late have done Nor can I subscribe to till I be better informed that Priviledge given to the Commons by I know not whom yet I suppose of no vulgar apprehension viz. That the King may hold his Parliament for the Communalty of the Realm without Bishops Earls and Barons so that they have lawful Monitions or summons albeit they come not Yet the same Book affirms that the King with his Bishops Earls and Barons cannot hold a Parliament without the assistance of the Commons And his reason for all this assertion is because Sometime there was neither Bishop Earl ne Baron and yet the King did keep and hold his Parliaments To which I shall only answer in brief thus That if he mean that our Kings have kept Parliaments when there was no such thing as or distinction in this Nation of Priest or Nobility or some such Rank above the common People I shall utterly deny his Proposition Or if he understand that Parliaments have been held only by the King and Commons I shall not yield to him till I be assured where and when yet if both were allowed it can be no good consequence that it may be done so now if custom have any sway in England which is now a main Card of the Commons Game And because some of late more through malice than judgement have not only asserted the King to be one of the Estates by which plot they will equal themselves to him and so overthrow his Rule and Government of which Sir Edward Deering doth a little hint but also exclude the Clergy It will not be amiss in this place to right both by one or two authentick Instances The first shall be the Parliaments Bill presented to King Richard III. when but Duke of Glocester to desire him to take upon him the Kingship the which is very long but in it you shall find these words Vs the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of this Realm of England according to the Election of us the three Estates of this Land Therefore at the request and by the assent of the three Estates of this Realm That is to say the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of this Land assembled in this present Parliament Here we have Three Estates the Clergy being one and the King none My second Instance shall be taken out of one Titus Livius de Frulonisiis a Book quoted several times by Stow in Henry V. which Manuscript is also in Latin in St. Benit's Colledge Library in Cambridge where having related the life and death of Henry V. he tells us that After all these things and Ceremonies of his burying were solemnly finished as is to-fore rehersed the Three Estates of the Realm of England assembled them together in great number to take advice and deliberation amongst them what was most necessary to be done for the Regiment and Government of the said Realm of England where they concluded to take for their King the only Son of the late King Henry whose name was also Henry which was the VI. of that Name since the Conquest of England But because some may slight this as only the judgement of a private Historian we will strengthen our Assertion by the Laws of our Land In Queen Elizabeth's time an Act of Parliament affords us these words We your said most loving faithful and obedient subjects representing the Three Estates of your Realm of England as thereunto constrained by Law of God and Man c. Here are again Three Estates and the Queen none and that the Clergy are one another Act of Parliament will inform us in these words The State of the Clergy being one of the greatest States of this Realm And after this same manner was the Clergy in Scotland one of the Estates as may also appear by their own Acts of Parliament one of which runs thus That the Three Estates especially considering the persons exercising the Offices Titles and Dignities of Prelates which persons have ever represented one of the Estates And in another Parliament some thirteen years before this viz. 1584. it was thus Enacted That none presume to impugne the Dignity and Authority of the Three Estates or to seek or procure the innovation or diminution of their Power and Authority or any of them in time coming under pain of Treason And whether the Scots have of late behaved themselves according to these Laws is well known And it seems strange to me that they durst be so impudent against their King who considering his power in choosing Parliaments was one of the most absolute Monarchs in the World till the modern Rebellious Retrenchments These things are convincing to me that the King never was one or part of but above the Three Estates it being ridiculous that his Majesty should Petition himself and call himself subject to himself Nor see I any reason to doubt that the Clergy was one having Acts of Parliament for it who knew their own Constitution best 'T is true of late the Clergy have had no Representatives in Parliament the Reverend Lords Spiritual being I do not know how thrown out of the Upper-House and the action at last by threats and other villainies procured to be signed by the Royal Assent for which and seeing they are since happily restored again I shall not at this time presume to question though many who are learned in our Fundamental Laws suppose that reasons might be shewn and that grounded upon law of it's nullity to which purpose the learned Dr. Heylin hath given a short Essay both from the binding of Magna Charta the darling too of our Presbyterian Parliaments which especially provides for the Priviledges of the Clergy as also by the voiding of all actions done by the King by compulsion and not of his free-will And that Kings may be so wrought upon appears by King James who when King of Scotland was by his unruly Subjects constrained to declare several times quite contrary to his judgement and so was King Edward III. as appears by the Revocation of a Statute made the 15. year of his raign And how unwilling King Charles the first was to sign this Bill is not unknown the Parliament having got a new Art of getting their ends about viz. by Tumults and Threats so that the King was rather fought than reasoned out of it And what impudence the Commons were brasoned with to presume thus to extirpate the Spiritual Lords whose Antiquity in Parliament was double to theirs is experimentally beyond expression But they and so did the Puritanical Faction of the Nobility for such Animals were amongst them too know well enough that the King would not only be weakened but themselves strengthened by annihilation of 26. such sound Royal and Orthodox Votes for which qualifications the Schismatical Lords and Commons hated them But enough of this only I shall leave some Quaeries to the consideration of the Presbyterian mad-caps Lord or Common of the wicked
the Parliament in the 23. year of her raign for presuming to Vote a Fast to be solemnized at the Temple-Church for such of their own Members as could conveniently be present there telling them by her Messenger Sir Thomas Henneage then Vice-Chamberlain With what admiration she beheld that Incroachment on her Royal Authority in committing such an apparent Innovation without her privaty or pleasure first known Upon which they desired Sir Thomas to present their Submission to the Queen and to crave her pardon Nor would she suffer her Parliaments to meddle in Ecclesiastical affairs And plainly used to tell them that their Priviledges were but the free pronouncing these two words Yea and No. And King James perceiving his last Parliament but one to soar somewhat high told their Speaker Sir Thomas Richardson in a Letter from New-market That some fiery and popular spirits of the Lower-House did debate matters above their capacity to our dishonour and Prerogative Royal. These are therefore to make known to them That none shall hereafter presume to meddle with any thing concerning our Government or matters of State with our Sons match with the Daughter of Spain nor to touch the Honour of that King or any other our Friends or Confederates Nor with any mans particulars which have their due Motion in our Ordinary Courts of Justice But to put them out of doubt of any question hereafter of that nature We think our self very free and able to punish any mans misdemeanour in Parliament as well sitting there as after which we mean not to spare hereafter upon any occasions of any mans And that King James had good grounds for what he wrote I am apt to believe not only considering his own Learning and Knowledge in State-affairs But that if a Parliament man by their own Orders is not abusively to reflect upon any of their own Members to me it seems very irrational to think that they may openly vilifie the Crown and throw dirt upon Regal Authority Therefore I shall perswade my self that Sir Henry Ludlow who said there that King Charles was not worthy to be King of England was farr more unfit to live As for the other Priviledge which the Parliament doth vigorously demand as their due and right we shall find their clamour to be not unlike some Bills in Chancery where many thousand pounds are demanded when scarce twenty is due Or the towring expectations of Lambert Simnell a Bakers son who under a Princely Vizard required the Crown of England as his Birth-right yet after all the bloud-shed in his behalf was happy to be a Turn-spit to King Henry the Seventh 'T is true for Debt and such private and peculiar Engagements a Member cannot be Imprisoned for if so a plot might be framed to shrink the Houses again though in a more plausible method to a New Rump And this was the case of Mr. George Ferrers Burgess for Plymouth 1542. who being arrested for debt was at the desire of the Commons released and the Sheriff of London sent to the Tower for two dayes But yet the best of them may be imprisoned though then actually in Parliament either for Treason Felony or refusing to give security for the Peace And for this cause was Thomas Thorp Speaker to the Commons arrested and put into Prison in the 31. year of King Henry the Sixth And the learned Judges of the Land declared he was not capable of a Release which being made known to the Commons by Walter Moyle one of the Kings Serjeants at Law they presently chose themselves another Speaker viz. Sir Thomas Charleton and never clamour'd that the Priviledges of Parliament were broken In Queen Elizabeth's time nothing was more common then to serve Subpoena's upon and imprison extravagant Members Witness the two upon Mr. Knevet An. Reg. 39. one upon Mr. Coke An. Reg. 127. and Mr. Peter Wentworth was committed to the Tower and Sir Henry Bromley Mr. Stevens Mr. Welch to the Fleet 35. Elizab. for desiring the Intailment of the Crowns Succession And in the 35. of her raign she sent into the House of Commons and took out Mr. Morris and committed him to Prison with divers others for some speeches in the House and when the rest of the Commons petitioned her Majesty for their release she sent them a severe check telling them that they were not to discourse of things of such high nature And the same Answer did King James return them 1621. when they endeavoured to know the reason of Sir Edwin Sandis his restraint And though he was a merciful and peaceful King yet when they presumed to incroach upon him he would make them learn more manners in the Tower and other Prisons witness the committment of several of them in the 12. year of his raign And though never any King was more afflicted and bandied with Parliaments than the late King Charles yet the sweetness of his temper made him wink at many insolent Indiscretions till at last their Impudence grew so high as not to permit the Serjeant of the Mace to go to the King upon his Command to lock the Parliament-door and deny the Kings Messenger entrance to hold by force the Speaker in the Chair swearing deep Oaths that he should sit still as long as they pleas'd though the King command the contrary to deny the Kings Power to dissolve them by Proxy that they are not bound to give an account to the King but to their own House of their actions be they what they will in Parliament upon which several of them were imprisoned the Judges delivering their Opinions positively that their crimes were within cognizance out of Parliament affirming that if it were not so if a Parliament-man should commit murder in time of Parliament he could not be tryed and arraigned until a new Representative and for confirmation of their Opinions they alledged many Presidents as that of Plowden in Queen Mary's time who was fined in the Kings-Bench for words spoken in Parliament against the dignity of the Queen And to be brief though the Long-Parliament made great hubbubs and brags about the five Members yet afterwards when they were in their height of pride they in print did acknowledge and confess that Members might be arrested and detained for Treason Felony and other crimes though they would gladly smooth it up so farr as to make themselves Judges I shall say no more but that what Priviledge soever they have the Laws of our Land allow the same to the Clergy and their Servants and Familiars for that is the word in the Statute when call'd to a Convocation and this either in coming carrying or going home again CHAP. VII The beginning of the Presbyterians with the wicked Principles of the Ring-leaders of that Factious Sect. HAving thus hinted upon the Kings Prerogative the Origin of the Commons and their Priviledges by which 't is plain that the King is Supream and by
the 9 Lords was not unsignificant viz. That if he look'd for any preferment he must comply with them in their waies and not hope to have it by serving the King Words of such a Mandrake-sound that they would have astonished a Roman ear whose generosity and vertue made them raise a Temple to Fidelity But all bonds of obedience and loyalty were hurld off by these sons of contradiction and Majesty it self so farr disrepected that Martin could with confidence wipe his lips with the whore in the Proverb and think he had done no wrong when he affirmd that the Kings Office is forfeitable and that the happiness of this Kingdome doth not depend upon him or any of the Royall branches of that stock and this was seconded by that worshipful Champion Sir Henry Ludlow who peremptorily said that he was not worthie to be King of England Nor are these words unbefitting the Father of such a known Son as Edmud Ludlow one of the Kings noted Tryers and an immortal Enemy to all goodnesse Church-government and literature Nor did the whole Parliament speak little lesse then the former when they affirmed he had no negative vote call'd all his Actions illegall and his Letters Declarations and Proclamations scandalous and false forbidding people to be obedient to him upon pain of displeasure declaring all such as did to be Traitors Taxing him with an intention towards Popery O implacable Malice foisted into the world by these his back-friends and spread abroad with abundance of impudence and malice by their zealous Myrmidon and Journy-work-jobber Prynne one that if he had lived amongst the Malabars in the East-Indies where long eares is a Token of honour comlinesse and bravery would have been held a man of no great credit But the best on 't is Pryn's scandalous pamphlet call'd the Popish Royall Favourite i. e. the King was many years ago learnedly and industriously answer'd to the Honour of his Majesty honesty of the undertaker and discredit and confusion of the Mercury-admiring accuser And therefore Mr. Baxter was somewhat to blame to cull such false trifles out of Prynne to prove the King reconcileable to Rome though he believes he was no Papist and this ten years after the Kings Beheading But to return to the Parliament who will yeild to none in bitterness against his Majesty who protest to him when no nearer York then New-Market That they would make use of that power which they had for their security and professing in the same paper that it was not words that could secure them And what their intention was in this may be gathered by voting some few daies before That the Nation should be put into a posture of Defence and only by Authority of Parliament And all those Extravagancies were acted by the Parliament in opposition and discredit to the King before his Majesty had so much as one man either in offensive or defensive Armes in a publick way So that he might well admire at those who charg'd him to be the first beginner and raiser of this Warre Thus the Kings mildnesse gave encouragement to those furious spirits who never left plotting till they had fill'd England with more villanies then Rome is in the vacancy of her Popedome or Tacitus could reckon up in the front of his History and this by their unjust dealings with him by warre and such like wickednesses though they might have consulted the Apothegm of that great Goth Athanaricus being good Divinity Law and Reason that A King is a earthly God and whosoever rebels against him is guiltie of his own death Nor doth the great Father of the Church intimate to us lesse obedience to our Kings then the former But these men cared little for reason or authority in any but themselves as appears by those impudent and irrational Propositions sent to the King at New Castle when they were Masters and had him in hold whereby he would be but a King of clouts and the Nobility and Gentry of his party bound to hop headlesse Articles so palpably wicked that an Italian through his Majesty looks upon them as distructive both to Church and State Nor could lesse be expected from these men in the height of their Pride and prosperity when at the beginning of these wicked Warres long before the stroak at Edghill The good King weeping as it were over the approaching ruine of his Subjects earnestly endeavours to perswade the Parliament to a Reconciliation in the lamentable breathings of Tancredi to the violent Rinaldo Dimmi che pensi far vorrai le mani Del civil sangue tu dunque bruttarte E con le piaghe ind egnede ' Christiani Trafiger Cristo ond'ei son membra e perte c. Ah non per Dio vinci te stesso Tell me what mean you now Will you yet stain Your hands in your friends bloud by Civill Warre And by your killing Christians now again Pierce Christ his side of whom we members are c. Ah no for Gods sake conquer your passion Desiring that they might both lay down their Armes and recall all their papers against each other upon an appointed day and so enter into a Treaty But they being carryed along with a Spirit of contradiction like the Scotch Presbyter who railing against King Church and Government and being commanded by King James to speak either sense or come down replyed like himself I say man I 'se nowther speak sense nor come down They I say resolved to run counter absolutely declare that they will not think of peace till the King have taken down his Standard left his Armies repair'd to the Parliament that so justice might be done upon those who had adhear'd to them and how by this his Majesty himself could escape they having some few daies before taxed him with most mischievous Tyranny I know not And in the same paper the lands of all those who were of the Kings party were forfeited and I think it is not unknown how they were disposed on afterwards Nor need we doubt but those men who without Blushing could Vote the Queen a Traitor would not care to draw up some blood into their faces soe they might have their revenge on his Majesty And whether this clause For the preservation of his Majesties person was voted to be left out in the New modled Commission the Commons and my Lord Fairfaz know best and what the meaning of such a seclusion was the revolution of a few years did fully import Thus did the English use the King as the Scots did their James the third who hated him as Mr. Drummond informes us because he got the love of his people by Piety and Justice and having taken up armes against him would not hearken to any termes of reconciliation unlesse he freely resigned the title of his Crown and Realm in favour of his Son then in theirs Hands and voluntarily deposed himself
Long-Parliament I. Whether or no if the King and two Estates can extirpate the third then the King Lords Spiritual and Temporal cannot turn out the Commons as well as the King Lords Temporal and Commons exclude the Bishops II. Whether or no when the King and two Estates have turn'd out the third the King with another Estate cannot also turn out the second And lastly when only the King and one Estate remains the King as Supream cannot seclude that also III. And if these things will bear a good Consequence Whether the Presbyterians whose chiefest confidence was in the Long-Parliament but esecially the Commons have not brought their Hoggs to a fair Market But these People did not only overthrow Episcopacy but struck also at the root of Monarchy it self by their pleadings against the King's Supremacy making themselves not only equal to but above him And this not only when assembled in Parliament but when they are so far from having any Authority there there being no such thing then sitting that they are separately so many private Subjects obliged only to follow their own occasions for in this capacity I suppose they make themselves when they alledge for a Rule Rex est major singules minor Vniversis considering they place this in their Remonstrance as distinct from Parliaments But how weak this Position is let Parliaments themselves be our Judges And I do not love to reason against Authentick Records When God tells us expresly that Whoredom is a grievous sin 't was blasphemy in John de Casa to write in the vindication of Sodomy When Ignatius Irenaeus and other ancient and authentick Authors assure us that Presbytery was subordinate to Episcopacy in the first Century 't is folly in our late Schismaticks to dream of or introduce a Parity When Parliaments acknowledge themselves Subjects to his Majesty for any to conclude thence their Supremacy are in my judgement no less guilty of ignorance than that simpleton of Athens who fancied all the ships and other things to be his when he had no more interest in them then I have relation to the Crown of Castile The Lords and Commons tell us plainly what little signs they have of Superiority in these words Where by divers sundry old authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and exprest that this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the World governed by one Supream Head and King having the Dignity and Royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the same unto whom a Body Politick compact of all sorts and degrees of people and divided in tearms and by names of Spiritualty and Temporally been bounden and ought to bear next to God a natural and humble obedience c. And in many other Statutes do they acknowledge themselves the King 's most humble faithful and obedient Subjects But more especially in those two of Supremacy and Allegiance in which they acknowledge the King the Supream under God both of Civil and Ecclesiastical affairs and so swear Allegiance to him each Parliament-man before he sit taking both the Oaths as all other Subjects do Whereby they clearly renounce not only Priority but Parity by which all their Cavils bring nothing upon themselves but Perjury Against this Supremacy of our Kings though it be under God and Christ John Calvin rants in his usual hot-spurr'd zeal calling them Blasphemers and Fools who durst first presume to give such a title to a King And in obedience to this Supream Head of Geneva and Presbytery doth his dear Subject and Disciple Anthony Gilby and others of that Fraternity shoot their Wild-fire against the same Statutes of England by which they shew their Schism and Madness more than Christian Prudence Besides all this our Laws make it Treason to compass or imagin the death of the King Queen or his eldest Son to leavy Warr against the King or any way adhere to or assist his Enemies But for any to commit Treason against the Parliament especially for those who have the King on their side I see little reason because I have express Law to the contrary which tells us that any one who shall attend upon the King in his Wars and for his Defence shall in no ways be convict or attaint of High Treason ne of other offences for that cause by Act of Parliament or otherwayes by any process of Law whereby he or any of them shall loose or forfeit Life Lands Tenements Rents Possessions Hereditaments Goods Chattels or any other things but to be for that deed and service utterly discharged of any vexation trouble or loss And if any Act or Acts or other process of the Law here after thereupon for the same happen to be made contrary to this Ordinance that then that Act or Acts or other process of the Law whatsoever they shall be stand and be utterly void How this Act hath been since violated Compounders Sequestrators and Decimators will best inform you And what a pitiful ridiculous and extorted Comment the Noddles of the Long-Parliament made upon this Act may be seen in their Declarations by which you may view both their ignorance and their malice These are Presidents enough to satisfie any man in the Parliaments subjection to the King it being in his power to constitute them not they him in him being the only Authority to call and dissolve them not any such being in themselves He can pardon Malefactors not they without his consent The death of the King dissolves the Parliament though their breaking up reflects nothing upon him He can call them where he pleaseth but they not remove his Court They Petition him by way of Subjects not he them The King of England can do no wrong and never dyeth being alwayes of full age the breath of the former being no sooner expired but the next Heir is de facto King without the Ceremony of Proclamation or Coronation And whether a Parliament can do no wrong or no I leave to many men now in England to judge The Kings power hath been such that he hath call'd a Parliament with what limitations he pleas'd as King Henry the fourth's Parliament at Coventry in which no Lawyer was to sit And whether too many Lawyers in a Parliament doth more good or bad hath been oft discours'd of in late times And 't is the King hath the power of the Sword not the Parliament as their own Laws tell us for in the year 1271. Octob. 30. We find this Statute To us i. e. the King it belongeth and our part is through our Royal Seignory straitly to defend i. e. to prohibit or stop force of Armour and all other force against our Peace at all times when it shall please us and to punish them who shall do contrary according to the Laws and Usages of our Realm And hereunto they are bound to aid us as their Soveraign Lord at all seasons when need shall be And the meaning
the perfidious hot-spurr'd Presbyters THE HISTORY Of the Wicked PLOTS and CONSPIRACIES OF OUR Pretended Saints BOOK II. CHAP. I. The mischievous and impudent Contrivances and Innovations of the wicked long-Parliament 1. Their slandering of the Court and Church 2. Their Affection to the Schismaticall Incendiaries 3. The Impudence and seditiousnesse of their Lecturers 4. Their designes to alter the frame of Civil Government 5. Their Plots to overthrow Episeopacy 6. Their stirring up the people to Tumults 7. The small esteem the Commons had of the King and Nobility Whereby it appears that it was not the King but the Parliament that occasioned and began the Warres HAving now and that as succinctly as I could somewhat discovered the peace-consuming zeal of our Presbyterians I shall come to the subject intended to wit our late unhappy Distractions The seeds of which was not only before sown by the Nonconformists but began a little to take root and sprout forth through the temper of our English Parliament 1628. and the after actions of the Scottish Covenanters by whom the King was cajol'd to call a Parliament to fit November the third 1640. A day ominous to the Clergy by a former president upon that day the 20. year of King Henry the Eighth that Parliament beginning which began the ruine of Cardinal Woolsey the power of the Clergy and the dissolution of those famous Monuments of Charity the Abbeys and such like hospitable buildings England hath afforded us many Parliaments yet but one of them honoured with the Epithet of Good and that some hundred years agoe though since his Majesty hath been pleas'd to memorize one with the character of the healing and blessed Parliament as many of our former Representatives have had several names added to them as the Parliament that wrought wonders The great Parliament The marvellous Parliament The Laymens Parliament because no Lawyer was to be in it The unlearned Parliament either for the unlearnedness of the Members or for their malice to learned men Barebones Parliament The short Parliament and in the same year 1640. did our long wicked Parliament commence and I have heard of a Mad Parliament No sooner did the long Parliament sit but their proceedings were hurryed on with that fiery zeal that if distractions had not followed thereupon it would have been as strange to the discreeter sort as Margaret Countess of Hollands year-like birth at Lusdunen to our Country-women or the story of the womanly girle who at six years old was brought to bed of a son in Indostain For instantly they fell upon grievances abuses in Religion violation of laws liberties and what not Concerning which their speeches flew plentifully about and releas'd the grand Incendiaries Prynne Burton Bastwick and Dr. Leighton and giving them great rewards Some of them being triumphantly guarded into London by many thousands of horse and foot with rose-mary and bays in their hands and hats Novemb. 28. which was not only an high affront to the Kings Authority but a political glass to the Nonconformists through which they might see the strength and unanimity of their own Faction who were grown so valiant that a little before this upon the fast day Novemb. 17. where Dr. Burgess and Marshall preacht above 7 houres before the Commons and before the Lords two Bishops but as the second service was reading a Psalm was struck up by some of the Brethren which presently disturbd the Divine service to the amazement of the civill and orthodox Auditors who could little expect any such thing without an express order by authority But this is no great matter in respect of their after actions which are so many against the King and Kingdom and that too before his Majesty's horrid murther that it is impossible for me in this Compendium to decimate them into a relation their very printed Acts and Ordinances in that time amounting to above 530. Besides their Declarations Petitions Remonstrances Votes Proclamations Messages Speeches and such like passages and all stuft with some worshipful thing or other by which their pretty actions were confirmed Yet as farr as brevity will allow me I shall endeavour to speak out and as plain as I can yet must I not accuse all nor half it may be of the members many of them spur'd on by their Loyalty following his Majesty and sitting in Parliament in the Schools at Oxford after whose departure the House at Westminster seemed like Pandora's box from whence all our future mischiefs and diseases flew over the Nation The Parliament a little after its beginning having triumph'd over divers persons of quality whom they knew to be opposers of their intended Presbytery thought it fitting to seek some absolute way of security to themselves for the future And to this nothing could be thought more conducible considering how they had gul'd an odium of Reverend Episcopacy into the simple people than by the certainty of Parliaments for which purpose they procured of the King who dreamt nothing of their after-games and fetches an Act for Triennial Parliaments And that their own actions might appear of more grandure by the stability of their own foundation they also obtain'd from his Majesty who was never wanting to grant any thing to his Parliaments pretended to be for the good of his subjects an Act whereby themselves should not be dissolved prorogued or adjourn'd but by their own consent By which means they were fancied by many of the Kingdome to be of such high Authority that neither King law or any power else could have any influence over them let their actions be never so treasonable or wicked And so might Phaeton suppose when his Father had given him the command of his refulgent Chariot though his indiscreet authority brought ruine to himself and destruction to some parts of the world And well may any one in this turn their own weapons against themselves and yet not be deem'd too medling Such a continuing-Commission is freely given yet cunningly procured to the Captain of a ship But when this Governour falls so farr distracted as to indeavour nothing more then the ruine of his Vessel by their own popular consequence his Commission is void as being no more able to govern his charge to the best This instance I quote more because oft alledged against Regall authority than for any similitude it carrieth unlesse upon our perpetual Parliamentary account And therefore the reviving of this long-Parliament by a modern Writer seems to be to as small purpose as Don Quixot's martial endeavours to retrive the I know not what Knight-errantry by his paper helmet his wind-mill and claret-butts encounters or Hortensius the self-conceited School-master in du Parques Franchion to obtain the Crown and Kingdome of Poland The King having as he thought pacifyed his Subjects in England having granted them what they desired thought it likewise expedient to settle all things in Scotland in a peaceable temper for which purpose he put himself to the
a God-Mother And thus did they also baptise a Pig and were so farre from repenting at these villanies that they boasted they had done the same in many other places This unheard of impiety would make Martinus de Olave dumb with astonishment when many years ago he bitterly exclaimed against those who turn'd out the Reverend Divines and kept the Church only to be stables for horses and such like Beasts Nor did Westminster under the very nose of the Parliament escape scot-free The souldiers breaking down the Organs pawning the pipes of them for Ale eating drinking smoaking Tobacco at the Communion Table and easing themselves in most parts of the Church Nor was this all but keeping their whores in the Church and lying with them upon the very Altar it self if you will believe the learned Author of Mercurius rusticus who will inform you more at large concerning some of the fore-mentioned passages And here I shall not speak of the wicked selling of Church-lands by the Parliament who had no authority to do so And this is the happy Reformation begun and intended by the wicked long-Parliament a pack of such impious Varlets that they were forced to call themselves Saints because their neighbours could not Yet for all their Saint-ship several of their Members were not only instigators but high Actors of this Sacriledge who though not here named yet I suppose are as conscious to themselves as a great Lord was when the word Sectary was spoken by Arch-Bishop Land Nor were the Members altogether devested of Sacriledge when they acted and voted so furiously against the King Church and good of the Nation in their house which was formerly St. Stephens Chappel And how well many of them have feather'd their nests in Bishops lands is not unknown But goods thus got as the Proverb saith will never prosper Of which none of the least examples is King Henry the eighth who although besides the vast summe of Abby Lands and the 5100000 l. left him by his father in ready mony received more from his Subjects by loans taxes and subsidies then all the Kings of England had in 500 years before yet what King was ever prest with so much poverty all things considered as he was who about the 36 year of his raign as one observes of all the Kings of England was forced to coyn not only base Tinne and Copper but leather monies And it is observed as the same Author saith since the accession of Abbies and Impropriations to the Crown even the Crown-lands which formerly have been thought sufficient to support the ordinary charge of the Crown are since so wasted though I hope the Loyalty of our Parliaments will augment them that they will scarce defray the ordinary charge of the Kings houshold Nor hath it happened otherwise with our wicked Long-Parliament and their sacrilegious adherents who could never keep their accounts straight for though in the heat of the warre they demanded not much above 50000 l. a month to carry on their designes yet in time of peace they could not observe just scores though they had 90000 l. 100000 l. per mensem and sold all the Kings and Bishops and such like lands which amounted to a vast summe besides taxes excise customes and such like commings in Nor was this all but they had the composition moneys of those they call'd Delinquents which consisted of many thousand Loyal Subjects and to what a vast summe this came to may somewhat be collected from this If ten thousand men at two hundred pounds per annum pay two years for Composition for so the ordinance appointed which amounts to two Millions to what an incredible summe will it amount when several of the Compounders estates were 2 4 6 8 10. and some above thousand pounds a year But if this summe was great what was the Decimation Sequestration and such like knacks of procuring monyes And yet poverty still pleaded so that their Armies and Navies could not be paid till our Gracious Majesty did it for them who though they hoorded up much monies and lands to themselves yet the ever blessed divine Providence hath now brought them to give an account to the Loyall Royall and Rightful owners And such or a worse Exit let there alwaies fall upon all sacrilegious persons To whom as man hath appointed severe judgments so will not the all seeing and ever-just Almighty be backward in requiting such prefidious and sacrilegious villains according to their iniquity who I hope will swallow down the Ophiusian herb as fast as the Church patrimony that the dread or terrour of their consciences shall either force them to restore the unjustly detain'd Lands and riches or Hoyl-like to swing their own requiem for the better example and terror of posterity CHAP. VI. That some through ignorance and a credulous disposition prompting them to embrace their specious Pretences might be charmed to side with the Parliament though really they designed no damage either to the King's Person nor Authority TO vindicate Rebellion as hath been the unhappy mode of late is the worst office that can be done to a Nation yet to make all it's partakers of equal guilt will be a token of no great share of charity I am apt to believe that hitherto there hath never been any war but some men as well of honest intentions as others knavishly-designed have been of both sides It is not all men that rightly understand the frame by which they are govern'd either the Prerogative of the Supream or their own Priviledges and it is but few can see into the contriving hearts of their neighbours A harmless woman may be deceived into the reality of the Actors at the Hostel de Bourgogue in Paris or an English Play-house and 't is no difficult thing under the specious vail of Religion and Common good to make many people believe that actions which are really the most wicked tend to the best like the Physician in the Fable who made his Patient think that every Temper he was in was still for his health By these insinuations increaseth the number of Hereticks and Rebels many being rather misled then acting out of design being not so much used for any benefit to themselves as ignorant instruments to promote their flattering Grandees to the desired Haven of Supremacy and this once obtain'd are either thrown by as Day-labourers when the work is done as needless and impertinent or as ingratefully rewarded as Trebellius King of Bulgaria was by the most unfortunate Emperour Justinian the second As I shew'd before that the pretended squeamish stomacks of the Non-conformists were as Peter the Hermit the first Trumpet to sound Alarum to this supposed holy war setting the Lecturers up to teach Non-conformity schism and disobedience the forerunners of Rebellion so were the tongues and pens of this Novel Covenanting fraternity the main instruments that infused disloyalty into the peoples hearts which the Parliament did not
restrain'd the punishment of their disorders against her Person and Authority the more liberty they took to offend To this Knox impudently answers That his patience in suffering abominations made him not guilty of any fault and if his tongue took liberty in Pulpit she might take it as she pleas'd since in the Pulpit he had no Superiour but God and that his gifts made him equal to any of her Peers And as for her weeping he said He could better sustain her tears than the trouble of his Cause or to betray the Common-wealth Nor durst the Queen question him for his sawcy replyes knowing the strength of his Faction which being uot unhid to Knox made him more Insolent as afterwards publickly to affirm That For her sins the Land must lament and that it was absolute Rebellion in her not to turn Protestant and compared her to Simon Magus thinking it impossible that her sins could be forgiven her Nor did others of his Fraternity hold their peace And having got thus sure footing nothing would satisfie them but to have all for which purpose at a General Assembly at Edenburgh they draw up a Petition of several Heads the first of which was That the Queen her self with all her Family should not only forsake Mass and Popish Idolatry but that all none excepted should be punished who transgrest this Article To this she answered being then at St. Johnstons That as she freely gave every one Liberty of Conscience so she hoped that her Subjects would not press her to do against her Conscience and that she did not only think that there was no impiety in the Mass but that her Religion was true and grounded upon the Word of God But this gave them no full satisfaction Henry Stewart Lord Darnley being now marryed to the Queen July 1565. and proclaimed King the Knoxian Lords fly to their Arms and so doth the King also but before his march hears Knox preach at Edenburgh at St. Giles Kirk where he rail'd against the present Government reflectively saying That for the sins of the People God gives them Boyes the King was about 21. years old and Women to rule over them After which the King marcheth against the Lords who fly into England yet through Intercession all was reconciled Not long after this the Queen was brought to Bed in Edenburgh Castle betwixt 9. 10. at night July 19. of a Son which was afterwards Christned at Sterling and call'd James who became at last the happy Uniter of the two Crowns At the latter end of the same year John Knox intending to visit his sons at Cambridge moved the Assembly to write to the English Bishops in favour of the Non-conformists then buzzing in England The which they do but in their wonted language railing against the Surplice Square-Caps Tippets and calling them Badges and Garments of Idolatry Romish Raggs vain Trifles telling them as if the serious Bishops need take advice from such Hair-brains That they may boldly oppose all such Authority which dare command such things brave language and anew way of begging to get curtesies by Some few weeks after this the King was most barbarously murder'd 9 th February but by whom and how because History will not tell us the truth at large I think it not convenient to relate by peice-meal Then was the Queen whether willing or constrained is nothing to me marryed to Bothwell against whom the Lords raise an Army and forced him to fly into Denmark where he was imprisoned and they also seize on the forsaken Queen whom they secure in the Island of Lochlevin where by threats and fear they forced her to resign tears trickling down her face abundantly her Interest in the Crown to her young Son few days above a year old who was Crowned few days after at Sterling July 29. And if you will believe a late Historian Knox and other Ministers were not satisfied with this Resignation of hers but would have her also deprived of life nor is this Treasonable cruelty contradictory to his fore-mentioned Principles Now could the Knoxians desire nothing more having their King young in his Cradle and so capable of what impression they pleas'd and their Queen in close Prison so that they appeared Lords and Masters Yet she presently escapes out of Prison gets some Forces fights Murray the Regent but being beat fled into England where Queen Elizabeth imprisoned her till she was to the astonishment of many beheaded 1586. after 18. years close Imprisonment The next year the Regent Murray was slain at Lithgow by one Hamilton And then Lenox the Kings Grand-father obtained that dignity against whom the Lord Hamilton in behalf of the Queen raiseth a Warr in which Lenox was slain at Sterling Then was the Earl of Marre chosen who not long after dyed of a Feavour After whom the Earl of Morton succeeded as Regent after which the Queens Party by degrees lost all Authority In this year did John Knox dye at Edenburgh Novemb. 27. one that as I am apt to believe all things considered gained more esteem amongst the people by the reverence of his long-beard reaching down to his middle than any real wisdom or discretion that could be appropriated to him And now comes Andrew Melvil burning from Geneva against Bishops denying the lawfulness of their Function labouring for the absolute Presbyterial Discipline according to the Geneva mode which rais'd some Tempests in the Church insomuch that some of the Presbytery forbad Mr. Patrick Adamson lately by the Regent presented and by the Chapter chosen to the See of St. Andrews to Exercise any part of his Jurisdiction till he had acknowledged and satisfied them After this Argyle and Athol not affecting the Regent go to the young King at Sterling complaining against Morton and desiring him to take the Rule upon himself And so the King doth at 12. years old and thus the Regency fell The young King being brought up in the Reformed way confirms the Religion in Parliament but not their Discipline he affecting the Episcopal Government and ever since he was ten years old as himself confesseth disliked the Presbyterian way And truly Experience gave him good reason for it But to make all sure a Negative Oath by way of a Confession of Faith wherein all the Romish Ceremonies and Doctrines were abjured was drawn up by Mr. John Craig and this the King himself took and this he reflected upon in the Conference at Hampton-Court Having thus tyed his Conscience as they thought his Body must be secured too and so at Ruthen they seize upon him and that with so much inhumanity and irreverence that he burst forth into tears for which he got nothing but this Answer from the Master of Glammis It is no matter for his tears better that Barns should weep then Bearded-men Upon this the Earl of Arran going to know the Kings condition was secured and his Brother sore
constaunce evel preveth A full great fool is he that on you leveth And all this by the power of a faithless rebellious schismatical and heretical Army compos'd of people betwixt whose hearts and tongues was a certain Antipathy so that it had been more credit to them had they been framed like the people of Quinbaia not unlike those Wywaypanamyans and other parts of Peru with their heads in their brests for then their tongues had been so near their hearts that they could not have given their tongues the lye But these were agreeable to the wicked man complained on by David who did not onely break his Covenants but was also full of deceit But this wickedness of theirs they indeavour to wipe out by affirming they did but follow the steps of the Parliament who swore to maintain the King yet cut off his head though 't is no excuse to save a thief from the gallows to plead that the knack of stealing was invented before his time This jugling is odious in any man but especially for a Souldier whose profession like our Knight errants is to right all people punish the wicked and relieve the opprest And thus taken no man can but honour his calling knowing that in a good cause none deserves his wages or pay better ventring life limbs and all that is dear to him for his Countries benefit But for your Souldiers of fortune who censure the goodness of their cause by the greatness of their pay and booty who venture their lives onely for their own private interests and fight meerly because they hate peace or because their former villanies in time of tranquillity would be brought to question who know no Conscience and acknowledge no Law but that call'd Martial the which though the severest yet so seldome put in practise or at least runs by partiallity witness the condemning and quitting the same once great man about the same falt that like the Rack in England 't is rather talk'd of then known As for these Banditi or rather wild Canables they are so much the Pest of a Nation that they were not unlike that antient plague call'd by the Northern-people the Grace of God yet for all it 's good name the effects of it was destructive And as they pray'd against the graces of God meaning that sickness so might we against our Army said to be composed of Saints though their actions and intentions were altogether wicked being constant to nothing but Gain whereby the Poets observation may more especially be appropriated to this Army Nulla fides pietásque viris qui castra sequuntur Venalésque manus ibi fas ubi maxima merces Nor faith nor piety these hirelings sway Thinking there is most right where is most pay These men were more fit to fight under the Banner of the one eyed Arimaspi who formerly used to wage war against the Gryffens meerly for the greediness of gold or the aviritious Syrians who like these men will perpitrate any thing for money then to list themselves amongst Christians who should first know the reason of the war before they enter into it and then act wholly for the publick good Not fighting pro and con according as their Officers prompted by private opens please to lead them on as if like Bull-rushes they ought to be obedient to every blast of their rotten-hearted Commanders And if cowardice a thing not to be separate from all honest men let the Philosopher think the contrary have been thought by the best Souldiers worthy of death what punishment is fit for these Needhamites who have no end or reason for their supposed valour but the destruction of those who are better then themselves as if like Envy in the Poet they repined at the flourishing of good things So that truly it may be said of them as the Long-Parliament usher'd on by their own confidence was pleas'd to affirm of the King That notwithstanding all the Vows and Protestations to govern by Laws which have been disperst throughout the Kingdom to blind and decieve the people the most mischievous principles of Tyranny are practised that ever were invented For if Le Sieur Colletet doth give us a true discription of Tyranny and he was both learn'd and ingenious enough to understand it we may easily conceive that it was never more practised then in these late times in England Ravir la paix le repos Accabler la France d'impos Rire du peuple qui soûpire Sons le joug d'un cruel Empire Remplir d'infames Garnisons Jousque au foger de nos maisons Vouloir qu' en nos propres familles Le soldat caresse nos filles Forcer en tout temps en tout lieu Les Loix de l'Estat de Dieu Sage Conrart c'est la manie De la nouuelle Tyrannie To over-cloud our peace and rest The Land with Taxes to infest To ' Abuse the people who do groan Under a Curst bloud-shedding Throne To cumber mankind with a Croud Of Garrisons base-born yet proud To let the Souldiers 'fore our eyes Abuse our Daughters as their prise Always to violate and withstand The laws of God and of the Land Is Sir if I can right define Of Tyranny the onely sign And this description agrees with those villanies to make up a Tyrant mentioned by the learned and amongst the rest that ever famous Saravia the Mauller of Beza And really the arrogancy of every beggerly Red-coat and intolerable pride and insolency of every upstart dung-hill-bred Commander many of their extractions being little better was such that we had cause to think as was formerly said of the days of King Stephen that there were in England as many Tyrants as Governours of Towns and Castles And I fear nor doth my doubt argue want of charity that many of them by their arrogant wickedness have not crost the Proverb Set a Begger on horse back and he will ride to the Devil For we know that such upstarts are naturally most proud which hath been held above an ordinary sin and what sign of repentance they have yet shewn I am altogether ignorant How our Nation was reformed after so much fighting for it's pretended happiness when our Kings Nobility Clergy and Gentry were thrown by as useless and Coblers Draymen and such Mechanicks set up in authority to domineer over us will make posterity blush to consider as it hath done Forraigners rather to abuse then pity us And will remain as a sign to posterity of the Armie 's abominable hypocrisie and falshood When they had the confidence to assert their first cause the just rights and liberties of all honest and good men in their peaceable and quiet living and not at all indulged either themselves or others in the troubling suppressing or abridging any though keen and froward against the Army in the free use and enjoyment of their just rights and liberties and all this and much more with simplicity impartiallity