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war_n	death_n	king_n	treason_n	2,761	5	9.5559	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40040	The history of the wicked plots and conspiracies of our pretended saints representing the beginning, constitution, and designs of the Jesuite : with the conspiracies, rebellions, schisms, hypocrisie, perjury, sacriledge, seditions, and vilefying humour of some Presbyterians, proved by a series of authentick examples, as they have been acted in Great Brittain, from the beginning of that faction to this time / by Henry Foulis ...	Foulis, Henry, ca. 1635-1669.	1662 (1662)	Wing F1642; ESTC R4811	275,767	264

Long-Parliament I. Whether or no if the King and two Estates can extirpate the third then the King Lords Spiritual and Temporal cannot turn out the Commons as well as the King Lords Temporal and Commons exclude the Bishops II. Whether or no when the King and two Estates have turn'd out the third the King with another Estate cannot also turn out the second And lastly when only the King and one Estate remains the King as Supream cannot seclude that also III. And if these things will bear a good Consequence Whether the Presbyterians whose chiefest confidence was in the Long-Parliament but esecially the Commons have not brought their Hoggs to a fair Market But these People did not only overthrow Episcopacy but struck also at the root of Monarchy it self by their pleadings against the King's Supremacy making themselves not only equal to but above him And this not only when assembled in Parliament but when they are so far from having any Authority there there being no such thing then sitting that they are separately so many private Subjects obliged only to follow their own occasions for in this capacity I suppose they make themselves when they alledge for a Rule Rex est major singules minor Vniversis considering they place this in their Remonstrance as distinct from Parliaments But how weak this Position is let Parliaments themselves be our Judges And I do not love to reason against Authentick Records When God tells us expresly that Whoredom is a grievous sin 't was blasphemy in John de Casa to write in the vindication of Sodomy When Ignatius Irenaeus and other ancient and authentick Authors assure us that Presbytery was subordinate to Episcopacy in the first Century 't is folly in our late Schismaticks to dream of or introduce a Parity When Parliaments acknowledge themselves Subjects to his Majesty for any to conclude thence their Supremacy are in my judgement no less guilty of ignorance than that simpleton of Athens who fancied all the ships and other things to be his when he had no more interest in them then I have relation to the Crown of Castile The Lords and Commons tell us plainly what little signs they have of Superiority in these words Where by divers sundry old authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and exprest that this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the World governed by one Supream Head and King having the Dignity and Royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the same unto whom a Body Politick compact of all sorts and degrees of people and divided in tearms and by names of Spiritualty and Temporally been bounden and ought to bear next to God a natural and humble obedience c. And in many other Statutes do they acknowledge themselves the King 's most humble faithful and obedient Subjects But more especially in those two of Supremacy and Allegiance in which they acknowledge the King the Supream under God both of Civil and Ecclesiastical affairs and so swear Allegiance to him each Parliament-man before he sit taking both the Oaths as all other Subjects do Whereby they clearly renounce not only Priority but Parity by which all their Cavils bring nothing upon themselves but Perjury Against this Supremacy of our Kings though it be under God and Christ John Calvin rants in his usual hot-spurr'd zeal calling them Blasphemers and Fools who durst first presume to give such a title to a King And in obedience to this Supream Head of Geneva and Presbytery doth his dear Subject and Disciple Anthony Gilby and others of that Fraternity shoot their Wild-fire against the same Statutes of England by which they shew their Schism and Madness more than Christian Prudence Besides all this our Laws make it Treason to compass or imagin the death of the King Queen or his eldest Son to leavy Warr against the King or any way adhere to or assist his Enemies But for any to commit Treason against the Parliament especially for those who have the King on their side I see little reason because I have express Law to the contrary which tells us that any one who shall attend upon the King in his Wars and for his Defence shall in no ways be convict or attaint of High Treason ne of other offences for that cause by Act of Parliament or otherwayes by any process of Law whereby he or any of them shall loose or forfeit Life Lands Tenements Rents Possessions Hereditaments Goods Chattels or any other things but to be for that deed and service utterly discharged of any vexation trouble or loss And if any Act or Acts or other process of the Law here after thereupon for the same happen to be made contrary to this Ordinance that then that Act or Acts or other process of the Law whatsoever they shall be stand and be utterly void How this Act hath been since violated Compounders Sequestrators and Decimators will best inform you And what a pitiful ridiculous and extorted Comment the Noddles of the Long-Parliament made upon this Act may be seen in their Declarations by which you may view both their ignorance and their malice These are Presidents enough to satisfie any man in the Parliaments subjection to the King it being in his power to constitute them not they him in him being the only Authority to call and dissolve them not any such being in themselves He can pardon Malefactors not they without his consent The death of the King dissolves the Parliament though their breaking up reflects nothing upon him He can call them where he pleaseth but they not remove his Court They Petition him by way of Subjects not he them The King of England can do no wrong and never dyeth being alwayes of full age the breath of the former being no sooner expired but the next Heir is de facto King without the Ceremony of Proclamation or Coronation And whether a Parliament can do no wrong or no I leave to many men now in England to judge The Kings power hath been such that he hath call'd a Parliament with what limitations he pleas'd as King Henry the fourth's Parliament at Coventry in which no Lawyer was to sit And whether too many Lawyers in a Parliament doth more good or bad hath been oft discours'd of in late times And 't is the King hath the power of the Sword not the Parliament as their own Laws tell us for in the year 1271. Octob. 30. We find this Statute To us i. e. the King it belongeth and our part is through our Royal Seignory straitly to defend i. e. to prohibit or stop force of Armour and all other force against our Peace at all times when it shall please us and to punish them who shall do contrary according to the Laws and Usages of our Realm And hereunto they are bound to aid us as their Soveraign Lord at all seasons when need shall be And the meaning

leaving the Government of all to the Lords of his Parliament Which impudence of theirs hurryed them on so farre that they never left fighting till their King was murder'd but how uncertain Thus are the best men violently opposed by the wicked though the vertue and patience of the former might in reason mollifie the latter to obedience How wishedly will some pitty the case of Argalus and Parthenia the patience of Gryseld in Chaucer the misery and troublesome adventures of the Phanatick Lovers in Cleopatra Cassandra Amadis de Gaul Sidney and such like Yet all these as meer Romantick as Rablaise his Garagantua And yet with an unmoved apprehension can peruse the lamentable murder of Edward the Second of England and James the first and Milcolumb the first of Scotland the cutting off the head of good King Alpinus the poisoning of Fergusius the third by his own Queen and her stabbing her self the strangling of Malvinus by his own Queen and the throat-cutting of King Fethelmachus by a Fidler and besides these the martyrdome of old Queen Ketaban in Persia The stabbing of Henry the fourth in France The sacrilegious poisoning of the Emp. Henry the seventh in Italy The miserable death of Mauricius the Emp. with his Wife and five Children by the wicked Phocas And can read the fatall stories recorded by Boccace with lesse grief then the deplorable narrative of Arnalte's love to Lucenda And the patience of the good King Henry the sixth who being grievously struck by a murthering Varlet only made this Reply Forsooth and forsooth being his words for most earnest expression never using an oath ye do fouly to smite a King anointed so May be farre out-rivall'd by some with the misfortunes and hardship of some inchaunted Lover in Ariosto Parismus the two Palmerins or Mirrour of Knighthood And for the horrid murther of his late Majesty experience tells us that many have been so farre from contracting grief that they have so much triumphantly rejoiced at it that they have thought an action of so much wickednesse to have been honourable to them and their posterity for ever Thus have we come short to our Ancestors in fidelity and Loyalty by studying all occasions to rebell against our King They rather then undergo the ignominions title of Nithing i. e. a knave or a night-filcher swarme to the Service of their King we on the contrary rather then not be branded with the wicked name of a Traytor will court all occasions by our Rebellion to make our selves meritorious to a pair of Gallows And so to conclude this assertion I shall tell you that the Parliament wanted all the qualifications to make a warre really espousable No warre being lawful unlesse it be commanded by the Supream Authority the which the Parliament was not but the King if the Laws of our Land be an authentick Standerd And secondly the occasion of the Warre must be just which was wanting on the Parliaments side all their specious pretences being false and ridiculons their reasons suggested to the people to beget a Warre being to as small purpose as the Duke of Burgundy to quarrell for a cart-load of Sheep-skins or the two Brethren neer Padua about the disposal of the Starrs and Firmament And suppose their jealousies had been true yet it was Treason in them to warre against the Supream Authority the King according to the Laws of our Land and damnable according to the word of God Let Buchanan and such as he by supposing the Apostles and the Spirit to deal with us like Hypocrites evince to the contrary For if the Apostle Paul commandeth the Christians to be obedient to their Heathen and Tyrannical Kings who made it their sport to persecute Christians and that for Conscience-sake telling them that their power was of God certainly we are bound to obey a Christian Prince whose authority can be no lesse If we perceive our selves grieved resist we cannot but by Prayers and Obedience To which purpose the ancient Chaucer instructs us who certainly in this sung according to the rule of his time and therein neither false Law nor Gospel Lordes hestes may not be fayned They may wel be wayled and complained But men must nedes unto her lustre obey And so wol I there nis no more to sey The primitive Christians when collected into great Armies were honoured for their obedience never rebelling against but fighting or quietly living under their Heathen Kings as Tertullian will satisfie more at large But now we are so farre from being peaceable in a Christian Government that if occasion of rebellion cannot handsomly be pluckt by the fore-top yet we can create reason to our selves though upon a serious reflection we acknowledge such endeavours to be unjust Thus the Army when in obedience to the Parliament it had conquer'd and ruin'd the King and Kingdome and by the assistance of the sword and Satan had made themselves Lords and Masters over their Betters then I say when they were at the top of their prosperity they do seriously professe that the Parliament did justifie many extraordinary strange and doubtlesse in respect of the letter of the Law very illegal actions viz. Their taking up Armes raising and forming Armies against the King fighting against his person imprisoning impeaching arraigning trying and executing him cutting off his Head banishing his Children abolishing Bishops Deans and Chapters took away Kingly Government and the House of Lords broke the Crowns sold the Jewels Plate Goods Houses and Lands belonging unto the Kings of this Nation erected extraordinary High Courts of Justice and therein impeached arraigned condemned and executed many notorious enemies to the publick peace when the Laws in being and the ordinary Courts of Justice could not reach them These were strange and unknown practises in this Nation and not at all justifiable as is conceived by any known Laws and Statutes Thus have you the judgment of a ruling Army against their Masters and themselves though this their repentance was but to vindicate another infidelity But here after all this it may be objected that though some factious spirits of the Parliament have been too incroaching upon the King and the chief Incendiaries of these Warres yet why should I lay all this upon the Presbyterian account To which there needs no tedious reply if we do but consider that these factious people were all Non-conformists from whom if examples may be held for proofs as Schismaticks a self-conceited giddy hot-headed zeal and by consequence Rebellion is as inseparable as pride from Menecrates or Children when gallanted up in new cloathes For my part I am apt to believe that the Bloud of many thousand Christians shed in these warrs and before cryeth loud against Presbytery as the people only guilty of the first occasion of quarrel And that they have been the chief occasion of other slaughters may be credited not only from forraign stories but the authentick judgment of the ever great

might be said as Platina said of the same Pope Thus expired these Bonte-feus who rather endeavour'd to make themselves a terror to Kings Magistrates then study the increase and propagation of true Religion However if after all this we should grant though I see small reason for so doing that the Presbyterians did contribute something to his Majestie 's restauration yet will the credit if rightly considered be so little that they have aboundance of confidence who can boast of it It being done supposing that they were assisters rather for their own ends then any real love which they bore towards his Majesty And what will not these men do for their own advantage We need not tell here of some Patrons of that Faction who first subscribed to Episcopacy then took the Covenant against it then took the Engagement against Kingship and since have embraced both King and Episcopal Government And certainly most ignorant must that man be who supposeth that those who thus vary do it really by perswasion of the excellent goodness of that thing they then engage for rather then a time-serving humour for a private benefit And what little thanks much lesse reward the Puritans merit by their assistance supposing that they were advantagious may be hinted at by these following parallel stories At that famous Siege of Ostend a Frenchman by disobeying his Serjeant caus'd a Tumult for which he was condemned by a Councel of War to be Shot to Death Yet at the intercession of the French Captain that renowned General Sir Francis Vere granted him life upon condition he asked the Serjeant forgiveness This he scorned however had eight days allow'd him to consider at the end of which he seeming still obstinate was Ordered to Execution and accordingly was tyed to a Stake But no sooner did the Monsieur see the Harquebusiers ready to discharge but the fear of death falling upon him he desired to be unbound and so asked the Serjeant forgiveness Our Brittish Presbyterians by disobedience to their King caused a most wicked war to the ruin of many Noble families and the King himself The merciful King for the preservation of his Subjects bloud sent to the Malefactors Post after Post a full pardon provided there might be a sure peace and a perfect Amnesty To these propositions they scorn to hearken and by their Covenant swear to ruin all the King's friends and in this manner being confident in their own strength they run on in obstinacy and in this stubborn fashion did they continue many years thinking themselves secure But at last to their amazement they beheld the Independent ready to cut their throats this fear of a sudden destruction brought such a terrour upon these zealots that they were even at their wits ends they look round about for relief cast out many a sigh to obtain favour but they perceive no safety unless they would acknowledge themselves Subjects to their King This they thought a hard lesson and contradictory to their Christian Liberty but taking it for a good rule that of two Evils the lesse is to be chosen they with a low voyce not willing to be heard mumble out that Charles II. is their King and so through his Majesties mercy were relieved from their bondage though innocent souls they scorned to ask pardon for their former villanies in which they came short of the French mans ingenuity But to bring the Simile somewhat more pat in respect of the relation betwixt a Soveraign and a Subject Above 300. years past the Danes banished their King Christophorus II. and Imprisoned his eldest son Eric in the strong Castle of Hadersleben in the Dukedome of Schleswick These dissentions having weakened the Nation those of Holstein endeavour'd to get Denmark under their subjection which the Danes perceiving were glad to re-call their King and set free his Son This story will unfold it self in the application of the following Narrative which is exactly to the business and hath formerly been used by an Ingenious Gentleman in a speech at Nottngham though in the relating I shall not only somewhat differ from him but also inlarge my self out of the Chronicles themselves James I. King of Scotland when but Prince and young going into France was taken Prisoner by the English 7. Henry IV. 1406. where he was detain'd some 18. years In the mean time the Government of Scotland was usurped by Robert Steward Duke of Albany and Earl of Fyfe after whose death his Son Mordack or Murdo got the command never endeavouring the resettlement of his King but lorded it over the Nation wasting and alientating the King's Revenue and the Churches Patrimony turning all things upside down according to his Tyrannical humour In the mean while Mordac had three sons Walter Alexander and James though André de Chesne through brevity taketh no notice of the latter who grew very unruly and imperious obedient to no laws but their own wills presumptiously destroying what their Father most delighted in to his great grief and discontent And not being able to endure their sawciness he resolved to free himself from their Tyrannical yoak to which purpose he told his eldest son Walter who had just then snatch'd a Faulcon from his fathers hand and wrong off her neck that since he would not be obedient to his government and pleasure he would procure one who should rule them both After which time all his Counsels were for the restauration of King James resolving rather to be a Subject to a lawful King then a slave to his own Children For which purpose he gets a Parliament call'd at Saint Johnstown where all being weary of the present Government and Tyranny it was unanimously concluded to send for their own King home again which accordingly was done 1424. and he presently restoreth both the Crown and Church Revenues And in a Parliament held at Sterling Mordacus with his two sons were condemn'd as Traytors and beheaded his youngest son flying into Ireland where he dyed The Application of this Story is obvious Our present King when also but a young Prince by the malignancy of self-ended Traytors being secluded from his own for the space also of eighteen years The Government of the Nation was seised upon by the furious Presbyterians who Tyrannize to the purpose over the distracted Country getting the King's Lands selling his Woods loading the Nation with Excise and Taxes ruining the Church imprisoning and murthering the Bishops and others of the Chief Gentry whose estates they also put into their pockets imposing wicked oaths upon the people vilifying their King murthering his Subjects and in a word violating all Laws After this fashion did old Father Presbytery Tyrannize for some years But at last Independency Anabaptism and the Fifth-Monarchy-men the three ungracious sons of Presbytery began to perk up grow headstrong and so malepert as to contemn scorn and deride their Father spitting in his face and throwing all reproaches they could upon him

himself loyal and rational be judge And truly what itching ears for Innovation and against Regal Authority some of the forraign Presbyters have is something palpable from the Letter of Gisbertus Voetius wherein he doth not only commend Prynne's Soveraign Power of Parliaments but saith that it ought to be translated into Latin and French for the benefit of the Reformed Divines and Politicians And Prynne himself tells us that it is translated into several Languages And what Pleas they may suck out of such Books against Monarchy cannot be ignorant to those who have seen what mischief the counterfeit Name of Junius Brutus a fit name for such a murtherous mind though the true Authour is supposed to be Beza and that printed in divers Languages hath laid open to those who are willing to perpetrate wickedness And how consentaneous to the Doctrines laid down in these Pamphlets their actions have been their often Rebellions in France but more especially in the dayes of Lewis the 13 th will shew us whom though he had pardoned several times yet would they never keep Articles but upon every advantage fly to their Arms again looking upon Regal Authority only as a Bug-bear to afright Children hoping in time by dwindling it to nothing to raise themselves to Superiority And how many men by these false Positions may be drawn to Schism and Rebellion is manifest from this one Example In King James his time one Knight a young Divine Preach'd at St. Peters in Oxford and in his Sermon maintain'd the Presbyterian Doctrines above specified for which being call'd in question he laid the fault upon some late Divines in forraign Churches who had misguided him in that point especially on David Paraeus who had asserted these Doctrines upon which his Comment on the Romans was publickly and solemnly burnt at Oxford 1622. June 6 th Cambridge and St. Paul's Cross in London The famous University of Oxford in a full Convocation concluding 25. June 1622. That such assertions were contrary to Scripture Councils Fathers the Faith and Profession of the Primitive Church and Monarchy it self and therefore condemned them as false wicked and seditious And did also affirm That according to the Scriptures it is not lawful for Subjects upon any terms to resist their King or Prince no not to take up Arms against him either for Religion or any other account whatsoever And for more sureness they did also Decree that every one before he took a Degree should swear to this The Opinion delivered in the sentence of these two famous Universities I shall value more than of an Assembly or Classis made up of all the Presbyterians in the World The consideration of these Disciplinarian Maximes I believe did make our ingenious Satyrist cry out Our Zeal-drunk-Presbyters cry down All Law of Kings and God but what 's their own If you desire to see any more of their wild and extravagant Principles you may consult Archbishop Bancroft's Industrious Book a piece that I am sorry is so scarse as it is and that for want of Re-printing while Calvert's shop dayly labours with the multitude of Fanatick Pamphlets and such Books as Smectymnuus must be printed and printed again and that with the addition of a long Preface by a great Time-serving Divine CHAP. VII The Rebellious Actions of the Presbyterians in Scotland till the Death of King James HOw agreeable the practise of the Brethren have been to these Treasonable Notions afore specified shall here in brief be laid down by their tumultuous Carriages in Scotland Whither these Principles kindled with a fiery zeal enough to eat up whole Kingdoms were carryed and the furiousness of them greatly augmented at the return of John Knox that great Incendiary of the Nation and Kirk of Scotland as a learned Doctor calls him from Geneva 1559. A man that still had the misfortune to carry Warr and Confusion along with him as if like Hippocrates's Twins he and they were inseparable witness the Combustions he made at Franckfort amongst the poor English Protestants fled thither for Religion where he was not undeservedly accused of high-High-Treason against the Emperor by comparing him in print to Nero and calling of him Enemy to Christ c. For which crimes he was forced to sculk away to Geneva thence to Deep in France and after that to Scotland whence after few weeks stay he fled back to Geneva but not setling there he returns to Deep again from which place he wrote divers Letters to the Scots to stirr them up to Rebellion and having by that means wrought some confidence among them returned to Scotland again By these Principles distill'd amongst them by this wandering Brother and the deadly Feuds of old betwixt the Nobility the Nation became miserably distracted The Kings and Queens thinking it hard measure to have their undoubted Rule and Soveraignty pluck'd from them by such inferiour Instruments and Vassals And on the other side the Congregators for so they then call'd themselves back'd on by several Hot-spurs scorned to yield subjection to any but themselves so that the disturbed Kingdom appeared to be governed by two distinct Authorities like Caesar and Pompey one party disdaining an Equal whilst the other denyed a Supream The Presbyters so farr extolling their own Priviledges as Christs Embassadours that many thought there was no Antichrist but Kings and such Civil Authority which cogitations nurst in them such a small esteem of their Rulers or Laws that they did not only think that to be their right which was most agreeable to their own humours but also that they might gain such things to themselves by the Sword As if Subjects need any more Priviledge then the course of Law At the beginning of the Reformation in Scotland the Queen-Regent favourably because contrary to her Religion allowed them the Bible in their own Language But they not content with this use their wonted Master-peice of Reviling upon which she was constrained to send for some of their Preachers to appear before her who accordingly came but with such a multitude of favourites and attendants that through fear of her own Person she was obliged to order by Proclamation all to depart who came unsent for a thing alwayes usual in the best of Governments yet was this so offensive to the Brethren that they throng in Tumults into her Privy-chamber and there threaten her with their weapons an act quite contrary to the Apostles and Primitive Christians so that she was constrained to pleasure them Afterwards she allows them liberty to use their Prayers and Service in the Vulgar Tongue provided they kept no Publick Assemblies in Edenbourgh or Leith for avoiding Tumults And in their Petition to her for the obtaining these favours they acknowledge that the Redress of all Enormities both Ecclesiastical and Civil did orderly belong to her But this acknowledging of her Authority lasted not long for when presently afterwards they demanded more liberty with a

doth call Antichristian Popish or Arminian though two to one that neither the Prater nor Hearer understand what really those words signifie Yet the Nation is come to that pass that the ignorant zeal of our Furies hath made the later drown the noyse of the other two That if the word Arminian be but named How do the poor people startle and bogle themselves into a sweat looking as distractedly as if they had been rid with the Night-mare a name that gets a man more envy than the title of Turk or Infidel the people in part knowing what these signifie but for the Arminian their ignorance of what he is puts them into such a fright that they think themselves never secure till they get the destruction of these strange creatures for they do not know what things they are Not unlike those simple people of Munding in Schwaben who having by chance found a Crab which none of them had ever seen before by toling the Bell as if their Enemies had been upon them they all hurryed together and did seriously consult what sort of Animal it should be its creeping backwards putting a terrour into them all At last they enquired of a poor fellow amongst them because for his livelyhood he had been farther from home than any of them who said it must be a Stag or Pigeon but this not satisfying and they not knowing how to be resolved lest it should do them some mischief standing a good way off they for the safety of themselves and Town very valiantly shot this Monster and lest any of themselves or Cattle should be poysoned or venom'd by it they very carefully fortifi'd it about with a strong fence Thus ignorance musters up all the jealousies and fears that can be and when these are once a Cock-Horse they can never want stuff to kindle up their hatred I need not trouble the Reader by telling him how Mr. John Corbet the other day partly whisper'd out the lawfulness of the Warr. Nor how another of the Brethren a great servant and adorer of the Murtherous Bradshaw told the people that it was those with the King that began the Warr and not the Presbyterians nor how the same man threatens the probability of another Rebellion unless the Saints have liberty of Conventicling allowed them Nor need I trouble you by relating the wicked humour of Baxter who protests that if the Warr were to begin again he would take the Parliaments part his reason is because If I should do otherwise I should be guilty of Treason or Disloyalty against the Soveraign Power of the Land for I knew not how to resist and disobey them without violation of the command of God Rom. 13. Let every soul be subject to the Higher Powers c. and without encurring the danger of the Condemnation there threatned to Resisters Nor is it needful to repeat to you how the whole body of the Presbyterian secluded Members vindicated not long since the Rebellion by their Authority Since all these particulars are to small purpose I never yet hearing through all mine enquiry as I can remember of any one Presbyterian but held forth the lawfulness of the late Rebellion Thus we find the Puritans more raging than fat Vrsula in Bartholomew-Fair and certainly Bedlam will be full of Mad-Boys when the Master thereof is Rampant We may well expect extravagant Principles from these Disciplinarians when those who are held most moderate and the chief amongst them cannot hold from prating Treason People are apt to go beyond their Commission but when such Chief-tains amongst them as Baxter whose zeal cannot be perswaded from Preaching Sedition to say no worse word even since the happy restauration of his Majesty with a Club of Presbyterian-secluded Members and others of that Faction can declare write and Vote the late Rebellion against the King to be lawful others of that perswasion may think it no breach of Conscience to take the other step and justifie the securing of his Person and when a King is once imprisoned by his unruly Subjects 't is time for him to prepare himself for a journey to the other World Doubtful Oracles are alwayes interpreted to the desires of the Interested Faction That dubious Letter Edwardum occidere nolite timere bonum est To kill Edward do not fear is a good thing was so well understood by Sir Thomas Gurney and Sir John Maltravers that the horrid Murther of Edward II. was its result Our Puritans well understand their Teachers when they mince Loyalty and though they carry nothing else away with them they are sure to keep that close and at last put it into practise When from the Pulpit Authority is tainted with abominable wickedness and Texts of Scripture wrested to prove the necessity of destroying Tyrants and Idolaters The ignorantly zealous Auditors may think they do God and the Cause good service by doing what they can to bring such a Malefactor to the block and will at all times be ready to Warragainst the Son against whose good Father they have been thus instigated to take Arms and thus at last their bewitching sin of Treason will dwindle to a Commendation amongst these Zealots But well-fare Mr. Baxter that hath found out two pretty Salvo's for his former wickedness First That he is pardoned by the Act of Indempnity And is not he a very thankful man that in requital of the Kings mercy hath since that preach'd seditiously but he and the rest of his fraternity are resolv'd to confirm the character given them by the Emperour Ferdinand and King James as afore related Secondly That now the Parliament had declared where the Soveraign Power was he should acknowledge it and submit to it As if the Soveraign Power did not lye in the King before this Parliament and yet the Gentleman could be very well perswaded to Richard's Supremacy But a man that is altogether ignorant of our Laws is the fittest to make the Nation a Common-wealth and yet none is so blind as him that will not see nor none so wicked as him whose Interest alwayes prompts him to take the staff by the wrong end The best excuse that I know for them is Their being drunk with Zeal created in them a strange spirit of Prejudice which fancy'd the Nation to be in such a distracted condition that all things were running to distruction And these good souls thinking to free themselves and the Kingdom from such miseries busled into a body to expel those evils which their debauch'd fury thought might give ease to the Nation and quietness to themselves Like those guzling Companions upon the Texel's side in Amsterdam who tippled so long looking out of a Casement that really thinking they were at Sea in a Tempest to lighten their Ship began to throw Tables and Stools with other luggage out of the windows thinking they were in danger of Shipwrack But if these men have the liberty to create jealousies and fears