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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47914	A seasonable memorial in some historical notes upon the liberties of the presse and pulpit with the effects of popular petitions, tumults, associations, impostures, and disaffected common councils : to all good subjects and true Protestants.	L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.	1680 (1680)	Wing L1301; ESTC R14590	34,077	42

Heel with the Proposall of an Association pretending the Practice of 27. Eliz. for their Warrant It would be endless to run through all the Leagues Covenants Bonds Protestations Engagements Oaeths c. of the Late times and as needless to set forth the Histories of the Miseries they brought upon us after so many Narratives and Discourses already Published upon that Subject So that our Business shall be rather to discover the Imposture of those Practises then to dilate upon the Story All Popular Leagues without the Authority of the Supream Magistrate are to be lookt upon as Conspiracies but when they come once to bear up in Defiance of it the Case is little better then a State of Actual Rebellion The Pretence of the Late Engagements was only to assert and Compass the Ends of the foregoing Petitions And it was the Master-piece of the Faction to keep the Vulgar in the dark by disgui●ing the Drift and the Scope both of the One and the Other It was by this following train of thoughts that the Multitude in 1641. were Egg'd on into the foulest crimes and the Heaviest calamities Imaginable The Lord bless us say they we are all running into the French Government and Popery the Courtiers and Prelates will be the Undoing of us all the King is a good man enough of himself if he had but Good people about him but he 's so damnably led away by Popish Councells I would to God he would but call a Parliament and harken to their advice But why should we not press him to●t and ferret out all these Caterpillers from about him 'T is true the King can do no wrong but his Ministers may and yet the King is bound by the Law as well as We. Had not we better get hands to a Petition and joyn to stand by one another as One Man for the preservation of our Liberties and Religion then stand gaping with our fingers in our Mouth till all is lost Little did these people Imagine all this while that Death was in the Pot and that instead of the way to Peace and happiness they were then in the High-Road to Destruction And This they might easily enough have discover'd if they had but diligently consider●d the Opinions and Professions of the Heads of these Covenanters and Subscrib●rs among which there was not one man of a hundred that was not a known and a vow●d Enemy both to Courch and State But they plung'd themselves like Curtius into the Gulph as Devotes for the mistaken preservation of their Countrey But the delusion will better appear by applying only Common Reason to the Imposture it self And first let us consider their Protestation of May 1641. I A. B. do in the presence of Almighty God promise vow and protest to maintain and defend as far as lawfully I may with my Life Power and Estate the True Reformed Protestant Religion exprest in the Doctrine of the Church of England against all Popery and Popish Innovations within this Realm contrary to the same Doctrine and according to the Duty of my Allegiance to his Majestyes Royall Person Honour and Estate as also the Power and Priviledges of Parliament the lawfull Rights and Liberties of the Subjects c. Now as the whole Pretext was plansible so the saving clause in it as far as lawfully I may made it go down without much seruple The Solemn League and Covenant of 1643. which was the Bond of the Confederacy of the Two Nations had the same salve in it too and the very same specious pretences for the Protestant Religion the Honour of the King the Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberty of the Subject only enlarged to the setting up of the Scottish Diseipline and Government the Ex●irpation of Prelacy and Popery and the bringing of Delinquents to punishment So that from the maintaining of the Government they are now come to the Dissolving of it and from the Defence of their own Rights and Liberties they are advanced to the Inva●ng of other peoples We might reflect upon a world of Soloecisms Illegalities Contradictions and Defects both in the Givers and Takers of this Protestation and Covenant As the Nullity of any Engagement entered into Contrary to Law the altering of the Gouernment without the consent of his Majesty in Parliament The perjurious Fraud of Swearing in One sence in opposition to the Known Intent of the Imposer in another beside the Inconsistence of these Vows with Themselves and the Contradictions they bear to One another Wherefore we shall rather detect the Cheat in the Thing it self and the wonderfull Rashness of the Undertakers then play the Casuist upon the Question Take the Protestation as it runs with that Qualifying Clause in it as far as lawfully I may and there is hardly any thing more in it then what a man is oblig'd to do without it So that without some Mystery in the bottom the thing appears in it self to be wholly Idle and Impertinent and not answerable to the solemnity of making it a National Duty And then the Imposition was in it self an Usurpation of Soveraign Power The Covenant I must confess was Ranker having an Auxiliary Army of about 20000 Scotts to second it But was ever any thing in appearance more harmless Loyall or Conscientious then this Protestation and if the fellow of it were now in agitation how would the Town Ring of any Church of England-Man for a disguised Papist that should refuse to take it And yet what ensu'd upon the peoples joyning in this officious piece of misguided Zeal and Duty When they were once In there was no longer any regard had to the Grammar or Literal Construction of it but to the List of those that took it as the Discriminating Test of the Party They that contriv'd it did like wise Expound it and every man was bound implicitly to believe That only to be Lawfull which they told him was so without being allowed the liberty of Judging of his own Actions He that looks into the Records of that Revolution will finde the Contributions Subscriptions Loans Levies and briefly the highest violences of the War the boldest attempts upon the Honour and Person of the King the Priviledges of Parliament and the Property of the Subject to be charg'd at the soot of the account upon the Tye of the Solemn League and Protestation and every man bound upon the forfeiture of his Life Liberty and Estate to observe it in their sence Over and above the Iniquity of these Oaths how Ridiculous is it for every Paltry Fellow to swear to the doing of he knows not what and the maintaining of the Priviledges of Parliament which no man living understands We shall conclude this Point with the words of the Late King Cons●derations by way of Solemn Leagues and Covenants are the Common Road us'd in all Factious and Powerfull Per●urbations of State or Church And our Covenanters did but write after the Copy of the

A SEASONABLE MEMORIAL IN SOME HISTORICAL NOTES UPON THE LIBERTIES OF THE PRESSE and PULPIT WITH THE Effects of Popular Petitions Tumults Associations Impostures and Disaffected Common Councils To all Good Subjects and True Protestants LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in S. Pauls Church-yard 1680 A Seasonable MEMORIAL c. THis Title may perhaps give the Reader an expectation if not a Curiosity to hear more then the Authour is willing to tell him For it is his intent only to expose the Mistery of the Contrivance of our late Troubles without the names of the Persons and to shew that the great work of Destroying three Kingdoms was only the Project and Influence of a Private Cabal and that the Rebellion it self was excited and carry'd on by the Force rather of an Imposcure then of a Confederacy The Generality of the people being powerfully and artificially Possess'd by the pretended Patrons of our Religious and Civill Liberties that Popery and Arbitrary Power were breaking in upon us and the design promoted by the Interest of a Court-Faction It could not chuse but create in them the tenderest affection imaginable for the one Party and as violent a Detestation for the other Especially considering that the Person and Authority of the King were as yet Sacred and uot any man open'd his Mouth but for his Honour and safety the Purity of the Gospel and the Peace of the Kingdome For such was the Reverence the Nation had at that time for the King and the Law that the least word against the Government had spoyl'd all This Double-refining spirit came into the World even with the Reformation it self when by flying from one Extreme to another it left the Truth in the middle which Calvin himself rakes notice of in a Letter to the Protector in Ed. 6. There are two sorts of Seditious men says he speaking of the Papists and the Puritans and against both these must the sword be drawn For they oppose the King and God himself It was the same Spirit that mov'd the Distemper afterward at Frankfort and the same still that made such havock in Scotland and flew in the face of Q. Eliz. her Parliaments and Councill till she was forced to suppress it by Severity and Rigour Her successor King James after a long Persecution in Scotland and a fresh attempt upon him at Hampton Court by the same Faction took them up roundly once for all and so past the rest of his days in some measure of quiet But the Plot succeeded better under King Charles when taking advantage of his Majesties necessitys with the Infinite goodness of his Nature that made him apt to believe the best of all men and a Popular mixture in the House of Commons that was still ready for their turn they pursu'd him with Remonstra●ce upon Remonstrance through four Parliaments and at last by the help of the Act for the continuance of the Parliament Tumult● and that Execrable Libel of Dec. 15. 1641. Entitled A Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdome they accomplished their ends under ehe Countenance of the Fifth By what steps and Methods they gained their Poynt comes now to be consider'd Their first advance toward a Sedition was the introducing of a Schism by distinguishing themselves under the Name of the Godly Party from the rest of the Nation which they found to be the safest way of approach and the most plausible expedient To this end they brought in Lecturers over the Heads of Parochial Ministers whose maintenance being dependent upon the Faction made them wholly at the devotion of their Patrons They had their Emissaries also in all Corporations and Populous parts of the Kingdom that were appointed as Feoffees to deal for Impropriations under the charitable pretext of making a better Provision for the Ministry And these were men of publick business in the World as Clergy-men Lawyers c. well known and made famous for their Zeal by the Reputation of so pious an Undertaking By this project they advanced considerable Sums of Money but the Incumbents little the better for it For either it stuck to the Feoffees fingers or it was applyed to other uses and with the Tithe of a Parsonage in one place a Lecture was set up in another After the Choice of fit Instruments their next work was to secure them from any trouble of Church-Censures To which end they bought some Headship or other in an University for some Eminent man of their own way for the training up of Novices in their Discipline And then they had a kind of a Practical Seminary at St. Antholines in London where their Disciples were in a manner upon a Probation for Abilities and Affections and out of this Nursery they furnish'd most of their New-bought Impropriations These young Emissaries of theirs had their Salary and were subordinate to a Classis or Clero-Laicall Consistory to be transplanted at their pleasure And yet this Consistory did not so strictly confine themselves to their Own Members but upon Letters Testimonial from the Patriarchs of the Party that such or such a man was fit for their turn or had given proof of his fidelity to the Cause by undergoing some sentence for contemning the Orders of the Church and persisting Obstinately in that disobedience to such a man I say in such a Case they commonly allow'd a Preference And the better to avoid the danger of the Spiritual Courts they made it their business to provide Commissaries of their Own Leaven where they had any special Plantation And Lastly to make sure of their Agents that they should not fall off when they had serv'd their own turns they kept them only as Pentioners at pleasure and liable to be turn'd out at any time either if they cool'd in the Holy Cause or fail'd of Preaching according to the direction of the Conclave Let it be noted here by the by that the design and mischief of those Lecturers when they could nor so well Congregate in Private Meetings is in our days supply'd if not outdone by a greater number of Conventicles to the very same Intent and God grant it prove not with the like effect They were as yet but upon the Preparatory to the great work of their Thorough Reformation which in plain English was the Dissolution of the Government So that the Pulpits had nothing more to do at present then to dispose and accommodate the Humours and Affections of the People The Common Subject of the Pulpit and they all sung the same Song was First to irritate the Multitude against Popery which had been well enough if they had not Secondly by sly Insinuations under the Notion of Arminianism intimated the Church of England to be leaning that way By this Artifice the People were quickly brought into a dislike of the English Communion and by degrees into as fierce an Aversion to the One Church as to the Other Now whatsoever the Government Lost the

Faction Gain'd And those Pedantique Levites that brought so many dreadfull Judgments upon this Nation themselves were by the Credulous Tumultuary Rabble cry'd up and Idolized as the very Moses's that stood in the Gap to avert them Having by this means render'd the Government Odious and given some credit to the Schism their next Instruction was to make Proclamation of the Numbers the quality and the sobriety of the Persons aggriev'd to possesse the one side with a confidence and the other with an apprehension of their strength Thousands of Souls ready to Famish they cry for want of the Bread of Life How many Insufficient negligent and scandalous Pastors How many Congregations destitute of able Faithfull Teachers Preaching in season and out of season and labouring in the Word Alas they dare not consent to any Addition to or Diminution of Christs Worship or to the Use of the Inventions of Men in Gods Service They desire only the Freedom that Christ and his Apostles have left unto the Churches and to serve God according to the Example of the best Reformed Churches abroad This is the Case of Thousands of the upright of the Land Let it be understood that the Press all this while kept pace with the Pulpit only now and then there started out a Party upon the Forelorn to make Discoveries and try the Temper of the Government Some scap'd and others were taken and censur'd as Leighton Burton Prin and Bastwick who only shewed themselves inconsiderately before their Friends were ready to Second them We shall see now how they changed their stile with their Condition and how their boldness encreased with their Interest Their grievances at first were only a dark and a doubtfull Prospect of Popery and Popish Innovations afar off and an anxiety of thought for the calamities that were coming upon Gods People through the corruptions of the Times But success opening their Eyes they are coming now to discover more and more Popery nearer hand They find the Church-men to be Popishly affected the Liturgy to be no other then an English Mass-Book the Hierarchy it self and all the Courts and Officers depending upon it to be directly Anti-Christian They charge his Majesty to be Popishly affected and all that will not renounce him to be either flat Papists or Worse imposing Protestations Covenants Engagements of Confederacy against both King and Church and Oaths of Abjuration as the Tests of a Loyall Protestant passing an Anathema upon any man that interposes betwixt their malice and their Soveraign They prostitute the Sacred Function for Mony they suck the blood of Widdows and of Orphans By violence taking possession of Eighty five Livings at one clap out of Ninety seaven within the Walls of London exposing so many Reverend and Loyal Divines with their Families to the wide World to beg their Bread They Preach the People into Murther Sacriledge and Rebellion they pursue a most gracious Prince to the Scaffold they animate the Regicides calling that Execrable Villany an Act of Publick Justice and Entitling the Holy Ghost to the Treason If this General recital of the Rise and Progress of their Actings be true the Reader has here before him the Issue and the drift of their pretended Scruples the Exposition of their Protestations Covenants and Designs wherein it cannot but be observ'd how their Consciences widen'd with their Interests And this may serve to satisfy any man whither People are then a going when they come to tread in the same steps But however for a further support to the credit of this Memorial we shall now subjoyn some undeniable Evidences of the whole matter out of their Own words and Writings where we shall finde Mr. Hookers saying made good in the Preface to his Ecclesiastieal Polity What other sequel says he can any wise man imagine but this that having First resolved that attempts for Discipline without Superi ours are Lawfull it will fellow in the next place to be disputed what may be attempted against Superiours But now to our Proofs which we shall give you from Point to Point and from the very ●abbies of the Schism First As to the CHURCH Gods people says Burton lie under Bondage of Conscience in point of Liturgy 2dly In bondage of Conscience under Ceremonies 3dly Of Conscience under Discipline 4ly Of Conscience under Government How the Presence and Preaching of Christ did scorch and blast those Cathedrall Priests that Unhallowed Generation of Scribes and Phariees Prelacy and Prelaticall Clergy Priests and Jesuits Ceremonys and Service-Book Star-Chamber and High Commission-Court were mighty Impediments in the way of Reformation The Scots were necessitated to take up Arms for their just Defence against Anti-Christ and the Popish Priests Now to the LITURGY The Service of the Church of England is now so dressed that if a Pope should come and see it he would Claim it as his own And again what credit is this to our Church to have such a Form of Publique Worship as Papists may without offence Joyn with us in This we have from the Sm●ymnuans themselves E. Cal. and Stephen Marshall being part of the Club. Now says Bishop Hall If the Devil confess Christ to be the Son of God shall I disclaim the Truth because it passeth through a damned mouth And what did they give us in exchange for this Form of Publique worship but a Directory without either the Decalogue or a Creed in 't Let not the pretence of Peace and Unity cool your Fervour or make you spare to oppose your selves unto those Idle and Idolized Ceremonies against which we dispute Their next fling is at the HIERARCHY it self The ●lastring or palliating of these Rotten Members Bishops will be a greater dishonour to the Nation and Church then their cutting off and the Personall Acts of these Sons of Belial being connived at become National sins The Roman Emperors wasted the Saints in Ten several Persecutions but all these were nothing in Comparison of this destroyer All their Loyns are not so heavy as the little finger of Antichrist The Prelacy of England which we swore to extirpate was that very same Fabrick and mode of Ecclesiasticall Regiment that is in the Antichristian World And again As thy Sword Prelacy hath made many Women Childlesse many a faithfull Minister Peoplelesse so thy Mother Papacy shall be made Childlesse among Harlots your Diocesses Bishoplesse and your Sees Lordlesse Pag. 51. Carry on the work still leave not a Ragg that belongs to Popery Lay not a bit of the Lords building with any thing that belongs to Anti-Christ but away with it Root and Branch Head and Tail till you can say now is Christ set upon his Throne Were they not English Prelates that conspired to sell their Brethren into Romish slavery 'T is not partial Reformation and Execution of Justice upon some Offenders will afford us help except those in Authority extirpate all Achans with Babylonish