declared that he could not in Honour and Conscience consent for by them he was not only devested of all Regal Authority but the Church ruined and his Loyal Party bound to suffer what deaths and miseries the Parliament please then they impiously Vote that no more addresses should be made to the King nor none received from him whereby they dash all hopes of a future settlement by the Kings ruling over them contrary to their former Vows and Protestations so that their seeming friendship by Treaties seems to me not unlike that of Rhadamistus King of Iberia whereby he betray'd well-meaning Mithridates King of Armenia to his destruction This action with their Vote against the Queen and that concerning Sir Fairfax's Commission doth not a little or'e-cloud the Presbyterians who think they come off with honour when they deny it was them but the Independants who beheaded his Majesty But what little difference there is in the offence let others judge The Presbyterians by this Vote of Non-address actually deny the King to be their King by professing themselves his enemies for ever and thereby they not subject to his Kingship or Rule And the Independents take him acknowledg'd thus by consequence by the Presbyterians to be no King and in the notion of no King behead him And what suitable intentions they had for more then disowning him may be collected from them selves in the reasons inducing them to such a Vote which were because he was a coutinual breaker of promise and trust His punishing of Prynne Burton Bastwick and such like dicturbers of the peace His Wars with Scotland His accusing some of the Members not forgot by some then in Parliament His raising War against or rather defending himself from the Parliament and such like accusatious which they call Tyranny And that He hath wholly forgotten his duty to the Kingdome they meant themselves and so thus conclude These are some of the many reasons why we cannot repose any more trust in him and have made those former resolutions that is the Votes against any more addresses Yet they say they will settle the Government though it seems without them so that the Army might very well tell us that these Votes were understood by all To imply some farther intentions of proceeding in justice against him and settling the Kingdome without him To this the Presbyterians cannot reply that the Army forced them because it is utterly denied by the Souldiery who look upon themselves with sorrow and shame because they were so slack in putting such a good action forward as they accusingly affirme themselves Nor can they say that they were out voted by the Independent-faction because 't is well known they were far the greater number till they were Secluded the House almost a year after And whether their thus Voting and Scandalizing his Majesty was done more like Presbyterians then good Subjects let those judge who know that it was once enacted Treason To attempt any harm to the person of the King Queen c. or deprive them of their Dignity Title or Name of their Royal Estates or standerously and maliciously pronounce by express writing or words that the King should be Heretick Schismatick Tyrant Infidel or Usurper or to hold from him his Castles Holds or Marches or Artillery or Ordnances of War Yet were the intentions of Parliament more severe against his Majesty the Army and others would be as wicked as the best of them of which some authentick testimonies will not be amiss And first you shall have the story of some pure Rogues chickens of the Parliaments and Armies own breeding and I warrant you brave boys for King and Parliament though their zeal for the latter devoured the former as appears by their Loyalty James Symball Deputy-Keeper of winchester-Winchester-house Prison said King's head upon the Tower-block Francis Wade being urged to drink the King's health denied it his reason was because the King was no King but a Tyrant having put the Parliament out of his Protection and so the whole Kingdome Robert White a Souldier on the Parliaments party being demanded what he would have done to the King had he met him in the head of his Army answered He would have as soon killed him as another man Words as full of Loyally as Harry Martin of chastity or the Rump of true piety If Doctor Chayfield must be brought upon his knees by the Long-Parliament for saying From all Lay-Puritans and all Lay-Parliament-men good Lord deliver me If Sir John Lamb must undergo the same punishment for setting up Organs If Master Hollis the Burgess for Newark upon Trent must be banished the parliament-Parliament-house for saying that the Scotch Army should be prosecuted with all rigour and extremity and speedily expulst the Kingdome by main force If Master Smith must be committed to the Gate-house onely for speaking against the Parliament If a poor Printer must be condemned to the same prison onely for Printing an Elegy in commendation of the Earl of Strafford If the Lord Digby's speech in the behalf of the Earl must be voted to the flames onely for being Printed And his Brother-in-law Sir Lewis Dives be condemn'd as a Delinquent onely for ordering the same to be Printed a thing allowable to all other Parliament-men If these and many more severe judgements be thought fitting by the Parliament what punishment is meritorius for the former verlits for vomitting out such hellish assertions against his Sacred Majesty But for all this you shall see how cleverly they came off as if with Saint Dominick they had never committed a sin worthy damnation or rather had been as innocent as the child unborn For though at first they were committed to prison by Serjeant Creswell Yet was it soon taken notice of by the Adjutators in the Army a sort of underlings secretly put on by Cromwell whom they call their Patron and Protectour to carry on his designs in the Army every Regiment having two who used to meet in Juntos and there consult for the seducing the rest of the Souldiers these Rabscallies who neither must nor durst be denied present the case of the former fellows to Sir Thomas Fairfax their nominal General desiring their releasment from their Tyrannical sufferings for so they call it He accordingly writes to Speaker Lenthall Upon which the Commons order the business to be consider'd by the Committee of Indempnity and to relieve them as they see cause and so how they came off you may judge The imprisonment of these men made such a noise in the Army that it presently flew as far as Yorkshire and was there taken notice on and by the Adjutators in Pointz his Army amongst other things sent up as a grievance to Fairfax Nor was this action then let alone but was the next year brought upon the stage again by the Sectaries of London Westminster and Southwark complaining of the imprisonment of such good
onely approve of but also protect thereby gaining infinite Proselytes as the Devil in the Northern Coasts doth his subjects by making them invulnerable And these they feed up and nourish with strange fears more fantastical then Lazarellos when he thought the dead man would be carried to his Master's house strongly fomented and agitated by unheard of Plots set a foot to destroy Religion and Nation like the Roterdam-ship which would kill the English under water and all this upon worsegrounds and reasons then the influence of a Talisman Though nothing was more false and impudent then these pretended dangers yet what by the authority and countenance of those Grandees who patronized such rumours and what by the power which the Tubthumping boute-feus had over the peoples inclinations and judgments whereby the Pulpit became the worst thing in the Nation many had not onely a bad opinion of the King but thought very well of the Parliament who in all their actions were far more sedulous then his Majesty but most of all as a hindg upon which themselves and designs hung in sending forth their papers to abuse the people by making the King's actions odious and their own for the best And of this they took special care not onely by appointing a Committee to consider of the most convenient way to disperse them and to give an allowance to their Messengers but also by taking care by Order that every Petty Constable or Tythingman throughout England shall have one of every one of their Orders Declarations c. and to read them publickly to their neighbours And how these flattering papers might work in the Country where they commonly believe all that is in Print is easily to be imagined considering that most of them heard but the reasons of one Party the Parliament taking a special care by Declaration that nothing which came from the King should be received or permitted to be read Whilst the Parliamentarian-papers flew plentiful about the Nation swoln with big praises of their worships the better to captivate the ignoranâ— people to their Lure who are naturally of themselves apt to gape after any novelty or change especially when any gain is like to be had by it as there was in this undertaking they knowing that Plundering would be permitted them and the Parliament assuring them that if they received any damage it should be repai'd them out of the estates of their enemies By these ways the Country was droled into an high conceit of the Parliament and nothing stuck with those of the more wise and honest sort but the word Treason which they knew they should incur by assisting the Parliament against the King But this doubt was presently wipt away in the opinion of many by the Parliaments distinction betwixt the Person and Office of a King as also by their daily protestations at the beginning of the Wars That they fought not against the King but against his wicked Council Of which Protestations in 1642. I shall give you a tast whereby you may the better distinguish between their tongues and hearts And first we shall give you the Vote by which the Army was first order'd to be rais'd which was thus Resolved upon the Question That an Army shall be forthwith raised King's Person defence of both houses of Parliament and those who have obey'd their Orders and Commands and preserving of the true Religion the Laws Liberty and Peace of the Kingdome And to confirm the people in their intentions for the preservation of the King they thus profess and protest House of Commons your Loyal Subjects who are ready to lay down their lives and fortunes and spend the last drop of their bloud to maintain your Crown and Royal Person and greatness and glory And they pray your Majesty to rest assured that they will always be tender of your Honour and Reputation with your good Subjects We seek nothing but your Majesties Honour and Peace and the Prosperity of your Kingdomes Their earnest intentions and endeavours to advance your Majesties Service Honour and Contentment c. Do resolve to preserve and govern the Kingdome by the Counsel and Advice of the Parliament for your Majesty and your Posterity according to our Allegiance and the Law of the Land As if there could be a greater care in them the King's friends at York of his Majesties Royal Person then in his Parliament The services which we have been desirous to perform to our Soveraign Lord the King and to his Church and State in proceeding for the publick peace and prosperity of his Majesty and all his Realmes Within the presence of the same all-seeing Diety we Protest to have been and still to be the enely end of all our counsels and endeavours wherein we have Resolved to continue freed and enlarged from all private aimes personal respects or passion whatsoever Who in all their Counsels and Actions have proposed no other end unto themselves but the care of the Kingdomes and the performance of all Duty and Loyalty to his Person Your Majesties most humble and faithful Subjects the Lords and Commons in Parliament having nothing in their thoughts and desires more precious and of higher esteem next to the honour and immediate service of God then the just and faithful performance of their duty to your Majesty and this Kingdome We the Lords and Commons are resolved to expose our lives and fortunes for the defence and maintenance of true Religion the King's Person Honour and Estate Will really endeavour to make both his Majesty and Posterity as great rich and potent as much beloved at home and feared abroad as any Prince that ever sway'd this Scepter which is their firm and constant Resolution And you shall declare unto all men that it hath been and still shall be the care and endeavour of both Houses of Parliament to provide for his Majesties safety Concerning the Allegations that the Army rais'd by the Parliament is to Murther and depose the King we hoped the Contrivers of that Declaration or any that profest but the name of a Christian could not have so little charity as to raise such a scandal especially when they must needs know the Protestation taken by every Member of both Houses whereby they promise in the Presence of Almighty God to defend his Majesties Person The Promise and Protestation made by the Members of both Houses upon the nomination of the Earl of Essex to be General and to live and dye with him wherein is exprest that the Army was rais'd for the Defence of the King's Person And we have always desired from our hearts and souls manifested in our Actions and in many humble Petitions and Remonstrances to his Majesty profest our Loyalty and Obedience to his Crown readiness and resolution to defend his person and support his Estate with our lives and fortunes to the uttermost of our power We
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
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
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
actions of Master Love and a few of his associates as if this were sufficient to afford scraps of Loyalty to every particular Member of that Faction But to this may be answered First that if the story were as absolute Royal as man could imagine yet will it onely demonstrate that there were some three or four and twenty Presbyterians which were active for the good of his Majesty no more stirring in it as Master Love himself doth confess being utterly unknown to the rest of their party professing upon the Scaffold that the saying the contrary is onely a politick Engine to make the Presbyterian party odious so that the actions of these men are nothing to the vindication of the rest Besides compleat Loyalty they looked upon as odious But secondly the compleat honour of the story may upon very good grounds in the main be questioned For though they did sometimes meet at Master Love's house yet their Consultations were rather for the misery then benefit of King Church or Kingdome The main of their contrivances being to send to some about his Majesty advising them by all means to use their interests to Provoke Him i. e. the King to agree with the Scots and to take the Covenant as also to advise the Scots Commissioners that in their agreement with their King they should have a special respect to the Interest of Religion and Terms of the Covenant and to this purpose they must tumble out their prayers and send into Scotland to know whether they did maintain Religion and Covenant Interest So that the Scots were not onely guilty of their after Covenanting Tyranny with their betters but the English Brethren also by their thus thrusting on the design Hitherto we see all the Loyalty and affection by these men shew'd to their Soveraign was meerly conditionally and that upon a Covenant-account little beneficial to the King or his Party as may appear by the acknowledgement of one of their Patrons viz. Mr. Love I do retain as vehement a detestation of Malignancy whether in England or in Scotland as ever I did and shall in my place and calling oppose such a Design and Interest with as much zeal and faithfulness as ever Nor was his rancour towards the Kings best friends staid here but even upon the Scaffold just before his death as if thereby he intended to proclaim them odious to Posterity he thus endeavours to charm his Auditours I dye with my judgement set against Malignity I do hate both name and thing I shall retain as vehement a detestation of a Malignant Interest as ever I did And what he meant by a Malignant himself shall declare though 't is well enough understood I do not count the godly party our Covenanting Brethren in Scotland I do not count them a Malignant Party But who then he presently thus tells you My judgement then was and still is for bringing Malignants who did seduce him i. e. King Charles the first and draw him from the Parliament to condign punishment And the best friends his Majesty had beyond-Sea with him he calls desperate Malignants and bad Council so that I believe little honour can be attributed to this Conventicle for what they did However if through civility though not any share of merit we should grant that this little meeting was of a greater consequence for the benefit of the King than it either was or could be imagined though Mr. Love doth protest in the presence of God the searcher of all hearts that he knoweth no Plot or Design against the present Government i. e. Rump nor is he privy in the least to any preparations for or intendments towards any intestine Insurrections or forraign Invasions or to any Correspondencies now held with any in or of the Scottish Nation or any other whatsoever Though I say some credit were given to this Design yet will it not advance the reputation of the contrivers considering their after-submission to the Rump calling them the Supream Authority the Parliament of the Common-wealth of England c. Mr. Love professing That he is unfaignedly sorry for his so acting and promiseth never to plot contrive or design any thing to the hurt of this present Government Rump and that he is sorrowful for his high crimes and offences against the Parliament in his late and great miscarriages and desires them to pass by these sundry and great offences and at last thus fairly concludes That I shall devote the remainder of my dayes to the glory of God and good of his people the peace and safety of this Common-wealth against all the Malignant Enemies and opposers thereof Nor did he alone recant but also Jenkins Case and others of the same Club. Here we see a Company of Penitents hanging down their heads as if upon a Scottish-stool of Repentance acknowledging their Iniquity and sins for talking of the King with a great deal of remorse and sorrow faithfully promising for the future to live obedient subjects to their Rumpships and al this to procure the favour and love of those Usurping and King-killing Tyrants Yet when Love saw that all his whining and puleing would not work his Pardon but that they were resolved to let him bloud Then forsooth he thought it best to put a good face upon the business and so being on the Scaffold and perceiving no hopes of life he plucks up his courage and for the credit of himself and Brethren he begins to â—ant dapperly against the Rump affirming for all his former repentance That for the things I am condemn'd neither God nor mine own Conscience condemn me and I would not be look'd upon as a man owning this present Government I dye with my judgement against it and at last calls himself a Martyr Though he had a little before acknowledged himself guilty of the sentence of death justly passed on him And affirmed that he was insnared into the business and that through unadvisedness and weakness yet this complyance he boldly denyeth upon the Scaffold I am accused to be an Apostate to be a Turn-coat to be this to be that to be any thing but what I am but a long Sword a bloudy Scaffold hath not made me in the least to alter my Principles The truth of which I must leave to the Reader only telling him that the Margaiates in America scorn to submit to their Enemies because they know that it will not save their lives though probably if repentance would be an advantage they might be as ready as others If Mr. Love dyed a Martyr it was as unwillingly as ever man did it being the Rumps resolution for example sake not his constancy that brought him to the Block In plain English the man was of a hasty and violent spirit which seldom hath a rational or sound foundation and by many is accused to be the breaker up of the Uxbridge-Treaty by his ranting
summoned to the effect aforesaid presume to take in hand to decline the judgement of his Highness his Heirs and Successors or their Council in the Premises under the pain of Treason To make this way of Appealing more plausible to the People they are very willing to make a separation betwixt the two words Sacred and Majesty sticking close to Calvin who calls it blasphemy to yield the King a Supremacy in the Church under God and Christ to which purpose thus the Zealot Henderson delivered himself to his Majesty Such an Headship as the Kings of England have claimed and such a Supremacy as the Houses of Parliament crave with Appeals from the Supream Ecclesiastical Judicature to them as set over the Church in the same line of subordination I do utterly disclaim upon such reasons as give my self satisfaction And to this purpose against the Kings Supremacy in Church affairs he ranted before the House of Lords the year before Yet when he was Moderator of the Assembly of Glasgow in one of his Speeches there he attributed very much to the Kings Power in Ecclesiastical Causes and Assemblies and at last affirm'd That the King was Universal Bishop over all his Kingdom A Copy of this Speech his Majesties Commissioner James then Marquess of Hamilton used means to obtain but could not get it presently because those expressions had offended the Covenanters yet at last a Copy was sent him but with all those Expressions left out which were spoak in favour of the Kings Power in Ecclesiastical businesses by which one may guess at their jugling Another of these Brethren is very furious against the giving these Titles to the King and must call it Blasphemy too But this man is not only against this but also against the attributing any such Epithets as Vertuous Pious or Religious to our Superiours as if he had borrowed his breeding from Buchanan who rants against those who give the Titles of Majesty Lordship Illustrious c. And these two also agree very well together in slaundering those who will not fight against their Kings since they say Dame Nature knows no such distinction And this is agreeable to our Long-Parliament-Worthies who gravely declared it a fit Foundation for all Tyranny and a most distructive Maxim or Principle for the King to avow That He oweth an account of his Actions to none but God alone And that the Houses of Parliament joynt or separate have no power either to make or declare any Law And this power over the King Henderson doth not only give to the Representatives but also to the People over both them and the King especially in Reforming and so by consequence must make them also judges too and then shall we have a mad world my Masters If the Prince or Supreme Magistrate be unwilling then may the Inferiour Magistrate and the People being before rightly inform'd in the grounds of Religion lawfully reform within their own sphere and if the light shine upon all or the major part they may after all other means assayed make a publick Reformation And a few lines after thus to the same purpose It is not to be deny'd but the prime Reforming Power is in Kings and Princes quibus deficientibus it comes to the Inferior Magistrate quibus deficientibus it descends to the body of the People And this you must suppose to be a pretty Rule to make the People believe that no Religion can be true but the Presbyterians and the Covenanters and so a necessity of Reforming to their Directory For if not how will they answer the common Quaere How came they then or how durst they alter the Church Government against his Majesties express command Well necessity or no necessity the English Presbyterians will swear that they have power to Reforme and in that the King signifyeth but a Cypher For Could not they null Episcopacy against the Kings command Could not they devide their Lands amongst themselves against the Kings command Could not they Ruine the Common-Prayer-Book against the Kings command Could not they call a Pye-bald Assembly against his command Could they not swear a wicked Covenant against his command Could they not set up the Directory against his command Could they not set up Classical Provincial and National Assemblies against his command Could they not Murther and begger an Archbishop and others of the Orthodox and Loyal Clergy against his command Could they not destroy Cathedrals against his command Could they not make Perjury lawful against his command Could they not commit Sacriledge against his command Could they not turn the Kings Loyal Subjects out of both the Universities against his command Could they not make Schismatical Presbyterian Ordinations against his command Could they not make what they pleased to be Idolatry and Superstition against his command Could they not make Treason a Rule of Christianity against his command Nay could they not do any thing but make a man a woman and a woman a man according to Pembrokes oath and judgement For those who vote Loyalty Treason and cloak Rebellion with high Commendations and Religion will fancy a Legal Power into themselves obliging them to oppose their Prince And puft on with this perswasion a Puritanical Committee of our long Parliament order this to be Printed and Dispers'd in behalf of their Associates They have only used that Legal Power which was in them for the punishment of Delinquents and for the prevention and restraint of the Power of Tyranny of all which they are the legal Judges and all the Subjects of this Kingdom are bound by the Laws to obey them herein And this Opinion might be the reason why Prinne and his Fellows were so angry against that Murther'd Archbishop Laud for not suffering such seditious expressions as these to be used to the people in their Sermons It is lawful for the Inferior and subordinate Magistrates to defend the Church and Common-wealth when the Supreme Magistrate degenerates and falleth into Tyranny or Idolatry for Kings are subject to their Common-wealths And that Subjects may lawfully take up Armes against their Kings command and in their Sermons revile the Kings Court with Pride Avarice Idleness Flattery Folly Wickedness and such like Yet had a man in London but hinted half so much against the Parliament he had been claw'd for it to the purpose But it is not the English Puritans alone that would thus trample upon their Kings Nay the Scots too will be as wicked as them or else they could not handsomely call one another Brethren And this is especially practised by their zealous Hinters who deny the King to have no more to do in or with their Assemblies than the meanest Cobler amongst them whilst they thus Impudently told his Majesties Commissioner That if the King himself were amongst them he should have but one voice and that not Negative neither nor more affirmative than any one Member of their Assembly had Nor
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
to acquaint the Committee of both Kingd at London that a course might be taken by the joint advice of both Kingdomes for attaining the just ends exprest in the Solemn League and Covenant And to the same purpose but with abundance of railing against the King the year before did the General Assembly of the Scotish Kirk Mr. Robert Dowglass being Moderator expresse themselves to his Majesty And in this humour of conditional and malepert capitulating Subjects they continue nay even when people might perceive the Army bent against Monarchy or at least the Royal Family of the Stuarts For thus they endeavour to make people believe that the King cannot be truly King indeed unlesse he humbly give satisfaction to his covenanting people We leave it to be pondered by your Lordships whether they that obstruct and hinder the requiring of satisfaction and security from his Majesty in point of Religion before his Restitution to the exercise of his Royal Power do not upon the matter and consequence obstruct and hinder his Majesties deliverance and restitution whereof such security and assurance had from his Majesty might be a powerful and effectual means And a little after more fully declare themselves thus This Restitution of his Majesty to the exercise of his Royall Power before security had from Him for setling Religion your Lordships know by our eight desires and otherwaies is conceived by us to be inconsistent with the safety and security of Religion the bringing of his Majesty to some of his houses in or neer London before satisfaction and security had from him in point of Religion and in such other things as are necessary for the safety of the Kingdomes could not as we conceive but be an exceeding great discouragement and offence to the Presbyterianins England who will conceive that the Remedy is worse then the disease seeing your Lordships are obliged by the third Article of the Covenant to defend his Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdomes We conceive your Lordships should not demand from nor presse upon the Kingdome of England his Majesties Restitution with freedome and honour and safety except with that qualification in the Covenant and with a subordination to Religion and the Liberties of the Kingdomes And if all these things should come to passe then the Kirkers cry out that all is undone and so they leave it to judgment Whether his Majesty shall not be restored to his honour before Jesus Christ be restored to his honour and set upon his Throne of Government in his Church Whether his Majesty shall not be in a condition of liberty before the Ordinances of Christ have a free course And is this to endeavour the setling of Religion before all worldly interests Or rather to make it come after the Kings interest And If his Majesty may be restored with honour freedome and safety before such satisfaction had from Him we fear it shall lye as a great scandal upon this Kingdome And a little after they plainly subject his Majesty to their wills in the interpretation of the Covenant Whatsoever we owe to the King in civill matters distinct from the cause of Religion sure all these other duties are with a subordination to the glory of God and the good of Religion And we are very confident that it was and will be farre from the thoughts of the General Assembly under colour of his Majesties Honour to concurre with him or any in his Name in a cause which is hurtful and prejudicial to the good of Religion and to the other ends of the Solemn League and Covenant Yet this way of diffience and standing off with their Soveraign Mr. Robert Beyley wonders that any body should call a Fault As if these men have the priviledg to secure the person of the King when they please and then deny him either Authority or Liberty till he ask them forgiveness and give them satisfaction for his thinking much to be made a slave to their fancies Upon such like expressions as these a Parliamentarian makes this observation If the Scots Commissioners did plainly affirm to the Committees of both Houses at the Conference that they could not admit of the Kings presence in Scotland because of the divisions and troubles of that Kingdome which he might make such use of as to raise forces both against them and us What could this imply but that notwithstanding his person might be in safety in Scotland yet Scotland could not be in safety whilst his person was there And if they positively affirm it on their part may not we make a question of it on ours Thus both parties catch at what pretences they can to exclude the King from both his Kingdomes As they did with the Father so did they continue to act villany with the Son concerning which I shall give you the words of that great Mattyr of Loyalty the Noble and Valiant Marquesse of Montross And so little are these Godly and Religious men toucht with any sense of what mischieves they have already done That they begin afresh with his Majesty Our now Gracious Soveraign upon the same score where they left with his Father of ever blessed memory They declare him indeed to be their King but with such conditions and provisoes as robb him of all Right and Power For while they pretend to give him a little which he must accept as from them they spoil him of all that Power and Authority which the Law of God of Nature and of the Land hath invested him with by so long continued descent from his famous Predecessors They press him to join with those who by a Sacrilegious Covenant have confederated all his dominions in Rebellion and laid all Royall Power in the Dust Which in effect were nothing better then that he himself should asperse with Insamy the sacred memory of his ever Glorious Father that he should with his own hands destroy himself and ruine all such who have still been Loyall to him in his three Kingdoms These are the men who first entring England sollicited those of their faction to rise in that desperate Rebellion as a Prologue to the ensuing Tragedie which they meant to act These are they who were the chief and main Instruments of all the Battails Slaughters and Bloody occasions within that of their own Kingdome These are they who sold their Soveraign to a bloody and infamous Death yea these are they who still digg in his Grave and who are more pernitiously hatching the Destruction of his present Majesty by the same bare old antiquated Treacheries then ever they did that of his most excellent and most innocent Father Except he would subscribe to their fancies they would not allow him to be their King nor come amongst them which is confess'd by the Estates of Scotland themselves Scotland is desirous to imbrace him upon grant of their just desires and are most
O the height of Puritanical Malice were I a Caesar Vaninus I would call Presbytery the Father of Lies His enemies the Independents are farr more Civil in this than these Brethren of which I shall give you one or two Instances enough to cleer his Majesty from this Presbyterian slander John Cook then of Grays-Inn Barrister his Immortal foe when it was his purpose to cast all the filth that he could upon the King with an intention to make him odious to Eternity yet even then doth cleer him of this I do not think that the King was a Papist or that he design'd to introduce the Popes Supremacy in spiritual things into this Kingdome Nor that I think he did believe Transubstantiation God forbid I should wrong the dead And another of his profest Enemies viz. Will. Lilly thus vindicates the King He was no Papist or favour'd any of their Tenents And because an Enemies Commendation is held Authentick you shall see what a good King he was according to their own Opinions Of him thus saith the aforesaid Cook who yet demanded Justice against him for which Treason he since felt the Law He was well known to be a great student in his younger dayes He had more learning and dexterity in State affairs undoubtedly then all the Kings in Christendome And thus farther saith Lilly He was an excellent Horsman would shoot well at a Mark had singular skill in Limming and Pictures A good Mathematitian not unskilful in Musick well read in Divinity excellently in History and no lesse in the Laws and Statutes of this Nation He had a quick and sharp Conception would write his mind singularly well and in good language and style only he loved long Parentheses He would apprehend a matter in Difference betwixt party and party with great readiness and methodize a long matter and Contract it in few lines Insomuch that I have heard Sir Robert Holdorne oft say He had a quicker Conception and would sooner understand a Case in Law or with more sharpness drive the matter unto a head than any of his Privy Council Insomuch that when the King was not at the Council Table Sir Robert never car'd to be there He had also amongst others his special gifts the gift of patience Insomuch that if any offer'd him a long Discourse or Speech he would with much Patience and without any Interruption or Distaste hear their Story or Speech out at length He did not much court the Ladies He had exquisite judgement by the Eye and Physiognomy to discover the virtuous from the wanton he honour'd the virtuous He was nothing at all given to Luxury was extreme sober both in his Food and Apparel He could argue Logically and frame his Arguments Artificially If these qualities confest by an enemy do not make a good man Jack Presbyter can have small hopes to be so who hated him because he was too vertuous for them as the Devill envies honesty Amongst all the Plots and Designes these men have to overthrow the Church of England 't is none of the least to ruine its Glory by making it contemptible by Poverty For which purpose they endeavour to get all the Bishops Lands alienated or sold Dr. Burgess being their Champion and they will never question Law as long as Prynne hath any malice who toils and writes what he can to get the Lands confirm'd as they were sold by his Associates those Sacrilegious of the wicked long Parliament who impiously sold the Church Revenues to maintain their Rebellion against God and their King Had they been the Doners they might have had a more plausible Plea for their Alienation but since these Lands were given by other Pious and Noble Benefactors it shews their Devillish Avarice and Malice to meddle with or pocket up that which they had no claime to nor power over being but a Rump of two Houses actually in Rebellion against their King and so had no more Authority to conclude and act in such an high Concern without and against the consent of the King than the Pope hath to give away this or that Kingdom upon his form of Excommunication to any of his Favorites that can win it and wear it or poor Simnell had to the Crown in King Henry VII time Yet to have this wickedness confirm'd Burges and his Associats will offer severall hundred thousand pounds to his Majesty by way of gift thereby to hook him in to be pertakers of their sins a Presbyterian being like a Common Drunkard who is not satisfy'd with his own Excess but makes it his business that all his Neighbours too should be partners with him in his wickedness and debauchery But his Majesty is too Sacred and good to be toll'd away by such Miscreants it shews their abominable Impudence to imagine to perswade the Son to be an Enemy to the Church whose Father was a Glorious Martyr for it as if they would shew him a better way and Rule than the Example and Footsteps of his holy Parent To me it seems a strange piece of malicious Ignorance in them who will allow some knavish Lawyers to get by their prating some ignorant Physitians by distruction some cousening Trades-men by false dealing and some murthering Souldiers by plundring for some such there are in all faculties though their callings be lawfull and commendable two three or four Thousand pounds a year and yet think it an hard case or unlawful for a Reverend Bishop or Clergy-man who hath spent many years and all his own means in hard study and is held the most honourable preferment as much as the Soul excels the Body to possess that which other good charitable men have freely given him since such a deed of gift is so farr from endamaging our Presbyterian Grumblers that it is a main encouragement for their studies and preferment If they say as I have heard that these Benefactorships were given not to the men but the Diocesses by this retort they malepertly reflect upon the Kings discretion whose wisdom thinks such men fit for and capable of such Places But by this they may as well reason against Colledge and Hospital Lands and the Commons belonging to Corporations and when they have once taken these away they will eat up one another through avarice But enough of this only there was some ground for the observation that the only way to preferment was to be a busling Non-conformist Besides these and others they have another way to shake the foundation of Episcopacy and the peace of the Nation They know full well that nothing seems more formidable to the vulgar then a story of Gods strange judgments upon this or that And if they question the verball Narrative shew it them in print and 't is sufficient they having not confidence enough to deny that which cometh from the Press The story of a Spirit will fright these people out of their little witts and the relation of such a terrible