Suns by them forced under clowds the great reason of this our present night of ignorance and hellish errours However this truth still remaineth notwithstanding so many bloody storms and rebelliously opposing waves like a Rock unshaken being built not on sandy foundations but on sure Principles of undenyable Reason pure undefiled Religion and Laws like Rivers from their fountains streaming forth and remaining apparently established at this very day That a bloody and enforced extirpation of a Government by Subjects contrary to the power commands and against the Person of their lawfull Soveraigne and the fundamentall Law of the Kingdom is the highest degree of Treason and Rebellion by their own confession That such practises are against the principles of all Governments therefore condemnable by the Law of Nations From all which confessed Positions we may collect this Truth in generall That in reference to the opposition of powers by Law Reason and Religion the Touchstone of all Powers that is Governments whatsoever maintained just such as the King's Supremacy and Regall Power is no obedience active ought to be rendred to Powers or rather Persons unjustly usurping a Power such as these rooting-Conspirators are having neither warrant by Religion nor Law to command such an opposing obedience much lesse to do as they have done viz. to murder and dethrone Kings subvert our Religion and Laws endeavouring to vassalize us to a submission unto their unlawfull commands For it is better to obey God than man that is when our refusall of obedience to mans unlawfull commands are warrantable by his all-commanding Law But let us examine the Scripture Every soul must be subject unto the higher power Rom. 13 saith the Scripture that is There is no power but of God if they be godly powers Bad Rulers are by the permission not the ordination of God those just Powers whom God hath ordained for the good government of his people and have right and title to be styled Governours being regularly received setled practised and confirmed in a Nation as the Government of England was by King Lords and Commons all acting orderly in their severall Sphears yet all meeting in an unanimous agreementâ— for the generall good both of Prince and People And these thus meeting and consulting together the High Court is rightly entituled a PARLIAMENT a name in it self venerable and to be greatly esteemed by all true Christian hearts Such a PARLIAMENT O God of mercies restore unto poor decaying and dying England Now that this command of subjection must concern onely the lawfull governing Power and not rebellious Subjects who by treachery blood and deceit have snatched away the power of governing from the lawfull Governours and exercise it by a ryrannicall usurpation both over Prince and People the subsequent words of the Text confirmeth For to what end were that advice of the Apostle That Princes are not to be feared for good works but for evill That is if people governed be obedient and act in their places things unblamable the Prince and the Law need not to be feared by them in a way of condemnation and punishment But if Subjects to speak in the words of the Apostle shall do evill by infringing the Law of God by rebelling against the lawfull Government and Governour as this prevailing faction hath done then the Prince he bearth not the sword in vain for he is the Minister of God to take vengeance on such evill doers that is to punish them according to their demerits Now do I wonder how any man can be so unblushingly impudent needham Politicus as to make use of this Scripture conscientiously to engage the common people of England's subjection to this present Rule-lesse Ruling Power when as on the contrary they are hereby obliged to be assisting to their Prince that so he may be the better enabled to discharge that duty which God and the Law requireth from him and to punish these workers of iniquity The current of the Text running clearly for subjection to lawfull Governours from the people who are to be governed Nullius prohibitio valet divinis obviaâ—e praeceptis Gods precepts may not be countermanded by man's prohibitions nor God's prohibitions prejudiced by man's precepts Again 1 Pet. 2. we are exhorted to submit our selves to every Ordinance that is lawfull Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as to the superiour or unto Governours as unto them that are sent of him for the punishment of evill doers and the praise of them that do well Where pray take notice the Apostle's advice is quite opposite to the practice either of the Conspirator's or the subjecting Subscribers of these daies for we are not commanded to submit our selves to every wicked Ordinance by which good men are onely injured and the worst of men commended nor are we to obey the now †The King being Supream in his own Kingdom the people can be but Subjects and if Subjects have no power to command but by way of derivation from the King therefore the present ruling Faction have no just power to command but fall under the notion of wicked and evill doers whom the King ought to punish and all good men should be assisting thereunto This is the doctrine of the Apostle domineering Power but the King as Supream therefore not these who are but Subjects nor any of their Agents whose commands and actions already have murdered the King our Supream Governour and still continue to destroy his Royall Son and all others who will not walk in the same bloody paths with them Is this think you to submit to the King as Supream In brief the Scripture enjoyneth us to obey the King and his servants The Faction commandeth us to obey them subjects against the Kings commands destroying Him and all his faithfull servants O monstrum horrendum Are these the good works which the Apostle commandeth us to perform in the 11th verse of the same Chapter that God may be glorified by us in the day of visitation And is this our honest conversation whereby we may stop the mouth of evill speakers Surely no my dear Country-men It were blasphemy onely to suppose so Is the wilfull sleighting and neglecting of God's precepts and the dethroning of Kings the way to obey God and honour the King as we are commanded in the same Chapter Did our Saviour Jesus Christ command Matth. Mar. that those things which belonged unto Caesar should be given unto him and shall the Faction not onely command the contrary but themselves plunder all from him depriving him of his Honour Regality Revenues nay Life and all Shall the Preacher advertise us to obey the Kings commands Eccles 8. in regard of our Oaths and shall the Faction command us to disobey his commands nay engage us by contrary Oaths thereby making us guilty of a double perjury Nay shall the people of England upon as it were the first invitation of these
Servants nay Submissive Slaves to the imperious Propositions of their owne Created Servants That they who in prosecution of an unchristian unlawfull bloody designe of taking away the power of the King justly by law and reason declared His of forcing away his Negative Voyce in a Lawfull Parliament depriving him of the Command of the Militia of bloodily changing the Civill and Ecclesiasticall Goverment from Monarchicall to Aristocraticall from Episcopall to Presbyterian Witnesse the transactions to passe over other Treaties of that too-late tedious and most unfortunate Treaty in the Isle of Wight in the managing whereof neither Law Reason nor Religion urg'd by our dear Soveraign could work the Commissionated Treatours or rather the factious Commissionating Rooting Traytors in the House to Condescentions more than what ranne paralell and agreed with their most unjust demands of all his Regall Power and wholly altering the government of his Kingdomes Witnesse also the first insisted-on Proposition wherein Good Prince before they will proceed He must contrary to Reason Religion and Law declaratorily Justify their unjust Actions of Rebellion and treason against him and Condemne his own Just defence as unjust The prevaling faction in the Houses still upon Receipt of his Majesty's Concessions and Answers to their demanding Propositions Voting Not Satisfactory Not Satisfactory O fatall Word Not untill his Princely tender Care of his Subjects perceiving the * First Plotters Faction's resolutions to perfect their bloudy designe and his desire of Peace reconciliation and stopping of that issue of blond by themselves first made in his Kingdoms at last his own Royal Interest laid aside condescended so much to their demands that as a King he had nothing more to condescend unto nor they more of his Regall Power to demand These men who thus unlawfully prosecuted and persecuted his Sacred Majesty with distroying Armies thereby to wrâ—st away his lawfull power upon Pretences of a Fundamental Law never heard of never practised before in the Houses not so much as groundded upon the least imaginary authority of Common Reason much lesse the law of the Land and the Protestant Religion had all their bloudily acquired power snatched from them by * Army those I say whom first they impowered to offer bloudy force to his Majesty upon grounds as ayry groundless and unlawfull as pretences of Common Right and distribution of Justice as if Confusion were that Right and unparalelld injustice were the distribution of Common right and Justice year 1641 Some of these Ambitious and Factious Members who by invited tumults of the Citty-rabble forced his Majesty for the Security of his person from his royall pallace at Whitehall and soon after many of their then fellow-members contrary to the Priviledge of all reasonable parliaments were uncivilly forced out of the House by their menaces and conspiring Votes because they would not be voting Conspirators with them in their Trayterous designes against their King Country the truly fundamentall Laws of the Land Some of these I say Parl. were as absurdly thrust out of the House by Pride and his Complices the army 's imps birds of their owne hatching instruments of their owne framing upon accusation of being fomenters of a New War hinderers of Perfecting an intended Reformation or more truly of Com-pleating a pre-resolved resolution or rather a Jesuitized independent designe somwhat more bloudy than the Presbyterian Thus Deus omnipotens in aetennum Justus Thy actions O Lord are all Justice thy deeds Righteousness it self Thou therefore the fountain of all wisdome that dost oftentimes proportion and symbolize both for quality and quantity mens punishments to their Sins thereby by plain demonstrative signes inviting them to repentance Grant good Father that all such guilty persons thus reading their iniquities in their punishment may repent them of their fo mer Sins that so thou mayst pardon their transgressions and remember their offences no more To this purpose restore O Lord unto them the Purity of reason as men A Zealous unmoved fixednesse in thy true religion the Christian Protestant faith Loyalty and faithfull obedience to their undoubted Soveraign and Lawfull King Cha. the Second c. and these not verbally but really expressed by actions beseeming men whose reason not humorous opinion is their guide By deeds befitting Christian Protestants whose * Scripture directing rule is the unerring Word not groundlesse faincyed revelations the Suggestions of the deceiving Angelicall Divell and not the Perswasions of thee who art the God of Spirits By actions becoming Subjects whose obedience without interruption willingly followeth the smooth Current of an Established Law not hurryed along by the tumultuous Torrents of arbitrary Ordinances nor Obedientially swimming in the troublesome Waters of mens Corupt wills O Father of mercyes whatsoever punishments Thou in thy Just judgment for our manifold sinnes shalt inflict upon us give us not over to a generall infatuation of Spirit a benummednesse in our Understanding and Reason lest we degenerating into the nature of beasts with Nebuchadnezzar be design'd to graze in the feilds with beasts that perish O everliving God Deprive us not of thy Candlesticke thy gospell of truth lest for want of true guides we all become blind and like them leading one another irrecoverably fall into the Ditch of everlasting destruction O Let not my Lord be angry and thy Servant shall speak but this Once Father of Mercies as we desire that thy word may still Continue a Lanthorn to our feet and thy Precepts a directing Light to our Paths so we humbly beseech thee that out of thy infinit Loving kindnesse thou wouldst look upon us and not take from us our Established ancient fundamentall Lawes That so our Corrupt Natures may still by them be rectified the extravagant excurrences of our Obstinate perverse Wills and actions may be limitted lest Ambition Sedition Treason Perjury Rebellion Murder Sacriledge Regicidism Envy Hatred Tyranny Oppression and all manner of wickednesse becoming particular Commanding Lawes we like Ravenous Wolves devour one another And in order to this great mercy good God restore unto us our great Law-maker Preserver and Protectour thy Servant our Soveraign the much wronged Princely Son of a more injured Murdered Martyr'd Royal Father Cha the Second of Great Brittaine King c. Put the Sword and Scepter into his hands Place the Crown upon his Head Thou who art able and Powerfull in Extremities in this his extremity shew thy Ability and Power O Lord as thou hast designed him our Supream Governour so in order to his possession of thine own designed Government prepare the hearts of all his Subjects with submissive obedience unto him as to thy Vice-gerent on earth work into their spirits a sensiblenesse of their former erroneous practises against his Royall father and let their endeavours for the restoration of his Princely son to his father's Throne evidence to the world their unfeigned repentance for their sins committed against Thee the King of kings in
on the vizor of Justice and of former Acquaintance upon their deceitfull intentions thereby to compasse their ends in this manner The Combinators bind the hands of some of their fellow-villains take with them a Constable and other Officers insensible of the plot knock at the Castle-gate pretend they came for justice against these bound men Some of the servants as well of the combination as others that were ignorant of their designe however being both acquainted with the Constable and many of the rest admit them into the presence of their Master Which was no sooner done but after some pretended flourishes for justice they unbind their fellow-villains and all unanimously murder the Justice his family faithfull servants and the well-meaning Constable and keep possession of the Castle Now let any rationall man resolve me Do these men deserve to be esteemed as reall Landlords when as had they not thus pretended justice thereby even deceiving the Justice himself it had been impossible for them to have effected their designes Or will you not rather confesse that they were the worst of deceivers and bloodiest of murderers Or can any man be so senslesse to affirm that because they were actually possest of this Castle their possession therefore was just Surely no. Or if any afterward shall combine with these villans in this Castle so unjustly possest will not all rationall men judge them equally guilty Certainly yes Now mutatis nominibus de Anglia fabula narratur To make good the comparison Who are these Papisticall bloody Conspirators but the Rooting-faction though different in title in the House and Army Who this Protestant Justice of Peace and faithfull servants but our late dear Soveraign and loy all Subjects whom they have murdered and the Laws of England which they have destroyed Who those ignorantly assisting Constables and Officers but the mislead deceived Presbyterian party mislead I say for there were plotters among them too whom in this parallel I â—ntend not Who are those treacherous servants Mildmay Vanes but those of his Majesty's own houshold What is meant by this Castle but the three Kingdoms How and by what means possessed which otherwise could not have been obtained but under pretences of desiring Justice Now for the unlawfulnesse of the act I leave to every man's nearer application onely know thus much for truth That prosperous villany entitleth nothing to be therefore just and equitable because successfull What though * As two Fryers tearmed the murder of Henry the French King Heroicum factum donum Spâ—ritus sancti prosperum scelus Virtus vo catur yet really it is not so it is but the corrupt glosse of wicked men and bloody Tyrants who would seem to have power to dethrone the Majesty of Religions Reason in man as some have had to destroy Kings and Governments themselves Thus thus England these Rooting factious Conspirators have gradatim step by step juggled themselves into a Supremacy and abused you into a slavish subjection By this time I presume all are satisfied in these Men's deserving titles and let them receive their due characters The unparallel'd Impostours Unheard of State-cheaters Bloodiest of Rebellious Tyrannicall Subjects but not Conquerors Now let me appeal to all English hearts and true-hearted Protestants What ingenious spirit will not blush after he apprehendeth himself to be consened by the cunning insinuations and actions of any men though in matters of lesser consequence What repairings are there to the Lawyers for advice What earnest endeavours are there employed either for a Restitution or Vindication To this purpose no means are left unattempted no mony unexpended no friends neglected or un-made use of that may be prevalent to such an end And will you you English-men being thus cheated not of toyes and trifles but of things substantiall and essentiall both to your temporall and eternall welfares Your King the Supream Governour being murdered and his Royall Son our surviving Soveraigne Persecuted prosecuted with murdering Resolutions and destroying Armies Your Laws they being abolished your Religion that being dishonoured and corrupted with Heresie Schism and all manner of Profane opinions your Liberties and Lives they lying at the beck and command of these cheating Tyrants Will you continue further instruments to the absolute destruction of all these wherein you are concerned as Christians and free-born Englishmen Will you subscribe your selves willingly passive slaves to these active impostors Nay will you engage your selves in obedientiall * Engagement promises to such an unjust power enchaining thereby your souls to their monstrous sins Quos similes culpa coinquinat par quoque paena constringet and unlesse repentance prevent linking your selves to their punishments For God will be just Let me perswade you therefore my dear brethren and Country-men in the bowells of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as you tender your eternall welfare and everlasting happinesse not to be yoked together with these perfidious creatures for what fellowship hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse what communion hath light with darknesse what concord hath Christ with Belial what agreement hath innocent loyalty with bloodily guilty perjury Separate your selves from their wicked actions come out from among them be no longer partakers of their Sinns least you receive of their plagues Now at the last stand fast in the faith quit yourselves like men and bestrong withstand the Devill and he will fly Ille Christi miles qui pugnat non qui fugit It is your Pusillanimity and Complying Cowardice that spirits these Rooters to a progression in their ugly defignes By this only they Worke Do you ever hope to be freemen again Free by vertue of a Certainly Protecting and directing Law so Long as you are possessed with such aguish spirits No no be assured while you retaine this Puny spiritedness expect nothing but a multiplication of oppressive Taxes like waves upon the Sea shore tumbling one upon the neck of another untill you be all over whelmed with irrecoverable poverty Away then with this slavish fear why will you rather subscribe to be Companions in sinne with these men than to be Champions for the true cause of Jesus Christ the Lawes of England and your owne liberties Let me perswade you to throw away these dull weights which like Plummets tyed to the feet of flying birds presse down your winged desires of Restoration and rein joyment of Peace and Truth It is these Plummets of feare that more keep you under hatches of slavery than their often reiterated tyrannicall oppression Indeed it is true that a generall impoverishment of all degrees of men but those of their lincked conspiracy is the high rode of Policy on their parts For by this the oppressed mens spirits many times declining with their Estates in continuance of time are deprived of meanes to obtain their freedom and at last through meer necessity enforced contrary to their owne reason and consciences to enroll themselves as Souldiers in a Rebellious army
Conspirators rush into the sin and yet think to escape punishment Surely no. Though God be mercifull yet he is also just Read the 17th of Ezekiel from the 12th verse to the end of the Chapter there see how God denounceth his wofull judgment against perjury and repent before it is too late Shall the Wise man advise us Prov. 30. that against the King there is no rising up Shall the Faction perswade us that for the Kings protection there must be no rising at all Must not we curse the King in our hearts Eccles 10 and neverthelesse do these Murder him with their bloudy hands nay put him to variety of death with their Pens and Tongues sharper than two edged Swords Shall the Apostle exhort that first of all Supplication Prayers be made for Kings c. And shall the Prayer-haters though pretended affecters command us not to pray for the King at all Nay shall we obedientially comply with these Scripture-murderers aswell as King Religion and Law-destroyers Although the Scripture acquainteth us Prov. 24. that he which provoketh the King to anger sinneth against his own Soul Yet these Conspiratours think it no Sin to imbrue their hands in the bloud of Kings O my God consider how these men of bloud blaspheme thy Name sinning with an high hand against thee the all-powerful Lord of heaven and earth contrary to the Precept and Practise of thy Son Christ Jesus thy holy Prophets and Apostles But O my soul partake not thou of their counsells nor follow thou their rebellious steps By this time I presume it will be granted 1 Sam. 24.6 that we must submit to all lawfull powers yielding ready obedience unto them in all things that are lawfull but must not subject our selves in an active obedience to Powers unlawfull such as these Rooters are by way of opposition to his Majesty's lawfull and Scripture-approved Supremacy So that in brief Fact Indep * These being neither lawfull Powers nor commanding lawfull Acts must not be obeyed unlesse we resolve to sin against the light of Reason the Law of God and all Evangelical Precepts Now by the way let me desire all you Subscribers to the Engagement seriously to read and consider what you have done not that I say you are obliged thereby to any performance for contra Scripturas nulla obligatio the Scriptures engage you only to a repentance However take notice how you have frolick'd away the innocence and integrity of your conscience sinning against the God of heaven Let such also weight these things in the scale of the Sanctuary forbearing addition of one grain of their self-by-ass'd ends or private corrupt interests who foolishly sooth up themselves in their vain conceit that the Engagement is but a civill thing and not in a religious sense to be taken notice of That any man may subscribe it and accordingly expresse an active obedience to these Rooters during the time of their command and when another Power succeedeth this be obedient to that likewise A pretty sort of earthly Christians for assuredly heaven nor heavenly things these mind not What Is perjury no sin Is not a combination to destroy your Religion your King the widow fatherlesse your fellow-subjects no sin Do you make it but a kind of a complement thus to serve the devill who hath been a murderer and a liar from the beginning See Joh. 8.44 my friendly Country-men with what glassy cords you bind up your eternall happinesse on what icie bridges you adventure the everlasting welfare of your souls These things being premised I shall unravell this bloody-twisted piece of Perjury Murder Rebellion Engagem and Treason as it is intentionally meant by the Composers although I am confident not so resolvedly taken by most of the Subscribers although let them also wrest or mince the sense as they please they cannot excuse themselves from the guilt of sin in subscribing First I shall present it you in grosse I do declare and promise October 1649. that I will be faithfull to the Common-wealth of England as the same is now established without a King or House of Lords And now I shall give it you in its severall pieces and with them a rationall exposition of their most irrationall irreligious intentions therein I that is I a subject bound by the Law of * 1. Pet. 2. Rom. 12.1 Eccles 8. vid. J. Jenkins Collections God and †Man and by severall additionall * Allegiance Supremacy Protestation Oaths to be true and faithfull to my Soveraign Lord King Charls his Hairs and Successors the Kings and Queens of England to be aiding to Him in my life and fortune against all Rebells and Traitors whomsoever 11th Hen. the 7th cap. 1. to disclose all conspiracies against his Person Honour Crown and Dignity I being thus conscientiously religiously and legally pre-ingaged neverthelesse I do declare and promise that I will be true and faithfull Engagement that is faithfully true in my obedience and subjection to the Common-wealth but more truly common-Woe-creating Rooters that is To an inconsiderable number of bloody perjur'd Traitors irreligious sacrilegious persons congregated contrary to all Law Reason Justice and Equity and met together under the sals veil of Parliament who by specious pretences of Reformation have deceived the common people of England into destructive Arms by whose ignorantly assisting power these deceiving Conspirators have overthrown our admirably well-composed Government destroy'd our Religion introduced Atheism and all manner of damnable Errors and Heresies whatsoever ruined our Liberties commanding and enforcing the people of England their fellow-subjects to kill slay and destroy one another in their persons and estates Nay stand amazed all the world scribere pallesco at this monstrous relation murdered their Soveraign their King the best and most religiously pious of Princes endeavouring utterly to destroy root and branch his Royall Posterity robbing spoiling giving selling away his Royall Revenues and Prince-like Palaces Extirpating the Ecclesiasticall and Civill Government sacrilegiously plundering the Church of Bishops Pastors and Patrimony the Kingdom of Religion Liberty Peace and Truth turning the pious and charitable gifts of former Ages from the Donor's first religious intents into irreligious rewards of their fellow-confederates for their bloody service Now my too too forward sinfull Country-men Do you well think you to subscribe your approbation and future assistance to these things Surely no. O therefore if you have as certainly you have offended with St. Peter in denying not onely your temporall earthly Soveraign but your heavenly King and Lord these lines like that admonishing Cock thus giving you notice of your errors Go out with him repent and weep bitterly I that is I a free-born English-man free Engagem in respect of my dear Soveraign's protection of my self life and estate by direction of the written Lawes of the Land in which as my native inheritance I have an undoubted right and propriety by which onely
it in your return by a serious and fuddain repentance Do you think the way to pacifie an angry God is to add sin to sin There is no peace to the wicked faith he by the Prophet Isaiah and can you expect publick private externall or internall peace if you continue in your wickednesse It is too too apparent that you have all sinned and you will never be recti in curia untill you repent upon which condition God hath onely promised pardon and forgivenesse Do you expect to be restored to the re-injoyment of freedom and liberty in your persons and estates which you can onely challenge by vertue of the Laws established your certain-protectors against Instruments of tyranny and oppression while you tamely thus sit crouching under their persons whose studied work it is to tyrannize over all Laws your estates liberties and persons loading you with successive Taxes which would crack the patience of the most patient and cannot but at last exhaust the wealth of them who as yet are accounted the most wealthy Again 16â—1 Witnesse K. March from Scot. to fatall Worcest me-thinks I hear another sort of people as Governours of Cities Forts Castles Admiralls c. pleading that they are entrusted by the present Faction and we must not betray our trust For answer Know thus much That if the Trustors be justly possessed of what they entrust others with none are then to betray their trust by delivery of what they are trusted with to any man that hath not right thereunto But if these Trustors have no right themselves nor can lay a just claim to the possession of what they entrust others with but of right justice and equity the things belong to another then it concerneth any man so trusted in conscience justice and equity to deliver them to such who have a right title thereunto otherwise the trusted will make themselves doubly guilty of deteining what is not their own by their own confession from the just owner and also of patronizing others also in their unjust possessions To apply this How many contrary to their own judgments have kept possession of his Majesty's Ships Castles Forts and Towns who being summon'd to a restoration of what these imployed Instruments unjustly detained from him Fatall Worcest their greatest reason of refusall was Because they were trusted and what shall they betray their trust Hear you self deceiving and soul-destroying Pleaders let me expostulate with you Should a man entrust you with stollen goods could you keep them from the just owners onely upon this slender plea because you are entrusted No no the Law you know comprehendeth you equally guilty of theft The case is all one onely admitting this distinction This is a private theft the other publick a robbery of an higher nature because the injur'd concern'd persons are of an higher degree the King nay the whole Kingdom and condemn'd both by the Law of God and man The command is positive Thou shaâ—t not steal Now theft is nothing else but a taking away and detaining contrary to Law that which belongeth to another purposely to deprive him of it contrary to his will and mind You plead a trust committed Shew me the established Law that gave them power to trust you with his Majesty's Castles Towns Ships c. By the plain Letter and equity of the Law they belong to the King upon which account his demand of restitution was just Neither you nor your imployers have a just right or title thereunto by the Law therefore you are but robbers of the King and Kingdom By you his Majesty is detained from his just rights his subjects from their liberties and estates heresie schism and prophanenesse are continued perjury blood oppression and a connivance at if not a toleration of all manner of sins in the Nation and thereby you are guilty of the breach of all the commandements Remember that Curse Deuter. 27. Cursed is he that hindereth the right of the stranger fatherlesse and widow And Cursed is he that continueth not in all things that are written in the Law to do them That is Cursed is he that knowingly resolvedly wilfully breaketh all or any of the commandements as the faction have done to compasse their ends Lord have mercy upon sinfull England c. But I will draw towards a conclusion Therefore by way of a brief recapitulation It cannot be denyed but that according to the premised rules of Reason as a man Religion as a Christian Protestant and established Laws both the guide and protection of all subjects That the Plotters and continuing adhearers to this designe are guilty of all the afore-mentioned fins Therefore consider further that out of necessity you must repent in a rationall sense as Men in a religious sense as Christians Confider also the vanity of supposing there will be truth peace and prosperity in this Nation without this double repentance To invite you hereunto pray seriously ponder the exemplary judgments of God upon Nations Families Particular persons for their obstinate progression in known sins read Jeremiah 7th and 8th chapters Zephnia the 1st chapter nay all the Prophets and Apostles are full in examples and judgments executed upon and threatned against impenitentiall sinners Again consider that a partiall repentance will not serve the turn such as hath been the repentance of too many of your leading Presbyterians who return not to those Christian Principles from whence they at first did deviate but to the Covenant Scot's Covenant in their first begun bloody destructive sense of altering a lawfully established Government by force of which sort the Prophet complaineth that many did return but not to the God of heaven so they return but it is onely to their private interests or publick faction to which they at first adheared they would seem to serve God by an out-side repentance but are really servants to the Beliall of the Presbyterian first Designers Again consider the vanity of pleading successe as argumentative to make Good the War on the Faction's part or Just therefore entitle not God as an approver of your actions because of successe First in respect of Reason as men because a multitude by united powers may overcome a lesser number were their cause never so just That in that sense the Turks and Heathens in their almost continuall prevalency against the Christians onely by their numerous Armies may be supposed to have the better cause which is no lesse than blasphemy to maintain To this purpose consider the rationall probability of Cromwel's and the Faction's successe having by deceiving policy as I have already shewed gained a Power Inregard that the greatest part of their Souldiers let them pretend what they please fight not out of an affection to parties but in a Mercenary way as meer Souldiers a Crying sinne of this Nation as if bloud and murder were a lawfull trade and the Scripture like an Almanack out of date to be lay'd a side in the time of Warre Again the
together against the reall Protestants who onely maintain truths fundamentall against Jesuiticall Heretical and Schismatical tenents witnesse the new-coined distinction of these Jesuitized factious persons between the Kings Vertuall and Personall power To this purpose how have they bawled out their pretences of fighting for the Kings personall defence yet brought Armies to fight against his Person an Argument left onely to be maintain'd by the cruell yet silly non-distinguishing Bullet or others as irrationall as it How often have they in their Pamphlets declared that they onely took up Armes against his Majestie 's evill Councell when as they could produce no witnesse nor example of any Counsell that was evill unlesse it were ill for a man to be Rationall a Christian or a Loyall Subject How have they Notwithstanding their Declarations of making him a most Glorious King excelling all his Royall Predecessours First Collect Ord. Par. F. 21. Protesting to maintain his Honour Crown and Dignity yet baited him with Propositions altogether destructive to his Honour and Power as a King 19. Prop. the end of their taking up of Armes appearing nothing lesse then the end of their pretences Unlesse they intended thereby as indeed some of them have done to make him a Glorious Saint in Heaven And all this nay more than this acted not by heathens who knew no better nor by profess'd Papists whose rebelliously-religious Principles teach no better but by Pretending-Protestants O let not this be told in Gath nor published in the streets of Askelon lest the Daughters of the Philistines rejoyce and the Daughters of the uncircumcised triumph How have they rattled out Resolves to maintain the established Lawes vid. Collect Ord. Parl. especially that part thereof which concerneth the liberty of the Subject View all their Declarations not one but speaketh somewhat to that pretended purpose Neverthelesse how have they in the beginning and progression of their designe trod down all appearance of Law Witnesse their unjust imprisonments Sequestrations Taxes and Excise and many more illegall squeezing Engins Contracting the liberty of each particular subject by a written Law his owne Right into the narrow Compasse of some few mens unwritten Lawlesse Wills nay Is not the Liberties of Nineteen Parts of the People of Great Brittain swallowed up by an One twentieth who revell it in Libertinism upon the Ruines of their liberties and the unjust possession of the Estates Handling * Englands liberties Confirmed Magna Charta so absurdly in their furious and hot declarations that like Parchment against the fire it is now shrunck up almost to a Non-appearance How have some men of all degrees actively contributed their assistance in Men Money and Plate upon invitations literally different from the ends of these Eradicating Conspiratours although I must acquaint them upon no reall grounds of Reason Religion or Law but my Charity telleth me they were abused by such specious pretences into such ill actions Witnesse that Ordinance of the 12th January 1641. whereby Skippon was made Serjeant Major Generall of London who commanded the imployment of the Trained Bands for the reall they are the words of that Ordinance good Service of his Majesty the Parliament and City according to his Duty Protestation and Lawes of the Land Fine words truly in appearance but deeds lurking under as black as hell Witnesse the progressive and Conclusive part of their ugly Designe Again 19. Prop. Coll. Ord. Parl. pag. 173. in their Declaration of the 5th of May 1642 concerning the Militia all mens obedience is invited to the Execution of their Commands according to the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome as they tender saith that Ordinance the upholding of the True Protestant Religion The safety of his Majestie 's Person And his Royall Posterity with the Peace of the Kingdome Alas what fundamentall lawes do they mean Aiery lawes surely whose existence is no where to be found but in their meer verball asseverations and that also in a reall opposition to those Lawes whose Established foundation as Lawes indeed should plainly appear to every Loyall Subject's Obedientiall eye True Protestant religion saith the Ordinance But more truly Erroneous Protestant religion falsly by them styled True whose practicall principles overthrow the principles of all religious truth and fight against the practicall piety of the true Protestant Religion Established and the practice of all the primitive Christians and truly-Christian * Mr. John Bradford advised all to be obedient to the Queen and by no means to resist vid. Book Martyr fol. 1491. 1477. Martyrs Safety of his Majesties Person and Royall issue Dangerous safety of their Royall Persons whose security must depend on the sure rock of Certain danger opposing Armies under pretence of their preservation with ready-drawn Swords and surely-destroying bullets endeavouring their absolute ruine O strange Paper-protection vaine and weak from a pretended hazard of being untimely deprived of life thus to expose them to a reall danger of an unnaturall Death Peace Stranger peace whose fruits must be a bloody war Ord. and its effects nothing but murder perjury sacriledge oppression tyranny and indeed a generall poverty Kingdom A dumb Kingdom without a speaking King Ord. or rather to expound their then intended monstrous sense mysticall onely to the common people a deformed Anarchy in place of an unparalle'd Reformed Monarchy But O Lord of Hosts that judgest righteously Jer. 11.20 and tryest the reins and the heart grant them suddain repentance or let thy servants see thy vengeance on all such obstinately persisting sinners for unto Thee I have and shall open Great Brittain's cause Consider Isaiah 29.13 O Father how these people seem to come near to thee the God of truth with their mouth and to honour thee with their lips but their hearts are far from thee Again In the Propositions and Orders of the Two Houses for as yet the * Presb. Indep Factions like Simeon and Levi remained united in the bonds of iniquity for bringing in of Plate and Mony to maintain Horse Horsemen and Arms c. you were all promised you I mean the contributers upon such quaintly-deceiving invitations that your mony so brought in shall onely be employ'd to maintain the Protestant Religion the King's authority and his person in his royall dignity A free course of Justice Collect Ore Parl. fol. 343. June 1642. the Laws of the Land and the Peace of the Kingdom when as in the prosecution of their Rooting designe the irreligiously religious Turk and Pagans by their actions may rather claim them as adherents to their Principles nay the Jesuite embrace them as his dearest dear obedientiall darlings than the Protestant Church of England own them as her children The Kings Authority and Person after a retrograde manner by them maintained their Ordinances Declarations Oaths and actions speaking a denyall of their obedience to the one and but a verball protection onely of the other themselves not then so
much as allowing him the least protecting assistance from any of his loyall Subjects whose religious conscientiousnesse onely invited them to the security of his royall Person More than this the Jesuite himself could not have done Free course of Justice that Ordinance promiseth Good God! what free course of Justice do they mean when they themselves obstruct the freedom of all Justice and amidst their own consultations in publick will not admit of any negative Reply though never so rationall and religious which opposeth the free course of their bloody designe What Law is their guide whose practise opposeth all Law both Divine and Humane I need not insert any exemplary particular proof their own generall and palpably-known actions speak themselves sufficiently guilty of opposing the Law of the Land the current of whose sense runneth contrary to their actions not a line almost but enjoyneth the Subjects not a conditionall as they pretend but an absolute indispensable obedience omnibus licitis in all lawfull actions to our Soveraign Lord the King his Heirs and Successors not the least tittle therein though rack'd to a confession by the most ingeniously-rebellious brain giving them so much as a supposititious ground for their undertakings And for the Law of God How have they sleighted it the very Pulpits in many places thundering out defiance to the morall observation thereof declaring against his Majestie 's defensive Armes and his loyall Subjects obedience to his just commands with as much unblushing impudence as the traiterous Presses did in their black lying Declarations most blasphemously the better to perswade others to their rebellious assistance styling their rooting designe The Cause of God when as neither Old nor New Testament Law nor Gospell Prophets nor Apostles substantially or circumstantially gave the least warrant for such a bloody and rebellious Invitation Lastly For I will rake no longer in this bloody puddle of Hypocrisie but refer the Reader to the perusall of all their Ordinances and Declarations published Anno 1641 1642 1643 1644. containing asseverations and pretended protestations to defend his Majestie 's royall Person Honour Crown and Dignity the Protestant Religion and the established Laws of England And turn my discoursive Pen in a more particular manner by way of expostulation to you Citizens of London You quos natura diligere jubâ—t quamvis culpare ratio religioque redar guere imperat You whom naturall affection to your City commandeth my affectionate pitty it being the place ubi primam vitalem haust auram where I first stepp'd out of the dark yet quiet prison of the womb into this lighter and larger prison of a world of miseries Although I cannot but blame you for your irregular irreligious rebellious and bloody practises against your Soveraign and your own Native Country ripping up the very bowells of your dear Mother with swords and spears You I mean who have danced after the alluring Summons of these paper-Ordinances or if you will abortive Laws you who have been ignorant-adherents for so my charity styleth you to this root and branch rooting-faction cheated into a forwardly assistance of their ugly designe by those specious pretences formerly mentioned In a pretended prosecution of which some years pass'd you Intrenched your City rais'd your Bulwarks consumed both your time and estates for the better security of your selves and safety of your City as relateth the Ordinance to that purpose But how my dear Country-men Collectors Pâ—â— hath this been made good by you or endeavoured by the contrivers of that Ordinance on your behalf Did your mudd-walls secure your City against a domineering Army of your own raising and paying July 1647. resolving upon a violent entrance if denyed conditionall admission when as some of your Citizens and others paid too dearly for their forward yet too late resistance Tichburn Wollasion Fouk Eastwick Andrewes How was your City secured when the Independent rooting factious Aldermen and Common-councell-men sprung out of the bowells of factious Presbyterian-Rooters betrayed you by so dull and stale a stratagem as any but such Citizens expressing your selves witty in nothing but Treason and Rebellion as senssesse I think as your earthy Bulwarks though lesse effectually powerfull for opposition would have resented and prevented What piece of treachery could be more obvious to any eye easier to be read without spectacles than that The then-Presbyterian prevailing party within your City and the two Houses unitingly declaiming against an insolently-menacing Army without rais'd by the wealth of the one and authority although unjust of the other The Presbyterian party by their thundring Orders and Ordinances commanding the Army's obedience The Army again not onely denying obedience to their commands but commanding them to obey their particular contrary commands Now amidst this dispute observe observe you Cittizens how ye were degreeingly cheated into the slavery of the Sword by Creatures fostered under your own wings A Commanding Pack of the Independent factious Aldermen and Common-Councell with some few conjoyned Presbyterians who indeed like Ciphers were of no valew must treat for a reconciliation between the much abused City and the absurdly abusing and doubly died rebellious Army I mean the Independent faction of the Army A quaint deceipt Was it ever known that a known Thiefe sat Judge upon the bench to Condemne his fellow complotting villany I leave the application to each man's breast O London London how wast thou then fool'd into what thou now art too sensible of but then would'st nor believe the resignation of thy Liberty and Honour The insolent Army the next day after this odde kind of reconciliation or rather Confirmation of thy servitude marching thorough thy streets in Triumph forgetting thy formerly assisting Riches and scorning thee for thy Present Pusillanimous Condescention And what accumulations of Taxes Abuses ImprisoÌ„ments Murders have succeded this scribere dolet or rather the thought of them grieveth me so much that grief will not suffer me to mention them but leave them to the Consideration of the Citie 's too too sad experimentall knowledge But I proceed The Result of the hot Contestation of these * divided dividers Fresh Indeâ— Concluded in this That the Power of Commanding in the Two houses being at first thus as you have read peremptorily demanded was at last wrested from them by that Army whom they first gave onely power to act for them as servants in prosecution of their first-resolv'd upon Presbyterian designe Where by the way I shall onely glance this Observation to the perusuall of the moderatly-judging readers * Members of the house Commons That those persons whose obedience would not stoop to the Just Command of their lawfull Soveraign the King though perswaded and ingaged thereunto by the Law of God the written Law of the Land Oath upon Oath of Alleagiance Supreamacy and their owne Composed and injoyned Protestation Knowingly Cordially and Confessedly taken by them are Commanded obedience to their own Creatures and of Commanding Masters become
such Rebells those who exceeding their cruelty in the Gospell not onely abuse the Servants but have murdered the Lord of England's Vineyard Mark 12. pursuing his Heir apparent even unto Resolves of his death that so the Inheritance may be solely in their possession This O God thou hast seen O keep not silence O Lord of our salvaion Hide thy servant our Soveraign and all his loyall Subjects from the conspiracy of the wicked and from the rage of these bloody men that compasse them about with words of hatred and fight against them without a cause Were not I say this Principle granted as it is by all Governments it would out of necessity follow that Maxims of Rebellion and Treason were implicitely contained in such a fundamentall constitution not maintained I say that a Government lawfully established must so remain untill alteration be made by the self-same fundamentall Power which established the same Such a shadowy Government being like an Image whose head 's compos'd of gold breast of silver thighes of brasse but all this supported onely by leggs and feet of clay easie to be uncontrollably-shivered in pieces by the least malitiously-seditious and ambitious touch Although I must confesse that when ambitiously-seditious spirits complot the ruine of an established Government such-like destructive tenents as these of which I shall give an instance practised by the rebellious Polititians of our daies are divulged to deceive the common people and invite then to their assistance As that the two Houses may assume a power c. in case of the King's default in governing That the two Houses have power to dispose of the Militia in case the King consent not although it be to enable the One twentieth part of his Kingdom with power to destroy the other Nineteen parts Himself and Royall posterity That the King must consent to whatsoever the two Houses shall propound although never so irrationall irreligious and prejudiciall to Himself and subjects That in case his Majesty will not condescend thus the two Houses may exercise the Regall power not onely without him but against him Pretty Principles indeed equally destructive to people governed as to Kings and Governours ruling Neverthelesse it is true that these and such like Tenents a these are are not professedly nay not so much as implicitely maintained by any Power whatsoever either just or unjust but are onely pretendedly divulged I say to catch the lesse-knowing multitude into a Pecuniary and Souldiery assistance the better to effect the ends of such ambitious Designers The truth of this being made good and plainly appearing to every willing eye that will peruse it and unprejudiced judgment that will remain satisfied with reason Let us with the eyes of our judicious memory fixed upon what is already premised lay the †Cr. Fact Arm. Hous present ruling Power in one scale and their Actions Edicts and Ordinances in another and then judge whether or no the actions of these worst of men weigh not down their own judgments with a self-condemning weight For that they have plotted nay effected a forcible destruction of an established Government contrary to the Principles of all Governments Law of God Reason and of the Kingdom swimming to their ends in continuall streams of English Christian blood untill at last they arrived at the destruction of our †C. R. I. our Royall Fountain is lachrymabile verum too too sad a truth so appearing also by what I have already written That the same ruling bloody power since they have had the sole power to Rule have declared all those to be Traitors and Rebells in their construction against them who shall oppose them in this their unjust possession of the King's Majesty's most just Rights and undeniable Power their own Ordinances or rather bloody Acts confirm it true witnesse that cruell piece of cruelty murdering massacre of those Martyrs on earth now glorious Saints in Heaven Sir Charls Lucas Sir George Lisle the Lord Capell the Earl of Derby Sir Henry Hiae Colonel Andrews and severall others whose loyall actions onely endeavoured to relieve the oppressed and restore unto us our Religion Laws and Liberties the ends of all just Wars In brief take both these together in this plain undeniable Syllogism They are Rebells and Traitors deserving to die an ignominious death upon the Gallows this is the sense of their Ordinances and finall result of their bloodily erected High Court who shall disturb the * Governours or Government of their Common-wealth Bloody Fact say they These very persons have not onely disturbed but ruined the whole fabrick of out Government murdered the sup ream Governour the King destroyed the Kingdom and its Laws by bloody Arms Oppression and Tyranny Ergo these are Rebells and Traitors deserving to die an ignominious death upon the gallows by their own confession practises and commands Thus Reos confitentes habetis secundum sua ipsorum verba fiat Justitia They plead guilty may justice be done according to their merits Yet because non sanguinis homo may they by repentance find mercy c. Now consider my abused Country-men Where are the men who style themselves conquerors Or who can be so senssesse as well as heartlesse to tearm them so when as according to the construction of reason they confesse themselves to be but Rebells and Traitors Indeed many unjust Conquests there have been in the world which truly were as a prudent * K. James King styleth them but furta regalia latrocinia speciosa Royall robberies occasion'd by the boundlesse ambitious spirits of some Princes who many times have been repayed with the losse of their own Kingdoms But did you ever read or hear that rebellious Subjects bloody Traitors mounted into a commanding power by the mis-employed wealth and deceived assistance of their fellow Subjects were ever styled Conquerors over them More plainly for I would not have the people of England swallow such grosse absurdities supposing themselves out of a just necessity ingaged to subscribe to this unjust Power Therefore By way of a brief repetition That there was at first a conspiracy and designe of changing the Government of the three Kingdoms by force if not willingly condescended unto by his late Majesty Witnesse 19 Propositions cum reliquis is so plain that the meanest capacity cannot but condescend to it as truth That this designe was veyled with specious pretences thereby to deceive the judgments of the multitude and create a military assisting power I have also made good That in common reason without these pretences it had been impossible for these Conspirators to have compassed their ends any rationall man will I am confident confesse For Can any man beleeve that if these rooting-Plotters in the very beginning of this Fatall Parliament for then it had the face of such a Court had declared to the World their intentions to extirpate Episcopacy abolish the book of Common-Prayer alter the goverment of England nay to Murder the
King and Destroy his Royall off-spring infringe the liberties of their Persons and Estates burden them with Taxes upon taxes and domineer onely by the Tyrannizing Sword Can a man be so senselessy Stupid as to Suppose that any one man in England would have contributed the least assistance tending to such destructive ends Surely not Their Plotts had been as abortive-births dead in the very womb Like letters written on Sand invisible at the next windy blast and themselves had met with the reward of Traytors in the Originall of their Treason But I say they must out of a Politick necessity by Pretences of a reformation c. prepare the Common people for a Compliance and upon their deceived Compliance hammer out by degrees their ugly Plot to a perfection Away then with your most blasphemous entitling God's approbation to your Succeeding Villanies when as it is not Smiling Providence that waites upon your designes as you would make the people beleeve but the Graduall Effects of your politick Knaveries and methodical Treasons Indeed the All-just and wise God hath long suffered you to deceive the people of England and them to be so deceived But Gods designe thereby is to Chastise them for their instability and disobedience in not valuing or else lightly esteeming the blessings of Peace and punish them for their not prizing the Enjoyment of the Gospell of Peace and that you your selves by your additionall Sinnes might be left inexcusable at that great day of Account when the Judg of Heaven and Earth shall pronounce that unrepealable doom Ite Maledicti Go ye Cursed into Everlasting burnings Again to make this appear more plain take a further hint of their Rebellious Method which course had they not observ'd they could have done nothing tending to the acquisition of their designed Ends. In the first place they though falsly suggested into the Multitude's beleif an alteration of our religion on his Majestie 's part And these ungrounded Pretences made way for Jealous and Suspicious thoughts among the Common people and these though caussesse Jealousies occasion the Multitude constant in nothing but in Inconstancy to Stagger in their Sworn Alleagiance In the next Place following Machiavells irreligious rule Vehementer increpate et aliquid adhaerebit they back them with lying invectives ray ling exclamations against his Majesty his indeed Peaceable Just Merciful Government whereby the affections of many began to totter their dutie to shake their needlesse fears to encrease Again they Publickly cry'd up themselves though most untruly as Assertours Maintainers and Preservers of our Religion and the Lawes And these false allures attract the Aguish Judgments of too too many to incline to them in their belief and blinded Obedience Againe the more to ingratiate themselves with the Common People and hoodwinck them with Suppositions that they were Persons affecting Justice they Presse for Execution of Pretended Justice upon some Supposed Delinquents who indeed were no other but immoveable Loyall Rocks hindering their Progressive Rebellious Plotts And upon this account the incomparable Earl of Strafford and the unparallel'd Archbishop of Canterbury two main supporting pillars of Church and State were offered as bloody sacrifices to the common people's ignorant zeal and the conspirator's designes In the next place they vilifie the honour of the King's person advising the rabble of the City rudely to press into his Court bawling for Justice which never was denyed and by this means the respect and honour due to his Majesty was weakened the ill-manner'd people following the counsell of their teachers apt schollars of their black mouth'd master the devill began to revile the King despise Dominions and speak evill of Dignities With these and such like additionall insolent deportments of the City-scum his wearied Majesty was enforced for his own safety to leave London After which these rooting-Plotters persecute him with dethroning Propositions under the notion of Reformation delivered most commonly out of a Cannon's mouth or mockingly tormenting him with * vid Collect Parl. Ord. humble and loyall Petitions of Subjects presented upon the point of a bloody Sword Pretty Subjects indeed Thus thus England thou wast gull'd into a rebellious Army to bring to passe their Conspirator's designes upon the score of thy own destruction the losse of our peace dishonour of our Religion ruine of the King's Majesty and the Laws of England This done Blasphemy the Pulpit-Dragoons must interest the Deity in their quarrell Rebellion must be styled The Cause of God O horrible blasphemy as if the righteous and all-just God gave precepts for the commission of the most unrighteous unjust Caedem faciunt Scriptur aâ—um ad materiam suam and wicked actions that ever were committed To this bad purpose they cut and mangle multiply and diminish the holy Scriptures wresting them to a corrupt sense proper onely to their designes notwithstanding that Anathema Revel 22. vers 18 19 If any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book and if any shall diminish the words of this prophecy God hall take away his part out of the book of life And by this means the poor people were seduced in matter of conscience obeying the politick Pulpit-directions quite opposite to the commands of God and their own former judgments and practises All this while Lying Dissimuâ—â—tion the rooting Engineers of State were busily busied in abusing the King and cheating the people senslesly in their Declarations dividing the power of the King from the King's person as if there possibly could be in a true sense the exercise of a Kingly power without the person of a King But seasonable it was for them so to do when as they unjustly made use of power without nay contrary to his commands and maintained Armies to fight against his Person Next to this Perjury succeed new obliging Oaths and Covenants correspondent to the sense of their designe and dissonant from the legall rationall and religious sense of all former lawfull Oaths witnesse their Negative Oath their first and second Vow and Covenant with their last and worst the Engagement all which must be as chains to the people's consciences with which being once shackled many of the Pulpits speak nothing but a performance of these Oaths and Engagements in the Rooters destructive sense as if such politick State-Engines carried more truth in them than the Scriptures themselves Thus they made human policy Mistresse of Divinity nay to tyrannize over her Indeed the Scots-Covenant as it was styled carried a compound sense in some Articles speaking seemingly-loyall and religious pretences but they were but seeming ones although in other nothing but an enforced change of both Ecclesiasticall and Civill Government Which compared with precedent and subsequent actions even untill his Majesty was snatched away from the Presbyterian Power Isle Wight maketh me grieve with admiration and admire with grief at many who still