been bred a Roman Catholique from his infancy and continued in that Religion till some two or three yeares before his death when being overcome by an unhappy necessity of preserving his family from beggery he forsook the Belief of his owne Soule and went to Church to save his Estate after which the Devil taking advanage upon him in this disturbance and anxiety of Spirit he confessed that he had falne into many great Sinnes but denied the guilt of that horrid cryme of poisoning his wife for which he was condemned to dye delivering further with a kind of confidence that if he had had the grace to have continued constant in his Religion he believed â—e had never so highly transgressed the Commandements of his God nor come to so unhappy amend And openly declared with much seeming repentance that he dyed in his old Religion And it is a generall observation among the Papists themselves that many of them who strain their Consciences to such complyance doe come to untimely ends as I confesse we have lately had an unhappy instance in the unfortunate death of Mr. Henry Compton Certainly this is a sad consequence of wresting the inward perswasion of poore Soules from that Belief which their own Conscience tells them is true thereby making them lesse carefull of their owne salvation and their honesty and credit of lesse reputation even with those who force them to this change For the heart of man is so fraile and deceitfull that it seldom is drawne by violence from those principles which it has long been used to esteem and practise but becomes slack and negligent in what concernes the other World and by degrees growes very often wholly insensible of any thing but sensuality Upon the newes not long since of some Papists taking the Oath of Abjuration and frequenting the publique places of meeting I conceived my selfe sufficiently furnisht to answer a certaine old saying which a Recusant of my acquaintance used often to repeat in my hearing that SANGUIS MARTYRUM EST SEMEN ECCLESIAE This upon all occasions hee applyed to the sufferings of Papists both here in England and ten thousand miles off in Japan in which two Islands have of late been sharper persecutions said he for matter of Religion then in any other place of the World This he continually insisted upon as a Soveraigne remedy for all his sorrowes nor could we ever beat him from this last hold wherein hee fortified himself SANGUIS MARTYRUM c. nay more hee sometimes ventured to affirm with strange assurance this assertion that his Church encreased and prospered still even whilst it was actually under the greatest pressures that his Church was as the Palme tree the heavier weights are laid on the more it flourisheth I having gotten this advantage by the late coming in of some Papists to our Religion went presently on purpose to my Recusant to put him to the question and as it were a little triumphing demanded what hee thought now of his old Latin Proverb in which hee had formerly seemed to place so much confidence and whether the Palme tree did not sometimes break a twigg by laying on so many weights To which he replyed with a little suddennesse and Choller That some dead or Canker-eaten Branches as they can beare no weight so they can bear no fruit even whilst united to the Stock and much lesse after their division But soone recovering himselfe to his usuall temper he calmly yet earnestly undertooke that as there have been at least twenty Preists put to death in Englandâ—ince the beginning of this Parliament meerly upon the account of their Religion or function so hee could name a far greater number of persons of quality who have in the same space of time reconciled themselves to the Catholique Union When I urged him to the proofe of this assertion he imediately delivered me a list of twenty Preists who during these late revolutions have been hang'd drawne and quartered either for taking orders beyond Seas or exercising them on this side the Seas and withall promised upon the allowance of a little time for recollection to furnish me with a Roll of some names who have lately declared themselves Catholiques undertaking if he was deceived in any name to recompence such Errour with the interest of two for one unlesse he might be dispensed with upon the inconveniency of discovering those who can no longer live unruined for their Religion then they are unknown to professe it The Preists executed inseverall places Since the Year 1641. were these Executed at Tyburne Mr William Ward Mr Raynolds Mr Roe Mr Edward Morgan Mr Bullaker Mr Holland Mr Heath Mr Francis Bell. Mr Dueket Mr Corbet Mr Mouse Mr Phillip Powell Mr Peter Wright Executed at York Mr Lockwood Mr Caterick Executed at Lancaster Mr Green Executed at Dorchester Mr. Barlow Mr. Reading Mr. Whitaker M. Thompson Besides Master Thomas Vaughan after very hard usage aboard Captaine Moâ—â—oâ—s Ship soone after dyed at Cardiffe in South Wales Dyed Prisoners in the Common-Gaole at Newgate since the yeare 1641. Mr Iohn Goodman Mr Henry Myners Mr Peter Wilsford Mr Iohn Hamond Mr Colman Mr Rivers c. Besides diverse who are now continued in prison Now I humbly thank the Lord Christ there was only one of these Priests whom I mentioned in the first part of this Discourse put to death since this Nation was established in the present Government and I wish from my Soul that his life had also been spared since my obligations to this Common-wealth and the present Governours thereof are such that I am bound every day to offer up my sighs and prayers to the Lord that no bloud of any peaceable Christian be split for the onely difference of judgement in Religion For certainly whosoever shall practice such cruelty will be called to a strict and rigorous account at the judgement of the great Day But proceeding to require of my Recusant the performance of his word concerning the late Converts hee so much gloryed in I merrily tâ—â—â—atned him that if he observed not his promise I would presently not onâ—ly suspect some secret evasion in him but cry out against all Papists as juglers and equivocaters or else I being an Heretique no Faith was to be kept with me and though the present matter be of a triviall Consequence yet we knew the Welchman stole Rushes to keepe his hand in ure He first seriously redeemed his word by delivering mee this following Catalogue and then merrily answered my jeasting with wonder at my hardinesse how I durst stay in London since the last letters from Amsterdam discover so dangerous a plot intended by the Papists and Cavaliers against this Towne they have these many Months held a secret intelligence with all the Engineers and Mill-makers of Holland and hired them forthwith to prepare a thousand such Engins as we use to quench scare-fires and these Van-Trump who has been a long time Popishly affected and a rank Cavalier ever since
such Papists as should disturb the publike peace Many and wonderfull are the deliverances which our good God has dispensed to his servants in reward of this their inclination to mercifulnesse yet amongst all the glorious appearances of the Lord for his people none can be found more eminent than the renowned victory over that rigid and severe Kirk-army of the Scots Septemb. 1650. who declining the mild counsell of our Saviour to possesse their Souls with patience deservedly lost their lives by violence a fatal argument deciding manifestly this very controversie in favour of meeknesse where the maintainers of compulsion were no lesse ingeniously than cruelly confuted whilest assuming to themselves a Power to force our souls they could not so much as defend their own bodies In memory of which great Salvation from the pride and fury of the Presbyterian Priesthood the Parliament as a new Covenant of Thanksgiving for so seasonable a mercy in the same moneth enacted an abolishment of divers rigorous and penal Statutes contrived on purpose by the haughty Prelats to break the hearts of those whose consciences they â—ould not bend which one Act has won more â—earts to acknowledge and love the authority of the Parliament than all their stupendious victories have â—rced bodies to confesse and fear their Power and 〈◊〉 it be not checked by limitations and partiality in â—e execution will render them absolute Masters of â—ll that understand their own felicity for what can 〈◊〉 imagined more welcâ—me to a Christian people â—ewly delivered from an Antichristian bondage than 〈◊〉 see themselves infranchised into a holy Liberty of â—oceeding sincerely according to their conscienâ—s in the Worship of their God Wherefore as we are full of joy for so excellent an Act by which as the Apostle saith we are called unto Liberty so we are full of hopes to be perfectly happy by the free and universall observation therof without the least self-interest or respect of persons being so conformable to the constant received Maximes and solemn deliberate profession of the Parliament as appears by the Declaration of the Lords and Commons in answer to the Scotch Papers 4. Mar. 1647. where folio 43 the Discipline of Ecclesiasticall Censures and all other punishments for matters of Religion are disclaimed as grounded upon Popish and Prelaticall Principles not to be revived under any image or 〈◊〉 whatsoever and a little after folio 63. they proceed in the same sense we shall not be afraid at the day of Iudgment that we have been more forward to set Christ aâ— liberty than to cast him in prison it being better in our opinion where the case is not very clear to leave God to deal against many errours than to use his authority for the suppressiâ—g of one truth the weapons of fasting and prayer being both more Christian and more available in such cases than those of force and violence and yeâ— more fully if possible in another Declaration in answer to the letters of the Scots Commissioners 17 Februâ— 1648. As for the truth and power of Religion it being 〈◊〉 thing intrinsecall between God and the Soul and the matters of Faith in the Gospel being 〈◊〉 â—s no natural light doth reach unto we conceive there is no human power of coercion thereunto nor to restrain men from beâ—lieving what God suffers their judgements to be perswaâ—ded of Words of that solid weight and pretious value as deserve to be ingraven with letters of gold and religiâ—ously observed for ever by all tender consciences as aâ— Oracle Conformable to the aforesaid Principles is that exâ—cellent Doctrine and advise set down by Mr. Parker anâ— his Brethren in their Examen of the late Synods Confession of Faith in these words pag. 128. Liberty of Conscience may be infringed first by seeking violent means to alter conscientious mens judgements and their present perswasion for it is the office of him who is the Lord of conscience to lighten and change mens minds when and how he pleaseth Phil. 3. 15. Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thuâ— minded and if in any thing you be otherwise minded God shall reveal this unto you 2. By inciting another by like forcible means to will and to Act against his Conscience and much more by imprisonment mulcts terrours or threats Rom. 14. 15 20 21. For this is to make him destroy his Soul vers. 20. 23. 3. We may not disturb the peace of mens Consciences or make their hearts sad with our invectives or menacing them causlesly with terrours from the Lord Ezechiel 13. 32. Because with lies ye have made the hearts of the righteous sad whom I have not made sad c. And in page 230. thus But we would not have you assume to your selves 〈◊〉 attribute unto others a Power to Lord it over mens Faith and Consciences especially when men walk obediently towards those that are in places of Rule and Authority and live a godly sober honest peaceable and unblameable life If men will do wickedly and defend a liberty in Christ so to do let them be lyable to the Sword of Justice for so doing But far be it from us so much as by example to draw a weak Brother a Saint and fellow servant of the Lord whom no man can accuse but for his differing judgment to do any thing against Conscience whereby he should â—ondemn himself as the Apostle speaks Rom. 14. How much more ought Governours to be tender and abstemious in the use of violent and coercive means to precipitate men into such perillous and destructive courses All authority is given of God for mens welfare and much more for the preservation and not the destruction of the soul By these considerations I conceive is clearly domonstrated the freedome of a Christian Soul in heâ— commerce for heaven which since the mercifull bounty of God holds forth indifferently to all the cruell covetousnes of man ought not to obstruct to any surely it is the worst of Monopolies to lay impositions upon the way to Paradiâ—e Christ by his death removed the Angel that chased from thence our first parents and shall any of us take the Flaming Sword into our hands to sheath it in the bowels of a poor Pilgrim who with a sincere heart travailes to the same Country only because he goes noâ— in our company In my Fathers house are many Mansions saies Christ why may there not be as many paths that lead to them If they that have no Law shall be judged without the Law â—ertainly they that unblameably mistake the Law shall be tryed according to those Expositions which appeared unto them to be the meaning of the Law-giver for the sense is the Law and not the letter specially having so gratious a Iudge who hath already declared by his Apostle 2 Cor. 8. If there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to what a man hath and not according to what he hath not Wherefore let us not by a suddain violence break into
so great a penalty as the Sequestration of their Estates to do that which we will not do our selves all the relief and hopes that Smith and others in his condition who have both gone to Church and taken the Communion and Oath of Abjuration have received at the said Hall is that the said Commissioners have promised to move the Parliament to know what shall amount unto a Conformity and it might also be desired to know what Religion the Papists in case they be forced to leave their own shall conform unto since we have three severall Religions that at present seems to have an equall power or influence the Prelaticall or old Protestant as some call it is establisht by law the Presbyterian carries the vogue in the Pulpit but the Independent has the power and Countenance of the State Certainly the abovesaid strange proceedings must needs appear both to all reformed Churches abroad and to very many conscientious people at home as savouring of a design to make sure of the Papists estates whatsoever becomes of their souls And all this while we hold forth meeknesse and all this while we cry up Liberty of Conscience Is it possible we should so far forget our principles as to seize the estates of our neighbours and kindred for Religion and at the same time professe to venture all our own to purchase freedom of Religion is it possible we should expose our own lives in so long and dangerous a War to establish and secure Liberty of Conscience and at the same instant of time hang draw and quarter men for their Consciences how shall we answer at the day of Iudgment our shedding so much blood to deliver our Country from cocrcency imâ—matters of belief if as soon as the power is in our hands we imbrue them in the blood of our Countrymen meerly for their Religion have we so soon forgot those sharp reproofs of the Apostle Rom. 2. Behold you are called Iews and rest in the Law and make your boast of God you know his will and approve the things that are more excellent you are confident that your selves are guides of the blind and lights to them that are in darknesse instructers of the foolish and teachers of Babes who have the form of knowledge and of truth in the Law you therefore who teach another teach you not your selves you that preach a man should not steal do you steal you that abhor Idols do you commit sacrilege In the day when God shall judge the secreâ—s of men by Iesus Christ how can we answer that excellent and self-evident precept of nature Do as you would be done unto God is not mocked he promises indeed that the meek shall inherit the Land but surely means not such as seem meek only to inherit the Land Thus sharply went on my angry Presbyterian and I confesse I was extremely ashamed to hear him say so much reason that used to speak nothing but passion and to see my self so confounded by one that I have alwaies overcome with ease upon any other subject and should have liked far better his observations which with grief I acknowledge to be too true and open to all the World if they had come from an indifferent and unfactious spirit because I suspect they may perhaps proceed rather from envy towards the gainers than pity upon the losers for during the violent and therefore short dominion of the Presbyterians never were more cruel torturers of the Conscience than they never a more tyrannical Tribunal than their Iure divino Assembly and classical High-commission but the hand of the Lord stopt them in their full cariere and by wofull experience they now find the truth of Gods threatnings If you bite and devour one another take heed you be not consumed one of another Gal. 5. 15. Wherefore it shall be my dayly prayer to our great and good God that he would graciously inspire his servants who now sit at the Helm to prevent the like heavy judgments upon themselves and seriously considering that both their allegiance to Reason their duty to God their Engagement to their own Principles call so loudly upon them they would fulfill now our joy and compleat the good worke so happily begun by putting the tender-conscienced and peaceable-minded people of this Nation into a condition of perfect security for matters of Religion which cannot be effected without a generall Act of Conscience-indempnity firmly to be established as a fundamentall Law of the Land for all that professe the Gospell of Christ Postscript SInce there is scarce one whom something in these few sheets will not please nor very many whom something will not displease they therefore freely submit themselves not only to the Iudgment of the Civil Magistrate but of every civill man and I have according to the Order of Parliament hereunto subscribed my name William Birchley Persecution for Religion condemned c. IN the precedent part of this Discourse I have demonstrated according to that light which the Lord Christ hath infused into my Soul how much coercency in Religion is repugnant to the Law of Nature and by many evident and unanswerable Texts of Scripture shewed how displeasing it is to God how improper to advance the power of godlinesse and how extremely disagreeable to the sweet Spirit which guided our Lord Iesus in the propagation of his Gospel And after in the same little treatise I proceed to prove by the expresse words of the Parliaments and Armies Declarations that the great Principle wherein we glory wch we have so long fought to establish is a perfect Gospel-freedom absolute deliverance of the Conscience from all Tyranny and Oppression Which Discourse as I composed in all humblenesse of spirit and afterwards offered to the gracious Redeemer of our Souls who gave me the strength and power to finish it to his glory So I find not only my self for which I humbly thank the bounty of my God confirmed in my former judgement but others in some measure convinced in theirs of the unreasonablenesse and sinne of Conscience-Persecution Concerning which pious and modest temper of mutuall forbearance I shall only add to what I have mentioned in the former part this plain and familiar Observation That as the surest marke of a tender conscience in our selves is a tender spirit to others so the most infallible sign of a hard stony heart in our own brests is when we slit in pieces and shipwracke the Consciences of all that touch upon us But praised for ever be the Name of our God who still proceeds to guide and illuminate his Chosen graciously disposing them neither to presume upon themselves for their knowledge nor be cruell against others for their ignorance but humbly adore and wait upon the Divine Providence in the disposure of all things which fills my soul with exceeding joy when I consider it to be the generall sense of all the truly Godly and well-affected in this Nation that no quiet and
those above onely this I can say of some of them whom I have conversed with that they seeme to grant that Sequestration of Papists Estates upon the sole account of Religion is not in their opinion warranted by Gods word but rather the contrary And yet these men continue their employments which I feare will expose them to the censure of worldly minded and avaricious selfe-seekers And I pray God that whilst they charge others with Idolatry they bee not found guilty of it themselves since the Scripture sayes expresly that a Covetous man is an Idolater But it being apparant that the Oath of Abjuration is the wrack which torments so many Consciences I did therefore in the former part of this Discourse propound some Quaeries upon that Oath and shall now humbly add as not improper for this subject what the before mentioned Sir Alexander Irving lately said in answer to Master Iohn â—ut Moderatour of the Presbytery of Aberdeen concerning constraint of conscience and enforcing Oathes his very words are these I doe acknowledge 〈◊〉 which you say concerning Oathes that God is honored by them yet that must receive some limitations or else it would prove very false they must be taken in Iudgement in truth and upon necessity Now I appeale to your owne Consciences whether yee have observed these Conditions in your urging so many dreadfull Oathes upon this miserable Nation these years by-past not onely in the Covenant but in your solemn League with your Presbyterian brethren of England whereby yoe enforced all men to swear to establish by Armes that Tyranny there as yee had done here how many have yee enforced by threatning and Execution of your Kirk censure and the severity of the Civill Law following upon them depriving men of their Estates to swear and subscribe to all ye injoyned or could invent albeit yee knew them to be of far contrary Iudgements wherein yee did imitate that feigned and false Mother who before Solomon was contented to have the Child divided whereby her Hypocrisie was found out by that breâ—e Prince By which meanes yee have made this Nation guilty of perjury besides many other heynous sinnes I wish to God you had remembred or would yet remember how much you cryed out against the Tyranny of Bishops when they were urging some of your number who were refractory to Episcopacy that there should be had some regard to tender Consciences which were of another Iudgement But so soon as ye had got the power into your hands neither Minister nor Laird Man Woman or Child was spared nor any regard had unto them whatsoever quality or condition they were of all were forced not onely to obey you but which is the greatest tyranny over mens Consciences they were made to swear that they thought as yee would have them albeit to your owne knowledge many thought the contrary c. The whole Answer which beares date 20. Ianuary 1651. is worth the reading and is Printed in the Diurnall Numb. 118. I pray God a great part of the same arguments may not be turned against us for enforcing this Oath of Abjuration so positively against mens Consciences And since we all say that wee abhorre to violence and force any ones Conscience farther then to secure the publick peace and that onely as necessity shall really appeare and not upon any Voluntary or Counterfeit pretence I cannot see how the taking of this Oath availes to make a man either a better Neighbour or a better Subject and should be glad to know whether the Parliament will trust honest Sir Richard Minshew Dr. Iohn Frier c. any more now then before they tooke that Oath and became outward Conformists Since t is but too probable they doe it not upon any Conviction of Conscience but rather against Conscience meerely to save their Estates from Sequestration And if so none can deny but that it is the highest degree of perjury and a spirituall Murther of the Soule Then let us sadly consider how disadvantagious to the worke of the Lord and scandalous to the eyes of men it will be for us to fill up our Congregations with such unsanctified Members The ingenious Author of Mercurius Politicus Numb. 99. page 1554. hath an admirable Discourse upon this Subject If wee seriously reflect sayes hee upon the designe of God in bringing Christ into the World we shall finde it was to set an end to that pompous administration of the Iewish form that as his Church people were formerly confined within the Narrow Pale of a particular Nation so now the Pale should be broken downe and all Nations taken into the Church Not all Nations in a lump nor any whole Nations or Nationall Bodies to be formed into Churches For his Church or people now under the Gospell are not to be a body Politicall but Spirituall and Mysticall not a promiscuous confusion of Persons taken in at adventure but an orderly collection a picking and choosing of such as are called and Sanctified c. Not a company of men forced in by commands and constitutions of wordly power and prudence but of such as are brought in by the power and officary of Christs Word and Spirit For he himselfe hath said My Kingdome is not from hence My Kingdome is not of this World c. And therefore that hand which hath hitherto presumed in most Nations to creat a power called Ecclesiastick in equipage to the Civill to â—ear sway and bind mens Consciences to certain Nations ordained for Orthodox upon civill penalties under colour of prudence good order discipline preventing of heresie and advancing of Christs Kingdome and to this end hath twisted the spirituall power as the call it with the worldly and secular Interest of State this I say hath been the very right hand of Antichrist opposing Christ in his way whose Kingdome being not of this world depends not upon the helps and devises of worldly wisdome Thus that excellent Pen And a quick sighted and judicious member of Parliament in my hearing being made acquainted as with a supposed grateful newes that some such indiferent Christians as Sir Richard and the Doctour had taken the Oath of Abjuration and conformed said Truly our purchase therein is very little and the Bapists lesse much lesse And it may be worth the observation whether these persons do amend their lives or grow worâ—e after such change I am sure I have heard some discreet and precious people say they would much lesse trust them now then when they were constant to their professions Upon a belief that those who will not according to the inward dictates of their Conscience keepe faith with God will much lesse doe it with men In confirmation of this assertion I may here ciâ—e the case of Mr. Anthony Roane who was executed at Usk in Monmouth sheire on the 4th of Aprill 1650 for poisoning his Wife This Gent. the very home before his execution made a publique confession to this purpose That hee had