Objection For if the King never dies Then by their own confession and our Lawes we are still a Kingdom not a Republike yea Charles Steward as heir to his beheaded Father was and is still de Iure de facto the lawfull King of England and supreme Lord and Governour of our Church Kingdom there being no Interregnum ever since his Fathers death and then what becomes of all their absurd illegal Knacks against his Regality and Kingship it self of which they are forced now to pray in ayd to make themselvs a Parliamen of their Mock-Parliament without King and House of Lords of their perfidious treacherous Engagements against both and Supreme Authority of the Nation which they have tyrannically usurped 2ly Though the King in genere or rather Kingship it self never dies yet the King in Individuo may and doth oft times die and if the successive deaths of all our Kings since we were a kingdom be not a sufficient proof thereof the very Objectors and Iohn Bradshawes beheading the late King and putting him to such a shamefull publike death as no Pagan nor Christian lawfull King of England ever formerly suffered by perfidious perjurious treacherous Subjects since it was an Island against our Laws and Votes of Parliament in the Highest Court of Injustice created by them for that end is a sufficient evidence that the King of England dieth as well as other men as they all must likewise doe in Gods due time unless they will make the World believe to expiate their Treason that they did not kill the King in cutting off his head but that he is still alive because some others as is reported did reunite and sow it to his bodie when severed from it by them But of this enough since M. P. presumes they will henceforth rather renounce their Parliaments being than bottom its present existence upon this bloudy foundation and their exploded Kingship The 2d Objection is from the words of the Statute of 17 Caroli c. 7. which declareth enacteth That this present Parliament now assembled shall not be dissolved unless it be by Act of Parliament In the Negative Ergo It shall not be dissolved by the Kings death being no Act of Parliament nor any Act of Parliament yet made for its dissolution Whereunto Mr. Prynne answers 1. That the sole end scope of this Act was not to provide against the dissolution of the Parliament by the Kings natural or violent untimely death not then thought of he being in perfect health likely to live many years by the course of nature and to survive all the ends for which this Act was made but to raise credit for the Parliament to provide monies by this Act to prevent the untimely dissolution proroguing adjourning of this Parliament by the Kings own regal power He having prorogued dissolved all former Parliaments during his Reign in discontent by his Regal power not death against the Lords and Commons wills 2ly This is intituled An Act to prevent Inconveniences which may happen by the untimely adjourning proroguing or dissolving of this present Parliament and the Prologue Body of the Act provide joyntly and severally against all three to wit the untimely proroguing or adjourning as well as dissolving of this Parliament But no Parliament ever was is or possibly can be untimely prorogued or adjourned by the Kings death but only by his actual Regal will and power Therfore the dissolving of it intended by this Act must be only an untimely dissolution by his actual will Commission writ and regal power alone by which his former Parliaments were prorogued dissolved against the Lords and Commons assents not by his death whether natural or violent being against his will and no part of his Regal Supremacy but only of his human frailty 3ly The Inconveniences the Commons feared would ensue by the untimely dissolution of this Parliament and endeavoured to prevent by this Act are thus expressed in the Prologue Where as great sums of mony must of necessity be suddainly advanced and provided for relief of his Majesties Army people of the Nothern parts of this Realm and to prevent the imminent danger this Kingdome is in and for supplying of other his Majesties present and urgent occasions which cannot be so timely effected as is requisite without credit for raysing the said mony which credit cannot be obtained untiil such Obstacles he first removed as are occasioned by Fears Iealousies Apprehensions of divers of his Majesties Subjects that this present Parliament may be adjourned prorogued or dissolved 1. before Iustice shall be executed upon Delinquents 2ly publike grievances redressed 3ly a firm peace between the two Nations of England and Scotland concluded 4ly and before sufficient provision be made for the repayment of the said monies so to be raysed all which the Commons in this present Parliament assembled having duly considered do therefore humbly beseech your most excellent Majesty that it may be declared and enacted And be it therefore declared and enacted by the King our Soveraign Lord with the assent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by authority of the same That this present Parliament now assembled shall not be dissolved unless it be by Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose c. By which it is undenyable 1. That the Commons when they petitioned for the King when he declared enacted the Lords and Commons when they assented to this Act did never think of or intend to provide against a dissolution of this Parliament by the Kings untimely death nor of a future dissolving it by an Act of Parliament by his Successors or others after his decease but on the contrary presupposed the continuance of his life and of this Parliament thereby till all the inconveniences they recite were prevented and a new Act passed by him and them jointly to dissolve this Parliament when these Inconveniences were prevented and things effected Which is irrefragable 1. Because they declare in Terminis The speedy advancing and providing of monies for the relief of his Majesties Armies and people of the Northern parts not their subsequent Armies and the supply of his Maiesties present and urgent occasions not their own and the Fears Jealousies and Apprehensions of divers his Maiesties Loyal Subiects c. o be the only ground of their humbly beseeching his Maiesty for this Act. All which presuppose his life being preservation and the Commons great care of complying with him as their Soveraign Lord without the least thought of his untimely death since happening or secluding the King or his Poûeritie out of this and all future Parliaments by colour of this Act as those now fitting have done point-blanck against it 2ly The Fears Jealousies and Apprehensions they had occasioning this Act were only these That this Parliament might be adjourned prorogued dissolved 1. Before Justice shall be duly executed upon Delinquents then in being and complained of as Strafford Canterbâ—ry
A true and perfect NARRATIVE OF What was acted spoken by Mr. Prynne other formerly and freshly secluded Members the Army-Officers and some now sitting in the Lobby House elsewhere the 7th and 9th of May last The grounds inducing Mr. Pr. to go into the House The Evidences Reasons by which he intended to demonstrate to them That their New-Common Wealth or Good Old Cause was originally projected by the Iesuites and other forein Popish Enemies erected by the Army Officers and those now convened as their seduced Instruments to destroy our Protestant Religion Church King Kingdoms Parliaments Laws Liberties with the visible effects thereof since its erection That the Old Parliament was absolutely dissolved by the Kings beheading notwithstanding 17 Car. c. 7. That the Commons sitting since 1648. and now neither are nor can be the House of Commons much lesse the Parliament within that Act. That our hereditary Monarchy is the divinest best happyest durablest of all other Governments and its speedy restitution the only means to prevent impendent ruine and restore our Pristine Peace Safety Honour Vnity Prosperity both in Church and State With some seasonable Applications to the Army the sitting secluded Members Lords and all Well wishers to the Publick By WILLIAM PRYNNE Esq a Bencher of Lincolns Inne Printed and published to rectifie the various Reports Censures of this Action to give publick satisfaction to all Members of the Old Parliament the whole English Nation especially those Vianders and free Burgesses of the Borough of Newport in Cornwall who without Mr. P. his Privity or liking unanimously elected him for their Burgesse Anno 1648. though soon after forcibly secluded secured and now twice re-secluded in like manner by the Army-Officers Of his sincere Endeavours to the uttermost of his power to preserve OUR RELIGION fundamental LAWS LIBERTIES GOVERNMENT the Essential Rights Privileges Freedom of Parliament and all we yet enjoy according to his Oaths Covenant Trust as a Parliament-Member against the utter Subverters of them by a NEW REPUBLICK meer armed force arbitrary will and tyrannical power through the apparent Plots Seductions of our professed forein Popish Adversaries and their Instruments here clearly detected in their native Colours fruits Psal. 3.6 I will not be afraid of ten Thousands of men who have set themselves against me round about Psal. 27.3 Though an Host should encamp against me my heart shall not fear though war should rise against me in this will I be confident London Printed for Edw. Thomas at the Adam and Eve in Little Britaine 1659. A true and full Narrative of what was done and spoken by and between Mr. Prynne other secluded Members Army Officers c. ON the 7th day of this instant May Mr. Prynne walking to Westminster Hall where he had not been six daies before meeting with some old secured and secluded Members of Parliament summoned by King Charles his Writ and Authority for these only ends expressed in all writs of Summons to the Lords and of Elections issued to Sheriffs of Counties for electing Knights Citizens and Burgesses of Parliament and in the Indentures themselves by which they were retorned Members To confer and treat of certain great and ardâ—ous affairs concerning the defence of the King Kingdom and Church of England and to do and consent to those things which shall happen to be therein ordained by Common counsel of the King Lords and Commons touching the aforesaid businesses which Parliament began at Westminster the third day of November 1640. They shewed him a Declaration of the Officers and Counsel of the Army made in such hast and confusion that they mistook the Month wherein they made it dating it April 6. instead of May 6. published by them that morning which Declaration the day before was presented to the Speaker of the said Parliament at the Rolls by divers Officers of the Army in the name of Col Fleetwood and the Counsel of Officers of the Army in presence of many Members of the said Parliament containing their earnest desire That those Members who continued to sit since the year 1648. untill the 20 th of April 1653. would return to the exercise and discharge of their trust expressed in the foresaid Writs and Indentures alone by those who impowred elected entrusted them as their Representativs without any other forged new trust whatsoever inconsistent with or repugnant to it Promising their readiness in their places as became them to yield their utmost Assistance to them to sit in safety for improving the present opportunity for setling and securing the peace and freedom of this Common-wealth praying for the presence and blessing of God upon their endeavours who after they had sate many years in performance of the trust reposed in them by the people and being in the prosecution of that Duty assembled in Parliament at Westminster upon the 20 th day of April 1653. were then interrupted and forced out of the House from that time untill this very day Of which force they seemed in this Declaration unfeinedly to repent by an actual restitution of the Members formerly forced thence much more then of that greater and more apparent force of whole Regiments of Horse and Foot drawn up to the house it self in a violent maner Dec. 6. 1648. where they seised secured Mr. Pr. with above forty and secluded forced away above 300 Members more of the Commons House only for the faithfull discharge of their Trusts and Duties therein according to their Oaths Protestations Vows Covenants Consciences wherin most think they first turned out of the way by wandring into other wayes from righteous equal paths which Members though they do not particularly invite to sit again yet they having proved no breach of trust against them do not in the least measure intimate that they would forcibly seclude them from sitting if that Parliament should be publickly voted still in being by vertue of the Statute of 17 Carolâ— c. 7. as they in their Counsel of the Army have actually resolved by their invitation of the Members thereof to sit again as Mr. P. those Members who shewed it to him conceived upon their perusal thereof Mr. P. being after informed that the Old Speaker and sundry Members of the long Parliament were then met in the painted Chamber to consult together in order to their meeting again in the House was moved to go thither to them which he refused because it was no place where the House of Commons ever used to meet or sit as an House but only as a Committe upon conferences with the Lords Soon after Mr. P. heard by some Members and others that the old Speaker and about forty Members more with the Mace carried before them were gon from the Lords House into the Ho. of Com. there sate as an House by vertue of the Stat. of 17 Car. c. 7. and their old Elections by the Kings Writs Vpon which there being then above 30 of the old secluded Members in
the whole Parliment to remain in the hands of certain Persons which themselves approved of who exceeded their Commission and acted generally as a Parliment And if this was a grand derogation of the state of the Parliament a great damage to the whole Realm and pernitious example for posterity for which in the very next Parliament they impeached deposed him and nulled all these proceedings for ever Then questionless their former sitting acting in the Commons House from December 7 1648. till Apr. 20. 1653. and now again without yea against the consents Votes of the Parliament 3 Estates secluded Members their repealing altering the very Acts Ordinances of the Lords and Commons concerning the Treaty with the King and sundry others their nulling the Act for Trienial Parliments the continuance sitting of the Lords in this Parlament their declaring themselves alone to be the Parliament of England beheading the King himself their dis-inheriting the whole House of Lords and their Heirs for ever of their Parliamentary Session Judicature Privileges as much as in them lyeth and thousands more of their real and personal Estates their forcible secluding securing the greatest part of their Felow-Members then and now again by the Armies power and sitting under their force which by their own Declaration of August 6 and the Armies in pursuit thereof August 8. the Speakers Letter Iuly 29. 1648. yea Sir Arthur Haslerigges own Speech and others of them the very two last dayes they sate in the last Convention nulls all they voted or ordered must needs be a more execrable transcendent crime by thousands of degreees a greater derogation to the state of the Parliament and its Privileges of more fatal consequence to the whole Kingdom and of far more pernicious example than this Act of his eternally to be exploded declared null void to all intents in it self and demeriting the Highest censures that the Justice of Parliament can inflict being a more superlative Treason and High Misdemeanour than this Kings or Canterburies impeached by the whole House of Commons and many of them thus acting sitting That to preserve himself from being questioned for his Trayterous courses he hath laboured to subvert the rights of Parliaments and the antient course of Parliamentary proceedings this being the last Article of his impeachment for which amongst others he lost his head Which Presidents Mr. Prynne would have pressed them viva voce seriously to consider at which they must needs stand mute and astonished not having one syllable to reply 4ly He would have propounded That when all the Members met together They should in the first place debate this point whether the old Parliament were not actually dissolved in point of Law by their beheading the King notwithstanding the Statute of 17 Caroli c. 7 which though themselves by their former and present sitting by pretext thereof the Army-Officers heretofore and now again deny and many secluded Members hold still to be in being yet for his own opinion he held and had published it to be dissolved notwithstanding this Act and to be Casus omissus out of it which he was ready to maintain against all Opponents by these reasons 1. Because it hath been frequently resolved by Parliaments themselves the Reverend Judges and our Law-books as 1 H 4 rot Parl. n. 1 2 3 1 H. 5. Rot. Parl. n. 16.4 E. 4. f. 44. Cooks 4. Instit. p. 44. by King Charles own Declaration 13 Iunii 3 Caroli and his Judges and Counsel then that the deposition and death of the King doth actually dissolve the Parliament and that the new King cannot hold and continue the old Parliament sitting or prorogued at his Ancestors death the Parliament of 22 R 2. being dissolved by his resignation of his Crown and the Parliaments of 14 H. 4. 24. Iacobi by the deaths of these two Kings and by like reason the last Parliament of 16 Caroli by his violent death 2ly Because the Parliament is no standing Court sitting at certain seasons by positive Laws but summoned constituted by the Kings writs of summons and royal Prerogative when and where he pleaseth and adjourned prorogued dissolved by his writ alone in point of Law and practise in all ages at his pleasure sitting sometimes longer sometimes shorter and sometimes prorogued to another day place or countermanded after summons upon just occasions as the Parliament Clause Rolls the Act of 16 Caroli c. 1. and other Statutes resolve Now all writs of summons being actually abated by the Kings death which made them as well as all Commissions Patents of all Judges Justices Sheriffs whatsoever and other writs informations in the Kings name and behalf as the Statute of E. 6. c. 7. Cooks 7 Report f. 29 30. Crookes 1 Part. p 1 2.10.11.97.98 and other Lawbooks collected by Asb Discontinuance de Prâ—ces 16. and Reattachment 7. determine The writs of summons and likewise of Parliament must needs abate likewise And the Lords being made Judges and the Commons Members of that particular Parliament only by the Kings writ his death must determine their Parliamentary Judicature or Authority sitting during the Kings pleasure as well as the Judges Justices Sheriffs Patents and all other Commissions whatsoever 3ly Because every Parliament heretofore in the reign of K. Charls by the very recitals of the Writs is called 1. In the name and by the authoriâ—y only of the King regnant in his natural capacity accompanied with his politick by his Christian name Carolus Dei gratia Rex c. expressed in it not generally by the Office King but Carolus Rex 2ly It recites it to be called De aâ—isamento Consilii nostri 3ly It stiles it quoddam Parliamentum nostrum 4ly That the occasion of calling it was about certain arduous businesses Nos et defensionem Regni nostri Iura coronae nostrae c. in many antient writs contingentibus 5ly That his intention in calling it is Quia cum Praelatis Magnatibus et Proceribus dicti regni nostri or nostris Colloquium habere volumus et Tractatum 6ly It summons them thus Vobis mandamus c. quod personaliter intersitis Nobiscum or ad Nos such a day and place Nobiscom et cum caeteris Praelatis Magnatibus et proceribus praedictis tractaturi vestrumque Consilium impensuri super negotiis antedictis 7ly The Knights Citizens Burgesses and Barons of ports in the Commons House are summoned to doe and consent to those things which shall happen by Gods favour to be then ordained De Communi Consilio supeâ— Negotiis antedictis in sundry Writs stiled by the King Negotia Nostra Negotiorum nostrorum c which clause is thus explained in Claus 36 E. 3. d. 16. cl 37 â— 3 d. 22 cl 38 E. 3. d. 3. cl 39 E 3. d. 2. cl 42 E. 3 d. 22. cl 47 E. 3. d. 29. ad consentiendum biis quae per Nos ac dictos Magnates et Proceres orâ—inati contigerit
to keep out what Members they pleased Then returning again into the Hall a secluded Member he there met pressing him to know what passed in the Lobby he related the sum of what was done and said which divers pressed about him to hear and some common Souldiers among others who when he had ended his Relation said he was an honest Gentleman and had spoken nothing but truth and reason After which meeting with Colonel Oky in the Hall who came over to transport him from Iersy into England they had some discourse touching his forcible seclusion and the great scandal and ill consequences of it which divers pressing to hear Mr. P. went out of the Hall to avoid Company and meeting with the Member who drew up the Letter to the Speaker perused and signed the fair Copy and so departed to Lincolns Inne without any Company This being an Exact Narration of the truth substance of what passed between Mr. P. the Army-Officers and those now fitting on the 7th and 9th of this instant May both in the Lobby House and elsewhere Mr. Prynne being since necessitated to publish it to prevent and rectifie the various misreports thereof He shall now relate as a Corollary thereunto the true and only reasons then inducing him after earnest Prayer to God for direction and protection in this Grand Affair to press the admission of himself and other Members into the House to correct the manifold contradictory censures of what he then did and spoke Some have been staggared and amazed at it as if he were now turned an Apostate from his former principles acting both against his Judgement and Conscience to cry up and make himself a Member of that old Parliament which he publickly printed to be dissolved above ten years since by the Kings death Others have censured it for a rash foolish and desperate attempt A third sort condemn it as a seditious tumultuous if not treasonable Action prejudicial to the publick peace and settlement deserving severe exemplary punishments A fourth Classis doome it as a scandalous Act dishonorable destructive to our Religion A fifth sort cry it up as a most necessary heroick national zealous Action deserving everlasting honor prayse thanks from the whole English Nation and a necessary incumbent duty as a Member of the old Parliament though legally dissolved being pretentionally now revived against Law Truth by those very Army Officers who six years past ipso facto dissolved and declared it to be dissolved yea have held many new Mock-Parliaments of their own modelling since all proving abortive by forcible ruptures as the long Parliament did It is not in Mr. Prynnes power to reconcile or controll these contradictory censures neither was he ever yet so foolish or vain-glorious as to be any wayes moved with the censures opinions or applauses of other men nor so ambitious covetous as to pursue any private interest of honor profit revenge c. under the notion of publick Liberty Justice Reformation as many have done nor so Sycophantical as to connive at others destructive exorbitances guilded over with specious Titles this being his constant rule to keep a good Conscience in all things both towards God and man Acts 24.16 to discharge his publick trust duty towards God and his Native Country though with the probable hazard of his life liberty estate friends what else may be precious to other men to trust God alone with the success reward of his endeavors to let others censure him as they please to fear no Mortal or power whatsoever in the discharge of his duty who can but kill the Body Mat. 10.23 nor yet do that but by Gods permission being utterly unable to touch the Soul but to fear him alone who can cast both Soul and Body into Hell The only ground end motive inducing Mr. Prynne thus earnestly and timely to get into the House was no wayes to countenance any unparliamentary Conventicle or proceedings whatsoever nor to own those then sitting to be the old true Commons House of Parliament whereof he was formerly a Member as now constituted much less to be the Parliament it self then sitting but to discharge the trust to which he was once â—nvoluntarily called without his privity or solicitation by an unanimous election a little before the last Treaty with the King having refused many Burgesships freely tendred to him with importunity both before his election at Newport and since being never ambitious of any publick preferments which he might have easily obtained had he but modestly demanded or signified his willingness to accept them After his election against his will and inclination he came not into the House till the Treaty was almost concluded and that at the request of divers eminent Members only with a sincere desire to do that cordial service for preservation of the King Kingdom Church Parliament Laws Liberties of England and prevention of those manifold Plots of forein Popish Adversaries Priests Jesuites Sectaries seduced Members Army-Officers and Agitators utterly to subvert them which other Members overmuch or totally neglected coldly opposed or were totally ignorant of What good service he did in the House during that little space he continued in it is fitter for others then himself to relate How fully he then discovered to them the true original Plotters fomenters of that Good Old Cause now so much cryed up and revived how strenuously he oppugned how truly he predicted the dangerous conseqnences of it since experimentally verified beyond contradiction his printed Speech Decemb. 4. 1648. can attest and his Memento whiles he was a prisoner For this Speech good service of his in discovering oppugning the New Gunpower-Treason then plotted and ripened to perfection to blow up the King Parliament Lords Laws Liberties Religion at once violently prosecuted by the force Remonstrance and disobedient practises of the rebellious Army Officers and Souldiers he was on the 6th of December 1648. forcibly seised on at the Lobby-Door as he was going to discharge his trust and caried away thence by Col. Pride and others How unhumanly unchristianly Mr. Prynne seised with other Members at the House door Decemb. 6. was used by the Army-Officers who lodged him them in hell on the bare boards all that cold night almost starved him and them with hunger and cold at Whitehall the next day imprisoned him many weeks in the Strand and after seised kept him by a new Free-state warrant a strict close Prisoner in three remote Castles nigh three years for his Speech in the House against their most detestable Treasons and Jesuitical proceedings against the King Parliament Privileges and Members of it is elsewhere at large related This being all he gained by being a Member and for asserting that true Good Old Cause against the new Imposture now cryed up afresh to turn our antient Kingdom into a New Republick and our Parliament of King Lords and Commons into a select unparliamentary juncto or forty or fifty Members of the old
dissipated House of Commons elected impowred only by the Army not People to act what they prescribe to extirpate King Lords Monarchy Magistracy Ministry Laws Liberties Properties and reduce them all under Jesuitisme at first and our forein Enemies Vassallage in conclusion Mr. Prynne then being most clearly convinced thereof by what he formerly published as a Member in his Speech and Memento and since in his Epistle to a New Discovery of Free State tyranny his Ius Patronatus his historical and legal Vindication of the fundamental Laws Liberties Rights Properties of all English Freemen A new Discovery of Romish Emissaries his Quakers unmasked and in his Republicans Good Old Cause truly and fully anatomised wherin he infallibly demonstrates their converting of our late English Monarchy into a new Common-wealth or elective Protectorship to be the antient projected moddles of Father Parsons and other Jesuites and Tho. Campanella the Italian Frier specially recommended by them to the pursuite of the King of Spain who prosecuted it all he could to promote his universal Monarchy and so much rejoyced at it that he was the first foreign King who presently sent an extraordinary Ambassador to congratulate the accomplishment applaud the constitution of enter into a League of Friendship with it whose flattering panygerick in his Great Catholique Kings name in prayse thereof and what an honour it was to them that he was the first forein Prince that owned them for a Common wealth made the Commons House so intoxicated that they gratified him in all his requests and pursued all his designs only to ruine us and the Netherlands layd down by Campanella De Monarchia Hispanica c. 25 27. by furnishing him with many thousands of Irish forces quarrelling with the Hollanders maintaining above three years bloody wars with them with infinite losse and expence to both Nations taking the French Kings Fleet provisions merely designed for the reliefe of Dunkirk whereby he presently regained it to our prejudice And on the other hand Cardinall Richlieu of France the great Incendiary of Christendome and fomenter of all our Domestick wars in his life the French King and Mazarine by his instructions in writing after his death vigorously pursued this very design His instructions to this purpose recorded by Conte de Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato an excellent Italian Historian are very memorable who relates That Cardinal Richelieu Anno 1642. after he had involved the King Parliament and Ireland in a bloody Civil war being near his death delivered these politick instructions for the King his Master to pursue for carrying on his designs in relation to England with successe That above all other things he should endeavour to keep the Government of Great Britain divided and dis-united by ayding the weaker party that the other might not make it self too powerfull By causing the three Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland to be divided either by nominating other Kings elective of another family accomplished by erecting an elective Protector or by moulding them into a Common-wealth as our Republicans have formerly and now done again Yet with this caution That when they are reduced into a Common-wealth so to order the matter That it may not be united into one but divided How punctually Cardinal Mazarine prosecuted these instructions ever since and accomplished them at last the Letters taken in the Lord Digbyes Cabinet printed by the Parliaments order 1646. and O. Cromwels late intimate correspondency with Mazarine discover And how much the Iesuites and Catholicks in France in November 1648. approved applauded the turning of our hereditary Monarchy which they irreconcilably hated envyed as well as the late King and turning the Old Parliament into a new Republican Representative and that all their hopes to effect it were in the Army to whom they wished all prosperity therein you may read in a Letter sent from thence by the Armies Agent to a fitting Republican Member soon after published by Mr. Prynne who got the original Mr. Prynne knowing all this and clearly discovering a fresh combination between the Sectaries Republican Anabaptistical Iesuitical levelling party to pursue their designs afresh and accomplish what they formerly attempted in the short Mock-Parliament of their own election creation Anno 1653. and what was then passionately recommended to them by Iohn Canne the Anabaptist in his Voyce from the Temple dedicated to them as their Generation work which God and all his people then expected and required from them even to extirpate the Church Ministry of England Advowsons Glebes Tithes and demolish all Parish Churches as Antichristian to extirpate the Law root and branch under pretext of reforming and new-moulding it to sell all Corporation and College lands and set up a popular Anarchy or tyrannical Oligarchy among us under the disguise of the Old Dissolved Parliament sitting from 1648. till April 20. 1653. after six years violent ejection of them with highest scorn and reproach yet now invited by them to sit again to effect these Romish designs to our utter Confusion but secluding all those who were like to obstruct or defeat them Upon this consideration Mr. Prynne as a secluded Member of the old Parliamemt wherein he detected oppugned all these Treasonable Designs heretofore and since its dissolution by the Kings beheading held it his bounden duty to prevent defeat them now and nip them in the bud whereupon so soon as those now sitting entred the House he assayed to go into it with as many old secluded Members as he could there being 80 of them in London For although his judgement be that this Parliament is quite dissolved by the Kings beheading as he oft declared in print yet since the Army Officers and those now sitting with sundry others pretend it still in being and under that pretext alone have acted all their publick Tragedies and Innovations he conceived himself bound in Conscience upon their Concessions to endeavour to prevent these mischiefs and do all Publick good he might with better warrant and reason than most Ministers Lawyers Justices Magistrates Members of late Parliaments as they style them have prayed for complyed with acted in under those late Governors Governments mock Parliaments as he is confident some now sitting among them in this new Convention believe it dissolved and yet go in only to prevent and allay those mischiefs which others violently pursue which their own Consciences and our laws resolve them without scruple to be utterly illegal whereas this old Parliament whereof he was a Member was most legallie summoned and convened beyond dispute and hath the colour of a legal Act of Parliament for its continuance which those since have wanted of which Act the greatest part of those now sitting taking advantage notwithstanding their new Instruments Declarations Petitions Advises Addresses and Sessions in other new Parliaments since and it being a great dispute now among most secluded Members whether that Parliament was not yet alive though
favente Domino From all which particular clauses in the very writs of summons it is undeniable that the Parliament of 16 Caroli was ipso facto dissolved by the Kings death 1. Because this Parliament was summoned particularly by King Charles in his natural as well as politick capacity not in his politick alone nor yet by or for him his heirs successors who ceased to be both Charles and a King of this Realm by his death 2ly The Counsel by whose advice it was summoned was his not his heirs and successors Counsel 3ly The Parliament convened his Parliament alone not his heirs or successors both of them ceasing to be his Counsel or Parliament by his decease 4ly The subject matter for which it was summoned Divers urgent and arduous businesses concerning Us not our heirs or successors and the defence of Our not their Realm of England who was no more Us and the kingdom no more his kingdom so soon as he lost his life 5ly The end of summoning this Parliament was only this for the King himself to have a conference and Treaty with the Prelates and Nobles and for them to be personally present with Us not our heirs or successors to give Us their Counsel c. not our heirs and successors All frustrate made impossible and absolutely ceasing by his death because when once dead they can neither parlie conferr nor treat with the King himself nor the King with them nor be personally present with Him for that purpose unlesse they will averr that a meer dead headlesse King can really confer treat parly consult advise with his living Prelats Lords Parliament and they with him be Parliamentally present with each other in the Lords House neither of which they dare admit into it for fear the King if living and Lords too should afright them out of it as the Kings ghost yea the memorial of it though dead might justly do 6ly The mandatory part being in the Kings name alone to summon them to treat with and give their Counsel unto Us concerning the foresaid businesses relating to Us and the defence of Our Realm Our Businesses aforesaid not our heirs and successors He and his businesses all ending when he expires the Parliament must of necessity determine 7ly The Parliament ceasing to be the Common counsel of the King and his kingdom and nothing possible to be ordained BY US the King not his heirs and successors Prelates Nobles in Parliament without his concurrent Vote or when he is dead unless a dead King can give counsel make Ordinances give his royal assent to Bills when deceased It must inevitably follow that all the Authority causes grounds ends for which the Members of this Parliament were all summoned to treat consult and give their advice to the King himself determining and becoming impossible to be performed by his death the Parliament must of necessity expire and be dissolved even as the natural body ceaseth to be and remain a living man when the Head is quite cut off If then those now sitting who cut off the Kings Head the Head of the Parliament and thereby destroyed that temporary body politick will have their Conventicle revived by this Act they must set on his head again raise him alive out of his Grave and bring him back into the House to impeach condemn decapitate them in this true High Court of Justice for this their beheading him in their Court of Highest Injustice Which Mr. Prynne presumes they dare not doe least his revived Ghost should scare them thence or justly retaliate their transcendent Treachery 4ly If any man by his will deed the King by his Commissions the Parliament by a special Act or Order shall authorize impower any 3. persons joyntly to sell lands give livery and seisin execute any Commission as Iudges Iustices Commissioners Auditors or Committees of Parliament if any one of them die both the survivors joyntly or severally can doe nothing because their authority trust was joynt not several and joyntly nor seperately to be exercised If there be not 40 Commoners in the House they cannot sit or acts as an House nor dispatch the least affair no more can any Committee of either House unless their Number be sufficient to make up a Committee as the orders and custom of Parliament appoint Therfore the Parliament of England being a Corporation compacted joyntly of the King Lords and Commons House and three estates The death of the King necessarily dissolves the Parliament notwithstanding this Act which did not alter the Parliaments Old constitution but establish it The Kings personal absence from his Parliament heretofore and of late was reputed very prejudicial to it and his calling away some Lords Great Offiâ—ers and other Members from it a high way to its present dissolution in his life Therefore it must much more be dissolved by his death and the Lords and Commons forcible seclusion both before and since it by the Army and sitting Members they having Vocem locum in quolibet Parliamento Angliae as our Law-books Statutes and their Patents resolve 5ly The principal end of calling Parliaments is to enact new and necessary Laws and alter repeal such as are ill or inconvenient as the Prologues of our printed Statutes our writs of Summons Law-books attest and all accord But no new Act of Parliament can be made nor no former Acts altered repealed but by the Kings royal assent who hath a Negative voice to deny as well as Affirmative to assent to them as well as the Lords and Commons as all our Parliaments Iudges Law-books Parliament Records Treatises of Parliaments the printed Statutes in each Kings reign more particularly the Statutes of 33 H. 8. c. 21. 1 Jac. c. 1. in the close resolve Yea both Houses acknowledged it in all contests with the late King our Kings Coronation Oaths and all our antient Saxon Kings Lawes attest it Therefore his death must needs dissolve the Parliament notwithstanding this Act because it could make no Act for its dissolution nor declare alter repeal any other Law without his royal assent There are but 2. Objections made by any sitting or secluded Members against these Reasons that his death should not dissolve the Parliament The 1. is this which the Republicans themselves formerly and now insist on That the King doth never die in judgement of Law and that there is no Interregnum because the Crown immediately descends to his right heir who by Law is forthwith King de jure and de facto before his actual Proclamation or Coronation as the Statute of 1 Iacobi ch 1. Cooks 7 Rep. f. 10 11. Calvins case and other Books resolve To which Mr. Prynne Answers 1. That this argument is but an Axe to chop off their own heads and supremacy as they did the Kings and the Objectors now sitting must either renounce their sitting acting Knacks Declaration against the late King Kingship and the House of Lords or quite disclaim the
the Ship-mony Iudges and others not new Delinquents since not then dreamed of 2ly Before publick Grievances redressed those then complained of not others arising afterwards 3ly Before a firm peace between the two Nations of England and Scotland concluded by reason of the former not subsequent breaches between them and the King 4ly Before sufficient provision to be made for the repayment of the said monies to be raised not for the Parliaments subsequent Armyes and occasions but for his Maiesties Army and people in the North the preventing the then imminent danger of this Kingdom not of our new Common-wealth or dangers since arising and for supply of other his Maiesties present not future and urgent occasions But none of these four particulars could be accomplished by the Lords or Commons alone after his Majesties death but by the King alone or by his concurrence with them whiles living Yea they were all actually accomplished in his life time long before his death The first by the Executions of Strafford and Canterbury the impeachments censures of the Shipmony-Judges and other Delinquents both in Scotland Ireland The 2d by the Acts abolishing Shipmony the taking of tonnage poundage and other Taxes without Act of Parliament the Acts for the preventing of Inconveniences happening by the long intermissions of Parliament For regulating of the Privy-Counsel taking away the Court of Star-Chamber and High-Commission against divers Incroachments and oppressions in the Stannary court For the certainty of Forests and their meets and bounds for the better ordering and regulating the Office of the Clerk of the Market for reformation of false Weights and Measures for preventtng vexatious proceedings touching the order of Knightship for the abbreviation of Michaelmas Term and for the free importation of Gunpowder and Salt-peter from forein parts and making of them in England By all these good Acts passed freely by the King soon after or before this Act he fully redressed all Grievances then complained of or intended within this Law The 3d. by the Act of Confirmation of the Treaty of pacification between the two kingdomes of England and Scotland The 4th by the several Acts passed for the Relief of his Majesties army And the Northern parts of this kingdom For the better raising and levying of Mariners and others for the present guarding of the Sea and necessary defence of the Realm not Republike For the Subsidies of Tonnage and poundage granted to the King for the speedy provision of money for disbanding the Armies and setling the peace of the two kingdoms of England and Scotland For securing such monies as are due to the Inhabitants of the Northern Counties where his Majesties Army have been billetted And for securing by publike faith the remainder of the friendly assistance and relief promised to our Brethren of Scotland all passed and published by the King himself Anno 16 17 Caroli 1640. 1641. at least 7. years before his beheading It is most certain that all these ends of making this Law as the Prologue thereof and the word THEREFORE in the Commons prayer infallibly declare were fully accomplished by the King in his life so long before his untimely death Therfore none of theÌ„ now remaining to be performed all acted â—ince their accomplishment by those now sitting being diametrically contrary to this Act these ends and occasions of it this Parliament must of necessity be beheaded expired with the King and cannot survive his death 4ly The words That this present Parliament assembled shall not be dissolved unlesse it be by Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose nor shall at any time or times during the continuance thereof twice recited in the subsequent clauses be prorogued or adjourned unlesse it be by Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose can be intended of no other but that present Parliament which passed this Act which consisted of The Kings Maiesty our Soveraign Lord by whom this and all other Acts passed or to be passed was declared and enacted and this intended Act likewise not of his heir or successor after his death and of the Lords and Commons House then in being not any new House of Lords or Commons succeeding after their deaths then sitting Therefore when the King was cut off by an untimely death and thereby an impossibility accruing to dissolve it by an Act of Parliament within the words or intent of this Act it must of necessity be dissolved by his beheading Impossibilities making Acts of Parliament to perform them meerly void as our Lawe makes Impossible conditions 5ly This Act and those who made it must have and had a retrospect to the Writs whereby it and they were summoned and the ends things therein expressed But they all determined and became Impossible after the Kings beheading Therefore the Parliament must be destroyed with him since cessante causa cessat effectus cessante primativo cessat derivativum as all our Lawyers Law-books and natural reason resolve 6ly The last Clause of this Act Thaâ— every thing and things whatsoever done or to be done to wit by the King or any other for the Adjournment proroguing or dissolving of this present Parliament contrary to this Act shall be utterly void and of none effect do clearly explain the meaning of this Act to be this That it extends only to things done or to be done by the Kings will and power as to his Commissions Proclamations Writs Warrants Precepts to adjourn prorogue or dissolve this Parliament as he had done others heretofore here declared to be utterly null and void not to his death wherein he was only passive being forcible against his will and the Parliaments too which death no Parliament can make null and void in respect of the Act it self so as to restore him to life though the whole Parliament and our three Kingdomes may and ought to null it in respect of the illegal manner of his Execution not to be paralel'd in any Age. 7ly The Commons themselves in their Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom 15 Decemb. 1641. Declared That the abrupt dissolution of this Parliament is prevented by another this Bill by which it is provided it shall not be dissolved adjourned without the consent of both Houses Yea the Lords Commons in their Declaration of May 19. 1642. declare That excellent Bill for the continuance of this Parliament was so necessary that without it we could not have raised so great sums of monies for his Majesties service and Common wealth as we have done and without which the ruine and destruction of the Kingdome must needs have followed as since of the Kingdom and Parliaments too by pretext thereof And we are resolved the Gracious favour of his Majesty expressed in that Bill and the advantage and security which thereby we have from being dissolved by him shall not encourage us to do any thing which otherwise had not been fit to have done Which whether
several years to carry on that Rebellion came all over into England walked openly in the Streets and VVestminster Hall when the King was brought to his Tryal and executed by their and other Iesuites instigation and our Old Kingdom metamorphosed into a new Common-wealth That Owen Ro Oneal and all the Irish Rebels under him by Orellies perswasion entred into an offensive and defensive League with the New-Republicans against Marquesse Ormond the Lord Inchequin and Protestant party in Ireland who declared for Monarchy the Kings Title against their Republick And being withall assured by sundry persons of credit That there were many Iesuites under the habit of Souldiers listed in the Army and others of them under the disguise of Physicians Apothecaries Travellers Captains Merchants Factors Tradesmen Anabaptists Ranters Seekers Quakers and other Sectaries dispersed throughout all places to carry on and accomplish thoâ—â— dismal changes so long since predicted Projected by Father Parsons and the Iesuites Yea being further assured by an eminent Divine and others more than once from the mouth of a Noble English Lord returning from Rome about 4 years since That the Provincial of the English Jesuites when he went to see their College in Rome assured him they had then above fifteen hundred of their Society of Iesuites in England able to work in several Professions and Trades which they had there taken upon them the better to support and secure themselves from being discovered and infuse their Principles into the vulgar People That the Great Anabaptist styled The Administrator of Hexam near Newcastle in the North since removed to Colchester was lately a Papist if not a Priest or Iesuite that Ramsey the Scotish Iesuite was purposely sent ouer into England by the Pope Iesuites An. 1653. under the notion of a Iew to infuse new Notions into the Anabaptists side with them who therupon addressed himself to Paul Hobson the Anabaptist a Grand Army-preacher and this Administrators Congregation where he made a publick profession That he was a Iew by birth but was now thorowly converted to the Christian Religion by their instruction with a publick Confession of his Faith which they printed whereupon he was publickly dipped by this Administrator at Hexam and received as a Member into their Anabaptistical Church who much gloried in it till within few weeks after he was by the Maior and Ministers of Newcastle clearly discovered to be a grosse Impostor yea a Scotish Iesuite and sent up by them to London where after some restraint he was enlarged without any punishment and not long since twice boldly entred into the University Schools at Cambridge desiring conference with Mr. Smith the Hebrew Lecturer there with whom he discoursed in Hebrew professing himself to be Soul and Body for the Catholick Church of Rome That Eleazer Ben-Isaiah and his Brother Ioseph 2. Grand Jesuitical Impostors at the self-same time under the Notion of converted Iews were dipped by the Anabaptists maintaining Dipping not Sprinkling to be the only Baptisme of Iesus Christ and the Anabaptists to be the only strong and glorious Christians in their printed Book dedicated unto our new Republican Parliament Counsel of State 1653. Which Mr. Pr. soon after his inlargement froÌ„ Pendennys Castle meeting with discovered them to be gross Impostors one of them a Trooper in P. Ruports Army who after a Collection made for him as a Converted Iew at Dursty in Glostershire by Mr. Woodward on the Lords day drank sive jugges of Bear with sundry pipes of Tobacco whereby to digest his Lords day Supper and disgorge his Sermons then locking his Chamber Door in the Inne he ran to the Maid he had sent to warm his Bed and attempted to ravish her wherupon the crying out the Boy of the House being about 11 a block at night endevouring to raise the Neighbors he therupon fled from thence since which Mr. Prynne heard no more tydings of him And having â—ince that most clearly discovered to the whole Nation in his Books intituled The Quakers Vnmasked and New Discovery of Romish Emissaries printed 1655. and 1656. That the Franciscan Freers and Iesuites were the first Erectors of our new Sect of Quakers Ignatius Loyola the Jesuites Founder being first a Souldier then a Quaker next a Speaker last of all a professed Iesuit as his Disciples now are first Iesuites then Quakers Speakers Souldiers before or after That Maurice Conry an Irish Franciscan late Provincial of the English Franciscan Fryers having 15 extraordinary faculties granted him to exercise here in England as to absolve all Hereticks in England of what Nation soever to admit men into his Order To dispence with Oaths with saying Canonical Hours the Ceremonies of the Mass for keeping Heritical Books and other particulars which might discover any of them to be Freers or Papists to authorize print what Books he allowed concealing both the Name of the Author Printer place Non obstante Consilio Tridentino came over into England under the disguise of a Spanish Captain having sundry Pasports from the King of Spains Officers in the Low Countries to raise men for his service in England and Ireland where he continued during the Regency of our Republicans After which in the year 1653. he procured a pass and protection to all Officers by Sea and Land under Ol. Cromwels own hand and Seal to pass and repass about his occaâ—ions to and from Ireland all which were taken about him in Bristol 20 November 1655. and the very Originals under Seal brought to Mr. Prynne who published some of them in print yet after near two years imprisonment at Bristol upon a Habeas Corpus brought by Conry he was turned over Prisoner to Newgate to be tryed as a Popish Priest and let go thence by direction as was conceived before the Sessions and never enquired after since Mr. Prynne discovering all this and much more and being most fully assured that all the Rebellions in the Army since 1646. against the King Parliament Members and all the late Changes Revolutions of our Government ever â—ince proceeded originally from the Jesuites and Romish Agents powerfull influences upon the seduced Army-Offieers Souldiers Sectaries and Republican Members And long since taking special notice that during the Armies Republicans proceedings against the King in hammering out their new Common-wealth all the most eminent zealous religious Members of the Commons House most opposite to Jesuites Papists Popery were totally secluded secured by the Army and their Votes Protestations Advices with the Addresses Disswasions of all the Godly Ministers of London and other parts yea VVilliam Sedgwicks their own Chaplains totally rejected with highest contempt and the Counsels of the most desperate Jesuites and popish Agents flocking to London from all forein parts and walking freely in the Streets whiles the Members were under strictest restraints vigorously pursued So all their subsequent Actions demonstrated to him and all considerate Protestants whose Creature their New Republick
motives of it were a vast sum of mony from the Dutch put into his private purse as some report or a desire to ecclipse the Honour power of the Prince of Orange their chief Protector and his Family to banish the late Kings Royal posterity and Adherents out of the Netherlands and leave them no subsistance nor being there amongst Protestants of our and their Religion to force them to seek new Quarters amongst Iesuites Papists and cast themselves wholy on their Charity on purpose to pervert them in their Religion and destroy both their Souls Bodies at once which is visible and irreâ—ragable they being all actually exiled thence by special Articles upon the peace with the Dutch What Protestant can think upon it but with horror as the highest Act of Impiety cruelty barbarisme injustice uncharitablenesse and malice ever yet recorded of any professors of Christianity in the Protestant Religion 2ly His quarrelling with the King of Spain in hopes to gain his Indian Mines and sending such a Fleet with so many thousand English Protestants and Souldiers thither upon the bare project of Gage a Iesuited professed Papist and Spainiolized Priest who had lived there sundry years under the Spanish King as a Priest all whose family and relations have been desperate popish enemies to our Religion King Kingdoms with the disasterous successe and fruits thereof to the expence of such vast sums of our own Treasure the loss of so manie thousand protestant Souldiers Mariners and undoing endangering of our other American plantations if rightly weighed was in truth rather a Spanish and Iesuitish plot to ruine us and our religion than to advance them as Mr. Prynne at first reputed them predicting the ill event before it happened 3ly His closing with France and the French-Cardinal Mazarine upon the breach with Spain of purpose to banish poor distressed K. Charles whom he drove out his 3 Protestant Kingdoms banished out of Holland deprived of all charitable supplies or hopes of relief from either for his necessarie subsistance and banish his Brother the Duke of York who had a command great repute in the French Army with all their Dependents out of France too that he might the more securely establish himself and his posterity in their hereditarie Kingly power dominions and leave them no place to hide their heads in the effect and chief end of that peace and that in pursuit of Cardinal Richelieus forementioned Instructions to ruine our Monarchy Kingdoms and work his infernal designs against us was such an inhumane unchristian policy as verie ill accords with our Saviours expresse precepts Mat. 5.44 c. Lu. 6.27 c. Rom. 12.20 21. But I say unto you love your Enemies Therefore if thy Enemie hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with goodnesse And a President hardlie paralleld Alaâ— how shall the memorable Heroick charity generosity pietie justice of our Norman Conqueror King William censured by this new Conqueror and his Army Saints as the worst of Tyrants in sundry Pamphlets and of his Sons William Rufus and Henry 1. towards Edgar Atheling Heir to the English Crown after the death of Edward the Confessor when hee took it from him by the Sword under pretext of King Edwards last Will and being next Heir to him in blood not as a Conquerour by war Who though after his Oath of Homage Fealty and Subjection to William twice set up as Heir to the Crown by the English Nobility in opposition to him twice routed by him in the Field driven into Scotland and quite left destitute of forces friends and supplyes to gain the Crown yet upon his repair to him in Normandy without any precedent Articles for his securitie Anno 1069. he not only pardoned his former insurrections but gave him a large gratuity entertained and lodged him in his own Court divers years allowing him a pound of Silver for his honourable maintenance everie day a great sum in that Age After which when he desired to go into Apulia to the holie wars Anno 1089. he furnished him with many Ships and 200 Souldiers whence he returning after the losse of Robert his chief Commander and best men though the Emperours of Greece and Germany whom he visited in his recesse thence honourably received and profered to entertain and maintain him in their Courts according to the greatnesse of his birth all his life time yet he contemning to their proffers out of a desire to enjoy his native Country returned into England where he was courteously entertained by William the Conqueror as before till his death After which Edgar fiding with Robert Duke of Normandy his eldest Son against William Rufus the younger he thereupon Anno 1091. deprived him of all the honours conferred on him by Robert and banished him out of Normandy into Scotland But afterwards upon the accord between the 2 Brothers touching the Crown and peace with Scotland he was reconciled to King Rufus and returned into England where he lived securely without the least restraint and was in so great favour with Rufus that in the year 1097. he sent him as General into Scotland with an Army to restore his Nephew Edgar Son of Malcomb who maried Edgars Sister to the Crown which his Uncle Dufnald had invaded after Malcombs death to expell Dufnald and make Edgar King Which having effected he returning again into England lived there quietly without the least danger or restraint all Rufus his reign and some years under King Henry the first betaking himself in his old Age to a retired private Country life and dyed in peace as our Historians then living record Oh that there were the like Charitie Ingenuity Christianitie Piety in the Saints of this Iron Age against whom these 3. first Norman Kings shall rise up and condemn in the day of judgment when Christ himself will pronounce this heavy sentence against them for all their pretended Saint ship Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divel and his Angels for I was an hungred and you gave me no meat I was thirsty and you gave me no drink no not out of my large hereditarie Revenues of three Kingdoms you have forcibly invaded against your Oaths I was a Stranger and you took me not in no not into my own Protestant Realm Court out of which you thrust me by violence neither would you permit those of Holland and France where I was a Stranger to take me in but inforced them to banish and cast me out after their former entertainment of me as a stranger I was naked but ye cloathed me not but stripped me and mine stark naked out of our Inheritances Wardrobes and all we had sick and in prison into which you cast both me and mine and you visited me not yea made it High Treason for any to do it or so much as to pray for me in this my distressed condition
Captainâ— of thousands or hundreds nor yet of Souldiers or Armed men but of mean Fisher-men and others altogether averse from war commanding them in expresse terms to take neither Gold Silver nor Brasse in their purses nor scrip nor two coats nor yet Staves much lesse Sword Pikes Horses Pistols nor any thing else belonging to a Souldier no offensive or defensive Arms at the most but a single walking staffe like Travellers to help support them Yea Christ expresly resolves That his Ministers are and must be no Fighters no Strikers nor Strives much lesse than professed Warriers Iohn 18.36 1 Tim. 3.3 2 Tim. 2.24 They have no Sword but that of the Spirit and their Mouth the word of God and fight with it only against mens Sins Lusts not Persons Eph. 6.17 Heb. 4.12 Rev. 19.15 21. Yea when Peter once did but draw his Sword to defend King Jesus against the Souldiers who came with Swords and Staves to apprehend him he said unto him Mat. 26.52 Put up thy Sword again into its place for they that take the sword shall perish with the sword Nay the state of the Gospel is so inconsistent with Souldiers Arms War That upon the sincere profession of it God requires the Professors thereof to beat their Swords into Plowshares and their Spears into Pruning-hooks Nation shall not lift up Sword against Nation Neither shall they learn VVar any more but to live in peace with all men and keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace Isay. 4. Mich. 4.3 Luke 2.14 1 Cor. 7.15 c. 14.53 Gal. 5.22 2 Cor. 13.11 Eph. 4.3 Col. 3.15 2 Thes. 3.16 Heb. 12.14 Never was the Kingdom Gospel Church of Jesus Christ promoted advanced in any Age or place by war Swordmen but many Churches have been utterly destroyed extirpated depraved corrupted none ever edified planted enlarged much lesse reformed by them Our present Armie-Saints and new Military-Apostles by their fighting praying preaching fasting instead of promoting the Gospel Protestant Religion and Church of England have almost totally subverted them by broaching countenancing protecting all sorts of Heresies Blasphemies Sects Schisms Errors Opinions Religions setting up new Conventicles of Sectaries Seducers in all places opposing slighting traducing the very Church Doctrine Ministry of England the very Function Ordination of Ministers by decrying detaining their Tithes and former maintenance as litigious Jewish Antichristian by swallowing up all the Lands Revenues of Bishops Deans Chapters Arch-Deacons and a great part of our Ministers maintenance by sequestrations and monthly Contributions to maintain their Army Evangelists now ready to swallow up the remainder that is left and continuing in a body for that purpose by the very Jesuites instigation who not only professedly teach in their publick University at Madrid the Art of War by Land and Sea the making of Guns Gunpowder fireworks all manner of Military Engines of which they read Lectures as most agreeable to the Name Profession of their Martial Father Ignatius as Alphonsus Vargas a Spanish Priest records but boast That the General of the Iesuites can bring into the Field more Souldiers of his own order in a shorter time than any Christian King whatsoever and likewise expresly affirm That their Gopsel and Religion is to be propagated set up the Heretiques and Evangelical Sectaries who resist them refuted extirpated abolished with Fire Armies Sword and War in England elsewhere as Iacobus Cruciger Rector of the Iesuites at Lansperg in his explication of the Rules of their Order Paulus Windeck De extirpandis Heresibus Antid 10 11. p. 404 412 480. Thuanus Hist. l. 65. p. 238. l. 66. p. 299. Franciscus Verona Apol. pro Iohanne Castle par 5. c. 13. Hospinian Hist. Jesuitica l. 4. p. 212 213 214. Hasenmullerus Hist. Jesuit c. 1. Spec. Jesuiticum p. 61. unanimously attest O then discern at last whose Gospel Kingdom you are now propagating by your Army Arms and Westminster Conventicle not Iesus Christs but the very Jesuites his greatest Underminers Many of you especially Millinaries and Fifth Monarchy-men pretend that Jesus Christ is now comming to reign personally on Earth a thousand years and that you shall all reign together as Ioynt-Kings with or Vice-royes under him But the setting up of a New Republick and Aristocracy is wholly inconsistent with this Kingdom and Monarchy of Christ you now expect which suites only with a Temporal King and Kingdom How this Opinion will accord with Christs own description of it John 18. 16. My Kingdom is not of this World or Pauls Rom. 14.17 The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink nor yet Arms and Armies but Righteousnesse and Peace and Ioy in the Holy Ghost which Souldiers Armies usually destroy not produce or propagate let those who maintain it consider When Mr. Prynne was kept close Prisoner in Pendennis Castle by Iohn Bradshaws and our New Republicans illegal warrant in July 1651. some four dayes after his imprisonment there divers Officers and Souldiers of the Garrison who had long debated every day for sundry Months before their present expected personal reign of Christ on Earth repaired to him to know his Opinion concerning it as he was taking fresh Air in the Bowling-Alley standing in a ring about him Upon which he first demanded their Opinions of it when they had all fully uttered their Conceits in the Affirmative with much confidence M. Pryn briefly answered That now they had beheaded one of our Kings and almost conquered another and our 3. Kingdoms they thought talked of nothing but being all Kings themselves and of reigning personally on Earth cheek by joll with Christ himself as his Fellow-Kings no Earthly King being fit to be a Companion for such transcendent sublimated Saints as they thought themselves But they were all most grosly mistaken for that very Text of Rev. 20.4 5. which he read out of one of their Bibles whereon they principally grounded their Opinions and Reign was pointblank against them And I saw the Souls OF THEM THAT WERE BEHEADED not of them who took off their own Christian Protestant Kings and Nobles Heads for the Witnesse of Iesus and the word of God and which had not worshipped the Beast nor his Image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads nor in their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years is it not added on the Earth and Chap. 22.5 rather proves their reign to be in the New Ierusalem in Heaven But the rest of the dead who were not thus beheaded lived not again much lesse then reigned with Christ till the thousand years were past By which it is most apparent That if Christ shall reign personally on Earth for a thousand years as they all conceived and that this time was now at hand yet not one of them should or possibly could reign with him if this Text be Vmpire For the words are most positive that none else shall thus reign with Iesus Chrisâ— a thousand years but
2. resolve there was none at all in King Iames or King Charles did thereupon by this special Act and a strict Oath declare aad establish the surety title or succession of the Grown of England in him and his Heirs for ever upon which dependeth all our joy and wealth as they more at large expresse 13ly God himself in direct terms declares that it is a matter and badge of honour and prosperity for any Nation to be advanced from a Commonwealth or Principality into a Kingdom Ezech. 15.13 14. Thou didst prosper into a Kingdom And thy renown went forth among the Heathen for thy beauty for it was perfect through my comelynesse which I put upou thee saith the Lord which compared with Rom. 13.1 Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers for there is no Power but of God the Powers that are are ordained of God Col. 1.16 For by him are all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible or invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities all were created by him and for him Tit. 3.1 Put them in mind to be subject to Principalityes and Powers to obey Magistrates 1 Pet. 2. 13 17. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake whether to the King as Supream Fear God Honour the King are infallible demonstrations That as kingdomes and Kings are of Divine institution and planting so they are reputed instituted by God and Jesus Christ as the most prosperous happyest divinest honourablest supreamest of all other forms of Government and Governors whatsoever created by and for Iesus Christ and have been the very Governments and Governors alone in and by which he hath precisely promised declared that he will most advance his own Spiritual Kingdom Church and Glory as is undenyable by Ps. 68.29.31.32 Ps. 102.22 2 Kings 19.19 Isay. 37.20 Rev. 11.15 Psal. 2.10 11. Psal. 68.29 Psal. 72 10 11. Psal. 102. 15. Psal. 138.4 Ps. 144.10 Ps. 148.11 Ps. 149.8 Isay 49.7 13. c. 52.15 c. 60.3 10 11 16. c. 62.2 Rev. 21 24. the expresse lively Images of Christs own Spi-Spiritual Kingdom Kingship on whose Throne alone they sit as his Vicegerents 2 Chron. 9.8 Col. 1.16 and therefore are stiled Kings Kingdoms not Optimacies or Republicks yea not only Kings but Gods and Gods Anointed as well as Christ himself Exod. 22.8 Iosh. 22 22. Ps. 82 1 6. Iohn 10.34 1 Cor. 8.5 2 Sam. 12.3 5. c. 22 52. Psal. 20.6 Isay 45.1 Lam. 4.20 1 Sam. 16.6 c. 24.6 10 c. 26.9 11 1 23 2 Sam. 19.21 14ly God himself in sundry Scriptures positively declares and denounceth the plucking up or rooting out of a Kingdom and making it no Kingdom or a base or viler Kingdom than it was before and the leaving of an antient Kingdom without a King or hereditary Successor or Heir to sway the Scepter to be a most severe sad grievous Iudgement and Punishment on them for their crying hainous offences and Sinnes against him yea an immediate concomitant or Forerunner of their utter desoiation a matter of present and future lamentation not of a mercy blessing or cause of rejoycing as our seduced Bedlam-Republicans Army-Saints and Pseudo-Politicians repute it as all these Texts infallibly resolve Judg. 17.6 c. c. 18.1 c. c. 17.1 c. c. 21.25 Hos. 3.4 c. 10.3.7.15 a notable Scripture Is. 9.2 11 12. c. 7.16 Amos 1.8.10.13 14 15. c. 2 2.5 c. Mich. 4.9.10 Jer. 17.25.27 c. 22.5 to 30. c. 25.8 to 38. Ezech. 19.14 15. a signal Text c. 17.12 13 14. c. 29.14 15. Lam. 1.6 c. 2.6.9 c. 4.20 c. 5.16 Hab. 1.10.14 15. Nah. 3.17 18 19. Hag. 2.22 Ezech. 21.26 27. Against which Scriptures worthie your particular perusal no one Text can be produced to prove it a blessing benefit honor to any kingdom or Nation whatsoever 15ly As for your new magnified Common-wealth and Aristocracie preferred by you before our Kings and Monarchie 1. Consider that of Prov. 28.2 For the Transgression of a Land many are the Princes or Governors thereof but by a man of understanding and knowledge the State thereof shall be prolonged And compare it with Hosea 10.3 For now they shall say We have no King because we feared not the Lord what then should a King do to us Lam 5.16.8 The Crown of our head to wit our King c. 4.20 is fallen wo unto us that we have sinned Servants have ruled over us there is none that delivereth us out of their hand And then you must needs confess that your subversion of our Kingly Government by one single person to set up a Polarchie and New Republike under many Servants Governors is in Gods own his Churches peoples account an heavie judgement vassallage bondage on them for their transgressions sinnes and a matter of great lamentation woe Ezech. 19.12 13 14. not a blessing ease libertie means of their happiness or establishment 2. Consider that you cannot derive the Pattern of your New Commonwealth from the Scripture Gospel Church or presidents of God and Jesus Christ but only from the Old Heathen bloudie Romans after their Regifugium who were alwaies altering their Government from one new form to another continuing not long in anie one condition till setled in an Emperor and Empire and at last in a Regal Roman Pontiff in which state it hath continued almost 1700. years and the new Jesuitical models of Parsons Campanella Richelieu Mazarine Spain France recommended to you from Antichristian Rome to work our ruine Or at leastwise from the old seditious Graecians and Athenians who are thus branded in Historians Omnino ad commutandos Reipublicae Status erant versatiles et omnium propensissimi ad vicissitudines as you and the Army-Officers now are which proved their utter ruine and caused endless wars and tumults between themselves till they were subdued enslaved by the Macedonians Persians Romans and other foreign Kings as you may read at leisure in Thucidides Diodorus Siculus Xenophon Plutarch Arrianâ—â— Iustin Bp. Vshers Annales Veteris Testamenti whence Heniochus an antient Greek Comaedian compares Aristocracie and Popularitie unto two scolding Women who coming amongst the Greek Cities put all things into tumult and disorder making them bedlam mad against each other to their utter desolation Tum geminae ad illas accesserunt Mulieres Quae cuncta conturbarunt Optimatitas Est nomen alteri alteri Popularitas Quarum incitatu pridem externatae furunt And have they not produced the self-same Madness Furie and sad effects among the Armie yea and our 3. kingdoms How then can you or anie wise men but only TOM OF BEDLAMS be anie longer in love with either of them and preferr them before Kings and Kingship when as your selves as well as other Members declared resolved in two Declarations of 12 April 1646. of 17 Decemb. and in the Votes of Novemb 9. 23. 1647. That the Agreement of the People for a Representative and Republike without
a King and House of Lords are not only Seditious but destructive to the very Being of Parliaments and the Fundamental Government of the Kingdom by King Lords and Commons And is this then the way to peace or settlement If the Foundations be destroyed what can the righteous doe to save or settle us O therefore let not that brand of the Holy Ghosts owne imposing rest anie longer on you Ps. 82.5 They know not neither will they understand all the Foundations of the earth are out of course And although you say think you are Gods and are all the children of the most high in this pursute yet you shal die like men and fall like one of the Princes yea be buried in your own and your Republikes ruines again with greater infamie shame loss than you were on April 20. 1653. when you were shamefully turned out of House and power together by those who now recall you and yet will not take warning Mr. Prynne is in good hopes that all these undenyable unanswerable Scriptural considerations will fully convince and convert our Republican Conventicle and Army-Officers too from their Jesuitical destructive modle of A Common-wealth unto the love and restitution of our antient hereditary Kings Kingship as the only Divine Saint-like Gospel safe probable way to our future lasting peace and settlement which he intended to have propounded to them Finally if you are resolved notwithstanding the premises to Act as a Parliament without your secluded fellow Members King or House of Lords then follow the Presidents of all your Protestant Predecessors in these particulars 1. Take into your saddest considerations the great increase disguises of dangerous Iesuits and other Romish vipers now amongst us which A. B. a Jesuite in his Mutatus Polemo Or The Horrible Stratagems of the JESUITS lately practised in England during the Civil Wars and now discovered by him a RECLAIMED ROMANIST imployed before as a Workman of the Mission from his Holiness dedicated by him to your own President Bradshaw published by SPECIAL COMMAND of your New Republike London Printed for Rob. White 1650. thus relates to your selves and the world p. 3 4. That he could bring in to your COUNSEL-TABLE a horrible long Catalogue of more perniciously damnable Actors of JESUITICAL Devils in mens shapes yea in MINISTERS too crept in from forein Seminaries to undermine our Church and State then was in the yeer 1605. in that infernal Powder-plot That there was one Regiment or more of them under Sir Iohn Kempsfield a Commander of the Horse in the late Kings Armie who discerning the Kings inclination to close with the Scots and Presbyterians and expecting no advantage to their Cause by siding with him held their private Conventicles and Councels at Oxford wherein they resolved to desert and draw off all their own and all his other Forces from him and close with the prevailing Parliament partie which they accordingly effected That upon the Kings departing to the Scots Armie and surrender of Oxford the Jesuits Priests and Popish partie under him not only changed the habits of their minds but bodies also turning from upside Cavaliers and High Royalists and God-dammees holie Converts and Parliamenteers nothing but the Holy Covenant being heard in their mouthes For our bodies Proteus is lesse than a fiction to us He that ere while was a Commander in a ranting equipage is now slinking into a Coblers stall or Weavers loom or Tapsters Apron or Coachmans box or Beggars weed or Horsemans frock or Serving-mans liverie or Tailors shop or Pulpit-thumping Presbyters Gippo into what not It is not unknown what trade we drive beyond Sea when no Trade comes amisse to us To make this good our Governors the States of this Commonwealth if they will deign to hear me now their true Servant shall bee eftsoon able to cull out manie a sheep-clothed-wolffrom their stations stalls looms aprons weeds liveries shops yea and Buff coats what say you to Pulpits too Let not Engl. now like a bird ah me pursued by several fierce flying Falcons and too too near the intended hard gripes of their cruely sharp tallons either out of a dull or drowsie sottishness or a phantastical humour of contradiction suppose I speak what I know not if I should tell them I can and now being about to do it will but privately before Authoritie produce a Catalogue of Catholicks Fathers so we will be called of several Orders and others that are Natives gone into remote Counties who duly go to Church too and of an incredible number now living in this Commonwealth under several Notions whcih I my self can point at with a drie finger I tell thee in general there is scarce a Town or Citie but in few miles of it I can furnish the Reader to thy Amazement be it spoken with some who have lived in England 1 2 3 4 5 6 10 20 40 50 years I. B. of Ne. in Es. unknown unsuspected but taken for clean contrarie let them avoid me if they can They are his own words Page 26. to 37. he shews how Mons. Montril the French agent trepand the poor Cavaliers of the Kings partie in transporting them out of Scotland into France how they were there butchered by the French Such is their love to the Royal party of England what endeavours were used by Card Mazarine Father D. and le M. to seduce and corrupt Prince Charls in his Religion both before and after his Fathers death and what promises were made both by the French and Spaniard that all Catholick Princes should be invited and consulted with for an unanimous invasion of England if he would turn Catholick Page 32 33. hee hath this memorable passage During these Sollicitations news comes aloft upon the wings of the wind That the People and State of England had summoned his Father to an High Court of Judicature to bring him to a trial for all the innocent bloud he had spilt and the hideous devastations he had caused This was no little good News to the Cardinalitical party I mean the Iesuitical this Jesuit himself being then at the French and Princes Court in Paris For in my next I shall satisfie thee concerning their cunning workings how even those who pretend so much charitie to the Son did séek by all Machinations to expedite and accelerate this high piece of Iustice upon the Father And now say his Tutors to him If they proceed to death with your Father it will prove the better for you for it shall utterly alien the hearts affections of the people from them and you shall finde them to be more eagerlie violent for your reinvestment not considering the change of your Religion which by anie means shall not be known but to your good Catholick Subjects of England till such time as you have vested power enough into your own hands to protect it and your self in it But indeed the Lad had somewhat of his Fathers astutiousnesse in him and presently asked the
CARDINAL the same question as his Father once did the King of Spaine when he was almost easilie intreated to have turned to the Faith Catholick How shall I said he ever expect to be King of England if once the English should understand I have turned Catholick To which they easilie gave a satisfactorie resolution telling him That as the case now stood he must never look to be admitted but by fire and sword the main force of Armes must make way for him neither could he in the least atchieve that or put it in execution without the ayde of Catholike Princes which they will never be brought to act in without a firm assurance of your real and faithfull conuersion What impressions the News of his Fathers decollatioÌ„ made upon him what use the Cardinal and Iesuits made of it to induce him and others to Poperie and what endeavors were used by the Iesuits to make up a peace between the Spanish and French to invade England and make it their prey if he would turn Papist under pretext of restoring him to his Crown you may read in this Iesuit p. 33 34 35 36. and in Militiere his Victorie of Truth dedicated to King Charles after his Fathers death to pervert him in his Religion as the only means of his restitution These Passages of this Iesuit who stiles himself p. 39. The faithful Servant of the Common-wealth of England dedicated to President Bradshaw himself and printed by his SPECIAL COMMAND and our Republican Governours now sitting Ann. 1650. when Mr. Prynne was committed close Prisoner by them without hearing or accusation will justifie the truth of all his former Discoveries That your beheading the King and degrading our Kingdom into a New Free-State was the verie French Cardinals Spaniards Popes and Iesuits plot to ruin both our Protestant Kings Kingdom Church Religion even by your own confessions and that it gave unto them strong arguments to perswade the Kings posteritie and partie for ever to abominate our Religion as manie of them have done upon this very account though the King himself and his Brothers yet continue constant through Gods mercie against all provocations to their eternal honour but your perpetual infamie who have put them upon such direfull Temptations 2. Before you engage in any other Business peruse all former Acts and Petitions of our Protestant Parliaments since 1 Eliz. to this present against Iesuits Seminarieâ—Priests Papists Poperie the manifold mischiefs dangers accrewing by their increase toleration and suspension of our Lawes against them the causes of their growth amongst us and remedies to prevent the same Then put them all with the Oath of Abjuration and 5. Bills against them assented to by the late King in the last Treatie into immediate impartial vigorous execution 3. Imploy faithfull knowing stout active persons with sufficient power and encouragements to discover detect apprehend them under what ever disguise and shelter they now secure themselves Especially take diligent care to ferret these Romish Vermin and Troublers of our Israel out of all your Armies Garrisons Camps and all Sectarian separate Congregations the Boroughs wherein now they lurk securely by putting them all to the Test of the Oaths of Abjuration Supremacie and Allegiance 4. Permit no Seminarie Priests Friers Romish Emissaries of any Nation but especially no Iesuits of any their 4. ranks to remain in our Realms or Dominions it being impossible to enjoy any peace settlement in Church or State or to expect anie dutifull obedience quiet in or from the Armie whiles these firebrands of Sedition Treason remain within our coasts upon which account they have been by sundrie Proclamations of Queen Elizabeth King Iames and King Charles not only banished out of England Scotland Ireland and all their Dominions but likewise out of France Germanie Poland Bohemia Austria Moravia Transilvania Hungarie Venice and other Popish Kingdomes States as well as out of the Netherlands Denmark Sweden and Protestants Territories as the Authors of all their Wars Troubles Tumults Insurrections Rebellions Treasons Regicides and the publike Pests of Church and State 5. Put no arms into Anabaptists or Quakers hands formerly decrying them as unlawful lest London become another Munster and England another Germanie in few moneths space 6. Since Christ Iesus who is truth it self hath laid down these 3. Gospel-maxims of infallible veritie Mat 7.15 to 21. Lu. 6.43 c. That Ravenous wolves in sheeeps clothing as well as trees are and shall be known by their fruits John 8.44 You are of your Father the Devil for his works ye doe Rom. 6.16 That to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey If all the premises infallibly convince your Consciences Judgements as they will and must do That all the forementioned fruits you have produced since December 4. 1648. are the proper fruits of Iesuits and Romish wolves in sheeps clothing yea the very worst sowrest of all their Fruits and Powder Treasons That the workes you have done in murdring our Protestant King destroying our Parliaments Kingdoms Government Laws secluding your fellow-Members and Lords House by force erecting your New Republike and Parliamentarie Conventicle c. are the Works of the Iesuites and Devil That you have yielded up your selves as obedient servants unto them in everie of these against your own former Oaths Protestations Vows Covenants Declarations Commissions Principles Professions Judgments rightly informed consciences the Votes Obsecrations Disswasions of your Fellow Members and most indeared Protestant Friends Ministers Relations the Indentures Desires of those Counties Burroughs you represent And that the very Principles by which you have acted since Dec. 1648 and now again are the very Jesuits principles as you may read at leisure in Iohannis Mariana De Rege Regum Institutione l. 1. c. 6. Creswels Philopater Franciscus Verona Constantini Apologia pro Johanne Castellio et Jesuitis Iesuitae Reinaldi liber De Iusta Reipublicae Christianae in Reges Impios et Haereticos authoritate c. published under the name of William Rosse in Ludovicus Lucius Historia Jesuitica l. 2. c. 3. Hospinian Hist. Jesuitica l. 3. 4. Speculum Jesuiticum printed 1644. wherein you may truly view your Iesuitical Physiognomies heads perrewigs instead of your old genuine Protestant complexions brains notions hair And if the present fresh Addresses Petitions of Anabaptists Quakers Sectaries from Southwark Warminster Hertfordshire Kent and other places to the Army-Officers and your selves with their late listings in the Army affronts to Ministers in their Churches ejection of some of them to intrude themselves alreadie budding forth sufficiently discover whose Servants you are and whose drudgerie you must execute O then immediately abjure rescinde and null them all with highest indignation and persist no longer in any such destructive waies counsels projects under any pretext consideration interest or perswasions whatsoever But rather remember Mr. Oliver Saint-Iohns words now sitting amongst you in his Argument at Law