Act of Pacification for their assistance to withstand their King and to overthrow our Church it is apparent to all the world how perfidiously they dealt with God and man and how treacherous their thoughts were from the beginning both to the King and Kingdom Yet as we found our Brethren of Scotland howsoever these men bevaved themselves in their secret intentions to have carried themselves none otherwise than as wise rationall and religious men in all the Treatie so I assure my selfe they will hereafter still continue both faithfull unto God and loyall unto their King and as they perceived not their intentions at the first so they will not now joyne with them in any Association of Rebellion to withstand their own Liege Lord and to change the established Lawes and Religion of our Kingdom but will rather live in peace and happinesse in their own Land than by forsaking their enjoyed quietnesse to involve themselves in the unhappinesse of a desperate War in another Countrey 2. 2. The compelling of all people to â—…ak their new â—amed Protestation After they had thus endeared themselves unto their Brethren of Scotland they framed a Protestation to maintain and defend as farre as lawfully they might with their lives powers and estates the True Reformed Protestant Religion his Majesties Royall Person honour and estate the power and priviledges of Parliament the lawfull rights and liberties of the Subjects and every person that should make the same Protestation in whatsoever he should do in the lawfull pursuance of the same and to their power and as farre as lawfully they might to oppose and by all good wayes and meanes endeavour to bring to condigne punishment all such as shall either by force practise counsels plots conspiracies or otherwise * Which word is like the c. in the Canonical Oath do any thing to the contrary of any thing in the said Protestation contained and neither for fear hope nor other respect to relinquish this promise vow and protestation In which Protestation though no man can espie the least shadow of ill prima facie at the first reading thereof yet if you look further and search narrowly into the intentions of the composers the frame of the Protestation and the practise of these Protestors ever since the framing of it you shall finde that Desinit in piscem mulier formosa supernè these men are no Changelings but as like themselves as ever they were for 1. As it was intended so it succeeded 1. To terrifie the Papists and to raise a rebellion in Ireland it terrified the Papists and made them so desperate as almost to despair of their very being as concerning the place where or the manner how they should live which thing together with many other harsh and hard proceedings against many of them and the small countenance which they shewed unto a very moderate Petition that the Papists exhibited unto them hath driven abundance of them into Ireland whom I saw my selfe and there consulting with the Irish which were then also threatened by the Agents of this faction there that ere long they should be severely handled and brought to the Church whether they would or no or pay such a mulct as should make them poor what course they should take in such a desperate condition wherein they were all like to be ruined or to be rooted out of all the Kings Dominions they concluded what they would do to defend themseves by a plain Rebellion So this course against them hath been the leading card as some of them confessed of that great Rebellion which being kindled as some Sectaries in England expected they thought they would so much the more weaken the King by how much the more combustion should be raised in each one of his Dominions and therefore notwithstanding all the Kings gracious Messages and wishes unto the House of Commons which I wish all men would remember how affectionately he desired it to hasten to releeve that bleeding Kingdom yet still they protracted and neglected their redresse and at last passed such Votes made such Orders and procured such Acts as rather respected themselves and their posteritie to get all the land and goods of the Rebels to themselves that were the Adventurers than the relieving of us that were distressed and would as I told some of the House of Commons rather increase the Rebellion than any wayes quench that destroying flame And this was as it succeeded and as you see hereby most likely intended a most detestable plot for the kindling of that Rebellion and continuing of that bloody War in Ireland without which they knew this Rebellion in England could never have gained so much strength as it hath 2. 2. To gaine all Sectaries to their side By their large expression of what religion they protested to defend not the Protestant religion as it is established by Law and expressed in the 39 articles of the Church of England but as it is repugnant to popery and taught perhaps by Burton Burges Goodwin Burrowes or the like Amsterdamian schismatickes they opened the gap so wide and made Heaven gate so broad that all Brownists Anabaptists Socinians Familists Adamites and all other new England brood and outlandish Sectaries what soever that opposed popery might returne home and joyne with them as they have done since to overthrow our established Church and state And this plot to increase their own strength was as craftily don and is as Detestable as the other which to weaken the King in England caused a rebellion in Ireland 3. 3. To descry their owne strength By their illegall compelling and forcible inducing of all the people in the Kingdome to take the same or to be adjudged ill affected and popish and after the Lords had rejected the imposing of it they by their Declaration which shewed that what person soever would not take it was unfit to beare office either in Church or Common wealth prevailed in this plot so that they descried the number of their owne party they understood their own strength and they perceived thereby many things which they knew not before for now they had with David numbred Israel and so far as the wit and policy of the Devill had instructed them they had searched into the secrets of all hearts 4. 4. To insnare all the simpler sort to adhere unto them Having compelled the people to take it they have hereby insnared all the simpler sort and tender consciences to sticke unto them when they tell them and presse it upon their soules that they have made a Protestation to maintaine the priviledges of Parliament and the Liberty of the Subject and therefore they are bound to adhere to the Parliament to the uttermost of their power and so by this equivocall Protestation they have seduced thousands into their Rebellion and led them blindfold unto destruction Butto let you see not the syncerity of their hearts The mystery of their iniquity but the mystery
so truly religious and void of hypocrisie in their profession as she most gracious Queene is in her religion then they say the Bishops are all Papists Deanes and Prebends are of the same stampe and all the Kings Chapleines that were preferred by the Archbishop were either close papists or profest Arminians which are but Cosen germanes unto the other Arminianism being but a bridge to passe over unto popery And with these and the like false slanders against the King Queene and Clergy they so bewitehed most of their well meaning brethren of the same house and amazed all the simplet sort of people of this Kingdome with these feares and filled them with such jealousies with those pamphlets that they caused to be printed and dispersed every where that they were at their wits end for feare of this lamentable alteration of their religion and deprivation of their liberties 2 2. The Cure The disease being thus spread like a gangrene over all the parts of the body of this Kingdome they like skilfull Physitians devise the cure and that is the preparation of a Militia and this militia they would have put into such hands as they pleased such as they might confide in and I wish the whole Kingdome knew who those men were and who they are that they doe confide in for I know 1. Some of them are poore men of most desperate fortunes if bankrupters may be termed such 2. Others to be most factious and scismaticall men addicted to Anabaptisme and Brownisme and other worser sects as amongst the London Commanders Ven Manwaring Fawlke Norington Bradly Bast and the rest whereof there are twise as many schismaticall and as it is conceived beggarly sectaries as are right honest men among them and if we looked among their Lords and all the rest of their nomination throughout the Kingdome I doubt we shall find some of them to be just of the same condition And because the King to whose care and trust God had committed all the people of this Kingdom and not to them that are called by the King and chosen only by men and that only for this time and of whom he will require an account of the lawes and religion whereof he made him keeperand defender and not of them thought most rightly that this Militia should be commited rather to such men as he might confide in as it was in the raigne of Queene Elizabeth and His Father of ever blessed memory rather than to any that they should name which was to disrobe himselfe of all his regall power of the chiefest garland of his royall prerogatives without which he could hold his Crown by no better a tenure then durante beneplacito and to put the sword out of his owne hand into the hands of them that could not love him because they could not trust him as they alleaged and what reason had he to trust them that were causelesly so distrustfull of him they startled at this deniall And because the King of heaven had by this time opened the Kings eyes God openeth the Kings eyes to let him see what hitherto he could hardly imagine that these men to whom he had granted for the good of his Kingdome so many acts of grace and favour as never any King of England did before and had very graciously offered to commit to the hands of their owne choosing so large a share of the Militia as might have rendered the whole Kingdome most secure if security in a iust and legall way had beene all that they sought for had their intentions far otherwise then they pretended and that not only the government of the Church was intended to be altered and the governours thereof destroyed but himself also was hereby disrobed of those rights which God and the lawes of the land had put into his hands and the Kingdome brought either into a base tyranny or confused anarchie when all things shall be done according to the arbitrary power of these factious and schismaticall men therefore he utterly refused to grant their desires and most wisely withstood their designe Whereupon these men put their heads together How they strengthened themselves to make their ordors firm with out the king to consult how they might strengthen themselves and make their ordinances firme and binding without the King and to that purpose having by their former doings gotten too great an interest as well in the faith as in the affections of the people in confidence of their owne strength they came roundly to the businesse and what they knew was not their right as their former Petitions can sufficiently witnesse they resolve to effect the same by force but as insensibly as they can devise as 1. To seize upon the Kings Navie to secure the Seas 2. To lay hold upon all the Kings Magazin Forts Townes and Castles 3. To with-hold his moneyes and revenues and all other meanes from the King 4. To withdraw the affections and to poyson the loyalty of all his Majesties Subjects from him And hereby they thought and it must have beene so indeed Psa 30 6 except the Lord had beene on his side they had made their hill so strong that it could not be moved and the King so weake and destitute of all meanes that he could no wayes subsist or relieve himselfe as a member of their owne House did tell me for 1. 1 Earl of Warwâ—ck made vice Admirall They get the Earle of Warwicke to be appointed Vic-admirall of the Sea and to commit all the Kings Navie into his hand and to take away that charge from Sir Iohn Pennington whom most men believed to be farre the better Sea-man but more faithfull to his King and the other purer to the Parliament 2. 2 Sir Iohn Hotham put to Hull for the Magazine They fend Sir John Hotham a most insolent man that most uncivilly contemned the King to his face to seize upon the Kings Magazine that he bought with his own money when they might as well take away my horse that I paid for and to keepe the King out of Hull which was his owne proper Towne and therefore might as well have kept him out of White-hall and was an act so full of injustice as that I scarce know a greater 3. 3 They detained the kings moneys Esay 1 23. Because moneyes are great meanes to effect any worldly affaire and the sinews of every warre when as men and armes and all other necessaries may be had for money some of them and their followers shew themselves to be just as the Peeres of Israel companions of thieves meere robbers which forcibly take away a mans money from him they take all the Kings treasure they intercept detaine and convert all the Kings revenues and customes to strengthen themselves against the King 4. Because their former Remonstrances framed by this faction 4 They labour to render the king odious by lyes of the ill government of this Kingdome though in some things
people to make the King still the more odious unto his Subjects that he was the cause of the Rebellion in Ireland and that the Rebels there had his Commission under the Broad Seal to plunder the Protestants and to expell them thence that so the Gospell being rooted out of Ireland Poperie might the easier be transported and planted here in England whereas themselves in very deed were the sole causers of this Rebellion as I have shewed unto you before The cause of this stander and the colour of this stander was that the Rebellion being raised the Ring-leaders of those Rebels the sooner to gain the simple to adhere unto them perswaded them to believe that they had the Kings command to do the same and to that purpose shewed them the Broad Seal which they had taken from Ministers and Clerkes of the Peace and others whom formerly they had plundered and taken their Seales from them which they cunningly affixed to certain Commissions of their own framing as M Sherman assured me he saw the Broad Seal that was taken from one M. Hart that was Clerke of the Peace in the Countie of Tumond and was found in the pocket of one of the chief Leaders of the Rebels when he was killed by the Kings Souldiers yet this false and lewd practice of these Rebels in Ireland was a most welcome newes to this Faction in England to say this imputation upon the King that he was the cause of this Rebellion which themselves had kindled and were glad to finde such a colour to impute it unto him that it might not be suspected to be raised by them Many other such falsehoods Lyes and impudent slanders hath the father of lyes caused these his Children most impudently to father upon the King but as the Philosopher saith Non quia affirmatur aut negatur How things are in deed res erit aut non erit things are not so and so because they are said to be so neither can they be no such things onely because they are denied to be such as Gold is not Copper because ignorant men affirme it to be so nor a drunken man sober or a vitious man vertuous because they deny him to be good and blazon him abroad for one of the sonnes of Belial but as Gold is Gold and Brasse is Brasse so godly men are good wicked men are evill and Rebels are none other than Rebels let men call them what they will and so our King is not such a man as they say because they affirme it but he is indeed a most just virtuous and most pious Prince let them say what they will Their tongues are their own and we cannot rule them and so all his followers are better Protestants in deed and lesse Papists in all points of faith than the best of them that terme us so by false names God forgive them these slanderous accusations CHAP. XI Sheweth the unjust proceedings of these factious Sectaries against the King eight speciall wrongs and injuries that they have offered him which are the three States and that our Kings are not Kings by election or covenants with the People ANd yet for all these strange courses contrary to all humane thoughts which is marvelous in our eyes Psal 118.23 Esay 46.10 the Lord of Heaven whose counsell shall stand and whose will shall be done hath them all in derision dissipates all these devices and turnes all the counsell of Achitophel against his own head when he opened the eyes of many millions of the Kings true Subjects to behold and detest these unfaithfull dealings and disloyall proceedings against so gratious a King and therefore petitioned and subscribed that his Majestie standing upon his Guard and defending himselfe from such indignities as might follow they would hazard their lives and fortunes to assist him to repell those more than barbarous injuries that were offered unto Him Therefore now Memoriae proditum est I finde it written that without fear of God without regard of Majestie without justice without honestie they are resolved rather than to repent of their former wickednesse to involve the whole Kingdom in an unnaturall civill War and to maintain the same against the will and contrary to the desires both of the King and Kingdom and it is almost incredible what wicked courses and how unjust and insufferable Orders and Ordinances you shall finde recorded that they have made 1. Against the King 2. Against the Subjects 3. Against the Law Which are all said to be exceedingly abused by them for 1. 1. Their proceedings against the King Against the King it is registred to Posteritie that they have proceeded besides many other things in all these particulars 1. 1. Wrong Matth. 8.20 They possesse all the Kings Houses Townes and Castles but what he gets by the strength of his sword and detain them from him so that we may say with our Saviour The foxes have holes and the fowles of the aire have nests but the King of England hath not an house allowed him by the Houses of Parliament wherein to put his head and they take not onely his Houses but also his rents and revenues and as I understood when I was in Oxford his very clothes and provision for his Table that seeing they could not take away his life by the sword they might murder him with cold or famine when he should not have the subsistence if they could hinder him to maintain life and soul together which is the shame of all shame and able to make any other men odious to all the world The complaint to the House of Commons Pag. 19. thus maliciously and barbarously to deal with their own most gracious King neither doth their malice here end but they with-hold the Rents of the Queen and seize upon the Revennes of our Prince which I assure them my Countrey men takes in great scorne and I believe will right it with their lives or this Parliament Faction shall redeem their errours with no small repentance when as we finde no Prince of Wales was ever suffered by his Subjects to have such indignities offered him by the greatest Pecres of England And here I cannot omit what Alderman Garroway saith of the reproach of Master Pym touching the maintaining of the Kings other Children which he professeth made his heart to rise and hoped it did so to many more Is our good King fallen so low Alderman Garroway his Speech that his Children must be kept for him It is worth our inquirie who brought him to that condition We hear him complain that all his own revenue is seized and taken from him Is not his Exchequer Court of Wards and Mint here his Customes too are worth somewhat and are his Children kept upon Almes How shall We and our Children prosper if this be not remedied And I pray God these things rise not up in judgement against them and this Nation but hereby they intended to verifie that disloyal Speech which
for we know full well from the practise of all former parliaments that seeing the three States are subordinate unto the king p. 48 in making lawes wherein the chiefest power consisteth they may propound and consent but it is stil in the kings power to refuse or ratifie and I never read that any parliament man till now did ever say the contrary but that if there be no concurrence of the king in whom formally the power of making of any law resideth ut in subiecto to make the law the two Houses whose consent is but a requisite condition to compleat the kings power are but a livelesse convention like two cyphets without a figure that of themselves are of no value or power but ioyned unto their figures have the full strength of their places p 19 20 21 which is confirmed by the viewer of the Observations out of 11. Hen. 7.23 per Davers Polydore 185. Cowell inter Verbo prerog Sir Tho. Smith de republ Angl. l. 2. c. 3. Bodin l. 1. c. 8. for if the kings consent were not necessary for the perfecting of every act then certainly as another saith all those Bills that heretofore have passed both Houses The Letter to a Gentleman in Gloucester shite p 3 and for want of the Royall assent have slept and beene buried all this while would now rise up as so many lawes and statutes and would make as great confusion as these new orders and ordinances have done And as the Lawyers tell us that the necessity of the assent of all three states in Parliament Lamberts Archeion 271. Vid. he Viewes p. 21. is such as without any one of them the rest doe but loose their labour so Le Roy est assentus câ—o faict un act de Parliament and as another saith Nihil ratum haâ— betur nisi quod Rex comprobarit nothing is perfected but what the King confirmeth But here in the naming of the three States I must tell you that I find in most of our Writers about this new-borne question of the Kings power a very great omission that they are not particularly set downe that the whole Kingdome might know which is every one of them and upon this omission I conceive as great mistake in them that say the three States are 1. the King 2. the House of Peeres 3. Which hee the three States of England the House of Commons for I am informed by no meane Lawyer that you may find it upon the Rowles of Hen. 5. as I remember and I am sure you may find it in the first yeare of Rich. 3. where the three States are particularly named and the king is none of them for it is said that at the request Speed l 9 c 19 p. 712. Anno 1 Ric. 3 and by the assent of the three estates of this Realm that is to say the Lords Spirituall the Lords temporall and Commons of the Land assembled it is declared that our said Soveraign Lord the king is the very undoubted king of this realm wherein you may plainly see the king that is acknowledged their Soveraigne by all three can be none of the three but is the head of all three as the Deane is none of the Chapter but is caput cepituls and as in France and Spaine so in England I conceive the three estates to bee 1. the Lords Spirituall that are if not representing yet in loco in the behalte of all the Clergie of England that till these anabaptisticall tares have almost choaked all the Wheat in Gods field were thought so considerable a party as might deserve as well a representation in Parliament as old Sarum or the like Borough of scarce twenty Houses 2. The Lords Temporall in the right of their honour and their posterity 3. The Commons that are elected in the behalfe of the Countrey Cities and Burroughs and what these three States consult and conclude upon for the good of the Church and kingdome the king as the head of all was either to approve or reiect what he pleased and though we finde with some difficulty as the viewer of the Observations saith where the Parliament is said to be a body consisting of King Lords and Commons ergo without the king there is no Parliament yet herein the king is not said to be one of the three states but the first and most principall part that constitutes the body of the parliament p. 2â— 25. H 8 21. but John Bodin that had very exactly learned the nature of our parliament both by his reading and conferring with our English Embassador as himselfe confesseth saith the States of England are never otherwise assembled no more then they are in the Realmes of France and Spaine then by parliament write and the states proceed not but by way of supplications and requests unto the king Bodin de repub l. 1. c. 8 and the states have no power of themselves to determine or decree any thing seeing they cannot so much as assemble themselves nor being assembled depart without expresse commandement from the king In all this and for all the search that I have made I finde not the king named to be one but rather by the consequence of the discourse to bee none of the three but as I said the head of all the three states for either the words of Bodin must bee understood of two states in all the three kingdomes which then had beene more properly termed as we call them either the two Houses or the Lords and Commons or else they must be very absurd because the three states if the king be one of them can not bee said to be called by parliament writs when as the king is called by no writ nor can hee be said to supplicate unto himselfe or to have no power to depart without leave that is of himself Therefore it must needs follow that this learned man who would speake neither absurdly nor improperly meant by the three states 1. The Lords Spirituall 2. The Lords Temporall 3. The Commons of the kingdome and the King as the head of all calling them consulting and concluding with them and dismissing them when he pleased And Will. Martyn saith King Hen 1 at the same time 1114. devised and ordained the manner and fashion of a Court in Parliament appointing it to consist of the three estates of which himselfe was the head so that his lawes being made by the consent of all were not disliked of any these are his words And I am informed by good Lawyers that you may finde it in the preambles of many of our Statutes and in the body of some other Statutes and in some Petitions especially one presented to Queene Elizabeth for the inlargement of one that was committed for a motion that he made for excluding the Bishops out of the House of peeres Such is the difference betwixt Queene Elizabeths time and our times the three states are thus particularized and the Lords Spirituall are nominated
the first of the three and are termed one of the greatest states of this realme And this I conceive to be the right constitution of a Parliament therefore now to cast off one of the three States Anno octavo Elizabeth c. 1. and to cut off the head of all three by making the King but one of them that so both the King and the two Houses might be onely co-ordinate when as indeed they are as in some respect concurrent so also subordinate unto him as to their Head is such a change and alteration as would quite overthrow the fundamentall constitution of the Government of this Kingdome and make our King if these men might have their will to have no more power than the Duke of Venice And to that end this Faction have by themselves and their Pamphleters The false grounds of the originall of our Kings The disclaimer p. 17 18 19. laid down such false grounds of the originall of our Kings as are exceeding derogatory to the Crown of England as that they are Kings by paction and covenant with their people which at first chose them and intrusted them with their Government and for the preservation of their Lawes against the incroachments of the King and the making of new Lawes as occasions required ordained the great Councell which they call Parliament and which should have full power to restrain the King if he did abuse his Power and therefore the people may withdraw their trust when the Kings neglect their duty and nullifie their faith unto their Subjects for whosoever is indifferently read in Histories and the Chronicles of our Kingdom may easily finde how falsly and maliciously they would make this free Monarchie to have been elective and to be a conditionall Government because England France Post mortem Maximi Constans postular mi à Britannis But not a word in all the storie that any one of the British Kings was electus Anonymus MS. in Bibl. Oxon. qui scripsit hist omnium regum qui regna verunt in Anglia and Spain were parts and parcels of the Roman Empire and when the Emperours by reason of their intestine broyles at home could not look into the parts abroad the right Heit unto the Crown of Britain assumed unto himselfe all the Royaltie and power that the Emperour had over us and succeed him not by any pact or covenant with the people though not as then for some reasons without the request of the people but by that right which God and nature allowed unto Kings and was due either to the Roman Emperour or to any other absolute Monarch of any Nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the old Chronicles of those 〈…〉 the regaining of the Crown by Vortigerne after that the people had rebelliously rejected him and received but not elected his son Vortimer in his place do most sufficiently clear the case And therefore what Soveraigne Power soever is due to any absolute Monarch and what obedience soever S. Paul affirmeth to be due to the Roman Emperours that then ruled over us or Saint Peter commandeth to be given to other Kings the same is in all things due to our Kings ever since Aurelius Ambrosius that succeeded Vortigerne or if you will not ascend so high yet without all contradiction ever since William the Conquerour whom you cannot say was elected nor any other that succeeded him and therefore cannot be debarred or denied any of those Prerogatives and Soveraignties that belong unto the most absolute Monarch save onely in those things which of their speciall grace and favour they granted unto their Subjects and bound themselves at their Coronation to performe those promises of priviledge and freedom which they made unto them and that distinction of the disclaimer of an absolute and a Politique Monarch P. 17 18 19 20. with his two leaves discourse upon the same is so false and so frivolous that as Saint Bernard saith of the fooleries of Abailardus it deserveth rather Fustibus contundi quà m rationibus refelli Aristot. Polyt l. 4. for Aristotle tels us that the supreme Power of all Government which resideth in every absolute Monarch and doth constituere Monarcham give being unto the Monarch consisteth chiefly in these three distinct branches 1. The supreme power of every Government wherein it consisteth Legislative to make and repeal Lawes 2. Bellative to pronounce War and conclude Peace 3. Iudicative decisively to determine all crimes and causes whatsoever And when this threefold power is not penes annus but penes optimates then it is no Monarchis but an Aristocracie and when it is penes populum then it is neither of those but a meer Democracie or popular Government And therefore out Kings having the sole power first to make War and conclude Peace at their own pleasure and have called Parliaments onely to supply their wants and to adde their councell and assistance therein Secondly to make Lawes and repeal them when they please save onely that they promised to their People and obliged themselves not to do it without the advice of their Parliament And thirdly to judge all their Subjects according to their Lawes it is most apparent that our Kings are most absolute Monarches as Cassaneus Bodinus Sir Thomas Smith and all that wrote of this Kingdom do peremptorily affirme and though I deny not Bodius distinction of a Lordly Monarch a royall Monarch and a tyrannicall Monarch Bod. l. 2. c. 2. 3. which sheweth onely the Power and the Practise of the Monarch yet I say that the distinction of an absolute and mixed Monarchie which designeth the manner of the Government is a meer fopperie and a ridiculous distinction because that Government which extendeth it selfe to more than one can never be a Monarchie as every man knoweth that understandeth the word Monarch These and many more such injuries and insufferable indignities they have offered unto our King and so indeed unto the whole Kingdom which they durst not have offered to any tyrannicall King that would have ruled them with his iron rod but as the mercie of God emboldeneth wicked men to proceed in their abominations so the lenitie and goodnesse of this pious Prince nothing else in him encouraged these factious ambitious men the people greedy of a licentious libertie the Nobilitie and Gentrie of rule which is their naturall disease thus to usurpe the rights of our King and to raise this miserable war CHAP. XII Sheweth the unjust proceedings of this Faction against their fellow Subjects set down in four particular things 2. 2. Their proceedings against the Subjects wherein I shall in most points set down what I finde in the Remonstrance of the Commons to the House of Commons and what I collected out of other Writers of the best credit LEst they should be thought juster to their fellow Subjects than they are to their Severalgue King you may observe what I finde related of them 1. That besides the Act which they
composed and procured it to passe for the Poll money wherein they shew their exceeding great love to the Clergie as to make Deanes whose Deanaries were scarce worth 100.l a piece per annum to pay 40.l per poll equall with the Lords and Aldermen of London and many Prebendaries to pay more than the annuall worth of their Prebends and the like many passages of their respect to the Ministers and some other particulars which I passe without reproof because the Act is passed there were monies advanced by gift and by adventure and Souldiers were prepared for Ireland to reduce those Rebels to their former obedience and to restore the Kings distressed Subjects to their rights and possessions but the great neglect they shewed to discharge this dutie the Souldiers that were sent being left almost altogether unpaid to be sterved and exposed to the mercie of their mercilesse enemies and we the poor English that were robbed and spoiled of our goods and lands left not onely unrelieved but also twitted with that scandall for our comfort that we were worthily expelled by the Irish 1. How they neglected the distressâ—d Subjects of Ireland and left unregarded by the English because we were but as the Samaritanes neither Israelites nor Pagans or as the Turkes that partaking with the Jewes and Christians are neither Jewes nor Christians so the English in Ireland were just Laodicean like neither hot nor cold neither English nor Irish neither zealous Papists nor true Protestants and therefore worthily to be spued out of the mouth of all men which is the comfort we have of them and which puts us in a desperate condition unlesse his Majestie will be pleased to take another course to relieve us to be left as a prey to be destroyed betwixt two sorts we know not which more cruell enemies makes us believe that the monies are diverted and the Souldiers detained to continue this unnaturall War against our King that so by loosing the Kingdom of Ireland they might the sooner destroy the Kingdom of old England to bring the Kingdom of New England amongst us And besides this simple conversion of the Irish monies it is almost incredible to consider how unjustly they have dealt with the English Subjects to get money for to let abundance of other particulars passe the Earle of Manchester in the night time fetched away six thousand pounds as I understand â—oâ—er sadnesse p. 21. that were collected for the repairing of Saint Andrewes in Holbourne and the great summes of money that were gathered for London-derry and for Brainceford were imployed by these Zelots not to maintaine the lives of those distressed people but to destroy the lives of loyall Subiects and to prove themselves right Jscariots they brake into the Hospitall at Gilford in Surrey and tooke foure thousand pounds from the poore Lazars but as the Romans dealt with their neighbours Territories when they were made their Arbitrators so these men dealt as finely with the lading of that Ship called Sancta Clara for while the Merchants disputed about the goods these iust Judges to reconcile the difference seize upon all and twenty thousand pound must be lent them before the right owner can receive them and I might fill my papers with such examples 2. They have made an Ordinance 2. How they take what part they will of our estates Whereas they object that in the raigne of King Iohn and others of our kings the wentyeth fifteenth tenth or seventh part hath beene given I answer in one word never a part by the two Houses without the king and against the king as they doe that the twentieth part of mens estates must be paid towards the maintenance of this rebellion and they doe appoint those that upon their discretion shall value that twentieth part and they may for ought we know set downe the tenth for the twentieth and if they may legally do this we can see no reason why by the same rule they may not take the fifteenth tenth or halfe our goods for the same purpose and so they avouch they may but most untruly for it was never known till this present parliament that an Ordinance of both Houses without the consent nay against the command of the King can bind the free Subjects of England which doe not then renounce their loyalty to their King when they make choyce of them to be their procurators in the Parliament in their lives liberties or estates and yet these men not only bestow our moneyes as they please as they did six thousand pound to their owne Speaker and the places of command and great profi more then all the revenues of their lands come to upon themselves and upon their children and friends as upon Sir Iohn Hotham the Lord Rocheford Lord Say Lord Brookes Hampaen Brereton Fines the Earl e of Essex and abundance more but they doe also seize upon our estates and thus take our goods under the colour of maintaining this warre to inrich themselves and their children and for the levying of this or what other part they please they ordaine their friends and appoint their Collectors to distraine for the summe assessed and to sell the distresse and if no distresse can be found then the persons of these notable offenders that deny their goods thus illegally to be taken from them are to be imprisoned and their families to be banished from their habitations And to make the world believe how justly and sufficiently legall they could doe this they made another ordinance for the inhabitants of the Counties of North-hampton Rutland Derby c. to pay the twentieth part and to be assessed by the Assessors that they name in imitation of the Statute lately made for the foure hundred thousand pound and it is more than probable that this proceeding is but the praeludium of the like exaction to be extended when their need requireth to all the other parts of the Kingdome which is a most miserable course and injustice not to be paralleld to cast themselves into a necessity of getting money to maintaine an impious warre against their King and then out of that necessity to compell their fellow subjects and those peaceable men that doe abominate this war to maintaine the same yea and to fight in the same to kill men against their consciences in despite of their teeth or if they refuse to doe it to sond or at least to permit a party of Horse Dragooneers and other strength to goe to fetch their Money Plate or other goods as if they were the goods of the deadly enemies of the Common wealth and this for none other reason but for that the owners thereof are good Subjects to the King and not well affected to their uniust and ungodly proceedings But let me perswade all men that doe feare God still to suffer any thing which they can not avoid from the violence of these wicked men rather than contribute any thing unto them to further such abominable courses as they
vocatis more daret populis Because this was the custome of the Kings of Scythia Assyria Aegypt c. long before Moses and Pharonaus when municipall lawes first began to give lawes unto their people according to the rules of naturall equity which by the law of nature they were all bound to observe And though some Kings did graciously yeeld and by their voluntary oathes for themselves and their successors binde themselves many times to stricter limits then were absolutely requisite as William Rufus King Stephen Henry the fourth Richard the third and the like granted many priviledges perhaps to gaine the favour of their Subjects against those which likely had a better title to the Crowne than themselves or it may be to satisfie their people as the guerdon or compensation for the sufferance of some fore-passed grievances as Henry the first Edward the second Richard the second and the like yet these limitations being agreeable to equity and consistent with Royalty and not forcibly extracted ought in all truth and reason to be observed by them And hence it is that the Kings of this Realme according to the oathes and promises which they made at their Coronation can never give nor repeale any law but with the assent of the Peeres and People But though they have thus yeelded to make no lawes nor to repeale any lawes without them yet this voluntary concession of so much grace unto the people doth no wayes translate the legislative power from the King unto his assistants but that it is formaliter and subiectivè still in the King and not in them else would the government of this Kingdome bee an Aristocracy or Democracy and not a Monarchy because the supreame power of making and repealing Lawes and governing or judging decisively according to those lawes Cassan in catal glorlamundi are two of those three things that give being to each one of these three sorts of government Therefore the King of England being an absolute Monarch in his owne Kingdome as Cassaneus saith and no man can deny it the legislative power must needs reside solely in the King 22 Ed. 3.3 pl. 25. Vid. The view of a printed booke entituled Observations c. where this point is proved at large p. 18 19 21 22. ut in subjecto proprio and the consent of the Lords and Commons is no sharing of that power but only a condition yeelded to be observed by the King in the use of that power and so both the Oath of Supremacy and the form of all our ancient Statutes wherein the King speakes as the Lawmaker doe most evidently prove the same unto us Le Roy voit Neither durst any Subjects in former times either assume such a power unto themselves or deny the same unto their King for you may finde how the House of Commons denying to passe the Bill for the pardon of the Clergy which Hen. 8. granted them when they were all charged to be in a Premunire unlesse themselves also might be included within the pardon received this answer from the King that he was their Soveraigne Lord and would not be compelled to shew his mercy nor indeed could they compel him to any thing else but seeing they went about to restraine him of his Liberty he would grant a pardon unto his Clergie by his great Seale without them Sir Rich. ◠in vita Her though afterwards of his owne accord he signed their pardon also which brought great commendation to his judgement to deny it at first when it was demanded as a right and to grant it afterward when it was received as of grace And yet the deniall of their assent unto the King is more equitable to them and lesse derogatory to him then to make orders without him and this manner of compulsion to shew grace unto themselves is more tolerable than to force him to disgrace and displace his most faithfull servants onely because others cannot confide in them when no criminall charge is laid against them And therefore for the Lords and Commons to make Orders and Ordinances without the King and in opposition to the King is a meere usurpation of the Regall power a nullifying of the Kings power and a making of the Royall assent which heretofore gave life to every law to be an empty piece of formality which is indeed an intolerable arrogancy in the contrivers of these Orders and the makers of these Ordinances a monstrous abuse of the Subjects and a plaine making of our good King to be somewhat like him in the Comedy a King and no King And where as no Subject and under favour be it spoken not the King himselfe after he hath taken his Oath at his Coronation is free from the observation of the established lawes yet they make themselves so farre above the reach of Law that they freed him which the Lord chiefe Justice Bramston had committed to Newgate for felony in stealing the Countesse of Rivers goods they hindered all men as we found in their journall from proceeding against Sir Thomas Dawes they injoyned the Judges by their orders to forbeare to proceed in their ordinary courses in the Courts of Justice contrary to the eaths of those Judges and some Parliament men came to the Bench to forbid the Judges to grant Habeas Corpuses which is as great an iniquity and as apparent an injustice as ever was done by any Parliament And that which is a note above Ela The most abominable wickednesse of these factious Rebels above all that could be spoken whereas the Law of God and man the bonds and obligations of civility and Christianity tie us all to be dutifull and obedient unto our King in all things either actively or passively and no wayes for no cause violently to resist him under the greatest penalties that can be devised here and damnation hereafter yet these men contrary to all Lawes doe injoyne us and compell us as much against our consciences as if they should compell us with the Pagan tyrants to offer Sacrifice unto Idols to war against our most gracious Soveraigne whom we from our hearts doe both love and honour and they proscrible us as malignants and as enemies to the Common wealth if we contribute not money horse and armes to maintaine this ungodly war Ps 50.22 August contra Faust l. 22. c. 75.76 and so become deadly enemies unto our owne soules O consider this yee that forget God lest for tearing us he teare you in pieces while there is none to helpe you for considering what the Apostle saith Rom. 13.1.2 And what Saint Augustine saith ordo naturalis mortalium paci accommodatus hoc poscit ut suscipiendi belli authoritas atque consilium penes Principem sit and lest men should thinke they ought by force of armes to resist their king for religion he answereth that objection by the example of the Apostles isti non resistendo interfecti sunt ut potiorem esse docerent victoriam pro fide
Os ossis oris if you looke in pag. 59. you shall finde his double admiration that I should not be either recompenced with vengeance revealed from heaven or be made an example of the deepest severity of the justice of the land whereby I presume he means this Parliament or otherwise to be dismembred and torne in peeces by the impatient rage and indignation of the people for which direfull imprecation I wish the poore snake nothing else but that our good God would be so mercifull unto him as to restore him to his wits which I understand he scattered about the streets of Amsterdam and give him grace to repent for those intolerable treasons and abuses which he dispersed in his Pamphlets against his own Sacred Soveraigne And for his bone wherein I finde neither flesh nor marrow I shall throw it to his owne dogs to fight about it and will ever lest Thine affectionate loving Brother GR. OSSORY PSAL. 89.49 REmember Lord the rebuke that thy servants have and how we do beare in our bosomes the reproach of the mighty wherewith thine enemies have reproached thee and slandered the foot-steps of thine Anointed Arise therefore O Lord maintaine thine owne cause have mercy upon us and deliver us because we have put our trust in thee and forgive those poore seduced sheepe which know not what they doe The Contents of the severall Chapters contained in this TREATISE CAP. I. Sheweth the introduction the greatnesse of this Rebellion the originall thereof the secret plots of the Brownisticall faction and the two cheifest things they aimed at to effect their plot pag. 1. CAP. II. Sheweth the eager prosecution of our Sectaries to take off the Earle of Straftords head how he answered for himselfe the Bishops right of voting in his cause his excellent virtues and his death p. 6. CAP. III. Sheweth how they stopped the free judgement of the Iudges procured the perpetuity of the Parliament the consequences thereof and the subtle device of Semiramis p. 14. CAP. IV. Sheweth the abilities of the Bishops the threefold practice of the faction to exclude them out of the House of Peeres and all the Clergy out of all Civill Iudicature p. 19. CAP. V. Sheweth the evill consequences af this act how former times respected the Clergy how the King hath beene used ever since this Act passed and how for three speciall reasons it ought to be annulled p. 25. CAP. VI. Sheweth the plots of the faction to gaine unto themselves the friendship and assistance of the Scots to what end they framed their new Protestation how they provoked the Irish to rebell and what other things they gained thereby p. 32. CAP. VII Sheweth how the faction was inraged against our last Canons what manner of men they chose in their new Synod and of 6 speciall Acts of great prejudice unto the Church of Christ which under false pretences they have already done p. 40. CAP. VIII Sheweth what discipline or Church government our factious schismaticks do like best 12 principall points of their doctrines which they hold as 12. articles of their faith and we must all beleeve the same or suffer if this faction should prevaile p. 51. CAP. IX Sheweth three other speciall points of doctrine which the Brownists and Anabaptists of this Kingdome do teach p. 57. CAP. X. Sheweth the great bug-beares that affrighted this faction the 4 speciall meanes they used to secure themselves the manifold lies they raised against the King and the two speciall questions that are discussed about Papists p. 64. CAP. XI Sheweth the unjust proceedings of these factious Sectaries against the King eight speciall wrongs and injuries that they have offered him which are the three States and that oâ— Kings are not Kings by election or covenants with the people p. 73. CAP. XII Sheweth the unjust proceedings of this Faction against their fellow Subjects set downe in foure particular things p. 83. CAP. XIII Sheweth the proceedings of this faction against the Lawes of the Land the Priviledges of Parliament transgressed eleven speciall wayes p. 88. CAP. XIIII Sheweth how they have transgressed the publicke Lawes of the Land 3 wayes and of 4 miserable consequences of their wicked doings p. 94. CAP. XV. Sheweth a particular recapitulation of the reasons where by their designe to alter the government both of Church and State is evinced and a patheticall disswasion from Rebellion THE Discoverie of Mysteries OR The Plots and practices of a prevailing Faction in this present Parliament to overthrow both Church and State CHAP. I. Sheweth the introduction the greatnesse of this Rebellion the originall thereof the secret plots of our Brownisticall faction and the two chiefest things that they aymed at to effect their Plot. I Have long wandered in a region of Rebellion among seduced Subjects and discontented Peeres and now at last after I had passed the raging Seas and very hardly escaped the stormes and dangers of the furging waves I am arrived in my native soyle where I finde my selfe incompassed with farre greater stormes and more violent windes then ever I thought could be on any Land for though that Grand Rebellion which you may finde lately described was both magna mira very great and very grievous such as I supposed could not be exceeded by any humane malice yet now me thinkes I heare the Spirit saying unto mee as hee did unto Ezekiell Sonne of man stand up and I will shew thee greater abominations and a rebellion farre greater and more odious then either Popish Irish or any other Sect or Nation of the world hath hitherto produced and therefore I may now say with the Poet Barbara Pyramidum sileat miracula Memphis Let proud Babylon cease to boast Of her Pyramid's stately spires This Rebellion is more stange Surmounting all infernall fires No age the like hath ever bred Nor shall when these Rebels be dead The seed of it was unseasonably sowne in the Northerne storme The seed and originall of this rebellion and the originall of those Boreall blasts either why or by whom those spirits were raised is not so well knowne to me therefore how justly the King did undertake the quarrell I will not at this time determine or with what equity the Scots made their approach into England it is not my purpose to discusse yet I must needs say that our English Sectaries and Amsterdam Recusants which hated our Church and loved not our King justum quia justum onely because he is so good too good for them did from hence arripere ansam take hold of this opportunity by procuring those to proceed that were comming on and discouraging the others of the Kings side that were cowardly enough to say no worse of themselves to betray both King and Kingdome into the hands of the Invaders So the good King was now with King David brought into a strait So new I feare more the secret enemies both of Church and State that may lurke in Court then those that he
this Parliament have by their crast subtilty prevailed to have all the cheifest impediments of their design to be removed so now the hedge is broken downe and all the bores of the forrest may now come into the vineyard to destroy the vine and to undermine the Citie of God but into their counsells let not my soule come 2. The furthetances of their designe were five 2. When they had taken away these stops and hinderances of their projects they were to recollect and make up the furtherances that might helpe to advance their cause for the founding of their new Church and the establishing of their famous democraticall government popular Common-wealth And these I find to be principally five 1. The gaining of their brethren of Scotland to become their fast and faithfull freinds 2. The framing of a Protestation to frighten the Papists and to insnare the simple to be led as they listed to prosecute their designe 3. The condemning of our late canons as abominable in their judgement and inconsistent with their religion 4. The appointing of a new Synod the like whereof was never heard in the Church since Adam to compose such articles as they liked and to frame such discipline as should be most agreeable to their owne dispositions 5. The setling of a militia a word that the vulgar knew not what it was for to secure the Kingdome as they pretended from those dangers that they feared that is from those Jackes of lent and men of clouts which themselves set up as deadly enemies unto the Church and state but indeed insensibly to get all the strength of the Realme into their own hands and their confiderates that so they might like the Ephori bridle the King and bring him as they pleased to abolish and establish what lawes and government they should propose whereby perhaps he might continue King in name but they in deed These were the things they aymed at and they effected the first three before they could be discried and their plots discovered but in the other two they were prevented when God said unto them as he doth unto the Sea hitherto shalt thou goe and no further here shalt thou stay thy proud Waves and therefore I am confident and I wish all good Christians were so that their purposes shall never succeed nor themselves prosper therein while the world lasteth becaust God hath so mercifully revealed so much so graciously assisted our King and so miraculously not only delivered him from them but also strengthened him against them contrary to all appearing likely-hood to this very day which is a sufficient argument to secure our faith that we shall by the helpe of our God escape all the rest of their destructive designes But to display their banners to discover their projects and to let the world see what they are and how closely yet cunningly they went about to effect their worke I will in a plaine manner set down what I know and what I have collected from other writings and from men that are side digni for one mans eyes cannot see all things nor infallibly perceive the mysteries of all particulars for to confirme the faithfull Subjects in their due obedience both to God and their King and to undeceave the poore seduced people that they perish not in the contradiction of Corah 1. 1 The indeering of themselves unto the Scots Out Sectaties the inviters of the Scots to England It is beleeved not without cause with far greater probabilities then a bare suspicion that our own anabaptisticall Sectaries and this faction were the first inviters of those angry spirits that conceived some cause to be discontented and were glad of secret entertainers to enter into the bosome of this Kingdome whatsoever those our brethren of Scotland did I will bury it according to their Act in oblivion neither approving nor yet blaming them for any thing But for any Subject of England to enterchange Messages and to keepe private intelligence with any that seeme to be in armes against their King and the invaders of his Dominions to animate them to come and advance forward to refuse their Soveraignes service and the eath of their fidelity which was tendered unto them and to hinder the Kings soldiers to doe their duties either by denying to goe with him or refusing to fight for him when they went which if some men were brought to their Legall tryall I beleeve would be more then sufficiently proved against them can be no lesse then haynous trimes perhaps within the compasse of high Treason Or were these things but our jealousies and feares which do wear the garments of Truth yet their proceedings in Parliament do adde more fuell unto the fire of our suspicion as for our men whom we had chosen to plead for us and to treat with them to respect them more than us to enrich them by impoverishing us How they behaved themselves towards the Scots giving them no lesse than 300000.l who had entered into our Land and brought upon us such feares of I know not how many mischiefes that might succeed and not onely so but also to shew what love they bare to them and how little regard they had of us their native brethren that put such trust and confidence in their fidelitie as to commit all our fortunes and liberties into their hands paying weekly such a pension for their provision besides the maintainance of our own Armie which were forced to carry them their monies when themselves were unpaid as in a short time was able to exhaust all the wealth of this Kingdom and yet for all his Majesties continuall calling upon them to dispatch their discharge and to finish the Treatie for the good of both Kingdomes keeping them here so long and making so much of them which in truth we envied not but admired what it meant when we saw with what continuall feastings they were entertained in London and their lodgings frequented as the Kings Court till all the People began to murmur and to wax wearie of so great a charge and such a burden as they knew must at last light upon their shoulders which must needs be matters worthy of our best examinations But as yet the common people that seeth no further than the present tense and the outside of things did little know Why they detained them here so long what many wise men did then foresee that these men aymed further than they seemed to do and delayed the businesse purposely till they had attained many of their desires and had sully endeared themselves into the affections of the Scots that if need required that they could not effect all the residue of their designe as they intended which now could not so suddainly be brought unto perfection they might recall them here again to assist them to do that by force which by their craft and subtiltie they should fail to do as now by their sending for them going unto them and alleaging the
true which the King ingeniously acknowledgeth and most graciously promiseth to redresse them yet in all things full of gall and bitternesse against the King could not so fully poyson the love and loyalty of the Kings Subjects as they desired especially the love of those that knew his Majestie who the better they knew him did the more affectionately love him and the more faithfully serve him they thought to doe it another and a surer way with apparent lyes palpable slanders and abominable accusations invented printed and scattered over all the parts of this Kingdome by their trencher Chaplaines and parasiticall Preachers and other Pamphleters some busy Lawyers and Pettifoggers to bring the King into an odium disliked and deserted of all his loving Subjects And what created power under heaven was able to dissolve that wickednesse which subtiltie and malice had thus treacherously combined to bring to passe Hereupon after many threatning votes 1 Lye that he intended to war against his Parliament and actuall hostility exercised against his Royall person the King is forced to raise a guard for the defence of himselfe and those his good Subjects that attended him then presently that small guard that consisted but of the chiefe gentry of the Countrey was declared to be an army raised for the subversion of the Parliament and the destruction of our native liberties an invincible army is voted to be raised the Earle of Essex is chosen to be their Generall with whom they promise both to live and die the Earle of Bedford Generall of the Horse moneyes are provided and all things are prepared to fetch the King and all delinquents or to be the death of all withstanders and that nothing might hinder this designe though the King in many gracious Messages attested by the subscription of many noble Lords that were upon the place assured them he never intended any warre against his Parliament yet they proceed with all eagernesse and declare all those that shall assist the King either with Horse money or men to be malignants and enemies unto the King and Kingdome and such delinquents as shall be sure to receive condigne punishment by the Parliament Hoc mirum est hoc magnum And among the rest of their impudent slanders this was their Master-piece which they ever harped upon that hee countenanced Papists and intended to bring Poperie into this Kingdom and to that end had an Armie of Papists to assist him But to satisfie any sensible man in this point I would crave the resolution of these two Questions 1. Two questions to be resolved Whether every Papist that is subject to his Majestie is not bound to assist and defend his King in all his dangers 2. Whether the King should not protect his Subjects that are Papists in all their dangers so farre as by the Law he ought to do it 1. All Papists bound to assist their King and accept of their service when himselfe is invironed with dangers For first I believe there is no Law that inhibiteth a Papist to serve his King against a Rebellion or to ride post to tell the King of a Designe to murder Him or any other intended Treason against Him or being present to take away a weapon from that man that attempted to kill the King because his not comming to Church doth not exempt him from his Alleageance or discharge him of his dutie and service unto the King and therefore if a Fleet from France or Spain or any other forreigne part should invade us or any Rebellion at home should rise against his Soveraigne and seck to destroy those Lawes and Liberties whereof himselfe and his Posteritie hath as good an interest as any other Subject I say he is bound by all Lawes to assist his King and to do his best endeavour both with his purse and in his person not onely to oppose that externall Invasion but also to subdue as well that home-bred Rebellion as the forreigne Invasion 2. 2. The King bound to protect dutifull Papists If a Papist should be injured his estate seized upon his house plundered and his person if taken imprisoned not because he transgressed any other Law but that he dispenceth not with the Law of his conscience to be no Papist and being thus injured should come unto his King and say I am your Subject and have lived dutifully I did nothing which the Law gives me not leave I have truly paid all duties and humbly submitted my selfe to all penalties and yet I know not why I am thus used and abused by my neighbours I am driven from my house by force of Armes and I have no place to breathe but under your Majesties wings and the shelter of your power therefore I beseech you as you are my King and are obliged to do your best for the safetie of your true Subjects let me have your protection and you shall have my service unto death I would fain know what the King should do in such a case denie his protection or refuse his service the one is injustice the other not the best wisedom especially if he needed service for as the Law of nature and of nations requireth all Subjects to obey their Kings and faithfully to serve them of what Religion soever their Kings shall be so Lege relationis every King is bound to protect every faithfull Subject that observeth his Lawes or submitteth to their penalties without corrupting of his fellow Subjects of what Religion soever he is because they are his Subjects not as they are faithfull Christians but as obedient men and he is to rule not over the faith of their soules but the actions of their bodies and it is an Axiome in Divinitie that Fides non cogenda and if Kings cannot perswade their Subjects to embrace the true Faith they ought not to cut them off so long as they are true Subjects and therefore with what reason can any man blame the King either for protecting them in their distresses or accepting their sevice in his own extremities I cannot understand And yet for the goodly companie of Papists which his Majestie entertaineth in all his Armies they cannot all make up so much as one good Regiment as an Officer in his Majesties Armie confidently affirmeth but it will serve their turne to taxe the King to lay imputations upon him even the very things that belong unto themselves as the whole summe of those things that are expressed in Englands Petition to their King Pag. 10. mutatis mutandis might truly be presented to the two Houses that have now almost destroyed us all and to make them mightie faults in him which are no faults at all in themselves because there is no fear of their favouringPoperie though as they have very many so they should have never so many more in their Armie 3. Lye that he caused the Rebellion in Ireland Another Slander they not onely whispered but also dispersed the same farre and near among the
veritatis occidi We conceive this to be so execrable an act and so odious to God and man that we are made thus miserable and abused beyond measure to have our Religion which is most glorious our Laws that in their own nature are most excellent The miserable consequences of their wicked doings 1 Mischiefe and our Liberties that make us as free as any Subjects in the World under false pretences and the shadows of religion lawes and liberties to be eradicated and fundamentally destroyed whereby 1. We are made a spectacle of scorne 1. Mischiefe and the object of derision to our neighbour Nations that formerly have envied at our happinesse and we are become the subject of all pitty and lamentation to all them that love us 2. As in the Roman civill wars in the time of Metellus 2. Mischife the the son did kill his own Father so now by the subtilty of this faction we are cast into such a war as is 1. A most unnaturall War the son against the Father and the Father against the Son the Earle of Warwick fighteth for the Parliament and my Lord Rich his Son is with the King the Earle of Dover is with the King and my Lord Rochford his Sonne with the Parliament so one brother against another as the Earle of Northumberland with the Parliament and his brother with the King the Earle of Bedford with the Parliament and his brother with the King Master Perpoiat with the Parliament and the Earle of Newark with the King Devoreux Farmer with the parliament and his brother Thomas farmer together with his brother in law my Lord Cockain with the King and the like and of Cosens without number the one part with the King and the other with the parliament and if they doe this in subtilty to preserve their estate I say it is a wicked policy to undoe the kingdom which all wise men should consider 2. A most irreligious war when one Christian of the same professed religion shal bath his Sword and wash his hands in the bloud of his fellow Christian and his fellow protestant that shal be coheire with him of the same Kingdome 3. A most unnaturall irreligious and barbarous Warre when the Subject shall shal take Armes to destroy or unthrone their owne liege a Religious and most gracious King 3. 3 Mischiefe The Service of God in most Churches is neglected when almost all the ablest gravest and most O thodox Divines and Preachers are persecuted plundered imprisoned and driven to fly as in the time of the Arian or Donatist which was worse than the heathen persecution from City to City to wander in Desarts from place to place to save themselves from the hands of these Rebels against the King and persecuters of Gods Church which is a most grievous and a most cruell persecution far more generall than that of the Anabaptists in Germany or of Queene Mary here in England the Lord of Heaven make us constant and give us patience to indure it 4. 4 Mischiefe The whole Kingdome is and shall be yet more by the continuance hereof unspeakably impoverish'd and plunged into all kind of miseries when the I'ravailer cannot passe without feare nec hospes ab hospite tutus the Carrier cannot transport his commodity but it shall be intercepted the Husbandman cannot till his ground but his horses as my selfe saw it shall bee taken from the Plough and his Corne shall bee destroyed when it is ready for the Sickle which must be the fore-runner of a famine that is ever the Usher to introduce the Plague and Pestilence and all other kind of grievous Diseases and these things put together doe set wide our gates and open our ports to bring forraigne foes into our Coasts to possesse that good Land whereof we are unworthy because with the Israelites we loathed Manna we were weary of our peace and happinesse we would buy armes and be voluntiers and every Town being too wanton would needs traine and put themselves into a posture of defence as they termed it to be secured from their owne shadows and though the King told them often there was no cause of their Jealousies and therefore forbade these disloyalties yet just like the Jewes they were willing to be deceived by this miserable faction that contrived that Act whereby they have persidiously over-reached both our good King and the rest of our wel-meaning brethren either to perfect their designe or else to make themselves perpetuall Dictators and to betray the felicity of all our people under the name of Parliament which though as I said before I honour and love as much as any of the truest Patriots of either House both in the institution and the right prosecution thereof that is as it was constituted to be the great Councell of the Kingdome graciously called by his Majesties writ considently to present the grievances of the people and humbly to offer their advice and counsels for their reformation yet I doe abhorre those men that would abuse the word Parliament only as a stalking-Horse to destroy all Acts of Parliament and I hate to see men calling the fanatique actions of a few desperate seditious persons the proceedings of Parliament and others making an Idol of it as if their power were omnipotent or unlimited and more than any regall power their judgement infallible their Orders irreprehensible and themselves unaccountable for their proceedings to be so besotted with the name of it that this bare shadow without the substance for it is no Parliament without the King and the Major part of both houses is either banished or imprisoned Ingeniosus ad blasphemiant or compelled to reside with his Majesty should so bewitch us as Master Smith blushed not to say nothing could free us from our dangers but the Divinity of a Parliament out of our owne happinesse to become more miserable then heretofore this Kingdome hath ever beene by any civill War for if you will consider the Treasons and rebellions the injustice cruelty and inhumanity the subtilty hypocrisie lying swearing blasphemy prophanesse and Sacriledge in the highest pitch and many other the like fearefull sins that have been committed since the beginning of this Parliament by the sole meanes of this faction and observe the ill acts that have beene used by them to compasse things lawfull and the wicked acts that have beene daily practised to procure things unlawfull when by bloud and rapine and the curses of many fatherlesse and widowes they have gotten the Treasures of the Kingdome and the wealth of the Kings loyall Subjects into their hands and wasted it so that their wants are stil as notorious as their crimes wee may admire the miracles of Gods mercy and the bottomlesse depth of his goodnesse that the stones in the streets have not risen against them or the fire from Heaven had not consumed these Rebels that thus far and thus insolently had tempted Gods patience and provoked him to