Formal Trials Arrest my Bookseller as an Invader of their Propriety and Threaten him most wonderfully into the Bargain He puts in Bail to the Action and there the Squabble rests They do not complain of any Imitation of their Copy but take upon them as if no man else were to write upon That Subject At this rate we shall have all Sermons forfeited to the Kings Printers for Descanting upon Their Bibles and all Books whatsoever to the Company of Stationers because they are made out of the Four and Twenty Letters and the ABC is Their Copy What a Scandal is this to the Commonwealth of Letters What a Cramp to Learning and Industry That if I have a mind to Compile a History I must go to Forty little Fellows for leave forsooth to Write the Narrative of the Proceedings upon our Blessed King and Martyr the Brave Earl of Strafford Archbishop of Canterbury with a hundred more Instances of the like nature because some or other of them has lurched perhaps a Copy of Their Trials What if a man should write the Battle of Worcester and the Kings miraculous Escape after the Defeat must he not mention the Thousand Pound that was set upon his Majesties Head without leave of the Printer that had the Propriety of the Proclamation that offered it Or if a Body would draw up a Systeme of Treason and Sedition must he go to the Publisher of Bacons Government for a License I am the larger because it is a Publick Case And take notice First that the whole Story is drawn into less than a Sixth part of Their Volume Secondly That there is not so much as One Material Clause omitted in it Thirdly That it is incomparably Plainer and more Intelligible then the other beside the many Corrections in it Fourthly That it is Eleven Shillings saved Theirs being rated at Thirteen and Six pence at the Lowest Penny and This onely at Half a Crown And so much for this I come now to an Examination of Two Libels the most Audacious and Virulent that have yet passed the Press The One of them Entitled Omnia Comesta à Bello Or Bel hath devoured all The Other is called My Lord Lucas's Speech But take notice that my Exception lies to the Supplement or Appendix not concerning my self at all with the Speech The Former of these Papers is an Allusion to the Story of Bel and the Dragon where the Priests and their Wives came in at a Back-dore and consume what was offered to the Idol It is Printed BELLO in stead of BELO and the Mistake is a great deal Righter then the Meaning For it was in Truth the WAR that Devoured all and the Good Old Cause which was the Foundation of That War was in effect no better than a CHRISTIAN IDOL It comes forth as an Answer to the First of Five Pretended Questions which he sets down at Length and we will speak of them in Order as far as shall be needful Quaery 1. Whether the Great Cause of Impoverishing the Nation Ruine of Trade and General Consumption of Comfort Settlement and Content which hath brought the Land to a meer Anatomy be not the Pomp Pride Luxury Exaction and Oppression of the Prelates Pag. 3. He Concludes in the Affirmative And Pag. 4. The Trading Stock of the Nation he says is devoured in this Prelatical Gulph But are we so Miserable then And is the Hierarchy the Cause of all our Miseries Let us compare the Times a little when we had Bishops and when we had None For there is no Trial of the Truth and Reason of Things like Experience From 1558. when Q. Elizabeth came to the Crown to 1641. we had a Continued Succession of a Protestant or rather a Reformed Prelacy And so from 1660. to this present 1679. which is upward of a hundred Years And all this while the Government stood firm upon its Ancient Basis. The Gospel flourished and the Subject enjoyed their Legal Liberties under a Legal Administration both in Church and State From 1641 to 1660. Episcopacy was Out of Dores Do but observe now what Havock was made in the State both Ecclesiastical and Civil in matter of our Religion Liberties and Properties in That Interval of onely Nineteen Years when an Ordinance was of more force then an Act of Parliament And our Lives Freedoms and Estates lay at the Mercy of the Tyrants of Athens in a Derby-house Committee But let us yet come closer to the Business I would fain know what these men would be at that are so desperately unsatisfied with the Condition they are in Would they be in the days of Queen Elizabeth again or of King Iames or of the Late King If nothing of This will content them there is no other choice left but That of Rebellion For whosoever Traces the History of these Male-contents will find Deadness of Trade and Persecution to have been their Constant Complaint from the Reformation it self to this day After the Passing of a General Sentence upon the Bishops as the Authors of all our Calamities he takes the whole to pieces Treating First of the Revenues Pomp and State of Prelates And there he tells us of Two Provincial Arch-bishops with their Princely Retinue Domestique Chaplains Officers of Temporal Tithes Spiritual Officers Vicar General Guardian of the Spiritualities Dean of the Arches with all their Vnder-Officers and Attendants To be as brief as possible First Where is the Crime or the Iniquity of all This Pomp and State Or why should not an Ecclesiastical Body have its Dignities and Dependences as well as a Civil Community There is no body envies my Lord Maior his Sword-bearer his Mace-bearer or any other Servant or Ensign of his Preeminence and Office For beside that the very Splendor and Magnificence creates and preserves a Reverence for Authority This Multiplicity and Subordination of Officers is of absolute Necessity also as subservient to Order and to the very Discharge of his Function The Second Question is Are these Officers established by Law or not If by Law This clamour is an Arraignment of King Lords and Commons Thirdly It is not onely a Legal Establishment but an Establishment of many Ages and continued without Interruption till both Church and Kingdom fell together And then in Lieu of Bishops we had a Motly Synod of State-Pensioners Hirelings to poison the Pulpits and the People and to decoy the silly Multitude out of their Lives Fortunes Liberties Duties and Religions Men kept in Pay to preach Thanksgiving Sermons and to help out at a Dead Lift towards the bringing of their Soveraign to the Scaffold When they had preached and prayed the Kingdom into Bloud and Disobedience and held the Rabble several Years agog and gaping after the Blessed Reformation so graciously promised them Out comes at last the False Conception of their Directory A kind of Spiritual Moon-Calf But by this time the King was as good as Lost and so they fell presently to sharing of the
for Indulgence and Compassion Or else to trie if we can deliver our selves by Direct Force The First is a sure Expedient in all Cases for where we are not Delivered from our Afflictions Our Afflictions are yet by Gods Providence turned into Comforts In the Second place we may make the best of the Law provided that we do not make the Law Felo de se and raise Inferences of Equitable Supposition in Contradiction to the Naked and Express Letter of it As for Example By the Law we have a Lawful Right to such and such Liberties and herein we have the Law to Friend But if we make any attempt to compass these Lawful Ends by Vnlawful Means the Law is point blank against us Our Next Resort is by Petition to the Government which is a Course Laudable and Fair provided we keep clear of Rancour and Clamour and address to the Magistrate not to the Multitude For it is not the End of those Popular Papers to Sollicite Relief but to Provoke Tumults and under the Countenance of begging Compassion toward the People to stir up Sedition against the Government For Lewd Characters of Men breed Ill Thoughts of them and Evil Thoughts break out into Wicked Actions and the readiest way in the World to a Rebellion is to startle the Vulgar with an Apprehension of Tyranny If all this will not do there remains nothing more but either Patience or Force The Former was of the Primitive and the Later hath been the practice of our Modern Christians but whether they do Well or Ill in it shall be now examined It hath done a great deal of Mischief in the World the Misconstruction of That Text that bids us Obey God rather then man For the People are not well aware that First in Obeying of Magistrates in all Warrantable Cases they Obey God also in That Civil Obedience Secondly Supposing the Command of the Supreme Magistrate to be directly Opposite to the Express Will of God I will not Obey him in That Case but I am not yet discharged of my Duty to him in Other Cases for he is never the less a Lawful Magistrate even for not being a Christian and I will not Resist him in Any Thirdly the Law of This Nation makes all Motions and Insurrections whatsoever without Legal Authority to be Riotous Seditious or Treasonous Assemblies Fourthly Allowing this Latitude to the People that they may Confederate and Rise for the Defence of Religion they may as well rise for the Subversion of it for we have but their bare Words either for the One or for the Other Fifthly It Authorizes every man to set up a Church by himself in his Own Phansie and in stead of carrying his Body to the Doctor for a Fit of the Spleen he brings his Conscience forsooth to the Government to be cured of a Revelation And this License in one word sets up the Crotchet of every Sickly Brain in Competition with Christianity iâ— self and the Politique Peace What if I should say now that there was never any War in the World undertaken purely upon the Accompt of Religion that was not utterly Vnlawful unless in Cases of Gods Extraordinary and Peculiar Dispensations For First What are the Certain and Necessary Effects of War but Bloud Rapine Oppression the Multiplying of so many Widows and Orphans Depopulating of Countries and Kingdoms and the Violation of all Rights Sacred and Profane Are These now the Works of the Gospel And what is Religion the better for all this These are Sacrifices for Moloch and This is a Religion and an Oblation fitter for an Insensible and Implacable Idol then for the God of Love and Peace Let us but consider now what a Deluge of Impiety flows in upon Humane Nature with This Opinion The Papist falls foul upon the Protestant the Protestant upon the Papist the Christian upon the Mahumetan the Mahumetan upon the Christian It sets all People and all Parties together by the Ears onely for Diversity of Thoughts It makes Authority Ridiculous it frustrates the very Laws of Nations and lays the World again in Common Now if This be so Pestilent a Doctrine taken only at Large How much more Diabolical is it for Subjects upon This Vngodly Pretext to go about to Embroyl a Well Regulated State and to charge their Souls with Perjury Schism and Rebellion over and above the Common Crimes that accompany Hostile Invasions As the Law hath been hitherto so it must be henceforward the Rule and Measure of all our Proceedings In the Section of Tyranny the Question was How the Subject should demean himself toward the Prince in the Case of such and such Oppressions in matter of Religion But now in Case of an Vsurpation the Question is How far the Government should comply with a Popular Importunity or how far the People should gratifie one another Of which we have spoken so much at large elsewhere that the less will serve in this place The Word Vsurpation implies the Affecting or Invading of Anothers Right which in the point of Religion must needs be very Dangerous because the People are so easily disposed to swallow That Deadly Pill I do not reckon a bare and simple Dissent from the Established Doctrine and Discipline of the Church to be an Vsurpation For possibly there may be a Real Scruple or want of due Information in the Case But when That Dissent comes to be Practical when it comes to make Parties to Divide into Sects to Plead and to Challenge the Law it is no longer a Plea of Conscience but a direct Conspiracy against the Government It is a Nursery of Heresies over and above And a Liberty utterly Inconsistent with the Measures of Political Iustice and Prudence For First They Agree among themselves in the single point onely of Departing from Vs And they are not in Conjunction more dissatisfied with our Ecclesiastical Laws and Decrees then they are severally among themselves one Sect with another So that it is in this respect impossible to please them And Secondly It is no less dangerous to offer at it in other Considerations For First upon the Current of Long and Constant Experience they have been always found Insatiable Never esteeming what they had to be Enough till they had gotten All. The late King gave them still more and more and the more he Gave the more they Craved and turned his Bounty at last to his Destruction He did effectually in favour of their Importunities Strip himself to his Revenue his Crown and his Life and all That They took Another danger is that the very men that ask a Toleration are Principled against it And I see not the least shadow of a Reason why they that will not Tolerate Others should be Tolerated Themselves And truly as little Ground for the Asking of it as for the Granting of it For First Why should the Vnity of the Church be broken and the Peace of it disturbed in favour of the Enemies of it
and to the Discouragement of the Churches Friends Secondly As the Act of Vniformity hath the Full and Solemn Complement of a Binding Law why may they not as well demand a Dispensation for Rebellion as for Schism And quarrel any other Law nay one after another the whole Body of the Law as well as That The Law is the Established Rule of our Actions and they will have every wandering Phansie to be a Rule to the Law They themselves fly from the Law and their Complaint is that the Law doth not follow them This Method frustrates the very Order of Providence and makes all Provisions of Government to be Vain and Vseless They cannot pretend to Charge this Law with any Defect in regard either of the Civil or the Ecclesiastical Authority of it Here is First The Iudgment of the Church duly Conven'd touching the Meetness and Convenience of the Rites and Forms therein Contained Secondly There is the Royal Sanction Approving and Authorizing those Rites and Forms and requiring our Exact Obedience to them Thirdly The Matter of the Law here in question is our Own Act for that we our selves are Concluded in the Vote of our Representatives Against These Vsurpations we have Law enough And so we have likewise against those that follow in Matter of State which may be reduced to Vsurpations upon us in Matter of Life Liberty or Estate There is an Vsurpation upon the Magistrate and there is an Vsurpation upon the Subject Upon the Former in respect either of Title or of Power both which Cases are Determinable and Relievable by the Law And so also is any Oppression upon the Subject That is to say where One Subject oppresses Another When I say Determinable and Relievable by Law my meaning is that the Law hath competently provided for the Freedom and Security both of King and People And the Remedy seldom fails where it is Seasonably applied and Vigorously pursued But when the Dignity of Government may be vilified Gratis the Kings Ministers and Friends bespattered with Billingsgate Libels and his professed Enemies supported and encouraged when his Majesties Title as well as his Prerogative and Reputation shall come to be the subject of every Bawling Pamphlet and the Bounds of Sovereign Power to be debated by Porters and Carmen over Pots of Ale when not onely the Reverend and Lawful Ministers and the Apostolical Order of the Church shall be Derided and Despised but Religion it self pass onely for a Sham a piece of Priest-Craft and be published in Print for no more in effect then a Political Art of getting a Hank upon the People when such Outrages I say as These come to be daily committed over and over in the very face of the Sun and the Laws suffered to Sleep that should repress and punish them what can be the Event of This Inhumane License but Confusion and Ruine And if it comes to That once it was our Own fault for not putting a Timely and a Legal Stop to These Audacious Vsurpations The Positions and the Methods that brought on our late Troubles are now Revived and Practised every day afresh We have our Quaeries our Remonstrances and all things to the Old Tune of Curse ye Meroz and To your Tents O Israel most munifestly tending to the Unhinging of the Government and as certainly designing the Subversion of the Church and of the State The Boldness and the Impunity of these Libels would be an Equal Wonder to me if I were not satisfied that the One is clearly the Effect of the Other For their escaping punishment looks as if the Government were afraid of the Rabble and then their passing without Answer gives a kind of Credit to their Doctrine It is not a Work for a Gentleman to Rake a Dunghil and to gather up the Peoples Vomit But yet out of a Foolish Zeal and Tenderness for a Duty that hath onely given me Misery in This World and the hope of Comfort in a Better I cannot but endeavour to possess others with the same sense of these Indignities which I have my self and to lay open this Spirit of Calumny and Slander These Vncoverers of their Fathers Nakedness and Defilers of the Honour of our Common Mother My Onely Encouragement to This Undertaking is the Title I have to be believed in it For I am so far from being Bribed into this Office either by the Tie of Past Obligations or by the Prospect of Benefits to come That with Infinite Acknowledgments of his Majesties Grace and Goodness to me I defie any man to produce another Gentleman in the Kings Dominions under my Circumstances that hath suffered so many Illegal Arbitrary and Mean Injustices from any of the Abusers of the Kings Bounty as I have done Insomuch that after a Sentence of Death for his Majesty betwixt Three and Four Years in Newgate and a matter of Seven and Thirty Years faithful Service to the Crown the Bread hath been taken out of my Mouth and in a large proportion shared amongst some of those very People that pursued the late King to the Block Nor do I look for any more Advantage for the Future This Reflection by the way doth not concern any man that is now in Office at Court and I hope there is enough said already to acquit me of any likelihood to be Partial in This matter I must not slip This Occasion of bringing in a Case of late date a Case wherein all men of Letters are concerned and not impertinent in This place and That being done I will proceed Being desirous to Inform my self very particularly concerning this late Devillish Plot I got the best Intelligence I could as well by Short Notes upon the Trials in Court as by word of Mouth from Credible persons that were there present After this upon perusal of the Printed Trials I found several Gross Incoherences especially in the Later of them and very Material Mistakes As in that of Mr. Langhorn Fol. 39 and 40. Mr. Lydcats name is used no less then Nine times as one of the St. Omers Witnesses in stead of Mr. Hall to his very great prejudice Reflecting upon These Errors together with the almost Inextricable Difficulty of Retriving the Truth out of such a Confusion of Tautologies and Forms the Collection being so Bulky too and the Particulars lying so scattered that it was next to the Work of a Resurrection to set every part in its right place I betook my self to my Friends my Thoughts and my Papers and digested the whole Transaction into an Historical Narrative And not in Dialogue neither nor in the words either of the Bench the Witnesses or the Prisoners but in my Own stile and Way and just in the same Fashion as I would tell the Story This Book I entitled The History of the Plot c. made a Legal Assignment of my Right to a Bookseller I Authorised him to Print it and he Imprinted it by the Authority of the Author Some of the Pretenders to the