vve have already vvithin our selves and vvhat by their daily encrease for vve expect a flovving in upon England as a Torrent the scum of the Popish vermine out of all nations abroad in ansvver to our invitation of strangers especialy seing vvhat vve have hinted of liberty and protection to the Popish Religion in that our declaration vvill be very vvell understood by our sagacious friends abroad as it is at home knovvn to be a plain declaration of our purpose to setle Popery as the publick profession of the nation from vvhich nothing hath hitherto vvithheld us but vvant of power we are sure I say with these not onely to make our selves formidable to all who would oppose us but also to be able to cover almost in one day the very face of the nation and cut in peeces at once all whom we suspect to be guilty of an inclination contrair to our royal pleasure and vve are sure the execution of our commands shall be in the hand of such who with a tygerish keenesse vvill execute our vvill What then can appeare able to stand in the vvay or put us to a difficulty in effectuating our purpose I knovv the more prudent in the nation vvill readily apprehend vvhen they consider vvhat a vast treasure the Court hath devoured and hovv they have so habituat themselves to this prodigious profusenesse as they may assoon cease to be as cease to change their way And when withall they perceive how vvhile they are such that all vvayes of satiating this boundlesse appetit are impossible for Parliaments can do noe more yea this very Parliament if called together for that purpose hovv probable is it that in stead of a nevv stretch to give more not onely the disgraceful receiving of the French millions but the Court 's medling with the treasure of the nation and destroying it's trade and credit by that stop without a precedent put upon the Exchecquer vvould be resented by them that the Court is engaged and resolved to lay them aside and usurp for the future a pure absolutenesse They have created to themselves this necessity For it is not imaginable that a vvay novv can be found out besids this desperat expedient hovv both his Majesties debts shall be payed and the Court maintained as it hath been these yeers past though vvith much lesse lustre then the illustrious Courts of England famous formerly through the World for their magnificent plenty sumptuous entertainment and numerous retinue vvhen the revenue of the crovvn vvas scarce the halfe of vvhat it novv is Neither were these Kings treasures empty so that the vastnesse of our present yeerly revenue beyond what former Kings had with the incredible summes which have partly been given partly exacted and squised from the People the penury of the Court while it's bill of fare is abridged almost to a basenesse make men stand agast and inquire at the wayes how this treasure is spent Whether it be hoorded up as some suspect or by the vvhirle-vvinde of an invisible curse svveeped avvay vvhich many beleeve if any remaine still obstinatly incredulous notvvithstanding of vvhat is said to discover this to be the designe and hovv vvhat vve are novv doing is in order to the bringing of our purpose to passe all the evil I wish him is that the Court to vvhom he hath so much charity do not cure him of this distemper by destroying his ovvn together vvith the nations interest There is one thing vvhich maketh all that 's said for convincing incredulity it self of this Court designe not onely passe for a groundlesse conjecture but for the malicious product of some fantastick a bold forgery of a petulant male content viz. That suppose his Maj. if he knew how handsomely to accomplish it were passionatly desirous to lay aside Parliaments yet considering what assistance he behoved to have in dissolving that happy frame of government under which the nation hath floorished so long to the envy terror of all it's enemies yet his Maj. cannot but foresee how that by making use of such a mean in stead of attaining the proposed absolutenesse the crown doth really fall from his head and he precipitats himself into the ditch of a most base and abominable servitude For since the instruments chiefly to be made use of for carrying on this desperat designe must be the Roman Catholicks at home and abroad their fidelity and assistance cannot be assured at a lower rate or upon any other termes then by setling the Romish Idolatry as the publick profession of the nation and if so then his Maj. in stead of an absolut Soveraigne becometh Rom's Tributary holding his crown precariously of the Pope Nor can his Maj. be ignorant how he is not to expect to be in the same condition of servitude with other Popish Princes England being more purely the Popes Patrimony then other Kingdomes Peters pence must be payed in recognisance of his superiority whereby King Kingdome is debased to hell This one obvious consideration I say hath made wise men though never the wiser for that judge it impossible that ever the designe of absolutenesse could transport his Maj. into such a mistake as to accomplish his end by this midds there being so close and cleare a connexion betwixt turning the nation into a province the Prince into the Pop's deputy or substitut setling of Popery as the profession of the nation It 's true all persons of understanding in the nation did with surprise amasement behold how Papists were encouraged and countenanced how their profession seemed to qualify them for places of trust and commend them to our favour nay good men behold with grief and horrour how the favours heaped upon the Irish Rebells did amount to the height of more then an interpretative owning of that horrid massacre in Ireland whereby the guilt of so much innocent blood is brought upon the throne and his May. exposed also by this to share in all the wrath and vengance which shall fall upon the head of of the shedders of that blood as a return to the cry of the souls under the Alter from him who not onely maketh inquisition for blood but in whose eyes the death of his Saints is so precious that he engageth to give them blood to drink who have shed their's yea it hath added astonishment to their horrour to see popery so publickly professed in Ireland that the Popes Primat is as publick there as his Majesties nor are their scooles lesse patent or their meetings for their idolatrous worship lesse publick but whither what hath been lately done in England doth lessen or highten the amasement is a question Every one thought he had so much reason to disbeleeve a designe of setling Popery that the nation was abused into a supine negligence deep security even while they looked on saw it excresce to the contemning of law overtoping of all other intersts insomuch that men for feare forsooth of losing
the repute of wise and prudent fooled themselves for company either into a sameness of apprehension with such masters of reason as judged this enterprise on the Court's part the height of folly and the jealousy of it in others a shallownesse of apprehension at best or dissimulation of their feares vvhich hath been plagued vvith a vvretched reguardlessenesse hovv it vvent vvith the interest of Christ and if novv and then they vvere pulled by the eare and bid look about them ere it vvas too late by such as compared the courses taken to propagat that abomination and promove the Popish interest at home vvith his Majesty's carriage vvhen abroad hovv he remained inexorable notvvithstanding of all entreaties nor could he by the most ardent and earnest beseechings of the protestants be overcome to a compliance with their desires of being present at their worship frequenting in the mean time the mass in Paris Brussels Cullen c. Which with other things was the ground of that assurance we had from abroad that his Maj. had renounced the protestant Religion the Papist's boasting everywhere very openly that his Maj. was turned Catholick and making use of it as an argument to prevail with others whom they endeavoured to seduce into the same abomination The Protestants vvere grieved and sad at the certain persvvasion and foresight of vvhat would follow though we were fooled into a fearelessenesse to the prejudice of the reformed Religion upon his Majesties restitution yet they would reason themselves into an obstinatnesse in their first opinion and though they neither did nor could deny his Majesties carriage abroad to have been such nor yet shut their eyes upon what they saw acted at home they would still graunting all their monitors premisses which being matters of fact were manifest by their own evidence and light beyond a denyal reject their inference and upbraid for the brutishnesse of such a feare seing such a setlement of popery was inconsistent vvith policy and utterly destructive of his Majesties interest supposing that whatever favours he heaped upon these unhappy men would not excresce to the prejudice of that but be confined within the limits vvhich his own honour to say nothing of what the Oath of God required of him and the liberty of the nation should have set to his liberality yea for confirming themselves in this their tenaciousnesse they would both give and graunt but without ground for he who will be false to the true and living God vvill readily be true to a false because this is inflicted as a part of their punishment yea a dreadful part and plague it is upon such as make Apostasy that they should be mad upon Idols that his Maj. in his exile and distresse might not onely in order to the engaging of the Popish party to endeavour his restitution and secure a maintenance to him while abroad frequent their mass and openly decline the protestant assemblies and worship but had besids given the Pope all possible assurances of enslaving the nation to Idolatry upon his restitution and in the highest and most ample formality had renounced the Protestant Religion being indulged for the interim upon a politick designe and in order to the more safe and certain performance of his promise to retain in his family the English service book whereof one said well that it was an ill said mass giving I say and graunting all this yet the evidence his Maj hath given that with him it is a light matter to break covenants Oaths and most solemne engagements whereby his own soul together with the souls of the whole nation vvere most explicitly and formaly bound to the most High as alteri parti contrahenti under the pain of his dreadful displeasure when the adherence unto or the performance of these vovves seemed to interfere with his other designes or were apprehended o sad mistak vvhere the error exposeth to the ire of him who cuteth of the Spirit of Princes and is terrible to the Kings of the earth to be inconsistent with his other interests this I say gave them ground to over-perswade themselves and because they would have had it so flatter themselves into the beleefe that such promises would not be looked upon as obligatory when they were discovered to be so manifestly destructive not onely of all the deare and precious concerns of his subjects but to conviction a total ecclipse of Royal Majesty being really the debasing of his person and prostitution of his imperial crown to be trampled upon and trode under foot by that Romish Beast But if I can do no more for awaking such to weep over what their security and the dreamings of the nation make now almost humanitus impossible to prevent onely with God all things are possible I would desire them in the first place to consider that for Kings to be blindfolded and hurried headlong into this slavery is nothing else but what we have expressely foretold by the H. Ghost and is it any thing else in him to follow the drove of those who in like manner have over the belly of the same perswasions to the contrair shut up themselves in this house of bondage and subjected their consent to the dominion of this beast this Mistresse of witchcrafts who entiseth the Kings of the earth to commit fornication with her and having made them drunk vvith the cup of her abominations vvhich she propineth them they submit their neck to take on her yoke give their power to maintain her Grandure in opposition to Jesus Christ whose servants are slaine by their svvord to gratify satiat the cruelty of this scarlet coloured vvhore drunk vvith the blood of the Saints and Martyrs Yea the Kings of the earth are so bevvitched into a complacency with her fetters intoxicat vvith her cup to that height of madnesse that they vvill vveep cry Alas Alas at the sight of her smoak burning soon may he and the rest of the Kings of the earth see it vomit out at their eyes the satisfaction they have taken in sheding the blood of the Saints if nothing else will be a curbe to their rage against the Lord and his servants cure them of this madnesse he is the Lord who will hasten it in it's time and make her them finde that the Lord who judgeth both and avengeth the blood of his servants is strong when he taketh vengance and meeteth them not like a man But secondly I judge as to us it would be more prudence and Religion too to be lesse confident in our politicks not onely because of the expresse prediction of this infatuation but when we consider what ground there is of feare that his Majesty in the righteous judgement of God be abandoned to the advance and setlement of this abomination contrair to his own and the nation's interest these revoults from these insurrections and rebellions against the most High these deliberat and shamefull breaches of solemne Covenants and sacred vovves
it tingle and strike their hearts with amazement and terrour at the report thereof shall be written upon the wrath and woes that he will bring upon us for these breaches if not mourned over If the Lord employ the French Irish and English Papists which stand ready girt with their sword upon their thigh breathing out cruelty and thirsting after blood to be the executioners of his displeasure for a despised Gospel and to avenge the quarrel of a broken Covenant and punish us as our congregations have heard for our impenitencies and unperswadablenesse by all that hath yet come upon us so to make our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquity and understand his truth then may we conclude that the nation shall be made a Golgotha a place of dead mens skuls and that not onely the Massacre of Paris Alva's murther and blood-shed in the Low-Countreys the murthers and villanies committed in the valleys of Piedmont with all the Marian bloodshed persecution in our own nation but even that more bloody and barbarous Massacre of Ireland shall either be quit forgotten or mentioned as light things vvhen compared with the havocks bloods murthers fire and faggot whereby to the satiating the malice fury and revenge of her that must be drunk with the blood of the Saints and to the blunting of the edge of her instrument's rage keen to the utmost of cruelty the land shall be laid wast and made utterly desolat If we still sleep on after he hath done so much to awake us after so many voices of word and rod after he hath been saying unto us Shall I not visit for these things Shall not my soul be avenged upon such a generation as this Then there is no hope but that we shall be made a generation of his wrath nor is there another expectation but that he will accomplish his anger and cause his fury to rest upon us and be comforted O for grace to awake prevent this woeful day before he cause darknesse and before our feet stumble upon the dark mountains Let us therefore while it is called to day beware of hardning our hearts let us consider one another and every man himself to provok unto the excercise of repentance Let us think on our backslidings and breaches of Covenant that we may return unto the Lord our God before he cause his anger to fall upon us Let us hast while there is a may be of hope while there is yet a who knoweth if the Lord will return and repent and turn away from his fierce anger and think upon the Church the Nation our selves and posterity that we perish not The last thing wherewith I shall shut up this discourse is to remind you my brethren of what I formerly hinted viz That from the consideration of the manifest unrighteousnesse of this war not so much against the Dutch as against the Lord God in concurring with and assisting the sworn enemies of the reformed Religion yea and against our selves our liberties and our posterity by strengthening the hands of the most Stated adversary in the world to the prosperity of the English nation we may not onely be humbled that our Court should be left of the Lord to these wicked contrivances Religion and libertydestroying courses and that so many of our brethren should be dragged as slaves to assist in this Religion-overturning Covenant-breaking war but that as we would not by an association with the workers of these iniquities and a participation in their sin share in the remarkable punishments and terrible plagues whereby the righteous Lord will certainly be avenged for this breach of faith and Alliance for this conspiracy against the reformed Religion so we would withdraw and flee from if we would not fall into the hands of a provoked God all concurrence in carrying on this war directly or indirectly Neither let us think to please God or be approved of him if we acquiesce in a simple forbearance to contribut our assistance thereto nay somewhat else then such a neutrality is called for in a day when all things being considered there seemeth to be the most formally pitched Battel between hrist and Anti-Christ that hath been in many generations We are called under the hafard of being reput and reckoned enemies to Christ and his cause for when he is crying so formally at this time who is on my side who All that are not with him shall be esteemed enemies unto him while some of our brethren in the simplicity of their heart not knowing any thing are insnared and seduced into this quarrel and moe are deprived of their liberty dragged as slaves and pressed to go fight and sacrifice their lives to the Court and French interest in prejudice of all these precious things and interests which make life desirable and in the preservation whereof it is glory to die I say while it is thus we are called to pour out our hearts together and apart on the behalfe of our distressed shamefully by us deserted yea betrayed Protestant brethren that the Lord God of hosts would make bare his strong Arm and stand up for their help We are not onely debtors to them when we can contribut nothing else to their assistance while they must jeopard their lives in contending against the mighty enemies of the Lord and his People for all the supply and help we can make them by our assiduous and most importune beggings and beseechings of God for their safety and preservation upon the account of the reformed Religion vvhich if they be foiled and put to the worse must also fall with them as to it 's visible profession but also upon the account of the true liberty and reall interest of England let the things already mentioned to demonstrat this upon our supposed successe against them be considered and it will make the matter so evident that I am sure as he cannot be a Christian or one who wisheth the preservation of the Church and coming of the Kingdome of the Son of God in the World since there hath not been for many ages a People whose civil interest was so twisted and enterwoven with the great interest of Christ through the earth in opposition to Antichrist so I am upon rational grounds perswaded that he cannnot have the heart of a true English-man he cannot be a true lover of the real good liberty and honour of our Nation who doth not wish well unto and is not earnestly solicitous for the safety of the United provinces in this juncture Alas Shall our brethren the Dutch goe down into the valley to fight with the enemy and be engaged not onely upon the account of their own liberty their civil interests and the reformed Religion but also most evidently by an undenyable consequence for the liberty of England and the preservation of the same things amongst us And will not we goe up to the mount weep upon God to stand by them Shall they shed