and Chapters Prebendaries c. So that in four dayes time the hasty Commons over-throw as much as in them lay the Reverend Church of England which had continued many hundreds of years a flourishing glory to the Nation The Commons for their parts having thus pull'd down the pale of our Church fastned and strengthened by so many Authentick and Fundamental Laws as old again as the House of Commons will not leave Religion without some Government No good souls they were more kind-hearted And therefore in the first place they Vote that all the Lands and Means belonging to Deans and Chapters Chancellors or Commissaries Archdeacons Deans Prebendaries Chapter Canon c. shall be taken away and disposed of to the advancement of Learning and Piety That is if their after-actions may be taken for Expositors to maintain Rebellion Heresie Sacriledge and ruine Universities for these mens promises like Hebrew must still be read backwards and after this rule did they send a request to the King by Secretary Vain That he would give them leave to look into his Revenues and Expences and they would make him the richest King in Christendom But the Parliament will not spend their time only in selling Lands but something must be considered of a Church-Government too and therefore they Vote that all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction fit to be exercised in England shall be committed to such a number of persons and in such a manner as their Worships shall think fit Nor were they long without making the Nation happy with the discovery of their Intellectuals which was That six of the Clergy and six of the Laity should be appointed in every County for the setling of Church-Government But this was a little shaken by an after conclusion viz. That nine of the Laity and three of the Clergy in every Diocess should have power to exercise all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as shall be ordered by Parliament and to have their Monethly meetings for that purpose And the next day to make this hotch-potch Model more compleat they Vote That there shall be several select Committees of the Clergy appointed for the Ordination of Clergy-men into the Ministry But yet this Presbyterian Brat would not come to perfection And therefore to give more encouragement to the Covenanting-admirers they conclude That all Archiepiscopal and Episcopal Jurisdiction shall be exercised in this Kingdom by the Commissioners as there was by Bishops And the same day read the Bill for the using of Lectures taking away Cross in Baptism Surplis bowing at the Name of Jesus standing up at the Gospel Gloria Patri Pictures in Churches c. and conclude the day with the appointing of a Committee for the Propagation of the Gospel And the next day they give further power to their nine Commissioners to wit That after the first of August any five of them shall be a Quorum and have full power to try all Ecclesiastical Causes and to appoint Deputies under them in several places And after this they further agreed That if any of the nine Commissioners should dye that five or more of them are to choose another presently and so if any of them resign and that if any came to take Orders that these Commissioners shall appoint five Clergy men to grant Ordinations And for the more speedy putting of this medly in practise the Knights and Burgesses of every Shire are commanded to bring in the Names of the nine Commissioners for their several Counties to be appointed and that no Clergy-man be of the Commission Thus farr had the Commons thrown I cannot say built up this their confused Babylon when on a sodain an unexpected Remora was joyned to their further proceedings by some fallings out betwixt the Lords and them about the Protestation For the Commons having ordered that it should be taken all over the Kingdom were in this opposed by the Peers who threw it out of their House which so incensed the Commons that they presently Vote That what person soever shall not take the Protestation is unfit to bear Office in Church or Common-wealth And thinking that the Bishops were the reason of the Lords dissent appoint a Committee for impeaching them about the late Canons who accordingly Voted thirteen Bishops to be Delinquents whom the Lords also suspended their house till a further hearing And so violently were these good men persecuted by the Presbyters that they never left plotting till they had got them Voted Traytors and sent to the Tower Nor could they have any outward content any where considering the reproaches threats and curses daily thrown against them by the wicked the danger of their lives by Tumults and their Lands Voted from them long before by their and Religions Enemies the Non-conforming Commons though they agreed to allow them a liberal allowance during life and how unhandsomly the Parliament in this neglected this promise the Reverend Bishop Hall will satisfie you The Commons now having as they thought bridled the Bishops and their Party are resolved to root out the Common-Prayer Book too to which purpose some of them desire that it might be altered and some thing added to it the which after some speeches being put to the Vote it appear'd that there were then but 55. Disciplinarians in the House no more voting for Alterations so that the Book came off with credit the Orthodox Party knowing well enough that if that House once fell to alter it it rather belonging to able and lawful Divines they would equal the Tinker who made two holes for mending one The Anti-Episcopalians being thus baffled fall to it again getting it to be moved again in the House the next week where they came off with the like success And the next day being a Thanks-giving day for the Peace between the two Nations to shew their malice to Church-Government and countenance the Schismaticks the Commons would not go to St. Margarets Westminster as was by them appointed because the Bishop of Lincoln had caus'd a set Form of Prayer for that occasion to be printed and used in the Church the news of which so started their Worships that they turn'd tail and went to the preachment at Lincolns Inne But if the Commons were troubled at this they were after out of their wits and all stark-madd against the Lords Because they had put forth an Order and sent it all over the Nation strictly injoyning the reading of the Common-Prayer against which and many other Church-affairs the Commons the same day put forth a Declaration ordering it to be printed and sent over the Kingdom and with them they also got the nine dissenting Lords to protest against the Order made by the House of Peers This cross-graind action of the Commons so incensed the Lords that they left off sitting for a while causing the Hangings of their House to be taken down Nor did this any way vex the Commons
friends report in the year 1491. in Guipuscoa a Province in Spain betwixt Biscay and Navarre at a place called Loyola where is a little pleasant Chappel dedicated to him betwixt Ascotia and Aspetia upon rio Urrola He lived according to the delights and pleasures of the world till he was about 29. years old About which time the French besieging Pamplona and he there a defendant he had the fortune to have both his leggs grievously hurt the left by a stone and the right broke by a bullet After this the French having mastered the City Ignatius was conveyed to the aforesaid Casa de Loyola where he was cured yet not so well but that he halted on both feet And this deformity caus'd him to make such Iambicks in his going that he became a laughing-stock to the spectators which as some observe made him withdraw himself to a solitary life where he had time and convenience to lay a ground-plot to his future Order But the Jesuites will inform us of other pretty stories fit to be stitcht up with Villegas de Natalibus de Voragine Cantiprotanus and such like old wife tale-tellers as that he was cured by St. Peter and put in mind of his Order by the Virgin Mary and tell you of many pretty Miracles done by this lame Souldier who had the vertue of Chastity given him by the Virgins fiat After his Conversion howsoever it was for the more strengthning of him in his goodly opinion he goeth to Monserrat in Catalonia a Narrative of which wonderful Mountain you may read in Pedro de Medina Lud. Nonius out of whom Nierembergius hath taken as in other places his description verbatim a place sufficiently famous to Pilgrims From this Hill with an intention to visit the Holy Land and convert the Turks he goeth to Barcelona thence sails into Italy where they say our Saviour appeared to him and helpt him very strangely into Padoa and Venice and when he wanted a lodging something from Heaven bespoke one for him From Italy he sayls to Palestine where he viewed Jerusalem and the adjacent places nor did Christ forget to appear to him here also as his own friends relate From the Holy-Land he returns to Venice thence goeth to Genua where he carryed himself so clownishly and irreverently that he was taken for a mad-man and thence sails to Barcelona where he endeavours to learn his Grammer and began to read a little Book made by Erasmus But the perusing of it if you will believe the Jesuits so cool'd his former zeal that he threw it away and would never look on it again whereupon the General afterwards of this Order forbad any of Des Erasmus his Books should be perused Having read his Grammer here two years he goeth to Alcala de Henares where he and his companions from the length of their Coats obtain'd an answerable denomination from the University-wits such pride did they take in singularity and for such like prancks was he cast into Prison though at last released with a severe check Having stay'd seven moneths here in which time he got some skill in Logick Physicks and Divinity a quick Scholar as they would have him he passeth to Salamanca where he behaved himself so discreetly that he was imprisoned again with the honourable addition of a Chain though after got his release In Spain perceiving himself to be only derided he thought it not conducible to his designs to abide there wherefore he intends to visit France for which purpose having procured an Ass to carry his Books and other things he himself foot 's it to Barcinona and thence to Paris where he re-enters himself into a Grammer-School either forgetting what formerly he learn'd or through dulness wanting a consistent apprehension and this was when he was near 40. years old Here for his simple non-conformity he had like to have been whipt in a publick manner but escaped that scouring by his own confidence and the Primars or Masters folly But after that he or some other higher Authority for him acted his part so well that of a Scholar he became not only a Master but also gain'd the esteem of some Sanctity Those who at first submitted themselves to his way of life were Peter Faber Francis Xavier who first went to convert the Indies where he did many pretty tricks if you credit Turselinus one of his own Society Diego or James Lanes Alfonso Salmeron a learned man and well known to Scholars Simon Rodrigues and Nicolas Bobadilla these six with their Founder Ignatius an Author compares to the seven wandering Stars nor is he much amiss since the influence of this Order agitates Europe more than the Planets so that a good Jesuit-loger might prognosticate it more certain than the best Star-gazer After these six came in other three viz. Claude Jay John Coduri and Pasqual Braetus or Brovet And whether it is probable that men of such parts as Salmeron should submit themselves to the government poverty and ignorance of a lame Souldier rather by divine instinct as themselves relate or by the agitation of some more worldly powerful and politick consultation and design shall be left to the judgement of the ingenious Having thus got his desires in France he resolves to visit his own Countrey In the mean time appointing Peter Faber to be chief over those of his Society at Paris in his absence and to meet him such a day two years after at Venice he marcheth over the Pyraenean Mountains into Guipuscoa where he visits his friends at Loyola and the adjacent places who were not able to perswade him from his beggerly humour Having stay'd here a little while he views Navarre and Castile and at Valentia takes Ship for Italy and almost ship-wrackt arrives at Genoa and thence through I know not what dangers foots it to Bonona where by his tumbling into a dirty Ditch and through idleness not cleansing himself he was hooted at by all the City nor any thing given him though he heartily begg'd it till at last he got a lodging in the Spanish Colledge Thence he goeth to Venice to expect his associates from France where he was accused for a Heretick that rambled over the world to spread his Errors for which purpose he and his associates had fled Spain and France to escape due punishment But from this accusation he got himself clear'd by favour and greatness who could not be ignorant what a profitable Plant this bold Company would be in the Romish Wilderness Here his Companions met him as formerly appointed where they imploy themselves in charitable uses Franc is Xavier endeavouring to cure the French Pox by very loathsome means viz. by sucking out the corrupted matter with his delicate mouth as the virtuous and loving Queen Eleanor preserved King Edward the first by sucking the poyson out of his wounds After they had entred into Orders they intend for Rome but to
that in themselves what they hated in others Witness their accusing the Bishops of Treason for putting in their protestation against the others proceedings seeing they were kept out by violence and tumults And yet when it was after the Commons case the Army expelling them they also put in their Protestation to the same purpose Thus are men oft paid in their own coin But to return to the Convocation which I suppose had as much lawful Power as a Presbyterian Assembly and I am confident have used it with more discretion In what little esteem the Kirkers of Scotland had the civil Authority their own Histories will tell you and in the Scotch troubles before our late Wars it appears by their own Commissioners as if it were the Kirk's right to determine all Ecclesiastical affairs by their Assemblies And it is the opinion of our English Non-conformists declared in their Book of Discipline in Queen Elizabeth's dayes That their Presbyterian Synods are to handle and decide both Doctrine Discipline and Ceremonies of the Church and accordingly were all their actions steered The House of Commons having thus voted against the Convocation made it a Coy-duck to draw in the rest of their designs And in the first place they fall heavy upon the Arch-bishop of Canterbury as a promoter of the former Canons and so accuse him of high-Treason though as then they had laid no Articles against him but promised to do it to the Lords upon which he was secured and the third day after was fined five hundred pounds which he was forced to borrow and to sell plate to repay it such a liberal Benefactor was he to the advancement of Learning that he left himself nothing and if the severe stroke of injustice had not untimely sequestrated and cut him off Saint Paul's Cathedral had silenced the fame of the ancient wonders our English Clergy had been the glory of the World the Bodleian in Oxford had daily more and more out-stript the Vatican and his publick Structures had ore'topt the Escurial and all this by his own munificence in which he so far excelled his neighbours that he was not unlike the good Emperor Titus Vespasian whose liberal soul made him think that he had lost that day in which he had not given something The next day that they accused the Arch-bishop they also accused Bishop Wren of the same crime And a little after voted highly against the Learned and Reverend as the French Churches beyond sea can testifie Dr. Cousins and the next day receive Petitions against Dr. Duck and Sir John Lamb. And a week after received a Remonstrance pretended to be loaden with seven hundred Ministers hands against Bishops the which if true yet that number bears no proportion with above nine thousand which were the number of our English Clergy and however it was Mr. Selden himself did declare that very day that the House of Comons had nothing to do with Church-affairs in that nature And reason tels us that it is not only hard but unjust that men should be accused for acting according to the known Laws of the Land they not being as then repealed But what care the Commons for this seeing they are resolved come what will of it to have Sir Jack Presbyter to bear the sway and therefore they fall heavy upon Episcopal government and after a whole day's debate the Majority against both Law and Reason did agree to take away Lordly Prelacy their medling with temporal affairs their jurisdictions and Courts and a great part of their Means and Estates and afterwards inlarged upon these things And that the Country might not be ignorant also of their enmity to Church government they therefore appoint Commissioners to go into all places of the Kingdom and there remove all Altars Images and Rayls about the Communion-table and sell them and punish those who shall endeavour to set them up again Nor was this all but they also question Sir John Lamb and Sir Nathaniel Brent for getting Organs repair'd and setting up some new Organs in Churches Though I do not know against what Law these two Gentlemen had offended though I know against what the latter did afterwards And having gon thus far away they in a fury hurry Arch bishop Laud to the Tower whither he was followed and rail'd at by the then significant rabble of the Anti-church-government Puppies And some few dayes after they appointed a forsooth Committee for Religion of ten Earls ten Bishops and ten Barons by which means the Lay-votes were not only double to the Clergy but in fine none of the latter left they knowing now their own intentions and power so far that they were more then confident to have the Clergy-men in short time to be but as Ciphers To obtain which they endeavoured all ways that malice or industry could propose to them And as a means to encourage others to oppose Bishops and Church-government they not only released the scribling fire-brands of the Nation as Burton Prynn Leighton Lilburn c. but also as a reward for their good service voted them many thousand pounds a piece And the next week fined the Members of the Convocation house two hundred thousand pounds And afterwards voted that not only the Bishops but all other Clergy-men that did either send their Proxies or execute the said Canons were guilty But if the Lords have a Religious Committee the Commons must have one too or else they think themselves out-vapoured And so they jumble up a Company of Ministers together giving them authority to consult the Canons and Liturgy and also to draw up a plat-form or model for Reformation to be setled in the Kingdom and by what rule these men were to work is no difficult business to collect from the Commons Votes some few dayes after that it was necessary to have an Uniformity of Religion with Scotland as also from their kindness to the Armed Covenanters not long before by Voting for them 300000 pounds with the goodly title of Brethren And all this because they march'd into England with a numerous Army protesting swearing and fighting against Episcopal Government for that was the thing now also aimed at in England so that Mr. Pym speaks the hearts of others as well as his own when he reproved one of the Lords saying That it was not enough to be against the Persons of the Bishops if he were not against the Function And according to this Maxim the Commons by their former Votes having made the way more facile boldly Vote the Government of the Church of England by Archbishops Bishops Chancellors Deans Archdeacons c. to be prejudicial to both Church and State and the next day Voted also that from that time there should be no such things as Archbishops Bishops c. in England Nor was this all but presently after they also expunged all Deans
good Definition as in his Latin yet may we pick a sound truth of it in English That a seditious person is both an evil and unuseful Member in the Common-wealth Yet were this vice more wicked then it is it would never want admirers as long as Idleness is permitted the former being inseparable from the latter if we will believe the Historian And whether did leasurely foment our discontents or no I know not though I believe by this our turbulent spirits obtained many Proselytes who if they had had any thing else to do would never have spent so much time in an obstinate schism running dayly into more enormities under some pretence or other but never thinking of a return And they that are unwilling to amend Will take offence because they will offend Which was the true temperature of our Non-conformists not that they had any real cause of such disgusts but what they brought forth themselves And they having once taken fire found it no great difficulty to allure the multitude into their faction by their preachments whisperings pamphleting and such like rumours without which it is impossible to get a party moulded to act such destructive wickedness For though the people like the bounded Ocean do naturally affect ease tranquillity and such like peaceable vertues yet are they apt by the seditious blusterings and malicious insinuations of some factious Grandees or neighbours to be perswaded and agitated into turbulent extravagancies and Rebellion The minds of the irrational multitude as one calls them being thus seasoned and tempered with the principles of discontent and sedition are now ordered to put in practice what they have been taught and they so long meditated upon and these proceedings must run parallel to those of their good brethren the Covenanters in Scotland For as one ingeniously observes the English did derive from them not only the rudiments but the method also of revolt Our first probationary Tumult commencing in a rude assault upon the Arch-bishop of Canterbury as theirs upon the Arch-bishop of Saint Andrews Above five hundred of the Rabble one night assaulted the Arch-bishop's house at Lambeth and to what purpose is easy to conjecture And a little after about two thousand Sectaries made a tumult in London where they tore down the benches in the Consistory of Saint Paul's crying out they would have no Bishop nor no high Commission actions so inconsistent with good Subjects that the obedient Parret in Brasil will be as a reproach to these irrational Rebels Nor did their sury end here for when they perceived the execution of the Earl of Strafford was not so hasted on as their hot heads expected and when the Court dream't of nothing but joy the Princess Mary being then marryed to the Prince of Orange the very next morning after the wedding above five thousand Londoners most of them girded to their swords came yelling for justice against the said Earl affirming for want of it they were like to perish having no bread an excellent Non-conforming consequence calling the Earl of Bristol an Apostate and vilifying his son the Lord Digby one of them balling out If we get not satisfaction of the Lievtenant we will have it of the King or as some affirm If we have not the Lievtenants life we will have the King 's And posted up a Paper in Westminster with the names of 55. Lords Knights Gentlemen with the Title of Straffordians with this under-written This and more shall be done to the enemirs of justice afore-written Thus was this Earl rather murthered by malice then condemned by Law or Reason yet so impatiently wicked was the Rabble and Presbyterie that as Darius appointed a man every day to prompt him with a Sir Remember to be revenged on the Athenians so had these men their dayly agitators and contrivers by-jugled up Petitions and such like monitors to mind them of three things the destruction of this Earl the Extirpation of Episcopacy and the abolishing of the Common-prayer-book and Ceremonies The which at last by God's permission and Satan's assistance they obtained And immediatly before they had assaulted the Spanish Embassador's house with a great deal of violence and their pretended reason for so doing was because Mass was there said A Priviledge used by all Embassadors to exercise their own Religion be what it will and this allowed them by the Law of Nations yet was their malice such that if they had not been prevented by the Lord Maior they might have done abundance of mischief though what they did was no small blemish to the civility of a Nation These actions by the Sectaries were look'd upon as a blessing to the Nation and to keep the hands of these Myrmidons in use the City and Kingdom must now and anon too be alarum'd with false rumours and un-heard of plots and designs against something or other Now must the Houses of Parliament be said to be on fire and together by the ears and the City for sorrow thereof like to tumult and uproar themselves into Bedlam Then must strange plots come from unknown parts of the world be discovered at which the careful Commons take fears and jealousies and order the Arch-bishop's House at Lambeth to be searcht for arms as if the Arch-bishop then in the Tower should pelt the Parliament from Lambeth cross the water Then must there be a strange thing in Scotland agitating against Duke Hamilton and their true friend Argyle and this discover'd and seen by Mr. Pym at Westminster upon which the Members are in a hubbub and in great fear of their lives forsooth and therefore a strong guard under Essex is provided for the security of their Worship 's against temptations And the Burgesses of Westminster and the Knights for Middlesex are ordered in all haste to provide bullets and match and to shoot like little John at the Sun and Moon being resolved for the future to work altogether in darkness Yet were all these and many more acted with as much seriousness and gravity as Sancho Pança governed the Iland Barataria so that the abused people did not only believe such stories but feared their events which being once setled in their noddles is impossible to be removed the people being like the lineage of the Pança's all head-strong These jugling Transactions were enough to perswade the King and his friends to look about them but being innocent seemed also fearless Yet for prevention of disorders and tumults some people were ordered to keep watch near the Parliament thereby to keep off the Rabble which used daily to tumble out by thousands in great disorder ranting and railing against something or other in government according to the Items of their Patrons very beneficial to and desirable by the Commons Who took it so ill that their good friends the Multitude should thus be kept back that they did not only question the Justices of peace of
would weep pray bemoan and call upon God till he had destroy'd him to whom he seem'd most friendly so that in this he seem'd to be typified by Alete in the Italian Heroick Poem Alete è l'un che da principio indegno Tra le brutture de la Plebe è sorto Ma l'innalzaro à i primi honor del Regne Parlar facondo e lusinghiero e scorto Pieghevoli costumi e vario ingegno Al finger pronto à l'ingannare accorto Gran fabro di calunnie adorne in modi Novi che sono accuse e paion lodi Alete from the basest Rabble came From a vile Clown's unworthy loyns being sprung Yet did he rise unto the greatest Name By a dissembling lying cunning tongue His temper to all humours could he frame And by his craft and lyes blanch o're all wrong A great back-biter but in such quaint wayes As whom h'accuseth most he seems to praise Nor may we be branded with want of Charity if we suspect his Religion to be as true as he pretended for that he confided more in the sharpness of his Sword than the right of his Cause is evident from his swerving from all his Oaths Protestations and Promises for the advantage of his own Interest in which he was not unlike Argante in the former Poet who D'ogni Dio sprezzator eche ripone Ne la spada sua legge e sua ragione Did scorn and spurn at God and would afford Nor Law nor Reason but his bloudy Sword Yet for all his Valour and Knavery as Piedro Messia admires the sodain rise of Julius Caesar so may I of Oliver considering he had not only the Royalists his Enemies and Experience tells us and a Venetian well observeth he was the greatest that ever the King had but also the Presbyterians to both which Cromwel's Faction was but a handful yet may this wonder be somewhat lessen'd by considering that the Parliament and Non-conformists had done formerly the main drudgery of the work to his hands Many Articles was he sworn to observe contain'd in the Book of Government which with his Oath were afterwards alter'd by The Advice As he gain'd his Government by bloud and craft so did he keep it cutting off all people whom he the least suspected and toleing the people along to their own slavery and destruction as the Pyed Pyper did the Children and Rats of Hamel in Brunswick some four years he protected it giving Laws to and dissolving Parliaments at pleasure a thing which he and his Creatures formerly judged most wicked But many men commend themselves in that for which they despise others And thus shall I leave Oliver with Nostradamus his Praediction above a hundred years ago Le Roy des Isles sera chassé par force Mis à son Lieu qui de Roy n'aura signe A King of Islands shall be bannish'd and An upstart Jack by force shall rule the Land Oliver being thus wafted away in a whirlwind his Son Richard as the Father had appointed succeeded to whom all the Armies of the three Nations with some others shoal with innumerable Addresses pittifully lamenting the death of his Father whom they profainly honour with all the good titles they could pick out of the Holy Scriptures protesting to stand by him and professing and acknowledging their happiness under his Rule But for all these their Asseverations he had not govern'd prudently piously faithfully to his immortal honour as his great friend and admirer Mr. Baxter saith long but they by the contrivance of Lambert and others having weakned his Party by forcing him to dissolve his Parliament thrust him out of the Throne too by which action as Mr. Baxter saith he was very ill used The Officers of the Army having thus sleighted him command all things by their Consultations at Wallingford-House and from thence issued forth a Declaration to recal the Rump again who the next day accordingly met And this forsooth was by them call'd the Good old Cause but why it should be honour'd with that Epethite I know no more than why the wicked sin of Sodomie should be commended by Johannes Casa These men having Triumph'd for about half a year a great jealousie grew betwixt them and their Army For Lambert returning to London proud with his pretty Conquest over Sir George Booth instigated his Red-coats to Petition the Parliament for a General and then he knew how to act his part as well as Cromwell did in 1648 But the cunning Rumpers smelling the design Voted this grand Office as in a single Person to be needless chargeable and dangerous which denyal of theirs was so farr from danting the Resolved Commanders who knew that if they were now baffled their ruine by Rump-craft would soon follow who made no more use of the Parliament nor the Members of the Army then they would serve for one anothers Interests and so after several Consultations at Wallingford House publickly desired a Chief Commander again in their Representation delivered by Gyant Desborough The Rump perceiving the Army resolute and fearing a change of Government enact it Treason for any to raise Moneys but by their consent and the next day their disease being desperate Vote Lambert and the chief of his Faction out of Commission and appoint seven Commissioners over the Army Fleetwood being Lieutenant-General a man of an easie disposition and so apt to be both cozened and commanded But this hindred nothing the Armies prosecution of their own designs who to requite the good turn done them by the Rump turn'd them out of Authority leaving us without any Government only appointing Fleetwood Commander in Chief whose soft nature made him imploy'd by both Factions wanting wit of himself to do any man any harm yet as a Cyfer could add something to the number The Rump being now defunct and the Army-Lords Paramount are continued some days without any Form of Government but those Ranters at Wallingford-House who at last constituted ten pure Youths to carry on the affairs of the State But the glory of these Decemviri lasted not long being null'd by their Lords and Masters the Army so unconstant were their actions who order'd another Model of Government under the pretty Title of The Committee of Safety consisting of Twenty three Brethren in Iniquity all people of great pretended Sanctity though their villany made some think that Hell was broke loose and sat in Council in a place built for their betters The Committee of Safety who now appointed a pack of Beagles to hunt after some Form of Government from Utopia Atlantis the fairy Country or some Terra incognita or other provided there should be no such thing as King-ship continued not long in any peaceable condition For General Monk hating the Tyranny of the English Army opposed their proceedings which occasioned Lambert with some tatterdemallions to march Northwards the same day that the wicked Long-Parliament
Army and all this forsooth against the Cause of God the souls of his true Saints the peace of the Directory and the happiness of the Elect the true children of Grace the poor people gaping all the while really believing no Devils to be in the World but Cavaliers not a word proceeding from the lying Throats of these Pulpiteers but fill'd the soft-brain'd Auditors with more indignation against the King and his Cause than our Women are against Popery at the sight of a flaming Picture in the Book of Martyrs All their prittle-prattle was to shew the goodness of their Cause and I wish some of the Presbyterian Churches beyond-Seas were not too much complying in this the abominable wickedness of the Kings Party and to perswade their friends never to make peace with such Malignants Of which I shall afford you two or three Instances Mr. Herbert Palmer of Ashwell in Hertfordshire made a long-winded tittle-tattle stuft with Rebellion and Sedition before the House of Commons at the latter end of which he finds out a pretty device to have all the Cavaliers throats cut and all this to be justified by Inspiration from God Almighty I humbly entreat you to ask Gods Consent first whether he will spare such or such or pardon them and if he will not you must not Probably this Politician was very well acquainted with the subtle Robber of old time who made the Countrey-Parson pray for Riches and upon that account took all his Gold from him Or it may be Oliver used this Art to murder his Majesty for we are told that he said he pray'd to know Gods mind in that case and he took the Answer Affirmatively Thus our Red-Coats of Wallingford-House after they had concluded upon any mischief would for a blind to the People appoint a Day of Humiliation to enquire of God what should be done though they were before resolved that all the Prayers in the World should not alter their fore-going Determination Whence it came to be a vulgar and true Observation That whensoever those Saints had a Fast they were then broaching some mischief or other To be short the greatest wickedness in the World may be perpetrated by this Rule of Palmer's and so Religion prove but a piece of Policy yet was it very fitting for the Parliaments actions which I suppose was the cause that they ordered Sir Oliver Luke to give him thanks for his Seditious Preachment and to desire him to print it the better to infect the People Another of these Bawlers seldom thought of a Bishop or the Kings Party but with Indignation and this must be Mr. Thomas Coleman formerly of Blyton in Lincolnshire but since by the Schismaticks was put into St. Peters Cornhill London from which they had not only wickedly Sequestred Dr. Fairfax but Plunder'd and Imprison'd him in Ely-House and in the Ships and turn'd his Wife and Children out of doors But to return to Coleman who in one of his Sermons thus rants against the Church of England and violently perswades the Parliament to execute severe justice upon her Children Our Cathedrals in great part of late become the Nest of Idle Drones and the roosting place of Superstitious Formallists Our Formallists and Government in the whole Hierarchy is become a fretting Gangrene a spreading Leprosie an unsupportable Tyranny Up with it up with it to the bottom Root and Branch Hip and Thigh Destroy these Amalekites and let their place be no more found Throw away the Rubs out with the Lords Enemies and the Lands Vex the Midianites abolish the Amalekites or else they will vex you with their wiles as they have done heretofore Let Popery find no favour because it is Treasonable Prelacy as little because it is Tyrannical This was rare stuff for the Blades at Westminster and pleas'd admirable well and therefore they strait order Sir Edward Aiscough and Sir John Wray to give the Zealot hearty thanks for his good directions and to desire him by all means to print it which accordingly he did and in requital of thanks Dedicates his fury to their Worships where he fals to his old Trade again very pretily by his Art of Rhetorick calling the Kings Army Partakers with Atheists Infidels Papists c. That it hath Popish Masses superstitious Worships cold Forms in the Service of God That it is stored with Popish Priests That it Persecutes Godly Ministers painful Preachers That it doth harbour all our drunken debauched Clergy our Idle Non-Preaching dumb Ministry our Ambitious Tyrannical Prelacy and the sinck and dregs of the Times the receptacle of the filth of the present and former Ages our spiritual-Courts-men This mans rayling pleas'd the Commons so well that they could think no man fitter to prate when their wicked League and Covenant was taken than He which accordingly he did to the purpose tickling their filthy Ears with the same strains of malice Impudently affirming That none but an Atheist Papist Oppressour Rebel or the guilty desperate Cavaliers and light and empty men can refuse the Covenant and so concludes with a reflection upon the Kings Party as Idolaters And for this stuff Colonel Long must be Ordered to give him thanks from the House Another of these Parliamentary Furies Mr. Arth. Salwey of Severnstoak in Worcestershire thus desires them to destroy the Kings friends Follow God I beseech you in the speedy and impartial Execution of Justice The hearts of your true Friends are grieved that so many Delinquents are in Prison and yet but very few of them brought to their Tryal When Elijah had done execution upon Baals Priests there was rain enough 1 King 18. 40 41. Who knows how soon the Lord may bless us with an holy Peace and blessed Reformation if Justice were more fully executed And this man must have thanks sent him too from the Parliament by Mr. Rouse Another of their Thumpers viz. Mr. George Walker of St. John Evangelists London thus stirs up execution against Malignants Cut them down with the Sword of Justice Root them out and consume them as with fire that no root may spring again let their mischief fall upon their own Heads that the land may be eas'd which hath a long time and doth still groan under them as an heavy curse And was not this a fit Sermon to be preacht just the day before the Treaty at Uxbridge and then to be printed too by the Presbyterian Authority Could these men desire peace that thus countenanced men to rail against their betters with whom they were to Treat But this is short of Mr. Love's malice let one of their witts sing out his Commendations as he pleaseth he at the very day of the Treaty must needs thunder it at the place it self perswading the people by all means not to treat with the Royalists as I have in part before insisted on but besides that which I told you then he could thus also animate his friends
Heathen yet would he be as much King and have as much right to the Crown and Rule as if he were Presbyterian 'T is not the Religion of the Magistrate but that in me be what it will that I do call Religion or Conscience which obligeth my obedience to him The Roman-Catholick had as much Reason and Law for their Gun-Powder Treason as the Scotch and English Puritans for their many Rebellions and may as to themselves as much rejoyce for their delivery from the Presbyterian Tyranny as they from the others intended cruelty but in this they may both shake hands and cry quits Brother which hath made me smile as often as I hear a Disciplinarian rail against the Romanists for that wicked design since themselves have been as guilty only some difference in the method one putting their confidence in Fire and the other in the Sword The many Rebellions of these People and their resolutions never to lay down their Swords till the King would satisfie them in what they pleas'd is a sufficient manifestation of their Conditional Obedience and that they are not farther Subject to that Authority than the King is obedient to their Wills examples of which are yet fresh in every mans memory At the very beginning of their Rebellion they having declar'd those who adhear'd to the King to be Traytors and He had done the same to the Earl of Essex His Majesty unwilling to have the bloud of his Subjects shed and delighting in Peace sent to the Parliament to call in their Declarations against his Party and he would call in all his against them and their Associates and that both the Armies might be disbanded an Act of Oblivion to be pass'd and a perfect Peace compos'd And What could be more gracious then this yet this they deny Nor will they hearken to any Overtures of a Treaty with him unless he first call in all his Declarations against them Disband his Army yield himself to them and permit those who were with him to be proceeded against and suffer as Delinquents Thus will they have none of him unless he submit to them and permit his best Friends to be ruined And yet these men must think themselves so good Subjects that they deserve his Majesties thanks for their so acting and in so doing think themselves Obedient enough in all Conscience But if this be their duty I wish they would tell me what they think disobedience to be This rejecting their Soveraign is sufficient to stop the mouths of these men from railing against Pope Gregory VII call'd Hildebrand who having excommunicated the Emperour Henry IV. would not absolve him nor receive him into favour till throwing off all his Princely attire he had waited three several dayes in the coldest time of Winter bare-footed at the walls of Vercelli in Piemonte in Italy where the Pope then was to beg audience and forgiveness Phaëton had no reason to question his birth-right unless Phoebus would allow him the command of his flaming Chariot to the ruin of the Youth and a great part of the World And 't is strange Logick and impudence in our Puritans to deny themselves to be Subjects unless they command as Supream A pretty mode to trample upon Authority as if they had set for their pattern Pope Alexander III. who insteed of offering his Toe to be kist by Frederick Barbarossa set his foot upon the Emperours neck If at the beginning of the Warr they were so stubborn as not to receive their King into their favour unless he yield to their mercy and suffer his friends to be distroy'd he must expect stranger Conditions when they are heightned with bloud and villany For then must he ask them Pardon give them satisfaction and carry nothing about him but the bare Title or else he shall be none of their King To which purpose a whole Club of them having sufficiently rail'd against Hâ—m after all their lies scandals and hellish forgeries thus conclude their malice and obedience These are some few of the many reasons Why we cannot repose any more trust in him i. e. King Charles I. and have made those former resolutions yet we shall use our utmost endeavour to settle the present Government as may best stand with the Peace and Happiness of this Kingdom Here they quite renounce any more Obedience to him nay make it by Vote both of their Lords and Commons to be High-Treason for any to make any Application or Address to him And if these be good Subjects without all question 't is Treason to be obedient And what they meant by their utmost endeavours I know not only this I am certain of having thus thrown away the Father they never apply'd themselves to the Son unlesse it were the motion of some of them to proclaim him Traytor and the conclusion of them all was to send the Earl of Warwick to fight him How long before they had been resolved to renounce their King and his Government I know not yet the Earl of Loudoun then Lord Chancellor of Scotland a pretty while before this gave the King notice of their intentions telling him that Some are so afraid others so unwilling to submit themselves to your Majesties Government as they desire not you nor any of your Race longer to raign over them If your Majesty refuse to assent to the Propositions you will lose all your Friends lose the City and all the Country and all England will join against you as one man and when all hope of Reconciliation is past it is to be feard They will processe and depose you and sett up another Government They will charge us to deliver your Majesty to them and to render the Northern Garrisons and to remove our Army out of England And upon your Majesties refusing the Propositions both Kingdomes will be constrain'd to agree and settle Religion and Peace without you which will ruine your Majesty and your Posterity And if your Majesty reject our faithful advice and lose England by your wilfulnesse your Majesty will not be permitted to come and ruine Scotland And at the beginning of the same year when his Majesty from Oxford earnestly desired them that there might be a personal Treaty The Lords and Commons of the English Parliament and the Commissioners of the Scotch Parliament after they had impudently hinted at his Majesty as a most wicked person they expresly deny any such means for peace untill he had given them satisfaction and security And this was still their custome with his Majesty first must he satisfie them before they will hear any thing from him In the same year the Committee of Scotland tell his Majesty at New Castle We hope you come with intentions and full resolutions to give all just satisfaction to the joint-desires of both your Kingdomes And two daies after assure him that If your Majesty shal delay the present performing thereof we shal be necessitated for our own exoneration
to acquaint the Committee of both Kingd at London that a course might be taken by the joint advice of both Kingdomes for attaining the just ends exprest in the Solemn League and Covenant And to the same purpose but with abundance of railing against the King the year before did the General Assembly of the Scotish Kirk Mr. Robert Dowglass being Moderator expresse themselves to his Majesty And in this humour of conditional and malepert capitulating Subjects they continue nay even when people might perceive the Army bent against Monarchy or at least the Royal Family of the Stuarts For thus they endeavour to make people believe that the King cannot be truly King indeed unlesse he humbly give satisfaction to his covenanting people We leave it to be pondered by your Lordships whether they that obstruct and hinder the requiring of satisfaction and security from his Majesty in point of Religion before his Restitution to the exercise of his Royal Power do not upon the matter and consequence obstruct and hinder his Majesties deliverance and restitution whereof such security and assurance had from his Majesty might be a powerful and effectual means And a little after more fully declare themselves thus This Restitution of his Majesty to the exercise of his Royall Power before security had from Him for setling Religion your Lordships know by our eight desires and otherwaies is conceived by us to be inconsistent with the safety and security of Religion the bringing of his Majesty to some of his houses in or neer London before satisfaction and security had from him in point of Religion and in such other things as are necessary for the safety of the Kingdomes could not as we conceive but be an exceeding great discouragement and offence to the Presbyterianins England who will conceive that the Remedy is worse then the disease seeing your Lordships are obliged by the third Article of the Covenant to defend his Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdomes We conceive your Lordships should not demand from nor presse upon the Kingdome of England his Majesties Restitution with freedome and honour and safety except with that qualification in the Covenant and with a subordination to Religion and the Liberties of the Kingdomes And if all these things should come to passe then the Kirkers cry out that all is undone and so they leave it to judgment Whether his Majesty shall not be restored to his honour before Jesus Christ be restored to his honour and set upon his Throne of Government in his Church Whether his Majesty shall not be in a condition of liberty before the Ordinances of Christ have a free course And is this to endeavour the setling of Religion before all worldly interests Or rather to make it come after the Kings interest And If his Majesty may be restored with honour freedome and safety before such satisfaction had from Him we fear it shall lye as a great scandal upon this Kingdome And a little after they plainly subject his Majesty to their wills in the interpretation of the Covenant Whatsoever we owe to the King in civill matters distinct from the cause of Religion sure all these other duties are with a subordination to the glory of God and the good of Religion And we are very confident that it was and will be farre from the thoughts of the General Assembly under colour of his Majesties Honour to concurre with him or any in his Name in a cause which is hurtful and prejudicial to the good of Religion and to the other ends of the Solemn League and Covenant Yet this way of diffience and standing off with their Soveraign Mr. Robert Beyley wonders that any body should call a Fault As if these men have the priviledg to secure the person of the King when they please and then deny him either Authority or Liberty till he ask them forgiveness and give them satisfaction for his thinking much to be made a slave to their fancies Upon such like expressions as these a Parliamentarian makes this observation If the Scots Commissioners did plainly affirm to the Committees of both Houses at the Conference that they could not admit of the Kings presence in Scotland because of the divisions and troubles of that Kingdome which he might make such use of as to raise forces both against them and us What could this imply but that notwithstanding his person might be in safety in Scotland yet Scotland could not be in safety whilst his person was there And if they positively affirm it on their part may not we make a question of it on ours Thus both parties catch at what pretences they can to exclude the King from both his Kingdomes As they did with the Father so did they continue to act villany with the Son concerning which I shall give you the words of that great Mattyr of Loyalty the Noble and Valiant Marquesse of Montross And so little are these Godly and Religious men toucht with any sense of what mischieves they have already done That they begin afresh with his Majesty Our now Gracious Soveraign upon the same score where they left with his Father of ever blessed memory They declare him indeed to be their King but with such conditions and provisoes as robb him of all Right and Power For while they pretend to give him a little which he must accept as from them they spoil him of all that Power and Authority which the Law of God of Nature and of the Land hath invested him with by so long continued descent from his famous Predecessors They press him to join with those who by a Sacrilegious Covenant have confederated all his dominions in Rebellion and laid all Royall Power in the Dust Which in effect were nothing better then that he himself should asperse with Insamy the sacred memory of his ever Glorious Father that he should with his own hands destroy himself and ruine all such who have still been Loyall to him in his three Kingdoms These are the men who first entring England sollicited those of their faction to rise in that desperate Rebellion as a Prologue to the ensuing Tragedie which they meant to act These are they who were the chief and main Instruments of all the Battails Slaughters and Bloody occasions within that of their own Kingdome These are they who sold their Soveraign to a bloody and infamous Death yea these are they who still digg in his Grave and who are more pernitiously hatching the Destruction of his present Majesty by the same bare old antiquated Treacheries then ever they did that of his most excellent and most innocent Father Except he would subscribe to their fancies they would not allow him to be their King nor come amongst them which is confess'd by the Estates of Scotland themselves Scotland is desirous to imbrace him upon grant of their just desires and are most