the Pope should enjoy his Crown then the Parliament together with all his best Subjects should enjoy their Laws Liberties and Priviledges which doth evidently appeare by his entertaining so many Popish Rebels and Traytors and all to cut the throats of his poor Protestant Subjects but certainly he have had many a free pardon and indulgence for these things and those many Declarations Proclamations and Protestations for of all that ever was yet set forth in his Name there hath not been any performance at all in the least tittle if it be so that you can tell me of any one Proclamation or Declaration that hath been performed on his part then will I turn Cavaleer and joyne with you to fight against the Parliament and as for His Prerogative Royall so much talkt off certainly it was ever maintained by the Law and what would become of it if the Parliament should be destroyed besides the glory of a King is to governe His Kingdoms with his Subjects love and Mercurius Problematicus will tell you that the safest Armour for a King is his Subjects love and a good head-piece and if he had had such Armour he need not have set up his Standard nor put the Commission of Array in execution which was done contrary to Law unlesse it had been against a forraign Enemy for what necessity was there for the execution thereof when as the Parliament had made provision for the defence of the whole Kingdome against any forraign Enemy such was their provident care for the Kingdoms safety but that the Lord had a scourage for his People for their sinnes and made you Cavaliers to be the Executioners thereof but it was to bring them more neere unto himselfe and although you rob plunder and spoyle them of all their goods and good Name yet they will be but afflictions unto them and will take away their sinne for by this the Iniquity of Iacob shall bee purged Isai 27.9 and this is all the fruit of it nay sometimes the Lord sets wicked Kings to reign over his People c. But I hasten and this much I can assure you that the Parliament have alwayes stood faithfully for the Vindication of the Kings Honour Crown and Dignity for His Lawes Rights and Priviledges for the Liberty of the Subject and Priviledges of Parliament as much as ever any PARLIAMENT did since the Kingdome ever Being And whereas you scandalize them by the Name of Schismaticks Round-heads Rebels and Traytors I can assure you they are Religious Godly and Holy Patriarks placed there by God him else for the Vindication of his own Honour and Glory for they endeavour a Reformation which is the main cause of your inveterate hatred and malice against them You cannot endure such a curb for your sins and your old course of living which you so often accustomed your selves unto which makes all you Cavaliers to hate a Reformation you are so opposite to the Doctrine of Christ but commonly where God will have his Church there the Divel will have his Chappel and you Cavaliers are as Instruments and fellow-Labourers set on work by him against the Church and People of God and although there are Errours in the Church now as there hath bin in the Apostles times yet it is but errour in judgment opinion but we will agree in the Fundamentals it is somtimes necessary that there should be errours that the truth may the better appear in its lustre and glory shine the more cleerly in its purity besides if the Parl. and their Armies are Rebels and Traytors to the King as you say they are yet I am confident their Rebellion is lawfull as the case stands for if you do but look into the 2 of Kings 17.7 there you shal find that Hezekiah rebelled against the King of Ashur and served him not and yet he prospered in all things he took in hand he put down the brazen Serpent and destroyed their Idols this you may see cleerly in the text that it was for their Idolatry Then how can you look to prosper in your Armies where Idolatry is set up and so highly prised amongst you but the Lord seeth your doings and puts up all your iniquities in a Bag and although you may prosper and flourish for a while yet the Lord will suddenly cut you off for the very prayers and supplications of his servants will ascend up unto Heaven which will cause the Lord to make you destroy one another as he did the Children of Moab and Ammon 2 Chr. 20.23 certainly the Lord will be glorified in his own work and will deliver his People out of your hands so if you look into the 32. chap. of the same Book of Chron. there you shall find how Zenacharis King of Ashur came to war against Iudah Ierusalem and if you please to read the whole Chapter throughout it will be worth your pains there you shal find how Zenacharis blasphemed God saying What God is be that can deliver his people out of my hands and this is just the condition of you Cavaliers for you will blaspheme the Name of God are so over-sweld with pride that you think your selvs able to resist overcome even God himself and comparing foolish and vain Idols which were invented and made by Man to the living God as in the 19. vers of that chap. and in the 20. vers there you shall see how Hezekiah and the Prophet Isaiah prayed unto the Lord against these things and cryed unto Heaven and in the 21. vers there you shall finde the issue and successe they had by prayer the Lord heard their prayers for hee sent an Angel and destroyed all the valiant men and the Princes and the Captains of the Host of the King of Ashur and what became of the King of Ashur and his mighty great Army which contained in number one hundred fourscore and five thousand why surely they came to nothing for they destroyed one another and the King himself returned with shame to his own Land and as the text saith when he came to the house of his God they that came out of his own bowels slew him there with the sword intimating unto us how prevalent and effectua l the prayers of the faithfull are with God especially against such Tyrants for where a Tyrant an Idolator raigneth there can be no peace and quietnesse for the very plagues of God are alwayes among such people And thus you see how these Kingdomes are disquieted by Tyranny and Idolatry and what distractions distempers there are and have bin even among Kings and Princes and mighty men of this world and you your self have a share in the exercise of their cruelty in upholding Idolatry and Tyranny against the people of God and now by this time I have shewed unto you who you fight for and what dangers you are in both soule and body and now I come to shew you how to avoid escape these dangers
some extraordinary valiant acts of Chivalry or else by some extraordinary gifts of Learning wherby they were had in high estimation above other men in respect of their qualifications endowments but most of your Gentlemen have bin so notoriously wicked along time that they have cast a foul stain upon their Gentility and at this present day there lyes a staine upon their soules as black as Hell it self besides there have bin many Generations since Gentility first came in and so consequently many bastards for all Cavaliers do but do the Divels drudgery they doe the works of the Divell ye are of your Father the Divell the Lusts of your Father ye will do Iohn 8.44 Now certainly if the Divel be their Father they must of necessity be bastards and so I come to the second particuler You say you are of the Protestant Religion I answer that the Protestant Religion is a Christian Profession of the Gospell of Christ according to the Word of God wherein men did enter into a Covenant and bound themselves both to God and Man each to other protesting that they would stand to maintain the true Faith in Christ Jesus and him crucified which they then professed even to the hazard of their lives lands and personall estates hence it came to passe that so many godly and holy Patriarks suffered martyrdome in the time of Q. Mary and this protestation of theirs was in the nature of our Covenant that was lately set forth by the Honourable Court of Parliament and both for God and his Glory for Gods hand shall be either for us or against us according to the performance of the duty either by truth or deceit those godly men in their Protestation entred into an Oath and into a Curse Neh. 10.29 and so have we in our Covenant so that every one that taketh an oath doth bind himself either to the performance or to the punishment Num. 30.2 3. so that we make God our witnesse our Party and our Judge besides we entred into a Covenant in our Baptisme there we promised to forsake the Divel all his works c. and Baptism is a Seal of the Covenant of Grace but we have commited all manner of actual rebellions since that time all manner of sin impiety and now at this time here is a Nationall sin raigning amongst us it deservs a National judgment punishment and when a Nation or a People are a guilty of an extraordinary heinous sinne it is both lawfull and needfull for them to enter in a Covenant and to renew their Covenant to bind themselvs against sinne to forsake it in their own persons and to hinder punish it in others Esa 10.3 8. and this shall suffice for the second particuler I come now to the third you say you fight for the King but because the fourth particuler have so neer a relation and dependencie on the third I shall therfore handle them both jointly and severally you say likewise that the King stands to maintain the true Protestant Religion the Laws of the Land the Liberties of the Subject and Priviledges of Parliament and call all his Declarations Proclamations and Protestations to witnesse I answer It s true there have bin many set forth in his Name and signed with C. R. although he never knew of the publishing of them therefore do not deceive your self there are and have bin many evill Councellors about him and a Porter keepes the Seal besides how can you say that you fight for the King whereas the King himself fights to destroy his Kingdoms It s true you fight for him so far forth as to help him do it To proceed farther suppose the King should offer violence to his own Person to destroy Himself which God forbid he should would you help further him in it Certainly you are in a most miserable condition as the case stands but if it were lawfull for the King to go to warre against his Subjects then it were lawfull for you to fight for him but I shall make it evidently appear that you fight cleerly against him against God himself his Church and People against your self against the whole Kingdom and State First you fight against the King in striving to set up an Arbitrary Government which no Earthly King can have unlesse of Subjects we should become Slaves as they are in France but the King of Kings who sits in Heaven and seeth all things here below and is present in all places and disposeth of all things according to his own will and pleasure but if it were possible that our King could be present in all places as the King of Kings is then he might claime and chalâ—enge an Arbitrary Government to himself and govern his People according to his own will and we as Subjects would obey him according to the French fashion Secondly you fight against God and against Christ nay you fight against all the members of Christ for all those which make a profession of Christ and indeavour to regulate their lives and conversations according to the gospell of Christ you doe not onely hate their person but their very profession Thirdly you fight not onely against you selfe but against the whole Kingdome and state for you fight to destroy the law by which every men ought to possesse and injoy that which he had successiveâ—y from his predecessors or purchast with his owne money 4 You fight against the Parliament which the King himselfe both by law and oath is bound to maintayne besides all this although you Cavileeres have stole away the Kings Person from his Parliament yet his Power is their with them still for the King is subject to his inferiour Courts of Justice much more is he subject to his high Court of Parliament which commands all other inferiour Courts for if the Kings Writ be issued out of his inferiour Courts of Justice and put in due execution although he be a hundred or two hundred miles off yet the Law goes on in as full force and power as if he himself were personally present and the King himself ought to be with his Parliament in which he ought to joyn with them in the ordination and establishment of Lawes Thus you see you fight against God and against Christ and all his Members you fight against your self and against the whole Kingdom and State you fight against the Law and indeavour to destroy the Parliament the representative body of the whole Kingdom and so consequently you fight against the King But the Lord sits in Heaven and shall laugh he will have you in derision Psalm 1.2.4 He lets you alone till the measure of your iniquities be full as it was with the Amorites Gen. 15.26 Then the Lord will power forth the cup of his fury and will destroy them utterly because you are so incensed and inraged against the Church people of God Isa 41.11 you shall be as nothing and as a thing of naught vers
VILL. PROBLEMS Propounded to the CAVALIERS FOR Conviction of their Consciences With a Discovery of certain Plots and Conspiracies Declared by Captain FRANCIS FREEMAN WITH An Answer thereunto returned by Colonell FRANCIS WINDHAM And a Reply to the said Answer These are Printed by the Originall Papers and Published according to Order of Parliament LONDON Printed by BARNARD ALSOP dwelling in Grubstreet 1646. To Colonell Francis Windham Governour of Dunster Castle these present SIR I Have sent you here inclosed this Manuscript of my poor weak labours which is by way of Problems containing in them eight particuler questions with your Cavaliers own answers to each particuler question briefly handled by the Author together with a briefe description of certain Plots and Conspiracies which the Enemies of God have completted contrived and conspired against the Church and People of God to bring their wicked Designs to passe and if so be I could with convenience have sent you the Kings Cabinet Letters taken at Naesby sight it would have been a strong confirmation of this truth I pray you to peruse these lines through out with a diligent carefulnesse and weigh each particuler according to its severall weight and conscionably practising all things herein câ—ntained in your life and conversation for the good of your poor soule it will be a re dy means for the good and welfare both of soule and body for time to come and in so doing I shall for ever remain Yours to command FRANCIS FREEMAN For Colonell Windham SIR I Have made bold to write unto you proposing certain several questions with your own answers as I suppose to each particular question upon what grounds you stand to maintain the true Protestant Religion the Laws and Liberties of the Subject and Priviledges of Parliament as you say and yet by your actions you seeke to destroy them all The first question what profession are you Answ A Gentleman and a Souldier The second what Religion are you off Ans The Protestant Religion The third question who doe you fight for An. For the King The 4. question Doth the King stand to maintain the true Protestant Religion the Laws of the Land Liberties of the Subject and Priviledges of Parliament As. Yes he doth so witnesse all his Declarations Proclamations and Protestations The fifth question Why doth the King suffer all the Papists and Irish Rebels some who have been proclaimed traytors both by King and Parliament to joyn with him against his Parl. to destroy it An. Because they are better Subjects then his Parliament are who indeavour to deprive him of his Sinck-Ports and all his shipping and also his Prerogative Royall The 6. question But do all these things of right belong unto the King only An. Yes they are all to be at his disposing for the good of his Kingdoms or else I would not fight for him The 7. question but now I pray you tell me what you think of the Parliament what Religion are they off An. I must confesse that I think they are Protestants but there are a great many Sects and Schismes among them which makes them far worse then any Papist or Irish Rebels there is the Puritane alias Round-head there is the Brownist the Anabaptist the Separatist some Antinomians and some Independants and these are the men that seek to deprive the King of all His Rights and Priviledges and raise up arms to fight against their King The 8. question But what do you think would be become of the Law if the Parl. should be destroyed An. I think we should enjoy the same still for our King have set forth many Declarations wherein he hath made many gracious promises and bound it by many Protestations that we shall enjoy all our own with advantage if we will but sticke close to him and fight for him against those Parliament Rebels and Traytors and that man is worse then a Rebell or a Traytor that will not take the word of a King and believe his King these and the like grounds I suppose you have to fight for your King which you so much deifie that if it were possible you would set him in Gods throne or above him as you do in your heart which doth appear plainly by your answer to some of these Questions or else you fawn upon him for some by-sinister ends of your own to be great in the esteem of the world but I shall by Gods blessing indeavour to give you certain evident Rules in the handling of each particuler that will demonstrate unto you what grosse errours you have committed what dangers you are in both soule and body and a remedy how to avoid and escape these dangers I shall handle them in order and so make particuler application according to the times I shall begin with the first answer which is touching your profession you say you are a Gentleman and a Souldier I answer If you are so then you are in a very good condition but I must tell you that all Souldiers are called Gentlemen Souldiers and those are Gentlemen Souldiers in a more speciall manner that fights the Lords battell he that fights under Christs banner he that fights against sinne and Sathan and to destroy the workes of the Divell he that indeavours to beat down Popery Superstition Idolatry and Tyrannie he that endeavours to set up Christ in his heart and regulates his life and conversation according to the Rules he hath prescribed in his Word he that indeavours a Reformation and loves the Brethren which are the Members of Christ will joyn with them and fight for them to free them from wrong and oppression he that keepes himself free from plundering and spoyling the Countrey and doing any wrong or injury to any man by his will or the like these are true properties of a Gentleman Souldier I could wish Gentlemen Souldiers to be better advised and not rashly goe to warre but first look into their own heart and see what grounds they have for it and aske councell of God for he is the God of warre he taught Davids hands to warre and his fingers to fight and if you see your enterprises tends to Gods glory then you may assure your selves of the victory by him who is onely the Almighty and can turne all flesh into dust with the breath of his mouth and now I shall appeal to your own conscience to make particuler application if it be so that Gentlemen Souldiers must be thus and thus qualified what will bee become of all you Cavaliers I would intreat you in the fear of the Lord to begin first with your self and examine your own conscience see by your actions whether your enterprises tends to Gods glory or no then I presume your actions will be a shrode evidence against you if you try your self by the touch-stone of the Sanctuary now I shall tell you how true Gentility first came in Gentility came in first by some heroick vertues by the sword or by
22. Now is not this a foolish madnesse for you to rage vent your malice against Gods people and all in vain for sayes the Prophet DAVID in the 2 Psal 1. Why do the heathen so furiously rage and the people imagine a vaine thing and in the next verse he saith the Kings of the earth stand up and the Rulers take counsell together against God and against Christ and although they stand up and take counsell together and rage and rent their malice against the people of God yet the Lord shall speake to them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure as in the 5 verse and in the 10 verse there the Prophet gives them wholesome instructions and exhorteth them to repentance Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be instructed ye Judges of the earth serue the Lord with feare c. and thus you may see plainly that all you Cavaliers do fight against the King and the King against himself his Kingdoms now I shal shew you who you fight for you fight for the Divel the Pope Goring his soldiers are of the Divels Life-guard as his soldiers say themselvs Goring is Captain and the Divel is their General over that black Regiment whose foul sins are as black as Hell it self for you strive to set up Popery Superstition Idolatry and Tyrannie the Kingdom of Antichrist above Christs Kingdom you joyn with all the Papists in the Kingdome both English Dutch French Walloons nay Irish Rebels too who have had their hands imbrued in the blood of many thousand poor Protestants there and yet these cursed Rebels must be called his Maj. Catholike Subjects and must fight for him against his best Subjects for the Protestant Religion too O monstrous horrid and prodigeous prodegie is there any man can be so sottishly ignorant as to believe it I shall endeavour to cleer it by the testimony of many wicked Plots Trecheries and Conspiracies which the Popish faction those wicked Enemies of God have used conspired and contrived against the Church and People of God in K. Iames his time and ever since the beginning of this Kings Reign to bring their wicked designs to passe First in K. Iames his Reign that desperate Powder-plot never to be forgotten wherof many of the Contrivers suffered for it as traytors and yet not many yeares after the Papists prevailed so farre with the King as to grant them a toleration of Religion he being a timerous fearfull man granted their desires it being done they might the better contrive and work some other mischiefe but that tolleration did not long continue the King was better advised by his Councell yet notwithstanding they would not leave their design so naked without hopes but that they went again to the King prevailed so farre with him as to grant a tolleration for all manner of Sports and Pastimes on the Sabbath day dancing at May-poles and the like fooleries this continued till his dying day and since revived by K. Charles and thus came the sluce and fludgate to be opened to all manner of licentiousnesse and liberty together with a strange wife as if they were twins born at a birth then the Bishops rotten Clergie saw which way the King and Queen and the young gallant Lords and Courtiers were inclined then they began presently to fawn upon them like so many puppie Dogs and some pillowes under their elbowes and make such flattering Sermons with so much quaintnesse of wit and flashes as they termed it that you should have them so hum'd up as if they had been at the Black-Fryers or the Cockpit at a Stâ—ge-Play but I must tell them that such fawning Spannels are far worse then dumb Dogs but yet they grew more more in favour at Court insomuch that godly and painfull conscientious Ministers were disfavoured discountenanced many of them put to sâ—…lence that could not endure their foolish superstitious sopperies then there must be new Canons imposed on them for a Church-Government the Communion Table must be turned Altar-wise forsooth where you might see so much bowings curchings and cringings as if they were going to dance an Antick but yet they endeavoured to make the people believe that Gods speciall preâ—ents was there and these actions were a part of Gods Worship wâ—en alas they worshipt they knew not what like unto the woman of Samaria Iohn 4. where she told our Saviour Christ that our Fathers worshipped in this Mountain and Ierusalem is the place where men ought to worship but our Saviour Christ saith unto her woman believe me the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor at Ierusalem worship the Father ye worship ye know not what but the houre cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth then after this they must have the new Oath c that men should swear to that they know not or if they refused it at their own perill be it and so many an honest man suffered deeply for it then after this began all the Monopolies that could be devised To back Pattents and Soap Pattents and the like and by this time the Court was grown to a mighty height of pride Superstition and Idolatry sometimes you might find the Bishop of Canterbury at White Hall to see a Masque or a Stage-Play on the Sabbath Day in the Afternoon insomuch that it was a great griefe to the godly to see Popery so countenanced creep in by degrees yet durst not speak against it for fear of punishment in the high Commission Court either by silencing or by suspention But then it pleased God after a little while our Brethren the Scots had a fellow-feeling of our miseries somwhat sensible of their own what would follow after then they began with their own Bishops and presently took them off of their Episcopall Dignities then our Bishops began to stir wince and presently must labor with the King to call a Parliament in all post-hast certain Articles of Church-government must be propounded unto them and a new book of Prayer sent but the Scots refusing their Popish kind of Discipline would not condiscend thereunto then presently a Proclamation of Rebellion must go forth against them the Parl. must be dissolved an Army must be raised to stop this Rebellion all manner of unjust taxes imposition must be laid upon the poor Subjects as Coat and conduct money and the like the unjust pressing of Train Souldiers and buying and selling them by Deputy Lieutenants and Popish Commanders like horses in Smithfield then the King must go himselfe in Person into Scotland the Nobility and Gentry must wait on him the Bishops and rotten Clergy whose war it was must contribute large sums of mony to uphold their Hierarchy hence it came to passe that it was called Bellum Episcopale but howsoever they found the Scots a stout and sturdy Nation their cause being good they met us