restrain'd the punishment of their disorders against her Person and Authority the more liberty they took to offend To this Knox impudently answers That his patience in suffering abominations made him not guilty of any fault and if his tongue took liberty in Pulpit she might take it as she pleas'd since in the Pulpit he had no Superiour but God and that his gifts made him equal to any of her Peers And as for her weeping he said He could better sustain her tears than the trouble of his Cause or to betray the Common-wealth Nor durst the Queen question him for his sawcy replyes knowing the strength of his Faction which being uot unhid to Knox made him more Insolent as afterwards publickly to affirm That For her sins the Land must lament and that it was absolute Rebellion in her not to turn Protestant and compared her to Simon Magus thinking it impossible that her sins could be forgiven her Nor did others of his Fraternity hold their peace And having got thus sure footing nothing would satisfie them but to have all for which purpose at a General Assembly at Edenburgh they draw up a Petition of several Heads the first of which was That the Queen her self with all her Family should not only forsake Mass and Popish Idolatry but that all none excepted should be punished who transgrest this Article To this she answered being then at St. Johnstons That as she freely gave every one Liberty of Conscience so she hoped that her Subjects would not press her to do against her Conscience and that she did not only think that there was no impiety in the Mass but that her Religion was true and grounded upon the Word of God But this gave them no full satisfaction Henry Stewart Lord Darnley being now marryed to the Queen July 1565. and proclaimed King the Knoxian Lords fly to their Arms and so doth the King also but before his march hears Knox preach at Edenburgh at St. Giles Kirk where he rail'd against the present Government reflectively saying That for the sins of the People God gives them Boyes the King was about 21. years old and Women to rule over them After which the King marcheth against the Lords who fly into England yet through Intercession all was reconciled Not long after this the Queen was brought to Bed in Edenburgh Castle betwixt 9. 10. at night July 19. of a Son which was afterwards Christned at Sterling and call'd James who became at last the happy Uniter of the two Crowns At the latter end of the same year John Knox intending to visit his sons at Cambridge moved the Assembly to write to the English Bishops in favour of the Non-conformists then buzzing in England The which they do but in their wonted language railing against the Surplice Square-Caps Tippets and calling them Badges and Garments of Idolatry Romish Raggs vain Trifles telling them as if the serious Bishops need take advice from such Hair-brains That they may boldly oppose all such Authority which dare command such things brave language and anew way of begging to get curtesies by Some few weeks after this the King was most barbarously murder'd 9 th February but by whom and how because History will not tell us the truth at large I think it not convenient to relate by peice-meal Then was the Queen whether willing or constrained is nothing to me marryed to Bothwell against whom the Lords raise an Army and forced him to fly into Denmark where he was imprisoned and they also seize on the forsaken Queen whom they secure in the Island of Lochlevin where by threats and fear they forced her to resign tears trickling down her face abundantly her Interest in the Crown to her young Son few days above a year old who was Crowned few days after at Sterling July 29. And if you will believe a late Historian Knox and other Ministers were not satisfied with this Resignation of hers but would have her also deprived of life nor is this Treasonable cruelty contradictory to his fore-mentioned Principles Now could the Knoxians desire nothing more having their King young in his Cradle and so capable of what impression they pleas'd and their Queen in close Prison so that they appeared Lords and Masters Yet she presently escapes out of Prison gets some Forces fights Murray the Regent but being beat fled into England where Queen Elizabeth imprisoned her till she was to the astonishment of many beheaded 1586. after 18. years close Imprisonment The next year the Regent Murray was slain at Lithgow by one Hamilton And then Lenox the Kings Grand-father obtained that dignity against whom the Lord Hamilton in behalf of the Queen raiseth a Warr in which Lenox was slain at Sterling Then was the Earl of Marre chosen who not long after dyed of a Feavour After whom the Earl of Morton succeeded as Regent after which the Queens Party by degrees lost all Authority In this year did John Knox dye at Edenburgh Novemb. 27. one that as I am apt to believe all things considered gained more esteem amongst the people by the reverence of his long-beard reaching down to his middle than any real wisdom or discretion that could be appropriated to him And now comes Andrew Melvil burning from Geneva against Bishops denying the lawfulness of their Function labouring for the absolute Presbyterial Discipline according to the Geneva mode which rais'd some Tempests in the Church insomuch that some of the Presbytery forbad Mr. Patrick Adamson lately by the Regent presented and by the Chapter chosen to the See of St. Andrews to Exercise any part of his Jurisdiction till he had acknowledged and satisfied them After this Argyle and Athol not affecting the Regent go to the young King at Sterling complaining against Morton and desiring him to take the Rule upon himself And so the King doth at 12. years old and thus the Regency fell The young King being brought up in the Reformed way confirms the Religion in Parliament but not their Discipline he affecting the Episcopal Government and ever since he was ten years old as himself confesseth disliked the Presbyterian way And truly Experience gave him good reason for it But to make all sure a Negative Oath by way of a Confession of Faith wherein all the Romish Ceremonies and Doctrines were abjured was drawn up by Mr. John Craig and this the King himself took and this he reflected upon in the Conference at Hampton-Court Having thus tyed his Conscience as they thought his Body must be secured too and so at Ruthen they seize upon him and that with so much inhumanity and irreverence that he burst forth into tears for which he got nothing but this Answer from the Master of Glammis It is no matter for his tears better that Barns should weep then Bearded-men Upon this the Earl of Arran going to know the Kings condition was secured and his Brother sore
this Blake is summon'd before the Council which so incensed Andrew Melvill that he labour'd to make it a Publick Cause and did so much That they declare it would be ill to question Ministers and boldly told King James who asked them if they had seen the Conditions of Huntly's Pardon That both he and the rest should either satisfie the Church in every point or be pursued with all extremity so as they should have no reason to complain of the over-sight of Papists And as for Blake they gave him a Declinator affirming it was the Cause of God whereunto it concerned them to stand at all hazzard and this Declinator was sent to all the Presbyteries in the Kingdom who were desired not only to subscribe it but to commend the Cause in their private and publick Prayers to God by which means they fancyed themselves so strong that they deny the King to have power to judge a man for speaking in Pulpit and that the King in what he had already done had so wronged Christs Kingdom that the death of many men could not be so grievous to them And therefore they ordain a Fast for averting the Judgements then threatning the Kirk This action so vext his Majesty that he forbad all Convocatings and Meetings but they little cared for him or his Orders for Mr. Walter Balcanquall did not only forthwith rail against the Court naming several of the chief Courtiers but desired all the well-affected to meet in the Little Church to assist the Ministry who did accordingly and Petition the King in behalf of the Kirk But the King asking them who they were that durst convene against his Proclamation was worshipfully replyed by the Lord Lindesey That they durst do no more then so and that they would not suffer Religion to be over-thrown Multitudes unmannerly thronging into the room the King departed and they went to the little Church again where Lindesey told them No course but one let us stay together that are here and promise to take one part and advertise our friends and the favourers of Religion to come unto us for it shall be either theirs or ours Upon which great clamours shoutings and lifting up of hands followed some crying to Arms others to bring out Haman for whilst the Lords were with the King being sent as above-said from the Little-Church Mr. Cranstone read to the People that story others cryed out The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon and so great were the Peoples fury rais'd on a sodain That if the Provost by fair words and others by threats had not tamed them they had done some violence These actions of the Kirkers makes the King leave the Town go to Linlithgow whereupon they resolve for Warr the Ministers agitating them Amongst the rest one John Welsh in his Sermon rail'd pitifully against the King saying He was possest with a Devil and compared him to a Madd-man and affirmed That Subjects might lawfully rise and take the Sword out of his hand In this fiery zeal they write a Letter to the Lord Hamilton desiring him to be their General telling him in it That the People animated by the Word and Motion of Gods Spirit had gone to Arms. But all came to nothing Hamilton refusing such rebellious honour carryeth the Letter to the King who orders the guilty Ministers to be apprehended who escape by flying into England and the Magistrates of Edenburgh are pardoned The overthrow of this one business strengthened the Kings Authority mightily which was also confirmed by the Assembly at Perth now better known by the name of St. John's Town The Ministry being now pretty quiet Ruthen Earl of Gowry conspired to kill the King but to his own ruin His Majesty for this Preservation orders that Thanks should solemnly be render'd to God but in this he found the Presbyters cross-grain'd denying to do any such thing for such a deliverance whereupon they were silenced yet afterwards shewing their willingness were restored In this year was King James his third son his second viz. Robert dying young Charles born afterwards King of England The next year was kept an Assembly at Burnt-Island whither Mr. John Davidson wrote a rayling Letter checking them for their cowardise in not opposing the ungodly telling them that the King was not sound and that Warr was more commendable than a wicked Peace But the graver sort rather pittyed and smiled at the mans madd zeal then troubled themselves to vex at him And now Queen Elizabeth dying King James the undoubted next Heir to the English Crown is at London Proclaimed accordingly whither he went to receive his Crown having thus happily united the two Kingdoms And here I shall leave off from prosecuting the Presbyterian Story in Scotland any further though I might tell you of their calling against the Kings consent an Assembly at Aberdeen to rant against Episcopal Government nor would they dissolve at the Kings command till they were proclaimed Traytors and yet did some of them scorn to acknowledge their Error and were by some of their Brethren vindicated to King James face in England the next year And many more instances of their Waspish humour in denying the Kings Authority might be shewn out of their own Historians who abound in such examples but if Symmetry will tell us the stature of the man by the proportion of his foot these may serve so much at this time to satisfie that I fear they will rather nauseate And really those who thought it a hard case that Mr. Blake should be punished for affirming in a Sermon 1596. That all Kings were the Devils Barns that the Kings heart was treacherous and that the Devil was in the Court and the guiders of it That the Queen of England was an Atheist and a wicked Woman That the Nobility and Lords were miscreants bribers degenerated godless dissemblers and Enemies to the Church That the Council were Holliglasses Cormorants and men of no Religion And in his Prayer for Queen Anne he said We must pray for her for the fashion but we have no cause she will never do us good Nor did he word it only but also rais'd Arms both Horse and Foot against the Kings consent These men I say who thought it unjust to have him questioned for such rebellious actions may also for ought I know think it strange with Buchanan that our Laws do not provide ample and honourable rewards for those who can boldly murder their Prince And yet must this Buchanan and Knox be cryed up as valiant noble bold and publick-spirited men and this present world scorned because we have no such fire-brands And whether this title is rashly thrown upon them let any ingenious man judge not only by their fore-mentioned tenets and actions against their Kings but by the answerable nurturing up of their Disciples who at the University of St. Andrews instead of Divinity Lectures had these Political or rather a ruine to
will defend me Difficile est Satyram non scribere nam quis iniquae Tam patiens Urbis tam ferreus ut teneat se We must be angry Who can choose but frown When Traytors thrive by a Rebellious Town If my fault be only speaking tartly the then Dr. Reynolds will assure this to be no such crime by telling them that there is sometimes a Necessity of sharp Rebukes and Mr. Hickman in this will stifly plead mine Innocency when he tells the World in these words that c If at any time I seem to depart from that meekness of spirit which is required in a Minister I shall desire that it may be considered not only what is fit for me to speak but what is meet for them to hear If I were to mention their fact who took the Reliques of Peter Martyr ' s Wife's carkase out of the Grave and after buried them in a Dunghill would you not allow me to call it Unchristian and Inhumane c. And in another place either himself or his Friends have bestirr'd themselves notably to plead the necessity and justness of my keenness by declaring to all people that If any where I have used more sharpness then is pleasing to men I shall only say that their hard grateing hath sharpned my style and made it more keen and piercing than I could have allowed my self to use towards a good-natured Adversary 'T is almost morally impossible for him who contends with a fiery and furious Antagonist sometimes not to be a little over-heated But yet I am very willing to lye under the lash of their severest Titles provided they will be so Ingenious as to distribute Justice with an equal hand If they look upon me as an hot-headed Rayler for calling them Rebels and Traytors and what can be more true I wonder how they can quit John Calvin from the same Epithet who call'd those who could not agree to his will Profane Impudent Brasen-faced Impostours Fools wicked Forgeries Perfidious Uncharitable Peevish Hang-man Plague void of Grace Knaves Serpents Devils Filthy Dog c. If they censure me as-an impudent and sawcy Fellow for calling them Hypocrites I hope they will give the same Title to John Knox the Father of the Scotch Presbytery and a great assistant to these in England This man had so got the knack of villifying that his Tongue could be no Slander Passing by those of Inferior Rank take some of his Complements to Queen Mary calling her several times a wicked Woman tells her that she was not sober merciful but cruel and wicked Mischievous false dissembling unconstant proud and a Breaker of Promises an open Traitoress to the Imperial Crown of England Nor is this all but he calls her Reign The Monstriferous Empire of a wicked Woman the yoke of the Devil her most Tyrannical Iniquity that most unhappy and wicked Womans Authority that reigneth in Gods wrath an usurped Government c. and calls his own Queen Regents actions Idolatry Avarice and Cruelty If they think me malepert for calling them Schismaticks they cannot handsomely quit Marshal Calamy Young Newcomen and Spurstow of the same guilt for terming the Reverend Bishop Hall false and confident self-confounding-man and of a confident boldness and that his Book is full of falsities and contradictions For ranting against Episcopacy as an Iron and Insupportable yoke unjust Opposition uttering words bordering upon Blasphemy A Stirrup for Antichrist to get into the Saddle Corrupt Prelates that they discountenance discourage oppose blaspheme Preaching that they are Rotten Members Sons of Belial And then thunders out strange things of their Intolerable Oppressions and Tyrannies Drunkennsss Profaness Superstition Popishness of the English Clergie and then talks of their Cruelty Tyranny scandalous Sins hateful Enormities and that the Bishops do encrease Popery Superstition and Profaneness And to make their malice compleat would gladly bear the people in hand that it hath been the Bishops great design to hinder all farther Reformation to bring in Popery and Libertinism to keep out and beat down the Preaching of the Word to silence the faithful Preachers to oppose and persecute the most zealous Professors and to turn all Religion into a pompeous outside and to tread down the Power of Godliness If they think me uncivil for hinting at their Perjury they cannot but be as angry with their Brethren in Scotland the Committee of Estates for calling that Famous Loyal and Religious Marquess of Montross several times Excommunicate Traytor Viperous brood of Satan declared Traytor whom the Church hath delivered into the hands of the Devil and the Nation doth generally detest and abhorr Impudent braggard lyer and malicious man perfidious Traytor a Child of the Devil Dissembling Hypocrite of a mean and desperate Fortune vain man miserable miscreant malicious man and accuseth him of wickedness base treacherous practises Rebellion and Treason and then fairly concludes that he is a person justly excluded from civil Society for his Treasonable Practises and Excommunicated from the Church for his abominable Transgressions And this way of Presbyterian slandring is bravely imitated by their gude Kirk who call the same noble General That Excommunicated and forfeited Traytor That wretched man that Monster of men that excommunicate wretch unnatural Man that perfidious and proud Atheist and then also concludes their Charity that he is delivered into the hands of the Devill If they have a bad opinion of me for giving them now and then some names which they think are attributed by way of Reproach they can have no better thoughts of Mr. Hickman for scornfully calling the learned Dr. Pierce a wanton wit uncharitable one that tumbles out his ugly Tropes and rowls himself in his railing Eloquence a deplorable Dilemmatist a doughty Disputant accuseth him of Malice Railing Impudence and Nonsense That his Book is full of bitter girds and scurrilous gibes and that himself foams out of his own shame and waxeth worse and worse The same party calls Mr Hobs a Prodigious Writer and Commune Dei hominum que Odium And terms the learned and ingenious Author of Tilenus Junior an Aethiopian scribler poor fellow and accuseth him of Impudence Nor is this all but throws his venom upon the late Supporter of Learning the Reverend Arch-bishop Laud by affirming that the flourishing of him was the decaying and languishing of Church and State Nor could either body well recover but by spewing out such evill instruments as he and Buckingham So that it seems in his opinion there was a necessity of murthering them both The same Gentleman can also tell you who sufficiently abused and vilified the Learned Dr. Heylin and Mr. Pierce and at last threw his malice to the purpose upon the poor sequestrated Episcopal Divines telling the World that a greater part of them were unsavory salt fit only to be cast upon the Dunghill And if reports be true he can also tell you who not long since call'd the Bishops Schismaticks and threw great reproaches upon that
Scotland by domestick dissentions stir'd up against him by Hay Creighton Bruce Graham and other Jesuites who furnished the Rebellious Nobility with moneys from Spain to carry on their designs Nor hath Ireland reason to rejoyce in their acquaintance where the Seminary Fryars of late dayes had gone so far as in Dublin it self not only to appear in their habits but also to affront the Archbishop and Maior of that City nor were they wanting to the erection of Colledges and Societies maintain'd by good Benefactors as appears by a Letter from the Council in England to that in Ireland Yet for all this hath their rebellious favourits dealt mildly with them though the Laws be severe enough and 20. years ago look'd upon this kind of mercy as a crime fit to be thrown in the face both of King and Bishop but how deservedly let any judge but Prynne whose malice and partiality is well enough known Nor need we much trouble our selves to prove the Jesuite somewhat medling their familiarity with the Anabaptists Quakers and such like Phanaticks being suspicious Of which many examples might here be shewn but that their common knowledge would make the Relation tedious only take notice that the very Weekly Gazet suspects Mr. Rogers and those of his Fraternity to have some Jesuite or Priest at the Helm with them And Mr. Rogers takes no good course to clear himself by endeavouring to vindicate the Jesuite from having any hand in our late Warrs which this following Story is sufficient to confute When the late King was murdered Mr. Henry Spotteswood riding casually that way just as his Head was cut off espyed the Queens Confessor there on Horse-back in the habit of a Trooper drawing forth his Sword and flourishing it over his own head in Tryumph as others then did At which Mr. Spotteswood being much amazed and being familiarly acquainted with the Confessor road up to him and said O Father I little thought to have found you here or any of your Profession at such a sad spectacle To which he answered that There were at least forty or more Priests and Jesuites there present on Horse-back besides himself The resultancy of this Story is home and pat and for the truth of it I referr you to Mr. Prynne Nor need we here relate the great correspondency betwixt the late Grandees and Cardinal Mazarini of which Mr. Walker gives us a hint and experience can proclaim the rest Nor is it probable that they should have no hand in the promotion of our late distractions as most beneficial to the Catholick Cause since they have been the chief fomenters of all other Wars in Christendom leaving nothing un-essay'd that may bring all into confusion as Ludovicus Lucius and others can inform you more at large Besides all this we might give some Extracts out of the Plot discovered by Andreas ab Habernfield 1640. September to Sir William Boswell the Kings Agent at the Hague and by him to the Archbishop and so to his Majesty A design managed abroad by the Pope and Cardinal Barbarino and in England chiefly by George Con a Scotch-man and the Pope's Nuncio The substance of which was that the Roman-Catholicks here should stirr up the Puritans to revenge themselves of the Bishops and the Scots should also be perswaded to Arms whence the English should so adhere that the King remaining Inferiour in Forces should be constrain'd to crave aid from the Papists which should be deny'd unless he favoured them with a Toleration which if absolutely deny'd it was contrived by sodain death to remove him But because we find the Reality of the Plot questioned by an understanding Gentleman we shall referr you to L'estrange and Prynne's Relation But let this Plot be as it will 't is more then suspicion that our Phanaticks have been beholden in many things to the Jesuite of which one example may somewhat satisfie They caus'd the Book written by Parsons Anno 1524. under the faigned name of Doleman and call'd A Conference about the Succession of the Crown which Book was condemned by Act of Parliament 35. Elizab. to be publish'd again under the title of Several Speeches delivered at a Conference concerning the Power of Parliaments to proceed against their King for Mis-government The Arguments and Precedents are meerly the same though the fashion of the Book be a little altered Parsons having made it a Dialogue and these men into Speeches And how agreeable to this Rule of King-killing they steer'd their course is impossible to be forgot as long as Memory or Record can be had in this World CHAP. IV. The helps and assistance which the Calvinist Presbyterian and Jesuite afford one another for the ruine and alteration of Kingdoms with their Plots to destroy the Government and Tranquillity of England THat the Independents should only be beholden to the Jesuits or these Fathers the sole Ingeneers of Wickedness would mainly over-cloud the Reputation of the Presbyterians who look upon themselves as active for any mischief and as cunning contrivers And therefore 't is best for them to go hand in hand each discovering to other what new Plots they have found out for the subversion of Governments By which Club they have afforded certain Rules to Politicians which have exactly been observed and followed by our late Schismaticks as is palpable by the following Observations And first we shall begin with the Plots of the Calvinists a people never negligent to promote their own Interests Of whose Sect as the Emperour Ferdinand affirm'd the proper genius is To hold nothing either Fraud or Wickedness which is undertaken for the Religion No sanctity of Oath nor fear of Dishonour hinders them A Chararacter like that given by the experienced King James to the Puritans the same with our Non-conforming Presbyterians of whom one gives this sentence Puritans and all other Sectaries who though scarce two of them agree in what they would have yet they all in general are haters of Government And to this purpose was the judgement of the wise Secretary Walsingham when to Monsieur Critoy Secretary of France he assured them to be dangerous and very popular not Zeal nor Conscience but meer Faction and Division and besides this gives a short description of their Cunning Jugling and Rebellion for which with the Jesuite they start strange Doctrines to be as an Umbrella to their Illegal proceeding Of which the learned Bancroft Mr. David Owen and an Ingenious Epistle Congratulatory under the Name of Lysimachus Nicanor will afford you many Instances Whereby you may see that the Presbyterians in their Principles and Actions have more of Rome than the late reverend Archbishop Land or his favorites Let Bayly and the spurious Irenaeus Philalethes or any others collect or steal out of him what they please The Calvinists being resolved to root the Lutherans out of the Palatinate took this following Method to bring their ends about as
they are delivered to us by Adam Contzenus a deep observing Jesuite which our late English Law-choppers have observed to a hair as is obvious by the sequent Rules I. The Intent of the Calvinists in altering Religion in the Palatinate by extirpating the Lutherans was conceal'd lest the vulgar having knowledge of it should tumultuate After this manner were the Orthodox Divines in England weakened The Presbyterians at their Initiation into this Kingdom not going openly like honest men but skulking up and down to private Conventicles which they call'd Synods or Assemblies according to the directions of their great Mustaphi's such as Cartwright Snape Gibby Travers Gillebrand Whittington Goodman c. But having once increast the number of their Disciples into a formidable body took the impudence to affront King Queen Laws and all their Superiours Nor of all these many Opinions we have had two pregnant and powerful amongst us few were observed how they took root till like Cadmus his Souldiers they shew'd themselves so potent that they might scorn a resistance Nor could we dream of any intentions lurking in the breasts of our pretended Potentates tending any way to the introducing of a motley-Babylonick Herd of Religions since Prelacy was murdered out by a drove of Villains seeing they so solemnly protested against any such endeavour as you may see by these following words And we do here declare that it is farr from our purpose or desire to let loose the Golden Reyns of Discipline and Government in the Church to leave private persons or particular Congregations to take up what Form of Divine Service they please For we hold it requisite that there should be throughout the whole Realm a conformity to that Order which the Laws enjoyn according to the Word of God This Protestation is something serious But alas it may be they looking upon themselves as our Lords and Masters Dissimulation is a thing permitted them by a French States-man though I believe in equality they are more our Neighbours and so could not demand the same priviledge granted by de Marnix to Kings What they meant by the Laws of the Land I know not but it is certain they favour'd Episcopacy more than any other Government And it is as true what the old Poet sung 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whilst we are rul'd by wilful power and might Laws cannot do so much as do us right And what validity can we expect in a Declaration from those who can swallow down Oaths with more content and celerity than Lazarello de Tormes could a Saucidge or a little Sack Who look upon Allegiance to others as a nicety of State yet make it Treason if not observed to themselves But if our own Laws cannot be in force I wish the Aegyptians might who held perjury a double offence against God and Man and so rewarded the guilty with death II. Some more craftily suborned humbly to petition the Prince though he earnestly long'd for the change himself and so possibly might prompt them to it that the Exercise of their Religion might be granted None can be ignorant of the same manner of Jugling in England for these many years last past in so much that we have had scarce any Petition concerning Religion or the Change of Government but what trucking collogueing and running about to get peoples hands to it most of them being either Servants or such mean Handy-craft-men that want brains to apprehend either the advantage or damage of any Publick concern but are driven on with such hasty fury that nothing can satisfie them but a present performance though with as much ignorance and envy as those who rail'd against the Innocent Aristides because he was too just and honest to live amongst such wretches Of this manner of cheating up Petitions the famous Dr. Hammond takes special notice And that great Prop of Learning the late Arch-bishop of Canterbury gave a large hint in his Speech upon the Scaffold in these words Here hath been of late a fashion taken up to gather hands and then to go to the great Court of this Kingdom the Parliament and clamour for Justice as if that great and wise Court before whom the causes come which are unknown to the many could not or would not do justice but at their appointment A way which may endanger many an Innocent man and pluck his bloud upon their own heads and perhaps upon the Cities also And this hath been lately practised against my self the Magistrates standing still and suffering them openly to proceed from Parish without check many well-meaning people are caught by it Of this clandestine way of Jugling up Petitions several Counties did publickly complain about the beginning of these Wars to the Parliament in their Petitions for Episcopacy but to small purpose the Members resolving to break the Laws did not like that which would confirm them This way of begging was used above a dozen years ago by some Privado's in the County of Buckingham Essex Oxford and Barks to decide and lessen the Parliament and promote an Independent Army and Faction against them And thus as it was thought did the well-known Committee of Derby-house imploy Col. Rainsborough to go up and down and solicit the common sort of Marriners to subscribe and present the House of Commons with a Petition against a Personal Treaty with the King which other places Petitioned for And to make them more complying gave 12 d. a piece to those who would subscribe it And this way of hudling up requests was used by those Bloud-thirsty Canabals for the bringing of his Majesty and others to the Block In this Art of State-craft Oliver Cromwell was excellently well seen and made it one of his main blinds to deceive an easie believing multitude which he thought both lawful and commendable in himself but when once raised to a Protector thought it little less then Treason in others greatly complaining of such actions to his mock-Parliament Thus the Priest forgets that ever he was Clerk every man thinking himself in the right and so did the three poor Nuns of Mergate when they drew up their Innocent Petition as here followeth by the By though now converted to a wrong sense We thre poor Nuns of Mergate Piteously compleineth to your gud Estate Of one Sir Johnne of Whipesuade Who hath stopped our Water-gate With two Stons and a Stake Help us Lord for Cryst hys sake These poor women through their simplicity dream'd of nothing but what was honest desired nothing but what was just a reparation of their wrongs being the only thing they aimed at not like our self-ended Time-servers who from the Noddles of three or four like a Multiplying-Glass can produce you many thousands Thus five or six in Decemb 1653. when Oliver was scarce warm in his Protectorship to make his footing the more sure drew up an Address to him and sent it through the three Kingdoms as a pattern for
from this Swashbuckler These and many other innovating and cross grain'd actions you may find storied down by their almost-own Fuller for so may I well take the boldnesse to call him since they could never desire a more complyable Historian And therefore these may carry the more probability with the Reader let his education be either sound or rotten KING JAMES succeeding upon the death of Queen Elizabeth the Non-conformists thought to gain ground apace having to deal with a Prince as they thought bred up in their own way and a stranger not only to England but as they hoped to her government also 'T is true He had been nurst up in the Presbyterian way in Scotland but their insolencies and incroachments to get all the power into their own hands as a stiff Presbyterian under the fained name of Wilson doth confesse gave him so much experience as not only to allow of no alteration or that very small in the Church of England but also publickly to testifie his happinesse in ruling over and amongst people so sweetly united in such a Church-government whereas in Scotland He was a a King without State without Honour without Order where beardlesse boyes would brave him to his face As himself did word it Yet to satisfie their clamours He gave them a conference at Hampior-Court where their Objections seemed so trivial that Self will and an erronious Conscience was thought to be more predominant then Reason Upon which the King put forth a Proclamation for Uniformity to which all the Ministers in England and they are above nine thousand submitted except forty nine such a noise will a few disturbers cause in any society when tolerated Nor need this seem strange to those who know that in the first year of Queen Elizabeth the number of our Clergy-men who refused the Oath of Supremacy did not amount to 200. though they had all not only been bred up in the Romish Religion but also for some few years before had violently asserted the Pope's authority in England And we now see those who have been the Chief-tains of the Non-conformists to turn tail and acknowledge Episcopal government the which I hope they do more for Conscience then Covetousnesse Yet for all this though King Law and all things else were against the Disciplinarian Interest they grow resolute and as one saith starkmaa and send to their Brethren in Scotland informing them of all which had hapned and that they in Scotland must expect to conform too and then God wot would follow the utter destruction of Sion Upon which some of them take an Alarum and meet at Aberdeen in spight of the King and his Authority intending to declare against and root out all the foot-steps and memory of Episcopacy for which some of them afterwards were forced to acknowledge their fault And Andrew Melvil for writing Libels against our English Church he then being at London was called before the Council where behaving himself insolently and like a mad man he was committed to the Tower By these actions our Non-conformists easily perceived that they could gain nothing but their own shame and destruction whilst they acted only as private men whereupon they resolve under-hand to blow up the Parliaments against Prerogative to which purpose by their industry they never wanted a good party in the House who carried themselves so resolutely and cunningly that for the future Westminster only rung with the clamours of Grievancies liberty of Subject and Priviledge of Parliament A Parliament never sitting but some Member or other throwing dirt in his Majesties face and this conscionably done by freedom of speech never or very seldom satisfying the King in what he conveniently required for when his pleasure for any reasonable thing was any time made known to them then they grumble and reply that God must be served before man and then for a moneth or two nothing is done in the House but the uttering of long-winded speeches against Arminianism and Popery And this to as little purpose as Cardinal Rapacciolus his prayer that the Devils fins and transgressions might be forgiven him that so he might receive some comfort and be of good cheer For any thing or reason besides bitter Invectives is as difficult to be found amongst them as Coach horses at Venice or a Gondola in Themes as is obvious to any who have seen the Speeches in the two last Kings raigns 'T is true all were not carryed on with the same Spirit for the House was still composed of two different tempers Like Orense a Town in Gallaecia of Spain one side of which in Winter is covered with Snow and num'd by the fury of frozen blasts whilest the other side doth not only want these white Robes but is favoured with a continual warmth arising from the adjacent medicinal hot Baths yet the more wicked party obliged by being so to be more industrious will commonly gain advantages whilst the good People trusting in their honesty act altogether too supinely I shall not now trace the Extravagancies of private men but shew you some of their hot-headed prancks in Parliament because they have now made that the Stage on which they intended to act for the future and in this I shall study brevity and pass by many notorious insolencies In the first Parliament of King James which was drawn out into several Sessions one of the Members bid the rest take heed lest they gave too much to the King lest they endanger their own throats cutting when they went home Others bob'd his Majesty in his teeth for rewarding some of his own Countreymen affirming that their silver and gold abounded at Edenburgh And one Piggot after he had spoken disgracefully of the Scots added withall That it would never be well with England till a Sicilian Vesper was made of the Scotish Nation as if he had not known what Countrey-man the King was Words of such high nature that Queen Elizabeth would have shewn her Prerogative But having now to deal with a King whom they thought might have been trampled upon here as well as beyond the Tweed they left nothing unturn'd whereby they might strengthen their own Faction And this spirit of Contradiction and Contention ruling amongst them is pointed at by one of their own Brethren though clad in more favourable words these bickerings and the Members unrestless humour forced the King to dissolve the Parliament having sat long enough in all Conscience to do any good if they intended any Afterwards another Parliament being call'd and consisting of the same Temperature was presently dissolved In the next Parliament the King desires some Moneys having not had any assistance from his People for several years so that he was constrained to lessen his Houshold This necessary request the Parliament hears but never intend to grant And the better to lay it aside they first begin with the spacious and specious subject of Complaints and with a high hand
the perfidious hot-spurr'd Presbyters THE HISTORY Of the Wicked PLOTS and CONSPIRACIES OF OUR Pretended Saints BOOK II. CHAP. I. The mischievous and impudent Contrivances and Innovations of the wicked long-Parliament 1. Their slandering of the Court and Church 2. Their Affection to the Schismaticall Incendiaries 3. The Impudence and seditiousnesse of their Lecturers 4. Their designes to alter the frame of Civil Government 5. Their Plots to overthrow Episeopacy 6. Their stirring up the people to Tumults 7. The small esteem the Commons had of the King and Nobility Whereby it appears that it was not the King but the Parliament that occasioned and began the Warres HAving now and that as succinctly as I could somewhat discovered the peace-consuming zeal of our Presbyterians I shall come to the subject intended to wit our late unhappy Distractions The seeds of which was not only before sown by the Nonconformists but began a little to take root and sprout forth through the temper of our English Parliament 1628. and the after actions of the Scottish Covenanters by whom the King was cajol'd to call a Parliament to fit November the third 1640. A day ominous to the Clergy by a former president upon that day the 20. year of King Henry the Eighth that Parliament beginning which began the ruine of Cardinal Woolsey the power of the Clergy and the dissolution of those famous Monuments of Charity the Abbeys and such like hospitable buildings England hath afforded us many Parliaments yet but one of them honoured with the Epithet of Good and that some hundred years agoe though since his Majesty hath been pleas'd to memorize one with the character of the healing and blessed Parliament as many of our former Representatives have had several names added to them as the Parliament that wrought wonders The great Parliament The marvellous Parliament The Laymens Parliament because no Lawyer was to be in it The unlearned Parliament either for the unlearnedness of the Members or for their malice to learned men Barebones Parliament The short Parliament and in the same year 1640. did our long wicked Parliament commence and I have heard of a Mad Parliament No sooner did the long Parliament sit but their proceedings were hurryed on with that fiery zeal that if distractions had not followed thereupon it would have been as strange to the discreeter sort as Margaret Countess of Hollands year-like birth at Lusdunen to our Country-women or the story of the womanly girle who at six years old was brought to bed of a son in Indostain For instantly they fell upon grievances abuses in Religion violation of laws liberties and what not Concerning which their speeches flew plentifully about and releas'd the grand Incendiaries Prynne Burton Bastwick and Dr. Leighton and giving them great rewards Some of them being triumphantly guarded into London by many thousands of horse and foot with rose-mary and bays in their hands and hats Novemb. 28. which was not only an high affront to the Kings Authority but a political glass to the Nonconformists through which they might see the strength and unanimity of their own Faction who were grown so valiant that a little before this upon the fast day Novemb. 17. where Dr. Burgess and Marshall preacht above 7 houres before the Commons and before the Lords two Bishops but as the second service was reading a Psalm was struck up by some of the Brethren which presently disturbd the Divine service to the amazement of the civill and orthodox Auditors who could little expect any such thing without an express order by authority But this is no great matter in respect of their after actions which are so many against the King and Kingdom and that too before his Majesty's horrid murther that it is impossible for me in this Compendium to decimate them into a relation their very printed Acts and Ordinances in that time amounting to above 530. Besides their Declarations Petitions Remonstrances Votes Proclamations Messages Speeches and such like passages and all stuft with some worshipful thing or other by which their pretty actions were confirmed Yet as farr as brevity will allow me I shall endeavour to speak out and as plain as I can yet must I not accuse all nor half it may be of the members many of them spur'd on by their Loyalty following his Majesty and sitting in Parliament in the Schools at Oxford after whose departure the House at Westminster seemed like Pandora's box from whence all our future mischiefs and diseases flew over the Nation The Parliament a little after its beginning having triumph'd over divers persons of quality whom they knew to be opposers of their intended Presbytery thought it fitting to seek some absolute way of security to themselves for the future And to this nothing could be thought more conducible considering how they had gul'd an odium of Reverend Episcopacy into the simple people than by the certainty of Parliaments for which purpose they procured of the King who dreamt nothing of their after-games and fetches an Act for Triennial Parliaments And that their own actions might appear of more grandure by the stability of their own foundation they also obtain'd from his Majesty who was never wanting to grant any thing to his Parliaments pretended to be for the good of his subjects an Act whereby themselves should not be dissolved prorogued or adjourn'd but by their own consent By which means they were fancied by many of the Kingdome to be of such high Authority that neither King law or any power else could have any influence over them let their actions be never so treasonable or wicked And so might Phaeton suppose when his Father had given him the command of his refulgent Chariot though his indiscreet authority brought ruine to himself and destruction to some parts of the world And well may any one in this turn their own weapons against themselves and yet not be deem'd too medling Such a continuing-Commission is freely given yet cunningly procured to the Captain of a ship But when this Governour falls so farr distracted as to indeavour nothing more then the ruine of his Vessel by their own popular consequence his Commission is void as being no more able to govern his charge to the best This instance I quote more because oft alledged against Regall authority than for any similitude it carrieth unlesse upon our perpetual Parliamentary account And therefore the reviving of this long-Parliament by a modern Writer seems to be to as small purpose as Don Quixot's martial endeavours to retrive the I know not what Knight-errantry by his paper helmet his wind-mill and claret-butts encounters or Hortensius the self-conceited School-master in du Parques Franchion to obtain the Crown and Kingdome of Poland The King having as he thought pacifyed his Subjects in England having granted them what they desired thought it likewise expedient to settle all things in Scotland in a peaceable temper for which purpose he put himself to the
and Chapters Prebendaries c. So that in four dayes time the hasty Commons over-throw as much as in them lay the Reverend Church of England which had continued many hundreds of years a flourishing glory to the Nation The Commons for their parts having thus pull'd down the pale of our Church fastned and strengthened by so many Authentick and Fundamental Laws as old again as the House of Commons will not leave Religion without some Government No good souls they were more kind-hearted And therefore in the first place they Vote that all the Lands and Means belonging to Deans and Chapters Chancellors or Commissaries Archdeacons Deans Prebendaries Chapter Canon c. shall be taken away and disposed of to the advancement of Learning and Piety That is if their after-actions may be taken for Expositors to maintain Rebellion Heresie Sacriledge and ruine Universities for these mens promises like Hebrew must still be read backwards and after this rule did they send a request to the King by Secretary Vain That he would give them leave to look into his Revenues and Expences and they would make him the richest King in Christendom But the Parliament will not spend their time only in selling Lands but something must be considered of a Church-Government too and therefore they Vote that all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction fit to be exercised in England shall be committed to such a number of persons and in such a manner as their Worships shall think fit Nor were they long without making the Nation happy with the discovery of their Intellectuals which was That six of the Clergy and six of the Laity should be appointed in every County for the setling of Church-Government But this was a little shaken by an after conclusion viz. That nine of the Laity and three of the Clergy in every Diocess should have power to exercise all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as shall be ordered by Parliament and to have their Monethly meetings for that purpose And the next day to make this hotch-potch Model more compleat they Vote That there shall be several select Committees of the Clergy appointed for the Ordination of Clergy-men into the Ministry But yet this Presbyterian Brat would not come to perfection And therefore to give more encouragement to the Covenanting-admirers they conclude That all Archiepiscopal and Episcopal Jurisdiction shall be exercised in this Kingdom by the Commissioners as there was by Bishops And the same day read the Bill for the using of Lectures taking away Cross in Baptism Surplis bowing at the Name of Jesus standing up at the Gospel Gloria Patri Pictures in Churches c. and conclude the day with the appointing of a Committee for the Propagation of the Gospel And the next day they give further power to their nine Commissioners to wit That after the first of August any five of them shall be a Quorum and have full power to try all Ecclesiastical Causes and to appoint Deputies under them in several places And after this they further agreed That if any of the nine Commissioners should dye that five or more of them are to choose another presently and so if any of them resign and that if any came to take Orders that these Commissioners shall appoint five Clergy men to grant Ordinations And for the more speedy putting of this medly in practise the Knights and Burgesses of every Shire are commanded to bring in the Names of the nine Commissioners for their several Counties to be appointed and that no Clergy-man be of the Commission Thus farr had the Commons thrown I cannot say built up this their confused Babylon when on a sodain an unexpected Remora was joyned to their further proceedings by some fallings out betwixt the Lords and them about the Protestation For the Commons having ordered that it should be taken all over the Kingdom were in this opposed by the Peers who threw it out of their House which so incensed the Commons that they presently Vote That what person soever shall not take the Protestation is unfit to bear Office in Church or Common-wealth And thinking that the Bishops were the reason of the Lords dissent appoint a Committee for impeaching them about the late Canons who accordingly Voted thirteen Bishops to be Delinquents whom the Lords also suspended their house till a further hearing And so violently were these good men persecuted by the Presbyters that they never left plotting till they had got them Voted Traytors and sent to the Tower Nor could they have any outward content any where considering the reproaches threats and curses daily thrown against them by the wicked the danger of their lives by Tumults and their Lands Voted from them long before by their and Religions Enemies the Non-conforming Commons though they agreed to allow them a liberal allowance during life and how unhandsomly the Parliament in this neglected this promise the Reverend Bishop Hall will satisfie you The Commons now having as they thought bridled the Bishops and their Party are resolved to root out the Common-Prayer Book too to which purpose some of them desire that it might be altered and some thing added to it the which after some speeches being put to the Vote it appear'd that there were then but 55. Disciplinarians in the House no more voting for Alterations so that the Book came off with credit the Orthodox Party knowing well enough that if that House once fell to alter it it rather belonging to able and lawful Divines they would equal the Tinker who made two holes for mending one The Anti-Episcopalians being thus baffled fall to it again getting it to be moved again in the House the next week where they came off with the like success And the next day being a Thanks-giving day for the Peace between the two Nations to shew their malice to Church-Government and countenance the Schismaticks the Commons would not go to St. Margarets Westminster as was by them appointed because the Bishop of Lincoln had caus'd a set Form of Prayer for that occasion to be printed and used in the Church the news of which so started their Worships that they turn'd tail and went to the preachment at Lincolns Inne But if the Commons were troubled at this they were after out of their wits and all stark-madd against the Lords Because they had put forth an Order and sent it all over the Nation strictly injoyning the reading of the Common-Prayer against which and many other Church-affairs the Commons the same day put forth a Declaration ordering it to be printed and sent over the Kingdom and with them they also got the nine dissenting Lords to protest against the Order made by the House of Peers This cross-graind action of the Commons so incensed the Lords that they left off sitting for a while causing the Hangings of their House to be taken down Nor did this any way vex the Commons
to the contrary who as story saith is true to his promise with those Miscreants who contract with him so that his Majesty might now be dumb with astonishment when six years before he cryed out with grief And are all the specious promises and loud professions of making us a great and glorious King Of setling a greater Revenue upon us then any of our Ancestors have enjoyed of making us to be honour'd at home and fear'd abroad resolved into this Yet doth the King yet live as a Saint as well as a Martyr in the memory of good men and as long as Learning or Piety are permitted to adorn the world his divine meditations will be had by every one in greater esteem then Alexander had of Homer Antonius Caracalla of Oppians Verses or the Lord Burleigh of Tully's Offices Such is the excellency of the style the strength of its reason the noblenesse of its Subject that malice it self cannot deny but that the Royall Composer hath excell'd all other humane pen-men Nor was the fame of his quil only made known to this Island but forraigners allow him the priority of all others in this virtue But I shall conclude this sad Tragedie and Murther with the Stanza's of a good Historian and Poet. What dissolute proceedings have we here What strange presumptuous disobedience What unheard fury void of awe or fear With monstrous unexampled insolence Durst Subjects ever here or any where Thus impiously presume so fowle offence To violate the power commanding all And into judgment Majesty to call Fame hide it close and do not carry word To after-coming ages of our shame Blot out of Books and rase out of Record All Monuments memorials of the same Forget to tell how we did lift our sword And envious idle accusations frame Against our lawful Soveraign when we ought His end and our release have stay'd not sought CHAP. III The Inconstancy villany and monstrous Tyranny of the wicked Army till the Restauration of his Majesty THus did the Rump tryumph when separated from the secluded Members The which outing was as great a Providence as any that hath hapned to the distracted Kingdoms these many years the miraculous restauration of his Majesty excepted For if they had admitted the King to his Title again yet had it been so qualified that his Authority and honour had lain in the dust his friends and our ancient Church utterly distroyed and discredited and an abused Nation trampled upon by a tyrannizing and schismatical Presbytery The Rump being thus a Cock-horse acted on with more wickedness then the 30 Athenian Tyrants there being no good Theramenes at Westminster as there was at Athens honestly to oppose our unheard of Villanies who presently Vote the House of Lords uselesse and dangerous and the Kingly-Office unnecessary and burthensome And for the better carrying on of their designes order a Committee of Estates consisting of several Lords and Commons who were to sit in White-Hall and rule the Militia and Navy and look after the Trade and safety and peace of the Nation and this to continue a year and no longer And makes it treason for any to proclaim the King vote themselves a Free State and a Common-wealth and order an Engagement to be taken all England over to be true and faithful to them And having thus secured themselves they ruled the roast till 1653. In which year they were pul'd out by the eares by their Generall and darling Cromwel and his hireling Red-coats who affirm'd Wisedome and direction being sought from the Lord it seem'd to be a duty incumbent upon us who had seen so much of the power and presence of God going along with us And that we were bound by necessity and providence to act as we have done even beyond and above our own thoughts and desires The Rump being thus squeezed out Oliver began to be all in all and so for some daies the Nation remain'd without any Government but what reflected from the beams of his Orient Nose in which time the Fleet and the Army in Scotland with others congratulate his valour against the Beasts at Westminster and resolve to stick to him as was formerly concluded upon amongst themselves Yet at last after some consultation a Councill of State was order'd to sit till another Representative be call'd he and his Officers acting at pleasure At last as the King doth with the Peers so did he with his confiding Commons sending out his Letters to every man who should sit whereby none were permitted but such as he pleas'd The men that were summon'd by his particular writs above a hundred in number accordingly met at White-Hall where their Patron Cromwell made a canting Speech to them and then gave them an Instrument under his own fist and seal whereby he constituted them the Supreme authority of the Nation taking himself to be Don Quixot's Knighterrant to whom all things were common This conventicle puts me in mind of that Parliament kept at Coventry in Henry the sixths time which was afterwards declared a devilish Councill and only celebrated for the distruction of the Nobility and no lawful Parliament Because they which were return'd were never elected according to the due order of the Law but secretly named by them which desired rather the destruction then the advancement of the Common-wealth The majority of these men were according to Olivers own heart being of his own fraternity by whose compliablenesse he knew was the only way to make himself more great To bring which to pass upon some instinct or other they and he together dissolve themselves A great part of them with their gray headed Speaker going to Oliver and deliver'd him the power that they pretended to have receav'd from him whose wicked working-noddle was not unlike Ismens in Tasso who I suoi Demon negli empi uffici impiega Pur come servi egli discioglie elega Could Devills imploy to act what he design'd And them as if his slaves could loose and bind Now were we again left without any shew of Government but what lay in the sword and breasts of Cromwell and his dissembling adherents who after three days seeking God as they said and their devilish Hypocrisie verified the old saying In nomine Domini incipit omne malum It was resolved upon that Cromwell should be chosen Lord Protector of the three Nations And was accordingly sworn and after proclaimed Thus Oliver Cromwel from a low estate yet a Gentleman rais'd himself to the Supremacy in England not unlike the Macedonian Nabin thus related by the Poetical Monck of Saint Edmunds-Bury Having no title save title of robbrye Only by force himself to magnefye Which with stronge honde toke full possession For to be crowny'd in thilke region To obtain this Height his naturall dissimulation was none of his least assistants who with his eyes lift up to heaven and his hands clapt upon his breast
commenced thinking by the terror of these Forces to reduce those in Scotland having had formeely good luck there to his Obedience But in this he ruined himself for London more then could be expected from that Monster of Wood and Stone considering their former proneness to and complyance with intolerable mischief and when many of them will really be honest and dutiful to the Laws considering the multitude of their Schismatical Presbyterian-Pulpitiers I know not this City I say opposing the Committee of Safety in the City and the Rumpers playing their Cards well at Portsmouth and other places and General Monk politickly droling Lambert to delays Fleetwood and the rest of his seeming sanctified Associates fell to durt By which means the indefatigable Rump was restored again and with a seeming joy received by the Time-serving Army their former stiff Enemies now protesting themselves their especial friends Nor need this Hypocrisie appear any strange matter from such like Hirelings as they were who are Masters of their own tongues and humours and can commend and vilifie according as their own Interest leads of which their actions towards this very Rump will testifie sufficiently For when they dissolved them 1653. 20. April they then call'd them a corrupt Party having an aversion to things conducible to the good of the Common-wealth and opposition to the people of God And that through the corruption of some and jealousie of others the non-attendance and negligence of many would never answer those ends which God his People and the whole Nation expected from them This is an Indictment black enough to make any man odious to all the World yet few years after the Scene was altered and those aspersions quite forgot For when their Interest ingaged them to restore the Rump again Good God! how they Stroak them on the head Call them good Boys and buy them Ginger-bread Then they look upon them as people faln from Heaven and think nothing can be too good for such white Boys professing That the want of them is one cause of the Lords with-drawing his wonted presence for they were eminent Asserters of the Good Cause and had a special presence of God with them and were signally blest in that work And with this same Legerdemain was the poor Rump gull'd the third time For but some six dayes before they were again cast out by these Souldiers the very Army call themselves several times the Parliaments Army and humble and faithful Servants protesting through the help of God that they would be found notwithstanding all endeavours to the contrary faithful to them But Experience proved that this their Protestation lasted no longer then that the Rump acknowledged them or rather five or six Chieftains in Authority so that I may say of the Army as was formerly sung of the Pope by one of our own Poets Nulla non concessa potestas Illius Imperium fasque nefasque facit Dat rapit exarmat ditat depauperat ornat Foedera rescindit bella cruenta ciet Cuncta tamen licitè quoniam generale Imperium nil nisi jure facit These have all power and by their Swords can cause Things to be good or bad though ' gainst all Laws Can make us poor or rich can give or take Raise cruel Wars and all Agreements break Yet all these things are legal cause their might So frames their Rule that what they do is right By which means we seem'd to be return'd to the first Chaos of Government where people were ruled by no Laws but the will and lust of their Chieftains as Justin informs us And probably that people under no Laws live more happy than those whose Laws and Government are so apt to change that they know not what to trust to next day The Rump being thus restored thought nothing but that all would fall down and worship them But in this they quickly found that they reckon'd without their Hoast For General Monke perceiving the inconsistency of these self-ended erroneous popular Governments with the good of the Nations resolved to crush the proceedings of any more such like wickedness For which purpose with his small Army he moved towards London by any easie and tedious motion by which means he sounded the hearts of all the Nation by their Address to him where he found all the clamour for a Free-Parliament and through it the Restauration of their desired King And to bring this about after some complements with the Rump who now fear'd him for a blind and fashion sake he restored the long-banish'd Secluded Members A piece of a Parliament being now drawn together by the addition of the Secluded Members to the Rump the good Nobility and Gentry of the Nation began to be valiant once more and to utter some thoughts of Kingship Knowing that the animosity of the two parties in the House against each other would be the Rump's destruction and the occasion of a New-representative for which they nominated a Council of State consisting of thirty Members and the next Moneth Dissolved themselves from being a Parliament leaving the Government of the Nation to the aforesaid Council till the New-representative met The New-Parliament being met according to their Writs received his Majesties Gratious Letters to them by Sir John Greenvill and unanimously acknowledge him for their King and Soveraign with desires of his return to receive his Crown And having prepar'd all things for his reception he accordingly return'd to England where long may he raign to the unspeakable joy and benefit of the good and Loyal people and the confusion of Rebellion and Schism Thus in the space of eleven years have we run the Gant-lope through the series of seventeen Governments of which take this following scheme 1. King Charles the first 2. Rump 3. Oliver and his Officers 20. April 1653. 4. Council of State 30. April 5. Barebones Parliament 4. July 6. Oliver and his Officers 12. Decemb. 7. O. Cromwell Protectour 16. Decemb. 8. Richard Protectour 3. Septem 1658. 9. Rump the second time 6. May 1659. 10. Wallingford-house Junto with Lambert and Fleetwood 13. Octob. 11. Council of ten men 19. Octob. 12. Committee of Safety 26. Octob. 13. Rump the third time 26. Decemb. 14. Secluded Members and Rump 21. Feb. 1659 60. 15. Council of State 16. March 16. Parliament 25. Apr. 1660. 17. King Charles the second And what miseries the Nation underwent in these chopping and changing of Models is not yet forgot This thing was to day High-treason which to morrow was good law and the seduced people swore to maintain that the contrary to which the next week they were constrain'd to defend So that old Chaucer's complaint may well be here revived O sterne people unsad and untrewe Aye undiscrete and chaungying as a fane Delyting ever in rumur that is new For like the Moon ever waxe ye and wane Ever full of clappying dere enough a iane Your dome is false your
out of the Macchabees Sir Henry Spelman and other Historians but that the certainty of such punishments are unquestionable Nor did the Reverend Fathers of the Primitive Church led by the example of Gods severe threatnings and chastisements of such horrid wickedness wink at such faults as this A Reverend Asserter of the truth positively assures us that he who commits Sacriledge by taking or stealing any thing from the Church may be placed beside Judas who betray'd our Saviour And not much disconsonant from this is the opinion of the Ancient Popes Anacletus and Lucius who affirm that those who rob and abuse the Church are sacrilegious and as much guilty as if they had slain a man How lamentably do the two old Fathers Gregory Nazianzen and Theodoret complain of the violation of Churches and Church-plate and Treasure How earnestly doth Boniface dehort King Aethelbold from acting Sacriledge And How plainly doth Innocent the third tell us that he commits that sin who layeth violent hands on a Bishop Then miserable were those tumultuous wretches at Westminster by their wicked assaults but farr more those who destroy'd the Reveren'd Arch-bishop Laud one of more Integrity and Religion than Prynne Gage Burton Hornius and the rest of his railing Enemies Nor are the single Fathers only testifying the hainousness of this sin but also the whole Church And he that neglects to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen-man and a Publican represented by their Council have after much seeking God solemnly curst those who perpetrate this Iniquity In one of them it was concluded upon That if any one teach that the House of God or those who meet in it are to be despised let him be accursed And with this doth another Council also agree affirming That the sin was so intolerable that they should not only be excommunicated but that they should dye accursed And with these agree several other forraign Councils too tedious here to be related being all to the same purpose which are enough to demonstrate how the Fathers and props of the Primitive Innocent Church did look upon this sin as most abominable which might easily perswade any that dare pretend to honest principles to keep themselves from such Iniquity But because some may look upon these instances as only extranious or forraign and so not binding to the people of England Though the Laws of our Land affirm the contrary allowing and receiving as proper all such Canons Constitutions c. which are not repugnant to our Laws and the Kings Prerogative I shall shew you with as much brevity as I can what care hath been had by the State of England over the Church and her priviledges for many hundred years past King Edgar about an hundred years before the Conquest ordain'd That Churches should be imploy'd to no other use then Divine Service and that with all honour and respect every thing to be done in all decency all babling and such vain discourses to be banish'd thence with all manner of bousing and tipling Nay that a Dog shall not be permitted to enter the Church-yard or a Swine if they can possibly be kept out And many other Canons commanding reverence and respect to the Clergy and Church may be seen in the same place Besides these there is another ancient Order of the Church of England wherein it is strictly forbidden to imploy the Vessels belonging to the Church to any other use whatsoever then Divine Worship In which Canon is also set before their eyes as a warning-piece Gods judgement upon Belshazzar for carousing in the Vessels dedicated to God and the Church And formerly the Kings of England were so careful of these things that they have put heavy fines upon those who either rob'd God or his Church as may appear by the Decrees of King Aethelbert above a thousand years ago and several other English Councils as the industrious and learned Sir Henry Spelman will inform you Nor have these Sacrilegious Verlets only escapt with a fine but have been loaded with the severe and just Curse and Excommunication of the Church Of which form for example take this following pronounced by Boniface Archbishop of Canterbury assisted with other Bishops in their Pontificals against all Church-spoilers and breakers of Church-liberties By the Authority of Almighty God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost we Excommunicate Accurse and from the benefits of our holy Mother the Church we sequester all those who hereafter willingly and maliciously deprave or spoil the Church of her right And all those that by any craft or wiliness do violate break diminish or change the Church-Liberties and free Customs contain'd in the Charters of the Common Liberties c. And besides this many other instances might be given of the heavy Imprecations laid upon the sacrilegious person by authority of the Church For few there are which have been Founders or Benefactors but in their deed of gift some heavy curse or other is denounced against those who shall either alienate or take away their charity and liberality Nor hath this Sacrilegious Villany been only fined curst or excommunicated but as a reward for their wickedness have suffer'd death by Law amongst others our Chronicles assure us of five who suffer'd at one time three of them being hang'd and burnt and the other two prest to death And to them may I add the hanging of William Mandevil Baily of Abington who under pretence of holiness had rais'd a Tumult but especially against the Priests whose heads he vow'd to make as cheap as Sheep-heads which were then as some say ten a peny And how any man could think to escape without severe punishment for alienating the Church-Lands I know nor Since former Parliaments how wicked soever the latter have been have been so careful of the Priviledges and Maintenance of the Clergy that they have confirm'd them by many Statutes But these men care no more for what the Laws of the Land say then Oliver who used to call Magna Charta Magna Farta For if they had they then had never so Sacrilegiously and Trayterously violated the Statutes both of God and Man yet for all this hath this wickedness been perpetrated by those who pretended the greatest ostentation and shew of holiness as if to vilifie Gods House were the only way to do him most service It is not I suppose unknown to any in Warwick how sacrilegiously the Parliamentarians behaved themselves in St. Marie's Church and the Chappel adjoyning to the Quire beating down and defacing the ancient and curious Monuments of the Beauchamps Nor can Colchester forget how inhumanly they used the Corps of Lady Lucas and Lady Kelligrew dismembring and disjoynting their Trunks and wearing their hair in their Hats by way of Triumph Never dreaming for all their Saint-ships how God doth punish the violaters of the Dead How was
a God-Mother And thus did they also baptise a Pig and were so farre from repenting at these villanies that they boasted they had done the same in many other places This unheard of impiety would make Martinus de Olave dumb with astonishment when many years ago he bitterly exclaimed against those who turn'd out the Reverend Divines and kept the Church only to be stables for horses and such like Beasts Nor did Westminster under the very nose of the Parliament escape scot-free The souldiers breaking down the Organs pawning the pipes of them for Ale eating drinking smoaking Tobacco at the Communion Table and easing themselves in most parts of the Church Nor was this all but keeping their whores in the Church and lying with them upon the very Altar it self if you will believe the learned Author of Mercurius rusticus who will inform you more at large concerning some of the fore-mentioned passages And here I shall not speak of the wicked selling of Church-lands by the Parliament who had no authority to do so And this is the happy Reformation begun and intended by the wicked long-Parliament a pack of such impious Varlets that they were forced to call themselves Saints because their neighbours could not Yet for all their Saint-ship several of their Members were not only instigators but high Actors of this Sacriledge who though not here named yet I suppose are as conscious to themselves as a great Lord was when the word Sectary was spoken by Arch-Bishop Land Nor were the Members altogether devested of Sacriledge when they acted and voted so furiously against the King Church and good of the Nation in their house which was formerly St. Stephens Chappel And how well many of them have feather'd their nests in Bishops lands is not unknown But goods thus got as the Proverb saith will never prosper Of which none of the least examples is King Henry the eighth who although besides the vast summe of Abby Lands and the 5100000 l. left him by his father in ready mony received more from his Subjects by loans taxes and subsidies then all the Kings of England had in 500 years before yet what King was ever prest with so much poverty all things considered as he was who about the 36 year of his raign as one observes of all the Kings of England was forced to coyn not only base Tinne and Copper but leather monies And it is observed as the same Author saith since the accession of Abbies and Impropriations to the Crown even the Crown-lands which formerly have been thought sufficient to support the ordinary charge of the Crown are since so wasted though I hope the Loyalty of our Parliaments will augment them that they will scarce defray the ordinary charge of the Kings houshold Nor hath it happened otherwise with our wicked Long-Parliament and their sacrilegious adherents who could never keep their accounts straight for though in the heat of the warre they demanded not much above 50000 l. a month to carry on their designes yet in time of peace they could not observe just scores though they had 90000 l. 100000 l. per mensem and sold all the Kings and Bishops and such like lands which amounted to a vast summe besides taxes excise customes and such like commings in Nor was this all but they had the composition moneys of those they call'd Delinquents which consisted of many thousand Loyal Subjects and to what a vast summe this came to may somewhat be collected from this If ten thousand men at two hundred pounds per annum pay two years for Composition for so the ordinance appointed which amounts to two Millions to what an incredible summe will it amount when several of the Compounders estates were 2 4 6 8 10. and some above thousand pounds a year But if this summe was great what was the Decimation Sequestration and such like knacks of procuring monyes And yet poverty still pleaded so that their Armies and Navies could not be paid till our Gracious Majesty did it for them who though they hoorded up much monies and lands to themselves yet the ever blessed divine Providence hath now brought them to give an account to the Loyall Royall and Rightful owners And such or a worse Exit let there alwaies fall upon all sacrilegious persons To whom as man hath appointed severe judgments so will not the all seeing and ever-just Almighty be backward in requiting such prefidious and sacrilegious villains according to their iniquity who I hope will swallow down the Ophiusian herb as fast as the Church patrimony that the dread or terrour of their consciences shall either force them to restore the unjustly detain'd Lands and riches or Hoyl-like to swing their own requiem for the better example and terror of posterity CHAP. VI. That some through ignorance and a credulous disposition prompting them to embrace their specious Pretences might be charmed to side with the Parliament though really they designed no damage either to the King's Person nor Authority TO vindicate Rebellion as hath been the unhappy mode of late is the worst office that can be done to a Nation yet to make all it's partakers of equal guilt will be a token of no great share of charity I am apt to believe that hitherto there hath never been any war but some men as well of honest intentions as others knavishly-designed have been of both sides It is not all men that rightly understand the frame by which they are govern'd either the Prerogative of the Supream or their own Priviledges and it is but few can see into the contriving hearts of their neighbours A harmless woman may be deceived into the reality of the Actors at the Hostel de Bourgogue in Paris or an English Play-house and 't is no difficult thing under the specious vail of Religion and Common good to make many people believe that actions which are really the most wicked tend to the best like the Physician in the Fable who made his Patient think that every Temper he was in was still for his health By these insinuations increaseth the number of Hereticks and Rebels many being rather misled then acting out of design being not so much used for any benefit to themselves as ignorant instruments to promote their flattering Grandees to the desired Haven of Supremacy and this once obtain'd are either thrown by as Day-labourers when the work is done as needless and impertinent or as ingratefully rewarded as Trebellius King of Bulgaria was by the most unfortunate Emperour Justinian the second As I shew'd before that the pretended squeamish stomacks of the Non-conformists were as Peter the Hermit the first Trumpet to sound Alarum to this supposed holy war setting the Lecturers up to teach Non-conformity schism and disobedience the forerunners of Rebellion so were the tongues and pens of this Novel Covenanting fraternity the main instruments that infused disloyalty into the peoples hearts which the Parliament did not
Heathen yet would he be as much King and have as much right to the Crown and Rule as if he were Presbyterian 'T is not the Religion of the Magistrate but that in me be what it will that I do call Religion or Conscience which obligeth my obedience to him The Roman-Catholick had as much Reason and Law for their Gun-Powder Treason as the Scotch and English Puritans for their many Rebellions and may as to themselves as much rejoyce for their delivery from the Presbyterian Tyranny as they from the others intended cruelty but in this they may both shake hands and cry quits Brother which hath made me smile as often as I hear a Disciplinarian rail against the Romanists for that wicked design since themselves have been as guilty only some difference in the method one putting their confidence in Fire and the other in the Sword The many Rebellions of these People and their resolutions never to lay down their Swords till the King would satisfie them in what they pleas'd is a sufficient manifestation of their Conditional Obedience and that they are not farther Subject to that Authority than the King is obedient to their Wills examples of which are yet fresh in every mans memory At the very beginning of their Rebellion they having declar'd those who adhear'd to the King to be Traytors and He had done the same to the Earl of Essex His Majesty unwilling to have the bloud of his Subjects shed and delighting in Peace sent to the Parliament to call in their Declarations against his Party and he would call in all his against them and their Associates and that both the Armies might be disbanded an Act of Oblivion to be pass'd and a perfect Peace compos'd And What could be more gracious then this yet this they deny Nor will they hearken to any Overtures of a Treaty with him unless he first call in all his Declarations against them Disband his Army yield himself to them and permit those who were with him to be proceeded against and suffer as Delinquents Thus will they have none of him unless he submit to them and permit his best Friends to be ruined And yet these men must think themselves so good Subjects that they deserve his Majesties thanks for their so acting and in so doing think themselves Obedient enough in all Conscience But if this be their duty I wish they would tell me what they think disobedience to be This rejecting their Soveraign is sufficient to stop the mouths of these men from railing against Pope Gregory VII call'd Hildebrand who having excommunicated the Emperour Henry IV. would not absolve him nor receive him into favour till throwing off all his Princely attire he had waited three several dayes in the coldest time of Winter bare-footed at the walls of Vercelli in Piemonte in Italy where the Pope then was to beg audience and forgiveness Phaëton had no reason to question his birth-right unless Phoebus would allow him the command of his flaming Chariot to the ruin of the Youth and a great part of the World And 't is strange Logick and impudence in our Puritans to deny themselves to be Subjects unless they command as Supream A pretty mode to trample upon Authority as if they had set for their pattern Pope Alexander III. who insteed of offering his Toe to be kist by Frederick Barbarossa set his foot upon the Emperours neck If at the beginning of the Warr they were so stubborn as not to receive their King into their favour unless he yield to their mercy and suffer his friends to be distroy'd he must expect stranger Conditions when they are heightned with bloud and villany For then must he ask them Pardon give them satisfaction and carry nothing about him but the bare Title or else he shall be none of their King To which purpose a whole Club of them having sufficiently rail'd against Hâ—m after all their lies scandals and hellish forgeries thus conclude their malice and obedience These are some few of the many reasons Why we cannot repose any more trust in him i. e. King Charles I. and have made those former resolutions yet we shall use our utmost endeavour to settle the present Government as may best stand with the Peace and Happiness of this Kingdom Here they quite renounce any more Obedience to him nay make it by Vote both of their Lords and Commons to be High-Treason for any to make any Application or Address to him And if these be good Subjects without all question 't is Treason to be obedient And what they meant by their utmost endeavours I know not only this I am certain of having thus thrown away the Father they never apply'd themselves to the Son unlesse it were the motion of some of them to proclaim him Traytor and the conclusion of them all was to send the Earl of Warwick to fight him How long before they had been resolved to renounce their King and his Government I know not yet the Earl of Loudoun then Lord Chancellor of Scotland a pretty while before this gave the King notice of their intentions telling him that Some are so afraid others so unwilling to submit themselves to your Majesties Government as they desire not you nor any of your Race longer to raign over them If your Majesty refuse to assent to the Propositions you will lose all your Friends lose the City and all the Country and all England will join against you as one man and when all hope of Reconciliation is past it is to be feard They will processe and depose you and sett up another Government They will charge us to deliver your Majesty to them and to render the Northern Garrisons and to remove our Army out of England And upon your Majesties refusing the Propositions both Kingdomes will be constrain'd to agree and settle Religion and Peace without you which will ruine your Majesty and your Posterity And if your Majesty reject our faithful advice and lose England by your wilfulnesse your Majesty will not be permitted to come and ruine Scotland And at the beginning of the same year when his Majesty from Oxford earnestly desired them that there might be a personal Treaty The Lords and Commons of the English Parliament and the Commissioners of the Scotch Parliament after they had impudently hinted at his Majesty as a most wicked person they expresly deny any such means for peace untill he had given them satisfaction and security And this was still their custome with his Majesty first must he satisfie them before they will hear any thing from him In the same year the Committee of Scotland tell his Majesty at New Castle We hope you come with intentions and full resolutions to give all just satisfaction to the joint-desires of both your Kingdomes And two daies after assure him that If your Majesty shal delay the present performing thereof we shal be necessitated for our own exoneration
that in themselves what they hated in others Witness their accusing the Bishops of Treason for putting in their protestation against the others proceedings seeing they were kept out by violence and tumults And yet when it was after the Commons case the Army expelling them they also put in their Protestation to the same purpose Thus are men oft paid in their own coin But to return to the Convocation which I suppose had as much lawful Power as a Presbyterian Assembly and I am confident have used it with more discretion In what little esteem the Kirkers of Scotland had the civil Authority their own Histories will tell you and in the Scotch troubles before our late Wars it appears by their own Commissioners as if it were the Kirk's right to determine all Ecclesiastical affairs by their Assemblies And it is the opinion of our English Non-conformists declared in their Book of Discipline in Queen Elizabeth's dayes That their Presbyterian Synods are to handle and decide both Doctrine Discipline and Ceremonies of the Church and accordingly were all their actions steered The House of Commons having thus voted against the Convocation made it a Coy-duck to draw in the rest of their designs And in the first place they fall heavy upon the Arch-bishop of Canterbury as a promoter of the former Canons and so accuse him of high-Treason though as then they had laid no Articles against him but promised to do it to the Lords upon which he was secured and the third day after was fined five hundred pounds which he was forced to borrow and to sell plate to repay it such a liberal Benefactor was he to the advancement of Learning that he left himself nothing and if the severe stroke of injustice had not untimely sequestrated and cut him off Saint Paul's Cathedral had silenced the fame of the ancient wonders our English Clergy had been the glory of the World the Bodleian in Oxford had daily more and more out-stript the Vatican and his publick Structures had ore'topt the Escurial and all this by his own munificence in which he so far excelled his neighbours that he was not unlike the good Emperor Titus Vespasian whose liberal soul made him think that he had lost that day in which he had not given something The next day that they accused the Arch-bishop they also accused Bishop Wren of the same crime And a little after voted highly against the Learned and Reverend as the French Churches beyond sea can testifie Dr. Cousins and the next day receive Petitions against Dr. Duck and Sir John Lamb. And a week after received a Remonstrance pretended to be loaden with seven hundred Ministers hands against Bishops the which if true yet that number bears no proportion with above nine thousand which were the number of our English Clergy and however it was Mr. Selden himself did declare that very day that the House of Comons had nothing to do with Church-affairs in that nature And reason tels us that it is not only hard but unjust that men should be accused for acting according to the known Laws of the Land they not being as then repealed But what care the Commons for this seeing they are resolved come what will of it to have Sir Jack Presbyter to bear the sway and therefore they fall heavy upon Episcopal government and after a whole day's debate the Majority against both Law and Reason did agree to take away Lordly Prelacy their medling with temporal affairs their jurisdictions and Courts and a great part of their Means and Estates and afterwards inlarged upon these things And that the Country might not be ignorant also of their enmity to Church government they therefore appoint Commissioners to go into all places of the Kingdom and there remove all Altars Images and Rayls about the Communion-table and sell them and punish those who shall endeavour to set them up again Nor was this all but they also question Sir John Lamb and Sir Nathaniel Brent for getting Organs repair'd and setting up some new Organs in Churches Though I do not know against what Law these two Gentlemen had offended though I know against what the latter did afterwards And having gon thus far away they in a fury hurry Arch bishop Laud to the Tower whither he was followed and rail'd at by the then significant rabble of the Anti-church-government Puppies And some few dayes after they appointed a forsooth Committee for Religion of ten Earls ten Bishops and ten Barons by which means the Lay-votes were not only double to the Clergy but in fine none of the latter left they knowing now their own intentions and power so far that they were more then confident to have the Clergy-men in short time to be but as Ciphers To obtain which they endeavoured all ways that malice or industry could propose to them And as a means to encourage others to oppose Bishops and Church-government they not only released the scribling fire-brands of the Nation as Burton Prynn Leighton Lilburn c. but also as a reward for their good service voted them many thousand pounds a piece And the next week fined the Members of the Convocation house two hundred thousand pounds And afterwards voted that not only the Bishops but all other Clergy-men that did either send their Proxies or execute the said Canons were guilty But if the Lords have a Religious Committee the Commons must have one too or else they think themselves out-vapoured And so they jumble up a Company of Ministers together giving them authority to consult the Canons and Liturgy and also to draw up a plat-form or model for Reformation to be setled in the Kingdom and by what rule these men were to work is no difficult business to collect from the Commons Votes some few dayes after that it was necessary to have an Uniformity of Religion with Scotland as also from their kindness to the Armed Covenanters not long before by Voting for them 300000 pounds with the goodly title of Brethren And all this because they march'd into England with a numerous Army protesting swearing and fighting against Episcopal Government for that was the thing now also aimed at in England so that Mr. Pym speaks the hearts of others as well as his own when he reproved one of the Lords saying That it was not enough to be against the Persons of the Bishops if he were not against the Function And according to this Maxim the Commons by their former Votes having made the way more facile boldly Vote the Government of the Church of England by Archbishops Bishops Chancellors Deans Archdeacons c. to be prejudicial to both Church and State and the next day Voted also that from that time there should be no such things as Archbishops Bishops c. in England Nor was this all but presently after they also expunged all Deans