Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	kingdom_n	majesty_n	subject_n	3,349	5	6.8187	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58041	Mercurius Rusticus, or, The countries complaint of the barbarous outrages committed by the sectaries of this late flourishing kingdom together with a brief chronology of the battels, sieges, conflicts, and other most remarkable passages, from the beginning of this unnatural war, to the 25th of March, 1646.	Ryves, Bruno, 1596-1677.; Barwick, John, 1612-1664. Querela Cantabrigiensis.; Wharton, George, Sir, 1617-1681. Mercurius Belgicus.	1685 (1685)	Wing R2449; ESTC R35156	215,463	414

him we may justly receive at his hands heavier Judgments than these yet our Innocence will plead Not Guilty to the face of any Man who shall object against us any Civil Misdemeanors whereby we can more justly be deprived of our Fellowships than any free Subject in England of his fee Simple if they please to say he is guilty of Misdemeanors And as it hath pleased our gracious Master whose Ministers we are to make us examples though but of suffering to the rest of our Brethren So we hope he will continue unto us his grace of humilation under his mighty hand as an earnest of his exalting us in due time And in the interim that he will lay no more upon us than he shall be pleased to strengthen our infirmities to bear And that he will still preserve unto us a good conscience that whereas our persecutors speak evil of us as of evil doers they may be ashamed that falsly accuse our good conversation in Christ. FINIS Mercurius Belgicus OR A briefe Chronology of the Battels Sieges Conflicts and other most remakable passages from the beginning of this Rebellion to the 25 th of March 1646. Together with A Catalogue of the Persons of Quality slain on both sides CICERO Incerti sunt exitus pugnarum Marsque esi communis qui saepe spoliantem jam exultantem evertit perculit ab abjecto Printed in the Year 1685. The Preface Readers YOU have here a canded and impartial Epitomy of an unnatural War Subjects banding against their lawful Prince Brother against Brother and Father against Son Read but the said ensuing Story and therein consider the number and quality of Persons slain the destruction of Houses and Families the desolation of Cities and Towns the increase of Widows and Orphans the Tyranny and inhumanity of our new Legislators over their own Fellow-Subjects and you will easily conclude of these as Cicero did of Sylla's time Nemo illo invito nec bona nec patriam nec vitam retinere potueirt In earnest it may well be wondred whence these men have their minds God nor man nor Nature ever made them thus To be short the Reader may here see the flux and reflux of Fortune de la Guerre now this party flourisheth and that goes down anon that flourisheth and this goes down as if the guilt of our sins were drawing a heavy Judgment from Heaven upon this Land and these Rebels were ordained for the instruments of it But let us hope for better And particularly that God in the richness of his mercy will look down upon these macerated Kingdoms and periodize these distractions That Religion may again flourish in its purity maugre the Plots and impieties of all Seditiaries and Schismaticks That His Sacred Majesty may be re-established in His just Rights and Prerogatives that Parliaments may move in their own and known Centre the Ancient Laws of the Land re-inforced and freed from fellow-fellow-subjects Tyranny and Arbitration and the Subject re-estated in his Ancient Liberties freed from Murder Rapine and Plunder which that we may quickly see let it be the Subject of ever good Christian Prayer Memorable OCCURRENCES since the beginning of this REBELLION Anno Dom. 1641. IN December 1641. The House of Commons published a Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom therein setting forth all the errors of his Majesties Government a meer design to alienate the affection of his Subjects from him The tenth of January following his Majesty with the Queen Prince and Duke of Yorke left White-hall and went to Hampton Court to avoid the danger of those frequent tumults then hazarding the safety of his Royal Person February the 23 d. the Queens Majesty took shipping at Dover having been driven before from White-hall by the frequent tumults of the Rebels And soon after His Majesty went to New-market and from thence to Yorke where after the Rebels had Guards for three Months before the Gentry of the Country raised a Guard for his Majesties Person Anno Dom. 1642. MAY the 20 th it was voted by both Houses That the King intended to levie War against the Parliament which they did on purpose to excuse themselves for raising a Rebellion against His Majesty as appeared within few days after July the second the Kings ship called the Providence Landed in the Creek of Kenningham near Hull till which time His Majesty had not a Barrel of Powder nor any Arms or Ammunition whatsoever July the 12 th the pretended two Houses Voted that the Earl of Essex should be General of their Army and that they would live and die with him August the first the Earl of Essex caused all the men then raised being in number about 10000 to be committed to Officers and divided into Regiments which men had been raising ever since the 12 th of July 1642. at which time he was made General of the Rebels August the sixth the Earl of Bedford having fruitlessely besieged the Lord Marquess of Hertford in Sherburn Castle for four days before retreated to Yevell the Noble Marquess sallied after him and with a small number fell on that great body of the Rebels Kill'd above 140 whereof 9 Commanders took divers Prisoners and routed the rest so as he marched away and after divided his small Forces going himself into Wales and Sir Ralph now Lord Hopton into Cornwall of both which there followed so good an effect August the 22 d. His Majesty set up his Standard Royal at Nottingham for raising of Forces to suppress the Rebels then marching against him September the 23 d. Prince RUPERT with about 11 Troops of Horse gave a great overthrow to the Rebels in Wikefield near Worcester where Colonel Sands that commanded in chief received his mortal wound Major Douglas a Scot and divers other Captains and Officers slain and drowned Captain Wingate a Member of the House of Commons with four Coronets taken and two more torn in pieces This body of the Rebels was observed to be the flower of their Cavalry October the 23 d. was that signal great battel fought between Keynton and Edg-hill by his Majesties Army and that of the Rebels led by the Earl of Essex wherein the Rebels lost above 70 Colours of Coronets and Ensigns and His Majesty but only 16 Ensigns and not one Coronet The exact number that were slain on both sides in this Battel is not known But it is certain that the Rebels lost above three for one Men of eminence of his Majesties Forces who were slain in the Battel were the two Noble and valiant Lords Robert Earl of Lindsey Lord High Chamberlain of England and George Lord D. Aubigney Brother to the Duke of Richmond and Lenox Sir Edmund Verney Knight Marshal to His Majesty with some other worthy Centlemen and Soldiers but besides these three named there was not one Noble Man or Knight kill'd which was an extraordinary mercy of Almighty God considering what a glorious sight of Princes Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Barons Knights and

MERCURIUS RUSTICUS THE COUNTRYS COMPLAINT Recovnting the sad Events of the late unparalleld REBELLION Christ Church Coll Ox Canterbury Minster Trinn Colledge Comb Countess of Rivers plundered pag 11 S r John Lucas house plundered pag ● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hous plundered pag 31. A Bonfire for the voting downe Episcopacy pag. ●6 〈…〉 pag 81. Warder Castle defended by a Lady pag 41. Mercurius Rusticus OR The COUNTRIES Complaint of the barbarous Outrages committed by the SECTARIES of this late flourishing KINGDOM Together with A brief CHRONOLOGY of the Battels Sieges Conflicts and other most remarkable Passages from the beginning of this unnatural War to the 25 th of March 1646. Together with A brief CHRONOLOGY of the Battels Sieges Conflicts and other most remarkable Passages from the beginning of this unnatural War to the 25 th of March 1646. Jer. 15.13 Thy substance and thy treasure will I give to the spoil without price and that for all thy sins even in all thy borders LONDON Printed for R. Royston Book-seller to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty and are to be sold by R. Green Book-seller in Cambridge 1685. THE PREFACE VVHen the sins of this Kingdom were ripe for punishment the Divine Justice permitted a great part of it to be besotted with Discontents either wholly causeless or such as His Majesty was pleased to remedy with Grants so unmeasurably gracious as could not otherwise be justified than by their importunity that demanded them and His Majesties Royall tenderness of his Subjects peace and safety These Grants were so far from satisfying those whose broken fortunes and boundless desires would not permit them to live without a Civil War that they make of them no other use than thereby to strengthen themselves to demand more till at last they broke out into a most unnatural Rebellion The people alwaies apt to cherish murmurs and invectives against their Princes and now grown wanton with the fruits of a long peace incline to Abners mind and think the war which yet they knew not but a sport Therefore with a great facility they imbrace the design and the baits to cover the Hooks with are the preservation of Religion and the vindication of Liberty And howsoever they cannot reconcile their practise with Gods command which under pain of damnation forbids all Subjects to resist their King yet they are so wedded to that interest which they challenge in Religion and Liberty that for Gods command if they cannot untie the Knot they resolve to cut it Do but assure them that the forbidden fruit will make them as Gods and they will eat it though it be forbidden do but perswade them that to take up arms against their Sovereign is the way to secure their Religion and Liberty and they make bold with God for once to choose their own way for so good an end From so desperate Resolution had they had but Morall justice they might have been kept back by the improbability of those calumnies whereby His Majesty was traduced as intending to alter Religion and infringe their Liberties Or had Religion to which they do so Zealously pretend had that potent influence upon them it might have taught them that Religion cannot be defended by transgressing Gods commands which are the Rule of it But if nothing else yet even regard to their own pretensions the defence of Religion and Liberty should have wrought in them a detestation of Rebellion which is so contrary to both For as an eye had to Gods dominion over us should exact obedience to his commands though never so much to our prejudice So the meditation of his infinite goodness ought to win it from us because his commands enjoyn us onely what is for our good if we could see it He would not have forbidden Subjects to defend Religion against their King by force of Arms but that he knew as Rebels can be no friends to Religion so it gaines love and admiration by the innocent patience of those that profess it whereas Bloodshed Force and Rapine the fruits of Rebellion procure Hatred or Hypocrisie And for Liberty it is for the good of mankind to forbid the assertion of it by Subjects Arms taken up against their Prince both because that pretence would otherwise be used by those that have a design to make the abused people their own slaves and because Rebellion doth more violate the Subjects liberty than is morally possible for the worst Prince in times of peace to do This truth was known before by speculation to a few whose endeavours to infuse it into the distempered peoples minds had the fate of Cassandraes predictions to hit the truth and want belief till these sad times have at last verified it by a costly experience That this may be more universally beneficial you have too plentifull a harvest of Instances collected in the insuing Relations wherein may evidently be seen that this War which the multitude was so fond of as the only means to preserve Religion and Liberty hath been almost the utter ruin of them both Here you shall find these great pretenders to Religion suppressing that which themselves confess to be Divine Truth Debarring poor prisoners the comfort of joyning their prayers together enforcing men to take Oaths of blind Obedience to whatsoever they should afterwards command them turning out Clergy-men above all exception and placing most scandalous and insufficient wretches in their rooms darting from their invenomed mouths most horrid Blasphemies against our blessed Lord and Saviour abusing the service of God and profaning not only the Form of it the Book of Common Prayer against which they have a professed quarrel but even Gods own Word the holy Bible which they pretend to reverence Here shall you behold them not only like those Canes Sepulchrales violating the bones and ashes of the dead to make the world know that they believe what some of their fellows openly profess that of those sometime living Temples of the holy Ghost there shall be no resurrection but exercising their fury on the Churches of God which they have defaced with Barbarous rudeness defiled with more than beastly nastiness and as if contrary to their wont they had studied the Book of Maccabees to find out and out-do the most Heathenish wickednesses therein related they have polluted the very Altar with their whoredoms The Independents at whose door the most part of these profanations of the Houses of God must lye will hardly make the world believe they are in earnest when they plead for Liberty of Conscience in Religion while they thus deface the places where it should be taught and practiced And as ill can the Presbyterians make good their pretended zeal to Religion and the Nurse of it Learning having almost extirpated one of the most flourishing Universities of Christendom Then for the other point the Subjects Liberty the following Narrations will plainly shew that it hath not been spared by those that would be accounted the Champions of it when the violation of

as I shall appoint Given under my hand and seal the 26. of Feb. 1643. E. Manchester To the President or Locum tenens of _____ Colledge BY vertue of an Ordinance of Parliament entituled An Ordinance for regulating the University of Cambridge and the removing of Scandalous Ministers in the seven Associated Counties giving me likewise power to eject such Masters of Colledges as are scandalous in their lives or doctrines or do oppose the proceedings of Parliament I do eject _____ from being Master of _____ Colledge in Cambridge for opposing the proceedings of Parliament and other scandalous acts in the University of Cambridge And I require you to sequester the Profits of his Mastership for one that I shall appoint in his place and to cut his name out of the Butteries and to certifie me of this your act within one day Given under my hand and Seal the 13. of March 1643. E. Manchester To the President and Fellows of _____ College in Cambridge This we hope will satisfie the indifferent Reader concerning the truth and ground of our Sufferings II. But lest a second mistake should arise that supposing them to be true yet they are not perhaps so great as we pretend because that for the most part we have given but a sleight glance at them we held it very requisite to give this further Advertisement 1. That in matters of this nature a man ought not to macerate his Soul too much by reflecting on his own misery lest the Devil thereby get an advantage upon him to tempt him to a melancholy despair 2. Though we desire hereby to move every compassionate Christian to a fellow-feeling of our miseries yet have we endeavoured as much as we could to forbear the long insisting upon particulars lest we should offend his ears instead of moving his compassion For as in Musick the harshness of a discord may be admitted if it be not too long produced so have we studied to temper those harsh notes to the tender ear of the Christian Auditor by making a speedy transition from one to another 3. We had so many matters of complaint and might have many more if we had been all together to confer our Sufferings that this small Remonstrance would have swelled to an Iliada malorum a just Volum if we had not purposely endeavoured to comprise an Ilias in a Nutshel by instancing only in some and reducing those to as small a model as possibly we could And to this end also we have used as much plainness of speech in our expressions as ingeniousness of the truth of the thing it self And indeed if we should but a little have indulged our Pen the liberty of a Rhetorical flourish we should thereby have made our sufferings which in themselves are almost beyond belief to have seemed altogether incredible III. But our greatest and last fear is lest the intolerable weight of those heavy pressures under which we have so long groaned have perhaps extorted from us some expressions which may not seem altogether to become persecuted Christians And in this we submit our selves wholly to the candour of the charitable Reader desiring him to interpret all things in the best sense For tho we have used our endeavours to avoid all manner of expressions which might seem to savour of malice yet carrying about us those passions which accompany flesh and blood it is impossible but we should sometimes slip We know very well and acknowledge that Prayers and tears are the only defensive weapons of a Christian against persecutions And if anything which is not fully consonant hereunto hath passed from our pen we desire it may be imputed to our many infirmities seeing we are still ready to pray for our Persecutors that God would open their eyes that they may yet see and repent of those many and great wrongs which they have done to him his true Religion and Service to his Anointed our gracious Sovereign as also to us in particular and other their fellow-fellow-subjects Which if it would please him to grant unto them we might quickly recover the temporal peace of this distracted Kingdom and they the possibility of enjoying everlasting peace in the Kingdom of Heaven 1 PET. 4.16 If any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalf ACT. 5.41 They departed from the presence of the Council rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name JOHN 16.33 In the world ye shall have tribulation but be of good cheer I have overcome the world Aug. in Psal. 93. Bonilaborant quia flagellantur ut filii maliexultant quia damnantur ut alieni Idem in Psal. 125. Sicut qui seminat per hyemem non deterretur ab opere propter hyemem Sic nos pressura mundi non debemus a bono opere deterreri quia qui seminant in lachrymis in gaudio metent Querela Cantabrigiensis OR The Universities Complaint THough an Apologie for our long silence might better become us than any other form of Prefacing yet were there some that thought it better to sit down in the shade of cool patience and sweeten the sad prospect of our own miseries by reflecting on the great publick woes of this Kingdom than incur the suspicion of querulous natures such as are apt to cry out only at the imagination of being hurt But seeing our miseries are real and our sufferings not so much intended against us as against that famous University whereof by right we are still actual Members and that the adverse party hath hitherto made so much advantage of our tameness as to steal away our livelyhood from us and conceal the Theft though our own Mothers mouth be stopped by violently seizing her press and thereby not suffered to speak but like Apollos Statue of old just as the evil spirit speaks in her which at this time utters little else but disloyalty and Rebellion yet seeing it hath pleased the hand of providence to give us this happy opportunity freely to bewail our own miseries We are at length resolved to do Justice to these Mens iniquity and our own innocence that our fellow-subjects may know and if they leave so much learning as to speak in another language the whole World may hereafter understand how and by what Arts the Knipperdullings of this Age who think shortly to make themselves Kings of this Sion have reduced a glorious and renowned University almost to a meer Munster and have done more in less then three years then the Apostate Julian could effect in all his Reign viz. broken the heart-strings of Learning and learned men and thereby luxated all the joynts of Christianity in the Kingdon The particulars whereof and the barbarous courses taken to bring these designs to effect as we shall truly and impartially set them down so we fear not to appeal to any impartial Judg whether if the Goths and Vandalls or even the Turks themselves had over-run this Nation they

men are cull'd out partly as the lot sell for it much resembled a lottery but chiefly of such whom they most redoubted and of whom by some petty information they had received a black Character of Loyalty termed Malignancy and to these yet severally was tendered the Oath of discovery and after that the Covenant And though indeed we should by Gods help as often have refused it as it should have been offered yet after one single denial without a second tender contrary to the Eleventh Article of the Instructions a warrant was straightway issued forth under the Earl of Manchester's hand and seal for our Ejection and Banishment from the University of Cambridge for refusing to take the Solemn League and Covenant and other Misdemeanors in the said University which were surely no other than the denial of the Oath of discovery for not one of us who were there present had any one accusation brought much less proved against him when we appeared upon their Summons And without any delay our names are cut out of the College Tables and we strictly commanded in three days space to quit the University and Town under pain of Imprisonment and Plunder if any thing was left And it is here not to be passed by that whereas by the Laws of the Land we were ever reputed to have as good an interest in our several fellowships during life as any of our fellow Subjects in his fee Simple provided we carried our selves according to those Statutes by which our several Colleges were respectively to be governed yet now we are utterly deprived of them by the mear Arbitrary power of one of our fellow Subjects without transgressing of any one Statute or being called to answer for any pretended offence whatsoever Nay so little was Propriety valued that a pair of Camp-Chaplains or one of them might expunge eject and banish whom they pleased especially such as would not sacrifice their Loyalty and consciences to the nerves and cement of this Rebellion called the Covenant For instance when a Warrant for Ejection of certain Fellows of S. Johns College was issued out under hand and seal and their names expresly mentioned in it yet Mr. Ash knows very well who it was that expunged Mr. Henmans name and put in M. Botelers without so much as writing the Warrant over again And now seeing what courses were taken it will not seem strange to the Reader to hear that no less than 32. Fellows together with the Master have been thrust out of the said College the emoluments of whose places have been ever since swallowed up by not half the number and not content with that neither And in an other they have made a through Reformation Root and Branch leaving neither Fellow nor Scholar In others indeed they have left perhaps one or two or more as they see good like Gibeonites to hew wood and draw water till such time as they have discovered unto them all the mysteries concerning their College Revenues and by that time they will find enow godly men of their own Tribe Learned enough to pocket the profits of two Fellowships apiece which is the end of all this blessed Reformation Thus is their old pretence of Regulation vanished in place whereof their true intention of a total Extirpation of the whole ancient Body of the University doth now so plainly appear that they which run may read it which though a great many would not believe till by woful experience they found it yet was it conspicuous enough from the very beginning to any that was but tolerably provident in matters of this nature For it was hardly possibly that Cambridge should be free from these two crying sins of Sacrilege and Rebellion which the devil hath long endeavoured to make this whole Kingdom guilty of and to that end mis-calling them by the names of Religion and Liberty had masked under the counterfeit vizard of a Covenant for Reformation by which means though the simplicity of the vulgar was much abused to the extreme hazard of this once flourishing Church and State yet seeing it could not be able to endure the strict search which in such an University of all sorts of Learned and conscientious Men it was not like to escape it could not be otherwise expected but that those who were his instruments herein would lay a sure foundation and how moderate soever their pretences were reform Root and Branch as they called it that seeing they could not make the University of Cambridge to Rebel by taking their Covenant they might at least make a Rebellious University at Cambridge which should take it And to this end those new intruders which falsly call themselves Masters and Fellows of our several Colleges instead of those solemn Oaths which our pious and prudent Founders and Legislators enjoyned to be taken and without taking of which no man can pretend any right to any of their foundations only take their Covenant again and make a Protestation to reform all our wholsom Laws and Statutes according to that Covenant A Covenant with Hell begot between Munster and Mecha by the help of a Jesuite sthe most impious and unchristian confederacy that their grand Master the devil could contrive the chief end whereof is to dethrone the Lords anointed and throw down the Church and Apostolical Government thereof and to force not only their Fellow-Subjects to contradict their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy but even their most gracious Sovereign to perjury in violating this his sacred Oath which he solemnly made at his Coronation And to compleat that their most horrid and heinous sin to joyn in Arms with a foreign Nation to lay desolate their own native Country to stain this Earth with the Blood of their own Country-men and Fellow-Subjects and to expose the treasures of England the Cream of these fruitful Vallies to the empty and hungry maw of a Rebellious Scot and then vow never to have peace but what shall be written in the Blood of their Enemies His Majesty and His Loyal Subjects and lastly most cruelly and wickedly to exhort and solicit all Protestants in the Christian World to undertake the like course with them by rising in Rebellious Arms thereby exposing the Throats and Lives of all our Brethren the Protestants in France and else where to the just jealousie of their several Princes And yet for sooth this Covenant is made the foundation of the great work of their glorious Reformation and under pretence of refusing this we must be banisht and thrust out of all we have It will not be more than what upon trial will be found true if we here mention a mistery which many we conceive will not a little wonder at viz. That this Covenant for which all this persecution hath been consisteth of 6. Articles and those Articles of 666. words This is not the first time that a persecution hath arisen in England upon 6. Articles witness those in the Reign of King Henry the 8 th

But as for the number of the Beast to answer directly to the words of those six Articles it is a thing which considering Gods blessed providence in every particular thing hath made many of us and others seriously and often to reflect upon it though we were never so superstitiously Caballistical as to ascribe much to numbers This discovery we confess was not made by any of us but by a very judicious and worthy Divine formerly of our University and then a Prisoner for his Conscience within the precincts of it and not yet restored to his liberty but removed to London And therefore we shall forbear to insist any farther either upon it or the occasion of it For our own particulars we shall only add thus much that seeing some of our own Reasons with which we had Armed our selves against that Misery of iniquity have since that time been published to the World in such humility of phrase as well became Christian sufferers though in such distraction as may sufficiently testify who were the Authors and what their Condition we appeal to any who with Judgment and moderation hath or shall read the same whether we have causlesly and foolishly trifled away those fair advantages wherewith God by the means of our renowned Benefactors had endowed us for the advancement of his Glory and further propagation of Learning and true Religion or whether we had not rather suffer'd an unjust deprival of all our livelyhoods under the merciless hands of cruel Tyrants who neither fear God nor respect the just scruples of tender Consciences For when a Member of our University was brought upon this occasion before the Earl of Manchester and being not satisfied in Conscience desired his Lordship that his Chaplain then present might resolve him in some Scruples about it to this motion being then thought not unreasonable by his Lordship and much pressed by some that were there present his Reverend Chaplain Learnedly replyed before the whole Company that he came not thither to resolve Mens Consciences but to Preach to his Lordship Whereupon the Gentleman was not long after sent up Prisoner to London by the said Earl for tendring the Reasons of his refusing the Covenant though invited and required thereunto by his Lordship And there without farther hearing committed to Prison where he continued a long time at excessive charges which is all the satisfaction he could find or any other can expect from them for the scruples of a tender Conscience Thus are we imprisoned or banished for our consciences being not so much as accused of any thing else only suspected of Loyalty to our King and Fidelity to our Mother the Church of England and not only so but quite stript of all our livelyhood and exposed to beggery having nothing left us to sustain the necessities of nature and many of us no friends to go to but distitute and forlorn not knowing whither to bend one step when we set footing out of Cambridge having one only companion which will make us rejoyce in our utmost afflictions viz. A clear Conscience in a righteous cause humbly submitting our selves to the chastisement of the Almighty who after he hath tryed us will at last cast his rods into the fire As for us God forbid that we should take up any railing or cursing who are commanded only to bless we are so far from that that we have rather chosen to let the names of our greatest persecuters rot in our ruines than so much as mention them with our Pen save only where necessity compelled us unto it But though we spare their names we hope we may without offence to any describe their qualities And therefore if Posterity shall ask Who thrust out one of the eyes of this Kingdom Who made Eloquence dumb Phylosophy sottish widowed the Arts and drove the Muses from their Ancient habitation Who pluck'd the Reverend and Orthodox Professors out of their Chairs and silenced them in Prison or their graves Who turned Religion into Rebellion and changed the Apostolical Chair into a Desk for Blasphemy and tore the garland from off the head of Learning to place it on the dull browes of Disloyal Ignorance If they shall ask who made those Ancient and beautiful Chappels the sweet remembrancers and Monuments of our fore-fathers Charity and kind fomenters of their Childrens devotion to become ruinous heaps of dust and stones or who unhived those numerous swarms of labouring Bees which used to drop honey-dews over all this Kingdom to place in their rooms swarms of sensless Drones T is quickly answered those that were who endeavouring to share three Crowns and put them in their own pockets have transformed this free Kingdom into a large Goal to keep the liberty of the Subject They who maintain 100000. Robbers and Murtherers by Sea and Land to protect our lives and the propriety of our goods That have gone a King-catching these three years hunting their most gracious Sovereign like a Partridge on the mountains in his own defence They who have possest themselves of His Majesties Towns Navy and Magazines and Robbed him of all his Revenues to make him a glorious King Who have multiplyed Oaths Protestations Vows Leagues and Covenants for the ease of tender consciences Filling all Pulpits with Jugglers for the Cause canting Sedition Atheism and Rebellion to root out Popery and Babylon and settle the Kingdom of Christ who from a trembling guilt of a legal trial have engaged three flourishing Kingdoms and left them weltring in their own Blood They lastly which when they had glutted themselves with spoil and rapine hissed for a foreign Viper to come and eat up the bowels of their dear Mother The very same have stopt the mouth of all Learning following here in the example of their elder Brother the Turk lest any should be wiser than themselves or Posterity know what a World of wickedness they have committed And now seeing they are not content to deprive us of our Estates but which is much more greivous unto us have also Robbed us of our good names branding all of us in our several writs of Ejectment with a black Character of Misdemeanors in general and yet not any one particular was alledged against any one of us which were then there much less offered to be proved by any one single witness although especial care was taken by an Ordinance for appointing a Committee to sit at Cambridge for that purpose we challenge and conjure them as they will one day answer for this slander and oppression that they declare and prove what those Misdemeanors are which if they do the shame and guilt will be ours if not as we are confident they cannot we must appeal herein from these unjust Judges to the impartial Tribunal of the righteous Judg of Heaven and Earth who knows our integrity and to whom we submit our selves and cause Humbly beseeching him not to lay this Sin to their charge For though for our many sins against

the right way for at this day the Blind lead the Blind and if they go on both will certainly fall into the ditch For my self I am and acknowledg it in all humility a most grievous sinner many ways by thought word and deed and I cannot doubt but that God hath mercy in store for me a poor penitent as well as for other sinners I have now upon this sad occasion ransacked every corner of my Heart and yet I thank God I have not found among the many any onesin which deserves death by any known Law of this Kingdom And yet hereby I charge nothing upon my Judges for if they proceed upon proofe by valuable witnesses I or any other innocent may by justly condemned And I thank God though the weight of the sentence lye heavy upon me I am as quiet within as ever I was in my life And though I am not only the first Arch-Bishop but the first man that ever died by an Ordinance of Parliament yet some of my Predecessors have gone this way though not by this means For Elphegus was hurried away and lost his head by the Danes and Simon Sudbury in the fury of Wat Tyler and his fellows Before these S. John Baptist had his head danced off by a leud Woman and S. Cyprian Arch-Bishop of Carthage submitted his head to a persecuting Sword Many examples great and good and they teach me patience for I hope my Cause in Heaven will look of another dye than the colour that is put upon it here And some comfort it is to me not only that I go the way of these great men in their several Generations but also that my Charge as foul as 't is made looks like that of the Jews against S. Paul Acts 25.3 For he was accused for the Law and the Temple i. e. Religion And like that of S. Stephen Acts 6.14 for breaking the Ordinances which Moses gave i. e. Law and Religion the holy place and the Temple vers 13. But you will say do I then compare my self with the integrity of S. Paul and Stephen No far be that from me I only raise a comfort to my self that these great Saints and Servants of God were laid at in their times as I am now And it is memorable that S. Paul who helped on this Accusation against S. Stephen did after fall under the very same himself Yea but here is a great clamour that I would have brought in Popery I shall answer that more fully by and by In the mean time you know what the Pharisees said against Christ himself If we let him alone all men will believe in him Et venient Romani and the Romans will come and take away both our Place and Nation Here was a causeless Cry against Christ that the Romans will come And see how just the judgment of God was they crucified Christ for fear lest the Romans should come and his death was it which brought in the Romans upon them God punishing them with that which they most feared and I pray God this clamour of Venient Romani of which I have given no cause help not to bring them in for the Pope never had such a Harvest in England since the Reformation as he hath now upon the Sects and Divisions that are amongst us In the mean time by Honour and dishonour by good report and evil report as a deceiver and yet true am I passing through this World 2 Cor. 6.8 _____ Some particulars also I think it not amiss to speak of And first this I shall be bold to speak of the King our gracious Sovereign He hath been much traduced also for bringing in of Popery but on my Conscience of which I shall give God a very present account I know Him to be as free from this charge as any man living and I hold Him to be as found a Protestant according to the Religion by Law established as any man in this Kingdom And that he will venture His life as far and as freely for it and I think I do or should know both His affection to Religion and his grounds for it as fully as any man in England The second particular is concerning this great and Populous City which God bless Here hath been of late a fashion taken up to gather hands and then go to the Great Court of this Kingdom the Parliament and clamour for Justice as if that great and wise Court before whom the Causes come which are unknown to the many could not or would not do Justice but at their appointment A way which may endanger many an Innocent man and pluck his blood upon their own heads and perhaps upon the Cities also And this hath been lately practised against my self The Magistrates standing still and suffering them openly to proceed from Parish to Parish without check God forgive the setters of this with all my heart I beg it but many well meaning People are caught by it In S. Stephens case when nothing else would serve they stirred up the People against him and Herod went the same way when he had kill'd S. James yet he would not venture upon S. Peter till he found how the other pleased the People But take heed of having your hands full of blood for there is a time best known to himself when God above other sins makes Inquisition for blood and when that Inquisition is on foot the Psalmist tells us That God remembers but that is not all He remembers and forgets not the complaint of the poor that is whose blood is shed by oppression verse 9. take heed of this It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God but then especially when he is making Inquisition for blood And with my Prayers to avert it I do heartily desire this City to remember the Prophesie that is expressed Jer. 26.14.15 As for me behold I am in your hand do with me as seemeth good and meet unto you But know ye for certain that if ye put me to death ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon your selves and upon this City and upon the Inhabitants thereof c. The third particular is the poor Church of England It hath flourished and been a shelter to other neighbouring Churches when storms have driven upon them But alas now it is in a storm it self and God only knows whether or how it shall get out and which is worse than a storm from without it is become like an Oak cleft to shivers with wedges made out of its own body and at every cleft prophaneness and Irreligion is entering in while as Prosper spakes in his second Book De vitae contemptu cap. 4. Men that introduce prophaness are cloaked over with the name Religionis Imaginariae of Imaginary Religion for we have lost the Substance and dwell too much in Opinion and that Church which all the Jesuits machinations could not ruin is fallen into danger by her own The last particular for I am not