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A89005 Ochlo-machia. Or The peoples war, examined according to the principles of Scripture & reason, in two of the most plausible pretences of it. In answer to a letter sent by a person of quality, who desired satisfaction. By Jasper Mayne, D.D. one of the students of Ch. Ch. Oxon. Mayne, Jasper, 1604-1672. 1647 (1647) Wing M1472; Thomason E398_19; ESTC R201695 27,844 40

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Conduct under Sir Thomas Fairefax be of this perswasion thus stated I shall not think it any slander from the Mouth of a Presbiterian who thinks otherwise to be called an Judependent If a Prince who is confessedly a Prince and hath Supreme power make Warre upon his Subjects for the propagation of Religion the Nature of the Defence is much alter'd For though sucha Warre whether made for the Imposition of a false Religion or a true be as uniust as if 't were made upon a forreigne Nation yet this injustice in the Prince cannot warrant the taking up of Armes against Him in the Subject Because being the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Supreme within his own Kingdome As all power concerning the publick secular Government of it resolveait selfe into Him so doth the ordering of the Outward exercise of Religion too In both Cases he is the Judge of Controversies Not so unerring or Infallible as that all his Determinations must be received for Oracles or that his Subjects are so obliged to be of his Religion that if the Prince be an Idolater a Mahumetan or Papist 't would be disobedience in them not to be so too But let his Religion be what it will let him be a Ieroboam or one of such an unreasonable Idolatry as to command his people to worship Calves and Burn Incense to Gods scarce fit to be made the Sacrifice Though he be not to be obeyed yet he is not to be resisted Since such a Resistance would not only change the Relation of inequality and Distance between the Prince and People and so destroy the Supremacy here given him by S. Peter but 't would actually enter duell with the Ordinance of God which ceaseth not to be sacred as often as 't is wickedly imployed Irresistibility being a Ray and Beame of the Divine Image which resides in the Function not in the Religion of the Prince Who may for his Person perhaps be a Caligula or Nere yet in his Office still remaine Gods Deputy and Vicegerent And therefore to be obeyed even in his unjust commands though not actively by our compliance yet passively by our sufferings This Doctrins as 't is agreeable to the Scripture and the practice of the purest and most primitive times of the Church so I finde it illustrated by the famous example of a Christian Souldier and the censure of a Father upon the paslage This Souldier being bid to burne Inconse to an Idoll rcfused But yeelded himselfe to be cast into the fire Had he when his Emperour bid him worship an Idoll mutinied or turn'd his speare upon him saies that Father he bad broken the fift Commandement in defence of the second But submitting his Body to be burnt the only thing in him which could be compelled in stead of committing Idolatry he became himselfe a Sacrifice I could Sir second this with many other Examples but they would all tend to this one pious Christian Result that Martyrdome is to be presetred before Rebellion Here then if I should suppose your Presbyterian Friends charge to be true a very heavy one I confesle that the King miscounselled by a Prelaticall Court Faction when he first Marcht into the field against the Armies raised by the two Houses of Parliament had an intent to subvert the Protestant Religion and to plant the Religion of the Church of Rome in it's stead yet unlesse he can prove to me that from that time he actually ceast to be King or the two Houses to be his Subjects or notwithstanding their two Oathes of Supremacy and Alleageance that in so doing he forfeited his Crowne and was no longer over all persons and in all Causes as well Civill as Ecclesiasticall within the circuit of his three Kingdomes supreame Head and Governour I know no Armes which could lawfully be used against Him but those which S. Ambrose used against an Arian Emperour Lachrymas Suspiri● Sighes Tears and Prayers to God to turne his heart And therefore Sir when your Friond doth next aske you How it could stand with the safe conscience of any English Protestant to stand an idle spectator whilst Queen Marus daies were so ready to break in upon him that He was almost reduced to this hard choyce either to follow the Times in the new ●rected fashion of Religion or live in danger of the stake and Faggot if he persisted in the old you may please to let him know from me That as I have no unruly Thirst or irregular Ambition in me to dye a Martyr Nor am so much a Circumcelleo as to court or wooe or in case it fled from me enthusiastically to call upon me my own Death and Execution So if it had been my Let to live in the fiery times He speaks of when a Protestant was put to death for an Heretick as I should not have quarreld with the Pawer that condemned me so I should have kist my funerall pile And should have thought it a high peece of Gods favour to me to call me to Heaven by a way so like that of his Angell in the Book of * c. 13.20 Judges who ascended thither in the Flame and aire and persume of a Sacrifies But what if this be only a Jealousie and suspition in your Friend Nay what if it have been the Disguise and paint to some Ambitious mens designes who to walke the more securely to their darke and politick ends have stiled themselves the Defendours when they have all this while been the Invadors And have called the King the subverter who hath all this while to his power been the Defender of this Religion This certainly if it be proved will very much Inflame and aggravate their sinne and dye it in a deep scarlet through all the progresse of it But because I rather desire to cast a mantle over their strange proceedings then to adde to their Nakednesse which hath at length discover'd it selfe to all the World all that I shall say to deliver so much Goodnesse from so much misrepresentation is this That the report which at first poyson'd the mindes of so many Thousand well minded people That the King had an intent by this warre to destroy the Protestant Religion could at most have no other parent but some mens either crafty Malice or needlesse Feare appears clearly in this that after all their great Discoveries they have not yet instanced in one considerable Ground fit to build more then a vulgar Jealousy upon The Kings affection to the Queene His Alliance and confederacy with Popish Princes abroad and the Gentlenesse of his Raigne towards his Popish Subjects at home being premises as unfit to build this Inference and conclusion upon that Therefore He took up Armes that he might introduce their Religion as his in Aristotle were who because it lightued when Socrates took the Ayre thought that his walking caused that commotion in the skyes For that the Root and Spring of such a report could be nothing but their own
deluded fancy they must at length confesse unlesse with their Faith they have cast off their Charity too Let your Friend Sir read over any one of His Majesties Declarations and what sacred Thing is there by which he hath not freely and uncompelled obliged and bound Himselfe to live and dye a Protestant By what one Act have these many Vowes been broken Who made that Court Faction which would have miscounselled him to bring in Popery Or let your Friend if he can name who those Miterd Prelates were who lodged a Papist under their Rotchet If he cannot let him forbeare to hold an Opinion of his Prince and Clergy which Time the mother of Truth hath so demonstratively confuted And let him no longer suffer himselfe to be seduced by the malitious writings of those who for so many years and from so many Pulpits have breathed Rebellion and Slander with such an uncontrouled Boldnesse and Sting that I cannot compare them to any thing so fitly as to the Locusts in the * Revel 9. Revelation which crept forth of the Bottomlesse pit every one of which wore the Crowne of a King and had the Tayle of a Scorpion In short Sir If he have not so deeply drunke of the Inchanted cuppe as to forget himselfe to be a Subject let him no longer endanger himselfe to tast of their Ruine too who for so many years have dealt with the best King that this Nation ever had as Witches are said to deale with those whom they would by peece meale destroy first shap't to themselves his Image in waxe then pricks and stab'd it with needles striving by their many Reproaches of his Government and Defamations of the Bishops to reduce his Honour by degrees to a consumption and to make it Languish and pine and wither away in the Hatred and Disaffection of his People But perhaps Sir your Friend and I are not well agreed upon our Termes If therefore he doe once more strive to perswade you that notwithstanding all this which I have said to the contrary the King would if he had not been hindered have destroyed the Protestant Religion pray desire him to let me know what he mean by the Religion which he calls Protestant Doth he mean that Religion which succeeded Popery at the Reformation and hath ever since distinguisht us from the Church of Rome Doth he meane that Religion which so many Holy Martyrs seal'd with their Blood that for which Queene Mary is so odious and Queene Elizabeth so pretious to our memories Lastly Doth he meane that Religion which is comprised in the 39. Articles and confest to be Protestant by an Act of Parliament If these be the Markes these the Characters of it let him tell me whether this be not the Religion which the King in one of his * Cabinet Opened Letters to the Queene calls the only Thing of difference between Him and Her that 's dearest to Him whether this also be not the Religion in which if there be yet any of the old Ore and Drosse from whence 't was extracted Any thing either essentially or accidentally evill which requires yet more sifting or a more through Reformation Any thing of Doctrine to offend the strong or of Discipline or Ceremony to offend the wenke His Majesty have not long since offered to have it passe the fiery Tryall and Disputes of a Synod legally called To all which questions 'till He and his Com presbyters give a satisfying Answer however they may think to hide themselves under their old Tortoise-shell and cry out Templum Domini the Temple of the Lord They must not take it ill if I aske them one question more and desire them to tell me whether this be not the Religion which they long since compelled to take flight with the King and which hath scarce been to be found in this Kingdome ever since the time it was deprived of the Sanctuary it had taken under the Kings Standard This then being so hath your Friend or his fellow Assemblers yet a purer or more primitive Notion of the Protestant Religion which compared with the Religion which we and our Fathers have been of will prove it to be Idolatrous and no better then a hundred years superstition Let them in Charity as they are bound not to let us perish in our Ignorance shew us their Modell If it be more agreeable to the Scripture then Ours have more of the white Robe and not of the new invention we may perhaps be their Converts And their Righteousnesse meeting with out Peace may mutually Kisse each other In the mean time Sir I hope they will not define the Protestant Religion so by Negatives as to make it consist wholly in No Bishops No Liturgy or No Common-Prayer Booke These we not yet convinced to the contrary doe hold to be good Conservatives but not Essentialls of that which we call the Pretostant Religion of our Side Their Negation then can be no true Essentiall Constituent of the same Religion on theirs There is but One positive Notion more in all the world under which I can possibly understand Them when They say They have all this while Fought for the Defence of the Protestant Religion That is that by the Defence of the Protestant Religion if they meane any Thing or if this have not bin the Disguise to a more dangerous secret They meane the Defence of their New Directory and their at length concluded Government of the Church by Presbyters If this be their Meaning And truely if I should rack my Invention I cannot make it find another The Second part of that most Holy and Glorious Cause which hath drawne the eyes of Europe upon it and renderd the Name of a Protestant a Proverbe to expresse Disloyalty by That Pure Chast Virgin without spott or wrinkle-Cause which like the Scythian Diana hath been fed with so many Humane Sacrifices And to which as to another Moloch so many Men as well as Children have been compell'd to passe through the Fire resolves it selfe into this Vnchristian Bloudy conclusion That an Assembly of profest Protestant Divines have advised the Two Parliaments of England and Scotland confest Subjects to take up Armes against the King their Lawfull Soveraigne Have thereby set Three Kingdoms in a Flame been the Authors of more Protestants slaine in a Civill then would have served to recover the Palatinate by a Forraigne Warre for nothing but this vnnecessary novell accidentall Consideration That the King vnlesse compell'd by Forces would never consent 〈◊〉 indeed without Perjury could to the Change of an Ancient Primitive Apostolike Vniversally received Government of this Church by Bishops for a new vpstart Mushrome Calvinisticall Government by a Motley Presbytery of Spirituall Lay-Elders Which being As I have hither to by Principles taken both from Reason and Scripture proved to you in the most favourable sense a Resistance if not an Jnvasion of the Higher Power that Higher Power being * Rom. 13.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Ordinance must needs be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Warre made against God Himselfe And the Authors of it unlesle they repent and betake themselves to a timely returne to their Obedience in danger to draw upon themselves this other sad tragicall irresistible Conclusion which St * V. 2. Paul tels us is the inevitable Catastrophe of Disobedience which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you may English it swift Destruction And thus Sir Though all weake Defences have something of the Nature of prevarication in them and he may in part be thought to betray a Cause who feebly argues for it I have return'd you a large Answere to the two Quere's in your sh●●● Letter which if you shall you 〈◊〉 to call Satisfaction you will very much assist my 〈◊〉 which will not suffer me to thinke that I in this 〈◊〉 have said more then Others Only being so fairely invited by you to say something to have remain'd silent had been to have confest my selfe convinced And my Negligence in a Time so seasonable to speak Truth in might perhaps in the Opinion of the Gentleman your Friend have seemed to take part with those of his side against whose Cause though not their Persons I have thus freely armed my Pen. Sir I should think my selfe fortunate if Any Thinge which I have said in this Letter might make him a Proselyte But this being rather my wish then my Hope all the Successe which this Paper aspires to is this that you will accept it as a Creature borne at your Command And that you will place it among your other Records as a Testimony how much greater my Desires then my Abilities are to deserve the stile of being thought worthy to be From my Chamber June 7. 1647. Your affectionate servant JASPER MAYNE