place of sitting and the chiefest part of the power I say the chiefest part I do not say the greatest part of power The power it was more eminent in him but it was virtually residing and domesticant in the plurality of his Assessors These Assessors were the Presbyters the Elders of the Church of whom Holy Ignatius a Father so primitive that he was Disciple to Saint John the Apostle and by some thought to be that very Child whilst he was a Child whom our blessed Saviour took and set before his Disciples whereof you read in three of the Evangelists Matth. 18.2 Mark 9.26 Luke 9.27 If Simon Zelotes were the last as some affirm This Ignatius I say in his Epistle to the Trallians doth call these Elders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Councellors and Co-Assessors of the Bishop Here was in this Age and yet this Father died a Bishop and a Martyr before the last Apostle went to Heaven here was a Fellowship yet such a Fellowship as destroyed not presidency and in another Epistle that to the Magnesians you have such a presidency as doth admit also of a Fellowship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Bishop being President the very Name and Office there as in the place of God and the Presbyters as a Senate of the Apostles I forbear to dilate upon this Episcopacy But I will be bold Ponere ob oculos to set him before your Eyes I will give him you even by way of demonstration Master Hide your self are now in this great Committee Mr. Speaker is in the House The Bishop of our Congregation You are in your selves but Fellow-Members of the same House with us returned hither as we also are to sit on these Benches with us until by our Election and by common suffrage you are Incathedrated then you have and it is fit and necessary that you should have a Precedency before us and a Presidency over us Notwithstanding this you are not diversified into a several distinct order from us you must not swell with that conceit you are still the same Member of the same House you were though raised to a painful and careful degree among us and above us This Bishop had as your self have here potestatem directivam but not Correctivam Correction in our House doth dwell in the General Vote You know the power you have â—s Limited and circumscribed by them who gave it you are no Dictator to prescribe us our Laws but must gather our Votes and then your pronouncing doth fix our not your single own Orders Neither you here Master Speaker in the House can Degrade any one of us from these Seats nor can you silence us in the due liberty of our Speech Truly Sir as yet advised I do heartily wish we had in every Shire of England a Bishop such and so regulated for Church Government within that Sphear as Master Speaker is bounded in and Limited by the Rules and Cancels of this House That were indeed a well tempered and a blessed Reformation whereby our times might be approximant and conformant to the Apostolical and Pure primitive Church But this I fear is magis optandum quám sperandum yet it being the cause of God who can then dispair This happiness I mean living under Episcopal Presidency not under a domineering Prelacy this is too high above our reach yet strong Prayers and Hearty endeavours may pull the Blessing down upon us In the mean time wo is our Churches portion for our Bishop President is lost and grown a Stranger to us and in his room is crept in and stept up a Lordly Prelate made proud with pomp and ease who neglecting the best part of his Office in Gods Vine-yard instead of supporting the weak and binding up the broken forrageth the Vines and drives away other Labourers The Vines indeed have both Grapes and Leaves and Religious Acts both Substance and Circumstance but the Gardener is much to blame who gives more charge to the Work-men of the Leaves then of the Fruit. This rough enforcement of late to that which is not the better part is an Episcopacy that turns all our Melody into a Threnody This makes many Poor Pious Christian Souls to Sing the Songs of Sion in a strange Land Psal 137. and 4. This Bishop will have no Assessors or if any so formally admitted and so awed as good have none no Senate no Consultation no Presbytery or common Suffrage but Elates himself up into usurped Titles and incompatible Power and sublimes it self by assuming a Soleship both in Orders and Censures Religion and Reason and Primitive Example are all loud against this Episcopacy This too elate subliming of one can not stand without a too mean demission I may say debasing of many other of the same order Nay this Bishop not content with Ecclesiastick Pride alone will swell also with ambition and Offices Secular Truly Sir you have done exceeding well to Vote away this Bishop for of this Bishop and of this alone I must understand the Vote you have passed until I be better instructed For your Vote is against the present Episcopacy and for the present you can hardly find any other Episcopacy but this an Authority how ever by some of them better exercised yet too solely entrusted to them all Away then with this Lordly domineerer who playes the Monarch perhaps the Tyrant in a Diocess of him it is of whom I read Episcopalis dignitas papalem fastum redolet This kind of Episcopacy it smels rank of the Papacy nor shall you ever be able utterly and absolutely to extirpate Popery unless you root out this Soleship of Episcopacy To conclude in short and plain English I am for abolishing of our present Episcopacy Both Diocesses and Diocesan as now they are But I am withal at the same time for Restauration of the pure Primitive Episcopal Presidency Cut off the usurped adjuncts of our present Episcopacy reduce the ancient Episcopacy such as it was in puris spiritualibus Both may be done with the same hand and I think in a shorter Bill then is offered now by way of addition Down then with our Prelatical Hierarchy or Hierarchical Prelacy such as now we have most of it consisting in Temporal adjuncts only the Diana and the Idol of Proud and Lazy Church-men This do but eâ lege on this condition that with the same hand in the same Bill we do gently raise again even from under the ruins of that Babel â—â—ch an Episcopacy such a Presidency as is venerable in its Antiquity and Purity and most behooveful for the Peace of our Christendom This is the way of Reforming and thus by yielding to the present Storm and throwing that over-board which is adventitious borrowed and undue Peace may be brought home unto our Church again the best of that building and the truth of Ancient Episcopacy may be preserved otherwise we hazard all This would be glorious for us and for our Religion and the glory thereof will
be the greater because it redounds unto the God of glory My Motion is that those Sheets last presented to you may be laid by and that we may proceed to reduce again the old Original Episcopacy If this Gentleman had thoroughly consulted the Church History he would have found both that Episcopacy was ever accounted a Distinct Order from and above Presbytery and that the most Primitive Bishops exercised the same Jurisdiction and Power in the Church even over Presbyters themselves as the present English Bishops did and for their Temporal Baronies and Lordships it was never esteemed any ways Essential to the Office but only a Concomitant Adjunct which by the Fundamental Constitution of the Government by the Kings annexing Temporal Baronies to their Spiritual Office rendred them one of the three Estates of the Realm And indeed it was this Temporal Honor and their Secular Estates Lands and Tenements which raised the envy of some and the Covetousness of others against not only the Persons but the Order it self Sir Benjamin Rudyard also spake as follows Mr. Hide WE are now upon a very great Business Sir Benjamin Rudyard's Speech concerning Bishops Deans and Chapters at a Committee of the whole House June 21. 1641. so great indeed as it requires our soundest our saddest consideration our best judgment for the present our utmost foresight for the future But Sir one thing doth exceedingly trouble me it turns me round about it makes my whole Reason vertiginous which is that so many do believe against the wisdom of all Ages that now there can be no Reformation without destruction as if every sick Body must be presently knockt in the Head as past hope of Cure Religion was first and best planted in Cities God did spread his Net where most might be caught Cities had Bishops and Presbyters were the Seminaries out of which were sent Labourers by the Bishops to propagate and cultivate the Gospel The Clergy then lived wholly upon the Freewill-Offering and Bounty of the People Afterwards when Kings and States grew to be Christians the outward settlement of the Church grew up with them They Erected Bishopricks Founded Cathedral Churches Endowed them with large Possessions Landlords built Parish Churches gleab'd them with some portion of Land for which they have still a Right of Presentation I do confess That some of our Bishops have had Ambitious Dangerous Aims and have so still that in their Government there are very great Enormities But I am not of their Opinion who believe that there is an Innate ill Quality in Episcopacy like a Specifical Property which is a Refuge not a Reason I hope there is not Original Sin in Episcopacy and though there were yet may the Calling be as well Reformed as the Person Regenerated Bishops have governed the Church for 1500 years without interruption And no man will say but that God hath saved Souls in all those times under their Government Let them be reduc'd according to the usage of Ancient Churches in the best times so restâ—â—â—â—d as they may not be able hereafter to shame the Calling I love not those that hate to be Reformed and do therefore think them worthy of the more strict the more close Reformation We have often complained That Bishops are too absolute too singular Although Cathedral Churches are now for the most part but Receptacles of Drones and Non-Residents yet some good Men may be found or placed there to be Assessors with the Bishops to assist them in Actions of moment in Causes of Importance there is maintenance already provided for them If either in Bishopricks or Cathedral Churches there be too much some may be pared off to relieve them that have too little If yet more may be spared it may be employed to the setting up of a Preaching Ministry through the whole Kingdom And untill this be done although we are Christians yet are we not a Christian State There are some places in England that are not in Christendom the people are so ignorant they live so without God in the World for which Parliaments are to answer both to God and Man Let us look to it for it lies like one of the Burdens of the Prophet Isaiah heavy and flat upon Parliaments I have often seriously considered with my self what strong concurrent Motives and Causes did meet together in that time when Abbies and Monasteries were overthrown Certainly God's hand was the greatest for he was most offended The profane Superstitions the abominable Idolatries the filthy nefandous wickedness of their Lives did stink in God's Noistrils did call down for Vengeance for Reformation A good Party of Religions Men were Zealous Instruments in that great work as likewise many Covetous Ambitious Persons gaping for fat Morsels did lustily drive it on But Mr. Hide there was a principal Parliamentary motive which did facilitate the rest for it was propounded in Parliament that the Accession of Abby-Lands would so inrich the Crown as the people should never be put to pay Subsidies again This was plausible both to Court and Countrey Besides with the Over-plus there should be maintained a standing Army of Forty Thousand Men for a perpetual defence of the Kingdom This was Safety at home Terrour and Honour abroad The Parliament would make all sure Gods part Religion by his blessing hath been reasonably well preserved but it hath been saved as by fire for the rest is consumed and vanished the people have payed Subsidies ever since and we are now in no very good Case to pay an Army Let us beware Mr. Hide that we do not look with a worldly carnal evil Eye upon Church Lands let us clear our Sight search our Hearts that we may have unmixt and sincere Ends without the least thought of saving of our own Purses Church Lands will still be fittest to maintain Church Men by a proportionable and orderly distribution We are very strict and curious to uphold our own Propriety and there is great reason for it Are the Clergy only a sort of Men who have no Propriety at all in that which is called theirs I am sure they are Englishmen they are Subjects If we pull down Bishopricks and pull down Cathedral Churches in a short time we must be forced 〈◊〉 pull Colledges too for Scholars will live and dye there as in Cells if there be not considerable Preferment to invite them abroad And the example we are making now will be an easie Temptation to the less pressing necessities of future times This is the next way to bring in Barbarism to make the Clergy an unlearned contemptible Vocation not to be desired but by the basest of the People and then where shall we find men able to convince an Adversary A Clergy-men ought to have a far greater proportion to live upon than any other Man of an equal Condition He is not bred to multiply Three-pences it becomes him not to live Mechanically and sordidly he must be given to Hospitality I do know my self a
or in the Consistory of the Bishop of Norwich And that in such case no prohibition against the said Bishop of Norwich their Chancellors or Commissaries in the said Courts of Consistory be granted And if any such Writ be any time obtained the Judges granting the same upon sight of his Highness's said Order shall forthwith grant a Consultation to the Minister desiring the same with his reasonable cost and charges of the same Which said Order and Decree under the great Seal of England tended to the violation of the Oaths of the Judges and was devised contrived and made by the said Bishop And afterwards by his evil Counsels and false Surmises he did obtain His Majesties Royal consent thereunto and by colour of the Order aforesaid and other the doings of the said Bishop the Citizens and Inhabitants of Norwich aforesaid viz. John Collar Judith Perkeford and others have been forced to pay the two Shillings in the Pound in lieu of Tithes or else by Suits and other undue means been much molested and put to great charges and expences contrary to the Law and Justice XXV That he assumed to himself an Arbitrary Power to compel the respective Parishioners in the said Diocess to pay great and excessive Wages to Parish-Clerks viz. the Parishioners of Yarmouth Congham Tostock and others commanding his Officers that if any Parishioner did refuse to pay such Wages they should certifie him their Names and he would set them into High-Commission Court for example of the rest and that one or two out of Ipswich might be taken for that purpose And the said Commons by Protestation saving to themselves the liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any other Accusation or Impeachment against the said Matthew Wren late Bishop of Norwich and now Bishop of Ely and also of replying to the answer that he the said Matthew Wren shall make unto the said Articles or any of them or offering proof of the Premisses or any other Impeachments or Accusations that shall be exhibited by them as the case shall according to the course of Parliaments require do pray that he the said Matthew Wren may be called to answer the said several Crimes and misdemeanors and receive such condign punishment as the same shall deserve and that such further proceedings may be upon every of them had and used against him as is agreeable to Law and Justice Thus did these great Zealots for the pretended Purity and Reformation of Religion and to reduce the Bishops to their Primitive State even litterally render them so by Persecution imitating the Primitive Persecutors of the Primitive Bishops clothing them in Skins of Bears Wolves and Tigres to invite the cruel Mastisss to fall upon them and tear them in Pieces And certainly not with standing this black Accusation there cannot be a greater Demonstration of the Innocence of this worthy Prelate then the very Articles and that this Accusation wanted proof to carry it further than a bare Accusation and a Commitment to the Tower where with the Courage and Patience of a Primitive Christian he continued a Prisoner till the happy Year 1660. wherein he saw himself the Church and this Kingdom together set at Liberty by the blessed Restauration of His Most Serene Majesty Charles the Second to his undoubted Birth-Right the Imperial Crown of these Realms from the Bondage and Slavery under which they had for so many Years laid Languishing and almost ready to expire The Earl of Bristol acquainted the House King Assents to the 5 Propositions That His Majesty had been moved concerning the Five Propositions presented from their House from the House of Commons Yesterday and his Majesty consents to all the said Propositions WHEREAS a Petition hath been Exhibited unto this Honorable House by sundry Officers The Case of the Clerks c. of the Court of Common-Pleas against Patentees and the Lords Order upon it Clerks and late Clerks of the Court of Common Pleas Thereby shewing that they have been Bred and Trained up as Clerks in the said Court and that the Disposition of the Offices of Prothonotories Fillizers Exigenters and divers other Officers of the said Court had Time out of Mind appertained to the Chief Justice of that Court for the Time being as an inseperable Incident to his Office and that the same were granted to such skilful and experienced Clerks trained up in the said Court as were most fit and able for the Execution of the same Places and that notwithstanding several Grants and Letters Patents of the said Offices had been obtained from His Majesty to the great discouragement of able Clerks and therefore prayed that the said Grants or Letters Patents might be recalled And whereas several Petitions have likewise been Exhibited by the Patentees touching the said Offices and several Days of hearing have been appointed but in regard of greater Business in the House the Cause could not be heard whereupon it pleased the Lords upon the 26th Day of June last to Order that the Judges of the Kings-Bench and Barons of the Exchequer should consider whether the said Grants or Letters Patents made by his Majesty of the said Offices or any of them were good in Law and should make Report thereof unto the House to the end their Lordships might proceed to do what should be Right and Just therein And whereas the said Judges and Barons upon perusal of divers of the said Patents and a due Consideration had of the Grants of those Offices in former Times made by the Chief Justice of the said Court of Common-Pleas for the Time being and upon hearing of Councel on both Sides after mature deliberation had of the Premisses did certifie that the Offices of the first and third Prothonotary of the said Court of Common Pleas of the Clerk of the Warrants of the Clerk of the King's Silver of the Clerk of the Essoignes of all the Exigenters and of all the Fillizers except of the County of Monmouth have by prescription belonged to the Chief Justice for the time being and that he hath always granted the same for the Lives of the Grantees who have held them by his admittance only and that the Office of Clerk of the Treasury of that Court is all ways Granted by the Chief Justice for the time being to such Persons as he shall nominate to continue only during the Time that he continues Lord Chief Justice And further they did certifie their Opinions to be that none of the Grants made by his Majesty of any of the Offices or Clerks Places before in the same Certificate mentioned were good in Law And whereas this Day was appointed by Order of this House for the hearing of the said Cause Now upon full debate of the Matter by Councel learned on both Sides their Lordships taking the Business into their mature Consideration and well approving the Learning Justice and Integrity of the present Chief Justice and thinking it most just and meet that the Rights and Priviledges
Thanksgiving at this the Commons took great distast and upon Monday at their first meeting they fell upon this Debate the Result of which was That this House doth declare The Commons offended with the Bishop of Lincoln for making a Form of Prayer for the Thanksgiving Day That the Bishop of Lincoln had no Power to set forth any Prayer to be read at the Publick Thanksgiving and that no Minister ought to be ingaged to read the said Prayer and therefore the House is of Opinion and doth so Order That the said Prayer be not read in the Liberties of Westminster or elsewhere and that the Prayer be taken into Consideration upon Wednesday next and that a Conference be desired with the Lords thereupon At a Conference with the Lords several Letters were read Conference with the Lords about the Spanish Ambassador's Transporting Soldiers one from the King about four thousand Irish for the King of Spain a complaint being made to His Majesty by the Spanish Ambassador of the stopping of Ships which he had contracted with for their Transportation The Lord Newport acquainted the Commons That a Corporal of his Troop lately come out of the North was spoken unto from the Spanish Ambassador to conduct Horsemen to Plymouth and to have about three pound a man for it and it was very highly resented that the Spanish Ambassador should take upon him to levy Men here in England without consent of Parliament Whereupon it was Ordered That there shall be a stop at all the Ports in England to prohibit all Transportation of Horse or Foot out of the King's Dominions and that Sir John Culpeper and Mr. Waller shall forthwith repair to the Spanish and French Ambassadors to know by what Authority they Treat with Officers concerning the Levies of any Men Horse or Foot To this upon their return they gave the House an account That the Spanish Ambassador answered Negatively that he did not Treat with any whatsoever but that a Colonel had offered his Service but till he had His Majesties consent he refused to Treat with him That by His Majesties promises he thought himself in Possession of the Irish Soldiers and if they were taken from him he thought they took from him that which was his own It was thereupon further Ordered That no Merchants Transport any Soldiers out of any of His Majesties Dominions and no Ships to be cleared till they have given Security that they will not It was twice this day put to the Vote The same Question put twice in the House whether Col. Ashburnham Capt. Pollard should have their pay Whether Colonel Ashburnham and Captain Pollard should have their pay and the House was thereupon divided with the Noes were 49 with the Yeas 41. But the Friends of these Gentlemen taking the opportunity of the absence of some of those who had Voted against them moved the thing a second time and upon the Debate of the House they were again divided with the Yeas were 29 with the Noes 23 so it was carried in the Affirmative It was also Ordered Order about Lecturers That it shall be lawful for the Parishioners of any Parish in the Kingdom of England or Dominion of Wales to set up a Lecture and to maintain an Orthodox Minister at their own Charge to Preach every Lord's day where there is no Preaching and to Preach one day in every week where there is no weekly Lecture Thus did they set up a Spiritual Militia of these Lecturers who were to Muster their Troops and however it only appeared a Religious and Pious Design yet it must go for one of their pioe fraudes Politick Arts to gain an Estimate of their Numbers and the strength of their Party These Lecturers were neither Parsons Vicars nor Curates but like the Order of the Friers Predicants among the Papists who run about tickleing the Peoples Ears with stories of Legends and Miracles in the mean time picking their Pockets which were the very Faculties of these Men for they were all the Parliaments or rather the Presbyterian Factions Creatures and were therefore ready in all places to Preach up their Votes and Orders to Extol their Actions and applaud their Intentions these were the Men that debauched the People with Principles of disloyalty and taught them to Worship Jeroboam's Golden Calves the pretended Liberty of the Subject and the Glorious Reformation that was coming which the Common People adored even the Imaginary Idea of like the wild Ephesians as if it were a Government falling down from Heaven and as they used to Cant it the Pattern in the Mount the New Jerusalem and Mount Zion And in short the succeeding Tragedies of Murder Rapine Sacriledge and Rebellion were in a great measure the dismal Harvest of these Seeds of Fears Jealousies the Lawfulness of resisting the King's Authority in assistance of the Parliament their long Prayers and disloyal Sermons their Curse ye Meroz's and exhorting to help the Lord against the Mighty which with such diligence they sowed and with such unwearied pains by preaching as they said in Season and most certainly out of Season they took care to Cultivate and Improve and whoever will take the pains to observe shall find in the thred of this History that these Hirelings were so far from laying down their Lives for the Sheep that they preached many deluded Souls out of their Lives by a flagrant Rebellion and were so far from advancing the Gospel of Peace that they sounded the Trumpet for War and always their Pulpit Harangues to the People were the Repeated Ecchoes of the Votes Orders Remonstrances and Declarations of Westminster Besides this general Order for Lecturers there was a particular Order sent from the House to the Curate of Farnham the Seat of the Bishop of Winton commanding him to admit of a Lecturer The Contagion of the Pestilence Wednesday Septemb. 8. which had infected the Cities of London and Westminster increasing there were by the agreement of both Houses of Parliament certain Orders made to prevent the spreading of the Infection which were as follows 1. That the Bill Lord have mercy upon us with a large Red Cross be set upon the Door of every House infected with the Plague Orders for preventing the spreading of the Infection of the Plague 2. That all the stuff in the House where any have been visited with the Plague be well Ayred before they be discharged or the House opened 3. The House visited with the Plague to be shut up whether any persons therein do die or not and the persons so shut up to bear their own charges if they be of ability 4. No person to be removed out of any infected House but by leave of the Magistrate 5. If any person shall fly out of any House infected with the Plague at or before the death of any in the House such persons so flying to be pursued by Hue and Cry and the House where they shall be found to be
He brings several undeniable Presidents and Instances In the 21 of R. 2. a Repeal of a former Sentence against the Spencers being Petitioned for in Parliament Rot. 55.56.21 R. 2. these Errors were assigned Because the Prelats Who are Peers of the Realm did not Assent to the Judgment and because it was made only by the Earls and Barons Peers of the Realm c. And because it was made against the Great Charter of England in which it is contained that no man shall be exiled or destroyed but by the Lawful Judgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land By which it appears that the Judgment of that Parliament was That it was a Breach of the Magna Charta for the Temporal Lords to condemn a Peer without the Assent of the Bishops who are expresly declared to be Peers of the Realm Rot. 55. To be Peers in Parliament Rot. 56. and to be Peers of the Realm in Parliament Rot. 61. And all this too in the Case of Treason which is as a full Declaration of their Peerage as it is possible to make To the Second Position That they have a Right to Sit and Vote in Parliament in all Causes whatsoever even in Causa Sanguinis in Capital Cases which he proves by Reason and Presidents That by the Magna Charta a Law of the Highest value Confirmed by Thirty Acts of Parliament and with the most Solemn and dreadful Imprecations upon whosever of them or their Posterity should go about to violate it in any particular the Bishops have an equal Right with the Temporal Lords That they Sit in Parliament by the virtue of the same Writs of Summons that the other Barons do they are Summoned to Advise and Debate about the great and difficult Affairs of the Kingdom cum Praelatis Magnatibus Proceribus dicti Regni nostri Angliae colloquium habere tractatum Of all things indefinitely that shall be brought before them in that High and Honourable Court the Supream Judicature of the Nation and that there cannot be any Instance produced of a Writ of Summons with a Limitation or Restriction upon the Bishops excluding them from any matter of Debate Consultation Vote or Judicature belonging to the House of Lords The Temporal Barons also are Summoned indefinitely to Debate Handle and Consult with the Prelats in all things there to be done which would be impossible if in some of the most Important matters in point of Judicature the Lords the Bishops must be Totally Excluded That though the Constitution of Clarenden be urged as designed for a Limitation of the Bishops exercising Jurisdiction in the Case of Life or Mutilation of Members yet it is evident both from the Words and the occasion of that Law that they ought to be present for that this Constitution of Clarendon was made perfectly to oblige the Bishops to serve the King in the Capacity of their Temporal Baronies sicut caeteri Barones the Tenure being the same Et sicut Barones caeteri debent interesse Judiciis Curiae Regis cum Baronibus usque perveniatur in Judicio ad diminutionem Membrorum vel ad mortem the plain Sense of which words is that they ought to be present not only till such Causes of Life or Limb came before the rest of the Lords but at all preliminary Debates usque perveniatur not ad Judicium but in Judicio which supposes a Trial preceding till the Sentence came to be pronounced Now the occasion of this was the Papacy was then erecting their fifth Monarchy and indeavouring to set up an Independent Jurisdiction of the Church in all Kingdoms which the Kings very well perceiving were resolved to oppose and therefore to oblige them to this Service by vertue of the Tenures of their Temporal Baronies And this giving them a Concession to withdraw when the Sentence â—â—as pronounced was a particular favour of the King Thomas Becket a great Saint and Martyr in the Roman Calendar stoutly opposed this as an inchroachment upon the Liberties of the Church and indeed the Bishops who had all along the Saxon Government sate in the great Councils by virtue of their Spiritual Capacity there being then no Temporal Baronies they thought the Conquerors imposing this Tenure upon their Estates a very hard Servitude and Badge of Slavery to the Secular Power but that notwithstanding their Reluctancy this Salvo seemed a little to qualify the matter so that they did Vote in such Cases till the Sentence came to be pronounced appears from Petrus Blesensis who taxes them of Collusion for submitting to this Constitution of Clarendon Principes sacerdotum saith he Seniores Populi Pet. Blesen de Inst Epic. p. 454. licet non dictent Judicia Sanguinis eadem tamen tractant disputando disceptando de illis seque ideo imnunes à Culpa reputant quod Mortis aut truncation is membrorum judicium decernentes á pronuntiatione duntaxat Executione Penalis Sententiae se abstinent Although saith he they do not give Judgment in Cases of Blood yet do they handle treat and debate about them and think themselves innocent because in the determinations of Cases of Life and Limb they absent themselves at the pronouncing or execution of the Penal Sentence This Statute of Clarendon was made in February and in the October following the King Summons a Parliament to Northampton Fitz. Steph. vit Tho. Becket de Concil apud Clarendon Mss in Bibliotheca Cottoniana in which Becket in which Becket was for opposing this Constitution wasting the Kings Treasure and other Crimes accused of Treason in the Debate whereof the Bishops Sate with the other Barons and because the matter did not come to a Sentence of Death after great Debate between the other Lords the Bishops about pronouncing the Sentence the Bishop of Winchester did it But Becket making an Appeal to the Pope the Bishops being afraid of him they endeavoured to persuade the King to desist his further prosecution till that matter was determined But the King being resolute pressed them to their Duty notwithstanding Beckets Prohibition to them to the contrary from the obligation of the Statute of Clarendon to which they had Sworn Asserens quod non teneat haec ejus simplex Prohibitio contra hoc quod Clarendoniae factum initum fuerat affirming that this single Prohibition of Beckets could not bind them against what was done and agreed to at Clarendon From all which it is plain that in fact the Bishops did Debate and Vote in a Capital Case and were obliged by this Statute so to do and it was a Favour indulged them to be absent at the giving of the final Judgment or Sentence of Death or loss of Limbs In the 5. H. 4. The Earl of Northumberland was in Parliament Impeached of Treason Rot. Par. n. 17.5 H. 4. and after Examination of the whole matter he clearly acquitted himself of the charge upon which it is said in the Record Et
Article to prove the General Charge of Subverting the Laws They next proceeded to the Ninth Article Artic. 9. concerning his giving Commission to the Bishop of Down and Connor for attaching all such persons as contemned the Ecclesiastical Ordinances and present them to the Council-Board Mr. Glyn urged it as a thing would fully prove the Charge The Warrant was read as followeth By the Lord Deputy FOrasmuch as We have been informed by the Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of Downe and Conner The Warrant to the Bishop of Down and Connor that the most frequent Offences against God and the greatest Contempts against the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction are Committed by the meaner and poorer sort of People in that Diocess whose faults for the most part escape unpunished by reason the Writ de Excommunicato Capiendo is so long before it can be sued forth and executed on them that they remove to other parts and cannot be found or if they be taken their Poverty is such that they cannot satisfie the Sheriff and other Officers Fees due for taking them on that Writ whereby the Officers become negligent and backward of doing their Duties We therefore desiring the suppression of Sin and Reformation of Manners have thought fit to strengthen the Ecclesiastical Authority of the said Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of Downe and Conner with our Secular Power and do therefore hereby give Power and Authority to the said Lord Bishop his Chancellor or Chancellors by their several Officers by them to be appointed to Arrest and Attach the Bodies of all such of the meaner and poorer sort that after Citation shall refuse to appear before them or appearing shall omit or deny to perform and undergo all Lawful Decrees Sentences and Orders issued imposed and given out against them and them so Arrested to Commmit and keep in the next Goal till they shall perform such Sentences or put in sufficient Bond to shew some reasons before the Council-Table of such their Contempts c. willing all Justices of the Peace c. in that Diocess to be Aiding c. as they c. Given c. Febr. 16. 1636. Tho. Little This Mr. Glyn said was a great Invasion upon the Liberty of the Subject Sir James Montgomery Sir James Mountgomery deposed That the Warrant was Executed with great Cruelty 20 30 Names in a Warrant the Officers beating wounding and imprisoning them The Earl answered The Earl's Defence First this was the Vsual Practice but not satisfied with it he had refused it and this was the only Warrant and that hearing it complained of he recalled it To this the Examination of the Lord Primate 7. Interrog agreed the B. of Meath having such a Warrant for either the Lord Grandison or Chichester Mr. Little also attested That this Warrant was drawn after an Original Warrant of the Lord Falkland 's that it was the onely Warrant my Lord granted The Lord Dillon also confirmed the Practice He further requested their Lordships to consider the impossibility of having Witnesses in the Irish Affairs upon so short warning as Friday was Seven-night That following Presidents if they mislead him he hopes it is no Treason to mistake the Law otherwise there would be more Actions of Treason than Trespass in Westminster-Hall Mr. Glyn rejoyned That my Lord Confesses what he did to be above Law that though this be but a single Act yet compared with other Exorbitant proceedings it is a strong Evidence to prove his Subverting of the Laws Upon Wednesday the Commons proceeded to the Tenth Article of the Charge Wednesday March 31. Artic. 10. That he had not only Exercised a Tyrannical and Arbitrary Government over the Lives Liberties and Estates of the Subjects but had abused the Crown by applying to his private Vse the Publique Revenue to the great disadvantage of His Majesty Mr. Maynard stated the Case King James Leased the Customs at 6000 l. per annum and half the clear Profits above the Rent and 1400 l. to the L. Carlisle for Customs of Wines the half clear Profits amounted to 3700 l. per annum in the 7th of Car. a second Lease was made to the Dutchess of Bucks for 11050 l. so at view there is 1350 l. advance but then the E. of Carlisle 's Lease of 1400 l. was taken in and the surplusage of the Wine-Customs being communibus annis 3000 l. per annum so that out of the 11050 l. per annum there is an abatement of 4500 l. per annum instead of an advance of 1350 l. per annum besides that in the Earl's Lease the Customs of London-Derry Colerane Knockfergus and Strangford reserved in the Duke's Lease are defalked valued at 1500 l. per annum and all Forfeitures as also an allowance of Custom for Prize Goods and in the Grant a Clause That this Grant shall hold whether it be Repealed by Act of Parliament or not That the Book of Rates was increased so that whereas the Customs were valued at 12000 l. per annum they were advanced to 40 or 60000 l. per annum All the Leases being read the Witnesses were deposed Lord Ranulagh The Lord Ranulagh said That being a Partner in the Lord Faulkland 's time the surplusage above the 6000 l. was 3700 l. Sir James Hay deposed the surplusage above the 1400 l. Sir James Hay of the Earl of Carlisle's Rent was 2387 l. 15 s. 9 d. Robert Goodwin deposed That the Customs of London-Derry c. Robert Goodwin amounted from the Year 1634 to 1639 to 1079 l. 6 s. 1 d. and of London-Derry in the same time viz. 5 Years to 5348 l. 11 s. 10 d. Henry Brand. Henry Brand deposed the same To the increase of Customs John Welsh deposed John Welsh That out of the Exchequer Book he took these Accounts In the Year 1636 they came to 39936 l. In the Year 1637 they came to 38889 l. In the Year 1638 they came to 57380 l. In the Year 1639 they came to 55582 l. The Lord Ranulagh deposed much to the same effect Welsh further deposed the price of Hides 50 l. per Last being 3 s. 4 s. some 5 s. few above Wooll 3 s. 4. s. 5 s. 9 s. that the highest From whence Mr. Maynard observed a Hide of 5 s. rated at 2 s Wooll at 9 s. rated at 13 s. 4 d. in the Book of Rates and to pay Custom accordingly Patrick Allen. Patrick Allen deposed rates of Hides 4 s. 4 s. 6 d. 5 s. and 6 s. Wooll 4 s. 6 s. 7 s. 8 s. the highest 11 s. The Earl desired the Article might be read The Earl's Defence and then it would appear how pertinently the time was spent in proving it which he read and added with submission There was nothing in it that by any Law could be brought to Treason and that he was to answer to and nothing else That what the King lost by the Duke
mentioned in the Ninth Article to be issued to the Bishop of Down and Conner whereby he gives power to him and his Officers to apprehend any of the King's Subjects that appeared not upon Process out of his Ecclesiastical Courts expresly contrary to Law and your Lordships have heard how miserably the King's Subjects were used by this Warrant as hath been proved by a Gentleman of Quality Sir James Montgomery and howsoever he pretends it was called in it was three whole years in execution before it was called in and though he pretends his Predecessors did ordinarily grant Warrants of that nature yet he proves no such thing My Lord Primate was examined and he sayes that Bishop Montgomery did tell him there was such a Warrant and one Witness more speaks of one Warrant and that is all the Witnesses produced and that but to be a Copy too Your Lordships have heard how he exercises his jurisdiction and power over particulars and that in a numerous manner now your Lordships shall find it universal and spread over the face of that Kingdom that was under his jurisdiction and that is in the tenth Article which concerns the Customs where he doth impose upon the King's Subjects a Rate and Tax against Law and enforces them to pay it or else punishes them for it which is expresly an arrogating to himself of a jurisdiction above the Law My Lords in his answer he pretends that this is rather a matter of Fraud than otherwise in truth and so it is and that a great one too But as it is a fraud a dis-service and deceit to his Majesty so it is likewise an exercise of a Tyrannical Jurisdiction over his Subjects That it is a fraud to his Majesty it plainly appears for the King lost exceedingly by it whereas before the Rent afforded the King was 11050 l. there was improved by the new Lease that my Lord of Strafford took but 1350 l. and I beseech your Lordships observe how much the King lost by it for my Lord had comprehended in his new Lease the Impost of Wine for which the King before that time received 1400 l. a year and likewise the Custom of London-derry Colerane and Knockfergus for which the King haâ— reserved 1700 l a year besides the moity of the seisures so here is 5000 l. that the King lost of the old Rent expresly and if your Lordships please observe the gain and benefit my Lord of Strafford made by it in one year he and his sharers received 39000 l. and in the last year 51000 l. and that expresly proved upon two accounts and if this be his dealings where is his service to the King in his pretence to advance the Customs It is true he says The King has five eighth parts but it was but within these two years the King had it not before And I would very gladly have heard whether the King received his part of an account of 55000 l. if he had received it I believe we should have heard of it My Lords There is something more here is a new imposition on the King's People without Law and yet I will do my Lord of Strafford no injury but I tell you how the proof stands It was a Book of Rates framed before he came to the farm for the Book of Rates was in March and the date of his Assignment was in April following and therefore my Lord saith It could not be for his benefit But my Lords all this while my Lord of Strafford was in England and in agitation for the procuring of it and they come one upon the heels of another and I beseech you observe cui bono the Book of Rates was procured within a month of the Patent but God knows whether it were not within the compass of his intentions to take the Patent and therefore whether he were not the Instrument of raising Rates it rests in your Lordships Judgment and all that hear me I am sure the benefit redounded to himself and so here is an Arbitrary Government in imposing and forcing to pay for that I desire your Lordships to take with you and he might as well have raised Nineteen shillings on a pound as nine pence or three pence by the same rule of Law The next Article in number was the Eleventh and I would be glad my Lord had not mentioned it it concerns the Pipe-staves wherein he pretends he did the King great Service and that he says was the reason of our passing over it but that was not the reason it had been a foul business if we had opened it but having enough besides we made not use of it for the substance of the proofs by multiplicity of Witnesses had been that the parties themselves that bought the Pipe-staves for Four pound odd money were fain to sell them to his Instruments for Six pounds and after to buy them again for Ten pounds else there must be no Licence to Export them but that I would not have mentioned if he had let it slip over I come to the Twelfth Article and that is concerning the Tobacco wherein he pretends the King's Service and if my memory fail me not the desire of the Parliament that he should take this into his hands for the King My Lords Therein under his favour he hath mis-recited the Evidence and spoken that he cannot justifie for he can shew no such desire of the Parliament It is true there was a desire of the Parliament that the King would be pleased to take his Customs into his hands for the advancement of his Revenue that it might go to maintain himself and he might not be abused and others live by it but to take the Tobacco into his hands he never did nor can produce a Witness to prove such their desire and therefore under favour he fixes a wrong upon the Parliament and injures your Lordships by his reciting that he neither did nor can make good for there was no such thing But if you observe the course he takes he makes Proclamation to hinder the importing of Tobacco into Ireland that if it be imported it must be sold to him at his own rate and by these means he first hinders the liberty of the Subject from doing what the Law allows him and so takes on him an Arbitrary Power And Secondly he ingrosses this commodity to himself deceiving His Majesty to whom he professeth so much fidelity for whereas there is 5000 l. Rent to the King he by the computation of Merchants receives near 14000 l. a year And because their computations are not alwayes true I do not care if I allow him 40000 l. mistaken and then he will gain near 100000 l. so that if he intends the King's benefit it is wonder he told not his Majesty of the great profit that might thereby have risen and let him partake of it as in Justice he should have done according to the Trust reposed in him but you have heard of no such matter And
operation upon the courage of a Nation by embasing the hearts of the People A servile condition does for the most part beget in men a slavish temper and disposition Those that live so much under the Whip and the Pillory and such servile Engines as were frequently used by the Earl of Strafford they may have the dregs of Valour Sullenness and Stubborness which may make them prone to mutinies and discontents But those Noble and Gallant affections which put men to brave designs and attempts for the preservation or enlargement of a Kingdom they are hardly capable of Shall it be Treason to embase the King's Coin though but a piece of Twelve-pence or Six-pence and must it not needs be the effect of a greater Treason to embase the Spirits of his Subjects and to set a Stamp and character of Servitude upon them whereby they shall be disabled to do any thing for the Service of the King and Commonwealth The Fifth Consideration is this that the exercise of this Arbitrary Government in times of suddain danger by the invasion of an enemy will disable His Majesty to preserve himself and His Subjects from that danger This is the only pretence by which the Earl of Strafford and such other mischievous Counsellors would induce his Majesty to make use of it and if it be unfit for such an occasion I know nothing that can be alledged in maintainance of it When War threatens a Kingdom by the coming of a Forraign Enemy it is no time then to discontent the people to make them weary of the present Government and more inclinable to a change The supplies which are to come in this way will be unready uncertain there can be no assurance of them no dependance upon them either for time or proportion And if some Money be gotten in such a way the distractions divisions distempers which this course is apt to produce will be more prejudicial to the publique safety than the Supply can be advantagious to it and of this we have had sufficient experience the last Summer The Sixth That this crime of Subverting the Laws and introducing an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government is contrary to the Pact and Covenant betwixt the King and his People that which was spoken of before was the legal union of Allegiance and Protection this is a personal union by mutual agreement and stipulation confirmed by Oath on both sides The King and his People are obliged to one another in the nearest relations he is a Father and a Child is called in Law pars patris He is the Husband of the Commonwealth they have the same interests they are inseparable in their condition be it good or evil he is the Head they are the Body there is such an incorporation as cannot be dissolved without the destruction of both When Justice Thorp in Edward the III. time was by the Parliament condemned to death for bribery the reason of that Judgment is given because he had broke the King's Oath not that he had broke his own Oath but he had broken the King's Oath that solemn and great Obligation which is the security of the whole Kingdom If for a Judge to take a small summ in a private Cause was adjudged capital how much greater was this offence whereby the Earl of Strafford hath broken the King's Oath in the whole course of his Government in Ireland to the prejudice of so many of his Majesties Subjects in their Lives Liberties and Estates and to the danger of all the rest The Doctrine of the Papists Fides non est servanda cum Haereticis is an abominable Doctrine yet that other Tenet more peculiar to the Jesuits is more pernicious whereby Subjects are discharged from their Oath of Allegiance to their Prince whensoever the Pope pleaseth This may be added to make the third no less mischievous and destructive to humane Society than either of the rest That the King is not bound by that Oath which he hath taken to observe the Laws of the Kingdom but may when he sees cause lay Taxes and Burthens upon them without their consent contrary to the Laws and Liberties if the Kingdom This hath been Preached and published by divers And this is that which bath been practised in Ireland by the Earl of Strafford in his Government there and endeavoured to be brought into England by his Counsel here The Seventh is this It is an offence that is contrary to the end of Government The end of Government was to prevent oppressions to limit and restrain the excessive power and violence of great men to open the passages of Justice with indifferency towards all This Arbitrary Power is apt to induce and encourage all kind of insolencies Another end of the Government is to preserve men in their Estates to secure them in their Lives and Liberties but if this design had taken effect and could have been setled in England as it was practised in Ireland no man would have had more certainty in his own then Power would have allowed him but these two have been spoken of before there are two behind more important which have not yet been touched It is the end of Government that Vertue should be cherish'd Vice supprest but where this Arbitrary and unlimited Power is set up a way is open not only for the security but for the advancement and encouragement of evil such men as are apt for the execution and maintenance of this Power are only capable of preferment and others who will not be instruments of any unjust commands who make a conscience to do nothing against the Laws of the Kingdom and Liberties of the Subject are not only not passable for employment but subject to much jealousie and danger It is the end of Government that all Accidents and Events all Counfels and Designs should be improved to the publique good But this Arbitrary Power is apt to dispose all to the maintainance of it self The wisdom of the Council-Table The authority of the Courts of Justice The industry of all the Officers of the Crown have been most carefully exercised in this the Learning of our Divines the Jurisdiction of our Bishops have been moulded and disposed to the same effect which though it were begun before the Earl of Strafford's imployment yet it hath been exceedingly furthered and advanced by him Under this colour and pretence of maintaining the King's Power and Prerogative many dangerous practises against the peace and safety of the Kingdom have been undertaken and promoted The increase of Popery and the favours and encouragement of papists have been and still are a great grievance and danger to the Kingdom The innovation in matters of Religion the Usurpations of the Clergy the manifold burthens and taxations upon the people have been a great cause of our present distempers and disorders and yet those who have been chief furtherers and actors of such mischiefs have had their Credit and Authority from this that they were forward to maintain this
Lordships Yesterday morning finding a Multitude in the Palace-Yard did make an Order and declared it to Ten of the principal Persons of them in the open House of Parliament That the House of Commons being the Representative Body of the Commons of this Kingdom who had brought in the Bill against the Earl of Strafford their Lordships thought fit to let them know that their Lordships are going on to the final Conclusion of the great business concerning the Earl but are so compassed with Multitudes that their Lordships may be conceived not to be free unless these Companies of People be sent home whose flocking hither doth only hinder their Lordships from going on to conclude that great business And therefore their Lordships desire them to consider with their Lordships how this business of such Importance may be first expedited and not interrupted by the concourse of such numbers of People the business having no other hindrance but their Concourse about both Houses in this manner But the Commons had occasion for the Tumults and they were not to be discouraged and therefore instead of an Answer they at another Conference present them with the Protestation of which before Tuesday May the 4th Amidst all these concerns of greater Moment the Faction was still at leizure not only to affright their Enemies but to encourage their Friends For on the one side on Tuesday the 4th of May these Votes Passed in favour of John Lilburn the great and avowed Enemy of Episcopacy for which he had been Sentenced in the Star-Chamber and upon Mr. Rouse's reporting of his Case to the House Resolved c. Votes in favour of John Lilburn That the Sentence in the Star-Chamber given against John Lilburn is illegal and against the Liberty of the Subject and also bloody wicked cruel barbarous and tyrannical Resolved c. That Reparation ought to be given to Mr. John Lilburn for his Imprisonment suffering and loss susteined by that illegal Sentence And on the other side that they might bring the Bishops under the Popular Odium Mr. William Thomas in a long and studied Speech which was afterwards Printed and Published endeavoured to blacken the whole Order to that Degree that they might not appear fit to continue Members of Parliament or indeed fit to live for having got a tast of the Blood of Strafford they were now meditating how to make the Ax tast of the Blood of the Archbishop of Canterbury whom the Presbyterians and other Sectaries esteemed one of their greatest Enemies The Speech as I find it Printed is as follows I Have formerly spoken of the present Church Government Mr. William Thomas his Speech against Bishops May the 4th 1641. by Archbishops Bishops c. Declaring the corruption and unsoundness thereof and how far degenerate if not contrary to the pure Primitive Apostolical Institution also I have touched a little of the other parts as how unlawful it was for them to intermeddle in Temporal Affairs to use Civil Power or to Sit as Judges in any Court much less in the Court of Parliament where they pass Censure and Judgment not only of our Lives and Liberties but on the Estates and Inheritance and Blood as of us so of our posterity And as this is unlawful by the Divine Law so by the Canons of the Church yea of this Church and Acts of Parliament of this Realm whereof I shall further enlarge my self in my ensuing discourse so hath their Sitting there been prejudicial and obnoxious to Kings and Subjects Now I desire briefly to declare when and how the Bishops came to be Members in the Parliaments in the House of the Lords and by what means they continued their Sitting there because prescription is much insisted upon Although long usage as King James truly delivereth confirmeth no Right if unlawful originally or at convenient times interrupted And whereas it hath been demanded why the first of our Reasons viz. That it hindereth Ecclesiastical Vocation was not urged 600 years ago I answer there was then no cause for the first beginning of Parliaments was not 74 years after But if this had been delivered of the lawfulness and conveniency of their intermedling in Temporal Affairs I should have replyed that it hath been declared not only 600 but 1600 years ago and in each Century since But supposing and granting that it was meant of such Parliaments as were before the Conquest you shall find that above Six Hundred years ago the Prelates are charged by their intermedling in secular Affairs to neglect the Office of Episcopal Function For this we read Hollingshead the Clergy were altogether unlearned wanton and vitious for the Prelates altogether neglected the Office of Episcopal Function which was to tender the Affairs of the Church and to feed the Flock of Christ lived themselves Idle and Covetous addicted wholly to the Pomp of the World and voluptuous Life little caring for the Churches and Souls committed to their charge And if any saith Higden told them that their lives ought to be holy Rand. Higden Policron lib. 6. cap. 74. and their conversation without covetousness according to the sacred Prescript and virtuous example of their Elders they would scoffingly put them off with a Nunc aliud tempus alii pro tempore mores Thus saith he they plained the roughness of their doings with the smoothness of their Answers Briefly they were so loose and riotous saith Gervasius of Canterbury they fell so fast to commit wickedness Gervasius Dorobernensis as to be ignorant of sinful Crimes was then held to be a great Crime it self And the Clergy saith Malmesbury contenting themselves with trivial Literature William Malmsbury could scarcely hack and hew out the words of the Sacrament Robert was then Archbishop of Canterbury who instigated King Edward the Confessor against his Mother Queen Emma charging her with incontinency with Alwyn Bishop of Winchester observe how one Locust stings another William Malmsbury which she washt away and cleared her self of by a sharp Tryal of Fire Candentis Ferri being put according to the Law Ordalium to clear her self by passing Nine Plough-shares glowing red hot bare-footed and blind-folded which she did without hurt And as this Bishop had charged the Queen his Mother with incontinence so did he likewise the Queen his Wife Edith or Egith with Adultery but no less untruly and unjustly then malitiously and enviously as saith Malmesbury she being a Lady incomparable as for Beauty so for Virtue in whose Breast there was a School of all Liberal Sciences And the like testifies Ingulphus that had often Conference with her that as she was Beautiful and excellent well Learned so in her demeanor and whole course of Life a Virgin most Chast humble and unfeignedly holy mild modest faithful and innocent not ever hurtful to any And do we not read that about the Year 1040 that Bishop Alfred had his Hand deep in the Murder of Prince Alfred who having his Eyes
inhumanely put out lived not long after in torment and grief Some say he died by a more horrible Kind of Cruelty as his Belly was opened Will. Caxton and one end of his Bowels fastned to a Stake his Body pricked with sharp Ponyards till all his Entrails were extracted in which most Savage Torture he ended his innocent Life These Bishops little regarded Ecclesiastical Vocation or Function but Worldly Pomp and Courtly Rule They cannot be at Assemblies of States and Parliaments but their neglected Flock must be starved These feed not their hungry Sheep but hunger to feed on them and this Care of the World volves them in a world of Cares What hath been spoken of those Bishops I wish had not been delivered of other Latter Prelats wherein I crave Leave to speak what others write That they are grown to that Height of Idleness the Mother of Ignorance and Luxury within themselves and by reason thereof in contempt and base estimation with the People that it is thought high time that blood should be drawn from their swelling Veins I will not though perhaps I might say with them that the Commonwealth hath little use of such I mean of our Lordly Bishops but for that they are so far degenerated from the Primitive institution I wish there were reformation I speak not of demolishing but of Amendment and Restitution and until it appear that the whole is unsound I shall not assent to utter extirpation or eradication Thus much I have made bold to deliver though not in due place nor in any purpose to plead against those or any of them that have declared themselves to be of contrary Opinion I am not ignorant of my disability to enter the Lists with any or to contend with such Worthies in this or other Argument but I hope there will not be denyed to me Leave and Liberty to declare the Cause and Reason of my Vote in this House in which I have the honour to sit as a Member And if I have erred I have been mis-led not only by Learned Fathers and Divines by Synods and General Councils but by great Lords and Barons yea by the whole Peerage of these Kingdoms of England and France Peter Lord Primandy and Barree who writ the French Academy and dedicated the same to Henry the Third King of France and Poland in that Book and Chapter of the Causes that bred Change saith That Bishops and Prelates neglecting their Charge to bestow their times in worldly Affairs grew to Misliking and Contempt have procured great Offences and marvellous Trouble which may more easily be lamented then taken away or reformed being such Abuses as have taken deep Root And what he affirmeth did the Peers of France unitely deliver That Bishops should follow St. Peter 's steps to win Souls and not to meddle with Wars and Murder of Mens Bodies But to come neer and to speak of England Let us hear what the English Lords did declare We read that they did Decree in the time and Reign of King John That Bishops should not intermeddle in Civil Affairs or Rule as Princes over their Vassals and the reason is rendred for Peter say they received no power but only in matters pertaining to the Church and further inlarging themselves use these words It appertains not to Bishops to deal in Secular Affairs since Peter only received of our Saviour a power in matters Ecclesiastical what say they hath the Prelates to intermeddle with Wars such are Constantine's Successors not Peter's whom as they represent not in good Actions so neither do they in Authority fie on such Rascal Ribaulds the words in Paris are Marcidi Ribaldi how unlike are they to Peter that usurp Peter's place But this point of intermedling in Secular Affairs though I have often digressed and intermingled with the former parts is proved in its proper place to be unlawful viz. in that part that treateth thereof Craving pardon for this Deviation I will pursue the present Argument the obnoxiousness of their Sitting in Parliament and to come to the points I intended to insist on viz. The entrance of Bishops into the Parliament House and by what means they came there and continued That they have sate there from the first Parliament to this is not denyed But as we are not now to consider an fuerunt but an profuerunt so are we not to debate and discuss an factum but an fieri debuit for it was the Argument of a Pagan viz. Symmachus to the Emperor Theodosius recorded by St. Ambrose servanda est tot saeculis fides nostra sequendi sunt Majores nostri qui secuti sunt foeliciter suos Our Religion which hath continued so many years is still to be retained and our Ancestors are to be followed by us who happily traced the steps of their Fore-fathers but with Tertullian nullam velo consuetudinem defendas if good no matter how short since if bad the longer the worse Antiquity without truth as saith Cyprian is but ancient Error The first Parliament as I read began 1116 or thereabouts and in the Sixteenth or Seventeenth year of King Henry the First who being an Usurper brought in by the Bishops to the disherison of Robert his elder Brother admitted the said Bishops to be Members of the said High Court partly in gratefulness but rather for that he durst not do otherwise for was not Ralph the then Archbishop of Canterbury so proud and insolent a Prelate that we read of him that when Roger Bishop of Salisbury was to Celebrate the Kings Coronation by reason of the Palsie of the Archbishop this cholerick outdaring Prelate could hardly be intreated by the Lords to with-hold his hands from striking the Crown from the Kings Head Eadmerus of such Spirits were those spiritual Prelates and the Jealousie to lose their pompous preheminence of Honours Math. Paris Anno 1119. yet had he no other reason for this his sauciness and bold Attempt but for that Roger did not this by his appointment At the same time Thurstan was Archbishop of York who though a disloyal and perjured Man by breach of his Oath to the King Polichron l. 7. c. 18. yet was he highly favoured and countenanced by the Pope and put into that See by him in despite of the said King And as he so the rest of the Bishops not less guilty nor much less potent were likewise admitted Members of that high Court and to speak plainly how could he spare their being in that House who were to justifie his Title to the Crown Now pass we to King Stephen King Stephen another Usurper Nephew to the former King Henry him though he had an Elder Brother and before them both the Title of Anjou by his Wife Maud the Empress as also of his Son Henry to precede the Bishops did advance to the Royal Throne no less perfidiously then trayterously having formerly sworn to Maud the Empress We are also to understand
Matth. Paris that the Bishop of Winchester was his Brother a very Potent Man in the State And it is worthy our Noting that the Bishops did endeavour to salve their Disloyalty and Perjury by bringing in the Salick Law to this Kingdom Trayterously avowing that it was baseness for so many and so great Peers to be subject to a woman Nay it seemeth the Bishops did not intend to be true Subjects to him though a brave and worthy Prince H. Huntington had his Title to the Crown been as good as the Prelates at his Election did declare for read we not that the Bishops of Salisbury Lincoln Ely and others did fortifie Castles against him and advanced to him in Armed and Warlike manner Wendover Nay did not his Brother the Bishop of Winchester forsake him and in a Synod of Clergy accursed all those that withstood the Empress Maud Paris Malmsbury blessing all that assisted her Surely this Curse ought to have fallen on himself and the Archbishop who did trouble the Realm with Fire and Sword Sure as these were too great to be put out of Parliament so were they very dangerous therein Unto Stephen succeeded Henry the Second In this time Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury what his demeanor towards his Soveraign was and what Mischief was by him occasioned to the Kingdom would take too much time to declare though some Papists that adore him for a Saint will say he resisted on just Cause Caesarius dial lib. 8. c. 69. yet I will deliver what I read and render him with the Chronicles an Arch-Traytor and tell you that the Doctors in Paris did Debate whether he were damned for his disloyalty Rogerus the Norman avowing Bale Brit. Cent. 2. that he deserved death and damnation for his Contumacy toward the King the Minister of God From him I pass to his Son Richard the First R. 1. who had two Brothers that were Bishops the one of Duresme the other of Lincoln and after Archbishop of York and going to the Holy Land appointed for Governour of the Kingdom William Longchamp Chief Justiciar and Lord Chancellor of England and Papal Legate Fox p. 289. This Vice-Roy Paris Hovedon alii Guil. Nubu lib. 4. c. 14. Hovedon Nub. l. 4. c. 17. Hovedon p. 399. or rather King for so Paris calls him Rex Sacerdos had joyned with him Hugh Bishop of Duresm for the Parts beyond Humber This Kingly Bishop as Authors deliver did use incredible Insolence and intolerable Tyranny and commit a most Sacrilegious and Barbarous Out-rage upon the Person of Jeffery Archbishop of York and natural Brother to King Richard the First for which afterwards being taken in a Curtesans Apparel and Attire velut delicata muliercula he was banished the Realm Now as it was very difficult to turn such Papal Bishops and Regulo's out of Parliament so certainly such Lord Bishops did work there no little Mischief to Regal Power the Subjects Liberties and the Weal publique Certainly this was not the Duty and Office of a Bishop Matth. Paris Hollin in R. 1. surely the Silk and Scarlet Robes of Princes and Justiciars were as undecent for these Bishops as was the Coat of Iron of the Bishop of Beavois taken Prisoner by this King which he sent to the Pope with a Vide an tunica filii tui sit an non to which he made Answer That he was not his Son nor the Son of the Church For he had put off the peaceable Prelate and put on the Warlike Souldier took a Shield instead of a Cope a Sword for a Stole a Curace for an Albe a Helmet for a Mitre a Lance for a Bishops Staff perverting the Order and Course of things Thus we see that a Bishop must destroy Mens Lives either as a Justiciar in Court or as a Souldier in Camp Qui si non aliquem nocuisset mortuus est they would do any thing but what they ought to do Feed the Flock they desire rather to Sit in Parliament then stand in a Pulpit accounting Preaching according to Bishop Juell so far below their greatness as indeed it is above their goodness We neither deny or reject Episcopacy or Church Government it self but the Corruptions thereof and we say that the Bishops who stiffly maintained those Corruptions have inforced this our distaste When Jacob was forced to depart from Laban for ill usage I conceive that the breach was in Laban not in Jacob. So also those that did forsake Babylon God commanding to depart from it lest they should be partakers of their punishment as they were guilty of their Crimes did not occasion the schism or breach but the sins of Babylon And we confess that true it is that we refuse and forsake the present Church Government but no further then it hath forsaken Pure and Primitive Institution therefore let none say that we are desirous of Innovation for I think we may boldly with the forenamed Reverend Bishop Juell affirm Nos non sumus novatores From King Richard the First I come to King John King John an Usurper likewise who was advanced to the Regal Throne by Archbishop Hubert and the Prelates * Observe this That even in this Mans opinion England is no Elective Monarchy Matth. Paris Hist Major This lewd Bishop unjustly declaring this and all other Kingdomes to be Elective and that no man hath Right or fore Title to succeed another in a Kingdom but must be by the Body of the Kingdom thereunto Chosen with Invocation of Grace and Guidance of Gods Holy Spirit alledging further and that most plainly by example of David and Saul That whosoever in a Kingdom Excelled all in Valour and Virtue ought to surmount all in Rule and Authority and therefore they had all unanimously Elected John first imploring the Holy Ghosts Assistance as well in regard of his merits as Royal Blood And thus the Bishops blanch their disloyal assertion with Sacred Writ and their Lewd devised Plot with the Holy Ghosts Assistance Hereby they rejected the just Title and Hereditary Succession of Arthur his Elder Brother's Son And as he did this disherison unjustly and disloyally so did he this Election lewdly and fraudulently as himself after confessed when being demanded the Reason of his so doing he replyed That as John by Election got the Crown so by Ejection upon demerit he might lose the same which after he did endeavour to his utmost and at last effected by depriving him of Life and Kingdome Let me not be misconceived Matth. Paris R. Hovedon Girald Cam. who called him Principio fraenum I know Hubert died 8 or 10 years before him but what he did begin and forward was furthered and pursued by Stephen Langton and other Bishops and Prelates too long to rehearse His other Brother being Archbishop of York a strange Example saith Malmsbury to have a King ruled by two Brethren of so turbulent humours Many of their Treasonable Acts and
But Obedience due to Kings is only for certain Respects of Order and Policy 11. 11. Ibidem That those very Church-men that are Born and Inhabit in Soveraign Princes Countries are notwithstanding not their Subjects and cannot be Judged by them although they may Judge them 12. 12. Ibidem And that the Obedience that Church-men give to Princes even in the meanest and meer Temporal Things is not by way of any necessary Subjection but only out of Discretion and for Observation of good Order and Custom Here we find what base Estimation Prelates had of Princes may we not then justly except against their delivery as it is by them urged No Bishop No King Whoever will have the Patience to read over this long and tedious Speech and compare it with the Histories of those Authors which he has gleaned it from may possibly find the matters of Fact either mistaken or falsly represented nor indeed can we give intire credit to all that was written by the Monks of those Times who being great Enemies to the Bishops may be supposed very partial in relating some Passages of their Lives however it is not my Province to vindicate the Ill Actions of any sort of men whatever and is confessedly known that several of those Bishops as particularly Becket the famous Romish Saint were notorious Traytors and ill men But that which I think ought not to be passed by without animadversion is the Weakness of this Gentleman's Argumentation for it is evident that the main stress of his Argument is from the Actions of former ill Bishops to prove the necessity not only of taking from them all Temporal Power and Estate but also to Abolish and Extirpate the very Office for when ever he or any of his Party talk of Reformation as he does when he tells you They were degenerated from the Primitive Institution and that he only wishes there were Reformation not Demolishing but Amendment and Restitution the Reader is to Understand that by those soft Words of Reformation Amendment Restitution and Primitive Institution is meant the Utter Extirpation of Episcopacy as then it stood and the Reducing it to the Geneva standard which with them was a Restitution of it to its Primitive Institution Now how weak and inconsequential the Argument is from the Abuse of any Office Power Dignity Trust or Order to argue the Abolition or Taking it away there needs little more to be said then that Admitting the truth of this for a Practicable and Necessary Maxim all Laws Government and Order must cease in the World for it will as necessarily follow That because there have been ill Kings and Parliaments Magistrates and Laws Therefore they ought wholly to be taken away as because there have been ill Bishops that therefore the whole Order ought to be Abolished And indeed a few Years succeeding brought the same Consequences and Effects upon the King and House of Lords as it had done upon the Bishops who for Mal-administration and pretended Miscarriages by the Usurpation of these soft Reformers and Reducers of Men to their Primitive Institution were both Exauctorated and discharged of any share in the Government and many of them with the King himself of his Royal Crown and Innocent Lives verifying literally to a tittle what he takes such pains to confute in the Close of his Speech as a false and foolish Maxim No Bishop No King And certainly this Gentleman ought to have considered that Ecclesiastical Persons have in all Ages in all Places of the World under all Governments among all Religions Pagan Jew Christian Mahometan universally had a share in the Administration of Civil Affairs and particularly in Legislation so far as the preparing of Laws for the Royal Impress amounts to and with very good reason by a Rule which upon some Occasions these Gentlemen have a Great Veneration for Quod tangit Omnes ab Omnibus debet tractari and Ecclesiasticks as well as others being to be bound by Laws ought to have their part in preparing and consenting to them And further he ought to have considered that Under the Jewish Oeconomy instituted by the Only Wise God himself the chief Administration of all Civil as well as Religious Affairs was Vested in the Ecclesiasticks And for our English Constitution the Laws had incorporated the Episcopal Order into the Very Fundamentals of the Government making them one of the Three Estates of the Land as they are by several Acts declared and to their Sitting not only in Parliament but in all Great Councels during the Saxon Government all Records so long as we have any unanimously inform us so that they had an immemorial Prescription for their Right and it was an ill presage what the future Reformation would prove when it was begun with the over-turning of one of the three Fundamental Pillars upon which the Weighty Frame of the Government was built After all the long Harangue of the ill Actions of former Bishops in the times of Popery when he comes in the period of his Speech as one would reasonably have Expected to speak something to purpose of the Protestant Bishops instead of that as if he had designed to Gratifie the Papists he falls to calumniate the first Reformers Cranmer Ridley c. as factious turbulent Traytors and Incendiaries and when he comes to those of his own time the Pope of Lambeth and his Cardinals Wren and others as he is pleased to stile the Archbishop and Bishops he makes a most hideous Out-cry of Popery Arminianism Idolatry and what not of irreligion to the Deity mischief and danger to the King and prejudice to the People and Kingdome without offering so much as one single testimony or proof by any Action Word or Writing of theirs to support so gross and black a Charge But this was a Method these Worthy Patriots had learnt from the Jesuits Fortiter calumniare aliquid haerebit to throw all the dirt imaginable upon the Albs and Lawn Sleeves of the Bishops not doubting but some of it would stick to them in the opinion of the People and they were such great Masters in the Art of Blackening that I think even the Great Master of the Black Art who has his name from calumniating and falsly accusing the Innocent might have been their Schollar as doubtless he was their Tutor in this hellish Trade But to leave Mr. Thomas with his long Speech let us return to the other Affairs the Faction was now under great Fears of both the Northern Armies who were not only Discontented for want of Pay both Scots and English but several of the latter seeing Evidently whither this procedure of the Anti-Episcopal Faction tended had some warm thoughts about them to endeavour to prevent it while they had the power in their hands knowing that as soon as possible the King would be stript of this Power and those Forces be Disbanded but the matter it seems was either not so well contrived or so secretly managed but that
Message concerning the Lord Lieutenancy of Yorkshire to be conferred upon the Earl of Essex upon which the Lords made application to his Majesty who the next day being the Twentieth sent this Message to the House to let them know Earl of Essex made Lord Lieutenant of Yorkshire That he had conferred the Lieutenancy of Yorkshire upon the Earl of Essex and the cause why His Majesty did not give an Answer before now was Because a Grant was made under the Great Seal of the same to the Lord Savile who is become a Suitor to his Majesty to give him leave to surrender up his Patent to his Majesty seeing it is at the Instance of both Houses who hath accepted of that Surrender For this the House appointed the same Lords who carried the Message to return to his Majesty humble Thanks and thought it fit that Intimation be given to the House of Commons of this Answer of his Majesty But amidst all the Variety of Chaces which were roused for the People to run at Wednesday May 19. Forreign Letters to be opened the scent of Fears and Jealousies of Plots and Dangers was to be kept Warm and for this purpose this Day all Forreign Letters were by Order of the House to be stayed and opened but how little they dreaded a Forreign Invasion had men then considered might Easily have been discovered for this very day the House fell upon the Consideration of Disbanding the Armies Disbanding Armies which had they really feared the Landing of the French in Guernsey Jersey or at Portsmouth they would rather have raised more men for the defence of those Places and to prevent those Dangers Hitherto they had proceeded upon the fair pretence of Reformation only Thursday May 20. and though it be very Evident both by their Protestation as Explained and by several other Passages that they did not only design to devest the Bishops of their Votes and Peerage and the Clergy of all manner of Secular Power but utterly to Exterminate that Government out of this Church and Kingdom yet with their Usual Way they had wisely dissembled their Intentions but now having as they conceived by the Tumults which they found they were able to raise at their pleasure gotten a strength able to stand by them and maintain them in all their Proceedings they openly declared what their Intention was Sir Edward Deerings Collection of Speeches Page 26. A mistake of Mr. Franklins about Oliver Cromwell's being Burgess for the University of Cambridg rectified For upon this day as I have it from Sir Edward Deering's own Papers being the Collection of his Speeches which himself published for his Vindication that he was no Root and Branch man The Bill for Abolition of the present Episcopacy was pressed into his hand by Sir Arthur Haslerig being brought unto him by Sir Henry Vane and Oliver Cromwell Burgess for the Town of Cambridge and not the University as Mr. Franklin in his Annals has by mistake printed him Sir Arthur told him he was resolved that it should go in but was Earnestly Urgent that Sir Edward then a Popular man a Speech-maker and Favourite of the Faction should present it and it seems Sir Edward was willing to be made a Cats foot to this worthy Triumvirate for as he tells us without any due consideration or deliberation upon so weighty a matter the Bill did hardly stay in his hand so long as to make a hasty perusal for whilest he was overviewing it Sir Edward Aiscough delivered in a Petition out of Lincolnshire which was seconded by Mr. Strode in such a sort that having a fair invitement to issue forth the Bill then in his hand he immediately stood up and made this Extempore Speech at the delivery of the Bill Mr. Speaker THE Gentleman that spake last taking notice of the multitude of Complaints and Complainants against the present Government of the Church The Bill for the utter abolishing Episcopacy c. brought in and Sir Edw. Deering's Speech upon it doth somewhat seem to wonder that we have no more pursuit ready against the persons Offending Sir the Time is present and the Work is ready perhaps beyond his Expectation Sir I am now the Instrument to present unto you a very short but a very sharp Bill such as these Times and their sad Necessities have brought forth It speaks a free Language and makes a bold Request It is a Purging Bill I give it You as I take Physick not for Delight but for a Cure A Cure now the last and only Cure if as I hope all other Remedies have been first tryed then Immedicabile vulnus c. but cuncta prius tentanda I never was for Ruin so long as I could hold any hope of Reforming My hopes that way are even almost withered This Bill is intituled An Act for the Utter abolishing and taking away of all Archbishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons Prebendaries Chanters and Canons and all other their Under-Officers Sir You see their demerits have Exposed them Publici odii piaculares victimas I am sorry they are so ill I am sorry they will not be content to be bettered which I did hope would have been Effected by our last Bill When this Bill is perfected I shall give a sad Ay unto it And at the delivery in thereof I do now profess before-hand That if my former hopes of a full Reformation may yet revive and prosper I will again divide my Sence upon this Bill and yield my Shoulders to underprop the Primitive Lawful and Just Episcopacy Yet so as that I will never be wanting with my utmost Pains and Prayers to Root out all the undue adjuncts and superstructures on it I beseech you read the Bill and weigh well the Work How little this unhappy Gentleman had considered of this Weighty Affair and upon what slender convictions either of his own Conscience or the real guilt of the Hierarchy he Employed his Parts and Eloquence to persuade the Abolition of Episcopal Government we have reason to believe not only from his own confession here that he had scarcely hastily perused the Bill before he thus recommended it to the House but from the sad Catastrophe of his Life For not long after this very Gentleman who formerly with so much applause made that Motion in the House of Commons That every one of the Canon-makers should with his own hands fire his Canons at the Barr of the House notwithstanding those Canons were stamped with the Royal Authority vested in the King by the Oath of Supremacy Yet falling into the disfavour of the Faction for some after-Speeches and indeavouring his own Vindication he so inraged the Party that his Book of Speeches was ordered to be burnt by the hand of the Common Hangman and being Expelled the House he was forced to avoid discovery and the fury of those Zealots whose Cause he so industriously asserted to flie in the disguise
and others of the Privy Council whose hands are at the Warrant for the Commitment of Sir John Corbet ought to joyn in this Reparation viz. the Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Coventry Archbishop of York Earl of Manchester Lord Cottington Edw. Lord Newburgh Sir Henry Vane Sir Francis Windebank Then the House took into Consideration the Reasons which the Lords had offered at the Conference concerning the Bishops having Votes in Parliament Answers to the Lords Reasons for Bishops Voting in Parliament and it was agreed to offer these Reasons in Answer to them 1. The Commons do conceive that Bishops ought not to have Votes in Parliament First Because it is a very great hinderance to the Exercise of their Ministerial Function 2. Because they do vow and undertake at their Ordination when they enter into Holy Orders That they will give themselves wholly to that Vocation 3. Because Councils and Canons in several Ages do forbid them to meddle in Secular Affairs 4. Because the 24 Bishops have dependency on the two Archbishops by their Oath of Canonical Obedience to them 5. Because they are but for their Lives and therefore are not fit to have Legislative power over the Honors Inheritances Persons and Liberties of others 6. Because of Bishops Dependancy and Expectancy of Translation to Places of greater Profit 7. Because that several Bishops have of late much Encroached upon the Consciences and Liberties of the Subject and they and their Successors will be much Encouraged still to Encroach and the Subjects will be discouraged from complaining against such Incroachments if Twenty six of that Order be to be Judges upon those Complaints The same Reason Extends to their Legislative Power in any Bill to pass for Regulation of their Power upon any emergent inconvenience by it 8. Because the whole number of them is interessed to maintain the Jurisdiction of Bishops which hath been found so grievous to the Three Kingdoms that Scotland hath abolished it and Multitudes in England and Ireland have Petitioned against it 9. Because the Bishops being Lords of Parliament it setteth too great a distance between them and the rest of their Brethren in the Ministry which occasioneth Pride in them Discontent in others and Disquiet in the Church To their having Votes a long time If inconvenient Time and Vsage are not to be considered with Law-makers and some Abbots voted as anciently in Parliament as Bishops yet taken away That for the Bishops Certificate to plenarty of Benefice and Loyalty of Marriage the Bill Extends not to them the Bishops making return of them by Course of Common Law That Argument taken from the Canons and Laws Ecclesiastical This Passage is in the Report of this Conference in the Lords Journal but not in the Commons They Judged these Canons not binding so did the Bishops too yet they must be lawful against them must be considered as a fight against the Bishops with their own Weapon as a kind of Goliah 's Sword to cut off Goliah 's head but not as though the House of Commons did hereby Justifie the Legality of any thing of that Nature That for the Proviso for the Vniversities and Temporal Lords it may stand in the Bill if it please their Lordships It was added That there is an ACT preparing for the Regulating of the Vniversities and this Proviso is but permitted to remain there by way of Provision till that be Effected For the Secular Jurisdiction of the Dean of Westminster the Bishops of Durham and Ely and the Archbishop of York if they are to Execute them in their own persons the former Reasons shew the inconvenience of them and for the Temporal Courts and Jurisdictions which are Executed by their Temporal Officers the Bill doth not concern them How deeply Guilty these Anti-Episcopal Grandees of the Faction were of Hypocrisie and Collusion this Passage makes clearly apparent The deep Hypocrifie of the Grandees of the Anti-Episcopal Faction for whereas by the Bill upon which this Conference with the Lords was had and for the supporting of which these Reasons were Framed they seemed only to desire that the Bishops might not Sit and Vote in the Lords House as Peers of the Realm and not to take away the Office or Function they had at that very instant as the Reader by casting his Eye but a little backward may see a Bill before them for the utter Abolition and Extirpation of the Office it self with all its appennages commonly known by the name of the Root and Branch Bill It is not my Province to descend into so great a Field of Controversie as these Reasons against the Bishops Votes would afford a Pen of Greater Leizure however because these Papers may fall into some hands who may not be so well Antidoted against the well gilt Poyson I will adventure to give them some short strictures And therefore First the Reader is to Consider in general That the Lords Spiritual being by the Common Law of this Realm Peers in Parliament and by the Statute Law declared to be one of the Three Estates of the Kingdom if any such Inconveniences as are here objected against them were sufficient ground for the abolition of them and consequently altering the Frame of the Government then Paritate Rationis it would follow That the like or greater inconveniences would be a sufficient ground for the utter abolishing or taking away of either or both the other Two Estates viz. The Lords Temporal and Commons which Assertion evidently destroyes the Being and Foundation of Parliaments which sure no Englishman can without Horror and Detestation hear And indeed this very Consequence led these very Persons afterwards to Vote the House of Lords Vseless and Dangerous and wholly to lay them aside and divest them of all the Priviledges of their Peerage in Parliament to the utter Subversion of the Ancient Frame of the Government Nor indeed were these Inconveniencies which they represent here as so Formidable and Dangerous of any weight or moment in themselves For as to the First The hinderance of the exercise of their Ministerial Function The very share they have in preparing Laws and giving their Assent to them in that Station is one of the most weighty parts of their Episcopal Function to take Care that such Laws may be made in a Christian Kingdom as may be for the Glory of God the Advancement of true Piety and the Well Government of the Church And for any other parts of their Office though they should not be so well able to perform them during the times of Session of Parliaments which yet for any thing made appear to the contrary they may do Yet the great necessity and advantage of their Legislative Right may very well give a dispensation to the omission of the less necessary Offices of their Function for so small a time as the Sessions of Parliament Used to be till these Men obtained of the King that perpetuating ACT of which it may truly be
them down like Stars from Heaven to Earth and they did grow once to be advanced above their Brethren I do appeal to all who have been versed in the Antient Ecclesiastical Stories or Modern Histories Whether they have not been the Common Incendiaries of the Christian World never ceasing from Contention one with another about the Precedency of their Sees and Churches Excommunicating one another drawing Princes to be Parties with them and thereby Casting them into Bloody Wars Their Ambition and Intermedling with Secular Affairs and State-Business hath been the Cause of sheding more Christian Blood then any thing else in the Christian World and this no man can deny that is versed in History But we need not go out of our own Kingdom for Examples of their Insolency and Cruelty when they had a Dependancy upon the Pope and any footing thereby out of the Land there were never any that carried themselves with so much Scorn and Insolency towards the Princes of this Kingdom as they have done Lincoln Two of them the Bishop that last spake hath named but Instances of many more may be given whereof there would be no End Although the Pope be Cast off yet now there is another Inconvenience no less prejudicial to the Kingdom by their Sitting in this House and that is they have such an absolute dependancy upon the King that they Sit not here as Freemen That which is requisite to freedome is to be void of Hopes and Fears He that can lay down these is a Freeman and will be so in this House But for the Bishops as the Case stands with them it is not likely they will lay aside their Hopes greater Bishopricks being still in Expectancy and for their Fears they cannot lay them down since their Places and Seats in Parliament are not invested in them by Blood and so hereditary but by annexation of a Barony to their Office and depending upon that Office and thereby of their Places at the King's Pleasure they do not so much as Sit here Dum benè se gesserint as the Judges now by your Lordships Petition to the King have their Places granted them but at Will and Pleasure and therefore as they were all Excluded by Edw. 1. as long as he pleased and Laws made Excluso Clero so may they be by any King at his Pleasure in like manner they must needs therefore be in an absolute dependency upon the Crown and thereby at Devotion for their Votes which how prejudicial it hath been and will be to this House I need not say I have now shewed your Lordships how hurtful to themselves and others these things which the Bill would take away have been I will answer some Objections which I have met withall and then crave your Pardon for troubling you so long Object 1. It will be said that they have been very antient 2. That they are Established by Law 3. That it may be an Infringement to the Priviledges of the House of Peers for the House of Commons to send up a Bill to take away some of their Members To these 3. Objections the Answer will be Easy 1. To the First Antiquity is no good Plea for that which is by Experience found to be Hurtful the Longer it hath done hurt the more need there is now to remove it that it may do no more besides other Irregularities are as antient which have been thought sit to be redressed and this is not so antient but that it may truly be said Non fuit sic ab initio 2. For being Established by Law the Law-Makers have the same Power and the same Charge to alter Old Laws inconvenient as to make New that are necessary 3. For Privilege of the House it can be no breach of it for either Estate may propose to other by way of Bill what they conceive to be for public good and they have power respectively of accepting or refusing There are Two other Objections which may seem to have more force but they will receive satisfactory Answers The One is That if they may remove Bishops they may as well next time remove Barons and Earls For Answer 1. The Reason is not the same the one Sitting by an Honor invested in their Blood and hereditary which tho it be in the King to grant alone yet being once granted he cannot take away The other Sitting by a Barony depending upon an Office which may be taken away for if they be deprived of their Office they Sit not 2. Their Sitting is not so Essential for Laws have been and may be made they being all Excluded but it can never be shewed that ever there were Laws made by the King and them the Lords and Earls Excluded Object The other Objection is this That this Bill alters the Foundation of this House and Innovations which shake Foundations are Dangerous Answ I Answer first That if there should be an Error in the Foundation when it shall be found and the Master-Builders be met together they may nay they ought rather to amend it than to suffer it to run on still to the prejudice and danger of the whole Structure 2. Secondly I say this is not Fundamental to this House for it hath stood without them and done all that appertains to the Power thereof without them yea they being wholly Excluded and that which hath been done for a time at the King's Pleasure may be done with as little danger for a longer time and when it appears to be fit and for public good not only may but ought to be done altogether by the Supreme Power If this Speech be well considered setting aside the flourish his Lordship makes with perverted Scripture there is little in it that might deserve any Answer for the whole is built upon these two false Foundations First That the Bishops are not one of the Three Estates in Parliament an Opinion deservedly Exploded both by Common and Statute-Law and by all Persons of Sense and Honor Except such as would therefore have the King to be the Third Estate that so by bringing in a Co-ordinacy of Power they may the better accomplish their Anti-Monarchical Designs or at least reduce the Ancient and Imperial Crown of these Realms to the Condition of a Venetian Seigniory The Second of his Lordships unsound Foundations is That it is absolutely Vnlawful for Ecclesiastical Persons to intermeddle at all in Secular or Civil Concerns But his Lordship either did not consider or did forget that even St. Paul by his own Confession being a Tent-maker wrought with his hands which is a Secular Employ notwithstanding his Command to the Ministers to be instant in season c. and the Woe to them that do not preach the Gospel upon which his Lordship builds all his Speech And it is obvious that not only this hard labour must be a greater hinderance to his discharging his duty than what is here alledged against the Bishops but that Secular Employes are not absolutely Unlawful even
et Successores Eorum usque ad nos qui nihil tale docuerunt neque cognoverunt quale ab his deliratur Iren. advers haeres Lib. 3. Cap. 3. We are able to number those who by the Apostles were Ordained Bishops in the Churches and their Successors unto our days c. Tertullian in his Book de Praescrip advers haeret Cap. 32. p. 118. Sicut Smyrnaeorum Ecclesia Polycarpum ab Johanne conlocatum refert sicut Romanorum Clementem à Petro ordinatum edit perinde utique et Caeterae exhibent quos ab Apostolis in Episcopatum constitutos Apostolici seminis traduces habent As the Church of Smyrna had Polycarpus placed there by John and the Church at Rome Clement Ordained by Peter so the rest of the Churches did also shew what Bishops they had received by the appointment of the Apostles to propagate the Apostolical Seed Thus far the Reverend Primate From whence it is as clear as the Brightest day that ever enlightned the World That Episcopacy is a Government Instituted in the Church by Apostolical Command and how that should be Unlawful or Anti-Christian without charging the Holy Apostles the Pillars and Foundations of the Church with the horrible Guilt of setting up Antichrist and his Kingdom I think is impossible to be avoided And indeed so Great so Universal and so Powerful is the Truth in this particular that even the greatest Propugnators of Presbyterian Government and Parity have been forced to confess it Petrus Molinaeus in his Book de Munere Pastorali purposely written to defend the Presbyterian Government acknowledges That presently after the Apostles time or even in their time as Ecclesiastical History witnesseth it was Ordained That in every City one of the Presbytery should be called a Bishop who should have preheminence over his Colleagues to avoid Confusion which frequently ariseth from Equality and that truly this Form of Government all Churches every where received And Theodore Beza in Tractatu de triplici Episcopatus genere which he saith was of three kinds Divine Humane and Satanical attributing to the second which he calls Humane but as before is proved plainly is Apostolical at least not only a priority of Order but a superiority of Power and Authority over other Presbyters yet bounded by Laws and Canons provided against Tyranny yet is forced to acknowledg That of this kind of Episcopacy is to be understood whatsoever we read concerning the authority of Bishops in Ignatius and other Antient Writers And to any person that will deliberately and without prejudice debate the matter with himself it will appear either that the very Apostles were of the Confederacy to set up Antichristian Government over the whole World and where ever they founded Churches and Converted Pagans to bring them into Spiritual Sodom and Egypt and Antichristian bondage Or that the Government is Innocent Lawful and agreeable to the Will of God which must of Necessity be best known to those Miraculously inspired Men upon whom the Cloven Tongues of fire descended which were to lead them into all Truth and whether this will not bring in Question the truth of the Promise and of Him who made it and by Consequence such a Chain of Atheism and Impieties as are not fit to be named among Christians I leave to all men to consider and Judge Besides it is perfectly impossible to considering Men and thinking Minds to apprehend that for so many Hundred Years as from the Apostles Age till of late among all the Churches of Christians in the World and among all the Presbyteries that in all those Ages have yielded subjection and been in subordination to this Government of Bishops there should be none found whom either Conscience of Duty the Natural Love of Liberty or that Aversion which all Mankind have to Pride and the Usurpations of others over them should not once prevail with them to oppose this General Defection and Apostacy and Invasion of the Kingdom of Christ and Liberty of Christians The Ingenuous will I hope Excuse this Excursion which though it may appear out of my Road is not out of my Profession nor I hope of any Disadvantage to the Reader Long-winded Mr. Thomas also took the Cudgels in this Quarrel against Church-Government and shot his Bolt as follows I Have heretofore delivered the Reasons that induced me to yield my several Votes Mr. William Thomas his Speech against Deans and Chapters June 11. 1641. touching the Corruption and unsoundness of the present Episcopacy and Church Government so for the unlawfulness of their intermedling in Secular affairs and using Civil Power as also the harm and noxiousness of their Sitting as Members in the Lords House and Judges in that most Honourable and High Court Now I crave leave to do the like in shewing the Reasons of my Vote concerning Deans and their Office I say that my Opinion then was and now is that as the Office is unnecessary themselves useless so the substance of the one and continuance of the other needless nay rather as I will declare most hurtful therefore may easily be spared nay rather ought to be abolished my reasons are these that the Office of Deans doth neither tend or conduce as some have alledged to the honour of God the propagation of Piety the advancement of Learning or benefit of the Common-weal but è contra that they occasion the dishonour and disservice of God the hinderance if not destruction of Piety the suppression and discouragement of Learning and Learned Men and the detriment and prejudice of Church and Common-weal this I conceive I shall make most apparent if time and your patience will permit But first I humbly crave leave and I think it will not be impertinent to declare what Deans were Originally in their first Birth Secondly what in their encrease and further growth and Lastly their present condition being at their full and as I think their final period As to their Original it is not to be denyed but themselves and Office are of great Antiquity Saint Augustine declaring both but I do not say that it is an ancient Office in the Church but what Officers Deans then were be pleased to hear from Saint Augustin's own delivery in his Book de Moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae if that Book as also that of Monachorum be his which Erasmus and others have doubted The Monks saith he for their more retiredness and better contemplation appointed Officers which they called Decanos the Office of them and why they were so called he delivereth in these words as near as I remember Opus autem tradunt illis quos Decanos vocant eo quod sunt denis praepositi ut neminem illorum cura sui corporis tangat neque in cibo neque in vestimento neque si quid aliud vel quotidiana necessitate vel mutata ut assolet valetudine hi autem Decani magna sollicitudine omnia disponentes presto facientes quicquid illa vita propter imbecillitatem
Clergy-man no Dignitary whose Books have cost him a Thousand Pounds which when he dies may be worth to his Wife and Children about Two Hundred It will be a shameful reproach to so flourishing a Kingdom as this to have a poor beggarly Clergy For my part I think nothing too much nothing too good for a good Minister a good Clergy-man They ought least to want who best know how to abound Burning and shining Lights do well deserve to be set in good Candlesticks Mr. Hide I am as much for Reformation for purging and maintaining Religion as any man whatsoever but I profess I am not for Innovation Demolition nor Abolition Possibly the Reader will now be desirous to see this Bill which gave so much business to the Parliament and therefore I here present him with a Copy of it as I find it in the Paper-Office An Act for the Abolishing and taking away of all Arch-Bishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans Deacons and Chanters Arch-Deacons Prebendaries and Canons and all other their Under-Officers of the Church of England WHereas the Government of the Church of England by Arch-Bishops and Bishops The Bill against Episcopal Government and the Hierarchy of the Church their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Arch-Deacons and others their Cathedral Officers have been found by lang experience to be a great Impediment to the perfect Reformation and Growth of Religion prejudicial to the Civâ—l Government of this Kingdom Be it therefore Enacted by the King 's most excellent Majesty the Lords and Commons Assembled in this present Parliament by the Authority of the same That from henceforth there shall be no arch-Arch-Bishops Chancellors or Commissaries of any Bishopricks Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons Prebendaries Chanters Canons or Pety-Canons or any other of their Officers within this Church or Kingdom And every Parson that shall hereafter use or exercise any Power Iurisdiction Office or Authority Ecclesiastical or Civil by Collection of any such Name Title Dignity or Office or Iurisdiction to incur the Penalty and a Forfeiture contained in the Act of Premunires made in the 16 R. 2. That all which hereafter done by any Arch-Bishopricks their Chancellors Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons Prevendaries Canons Petty-Canons or any other Office by Collection of any of their Dignities or Officers aforesaid shall be meérly void in Law any Statute or Ordinance heretofore made to the contrary any wise notwithstanding And that all Mannors Lands Territories Impropriations Houses Rents Services and other Hereditaments whatsoever of the said Arch-Bishopricks Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons Prebendaries Canons Petty-Canons which they or any of them have in Right of the said Churches or Dignities shall be disposed and ordered of in such manner sort and form as the King 's most excellent Majesty the Lords Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled shall appoint And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction fit to be exercised within this Church and Kingdom of England shall be committed to such a number of Persons and in such manner as by this present Parliament appointed Divers Papers were upon this occasion presented to the Consideration of the House of Commons and many even of the Presbyterians who were for altering some things yet were not for Extirpation of Root and Branch among the rest I find these two in the Paper-Office THe Agitation of change of Government in the Church A Proposition concerning Bishops and Ecclesiastical Affairs and Church Government in the House of Commons is a Business of so high a Consequence that it is necessary to prevent any Resolution by Voting their judgment alone lest that being brought up with prejudice to the Lords who are and ought to be equally interessed may also prejudice the Cause It is a doubtful Case in the heat of this dispute how farr the Commons may go in the Declaration of their Opinions in which if the Lords shall not concur it may prove a great Rock of offence between the two Houses Therefore 't is very requisite that the Lords of the Higher House do timely interest themselves in the discussion and before any Resolution in either House To this purpose the Lords may be pleased to make a Committee in their House for the Reformation of Church Affairs and Government and thereupon demand a Conference with the Committee of the House of Commons that the business may be handled by Consultation on both sides pari passu and gradu At this Conference the Lords may be pleased to propose these grounds 1. That neither by Example nor Reason in any Age or State Matters Ecclesiastical or Mutations in Church Affairs were ever alone determined by Lay-men 2. In the Primitive Church and most Ancient times matters of this nature were always debated in General Councils or National Synods in the blessed Reformation the business was agitated by a Choice number of Divines who communicated their proceeding with Reformed Divines abroad and admitted some Strangers into their Consultations for the satisfaction of their Brethren and Peace of the Church 3. The publick Enemy of our Religion will take infinite advantage at every Alteration and especially at any that shall be resolved above by Lay-men 4. It must of necessity produce a dangerous Schism in the Church if without all Respect of Edification and satisfaction to the Parties different in judgment any conclusion should be imposed upon both without their consent 5. It is impossible that any Resolution taken in Heat and Passion can be so permanent but that time will discover a Necessity of fresh alterations to the shame of the whole Reformation 6. It is necessary to proceed in such a way as may not be Scandalous to the Churches abroad and may give satisfaction to both Parties opposite and contending at Home and may be Honourable Durable Obliging and Fortified with the consent and agreement of the Ecclesiastick and the Authority of the Parliament To effect which it is most agreeable to true Wisdom and Policy that both Houses of Parliament determine and declare for the present that the Laws Established for Church Government shall be obeyed And because all things in the first Reformation could not be fore-seen or some things were necessarily for other respects overseen which Time and great Liberty and Light have discovered and which may now be more fitly taken into consideration That therefore both Houses may be pleased to move His Majesty for the calling of a National Synod I mean of a Select number of Divines of all three Nations subject to His Majesty equally and impartially chosen of Moderate and Learned Men of both sides in which may be discussed and resolved a setled and uniform Model of Government to be presented unto the Parliament of all the Kingdoms there to receive Strength and Approbation In which Assembly Godly Men and lovers of Peace assisted by the Spirit of God may doubtlessly be induced to receive satisfaction from one another in
this Kingdom and in Pursuance thereof they and every of them have Traiterously Contrived Introduced and Exercised an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government against Law thorowout this Kingdom by the Countenance and Assistance of Thomas Earl of Strafford then Chief Governor of this Kingdom II. That they and every of them the said Sir Richard Bolton Knight Lord Chancellor of Ireland John Lord Bishop of Derry Sir Gerard Lowther Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas and Sir George Radcliffe Knight have Traiterously assumed to themselves and every one of them regal Power over the Goods Persons Lands and Liberties of his Majesties Subjects in this Realm and likewise have Maliciously Perfidiously and Traiterously Given Declared Pronounced and Published many False Unjust and Erroneous Opinions Judgments Sentences and Decrees in Extrajudicial manner against Law and have Perpetrated Practised and Done many other Traiterous and unlawful Acts and Things whereby as well divers Mutinies Seditions and Rebellions have been raised as also many Thousands of his Majesties Liege People of this Kingdom have been Ruined in their Goods Lands Liberties and Lives and many of them being of good Quality and Reputation have been utterly defamed by Pillory Mutilation of Members and other infamous Punishments By means whereof his Majesty and the Kingdom have been deprived of their Service in Juries and other Publick Imployments and the general Trade and Traffick of this Island for the most part destroyed and his Majesty highly Damnified in his Customs and other Revenues III. That they the said Sir Richard Bolton John Lord Bishop of Derry Sir Gerard Lowther Knight and Sir George Radcliffe and every of them the better to preserve themselves and the said Earl of Strafford in these and other Traiterous Courses have laboured to Subvert the Rights of Parliament and the ancient Course of Parliamentary Proceedings all which Offences were contrived Committed Perpetrated and done at such time as the said Sir Richard Bolton Sir Gerard Lowther and Sir George Radcliffe Knights were privy Counsellors of State within this Kingdom and against their and every of their Oaths of the same at such times as the said Sir R. Bolton Knight was Lord Chancellor of Ireland Chief Baron of his Majesties Court of Exchequer within this Kingdom and Sir Gerard Lowther Knight was Lord Chief Justice of the said Court of Common-Pleas and against their Oaths of the same and at such time as the said John Lord Bishop of Derry was actual Bishop of Derry within this Kingdom and were done and speciated contrary to their and every of their Allegiance several and respective Oaths taken in that behalf IV. For which the said Knights Citizens and Burgesses do Impeach the said Sir Richard Bolton Lord Chancellor of Ireland John Lord Bishop of Derry Sir Gerard Lowther Knight Lord Chief Justice of his Majesties said Court of Common-Pleas and Sir George Radcliffe Knight aforesaid and every of them of High-Treason against our Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity The said Knights Citizens and Burgesses by Protestation saving to themselves the Liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any Accusation or Impeachment against the said Sir Richard Bolton John Lord Bishop of Derry Sir Gerard Lowther and Sir George Radcliffe aforesaid and every of them and also of replying to them and every of their Answers which they and every of them shall make to the said Articles or any of them and of offering Proof also of the Premisses or of any other Impeachment or Accusation as shall be by them Exhibited as the Case shall according to the Course of Parliament require And the said Knights Citizens and Burgesses do pray that the said Sir Richard Bolton Knight Lord Chancellor of Ireland John Lord Bishop of Derry Sir Gerard Lowther Knight Lord Chief Justice of his Majesties said Court of Common-Pleas and Sir George Radcliffe Knight and every of them be put to Answer to all and every of the Premisses and that all such Proceedings Examinations Tryal and Judgment may be upon them and every of them had and used as is agreeable to Law and Justice Copia vera Signed PHILIP PHERNESLY Cler. Parliamenti Thus did these Popular Reforming Protestants help to unhinge the Government and not only helped forward the Designs of the Irish if Sir John Temple's observation before mentioned be true of their endeavours to push out the present Ministers and to get into their places but they gave great Countenance especially to the Vulgar and colourable pretences to the Ensuing Rebellion when even the Protestants of the Parliament of Ireland as well as the Parliament of England by their severe Procedure against the Earl of Strafford for misgovernment and Oppressions done in Ireland by impeaching of these Persons and by their repeated loud Complaints of Grievances Wrongs and Injustice publickly defamed his Majesties Government and proclaimed to the whole World That those Miseries which the Irish suffered under those their Governors and for the Redress of which they pretended to take up Arms were so great real and intolerable that both the Parliaments of England and Ireland were so deeply sensible of them as to acknowledg and thus bitterly inveigh against them Nor were the active men of the Commons House there less busie but the Lawyers Darcy Martin Plunket Cusack Brown Linch Bodkin Evers and others took upon them with much confidence to declare the Law and to frame several Queries which being proposed to the Judges and their Modest Answers not being satisfactory they gave out Resolutions of their own upon them such as might serve their Interest and Designs rather then comport with the Honor Duty and Allegiance which they owed to their Soveraign The Queries together with the Judges Answers to them as also their own Resolutions which were transmitted hither I find in the Paper-Office as followeth Questions wherein the House of Commons humbly desires that the House of the Lords would be pleased to require the Judges to deliver their Resolutions IN as much as the Subjects of this Kingdom are Free Queries propounded by the Parliament of Ireland to the Judges of that Kingdom Loyal and Dutiful Subjects to his most Excellent Majesty their Natural Liege-Lord and King and to be governed only by the Common Lawes of England and Statutes of Force in this Kingdom in the same manner and form as his Majesties Subjects of the Kingdom of England are and ought to be Governed by the said Common-Laws and Statutes of Force in that Kingdom which of Right the Subjects of this Kingdom do Challenge and make their Protestation to be their Birth-right and best Inheritance Yet in as much as the unlawful Actions and Proceedings of some of his Majesties Officers and Ministers of Justice of late years introduced and practised in this Kingdom did tend to the infringing and violation of the Laws Liberties and Freedom of the said Subjects of this Kingdom contrary to his Majesties Royal and Pious Intentions Therefore the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in
graciously pleased to concur with the humble desires of your People in a Parliamentary way for the preserving the Peace and Safety of the Kingdom from the malicious Designs of the Popish Party For depriving the Bishops of their Votes in Parliament and abridging their immoderate Power Usurped over the Clergy and other your good Subjects which they have most perniciously abused to the hazard of Religion and great prejudice and oppression of the Laws of the Kingdom and just Liberty of your People For the taking away such oppressions in Religion Church-Government and Discipline as have been brought in and fomented by them For Uniting all such your Loyal Subjects together as joyn in the same fundamental truths against the Papists by removing some oppressions and unnecessary Ceremonies by which divers weak Consciences have been scrupled and seem to be divided from the rest for the due Execution of those good Laws which have been made for securing the Liberty of your Subjects 2. That your Majesty will likewise be pleased to remove from your Council all such as persist to favour and promote any of those Pressures and corruptions wherewith your People have been grieved and that for the future your Majesty will vouchsafe to employ such Persons in your great and publick Affairs and to take such to be near you in places of Trust as your Parliament may have cause to confide in that in your Princely Goodness to your People you will reject and refuse all mediation and solicitation to the contrary how powerful and near soever 3. That you will be pleased to forbear to alienate any of the forfeited and escheated Lands in Ireland which shall accrue to your Crown by reason of this Rebellion that out of them the Crown may be the better supported and some satisfaction made to your Subjects of this Kingdom for the great expences they are like to undergo this War Which humble desires of ours being graciously fulfilled by your Majesty we will by the blessing and favour of God most cheerfully undergo the hazard and expences of this War and apply our selves to such other courses and councils as may support your Royal Estate with Honour and Plenty at home with Power and Reputation abroad and by our Loyal Affections Obedience and Service lay a sure and lasting Foundation of the greatness and prosperity of your Majesty and your Royal Posterity in future times A Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom THE Commons in this present Parliament Assembled having with much earnestness and faithfulness of affection and zeal to the publick good of this Kingdom and his Majesties Honour and Service for the space of Twelve Months wrastled with the great dangers and fears the pressing miseries and calamities the â—arious distempers and disorders which had not only assaulted but even over-whelmed and extinguisht the Liberty Peace and Prosperity of this Kingdom the comfort and hopes of all his Majesties good Subjects and exceedingly weakned and undermined the Foundation and strength of his own Royal Throne Do yet find an abounding Malignity and opposition in those Parties and Factions who have been the cause of those Evils and do still labour to cast Aspersions upon that which hath been done and to raise many difficulties for the hindrance of that which remains yet undone and to soment Jealousies betwixt the King and Parliament That so they may deprive him and his People of the fruit of his own gracious Intentions and their humble desires of procuring the publick Peace Safety and Happiness of the Realm For the preventing of those miserable effects which such malicious endeavours may produce We have thought good to declare 1. The Root and the growth of these mischievous Designs 2. The Maturity and Ripeness to which they have attained before the beginning of the Parliament 3. The effectual means which hath been used for the extirpations of those dangerous evils and the Progress which hath therein been made by his Majesties goodness and the Wisdom of the Parliament 4. The ways of obstruction and opposition by which that Progress hath been interrupted 5. The courses to be taken for the removing those Obstacles and for the accomplishing of our most dutiful and faithful intentions and endeavours of restoring and Establishing the Ancient Honour Greatness and Security of this Crown and Nation The Root of all this Mischief we find to be a Malignant and pernicious design of subverting the Fundamental Laws and Principles of Government upon which the Religion and Justice of this Kingdom are firmly Establisht The Actors and Promoters hereof have been 1. The Jesuited Papists who hate the Laws as the Obstacles of that change and Subversion of Religion which they so much long for 2. The Bishops and the corrupt part of the Clergy who cherish Formality and superstition as the natural effects and more probable supports of their own Ecclesiastical Tyranny and Vsurpation 3. Such Councellors and Courtiers as for private ends have engaged themselves to further the Interests of some Forraign Princes or States to the prejudice of his Majesty and the State at home The Common Principles by which they moulded and Governed all their particular Counsels and Actions were these First to maintain continual differences and discontents betwixt the King and the People upon Questions of Prerogative and Liberty that so they might have the advantage of siding with him and under the notions of Men addicted to his service gain to themselves and their Parties the place of greatest trust and power in the Kingdom A Second To suppress the Purity and Power of Religion and such as were best affected to it as being contrary to their own ends and the greatest impediment to that change which they thought to introduce A Third To conjoyn those Parties of the Kingdom which were most propitious to their own ends and to divide those who were most opposite which consisted in many particular Observations to cherish the Arminian part in those points wherein they agree with the Papists to multiply and enlarge the difference between the common Protestants and those whom they call Puritans to introduce and countenance such Opinions and Ceremonies as are fittest for Accommodation with Popery to encrease and maintain ignorance loosness and prophaneness in the People That of those three Parties Papists Arminians and Libertines they might compose a body fit to act such counsels and resolutions as were most conducible to their own ends A Fourth to diaffect the King to Parliaments by slanders and false imputations and by putting him upon other ways of supply which in shew and appearance were fuller of advantage then the ordinary course of Subsidies though in truth they brought more loss then gain both to the King and People and have caused the distractions under which we both suffer As in all compounded bodies the Operations are qualified according to the predominant Element So in this mixt party the Jesuited Councils being most active and prevailing may easily be discovered to have had the greatest
to support you to our powers in all that shall be just Then some cryed out But what shall they do for the Brethren that were Committed by my Lord Major and at Westminster before they shall suffer we will spend all our lives The Captain made answer That for those that were Committed at Westminster he and another was appointed by the House to release them all and we did so the same night before we came from Westminster And if my Lord Major hath committed any I will warrant you if you will be quiet and take my word they shall be released every one And as soon as I have refreshed my self I will go to my Lord Major and have them discharged but do you by no means go but return home So they cryed Home Home Home with a mighty noise Then the Major part went away but some of them remained there which would not be satisfied but went down to the Counter in Woodstreet where they were withstood by the Officers thereto belonging with Swords and half Pikes but some rusht in upon them and got away one of the half Pikes from one of them and then went up into Cheap-side again but could not rest satisfied but down they went again and the door being shut against them they brake it and brake the Windows After this the Keeper of the Counter let some of them come in and search for them in every Ward and questioned the Prisoners whether there was any or no but they found none there And therefore went away There are many Voluntiers agoing out but it is to be feared that there are many of them Papists who will be more ready to help the Papists against the King then the King against the Papists But I hope the Lord will defeat their designs and bring their evil ways upon their own heads if there be any that seeks the distruction of the Land Ireland is in a very bad estate and in much fear and trouble of the loss of Dublin but there is yet hopes if there be but present help and aid against the Rebels which is the desire of all true Subjects the going forward of the happy design Thus Courteous Reader you have had the full occurrant of the passages and in what a miserable estate we are brought unto by Papists and Atheists who swarm like the Frogs of Egypt over the whole Land and not likely to be swept away till the Lord in Mercy to his People sweep them into the Red-Sea of their own Blood into the depth of which the Lord bring all the Enemies of his Gospel And so I salute you with kind farewel The Lewdness and Licence of the times was certainly great and among all the Arts which wrought upon the inferior sorts of People none did more mischief then the Liberty of the Press from whence whole swarms of Venomous Pamphlets Calculated exactly to the low and sordid Capacities of the Vulgar flew about the City and Country and did strangely exasperate them especially against the Bishops and the King for favouring of them I do not intend to trouble the Reader with many of these foolish but mischievous Papers but I hope I shall be pardoned if among such a heap of useful Collections there happen to be gathered a little Chaff and yet I cannot think even some such Papers wholly unuseful which will contribute to give the World a true Character of all the little Arts as well as great ones of those Men and Times and to shew what an Excellent Talent some People who affected to be thought the truest of Protestants the Godly and Well-affected Party had in lying and slandering I will therefore present the Reader with a choice piece of Poetry made for a New-years-Gift for the Bishops upon their misfortune of being committed to the Tower It wears a Title which has been tied to many a lewd Libel and is Yâ—leped Vox Populi in plain English I. IN City and Country throughout the whole Land A Lewd Ballad against the Bishops and Common-Prayer The minds of the multitude divers ways stand There 's some that endeavour with might and with main To set the proud Prelates on Horse-back again That they may make Canons and send out their Oath To stablish their Power and dish out their * * So the Sectaries call the Liturgy by way of derision Broth. II. Of this Rank there 's many in every place The which were created by little Laud 's Grace Who since are grown lofty and now like to fall Which makes them through anguish aloud for to call To Papists and Atheists and all such as doth Love lazy proud Prelates and Luke-warm Broth. III. Those Fat-belly'd Priests that have Livings great store If Bishops go down they shall never have more Their Journey-men Readers likewise are afraid That they must be forc'd to give over their Trade And wear Leather Garments instead of black Cloth Which makes them love Bishops and Luke-warm Broth. IV. And great Men would never be counted such fools As to send their Children for learning to Schools But that they hoped in process of time That they to the Throne of a Bishop might climb And there Domineer which fills them with wroth Against such as love neither Bishops nor Broth. V. Another sort likewise must not be forgotten Who in their main Principles seems to be rotten Supposing that Heaven stands open to all That tend on their Pray'rs when the Saints Bell doth call Where instead of substance there 's nothing but froth Much like the proud Prelates so is this their Broth. VI. All these do indeavour as much as they may To back the base Bishops from day unto day The Papists assist them and rather then fail The Devil will help them that he may prevail It makes for his Kingdom to stand for them both I mean the proud Prelates and their Common Broth. VII Against this rude Regiment there doth appear Some Troops of couragious hearts that will not fear T' incounter this Rabble in mischief profound * * The Streets rung again with these Gries Hark how they cry down with them down to the Ground The Papists and Prelates away with them both For we will have none of them nor of their Broth. VIII And these are no base ones as some do suggest But of the King's Subjects indeed are the best Endeavouring the good both of Kingdom and State Whatever Baal 's Priests and proud Prelates do prate Who for the love which they bear unto sloth Do labour to hold up their Luke-warm Broth. IX Then let all good People take Courage indeed So that they from Anti-Christs Yoak may be freed And seeing that Libertie's gain'd by the Scots Let English-men seek for 't it may be their Lotts Then joyn hands together and fear not their wrath But cry down the Prelates and spew out their Broth. X. Their pride and presumption must needs have a fall Their wicked devices for Judgment doth call Their hatred of
Authors of our miseries is the Bishops and their Adherents favourers of the Romish and Arminian faction that have with a high hand and stretched out Arm in their several places of Power and Jurisdiction both spiritual and temporal exercised crueâ—â—â— and tyranny over the Children and Saints of God binding the Consciences of free Subjects only to their opinions and commands in the Exercise of their Religion with extremity and greatest severity inflicting punishment upon those of tender Consciences that shall refuse the same enjoyning all of the Clergy under their Authority to teach only such things as may serve only to the defence and maintenance of their devised doctrines and Tenents of their superiours preaching the same out of Fear not Conscience these corrupt Bishops Lords over their brethren and fellow servants in the Administration of the Mysteries of Salvation have been the prime Authors of all the troubles we are now incumbred withal I speak not Master Speaker altogether against their persons but even their Offices and Places of authority as now they are used contrary to the true intent of the Apostles in the first admitting of the ordination of Bishops in these particulars as I under favour conceive First their denomination and style Lord Bishops we find not any where allowed nay not named in Scripture Secondly they joyn not with their authority teaching and constant preaching of the word of God warranted by the same but separated contrary thereto Thirdly joyning with their Spiritual Power temporal Jurisdiction usurping to themselves the only Office of the Magistrate Fourthly procuring to themselves places of Judicature chief Judges in great Courts as their High Commission late Star-Chamber and the like which are all contrary to the rules and ordinances of Divine-Writ We cannot otherwise conceive or expect as long as their Offices thus corrupted remain without limitation or correction that ever there will be true Religion setled in this Land or any peace or unity of hearts and affections in this Kingdom being too apparent to all the world that from age to age since the Prelates have had such power and command in the Common-Wealth they have bin either the roots and founders or Actors and Competitors with others of all the divisions and dissentions that have ever been in this Kingdom either between the Prince and his People or between the Prince and his Parliaments and still such persons of perverse Spirits possess such Offices Secondly I come to shew you these their practises how they have and still endeavour to bring to pass their wicked designs they are known already I verily believe both to you and almost all men that is * * Most notorious falshood by Innovating Religion joyning with the Church of Rome approving as well of the Doctrine as Ceremonies thereof endeavouring to bring all others into the same opinion with them especially the Lords and Grandees of this Kingdom to perfect this they raise divisions between the King and his Subjects between King and Parliament between Lords and Commons and between the Commons themselves to raise Mutinies Insurrections Rebellions amongst his Majesties good Subjects open Wars between his Majesties Kingdomes one against another and all under pretence of the Religion to defend the Office Power and Jurisdiction of Bishops above all others yea that their Spiritual power is above the Kings in Ecclesiastical causes and the like all which we have had woeful experience of Thirdly and lastly the means whereby we may remedy these evils is First to regulate and rectifie their unlawful and usurped Power and Jurisdictio and settle such a form of Government in Religion as shall seem to the Wisdom of this House to come nearest the Word of God And Secondly with all speed as we possibly can upon Triall bring to deserved punishment these Prelates and Bishops that have been the only Authors of all our miseries Thus did these Vultures and Harpies accuse the innocent Doves upon whom they intended to prey and Quarry but God be praised We have found though by woful Experience who were the Occasions of all those dreadful Miseries those Wars and Bloodshed that Tyranny and Usurpation under which the Nation so long groaned which from the Day that it saw the Bishops excluded from the Execution of their Function and from their Right never saw one happy Day till by the Miracle of Providence they were by the Restauration of the Illustrious Son of the Glorious Martyr repossessed of their Office and Rights Then Sir Philip Stapleton Reported the Paper of Thanks to be returned to the Scots Commissioners which was in these Words The House of Commons having considered The Thanks of the House of Commons to the Scots Commissioners for their Papers to the King and Parligment both that Paper given in to them from the Scottish Commissioners upon Saturday last as likewise their Advice lately given to his Majesty by occasion of the present Troubles which at the intreaty of the said House they have communicated to them and finding therein a large Testimony of their Fidelity to the King of Affection to this State and of Wisdom for the Honor Security and Peace of his Majesty and Kingdoms doth hereby declare That they have herein done that which is not only acceptable to this House but likewise that which is of great Advantage to both Nations and therefore have Ordered That Sir Philip Stapleton Mr. Hampden Mr. Fiennes Mr. Pym Mr. Arthur Goodwin Sir Henry Vane ju or any three of them shall return them very hearty and affectionate Thanks in the Name of this House and this House doth further desire them That according to their Affections already expressed they will continue their Care and Indeavors to remove the present Distractions among us as also to preserve and confirm the Vnion between the two Nations so happily begun And that this might appear to be not only a verbal Acknowledgment It was this day Ordered That the Citizens that serve for the City of London do take Care that the Scots Commissioners do pay nothing for their House Rent and Furniture belonging unto the same and this House will undertake to see the same satisfied After this one Ralph Hope being at the Bar informed the House of Commons That 4th Jan. instant Serjeant Dendy came to Mr. Weekes his House at the Gate-House Information against Serjeant Dendy and required of him if Mr. Hollis lay there whereupon he asked the Serjeant What his Business was the Serjeant bid him tell him his Name he answered if he would tell him his Business he would tell him his Name whereupon he said I charge you upon your Life to tell me where Mr. Hollis is for he is a Traitor how dares Mr. Weekes lodg a Traitor in his House he said he must have him and would have him for he was a Traitor Whereupon it was Resolved c. That Mr. Dendy Serjeant at Arms shall be forthwith sent for as a Delinquent by the Serjeant at Arms attending
it in his Book of Speeches printed and published for his own Vindication Mr. Hide YOu have here a Bill but such a one as is likely to be short-liv'd Sir Edward Deering's Speech about Episcopal Government June 21. 1641. and not grow into a perfect Act unless you please to add thereunto some very Important very significant proviso's such wherein we may have or whereby we may be assured in another Bill to have a future Government in room of this that goes out I am confident the Lords will otherwise debate and dispute your Bill quite out of doors Sir we are all bound unto the goodness of his Sacred Majesty God preserve him and his for it none of all our Bills none of our Petitions this Parliament have miscarried in his Royal Hand but have been all compleated with the Royal Assent But the Ambition of some of our Prelats will not let them see how incompatible two several contradistinguished Functions are in one and the same Person And therefore there is left you neither Root nor Branch of that so good so necessary a Bill which lately we did send up and consequently no hope of such a Reformation as we all do aim at What spark of hope can we then have that this Bill which strikes at Root and Branch both of their Seats of Justice there and of their Episcopal Chaires in the Church will pass as it is and without tender of some other Government in Lieu of this since the Voices are still the same which outed your former Bill Truly I profess my hopes are sad in this never had one Parliament so many great Affairs never had any Parliament any Affair so great as this which we call The Bill of Episcopacy Certain Sir it is the great hope or the exceeding fear of every man here and of all men abroad Many a time this Parliament I have heard and not unjustly that the business then in hand was of as great Consequence as any had been agitated within these Walls But in truth Sir to my apprehension neither Star-Chamber nor High-Commission nor Ship-money nor Strafford's death nor Canterbury's Life are with me equivalent to the setling or unsetling of the whole National Church of this Kingdom We cannot answer to God or man if we do not use our best and most vigorous endeavours for the peace of the Church we live in I should think this a happy day if we could so temper this Bill that it might walk fairly on through the House of Lords unto the King To this end and that we may not lose all by asking more then all I will be bold to offer to your consideration a provisional addition or two Such as I hope may both satisfy us and secure our Bill by fit amendments Here was a little interception and then a long additional to the Bill presented in Writing for putting all Church-Government into the hands of Commissioners in every Diocess I proceeded Sir there is now offered unto you a large addition to your Bill This was so at first though afterward it was resolved that no Clergy-man but only Lay-men should be Comissioners longer indeed by far then the Bill it self It seems to desire that a Proportional number of Clergy and Laity may be Commissionate together for all Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction until a future Government be resolved on I must confess I am not fatisfied with this way of Commissioners it would joy me much and satisfie me more if as one Government goes out I could see another come in and that without an Inter-regnum of Commissioners We are resolved that the present way of Government is unsufferable let it go but let us have another This I conceive to be Feasible and that in fewer Lines fewer Words then this additional Increment now offered to your Bill which in truth will make me like your Bill worse then I did before To this purpose I do lay this ground A Church Government we must have This is within these Walls for ought I hear on all hands agreed upon and then by unavoidable necessity this Government must be distributed into Parts into certain Limits Circuits and Divisions of places wherein it is to be exercised Unto this being granted I do subjoyn three Propositions and they are these First Our present Diocesses are for the most part much too large too vast I desire therefore That the Circuit for future Church Government may be reduced to the common Boundaries and Limits of our several Shires the disproportion from thence objected shall be easily answered Secondly Next in every of these divisions I desire that some Choice able grave Divines twelve or more in a Shire may be by the Parliament appointed to be in the nature of an old Primitive constant Presbytery among us Thirdly and Lastly Because all meetings of many must be disorderly and the rule of many cannot be without confusion unless there be one to guide and direct the rest I shall desire that in every Shire over every Presbytery we may establish one President A President I say more to satisfie others then my self The name of Bishop disturbs not me let him be a Bishop or an Over-seer or a President or a Mode rator or a Super-intendent or a Ruling-elder call him what you will so as you provide me one in every Shire over every Presbytery to guide and direct the rest The different Sence to be easily observed and I hope not past our strength to be reconciled in this House concerning our present Church Government is twofold One is for Ruine thereof the other for Reforming both are nearer together in Heart I perswade my self then we are yet aware of The nearer the better and more easie composure both of our own selves here and of the Churches peace throughout the Land abroad God send that we may find the way to Peace If the right Form of Primitive Episcopacy were truly stated forth unto us it would questionless take and lead our judgments along therewith This Bishop was not so much a Lord as a Father over his charge ruling with Love and tender Bowels whosoever did institute this Episcopacy sure I am this Bishop hath and ever had a Presidency before and a Precedency over others of his own Order He was one man chosen out among the rest and by the rest put into a several degree not into a distinct superior Order above the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad Episcopandum to over-see the rest and this only in matters Spiritual nothing at all in affairs Temporal or Secular employments If this Bishop were not of Apostolical institution yet it is undeniable that he was of Apostolical permission For of and in the Apostolical times all Stories all Fathers all Ages have agreed that such Bishops there were His Rule indeed was with consent of his Senate his Presbytery Direction was his Coercion was still their own He had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both the first
both kept these Persons under the Terror of their Lash and also justified their own Proceedings in being so merciful to take Bail for such Persons as by this means were though never so Innocent still reputed Guilty and obnoxious to the Justice of the Parliament After this there were several Declarations read and the last mentioned concerning putting the Kingdom into a posture of Defence which was now the great Affair upon their Hands And in Order to the better accomplishing of it An addition to the Committee for putting the Kingdom into a Posture of defence Mr. Martin Mr. Sam. Brown Sir Gilbert Gerrard Sir Walter Earl Sir Tho. Bowyer Sir Robert Pye Sir John Holland Lord Fairfax Sir Hen. Heyman Mr. Seldon Mr. Bodville Sir John Evelyn Sir Tho. Barrington Sir Arthur Ingram Sir Tho. Widdrington Mr. Hill Mr. Rigby were added to the Committee appointed to consider of putting the Kingdom into a Posture of Defence A Committee was also appointed to examine Captain Legg concerning the Commission and Instructions which he carried down concerning the securing the Magazine of Hull Thanks to the Inhabitants of Bucks for their readiness to suppress the Kingston Forces It was also Ordered this Day That the Knights of the Shire for the County of Bucks do return Thanks to the Sheriff Justices of the Peace Gentry and Free-Holders of the County of Bucks that have prepared themselves in a readiness to suppress the Forces informed to be at Kingston and to acquaint them that this House is informed those Forces are dispersed and therefore that at this time there is no need of their coming out of their County Then it was Resolved c. and accordingly Ordered That Mr. White Master of the Ship lately come from Berwick by Order of the House of Commons with Arms and Ammunition and under their Pay shall fall down the River with the Ship somewhat beyond the Command of the Tower and no further and that if any Person shall offer to take away the Arms and Ammunition out of the said Ship that then he shall call to him the assistance of Saylors and other Persons for the keeping of the same till further Order of the House of Commons They were perpetually urging the King for Arms and Ammunition out of the Tower and other Stores for Ireland yet a thought never entred into their Heads to send this Ship with her Lading away for a present Supply which certainly they would have done had they not been really solicitous to exhaust the King's Stores rather than to relieve Ireland and this was also to countenance the Fears and Jealousies of the Lieutenant of the Tower in Order to have him displaced The Lords having appointed a Committee of 21 Lords to consider the matter of Breach of Privileges Sir Henry Vane Mr. Pym Mr. Hollis Sir Phillip Stapleton Sir Hugh Cholmeley Mr. Whitlock Mr. Grimston Mr. Chancellor of Excheq Sir John Evelyn Sir Robert Coke Sir Benjamin Rudyard Serjeant Wild Sir Walter Erle Sir Thomas Barrington Mr. Prideaux Mr. Sollicitor Sir Samuel Rolle Mr. Nath. Fiennes Mr. Hampden Mr. Arthur Goodwin Mr. Cage Mr. Rouse Lo. Falkland Lo. Gray Lo. Wenman Mr. Rogers Mr. Selden Mr. Lav. Whittacre Sir John Potts Mr. Reynolds Mr. Palmer Committee to consider of breach of Privilege Sir Tho. Bowyer Mr. Kirton Mr. Martin Mr. Long Sir John Hotham Sir John Holland Mr. Strode Mr. Glyn Mr. Rigby Sir Guy Palmes Sir Ralph Hopton Mr. Brown Mr. Vaughan Sir Ed. Patherich were appointed a Committee to joyn with the Lords for that purpose and to frame a Petition to his Majesty The Committee which was appointed to be present at the Lords House at the Bishops giving in their Answer were Mr. Glyn Serjeant Wild Mr. Samuel Brown Mr. Rigby Mr. Reynolds Mr. Prideaux Mr. Palmer Mr. Whistler Sir Tho. Widdrington Mr. Lisle Mr. Hill Mr. Grimston Mr. Sollicitor Mr. Peard Mr. Bagshaw Mr. White The last of which a most bitter Enemy of the Loyal and Orthodox Clergy took occasion to display his malice against them in this following Speech Mr. Speaker Mr. White 's Speech against the Bishops Jan. 17. 1641. BY woful experience we have been sensible of the great evils committed by ill affected persons to the peace and security of the Kingdom producing thereby these dangerous and troublesome times * * even such as this speech maker even such are the troubles that this whole Nation and the other his Majesties Kingdom 's is fallen in to and lies groaning under that we have not felt the like in this Land never since the civil divisions between the two Houses of York and Lancaster or Barons wars were on foot in the same nay let these troubles of our times be compared with them * * Never a truer word spoken they are of far more dangerous consequence there was in those days onely the sword to decide the controversies no other place chosen for that purpose but the field in a Warlike and Couragious manner In these our divisions we have adversaries of no courage or magnanimity that rise against us only subtil and treacherous spirits lying in their Cabinets and keeping themselves close in their stately buildings their devising on divellish and hellish stratagems to be put secretly in Execution for our Destruction as powder-plots fiering privately of Towns nay Cities if their endeavours might have success according to their desires which strikes us with amasement and continual fear of our safety in our own habitations and places of livelyhood we cannot discern so corrupt are the hearts of most men who scarce to converse inhabit or eat withal so malicious is Satan working in his instruments in whom he dwells and over whom he altogether Reigns and Rules to bring to pass his own ends that he works by no ways but by practising of unheard or unconceived of Plots amongst Christians as by Sorcery Witchcraft Poisoning and the like these inventions can we not be aware of A man seeing his Enemy and knowing him to be so may use means either to resist or flie from him thereby to save himself but being in place unsuspected to meet an Enemy pretending himself a Friend or at least not knowing or conceiving him to be his Enemy how can he be secure how can he defend himself or Preserve himself from his Malice or Destruction these times are now filled with such malignant Spirits devoted altogether to the service of the Divel labouring by all means to bring confusion and desolation on all the opposers or not complyants to their wicked designs Mr. Speaker having presented to your considerations the manifold dangers and troubles we sustain by these practises of malignant persons I presume humbly to present to your view the Authors of the same their practices to compass their desires and the means to avert and remedy the same which I desire you to consider of and apply the same as to your Judgements and Wisdoms shall seem requisite The greatest and chiefest