in these times may behold as in a glasse the vilenesse of their sinne and the great displeasure of God against them for it If they look into the Scripture or later Histories and daily experience We read 2 Chron 36. 14 15. And the Lord God of their Fathers sent unto them by his Messengers rising up betimes and sending them because he had compassion on his house and on his dwelling place But they mocked the Messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets untill the wrath of God arose against his people till there was no remedy Therefore he brought upon them the King of the Chaldees who slow their young men with the sword in the house of their Sanctuary c. And Ahab and Jezabel persecuted the Prophets of God but dogs licked up the bloud of Ahab after he was slain and dogs did eat persecuting Jezabel The children which did mock and miscall Elisha the Prophet and Minister of God were two and fourty of them torn in pieces by wilde Bears 2 Kings 2. They were the children of Persecutors of Gods Ministers and spake their parents language The Persecutors of the Prophet Jeremiah said Come let us devise devices against Jeremiah let us smite him with the tongue Jer. 18. 18. Therefore God delivered up their children to the famine and their bloud was poured out by force of the sword Those that persecuted our Saviour the great Shepherd and did perswade people not to hear him preach saying He is mad and hath a Devil why hear ye him Joh. 10. 20. and would stone him though he spake as never man spake and did works which never man did yet they having begun to persecute him did sinne against the light of their own conscience and against the holy Ghost to make good their begun acts and hold up their reputation and did persecute him to the death What became of those persecutors Is not their judgement eternal in hell for their unpardonable sinne Alexender the Coppersmith and other Persecutors of the Apostles have their woful reward though they clamoured and articled against St Paul as a pestilent fellow a mover of sedition c. These things are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come and teach Ministers now for their comfort what Christ spake Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you for so persecuted they the Prophets that were before you And if they have persecuted me they will also persecute you But some men will not be warned by other mens harms and examples therefore they are made examples to others Our late Bishops and their Adherents are a rare and remarkable president of Gods Judgments on Persecutors of faithfull Ministers which sin made them ripe for their deserved downfall But their Persecutions ended at the beginning of the long Parliament Then the iron teeth of those beasts were knockt out and the iron yoaks which they had put on Ministers necks were all pull'd off But when the Ecclesiastical Courts were taken away the people took lawlesse liberty to themselves to put as it were a hogs yoak on Ministers necks and did persecute faithful Ministers sent unto them as sheep among wolves Oh what woorying and wearying out most precious Ministers by word and deed by tearing and tugging lyings and slanderings revilings and defraudings and withholding their maintenance by confederacy And these Persecutions especially in point of maintenance continue very great at this day all the Nation over people being encouraged hereunto for want of better Laws for Tything and of more speedy execution of justice according to the Laws that are in force Many hundreds of faithfull Ministers in England may justly write such books against their Persecutors to awaken the Christian Magistrate and warn Persecutors against whom their cries are gone up to Heaven and have brought down vengeance upon very many And their complaints and moans by words are daily heard and may be read some in print and in their Bils against thousands in the Court of Exchequer where relief is certain but so long waited for that in the mean time the poor Ministers and their families perish And oft-times the parties or witnesses or both die or the Tyth-robber breaks and runs the Countrey which is usuall before the Cause come to hearing I could shew Persecutors many very fresh examples of their sinne and of punishments on people that have lately persecuted faithfull Ministers in several Parishes as that of Mr E. K. of Dover in 1644. who came out of his seat and joyned in the hurliburly made in St James Church against Mr Vincent a godly able Minister who was sent thither by the Parliament and persecuted him otherwise But the Persecutor persecuted himself a little after by laying violent hands on himself and was a self-executioner by hanging himself This and many such bleeding examples may be produced touching the hand of God against such Persecutors enough to fill volumes But I shall now only instance in the Persecutors of Mr Richard Culmer heretofore of Magdalen Colledge in Cambridge Master of Arts and now Minister of Mynster in the Isle of Thanet in the County of Kent whose Persecutors are now very few living in that Parish but mighty and numerous elswhere even those of the Popish Prelatical and Cavalier Party that never saw him because of his activenesse against their Cause They have printed two libellous Books against him and often articled against him and raised Persecution against him to the shedding of his bloud c. as the ensuing History shews And to have their wils against him if it be possible to ruine him they have lately petitioned against him to his Highnesse himself and since publickly boasted against him in their confidence now to prevail against him which hath caused this Apology to be published in his just defence and for vindication of the truth This man after he left the free Grammer-school at Canterbury being senior of all that School then consisting of above two hundred Scholars in the time of Mr Roger Raven the King of Schoolmasters as he was deservedly styled at his Funeral an eminent godly learned yet persecuted and silenced Minister lived about eight years a Student in Magdalen-Colledge in Cambridge And being afterwards Minister of Goodnestone in East-Kent was persecuted from thence by Arch-bishop Laud only for refusing to publish the Kings Book for Sabbath-recreations See the History of that Arch-bishops Tryal in the Index letter C. Culmer And he continued three years and seven moneths silenced before the first Parliament was called In all which time he got not one farthing by his Ministry having seven children so little that he could and did carry them all at once on his back And to adde to his Persecutions by the Prelate he was persecuted by the Patronesse Mrs P. whose Posterity hath felt some reward of Persecution who immediately upon his silencing gave his Living away to Mr A. H. who for lucre of that
Benefice did joyn in the Persecution and did publish that prophane Book in that Parish Church on the Sabbath-day in the presence of Mr Culmer and of the people there But a year after he lost his goods by fire and the next year he himself was drowned in the water And Mr D. yet living then Curate to the Bishop of Rochester at Barham did that Sabbath also publish in the Church at Goodnestone the unjust Decree of Suspension made against Mr Culmer in the Arch-bishops Ecclesiastical Court by the Arch bishops special Order and Command to Sr N. B. But a little after this the people of Barham fell to dancing on the Sabbath and a quarrel arose about a wager between two dancers and he that won the wager had his brains knockt out that Sabbath But at the first coming in of the Scots into England the persecuting Arch-bishop who a little after was beheaded at Tower-hill for Treason c. presently absolved Mr Culmer who might justly say Garamercy good Scot for his Absolution And he being at liberty to preach was presently called by Dr Robert Ausâ—in now living to be his Assistant at Harbledown near Canterbury where he preached divers years and had very many Auditors from that famous City But there also he was persecuted for his actings against drunkennesse and against prophaning the Sabbath by Crickit playing before his door to spite him which when he had reproved privately and publickly they removed that sport to a field near the Woods where they threw stones at his Sonnes whom he sent to see if they played there and upon publick reproof the Church-warden whose wise was for just cause denied the Sacrament bought boards to keep the people of Canterbury out of the Church Seats And the grandee Persecutor J. W. used to go with his crew of brawlers and railers his wife especially upon the Sabbath to the Parsonage-house and there did clamour and bawl to the Doctor to move him that Mr Culmer might preach no more there and one of them S. S. cried out saying It is a shame to speak what he hath done and being asked by the Doctor what Mr Culmer had done the only answer of the accuser was Why was he turned out of Goodnestone And being urged to speak what he could say more he could not alledge any thing else By this the Magistrate may see that some people are like a kennel of Hounds that will bark for company if one or two bark against a Minister then presently one and all right or wrong as of old they all cried Not him they all cried Crucifie him c. The upholding of the noise and cry was Oh our souls our souls will you damn our souls we cannot edifie by one we love not But when their clamours prevailed not they writ Articles against Mr Culmer as followeth That he refuseth to administer the Sacrament according to the Church of England That he raised scandals of the Parish in the Pulpit That he made differences between Neighbours That some refuse to hear him and others declare they cannot edifie by him These and only these Articles they exhibited to the Doctor who having heard all things objected against Mr Culmer gave them an answer that what they objected he found either frivolous or false And he reproved a rich widow Mrs R who being asked Why she clamoured her only Answer was that Mr Culmer had said to the Overseers of the poor that he wondered that she refused to pay her assessement of 2s 6d to the poor But the Doctor being elsewhere provided of a Benefice wholly left that place to the Patron who placed a Minister there And when they were told a little after that they had made a sorry exchange in the room of M Culmer It was answered We care not whom we have nâ—w we are rid of M. Culmer But what is become of those Persecutors of M. Culmer is famously known One of them E. Br. because M Culmer would not give him the Sacrament immediately after he had been drunk and did pursue his wife with a drawn sword did thereupon write a Petition against M. Culmer and went about the Parish to get Subscriptions to it was a little after found guilty of Felony and was burnt in the hand at the Sessions at Canterbury And you may now finde the Grandee Persecutor J. W. in the Goal at Canterbury his sonne used to thresh Corn on the Sabbath mornings for fodder And now after the death of two Ministers the third having little encouragement amongst them left them destitute And after M. Culmer lest preaching at Harbledown he preached in Canterbury and there he and other Ministers were appointed by Authority or Parliament to detect and cause to be demolished the superstitious Inscriptions and Idolatrous Monuments in the Cathedral in Canterbury And when they came to the great high priz'd most idolatrous Window in the Chappel of Thomas Becket in that Cathedral the Labourers not acting as was desired M. Culmer laid If we neglect this opportunity we may repent it and thereupon threw off his Cloak and took a whole Pike in his hand and went up a Ladder fifty six steps high and did full execution upon the Idolatrous Monuments there whereupon some stirres began a Prebends wife cried out Save the childe meaning Christ lying in the Manger pictured there and M. Culmers bloud was then threatned by some that stood without the iron grates in the body of the Church But M. John Lade then Maior of Canterbury sent a file of Musqueteers who conveyed Mr. Culmer safe home to his own house And a little after M. Culmer published a Book entituled Cathedral News from Canterbury which is a true History of the sins and plagues of that Cathedral Babel The Title page of that Book is Cathedral News from Canterbury shewing the Canterburian Cathedral to be in an. Abbey like corrupt and rotten condition which cals for a speedy Reformation or Dissolution which Dissolution is already foreshewn and begun there by many remarkable Passages upon that place and the Prelates there Recorded and published by Richard Culmer Minister of Gods Word dwelling in Canterbury heretofore of Magdalen Colledge in Cambridge Master of Arts If I should hold my peace the stones would immediately cry out Luk. 19. 40. Imprimatur John White I have perused this Relation of Cathedral News and therein observe that the hand of Providence hath indeed wrought a new thing in our Israel Worthy to be lookt upon by all with a due mixture of wonder and thankefulness And therefore conceive it necessary to be published to the view of all Jo. Caryl Printed for Fulk Cliston c. But this Book being the finger in the Bile and swelling Ulcer of Prelacy and Cathedrals Immediately upon the first publishing of it the nest of Cathedral Hornets at Canterbury and their waspish Malignant Adherents flew about M. Culmers ears bombalizing and toating so loud that City and Countrey rang of their railing and libellings They presently
are such that upon the matter though not intended by the makers of former Laws Tythes in kinde are but a State-cheat or mock-maintenance those good Laws being now outplodded by malicious and covetous people I pray God that those Books especially that called The Lawless Tythe-robber discovered may never rise up in judgement against the Higher Powers or against any other that have read them But those confederated Tyth-robbers acted so against M. Culmer that for two years together he had not half so much Tythe-revenue one way or other as would pay his Fifths and Tenths and Taxes which were severely exacted of him when almost all his Tythes were in the peoples hands He had ten Troopers at a time quartered upon him horse and man and was constrained to borrow money of the next Justices Mr. Thomas Paramor and Major Foach to pay his Taxes which Taxes have been assessed and exacted to the utmost farthing of his Living and more when all the Parish was eased a fifth part some a full half The Persecutions and oppressions that way have been unparallel'd and yet he never complained of it untill they made that injury a rule of other assessements wherein they ease themselves and burden him There was then little or no relief for Ministers in Sequestred Livings though he made many journeys for relief about his Tythes And the Sesse-book was denied him that he might see who occupied Marshland and the Order of the Deputy-Lieutenants slighted by the Persecutors who answered them at Canterbury That Mr. Culmer should not see it but by Law and so matters rested And to adde to his oppressions besides the scoffs formerly rehearsed it was clamoured to him as he rid in Mynster-street Look how the Priests horse ears loll he goes so oft to London and can get nothing Yet these men paid their Tythes in corn to the full to the Non-resident Doctor who had 1s 6d per Acre for the Marshland and Mr. Culmer was contented with 1s yet could not nor cannot enjoy that as the Minister of W. H. in Kent abated 2d of 1s due by custome for the Acre hoping they would pay that freely but I heard him say That if he had abated 10d and took 2d he findes they would have been as backward to pay that And although Mr Culmer have forborn many for five seven ten years and hath not sued them yet he findes it to redound to his greater losse and to their and others hardning only to avoid contention least thereby they should prejudice the Gospel but they now finde by experience wofull experience that their forbearance hath hardened men to be more unrighteous as soft fires harden some things By bearing one injury wicked men are invited to do more injury A Minister in Essex Mr Willet for peace-sake remitted 20lb due to him for Tythes taken from him in Harvest 1652. and the same Tythe-robber carried away all his Tythe-corn in Harvest 1653. And Mr. Culmer had the same experience in Mynster because he sued not those that carried away all his Tythe-corn in Harvest 1646. they carried away all also in Harvest 1647. But before Harvest 1648. The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon made them pay their dues Oh blessed Law and Sword of Magistracy thou prevailest more with wicked men than the Law of Nature of Conscience of Reason or the Law in judgements of God himself But this is observable that there is not one of the wilfull Tythe-robbers then or now but are confounded as to their estates one and all to admiration One being a prisoner at the suit of others had thirty pound forgiven him by Mr Culmer yet within two dayes after the first Parliaments dissolution he clapt two Actions on Mr. Culmer who afterwards had eight pound costs in those Suites Now their own ears loll in other Parishes while they make their houses their prison for fear of Lawyers and have no revenue out of which they may pay Tythes unlesse it be Tythe lice And it is to be considered that these oppressors of Mr. Culmer did not only pay their dues fully and quietly to the Non-resident but were exceeding bountifull to their beloved Curates and paid a kinde of Tythe or Contribution of Hay and Pease c. to him for horse-meat besides continual gifts and entertainment of him and his wife And to oppresse Mr. Culmer the more they regard not the Limits of their Parish that he may know his maintenance utterly refusing to go the Bounds of it though he have often privately and publickly intreated them And besides all these oppressions one thing more in point of livelihood I thought fit to mention That Mr Culmer having laid out about 5lb in demolishing the Monuments of Idolatry at Mynster by special Order according to the Act of Parliament for their demolishing cannot get his money so laid out At his first coming thither he often desired the Churchwardens to do that work according to that Act But the 500lb man being Churchwarden refused to act and said He could not get a Sailor at Sandwich to climb up to the Crosses on the Spire of the Steeple under 15lb So that that work was left undone about a whole year after Mr Culmers coming thither But then Mr. Culmer was jeered by a Sequestred Malignant Priest who said to him Physician heal thy self telling him of his actings at Canterbury These words took such deep impression on him that he would no longer wait the Churchwardens leisure But a day or two after being the 5th of Novem. he got up into the Steeple before day and by Moon-light got up to the top of the Spire seven roods or poles from the ground and did sit on the round Globe there and did with a rope affix ladders so that it was then little danger to go up down from the flat Steeple to the top of the Spire And then he came down and hired Peter Wotton and Thomas Austin to go up the Ladder and demolish the two crosses there The huge wooden Cross covered with lead under the Vane and the iron cross above that And many other Idolatrous Monuments were demolished and the Chancel ground levelled c. by the Workmen and Masons whom Mr. Culmer satisfied but to this day he cannot get one farthing of those charges repayed him though the Justices have ordered it according to that Act And although he never demanded any thing for his own actings about that work of Reformation And all this oppression did not quench the burning malice of the 500lb man and his faction They said The greatest crosse the Priest was yet remaining And they suffered the Churchyard to be without a gate that the pasture there might be common and so it continued at last they put a Wattle or Hurdle in stead of a Gate which continued so for divers years to the laughter and derision of all that passed by And they handled the matter so that none durst help the Sexton to ring the great Sermon-bell on the
go often in his own defence and needs must he runne whom the Devil drives the Rioter used to swear fearfully and say Hath not the Devil broke his neck yet Is he not hanged yet And the next Sabbath after the Riot they sent about the Parish to warn people from coming to Church and when any said They would come then the Messenger prayed them that they would not tell that they were sent but now the Messenger is lame and another looks behinde him At last there came a Warrant from the Committee of Parliament for Plundred Ministers to the Sheriff to raise Forces and assist Mr Culmer against the Ricters And some of the Parish who opposed the Rioters went to the Earl of Warwick who was Lord Admiral then and lay at Walmer Castle He presently sent his Warrant to have the Peace kept Afterward two Justices did sit upon the Riot and the Rioters were bound over to the Sessions and there indicted and found guilty and fined each of them fourty shillings which they received again from their good masters and dames by a Collection in the Parish But Mr Culmer did not prosecute the Law against any of them for the assault and battery neither had he his charges expended at the Justices sitting about the Riot and about journeys Warrants c. about 8lb He had no recompence for his bloud and bruises though the Physicians and Chyrurgions bils were costly When the Justices sate at Mynster upon the Riot a godly man of the next Parish St Laurence Parish where they had no Minister at all seeing these actings said Here is a stirre against a Minister we would praise God if we had a Minister Then the 500lb man and three more I have their Names in writing said Would to God if it were Gods blessed will that we were in your case and had no Minister neither if it were Gods sweet will and pleasure At the Sessions the Ring-leader and Incendiary of the Rioters being called to the Bar the Judge called him the Trumpeter because he being decrepid and limping only clamoured But he put up a Petition and these Articles to the Bench against Mr Culmer These Articles I say and only these 1. That the said Mr. Culmer did preach That many be like the Dogge in the manger that will not let the Horse eat nor eat himself 2. That he preached That a man was taken up at Sea alive swimming with a Testament in his bosom and his flesh soaked as if sodden 3. That the Popish-Priest did drink all supernaclum 4. That the Papists reserve the Communion bread in a box and give it to dying men who die with their mouths full of it 5. That Satan was a subtil Fox and was above five thousand year old 6. That one called him a soul-murtherer and he took no course to clear himself 7. That he said in his Prayer Lord thou knowest there be many in hell better than we which is a dangerous thing to bring weak Christians into the sin of despair 8. That he prayed Lord how long wilt thou avenge our bloud on them that dwell on the earth Lord give the scarlet whore plenty of bloud to drink for she is worthy We do think it a dangerous thing to meddle with the judgement of God to direct him how he shall punish sinners 9. He said the Rebels in Ireland caused a Protestants guts to be wound out alive 10. That he laid aspersion of Malignants upon some of the Parish 11. When the Parishioners pitched upon Mr. to be their Minister Mr. Culmer said The poor of the Parish did set their hands because he would give two messes of porridge to Mr. Culmers one which is enough to discourage any Minister from coming amongst us as if we more regarded the food of our bodies than of our souls which are immortal These Articles are to be seen under their own hands they were delivered to Mr. Culmer after the Justices had perused them But the two last Articles were wholly forged against him And that of the man taken up at Sea is in the Book of Martyrs And after this Riot the Minister of the next Parish dying most of that place came usually to Mynster Church And especially two Justices of Peace and Deputy-Lieutenants came with their Families constantly for about two years untill it did please God to provide a godly Minister for them in their own Parish But their coming pleased not the faction for to use the Gentlemens own words the style over which they were to come on the Sabbath to the Church was bedawbed with reaking hot sir-reverence of purpose by some that waited their coming so that they were constrained to have a gap made in the hedge to go thorow And the wife of the 500lb man who told her husband She edified most by Mr. Culmer's Ministry and desired him to carry her no more about to other Parishes with him on the Sabbath when she was gone home in the Sabbath noon-tide a sir-reverence was laid in her Pew in the Church But a stranger a Gentlewoman of London coming from the next Parish before her to Church when Divine Worship was begun kneeling down suddenly in the Pew was so bedawbed with that stinking excrement that she was constrained to strip her white Sattin-peticoat over her feet in publick in the Church in the time of divine Worship and wrapping it up gave it to her man over the Pew in the face of all the Congregation And many other abuses at home and abroad have been put upon M. Culmer for his good affection to the present Powers and Government enough to fill a volume One of the Grandees of the Faction that cried All All in the Church at Mynster seeing him in Sandwich when the mock-Prince was there the day before the Kentish Petitioning with Swords made a clamour against him in the open streets as he passed by to incense the numerous crew there against Mr. Culmer but he then escaped And at Canterbury he coming thither from London about Noon upon the 25th day of December 1647. called Christmas-day and being in his Inne a tumult was made in the streets against godly men which opened their Shops that day and when Mr. Culmer heard the Maior was knockt down he was running out to help the Maior But Mr Joseph Phillips at the sign of the Saracens-head shut his doors and he and his men laid hands on Master Culmer and kept him in and a little after he was perswaded to ride out at the back gate But he was not gone half a quarter of an hour but the Rioters came in and searched for him and would not be perswaded but that he was in the house and swore They would hang the Round-headed Rogue and afterward he was informed they would have hanged him over the Cathedral-gate where he helped to pull down the large Image of Christ with the holy Ghost in form of a Dove over his head in full proportion And he then riding