hath ever beene by any civill War for if you will consider the Treasons and rebellions the injustice cruelty and inhumanity the subtilty hypocrisie lying swearing blasphemy prophanesse and Sacriledge in the highest pitch and many other the like fearefull sins that have been committed since the beginning of this Parliament by the sole meanes of this faction and observe the ill acts that have beene used by them to compasse things lawfull and the wicked acts that have beene daily practised to procure things unlawfull when by bloud and rapine and the curses of many fatherlesse and widowes they have gotten the Treasures of the Kingdome and the wealth of the Kings loyall Subjects into their hands and wasted it so that their wants are stil as notorious as their crimes wee may admire the miracles of Gods mercy and the bottomlesse depth of his goodnesse that the stones in the streets have not risen against them or the fire from Heaven had not consumed these Rebels that thus far and thus insolently had tempted Gods patience and provoked him to

should demand why we suspect any Traytors or false Counsellors to be in Kings Courts I answer because Saint Paul saith Oportet esse hareses and I beleeve the purest Court hath no more priviledge to be free from Traytors then the Church from Heretiques and you know there was one of eight in Noahs Arke and another of twelve in Christ his Court and he that was so neare him as to dip his hand with him in the dish was the first that flew in his face and yet with a hayle Master and with a kisse two fair testimonies of true love Therefore let no King in Christendome thinke it strange that his Court should have Flatterers Traytors or evill Counsellors let not us be blamed for saying this and let not Pym so foolishly charge our King for evil Counsellors for certainly did he know them I make no question but he would discard them or could I or any other informe his Majestie who they are and that it were an easie matter dicier hic est we would not be affraid to pull off their vails and to say as Christ did to Judas Thou art the man but their Meandrian windings their Syrens voices and their Iudas kisses are as a faire mantle to conceale and cover Ioabs treason even perhaps to betray some of the wisest in the Parliament as well as some of them have betrayed the King In such a case all I can say is this Memento diffidere was Epicharmus his Motto the honest plaine dealing man that doth things for Religion not for ends is the unlikeliest man to betray his Master and few Counsellors are not so apt to breed so many Traytors as a multitude it was the indiscretion of Rehoboam that lost him ten parts of twelve to preferre young Counsellors before the ancient * Seldome discretion in youth attendeth great and sudden fortunes In vita Henric. 3. and if we may beleeve that either paupertas or necessitas cogit ad turpia or the fable of the ulcerated traveller They that are to make their fortunes are apter to sell Church and State and to betray King and Kingdom rather then those that have sufficiently replenished their coffers and inlarged their possessions But I assure my selfe the mouth of malice cannot deny but that our King hath been as wary and as wise in the choice of his Servants Officers and Counsellors so far as eyes of flesh can see in all respects as in any Prince in Christendom and more by man cannot be done And for the second Their designe to change the Government of the State shewed that is their designe to change the Government of the State and to work the subversion of the Monarchie he evinceth it 1 By that Declaration upon the Earle of Straffords suffering 1. Way that this example might not be drawn to a president for the future because they thought that themselves intending to do the like and to become guilty of the same crimes might by vertue of this Declaration be secured from the punishment if things should succeed otherwise then they hoped 2 By the pulling down of so many Courts of Justice 2. Way which may perhaps relieve the Subjects from some pressures but incourage many more in licentiousnesse and prove the Prodromes to the ruine of our Monarchie 3 By those 19. 3. Way Propositions whereby the King was in very deed The Letter p. 11. demanded to lay downe his Crowne and to compound with them for the same because as another saith therein there was presented to him a perfect platforme of a totall change of Government by which the Counsellors indeed were to have been Kings and the King in name to have become scarce a Counsellor and nothing of the present State to have remained but the very names and titles of our Governours 4 By that expression so little understood by many men 4. Way and yet so much talked of in many of their papers of a power of re-assuming the trust which is falsly pretended to bee derived unto his Majestie by the meere humane pactions and agreement of the politique body of the people which I shewed unto you to be a most false and a meere invented suggestion 5 By their pretending to 5. Way and according to this doctrine their usurping of the power of the Militia both by sea and land 6 By their actuall exercising of this power 6. Way in disposing of Offices Generals Colonels Captains and the like places of command in War and appointing their Speaker Master of the Rolls and other Officers of Peace 6 By the expression of one of them to Sir Edward Dering 7. Way while he was yet of their Cabinet Counsell that if they could bring down the Lords to the House of Commons and make the King as one of the Lords then the whole worke were done that is to make the Government of this Kingdom popular 8 I may adde to these 8. Way as another unanswerable Argument of this Designe the licencing of Master Pryn's Book of The soveraigne Authoritie of Parliaments and suffering the same to passe unquestioned to this very day because that Booke devesteth the King of all his Soveraigntie and maketh our Government Aristecraticall And this subversion of our Monarchicall Government was the last Designe if not the grand Designe of this Faction not that all the Members which have voted all or most of those things that tended to this change or be still remaining in either House did intend any ill either to Church or State for I know many especially my ever honoured Lord the Earle of Pembroke and Montgomery who I dare avouch it in truth and honestie did ever and as I beleeve doth still bear a most upright heart and as sincere intentions how soever perhaps by a misunderstanding his Lordship and the rest of those well meaning men may be misguided as were those honest men that followed Absolon both to Gods Service the Kings Honour and the happinesse both of Church and Common-wealth as any man in the Kingdom but that a Faction it may be very few at first have insensibly seduced the rest to effect their own Designe and this Faction is all that I mean by the name of Parliament throughout this whole Treatise because their subtiltie hath prevailed over the plain integritie of the other well-minded men to make up the major part of the House both of the Lords and Commons which thing hath often happened both in Generall Councels and great Parliaments as in the Councel of Constans and Trent and many others and that Parliament which was branded with the name of Parliamentum insanum and the other somewhat like this Tempore Hen. 3. in quo jngulum Ecclesiae atrociùs petebatur and the like for otherwise I do both honour and reverence this Parliament rightly understood and every Member of the same as much as any discreet Member can desire And therefore having thus discovered and displayed the Plots and practices of