many desolate Widdowes pale and wan wringing their hands and continually lamenting the losse of their dearly beloved Husbands whom you have exposed to destruction Behold yonder a raging Father from whom you have violently taken the staffes of his Age ready to send out his soule after the soules of his Children murdered by you O know it that the Curses of Brothers Friends Mothers and Fathers Widdowes and helplesse Children are all throwne upon you in the bitternesse of their spirits and thinke you that Heaven will be ever dull to such motives O remember I beseech you at length remember and let M. Marshall that unhappy instrument of provoking to this unnaturall Warre remember too that speech of God to Cain Gen. 4.10 The voyce of thy Brothers bloud cryes unto me from the Earth and no sooner the cry comes but the curse followes in the next words now therefore thou art Cursed from the Earth and immediatly after a Vagabond and a Runnagate shalt thou be on the Earth Or at least let M. Marshall remember his owne doctrine that Babilon must drinke of the same cup that she hath made Gods people to drinke of And let him consider that if he and his Faction be found to be Babilon according to their bloudy doings or intentions in Gods account then their little Children and M. Marshalls among the rest by some desperate Ruffians whom for his sinne God may permit shall be pricked upon speares poynts or have their braines dashed out against the walls which barbarousnesse and inhumanity from his Children I beseech God in mercy to divert by giving to him their Father the grace of true repentance and a spirit to recant his erroneous and bloudy doctrine And so I come to his third Scripture whereupon I shall be but briefe because in the same he is not so extravagant as in the two former It is taken out of Mat. 25. v. 33 34 c. where the day of Iudgement is described and the manner of Christs proceeding then And the thing which M. Marshall noteth thence for his purpose as he taketh is That the reward or punishment I use his owne words shall then be dispensed to all men as they did or did not help and succour Gods Church and people in time of need to the one side come ye blessed receive the Kingdome prepared for you for you visited my Church when it was sick you gave meat to my Church when it was hungry you gave my people drinke when they were thirsty you took them in when they were strangers you cloathed them when they were naked you came to them when they were in Trison in as much as you have done it unto these even unto one of these you have done it unto me Let us here observe by the way before we proceed that the blâ—ssing shall not by M. Marshalls own confession be pronounced unto them that did put the Church into a destructive sicknesse or did persecute those that would have visited her and used means for her recovery nor yet to them that took away from the Members thereof their meat drink and cloathing which God in his provident goodnesse had bestowed upon them 't is not said come ye blessed and receive the Kingdome to them that had turned the Church of God out of her possession that had cast the Ministers thereof into Prison that did banish persecute and Plunder all that lov'd the Church or had sent reliefe unto her in her comfortlesse and starved condition And therefore upon what grounds Mr Marshalls fâ—ction can expect come ye blessed and receive the Kingdome should be spoken unto them I cannot see Indeed their patience will not give them leave to stay for to receive a Kingdome till Come ye blessed be pronounced they will have a Kingdome at their disposall before hand though it cost the lives of an hundred thousand men nor shall Christ need to prepare a Kingdome for them who contrary to his word will if they can provide one for themselves in this world which will be more suteable indeed to their spiritâ— then that other can be which Christ speaks of and lyes indeed in a world to come But to proceed with M. Marshalls quotation on the other side saies he Christ shall say Goe ye cursed Why are they cursed I was hungry and ye gave me no meat I was thirsty and ye gave me no drinke I â—as a stranger and ye took me not in naked and ye clothed me not sick and in prison and ye visited me not verely I say unto you in as much as ye did it not to one of these little ones ye did it not to me as if the Lord at the great day did takâ— notice of nothing but what the Carriages of all people have been to or against his Church and Children thus M. Marshall And indeed he speaks well at that great day God takes notice of nothing so much as of the carriages of People to or against his Church and Children and therefore doubtlesse if Go ye cursed shall be said to those that have omitted these duties of Charity to Christ in his Members when he was Hungry Thirsty Naked a Stranger and a Prisoner then those that have put Christ into that Condition that have made him Hungry Thirsty Naked a Stranger and a Prisoner shall never scape the Curse wherefore let M. Marshall and all his faction with him look over his quotation againe before they make application of it And let all men else look over it too before they enter Covenant to help or assist these men for if these shall be found in Gods account to be none of his Church and People but rather the Enemies and the ill users of them and shall for the same have Goe ye Cursed pronounced upon them I doe believe that those who have assisted them or associated with them shall be bound up with them in the same Curse and still keep them Company But perhaps some may here marvaile that M. Marshall should alleadge a Scripture which seems so cleerly to exâ—lude his own faction in regard of their conditions out of the state of blessednesse and to involve them under so great a Curse In way of Answer to this I will tell you what I have a long time observed in some Ministers of M. Marshalls faction and neer acquaintance though for himselfe I must confesse I never unlesse now saw any cause to suspect him guilty thereof but before this Rebellion began I have alwaies and in all things observed and found him for my part and thereupon judged him to be a most Honest faithfull sincere hearted plain dealing man but I say I have observed it in some others that it was their Custome to Preach most often such doctrines and to quote such Scriptures aâ— those who best knew them did conceive were most directly against themselves and to propound such lessons for others learning aâ— themselves were farthest from in their own practice for example the most proud of them
SCRIPTURE VINDICATED From the Mis-apprehensions Mis-interpretations and Mis-applications of Mr STEPHEN MARSHALL In his Sermon Preached before the Commons House of PARLIAMENT Feb. 23. 1641. and published by Order of that House ALSO A Militarie Sermon WHEREIN By the VVord of God the nature and disposition of a Rebell is discovered and the Kings true Souldier described and characterized By EDWARD SYMMONS Chaplaine to the Life-guard of the Prince of Wales OXFORD Printed by LEONARD LICHFIELD Printer to the University 1645. TO THE HONOVRABLE MEMBERS OF THE COMMONS House assembled at OXFORD Honourable Senatours I Doe here most humbly present uncovered to your judicious view a Sermon once Preached and afterward dedicated to your selves at Westminster as it was at first an unhappy mean to provoke divers then of your society to set their feet in paths of blood so if now it shall help to a fuller sight of the greatnesse of that mercy which preserved your selves from so great a danger I have also my option There be Misteries of Iniquity as well as of Godlinesse a Ministers duty is to discover both our Saviour revealed Satan when he spake by Peters tongue and thereby taught us to detect him when he comes in the shape of an Angell of light as his custome is to do when he is endeavouring most mischiefe against Church or State the most eminent popular and well-guifted men have alwayes beene his instruments to pervert the Truth and to breake the Peace he doth but actum agere in these times omne malum ab Ecclesia was true of old and is so still They were Church-men to whom that Rebell Rodolphus spake when lying on his death-bed he shewed his right hand cut off in fight against his Soveraigne This saies he is that right hand wherewith I vowed my faith unto the Emperour now is the same become a witnesse of my breach of fidelity and traiterous attempts against my Soveraigne by your instigation They were also Church-men that stirred up to the Barrons warres in the daies of our Henry 3. and injoyned the Earle of Leicester in remissione peccatorum ut causam illam meaning his Rebellion usquè ad mortem assumeret asserting pacem Ecclesiae Anglicanae nun quà m sine gladio materiali posse firmari Our age alasse hath beene too fruitfull in such Churchmen and they in such Assertions but the Apostle prophecying of such sayes that their folly shall be manifested unto all and to this purpose right Noble and Worthy are my poore endeavours in this following discourse I humbly beg that your favourable acceptance may make the same in some sort valuable it tends to Peace and you are Councellours of Peace to a King of Peace no way delighting in bloud rather wishing with Theodosius se potuisse mortuos à morte revocare Indeed He is our Theodosius Gods guift to us and you are his Theodosii God's guifts to him and as such we his inferiour Loyall Subjects do most sincerely honour you And be confident Grave Senatours what ever hath beene suggested heretofore by any of those Boutefeu's that assisting him the Annointed of the Lord and true possessor of the mild and gracious spirit of the Lord you do most really and truly help the Lord himselfe and if your care shall adde some further edge to His most pious Orders and Proclamations against Swearing and Prophaning Gods Name and Word and for the more strict observing the Lords day and dayes of Fasting appointed by His Majesty yet much neglected in His Quarters you shall fit a people for the Lord to shew mercy upon and to restore that peace unto which you labour for yea and thereby not onely your Consultations but your Persons shall continually be attended with Gods blessing and your Names had with Posterity in an everlasting joyfull remembrance for this Honour have all his Saints And that the same may be an unseperable portion to every of you is and shall be the constant and earnest prayer of Your humble Seâ—â—â—â—â— EDWARD SYMâ—â—â—â— Novemb. 30. 1644. The Preface to the Readers CHRISTIAN READERS I Here offer to your conscientious view the Vindication of three or foure Texts of Scripture from the abuse that is offered unto them by that once faithfull Expounder and fruitfull Preacher of Gods Word Master Stephen Marshall Minister of Finchingâ—ield in Essex A man indeed whom in my apprehension before his unhappy ingagement in this unnaturall and blacke Rebellion envy it selfe though sometime busie in her attempts against him was not able to staine or blemish either for matters of life or doctrine The occasion of this mine undertaking against him herein was this About Easter last 1644. I did visit in the Prison at Shrewsbury some Prisoners that had been taken at the Castle of Brampton Bryan belonging to Sir Robert Harly in Hereford-shire and questioning them about their taking up of Armes against their Soveraigne they answered me that they took up Armes against Antichrist and Popery for said they 't is prophesied in the Revelation that the Whore of Babylon shall be destroyed with fire and sword and what doe you know but this is the time of her ruine and that we are the men that must help to pull her downe I answered that the Revelation tells us that 't is the worke of Kings signified by those ten Hornes Rev. 17.12.16 to pull downe the whore of Babylon to hate her to make her naked and to burne her with fire But as for them they in my apprehension laboured to keep up the whore of Babilon that shee might not fall by their endeavouring to pull downe Kings who were appoynted of God to pull downe her they replyed that 't is said in the Revelation that the People the Multitude and Nations should also pull her downe but I reading the verse out of one of their Bibles shewed them their mistake that the People Multitude and Nations which are called Waters Rev. 17.15 were those whom the Whore did sit upon and as it were did brood under her that is shee did rule over them had them under their obedience insomuch that they might rather be said to submit unto her then to pull her downe But what said they do you think that Kings alone without the help of the people shall pull her downe I answered no nor yet the People without their Kiâ—gs who are appoynted of God to lead them thereunto and in whose power alone it is to Authorize people to be active and assistant in such a businesse And then I inform'd them further of their mistake in another particular namely in thinking Popery which they fancied they fought against to be that whore of Babylon which in the Revelation is threatened to be destroyed with fire and sword for that Antichrist and whore of Babilon which was to be destroyed with such weapons dwelt at Rome and not here in England and it was the very Roman feat or City which was to be so abolished and not the Romish faith or Popish Religion
and estimation I beleeve scarce any of them but have Preached upon it at least have often quoted it or rather misconstrued it to their own purposes but how improper a Theame it is for their cause for these times and specially for a Fast day when Mr Marshall discoursed upon it shall in part be discovered in these following lines The God of all grace and truth guide my heart and pen by his holy spirit that I may write with that meeknesse as becomes a Minister of Christ to use in dealing with a lapsed Brother and with that fervor also as beseemeth him that is zealous for Gods Word and Honour that the seduced may be reclaimed from erroneous paths and the upright strengthned in their Loyall way to the Gospells glory and the salvation of Soules and thaâ— for my deare Lord and Masters sake Iesus Christ our Saviour Amen SECTION I. Wherein are discovered Mr Marshalls Mis-apprehensions WHen Mr Marshall by way of introduction hath discovered the scope of the Chapter and in speciall of this verse he comes to shew first how suteable to his apprehension the text is to his present occasion then he devides and after his manner interprets the same and lastly he raises or concludes upon his main doctrine I shall follow him throughout in his own method and way First for the sutablenesse he saies the Text or Theame is suteable and exceeding seasonable in respect 1 Of the times wherein we live 2 Of the temper of most people 3 Of the occasion of that daies meeting 4ly and specially in respect of that Honourable Assembly I shall be bold to shew how M. Marshall is mistaken in all these particulars 1. It is seasonable saies he to the times wherein we live when abundance of mighty Enemies rise up against the Lord and against his Church Now in this I suppose M. Marshall forgat himselfe for these times wherein we live are times of the Gospell and therefore are or should be times of blessing whereas the Text is a Text of the old time a Text of cursing And indeed although abundance of mighty enemies doe rise up against the Lord and against his Church yet Christ in the Gospell did not leave his Church either precept or example to curse her enemies no nor the enemies of the Lord himselfe but he hath left both precept and example directly to the contrary 1. Precept Mat. 5.43 44 45. c. He speakes not only to them there present but to his whole Church and what he then spake was to endure for ever and to be a rule to her throughout all ages in cases of this nature His command is that she should blesse and not curse yea that she should blesse them that curse her the words are these you have heard that it hath been said namely in old time thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy but I say unto you saies Christ love your enemies blesse them that curse you doe good to them that hate you pray for them that despightfully use you and persecute you that you may be or may approve your selves to be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven for he deales thus with those that be his enemies he makes the Sun to shine and his raine to fall both upon the evill and upon the good if you love them only that love you or salute your brethren only those of your own opinion of your own side or faction what doe you more then the Publicans or Heathens doe who have no acquaintance with God with Christ or with his Gospell be you therefore perfect as your heavenly father is perfect as if he had said it becomes you that professe your selves to be mine to endeavour after more then an Heathenish perfection it is an Heavenly perfection which you must strive for and to obtaine this you must leave the practices of old time which were to hate and curse your Enemies and you must practice the cleane contrary And for the better understanding of this let me here by the way minde the World again of what I have already informed her in my Treatise of The right nature and temper of the spirit of the Gospell viz. that there is a great difference between the Ancient times those before Christ and those since his coming not in respect of time it selfe for that is alwaies the same but in respect of the coming of Christ who brought with him a new spirit which both must and doth manifest it selfe in all his true servants The former times might haply be times for cursing and revenge times of death and terrour Gods name then by which he was known and called was Deus ultionum the God of Revenge for as such a one he was pleased then oft-times to discover himselfe Adam having sinned was presently cast out of Paradise Corah and his companions having Rebelled vengeance speedily laid hold upon them Meroz having faulted was presently Cursed but by the coming of Christ the times were changed to be times of mercy and favour times of grace and pitty of patience and forbearance of life and Salvation and God from thence forth was called by a new name scil. Pater misericordiarum and Deus consolationum the Father of mercies and God of consolation and as such a one he declares himselfe he dealt more forbearingly with Corazin and Bethsaida then formerly he had done with Sodome and Gomorrah and Paul then Saul went breathing out threatnings against Gods Saints yet mercy reached him Mary Magdalen and the Theefe were great sinners yet vengeance did not overwhelme them yea many of those that crucified Christ were not taken away as they deserved but being afterwards converted by Peters Sermon Act. 2. tasted mercy Had Meroz been standing in the daies of the Gospell in Christs time and had failed in her duty as she here did she should not presently have been loaden with a Curse but rather reprooved and admonished of her Errour and had time granted her to repent in and therefore though this Text of M. Marshall might haply have been seasonable for the old times to be preached to the Captaines and Leaders of the Lords Hosts as he calls those that he preached it unto yet it doth not follow that 't is a like seasonable now For by the comming of Christ I say there was a change made in the times and so ought there to be in men in their thoughts words and carriages yea and in their preaching too in which there must Consideration be had to times and seasons But I returne and will second that Precept of our Saviour with the Testimony of his two great Apostles St Peter and S. Paul both Preachers in the time of the Gospell and both indued with the Spirit and minde of Christ first S. Peter 1. Pet. 3.9 render not evill for evill or railing for railing but contrariwise blessing knowing that you are thereunto called that you should inherit the blessing whence we learne that men
sale by an Ordinance of the House and â—ome of the Members who it seems had drank downe a larger draught of his doctrine then the rest would have had it also decreed that the Irish should be rooted out from being a Nation they should all be put to the sword that so their very name might be had no more in remembrance for this indeed according to M. Marshall's phrase and instruction pag. 5. was fully to curse them vehemently to curse them and never to leave cursing them even to annihilate them by cursing them whereupon the Popish Irish fearing to be quite outgone in cruelty by these new Reformers grew desperate indeed and most outragiously mischievous against the English Nation and against all that professed the Protestant Religion And verily I doe beleeve that God was so highly displeased with those bloody purposes those over-harsh decrees those cursing doctrines so contrary to the Gospell from men professing the same that he did for these things sake suffer those wild and savage Irish to be more prevalent in that Kingdom and should I be in the case of those that either Preached such doctrines or had vented such cruell purposes or had layed out any mony for Irish lands or had been a means any way to provoke that people to be so outragiously desperate and destructive as they have been I beleeve my Conscience would tell me that God would lay to my charge the guilt of that Protestant English blood there shed and the King might justly lay unto me the losse of those his Subjects and I should alwaies think that blood would pursue me because I had not hated blood And hereby the way also let me suggest two things a Caveat and an observation 1. A Caveat to all my countrymen of England of what side or faction soever who begin now to be as bold with the lands and Estates of some in their own Nation as three years agoe they were with those of the Irish both in buying and selling the Buyers I would have but remember Ireland and thinke that by their good Bargains there God did foreadmonish them to beware how they venture here And the sellers I would have them remember Felton that killed the Duke of Buckingham and withall that their own Orders and doings have taught men to make no scruple of shedding blood 'T is no wisdome to put great spirits upon desperate courses the Beare will more willingly Hazard his life then part with his skinne to make good the word of the Hunter 2. An observation from the progresse of men in wayes of blood quam tument gustato sanguine fauces how dangerous the tast of blood is it makes even a sheep grow wolfeish si torrida parvus venit in ora cruor itur in omne nefas they that were lately accounted the persecuted flock of Christ having lapt a little of the blood of an Enemy how extreamly on the suddaine doe they thirst for the blood of their friends they who at first devoured in their expectations the lands of Strangers and panted after the destruction of the Popish Irish how greedy are they now become of the estates of their own Country-men and thirsty after the ruine of the Protestant English inter mensasque torosque Quae modo complexu foverunt pectora caedunt Whom lately they at bed and board Did brotherly embrace They now do slay with murdering sword And Brotherhood deface And yet I know 't is the opinion of some that this Effusion of English Bloud was primum intentione the first thing in the intentions of these unnaturall men and the Irish Combustions were onely raised as a mist to cloud their purpose at home that honest Eyes might not discerne it for notwithstanding M. Marshalls phrase to help the distressed people in Ireland 't is too well known that the present prevailing Faction amongst those whom in the next words he calls the Captaines and Leaders of the Lords Host were not onely neglective themselves in affording ayde but also obstructive to his sacred Majesty who in pitty to those poore distressed would have ventured his Royall Person to have carried comfort to them so irkesome was it to his Pious Soule to heare that any of his Subjects should want that protection which throughout the time of his sole Government they so happily had enjoyed Sod latebat Anguis in Herba there was a pad in the Straw which every one did not then see the maine designe or worke to be done was to destroy the Government of Gods Church and to overthrow Monarchy in this Kingdome and to effect this the Shipping and Militia of the Kingdome must be griped into their hands to which purpose there was to be aliquid apparens above board to gaine some beliefe to Iealousies and Feares and therefore knowing the discontentments and disposition of the Irish Nation they cut of their Governours Head and did providently forbeare to send any other to succeed him that so they might render to them an advantage to rebell and to themselves a faire pretence to be possessed of the Men Monyes and Ammunition of this Kingdome Which when they had got Ireland is neglected the poore distressed people there are massacred the Subsidies given for their ayde and the Contribution gathered for their reliefe is imployed another way many of our gallant men who at first went thither to their helpe for want of timely supplies are slaine for had they lived a while longer 't was feared they might have done their King too much good service at their owne home and the rest of the Armies there abiding were well nigh famished for want of maintenance which they could not obtaine at last but upon condition they would first subscribe to a kind of new dependance upon these new State men and two of the Members of the House of Commons are sent over to require it of them And here for the Confirmation of this Opinion let me declare by the way two things which I shall desire the judicious Reader seriously to thinke upon and let him conclude from the same what his owne Reason and Conscience shall suggest 1. What I have understood of His Majesties Princely care and wisdome to prevent those Irish miseries had that Kingdom been so happy as to have tasted the fruits thereof When they had cut off Strafford's Head the King providently foreseeing that those forces raised there by the said Earle for his assistance in the Northern expedition if they continued together being Irish and Papists might be mischievous in that Kingdome after their Governours death who had he lived was both able and ready enough to have kept them under from Rebelling therefore his Majesty ordered they should be sent out from thence and had granted their service to the Ambassadors of Portugall and Spaine soliciting the same at that time in the behalfe of their severall Princes in which particular had not His Majesty been crossed it had been impossible in human reason there should have been
beginning of his Epistle Dedicatory before his Sermon doth prove it It is fit saies he my obedience should last as long as your Commands which therefore are supposed to be never errant for so I have alwayes interpreted your requests and desires to be we can say no otherwise to God himselfe and no question but M. Marshall would have all men of his mind ergo 2. That all men should beleeve and take their cause to be Gods c. is evident in that he saies they are all called to be Leaders and Captaines of the Lords Host called that is immediately by the Lord himselfe as Deborah Barack and the Iudges of old were by some speciall instinct and inspiration no other kind of call can he challenge for them for the King by whom God ordinarily calls and makes Captaines and Leaders of his Host I am sure M. Marshall himselfe will not say did call them together to doe as they doe to set his Kingdomes in a Combustion but rather to confirme and establish them in a further Peace not to raise Armies against his owne Person and expresse Commands but to consult together for the tranquillity and safety of his people Now if they be such as M. Marshall intitles them and so called as he without any proofe supposeth them then it must needs follow that they who helpe them helpe the Lord and their cause must be the cause of the Lord 3. That all who doe not helpe them and their cause are to be accursed accounted of and dealt withall as was expressed the tenour of M. Marshalls discourse upon his Text in the proofe of his doctrine doth sufficiâ—ntly declare as I shall shew when I come to note his Misapplications But further that M. Marshalls meaning is the same as was expressed I doe appeale to the people whose Evidence is as sufficient in this case as M. Marshalls owne They will witnesse with me that they doe thus interpret and understand him as was apparent not onely by the Prisoners that were taken at Brampton-Bryan Castle of whom is mention in the Preface to this discourse but also by that extract of them those miserable wretches that were slaine at Hopton Castle for they while they maintained the same against the Kings Souldiers amongst other revileing and blasphemous expressions some of them would cry out O you Rogues you doggs will you fight against the Lord against your redeemer which plainly infers that 't is a generall position infused into them all by their teachers that their cause is the cause of God and they that oppose them oppose the Lord which blasphemous expression occasioned others as vile from some of the prophaner sort of our men which indeed I tremble to expresse and afterward when that Castle was taken that blasphemy of theirs together with other opprobrious and reviling speeches did stir up that rage in the mercilesse Souldiers which occasioned that barbarous and inhumane slaughter of those miserable men for which my heart hath often bled in secret as God knowes it being an Act however deserved on the sufferers part yet too too cruelly inflicted by the Kings men most contradicting His Majesties meeke and gratious Spirit of much disparage among vulgar people to His righteous Cause and most unbeseeming Christian Souldiers insomuch that my prayer is and shall ever be good Lord smite the hearts of the Actors in and Consenters unto that bloody Tragoedy with true remorse for that their barbarous cruelty But here by the way I would have all men note the originall cause of that and such like deeds of barbarousnesse and inhumanity the Preachers of that side infuse by their doctrines such blasphemous and bloody Principles into their men who being of the common sort doe think it part of their zeale to discover the same in words as well as when they have power to performe it in deeds and thereby doe exasperate the opposite party to pay them home in their own Coyne for they think they have as good grounds to reckon themselves to be for the Lord as the others have and if to be bloody and cruell be the way to shew it they can be as bloody as they though I am sure our men have not so learned Christ from their teachers but alas the examples of others though deadly Enemies will prevaile more in matters of evill then the precepts of any though of neerest friends in matters of good And thus have we seen M. Marshalls mistakes in the seasonablenesse of his Text insomuch that I suppose it may be concluded contrary to what he fancyeth that his Text was most unseasonable 1. In respect of the times being times of the Gospell and so times of Blessing and not of Cursing of returning good for evill and not on the contrary of overcoming both ours and Gods Enemies with our benefits and Prayers 2. In respect of the temper of most People who in these last and worst dayes do generally mind their own things and not the things of Iesus Christ to please their own humours their own corruptions which are rather to curse and wish hurt to others then to dislike of such curses the things of Christ his precepts his commands are contrary to our selfish inclinations 3. In respect to the occasion of the dayes meeting which was being a Fast day to humble themselves for their former uncharitablenesse towards their Brethren to get their spirits meekned by Gods word and so fitted to serve the Lord in their callings and to be assistant to his cause and people by their Prayers which must proceed from hearts and mouths seasoned with Charity and not with Cursing 4. But specially it seems to be a Text most unseasonable to the Honourable Assembly of Parliament who all should be as the Lord dealing out blessings to this Nation as the Lord doth and the rather because they were call'd together for that purpose and not to be a Curse unto us they are called saies M. Marshall to be Captains and Leaders of the Lords Host I suppose he means or should meane under the Captain Generall Christ Iesus and therefore 't is fit they should be conformable to his Orders and to his Example in all their wayes and Carriages He was mercifull peaceable and indulgent to his inferiors and so should these have been provoked by him to be whereas to Preach of Cursing to them and so to imbittor their spirits must needs be most improper and unseasonable and the only way to make them unlike the Lord whose Leaders and Captains over us they ought to be I am sure it hath been a meane to breed extreame disorders and confusions And thus I have discovered M. Marshalls Misapprehensions in the Choice of his Text and so I end the first Section SECTION II. Wherein are discovered Mr Marshall's Misinterpretations I Shall now take a view also of his Interpretation of his Text which followes after his division of it which is this In this Text saies he which I call the doom of
solely his it was a common thought that William the Conquerour was an usurper and so were all his successors and therefore it was fit that this King should be called to answer for William the Conquerours sin of usurpation And to whom must he answer trow ye why even to the House of Commons for they alone are the only Parliament the representative body of the Kingdome whom the people choose as for the Nobility in the upper House they sit but as private men for their Baronyâ—s being called but only by the Kings Writ and not chosen by the votes of the People But did William the Conquerour usurpe the Crowne and Diademe of this Realme from the House of Commons that King Charles his lawfull successour must now answer the matter before them or resigne it unto them though 600. years possession might plead somewhat in a case of this nature yet if any New State-man or any of their Learned Ministry can but prove the House of Commons as now established to have so much as a bare being at that that time though but in Embrione for quietnesse sake the case may haply be argued with them and proved too that right by Conquest unlesse of Rebells is no usurpation But to the businesse in hand I know well that this impious and unreasonable conceit that the bloud shed in Queen Maries time is yet to be expiated and that all the sins of the Popish Clergy in former ages is Chargeable upon the heads of the Bishops in these times c. I know I say that this conceit is deeply grounded in the Hearts of many of our factious people Dr Layton in his Sions plea some sixteen years agoe laboured mightily to the working of it by enumerating up the faults of all the Popish Bishops that have been in England specially since the Conquest and speaks of them as if the present Bishops then alive were guilty of the same and deseâ—ved punishment for them and after him some foure years agoe the Smectymnists all men of M. Marshalls neare acquaintance did bestirre themselves to the same purpose their postscript at the end of their Book was written to no other end then to worke the same beliefe in people concerning our present Bishops they there doe Laytonize up many of the miscarriages of the Popish Bishops as if they were the faults of ours so endeavouring to imbitter peoples spirits against that Sacred Order and against all that Reverence either the men or the calling as against Antichristian men and maintainers of the same evills practiced by men of another Religion many Hundreds of years before they were borne But then comes William Pryn with his two volumnes and speaks over the same thing the third time with many more words though with as little Conscience and Honesty as the rest and he strikes the matter dead for by the mouth of three such witnesses the thing is so established that people should be worse then Infidells if they believe it not Now therefore it being so the Bishops must be pluckt up root and Branch and all that approve of them be they who they will must like welwillers to Babilon as they be be cast downe and rooted out with them what effusion of bloud soever it cost for 't is the Lords work against Babilon And therefore most zealously did a Neighbour of mine an Essex teacher too arguing with my self speake when he said at the begining of this Parliament that it was better that all the streets in England should run downe with bloud then that one Bishop or one Ceremony should still remaine But how impious and unreasonable these conceits be I hope I need not to men unblinded use means to discover How sencelesse is it that men should commit sin foure or five hundred years before they were borne or be guilty of the sins committed by others of another Religion so long agoe and deserve punishment for them though they have disclaimed them writ against them and every way opposed them How absurd is it that a calling should be sinfull or infectious save only in respect of sinâ—ull men executing the same If Hyerarchy be Antichrist or Monarchy or Superiority then Antichrist is in Heaven for there is both Hyerarchy Monarchy and Superiority surely therefore 't is sin and not Prelacy that makes men Antichristian But to come closer yet to the matter if the bloud shed in Queen Maries time must be expiated now with our bloud and because those that sâ—te in the Throne and the Nobles in those times did consent unto it therefore their successors now must partake in the suffering Yet let me start a Question How if the House of Commons in those daies were consenting to it as well as others what will become of those that succeed them in these times I confesse I have heard an Answer to this Objection out of certain notes taken from a Sermon Preached by Mr I.D. an Essex Minister too and it was this That the Body of the Kingdome which is the House of Commons did never consent to what was then done therefore they are free and are to require this blood at the hands of others perhaps he means they did not of themselves make an Ordinance for the doing or for the approving of it though peradventure they passed the Act or Bill as well as the King or House of Lords when first propounded else how could it have had the force of a Law But then let me aske farther how shall those on their side scape who are the Posterity of some notorious great persecutors of Gods Saints in Queen Maries time I hope they will not deny them to be their lawâ—ully begotten Children and derived from the same line and bloud whose names and lands they doe inherit unlesse their taking part with the present faction hath expiated their Grand-fathers Guilt without their sufferings I cannot see but their bloud ought to help in the expiation as well as ours And then farther yet how if some of the forefathers of us who must be Butchered were Martyrs in Queen Maries time and some of them that must murder us be the Children of those that murdered them as may well be suspected from their similitude of Spirit is it Iustice because their Fathers joyned with the Popish Bishops in those daies to destroy our Fathers therefore they may joyne with the House of Commons now to destroy us to say the Parliament judgeth so will not give sufficient satisfaction But in a word I returne my reply to that impious and unreasonable conceit in the words of the Lord written by Ezechiell Chap. 18.20 The soule that sinneth it shall dye the Son shall not beare the iniquity of the Father neither shall the Father beare the iniquity of the Sonne the righteousnesse of the righteous shall be upon him and the wickednesse of the wicked shall be upon him But perhaps M. Marshall and his faction will say that those whom they have destin'd to destruction are great sinners