the Breach of their Ingagements they 'l Deride and Spurn you and you shall not dare to open your Mouths against them but if you do it shall be your Death Night nor Day you shall not with Safety go out of your Doors but Stabbing and Pistoling will be common at Noon-day Oh therefore all ye that Honor God see this Exceeding Danger before it be too late have Patience wait upon God in his Way run not to Egypt for help lean not on so broken a Reed consider how this City hath been threatned and by whom how often Plots have been covered under Treaties destroy not all your Mercies through Impatience forsake not a Just God who hitherto hath Preserved you for any Vnjust Man that hath long sought by all Means to Destroy you and Enslave you leap not out of the Pan into the Fire Wait but a while and you will see both City and Nation flourish distrust not he that Believeth maketh not haste Fear not and you will soon see the Salvation that God is preparing for you by just Means This Way which ye are now put upon being the most dangerous that can be and such as cannot be blessed And had your Aldermen and Common-Council-Men any thing of God in them they would rather seek satisfaction for all the Innocent Blood that hath been spilt than for a Personal Treaty which instead of ending your Troubles as they would make you believe will be but the beginning of new Sorrows which indeed is but just with God for as he justly punisheth Sin without respect of Persons so he requireth that all whom he hath Authorized with Power should Impartially do the like for of all the Sins and Abominations of the Land Murder and Innocent Blood chiefly of so many thousands and ten thousands is one of the most Crying Sins and Abominations and until that be done away by just satisfaction according to the Laws of God and Man there is no appearance of any well-grounded Peace whereof the Scots and their Confederates so much boast but rather of utter Ruine to all the Three Nations For as the Lives of Saul and Ahab were taken the one for sparing Agag King of Amaleck and the other Benhadad King of Assyria so it is as likely and possible as it is just and equitable That God will in the first place so deal with those who have justly accused the Grand Enemy of our Peace if they instead of Prosecution make as unjust an Agreement contrary to the Revealed Will of God 1 Sam. Chap. 15. ver 8. and 1 Kings Chap. 20. ver 42. and particularly in Isaiah Chap. 14. verses 18.19 20 21. where he expresly tells us All the Kings of the Nations even all of them lye in Glory every one in his own House But Thou art cast out of thy Grave like an abominable Branch and as the Rayment of those that are slain thrust through with a Sword that go down to the Stones of the Pit as a Carcase trodden under foot Thou shalt not be joyned with them in Burial because observe how directly the Villain turns the point of the Sword of the Spirit of the Word of God against the Kings Heart to incourage the Regicides to pierce it with the Sword of Usurpation thou hast destroyed thy Land and slain thy People the Seed of evil doers shall never be renowned Prepare Slaughter for his Children for the Iniquity of their Fathers that they may not rise nor possess the Land This is the Voice of the Conscience of Separation and how convincingly well it pleads fot the Kindness and Esteem of all Loyal Subjects and for the Favour and Indulgence of Crowned Heads let this Paper be an Eternal Witness If this be Conscience all People but Kings more especially had need to insert it into their Litany From the Tender Conscience of Dissenting Separatists Libera Nos Domine And most assuredly if the True Religion of Christ and his Apostles teach and enjoyn all men for Conscience sake and under the Penalty of Eternal Damnation to be Subject to Lawful Kings and Governors though Heathens Infidels and Idolaters as Nero was when that Command was imposed nay and a most cruel Persecutor too that must needs be a False Religion and an Evil and Wicked Conscience which does not only teach Rebellion but is so Loud and Clamorous to incite Subjects contrary to all the Obligations and Laws of God Nature and Nations to seek the Ruine Death and Destruction of their Lawful a Just Religious and Christian King But the Faction who now were absolutely resolved upon the Kings Death were not content with their Pens to incite the People to expect it but that they might accomplish their Execrable purpose they fell again to Purging and Impeaching such Gentlemen as had but the suspicion of Loyalty or had done any thing towards a Personal Treaty And Skippon who from a pitiful Waggoner under Sir Francis Vere had by his lucky Rebellion advanced to be a Major General a Member of the Commons and Governor of the City Moved That all Personal Treaters might be Excluded So said so done and no sooner said and done and the Coast on that side clear but it was Moved in the House to proceed Capitally against the King Whereupon Cromwel the most Superlative Hypocrite in Nature by whose forelaid Contrivance all this Affair was pre-concerted stood up and as if he had been surprized said That if any Man moved this upon Design he should think him the Greatest Traytor in the World but since Providence and Necessity had cast them upon it he should pray God to bless their Counsels though he was not provided on the sudden to give them Counsel in so Weighty an Affair However upon this Motion An Ordinance for the Tryal of the King was immediately brought in Read and Passed that very day and the next being the 28 th of December 1648. it was carried up to the Lords for their Concurrence But the Remainder of that House how Undutyful soever they had formerly been yet most of them for all had not had so much Courage and Honour left as would not permit them for their Own and the sake of their Posterity to give their Content to that Ordinance which by utterly stopping the Fountain of all Honour must render them who derived theirs from thence not only most Ingrateful but Infamous in all future Ages And therefore after the Reading of it This Ordinance was by the Major part Rejected and the House Adjourned themselves for seven days This Counterbuff so little expected by the Faction who thought they had humbled the whole Nation into that abject state of Cowardly Slavery that none could be found so hardy as to oppose them did wonderously Gall and Sting these Conscientious Traytors but their Zeal or rather Pride and Ambition were now at the Spring-Tide and being swell'd by the Tempest of Absolute Power they were resolved to surmount all difficulties and oppositions and being about to Cut
Impunity at least from the Multitude of Offenders which when they have gained they are not sparing of their secret Menaces how unsafe it may be to Exasperate and how Impolitique for the Government by compelling them to Obedience to force them to extremities No sooner have they gained this Point and that they apprehend that the Scale is turned and that the Government of which they before stood in so much Fear begins now justly to be in fear of them but they presently become Insolent in their Actions Seditious in their words Frequent in open Menaces and Bold Petitioners to their Prince for such Favours and Indulgences as they are well assured if he grants he must be ruined and if he denyes they are resolved to endeavour by Force to extort them from him and the Sum of all their Desires at the last centring in their being intrusted with the Power of the Sword the difference at last comes to fall under the Fatal Decision and Arbitrement of the Sword And how matters must be managed when they come to that dismal Period and are referred to the determination of that Vmpire I think little need to be said and it is yet too fresh in memory to be again repeated most certainly War and especially a Civil War can never go unattended by the calamitous Legions of Misery Ruine Oppression Murder Desolations and all the Licentious Mischiefs which the Rude and Mercenary Spirits of which the Inferior Military Men are always composed can be guilty of This is the Rare texture of the Spiders Web of Separation in the Centre whereof the Devil of Rebellion sits Enthroned and though the out-lines of the Circumference seem all composed of Innocence Purity and Reformation yet when once men come but to touch and buz about the smallest Cords of this Fatal Net like foolish Flies they are intangled and caught and the farther they proceed and the more they strive the more are they wrapped and inclosed in the Snares of the Devil Thus does Separation begin with mistaken Zeal for Religion which by easie steps insensibly transports men to defend one Errour by a thousand and to commit the most horrid impieties and most dreadful sins to support and maintain that which they call their Religion Thus have we seen the Tears of the Widows and heard the Cries of the Orphans robbed of their Husbands Parents and Estates for the Glory of God We have heard the groaning of the Prisoners and those appointed to die we have seen so many Loyal free-Free-Subjects without and against Law Reason and Humanity brought to Axes Gibbets and Halters and all pretended to be done for God's Righteous Cause and Glory Robbing of Churches and defacing of Temples Crimes which Heathen Idolaters would have blush'd at were all for the Glory of God too and the Honour of his Cause Nay there is scarce that horrible kind of Impiety Blasphemy or any sort of Wickedness to be named which was not committed during the late Rebellion under this Pretence and the most barbarous and inhumane Outrages which the afflicted Royalists suffered from these pretended Saints are so great and many as it is impossible to recount them all which were so far from being punished by the Vsurping Powers that they were encouraged applauded justified and rewarded as acceptable Services to God and the Parliament Even Cruelty was become so great a Virtue that it was one of the choicest subjects of Discourse and with which the Boanergeses of the Faction were wont from the suffering Pulpit to entertain the People and Prophane the Temples of the God of Peace with Exhortations to War and Blood Well might the God of Peace and Purity send that dismal Fire of London to purge those Temples whose Beams and Stones had been so tainted by the Leprous breath of Rebellious Preachers that no whiting or scraping according to the Mosaick Method of cleansing Leprous Houses was sufficient to cleanse them so as to be fit for the offering up of the Sacrifices of Prayers and Praises to the everlasting Prince of Peace or to have the Holy Dove condescend to dwell among men and assist their Devotions in those Holy Places And that I may not seem falsly to accuse them I will give two or three Instances of this Bloody Divinity though I could produce a thousand and they who delight to paddle among such Bloody Tenents may be sufficiently furnished out of the Printed Sermons of the late Times a considerable Collection of which may with little pains be seen in my very Excellent Friend the Malleus Schismaticorum Mr. L'Estranges first and second Books of Dissenters Sayings under the Heads of Reformation by Blood and The War Justified c. Cut down the Malignants so was the Royal Party named with the Sword of Justice Root them out and consume them with Fire that no root may spring again Walker's Sermon Jan. 29. 1644. If the Devil himself had fill'd the Pulpit that Old Walker who like a Roaring Lion goes to and fro seeking whom he may devour could not certainly in fewer words have expressed more Comprehensive Cruelty or a more Barbarous Thirst after Humane Blood But you shall hear another There is no dallying with God now saith Case much delay hath been used already too much God is angry and he seems to ask this once more Will you strike Will you execute Judgment or will you not Tell me for if you will not I will I will have the Enemies Blood and yours too if you will not execute Vengeance upon Delinquents for the Day of Vengeance is in my heart and the year of my Redeemed is come Isa 63. Case before the Commons 1644. Never could the Lips sure of any who pretended to fear the Divinity which they ador'd except a Presbyterian's dare to affront him by such a positive audacious and blasphemous Prosopopeia herein shewing himself a false Prophet by putting on his Horns of Iron and pushing on every side of him for Blood and Slaughter never did any wretched and uninspired Mortal so presumptuously and peremptorily undertake to speak the Soveraign will and pleasure of the Merciful Creator as this bold Schismatick does in this most sanguinary Decree as if he had been admitted into the Cabinet Council with the Almighty and had not only out-gon St. Paul who travelled to the Third Heavens but had received a more ample Commission than that Apostle to relate what the other tells us 2 Cor. Cap. 12. Ver. 4. was unspeakable and not lawful for a Man to utter But God be praised who hath assured us by the Mouths of his Inspired Servants the Prophets that he hath no Pleasure in the Death of his Enemies as this false Prophet would have us believe and hereby we may easily discover that it was he who was a Murderer from the beginning who inspired them with these Bloody Doctrines and this Method of abusing Scripture at which we know he has a most notable Talent But if any Person desire to see a Summary
will clear me of it I will not I am in Charity God forbid that I should lay it on the Two Houses of Parliament there is no necessity of either I hope they are free of this Guilt For I do believe that ill Instruments between them and me have been the chief Cause of all this Bloodshed So that by way of speaking as I find my self clear of this I hope and pray God that they may too Yet for all this God forbid that I should be so ill a Christian as not to say that God's Judgments are just upon me many times he does pay Justice by an unjust Sentence that is ordinary I will only say this That an unjust Sentence that I suffered to take effect is punished now by an unjust Sentence upon me That is So far I have said to shew you that I am an Innocent Man Now for to shew you that I am a good Christian I hope there is a good Man that will bear me witness that I have forgiven all the World and even those in particular that have been the chief causers of my Death Who they are God knows I do not desire to know I pray God forgive them But this is not all my Charity must go further I wish that they may repent for indeed they have committed a great Sin in that Particular I pray God with St. Stephen that this be not laid to their Charge Nay not only so but that they may take the right way to the Peace of the Kingdom For my Charity commands me not only to forgive particular men but my Charity commands me to endeavour to the last gasp the Peace of the Kingdom So Sirs I do wish with all my Soul and I do hope there is some here will carry it further that they may endeavour the Peace of the Kingdom Now Sirs I must shew you both how you are out of the way and will put you in a way First You are out of the way For certainly all the way you ever have had yet as I could find by any thing is in the way of Conquest Certainly this is an ill way for Conquest Sir in my opinion is never just except there be a good just Cause either for matter of wrong or just Title and then if you go beyond it the first Quarrel that you have to it that makes it unjust at the end that was just at the first But if it be only matter of Conquest then it is a great Robbery as a Pyrate said to Alexander the Great That he was the great Robber he was but a petty Robber And so Sir I do think the way that you are in is much out of the way Now Sir for to put you in the way believe it you will never do right nor God will never prosper you until you give God his Due the King his Due that is My Successors and the People their Due I am as much for Them as any of you You must give God his Due by Regulating rightly his Church according to his Scripture which is now out of Order For to set you in a way particularly now I cannot but only this a National Synod freely Called freely Debating among themselves must settle this when that every Opinion is freely and clearly heard For the King indeed I will not Then turning to a Gentleman that touched the Axe he said Hurt not the Axe that may hurt me For the King The Laws of the Land will clearly instruct you for that therefore because it concerns my own Particular I only give you a Touch of it For the People And truly I desire their Liberty and Freedom as much as any body whomsoever but I must tell you that their Liberty and Freedom consists in having of Government those Laws by which their Life and their Goods may be most their own It is not for having share in Government Sir that is nothing pertaining to them a Subject and a Sovereign are clear different things And therefore until they do that I mean that you do put the People in that Liberty as I say certainly they will never enjoy themselves Sirs it was for this that now I am come here If I would have given way to an Arbitrary way for to have all Laws changed according to the power of the Sword I needed not to have come here and therefore I tell you and I pray God it be not laid to your Charge that I am the MARTYR of the People In troth Sirs I shall not hold you much longer for I will only say this to you That in truth I could have desired some little time longer because that I would have put this that I have said in little more order and a little better digested than I have done and therefore I hope you will excuse me I have delivered my Conscience I pray God that you do take those courses that are best for the good of the Kingdom and your own Salvation Then the Bishop said Though it be very well known what your Majesties Affections are to the Protestant Religion yet it may be expected that You should say somewhat for the Worlds satisfaction in that Particular Whereupon the King replied I thank you very heartily My Lord for that I had almost forgotten it In troth Sirs My Conscience in Religion I think is very well known to all the World and therefore I declare before you all That I die a Christian according to the Profession of the Church of England as I found it left me by my Father and this honest man I think will witness it Then turning to the Officers He said Sirs Excuse me for this same I have a good Cause and I have a gracious God I will say no more Then to Col. Hacker he said Take care that they do not put me to pain And Sir this and it please you But a Gentleman coming near the Axe the King said Take heed of the Axe pray take heed of the Axe And to the Executioner he said I shall say but very short Prayers and when I thrust out my hands Then he called to the Bishop for his Cap and having put it on asked the Executioner Does my Hair trouble you Who desired him to put it all under his Cap which as he was doing by the help of the Bishop and the Executioner he turned to the Bishop and said I have a good Cause and a gracious God on my side The Bishop said There is but one Stage more which though turbulent and troublesome yet it is a very short one you may consider it will soon carry you a very great way it will carry you from Earth to Heaven and there you shall find to your great Joy the Prize you hasten to a Crown of Glory The King adjoyns I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown where no disturbance can be no disturbance in the world Bishop You are exchanged from a Temporal to an Eternal Crown A good
Murdered him but also by not hindring and preventing the doing of it For it is a most certain Truth Qui non prohibet cum potest jubet For instance Two Thieves bind an honest Man and rob him one is for dispatching him out of the way that he may not ever be in a capacity to prosecute them the other pretends he does not so well approve of that last Extremity while they are in the contest the honest Mans Servant comes up and finding his Master in that condition puts himself in a posture to attempt his Rescue now he who was pretendedly against the Murder though he could well enough dispence with the Robbery if he had meant sincerely ought rather to have assisted the Loyal Servant in his Generous and Dutiful Design and it had then been easie to have delivered the despoiled Prisoner at least from the danger of Death but instead of this he joyns with his former Companion and assists him first to dispatch the Servant who indeavoured his Masters Deliverance and then sits him down while his Companion sends his Fetter'd Master to keep him Company Now do I appeal to God and Men whether both these men were not involved in equal guilt as well he who help'd to bind disarm and rob the Master and opposed the honest indeavour of his Servant to deliver him as he who actually imbrued his Hands in their innocent Blood The Case is exactly the same but under this more hainous aggravation that Royal Blood is much more valuable and Sacred than that which runs in Common veins The Zealous Presbyterian Saints began the late Rebellion and the Independents and other Schismaticks being associated with them in that Traiterous Combination or the Solemn League and Covenant they joyntly and unanimously prosecuted the War and by murdering of such of his Loyal Subjects as out of Duty and Conscience came to his assistance having subdued his Forces they got his Person into their Power The Independents having in the mean time gotten the Ascendant of Power over the Presbyterians were absolutely for assuring their Usurpation by the King's death on the other side the Presbyterians more out of detestation of the Independents who now began to deride their Discipline and have their Blew-Cap-Reformation as they termed it in the utmost contempt and hatred than out of true Loyalty and Duty to the King were for shackling of His Majesty with Parliament Fetters and so to let him live hoping under the protection of his Authority and Name to re-establish their own Power and subdue the Independents And for this purpose was all the noise of a Personal Treaty with the King during his Confinement at Cairsbrook Castle in the Isle of Wight in which if they had meant honourably and sincerely they might have had such Conditions as would have brought sufficient advantage and reputation both to their Cause and Interest But so stiff were they in their Demands and so cautious to put strong and lasting Fetters upon His Majesty that the whole Treaty came to nothing In the mean time the Royalists seeing the gasping condition of the King and Monarchy and that nothing but the most abject Vassallage was to be expected from those Men who were resolved to make their King a Royal Slave they summoned their scattered Force to make one Vigorous Attempt for his deliverance Now had the Presbyterians joyned in that generous Design in all humane probability the King had been rescued from his Captivity among the Independents by which means they might have obtained honourable Conditions of Oblivion Security and Accommodation for the Present and Reputation for the Future But so far were they from this that mortally hating the Loyal Party they contributed all that lay in their power to assist the Independent Army under Fairfax or indeed Cromwel for the other was but a Cypher utterly to ruine and subdue the slender Remains of Loyalty which had taken Arms in Kent and Essex which when it was accomplished by the surrender of Colchester and the Execution of the Noble Capel Lisle and Lucas the Independents fell presently upon their Bloody Project of cutting off the King and subverting the Monarchy which they also effected the Presbyterians all this while sitting still and looking on Whereas had they ever heartily opposed such a detestable Wickedness their Party was then so considerable that with the Addition of the Loyal Interest which was not so dead but that upon the least hope it would have revived and joyned them they might have given such a shock to the Independent Faction that they would difficultly if ever have been able to accomplish or execute their Execrable Design against the Life of the King but so far were they from this that there was not the least Attempt to oppose the Traytors or prevent the Treason Nay had the Rabble of the City and Suburbs which were much at the Devotion of the Presbyterian Interest had but half so much Zeal to hurry down to Westminster to oppose the Murder of the King as they had before times to oppose him and cry up Priviledge of Parliament in the beginning of the Tumults it is very disputable whether Cromwel with all his black Myrmidons would have had the Courage to strike the Fatal Stroke But the Presbyterians are only Couragious in Rebellion but perfect Cowards in the Cause of Loyalty But to these little palliating shifts to which the Presbyterians and Independents have been reduced to varnish and guild over their Infamous Actions they have now very lately found out another and that is to vindicate themselves by charging the whole Contrivance and Execution of this hellish Murder of the late King upon the Papists And though nothing in the World is more ridiculous or remote from the truth in most demonstrable Matter of Fact yet it is incredible how much the belief of this senseless Fiction and Romance has gained upon this new Generation of the Vulgar Proselytes of the Dissenters And I speak it of my own knowledge that in Discourse with divers of them when I have made use of this Argument of the Wickedness and Infamy of the most Eminent Patrons of their Religion who as Mr. Baxter confesses of himself when he tells us I have been in the heat of my Zeal so forward to Changes and Ways of Blood that I fear God will not let me have a hand in the Building of his Church Hypocrisie unveil'd R. Baxter 's Letters to Dr. Hill pag. 11. must needs be ill men and worse Guides to Heaven and have from their guilt of the Kings Blood indeavoured to reclaim them from following the Witchcraft of such dangerous Principles and to bring them home to the Communion of the Loyal and Primitively obedient Church of England I have been amazed to hear with what confidence they have vindicated their Leaders and Party from the least share or imputation of the guilt of that Horrid Murder and averred with as much confidence that the late King was murdered by the
Papishes as they call them as if it had been true beyond all contradiction I have no design to turn Advocate for the Romish Religion and profess my self to have a most deep detestation and abhorrence for Sanguinary Traiterous Seditious Disloyal and King-killing or deposing Principles in any Religion or Perswasion whatsoever and do firmly believe that That Religion which holds justifies or tolerates such Principles is so far Erroneous False and Damnable But this being a perfect piece of Leger-de-main purposely calculated to deceive the Common-people into a good opinion of the worst and most dangerous Enemies of the Monarchy the Dissenters and thereby to enable them still to spread the Venom of their Principles under the Vail of Innocence and to make this Innocence appear by transferring the Guilt of their former Actions upon others I think it of so mischievous Consequence that it ought to be obviated and the falshood detected and made evident by the Beams of most irrefragable Truth And therefore for ever to silence all these foolish and frivolous Arts and Palliations and to take away the Fig-leaves which these guilty sinners have so Artificially patch'd together and to shew to the whole World from their Own Memoirs that it was the very real Presbyterians Independents and other Sectaries their Associates and no other who were actually guilty of the whole Scene of this horrible Murder of the King The Orignal Journal of the whole proceedings of that detestable Murder and the previous Tryal which was drawn up by the Order of the Regicides and presented then to the Commons-House and there publickly read and approved for a true Record and which is attested under the Hand of Phelps the Clerk to that pretended High Court of Justice having by pure accident shall I call it or particular Providence come to my hands and having the opportunity to take a true Copy or Transcript of it I thought my self bound in Conscience by the Duty which I owe to my King and the Peace and happiness of my Country to make it publick that if it were possible all true English-men might be made sensible of the horrid Guilt and danger of such Men and such Principles and so far consult their own and the Interest of their Posterity as to endeavour such a true and thorough Reformation as can only make the present and future Ages happy which can never be hoped for so long as the Whoredoms and Witchcrafts of this Painted Jezabel of the Old Presbyterian and Independent Cause are continued and cherished among us And most assuredly it is the Duty of every good Christian and Loyal Subject to contribute the utmost of his endeavours to suppress the Growth of such dangerous Principles as drive men so furiously headlong with the pretences of Religion to the most daring and desperate Extremities of Treason and Rebellion and to the very Precipice of Damnation I do not herein pretend to exceed the Limits of a private Person or hereby foolishly to undertake to prescribe Measures to the Government in the Management of this Important Affair but within my own Sphere I cannot but think my self and all other private Persons according to their Capacity Opportunities and Power under an indispensable Obligation to oppose and indeavour to stop the Impetuous Torrent of these wicked bloody and unpeaceful Opinions and Principles which have once before drowned this Nation in Bloodshed and Misery and who by their swelling and breaking over all the banks of Law Duty and Obedience threaten us with continual danger and apprehensions of a more cruel and dreadful Inundation and I esteem my self warranted to oppose them by their Example since the diligence assiduity and restless endeavours with which they do to a single man of the Party pursue their Ends and Wicked Interest makes it absolutely the Duty as well as Interest of all such as are Loyal who love their Country Church and King as heartily unanimously and zealously to make head against them and endeavour to crush this Cockatrice in the Egg which otherwise will most certainly disclose a fiery flying Serpent And I cannot see any Expedient so probable to succeed as the exposing them naked and stript of their Artificial Trappings Painting and Counterfeit Gems of Sanctity and Innocence with which they are wont to impose upon the Minds of credulous and easie People I shall only therefore bring them to be surveyed by the light of Nature Reason Interest and Religion and that I may do them the most Impartial Justice shew them to the World in the Glasses of their own making and if there they do not like the Figure and Image which they make they ought only to quarrel their own deformities which will not in any Glass except that of their own flattering and false Opinion afford them any Shape less Monstrous and Ugly And I verily perswade my self that were the Common-People of this Nation throughly instructed by those whose Duty it is to perform that Charitable Office in the black Consequences which necessarily naturally and unavoidably follow the Principles of those Leading Men of the Separation and made sensible how much they are the Enemies to our Peace and Happiness both here and hereafter even Nature and Humanity would teach Men to abandon them as the most dangerous Cheats and cruel Impostors and they who now admire the Beauty of these Painted Sepulchres the Seditious Meeting Houses were they aware of the Devil's Trap-Doors of Rebellion and Damnation which are there planted would be more cautious of crouding into them And were it possible as I think it is easie if it were vigorously indeavoured to convince the deluded Vulgar who have these Mens Persons in such admiration and who are so apt to be inchanted with the Songs of these bewitching Syrens that under all those fair Words and sanctimonious Pretences this Whining about Gospel Liberty and Persecution for Conscience this Puking at decent Ceremonies and more decent and beautiful Order and Government this bellowing against Antichrist Popery and Prelacy there is all this while concealed the Ruine of their Country the Destruction of the Government the Subversion of the Laws Sedition Tumults Insurrections Murder Fire and Sword Slavery and Infamy and at the last Eternal Damnation and endless Torments certainly they would not only forsake but detest and abhor those Impostors and Deceivers Now all this is as demonstratively true as to the matter of former Fact and future Consequence as God is true and just and as that is True and Canonical Scripture which from the Mouth of Gods infallible Spirit assures us without any Limitation or Reservation without any Exception or Dispensation That whosoever resist the Higher Powers resist the Ordinance of God and shall receive to themselves Damnation Now if Rebellion be resisting the Higher Powers as certainly if that be not nothing is and if we be able to prove those of the Separation to a single Man of them Guilty of it either in Fact or in Principles or in