and quietnesse then like an angry wind that layes bare the very ocean or like fire imprisoned I burst forth and spred my self with greater violence and could not give rest to my mind till a new war was kindled and all things for their destruction with a fresher resolution then before prepared against them How I bestirred by self both at the Counsell Table and privy Juncto to reproach all his Majesties Royall intentions of peace with his Subjects and that Pacification as dishonourable and fit to be broken yee can all beare mee record I controlled the judgement of the whole Kingdome and Parliament And though they found no just reason and emergencie for warre yet because I apprehended our Kingdome was like to make a fatall end and our Babel was trembling ready to tumble down about our eares and that there was no safety left but to build upon the ruines of their confusion Therefore in politick probability I thought it most fit to shake all and put all in divisions and disorders that so wee might work our owne safety and the redemption of Hierarchy from the publike reproach fishing in troubled waters Thus in my gracelesse fagacity I concluded it good counsell to bring both Kingdomes neerer to ruine that being made poore and passive they might be ruled with the more ease It is not unknown to you all how impudently and blasphemously I railed against that Covenant of Scotland which like a terrible Spear in the hand of the mighty has strickeÌ„ us through the very soul must triuÌ„ph through the world to the abolishing of that great Bishop if wee observe the indeniable finger of a Providence though it was most true that the same did containe nothing but the marrow of Religion was approved by Nationall Assemblies subscribed by his Majesties Commissioners by the Lords of his Majesties Counsell and by them commanded to be subscribed by all the Subjects of that Kingdome as a testimony of their duty to God the King Though the beautiful face of Religion which did shine there most gloriously and all these warrants in a morall way could have justified them and taught mee better manners yet I would break through all considerations and make good my mistake using that power whereof I was in possession to the effectuall embracements of my owne wishes As they used all means to approve themselves to God and Man and deliver unto their Posteritie the true Religion in her purity and majesty So I professe my study was to render them odious charging with unquestioned guilt these Subjects that endeavoured to gain his Majesties favour and were most faithfull to his Crown and dignity When the Parliament could not bee induced to discend into warre against a Nation maintaining their Religion and Liberties I did impede their procedings and stop their Resolutions as if they had met for no other purpose then to give up their Judgements to mee and evidence their devotion to my corrupt ends And not only did I advise the breaking up of that high and honourable Court of Parliament on which all the Eys of Europe were fastned and whence the reformed Churches expected refreshment but did like-ways sit still in the Convocation house making Canons and Constitutions Ordaining under all highest paines that hereafter the Clergy should preach foure times in the yeere such Doctrines as were contrary not only to the Scottish proceedings but to the Doctrines and proceedings of other Churches to the Judgement of all sound Divines and Politiques and tending to the utter slavery and ruining of all Estates and Kingdomes and to the dishonour of Kings and Monarchs Not content herewith I procured six Subsidies to be levied of the Clergie under pain of deprivation to al who should refuse for this great exigency and Holy war And as if all these had not been sufficient O hide your faces and blush for shame I caused frame and print a Prayer and sent through all the parishes of England to be said in time of divine Service against that Nation by the name of traiterous Subjects having cast off all obedience to their anointed Soveraigne and comming in a rebellious manner to invade England that shame might cover their faces as enemies to God and the King Here let horrour and wonder sease your soul and all Religion and Câ—dor be ashamed if these alas be the fruits of the spirit of truth and peace or the words of charity or the wayes of the Gospel God and the World will judge Many strange oaths I invented pressing them upon the paine of imprisonment and huge pecuniall mulets And in that sacred Synod as wee called it but God is not mocked was that love-lock of Antichrist forged that prodigious that bottomlesse and unlimited oath coined which was provided most prudently as bonds and chaines to ty the laity from invading our liberties which wee conceived to be powerfully fortified with our imperiors Canons as a Rampard So that if the wisdome of the State in the great counsell and supreame Senate of the Kingdome should think fit to alter any thing hereafter in the government of the Church we gloried in this as a Master-piece of providence to anticipate and forestall their judgement by making them sweare before hand to damnable heresies for why should I now dissemble That the government of Archbishops Bishops Deacons c. A strange mishap in Monster with a Dragons taile not sprung from Scripture is jure divino and that they should never give consent to any alteration This was a heavie yoke and strong fetters cast upon Christian liberty Yee all know what meanes wee used in that our Conclave to make all sure against the storme that threatned us for the motive of our meeting was not the peace and purity of the Church nay we threw oile in the flame nor the extirping of heresies for day after day they set up their abominable heads and came forth as Locusts out of the pit and establishing the truth in the power of doctrine and discipline but to assure our Episcopacie and exalt Hierarchie which was now fainting and languishing under the weight of so many reproaches ready to expire If we dare not for the illegality of these Canons appeare before that powerfull Sun-beame the Estates of Parliament which doth melt us like Snow and make us ashamed like Bats and Owls where shall we stand for their impietie in the great day of our reckoning These ô these be the trophees of my triumph these bee the garlands adorning my Mitre which are now desperatly blasted with the angriest thunder that ever fell upon an ambitious heaâ— which shall be likeways shortly turned to Cypresse at my unlamented funerals The black cloud of dishonour hangs over me and I am drowned in shame I am now the despised prey of the world the noysome spectacle of this age example of justice to all those who dare crucifie the harmlesse truth disgrace the beauty of the glorious light resist the graces of the Gospell
with so strong a Passion as if I had been sent into the world for no other purpose or as if the glory of God had been interessed the honor of the King wounded and all Religion had consisted in Episcopacy This I thought to effectuate two manner of wayes especially first by establishing my self at home in England in the power of Sole and universall Jurisdiction and that I might attain to be a Patriarch for which ye know I have not stuck to plead contentiously 2. By bringing the neighbour Nations of His Majesties Dominions but most particularly that Kingdom of Scotland to me so fatall under my verge and to the obedience of these novations and alternations wherein my Grandeur and this change did essentially consist With what excrbitancy of overdaring pride and what insolency I have swayed all in the Church of England How impudently I laid by the pastorall duty and a care to approve my self to the eternall and secular Powers how I have neglected all fear of Laws of censure and shame since I obtained the chair of Canterbury and begun my Antichristian raign imposing absolute Tyranny on the souls and wils of people shall the after-age be hardly induced to beleeve O bâ—t behold your poor Primitive mother the distressed Church of this Iland if you be the children concerned in her bleeding miseries and look how wofully she is torn how we have opened her tender sides pulled her Crown from her head and trode her under foot Nay she lyes breathlesses all covered with wounds with sores all defiled And those glorious twins Religion and Peace who loved to triumph here sweetly kissing each other spreading over us the beauty of their halcyonian dayes how have we alas so shreudly so undeservedly banished and given place to the unquiet furies of ugly error and bloudy warre so that whiles she lyes labouring like a disgraced Virgin under the throwes of her thick coming sorrows in all the corners of the land may it justly be complained Postquam interna furor discerpere viscera caepit Omnia membra labant soluto defecta vigore Tabescunt tota penitus compage soluta A capite ad calcem vestigia nulla salutis Quippe ubi cor languct vitalia cuncta laborant Quis miserae queat Ecclesiae memorare dolores Vulnera deflere lachrimis mala dicere verbis Nec mihi si centum linguae totidem ora sonarent Nec si Mconii Vatis torrente redundem Nec si mellâ—flâ—i contingat Musa Maronis Haec satis enumerem subsint aut verba volenti But now her cryes have peirced the Clouds and he that said he would come does come full of vengeance with phials of wrath in his hand to poure upon those who have so sore oppressed her I did voluntary forego her wo and Sacrificing to the lusts of my own minde I lul'd the world a sleep that the throne which I was building for the greatnesse of my name might rise more safely I had erected a kinde of Inquisition through the whole Land and none dared so much to look stern upon the face of Episcopacy though they had been most eminent in all the graces of the Spirit but presently behoved to be crushed I had so cunningly interlaced the Image of the Beast with His Majesties Pourtrait that none durst inveyagainst the one but presently behoved to injure the other thus caught within the compasse of Treason by a strange Divinity assuring the world that the Crown could not flourish on the Kings head without the Fellowship of a Miter All my pretentions were deeply guilded with the Beams of Authority which through Inadvertencie and fashion of Times I made Usher in such strangers as deflored the Church abused the State and dishonoured the whole Dominion When the seeds of Arminianisme Superstition and Popery by my Episcopall law more tendering the honour of Hierarchy then the Gospels integritie simplicity had been very Luxuriant and over-run the whole Vineyard I knew that as Rome was now filled with joy for the fair hopes of our return to her so was England and all the Churches reformed choakt with fear and sorrow For alas even as the Earth looks sad and sullen at the Sunnes departure and every Tree every flower puts forth a tear when he renews his comfort Why do not we conceive the lovers of the Spirit of truth must be dismayed wounded in heart and cloathed in sorrow when truth is banisht from out the face of the Earth Yet would I never make scruple out of zeal to that Spirituall Monarchy to tread down all those who were bold to speak against the calamities of Times iniquities of the Times and the injuiries done to the Gospel though we must all confesse the Spirit of Truth did powerfully dwell in them I suppressed them removed them and send them in banishment beyond Sea thereby depriving Church and Common-wealth of their Christian help both in Religion and Policy But my own Creatures willing Instruments to promote my Counsells and Projects were most solemnly advanced to the places in Church and State Thus We went on kept our correspondence and ordored our game by such a strange cunning and violence that there remains a black History for our deeds which will hardly meet with belief in other Churches By the whole Current of my carriage by my practises wayes motions and intelligence ye knew alas that I was about that great work of the Whore of Rome in such sort that some of the Pasquils of the time have Charactered me Her laborious Pander to make the possession of World Hers and derogate from the glory of the Gospel and honour of Kings O be ashamed for so miserably prostituting your selves and your souls to the domineering pride of my humor in fomenting my Popish intentions constantly followed by you as if we had joyntly conspired to the overthrow of Truth and Religion And because the Printers Presse did often speake the times and tell the world the mystery of my Episcopising therefore did I arrogate to my selfe the keys thereof and making the power of Printing depend on me did shut and open the same at my pleasure Neither durst any booke though never so richly embellisht with the treasures of piety and wisdome once appeare untill by a supercillious license my Canonicke Secretaries had first found it relish deeply of the Romish and Arminian poyson And as I was the rule of doctrine intending and remitting the qualities of Sermons as the conditions of times required So were many Pulpits prophaned with Heresies Revilings and Scurrilous reproches Nay wherein have I restrained my insolent and unbridled minde in the pursuit of my superstitious follies What Statute Civill or Ecclesiasticall cannot rise up against mee and argue guilty To shew how I have framed new Constitutions Ceremonies without number which infest the world daily more and more Canons and Articles and Oaths printed published and forced upon the people How wee have dared to grant Licenses and make presumptuous Dispensations
strange revolution and that the powers of heaven are shaken as if it had been mystically foretold in the 111 Psalme Verse 3. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 400 4 40 70 {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 6 400 100 4 90 6 {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 6 30 70 80 {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 200 4 5 6 {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 46. 5 {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 4 70 30 whose numerall Letters produce directly the strange yeere even the yeere 1640 wherein by the dread Covenant of Scotland most especially and ever since by the deportments of the children of peace and terrour the God of Truth seemed to make a vow against us This computation doth hold in English As in the Hebrew HIs Worke Is honoVrabLe anD gLorIoVs anD hIs rIghteoVsnesse enDVrech for eVer Which cannot be but strange and joyned with the consonancy of times abroad and at home and the congruity of spirits and humours of men might charge you with this sad acknowledgment and beget in you a curiosity to observe what God is doing We must indeed be forced to acknowledge from the sense of our losses from the daily decreasing of our glory and the advancements of our enemies since that great yeere 1640 which by after ages shall be observed as the times of Babylonish confusion That the Lord has beene with them wonderfully that wee have beene deserted in every particular and tumbling from a precipice day by day so that it were madnesse to thinke wee shall recover our game or attain to the tops of the Mountains from whence wee are falne This assistance and the very time of the beginning of this reformation is observed by the more curious to have been promised as it were and intimated in the 2 Chron. 15. 2. in these The LorD Is with yoV WhILe yee bee WIth hIM whose numerall letters fulfill the same yeer But howsoever those curiosities hold prophesies are no more mysteries when mysteries are unvailed and become Histories for we have found those times the beginnings of a revolution which tend to great and effectuall alterations which have given such a swing to the whole fabrick of our Kingdome that the ligatures thereof are shaken Nay though we should use all nature and art to cement the same it shall not avail it shall not prosper because the finger of God is against us Wee need not straine arguments afarre to bring this home to your indocile soules and possesse you with this assurance that there is a great work begun which shall be consummate with glory to the joy of the friends of the Gospell and utter confusion of the enemies of Peace and Truth and that in the Church of England likewayes there is certainly a Reformation to be looked for as in the Church of Scotland which has to the great emulation of the dis-heartned people here in this houre of hope promising to themselves a certain relief so restored Religion and Truth to their splendour and purity through the particular finger of God that this day it is the measure of the desires and the height of the wishes of all distressed Churches to be established in the comforts of such a Reformation as they now enjoy If the purpose of God by the condition of these times and this strange working be not manifested to you advise with Politike probability yee that are Jesuited Statists and behold how every thing strugles for our confusion The winds are let loose from all the corners of the earth and spread themselves furiously All mens affections decay almost and are loosed to the Leaders of that great cause for which we have poured out our souls but unprofitably as waters spilt on the ground For though to the gloriation of Papists which they have openly and insolently declared in print the face of our Church was changed and the language thereof altered yet now consider the temper of mens minds the strength of their wishes and power of their affection Nothing but universall detestation and aversenesse from us and our wayes nothing but an inclination well followed with the maturity of times to the contrary in all points For the people like a field of standing corne moved by a stiffe gale do all bow their heads one way or like a strong tyde chased by the winde do all make but one current There is likeways a certain quickning and agitation and expectation in the spirits of men to believe and hope for the beauty of Reformation and our utter removall according as they have been no question effectually praying and of late in an extraordinary manner reporting the comfort of a sure confidence Now tell me if yee conceive it possible that so great a work so eminently assisted by him who holds the ends of the world in his hands can be deserted but that it shall be crowned with the Copestone else they had losed their prayers and the strength of their wit by which wee confesse they prevaile for Hee that is the God of their Covenant marches on like a man of war and wil notstay till the Antichrist be puld down and his Enemies be made his footstool and the Jews and Gentiles call'd in Wee have seene the goings of God the King in the Sanctuary This is the day and the worke of the Lord terrible in our eyes wherein the Judgement of the great Whore that sits over many waters shall be shown Moreover the fautors and instruments of this great work have pâ—inted their truth and their actions with a Sun-beam and so strongly seized the judgements of the World that now every soule is warmed fill'd with wonder and rests sweetly convinced With us and our faction nothing but a benummed sullennesse and a profound silence We are all given over to the spirit of slumber Our pens are plagued with a lethargie Though your Prelacie be now lying gasping yet there is none almost that dare owne it not any to encounter those papers which come forth in Squadrons displaying the Banner of Truth to captivate every understanding and will to the obedience thereof Lay your hands on your mouth for we are not all able to restore that Monster to its wonted dignity and height of power nor fetch its pedigree from Heaven or shew how the same ought to bee welcommed in the World or can be usefull and expedient in a Christian Republike no we should fail though wee concentrat our wits and alambique our spirits There is one indeed who hath afflicted his understanding and wearied his pen in the defence thereof and now of late with a new assault tendred his Remonstrance to the Parliament humbly entreating the Honorable Court to let the poor miserable torn thing breath a while but alas thinke not that noble Senate to whose wisdome all Europe doe pay their tributary gazes will any longer nourish such Snakes keep Serpents in their bosome for it cannot be but they must resent
THE RECANTATION Of the Prelate of CANTERBURY Being his last Advice to his Brethren the Bishops of ENGLAND To consider his Fall observe the Times forsake their Wayes and to joyne in this good work of REFORMATION Remember that yee magnifie this great worke which men behold The Nations that knew not God shall rejoyce at it The noyse thereof shall go to the ends of the world Psal. London Printed 1641. To his ever much esteemed and most deserving Friend the Authour of this Palinodia WHilst thou un-mytr'st Prelats lo we bow To gather gracious Garlands for thy brow And 'cause thou wound'st them with so sweet a grace They cannot grudge but smiling on thy face Must humbly kisse the Rod So make thy way Through glories aire untill the vulgar eie Forget thee and aethereall thou appeare Vnto the sons of wisdome like a cleere And select Star which cannot deigne to bow And court the empty vapours here below P. A. Palinodia Cantuariensis THough the wicked hath settled his habitation with the Eagle among the Starres and say in his minde I shall not be changed I shall not taste of affliction neither shall the dayes of Adversity lay hold on me yet there is an appointed time for all things And the Almighty who hath disposed the whole world and hath charge over the Earth will not pervert Judgement His Eyes are upon the wayes of Man He seeth all his goings There is no darknesse nor shaddow of Death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves but in end the fulnesse of destruction will come upon them as the wide breaking in of Waters Terrors will persue their souls as the Winde and their welfair shall passe away as a Cloud To these great Verities do I now humble my self and in the sense of that convincing power my reverend Brethren who should be to your times the Beauty of Integrity that shakes my minde as an Earthquake do I pronounce the children of Wisedome blessed and that no State is so good so sure so happy as the State of a good conscience But alas the immoderate desire of a foolish glory and the passion to raise my condition to an height as unlawfull as unbeseeming and the want of an humble affection to truth and hatred of error hath now produced me an example to after ages and a beaken to preserve you from Ship wrack since therefore my angry Starres will that I forfeit my reputation to shame and my life tâ— Justice Suffer me ye that have had a Communion of Fortune with me and on whom the door of Favour is not yet altogether shat Suffer me to pour further my Soul in the bosome of your compassion Resigne all your tears to me that I may weep for this day this day of indignation which hath swallowed me up as a prey and wherein destruction hath come upon me like an armed man Receive these my words my last words I bequeath to you the Counsels of Truth which if ye treasure up in your minde will be a Cordiall to make you live and not die for now I am upon the borders of Time The Vail is removed and I must enter Eternity T is no more time to dally with the Gospell and the World Ye have been my Fellow-Labourers in a strange Work which we must now confesse is not of God and therfore wonder not if it tumble down We have miserably prostituted our souls to the Imagination of a Miter whose Glory cannot save us in the day of shame And all our endeavours have been to erect an Hierarchy upon the Ruines of Religion and Common-wealths O consider this ye that figure to your self a happinesse where there is none and look what pleasure I have of those things whereof I am now ashamed No nothing but the comfortlesse stings of a restlesse remembrance of by gone unanswerable deeds wâ—â— I speak with horror and professe with a bleeding heart I have embraced that Shaddow which ye so hotly court I have been lift up to the Pinacle of the Temple whereat ye so zealously aspire and was gazed upon as a Starre which gave life and motion to you all I have trode these same paths wherein ye contend and liberally tasted these empty pleasures of preferments And of all my labours have reaped nothing but hatred and ruine to my self misery and reproach to the Church And it is in vain to put the day of evill and Justice far from me for it He that lately did swim in his Princes smiles on vvhom Nature had bestowed her great abilities with a liberall hand and Fortune had bountifully opened her Brest could finde no eloquence to be with the sword of Justice nor to mollifie the cruelty of the times but behoved to drink the unavoidable Cup presented to him What can I expect when the Appetite of revenge is set on edge And if Wrath has so easily travelled over Mountains how shall it not strike flat the Molehils If the angry thunder made the noble Cedars shrink how shall not the silly shrubs lately crept from the mud of the Valleys be drowned in their Primitive basenesse I will not harbour the least hopes of escape or think that my Surplice stained with the adulterous spots of the great whore can plead favour when the purple richly dy'd with the rayes of His Majesties Countenance could not meet with pardon Though I have hitherto deckt my self with a kinde of Majesty and Grace in my Prelaticall pride arrayed with Splendor and taught the gazing times to hide my faults giving my Plots good Fortune yet behold an ungratious light sudden as a Tempest at Sea hath discovered my nakednesse and publisht my shame I am vile and abased trode down and hid in the dust Judgement and Justice take hold on me and cast abroad the rage of their wrath which will certainly extend their terrours to you and grinde you to powder if ye forsake not these wayes whose going down are to the chambers of death And therefore while my Oyl is yet lasting and my Taper weakly burning I will disclose the true causes of this great misery and help you with an upright confession of my wayes as a Sacrifice for my self if it were possible to expiat the stain of my dishonour and appease the Worlds displeasure Universall as the Sunne-Beams and hot consuming flames and a Testimony against you O children of defection in the day of your accompt That I might appear a great Church-man of vast desires and designes being radically resolved to set up a Tyrannicall Power in the Persons of Prelates over the worship of God over the consciences liberties and goods of the People It cannot be denyed but I have negotiated most eagerly and strained all Possibilities and Stratagems of State to erect an Hierarchy forgetting the directions of the Gospel and the bonds of Monarchy and the cryes of the oppressed leaving nothing undone to promote my intentions and atchieve my ends to which I had emancipated all thepowers of my mind
nay though the times we sie Were bleeding forth their soul yet durst not cry Thou pick'st the Diamonds from the Diademe T' adorn the Mitre and t' exalt the name Of Prelacy'bove power Secular Which shines beside your Moon but like a Star Dread Prelat Lambethan thou shalt be known Where ere the Roman Eagle yet has flown Nor Becket Wolsey nor the hot-braind Crew Who did the harmlesse Truth so sore pursue Gregorian Kalendar have beautified So nobly as thou in Rubricks deified 'T is true enraged times may sacrifice Thee for thy zeale laugh forth thine Elegies And make thee a Proverb yet the Lady of lands Which doth embrace the World amazed stands And weeps thy losse the Consistoriall train His Holinesse himself do much complain And sweare th' have loos'd th' Arch-feather of their wings By which they used to soare above the Kings Therefore about each Altar shall they Bayes Throng most solemnly incense of thy prayse Shall stream through every grieved Cathedrall While all the bels tole forth thy funerall Thus am I tossed and made the scorne of time they hold it good service to the present age and posterity to limne me in an hideous hue and contend whose pen shal be most pungent and victorious in the Pasquill These same Palmes are springing and ripening for you if yee continue to incense the impetuous people now in a dangerous agitation which though oftentimes undistinguishing yet nothing mistaken in me I desire therefore to entreat you and conjure you all in the power of passion to be no more heires of my institutions and designes but rather be astonished putting on wonder and pitie for I must tell you some think that Prophesie thirteene Revel. at the last about the beast comming out of the earth which spoke as a Dragon even now to be fulfilled and the mystery thereof revealed in my name the numerall letters whereof being thus written WILL LAVD make directly the number of the Beast I am the Beast count it that can This is the number I am the Man If this cōmentary be not accurate yet sure the envy is exact which should beget remorse and feare in mee and wisdome in you for it will not forbear you when your cup shall be full O the revolution of times o the hopes of man How happy is hee who is prepared for all the turnings of the World I must be shortly dissolved brethren and have faithfully as becomes one in the last Article of his tim◠cast open to you the inner cabinet of my heart where you may see the very fountain and root of all my woes and learn to correct the perversnes of your own souls come out of Babell as you would flie from a falling Towre Let my words be precious to you my condition terrible and this my lamentation which I have Bathed in dearest teares of bitter grief That ever sought to language for relief Unmaske your eyes and reclaime you from that spirituall adultery whereby yee have so grievously prophaned the chastity of Religion and given offence to the Reformed Churches O with what exact humility would I cast my self in the bosome of that truth which I have wounded if I thought my return would be gracious to the World I know of what spirit yee be and in the days of my labour did swell with that happinesse which yee all promise to your selves But take knowledge from me who has bought it at so deare a rate and assure your selves that the hopes of the Righteous shal be gladnes when the expectation of the wicked shall perish Truth must triumph What shall I doe to enforce this great Resolution which concernes you as the life of your souls Even to quit that your darling which you have hug'd so dearly To lay by your Rochets renounce your Episcopacie which has ever been the very root of all these Ceremonies which this day doe infest the world have of old produced the mystery of iniquity Once begin to entertain this thought that you are fighting against the heavens and forsake those things which do so evidently soment the combustions of the Christian world How many Rites and Orders and Ceremonies and Comick follies novations which are not confined to number but still springing up after the vanity of the imagination of the heart of man doe attend that Antichristian Prelacie as the tail of the Comet doth follow the imperfect mistion of the evanishing body which must all be drowned in the clouds of shame when the Sun comes forth in Majesty like a valiant Champion to chase ungracious darknesse from the face of heaven and earth O be ashamed for all that is deare to you in heaven or in earth be ashamed for the peace of your minde for the worlds reputation and the welfare of your deare Primitive Mother the Church be ashamed of these Lordly dignities that abhorred preheminence No wonder wee have so long troubled the calme of Church and Common-wealth because being lift up to the unnaturall places of preferment we are out of our Element and so cannot give rest to our selves nor the world 'T is no time to stand out any more multitude of days may teach you wisdome God is thundring from above and in a veine of working miracles The mystery of inquity is now perfectly revealed and the world begins to be weary of that tyranny and Iron rod which so cruelly has bruised the powers of the earth and twiched with repentance shall shortly swell with the spirit of revenge Joyne therefore cheerfully hand in hand to this Reformation Behold the voice of the Turtle is heard in the Land Night is gone the day is come even the day of his power the beauty of his holinesse for now hee will make knowne the strength of his Kingdome and his Subjects shall bee multiplied as the dew from the wombe of the morning Can yee restraine the influence of his will Or make his eternall purpose of no effect O remember that yee magnifie this great worke which men behold The Nations that knew no God shall rejoyce at it The noyse thereof shall goe to the ends of the World Enquire of the dayes of old and aske the Generations past since this Island was blessed with the prerogative of the Gospell whereat the rest of the World may stand jealous and amazed if ever the Revelation of the Glory of God was working more powerfully Nay certainly it must be confessed if wee believe the Scriptures that as the great Bishop of Bishops That Man of Sin that has so long deluded the Kings of the Earth making them worship vain imaginations must be swept out of the Church and be destroyed So now even now the disenchanted World thrusts at his very soule through our sides And those who are more inward with the Spirit of discerning and observe the advancing of the Prophesies and long after the riches of the Gospell to be powred forth upon the fulnesse of Nations have joyfully found in these times a very
their smarts and think wee have sting'd them with a dangerous poyson which has mortally defiled all the veines of the Politicke and Ecclesiasticke body How ready mans corruption is to any thing which can give warrant or coloured pretence to his ambition may well appeare by his livelesse Apologie wherein his Arguments are not so much Christian as wrested from Antiquity Yet yee that are the Fathers of the Church might well know it was not so from the beginning Truth did precede erroar and drive the point home to the Source it shall be cleere Antiquity is no patrociny for errour and prescription no prejudice to Truth his reasons doe as much befriend the Romish Hierarchy as militate for the English Episcopacie and much more easie it is to answer them then to find them out But I pray you why doe not we follow the safest way most free of Ceremonies and offences Which among us can reproach all this while the Government of the Scottish Church And dare wee deny but it is most agreeable to the simplicity of the Gospell And a surer Rampard against the prevalencie of Herefies whether of the governments their Presbyteriall or our splendide and magnifick Orders are more coÌ„sonant to the Apostolike Primitive and least approaching to the Romish What Office-bearers among them which ye find not in the Scriptures Or any preheminence and relation of a Minister to a Minister being both of one degree Nay give over the game which must be lost yee know if the Antichrist must fall that we can hardly stand If the Ocean be dryed up whence shall the Rivers come It cannot be denied but'wee have moved swiftly and boldly And to say wee have nothing advanced to Rome forsaken the cleer waters of the Gospell evaporated and dispirited the powers of Religion it were an impudence beyond wonder which all the Reformed Churches would cast back on our faces with shame Nay wee have dethroned Truth and builded Altars to Errour and Superstition chasing Christ out of the Church and making an holy place for Antichrist from Kings likewayes have we wrested Authority torn the Crowne and adorned the Mitre in such sort that the God of all the World may well say We have reigned but not by him Wee have made our selves Princes but hee knew it not If it be not so what then means the lowing of the Oxen and the bleating of the Sheep Whence the huge number of Ceremonies The continuall encrease of Novations The authorizing of Idâ—lâ—â—â—â— by Church Canons Whence the communion of words and practices with Romanists For it is very unbeseeming the people of God to symbolize with Idolaters and the Enemies of God whether in their manner of worship or government where there is no necessity The Jews would not speak though it were but half the speech of Ashod And when the world crys out against us charging our profession with these great dishonours done to the Name of God wee have no other hole to creep in nor any better answer to return then the Papists have for avoiding the stain of that abomination which this day cuts the hearts of the Jews and Reformed Churches Now to think that the Truth shall ever be born downe and not once set up his victorious head Nay in this same Article of Time wherein it has received such strength and power and Majesty and hath dispersed the clouds which wee of a long while have been diligently assembling were egregiously to be infatuate and if yee continue to let these hopes smile upon you ye are certainly finally demented and fitted to perdition examples and fore-runners of that great wrath appointed for those who had their eyes upon our returns and expected the propagation of their Kingdome from us But if all other things should hold their peace ye that are witnesses to this great reformation and upon whom these happy dayes have falne hear how this late Covenant doth cry aloud even this great Covenant sworne and sealed so solemnly Do not yee see how they hold out their arms to embrace it and think they have found a Sovereigne balme for all the wounds in Church State if happily applyed Have they not hereby as it were taken the Sacrament for our destruction What lesse things can bee expected then from the Covenant of Scotland which as it hath filled the earth with the noise thereof and made the Altars of Rome to tremble for fear so now likewayes has proved a dangerous precedent and a strange leading case for our compleat raine Of what strange productions can this be the fore-runner Are all these motions these solemnities of new resolutions to which the people have so willingly espoused themselves to no purpose Can all this be for the upholding of our Kingdome Or do not yee rather perceive a streaming Banner displayed against you Have not they combined themselves with immovable thoughts to extirpate all unnecessary follies and novations which are the very soul of our glory and the beams of our splendour Have they not cut our haires wherein our strength does lie made us bald and discovered our shame and who may not invade us securely No no do not disdain these great appearances from the root of this Covenant shall spring a Tree whose top shall reach the Heaven and under the branches thereof shall the Nations of the earth hide themselves it shal increase and flourish as the goodly Cedars of Lebanon but our contemptible plant which the heavenly Father hath not planted shall be pulled up and die Tell me yee that can discern the face of the weather and pretend to know the times and seasons doth not every day looke more blacke and ugly What kindnesse have wee found of God or what conquest of friends have wee made amongst men since the times began to be shaken Doth not every day pull a feather from our wings by which wee used to worke so high till the vapours of the earth could not reach us Quae nos dementia coepit to think we shall ever recover of these wounds already inflicted since the arrows are daily multiplyed and fall on us in showres from all hands Wee have strained our moyen at the Courts of Princes but they be now justly wearied of us And hee is reputed neither good Christian nor understanding Countrey-man neither pious nor politike that dare open his mouth for us And if wee shall lift up our eyes to Heaven behold Wee cannot say there be more for us then against us Wee can meet with no consolation but a devouring sword drawne against the children of Pride What Giant plots we have set afoot and how inseasonably they are discovered to our eternall shame it is now spred like the Suns light And though hitherto there were some hopes left yet now they are all blasted and wee begin to stink in the eyes of our bosome friends Our purposes are unvailed our intentions blacke as darknesse are now made known and howbeit wee could have joyed before