be enjoyed by the said Purchasers except so far forth only as in consideration of Improvements the former Owners will freely of their own nobleness give way thereunto if we look for a perfect concord on their part And then how the Purchasers of those Lands and the Parliaments other Creditors may be satisfied a course must be other wayes provided which will be the more easily effected and the less burthensom if the Purchasers of Prelates estates may have satisfaction out of the same Lands as this Remonstrant conceives in equity and prudence they ought to have and also may have to their reasonable contentment with an addition of honour and advantage both to the King and Nation without wrong to the Episcopal Function being constituted and confirmed according to Primitive Ordination derived from the Canon of GOD's Word such an Episcopacy never being intended as this Remonstrant believeth to be exploded out of the Church of England by the Solemn League and Covenant or to be barred out of Scotland if the persons were regulated and qualified as they are charactered by Saint Paul Those Temporalities which they claim as Prelates belonged not to them by divine right as Bishops but were conferred in time of Popery to support them as Barons when they were authorized to sit in Parliament which Priviledge being taken away by Act of Parliament assented unto by the late King that work is at an end and work and wages being Relatives cease both together Temporal and Spiritual Lords in a Parliament resemble plowing with Oxen and Asses in one teeme and by weaving as it were Linnen and Wollen together may make that Linsey-woolsey both in Civil and Spiritual things as will be pleasing neither to GOD nor men The services whereto the Bishops were chiefly ordained may be best performed and with least obstruction to civil transactions in Synods or National Councils and Conventions where no Lordly titles or usurpations are to be claimed or allowed nor any Precedencies but for Orders sake only lest Precedencies and temporal Dignities may over-awe their fellow-members and disadvantage the Truth Bishops being regulated as aforesaid and exercising only a Primacy of Order as Speakers in Parliaments Prolocutors in Synods and Presidents in Councils ought to be restored and a competent and an honourable maintenance might be provided for them out of those legal perquisites which heretofore belonged unto them quatenus Bishops and consist with an Evangelical Discipline none of which are sold from them and out of those Impropriations which they formerly Leased for Fines and yearly Rents giving a Plow-mans wages to their poor Curates These Impropriations if they might be timely reserved from being again so misdisposed of by their Avarice would amount to a sufficiency yea and to a far larger Revenue then many Bishops formerly had if they were prudently distributed and would be likewise a quieter subsistance and somewhat more proper to their Calling because a maintenance settled upon the Ministry by the Laws of the Land Moreover to enlarge that maintenance convenient places of residence with Demeasnes and annual Rents enabling them to be hospitable and incouragers of others to Piety and Vertue might and would be afforded by the said Purchasers out of what was sold unto them And such a Portion being settled on them and their successors by King and Parliament as the Donations of Nursing Fathers of the Church and not derived from heathenish or other superstitious beginnings dishonourable to God and scandalous to Religion would redound more to their honour then their Baronies and Lordships be more comfortable to their Consciences when they must resign their Bishopricks make their Ministry more effectual to their particular Flocks and to the preserving of Unity in Fundamentals between those Congregations which are of differing judgements render their posterities more prosperous and their persons more beloved both of GOD and men The worst this Remonstrant wisheth even to those Prelates who do but pretend to be the Bishops of Christ is that they truly were so and that they had humility enough to accept of such an offer on condition he wholly left his hope of repossessing his said Purchase though he thinks it more possible for him to be restored thereto then for them long to enjoy that wherewith they seem absolutely invested Let this be well considered for though the Prelates and their Favourers term him a Scribling Fool The tatlings of Children and Fools are sometimes to be listned unto by wise and grave men who know they often speak Truth when others either will not or dare not When the King shall by experience know how useless the Prelacy is both to him and to the Church of GOD and how serviceable such as are called Bishops may be when reduced to the Canon of the Word it is hoped he may perswade them to submit thereto and that some of them will be so convinced in Conscience as to perceive it will be more honour to GOD and them then disparagement to their persons to evidence the power of Truth upon themselves in an humble conformity and restrain them from unmercifully seeking to enrich themselves by the destruction of so many Families as are now in danger of perishing by their immoderate Avarice As for the rest of the Hierarchie this Remonstrant cannot imagine to what good end they may be continued which will be equivalent to the preventing the thousandth part of that mischief which will ensue the dispossessing of those who have Purchased their estates Deans and Chapters with their Appendants are a Whimsey of a late invention as now constituted which the Primitive Ages neither knew nor perhaps thought of A Plant which our Heavenly Father never planted in his Church nor are they necessarily pertinent to the service of GOD or to the edifying of mankind in Piety or Morality but rather burthensom and scandalous Most of those vast Revenues which they claim as sacred if not all are no more worthy to be reputed Holy things then the price of dogs or wages of Strumpets as I have elsewhere said in regard much of them were obtained by merchandizing for the souls of men and were Sacrifices to the Devil worse then Sacriledge given or exacted by their cunning Brokers in derogation from Christs meritorious Passion for expiating of Adulteries Murthers and other hainous crimes Which if they could make evident to be sacred Offerings and accepted of God as truly such they might hope ere long to make men believe that their houses of Office their very dunghills yea their sins or any thing they pleased so to term were also sacred But what reasonable man can imagine why such an impertinency should be preserved when the State is so necessitated though it were some way useful and when so many thousands of serviceable and innocent persons may be destroyed by the re-admission thereof Whereto are they necessary If you suppose it be to elect Bishops when they shall be reduced to what they Originally were and ought to
no Interest in those Lands that all might help to bear the burthen not only sufficiently to discharge all Publick debts aforementioned and to give a competent allowance to the remaining Purchasers but advance such an improvement also in corn grass cattle wood and timber for fireing building of Ships and houses in time to come as provision may be made in Parliament that might yearly feed a million more of people encrease Trade supply other defects produce many conveniencies and prevent not a few mischiefs For that Land which is not worth six-pence by the acre yearly would be improved to five shillings per annum that of five shillings to ten that of ten to twenty and some to much more and by that means likewise one of those previous signs of that righteous Government specified in the Remonstrants BRITAINS-GENIUS long since published might perhaps be thereby eminently fulfilled to wit that Oxen of the largest Northern breed Should fatted be where Sheep now scarcely feed This Expedient would be justly offensive to none as our case now stands but to men of corrupt principles and such as neither know nor understand the true Interest which Publick or private persons have in such lands or who are not willing to lose those opportunities which they have by the near scituation of their dwellings to take wholly to their own use what belongs in a larger measure to other men living at a farther distance Or it may be some poor people unlawfully intruding upon those wastes having erected Cottages upon them to the wrong of their neighbours will complain thereof But it will be without just cause since they may be better provided for by such a division both for their own and the Publick wellfare out of those Lands For the most part of those poor people who have so intrenched upon the right of other men to the impoverishing of many Parishes are very wicked and dissolute persons living upon pillfering and stealing or keeping unlicensed Ale-houses in blind corners wherein is more idleness drunkenness and prophaneness by night and by day especially on the Lords day then can be imagined by those who have not seen it Also a small starvling breed of Jades and of other unserviceable and improveable cattle eats up yearly many large Commons without any advantage comparatively considerable with that which might be raised by their improvement The making of Barren Lands fruitful is a temporal blessing which may be preparatory for a Spiritual Mercy and a cure of that Curse which is imposed by making a fruitful Land barren for the sins of the people that dwell therein The Forrests and Chases though many have now almost forgotten it were heretofore one of the greatest Oppressions in this Kingdom and being settled either by Laws or by Customs equivalent to Law may quickly be revived Beasts and Beastlike men such as professed Hunters Falkners and Keepers have been for the most part had well near the sole benefit of those Forrests and Chases which were replenished with game The King received no profit by them and not much pleasure for which he paid not yearly more then it was worth and his Subjects were so misused and tyrannized over by his Officers that many Gentlemen and others were inforced to forsake their habitations in and about those Forrests and Chases to prevent undoing or avoid their unsufferable insolencies And it would be a double mercy if by now sacrificing them to Justice occasion of the like tyrannie for the future might be taken away and the Publick-Faith vindicated from scandall and violation by satisfying for the remainder of lands sold as aforesaid for those debts whereunto this Nation is liable both in Justice and Conscience And the Remonstrant humbly prayeth that by your mediation who are in authority it may speedily be endeavoured unless the Wisdom of this Generation can find out a better Expedient For as it was said heretofore Jerem. 21. v. 12. to the house of the King of Judah so saith this Remonstrant Hear the Word of the LORD Oh King and People of England Thus saith the LORD Execute Judgement in the morning that is assoon as the cry of oppression comes to your ears and power into your hands and deliver him that is spoyled out of the hand of the Oppressor lest my fury go out like fire and burn that none can quench it because of the evil of your doings Do Justice that you may find Mercy and do not frustrate the prayers of distressed Suppliants as did they whom GOD hath made exemplary for their failings nor let all the fore-warnings of your Remembrancer be still in vain but give ear Oh regardless Generation to what is timely hereby expressed relating to your welfare This Remonstrant will now add for a Corollary to what hath been hereby offered to consideration two exemplary executions of GOD's Judgements for Oppression and Injustice and one pattern of righteousness in an Ethnick Prince in times of old with two or three presidents out of antiquity warranting that freedom which he hath assumed to express his mind so plainly at this time and then conclude One of those monitory examples shall be that prodigious Judgement recorded in holy Scripture to have been executed upon Sodom and Gomorrah whose sins were Pride Idleness fulness of bread and not strengthening the hand of the needy for which God having visited them with a war as these Nations have been and delivered them by the hand of Abraham for Lots sake whom he providentially sent to dwell among them to be both by his counsel and life a means to bring them to repentance They neglecting to improve those mercies and continuing in their sins GOD in a fair Sun-shining morning after they had spent the preceding night in prosecuting their abominable Lusts suddenly destroyed them by a most prodigious sulphurous fire descending from heaven to be an everlasting memorial of his wrath against obstinate impenitent sinners which is so well known that it needs no further illustration The other shall be an example no less prodigious commemorated in Ethnick History which the Author declared in words to this effect In the year of Rome 720. and in the 43. year of the age of Marcus Aurelius upon the twentieth day of August about Sun-set at Palermo a Sea-Port in the Isle of Sicily there chanced a thing perilous to them who then saw it and no less dreadful to those who heard of it afterward Whilest they of Palermo were celebrating a great Feast with much joy for the great spoyls which they had taken at Sea from the Numidians which the Pirates purposed to divide among them they were partly prevented by the Magistrates and partly by the said accident For when the people were returned to their houses there appeared in the City a dreadful monster in this form he seemed to be of the length of three cubits his head was bald so that his skull did appear he had no ears but two holes in his neck whereby
Such also it was generally reputed and acknowledged by the Publick Ministers of all neighbouring Nations Kings Princes and Republicks wiser then whom it could not be expected that this Remonstrant or any of the said Purchasers and Lenders should have been Therefore if they were deceived the examples of such considerable persons and so much Reason deceived them that no man living can be certain wherein he is not deceived or that he may not be as much deceived now or hereafter as he and others were heretofore But without question the Powers in being whether by Gods Grace or permission all Power being given by him even that which Pontius Pilate had to crucifie his Son are to be the object of our obedience while they continue whatsoever they seem and no man can be justly blamed for submitting actively thereunto in meer civil things or with a passive obedience in matters relating to GOD and Conscience nor can this Principle be disadvantagious to the Power for the time being but will be a great strengthening and security thereunto if well understood Even as a man whether he were lawfully or unlawfully begotten is truly and essentially a man and so reputed as long as the Soul and Body continue together howsoever he shall be dismembred by others or by his own default So that Power and Parliament by which the said Securities and Sales were given and made were a valid Power and a true Parliament to all intents and purposes so long as they retained that which was essential to supream Powers and Parliaments how surreptiously soever that Power was acquired or whatsoever was but accidentally defective Or else perhaps the lawfulness of most Powers and Parliaments yea and of most humane Authorities and Constitutions would be otherwise found defective enough to be questioned and to have all their transactions rendred invalid And so likewise they may de facto how just soever they be de jure when a Power shall be permitted to raign which is strong enough to make WILL and PLEASURE the Supream Law For to speak truth in plain English which this Remonstrant heartily loves to do when just occasion is offered a prevailing Power in the hands of Tyrants howsoever acquired is while it hath being paramount to all Laws and rational Arguments and will be obeyed in every thing as it pleaseth right or wrong or else break or destroy all that opposeth it till GOD extraordinarily restrains it or breaks it into pieces Blessed be his name for it we are not yet subjected to such a Tyrannie as our sins have deserved but to a King from whom we have received an Earnest making us hopeful that Justice and Mercy will equally flow from the Throne either when he shall be fully and rightly informed of such particulars as are pertinent to his cognizance and care or when GOD's time is come And therefore this Remonstrant doth in order thereunto hereby signifie on behalf of himself and such other Purchasers and Lenders as aforesaid that when they engaged with and for the the said Parliament lent their moneys and purchased the forementioned estates they did it not upon any factious Principle nor meerly to get satisfaction for what they had disbursed or to have recompence for services formerly done but for supply also of Publick necessities and to dis-engage the said Parliament and Nation from those debts which were originally contracted for the service of the late King by which debts other engagements were in part at least occasioned and for discharge whereof that Parliament was impowered to continue undissolved till the said debts and engagements were paid and discharged And this Remonstrant then believed and still believes that the said Parliament was fully authorised both to raise money by what lawfull means they could to supply publick wants and to make such Sales and Securities as they proposed to repay and satisfie for what was lent bought or acted by their commands for the Publick honour or safety And he so believes because Parliaments were that Supream Council of the Kingdom to whose Orders Acts and Ordinances the people had ever heretofore been obedient without scruple or blame yea whereto no less obedience was required then to the Kings personal commands nay much more as it was then thought when Empson and Dudley two eminent persons and as this Remonstrant remembers of the Kings privy Council were condemned by Judgement in Parliament and executed for their officious obedience in executing the Kings illegal Commission under the great Seal of England which was more obliging then his personal mandates A Popular Supream Power whilest it is actually in being cannot be properly impeached of Treason nor any who acts by the commands or authority thereof Because it was then our duty to be obedient thereto And though a single person or few or many yea though Cities Counties Provinces and whole Armies may be Traytors it is not reasonably supposed the Representatives of whole Nations can so be and if possibly they might there is no competent Judge thereof but GOD himself who usually determineth such differences as he is LORD of Hosts by the sword as he did lately upon a joynt appeal and afterward by reversing again that Judgement for the sins of these Nations hath righteously executed his dooms on both parties for their mutual failings in their reciprocal Relations and which dooms were reciprocally inflicted on both the said parties for their treasons against his divine Majesty for their gross hypocrisies apostasies prophaneness unmercifulness and injustice in which many imitate each other to this day For even many of those actions which ought not to have been done lay obligations upon their actors and their successors when they are done Children should not be unlawfully begotten yet when mis-begotten the parents are obliged in all duties by them to be performed to their children The Israelites were not to have made a league with the Gibeonites but when it was made they were bound to observe it and for the breach thereof the whole Nation was punished many years after and seven of their Kings sons hanged also for that transgression Moreover it is further considerable that the Parliament which made the said Sales and granted the said Securities were both the Kings and Peoples Trustees summoned by the late Kings Writ to consult about the most weighty affairs of the Kingdom and delegated by a popular Election to dispose of the Peoples Interest as they should find cause for the Common good And thereupon this Remonstrant conceived he might reasonably have confided as much in that Parliament as in this now sitting and doth suppose that they who make question of the former may as rationally be doubtful both of this and of all future Parliaments especially if the successors of that Power and Parliament shall not or ought not in equity to confirm their Sales and Securities nor give recompence to those who are damnified out of the estates of those who trusted them with the Publick Faith whose estates as