of the Nation I cannot Comprehend If they are so they should do well to cast their Cause upon a Popular Vote and try the Issue by the Poll. For Quiet sake no matter Many or Few there may be Equity where there wants Number We 'l rather see in point of Right what 't is they insist upon Which if exemption from Episcopal Authority in things Indifferent and of Humane Institution We must plead judgment of Discretion too as well as They A Freedom and Capacity to distinguish betwixt a Scandal Given and Taken betwixt a Dis-conformity proceeding from Conscience and from Passion Where the Dissent proceeds from Conscience a Toleration clears That Scruple but our good peoples Liberty consists in Burthening Others as well as Freeing Themselves and that 's Intolerable How many strange Indecencies are here one upon the neck of another I First here 's the Minor part imposing upon the Major Secondly a Novel and Vulgar Imagination bearing down an Apostolical Institution Thirdly a Private Opinion contesting with a Solemn and Publike Sanction and Finally the Subject of all this Earnestnesse in their own phrase is but a very Accommodable difference From what I have said I am perswaded that Severity to the Pertinacious Presbyter is the true interest of this Nation allowing yet Indulgence to the Conscientious Well but our Authour tells us that Abolition if possible is perillous and Toleration only an Imaginary Remedy Is not this to intimate that the Party makes less Conscience of a Tumult than of a Ceremony and to argue the necessity of Complying from the danger of Refusing What would these people do if they had Power that are so Bold without it And yet our Politician makes it the Kings Interest to Close with them He means perchance According to the Covenant The Coalition There of all Schisms and Heresies into One Interest was of great Reason and Important Service to the Commune work but we are now advising how to Settle not to Disjoynt a Government and to Incorporate Dis-agreements were to begin upon a Principle of Confusion As the Case stands with us in my weak Judgement Persons should rather be Indulg'd than Parties My Reason is this Some Individuals of that Perswasion have done His Majesty some Service but to the best of my Remembrance the Entire Party never any Yet one Reflexion more Allow these People all their Askings in what concerns their Discipline will they rest Quiet There without a further Hankering after more the Legislative Power perhaps the Militia or some such Trifle I am the more suspitious because I do not well remember where ever That Party was satisfied with less than All. Nor need I look far back for Instances to justifie my Fears But having in some measure hitherto Discovered his Foundation we 'l forward now and see what work he makes upon this Sandy Bottom taking his Title-page in my way for to my thinking he stumbles at the Threshold It runs thus The Interest of England In the Matter of RELIGION Unfolded in the Solution of these three QUESTIONS I. Qu. VVhether the Presbyterian Party should in Justice or Reason of State be Rejected and Depressed or Protected and Encouraged II. Qu. VVhether the Presbyterian Party may be Protected and Encouraged and the Episcopal not Deserted nor Disobliged III. Qu. Whether the Upholding of both Parties by a just and equal Accommodation be not in it self more desirable and more agreeable to the State of England Then the absolute Exalting of the one Party and the total Subversion of the other Written by J. C. Observation I would fain know what is meant by The Matter of Religion as it stands here related to Civil Interest Doctrine it cannot be for That were to advise a yielding upon a Principle of Policy in Opposition to a Rule of Conscience subjecting Interest of Religion which is Eternal Happiness to Reason of State which regards but Temporal Convenience If it be Discipline What 's that to the Interest of England Our Settlement depends upon a due Obedience to the Establish'd Law not the Encouraging of froward Humors by an Audacious and Mis-govern'd Zeal under pretext of Conscience to Affront it Let Authority Reform and Private Persons either Obey or Suffer we are to Answer for our own faults not those of the Government And in fine If the Hill will not come to Mahomet let Mahomet go to the Hill After a pleasant Breviate of the Story of our late Troubles handsomely Penn'd indeed in his tenth Page he takes his Biass At length says he a full Tide of Concurring Accidents carries him the Duke of Albemarle then General to a closure with the sober part of the Parliamentary Party who from first to last intended onely a Reformation and due Regulation of things in Church and State but abhorred the thought of destroying the King or changing the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Observation I thought the Act of Pardon and Oblivion had quieted all Animosities and silenc'd all Discourses of this Quality but 't is it seems The Interest of England in the matter of Religion to keep the Quarrel waking and by Asserting the proceedings of the two Houses in the late War to engage this King within the danger of his Fathers President To be as free with the Authour as he is with his Majesty I 'le put his meaning in a little plainer English Beside the Grand Division of the Nation into a Royal and a Popular Party that Party which he here calls Parliamentary is again Split and under this Subdivision are Comprised those which did Actually destroy the King and those which by good Fortune did it not Presbyterians and Independents The Sober part meaning the Presbyterian He justifies from first to last even to their very Intentions I must tread warily for I am here upon a narrow and a slippery path Not to Dispute the Gentlemans Intuitive Knowledge we 'l rather modestly believe that They mistook their way then He their meaning for certainly the Murther of the King was not the onely Unlawful violence Acted upon that Sacred Person and he that stops there does as much as nothing I would not touch upon this Subject were I not bound by Oath and Duty to discharge my Soul in what concerns the Honor and the Safety of my Prince Can the first Cause asserted by both Houses in opposition to his late Majesty be justifi'd and not the King condemn'd And is not the Honor and Safety of his Majesty that now is concern'd in these Indignities upon his Murther'd Father What was Then lawful is so still and he that but implicitly charges the Last King strikes at This. The Text will bear no other sense without a Torture But I shall by-and-by compare him with himself In the mean while we may explain one Presbyterian by another Douglas in 1651. preach'd the Kings Coronation-Sermon Which since his Majesties Return is over and over again Reprinted A King says he abusing his Power to the overthrow
not so far And this I think will stand good although I have already placed the right of making War in the King for that must be understood of a forreign War Since whosoever hath a part of the Supreme Power hath consequently a right of maintaining such part as he hath There is one line yet remaining which our Author hath very prudently kept for a Reserve till the Presbyterians shall have gotten the better of the King Quod ubi fit potest Rex etiam suam Imperii partem belli jure amittere That is Where thus it happens the King's encroachment upon the Peoples Right may fairly amount to a forfeiture of his own Is it not pity that people of these milde and complying Principles should be charg'd with Disobedience If this be the case of England the Question is no longer the Presbyterians Liberty but the King's Title to his Crown That Chapter of Grotius whence he takes his Quotation treats De Bello subitorum in Superiores Where and where not Subjects may take up Arms against their Superiors This learned man among other Cases tells us in this they may and the Reason is evident For where the Soveraignty is thus dispos'd half to the King half to the People that Prince is but a Subject to some purposes a King to others So that in any point of Soveraignty formally vested in the People He is not their Superior but they his How finely he hath match'd the Case of England where Kings have no Restraint but what they put upon themselves for the Laws are their proper Acts But mark the process of his Reasonings and how in his own phrase he feels his way step by step The Presbyterians were ever in the right he says Why if he would be quiet who says the contrary But then the King was in the wrong To bring the Case up to Grotius his determination we must admit First that by the constitution of England the Soveraignty is shared betwixt the King and the two Houses and Next that the late King did actually invade the Popular Prerogative from whence arises the lawfulness of resistance and after that Potest Rex etiam suam Imperii partem Belli jure amittere They have at last the same right to the Crown they had at first to the Quarrel He that peruses the first eight Sections of the fore-mentioned Chapter will find Grotius no favourer of his Opinions that quotes him Be the Prince what he will he tells us Summum Imperium tenentibus resisti jure non posse Bodin yet more expresly that England and Scotland are absolute Monarchies That the Supreme Power is onely in the King Iura Majestatis ac Imperâ—i summam in unius Prinoipis Arbitria versari Further In Senatu nullum est Imperium Nor onely so but whoever urges the contrary meditates a Commotion Isti qui Imperium Senatui tribuunt Reipublicae interitum ac status eversionem moliuntur As to the point of Loyalty now in question the subversion of the Fundamental Government of this Kingdom could not be effected till those Members of Parliament that were Presbyterian were many of them imprisoned others forcibly secluded by the violence of the Army and the rest thereupon withdrew from the House of Commons Observation Then it seems till that violence by the Army upon the Presbyterians there was none acted by the Presbyterians upon the King To seize his Towns and Magazines Hunt and Assault his Royal Person Part his Revenues Hang up his Friends All this is Justifi'd in Case his Majesty refuses to be rul'd by his Two Houses Alas the Fundamental Government was safe I warrant ye so long as the Rights of Soveraignty were exercis'd first by the Assembly in Scotland and then by a pack'd Party in a close Committee And the Presbyterians never the less honest men for selling the King first Then voting him a Prisoner and after that for Pinching him even upon the very Point of Presbytery Surely they are much to blame that charge these Innocents with disloyalty If the Presbyterian Members had not been Forced they say all had been well Truly it may be so yet if I mistake not there was a time when the Episcopal Members were Forced too and had that Violence been spared it had never come to This. But I suppose the City-Tumults against BISHOPS the Outcries of the Rabble at White-hall the Multitudes that Baul'd for Reformation Posting up such and such for Straffordians as honestly opposed the Torrent of the People This in the VVell-affected passes for Christian Liberty But our Author follows his Opinion with a Proof For they says he meaning the Presbyterians had voted the King's Concessions a Ground sufficient for the Houses to proceed to settle the Nation and were willing to cast whatever they Contended for upon a Legal Security Observation Waving their Former Vote of Non-Addresses and that foul Declaration of their Reasons for it We will in Charity believe they were over-aw'd and that it was extorted by the Army But what excuse for the Matter of the Propositions That they were actuated by a Presbyterian Spirit appears in This that they demanded a Settlement of a Presbyterian Government It remains now onely from Hence to gather the Fair Equivalence of this Gentleman's Doctrine and to discover what 't is the Presbyterian Faction calls a Legal Security They hold That if the King of England will not comply with the Two Houses the People may Chase Sequester and Imprison Him And when they have him in Distress they may without Disloyalty press Him to these or the like Conditions for His Liberty 1. By a Publick Act to justifie that Violence and condemn himself 2 ly To Renounce and Abolish Episcopacy although bound by Oath and Judgment to defend it 3 ly To Transfer the Right of Levying Men and Monies to the Two Houses by them to be raised and disposed of at pleasure without rendring any Accompt to his Majesty 4 ly To deliver up the Lives Liberties and Fortunes of all that served him to the Mercy of that Party 5 ly To grant that all Offices of Trust may be disposed of by the Appointment of Both Houses This is a short and modest Accompt of Presbyterian Loyalty the Due Liberty they contend for which being setled upon a Legal Security with such further Concessions as their Modesty shall vouchsafe to require puts an end to the Dispute His late Majesty observes upon Uxbridge Treaty That it was a grand Maxim with them always to ask something which in Reason and Honor must be denyed that they might have some colour to refuse all that was in other things granted And so we find it But what 's the Reason of this peevishness Is there any thing in the Nature of Prelacy that frames the mind to Obedience and Loyalty Or is there any thing in Presbytery that inclines to Rebellion and Disobedience Observation Truly I think there is Prelacy holds a better proportion in
falls upon the Builder He says His Aim is Unity and truly so is mine But Vnity in such a Composition will never set us right Two may agree in the same point of Verity but then that Truth must for it self be entertain'd without considering one another If about any thing Material we differ flie to the Judge of Truth The Scriptures and the Church If about Less and Common Matters go to the Rule of Duty in such Cases the setled Law But I forget my self It must needs be says the Deliberator the Wisdom of this State to smother all dividing Factions and to abolish all partial Interests that the common Interest of England may be alone exalted Observation I hope he does not mean by State the Keepers of the Liberties if the Supreme Authority of this Nation as it is legally vested in the King the Man has kill'd himself What are Dividing Factions but such Parties as start from that common Rule the Law which every State is bound upon a Principle of Policy and Honor to preserve Sacred and Inviolable The Law is but the Wisdom treasur'd up of many Ages onely an amass of all those lights which long Experience strict Search and Industry and many Consultations of great Statesmen have given to the Discovery of our true Interest Great Reason is there to approve so great Authority and as great shame it were not to avow what we our selves have done The Law being but an Universal Vote beside the penalty of Disobedience How Mad then how Ignoble and how Desperate shall we esteem that Faction that breaks through all these bonds of Reverence Honor and Prudential Security to force that Sanctuary wherein as Christians and as Men we have reposed First the Protection of our Religion and then the Arbitration of our Lives and Fortunes From such Dividers Heaven deliver us first and then preserve us All Enterprises says our Author very rationally that have their beginning in judgment and not in passion are directed to a certain end set up as a mark and that end is not a business at Rovers but some particular steady issue of things certainly or probably apprehended and expected Wherefore let wise men consider the mark where at they level and to what issue and state of things their actions tend Most certain 't is without that mark men go they know not whether First the End then the Way is I suppose the Common Method of all Wise men and his advice to such to look before them might have been spared they would have don 't without it Now to his Business but first I 'le clear the way to 't The Question is Whether the fomenting of these Discords viz. in matters of Discipline do not proceed from a carual design And he debates the matter with the Episcopalians Here is a numerous Party not of the dregs and refuse of the Nation but of the judicious and serious part thereof What will they do with them and how will they order the matter concerning them Would they destroy them I solemnly profess that I abhor to think so by the generality of the Episcopal perswasion I would disdain to mention such an unreasonable impiety were it not to shew the inconsiderate and absurd proceedings of an unalterable opposition as that it cannot drive to any formed end and issue That Protestants should destroy Protestants for dissenting in the point of Ceremonies and sole Jurisdiction of Bishops is so dreadful a violation of Charity and common Honesty that it is a most uncharitable and dishonest thing to suppose it of them What then would they bear them down or keep them under hard conditions Shall all persons that cannot yield exact obedience to Ecclesiastical injunctions concerning all the parts of the Liturgy and Ceremonies be suspended and deprived as formerly Shall Ministers of this judgment be cast and kept out of Ecclesiastical Preferment and Employment Shall all private Conferences of Godly Peaceable Christians for mutual edification be held unlawful Conventicles It hath been thought by wise men to be against the Rules of Government to hold under a rigid yoke a free people of such a number and quality and intermingled in all estates and ranks and intimately conjoyned with all parts of the Body Politick that it is almost impossible to exclude their Interest from a considerable share in publick actions Observation We are so often told of this judicious serious Party pray let 's allow them to be a Company of very fine Gentlemen and mind our business I think he says they are numerous too So were the Frogs that came into the King's Chamber and what of that In good truth altogether it is a very pretty Anagram of Sedition If it wants any single Circumstance that 's needful to procure a Tumult I am exceedingly mistaken Mark it here 's Number Conduct and Pretence of Right to Embolden and to Fix the Multitude Then to Provoke and Heighten them old Sores are rub'd they are minded how they were used so long ago and hinted yet of worse behind if they have not a care betimes What is all this to say but Gentlemen you remember how it was with you formerly if you have a mind to any more of That so But things are well enough yet there are those will stand by you that know what they have to do and enow to make their hearts ake VVhy it is against all Rule of Government to put this yoke upon a Free People If the Author be within hearing he should do well to be his own Expositor In the mean while compare we the Gloss with the Text. He speaks now in his own words which the Reader may find by conferring them with the entire matter of the last Quotation to be extracted with the strictest justice to his meaning Here is says he a numerous Party of the judicious and serious part of the Nation what will they the Episcopalians do with them c. would they destroy them c. I solemnly profess that I abhor to think so of the generality of the Episcopal perswasion c. shall they be suspended and deprived as formerly shall all private conferences of godly peaceable Christians for mutual edification be held unlawful Conventicles It hath been thought by wise men to be against the Rules of Government to hold under a rigid yoke a Free People of such a Number and Quality This is cutting of a Man's Throat with a Whetstone Truly Horace his saying would sound very well from this Gentleman Fungor vice Cotis acutum Reddere quae ferrum valet exors ipse secundi My Office is to Whet not Cut. To tie him up now to his own Philosophy which is according to his fore-alledg'd Position that all Rational Enterprises propose some certain End unto which end all wise men conform their mediate Actions If it be so as we are agreed upon it then by that very reason which directs him to chuse the means are we enabled
Interest Mistaken OR THE Holy Cheat PROVING From the undeniable Practises and Positions of the Presbyterians that the Design of that Party is to enslave both King and People under the Masque of RELIGION By way of Observation upon a Treatise INTITULED The Interest of England in the Matter of RELIGION c. By ROGER L'ESTRANGE The Second Impression Aug. De Civ Dei Nullo modo his artibus placatur Divina Majestas quibus Humana Dignitas inquinatur LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in Ivy-lane 1661. To the Honourable HOVSE of COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT Most Honourable TO begg your Pardon or Protection were to suppose a Fault or Hazzard but in this Dedication finding neither I shall waive that Formality humbly submitting what I have to say my Reasons and my Self to your Authority and Wisdom without more Prologue or Apology There is a Faction which under the note of Presbyterian seems much concerned to stickle against Bishops Church-rites on the behalf of tender Consciences Their Writings and Opinions are with great Freedom Craft and Diligence dispers'd throughout the Nation to the great Scandal of the true Church and the Encouragement of those of the Revolt But this is yet the least part of the Mischief or in effect of their Design Their Ayme being to Tumultuate the People and make a Partie against the Civil Power Indeed their Pamphlets wear the Face of Church-disputes and Modells but he that reads them through and marques them narrowly shall find the King's Authority the Question That the late War against the King was Lawfull is a Position common to them all and this they publiquely maintain as the main Basis of the Cause By which assertion they cast the Bloud and Guilt upon His Majestie make his Adhaerents Traitors place the Supreme Authoritie in the two Houses subject the Law to an Ordinance the Government to a Faction and animate the Schismatiques to serve His Majestie in beeing as they did His Father This is the drift of their seditious Libells and of their Projects too if any judgement may be made upon their strict conformity of Argument and Methode to those that first embroyl'd us How farr this matter may require your Care becomes not me to meddle I thought it might be worth your Honours Knowledge and led by an Opinion of my Duty this state of the Affair such as it is I doe most humbly lay before you His Majesty had no sooner set Foot upon English ground but swarms of Pestilent papers were in a Readiness to enterteyn him Some of the sharpest of them I delivered to several Members of that Session with the Stationers name for whom they were Printed Smith at the Bible in Cornhill Croftons Agent but all too little to suppress them One Passage is this that Follows speaking of the limited Power of Kings This may serve to justify the proceedings of this Kingdom against the late King who in a hostile way set himself to overthrow Religion Parliaments Lawes and Liberties Hand in hand with this Pamphlet came forth Smectymnuus Reviv'd and recommended by Mr. Manton and since that time some Hundreds more of the same stamp whose common business 't is by Affronting of the Law and Flattering of the Rabble to cast all back into Confusiâ—n Among the many other Actours of Religion I find not any man playes his part better then the Author of That Treatise which hath extorted This who indeed abuses the People in very good terms Some hasty Observations I have pass'd upon him in favour of the easie and deceivable Vulgar which Prailties I submit to your Honours Charity but the main Equitie of the Cause I hope will stand the test of your severest Justice for doubtlesse much is due to the late King's Honour as well as to his Blood And somewhat with submission to your Wisdoms may be allow'd to his Partie at least sufficient to protect them from Popular contempt and the Infamous lash of every daring Libell I dare not trust my self further with my own thoughts and yet I take them to be such as very well consist with the Duty of Your Honours most Obedient and Humble Servant Roger L'estrange TO THE GOOD PEOPLE OF ENGLAND THe Cm mon good is the Common pretence of all seditious Combinations and it is no new thing for a Crafty Faction to impose upon a simple Multitude empty Appearances for Truths and Reason But our Reformers scorn to stop at this dull general method of Confusion The Law of God must be subjected as well as that of the Nation we must call Treason Loyalty and commit Murther as a point of Conscience No lesse than this is hinted in the Presbyterians Justification of the Scotish League and Quarrel nor have they any other aim than by procuring an Allowance of That War to make way to Another To this end they disperse their poysonous Infusions into all Quarters of the Kingdom under those very Forms of Piety and Tenderness by which they first betrayed us and by those very means do they now prosecute afresh their first Intentions That is they labour to promote the Cause by scandalous and rank Invectives against the Church and stirring up of Tumults to Reform it by a loud Pharisaical ostentation of their own Holyness a sour churlish Censure of all Others by sharp and sawcie Aspersions upon the Royal Party and by Reflections yet more bitter and Audacious upon his Sacred Majesty and his Murtherd Father To see these Libells passe with Freedom and Impunitie as if they were Authorized and to observe what foul Mistakes are grounded upon these grosse Allowances to the Kings Disadvantage and all without Controll or Confutation This and no other Reason so God blesse me that is of private Passion or Animosity of temper hath drawn this honest Folly from me I reckon it my Duty to my Prince and Country to my own Honour and to the Oath I have taken Where ever I find a publique Enemy to discover him And being thus Commissioned both by Authority and Conscience I proceed The Benefit of this Treatise is directed to the People and the Design of it is onely to lay open the Presbyterian Juggle that in one Age they be not twice deluded by the same Imposture My Arguments are Drawn from their own Practises and Positions from Presidents of Former times Cartwright and his Disciples from what hath passed within our own Experience from what these very men have done and from the very Logique of their own Writings what they professe they do intend to doe As the Delusion is apparent so is the Justice of Discoursing it Can it be thought that by the Act of Pardon his Majestie ever meant to subject all the Sober and Legal Interests of the Nation to be worried by a Faction Who of the Royal Party charges them Or if they did what has the Law done to offend them Or say the Law be sharp against them his Majesties unparalell'd Mercy has by
Nation turning up their Tails to a pack of Pedants Yet hateful as it is even that it self establish'd by Authority might challenge our Obedience I have digress'd too far yet in convenient place I must say something further upon this Subject If our new fangled Polititian had consider'd that the Kings Interest leads him to support that which the Presbyterians strive to overthrow the Protestant Religion I am perswaded he would have spared the Duke of Rhoan in this particular The Maxime even as it lies before us affording matter of dangerous Deduction to his disadvantage but taken in Coherence nothing can be more sharp and positive against him That great and wise Captain the Duke of Rhoan discoursing upon what reasons of State Q. Elizabeth acted toward Spain France and the United Provinces tells us particularly how much she favoured the Protestants in France Germany Par toutes ces maximes dit il cette sage Princesse a bien fait comprendre a ses successeurs que outre l' interest que l' Angleterre a commun avec tous les Princes c. By all these Maximes says he this wise Princess hath given her Successors to understand that besides the Interest which England hath common with other Princes yet one particular it hath which is to advance the Protestant Religion with the same zeal the King of Spain does the Catholick Be it here noted that when the Queen was most concern'd and busie to promote the Protestant Cause even at that very time was She as much employ'd to crush the Presbyterian Faction viz. Cartwright Coppinger Arthington Hacket and their Confederates The First of these was imprison'd and fined for Seditious and Schismatical practises against the Church and State The Second starved himself in a Gaol The Third repented and publickly recanted The Fourth was put to Death for horrid Blasphemies These people talk'd of a practical Ministery too The Men are gone but their positions are still in being and only attend a blessed opportunity to be put in execution This may appear from divers late discourses which are effectually no other then Cartwrights Principles and Model couch'd in warier terms and other Authority than these or such as these I think the very Authors of them will scarce pretend to One Observation more Our Paraphrast renders the advancement of the Protestant Religion Enmity with Rome to the great scandal of the Reform'd Profession We have no Enmity but with Errour which in a rigid Puritan to us is the same thing as in a Papist But Popery he tells us hath been ever infamous for excommunicating murthering and deposing Princes I am no advocate for the Roman Cause but upon this account I think betwixt the Jesuite and the Puritan it may be a drawn Battel And yet he follows with an assurance that the Protestant Religion aims at nothing but that the Kings Prerogative and popular Liberty may be even Ballanced That is the Puritan the Presbyterian Religion as he explains himself a little lower I cannot call to mind one single passage in this whole Discourse concerning the Kings Power or the Peoples Liberty which is not either worded Doubtfully or with some popular Limitation upon the Royal Authority What does he mean by even Ballancing Cheek by Joul Or by what Warrant from the word of God does a Presbyters Religion intermeddle with Popular Liberty Unless the holy man intends to bring Homage to Kings within the compass of Ceremonies of Humane and Mystical Institution Yet once again The Presbyterian Principle he sayes is for subjection to Princes though they were Hereticks or Infidels and if they differ herein from the Prelatical Protestant I was afraid we had been all Papists it is only that they plead for Liberty setled by known Laws and fundamental Constitutiont Still ad Populum these are the Incantations which have bewitch'd this Nation This Charm of qualify'd Disloyalty and Conditional Obedience Behold the very Soul of the Faction in these five lines a fair profession first to his Majesty and with the same breath a seditious hint to the People What is that Liberty he talks of but a more colourable title to a Tumult That Legal Freedome to which both by the Royal Bounty and our own Birth-right we stand entituled we ought not to contest for with our Soveraign and God be prays'd we need not Now for another fit of kindnesse His Majesty our Native King may govern as he pleases without fear of Hazards by continuing to shew himself a Common Father Observation What 's this cause a kin to the third Article of the Covenant To preserve and defend the Kings Majesties person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms as who should say if he does otherwise let him look to himself The excessive Dominion of the Hierarchy with the rigorous imposition of humane Ceremonies was accounted much of the malady of former times which ended in those deadly Convulsions of Church and State Observation Since this pragmatical Levite will provoke a Controversie I am content to entertain it If the Bishops excesses were the Cause of War how came the Kings ruine to be the effect of it But 't is no new thing for a Presbyterian to saddle the wrong Horse Just in this manner did the Covenanters treat his late Majesty and by those very Troops that cryed down Bishops was the King murther'd Ridiculous Brutes to boggle at a Surplice and yet run headlong into a Rebellion The grand source of our Miseries was the Covenant by which as by a Spell in the Name of the blessed Trinity the people were insensibly bewitched into an aptnesse to work any wickednesse which the Interpreters of that Oracle should say was the Intendment of it The first notorious Rupture was in Scotland in 1637. attended with a COVENANT which without Question was formerly agreed upon by the confederate Faction of both Kingdoms as the most proper and least hazardous way of tasting the Kings patience and the Peoples humours That their design was laid and carried on by Counsels and Intelligence as aforesaid may be collected from the Consequent and brotherly Agreements and truly the Retrospect of the Act of Indemnity seems to hint no lesse for it commences from the first Scottish Broyls tho' four or five years before the War brake out in England what was begun by Covenant was so prosecuted By virtue of the Covenant the Kirk-party supply'd themselves with Men and Monies Armies were brought into the Field and beyond doubt many that truly loved the King not knowing what they did ingaged against him To keep up this delusion the Press and Pulpit did their parts and to deal freely after this advance I should as much have wondred if they had stop'd short of his death as I find others wondering how they durst accomplish it Death with a Bullet or an Axe is the same Mischief to him
In 87. The Discipline was received and put in practise in Northampton-shire In 88. A Classical Assembly at Coventry In 89. A general Meeting in Cambridge and another at Ipswitch In 1590. Vpon the detection of the Premises they refused to answer upon Oath Being thus Associated they appropriate to their Meetings the name of the Church and use the style The Offices of the Lord Arch-bishops and Bishops c. says Martin Junior are condemn'd by the Doctrin of the Church of England By these degrees the Schismaticks advanced to a dangerous heighth and Boldness and of this temper and extraction are our Presbyterians After the aforemention'd discovery a stricter eye and hand was kept upon them divers of the Ring-leaders were imprison'd and the Covy broken Upon the coming in of King James they began to stir again but he knew them too well either to Trust or Suffer them How they behaved themselves towards the late King is to the eternal Infamy not onely of the Faction but of the Nation too notorious What they design toward the present Government That 's the Question And now I come to enquire Whether in Justice or Reason of State the Presbyterian Party should be Rejected and Depressed or Protected and Incouraged Before I fall upon the Question once again I explain my self By PRESBYTERIAN I intend a Faction that under colour of setling a Reform'd DISCIPLINE seeks to dissolve the frame of an establish'd Government And first I am to prove that Party so distinguish'd such a Faction which both from their own Practises Positions and from Common Observation and Authority I think I shall make good and that their last aim is to exercise that Tyranny themselves which they pretend to punish We 'l first examine how they treat the Civil Power If Princes be Tyrants against God and his Truth their Subjects are freed from their Oaths of Obedience Kings Princes and Governors have their Authority of the People and upon Occasion the People may take it away again Ministers ought not to obey the Prince when he prescribes Ceremonies and a Fashion of Apparel Evil Princes ought by the Law of God to be deposed Andrew Melvil being cited to answer for Treason delivered in a Sermon declined the judgment of the King affirming That what was spoken in Pulpit ought first to be tried and judged by the Presbytery and that neither the King nor Counsel might in primâ instantiâ meddle therewith although the speeches were Treasonable Strike the Basilique vein nothing but this will cure the Plurisie of our State Let us never give over till we have the King in our power and then he shall see how good Subjects we are Delivered in a Sermon It is lawful for Subjects to make a Covenant and Combination without the King But to come nearer Home to shew that the whole Gang is of the same Leaven Worse than all this was daily printed against the late King even by those Persons that were in pay to the Presbyterian Faction and yet at last those outrages are justifi'd against the Father by such as would be thought Loyal to the Son If Parliaments think to scape better they are deceived If the Brethren cannot obtain their will by suit nor dispute the Multitude and People must do the Feat One preached That though there were never so many Acts of Parliament against the Covenant yet it ought to be maintain'd against them all The Parliament can make no Law at all concerning the Church but onely ratifie what the Church decrees and after it hath ratifi'd it yet if the Assembly of the Church shall prohibite it and repeal that Decree of the Church all the Subjects are discharged from yielding obedience to that Act of Parliament An Assembly may abrogate Acts of Parliament if they any way reflect upon business of the Church Reformation of Religion belongs to the Commonalty Of the Parliament in the 24 year of the Queen says the Supplication if the desired Reformation be not granted There shall not be a man of their seed that shall prosper be a Parliament man or bear Rule in England any more Concerning Laws established They Fall in Consequence with the Power that makes them Presbyterians opinion of Bishops Let us see now with what modesty they treat the Church and first the Bishops They are Ordinances of the Devil Proud Popish presumptuous prophane paltry pestilent pernicious Prelates and Vsurpers Robbers Wolves Simoniacks Persecutors Sowers of Sedition Dragons and so to the end of the Chapter Their Clergy an Antichristian Swinish Rabble The Ministers are neither Proved Elected Called nor Ordained according to Gods Word The Ceremonies Carnal Beggerly Antichristian Pomps Presbyterian Reformation Hitherto the Faults of Governors and Government now their Proposals of Amendment and Reformation by what Rules and by what Means we may be Governed Better Thus then Let the whole Government of the Church be committed to Ministers Elders and Deacons Very good and to whom the Government of the State Why to Them too For the Church wherein any Magistrate King or Emperor is a Member is divided into some that are to Govern viz. Pastors Doctors and Elders and into such as are to obey viz. Magistrates of all sorts and the People The Question is next about the Extent of the Ecclesiastical Power and in what manner that Assumption hooks in all Civil Actions within their Cognisance In Ordine ad Spiritualia Forsooth by which rule nothing scapes them 'T is the desire of the Admonitor That he and his Companions may be deliver'd by Act of Parliament from the Authority of the Civil Magistrates as Justices and others and from their Inditings and Finings The Eldership shall suffer no leud customs to remain in their Parishes either Games or otherwise And further The Office of the Church-Governors is to decide Controversies in Doctrine and Manners so far as pertaineth to Conscience and the Church-censures Every Fault says Cartwright that tendeth either to the Hurt of a man's neighbour or to the hindrance of the glory of God is to be examined and dealt in by the Orders of the holy Church Nay Knox goes further yet The bare Suspition of Avarice or of Pride Superfluity or Riotousness in Chear or Rayment Even this Nicety falls within their Censure Now would I know what need of a Civil Magistrate when even our private thoughts are subjected to the Scrutiny of a Presbytery But will some say What signifies the intemperance of Particular tongues as to the General of the Party I am challenged by the Author of the Interest of England to produce their Actions and That 's my next immediate Business The Presbyter has now the Chair see how he manages his Greatness None of that Tyranny ye found in Bishops I warrant ye no groaning now under the Yoke of Antichrist the intolerable burthen of canonical Subscription the Imposition of
would over-throw the Law and set up themselves above it and These Contrivers put the People upon Cavilling for Ceremonies They innocently under a mistake of Conscience advance an Interest of Usurpation taking that to be onely a Dispute about the Lawfulness of the Practise which rationally pinches upon the validity of the Power It ends in this Grant once that a Popular Vote may over-rule a Stated Law though but to the value of a Hair the vertue of that reason extends to our Freedoms Lives and Fortunes which by the same Rule they may take away as well as Ceremonies And as the case stands Kings as well as Bishops But seeing this great Revolution hath not happened by the prevailing force of one Party but by the unstrained motion of all England what reason is there that one Party should thrust the other out of its due place of rest upon the common Foundation No reason in the world The Law is our common resting place the main Foundation upon which we are all to Bottom The Law is an impartial Judge let That determine which place belongs to Bishops which to Presbyters what Ceremonies are Lawful and which not This is a short and a sure way worth forty of his Coalition Having pressed union hitherto he proceeds now to remove certain impediments One whereof is an erroneous judgment touching the times foregoing the late Wars Observation In truth 't is pity the people are no better Instructed Then let them know from me those very principles these folks contend for were brought by Knox about 1558. from Geneva into Scotland from thence they were transmitted into England since which time the Abettors of them in both Nations have never ceased by Leagues Tumults Rebellions and Vsurpations to embroile the publick Peace and affront the Supreme Authority They have formally proceeded to the Deposing of Princes the exercise of an absolute Authority over the Subject the abrogation of Laws the Imposition of Taxes and in fine to all extremities of Rigour as well in matters of Civil Liberty as of Conscience He that desires a Presbytery let him but read Presbyter for King in the first Book of Samuel and the eighth Chapter and he shall there find what he is reasonably to expect These were the pranks foregoing the late Wars and such as these will be again if people be not the wiser But our Camerade will be none of the Party sure For I abhor says he to take upon me the defence of our late distracted times the distempers thereof I would not in any wise palliate Is the wind in that dore Now do I feel by his Pulse that Crofton's laid by the heels He hath forgot that the War was between the King and both Houses of Parliament And that the Presbyterian Party in England never engaged under a less Authority than that of both Houses of Parliament And that Presbyterians have never disclaimed or abandon'd their lawful Prince It may be he means that he will not justifie the Distempers of the other side But why do we contest since he tells us that It is the part of weak and selfish minds to contract Religion to certain modes and forms which stand not by divine Right but by the wills of men and which are of little efficacy and very disputable and if supposed lawful ought to be governed by the Rule of Charity Observation I would fain know which is more tolerable for the Church to impose upon the People or the People upon the Church For the People on the one side to exempt all or for the Church on the other side to bind all Order it self is of Divine appointment but the manner of Ordering save where God himself hath preimposed is left to Humane liking and Discretion To think says he that none is a good Christian a sound Protestant a fit Minister that cannot subscribe to such Modes and Forms proceeds from a narrow and ignoble judgment He may be a fit Teacher for Geneva that cannot subscribe to the Form of England and a fit Minister for England that cannot conform to the practise of Geneva they may be both good Christians too and sound Protestants yet neither of them fit in transposition 'T is one thing to be qualifi'd for the Ministerial Function and another thing to be fit for such or such a Constitution 'T is true he Officiates as a Minister but thus or so as a Subject and that 's the real ground of their exception They do not willingly admit the King's Authority in matters of the Church and that which effectually is but their own Ambition they obtrude upon the world as a high point of Tenderness to the people There are beyond all doubt weak Consciences fit objects for indulgence but the less pardonable are their Mis-leaders whose business 't is for their own ends to engage the simple multitude in painful and inextricable scruples Let them Preach down-right Treason stir up the Rabble to Tumult and Sedition if they chance to be caught and question'd for it see with what softness they treat their Fellows and with what supercilious gravity their Superiors When some degree of forwardness breaks forth it is encountred with that severity which hazards the undoing of the weak part that should and might be healed And again to the same effect concerning Crofton's Commitment I imagine But suppose that some of this way were guilty of some provoking forwardness should grave Patriots and wise Counsellors thereupon destroy the weak part or rather heal it A prudent Father is not so provoked by the stubbornness of a Child as to cast him out and make him desperate while there is yet hope concerning him It is meet indeed for Princes to express their just indignation when Subjects presuming on their Clemency do not contain themselves within their duty and the seasonable expression of such disdain wisely managed is of great force in Government nevertheless if it get the mastery it is exceeding perilous It was the Counsel of Indignation that proceeded from Rehoboam 's young Counsellors What this Language deserves both from the King and his Counsel let those that have authority to punish Judge When Governors resent the non-compliances of a Party their best remedy is to remove the occasions when it may be done without crossing the Interests of State or Maxims of Government Observation That is if the People will not yield to the Prince the Prince should do well to yield to the People A most excellent way for a King that hath to do with Presbyterians where he shall be sure never to want subject for his Humility nor ever to get thanks for his Labour Where there are many sufferers upon a Religious account whether in truth or pretence there will be a kind of glory in suffering and sooner or later it may turn to the Rulers detriment Observation There will not be many Sufferers where there are not many Offenders and
Monarchy shall have a place by it self yet I might very well content my self with what arises from his own words as they lie here before us to Prove what he Denies for in the same Breath he both Starts the Question and Resolves it Did not the English and Scotch Presbyters go about to dissolve Monarchy What is the Analysis of Monarchy but a Government by a Single Person and as I take it the Injur'd Father of our present Soveraign was That Person to whom of Right the Regal Dignity belonged Did not these Presbyters he talks of place the Supreme Power in the Two Houses and under Their Commission seize the King's Towns and Forts Levy Arms Tax the People Plunder and Kill their Fellow-Subjects Impose Oathes Share His Majesty's Revenues Persue and Jewishly sell and betray His Sacred Person If to do all this not onely Without but expresly Against the King's Commission be not to go about to dissolve Monarchy I know not what is Or if the Gentleman had rather dispute the Royal Prerogative than confess his own Mistake in this Particular we 'l look a little that way too but I doubt the Prospect will be none of the pleasantest Upon the Trial of Cook and Peters This was Delivered for Law See the Narrative Page 182 and 183. It is the Law of this Nation That no One House nor Both Houses of Parliament have any Coercive power over the King That the Imprisoning of the King is Treason And a little further Thus The King of England is one of those Princes who hath an Imperial Crown What 's That It is not to do what he will No but it is that he shall not be punished in his own Person if he doth That which is in it selfe Unlawful This is a short and clear decision of the Case nor will it serve the good man's turn to argue their Integrity from what they were bound to by their Covenant and Declarations It matters not what they Profess'd but what they Did. If this be all they have to say some Heads are now upon the City-Gates that said as much What was the Covenant but a Popular Sacrament of Religious Disobedience a Mark of Discrimination who were against the King and who were for him And this the Marquis of Montross soon found who being at first unwarily engaged in it with the Kirk-party quickly perceived his error and retired Living and dying the Honor of his Nation and of the Royal Cause Mark this His Loyalty was charged upon him at his Death for Breach of Covenant The Presbyterian Casuists would fain perswade the Nation to think themselves obliged by that Engagement Who Vnderstands it first And certainly we cannot be bound to do we know not what Next 't is impossible either to Keep or Break it 't is made up of so many Contradictions But once for All there is a Nullity in the Institution No man can oblige himself in things wherein he is subject without leave from his Superior And again The Oath of One who is under the power of Another without the others consent is neither Lawful nor Obligatory Thus the Reverend and Learned Bishop Sanderson Now to my Presbyterian again After the violent change of Government they came slowest and entred latest into those new Engagements imposed by the Vsurped Powers and some utterly refused even to the forfeiture of their preferments and the hazzard of their livelyhoods when the Nation in general submitted to the yoke and many of those who thus object against them did in temporizing run with the foremost The truth is the generality of Conscientious Presbyterians never ran with the current of those times Some more eminent among them Ministers and others hazzarded their lives and others lost their lives in combining to bring our Soveraign that now is to the rightful possession of this his Kingdom And those in Scotland adventured no more then all to uphold him and when he lost the Day they lost their Liberty and when he fell it was said by the Adversary Presbytery was fallen Where I must either leave the Story foul on the Kings side or prove it so on the Other my choice is pardonable but otherwise I shall be very tender of engaging the Honest Presbyterians with the Guilty That many of them lov'd His Majesty and suffer'd for him I will not question and that they all submitted most unwillingly to that Violent Change here mention'd I do as little doubt But I must needs say the Action had been Nobler and the Loyalty much Clearer had they consulted the Kings Security before they lost their own This does not yet oblige me to the same Charity for the Scotish Party who first during a Treaty with His Majesty basely and brutishly murthered Montrose and after that Treated the King himself liker a Prisoner than a Prince He urges that the Presbyterians first divided and then dissipated the Sectarian Party and so made way for his Majesties return in Peace Lambert and his Nine Worthies did as much I do believe him too that the sense of the Covenant quickned many men's Consciences in their allegiance to the King So did the Cock-crowing mind St. Peter of the denial of his Master But he went out and wept bitterly So does not every body Alas alas the Saints have no faults what should they weep for It may be peradventure said the Presbyterians would enervate Monarchy but surely says our Discourser I cannot find the rise of this Objection unless from hence that they were not willing to come under any yoke but that of the Law of the Realm or to pay Arbitrary Taxes levied without consent of Parliament Observation From hence these two Deductions First That the Subjects free from that which binds the King namely the Yoke of Law Suppose He breaks that Law by what Law can we question him At best 't is but to punish One Transgression by Another The Second Hint is Dis-ingenuous as if Arbitrary Taxes had been the subject of the Difference All the world knows before a blow was strook the King had stript himself to his Honour and his Conscience to gratifie his People But 't was the Government they aim'd at and that they fought for Here is yet another gentle slip What are Taxes to Presbytery But this is a Devil that will hardly be kept within his Circle Just so in their Practices do they reduce all Civil Actions under the Cognizance of their Courts of Conscience as he brings here by head and shoulders Arbitrary Taxes to Matter of Religion I confess says he there are none that more reverence their Liberties and value the native-happiness of the free-born Subjects of England And verily their true knowledge and sense of the nature of Christian Religion makes a due freedom exceeding precious For this Religion is not variable according to the will of man but grounded upon an unchangeable and eternal truth and doth indispensably bind
every soul high and low to one divine Law and Rule perpetual and unalterable And therefore doth strongly plead the expedience of a due civil Liberty on the behalf of its Professors yet such a liberty as will not enfeeble Monarchy nor the Legal power of the Kings of England Observation Truly I think I have not seen words so well put together that signifie so little Because Religion is not variable but grounded upon an unchangeable and eternal Truth c. Therefore the Professors of it must have a due civil Liberty c. Is not a Due Liberty Due to all people Again What is civil Liberty to matter of salvation And yet again Why should the Presbyterians challenge that liberty to themselves which they refuse to others upon the very same Plea and not rather submit their Discipline to the Law then stoop the Law to their Discipline There is a Liberty which is a cloak for Maliciousness and I am afraid Theirs and That are much a-kinn One thing is very notable they never state what they would have their terms are general and indefinite hard to be understood because they are resolv'd not to be satisfi'd A Due Freedom a Due Civil Liberty The Legal Power What means all this but any thing they shall be pleased to make of it A King ruling a free People hath a Power much more noble and more free than he that ruleth over perfect Vassals that have no Propriety The power is more noble because it hath a more noble subject of Government it is more honorable to rule Men than Beasts and Freemen than slaves Likewise the power is more free For whatsoever Prince hath not his power limited by his people's legal freedom he will be bound up some other way either by the potency of subordinate Princes and great Lords within the Realm or by a veterane Army as the Turkish Emperor by his Janizaries and the Roman Caesars by the Pretorian Bands and the Legions Vpon which account to be a powerful Monarch over a free people is the freedome and glory of our Soveraign Lord above all the Potentates on earth Observation A King ruling a free people is a kind of Presbyterianism and sounds better in the mouth of a Lawyer than of a Divine The Correlate to Rule is Subjection nor will their Title to a Propriety yet justifie the common usage of the Term. 'T is of a dangerous Intimation and seems to give the people more than comes to their share I speak with reverence to the benignity of our English Laws and the Indubitable right which every Subject hath to the Benefits thereof That it is more honorable to Rule Free-men than Slaves is but a Complement For I can make those Slaves Free when I please whereas the other way of my power 's confin'd that is in Equity a Prince is bound to observe the Law as his own Act and if he fails the people may compel him to it if they can shew a Law for 't To end this point What Prince soever shall suffer every bubling brain to controvert the bounds of King and Subject the Royal Authority and the Peoples Freedom that Prince I say runs a great hazzard of his Soveraignty The very moving of the Question is to prophane the Sacredness of Majesty and by degrees begets irreverend and sawcy habits in the people But Rebellion he tells us and Disobedience is the loud out-cry of some against this Party And this were a crying sin indeed But let not sober minds be hurried into prejudice by such exclamations and out-cries It were to be wished for common peace and amity that the late publick Discords were eternally forgotten But seeing some in these times of expected Reconciliation will not cease to implead and condemn the honest minded and render them odious to the higher Powers a necessity is laid upon us to speak something Apologetical at least to mitigate the business and remove prejudice Observation Sure this loud out-cry of Rebellion aad Disobedience comes from within himself for truly I have a little watch'd the Press and since his Majesty's Return nay a good while before upon my conscience I have not met with one syllable of bitterness against that Party but Defensive Yet I dare undertake to produce forty Presbyterian Pamplets and Discourses of fresh date exceeding foul against the King and his Adherents It really makes me blush and tremble to consider how great a mercy they abuse how sad a vengeance they provoke Had but these people the least spark of natural affection and remorse the venerable ruines of a glorious Chuch and State would work upon them Or now and then a thought how matters stand betwixt God and their Souls But their great care of others make them neglect themselves and become true Anathemaes for a pretended publick good However they do well to cry Whore first and call that a Necessitated Apology which seems to me a palpable and causeless Slander We have heard much and often of the Presbyterians Loyalty and Religion we 'l look a little now into their Law which very fairly gives us to understand that the Vnbishopping of Timothy and Titus will not do their trick They are at work already upon the two main props of Royalty the King 's Negative Voice and the Power of the Sword A blessed Age the while when the Pulpit shall pretend to dispose of the Crown Kerve out the Government and every scribling Priest vent his seditious and crude Politiques to the People But now it works The Presbyterian Party in England never engaged under a less Authority than that of both Houses of Parliament I have read that the Parliament of England hath several capacities and among the rest these two First that it represents the People as Subjects and so it can do nothing but manifest their grievances and petition for relief Secondly That by the constitution it hath part in the Soveraignty and so it hath part in the Legislative power and in the final Judgment Now when as a part of the Legislative Power resides in the Two Houses as also a Power to redress grievances and to call into question all Ministers of State and Justice and all Subjects of whatsoever degree in case of Delinquency it might be thought that a part of the Supreme Power doth reside in them though they have not the honorary Title Observation Me-thinks we should do well to leave calling the Two Houses the Parliament of England having already paid so dear for that mistake Concerning the Power of the Parliament of England 'T is beyond doubt onely inferiour to the Fountain of all Power even God Himself But then an Agreement is imply'd neither King Lords nor Commons nor any Two of them can pretend to a Parliamentary Authority without the Third This is not to suppose Co-ordination neither The Two Houses are still Subjects Their Office being onely Consultive or Preparatory The Character of Power rests in the final Sanction and