which for a little season they had done And notwithstanding the City of Londons now choosing out and sending Commissioners to treat with the Army for to such a height it was now grown as if the City and Army had been two distinct advers Parties to keep a supposed and pretended fair correspondency between them for peaceable conclusions yet the Army grown now to a high pitch of power and now therefore more apt especially by their active Agitators to pick quarrels both with the Parliament their Parents and Masters and with the City their Foster-Fathers if their licentious humors of Pride and Schism were crost ever so little holding themselves much affronted and stil much discontented that the aforesaid 11. accused Members were not yet put out of the House of Commons though most unlawful to be done that so the Schismatical Party in that House might carry on their grand Design of an accursed Toleration with the fuller and freer concurrence of Votes and Suffrages when once it was ripe enough to be discust and sâ—and in the House And because also the City of London would not consent to alter the power of their Militia nor lie altogether idle secure and supine from making some just preparations for the defence of their often and highly menaced and threatned City to be plundered burned and made a prey to this Army of Saints which defence God knows at best was very little and inconsiderable but especially by occasion of a Petition and Engagement whereinto divers most honest and religious peaceable Citizens Seamen and Apprentices of London and the parts about it only by reason of the Armies often and insolent threats and formidable preparations for war and frequent incroachments and approachings neer unto their City had entred into to stand to their Covenant which above all this Army of sweet Saints could not endure made with God and the three Kingdoms to endevor with their lives and fortunes the defence of their true Religion City and Liberties to preserve the Kings person and dignity now in great danger in both he being in the Armies wicked custody and to bring his Majesty to the City and Parliament for the perfecting of a happy and wel-grounded Peace and Truth â—ogether and all these upon such terms and conditions as the Commissioners of the Parliaments of both Kingdoms of England and Scotland should see most fit and salubrious for the best good of all the three Kingdoms and this Petition and Engagement they purposed according to their honest and orderly custom of proceeding in these kinds to present to their Common Councel with their humble and peaceable desires that the Lord Maior Aldermen and Common Councel if they liked and allowed thereof would be pleased in all their names and then joyntly of the whole City to present the same to the Par. for their ratification and establishment of their desires therein But the Army instantly having private intelligence thereof by some false brethren even whiles this business was but in the Embrio of it with all possible speed posts away their most imperious Demands rather indeed Commands to the Parliament forthwith to suppress this desperate and dangerous yea this bloody and treasonable design as thus they most craftly and frightingly termed it and upon this to change the City Militia which was done all in one day and to cal the Contrivers and Actors therein and main Abettors thereof into severe question as traiterous fomentors of a Second or New War because indeed such a just defence as this was like to prove and would as they justly feared mightily impede yea utterly break the neck of the Armies grand Design or else they with all their Martial power must of necessity come up presently and compel and inforce it Besides to aggravate their accusations against the City the Army had gotten perfect intelligence that about or somewhat before this time the Lord Maior Aldermen and Citizens of London had sent Letters and subscribed them with their names into Kent c. to crave those their neighbors assistance to help to defend the City if force were made against it by the Army which it seems became a foul offence in the City and most worthy to be severely punisht 〈◊〉 Treasonable Design against the Army just as if a man his house being in danger of fire to be burned down or of theeves and robbers coming to assault him in his house should send forth presently to his neighbors to ayd and assist him against those dangers and just fears of his and for this cause the theeves and robbers should make a sore complaint of him how they were wronged thereby and procure the Master of the house and his Servants or associates to be punished for thus endevoring to save and preserve their house and goods from rapine and ruine If ever now Sea Saints turn'd Sinons vile A Parliament and City to beguile Hereupon in the fifteenth place the Parliament being now apparently forced by the 〈◊〉 of this overpowering Army together with the help of the Independents and Secturies in the House of Commons voted all those that were Author of and Actor in the said Petition and Engagement though but intended to be Traitors and to be proceeded against with the lost of their lives undestates And presently painted and published an Ordinance of Parliament to have them all 〈…〉 all over the City by Drum and Trumpet At which most strange proceedings of the Army and Parliament the City in general being mightily discontented presently sent the Lord Maior Aldermen and Common Councel of London to petition the Parliament for a present removal of divers grievanceâ— and chiefly for an instant revocation or repealing of that conceived unjust Ordinance aforesaid But especially very many Apprentices of London and young men with divers others mixed mong them went also the same day to Westminster in a tumultâ—ous manner as the Army called it though multitudes petitioning make not a tumult but have been very much countenanced and encouraged yea and approved of by a Declaration of the Parliaments formerly sâ—t forth But therein also the honest Citizen were most wickedly abused by many Cavaliers Malignants yâ—â— and Sectaries too who mixed themselves among the honestly young men the more to abuse them and their work but all of them unarmed thus urging the Parliament for the instant nullifying of the said Ordinance and so much the more vehemently they urged the immediate performance hereof because they then 〈◊〉 nay heard for certain a present adjournment of the Parliament was resolved on and therefore they pressed the more mightily upon Both Houses of Parliament whiles they were yet â—â— sitting with earnest cries and intreaties to all that past in or out for the nulling of that severe and as they humbly conceived most unjust Ordinance of Parliament against them only for action as they conceived and in their consciences were assured according to their Covenant which their desires being at last though indeed with much ado
Seria Exercitus Series THE Army Anatomized OR A brief plain Display of the humble honest and religious Actings of the General Sir Tho. Fairfax and his Army of Saints toward the good of the King and Parliament and the whole Kingdom since the famous Victory at NASEBY June 14. 1645. Occasioned upon the serious Consideration of 4 SCRIPTURE PROPERTIES of every true Saint and Christian Soldier 1. Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you 't is our Saviors own Golden-Rule even so do ye unto them MAT. 7.12 2. Not to do Any Evil a general-Rule which admits of no exception either in Kings or in Commanders that Good may come thereof ROM 3.8 3. To abstain from every Appearance of Evil much more from every Apparent Evil. 2 THES 5.22 4. Do Violence or Wrong to no man neither accuse Any man falsly LUKE 3.14 Now how Sir THO. FAIRFAX's Army of Saints and Christian Soldiers have performed All These or any of These shal be faithfully and plainly declared in 20. following Observations By a loyal Lover of Peace and Truth But a hearty Contemner of Sedition and Schism JUDE 11. Wo unto them for they have gone in the way of Kain and ran greedily after the Error of Balaam for Reward and perished in the Gain-saying of Core Printed in the Year 1647. THE ARMY ANATOMIZED AFter the most renowned fight glorious victory which the great Lord of Hosts and God of Battels gave to our Army at Nafeby wherein although next under God we must give the Noble General Sir THO. FAIRFAX the prime part of the honor thereof both for his magnanimity and prudence therein Yet next unto him I dare be bold most justly to give as great a share of the honor of that glorious Victory to valiant and faithful Colonel Rossiter a brave Presbyterian Commander in the Northern parts of the Kingdom as Any Commander in the whole Army deserved Who in the very nick of a necessitous time of the battel fell in with his fresh and valiant Troops of Horse upon the Kings forces and by Gods great mercy gave an admirable turn to the day for us And after the happy recovery of the West into the Parliaments hands wherein also God honored another most renowned Presbyterian Commander even noble and ever to be honored Major General MASSEY with as full a portion of the honor of that Conquest as any the loudest boasting Independent or Sectary in the whole Army not one excepted could justly challenge to himself so whom let me here all this one more brave badg of honor the rather because he now most unhappily lies under a cloud of Englands gross ingratitude to him which reverend Mr Vines in his famous and most learned Funeral Sermon for the ever to be renowned Lord Gen. Essex p. 33. most deservedly engraved upon him in these words That renowned Governor of Glocester whom I may borrowing Cicero's word most justly cal under God Hujus Regni Stator The Stator of the Kingdom of England Because he took the Enemies horse by the bridle in his full carreer and bravely stopt him and being resolved to sell that City to them by the candle he was by the renowned Lord General ESSEX rescued before the candle dropt out and thus preserved the said City and the whole Kingdom therewith And to proceed now after the reducing of Exeter and Oxford to the Parliaments power but upon such terms and conditions as had not Cromwel too boldly urged the Parliament would never have condescended unto or owned O had the Army now spontaneously tendered themselves in a Christian manner as that most excellent Author of the Religious Retreat most worthily noteth to lay down their Arms and be disposed of by the Parllament they had crowned the Gospel and themselves with perpetual praise and honor But the Army being upon those Conquests too much idolized almost by every body in City and Country began contrariwise with the strong help of the Schismaticks in the Parliament and by the crafty assistance of Mimical M. Hugh Peters that blazon-sac'd and blattering Hocus Pocus or blustring jugler of the drmy who together with his other two Brethren in iniquity Dell and Saltmarsh a triple knot of Jesuitical Incendiaries and Firebrands of Sedition and Rebellion preaching or rather prattling to the Army among many other their poysonous positions That the Earth is the Saints and the fulness thereof and that they are now Lords and Masters of all and thus encouraging the Army to put forth their horns of pride oppression hypocrisie and notorious dissimulation for the better acting and conniving of their great Design of Vniversal Toleration of all Opinions Parity and Community of all mens estates over the whose Kingdom and Liberty of Conscience in all Religions notwithstanding that Sir Thomas Fairfax and the rest of the Army had oftentimes and especially in one of their late Declarations promised and protested that they would not have to do with matters of Religion either concerning Presbytery or Independency but would refer themselves therein to the wisdom and piety of the Parliament Yet notwithstanding this grand Design hath been carryed on with so much craft and industry by the Sectaries both in the Army Parliament City and Country that it was high time for the honest and plain hearted Presbyterian-Party to look about them and O that they had done so indeed and been as zealous for their God their Covenant and Country in time as they should and then might have been and that especially considering that the Army of our loyal Brethren of Scotland was most honestly and peaceably upon their departure out of the Kingdom but this our own Army remaining stil in a strong body among us although no visible Enemy appeared save only Chymards and imaginary Enemies of our own contriving to oppose them The City of London therefore that main eye-sore to all the Designs formerly of Royal Malignants and now of late of Seditious Sectaries together with many other Counties of the Kingdom earnestly and often petition the Parliament that our Army might be disbanded that Presbyterian Church-Government might be as the Parliament had often promised established and that the heavy taxations of the Kingdom by reason especially of the Army thus stil embodyed might be eased and ended But the City of London by reason of very many and very strange and unexpected I am sure most undeserved delays herein especially if we as justly we may cal to mind the Parliaments former promises to live and dye with the City of London yet I say the City was at length necessitated to exhibite to the Parliament a most famons just deliberate and righteous Remonstrance of theirs and the Kingdoms many grievances and insupportable disgusts in high measure offered unto them by the Independent party in Parliament and elswhere and especially for the most necessary disbanding of the Army and for the setling of their City Militia in the hands and power of such persons as they might safely
conside in many Sectaries and neutrally disaffected persons having then crept in among them or at least discovered themselves then to be disaffected to the Covenant and Presbyterian Government the City promising and assuring their readiness and cheerfulness to raise monies for the payment of the Armies arrears if these things might immediately be done for them and the Kingdom For satisfaction to all which the Cities desires though by the craft and power of the Independents in the Parliament that famous Remonstrance and their other most excellent necessary and honest Petitions were most strangely discountenanced and seandalized yea and voted to be scandalous papers yet many fair promises were made unto them but stil from time to time obstructed and retarded and nothing to any purpose done for them but the City yea and the whole Kingdom was most grosly baffled and deluded by the Sectaries and Independent party and their noutrakadherents Thus we see When God intends for Sin a â—and to lash Mens sheltring Hopes and Helps turnall to trash But now in the first place to come to the main matter of this our Army of Saints so most falsly called by proud Sectaries themselves and their seduced Ones And herein also not to rake in the dunghil of its most deboyst deportment for the generality of them in most places where they are quartered continually complained of almost by all that see and truly know them and have had experience of them both for their most beastly drunkenness even to vomiting and death in their drunken vomits for their frequent andmost fearful cursing and swearing by no less oaths than dam me wounds blood and other Cavalierian oaths their most profane sporting playing and fighting deperately one with another even on our Fast-days yea and Lords-days too and for their most abusive insolent and proud refusal of the moderate and wholesom dyet in poor and mean mens houses even beyond their abilities oftentimes But I say to omit all these to a fitter opportunity hereafter and to take a brief view of the seeming fairest flowers in this Armies garden even of their most speciously pretended honest Actings all along of late And first I say notwithstanding that Cromwel that fly Ringleader to all the Armies disobedience and rebellion had solemnly protested and promised oftentimes even upon his life and honor in the face of the whole House of Commons in Parliament that the Army should and would disband and lay down all their arms at the doors of the Parliament whensoever the House pleased to command them yet afterward when as upon the many Petitions of the Kingdom to the Parliament to have the Army disbanded Both Houses of Lords and Commous sent to have them disband they utterly refused so to do except they might first have their Arrears payd and all their own terms and conditions granted unto them and amongst them one Condition most destructive to the Parliament viz. an Act of Indempuity with the Royal Assent As for that late and too stale yea false and frivolous plea of the Armies that they saw an absolute necessity of their not disbanding because they had discovered a most desperate and dangerous Plot against their Army as they termed it and so consequently against the Parliament and Kingdom this I say was most false and frivolous and they might as wel perswade us there were strong castles built in the ayr against them or any such strange Chymera's of non-Entities or things that never were in rerum natura For at this time there was not any such thing objected to the Parliament or then once dream't of to be the cause of their not disbanding but only their want of Arrears and an Act of Indempnity as aforesaid neither to this day hath or can any such Plot be proved or was once mentioned til they upon this pretence contrived to accuse the 11. worthy Parliament Members of a plot who have to some of their faithful friends taken it on their Salvation they never had the least thought of any such plot and as it may easily be asserted had no ground or cause to intend such a plot And hath not Cromwel who is I say believed to be not only the main Moderator but Machinator also of this and all other the Armies principal transactions hath he not here at the first fairly playd the Saint and performed his promise to the Parliament Secondly notwithstanding Irelands extream necessity the Parliaments stil earnest importunity and the Armies stil pretended proclivity to disband and to have a part of the Army speedily sent away for poor gasping Ireland relief yet as was remarkably evident in Collonel Hammonds andacious demands and articling with the Parliament upon most arrogant and high terms ere he would stir a foot thither Together with a most Seditious and Trayterous Petition as the Par liament it self voted it which was subscribed by a considerable Party of the Army for a combination of not disbanding except they might have their own demands and conditions first granted and confirmed unto them Yea notwithstanding that the Parliament condescended herein also to them as much as possibly they could for the present and had prepared money to pay them as much of their Arrears as possibly they could and promised the publike faith of the Kingdom for the rest in due time And thus again they utterly refused to obey the Parliament herein also and would neither disband nor go to the help and assistance of that greatly distressed and almost utterly ruinated Kingdom for want of our help whatsoever fair Pretences and Protestations they made of Both. And was not here think you an humble and honest demeanour of a Saint-like Army And had not these Saints strangely forgotten here what they have often heard and therefore should the better have remembred that the Prophet Samuel inspired by the holy-Spirit of God said most truly 1 Sam. 22.23 To obey is better then Sacrifice and to hearken then the fat of Rammes For rebellion is as the sin of Witcheraft and stubborness is as iniquity and idolatry Or can any wise or good man believe that this was a Right and Religious way to credit the Gospel to Crown themselves with the Title of Saints or to purchase present or future prayses I surely think not Well said King David Trust not Princes great Nor Sons of Men prone to delude and Cheat. Thirdly notwithstanding that the Parliament in deep sense of the absolute necessity of the business of Ireland had after that again sent divers Lords and Commons in person to the Army both for the disbanding of it as was still promised and mightily now pretended and days prefixed for the disbanding of such and such Regiments of the Army and for the seeming serious appropriating and preparing of such and such forces of Horse and Foot to be speedily dispatch't away for Ireland Yea and money procured at least 200000. l. of the City of London who still were ready to help the Parliament and Kingdom at a
any Acts imposing any penalties upon men or women for not coming to Church or for meetings elswhere that is in private Comers Houses Shops Cellars or Barns for prayer or other religious duties exercises or ordinances that is of any kind whatsoever whether Heretral Seditious Idolatrosu Plasphemous yea or Trayterous too if upon pretence of Religion for there 's no exception of any one of these in that or any other the Proposals whereby men may thus run head long to hel by authority and no man dare to molest or stay them O most abominable and desperately accursed Proposal hateful to God and men I have read of Alphonsus King of Aragon a famous Prince who hearing a Gentleman in his Court pleading against Learning and especially that it was unfit for Courtly Lords and Gentlemen to be trained up in literature or to be learned Schollars he in high indignation thereat cryed out presently That it was the Voyce of an Ox not of a man And certainly whosoever that has the least spark of piety or grace and reads or hears of this most hellish Proposal must needs most pathetically cry out in extream abhorrency thereof O the voyce of some accursed Turk or apostate Julian not of a Saint or professed Christian Yet thus you see how like most insolent and arrogant Rebels to God and all Goodness to Religion and the whole Realm this Army of Saints dares do or desire any thing to be done be it ever so destructive to Christanity or Civil Policy their desires they must have granted per fas aut nofas what care they being Saints and Conquerors of All. Hence then I conceive any man may clearly conclude that If monstrous Pride and gross Impiety Be signs of Saints These then are Saints most high Ninthly But for the yet more subtile corroboration and strengthning of their wicked design of an Vniversal Toleration the General the Councel of War and Agitators having thus as is aforesaid felt the pulses of the people in many places as they rambled up and down to be all for Peace and Freedom from Taxations and that almost upon any conditions they do first most illegally accuse 11. of the most loyal active and faithful Presbyterian Members of the House of Commons and nothing wil please them but a present expulsion of them out of the Parliament though the Parliament Voted they could not either in Law or Conscience do it as Complotters or Contrivers of a Second or New War the grand Anvil whereon now they must hammer and hatch all their subsequent mischievous plots thus by the very name of a Second War so opposite and odious to desired peace to render those worthy Gentlemen and all that in this sort they must now hereafter have to do with all the more odious and contemptible to all people both in City and Country Whereas 't is most apparent to God and the rightly intelligent whole Kingdom that the Army it self was the only rise and original cause of all our fears and jealousies of a Second War by their so bold and rebellious refusal to disband at the Parliaments just Command thereof as also upon their most notorious denial to be lessened in their numbers yea though it were for the most necessitous helping of the poor gasping and dying Kingdom of Ireland then in most sad distresses as aforesaid Thus Pride and Malice and Impiety Are ne'er without deep strains of Policy Now therefore in the tenth and next place They began to quarrel with the City of London also which had been O impious ingratitude even their principal Foster-Fathers as I may wel say both in making them an Army at the first and also in maintaining them in no smal measure all along ever since they were first New medelld to this very day And the ground of this their quarrel must be their secret complotting also with those 11. worthy Members of Parliament for the advancing and setting forward of the foresaid Second War and to this end their procuring of an unjust power says the Army from the Parliament for the alteration and managing of their own City Militia thereby to place and displace to put in or put out whom they pleased and that thereupon they had thrust out of their Militia divers precious deserving men says the Army men without all exception and most worthy to be confided in whereas indeed they were known Schismaticks some of them preachers yea some of them countenancing Paul Bests abominable blasphemies most of them desperate Enemies to our Covenant and Reformation of Religion as to the point of the power of godliness and of Presbyterian Church Government and these men say they were thus put out the better to carry on the wicked Design for so they now termed it of a Second War in the City against the Army and so consequently against the whole Kingdom and that the City also secretly listed Soldiers and conspired with the 11. accused Members and others to occasion a fresh effusion of blood in the Kingdom And thus by this abominable lying Engine I say of a Second War which now they cry out of in all their Letters Declarations and Remonstrances to the Parliament and people hereby as I said before to cry down all just defence against the Armies intended All-overtopping-power and thus to cry up more and more their own most crafty design of over-mastering all others that durst indevor to oppose or resist them with their stil continued and strongly embodied Army and yet which me thinks is a most strange madness in men to beleeve in all this they must be accounted the only men of peace in the Kingdom and the chief protectors of a Free Parliament in its power and priviledges and of the peoples Hereditary Liberties Whereas indeed the clean contrary is most evidently true in them they themselves mainly and only intending nothing less than a Second or New War in case they may not have their will of the Parliament in all their Demands especially in the point of a Vniversal Toleration and Liberty of Conscience for al men in all religions they being thus I say in a strong ready body of an Army And having also for a most strong confirmation of the truth of all these premises brought all their Artillery from Oxford dayly listing Soldiers of all sorts Cavaliers and others possessing themselves most strongly of all our most considerable Holds Forts and Castles And thus I say most evidently resolving to fight with all that oppose them and to get into their power by force what they cannot by fraud and hypocrisie And thus the poor City of London hath hatcht up a bird to pick out her eyes or like the Country-man in the apologue reviv'd a Snake to infest and infect his whole House as afterward we shal yet more apparently perceive and shew you in a yet more fit place If ever Any Schismaticks indeed In black Ingratitude do All exceed Eleventhly For the more exquisitely ripening of their design they now
most craftily began to think how they might get London into their clutches which done they and that most wisely made account all was theirs Now this design was carryed on with as much egregious craft and Iesuitical subtilty as possibly could be For first the pretence must be that those 11. Members of Parliament accused by them must be speedily suspended the House of Commons and not suffered to sit there til they had cleared themselves of the accusations commenced against them But the Parliament voting the contrary it presently threatned by this their obedient Army of Saints that if it were not done and presently too as they demanded they should be forced to exercise and make use of that power which was in their hands and in plain English to compel the Parliament to it whether they would or not and for that purpose to bring their whole Army toward the City and Parliament which how boldly they brought to pass and brought their stools with them to make themselves unwillingly welcome to the City you shal hear and see anon in its due place Then in the twelfth place for the more colourable carrying on of the yet unseen depth of their design viz. the forementioned quarrel begun against the City of London touching their Militia This also must again be most stiffly insisted on and revived and those precious men as the Army called them so trustily to be consided in who had been put forth as aforesaid must by all means be again restored to their power and places in the City-Militia or else the Army of modest and patient Saints who loved not to medle with other mens matters should be compelled by their power to force and constrain the City also thereunto But withal good Readers this must be considered by the way That all the Armies warlike preparations to come now to the City their most busie listing of Soldiers from all parts to make their Army the more numerous and form lable their securing of Windsor Gastle seizing upon and securing the Blook houses at Gravesend their summoning of the Trained Bands of Essen and Hartford-shire to rise with them their bringing on of all their Artillery and all other war-like provisions and preparations to besiege assault and storm the City if they opposed the Army and every preparation for self-defence which God and nature afford to every creature against wrong and injury offred or intended to them all those preparations I say must be beleeved not to be for any hurt to the City or plunder or spoil thereof Provided stil that the City stirred not to make any defensive preparations against them for that must be clearly judged by the Army to be the only cause of a Second War intended by the City either in listing Soldiers Horse or Foot especially not to medle with or entertain into their pay or service any Reformadoes which the Army it self did and dayly do whom the Army of Saints and Sectaries in the City had most vilely abrised and who therefore were the more likely to do the City the better and more faithful service against the Army but if the City did any of these things this on the Cities part would I say be the only means to make a Second War and to occasion the inevitable essusion of blood which the Saint-like Army notwithstanding their mighty preparations for War on the one side most earnestly and piously like pune Saints indeed protested against Thus stil these Saints by sly pretences fair Both Parliament and City do insnare Again in the thirteenth place that this subtile Army of Saints may be yet more generally and authoritatively called over the whole Kingdom and accounted the only Peace-makers and Conservators of the Parliaments riviledges and Commons Liberties as was toucht before in the 8. Observation and so grisp the whole power of the Kingdom into their fists and that both by Sea and by Land if possibly it might be the Army most audaciously sends to the Parliament and most craftily desire or rather command that a Vote and thereupon an Ordinance of Parl. might be past that they may be intituled and acknowledged the Parliaments Army and so the Parliament to see that they may be payd from time to time all their past present and suture Arrears notwithstanding their Free-quarter which must be reckoned for in due time even ad Graecas Galendas wheresoever they lay and the body of their Army hereupon removed which was accordingly and immediately voted in Parliament And now also Sir Thomas Fairfax was made Generalissimo of all the Forces Forts Castles Cinque-ports and total strength of all the Kingdom and under him his Councel of War and brave Statesmen of the Kingdom the Mechanick Agitators of the Army are thus become Lords and Princes over all And hereupon in requital of these favors and kindnesses of the Parliament to the Army which hath made them the Army of the Parliament they turn'd it quite the clean contrary way and made our Parliament the Parliament of the Army That is in plain English The Master is become his Servants Servant And thus now that no less old than true Adagy is here in this our precious Army of Saints most exquisitely fulfilled Asperins humili nihil est cum surgat in altum Which may be thus Englisht If once you set a Beggar on horse-back He 'l ride to th' Devil or his neck shal crack In sum in the fourteenth place observe with me that now much about this time or not long after the grand force to Both Houses in grateful requital for this the Parliaments favor to this Army of Saints was made upon them by a bold Declaration sent by the Army unto them in these words or to this effect That if they might not have the things they desired granted unto them by such a day they must and would accomplish them by such extraordinary ways as God and present providence should put them upon Only here was all the difference twixt this grand force and the other of the Apprentices that the armies was at a distance by a great Army with guns pikes and swords the other by a company of young men at the Parliament doors but all naked and unarmed only crying out with their tongues and intreaties not to be accounted traitors for defending themselves against a threatning Army And about this time the Army was at Watford with their great guns and formidable artillery and many of them within 10. miles of London which did not a little affright many of the Members away shortly after and so by these means and subtile devices the Houses of Parliament became their own and they craftily handled them even as they listed almost in every thing they pleased For notwithstanding the Parliaments commands now their only titular or nominal Lords and Masters sent unto the Army of Saints their supposed Servants more than once or twice to keep off from quartering neer the City of London by at least 30 or 40 miles distance
obtained in Both Houses and the Apprentices thereupon being now contentedly departed all to their own homes yet upon this the Parliament being by Both Houses adjourned the 2 Speakers of Both Houses of Parliament and other Members thereof both Lâ—â—â—s â—omâ—ns presently deserted the Parl and slew away yet the disorder and tumult was raised after all the Petitions were granted meerly oâ—â—ainly I say by Sectaries of the City and Army and by sundry eminent Cavaliers as can be proved as in mighty pretended fear 〈◊〉 our Army of Saint for Safeguard and Sanctuary But the rest of the Parliament at Westminster returning and sitting stil on the day deâ—â—mined by the whole Parliament where finding their two Speakers to have deserted the Parliament they instantly chose them two other Speakers and fearlesly as they might indeed according to their duty to the Kingdom proceeded in their work and way Besides all this to make the matter yet more unhappily offensive to them and us and to make the City seem at least in pretence more foul and faulty It pleased the Lord that it so fell out that the Lord Maior Aldermen and Common Councel of London hearing for certain of the Armies extraordinary hastning toward London with all the strength they were able to make ready especially of their horse their foot and artillery hastning also after with all expedition and raising the Countries to follow them and joyn with them and therefore I say sitting in Councel at their Guild-Hall for preparation of defence against the anger of the Army in the said Guild-Hall a fudden quarrel was raised there by a most rude rubble of Anabaptists and such like seditious Sectaries and Schismaticks under a colour and pretence of presenting a Petition to the said Common Councel for a colourable-peace of their own making which rude multitude so unsufferably and basely abused valiant and wel-deserving Major General Poyntz a brave and victorious Commander of the Parliaments in the North of England who at that time came forth of the Militia then also sitting in the said Guild-Hall thinking to pass peaceably through the Hall but I say was so intolerably abused by the Sectaries who as soon as ever they saw him come forth cryed out No Poyntz no Poyntz pull'd him violently by his scarlet Cloak asking him if he had payd for it yea some of them as 't is most credibly reported by eye-witnesses kicking him on his breech yea and smiting him on his head in high scorn and contempt in somuch that the heroick-spirited Gentleman as a Soldier also could no longer indure them but that drawing his sword other swords were also drawn one was slain and divers others wounded and much hurt was done among them But before this a party of Sir Thomas Fairfax's Army of peaceable Saints had fain upon certain of Sir Robert Pyes Soldiers who were disposed of by our Parliament for Ireland and lay quietly quartred at Detford and slew divers of them wounded others of them and made the rest of them to fly for their lives and so were the first themselves that shed blood in a hostile manner which I hope justice wil in time require an account of from some of them But I say all those foresaid accidents on our side most unhappily falling out together as ye have heard made up the mouths of the Armies gaping hopes for the more full compleating of their main Design viz. The City For the Army makes all this now an unquestionable cause of their speedy marching up to London to stil their tumults as they gave out As if the City of London famous for their admirable and unparaleld Government over the whole world for these many hundred years had not been able to pacisle any tumultuous disorders suddenly risen up among them by their own power and justice of the City to apprehend bring to tryal the Authors of any such Commotions either in the City or at the Parliament without the injurious help of an ambitious and aspiring Army by whose examples yea and provocations too of rebellion in a special manner against the Parliament at first these sad disasters have thus fain out among us As that excellent Author of the Religions Retreat pag. 13. wel observeth in these his own very words We may all well observe That all the late stirs which the Army cals Mutinies and Treacheries tending to New Wars whereof they so loudly cry out against us contioually and spilling of blood have arose in opposition to them for if they would have layd down their arms as they ought to have done at the Parliaments several Commands no question but every true subject would willingly have layd down his head upon his pillow and gladly have taken his rest especially after such late destructive bloody broyls is he had so smarted by But here now I wil conclude this Observation with this distick in taking notice of the most remarkable bypocrisie of this our Army of Saints forsooth who are so forward to fall upon others as Rebels and seditious Traitors for only endevoring justly to defend themselves from the violence of their Army they forgetting themselves to be the first and worst Traytors and Rebels against the Parliament and so consequently the whole Kingdom Thus now these Saints like Hypocrites proceed Others to lash for what Themselves should bleed Now in the foresaid interim the City of London seeming also to put themselves upon a preparation at least I say as t was hoped but falsly though not to fight yet to defend themselves and City from threatned plundering and invasion of the Army if it should attempt the same against it In all they now did they were but like Janus with two faces under one hood look two ways at one time Or like a Waterman who at the same instant row one way and look another For they seem earnestly to procure power of the Parliament and had enough given them had they acted accordingly by an excellent Ordinance of Parliament to have bravely strengthned their City within and to have curbed and kept under any false-hearted Brethren either of the Malignant or Schismatical Parties from hurting them within or helping the Army without Upon which Ordinance they chose noble ever to be honored Major Gen. Massey to be their General of all the City forces within and the Parliament had appointed and order'd by their Committee for the safety of the Kingdom noble General Poyutz for his assistance to command the Horse and Reformadoes without thus they seemed seriously and in good earnest to list Horse and Foot in S. Jameses and Tuttle-fields made a huge pudder in the City by shutting up their shops beating their drums up and down in the streets and making a mighty pretence of a powerful opposition of the Army but all to no purpose for in all this mean season underhand Petitions for peace were framed and followed hard Sectaries fled out of the City to their Army of Saints crying out to the General
and Commanders that all the Saints and godly party in London were now quite undone if the Army speeded not with all possible hast to London for their preservation yea and the City it self persisted in their Treaty with the Army by their Commissioners among whom were especially two long-breath'd Orators voces praeterea nihil as the Country-man said of his Nightingals who as 't is generally reported like subtile Ambide xters cast in so much coloquintida of their frothy Oratory as spoil'd all the pottage of the Cities solid preservation not but that we bless God most heartily for Peace 10000 times rather than War and like wel the work done though not the manner of the work-mens doing of it for they undoubtedly applied a playster far worse then the difease made a peace or pacification with the Army upon no conditions at all on their own part no not so much as for saving the City from plundering save only by word of mouth from Sir Thomas his bare promise and that in ambiguous and Delphick expressions yet by Gods providence indeed their gold chains and full chests were for the present preserved But upon many yea any and all conditions advantageous to the Armies party even such as none sure but mad men or fools in the Army would have refused And thus most ignommiously leaving renowned General Massey and noble General Poyntz with all their abused Reformadoes in great straits who were all forced to fly presently for their own safety and hereby also having brought the honest Presbyterian Party both in the Parliament and in the City into great inconveniences and no little danger yea and that which hath in a most high measure stained the reputation of the City and besides and above all the rest brought them under a most black cloud of infumy and disgrace that they most unworthily condescended to the Army to null disavow and disclaim their City Declaration a rare peice had it been religiously and courageously stood unto even a second Covenant O in this my Soul grieves for the shame of this late so honorable a City thus now made so dishonorable All which the face of a Considerable Army or Horse and Foot which the City might easily have raised had it actedfaithfully and in good earnest appearing in a body with their brave and honest Commanders as such they were indeed notwithstanding all the lying Sectaries slanders most injuriously cast upon them had most unquestionably by the Lords mercy disappointed and avoyded yea notwithstanding Southwarks treacherous trick and the Tower-Hamblets base defection and neutrality Whereas now by this means the freest and most famous City in the world is totally though yet insensibly made a captivated prey unto an incroaching and self-seeking Army of dissembling Saints Self-Do Self-Have our common Proverb goes Ah stupid London Cause of Thine own woes Thus now then the General and his Army of sweet Saints having by notorious subtilty as it were vanquished and enslaved so rich so rare so populous and famous a City and that without striking one stroak for it and thereby also having made it as infamous as ever it had formerly been renowned and glorious He now brings back again with him Both the Speakers of the Parliament who were lately fled from the two Houses of Parliament as was formerly toucht together with the rest of the Members of Both Houses both Lords and Commons who had deserted the Parliament as aforesaid and in that absence of theirs with the Army had sate like the Oxonian Junto at Sion-House between Hounslow and Branford and there entred into a solemn Engagement with the Army against the two Houses of Parliament sitting in their absence which they subscribed and iâ— now extant in the Parliament and contrived a Declaration against the fixed Parliament at Westminster which sate still there as it was their duty in full peace and freedom all the time of the others absence which was from about July 26. to August the â— and went forward in their just and legal Parliamentary proceedings But the General I say and his Army of innocent Saints unwilling to do violence to any man Luke 3.14 with a forcible and strong hand or power of Horse and Foot brought back those other Members who had deserted the Parliament as forementioned set them in their seats and places in Parliament who being so set immediately protest against the proceedings of the Members of Both Houses that sate in their absence and would have declared all that the Parliament at Westminster had done in the time of their absence to be null and illegal But notwithstanding that now the Parliament at Westminster was every day strongly surrounded by a strong guard of the Armies Horse and Foot as was conceived to oâ—â—â—aw them Yet the Parliament putting the Question to the Vote it was clearly carryed in the Negative at least four or five times and that sometimes by above 40 voyces That they ought not to be null but were just and legal till at last the Army having certain knowledg thereof and much vext thereat presently some in the House of Commons as 't is credibly reported threatned the fixed Members That if their Votes could not the long-sword should carry it for them And immediatly after the Army to second and confirm those words set out a Declaration upon the Thursday in Sir Thomas Fairfax's own name protesting therein that if those most honest Presbyterian fixed Members continued to sit in the Parliament and there to â—aâ—e to Vote as they did the 〈◊〉 would come with all its power and force them out and dap them up in fast hold let all the world judg now what a free Parliament this is as the Armies Captives or Prisoners of War upon which furious threats on the very next day being Fryday divers of the religious fixed Members most unworthily as we conceive for very fear left the House yet all things considered it was wel for them that they went away for â—â— it was then credibly said and assured on that next Fryday morning Cromwel came to the Parliament and the Officers of the Army into the House of Commons to see their Declaration made good and though excepted against in the dispute they would not withdraw being backt with 1000 Horse in Hyde-Park one Troop at the door and Desborough who commanded the Horse being ready at the door to receive Command to seize upon the Members if they were not able to carry it by Vote But upon their absence the fled-Members the greatest number whereof 't is wel known were Sectaries and such like neuters and siders with them took advantage thereof and that same following Fryday morning put the Question again to the Vote and now â—â— last carryed it this only one time in the Affirmative against the others four or five times in the Negative and this single Vote of theirs must stand and null and illegal all that had been done in Parliament in the time of their absence to the unspeakable
â—eâ—â—ment of the Parliament City and whole Kingdom whereon 〈◊〉 by and by but now to look back to the Army of our humble-hearted Saints The Army having as was forementioned all rubs now removed and their way fair before them to do what they pleas'd and having quickly sear'd away the City-guard from the Parliament and confined them now within their own City-walls and intreated the City Trained-Bands whether they would or not to give them possession of all the City Forâ—s and Lines of Communication whereof now they were become Masters Shortly after the whole Army enâ—â—râ— the City and that in a most Martial and triumphant equipage The General himself like a second Casar or some famous Roman Consul riding through the City in princely pomp and stately triumph amended by his whole Army who rode all of them with green Bays and Laurels in their hats in token of Conquest both before and behind him and immediatly before him rode 8 or 10 of his brave conquering Officers in arms all bare-headed even like as to a King or Keisar indeed the Lord Maior also Aldermen and Common Councel of the City having before met his Excellency at Hyde-Park to kiss their golden-fetters and to tender to his Excellency the promised gift of a golden Bason and Ewer of a 1000 l. price together with the invitation of him and his brave Commanders to a sumptuous feast within their City yea and as t is credibly affirmed those two foresaid Ambi-dexters would have the City to have had invited the Atators by name unto this feast a most base absurdity in requital of their kindness in thus easily reducing their City into sordid Captivity yea and the Common people through the whole City filling the streets as the General and Army thus past along admiring and applanding with the highest punegyricks that their greedily gazing eyes could manifest like so many sottish and dull Issachars Asses to their late most mean Martial Servants now become their Martial Masters Which sitly brings this proper distick into my thoughts Stark Dolts and Fools I do them justly hold That love their Fetters though they be of Gold And now in the eighteenth place for a speedy and most conspicuous Demonstration of the truth of these premises and to shew thee the sad beginnings of this poor Cities growing if not future groaning miseries and calamities The Parliament having made the General in part of present requital of his late good service to them High-Constable of the Tower of London with power also to put in as his Substitute whom he pleased to be Lieutenant thereof the General to shew his zeal and fervour for the yet more effectual promoting of the grand Design fore-spoken of going now to the Tower to take possession thereof and having been with all honor and humanity entertained by the noble and both for his Piety and Martial Prowess in the face of his Enemy most highly deserving then present Lieutenant of the Tower Colonel West at a sumptuous feast or dinner of purpose there provided for him and after many seeming friendly salutations and hoped cordial regreets mutually past between them at the table After dinner this new High-Constable having the keys of the Toner delivered to him and notwithstanding also that the Lord Major Aldermen and Common Councel had highly recommended to his Excellency the said noble Lieutenant Col. West yet he presently displaces this brave and every way wel-deserving Colonel and gave the keys and Lieutenantship of the Tower to a pretty young Pageant-stripling viz. one M. Titchburs a hopeful young man indeed and one that to be sure is very likely to be herein very useful to the Tower precinct and inclosure viz. to save the hyre of a Preacher there in that himself has a dexterious faculty in preaching already After this also the General causes the City Militia to be new-moulded and modelld into a former condition to wit of having the Schismatical Militia-men reinvested into the power of the Militia in satisfaction and pacification of the late quarrel and complaint herein against the honest Presbyterian Citizens who had by a full and a free Parliament obtained the just expulsion of all such Independents and Schismaticks from bearing any Office of power or trust in our Common-wealth as either refused to take the Covenant or were Enemies to the Ends and Intentions thereof in point of Reformation and godly Church Government according to an Ordinance of the Lords and Commons formerly voted printed and published by authority I say of a full and free Parliament but now thus alter'd and nullified by the over-awing power of this Army of Saints upon this their Parliament That Proverb 's thus made good by th' General Might orecomes Right and Weaklings must to th' Wall And now the Parliament and City being pretty wel brought under the terror and power of the Army the Army begins stiffly to prosecure the consummating of the Sectaries great Design of Toleration and Liberty of Conference to All And wel knowing they could not throughly effect this til the Parliament were throughly purged of all the opposite and active Presbyterian Members therein therefore as was briefly toucht before they vehemently stil inveigh against about at least 70 others of the more honest and pious party of the House of Commons who also sate and acted in the Parliament in the absence of the others who most unworthily deserted the Parliament and fled to the Army which now like an Army of Saints indeed ful I beleeve of Serpentine Craft but not of Dove-like Innocency protested against their sitting in the House and voting there as Members of the House and most earnestly and urgently threatned again and again even by their beggarly Agitators also of their Army to thrust and force them out as it were by head and shoulders even by a day of their appointment or else they could forbear no longer but would immediatly force them out if they durst stil abide and vote there Insomuch that now at last not only the first 11. accused worthy Members were forced to sly away for fear of them whereof one most eminent Member much honored Sir Philip Stapleton is since dead beyond the Seas by this Armies of dissembling Saints most bold and bloody persecution of them and whose most innocent blood I hope the Lord the most righteous Judg wil when he makes inquisition for blood remember and require at their hands but also the most if not all the rest of the other 70 most worthy Members have been thus enforced to forsake the House and to desert that trust which the Kingdom and Counties for which they were chosen had imposed and invested on them An affront I beleeve unparalell'd and far transcending all presidents of all former ages and Parliaments that ever this Kingdom saw since it was a People and Nation And yet it is a high indignity offered to this Army of Saints to say or think that such a chast and modest Army as this is
hath forced if not ravished the Parliament of its Virgine Power and Priviledges or that they have any sinful or sinister designs or evil intentions in all or any of these their most remarkable Rebessions against the State and Church of God and who notwithstanding all these their most insolent and arrogant actings as aforesaid would have us to be charily tender of judging of them and charitably to be both perswaded yea and assured that they intend no evil but all good unto us Whereas on the other side the least and most lawful actings of any of the Presbyterian Parties either in Parliament or City even for most just self-defence and preservation are cryed out upon with open mouthes and reiterated invectives to be most bloody hides us and heynous treasons rebellions and fomentings of a second new and most bloody War against the Army and therefore against the whole Kingdom which methinks brings now here most fitly into mind that most pertinently appliable Apologue to this our present purpose of the mutual shrifting of the Lyon Wolfe and the Asse which was thus The Lyon Wolfe and the Asse would needs go to shrifting or confessing of their faults one to another yea and be Judges of one anothers faults and desert of punishments thereon The Lyon began and acknowledged that indeed he had preyed upon many wild beasts in Woods and Forrests as his naturall food and without which he could not live but had never medled with any men to devour or hurt them So sentence was given by the other â— Judges herein that surely this indeed was the Lyons natural food and being naturall unto him thus to do it was sit it should be pardoned in him Then the Wolfe came to shrift before the Lyon and the Asse and he confest indeed that he had oftentimes devoured both men and beasts that came in his way and spared none whom he could master and overcome but yet truly that this was his naturall food by which he also lived and without which he could not subsist whereupon sentence must be given by the Lyon and the Asse that truly this was a heynous evil in the Wolf but yet in regard it was the Wolfes nature to devour and tear in pieces all that came within his reach he ought therefore to be likewise pardoned therein Then the Asse coming to shrift himself before the Lyon and the Wolfe his Judges acknowledged and freely confessed that he had never hurt any either men or beasts only he remembred that once his Mr. that owned him riding upon him on Pilgrimage and having straw in his shoos and some of the ends of the straw hanging loose out of his shoos and he being very hungry in the way reached his mouth to some of the straws and eate them as he went on Whereupon both this Lyon the Wolfe instantly cryed out that this was a most soul and unpardonable offence and aggravated this fact to be exceeding heynous thus What say they Eate the straw out of your Mrs. shoos that should have kept his feet warm and that whiles he was riding on Pilgrimage to perform his holy Devotions O this was a most intolerable fact and worthy of severest punishment and therefore for it he must suffer death and so was devoured by them both The Application I leave to the judicious and religious Reader only take this Distick and I have done with this Observation Cobwebs take small Great flies break loose and gon And some may safely on steal then some look on And now in the twentieth and last place to close up all with an invincible Argument and Demonstration of a Desperate Design most Subtilly and Clandestinely carryed on by this most deceitful Army of Saints against the most honest and innocent Presbyterian Party which hold closs to their sacred and solemn Covenant and so by a most clear and undeniable Consequence against the work of a pure and powerful Reformation both in Doctrine and Discipline Notwithstanding all the loud and lying out-crys of the Sectaries of all kinds formerly against Persecution of any Saints or Christians for Conscience sake even in matters of fact Yet how hath this Army of Saints themselves now that they have begun to get power into their hands at this time bin and are the primary if not only Cause of the Persecution even unto death already of divers not only of the XI Renowned and most Faithful Patriots of their Country both for Counsell and Warr but also of 70. more of them at one blow and now more lately of divers both Lords and Commons impeached of high Treason for sitting in the Parliament for the good of the City and Kingdom according to their Conscience and Covenant whiles others fled from it Together with divers other most unquestionably worthie and Eminent and Excellent Citizens of London old and young who both in their persons and purses in Wars abroad I say and Counsels at home have layd out themselves in a high measure and yet now at this time divers of them are clapt up in prison Impeacht of high Treason and some forsooth of high Misdemeanours and thus their lives and estates brought into much danger to the utter ruinating as much as in the malice of their Sectarian Adversaries lies of themselves their wives and dearest babes and little Children and divers others yet more Eminent Pious Presbyterian Citizens fatter morsells for the mouths of envy and mischief to feed on are stil threatned to be called in question for their lives and estates Which threatning is now also more lately put into execution in no small measure by the Impeachment and Imprisonment of the Lord Major of London Ald. Adams Ald. Bunce Ald. Langham and other Eminent and Excellent Spirited Citizens upon pretence of high Treason for as for that petty Impeachment of high Misdemeanours there must not be so low a descention For that will not raise summs of money big enough to pay the Armys Arrears that thus those worthy Patriets of that late most knowned City over the whole world though now under a Sable cloud of disgrace may like so many spunges be squiez'd with deep and considerable sines and large summs for being so Loyal and Faithful as to adventure to defend themselves and their City according to Conscience and Covenant against the Martial orders and thundring Premonitions of an Army of Saints who must have it so and their pact Parliament therefore must act it so and let God and the world judg if this be not the very quintessence of black ingratitude and of breach of former seeming serious and often promises to live and dye with the City of London at that time when they had extream need of their persons and purses of â—oth which the most noble City of London was then most prodigall even to admiration Yet now see how most ingratefully to say no worse they are repayd and rewarded and all to please a Seditious and Religious Army Yea and many morâ— of our most famous