the Minister's Wife proud if clad better than her self and as for habit so for place and precedency every Gossip could prattle that a Ministers Wife had no place though the Law is that all Wives shall take place according to their Husbands These Petticoat Quarrels bred much envy to the Clergy but majorcum superbia with far greater pride And besides that Laici Clericis oppido sunt infesti 4. So generally peevish and fanaticiz'd were the people that not any particular discontent or personal Quarrel with any private Clergy-man but these Bishops these Parsons the whole Coat began their furious threats of Revenge and for these many years hath the opposing the Bishops or regular Clergy been made the sign of a Babe of Grace and a professor of pure Religion and since this Parliament been the ready way to preferment as the sure Character of a fast Friend to the Parliament that divers have not only been afraid to show their wonted Neighbourhood to their Parsons but have grown active against them only to secure themselves from suspicion of Malignancy by being known to converse with a Malignant or sequestred Minister These and such like matters have thickened the mists of scandalous Clergy◠and bringing in Popery cast before the Peoples eyes to widen the Breach into an impossibility of Reconciliation These seven years sad experience persuading me that the great Controversies of Christendome as of latter days so in elder Ages about the Arrian Heresie under Constantius Synod against Synod to revoke the Nicene Decrees and that other Division about the Celebration of Easter under Commodus were but some State Stalking-horses or at least maintained with such Vehemency for politick ends whereof Church History hath taken no Cognizance like the two Golden Calves of Presbytery and Independency set up in our days to cover Jeroboams policy for a new Government Presbytery being thought at first a Cloak large enough to serve all turns till new designs started up Independency both equally destructive to the old way which though woful experience hath proved the best way and most men at the bottom desire yet because it consisteth not with their rash temporal Ingagements they furiously oppose could we else think that Christians and Countrymen should engage in a Bloody Civil War to demolish a Cross or put down an innocent Ceremony to deshoy a Bishop of a Diocess and set a Pope in every Parish A meer Book-man of this Generation can find little difference above-board all sides professing they fight for the same things which surely made Dury and Dr. Mosely and Dr. Gibbons take so much pains and travel to seek Reconcilement in Religion but alas G. Cassander H. Grotius may write Votum pro pace Ecclesiastica Romish Priests may hazard their lives to reconcile Protestants and Protestants hope to convert Papists Church men may fast and pray and write and preach for Peace but all to no purpose Can they reconcile the King and the Pope's Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastical Can they secure a Rebell against a King in Power Can they make Agreement between Publick-Faith Debts and Bishops Lands and Delinquents Estates Take away Temporal Differences and Church Controversies among Christians might soon be ended for what have the engaged men of this Generation long whispered and now speak out to the Citizens desirous of a Treaty for Peace while the pretence is Religion should the King be restored to his Throne what security can they Traytors have for their Necks and Estates What shall become of their Ordinance-Law Should Bishops come in again what shall become of our Moneys for the purchase of their Land The City Publick-Faith-Mongers tremble to think that their Debts will be desperate Souldiers say if peace come their Triumphs will be spoiled should the Kingdom be setled and every man enjoy his own the Fanatick Ministers cry out what shall they do who have intruded into other mens Livings These thoughts fright the Presbyterian Lecturers and the Assembly of Divines who these Twelve Months have been preaching against this Army into a zealous Union with this Independent Army yea with Turks or Jews or any Religion in the World consisting with their usurped possessions would they joyn rather than suffer the old Religion to be restored These these are the true Reasons that continue the differences of our Church to such a difficulty if not impossibility of reconcilement and when for such ends men have employed Conscience no wonder in presecution thereof what cruelty injustice and Tyranny is used as mediums for obtaining such wicked purposes whereof you have a small view in this following Discourse CHAP. III. What use the Fanaticks have made of Parliaments and the ways whereby that Faction in this Parliament and Kingdom have endeavoured to make the Clergy contemptible and odious to the people HOW old the Fanatick grudge is against the Church of England the Discourse of the Troubles of Frankford can tell the World and truly since Sacriledge hath been cryed up for Reformation hath that same Spirit of Darkness been tampering in Parliaments to make them their Engine for the work of destroying the Church under colour of Reformation that Archbishop Whitgift that holy meek man in Queen Elizabeth's days lying very sick and being told of a Parliament called out of his pious care for the Church prayed God that he might not live to see that Parliament as near as it was and God heard his Prayer and although as Lord Verulam confesseth the Parliament of England oweth some satisfaction for the many injuries and unjust oppressions formerly done by them to the Church yet since the first breach so thirsty were the Members after the remnant of the Church Lands few Parliaments but have rather sought to increase that debt till the Church be quite undone to this purpose how have the Fanaticks who for these many years have had the vogue of the people opening their mouths wide after any Game to which one of their Beagles should lead the trace superstitiously longed for Parliaments because their Plots and hopes were to pack them for their design against the King and Church as now they have done which made the Presbyterian Sectaries and all other sorts of Fanaticks so idolize this Parliament calling it the Perliament of their Prayers and a frequent Pulpit Title for the House of Commons was the House of Gods and the House of mortal Gods and truly they were an House of Gods like the Heathenish Roman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an House of Gods of all Countries the Images of English Sectaries for they do but represent and it 's but fitting that new Gods should have new Priests heaping up to themselves Teachers after their own hearts lusts no marvel then if the Ministers of Christ grow out of request and all the malice and slanders and cruelty of these new Gods be racked on those who would teach the people to serve the true God rather than men But God forbid but that the vvorld
Doctrines and Disciples Indeed to divide the Church-lands amongst their Tribe as the pretence was of taking away the Bishops Lands to maintain preaching Ministers and to invade other Mens Livings and to have the sole Government of the Church in their Hands this is that which they call setting up of Jesus Christ in his Throne the World now see what their aim was at first in calling this the Parliament of their Prayers 5. All sorts of Sectaries in England were earnest for this Parliament because they had conspired to pack it for their Designs against the King and the Church as hereafter will be shown 6. The Common Lawyers pleaded for a Parliament that themselves might snatch an Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction into their Courts to advance their Law above the Gospel as they have done crying up their Idol-Law to be above the King a Creature above his Creator then what are the Lawyers who have the Law in their own Hands the Breast of the Judge or the Breast of the Court as they phrase it is the supreme Power And truly for these many years last past have the Lawyers enslaved both King and People by the Charm of Law Law 7. The Country People generally fancied that a Parliament would free them from paying of Tythes which produced several Petitions to that purpose from several Counties 8. All sorts of Trades and Companies in London hoped for Iome encrease of their Trading if a Parliament were called and yet who more crying out against Monopolies and Patents than these Citizens Who are the greatest Monopolilizers in this Kingdom and scarce any Incorporation in London but had some Petition ready for this Parliament with confidence that nothing must be denied for the advance of Trade And all sorts of People dreamed of an Vtopia and Infinite Liberty especially in Matters of Religion nay scarce any man but had some Design of Private Interest excep the Ancient Orthodox Clergy who foresaw what a Misery the heighth of a Faction would bring on the Church by a Parliament And yet after 5 years Sitting in this so Idolized Parliament no sorts of men but have missed their Ends their Ministers especially verifying that Prophesie of Dr. Bancroft For all the Outcries that Church-Livings might be employed to the Maintenance of Eldership well may they procure in some other Age the further impoverishing of the Church but they shall be sure to be little the better for it And generally instead of being eased of their Grievances they have been plagued by this Parliament as by the Flagellum Dei a Rod of their own making to scourge this Land for their murmuring against Moses and Aaron their Contempt of the King and the Priest into which Crying Sin an Hypocritical Faction hath been long drawing this People by wounding the King through the sides of the Church as knowing well that if they could destroy Monarchy in the Church Episcopal Government in England being indeed the King 's Spiritual Militia and that most povverful as commanding the Consciences of Subjects by planting in Rebellion for Religion they should soon vveaken the Povver of the King 's Temporal Militia as vvoful Experience hath taught us this made the Masters of the Faction alvvays set up the Church as the Butt and the Bishops Sleeves as the White chiefly aimed at by all sorts of People to shoot their Bolts against that to have the Bovv ready bent and the Quiver full of sharp Arrovvs even bitter vvords against the Church grevv to be the only Wisdom and Religion in fashion O ye scandalous Clergy and O ye bringers in of Popery was the belching of every open mouth when the greater sort had deeply swallowed other manner of Gall for which they took up the common cry against the Clergy only to colour their deadly Spleen bred upon Temporal Distempers which the world takes no publick notice of as yet but were the true causes of the Contempt and hatred of the Clergy among this Generation whereby the Fanatick Faction very inconsiderable for Number drew multitudes who hated their by-ways in Religion to their assistance The first and main Engine buzzed into the people long before this Parliament was That the Bishops and the Clergy were the Instruments for the Kings intended Tyranny the common saying in Terminis was that the Clergy are all for the King that is the Clergy seeing your Fanatick Spirit of Darkness working in the Children of Disobedience would by their Preaching to fear God and the King according to the Scriptures have prevented the ruines which they foresaw this Faction would and now have brought upon this Kingdom to this purpose what a fiery pair of multiplying Spectacles did the Faction put on the Noses of the people furiously looking on Dr. Manwarings Sermon till the Face of the Body Politick began to fire in a former Parliament not quenched even to the beginning of this but continually kindled against him and some others not above three more Divines who preached the Kings Prerogative like Divines if Scripture which they so cry up for their own ends in 1 Sam. 8. or the practice of the Kings of Judah may be Judge more than the Supremacy of the Lawyers would brook or the jealous Worshippers of Meum and Tuum in England could endure should be true This was the kindle-coal that the Faction bellowsed to that flame that must consume not only those particular men but even the whole Clergy Root and Branch as in Scotland the Feud of some discontented Lords against some particular Bishops vowed revenge on the whole Church this fire of malice was the fire from Heaven which confirmed their Covenant and made it the pattern in the Mount for Englishmen to follow This added to the name Baals Priests and such other reproaches of the Clergy among the Fanaticks the new Scoff of Cesans Friends This made the popular Earl of Essex say in this Parliament that he never knew but one Bishop in Parliament stand up for the good of the Commonwealth the old phrase of Rebellion and when Nat. Fiennes made Speeches in Parliament and printed them with the Title of unparallel'd Reasons to shew that Episcopacy was an Enemy to Monarchy the Lord Say his Father and Godfather to the Fanatick Faction printed a Speech That the Bishops were too much for the King and therefore were to be thrown out of the Parliament the most applauded Speech amongst the Commonvvealth party vvhose sense it spoke out to the full and vvas the Core of the Canker bred in them against the Church and unto this score do the Clergy ovve their eight years persecution and their continued Banishment from their Livings for fear they should preach the people novv undeceived into obedience to their King A second Cause vvas the sacrilegious thirsting after the Church-lands by some in this Land vvhose Grandfathers having svvallovved long Leases or perhaps some forged Deeds of Church-lands the Wax sticks still on the Childrens Stomachs that no vvonder
and what miseries this Nation felt thereby may afford more truth than these times can bear and therefore is omitted Yet in all these Parliaments was the stamp of just that is Royal Authority though how justly executed I say not and therefore ought to be obeyed active or passive nor in any of these Parliaments or ever since till this Parliament were the Clergy one of the three Estates of the Realm the best conservators of Religion quite excluded with convocations of the Clergy though legally chosen by the Kings Writ not forced up out of a Renegado house-creeping Ministry by Lay-votes who had the judiciary cognizance of matters of Doctrines as one hath observed in a discourse to answer the Popish Slander cast upon our Religion that it is a meer Parliamentary Religion Though it cannot be denied but that fury against the present Clergy because they would not comply with the prevailing party to extol the present Change and in later Parliaments the Puritan-policy having influence even upon Court-counsels have too much bound up the power of the Keys and left the Clergy little liberty but to grant Subsidies But never did the Laity in Parliaments grasp at the power of the Keys till the Puritans getting strength in the House of the Commons nibled at the Church-power under the name of a Lay-Committee for Religion which King James connived at little thinking whereto that ill example would grow in his Son's days hanging St. Peters Keys at Lay-mens girdles thereby as we now see locking up the Priests lips and shutting up Church-doors to the sequestring of Almighty God from his holy Habitations and by an Army of Subjects in rebellion against their King taking away the daily Sacrifice out of the Temple for the Reformation of Religion the old pretence to colour politick designes thereby to take away the shame of whatever cruelty shall be acted to advance the same never remembring that of St. Paul We must not do evil that good may come of it What fit Judges of Religion Parliaments have been and are like to be let us hear again Mr. Rogers that famous Protestant Martyr when it was objected to him that he ought to be a Catholick because the Parliament had established the Popish Religion Of what force saith he are Parliaments which establish contrary Decrees condemning that for evil which before they had established as good and the Parliaments of later times have been ruled by the fancy of a few Henry the 8th established what he pleased by Parliaments In Edward the 6th the Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland bore all the stroke and did not all things sincerely And for the Parliaments of Queen Elizabeth what by her politick moulding of the Parliament and her infinite popularity and her Armies who durst Vote against her pleasure Besides as one observeth her Parliaments consisting of grave men did do the Queens work and in that the Kingdomes business no thoughts of opposing Prerogative under pretence of Property or distinguishing between the service of the Crown and of the Commonwealth as two divers yea contrary things till the Fanaticks began to make Parliaments as Cock-pits and pitched fields for fighting against the King and the Church under the notion of standing up for the Subjects Liberty which made King James say that he could never find any joy in his Parliaments calling them in scorn and anger Five hundred Kings And the wise Earl of Arundel lately deceased then prophesied that Posterity would have cause to curse those Fanaticks in former Parliaments who upon such undutifulness caused their breach of which as also of the Parliaments of King Charles Sir Robert Naunton hath observed That half a dozen of popular discontented persons such as with the fellow that burned the Temple of Diana would be talked of have swayed all the Parliaments as Lord Say Mr. Pym Hambden Stroud and other Parliament-drivers as the Army Declarations stiled the XI Presbyterian Impeached Members who have lived to sit in this Parliament to see the flames of their own kindling almost consume the Church and these three Kingdoms by their reviving Nadab and Abihu's strange Fire by their presumption in medling with matters of the Church to the subversion of Religion under pretence of Reformation which how politickly wrought by the long combination of an hypocritical Faction we come now to speak of more particularly The former Examples of alteration of Religion and of compassing secular ends and designes by pretence of Reforming Religion having beaten out a ready way for any change no sooner began the Fanatical Faction to appear and by their furious pretence of Loyalty and hatred of Popery under Queen Elizabeths policy to ballance the Popish party then not weakned enough in the Kingdom for her security suffered to take head but presently they began to Libel the Bishops and the Church of England and to poison the people in most corners of the Land but chiefly in London with Geneva Doctrines and Pamphlets Supplications are made to the Queen and to the Privy-Council but especially to the Parliament Petions pretended to be subscribed by 100000 hands put up against Bishops Remonstrances and Admonitions are directed to the Parliament to advance the Presbytery as the holy Discipline but finding little countenance to such a phrensie they fell into such Libelling and Menacing the Queen the Council and the Parliament that in their heat the fire of Sedition began to appear so that to quench it in the spark the Queen made severe Laws against them and by hanging Penry condemned with Vdall and Barow who were pardoned brake the neck of their Plots and turned their brags into preaching of preces lachrymae as the onely arms for Christian Subjects and into Doctrines of humble obedience and patience till indeed they could pack an House of Commons for their purpose as some Pamphlets of those days advised the Brethren their party in Parliament being then inconsiderable or at least not able to carry on their work by their own strength and probably those Laws had for ever purged this Kingdom of this new plague had not an old sore unexpectedly broke out in the Gunpowder Treason so apparently plotted by Papists though the Actors intended to have laid the Saddle on the Fanatical Horse but little sooner than they deserved as we now see that to permit the other was counted the best way to cure this and as it sever hapneth the common hatred of any Faction gives great advantage to its contrary So now the Fanaticks full glad of such an occasion began busily to revive their suspended hopes of their Reformation strengthned also by their united brethren of Scotland as that in all Parliaments since through King James's too much love of peace and Archbishop Abbots affected popularity upon some Court-disfavour and by other Courtiers emulation by the subtelty and hypocrisie of the Faction they have gained ground till they have driven the Church and the King out of Three Kingdoms by the