your Physitians hands And worthie yee be to suffer the extremitie in a Commonwealth which seek to doe the extremitie and by reason must receive the like yee offer and so be contented to bide the end willingly which set on the beginning wilfully For no greater shame can come to the Commonwealth then that those subjects which should be obedient even without a law cannot be contented to be ordered by the law and by no meanes kept within their dutie which should every way offend rather then in their dutie It is a token that the subjects lack reason when they forsake law and think either by their multitude to finde pardon which cannot justly stretch to all or else by strength to beare the stroke which cannot prosper against a king They must needs litle consider themselves who bring in this necessitie rather to stand to the pleasure of a mans will then to abide the reason of the law and to be endangered more when another man listeth than when himselfe offendeth And this must necessarily follow if your rebellion thus continue and while yee seek to throwe downe the yoke which yee fancie your selves burdened withall yee bring your selves in a greater bondage leaving safetie and following danger putting your selves under the justice of them whose favour yee might easily have kept if yee would willingly and dutifully have served Now the Gentlemen be more in trust because the Commons be untrusty and they got by service which yee lose by stubbornesse therefore must needs if yee thus continue have more authoritie from the King because yee would be in lesse subjection to the King and that as yee will not doe of your selves yee must be compelled to doe by others and that yee refuse to doe willingly think yee must be drawne to doe the same constrainedly Which when it commeth to passe as wisdome seeth in your faults that it must needs what gaine yee then or what profit can arise to you by rising which might have found ease in sitting still and what shally yee be at length the better for this turmoile which beside divers other incommodities rehearsed shall be thus clogged with the unsufferable burden of the Martiall law Yet is there one thing behind which me thinketh your selves should not forget seeing that yee have given the cause yee should duly look for the effect Yee have spoiled imprisoned and threatned Gentlemen to death and that with such hatred of minde as may not well be borne the cause thereof I speak not on which tried will happily be not so great but see the thing set murther aside it is the hainousest fault to a private man What could more spightfully have been done against them than ye have used with crueltie Can this doe any other but breed in their stomacks great grudge of displeasure toward you and engender such an hatred as the weaker and the sufferer must needs beare the smart thereof The Kings best kinde of government is so to rule his subjects as a father ordereth his children and best life of obedient subjects is one to behave himselfe to another as though they were brethren under the King their father For love is not the knot onely of the Commonwealth whereby divers parts be perfectly joyned together in one politique bodie but also the strength and might of the same gathering together into a small room with order which scattered would else breed confusion and debate Dissention we see in small houses and thereby may take example to great common-wealths how it not only decayeth them from wealth but also abateth them from strength Think small examples to take place in great matters and the like though not so great to follow in them both and thereby learn to judge of great things unknowne by small things perceived When brethren agree not in a house goeth not the weakest to the walls and with whom the father taketh part withall is not he the likest to prevaile Is it not wisedome for a yonger brother after the good will of the parents to seek his eldest brothers favour who under them is most able to doe for him To seeke them both with honesty is wisedome to loose them both by sullennesse is madnesse Hath there not been daily benefits from the gentlemen to you in some more and in some lesse but in none considered which they have more friendly offered then you have gently requited This must ye lose when ye will not be thankfull and learn to gaine new good will by desert when ye forsake the old friendship unprovoked And ye must think that living in a common-wealth together one kind hath need of an other and yet a great sort of you more need of one gentleman then one gentleman of a great sort of you and though all be parts of one common-wealth yet all be not like worthy parts but all being under obedience some kind in more subjection one way and some kind in more seruice another way And seeing ye be lesse able by money and liberality to deserue good will then other be and your only kind of desert is to shew good will which honest men doe well accept as much worth as money have ye not much hindered and hurt your selfe herein loosing that one kind of humanity which ye have only left and turning it into cruelty which ye ought most to abhor not only because it is wicked of it selfe but also most noy some to you I can therefore for my part think no lesse herein but ye must find some inconvenience he rein if you follow your stifnesse still must needs judge that ye have wilfully brought on your selues such plagues as the like could not have fallen on you but by your selues Seing then thus many wayes ye have hurt the common-wealth of this whole Country within by destruction of Shieres loosing of haruest wasting of victuall decaying of manrode undoing of Farmers encreasing of Vagabonds maintaining of disorder hindering of redresses bringing in of Martiall law and breeding continual hatred amongst divers states what think ye I pray you judge ye not that ye have committed an odious and detestable crime against the whole common-wealth whose furtherance ye ought to have tendered by duty and not to have sought the hurt thereof with your owne dammage Besides all these in war dgriefs which every one severally must needs feele with misery there hapneth so many outward mischances among strangers to us with disdaine that if there were nothing ill within the Realme which we should feele yet the shame which doth touch us from other countries should not only move but also compell you hartily to forethink this your rebellious sedition For what shall strangers think when they shall heare of the great misorder which is in this Realme with such a confusion that no order of law can keep you under but must be faine to be beaten downe with a Kings power Shall they not first think the Kings majestie in whose mind God hath powred so much
THE TRVE SVBIECT TO THE REBELL OR THE HVRT OF SEDITION HOW GREIVOVS IT IS to a Common-wealth Written By Sr IOHN CHEEKE Knight Tutor and Privy-Councellour to King EDWARD the sixt 1549. Whereunto is newly added by way of Preface a briefe discourse of those times as they may relate to the present with the AUTHORS life OXFORD Printed by LEONARD LICHFIELD Printer to the Vniversity Anno Dom. 1641. THE PREFACE THis Discourse of the Hurt of Sedition was not intended by the Author as a Prophecy for any future times but meerely occasioned by the sad story of those present distractions wherein he had no part but as a Spectator If it be now thought any way lyable to an application that must be imputed to the common fate of humane affaires quibus inest quidam velut orbis quemadmodum temporum vices ita morum vertuntur For upon this common Stage of the world though the Actors change daily have their last Exits after which they return no more yet there is a continuall recurrence of the same Pageants parts and humours to be represented by other persons Vitia erunt donec homines Covetousnesse and ambition and such active vices are seldome off the Theatre though they doe as seldome appeare there in their own faces but with the borrowed masks of publique good the honour or peace of the State the propagation or reformation of Religion Privatae causae pietatis aguntur obtentu cupiditatum quisque suarum religionem veluti pedissequam habet The meanest capacities are not unskilled in these ordinary artifices consult the storie of those times under EDWARD the VI and you shall meet with insolent demands from some rebellious subjects against the forme of religion then established by Act of Parliament others you shall finde sitting under their Oake of Reformation upon the life and death of all civility and learning Against both which our Author directs his reasons This contagion was so spreading that I finde twelve severall Shieres infected with it and almost forty thousand persons a great number but yet no army They had all the advantages which they could desire except a good cause and an able Leader They met with a young Prince in the beginning of his reigne with a late and great alteration in religion which was never observed to goe alone with a many secret jealousies and envyings in the Nobilitle which after burst out into open defiance with a generall aptnesse to mutinie in the vulgar who had been formerly Tenants to religious houses and complained now as well of new Lords as now Lawes with an universall stupor lethargy in most men of the long Robe which were lately frighted out of a great part of their wits as well as their meanes many of them so unable to instruct others that it seemes they had scarce ordinary discretion to governe themselves The very Universities which had been the glory were now become the scorne or pitty of the Kingdome their Libraries robbed and spoiled either by pretended authority or connivence their liberties and priviledges invaded and borne downe by the prevailing parties the Townes-men of Oxford and Cambridge Much of their present maintenance and the maine hopes of their future preferment taken from them at least in their opinion when they saw most or all the revenues of their Colledges given to the King some Bishopricks actually dissolved the whole jurisdiction enclining to a ruine This did strike them with such a Panick feare as did justly deterre parents from bestowing upon their children that ingenuous education which was attended with so great charges and so small hopes And such as were already entred upon that way were forced to quit their professions betake themselves to another kinde of life Insomuch that I find one house of learning in Cambridge pitifully complaining that the great dearth of things and the litle charitie of men had driven away more good wits from that one Colledge then were left in the whole Vniversitie The words are part of a Letter from St Iohns Colledge to the Duke of Somerset Lord Protector In which there are so many other things considerable that I cannot forbeare to trespasse so farre upon the Readers patience as to exhibit some what more to the same purpose Having represented to his honour two other domestique calamities peculiar to that House they descende to a third of which they say Diu nos pressit in miram angustiam compegit in extremam conditionem non nos solùm sed reliquos omnes studiosos detrusit Quae illa est Durissima caritas omnium rerum vendibilium Augetur pretium omnium pecunia nostra non augetur Quomodo olim duodecim denarris nunc non licet vivere viginti Qui authores sunt tantae miseriae Dicemus domino monente ac demonstrante dicemus Suntilli qui domum ad domum conjungunt qui rapinas pauperum congerunt qui fructum eorum rarissimè comedunt Haec dicit Dominus per Esaiam Prophetam nos apertiùs loquemur Sunt illi qui hodie passim in Anglia praedia Monasteriorum gravissimis annuis reditibus auxerunt Hinc omnium rerum exauctum pretium hi homines expilant totam Rempublicam Villici coloni universi laborant parcunt corradunt ut istis satisfaciant hinc singuli coguntur singulis imponere universa Respub. gravissime premitur Hinc tot Familiae dissipatae tot Domus collapsae tot communes mensae aut jam nullae aut in angulos latebras conclusae Hinc quod omnium miserrimum est nobile illud decus robur Angliae nomen inquam Yomannorum Anglorum fractum collisum est Et haec etiam miseria maximè redundat in authores ejusdem Quotusquisque enim est Mercatorum Londinensium hi homines hanc miseriam mirificè concitârunt qui non angustiùs tenuiùs pressiùs his temporibus vivit quà m cùm passi sunt alios homines vivere In nullam partem Reipub majori impetu invasit hoc malum quà m in rem literariam reliqui homines ita liberi sunt ut possint quaerere sibi vitam studiosi non quaerunt sed quaesitam recipiunt quae si augetur hoc fit non operâ illorum sed bonitate aliorum Postremò debet pecunia nostra aut major esle quod cupimus aut caritas rerū minor esle quod per Te fore speramus aut fructus studiorum minimus erit quod maximè omnium metuimus Haec tanta caritas rerum haec nulla Charitas hominum intra hos paucos annos expulit ex hoc uno Collegio plura optima ingenia quà m nunc sunt perfectè docti viri in tota Academia nec solùm expellit praesentes sed aufert unà etiam universam absentium spem This much more to this purpose from that learned Colledge And the whole Vniverfity in their many publique letters to most of the Nobility then in Parliament
dogged doings Libros omnes exurunt inquit indignantes se ab alio quà m ab ipso suo spiritu doctos videri Miserum est cernere Bibliothecas non ignobiles ab execranda Secta hoc modo aboleri They think scorne of any other Spirit to seem learned then of their own fanaticall braines Antonius Corvinus saith also in his book against them Anabaptistarum furor optimos quosque authores ac vetustissima venerandae antiquitatis exemplaria absumpserunt in Bibliotheca Osnaburgensi I could bring out a great number of like testimonies from Oecolampadius Zuinglius Bullinger Calvin and Philip Melancthon with other of the most notable writers of our age concerning this ungracious violence of these chimney Preachers and bench-Bablers but let these two rehearsed at this time suffice Thus far Iohn Bale in his declarations upon Lelands iournall to King EDWARD the VI 1549. But to returne I conceive the very sight of these barbarous insolencies committed upon those Treasuries of good Letters Books and Libraries could not but impresse in serious apprehensions a deep contemplation of the approaching funeralls of most kindes of Learning make them take their long leaves of the Universitie And so they did insomuch that at Oxford their publique Schooles were converted into a private gardenpiot their publique Treasurie robbed their monies and muniments embesel'd wasted as does more largely appeare by the preface to a royall Grant of MARIES to that Vniversity in the first of her Raigne Regina omnibus ad quos praesentes literae pervenerint salutem Gravissimorum hominum testimoniis ad aures nostras perlatum est ac certissimis quibusdam rationibus nobis quasi ob oculos positum nostram illam Academiam quae Oxonii sita est alterum totius regni lumen olim bonarum literarum omnium celeberrimum emporium sic temporum injuriâ afflictam esse ut penè inculta jaceat inopiâ harum retum quibus dignitas omnis sustinetur adeo oppressam esse ut extincta jam penè quodam quasi squallore contabuisse videatur Publicas enim illius Scholas in quibus olim fiebat statis quibusdam solennibus diebus frequens discentium concursio vastatas in privaros hortos conversas Publicum thesaurum direptum ornamenta publica ablata publica vectigalia it a tenuia imò it a ferè nulla esse accepimus ut neque publicis usibus aliquâ exparta sufficiant neque publicarum causarum defensioni injuriis propulsand is respondeant Nos igitur Academiam illam quâ contemptâ desertâ nec orthodoxa fides defendi nec in rebus controversis veritas erui nec certè in Repub justitia administrari potest penè oppressam jacentem erigere atque excitare illiusque squallorem depellere inopiam nostrâ munificentiâ sublevare ad regium munus nostrum perrinere existimantes ut posthac habeat quo suas Scholas erigat erectas teneat perpetuis ut speramus futuris tem poribus se suaque privilegia adversus quarumcunque injuriarum procellas defendat c. And though this might perswade with some that to be a Schollar was none of the greatest curses yet I doe not see that the people were hearty friends with learning all Q. MARIES daies nor in the beginning of Queene ELIZABETH What a learned ministery shall we thinke they had under Queen MARY when many were made Priests being children and otherwise utterly unlearned so they could read to say Mattens and Masse And how can wee expect it should be much bettur in the first of Q. ELIZABETH when some Ministers because they were but meane Readers are injoyned to peruse over before once or twice the Chapters and Homilies to the intent they might read to the better understanding of the people And what estimate shall we make of their discretion when it was thought very necessary that no priest or Deacon should take to his wife any manner of woman without the advice and allowance first had upon good examination by the Bishop of the Diocesse two Iustices of the Peace What rare Preachers shall we imagine they had in the Vniversitie at that time when M◠Tavernour of Water-Eaton high Sheriffe of Oxfordshiere came in pure charitie not ostentation and gave the Schollars a Sermon in St Maryes with his gold chaine about his neck and his sword by his side beginning with these words Arriving at the Mount of Saint Maries in the stony Stage where I now stand I have brought you some fine Biskets baked in the oven of Charitie and carefully conserved for the Chickens of the Church the Sparrowes of the Spirit the sweet Swallowes of Salvation By this we may guesse what a dearth of learning there was till it pleased God good Queen ELIZABETH to redeeme it from poverty contempt by granting new and ample Charters to the Vniversity of Cambridge and passing severall Statutes in Parliament That of Provision and others very beneficiall for the maintenance of Schollars and reducing the Clergy of this Kingdome to that lustre which they had in the daies of her royall Father when that high and Honourable Court of Parliament gave them this testimony that the body Spirituall now being usually called the English Church alwaies hath been reputed and also found of that sort that both for knowledge integritie and sufficiencie of number it hath been alwaies thought and is also at this houre sufficient and meet of it selfe without the intermedling of any exteriour person or persons to declare and determine all causes of the Law Divine or of spirituall learning and to administer all such offices and duties as to their roomes Spirituall doth appertaine For the due administration whereof and to keep them from corruption and sinister affection the Kings most noble Progenitors and the Ancestors of the Nobles of this Realme have sufficiently endowed the said Church both with Honour and Possessions Indeed nothing more certaine then that this one Kingdome of England has in all ages produced as many nay more learned men in all Professions then any other Nation in the world besides witnesse the severall Catalogues of our ancient Authors their works No better reason for it then the liberall maintenance of Schollars in the Universities and the faire preferments in the Church Take away these and what can be expected but the whole Nation will be quickly over-run with beggery and barbarisme Then that definition of a Schollar will prove too Catholique a silly fellow in black So true has that of the Historian ever been nihil à quoquam expeti nisi cujus fructus antè providerit And sublatis studiorum pretiis etiam studia peritura ut minùs decora By all the Lawes of God may not a man as freely dispose of his estate io the endowment of a Church or Colledge as to any lay person or Corporation The donations of Kings and
beholding their beastlinesse they might avoid the like vice even so hath God like a mercifull father staid us from your wickednesse that by beholding the filth of your fault wee might justly for offence abhorre you like Rebels whom else by nature we love like Englishmen And so for our selues wee have great cause to thank God by whose religion and holy word daily taught us we learne not only to feare him truly but also to obey our King faithfully and to serve in our own vocation like subjects honestly And as for you we have surely just cause to lament you as brethren and yet juster cause to rise against you as enimies most just cause to overthrowe you as Rebels For what hurt could bee done either to us privatly or to the whole commonwealth generally that is now with mischiefe so brought in by you that even as we see now the flame of your rage so shall we necessarily be consumed hereafter with the misery of the same Wherefore consider your selves with some light of understanding and marke this grievous horrible fault which yee have thus vildly committed how hay nous it must needs appeare to you if yee will reasonably consider that which for my duties sake and my whole Countries cause I will at this present declare unto you Yee which be bound by Gods word not to obey for feare like men pleasers but for conscience sake like Christians have contrary to Gods holy will whose offence is everlasting death and contrary to the godly order of quietnesse set out to us in the Kings Majesties laws the breach whereof is not unknown to you taken in hand uncalled of God unsent by men unfit by reason to cast away your bounden duties of obedience and to put on you against the Magistrates Gods office committed to the Magistrates for the reformation of your pretensed injuries In the which doing yee have first faulted grievously against God next offended unnaturally our Soveraigne Lord thirdly troubled miserably the whole common-wealth undone cruelly many an honest man and brought in an utter misery both to us the Kings subjects and to your selves being false Rebells and yet yee pretend that partly for Gods cause and partly for the commonwealths sake yee doe rise when as your selves cannot denie but yee that seeke in word Gods cause doe break indeed Gods commandement and yee that seek the commonwealth have destroyed the commonwealth and so yee marre that yee would make and break that yee would amend because yee nether seek any thing rightly nor would amend any thing orderly He that faulteth faulteth against Gods ordinance who hath forbidden all faults and therefore ought againe to be punished by Gods ordinance who is the reformer of faults For he saith leave the punishment to me and I will revenge them But the Magistrate is the ordinance of God appointed by him with the sword of punishment to looke straitly to all evill doers And therefore that that is done by the Magistrate is done by the ordinance of God whō the Scripture oftentimes doth call God because he hath the execution of Gods office How then doe you take in hand to reforme Be yee Kings By what authority or by what succession Be yee the Kings officers By what commission Be yee called of God By what tokens declare yee that Gods word teacheth us that no man should take in hand any office but he that is called of God like Aaron What Moses I pray you called you What Gods minister bade you rise Yee rise for religion What religion taught you that If yee were offered persecution for religion yee ought to flie so Christ teacheth you and yet you intend to fight If yee would stand in the truth yee ought to suffer like Martyrs you would slay like Tyrants Thus for religion yee keep no religion and neither will follow the counsell of Christ nor the constancy of Martyrs Why rise yee for religion Have yee any thing contrary to Gods book Yea have yee not all things agreable to Gods word But the new is different from the old and therefore yee will have the old If yee measure the old by truth yee have the oldest if yee measure the old by fancie then it is hard because mens fancies change to give that is old Yee will have the old still Will yee have any older then that which Christ left his Apostles taught and the first Church after Christ did use Yee will have that the Canons doe establish Why that is a great deale younger then that yee have of later time and newlier invented Yet that is it that yee desire Why then yee desire not the oldest And doe you preferre the Bishops of Rome afore Christ mens inventiō afore Gods law the newer sort of worship before the older Yee seek no religion yee be deceived yee seeke traditions They that teach you blinde you that so instruct you deceiue you If yee seek what the old Doctors say yet look what Christ the oldest of all saith For he saith before Abraham was made I am If yee seek the truest way he is the very truth if yee seek the readiest way hee is the very way if yee seek everlasting life he is the very life What religion would you have other now then his religion You would have the Bibles in againe It is no marvell your blind guides would lead you blinde still Why be yee Howlets and Bats that yee cannot look on the light Christ saith to every one search yee the Scriptures for they beare witnesse of Christ You say pull in the Scriptures for we will haue no knowledge of Christ The Apostles of Christ will us to be so ready that we may be able to give every man an account of our faith Yee will us not once to read the Scriptures for feare of knowing of our faith Saint Paul prayeth that every man may increase in knowledge yee desire that our knowledge might decay againe A true religion yee ieek belike and worthy to be fought for For without the sword indeed nothing can help it neither Christ nor truth nor age can maintaine it But why should yee not like that which Gods word establisheth the primitiue Church hath authorised the greatest learned men of this Realme haue drawne the whole consent of the Parliament hath confirmed the Kings Majestie hath set forth Is it not truly set out Can yee devise any truer then Christs Apostles used Yee think it is not learnedly done Dare yee Commons take upon you more learning then the chosen Bishops and Clearks of this Realme have Think yee folly in it Yee were wont to judge your Parliament wisest and now will yee suddainly excell them in wisdome Or can you think it lacketh authority which the King the Parliament the learned the wise have justly approved Learne learne to know this one point of Religion that God will be worshipped as he hath prescribed and not as we have devised and that his will is wholy
law and his commandment is that every man should safely keep his own and use it reasonably to an honest gaine of his living Yee violently take and carry away from men without cause all things whereby they should maintaine not onely themselves but also their familie and leave them so naked that they shall feele the smart of your cursed enterprise longer then your own unnaturall and ungodly stomacks would well vouchsafe By justice yee should neither hurt nor wrong man and your pretensed cause of this monstrous stirre is to increase mens wealth and yet how many and say truth have yee decayed and undone by spoiling and taking away their goods How should honest men live quietly in the Commonwealth at any time if their goods either gotten by their own labour or left to them by their friends shall unlawfully and unorderly to the feeding of a sort of Rebels be spoiled and wasted and utterly scattered abroad The thing yee take is not your right it is another mans owne The manner of taking against his will is unlawfull and against the order of every good Common-wealth The cause why yee take it is mischievous horrible to fat up your sedition Yee that take it be wicked traitours and common enimes of all good order If he that desireth another mans goods or cattle doe fault what doth he think you whose desire taking followeth and is led to and fro by Iust as his wicked fancie void of reason doth guide him He that useth not his own well and charitably hath much to answer for and shall they be thought not unjust who not only take away other mens but also misuse and waste the same ungodly They that take things privily away and steale secretly and covertly other mens goods be by law judged worthie death and shall they that without shame spoile things openly and be not afraid by impudence to professe their spoile be thought either honest creatures to God or faithfull subjects to their King or naturall men to their Countrie If nothing had moved you but the example of mischiefe and the foule practice of other moved by the same yee should yet haue abstained from so licentious and so villanous a shew of robbery considering how many honester there be that being loath their wickednesse should be blazed abroad yet be found out by providence and hanged for desert What shall we then think or say of you shall we call you pickers or hid theeves nay more then theeves day theeves Herd stealers Sheire spoilers and utter destroyers of all kinde of families both among the poore and also among the rich Let us yet farther see is there no more things wherein yee have broken the Kings lawes and so uildly disobeyed him contrary to your bounden dutie Yee have not only spoiled the Kings true subjects of their goods but also yee have imprisoned their bodies which should be at libertie under the King and restrained them of their service which by dutie they owe the King and appaired both strength and health wherewith they live and serve the King Is there any honest thing more desired then liberty yee have shamefully spoiled them thereof Is there any thing more dutifull then to serve their Lord and Master But as that was deserved of the one part so was it hindered and stopped on your part For neither can the King be served nor families kept nor the Commonwealth looked unto where freedome of liberty is stopped and diligence of service is hindred and the help of strength and health abated Mens bodies ought to be free from all mens bondage and cruelty and only in this Realme be subject in publike punishment to our publike Governour and neither be touched of headlesse Captaines nor holden of brainlesse Rebels For the government of so pretious a thing ought to belong unto the most noble ruler and not justly to be in every mans power which is justly every living mans treasure For what goods be so deare to every man as his owne body is which is the true vessell of the minde to bee measurably kept of every man for all exercises and services of the minde If yee may not of your own authority meddle with mens goods much lesse you may of your own authoritie take order with mens bodies For what be goods in comparison of health libertie and strength which be all setled and fastned in the body They that strike other doe greatly offend and be justly punishable And shall they that cruelly and wrongfully torment mens bodies with yrons and imprisonments be thought not of other but of themselves honest and plaine and true dealing men What shall we say by them who in a private businesse will let a man to goe his journey in the Kings high way Doe they not think yee plaine wrong Then in a common cause not onely to hinder them but also to deale cruelly with them and shut them from doing their service to the King and their dutie to the Commonwealth is it not both disobedience crueltie and mischiefe think yee What an hinderance is it to have a good garment hurt any jewell appaired or any esteemed thing to be decayed And seeing no earthly thing a man hath more pretious then his body to cause it to be cruelly tormented with yrons feebled with cold weakned with ordering can it be thought any other thing but wrong to the sufferer crueltie in the doer and great disobedience transgression to the King How then be yee able to defend it But seeing yee so unpittifully vex men cast them in prison lade thē with yrons pine them with famine contrary to the rule of nature contrary to the Kings Majesties laws contrary to Gods holy ordinances having no matter but pretensed and fained gloses yee be not only disobedient to the King like Rebels but withstanding the law of nature like beasts and so worthie to dye like dogs except the Kings Majestie without respect of your deserving doe mercifully grant you of his goodnesse that which you cannot escape by justice Yet yee being not content with this as small things enterprise great matters and as though yee could not satisfie your selfe if yee should leave any mischiefe undone have sought bloud with crueltie and have slaine of the Kings true subjects many thinking their murder to be your defence when as yee have increased the fault of your vile rebellion with the horrour of bloudshed and so have burdened mischiefe with mischiefe while it come to an importable weight of mischiefe What could wee doe more in the horriblest kinde of faults to the greatest transgressours and offenders of God and men then to look straightly on them by death and so to rid them out of the Commonwealth by severe punishment whom yee thought unworthie to live among men for their doings And those who have not offended the King but defended his Realme by obedience of service sought to punish the disobedient and for safeguard of every man put themselves under dutie of law
truly bent to obedience should obtain at the Kings hand that they deserved not in a Commonwealth yee have marvellously worthily hurt your selves and graciously provided except the Kings goodnesse be more unto you then your own deserts can claime that yee be not so much worthie as to be benefitted in any kinde as yee be worthie to lose that ye have on every side Yee have thought good to be your own reformers belike not onely unnaturally mistrusting the Kings justice but also cruelly and uncivilly dealing with your own neighbours Wherein I would as yee have hurt the whole Realme so ye had not enterprised a thing most dangerously to your selves and most contrary to the thing yee intended If yee had let things alone thought good by your selves to be redressed dutifully looked for the performance of that the Kings Majestie promised reformatiō they should not have been undone at this time as in a great sort of honest places they be nor those countries who for their quietnesse be most worthie to be looked on should have been unprovided for at this day But this commodity hath happened by the way that it is evidently knowne by your mischiefe that others dutie who be most true to the King and most worthie to bee done for and who be most pernitious and traiterous Rebels And it is not to be doubted but they shall be considered with thanks and finde just redresse without deserved misery and you punished like Rebels who might have had both praise and profit like subjects For that as yee have valiantly done of your selves think yee it will stand any longer then men feare your rage which cannot endure long and that yee shall not then bide the rigor of the law for your private injuries as yee used the furie of your braines in other mens oppressions Will men suffer wrong at your hands when law can redresse and the right of the Commonwealth will maintaine it and good order in Countries will beare it Yee amend faults as ill Chyrurgions heale sores which when they seem to be whole above they rankle at the bottom and so be faine continually to be sore or else be mended by new breaking of the skin Your redresse seemeth to you perfect good yee have pulled down such things as yee would yee think now all is well yee consider no farther yee seek not the bottome yee see not the sore that yee have done it by no law yee have redressed it by no order what then If it be none otherwise searched then by you it will not tarry long so either it will be after continually as it was afore your comming or else it must be when all is done amended by the King Thus have yee both lacked in the time and mist in the doing and yet besides that yee have done which is by your doing to no purpose yee have done the things with such inconveniences as hath been both before rehearsed and shall be after declared that better it had been for you never to have enjoyed the commoditie if there be any then to suffer the griefes that will ensue which be very many In every quarter some men whom yee set by will bee lost which every one of you if yee have love in yee would rather have lacked the profit of your inclosures then cause such destruction of them as is like by reason and judgement necessarily to follow What Commonwealth is it then to doe such abominable enterprises after so vile a sort that yee hinder that good yee would doe and bring in that hurt yee would not and so finde that yee seek not follow that yee lose and destroy your selves by folly rather then yee would be ordered by reason and so have not so much amended your old sores as brought in new plagues which yee your selves that deserve them will lament and we which have not deserved them may curse you for For although the Kings Majestie c. intended for your profits a reformation in his Commonwealth yet his pleasure was not nor no reason gave it that every subject should busily entermedle with it of their own head but onely those whom his Councell thought most meet men for such an honest purpose The Kings Majestie c. hath godly reformed an unclean part of religion and hath brought it to the true forme of the first Church that followed Christ thinking that to be the truest not what latter mens fancies have of themselves devised but what the Apostles and their fellowes had at Christs hand received and willeth the same to be knowne and set abroad to all his people Shall every man now that listeth fancieth the same take in hand uncalled to be a Minister and to set forth the same having no authoritie Nay though the thing were very godly that were done yet the person must needs doe ill that enterpriseth it because he doth a good thing after an ill sort and looketh but on a litle part of dutie considering the thing and leaveth a great part unadvised not considering the person when as in a well and justly done matter not only these two things ought well to bee weighed but also good occasion of time and reasonable cause of the doing ought also much to be set afore every doers eyes Now in this your deed the manner is ungodly the thing unsufferable the cause wicked the person seditious the time traiterous and can yee possibly by any honest defence of reason or any good conscience religiously grounded deny that this malitious and horrible fault so wickedly set on is not only sinfull afore God and traiterous to the King but also deadly and pestilent to the whole Commonwealth of our Countrie and so not onely overfloweth us with the miserie but also overwhelmeth you with the rage thereof Yet further see and yee be not weary with the multitude of miseries which yee have marvellously moved what a yoke yee wilfully doe bring on your selves in stirring up this detestable sedition and so bring your selves into a further slavery if you use your selves often thusinobediently When common order of the law can take no place in unrusy and disobedient subjects and all men will of wilfulnesse resist with rage and think their own violence to be the best justice then be wise Magistrates compelled by necessity to seek an extreame remedie where meane salves help not and bring in the Martiall law where none other law serveth Then must yee be contented to bide punishment without processe condemnation without witnesse suspition is then taken for judgement and displeasure may be just cause of your execution so without favour yee finde straitnesse which without rule seek violence Yee think it a hard law and unsufferable It is so indeed but yet good for a medicine Desperate sicknesse in physick must have desperate remedies for mean medicines will never help great griefes So if yee cast your selves into such sharp diseases yee must needs look for sharp medicines again at
see matters goe awry which hurteth the whose Realme and they rejoyce in this mischiefe as a thing worthily happened mistaking the cause and slandering Religion as though there were no cause why God might have punished if their used profession might still have taken place They see not that where Gods glory is truliest set forth there the Divell is most busie for his part laboureth to corrupt by lewdnes that which is gotten out by the truth thinking that if it were not blemished at the first the residue of his falsehood should after lesse prevaile So he troubleth by by-waies that he cannot plainly withstand and useth subtiltie of Sophistrie where plaine reason faileth and persuadeth simple men that to be a cause which indeed cannot be tryed and taken for a cause So he causeth religion which teacheth obedience to be judged the cause of sedition and the doctrine of love the seed of dissention mistaking the thing but perswading mens mindes and abusing the plain meaning of the honest to a wicked end of religions overthrowe the husbandman had not so soone throwne seed in his ground but steppeth up the enimy and he soweth cockle too maketh men doubt whether the good husband had done well or no and whether hee had sowne there good seed or bad The fancifull Iewes in Egypt would not believe Ieremie but thought their plague their misery to come by his meanes and leaving off Idolatry to be the cause of penury wherefore by wilfull advice they intended to forsake the Prophets counsell thought to serve God most truly by their rooted and accustomed Idolatry When the Christian men were persecuted in the Primitive Church and daily suffered Martyrdome for Christs profession such faire season of weather was for three or foure yeare together that the Heathen judged thereupon God to be delighted with their crueltie and so were persuaded that with the bloud of the Martyrs they pleased God highly Such fancies lighted now in Papists and irreligious mens heads and joyne things by chance happening together and conclude the one to be the cause of the other and then delight in true worshippers hurt because they judge cursedly the good to bee bad and therefore rejoyce in the punishment of the goldy For they being fleshly judge by outward things and perceive not the inward for that they lack the spirit and so judge amisse not understanding God what diversitie he suffereth to blinde still the wilfull and how through all dangers he saveth his fore-chosen Thus have yee given a large occasion to stubborne Papists both to judge amisse and also to rejoycein this wicked chance contented with our mischiefe not liking our religion and thinking God doth punish for this better change and have thereby an ill opinion of Gods holy truth confirmed in thē by no sure scripture but by following of mischance which they ought to think to come for the pride and stubbornesse of the people who doth not accept Gods glory in good part nor give no due praise to their Lord and maker What should I say more Yee hurt every way the dangers be so great the perils so many which doe daily follow your divellish enterprise that the more I seek in the matter the more I continually see to say And what words can worthlly declare this miserable beastlinesse of yours which have intended to divide the Realme and arme the one part for the killing of the other For even as concord is not only the health but also the strength of the Realme so is sedition not only the weaknesse but also the aposteme of the Realme which when it breaketh inwardly putteth the state in great danger of recoverie and corrupteth the whole Commonwealth with the rotten furie that it hath long putrified with For it is not in sedition as in other faults which being mischievous of themselves have some notable hurt alwaies fast adjoyned to them but in this one is there a whole hell of faults not severally scattered but clustred on a lump together cōming on so thick that it is unpossible for a Region armed with all kind of wisdome and strength thereto to avoid the dangers that issue out thereof When sedition once breaketh out see yee not the lawes overthrown the Magistrates dispised spoiling of houses murdering of men wasting of countries increase of disorder diminishing of the Realmes strength swarming of vagabonds scarcitie of labourers and those mischiefes all plenteously brought in which God is wont to scourge severely with all war dearth pestilence And seeing yee have theft and murder plague and famine confusion and idlenesse linked together can yee look for any more mischiefe in one shamefull enterprise then yee evidently see to grow herein As for warre although it be miserable yet the one part getteth somewhat and rejoyceth in the spoile and so goeth lustier a way and either increaseth his Country with riches or enhaunceth himselfe with glory but in sedition both the parts loseth the overcommed cannot fly the overcommer cannot spoile the more the winner winneth the more he loseth the more that escape the more infamous men live all that is gained is scarcely saved the winning is losse the losse is destruction both wast themselves the whole most wasted the stren gthning of themselves the decay of the country the striving for the victory is a prey to the enimie and shortly to say the hellish turmoile of sedition so far passeth the common misery of war as to slay himselfe is more heynous then to be slain of another O noble peace what wealth bringest thou in how doth all things flourish in field and in towne what forwardnes of religion what increase of learning what gravity in counsell what devise of wit what order of manners what obedience of lawes what reverence of states what safegard of houses what quietnesse of life what honour of Countries what friendship of mindes what honesty of pleasure hast thou alwaies maintained whose happinesse we knew not while now we feele the lack and shall learne by misery to understand plentie and so to avoid mischiefe by the hurt that it bringeth and learne to serue better where rebellion is once knowne and so to live truly keep the Kings peace What good state were yee in afore yee began not pricked with povertie but stirred with mischiefe to seek your destruction having waies to redresse all that was amisse Magistrates most ready to tender all justice and pittifull in hearing the poor mens causes which sought to amend matters more then you can devise and were ready to red resle them better then yee could imagine yet for a headinesse ye could not be contented but in despite of God who commandeth obedience and in contempt of the King whose lawes seeke your wealth and to overthrowe the Countrie which naturally we should love yee would proudly rise and doe ye wot not what and amend things by rebellion to your utter undoing What state leave yee us in now besieged with enimies divided at home made poore with spoile and losse of our Harvest unordered and cast downe with slaughter and hatred hindered from amendmēts by your own divellish hast endangered with sicknesses by reason of misorder laid open to mens pleasures for breaking of the lawes and feebled to such faintnesse that scarcely it will be recovered Wherefore for Gods sake have pittie on your selves consider how miserably yee have spoiled destroyed and wasted us all and if for desperatenesse yee care not for your selves yet remember your wiues your children your country and forsake this rebellion with humble submission acknowledge your faults tarry not the extremity of the Kings sword leave off with repentance turne to your duties aske God forgivenes submit yee to your King be contented for a Commonwealth one or two to die and yee Captaines for the residue sacrisice your selves yee shall so best attain the Kings gracious pardon save the assembly help the Commonwealth declare your doings to proceed of no stubbornesse but all this mischiefe to grow out of ignorance which seeing the misery would redress the fault and so recover best the blot of your disorder and stay the great miseries which be like to follow Thus if yee doe not think truly with your selves that God is angry with you for your rebellion the Kings sword drawn to defend his country the cry of the poore to God against yee the readinesse of the honest in armour to vanquish yee your death to bee at hand which yee cannot escape having God against ye as he promiseth in his word the Kings power to overthrow yee gathered in the field the Commōwealth to beat yee down with stripes and with curses the shame of your mischiefe to blemish yee for ever FINIS Q Eliz. Iniunction 43. Ibid. Iniunction 3. Ibid. Iniunction 9. 24. Hen. 8. cap. 12. apud Boston Bariensem Lehandum 〈◊〉 Baseum Vossium c. 8 Eliz c. 8.
ought every one of yee often suffer How many came to the Camps from long labour to suddaine ease and from meane fare to stroying of victuall and so fell in a manner unawares to such a contrary change that nature her self abiding never great and suddaine changes cannot beare it without some grounds entred of diseases to come which uncircumspect men shall sooner feele then think of and then will scarcely judge the cause when they shall be vexed with the effect It is litle marvell that idlenesse and meat of another mans charge will soone feed up fat likely men but it is great marvell if idlenesse other mens meat doe not abate the same by sicknesse againe specially comming from the one and going to the other contrary in those who violently seek to turn in a moment the whole Realme to the contrary For while their minde changeth from obedience to unrulinesse and turneth it selfe from honesty to wildnesse and their bodies goe from labour to idlenesse from small fare to spoile of victuall and from beds in the night to cabins and from sweet houses to stinking camps it must needs be by changing of affections which alter the body and by using of rest that filleth the body and glutting of meats which weakneth the body with cold in the nights which acrazeth the body with corrupt ayre which infecteth the body that there follow some grievous tempest not onely of contagious sicknesse but also of present death to the body The greatest pluck of all is that vehemence of plague which naturally followeth the dint of hunger which when it entreth once among men what darts of pangues what throwes of paines what shouts of death doth it cast out how many fall not astonied with the sicknesse but fretted with the pain how beateth it downe not only small townes but also great countries This when yee see light first on your beasts which lacke fodder and after fall on men whose bodies gape for it and see the scarcenesse of men to be by this your foule enterprise and not onely other men touched with plagues but also your own house stung with death and the plague also raised of your rising to fire your selves can yee think to be any other but manquellers of other and murderers of your selves and the principalls of the overthrow of so great a number as shall either by sword or punishment famine or some plague or pestilence be consumed and wasted out of the Commonwealth And seeing he that decayeth the number of Cottages or Plowes in a Towne seemeth to be an enimie to the Commonwealth shall we not count him not only an enimie but also a murtherer of his country who by hare-brained unrulinesse causeth the utter ruine and pestilent destruction of so many thousand men Grant this folly then and oversight to be such as worthily yee may count it and I shall goe further in declaring of other great inconveniences which your dangerous furious misbehaviour hath hurtfully brought in seeing divers honest and true dealing men whose living is by their own provision hath come so afore-hand by time that they haue been able well to liue honestly in their houses and pay besides their rents of their farmes truly now have by your cruelty and abhorred insurrections lost their goods their cattle their harvest which they had gotten before and wherewith they intended to live hereafter and now be brought to this extremitie that they be neither able to live as they were wont at home afore nor to pay their accustomable rent at their due time Whereby they bee brought into trouble and unquietnesse not only musing what they have lost by you but also cursing you by whom they have lost it and also in danger of losing their holds at their Lords hands except by pittie they shew more mercy then the right of the law will grant by justice And what a griefe is it to an honest man to labour truly in youth to gaine painfully by labour wherewith to live honestly in age and to have this gotten in long time to be suddenly raught away by the violence os sedition which name he ought to abhorre by it selfe although no misery of losse followed to him thereby But what greater griefe ought seditious Rebels to have themselves who if they be not striken with punishment yet ought to pine in conscience and melt away with the griefe of their own faults when they see innocents and men of true service hindred and burdened with the hurt of their rebellion and who in a good Commonwealth should for honesties sake prosper they by these Rebels only meanes be cast so behinde the hand as they cānot recover easily again by their own truth that which they have lost by those traitours mischiefe And if unjust men ought not so to bee handled at any mans hands but only stand to the order of a law how much more should true and faithfull subjects who deserve praise feele no unquietnesse nor be vexed with sedition who be obediently in subjection but rather seek just amends at false Rebels hands and by law obtain that they lost by disorder and so constraine you to the uttermost to pay the recompence of wrongfull losses because yee were the authors of these wrongfull spoiles Then would yee soon perceive the Commōwealths hurt not when others felt it who deserved it not but when you smarted who caused it and stood not looked upon other mens losses which yee might pittie but tormented with your owne which yee would lament Now I am past this mischiefe which yee will not hereafter deny when yee shall praise other mens foresight rather then your wicked doings in bewailing the end of your furie in whose beginning yee now rejoyce What say yee to the number of vagabonds and loytring beggers which after the overthrow of your camp and scattering of this seditious number will swarme in every corner of the Realm and not only ly loitring under hedges but also stand sturdily in Cities and beg boldly at every dore leaving labour which they like not and following idlenesse which they should not For every man is easily and naturally brought from labour to ease from the better to the worse from diligence to sloathfulnesse and after warres it is commonly seen that a great number of those which went out honest returne home againe like roisters and as though they were burnt to the warres bottome they have alltheir life after an unsavory smack thereof and smell still toward day-sleepers pursse-pickers high-way-robbers quarrel-makers yea and bloud-sheders too Doe we not see commonly in the ende of warres more robbing more begging more murdering then before and those to stand in the high way to aske their almes whom yee be afraid to say nay unto honestly least they take it away from you violently and have more cause to suspect their strength then pitty their need Is it not then daily heard how men be not only pursued but utterly spoiled
and few may ride safe by the Kings way except they ride strong not so much for feare of their goods which men esteeme lesse but also for danger of their life which every man loveth Worke is undone at home and loiterers linger in streets lurke in Ale-houses range in high-waies valiant beggers play in townes yet complaine of need whose staffe if it be once hot in their hand or sluggishnesse bred in their bosomes they will never be allured to labour againe contenting the themselves better with idle beggery then with honest and profitable labour And what more noysome beasts to be in a Commonwealth Drones in Hives suck out the hony a small matter but yet to be looked on by good husbands Caterpillers destroy the fruit an hurtfull thing and well shifted for by a diligent overseer Divers vermin destroy corn kill Pullein engines and snares be made for them But what is a loyterer A sucker of Honie a spoiler of corne a destroyer of fruit nay a waster of mony a spoiler of victuall a sucker of bloud a breaker of orders a seeker of breakes a queller of life a Basiliske of the Commonwealth which by company sight doth poyson the whole Countrey staineth honest mindes with the infection of his venome and so draweth the Commonwealth to death and destruction Such is the fruit of your labour and travell for your pretensed Commonwealth which justice would no man should tast of but your selves that yee might truely judge of your own mischiefe and fray other by example from presuming the like When we see a great number of flyes in a yeare wee naturally judge it like to be a great plague having so great a swarming of loytering vagabonds ready to begge and brawle at every mans dore which declare a greater infection can we not look for a grievouser and perillouser danger then the plague is Who can therefore otherwise deeme but this one deadly hurt where with the Commonwealth of our nation is wounded beside all other is so pestilent that there can be no more hurtfull thing in a wel governed state nor more throwne into all kinde of vice and unrulinesse and therefore this your sedition is not only most odious but also most horrible that hath spotted the whole Countrey with such a staine of idlenesse There can be no end of faults if a man rehearse all faults that doe necessary follow this unruly sturdinesse For not only vagabonds wandering and scattering themselves for mischiefe shall run in a mans eyes but also disorder of every degree shall enter in into a mans minde shall behold hereby the Commonwealth miserably defaced by you who should as much as other have kept your selves in order in it Neither be the Magistrates duly obeyed nor the lawes justly feared nor degrees of men considered nor Masters well served nor Parents truly reverenced nor Lords remembred of their tenants nor yet other naturall or civill Law much regarded And it is plainly unpossible that that Countrey shall well stand in government the people grow to wealth where order in every state is not fitly observed and that body cannot be without much griefe of inflamation where any least part is out of joint or not duly set in his own naturall place Wherefore order must be kept in the Commonwealth like health in the body and all the drift of policie looketh to this end how this temper may bee safely maintained without any excesse of unmeasurablenesse either of the one side or of the other And easie enough it is to keep the same when it is once brought into the meane and to hold it in the stay it is found in but when it bursteth out once with a vehemence hath gotten into an unruly disorder it spreadeth so fast overfloweth all honest mens resisting so violently that it will be hard to recover the breach of long time againe except with great and wise counsell which no doubt shall be in season used there be wonderfull remedies sought therefore And even as a man falling is easier holden up by stay than when he is fallen downe he is able to rise againe so is the Commonwealth slipping by the foresight of wisdome better kept from ruine then when it is once fallen into any kinde of misery the same may be called againe to the old and former state Doe we not evidently know that a man may better keep his arm or his leg from breaking or falling out of joint afore hurt come to it then after the hurt it may safely and quietly be healed restored to the former strength and health againe And now through your seditious meanes things that were afore quiet and in good order lawes feared and obeyed subjects ruled kept in dutie be all now in a great disorder and like if it be not holpen to grow to wildnesse and a beastlinesse seeing that neither common dutie can be kept which nature prescribeth nor common law can bee regarded which policie requireth How can yee keep your own if yee keep no order your wife and children how can they be defended from other mens violence if yee will in other things break all order by what reason would yee be obeyed of yours as servants if yee will not obey the King as subjects how would ye have others deale orderly with you if yee will use disorder against all others Seeing then there is such a confusion now of things such a turmoile of men such a disorder of fzashions who can look to live quietly a great while who can think but that yee have miserably tossed the Common-wealth and so vexed all men with disorder that the inconvenience hereof cannot only nip others but also touch you But now see how that not only these unlooked for mischiefes have heavily growne on yee but also those commodities which yee thought to have holpen your selves and others by be not only hindered but also hurt thereby The Kings Majestie by the advise c. intended a just reformation of all such things as poore men could truly shew themselves oppressed with thinking equalitie of justice to bee the Diadem of his Kingdome and the safegard of his commons Which was not onely intended by wisdome but also set on with speed and so entred into a due considering of all states that none should have just cause to grudge against the other when as every thing rightfully had nothing could be but unrightfully grudged at And this would have beene done not onely with your glad and willing assent but also been done by this day almost throughout the whole Realme so that quietly it had been obtained without inconvenience speedily without delay And whatsoever had been done by the Kings Majesties authoritie that would by right have remained for ever and so taken in law that the contrary partie neither could by justice neither would by boldnesse have enterprised the break thereof But least wicked men should be wealthy and they whose hearts be not