A BRIEFE RELATION OF the present Troubles in ENGLAND VVritten from LONDON the 22. of Ianuary 1644 to a Minister of one of the Reformed Churches in FRANCE VVherein Is clearely set downe who are the Authours of them and whereto the Innovations both in Church and State there doe tend Faithfully translated out of the French OXFORD Printed by HENRY HALL Printer to the UNIVERSITIE 1645. A LETTER CONCERNING the present Troubles in ENGLAND VVritten from LONDON the 22. of Ianuary 1644. to a Minister of one of the Reformed Churches in FRANCE VVherein Is clearly set downe who are the Authours of them and whereto the Innovations both in Church and State there do tend Faithfully Translated out of the French OXFORD Printed by HENRY HALL Printer to the UNIVERSITIE 1645. To the READER NO sooner did this Letter fall into my â—ands but straight I had a thought to publish it to the end that all the world might be acquainted with the deportment of that Faction in England which for these three or foure yeares together hath caused the effusion of so much bloâ—d there Some happily of our religion in France will at first glance disrelish my designe but after they have throughly weighed it I am confident they will all joyntly acknowledge their engagements to me for presenting them with a worke which undeceives their credulity who strongly fancy that we countenance their irregular proceedings and meet in the same thoughts with those that have beene the unhappy contrivers of them And it may be also that some among the Catholiques will be ready to say this is but the opinion meerely of some one particular Person and that all Protestants will not subscribe unto it But I protest before God that I never heard of any knowing judicious man with us whose discourse agrees not with that of the Author here and it were to be wished that the whole world would conforme it selfe to the example of the Reformed in France Were it so there should no Prince stand in need of guards or be forced to levy Armies for the defence of his Person against the insolence and Rebellion of Subjects There would be no more undermining the peace of the Church which would now cherish a compleat union absolute correspondency betwixt its owne and the secular government confining it selfe to its proper limits and having still a speciall regard to that subordination which is required of it I speake this Reader because it is true though sundry conceive otherwise of it either meerely out of a custome they have embraced wholly to surrender themselves unto the sway of other mens judgement or because they have a strong prejudice against the Discipline we practice as if it were not altogether so agreeable with Monarchy Iudge of it by the grounds thereof and pause a while in comparing our actions with our doctrine without resting upon any other consideration and thou canst not but conclude that the sole drift of our intentions hath ever beene to defend our selves rather by the weapons of the Spirit then those of the flesh and that we joine in an unanimous detestation of all such as maintaine it lawfull to make use of temporall violence for promoting the truth of the Gospell This Letter I here present thee with is cast in the mould of the true Protestants It appeares in defence of their doctrine touching the power of Kings and the obedience of Subjects withall condemning their proceedings who under a pretence of purging the Church from its errours and enormities and reinstating Christians in their lost Liberty maske a designe of engaging the whole world in a horrible confusion I cannot informe thee who is the author of it Thus much only thou maiest know that sojourning in England a certaine Minister a freind of his and a man of great abilities requested of him a large account in writing of the present distempers there He hath done it thou seest He paints them in their proper colours points out the contrivers of them and their aimes He makes it legible to the world that this Parliament is nothing in generality but a seditious Crew bending all their indeavours against the Lawes of the Realme with a designe to turne all â—opsieturvy nor this Synod but for the greatest part also an Assembly of Heretiques and Ignoramusses that trample upon all the maximes of Christianity and entertaine no thoughts but of an Epidemicall confusion That the People in grosse are wholly set upon Anarchy being cosened by a consent wrought in them by the Parliament touching the Tyranny as they phrase it of Kings and intoxicated by the Synod with the hopes of a most blessed condition were they but once freed from that insupportable yoake of the Clergy If happily out of this throng God hath sequestred some well-affected persons for himselfe they are so thinne a company that they dare not declare themselves for feare of being overborne by the malice and number of the rest as divers have already beene Weigh by this Reader if the malady be not great the remedy difficult A LETTER CONCERNing the present troubles in England Sir WHEN I had the Honour to give you an account in writing of my abode here in England I had not the least intention to acquaint you with all my thoughs touching the present distempers of the same Not that the feare of any censure could amate me although I am not ignorant that he who would give a faithfull indifferent relation thereof must oppose himselfe to those ordinary impressions which men have already entertained concerning them And if this amuse them as no doubt but it will that I cannot prevaile with my selfe to nousâ—e them on in an errour whereinto the malice or ignorance of their misinformers hath so deeply plunged them I shall for a long time runne the hazard of their disfavour as being resolved not to write any thing but of what I have beene an eye-witnesse and which you will finde to beare no great harmony with the common voice It is undoubtedly a matter of no triviall concernment to provide that the world be herein disabused and that the truth of a businesse of this nature be no longer liable to misapprehension Wherein you are somewhat interessed your selfe by that common profession you make in the list of such conscientious Persons as are designed to superintend the good of People and to steere their Consciences aright And I hope you with many moe besides will not be wanting to give the world satisfaction what a disparity you conceive betwixt the proceedings of most of these Novell Reformers and of those who in former ages attempted to rescue the Church from that Tyranny under which for so long a time it groaned For my part I finde so little conformity in these latter to our first Reformers that I thinke it concernes them to guild over with some specious pretext the poison they diffuse as being their Enemies not their Followers or if perhaps they make a shew of treading the same
whole Body of the Clergy chased away divers of the Peeres despoiled others of their Estates and Authority sparing none but such as will be then Fellow-traitours In breife the former indeed advanc'd their Rebellion under a pretence oâ— maintaining the publique Liberties but they expos'd not all the Kings that were to succeed to the madnesse and cruelty of the People as these men doe I know you have often seene divers of their Positions but I have reserv'd one to this 〈◊〉 which is worse then all the rest They maintaine That Subjects may in â—â—â—suancâ— of their Liberty take 〈◊〉 Armes and employ all their strength against any that shall endeavour is reduce them to slavery That there is no yoake of which they may not lawfully rid themselves whosoever imposed it whether some Conquerour or their owne naturall Prince That nature it selfe dictates unto the whole world the recovery of it's lost liberty notwithstanding any former contracts or any lawes to which they have sworue obedience or even the expresse approbation of some preceding ages That whosoever shall have power enough and not employ it to that end men should be so farre from startling at their back rardnesse that on the contrary they are to hold them for no other then Rebels against that nature which commands them to dispense in this case with all former obligations whatsoever Sir were not this ground enough for all the Magistrates in the Universe to arme against such Pests as these You will now rest fully satisfied that 't is not Religion they fight for and that by the conservation of those Priviledges they talke of they intend nothing but the ruine and destruction of such as are in Authority over them What else can we expect from such maximes They who complaine so much of abusing Monarchy have infringed all the rights of it themselves There was a Parliament in Scotland held in despight of the King and the Acts of it are daily put in execution contrary to his expresse commands which is utterly to abolish all Regall Power and to annihilate the Fundamentall Lawes of the State This Parliament in England was indeed conveencd by his Authority but they bound his hands from dissolving it when he ought and would have done No sooner were the Members met but he was chased from London and they upon this possesse themselves of the Houses Forts Castles Ports Navy and Ammunition of their Prince They put the Earle of Strafford to Death upon pretences of their owne devising that so they might have some colour for the designe against the person of their Soveraigne They have forced his consent to an Act which infringeth all the prerogatives of the Crowne They will needs have the disposall and ordering of his family murther his friends and trusty Ministers and so hinder all from being such They will clip his Revenues as they please not suffer him to dispose of vacant offices They will not allow him any power in Church-affaires bereave him of his Bishops that so they may render him uncapable of discerning all factious contrivances under colour of Religion and consequently of all meanes to prevent the execution of them At this very present they are consulting how to deprive him of his Wardships which you know is one of the fairest Flowers of the Crowne of England and the most proper character of Soveraignty I have almost spent my selfe in limning you the designes and practices of these men but I hope you will not be weary in perusing and weighing them I have besides many things of great consequence to tell you which I reserve for some better opportunity when I may have more leisure and liberty then is allowed me at this present In the interim let me earnestly request you to make what use you can of the truth of this Relation in behalfe of Reason and Justice In God's name employ your utmost endeavours to blast those false pretences of Zeale and Religion that none of ours be carried away with them I beleive it was to that end you desired this Letter from me which I have dispatched towards you in persuance of your commands and withall to satisfy my Conscience I will say nothing what is like to be the successe of our Ambassadour here You may easily guesse by this Relation The Hâ—llâ—â—â—â—rs have as weake hopes as we and I 'me confident both of theâ— desire to testify unto the world their love and inclination to Peace although some accuse them of an aversonesse from it and that all their designes tend to the nourishing of this Warre But certainly they desire to see and end of it were it but for this reason that the King of England might engage himselfe in the interests of Germany and employ his strength there in behalfe of all the oppressed Princes those especially which are more neare unto him I will discourse with you more at large upon this when I shall have the opportunity to give you an account of those other passages mentioned in your Letter In this and all things else you shall reade the constant desire I have to assure you that I am unfeinedly From London Jan. 22. 1644. Sir Your most humble and most affectionate Servant FINIS
contagious That in the body the separation of any one part is dangerous what errour soever hath infected it except it be Heresie or Superstition otherwise there can be no just cause of doing so As for the depravation of manners he is yet more expresse affirmeing it downe-right folly for any man to conceive that a sufficient ground of seperation and alleadging the words of Christ they sit in Moses chairs what therefore they bid you that doe and he gives the reason wheresoever there is purity of Doctrine God must needs have a Church though encombred with a multitude of faults Now if this eminent writer had occasion to speake thus what a grosse shame is it for such as have nothing to object against their Bishops but the bare corruption of manners to endeavour not only a simple seperation from them but a totall suppression of them As for their Doctrine that 's Scot-free from censure 't is indeed so pure that it agrees in every particular with that of our best reformed Divines witnesse their severall Tracts of the Eucharist The power of the Pope The right of Kings The adoration of Images and the like which assure us that those which at this day advance the purity of Religion are their deserving successors that laboured so much in the first establishing of it Such were the Prelates God employed in this great worke the Arch-bishops of Canterbury Yorke the Bishops of London Worcester in Peter Martyrs time Cranâ—er Ridley Latiâ—er Hooper men all famous in their generations and such as knew how to weild a Bishoprick Most of which dyed martyrs in that hot Combat they maintained against the Errours and impieties of their times Before them when men durst scarce mutter of a Reformation one of the Bishops of Lincolnâ— couragiously entred the Lists with the Idolatry Grosâ—head and Superstition into which the Church was then plunged And he performed the Combate with so much gallantry that the common suffrage of all good men after him gave him this honorary title The Hammer of Rome Yet for all this they of London maâ—â—e him and the rest I have named you the common the 〈◊〉 of their Invectives both in the Presse and in the Pulpit They spare not to call them in publique a packe of impostours and Hypocrites such as never trac'd the paths of Christianity but in a râ—â—ling posture their soules being drunke with the cup of abdomination what fellowship can we have with such a generation as this We who have ever paid so much honour and esteeme to the memory of those worthy men that we have placed them in the ranke and calendar of our Martyâ—â—â— Nay our most upright and conscientious Divines have proposed each circumstance of their lives and deaths as the most exquisite patternes in all Europe and perhaps in the whole world besides of an unwearied constancy in asserting Truth and suppressing falshood Finally they are accused for intermedling too much in State affaires They will needs have it unlawfull for them to beare any share in the administration of Justice and that such priviledges should be annexed to Episcopacy which say they are incompatible with â—â—y but the Secular Authority and therefore they tooke care to dâ—vest them of the same in the beginning of this Parliament They which harpe so much upon this string are the very same malignant Spirits of which I have formerly given you the character Had they but any shadow of reason is it possible they should thus fight against the custome and example of so many ages both in their owne forraigne Countries Who knowes not that the Constitutions of greatest consequence in any State have bin made in Councells Assemblies of Bishops What else meaneth that ancient Ordinance of almost 900 yeares standing which pronounceth all Elections of Kings void where the Bishops and cheife of the People are denyed their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And whence arose the custome in all debates of preserving inheritances successions in families of having as much recourse to Episcopall as Regall Authority in that behalfe We finde that King Aethelstant â—â—â— 928. by expresse Statute joyned the Bishops in Commission with the Justices Secular to stop the current of Injustice and to root out all the seedes thereof Those employments did not divert them from the care of the Church Councels were no whit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the contrary we finde that in this Age or a little before whâ—â— the barbarisme of the Saxons had almost spent it self and men beguâ— to tast the sweetnesse of Christianity that the Bishops thereupon resuming their Authority and following the advice of one Bâ—nifâ—â—â— Arch-bishop of Mayence ordained that every Presbyter should yearly give an account of his Ministery to the Bishop who likewise for his part was yearly to visit his Diocesse in like manner to yeild an account of his proceedings to the Metropolitan these and many other Ordinances tending all to the establishment of purity in manners were with all rigour put in execution notwithstanding they set a part some time for secular affaires And this is further very remarkeable that Bishops themselves made lawes for the government of the People We finde it amongst others in one Odon Arch-bishop of Canterbury who exhorteth the Prince to yeeld all manner of obedience and submission to the Bishops which speakes the antiquity of their Power in this Kingdome a power which I can see no cause should be denied them if those that are invested with it be sincere Professors of true Christianity as they ought to be who are preferred to Bishopricks no more then their right of â—itting in Parliaments a right common to them with all the Bishops that ever have beene in the world and to which those of this Kingdome have a stronger title it being but the small remnant of that great power they had once and which they mannaged wit◠〈◊〉 much discretion Nor was it ever knowne that either King or People endeavoured their extirpation heretofore no not so much as to exercise my rigour upon their persons for about eleven hundred yeares together since the tyranny of the Saxon Kings forced them to quit the Realm and retire themselves to France that they might enjoy more case and liberty of Conscience in the service of God If ever their Votes in Parliament were lyable to suspicion it was doubtlesse in the reigne of Henry the 8 when they had so straight a dependance upon Rome that Prince having in a manner shaken off the Romish yoake and by his owne sole authority taken upon him the government of the Church of England which Pope Nicholas had heretofore freely resigned to Edward the Confessour had just cause to feare that in those Conventions they would betray his interestsâ—or of the Holy See's sake as they call it and so by consequent that he runne a great hazard of his owne Prerogative in not excluding them Notwithstanding be never had such a thought No more had Edward the Sixth nor Queene
them a toleration notwithstanding the differences of opinions The Papists case in England is much unlike theirs in as much as they are ever and a non plotting the destruction of their Prince a crime I am so farre from excusing that I detest it as one of the most execrable which the veriest â—ake-hell in the world can be guilty of But withall let me adde that it had never beene so much in use had those who could not conforme to the Reformation beene dealt with more favourarably The Law here is unjust onely in condemning their persons to death as such but just in proceeding against their treasonable machinations Let it in God's name have its full course upon them as they are Traitours but not barely as mis-beleevers God gave to his Apostles no Commission to propagate the Gospell of his sonne by force of Armes much lesse to our States and Kingdomes now would but Christians lay this seriously to heart they would never make use of any but the Armes of the spirit against those that are reprobate to the truth and so there would be some difference made betwixt Papists that are onely offenders against God and such as are so both against God and the Princes which he hath set over them How many of them beare as much respect to their Soveraignes as we can possibly do to ours and are as zealous for the good of Kingdomes and the Peace of People Others indeed there be that have sucked the same venime with these new emissaries of Hell who take this for a Maxime That Kings are no longer Kings but reall Tyrants when they cease to be Catholiques and that it is a meritorious Act to embrew their bands in their bloud and to free the People from their dominion over them Let the Law be executed against such without mercy not let any Princes or States give the least toleration to such abhominable Incendiaries But as for the rest let the unblameable conversation and integrity of those that are in authority over them preach a Reformation to them untill their houre be come and grace from Heaven be shed amongst them If the Religion they professe be not of it selfe destructive and that in all other considerations they submit to the Lawes and maintaine the Interests of the State in which they live all the power which can be challenged over them is but to restraine them within the publique rules it being an act of the greatest injustice to deprive them either of their lives or estates for no other reason but because they are incapable of the knowledge and piety of another person This was one of the wormes that gnawed upon the conscience of Philip the second that he had attempted by force of Armes to propagate Christianity in the new world where the Devill was their only deity And how heavy should this example lye upon the Consciences of all such Princes and Magistrates as exercise the same cruelties upon their Subjects or on those that differ not in the foundation from them worshipping the same Christ acknowleding him to be what he is and all expecting salvation by him But if such pressing motives cannot worke upon England let them at least consider what must necessarily befall to many thousand honest Protestants that live under the dominion of Popish Princes who certainely will revenge upon them all the outrage done the Papists under Protestant Princes And the number of the former is farre greater then the number of these so that for one Preist who out of a fond distemper'd zeale shall be put to death here there will be in other places fâ—â—ty Protestant Ministers in danger to perish Besides this France at the first led the way in abstaining from all cruelty towards those of the Reformation there but was afterwards implacably mad against them neare upon the time that those rigorous Lawes were enacted against Recusants in this Kingdome And if in France such courses were thought fit to be utterly abandoned why should they be continued in England If none of these considerations will move them let them forbeare at least out of charity to us And to this purpose they may recall into their memories what Justin and Theoderick did in the case of the Catholiques and the Arians The former vehemently persecuted the Arians in all quarters of his Dominions and the latter did as much to the Catholiques in the West where he commanded But both at last were content to supersede from bloudshed and by the advise of their Doctours in the yeare 525 If I mistake not allowed them case and liberty of Conscience whom they could not master by torments and violence John Bishop of Rome was one that interposed in the businesse and the first who perswaded the Orthodox Prince to more mildnesse and to quit all thoughts of rigour and courses of cruelty The Christians of those times judged aright that violence did not suit with the Gospell and that steele was no fit instrument to make impression upon obdurate hearts And though their Princes would somtimes arme them against Pagans or Soctaries it was meerely for the interests and safety of their Crownes as in particular that Justine I named you when he saw the Empire ready to fall in peices and that the most warlike nations who had subdued the rest were fallen off to such Princes as indeed bore the name of Christians but were by reason of their Hereticall opinions divided from them had great reason to be afraid that many of his owne Subjects agreeing with them in the same Principles would follow their example It concerned him not to destroy them and to harbour them neare himselfe was to nourish so many vipers in his owne bosome Yet in as much as he was the occasion that many Orthodox Christians lost their lives and because he had no jurisdiction over the Consciences of those that were not such he relinquished all former courses of violence and persecution 'T were well if this example could worke the Kings of England and all other Princes in the world to the like moderation Do not even the Turk and the Persian tolerate us in their Dominions Shall humanity be found in Barbarians and not in Christian and civilized Princes What doth the Reformation oblige us to be cruell I cannot thinke it no more then that any Protestant in France who hath not renounc'd his reason will not subscribe with me to the same opinion I speake not this to disswade from the use of such meanes 〈◊〉 necessary for abolishing of Superstition and reestablisHing the purity of Christian Religion There be other courses enough besides violence to reduce stragglers into the way And if there were not should they finde a toleration might they not be prevented from seducing others If there be any just cause to feare the consequents of the Maximes and Doctrines they maintaine it concernes the Magistrate prudently to provide a remedy and to stop them from proceeding further but above all to take care that their Priests