Baxters Narrative of His Life and Times, Part 1 (2 of 7)

Baxters Narrative of His Life and Times · Part 1 (2 of 7)

p. 21§ 31. Whilst I continued at Kederminster, it pleased God to give me much Encouragement by the Success of my weak but hearty Labours: As when I was young, I used to keep a daily Catalogue of my daily Mercies and Sins, but when I grew elder I found that Course had its Inconveniences, and took up too much time, and therefore I only recorded those which were extraordinary; even so when I first entered upon my Labours in the Ministry, I took special notice of every one that was humbled, reformed or converted; but when I had laboured long, it pleased God that the Converts were so many, that I could not afford time for such particular Observations about every one of them, left I should omit some greater Work; but was fain to leave that to their compassionate familiar Neighbours, and take notice my self of Families and considerable Numbers at once, that came in and grew up I scarce knew how.

§ 32. All this forementioned time of my Ministry was past under my foredescribed Weaknesses, which were so great as made me live and preach in some continual expectation of Death, supposing still that I had not long to live. And this I found through all my Life to be an unvaluable mercy to me: For,

1. It greatly weakned Temptations.

2. It kept me in a great Contempt of the World.

3. It taught me highly to esteem of time: so that if any of it past away in idleness or unprofitableness, it was so long a pain and burden to my mind! So that I must say to the Praise of my most wise Conductor, that time hath still seemed to me much more precious than Gold or any Earthly Gain, and its Minutes have not been despised, nor have I been much tempted to any of the Sins, which go under the name of Pastime, since I understood my Work.

4. It made me study and preach things necessary, and a little stirred up my sluggish heart, to speak to Sinners with some Compassion, as a dying Man to dying Men.

These, with the rest which I mentioned before when I spake of my Infirmities, were the Benefits which God afforded me by Affliction! I humbly bless his gracious Providence, who gave me his Treasure in an Earthen Vessel, and trained me up in the School of Affliction, and taught me the Cross of Christ so soon; that I might be rather Theologus Crucis, as Luther speaketh, than Theologus Gloriae; and a Cross-bearer, than a Cross-maker or Imposer.

§ 33. At one time above all the rest, being under a new and unusual Distemper, which put me upon the present Expectations of my Change, and going for Comfort to the Promises as I was used, the Tempter strongly assaulted my Faith, and would have drawn me towards Infidelity it self. Till I was ready to enter into the Ministry, all my Troubles had been raised, by the hardness of my heart, and the doubtings of my own Sincerity; but now all these began to vanish, and never much returned to this day: And instead of these, I was now assaulted with more pernicious Temptations; especially to question the certain Truth of the Sacred Scriptures; and also the Life to come, and Immortality of the Soul. And these Temptations assaulted me not as they do the Melancholy, with horrid vexing Importunity; but by pretence of sober Reason, they would have drawn me to a setled doubting of Christianity.

And here I found my own Miscarriage, and the great Mercy of God. My Miscarriage, in that I had so long neglected the well settling of my Foundations, while I had bestowed so much time in the Superstructures and the Applicatory part! For having taken it for an intolerable Evil, once to question the Truth of Scriptures and the Life to come, I had either taken it for a Certainty upon Trust, or taken up with Common Reasons of it, which I had never well considered, digested, or made mine own. Insomuch as when this Temptation came, it seemed at first to answer and enervate all the former Reasons of my feeble Faith, which made me take the Scriptures for the Word of God; and it set before me such Mountains of p. 22Difficulty in the Incarnation, the Person of Christ, his Undertaking and Performance with the Scripture Chronology, Histories and Stile, &c. which had stalled and overwhelmed me, if God had not been my strength. And here I saw much of the Mercy of God, that he let not out these terrible and dangerous Temptations upon me, while I was weak and in the infancy of my Faith; for then I had never been able to withstand them. But Faith is like a Tree, whose Top is small while the Root is young and shallow: and therefore as then it hath but small rooting, so is it not liable to the shaking Winds and Tempests as the big and highgrown Trees are: But as the top groweth higher, so the root at once grows greater, and deeper fixed, to cause it to endure its greater Assaults.

Though formerly I was wont when any such Temptation came, to cast it aside, as fitter to be abhorred than considered of yet now this would not give me satisfaction; but I was fain to dig to the very Foundations, and seriously to Examine the Reasons of Christianity, and to give a hearing to all that could be said against it, that so my Faith might be indeed my own. And at last I found that Nil tam certum quamquod ex dublo certum; Nothing is so firmly believed, as that which hath been sometime doubted of.

§ 34. In the storm of this Temptation, I questioned a while whether I were indeed a Christian or an Infidel, and whether Faith could consist with such Doubts as I was conscious of: For I had read in many Papists and Protestants, that Faith had Certainty, and was more than an Opinion; and that if a Man should live a godly Life, from the bare apprehensions of the Probability of the Truth of Scripture, and the Life to come, it would not save him, as being no true Godliness or Faith. But my Judgment closed with the Reason of Dr. Iackson's Determination of this Case, which supported me much, that as in the very Assenting Act of Faith there may be such weakness, as may make us cry, Lord increase our Faith: We believe, Lord help our belief; so when Faith and Unbelief are in their Conflict, it is the Effects which must shew us which of them is victorious. And that he that hath so much Faith as will cause him to deny himself, take up his Cross, and forsake all the Profits, Honours, and Pleasures of this World, for the sake of Christ, the Love of God, and the hope of Glory, hath a saving Faith, how weak soever: For God cannot condemn the Soul that truly loveth and seeketh him: And those that Christ bringeth to persevere in the Love of God, he bringeth to Salvation. And there were divers Things that in this Assault proved great Assistances to my Faith.

1. That the Being and Attributes of God were so clear to me, that he was to my Intellect what the Sun is to my Eye, by which I see it self and all Things: And he seemed mad to me that questioned whether there were a God: that any Man should dream that the World was made by a Conflux of Irrational Atoms, and Reason came from that which had no Reason, or that Man, or any Inferiour Being was independent; or that all the being, Power, Wisdom, and Goodness which we conversed with, had not a Cause which in Being, Power, Wisdom and Goodness, did excel all that which it had caused in the World, and had not all that formaliter vel eminenter in it self which it communicated to all the Creatures. These, and all the Suppositions of the Atheist, have ever since been so visibly foolish and shameful to my Apprehension, that I scarce find a Capacity in my self of doubting of them; and whenever the Tempter hath joyned any thing against these, with the rest of his Temptations, the rest have been the easier overcome, because of the overwhelming cogent Evidences of a Deity, which are always before the Eyes of my Soul.

2. And it helped me much to discern that this God must needs be related to us as our Owner, our Governour, and our Benefactor, in that he is related to us as our Creator; and that therefore we are related to him as his own, his Subjects, and his Beneficiaries; which as they all proceed by undeniable resultancy from our Creation and Nature, so thence do our Duties arise which belong to us in those Relations, by as undeniable resultancy; and that no shew of Reason can be brought by any Infidel in the World to excuse the Rational Creature from Loving his Maker, with all his heart and soul and might, and devoting himself and all his Faculties to him from whom he did receive them, and making him his ultimate End who is his first Efficient Cause. So that Godliness is a Duty so undeniably required in the Law of Nature, and so discernable by Reason it self, that nothing but unreasonableness can contradict it.

3. And then it seemed utterly improbable to me that this God should see us to be Losers by our Love and Duty to him, and that our Duty should be made to be our Snare, or make us the more miserable by how much the more faithfully we p. 23perform it! And I saw that the very Possibility or Probability of a Life to come, would make it the Duty of a Reasonable Creature to seek it, though with the loss of all below.

4. And I saw by undeniable Experience, a strange Universal Enmity between the Heavenly and the Earthly Mind, the Godly and the Wicked, as fulfilling the Prediction Gen. 3. 15. The War between the Woman's and the Serpent's Seed, being the daily Business of all the World. And I saw that the wicked and haters of Godliness are so commonly the greatest and most powerful and numerous, as well as cruel, that ordinarily there is no living according to the Precepts of Nature and undeniable Reason, without being made the Derision and Contempt of Men (if we can scape so easily).

5. And then I saw that there is no other Religion in the World which can stand in competition with Christianity: Heathenism and Mahometanism are kept up by Tyranny, and Beastly Ignorance, and blush to stand at the Bar of Reason: And Judaism is but Christianity in the Egg or Bed. And meer Deism, which is the most plausible Competitor, is so turned out of almost all the whole World, as if Nature made its own Confession, that without a Mediator it cannot come to God.

6. And I perceived that all other Religions leave the People in their worldly, sensual, and ungodly state; even their Zeal and Devotion in them, being commonly the Servants of their Fleshly Interest: And the Nations where Christianity is not, being drowned in Ignorance and Earthly mindedness, so as to be the shame of Nature.

7. And I saw that Christ did bring up all his serious and sincere Disciples to real Holiness and to Heavenly mindedness, and made them new Creatures, and set their Hearts and Designs and Hopes upon another Life; and brought their Sense into subjection to their Reason, and taught them to resign themselves to God, and to love him above all the World. And it is not like that God will make use of a Deceiver for this real visible Recovery and Reformation of the Nature of Man; or that any thing but his own Zeal can imprint his Image.

8. And here I saw an admirable suitableness in the Office and Design of Christ, to the Ends of God, and the Felicity of Man: and how excellently these Supernatural Revelations do fall in, and take their place in subserviency to Natural Verities; and how wonderfully Faith is fitted to bring Men to the Love of God; when it is nothing else but the beholding of his amiable attractive Love and Goodness in the Face of Christ, and the Promises of Heaven, as in a Glass, till we see his Glory.

9. And I had felt much of the Power of his Word and Spirit on my self; doing that which Reason now telleth me must be done: And shall I question my Physician when he hath done so much of the Cure, and recovered my depraved Soul so much to God.

10. And as I saw these Assistances to my Faith, so I perceived that whatever the Tempter had to say against it, was grounded upon the Advantages which he took from my Ignorance, and my Distance from the Times and Places of the Matters of the Sacred History, and such like things which every Novice meeteth with in almost all other Sciences at the first, and which wise well-studied Men can see through.

§ 35. All these Assistances were at hand before I came to the immediate Evidences of Credibility in the Sacred Oracles themselves. And when I set my self to search for those, I found more in the Doctrine, the Predictions, the Miracles, antecedent, concomitant, subsequent, than ever I before took notice of: which I shall not here so far digress as to set down, having partly done it in several Treatises; as The Saints Rest, Part 2. The Unreasonableness of Infidelity; A Saint or a Bruit, in my Christian Directory; and since more fully in a Treatise, called, The Reasons of the Christian Religion; my Life of Faith, &c.

§ 36. From this Assault I was forced to take notice, that it is our Belief of the Truth of the Word of God, and the Life to come, which is the Spring that sets all Grace on work, and with which it rises or falls, flourishes or decays, is actuated or stands still. And that there is more of this secret Unbelief at the Root than most of us are aware of; and that our love of the World, our boldness with Sin, our neglect of Duty are caused hence… I observed easily in my self, that if at any time Satan did more than at other times weaken my Belief of Scripture, and the Life to come, my Zeal in every Religious Duty abated with it, and I grew more indifferent in Religion than before: I was more inclined to Conformity in those Points p. 24which I had taken to be sinful, and was ready to think, why should I be singular and offend the Bishops and other Superiours, and make my self contemptible in the World, and expose my self to Censures, Scorns, and Sufferings, and all for such little things as these, when the Foundations themselves have so great difficulties, as I am unable to overcome. But when Faith revived, then none of the Parts or Concernments of Religion seemed small, and then Man seemed nothing, and the World a shadow, and God was all.

In the begining I doubted not of the truth of the Holy Scriptures, or of the Life to come, because I saw not the Difficulties which might cause doubting: After that I saw them and I doubted, because I saw not that which should satisfie the mind against them: Since that, having seen both Difficulties and Evidences, though I am not so unmolested as at the first, yet is my Faith I hope much stronger, and far better able to repel the Temptations of Satan, and the Sophisms of Infidels than before: But yet is my daily Prayer, That God would increase my Faith, and give my Soul a clear fight of the Evidences of his Truth, and of himself, and of the invisible World.

§ 37. Whilst I was thus employed between outward Labours and inward Trials, Satan stirr'd up a little inconsiderable rage of wicked men against me. The Town having been formerly eminent for Vanity, had yearly a Shew, in which they brought forth the painted forms of Giants, and such like foolery, to walk about the Streets with; and though I said nothing against them, as being not simply evil, yet on every one of those Days of Riot, the Rabble of the more vicious sort had still some spleen to vent against me, as one part of their Game. And once all the ignorant Rout were raging mad against me for preaching the Doctrine of Original Sin to them, and telling them that Infants before Regeneration, had so much Guilt and Corruption, as made them loathsome in the Eyes of God: whereupon they vented it abroad in the Country, That I preached that God hated, or loached Infants; so that they railed at me as I passed through the Streets. The next Lord's Day I cleared and confirmed it, and shewed them that if this were not true, their Infants had no need of Christ, of Baptism, or of Renewing by the Holy Ghost. And I askt them whether they durst say that their Children were saved without a Saviour, and were no Christians, and why they baptized them, with much more to that purpose; and afterward they were ashamed and as mute as fishes.

Once one of the drunken Beggers of the Town raised a slander of me, That I was under a Tree with a Woman (an ill-fam'd Beggar of the Town): All the Drunkards had got it in their mouths, before I could find out the Original. I got three or four of them bound to the Good Behaviour, and the Sot himself that raised the Slander, confessed before the Court that he saw me in a rainy day on Horseback stand under an Oak which grew in a thick Hedge, and the Woman aforesaid standing for shelter on the other side the Hedge under the same Tree, and that he believed that we saw not one another; but he spake it as a Jest, and the Company were glad of the occasion to feed their Malice. So they all askt me forgiveness, and I desired the Magistrate immediately to release them all.

There lived at Kinver an ancient, prudent, Reverend Divine, Mr. Iohn Cross, (who died since, Pastor of Matthews Friday-street in London): This godly Man had been the chief means of the good which was done in Kidderminster before my coming thither; when I came, I got him to take every second day in a Weekly Lecture. It came to pass once, that a Woman defamed him at Kidderminster openly, and told the People that he would have ravished her. Mr. Cross being a wise Man, sent one before to desire the Bailiff and Justice to call her to Examination, and he came after and sate in a common dark coloured Coat, among many others, in the Bailiff's Parlour, as if he had been one of the Magistrates. The Bailiff called her in, and she stood impudently to the Accusation: The Bailiff askt her whether she knew the Man if she saw him; which she confidently affirmed. He askt her, Is it this Man, or that Man, or the other Man, or any there? And she said, O no, God forbid that she should accuse any of them. Mr. Cross said, Am not I the Man; and she said, No, she knew the Man well enough. And when they had told her that this was Mr. Cross, she fell down on her knees, and askt him forgiveness, and confest that one of his Neighbours (who was his great Accuser at the Bishops Courts) had hired her to report it. But the Good Man forgave them all.

§ 38. And here I must return to the Proceedings of the Parliament, because the rest will not be well understood without connoting the Occasions of them which were administred. When the Londoners cried to the House for Iustice, and honoured p. 25those Members who were for the punishment of Delinquents, and dishonoured those that pleased the King, a Breach began to be made among themselves: And the Lord Digby, the Lord Falkland, and divers others, from that time forward joyned with the King; being not so immoveable as many of the rest, whom neither hope nor fear nor discontent would alienate from the Cause which they thought well of. Yet others were tried with the offer of Preferments: The Lord Say was made one of the Privy Council; Mr. Oliver St. Iohn was made the King's Sollicitor, &c. But as this did not alter them, so others of them would accept of no Preserment, left they should be thought to seek themselves, or set their Fidelity to Sale. When the Earl of Strafford was Condemned, and the King desired to sign the Bill, many Bishops were called to give him their Advice, and it is commonly reported, that Archbishop Usher and divers others told him, that he might lawfully concur with the Judgment of his Parliament proceeding according to Law, though his own Judgment were that their Sentence was unjust: But Dr. Iuxon, the Bishop of London, advised him to do nothing against his Conscience: and others would give no Advice at all. When the King had Subscribed, and Strafford was beheaded, he much repented it, even to the last, as his Speeches at his Death express. And the Judgments of the Members of the Parliament were different about these Proceedings.

Some thought that the King should not at all be displeased and provoked, and that they were not bound to do any other Justice, or attempt any other Reformation but what they could procure the King to be willing to. And these said, When you have displeased and provoked him to the utmost, he will be your King still! and when you have sate to the longest, you must be dissolved at last: you have no power over his Person, though you have power over Delinquent Subjects: And if he protect them by Arms, you must either be ruined your selves by his displeasure, or be engaged in a War: Displeasing him is but exasperating him; and would you be ruled by a King that hateth you? Princes have great Minds, which cannot easily suffer Contradiction and Rebukes: The more you offend him, the less you can trust him; and when mutual Confidence is gone, a War is beginning: And if it come to a War, either you will conquer or be conquered, or come to Agreement. If you are conquered, you and the Commonwealth are ruined, and he will be absolute, and subdue Parliaments, and Govern as he pleaseth. If you come to an Agreement, it will be either such as you force him to, or as he is willing of: If the latter, it may be easilier and cheaper done before a War than after: If the former, it will much weaken it: And if you Conquer him, what the better are you? He will still be King: You can but force him to an Agreement: and how quickly will he have power and advantage to violate that which he is forced to; and to be avenged on you all for the displeasure you have done him: He is ignorant of the Advantages of a King that cannot foresee this]. These were the Reasons of many that were for pleasing the King.

But on the other side there were Men of divers tempers: Some did not look far before them, but did what they thought was best at present: whether any designed the subduing of the King, and the change of Government, at that time, I cannot tell: For I then heard of no notable Sectary in the House but young Sir Henry Vane, (whose Testimony was the Death of the Earl of Strafford, when other Evidence was wanting, and of whom I shall say more anon). But the leading and prevailing part of the House were for the Execution of Strafford, and for punishing some Delinquents, though it did displease the King: And their Reasons (as their Companions tell us) were such as these: They said, If that be your Principle that the King is not to be displeased, or provoked, then this Parliament should never have been called, which you know he was forced to against his Will: and then the Ship-money should have gone on, and the Subjects Propriety, and Parliaments, have been overthrown: And then the Church Innovations should not have been controuled, nor any stop to the Subverters of our Government and Liberties attempted: then no Members should speak freely against any of these in the House; for you know that all these are very displeasing: And then what do we here? Could not the King have pleased himself without us? Or do we come to be his Instruments, to give away the Peoples Liberties, and set up that which was begun? Either it is our Duty to reform, and to recover our Liberties, and relieve our Country, and punish Delinquents, or it is not? If it be not, let us go home again: If it be, let us do it and trust God: For if the fears of foreseen Oppositions shall make us betray our Country and Posterity, we are perfidious to them, and Enemies to our selves, and may well be said to be worse than Infidels, much p. 26rather than they that provide not for their Families; when Infidels have not thought their Lives too good to save the Commonwealth. And as for a War, the danger of it may be avoided: It is a thing uncertain, and therefore a present certain Ruine, and that by our own hand, is not to be chosen to avoid it. The King may fee the danger of it as well as we, and avoid it on better Terms: Or if he were willing, he may not be able to do any great harm: Do you think that the People of England are so mad, as to fight against those whom they have chosen to represent them? to destroy themselves, and the hopes of their Posterity? Do they not know that if Parliaments be destroyed, their Lives and Estates are meerly at the Will and Mercy of the Conquerour? And do not you see that the People are every where for the Parliament? And for Revenge; what need we fear it when the Parliament may continue till it consent to its Dissolution? And sure they will not consent till they see themselves out of the danger of Revenge]. Such as these were the Reasonings of that Party which prevailed.

But others told them, That those that adhered to the Bishops, and were offended at the Parliaments Church Reformations, would be many; and the King will never want Nobility and Gentry to adhere to him; and the Common People will follow their Landlords, and be on the stronger side: and the intelligent part, who understand their own Interests, are but few: And when you begin a War, you know not what you do]. Thus were Mens minds then in a Division: but some unhappy means fell out to unite them so as to cause them to proceed to a War.

§ 39. The things that heightned former Displeasures to a miserable War were such as follow, on both Parts: On the Parliaments part were principally, 1. The Peoples indiscretion that adhered to them; 2. The imprudence and violence of some Members of the House, who went too high: 3. The great Diffidence they had of the King when they had provoked him.

On the other side it was hastened, 1. By the Calling up of the Northern Army. 2. By the King's imposing a Guard upon the House. 3. By his entring the House to accuse some Members. 4. By the miscarriage of the Lord Digby and other of the King's Adherents. 5. But above all by the terrible Massacre in Ireland, and the Threatnings of the Rebels to Invade England. A little of every one of these.

§ 40. 1. Those that desired the Parliaments Prosperity were of divers sorts. Some were calm and temperate, and waited for the Fruits of their Endeavours in their season: And some were so glad of the hopes of a Reformation, and afraid left their Hearts and Hands should fall for want of Encouragement, that they too much boasted of them, and applauded them: which must needs offend the King, to see the People rejoyce in others as their Deliverers, and as saving them from him; and so to see them preferred in Love and Honour before him. But some were yet more indiscreet: The remnant of the old Separatists and Anabaptists in London was then very small, and scarce considerable; but they were enough to stir up the younger and unexperienced sort of Religious People, to speak too vehemently and intemperately against the Bishops and the Church and Ceremonies, and to jeer and deride at the Common Prayer, and all that was against their minds: (For the young and raw sort of Christians are usually prone to this kind of Sin; to be self-conceited, petulant, wilful, censorious, and injudicious in all their management of their Differences in Religion, and in all their Attempts of Reformation): scorning and clamouring at that which they think evil, they usually judge a warrantable Course: And it is hard finding any sort of People in the World, where many of the more unexperienced are not indiscreet, and proud and passionate.

These stirr'd up the Apprentices to joyn with them in Petitions, and to go in great numbers to Westminster to present them: And as they went they met with some of the Bishops in their Coaches going to the House; and (as is usual with the passionate and indiscreet when they are in great Companies) they too much forgot Civility, and cried out, No Bishops; which either put them really into a fear, or at least so displeased them, as gave them occasion to meet together, and draw up a Protestation against any Law which in their Absence should be passed in the Parliament, as having themselves a place there, and being, as they said, deferred from coming thither by those Clamours and Tumults.

This Protestation was so ill taken by the Parliament, as that the Subscribers of it were voted Delinquents, and sent to Prison, as going about to destroy the power of Parliaments; (and among them even Bishop Hall himself).

p. 27These numerous Petitioners also were very offensive to the King, insomuch that once some of his Cavaliers came out upon them armed as they passed by Whitehall, and catcht some of them, and cut off their Ears; and Sir Richard Wiseman leading them, there was some Fray about Westminster-Abbey between the Cavaliers and them, and Sir Richard Wiseman was slain by a stone from off the Abbey Walls. And when at last the King forsook the City, these Tumults were the principal Cause alledged by him, as if he himself had not been safe. Thus rash Attempts of Head-strong People, do work against the good Ends which they themselves intend; and the Zeal which hath censorious Strife and Envy, doth tend to Confusion, and every evil Work: And Overdoing is the ordinary way of Undoing.

§ 41. 2. And some Members of the House did cherish these Disorders; and because that the Subjects have liberty to Petition, therefore they made use of this their Liberty in a disorderly way. When they had disgraced Ship-money, and the Et caetera Oath, and Bowing towards Altars, and such things as were against Law, they stopt not there, but set themselves to cast out the Bishops and the Liturgy which were settled by Law. And though Parliaments may draw up Bills for repealing Laws, yet hath the King his Negative Voice, and without his Consent they cannot do it; which though they acknowledged, yet did they too easily admit of Petitions against the Episcopacy and Liturgy, and connived at all the Clamours and Papers which were against them.

Had they only endeavoured the Ejection of Lay Chancellors, and the reducing of the Diocesses to a narrower Compass, or the setting up of a Subordinate Discipline, and only the Correcting and Reforming of the Liturgy, perhaps it might have been borne more patiently; but some particular Members concurred with the Desires of the imprudent Reformers, who were for no less than the utter Extirpation of Bishops and Liturgy: To which purpose the Lord Brook wrote his Book against Episcopacy. And in the House of Commons Sir Henry Vane endeavoured to draw all up to the bighest Resolutions, and by his Parts and Converse drew many (so far) to his mind. And also the sense of the younger less experienced sort of the Ministers and private Christians in the Country, was much against amending the Bishops and Liturgy, and thought this was but to guild over our Danger, and lose our Opportunity; but they were for an utter Extirpation. Though none of all this was the Sense of the Parliament, yet those Members which were of this Opinion did much to encourage the Petitioners, who in a disorderly manner laboured to effect it.

The Bishops themselves who were accounted most moderate (Usher, Williams, Morton) and many other Episcopal Divines with them, had before this in a Committee at Westminster, agreed on certain Points of Reformation, which I will give you afterward, though out of the proper place, when we come to our Proposals at the King's Return 1660. But when the same Men saw that greater Things were aimed at, and Episcopacy it self in danger, or their Grandeur and Riches at the least, most of them turned against the Parliament, and were almost as much displeased as others.

§ 42. 3. And the great distrust which the Parliament had of the King, was another thing which hastened the War: For they were confident that he was unmoveable as to his Judgment and Affections, and that whatever he granted them, was but in design to get his advantage utterly to destroy them; and that he did but watch for such an Opportunity: They supposed that he utterly abhorred the Parliament, and their Actions against his Ship-money, his Judges, Bishops, &c. and therefore whatever he promised them, they believed him not, nor durst take his word; which they were hardened in by those former Actions of his, which they called, The Breach of his former Promises.

§ 43. And the Things on the other side, which occasioned their Diffidence, and caused the War, were these following especially above all the rest: 1. The Armies of the Scots and English did long continue in the North undisbanded, in their Quarters, till the Parliament should provide their Pay. Some say other Business caused the delay, and some say that the Parliament was not willing that they should be so soon disbanded; but the Army of the English wanting pay, was easily discontented: And the Parliament say that the Court drew them into a Plot against the House, to march suddenly up towards London, and to Master the Parliament: Divers of the Chief Officers were Examined, (Sir Iacob Astley, O Neale, Sir Fulh Huncks (my Mother-in-Law's Brother) and many others; and they almost all confessed some such thing, that some near the King (but not he himself) had treated with them about bringing up the Army, but none of them talkt of destroying or p. 28forcing the Parliament. These Examinations and Depositions were published by the Parliament, which did very much to perswade abundance of People that the King did but watch while he quieted them with Promises, to Master them by Force, and use them at his Pleasure. And this Action was one of the greatest Causes of the dangerous diffidence of the King.

§ 44. 2. Another was this: When the Parliament had set a Guard upon their own House, (which they took to be their Priviledge) the King discharged them, and set another Guard upon them of his choosing: which made them seem as much afraid, as if he had made them Prisoners, and would at some time or other command that Guard to Execute his Wrath upon them; whereupon they dismissed them, and called for a Guard of the City Regiments. This also did increase the Diffidence.

§ 45. 3. Another great Cause of the Diffidence and War was this: The King was advised no longer to stand by, and see the Parliament affront him, and do what they listed; but to take a sufficient Company with him, and to go suddenly in Person to the House, and there to demand some of the Leading Members to be delivered up to Justice, and tried as Traitors: Whereupon he goeth to the House of Commons with a Company of Cavaliers with Swords and Pistols, to have charged five of the Members of that House, and one of the Lords House, with High Treason; viz Mr. Pim, Mr. Hampden, Mr. Hollis, Mr. Strowd, and Sir Arthur Haseirigge, and the Lord Kimbolivn (after Earl of Manchester and Lord Chamberlain) of the Lord's: But the King was not so secret or speedy in this Action, but the Members had notice of it before his coming, and absented themselves (being together at an inner House in Red-Lyon Court in Watling street near Breadstreet in London): And so the King and his Company laid hands on none, but went their ways. Had the five Members been there, the rest supposed they would have taken them away by violence.

When the King was gone, this Allarm did cast the House into such Apprehensions, as if one after another, their Liberties or Lives must be assaulted by the Sword if they pleased not the Court: So that they presently voted it a Breach of their Priviledges, and an Effect of the King's evil Counsellors, and published their Votes; to awaken the People to rescue them, as if they were in apparent Danger.

The King being disappointed, publisheth a Paper in which he chargeth the Members with Treason, as stirring up the Apprentices to tumultuous Petitioning, &c. But confesseth his Error in violating their Priviledges.

§ 46. 4. And another thing which hastened the War, was, that the Lord Digby and some other Cavaliers, attempted at Kingston upon Thames, to have suddenly got together a Body of Horse; which the Parliament took as the beginning of a War, or an Insurrection and Rebellion: But the Party was dissipated before they could grow to any great Strength; and the Parliament voted him a Delinquent, and sent to apprehend him and bring him to Justice, with his partakers: But he sled into France; and when he was there, the Parliament intercepted some of his Letters to the King, advising him to get away from London, to some place of Strength, where his Friends might come to him; which they took as an Advise to him to begin a War. Thus one thing after another blew the Coals.

§ 47. 5. But of all the rest, there was nothing that with the People wrought so much, as the Irish Massacree and Rebellion: The Irish Papists did by an unexpected Insurrection, rise all over Ireland at once, and seized upon almost all the Strengths of the whole Land, and Dublin wonderfully escaped (a Servant of Sir Iohn Clotworthy's discovering the Plot) which was to have been surprised with the rest, Octob. 23. 1641. Two hundred thousand Persons they murdered, (as you may see in the Earl of Orary's Answer to a Petition, and in Dr. Iones's Narrative of the Examinations, and Sir Iohn Temple's History, who was one of the resident Justices:) Men, Women and Children were most cruelly used; the Women ript up, and filthily used when they killed them, and the Infants used like Toads or Vermin: Thousands of those that escaped, came stript and almost famished to Dublin, and afterwards into England to beg their Bread: Multitudes of them were driven together into Rivers, and cast over Bridges and drowned: Many Witnesses swore before the Lords Justices, that at Portdown-bridge a Vision every Day appeared to the Passengers of naked Persons standing up to the middle in the River, and crying out, Revenge, Revenge! In a word, scarce any History mentioneth the like barbarous Cruelty as this was: The French Massacree murdered but Thirty, or Forty Thousand; but Two Hundred Thousand was a Number which astonished those that heard it.

p. 29This filled all England with a Fear both of the Irish, and of the Papists at home; for they supposed that the Priests and the Interest of their Religion were the Cause: In so much, that when the Rumour of a Plot was occasioned at London, the poor People, all the Countries over, were ready either to run to Arms, or hide themselves, thinking that the Papists were ready to rise and cut their Throats: And when they saw the English Papists join with the King against the Parliament, it was the greatest thing that ever alienated them from the King.

Hereupon, the Parliament was solicitous to send help to Dublin, lest that also should be lost. The King was so forward to that Service, that he prest the Parliament that he might go over himself: The Parliament liked that worst of all, as if they had been confident that ill Counsellors advised him to it, that he might get at the Head of two Armies, and unite them both against the Parliament, and by his Absence make a Breach, and hinder the Proceedings of the Houses.

Those that came out of Ireland represent the woful Case of it, and the direful Usage of the Protestants, so as provoked the People to think that it was impossible that any Danger to them could be greater than their Participation of the like. The few that were left at Dublin got into Armes, but complained of their Necessities, and the multitude of their Enemies! So that an Hundred were used to fight against a Thousand: And to increase the Flame, some Irish Rebels told them, that they had the King's Commission for what they did; which though the soberer part could not believe, yet the credulous timerous vulgar were many of them ready to believe it: And the English Souldiers (under Sir Charles Cootes, the Lord Incheguin, &c.) send over word that it was the common Feast of the Irish, that when they had done with the handful that was left in Ireland, they would come over into England, and deal with the Parliament and Protestants here. These Threatnings with the Name of Two hundred thousand murdered, and the Recital of their monstrous Cruelties, made many thousands in England think that nothing could be more necessary than for the Parliament to put the Countrey into an armed Posture for their own Defence. And that side which the Papists of England took, they could hardly think would be their Security.

§ 48. Things being thus ripened for a War in England, the King forsaketh London, and goeth into the North, in Yorkshire he calleth the Militia of the Country which would join with him, and goeth to Hull, and demandeth entrance; Sir Iohn Hotham is put in trust with it by the Parliament, and denieth him entrance with his Forces.

The Parliament nameth Lord Lieutenants for the Militia of the Several Countries, and the King nameth other Lord Lieutenants by a Commission of Aray, and each of them command the said Lord Lieutenants to settle the Militia.

The Parliament publisheth their Votes to the People,An. 1641 That the King, misled by evil Counsel, was raising a War against his Parliament: The Lord Willouhby of Parham in Lincolnshire, the Lord Brook in Warwickshire, and others in other Counties, call in the Country to appear in Arms for the Parliament: The King's Lords call them in to appear for the King: both King and Parliament published their Declarations justifying their Cause.

The Parliament chooseth the Earl of Essex for their General, and resolveth the raising of an Army, as (For the Defence of the King and Parliament, and the Liberties of the Subjects, against evil Counsellors and Delinquents): They publish a Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom first, and a Declaration of the Causes of their taking up Arms afterward: which two contain most of the Reasons of their Cause.

The King answereth them, and goeth to Nottingham, and there setteth up his Standard to Summon his Subjects to his Aid.

The Lord Brook and the Earl of Northampton had some skuffling in Warwickshire: The Earl of N. with some Forces assaulted Warwick Castle, kept by Major Iohn Bridges, and Coventry City, kept by Col. Iohn Barker, and was repulst from both. A Party assaulted Mr. Puresoyes House, and burnt the Barns, where Mr. George Abbot, with a few of his Servants, repulst them.

At Nottingham there were but about Two thousand came in to the King's Standard, whereas the Londoners quickly fill'd up a gallant Army for the Earl of Essex; and the Citizens abundantly brought in their Money and Plate (yea, the Women their Rings) to Guildhall to pay the Army.

Hereupon the King sent to the Parliament from Nottingham the Offer of a Treaty, with some General Proposals, which in my Opinion was the likeliest Opportunity that ever the Parliament had for a full and safe Agreement; and the King p. 30seemed very serious in it, and the lowness of his Condition upon so much Trial of his People, was very like to have wrought much with him. But the Parliament was perswaded that he did it but to get time to fill up his Army, and to hinder their Proceedings, and therefore accepted not of his Offer for a Treaty, but instead of it sent him Nineteen Proposals of their own; viz. That if he would Disband his Army, come to his Parliament, give up Delinquents to a Legal Course of Justice, &c. he should find them dutiful, &c. And the King published an Answer to these Nineteen Propositions; in which he affirmeth the Government to be mixt, having in it the best of Monarchy, Aristocracy and Democracy, and that the Legislative Power is in the King, Lords and Commons conjunct, and that the Lords are a sufficient skreen to hinder the King from wronging the Commons, and to keep off Tyranny, &c. And he adhereth only to the Law which giveth him the power of the Militia! Out of this Answer of the King's to these Nineteen Proposals, some one drew up a Political Catechism, wherein the Answers of every Question were verbatim the words of the King's Declaration, as if therein he had fully justified the Parliaments Cause.

The great Controversie now was the present power of the Militia: The King said that the Supreme Executive Power, and particularly the Power of the Militia, did belong to him, and not to the Parliament, and appealed to the Law. The Parliament pleaded that as the Execution of Justice against Delinquents did belong to him; but this he is bound by Law to do by his Courts of Justice, and their Executions are to be in his Name; and by a Stat. Edw. 3. if the King by the Little Seal, or the Great Seal, forbid a Judge in Court to perform his Office, he is nevertheless to go on: Also that for the Defence of his Kingdoms against their Enemies, the Militia is in his power; but not at all against his Parliament and People, whom Nature it self forbiddeth to use their Swords against themselves. And they alledged most the present danger of the Kingdoms, Ireland almost lost, Scotland disturbed, England threatned by the Irish, and the Ruine of the Parliament sought by Delinquents, whom they said the King, through evil Counsel did protect: And that they must either secure the Militia, or give up the Protestant Religion, the Laws and Liberties of the Land, and their own Necks to the Will of Papists and Delinquents.

§ 49. And because it is my purpose here, not to write a full History of the Calamities and Wars of those Times, but only to remember such Generals with the Reasons and Connexion of Things, as may best make the state of those Times understood by them that knew it not personally themselves, I shall here annex a brief Account of the Country's Case about these Differences: not as a Justifier or Detender of the Assertions, or Reasons, or Actions of either Party which I rehearse; but only in faithfulness Historically to relate things as indeed they were.

And 1. It is of very great moment here to understand the Quality of the Persons which adhered to the King, and to the Parliament, with their Reasons.

A great part of the Lords forsook the Parliament, and so did many of the House of Commons, and came to the King; but that was for the most of them, after Edghill Fight, when the King was at Oxford. A very great part of the Knights and Gentlemen of England in the several Counties (who were not Parliament Men) adhered to the King; except in Middlesex, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, &c. where the King with his Army never came: And could he have got footing there, it's like that it would have been there as it was in other places: And most of the Tenants of these Gentlemen, and also most of the poorest of the People, whom the other called the Rabble, did follow the Gentry, and were for the King.

On the Parliaments side were (besides themselves) the smaller part (as some thought) of the Gentry in most of the Counties, and the greatest part of the Tradesmen, and Free-holders, and the middle sort of Men; especially in those Corporations and Countries which depend on Clothing and such Manufactures.

If you ask the Reasons of this Difference, ask also, why in France it is not commonly the Nobility nor the Beggars, but the Merchants and middle sort of Men, that were Protestants. The Reasons which the Party themselves gave was, Because (say they) the Tradesmen have a Correspondency with London, and so are grown to be a far more Intelligent sort of Men than the ignorant Peasants that are like Bruits, who will follow any that they think the strongest, or look to get by: And the Freeholders, say they, were not enslaved to their Landlords as the Tenants are: The Gentry, (say they) are wholly by their Estates and Ambition more p. 31dependent on the King, than their Tenants on them; and many of them envied the Honour of the Parliament, because they were not chosen Members themselves. The other side said, That the Reason was because the Gentry (who commanded their Tenants) did better understand Affairs of State than half-witted Tradesmen and Freeholders do.

But though it must be confessed, That the Publick Safety and Liberty wrought very much with most, especially with the Nobility and Gentry, who adhered to the Parliament, yet was it principally the differences about Religious Matters that filled up the Parliaments Armies, and put the Resolution and Valour into their Soldiers, which carried them on in another manner than mercenary Soldiers are carried on. Not that the Matter of Bishops Or no Bishops was the main thing, (for Thousands that wished for Good Bishops were on the Parliaments side) though many called it Bellum Episcopale; (And with the Scots that was a greater part of the Controversie.) But the generality of the People through the Land (I say not all, or every one) who were then called Puritans, Precisions, Religious Persons, that used to talk of God, and Heaven, and Scripture, and Holiness, and to follow Sermons, and read Books of Devotion, and pray in their Families, and spend the Lord's Day in Religious Exercises, and plead for Mortification, and serious Devotion, and strict Obedience to God, and speak against Swearing, Cursing, Drunkenness, Prophaneness, &c. I say, the main Body of this sort of Men, both Preachers and People, adhered to the Parliament. And on the other side, the Gentry that were not so precise and strict against an Oath, or Gaming, or Plays, or Drinking, nor troubled themselves so much about the Matters of God and the World to come, and the Ministers and People that were for the King's Book, for Dancing and Recreations on the Lord's Days; and those that made not so great a matter of every Sin, but went to Church and heard Common Prayer, and were glad to hear a Sermon which lasht the Puritans, and which ordinarily spoke against this strictness and preciseness in Religion, and this strict Observation of the Lord's Day, and following Sermons, and praying Ex tempore, and talking so much of Scripture and the Matters of Salvation, and those that hated and derided them that take these Courses, the main Body of these were against the Parliament. Not but that some such for Money, or a Landlord's Pleasure, served them; as some few of the stricter sort were against them, or not for them (being Neuters): but I speak of the notable Division through the Land.

If you ask how this came to pass, it requireth a longer Answer than I think fit here to give: But briefly, Actions spring from natural Dispositions and Interest. There is somewhat in the Nature of all worldly Men which maketh them earnestly defirous of Riches and Honours in the World; and they that value them most will seek them; and they that seck them are more like to find them than those that despise them; and he that taketh the World and Preferment for his Interest will estimate and choose all means accordingly; and where the World is predominant, Gain goeth for Godliness, and serious Religion, which would mortifie their Sin is their greatest Enemy: Yet Conscience must be quieted, and Reputation preserved, which can neither of them be done, without some Religion: Therefore such a Religion is necessary to such as is consistent with a worldly Mind; which Outside-formality, Lip-service and Hypocrisie is; but Seriousness, Sincerity and Spirituality is not.

On the other side, there is that in the new Nature of a spiritual Believer, which inclineth him to things above, and causeth him to look at worldly Grandeur and Riches, as things more dangerous than desirable; and he is dead to the World, and the World to him by the Cross of Christ; no wonder therefore if few such attain great Matters in the World, or ever come to Preferment or Greatness upon Earth: And there is somewhat in them which maketh them more fearful of displeasing God, than all the World, and will not give them leave to stretch their Consciences, or turn aside when the Interest, or Will of Man requireth it: And the Laws of Christ, to which they are so devoted, are of such a stream as cannot suit with carnal Interest. There is an universal and radicated Enraity between the Carnal and the Spiritual, the Serpent's and the Woman's Seed, the fleshly Mind, and the spiritual Law of God, through all the World, in all Generations, Gen. 3. 15. Rom. 8. 6, 7, 8. Thus Enmity is found in England, as well as in other Countries, between the Godly and the Worldly Minds; as he that was born after the Flesh did persecute him that was born after the Spirit, even so was it here: The vulgar Rabble of the carnal and prophane, the Fornicators, Drunkards, Swearers, &c. did every where hate them that reproved their Sin, and condemned them by a holy Life. This Difference was universal, and their Enmity implacable, farther p. 32than common Grace abated it, or special Grace cured it. So that every where serious, godly People, that would not run with others to excess of Rvot, were spoken against and derided by the Names of Precisians, Zealot, Over-strict, the holy Brethren, and other Terms of Scorn.

These things being supposed, it unhappily fell out that in the Days of Queen Mary (that we may fetch the matter ab origine) our Reformers, being Fugitives at Frankford, fell into a Division: One part of them were for Diocesans, and the English Liturgy and Ceremonies, that they might no more than needs depart from the Papists, nor seem unconstant by departing from what King Edward had begun. The other were for Calvin's Discipline and way of Worship; for the setting up of a Parochial Discipline instead of a Diocesan; and to have a Government in every particular Church, and not only One over a Thousand, or many Hundred Churches: and for a plain and serious way of Worship, suited as near as possible to God's Word.

When these two Parties returned into England, the Diocesan Party got Queen Elizabeth's Countenance, and were preferred, and their way set up. The other Party petitioned, and hoped, and waited, but were discountenanced, rebuked, and by Law suppressed. This lamentable Breach was never healed: The discountenanced Party were servent Preachers, of holy Lives, and so were many of the Bishops also in those days! But if those that succeeded them had been as holy and as diligent Preachers, they had kept up their Honour and Places without such Assaults as they have undergone. But when Iewel, Pelkington, Grindal, and such like were dead, many succeeded them whom the People took to be other kind of Men. And the silenced Disciplinarians (as then they were called) did by their Writings, their secret Conference and Preaching, and their Godly Lives, work much upon such as were religiously addicted. And moreover, besides what they received from such Teachers, there is (I know not perfectly whence), among the most of the Religious serious People of these Countreys, a suspicion of all that is Ceremonious in God's Service, and of all which they find not warrant for in Scripture, and a greater inclination to a rational convincing earnest way of Preaching and Prayers, than to the written Forms of Words which are to be read in Churches. And they are greatly taken with a Preacher that speaketh to them in a familiar natural Language, and exhorteth them as if it were for their Lives; when another that readeth or faith a few composed Words in a reading Tone, they hear almost as a Boy that is saying his Lesson: And they are much perswaded that a just Parochial Discipline would greatly reform the Church; and that Diocesans by excluding it, cherish Vice.

Now upon the Difference between the Diocesans and the Disciplinarians, the Diocesans found that their very Places, and Power, and Lands, and Lordships were assaulted by the contrary Opinion; and therefore they thought it necessary to suppress the Promoters of it. And so putting Episcopacy, Liturgy, Ceremonies, and all into the Subscriptions which they imposed on all that would be Ministers or Schoolmasters, they kept and cast out very many worthy Men: For some that were for Liturgy and Ceremonies, were not for Diocesans, but for Parish Discipline; and some that were for Bishops were not for the Ceremonies; and some that were for the rest yet scrupled some one, and he that could not Subscribe to all, was forbidden to preach the Gospel: whereas in the mean time many Bishops preached very seldom, and abundance of Places had ignorant Readers that could nor preach, and silly Preachers, whose Performances were so mean, that they had better kept to the Reading of the Homilies; and many of these were of Scandalous Lives.

Hereupon the Disciplinarians cried out of the ignorant scandalous Ministers; and almost all the scandalous Ministers (and all that studied Preferment) cried out of the Nonconformists: The name Puritan was put upon them, and by that they were commonly known; when they had been called by that name awhile, the vicious Multitude of the Ungodly called all Puritans that were strict and serious in a Holy Life, were they ever so conformable! So that the same name in a Bishops mouth signified a Nonconformist, and in an ignorant Drunkards or Swearers mouth, a godly obedient Christian. But the People being the greater number, became among themselves the Masters of the Sense. And in Spalatensi's time, when he was decrying Calvinism, he devised the name of Doctrinal Puritans, which comprehended all that were against Arminianism. Now the ignorant Rabble hearing that the Bishops were against the Puritans, (not having wit enough to know whom they meant) were emboldened the more against all those whom they called p. 33Puritans themselves, and their Rage against the Godly was increased: and they cried up the Bishops, partly because they were against the Puritans, and partly because they were earnest for that way of Worship which they found most consistent with their Ignorance, Carelesness, and Sins. And thus the Interest of the Diocesans and of the Prophane and Ignorant sort of People were unhappily twisted together in England.

And then on the other side, as all the Nonconformists were against the Prelates, so other of the most serious godly People were alienated from them on all these foresaid conjunct Accounts.

1. Because they were derided and abused by the Name of Puritans.

2. Because the Malignant Sort were permitted to make Religious Persons their common Scorn.

3. Because they saw so many insufficient and vicious Men among the Conformable Clergy.

4. Because they had a high esteem of the Parts and Piety of most of the Nonconformable Ministers.

5. Because they grieved to see so many Excellent Men silenced, while so many Thousand were perishing in Ignorance and Sin.

6. Because though they took the Liturgy to be lawful, yet a more orderly serious Scriptural way of Worship was much more pleasing to them.

7. Because Fasting and Praying, and other Exercises, which they found much benefit by, were so strictly lookt after, that the High Commission and the Bishops Courts did make it much more perillous, than common Swearing and Drunkenness proved to the Ungodly.

8. Because the Book that was published for Recreations on the Lord's Day made them think that the Bishops concurred with the Prophane.

9. Because Afternoon Sermons and Lectures, though by Conformable Men, began to be put down in divers Counties.

10. Because so great a number of Conformable Ministers were suspended or punished for not reading the Book of Sports on Sundays, or about Altars, or such like: and so many Thousand Families, and many worthy Ministers, driven out of the Land.

11. Because when they saw Bowing towards Altars, and the other Innovations added, they feared worse, and knew not where they would end.

12. And lastly, Because they saw that the Bishops proceeded so far as to swear Men to their whole Government by the Et caetera Oath, and that they approved of Ship-money, and other such incroachments on their Civil Interests.

All these upon my own knowledge were the true Causes why so great a number of those Persons who were counted most Religious, fell in with the Parliament in England; insomuch that the generality of the stricter diligent sort of Preachers joyned with them, though not in medling with Arms, yet in Judgment, and in flying to their Garrisons; and almost all those afterwards called Presbyterians, were before Conformists: Very few of all that Learned and Pious Synod at Westminster were Nonconformists before, and yet were for the Parliament, supposing that the Interest of Religion lay on that side.

Yet did they still keep up an honourable esteem of all that they thought Religious on the other side; such as Bishop Davenant, Bishop Hall, Bishop Morton, Archbishop Usher, &c. But as to the generality, they went so unanimously the other way, that upon my knowledge many that were not wise enough to understand the Truth about the Cause of the King and Parliament, did yet run into the Parliaments Armies, or take their part (as Sheep go together for Company) moved by this Argument, [Sure God will not suffer almost all his most Religious Servants to err in so great a matter.] And [If all these should perish what will become of Religion.] But these were insufficient Grounds to go upon. And abundance of the ignorant sort of the Country, who were Civil, did flock in to the Parliament, and filled up their Armies afterward, meerly because they heard Men swear for the Common Prayer and Bishops, and heard others pray that were against them; and because they heard the King's Soldiers with horrid Oaths abuse the name of God, and saw them live in Debauchery, and the Parliaments Soldiers flock to Sermons, and talking of Religion, and praying and singing Psalms together on their Guards. And all the sober Men that I was acquainted with, who were against the Parliament, were wont to say, [The King hath the better Cause, but the Parliament hath the better Men].

p. 34Aud indeed, this unhappy Complication of the Interest of Prelacie, and Prophaneness, and Opposition of the Interest of Prelacie to the Temper of the generality of the Religious Party, was the visible Cause of the overthrow of the King in the Eye of all the understanding World, that ever was capable of observing it.

§ 50. And whereas the King's Party usually say, that it was the seditious Preachers that stirred up the People, and were the Cause of all this, I answer,

1. It is partly true, and partly not: It is not true that they stirred them up to War (except an inconsiderable Number of them, one perhaps in a County, if so much.) But it is true that they discovered their dislike of the Book of Sports, and bowing to Altars, and diminishing Preaching, and silencing Ministers, and such like; and were glad that the Parliament attempted a Reformation of them.

2. But then it is as true, that almost all these were conformable Ministers, the Laws and Bishops having cast out the Nonconformists long enough before; insomuch, that I know not of two Nonconformists in a County. But those that made up the Assembly at Westminster, and that through the Land, were the Honour of the Parliaments Party, were almost all such as had till then conformed, and took those things to be lawful in case of necessity, but longed to have that necessity removed.

§ 51. When the War was beginning, the Parties set Names of Contempt upon each other, and also took such Titles to themselves and their own Cause, as might be the fittest means for that which they designed: The old Names of Puritans and Formalists were not now broad enough, nor of sufficient force. The King's Party, as their Serious Word, called the Parliaments Party Rebels, and as their common ludi…rous Name, The Round-heads (the original of which is not certainly known: Some say, it was because the Puritans then commonly wore short Hair, and the King's Party long Hair: Some s…y, it was because the Queen, at Strafford's Tryal, asked who that Round-headed Man was, meaning Mr. Pym, because he spake so strongly.)

The Parliaments Party called the other side commonly by the Name of Malignants, as supposing that the generality of the Enemies of serious Godliness went that way, in a desire to destroy the Religious out of the Land. (And the Parliament put that Name into their Mouths) and the Souldiers they called Cavaliers, because they took that Name to themselves; and afterwards they called them Damme's [because God Damn me] was become a common Curse, and as a By-word among them.

The King professed to sight for the Subjects Liberties, the Laws of the Land, and the Protestant Religion. The Parliament profest the same, and all their Commissions were granted as [for King and Parliament] for the Parliament professed, that the Separation of the King from the Parliament, could not be without a Destruction of the Government, and that the Dividers were the Destroyers and Enemies to the State, and if the Soldiers askt each other at any Surprize or Meeting [who are you for?] those on the King's side said, [for the King] and the others said, [for King and Parliament] the King disowned their Service, as a Scorn, that they should say they fought for King and Parliament, when their Armies were ready to charge him in the Field. They said to this,

1. That they fought to redeem him from them that took him a voluntary Captive, and would separate him from his Parliament.

2. That they fought against his Will only, but not against his Person, which they desired to rescue and preserve, nor against his Authority which was for them.

3. That as all the Courts of Justice do execute their Sentences in the King's Name, and this by his own Law, and therefore by his Authority, so much more might his Parliament do.

§ 52. But now we come to the main matter; What satisfied so many of the intelligent part of the Countrey to side with the Parliament when the War began?

What inclined their Affections I have before shewed; and it is not to be doubted but their Approbation of the Parliament in the cause of Reformation made them the easilier believe the lawfulness of their War: But yet there were some Dissenters which put the matter to debates among themselves. In Warwickshire, Sir Francis Nethersole, a religious Knight, was against the Parliaments War and Covenant, (though not for the Justness of the War against them.) In Glocestershire, Mr. Geree, an old eminent Nonconformist, and Mr. Copell, a learned Minister (who put out himself to prevent being put out for the Book of Recreations) and some others with p. 35them were against the lawfulness of the War; so was Mr. Lyford of Sherborn in Dorcetshire, and Mr. Francis Bampfield, his Successor, and some other Godly Ministers in other Countries: And many resolved to meddle on no side.

Those that were against the Parliaments War were of three Minds or Parties: One Part thought that no King might be resisted (but these I shall not take any more notice of.) The other thought that our King might not be at all resisted; because he is our Sovereign, and we have sworn to his Supremacy; and if he be Supreme, he hath neither Superior, nor Equal: And Oaths are to be interpreted in the strictest Sense. The third sort granted that in some Cases the King might be resisted, as Bilson, and other Bishops hold, but not in this Case.

1. Because, the Law giveth him the Militia, which was contended for; and the Law is the measure of Power.

2. Because, say they, the Parliament began the War, by permitting Tumults to deprive the Members of their Liberty, and affront and dishonour the King.

3. Because the Members themselves are Subjects, and took the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy, and therefore have no Authority to resist.

4. It is not lawful for Subjects to defend Reformation or Religion by Force, against … Soveraigns; no such good Ends will warrant evil Means.

5. It is contrary to the Doctrine of Protestants, and the ancient Christians, and Scripture it self… which condemneth all that resist the higher Powers; and as for the Primitive Christians… it is well known they were acquainted with no other lawful Weapons against them but Prayers and Tears.

6. It importeth a false Accusation of the King, as if he were about to destroy Religion, Liberties, or Parliaments, all which he is resolved to defend, as in all his Declarations doth appear.

7. It justifieth the Papists Doctrine and Practices of Rebellion, and taketh the Odium from them unto our selves, and layeth a Reproach upon the Protestant Cause.

8. It proceedeth from Impatience and Distrust of God, which causeth Men to fly to unlawful means. Religion may be preserved better by patient Sufferings.

These were their Reasons who were against the Parliaments War, which may be seen more at large in Mr. Dudly Digs his Book, and Mr. Welden's, and Mr. Michael Hudson's, and Sir Francis Nethersole's.

§ 53. As for those on the Parliaments side, I will first tell you what they said to these Eight Reasons; and next, what Reasons moved them to take the other side.

1. To the First Reason, they said (as before) that for the Law to give the King the …itia, signifieth no more but that the People in Parliament consented to obey him in Matter of Wars, and to fight for him, and under his Conduct: For the Law is nothing but the Consent of King and Parliament; and the Militia is nothing but the Peoples own Swords and Strength: And that this Consent of theirs should be supposed to be meant against themselves, as if they consented to destroy themselves whenever he commanded it, is an Exposition against Nature, Sense, and Reason, and the common Sentiments of Mankind. And they said that the same Law required Sheriffs to exercise the Militia in Obedience to the Decrees of his Courts of Justice, and this against the King's Personal Commands, and in the King's Name. Because King and Parliament have by Law setled those Courts and Methods of Execution, a Command of the King alone can no more prevail against them, than it can abrogate a Law. And the Law, said they, is above the King, because King and Parliament are more than the King alone. And they pretend also Presidents for their Resistance.

2. To the Second, they said, that when 200000 Protestants were murdered in Ireland, and their Friends so bold in England, and the Parliaments Destruction so industruously endeavoured, it was no time for them to rebuke their Friends upon terms of Civility and good Manners, though their Zeal was mixt with Indiscretion; and that if the Londoners had not shewed that Zeal for them, it might have emboldned their Enemies against them; and that if the permitting of Petitioners to crowd to them too boldly, and speak too unmannerly can be called, the raising of a War (when they fought with none, but were assaulted themselves) then the calling up of the Army from the North, was much more so, and so they were not the Beginners. Or had they been the Beginners, it had been lawful, being but to bring Delinquents to Justice, as the Sheriff himself may in Obedience to a Court of Justice. But the Irish Flames which threatned them were kindled before all these

p. 363. To the third they said, that the Parliament are Subjects limitedly, and not simply, as the King is not an absolute, but a limited King, viz. limited by the Laws and Constitutions of the Government; they are Subjects to him according to Law, but not subject to Arbitrary Government against Law: Their Propriety is excepted in their Subjection, and they have certain Liberties which are not subject to the Will of the King. And also, they said, That as the Sheriff is a Subject, and a Court of Justice; Subjects, and yet may resist the King's Letters, even under the Broad-Seal, and his Messengers or armed Men that act illegally (because the Law, which hath his Authority and the Parliament's, enable them so to do) so also may the Parliament, which is his highest Court of Justice. And they said, that as they have a part in the Legislative Power, they have part in the Summa Potes…as, and so far are not Subjects. And they said, that the bare Title of Supreme is no Argument against the Constitution of a Kingdom, though it be expressed in an Oath. For the King is stiled, the Supreme Governor of France, and yet the Oath of Supremacy doth not bind us to believe, that no French Man may lawfully …ear Arms against him.

4. They say to the fourth, That they wholly grant it; that though Religion may be the end of a lawful War, yet not of a Rebellion: nor may any Reformations be performed by any Actions which belong not to the Places and Callings of the Performers. But where the means are Lawful, Religion and Reformation are lawful Ends.

5. To the fifth they said, That they agree with all good Christians and Protestants, that true Authority may not be resisted by any Subject: But all Protestants, or most, agree with them, that a limited Governor, which hath not Authority to do what he lists, may perform an Act of Will, which is no Act of Authority; and that the Parliament was the highest Judicature, and that it was Rebellion in them that resisted the Parliament in their legal prosecution of Delinquents, and Defence of the Land and themselves: and that Paul, Rom. 13. determineth not at all, whether the Emperors or the Senate was the higher Power; and that the Resisters of the Parliament are the condemned Breakers of that Order and Command.

6. To the sixth they said, that they Charge nothing on the King, but what their Eyes behold, viz. That he hath forsaken his Parliament, and raiseth Arms against them, and protecteth Delinquents: And this they mention but as Matter of Fact; for the culpability they charge upon his evil Counsellors, and Instruments: For the King being no Subject, is liable to no Accusations in any of his … Irish, the Papist, and those guilty Persons who would ruine all, to … Justice, whom they accuse, and not the King. And whateve… … King's Declarations say, Ship-money hath been imposed, the Judges have been … the German Horse were to have been brought in; the Northern Army … have been brought up against the Parliament; the House was invaded and … Members demanded, a Guard was set upon them, and their Destruction … Enemies) was powerfully endeavoured.

7. … the seventh they said, That for the supreme legislative Authority to defend … and the Land, and for the King's Courts of Justice to prosecute Delin… … though against the King's Will) is no dishonour to the Protestant Religion, … any thing like the Papists Doctrine and Practices of Rebellion; nor any Justification of them. If it were, then the very Constitution of our ancient Government or Kingdom, would it self be a dishonour to our Religion.

8. To the last they say, That Patience is our Duty so far as we are called to Sufferings, and God is …o be trusted in the way which he hath appointed us: But if the Irish Rebels had foretold the Parliament and Justices of their Insurrection, and then exhorted them to Patience and Non-resistance and trusting God, or if a Thief that would rob us to exhort us to be patient and not resist, he doth but exhort us to be guilty of his Sin. … Protestants Patience was that which pleased the Irish; or (if a King must be brought in as a Party) the French Mens Patience in the Parisian Massacre pleased Charles IX. and the Executioners: And if in all Countries the Protestants would let the Papists cut their Throats, and die in the Honour of Patience, it would satisfie those bloody Adversaries, who had rather we died in such Honour, than lived without it: But if such Patience would be a poor Excuse for a Father that sought not to preserve his Children, much less for the Paliament that stand still while Papists and Delinquents subvert both Church and State.

p. 37These were their Answers to their Accusers in those Points.

§ 54. The Sum of those Reasons which satisfied many that adhered to the Parliament, were these, which I will but briefly name.

1. As to the Danger of the State, the Matters of Fact did make it seem undeniable to them: Ship-money they judged not of according to the Sum; but they thought… Propriety was thereby destroyed, and Parliaments cast aside and made unnecessary: And they saw that this Parliament was called upon the Scots, and then called Discontented Lords importunity, after many Parliaments had been dissolved in displeasure, and after they had been long forborn: And the calling up of the Northern Army, and the demanding of the Members, made Multitudes think that the ruine of the Parliament was the great Design; and their ungrateful beginning and proceedings made this seem credible, so that I met with few of that sort that doubted of it. But above all, the Two hundred thousand kill'd in Ireland, affrighted the Parliament and all the Land. And whereas it is said, that the King hated that, as well as they: They answered, that though he did, his hating it would neither make all those alive again, nor preserve England from their threatned Assault, as long as Men of the like malignity were protected, and could not be kept out of Arms, nor brought to Justice.

2. The End of the War did much prevail with them: For they thought that to master and destroy the Parliament, was to leave the People hopeless, as to any Security of their Propriety or Liberties, or any Remedy against meer Will! For there is no other Power that may relieve them: And if Parliaments were so used before, what would they be, (said they) if by such a War they should be conquered. And they thought that the ruine of the State and of Men's Propriety, was such an End as no means could be lawfully used for; and that the Preservation of the Kingdom was such an End as would make lawful any necessary means, which God himself had not forbidden.

3. And then as to Authority, they thought that the Legislative Power is the chiefest part of Soveraignty; and that the Parliament having a part in the Legislative Power, had so far inherently a Power to defend it, which no Law can suppose them to give away: And as the Peoples Representatives, they supposed themselves much Intrusted to secure their reserved Liberties, which the Law giveth not the King any Authority to take away.

4. And they supposed that Government being that Publick Work which upholdeth the Common Peace, it is to be done by Publick Instruments and… Means; and that the Kings Laws are his Instruments of Government, and also his Publick Courts and Officers: And that the Subjects cannot know so well, whether private Commands or Commissions be real or counterfeit, nor are so much bound to take notice of them. And that the Judgments and Executions of the Courts of Justice, being the Effect of Laws which King and Parliament have made, are of greater Authority than contrary Commissions or Commands from the King alone.

5. It much confirmed them because all confessed, That the Sheriffs of Counties must raise the posse Comitatus for the Execution of some Decrees of Courts of Justice, though the King forbid it, or grant a Commission to any to hinder it: And that the foresaid Statute of Edw. 3. maketh even the King's Letters under the Broad Seal to be void when they would hinder Justice.

6. And they pleaded the Law of Nature, which is greater than Positive Laws, That no Nation is bound to destroy it self. The Militia being nothing but the Peoples own Sword, they say they are not bound to destroy themselves with it; nor can any Law be so interpreted. And whereas it was said, That the King sought not to destroy the Parliament, but to bring some among them to punishment; they said, that it belongeth to the Parliament to judge its Members; and that if on pretence of punishing offending Members, the King may come and fetch away, or demand those that displease him, Parliaments and Liberties and all Security of them is gone.

7. The King's Answer to the Nineteen Propositions, greatly confirmed many, when they saw the King himself declaring to them, That the Legislative Power was in Kings, Lords, and Commons, and that the Government was mixt, and was not Arbitrary; which they thought it must needs be, if his Commissions were of greater power than his Laws and Courts, and if no resistance might be made against any that executed an illegal Commission. duplicate page p. 36duplicate page

p. 388. It most prevailed with many, that the Parliament professed not to fight against either the Person or Authority of the King, though against his Will; but that their War was only against Subjects. They said that some Subjects were Delinquents that fled from Justice, against whom they might raise Arms offensively; and other Subjects took Arms against the Parliament; and against these they made a Defensive War: But all of them were Subjects, and not Kings: And the King's Will or Commission is not enough to save all Subjects from punishment, when his Law is against it; nor to authorize them to destroy the Parliament and their Country.

9. They were much emboldened because this Parliament was continued by Law till it should dissolve it self. And therefore some said, the King's Presence is virtually, with them, he being a part of the Parliament: and others said that no War could be lawful which was for their dissolution or ruine, or to deprive them of their Liberty; and that the defence of them was lawful, whom the Law continued.

10. They alledged King Iames, who, they said, of any Man did most endeavour to advance his Prerogative, and yet in his printed Treatise for Monarchy confesseth, That a King cannot lawfully make a War against the Body of his Kingdom, but only against an offending Faction. Therefore, say they, not against the Representative Body, till it be proved that by perfidiousness they have forfeited the Virtue and Honour of their Representation.

11. They alledged Barclay, Grotius, and other Defenders of Monarchy, especially that passage of Grotius de Iure Belli, where he saith, That if several Persons have a part in the Summa Potestas (of which he maketh Legislation a chief Act), each part hath naturally the power of defending its own Interest in the Soveraignty against the other part if th… … invade it. And addeth over boldly, That if in such a War they conquer, the conqu…red party loseth to them his share: And saith, That this is so true that it holdeth, though the Law expresly say, that one of the Parties shall have the power of the Militia, it being to be understood that he shall have it against Forreign Enemies and Delinquents, and not against the other part.

12. It much confirmed them to find the most Learned Episcopal Divines speak so high for the Legislative Power of Parliaments (as Tho. Hooker doth Eccles. Pol. lib. 1. for the Eighth Book, which saith more than the Parliament ever said, was not then published). And for resistance in several Cases, as Bishop Bilson doth, even in that Treatise wherein he so strongly defendeth Obedience, and which he dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. And to find how far they defend the French, Dutch, and German Protestants Wars.

13. They said that the Carnal respect of Men for personal Interests, hath made all the stream of most Mens Words and Writings go on the Prince's side; but Tyanny is a Mischief as well as Disobedience, and that which all Ages, and most Nations have grievously smarted by: and they that befriend it, are guilty of the Sin, and of the Ruines which it procureth: It keepeth out Christianity from five parts of the World: It corrupteth it and keepeth out the Protestant Truth in most of the sixth part: The Eastern and the Western Churches suffer under it, to the perdition of millions of Souls. If Bodily Sufferings were all, the matter were nothing; but it is Mens Souls, and the Interest of the Gospel, which is the Sacrifice to their Wills.

14. Lastly, This greatly confirmed many, that the Matter being a Controversie, whether the Disobedience and Resistance of King or Parliament, is now the Rebellion and Sin, the simple People are not wiser than the States-men that differ about it. How then should they better quiet their Judgments, than in the Judgment of the Parliament, who are the Trustees of the People, and the chief Court and Council of the King, and have so many Lawyers and Wife men among them, and are so greatly interessed in the common Good themselves? If it were but the Question, Which is the King's Governing Will, which the People must obey? And a Soldier saith, It is my Commission, and the High Court of Parliament saith, It is the Law declared in a Court of Justice, a Parliament seemeth to be the properest Judge: As in Controversies of Physick, who is to be believed before the Colledge of Physicians? Or in Controversies of Religion, who before a General Council? If the House of York and Lancaster …ight for the Crown, and both Command the Subjects Arms. the poor Peasants are not able to judge of their Titles: And if a Parliament shall not judge for them who shall?

These were the Reasons which caused Men to adhere to the Parliament in this War.

p. 39§ 55. For my own part I freely confess, that I was not judicious enough in Politicks and Law to decide this Controversie which so many Lawyers and Wise men differed in. And I freely confess, that being astonished at the Irish Massacre, and perswaded fully both of the Parliaments good endeavours for Reformation, and of their real danger, my Judgment of the main Cause much swayed my Judgment in the Matter of the Wars: and the Arguments à fine, & à natureâ, & necessitate, which common Wits are capable of discerning, did too far incline my Judgment in the Cause of the War, before I well understood the Arguments from our particular Laws: And the Consideration of the Quality of the Parties that sided for each Cause, in the Countries, did greatly work with me, and more than it should have done: And I verily thought, that if that which a Judge in Court saith sententially is Law, must go for Law to the Subject, as to the Decision of that Cause, though the King send his Broad Seal against it, then that which the Parliament saith is Law, is Law to the Subjects (about the Dangers of the Common-wealth) whatever it be in it self; and that if the King's Broad-Seal cannot prevail against the Judge, much less against their Judgment.

I make no doubt but both Parties were to blame (as it commonly falleth out in most Wars and Contentions) and I will not be he that shall Justifie either of them. I doubt not but the Headiness and Rashness of the younger unexperienced sort of religious People, made many Parliament Men and Ministers overgo themselves, to keep pace with those hot Spurs; no doubt but much Indiscretion appeared, and worse than Indiscretion in the tumultuous Petitioners, and much Sin was committed in the dishonouring of the King, and provocation of him, and in the uncivil Language against the Bishops and Liturgie of the Church: But these things came principally from the Sectarian separating Spirit, which blew the Coals among foolish Apprentices: And as the Sectaries increased so did this Insolence increase. I have my self been in London, when they have on the Lord's Days stood at the Church Doors while the Common Prayer was reading, saying, We must stay till he is out of his Pottage. And such unchristian Scorns and Jests did please young inconsiderate Wits, that knew not what Spirit they were of, nor whither such unwarrantate things did tend. Learned Mr. Iohn Ball, though a Nonconformist, discerned the stirrings of this insolent Sectarian Spirit betimes, and fell a writing against it; even then when some were crying out of Persecution, and others were tender of such little Differences: One or two in the House, and five or six Ministers that came from Holland, and a few that were scattered in the City, which were the Brownists Relicts, did drive on others according to their own dividing Principles, and sowed the Seeds which afterward spread over all the Land; though then there were very few of them in the Countreys, even next to none. As Bishop Hall speaks against the justifying of the Bishops, so do I against justifying the Parliament, Ministers, or City: I believe many unjustifiable things were done; but I think that few Men among them all, were the Doers or Instigaters of it.

But I then thought that whosoever was faulty, the Peoples Liberties and Safety could not be forfeited: And I thought that all the Subjects were not guilty of all the Faults of King or Parliament when they defended them: Yea, that if both their Causes had been bad as against each other, yet that the Subjects should adhere to that Party which most secured the welfare of the Nation, and might defend the Land under their Conduct, without owning all their Cause. And herein I confess I was then so zealous, that I thought it a great Sin for Men that were able to defend their Country, to be Neuters: And I have been tempted since to think that I was a more competent Judge upon the Place, when all things were before our eyes, than I am in the review of those Days and Actions so many Years after, when Distance disadvantageth the Apprehension. A Writer (against Cromwel's Decimation) recanting his great Adherence to the Parliament in that War, yet so abhorreth Neutrality, that he likeneth him rather to a Dog than a Man that could stand by when his Country was in such a case: But I confess for my part I have not such censorious Thoughts of those that then were Neuters as formerly I have had: For he that either thinketh both sides raised an unlawful War, or that could not tell which (if either) was in the right, might well be excused if he defended neither.

I was always satisfied, 1. That the Dividers of the King and Parliament were the Traitors, whoever they were: and that the Division tended to the Dissolution of the Government.

p. 402. And that the Authority and Person of the King were inviolable, out of the reach of just Accusation, Judgment, or Execution by Law; as having no Superiour, and so no Judge.

3. I favoured the Parliaments Cause, as they professed 1. To bring Delinquents to a Legal Trial:

2. And to preserve the Person and Government of the King, by a Conjunction with his Parliament.

But Matters that Warrs and Blood are any way concerned in are so great and tenderly to be handled, that I profess to the World that I dare not, I will not justifie any thing that others or I my self have done of any such consequence. But though I never hurt the Person of any Man, yet I resolve: to pray daily and earnestly to God, that he will reveal to me whatever I have done amiss, and not suffer me through Ignorance to be impenitent, and would forgive me both my known and unknown Sins, and cleanse this Land from the Guilt of Blood.

§ 56. Having inserted this much of the Case of History of those Times, I now proceed to the Relation of the Passages of my own Life, beginning where I left.

When I was at Kidderminster the Parliament made an Order for all the People to take a Protestation to defend the King's Person, Honour and Authority, the Power and Priviledges of Parliaments, the Liberties of the Subject, and the Protestant Religion, against the common Enemy] meaning the Papists; the Irish Massacre and Threatnings occasioning this Protestation. I obeyed them in joyning with the Magistrate in offering the People this Protestation; which caused some to be offended with me.

About that time the Parliament sent down an Order, for the demolishing of all Statues and Images of any of the three Persons in the blessed Trinity, or of the Virgin Mary, which should be found in Churches, or on the Crosses in Church-yards. My Judgment was for the obeying of this Order, thinking it came from just Authority; but I medled not in it, but left the Churchwarden to do what he thought good. The Churchwarden (an honest, sober, quiet Man) seeing a Crucifix upon the Cross in the Church-yard, set up a Ladder to have reacht it, but it proved too short: whilst he was gone to seek another, a Crew of the drunken riotous Party of the Town (poor Journey-men and Servants) took the Allarm, and run altogether with Weapons to defend the Crucifix, and the Church Images (of which there were divers left since the time of Popery): They Report was among them, that I was the Actor, and it was me they sought; but I was walking almost a mile out of Town, or else I suppose I had there ended my days: when they mist me and the Churchwarden both, they went raving about the Streets to seek us. Two Neighbours that dwelt in other Parishes, hearing that they sought my Life, ran in among them to see whether I were there, and they knockt them both down in the Streets, and both of them are since dead, and I think never perfectly recovered that hurt. When they had foamed about half an hour, and met with none of us, and were newly housed, I came in from my walk, and hearing the People Cursing at me in their Doors, I wondered what the matter was, but quickly found how fairly I had scaped. The next Lord's Day I dealt plainly with them, and laid open to them the quality of that Action, and told them, Seeing they so required me as to seek my Blood, I was willing to leave them, and save them from that Guilt. But the poor Sots were so amazed and ashamed, that they took on sorrily, and were loth to part with me.

§ 57. About this time the King's Declarations were read in our Market-place, and the Reader (a violent Country Gentleman) seeing me pass the Streets, stopt and said, There goeth a Traitor, without ever giving a syllable of Reason for it.

And the Commission of Array was set afoot (for the Parliament medled not with the Militia of that Country, the Lord Howard their Lieutenant not appearing). Then the rage of the Rioters grew greater than before! And in preparation to the War, they had got the word among them [Down with the Round-heads;] Insomuch that if a Stranger past in many places that had short Hair and a Civil Habit, the Rabble presently cried, [Down with the Round-heads]; and some they knockt down in the open Streets.

In this Fury of the Rabble I was advised to withdraw a while from home; whereupon I went to Glocester: As I past but through a corner of the Suburbs of Worcester, they that knew me not, cried, Down with the Round-heads, and I was glad p. 41to spur on and be gone. But when I came to Gloucester, among Strangers also that had never known me, I found a civil, courteous, and religious People, as different from Worcester, as if they had lived under another Government. There I stayed a Month, and whilst I was there, many Pamphlets came out on both sides, preparing for a War. For the Parliaments Cause the principal Writing, which very much prevailed, was, Observations, written by Mr. Parker a Lawyer: But I remember some Principles which I think he misapplieth, as also doth Mr. Thomas Hooker, Ecclis. polit. lib. 8. viz. That the King is singulis major, but universis minor; that he receiveth his Power from the People, &c. For I doubt not to prove that his Power is so immediately from God, as that there is no Recipient between God and him to convey it to him: Only (as the King by his Charter maketh him a Mayor or Baliff whom the Corporation chuseth so) God by his Law, as an Instrument, conveyeth Power to that Person or Family whom the People consent to; and their Consent is but a Conditio sine quâ non; and not any Proof that they are the Fountain of Power, or that ever the governing Power was in them; and therefore for my part I am satisfied that all Politicks err, which tell us of a Magestas Realis in the People, as distinct from the Majestas Personalis in the Governors. And though it be true that quo ad naturalem bonitatem & in genere Causae finalis the King be universis minor, (and therefore no War or Action is good which is against the common Good, which is the end of all Government; yet as to governing Power (which is the thing in question) the King is (as to the People) Universis Major, as well as Singulis: For if the Parliament have any Legislative Power, it cannot be as they are the Body or People, as Mr. Tho. Hooker ill supposeth (who lib. 1. Polit. Eccles. maketh him a Tyrant that maketh Laws himself without the Body) but it is as the Constitution twisteth them into the Government: For if once Legislation (the chief Act of Government) be denied to be any part of Government at all, and affirmed to belong to the People as such, who are no Governors, all Government will hereby be overthrown. Besides these Observations, no Books more advantaged the Parliament's Cause, than a Treatise of Monarchy (afterwards published,) and Mr. Prin's large Book of the Soveraign Power of Parliaments, wherein he heapeth up Multitudes of Instances of Parliaments that exercised Soveraign Power.