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
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
the Church in Sudly Castle at the beginning of these Wars profaned Not only the Monuments of the Chandoises spoil'd but one part of the Church converted to a Stable whilst the other was little better than a Shambles the Pulpit being made the chief stall where the meat was hung up and the communion-table served for a board to joynt upon The Inhabitants of Weden-Pinkney in Northamptonshire cannot yet forget how Mr. Losse their Minister was abused whilest he was officiating by the souldiers who rid into the Church and wounded the Minister because he would not go along with them they refusing to tell him by what authority they commanded him An action so wicked that the very heathens will rise up in judgment against them And those of Chelmsford in Essex need no remembrancer how their Church-windows having the History of Christ and the Scutchions of Bene factors painted in them were batter'd down by the instigated rabble who not content with this layd violent hands on Dr. Michelson their Parson and rent the Common Prayer Book with a great deal of joy This reformed town as my Author saith was govern'd by a Tinker two Coblers two Taylors and two Pedlers How miserably was the ancient Cathedral Church at Winchester dealt withall the famous Monuments of the Dead utterly defaced the bones of Kings Bishops c. thrown about the Church the two famous Brazen Statues of King James and King Charles erected at the entrance into the Quire pulled down the Communion-Plate books hangings cushions c. seis'd upon and made away the Church-vestments put on by the heathenish soldiers riding in that posture in derision about the streets some scornfully singing pieces of the Common-prayer whilst others tooted upon the broken pieces of Organs The stories of the old and new Testament curiously beautified with colours and cut out in carved work they utterly destroy'd against which wickednesse the Prophet David of old complained Nor did the famous Organs escape their fury being pull'd to pieces and imployed to private uses As one in York something advanced his houses if my memory fail me not with Organ and Church-wood which if he had turn'd into Looms and Shuttles had been more proper for his trade And of the brasse torn from violated Monuments might have been built a house as strong as the brazen Towers in some old Romances And after this manner was the Cathedral of Exceter served where the Commandements were defaced the Common-Prayer Book burnt the glasse-windows monuments statues and organs broke and the name of Jesus over the Communion table blotted out as superstitious Nor can some honest people of London yet forget the intolerable actions of the saint-like soldiers at St. Peter's Pauls-wharf sunday 9 Sept. 1649 who rode into the said Church with swords drawn and pistols spann'd crying out Knock the Rogues on the head shoot them kill them which was accordingly done an old woman being shot into the head and above 40 more grievously wounded and the Minister Mr. Williams hurried Prisoner to White-Hall And all this because the Common prayer establisht by the true Laws of the Land was read whence my Author observes that these Hereticks though they loudly cry up Liberty of Conscience yet will allow none to others but take all to themselves the better to cloak their villanies with pretended Religion and reformation The Cathedral of Chichester was sufficiently violated being robb'd of all her vestments and plate and not so much as a Cushion left in the pulpit the Organs and ten Commandements broke down and spoil'd the Pictures of the Kings of England and Bishops of that See defaced with the monuments seats stalls and painted walls And after the same manner was the Cathedral of Peterborough used and how Lichfield escaped is not unknown And their fury being once begun no man can expect that the Metropolitan Church of Canterbury could escape where Coll. Sandys soldidiers barbarously overthrew the Communion-Table tearing the velvet cloth from before it defacing the goodly Screen violating the monuments of the dead spoiling the organs breaking down the ancient rails and seats with the brazen Eagle which supported the Bible tearing the surplices gowns bibles and Arras hanging in the Quire representing the whole story of our Saviour wherein observing divers figures of Christ one said that here is Christ and swore that he would stab him another said here is Christ and swore that he would rip up his Bowels which they did accordingly so farre as the figures were capable and not content with this finding another Statue of our Saviour in the Frontispiece of the south-gate shot about forty shots at it tryumphing much when they had hit the head or face The ancient Cathedral of Durham can yet shew her ruines and can tell with what unspeakable tyranny the Kings poor friends were used in it And that of Carlisle deplores the want of a part of its body being ruined to be imployed in wicked Warre whilest it was intended a house of prayer and peace Nor is it unknown how sacrilegiously that excellent structure of St. Pauls in London was abused making of it an Exchange where things may be bought and sould not only contrary to the Laws of God but also of man and that not only of our own but forraign Churches as may appear by several Canons against such violations The laws of our Nation expresly forbidding any Fair or market to be held in Church-yards and by consequence not in the Church it self so that a late writer said not amisse that one might well be amazed at the genius of this age that suffered this goodly and venerable fabrick to be built about and converted into rascally ware-houses and so sordidly abused and defaced that an Argument of greater avarice malice meanesse and deformity of mind cannot possibly be exprest England is the sole spot in all the world where amongst Christians their Churches are made jakes and stables markets and tipling houses and where there were more need of Scorpions than Thongs to drive out the Publicans and Money changers And that St. Pauls by the wicked reformers was converted into a stable is not unknown to it's Neighbours which iniquities and such like occasioned the Saying That we had now a thorough Reformation in England since our horses also went to Church Yet some not content to have their horses in the Church unlesse some other villanie were done witnesse the damnable wickednesse of one Captain Beamont who at Yakesly in Huntingtonshire Anno. 1644. having pist in the Font fetched his bold horse from Mr. Finnemores stable and in derision of Baptism sprinkled it on the horse calling of him Ball Esau because he was hairy and in scorn to the Church of England crost him on the forehead and to make their villany compleat one Robert Rayner Corporal acted the part of the Minister and would also have God-Fathers one Bartly Ward but nick-named Widdow Shropshire acting the part of
mad-caps of the Long-Parliament declared the legality and necessity of the Warr against their King Nor how they they voted all his Loyal Subjects Traytors because obedient to him these things be as well known as their Prosperity they driving all before them being thrust on with a mischief as if they had the command of Dame Fortune as Ericus Ventosi Pilei King of Sweadland had of the Windes by the turning of his Cap. And whatsoever they did their white-eyed Pulpiteers vindicated and whined it out to their affected people with abundance of Ha's Oh's and O's to be agreeable to Gods Secret Will for alas every puny of these Saints understood his Revealed too well to be Catechized in such things How pitifully these Schismatical Cushion-Thumpers abused the simple multitude into Rebellion you may in part perceive by one instance out of their own Historian After the Battel of Edge-Hill the Earl of Essex with several of his Regiments went to London Novemb. 1642. The Sabbath-day after their arrival to London the Godly and well-affected Ministers throughout the City preached and prais'd the Lord publickly for their so joyful and safe return home to their Parents Masters and Friends Exhorting those young Souldiers of Christs Army-Royal still to retain and be forward and ready to show their Courage and Zeal to the defence of Gods Cause and their Countreys Well-fare Shewing them the Plots of their Adversaries to have Introduced Popery and Tyranny into the Kingdom and assuring them that this Warr on their parts was waged and managed by Papists An Army of Papists being raising by the Kings Command contrary to his Vows and Protestations and deep Asseverations to the contrary And were not these sweet-souls to preach Peace and Repentance Just as some forraign Priests by hearing Confession instead of a rebuke perswade the simple women to act the same sin over again with themselves Nay so farr had our rebellious Thunderers proceeded as to make the People believe that those who sided with the King were in a manner past hopes of any happiness in the World to come concerning which I shall tell you a Story upon the credit of honest Jack Taylor One Francis Beal dwelling in the Axe-Yard in Kings-street Westminster with his Wife were throrow-paced for the Parliamentary-Cause yet had a Son who like an honest Subject faithfully served the King in the Wars which so troubled his zealous Mother that she caus'd a Bill to be written to have him pray'd for in the Church which Bill was delivered in Martins Church near Chearing-Cross to the well-known Mr. Case the Lecturer there on Thursdays the form of the Bill was as followeth These are to desire you to take into your Christian Considerations the grief and sorrow of one Mistris Beal of Westminster whose son Francis Beal is faln away from Grace and serves the King in his Wars Wherefore she most humbly beseecheth the Prayers of this Congregation that He may Return and be Converted Is not this abominable Hypocrisie as bad as the poor ignorant Irish who when they went a stealing pray'd to God for good Fortune and if accordingly they got a good Booty used to render God thanks for his assisting their Villany and so lookt upon it as the gift of God Oh what will men not dare if thus they dare Be impudent to Heaven and play with Prayer Play with that Fear with that Religious awe Which keeps men free and yet is mans great Law What can they but the worst of Atheists be Who while they word it ' gainst Impietie Affront the Throne of God with their false deeds Alas this wonder in the Atheist breeds Are these the men that would the Age reform That down with Superstition cry and swarm This painted Glass that Sculpture to deface But worship Pride and Avarice in the place Religion they bawl out yet know not what Religion is unless it be to prate Meekness they preach but study to Controul Money they 'd have when they cry out the Soul And angry will not have Our Father said ' Cause it prays not enough for dayly bread They meet in private and cry Persecution When Faction is their end and State-confusion These are the men that plague and over-run Like Goths and Vandals all Religion Vain foolish People how are you deceived How many several sorts have you received Of things call'd Truths upon your backs laid on Like Saddles for themselves to ride upon They ridd amain and Hell and Satan drove While every Priest for his own profit strove They close with God seem to obey his Laws They cry aloud for him and for his Cause But while they do their strict Injunctions preach Deny in actions what their words do teach O what will men not dare if thus they dare Be Impudent with Heaven and play with Prayer Besides the many wicked Declarations of the Juncto of the Lords and Commons and the seditious Pulpit-Talkativeness of their puny Muffti's many Pamphlets were sent abroad to incite the people to Rebellion and this by Authority too a sight of which I suppose their zealous Journey-man Sam. Gellibrand would not deny a friend Nay they were gon so farr as to think the Rebellion so laudable and necessary that they perswaded the people that it was not lawful to suffer patiently and with-draw themselves from its calamities contrary to the express command of our Saviour who bids us fly from City to City rather than resist to which purpose one of their Beloved Mr. S. T. put forth a small Treatise in which he tells the World That when a Parliamentary-State is ingaged for the repressing of Injuries and maintenance of publick Liberties and mens Estates this calls in all private thoughts of escape to contribute them to the publick defence and then furiously exasperates them against the King and his Loyal Subjects by infusing into them strange things of the dangerous distemper spread over all our Body the discord in our own Bowels an Abominable Army Idolatrous Ensignes the Romish Banner And therefore Things stand now in such posture that God requires our deep Engagement and that we should banish all thoughts of declining In this great hazard that Liberty Laws and Religion run to leave our ground were to leave Popery Mastery of the Field And at last concludes What comfort can this be if we run away from a good Cause as if we were afraid to own or afraid to assist it and unwilling to suffer and be lost with it And who must be the promoter of Printing this Seditious Pamphlet but Mr. Edm. Calamy the famous hinter of Aldermanbury London But it was not only Printing which they made use of to vindicate Rebellion but also and that a main one too Pulpit-prating for I dare not call such babling Preaching where nothing was yell'd out but Persecution Persecution O the cruelty and knavery of the King O the Idolatry of the Queen O the wickedness of the Malignant Antichristian
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
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
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
himself loyal and rational be judge And truly what itching ears for Innovation and against Regal Authority some of the forraign Presbyters have is something palpable from the Letter of Gisbertus Voetius wherein he doth not only commend Prynne's Soveraign Power of Parliaments but saith that it ought to be translated into Latin and French for the benefit of the Reformed Divines and Politicians And Prynne himself tells us that it is translated into several Languages And what Pleas they may suck out of such Books against Monarchy cannot be ignorant to those who have seen what mischief the counterfeit Name of Junius Brutus a fit name for such a murtherous mind though the true Authour is supposed to be Beza and that printed in divers Languages hath laid open to those who are willing to perpetrate wickedness And how consentaneous to the Doctrines laid down in these Pamphlets their actions have been their often Rebellions in France but more especially in the dayes of Lewis the 13 th will shew us whom though he had pardoned several times yet would they never keep Articles but upon every advantage fly to their Arms again looking upon Regal Authority only as a Bug-bear to afright Children hoping in time by dwindling it to nothing to raise themselves to Superiority And how many men by these false Positions may be drawn to Schism and Rebellion is manifest from this one Example In King James his time one Knight a young Divine Preach'd at St. Peters in Oxford and in his Sermon maintain'd the Presbyterian Doctrines above specified for which being call'd in question he laid the fault upon some late Divines in forraign Churches who had misguided him in that point especially on David Paraeus who had asserted these Doctrines upon which his Comment on the Romans was publickly and solemnly burnt at Oxford 1622. June 6 th Cambridge and St. Paul's Cross in London The famous University of Oxford in a full Convocation concluding 25. June 1622. That such assertions were contrary to Scripture Councils Fathers the Faith and Profession of the Primitive Church and Monarchy it self and therefore condemned them as false wicked and seditious And did also affirm That according to the Scriptures it is not lawful for Subjects upon any terms to resist their King or Prince no not to take up Arms against him either for Religion or any other account whatsoever And for more sureness they did also Decree that every one before he took a Degree should swear to this The Opinion delivered in the sentence of these two famous Universities I shall value more than of an Assembly or Classis made up of all the Presbyterians in the World The consideration of these Disciplinarian Maximes I believe did make our ingenious Satyrist cry out Our Zeal-drunk-Presbyters cry down All Law of Kings and God but what 's their own If you desire to see any more of their wild and extravagant Principles you may consult Archbishop Bancroft's Industrious Book a piece that I am sorry is so scarse as it is and that for want of Re-printing while Calvert's shop dayly labours with the multitude of Fanatick Pamphlets and such Books as Smectymnuus must be printed and printed again and that with the addition of a long Preface by a great Time-serving Divine CHAP. VII The Rebellious Actions of the Presbyterians in Scotland till the Death of King James HOw agreeable the practise of the Brethren have been to these Treasonable Notions afore specified shall here in brief be laid down by their tumultuous Carriages in Scotland Whither these Principles kindled with a fiery zeal enough to eat up whole Kingdoms were carryed and the furiousness of them greatly augmented at the return of John Knox that great Incendiary of the Nation and Kirk of Scotland as a learned Doctor calls him from Geneva 1559. A man that still had the misfortune to carry Warr and Confusion along with him as if like Hippocrates's Twins he and they were inseparable witness the Combustions he made at Franckfort amongst the poor English Protestants fled thither for Religion where he was not undeservedly accused of High-Treason against the Emperor by comparing him in print to Nero and calling of him Enemy to Christ c. For which crimes he was forced to sculk away to Geneva thence to Deep in France and after that to Scotland whence after few weeks stay he fled back to Geneva but not setling there he returns to Deep again from which place he wrote divers Letters to the Scots to stirr them up to Rebellion and having by that means wrought some confidence among them returned to Scotland again By these Principles distill'd amongst them by this wandering Brother and the deadly Feuds of old betwixt the Nobility the Nation became miserably distracted The Kings and Queens thinking it hard measure to have their undoubted Rule and Soveraignty pluck'd from them by such inferiour Instruments and Vassals And on the other side the Congregators for so they then call'd themselves back'd on by several Hot-spurs scorned to yield subjection to any but themselves so that the disturbed Kingdom appeared to be governed by two distinct Authorities like Caesar and Pompey one party disdaining an Equal whilst the other denyed a Supream The Presbyters so farr extolling their own Priviledges as Christs Embassadours that many thought there was no Antichrist but Kings and such Civil Authority which cogitations nurst in them such a small esteem of their Rulers or Laws that they did not only think that to be their right which was most agreeable to their own humours but also that they might gain such things to themselves by the Sword As if Subjects need any more Priviledge then the course of Law At the beginning of the Reformation in Scotland the Queen-Regent favourably because contrary to her Religion allowed them the Bible in their own Language But they not content with this use their wonted Master-peice of Reviling upon which she was constrained to send for some of their Preachers to appear before her who accordingly came but with such a multitude of favourites and attendants that through fear of her own Person she was obliged to order by Proclamation all to depart who came unsent for a thing alwayes usual in the best of Governments yet was this so offensive to the Brethren that they throng in Tumults into her Privy-chamber and there threaten her with their weapons an act quite contrary to the Apostles and Primitive Christians so that she was constrained to pleasure them Afterwards she allows them liberty to use their Prayers and Service in the Vulgar Tongue provided they kept no Publick Assemblies in Edenbourgh or Leith for avoiding Tumults And in their Petition to her for the obtaining these favours they acknowledge that the Redress of all Enormities both Ecclesiastical and Civil did orderly belong to her But this acknowledging of her Authority lasted not long for when presently afterwards they demanded more liberty with a
restrain'd the punishment of their disorders against her Person and Authority the more liberty they took to offend To this Knox impudently answers That his patience in suffering abominations made him not guilty of any fault and if his tongue took liberty in Pulpit she might take it as she pleas'd since in the Pulpit he had no Superiour but God and that his gifts made him equal to any of her Peers And as for her weeping he said He could better sustain her tears than the trouble of his Cause or to betray the Common-wealth Nor durst the Queen question him for his sawcy replyes knowing the strength of his Faction which being uot unhid to Knox made him more Insolent as afterwards publickly to affirm That For her sins the Land must lament and that it was absolute Rebellion in her not to turn Protestant and compared her to Simon Magus thinking it impossible that her sins could be forgiven her Nor did others of his Fraternity hold their peace And having got thus sure footing nothing would satisfie them but to have all for which purpose at a General Assembly at Edenburgh they draw up a Petition of several Heads the first of which was That the Queen her self with all her Family should not only forsake Mass and Popish Idolatry but that all none excepted should be punished who transgrest this Article To this she answered being then at St. Johnstons That as she freely gave every one Liberty of Conscience so she hoped that her Subjects would not press her to do against her Conscience and that she did not only think that there was no impiety in the Mass but that her Religion was true and grounded upon the Word of God But this gave them no full satisfaction Henry Stewart Lord Darnley being now marryed to the Queen July 1565. and proclaimed King the Knoxian Lords fly to their Arms and so doth the King also but before his march hears Knox preach at Edenburgh at St. Giles Kirk where he rail'd against the present Government reflectively saying That for the sins of the People God gives them Boyes the King was about 21. years old and Women to rule over them After which the King marcheth against the Lords who fly into England yet through Intercession all was reconciled Not long after this the Queen was brought to Bed in Edenburgh Castle betwixt 9. 10. at night July 19. of a Son which was afterwards Christned at Sterling and call'd James who became at last the happy Uniter of the two Crowns At the latter end of the same year John Knox intending to visit his sons at Cambridge moved the Assembly to write to the English Bishops in favour of the Non-conformists then buzzing in England The which they do but in their wonted language railing against the Surplice Square-Caps Tippets and calling them Badges and Garments of Idolatry Romish Raggs vain Trifles telling them as if the serious Bishops need take advice from such Hair-brains That they may boldly oppose all such Authority which dare command such things brave language and anew way of begging to get curtesies by Some few weeks after this the King was most barbarously murder'd 9 th February but by whom and how because History will not tell us the truth at large I think it not convenient to relate by peice-meal Then was the Queen whether willing or constrained is nothing to me marryed to Bothwell against whom the Lords raise an Army and forced him to fly into Denmark where he was imprisoned and they also seize on the forsaken Queen whom they secure in the Island of Lochlevin where by threats and fear they forced her to resign tears trickling down her face abundantly her Interest in the Crown to her young Son few days above a year old who was Crowned few days after at Sterling July 29. And if you will believe a late Historian Knox and other Ministers were not satisfied with this Resignation of hers but would have her also deprived of life nor is this Treasonable cruelty contradictory to his fore-mentioned Principles Now could the Knoxians desire nothing more having their King young in his Cradle and so capable of what impression they pleas'd and their Queen in close Prison so that they appeared Lords and Masters Yet she presently escapes out of Prison gets some Forces fights Murray the Regent but being beat fled into England where Queen Elizabeth imprisoned her till she was to the astonishment of many beheaded 1586. after 18. years close Imprisonment The next year the Regent Murray was slain at Lithgow by one Hamilton And then Lenox the Kings Grand-father obtained that dignity against whom the Lord Hamilton in behalf of the Queen raiseth a Warr in which Lenox was slain at Sterling Then was the Earl of Marre chosen who not long after dyed of a Feavour After whom the Earl of Morton succeeded as Regent after which the Queens Party by degrees lost all Authority In this year did John Knox dye at Edenburgh Novemb. 27. one that as I am apt to believe all things considered gained more esteem amongst the people by the reverence of his long-beard reaching down to his middle than any real wisdom or discretion that could be appropriated to him And now comes Andrew Melvil burning from Geneva against Bishops denying the lawfulness of their Function labouring for the absolute Presbyterial Discipline according to the Geneva mode which rais'd some Tempests in the Church insomuch that some of the Presbytery forbad Mr. Patrick Adamson lately by the Regent presented and by the Chapter chosen to the See of St. Andrews to Exercise any part of his Jurisdiction till he had acknowledged and satisfied them After this Argyle and Athol not affecting the Regent go to the young King at Sterling complaining against Morton and desiring him to take the Rule upon himself And so the King doth at 12. years old and thus the Regency fell The young King being brought up in the Reformed way confirms the Religion in Parliament but not their Discipline he affecting the Episcopal Government and ever since he was ten years old as himself confesseth disliked the Presbyterian way And truly Experience gave him good reason for it But to make all sure a Negative Oath by way of a Confession of Faith wherein all the Romish Ceremonies and Doctrines were abjured was drawn up by Mr. John Craig and this the King himself took and this he reflected upon in the Conference at Hampton-Court Having thus tyed his Conscience as they thought his Body must be secured too and so at Ruthen they seize upon him and that with so much inhumanity and irreverence that he burst forth into tears for which he got nothing but this Answer from the Master of Glammis It is no matter for his tears better that Barns should weep then Bearded-men Upon this the Earl of Arran going to know the Kings condition was secured and his Brother sore
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
who neither cared for them nor their sitting nor any else that would not dance after them and Geneva For they are resolved for Jack Presbyter and therefore being informed that the Lords Order for the Common-Prayer had been read in Churches and not their Declaration they drew up an Order and sent it to be printed enjoyning that their aforesaid Declaration should be read in all Churches And so severe were they in this point that they put Dr. Haywood of St. Giles to some trouble for not permitting their Order to be read though he had not only his own Conscience and the Lords Order but the Law of the Land to testifie his justness And what more ridiculous then to astonish the people into discontents and sidings by reading to them at the same time two contrary Orders and that of the Commons being quite against the Laws of the Land Thus did the Commons batter down Religion as Captain Jones in the Poet did the Jesuites more by strong hand then reason yet had they left one thing undone which was the extirpation of Episcopacy root and branch to bring which villany about they Voted them to have no place in the House of Lords nor to meddle with any secular affairs But here before they went any further they were somewhat troubled at the King because he being then in Scotland had sent Mr. Warwick Orders to draw up five Congé d'Eslire's for five new Bishops there being then so many Sees vacant but in this strait Mr. Stroud thinks it fitting to Petition the King to stop these five till they had dispacht the charge against the other Bishops Yet what need they care whether the King make Bishops or no since they are resolved never to acknowledge them to be so for they can with the same ease cut off all as one Therefore seeing the King for Bishops they bend themselves more resolutely against them and so prepare their charge against those formerly accused and for the Champions to mannage this Combate Pymme and St Johns by the commendations of one another are chosen The death of the first is noys'd by report and the honesty of the latter is not unknown to any The Parliament was something stopt in their proceedings against Bishops by the Irish Rebellion yet having taken some breath they sent a message to the Lords desiring that the 13. Bishops might speedily come to answer And not long after as an incouragement to the factious they released Simmonds a Printer who had been in custody for printing a Book against the Common-Prayer yet the very same day was Walker the Iremonger imprisoned only for Printing a Book concerning Mr. Prynne though the first deserved as much hanging as the latter Imprisonment and from these men the Bishops might well expect good justice But still they sit and Vote in the House of Lords which vext the Sectaries to the guts because they could not tell how to get them out handsomly for they had no great confidence in their Articles of Canons and Constitutions and whilest they Voted there the Orthodox Party would still exceed At last some ill spirit or other put it into the noddles of Isaac Pennington Captain Ven and such combustible humours to raise such tumults against the Reverend Fathers the fear whereof should either keep them from the House or bring some ruine sacrilegiously to be acted upon them And accordingly up cometh the Rabble of London to the Parliament House crying out No Bishops no Bishops And at last got the Bishop of Lincoln then going to the House with the Earl of Dover into the midst of them where they had like to have squeez'd him to death And having thus begun many hundreds of them come again the same day with Swords and Staves causing great uproars both in Westminster and London not only to the affrightment of the Bishops but the King and Queen and the next day also assaulted Westminster Abby These Tumults obtain'd the end of their Contrivers keeping the Bishops from the House pelting of them with stones as they endeavoured to go By which they drew up a Petition to the King how that the Tumults kept them out and therefore protested against all things that should be done in the House of Peers in time of their thus violent seclusion Which did trouble the Parliament so much that one Mr. Weston of the Commons House thought he had spoke bravely when he moved that the Bishops might be sent to Bedlam But Glyn and others were cleerly for High Treason which accordingly was done and ten of them sent to the Tower and two to the Black Rod. And thus their businesse being don the great tumults ceas'd the Presbyterians sang Victoria whilst the reverend Church of England lay in the dust miserably trod upon by a Schismatical zeal yet had they they nothing to accuse the Bishops of and so were forced to release them all but two against one of which they could say nothing for if they could they would and whether the cry of the others bloud be yet stopt I know not How were the Country cheated with swarms of Petitions against this Ecclesiastical Order yet in this none more ridiculous then the Londoners One troup of Tradesmen petition against Bishops and their reason was because their being was the decay of trading and in the clause of all gave a notable lash at the House of Lords Nor is this all but the very Porters 15000 said to be in number Petition too and affirm that they cannot indure the weight of Episcopacy any longer and therefore must have redress Nay the very women by the pushing on of their hot-headed associates thought themselves so much concerned in these Church-affairs that they must petition too And these as fit persons to apprehend Chuch-government as the simple Cockney country-businesse who thought a bush hung about with black moles skins to be a black pudding tree yet these sort of Fanaticks are apt to have abominable discretions for thus the Scots some years before in their Petition against the Common Prayer Book begun it thus We Men Women and Children and Servants having considered c. Most miraculous Children Born like Adam at the top of understanding O the happiness to spring from the loins of a Covenanter who as it was said of the Lady Margaret can bring forth men instead of children Certainly these children were akin to that boy of Cracovia in Poland which had not only teeth but spake the first day of its birth but when he received Christianity lost that faculty And probably had these covenanting Children women and such like known more of Christianity then these did they had never acted so violently against Church-government Or it may be they were somewhat related to that other child born in the same City which spoke distinctly at half a year old yet nothing but mischief was by it uttered distruction to all Poland and that
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
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
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
excommunicated that took not the Covenant and then any man might lawfully kill him who would put himself to so much trouble as to do it But we need not trouble our selves much by a recital of their words since their actions all along in that Kingdom were furiously hurryed on against Episcopacy or the Toleration of any thing that did thwart their Covenant And after this manner have we in England proceeded the Brethren thinking it impossible for any thing to thrive unless Episcopacy be pluck'd up root and branch of which take the words of Crofton I 'le stand by it It i. e. Episcopacy must be extirpated if King and Kingdom or Peace and Glory must be preserved from Gods angry extirpation It it not unknown to any that is conversant in their Writings and Sermons How for many years together they thundred before their Parliament the ruine of Episcopal Government pronouncing sad woes and judgements if any such things were tolerated which highly stir'd up the people of both Houses to act so fiercely against all Law and Reason for the maintenance of their wicked Covenant and Presbytery allowing no more mercy to the Orthodox Clergy than a Jew who sometimes might breathe amongst them but not do any thing in satisfaction of their Consciences These men being then Supream being against neutrality in Religion as well as Warr concerning which thus their Chieftains of both Kingdoms declare We give now publick warning to such Persons to rest no longer upon their Neutrality or to please themselves with the naughty and slothful pretext of Indifferency But that they address themselves speedily to take the Covenant and joyn with all their power in the defence of this Cause against the common Enemy and by their zeal and forwardness hereafter to make up what hath been wanting through their luke-warmness This they shall finde to be their greatest wisdom and safety Otherwise we do declare them to be publick Enemies to the Religion and Countrey and that they are to be censured and punished as profess'd Adversaries and Malignants Nor had they only the Solemn League but another Covenant as full of Treason and Wickedness as ever was invented by Satan and the refusers of this and none could take it but such wretches as themselves they Ordered to be dealt withall as Conspirators and Enemies and their Estates disposed of accordingly And besides this their Lords and Commons put forth another Oath stuft with non-sense for the preservation of themselves and their City with the power granted to seize upon the persons of all such as refused the said Oath Thus had these Puritans several gins laid to ruine the Orthodox and Loyal Subjects I might here tell of their giving Sir William Brereton and his Cheshire Associates Authority to turn out all the Ministers and School-Masters of that County who were for the King I might tell how they order'd every man upon his peril to submit to the destruction of Fonts Surplisses Organs painted Glass-windows c. I can also tell you how their Lords and Commons Ordain'd That if any Person or Persons shall use or caus'd to be used the Common-Prayer-Book That then every such person so offending therein shall for the first offence forfeit and pay the sum of five pounds For the second offence the sum of ten pound and for the third offence shall suffer one whole years Imprisonment without Bail or Main-prize And it is further Ordain'd That every Minister which shall not hence-forth pursue and observe the Directory for publick Worship according to the true intent and meaning thereof in all Exercises of the Publick Worship of God shall for every time that he shall so offend lose and forfeit the sum of forty shillings And that what person soever shall with intent to bring the said Directory into contempt and neglect or to raise opposition against it Preach Write Print or cause to be written or printed any thing in the derogation or depraving of the said Book or any thing therein contain'd or any part thereof shall lose and forfeit for every such offence such a sum of Money as shall at the time of his Conviction be thought fit to be imposed upon him by those before whom he shall have his Tryal provided that it be not less than five pounds nor exceeding the sum of fifty pounds I could also tell you how they turn'd out the learned and loyal Clergy and put into their places a company of Rebellious Schismatical Tub-thumpers such people being most advantagious for their turns and how they Order'd that if any of the Loyal Clergy endeavour'd to get their own again they should with all their friends and assisters be Imprisoned whereby many of them were forced to beg for their livings And many such like actions as these might be shewn whereby their malice appear'd visibly against the Episcopal Party and against the Toleration of any thing but their Rebellious Covenant and Schismatical Presbytery One of them tells us that This very Toleration hath been the principal cause of all our late Innovations Dislocations and Conflagrations And That no Orthodox sincere Christian can or dare cordially Ingage or bid God speed to the proceedings of Supream Power so long as they intend to allow a General Toleration of Errors and false Opinions How many Petitions were there yearly put up in behalf of the Covenant and that nothing should be allow'd but according to that League endeavouring what in them lay to raze out the very thoughts of Episcopacy And yet these men are now angry that they have not publick allowance for their sins If the Episcopal Clergy desire that they may have priviledge of Conscience according to the Laws of the Land Baxter blesseth himself and wonders they can have the confidence to ask such a favour and tells them that this denyal is so farr from being a Persecution that it is rather done for their greatest honour and accommodation For if you of the Episcopal Clergy should have liberty it would be the greatest blow that ever was given to your Government and the reason is because You would have a small Clergy and none of the best and the People in most Parishes that are most ignorant drunken profane unruly For the cause of their love to Episcopacy is because it was a shadow if not a shelter to the profane heretofore so that a Prelatical Church would in the common account be near kin to an Alehouse or Tavern to say no worse where some honest men may be and yet it is taken for the note of an honest sober man to be as little in them as may be 'T was the fashion of Andreas Ordogna that famous Painter of Florence to paint all his Enemies in Hell And what less malice Baxter and his Associates have against the Episcopal Clergy may in part be seen by their actions and railing and what reason they have now besides their Impudence to expect and demand a