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
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
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
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
into their hands i. e. The opposite and malignant Party of Papists Prelats and others the sons of defection and contention their adherents and suffer our selves to be cut off and massacred by such bloody and barbarous cruelty as they have executed this time past in Ireland and England There is a necessity of taking of Armes for mutual defence In this case it is most necessary that every one against all doubting be perswaded in his mind of the lawfulness of this undertaking and of the goodness of the cause maintain'd by him To assist our Brethren in England who are calling for our help and are shedding their blood in defence of that Power without which Religion can neither be defended nor reformed nor unity of Religion with us and other Reformed Kirks be attained To whom of old and of late we have made Promises of the real Declarations of all Christian duty and thankfulness and who upon our desires and their endeavours for unity in Religion have often warn'd us that the Malignant Party would bend all their invention and forces to interrupt the work and to ruin and destroy them in the undertaking of it which we see this day come to pass The Question is no sooner rightly stated but it is soon resolved the Lord save us from the Curse of Meroz who came not to help the Lord to help the Lord against the mighty when we look upon the cause which they maintain the Prayers Tears and Blood which they have poured forth and the insolencies and the blasphemies of the enemies we cannot doubt but inlargement and deliverance shall arise unto England God forbid and be it far from us to sit down at ease on this side of Jordan till our Brethren be possessed in the Liberties of the Kingdome of Christ. And this Seditious canting-language they second in another of their Declarations to the same purpose Unless we can which God forbid blot out of our thoughts the sense of piety and Religion toward God of honour and duty towards our Soveraign and of gratitude toward the Parliament and Kingdome of England we can in no wise resist our present call to this Expedition Very pretty that their duty to their King should oblige them to fight against him and his Authority But the people of this Gang are very much given to make Bulls and Non-sense This is not unlike to our Long-Parliament who thus very gravely Ordered To the intent that his Majesties Revenue might no more be mis-applyed and that the same may be imploy'd for the good of his Majesty and the Common-wealth The Lords and Commons therefore do Ordain That all his Majesties the Queens and Princes Revenue shall be seized upon But what if I should tell you that some of these Diegos can affirm for their excuse that they were bound by the Oath of Allegiance to take the Parliaments part against the King would you not think that the price of Oaths is faln very low Well if you will enquire of old Master Thomas Hall the Parson of Kings-Norton he can tell you what is the opinion of him and others in this case He is a notable Champion against May-poles and will give you aboundance of arguments to prove that they are the Devils Angle-rods which being well baited with Holy-sisters is the onely way to catch Puritans as an old woman told a zealous Grandee but enough of his precise and simple Objections of which I may say as the famous Selden said of some old fashioned Rhimes You may read them and then laugh at them If their Allegiance obliged them to fight against the King they may well suppose that by the Covenant they were bound to cut him off by the Article of bringing Malignants to punishent and what may be the sequel of such assertions I hope our Superiours will consider And what do you think of another swash-buckler of this Tribe who assures the world that the English had as much cause to rejoyce for their Conquests over his Majesty as the Israelites for their deliverance from wicked Pharaoh and his Egyptians And this use of Exhortation the better to advantage the memory of the whining Sisterhood he coughs out in as good Dogril Rhime as ever John Cotton or Vavasor Powel were guilty of a tast of whose hatred to the King's Party you may see in these following Sing praise sing praise unto Jehova high For he hath Tryumphed most gloriously O're all our foes The Horse and Rider He Hath tumbled down to deepest misery Yea all the rotten-rout of Romanists Papists and Prelates Atheists Royallists And Mad-Malignants void of grace or sence To whom God now hath made just recompence Why he should distinguish betwixt Royalists and Malignants I know not though I might very well and I am as ignorant what difference he finds betwixt a Romanist and a Papist unless all this be with the fellow in the Play to make up Meeter And who must this boaster be but the furious John Vicars one that hated all people that loved obedience as the Devil doth Holy water and could out-scold the boldest face at Billings-gate if Kings Bishops Organs or May-pole were to be the objects of their zealous indignation of which I shall give you but one tast to wit against his Sacred Majesty The King's Letter full indeed of much EVIL and Demonstration of no Change of heart from his former BLOODY CRUEL and UNKINGLY PRACTISES of the RUINE of Himself and His Kingdomes as much as in Him lay Is this fit to be Printed for the information of the people and yet Ja. Cranford thought it very fitting Was is convenient to dedicate such stuff as this to Almighty God yet the Author thought nothing more Would any man call this a fair and famous History yet Vicars himself could give it that Encomium Or could any imagine that such a Rayler against the King and Church should even the other day deserve the Title of The Worthy Patriot of his Countrey and yet so is he honoured but by whom Edward Thomas Mr. Pryn's Bookseller can better inform you than my self The truth of it is this man's Histories only look like a Company of Thanks-giving Sermons stitch'd up together as Georgius Hornius well Characteriz'd them Yet must I needs say that of all men that pretended to deep Learning and good History this Hornius of Strangers is the most partial in his short Story of our late English Wars which makes me somewhat mistrust the mans Principles seeing at his being then in England he might have more exactly informed himself if Interest had not sway'd him But I hope his History of the Scottish Rebellion and the beginning of the English when it is printed will be more Ingenuous or else I shall desire him to acquaint himself with his friend Monsieur de Parival or the two Italians Priorato and Bisaccione and other Forraigners who are more impartial I need not tell you how the Presbyterian
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
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
which are wiped off 3. Their slanders upon the late King and his Vindication from his own Enemies 4. Their endeavours to begger the Episcopal Church 5. Their stories of Gods judgments retorted Pag. 218. CHAP. VI. Some short Observations upon their Covenant 235. THE HISTORY Of the Wicked PLOTS and CONSPIRACIES OF OUR Pretended Saints CHAP. I. Nothing so Wicked but some will Vndertake and Vindicate ALl things at first were sweetned with Goodness Peace being cherish'd because the Contrary as then was not apprehended For Vindice nullo Sponte sua sine Lege fidem rectumque colebat Paena metusque aberant Nor fear revenge nor punishment were then Without all Laws e'en all were honest men But after when this Golden Age with Astraea had withdrawn it self from this corruptible Earth then Deceipt by the Devils Trapanning seis'd so much upon the temper of humanity that self-ended Interest began to take root The benefit of which joyn'd with the sweetness of Revenge so intangled the disposition of mankind in the Art of Knavery that his time was judged to be best spent who got most cunning to defraud his Neighbour This Selvish Policy though acted by every one according to his abilities in some sense or other yet its chiefest Theater is amongst those who scorning to dwindle away their days in Petit hazards lay nothing at stake but whole Kingdoms or their own ruins The greater their venture the more their glory if they come off with gain or safety And that they may with more boldness and celerity attempt any thing conducible to their designs they ease themselves of the two supposed grand burthens Religion and Conscience lest these should pinion or shackle them within the circle of honest imployments These men like Cambyses never look upon Churches but with inward scorn and laughter though with an outward shew tending most to the advantage of Sanctity as if by the ruine reviling and hypocritical abusing of that place where God said he would be worshipped were the readiest way to do him most service And though they have the Impudence to act Sacriledge to the full yet they speak themselves most happy because Satan infuseth into them so much roguery as to deceive the people by colouring over their wickedness by some canting excuse or other not wanting a sting of holiness in its tail Thus Julian that politick Apostate having rob'd the Church of her Treasury varnish'd over his Sacriledge with this profane Sarcasm That he did it that Christians might go the sooner to Heaven because Christ said Blessed are the Poor for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven And after this manner did Dionysius of Sicily when he took away a Golden Cloak from Jupiter saying That Cloth was warmer for Winter and lighter for Summer And so having cut off Aesculapius his Golden Beard excused it by affirming That it was not fit for him to have a long Beard since his Father Apollo had none And with reasons of no more validity did our late States-men vindicate their Actions either throwing false aspersions in the faces of them who opposed their destructive Principles or being bolstered up by Faction used no Law nor Arguments but their own pleasure For their pretensions could have nothing of truth in them For alas it was not the bare walls of Churches or Collegdes which lay as a stumbling block in their way There being somewhat else as a mark against which their Army was intended Brennus had not gone against the Temple of Delphos nor Alexander's Souldiers violated that of Ceres in Milesia had there not been something of more import then the outside Pyrrhus and Pleminius possibly had a reverence towards Temples but made it palpable that they had more respect for their Riches when for the one they sacrilegiously abused the other as appears by that of Proserpina Nor need the chief Ingeneers trouble themselves both to act and vindicate since they may entertain many Journey-men who for a moderate content naturally delighting in troubled waters are ready to sell their Consciences to the compliance of any thing and so far inslave themselves to raise anothers Interest that they will order and change their Pens and Styles according as Dame Fortune whirls about the wheel of Government to the advantage of an usurp'd Authority so that the vicissitudes of these peoples fancies as if St. Vitus his dance or the rambling Tarantula had taken possession of their Brains do out-strip Proteus Polypus or the more knavish Camelion who can partake of all colours but those of Innocency These State-hirelings are the first which shake the Foundation of Prosperity By their scurrilous Pens spreading Infection into the Vulgar which at last will rise up into such boyls of Confusion that no cure can give ease to the distracted Nation but Phlebotomy And what mischief these Scriblers who merit a Roasting out of this world as a French States-man determines have caused in England is too obvious to be here related But though I shall not at this time trouble my self with their names no question but that they know themselves by a more natural Instinct then Sir John Falstaff knew the Prince on Gads-hill in Shakespeer nor can others be ignorant of them who know any thing of domestick Transactions and the powerfulness of Spankers amongst such wretches who will maintain any Cause or Religion so they grease their fists by it their actions affirming that the most Orthodox from which they suck most worldly nourishment For many of them being but the By-casts of Fortune and destitute of such preferment and conveniences as others have freely lay themselves open to the silver bait thereby to mend the condition of their lively-hood and tryumph over need and necessity And this greediness is the cause why the late Ranters wink'd at all wickedness and pocketted up all shame not unlike Galba who counterfeited himself asleep that Mecaenas might with more facility give him the horns and himself gain by her prostration yet when a Servant endeavoured to steal but a little Wine cryed out O wretch Dost thou not know that I sleep only to pleasure Mecaenas And thus Capius used to fancy himself into a seeming slumber whilest other men actually voted him into the Society of Fumblers Hall thus by their silence yielding consent to their own ignominie But as some men only tacitly allow of wickedness for their own security so others are framed of such combustible humors that they will not only assert any action though never so hainous and blaze it to the world as good and just but also to set their wickedness into the Saddle of Superiority will kindle the World into a flame John Petie though otherwise famous for his learning suborned by the Duke of Burgondy publickly commended and allowed the said Dukes murthering the Duke of Orleance The Duke of Buckingham and Dr. Shaw in set speeches justified the usurpation and actions of Richard the third Mariana
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
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
court the Continent for self-preservation where they must provide for a rainy-day And what is become of all our Gold I know not unless it hath travell'd too XIV Another means to overthrow England Campanella thinks is to set them and the Dutch together by the Ears The fulfilling of which is fresh in every ones memory XV. After all Campanella's pumping to undo England and root out the Protestant Religion he can imagine no way more conducible to such ends then the reducing of that Kingdom into a Common-wealth Of which Observation there needs no Remarks but Experience not yet forgot CHAP. V. The Original of the Commons in Parliament That the Clergy is one of the Three Estates and the King Supream above all WHen I find God himself calling Rebellion the sin of Witchcraft for me to speak against it by endeavouring to aggravate the Iniquity would be to as small purpose to an Ingenious man as the pains and expences of Calvisius Sabinus to attain to the height of Learning since his memory was so weak that it could scarce retain the Names of Ulysses Achilles and Priamus Yet were it neerer allyed to Hell then it is it would not want both daring and knowing Patrons which doth something mitigate my admiration when I consider what Paper Time besides too much Bloud hath been spent by some men of late dayes to Apologize for the greatest Wickedness and thereby to strengthen themselves through their Actions in the Peoples Affections These though they had the worst Plea yet came off with the best Success by which they clamourously declared the Justness of their Cause hinting to the Royalists that it was owned by a Supernatural Power But Careat successibus opto Quisquis ab eventu facta notanda putat Let him ne're gain applause That from th' event states th' goodness of the cause And how Orthodox such Arguments are is obvious if we do but consider the often prosperity of the wicked who are sometimes permitted to conquer more for a scourge to others than any justness in themselves And I dare be confident in our case it holds the unlawfulness of these late domestick Commotions being rightly more appropriated to the Parliament than his Majesty as in it's due place shall be shewn But first to make the way more plain and easie to those who call themselves the weak Brethren the first fomenters of this Rebellion we shall in brief consider the Antiquity Subordination and Priviledges of Parliaments as they now stand whereby it is plain they had no power given them thus to raise Wars against and imprison much less behead their Soveraign For what I here speak is intended chiefly against the Long-Parliament The most ancient Government in this Island that Records can instruct us of is Monarchy and that in its Antiquity the most absolute the higher we go finding our Kings more free and powerful That reciprocal Compact between King and People so much boasted of by our Common-wealths-men and others being but a meer dream and Chamaera as that great Soul of Reason and Divinity the Reverend Bishop Sanderson hath compendiously and fully evinced That the ancient Kings of this Island had Meetings for Consultations reason prompts me to believe though I do not remember after what certain fashion yet since Christianity was setled here the Kings used to imploy the Archbishops Bishops and Nobility by way of Advice and Counsel Ethelbert the famous King of our Kentish Saxons being converted unto the Christian Faith about the year 596. some nine years after viz. 605. summons a Council in which were not only the Laity but the Clergy also After which time the Reverend Archbishops and Bishops have sat as a part of those grand Meetings till the late Exclusion by the Long-Parliament as the well-read Dr. Heylin who though under a great decay of sight sees more than a whole Nation of Presbytery hath sufficiently asserted These Lords Spiritual and Temporal were the only Parliament known to former Kings and so but one House However sometimes upon great concerns the King would when himself best pleas'd have some of the Commoners joyned with them but then they were not as now elected but particularly chosen according to the Kings desire and these were of more than ordinary savour and discretion and therefore call'd Wise-men The first time that in History we can meet with a Parliament consisting of the Clergy Nobility and Commons is in King Henry the firsts dayes at Salisbury Anno 1116. and so the Clergy were 500. years before the Commons in Parliaments But why this King should be the first that threw this favour so generally upon the Commons was as some are pleas'd to affirm grounded upon his own Usurpation For he being but the younger Son of William the Conquerour following the President of William Rufus seized upon the Crown in the absence of his eldest Brother Robert and afterwards most cruelly put out his eyes This they say moved many Discontents amongst the Nobility against whom to strengthen himself he thought it best to pleasure the Commons which was done by calling them to this Parliament at Salisbury whereby his Usurpation became more formidable against his Enemies But though the Commons were call'd to Counsel at this time if at this time since Prynne denyeth it yet were they not thereby made or esteem'd necessary since in several Kings raigns successively after Parliaments were held as Prynne their chief Patron doth acknowledge consisting only of the Spiritual and Temporal Barons And when afterwards they did really sit is as uncertain as after what manner or when they had their first Speaker The first by that Title upon Record being Sir Thomas Hungerford Anno 1376. though the year before John Stow calls Sir Peter de la More their Prolocutor And before these two but three viz. Petrus de Mountford Scroope and Sir William Trussel the first of these viz. Mountford being in the 44 th year of Henry III. that are known are supposed to officiate as Speakers for in what nature they were of is not yet known though for certain if the Commons sat by themselves they could not want some such like Officer It being many years afterwards viz. Anno 1401. that the King Henry IV. required the Commons to choose a Speaker before which time no such Command being recorded Thus we see the small Antiquity of Parliaments as they now stand with us representing the three Estates the Clergy Nobility and Commons This I write to shew how strangely confident the Commons were of late dayes who if you will believe Prynne one of themselves had really no such Power and Judicatureship as they did in the least pretend to Nor would I be thought in this or any thing in the sequent Discourse to invalid the true and real Authority of Parliaments or to lessen the Credit of the Commons House holding it now to be an Essential part of Parliament but yet not so much as some of
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
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
that in themselves what they hated in others Witness their accusing the Bishops of Treason for putting in their protestation against the others proceedings seeing they were kept out by violence and tumults And yet when it was after the Commons case the Army expelling them they also put in their Protestation to the same purpose Thus are men oft paid in their own coin But to return to the Convocation which I suppose had as much lawful Power as a Presbyterian Assembly and I am confident have used it with more discretion In what little esteem the Kirkers of Scotland had the civil Authority their own Histories will tell you and in the Scotch troubles before our late Wars it appears by their own Commissioners as if it were the Kirk's right to determine all Ecclesiastical affairs by their Assemblies And it is the opinion of our English Non-conformists declared in their Book of Discipline in Queen Elizabeth's dayes That their Presbyterian Synods are to handle and decide both Doctrine Discipline and Ceremonies of the Church and accordingly were all their actions steered The House of Commons having thus voted against the Convocation made it a Coy-duck to draw in the rest of their designs And in the first place they fall heavy upon the Arch-bishop of Canterbury as a promoter of the former Canons and so accuse him of high-Treason though as then they had laid no Articles against him but promised to do it to the Lords upon which he was secured and the third day after was fined five hundred pounds which he was forced to borrow and to sell plate to repay it such a liberal Benefactor was he to the advancement of Learning that he left himself nothing and if the severe stroke of injustice had not untimely sequestrated and cut him off Saint Paul's Cathedral had silenced the fame of the ancient wonders our English Clergy had been the glory of the World the Bodleian in Oxford had daily more and more out-stript the Vatican and his publick Structures had ore'topt the Escurial and all this by his own munificence in which he so far excelled his neighbours that he was not unlike the good Emperor Titus Vespasian whose liberal soul made him think that he had lost that day in which he had not given something The next day that they accused the Arch-bishop they also accused Bishop Wren of the same crime And a little after voted highly against the Learned and Reverend as the French Churches beyond sea can testifie Dr. Cousins and the next day receive Petitions against Dr. Duck and Sir John Lamb. And a week after received a Remonstrance pretended to be loaden with seven hundred Ministers hands against Bishops the which if true yet that number bears no proportion with above nine thousand which were the number of our English Clergy and however it was Mr. Selden himself did declare that very day that the House of Comons had nothing to do with Church-affairs in that nature And reason tels us that it is not only hard but unjust that men should be accused for acting according to the known Laws of the Land they not being as then repealed But what care the Commons for this seeing they are resolved come what will of it to have Sir Jack Presbyter to bear the sway and therefore they fall heavy upon Episcopal government and after a whole day's debate the Majority against both Law and Reason did agree to take away Lordly Prelacy their medling with temporal affairs their jurisdictions and Courts and a great part of their Means and Estates and afterwards inlarged upon these things And that the Country might not be ignorant also of their enmity to Church government they therefore appoint Commissioners to go into all places of the Kingdom and there remove all Altars Images and Rayls about the Communion-table and sell them and punish those who shall endeavour to set them up again Nor was this all but they also question Sir John Lamb and Sir Nathaniel Brent for getting Organs repair'd and setting up some new Organs in Churches Though I do not know against what Law these two Gentlemen had offended though I know against what the latter did afterwards And having gon thus far away they in a fury hurry Arch bishop Laud to the Tower whither he was followed and rail'd at by the then significant rabble of the Anti-church-government Puppies And some few dayes after they appointed a forsooth Committee for Religion of ten Earls ten Bishops and ten Barons by which means the Lay-votes were not only double to the Clergy but in fine none of the latter left they knowing now their own intentions and power so far that they were more then confident to have the Clergy-men in short time to be but as Ciphers To obtain which they endeavoured all ways that malice or industry could propose to them And as a means to encourage others to oppose Bishops and Church-government they not only released the scribling fire-brands of the Nation as Burton Prynn Leighton Lilburn c. but also as a reward for their good service voted them many thousand pounds a piece And the next week fined the Members of the Convocation house two hundred thousand pounds And afterwards voted that not only the Bishops but all other Clergy-men that did either send their Proxies or execute the said Canons were guilty But if the Lords have a Religious Committee the Commons must have one too or else they think themselves out-vapoured And so they jumble up a Company of Ministers together giving them authority to consult the Canons and Liturgy and also to draw up a plat-form or model for Reformation to be setled in the Kingdom and by what rule these men were to work is no difficult business to collect from the Commons Votes some few dayes after that it was necessary to have an Uniformity of Religion with Scotland as also from their kindness to the Armed Covenanters not long before by Voting for them 300000 pounds with the goodly title of Brethren And all this because they march'd into England with a numerous Army protesting swearing and fighting against Episcopal Government for that was the thing now also aimed at in England so that Mr. Pym speaks the hearts of others as well as his own when he reproved one of the Lords saying That it was not enough to be against the Persons of the Bishops if he were not against the Function And according to this Maxim the Commons by their former Votes having made the way more facile boldly Vote the Government of the Church of England by Archbishops Bishops Chancellors Deans Archdeacons c. to be prejudicial to both Church and State and the next day Voted also that from that time there should be no such things as Archbishops Bishops c. in England Nor was this all but presently after they also expunged all Deans
and Chapters Prebendaries c. So that in four dayes time the hasty Commons over-throw as much as in them lay the Reverend Church of England which had continued many hundreds of years a flourishing glory to the Nation The Commons for their parts having thus pull'd down the pale of our Church fastned and strengthened by so many Authentick and Fundamental Laws as old again as the House of Commons will not leave Religion without some Government No good souls they were more kind-hearted And therefore in the first place they Vote that all the Lands and Means belonging to Deans and Chapters Chancellors or Commissaries Archdeacons Deans Prebendaries Chapter Canon c. shall be taken away and disposed of to the advancement of Learning and Piety That is if their after-actions may be taken for Expositors to maintain Rebellion Heresie Sacriledge and ruine Universities for these mens promises like Hebrew must still be read backwards and after this rule did they send a request to the King by Secretary Vain That he would give them leave to look into his Revenues and Expences and they would make him the richest King in Christendom But the Parliament will not spend their time only in selling Lands but something must be considered of a Church-Government too and therefore they Vote that all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction fit to be exercised in England shall be committed to such a number of persons and in such a manner as their Worships shall think fit Nor were they long without making the Nation happy with the discovery of their Intellectuals which was That six of the Clergy and six of the Laity should be appointed in every County for the setling of Church-Government But this was a little shaken by an after conclusion viz. That nine of the Laity and three of the Clergy in every Diocess should have power to exercise all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as shall be ordered by Parliament and to have their Monethly meetings for that purpose And the next day to make this hotch-potch Model more compleat they Vote That there shall be several select Committees of the Clergy appointed for the Ordination of Clergy-men into the Ministry But yet this Presbyterian Brat would not come to perfection And therefore to give more encouragement to the Covenanting-admirers they conclude That all Archiepiscopal and Episcopal Jurisdiction shall be exercised in this Kingdom by the Commissioners as there was by Bishops And the same day read the Bill for the using of Lectures taking away Cross in Baptism Surplis bowing at the Name of Jesus standing up at the Gospel Gloria Patri Pictures in Churches c. and conclude the day with the appointing of a Committee for the Propagation of the Gospel And the next day they give further power to their nine Commissioners to wit That after the first of August any five of them shall be a Quorum and have full power to try all Ecclesiastical Causes and to appoint Deputies under them in several places And after this they further agreed That if any of the nine Commissioners should dye that five or more of them are to choose another presently and so if any of them resign and that if any came to take Orders that these Commissioners shall appoint five Clergy men to grant Ordinations And for the more speedy putting of this medly in practise the Knights and Burgesses of every Shire are commanded to bring in the Names of the nine Commissioners for their several Counties to be appointed and that no Clergy-man be of the Commission Thus farr had the Commons thrown I cannot say built up this their confused Babylon when on a sodain an unexpected Remora was joyned to their further proceedings by some fallings out betwixt the Lords and them about the Protestation For the Commons having ordered that it should be taken all over the Kingdom were in this opposed by the Peers who threw it out of their House which so incensed the Commons that they presently Vote That what person soever shall not take the Protestation is unfit to bear Office in Church or Common-wealth And thinking that the Bishops were the reason of the Lords dissent appoint a Committee for impeaching them about the late Canons who accordingly Voted thirteen Bishops to be Delinquents whom the Lords also suspended their house till a further hearing And so violently were these good men persecuted by the Presbyters that they never left plotting till they had got them Voted Traytors and sent to the Tower Nor could they have any outward content any where considering the reproaches threats and curses daily thrown against them by the wicked the danger of their lives by Tumults and their Lands Voted from them long before by their and Religions Enemies the Non-conforming Commons though they agreed to allow them a liberal allowance during life and how unhandsomly the Parliament in this neglected this promise the Reverend Bishop Hall will satisfie you The Commons now having as they thought bridled the Bishops and their Party are resolved to root out the Common-Prayer Book too to which purpose some of them desire that it might be altered and some thing added to it the which after some speeches being put to the Vote it appear'd that there were then but 55. Disciplinarians in the House no more voting for Alterations so that the Book came off with credit the Orthodox Party knowing well enough that if that House once fell to alter it it rather belonging to able and lawful Divines they would equal the Tinker who made two holes for mending one The Anti-Episcopalians being thus baffled fall to it again getting it to be moved again in the House the next week where they came off with the like success And the next day being a Thanks-giving day for the Peace between the two Nations to shew their malice to Church-Government and countenance the Schismaticks the Commons would not go to St. Margarets Westminster as was by them appointed because the Bishop of Lincoln had caus'd a set Form of Prayer for that occasion to be printed and used in the Church the news of which so started their Worships that they turn'd tail and went to the preachment at Lincolns Inne But if the Commons were troubled at this they were after out of their wits and all stark-madd against the Lords Because they had put forth an Order and sent it all over the Nation strictly injoyning the reading of the Common-Prayer against which and many other Church-affairs the Commons the same day put forth a Declaration ordering it to be printed and sent over the Kingdom and with them they also got the nine dissenting Lords to protest against the Order made by the House of Peers This cross-graind action of the Commons so incensed the Lords that they left off sitting for a while causing the Hangings of their House to be taken down Nor did this any way vex the Commons
Grotius one born and bred amongst them yet so farr satisfied or rather nauseated with their manners that he looks upon them as factious turbulent and rebellious spirits and so not fit for Subjects And this character it may be hath been the occasion of their gnashing their teeth so much against him CHAP. II. The Abominable Hypocrisie and Jugling of the Parliament and Army till the Murther of his Majesty AMongst the Ancients Proteus was look'd upon as a pretty fellow that could vary his shape according to his own pleasure And with what equal respect we have lately favour'd those who have hugg'd themselves for their same knack of jugling is not nor never will be worn out of memory The smooth-tongued St. Martins Quacksalvers at Venice have delt honestly and open-handed in respect of our Modern State-Mountebancks who were so farr Pharisees that they blab'd their zeal at the corner of every street yet kept their Intentions more secret than the Boy did who dyed by the devouring Fox hid under his coat Our Politicians like Eutrapelus in the Poet were grown to the true pitch of callidity to charm their Neighbours to the changing of their Opinions with their Habits and all this industry as Bythius did the Roman Cannius meerly to cheat those who deal with them I must confess I am apt to smile though I do not approve when I read or hear a neat piece of small cousenage But for those who through private Interests by their plots and devices endeavour to over-throw whole Kingdoms no man of honesty but must abominate That man which through judgement though erronious sticks to his Principles shall be more in my favour than those who outwardly offend less yet are so peccant through design which makes me have a better opinion of many misled German-Boors at Munster then some of our late English Grandees who for their own profit have not only sided with all Parties but run counter to their former Oaths Declarations Principles if they have had any firm to make a private advantage How many have we had who have confidently given out themselves the only men of honesty and sanctity yet such as against all Morarality who have fill'd the World with strange Declarations and Vows by calling Heaven and Earth to witness that their intentions were so and so whereas if that be true of the Poet Exitus acta probat Actions do show If they intended really or no. Then may we justly conclude that they intended nothing less then that which they most engaged to perform And of this I shall give some few hints whereby infallibly may be collected the knavery of the Presbyterian and great Anti-Royalist which may serve as a warning-piece to keep us from any more Rebellion and prompt us to keep close to our true and ancient Government Monarchy and Episcopacy I have shewed before how that the King did not only not begin the Warr but that the Presbyterian Parliament by their plots and devices forced him to the endeavour of opposing strength by strength And I shall shortly demonstrate from their own deceitful lips how that they and their Party did not only protest to have no bad Intentions against the King but also to defend and maintain him and his Royal Progeny and make them more glorious and famous then ever But this I may say was done when they were either too weak or to gain more friends for when they were Conquerers and had him in their disposal nothing could satisfie their well tutor'd Army and many of themselves but the taking away his innocent life that with Thieves and Robbers after the murther they might possess all so that I may sing of them with the well known Colletet Voyez vous ce saincte Nitouche Ce juge à quo cet homme froit Il presche tous jours pour le droit Et ne l'a jamais qu ' en la bouche Which may thus be rendred O! Self-time-serving Knaves who still profess You 're for the Right when you think nothing less Thus did these men steer their Intentions according as the wind sat for most benefit Thus Aeneas Sylvius wrote many things before he was Pope which when he had once obtain'd the Triple-Crown he censured as dangerous Hence came the saying That Pius condemn'd what Aeneas thought good This jugling amongst us may allow me to affirm with a great Presbyterian I am perswaded there never was a more hypocritical false dissembling cunning Generation in England then many of the Grandees of our Sectaries Thus the Parliament for all their former Protestation to defend and preserve the King and his Posterity as if they had been double-tongued like those Islanders mentioned by Diodorus Siculus or that Boy recorded by Borel not long afterwards Voted the Queen a Traytor because she acted nothing but what became her tending to the preservation of the King her Husband and the People And within a fourth-night after this took that treasonable being against the Kings consent and the Laws of the Land and therefore abominable Vow and Covenant wherein how much their hearts agreed with their tongues to preserve the King may be deduced from their actions but the next year after wherein the Commons Voted that this clause For Preservation of his Majesties Person should be left out in Sir Thomas Fairfax his Commission So that we may well suppose these men to have taken example from the ancient Spartans whom neither Religion Contract nor Oath could bind with which variable temper the Graecians were generally inured And for their Politicks without all question they agreed so farr with their good friend Machiavil as to imbrace that good and plausible humour of the Parthians who acknowledged no Honesty nor Religion but what was for their own private Interests How did our Grandees now and then sweeten the people into good liking of them by amusing them with the joyful hopes of Peace by Treaties when in truth the thoughts of composition was as farr from their Intentions as Joab's when he slew Amasa with a kiss of seeming friendship or rather as Mr. Love who at Uxbridge Treaty instead of friendship vomitted out nothing but threatning and vilifying-contradictions to the Peace-makers yet nothing unbecoming one of his Faction in Religion When some honest meaning Sea-men drew up a Petition for an Agreement and Peace other Sea-men were procured to protest against this Petition the honest Petitioners commanded to repair home again with this instruction for the future that they need not trouble themselves about the Peace the Parliament intending to take care about it And what great care they took though the King dayly plyed them with Messages about it is not unknown to the World What imperious and wicked Propositions sent they continually to him upon such debates as at the beginning of the Wars after that to New-castle and after that to him at Carisbrook-Castle to which when he
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
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
Army and all this forsooth against the Cause of God the souls of his true Saints the peace of the Directory and the happiness of the Elect the true children of Grace the poor people gaping all the while really believing no Devils to be in the World but Cavaliers not a word proceeding from the lying Throats of these Pulpiteers but fill'd the soft-brain'd Auditors with more indignation against the King and his Cause than our Women are against Popery at the sight of a flaming Picture in the Book of Martyrs All their prittle-prattle was to shew the goodness of their Cause and I wish some of the Presbyterian Churches beyond-Seas were not too much complying in this the abominable wickedness of the Kings Party and to perswade their friends never to make peace with such Malignants Of which I shall afford you two or three Instances Mr. Herbert Palmer of Ashwell in Hertfordshire made a long-winded tittle-tattle stuft with Rebellion and Sedition before the House of Commons at the latter end of which he finds out a pretty device to have all the Cavaliers throats cut and all this to be justified by Inspiration from God Almighty I humbly entreat you to ask Gods Consent first whether he will spare such or such or pardon them and if he will not you must not Probably this Politician was very well acquainted with the subtle Robber of old time who made the Countrey-Parson pray for Riches and upon that account took all his Gold from him Or it may be Oliver used this Art to murder his Majesty for we are told that he said he pray'd to know Gods mind in that case and he took the Answer Affirmatively Thus our Red-Coats of Wallingford-House after they had concluded upon any mischief would for a blind to the People appoint a Day of Humiliation to enquire of God what should be done though they were before resolved that all the Prayers in the World should not alter their fore-going Determination Whence it came to be a vulgar and true Observation That whensoever those Saints had a Fast they were then broaching some mischief or other To be short the greatest wickedness in the World may be perpetrated by this Rule of Palmer's and so Religion prove but a piece of Policy yet was it very fitting for the Parliaments actions which I suppose was the cause that they ordered Sir Oliver Luke to give him thanks for his Seditious Preachment and to desire him to print it the better to infect the People Another of these Bawlers seldom thought of a Bishop or the Kings Party but with Indignation and this must be Mr. Thomas Coleman formerly of Blyton in Lincolnshire but since by the Schismaticks was put into St. Peters Cornhill London from which they had not only wickedly Sequestred Dr. Fairfax but Plunder'd and Imprison'd him in Ely-House and in the Ships and turn'd his Wife and Children out of doors But to return to Coleman who in one of his Sermons thus rants against the Church of England and violently perswades the Parliament to execute severe justice upon her Children Our Cathedrals in great part of late become the Nest of Idle Drones and the roosting place of Superstitious Formallists Our Formallists and Government in the whole Hierarchy is become a fretting Gangrene a spreading Leprosie an unsupportable Tyranny Up with it up with it to the bottom Root and Branch Hip and Thigh Destroy these Amalekites and let their place be no more found Throw away the Rubs out with the Lords Enemies and the Lands Vex the Midianites abolish the Amalekites or else they will vex you with their wiles as they have done heretofore Let Popery find no favour because it is Treasonable Prelacy as little because it is Tyrannical This was rare stuff for the Blades at Westminster and pleas'd admirable well and therefore they strait order Sir Edward Aiscough and Sir John Wray to give the Zealot hearty thanks for his good directions and to desire him by all means to print it which accordingly he did and in requital of thanks Dedicates his fury to their Worships where he fals to his old Trade again very pretily by his Art of Rhetorick calling the Kings Army Partakers with Atheists Infidels Papists c. That it hath Popish Masses superstitious Worships cold Forms in the Service of God That it is stored with Popish Priests That it Persecutes Godly Ministers painful Preachers That it doth harbour all our drunken debauched Clergy our Idle Non-Preaching dumb Ministry our Ambitious Tyrannical Prelacy and the sinck and dregs of the Times the receptacle of the filth of the present and former Ages our spiritual-Courts-men This mans rayling pleas'd the Commons so well that they could think no man fitter to prate when their wicked League and Covenant was taken than He which accordingly he did to the purpose tickling their filthy Ears with the same strains of malice Impudently affirming That none but an Atheist Papist Oppressour Rebel or the guilty desperate Cavaliers and light and empty men can refuse the Covenant and so concludes with a reflection upon the Kings Party as Idolaters And for this stuff Colonel Long must be Ordered to give him thanks from the House Another of these Parliamentary Furies Mr. Arth. Salwey of Severnstoak in Worcestershire thus desires them to destroy the Kings friends Follow God I beseech you in the speedy and impartial Execution of Justice The hearts of your true Friends are grieved that so many Delinquents are in Prison and yet but very few of them brought to their Tryal When Elijah had done execution upon Baals Priests there was rain enough 1 King 18. 40 41. Who knows how soon the Lord may bless us with an holy Peace and blessed Reformation if Justice were more fully executed And this man must have thanks sent him too from the Parliament by Mr. Rouse Another of their Thumpers viz. Mr. George Walker of St. John Evangelists London thus stirs up execution against Malignants Cut them down with the Sword of Justice Root them out and consume them as with fire that no root may spring again let their mischief fall upon their own Heads that the land may be eas'd which hath a long time and doth still groan under them as an heavy curse And was not this a fit Sermon to be preacht just the day before the Treaty at Uxbridge and then to be printed too by the Presbyterian Authority Could these men desire peace that thus countenanced men to rail against their betters with whom they were to Treat But this is short of Mr. Love's malice let one of their witts sing out his Commendations as he pleaseth he at the very day of the Treaty must needs thunder it at the place it self perswading the people by all means not to treat with the Royalists as I have in part before insisted on but besides that which I told you then he could thus also animate his friends
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
Kings Oath and other mens Oaths must submit to the Laws of the Land I know no reason but the Covenant should too being expresly against them So that either the Covenant must null the Laws or the Laws the Covenant If the first then farewell Poulton since the swearing of Presbytery can make those Statutes useless if the latter then adieu Covenant and Presbytery not forgetting the League and since that the names of the Parliament-men subscribers in Parchment a great sign of the Loyalty and good Religion of the present Commons who in this have excell'd all other Parliaments for many Generations past let others commend themselves for me that were burnt by the hands of the Hangman in London by Authority of Parliament a Supream Power to that which made and forced it But that you may see the folly of some Oaths and how the Swearers are sometimes even necessitated to smooth them over with a gentle Interpretation and a slender performance I shall tell you one story Bretislaus or Bisetislaus Son to Udalricus Duke of Bohemia fell in love meerly by report for as then he had not seen her with Jutha Daughter to the Emperour Otho II call'd Ruffo To obtain her he goeth under the shew of Religion to Ratisbone or Regenspurg where she was in a Monastery and after some contrivances gets her on Horseback and gallops away with her to his Father and by her own consent marryed her The Emperour enraged at this raiseth an Army and solemnly swears a mischief to Bohemia and never to return with his Army till he had placed his Throne in the midst of that Countrey Against him Bretislaus and his Father raise Forces the Son also swearing to carry fire into the middle of Germany and that so near the Imperial Court that Caesar himself should be constrain'd to shut his eyes for the greatness of the light and splendour of those flames The Armies drawing near together and preparing for battel The Lady Gutta grieved that so much blood should be shed for her sake tearing her hair and face exposed her self to all danger by running betwixt the two Armies and over-whelm'd with sorrow having found out the Emperour earnestly pleads in behalf of her husband the strength of Love the Child within her c. With which Caesar was so moved to compassion that with tears he told her of his willingness to Peace but that his Oath obliged him to the contrary She told him that her husband had sworn too but that he should consider the vanity of that Religion which alloweth of and giveth place to wickedness since Oaths should not strengthen the foundation of sin and mischief Well Peace is made they having found out as they thought a way to keep them both from Perjury the Emperour going to Boleslau then held to be the middle of Bohemia where a Throne being made with a few stones he sits him down as Conquerour And Bizetislaus for so some also call him to save his Oath went into Germany and the Emperour being by set fire to a few Cottages and spoil'd two or three little Fields for which damages he presently satisfied paying the value The Brethren think they have got another salvo for their honesty when they would make people have a good opinion of the Covenant because several of the Royalists took it and in this accusation Crofton is impudent to a Wonder especially to his Betters But is it any honour to the Independent Engagement against King c. nay the Covenant too because some great Presbyterians took it The truth is the Presbyterians by the fortune of Warr becoming Masters seiz'd upon the Revenues of those who had been faithful to his Majesty not suffering many of them to Compound but upon abominable terms for their Estates unless they would take the Covenant to boot which shews the implacable malice of the Puritans who in this like the Italian made it their business to destroy the soul too And this may serve to shew what small reason they have to demand Toleration of those whose Consciences they formerly so wickedly forced Which horrid act will remain as a mark of Ignominy upon this Faction to Eternity And in behalf of the Royalist I shall afford you another Story which will apply it self Emuanuel King of Portugal with-held from a Bishop his Revenues The Bishop complains to the Pope who sends a Legat either to perswade the King to Restitution or Excommunicate him and upon the Kings refusal the latter was denounced and so the Legat departs towards Rome again The King enraged at this Sentence mounted on Horse-back to follow the Legat and having over-taken him drew out his Sword threatning to kill him unless he would absolve him which was done and the King return'd to his Court The Legat being got to Rome and told the Story of his Journey The Pope was very angry and sharply checkt him for absolving the King to whom the Legat reply'd Most holy Father had you been in danger of your life as I was you would have given the King absolution double and treble No People rails more against the Pope and a Jesuite than a Puritan and yet in their destructive Principles of Government none agrees more with them Tell them but of the Pope's Excommunicating of Kings and disingaging their Subjects from any more obedience to them and you shall hear nothing but roaring against Antichrist and Babylon and stories of the Whore Beast Horns and enough to fright Children out of their Wits Yet if you tell them that they are guilty of the same by dispensing with the Peoples Oaths to their Kings and Bishops then will they call it the Cause of God the Interest of Jesus Christ and a good sign that they are the true Saints of God and the sureness of their Election thus though seeming mortal Enemies are they united to destroy the Civil Power If the latter Oath especially when wickedly and villainously impos'd cannot take away the Obligation of the former and that agreeable to the cause as the Reverend and Learned Patron of the Church saith whose single testimony is of more worth than the opinion of a whole Assembly of Covenanters I cannot conceive how a company of Noddles being but a piece of a Parliament pratling at Westminster and in active Rebellion against their King can quit honest men for Knaves can ease themselves from their Oaths and Subscriptions to Kingly and Episcopal Obedience by an after-Imposition of a contradictory and wicked Oath But it may be they may suppose that if Hortensius shed tears for the death of a Lamprey If Macarius Abbot of Alexandria penitentially tormented himself in Bryars and Thorns six Moneths or seven years for the death of a Flea If the Aetolians and Arcadians Warr'd together for a wild Boar If the Carthaginians and the People of Piraca for a Sea-Rovers ship If the Scots and Picts for a few Dogs If Charles Duke of Burgondy