resolv'd to do as well as he could without them Having therefore made an Honourable Peace with France and Spain he look'd into and so manag'd his small Revenue as to keep out of those Necessities whereof there was small Hopes of a Supply when run into By which means he kept a very Splendid Court yet withal as Regular no ways Profuse whatever our Libellers Cant and wholly free from such open Immoralities as have since not a little tended to Dabauching the whole Nation without any present Prospect of Reformation As God bless'd him with a fruitful Offspring so the Charge of several Royal Nurseries was considerable Neither was there any Prince in Europe made a better Figure by his Ministers in all Foreign Courts which must add to the Expence Yet these might be easily weather'd and every Thing else which came under Consideration but that of a Royal Navy which notwithstanding was absolutely Necessary both in respect of Trade and Reputation and his Revenue not being able to go thorough therewith put him upon that Expedient of Ship-Money which we have already spoke to and therefore shall only add that by the help of this most easy and reasonable Supply he kept a constant Guard in the English Channel clear'd the Seas of all Enemies and Encroaching Friends and Built the best Ships which to that Day ever Floated upon the Main and have been scarce out-done since I have hear'd some very knowing Persons in that way affirm that two of his First Rates the Royal Sovereign and the Prince might be a Pattern to the best Builders and the most sensible pay'd a Deference to them His Majesty was wont to say most Men had their Vanities and his was Building more especially Ships wherein as he might at Pleasure be pleasant with himself so he could not be Ignorant in how high a Measure it conduc'd both to his own Grandure and the Publick Good for by his means clearing the Coasts of all Little Enemies and having no great Ones abroad whilst most part of Europe besides were up to the Ears in Blood we continued the only Free-Traders in the World The Spaniard at War with Holland was glad to secure his Bullion in our Bottoms which being Coin'd here was of some Benefit to the Mint more to the Merchant who exchang'd it into Flanders either by Goods or Bills which made the greatest plenty of Coin was ever known in this Nation and upon the easiest most advantageous Terms without buying Gold too dear which may now be all other Trades keeping an equal Ballance therewith which made very constant and considerable Returns and a Return of Customs proportionable and they were the main Support of the many foremention'd Expences with several others not mention'd and all too little had there not been an exact Managment for this whole Revenue oftner fell short of Five Hundred Thousand per Annum than rose to Six when the Ship-Tax was most strictly Collected it could not reach Seven Yet herewith he liv'd like the King of Great Brittain at home both by Land and Sea was very Bountiful to his Sister and her Family abroad and seldom without some chargable Intrigue upon their Account in Germany and moreover when the Scotch Rebellion brake out had a Fund to raise an Army 't is pity it was not Greater to pay them quite on and the others off Neither was there less exactness in the Management of all other Affairs Iustice was most impartially Administred every Man's Liberty and Property secur'd to the utmost where they did not assume a Freedom of Speaking Treason and Acting Sedition upon which Account the Ministers of Iustice were stout enough to discharge their Duties and the honester Men for it however clamor'd against In all other things where a Legal Pretence could be made the People's Right had as great a Regard as the Prince's Prerogative both they and their Master abhor'd any thing of Trick or Iuggle His Ministers of State too were every one in their Way as able as these Men of Honour and Integrity as well as Knowledge who being so ill Treated for their good Endeavours to preserve the Government upon its Antient Constitution we deserve no more such Publick Spirits and perhaps God in Displeasure will forbear to send them The Universities never receiv'd more Gracious Incouragements than from this Good Prince and return'd his Favours with a proportionable Industry and Gratitude whereby the Church became Replenish'd with a Set of Men of such solid Parts sound Doctrine and steady Principles as when the Storm came upon that and the Crown together they adher'd to both with the most abstracted Considerations of Loyalty and Conscience any Age can Parallel they have found the Expedient of a greater Latitude since God grant it do not prove the Broad-Way In a Word never was there a better Prince nor happier People till the Devil of Sedition Privy Conspiracy and Rebellion so Hellishly possest all Three Kingdoms at once The sad Subject of our Second Part. A JUST DEFENCE OF THE Royal Martyr CHARLES I. PART II. LONDON Printed for Abel Roper at the Black-Boy over against St. Dunston's Church in Fleet-street 1699. A JUST DEFENCE OF THE Royal Martyr CHARLES I. PART II. CHAP. I. Of the Scotch Rebellion THat Observation of Tully is altogether like himself agreeable to his peircing Judgment both as to the nature of the Men and Things Nemo vir magnus sine aliquo afflatu Divino unquam fuit the sedate and upright temper of long experienc'd Soul's fail not to be bless'd with a kind of natural Inspiration an infallible guess in whatever prospect they make of Future Events or other considerable Undertakings especially as to great Revolutions of State and overturning of Governments which we find him most fatally intimating from the several contending Factions in their own Commonwealth And to bring no farther instances from abroad there were many Good Men amongst us who most Prophetically boded this dismal Storm we were now entring into long before it came I have heard from his Son that the Pious and Learned Sir Henry Spelman did frequently say with a sigh the Puritan would have his day and bring all to Confusion And the truly Andrew's in a private conversation and consult amongst some of his Brethren not long before his death did with an unusual Transport of Spirit not unlike the Prophets of Old foretell the miseries shortly to come upon the Church and particularly declare to Laud that his life would be Sacrific'd in her quarrel as likewise to another that he should suffer much but live to see her restor'd I shall add but one instance more of this kind which yet must be acknowledged most considerable the truly Judicious Hooker's Divining Spirit foretold to a year more than 40 before they came The sad desolations Schism and Sacrilege would bring upon us For after a general view and sorrowful complaint thereof he adds By this means they have brought to pass that as David
at their's which made Sir Arthur shake his Head as our Author owns And really 't is hard to resolve whether they were more stupid or insolent to imagine that a Company of rusty sturdy Iades who had all along got the Bitt between their Teeth should suffer such a Pack of Fools to ride them at Pleasure Neither was the Dispute less amongst themselves in the House upon the same Subject some were for choosing Representatives according to the old Constitution others would have them proportion'd in every County according to their Share in the Payment of Taxes Henry Nevill and half a Score of such Mercurial Heads with more Sail than Ballast strong Fancies and weak Iudgments were for a Rotation according to their Friend Harrington's Oceana and much Pudder there was about it at a Club set up for that purpose with several such like maggotty Conceits as we find Page 674. To be brief Into such a desperate Frenzy were they fallen as our Author owns Page 855 and being ripe for the Correction of Heaven nothing could prevent it our Enemies succeeding in all their Attempts and all our Endeavours proving abortive An ingenuous Confession this When Men begin to suffer they begin likewise to reflect and if ever speak Truth for General Monk having well observ'd his Friend Cromwell's Arts of Dissimulation and how much it was in Vogue with all the several Parties prov'd so good a Proficient therein as to foil them at their own Weapon made as many Protestations to the Rump that he would act altogether for their Interest and Welfare as the long Parliament did at first to the King and kept them as well so that the Kingdom was restor'd by the same Course it was ruin'd which whether he design'd or not at his first setting out for that remains still in the dark how positive soever our Author is to the contrary yet finding all the other Factions and Interest so slippery and false and the Nation withal so importunate for a free Parliament which they knew would introduce their old Establishments there was no other way left to secure and advance himself and quocunque modo Rem since it was done the more unlikely the Means the greater the Mercy and an over-ruling Power the more clearly visible therein and therefore Cromwell's Cant upon his Scotch Victory which our Author so much applauds pag. 329 may with much more reason come in here since the Lord upon this solemn Appeal hath so signally given Iudgment on Monarchy's Side when all Hopes of Deliverance seem'd to be cut off Methinks our Common-wealths Men should give over all Thoughts of placing that in the Saddle which having been so often there already could not keep its Seat 'T is likewise a pretty Passage our Author relates that when some of the Rump and Cromwell's Mirmidons had a Conference about the former's Dismission Saloway desir'd that before they took away the present Authority they would declare what they would have establish'd in its Room pag. 455. To which it was reply'd That it was necessary to pull down this Government and it would be time enough then to consider what should be plac'd in the Room of it And here indeed they were sure enough for Cromwell design'd himself though it was not then proper for his Creature to declare so much but the other Side could never yet resolve and would be as far off as ever if trump'd up again So that in this Particular I dare be a little positive which yet must be acknowledg'd a very reasonable Proposal that if the Dissenters would forbear undermining the Church till they could agree amongst themselves which 't is said they are now hot upon and are doubtless all too hot to do any thing to purpose as to Matters of Doctrine Discipline and Worship and the Republicans do the same by the Monarchy as to the Management of civil Affairs I make no doubt but Church and State might last as long as any one Government in Europe or the whole World CHAP. II. Monarchy hath ever had the Preference BUT though they never could nor never will agree what to set up yet at the Negative they are the Devil and all Monarchy of Necessity must down for all Kings affect to be Tyrants to insult over and enslave their People neither do they care to be bound up by Laws but are uneasie under such Restraints and take the first Opportunity to break thorough and make themselves absolute This is the never failing Sugar-Plumb wherewith popular factious Spirits are sure to take with the Rabble carry them out of God's Blessing into the warm Sun give them good Words at present and Repentance in Reversion For as never any Age abounded more with State Empyricks than the present so 't is generally concluded by them that the Distemper hath all along lain in the Head without ever considering that the Head is the Seat of Knowledge the Residence of the Soul not otherwise to be indisposed than by the Malignity of such Humors as the Body sends up Fumes of the Spleen or Stomach and too violent Ascent of Blood or Spirits from whence alone that is disturb'd and all irregular Affections there produc'd and this equally holds in the politick as natural Body Neither are they less mistaken in their way of Cure whether it be Ignorance Rashness or both for the Head cannot ake but they conclude it an Apoplexy and bleed the whole to Death and go so uncouthly about a cut Finger every slight and trivial Hurt as to make it gangreen God deliver us from such Physicians as these wherewith notwithstanding as we have much abounded so are there still too many To come therefore more calmly to the Question As it must be granted on the one Side there can be no such thing as a perfect State to be found in this World so must it be acknowledged on the other optimus ille qui minimis urgetur even in this Sense that is best which has fewest Inconveniencies for as Grotius applies that of the old Comedian Aut haec cum illis sunt habenda aut illa cum his mittenda sunt the bad must be born with in Consideration of the greater good we should otherwise go without and proceeding according to this Method whether we consider them in Thesi or Hypothesi the Ballance will certainly turn on Monarchy's Side For first in Thesi that hath ever had the Preference with all Men of sober Sense and quiet Principles and notwithstanding the many Harangues and few Instances the contrary Party are forward to bring no Monarch can be look'd upon but as oblig'd not only in Honour and Duty but Interest likewise to consult the Wellfare of his Subjects as much as a Father of a Family that of his Children and hath the same Inducement to keep and leave it in good Order to his Heir or Successor as a Husbandman to improve that Farm which he is sure shall descend to his Posterity And thus it hath
Generation as besides their many Abettors amongst the Common People were not unprovided of some in the House of Commons which Mr. Cambden tells us the Queen took Notice of and much dislik'd their unquiet Humor greedy of Novelty and forward to root up things well Established to prevent which for the future she commanded the Severity of the Laws to be every where put in Execution And sometime after procured two New Acts one against the Papists and another against the Puritans on purpose to restrain the insolency of both Factions and by which several of them were afterwards adjudg'd to Death But such Turbulent Spirits are not so easily quell'd the same Historian continues the Complaint in a following Parliament 85. But nothing so much irritated her great Mind as their Villanous Deportment in 88. for thinking they had the Queen at an Advantage upon the Rumor of a Foreign Invasion beset her with greater Importunities than ever and play'd their Affairs with so much Confidence as if of Confederacy with the Spaniard never as Cambden goes on with the Complaint did contumacious Impudency and contumelious Malepertness advance it self more insolently giving an account what Scandalous Books they writ Belching forth such Calumnies and Reproaches therein as the Authors seem'd rather to be Scullions in a Kitchen than followers of Piety The present Course she thought fit to take with such unnatural Beautifeus was only to secure some of the most busy and chief amongst them in Wisbich Castle where many of the leading Papists were likewise secur'd But as soon as that Storm was over she resolv'd upon a more effectual Course to keep a constant Calm at home for in Feb. 92. a Parliament was call'd amongst other things to Enact such Laws as might restrain those Insolencies wherewith the Patience of the State had been so long exercis'd Wherein the Puckering's Speech to both Houses of Parliament is very Remarkable which amongst other things lets them know that they were Especially commanded by her Majesty to take heed that no ear be given nor time afforded to the wearysom Solicitations of those that commonly be called Puritans wherewithall the last Parliaments have been exceedingly importun'd which sort of Men whilst in the Giddyness of their Spirit they labor and strive to advance a new Eldership they do nothing else but disturb the good repose of the Church and Commonwealth And as the Case standeth it may be doubted whether they or the Iesuit do offer more danger or be more speedily to be redress'd with much more to the same purpose even Prophetical of the Mischiefs they have since produc'd Hereupon followed that formidable Act Tricesimo Quinto Elizabethae which was so closely hook'd into the Nostrils of this Spiritual Leviathan as though frequently endeavour'd they were never able to get it out till they had at one desperate Plunge freed themselves from all Regal Power as well as Ecclesiastical Discipline To be sure the remaining ten Years of this great Queen's Reign the swelling Humor of that haughty Faction was so taken down as they never made the least effort towards those Innovations either in Church or State which had been so uneasy to the Government before and so Fatal since In this Excellent Posture and Regular Subordination did this Prudent Princess leave an exact and practicable Model of the English Monarchy that her Successor as I observ'd before did not tread in the same steps take the same care and shew the like Courage Hinc Illae Lachrymae For coming to the Crown with a General Applause on every Side it was never considered that the brightest Sun-rise is soonest intercepted by a Cloud that Hosanna's from the Vulgar as well Great as Small naturally run into the contrary extream unless that Mercury of theirs be fix'd by such a well weigh'd Politick as knows how to temper them in both It was likewise no small Prejudice to our English Church that the King came accompanied with so great a Retinue of his own Country whose Kirk-Leven put our Puritans into a fresh Ferment made them Swell and Domineer with their usual insolence upon the least Countenance of Connivance from such as are in Power or have an Interest in the Government Upon this account I cannot but take Notice of a Passage in Hacket's Life printed before his Sermons He was born of Scotch Parents dwelling in London during the Queen's Time They were both true Protestants great Lovers of the Church of England constantly repairing to the Divine Prayers and Service thereof and would often bewail to their young Son after the coming in of their Country-men with King James the seed of Fanaticism then laid in the Scandalous neglect of the Publick Liturgy which all the Queen's time was exceedingly frequented the People then resorting as Devoutly to Prayers as they would afterwards to hear any famous Preacher about Town And his Aged Parents often observ'd to him that Religion towards God Iustice and Love amongst Neighbours gradually declin'd with the disuse of our Publick Prayers This Observation was made at first which we have since seen Fatally verify'd and cursedly Improv'd It was likewise no small prejudice to the Interest of our English Church that a Scotch Peer Top'd an Archbishop upon her no ways qualify'd with parts or principles for so great a Trust The Story stands thus Upon Bancroft's Death such as wish'd well to the Church Bishops and other great Men about Court recommended Bishop Andrews a Person every way unexceptionable to the King who approv'd so well of him as they thought their Business fix'd and neglected to press it further when the Earl of Dunbar a powerful Minister with the King saith my Author put in for his quondam Chaplain Abbot and got the King's Hand for passing the Instrument before the Matter was discover'd and then too late to prevent God grant Scotch Peers may never more recommend English Prelates Indeed the less any of them have to do with our Church the better although in this great Time of Tryal amongst them where all Religious Order is run into Enthusiasm and Madness there are several have signalis'd themselves with a Zeal truly Primitive not only to the spoyling their Goods but the loss of all their Fortunes and of some of their Lives For our New Metropolitan when in Place he fell very much short of what his own Admirers expected to be sure his Remiss Government and unexcusable Partiality towards the Puritans neglecting all those worthy Methods his two Predecessors Whitgift and Bancroft had prosecuted introduc'd those many Desolations Fractions and Schisms which the Church hath not yet and 't is a Question whether will be ever able to weather for whilst several worthy Prelates in his Time and his Successor who next came in Place endeavour'd to continue or revive such Articles Injunctions and Canons as had been fram'd in Q. Elizabeth's Time and to reduce the Church to the same Order and Regimen in which Abbot found it These forsooth must
his Glory therein is too gross a conception for any considering man to entertain who according to the perfection of the Divine Attributes must apprehend God to be infinite in Goodness and Mercy as well as Iustice and Power On the contrary such harsh and severe Notions of the Sacred Majesty of Heaven as if he delighted in nothing more than to Tyrannize over and Trample upon the Slaves of his Creation cannot but debase men's Spirits to the like proceedings make them in the Apostle's phrase without Natural Affection void of any thing that is Generous Great or Good and consequently Mete unto others what they falsly suppose to be the Almighty's Measures unto all Mankind To be sure it was at this time the manner of their proceedings with all true Sons of our Church whom they never let alone till Reprobated as to this life God be praised their Malice could not reach any thing which concern'd the next But setting aside these rigid Determinations which The Examination of Tilenus before the Tryers pleasantly yet withall solidly exposes under the borrowed names of Dr. Dubitan's Frybabe Irresistible c. the other Branches of that Controversy about Fate Freewill c. in all the ordnary concerns of humane life began long since amongst the Philosophers the Stoicks on the one hand the Epicureans and Libertines on the other wherein likewise most of the rest were concern'd tho' with more Temper Deliberation and Judgment It was likewise an old Humorist amongst them who first started that Notion of All things being Necessitated from the concurrence of precedent Causes much improv'd by as great an Humorist amongst us and to much worse purpose since the former understood nothing of the Reveal'd Knowledge this other design'd thereby to Subvert Christian Religion in the mean while was kept free from these Debates for several Centuries till the Manachees turn'd Stoicks and the Pelagians Libertines wherein St. Austin became ingag'd and had them taken up by his Followers tho' they spred no farther than the Melancholly Cells of Monks and Schoolmen for the next Thousand years and were rather a Diversion for the few Brisk Wits of those ignorant dull Times than look'd upon as any ways relating to the Articles of Christian Doctrine That Imposition was first brought upon the Church by the Council of Trent and however their many Innovations of that kind were declaim'd against by most Protestants yet the Synod of Dort was no less Dogmatical in Imposing their Five Articles which their humble Imitators our Lay Assembly now and our Mix'd Assembly of Clergy Lay afterwards would have enforc'd with as much Earnestness as the Being of a God or necessity of a Redeemer Give me leave farther to observe that in the calm and more deliberate Times of Q. Elizabeth when Archbishop Whitgift had Assembled a few Bishops and other Divines and fram'd those commonly call'd the Nine Articles at Lambeth of too nigh Affinity with the foremention'd points in order to Silence some Disputes at Cambridge which had gone out too far thereupon Her Majesty was so concern'd at it as had it not been for the Reverend Esteem she had of that Excellent Prelate they would have been all Attainted of a Premunire Notwithstanding she commanded him speedily to recall and suppress those Articles which was perform'd with so much Care and Diligence that a Copy of them was not to be found a long time after and this the Three Bishops in their foremention'd Letter urg'd as a precedent and with great reason but then was then and now was now when the Humour ran as much for pulling down as before to support and advance whatever tended to God's Glory or the Publick Good I must here likewise beg my Reader 's pardon if he thinks me too prolix and hope upon second thoughts it may be acknowledg'd requisite to represent what little No-things they would catch at what Sound Doctrines they would pervert and misrepresent to Defame and bring an Odium upon such persons as otherwise might pull off their Vizard and Detect the Mischiefs they had in design for all the Law and all the Reason was on the King's side which they could not otherwise stifle than by such groundless Cavils against every Faithful and Loyal Subject who had Sense and Courage to stand up for him and the Laws in Opposition to their dangerous Innovations and Seditious practices But all the Fat would be in the Fire should I pass by Sibthorpe and Manwaring whose Indiscretions all good men pitied none justify'd Although Abbot's pettishness stretch'd the former Sense further than was consistent with the Charity of a Metropolitan or Candour of a Privy Counsellor For the other nothing could be greater than what the King declared thereupon He that will preach other than he can prove let him suffer I give them no thanks to give me my due And really 't is to my Admiration considering how good a Man the King was and how Kind a Father to the Church with the Violent Heats on the other side there were only these Two ran into the contrary Extream had Time-serving been as much in fashion then as I have known it since there had been several hundreds to each of them It was likewise thought then and since that the Commons having done the King no Right as to their own Members Clem. Coke and Dr. Turner they should have been less severe against Dr. Manwaring at leastwise upon his Humble Submission and Acknowledgment have mov'd the Lords to remit the rest of his Sentence which defect the King supply'd sometime after and let them know by that Tacit Intimation how Mercy rejoyceth against Iudgment and what they may expect that do the contrary But what the Defence saith that soon after the Parliament was dissolv'd he was punished with a Fat Bishoprick is far from Truth unless he can bring seven years into that narrow compass which on other accounts passes for the Life of a Man To be sure upon his Advance to that Dignity he approv'd himself every way worthy of it Three things more especially I find he was much resolv'd upon First The Redemption of Captives Secondly The Conversion of Recusants Thirdly The Undeceiving of Seduced Sectaries Which shows him to be of a Publick as well as Loyal Spirit And one would think might attone for two or three Expressions which as they were out of his Profession so ought to have been more cautiously consider'd but I have found this their constant course all along every little slip upon the King's account shall be Aggravated to the Extreamest Degree whilst the most violent Libels against him his Ministers and Government must have so many Grains of Allowance as the Authors may be brought off with Reputation and Rewards As it happen'd afterward in the Case of Pryn Burton Bastwick Leighton Lilburne and who not That dar'd to fly in the face of Majesty and Abuse all that Adher'd to Church and Crown although to my certain information Pryn did in
much less exchange a Service which was perfect Freedom for the more than Egyption Bondage of Scotch Impositions by which means we continued nigh twenty years in a perfect state of Anarchy both Temporal and Spiritual every one doing what seem'd Right in his own Eyes and had some affinity with what that Judicious Historian observ'd of the Romans when under the like circumstances It was better to live where nothing than where all things were Lawful To be sure the sense and dismal sufferings which accrew'd thereby made us resolve upon our Old Establishments to have our Kings as at first and our Church as at the beginning which the Parliament likewise thought fit to confirm by another Act of Uniformity but what with that perverseness of spirit inseparable to such Children of Disobedience and the kind assistance of their good Friends the Papists all Ecclesiastical Discipline hath passed for a mighty Grievance ever since neither can there be a greater invasion upon the Subject's Librety than to perswade or compell men to Heaven against their Wills and thus by Tolerating all Religions we are in a very forward tendency to have none nay I cannot but further observe our Politicks seem to be at as low an Ebb as our Piety and it may be shortly look'd upon as an entrenchment upon the Liberty of a Free People to perswade or compell Commutative Iustice and Moral Honesty That the Form of Publick Prayer sent to Scotland more nearly approach'd the Roman Office than that of England is another instance of our Author's integrity whereas the most considerable difference between them was an alteration of such passages in ours as the Puritan Party had all along cavill'd at for Example the name of Priest so odious to that captious Brotherhood was changed to that of Presbyter no fewer than sixty Chapters or thereabouts taken out of the Apocrypha were reduced to two and those two to be read only on the Feast of All Staints the New Translation Authoriz'd by King Iames being us'd in the Psalms Epistles Gospels Hymns and Sentences instead of the Old Translation so much complained of in their Books and Conferences these were the most considerable Alterations besides somewhat in the Communion Office according to the first Liturgy of Edward VI's so far from Popery as it expresly declares against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation only retains one or two Rites which the Primitive Church did practise before that usurpation had got any footing in the World and therefore I admire to find in another Volume of Memoirs That the Alterations made from the English rendred it more invidious and less satisfactory but as the humour then went and ever will among that infatuated people had an Angel from Heaven brought one down and by express command of Iesus Christ enjoyn'd an Establishment the Covenant nevertheless would have had the preference Nay farther to corroborate the Violence of their prejudices they had got one Abernethy who from a Iesuit Priest turned a zealous Presbyterian to forge a Story that the Liturgy had been sent to Rome and revis'd by some Cardinals there which he had from Seignior Con who shew'd it to himself Upon this Report the Marquess Hamilton then Commissioner wrote to Con returned from Rome to London who protested he never so much as heard of a Liturgy till he came last to England and had never seen that Abernethy but once at Rome and finding him Light-headed never again took notice of him yet saith my Author who shall be nameless The story had a ready belief and welcome hearing tho' the Lightness and Weakness of the man became afterwards so visible that small account was made either of him or his story yet at this time it took wonderfully And this is the foundation of what the Defence or his fellow Pamphleteer relates of that worthy Dominican Convert Gage who might agree with the Iesuit when both about to turn Presbyterians and joyn together in some forgery which might merit their reception although their Orders are irreconcilable and will believe one another no more than an honest man of sense and understanding will believe either of them In the mean while that any Office in a Vulgar Tongue should be sent to Rome for Approbation is so inconsistent with the Policy and Cunning of that Church as none but Fanaticks and Fools could swallow and 't is said when told the Pope he laugh'd heartily at it To be sure they would not admit their Missall upon such terms especially we giving them so fair an opportunity of bringing it in upon their own To give one instance further how Artificially they Ape'd the Iesuit in all Tricks of Imposture they got a Covenanting Sister troubled either with Fits of the Mother or the Devil who in such disorderly Convulsions would foam out Raptures in defiance of the Bishop's service Book and Canons with the bitterest invectives against all such as opposed the Covenanting Iesus which their Juggling Preachers so dexterously improved as to make it a ratification from Heaven of whatever Villanies they had impos'd upon the People He goes on to tell us that the reading of the New service Book at Edenburgh was first interrupted by a poor Woman but withal so well seconded by the generallity as they who Officiated hardly escaped with their Lives This produced divers meetings of many of the Nobility Clergy and Gentry who entred into an agreement or covenant to root out Episcopacy Heresie and Superstition A very justifiable undertaking this I hope they made the Goodwife Chairwoman of the Assembly when they debated these weighty points she had as much right to do it as they besides that of Precedency and perhaps understood them as well to be sure never any Mob Convention whether of the Great Vulgar or the small presum'd to determine what is Heresie prescribe modes of Worship or rules of Discipline till Iohn Calvin's Popular Ordinences came abroad in the World which too hath been wretchedly improv'd by his admirers to the scandal of all true Religion and the Disturbance of whatever Civil Government it gets into 'T is a known Fable that when the Lyon prohibited all Horned Beasts the Fox would not come nigh the Den for fear his Ears should be brought under that Denomination if these Infallible Assertors of their own Wills shall think fit to term sound Doctrine Heresie Episcopacy a Rag of Satan and the most Innocent Decencies Superstition who dare withstand or contradict them as all Orthodox Divines the whole Kingdom thorough then found to their utter ruin and something of the like Inhumane treatment hath been lately on foot amongst them can the Pope be more Imposing or Inquisition more cruel At the same rate he continues The Clergy of England who had been the chief Advisers and Promoters of this violence prevailed with the King to cause all such as should persist in their Opposition after a certain time to be proclaimed Traytors p. 7. Still the Clergy do all which puts me