Master Wilcocks of Goudhurst in Kent These and many others having done nothing worthy of death or of bonds are inserted iâ—to the blâ—ck â—ill of scandalous and superstitious Ministers for preaching nothing but obedience to Soveraigne Authority and points consonant to the Holy Scriptures and the Doctrine of the Church of England as it stands established by Act of Parliament I confesse Master In golds by aggravated his crime of preaching for obedience by setting forth the Doctrine of our Church in six Homilies established by Parliament for the use of every Parish against Rebellion and the oathes of Supremacy and Allegeance with the Protestation and an Epistle prefixâ— to light the people unto their duty for which he was sent for up the second time with a Troope of Horse but escaping from them he came of his owne accord to his prison desirous to make his answer which they â—â—nd no leisure yet to hearken 〈◊〉 Nay they will not permit that holy man Master Thrush-crosse to tâ—ach White-Hall to continue loyall and Protestant He seem'd to taske the Justice of this bloudy Warre with reflection upon this new designe and presently an inquisition is made after him and the Sunday following a Guard is set upon every Gate if noâ— for other malicious ends likewise to fright him from the Pulpit This is their account of scandalous Ministers whom they would have either rooted out or silenced Another project to advance Religion was the taking the Clergy off from Temporall imployments and this is stretcht so farre that they are reputed Excentrickes as moving out of the sphere of their calling if they study to preach downe Rebellion and disobedience And yet all the world knowes their owne Clergy have been as active instruments here as Mr Henderson in the State affaires of Scotland Doctor Burgesse we find him at every turne and Mr Iohn Sedgewicke must be made Members of a Sub-Committee for advancement of monies Nay the Doctâ—râ— who hath obtained the Title of a Colonell this Military Commencement for riding to encourage the work with his case of Pistols was so officious as to assist Plundering at the Globe Taverne in Holborne And there is not a designe but thâ—se men have a singer in it and of their tongues more then their share Wee have seen how faithfull they have fought for the Church they promised and protested they did as much and they have done no lesse for the King and Kingdome That this waâ—â—e was for the defence of the Kings Person is such a pretence as honest men are ashamed of and all men laâ—gh at unlesse you can perswade them you teach your bullets to distinguish as nicely as your selves between the Kings Personall commands and his Person Those that have heard it delivered for sound doctrine and without controll that the King might have been killed in the crowd with a good Conscience and have seen what Regiments and Troops were most aimed at according to Captaine Blagues directions at Keinton battell and heard the bullets sing about His Majesties eares cannot believe you did more then complement when you stiled His royall person Sacred unlesse you can change the property of Sacred Persons as well as of Sacred things which you goe about though all men account it Sacriledge to alienate And how should wee believe you would fight for the defence of His Person when you seize upon all His provision that if you cannnot do it by the sword you may murder him by famine But admit they fight not for the defence of his royall person yet they may fight for his Crowne and Dignity this hath been much pretended to and that they did so in some sence may very well be believed But in earnest how can we be perswaded they tender the Honour of the Crowne when they imploy their Rabbies to satisfie if it were possible mens consciences in a wilfull and groundlesse disobedience by returning ill languages to sober and solid arguments against it How doe they maintaine Prerogative when they pretend to a power Coordinate with their Soveraigne and set up men to cleare the Title for them though they have no evidence but such as was never seen by our wise Ancestours The very name of Monarch implies a soleship of Government to them that understand it If the Monarchy be mixt 't is not so as if the Soveraignty were shared amongst diverse for that were a meerâ— Bull But this mixture consists of these two ingrâ—dients viz. setled law and where a law is not setled the discretion and prudence of the Governour In making lawes wherein their chiefe power consisteth they may propound and consent but it lies still in the Kings power to refuse or ratifie If the power of the three Estates be Coordinate and the rule hold as the Fuller answer will have it Coordinata se invicem supplent Coordinates supply one another he presently brings the three Estates into the House of Commons and they delegate the power to a close Committee and so makes them a Court of Record to give oath commit and sentence at their pleasure as they have done too many and every Vote of theirs though the King and the Lords dissent from it by vertue of this power of Supplying inherent in them shall be made an Act of Parliament And if the King be brought thus low shall he stand there shall he not from Coordinate be brought a step lower and be made subordinate why yes that is another Doctrine He is Vniversis minor a Subject to all his Subjects and those mistakes which were so often condemned as breaches of their priviledge were nothing else but so many acts of His Majesties disobedience And His people being greater then hee and above him may take his owne Forts and Armes to reduce and compell him Was there ever any Iesuite out-went them in defending the rights of Kings Some are so tender of His Majesties Crowne that they are not ashamed to say the oath of Alleagiance was never made to bind the Protestants but the Papists onely If they fight not for the rights of the Crowne perhaps they fight for the rights of Parliament That hath been pretended too yet who ever broke the Priviledges thereof more then tumults of their own countenancing and raising The carriages which themselves onely have managed have brought Parliaments under so much prejudice and disparagement that the ceremony of a due reverence will be as much denyed unto them as unto any thing else till some other course be taken to restore them to their Ancient reputation Their Plea for the Lawes of the Land is no lesse vaine for if they had any Law for their proceedings there should bee no need of so many strange wilde and never-before-heard of Ordinances Insomuch as the Contra-Replicant confesâ—esseth on their behalfe in this manner Nothing has done us more harme of late then this opinion of adhering to law onely for our preservation It would be good to adde more arbitrary power to the Earle of
will prove no other then the Booke of Common-Prayer With these jugling and slight-of-hand trickes wee have beene long amazed but they have beene plaid so often over that every man who is not wilfully blinde discovers them and now they serve for no use but for wise men to lament and boyes to laugh at we may justly wonder what springs they move by that drive them on so furiously against the streame of truth law and reason and yet we may cease to wonder for we have beene sufficiently informed that some of this violent party are spurr'd on by the law of their owne necessities A Captaines pay per annum is More money then five of their prime Instruments were ever owners of The Honest Letter hath told us on which side the beggerly Lords and Gentlemen are of and 't is easily concluded if we consider who they are that take the present pay out of a publike stocke whilest their Cure is served by their under-officers and who they are that serve in their owne persons and besides the hazard of their residence raise and maintaines Forces at their owne charges Others we know pursue this designe out of an inveterate malice unto Majestie It was an expression of but little loyaltie and not the further from truth because uttered in a Taverne that They would make the King as poore as Job unlesse he did comply with them That Champion that wrestled so stoutly with his Sovâ—raigne at Law in the case of Ship-money might have come off with honour if he had staid there But seeing him after satisfaction one of the first in the field desperately provoking His Majesty to the sharpe we suspect malice though we hope he will be deceived in the length of the Kings weapon and so perish by it Others know and have protested the King cannot in honour pardon them and if they should submit to the Law they are too sure that would prove a killing letter to them and therefore they dare not abide the issue of an Accommodation Others having transformed themselves into Angels of light possest the people that they were of a nearer communion even of the Cabinet-Councell with God himselfe and broached their illusiions for divine Revelations These men could see that God had plainly chalked out a way in his holy Word which our fore-fathers for 1500 yeeres together could never see That Jesus Christ had sate all this while besides his Throne and they must dispossesse Antichrist whose spiâ—it and manner of working by lying wonders c they are very well acquainted with before our Saviours government can be established These men being canoniz'd for Saints by the ignorant multitude that understand not the depth of Satans delusions thinke it too great a disgrace to be stigmatized with an ignominious death for Sedition which they know they are by Law guilty of Those men that began the Warre upon such unwarrantable gronnds and have purused it to the murdering of so many thousands will undoubtedly drive it if it be possible to the last pinch For although we hope they shall never comprimise differences to their owne personall safety and preferment and out irrevocable slavery as one of their Clerkes in his frivolous paper saith they may doe yet they will drive it on as long as they have any hopes to get so great a pawne into their hands as shall inable them to make their owne conditions If this faile having shipt away so much of the Treasury of the Kingdome as may make them considerable and welcome guests to New-England or such other places they care not how miserable they make this Land before they leave it And here by the way we could wish that our own mony that was ordered to be transported in Trunkes without searching might not be brought backe to buy our goods withall for our stocke being plundered by them if they may have the liberty as they take liberty to doe any thing to prize it for themselves we may presume they will afford good penny-worths and never leave us till they have removed both the Exchanges with the Kings Exchequer and the Chamber of London into the Earle of Warwickes new Liberties 'T is time to look about us for we are to play our game with the greatest Cheaters in Christendome who think they have as good a Warrant to spoile such as they have call'd Malâ—gnant for no other reason then their loyalty as ever Israel had to spoile the Egyptians Let us no longer suffer our selves to be abused and mis-led by those false lights which they have hung out to deceive us Doe not all their practices runne counter to their pretences Doe we not perceive them look one way and steere the contrary Let us learne to know their aimes not by their words but by their actions If we trace them through all their proceedings we shall find they have given the lie to every particular pretence though never so speciously alledged for their justificaon in this warre Who was more cryed up then the defence of the true Protestant Religion This was the very shield and buckler of their Army This is made the Generalismo of all their Arguments and marcheth in the front of all the battaile If this were not at the stake most men conclude the warre absolutely unlawfull But how a quarrell can be justly made to defend a Religion that condemnes such a quarrell and such a defence as the true Protestant Religion doth I professe I understand not If our Religion did runne an aparent hazard I am confident this scandalous and offensive defence cannot be justified but by such Iâ—fuitidall principles as all the Schooles of Protestants except the Scots and not all of them neither for the Ministers of Aberden have declared themselves clearly and solidly of this opinion in their Duplies have unansmously exploded But we have sufficient grounds of suspition that the Religion which is so barbarously militant in a Buffe-coat is not the same Religion which was peaceably obedient in a Surplice Wee reade in Plaine English of hopes they have not onely of reforming that is rooting out our Discipline but also of purging our Doctrine notwithstanding they have bound themselves by a solemne Protestation if any such thing can binde them for they have done as much for the Kings Person Rights and Dignity to maintaine it We had thought they would have made their new experiments onely upon our old Governmnet but it seemes that wise Colledge of State-Physicians think it fit to make the Doctrine of our Church their Patient and we are afraid they will let too much bloud there too and their purge if they be suffered to administer will be strong enough to overthrow it Well! whether the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion be the Argument of this sword-dispute may be decided by a speedy tryall Let them reduce the Fabricke of our Religion according to the Model of Queen Elisabeths time in which those foundations were laid which made the Church of England the
most eminent and glorious of all Protestant Churches If His Majesty consents not to all this and to something more upon the advice of a grave and learned Synod for the satisfaction of tender consciences but recedeth from His many free and gracious offers to that purpose then let those bitter and scandalous imputations of inclining unto Popery be never washt away from Him But if this be one of the maine Arguments of His Majesties taking up just necessary and defensive Armes against Anabaptists Brownists and Sectaries who have already throwne downe the hedge and now fall to pillaging of the grapes of the Lords Vineyard and that with countenance and encouragement from a party in both Houses then we may conclude we approach very fast unto Atheisme and Prophanenesse and are fallen into those times which Sir Walter Raleigh speakes of in his Historie of the Word B. 2. Chapt. 5. sect 1. speaking of the care that Moses had of all things that concerned the worship and service of God which care of his all ages have in some degree imitated Yet sayes he and we may say so more truly it is now so forgotten and cast away in this super fine age by those of the family By the Anabaptists Brownists and other Sectaries as all cost and care bestowed and had of the Church wherein God is to he served and worshipped is accounted a kind of Popery and as proceeding from an Idolatrous disposition insomuch as time would soone bring to passe if it were not resisted that God would be turned out of Churches into Barnes and from thence againe into the Fields and Mountaines and under the Hedges and the offices of the Ministers robb'd of all dignity and respect be as contemptible as these places All Order Discipline and Church-Government left to newnesse of opinion and mens fancies yea and soone after as many kindes of Religion would spring up as their are Parish Churches within England Every contentious and ignorant person clothing his fancy with the Spirit of God and his imagination with the gift of Revelation insomuch as when the Truth which is but one shall appeare to the simple multitude no lesse variable then contrary to it selfe the faith of men will soone after die away by degrees and alll Religion held in scorne and contempt Doth not this directly hit the temper of our times wherein the conformable ministry is generally discountenanced ignorant and seditious persons men of all qualities and professions sâ—t up like Jeroboams Calves to out-face rhem Wherein all sorts of Conventicles forbidden by Law are tolerated and frequented by those that ought to punish them wherein men will take upon them to be Magistrates and declaime against the publike worship and service of God as it hath stood ever since the Reformation in the Church of England and shut up the doores of the Mother-Church if it bee lawfull to use any name of reverence and authority besides the name of a Parliament that the solemne service of God may not be administred as it hath been for a president to other Churches wherein men are imprisoned and cannot be inlarged unlesse they will promise to forbeare the use of the Common-Prayer the Crosse in Baptisme and kneeling at the holy Communion wherein the holy Apostles of our Saviour are unsainted as if we now doubted of their salvation all this and more then this can be proved against Alderman Pennington If wee look into the House lest their Members should not bee infected fast enough with this pestilent disease the Preachers of their choosing were for the most part notorious schismaticall Separtists And for the Synod of their owne setting forth after a new translation for feare the Clergy should have sent men that were too orthodoxall they deprived them of their rights forgetting their Protestation or taking them to be not the Subjects intended in it and made choice of as many men as they could get under no remarkable character but for their ignorant novelty and factious singularity of opinion If we look upon the men they most confide in we shall find them of the same stampe or else their prisoners must not be committed to them Doctor Leyton an old Scottish Preacher stigmatized long since for Sedition Gaoler at Lambeth House Dillingham a notorious Brownist with his wife and family Goaler at London-House Devenish the Keeper and Randall the Porter both Conventicle-Preachers at Winchester-House and the Porter at Ely-House can deliver as much extemporary Sedition as the best of them If we look into their Army wee shall find their intemperate zeale not without encouragement from some great ones hath transported them not onely to the prophanation of Churches defacing of Monuments tearing of holy Books and decent Vestments but even to the murdering of the true sonnes of the Church for ioyning in her devotions as the late example at Lambeth evidenceth Wee see then what is done for the defence of the true Protestant Religion as it stands reformed and establisht in the Church of England This Religion is pretended but another is practiced and in order to this new one for the old hath consisted with the old government Episcopacy must be rooted out and to this end they have used the most Reverend Bishops for no other crime then for being of that function as whilome the enemies of the Gospell did the holy Martyrs of Jesus Christ when they clothed them in the skins of wilde beasts to animate the dogges to teare them so the Fathers of the Church have been set forth under the most scandalous and ignominious character to inrage the people against them And although they are as farre from discovering as from agreeing what they would have in the roome of it yet this must downe that 's concluded and though a Synod be desired as the most competent Judge of such Controversies yet this is to be convened onely for colour fake the work must be done or rather undone before they be consulted with or assembled We may expostulate though they will not allow their Votes how unreasonable soever to be disputed How came Episcopacy that hath stood so long a piller in the house of God to grow so diametrically opposite to the truth or peace of the Gospell Was not our Religion reformed under that Government and hath not our Church and State flourish't to the envy of our neighbours under it If some tares have sprung up under it have they not sprung up much faster and spread further under other formes of Government beyond the Seas If inconveniences have crept in through that wall which if not of Christs own is doubtlesse of his Apostles building much more through those low hedges of their setting up who hhve no grounds besides their owne fancies to plant them on There is a necessity of emerging offences and tares will grow amongst the Wheat untill the Harvest or else our Saviour hath deceived us His wisdome sees that the very chaffe may contribute something to the benefit of the
good graine in this life and therefore hath reserved the thorow-purging of his floore till his owne comming unto Judgement A little breaking in of the salt waters makes our helds more fruitfull Our chief care must be to keep out Inundations and the way to doe that is to keep the bankes up and to keepe them sound not to levell them The Houses did once thinke it convenient to declare by Votes which we see religiously observ'd in other things that they intended the abolishing neither of the Liturgy nor of the Church-Government And truely if wee perceive Voteâ— which have presum'd â—o challenge so much respect and veneration from us created onely to serve turnes upon occasion and carried Pro and Con as emergent advantages are administred they will presently lose their repuâ—ation amongst us of being infallible and gives us hopes that upon the more mature deliberation of second thoughts at least all groundlesse Votes apparently and experimentally dâ—structive to the Kingdome shall bee recalled And for the Government of the Church being purg'd of some abuses wee professe wee like the Preachers â—dvice so well and have found their principles so pestilent that we would not willingly meddle with them that are given to change unlâ—sse we can see better Arguments produced though this last of the sword hath been the strongest to move us We are of their opinion that having dranke old Wiâ—e cannot desire new for they know the old is better And it is not an idle observation that since they fell from pruning to rooting up their endeavours have been almost miraculously blasted by an immediate and remarkeable curse upon them If there be any that thinks this order in the Church is not worth the strife about it and that our Religion may consist without it let them with a sad and serious heart ponder these Considerations 1. That instead of these by the independent way a Pope and however a Bishop will be set up in every Parish 2. That there was no other Government though perhaps some other qualifications in it heard of in the Church of God till about 100 yeares since insomuch as some of no small note for learning and piety stand in great doubt whether there can be any lawfull Ordination and consequently any lawfull Ministry without it These who make up a farre more considerable party in this Church then those who have already separated and therefore ought in the first place by all the rules of Christian charity to have their scruples satisfied upon the rooting out of this Ancient Government must needs abandon our Communion 3. That the true Protestant Religion establisht in the Church of England was never so much undermin'd and blemisht whilest some of the Bishops slept and others were too active as it hath been by new sprung up Sects and monstrous opinions since their office was suspended 4. That the next Orders like to be quarrel'd at if it be not too evident they are quarrel'd at already will be the Nobility and the Gentry and if we should allow the argument against the Order of Bishops that the Protestant Religion and the generall safety of the Kingdome may consist without them may not the same argument with as good reason be taken up against the other by the meaner sort of people who shall have hopes to share their estates amongst them till all degrees be levelled Lastly That the argument of the dispute is not so much whether Bishops or no Bishops as whethâ—r a King or no King for we must hold the negative if Subjects may be allowed by force of Armes when they cannot get the Kings consent to pull downe any piece of his settled Government With the Fathers they pretend to thrust out the Children and those are commonly deciphered under the notion of scandalous Ministers The truth is it were well for the Church of God if all that were such were thrust out of her bosome But they have stretcht the Word to such a latitude that if they should goe on there would scarce be found an Orthodox man in the Kingdome out of this Catalogue For there are a company of scorners and terrible ones That watch for iniquitie that make a man an offender for a word and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate aud turne aside the just for a thing of nought Isa 29. 20 21. Is hee loyall according to the obligation of divers oaths sundry times repeated by him He is a scandalous Minister Is he a man well affected to the present Government c. or to peace he is a dangerous man and scandalous In the interim they set up their railing Rabshachaes that blaspheme God and slander the footsteps of his Annointed in such sort as their Prayers and Preaching are a very scandall except enmities seditions reviling of Gods Ordinances and Ministers when practised by them with the countenance of a party in both Houses cease to be workes of the flesh If we should forme comparisons wee should find moates in some mens eyes made greater by the multiplying-glasse of malice which they make too much use of then the bâ—ames that are most conspicuous in the eyes of others In some men they persecute their humane frailties and indiscretions whilst they protect others whose offences are died in graine Master Pigott amongst other such like Articles was accused by some few seditious men of the Parish of S. Sepulchres for drinking a Beere glasse of White-wine with a Lemmon and Sugar and though vindicated by the testimony of 600 of the aâ—â—est men had his reputation blasted with no credit to his witnesses by Master Corbet who sate then in the chaire of Examinations I had like to have called it the seat of the scornfull and gave his hand afterwards that he was unworthy to exercise his Ministry by which meanes he hath since been put by two Lectures at Alhallowes Berking and Broad-street I make no question they have met with some scandalous enough I doe not excuse them But others they have prosecuted whom they might with much more honour have acquitted and given a checke to their too officious and troublesome neighbours Look we upon such as are in most favour and esteem with them we shall find they have trode their shooes awry aswell as others We may â—et Doctor Burgesse in the front and because he was so busie to pick holes in the coates of his brethren and rackt up the very ashâ—s of the dead to discover their corruptions we shall be the bolder to remember him not only of a man that was a Pluralist but of one that the High-Commission looked upon for Adultery And of one that with continuall suites of Law vext two Parishes and must have been calculated in the Black-bill if he had not taken himselfe off by his good service against Bishops Doctor Downing a reputed weathercock that turns which way soever the wind of his owne humour or ambition blowes him sometimes a great suitor to be the Earle of Straffords