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	liberty_n	parliament_n	4,708	5	6.3048	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96721	Respublica Anglicana or The historie of the Parliament in their late proceedings Wherein the Parliament and Army are vindicated from the calumnies cast upon them in that libellous History of independency, and the falshoods, follies, raylings, impieties, and blasphemies, in that libell detected. The necessity and lawfullnesse of secluding the Members, laying aside the King, and House of Lords, is demonstrated. The lawfullnesse of the present power is proved, and the just and necessary grounds of the Armies march into Scotland are represented. Published for publicke satisfaction. The author G:W	G. W.; Wither, George, 1588-1667, attributed name.	1650 (1650)	Wing W30A; Thomason E780_25; ESTC R204087	43,104	58

which should be sacred among Members of the House and to accuse Members for what they did in the House though he bawl against the Army for impeaching the 11. Members upon actions in the House and decryes it as the greatest breach of privilege and violation of the Covenant and yet he averrs He hath adventured to vindicate our Religion Laws and Liberties with his pen in pursuance of the Covenant as if it were lawfull for him to say and do any thing it is a breach of Covenant in the Army it is a pursuance of it in him Blush ye Heavens and tremble O Earth at the dismall impudence of this Wretch who dares thus openly take that Covenant in his mouth and professe to have taken it which he so horribly hath broken as may thus appear 1. He every where cries up the most desperate Anti-covenanters as Montrosse one whom the whole State and Kick of Scotland have sentenced as the most bloody Excommunicate Traytor and Rebell 2. He admires and praises Hamilton who by a Malignant Faction and force overswayed the Parliament of Scotland exercising the highest tyrauny and oppression over those Covenanters who would not joyn with him in that horrid violation of the Covenant the Invasion of England and conjunction with Langdale and his desperate crue of Anti-covenanters yea and justifies that action 3. He averres it was a vain thing to desire the late King to take the Covenant who could not take it but he should prophane Gods name and ferswear himself 4. He professes himself opposite both to the Presbyterians and Independents as the common disturbers of the Church railes against the Presbyterian Ministers and the Assembly calling them wicked Simons that slander the godly Onias to out him of his Priests place 5. He jeeres them and their Government saying The popish Clergy draw all civill affairs publike and private under their jurisdistion and cognizance quatenus there is peccatum in all humane actions the Presbyterians quatenus there is scandalum what oddes peccatum is the Mother scandalum is the Daughter Thus he is not ashamed to abuse the most sacred tie a Solemn oath what regard then is to be given to his counterfeit pretence of making a conscience of Oaths all those positive and absolute articles which contein the main end of the Covenant are nothing with him but that clause for preservation of the Kings Person though limited with a subordination to Religion and Liberty is so sacred because for his turne that it must be kept though contrary to the words as well as meaning even in destruction of Religion and Liberty Thus having mocked God he descends to abuse men and those not of the ordinary sort but Members of Parliament the High and Supreme Court as in his Century which he stiles A List of the names of the Members of the House observing which are Officers of the Army contrary to the self-denying Ordinance together with such summes of money Offices and Lands as they have given to themselves for service done and to be done against the King and Kingdom This is a rare fellow to professe he hath served the Parliament faithfully and that he hath not changed his Principles but should we admit it to be as he saith may not the house dispense with one of their own Ordinances but behold the jugler For first there was not one Member continued in command but the now L. Gen Cromwell and that upon the entreaty of the Army yet he writes as if they had their commands still The Ordinance did not say every one that had a Command should leave the House but that every one of the House should leave their Commands and so they did Here is one juggle Then he musters a great many who have been chosen into the House since the Ordinance and end of the first Warre and had commands in their severall Counties whose commands ceased of course and where are these touched in the Ordinance Others there are who being Officers of the Army were admitted into the House upon the late elections and never questioned for their commands but this peremptory wrech who would seem to understand the Ordinance better than the whole House that made it yet knows wel enough the reason of that Ordinance as having had a great hand in working the mischief which that was made to prevent The emulations of our severall Commanders had nigh ruin'd all there was no way better to remove the difference and quench the flame than by calling home all from command thus none could plead an injury his Rivall being in the same capacity with himself this was done and it proved excellent physick but the cure being done what need of the medicine Sure this Fellow himself would think that man mad that should rail to see another that is recovered leave his physick potions especially with his Doctors Licence and yet this this Bedlam doth For the Offices they were void some by death others by Delinquency and is it not more just more beneficiall for the publike yea more like a Parliament to bestow than sell places but the wretch bought his in the Exchequer and envies therefore at the good of his Neighbours who did not so And if it be fitter to bestow than sell publike Offices to whom could they better give such than to honest men and whom could the Parliament be more confident of than such whose integrity and love to their Country was seen by them every day both in their Speeches within dores and actions without and truly I am induced to thinke the better of their choice because I finde not Clem in the Lift For if we cannot say that no Knaves get Offices yet we may affirme that all Knaves did not as for Example old Clem's mouth is not stopt For money and Lands was it not the highest justice to reward those Gentlemen who had suffered out of the Estates of such upon whom his great Master had bestowed theirs besides what thing so barbarous so greedy so envious so like old little tutchy Clem would accuse a Parliament for rewarding their Members for their valor and fidelity in defending their Conntryes liberty His great Master could make Rupert Duke of Cumberland for murdering and plundering in England Montrosse a Marquesse for killing and and robbing in Scotland and Antrim a Marquesse for joyning with the Rebels in Ireland besides this beggarly fellow a Lord that a Baronet another a Knight and bestow honest Gentlemens estates on them yet we hear nothing of this Clem makes no Centuries of them Alas Digby deserved to be Secretary for penning so many Declarations wherein God and man were mocked in Print as much as in Clems book and Nichols merited as much for lying as fast as Clem for his great Master But the Parliament cannot bestow a reward on those who have ventured their lives and fortunes in their Countryes defence who have thought nothing too dear to part with for Religion and Liberty who with the hazard

of their private have sav'd the publike but they must be branded by him with the Mark of wasters and destroyers of the Publique Treasure it is reward enough he thinks for any who have served the Parliament if they prosper and overcome to obtein the Title of Stubbornly stout as he rewards the Lord General Essex or of Brutish valour as the Lord Generall Fairfox If they are overpowred and will be so prudent as to make a vertue of necessity and do what they may if they cannot do what they would with the Title of Coward and Traytor as he did Col. Fines See the irrationall barbarity of this fellow who when he pleaseth will have every thing Cowardice and treachery under the degree of Desperatenesse As in Col. Nathaniell Fiennes Case and when he lists again call the most sober valour Brutish and Stubborn stoutnes but one would think one so implacable in punishing what he will pretend a breach of trust should in reason be ready to recompence a gallant discharging of it yet you see it is trechery cowardice to deliver up a Town to the late Kings forces though not tenable and upon honourable terms in one and yet in others to beat them and withstand them is service done against the King and Kingdom He tels us in this Century That he might end as he began that every Member of the House of Commons being in all 516. are by their own order allowed 4 l. a week a man which amounts to 110000 l. a year This wretch knowes they never received it unlesse some few and that in the very heat of the War whose Estates were under the power of the Enemy nay not 50. though he amplifies the number to 516. and all this he doth only to make the people believe the common Treasure was wasted on themselves you may see then the villany of this Impostour He sets also this * mark before their names whó he terms Recruiters illegally elected by the new Great Seal the power of the Army and voices of the Souldiery and are unduly returned and serve accordingly yet when the Generall Councel of Officers in their answer say That by the endeavours of some old Malignants and by practises used in new elections there came in a floud of Burgesses that are either Malignants or Newers then Clem is of another mind maintains their Elections and cryes out of breach of Privilege Of the truth of which we may judge by Clem who was one of that flood and I bleeve the top the scumme for Malignancy but if contradictons were wonders in Clems Book he had been a greater wonder worker than Simon Magus Hocus Pocus or the whole gang of Sorcerers and Iuglers But let us grant him what he saith and he will marre all for Clem ●ryane and most of the secluded Members who bawl at their outing were Recruiters how durst they they sit in the House or act as Members of Parliament and what had he or Pryn to doe to protest against the Army for secluding them who were but Milites soldiers to guard the King and House of Lords as Pryn excellently of late hath found out The Army only hindred Pryn from going to sit among the Commons whom they thought the Representative of the People and upon his snarling and ranting words detein'd him a while If he would but have desired a Pike and marched to guard the dore of the House of Lords he might have had it and leave to have stood as long as he would But to return to Clem was it not rather a breach of Privilege in Clem to offer to sit who knew he ought not than in the Army to pull him out thus you see he hath destroyed the strongest Pillar in his whole fabrick and removed the greatest block of offence nay proved that here to be the highest act of Iustice which he every where else rayls at as the highest breach of Privilege for the Army which was raised to defend the Parliament did onely free it of a multitude of intruders yea such a multitude as overpowring the rest were Iudges in their own cause and so not to be voted out by a fewer And thus you may see the Armies innocency the very bitterest Enemy himself being Iudge And now Gentlemen that this Century might not be unlike the rest of the Book he adds lying to jugling and sets his mark on Mr. Blackiston one who was a Member from the first nay he gives himself the lie in the following scandall and confesses as much saying He got himself returned by the Scotish Garrison Which lay there when this Parliament was summoned thus you see he piles them three stories high as if he were affraid he should want Room to lye in this damnable aedifice But now to leave this and come to his rayling And truly Gentlemen you will guess that he took the opportunity of some fit of the Gout or Stone that he might be mad enough to rage in the composure of this Book which is as very a compendium of snarling without modesty sence or reason as ever was comprized within the bounds of a Calves-skin but it hath allwayes beene observed that those who want truth and reason are accustomed to bluster in railing and false accusations Thus did old Sathan in his dispute with Michael thus the Heathen did aginst the Christians the Papists against the Protestants the Cabs against the Parliament and thus doth Clem deal with his betters Gentlemen read on and you will never wonder that House is called Hell which hath such a devilish Landlord Clem in his Epistle would fain cheat us into a belief that he railes not against the Body of the House or the Army when he averres That the late King had the just cause from the beginning calls them Rebells and Traytors who have overthrown Religion Laws Liberties and the ancient fundamentall being of Parliaments all which the King he saith took up defensive arms to maintain Note here he not only gives the Parliament but the late King too the lie who hath in Print avowed the contrary The Parliament in the first war he stiles two Juntoes Presbyterian and Independent who couzened pilled and poled the people consuming the publike Treasure on themselves the Members are Iuntomen Hocus Pocusses State-Mountebanks the County Committees are Zanies and Jack-puddings with him and all this when they were as he is forced to confesse a full and free PARLIAMENT The Members chosen in after the first War he stiles Recruiters who were illegally elected unduly returned and served accordingly Clem was one of these and so measures their Corne by his owne Bushell The present Parliament he calls Col. Prides Dray horses Trayters Tyrants Thieves Col Prides Parliament c. The Councel of State he calls A pack of forty Knaves this for the generall besides he hath a bout with every Member almost in particular The Lord Gen. Essex a man as mild as gallant and whose onely fault was that he was too easie to

than on the Title page but I suppose he did it to make the Title Page bear it's part and that it might be suitable to the rest of the Book for falshood And now I come to his contradictions and shall make his Book confute it self as I have made it confute his Title and among many take these This Fellow who was chosen into the House sate there and professeth to have been on the Parliaments part who cryes out Part 1 p 15 they have changed their Principles and affirmes that he had served the Parliament faithfully from the beginning had taken as much pains and runne as many hazards as most men in their service wherein he had lost his health and above 7000 l. of his Estate that he contented himself to serve his Country gratis Note here that he accounts the Parliament cause the Cause of his Countrey and yet is he not ashamed to maintain That the King neither ought nor could part with his Negative Voice and Militia And can any man hold this who hath served the Parliament from the beginning affirm he stands to his first Principles when the Militia and Negative Voice were the only two points in open Contest between the King and Parliament upon which the War was grounded for the King whatever he meant yet promised fair about Religion and redress of grievances Or can Clem shake hands with Pryn unlesse as Herod and Pilate once before did to Crucifie Christ again in his Members Thus he saith a Phoenix arose out of his Majesties Ashes that excellent issue of his Brain P. 2. p. 138 intituled The Portraicture of his Sacred Majesty c. a Book full fraught with Wisdom Divine and Humane yet the very first Page of that Book and the first Page of his so interfere that one gives the other the Lye For his affirms that at last by providence his Majesty was necessitated to call a Parliament That avers that he called it of his own choice and inclination as thinking the right way of Parliaments most safe for his Crown and best pleasing to his People And for my part had old Clem gon on as he here begun I would never have taxed him for falshood Behold then that unlesse lying be a piece of Wisdom Divine and Humane which yet by his practice one would be easily perswaded to believe Clem thinks he hath not only contradicted himself poor Knave but his Great Masters young Phoenix forsooth unmannerly slave But if it be such a Phoenix it arose out of some others ashes for the King was not burnt neither as yet is crumbled to dust and if it be such a Pallas yet it looks as more likely to have issued from the brain of a Mercury than a love Palladis Aves birds dedicated to Pallas For my part if I should passe my judgment I must give for the latter as the more proper comparison because the Idol's triumphant Chariot is drawn by Owles And now you may see Clems Logick is as bad as his Ethicks and that there is no more truth than manners in his Propositions For unlesse contradictories can at once be both truth Clem writes miserably false but more of this will appear in his subsequent jugling which is notorious in the very first part of his Hisiory which he stiles a Mystery of the two Iuntoe's Presbyterian and Independent Here by the way I would fain know which was the Parliament Clem served sith the Presbyterians and Independents were two Iunto's Prelatical fellowes there could not be then unlesse perjured for every Member had taken the Covenant If then the Presbyterians and Independents were two Iunto's and there was a Parliament it must consist of Prelaticall perjur'd persons or of such as Clem who were neither for any Religion any Doctrine or any discipline and so forsworn yea Atheists to boot and were there enough such in the House to constitute a Parliament indeed we may all rejoyce that the Army secluded them and need never wonder at the tricks they play'd there but we shall have occasion to speak more of this hereafter Again Behold how Clem who would be thought a great assertor of Parliamentary Privilege and rayles at the Army for secluding the Members here hath outed the major part if not all the Parliament and junto'd them for I am certain there was not one then in the House but professed himself either a Presbyterian or Independent though some in a more rigid others in a more moderate way In this Mystery he reckons up what he and his fellow Members did while in the House together with their good Lordships Committees Sequestrators Treasurers and whole rabble of Receivers Deceivers c. and all to bring an odium upon the Parliament for this part was written while Clem was in the House yea upon his ful and free Parliament as he is afterwards many times pleased to call it when it may serve his turn But the Mystery of this was to give the alarum to the second War and exasperate the people to joyn with the Cabs to destroy the Parliment and re-inthrone his great Master which was the only businesse Clem got into the House for yet read what he saith of them and though you cannot believe all yet you may finde something true and then tell me whether they deserved not to be plucked out whether they had not in the highest manner forfeited their trust and whether they were not as great Tyrants as Him they had outed They sate taxing and polling yet paid not their Forces they sate Voting one another money yet paid neither the publicke nor their own private debts but under the Privilege of Peers and Parliament men protected themselves and whom they lifted from all due processe of Law and that they might be sure to sit long enough they neither went about to restore the old or erect a new way of Government sed tempora mutantur Clem and his gang are unroosted the Army is constantly paid Free-quarter taken off the Navy trebled and well paid too many publique debts satisfied a Lord or a Parliament man must pay his too or may be sued and made to do it the Rebels called to a strict account in Ireland the Parliament cause vindicated in England Iustice executed on the Grand Delinquents in both a Common-wealth established and all honest true-hearted English-men if they will be secured from comming under the power of an enraged Tyrant For that which he objects That when ihe Parliament had 4 or 5. severall Armies the Tax was but 52000 l. that now it is 90000 l. per mensem Be pleased to consider these things 1. That London and the best affected Counties paid as much then or more because divers were under contribution to the Enemy 2. That admit all were reduced yet Freequarter was stil continued and many other assessments 3. We may affirm and that truly That the Parliament hath as many Souldiers now in pay in England and Ireland as they had then

though not under so many several Commanders and thrice as many Sea Forces 4. That the greatest part of the Delinquents fines which amounted to a very considerable sum came into their Coffers then 5. That the forces are now paid constantly and Free-quarter taken off and the Tax now lessened to 60000 l. per mensem As for the Excise Bishops Deans and Chapters Lands and the remaining Fines of Delinquents they are hardly sufficient to pay off debts charged in course and the Interest money the other had runne into as for the Customs they are not by farre sufficient to defray the charge of the shipping and thus you may see the validity of this cavil which may suffice to unfold one Mystery of this Hocus Pocus this Clem of no side for he would puzzle a man that eyes him not well to finde out what he is He rayles against the Independent party and the Army because they opposed the disbanding the Army saying their continuing in arms was a manifest act of Treason and Rebellion that a Schismaticall Faction in the two Honses complyed with them betraying and prostituting the very being honour and all the fundamentall rights and privileges of this and future Parliaments to an Army of Rebells who refuse to obey their Masters and disband Note here the Independent Members and the Army are to be rendred odious And yet he tels us That beside the City to aw the adjacent South and east Countries to suppress the remoter the Presbyterians kept up some inland Garrisons had the Scots and Pointz supernumerary Forces for the North and in the West under colour of sending men for Ireland they kept upon Free quarter and pay of the Countrey many supernumerary Rogiments and Troops most Cavaliers at least five times as many as they really intended to transport these were allwayes going but never gone something is and ever shall he wanting untill Sir Thomas Fairfaix his Army be disbanded and then it is thought the disguise will fall off and these supernumeraries appear a new Model'd Army these lewd supernumeraries most of which swear they will not go for Ireland vowing they will cut the throats of the Roundheads the Country that is amazed fearing they are kept on Free-quarter by a Cavalierish party for some Cavalierish designe Note here the Presbyterians are to be rayl'd at and those that p. 33. are the Houses who for the ease of the people Voted a disbanding of the Army are here a Presbyterian Iunto who would disband this Army to modell a new one whose Consciences shall not befoole their wits where matter of gain appears but be more pliable to their desires and be one of the Cords wherewith the Presbyterian Phaethous will drive their triumphant Chariot Note also the Lord Fairfax his Army which even now were Rebels and Traytors who abominated nothing more than to return to their old trades againe is here an Army excellently disciplined having the visible mark of Gods favour upon their actions and that the Houses are questioned nay termed a Iunto for endeavouring to disband them Lastly Note how old Clem would seem a great Enemy to Cavaliers and very fearfull of a Cavalierish designe only to ingratiate with honest men when there is not a more desperate Malignant slave in all Europe as his own Tenets do evidence as for example In his Exhortatory conclusion to the English Nation he avers That it is evident King Charls from the beginning took up desersive arms to maintain Religion Laws Libertyes and the ancient fundamentall being of Parliaments could a Digby or a Nicholas have said more could an Aulicus or a Prag have railed at and belyed the Parliament and Army more or have writ more false stories than this fellow hath done and yet O hee is affraid of the Cavaliers but this will appeare more plainly in our subsequent discourse But I wil first give you an History that you may more easily discern the mystery of this fellow This Clem when Bristol was delivered up to Rupert by Col. Fienns upon honourable terms had they been kept by that perfidious plunderer who so zelous who so active at lest in shew for the Parliament cause as this old Clem who accused the Governour of Cowardise and treachery for not defending that City to the uttermost extremity then forsooth the King who now hath the just cause from the beginning was an Enemy to be fought against to the last man and what was the mystery of this but to set our party together by the ears He knew Colonell Fiennes had many great and noble friends who had a mighty influence on the Earl of Essex his Army He knew that Sir William Waller and Sir Arthur Haflerigge were strongly fortified in the good opinion of the multitude and so hoped there would be some tugging But that Noble Gentleman Col. Fiennes whose innocency the Parliament hath since vindicated being contented to submit to the disgrace as chusing rather to fall alone than indanger his Country though in that act she might seem a stepmother frustrated the design in part though the animosities then created in the parties caused some fatall consequences as the losse in Cornwall the exasperated Souldiery being contented to behold their Rivals cudgell'd by the Common enemy Behold therefore who were the Incendiaries and what was the cause that enforced the Parliament to new model their Army it was Clem and such Blades though he would lay it on others You may see also the Mystery of Clems appearing for the Parliament and what his aim was in getting into the House He did first appear an eager opposit to the Cavaliers to get in among them where he might sit and give aim by discovering their Counsels to his great Master This Clem was one of the Setters who besides all other mischiefs were to betray those who faithfully and freely discharged their Trusts to their Country that when opportunity did serve CHARLES might call them to account as he usually did at the end of Parliaments as the commitment of Members evidently shewes which was so inseparable an attendant on Parliaments that a man may conceive CHARLES summoned Parliaments only to find out those who were not willing to be slaves that he might either cajole them or if Court-proof ruine them Thus were Savill Wentworth Culpepper and Digby whose publike Spirits seem'd Hobgoblings to tyrannicall interest conjured down by an Ave Marie and a little Court-holy-water and thus were Elliot Valentine Pym and Strode written in black Characters in CHARLS his Dooms-day Book and either to be destroyed in Prison or perpetually immur'd iron fetters being the Chains wherewith the Champions for thy freedom were rewarded O England But Clem being frustrated in this design He hath now published their Speeches to the Son adding and forging what he lists to render them obvious to the rage of an Enemy nursed up in slaughter his Fathers tyrannicall Principles and no doubt Mothers Religion Thus hath this fellow dared to violate that secresie

and it wil make much for us For if our Ancestors upon feeling the inconvenience and mischief thereof could take that power of taxing from them and bestow it on their own Representatives for without doubt the major part of them parted not with it of their own accord then sure it will follow that We upon the sense of the like mischief may take away the rest unlesse it can be shewed that we onely of all Englishmen must not have that power which our Ancestors had and which is allowed to all Nations and People by the Law of Nature and Reason both which are the Lawes of God and which never commanded that a whole Nation should be oppressed to maintain the lust and riot of a few Drones Solomon bids the sluggard go learn of the Ant and why may not we of the Bee which will not suffer a Drone in the Hive that perfect Hieroglyphick natures own model of a Common-wealth Quest. Is it not a great scandall and stain to Religion to cut off the King it being contrary to the doctrine of all Protestant Churches Answer Should a Cavalier put this question I would answer by another asking whether murder and assassination be not contrary to all Christianity or Morallity either what hast thou to do then with Religion so long as the murders of thy party and their assassinations are so many But if one who is not of that party or at least hath not been heretofore propound it I shall thus reply For a private person or persons to destroy and murder their Kiing or lawfull Magistrate on pretence of Religion he being a Papist c. is disclaimed by Protestants and this to shew their dissent from the Iesuited Papists who maintaine it lawfull nay meritorious to kill a Magistrate who is an Heretick that is no slave to Rome but for a Parliament and State to call a Tyrant to account is not This Doctor Willet and Paraeus upon that place in the Epistle to the Romans be subject to the higher powérs c. hold lawfull and it is confirmed by a multitude of Protestant Divines and reasons as you may see at large in a late treatise entituled The tenor of Kings and Magistrates This King James asserts Buchanan maintains lawfull and the Protestants in Scotland practised against the late Kings Grand-mother whom they not only deposed but would have beheaded had she not fled for crimes which bore no proportion with her Grand-sons who had not only broke his Oath and forfeited his Crown but out-lawed himselfe by appealing from the Law and the Iudges of Law the Supreme Court to the Sword For the most perverse cannot deny it a full and free Parliament when he first plotted and after raised Arms against it What a ridiculous thing then is it in Pryn to bring in his old mustie Records and cases in Law for defence of Him and his title nay what a deridiculous thing is it in Him to go about to overthrow all his former works with that poor shift that they were Popish Parliaments but what if they were they had not that power as they were Popish but as they were Parliaments yea English Parliaments not as Papists but as men yea English men and sure our Parliament and we are so for undoubtedly the Protestant Religion hath not destroyed Gods image in us and made us Brutes or Slaves And now Gentlemen I hope you will discern that the Army hath not only acted according to those Principles upon which they and we first engaged to wit That the King was not above Law That the Parliament was the supreme power and not onely maker but judge of Law all declared by this Parliament and asserted by Pryn but according to the principles of Reason and that universall eternall and unalterable Law of common-safety That the present Parliament and Army have discharged their trust vindicated the power of Parliaments the Nations liberty and that cause wherein all the wel-affected and religious were engaged which had they not done what a cry of innocent bloud had ascended up against them how miserable had we been and in what a slavish condition Consider whether we had not been had they don as the rest of the secluded Members in the same condition our Ancestors were in the the time of Richard 2. when in a Parliament 19th year of him adjourned to Shrewsbury the Major part of Lords wrought upon by the King and of the Commons by Bushie the Speaker looking onely upon the Kings Interest deserted the Common-weale then followed the blank Charters and those other horrid extortions which you may read and weep over in the Chronicles and then suffered those Lords and Gentlemen who had stood faithfull to their Countrey Thus might we have seen those and worse cruelties not only acted against our Civill Liberties but our Religion also and have lamented and wrung our hands over the Graves of those Worthies whom he had seen betrayed to the unmerciful Sword of an enraged Tyrant yea and cried out of and curst both Parliament and Armies treachery whose faithfullnesse now we so exclaime against And now having briefly runne through these give me leave to speake a word or two to some scruples cast into the ballance to make this Common-wealth seeme wanting in its just weight Object And first it is objected That this is rather a Military Tyrannie set up and maintained by the Sword than a just and lawfull power and therefore in Conscience it cannot be obeyed though in things indifferent nay lawfull and necessary Answer 1. To this first I shall thus reply That if this may be pleaded all Governments in their beginnings might be denyed which have allwayes been thus established and the Sword committed to the publike Ministers or Ministers of State to cut off all who shall goe about to overthrow the Government if this Plea therefore be admitted no Government could lawfully have been obeyed 2. That in our case it was impossible for any man to have expected any other for if either part prevail'd it must be by the Sword that being once appealed unto especially if we consider the malice and trechery of the Enemy which would suffer no safety longer than they could be kept at the Swords point how unhandsomely then can such an exception come from those who with might and maine called upon the people to come in to aide the Parliament yea and engaged them by Covenant to endeavour with their lives and fortunes a Reformation Suppose the King had agreed to the Propositions and been set up to hawk hunt bowle and play at Tennis whilst the Parliament managed the great and publike affairs had not this been by the Sword which not only captivated his Body but forced his minde to yeeld to part with those things which he esteemed above the bloud of so many thousands yea his very owne what would the power of the Militia have been in the Parliaments disposing other than a maintaining the Government by the Sword surely then

because that interest is not set up which these men would have only causes this objection whose basis is founded upon impossibility whereupon none can build but such as erect Castles in the air 3. Again that it is the highest imprudency for any to surmise that the Parliament when they had beaten the Enemy in the field should presently cashiere their Forces for besides the restlessenesse of the Enemy with their parties in Ireland and Scotland they were Natives not driven out but only disarmed who not only lived among us and so at hand but were so false that no tie could hold them from endeavouring our and our causes ruine how many after compositions made and oathes taken never to bear armes against the Parliament have broken both unlesse therefore they would have an Enemy first be exasperated and then us to lay our throats bare to their revengefull rage they must be ashamed of this objection which the second war is enough to confute where the Parliament cause had been utterly destroyed had it not been for the Army Lastly let one of these Objectors tell me why a Reformation gained and maintained by the Sword in England is so unlawfull which in other places is so just and pious These Objectors themselves would account that man a Papist or Popishly affected who should thus reproach the Protestants in Bohemia Germany Switzerland France the Vnited Prrvinces and Scotland yet did these maintaine their Religion and gain their Liberties by the Sword by this the Switzers cantoniz'd themselves and the Dutch became a Free-state by this the Protestant Religion was defended and the Presbyterian Government first setled in Scotland their Queen being deposed and forced to sue to save her Head for opposing it and by this the Kirk now again repaired when Episcopacy and Popery had well neare levell'd Her Lastly by this the Hamiltonian Parliament was expell'd and the present Rulers set up in Scotland For it was the Sword of our Army set them in the Saddle and the Sword of their Army that kept them in it which for this purpose hath been so often purged and re-purged by the Kirks importunity to maintein her against all her Maligners sure then though the Sea may alter the case in the rest yet methinkes a small River cannot make such a difference but that the same actions may be warranted by the same reason And now having been bold to passe Tweed I meet with another Objection Object That the sending the Army of England into Scotland is a breach of the large Treaty and Covenant and against the rules of Christianity to Invade our Neighbours thus by an offensive War Answer Though the Scots invading us taketh off the first Charge untill it be proved That Scotland had liberty to break and England still to remain bound and the Parliaments and Armies Declarations have not only shewed the equity but necessity of thus doing for this Common-wealths mere defence yet for to stop foul mouths I shall adde something 1. The Parliament could not discharge their Trust to their Countrey should they sit still and look on untill the Scots strengthened with forein aids and home-bred conspiracies and insurrections might break again in upon us robbing spoyling ravishing and murdering according to their old wont Our Merchants in the mean while being robbed our Agents assassinated and the Trade of England ruin'd by the Scots Kings instruments which are boulstered out by the Scots complying with him and promising his restauration many foreiners winking at them because doubtfull of our successe 2. What thoughts could forein Princes and States have of the Parliament should they see them maintaining a standing Army at a vast charge in England onely to wait untill the Scots please to come and invade us which besides the charge to the undoing the so late Scot-plunderd Northern Counties must weaken their repute abroad as not daring to look upon the Scots untill they shall please to force them to it Nay would not they be accounted men of little courage and lesse understanding to suffer the Scots to increase their strength reputation and provisions from abroad and not now endeavour to prevent them when their friends in France are not in a capacity to ayde them nor their Kings Pyraticall Cozen with his revolted robbers in a possibility to prey for them and when indeed the nipping this Scotch designe in the bud will be the only means to perswade Portugall and other Neighbours to use us more civilly Object But it may be replyed That the Scots intended us no hurt and would be quiet if so be we would let them alone Answer That the Scots intended to Invade us is as clear as that the Sunne shineth at Noon-day they having not only proudly engaged to seat their King in the Thrones of the other two Nations but already saucily proclaimed Him King of Great Britain and Ireland as if the Committee of Estates and Kirk of Scotland had a power of making Kings over and giving Laws to other Nations May not those they term Sectaries justly suspect them guilty of an Antichristian spirit now when they arrogate that power to themselvs which none but the Pope by all Protestants agreed to be the Antichrist the Man of Sinne usurped except the Devill whose carriage to our Saviour was not much unlike theirs to their King both shewing the Kingdoms of the Earth and the glory of them and saying all these will we give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship us yet let them take heed lest they be found lyars like him Crownes and Scepters being onely in Gods disposing who telleth us that it is he gives Nations Kings in his wrath though their King be not able to withstand the Temptation Montrosse and the Irish Rebels being defeated and no apparent hope of any supplies from his most Blessed Father the Pope whom he hath by his Agent so dutifully asked blessing as yet appearing But though these Reasons should be thought insufficient yet now God hath made their intent manifest by Londonns Letters by which it appears that they had not only a designe to invade us but expectations if not assurances of a party here which would second them And now the Scots have thus done and the premises considered what shadow of reason appears to the contrary but that we for our own defence may serve them as they did us and enter Scotland with our Army as they did England with theirs a little before this Parliament begun that they were invited in by any in Authority is false it may be they had private well-wishers and so no doubt have we now of the Godly party among them which when the cloud is past which now hangs over them will appear But now before I conclude I shall crave leave to speak a word or two and that 1. First to the Scots whose Committee of Estates and Kirk I would intreat to be so farre Christians as to pull the beam out of their own eyes before they meddle

with the mote in ours and so much men as to act and speak rationally and not to call the same action in us an offensive War which in them was a defensive one Lastly to unriddle this Aenigma How Montrosse could be a Traytor for but acting according to their Kings Commission and Command and yet their King none it is a rule in reason quod efficit tale illud est magis tale that which makes a thing to be such that is more such it selfe and it is affirmed in Scripture That God is no respecter of persons but that the soule that sinnes shall dye and should not the Gods on earth to whom the Sword of Iustice is committed be so too That maxime That the Crown takes off all Attainder made by time-serving Lawyers cannot be pleaded in this case For the Commission Montrosse acted by was given him since their King was Proclaimed at Edinburgh and yet Montrosse was by them adjudged as a Traytor and Enemy of his Countrey which according to this he could not be he doing only as his and their King commanded whose deeds are free from Attainter by having the Crowne but if it should passe for Law here yet I am sure it will be no good plea at the high Tribunall of that just God who respected not the Crowns of the Canaanitish Kings Agag or of Israel whom he commanded to be cut off and not a male of their Seed to live There could be no peace to Ioram so long as the whoredomes of his Mother Jezabel and her witchcrafts were so mady and this command the Elders of Jezrell who durst stone Naboth durst not resist when they perceived that evill from the Lord was gon out against Ahabs House and it is not so cleer but that it may be doubted whether God have not a controversie with their Kings family against which to omit the Idolatries and other grosse sinnes the innocent bloud of so many Martyrs both for Religion and Liberty cryes for vengeance 2. To the Presbyterian party in England whom I desire to consider That though the present ruling power and Kirk in Scotland should have no by-defignes yet how they may not be able to help to deliver them from the fury of the Malignant party of Lords and others who have twice allready overreached them in the late Invasion of England and later in Ireland where after they had made use of the Presbyters to gain the Scots in Vlster to their party they abufed them forced some to flye for their lives and openly proclaimed it death to any who should but speak of having their King come in upon termes Let them beware of Insurrections at home when it may be they may at first be made use on to begin as lately in Essex but when the designe came to the height be turned off as those Gentlemen in Essex were by the Malignant party insomuch that Sir William Hixe a prime stickler and others because they had been for the Parliament were threatned to be stabb'd and forced to flye Thirdly and lastly to you all who are Englishmen whom it much concerns If you will but consider what misery a Scotch Invasion what slavery a Scotch Conquest must beget Inquire of the Scots demeanor in their late Invasion nay and when they came in with their brotherly assistance for your satisfaction in the first and call but to minde the insolency of the Scots and Tyranny of their Kings which came in by Consent and it will be evident what must be expected should they come in by Conquest their Iamie and they shared then onely the Crowne Lands and Treasure with the richest publike offices but their Babie Charles and they will divide your private estates and cast Lots for your Inheritances to conclude call to minde your brave Ancestors the least drop of whose generous bloud remaining in your veins will make you not only abhorre but scorn a vassalage to that Nation whose beggary to omit its insolency nastinesse and lechery all Englands so much already exhausted Treasure will not be able to releeve FINIS