A DISCOVRSE CONCERNING THE GROVNDS CAVSES of this miserable civill war Wherein Ireland is exhausted England wasted and Scotland likely to be imbroyled and wherein not only Liberty but Religion is endangered c. KING CHARLES was within few late yeeres quietly possest of three flourishing Kingdomes and for a while as his subjects seerned to enjoy all the blandishments of peace under his raigne to the envie of other Nations so hee appear'd eminently glorious in the inviolable loyalty and obedience of his subjects â—o the inciting of envie amongst other Princes But to that serene delightfull calme a most dismall tempest hath since succeeded and in so short a traverse of time a more wofull desperate Catastrophe then this which now confounds both King and subjects was scarce ever brought about in any other Country All our gamesome Holidayes past seeme now to us like the sleepe of Ionah in the ship the trance thereof only lockt up our senses for a while that we might be betrayed to the greater horror and amazement when the incursion of unexpected ralamities should immediatly seize us under so dead and stupid a condition Ireland already is become as sad a spectacle as the ruthlesse hand of war ever made any since Vespasians dayes and England though it sinkes a little more slowly yet is in the posture of sinking and is not to be supported but by a divine hand more then ordinary and lastly Scotland is but one degree onely more removed from destruction The greater the Popish faction is in Scotland and the more potent that Court-party there is which suggests to it selfe probable advantages out of the shipwrack of broken England the more inevitably is that Nation owned and destin'd to the same ruine as England let not dreames infatuate she must expect the same line to be stretched over her as England has if she prevent not her fate by some sisterly assistance whilest it is thus distant she shall certainly unpitied perish at its neerer approach But the Question is Whence did these unnaturall broyles spring and arise Hath the Kings misgovernment or the Nations rebellious disposition caused these sudden distempers has all this discord beene stirr'd principally by Ecclesiasticall or Civill Persons and have their ends been temporall or spirituall How does that commotion which was in Scotland differ in cause from ours in England or this in England from that in Ireland Has it beene the same designe carryed on for many yeeres together from whose maturity at length all our troubles in all the three Nations have been derived Or have the Scots occasionally aimed at one thing the Irish at another and the English at another If the Rebels in Ireland and the Parliament in England have purposes diametrically opposite how is it that the King protests against both how comes it that he wages a war upon the Parliament that is as favourable to the Irish as destructive to the English And if the Scots and the English propose the same thing how is it that the English are thus implacably Prosecured whilest the Scots are friendly intreated How is it that Papists are so far united yea even in Ireland where they pretend for the King contrary to the acknowledgement of our Court yet all of them move undevided and in England where they fight for the King and are accordingly entertained and allowed so to doe yet still they are unanimous whereas Protestants hold no perfect correspondence any where in Ireland they joyne against Papists yet favour the Papists cause in England and in England they fight under Popish Banners and by consequence maintaine the Romish faith both in England and Ireland And if these miseries have beene not meere late accidentall events but the studyed and prepared accomplishments and productions of divers former yeeres then whether is' t more probable that the Parliament hath beene this long time busie in plotting against the Court or the Court against the Parliament To give satisfaction to all men in all these Queeries will be difficult but to give satisfaction to all honest Protestants and to convince all our most subtill enemies be they Protestants or Papists will not be impossible and therefore my utmost skill shal endevour it And if this age will not give me credit therein I am certaine the next will I will commandingly say That it shall without dissent and deniall receive and acknowledge these truths which I now deliver The sonnes of the Iewes erected Trophyes and built Monuments of honour for those Prophets which had been stoned in the ages before and yet at the same time perhaps they maliciously murdered the true successors of the same Prophets such difference is there betwixt the evidence of present and past truth neverthelesse I shall for the present lye the lesse obnoxious to contradiction or distrust because I shall not so much insist upon conjectures or nude averments of my owne as the censures of strangers and Papists and the judgements of other Statesmen whose partiality herein is the lesse to be suspected The great tyranie and usurpation of Roman Prelates who to purchase to themselves an Ecclesiasticall Empire more large and uncontroleable then any temporall Monarch ever challenged had perverted Religion and innovated the whole frame of Christianity began to be discovered to many in England about 120 yeeres since Henry the eighth also so farre as his owne Crowne was concerned therein was willing to countenance the discovery but as for a totall reformation of Religion or redemption of his subjects liberty from popish thraldome no such thought ever entred into his breast 'T was indifferent to him on the same day and in the same place to hang a Papist maintaining the Popes supremacy and to burne a Protestant denying those corruptions of Religion whereupon that supemacy was founded so indigested and rude a Chaos of Doctrine was that which he sought to authorise and to daub over with his untempered morter Edward the sixth by a more blessed illumination set himselfe to pull downe the whole fabricke and to raze the very foundation of Hierarchy and had it not been a worke of more yeeres then it pleased God to adde to his life hee surely had not left one stone upon another Queen Mary set her selfe as entirely to repaire the Popes Empire as her brother did to ruine it yea even to the effusion of much blood with a more fierce zeale she laboured in it and had not death overtaken her and the hand of God otherwise crossed her perhaps no hopes had been left for a new restauration under her successor Queen Elizabeth with as perfect an integrity as either her brothers was in maintenance of truth or her sisters in maintenance of superstition applyed her selfe and her utmost power to restore Religion againe in full conformity to her brother and opposition to her sister Two admirable Councellors she had Cecyll and Bacon both cordiall and totally addicted to the Protestant Religion the honour of whom leaves her honour unquestionable
tempters to our Saviour all these royalties and glories will I bestow upon you but with this proviso that you then prostrate your selves to serve me but what is that service which he requires that they may endure a baser vassallage under him then their Subjects do under them On the contrary the Protestant Religion seasons us with such unstained loyalty that Princes do presume thereupon fear the lesse to grieve provoke us as by Contzens the Jesuits advertisements the practice of divers Princes in Europe of late is testified too clearly well may we wonder then at the frontlesse impudence of such Papists as upbraide Protestants with disobedience to Magistracy especially when they charge it as a sin resulting issuing out of the Protestant principles themselves What doth Barclay imagine of his readers stupidity when in his book contra Monarchomachos he inveighes against his countrey man Buchanan as injurious to Royalty and imputes this as an effect or product of the Protestant Religion His Relgion was ever infamous for excommunicating murthering deposing Princes and imbruing nations in unnatuall treasonable execrable warres whereas the Protestant Religion equally abhorres both cruelty in princes and disloyalty in Subiects aiming at nothing but that Kingly prerogative and popular liberty may be even ballanced and yet this foule railer here inverts nature calling white black and black white The King of England hath some Subiects wherein none hath an interest but himself and he hath other Subiects wherein the Pope hath an interest as well as himself the first are English the second are Irish in whether Nations loyalty he may rather confide I cannot tell for at this present he bends himself with more violence against the Englsh then Irish but the end will reveal to the confusion of his malignant seducers that there was nothing but fidelity in English Protestants nor nothing but perfidie in Irish Papists I shall use no other instances If there be any curse impendent over the Nation both King and People it is this that this truth is not yet sufficiently credited and acknowledged But to our present negotiation again it seemed to our Venetian that the King aimed at such a dispensation from the Pope as that his Catholick Subiests might resort to our Protestant Churches and take the oath of Supremacy and fidelity and that the Popes iurisdiction here should be declared to be but of humane right c. but what needed the King to seek these things from the Pope or what hope was there to obtaine them at all and if they were to be obtained but not without the losse of other things ten times more precious and profitable to the King what advantage was in them We cannot apprehend that the King should expect any good from Rome of himself some strong inchanting solicitation there must be to induce him and that by such as aimed not at his but their own interests and this our Venetian layes open and makes clear enough for he tells us that the Court of Rome treated according to its own maxime and in pursuance of its old pretences The Popes end was temporall grandour and what coâ—ld all the Popes vassalls here more expect then his advancement but the Pope and his party were but Treaters of one side the question is who were Treaters on the other side and what it was which they were to treate for This question is without question for the Merchants of our side were our Preâ—ates some whereof being single were to be made Cardinalls and others were to receive pensions from Rome as our Venetian tells us The Protestant Religion doth not so much affect the outward opulence pomp and splendour of the Church that is of Clergy men as the Popish doth and therefore the main body of the Clergy and the Universities have been long conspiring to alter Religion at least in that point and rather then faile in that they care not how they debosh the Church inducing an hotohpodge as Mr. Cheynell has well observed of Arminianisme Popery Socinianisne any thing rather then a plaine Gospell If Canterbury may not be allowed to be Alterius Orbis Papa as some of his predecessors were called and as able to give check to the Crowne of England and if Scholars generally may not insult and lord it in Church and state as the use was amongst our ignorant forefathers they will make a league with Rome nay with hell it self rather then endure it The Religion of Scotland is a nasty invention the discipline of Geneva is a profaine confusion the City of London is a nest of Anabaptists the Parliament a croud of croundheads All Protestants that are not for beautified Altars gilt Organs clinquant copes are worse Christians then the Romish Catholicks how soever the true Protestant desires not to see the Clergy despicable or the house of God to be without bread or order confounded in the Church these are scandals invented to make all men odious that are not addicted to the Popish gaity tyranny of Priests That Reformation which the Parliament aimes at will avoide all unjustice and extreames and if the Clergy stand not in their own light Religion will flourish and the Church prosper better then they have done hitherto for the Vine which is the most naturall resemblance of the Church that can be proves equally unfertile by luxuriance when her branches for want of pruning spread abroad too wildly as it does by indurance when shee bleeds two prodigally under the dressers knife And this cannot be unknowne to the Parliament 5 We come now to vew the true obstickles and impeâ—chments of this Reconciliation one hindrance was Sr. Toby Mathewes his ambition who thinking his imployment lessned and his person cheapened by the comming over of feig Panzani and not finding such compliance from Panzani as he expected openly expressed himselfe an adversary to his undertakings the great stomack also of the Jesuites who before had the sway at Court did not well brook a lay Legate here in England and if the reconciliation thrived they did perhaps feare that the English Nation might rather incline to favour the seculars then themselves Then the Pope doubtlesse with reverence be it spoken to his infallibility was a little too majesticall at first in his moving towards us he saw us so precipitate in our pace towards him that he thought he himself might safely stand upon rigorous punctilio's The King required from the Pope onely such naturall allegiance of his subjects as other Catholicke Princes use to have paid them without futher distinguishing and yet his holinesse did conceive it was too much to tolarate this oath for the assurance of that His holinesse thought it rather fit that the very words formerly conceived and enacted by the states of the whole kingdome should be presently expunged or altered and though the King was contented to qualifie and correct the letter of the law by a milder declaration and interpretation yet even that was not held satisfaction
enough In the next place also our Prelates were contented to allow the Pope a priority above all Bishops but a superiority seemed more then due especially in England the Arch Bishop was resolved to be the supream Ordinary himself and yet his holines did not thinke it agreeable to his Vice-Godship to admit of that honour as due to the Arch-Bishop The dispute was not whether the Arch-Bishop should execute that office in his own name and right or by allowance and deputation from the Pope nor was there any clause of salvo jure to either of them as yet thought on these were tender points not to be insisted on too roughly at such a time as this when bothsides were so far resolved of a reconciliation before hand There must be a more mind and easie way of composing things then so for as the Pope had rather we should remaine Protestants and so desperate of salvation then that his supremacy should be too farre impeached so Canterbury had rather we should not turne Papists then that his Primacie should be too farre disabled The bargain therefore at first unqualified was thus The Pope demanded to have a Legate in England that should be a Bishop and not favour the oath of Allegiance on the other side the King here would have the oath of allegiance favoured and the Bishops thought it needlesse for the Pope to have any other agents or deputies here besides themselves This difference could hardly be composed all the time of Seig. Panzani but at last the Bishops durst not wholly neglect the Kings interest and so the oath of allegiance was included in the bargain and the King would not oppose the Bishops interest and so a lay Legate was agreed upon and it was for the Popes honour that a Legate should be for the saving of his authority and therefore because the Pope could not withstand both King and Bishops such a Legate was agreed upon as should favour the oath yet be no Bishop It was pressed home to the Pope that the Archbishop and his party were passionate seekers of this Reconciliation and in order and preparation thereunto had already brought in many Rites Ceremonies and Doctrines nearly approching the Church of Rome and that if the work were not speeded during his life time greater difficulties and re-incounters were likely to interpose after his death and yet for a good space the Pope thought the conditions too unequall So little weight and proportion did the soules of millions hold in comparison of one temporall flower of the popes garland and therefore Panzanies skill and industry for a whole yeare could scarce master these animosities and facilitate the businesse for his next successours neverthelesse the Pope at last grew more a Courtier and stooped a little to a smoothy cōpliance by his more crafty ministers Con Rosetti and now the plot of the agreement is perfected and there wants nothing but the putting of it into execution Without a effected but by their utter subversion the wished reconciliation could not yet be consummated and the Puritanes being the greater part of the Kingdome by farre this taske must needs be very cumbersome Confession as our Venetian heard say was a thing held fit to be urged upon us by violence but fear of commotion hindered it and we may very probably conjecture that some other grosser points of Popery had been obtruded upon us also by the higher powers but that the cursed indisposition of the Puritanes was such that there was great hazzard in the attempt Howsoever our stout Prelates were not out of all hope of carrying their designe either by fraud or force or a mixture of both and therefore seeing things so equally poized in England Scotland and Ireland they were resolved that no meere hazzard should wholly deter them from adventuring the utmost Scotland appeared wholly almost puritanicall but to counterpoise that Ireland appeared as generally Popish and for England though the major part there was puritanicall yet the more potent in place and authority and the more exquisite in subtilti◠or rather treachery was Popish or Protestant that is inclined to combine with Papists and therfore in all this there was little odds to disanimate them neither was their any feare of forraign forces for under the deceitfull pretence of our head-ship and association the Protestants in Germany and France were allready much weakned and betrayed and made jealous of adhering to us they being brought to such a condition that they could not helpe themselves at home much lesse annoy enemies abroad Also the King of Denmarke and Prince of Aurange though Protestants yet were Polititians and therfore the interest of Royalty would questionles prevaile more with them then the interest of Religion It would please them better to see the Prerogative gained in England to the damage of Religion then religion to prosper by the diminution of Prerogative It onely remains then that in England they plotted Reconciliation be first put in execution and advanced by as slow insensible degrees as may be and great art must be used when Churches Altars c. beg in to be decored be made to believe not that popery is to be induced but that a faire reconciliation between both Churches is to be procured and not that Protestantisme is to be at all in any considerable matter changed but that Puritanisme be exterminated Also when not onely faire allurements but the two great Carnificines of the Land The Star-Chamber and High-Commission have by rigor prevailed as far as may be and when by all other meanes the English are inured and familiarized to some popish rites under the faire pretence of conforming to Reverend Antiquity Then the Scots who are not so apt to be inamoured with the splendor and pomp of Church-men as we are must be by all meanes assailed and urged to union and conformity with the Church of England And because it is expected that the Scots should be more jealous of the least incroachments of Poperie and more adventurous to secure themselves in such jealousie and more unanimous in their adventure therefore their countrey is to be made the first Scene of the war And since it would be too grosse to impeach the whole Nation of Puritanisme therefore their crime must be rebellion and the better to imbarque the English in the quarrell that in the Scots they might destroy themselves some new disguise must be put upon the war it must be divulged that in stead of settling Bishops in their Sees and bringing in the English Lyturgie the King has need to be established in his Throne and Scotland to be preserved from Anarchie All the dispute is Whether Subjects may make resistance by force of Arms against a just pious clement Prince the name of Bellum Episcopale is dis-owned the Title of the Lords annoynted will better support the envie of these broyles and it is suggested to the English that both the Lawes and Natives of Scotland are more Antimonarchicall then those