is worse than death it self We proceed now with counsel and mature deliberation how and when to work on the Dukes jealousie and revenge and in this we give the honour to those which merit it which are the Church-Catholicks There is another matter of consequence which we take much into our consideration and tender care which is to stave off the Puritans that they hang not on the Dukes ears they are impudent subtile people and it is to be feared lest they should negotiate a Reconciliation between the Duke and the Parliament It is certain the Duke would gladly have reconciled himself to the Parliament at Oxford and Westminster but now we assure our selves we have so handled the matter that both Duke and Parliament are irreconcilable For the better prevention of the Puritans the Arminians have already lock'd up the Dukes ears and we have those of our own Religion which stand continually at the Dukes Chamber-door to see who goes in and out We cannot be too careful and circumspect in this regard I cannot chuse but laugh to see how some of our Coat have accoutred themselves you would scarce know them if you saw them and 't is admirable how in speech and gesture they act the Puritans The Cambridge-Scholars to their woful experience shall see we can act the Puritans a little better than they have done the Jesuits They have abused our sacred Patron Ignatius in jest but we will make them smart in earnest I hope you will excuse my merry digression for I confess to you I am at this time transported with joy to see how happily all instruments and means as well great as less cooperate to our purposes c. After the dissolution of the Parliament Anno 1628 some refractory Members were sent for to the Council-Table Mr. Hollis Sir John Elliot Sir Miles Hobart Sir Peter Hayman Sir Jo. Barrington Mr Selden Mr. Stroud another of the five Members Mr. Correton Mr. Valentine Mr. Long Mr. Kirton Hollis was questioned Why on the day the Parliament was dissolved he placed himself next the Speakers Chair He answered That he had seated himself there formerly and took it his due to be there as in any place whatsoever unless at the Council-Table to sit above those Privy-Counsellors That he came into the House with as good intention to serve his Majesty as any other yet finding his Majesty offended he humbly desired to be the Subject rather of his Majesties mercy than his power The Lord Treasurer replied You mean rather of his Majesties mercy than his justice I say answered Hollis of his Majesties power my Lord. Hobart's offence was for locking the Parliaments doors and putting the Key in his pocket Which he said was the command of the House The rest were questioned for reproving the Speaker when he came to do the Kings command To which they pleaded Priviledge of Parliament But they were all imprisoned and fined at the Kings-bench-bar and gave 2000 l. security for good behaviour But this was the first Seed which took root in Parliament and brought forth bitter Fruits And these things manent altâ mente reposta For Before the calling of the long Parliament in 41 the factious Party who were disappointed in the former Parliament and had been questioned for their insolencies kept together in a secret Committee in London foreseeing that the necessity of his Majesties affairs would require another Parliament For they had animated the Scots to an Insurrection with whom they had constant correspondence for which his Majesty charged the five Members at the beginning of that Parliament having sufficient evidence against them if the iniquity 〈◊〉 the times had not obstructed the course o◠Justice This Committee made it their business not onely by Letters and Correspondents but by riding into several Counties to promote the Election of such persons as were disaffected both to the Church and Government and upon promises of reforming the Church and redressing Grievances in the State they prevailed in most places to chuse such Members as were of their own Perswasion That which added both fuel and fire to that flame which in time caused a general Conflagration of the three Nations was the zeal of some popular and factious Preachers whose Pulpit◠were as so many Trumpets sounding an Alar◠to War the pretences were then as they are now the fears of Popery and Arbitrary Government By these means they obtained a prevalent Party in that Parliament who were no sooner met but they made it their business to purge the Houses of disaffected and malignant Lords and Commons Mr. Holli◠was sent to the House of Lords to demand the names of the dissenting Lords whom they posted up to expose them to the fury of the Rabble which in great tumults they drew from the City to the Kings Palace and the Parliament-doors to hinder the access of the Loyal Party and when any such came the Rabble cried Make Rome Rome for such or such a person and in a short time they had driven the King from his Palace and all the Loyal Party from both Houses And now the Pulpits sound with Prayers for their mortal Gods and Saviours and for the Parliament of their prayers The Religious and Loyal Clergie were ejected about forty Doctors of Divinity and many hundreds of learned and grave Divines for no other crime but their Loyalty and good Benefices of which a Treatise called Persecutio Vndecima gives a particular account against whom the chief Articles were for preaching Obedience to the King against Sacriledge and Rebellion and for keeping their Parish-Churches for reading the Liturgie and bowing at the Name of Jesus for having Popish Books or being seen in the company of Papists Insomuch as Mr. Selden one of their Members said to a Person of Honour That Learning and Honesty were sins enough in a Clergie-man to undo him The reputation of being Popish Priests or but Caesar's Friends was crime enough One Mr. White published his Centuries of sequestred and ejected Ministers laying to their charge such things as were never attempted to be proved against them And it was observed at that time that he was greatly troubled in Conscience for abusing and ruining so many Clergy-men and died in a distracted condition which hitherto I have not seen or heard to be contradicted Certain it is that none of them had any one point of Popery proved against them The Lord Fairfax accused Dr. Cosens then Vice-chancellor of Cambridge that he had perverted a young man to Popery but upon examination it was found that he had expelled the person that perverted him from the University and some who were then Members of the Parliament testified as much in behalf of the Doctor Whereupon after some weeks imprisonment he was set free and no man gave better proof of his aversion to Popery both in the time of his exile and after his return than that eminent Doctor did So unhappy have the Fanatick Party always been to impeach them
duty of such an injured Prince for the common good to resigne his Government and if he will not the People ought to judge him as made uncapable by Providence and not to seek his restitution to the apparent ruine of the Commonwealth Thes 147. If therefore the rightful Governour be so long dispossessed that the Commonwealth can be no longer without but to the apparent hazard of its ruine we i. e. the people that dispossessed him are to judge that Providence hath dispossessed the former and presently consent to another Thes 149. If a People that by Oath and Duty are obliged to a Soveraign shall sinfully dispossess him and contrary to their Covenants chuse and covenant with another they may be obliged by their later Covenant notwithstanding their former Thes 181. If a Nation injuriously deprive themselves of a worthy Prince the hurt will be their own and they punish themselves but if it â— necessary to their welfare it is no injury to him but a King that by War will seek Reparation from the Body of the People doth put himself into a Hostile state and tells them actually that he looks to his own good more than theirs and bids them take him for their Enemy and defend themselves if they can p. 424. Though a Nation wrong their King and so quoad men tum Cauiae they are on the worse side yet maâ—â— he not lawfully war against the common good oâ—â— that account nor any help him in such a War because propter finem he hath the worse Cause Thes 352. And p. 476. we were to believe the Parliaments Declarations and Professions that the War which they raised was nâ—â— against the King either in respect of his Authority or his Person but onely against Delinquent Subjects And yet they actually fought against the King's Person and Authority And We are to believe saith Mr. Baxter p. 422. That men would kill them whom the fight against Quam bene conveniunt Mr. Baxter never followed any Text that he preached on so closely as he hath done the Text of this Jesuit in the Commentary of his Holy Commonwealth John Milton printed a Book very well like this of Mr. White called The Tenure of King and Magistrates driving on this Maxime That it is lawful for any that have power to call to account depose and put to death wicked Kings and Tyrants after due conviction if the ordinary Magistrate neglect it We have lately had a Fanatical Lawyer following the Divine Mr. Baxter transcribing out of the same Book of Mr. White to the same end I shall observe onely this Note among others in Mr. White p. 158. where he answers some Objections of Divines concerning the Authority of Princes and Non-resistance Vp steps the Divine saith he to preach us out of Scripture the Duty we owe to Kings no less than Death and Damnation being the Guerdons of Disobedience and Rebellion And p. 159. They will speak reason too telling us that God by nature is high Lord and Master of all That whoever is in power receiveth his right from him That Obedience consists in doing the Will of him that commandeth and concludes that his Will ought to be obeyed till God taketh away the obligation i. e. till he who is to be obeyed himself releaseth the right And p. 160. They alleadge that God by his special command transferred the Kingdom from Saul to David from Rehoboam to Jeroboam so that in fine all that is brought out of Scripture falleth short of proving that no time can make void the right of a King once given him by the hand of God Now mark what Mr. White says to overthrow the sence of Scripture The reason saith he 〈◊〉 this weak way of alleadging Scripture is that when they read that God commandeth or doth this they look not into Nature to know what this commanding or doing is but presently imagine God commands it by express and direct words and doth it by an immediate Position of the things said to be done whereas in Nature the commands are nothing but the natural light God hath bestowed on mankind and which is therefore frequently called the Law of Nature Likewise Gods doing a thing is many times onely the course of natural second causes to which because God gives the direction and motion he both doth and is said to do all that is done by them These things are transcribed by Mr. Hunt to the same ends that Mr. White urged them p. 144. of his Postscript The nature of Government and its Original saith he hath been prejudiced by men that understanding nothing but words and Grammar-Divines without contemplating Gods Attributes or the nature of man or the reasonableness of moral Precepts have undertaken to declare the sence of Scripture and infer that Soveraign power is not of humane institution but of divine appointment because they find it there written that by him Kings raign imagining that when the Scripture saith God commands or doth this that God commanded it by express words or doth it by an immediate position of the thing done whereas in Nature his commands are nothing but the natural light God hath bestowed on mankind likewise Gods doing a thing is onely the course of natural and second causes to which because God gives direction and motion he doth both and is said to do all that is done After this Mr. Hunt rails against our Divines in the Jesuits Mr. White 's Language also White calls them Grammar-Divines verbal and wind-blown Divines p. 162. and Mr. Hunt calls them men that understand nothing but words and Grammar-Divines who saith Mr. White without Logick Philosophy or Morality undertake to be Interpreters of the sacred Bible Who saith Mr. Hunt without contemplating Gods Attributes or the nature of man or the reasonableness of moral Precepts have undertaken to declare the sence of Scripture From the Premises we may draw this Conclusion That the Papists and Fanaticks do agree and mutually lend and borrow Arguments to resist Kings elude the Scriptures defame the English Clergie and overthrow the Government in Church and State As 1. That to conclude from the sence of Scripture is a weak way of arguing 2. That Non obstante what the Scripture says of Divine right of Soveraign power it is not of Divine but Humane institution 3. That Providence and the effects of second causes being influenced by God are of equal authority with the Precepts injoyned by the Word of God 4. That the Soveraign power being but of humane institution may be resisted and is alterable 5. That having cast off their Loyalty to the King and his Laws they are in a fair way to cast off God and his Laws 6. That the worst of Papists and their Atheistical Arguments are made use of by some that call themselves true Protestants against the express commands of God for Obedience to the Higher Powers There was printed 1650 an Answer to Dr. Ferne's Exercitation concerning usurped Powers in which the Answerer
is no less to serve the lusts of such as are the Servi Servorum Diaboli under what pretence soever It is well known how impetuously both these Factions have attempted to ruine the established Church and despairing to do it by Reason and Argument they endeavour to do it by wicked Arts and Arms or bloudy Assassinations One Engine that hath had a perpetual motion to this end hath been the great Clamour against our Governours in Church and State as being Antichristian and Popishly affected Thus our martyred King and Archbishop and generally all the Bishops in those days with other chief Ministers of State were condemned as Papists though the Lye were so gross as to carry its confutation with it they all dying in that Faith and Profession both for Doctrine Discipline and worship in which the Martyrs in Queen Mary's days died which holy Faith also died with them And now again the Church is accused as having made many steps towards Popery the King is accused as a Favourer of it and all except three or four Bishops are declared to be Popishly affected the Clergy are Popish Clergie-men and Dr. Stilling fleet among others a Projector for Rome Whereas those very men that have set this Engine on work do improve the same methods as the Papists have prescribed to ruine us that is by dividing us and seeking to raise Wars and Confusions among us In which how mutually and brotherly they have assisted each other is the designe of this Collection to shew and thereby to silence this Obloquy And 1. I shall shew their Harmony and Agreement in such Principles as tend to War and Confusion And 2. Their joynt practices to effect the same For unless the Popes Bull do plow with the Geneva Heifers they can never turn up the foundations of Sion Now to evince this I shall not rake together the unclean and poysonous Maximes of Mariana Sayer Bellarmine Scribanius Gretserus Becanus Suarez c. nor compare them with the dangerous Positions of Knox Bucanan Goodman and others mentioned by Bishop Bancroft the congratulatory Epistle of Lisymachus Nicanor to his Covenanting Brethren in Scotland but content my self and I hope satisfie my Reader with the two following Instances The first is one Thomas White a Romish Emissary who by many Books written in the time of the Vsurpation sought to debauch the Nation especially by one printed in the year 1652 called The Grounds of Obedience and Government with this abused Maxime in the Title-page Salus Populi Suprema lex esto which was applied in a mistaken sence to very ill purposes by the Fanaticks In this Book like a Priest of Mars he scatters these Fire-brands enough to set any Kingdom on fire and composed it in a small Tract like so many hand-Granado's fitted for every mans fingers These are his Positions First That the Magistrate by his miscarriages abdicates himself from being a Magistrate and proveth a Robber instead of a Defender which last word he writes with a great D to shew whom he meant Secondly That by the evil management or insufficiency of Governours it is remitted to the force of nature to provide for our selves and that we are not bound by any promise made to our Governours p. 123 124. Thirdly if the Magistrate have truly deserved to be dispossessed or if it be rationally doubted that he hath deserved it and be actually out of possession a Subject hath no obligation to hazard for his restitution but rather to hinder it for since it is the common good that both the Magistrate and the Subject are to aim at it is the common harm to admit again of such a Magistrate and every one is bound to his power to resist him p. 133. if he be innocent and wrong-fully deposed nay let us adde one that hath governed well and deserved much of the Commonwealth yet is he totally dispossessed and in these circumstances it were better for the common good to stay as they are than to venture the restoring of him because of the publick hazard And the dispossessed Prince is obliged absolutely to renounce all right and claim to Government and if he doth not he is worse than an Infidel p. 135 136. If the People by any circumstance be devolved to the state of Anarchy their Promise made to their expelled Governour binds no more p. 122. Fourthly That when the Peoples Good stands on the Possessors side then clearly he begins and then the People think themselves well and they manifestly consent to the present Government for who can assure they shall be better by return of the dispossessed Party Surely by the common presumption the Gainer is like to defend them better than the Loser You may see by this leading man how industrious the Papists were to hinder the Restauration of Charles the Second as well as to procure the Destruction of Charles the First Now that the Fanaticks ran parallel with the Papists in these Traiterous Positions I shall shew from a Book printed Anno 1658 by Mr. Richard Baxter called The Holy Commonwealth in which he sets down the three Qualifications as of necessity to the being of Soveraign power First so much understanding secondly so much strength or executive power by his interest in the people or others as are necessary to the ends of Government P. 130. From whence he deduceth three Corollaries 1. When Providence depriveth a man of his understanding and intellectual capacity and that statedly to his ordinary temper it maketh him uncapable of Government though not of the name Thes 135. 2. If God permits Princes to turn so wicked as to be uncapable of governing so as is consistent with the ends of Government it makes him an uncapable Subject of the power and so deposeth him 3. If Providence statedly disable him that was a Soveraign from the executing of the Law it makes him an uncapable Subject of the power and so deposeth him Thes 137. To which he adds Though it is possible and likely that the guilt is or may be theirs who have disabled the Ruler by deserting him yet he is dismissed from the charge of Government and particular innocent Members are disobliged from being governed by him if the Governour be justly dispossessed as by a lawful War which Mr. Baxter declares the War against King Charles the First was in which he loseth his right especially if he violate the Constitution and enter into a Military state against the People and by them be conquered they are not obliged to restore him unless there be some special obligation upon them besides their Allegiance Thes 145. If the person dispossessed though it were unjustly do afterwards become incapable of Government it is not the duty of his Subjects to seek his Restitution Thes 146. If an Army of Neighbours Inhabitants or whoever do though injuriously expel the Soveraign and resolve to ruine the Commonwealth rather than he shall be restored and if the Commonwealth may prosper without his restoration it is the
Ireland or any other person 〈◊〉 do the same which he expresly denyed saying He did it on his own score Whereupon the House Voted Resolved c. That the House doth utterly disapprove of the proceedings of Colonel M. in the Treaty and Cessation as they called it made between him and Owen Roe Oneale and that this House doth detest thoughts of any closing with any Party of Popish Rebels there who have had their hands in shedding English Bloud Nevertheless the House being satisfied that what the said Colonel did therein was in his apprehension necessary for the preservation of the Parliaments interest the House is content that the farther consideration thereof as to him be laid aside and shall not at any time hereafter be called in question Upon these proceedings the Author notes 1. The Armies Doctrine and Vse of apprehended necessity and good intentions to justifie evil actions approved of by this Parliament 2. This Agreement though it were twelve weeks before publickly known in England and divulged in licensed news-News-books was never scrupled until that first the said Agreement was expired And 3. That Oneale was so beaten by the Lord Inchiquine that as their News-books said he was inconsiderable and must suddenly joyn with Ormond or be destroyed 4. That these Votes call this Agreement but a Treaty and Cessation which was a League offensive and defensive against Ormond Inchiquine and all that upheld Monarchy For which the Author gives these Reasons Because the second Article says That on all occasions both Parties be ready to assist one another till a more absolute Agreement be made by the Parliament of England And the third Article saith That the Creats of Ulster residing in the Quarters of the Parliaments Army shall pay Contribution to General Owen Oneale which is a granting of Taxes against Law and it seems Oneale became a Mercenary being taken into pay Article the fourth saith That if Oneale shall happen to fight against the Forces under Ormond Inchiquine or other Enemies of the Parliament and thereby spend his Ammunition if he be near to their Quarters and want Ammunition they shall then furnish him This was actually performed when Inchiquine besieged Dundalk The fifth Article allowed Oneale the use of any Harbours within their liberty By which Premises we may rationally conclude that the Factions are not so averse from the most bloudy Papists but if occasion require they are ready to joyn interest with them to maintain their Good Old Cause against the Crown and Church of England which will farther appear by the Correspondency and Agents which the successive Parties that were uppermost maintained in foreign parts to betray the present Kings Counsels while he was in banishment for which Manning a Papist was executed for whom many Dirgies were sung in several Churches And when his Majesty was invited into Scotland the Marquess of Huntly and other Lords and Heads of the Popish Faction made a great Party to oppose his Reception unless he would grant a Toleration of their Religion But the Presbyterian Party having then the greatest power admitted him on such terms as they thought fit and served him no longer than they could serve their own designes For the clearer manifestation of the ASSOCIATION between Oneale and the Parliament there are lately come to the Council of State saith the Author of the Hist of Independ p. 245. two Letters out of Conaught from Sir Charles Coote dated the 14th and 15th of August 49 informing them with how much zeal to the Parliaments interest Owen Oneale had freely raised the Siege of London-derry On which Letters and the Votes and Proceedings of Pride 's Parliament I commend to the Readers observation these particulars First the 15th of August the Letters inform them that Oneale freely offered his assistance to Coote professing much affection to the Parliament of England and an earnest desire to maintain their interest He had formerly stiled the Parliament Monstrosum Parliamentum but now the case is altered 〈◊〉 calls them the Honourable Parliament as driving his interest against Monarchy and Protestancy In the Letter of the 14th he informs the Parliament that he hath found Oneale and his Army very punctual and faithful in all their promises and ingagements and make◠no doubt but they will continue so to the end The 16th of August he says that Oneale i◠his Express to Coote inclosed some Letters received from Col. M. and among the rest 〈◊〉 Copy of a Letter in answer to a Letter of the Lord Inchiquine charging the Colonel for joyning with Oneale and his party wherein the Colonel insinuated as if Oneale 's submission to use the Parliaments power were already accepted by them In that of the 15th Coote hath this expression in his Letter Calling to mind that it is no new thing for the most wise God to make use of wicked Instruments to bring about a good designe Aug. 15. the Letter says that Coote called a Council of War and resolved it was better to accept of the Assistance of those who proclaimed themselves Friends to us and our interest we fight for The same Letter says that we added to the Article this proviso Not use their Assistance longer than the approbation of the State of England should go along with us therein In that of the 14th Coote says Oneale was pleased to communicate to him certain proposals which were long since transmitted to the Parliament and though for his part and the prime Officers with him they do not doubt but the proposals are already yielded to by the State yet in regard their Army and party in all other parts of the Kingdom cannot be satisfied therewith till the Parliament declare more publickly therein he hath therefore desired me humbly to intreat your Lordships to declare your Resolutions therein with as much speed as may be And in a Vote of Parliament it 's said The House is well satisfied of the diligence faithfulness and integrity of Sir Charles Coote in preserving the Garison of London-derry Which says my Author was preserved by the conjunction of Oneale who raised the Siege But to return to England where though the Jesuits and Priests did not appear so visibly as in the Wars of Ireland yet that they had great influence on the Councils and Armies of the Fanaticks from the beginning to the end of the War is industriously proved by Mr. Prynne in several books especially in his Introduction to the Archbishop's Tryal and in Romes Master-piece Works of Darkness brought to light The Royal Favourite c. The first War begun with the clamour of Popery That it was admitted not onely at the Court but into the Church particularly that the King was a great favourer of Papists and the House of Commons instance in one Goodman a Romish Priest who was condemned at the Sessions in the Old-baily Whereupon the House remonstrates That it was more necessary to put the Laws in execution at that time than in any before That at
Worcester-fight was so great that he prevailed to have the King driven thence to seek his safety in other Countries And it is credibly reported that Cromwel maintained or encouraged a company of Benedictine Monks to betray the Kings Counsels That Manning who was executed beyong the Seas for disclosing the Kings Counsels was a Papist and had Masses sung for him after his death That Lambert who had been suspected as a Papist thirty years with the help of a Popish Priest contrived Cromwels new Government And the Jesuits perceiving that if the Scotish and English Presbyterians should cleerly and entirely grasp the power of the Nation it would be a difficult task to take it out of their hands they abetted the Independent party and other growing Sects they mixed themselves with their Counsels and Armies as Mr. Prynne affirmed And a good Author says that a Protestant Gentleman met with about thirty of them at one time between Roan and Diep who enquiring their design and they taking him for one of their party was informed by them that they were going into England and would take Arms in the Independant Army and endeavour to be Agitators and what work those creatures made is too well known Nor is it less notorious who they were that pleaded so strenuously for Liberty of Conscience Such Tracts as directly urged the Toleration of Popery as well as of other Sects were penned and dispersed by the Jesuits and the Indulgence granted to them by Cromwel who was never known to punish any of them for their Recusancy as long as they served his interest argues his connivance if not his approbation of them By these was that Treatise of Father Parsons concerning the Succession under the Title of Doleman Reprinted and dispersed to keep us in confusion Then it was that White wrote his Jesuitical books and Milton seconded him And the Pamphlets written to justifie the Proceedings of the Army were dictated or written by the Jesuits In the year 1652. William Birchly published a Treatise called The Moderator or Persecution for Religion condemned In a Postscript to which he says that he subscribed his name according to an Order of Parliament yet is not ashamed to say that he had his Arguments from some of the Romish Priests for a Toleration of whom he pleads as passionately as if a whole Consult of them had penned the Pamphlet And a good Author saith he hath been credibly informed that a Jesuit of St. Omers declared that they were Twenty years in hammering out the Sect of the Quakers And whoever considers the Tenets of that Sect will easily see whose off-spring they are They refuse all Oaths which serves the Jesuits to evade the Tests of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy they despite the Scriptures as the Jesuits do they contemn our Sacraments especially the Eucharist as the Papists do vilifie the Ministers and in matters of Doctrine have a great analogie with the Papists Dr. Oates his Narrative and Depositions Paragraph 34. speaks of the Jesuits and one Green with eight other Fifth Monarchy-men who clubbed together for firing the City of London I have told you what White the Jesuit did and that wretched Milton Cromwel's Secretary who had been at Rome and in his writings speaks of great kindness received there and holding correspondence with some Italians could have no other design in printing those books of Divorce against Tythes and Clergy-men and to justifie the Regicides but to bring us to Atheism first and then to Confusion He was by very many suspected to be a Papist and if Dr. Oates may be believed was a known frequenter of the Popish Club though he were Cromwel's Latine Secretary The same Dr. tells us that a Party of the Jesuits at Putney were the Projectors of our troubles and the Kings ruine That they broke up the Treaty at Vxbridge That a Popish Lord brought a Petition to the Regicides signed by above 500 Papists promising That on condition of a Toleration they would exclude the Family of the Stuarts from the Crown Having said so much to prove the agreement of Papists and Fanaticks for the destruction of the Government of Church and State I shall add a few lines to vindicate the Chief Governours from those accusations of Popery which were charged on them In the year 1658. ten years after the death of the Royal Martyr Mr. Baxter prints his Grotian Religion and through Grotius's sides strikes at the heads and members of the Church of England with the same blow One reason of condemning Grotius as a Papist may be the Character which he gives of such men in his Book de Antichristo Circumferamus oculos per omnem Historiam quod unquam seculum vidit tot subditorum in Principes bella sub religionis titulo horum concitatores ubique reperiuntur Ministri Evangelici ut quidam se vocant Quod genus hominum in quae pericula etiam nunc optimos Civitatis Amstelodamensis Magisiratus conjicerit videat si cui libet de Presbyterorum in Reges audacia librum Jacobi Britanniarum Regis cui nomen Donum Regium videbit eum ut erat magni judicii ea praedixisse quae nunc cum dolore horrore conspicimus For the Grotian design i. e. Popery saith he was carrying on in the Church of England and this was the cause of all our Wars and changes p. 105. where he thus talks of the Royal Martyr beyond any thing that his barbarous Judges could accuse him of How far the King was inclined to a reconciliation with the Church of Rome saith Mr. Baxter I onely desire you to judge First by the Articles of the Spanish and French Match sworn to Secondly by his Letter to the Pope written in Spain Thirdly by his choice of Agents in Church and State Fourthly by the residence of the Popes Nuntio here and the Colledge of the Jesuits c. Fifthly by the illegal Innovations in Worship so resolvedly gradatim introduced All which I speak not with the least desire to perswade men that he was a Papist but onely to shew that while he as a moderate Protestant i. e. a Papist in Masquerade as they are now termed took hands with the Queen a moderate Papist the Grotian Design had great advantage in England which he himself boasted of p. 106. Of this indignity to that Religious Prince the learned Bishop Bramhal p. 617. of his Works took notice and vindicated him Of which Mr. B. being informed he says p. 100. of his Defence that he printed the contrary in times of Vsurpation and that the Informer could not prove it and that Bishop Bramhal was a Calumniator The Book he refers to was I suppose dedicated to Richard Cromwell whom he did not call an Vsurper but one who piously prudently and faithfully to his immortal honour exercised the Government 1659. Where p. 327. having accused the Now Episcopal party for following Grotius he says As for the King himself that was their Head
and Darts both of Jesuits and Fanaticks were aimed that by their fall they might more easily destroy the King as it afterward hapned and notwithstanding their serious and succesful endeavours to suppress Popery in Ireland they are reputed and accused for Papists in England but the true reason was the Earl of Strafford and the Archbishop being two of the most faithful Ministers of State that the King had the Scots endeavour in the first place to take them out of the way For A Parliament being called on Novemb. 3. 1640. the Scots under pretence of Religion got a considerable Party in both Houses to help on their designe To which end at their entrance into England they made a Remonstrance That their just desires so necessary for the good of both Kingdoms could find no access to the ears of their gracious King by reason of the powerful diversion of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Deputy of Ireland who being strengthened with a mighty Faction of Papists near the King did rule in all matters both Temporal and Ecclesiastical making the necessity of their service to his Majesty to appear in being the onely fit Instruments under a pretext of vindicating his Majesties Honour is oppress the Liberties of his free Subjects and the true reformed Religion And this Remonstrance they seconded with another Libel called The Intention of the Army signifying to the People of England That they had no designe to waste their Goods or spoil their Country but onely to petition his Majesty to call a Parliament and to bring the Archbishop and Deputy to condign punishment At this time they set forth a Book against the Archbishop called Laudensium Autocatacrisis endeavouring to prove out of the Archbishop's Writings that he designed to bring in Superstition Popery and Arminianism There comes also a Petition from some Lords complaining of the great increase of Popery and of many inconveniencies drawn on the Kingdom by engaging against the Scots This was signed by the Earls of Essex Hartford Rutland Bedford Exeter Warwick Mulgrave and Bullingbrooke the Lords Say Mandevil Brook and Howard And this was seconded by another from London The day for the sitting of the Parliament being appointed on the third of November the Archbishop was advised that the Parliament in the 20 of Hen. 8. which began in the fall of Cardinal Wolsey and the diminution of the power and priviledges of the Clergie and ended in the dissolution of Religious houses was begun on the same day and therefore he should move the King to respite their sitting for a day or two The event proved too sadly ominous for this begun with the fall of the Archbishop the Rites and Priviledges of the English Clergie Bishops Deans and Chapters and the Cathedrals left without any means to repair them But there were other strange accidents observed by Dr. Heylen in the Life of the Archshop p. 450. On Friday-night Jan. 24. 1639. he dreamt that his Father came to him and askt him what he did there and he asked his Father how long he would stay there who replied He would stay till he had him along with him This Dream he noted in his Breviate In December that year the Boats that were drawn on land neer Lambeth were by a violent tempest dasht against one another and broken in pieces And the tops of two Chimneys were blown down and beat through the Lead and Rafters on the Bed in which he was wont to lie but the roughness of the water kept him that night at his Chamber in White-hall The same night at Croyden one of the Pinacles fell from the Steeple and beat down the Lead and Roof of the Church twenty foot square The same night at the Metropolitical Church in Canterbury one of the Pinacles which carried a Vane with the Archbishop's Arms upon it was blown down and carried a good distance off falling on the Roof of a Cloyster where the Arms of the See of Canterbury were ingraven in Stone which by the fall of the Pinacle were broken in pieces whereat some did conjecture that he should not onely fall himself but the Archiepiscopal Dignity should fall with him But the Archbishop took most notice of anotheer Accident on St. Simon and Jude's Eve a week before the sitting of the Parliament when going into his upper Study where his Picture in full length was wont to hang he found it fallen on the ground and lying flat on its face On Saturday May 9. 1640. a Paper was posted on the Exchange animating the Apprentices to sack his House at Lambeth the Munday following he therefore so fortified his Palace that though five hundred persons attempted it they could do nothing but they broke open the Prisons in Southwark and freed their Comrades for which actions one Bensteed a Leader of the Rabble was condemned and executed The great cry was That he endeavoured to bring in Popery Mr. Prynne says he was at least a Cassandrian Papist and endeavoured a reconciliation between us and Rome A Book written against him called The English Pope printed 1643. tells us how far the King and Pope had agreed The King saith he required a Dispensation from the Pope that the English Catholicks might resort to the Protestant Churches take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and that the Popes Supremacy was to be changed into a Priority and that marriage should be permitted to the Priests the Communion administred under both kinds and the Liturgie in the English Tongue But though these Concessions were more than the Pope would grant yet another Libel says There were general Propositions made for this agreement and that the Archbishop had made some Innovations in order thereto Popes Nuncio p. 11. But what the Archbishop did was not with a respect to peace with Rome but to the setling of the Church of England on the first Principles of Reformation and to make it more amiable even to the Papists whom he aimed to win over first by Conferences and then by an external Decency in the publick Service the Catholicks being much offended at the slovenly keeping of our Churches and the irreverence of the People at their Devotion And though some accounted the Archbishop's actions in renewing ancient Rites to give advantage to Popery yet others more knowing said that it would tend to the honour and advantage of the Church of England for Dr. Heylin reports that he heard from a person of known Nobility that being with a Father of the English Colledge at Rome one of the Novices told him with great joy that the English were about to set up Altars and officiate in Copes to adorn their Churches and paint their Windows and were returning to the Church of Rome To whom the Father replied with some indignation That he talked like an ignorant Novice and that these proceedings rather tended to the ruine than advancement of the Catholick Cause because the Church of England coming nearer to the ancient Vsages the Catholicks there