disowned him and the men of his practices whether inferiour Magistrates or others as enemies to our Lord and his Crown and the True Protestant and Presbyterian interest in their hands Therefore although we be for Government and Governours such as the Word of God and our Covenants allows yet we for our selves and all that will adhere to us as the Representatives of the true Presbyterian-Church and covenanted Nation of Scotland considering the great hazard of lying under such a sin do by these Presents disown Charles Stuart who hath been reigning or rather we may say tyrannizing on the Throne of Scotland forefaulted several years since by his Perjury and breach of Covenant with God and his Church and usurpation of his Crown and Royal Prerogatives therein and by his Tyranny and breach of the very leges regnandi in matters Civil for which reasons we declare that several years since he should have been denuded of being King As also being under the Standard of Christ we declare War against such a Tyrant and Usurper and all the men of his practices as enemies to our Lord Jesus Christ his Cause and Covenants and against all such as have strengthened him sided with him or any-wise acknowledged him in his Usurpation and Tyranny Civil and Ecclesiastical yea and against all such as shall strengthen side with or anywise acknowledge any other in the like Usurpation and Tyranny c. Given at Sanquair 22 June 1680. Collected out of the true Copies collated with the Originals kept among the Records of his Majesties Privy-Council Al. Gibson Will. Paterson But that the hand of Joab i.e. the Jesuits was in all these Tumults and Rebellions will thus appear Dr. Oates whose Testimony ad homines is very creditable assures us That the Jesuits creep in among Dissenters under the disguise of Nonconforming Ministers to divide and exasperate to blow up Animosities and Calumnies into actual Rebellion against the Civil Government under a pretence of the dislike of the Ecclesiastical Thus in his printed Narrative part 1. he says That Rich. Strange Provincial John Keins Basil Langworth John Fenwick and Harcourt Jesuits did write a treasonable Letter to one Father Suiman an Irish Jesuit at Madrid in Spain in which was contained the plotting and contriving a Rebellion of the Presbyterians in Scotland against the Episcopal Government in order to which they employed Matthew Wright Will. Morgan and one Ireland to go and preach under the notion of Presbyterians and give the disaffected Scots a true understanding of their sad estate and condition by Episcopal Tyranny and to tell them they had now a fair opportunity to vindicate their Liberty and Religion and that it could be done no other way but by the Sword Paragr 18. That the Fathers of the Society in Ireland were very vigilant to prepare the people to rise for their Liberty and Religion and to recover their Estates Parag. 35. That the Jesuits by order of their Provincial were to send new Messengers into Scotland to promote the Commotions there and to inform the people of the great Tyranny they lay under by being denied liberty of Conscience and that not being to be procured but by the Sword they must take that course to purchase their liberty Parag. 43. That two new Ministers were sent into Scotland on the fifth of Aug. 78. one by the name of Father Moore the other of Sanders alias Brown with instructions to carry themselves like Nonconformist-Ministers and to preach to the disaffected Scots the necessity of taking up the Sword for defence of liberty of Conscience These Dr. Oates saw dispatched Parag. 150. The Doctor saw a Letter from Father Ireland Aug. 7. 1678. where he intimates the joy he had that the disaffected Scots would not lay aside their endeavours for liberty of Religion and that the Catholicks of Scotland had promised to use their utmost interest to keep up the Commotions there And a good Author observes what fell out in the tragical end of the Lord Forester in Scotland who after the defeat of the Rebels at Bothwel-bridge took occasion on the Indulgence granted by his Majesty to erect a house within two miles of Edinburgh for a publick Conventicle of Nonconformists and for building this â—â—â—agogue he went for a zealous man among them but not long after he was murthered by a woman-relation with whom he had lived incestuously many years After his death a Dispensation was found in his Closet from the Pope to marry her which he delaying to do she took his life in reparation of her abused Honour Which shews that the Supporters of the Nonconformists may be secret Papists Parag. 51. John Keins told the Doctor That the Provincial had taken care of keeping alive the Differences between the disaffected Scots and Duke Lauderdale that Mum and Chocolet should be put down and the Order of the Magpies should be turned to their primitive institution and habit by Mum and Chocolet meaning the Protestant Peers and by Magpies the Bishops Paragr 67. n. 7. One means he says they were to use to bring in Popery was by Seditious Preachers and Catechists set up and maintained and directed what to preach in their own or other private or publick Conventicles and Field-meetings And my Author says I have heard Mr. Prance affirm that both Gauan and White-bread used to preach frequently in Conventicles in Southwark and other places and that he was able to prove Whitebread the Provincial of the Jesuits who was executed for the Plot did not many months before the discovery preach in a Conventicle as a Nonconformist at Spaldwick within five miles of Huntingdon and that he had several times done the like before as was attested by several of the Congregation before divers Gentlemen in the County of Huntingdon But to return for England where we are told by a marvelous cunning man That the next Scene that opened would be Rome or Paris But the Prophet saw nothing of Geneva or Scotland which was also so nearly conjoyned in the Intrigue that I scarce know how to separate them For as I believe there was is and will be a Popish Designe to overthrow the Government as long as the Jesuits retain their Principles and avowed Obedience to the See of Rome so I am confident there was is and will be a Fanatick Plot against the Church and State as long as so many Factious and Seditious persons retain their Antimonarchical and Separating Principles As for the Papists they thought their work was sufficiently carried on by the Divisions which they had increased among our selves by the Toleration and therefore for a while they contented themselves with working as so many Moles under ground heaving at the Foundations of our Government But through the mercy of God Parturiunt Montes their intended Babel proved but a Mole-hill which was easily scattered For Die Lunoe 1678. it was Resolved Nemine Contradicente in the Parliament That there was is and for several years last past hath been a
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