himself loyal and rational be judge And truly what itching ears for Innovation and against Regal Authority some of the forraign Presbyters have is something palpable from the Letter of Gisbertus Voetius wherein he doth not only commend Prynne's Soveraign Power of Parliaments but saith that it ought to be translated into Latin and French for the benefit of the Reformed Divines and Politicians And Prynne himself tells us that it is translated into several Languages And what Pleas they may suck out of such Books against Monarchy cannot be ignorant to those who have seen what mischief the counterfeit Name of Junius Brutus a fit name for such a murtherous mind though the true Authour is supposed to be Beza and that printed in divers Languages hath laid open to those who are willing to perpetrate wickedness And how consentaneous to the Doctrines laid down in these Pamphlets their actions have been their often Rebellions in France but more especially in the dayes of Lewis the 13 th will shew us whom though he had pardoned several times yet would they never keep Articles but upon every advantage fly to their Arms again looking upon Regal Authority only as a Bug-bear to afright Children hoping in time by dwindling it to nothing to raise themselves to Superiority And how many men by these false Positions may be drawn to Schism and Rebellion is manifest from this one Example In King James his time one Knight a young Divine Preach'd at St. Peters in Oxford and in his Sermon maintain'd the Presbyterian Doctrines above specified for which being call'd in question he laid the fault upon some late Divines in forraign Churches who had misguided him in that point especially on David Paraeus who had asserted these Doctrines upon which his Comment on the Romans was publickly and solemnly burnt at Oxford 1622. June 6 th Cambridge and St. Paul's Cross in London The famous University of Oxford in a full Convocation concluding 25. June 1622. That such assertions were contrary to Scripture Councils Fathers the Faith and Profession of the Primitive Church and Monarchy it self and therefore condemned them as false wicked and seditious And did also affirm That according to the Scriptures it is not lawful for Subjects upon any terms to resist their King or Prince no not to take up Arms against him either for Religion or any other account whatsoever And for more sureness they did also Decree that every one before he took a Degree should swear to this The Opinion delivered in the sentence of these two famous Universities I shall value more than of an Assembly or Classis made up of all the Presbyterians in the World The consideration of these Disciplinarian Maximes I believe did make our ingenious Satyrist cry out Our Zeal-drunk-Presbyters cry down All Law of Kings and God but what 's their own If you desire to see any more of their wild and extravagant Principles you may consult Archbishop Bancroft's Industrious Book a piece that I am sorry is so scarse as it is and that for want of Re-printing while Calvert's shop dayly labours with the multitude of Fanatick Pamphlets and such Books as Smectymnuus must be printed and printed again and that with the addition of a long Preface by a great Time-serving Divine CHAP. VII The Rebellious Actions of the Presbyterians in Scotland till the Death of King James HOw agreeable the practise of the Brethren have been to these Treasonable Notions afore specified shall here in brief be laid down by their tumultuous Carriages in Scotland Whither these Principles kindled with a fiery zeal enough to eat up whole Kingdoms were carryed and the furiousness of them greatly augmented at the return of John Knox that great Incendiary of the Nation and Kirk of Scotland as a learned Doctor calls him from Geneva 1559. A man that still had the misfortune to carry Warr and Confusion along with him as if like Hippocrates's Twins he and they were inseparable witness the Combustions he made at Franckfort amongst the poor English Protestants fled thither for Religion where he was not undeservedly accused of High-Treason against the Emperor by comparing him in print to Nero and calling of him Enemy to Christ c. For which crimes he was forced to sculk away to Geneva thence to Deep in France and after that to Scotland whence after few weeks stay he fled back to Geneva but not setling there he returns to Deep again from which place he wrote divers Letters to the Scots to stirr them up to Rebellion and having by that means wrought some confidence among them returned to Scotland again By these Principles distill'd amongst them by this wandering Brother and the deadly Feuds of old betwixt the Nobility the Nation became miserably distracted The Kings and Queens thinking it hard measure to have their undoubted Rule and Soveraignty pluck'd from them by such inferiour Instruments and Vassals And on the other side the Congregators for so they then call'd themselves back'd on by several Hot-spurs scorned to yield subjection to any but themselves so that the disturbed Kingdom appeared to be governed by two distinct Authorities like Caesar and Pompey one party disdaining an Equal whilst the other denyed a Supream The Presbyters so farr extolling their own Priviledges as Christs Embassadours that many thought there was no Antichrist but Kings and such Civil Authority which cogitations nurst in them such a small esteem of their Rulers or Laws that they did not only think that to be their right which was most agreeable to their own humours but also that they might gain such things to themselves by the Sword As if Subjects need any more Priviledge then the course of Law At the beginning of the Reformation in Scotland the Queen-Regent favourably because contrary to her Religion allowed them the Bible in their own Language But they not content with this use their wonted Master-peice of Reviling upon which she was constrained to send for some of their Preachers to appear before her who accordingly came but with such a multitude of favourites and attendants that through fear of her own Person she was obliged to order by Proclamation all to depart who came unsent for a thing alwayes usual in the best of Governments yet was this so offensive to the Brethren that they throng in Tumults into her Privy-chamber and there threaten her with their weapons an act quite contrary to the Apostles and Primitive Christians so that she was constrained to pleasure them Afterwards she allows them liberty to use their Prayers and Service in the Vulgar Tongue provided they kept no Publick Assemblies in Edenbourgh or Leith for avoiding Tumults And in their Petition to her for the obtaining these favours they acknowledge that the Redress of all Enormities both Ecclesiastical and Civil did orderly belong to her But this acknowledging of her Authority lasted not long for when presently afterwards they demanded more liberty with a
restrain'd the punishment of their disorders against her Person and Authority the more liberty they took to offend To this Knox impudently answers That his patience in suffering abominations made him not guilty of any fault and if his tongue took liberty in Pulpit she might take it as she pleas'd since in the Pulpit he had no Superiour but God and that his gifts made him equal to any of her Peers And as for her weeping he said He could better sustain her tears than the trouble of his Cause or to betray the Common-wealth Nor durst the Queen question him for his sawcy replyes knowing the strength of his Faction which being uot unhid to Knox made him more Insolent as afterwards publickly to affirm That For her sins the Land must lament and that it was absolute Rebellion in her not to turn Protestant and compared her to Simon Magus thinking it impossible that her sins could be forgiven her Nor did others of his Fraternity hold their peace And having got thus sure footing nothing would satisfie them but to have all for which purpose at a General Assembly at Edenburgh they draw up a Petition of several Heads the first of which was That the Queen her self with all her Family should not only forsake Mass and Popish Idolatry but that all none excepted should be punished who transgrest this Article To this she answered being then at St. Johnstons That as she freely gave every one Liberty of Conscience so she hoped that her Subjects would not press her to do against her Conscience and that she did not only think that there was no impiety in the Mass but that her Religion was true and grounded upon the Word of God But this gave them no full satisfaction Henry Stewart Lord Darnley being now marryed to the Queen July 1565. and proclaimed King the Knoxian Lords fly to their Arms and so doth the King also but before his march hears Knox preach at Edenburgh at St. Giles Kirk where he rail'd against the present Government reflectively saying That for the sins of the People God gives them Boyes the King was about 21. years old and Women to rule over them After which the King marcheth against the Lords who fly into England yet through Intercession all was reconciled Not long after this the Queen was brought to Bed in Edenburgh Castle betwixt 9. 10. at night July 19. of a Son which was afterwards Christned at Sterling and call'd James who became at last the happy Uniter of the two Crowns At the latter end of the same year John Knox intending to visit his sons at Cambridge moved the Assembly to write to the English Bishops in favour of the Non-conformists then buzzing in England The which they do but in their wonted language railing against the Surplice Square-Caps Tippets and calling them Badges and Garments of Idolatry Romish Raggs vain Trifles telling them as if the serious Bishops need take advice from such Hair-brains That they may boldly oppose all such Authority which dare command such things brave language and anew way of begging to get curtesies by Some few weeks after this the King was most barbarously murder'd 9 th February but by whom and how because History will not tell us the truth at large I think it not convenient to relate by peice-meal Then was the Queen whether willing or constrained is nothing to me marryed to Bothwell against whom the Lords raise an Army and forced him to fly into Denmark where he was imprisoned and they also seize on the forsaken Queen whom they secure in the Island of Lochlevin where by threats and fear they forced her to resign tears trickling down her face abundantly her Interest in the Crown to her young Son few days above a year old who was Crowned few days after at Sterling July 29. And if you will believe a late Historian Knox and other Ministers were not satisfied with this Resignation of hers but would have her also deprived of life nor is this Treasonable cruelty contradictory to his fore-mentioned Principles Now could the Knoxians desire nothing more having their King young in his Cradle and so capable of what impression they pleas'd and their Queen in close Prison so that they appeared Lords and Masters Yet she presently escapes out of Prison gets some Forces fights Murray the Regent but being beat fled into England where Queen Elizabeth imprisoned her till she was to the astonishment of many beheaded 1586. after 18. years close Imprisonment The next year the Regent Murray was slain at Lithgow by one Hamilton And then Lenox the Kings Grand-father obtained that dignity against whom the Lord Hamilton in behalf of the Queen raiseth a Warr in which Lenox was slain at Sterling Then was the Earl of Marre chosen who not long after dyed of a Feavour After whom the Earl of Morton succeeded as Regent after which the Queens Party by degrees lost all Authority In this year did John Knox dye at Edenburgh Novemb. 27. one that as I am apt to believe all things considered gained more esteem amongst the people by the reverence of his long-beard reaching down to his middle than any real wisdom or discretion that could be appropriated to him And now comes Andrew Melvil burning from Geneva against Bishops denying the lawfulness of their Function labouring for the absolute Presbyterial Discipline according to the Geneva mode which rais'd some Tempests in the Church insomuch that some of the Presbytery forbad Mr. Patrick Adamson lately by the Regent presented and by the Chapter chosen to the See of St. Andrews to Exercise any part of his Jurisdiction till he had acknowledged and satisfied them After this Argyle and Athol not affecting the Regent go to the young King at Sterling complaining against Morton and desiring him to take the Rule upon himself And so the King doth at 12. years old and thus the Regency fell The young King being brought up in the Reformed way confirms the Religion in Parliament but not their Discipline he affecting the Episcopal Government and ever since he was ten years old as himself confesseth disliked the Presbyterian way And truly Experience gave him good reason for it But to make all sure a Negative Oath by way of a Confession of Faith wherein all the Romish Ceremonies and Doctrines were abjured was drawn up by Mr. John Craig and this the King himself took and this he reflected upon in the Conference at Hampton-Court Having thus tyed his Conscience as they thought his Body must be secured too and so at Ruthen they seize upon him and that with so much inhumanity and irreverence that he burst forth into tears for which he got nothing but this Answer from the Master of Glammis It is no matter for his tears better that Barns should weep then Bearded-men Upon this the Earl of Arran going to know the Kings condition was secured and his Brother sore
this Blake is summon'd before the Council which so incensed Andrew Melvill that he labour'd to make it a Publick Cause and did so much That they declare it would be ill to question Ministers and boldly told King James who asked them if they had seen the Conditions of Huntly's Pardon That both he and the rest should either satisfie the Church in every point or be pursued with all extremity so as they should have no reason to complain of the over-sight of Papists And as for Blake they gave him a Declinator affirming it was the Cause of God whereunto it concerned them to stand at all hazzard and this Declinator was sent to all the Presbyteries in the Kingdom who were desired not only to subscribe it but to commend the Cause in their private and publick Prayers to God by which means they fancyed themselves so strong that they deny the King to have power to judge a man for speaking in Pulpit and that the King in what he had already done had so wronged Christs Kingdom that the death of many men could not be so grievous to them And therefore they ordain a Fast for averting the Judgements then threatning the Kirk This action so vext his Majesty that he forbad all Convocatings and Meetings but they little cared for him or his Orders for Mr. Walter Balcanquall did not only forthwith rail against the Court naming several of the chief Courtiers but desired all the well-affected to meet in the Little Church to assist the Ministry who did accordingly and Petition the King in behalf of the Kirk But the King asking them who they were that durst convene against his Proclamation was worshipfully replyed by the Lord Lindesey That they durst do no more then so and that they would not suffer Religion to be over-thrown Multitudes unmannerly thronging into the room the King departed and they went to the little Church again where Lindesey told them No course but one let us stay together that are here and promise to take one part and advertise our friends and the favourers of Religion to come unto us for it shall be either theirs or ours Upon which great clamours shoutings and lifting up of hands followed some crying to Arms others to bring out Haman for whilst the Lords were with the King being sent as above-said from the Little-Church Mr. Cranstone read to the People that story others cryed out The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon and so great were the Peoples fury rais'd on a sodain That if the Provost by fair words and others by threats had not tamed them they had done some violence These actions of the Kirkers makes the King leave the Town go to Linlithgow whereupon they resolve for Warr the Ministers agitating them Amongst the rest one John Welsh in his Sermon rail'd pitifully against the King saying He was possest with a Devil and compared him to a Madd-man and affirmed That Subjects might lawfully rise and take the Sword out of his hand In this fiery zeal they write a Letter to the Lord Hamilton desiring him to be their General telling him in it That the People animated by the Word and Motion of Gods Spirit had gone to Arms. But all came to nothing Hamilton refusing such rebellious honour carryeth the Letter to the King who orders the guilty Ministers to be apprehended who escape by flying into England and the Magistrates of Edenburgh are pardoned The overthrow of this one business strengthened the Kings Authority mightily which was also confirmed by the Assembly at Perth now better known by the name of St. John's Town The Ministry being now pretty quiet Ruthen Earl of Gowry conspired to kill the King but to his own ruin His Majesty for this Preservation orders that Thanks should solemnly be render'd to God but in this he found the Presbyters cross-grain'd denying to do any such thing for such a deliverance whereupon they were silenced yet afterwards shewing their willingness were restored In this year was King James his third son his second viz. Robert dying young Charles born afterwards King of England The next year was kept an Assembly at Burnt-Island whither Mr. John Davidson wrote a rayling Letter checking them for their cowardise in not opposing the ungodly telling them that the King was not sound and that Warr was more commendable than a wicked Peace But the graver sort rather pittyed and smiled at the mans madd zeal then troubled themselves to vex at him And now Queen Elizabeth dying King James the undoubted next Heir to the English Crown is at London Proclaimed accordingly whither he went to receive his Crown having thus happily united the two Kingdoms And here I shall leave off from prosecuting the Presbyterian Story in Scotland any further though I might tell you of their calling against the Kings consent an Assembly at Aberdeen to rant against Episcopal Government nor would they dissolve at the Kings command till they were proclaimed Traytors and yet did some of them scorn to acknowledge their Error and were by some of their Brethren vindicated to King James face in England the next year And many more instances of their Waspish humour in denying the Kings Authority might be shewn out of their own Historians who abound in such examples but if Symmetry will tell us the stature of the man by the proportion of his foot these may serve so much at this time to satisfie that I fear they will rather nauseate And really those who thought it a hard case that Mr. Blake should be punished for affirming in a Sermon 1596. That all Kings were the Devils Barns that the Kings heart was treacherous and that the Devil was in the Court and the guiders of it That the Queen of England was an Atheist and a wicked Woman That the Nobility and Lords were miscreants bribers degenerated godless dissemblers and Enemies to the Church That the Council were Holliglasses Cormorants and men of no Religion And in his Prayer for Queen Anne he said We must pray for her for the fashion but we have no cause she will never do us good Nor did he word it only but also rais'd Arms both Horse and Foot against the Kings consent These men I say who thought it unjust to have him questioned for such rebellious actions may also for ought I know think it strange with Buchanan that our Laws do not provide ample and honourable rewards for those who can boldly murder their Prince And yet must this Buchanan and Knox be cryed up as valiant noble bold and publick-spirited men and this present world scorned because we have no such fire-brands And whether this title is rashly thrown upon them let any ingenious man judge not only by their fore-mentioned tenets and actions against their Kings but by the answerable nurturing up of their Disciples who at the University of St. Andrews instead of Divinity Lectures had these Political or rather a ruine to
ancient Dionysius the Areopagite at the grand Eclipse cannot plead much superiority to mine when I perceive the Learned Father of the Church St. Augustine the eloquent Lactantius and others startle at and expresly deny so grand a truth as the Antipodes and Pope Zachary and St. Boniface an English-man Archbishop of Mentz to be so ignorantly or as some think maliciously zealous as to Excommunicate Virgilius an Irish-man Bishop of Saltzburg for offering to affirm such opposite habitations If the more modern Americans were amazed at the sight of Columbus his Ships well may I wonder at the notions of some learned men concerning the Garden of Eden some affirming it to be above the Moon others above the Air some that it is the whole World others only a part of the North some thinking that it was no where whilst others suppose it to be God knows where in the West-Indies and for ought I know Sir Mandevile's story of it may be as true as any of them And I do not the less believe it to have been on the Earth because the Devil the Father of lies told Dr. Dee and Edward Kelley that it was so And if I have cause to admire at the simplicity of any of these fancies well may I be astonished at the easie-natured folly of some who are yet so great adorers of the Presbyterian Cause if not Interest as at this time when all their knavery is discovered to ascribe I do not know what Divinity to the Brotherhood But it is the fortune of the greatest wickedness to have many followers and as long as our Crafty Puritans can with the Roman Otho court the Rabble they need never question the encrease of Proselytes it being the humour of some men to caress Sedition and Schism that they might with more ease embrace Rebellion And though at this time they cannot glory in any grand hopes of prosperity yet Domitian rather than destroy nothing would kill Flyes and it is the temper and constitution of these Disciplinarians to agree so farr with the Devil as to play at small game rather than sit out So that considering the sedulity and seditious temper of these Schismaticks a faithful Monitor for all the Restauration of our happiness cannot be ungrateful or unseasonable to Great Brittain whereby its Ruin may be avoided by being informed that the Venemous Serpents and Tyrannizing Monsters are yet in the Highwayes indeavouring to seize upon the people who are willing like honest and loyal Subjects to embrace Obedience and Conformity perceiving now plainly the wickednesse of their quondam Deluders I remember a well stretch'd story of a German who told his friend that once in a wood he seeing a Wild Boar blind with age led along by another more young by holding the young ones tale in his mouth he fairly shot of the conductors tail so that the old one held still by one end whilest the cunning German took hold on the other and so led the blind boar above twenty miles to Stutgart the chief Town in the Dukedome of Wirtemberg The truth of this story you may believe as you please though you may be confident that many thousands of our ignorant people have been violently seduced and drawn from those who did really intend the good of their souls and this by a company of hot spurr'd zealots to the miserie and distruction of their blind and simple meaning followers And if a great School Divine of Spain quite lost his Latin tongue by endeavouring to mend it from the eloquent Cicero we have small hope to learn Obedience or honesty from our Presbytery since Schism and Rebellion are their main Lectures whilest Perjury Sacriledge and Hypocrisie is the only Climax by which they ascend to greatnesse of which at this day we need not go farre for examples Yet a man might suppose that upon the happy Restoration of his Majesty And his not only pardoning these seditious to give no worse word subjects but his freely giving honour to some preferment to others paying the Arrears of his greatest enemies that they should now study quietnesse every man regarding his own businesse and in retalliation of his Majesties mercy and favour in all things endeavour the tranquillity and not the disturbance of the Kingdome But in this we finde our selves to reckon without our hoste being wholly deceived by a sort of men who withstand all Supremacy but what is propt up by their giddy fancy and subject to the lash of their conditionally-covenanting fingers And all this prest forward with so much violence that fire and sword must obtain their desires though it be to the binding of their Kings and Princes in Fetters as if they borrowed their Religion from the Inhabitants of China who will vilifie contemn spurn and beat their Idoll Gods when they do not satisfie them in what they desire or as if they learn'd their Courtship from Rollo of Normandy or one of his Knights that when he should have done homage to King Charles III. of France instead of kissing his foot took hold of it and threw him down 'T is true at present the Heard or Flock of Presbytery is not so numerous and strong as they were twenty years ago by the dwindling of a great part of their gang into other Conventicles of separation some of them being since turn'd Anabaptists others Independents some Quakers others Fifth-Monarchy men and others run themselves into such grosse absurdities that there is scarce and Heresie in Prateolus but some branches of this Disciplinarian Tree doth embrace and shelter Yet can it not be deny'd but that amongst this wilde and ravenous Rout of Renagadoe's some few with the prodigal Son having seen the wickednesse of their former sins Schism and Rebellion have with repentance return'd to obedience and at this day live dutiful Sons of the Church and State However though as it is commonly affirm'd fierce Rivers run through other waters without mixing yet our violent Presbyterians that is in plain English all when in time of necessity as at this time I hope they are can give a plausible compliance with all other sectaries and can croud with them into a lump under the specious Titles of Godly men and persecuted saints yet as in the furious Danubius in the same place you may distinguish two sorts of waters so may you safely perceive the several interests and sects combined together in this our hotch-potch club of Schismaticks But if once they be tolerated to the use of their fury then each Faction is prepared to cut one anothers throats though upon restraint as at present they all shroud themselves under the protection and interest of their old Dam Presbytery which calls to my mind their allusion to the American beast Tlaquetzin whose young ones on a fair day and when no danger appears run sporting abroad following their own fancies but as soon as they perceive any hurt or damage approaching or prompted
summoned to the effect aforesaid presume to take in hand to decline the judgement of his Highness his Heirs and Successors or their Council in the Premises under the pain of Treason To make this way of Appealing more plausible to the People they are very willing to make a separation betwixt the two words Sacred and Majesty sticking close to Calvin who calls it blasphemy to yield the King a Supremacy in the Church under God and Christ to which purpose thus the Zealot Henderson delivered himself to his Majesty Such an Headship as the Kings of England have claimed and such a Supremacy as the Houses of Parliament crave with Appeals from the Supream Ecclesiastical Judicature to them as set over the Church in the same line of subordination I do utterly disclaim upon such reasons as give my self satisfaction And to this purpose against the Kings Supremacy in Church affairs he ranted before the House of Lords the year before Yet when he was Moderator of the Assembly of Glasgow in one of his Speeches there he attributed very much to the Kings Power in Ecclesiastical Causes and Assemblies and at last affirm'd That the King was Universal Bishop over all his Kingdom A Copy of this Speech his Majesties Commissioner James then Marquess of Hamilton used means to obtain but could not get it presently because those expressions had offended the Covenanters yet at last a Copy was sent him but with all those Expressions left out which were spoak in favour of the Kings Power in Ecclesiastical businesses by which one may guess at their jugling Another of these Brethren is very furious against the giving these Titles to the King and must call it Blasphemy too But this man is not only against this but also against the attributing any such Epithets as Vertuous Pious or Religious to our Superiours as if he had borrowed his breeding from Buchanan who rants against those who give the Titles of Majesty Lordship Illustrious c. And these two also agree very well together in slaundering those who will not fight against their Kings since they say Dame Nature knows no such distinction And this is agreeable to our Long-Parliament-Worthies who gravely declared it a fit Foundation for all Tyranny and a most distructive Maxim or Principle for the King to avow That He oweth an account of his Actions to none but God alone And that the Houses of Parliament joynt or separate have no power either to make or declare any Law And this power over the King Henderson doth not only give to the Representatives but also to the People over both them and the King especially in Reforming and so by consequence must make them also judges too and then shall we have a mad world my Masters If the Prince or Supreme Magistrate be unwilling then may the Inferiour Magistrate and the People being before rightly inform'd in the grounds of Religion lawfully reform within their own sphere and if the light shine upon all or the major part they may after all other means assayed make a publick Reformation And a few lines after thus to the same purpose It is not to be deny'd but the prime Reforming Power is in Kings and Princes quibus deficientibus it comes to the Inferior Magistrate quibus deficientibus it descends to the body of the People And this you must suppose to be a pretty Rule to make the People believe that no Religion can be true but the Presbyterians and the Covenanters and so a necessity of Reforming to their Directory For if not how will they answer the common Quaere How came they then or how durst they alter the Church Government against his Majesties express command Well necessity or no necessity the English Presbyterians will swear that they have power to Reforme and in that the King signifyeth but a Cypher For Could not they null Episcopacy against the Kings command Could not they devide their Lands amongst themselves against the Kings command Could not they Ruine the Common-Prayer-Book against the Kings command Could not they call a Pye-bald Assembly against his command Could they not swear a wicked Covenant against his command Could they not set up the Directory against his command Could they not set up Classical Provincial and National Assemblies against his command Could they not Murther and begger an Archbishop and others of the Orthodox and Loyal Clergy against his command Could they not destroy Cathedrals against his command Could they not make Perjury lawful against his command Could they not commit Sacriledge against his command Could they not turn the Kings Loyal Subjects out of both the Universities against his command Could they not make Schismatical Presbyterian Ordinations against his command Could they not make what they pleased to be Idolatry and Superstition against his command Could they not make Treason a Rule of Christianity against his command Nay could they not do any thing but make a man a woman and a woman a man according to Pembrokes oath and judgement For those who vote Loyalty Treason and cloak Rebellion with high Commendations and Religion will fancy a Legal Power into themselves obliging them to oppose their Prince And puft on with this perswasion a Puritanical Committee of our long Parliament order this to be Printed and Dispers'd in behalf of their Associates They have only used that Legal Power which was in them for the punishment of Delinquents and for the prevention and restraint of the Power of Tyranny of all which they are the legal Judges and all the Subjects of this Kingdom are bound by the Laws to obey them herein And this Opinion might be the reason why Prinne and his Fellows were so angry against that Murther'd Archbishop Laud for not suffering such seditious expressions as these to be used to the people in their Sermons It is lawful for the Inferior and subordinate Magistrates to defend the Church and Common-wealth when the Supreme Magistrate degenerates and falleth into Tyranny or Idolatry for Kings are subject to their Common-wealths And that Subjects may lawfully take up Armes against their Kings command and in their Sermons revile the Kings Court with Pride Avarice Idleness Flattery Folly Wickedness and such like Yet had a man in London but hinted half so much against the Parliament he had been claw'd for it to the purpose But it is not the English Puritans alone that would thus trample upon their Kings Nay the Scots too will be as wicked as them or else they could not handsomely call one another Brethren And this is especially practised by their zealous Hinters who deny the King to have no more to do in or with their Assemblies than the meanest Cobler amongst them whilst they thus Impudently told his Majesties Commissioner That if the King himself were amongst them he should have but one voice and that not Negative neither nor more affirmative than any one Member of their Assembly had Nor
been fully satisfied yet they had been oblig'd to publish what Pamphlets they could in vindication of the Covenant and so in derision of the Episcopal Clergy to which purpose take one of their own his words We must professe that if his most excellent Majesties gracious Declaration had in every tittle fully answer'd the utmost of our Desires we should have yet seen a need of some such discourses as these are I am really perswaded that were our Presbyterians but once again Masters of misrule they would act the same Tragedies that they did formerly Then should we have the King kept at swords point all his Authority taken from him and himself secured in some Prison or other unlesse he would dance after their Covenant Then should we have the Arch-Bishops and Bishops murdred and Tower'd up The Clergy sent a begging or it may be for a more cleanly conveiance clapt under ships hatches as they were formerly don withall that they might stifle one another Then would the Brethren cry The day is ours Rejoyce and sing as the Roman Catholicks did in Scotland above an hundred years ago two words being alter'd Leaguers content you now Leaguers content you now The Bishops and their Company have fill'd the Gallies fow But I hope our Government by King and Bishops maugre the Devil and all his Assistants will be like the Iland Chifolignie against which no man shall attempt any mischief but to his own distruction And nothing have we visibly attempting the breaking of this Union but an upstart Presbytery which like the Heathenish opinion of dogs and stones mainly endeavours to run betwixt and divide these two But of this they have small hopes unlesse a Toleration be granted to their Villanies which can never be don through reall policy And I hope England is not now like old Rome where all things were vendible And those who grant favour to these people will ruine themselves by too much pity Such a spirit of contradiction are these Puritans possest with that Dissention seems to be their meat and drink as if they were related to the old Hereticks the Cainani or Caiani who thought Cain a worthy man for killing his brother Abel and Judas a Saint for betraying our Saviour As if all wickednesse might be perpetrated whole Countries ruin'd the innocent blood of many thousand Souls spil'd upon the ground and all this to good purpose so their Discipline and Covenant be thereby erected whereby methinks they court that wicked Idol as Lucan did the Tyrant Nero. Quod si non aliam venturo fata Neroni Invenêre viam Iam nihil O superi querimur scelera ipsa nefasque Hac mercede placent diros Pharsalia Campos Impleat Poeni saturentur sanguine manes Vltima funesta concurrant praelia Munda His Caesar Perusina fames Mutinaeque labores Accedant fatis quas premit aspera Classes Leucas et ardenti servilia bella sub Aetna Multum Roma tamen debet civilibus armis Quod tibires acta est Which with Lucans favour I shall make more appliable to England and our purpose If that no other means can be found out To bring our Presbyterian whims about Ha! we are well content mischief and warre Doth please our souls since so rewarded are Let Edghill swell with bloud and Marston plain Groan with the masse of souls that there were slain Let thousands dye at Naseby and let 's tell Of Carlile Famine or who at Gloster fell Let Warwick too Allegiance is but pelfe Charge the ship-guns against the Prince himself Yet gain we by these Woes if that thereby We do but set up our Presbytery Yet if all their pretensions equall the life of one man I shall have a less value of humane blood than I have had Queen Elizabeth had the best way of teaching these people obedience the terror of a Rope being a main stay to their proceedings If the fellow thought snails fish and so eatable in Lent yet was he bid by the Priest to beware of the horns When the Brethren thus thunder up the lawfulnesse of Rebellion they should seriously think of its Reward and what a joyful sight it is to look towards Padington and not think it an hard case that they should suffer for their Villanies And we see by experience that the pardoning of one fault maketh them more bold to commit another and yet grumble and think much to be stopt in their mischief as if forsooth they Rebell'd by Predestination making themselves only instruments but God pardon the expression the seducer drawer commander inciter and infuser of such wickednesse into them as Pet. Martyr and others blasphemously assert To conclude If all things according to the Poets grow worse worse to what stupendious wickedness will the Presbyterians come If Caligula suck'd blood when a Child they might suppose him to be a cruel Monster when a man If the Puritans at first rebell against and imprison their King murder and clap up the Bishops seise upon their lands and those of the Loyall Gentry bloodily destroy the best subjects and caress the wicked If at their beginning of Rule they multiply'd Religion into so many Heresies that every house seem'd like that Family at the Hague in Holland compos'd of seven several Religions If when they were inferiors they durst proclaim the Queen a Traytor call the Kings actions scandalous impudent false wicked Tyrannical c. Impose wicked Oaths upon the Nations and violate all Laws Good God! What as yet unheard of villany and impiety will there be invented and found out to please these Disciplinarian palats if ever they should obtain superiority or have the least sway in these Kingdomes Which no honest man can desire all good men are bound to oppose and pray they may never have hopes of such favour and authority FINIS Juven Sat. 1. Inven sat 1. His Epist Pref. to Mr. Barlee's Corrept Correct b Justif of Fathers in Epist Dedicat. Th. Ch. Review of the Certam Epist in Epist Dedicat See H. Grotii Votum pro Pace p. 17 18. And Mr. Pierce ' s New Discoverer p. 258. Apellar Edit 1644. p. 31 61 67. Admon p. 59. Pag. 6. Appel p. 31. Adm. p. 60. Pag. 67. Pag. 61. Pag. 91. Smectymnuus Edit 1641. pag. 2. Pag. 15. Pag. 18. Pag. 30. Pag. 53. g. 2. Pag. 67. Pag. 68 69. Pag. 67. Pag. 68. Pag. 71. Pag. 72. Pag. 74. Pag. 80. Pag. 93 94. Extract of their Declar. 1649. against Montross printed at London by Matt. Simmons p. 7. Pag. 12. Pag. 8. Pag. 10. Pag. 11. Pag. 9. Pag. 12. Pag. 14. Pag. 16. Pag. 17. Pag. 19. Pag. 18. Pag. 17. Justif of Fathers Edit 2. Epist Dedicat. Pag. 5. 73. Pag. 4. Pag. 68. Pag. 102. Pag. 13. Pag. 14. Pag. 45. Pag. 73. Epist Dedic Laud. Apost Pref. Justif p. 8. Id. p. 7. Pag. 21. Preface T. C. Reveiw p. 3. 27 23 113 122 123 155 162 171 173. Pag. 153.
Casuists cannot be ignorant how they annihilate and jeast with sin by their sociable Doctrine of Probable Opinion of Directing the Intention and such like as you may see more at large in the Mystery of Jesuitism of which the last Edition with its Additionals will yield you more satisfaction With these things I should be very unwilling to charge them did I not know that the Agitators of these Political evasions from Sin were the chief Casuists amongst them and their Books printed and reprinted by the consent of their Superiours For those men are very much to blame who scandalize a General Religion with the fancies and extravagancies of some private Writers for by this means might Rebelling-Presbyterianism King-killing Independentism deluded Quakerism and other Heresies be thrown upon the famous Church of England and several absurdities upon the Romanists which cannot be found in the Tridentine Council How obsequious this Order is to their Superiours Commands may be seen in many stories related by Hasenmullerus and others Ignatius himself being willing to throw away his life rather than disobey an ignorant Physitian Nor had it been handsom in him to have been refractory who was the Author of this obedient Constitution and wrote a long Letter from Rome to those of his Order in Portugal to perswade them to it which is yet extant What other Articles they have I need not relate these three being a sufficient taste and the rest of their Order may be had either in Italian or Latin To give a true Character of the Jesuite at large would be too tedious since one of themselves viz. Alexander Haius hath performed it well enough in few words viz. Jesuita est omnis homo one as fit to act any thing as he is able to comply with every condition meerly Tales quales as themselves were pleas'd to term it more publickly at Paris They are generally a sort of people more skilful in the causes and motions of the Body Politick than the Philosopher in the Natural being Richelieu's for plotting as quick-sighted as Lynceus as restless as the Bird of Paradice as insinuating and flattering as Clisophus or Charisophus more cruel than the ill-natur'd Barbarian and like the old woman Ptolomais never in their own Trade but when stirring up mischief and the best Actors on the Political Stage fit to undertake and finish any wickedness for which they have formerly been reproachfully banish'd France Bohemia Hungaria Moravia Turky and Venice though since with much ado restored Several of them have suffered in China England Scotland and other places for their villainies nor hath Germany suffered them to go unpunished nor could they expect more favour from many in that Countrey since the misery of it And the loss of the Palatinate if you believe Sir Simond D'ewes had its source from their Brains And one of this Society who suffer'd at Strasburg confest that he was one of the thirty Jesuits who were imploy'd to be Agents for the Roman Cause in the late German Wars and that their Orders were to poyson and make away the chiefest Officers or others who opposed the Emperour as my Author assures us And Teimurases Prince of the Georgeans a people lying upon the Caspian Sea will have none of them in his Territories whence they were forced to fly for that notorious Imposture of theirs concerning the head of that Martyred Queen Ketaban a story so commonly known that I do not a little admire at de S. Lazare for passing by the fraud and jugling of the Jesuites with silence and untruths Mendoza hot-headed Gret-serus and others of the same Society are as parties bound to commend the Honesty and Religion of this Order But the Ingenious Thuanus Pasquier who affords you Pleadings and Reasons against them and others though Roman-Catholicks think it not fit to attribute any goodness to the Jesuite knowing that he is a Subject too dangerous to live in Liberty in any well setled State Spain excepted these two reciprocally maintaining each other more through politick ends than true love of Religion I am confident Great Brittain and Ireland have felt the force of their active brains as the Raign of Queeen Elizabeth and the dangerous beginning of King James can testifie Nor were they any more beneficial to King Charles doing what they could to foment our Dissentions as the Long Parliament could not deny As appears by their Articles against Father Philips one of which was this The damnable Doctrine which he and other Jesuites have taught to destroy and depose Kings hath been the cause of the Civil Warrs like to befal these Kingdoms if God in his mercy did not prevent it And his Seditiousness is somewhat apparent by his Letter sent to Mr. Mountague in France and produced to the House of Commons June 25 in which was this expression Can the wise Cardinal endure England and Scotland to unite and not be able to discern In the end it is like they will joyn together and turn head against France And how vigilant the Cardinal was to keep the two Nations from uniting is visible from the presence and great endeavours of Mr. Thomas Chamberlain a Scotch-man Chaplain and Almoner to Richelieu amongst the Scots who play'd likewise his Cards well in England before our late Rebellion with Order not to depart from Scotland till things succeeding as the Cardinal wish'd he might return into France with good news of a perfect dissention betwixt England and Scotland And to this may be added the Industry of the Cardinal's Secretary in the said Nation where he carryed himself so cunningly that he was taken into Consultation with the Heads of the Covenanters And what good counsel could spring from such a Fountain cannot be ignorant to any who either understood the experience or knew the political biass of the said Cardinal which might well move him to say concerning our late Troubles That 't was easie for one with half an eye to have foreseen them Whereby it seems strange to me that he would never imploy a Jesuite if we may credit Mr. Howell though it may be that he supposed them too much linked to the Interest of Spain to doe him or France any good Nor is the multitudes of them in England any small probability of their bad Intentions being unwilling to hazard their lives as here they do unless upon some grand Design Jarrigius one of their own Society affirmeth that fifty of them clad in several habits kept Council in London whence they deputed a General Agent to Rome And Oliver Cromwell profest that he could prove by witness that they had a Consistory and Council that rul'd all the affairs in England as he could prove by the Particular Instrument then in his power And how formerly they swarm'd in England Mr. Gee will at large inform you And King James could never forget the miseries he suffered whilst King of
the rest to follow and what effect it took is not ignorant to any who remember the Glorious and almost Almighty profane Titles thrown upon him by such Proselytes Thus have I heard and read of a Great man who made Books in his own Fame and Vindication in these late Wars and put them forth in other mens names as some suppose Annius threw his Labours upon Chaldaick Authors And somewhat to this a Writer prompts us to this Quaere Whether the Petition of July 1659. was penn'd by the Parliament and address'd to the Parliament and so the Parliament gave the Parliament thanks However this is more than probable That those who delivered the Hartfordshire Petition at the beginning of these Wars abused all the simple Subscribers the Petition that was deliver'd taking notice of several things done in Parliament the very night before its delivery in which time it was impossible to get so many Thousand hands and then travel to London on that Errand of which abuses the King himself took special notice unless their Messengers had been as swift as the Spirit Orthon-Mercury to Corasse and the Count de Foix or those who carryed the Noble Lombard from Egypt to Pavia in one night III. But because a meer Exercising of their Religion was not sufficient unless they might have Publick places for such duties they earnestly desire and Petition that they might have but one Church or two allotted them for such Publick Duties thereby to appear as the face of a Congregation All things at first have but a small beginning Those who endeavour the hopes of their Towring Expectations at the first on-set may like Phaeton bring a ruin to themselves and designs which the Independents knew well enough and so desired as the case then stood rather to grow up by degrees than by too hasty swelling to burst with the Toad to their own Confusion What Petitions have been pressed to the Parliament by self-ended Schismaticks to have places allotted them for Preachments is troublesome to remember at this time yet Mr. Edwards informs us of divers drawn up twenty years ago for a Toleration of some Congregations to enjoy an Independent Government and to be exempted from that which should be establisht by Law And some two years after this 1643. the Independents in their Apologetical Narrative presented to the Parliament shew'd themselves so humble that they might thereby gain Pity and Toleration that they concluded that they pursued no other Interest or Design but a Subsistence be it the poorest and meanest in their own Land c. But how well this self-denying desire agreed with their after usurping Incroachments is known well enough Phil. Nye and Tom. Goodwin the main contrivers of this Petition stealing to themselves the best Preferments in the Nation and the richest Indowments both in University and Countrey being divided amongst the rest so that the Proverb was now verified Give an Inch and take an Ell. IV. The Calvinists having now got liberty to exercise their faculty in Preaching and that publickly so that that they seem'd to keep equal pace with the Lutherans an Edict as if only for quietness sake was publisht that neither Party should cast aspersions upon one another Which at length proved no small lift to throw the Lutherans first out of favour and then their places for then they durst not contradict the Calvinists who were now Favourites and by consequence might with some liberty throw dirt in their Antagonists faces Besides this degrading of the Lutherans was a sufficient disgrace to them amongst the Vulgar who are commonly so politick as to side with the strongest party so they rest secure as experience hath told us at home King James in his Directions concerning Preachers strictly prohibited them from using any bitter invectives or undecent railing speeches But this was not long observed in King Charles his raign for what could not handsomly be acted in the Pulpit was in the Press though at last the former was not a little abused by scolding Burton and such like hot-headed Cushion-thumpers and Paper grew scant with the swarms of Invective Pamphlets against both Church and State Than which scandalous Libels nothing brings more detriment to a Nation as a French States-man observeth They drawing like Orpheus the brutish Vulgar a thing most capable of Sedition to dance after whatsoever they are tuned to especially if skrew'd up to the hopes of high preferment A design most wicked as being composed of horrid juggling really intending one way though they seem to carry fair for another the pretence pointing at the Reformation of when the effect brings destruction to the Kingdom By this means the Parliament and Presbyterian got applause from the people who are apt to believe and remember falshood more than truth whereby the number and confidence of their Proselytes increast to such an height that they were able to maintain and vindicate their Pamphleteers with a strong hand though not by Reason and Law So that it was more than a common danger to write any thing though truth against the Parliament but to vilifie the King was no small hopes of preferment and credit as appears by the multitude of Pamphlets and the licensed Gazets weekly flying about in 1648. where Tyranny Hypocrisie Perfidiousness were commonly attributed to his Majesty When as the Ingenuous Mr. Walker must end his dayes in the Tower for telling true tales abroad But when a great part of the Parliament it self must be look'd upon as rotten Members for adhering to the King and the rest of them shackled for demanding their priviledges and freedom 1648. which they had so long pretended to fight for What punishment might poor people expect for presuming to pry into such Great-mens Errors If a whole Army will undertake to vindicate the words and wishes of Symbal Wade and White whereby the Murther of his Majesty was desired that man can expect no great incouragement who endeavours lay to open the Villanies of such Sectaries V. Then as if to give some content a Disputation was held but a Calvinist appointed Moderator who was afterwards made Professor 'T is nothing here to my purpose to discourse whether these Polemical Exercises upon a publick account brought either Satisfaction to the Auditors or Tranquillity to the Nation and few are like that betwixt the two Reynolds's where both conquer'd both turn'd and yielded I shall therefore let that rest since the thing self as yet is sub judice The subtile Calvinists in Germany will make themselves Moderators in their own Cause and their Brethren in England must either be Umpire betwixt the King and themselves or else all the fat is in the fire and God knows what unheard of Priviledges lost When the King at their desire upon hopes of Peace yields to call in all his Proclamations against them and Essex as Traytors if they would take off Malignancy from his followers they would not yield to Overtures
of the Earl of Manchester In which two Universities there was a thorough Purge to the perpetual reproach and ignominy of the Undertakers many famous and learned Doctors Heads of Houses Masters of Arts and others were turned out of their Fellowships and Colledges because they would not submit to that which was contrary to their Oaths and the Priviledges of both places imposed upon them by those who had no more authority in such things than they had to behead or rebel against their Master IX Contzenus saith these Revolutions must be done moderately and with abundance of cunning the first step being to make the followers and abetters of the contrary Opinion odious and as it were a scorn in the Countrey and this by disgracing them especially with things which seem most ridiculous absurd and hate ful to the common people either by nick-naming or any way else The scandalous Reports and Pamphlets thrown against both King and Bishop as Popish though they thought nothing less may be some sign what good use hath been made of Contzen's Observation What disgrace cast upon the decent Habits of Church and University though the first according to the Canons and the other appointed by the Statutes of the place What unseemly Titles given to Organs as Bag-pipes and what irreverent names to Churches as Steeple-houses How were the Clergy nick-named with the title of Hirelings Humane Learning as Heathenish and Scholars as professing enmity against the Gospel How Cromwel's Faction spread abroad Pamphlets against King City and Parliament 1647. that the people might take the Army for honest men is somewhat pointed at by Mr. Walker And since that What scurrilous Books hath been contrived by Needham Goodwin Milton Rogers and such like Billingsgate Authors is not unknown to to any Nor is it forgot what impertinent Reports the Long-Parliament spread amongst the People to make the King odious as that he was a Favourite to the Catholicks and those call'd Arminians which sufficiently demonstrated a Presbyterian malice since the first was false and the other no crime And this must also be laid in the dish of Archbishop Laud though Prynne and they knew that he wrote more against the Romanists than all our Brittain Presbyterians who have spent more time in the commendation of Rebellion than in the Service of God And certainly I may as well call Prynne a Stage-Player for writing his Histriomastix as he the Archbishop Papistical because he wrote so learnedly against them And as if this were not mischief enough the People must now and then be alarum'd with strange Reports of Forces from Denmark Lorraign and other strange places as if the Nation were to be conquer'd and the Natifs throats cut which if we yield yet will the ignominy only fall upon the Presbyterian Party who by their want of Allegiance would bring the King to such straits that his own Subjects were not able to defend him from their Tyranny They thought it fit for us to send aid into the Palatinate and yet unlawful for Denmark to assist his own Kinsman against his Rebellious Subjects It was convenient they thought to give help to the French against their lawful King yet held it abominable for Forraigners to give a good wish to the King of England against his rebellious people The Covenanters in Scotland might with honesty crave aid from the French King though a Roman-Catholick against their Anointed Soveraign But so must not the King of England from the Duke of Lorraign though his life endangered by his bloud-thirsty Subjects The Parliament forsooth may make a Pacification with the Irish Catholicks but the King must not harbour such a thought without grand aspersions If the King but march towards Scotland the malignity of envious tongues endeavours to blast his Reputation as not fit to wear the Crown But many thousands of the Scotch-Covenanters may come into England fight against their King kill his faithful Subjects and inrich themselves by their plundering and stealing from the honest People and for their villainies receive large rewards with the Epithet of Brethren and so they were but in Iniquity being guilty of High-Treason because marched and acted against the Kings consent who is the Supreme Authority of the three Nations And that the Supream Head may when rebell'd against for his own security and defence desire help of his Neighbours though of a different perswasion in Religion I think needs no dispute He that would lose his Kingdom quietly is as simple as the Rebel 's wicked and if his own Sword be not long enough for the tryal he may lawfully borrow his Friends If the Parliament stood so much upon their Priviledges I know no reason but that the King might maintain his Prerogative and if any Contradiction be betwixt these two they are obliged to yield to their betters Nor doth it thwart the practise of former times for the Supream Authority to desire assistance from people of a contrary Religion as may be seen by the following examples as I find them set down to my hand in a late French Treatise Aza the good King of Judaea procured assistance from Benhadad the Idolatrous King Syria And so did the Great Constantine imploy in his Armies many Heathenish Goths So were the wicked Vandals call'd into Africa by good Boniface And after this manner did Narses under the Emperour Justinian imploy the Pagan Lombards The good Arcadius Emperour of Constantinople though a Christian delivered the tuition of his young son Theodosius and the Government of the Empire till his Son came to age into the hands of Isdigerdis King of Persia a Heathen who accordingly kept his promise with the Emperour Heraclius the Emperour was beholden to the Saracens as Basilius and Constantine's sons to John Emperour of Constantinople were to Ostelzi And by these people were also Henry and Frederick Brothers to the King of Castile mainly benefited in their Wars against the French Ludouick Sforza Duke of Milan and others begg'd assistance from the Turk against the French as Maximilian of Austria did against the Venetians And if it be lawful to procure aid from Heathens certainly a Christian may seek help from those who profess Jesus Christ though in every thing they cannot absolutely agree But enough of this since the Presbyterian commits ten times more sin in Rebelling than the wickedst man can do in defending his own right though by the assistance of Turks and Infidels X. What a great stickler Robert Parsons the Jesuite was to overthrow both England and the Protestant Religion in it is well known the great States-man Cardinal D'Ossat taketh notice several times of his designs against these Kingdoms Some of his Plots and Contrivances shall follow as they were publisht by some Roman Catholicks One of his means is to alter the Municipal Laws of the Land that the Civil Laws might have sway 'T is needless to relate how the Laws have been chopped and changed by diversity of Governments not
bob at Bishops and not receiving a Positive Answer according to their Intentions They publickly protest to stand to their Tenents and that they will defend all those who shall violate such Acts and Rites which are commanded by their Adversaries i. e. the Queens Party And that if any Tumult and Uproar shall rise or abuses be violently reformed or whatsoever inconvenience shall happen to ensue that these crimes be not imputed to them but to those who will not hearken to our Petitions At these actions the Queen-Regent was so moved as to profess she could not keep promise with them upon which they reply We cannot any longer acknowledge your Authority and will henceforth renounce all Obedience to you Thus do they acknowledge and deny Supremacy as each action will serve for their turn And to this purpose King James who had most reason to know these people thus tells us That John Knox wrote to the Queen-Regent telling her that she was the Supream Head of the Church and therefore charged her to suppress the Popish Bishops But this lasted no longer than till they had got their desires and then they made small account of her Authority but took all into their own hands and how they used that poor Lady my Mother saith King James is not unknown and how they dealt with me in my minority you all know it was not done secretly As they told the Queen Regent that they would renounce all Obedience to her so were they as good as their words For away go they in Tumults and ruine all before them pulling down the Monasteries and Cathedral Churches at Perth St. Andrews Scone Sterling Edenbourgh and other places John Knox inciting them to it by his Sermon upon our Saviours Purging the Temple And in another of his Sermons preach'd at Craile he incouraged the people to Wars telling them There was no Peace to be hoped for at the Regents hands because no truth could be given to her and that there could be no quietness till one of these Parties were Masters therefore he wished them to prepare themselves either to dye like men or to live victorious Upon this the Congregators growing more numerous and strong than the Queen-Regent she was forced to fly to Dunbar yet a Treaty was after begun at Preston where she offer'd them free use of their Religion but where her own Court was but this they would not accept of And a little after with the consent of John Willock and Knox their two Ministers they depose her who not long after dyed of grief and displeasure June 1560. though a little before not only by Letters to her self but also by Proclamation they declare that they would never do it And this way of protesting one way and working another as if their actions looked a squint like Argile have our late English Grandeesand Army followed The Presbyters in Scotland having hitherto gone under the Name of Congregators or those of the Congregation did now to comply with England hoping from thence to gain some assistance as Queen Elizabeth in truth through a private policy did not only too much countenance but help them change that Title and brought themselves under the general denomination of Protestants A little after this they plaid their Cards so well that they obtained the Mass and Popes Authority in that Nation in that Nation to be null'd in Parliament and by the same authority with the assistance of the Lords of the Articles they got the Confession of their Faith ratifi'd which they sent to be confirmed by their King and Queen in France the which was refused and the King dyed presently after Then they send and desire their young Widdow-Queen to return into Scotland the which she intends but before her arrival it was publickly ordered by them that all Cloysters and Abby Churches should be pull'd down to the ground John Knox inciting them to it in a Sermon by telling them That the sure way to banish the Rooks was to pull down their Nests And this order was so furiously put in execution that under the pretence of demolishing of these all other Churches suffer'd either being defaced or quite destroyed so that of such buildings a pitiful devastation hapned throughout the whole Land holy Vessels Timber Lead and Bells sold the very Sepulchres of the dead not spared the Registers and Libraries burnt and in a word all ruin'd And all this so much the worse because committed under the colour and warrant of Publick Authority The Queen being come over and though being bred a Roman-Catholick yet condiscended to alter nothing of the Protestant Religion as she found it then established thinking thereby to live peacebly and gain their affections only she would use her own Service apart and hear Mass in private but this and What more favourable then this the Preachers in their Sermons did publickly condemn as intolerable and unlawful and the Earl of Arrane protested against it and so uncivil were some as to break the Wax-tapers intended for her Chappel Nor was this all but the Ministers oppose and dispute in Conventicles the case of Obedience to Soveraigns the which because some disliked it Knox and Row do not only urge it more eagerly but forsooth they would have it resolved by their Fellow-Labourers in the Church of Geneva The Reformers being grown to this height enter into a pretty malepert Covenant That whosoever shall molest trouble or hurt any of their Members the fact shall be reputed hainous against the whole Body of them all By this pretty device they got to their Party several of the unruly Nobility who were like to make good use of this Doctrine by way of Protection And some years before 1558. some of the Nobility did bind themselves together by Oaths and Subscriptions to assist one another with their lives and substance for the advancement of their Religion Thus are they resolved to carry all things with a high hand let the Laws of God or the Land say what they will to the contrary Nay so pragmatical were they that the Queen and her Ladies being drest in too fine Cloaths as they thought they never rested till they had presented Articles for Reformation therein for which curiosity being a little checkt by Earl Murray Knox in a rage by writing forbids him to meddle with the Kirk or his affairs But this is nothing to the Insolency they used to their Soveraign Queen for when it was noys'd about that she intended to marry Henry Lord Darnly Son to Lenox Knox rails to the purpose against this match affirming that it would bring Plagues upon the Nation and the Kirks Curse to boot for this the Queen sends for him in private where with trickling tears she tells them How low her Princely nature had descended in often Conferences with them advising them to moderation and she would consult for their quiet establishment and truly told him That the more she
denyes their Judicatory not being call'd by the Kings consent but for all this they judge him fit to be Excommunicated yet none would pronounce the Sentence against him till at last many of them being departed a young fellow named Andrew Hunter said that he was warned by the Spirit to pronounce the sentence and so ascending the chair read the same out of a Book This boyling humour of the Ministers troubled King James not a little which greatly augmented when they insolently refused to pray for the Queen his Mother then near herend though he had earnestly commanded them But the greatest of all was the execution in England how handsomly I know not though he greatly endeavoured to stop it But the King thinking to put an end to all tumults thought fit to reconcile the Nobility which at last he did Feasting them all at Haly-rud-house thence causing them to walk hand in hand two and two to the Market Cross at Edinburg where they sealed their Concord by drinking one to another The same peace he thought to have made with the Ministers but this not fadging all fell to nothing After this Huntley Bothwell Crawford Montross and Athol agitated by the Jesuits rebell but upon thier submission were pardoned Yet though the King was so easie to shew favour so was not the Presbytery who deprive the Bishop of Saint Andrews of all spiritual function for marrying the King's Cozen the Duke of Lenox his Sister to the Earl of Huntly though he did it by the King 's express Command yet was the King forced to dissemble his dislike of their insolency knowing their power and stubborness and having another thing in hand viz. his marriage with Ann the King of Denmark's Daughter whom to to fetch he presently took ship and married her in Upslo in Norway thence through part of Swedeland and Denmark he returned with her into Scotland where she was crowned though the accustomary unction was much opposed by the Ministry calling it a Jewish Rite abolished at Christs coming and introduced by the Pope After this Bothwell and some others conspire against the King endeavouring to seize upon his person at Haly-rood-house and Faulkland but without success and so was glad to fly into England The Presbyterie taking advantage against the King in these troubles Petition that the Acts made 1584. to restrain the insolencies of these hot heads should be abrogated which the King was constrained fearing lest they should also rebell against him upon a denyal in some sort to consent to Though the next year he assures them that he would not suffer the Priviledges of his Crown to be lessen'd nor Assemblies to meet without his Order but this they slightly answer by telling him that they will keep to the benefit allowed them the year before Nor shall they hold their tongue in the Pulpit upon just and necessary causes Such small esteem had they for their Soveraign though they would humble themselves to inferiour people in greater matters For when they had with the consent of the Council of Edinburgh made an Act that the Munday Market in that City should be alter'd to Tuesday The Shoomakers whom it most concerned gathered together before the Ministers doors threatning to chase them out of Town if they harp'd upon that string any more which was the reason of this Saying there Rascals and Sowters can obtain from the Ministers what the King could not in matters more reasonable Bothwell as aforesaid having fled to England for Treason returns again and being assisted with other Nobles and by the cunning of the Lady Atholl seizeth upon the King at Haly-rood-house where he constrains the King to pardon all and that several persons of quality should be turned from the King's service But the King getting to Sterling the Estates there decreed Bothwels actions to be Treasonable and the King not obliged to performance because forced whereupon Bothwell falling to open Rebellion is pronounced Rebell If the King's Authority could do this the Kirk thought they had as much power to excommunicate the Catholick Lords which the King the Lord offering themselves to Tryal endeavoured to stop telling them that they had nothing to do in such affairs but this denial so troubled and vext the Assembly that they order all of their fraternity to be in Arms For this insolency the King checking them they replyed That it was the Cause of God and in the defence thereof they could not be deficient Hereupon the King puts forth a Proclamation prohibiting all meetings yet for all this they kept on their Course so that the King was forced to yield Yet this procured him no peace though the birth of Prince Henry rejoyced him For Bothwell falls again into Rebellion assisted by Argile Arrol c. Nay the Presbyterie were so active in this Treason as to carry on his designs they give him the monies collected for the relief of their then distressed Brethren at Geneva By this means having got some forces together he fights the King's Party in which though he was not beaten yet shifts for himself dissolving his Souldiers Yet after this having joyned himself with some Catholick Lords to surprize the King again but being discovered flyes to open Rebellion and having with nine hundred men under the Command of Huntly beat Argile who had above 10000. upon Composition are pardoned but banished And Bothwell gets himself to France thence to Naples where he dyed miserably poor about the year 1624. The King for peace-sake and good policy had a mind to pardon and call home the banished Lords to which at last Mr. Robert Bruce the Minister consents provided that Huntly should not return but the King reasoning with him for Huntly too he imperiously answered I see Sir that your resolution is to take Huntly into favour which if you do I will oppose and you shall choose whether you will lose Huntly or Me for us both you cannot keep This is that Bruce whose popularity outvyed the King's who seeing one time what a multitude conducted him into Edinburgh said By my sale Bruce puts me down in his Attendants And this is he who had preached many years without Ordination nor would he be ordained which was the occasion of some disputes 1598. Yet for all this self-conceited pratler the Lords return which mads the Ministry who meet about it proclaim a Fast order inquiry to be made into their Favourites against whom they proceed with Censures and clamour as if the Kirk had been singing her Requiem The King troubled at these turbulent actions under his very nose by Proclamation dissolves them Whereupon they Petition him not to incroach upon the Limits of Christs Kingdom And these hubbubs were the more heightned by the Sermon of Mr. David Blake in which he ranted against the King Queen and Lords and call'd Queen Elizabeth an Atheist and a Woman of no Religion of which the English Ambassador complain'd and demanded satisfaction Upon
fall upon the Grievances of the Subject in which having spent some time they drew up a Remonstrance though they not only knew that the things therein contain'd would be highly displeasing to his Majesty but also that the King had expresly forbad them to meddle with any such Concerns And in this Paper they greatly brag'd what their Priviledges were and how they were their undoubted Right and Inheritance These actions the King who above all things loved Peace did a little resent and gave them a small check in a Letter upon which the discontented part of the Members grumble and having plotted a thin House and a late hour six a clock at night in December not a third part of the number being there drew up a Protestation in behalf of their Liberty Priviledges and Jurisdiction as they pretended and recorded it in their Journal Book 19. Decemb. 1621. thereby declaring their supposed valour to Posterity Nor can we imagine but that such Presidents as these inflamed our late rebellious Spirits with presumption The King thus perceiving that the longer they satt the prouder they grew dissolved them by Proclamation so unwilling were these men to satisfie the King with any reasonable supply and this is somewhat hinted at by a Non-conformist himself by observing out of Sir Cotton's History that Henry the third was so pester'd with Parliaments that he would rather pawn his Crown-Jewels give over his House and feed himself with the benevolence of Monks than be beholden to his People and this he tells us was thought to be a Parallel for King James his time This wise and peaceful King by dear-bought Experience will farther tell you in his Excellent Book to Prince Henry how pernicious the Puritans were to good Government and what small trust is to be had in them KING CHARLES succeeded his Father King James who dyed at Theobalds 27. March 1625. and was as much or rather more tormented by his Presbyterian Subjects as his Father for this Non-conforming humour once advanced into a Parliament never left working till they had barbarously brought their King upon the Scaffold and delivered him over to his Independent Executioners These Politick Whirl-winds having begun the Storm and presumed to bluster against the Father resolve never to cease the Tempest till they had blown up the Children and Church-Government Root and Branch And to leave off from what they had begun they thought would bespeak them Cowards Let the Honour and Title of good Subjects be attributed to those who want Courage and Conscience to be bold Villains In a Parliament in the first year of this Kings Raign instead of Supplyes desired by the King for the guarding of the Seas defending our Coasts and molesting our Enemies many of the Members fly very high in opposition and that with unseemly language Mr Clement Coke son to Sir Edward affirming That it is better to dye by a forraign Enemy then be destroyed at home and Turner a Doctor of Physick seconded him by more then ordinary reflections upon the Kings Government and though the King complain'd of them yet the House rather hug'd then reproved such actions In the next Parliament the King had great hopes that all things would work for the good of the Nation and be carryed on without any discontents But in this he found himself greatly deceived 'T is true at the beginning they freely Vote the King five Subsidies whereof he being informed by Secretary Cook and that the House was so unanimous therein that they made but one voyce the King is said by some to have wept for joy hoping now he had a Parliament free from any turbulent humours but this was but a bitter Pill covered over with Gold For never was there any man more deceived since the first temptation then He They no sooner had given this Supply but frame the Petition of Right and desire the Kings consent to it for know they never gave the King any thing but they receive as good from him a new way of Merchandize the which because they had publickly questioned whether they might trust his Royal word he solemnly confirms the Houses thereat testifying their joy with a mighty shout and other people by ringing of Bels and Bon-fires Yet scarce had the King graciously granted this but they not yet content drew up a Remonstrance ranting against the Innovation and Alteration in Religion against the Arminians and some of our Bishops and other things which was highly disliked by the King which so much incensed the Commons that they over Boots over Shooes fell to draw up another against Tonnage and Poundage but the King not liking them to meddle after this manner prorogued the Parliament But being returned again they fall very heavy upon the Customers from which severity the King endeavouring to perswade them work'd such a contrary effect upon them that in a high passion and distaste they adjourned themselves for some days as if their sitting there would be to no purpose seeing they could not command the King His Majesty being informed that they had adjourned themselves thought fitting to allow them some more play-dayes and so Adjourns them to the 2. of March and then again for 8 dayes longer But they met the second day and fell a ranting against the mis-government whereupon their Speaker Sir John Finch informed them of the Kings Order to adjourn them till the tenth at this the House storms affirming the Speaker had nothing to do to deliver such messages and that Adjournment properly belonged to them and so they took fire and fell presently into an hubbub whether without fighting I know not though a Member was afterwards accused for striking The Speaker according to his Majesties command endeavours to leave the House but is violently held in his Chair by Mr. Denzil Hollis and Mr. Benjamin Valentine and after watching his opportunity having got a little out of his Chair was by them two thrust back again and there held the first of the couple as an Authour tells us swearing a deep Oath that he should sit still as long as they pleas'd And to make all cock-sure Sir Miles Hobart locks the door and puts the Key in his pocket which afterwards was call'd an Imprisonment of the Parliament These Figgaries continued so long that the King heard of them and sends for the Serjeant of the Mace Grimston but he was not suffered to go upon which contempt he sends Maxwell Usher of the Black-Rod but they so little regarded such Summons that they neither admitted him nor his message which refusals so much incensed his Majesty that he sent for the Captain of the Pensioners and the Guard resolving rather to force an entrance than be thus out-braved by his Subjects But the Members perceiving what danger their passion had brought upon them nimbly quitted the House though before their departure they had noys'd out a Protestation against Tonnage and Poundage Arminianism Popery and Church-Innovations And this
trouble of a journy thither yet not without some notable observators No sooner he being departed but our Parliament ordering some members to go also into Scotland in notion of a Committee to inform them of all passages in Scotland Yet when the King went into Scotland the Parliament adjourn'd though appointed a Committee of the Commons consisting of 50 of and over which Mr. Pym was the chief Lord and Maister of mis-rule and him I find nominated at the very beginning of this Parliament with the Emphasis of the great parliament man And the truth of it is that he was so farre the dominus fac totum in this juncto that his words were laws all things being acted according to his desire Here many things of Church matters were by these Gentlemen purely innovated and then prosecuted with such violence that the Episcopal clergy durst not gainsay him as Dr. Fuller Mr. Hutton Mr. Fletcher and others of St. Giles Cripplegate Mr. Booth the Minister of St. Botolphs Aldersgate Dr. Heywood of St. Giles the Ministers of St. George Southwark of Margarets new Fish-street c. could very well testifie by experience Although the house of Lords would not consent in these things to join with the Commons yet did they so farre supinely wink at the others actions that their Authority was now so much intrench'd upon by the Commons that their priviledges slipt from them unperceived though without all question the presbyterian party both understood and smiled at such proceedings About this time there was a great deal of noise and clamour about a Letter forsooth against Mr. Pym with I know not what plaister in it and written God wot when and delivered by no body knows whom but a Gentleman forsooth in a gray-coat on horseback and great searching and inquiring for this man in the moon was made but all to as little purpose as the Northwest passage or the philosophers stone And many times hath it been printed and spread abroad to let the good people see the wickedness forsooth of Malignants and with such chaffe as this have many of our old fools been taken Yet when that impudent Libel stuft with as much malice as either this letter or hell could afford was vented against that great prop of learning the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Laud no notice was in the least wise taken of it nor did he himself any thing regard it though it thus threatned his destruction Laud look to thy self be assured thy life is sought as thou art the fountain of wickedness Repent of thy monstrous sins before thou be taken out of the World c. And assure thy self neither God nor the world can endure such a vile Councellor or Whisperer to live Than this what more implacable destructive and abominable considering his nearness to the Kings person his trust and beneficial endeavours for the publick good Yet had he been better or if I may say here the best and the designes against him more devilish yet would our Non-conformists have hug'd and blest themselves at this opposition had it been as after malicious experience proved to his ruine and all this because he was an absolute opposer of the Presbyterian innovations who though but of a very little body yet had a soul more large and vast for the good of Church and Literature then a whole Parliament of Disciplinarians But let us now think of his Majesties return from Scotland in whose absence some of the Parliament had rais'd large reports of strange and terrible plots and designs against John an Oaks and John a Stiles by which means many people were endeavour'd to be whisper'd into dissatisfaction of the King and such a jealousie was grown by the noise of this Chimaera that many did according as they were bid think that things were not then well carryed and this was cunningly aimed at the King and his Favourites by those who had their Coy-ducks in such obedience that their Commands was not unlike that of Madam Fame to Aeolus in our ingenious Chaucer Bring eke his other claviown That hight Sclaunder in every Towne With which he wont is to diffame Hem that me lyst and do * hem shame But these Alarums served the Parliaments turn being a Cloak under which they might deceive the People in their pretences for raising a Guard the which they did and it may be to defend them from a Pedicularie disease of which possibly they saw some symptoms then in the House Of these Romantick Jealousies Frights Alarums and unheard of Plots and Designs his Majesty tells the Parliament and of the evil consequences of such slanders in his first Speech to them after his return from Scotland And in his next earnestly desires them to prosecute the Irish affairs and perceiving them considering about pressing of Souldiers with a check at his Prerogative He desires that the bounds of his ancient and undoubted Authority might not then fall into debate however that it may pass with a Salvo jure he is willing rather then such disputes should take up time in such an hour of extreamity for whilest the Grass groweth the Horse may sterve Upon this they clamour against his Majesties dealings professing the Priviledges of Parliament were broken by these his Exceptions for which they demand satisfaction and earnestly desire his Majesty not only to declare the names of but also to deliver up to punishment those persons who had given such counsel Nor was this mode of dealing one of their least Plots upon all occasions desiring the King to betray his faithful Counsellors by that means not only to leave him naked but to the discretion of the Houses But these things carryed no great shew of unhandsomness though like the Apples of Sodem beautiful without yet stuft with filthiness in respect of their after Thunder-claps which like Brutus shew'd their malice in their fronts For the next day after their Petition they welcome him home with a Remonstrance as they call it in which maliciously they endeavour to rip up all the faults and none is good but God of his Majesties Raign and that in as civil a way as their zeal could allow them as you may see in the Paper it self for in it through his actions they tax him with Cruelty Injustice Oppression Violence and what not They out-braid him for putting forth untrue scandalous false and impudent Declarations in it they highly commend the Schismatical Non-conformists blaming the King for punishing them Nor is this all but the Scotch Invasion of England too is extoll'd and defended and the King scandalized as if he endeavoured to root out the true Religion and bring in Popery nor are they silent against the Bishops and their Orthodox Divines by which it is plain the Presbyterian ruled the Parliament nor must the Innocent Ceremonies and forsooth Superstition escape a scouring And yet in this very same mogende-Paper they confess they must acknowledge that his Majesty hath
and this also the Protestation and Covenant bound them to keep But how these were observed and that by the Parliament itself every Member therein having taken the two Oaths is not unknown And if these allow'd them to fight against the King or at least to kill him I shall lament my Baptism and put no more trust in my Creed When the Rump had perjured themselves by beheading their King they frame an Engagement obliging all to take it or else to have no benefit of an English-man the words of which were these I do declare and promise that I will be true and faithful to the Common-wealth of England as it is now established without a King or House of Lords This was taken by all the Officers and Souldiers of the Armies who return'd their Subscriptions in Parchment-Rolles to make the work more sure and lasting and besides them many others took it But the Army kept not long to this their Solemn Engagement for they not only rooted out the Rump but alter'd the Government again to a single Person by making Oliver Cromwell Protector whose Council by Order of his Parliament was to swear Fidelity and Allegiance to him and every Member of Parliament both then and for the future did and was to swear Failty to him thus I A. B. Do in the presence and by the Name of God Almighty promise and swear That I will be true and faithful to the Lord Protector of the Common-wealth of England Scotland and Ireland and the Dominios and Territories thereunto belonging as Chief Magistrate thereof and shall not contrive design or attempt any thing against the Person or lawful Authority of the Lord Protector This Oath in behalf of Protectorship and a single Person lasted not long for the Army having overthrown Richard and again restored the Rump another Oath was ordered to be taken in these words You shall swear That you will be true faithful and constant to this Common-wealth without a single Person Kingship or House of Lords And after all this as if one Oath signified nothing some of them took a new-found-out Oath of Abjuration against Kingship though poor Souls only to their own shame and confusion And this was the pretty invention of the hot-headed Knight Don Haslerigo one of Burges's Principles to abominate and hate all Bishops but to imbrace and love their Lands dearly but this fault is not only incident to them it being the main reason that there is such a skip-jack as an English Presbytery Such horrid Perjury as this and such abominable Villanies committed by our late Parliaments made them not a little guilty of the highest Sacriledge The Parliament-House where the Commons now sit being formerly St. Steven's Chappel built by King Steven The consideration of which might have moved honest men to have acted more religiously though these men only sate there to ruine both it and the Church It being a knack amongst our new Saints to pull down Churches for the Propagation of Religion an action of more malice than reason being as ridiculous as the wise-men of Gotham to put Saltfish into a Pond to multiply or to hedge in the Cookow and as simple as Maestro Nun̄o Divinity Professor in Valladolid who made a great deal of clutter to borrow Boots and Spurs because he was to ride in a Coach But of this no more only if those men be not perjured who swallowed these contradictory Oaths I shall allow my self not only irrational but bemoan my condition because not born one of the old Aegyptian Heathens whose Religion punish'd such sins with severe death CHAP. V. The wicked Sacriledge of the Parliament and Army THe Schoolmen and others make a threefold Sacriledge viz. either by taking away from or violating in a holy place a holy thing or secondly an holy thing from or in a place not holy or fanctified or lastly a thing not holy in or from a holy place And that there are some places and things holy I suppose few but those who are wickedly interested in Church-Lands will plead ignorance For though this or that originally be not really holy of it self yet the Dedication and Consecration of them by the Church to holy uses makes them holy to the Lord. For saith God devoted things that a man shall devote unto the Lord. every devoted thing is most holy unto the Lord. And these things once offer'd unto the Lord are not to be profaned And if any through ignorance sin against this He shall make amends for the harm that he hath done in the holy thing Belshazzar's sin was not so much for being drunk with Wine but his sacrilegious drinking out of the Vessels of the Temple Those who rob God of his Tithes and Offerings are severely curst and an express command against exchanging or alienating those things which are holy to the Lord as the Lands of his Church How highly did God punish those who regarded not his Temple every man running unto his own House and what little impression hath this made upon England where most forsook the Church drawing themselves to illegal Conventicles and such private Houses never intended for such publick duties 'T is noted as a great aggravation of King Ahaz iniquities for destroying the holy Vessels and shutting up the doors of the Temple though amongst our late rebellious Reformers such actions were esteem'd a true token of holiness Jehoash King of Judah took all the treasure and holy things out of the Temple and sent them to Hazael King of Syria for a bribe and was recompenced by being slain by his Servants But our Innocent King was murdered by those who had fed their Brethern with Monies impiously rent from Church-Lands whereby their Villanies were doubled to make them more serviceable to their cloven-footed Master who set them on work The wisest man that ever was assureth us That it is a snare to a man who devoureth that which is holy and after vows to make enquiry Out of which words a learned Writer observes That he is guilty of death who sins against God either by alienating taking away or keeping back those things which are holy or consecrated to the Lord. Ananias and Saphiras act is held by Divines as a true pattern of Sacriledge for which they suffer'd death by a special judgement of God as Achan in the old time was stoned to death St. Paul admires that any man should be so wicked as to commit Sacriledge and our late Sectaries wonder that any should stand in aw of it Our Saviours whipping the buyers and sellers and such like out of the Temple is no small sign what respect should be held to our Churches not to be turn'd into Exchanges as is well known the once famous Cathedral of St. Pauls was For Confirmation of this many heavy examples of Gods judgements against those who have either violated his Church or alienated his Messengers Lands might be drawn
onely approve of but also protect thereby gaining infinite Proselytes as the Devil in the Northern Coasts doth his subjects by making them invulnerable And these they feed up and nourish with strange fears more fantastical then Lazarellos when he thought the dead man would be carried to his Master's house strongly fomented and agitated by unheard of Plots set a foot to destroy Religion and Nation like the Roterdam-ship which would kill the English under water and all this upon worsegrounds and reasons then the influence of a Talisman Though nothing was more false and impudent then these pretended dangers yet what by the authority and countenance of those Grandees who patronized such rumours and what by the power which the Tubthumping boute-feus had over the peoples inclinations and judgments whereby the Pulpit became the worst thing in the Nation many had not onely a bad opinion of the King but thought very well of the Parliament who in all their actions were far more sedulous then his Majesty but most of all as a hindg upon which themselves and designs hung in sending forth their papers to abuse the people by making the King's actions odious and their own for the best And of this they took special care not onely by appointing a Committee to consider of the most convenient way to disperse them and to give an allowance to their Messengers but also by taking care by Order that every Petty Constable or Tythingman throughout England shall have one of every one of their Orders Declarations c. and to read them publickly to their neighbours And how these flattering papers might work in the Country where they commonly believe all that is in Print is easily to be imagined considering that most of them heard but the reasons of one Party the Parliament taking a special care by Declaration that nothing which came from the King should be received or permitted to be read Whilst the Parliamentarian-papers flew plentiful about the Nation swoln with big praises of their worships the better to captivate the ignoranâ— people to their Lure who are naturally of themselves apt to gape after any novelty or change especially when any gain is like to be had by it as there was in this undertaking they knowing that Plundering would be permitted them and the Parliament assuring them that if they received any damage it should be repai'd them out of the estates of their enemies By these ways the Country was droled into an high conceit of the Parliament and nothing stuck with those of the more wise and honest sort but the word Treason which they knew they should incur by assisting the Parliament against the King But this doubt was presently wipt away in the opinion of many by the Parliaments distinction betwixt the Person and Office of a King as also by their daily protestations at the beginning of the Wars That they fought not against the King but against his wicked Council Of which Protestations in 1642. I shall give you a tast whereby you may the better distinguish between their tongues and hearts And first we shall give you the Vote by which the Army was first order'd to be rais'd which was thus Resolved upon the Question That an Army shall be forthwith raised King's Person defence of both houses of Parliament and those who have obey'd their Orders and Commands and preserving of the true Religion the Laws Liberty and Peace of the Kingdome And to confirm the people in their intentions for the preservation of the King they thus profess and protest House of Commons your Loyal Subjects who are ready to lay down their lives and fortunes and spend the last drop of their bloud to maintain your Crown and Royal Person and greatness and glory And they pray your Majesty to rest assured that they will always be tender of your Honour and Reputation with your good Subjects We seek nothing but your Majesties Honour and Peace and the Prosperity of your Kingdomes Their earnest intentions and endeavours to advance your Majesties Service Honour and Contentment c. Do resolve to preserve and govern the Kingdome by the Counsel and Advice of the Parliament for your Majesty and your Posterity according to our Allegiance and the Law of the Land As if there could be a greater care in them the King's friends at York of his Majesties Royal Person then in his Parliament The services which we have been desirous to perform to our Soveraign Lord the King and to his Church and State in proceeding for the publick peace and prosperity of his Majesty and all his Realmes Within the presence of the same all-seeing Diety we Protest to have been and still to be the enely end of all our counsels and endeavours wherein we have Resolved to continue freed and enlarged from all private aimes personal respects or passion whatsoever Who in all their Counsels and Actions have proposed no other end unto themselves but the care of the Kingdomes and the performance of all Duty and Loyalty to his Person Your Majesties most humble and faithful Subjects the Lords and Commons in Parliament having nothing in their thoughts and desires more precious and of higher esteem next to the honour and immediate service of God then the just and faithful performance of their duty to your Majesty and this Kingdome We the Lords and Commons are resolved to expose our lives and fortunes for the defence and maintenance of true Religion the King's Person Honour and Estate Will really endeavour to make both his Majesty and Posterity as great rich and potent as much beloved at home and feared abroad as any Prince that ever sway'd this Scepter which is their firm and constant Resolution And you shall declare unto all men that it hath been and still shall be the care and endeavour of both Houses of Parliament to provide for his Majesties safety Concerning the Allegations that the Army rais'd by the Parliament is to Murther and depose the King we hoped the Contrivers of that Declaration or any that profest but the name of a Christian could not have so little charity as to raise such a scandal especially when they must needs know the Protestation taken by every Member of both Houses whereby they promise in the Presence of Almighty God to defend his Majesties Person The Promise and Protestation made by the Members of both Houses upon the nomination of the Earl of Essex to be General and to live and dye with him wherein is exprest that the Army was rais'd for the Defence of the King's Person And we have always desired from our hearts and souls manifested in our Actions and in many humble Petitions and Remonstrances to his Majesty profest our Loyalty and Obedience to his Crown readiness and resolution to defend his person and support his Estate with our lives and fortunes to the uttermost of our power We
call God to witness that though our quarrel be against the Malignant party for his Majesties sake yet not in that sense as is here affirmed but out of our Loyalty and affection to his Majesty Shall not the frequent protestations of both Houses of Parliament for his Majesties security to the utmost power that the Law can give to them or they unto the Law be sufficient to take away the pretence of danger to his Majesties Person To think they i. e. the Militia or Army would have followed us in any Act of dis-loyalty against his Majesty if we should have been so wicked as to have had them to do it Thus you see what glorious protestatious are here for the preservation of the King which I dare boldly say did ingage many honest men to joyn with the Parliament really dreaming that those men who have thus so solemnly vow'd before the Almighty to preserve the King and Laws must be men of publick honest spirits and not to be drawn though by chains of gold the wealth of Peru or East-Indies to the magnifying of their own Interest and the relinquishing of that publick Good to which they have tyed themselves by so many oaths And after the same manner did the City of London declare themselves by Petition Yet let their Promises Vows or Protestations be never so many a French Poet sings not amiss S'il promen s'il rit de sa promesse faile C'est qu'il en jure en Amant ou qu'il parle en Poëte He that doth swear and ne're means to do it Swears like a Lover or sings like a Poet. And really if experience may be a rule 't is more then probable that many of the Members had learn'd the Jesuit's rule by them call'd The Direction of the Intention whereby you may do any wickness if you propose to your self a good intent And after this manner hath our former Rebels blanch'd over their designs Wat Tyler and his Companions pretended onely to act against King Richards the seconds evil Counsel but if they had once got to have been Masters their intentions were to have kill'd the King and Nobility Jack Cade and his rabble under the colour of holy and good intents rais'd a Rebellion against King Henry the sixth and what iniquities such rubbish of humanity would have acted if they had been Masters is not known The Cornish rusticks under the notion to deliver King Henry the seventh from evil Council rais'd a Rebellion And the subtile Fox in Chaucer profest he onely came to hear the Cock sing but when by that craft he had once got hold of him the case and story was alter'd And after this deceitful manner acted the Parliament if you will give any credit to one of the King 's greatest enemies who thus informs us So powerful perswasive and contentful were their first Engagements Papers and Remonstances so fraught with self-denying doctrines tender regard to the peace of the Nation and satisfaction to all Interests as even lull'd all peaceable people into a sound sleep of security casting all the care upon the General Council of the Army as upon a people they thought could never have the face to decline either these principles or to neglect the performance of so many Engagements Promises and Protestations made as in the presence of the All-seeing God frequently calling upon him the searcher of all hearts to bear witness to their integrity and sincerity therein Insomuch that we who always with some wissness observed them many times denied our own understandings rather then we would draw hasty conclusions from evident testimonies of their defection And this principle of believing but especially their publick multiplyed affections for the preservation of the King were the motions which led Major General Massey to joyn himself to the Parliament as himself declareth and that they led many others is more then probable We see by experience that Religion is rooted into some men not so much by good and true reason as by birth and education the which if after they change is as oft for the worse as the contrary 'T is custome and fashion that over-powers or rather overthrows the rationality of all men The Indian women of Tiembas have always torn and bloody faces by which lacerating they judge themselves most beautiful The Goths gloried in a tall corpulent King on the contrary the Saracens liked none unless he were little and lean Custome hath made it as natural to a Brittish Presbyterian as it is to all Schismaticks to babble up sedition as to the Spaniard to court gravity whilst their neighbouring French affect an active airyness The Teneriff or Pico shall sooner shrink to Mole-hills the name of the Escurial be forgot and the great Tun at Heidleburgh fill'd with Renish-wine but a mornings draught to a Pigmie then a Non-conformist cease from being disobedient or our Disciplinarians as if they had been stuft with a Biscayners ignorance and spirit from hating and persecuing our lawful government of Bishops and how sedulous and crafty they have been to inveagle themselves into other mens affections is not unknown Many who take exception at Government can produce no other reason for their dissent but because others do so too so that to sin with company is thought by them rather a glory then shame If a great man take distast at Majesty he is confident to have most of his Relations and Servants of his opinion being apt to run as blindly into their Master's quarrel as their own ruin Nor is it a difficult thing among such variety of humours to entise some into the greatest wickedness some mens malice so far overclouding their reason that like Le Faucheur and Chauvinus they destroy those spectacles which should give them a sight and knowledge of truth and reality of the business by the malignity and wicked humours of their eyes and spirits Other men though their Grandeur of estate or affection with the people may after espouse them to be ring-leaders of the rabble yet at first were rather entised themselves then they the instruments of others wickedness Juam de Padilla's fault was that he was young good natur'd and so easily wrought upon by his haughty wife Donna Maria Pacheco to rebel against Charles the fifth And many others have been led the same way 'T is observed that Dod Pedro Lasso's sweet disposition love to justice and publick good engaged him in the same quarrel being noted for one clearly without malice but by the Inhabitants of Toledo hug'd into Treason and what influence great Cities have upon the people London knoweth too too well Many men through the hatred of some other person by way of Revenge and what more sweet and inticing may be drawn into Factions and so to espouse a bad quarrel to work their malice upon private enemies as the Venavides and Caravajales two noble familes in Castile or the Feuds antiently in
use in Scotland and thus the Duke of Matalone the chief of the Caraffa's falling out with the Prince of Sanza at a Ball had like to have brought their private injuries into a publick hostility to the trouble of the Kingdome of Naples Thus the insupportable malice of private men may be a publick detriment as the breach between the English and French was not a little widened by the hatred and brags of the Lord Cordes who us'd to say that he could be content to lye in Hell for seven years so he might win Calice from the English And to these I may add Don Pedro de Ayala Earl of Salvatierra who through the enmity betwixt him and his Lady Margarita whom the Court favour'd against him and therefore by way of opposition was invited to side with the Commonalty against the Emperour In which case the late Earl of Essex by a favourable construction was not much different Yet far is it from me to vindicate these mens actions but rather to mitigate some by considering the powerfulness of perswasion it being natural for a man to run into errors and mistakes and if of his own Temper he be so prone to vice how easy is it to draw him thither when he is made more flexible by the subtle allurements of his seeming best friends Many men who have been most serviceable and loyal have at first through mistakes slipt into some faults De la Force run himself so much into the displeasure of Lewis the thirteenth King of France that he was proclaimed Traytor but afterwards did so recover his Reputation with his Majesty that he received the Trunchion to be Marshal of France and grew to be a great favorite Sir Robert Clifford was a great adhearer to Perkin Werbeck but upon the sight of his error became very advantageous to King Henry the seventh in discovering the King's enemies The Macedonian souldiers did once muteny and that in a furious manner against Alexander but when they had considered the greatness of their crime they came weeping to him and that in such an humble manner confessing their faults and desiring his favour and pardon that story will scarce allow such another president And the King did not onely forgive them but satisfied their former desires by sending many of them home where by his special Command they were honoured not onely by having the chief places in Theaters but with Crowns also The Athenians would pardon him who confest his fault And the Abbot Serapion conquer'd the Devil by acknowledging the sin of Theft frequent with him when young If a woman by the true repentance of her most horrid iniquity obtain'd the pardon of Pope Innocent The King's grace and favour will not be wanting to those who by their timely repentance denote the reality whilst those who stave off the acknowledgement of their offence to the last can in reason expect no hopes of reconciliation their repentance being so late that it demonstrates rather a jugling and time-serving humor then a true and genuine remorse The Noble Earl of Montross that Scotish Oak and regal Buckler of fidelity and valour at first was as much peccant as the greatest Covenanter yet none proved afterwards more faithful to his Majesty and active against his former associates because the King's enemies then himself The great Earl of Strafford and Atturney General Noy were look'd upon at first great courters of the Commonalty and dis-regarders of Prerogative yet upon better insight became the greatest admirers of the King's Authority And I have heard of those who have so far grieved for their former actions that they have wish't themselves breathless when they first drew sword for the Parliament It is repentance that doth please God himself and Kings who are truely call'd God's upon Earth have received into favour their greatest enemies upon remorse of their former villanies Yet all mens intellectuals do not so sympathize as to perceive their errors at the same time Some with Sir F. Fortescue may know themselves erronious at the first onset others as we have too frequent examples are so stiff neck't opinionated that they will not be convinced of their guilt till their appearance before the greatest and last Tribunal As for the first they deserve pardon and favour because they deal ingenuously and like men of reason and nobleness whilst the latter merit the severity of laws and scorn And as I cannot plead for these so shall I never for those who did not onely oppose all Treaties with the King but those also who when any such thing was obtain'd still shoved it off by uncivil impudent and abominable Propositions framed either for the prolonging of war and bloud-shed or the reducing of his Majesty to be but a King of Clouts and so under the obedience and lash of their Schismatical Presbyterian Tyranny from which scourge I hope these three Kingdomes and all good people will for the future be delivered THE HISTORY Of the Wicked PLOTS and CONSPIRACIES OF OUR Pretended Saints BOOK III. CHAP. I. That the Presbyterians were not willingly and actively Instrumental for the uncapitulated restauration of his Majesty I Have often smiled at the Story of an old Knight who in the small space of one Battle changed his opinion twice and that with so much zeal and vehemency as to cry out when his Clerk brought him news that Prince Rupert had beat his enemies O the goodness of God! that will not suffer Traytors to prosper Those who fight against their King must expect to have God for their enemy c. And a Posset must be made too to cherish up the wearied spirits of the Messenger Yet scarce had finished his discourse against the wickedness of Rebellion when being truly assured of the mistake of his former information and that the Parliament remained victorious he alters his note and bauls out O the Gospel the Gospel the Gospel Blessed be God who hath thus put to shame the enemies of Reformation O! had the Malignants got the better we should have had Popery restored again But O the goodness of God who hath thus dispersed the members and raggs of Antichrist c. And after this manner did Master Gawen Hamilton who at Edinbourgh when the Victory seem'd to incline to the Queen Regent abused those of the Kirk but when the French were at last forced to retreat turn'd his coat and fought against the Queen Regent's party with all vehemency Old Savill in the Play rather then lose his beloved bunch of Keys would comply with any thing and how far a Presbyterian would stretch his Conscience rather then lose Authority must be left to judgment for I am apt to believe that many of them are not unlike Paulet the old Marquiss of Winchester who would rather bow then break being always of the King's Religion I have known some in these late times seriously deny any difference betwixt the Ministry and Laity and yet
actions of Master Love and a few of his associates as if this were sufficient to afford scraps of Loyalty to every particular Member of that Faction But to this may be answered First that if the story were as absolute Royal as man could imagine yet will it onely demonstrate that there were some three or four and twenty Presbyterians which were active for the good of his Majesty no more stirring in it as Master Love himself doth confess being utterly unknown to the rest of their party professing upon the Scaffold that the saying the contrary is onely a politick Engine to make the Presbyterian party odious so that the actions of these men are nothing to the vindication of the rest Besides compleat Loyalty they looked upon as odious But secondly the compleat honour of the story may upon very good grounds in the main be questioned For though they did sometimes meet at Master Love's house yet their Consultations were rather for the misery then benefit of King Church or Kingdome The main of their contrivances being to send to some about his Majesty advising them by all means to use their interests to Provoke Him i. e. the King to agree with the Scots and to take the Covenant as also to advise the Scots Commissioners that in their agreement with their King they should have a special respect to the Interest of Religion and Terms of the Covenant and to this purpose they must tumble out their prayers and send into Scotland to know whether they did maintain Religion and Covenant Interest So that the Scots were not onely guilty of their after Covenanting Tyranny with their betters but the English Brethren also by their thus thrusting on the design Hitherto we see all the Loyalty and affection by these men shew'd to their Soveraign was meerly conditionally and that upon a Covenant-account little beneficial to the King or his Party as may appear by the acknowledgement of one of their Patrons viz. Mr. Love I do retain as vehement a detestation of Malignancy whether in England or in Scotland as ever I did and shall in my place and calling oppose such a Design and Interest with as much zeal and faithfulness as ever Nor was his rancour towards the Kings best friends staid here but even upon the Scaffold just before his death as if thereby he intended to proclaim them odious to Posterity he thus endeavours to charm his Auditours I dye with my judgement set against Malignity I do hate both name and thing I shall retain as vehement a detestation of a Malignant Interest as ever I did And what he meant by a Malignant himself shall declare though 't is well enough understood I do not count the godly party our Covenanting Brethren in Scotland I do not count them a Malignant Party But who then he presently thus tells you My judgement then was and still is for bringing Malignants who did seduce him i. e. King Charles the first and draw him from the Parliament to condign punishment And the best friends his Majesty had beyond-Sea with him he calls desperate Malignants and bad Council so that I believe little honour can be attributed to this Conventicle for what they did However if through civility though not any share of merit we should grant that this little meeting was of a greater consequence for the benefit of the King than it either was or could be imagined though Mr. Love doth protest in the presence of God the searcher of all hearts that he knoweth no Plot or Design against the present Government i. e. Rump nor is he privy in the least to any preparations for or intendments towards any intestine Insurrections or forraign Invasions or to any Correspondencies now held with any in or of the Scottish Nation or any other whatsoever Though I say some credit were given to this Design yet will it not advance the reputation of the contrivers considering their after-submission to the Rump calling them the Supream Authority the Parliament of the Common-wealth of England c. Mr. Love professing That he is unfaignedly sorry for his so acting and promiseth never to plot contrive or design any thing to the hurt of this present Government Rump and that he is sorrowful for his high crimes and offences against the Parliament in his late and great miscarriages and desires them to pass by these sundry and great offences and at last thus fairly concludes That I shall devote the remainder of my dayes to the glory of God and good of his people the peace and safety of this Common-wealth against all the Malignant Enemies and opposers thereof Nor did he alone recant but also Jenkins Case and others of the same Club. Here we see a Company of Penitents hanging down their heads as if upon a Scottish-stool of Repentance acknowledging their Iniquity and sins for talking of the King with a great deal of remorse and sorrow faithfully promising for the future to live obedient subjects to their Rumpships and al this to procure the favour and love of those Usurping and King-killing Tyrants Yet when Love saw that all his whining and puleing would not work his Pardon but that they were resolved to let him bloud Then forsooth he thought it best to put a good face upon the business and so being on the Scaffold and perceiving no hopes of life he plucks up his courage and for the credit of himself and Brethren he begins to â—ant dapperly against the Rump affirming for all his former repentance That for the things I am condemn'd neither God nor mine own Conscience condemn me and I would not be look'd upon as a man owning this present Government I dye with my judgement against it and at last calls himself a Martyr Though he had a little before acknowledged himself guilty of the sentence of death justly passed on him And affirmed that he was insnared into the business and that through unadvisedness and weakness yet this complyance he boldly denyeth upon the Scaffold I am accused to be an Apostate to be a Turn-coat to be this to be that to be any thing but what I am but a long Sword a bloudy Scaffold hath not made me in the least to alter my Principles The truth of which I must leave to the Reader only telling him that the Margaiates in America scorn to submit to their Enemies because they know that it will not save their lives though probably if repentance would be an advantage they might be as ready as others If Mr. Love dyed a Martyr it was as unwillingly as ever man did it being the Rumps resolution for example sake not his constancy that brought him to the Block In plain English the man was of a hasty and violent spirit which seldom hath a rational or sound foundation and by many is accused to be the breaker up of the Uxbridge-Treaty by his ranting
Sermon of which Preachment the Kings Commissioners complained though to small purpose as appears by the Answers yet I shall willingly quit him from this knowing that neither the Parliament nor their Commissioners would be guided by his pratling and being fully satisfied that the Parliament never really intended a Peace unless they had thereby reduced the King to a Royal slave or worse and have got liberty for themselves to have acted Treason and Tyrannized over the poor Nation cum Privilegio and this was the design of all their counterfeited Treaties Yet I must needs acknowledge that Mr. Love did what in him lay to dissolve the Peace as is palpable from the wicked and malicious assertions and admonitions laid down by him in that Sermon concluding it Whiles our Enemies go on in their wicked practises and whiles we keep our Principles we may assoon make Fire and Water to agree and I had almost said reconcile Heaven and Hell as their spirits and ours either they must grow better or we must grow worse before it is possible for us to agree Words denoting such a malignant principle that I am willing to quit those whom he and the rest of his gang are pleas'd to call so by putting the Saddle on the right Horse and attributing the Epithet to himself I might here also intimate some of his sacrilegious vapours by discoursing upon his extravagant reproaches thrown upon the Church of England which I am confident might lawfully defend herself by force of Arms against the impious actions of her spurious Antagonists if that be true which Mr. Love affirms viz. That it is an hurtful Opinion to imagine that the people might not do so against their Soveraign I shall conclude with our supposed Martyr by asserting that he who had the ignorance blind-zeal and impudence to tearm Episcopacy and the Common-Prayer-Book the two Plague-sores several times in one Preachment had need have set-Forms of Sermons enjoyned him as well as Prayers And the Presbyterian House of Commons who cleared Mr. Love from any slander for pratling such stuff did plainly demonstrate what little desire they had for Peace and thereby intimated their abominable hypocrisie to the whole world since the Sermon pardon the giving it so good a Title seemed more like an Harangue to encourage the People to a bloudy slaughter and it is not unknown how oft he mentioned the necessity of drawing bloud than the imbracement of a happy and setled Peace Having thus sufficiently proved Mr. Love to be no such Martyr as his Fraternity flab out though much more might be enlarged upon this Subject and upon every discourse fly to him as a sufficient Asylum where they think they may handsomly secure a Reputation I shall now say something to another Objection whose main force lyeth upon the credit of the Covenant and so may with its Dam sleep with ignominy rather than be held forth as a badge of honesty In this plea they boast much in their taking the Covenant in which there is one clause for the Preservation of the Kings Person to which League one of their Chieftains brags that above 600. Ministers did subscribe To which I shall answer that if he glory in the number 600. is but a poor Bed-role in respect of 10000. for about so many Ministers are there in England But again the taking of this Covenant is no consequence of a good and loyal Subject but rather the contrary being against the Kings express command But again It is not the taking of an Oath provided it be a lawful one but the keeping of it that may demand commendations And when Subjects break Allegiance at pleasure as they are a trouble to their King and Countrey so are they wicked before God and so merit no commendation no good being entended either to King or Countrey by this knack of Perjury What benefit was it for Ataulphus Sigericus Thurismundus Theudesilus Agila and Luyba those Goths in Spain or for Friola and Sancho Kings of Leon to confide in their people and expect obedience since they were slain by their own Subjects What advantage was it for St. Wenceslaw Jaromirus and Wenceslaw the V. Dukes and Kings of Bohemia or for Gotrick and the three Eric's of Denmark to trust to the obedience which Law and Nature might assure them of since contrary to all fidelity they were murdered by their own People Those of Swedland cannot handsomly boast of their Loyalty by killing Ingevallus Eric Aorsel or Stanchil and Swercherus their Kings Nor could the Queen of the same Countrey expect Commendations by affirming her subjection and love to her King and Husband Ingemarus since she broak both by hanging him in a Gold Chain as Queen Fredegunde did hers by procuring the murder of Chilperic King of France as Fergusius III. and Malvinus Kings of Scotland were thus assassinated by their Queens Will any man quit the Treasons of Zedechias for saying that he was sworn Physitian to the Emperour or pardon Jaques Clement Jean Chastel or Francis Ravaillac if they should say Their Religion obliged them to obedience since the first poysoned Charles le Chauve the second stabbed Henry III. of France Chastel assaulted Henry IV. and the last man murdered him Would it not heighten the wickedness of Dowall the three Donalds and the two Fidlers by pleading that they were Subjects when they were so farr from observing their Allegiance that they impiously murdered their Soveraigns Nothatus Ethodius I. Findocus Fethelmacus Conranus or Goranus and Duffus Kings of Scotland and to these I may add the Assassinators of James I. of the same Nation But to return home passing by the disobedience shewn to some of our own Kings of former ages will it any way diminish the crimes of the Presbyterian Ministry with the rest of the Schismaticks if they should plead that they formerly subscribed the Articles of the Church of England but especially the 36. Canon when they took their Degrees as appears by their own hands in the two Universities a Catalogue of which might be produced to the eternal ignomy and perjury of the Brotherhood since they violently broke all their promises to the destruction of our Church and State Can any quit the long Parliament of Hypocrisie when they affirm that they all took the Protestation for the Kings Preservation and therefore wonder'd that he should think much at their actions though they were in actual rebellion against him Would it not be a pretty plea for the Kings Enemies to say Alas How could we intend any harm against him since we all took the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy Or can any man give any credit to the wicked Long-Parliament when they affirm that they never rejected the Common-Prayer-Book nor do intend only to alter it When the enmity of those then in the Houses against that Book both before and after is well enough known But truth in those dayes was not used to be spoken within those walls
neither out of them by the Zealots then in Possession Our late Grandees made many hundred Protestations that all their actions were only for the Preservation of the Kings Person yet they most wickedly murthered him because he was a Defender of the true Faith as the ancient Sweeds martyr'd their good King Eric Stenchil because he intended to bring the Christian Religion amongst them And our Presbyterians swore in the Covenant to preserve the King yet never did in the least assist him but fought what they could against him as appears by the series of the whole Warr. When the Parliament threw by their King and Oaths in the Votes for Non-Address the Nation saw that they were then contriving his ruine And the Royalists knew that their Soveraign must be saved then or never for which purpose in 1648. they seize upon Carlisle Barwick and Pontefrait in the North whilst those of Kent grow numerous in the South Thus the Kings Party though devested of Arms and Strength bestirr themselves like faithful Subjects But what did the Brethren do Alas they acted very high too though the clean contrary way The Parliament cursing the Royal design with Bell Book and Candle contriving night and day how to bring them to distruction whilst their Associates in the Countrey and Army furiously opposed and at last as the Devil was permitted to triumph over Job proved victorious to the ruine of the Kings best friends Yet had these Zealots according to their Oaths taken up their Weapons probably the Kings murder and other following mischiefs had been stopt But God would not suffer such wicked perjured Wretches to be Authors of so much good It being miraculous which are now ceased that the madd Bulls of Spain should be so favourable to the Corps of St. James And that the Devil that delighter in mischief should wait upon a good Knight so faithfully and be so beneficial to Christianity as to pay for a Bell that the people might with more facility be drawn to Church Thus did these people for all their gude Covenant suffer their King to be murdred before their faces without moving one hand for a rescue unless you will allow the Petitioning of a few when it was too late to do any good by soft words though it was more than could be expected from those who had done him all the mischief that Sword Gun or Malice could do which puts me in mind of a passage in a Paper printed for Robert White before the decollation of his Majesty The well-known Gilb. Mabbot being Imprimatur It 's conceived absurd and hypocritical to swear the Preservation of the Kings Person as a man when at the same time a Warr is ingaged against him and he known to be in the Field subject to death by the Bullet and Sword And it is well known that some of the Souldiers said that they would kill the King asson as another man Though I do not say that the Presbyterians were the men that did actually murder him yet we know that the Rump was not free from some of that Faction and so whether any of that party consented to the stroak or no yet I am confident that most if not all of that gang brought him to the Scaffold concerning which I shall borrow a Story from an Ingenious Knight for I do not love like some of late to steal whole pages and attribute their product to mine own Brain and this may very well reflect upon the whole Presbyterian Party Some Robbers on Shooters-Hill assault an honest Gentleman yet the Thieves among themselves are divided some inclining only to bind him and leave him helpless in the adjacent Woods But others for their greater security from pursuit determin rather to murther him out-right Now I suppose an honest Jury will find both Parties guilty of and agreed in the main Design viz. Robbery The Application is so true and plain that any man will judge the Presbyterians as well guilty of High-Treason For 1. Fighting against their King 2. Voting all his Assisters to be Traytors contrary to the Law 3. Hanging and Beheading many gallant Gentlemen only for their Loyalty 4. Sequestrating the Orthodox and ruining the Church both against Law and King 5. Calling his Majesty through his Declarations scandalous impious false wicked tyrannical and what not 6. Voting the Queen a Traytor for assisting the King her Husband against Rebels 7. Ordering such abominable Propositions that a Peace could not be agitated unless the Kings best Friends were delivered up to hop headless 8. Forcing Oaths upon the People contrary to the Kings Command and the Law of the Land 9. Confining his Majesty 10. Pinding him up to such intolerable Rules and Covenants or else they will have none of him 11. Throwing him by or rather disowning him to be their King by their Votes for Non-Address 12. Voting and Fighting against those who in 1648. endeavoured to release him from his Imprisonment and save him from the Block With several other such like mad pranks as these which if not singly as most of them will yet I am confident will make Accumulative Treason which will either hang them according to their own deeds or else they murdered the Earl of Strafford and murther is death both by the Laws of God and Man I say an Indifferent Jury need never go from the Barr to consider but at the first hearing would freely find the Presbyterian Subjects as well guilty of Treason against their Soveraign as those who would not add sin to sin by Hypocrisie but impiously declared their dislike to Monarchy by a wicked Decollation Another refuge and that the last that the Brethren have is in the action of Sir George Booth That some of them were well-wishers to it I cannot because my knowledge is not Omnipotent deny but what assistance and upon what conditions they afforded to that design I shall leave for them to demonstrate I being unwilling to say what Lords utter Enemies to Episcopacy would not so much as Interest themselves in it if reports be true or at least so cowardly that they only advantaged the Kings Enemies But enough of this it being farr from my humour to be so malepert with some Nobles as the Presbyterians are impudent with his Majesty Though I am really of Opinion that had that Design taken effect we should have had our old warre renew'd again the Puritans having been once armed and imbodyed would have fought down our legal Episcopal Government and chained up his Majesty to some New-Castle or Isle of Wight-like conditions or if they had proved Maisters sent the King beyond Sea again or secured him if not yielded him up also to the Independants for what wickednesse have they not undertaken to bring about their ends whether it be true or noe that the Devils have had several conventions for the extirpating of the Franciscan Order it matters not though I am confident the Brethren seldome consult but
for the distruction of our Church But if 8000 Fiends could no way endamage seven poor Fryers I hope nor they nor Presbytery will ever be able to do any mischief to the Church of England Yet as a descant upon the Objection of those who plead their activity in Sir George Booth's businesse I shall propose one Query Whether if the Presbyterians had supposed that our present King would have been so opposite to their Interests as his glorious Father was They would any way have bestirr'd themselves for his Restauration Here I would not be understood of those who at the beginning of these troubles had the misfortune to be of that Faction yet since turn'd to the true Church with an acknowledgment of their former errours and this through conscience not preferment the once-flourishing Church being then in a persecution But I intend those whose frantick zeal yet binds them up to Schism as well as those who are stuft with Presbytery in Sr. George's rising and since of whom I believe repentance is not yet impossible because I read that the Devill himself hath humbly acknowledged and confessed his offences But to the Query if they would not have endeavour'd his restorement being so qualified then must they needs have a large stock of confidence to demand thanks where none is due but rather an halter for their assistance in the businesse But if they did desire the King again and so qualyfied then must they either declare that they have been wicked Villains and Traytors against the late King or that this present King was help'd in by them more through their goodness to him than his own desert For my part I am apt to give credit to the negative really thinking that if they had had as bad thoughts of this King as of his Father who yet was better than the best of his enemies they would have made it their businesse to have kept him out though under favour 't is as much Treason to depose a Tyrant as a good King And I am drawn to be of this perswasion by these following Motives That they looked upon his Fathers non-complyance with their peevish humours as a monstrous wickednesse is a truth not hitherto denyed Wherefore else should Mr. Love pray that God would redeem him i. e. Charles II. from the iniquity of his Fathers house And not half an houre before his own death to be so farre out of Charity with the oppressed and Martyr'd King as to bluster out For my part I have opposed the Tyranny of a King And with this Love great in the eyes of the Presbyterians doth the grand Patron of that Sect in Scotland Mr. Robert Dowglas agree who had the impudence pardon that low expression for language cannot reach the wickednesse of his pretended Sermon to tell the King to his face several times of the sins of his Father and Family Of which I shall give you some taste and that in his own words It is earnestly wished that our Kings heart may be tender and be truly humbled before the Lord for the sins of his Fathers house And for the many evils that are upon that Family Again Our late King did build much mischief to Religion all the days of his Life And again Sir there is too much iniquity upon the throne of your predecessors who framed mischief by a Law such Laws as have been destructive to Religion and grievous to the Lords people And again I may say freely that a chief cause of the judgment upon the Kings house hath been the Grand-fathers breach of Covenant with God and the Fathers following his steps in opposing the work of God and the Kirk within this Realm And since he holds the King to be so wicked what must be done with him himself doth intimate in these following words This may serve to justifie the proceedings of this Kingdome against the late King who in an hostile way set himself to overthrow Religion Parliament Laws and Liberties If Elisha call'd judgment from Heaven upon little Children for calling of him bald-head What punishment do these Boute-feus deserve for throwing such false and wicked slanders and reproaches upon a just and good King If the Romans according to their custome broak the legs of the wicked accuser of Apollonius because he could not prove his words what tortures do those merit who so falsly revile their innocent Ruler And if Nerva would have servants slain as ungrateful wretches who presumed to accuse their Masters What death would he inflict upon those who had the impudence thus to vilifie their Soveraign But it was not Dowglas alone who thought the late Rebellion against the King to be lawful and commendable but others of them and those the chief too nor indeed do I remember that any Presbyterian denyed it Amongst its chief assertors thus doth Love declare himself I did it is true oppose in my place and calling the forces of the late King and were he alive again and should I live longer the cause being as then it was I should oppose him longer And of the same Rebellious humour is the much talked of Baxter who several times professeth that if he had not been on the Parliaments party he had been guilty of High Treason against the Higher power which his hasty zeal took to be the Parliament But I shall leave him to the meditation of the Rebels plea which if he do but seriously consider I am confident he may have a sight of his sins against which conversion I believe the Brethren pray daily And of this opinion concerning the lawfulnesse of the Warre was old Hall of Kings-Norton canting and recanting Jenkins of London mad-pated Crofton railing Vicars with the rest of the covenanting Diegoes It being one Article in their League and Creed that all Malignants that divided the King from his people c. contrary to the League and Covenant be brought to publick Tryal and receive condigne punishment and by whom this is meant needs no Oedipus to unriddle So that if the King offer to protect these eye-sores of theirs they think themselves obliged by their Oath to take Armes to punish the Kings best subjects according to their pretty oath And yet must these mens actions be held ever for the best as if they had taken infallibility from the Papall Chair Which puts me in mind of a Quaker who not long since through ignorance led a friend of mine above 4 miles out of his way going to Oxford and when he perceived his error greatly cryed up the good providence of God which had brought them that way because as he said for ought he knew they might have been rob'd had they gone the right road And how many of the Puritans have hug'd themselves because they have been in a wrong way against King and Church may appear by many of their Thanks-giving Sermons and speeches And whether these men can be call'd good
might be said as Platina said of the same Pope Thus expired these Bonte-feus who rather endeavour'd to make themselves a terror to Kings Magistrates then study the increase and propagation of true Religion However if after all this we should grant though I see small reason for so doing that the Presbyterians did contribute something to his Majestie 's restauration yet will the credit if rightly considered be so little that they have aboundance of confidence who can boast of it It being done supposing that they were assisters rather for their own ends then any real love which they bore towards his Majesty And what will not these men do for their own advantage We need not tell here of some Patrons of that Faction who first subscribed to Episcopacy then took the Covenant against it then took the Engagement against Kingship and since have embraced both King and Episcopal Government And certainly most ignorant must that man be who supposeth that those who thus vary do it really by perswasion of the excellent goodness of that thing they then engage for rather then a time-serving humour for a private benefit And what little thanks much lesse reward the Puritans merit by their assistance supposing that they were advantagious may be hinted at by these following parallel stories At that famous Siege of Ostend a Frenchman by disobeying his Serjeant caus'd a Tumult for which he was condemned by a Councel of War to be Shot to Death Yet at the intercession of the French Captain that renowned General Sir Francis Vere granted him life upon condition he asked the Serjeant forgiveness This he scorned however had eight days allow'd him to consider at the end of which he seeming still obstinate was Ordered to Execution and accordingly was tyed to a Stake But no sooner did the Monsieur see the Harquebusiers ready to discharge but the fear of death falling upon him he desired to be unbound and so asked the Serjeant forgiveness Our Brittish Presbyterians by disobedience to their King caused a most wicked war to the ruin of many Noble families and the King himself The merciful King for the preservation of his Subjects bloud sent to the Malefactors Post after Post a full pardon provided there might be a sure peace and a perfect Amnesty To these propositions they scorn to hearken and by their Covenant swear to ruin all the King's friends and in this manner being confident in their own strength they run on in obstinacy and in this stubborn fashion did they continue many years thinking themselves secure But at last to their amazement they beheld the Independent ready to cut their throats this fear of a sudden destruction brought such a terrour upon these zealots that they were even at their wits ends they look round about for relief cast out many a sigh to obtain favour but they perceive no safety unless they would acknowledge themselves Subjects to their King This they thought a hard lesson and contradictory to their Christian Liberty but taking it for a good rule that of two Evils the lesse is to be chosen they with a low voyce not willing to be heard mumble out that Charles II. is their King and so through his Majesties mercy were relieved from their bondage though innocent souls they scorned to ask pardon for their former villanies in which they came short of the French mans ingenuity But to bring the Simile somewhat more pat in respect of the relation betwixt a Soveraign and a Subject Above 300. years past the Danes banished their King Christophorus II. and Imprisoned his eldest son Eric in the strong Castle of Hadersleben in the Dukedome of Schleswick These dissentions having weakened the Nation those of Holstein endeavour'd to get Denmark under their subjection which the Danes perceiving were glad to re-call their King and set free his Son This story will unfold it self in the application of the following Narrative which is exactly to the business and hath formerly been used by an Ingenious Gentleman in a speech at Nottngham though in the relating I shall not only somewhat differ from him but also inlarge my self out of the Chronicles themselves James I. King of Scotland when but Prince and young going into France was taken Prisoner by the English 7. Henry IV. 1406. where he was detain'd some 18. years In the mean time the Government of Scotland was usurped by Robert Steward Duke of Albany and Earl of Fyfe after whose death his Son Mordack or Murdo got the command never endeavouring the resettlement of his King but lorded it over the Nation wasting and alientating the King's Revenue and the Churches Patrimony turning all things upside down according to his Tyrannical humour In the mean while Mordac had three sons Walter Alexander and James though André de Chesne through brevity taketh no notice of the latter who grew very unruly and imperious obedient to no laws but their own wills presumptiously destroying what their Father most delighted in to his great grief and discontent And not being able to endure their sawciness he resolved to free himself from their Tyrannical yoak to which purpose he told his eldest son Walter who had just then snatch'd a Faulcon from his fathers hand and wrong off her neck that since he would not be obedient to his government and pleasure he would procure one who should rule them both After which time all his Counsels were for the restauration of King James resolving rather to be a Subject to a lawful King then a slave to his own Children For which purpose he gets a Parliament call'd at Saint Johnstown where all being weary of the present Government and Tyranny it was unanimously concluded to send for their own King home again which accordingly was done 1424. and he presently restoreth both the Crown and Church Revenues And in a Parliament held at Sterling Mordacus with his two sons were condemn'd as Traytors and beheaded his youngest son flying into Ireland where he dyed The Application of this Story is obvious Our present King when also but a young Prince by the malignancy of self-ended Traytors being secluded from his own for the space also of eighteen years The Government of the Nation was seised upon by the furious Presbyterians who Tyrannize to the purpose over the distracted Country getting the King's Lands selling his Woods loading the Nation with Excise and Taxes ruining the Church imprisoning and murthering the Bishops and others of the Chief Gentry whose estates they also put into their pockets imposing wicked oaths upon the people vilifying their King murthering his Subjects and in a word violating all Laws After this fashion did old Father Presbytery Tyrannize for some years But at last Independency Anabaptism and the Fifth-Monarchy-men the three ungracious sons of Presbytery began to perk up grow headstrong and so malepert as to contemn scorn and deride their Father spitting in his face and throwing all reproaches they could upon him
Heathen yet would he be as much King and have as much right to the Crown and Rule as if he were Presbyterian 'T is not the Religion of the Magistrate but that in me be what it will that I do call Religion or Conscience which obligeth my obedience to him The Roman-Catholick had as much Reason and Law for their Gun-Powder Treason as the Scotch and English Puritans for their many Rebellions and may as to themselves as much rejoyce for their delivery from the Presbyterian Tyranny as they from the others intended cruelty but in this they may both shake hands and cry quits Brother which hath made me smile as often as I hear a Disciplinarian rail against the Romanists for that wicked design since themselves have been as guilty only some difference in the method one putting their confidence in Fire and the other in the Sword The many Rebellions of these People and their resolutions never to lay down their Swords till the King would satisfie them in what they pleas'd is a sufficient manifestation of their Conditional Obedience and that they are not farther Subject to that Authority than the King is obedient to their Wills examples of which are yet fresh in every mans memory At the very beginning of their Rebellion they having declar'd those who adhear'd to the King to be Traytors and He had done the same to the Earl of Essex His Majesty unwilling to have the bloud of his Subjects shed and delighting in Peace sent to the Parliament to call in their Declarations against his Party and he would call in all his against them and their Associates and that both the Armies might be disbanded an Act of Oblivion to be pass'd and a perfect Peace compos'd And What could be more gracious then this yet this they deny Nor will they hearken to any Overtures of a Treaty with him unless he first call in all his Declarations against them Disband his Army yield himself to them and permit those who were with him to be proceeded against and suffer as Delinquents Thus will they have none of him unless he submit to them and permit his best Friends to be ruined And yet these men must think themselves so good Subjects that they deserve his Majesties thanks for their so acting and in so doing think themselves Obedient enough in all Conscience But if this be their duty I wish they would tell me what they think disobedience to be This rejecting their Soveraign is sufficient to stop the mouths of these men from railing against Pope Gregory VII call'd Hildebrand who having excommunicated the Emperour Henry IV. would not absolve him nor receive him into favour till throwing off all his Princely attire he had waited three several dayes in the coldest time of Winter bare-footed at the walls of Vercelli in Piemonte in Italy where the Pope then was to beg audience and forgiveness Phaëton had no reason to question his birth-right unless Phoebus would allow him the command of his flaming Chariot to the ruin of the Youth and a great part of the World And 't is strange Logick and impudence in our Puritans to deny themselves to be Subjects unless they command as Supream A pretty mode to trample upon Authority as if they had set for their pattern Pope Alexander III. who insteed of offering his Toe to be kist by Frederick Barbarossa set his foot upon the Emperours neck If at the beginning of the Warr they were so stubborn as not to receive their King into their favour unless he yield to their mercy and suffer his friends to be distroy'd he must expect stranger Conditions when they are heightned with bloud and villany For then must he ask them Pardon give them satisfaction and carry nothing about him but the bare Title or else he shall be none of their King To which purpose a whole Club of them having sufficiently rail'd against Hâ—m after all their lies scandals and hellish forgeries thus conclude their malice and obedience These are some few of the many reasons Why we cannot repose any more trust in him i. e. King Charles I. and have made those former resolutions yet we shall use our utmost endeavour to settle the present Government as may best stand with the Peace and Happiness of this Kingdom Here they quite renounce any more Obedience to him nay make it by Vote both of their Lords and Commons to be High-Treason for any to make any Application or Address to him And if these be good Subjects without all question 't is Treason to be obedient And what they meant by their utmost endeavours I know not only this I am certain of having thus thrown away the Father they never apply'd themselves to the Son unlesse it were the motion of some of them to proclaim him Traytor and the conclusion of them all was to send the Earl of Warwick to fight him How long before they had been resolved to renounce their King and his Government I know not yet the Earl of Loudoun then Lord Chancellor of Scotland a pretty while before this gave the King notice of their intentions telling him that Some are so afraid others so unwilling to submit themselves to your Majesties Government as they desire not you nor any of your Race longer to raign over them If your Majesty refuse to assent to the Propositions you will lose all your Friends lose the City and all the Country and all England will join against you as one man and when all hope of Reconciliation is past it is to be feard They will processe and depose you and sett up another Government They will charge us to deliver your Majesty to them and to render the Northern Garrisons and to remove our Army out of England And upon your Majesties refusing the Propositions both Kingdomes will be constrain'd to agree and settle Religion and Peace without you which will ruine your Majesty and your Posterity And if your Majesty reject our faithful advice and lose England by your wilfulnesse your Majesty will not be permitted to come and ruine Scotland And at the beginning of the same year when his Majesty from Oxford earnestly desired them that there might be a personal Treaty The Lords and Commons of the English Parliament and the Commissioners of the Scotch Parliament after they had impudently hinted at his Majesty as a most wicked person they expresly deny any such means for peace untill he had given them satisfaction and security And this was still their custome with his Majesty first must he satisfie them before they will hear any thing from him In the same year the Committee of Scotland tell his Majesty at New Castle We hope you come with intentions and full resolutions to give all just satisfaction to the joint-desires of both your Kingdomes And two daies after assure him that If your Majesty shal delay the present performing thereof we shal be necessitated for our own exoneration
to acquaint the Committee of both Kingd at London that a course might be taken by the joint advice of both Kingdomes for attaining the just ends exprest in the Solemn League and Covenant And to the same purpose but with abundance of railing against the King the year before did the General Assembly of the Scotish Kirk Mr. Robert Dowglass being Moderator expresse themselves to his Majesty And in this humour of conditional and malepert capitulating Subjects they continue nay even when people might perceive the Army bent against Monarchy or at least the Royal Family of the Stuarts For thus they endeavour to make people believe that the King cannot be truly King indeed unlesse he humbly give satisfaction to his covenanting people We leave it to be pondered by your Lordships whether they that obstruct and hinder the requiring of satisfaction and security from his Majesty in point of Religion before his Restitution to the exercise of his Royal Power do not upon the matter and consequence obstruct and hinder his Majesties deliverance and restitution whereof such security and assurance had from his Majesty might be a powerful and effectual means And a little after more fully declare themselves thus This Restitution of his Majesty to the exercise of his Royall Power before security had from Him for setling Religion your Lordships know by our eight desires and otherwaies is conceived by us to be inconsistent with the safety and security of Religion the bringing of his Majesty to some of his houses in or neer London before satisfaction and security had from him in point of Religion and in such other things as are necessary for the safety of the Kingdomes could not as we conceive but be an exceeding great discouragement and offence to the Presbyterianins England who will conceive that the Remedy is worse then the disease seeing your Lordships are obliged by the third Article of the Covenant to defend his Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdomes We conceive your Lordships should not demand from nor presse upon the Kingdome of England his Majesties Restitution with freedome and honour and safety except with that qualification in the Covenant and with a subordination to Religion and the Liberties of the Kingdomes And if all these things should come to passe then the Kirkers cry out that all is undone and so they leave it to judgment Whether his Majesty shall not be restored to his honour before Jesus Christ be restored to his honour and set upon his Throne of Government in his Church Whether his Majesty shall not be in a condition of liberty before the Ordinances of Christ have a free course And is this to endeavour the setling of Religion before all worldly interests Or rather to make it come after the Kings interest And If his Majesty may be restored with honour freedome and safety before such satisfaction had from Him we fear it shall lye as a great scandal upon this Kingdome And a little after they plainly subject his Majesty to their wills in the interpretation of the Covenant Whatsoever we owe to the King in civill matters distinct from the cause of Religion sure all these other duties are with a subordination to the glory of God and the good of Religion And we are very confident that it was and will be farre from the thoughts of the General Assembly under colour of his Majesties Honour to concurre with him or any in his Name in a cause which is hurtful and prejudicial to the good of Religion and to the other ends of the Solemn League and Covenant Yet this way of diffience and standing off with their Soveraign Mr. Robert Beyley wonders that any body should call a Fault As if these men have the priviledg to secure the person of the King when they please and then deny him either Authority or Liberty till he ask them forgiveness and give them satisfaction for his thinking much to be made a slave to their fancies Upon such like expressions as these a Parliamentarian makes this observation If the Scots Commissioners did plainly affirm to the Committees of both Houses at the Conference that they could not admit of the Kings presence in Scotland because of the divisions and troubles of that Kingdome which he might make such use of as to raise forces both against them and us What could this imply but that notwithstanding his person might be in safety in Scotland yet Scotland could not be in safety whilst his person was there And if they positively affirm it on their part may not we make a question of it on ours Thus both parties catch at what pretences they can to exclude the King from both his Kingdomes As they did with the Father so did they continue to act villany with the Son concerning which I shall give you the words of that great Mattyr of Loyalty the Noble and Valiant Marquesse of Montross And so little are these Godly and Religious men toucht with any sense of what mischieves they have already done That they begin afresh with his Majesty Our now Gracious Soveraign upon the same score where they left with his Father of ever blessed memory They declare him indeed to be their King but with such conditions and provisoes as robb him of all Right and Power For while they pretend to give him a little which he must accept as from them they spoil him of all that Power and Authority which the Law of God of Nature and of the Land hath invested him with by so long continued descent from his famous Predecessors They press him to join with those who by a Sacrilegious Covenant have confederated all his dominions in Rebellion and laid all Royall Power in the Dust Which in effect were nothing better then that he himself should asperse with Insamy the sacred memory of his ever Glorious Father that he should with his own hands destroy himself and ruine all such who have still been Loyall to him in his three Kingdoms These are the men who first entring England sollicited those of their faction to rise in that desperate Rebellion as a Prologue to the ensuing Tragedie which they meant to act These are they who were the chief and main Instruments of all the Battails Slaughters and Bloody occasions within that of their own Kingdome These are they who sold their Soveraign to a bloody and infamous Death yea these are they who still digg in his Grave and who are more pernitiously hatching the Destruction of his present Majesty by the same bare old antiquated Treacheries then ever they did that of his most excellent and most innocent Father Except he would subscribe to their fancies they would not allow him to be their King nor come amongst them which is confess'd by the Estates of Scotland themselves Scotland is desirous to imbrace him upon grant of their just desires and are most
give them advertisement of all that passed The Moderator Mr. Alex. Henderson well known in both Kingdoms for a rigid Covenanter did justly affirm that it was no Commission the party having no power by it to give any voyce in the Assembly and so there was no more to be said to it But immediately something being transmitted by whispering from ear to ear until it came to the Moderators ear The Moderator began presently to Recant and perusing his Letter of Credence said He perceived that there was only want of Formality in the draught which they might easily pass over And so they allowed that for a Commission which was none and admitted him to have a voyce in the Assembly though the University gave him no such power nor would they have sent any Commissioner but a Divine At this sudden change of the Moderator made in him by a whisper many began to smile and to lay wagers that the party admitted was a Covenanter which the Moderator did not expect from that University and that this secretly-eonvey'd Intelligence of it had changed him And accordingly it proved to be Thus kissing goeth by favour among these people As a man might as well have been a Devil as a Gibelline for any favour he might expect from Pope Boniface VIII so strictly and partially did he bind himself with those of the Guelphian Interest But their hypocrisie is not only visible in these byass'd actions but in the whole series of their lives in which their jugling is not to be parallel'd What counterfeited Zeal What pretended gifts of the Spirit What seeming Sanctity What long-winded Prayer-affections What contrived Sighs and Groans not to be utter'd What demure Carriage What Eye-humility What pretended Self-denyal And yet what real Wickedness and Roguery are acted under these Vizards Whilest they are under they would be thought all humility but having once got their ends and Supremacy their actions bespeak them the worst of Tyrants Which calls to my memory that Monck that by his dejected carriage alwayes looking down with his Eyes was by his Neighbours taken for a real Saint but being by hypocritical carriage chosen Abbot lived in the height of open wickedness affirming that at first he was but seeking for the Keys of the Monastery but having now found them and got what he look'd for would live according to his own pleasure Thus it is storyed of Pope Sixtus how true I know not that before he arrived to that honour eat and drank nothing but Bread and Water saying Panis Aqua Vita Beata But having once setled himself in the Porphyry Chair he refused to stoop to such coorse fare when it was offer'd him having his reason from the contrary Position of the words Aqua Panis Est vita Canis After this fashion another threw away his Net when he came to the Pontifical Dignity knowing that he had then catch'd the Fish Thus at the beginning of the Warrs a publick Monethly Fast was appointed for the last Wednesday of every Moneth but no sooner had they got the King upon the Scaffold and the Nation fully secured into the Rumps Interest but then they thought it needless to abuse or gull the People with multitude of Prayers and Sermons they having got what they long expected and as they thought had so strongly secured themselves that it was all one whether the beslaved People thought them to be Saints or no and so by a particular Act of their Worships null'd the Proclamation for the Observation of the former all which verifieth the old Verse The Devil was sick the Devil a Monck would be The Devil was well the Devil a Monck was he Thus you see the true reason of this new Order of Sanctity and how easie it is to deceive the world with a counterfeit Holiness Like the old Wife at Venice who caus'd two great Books to be made both of equal bigness and like fashion whereof the one was a real Bible but the other hollow within like a Chest made in all points like a Book with Clasps and all which she fill'd with flat Bottels of Malmsey and with good fine Marchpanes which she her self made of the Brawn of Capons and Partridges with Sugar and Almonds and then with-drew her self into a pretty Cell with these two Books and there sat prunking and tarrying all alone in her devout Contemplations sometimes five or six dayes together Praying and Reading full devoutly till the Bible was quite empty not eating or drinking any thing else all that while And after this manner did Antonius Piceus get a name of Sanctity by his hypocritical fasting 40. dayes and whether John Scot did his Miracles this way or by the help of the Virgin Mary is not worth enquiry at this time Though I am confident that the Presbyterians gain more by jugling than by fair play How seeming honest are many of their Writings and Protestations yet when well look'd into are either never kept or of themselves signifie nothing but like a meer Complement full of courtesie full of craft of which many examples might be given but one at this time may satisfie seeing it was done by the chief of that Gang and that too since his Majesties return At a General Meeting of the Covenanting Presbyterians in and about the City of London a Petition was drawn up by them to be presented to the King which thus concludes Beseech your Majesty That the things of God and Religion which have been so Solemnly Covenanted for may be owned and confirmed by your Royal Authority which notwithstanding we do sincerely profess our readiness to accommodate with our Godly and Orthodox Brethren dissenting from us so farr as may consist with our Consciences and Covenant Is not this a very gratious Petition and Condescention Can any man desire the Society of more peaceable Brethren Who only desire that their Covenant made against all Laws and Authority yet they hold its Obligation to be perpetual might be confirm'd yet if it be not for Peace-sake they are very willing to agree with the Episcopal Party according to the Covenant O these are loving souls and hate Dissention as a Beggar doth a liberal Alms and truly the Episcopal Clergy is as much beholden to them as Montross was Had the Independents at their first return from America and Holland made a solemn Engagement for the extirpation of Presbytery And in 1644. or 45. had Petitioned the Parliament that their Engagement might be confirm'd by their Authority all England over yet in conclusion would profess that they would willingly agree with Presbytery so farr as their Engagement allow'd them Would not all the Brethren in England and Scotland exclaim against it for a meer juggle and cry out Gra-mercy Horse Yet had this Engagement been farr more rational and lawful than the Covenant But Awaa Whiggs awaa This Covenanting Sophism is but a demonstration of your Hellish Knavery and he that puts any trust in
order the same they deny its obligation when King Charles I desires any thing by order then they refuse also affirming that such things cannot stop the force of Laws Yet when his present Majesty by Proclamation gratiously giveth a kind of toleration then they take hold of it and will stand by it let the Act of Conformity say what it will to the contrary And indeed his Majesty is greatly beholden to them thus to testifie their Obedience It being the first time that ever they comply'd with King or Command in matters of Religion Nor is their present obedience upon any vertue or stress of the Command but that it is agreeable to their wills Balthassar Cossa and other Cardinals being at Bologna to choose a Pope several they named but none could content Cossa wherefore they desired him to nominate whom he would whereupon he declared that he would be Pope himself and so was chosen and nominated John XXIII After this manner do our Presbyterians no King Law Councill Convocation or any thing else can please them but what is of their own election or beneficial to their own designes When themselves make a Covenant then they will swear for uniformity and the ruine of those who do not agree with them But if the King and laws demand unity then they are for liberty of Conscience yet if the Anabaptists Independents c. being then in supremacy plead and allow that liberty then they cry out that the Church is undone for want of Government Though now being not Lords and Maisters they are against such a settlement and stick to that license granted by the Kings Declaration which though but temporary yet will they never quit its Freedome till they be come Conquerors again by Rebellion let King and Parliament act what they will to the contrary and in this I am confirm'd by an expression in one of their Grandees We doubt not but his Majesty will appoint such persons to review our Liturgy as will agree in one which shall not be liable to just Exceptions TILL THAT TIME HIS MAJESTY GRANTS A LIBERTY What arguments these Resolute hot-spurrs will make out of just exceptions and the last words till that time his Majesty grants a liberty may very easily be suspected and I am confident the event will shew to be most seditious pleading the Kings Declaration against their Future Conformity though the King Parliament and Convocation agree on the contrary Thus will they act like the Bitch in Justine which desired the benefit of a place to whelp in which being granted begs of the Shepherd liberty also to bring up her young there this being performed too then confidently demands for the future a propriety in that Kennell But these men might know that Agesilaus the great King of the Lacedemonians us'd to condiscend to the pleasuring of his Son when a Child by riding with him on an Hobby-horse and what liberty our King grants to consciences that are truly tender cannot handsomly be laid hold on by these wicked Incendiaries whose abominable actions proclaim them to have no Conscience unlesse it be to commit mischief If these men will not allow liberty to the Episcopal Clergy I know no reason they should have it themselves as for the first 't is plain of which take some examples Where you have the kneeling at the Sacrament call'd an horrible stumbling block and that the kneeler is a Thief and in the same place tells the people that if none would communicate with the Ring-leaders and Introducers they would be forced to desist and had desisted long ago for shame Nay he goeth farther and tells them that though they receive much good and comfort by the Common-prayer yet they sin if they go to it And fairly assures us that we are bound to oppose the Liturgy for otherwise the Superiours will be embolden'd to sin whilst they think that to be lawfully imposed which is by us received and obeyd Mr. Matthew Newcomen now a great man amongst them and an old Smecty M Nuan when the Presbyterians were top and top gallant if I mistake not preach'd a Sermon against Toleration And one of their great Pulpit-teers of Scotland publickly told our House of Lords that Liberty of Conscience is no remedy but Physick worse then the Disease And in the same temper were this mans Country men when they cry'd out God defend all those who will defend Gods cause and God confound the Service-Book and all the maintainers of it And this was the heat of the Scotch people at the beginning of their Covenant turning out all those that would not subscribe it though contrary to the Kings command They presently expell'd two Regents from the Colledge of Edinburgh for not taking it In Fyfe they order'd a Communion throughout their Churches at which they made every one to swear not to subscribe any thing but their Covenant Nor were there few Ministers in that Kingdom not subscribers of their Covenant whom they did not presently process and cite before their several Presbyteries and others were kept from their Priviledges Nor was this all One of their Ministers refused to pray for Sir William Nesbett late Provost of Edinburgh when he was lying upon his Death-bed only because he had not subscribed their Covenant Another pray'd God to scatter them all in Israel and to divide them in Jacob who had counsell'd the King to require the Confession of Faith to be subscribed by His Authority Many would not admit to the Communion those who had not subscribed their Covenant Others would not suffer children to be baptized in the Churches of those Ministers who were out of the Covenant though they were their own Parish-Churches but carryed them sometimes many miles to be baptized by Covenanting-Ministers One preach'd That all the Non-subscribers of the Covenant were Atheists and so concluded that All the Lords of the Kings Council and all the Lords of the Session were such because none of them had subscrib'd it Another preach'd That as the wrath of God never was diverted from his people until the seven Sons of Saul were hang'd up before the Lord in Gibeon so the wrath of God would never depart from Scotland till the twice seven Prelates the number of the Bishops in that Kingdom were hang'd up before the Lord there Another preach'd That though there were never so many Acts of Parliament against the Covenant yet it ought to be maintain'd against them all Another deliver'd in his Sermon That the bloudiest and sharpest Warr was rather to be endured than the least Error in Doctrine and Discipline And another of these Bloud-Hounds in his Pulpit thus furiously wished That he and all the Bishops in that Kingdom were in a bottomless Boat at Sea together for he could be well content to lose his life so they might lose theirs And what do you think of another of these Furies who affirm'd that Every man ought to be
those Athenians who thought to gain great store of gold by conquering the Emmets of Hymettus For nothing can be gain'd by their Writings unless Malice and Ignorance may go for precious Jewels To be short Those who pretend to be such Zealots for the Reformed Church should not endeavour its discredit by asserting her novelty If that be true which the most learned of the Protestants have maintain'd viz. that that which we call the Popish Religion had no firm foundation by a publick acknowledgement till about six hundred years after our Saviour's birth Then were the Ceremonies now of the Church of England used and generally receiv'd long before Papistry had its being as is palpable from Church-History and the Fathers So that we might as well call Churches Bells Pulpits Hower-Glasses written-Sermons c. Popish as well as Forms of Prayer Ministerial habits and such like And I am apt to believe that if our Church should bring in the Wafer as there is neither harm in form nor matter that many of our Zealots would refuse the Communion though they are in use at Geneva yet the grand Disciple and adorer of that City and Government doth call it The Round clipped God which shews that the Masters and Scholars cannot alwayes agree in all things Nay these men are so farr from agreement amongst themselves that for ought that I know their mindes may alter with the Times and Seasons of which amongst many take but this one example One of their chief Generals viz. Master Baxter a little before the King came in doth publickly declare That a stinted Liturgy is in it self lawful nay in some things necessary And that if the Magistrate should impose and he could not otherwise be dispensed withall the Surplice though it were made a teaching sign the whiteness of it being to signifie Purity or should he also appoint kneeling at the Sacrament he would observe both And as for the Ring in Marriage the name and form of an Altar and Organs or other Instruments of Musick were they so enjoyn'd he should find no reason to scruple them Nor would he be wanting to the observation of our Church Holy-dayes Nor dare he peremptorily say that it is unlawful to use the Crosse in Baptism Nor will he condemn the Ancients and Moderns that use it nor will he make any disturbance in the Church about it Clinias and Demetas in Sydney protested to fight like Hectors and gave out as terrible Bravado's against each other as the stoutest Champion in the world each confiding in the cowardice of his Adversary like Sir Ambros de la Foole and Sir John in the Play And after this manner doth Baxter shew himself When there was no sign of Episcopall Government and he hoped that neither King Law nor It would ever be in force and authority again Then who but Baxter O how conformable would he be if the Ceremonies were but setled What great things would he do if these things were but up again But words are meer winde though they signifie something with an honest man Now that the King 's come over and the Church resetled none more against it than Baxter none more opposeth the peace of the Church than he none more violent against Authority not is there any man opposeth Decency more than this Proteus yet is this like the rest of his Faction who swear Allegiance and think they satisfie and fulfill their Oath by Rebellion As for these mens desire of Toleration I shall propose some Quaeries to them I. Whether supposing them to be Supreme they would allow the same Priviledge to the Episcopal Party If not Then II. With what face they can desire or demand it from the Superiours now in being to whom they will not grant the like favours If they say they would Then III. Why did they in 1642 1643 c. preach against oppose and deny such liberty to be given to the Episcopal and Royall Clergy If they say That they are since satisfy'd in the Contrary and that their opinions are grown more moderate Then IV. What reason have we to believe their Moderation to be reall since they all stand stifly for the Obligation of their Covenant in which they swear to extirpate Episcopacy which Opinion is still maintain'd by Crofton and others of that gang The truth is give once liberty to a Presbyterian and give it also to the Independent Anabaptist Quaker and the rest of the Sectaries for ought that I know one being as good English Christian as the other and this Liberty once granted in a few years 't will be an hard case to tell which is the Church of England neither party being subordinate to one another only here will be the difference The Episcopal party will be bound to be obedient to the Law and Canon but the other above both by which Supremacy the Authority of the Loyal Clergy will be null'd whilest the other by their Power and Liberty will have the best advantage to gain Proselytes and then 't is easily imagin'd what brave Elections there will be for Future Parliaments through the whole Kingdom But I suppose his Majesty having been sufficiently plagu'd by a Presbyterian Parliament will desire no more such Representatives which is impossible to be hinder'd if a Toleration once be granted for if from a very small beginning these sedulous Non-Conformists grew so head-strong numerous and powerful in a few years as not only to have a great party but even a Majority in Parliament in Queen Elizabeth's dayes we must needs expect their Faction and Authority now daily to encrease if Tolerated being already so numerous and having setled themselves in the Affections Families Churches and Interests not only in multitude of Gentry and other people of the Nation but of the Great ones too who have not only Power and Riches but it may be Will too to do mischief by propagating a Presbyterian Interest which in time may act as wickedly against the Son as in part they have already as they did formerly against his Royall Father 'T is not unknown how these Slanderers scandalize the Church of England with high Popery which for ought that I know they may by the by throw upon his Majesty too as a Favorite for thus 't is well known they abus'd his Royal Father of which at this time take but one example and this from the Heads both of the Laity and Ministry of this Gang. The Assembly of Divines for so were they call'd at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Kirk of Scotland drew up a Letter which was sent by Order of their Commons to the Belgick French Helvetian and other Reformed Churches beyond sea in which they do assure them brave that Subjects should complain to strangers of their King and nothing but slanders too that the King made it his sole business to root out the Protestant Religion and us'd all means possibly to reduce the whole Nation to Popery c.
upon the wicked CHAP. VI. Some short Observations upon their Covenant AN understanding Gentleman assures us that A league amongst Subjects giveth law to a King breaks all bonds of Soveraignty and invites a people to seek for a New Maister And this dear-bought experience hath prov'd true to both Nations yet were the events of these Agreements more mischievous they would be courted by the seditious thinking such pieces of Perjury to be the best works of their Holy-days Since the reformation this mode of swearing against Authority hath been commonly practis'd in Scotland In their first Covenant 3 Decemb 1557. An Earl of Argile was the first subscriber and chief promoter and how active an Earl of Argile hath been in our days about such wickednesse need not here be related but I hope as the other was the first so this shall be the last Yet in this way hath the English been as faulty as the worst of them though I believe at first drol'd in by their Neighbours For when at the beginning of the Warres the English Commissioners went from the Parliament into Scotland to desire their assistance against the King and having addres'd themselvs to the Scotch Assembly delivering them a letter subscribed by some Presbyterian Ministers in which they complaind that their blood was shed like water upon the grouud for defence of the Protestant Religion they receiv'd a negative answer The Assembly telling them amongst other things That you cannot say you fight for the Reform'd Religion since you have not begun to reform your Church ye had thriven better if you had don as we did Begun at the Church and thereafter striven to have gotten the civil sanction to what ye had don in the Church A few days after Sir W. Ermin Mr. Hamden and the rest of the Commissioners were invited by some of their friends to make a new Address to the Assembly which they did the second time desiring a gracious Answer Upon this request the Assembly propounded to them this Will ye join in Covenant with us to reform Doctrine and Discipline conform to this of Scotland and ye shall have a better Answer Sir W. Ermin and the rest answered that they had not that in their Instructions but thank'd the Assembly and said they would represent it to the Parliament of England The Assembly replyd that there would be much time loosed ere they could go to the Parliament for their resolutions and thereafter to return to Scotland to draw up a Solemn League and COVENANT The danger was great and they were not able to resist the King But we shall draw up the Covenant here and send up with you some Noble men Gentlemen and Ministers that shall see it subscrib'd which accordingly was don only two or three words altered Thus was this spurious Wretch illegally begotten and brought forth by unlawful Parents by the Scots worship'd and ador'd as the only Idol fit to bless their undertakings and by their Brothers in mischief the English Long Parliament embraced who peremptorily enjoyn all people to swear Allegiance to it as their only supream Law and authentick Shibuleth to distinguish Treason from Loyalty Though what authority they had to impose such an Oath being against the Command both of King and Law must be left for Mr. Prynne to discover in some Terra incognita since we have no such custome amongst us Yet for all this Mr. Simeon Ash had the confidence in the Pulpit to wonder that any man should think that the Covenant was made here only to bring in the Scots when the Presbyterian Parliament and party was low in England Having thus seen the Birth of this Monster it might quickly be desected and the poison and mischief lodg'd in it might evidently be manifested to the whole world but that it hath formerly been don by more able pens However it cannot but seem strange to any that these men should swear to extirpate the Government of the Church by Archbishops Bishops c. which have been confirmd by 32 Acts of Parliament And they could never yet tell who made them Rulers over Israel and gave them power to such actions quite contrary to Magna Charta the laws of the Land and the Kings express command The first two are known to any one who hath heard any thing of the laws of the land and the latter is as true Yet because I have heard some deny and others question its truth I shall give you his Majesties own Proclamation against it 1643. By the KING His Majesties Proclamation forbidding the Tendering or taking of a late Covenant called a Solemn League and Covenant for Reformation c. WHEREAS there is a Printed paper intituled a Solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and Defence of Religin The honour and happinesse of the King and the peace and safety of the three Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland pretended to be Ordered by the Commons in Parliament on the twenty first day of September last to be Printed and published Which Covenant though it seems to make specious expressions of Piety and Religion is in Truth nothing else but a Traiterous and Seditious Combination against us and against the Established Religion and Laws of this Kingdome in pursuance of a Traiterous Design and endeavour to bring in Forraign Force to invade this Kingdome We do therefore straightly Charge and Command all Our Loving Subjects of what Degree of Quality soever Upon their Allegiance That they presume not to take the said Seditious and Traiterous Covenant And We do likewise hereby Forbid and Inhibit all Our Subjects to Impose Administer or Tender the said Covenant as they and every one of them will answer to the Contrary at their Utmost and Extremest Perils Given at our Court at Oxford this Ninth day of October in the Nineteenth year of our Raign GOD SAVE THE KING Than this what could be more plain and authentick yet a furious Presbyterian is pleas'd to tearm this action of the King Satanical slander and abuse a most impious and audacious Paper Atheistical boldness Impious and Platonical pleasure c. Besides the unlawfulness of its making and Imposition the qualities and conditions of the Brat were so impious that an honest man could never take it for several reasons amongst many other take these two or three 1. § They swear to extirpate Popery without respect of persons In which they might be ask'd What they would do with the Queen If they forced her Religion 't was Treason If they did not they are perjur'd 2. § This Oath makes them to be but Conditional Subjects swearing to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberties of the Kingdom before the King or his Authority few of the takers understanding any of these things by which means they swore they knew not what And that this Oath obligeth them to be but conditional Subjects is plain they swearing To preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority
In the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms In which cases too themselves will be Judges so that the meaning is this as hath been proved before by several examples If the King will not obey the Covenant they are sworn not to obey nor defend the King 3. § By this Oath they commit absolute High Treason by nulling several Acts of Parliament made for the Preservation of the King and his friends For here they swear to bring to Publick Tryal to receive Condign Punishment the Kings best Subjects and Friends under the notion of Malignants whom they thus describe Evil Instruments by hindering the Reformation of Religion Dividing the King from his People or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any Faction or Parties amongst the People contrary to this League and Covenant And that justice may be done upon the wilful Opposers thereof By this they quite overthrow all Government making Loyalty Treason and Rebellion the only sign of a good Subject And how severe they stick to this murthering Article you shall see by one passage In the year 1646. the Parliament remaining Conquerours many of the Loyal Party thought it fit to compound for their Estates better to have something than nothing Amongst those in the County of Chester who were put to this hardship were Mr. Richard Brereton of Ashley Mr. John Wilson and others This highly perplext the Committee then at Chester who therefore wrote several Letters to the Youths at Goldsmiths-Hall desiring them never to take such friends to the King into Composition and one of their great sticklers at Chester Mr. S. C. thus delivers the Opinion of himself and his friends about this business The Gentlemen here conceive they are bound in Conscience and by their late National Covenant to do their duty in their place to bring Delinquents to condign punishment Here they will have no mercy but stick close to their wicked Principles And this Oath must receive no Interpretation For if we endeavour but to mitigate it then some strange curse or other will tumble upon the Nation as Crofton not long since affirm'd His Sacred Majesty and the Kingdom must submit to the plain and literal sense thereof though it seem as sower Grapes unless we will by Gods wrath set our own and childrens Teeth on edge 4. § The Covenant if it were in force would be the cause and maintainer of Rebellion for ever for in it they also swear to assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof by which means they oblige themselves to all acts of hostility in its behalf though the King and Parliament as is now done should find reason for its nullity and 't is well known how oft they deny'd and defied their King upon this score O the Obedience and Charity of a Covenanter who like the wicked Jews combine together by Oath to kill those more holy than themselves needs must the malice of these men be so violent that they may be excus'd from saying the Lords-Prayer the very clause of forgiving their Enemies being enough to fright them into Dispair I wish I could say Repentance but that is a thing their zealous fury will not give them so much as leave to think on all of them hurryed on with that bloody rage as to cry out with that Levite in the Poet Blood Blood Blood destroy O Lord The Covenant-Breaker with a two-edg'd Sword Yet this Imp of wickedness the Brethren will not cast off The London-Ministers professing all the power on Earth cannot absolve them from it And Zach. Crofton keeps a great deal of clutter publickly affirming that it doth not only bind those who took it but those also who did not and that the Obligation of this Oath is for ever binding from Generation to Generation And in another of his flaunting Pamphlets he assureth the Reader That he doth and cannot but do it now contest for and assert the Solemn League and Covenant in that Religious part which must be promoted with out-most Zeal by all who wish well to the King and Kingdom though the Devil and his Instruments do endeavour to damp deaden and divert the discharge of duty And then afterwards tells them that Gods wrath will fall upon the King and Kingdom if Episcopacy be not extirpated and the Covenant observed to its literal sense and plain meaning And as they would thus continue it in fury so did they begin it as I have shew'd you before however I shall afford you one other piece of Canting confidence Mr. Andrew Cant the Father for the Son is now as bad in one of his Sermons at Glasgow told the Scots concerning their Covenant That he was sent to them with a Commission from Christ to bid them subscribe the Covenant which was Christ's contract and that he himself was come a Wooer to them for the Bridegroom and call'd upon them to come to be hand-fasted by subscribing that Contract And told them plainly That he would not depart the Town till he got the names of all who should refuse to subscribe that Contract of whom he promis'd to complain to his Master i. e. Christ As for the Obligation of the Covenant they themselves are sometimes forced to deny it unless they will make it a particular exception against all General Rules When the Scots in 1639. were a little troubled that Episcopacy was not absolutely abjured in their former Oaths which many thought binding to them The Covenanters thinking to take away that rub that all men might with more freeness embrace their Covenant declare publickly to the World that the swearer is neither obliged to the meaning of the prescriber of the Oath nor his own meaning but as the Authority shall afterwards interpret it and then by this Heathenish rule what will become of the binding force of the Covenant at this time Which is void also in the opinion of a great Presbyterian under the name of Theophilus Timorcus who thus shews himself Suppose that upon mature deliberation the Ministers that subscribed and took the Oath of Canonical Obedience find that it was an unlawful Oath or Subscription They are in such case only obliged to be humbled for their rash subscription and taking of that Oath and their second Oath against them will hold valid Now if they think this a sufficient salvo I shall only insert these four words Holy League and Covenant instead of the fore-mentioned four words Oath of Canonical Obedience and think the Absolution sufficient according to their own Argument Mr. Crofton tells us that the Oath which the King taketh at his Coronation for the defence of Bishops is of small validity because limited to the Laws of the Land But will this subordinate it to the Covenant Or will he make a little scribble-scrabble of a few perjured Rebels to be the Law of the Land If the
October 22. 1640. December 11. 1640. Sueton. in Cal. cap. 46. December 16 1640. May 3. 4. 1641. May 12. Decemb. 30. 1641. Decemb. 27. Decemb. 6. 1648. True Representation c. pag. 10. 13 14. Bancroft's dangerous Positions p. 111. Decemb. 18. 1640. Decemb. 21. Sueton. 8. Decemb. 19. Jan. 23. 16¼ March 4. Jan. 24. Jan. 31. Feb. 7. March 7 9 10. April 2. May 19 24 27. June 3. 4 7 12. Febr. 11. Febr. 21. March 4. March 1. March 21. April 20 21. April 27. August 4. May 5. 17. May. 2. February Ex. Coll. p. 521. 11. June 12. June 15. June 15. June 16. Decemb. 1640. 12. June 1641. 21. June 9. July 10. July 15. July 16. July 17. July 31. July 30. July 3 4. August 17. Aug. 30. Decemb. 9. July 10. July Remains 1. Septemb. 6. Septemb. 7. Septemb. 9. Septemb. 28. Sepeemb 23. Octob. 26. Octob. 27. Octob. 6. Decemb. 20. Decemb. 27. Decemb. 30. Decemb. 31 Jan. 1641 2 2 Feb. 1. 4. Feb. Large Declar. Anno. 1637. p. 41. Bacons Hist Hen. 7. p. 128. Coor Lycosth de Prodigiis c. Chron. Gualther Tom. 4. p. 279. 24 Decemb. 1641. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 9. 6 Feb. 16¼ Chaucer fol. 164. Conf. Hamp Court pag. 104. Baxters Grotian Religion Discov Sect. 76. p. 113 114. Holy Common wealth pag. 485. Id. p. 477. Sect. 15. Id. p. 486. Sect. 2. Id. p. 488. Id. p. 478. Sect. 17. Id. Preface pag. 14. Sect. 3. Id. Pref. p. 24. Gangraena Part. 1. p. 162. 164. Fullers Appeal part 3. p. 58. VI. Alex. ab Alex. lib. 2. cap. 13. Mat. Paris Anno. 1222. pag. 315. Id facinus pulcherrimum esse arbitramur Tul. Orat. 18. Sect. 94. Seditiosus est Is qui malus atque inutilis est civis Id. de Invent. lib. 1. Sect. 59. Seditiosissimus quisque ignavus Tacit. Hist 4. cap. 34. Sam. Daniel Letter to Octavia Sect. 27. a Nullo verò facto verbo nulla concione nulla lege concitatam nocturaam Seditionem quis audivit Tull. Orat 32. Sect. 20. b Ut mare quod suâ naturâ tranquillum sit ventorum vi agitari atque turbari sic populum suâ sponte esse placatum hominum seditiosorum vocibus ut violentissimis tempestatibus concitari Tull. Orat. 14. Sect. 46. Irrationale vulgus Mat. Paris p. 315. Sect. 32. H. Lestrange pag. 191. 11. May. 1640. 22. Octob. * Neremberg Hist Nat. pag. 227. 3. May 1641. Pezel Mellif Hist part 1. pag. 48. 29. April 5. Maj. 10. May. October 12. Decemb. 27. Decemb. 28. Decemb. Bishop Hall's Remains p. 47. Fuller Book 11. p. 185. Sect. 14. 29. Decemb. 1. Jan. Mat. Paris Anno 1075. p. 10. Dr. Barwick's life of the Bishop p. 103. Mat. Paris pag. 315. Nihil ausuram plebem principibus amotis Tacit An. lib. 1. cap. 55. 5. January 1641 2. * 28. March 1660. Edwards Gangr Part. 1. p. 183. 31 Decemb. 1641. Ex. Coll. p. 531 532. Tho. May ' s Hist Parliament lib. 2. p. 29. 8. February 1641 2. Th. Cantipratan lib. 2. c. 10. Sect. 25. Gierusal liber Cant. 1. Cap. 4. 6. Ex. Coll. p. 80 710 715 716. Chaucer fol. 50. a. Sir David Lyndesay Buke 1. February 1641½ 5. March 14. March 15. March 16. March VII Ex col p. 548. Ex coll p. 530. Ex coll p. 552. August Du. Avity â—le Monde Asia p. 527. Vindiciae Caroli Regis or a Royal Vindication of the King 1645. 40. Grotian Religion discover'd Sect. 73 p. 105. 9 March 1641 2 2. March King Portrait cap. 10. Hist lib. 1. c. 2. Deus terre nus est Imperator contra quem quicunque manus levare nisus fuerit ipse sui sanguinis reus existit Paul Diacon de gestis Rom. lib. 11. in vita Gratiani * August confess lib. 3. cap. 8. †1646. * Gal. Gualdo Prior. Hist part 4. lib. 1. pag. 8. Tasso Cant. 5. Ex coll p. 583. 584. Id. p. 584 585. Id. p. 575. 23 May. 1643. 24 March 1644 5 Hist of Scotl. pag. 107. 113. Bacons Hist Hen. 7. p. 70. Stow. d. 425. Mat. Paris p. 15. De jure belli ap Scotos Rom. 13. 1 2. Clark of Oxfords Tale 3 fol. 56. a * their Apologet. The Armies plea. 1659. pag. 5. De Amichristo in append post Annotat. in Evangel p. 65. Horat. Epist lib. 1. Ep. 18. Tull. de Offic. lib. 3. sect 63. Epigram pag. 201. Quod Aeneas probavit Pius damnavit Edward ' s Gangr part 3. p. 240. Antiq. l. 2. c. ult Borel centur 2. Sect. 63. 23. May. 1643. 24. March 1644 5. Quibus nec ara nec sides nec jusjurandum soret Alex. sol 268. a. Testimoniorum Religionem fidem nunquam ista Natio coluit Tull. Orat. 24. sect 148. Epist ad Quint. l. 1. Ep. 2. sect 300. Quibus utilitas semper est fide sanctior Alex. ab Al. p. 268. 2 Sam. 20. 9 10. 27. Jan. 1642 3. 29. Decemb. 1647. 17. January 1647 8. Alex. ab Ab. sol 253. b. Declarat shewing the reasons of no more Address Remonstrance from St. Albnus 16. Nov. 1648. pag. 8. Idid pag. 7. 26. Hen. 8. c. 13. 12 Februa 1641 2. 4. March 26. Apr. 1641. 14. May. 17. May. 12. July Nic. Jansenius Vit. S. Dominici lib. 1. c. 1. p. 7. l. 2. c. 14. pag. 188. Their letter to Crom. 30. Apr. 1647. Septemb. 1647. 12. September 14. September 5. July 1647. Their Declara to joyn with the Army p. 2. Sir Tho. Fairfax Letter to the Parl. from Cambridge 6. Jun. 1647. Their letter to London from Royston 10. Ju. * Declara concerning their advance to London 1647. pag. 10. Humble Remonstrance from St. Albans 23. Jun. 1647. pag. 12. 9. April 1648. a 30. April b May. 3. June 30. June Sept. 1648. 5. Decemb. Breviary pag. 212. 6. Decemb. Ang. 19. 1641. Their humble Answer 3. Jan. 1648 9. p. 2. Hist Independ part 2. Sect. 23. Armies plea 1659 p. 28. 4 January 1648 9 9 Jan. Remonstrance from Kingston 18 Aug. 1647. pag. 20. Humble Remonst from St. Albans 23 June 1647. pag. 10. Lilburns and Overtons books The Army harmlesse Roial project A pair of Crystal Spectacles Scots Cabinet open'd 11 Sept. 1648. October 16 Octob. Novemb. December 7. 16 Dec. January 16. 18. Novem. * Pag. 22 23 24. 50. 56. 61. 64. Id pag. 62. 2 Aug. 1648. Elenc Mot. p. 119 120. The Army harmlesse p. 3 4. Anno. 1647. Edw. Gangraen part 3. p. 172. Vox Coeli p. 5. A model of Truths Sect. 4. Tho. Lansii consultat p. 558 Gage's survey of the West-indies c. 12. p. 74 75. Stow. p. 289. Bakers Chron. pag. 167. Stow. p. 302. ½ Cent. 9. Sect. 49. Ex coll p. 252. * Cujus siquis materiae pondus styli nitorem rationis nervos ardoremque pictatis aequa lance pensitet Regnum inter scriptores illum promeruisse vel ipsa fatebitur invidia et quae praedominum civile ausu nefan do extorsit reddet literarium
Britan. ad Lectorem Jo. Loccen Hist Suec p. 12. Vicar ' s. Chron. Part. 1. p. 212. The Noble Cavalier caracterised p. 5 6. Relig. of the Hypocrit Presb. p. 20 21 22. Mat. 10. 23. Case of Conscience concerning flying in Times of Trouble 1643. pag. 7. Id. p. 9. Id. p. 15. 28. June 1643. Pag. 70. Elench Mot. p. 120. 30. Aug. 1643. Pag. 39. Pag. 24. Pag. 64. Epist Dedicat. 27. Sept. 1643. Pag. 23. Pag. 27. 25. Octob. 1643. Pag. 20. 29. Jan. 1644 5. Chr. Love's Englands distemper pag 7. pag. 26. Would not the Presbyterians think much if one should now retort but a good purse can raise envy upon any man that dare speak truth It may be Mr. R. L'estrange can think it pag. 32. pag. 37. * With what face then can the Presbyterians expect mercy favour till the blood of Lucas Lisle Bouchier Yeomans Arch. Laud E. of Strafford E. Montross Mar. of Huntley Hathill Gordon Spotswood and many other persons of quality by them murdered be avenged pag. 42. pag. 5 6 23. pag. 17. 25 June 1645 pag. 11. pag. 20. pag. 25. pag. 40 The Earl of Montrosse and his loyal party pag. 44. pag. 64. 65. 26 July 1648. * pag. 11 13 16. 24. 28. †pag. 12. 25 Octob. 1648 * pag. 29 30. 33 34 35 36. †pag. 39 40. 48. p. 43. 50. 26 Decemb. 1648. pag. 14. c. 46. Titus Livius de Frunlonisis life of King Henry the V. M. S. in the Bodl. library pag. 61 62. Bayly's Worcesters Apothegms 15. p. 21. The Parlour where the Marquesse lay was a soft and loose ground wherein you might sink up to the Ancles The top of the house was tharcht with ill-thresht straw and the corn that was left in the straw wherewith the house was thatcht grew and was then all as green as grafse Alonso de Villegas flos sanctorum 20. August Bailys Review pap 83. 29 Novemb. 1648. pag. 26. ch 20. v. 42. c. 22. v. 31. Is not this well applyed Yet was it Order'd that Col. Wilson do give him thanks from the Presbyterian Commons State-divinity pag. 17. 24. Sept. 1656. pag. 23. * ☜ †☜ Vindication of the London-Ministers p. 6 7. 1648. Holy Common-wealth Thes 136. 137. 145 146 147. 149. 374 375. Preface pag. 15 14. * Note that when as abovesaid he affirm'd that the species of the Government was not to be alter'd but another King to be chosen that his special friend Rich. Cromwell was Protector But when he now writes this for the sole Government of Parliaments the Rump was then restored and Triumphant †T is worth knowing whether he means not Royalists and Episcopal men by those who have forfeited their liberties by Wickednesse pag. 455. Monumentum regale p. 16 17. The Bounds and Bonds p. 45. His Letter pag. 19. A Satyre The Puritan and the Papist pag. 6. Bounds and Bonds p. 20. Second fair warning p. 12. in Epist Monument Regalc p. 25. Facet Bebel lib. 3. p. 184. Interest of Engl. Sect. 14. Animad upou the Bishop of Worcester's Letter p. 10. Holy-Com p. 486. Id. p. 477. Bishop of Worcester's Letter pag. 7. Bishop of Worcester's Letter pag. 8. Scrin Sacr. p. 123. Bas Dor. l. 2. Howel's Germ Dyet p. 37. Tasso Cant. 2. P. Dan. Hist de Barbarie p. 308 309 310 111. Z. Crofton's Fastning of St. Peter's Fetters p. 67. Id. 118. Berith Anti-Baal p. 42. K. large Declarat p. 171. Yet they would allow none to be but what would be for their Covenanting humours as is visible in their own Stories however they were certain to have the Assembly on their side and then would they Protest against all that agreed not with them Id. pag. 181. Calvin in Amos 7. 13. p. 282. 2. Paper at Newcast Sermon 28. May 1645. p. 12. 16. Epist Large Declar. pag 280. Preface to Knox's Hist g. 3. h. Praesat de jure Regni ap Scotos Declar. of Reasons for no more Address pag. 12. 2. Paper at Newcastle Political Catechism 1643. p. 12 Canterburies Doom p. 290 291 302 303. Large Declar. pag. 245. K. Large Decl. pag. 349. * By this word they signifie all Civill Power The King as well as the Three Estates Good Doctrine for the Puritans when uppermost but at this time nothing more distructive to them Id. p. 298. Pag. 300. Pag. 301. * The Bishops and others who protested against and declined this jugled-up Assembly In which Act there is not one word that intimates as these Covenanters would in this place but rather in behalf of the Privy Councellors p. 310. Large Declar. p. 284. Salust Germ. pag. 231. Martin's Chron. p. 422. Mr. Hall's Funebr Flor. pag. 25. Large Declar. p. 379 380. Jo. de Laet. Hispan p. 90. Mr. Heylin's Geogr. Lithgow's Travels p. 505. Platina p. 178. Genebrard Chron. Anno 1073. Ovid. Met. l. 2. See Morney's Hist of Papacy pag. 336. Declarat for Non-Address p. 37. 1647. In his Speech to the King at New-Castle August 1646. It seems Lowdoun and they agreed very well together in their Counsells and Designes this speech being spoak a quarter of a year before the English and Scotch made such agreement at New-Castle it may be his Lordship could also then tell of the 300000. pound 13 Jan. 1645 6 13 May. 1646. 15 May. Remonstrance February 1644 5 Humble Representation of the Commissioners of the Gen. Assembly to the Honourable Estates of Parliament 1648. 28 April pag. 6 Pag. 12. Here 's a plain confession from the Scots themselves who best knew the meaning of the Covenant that this League bindes its Takers only to a conditional subjection of which they themselves must be judges too Pag. 13. Pag. 21 22. And is nothing for the glory of God but Presbytery Nothing good but the Covenant And must no body be judge of these things but themselves Well their meaning must be To their self-ended Interests Review p. 39. Justification of Mr. Tho. Chaloners Speech 1646 pag. 12 13. Declaration 1649. p. 3. Their Declarat against Montross 1650 Their Declarat against Montross 2 Jan. 1650. See the Answer of the Parl. of Engl. to the Kings Declar. 1650. pag. 18. All the world knoweth the villany of this way of canting The Heathen call'd stocks and stones true Religion as here you have mischief murther and perjury call'd Gods Interest Vid. Bounds Bonds pag. 55. 1650. Another Instance that the Covenant binds only to Conditional Obedience Quia clavis Sancti Petri non amplius valet valeat gladius Sancti Pauli Jo. Baleus l. 7. Speed's Chron. Rich. 1. sect 58. Large Declar. pag. 244. * Quaerebam claves Monasterii quibus inventis jam rectus incedo clavibus pro libito utor Ph. Lonicer Theat Hist p. 539. vid. Oth. Meland Joco-seria Sect. 254. p. 272 273. Le Tombeau de la Melancholie pag. 171. 23. Apr. 1649. Bee-hive of the Rom. Church sol 23. * Ant. Panormit a Parallela Alfonsina l. 2. c 9.
p. 33. †Alex. Rosse Continuat of Raleigh p. 574. Z. Crofton's Berith Anti-Baal Epist to the Reader Morney's Myst of Iniquity pag. 604. Two Proposals pag. 7. Id. p. 11. * That is the subjection of all people to the Covenant otherwise there can be no Union with them Humble Petit. pag. 6. Grand debate pag. 103. Id. p. 118. Petition for Peace p. 16. I. J. Howels Ger. Diet p. 67. Part. 1. Alaric on Rome Vaincur l. 6. p. 197. 198. Facit Bebel l. 2. p. 125. Id. l. 3. p. 220. Funebr Flor. pag. 3. Berith Antibaal pag. 67. Mischiefs of self-ignornce Epist to his friends at Kiderminster Grand debate p 96. 108. 109. 118. Petit. for peace pag. 18. Grand debate pag. 58 59. Id. p. 60. Petit. for peace pag. 2. Pag. 3. Pag. 4. Pag. 18. Pag. 8. Humble Petiti pag. 6. II. * Thoph Timorcus Epist Dedicat. Sect. 25. See back Book 1. chap. 9 pag. 62. Dr. Hammond's view of the new Directory cap. 1. Sect. 3. pag. 3 4. H. Estiene l. Apol pour Hedâ—doâ— pag. 367. Id. p. 433 434. Tyrris Voyage to the East-indies p. 148. Jac. de Vorag Hist 141. Id Hist 41. Id. Hist 94. Morney Myst of Iniq. p. 519. Theoph. Timorc pag. 84. Hist lib. 43. p. 43. p. 345. Alex. ab Alex. fol. 161. b. The Tryal of the Engl. Liturgy pag. 27. Pag. 30. Pag. 26. 1646. Feb. S. Rutherford's Sermon 25 June 1645. pag. 33. Large Decl. pag. 37. Pag. 73. Pag. 203 205. 199 118. Id. p. 104 105. Berith Anti-Baal p. 23. Declar. of both Kingdoms 1643. pag. 6. See Vicar's God in the Mount pag. 364 365. Id. part 3. p. 24. 26. March 1644. 9. May 1644. 23. Aug. 1645. 23. Aug. 1647. Discolliminium or a Reply to Bounds and Bonds p. 29 30. Grotian Relig. p. 112 113 114. Grand debate pag. 10. Two Proposals p. 6. Pag. 21. Pag. 23. Pag. 22. Review p. 80. Second Fair Warning p. 180. Dr. Pierce's New Discoverer p. 140. See also p. 141 142 143 144. Mat. 7. 12. Dr. Lluet Poems p. 78. Pag. 83. Niceph. l. 8. c. 45 48 c. Jo. Chena Archiepisc Episc Gall. Chron. p. 110. Bishop Juel against Harding Bishop Usher's Answer to the Jesuits Challenge Fisher catch'd in his own net p. 3 7 9 10 20. Knox his Admonit p. 52. Baxter's five Disputations of Church-Government p. 358 359 409 410 411 412 416 417 418. Berith Anti Baal pag. 23. III. Bibliotheca Reg. p. 64. Cook 's Appeal pag. 30. Pag. 31. Monarchy or no Mon. p. 83. Appeal pag. 35. Monarchy or no Mon. p. 75. Pag. 79. Pag. 82. IV. V. Sutcliffs threefold Answer p. 109. Purchas Pilg. part 4. p. 1204 1205. Edwards Gangr part 3. p. 19. Wier de Priaestig l. 4. c. 22. Lud. Lavater de Spectris part 1. c. 8. Vicars Dag Dim pag. 7. 9. J. Taylers Noble Caval p. 5. Edwards Oangr part 3. pag. 31. 105. Querers and Quakers cause pag. 36. Dr. Pierce's New Discov pag. 120. Hanop c. conf pag. 38. Mr. Ellis's Pseudo-christ pag. 8. Mr. Caryls sermon 6. Octob. 1643. p. 28. Crudities pag. 187. Drummond ' s Hist of Scotl. pag. 54. Watsons second fair warming pag. 178. His Fast Serm. 23 Febr. 1647. pag. 15. Dr. Pierce's New discoverer pag. 222. Vicar's Gods Ark. p. 91. * When the Covenant was taken they thought the King to be a Papist which makes the Oath more abominable because those who thought so swore to extirpate him Berith anti-Baal pag. 63. K. Act. 23. 12 13 14. The Religion of the Hypocritical Presb. pag. 7. Their Vindication 1648. pag. 5. Two Papers of Proposals pag. 12. * Fastning of St. Peter's Fetters p. 134 145. Berith Anti-Baal Epist to the Reader pag. ult Pag. 23. 63. K. Lysim Nican Epist Congrat p. 49. Large Declar. p. 347. The Covenant-Plea Ch. 7. Sect. 14. Fastning of St. Pet. Fett pag. 100. Jo. Dubravius Hist Boiemica l. 7. p. 57. Aen. Sylvius Hist Boem c. 18. The same word for word in Seb. Munsteri Geogr. p. 804. Et maritus meus jurejurando astrictus est Teutoniam armis lacescere sed vana Religio quae sceleri locum facit vim criminibus Sacramenta non addunt c. Aen. Sylv. Seb. Munst Propos Memorables p. 18. Utinam eorum nonnulli qui rectssime damnant non pessime imitarentur Bishop Sanderson de jurament Praelect 7. Sect. 3. Bishop Sanderson de juram Prael II. Sect. 11. and III. Sect. 11. * Id. Prael II. Sect. 13. a Plin. l. 9. c. 55. b Pet. de Natal l. 2. c. 47. c H. Steph. Apol pour Herod pag. 367. d Wotton's State of Christend p. 147 148. c Car. Garcia Antipat. de los Franc. y Espanoles cap. 17. Epit. of all the French Kings p. 280. * Antifloralis in verses commending Mr. Hall's Funeb Florae Bacon's Hist Hen. VII p. 77. Drummand's Hist of Scotl. pag. 55 56. The Directory Fastning of St. Pet. Fett pag. 137. * If they be not Crofton lyeth and if they be we may well expect Treason Rebellion Just Hist lib. 43. Theoph. Timorc pag. 85. Knox Hist of Scotl. pag. 84. †Est cetle Isle de telle condition que presonne du Monde ne l'oseroit approcher pour aucum mal y faire Car qui y essayeroit il periroit Jeh Froissart Chron. vol. 4 fol. 52. a. August de Doctrin lib. 2. 6. 20. Omnia Romae venalia esse sallust Bel. jug p. 55. Pratcol p. 110. Lib. 1. Lou is Garonle chasse ennuy Cent. 1. Hist 27. * See Dr. Pierce's Divine Philanth c. 3. Sect. 34. R. Smith Coll. Doctrin Cathol cap. 1. * Io. Gee's New Shreds p. 44.
they are all Saints thereby inticing the Countrey to choose them for their future Representees that under their protection the Non-conformists might have more work to do or else by having a good opinion of them may stick close to them upon all occasions and pitty that the Cause these good men undertook had no better success but the discredit and ignominy of the Contrivers not forgetting the large sums of Money and Lands they cheated the King Church and State of If Rebellion Murther Sacriledge Schism Perjury Knavery and such like sins can make a man wicked and 't is well known where all these and many more vices were met together the Epithet will keep its ground secure against the fume and range of all the Schismaticks in England or Scotland Yet even since the King came in have they had many good wishes not unknown to the whole Nation and therefore I shall give you but one Instance and that of one old enough to know what they were but that he spake through a Covenanting Interest and these commendations of them are as they were 1644. when all those who were Loyal and good had left the House and followed his Majesty his Encomium is this A House full and free and these the best that ever England had for Piety towards God and Loyalty to their Soveraign A Parliament of Lords and Commons so pious so prudent so loyal and faithful to God and their King These Commendations are but like Libanius the Sophister's applauding and praising Julian the Apostate who amongst the many moral vertues that there are might possibly have a tincture of some What goodness these people had I know not yet can I guess at a large portion of their mischief Only one shall be mine instance viz. That they were the first Contrivers of these Wars they consulted the Rebellion they broach'd it and gave it life by their Votes and Declarations whereby they cunningly inveagled others into their sin yet being degrees in wickedness the worst of their Souldiers was not the tenth part so bad as these Members the first being knavishly inticed to act the others Command they contriv'd and plotted the Rebellion and drol'd on the Countrey to be obedient to their Orders under the specious shew of Reformation and Religion knowing the consequence of the old Rule never fails Quoties vis fallere Plebem Finge Deum They cannot be good Subjects to King Charles I. that commend his Enemies and they deserve no thanks from King Charles II. who praise those who did and voted and declared it lawful to fight against his Father thereby proclaiming to the World the legality of acting the same if they could get occasion against the Son 'T is needless to tell you how they violently made it their business to clip and pare the Kings Prerogative and Authority and amongst many other frivolously plucking away the Militia allowing the King through civility to carry a Sword by his side because he 's a Gentleman but not upon any occasion whatsoever to draw it that being forsooth the office and priviledge of their hands by which hanging a lock at his hilt but they keeping the Keys using him as they used their children giving them Gold in a Box which they must not finger only please themselves with its ratling by which means they will make themselves a Negative Vote in Peace and Warr. And after this fashion did their Covenanting Brethren of Scotland abuse their King taking all power of Arms into their own hands their reason being because The Kings Castles and Strengths are the Keys of the Realm and they knew no reason to the contrary but that they might keep their own Keys Thus would they make their King meerly Titular and a perfect Slave and Captive to their Wills Not unlike Sancho Panco who for sport-sake was made Governour of the Islands but had no Authority nay scarce liberty to eat his Victuals The rustick Biscayners cry up their priviledges so much that the King of Spain dare not go amongst them but well armed and guarded And good reason for they think their King to have so small Authority over them that he must bare one of his legs when he cometh upon the Frontiers of their Countrey and though they meet him as their King with what bravery they can and proffer him some few Maravidi's small brass-pieces each of them about the value of a Scotch Turner or Bodel somewhat less than our English farthing in a Leathern Bag hung at the end of a Lance yet for all this shew of great kindness they fairly tell him that he must not take them This Nation hath long enough felt the smart of crying Priviledges and Majesty it self hath been dar'd by that specious pretence Though they give him the Name of King yet they take all its Attributes to themselves though they call themselves Subjects yet like the Scots they do not Petition but with their Swords in their hands at the first denyal sounding an Alarum and at the second run themselves so farr into Rebellion that if something be not granted them they will destroy all As if they had swallowed up their Obedience with that ravenous Whirl-pool in Pentland Frith in the North of Scotland with which if either Ship or Boat shall happen to encroach they must quickly either throw over something into it as a Barrel a piece of Timber and such like or that fatal Euripus shall then suddenly become their swallowing Sepulcher Thus the Presbyterians make their Obedience a Bargain and if Interest out-bid the King He need not trouble himself by being a customer to these men who allow him no power but what they suppose he derived from them and which they can take to themselves again when they see occasion or please CHAP. IV. That the Presbyterians are but Conditional Subjects no longer obedient to their King or acknowledging Him than he serves their turn and is subservient to their fancies A Conditional Subject is the worst Animal in a Kingdom being the first Creature that shrinks from Government and always ready to destroy the Peace of the Nation for which and other things he will never want a reason grateful to the Rabble as long as he can cry out that his Subjection is but Conditional and the Magistrate having broke his part he 's no more oblig'd to his duty And this the people believing to be each mans case will make themselves Judges by which means the Authority of a single Person will ever be out-voted or over-worded That the King of England is Supream is certain That the greatest wickedness in the World cannot un-King him is as true The Law of the Land obligeth us to submit and makes it Treason to resist and the Scriptures bids us Obey but never Rebel for Conscience sake Every man is born with the Oath of Allegiance and is as much obliged to its observance before as after his taking it Though the Prince were Turk or