their Disciples and Followers who refusing to be called of that Sect yet participate too much with their Humours in maintaining the above-mentioned Errors and the King further adds I Protest upon my Honour I did not mean it generally of all those Preachers or others that like better the single Form of Policy in our Church than of the many Ceremonies of the Church of England or that are perswaded that their Bishops smell of a Papal Supremacy No I am so far from being contentious in these things that I equally love and honour the Learned and Grave Men of either Opinion And that those called Puritans at that time in England were not such Persons as are here described appears sufficiently from the earnest Endeavours both of the House of Commons and Lords of the Privy Council on their behalf and the different account they give of them who must needs be acknowledged very competent Judges and it is observable that the Familists in England took notice of this censure of the King 's Fuller Church Hist Book 10 p. 30. and in their Petition to him when he came into England they disown all Affinity with the Puritans and speak reproachfully of them under that Title themselves I hope this will abundantly acquit the Old English Puritans from being the Persons aimed at in those Royal Reflections and therefore notwithstanding any thing in that Book it may be very true that the Bishops flattered that King into an ill Opinion of them That some of our English Prelates endeavour'd to do very ill Offices betwixt the King and Presbyterian Party even before he came into England is most certainly true and it cannot be imagined that they would be less busie when they had him amongst them Bishop Bancroft was more than ordinary active in such Designs as appeared amongst other things by a Letter from one Norton a Stationer in Edenburgh directed for him and intercepted Calderwood's Hist of the Ch. of Scotland p. 248. upon Examination Norton acknowledged that he was employed by Bancroft to disperse certain Questions that tended to the Defamation of the Kirk and Presbyterial Government The same Bishop writ frequent Letters to Mr. Patrick Adamson the Titular Archbishop of St. Andrews which were many of them intercepted wherein he stirs him up to Extol and Praise the Church of England above all others and to come up to London Ibid. p. 259. assuring him that he would be very welcome and well rewarded by the Archbishop of Canterbury This Adamson had composed a Declaration which passed under the King's Name wherein the whole Order of the Kirk was greatly traduced and condemned The Commissioners of the General Assembly complained to the King of the many false Aspersions contained therein which were so shameful that the King disowned it and said It was not his doing but the Archbishops and prudently discarded that great Favourite and gave the Rents of the Bishoprick to the Duke of Lenox The poor Gentleman thus abandoned professes himself to be truly Penitent for what he had done and makes a full Recantation which he Subscribed in the presence of a great many Witnesses and directs it to the Synod conven'd at St. Andrew's Confessing That he had out of Ambition Vain-Glory and Covetousness undertaken the Office of an Archbishop That he had laboured to advance the King's Arbitrary Power in Matters of Religion and Protested before God that he was commanded to write that Declaration by the Chancellor the Secretary and another great Courtier and that he was more busie with some Bishops in England in Prejudice of the Discipline of the Kirk partly when he was there and partly by Mutual Intelligence than became a good Christian much less a Faithful Pastor c. Now although the King fondly adhered to such kind of Men whilst he hoped to advance his Prerogative thereby yet when he began to perceive the ill Effects of such Conduct Ibid. Preface he still deserted them and in those prudent Intervals would freely declare his good Opinion of the Presbytery and their Form of Government particularly in the National Assembly 1590. He thank'd God that he was King of such a Country wherein says he there is such a Church even the sincerest Church on Earth Geneva not excepted seeing they keep some Festival Days as Easter and Christmas and what have they for it As for our Neighbours in England their Service is an ill mumbled Mass in English they want little of the Mass but the Liftings Now I charge you my good People Barons Gentlemen Ministers and Elders that you all stand to your Purity and Exhort the People to do the same and as long as I have Life and Crown I will maintain the same against all deadly Nay Calder p. 473. when he took his leave of Scotland upon the Union of the two Kingdoms he solemnly promised the Ministers of the Synod of Lothian that he would make no Alterations in their Discipline but when he came up to London those who had been tampering with him and his Courtiers before had a fair opportunity to accomplish their Design which was the utter Abolition of the Presbytery in Scotland and the Suppression of the Puritans in England And saith my Author as soon as the English Prelates had got King James amongst them R. Baylie's Vindication and Answer to the Declarat p. 11. they did not rest till Mr. Melvill and the Prime of the Scots Divines were called up to London and only for their Just Defence of the Truth and Liberties of Scotland against Episcopal Usurpations were either Banish'd or Confin'd and so sore Oppressed that it brought many of them with Sorrow to their Graves and the whole Discipline of the Church was over-thrown notwithstanding the King 's parting Promise to the contrary The Nonconformists in England were so far from being brought over by the Severities of the former Reign that they drew up a Petition about this time Signed by Seven hundred and fifty Ministers desiring Reformation of certain Ceremonies and Abuses in the Church which Fuller gives us at large this was designed to have been presented before the Conference at Hampton-Court but was deferr'd till after The Relation of this so much talk'd of Conference as Fuller reports it out of Barlow is justly suspected of great Partiality and the Historian himself speaks doubtfully of it and yet even in that we have a plain Indication of what temper the Court and Bishops were It looks very odd that when the King had allow'd several of Dr. Reynold's Exceptions he should threaten if they had no more to say He would make them to Conform or hurry them out of the Land or do worse a poor business for a Prince to menace his own Subjects for Non-conformity to that which himself had formerly called an Ill-mumbled Mass in English and even now acknowledged wanted some Reformation But we have this Matter set in a truer Light by Mr. Patrick Galloway in his Account of it
Ghost teach us in sundry places of Scripture saying Mercifulness and Alms-giving purgeth from all Sin delivereth from Death and suffereth not the Soul to come into darkness alledging for it Tobit 4. v. 10. and the saying of the Son of Syrach That Alms maketh an Atenement for Sin There are many good Petitions in the Liturgy and good Directions in the Rubrick which we could some of us freely use but we cannot prevail with our selves to Assent to that Notorious Mistake in the Rule for finding Easter nor can well digest that Complemental Prayer Those things which for our Unworthiness we dare not and for our blindness we cannot Ask vouchsafe to give us for the worthiness of thy Son There are excellent Lessons taken out of Scripture and appointed to be Read which our Ministers would gladly do but we cannot approve of those fulsom Apocryphal Tales 〈◊〉 ch 3. ch 5. and 6. about Sarah the Daughter of Reguel and her infernal Spark Asmodeus that killed all her Husbands before they lay with her till at length the Angel Raphael put them into a way to get rid of the Amorous Fiend by burning the Intrals of a Fish which it seems had such a Super-sulphureous stench that the Devil himself could not endure it but quits the Room and his Mistress to the enjoyment of his Rival Tobias I might take notice of the strange and self-contradicting Stories that this pretended Angel told them Of the many odd and gross things we have in Judith and in Ecclesiasticus as where we are disswaded from receiving Strangers to our Houses Ecclus ch 11. v. 34. To be read Octob. 25. for says the Book He will disturb thee and turn thee out of thy own and we are bid give Alms only to the Godly but help not a Sinner give not to the ungodly hold back thy Bread and give it not to him for the most High hateth Sinners Chap. 12.1 2 3. let all Mankind judge how contrary this is to our Saviour's Command Love your Enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you that you may be like your Father which is in Heaven for he maketh his Sun to rise upon the Evil and the Good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust And yet this Apocryphal Doctrine is appointed to be Read in Churches as a Lesson To be read Octob. 30. Concil Laod. Can. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I fear too many have learned and this is part of the Book to which we must subscribe as containing nothing contrary to the Word of God and the Preface to the Common-Prayer Book says nothing is ordained to be Read but the very pure Words of God or that which is agreeable to them to which we must likewise Assent Many more such Passages might be and have been mentioned which contain things false or odd and ridiculous and wholly unfit to take up a place in so Sacred a Thing as the Worship of God There are many amongst us that would willingly submit to a Moderate Episcopacy according to Archbishop Vsher's Reduction but we cannot declare our Approbation of delegating the Power of the Keys to Lay Men nor dare our Ministers promise to Publish all such Excommunications as they send out which may sometimes be levell'd at the most Sober religious Persons in the Parish nor dare they consent to Publish the Absolution of Notorious Debauchees who have given no other Proof of Repentance besides Paying the Fees of the Court we dare not trifle with such things as these nor expose the Censures of the Church to that Scandal and Contempt they lye under by reason of such Practices When this Case was proposed to the Ministers of the Helvetian Churches before-mentioned That the Keys of binding and loosing are not used by the judgment of the Presbyters according to the Word of God but by certain Lawyers and made a Money Business and their advice was desired how far these things ought to be complied with They seem to be amazed at the thing Judgment of Forreign Divines p. 16. as altogether incredible and answer That though things which are ill done by one Party may be born with by another while they cannot change or reform them yet if they shall be forced not only to bear but to approve such things and to Assent to so manifest an Abuse we then exhort them that they will rather suffer any kind of Trouble than act herein against their Consciences 3dly We must not only use and approve these things but must Swear That we will not endeavour any Alteration in the Government of the Church this the Oxford Act requires of us and that in terms as Universal as can be and leaves us no liberty to explain our selves or to say that we will not endeavour by any unlawful means to do it And we remember very well how the Marquess of Argyle was dealt with for putting such a sence upon the like words It is not long since a Great Prelate of our Church openly declared That the Spiritual Courts are the great Grievance of the Nation and it is very hard we must be obliged to Swear that we will not at any time endeavour the redress of such a Common Nusance that we must not Study Write or Petition for it this was a clenching blow indeed to fasten and entail all the faults of the Constitution upon our Selves and our Heirs for ever This is a brief Account of those things that have made us Nonconformists and now keep our Ministers out of the Parish Churches those that would see them more largely and strongly and particularly argued are remitted to the Books before mentioned Let us now see what the Gentleman has said to Vindicate these Impositions and then I 'll bid him farewell till we meet again 1. He endeavours to justifie them by the like Practice amongst the Presbyterians mentioning Three significant Ceremonies imposed by them at the taking of the Covenant viz. The Person must be uncovered must stand up and the right hand must be lifted up bare and these he says were terms of Communion amongst them Now really for my part I am much confirmed in my dislike of these controverted Impositions because I find the Defenders of them are forced instead of justifying to recriminate and all they have to say is the Presbyterians were as bad as they when they had the Power in their hands and if there be any Strength in such a Reply it concludes against themselves for doing that which they condemn in others and all that it proves is that all Parties have been at one time or other transported into unreasonable Severities against each other and surely then 't is time for all to amend unless they resolve to perpetuate these Quarrels and to act them alternately in an Endless round There are not many Dissenters now alive that remember any thing of those days and fewer that were
Gentleman's design is to revive these old Ceremonies of Feasting and Kissing and having all things common not only for the sake of their Apostolical Institution but as being all of them Ceremonies of very comfortable importance to a Man of his Temper and Circumstances But after all if it were plain that the Apostles made meer Ceremonies terms of Communion it will scarcely follow that our Bishops may do so too no more than that they may write Canonical Epistles and make Laws to bind the whole World as the inspired Apostles did To make terms of Communion is a very great Power especially if out of Communion there be no Salvation for then to make terms of Communion is to make the terms of Salvation and to put such a Power into the hands of weak and fallible Men is a thing of such dismal Consequences to the Souls of Men that we may be sure our Blessed Redeemer would never do it He has in his own Person and by his Apostles whom he inspired fixed that Law by which he will justifie and condemn Men and has not left it in the Power of any Mortal to add thereunto and to pretend to such Power is not only to impose upon Men but upon God too as if he must ask them leave whether he shall have a Church upon Earth or no. REFLECTIONS Upon a PAMPHLET ENTITULED A REVIEW OF Mr. M. H ' s. new Notion of Schism and the Vindication of it THE Title of this Paper imports that there has been some kind of Answer already made to the Enquiry and Vindication but such as the Zealous Club judge Lame and Impotent and therefore have thought fit to order a Review great things surely may be expected from this which comes to supply the defects of the former Methinks the Author of the Reply is more concerned in this thing called a Review than either the Enquiror or Vindicator Reply p. 2. for 't is a scurvey intimation that his own Confederates do not believe him when he boasts that he has run down his Adversary and proved and shewed and demonstrated every thing for if they had entertain'd as good an opinion of the success of his last expedition as he himself has it had been the most superfluous thing in the World to have come with a Review before the other had received an Answer these things would almost persuade a Man to think P. 35. that T. W's Reputation is not so great amongst the party as he pretends But whether this latter comes out on purpose to Affront the Citizen or whether it be with his consent upon conviction of the miserable weaknesses of his Reply I neither know nor care my business is to enquire whether the valiant Second has done any greater seats than he that first engaged in the quarrel This Gentleman must not expect an Answer to his famous and innumerable Oxford Jests I consider the humour of his party and how dull and insipid every thing is to them how rational soever that has not a great mixture of Farce and Comedy in it for my part I shall take no more notice of them than I would do of those little ludicrous wanton Creatures that can make themselves excellent sport with their own Tails and Shadows As to the Enquiry there are two very material things he encounters in it the Design and the Management He will not allow the Design of it to be Honest and Peaceable to allay heats and create a better understanding amongst us as the Vindicator pretends that design it seems is too high and the Vindicator ascribes too much to Mr. H. in saying he endeavoured to create a better understanding betwixt parties that had been so long and learnedly contending this is to place him in the Chair and make him an Oracle and I do not know what so uneasie a thing it is to Proud Men to hear any body commended but themselves it seems the Reviewer had no design to accommodate differences or to contribute any thing to a better understanding betwixt Church-men and Dissenters he modest man will not pretend to take so high an aim for my part I believe this was not his design but then I am sure it must be something worse that is to enflame the differences and perplex the controversie and no doubt he has managed such a design as well as he could He tells us Mr. H's design was no greater than to satisfie the scruples of some persons and to make two Female Proselites which is a great piece of news to Mr. H. for he declares he knows nothing of it and desires the Gentleman to name the Persons that were to be drawn in and to tell us at what Gossipping he pickt up this Story or else we must lay the Brat at his own Door I leave it to the Reader to judge what expectations Mr. H. could have from this Book when he found so notorious a Fiction in the very first Page And truly he goes on as he begun telling us that Mr. H's Notion of Schism will turn all Church Discipline out of Doors Review p. 3. for if breach of Communion be no Schism as these Gentlemen alledge a Man may appeal from the Stool of Repentance to the Quakers Meeting House c. It is not without good reason that some Men have so great a spight at the Stool of Repentance there are a sort of Men that hate it as a Thief hates the Gallows the Citizen could not forbear it in his Book But to let that pass I wonder where this Gentleman finds any such a Sentence in either of the books he pretends to review as that breach of Communion is no Schism let him produce it or confess himself worse than a trifler Both those Books acknowledge Separation of Communion to be Schism if it be uncharitable and to be sinful if it be without good reason and how this can be prejudicial to Church Discipline I know not unless by Church Discipline be meant that uncharitable unchristian and tyrannical thing that has been sometimes acted under that Title and if that should be turned out of Doors by this account of Schism all wise men will love it better upon that score He proceeds We have reason to question the peaceableness of his design Review p. 4. for the Notion it self being contrived to encourage and justifie Separation I am afraid the last result and consequence of it will not be peace this has as little honesty in it as the former there is not the least tendency in Mr. H's Notion to encourage or justifie any sinful Separation nay it lays the strictest tye upon persons to see to it not only that the cause of their Separation be just but the manner of it peaceable and charitable too if the Cause be not just it is sinful and if it be not managed peaceably and charitably it is Schismatical Nay it obliges persons in the same Communion to avoid uncharitable contentions about the lesser matters of
of Salisbury who has obliged us with the Account of these Letters adds that he saw other Letters wherein it was asserted that both Cranmer and Ridley intended to procure an Act in King Edward's Reign for the abolishing of the Habits and that they only defended their lawfulness but not their fitness The same Learned Prelate who favoured the World with these ingenious Letters whilst he was beyond Sea has discovered the same Integrity and Regard to Truth and Moderation since his return and in the presence of the most August Assembly expresses himself thus Here suffer me to tell you that in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign our Adversaries saw no hopes of retrieving their Affairs Dr. Burnets Thanksgiving Serm. before the House of Commons Jan. 31. 1688. which had been spoiled by Queen Mary's Persecution but by setting on foot Divisions amongst Protestants upon very inconsiderable matters I my self have seen the Letters of the Chief Bishops of that time from which it appears that the Queen's stiffness in maintaining some Ceremonies flowed not from their Counsels but from the practices of some disguised Papists And I have had in my hand the Original Journal of the lower House of Convocation in the fifth year of that glorious Reign in which the matter of the Ceremonies was first argued and when it came to the Vote it was carried by the greater Number of the Voices of the Members that were present to lay down all those Subjects of Contests but the Proxies turned it to the severer side How unhappy the Effects of this Act for Conformity were which in the Convocation turned upon so narrow a Point may appear by the words of a worthy Person then living which are these For some five years together before the Subscription was urged Mr. Nichols Plea of the Innocent p. 206 207 there was such Unity amongst the Ministers and they joyned together in all places so lovingly and diligently that many thousands were converted from Atheism and Popery but when Subscription was urged many godly worthy learned Preachers were silenced and deprived the Nation distracted many good Persons grieved and offended and Papists and wicked men encouraged and emboldened These things were so obvious that divers Lords of the Privy Council earnestly sollicited for Moderation and in an excellent Letter to A. See the Letter at large in Fuller C.H. Book 9. p. 151. Bishop Whitgist and the Bishop of London set forth that a great number of Learned and Zealous Preachers were suspended from their Cures and the County of Essex and other Places and many of their Rooms filled with Persons neither of good Learning nor good Name but chargeable with great faults as Drunkenness Filthiness Gaming Haunting of Ale-houses c. wherein they earnestly entreat the Prelates to take some charitable consideration of these Causes that the People of the Realm may not be deprived of their Pastors being Diligent Learned and Zealous though in some Points Ceremonial they may seem doubtful in Conscience c. Subscribed by the Lord Burleigh Earl of Shrewsbury E. Warwick E. Leicester L. Howard J. Croft Hatton Walsingham But they were put off with the common Answer that the Ministers were Factious and Contemners of the Ecclesiastical Laws and Authors of Disquietness and must not be suffered to exercise their Ministry without further Conformity Not long after Ibid. p. 174. these things were taken notice of in Parliament and the Honourable House of Commons Passed some Bills in favour of the Nonconformists but the Arch-bishop was importunate with the Queen not to give her consent and so nothing was effected Still the Nation grew more and more sensible of the ill Consequences of the Bishops proceedings and in the year 1587. The House of Commons presented to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal a Petition in sixteen Particulars some against scandalous and insufficient Ministers others desiring the abatement of certain Oaths and Subscriptions tendred to persons at their entrance on the Ministry and yet not expresly prescribed by the Laws of the Realm and that Ministers might not be troubled for their omission of some Rites Ibid. p. 191. prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer c. And divers of the Lords approved of this Petition and spoke to it But the Arch-bishop betook himself to his old Weapon cries out the Church was a falling O Dea. cert makes his Prayers to the Queen calls her a Goddess and carries the point against them all Having thus baffled the Parliament they proceed to the Imprisonment of Mr. Cartwright the silencing of Mr. Travers of whom Dr. Fuller gives us such a Character P. 216. as is no way to the credit of those that dealt so harshly with him But this was not all Mr. Udall and divers others were condemned to dye for writing against the Male Government of these Ecclesiasticks which was now become a capital crime by one of the greatest stretches of Law that ever was heard of in England P. 222. We now come to the Reign of K. James the first and here I think it may be seasonable to wipe off that Dirt which T. W. has cast upon the Vindicator for saying that when this Prince ascended the English Throne the Prelatick party dreading lest the Puritans should have too great a share of his favours Bent all their Studies to create prejudices in him against them The Citizen replies The ill opinion which the King had of the Puritans was founded upon his own experience and published long before he had any converse with the English Bishops and transcribes a passage out of his ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΟΠΔΩΡΟΠwhere He says Take heed my Son of such Puritans very Pests in the Church and Common-wealths Whom no Deserts can oblige c. But the Gentleman ought not to have insulted over his Adversary in such opprobrious Language till he had considered That not a word of this was intended of the English Puritanes concerning whom the Vindicator spoke For this Prince had but a little while before writ three Letters to Queen Elizabeth in favour of them and therein speaks very honourably of Mr. Cartwright and Mr. Udal who were esteemed the Leading Men of that party And kindly interceeded for those that Dissented from the Bishops in the things at that time controverted amongst them Nor by the word Puritan did the King mean the Presbyterians as such if we may believe his own words in the Preface to the aforesaid Book wherein he declares That the Name Puritan did properly belong to that Sect amongst the Anabaptists called The Family of Love Because says he they think themselves Pure and in a manner without Sin the only true Church and only worthy to partake of the Sacraments of this special Sect I principally mean when I speak of Puritans divers of them as Brown Penry and others having at sundry times come into Scotland to saw their Popple And indeed I give this Title to such Brain-sick and heady Preachers
from London to the Presbytery of Edenburgh Calder p. 474. after it was Revised by the King 's own Hand The words are Beloved Brethren after my hearty Commendations these Presents are to shew you that I received Two of your Letters One directed to His Majesty the other to my Self for my Perusal the same I read closed and three days before the Conference delivered into His Majesties Hand and received it back again after some short Speeches upon those words in your Letter the Gross Corruptions of this Church which were then expounded and I was assured all Corruptions dissonant from the Word of God or contrary thereunto should be amended The Twelfth of January was the day of Meeting at which time the Bishops were call'd upon and gravely desired to advise upon all the Corruptions of this Church in Doctrine Ceremonies and Discipline and as they would answer it to God in Conscience and to His Majesty upon their Obedience that they should return the Third day after which was Saturday Accordingly they returned to His Majesty and when the Matter was propounded to them as before they answered All was Well And when His Majesty with great fervency brought instances to the contrary they upon their Knees with great earnestness craved that nothing should be altered lest the Popish Recusants punished for Disobedience and the Puritans punished by Deprivation ab officio beneficio for Nonconformity should say they had just Cause to insult upon them as Men who had endeavoured to bind them to that which by their own Mouths now was confess'd to be Erroneous After five Hours Dispute had by His Majesty against them and his resolution for Reformation intimated to them they were dismissed for that day c. but it appears by the result their importunity overcame him at last Dr. Fuller observes That whereas before this Conference it was disputable whether the North where he long lived or the South whither he lately came would prevail most on the King's Judgment in Church Government now this Question was clearly decided I hope now the Vindicator may be allowed to have some Grains of Shame and Modesty common to Humane Nature though he ventured to say That the English Prelates flattered King James into an ill Opinion of the Puritans and the thing is not so plain or known a Contradiction as the Citizen pretends and for him to tell the World at this time a day of the famous Piety and Virtue of that Prince is ridiculous enough Alas the History of his Reign is too well known his Contending with Parliaments his Encouraging of Papists his Secret Articles upon the Treaties with Spain and France his greedy Desire of Arbitrary Power his Prostituting the Honours and Wasting the Treasures of the Nation after a most inglorious manner produced those ill Effects under which these Kingdoms have laboured and languished ever since till by the late happy Revolution our Antient Rights and privileges were raised out of the Grave recognised and settled upon their true Basis once more The Unhappy Government of K. Charles the First is now sufficiently Unveiled especially by Rushworth's Impartial Collections The Vindicator briefly hinted at those Irregular and Arbitrary Practices that forced the Parliament to take up Arms for the Defence of their Liberties and for rescuing the King out of the hands of those Councellors that had so fatally misled him T. W. calls this Notorious Calumny and says he could answer all the Instances particularly but he refers to the Rolls and Acts of Parliament The Vindicator is willing to joyn issue with him here and appeals to the several Petitions Remonstrances and Speeches made in Parliament as they stand upon Record in the Journals of both Houses and they are now made so publick that no Man but one who has no Reputation to lose would have offered to deny that which all the Nation that can read Books know to be true And I will also tell him that there is not one passage mentioned by the Vindicator concerning the Male Administration of that King but what he may find in the Supplement to Baker 's Chronicle a History never suspected for Disloyalty but evidently partial the other way The Vindicator renew'd the Challenge to Name four Persons in that Parliament Dr. Burnet tells us the Duke of Hamilton was dissatisfied with the Courses some of the Bishops had followed before the Troubles began and could not but impute their first rise to the Provocations that had been given by them Memoirs p. 408. that were not in full Communion with the Church of England when the War began It is true many of them that were for Episcopacy were highly offended at the Behaviour of some of the Bishops as appears by the Speeches of the Lords Falkland and Digby both great Royalists and for my part I desire no other Evidence of the intolerable Usurpations of the Laudensian Party than what those Noble Lords have given us which being now in so many Hands by the Publishing the third part of Rushworths Collections I will not transcribe The Nonconformists indeed generally joyned with the Parliament in that Cause which was doubtless as just and necessary when first undertaken as ever was carried upon the Point of a Sword But that it was without the least design upon the Kings Person their Solemn League and Covenant plainly proves and the many Declarations and Remonstrances which they afterwards made when they saw new designs laid and pursued In the Year 1648. When the Republican Faction was at the highest the Ministers called Presbyterian in and about London fearing that which afterwards happened boldly Published a Vindication of themselves and Exhortation to the People part of which I shall here Transcribe to let the World see how shamefully they have been abused about the Death of that King their Words are these To this Vindication we are compell'd at this time Vindicat. of the Minist Printed for T. Underhil Ann. 1648. Subscribed by C. Burgess D. D. W. Gouge D. D. E. Stanton D. D. T. Temple D. D. G. Walker E. Calamy B. D. J. Whitaker D. Câ—wdrey W. Spurstow L. Seaman D. D. Sim. Ashe T. Case N. Proffect T. Thorowgood E. Corbet H. Roborough A. Jackson J. Nalton T. Cawton C. Offspring Sa. Clark Io. Wall F. Roberts M. Haviland J. Sheffield W. Harrison W. Jenkin J. Viner E. Blackwel J. Cross J. Fuller W. Taylor P. Witham Fra. Peek Ch. 〈◊〉 J. Wallis T. Watson T. Bedford W. Wickins T. Manton D. D. Tho. Gouge W. Blackmore R. Mercer R. Robinson J. Glascock T. Whately J. Lloyde J. Wells B. Needler N. Staniforth S. Watkins J. Tice J. Stileman Jos Ball. J. Devereux P. Russel J. Kirby A. Barham because there are many who very confidently yet most unjustly charge us to have been formerly instrumental toward the taking away the Life of the King and because also there are others who in their Scurrilous Pasquils and Libels as well as with their Virulent Tongues represent us