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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88086	Contemplations upon these times, or The Parliament explained to Wales. Digested into three parts. I. Containing, a brief, faithfull, and pithy history of the Parliament, ... II. Cleer resolutions of such doubts, as his countrymen of Wales are not so well satisfied in, as could be wished: which are reduced to these 3 points, touching the [brace] King. Covenant. Common-Prayer-Book. III. A closer application unto the state of Wales, ... / Written by a gentleman, a cordiall well-wisher of his countries happinesse.	Lewis, John, Esquire.	1646 (1646)	Wing L1839; Thomason E349_19; ESTC R201035	20,378	40

of Christ will appeare now in the later end of the world in greater glory then ever it did I am no maintainer of a Temporall and personall Reign of our Saviour upon the Earth though for ought I can see it is an opinion that contains nothing but consolation to Gods children Sure I am the Prophets abound with most glorious descriptions of the Church which besides the spirituall sense cannot I think but be temporally meant at least in respect of the extension and amplitude of the Church and which as yet hath not been altogether fulfilled towards it You need only view the Prophet Isaiah alone and you shall have whole Chapters replenished with nothing but lofty eloquence upon this subject And if you do but well heed it the very like expressions like golden veines run through all the holy Books both Old and New Neither is it the holy Scripture alone though they are instar omnium but in all Ages there have been some that by speciall inspiration have foretold us of a most happy state of the Church in the later times I could referre thee for this to the Acts and Monuments where Mr. Fox h 〈…〉 collected odde sayings or prophecies of holy persons as Bridget Katherine Senensis Iohn Husse Savanorola and others For thy present delight lest thou heedest them not there I will alleadge one or two As he cals her Holy Bridget said That the Pope should be thrown into the Deep as a milstone And that the cause of the binderance of the Gospel is the Prelates and Priests And that the Clergy turned Gods commandements to two words Da pecuniam Iohn Husse said Oh how largely doth Antichrist extend his power and cruelty but I trust his power shall be shortned and his iniquity shall be detected more and more among the faithfull people and let Antichrist rage as much as he will yet he shall not prevaile against Christ And Katherine Senensis who lived about 1379. told one Antoninus that after writ her history That by the troubles in the Church of God after a secret manner unknown unto man God shall purge his holy Church and stir up the spirit of 〈◊〉 Elect and after these things shall follow such a Reformation of the holy Church and such a Renovation of holy Pastors that the only cogitation thereof maketh my spirit to reioyce in the Lord and that all the faithfull shall be glad to see themselves so beautified with so holy shepherds yea and the●●● Infidels allured by the sweet savour of Christ shall return to the Catholick fold and be converted to the true Bishop Gi●e thanks therefore to God for after this storm He will give to his a great calm Even but thus much signified so long agoe and our eyes seeing the great work of these times so much tending to the accomplishment of these things we cannot but admire the Lord and acknowledge this Parli●●●●● not wholly a device of man Neither is it impossible to discover some glimmerings of this Kingdom even in the monuments of Gentiles as it hath pleased God to reveal unto them some obscure Notions of his greatest Mysteries which are sweetly serviceable to the setting forth of his holy Truths What more is that of Virgil as conceptions of Sybilla Cumaea though usually restrained to our Saviours incarnation I am nova Progenies Caelo dimittitur alto Te duce siqua manent sceleris vestigia nosti Irrita perpetuo solvent formidine terras Plainly A Child shall be born from Heaven to pardon the sinnes of men and fill the world with blessings Iosephus a Jew sayes Nations should come from Iudaea that should be masters of the Vniverse What the Sybils have abundantly delivered of this I referre you to the former place of the Acts and Monuments and only add one thing of Cicero which to me seems a very remarkable place Nec erit alia lex Romae alia Athenis alia nunc alia posthac sed apud omnes gentes omni tempore una lex Deus ille legis inventor disceptator later c. All which seems to be englished in the 2. chap. of Daniel ver. 44. And in those dayes the God of Heaven shall set up a Kingdom that shall not he left to other people but it shall break in peeces all other Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever But how may this be seeing the Turk is likeliest to be the great master of the world and at this present looks terribly towards Christendom I answer This may prove but a flash of lightening before his ruine and it will be at least a good means to procure peace charity among Christians which is seen to be but too miserably wanting Remember that in our God the Lord Iehovah is everlasting strength Let us every one kill the Turks at home his crying bosome sins and we shall be surely able to cope with him abroad let us do our parts and God will surely do his and in his good time put his book in this Senacheribs nose and his bridle in his lips For He knowes his abode his going out and his comming in and his rage against us We have heretofore only read what Iehovah is and our Fathers have but told us of his noble works And truly say what holy Iob said of old I have heard of thee by the hearing of the of the ear but now my eye seeth thee But in these days we may say we have seen him his noble works we have experimentally found the wayes of his Omnipotencie and seen the power of Prayer and plentifully tasted the fruits of Humiliation and the dealings of God in points of utmost extremity And therefore it is but a sorry courage that cannot against any difficulty or danger as suppose the Turks present greatnesse reare up an heroick heart and think him no more then a Tom Thumb against Christ and his King dome And it shall come to passe in that day that the Lord shall punish the Host of the High ones that are high and the Kings of the earth upon the earth Then the Moon shall be confounded and the Sun ashamed when the Lord of hosts shall raign in mount Sion and before his Ancients gloriously PART II. Containing Resolutions of Doubts touching the PARLIAMENT To my Country-men of WALES I Hope by what you have read you are grown to some good liking of the Parliament And being thus suppl'd to a right understanding of it lest some Scruples like roots of Corns should still remain in your thoughts I will with the like Divine assistance endeavour to satisfie you The main Doubts whereunto all the rest are reducible are touching these three things KING COVENANT COMMON-PRAYER Book You will confesse by the event of things that the Parliament hath told you many truths which formerly you would not possibly believes Now you will grant the King followed an ill Councel and that the Cavaliers had undone us all I hope

Gospel And to say those Worthies in Ed. 6. his dayes confirmed the Common-Prayer book with their blood were by the like logick to inferre they confirmed with their blood all the use whereof they did ordain and tolerate in the Church afterwards as Surplesse Bels and all Ceremonies No be not deceived I know not that it was ever confirmed with blood unlesse it was in these our warres Those good men in Edw. 6. dayes were glad they had gained so much as to have the Divine Service in the known tongue But as in laying the foundation of the Temple there were those that shouted for joy so there were those that wept that it was short of the former Temple So there were those in the first Reformation that could have wished they then had obtained more The Masse then fell just like Dagon before the Ark of the Lord its head and palms were cut off but the stumps of Dagon was left to him It is with the true worshippers of God as it was with Abraham when the King of Sodome offered him the spoiles I will not take saith Abraham from thee a thred to a shoe-latchet c. lest thou shalt say I have made Abraham rich And in those very dayes there were those that fain would not have retained the least thred of the Reliques and trash of Rome Bishop Hooper then himself could not away with them and Peter Martyr adviseth him to bear with them Ne id progressui Evangelii sit impedimento And yet he cannot but confesse himselfe delighted to see this goodly zeal in the Bishop ut Religio ad castam simplicemque puritatem denuo aspiret Professes his desire was as much as his for a through Reformation With a Vehementer cupio id quod conaris locum habeat You may do well to observe one trick of the Bishops The Common-prayer though it was the publick service yet they would permit the use of it in families which rather then no serving of God at all I held it allowable but of Preaching in families you know how much they were against it Good Country-man I have been over-tedious Therfore in a word suppose the Common-Prayer book like the Moon which in its proper motions and seasons is a goodly beneficent creature but if it interposes betwixt us and the Sun it becomes an opacous disastrous body In the times of Superstition Common-Prayer book arising like the Moon at a dark midnight was comfortable but now a Sun-shine of the Gospel breaking in upon us think thou what thou pleasest of it PART III. Containing an Application to WALES IN brief Country-man I must tell you we are deceived and do not know our own condition We will needs be accounted good Protestants when alas how can that be when we want the means to become so To say a perfunctory reading of the Common-Prayer can make us so is to say it can do miracles A wretched Sermon now and then and that either by an ignorant or scandalous Minister or both alas what can it do it being commonly too such stuffe you know not whether it savours stronger of the Ale or the Pocket Half an houre 's showre in a great draught will little availe the chapped earth I must tell you abating Gentry and a few others that by the benefit of education may be otherwise generally I dare boldly say we can be but Papists or worse in Wales I need not remember thee of that swarm of blinde superstitious Ceremonies that are among us passing under the name of old harmles customs Their frequent calling upon Saints in their Prayers and Blessings their Peregrinations to Wells and Chappels Mistake me not that I delight to discover the blemishes of my Country it argues good will to tell ones malady before a Physitian Not I first but our own learned Countryman Dr. Powel doth in his Books bewaile us for these miseries as c. 2. annot. in itin. Giral Camb. And the reasons of all you shall hear in his own words Haec omnia ignorantia Evangelicae praedicationis inopia contingunt and a little after Quicquid in hac re peccatum sit illud totum Pastorum paucitati ascribendum est ad quorum sustentationem satis ampla stipendia redditus Ecclesiastici in Cambria omnia opima Sacerdotia in generosorum manibus aut ab illis possidentur qui non in Cambria sed in aliis quidem partibus vitam degunt hi neque animas neque corpora pascunt modo ipsi lanam habeant And thus copiously and sadly bemoaning our state concludes Deus tempore opportune ecclesiae suae melius providebit And surely if ever now this Tempus opportunum is come upon us Let us lay hold upon the lock and blesse God for it doubtlesse if we be not wanting unto our selves the Lord is in hand to do great things for us It were worth our labour seriously to observe the gracious accesses of God made towards us in very late favours 1. He hath been gracious to us in the course of this war We were not such friends to the Parliament as to have so good dealing and Quarter as we have had we deserved harsher means and rougher hands to reduce us then we had But praised be his mercy not strangers but those of our own bowels we only knew from and when we deserved a whipping He gives the rod to our friends hands 2. But this is not all if we mark we may see his greatest favour his Gospel comming among us the Bible before only known in the Church-Volume hath by the meanes of worthy Sir Tho. Middleton been translated to the vulgar Volume In some places of Wales the Gospel doth already kindle and that which our Countries can never too gratefully acknowledge by the worthy and godly endeavour of Mr. Cradock and especially which is worth our notice it begins to shine in a place heretofore noted for untowardnes called Llangerick in Mongomeryshire a place formerly but of very sorry fame but now pointed at as the Puritans Roundheads of Wales and all this through the godly pains of some persecuted Ministers resorting thither through manifold discouragements and dangers 3. Divers good Books have lately been translated into our language and our learned Dr. Davies compiled that monument of his learning love to his Country his elaborate Dictionary whereby not only we our selves but even strangers may become perfect in our tongue 4. Neither must we let it passe without our greatest admiration how the Lord hath so marvellously preserved our Tongue at which Mr. Cambden himself though otherwise not much acknovvledged our friend breaks into highest admiration that it should survive after so many Conquests of Us and attempts to extinguish it In hac linguarum consideratione non possumus non maximè admirari praedicare divinam summi Creatoris benignitatem in nostros tannos c. linguam suam tectam hactenus

then you may by this time believe alike what the Parliament evermore constantly professed That they took not up Arms against the King but in His and the Kingdoms defence against a Malignant Party The Parliament ever told us the truth or our own sense will give us the lie Yet let me tell you Where the truth and glory of God is concerned and Liberty of Conscience the Christian is not always to play the Asse Blessed Paul in a lesser point though one appointed to Persecutions and Patience yet when he saw his time to stand upon his priviledge as forgetting the Christian takes a Roman spirit They have beaten us uncondemned now they thrust us out privily nay verily but let them come and fetch us out Luk. cap. 9. You shall find our blessed Saviour giving orders to his Disciples And he said unto them Take nothing for your journy neither slaves neither scrip nor sword neither mony nor have two coats apeece But not long after how much is the matter altered Luk. 22. But he that hath a purse let him take it and likewise his scrip and he that hath no sword let him sel his garment end buy one What meanes all this but to tell us that He that is the Lamb of God is also Lion of the Tribe of Iudah and that the same holy Lips that bequeathed nothing but Peace to his Church pronounceth also elswhere Suppose ye that I am come to give Peace 〈◊〉 earth I tell you nay but rather Division and a sword We Christians as we are to be as innocent as Doves yet as wise as Serpents and when our Masters credit and honour is touched we must have the genius that Peter had when he struck off Malchus eare Mistake me not this is not to encourage any to Rebellion but to take off that error that Court-Divinity obtruded upon us That in no case whatsoever Arms are to be medled with he Gods glory and Conscience ever so much concerned I mean no otherwise then King Iames his own pen hath resolved it Bishop * Bilson maintained it and our King in ayding and succouriug the States and Rochellers confirms as much There are those that in points meerly of politick interest grant much in this kinde Peter Martyr distinguishing Subjects sayes That those that are merè privati may not dare to lift up an hand against their Lord and King But those other kind of Subjects he there cals Sic inferiores out superior potestis ab illis utcunque pendeat certisque legibus reipublicae praeficiunt And he instances the Ephori of the Lacedemonians and the Tribunes of Rome And what can they do Si Princeps pactis promis●is non steterit cum in ordinem cogere ac vi ●digere ut conditiones pacta quae fuerat pollicitus compleat idque vel armis cum aliter fieri non possit And then instanceth how in that kinde the Danes dealt with their King in his dayes And afterwards urging Polydore Virgil Anglos aliquande suos Reges compulisse ad rationem reddendam male administratae pecuniae Though this learned man afterwards as a Divine and modestly Ego vero dum illorum consilium ad regul●m Scripturarum examino id non probe But for thy satisfaction good Country-man in the present point I do think that our loyalty and obedience to Kings is alwayes subordinate to God and we should through them alwayes looke upon him and rather be accounted Traitors to the one then the other especially when His Glory is publikely asserted I marvell this Doctrine was so strange when even the very Common-Prayer book did teach it as in that Collect for the King Almighty God whose kingdom is everlasting c. So rule the heart of thy chosen servant Charles our King that he above all things may seek thine honour and glory and we his Subjects duly considering whose authority he hath may faithfully serve honour and obey him in Thee and for Thee according to Thy blessed Word and Ordinance If now good Country-man thou yeeldest to the Interest Gods glory hath in us thou wilt come easily to digest the Covenant concerning which nothing needs be more said to satisfie thee then what the learned Assembly have in their Instructions But lest thou hast neither seen or well understood them let me tell thee that this is not a slight Oath devised for temporall and politick ends but a most pious and solemn Covenant whereby Gods honour being at stake thou dost list thy self for his service And think not this a new trick or invention but a meer imitation of the people of God in their extremities as in the times of EZra and Nehemiah Read those holy Books and throughly ponder and understand them and I will warrant thee thou wilt not stick at the Covenant It is not unworthy thy noting how that the enemies there still make use of the King to frustrate the good works EZra cap. 4. you shall see Rheum the Chancellour with the malignant party begin Be it known unto the King that the Iews are come up to Ierusalem building the rebellious bad City And be it known unto the King that if this City be builded they will pay no custom unto the King and it is not meet for us to see the Kings dishonour therefore we will send to certifie the King So that here you see nothing but King and King And wicked Sanballat he doth the like to good Nehemiah The Iewes think to rebell for which cause thou buildest the wall that thou mayest be their King So that if any designe be on foot for GOD the only means to dash it must still be King But these good Worthies go on in their good purposes though subject to heathen Kings and acknowledging their sinnes to be the cause of their miseries And because of all this we make a sure Covenant and write it and our Princes Levites and Priests seal to it You understand the ground of the Covenant Now to satisfie you for your common objections I say first As for the Oath of Allegiance it doth fortifie and confirm it principally providing strict Clauses for loyalty and obedience to His Majesty And for Ministers who have sworn to maintain the former Church-government c. the Instructions tell them that an Oath binds tantum licitis honestis and where the lawfulnesse of an Oath ceaseth the obligation also ceaseth Constant practise shewes that Magistrates take oaths to maintain all the lawes of the land and many lawes afterward may be abrogated the meaning of the Oath being to maintain Laws while they are Laws but when they are repealed by the Power that made them they are wiped out of his charge oath And withall is it not all one now in this case as it was in the beginning of Reformation Hen. 8. All the Clergy were formerly bound to maintain the Popes Supremacie and the Doctrine

of Rome but when the impiety and unlawfulnesse of it appeared might not they be well discharged of their oath And who can better judge of the unlawfulnesse and corruption of the Prelatical government then the wisdome of the Parliament and they adjudging it unlawfull what oath soever thou hast taken to maintain it is but vinculum iniquitatis and so absolutely void And Qui jur at in iniquum obligatur in contrarium But you are not satisfied because the King is not with the Parliament I must tell you it is no new invention to ascribe to the King a Capacity differing from his person and in that capacity and Kingly power he is virtually present in the Parliament In this sense thou hast heard say that the King is immortall and where thou hast seen his Patents and Commissions he is said to be present Another thing thou canst not well brook in the Covenant is the mention of the Church of Scotland Indeed I must confesse it hath got the start of us for that Honour If we call them Brethren they have Iacob-like robbed us of that Blessing If we call her our Sister-Kingdom she hath Mary-like before us chosen the better part And alas all this through our own fault God hath again and again offered us this Honour ever since the first Reformation stirring up godly men who have by all meanes and importunities earnestly sought to procure us this happines but in stead of being heard have been requited only with contempts and all discouragements Prelatical greatnesse could load them withall But for thy satisfaction understand the Covenant propounds no Church unto thee as a pattern but only the Word of GOD to be thy rule and pattern It were much to be wished the Covenant were tendred as piously and solemnly as the Parliament hath prescribed and not suddenly and violently pressed upon some and mincingly given unto others in corners To be brief Country-man if thou wouldest endeavour to understand the Covenant as the Parliament intends it thou wouldest never stick at it it tending only to no more but to procure a better World and thy self to become a better Man I am now come Country-man to thy Dagon the Common-Prayer book As for the matter and form of it the Exceptions against them have been sufficiently made known to the world I shall only endeavour unto thee to justifie the Abolishment of it from that apparent inconvenience and prejudice it occasioned to the Gospel and the Professors of it It was truly said that in our dayes we have seen Conformity to Ceremonies more exacted than Conformity to Christianity It is but fresh in our memories If a good man should but in tendernesse of conscience scruple any thing against the Common-Prayer book were he otherwise ever so gracious he was presently a Puritan and there was no breathing for him among us whilst another that would make no bones of the Common-Prayer book nor of any thing else reading only the Common-Prayer book and be otherwise ever so unworthy and scandalous he should passe for an Orthodox Minister and have Livings heaped upon him and the other good soule his wife and children left to all contempt and poverty Obj. But you will say this was not the Books fault but must be imputed to the Bishops c. Ans. I say the Common-Prayer book was at least the occasion of their sufferings and haply their afflictions have cried to heaven for this vengeance which must be no lesse then the utter abolishment of it It is ordinary that but a Relation to a notorious Evil suffers in the Judgement Torquin doth but a foul fact and the harmlesse name of King must be discarded Rome One Ravillaick murthers a great King and his name must no more be heard in France the Father commits Treason and the innocent Issue must suffer in the forfeiture The Bishops were the Common-Prayer books Patrons and the main Authors of its evils and it with them must suffer in the doom But this is not all it was not so void of guilt as this though after a close manner and not sensible to all it was very prejudiciall and a shrewd enemy to the Gospel You know there was a necessity of reading it As for the Preaching of the Word let it get its place and esteem as it could And this necessity of the one rather then the other drew generally the credit to that which seemed most necessary Mans nature is most contented with the easiest way of serving God and Publike Government countenancing thus the Common-Prayer book rather then the other By this means whatever tended to the more effectual knowledge and reall service of God was accounted but Precisenesse c. 2. Me thinks that were sufficient reason to abolish it even to satisfie the Consciences of our Christian brethren and so peace and better communion might be betwixt us Our Christian brethren are offended out of meer conscience and we will needs retain it out of meer fancy No doubt but many thousands in the beginning of Reformation were as loth to forgoe the Masse-book who upon better experience blessed God to be rid of it We are hardly pleased with the form of such Mansions as our Ancestors a hundred yeares ago were well contented with and it is our opprobrium gentile daily to change the fashion of apparels and yet to be so wilfully wedded to a kind of Divine service so apparently prejudiciall to the Gospel even against farre better means seems a strange Delirium I appeale to thine own experience Country-man hast thou not observed that the better most godly kind of Ministers have been ever most malecontented at the Common-Prayer book and the most unworthy scandalous and corrupter kinde have been most maintainers and patrons of it Mr. Hooker its best champion sayes That if the Minister powres not his soule in prayer and speaks not as Moses Daniel and Ezra did for their people the service of the Common-Prayer book avails but little Then judge thou how happy have we been and are in Wales that heare it from some that scarce can read it I must cleer an error which hath been obtruded upon thee and many others viz. That the Common-Prayer book was confirmed by the blood of Martyrs This I have often seen and especially under the hand of a Minister accounted learned in our own country among other wide Elogies to a most understanding and religious Knight I deny not but some of those that compiled it in Edw. 6 his dayes dyed worthy Martyrs but I cannot learn they dyed martyrs but in defence of the Gospel and the truth of it against the idolatry and superstition of Rome and for nothing else We may as well say the Apostles Act. 15. having for the peace and conveniency of the Church ordained Orders to abstain from things strangled and from blood say they confirmed these Decrees with their blood because afterward they suffered martyrdom for the