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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91187	A fresh discovery of some prodigious new wandring-blasing-stars, & firebrands, stiling themselves nevv-lights, firing our church and state into new combustions. Divided into ten sections, comprising severall most libellous, scandalous, seditious, insolent, uncharitable, (and some blasphemous) passages; published in late unlicensed printed pamphlets, against the ecclesiasticall jurisdiction and power of parliaments, councels, synods, Christian kings and magistrates, in generall; the ordinances and proceedings of this present Parliament, in speciall: the national covenant, assembly, directory, our brethren of Scotland, Presbyterian government; the Church of England, with her ministers, worship; the opposers of independent novelties; ... Whereunto some letters and papers lately sent from the Sommer-Islands, are subjoyned, relating the schismaticall, illegal, tyrannical proceedings of some Independents there, in gathering their new-churches, to the great distraction and prejudice of that plantation. / Published for the common good by William Prynne of Lincolnes Inne, Esquire.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1645 (1645)	Wing P3963; Thomason E261_5; ESTC R212456	96,461	90

the Ministry I have no such meaning neither doe I think a worthy Minister to be unworthy or unfit for other the most eminent Offices or callings in Church or Common-wealth were it not that he hath a most eminent calling already sufficient to take up the whole man and unmeet to be yoaked with other callings as the Apostle saith who is sufficient for these things And the Apostles doe reject such employments with a kinde of contempt saying It is not meat that we should leave the word of God to serve Tables and a little after we will give our selves continually to prayer and to the Ministry of the Word intimating that these things would hinder them from prayer and the ministry of the Word whereby it appeares they would not be Deacons nor take upon them any other Office in or over the Church but spend themselves wholly in the word and prayer the like might be manifested by sundry other Scriptures And the evill of it hath beene so generally observed in England that as I heard Queene Elizabeth when she had conferred upon a Minister authority and power to rule was wont to say I have spoyled a good Preacher to day And surely if we observe it the desire of Superiority and Dominion in or over the Church in Ministers and Clergy men and the readinesse of Princes and people to conferre it upon them hath been a principall if not the principall cause in corrupting Religion from time to time and of setting up the great Antichrist and many others as might easily be shewed if it were not an argument too long for this place Thus farre through the gracious assistance of God I have expressed my minde in this matter to the intent I might stop so much as in me lies the setting up of a new Discipline and Government of our owne framing seeing we are already freed of all those things that have usually beene burthensome and offensive to good Christians in England and that we expect daily the further determination and decree of the Honourable Assembly of Parliament in these things Or if I cannot prevaile so farre as to stop it yet that wee might look before we leap and understand well what we doe before we doe it Or if neither that may be obtained yet hence it will appeare that my selfe and some others deserve no blame much lesse such evill speeches as are usually vented against us by some because we will not rashly runne with them we know not whether And lastly I desire that this may be a publike testimony of my judgement in these things For to be present and heare them daily pressed and to bee alwayes silent is taken for a signe of consent and approbation March 1. 1642. RICH. NORWOOD Postscript SInce this Advertisement of mine came abroad though but a month what horrible forespeakings threatnings imprecations and censures have beene publikely denounced against me in severall parts of the Countrey I shall not need to repeat being too well knowne Neither will I answer them accordingly lest I also be like them I will only in the feare of God and by the comfortable assistance of his holy Spirit apply that saying How should they curse where God hath not cursed Or how should they detest where the Lord hath not detested And those words of David It may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction and doe me good for his cursing this day A desperate thing it is for men to blaspheme against some good light and what is it to acknowledge the good gifts and graces of God in those which they so bitterly preach against and to overwhelm them all with most foule and feigned susspicions and aspersions without cause As when they say Satan will not use profane and wicked men but he makes choise of those that are of good and able parts men of a religious life of a blamelesse conversation these close hypocrites he makes his instruments to oppose the Kingdom of Christ that is their intended Discipline c. with other like speeches I say it is very dangerous for men thus to give way to wrath and malice The Scribes and Pharisces did see and would no doubt have acknowledged the eminent gifts and graces that shined in our Saviour if he would have applied them to the establishing of their Faction But because he would not doe so they maliciously traduced him and said he had an uncleane spirit but he reproves their desperate wickednesse shewing how nearly they did approach or became guilty of the sinne against the Holy Ghost And let every man take heed how they doe cunningly fasten slanders or otherwise shew despight unto the spirit of Grace because it will not be subordinate unto their ends I could wish also they would consider the words of Marsilius Patavinus in his Book entituled Defender of the Peace Where speaking of those that presume to frame or presse Orders Decrees and other parts of Discipline without license of the true Law-giver or Prince and endeavour to draw people to the observation of them by surreptitious words as it were compelling them by threatning eternall damnation to such as transgresse them or denouncing execrations reproachfull speeches excommunications slanders revilings or other maledictions against them or any of them in word or writing such saith he are to suffer corporall punishment in a most high degree as conspirators and stirrers up of civill schisme or division in a Common-wealth For it is saith he a most grievous kinde of treason because it is committed directly against the Royall Majesty of the Prince and his Soveraigne Authority and tendeth to set up a plurality of supreame authorities or powers and so of necessity to the dissolution or overthrow of every civill Government They object also that I am but a Lay-man and therefore should not meddle with matters of Divinity applying that Proverb Ne sutor ultra crepidam and saying that even the Sunne Moone and Starres wherein he hath skill should teach him that lesson which alwayes move in their owne spheares except they be wandring starres for whom the blacknesse of darknesse is reserved for ever with many other bitter expressions But this is an old plea of the Popish Clergy to hold the people in ignorance and thraldome and should not be taken up by those that would seeme to be more opposite to Popery then Protestants are That eminent and blessed Divine Doctor Sibbes was of another minde who speaking in commendation of Mr Sherland that was no Preacher disdaines not to say he had good skill in controverted points of Divinity and that he was a good Divine And surely the calling of a Christian is of that importance that he must if need so require omit whatsoever calling he have besides to make good that one most necessary neither can he justly be charged to move out of his spheare whensoever he meddles with matters of Christianity and Religion especially such points as he is pressed to embrace and submit

or any other to say and affirme that this monstrous ugly botched and scabbed body is Christs true Spouse is dishonourable to his blessed being and Mediatorship His Schismaticall seditious conclusion from all these Premises is this pag. 35. Therefore let all Gods people that yet are in the bosome of the Church of England as they love their own inward peace and spirituall joy and look that their souls should prosper and flourish with grace and godlinesse look to it and withdraw their spiritual obedience and subjection from all Antichrists Laws and worship and joyne themselves as fellow Citizens of the City of God to worship and serve him in Mount Sion the beauty of holinesse and there only to yield all spirituall obedience to Christs spirituall Laws and Scepter This language and opinion of his concerning our English Church and Ministry is seconded by most Independents in their late Pamphlets of which you have had a bitter taste in the preceding Sections and their practice proves as much For first though they proclaime Liberty of conscience to all Sects and Religions whatsoever yet they have so harsh an opinion of Presbyterians and all others who submit not to their Independent Modell that they esteem them no better then Heathens Infidels unbelievers and proclaim them in their Books to be * Men who deny disclaim and preach against Christs Kingly Government over his Churches men unconverted or at least converted but in part vvanting the main thing to wit Christs kingly Office men visible out of the Covenant of Grace who have not so much as an outward profession of Faith who deny Christ to be their King to whose persons and infants the very Sacraments and seals of grace with all Church Communion may and ought to be denied which is in effect to un-Christian un-Church un-Minister all Presbyterians and to make them cast-awayes If this be their charity to us already what may we expect from them hereafter if their Faction bear the sway Secondly when they gather any Independent Congregation their practise is for their Ministers solemnly to renounce and abjure their former Ordination in and the people their Pristine Communion with the Church of England and all Congregations else whereof they have been Members and then to new-mould themselves into an Independent Church which practise they have lately begun in the Plantations of the Summer Islands as a Friend of mine from thence informed me by a Letter dated May 14. 1645. in these insuing termes The Independent Church was set up here the last year wherein they have covenanted to stand unto the death but their Covenant is not fully exprest reserving power in themselves especially in their Pastor to alter it when they will and as they think good they have exprest nothing in writing though often urged to it but he that joyns with them must do it by a kinde of implicite faith to imbrace what their Church doth or shall imbrace not knowing what it is or will be When they began it their Minister called a Fast for all that would be present where in the publique Congregation our Ministers being then but three Did lay down and renounce their Ordination and Ministry received in the Church of England and so become as they said no Ministers but did joy● themselves together in Covenant by words only to become a Church first making a kinde of confession of their sins and signifying that others might also joyn themselves to them if they were such as after such confession they should approve of and there was one principall Officer did then joyn himself with them they then continued weekly Lecturers still yet as they said not as Ministers but only as private men to exercise their gifts wherein they laboured to draw others to joyn with them and every week received in some but that confession of sins grew daily more and more out of date the rather for that * some were threatned to be called in question at the Assises for some things which they confessed there so that at this time all is in a manner implicite and though little or nothing be expressed by the party to be received in yet he is not put back But when they had gotten about thirty to joyne with them they again called a Fast for all that would be present where it seems having appointed one of our assistant Governors for their Prolocutor he nominated Master White to be their Pastor which the rest confirmed by erection of hands then it seems Master White nominated our other two Ministers Master Copland and Master Golding for his ruling Elders yet they continue to preach constantly as before but Master White only doth Administer the Sacraments and that only to such as have joyned themselves in their implicite Covenant with them Their practise therefore and their writings demonstrate what ungratefull sons and unnaturall Vipers they are to our Mother Church and Ministers of England which hath little cause to harbour these Rebellious Apostate sons who thus abominate renounce both her and her Ministers as Antichristian Surely some of their own Independent Faction had other thoughts of her and her Ministry unlesse they dissembled before God and man as they commonly do without blush or check but very few years since and among other the five Independent Apologists and Master Hugh Peter Solicit●r generall of the Independent Cause and Party whose Subscription before the Bishop of London concerning our Church of England in the late Prelaticall times when far more unreformed then now I shall here present you with the Originall whereof I found in the Archbishops study under Master Peter his own hand c●dorsed with the Archbishops thus Master Hugh Peters Subscription before the Bishop of London August 17. 1627. RIght Reverend Father in God and my very good Lord being required to make known to your Lordship my Judgement concerning some thing propounded at my last being before your Lordship from which Propositions though I never dissented nor know any cause why I should be suspected yet being ready and willing to obey your Lordship in all things especially in so just a demand as this I having consulted with Antiquity and with our modern Hooker and others humbly desire your Lordship to accept the satisfaction following 1. For the Church of England in generall I blesse God I am a member of it and was baptized in it and am not only assured it is a true Church but am perswaded it is the most glorious and flourishing Church this day under the sun which I desire to be truly thankfull for and for the Faith Doctrine and Articles of that Church and the maintenance of them I hope the Lord will inable me to contend Tanquam ut pro aris focis Yea I trust to lay down my life if I were called thereunto 2. For the Governour and Government thereof viz. The reverend Fathers the Archbishops and Bishops I acknowledge their Offices and jurisdictions and cannot see

'l not only fall upon your bones himselfe but hee l set his celestiall brother Christopher Scal●●kie his catechisticall brother Rouland Rattle-priest his divine Brethren Martin Claw-Clergy Bartholmew Bang-priest all upon your back and amongst us all we shall in time turne up the foundation of your classicall supremacy and pull down your Synod your Spheare about your ears behold a troop commeth Sir Simon Martin is of the Tribe of Gad though a host of Sir Iohns overcome him yet he shal over come at last yea heel 'e jeere you out of your black Cloaks and make you ashamed of King Henry the seventh's Chappell and he glad to work with your hands or to be content with the good will of the vulgar and then it will too late to compound with reverend MARTIN and his divine Brethren therefore consider with your selfe Sir Simon before the mighty Acts of the house of Martin be come forth against you we do not intend to dally with you wee 'l handle you with Mittins thwack your Cassocks rattle your Jackets stamp upon the panch of your villany and squeze out the filth and garbidge of your iniquity till you stink in the nostrils of the common people yea wee 'l beat you and your sonne JACK guts and all into a Mouse-hole There 's no one of MARTINS Tribe but is a man of Mettall and hates a Tithe-devouring persecuting Priest as he hates the Devill scornes their bribes and bids defiance to their Malice These are to advise you Sir Simon turne ye to MARTIN in Tolleration-street ye stiffe necked generation of Priests lest the fierce wrath and sore displeasure of mighty MARTIN fall upon you confound you and your whole Sir Johns generation Root and Branch hearken ye rebellious Assembly unto MARTIN persecute no more take no more Tithes be content with the good will of the Vulgar Whether these most seditious menacing passages and railing Libels against the Assembly Presbytery and all Ecclesiasticall Parliamentary proceedings be not published in print by seditious Seectaries to stirre up the people to mutinie against the Parliament Assembly Ministery to fire us into new Civill warres and commotions among our selves and that by the underhand plots of some Jesuiticall spirits and Malignant Royallists I shall humbly submit to the saddest thoughts of our supreame Councell which is best able to judge of them and most able to prevent the eminent dangers which they doe portend I shall close this Section with a new printed Libell intituled The Nativity of Sir Iohn Presbyter Dedicated To the Right Worshipfull the ASS of Divines assembled at Westminster with a most rayling libellous Epistle to which these Verses in derision of it are subjoyned Reverend Assembly up arise and jogge For you have fairly fisht and caught a Frog Now have you set two years pray can you tell A man the way that Christ went downe to Hell In these two years what can a wise man think That ye have done ought else but eat and drink Presbyterie climb'd up to the top of fame Directory and all from Scotland came O monstrous idlenesse alack and welly Our learned Rabbies minds nought but their belly Section V. Containing libellous scurrilous prophane and unchristian passages against the Directory established by Ordinance of Parliament YOU have met with some of these Invectives already in the preceding Sections which I shall not repeat but only adde two or three passages more of this nature full of Athesticall and blasphemous scurrillity The Araignment of Persecution p. 44. desires That his Holinesse Sir Simon Synod my Synodecate a full resolution to these ensuing Queres Whether it would not have been more profitable for the kingdome of England to have forth with hired a Coach and twelve Horses to have set a Directory from Scotland then to have spent the learned consultations pious debates and sacred conclusions of such an holy such a reverend such a heavenly such a godly such a learned such a pious such a grave such a wise such a solid such a discreet such a spirituall such an Evangelicall such an infallible such a venerable such a super-celestioll Queer of Angels such a suparlative Assembly of Divines for almost these two yeares space after the profuse and vast expence of above forty thousand pounds besides their goodly fat Benefices upon their devouring Guts for an English DIRECTORY of worship equivalent to the Scotch DIRECTORY Whether this Directory standing in so many thousands to sumble it together and the Copy sold at 400 and 50 l. be not of more value then the writings of the Prophets and Apostles The sacred Synodicall Decretall or Hue and Cry useth the like Dialect p. 23. Be it secula seculorum as authentick as the Directory c. We had better have set two years longer in our most holy Consultations and made our forty thousand four hundred pound Directory a Directory of fourscore thousand eight hundred pound value Pag. 5. Martin will tell the Country That we sanctifie our new DIRECTORY Gospell but to the temper of the City Tell the City That the Country people know not what to do with it except to stop their Bottles unlesse we spend the State the other odde trifle of 40000 pounds to divide it into Chapters and Verses the Lord put it into their hearts and that as the truth is its sanctity is only grounded upon the Divine Ordinance for Tithes some wiser then some for no longer Penny no longer Pater-noster I will defile no more Paper with such horrid blasphemies only adde That Martins Ecco p. 12. makes the Parliaments endeavouring to establish the Directory the cause of the losse of Leicester in these words And now the Parliament being busied to fortifie your Directory c. in the mean time Leicester is taken thousands are put to the sword c. Which is sufficiently answered by Sir Thomas Fairfax routing the Kings whole Army and re-taking Leicester even whiles the Parliament was most busie in fortifying the Directory But I proceed to another Section Section VI. Containing their libellous scandalous seditious passages against our Brethren of Scotland to raise divisione between us and them contrary to the Act of Pacification and the late solemne League and Covenant MAny are their intolerable libellous Invectives of this kinde I shall transcribe but few Hen. Robinson in his Answer to M. Py●nes 12 Questions made the first assault upon our Brethren in this Language And what think we made our Brethren the Scots so successelesse here in England whilest the warres are now beginning to kindle in their own Countrey if it were not that they joyne with this Nation or rather provoke them to establish their so much idolized Presbyteriall discipline of persecutions when they themselves thought they had just cause to be highly offended with the same their own persecuting spirit in Episcopacy When the Lord required the Israelites to appear before him at Jerusalem thrice a yeare he promised that no man should invade their habitations in

own case it was never mine What I have done against the unjust usurpations and illegall excesses of either I did it in a just and Legall way upon such grounds and Authority as was never yet controuled and this I dare make good without vainglory that I have done more reall cordiall service with my pen against the Usurpations of Regality and Prelacy in defence of the Subjects Liberties and Parliaments jurisdiction then all Independent Sectaries whatsoever and that only out of a zeal to Gods glory and the publick good without the least private end or Interest which never yet entred into my thoughts having suffered as much as any man of your Sect if not more for the Publick without either seeking or receiving the least recompence or reward having spent not only my time and Studies but some hundreds of Pounds in the Republicks service since my inlargement without craving or receiving one farthing recompence in any kinde whereas if I had sought my self or been any way covetous or ambitious I might perchance have obtained as advantagious and honourable preferments as any Independents have aspired to if not challenged as their right for lesse meritorious publick services and sufferings then the least of mine As for my importuning the Parliament for continuance of their favours to that people you speak of surely when I finde them more obsequious to the Parliaments just Ordinances and commands lesse willfull and more conscientious I shall do them all the offices of Christian love but whiles contumnacy obstinacy licentiousnesse uncharitablenesse and Schisme are most predominant in them the greatest favour I can move the Parliament to indulge them is to bridle these their extravagances with the severest Laws and to prefer the publike safety of Church and State before their private Lawlesse conceits and phantasticall opinions He addes That I am in this as cruell a Task-master as Pharaoh and that the Son of God and his Saints are but little beholding to me Surely to confine Licencious lawlesse consciences to the rules of Gods word the justLaws of the Realm and rectified reason can Proclaime me no Egyptian Task-master but rather decl●re your Sect meer Libertines who will not be Regnlated by nor confined within these Bounds yea I trust the Son of God and his true Saints are as much beholding to me in your sense as to the greatest Patriarchs of your Independent Tribes be they whom they will This Libeller being questioned before the Committee of Examinations concerning this Letter by their speciall favour returned his Reasons why he sent it in writing which he no sooner exhibited but published in Print the next day after to defame and slander me among his Confederates who give me now no other Epithites in their discourses but a Papist a Persecutor of Gods Saints an Enemy of Christs Kingdom vvho deserve to lose my head for opposing them in this cause c. which I no more value Then the Moon doth the barking of a lousie Cur. In this new unlicensed Paper first he vaingloriously relates his own sufferings and deserts Secondly Traduceth the justice of the Parliament and others against some seditions Sectaries misreciting many of their proceedings to the scandall of Publick justice and the Parliament pag. 3 4. Thirdly pag. 5. He pretends my Books against Independents Licensed by Authority of a Committee of Parliament to be the principall causes of the rigid Proceedings against Separatists especially my Truths Triumphing over Falshood which being subsequent in time to all the particulars he recites could certainly be no occasion of them and therefore he playes not only the Sophyster but Slanderer in this particular Fourthly pag. 5 6. He misrepeats and misapplies some Passages of mine to all of his Sect in generall and to HIMSELF and SVCH AS HE IS in the ARMY and ELSEWHERE Whereas there is not one Syllable in my Passages to that purpose but only against some particular Authors I there mention and such of their Confederates who maliciously and audaciously oppugne the undoubted Rights Priviledges and just Proceedings of Parliament contrary to their Solemne Covenant League and Protestation and if you proclaim your self or any other in the Army or elsewhere to be of this Anti-Parliamentary Regiment as now you do I then professe my self an opposite to you and shall make good against you what ever I have written when and where you please Fiftly He writes That I eagerly endeavour to incense the Parliament against him and such as he is in the Army and elsewhere and in the Conclusion of my Independency examined presse the cutting of them off by the sword executing wrath and vengeance on them upon pain of contracting the guilt of highest Perjury A most malicious scandall For first I never mentioned him or his in particular neither knew I how he stood inclined Secondly In my Independency examined I only in a generall discourse affert that Kings and Civill Magistrates have by the Law of God a Lawfull coercive power thought not to restrain the sincere Preaching of the Gospel and truth of God yet to suppresse restrain imprison confine banish the brea●hers of Heresies Schismes Erronious seditious Doctrines Enthusiasmes or setters up of new Formes of Ecclesiasticall Government without Lawfull Authority to the en●●ngering of mens souls or disturbance of the Churches and Kingdoms Peace These are my formall words which I there make good by Scripture Presidents in all Ages will justifie by Gods assistance upon any occasion against all Sectaries Independents whatsoever After which I close up this discourse in these very words And if any Hereticks false-Teachers Schismaticks chuse which of these three ranks you and yours will fall under obstinatly refuse conformity after due admonition and all good means used to reclaim them the Poets Divinity and Policy must then take place as well in Ecclesiasticall as civill and naturall maladies Cuncta prim tentanda sed immedicabile Vulnius Ense rescidendum est ne pars syncera trahatur Is this any urging of the Parliament To cut you and yours off by the sword and to execute wrath and vengeance on you If you be such obstinate Hereticks Schismaticks or false-Teachers who fall within the compasse of my words God forbid but the sword of Iustice should be drawn out against you as well as others at least to chastise and reduce you to obedience though not finally to cut you off unlesse in case of absolute necessity But if you are none of this obstinate Hereticall Schismaticall Brigade as I make you not unlesse you make your selves my generall indefinite words will relate neither to your self in person whom I never once minded in my writings nor to any of your Tribe And therefore in this particular I charge you for a malicious slanderour and false Informer demanding justice and reparation from you for this and all the forementioned passages wherein you have wilfully done me wrong Sixtly pag. 6. He injuriously chargeth me as guilty of being an Incendiary betwixt

Israel even whole black Regiments of you into the fields under the Conduct of your General●ssimo William Twisse Prolocutor and fire all your new cast Ordinances at once in the face of your enemies and so finish your good work your selves and trust your Sacred cause no longer in the hands of the profane By this short taste you may discern the most uncharitable slanderous lying Libellous disposition of these new Independent lights whose works are so full of infernall deeds of darknesse and of the black Language of Hell Section X. Containing seditious Queries Passages and Practises to excite the people to mutiny Sedition Disobedience and contumacy against the Parliaments proceedings Ordinances and to resume their power from them I Have in the preceding Sections already transcribed sundry clauses of this nature I shall remember you only of some few more in two or three late unlicensed Libels The Author of an Answer to Mr. Prynnes twelve Questions concerning Church-Government supposed to be Master Henry Robinson pag. 2. makes this Quere What if the Parliament sh●uld be for Popery again Iudaisme or Tur●isme T is no offence to make a Quere NOR IMPOSSIBLE TO COME TO PASSE The greatest part of such as choose our Parliament men are thought to be Popishly or Malignantly affected by the same Law and Doctrine the whole Kingdom must in consequence and such obedience as you dictate conforme themselves to Poperie Iudaisme or Turcisme c. And pag. 24. 25. He propounds these Queries of purpose to blast the power and Ecclesiasticall Proceedings of our present Parliament and render them detestable or contemptible to the people Whether have not Parliaments and Synods of England in times past established Popery And whether may they not possibly do so again hereafter Whether in case a Parliament and Synod should set up Popery may they therein be disobeyed by the people If they may be disobeyed in one particular whether may not they upon the like grounds be disobeyed in another Whether the people be not judge of the grounds for denying obedience to Parliament and Synod in such a case Whether the pretence of giving a Parliament and Synod power to establish Religion and yet reserve in our own hands a Prerogative of yeelding or denying obedience thereunto as we our selves think good be not an absolute contradiction And lastly Whether they that Attribute such a power to Parliaments and Synods as they themselves will question and disobey when they think good do not in effect weaken and quite enervate the power of Parliaments or else condemn themselves in censuring the Independents for withholding of obedience from Parliament and Synod in such things wherein they NEVER GAVE OR MEANT EVER TO GIVE POWER If the whole Kingdom may denie obedience unto Popish Acts and Canons or upon any other the like just occasion and they themselves be judge whether the occasion be just or n● Whether may not Independents a part of the Kingdom onlie do the like in all respects Or whether ought they because a lesser part of the Kingdom to yield obedience to Popish Acts and Canons because a Major part approve of and agree with a Parliament and Synod in establishing them Whether would it not be an ungodlie course for anie people to hazard anie thing at the disposall of others or to be carried by most voices which may possiblie if not more then probablie be decided in such a manner as the yielding obedience thereunto would be burthensom to their consciences if not absolutelie sinfull Whether were it not an ungodlie course for the whole Commons of a Kingdom so farre differing in Religion as that they professe before hand that they dare not yield to another upon perill of damnation to make choise of a Parliament and Synod with entring into Vow and Covenant to become afterwards all of that Religion whatsoever the Parliament and Assembly should agree on Whether it be not absurd for men to say they vvill be of such a Religion as shall be settled before they see evidence to convince them And vvhether it be in the povver of man to be really of vvhat Religion he vvill untill he see reason and demonstration for it If a representative State or Magistrate may have Laws for setting up of a Religion or establish vvhat Church-Government they please vvhether have not the people the same povver originallie in themselves to assume again and put it in execution vvhen they please And vvhether vvere this othervvise then to attribute unto a mixt multitude to the vvorld if not absolutely as it is distinguished from the Saints in Scripture Ioh. 15. 18 19. and 17. 6 9 11 4. at least by some voices to make choise of a Religion Lavvs and Discipline vvherevvith the Saints houshold and Church of God must necessarilie be governed These seditious Quaere's are since reprinted and propounded by the same Author Henrie Robinson in another Libell of his Intituled The Falshood of Mr. William Prynnes Truth triumphing c. p. 26 27. to what other end but to stir up the people to Mutiny to rebellion against the Parliament and its proceedings a thing lately attempted by a mutinous Petition framed by Independents but afterwards moderated by some discreeter persons and by some late Libellous seditious Pamphlets no wise man can conjecture To omit many new seditious mutinous Passages in the Arraignment tf Persecution A sacred Decretall and Martins Eccho compiled published printed vended dispersed by Independent Sectaries who highly applaud them instead of excommunicating detecting suppressing punishing the Authors and dispersers of them I shall for brevity sake transcribe only this most seditious Oration in the close of Martins Eccho directed to the common people to excite them to mutiny and Rebellion against the Assembly Parliament their Military Civil and Ecclesiasticall present proceedings deserving no lesse then capitall punishment being done in seditionem Regni no lesse then high Treason by the Common Law Pag. 16. Rejoyce Rejoyce good people for this blessed Reformation which is ready like an evening Wolf to seize upon you and yours Loving Friends and Neighbours stand still gaping with your mouths and quietly bow down your backs whilest you are bridled and sadled and let the holy humble and gentle Presbyterians get up and ride they will doubtelesse deal very meekly with you and not put you out of your place though the proverb be Set a Beggar on horse-back and hee 'l ride to the Devil though they have spurs yet they will not use them You remember how the Bishops posted you furiously to and fro like Iehu the son of Nimshi untill with foundring and surbats they have even wearied you of your lives the gentle Presbyters will in no wise ride you so hard though some Malignants would make you believe that Sir Iohn will never be off of your backs because it is intended he shall have his holy Spirituall Courts in every Parish of the Kingdome but this benefit

of all persons here and of whom he will certainly require it if such an evill as is threatned should befall through your neglect For although the great Antichrist and his Clergy did prevaile to perswade Christian Princes and Magistrates that the Government of the Church and care of Religion pertained not to them but to the Clergy and the like is now here preached amongst us yet I verily trust you entertain no such false principle For to establish true Religion to maintain it and to see that the duties of Religion be duly performed to God and man is almost all that the Law requireth and so is almost if not all the duty of the Christian Magistrate And this being taken from him and put upon the Clergy he may serve as an officer to execute what the Clergy shall decree but ceaseth in a manner wholly to be a Magistrate Thus commending you to the tuition and direction of Almighty God I rest March 6. 1642. Your Worships in all due observance RICH. NORWOOD An Advertisement to such here as have care of the Conservation of true Religion IT is and ought to be the principall care of every good Christian to conserve the knowledge and exercise of true Religion in himselfe and others being the one thing necessary But from this these times have much declined everywhere and even in our deare native Countrey so farre as called for a speedy Reformation or threatned ruine And seeing little hope of the one the latter was justly feared by many and by my selfe I confesse amongst others being the principall cause of my comming hither But the Lord hath mercifully stayed those feares and given us fresh hopes by the Reformation in so great a measure begun by the present Parliament which also they endeavour through many difficulties to accomplish more fully And considering how worthily they have begun and what great things they have effected above all expectation we have no cause to mis-doubt them nor to anticipate their Honourable proceedings but rather to attend what shall be determined by them especially considering that wee of this place as wee have not beene much burthened except by some Ministers so now we are altogether unburthened of the Ceremonies and whatsoever else hath usually beene offensive to good Christians in England For if we should set up a new Government or Discipline and forme of Religion here wee must alter it againe when wee understand out of England what forme the Parliament have or shall establish Some say no our Ministers are as supreame heads under Christ of their severall Churches here and not subordinate in these things Ecclesiasticall to Parliament or any other power upon earth whatsoever but this opinion savors too much of Antichristian pride and presumption Others say the Parliament will establish the same forme that our Ministers will set up here but these conjectures doe much wrong that Honourable Assembly for if the matter were so easie and evident that our Ministers here can presently determine it then what need the Parliament so long to debate and consider of it What need such consultation with the ablest Divines in England and many other from all parts And why hath there beene such difference of opinions touching this matter even amongst the most godly and learned in Christendome for these 100 years together I remaines therefore that wee must change againe when we heare from thence and considering what changes have beene made by some already if we should now make another change in setting up a new Discipline and shortly after another when we heare out of England such mutability would neither be safe for this place not suteable to the stedfastnesse of the Church and people of God which is the Pillar and ground of truth and must not be wavering and carried about with every winde of Doctrine c. The Apostle makes it a signe of a double minded man to be unstable in all his wayes and in the Epistle to the Hebrewes Be not carried about with divers and strange Doctrines c. And the Prophet saith Why runnest thou about so much to change thy wayes It will be answered we intend not to change but to the better but withall remember that such is alwayes the pretence and oft-times the intent in all Innovations whatsoever Therefore Solomon saith My sonne feare God and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change Not but that even the best Christians may al●er sometimes in some circumstances of Religion some good and weighty causes requiring it but it must not be through levity nor of an high minde nor for selfe ends A restlesse levity and that with contempt of Authority under pretence of greater and new lights is a dangerous signe of an Anabaptisticall spirit Therefore I say what we change ought to be done with the feare of God and the King In the feare of God namely according to his Word and with the feare of the King that is consenting with the Lawes and Soveraigne Authority set over us or at least not with an high hand in contempt thereof For every soule must be subject to the higher powers yea saith Chrysostome though he be an Apostle though an Evangelist though a Prophet Therefore I could wish as I have often perswaded that wee might stay for the determination of the Parliament in these things and likewise the approbation of the Company in those that concern● them But because some here are very impetuous and a further change is daily preached and pressed amongst us I have little hope to stop the violence of this streame Therefore to the intent we may understand and consider what to doe and as the saying is look before we leap I should in the next place desire as many others doe and as it concerns us all to desire of them and of our Ministers especially that they would be pleased to set down in writing whatsoever new thing in Doctrine or Discipline they would have us entertaine different from the practice or tenents of the Church of England that so each thing being well considered examined and adjudged by the Word of God we may entertaine or reject it accordingly I know there are sundry Objections alleadged and pretended more then I need to repeat or answer here For howsoever it is true that we are to submit our selves to the Word of God I meane the holy Scriptures in all things yet not so to men especially when they seek themselves in stead of Christ No though they tell us they are the mouth of God and sit in Moses chaire and therefore must be heard and obeyed and that the government of the Church belongeth to them next under Christ and that even Caiaphas though a persecutor of Christ yet when he had the place of High-priest he prophesied the truth And though they tell us we must not strive with the Priest nor reprove our R●prover and though they accuse us to have rejected and opposed more