which they desired onely in some things should be reformed employing some Bishops and others of the Clergy to consider of what things might be altered for satisfying tender Consciences that many of the Clergy also as well as other Subjects well-willers to the King were so possessed that though they saw Arms raised against the King and all his Forts Ships and Revenues seized on in defiance of his Majesty yet would they not believe that the Parliament intended the King any hurt or evil at all yea divers were not dispossessed of this fond credulity till the Votes of imprisoning and of no further addressing to the King were published And now when they can neither help themselves nor their King cry out upon Hypocrites and say they will never believe Parliaments any more though it 's not safe for them to say so or whatere more they think such is now the liberty of the Subject and indeed so willing were the major part of the House of Commons to be lulled asleep into a pleasing dream of Reformation by clipping the wings of Prerogative and paring the Bishops nails and taking down the pride of the Clergy as the Fanatick buzzed pretences were to which all parties were marvelously ready like the Horse in the Fable yielding his back to the Saddle to be rid of the Deer that he might have all the pasture and by extolling the honour and authority of that House whereof themselves were also Members till the Faction by planting in their Instruments for Chair-men of Committees and into all places of action so rid the more moderate party of the House beyond their own stay who now grown weary and feeling the Spur in their own sides began too late to take heed and to think to shake off their hot-Spur-riders but indeed threw themselves out of their so-longed-for Parliament for upon any Speech or Motion contrary to the sence of the Faction the parties moving were called presently to the Bar or committed to the Tower or expelled the House and others were terrified hereby or by the Tumults out of the City led up by Dr. Burges and Capt. Ven to the Parliament-doors to see that the Godly Party for so their Faction was called in the House might not be out-voted Dr. Burges said at the Parliament-doors of the Multitudes and Tumults of the City-Rabble These are my Band-dogs I can set them on and I can take them off again Oh brave Cornelius That by these means above two hundred shortly after were forced out of the House to leave the Faction absolute Masters of the Vote in the House of Commons and House of Peers also little thinking that the Clergies persecution which themselves sate so long winking at would prove their own just punishment by suffring a Faction to grow so powerful without so much as protesting against their injustice and oppression But rather assisting the Faction to imprison in the Tower twelve Bishops upon a false charge of High-Treason onely because they did their duty to their eternal honour like Christian Bishops and lovers of their Countries welfare in solemnly protesting as pares Regni against such violence and wickedness though with apparent hazard of their persons and Estates Nay when these driven Members of Lords and Commons again assembled at Oxford by the Kings Proclamation upon the second Invasion of the Scots for number in both Houses exceeding those who were left at Westminster almost 200 Commons before they had sitten five weeks besides the Royal presence of the King very probably might have recovered this Kingdom by calling themselves a Parliament as the eyes of the Kingdom upon them did expect which drew over some Members from Westminster and more would have followed to have joyned with them in Parliament and as in all reason they might have as well as they did demand and take upon them all priviledges of Parliament But the Fanatick spirit brought thither in Mr. Bagshawes Lawyers pouch or maintained there before at the Brethrens charge was busie there also in fomenting fears and jealousies that they must not set the King a precedent to break Laws vid. the forced Act of continuance of this Parliament in it self void for fear they should make the King too great and such courses they took in imitation of the Faction at Westminster that they complained to the King of a Divine who in a Sermon historicè related the Story of Charles Martel his inventing Rebellion Sacriledge and Parliaments and Secretary Windebank lately come from France to the King was forced suddenly to return into France to prevent the odium which might have fallen on the King by protecting him whom they also intended to have questioned that well might his Majesty call them his Mungrel-Parliament whose negligence and wilful blindness hath twice undone the Kingdom But to return to the Members at Westminster whom we left Conquerors of the Vote in the House of Commons whose Agents were set on work throughout the Kingdom especially in London to muster up their Forces without which they could neither long keep the Vote so gotten nor could make their Votes of any power or authority the House of Commons being of it self no Court of Judicature having no power to give an Oath nor to imprison any of the Kings Subjects except their own Members but to consult and transmit their Proposals to the House of Peers to whose joynt Results the Kings Royal Signature puts life and makes it Law or an Act of Parliament The next work therefore to which success heightned them was to try their strength in the House of Peers for concurrence to their designes to which Lord Say had long tutored his Pulpit-Lords and other discontented popular Lords were hoped easily to be drawn seeing the people so extol the proceedings of this Faction in the House of Commons though they intended to go on with their work without the Lords concurrence if they could not have brought them to their Bow as indeed they have made no other use of the House of Peers than to cover and countenance the Fanatical practices with the Name and Title of both Houses of Parliament and of Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament setting the Lords in the first place like Cyphers in Arithmetick to advance the following numbers for what meant the new phrase in Pulpits and Pamphlets of the House of Gods and of the Worthies of the Land but onely the House of Commons and what more frequently buzzed into peoples heads than that the Lords sate but for themselves the Commons sate for the good of all the people and were therefore more to be regarded and maintained But for a formality and shew of Legal proceedings in a Parliamentary way Mr. Pym is sent into the City to make Speeches against Obstructions in the Body politick that Reformation could not go on till they were removed which soon raised the City-Tumults to petition the Parliament that the Bishops and Popish Lords might be thrown out of the House of Peers
should knovv vvhat arts of lying and slandering and false accusing to make the King and the faithful Clergy of England odious to the people has been raised as the Scaffolds to build this second Babel vvhich though no longer looked upon than vvhile in present use yet if faithfully recorded vvill be as precious Monuments in the Eyes of vvise men vvhen they shall see if God hath not given up this Nation to make Lyes their Religion Truth triumphing in the ruines of such ill founded Structures hovv this Fanatick Faction blasphemed their King I leave to better Pens though they used the same means therein as their experience had found serviceable for their vvicked ends against the Church vvhich devices I have collected out of their Printed Papers or mine ovvn Observations at Committees and elsevvhere The Foundation of the Fanatick Babel being laid by packing their Agents into this their forced Parliament as shall be hereafter declared and their long preparing of the people for their Work by setting the People a madding after this Parliament the whole Kingdom 's Ruine as I heard a London Divine in June 1642. accused at a full Committee to have prophesied as since it hath appeared That the Counties had chosen a Company of Hot-headed Men into the House of Commons who would prove the Ruine of this Kingdom The Foundation being thus laid the first Scaffold to the Building was made by railing Speeches within the Houses by Priviledge of Liberty of Speech to abuse any persons their King have not they spared by some particular Members stuffed full of malicious and bloody Eloquence Let the Sword reach from the North to the South quoth Sir Edward Deering rather than his phantastical new Church-Government should be hindered reviling the established Form of God's Service under which they were bred and born blasting the sacred Function of the Ministry of Christ by which they were made Christians and publishing those Speeches in Print on purpose to infect the People and fire their minds ready enough to catch any such Sparks and this railing against the Clergy was the only way to be made a Chairman of a Committee or to be designed for some great Preferment and to be the worshipful Golden Calves of the People the only Ambition of those popular Speech-makers who little dreaming of the Fanatick Plots as wise Statesmen as they pretended to be to which themselves opened the Gap kindled the fire which others of meaner condition but of different intentions blew up to such Flames as since hath burned the Kindler's own Nests The Lord Digby proclaimed Traytor banished and made the publick hatred of the Fanaticks The Lord Faulkland killed at Newberry Fight Mr. Nathaniel Fiennes condemned to die by Martial Law for the good service he had done the Parliament his Masters Sir Edward Deering who made this motion in the House of Commons with great applause to burn the late Canons made in the Convocation and stamped with the King's Authority by the Canon-makers own Hands not long after had those same his Speeches burned by the publick Hangman himself expelled the House and forced to flie the Fury of the People under a Priest's Coat and read Prayers in a Church for a disguise and became an earnest Suitor for a Deanery viz. of Canterbury when he had so railed against Deans and Chapters upon no other ground but report as himself confessed but missing this Preferment turned Apostate from the King to whom he had fled to those whom himself had called Rebells and Traytors yet rejected by them also for his labor and soon ended his days with grief and scorn Mr. Pym and John White the Libelling Centurist who died distracted crying out how many Clergy-men their Wives and Children he had undone and others have been cut off in the midst of their rage against God's Ministers Fair warnings to other such like Rabshekahs who yet have time to repent But these Speeches so applauded and other men imitating them made a fair way for a second Story of the same Scaffolding for this new Building by Remonstrances and Declarations published in the name of the House of Commons which usually ranked the Papists and the Clergy together as Enemies to the Kingdom and in that mid-night Remonstrance in the name of the House of Commons Assembled in Parliament was it in terminis laid down That none of the Clergy were preferred but those who preached wickedness and profaneness yet was no particular person named nor truly could be named guilty of so heavy a charge but Audacter Calumniari haerebit aliquid was their Plot and all the miseries and Grivances of the Kingdom were laid on the Bishops and the Prelatical Party as the new phrase was when the Authors of that Black Remonstrance knew that the Clergy of the Church of England had not nor could have any Vote or hand in those matters they being such of which the Clergy did equally complain which besides the House of Commons voting the Clergy in Convocation guilty of a Praemunire accusing also twelve Bishops of High Treason committed to the Tower on purpose only to stop their Mouths from claiming their Priviledges which as part of the Parliament belong unto them was enough to have raised hatred to a second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 considering the Religious Faith the people then had of the Reports of their new Gods as Pulpits call'd the House of Commons which so far possessed a Gentlewoman used to their Lectures that she durst not in Conscience take Phystek-without an Order of Parliament from the House of Commons such a Brother we read of in Dodona's Grove who would not believe his Creed because there was no Act of Parliament for it And at the beginning of this blessed Parliament did the Fanatick Faction in the House of Commons Print and publish a foisted Order carefully dispersing the Copies throughout the Kingdom in the Name of the House of Commons assembled in Parliament to stir up indeed to invite all active men as they phrased the men of their Tribe to accuse Ministers making this one crime and scandal to be complained of That a Clergy-man had two Livings though according to the Laws of the Land Which Order though disclaimed within the Walls of the House of Commons yet not countermanded by any publick Act of the House so willing were all sorts of men in the House to see the Clergy abused notwithstanding that high affront and dishonour of their House so wrought abroad in all parts of the Kingdom that not any Knave or Fool in a Parish whom reproof for sins had made the Ministers Enemy but now thought himself commanded yes and bound in Conscience to obey to fly in the Face of Gods Minister and his Spiritual Father that within a short space above two thousand Petitions were brought in against the Clergy so readily had they pack'd their business two or three of the Fanatick avowed Instruments in a Parish presenting Petitions constantly styled The Petition of
and the latter part was proved because a Bishop said that he would hinder Mr. Burton's Prohibition but did not hinder it as Burton there confessed these were the only Proofs of such high Charges there alledged to make Episcopacy and the Bishops odious and as if all these ways were not â—now to make the Clergy of England stink in the Nostrils of a seduced people let the world consider what scandalous Libels have been written by the Fanaticks against the Clergy and those Authorized by the Parliament among multitudes to name but one though in that hundred I mean the first Century written by Mr. John White a Lawyer and a great Chair-man for Religion with an Epistle canting in Scripture phrase applying the words of the Holy Ghost to the proper works of the Devil who is called the envious man and the accuser of the Brethren hear this John White generally charging the Clergy of England to be dumb Dogs men swallowed up with Wine and strong Drink whose Tables are full of Vomit Whoremongers Adulterers Buggerers that change the natural use into that which is against Nature Priests of Ball Bacchus Priapus c. Horrid Crimes or horrid Slanders Did ever any Popish Jesuite so revile the Clergy of England I need not pray the Lord rebuke him for God hath long since cut him off in the midst of his rage against the Church such ungodly practices raving rnd condemning himself at his dying hour for his undoing so many guiltless Ministers and let any man judge if that first and only Example of Buggery prove not John White and his Abettors the true Sons of the Father of Lyes who was a Lyar from the beginning for either the party was found not guilty why then sequestred Or guilty why then not punished by death according to Law It is not to be imagined that the Fanaticks would conceal the shame of any Clergy-man when they so raked each Dunghill and corner to discover it but that such an instance if proved should have been triumphantly stretched to further their glorious Reformation and whether the party so accused was not some years before this Parliament cleared by the Justices of the Peace for Sussex who sifted out that Fanatick Plot against him as one of those Justices told me I refer the Reader to the then Justices of that County but for a general Answer to that scandalous Libel this Truth without question may be said That not any one person in that Century hath had any legal Tryal at all but condemnati quoniam accusati and the Justice of these times is satis est accusare otherwise what man in his Wits could believe that Adulteries Fornications and such deeds of Darkness could be proved as this John White affirmeth in the Margin of his Epistle by seldom less than six or seven Witnesses unless so many saw what this vvorthy Member did with his Neighbours Wife in White Fryars which made his ovvn Wife so jealous of this Mr. White her Husband But why suspition of incontinency only from looks as in that Century Example 49. or from leading vvomen into dark places as Example 18. by one vvhose house standeth in a dark Alley in London or vvhy to be seen in company vvith Papists vvhich the Lavv requires of Clergy-men as in Example 75. and 88. should be such Charges and Crimes as to ruine a man and his vvhole Family or used as an Argument to make the whole Clergy odious let any Christian judge I have been present vvhen a grave and learned Divine hath been accused at a Committee for an Adulterer and a Drunkard the proof of the former was only kissing a Woman in the presence of Company and the other was the drinking of only one half Pint of Wine and so unchristian a scrutiny hath been made for accusations and pretended proofs of Crimes against the persons of the Clergy that besides Accusers and those known Schismaticks and Adversaries allow'd to be both Parties and Judges and Witnesses also Agents in Parishes have baen employed in going from house to house with Parliament Warrants summoning and terrifying all Men and Women nay Servants I have knovvn it vvhom they could hear vvere acquainted vvith such Ministers and at Committees the Neighbours and familiar Friends so summoned have been urged ex officio to speak not only to Articles laid in Petitions but also have had their Consciences sifted to make them confess some Crime or Report or suspition of a Crime If the Parish afforded no Evidence nor their old Acquaintance down they sent in some mens Causes to the University to hunt out some Scandal in the time of their Ministers abode there nor have some Clergy mens Lives and Conversation from their Cradle been left unsearched I could name particulars to get something vvhereof to accuse a Clergy-man at the Parliament So that any Report of a Crime committed tvventy years before this Parliament as in that Century Example 58. or before taking of Holy Orders or being possessed of a Church or any Crime which Justice had long since taken cognizance of and censured as Example 72. or any rash vvords never so privately spoken have been novv reaped up to make a Ministers scandal and the whole Ministery scandalous Another trick of false Accusing accounted a just way of charging Clergy-men vvas a fallacious vvresting of Words quite contrary to the sense of the Preacher A Reverend Doctor whom I could name vvas accused in Parliament that he had Preached about fourteen years before this Parliament that the Bishops when they took away the Mass took away all Religion upon hearing the Doctor produced the Sermon and made it appear that he Preached at that time it being the publick Assizes at York that men must not think that the Bishops when they took away the Mass took away all Religion Another Divine was accused of Popery viz. that he had Preached that the intention of the Priest was of the Essence of the Sacrament when he Preached it only Historicè and confuted the Opinion at the same time But if no proofs could be found of Crimes and Vitious Conversation in a Clergy man then came in the politick Counsel of the Heathenish Presidents against Daniel We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel except we find it against him concerning the Law of his God under the made odious crimes of Innovations Superstition Popery a Sin not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without transgression of any Law Statute Act of Parliament Order or Ordinance of both or either Houses nor would the Faction publish any Rule to measure what should be accounted Innovations Superstition or Popery and what not but with these false Traces they cunningly kept up the loud Cries of their People against the Clergy making thereby so large a Snare that not the most zealous Protestant Divines who had been all their Life times preaching against Popery and Superstition could possibly escape if but accused Good God! can Posterity if they may be