Memoires of the lives, actions, sufferings & deaths of those noble, reverend and excellent personages that suffered by death, sequestration, decimation, or otherwise, for the Protestant religion and the great principle thereof, allegiance to their soveraigne, in our late intestine wars, from the year 1637 to the year 1660, and from thence continued to 1666 with the life and martyrdom of King Charles I / by Da. Lloyd ...

PREPARATIVES TO The last Civil War, From 1550 to 1640.

AS in Nature there is hardly a Poyson growing any where, but in the same place there groweth an Antidote against it; so in Nations, seldome do the loose principles of Licentiousness, Rebelli∣on, and Disorder prevail so universally, but that in the same Nation the more excellent prin∣ciples of Reason, Religion, Laws, and Alle∣giance, bear up against them. Various have been the shapes and pretences, under which the Lusts of men (for all the disorders in the world, are nothing else but Lust, casting off the restraint God hath laid upon it by Government) have indeavoured (since God set up Government to keep men civil and quiet in this world, as he did Religion to prepare them for another world) to shake and inva∣lidate the obligations both of Religion and Government in all places of the world (for most pretences last but an Age, in which time they are looked through, exploded, abhorred, and must be shifted.)

How men willing to live at the highest freedom of a loose Na∣ture, have in this Nation endeavoured in several generations to overthrow all the Checks, Restraints, Rules, and Disciplines of Religion, is not so properly the business of this place, as it is com∣monly the subject of every discourse elswhere.

The pretentions and appearances under which those that have made a pretty good shift to suppress all those Principles of Honesty, Sobriety and Obedience that Religion curbed them withal within, would likewise in this Nation over-rule all Power, Authority, Order and Laws, that keep them within compass from without, when those unruly Lusts, Pride, Ambition, Animosity, Discontent,

Popularity, Revenge, &c. would over-run all those Banks that were raised against them; have been

1. The Dubiousness of the Royal Title, the ground of thirty six Rebellions, one hundred forty six Battle since the Conquest: In all which though the Rebels were usually the most, the Loyal∣lists were always the best: and when the many followed sometimes a prosperous Villany, the most noble and excellent stood to, or fell with an afflicted right, and bore down all umbrages with this real truth, That the Crown took off all defects, and that any man may pretend arguments to begin a War, when but few can make arguments, when it is begun, to make an end of it.

2. The Liberty of the Subject, forsooth, the old Quarrel for which the Throng and Rabble would venture much, when wiser men maintained, that there was no greater oppression in the world, than a Liberty for men to do what they pleased; and that Govern∣ment is the great security of freedome.

3. Religion, for whose sake so many resisted Authority, when one of the Maximes of this Religion is, that none should resist up∣on pain of damnation: and albeit the Factious in all Ages have been many, that have taught men for Religions sake to disobey Authority; yet the sober in those Ages have been as many, that taught them, that for Religion-sake they should obey them that have the rule over them.

But when towards the last, that is, the worst Ages of the world, wickedness grows wiser upon the experiences and observations of former times, and twists all these pretensions into one; there have been excellent persons that with their lives and fortunes asserted Government, and have been Confessors and Martyrs to this great truth, That it is upon no pretence law••••l to resist the Supream Au∣thority of a Nation: a truth that keeps up the world, without which it had been long ere this a desolation.

Upon the Reformation in Henry the eighth's time, it fell out in Eng∣land, as Luther observes it did in most other reformed Churches, that the Papists finding that their way was so odious, that it was to no purpose for it to appear here with open face to settle it self, there∣fore did they under several covert pretexts and cunning scruples, endeavour to unsettle all other ways; and when it could not e∣stablish it self, to hinder all other Professions from being establish∣ed, that at least they might watch some opportunities, whereof there are many offered in distracted times. For no sooner was our Church setled on the Primitive principles of Religion and Govern∣ment, than some of those that fled into the free States, and the places of popular reformation in Germany, returning when most prefer∣ments were gone, and living upon the Liberality of well-disposed People, set up some popular scruples against the established Go∣vernment:* 1.1 and among the rest, Iohn Hooper having been long in Switzerland, upon his election to be Bishop of Gloucester, scrupled several Ornaments and Rights of our Church; the Earl of Warwick, afterwards Duke of Northumberland (having a design to oblige all Parties in order to a project he had set up to convey the Crown

to his own family, to preserve the Reformation, though he died a Pa∣pist) writes to Arch-Bishop Cranmer to dispence with the publick Laws, to satisfie a private mans humor; and when his Letter would not do, makes the young King write another: and now Cranmer and Ridley stand up for these great Principles of Government: Let private Spirits yeild to publick establishments: there is no end of yeild∣ing to scruples, one scruple indulged begetting another, so long, till there be no more Law than pleaseth the humoursome: be well advised in mak∣ing Laws, and resolute in keeping them. Notwithstanding that the learned and wise Ridley suffered almost as much for his asserting the Government of our Church at that rate from the Puritans, as he did afterwards for asserting the Doctrine of it, from the Papists: he was Martyr to the Protestant Church, and a Confessor to the Church of England; Hooper not being reconciled to him until the Sun of their lives was going down; and their heart-burning upon this occasion was not quenched,* 1.2 till the Fire was kindled that burn∣ed both their bodies.

The Lord Admiral Seymour was a back-Friend to Common-Pray∣er; and old Latimer takes him and others up for it: I have heard say, when that the good Queen that is gone, had ordained in her house daily Prayers, both before noon and afternoon; the Admiral getteth him out of the way, like a mole digging in the earth: he shall be Lots wife to me as long as I live. He was, I heard say, a covetous man, a covetous man indeed: I would there were no more in England. He was I heard say a seditious man, a contemner of Common-Prayer: I would there were no more in England. Well! he is gone, I would he had left none be∣hind him.

Yea, when the death of King Edward the sixth put an end to these differences among Protestants, but putting an end to the publick profession of the Protestant Religion it self in this Nati∣on; the forementioned scruples accompanied some hot-Spirited men to their exiles under Queen Mary.* 1.3 When Master Calvins Au∣thority, who forsooth observed some Tolerabiles Ineptiâ in our e∣stablishment; and Master Knox, Master Whittingam, Goodman, and Foxes zeal cried down the whole Platform of our English Refor∣mation; the judgement and gravity of Master Horn, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, the learning of Bishop Poynet and Iuel, the piety and prudence of Doctor Sands and Doctor Coxe, the mo∣deration and calmness of Master (afterwards Archbishop) Grindall, and Chambers, the Reputation of Sir Iohn Cheeke, Sir Anthony Cooke, Francis (afterwards Sir Francis) Knolles, bore it up, until it pleased God that with Queen Elizabeth it was again established and restored by the Law of the Realm.

In the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign,* 1.4 all persons were so intent upon obviating the Publick Dangers, that they had no leasure to minde particular Animosities (though as the Danow and the Savus in Hungary run with party-colour'd Waters in the same Channel, so the several sorts of Protestants upon that alterati∣on, with several Opinions maintained the same Religion) until the year 1563. when the Canons and Articles of the Church being con∣firmed,

the Governours of the Church began, as it was their duty, to press Conformity; and they whom it concerned to oppose that Establishment refused subscription, Father Foxe (as Queen Eli∣zabeth used to call him) pulling out his Greek Testament, and say∣ing, He would subscribe to that, and that he had nothing in the Church save a Prebend of Salisbury; and if they would take that away, much good may it do them. Laurence Humphred determining something de Adiaphoris, non juxtà cum Ecclesia Anglicanâ: They are Camdens own words. Nay, Anthony Gibby of Lincolnshire declaring in Print, That the Ceremonies were the known Liveries of Antichrist, ac∣cursed Leaven of the blasphemous Popish Priesthood, cursed patches of Popery and Idolatry: they are worse than lousie; for they are Sibbe to the Sarke of Hercules, that made him tear his own bowels asunder. Doctor Samson Dean of Christ-Church being propter Puritanismum Exauctoratus: Whittingam and Goodman backing their Schism with Treason,* 1.5 in a Book they writ in defence of Wyat: nay, some of them growing so bold, as being convented before Doctor Grindall then Bishop of London, to answer this Question of his; Have not we a godly Prince, speak, is she evil? Thus White; What a Question is that, the fruit doth shew.

Thomas Rowlands, No, but the Servants of God are persecuted under her.

R. Hawkins, Why the Psalmist answereth this Question, How can they have understanding that work wickedness, spoiling my people, and that extol vanity?

Nay, from single Affronts to Government, they proceed to Conventicles in Fields, Woods, and Friends Houses; and not onely so, but Thomas Cartwright the Bell-weather of Non-Con∣formity, presents the Parliament 1572. with a Book called Ad∣monition, a Title not well resented in Parliament, since Admoni∣tion is but the lowest degree of Ecclesiastical Censure, and a Pre∣parative, if neglected, to Suspension and Excommunication; wherein were several Grievances represented, with this onely Redress prescribed, viz. The admission of that Platform which the Presbyterians there exhibited. And since one modest Admonition would not do, another more severe followeth, and a Reply to Doctor Whitgift's Answer to the Admonition, with a world of Libels and Pamphlets, which they called, The new way to work, following that Reply; they judging it a good way, to turn serious Books into Satyrical Pamphlets.

Finde they did so many Friends and Patrons within the Parlia∣ment and without, that they erected a Presbytery in Wandsworth; sleighted such sober men even of their own Scruples, as Master Fox and Doctor Humphred set up Exercises called Prophesyings, irregularly and dangerously carrying on Meetings of ill conse∣quence at Cock field in Suf••olk, at Cambridge and London; draw up a Platform of Discipline at London; petition the Privy-Council, and engage several of them in the Quarrel, particularly Leicester, Burleigh (Traverse his Patron) and Walsingham, as appears by their Letters to Archbishop Whitgift; procure a Conference at

Lambeth with the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, before the Lords of the Council; set up an Assembly of Ministers to sit Jigg by Joul with the Convocation in London; engaged so many Lords and Commons, under the pretence of the Liberty of the Subject, the Grievances of Pluralities and Non-residences, Ecclesiastical Courts and Jurisdictions, to shake the Established Government, as forced Archbishop Whitgift to repair with an humble Petition to the Queen to stand by her own Authority as Supream in all Causes and over all Persons, as well Ecclesiastical as Civil, in these her Majesties Realms and Dominions. The Lord Burleigh himself was so importuned by them against our Liturgie, that he desired them to draw up a better; as they had done, but that they could not agree. Nay, some persons private Interests making use of, and closing with these Publick Disturbances, the Commons come up with a sixteen-fold Petition against the Church to the Lords; and many of the Lords were so high, that nothing would satisfie my Lord Grey less than the turning out of all the Bishops by Premu∣nire then, as they had been in King Henry the Eighth's time; and that the Queen should not confer with the Bishops but in the pre∣sence of the Temporal Lords. A bold Proposal, as an honoura∣ble Lord then observed, that the Lords should appoint her Ma∣jesty whom she should confer withal.

And no wonder now, that such Pamphlets, as, The Epitome, The Demonstration of Discipline, The Supplication, Diotrephes, The Mi∣nerals, Have you any work for the Cooper? Martin Marprelate Senior and Iunior, Have you any more work for Coopers? flew abroad so much, that the Synod at Coventry acted so boldly as they did in their Thirteen Canons, as a man may call them; And that they began to write to one another in this Style, We look for Bickering ere long, and then a Battel which cannot long endure. A boldness excusable, when both the Kings of Scots and Denmark interposed in their behalf: yea, and some of them, as Hacket and Arthington, set up Designes to murder the Queen, and the Privy-Council; Traverse himself, though otherwise reserved and wary, breaking out in his Temple-Lectures, to open opposition against Mr. Hoo∣ker the Master of it, and the great Champion of the Church of England. And because they began to be ashamed to make such a stir about Rites, Ceremonies, &c. they added some Sabbatarian Speculations, and bold Controversies of Gods Decrees, to put weight into the Quarrel, and brave that the World might take them not for light Scruplers about indifferent things, but the strong Astertors of the Power of Godliness, viz. in the keeping of the Sabbath, &c. the design of Dr. Bounds Book of the Sabbath.

To this heighth the Impugners of Government and Discipline arrived at in Queen Elizabeth's time, in whose Reign these Cham∣pions withstood them, viz.

1. The Queen, true to her Motto, Semper eadem, would not either by their Greatness, Number, or Importunity, that maintain∣ed the Faction, be moved to the least diminution of her Autho∣rity

in Causes Ecclesiastical; yea, and in her latter days, when she observed how the Church and State was overborn by them, she grew very severe towards them, as Vdal, Penry, and Cartwright felt; they at the Assizes, and this in the Star-Chamber, till he saved himself by an humble submission.

2. The Privy-Council always in Church-Affairs (however some Members of it had a kindness for the Faction) went along with the Arch-bishop.

3. The Arch-bishops, Parker and Whitgift, notwithstanding the many and great Difficulties they met with, kept up the Au∣thority of the Canons, and required subscription.

4. Fulke, Hooker, and Rogers, kept up the Authority of the Church in Writing.

Although the Queen was often by them in danger of her life, the Arch-bishops made weary of their Lives and Government; Mr. Hooker was heart-broken with Calumnies and Oppositions; all the Bishops and Ministers of the Church rendred as odious and ridiculous as the Wit and Malice of men could make them. The stout Bishop of Exeter went with honourable Scars from the Fa∣ctions malicious Tongues and Pens to his Grave.

Arch-bishop Whitgift not onely felt the Fury of this Sect, when Master of Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge, at what time Carwright was also a Member of that House, kept a Fast there in his absence, and perswaded all the Scholars, but two or three, to throw off their Surplices, as they did, till the good Master returned home. Nor did he onely complain of the continual opposition that he met with, when Regius Professor, from Mr. Cartwright, at the same time Margaret Professor in the same University; nor of the Indefa∣tigable pains he took to answer Cartwrights Admonitions to the Parliament, and to reply to Cartwrights Answers, till his Anta∣gonist laid down the Cudgels.

For these were inconsiderable troubles given him, when we re∣flect on the great Oppositions and dangerous Motions in Par∣liament, that forced him twice on his knees to the Queen, in∣treating the continuance of her Grace and Favour towards him and the Church the first time, and with grief of heart (they are his own words) craving her Majesties protection the second: And add to them the several Contrasts he had with the Lords, by whom in Councel, upon their sending to him the Complaints of the Norfolk-Ministers against Bishop Preake of Norwich, and of the Kentish-Ministers against himself; he was forced to write, that it was Irregular for Ministers to address themselves to the Council-Table, in Affairs of the Church, wherein he alone was Intrusted by God and her Majesty; and to tell them, that it was not for the Queen to sit in her Throne, if such men might so boldly offer themselves to reason and dispute,* 1.6 as in their Bill they vaunt, against the state established in matter of Religion; nor for himself to keep his place, if every Curate within his Diocess or Province, may be permitted so to use him; it being impossible, as he saith, for him to perform the Duty which her Majesty looked for at his

hands, if he might not without Interruption, proceed in that which her Highness had especially committed unto him. And that the disorderly flocking and gadding from place to place was dangerous; concluding, that the sending for him to appear before the Council-Table as a Party, and to call his doings in question (which from her Majesty were immediately committed unto him, and wherein he supposed he had no other Judge but her self) and this upon the suggestion of unlearned, despicable, and troublesome men (the meanest and fewest of the places where they lived) was a thing unexpected from them, from whom, as their Pastor, he expected all aid and assistance in his Office, for the quietness of the Church and State, the Credit of the established Religion, and the maintenance of the Laws made for the same

Neither was this all; alas, what a sad Complaint doth this Re∣verend Person make against one Beal Clerk of the Council, who reviled and threatned him to his face, if he proceeded to put the Ecclesiastical Laws in execution as he had done? telling him boldly, loudly, and bitterly, That he would overthrow the Church, and that his hands should be shortly stopped: His words are, That were it not for his Conscience, and well-grounded perswasion in the things he did, the peace of the Church, her Majesty, and some Noble Lords constancy to him in the Service, he should hardly be able to en∣dure so great a Burden.

Nay, writing to my Lord Hatton, the good Arch-bishop saith, That my Lord Hatton's kindness did not a little comfort him, having received (saith he) not long since, unkinde speeches where I least looked for them, onely for doing my duty in the most necessary Business which I have in hand: disobedient wilful persons, (I will term them no worse) are animated, Laws contemned, her Majesties Will and Pleasure little regarded, and the Executors thereof in word and deed abused: Howbeit these Overthwarts grieve me, yet I thank God, (so the good Prelate goeth on) I am contented to sustain all these Dis∣pleasures, and fully resolved not to depend upon Man, but upon God and her Majesty.

If you (saith he to my Lord Burleigh) take the part of unlearned, young, ambitious Disturbers of Order, against the established State of Religion, and forsake me, especially in so good a Cause; I shall think my coming to this place to be for my punishment; and my very hard hap, that when I think to deserve best, and in a manner to consume my self, to satisfie that which God, her Majesty, the Church requireth of me, I should be evil rewarded; and having risen early, and sate up late, to give all men satisfaction, have my Labour lost, and called wilful, Papist, Knave, and charged, that I require men to subscribe, onely to maintain my own Book, and so sacrifice the publick to my own private Reputation.

These were the sufferings of Whitgift. Dr. Fulke for writing a∣gainst the Brownists, professeth that he had not an hours rest for twelve years together.

And how bold Traverse was set up in the Temple against modest

Hooker; How the loud Lectures of the first of these were cried up, against the solid Sermons of the other; What siding and bandying there was in the House; What confuting in the Afternoon of what was proved in the Morning; What Addresses to the Lords of the Council; And how meek Mr. Hooker, weary of the Contrast, was forced to retire, is obvious to all that do but dip into the History of Queen Elizabeth's time; not to mention either Dr. Ba∣roe, or Mr. Barrets Sufferings in Cambridge, with Dr. Howson and Mr. Land's at Oxford, for Anti-Calvimsm, which was onely another little occasion found to quarrel with Authority, and to draw in more persons to their Party: many learned men who favoured not the Faction in point of Calvinistical Discipline, yet were very In∣dulgent and serviceable to them in respect to their Calvinistical Doctrine.

Well, during Queen Elizabeth's Reign, the Quarrel being confined within the Church and Schools, few acted or suffered thereby besides Church-men and Scholars; the Laity of the Nobi∣lity and Commons seldom engaging either way further than by private tampering, encouraging, interceding, motioning, &c. and none of them suffering any further, than that if they stood to the great and generous Principles of Government and Religion, they were censured as Papists, profane Enemies of the Power of Godliness, &c. or so.

But upon the Entrance of King Iames, whom the Factious thought a Presbyterian from his Cradle, as frighted to their way in his Mothers belly; the Laity and Clergy began to side more openly: Dr. Nevil, Dean of Canterbury, was not so soon with that King, from Arch-bishop Whitgift, and the rest of the Clergy, as Mr. Lewis Pickering, a Northamptonshire Gentleman, waited upon him from the Presbyterians; upon whose return, judging by the Kings temper, that they who had most Voices and Friends were likely to carry it, at least, for Liberty and Toleration, (a great Multitude was thought by them a strong Argument with that Prince) they set up the mille-manus Petition, called so, for the thousand hands they pretended were to it: (Mr. Cartwright in the mean time Caressing his Majesty with all the Presbyterian Courtships in the world, in an Epistle Dedicatory to his Latine Commentary on Ecclesiastes) with the Importunity whereof, to∣gether with the Mediation of some Lords, especially the Scotch, (for now Presbytery had got a whole Nation, I mean Scotland, of their side) there was a Conference held at Hampton-Court be∣fore the King and the Lords of the Council, between eight Bi∣shops, eight Deans, and two other Divines, on the one side; Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Sparkes, Mr. Knewstubs, and Mr. Chadderton, on the other: The issue whereof, notwithstanding the Sugge∣stions wherewith they had prepossessed his Majesty, and the powerful Intercession of many Grandees, was much beyond their expectation; the King declaring, that if that be all the Presby∣terians have to say, which they said there, they should Conform,

or he would hurry them out of the Land, or do worse: whereupon another Petition is out of hand carried on, and Hands not so much gathered, as scraped to it; (Mr. George Goring (afterwards Earl of Norwich) being, in the right of his zealous Mother, one of the Subscribers, when he was so young as to know but little, and care less for Church-Government) and the thing not so much to be pre∣sented to his Majesty to incline him, as to be scattered up and down the Nation, to Enrage and Engage the People, some great ones con∣senting to it, and some potent strangers (i.e. Scots) undertaking to conduct and manage it. Insomuch that Arch-bishop Whitgift fearing a stronger Assault of Non-Conformists against Church-Disci∣pline, than his Age-feebled body should be able to withstand, de∣sired that he might not live to see the Parliament that was to be 1603/4; and indeed he did not, for he died before it of a Cold, got by go∣ing one cold Morning to Fulham, to consult with the Bishops and other learned men, what was best to be done for the Church in the next Parliament.

And though after his death, wise and resolute Bishop Bancroft se∣cured the Church-government by an hundred fourty one Canons, against all Innovations: And the Puritans were grown to such a degree of odiousness with King Iames, and some Courtiers, that the very Family of love made a Petition to King Iames, to be distinguish∣ed from them, as either ashamed or afraid to be of their Number. Yea, and though the wise King had silenced all the popular Preten∣sions with his wise Maxime, No Bishop, no King, yet Bishop Bancroft suffered so much in Libels (the Squibs and Paper-Guns that made way for the Gunning that followed) that a Gentleman bringing him one of them that he had taken up, was desired to lay it up in such a place, where, he said, there were an hundred more of that nature; and was censured for a Papist while he lived, and had the Brethrens good word when he died, to this purpose;

Here lies his Grace in cold Clay clad, Who died for want of what he had.

And upon his altering of his Will:

He who never repented of doing ill, Repented that once he made a good Will.

An Assembly in Aberdeen made a fearful work in Scotland. An Insurrection was made in Warwick-shire, under pretence indeed of throwing down the Inclosures of some Fields, but indeed to over∣throw those of the Church and State. There were three days hot Contest, 1607. between the Bishops and Judges, before the King, about the Limitations of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Courts, and about Prohibitions. Then the dangerous Book called, The Interpre∣ter, came out: And therewith so much fear, jealousie, and suspition, as caused the Lords and Commons, and the whole Realm, to take anew the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy; and so many strange Motions were made in the Parliament, continued for six years together, that the King thought fit by Proclamation to dissolve it.

The Faction that would, forsooth, redress Grievances in the Church, to make their Party the more, take in hand all the Grievances in the State. So that no sooner was a man discontented upon any occasion, but he was made a Puritan streight, some of that Party taking his Cause in hand; insomuch, that they were looked upon as the Pa∣trons of the Subjects Liberty, and the best Patriots and Common-wealths-men, all others being esteemed Betrayers of their Country, and Court-Parasites. And now they were broke in Parliament, they trouble the Bishops and others in every Court, countenancing Offenders, teaching them to elude the Law, vexing Ecclesiastical Courts with Prohibitions, endeavouring to overthrow his Majesty's Power over the Church, in the Star-Chamber, and High-Commis∣sion. Poor Dr. Howson is suspended at Oxford, Propter Conciones mi∣nus Orthodoxas, & offensionis plenas: Onely for discovering the danger of admitting the Geneva-Notes. Mr. Lawd censured both for a Sermon and a Position, by the same party: Yea, and learned Selden lets fly upon all the Parsonage-Barns, the dreadfullest storm that they had endured a long time, in a Book called, The History of Tythes. In the Preface to which Book, he lets fly as desperately against the persons of the Orthodox Clergy, as he had done in the body of it, against their Maintenance.

Dr. Mocket no sooner published his Politica Ecclesiae Anglicanae, to satisfie the World, but his Book was burned, and his heart broken, to satisfie a Faction; though very learned and good men were by them set against his Book: They like the Cat, putting others upon that hot service, whereon they would not venture their own paws.

What ill Offices were done Bishop Laud and Bishop Neale, to King Iames, by the Lord Chancellour Elsemere, upon the Instigation of Dr. Abbot the Archbishop of Canterbury: How Bishop Laud was op∣posed in the matter of his Election to the Headship of St. Iohn's: What rancounters there were between him and Bishop Williams, whom that Party had incensed against him: The Ratling he had from the Archbishop of Canterbury, for but procuring poor Vicars some ease in the point of Subsidies, the Archbishop pretending that he meddled too much with Publick Affairs; though the Duke of Buckingham, and Bishop Williams himself confessed, that it was the best service that had been done the Church for seven years before.

These, and many more the great sufferings of men well-affected to the Government of the Church, are notorious in King Iames his time, but not so eminent as those in King Charles his days.

When the King being engaged by them in a War and other Trou∣bles, (for it was at their request, that Prince Charles moved his Fa∣ther to declare a War against the Spaniard) they being curbed all the Reign of King Iames, thought they had the onely opportunity that men could wish in the world: for the King could not go to War without Money and Men; these they had taught the People could not be raised without their Consent in Parliament, where among the discontented and ill-bred Gentlemen (whom the Non-Conformists had bred up; for when you could hear little of them in the Church, in the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's Reign, and

throughout King Iames, they lurked as Schoolmasters and Chaplains in Gentlemens houses.) They had a great stroke (and so great, that the Duke of Buckingham, by Dr. Preston, did a great while court the Puritan Faction) and nothing would they gra••t the King, un∣less he would let them do what was good in their own eyes.

King Charles having the Care of three Kingdoms intrusted with him by the Laws of God and the Land, and finding the danger they were brought into, called upon the Parliament to assist him with such Tribute and Contribution as might be proportionable to the greatness of his Affairs: they considering the streight he was reduced into, resolved that they would redress Grievances before they would yield any Subsidies: To that purpose they make bold to question his greatest and dearest Favourites and States-men; and first, the Duke of Buckingham, against whom they set the Earl of Bristol; and when he could make nothing of it, the House of Com∣mons its self, with thirteen Articles attaqued that great Person, who had no fault, as it seems by his Replies, but his great Place, and his Princes Favour; that Party designing thereby to make it dangerous for any person to give the King faithful Counsel, or to assist him in keeping up the Government, unless in compliance with them; as they made it more than evident, when they offered the Duke with their Interest upon some Conditions to bring him off. Here is the first blow at the greatest stay of Government, the Kings Majesty's Council. The next thing they do, notwithstanding the great danger of the King∣dom, is to declare, That they must clear the Liberty and Propriety of the Subject, that (forsooth they are the Demagog••es own words) they might know, whether they could call any thing their own, before they should give the King any thing. And when Nature, Policy, and Re∣ligion, taught the World, that his Majesty who had the Care of the Kingdom, must not let it perish for the humour of some people, that would allow nothing towards the maintena••ce either of themselves, or it; (choosing, as one Turner said openly in the House, Rather to fall into the hands of Enemies abroad, than to submit to the Government, as then established, at home.) And some Divines preached (what is great reason) That his Majesty being Intrusted by God with a Power to defend his Kingdom, must have a power too by all means to raise Men and Money in spight of any malicious Factions, wherewith he may defend it. For this, Dr. Mainwaring and Dr. Sibthorpe, both, as I take it, his Ma∣jesties Chaplains, are questioned, not by the Church, to whose Cog∣nizance Errours in Doctrines most properly belong, but by the Lay-Elders of the House of Commons: Yea, and if the Farmers of the Custom-house advance any money upon the Kings ancient Reve∣nue of Tonnage and Poundage, they shall be questioned for that; and for Levying any Imposts upon any Commodities whatsoever. That's the second Blow at his Majesties Prerogative and Revenue: wherein I may include the noise they made against Coat and Con∣duct-money and Free-quarter.

Having weakned the Civil Power by these Courses, they thought it easie to overthrow the Ecclesiastical; for the Faction grown bold and considerable by the remisness of a great Prelate, and the discon∣tent

of others, question all Proceedings in Ecclesiastical Courts, open a door to several vexatious Suits against several Officers of that Court; besides that they questioned Mr. Mountague, Mr. Co∣zens, and threatned Bishop Laud, Bishop Neile, and others, that were resolved to stand by the Supream Power of the King in Ecclesiastical Affairs, against which they levelled their third Blow.

And when all this would not do, they examine the whole Go∣vernment for divers years together; the disbursment of the Re∣venue, the administrations of War and Peace. They rake into Prince Henry and King Iames his death; and this with such a deal of stir and tumult, that some of them lock the Parliament Doors, others make such a noise as rings all over Westminster; others force the Speaker, Sir Iohn Finch, and hold him, whether he would or no, in the Chair, when he would have left the House, when it was become rather a Billingsgate Conventicle, than an House of Parliament.

When the turbulent House of Commons was dissolved, and the Faction having got a new Maxime, That they might say and do what they pleased within the Walls of that House, as publick persons, whereof they were to give no account, as private men, lost the benefit of it by that Dissolution, (the King resolving, that they should not make the Parliament a Conspiracy) they fall to Libelling, Printing, popu∣lar Insinuations, Evasions, and Elusions of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws, that tended to the securing of the Government; secret and open Oppositions to all the ways the King took to raise money, though never so legally, (the just King always consulting his Judges about the Legality of all Taxes, before he ordered his Officers to gather them.) For the first Question in that Kings Reign was, Is it just? And the next, Is it convenient? And those men that have im∣posed Millions on others since, grudged to pay then twenty shil∣lings; for it was but twenty shillings Ship-money that Mr. Hamp∣den went to Law with the King for, and my Lord Say but for four pounds. And that five pounds was the occasion of all the stir after∣wards made about the Ship-money, which cost the Nation fifty seven Millions Sterling since. The untoward Reading in the Innes of Court upon Points most dangerous to Government, possessing the People with strange Fears and Jealousies about Religion, German Horse, a French and Arbitrary Government, and what not? Every publick Action of the King or his Ministers, being mis-interpreted. Combinations were held between the factious English, and discon∣tented Scots; whose begging-time being over at Court, they be∣think of coming to Plunder the Country. The Faction gives out, that the King had deserted the Protestants of the Palatinate, and France, when the truth is, they had deserted him. The Bishops in their Visitations were every where opposed, and the Troublesom taught how to elude all Church-Obligations by Common Law.

In a word, notwithstanding that the Kingdom injoyed for the first fifteen years of the excellent King Charles I. his Reign; Trade flou∣rished, and Gold and Silver in his time was almost as plentiful as in So∣lomons: Learning and all Arts were improved to the heighth; and Scholars Encouragements were as great as their Improvements; Re∣ligion

grew up to its primitive Beauty and Purity; Law and Justice secured all persons in their just Acquisitions: The People had li∣berty to do any thing by evil; the Rich durst not wrong the Poor, neither need the Poor envy or fear the Rich.

The Treasure of Spain was coined in our Mint, and exchanged for our Commodities; forreign Nations either feared our Arms, or sought our Friendship: We claimed and enjoyed the Dominion of the Sea; Wars, Plagues and Famines were strangers to our Coasts; and we were, even against our will, the happiest People under Hea∣ven: except onely for this, that we were not sensible either of our Happiness, or of the use of it; understanding, it seems, no more im∣provement of the great blessing of Peace and good Government, than wantonness and unthankfulness.

Notwithstanding fifteen years of the most blessed effects of Ju∣stice, Wisdom, Piety, and Peaceableness of an excellent Prince, of whom the World was not worthy: By the practices of Cardinal Rich∣lieu, and others, who envied and feared our happiness; by the In∣digence and Schism of the Scots; by the comprehensive Combination in England, that had taken in with the Puritan Factions, all the dis∣contented, ambitious, turbulent, innovating, covetous, desperate, and most easily-deluded sort of people: by the wilde courses of such as had offended beyond all security, save in a troublesom time; by a general Odium cast upon all Acts of Government, and a perverse Spirit of dis∣content, fears, and jealousies, raised throughout the three Kingdoms, and vehemently possessing all sorts of people; by the necessities of the King, and some forreign troubles; by the treachery of some that had the management of the Affairs of Scotland: That which was at first but an Opinion, after that a Book-controversie, and never durst look beyond a Motion, a Petition, a Supplication, a Confe∣rence, a Disputation, and some private murmurings at best, became now a War.

The cause whereof on the one side was an old Schism maintained; mens private Interests promoted; Rebellion, that sin like Witchcraft, the overthrow of all Laws and Government, the ruine of Learning, Religion, and Order; the piecing up of broken Estates by Rapine and Plunder; an ambition to attain to those Honours and Prefer∣ments in troublesom times, that they despaired of in those more quiet, as derived on persons of more worth and deserving: A can∣ting pretence for Liberty of Conscience and of the Subject, that pro∣ved at last nothing but Licentiousness; the Umbrage of the publick good, when it appeared at last but the project of private persons, who no sooner overthrew the Government, but they quarrelled one with another; till at last, instead of one good Government, we had so many, that we had none at all; and instead of an excellent King, all the Bloud, Treasures, and Pretences, ended in a sordid, base, bloudy, tyrannical, and upstart Usurper, raised out of the meanest of the people.

A Revenge of some particular and personal Wrongs, with the ruine of the Publick; the setting up of Sects, Schisms, and Heresies, upon the subversion of the established Doctrine and Discipline: a

perpetual disgrace and dishonour to Christianity and the English Nation, occasioning such Burdens and Mischiefs as the Child unborn may rue; Burdens and Mischiefs conveyed from them to late Poste∣rity: the desolation of the Country, the ruine of gallant Churches, Castles and Cities; the undoing of some thousands of Families; the bloud of 80000 killed on both sides, and upon all occasions: An unnatural division and animosity begun even among Relations, that is like to last from Generation to Generation; abominable Can∣ting, taking of the Name of God in vain; hypocrisie, perjury, against the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, the Protestation, yea, the Covenant which they took themselves, and all the Obligations they owed to God or Man; the mocking of God by Fasts, Prayers, and seeking of his face to wicked and vile purposes; the making of him the Author of the Abominations he abhors; the making of Religion onely a Cloak to Villanies; and all the Ordinances of it, especially Sermons and Sacraments, the Ministeries of horrid undertakings, filling Pulpits with such Non-sence and Lyes, as all Ears that heard tingled. Such encouragement to loose Fancies and vile Opinions, to enlarge and increase their Party, as left not unshaken any Foun∣dation in the whole compass of Christian Religion; a Sacriledge unheard-of, that was to swallow up all Bishops and Dean and Chapters Lands, all Tithes and Ministers Maintenance, all Univer∣sities and publick Schools, all Hospitals, Colledges, and charitable Foundations: a Rapine that carried away all the Crown-Revenue, and sent a great Royal Family a begging; devoured the Estates of above 12000 Noblemen, Gentlemen, and persons of eminent Qua∣lity; and indeed left no man so much propriety as to say, This is mine, there being no other Law or Judicature, than that Arbitrary one of the Sword; carrying on of the publick good, till the Nation was beggered; a crying up of the power of Parliaments, till the House of Lords was laid by, and the House of Commons consisting of al∣most five hundred Gentlemen, reduced to fifty or sixty Mechanicks and poor fellows, who are turned out by their own Army, as a pack of Knaves and Fools; a pretence to make the King glorious, till he was murdered; and fighting for him against evil Counsellours, till they cut off his head, the best Counsellour he had. The rendring of a Nation once the Envy and Terrour of the World, now its Scorn and Contempt; and Englishmen once the Glory of Europe, now its Shame, for doing that which Turks and Pagans, and the Bar∣barous abhorred, crying out, You fight, and judge your King! Not to say any thing of the general horrour and consternation that seized all the Christian World, upon that horrid Conspiracy. The letting loose of all the Jesuitical Principles that had troubled the World, but were never before owned by things that would be called Protestants.

• 1. As, that Subjects may resist force with force in their own de∣fence.
• 2. That the Law of Nature, in case of necessity, teacheth men to take up Arms against their Sovereign.
• 3. That a wicked King may be deposed.
• ...

• 4. That a Tyrant may be killed by any hand, as a wilde Beast, and an Enemy of Mankind.
• 5. That they do not break their Oaths of Allegiance, that fight against the Kings person, if they pretend his power.
• 6. That the King is accountable to the People, as made by them, in whom resides the Supream Majesty.
• 7. That Success is a signe of Gods blessing and presence with any people in any undertaking.
• 8. That if the King keep not his Oath at the Coronation with the people, they are not to keep their Oaths of Allegiance towards him.
• 9. That Arms may be taken by Subjects to promote true Religion.
• 10. That Liberty is to be allowed to all men under any Govern∣ment, to profess what Religion soever they please.
• 11. That nothing is to be established in publick, that goeth against any mans Opinion, Humour or Conscience in private.
• 12. That if any Court, Judicature, Form of Worship, or Law, be abused, then it must be presently laid down, and not used.
• 13. That any thing that hath been used by the Papists, or that is but pretended to be Popish (as what that displeased hath not been so?) must be abrogated: A Principle, that the Jesuits observing our blinde zeal against Popery, have suggested, to overthrow all Religion, under pretence of avoiding Popery.
• 14. That there must be no Kingdom, but that of Christs; and that until he comes in person, the Saints must reign.
• 15. That Dominion is founded upon Grace; and that the wicked have no right to any thing that they enjoy.
• 16. That the Law of the Land was not made for the Righteous, but for Sinners: so they abused a place of Scripture that sounds that way.
• 17. That all the Prophecies and Revolutions forespoken of, con∣cern England; and that they may make any stir to fulfil these Pro∣phecies: all that they did, being (as they said) nothing but Gods pouring out his Vials on the Beast, &c. the whole Scripture being understood not according to the inward sense, but according to the outward sound; and as the Fool thinketh, so the Bell tinketh. Be∣sides principles of Policy as much against all Reason and Laws, as these are against all Religion. As,
  • 1. That the King and the two Houses made up but one Par∣liament.
  • 2. And that the King, but a Member, might be overruled by the Head.
  • 3. That the hereditary King of England is accountable to the People.
  • 4. That it might be lawful for the two House to seize the Kings Magazines, Navies, Castles, and Forces, and imploy them against him; the Militia being, they said, in them, not in him, though they begged it of him.
  • 5. That when the King withdrew from the London-Tumults, he deserted his Parliament and People, and therefore might be warred against.
  • ...

• ...
  • 6. That the two Houses might impose an Oath upon the King and Kingdom, to subvert the Government and Kingdom; who ne∣ver had power to administer an Oath between man and man, except it were their own Members.
  • 7. That an Ordinance of the two Houses should be of force to raise Men and Money, to seize peoples Lands and Goods, to al∣ter Religion, without the Kings consent; without which they never signified any thing in England, save within their own Walls.
  • 8. That the two Houses, yea, and some few of those two Houses, should make a new Broad-seal, create new Judges and Officers of State, ordain a new Allegiance, and a new Treason never heard of before, and pronounce their Betters, that is to say, all the Nobility, Clergy, and Gentry, Delinquents against their Blew-apronships.
  • 9. That they who took so much care, that a man should not part with a penny to save the Kingdom unless they had Law for it, should force so many Millions out of the poor people, by a bare piece of paper, called an Ordinance.

This was the Cause, called The good old Cause, on the one side; when on the other, there was,

• 1. The Law of the Land.
• 2. The established Religion.
• 3. The Protestant Cause.
• 4. The Kings Authority.
• 5. The Church of England, and the Catholick Church.
• 6. The Allegiance and Obedience required by the Laws of God and Man, from Subjects to Sovereigns.
• 7. The Peace, Tranquillity, Safety, and Honour of the Nation.
• 8. The many obligations of Conscience, especially the Oaths taken by the Nobility, Clergy, and all the people, several times, (ten times a man at least) and particularly the Oaths taken by every Member of the House of Commons, at their first admission to sit there, when they took the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy; and the Protestation they took after they sate.
• 9. The true liberty and property of the Subject.
• 10. The security of Religion and Learning, against the horrid Heresies, Schisms, Libertinism, Sacriledge, and Barbarism, that was ready to overrun the Land.
• 11. All the Principles of Religion, Reason Policy, and Govern∣ment, that hitherto have been received in the most civil part of the World, managed against the canting and pious frauds and fallacies of the Conspiracy, with that clearness that became the goodness of the Cause, and the integrity of the persons that managed it.
• 12. The common Cause of all the Kings and Governments of the World.
• 13. The Rights, Priviledges, Prerogatives, and Inheritances of the ancient Kingdom of England.
• 14. The conveyance of their ancient Birth-rights, Liberties, Im∣munities, and Inheritances, as English-men, and Christians to Posterity.
• 15. The publick good, against the private lusts, ambition, pride, revenge, covetousness, and humour of any person or persons what∣soever.
• ...

• 16. The opinion of all the learned Divines and Lawyers in the World.
• 17. All the Estates in England made then a prey to the most po∣tent and powerful; I mean, the Lands and Revenues of most of the Nobility, Clergy, and Commons of England.
• 18. The sparing of a world of bloud and treasure, that poor mis∣guided Souls were like to lavish away upon the juggles of a few Impostors.

This was the Cause on the other hand; and such as the Causes were, were the persons ingaged in them. Against the King, the Law, and Religion, were a company of poor Tradesmen, broken and de∣cayed Citizens, deluded and Priest-ridden women, discontented Spirits, creeping, pitiful, and neglected Ministers, and Trencher-Chaplains; Enthusiastical Factions, such as Independents, Ana∣baptists, Seekers, Quakers, Levellers, Fifth Monarchy-men, Liber∣tines, the rude Rabble that knew not wherefore they were got to∣gether; Jesuited Politicians, Taylers, Shoomakers, Linkboys, &c. guilty and notorious Offenders, that had endured or feared the Law: perjured and deceitful Hypocrites and Atheists; mercenary Souldiers, hollow-hearted and ambitious Courtiers, one or two poor and disobliged Lords, cowardly and ignorant Neuters, here and there a Protestant frighted out of his wits. These were the Factions Champions; when on the Kings side, there were all the Bishops of the Land, all the Deans, Prebends, and learned men; both the Universities; all the Princes, Dukes, and Marquesses; all the Earls and Lords, except two or three, that stayed at Westminster to make faces one upon another, and wait on their Masters the Commons, un∣til they bid them go about their business, telling them they had no∣thing to do for them, and voting them useless: All the Knights and Gentlemen in the three Nations, except a score of Sectaries and Atheists, that kept with their Brethren and Sisters for the Cause: The Judges and best Lawyers in the Land; all the States-men and Counsellours; the Officers and great men of the Kingdoms; all the Princes and States of Europe. Of all which gallant persons, take this Catalogue of Honour, containing the Lives, Actions, and Deaths of those eminent persons of Quality and Honour, that Died, or other∣wise Suffered for their Religion and Allegiance, from the year 1637, to this present year 1666. For the lasting honour of their Per∣sons and Families, the reward of their eminent Services and Suffer∣ings, the perpetual memory of the Testimony they gave to the duty of Subjects towards their Sovereign, the satisfaction of all the World, the Compleating of History, the encouragement of Virtue and Resolution, the instruction of the present Age and Posterity.

The Faction take the same course to ruine a Kingdom, that they said the Gods took to ruine a Man; first, to infatuate, and then overthrow; make the first stroke at the Head and Councel of the Nation; judging, that they must take off and terrifie the Kings Council and Friends, before they could practice on his Majesty, or the Government: (so Tarquin was advised to take off the tallest Poppeys.)

My Lord of Strafford they knew very active, wise, resolved, and serviceable, when he maintained the Liberty of the Subject, against the Prerogatives of the Sovereign; and him they judged most dan∣gerous, now he maintained the Rights and Power of his Sovereign, against the Encroachments of their Faction: He leads the Van of this gallant Company of Martyrs, and the first Heroe that sealed his Allegiance with his bloud, and Consecrated the Controversie; a Protomartyr, like St. Stephen, knocked on the head by a Rabble, ra∣ther then fairly tried in Courts; condemned with Stones, rather than Arguments; instructing Loyal Subjects, How when they had done great things for their Sovereign, they might suffer greater.

Notes

• * 1.1

  A. E. 6. 4. 1550.
• * 1.2

  A. Ed. 6. 7. 1553.
• * 1.3

  Q. M. 2. 3. 1557/8.
• * 1.4

  Q. El. 1. 1560/1.
• * 1.5

  1567.
• * 1.6

  1582, 1583,