into their hands i. e. The opposite and malignant Party of Papists Prelats and others the sons of defection and contention their adherents and suffer our selves to be cut off and massacred by such bloody and barbarous cruelty as they have executed this time past in Ireland and England There is a necessity of taking of Armes for mutual defence In this case it is most necessary that every one against all doubting be perswaded in his mind of the lawfulness of this undertaking and of the goodness of the cause maintain'd by him To assist our Brethren in England who are calling for our help and are shedding their blood in defence of that Power without which Religion can neither be defended nor reformed nor unity of Religion with us and other Reformed Kirks be attained To whom of old and of late we have made Promises of the real Declarations of all Christian duty and thankfulness and who upon our desires and their endeavours for unity in Religion have often warn'd us that the Malignant Party would bend all their invention and forces to interrupt the work and to ruin and destroy them in the undertaking of it which we see this day come to pass The Question is no sooner rightly stated but it is soon resolved the Lord save us from the Curse of Meroz who came not to help the Lord to help the Lord against the mighty when we look upon the cause which they maintain the Prayers Tears and Blood which they have poured forth and the insolencies and the blasphemies of the enemies we cannot doubt but inlargement and deliverance shall arise unto England God forbid and be it far from us to sit down at ease on this side of Jordan till our Brethren be possessed in the Liberties of the Kingdome of Christ. And this Seditious canting-language they second in another of their Declarations to the same purpose Unless we can which God forbid blot out of our thoughts the sense of piety and Religion toward God of honour and duty towards our Soveraign and of gratitude toward the Parliament and Kingdome of England we can in no wise resist our present call to this Expedition Very pretty that their duty to their King should oblige them to fight against him and his Authority But the people of this Gang are very much given to make Bulls and Non-sense This is not unlike to our Long-Parliament who thus very gravely Ordered To the intent that his Majesties Revenue might no more be mis-applyed and that the same may be imploy'd for the good of his Majesty and the Common-wealth The Lords and Commons therefore do Ordain That all his Majesties the Queens and Princes Revenue shall be seized upon But what if I should tell you that some of these Diegos can affirm for their excuse that they were bound by the Oath of Allegiance to take the Parliaments part against the King would you not think that the price of Oaths is faln very low Well if you will enquire of old Master Thomas Hall the Parson of Kings-Norton he can tell you what is the opinion of him and others in this case He is a notable Champion against May-poles and will give you aboundance of arguments to prove that they are the Devils Angle-rods which being well baited with Holy-sisters is the onely way to catch Puritans as an old woman told a zealous Grandee but enough of his precise and simple Objections of which I may say as the famous Selden said of some old fashioned Rhimes You may read them and then laugh at them If their Allegiance obliged them to fight against the King they may well suppose that by the Covenant they were bound to cut him off by the Article of bringing Malignants to punishent and what may be the sequel of such assertions I hope our Superiours will consider And what do you think of another swash-buckler of this Tribe who assures the world that the English had as much cause to rejoyce for their Conquests over his Majesty as the Israelites for their deliverance from wicked Pharaoh and his Egyptians And this use of Exhortation the better to advantage the memory of the whining Sisterhood he coughs out in as good Dogril Rhime as ever John Cotton or Vavasor Powel were guilty of a tast of whose hatred to the King's Party you may see in these following Sing praise sing praise unto Jehova high For he hath Tryumphed most gloriously O're all our foes The Horse and Rider He Hath tumbled down to deepest misery Yea all the rotten-rout of Romanists Papists and Prelates Atheists Royallists And Mad-Malignants void of grace or sence To whom God now hath made just recompence Why he should distinguish betwixt Royalists and Malignants I know not though I might very well and I am as ignorant what difference he finds betwixt a Romanist and a Papist unless all this be with the fellow in the Play to make up Meeter And who must this boaster be but the furious John Vicars one that hated all people that loved obedience as the Devil doth Holy water and could out-scold the boldest face at Billings-gate if Kings Bishops Organs or May-pole were to be the objects of their zealous indignation of which I shall give you but one tast to wit against his Sacred Majesty The King's Letter full indeed of much EVIL and Demonstration of no Change of heart from his former BLOODY CRUEL and UNKINGLY PRACTISES of the RUINE of Himself and His Kingdomes as much as in Him lay Is this fit to be Printed for the information of the people and yet Ja. Cranford thought it very fitting Was is convenient to dedicate such stuff as this to Almighty God yet the Author thought nothing more Would any man call this a fair and famous History yet Vicars himself could give it that Encomium Or could any imagine that such a Rayler against the King and Church should even the other day deserve the Title of The Worthy Patriot of his Countrey and yet so is he honoured but by whom Edward Thomas Mr. Pryn's Bookseller can better inform you than my self The truth of it is this man's Histories only look like a Company of Thanks-giving Sermons stitch'd up together as Georgius Hornius well Characteriz'd them Yet must I needs say that of all men that pretended to deep Learning and good History this Hornius of Strangers is the most partial in his short Story of our late English Wars which makes me somewhat mistrust the mans Principles seeing at his being then in England he might have more exactly informed himself if Interest had not sway'd him But I hope his History of the Scottish Rebellion and the beginning of the English when it is printed will be more Ingenuous or else I shall desire him to acquaint himself with his friend Monsieur de Parival or the two Italians Priorato and Bisaccione and other Forraigners who are more impartial I need not tell you how the Presbyterian
for the distruction of our Church But if 8000 Fiends could no way endamage seven poor Fryers I hope nor they nor Presbytery will ever be able to do any mischief to the Church of England Yet as a descant upon the Objection of those who plead their activity in Sir George Booth's businesse I shall propose one Query Whether if the Presbyterians had supposed that our present King would have been so opposite to their Interests as his glorious Father was They would any way have bestirr'd themselves for his Restauration Here I would not be understood of those who at the beginning of these troubles had the misfortune to be of that Faction yet since turn'd to the true Church with an acknowledgment of their former errours and this through conscience not preferment the once-flourishing Church being then in a persecution But I intend those whose frantick zeal yet binds them up to Schism as well as those who are stuft with Presbytery in Sr. George's rising and since of whom I believe repentance is not yet impossible because I read that the Devill himself hath humbly acknowledged and confessed his offences But to the Query if they would not have endeavour'd his restorement being so qualified then must they needs have a large stock of confidence to demand thanks where none is due but rather an halter for their assistance in the businesse But if they did desire the King again and so qualyfied then must they either declare that they have been wicked Villains and Traytors against the late King or that this present King was help'd in by them more through their goodness to him than his own desert For my part I am apt to give credit to the negative really thinking that if they had had as bad thoughts of this King as of his Father who yet was better than the best of his enemies they would have made it their businesse to have kept him out though under favour 't is as much Treason to depose a Tyrant as a good King And I am drawn to be of this perswasion by these following Motives That they looked upon his Fathers non-complyance with their peevish humours as a monstrous wickednesse is a truth not hitherto denyed Wherefore else should Mr. Love pray that God would redeem him i. e. Charles II. from the iniquity of his Fathers house And not half an houre before his own death to be so farre out of Charity with the oppressed and Martyr'd King as to bluster out For my part I have opposed the Tyranny of a King And with this Love great in the eyes of the Presbyterians doth the grand Patron of that Sect in Scotland Mr. Robert Dowglas agree who had the impudence pardon that low expression for language cannot reach the wickednesse of his pretended Sermon to tell the King to his face several times of the sins of his Father and Family Of which I shall give you some taste and that in his own words It is earnestly wished that our Kings heart may be tender and be truly humbled before the Lord for the sins of his Fathers house And for the many evils that are upon that Family Again Our late King did build much mischief to Religion all the days of his Life And again Sir there is too much iniquity upon the throne of your predecessors who framed mischief by a Law such Laws as have been destructive to Religion and grievous to the Lords people And again I may say freely that a chief cause of the judgment upon the Kings house hath been the Grand-fathers breach of Covenant with God and the Fathers following his steps in opposing the work of God and the Kirk within this Realm And since he holds the King to be so wicked what must be done with him himself doth intimate in these following words This may serve to justifie the proceedings of this Kingdome against the late King who in an hostile way set himself to overthrow Religion Parliament Laws and Liberties If Elisha call'd judgment from Heaven upon little Children for calling of him bald-head What punishment do these Boute-feus deserve for throwing such false and wicked slanders and reproaches upon a just and good King If the Romans according to their custome broak the legs of the wicked accuser of Apollonius because he could not prove his words what tortures do those merit who so falsly revile their innocent Ruler And if Nerva would have servants slain as ungrateful wretches who presumed to accuse their Masters What death would he inflict upon those who had the impudence thus to vilifie their Soveraign But it was not Dowglas alone who thought the late Rebellion against the King to be lawful and commendable but others of them and those the chief too nor indeed do I remember that any Presbyterian denyed it Amongst its chief assertors thus doth Love declare himself I did it is true oppose in my place and calling the forces of the late King and were he alive again and should I live longer the cause being as then it was I should oppose him longer And of the same Rebellious humour is the much talked of Baxter who several times professeth that if he had not been on the Parliaments party he had been guilty of High Treason against the Higher power which his hasty zeal took to be the Parliament But I shall leave him to the meditation of the Rebels plea which if he do but seriously consider I am confident he may have a sight of his sins against which conversion I believe the Brethren pray daily And of this opinion concerning the lawfulnesse of the Warre was old Hall of Kings-Norton canting and recanting Jenkins of London mad-pated Crofton railing Vicars with the rest of the covenanting Diegoes It being one Article in their League and Creed that all Malignants that divided the King from his people c. contrary to the League and Covenant be brought to publick Tryal and receive condigne punishment and by whom this is meant needs no Oedipus to unriddle So that if the King offer to protect these eye-sores of theirs they think themselves obliged by their Oath to take Armes to punish the Kings best subjects according to their pretty oath And yet must these mens actions be held ever for the best as if they had taken infallibility from the Papall Chair Which puts me in mind of a Quaker who not long since through ignorance led a friend of mine above 4 miles out of his way going to Oxford and when he perceived his error greatly cryed up the good providence of God which had brought them that way because as he said for ought he knew they might have been rob'd had they gone the right road And how many of the Puritans have hug'd themselves because they have been in a wrong way against King and Church may appear by many of their Thanks-giving Sermons and speeches And whether these men can be call'd good
court the Continent for self-preservation where they must provide for a rainy-day And what is become of all our Gold I know not unless it hath travell'd too XIV Another means to overthrow England Campanella thinks is to set them and the Dutch together by the Ears The fulfilling of which is fresh in every ones memory XV. After all Campanella's pumping to undo England and root out the Protestant Religion he can imagine no way more conducible to such ends then the reducing of that Kingdom into a Common-wealth Of which Observation there needs no Remarks but Experience not yet forgot CHAP. V. The Original of the Commons in Parliament That the Clergy is one of the Three Estates and the King Supream above all WHen I find God himself calling Rebellion the sin of Witchcraft for me to speak against it by endeavouring to aggravate the Iniquity would be to as small purpose to an Ingenious man as the pains and expences of Calvisius Sabinus to attain to the height of Learning since his memory was so weak that it could scarce retain the Names of Ulysses Achilles and Priamus Yet were it neerer allyed to Hell then it is it would not want both daring and knowing Patrons which doth something mitigate my admiration when I consider what Paper Time besides too much Bloud hath been spent by some men of late dayes to Apologize for the greatest Wickedness and thereby to strengthen themselves through their Actions in the Peoples Affections These though they had the worst Plea yet came off with the best Success by which they clamourously declared the Justness of their Cause hinting to the Royalists that it was owned by a Supernatural Power But Careat successibus opto Quisquis ab eventu facta notanda putat Let him ne're gain applause That from th' event states th' goodness of the cause And how Orthodox such Arguments are is obvious if we do but consider the often prosperity of the wicked who are sometimes permitted to conquer more for a scourge to others than any justness in themselves And I dare be confident in our case it holds the unlawfulness of these late domestick Commotions being rightly more appropriated to the Parliament than his Majesty as in it's due place shall be shewn But first to make the way more plain and easie to those who call themselves the weak Brethren the first fomenters of this Rebellion we shall in brief consider the Antiquity Subordination and Priviledges of Parliaments as they now stand whereby it is plain they had no power given them thus to raise Wars against and imprison much less behead their Soveraign For what I here speak is intended chiefly against the Long-Parliament The most ancient Government in this Island that Records can instruct us of is Monarchy and that in its Antiquity the most absolute the higher we go finding our Kings more free and powerful That reciprocal Compact between King and People so much boasted of by our Common-wealths-men and others being but a meer dream and Chamaera as that great Soul of Reason and Divinity the Reverend Bishop Sanderson hath compendiously and fully evinced That the ancient Kings of this Island had Meetings for Consultations reason prompts me to believe though I do not remember after what certain fashion yet since Christianity was setled here the Kings used to imploy the Archbishops Bishops and Nobility by way of Advice and Counsel Ethelbert the famous King of our Kentish Saxons being converted unto the Christian Faith about the year 596. some nine years after viz. 605. summons a Council in which were not only the Laity but the Clergy also After which time the Reverend Archbishops and Bishops have sat as a part of those grand Meetings till the late Exclusion by the Long-Parliament as the well-read Dr. Heylin who though under a great decay of sight sees more than a whole Nation of Presbytery hath sufficiently asserted These Lords Spiritual and Temporal were the only Parliament known to former Kings and so but one House However sometimes upon great concerns the King would when himself best pleas'd have some of the Commoners joyned with them but then they were not as now elected but particularly chosen according to the Kings desire and these were of more than ordinary savour and discretion and therefore call'd Wise-men The first time that in History we can meet with a Parliament consisting of the Clergy Nobility and Commons is in King Henry the firsts dayes at Salisbury Anno 1116. and so the Clergy were 500. years before the Commons in Parliaments But why this King should be the first that threw this favour so generally upon the Commons was as some are pleas'd to affirm grounded upon his own Usurpation For he being but the younger Son of William the Conquerour following the President of William Rufus seized upon the Crown in the absence of his eldest Brother Robert and afterwards most cruelly put out his eyes This they say moved many Discontents amongst the Nobility against whom to strengthen himself he thought it best to pleasure the Commons which was done by calling them to this Parliament at Salisbury whereby his Usurpation became more formidable against his Enemies But though the Commons were call'd to Counsel at this time if at this time since Prynne denyeth it yet were they not thereby made or esteem'd necessary since in several Kings raigns successively after Parliaments were held as Prynne their chief Patron doth acknowledge consisting only of the Spiritual and Temporal Barons And when afterwards they did really sit is as uncertain as after what manner or when they had their first Speaker The first by that Title upon Record being Sir Thomas Hungerford Anno 1376. though the year before John Stow calls Sir Peter de la More their Prolocutor And before these two but three viz. Petrus de Mountford Scroope and Sir William Trussel the first of these viz. Mountford being in the 44 th year of Henry III. that are known are supposed to officiate as Speakers for in what nature they were of is not yet known though for certain if the Commons sat by themselves they could not want some such like Officer It being many years afterwards viz. Anno 1401. that the King Henry IV. required the Commons to choose a Speaker before which time no such Command being recorded Thus we see the small Antiquity of Parliaments as they now stand with us representing the three Estates the Clergy Nobility and Commons This I write to shew how strangely confident the Commons were of late dayes who if you will believe Prynne one of themselves had really no such Power and Judicatureship as they did in the least pretend to Nor would I be thought in this or any thing in the sequent Discourse to invalid the true and real Authority of Parliaments or to lessen the Credit of the Commons House holding it now to be an Essential part of Parliament but yet not so much as some of
the Parliament in the 23. year of her raign for presuming to Vote a Fast to be solemnized at the Temple-Church for such of their own Members as could conveniently be present there telling them by her Messenger Sir Thomas Henneage then Vice-Chamberlain With what admiration she beheld that Incroachment on her Royal Authority in committing such an apparent Innovation without her privaty or pleasure first known Upon which they desired Sir Thomas to present their Submission to the Queen and to crave her pardon Nor would she suffer her Parliaments to meddle in Ecclesiastical affairs And plainly used to tell them that their Priviledges were but the free pronouncing these two words Yea and No. And King James perceiving his last Parliament but one to soar somewhat high told their Speaker Sir Thomas Richardson in a Letter from New-market That some fiery and popular spirits of the Lower-House did debate matters above their capacity to our dishonour and Prerogative Royal. These are therefore to make known to them That none shall hereafter presume to meddle with any thing concerning our Government or matters of State with our Sons match with the Daughter of Spain nor to touch the Honour of that King or any other our Friends or Confederates Nor with any mans particulars which have their due Motion in our Ordinary Courts of Justice But to put them out of doubt of any question hereafter of that nature We think our self very free and able to punish any mans misdemeanour in Parliament as well sitting there as after which we mean not to spare hereafter upon any occasions of any mans And that King James had good grounds for what he wrote I am apt to believe not only considering his own Learning and Knowledge in State-affairs But that if a Parliament man by their own Orders is not abusively to reflect upon any of their own Members to me it seems very irrational to think that they may openly vilifie the Crown and throw dirt upon Regal Authority Therefore I shall perswade my self that Sir Henry Ludlow who said there that King Charles was not worthy to be King of England was farr more unfit to live As for the other Priviledge which the Parliament doth vigorously demand as their due and right we shall find their clamour to be not unlike some Bills in Chancery where many thousand pounds are demanded when scarce twenty is due Or the towring expectations of Lambert Simnell a Bakers son who under a Princely Vizard required the Crown of England as his Birth-right yet after all the bloud-shed in his behalf was happy to be a Turn-spit to King Henry the Seventh 'T is true for Debt and such private and peculiar Engagements a Member cannot be Imprisoned for if so a plot might be framed to shrink the Houses again though in a more plausible method to a New Rump And this was the case of Mr. George Ferrers Burgess for Plymouth 1542. who being arrested for debt was at the desire of the Commons released and the Sheriff of London sent to the Tower for two dayes But yet the best of them may be imprisoned though then actually in Parliament either for Treason Felony or refusing to give security for the Peace And for this cause was Thomas Thorp Speaker to the Commons arrested and put into Prison in the 31. year of King Henry the Sixth And the learned Judges of the Land declared he was not capable of a Release which being made known to the Commons by Walter Moyle one of the Kings Serjeants at Law they presently chose themselves another Speaker viz. Sir Thomas Charleton and never clamour'd that the Priviledges of Parliament were broken In Queen Elizabeth's time nothing was more common then to serve Subpoena's upon and imprison extravagant Members Witness the two upon Mr. Knevet An. Reg. 39. one upon Mr. Coke An. Reg. 127. and Mr. Peter Wentworth was committed to the Tower and Sir Henry Bromley Mr. Stevens Mr. Welch to the Fleet 35. Elizab. for desiring the Intailment of the Crowns Succession And in the 35. of her raign she sent into the House of Commons and took out Mr. Morris and committed him to Prison with divers others for some speeches in the House and when the rest of the Commons petitioned her Majesty for their release she sent them a severe check telling them that they were not to discourse of things of such high nature And the same Answer did King James return them 1621. when they endeavoured to know the reason of Sir Edwin Sandis his restraint And though he was a merciful and peaceful King yet when they presumed to incroach upon him he would make them learn more manners in the Tower and other Prisons witness the committment of several of them in the 12. year of his raign And though never any King was more afflicted and bandied with Parliaments than the late King Charles yet the sweetness of his temper made him wink at many insolent Indiscretions till at last their Impudence grew so high as not to permit the Serjeant of the Mace to go to the King upon his Command to lock the Parliament-door and deny the Kings Messenger entrance to hold by force the Speaker in the Chair swearing deep Oaths that he should sit still as long as they pleas'd though the King command the contrary to deny the Kings Power to dissolve them by Proxy that they are not bound to give an account to the King but to their own House of their actions be they what they will in Parliament upon which several of them were imprisoned the Judges delivering their Opinions positively that their crimes were within cognizance out of Parliament affirming that if it were not so if a Parliament-man should commit murder in time of Parliament he could not be tryed and arraigned until a new Representative and for confirmation of their Opinions they alledged many Presidents as that of Plowden in Queen Mary's time who was fined in the Kings-Bench for words spoken in Parliament against the dignity of the Queen And to be brief though the Long-Parliament made great hubbubs and brags about the five Members yet afterwards when they were in their height of pride they in print did acknowledge and confess that Members might be arrested and detained for Treason Felony and other crimes though they would gladly smooth it up so farr as to make themselves Judges I shall say no more but that what Priviledge soever they have the Laws of our Land allow the same to the Clergy and their Servants and Familiars for that is the word in the Statute when call'd to a Convocation and this either in coming carrying or going home again CHAP. VII The beginning of the Presbyterians with the wicked Principles of the Ring-leaders of that Factious Sect. HAving thus hinted upon the Kings Prerogative the Origin of the Commons and their Priviledges by which 't is plain that the King is Supream and by
this Blake is summon'd before the Council which so incensed Andrew Melvill that he labour'd to make it a Publick Cause and did so much That they declare it would be ill to question Ministers and boldly told King James who asked them if they had seen the Conditions of Huntly's Pardon That both he and the rest should either satisfie the Church in every point or be pursued with all extremity so as they should have no reason to complain of the over-sight of Papists And as for Blake they gave him a Declinator affirming it was the Cause of God whereunto it concerned them to stand at all hazzard and this Declinator was sent to all the Presbyteries in the Kingdom who were desired not only to subscribe it but to commend the Cause in their private and publick Prayers to God by which means they fancyed themselves so strong that they deny the King to have power to judge a man for speaking in Pulpit and that the King in what he had already done had so wronged Christs Kingdom that the death of many men could not be so grievous to them And therefore they ordain a Fast for averting the Judgements then threatning the Kirk This action so vext his Majesty that he forbad all Convocatings and Meetings but they little cared for him or his Orders for Mr. Walter Balcanquall did not only forthwith rail against the Court naming several of the chief Courtiers but desired all the well-affected to meet in the Little Church to assist the Ministry who did accordingly and Petition the King in behalf of the Kirk But the King asking them who they were that durst convene against his Proclamation was worshipfully replyed by the Lord Lindesey That they durst do no more then so and that they would not suffer Religion to be over-thrown Multitudes unmannerly thronging into the room the King departed and they went to the little Church again where Lindesey told them No course but one let us stay together that are here and promise to take one part and advertise our friends and the favourers of Religion to come unto us for it shall be either theirs or ours Upon which great clamours shoutings and lifting up of hands followed some crying to Arms others to bring out Haman for whilst the Lords were with the King being sent as above-said from the Little-Church Mr. Cranstone read to the People that story others cryed out The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon and so great were the Peoples fury rais'd on a sodain That if the Provost by fair words and others by threats had not tamed them they had done some violence These actions of the Kirkers makes the King leave the Town go to Linlithgow whereupon they resolve for Warr the Ministers agitating them Amongst the rest one John Welsh in his Sermon rail'd pitifully against the King saying He was possest with a Devil and compared him to a Madd-man and affirmed That Subjects might lawfully rise and take the Sword out of his hand In this fiery zeal they write a Letter to the Lord Hamilton desiring him to be their General telling him in it That the People animated by the Word and Motion of Gods Spirit had gone to Arms. But all came to nothing Hamilton refusing such rebellious honour carryeth the Letter to the King who orders the guilty Ministers to be apprehended who escape by flying into England and the Magistrates of Edenburgh are pardoned The overthrow of this one business strengthened the Kings Authority mightily which was also confirmed by the Assembly at Perth now better known by the name of St. John's Town The Ministry being now pretty quiet Ruthen Earl of Gowry conspired to kill the King but to his own ruin His Majesty for this Preservation orders that Thanks should solemnly be render'd to God but in this he found the Presbyters cross-grain'd denying to do any such thing for such a deliverance whereupon they were silenced yet afterwards shewing their willingness were restored In this year was King James his third son his second viz. Robert dying young Charles born afterwards King of England The next year was kept an Assembly at Burnt-Island whither Mr. John Davidson wrote a rayling Letter checking them for their cowardise in not opposing the ungodly telling them that the King was not sound and that Warr was more commendable than a wicked Peace But the graver sort rather pittyed and smiled at the mans madd zeal then troubled themselves to vex at him And now Queen Elizabeth dying King James the undoubted next Heir to the English Crown is at London Proclaimed accordingly whither he went to receive his Crown having thus happily united the two Kingdoms And here I shall leave off from prosecuting the Presbyterian Story in Scotland any further though I might tell you of their calling against the Kings consent an Assembly at Aberdeen to rant against Episcopal Government nor would they dissolve at the Kings command till they were proclaimed Traytors and yet did some of them scorn to acknowledge their Error and were by some of their Brethren vindicated to King James face in England the next year And many more instances of their Waspish humour in denying the Kings Authority might be shewn out of their own Historians who abound in such examples but if Symmetry will tell us the stature of the man by the proportion of his foot these may serve so much at this time to satisfie that I fear they will rather nauseate And really those who thought it a hard case that Mr. Blake should be punished for affirming in a Sermon 1596. That all Kings were the Devils Barns that the Kings heart was treacherous and that the Devil was in the Court and the guiders of it That the Queen of England was an Atheist and a wicked Woman That the Nobility and Lords were miscreants bribers degenerated godless dissemblers and Enemies to the Church That the Council were Holliglasses Cormorants and men of no Religion And in his Prayer for Queen Anne he said We must pray for her for the fashion but we have no cause she will never do us good Nor did he word it only but also rais'd Arms both Horse and Foot against the Kings consent These men I say who thought it unjust to have him questioned for such rebellious actions may also for ought I know think it strange with Buchanan that our Laws do not provide ample and honourable rewards for those who can boldly murder their Prince And yet must this Buchanan and Knox be cryed up as valiant noble bold and publick-spirited men and this present world scorned because we have no such fire-brands And whether this title is rashly thrown upon them let any ingenious man judge not only by their fore-mentioned tenets and actions against their Kings but by the answerable nurturing up of their Disciples who at the University of St. Andrews instead of Divinity Lectures had these Political or rather a ruine to
and Chapters Prebendaries c. So that in four dayes time the hasty Commons over-throw as much as in them lay the Reverend Church of England which had continued many hundreds of years a flourishing glory to the Nation The Commons for their parts having thus pull'd down the pale of our Church fastned and strengthened by so many Authentick and Fundamental Laws as old again as the House of Commons will not leave Religion without some Government No good souls they were more kind-hearted And therefore in the first place they Vote that all the Lands and Means belonging to Deans and Chapters Chancellors or Commissaries Archdeacons Deans Prebendaries Chapter Canon c. shall be taken away and disposed of to the advancement of Learning and Piety That is if their after-actions may be taken for Expositors to maintain Rebellion Heresie Sacriledge and ruine Universities for these mens promises like Hebrew must still be read backwards and after this rule did they send a request to the King by Secretary Vain That he would give them leave to look into his Revenues and Expences and they would make him the richest King in Christendom But the Parliament will not spend their time only in selling Lands but something must be considered of a Church-Government too and therefore they Vote that all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction fit to be exercised in England shall be committed to such a number of persons and in such a manner as their Worships shall think fit Nor were they long without making the Nation happy with the discovery of their Intellectuals which was That six of the Clergy and six of the Laity should be appointed in every County for the setling of Church-Government But this was a little shaken by an after conclusion viz. That nine of the Laity and three of the Clergy in every Diocess should have power to exercise all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as shall be ordered by Parliament and to have their Monethly meetings for that purpose And the next day to make this hotch-potch Model more compleat they Vote That there shall be several select Committees of the Clergy appointed for the Ordination of Clergy-men into the Ministry But yet this Presbyterian Brat would not come to perfection And therefore to give more encouragement to the Covenanting-admirers they conclude That all Archiepiscopal and Episcopal Jurisdiction shall be exercised in this Kingdom by the Commissioners as there was by Bishops And the same day read the Bill for the using of Lectures taking away Cross in Baptism Surplis bowing at the Name of Jesus standing up at the Gospel Gloria Patri Pictures in Churches c. and conclude the day with the appointing of a Committee for the Propagation of the Gospel And the next day they give further power to their nine Commissioners to wit That after the first of August any five of them shall be a Quorum and have full power to try all Ecclesiastical Causes and to appoint Deputies under them in several places And after this they further agreed That if any of the nine Commissioners should dye that five or more of them are to choose another presently and so if any of them resign and that if any came to take Orders that these Commissioners shall appoint five Clergy men to grant Ordinations And for the more speedy putting of this medly in practise the Knights and Burgesses of every Shire are commanded to bring in the Names of the nine Commissioners for their several Counties to be appointed and that no Clergy-man be of the Commission Thus farr had the Commons thrown I cannot say built up this their confused Babylon when on a sodain an unexpected Remora was joyned to their further proceedings by some fallings out betwixt the Lords and them about the Protestation For the Commons having ordered that it should be taken all over the Kingdom were in this opposed by the Peers who threw it out of their House which so incensed the Commons that they presently Vote That what person soever shall not take the Protestation is unfit to bear Office in Church or Common-wealth And thinking that the Bishops were the reason of the Lords dissent appoint a Committee for impeaching them about the late Canons who accordingly Voted thirteen Bishops to be Delinquents whom the Lords also suspended their house till a further hearing And so violently were these good men persecuted by the Presbyters that they never left plotting till they had got them Voted Traytors and sent to the Tower Nor could they have any outward content any where considering the reproaches threats and curses daily thrown against them by the wicked the danger of their lives by Tumults and their Lands Voted from them long before by their and Religions Enemies the Non-conforming Commons though they agreed to allow them a liberal allowance during life and how unhandsomly the Parliament in this neglected this promise the Reverend Bishop Hall will satisfie you The Commons now having as they thought bridled the Bishops and their Party are resolved to root out the Common-Prayer Book too to which purpose some of them desire that it might be altered and some thing added to it the which after some speeches being put to the Vote it appear'd that there were then but 55. Disciplinarians in the House no more voting for Alterations so that the Book came off with credit the Orthodox Party knowing well enough that if that House once fell to alter it it rather belonging to able and lawful Divines they would equal the Tinker who made two holes for mending one The Anti-Episcopalians being thus baffled fall to it again getting it to be moved again in the House the next week where they came off with the like success And the next day being a Thanks-giving day for the Peace between the two Nations to shew their malice to Church-Government and countenance the Schismaticks the Commons would not go to St. Margarets Westminster as was by them appointed because the Bishop of Lincoln had caus'd a set Form of Prayer for that occasion to be printed and used in the Church the news of which so started their Worships that they turn'd tail and went to the preachment at Lincolns Inne But if the Commons were troubled at this they were after out of their wits and all stark-madd against the Lords Because they had put forth an Order and sent it all over the Nation strictly injoyning the reading of the Common-Prayer against which and many other Church-affairs the Commons the same day put forth a Declaration ordering it to be printed and sent over the Kingdom and with them they also got the nine dissenting Lords to protest against the Order made by the House of Peers This cross-graind action of the Commons so incensed the Lords that they left off sitting for a while causing the Hangings of their House to be taken down Nor did this any way vex the Commons
would weep pray bemoan and call upon God till he had destroy'd him to whom he seem'd most friendly so that in this he seem'd to be typified by Alete in the Italian Heroick Poem Alete è l'un che da principio indegno Tra le brutture de la Plebe è sorto Ma l'innalzaro à i primi honor del Regne Parlar facondo e lusinghiero e scorto Pieghevoli costumi e vario ingegno Al finger pronto à l'ingannare accorto Gran fabro di calunnie adorne in modi Novi che sono accuse e paion lodi Alete from the basest Rabble came From a vile Clown's unworthy loyns being sprung Yet did he rise unto the greatest Name By a dissembling lying cunning tongue His temper to all humours could he frame And by his craft and lyes blanch o're all wrong A great back-biter but in such quaint wayes As whom h'accuseth most he seems to praise Nor may we be branded with want of Charity if we suspect his Religion to be as true as he pretended for that he confided more in the sharpness of his Sword than the right of his Cause is evident from his swerving from all his Oaths Protestations and Promises for the advantage of his own Interest in which he was not unlike Argante in the former Poet who D'ogni Dio sprezzator eche ripone Ne la spada sua legge e sua ragione Did scorn and spurn at God and would afford Nor Law nor Reason but his bloudy Sword Yet for all his Valour and Knavery as Piedro Messia admires the sodain rise of Julius Caesar so may I of Oliver considering he had not only the Royalists his Enemies and Experience tells us and a Venetian well observeth he was the greatest that ever the King had but also the Presbyterians to both which Cromwel's Faction was but a handful yet may this wonder be somewhat lessen'd by considering that the Parliament and Non-conformists had done formerly the main drudgery of the work to his hands Many Articles was he sworn to observe contain'd in the Book of Government which with his Oath were afterwards alter'd by The Advice As he gain'd his Government by bloud and craft so did he keep it cutting off all people whom he the least suspected and toleing the people along to their own slavery and destruction as the Pyed Pyper did the Children and Rats of Hamel in Brunswick some four years he protected it giving Laws to and dissolving Parliaments at pleasure a thing which he and his Creatures formerly judged most wicked But many men commend themselves in that for which they despise others And thus shall I leave Oliver with Nostradamus his Praediction above a hundred years ago Le Roy des Isles sera chassé par force Mis à son Lieu qui de Roy n'aura signe A King of Islands shall be bannish'd and An upstart Jack by force shall rule the Land Oliver being thus wafted away in a whirlwind his Son Richard as the Father had appointed succeeded to whom all the Armies of the three Nations with some others shoal with innumerable Addresses pittifully lamenting the death of his Father whom they profainly honour with all the good titles they could pick out of the Holy Scriptures protesting to stand by him and professing and acknowledging their happiness under his Rule But for all these their Asseverations he had not govern'd prudently piously faithfully to his immortal honour as his great friend and admirer Mr. Baxter saith long but they by the contrivance of Lambert and others having weakned his Party by forcing him to dissolve his Parliament thrust him out of the Throne too by which action as Mr. Baxter saith he was very ill used The Officers of the Army having thus sleighted him command all things by their Consultations at Wallingford-House and from thence issued forth a Declaration to recal the Rump again who the next day accordingly met And this forsooth was by them call'd the Good old Cause but why it should be honour'd with that Epethite I know no more than why the wicked sin of Sodomie should be commended by Johannes Casa These men having Triumph'd for about half a year a great jealousie grew betwixt them and their Army For Lambert returning to London proud with his pretty Conquest over Sir George Booth instigated his Red-coats to Petition the Parliament for a General and then he knew how to act his part as well as Cromwell did in 1648 But the cunning Rumpers smelling the design Voted this grand Office as in a single Person to be needless chargeable and dangerous which denyal of theirs was so farr from danting the Resolved Commanders who knew that if they were now baffled their ruine by Rump-craft would soon follow who made no more use of the Parliament nor the Members of the Army then they would serve for one anothers Interests and so after several Consultations at Wallingford House publickly desired a Chief Commander again in their Representation delivered by Gyant Desborough The Rump perceiving the Army resolute and fearing a change of Government enact it Treason for any to raise Moneys but by their consent and the next day their disease being desperate Vote Lambert and the chief of his Faction out of Commission and appoint seven Commissioners over the Army Fleetwood being Lieutenant-General a man of an easie disposition and so apt to be both cozened and commanded But this hindred nothing the Armies prosecution of their own designs who to requite the good turn done them by the Rump turn'd them out of Authority leaving us without any Government only appointing Fleetwood Commander in Chief whose soft nature made him imploy'd by both Factions wanting wit of himself to do any man any harm yet as a Cyfer could add something to the number The Rump being now defunct and the Army-Lords Paramount are continued some days without any Form of Government but those Ranters at Wallingford-House who at last constituted ten pure Youths to carry on the affairs of the State But the glory of these Decemviri lasted not long being null'd by their Lords and Masters the Army so unconstant were their actions who order'd another Model of Government under the pretty Title of The Committee of Safety consisting of Twenty three Brethren in Iniquity all people of great pretended Sanctity though their villany made some think that Hell was broke loose and sat in Council in a place built for their betters The Committee of Safety who now appointed a pack of Beagles to hunt after some Form of Government from Utopia Atlantis the fairy Country or some Terra incognita or other provided there should be no such thing as King-ship continued not long in any peaceable condition For General Monk hating the Tyranny of the English Army opposed their proceedings which occasioned Lambert with some tatterdemallions to march Northwards the same day that the wicked Long-Parliament
willing upon just satisfaction given to our desires And after this fashion doth the General Assembly bid their King stand off wondring that any one should be against their keeping out the King till their Provisoes be submitted to by him And their reason is because should his Majesty be put in power before he did ingage himself to submit to them then no obligation would be upon him Well having jugled him into Scotland they use him worse than a Gally-slave threatning destruction to Him and all his Friends unless he will dance after their humours and declare according to their malicious and Hell-contrived dictates Of which thus take the words of their proud beggarly Assembly They will not own him nor his Interest otherwise then with a subordination to God and in so farr as he owns and prosecutes the Cause of God and disclaims his and his Fathers Opposition to the Work of God and to the Covenant and all the Enemies thereof And this piece of Impudence was seconded by the Committee of Estates and the Covenanting Swash-bucklers of the Scotch Army But that you might the better see that their Obedience to the King was no longer than he served their turns and Interests I shall give you a piece of a Letter from their Great Minister of State the Earl of Loudoun Chancellor of Scotland which he wrote to his present Sacred Majesty Since your Majesty refuseth to do what is necessary for the good of Religion and Gods Interest They will look to the safety and good of Religion and to their own safety and emit a Declaration how willing they are to hazard their lives for your Majesties Interest if ye had been for Religion But that being deny'd they will separate the preservation of Religion from Your Interest and so to the safety of this Kingdom And if there be a difference and separation upon those grounds there will never in human appearance be such a Conjunction And Your Enemies who will grant any thing which may destroy your Majesty will win their ends This last clause doth in part vindicate the report of the Intention of some of the Scots to deliver his Majesty to Cromwell or the Rump if they had not forced their ends Besides these of more publick imployment I shall afford you one passage out of a private English thorough paced Presbyterian who thus speaks his own and the rest of his associates Intentions They who are now for the right of the Son and continuance of the Government are as much against the vices in and about him as about the Father And should He do as his Father had done they who are now for the performance of this Oath and Covenant would as truly joyn against him as against the Father This is home and pat to the purpose and may sufficiently inform his present Majesty what small Obedience and Loyalty he can expect from these people 'T is storyed of Pope Julius II. that being angry against Lewis XII King of France and marching out with an Army against the French took St. Peter's Keys and hurl'd them into the River Tiber with this furious Bravado Since St. Peter ' s Keys will not quell mine Enemies I 'le try what St. Paul ' s Sword will do These men take the same course but upon different scores The first two being Princes standing upon their own bottoms and for ought that I know neither bound to one another by way of such an Obedience The second almost of as much difference as betwixt Heaven and Earth one party within his own Dominions above all that 's mortal and superiour to the Law it self the other of so an inferiour Allay that by all the obligations Human and Divine he is so farr bound to a real Obedience that the least Opposition is not only Perjury but Treason 'T is a pretty piece of Policy the People had got first seditiously to swear a wicked Oath and then to declare that it is so farr binding That they cannot in Conscience admit their lawful King to reign over them unless he will swear and forswear as fast as they do Should we swear to root out Presbytery root and branch they would call it wicked and no way obligatory and yet I am confident we have as much right if not more to do so than they had for the extirpation of Episcopacy The Arch-Duchess swore never to put off her smock and the Arch-Duke that he would not eat till Ostend should be taken but Sir Francis Vere was not to be courted with such babbles but made them know the folly of such rashness by the necessity of their nullity and had he yielded upon the foppery of preserving them from perjury it 's probable Queen Elizabeth or the States of Holland would have rewarded him with an halter but he was too wise to be catch'd with such chaffe 'T is true Richard I. being at dinner at Westminster and hearing that Philip of France had besieged Verneüil in Normandy swore that he would not turn his face till he had gotten thither with his Army whereupon he caus'd the wall to be cut through that he might save his Oath by not turning his back and never rested till with an hundred Ships he had crost the Seas from Portsmouth into Normandy where the only rumour of his approach made the French King raise his siege and without stroke or sight of his magnanimous Enemy quit the Field Yet this is no example to us he being his own Master and the action in vindication of his right whereas we are but Subjects obliged to obey our King not to make Covenants and Oaths of our own heads against him his Authority and the Laws of the Land But it is not so much the validity of an Oath which these people are guided by for if so then they would not have broken those Oaths and Promises which they had formerly taken of Allegiance Supremacy Canonical Obedience University Oaths and Subscriptions but self-ended Interest is the Card they steer by and have all along been so earnest for What is advantagious to their humours that they are for if you be against the Covenant they are sworn to be your Enemies but if you Worship that Idol you need no more Christianity you are then qualified for any thing but if otherwise you are only fit company for the wicked which hypocritical partiality mindes me of a passage in their Assembly at Glasgow 1638. The University of Aberdene sent none of their Professors to that Assembly not daring to trust themselves upon the way having been so much threatned with the loss of their lives for writing against the Covenant Only they sent one of their number no Divine but a Professor of Humanity to excuse their absence His Commission being read gave him only power to be there and did constitute him their Agent in any thing which might concern their University requiring him to continue there and from time to time to