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
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
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
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.
those have yee miserably and cruelly slaine and bathed you in their bloud whose doings yee should have followed and so have appaired the Commonwealth both by destruction of good men and also by increase of Rebels And how can that Commonwealth by any meanes indure wherein every man without authoritie may unpunished slay whom he list and that in such case as those who be slaine shew themselves most noble of courage and most readie to serve the King and the Commonwealth and those as doe slay be most villanous and traiterous Rebels that any Common-wealth did ever sustaine For a Citie a Province bee not the faire houses and the strong walls nor the defence of any engine but the living bodies of men being able in number and strength to maintain themselves by good order of justice and to serve for all necessarie and behoueable uses in the Common-wealth And when as mans body being a part of the whole Commonwealth is wrongfully touched any way and specially by death then suffereth the Commonwealth great injurie and that alway so much the more how honester and nobler he is who is injuriously murdered How was the Lord Sheffeld handled among you a noble Gentleman and of good service both fit for counsell in peace and for conduct in warre considering either the gravitie of his wisdome or the authoritie of his person or his service to the Commonwealth or the hope that all men had in him or the need that England had of such or among many notably good his singular excellency or the favour all men bare toward him being loved of every man and hated of no man Considered yee who should by dutie be the Kings Subjects either how yee should not have offended the King or after offence have required the Kings pardon or not to have refused his goodnesse offered or at length to have yeelded to his mercy or not to have slain those who came for his service or to have spared those who in danger offered ransome But all these things for gotten by rage of rebellion because one madnesse cannot be without infinite vices yee slew him cruelly who offered himselfe manfully nor would not spare for ransome who was worthy for noblenesse to have had honour and hewed him bare whom yee could not hurt armed and by slavery slew nobilitie indeed miserably in fashion cruelly in cause divellishly Oh with what cruell spite was violently sundred so noble a body from so godly a mind Whose death must rather be revenged then lamented whose death was no lack to himselfe but to his countrey whose death might every way been better borne then at a Rebels hand Violence is in all things hurtfull but in life horrible What should I speake of others in the same case divers notable whose death for manhood and service can want no worthy praise so long as these ugly stirres of rebellion can bee had in minde God hath himselfe joyned mans body his soule together not to be parted asunder afore he either dissever them himselfe or cause them to be dissevered by his minister And shall Rebels and headlesse camps being armed against God and in field against their King think it no fault to shed bloud of true subjects having neither office of God nor appointment of ministers nor just cause of rebellion He that stealeth any part of a mans substance is worthie to loose his life What shall we thinke of them who spoile men of their liues for the maintenance whereof not only substance and riches bee sought for but also all common wealths be devised Now then your own consciences should be made your judges and none other set to give sentence against yee seeing yee have been such bloudsheders so hainous man-quellers so horrible murderers could you doe any other then plainly confesse your foule and wicked rebellion to bee grievous against God and traiterous to the King and hurtfull to the Commonwealth So many grievous faults meeting together in one sinke might not onely have discouraged but also driven to desperation any other honest or indifferent mind But what feele they whose hearts so deep mischiefe hath hardned and by vehemencie of affection be made unshamefast and stop all discourse of reason to let at large the full scope of their unmeasurable madnesse Private mens goods seeme litle to your unsatiable desires yee have waxed greedie now upon Cities and have attempted mighty spoiles to glut up if you could your wasting hunger Oh how much have they need of that will never be contented and what riches can suffice any that will attempt high enterprises above their estate Yee could not maintaine your camps with your private goods with your neighbours portion but yee must also attempt Cities because yee sought great spoiles with other mens losses had forgotten how yee lived at home honestly with your own and thought them worthy death that would disquiet yee in your house and pluck away that which yee by right of law thought to be your own Herein see what yee would have done spoiled the Kings Majesties subjects weakned the Kings strength overthrowne his townes taken away his munition drawne his subjects to like rebellion yea and as it is among forraine enimies in sacking of Cities no doubt thereof yee would have fallen to slaughter of men ravishing of wives deflouring of Maidens chopping of children firing of houses beating downe of streets overthrowing of all together For what measure have men in the increase of madnesse when they cannot at the beginning stay themselves from falling into it And if the besetting of one house to robbe it be justly deemed worthie death what shall we think of them that besiege whole Cities for desire of spoile We live under a King to serve him at all times when hee shall need our strength and shall yee then not only withdraw your selves which ought as much to be obedient as we be but also violently pluck other away too from the dutie unto the which by Gods commandment all subjects be straightly bound and by all lawes every nation is naturally led The townes be not only the ornament of the Realme but also the seat of Merchants the place of Handycrafts that men scattered in Villages needing divers things may in litle roome know where to finde their lack To overthrowe them then is nothing else but to waste your owne commodities so that when yee would buy a necessary thing for mony yee could not tell where to find it Munition serveth the King not only for the defence of his own but also for the invasion of his enimie And if yee will then so straitly deale with him that yee will not let him so much as defend his own yee offer him double injurie both that ye let him from doing any notable fact abroad and also that yee suffer not him quietly to injoy his own at home But herein hath notably appeared what Cities have faithfully served and suffered extreame danger not only of goods but also of
hope for a child as we may look for gifts in a man either for his age to be little set by or for lack of qualities not to be regarded or for default of love to be resisted and no notable grace of God in him considered nor the worthinesse of his office looked upon nor naturall obedience due to him remembred Shall they not next suppose small estimation to be given to the rulers to whom under the King we owe due obedience that cannot in just lawfull matters be heard nor men to have that right judgment of their wisedome ' as their justice in rule and foresight in counsell requireth but rather prefer their owne fancies before others experience and deeme their owne reason to be common-wealth and other mens wisedome to be but dreaming Shall they not truely say the Subjects to be more unfaithfull in disobedience then other Subjects worse ordered be and licence of liberty to make wild heads without order and that they neither haue reason that vnderstand not the mischiefe of sedition nor duty which follow their beastlynesse nor love in them which so little remember the common wealth nor naturall affection which will dayly seeke their owne destruction Thus the whole Country lacking the good opinion of other nations is cast into great shame by your vnrulinesse and the proceedings of the Country be they never so godly shall be ill spoken of as vnfit to be brought into vse and good things hereby that deserveth praise shall bide the rebuke of them that list to speake ill and ill things untouched shall be boldlyer maintayned Nothing may with praise be redressed where things be measured by chanceable disorder rather then by necessary vse and that is thought most politike that men will be best contented to doe and not that which men should be brought vnto by duty And with what duty or vertue in ye can ye quench out of mens memories this foule enterprise or gather a good report againe to this Realme who have so vilely with reproach slaundered the same and diversly discredited it among others and abated the good opinion which was had of the iust goverment and ruled order vsed heretofore in this noble Realme which is now most grievous because it is now most without cause If this outward opinion without further inconvenience were all yet it might well be borne would with ease decay that it grew but it hath not onely hurt us with voyce but endangered us in deed and cast us a great deale behinde the hand where else we might have had a jolly foredeale For that opportunitie of time which seldome chanceth and is alwaies to be taken hath been by your froward meanes lost this yeare and so vainely spent at home for bringing downe of you which should else profitably have been otherwise bestowed that it hath been almost as great a losse to us abroad to lack that which wee might have obtained as it was combrance at home to goe about the overthrowe of you whose sedition is to be abhorred And we might both conveniently have invaded some if they would not reasonably have growne to some kinde of friendship and also defended other which would beside promise for times sake unjustly set upon us and easily have made this stormy time a faire yeare unto us if our men had been so happy at home as our likelihood abroad was fortunate But what is it I pray you either to let slip such an occasion by negligence or to stop it by stubbornesse which once past away can be by no meanes recovered no not though with diligence yee goe about to re-enforce the same againe If yee would with wickednesse have forsaken your faith to your naturall Country ' have sought crafty meanes to have utterly betrayed it to our common enimies could yee have had any other speedier way then this is both to make our strength weak and their weaknesse strong If yee would have sought to have spighted your countrey and to have pleased your enimie and follow their counsell for our hinderance could yee have had devised of them any thing more shamefull for us joyfull to them If they which lie like Spyals and harken after likelihoods of things to come because they declare opportunitie of times to the enimie are to bee judged common enimies of the Countrie what shall wee reasonably think of you who doe not secretly bewray the counsels of others but openly betray the Commonwealth with your own deeds and have as much as lyeth in you sought the overthrowe of it at home which if yee had obtained at Gods hand as he never alloweth so horrible an enterprise how could yee have defended it from the overthrow of other abroad For is your understanding of things so small that although you see your selves not unfit to get the upperhand of a few Gentlemen that yee be able to beat downe afore you the Kings power yea and by chance yee were able to doe that would yee judge your selves by strength mighty enough to resist the power of outward nations that for praise sake would invade yee Nay think truly with your selves that if yee doe overcome yee be unsure both by strength abroad and displeasure of honest men at home and by the punishment of the God above And now yee have not yet gotten indeed that your vaine hope looketh for by fancie think how certainly yee have wounded the Commonwealth with a fore stroke in procuring our enimies by our weaknesse to seek victory and by our outward miserie to seek outward glory with inward dishonour which howsoever they get think it to be long of you who have offered them victory afore they began warre because yee would declare to men hereafter belike how dangerous it is to make stirres at home when they doe not onely make our selves weake but also our enimies strong Besides these there is another sort of men desirous of advantage and disdainfull of our wealth whose griefe is most our greatest hap and be offended with religion because they be drowned in superstition men zealed toward God but not fit to judge meaning better without knowledge then they judge by their meaning worthier whose ignorance should be taken away then their will should be followed whom we should more rebuke for their stubbornnesse then despise for their ignorance These seeing superstition beaten downe and religion set up Gods word taking place traditions kept in their kinde difference made betweene Gods Commandements mans learning the truth of things sought out according to Christs institution examples taken of the Primitive Churches use not at the Bishop of Romes ordinance and true worship taught and wil-worship refused doe by blindnes rebuke that which by truth they should follow by affectiō follow that which by knowledge they should abhorre thinking usage to be truth and Scripture to be errour not waying by the word but misconstruing by custome And now things be changed to the better and Religion trulier appointed they