Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	bill_n	house_n	pass_v	12,480	5	7.4741	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96590	The discovery of mysteries: or, The plots and practices of a prevalent faction in this present Parliament. To overthrow the established religion, and the well setled government of this glorious Church, and to introduce a new framed discipline (not yet agreed upon by themselves what it shall be) to set up a new invented religion, patched together of Anabaptisticall and Brownisticall tenents, and many other new and old errors. And also, to subvert the fundamentall lawes of this famous kingdome, by devesting our King of his just rights, and unquestionable royall prerogatives, and depriving the subjects of the propriety of their goods, and the liberty of their persons; and under the name of the priviledge of Parliament, to exchange that excellent monarchicall government of this nation, into the tyrannicall government of a faction prevailing over the major part of their well-meaning brethren, to vote and order things full of all injustice, oppression and cruelty, as may appeare out of many, by these few subsequent collections of their proceedings. / By Gr. Williams L. Bishop of Ossory.	Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672.	1643 (1643)	Wing W2665; Thomason E60_1; Thomason E104_27; ESTC R23301	95,907	126

the eager prosecution of our Sectaries to take off the Earle of Straffords head how he answered for himselfe the Bishops right of voting in his cause his excellent vertues and his death 1. 1. Impediment THey get Master Pym the grand father of all the purer sort and a fit instrument for this designe in the name of the House of Commons and thereby of all the Commonalty of England The Earle his charge to charge Thomas Earle of Strafford of High-Treason a high charge indeed and yet no lesse a crime could serve the turne to turne him out of their way because nothing else could subdue that spirit by which he was so well able to discover the plots and to frustrate the practices of all the faction of Sectaries for as the Jewes were no wayes sufficient to answer Saint Stevens arguments but onely with stones so these men saw themselves unable to confute his reasons and to subdue his power but onely by putting him to death and cutting off his head for that fault which Pym alleadged he had committed But then I demand how this great charge of high Treason shall be made good against him It is answered How sought to be proved that England Scotland and Ireland and every corner of these three Kingdomes must be searched and all discontented persons that had at any time any sentence though never so justly pronounced against them by him that was so great a Judge Yet conceited to be otherwise by themselves must now be incouraged and countenanced by the faction and most likely by this grand accuser to say all that they know and perhaps more then was true against him for what will not envy and malice say or what beast will not trample upon the Lion when they see him groveling and gasping for life in an unevitable pit and it may be compassed with so many mastife dogs I meane his enemies and discontented witnesses as were able to teare more then one Lion all to peices so by this meanes they are enabled to frame neare thirty Articles against him ut cum non prosint singula multajuvent that the number might amnze the people and thinke him a strange creature that was so full of haynous offences and so compassed with transgressions But si satis accusasse quis innocens The Earle his answer if accusations were sufficient to create offenders not a righteous man could escape on earth therefore the Law condemneth no man before he be heard what he can answer for himselfe and the Earle of Strafford comming to his answer made all things so cleare in the Judgment of the common hearers and answered to every article so well that his enemies being Judges they much applauded his abilities and admired at his Dexterity whereby he had so finely untied those Gordian knots that were so fouly contrived against him and as his friends conceived had fairely escaped all those iron nets which his adversaries had so cunningly laid my popular countreyman with the rest of the more learned Lawyers had so vehemently prosecuted to insnare him in the linkes and traps of guiltinesse and in breife the Lords who as yet were unpoysoned by the leavened subtilty of this bitter faction could finde not any one of all those articles to be Treason by any Law that was yet established in this Land sic te servavit Apollo so God delivered him as he thought and his friends hoped out of all these troubles Yet as a rivelet stopped will at last prove the more violent The nature of malice viresque acquirit ibidem and recollect a greater strength in the same place so rage and malice hindered of their revengefull desires will turne to be the more implacable quia malitia eorum excaecavit eos because the malice of men bewitcheth them and hath no end till it makes an end of its hated foe therefore those men that hated and maligned the Earle like the Jewes that because their tongues could make no reply to the just defence of the holy Martyr Act. 7.51 guashed upon him with their teeth and stopping their eares ran upon him with one accord all at once because they had no Law nor learning to make those articles treason they say with the Poet hac non successit aliâ aggrediemur viâ seeing we failed herein we will attempt another way and to that end they frame a Bill of attainder against him and this if it passe by the major part of both Houses and have the royall assent will bring him to his iust deserved death and herein I will not say they shewed themselves worse then the Iewes because that when their malice was at the hichest pitch against Christ they said we have a Law and by our Law he ought to dy and these haters of the Earle seeing they had no Law will have a Law to be made that shall bring him unto his death because the House might have reasons which my sence cannot conceive Yet some of his friends have said that after a former prosecution according to Law to make a new Law where there was none before to take away a mans life is almost as bad as the Romance Law The rubs of the Bill how taken away that I read of to hang him first and then judge him afterward to whom I assented not and not many lesse then 60 worthy Members of the House of Commons would never yeild to passe that Bill it had a greater rub among the Lords where it is not thought upon any slight conjectures it had never passed but that this rub must be taken away by a new device for that the faction judging some of them might be more timorous then malicious and remembring that primus in orbe Deos fecit timor feare is a powerfull passion that produceth many strange effects the Apprentices and Porters Water men and Car-men and all the rascall rout of the ragged Regiment were gathered together by some Chedorlaomer came as they did against Christ with swords and staves without order with great impudency to awe them and to cry for Iustice against him and this was done and done againe and againe untill the businesse that they came for was done a course not prevented that may undoe all Justice and bring us all to be undone And yet all this will not do this deed untill the King passeth His assent The Kings great paines to search out the truth for as yet the new Law of orders and ordinances without the King was not hatched and the good King having so graciously so indefatigably taken such care and such paines in his owne person every day to heare and see all that could be laid unto his charge and how he had answered each particular was so just and of such tender and religious conscience that he was not satisfied as men conceived with the weight of those reasons that were produced to passe the same therefore here I finde another Stratageme used such as

I have fully shewed and I would all Kings would read it in the Grand Rebellion But I see no reason why it may not and why it should not be retracted and annulled That the act should be annulled when the Houses shall be purged of that Anabaptisticall and Rebellious faction that contrived and procured the same to passe for these three speciall reasons 1. 1. Reason Because that contrary to all former precidents that Bill for their exclusion was as it is reported at the first refused and after a full bearing among the Lords it was by most votes by more then a dozen voices rejected and yet to shew unto the world that the factions maltee against the Bishops had no end their rage was still implacable at the same Session which is very considerable immediatly assoone as ever they understood it was rejected the House of Commons revived it and so pressed it unto the Lords that if I may have leave to speake the truth contrary to all right * For I conceave this to be an approved maxime that no light not proved forfitea by some of fence can be taken away wuhout wrong 2 Keasom In His Majesties answer to the Petition of the Lords and Commons 16 of July p. 8. it must be againe received and while the Bishops were in prison it was with what honour I know not strangely confirmed 2. Because this Bill had the Royall assent after that a most riotous tumult many thousands of men with all sorts of warlike weapons both on land and water most disloyally had driven His Majestie to fly from London that most Rebellious City not without feare for his owne safety even for the safety of his life as himselfe professeth and when they had so cunningly contrived their plot as to get some of the Kings servants and friends that were about him and imployed in the Queenes affaires to perswade Her Majesty to use all her power with the King for the passing of this Bill or else Her journey should be slaied as formerly they had altered her resolution for the Spaw and at Rochester she should understand the sense of the House to stop Her passage unto Holland whereas the passing of this Bill might make way for Her passage over and many other such frights and feares they put both upon the King and Queene to inforce him full sore against his will as we beleive to passe this harsh Bill for the exclusion of the spirituall Lords out of the House of Peeres and of all the Clergy from all Secular Judicature But Master Pym will tell us he did Ald. Gar. speech at Guild hall that it was the opinion of both Houses there was no occasion given by any tumults that might justly cause His Majesties departure To whom I answere with the words of Alderman Garroway if the Houses had declared that it had beene lawfull to beat the King out of Town I must have sate still with wonder though I should never beleive it but when they declare matters of fact which is equally within our own knowledge and wherein we cannot be deceived as in the things we have seene with our eyes if they dissent from truth they must give me leave to differ from them as if they should declare they have paied all the money that they owe unto the city or that there was * For now I understand it is pulled down no Crosse standing in Cheapside we shall hardly beleive them And therefore seeing we all remember when the alarme was given that there was an attempt from Whitehall upon the City how hardly it was appeased and how no babies thought the designe of those subtle beads that gave that false alarme was no lesse then to have caused Wite hall to be pulled downe and they that loved the King and saw the Army both by Land and water which accompanied the persons accused to Westminster the next day after His Majesties departure as if they had passed in a Roman triumph conceived the danger to be so great that I call Heaven to witnesse they blessed God that so gracioussly put it in the Kings heart rather to passe away over night though very late then hazard the danger that might have ensued the day following The meaning therefore of both Houses may be that there was nothing done which they confessed to be a tumult and no mervaile because they received incouragement as we beleeved from their defence and no reproofe that we found was made for this indignity offered unto the King but if I be constrained and in danger it is not enough for me that I am voted free and safe for if that which lookes as like a tumult as that did or as the representation of my face in the truest glasse is like my face doth come against me and incompasse me about though I may be perhaps in more safety yet I shall thinke my selfe in great feare and in no more security then His Majestie was at Edge-hill 3. 3 Reason p. 7 Because as the veiwer of the Observat hath very well exprest it no act of Parliament can prevaile to deprive the King of His right and authority as an attainder by Parliament could not barre the title to the Crowne from descending on King Hen. 7. nor was an act of Parliament disabling King Hen. 6. to re-assume the government of his people of any force but without any repeale in it selfe frustrate and void 7. rep 14. Calvins case an act of Parliament cannot take away the protection or the Subjects service which is due by the Law of nature 11. rep Sur de la Wares case William de la Ware although disabled by act of Patliament was neverthelesse called by Queene Elizabeth to sit as a peere in Parliament for that it seems the Queen could not be barred of the service and councell of any of Her Subjects 2. H. 7.6 a statute that the King by no non obstante shall dispence with it is void because it would take a necessary part of government out of the Kings hand and therefore I se not how this act can deprive the King of the service and councell of all his Bishops and clergy but that it is void of it selfe and needeth no repeale or if otherwise yet seeing that besides all this 13 of the Bishops were shut in prison when this act passed and their protestation was made long before this time and it was so unduly framed so illegally prosecuted and with such compulsive threats and terrours procured to be passed I hope the wisedome of the next Parliament together with their love and respect to the Church and Church-men will nullifie the same CHAP. VI. Sheweth the plots of the faction to gaine unto themselves the freindship and assistance of the Scotts and to what end they framed their new protestation how they provoked the Irish to rebell and what other things they gained thereby ANd thus the Sectaries of this Kingdome and the faction in

vocatis more daret populis Because this was the custome of the Kings of Scythia Assyria Aegypt c. long before Moses and Pharonaus when municipall lawes first began to give lawes unto their people according to the rules of naturall equity which by the law of nature they were all bound to observe And though some Kings did graciously yeeld and by their voluntary oathes for themselves and their successors binde themselves many times to stricter limits then were absolutely requisite as William Rufus King Stephen Henry the fourth Richard the third and the like granted many priviledges perhaps to gaine the favour of their Subjects against those which likely had a better title to the Crowne than themselves or it may be to satisfie their people as the guerdon or compensation for the sufferance of some fore-passed grievances as Henry the first Edward the second Richard the second and the like yet these limitations being agreeable to equity and consistent with Royalty and not forcibly extracted ought in all truth and reason to be observed by them And hence it is that the Kings of this Realme according to the oathes and promises which they made at their Coronation can never give nor repeale any law but with the assent of the Peeres and People But though they have thus yeelded to make no lawes nor to repeale any lawes without them yet this voluntary concession of so much grace unto the people doth no wayes translate the legislative power from the King unto his assistants but that it is formaliter and subiectivè still in the King and not in them else would the government of this Kingdome bee an Aristocracy or Democracy and not a Monarchy because the supreame power of making and repealing Lawes and governing or judging decisively according to those lawes Cassan in catal glorlamundi are two of those three things that give being to each one of these three sorts of government Therefore the King of England being an absolute Monarch in his owne Kingdome as Cassaneus saith and no man can deny it the legislative power must needs reside solely in the King 22 Ed. 3.3 pl. 25. Vid. The view of a printed booke entituled Observations c. where this point is proved at large p. 18 19 21 22. ut in subjecto proprio and the consent of the Lords and Commons is no sharing of that power but only a condition yeelded to be observed by the King in the use of that power and so both the Oath of Supremacy and the form of all our ancient Statutes wherein the King speakes as the Lawmaker doe most evidently prove the same unto us Le Roy voit Neither durst any Subjects in former times either assume such a power unto themselves or deny the same unto their King for you may finde how the House of Commons denying to passe the Bill for the pardon of the Clergy which Hen. 8. granted them when they were all charged to be in a Premunire unlesse themselves also might be included within the pardon received this answer from the King that he was their Soveraigne Lord and would not be compelled to shew his mercy nor indeed could they compel him to any thing else but seeing they went about to restraine him of his Liberty he would grant a pardon unto his Clergie by his great Seale without them Sir Rich. ● in vita Her though afterwards of his owne accord he signed their pardon also which brought great commendation to his judgement to deny it at first when it was demanded as a right and to grant it afterward when it was received as of grace And yet the deniall of their assent unto the King is more equitable to them and lesse derogatory to him then to make orders without him and this manner of compulsion to shew grace unto themselves is more tolerable than to force him to disgrace and displace his most faithfull servants onely because others cannot confide in them when no criminall charge is laid against them And therefore for the Lords and Commons to make Orders and Ordinances without the King and in opposition to the King is a meere usurpation of the Regall power a nullifying of the Kings power and a making of the Royall assent which heretofore gave life to every law to be an empty piece of formality which is indeed an intolerable arrogancy in the contrivers of these Orders and the makers of these Ordinances a monstrous abuse of the Subjects and a plaine making of our good King to be somewhat like him in the Comedy a King and no King And where as no Subject and under favour be it spoken not the King himselfe after he hath taken his Oath at his Coronation is free from the observation of the established lawes yet they make themselves so farre above the reach of Law that they freed him which the Lord chiefe Justice Bramston had committed to Newgate for felony in stealing the Countesse of Rivers goods they hindered all men as we found in their journall from proceeding against Sir Thomas Dawes they injoyned the Judges by their orders to forbeare to proceed in their ordinary courses in the Courts of Justice contrary to the eaths of those Judges and some Parliament men came to the Bench to forbid the Judges to grant Habeas Corpuses which is as great an iniquity and as apparent an injustice as ever was done by any Parliament And that which is a note above Ela The most abominable wickednesse of these factious Rebels above all that could be spoken whereas the Law of God and man the bonds and obligations of civility and Christianity tie us all to be dutifull and obedient unto our King in all things either actively or passively and no wayes for no cause violently to resist him under the greatest penalties that can be devised here and damnation hereafter yet these men contrary to all Lawes doe injoyne us and compell us as much against our consciences as if they should compell us with the Pagan tyrants to offer Sacrifice unto Idols to war against our most gracious Soveraigne whom we from our hearts doe both love and honour and they proscrible us as malignants and as enemies to the Common wealth if we contribute not money horse and armes to maintaine this ungodly war Ps 50.22 August contra Faust l. 22. c. 75.76 and so become deadly enemies unto our owne soules O consider this yee that forget God lest for tearing us he teare you in pieces while there is none to helpe you for considering what the Apostle saith Rom. 13.1.2 And what Saint Augustine saith ordo naturalis mortalium paci accommodatus hoc poscit ut suscipiendi belli authoritas atque consilium penes Principem sit and lest men should thinke they ought by force of armes to resist their king for religion he answereth that objection by the example of the Apostles isti non resistendo interfecti sunt ut potiorem esse docerent victoriam pro fide

Hannibal could not invent to effect this hard talke what to perswade mildnesse to become severe or to cause a just and most clement Prince so full of mercy so prone to pardon where there is a fault and so loth to punish but where he must by the Law of Justice the greatest fault to yeeld to put him to death that was in many things so excellent in his life the taske was to procure his assent to passe this Bill and how shall this be done as the Man of God could not be perswaded by any man but by a Man of God a Prophet by a Prophet so now the Bishops that were good men men of conscience and set apart by God to resolve and satisfie weake and tender consciences are thought fit to be sent unto this good King to perswade him as men supposed that to prevent a greater mischiefe he might justly passe this Bill and either 6. or 4. of the prime Prelates are requested by the Lords to goe unto the King to assay how far they can prevaile with him herein and so they went and how they dealt with His Majestie I do not fully understand but am informed by some that went that they assured him he ought to satisfie himselfe in point of Law by his Judges and of State by his Councell how they did any otherwise in any other thing rectify his Conscience in point of divinitie which belonged unto themselves I cannot tell But though I thinke no man can justly lay the least tittle of blame upon the just King no not the Earle himselfe as himselfe professed for yeelding to such and so earnest perswasions of I know not how many reverend Bishops wise Counsellours grave Judges and the flower of all his people to passe that Bill whatsoever it was Yet to say what I conceive with their favour The Bishops right to vote in any cause of my brethren the Bishops in the prosecution of this cause I am perswaded that they had no reason to withdraw themselves from the House and to desert their owne right when the Bill or the Iudgment was to passe against the Earle upon this slight pretence alleaged against them by the haters of the Earle and no lovers of the Bishops that a Clergie-man ought not to have any vote or to be present at the handling of the cause of bloud or death for they might know full well when my Lords grace of Yorke did most clearely manifest this truth that the first inhibition of the Clergy to be present and assistant in causa sanguinis or judicio mortis in the Canon of Innocent the third as I remember for I am driven to fly without my bookes was most unjust onely to tie the Bishops to his blinde obedience to the apparent prejudice of all Christian Princes by denying this their service unto them and it is no wayes obligatory to binde us that are by the Lawes of our Land not onely freed but also injoyned to abandon all the unjust Canons that are repugnant to our Lawes and derogatory to our Kings and to renounce all the usurped authority of the Pope for I would faine know what Scripture or what reason Pope Innocent can alleadge to exclude them from doing that good service both to God and their King which in all reason they can or should be better able to do then most others and I am sure that neither in the old nor in the new Testament nor yet in the Primitive Church untill these subtle Popes began thus to incroach upon the rights of Princes to take away the prerogatives of Kings and to domineer over the consciences of men this exclusion of them from the highest act of Justice was never found The Prophets and Apostles judged in the case of life and death for did not Moses Joshua Samuel Eliah Elizaus Jehoida and others of the Priests and Prophets of the Old Testament and S. Peter also the Prince of the Apostles in the New Testament judge in the case of bloud and pronounced the sentence of death against Malefactors as when Ananias and Sapphira were suddenly brought unto their end by the judgement of the Apostle and if they be able and fit to judge of any thing then why not of this If you say Ob. because they are the advocates of mercy the procurers of pardon the preachers of repentance and men that are made to save life and not to put any one to death or to bring any man unto his end I answer Sol. that they are therefore the fittest men to be the Judges both of life and death for who can better and more justly judge me to death then he that doth most love my life It is certaine he will not condemne me without just cause even as God that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the father of mercies and even mercy it selfe is the fittest and most righteous Judge that can be found both of death and damnation because his mercy and goodnesse towards his creatures will not permit his severity against sinne though never so detestable to his purity Clergy how fit to be Judges to doe the least injustice to their persons so our love of mercy and pitty will not suffer us to doe any thing that shall transcend the rules of justice and equity and as our inclination to mercy prohibits us to condemne the innocent so our love to justice and our charge to preserve it will not permit us to justifie the wicked for the Scripture teacheth us that he which justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the innocent that calleth the evill good and the good evill that spareth Agag and killeth Naboth are both alike abominable unto the Lord. And therefore notwithstanding this unjust Canon I never finde in any of our Histories that the Bishops did ever withdraw themselves and quit their votes in this case either before or after save onely from the 10th yeare of Richard the 2d unto the 21th yeare of the raigne of the same unfortunate King which they did not because they could not justly be present but because they had just reasons to be absent as you may finde it in the Annales of his time therefore I know not how to palliate their facility of yeilding way to those Non-Canonicall Lords to produce those non-obliging Canons Non Canonicall Lords which they abhorred in all that made not for the furtherance of their designe to exclude them from doing this which was one of their chiefest duties for who knoweth not the Lord Say and Lord Brooke and others of the Lords to hate all Canons even the old Canons of the Apostles as inconsistent with their new rules of independent government and yet herein to exclude the Bishops votes in the judgement of this man and the passing of this Bill which being admitted might perhaps have turned the scales they will take hold of the unjustest Law and alleadge one of the worst of Canons a Canon against reason and most repugnant

therefore if we have any regard of our goods that God hath given us we have great reason to look about us for these are the greatest Cheaters in Christendome and as they have made us Malignants so they will make us reprobates when they please that they may enjoy those things that we have 3. They thinke themselves free from all sin Numb 23.21 Tit. 1.15 3. Because Balaam saith God beheld no iniquitie in Jacob and the Apostle saith To the pure all things are pure they teach their proselytes that in them which are the holy Brethren there is no sin and their adulterie drunkennesse cozenage and the like odious crimes are no crimes because God loving them so tenderly as a fond mother seeth no fault in her untoward childe so he takes no notice of any offence that they commit but for the ungodly their Prayers are sinnes their Almes are odious and whatsoever commendable dutie they do performe To the unbelieving nothing is pure Titus 1.15 God accounteth their best actions to be heinous trangressions and to adde the more weight of punishment to their damnation which Doctrine how abominable it is to God and how destructive to all men to make these holy Brethre and their sanctified Sisters senslesse in all sinnes uncapable of repentance Matth 9.12 when the whole hath no need of the Physician and to discourage all other ignorant men from doing good duties when the performance of them shall multiplie their stripes is so apparent to all men that I need not stand to confute it for if Coniah though he wear the signet upon my right hand Ier. 22.24 or as the apple of mine eye doth offend I will cut him off and if the wicked forsake his wickednesse Ezech. 33.15 and do that which is just love mercie and speak truth he shall be accepted and the Lord will not call light darknesse nor good evill in any one 4. 4. They allow the women to offend while their husbands sl●ep Ioh 11.11 1 Cor. 7.39 Because our Saviour saith Our friend Lazarus sleepeth when as indeed he was dead and the Heathens say Sleep is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brother of death they take this colour to hide their adulteries that while the husband sleepeth the wife is as free from him as if he were dead a foolerie so ridiculous that the naming of it is a sufficient confutation of it and yet you shall hardly withdraw our London Anabaptists from it 5. 5. They justifie many kindes of lyes and equivocatious Gen. 12.13 Acts 23.5 Because Abraham said that Sara was his sister and Saint Paul said I wist not brethren that he was the high Priest they hold it as an Article of their Creed that for officious lyes and equivocations being for the furtherance of their cause the good worke which they pretend they may and ought to use them to swallow them down like water they make no bones of them and therefore it is dangerous to treat and weaknesse to give credit without sufficient pledges to the faith of these men whose profession may as lawfully deceive us as their Religion teacheth them to destroy us and I believe the experience which his Majesties Officers had of them in the performance of their promises and conditions of departure from Winchester Reading and other Townes surrendered unto them may sufficiently confirme this equivocall point of their Publique Faith 6. 6. They would root out all those that they terme wicked Deut. 7.2 1 Sam. 15.23 Psal 58.8 Because the Lord straitly charged the Israelites to root out the wicked Canaanites and the rest of those cursed Nations and translated the Kingdom of Israel from Saul unto David because he spared Agag and our Saviour bids us succidere ficum to cut down that unprofitable tree which bare no fruit they are so filled with such unmercifull crueltie towards all those they terme wicked and judge Malignants that they had better fall into the hands of heathen Tyrants than of these their holy brethren who embruing their hands in the blood of so many faithfull Christians do sing with the Psalmist The righteous rejoyce when they see this vengeance they shall wash their feet in the blood of the ungodly for as Solomon saith The tender mercies of the wicked are meer crueltie Prov. 12.10 And I believe the first inventers of that Designe to root out all the Papists in Ireland and to get that Act to purchase all the Lands of the Rebels had tasted too much of this bitter root of such destructive Doctrine whereby you see how the Religion of these men robbes us of our Estates keepes no faith with us and takes away our lives 7. Though among the workes of God 7. They would have a paritie among all men both in Church and Common wealth Gal. 5.6 Col. 3.11 every flower cannot be a Lillie every beast cannot be a Lion every bird cannot be an Eagle and every Planet cannot be Phaebus yet in the School of these men this is the Doctrine of their to be new erected Church that with God there is no respect of persans and neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but whether they be bond or free masters or servants few or Gentile Barbarian Scythian a countrey Clown or a Court Gallant rich or poor it is all one with God because these Titles of Honour Kings Lords Knights and Gentlemen are no entities of Gods making but the creatures of mans invention to puffe him up with pride and not to bring him unto God and therefore though for the bringing of their great good worke to passe they are yet contented to make the Earle of Essex their Generall and Warwicke their Admirall and so Pym and Hampden great Officers of State yet when the worke is done their Plot perfected and their Government established then you shall finde that as now they will eradicate Episcopacie and make all our Clergie equall as if all had equally but one talent and no man worthier than another so then there should be neither King Lord Knight nor Gentleman but a paritie of degrees among all these holy Brethren and to give us a taste of what they mean as the Lords concurrence with them inabled them to devour the Kings power so they have since with great justice prevailed with the House of Commons to swallow up the Lords power and have most fairly invaded their priviledge when they questioned particular Members * As my Lord Duke and my Lord Dighte for words spoken in that House and then the whole House when they brought up and countenanced a mutinous and seditious Petition which demanded the Names of those Lords that consented not with the House of Commous in those things which that House had twice denied 8. 8 They would have no man to pray for temporall things Mat. 6.33.34 Matth. 6.11 Because our Saviour saith Seek ye first the Kingdom of of Heaven and the righteousnesse thereof and all these

composed and procured it to passe for the Poll money wherein they shew their exceeding great love to the Clergie as to make Deanes whose Deanaries were scarce worth 100.l a piece per annum to pay 40.l per poll equall with the Lords and Aldermen of London and many Prebendaries to pay more than the annuall worth of their Prebends and the like many passages of their respect to the Ministers and some other particulars which I passe without reproof because the Act is passed there were monies advanced by gift and by adventure and Souldiers were prepared for Ireland to reduce those Rebels to their former obedience and to restore the Kings distressed Subjects to their rights and possessions but the great neglect they shewed to discharge this dutie the Souldiers that were sent being left almost altogether unpaid to be sterved and exposed to the mercie of their mercilesse enemies and we the poor English that were robbed and spoiled of our goods and lands left not onely unrelieved but also twitted with that scandall for our comfort that we were worthily expelled by the Irish 1. How they neglected the distress●d Subjects of Ireland and left unregarded by the English because we were but as the Samaritanes neither Israelites nor Pagans or as the Turkes that partaking with the Jewes and Christians are neither Jewes nor Christians so the English in Ireland were just Laodicean like neither hot nor cold neither English nor Irish neither zealous Papists nor true Protestants and therefore worthily to be spued out of the mouth of all men which is the comfort we have of them and which puts us in a desperate condition unlesse his Majestie will be pleased to take another course to relieve us to be left as a prey to be destroyed betwixt two sorts we know not which more cruell enemies makes us believe that the monies are diverted and the Souldiers detained to continue this unnaturall War against our King that so by loosing the Kingdom of Ireland they might the sooner destroy the Kingdom of old England to bring the Kingdom of New England amongst us And besides this simple conversion of the Irish monies it is almost incredible to consider how unjustly they have dealt with the English Subjects to get money for to let abundance of other particulars passe the Earle of Manchester in the night time fetched away six thousand pounds as I understand ●o●er sadnesse p. 21. that were collected for the repairing of Saint Andrewes in Holbourne and the great summes of money that were gathered for London-derry and for Brainceford were imployed by these Zelots not to maintaine the lives of those distressed people but to destroy the lives of loyall Subiects and to prove themselves right Jscariots they brake into the Hospitall at Gilford in Surrey and tooke foure thousand pounds from the poore Lazars but as the Romans dealt with their neighbours Territories when they were made their Arbitrators so these men dealt as finely with the lading of that Ship called Sancta Clara for while the Merchants disputed about the goods these iust Judges to reconcile the difference seize upon all and twenty thousand pound must be lent them before the right owner can receive them and I might fill my papers with such examples 2. They have made an Ordinance 2. How they take what part they will of our estates Whereas they object that in the raigne of King Iohn and others of our kings the wentyeth fifteenth tenth or seventh part hath beene given I answer in one word never a part by the two Houses without the king and against the king as they doe that the twentieth part of mens estates must be paid towards the maintenance of this rebellion and they doe appoint those that upon their discretion shall value that twentieth part and they may for ought we know set downe the tenth for the twentieth and if they may legally do this we can see no reason why by the same rule they may not take the fifteenth tenth or halfe our goods for the same purpose and so they avouch they may but most untruly for it was never known till this present parliament that an Ordinance of both Houses without the consent nay against the command of the King can bind the free Subjects of England which doe not then renounce their loyalty to their King when they make choyce of them to be their procurators in the Parliament in their lives liberties or estates and yet these men not only bestow our moneyes as they please as they did six thousand pound to their owne Speaker and the places of command and great profi more then all the revenues of their lands come to upon themselves and upon their children and friends as upon Sir Iohn Hotham the Lord Rocheford Lord Say Lord Brookes Hampaen Brereton Fines the Earl e of Essex and abundance more but they doe also seize upon our estates and thus take our goods under the colour of maintaining this warre to inrich themselves and their children and for the levying of this or what other part they please they ordaine their friends and appoint their Collectors to distraine for the summe assessed and to sell the distresse and if no distresse can be found then the persons of these notable offenders that deny their goods thus illegally to be taken from them are to be imprisoned and their families to be banished from their habitations And to make the world believe how justly and sufficiently legall they could doe this they made another ordinance for the inhabitants of the Counties of North-hampton Rutland Derby c. to pay the twentieth part and to be assessed by the Assessors that they name in imitation of the Statute lately made for the foure hundred thousand pound and it is more than probable that this proceeding is but the praeludium of the like exaction to be extended when their need requireth to all the other parts of the Kingdome which is a most miserable course and injustice not to be paralleld to cast themselves into a necessity of getting money to maintaine an impious warre against their King and then out of that necessity to compell their fellow subjects and those peaceable men that doe abominate this war to maintaine the same yea and to fight in the same to kill men against their consciences in despite of their teeth or if they refuse to doe it to sond or at least to permit a party of Horse Dragooneers and other strength to goe to fetch their Money Plate or other goods as if they were the goods of the deadly enemies of the Common wealth and this for none other reason but for that the owners thereof are good Subjects to the King and not well affected to their uniust and ungodly proceedings But let me perswade all men that doe feare God still to suffer any thing which they can not avoid from the violence of these wicked men rather than contribute any thing unto them to further such abominable courses as they

veritatis occidi We conceive this to be so execrable an act and so odious to God and man that we are made thus miserable and abused beyond measure to have our Religion which is most glorious our Laws that in their own nature are most excellent The miserable consequences of their wicked doings 1 Mischiefe and our Liberties that make us as free as any Subjects in the World under false pretences and the shadows of religion lawes and liberties to be eradicated and fundamentally destroyed whereby 1. We are made a spectacle of scorne 1. Mischiefe and the object of derision to our neighbour Nations that formerly have envied at our happinesse and we are become the subject of all pitty and lamentation to all them that love us 2. As in the Roman civill wars in the time of Metellus 2. Mischife the the son did kill his own Father so now by the subtilty of this faction we are cast into such a war as is 1. A most unnaturall War the son against the Father and the Father against the Son the Earle of Warwick fighteth for the Parliament and my Lord Rich his Son is with the King the Earle of Dover is with the King and my Lord Rochford his Sonne with the Parliament so one brother against another as the Earle of Northumberland with the Parliament and his brother with the King the Earle of Bedford with the Parliament and his brother with the King Master Perpoiat with the Parliament and the Earle of Newark with the King Devoreux Farmer with the parliament and his brother Thomas farmer together with his brother in law my Lord Cockain with the King and the like and of Cosens without number the one part with the King and the other with the parliament and if they doe this in subtilty to preserve their estate I say it is a wicked policy to undoe the kingdom which all wise men should consider 2. A most irreligious war when one Christian of the same professed religion shal bath his Sword and wash his hands in the bloud of his fellow Christian and his fellow protestant that shal be coheire with him of the same Kingdome 3. A most unnaturall irreligious and barbarous Warre when the Subject shall shal take Armes to destroy or unthrone their owne liege a Religious and most gracious King 3. 3 Mischiefe The Service of God in most Churches is neglected when almost all the ablest gravest and most O thodox Divines and Preachers are persecuted plundered imprisoned and driven to fly as in the time of the Arian or Donatist which was worse than the heathen persecution from City to City to wander in Desarts from place to place to save themselves from the hands of these Rebels against the King and persecuters of Gods Church which is a most grievous and a most cruell persecution far more generall than that of the Anabaptists in Germany or of Queene Mary here in England the Lord of Heaven make us constant and give us patience to indure it 4. 4 Mischiefe The whole Kingdome is and shall be yet more by the continuance hereof unspeakably impoverish'd and plunged into all kind of miseries when the I'ravailer cannot passe without feare nec hospes ab hospite tutus the Carrier cannot transport his commodity but it shall be intercepted the Husbandman cannot till his ground but his horses as my selfe saw it shall bee taken from the Plough and his Corne shall bee destroyed when it is ready for the Sickle which must be the fore-runner of a famine that is ever the Usher to introduce the Plague and Pestilence and all other kind of grievous Diseases and these things put together doe set wide our gates and open our ports to bring forraigne foes into our Coasts to possesse that good Land whereof we are unworthy because with the Israelites we loathed Manna we were weary of our peace and happinesse we would buy armes and be voluntiers and every Town being too wanton would needs traine and put themselves into a posture of defence as they termed it to be secured from their owne shadows and though the King told them often there was no cause of their Jealousies and therefore forbade these disloyalties yet just like the Jewes they were willing to be deceived by this miserable faction that contrived that Act whereby they have persidiously over-reached both our good King and the rest of our wel-meaning brethren either to perfect their designe or else to make themselves perpetuall Dictators and to betray the felicity of all our people under the name of Parliament which though as I said before I honour and love as much as any of the truest Patriots of either House both in the institution and the right prosecution thereof that is as it was constituted to be the great Councell of the Kingdome graciously called by his Majesties writ considently to present the grievances of the people and humbly to offer their advice and counsels for their reformation yet I doe abhorre those men that would abuse the word Parliament only as a stalking-Horse to destroy all Acts of Parliament and I hate to see men calling the fanatique actions of a few desperate seditious persons the proceedings of Parliament and others making an Idol of it as if their power were omnipotent or unlimited and more than any regall power their judgement infallible their Orders irreprehensible and themselves unaccountable for their proceedings to be so besotted with the name of it that this bare shadow without the substance for it is no Parliament without the King and the Major part of both houses is either banished or imprisoned Ingeniosus ad blasphemiant or compelled to reside with his Majesty should so bewitch us as Master Smith blushed not to say nothing could free us from our dangers but the Divinity of a Parliament out of our owne happinesse to become more miserable then heretofore this Kingdome hath ever beene by any civill War for if you will consider the Treasons and rebellions the injustice cruelty and inhumanity the subtilty hypocrisie lying swearing blasphemy prophanesse and Sacriledge in the highest pitch and many other the like fearefull sins that have been committed since the beginning of this Parliament by the sole meanes of this faction and observe the ill acts that have beene used by them to compasse things lawfull and the wicked acts that have beene daily practised to procure things unlawfull when by bloud and rapine and the curses of many fatherlesse and widowes they have gotten the Treasures of the Kingdome and the wealth of the Kings loyall Subjects into their hands and wasted it so that their wants are stil as notorious as their crimes wee may admire the miracles of Gods mercy and the bottomlesse depth of his goodnesse that the stones in the streets have not risen against them or the fire from Heaven had not consumed these Rebels that thus far and thus insolently had tempted Gods patience and provoked him to

should demand why we suspect any Traytors or false Counsellors to be in Kings Courts I answer because Saint Paul saith Oportet esse hareses and I beleeve the purest Court hath no more priviledge to be free from Traytors then the Church from Heretiques and you know there was one of eight in Noahs Arke and another of twelve in Christ his Court and he that was so neare him as to dip his hand with him in the dish was the first that flew in his face and yet with a hayle Master and with a kisse two fair testimonies of true love Therefore let no King in Christendome thinke it strange that his Court should have Flatterers Traytors or evill Counsellors let not us be blamed for saying this and let not Pym so foolishly charge our King for evil Counsellors for certainly did he know them I make no question but he would discard them or could I or any other informe his Majestie who they are and that it were an easie matter dicier hic est we would not be affraid to pull off their vails and to say as Christ did to Judas Thou art the man but their Meandrian windings their Syrens voices and their Iudas kisses are as a faire mantle to conceale and cover Ioabs treason even perhaps to betray some of the wisest in the Parliament as well as some of them have betrayed the King In such a case all I can say is this Memento diffidere was Epicharmus his Motto the honest plaine dealing man that doth things for Religion not for ends is the unlikeliest man to betray his Master and few Counsellors are not so apt to breed so many Traytors as a multitude it was the indiscretion of Rehoboam that lost him ten parts of twelve to preferre young Counsellors before the ancient * Seldome discretion in youth attendeth great and sudden fortunes In vita Henric. 3. and if we may beleeve that either paupertas or necessitas cogit ad turpia or the fable of the ulcerated traveller They that are to make their fortunes are apter to sell Church and State and to betray King and Kingdom rather then those that have sufficiently replenished their coffers and inlarged their possessions But I assure my selfe the mouth of malice cannot deny but that our King hath been as wary and as wise in the choice of his Servants Officers and Counsellors so far as eyes of flesh can see in all respects as in any Prince in Christendom and more by man cannot be done And for the second Their designe to change the Government of the State shewed that is their designe to change the Government of the State and to work the subversion of the Monarchie he evinceth it 1 By that Declaration upon the Earle of Straffords suffering 1. Way that this example might not be drawn to a president for the future because they thought that themselves intending to do the like and to become guilty of the same crimes might by vertue of this Declaration be secured from the punishment if things should succeed otherwise then they hoped 2 By the pulling down of so many Courts of Justice 2. Way which may perhaps relieve the Subjects from some pressures but incourage many more in licentiousnesse and prove the Prodromes to the ruine of our Monarchie 3 By those 19. 3. Way Propositions whereby the King was in very deed The Letter p. 11. demanded to lay downe his Crowne and to compound with them for the same because as another saith therein there was presented to him a perfect platforme of a totall change of Government by which the Counsellors indeed were to have been Kings and the King in name to have become scarce a Counsellor and nothing of the present State to have remained but the very names and titles of our Governours 4 By that expression so little understood by many men 4. Way and yet so much talked of in many of their papers of a power of re-assuming the trust which is falsly pretended to bee derived unto his Majestie by the meere humane pactions and agreement of the politique body of the people which I shewed unto you to be a most false and a meere invented suggestion 5 By their pretending to 5. Way and according to this doctrine their usurping of the power of the Militia both by sea and land 6 By their actuall exercising of this power 6. Way in disposing of Offices Generals Colonels Captains and the like places of command in War and appointing their Speaker Master of the Rolls and other Officers of Peace 6 By the expression of one of them to Sir Edward Dering 7. Way while he was yet of their Cabinet Counsell that if they could bring down the Lords to the House of Commons and make the King as one of the Lords then the whole worke were done that is to make the Government of this Kingdom popular 8 I may adde to these 8. Way as another unanswerable Argument of this Designe the licencing of Master Pryn's Book of The soveraigne Authoritie of Parliaments and suffering the same to passe unquestioned to this very day because that Booke devesteth the King of all his Soveraigntie and maketh our Government Aristecraticall And this subversion of our Monarchicall Government was the last Designe if not the grand Designe of this Faction not that all the Members which have voted all or most of those things that tended to this change or be still remaining in either House did intend any ill either to Church or State for I know many especially my ever honoured Lord the Earle of Pembroke and Montgomery who I dare avouch it in truth and honestie did ever and as I beleeve doth still bear a most upright heart and as sincere intentions how soever perhaps by a misunderstanding his Lordship and the rest of those well meaning men may be misguided as were those honest men that followed Absolon both to Gods Service the Kings Honour and the happinesse both of Church and Common-wealth as any man in the Kingdom but that a Faction it may be very few at first have insensibly seduced the rest to effect their own Designe and this Faction is all that I mean by the name of Parliament throughout this whole Treatise because their subtiltie hath prevailed over the plain integritie of the other well-minded men to make up the major part of the House both of the Lords and Commons which thing hath often happened both in Generall Councels and great Parliaments as in the Councel of Constans and Trent and many others and that Parliament which was branded with the name of Parliamentum insanum and the other somewhat like this Tempore Hen. 3. in quo jngulum Ecclesiae atrociùs petebatur and the like for otherwise I do both honour and reverence this Parliament rightly understood and every Member of the same as much as any discreet Member can desire And therefore having thus discovered and displayed the Plots and practices of