such a mixture of Blasphemy and Rebellion when men shall commit such horrid and emphatical Villanies and then shall with so steel'd a Confidence warrant not only their Lawfulness but their Necessity by vertue of a divine Commission and shall break all the Laws of Nature Society and Religion by the Counsel under the Conduct and with the Approbation of the Almighty In short there is scarce a Principle of Blasphemy or Rebellion in the Alcoran that this Wretch has not vouched upon divine Authority He is a Person of such a rank Complexion that he would have vyed with Mahomet himself both for boldness and imposture The divine Majesty never had a dearer and more familiar Achitophel than he they were always through the whole course of the War privy to each others Counsels were always of the same side and drove on always the same designs and had this man been of the Cabinet Council of Heaven he could not have pretended a greater and more intimate acquaintance with the Intrigues of Providence And now I leave it to the World to judge whether it be not becoming our Authors Modesty to charge it upon me as a monstrous Fiction for saying there have been men who have taught that to pursue success in Rebellion is to follow the guidance of Providential Dispensations § 7. Our Authors imprudence and unadvisedness in forcing me upon the proof of my last Charge in defence of my own Integrity recals to my mind another resembling Instance of his discretion in provoking me to an unnecessary Dispute where 't is impossible for him to escape a manifest and dishonourable Baffle viz. that the Pretence of Religion had no concernment in our late Rebellion or Civil War And though I do not remember where I ever affirmed it was yet is he upon every occasion upbraiding and challenging me to prove it and whereas in my first Chapter I chanced to observe that it has frequently been made use of as a covering for unruly and seditious Practices without descending to particular Instances for they are too many to be specified in a small Volume he will needs have me to aim in particular at our late Wars and Tumults and appeals to the publick Writings Declarations and Treaties whereby those Tumults and Wars were begun and carried on And then we shall find that Authority Laws and Priviledges and I know not what things wherein private men have no pretence of Interest were pleaded in those Affairs And upon this string he is again rubbing to as little Purpose in this Chapter Neither is he singular in this conceit and confidence there are others that have as well as himself sounded their Alarms from the Pulpit against Antichristian Idolatry and Oppression and have chafed popular zeal and rage to fight for the purity and beauty of Gospel Ordinances who yet blush not to declare in publick with such a competent measure of confidence are they gifted that the cause of Religion was not pretended or engaged in the Quarrel but that it was a meer Contest about Civil Rights and Priviledges Now though this concerns not me in my own defence yet will I a little concern my self in the Enquiry to discover the honesty and ingenuity of these men that will blow hot and cold out of the same mouth affirm and deny the same thing as it suits with their present Occasion and present Interest And are they not arrived to an heroick pitch of Confidence that dare protest so boldly and so publickly in defiance of so many publick Acts Ordinances Protestations Covenants Engagements Declarations Remonstrances Treaties of peace and Overtures of Accommodation in all which preservation of Religion and demands of Reformation still lead the Van and the sense and substance of all the numberless Papers of Lords and Commons amounts to no more than this that they were resolved to expose their lives and fortunes for the defence and maintenance of the true Religion his Majesties Person and Honour the Power and Priviledges of Parliament and the just Rights and Liberties of the Subject All these Pretences came in of course but still Religion was the first and dearest grievance and its Preservation more tender to them than their lives and liberties As in the Observation upon the Lord Digbys Letters the Lords and Commons declare that they had never done any thing against the personal honour of the Queen only we have desired to be secured from such plots and mischievous designs that they might not have the favour of the Court and such a powerful influence upon his Majesties Counsels as they have had to the extream hazard not only of Civil Liberty and peace of the Kingdom but of that we hold much dearer than these yea than the very being of this Nation that is our Religion whereupon depends the honour of Almighty God and the salvation of our Souls And this was their perpetual answer to all his Majesties Propositions that his Counsels were over-ruled by a malignant party of Papists and other ill-affected persons that carried on their own wicked designs of rooting up the Protestant Religion to plant Popery and Superstition Innumerable are the proofs to this purpose but we will content our selves because it will be sufficient with these few particulars First then 't is notorious the Scottish broils and tumults were raised purely upon a pretence of Religion being begun about the reading the Common-Prayer and not a little promoted by that senseless Pamphlet A Dispute against the English Popish Ceremonies obtruded upon the Church of Scotland And the only Conditions of quieting these Troubles were 1. That the Provost and City-Council should join in opposition to the Service-Book 2. That Ramsey and Rollock two silenced Ministers and Henderson a silenced Reader should be restored to their places And not long after there came a Petition of Noblemen Barons Ministers Burgesses and Commons and about what do we think but against the Liturgy and Canons And the next news we hear from thence was That the King having adjourned the Term to Sterling by Proclamation the Earl of Hume and Lord Lindsey protest against it and erect four Tables of the Nobility Gentry Burroughs and Ministers the first Act of which is to enter a general Covenant in defence of Religion and for fashions sake the Kings Person This business of Scotland is an affair not unworthy the mentioning not only because it was well known what invitation they had from their Party to enter England but also because the Parliament here owned their Cause took it unkindly of the King for calling them Rebels voted them a great Supply under the name of a Friendly Assistance and called them their dear Brethren of Scotland And withal did particularly own the Scotch Tumults as raised upon a religious account this we have themselves confessing in a Declaration to satisfie the World of the justice of raising Arms wherein they declare Religion the principal thing and all others subservient to it
and as to this particular business of the Scots they speak thus When they i. e. Papists Clergy and other Enemies of Religion conceived the way sufficiently prepared they at last resolved to put on their Master-piece in Scotland where the same method had been followed and more boldly unmask themselves in imposing upon them a Popish Service-Book for well they knew the same Fate attended both Kingdoms and Religion could not be altered in one without the other God raised the Spirits in that Nation to oppose it with so much zeal and indignation that it kindled such a flame as no expedient could be found but a Parliament here to quench it i. e. By hiring and tempting them to a new Rebellion at the price of one hundred thousand Pound beside the reward of Pay and Plunder for the common Souldiers the promise of Church-Revenues for the chief Promoters of the service the sacrifice of the Archbishop of Canterbury to their malice and revenge and what was most likely to endear the Cause the Reformation of the Discipline and Worship of the Church of England by the Model of the Kirk of Scotland that absolute Pattern of a thorough godly Rebellion Again The Declaration of Lords and Commons March 2. orders this Kingdom to be put in a posture of defence by Sea and Land because there was a design by those in greatest Authority about the King for the altering of Religion That the Scottish War was fomented and the Irish Rebellion framed for that purpose That they had Advertisements from Venice and Paris and Rome that the King was to have four thousand men out of France and Spain which could be to no other end than to change his own Profession and the Publick Religion of the Kingdom In the 19 Propositions sent Iune 2. 1642. the eighth is this That your Majesty will be pleased to consent that such a Reformation be made of the Church-Government and Liturgy as both Houses of Parliament shall advise c. And the 17th That the King should enter into a more strict Alliance with the Protestant Princes and States for the defence of the Protestant Religion against the Attempts of the Pope and his Adherents And the Propositions made by Lords and Commons Iune 10. 1642. for bringing in Money and Plate to maintain Horse and Arms runs upon this ground first That Religion else will be destroyed and this is particularly recommended to all those that tender their Religion And when the King countermanded the Propositions they re-inforce them by the endearments of Religion And Tuesday 12 Iuly 1642. resolve it upon the Question That an Army be forthwith raised for its defence and preservation Their Declaration of Aug. 8. 1642. grounds its self upon this That the Kings Army was raised for the Oppression of the true Religion And therefore they give this account to the World for a satisfaction to all Men of the Justice of their proceedings and a warning to those who are involved in the same danger with them to let them see the necessity and duty which lies upon them to save themselves their Religion and Country Where they tell us at large and in great passion That Papists ambitious and discontented Clergy-men Delinquents and ill-affected persons of the Nobility and Gentry have conspired together and often attempted the alteration of Religion c. That all was subject to will and power that so mens minds being made poor and base and their Liberties lost and gone they might be ready to let go their Religion whensoever it should be resolved to alter it which was and still is the great design and all else made use of but as instrumentary and subservient to it And then after an horrible harangue about the King and Queens going away the Lord Digby's Letter the Members going to York c. They the Papists Prelates c. come to crown their work and put that in execution which was first in their intention that is the changing of Religion into Popery and Superstition The Scots in answer to a Declaration sent them by their Commissioners at London from the two Houses did Aug. 3. 1642. return another wherein they give God thanks for their former and present desires of a Reformation especially of Religion which is the glory and strength of a Kingdom c. Protest that their hearts were heavy and made sad that what is more dear and precious to them than what is dearest to them in the whole World the Reformation of Religion has moved so slowly To which they add that 't is indeed a work full of difficulties but God is greater than the World and when the supreme Providence giveth opportunity of the accepted time and the day of salvation no other work can prosper in the hands of his Servants if it be not apprehended and with all faithfulness improved This Kirk and Nation when the Lord gave them the calling considered not their own deadness nor staggered at the Promise of an hundred thousand Pound through unbelief but gave glory to God And who knoweth but the Lord hath now some Controversie with England which will not be removed till first and before all the Worship of his Name and the Government of his House be setled according to his own will when this desire shall come it shall be to England after so long desired hopes a tree of life And therefore they proceed to press earnestly for an Uniformity in both Kingdoms but it must be after their own model What hopes say they can there be of Unity in Religion in one Confession of Faith one form of Worship one Catechism till there be first one form of Ecclesiastical Government yea what hope can the Kingdom and Kirk of Scotland have of a durable Peace till Prelacy be pluckt up Root and Branch as a Plant which God hath not planted and from which no better Fruits can be expected than such sowre Grapes as this day set on edge the Kingdom of England In answer to this goodly Declaration the Lords and Commons desire it may be considered that that Party which has now incensed and armed his Majesty against us is the very same which not long since upon the very same design of rooting out the Reformed Religion did endeavour to begin the Tragedy in Scotland c. And having thanked the Assembly of the Church of Scotland for proposing those things which may unite the two Churches and Nations against Popery and all superstitious Sects and Innovations whatsoever do assure that they have thereupon resumed into their Consideration the matters concerning the Reformation of Church-Government and Discipline which say they we have often had in consultation and debate since the beginning of this Parliament and ever made it our chiefest aim though we have been powerfully opposed in the Prosecution and Accomplishment of it And in another Declaration to the Convention of Estates they remonstrate that the honourable Houses have fully
declared by what they have done and what they are desirous to do That the true state of the Cause and Quarrel is Religion in Reformation whereof they are so forward and zealous that there is nothing expressed in the Scots Declarations former or later which they have not seriously taken to heart and endeavoured to effect c. And in a Letter from the Assembly of Divines to them by order of the House of Commons they call it twice The Cause of Religion And the Assembly in answer to the Parliament desire it may be more and more cleared Religion to be the true state of the differences in England and to be uncessantly prosecuted first above all things giving no sleep to their eyes or slumber to their eye-lids until it be setled In their Declaration and Protestation to the whole World Octob. 22. 1642. They are fully convinced that the Kings Resolutions are so engaged to the Popish Party for the suppression and extirpation of the true Religion that all hopes of peace and protection are excluded that it is fully intended to give satisfaction to the Papists by alteration of Religion c. That great means are made to take up the differences betwixt some Princes of the Roman Religion that so they might unite their strength to the extirpation of the Protestant Cause wherein principally this Kingdom and the Kingdom of Scotland are concerned as making the greatest Body of the Reformed Religion in Christendom c. For all which Reasons we are resolved to enter into a Solemn Oath and Covenant with God to give up our Selves our Lives and Fortunes into his hands and that we will to the utmost of our Power and Judgment maintain his Truth and conform our selves to his Will And in the Declaration upon the Votes of no further Address to be made to the King by themselves or any one else Feb. 17. 1647. the Lords and Commons make Religion one of the great Motives upon which they proceeded for say they the torture of our Bodies by most cruel Whippings slitting of Noses c. might be the sooner forgotten had not our Souls been Lorded over led captive into Superstition and Idolatry triumphed over by Oaths ex Officio Excommunications Ceremonious Articles new Canons Canon-Oaths c. p. 19. And in the last Paper to the Scotch Commissioners Feb. 24. 1648. they declare that the Army of the Houses of Parliament were raised for maintenance of the true Religion and that they invited them to come to their assistance and declared the true state of the Quarrel to be Religion and they earnestly desire the General Assembly to further and expedite the assistance desired from the Kingdom of Scotland upon this ground and motive that thereby they shall do great service to God and great honour may redound to themselves by becoming Instruments of a Glorious Reformation c. This was the stile of all their Papers from 42 to 48 till some of the Grandees of the Independent Faction had by their hypocritical Prayers malicious Preachings counterfeit Tears unmanly Whinings false Protestations and execrable Perjuries scrued themselves up into a Supremacy of Power and Interest and then they alter'd the stile of their Pretences with the change of their Affairs and suited their Remonstrances to their Fortunes and so stopt not at their old demands of Reformation and purity of Ordinances these Pretexts were too low for the greatness of their Attempts and Resolutions and were not sufficient to warrant the Murther of their lawful Sovereign and therefore it was necessary for them to take up with new Pleas suitable to the wickedness of their new Purposes and then nothing was big enough to Arreign or Condemn their Prince but the Charge of Treason and Tyranny and the Sentence of Death was passed and executed upon him as a publick Enemy to the Commonwealth So that though Pretences of Secular and Political Interest were necessary to cut off his Head yet it was purely Zeal and Reformation that brought him to the Block To these Declarations from the Press I might add their Declarations from the Pulpit their Preachers incessantly encouraging the People to fight against the King as the most acceptable service to God and the People accordingly fought against him because they were perswaded that he was a Papist and would bring in Popery that the Common-Prayer was the Mass in English Organs were Idolatry and Episcopacy Antichristian It was nothing but the purity of the Gospel to which they so cheerfully sacrificed their Thimbles and Bodkins And though here it were easie to collect vast Volumes there being scarce a Parliament-exercise for which the Preacher had the Thanks of the House in which some sands and sweat were not wasted in crying up the piety of their Intentions for the Reformation of Gospel-Ordinances But because this would prove a Work too Voluminous I will therefore put off my Reader and satisfie my Adversary too with two or three passages out of the inspired Homilies of I. O. in his several Dispensations In his Sermon preached before the Parliament April 29. 1646. he thus bespeaks them From the beginning of these Troubles Right Honourable you have held forth Religion and the Gospel as whose Preservation and Restauration was principally in your Aims and I presume malice it self is not able to discover any insincerity in this the fruits we behold proclaim to all the Conformity of your Words and Hearts Now the God of Heaven grant that the same mind be in you still in every particular Member of this Honourable Assembly in the whole Nation especially in the Magistracy and Ministry of it that we be not like the Boat-men look one way and row another cry Gospel and mean the other thing Lord Lord and advance our own ends that the Lord may not stir up the staff of his anger and the rod of his indignation against us as an hypocritical People And Feb. 28. 1649. he tells them again Gods Work whereunto ye are ingaged is the propagating of the Kingdom of Christ and the setting up of the Standard of the Gospel And Octob. 13. 1652. From the beginning of the Contests in this Nation when God had caused your Spirits to resolve that the Liberties Priviledges and Rights of this Nation wherewith you were intrusted should not by his assistance be wrested out of your hands by Violence Oppression and Injustice this he also put upon your hearts to vindicate and assert the Gospel of Jesus Christ his Ways and his Ordinances against all Opposition though you were but inquiring the way to Sion for then they were little better than Presbyterians with your faces thitherwardâ— God secretly entwining the Interest of Christ with yours wrapt up with you the whole Generation of them that seek his face and prosper'd your Affairs on that account And lastly Feb. 4. 1658. Give me leave to remember you as one that had opportunity to make Observations of the passages of Providence in those
this to perswade the King to draw out the Vital Spirits and Blood of his Kingdom to say 't is but an Impolitick Trick to sacrifice the Security of his Crown to the Wealth of a few Fanatick and ungovernable Subjects Is this to suspend all thoughts of the Encouragement of Trade till all Men are brought to an Uniformity of Religion to say it more imports Governours to stifle Fanatick Factions and Animosities then to enrich Trades-men And may they not at the same time project the Improvement of Trade and the Establishment of Uniformity and Enact Laws to suppress Schisms whilst they Establish Priviledges to encourage Manufactures Is this to discourage industrious Men in a peaceful way of improving their own Interests to prevent and restrain them from doing it in unpeaceable ways The Persons I discours't of were not Trades-men but Fanaticks that are greater Enemies to Peace then Friends to Industry People of such peevish and restless Dispositions that no Government can satisfie them of such furious and ungovernable Spirits that no Indulgence can appease them of such proud and arrogant Tempers that no Courtesie can oblige them 't is these phantastick and supercilious Mushromes to whom I would not have Liberty granted because as it is pregnant with many other Mischiefs so if it improve their Interest it does but pamper their Insolence embolden their Presumption and tempt them to raise Rebellions out of Pride and Wantonness And the time is well known when this Capricious Humour involved a flourishing Kingdom in woful Wars and Desolations for no other reason then because it was blessed with more Peace and Plenty then it ever before or since enjoyed But as for Men of peaceable Spirits and sober Principles they neither need nor desire Liberty of Conscience for the Advancement of Trade nay nothing can more discourage their Industry then Factions of Zeal and Animosities of Religion that keep the Minds of Men in a perpetual posture of War and mutual Hatred and that break out upon every occasion into open Ruptures and Embroilments and if a few factious Priests will but sound an Alarm to Reformation the Multitude are immediately all in Arms and when-ever the Rabble take a Toy against Antichrist and Superstition i. e. any thing against which their Preachers are wont to inveigh the whole Kingdom must be embroil'd for an idle word and an extravagant humour Now what wise Man will care to appear abroad in such broken and uncertain Times or to lanch forth among such Fanatick Herricano's No he will rather chuse not to improve then to endanger his Fortune and thinks it better Husbandry to bury then to drown his Wealth And therefore you may observe that none are more Zealous then the more Gentile and Intelligent sort of Merchants for the setlement of Uniformity in order to the security of Trade for their experience of the horrid Mischiefs and Desolations brought to pass in other parts and other Religions of the World by the Follies and Frenzies of Fanatick Spirits makes them sadly apprehensive of the danger of this hot and giddy Humour and fearful of venturing too far among such wild and unconstant Cannibals And as for wise and peaceable Persons that sit warm in their own Fortunes they are as little enamour'd of Factions in the Church as of Disturbances in the State and therefore if our Author speak onely concerning such Issachars as these he speaks neither to my Purpose nor to their Approbation But to dispatch this Head To what purpose does he Catechise me Whether I have really considered what the meaning of that word Trade is unless he could prove it signifies more then that word Peace To what purpose does he represent that if Trade decay Noblemen and Gentlemen must be content to eat their own Beef and Mutton at home unless he could prove it more comfortable to be forced to beg their Beef and Mutton abroad as they were not long since by the scrupulous and holy Brethren whilst themselves kept house for them at home and made merry with Songs upon Sigionoth With what Honesty does he upbraid me for professing to smile at those who labour with mighty projects for the Improvement of Trade when 't is so notorious I onely smil'd at the Pedantry of those Men that are so wonderfully eager upon petty Designs without any regard to the great Concerns of a Nation such as is the Erecting little Manufactures in Villages and Burroughs when compared with the Advantages of Publick Peace and Setlement and at such half-witted People all the World will laugh as well as I. With what Ingenuity does he represent as if I had scoff't at his Majesties Council appointed for the Improvement of Trade unless it must be taken for granted that the Commissioners have no more wit then to oppose or neglect the Publick Peace and Setlement for the Interest of that Project And if he will be so rude as to suppose it I will be so bold as to make a wry mouth at such preposterous Follies With what Conscience does he tell the People that I have represented all Trades-men as Seditious when 't is so notorious I onely suppose that some of them may be tainted with Seditious Principles and upon that Supposition I have concluded Seditious Trades-men to be more dangerous then Seditious Farmers And is it the same thing to affirm all Trades-men to be Seditious as to say that when they are so they have more advantage of doing mischief then Countrey-folk If I should affirm That when the Nobility or Clergy are possest with Principles that incline to Rebellion and Disloyal Practices they are of all Rebels the most dangerous should I be thought to Impeach them of Treason and Disloyalty In brief it is not the Rich Citizen but the Wealthy Fanatick that I have branded for an Ungovernable Beast and that not as Wealthy but as Fanatick Remove the Fanatick and neither the Man nor his Wealth will do any harm And now if after all this Men will still be Clamorous and say I have perswaded the Discouragement of Trade there is no Remedy for me and no Cure for them I cannot vanquish their Rudeness and by strength of Reason force them to be Ingenuous and if they are resolved to abuse their own Understandings that they may abuse me let them take their Course and enjoy their Humour But yet let them not please themselves with the conceit of their having spited and disappointed my design by their being boisterous and uncivil when it was no more then what I expected and what as they know I foretold I was not unacquainted with those base and mean Artifices wherewith the Ring-leaders are wont to inveigle their credulous and besotted Drove I knew before-hand with whatsoever clearness and caution I exprest my Thoughts they could fasten what sense they pleased upon my Words and that all their Followers would passionately embrace their violent and distorted Interpretations and when they have