seemes they did unto Master Pym when an Order passed under his sole teste for taking away the Rayles from the Communion Table for this is a course we never heard of in former times 9. 9. The multiplying of their Priviledges When their Priviledges are so infinitely grown and inlarged more than ever they were in former Parliaments and so swelled that they have now swallowed up almost all the priviledges of other men so that they alone must do what they please and where they will in all Cities and in all Courts because they have the Priviledge of Paliament 10. When according to the great libertie of language 10. Their speaking and sâ—…ing in other Courts which we deny them not within their own wall they take the Priviledge to speak what they list in other places and to governe other Courts as they please where as they did in Dublin and do commonly in London they sit as Assistants with them that are priviledged by their Charters to be freed from such Controllers 11. When above all that hath been or can be spoken 11. Their close Committee they have made a close Committee of safetie as they call it which in the apprehension of all wise and honest men is not onely a course most absurd and illegall but also most destructive to all true Priviledges and contrary to the equitable practice of all publique meetings that any one should be excluded from that which concerneth him as well as any of the rest and this Committee onely which consisteth of a very few of the most pragmatical Members of their House must have all intelligences and privie counsels received and reserved among themselves and what they conclude upon must be reported to the House which must take all that they deliver upon trust and with an implicite Roman faith believe all that they say and assent to all that they do onely because these forsooth are men to be confided in upon their bare word The greatnesse of this abuse when their House hath no power to administer an Oath unto any man in the greatest affaires happinesse or destruction of the whole Kingdom for this is in a manner to make these men Kings more than the Roman Consuls and so as great a breach of Priviledge and abuse of Parliament as derogatory to his Majestie that called them to consult together and as injurious to all the people as can be named or imagined CHAP. XIV Sheweth how they have transgressed the publike lawes of the Land three wayes and of foure miserable consequences of their wicked doings 2. 2. Against the publike laws of the land FOr those publike written and better known laws of this Land they have no lesse violated and transgressed the same than the other and that aswell in their execution and exposition as in their composition for 1. 1. In the execution of the old lawes When they had caused the Archbishop of Canterbury to be committed to the Tower Judge Berkeley to the Sheriffe of London sir George Ratcliffe to the Gate-house for no lesse crimes than high Treason and many other men to some other prisons for some other faults yet all the world seeth how long most of them have beene kept in prison some a yeare some two some almost three and God onely knoweth when these men intend to bring them to their legall tryall which delay of iustice is not only an intolerable abuse to the present subiects of this kingdome to be so long deprived of their liberty upon a bare surmise but also a far greater iniury to all posterity when this president shall be produced to be imitated by the succeeding Parliaments and to iustifie the delayes of all inferiour Iudges 2. 2 In expounding the lawes Whereas wee believe what judge Bracton saith and Judge Britton likewise which lived in the time of Edward the first Si disputatio oriatur justiciarii non possunt eam interpretari sed in dubiis obscuris Domini regis erit expectanda interpretatio voluntas cum ejus sit interpretari cujus est condere Citatur a Domino Elism in post-nati p. 108 if any dispute doth arise the Judges can not interpret the same but in all obscure and doubtfull questions the interpretation and the will of the King is to be expected when as he that makes the law is to bee the expounder and interpreter of the law yet they have challenged and assumed to themselves such a power that their bare Vote without an act of Parliament may expound or alter a knowne law which if it were so they might make the law as Pighius saith of the Scripture like a nose of wax that may bee fashioned and bended as they pleased but we doe constantly maintaine that the House of Commons hath no power to adjudge of any point or matter but to informe the Lords what they conceive and the House of Peeres hath the power of Iudicature which they are bound to doe according to the rules of the knowne established lawes and to that end they have the Judges to informe them of those cases and to explaine those lawes wherein themselves are not so well experienced though now they sit in the House for cyphers even as some Clergie did many times in the Convocation and if any former Statute be so intricate and obscure that the Iudges cannot well agree upon the right interpretation thereof then as in explaining Poynings Act and the like either in England or Ireland the makers of the Act that is the King and the major part of both Houses must explaine the same 3. 3. In composeing and setting forth new laws Whereas we never knew that the House had any power to make Orders and Ordinances to bind any besides their own members to observe them as lawes yet they compell us to obey their orders in a stricter manner than usually we are injoyned by Law and this course to make such binding ordinances as they doe to carry the force though not the name of an Act of Parliament or a Law is a mighty abuse of our lawes and liberties for Sir Edward Cooke tels us plainly that as the constitution of our Government now standeth neither the House of Commons and the King L. Cooke in the preface of the Stat. of Westminster the second Lamberts Archeton 27.1 can make any binding law when the Peeres dissent nor the Lords and King when the Commonalty dissenteth nor yet both Houses without the Kings consent but all three King Peeres and Commons must agree before any coactive law can be composed Nay more it is sufficiently proved that dare jus populo or the legislative power being one principall end of regall authority was in Kings by the law of nature while they governed the people by naturall equity long before municipall lawes or Parliaments had any being for as the Poet saith Remo cum fratre Quirinus jura dabat Virgilius Hoc Priami gestamen erat cum jura
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 prevaling 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 Printed in the Yeare M.DC.XLIII TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTIE Most Gracious Soveraigne THough the wisest man in all the Kingdome of Persia saith great is the truth and stronger then all things yet the father of lies hath now plaid his part so well that as the Prophet saith truth is fallen in the streete and equity cannot enter in and your Majestie whom the God of truth hath anointed his sole vicegerent to be the supreame protector of them both in all your dominions hath accordingly listed up your standard against their enemies and I may truly say of you as Menevensis saith of that most noble King Alfred Si modò victor erat ad crastina bella pavebat Si modò victus erat ad crastina bella parabat Neither doe I beleive that Lucans verse can be applied to any man better then to your Majestie Non te vidère superbum Prospera satorum nec fractum adversa videbunt As the height of your glory and prosperity never swelled your pious heart so your greatest crosses and adversities never dejected your royall spirit But as the Prophet saith of the Captaine of the hoast of the Lord so I say to you that are his Lieutenant ride on with your honour or ride prosperously because of the word of truth of meekenesse and righteousnesse the people shal be subdued unto you and because the King putteth his trust in the Lord and in the mercy of the most highest he shall not miscarry especially while he fighteth as he doth the battaile of the Lord in defence of the Church of Christ who hath promised to be his shield and buckler which is the daily faithfull prayer of Your Majesties most loyally devoted Subject and most faithfully obliged servant GR. OSSORY To the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of ENGLAND Most deare Christian Brethren and fellow Subjects I Call God for a record upon my soule that I have proceeded in this Discovery of Mysteries to discharge my duty as my conscience directeth me and if I perish Iperish the Lord hath hitherto most mercifully preserved mee I have read of an ingratefull begger that when a pious man seeing his nakednesse and having a full web of cloth did freely give him as much as was requisite to make him a faire garment yet he was no wayes satisfied therewith but would have violently snatched all the web in despite of the right owners teeth and shall we that have so freely received so many acts of grace from our King more then ever any other King hath granted exact so much more as to make him no King In the life of Henry 3. presented to King Iames pag. 29. Choron Santh Albam or a King of no power like Henry the 3. in the Parliament at Oxford where the good King met so many undutifull demands that he was forced to render up to their rebellious will his royall power and when others managed the State he was left a cypher alas who hath bewitched us when men do rent the regall justice they make themselves of so many Subjects whilst they live in duty totidem tyrannos when they have left their loyalty and promises made by men which can not say they are at liberty are weake when force hath no power to make a just interest Therefore let not a faction prevaile to destroy us all I assure my selfe most of our two Houses of Parliament are very noble and very pious and many of them would willingly yeild to His Majesties perswasions for accōmodation but our Saviour saith a little leaven leaveneth the whole lumpe and a small faction may insensibly seduce if it were possible the very elect I will appeale to your owne consciences if we have not a most religious and a most gratious King if he hath not aboundantly granted his favours to all this Kingdome if the faction doth not still demand what he may lawfully and ought justly to deny then I beseech you let me not become your enemy for speaking truth let not the kingdome be made more miserable and the Church more despicable by your assisting of such a faction to the new moulding of them and let it not be thought strange that we beleeve one seditious schismatique in a Parliament may prove a treacherous rebell against his King and this Traytor may possibly seduce many those many not unlikely to prevaile to infect the major part of both Houses and if so * Shall we deeme them a Parliament and thinke it fitter to have them Jvdged by themselves then by the knowne lawes of the land then the first plotters of so great a mischeife having so far transcended the limits of truth and justice to wound their consciences and to confound the State that they know not how to retire and thinke they can not finde grace is it any wonder that such men with Iudas run on from bad to worse from worse to worst of all till at last they come to the highest step that hell can teach them But we being Gods olive though some of the Branches be broken off Rom. 11.17 yet I hope God hath not cast away his people and therefore if you take not pleasure in wickednesse and love not to become more miserable let us all feare God honour the King forsake the rebels and defend the Church so the God of all mercy will yet be mercifull unto us that we shall finde grace both with God and our King which is the hearty prayer of Your most affectionate Christian brother that doth most heartily wish your happinesse GR. OSSORY Christian Reader AS this Treatise was ready for the Presse I lighted upon Os ossorianum wherein I saw neither learning nor truth nor modesty nor honesty nor any one thing worth reply but a most distempered rage and moody choler that transported the silly man beyond his sence for omitting those his rarest passages which some discreete welwiller of the man collected in
for we know full well from the practise of all former parliaments that seeing the three States are subordinate unto the king p. 48 in making lawes wherein the chiefest power consisteth they may propound and consent but it is stil in the kings power to refuse or ratifie and I never read that any parliament man till now did ever say the contrary but that if there be no concurrence of the king in whom formally the power of making of any law resideth ut in subiecto to make the law the two Houses whose consent is but a requisite condition to compleat the kings power are but a livelesse convention like two cyphets without a figure that of themselves are of no value or power but ioyned unto their figures have the full strength of their places p 19 20 21 which is confirmed by the viewer of the Observations out of 11. Hen. 7.23 per Davers Polydore 185. Cowell inter Verbo prerog Sir Tho. Smith de republ Angl. l. 2. c. 3. Bodin l. 1. c. 8. for if the kings consent were not necessary for the perfecting of every act then certainly as another saith all those Bills that heretofore have passed both Houses The Letter to a Gentleman in Gloucester shite p 3 and for want of the Royall assent have slept and beene buried all this while would now rise up as so many lawes and statutes and would make as great confusion as these new orders and ordinances have done And as the Lawyers tell us that the necessity of the assent of all three states in Parliament Lamberts Archeion 271. Vid. he Viewes p. 21. is such as without any one of them the rest doe but loose their labour so Le Roy est assentus câ—o faict un act de Parliament and as another saith Nihil ratum haâ— betur nisi quod Rex comprobarit nothing is perfected but what the King confirmeth But here in the naming of the three States I must tell you that I find in most of our Writers about this new-borne question of the Kings power a very great omission that they are not particularly set downe that the whole Kingdome might know which is every one of them and upon this omission I conceive as great mistake in them that say the three States are 1. the King 2. the House of Peeres 3. Which hee the three States of England the House of Commons for I am informed by no meane Lawyer that you may find it upon the Rowles of Hen. 5. as I remember and I am sure you may find it in the first yeare of Rich. 3. where the three States are particularly named and the king is none of them for it is said that at the request Speed l 9 c 19 p. 712. Anno 1 Ric. 3 and by the assent of the three estates of this Realm that is to say the Lords Spirituall the Lords temporall and Commons of the Land assembled it is declared that our said Soveraign Lord the king is the very undoubted king of this realm wherein you may plainly see the king that is acknowledged their Soveraigne by all three can be none of the three but is the head of all three as the Deane is none of the Chapter but is caput cepituls and as in France and Spaine so in England I conceive the three estates to bee 1. the Lords Spirituall that are if not representing yet in loco in the behalte of all the Clergie of England that till these anabaptisticall tares have almost choaked all the Wheat in Gods field were thought so considerable a party as might deserve as well a representation in Parliament as old Sarum or the like Borough of scarce twenty Houses 2. The Lords Temporall in the right of their honour and their posterity 3. The Commons that are elected in the behalfe of the Countrey Cities and Burroughs and what these three States consult and conclude upon for the good of the Church and kingdome the king as the head of all was either to approve or reiect what he pleased and though we finde with some difficulty as the viewer of the Observations saith where the Parliament is said to be a body consisting of King Lords and Commons ergo without the king there is no Parliament yet herein the king is not said to be one of the three states but the first and most principall part that constitutes the body of the parliament p. 2â— 25. H 8 21. but John Bodin that had very exactly learned the nature of our parliament both by his reading and conferring with our English Embassador as himselfe confesseth saith the States of England are never otherwise assembled no more then they are in the Realmes of France and Spaine then by parliament write and the states proceed not but by way of supplications and requests unto the king Bodin de repub l. 1. c. 8 and the states have no power of themselves to determine or decree any thing seeing they cannot so much as assemble themselves nor being assembled depart without expresse commandement from the king In all this and for all the search that I have made I finde not the king named to be one but rather by the consequence of the discourse to bee none of the three but as I said the head of all the three states for either the words of Bodin must bee understood of two states in all the three kingdomes which then had beene more properly termed as we call them either the two Houses or the Lords and Commons or else they must be very absurd because the three states if the king be one of them can not bee said to be called by parliament writs when as the king is called by no writ nor can hee be said to supplicate unto himselfe or to have no power to depart without leave that is of himself Therefore it must needs follow that this learned man who would speake neither absurdly nor improperly meant by the three states 1. The Lords Spirituall 2. The Lords Temporall 3. The Commons of the kingdome and the King as the head of all calling them consulting and concluding with them and dismissing them when he pleased And Will. Martyn saith King Hen 1 at the same time 1114. devised and ordained the manner and fashion of a Court in Parliament appointing it to consist of the three estates of which himselfe was the head so that his lawes being made by the consent of all were not disliked of any these are his words And I am informed by good Lawyers that you may finde it in the preambles of many of our Statutes and in the body of some other Statutes and in some Petitions especially one presented to Queene Elizabeth for the inlargement of one that was committed for a motion that he made for excluding the Bishops out of the House of peeres Such is the difference betwixt Queene Elizabeths time and our times the three states are thus particularized and the Lords Spirituall are nominated
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
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
thing they say they get many of them to be accused of High-Treason and they doe but accuse them and not proceed to any tryall against them which was a pretty plot of their policie because that hereby they kept them and the rest of their fellow Judges that had any finger in the missentenceing of the Ship-money and were therefore in the same predicament and to be under the same censure under the lash and to be still silent for very feare of their proceeding against them for they saw by many presidents that those men which favoured their designe or contradicted not their wayes were winked at by this Faction though they were the greatest Delinquents and therefore redimere se captos to free themselves out of the hands of these men they might conceive it their safest course to gain-say none of their conclusions which was a plot of no small value to further their designe by this removall of this second impediment 3. The third impediment of their designe The third let that stood in their way to make stop of their impious designe was the royall power to dissolve the present Parliament as formerly to dissolve any other which they knew to be an inseperable flower of the Crowne timor undique nostris this brought them in feare on every side lest if they were too soone discovered they might suddainly be prevented and their plot might prove abortive like the untimely fruit of a woman that perisheth before it seeth the Sun or as the apples of Sodome vanishing when they are touched into nothing or at the best but to stinking blasts therefore to escape this rocke they saile about and like cunning water-men they looke towards you when they row from you their eyes and mouthes are one way when their hearts and mindes are another way for they tell the King that the discontinuance of Parliaments hath produced aboundance of distempers in this State and a world of grievances both in the Church and Common-wealth besides they say The faire pretences for the continuance of he Parliament what the King and every man else saw to be true that the Scots were entred into our Land and setled in the bosome of this Kingdome and though perhaps if some things had beene better looked into we mought at first most easily have kept them out yet now duriùs ejicitur quà m non admittitur hostis it was too late to shut the doore and it is not so easie to expell and drive them out except we made them a bridge of gold to passe over the river and so to goe homewards againe And this cannot be done without a great deale of money which moneys though the Parliament should grant them as we are most willing to doe to free your Majestie from these guests and to prevent the dangers of an intestine warre yet they cannot suddenly be levyed and collected as the times and occasions now required therefore it must be borrowed to supply our present necessities and lenders we shall finde none except we can shew them a way how they shall be repaid againe and the experience we have lately had in these latter yeares of so many Parliaments so unhappily suddenly dissolved puts us out of all hope to finde any way to secure their debts except your Majestie will passe an Act for as yet they durst not say they needed not His assent to what they did that this Parliament shall not be dissolved untill it be agreed upon by the consent of both Houses This and the like were their faire pretences How the King was seduced by their pretences like the Syrens voices very sweet and very good and the good King that ever spake as he thought could not thinke that His great Councell whom He trusted with all the affaires of His Kingdome meant any otherwise then they said or looked any further then they shewed Him Hee never dream'd that they intended to have an everlasting Parliament and so perfidiously to over-reach both the King and the Kingdome But though our gracious King being not so much versed with the dissembling subtilty and serpentine windings of wicked hypocrites that are to be removed from the King and expelled out of His house supposed all them to meane syncerely and to deale fairely as they seemed to doe yet I doe admire that the wisedome of the Kings Councell but that they which as the Apostle saith are not ignorant of the devices of Satan are not permitted by these men to be of His Councell could not espie what mischiefe might lurke under this faire shade or what might be the consequences of such a Parliament that is inconsistent with a Monarchy and therefore must in a convenient time be ended or else will make an end of all Monarchicall government why then might not a yeare or two or three or more so the yeares were limited suffice to determine all businesses but that the life of this Parliament should be endlesse and the continuance thereof undetermined this is beyond the age of the Councell of Trent that they say lasted above 40 yeares for I presume if some of the contrivers of this designe might have their desires the youngest of us should hardly see the Dissolution of this Parliament What the faction could be contented with Complaint p. 19. till the earthly Houses of our Tabernacles be dissolved for it is likely they could be well contented as one saith to make an Ordinance that both Houses should be a Corporation to take our lands and goods to themselves and their successours and when any of that Corporation dieth toties quoties the surviver and none else should choose a successour to perpetuity so they should be Masters of our estates and disposers of all we have as they are now for ever and therefore this was a plot beyond the powder plot and beyond the device of Semiramis that with a lovely face desired her husband she might rule but 3 dayes to see how well she could mannage the State and obtaining her request in the first thereof she removed all the Kings officers in the second she placed her owne minions in all the places of power and authority as now the faction would doe such as they confide in The plot of Semiramis in all places of strength and in the third day she cut off the Kings head and assumed the government of all the Kings Dominions into her owne hands for not 3 dayes nor 3 yeares will serve their turne for feare they shall not have ability in so short a space to finish all their strange intended projects and therefore that they might not be hindered their request is unlimited that the Parliament should not be dissolved till both Houses gave consent which they were contented should be ad Graecas Calendas Yet God that knew best what punishments were due to be inflicted for their former actions and for all the subtle devices of their hard hearts gave way for this also that this third Impediment of
their projects might be removed that so at last their sinnes like the sinnes of the Amorites by little and little growing unto the full might undergo the fulnesse of Gods vengeance which as yet I feare was not fully come to passe for till the Parliament was made perpetuall the things that they have done since were absolutely unimaginable because that while it was a dissoluble body How the faction hath strengthened it selfe they durst not so palpably invade the knowne rights either of King or Subjects whereas now their body being made indissoluble they need not have the same apprehension of either having strengthened themselves by a Bill against the one and by an Army against the other and therefore all the dissolutions of Parliaments from the beginning of them to this time have not done halfe that mischeife as the continuâ—ance of this one hath done hitherto and God onely knowes what is to succeed hereafter But seeing themselves have publiquely acknowledged in their Declarations that they were too blame if they undertooke any thing now which they would not undertake if it were in His Majesties power to dissolve them the next day and they have since used this meanes which was given them to disburthen the Common-wealth of that debt which was thought insupportable What many wise men do say to plunge it irrevocably into a farre greater debt to the ruine of the whole Kingdome to change the whole frame of our government and subjecting us to so unlimited an arbitrary power that no man knowes at the sitting of the House what he shall be worth at the riseing or whether he shall have his liberty the next day or imprisonment many wise men doe say they see no reason that this trust being forfeited and the faith reposed in them betrayed the King may not immediately re-assume that power of dissolving them into his owne hands againe and both our unjustly abused King and out much injured people declare this act to be void when as contrary to their owne faith and the trust of the King they abuse it to overthrow the fundamentall Lawes of this Kingdome though I could heartily wish that because it still carrieth the countenance of a Law the faction would be so wise as to yeeld it to be presently dissolved by a Law CHAP. IV. Sheweth the abilities of the Bishops the threefold practice of the faction to exclude them out of the House of Peeres and all the Clergy out of all civill Judicature 4. THere was one stop more that might hinder The fourth impediment of their designe or at least hardly suffer their plots to succeed according to their hearts desire and that is the Bishops votes in the upper House nay they cannot endure to call it so but in the House of the Lords for they rightly considered therein these 2 speciall things 1. their number 2. their abilities which are 2. maine things to stop and hinder many evils For 1. They had 26. voices which was a very considerable number and might stop a great gap and stay the streame or at least moderate the violence of any unjust prosecution 2. They were men of great learning men of profound knowledge both in divine and humane affaires and men well educated a cunabulis that spent all their time in books and were conversant with the dead that feared not to speake the truth and have wearied themselves in reading Histoties comparing Lawes The abilities of the Bishops and considering the affaires of all Common-wealthes and so were able if their modesty did not silence them to discourse de quolibet ente to untie every knot and to explaine every riddle and being the immediate servants of the living God set apart as the Apostle speaketh to offer Sacrifice and to administer the Sacraments of God to prepare a people for the Kingdome of heaven it ought not and it cannot be otherwise imagined by any child of the Church that is a true beleever but that they are men of conscience to speake the truth and to doe justice in any cause and betwixt any parties more then most others especially those young Lords and Gentlemen whose yeares do want experience Pardon mee good Lords for so plainly speaking truth and the course of their lives some in hawking and hunting and others in dicing and bowling and visiting blacke-friers play-house or perhaps in worser exercises doth sufficiently shew how weake their judgement must needs be in great affaires and how imperfect their conscience is as yet in holy things I hope not to be preferred before these grave and reverend men And therefore lest these grave men should prove great hinderances of their unjust proceedings before any of their worst intentions be well perceived there must be an exclusion of them from Parliament and from those Lords whose consciences and knowledge they may then the better captivate and bring them the sooner to side with them for to effect their great designe And it is a world of wonders to see with what subtlety and industry with what policy and villanie this one worke must be effected It would fill a volume to collect the particulars of their Devices I will reduce them to these heads 1. They used all meanes to render them odious in the eyes of all people 2. A threefold practice against the Bishops They brought the basest and the refuse of all men watermen porters and the worst of all the apprentices with threats and menaces to thunder forth the death and destruction of these men 3. Upon a pretended treason they caused 12 of them besides the Arch-Bishop that was in the Tower before to be clapt up at once into prison where they kept them in that strong house untill they got it enacted that they should be excluded from the upper House and both they and their Clergy should be debarred from the administration of any secular act of Justice in the common-wealth 1. They endeavoured to make them odious unto the people 2 wayes 1. In making that Order or giving that notice unto the people that any man might exhibit his complaint against scandalous Ministers 1 To make the odious tvvo wayes 1 Way and he should be heard which invitation of all discontented sheepe to throw dirt in their Pastors faces was too palpably malicious for our Saviour told us we should be sent as sheepe into the mids of wolves but here is a sending for the wolves to destroy the Shepheards and it came to passe hereby that no lesse then 900 complaints and petitions were brought in a very short space as I was informed by some of their owne House that feelingly misliked these undue proceedings against many Learned and most faithfull servants of Jesus Christ that were therefore hated because they were not wicked The Ministers why persecuted and persecuted because they were conformable to the Lawes of the King and the Church And the rest of our calling that were factious seditious were both countenanced and applauded
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
so truly religious and void of hypocrisie in their profession as she most gracious Queene is in her religion then they say the Bishops are all Papists Deanes and Prebends are of the same stampe and all the Kings Chapleines that were preferred by the Archbishop were either close papists or profest Arminians which are but Cosen germanes unto the other Arminianism being but a bridge to passe over unto popery And with these and the like false slanders against the King Queene and Clergy they so bewitehed most of their well meaning brethren of the same house and amazed all the simplet sort of people of this Kingdome with these feares and filled them with such jealousies with those pamphlets that they caused to be printed and dispersed every where that they were at their wits end for feare of this lamentable alteration of their religion and deprivation of their liberties 2 2. The Cure The disease being thus spread like a gangrene over all the parts of the body of this Kingdome they like skilfull Physitians devise the cure and that is the preparation of a Militia and this militia they would have put into such hands as they pleased such as they might confide in and I wish the whole Kingdome knew who those men were and who they are that they doe confide in for I know 1. Some of them are poore men of most desperate fortunes if bankrupters may be termed such 2. Others to be most factious and scismaticall men addicted to Anabaptisme and Brownisme and other worser sects as amongst the London Commanders Ven Manwaring Fawlke Norington Bradly Bast and the rest whereof there are twise as many schismaticall and as it is conceived beggarly sectaries as are right honest men among them and if we looked among their Lords and all the rest of their nomination throughout the Kingdome I doubt we shall find some of them to be just of the same condition And because the King to whose care and trust God had committed all the people of this Kingdom and not to them that are called by the King and chosen only by men and that only for this time and of whom he will require an account of the lawes and religion whereof he made him keeperand defender and not of them thought most rightly that this Militia should be commited rather to such men as he might confide in as it was in the raigne of Queene Elizabeth and His Father of ever blessed memory rather than to any that they should name which was to disrobe himselfe of all his regall power of the chiefest garland of his royall prerogatives without which he could hold his Crown by no better a tenure then durante beneplacito and to put the sword out of his owne hand into the hands of them that could not love him because they could not trust him as they alleaged and what reason had he to trust them that were causelesly so distrustfull of him they startled at this deniall And because the King of heaven had by this time opened the Kings eyes God openeth the Kings eyes to let him see what hitherto he could hardly imagine that these men to whom he had granted for the good of his Kingdome so many acts of grace and favour as never any King of England did before and had very graciously offered to commit to the hands of their owne choosing so large a share of the Militia as might have rendered the whole Kingdome most secure if security in a iust and legall way had beene all that they sought for had their intentions far otherwise then they pretended and that not only the government of the Church was intended to be altered and the governours thereof destroyed but himself also was hereby disrobed of those rights which God and the lawes of the land had put into his hands and the Kingdome brought either into a base tyranny or confused anarchie when all things shall be done according to the arbitrary power of these factious and schismaticall men therefore he utterly refused to grant their desires and most wisely withstood their designe Whereupon these men put their heads together How they strengthened themselves to make their ordors firm with out the king to consult how they might strengthen themselves and make their ordinances firme and binding without the King and to that purpose having by their former doings gotten too great an interest as well in the faith as in the affections of the people in confidence of their owne strength they came roundly to the businesse and what they knew was not their right as their former Petitions can sufficiently witnesse they resolve to effect the same by force but as insensibly as they can devise as 1. To seize upon the Kings Navie to secure the Seas 2. To lay hold upon all the Kings Magazin Forts Townes and Castles 3. To with-hold his moneyes and revenues and all other meanes from the King 4. To withdraw the affections and to poyson the loyalty of all his Majesties Subjects from him And hereby they thought and it must have beene so indeed Psa 30 6 except the Lord had beene on his side they had made their hill so strong that it could not be moved and the King so weake and destitute of all meanes that he could no wayes subsist or relieve himselfe as a member of their owne House did tell me for 1. 1 Earl of Warwâ—ck made vice Admirall They get the Earle of Warwicke to be appointed Vic-admirall of the Sea and to commit all the Kings Navie into his hand and to take away that charge from Sir Iohn Pennington whom most men believed to be farre the better Sea-man but more faithfull to his King and the other purer to the Parliament 2. 2 Sir Iohn Hotham put to Hull for the Magazine They fend Sir John Hotham a most insolent man that most uncivilly contemned the King to his face to seize upon the Kings Magazine that he bought with his own money when they might as well take away my horse that I paid for and to keepe the King out of Hull which was his owne proper Towne and therefore might as well have kept him out of White-hall and was an act so full of injustice as that I scarce know a greater 3. 3 They detained the kings moneys Esay 1 23. Because moneyes are great meanes to effect any worldly affaire and the sinews of every warre when as men and armes and all other necessaries may be had for money some of them and their followers shew themselves to be just as the Peeres of Israel companions of thieves meere robbers which forcibly take away a mans money from him they take all the Kings treasure they intercept detaine and convert all the Kings revenues and customes to strengthen themselves against the King 4. Because their former Remonstrances framed by this faction 4 They labour to render the king odious by lyes of the ill government of this Kingdome though in some things
true which the King ingeniously acknowledgeth and most graciously promiseth to redresse them yet in all things full of gall and bitternesse against the King could not so fully poyson the love and loyalty of the Kings Subjects as they desired especially the love of those that knew his Majestie who the better they knew him did the more affectionately love him and the more faithfully serve him they thought to doe it another and a surer way with apparent lyes palpable slanders and abominable accusations invented printed and scattered over all the parts of this Kingdome by their trencher Chaplaines and parasiticall Preachers and other Pamphleters some busy Lawyers and Pettifoggers to bring the King into an odium disliked and deserted of all his loving Subjects And what created power under heaven was able to dissolve that wickednesse which subtiltie and malice had thus treacherously combined to bring to passe Hereupon after many threatning votes 1 Lye that he intended to war against his Parliament and actuall hostility exercised against his Royall person the King is forced to raise a guard for the defence of himselfe and those his good Subjects that attended him then presently that small guard that consisted but of the chiefe gentry of the Countrey was declared to be an army raised for the subversion of the Parliament and the destruction of our native liberties an invincible army is voted to be raised the Earle of Essex is chosen to be their Generall with whom they promise both to live and die the Earle of Bedford Generall of the Horse moneyes are provided and all things are prepared to fetch the King and all delinquents or to be the death of all withstanders and that nothing might hinder this designe though the King in many gracious Messages attested by the subscription of many noble Lords that were upon the place assured them he never intended any warre against his Parliament yet they proceed with all eagernesse and declare all those that shall assist the King either with Horse money or men to be malignants and enemies unto the King and Kingdome and such delinquents as shall be sure to receive condigne punishment by the Parliament Hoc mirum est hoc magnum And among the rest of their impudent slanders this was their Master-piece which they ever harped upon that hee countenanced Papists and intended to bring Poperie into this Kingdom and to that end had an Armie of Papists to assist him But to satisfie any sensible man in this point I would crave the resolution of these two Questions 1. Two questions to be resolved Whether every Papist that is subject to his Majestie is not bound to assist and defend his King in all his dangers 2. Whether the King should not protect his Subjects that are Papists in all their dangers so farre as by the Law he ought to do it 1. All Papists bound to assist their King and accept of their service when himselfe is invironed with dangers For first I believe there is no Law that inhibiteth a Papist to serve his King against a Rebellion or to ride post to tell the King of a Designe to murder Him or any other intended Treason against Him or being present to take away a weapon from that man that attempted to kill the King because his not comming to Church doth not exempt him from his Alleageance or discharge him of his dutie and service unto the King and therefore if a Fleet from France or Spain or any other forreigne part should invade us or any Rebellion at home should rise against his Soveraigne and seck to destroy those Lawes and Liberties whereof himselfe and his Posteritie hath as good an interest as any other Subject I say he is bound by all Lawes to assist his King and to do his best endeavour both with his purse and in his person not onely to oppose that externall Invasion but also to subdue as well that home-bred Rebellion as the forreigne Invasion 2. 2. The King bound to protect dutifull Papists If a Papist should be injured his estate seized upon his house plundered and his person if taken imprisoned not because he transgressed any other Law but that he dispenceth not with the Law of his conscience to be no Papist and being thus injured should come unto his King and say I am your Subject and have lived dutifully I did nothing which the Law gives me not leave I have truly paid all duties and humbly submitted my selfe to all penalties and yet I know not why I am thus used and abused by my neighbours I am driven from my house by force of Armes and I have no place to breathe but under your Majesties wings and the shelter of your power therefore I beseech you as you are my King and are obliged to do your best for the safetie of your true Subjects let me have your protection and you shall have my service unto death I would fain know what the King should do in such a case denie his protection or refuse his service the one is injustice the other not the best wisedom especially if he needed service for as the Law of nature and of nations requireth all Subjects to obey their Kings and faithfully to serve them of what Religion soever their Kings shall be so Lege relationis every King is bound to protect every faithfull Subject that observeth his Lawes or submitteth to their penalties without corrupting of his fellow Subjects of what Religion soever he is because they are his Subjects not as they are faithfull Christians but as obedient men and he is to rule not over the faith of their soules but the actions of their bodies and it is an Axiome in Divinitie that Fides non cogenda and if Kings cannot perswade their Subjects to embrace the true Faith they ought not to cut them off so long as they are true Subjects and therefore with what reason can any man blame the King either for protecting them in their distresses or accepting their sevice in his own extremities I cannot understand And yet for the goodly companie of Papists which his Majestie entertaineth in all his Armies they cannot all make up so much as one good Regiment as an Officer in his Majesties Armie confidently affirmeth but it will serve their turne to taxe the King to lay imputations upon him even the very things that belong unto themselves as the whole summe of those things that are expressed in Englands Petition to their King Pag. 10. mutatis mutandis might truly be presented to the two Houses that have now almost destroyed us all and to make them mightie faults in him which are no faults at all in themselves because there is no fear of their favouringPoperie though as they have very many so they should have never so many more in their Armie 3. Lye that he caused the Rebellion in Ireland Another Slander they not onely whispered but also dispersed the same farre and near among the
One of them uttered in a Taverne and God will avert it from his Servant That they would make the King as poor as Job Sober Sadnesse p. 22. unlesse he did comply with them 2. 2. Wrong If any man which they like not attend the Kings Person though he be his sworne servant or assist him in his just defence which he is bound to do by the Law of God and man yet he is presently voted and condemned for a Malignant popish disaffected evill Councellour and an enemie to the State and that is enough if he be catched to have him spoiled and imprisoned at their pleasure nay my selfe was told by some of that Faction that because I went to see the King I should be plundered and imprisoned if I were taken 3. 3. Wrong Though they do solemnly professe that his Majesties personall safetie and his royall honour and greatnesse are much dearer unto them than their own lives fortunes The Petition to his Majestie the 16. of July 1642. which they do most heartily dedicate shall most willingly imploy for the support maintenance thereof yet for all this hearty Protestation they had at that very time as the King most acourately observeth in his Answer directed the Earle of Warwicke to assist Sir John Hotham against him appointed thier Generals Non turpe est abeo vinci queÌ„ vincereest nesas neque ei inhonestè aliqueÌ„ submitti quem â—eâ—… super omnes extulit Dictum Armeâ—… Pompeio and as Alderman Garroway testifieth raised ten thousand armed men out of London and the neighbour Countries before the King had seven hundredâ— and afterwards though the King sent from Nottingham a gratious Message and sollicitation for peace yet they supposing this proceeded from a diffidence of his own strength or being too confident of thier own force sleighted the Kings Grace and most barbarously proceeded in the most hostile manner waged war and gave battaile against the Kings Armie where they knew he was in his own Person and as one of their Preachers taught the Sunday before the Battaile that they might with a good conscience as well kill the King horresco dicere as any other man so according to Captain Blagues directions as Iudas taught the high Priests servants we know what Troopes and Regiments were most aimed at whereas they doe most ridiculously say they have for the defence of his person sent many a Canon bullet about his eares which he did with that Kingly courage and heroike magnanimity yea and that Christian resolution and dependance on Gods assistance passe through that it shall be recorded to his everlasting honour and their indeleble shame and reproach so long as the world endureth 4. 4. Wrong They have most disloyally and traiterously spoken both privately and publikely such things against his Majesty as would make the very Heathens teare them in peeces that should say the like of their tyrannous Kings and such as I could not believe they proceeded from the mouth of a Christian against so Christiana King but that I finde most of them were publikely uttered made knowne unto his Majesty and related by himselfe and those that were eare witnesses thereof as horresco referens that he was not worthy to be our King not fit to live Sober sadnesse P 3 The Viewer p. 4. His Majesties Declaration Trussell in the supplement to Daniels history that hee was the traitor that the Prince would governe better and that they dealt fairely with him they did not depose him as their fore-fathers had deposed Richard the second whom all the world knoweth to be most traiterously murdered and the whole progresse of that act whereby hee was deposed is nothing else but the scandall of that parliament and an horrid treason upon the fairest relation of any Chronicle and the good Bishop of Carlile was not then affraid in open house to tell the Lords so to their faces and I would our parliament men would read his speech 5 They command their owne Orders 5. Wrong Ordinances and Declarations to be printed Cum privilegio and to be published in publike throughout the whole Kingdome and they are not a little punished that neglect it and whatsoever Message Answer Declaration or Proclamation commeth from the King to informe his subjects of the truth of things and to undeceive his much seduced people they streightly forbid those to bee printed and imprison if they can catch them all that publish them as they did many worthy Ministers in the City of London and in many other places of this Kingdome 6 They have publikely voted in their house and accordingly indeavoured by Messages to perswade our brethren of Scotland to ioyne in their assistance with these grand rebels 6. Wrong to rebell against their Soveraigne but I perswade my selfe as I said before that the Nobility and Gentry of Scotland are more religious in themselves more loyall to their liege Lord and indeed wiser in all their actions then while they may live quietly at home in a happy peace to undertake upon the perswasions of rebellious subiects such an unhappy warre abroad 7. It is remonstrated and related publikely that as if they had shaken off all subiection 7. Wrong and were become already a State independent they have treated by their agents with forraigne states and doe still proceed in that course which if true is such an usurpation upon Soveraignty as was never before attempted in this Kingdome and such a presumption as few men know the secret mischiefes that may lurke therein 8. They suffer and licence their Pamphleters Pryn 8. Wrong Goodewin Burges Marshall Sedgwicke and other emmissaries of wickednesse to publish such treasons and blasphemies and abominable aphorismes as that the negative vote of the King is no more then the dissent of one man the affirmative vote of the King makes not a law ergo the negative cannot destroy it and the like absurd and senslesse things that are in those aphorisms and in Prins booke of the Soveraigne power of Parliament whereby they would deny the kings power to hinder any act that both the Houses shall conclude and so taking away those iust prerogatives from him that are as hereditary to him as his kingdome compell him to assent to their conclusions Why the two â—… Spencers dyed for which things our histories tell us that other Parliaments have banished and upon their returnes they were hanged both the Spenters the father and the sonne for the like presumption as among other Articles for denying this Prerogative unto their king and affirming that if he neglected his duty and would not do what he ought Per asperte vid. Elismere postâ—…atip 99. for the good of the kingdom he might bee compelled by force to performe it which very thing divesteth the king of all Soveraignty overthroweth Monarchy and maketh our government a meer Aristocracy contrary to the constitution of our first kings and the iudgement of all ages
the first of the three and are termed one of the greatest states of this realme And this I conceive to be the right constitution of a Parliament therefore now to cast off one of the three States Anno octavo Elizabeth c. 1. and to cut off the head of all three by making the King but one of them that so both the King and the two Houses might be onely co-ordinate when as indeed they are as in some respect concurrent so also subordinate unto him as to their Head is such a change and alteration as would quite overthrow the fundamentall constitution of the Government of this Kingdome and make our King if these men might have their will to have no more power than the Duke of Venice And to that end this Faction have by themselves and their Pamphleters The false grounds of the originall of our Kings The disclaimer p. 17 18 19. laid down such false grounds of the originall of our Kings as are exceeding derogatory to the Crown of England as that they are Kings by paction and covenant with their people which at first chose them and intrusted them with their Government and for the preservation of their Lawes against the incroachments of the King and the making of new Lawes as occasions required ordained the great Councell which they call Parliament and which should have full power to restrain the King if he did abuse his Power and therefore the people may withdraw their trust when the Kings neglect their duty and nullifie their faith unto their Subjects for whosoever is indifferently read in Histories and the Chronicles of our Kingdom may easily finde how falsly and maliciously they would make this free Monarchie to have been elective and to be a conditionall Government because England France Post mortem Maximi Constans postular mi à Britannis But not a word in all the storie that any one of the British Kings was electus Anonymus MS. in Bibl. Oxon. qui scripsit hist omnium regum qui regna verunt in Anglia and Spain were parts and parcels of the Roman Empire and when the Emperours by reason of their intestine broyles at home could not look into the parts abroad the right Heit unto the Crown of Britain assumed unto himselfe all the Royaltie and power that the Emperour had over us and succeed him not by any pact or covenant with the people though not as then for some reasons without the request of the people but by that right which God and nature allowed unto Kings and was due either to the Roman Emperour or to any other absolute Monarch of any Nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the old Chronicles of those 〈…〉 the regaining of the Crown by Vortigerne after that the people had rebelliously rejected him and received but not elected his son Vortimer in his place do most sufficiently clear the case And therefore what Soveraigne Power soever is due to any absolute Monarch and what obedience soever S. Paul affirmeth to be due to the Roman Emperours that then ruled over us or Saint Peter commandeth to be given to other Kings the same is in all things due to our Kings ever since Aurelius Ambrosius that succeeded Vortigerne or if you will not ascend so high yet without all contradiction ever since William the Conquerour whom you cannot say was elected nor any other that succeeded him and therefore cannot be debarred or denied any of those Prerogatives and Soveraignties that belong unto the most absolute Monarch save onely in those things which of their speciall grace and favour they granted unto their Subjects and bound themselves at their Coronation to performe those promises of priviledge and freedom which they made unto them and that distinction of the disclaimer of an absolute and a Politique Monarch P. 17 18 19 20. with his two leaves discourse upon the same is so false and so frivolous that as Saint Bernard saith of the fooleries of Abailardus it deserveth rather Fustibus contundi quà m rationibus refelli Aristot. Polyt l. 4. for Aristotle tels us that the supreme Power of all Government which resideth in every absolute Monarch and doth constituere Monarcham give being unto the Monarch consisteth chiefly in these three distinct branches 1. The supreme power of every Government wherein it consisteth Legislative to make and repeal Lawes 2. Bellative to pronounce War and conclude Peace 3. Iudicative decisively to determine all crimes and causes whatsoever And when this threefold power is not penes annus but penes optimates then it is no Monarchis but an Aristocracie and when it is penes populum then it is neither of those but a meer Democracie or popular Government And therefore out Kings having the sole power first to make War and conclude Peace at their own pleasure and have called Parliaments onely to supply their wants and to adde their councell and assistance therein Secondly to make Lawes and repeal them when they please save onely that they promised to their People and obliged themselves not to do it without the advice of their Parliament And thirdly to judge all their Subjects according to their Lawes it is most apparent that our Kings are most absolute Monarches as Cassaneus Bodinus Sir Thomas Smith and all that wrote of this Kingdom do peremptorily affirme and though I deny not Bodius distinction of a Lordly Monarch a royall Monarch and a tyrannicall Monarch Bod. l. 2. c. 2. 3. which sheweth onely the Power and the Practise of the Monarch yet I say that the distinction of an absolute and mixed Monarchie which designeth the manner of the Government is a meer fopperie and a ridiculous distinction because that Government which extendeth it selfe to more than one can never be a Monarchie as every man knoweth that understandeth the word Monarch These and many more such injuries and insufferable indignities they have offered unto our King and so indeed unto the whole Kingdom which they durst not have offered to any tyrannicall King that would have ruled them with his iron rod but as the mercie of God emboldeneth wicked men to proceed in their abominations so the lenitie and goodnesse of this pious Prince nothing else in him encouraged these factious ambitious men the people greedy of a licentious libertie the Nobilitie and Gentrie of rule which is their naturall disease thus to usurpe the rights of our King and to raise this miserable war CHAP. XII Sheweth the unjust proceedings of this Faction against their fellow Subjects set down in four particular things 2. 2. Their proceedings against the Subjects wherein I shall in most points set down what I finde in the Remonstrance of the Commons to the House of Commons and what I collected out of other Writers of the best credit LEst they should be thought juster to their fellow Subjects than they are to their Severalgue King you may observe what I finde related of them 1. That besides the Act which they
these infernall instruments to insinuate their assistance unto the Scots and their allurements of them to invade our Kings Dominions to ensnare the Irish and to provoke the Papists to such a Rebellion as hath been the utter ruine and destruction of many millions of men to obscure the glory of this noble Kingdome to alter the Discipline and corrupt the Doctrine of the most glorious and the purest Church that professeth the Name of Christ and to bring us all and all our posteritie to extreme miseries to suffer yet more then we have endured or that can be hitherto imagined and considering those bloody Treasons that have beene publikely uttered and openly practised against the sacred Person of our Soveraigne I may justly say that as the sinnes of the Israelites and their impetuous calling for a King moved the Lord to send them a King in his anger so our sinnes and our impatient crying for a Parliament made our God to send us a Parliament in his wrath that will never turne for our blessing till we returne to God from our sinnes for when I consider on the one side the pietie and goodnesse of our King the justnesse of his cause and the most ready and cordiall valour as well in the common Souldiers as the Commanders of a full and sufficient Armie and on the other side the multitude of disloyall and seduced Subjects the vigilancie and subtiltie of their Commanders with their unlimited wayes to get monies and on both sides the desire of too many not for the honour of the King nor the peace of the Kingdome to end the War but to continue the same for their own advantage untill the wealth of Lawyers Clergy and Gentrie be transplanted to the possessions of other Masters I am affraid it wil prove an heavie judgement and therfore lest our obstinacie in our sinnes should procure the continuance of Gods anger which being removed will soone remove all our miseries let me perswade all conscientious men especially the Gentry and all other understanding men howsoever the Citizens that deceive the Kingdome of their wealth delight to be deceived in their faith that would not be cheated of their Religion by these factious Mountebankes and that would not provoke God to say I have no pleasure in them to turne from their rebellious courses to listen no longer to those furious fire-brands that out of their now Divinity contrary to the Doctrine of all the ancient Fathers and all the Orthodox and grave Preachers of this Kingdome do incite the People unto this unnaturally bloody War and to slander the foot-steps of Gods Anointed because they know him not and to remember the Oathes of their Allegiance and Supremacie together with their late Protestation whereby they stand obliged to their uttermost power to maintaine his Majesties Royall Person Crowne and Dignity against all treacherous practices that may any waies dishonour or impaire them and then I presume their consciences will disavow the proceedings of these Projâ—ctours protest against all their Ordinances that are made against or without the Kings consent advise all the Knights and Burgesses to Vote no more against their Soveraigne and to make no further use of the trust they reposed in them to murder us and our fellow Subjects under the pretence of shedding the bloud of the ungodly or if they still goe on to abuse that trust to make us yet more miserable to withdraw themselves and their trust and power of representation from them and to joyne their uttermost assistance unto his Majesty to protect him that he may be enabled to protect us and to overwhelme the Robels into the same pit which they have made for us And this may be by dissolving the knot of factious members wherein we see our miseries involved and to make elections of new members into their places that with the rest of the Lords and Commons which were faithfull both to the Church King and Kingdome shall call them to a strict account for betraying our trust interrupting our peace opposing his Majestie and violating all our ancient liberties Or if a better way may be found let us follow the same to Gods glory and to produce the peace and happinesse of this Kingdome lest if we persist obstinately in this wilfull rebellion to withstand Gods Ordinance to oppose his anointed and to shed so much innocent blood we shall thus fighting against heaven so far provoke the wrath of the God of Heaven as that the glory of Israel shall be darkned the honour of this nation shall be troden under foot and be made the scorne of all other nations round about us and the light of our Candlestick shall be extinguished and we shall all become most miserable because we would not hearken to the voyce of the Lord our God which I hope we will doe and do most earnestly pray that we may doe it to the glory of God the honour of our King and the happinesse of this whole Kingdome through Iesus Christ our Lord to whom be praise and dominion both now and for ever Amen AN APPENDIX THe man of God speaking of transcendent wickednesse Deu. 32.2 saith Their Vine is of the Vine of Sodome and of the fields of Gomorrah their Grapes are grapes of Gall their Clusters are bitter their Wine is the poyson of Dragons and the cruell venome of Aspes and I beleeve never any wickednesse desâ—rved better to be clad with this elegant expression then that threefold iniquity 1. The unparallel'd Vote 2. The intolerable Ordinance 3. The damnable Covenant which the rebellious faction in Parliament have most impiously contrived to make up the full measure of their impiety since the writing of my discoveries for 1. Omitting that horrible practice of those rebellious blood-thirsty Soul lie's that did their best to murder their owne most gracious Queene this faction seeing how God prevented that plot voted this most loving and most loyall wife to be impeached or High Treason for being faithfull to doe her uttermost endeavour which will be her everlasting praise to assist her most deare and Royall husband their owne Liege Lord and Soveraigne King in his greatest extremities against a virulent mighty faction of most malicious Traytors the strangest Treason that ever the world heard of 2. They made an Ordinance for the composing and convocating of such a Synod whereof I said somewhat before of Lay men ignorant men factious men traiterous men and such concretion of heterogeneall parts like Nebuchadnezzars image gold brasse and clay all mixed together and all so ordered limited and bridled as it is expressed in the 5. and 6. page of their Ordinance by the power of both Houses where there are such abundance of Schismaticall and seditious members that I should scarce put the worst sensitive soule to professe that erraticall faith or any bruit beast to be guided by that Ecclâ—…asticall discipline that such factious Traytors as some of thâ—… are like to be proved should compose or cause to be coâ—posed 3. They composed a forme of a sacred Vow or Covenant 〈◊〉 they terme it or as it is indeed the Covenant of Hell a Covenant against God to overthrow the Gospel of Christ under the name of Christ which Covenant is the Oyle that swimmâ—… uppermost upon the waters that is the Oyle of Scorpions or as Moses saith the poison of Dragons so lately wringed and dâ—…fused farre and neere to defile and destroy millions of soules when forgetting their faith to God and the Oathes of their Allegiance so often and so solemnely taken by many or most of them to be faithfull unto their King they shall be compelled which is one degree worse then the vow of them that bound themselves with a curse neither to eate nor drinke till they had killed Paul so hypocritically so perjuredly so rebelliously 〈◊〉 horribly and so bloodily to make such a fearefull Vow and such an abominable Covenant so wickedly contrived that without great and serious repentance spitteth forth nothing but fire and brimstone and can produce nothing else but hell and damnation to all that take it especially to them that will coâ—pell men to be thus transcendently wicked as if they would send them with Corah quicke to Hell All which triplicity of evil I shal leave to some abler and more eloquent pen to be set forth more fully in the right colours that being suffâ—ciently displayed they may be throughly detested of all good men Amen O Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to to keepe thy Lawes ERRATA Page 24. lin 11. for malicious read heavy pag. 98. lin 1. reaâ— somewhat like him c. FINIS