The Life of William Archbishop of Canterbury Examined, Preface
THE PREFACE
IT is fallen out much beside our expectation Wee did expect nothing lesse then war.that the storme of war should now againe begin to blow, when we did esteeme that the mercy of GOD, and justice of our Prince had setled our Land in a firme Peace for many generations, at least for many days, and ever while some appearance of provocation should have arisen from us, for the kindling of … wrath of our enraged enemies; whose fury though we know well not to be quite extinguished, yet we did surely think itwould not break forth in haste in any publick and open flame, till some new matter had bin furnished, or some probable colour of a new quarrell could have beene alledged against us.
When we have scattered that cloud of calumnies, Wee have committed no … that … be … with any goodly colour … the … of the late ….which bytheir … and pens they had spread abroad of our rebellion, and many other odious crimes, when by our frequent supplications, informations, …, declarations, and other writs, we have cleared … the justice of our cause, the innecency of our proceedings to all the ingenuous mindes of the Ile, and to so many of our neighbour nations, as have bin desirous to … of our affairs; when our gracious and just Prince, in the very heat of his wrath … alone by …, even while armes were in his hand, hath beene moved with the unanimous consent of all his English Counsel, of all his Commanders & whole army, to acknowledge us good and loyall subjects: And after a full hearing of our cause in his campe to professe his satisfaction, to pronounce us free of those crimes which before were falsly blazed of us, to send us all home in peace, with the tokens of his favor, with the hearty embracements of that army which came against us for our ruine: When we in a generall assembly of our Church, with the kwowledge & full consent of his Majesties highCommissioner & whole … have justified our opposition to the innovation of our Religion & Lawes by the Prelates, our excommunication of them therefore, the renewing of our Covenant, and all the rest of our Ecclesiasticall proceedings; when our States in Parliament were going on in a sweet harmony to confirm the weaknesses & set right the disorders of our Estate, and that no farther then cleare equity, reason, law, yea the very words of the pacificatory edict did permit; when our whole people were minding nothing but quietnesse, having cast their … under the feet of our reconciled King, put all their castles & canons in his hand, without any security, but the royall Word, & received heartily all those fugitives who had taken armes in the Prelates cause, against theirCountry, having no other mind, but to sit down with joy, and go about our own long neglected businesse; praising God, & blessing the King: The martiall minds among us, panting for languor to be imployed over sea, for the honor of the crown; in spending their bloud against the insolent enemies of his Majesties house. While these are our onelyonly thoughts, It was more then marveilous to us … the dumbe and obscure whisperings, and at once the loud blasts, the open threats of a new more terrible & cruell war then before should come to our ears, that our Castles should be filled with strangers, be provided with extraordinary victuals and munition, … against a present assault, or long siege: Many of our Nobles tempted to leave our cause; numbers of assays made to break the unity of all our Estates: And at last our Parliament commanded to arise, the commissioners therof, after a long & wearisome journy to Court, for the clearing of some surmised mistakes about moods & forms of proceeding, refused presence: A … in England indicted (as the rumour goeth) to … that nation, our dearest neighbors, with whom our cause is common, to imploy their means and armes against us, that so our old nationall and immort all wars may be renewed to make sport to Prelates, & a bridge for the Spaniard or French to come over sea and sit downe masters of the whole Ile, when both nations by mutuall wounds are disabled for defence against the force of … enemy, so potent as either France or Spain are this day of themselvs, without the assistance which too like shall be made them by the Papists of the Ile, and many moe, who will not faile to joyne for their own ends with any apparent victor.
We admire how it is possible that intestine armes Compassion, hope, and all reason call now for peace at home, … at last we may get some order of our … a ….without any necessity should be taken up at this season when all the forces the whole … can spare are most earnestly called for, by the tears of his Majesties only sister, by the bloud and long desolation of her most miserable Subjects, by the captivity and banishment of all … hopefull Children, Prince Charles, lying daily under the hazard of the French Kings merciemercy at …, … Prince Robert of the Emperors at Vienne, the rest of that royall bloud lying so many yeares with their Mother; … in a strange Country: Pitty would command us to put up all our homeward quarrels, though they were both great and many, let be to … any, where … reall can be sound: Yea, hope would allure us to try …, if ever, our Armes on those spitefull Nations, the hereditary enemies of our Religion and of our Ile, when … hath made them contemptible by the cleere successe he giveth daily … every one that riseth against them: Bannier with a wing of the Swedish Army, dwelling in spite of the Emperor all this yeare in the heart of his Countries, a part of Weymers forces with a little helpe from France triumphing on the Rhene, for all that Baviere, Culen, the Emperor or Spaniard can doe against them: That very strong and great Armado all utterly crushed in our eyes by the Hollanders alone, without the assistance of any: The very French, not the best sea-men, having lately beaten oftner then once the Spanish navies in the Mediterran, the Spanish Empire labouring of a dangerous fever both at home and abroad, the Portugallians in spite of Philip, crowning Iohn of Braganza for their King, the Catalonians putting themselves in subjection to the French Crown, Naples and West-flanders brangling, the Fleet of the States almost domineering in the Westindian seas. Shall we alone sit still for ever? shal we send always … but base contemtible & derided … to these … Princes? shal we feed … with their scornfull promises, which so … have sound, to our great disgrace, … false? yea, rather then to beat them by that aboundance of power which we have, if God will give us an heart to imploy it, rather then to pull downe those tyrants who have shed rivers of Protestants bloud, who have long troden on the persons of our nearest friends, & in the, on our honour! Is it now meet we should choose to goe kill one another, alone for the bearing vp of Prelats tailes, and that of Prelates as unworthy of respect as any that ever wore a Mytre. Let our kindred, let our friends, let all the Protestant churches perish, let our own lives & estates run never so evident an hazard, yet the … pride must be borne vp, their furious desire of … must be satiate; all their Mandamus in these dominiōs must be executed with greater severity & rigour then those of their brethren are this day in Italy or Spaine, or those of their grand-father at Rome.
To us surely it is a strange Paradox, that a Parliament The Canterburian faction … veth not so well of England that armes in their favour ought to be taken against Scotland.of England so wise, grave, equitable a Court, as inall bygon times it hathever proved, should be thought in danger at any time, let be now to be induced by any allurement, by any terrour, to submit themselves as Vallets and pages to the execution of the lusts, the furies and outragious counsels of Canterbury and his dependers, for they know much better then we, that the maine greevances both of their Church and state, have no other originall, no other fountaine, on Earth but those men. Who other but they have keeped our most gracious Prince at a distance from the countrey almost ever since he came to the Crowne? For whose cause have Parliaments these many yeares bin hindred to meet, and when they have met, beene quickly raised, to the unspeakable griefe and prejudice of the whole land, & of all our friends abroad. By whose connivence is it that the idolatrous chappels of both the Queens in the most conspicuous places of the Court are so gorgeous & much frequented? Whose tolerance is it that at London three masse-priests are to be found for one Minister, that three hundreth of them reside in the city in ordinar, & six thousand at least in the country; If ye trust the Iesuits Catalogues to Rome? Whence comes their immunity fro the laws, who have set up cloisters for Monks and Nuns, let be houses for open Masses in divers cities of the Kings dominions? Why is our correspondence with the Pope no more secret, but our Agents avowedly sent to Rome, & his holinesse Nuntioes received here in state, & that such ones as in publik writs have lately defamed with unspeakable reproaches the person and birth of that most sacred Q. Elizabeth. Such actions, or at least long permission of such abominations doe they flow from any other but his Grace, the head and heart of the Cabbin Counsel? Did any other but he and his creatures, his legs and armes hinder alwayes our effectuall allyance with the Swedes & French, when their armies did most flourish in Germany for the relief of the oppressed churches? Why was that poore Prince the King of Boheme to his dying day kept from any considerable helpe from Britaine? How was these young princes the other year permitted to take the fields with so small forces, that a very meanpower of a silly commander beat them both, tooke the … captive, and put the other in his slight to an evide at hazard of his life: Who moved that innocent Prince, after his …, to take so strainge a … as the world now speaks of, and when he was engadged, who did betray both his purpose and person to the French King, could any without the Cabbine understand the convey of such matters, and within that … does any come without his graces permission? Is not that man the evident author of all the Scotish broyles? Are not his letters extant, his holy hands … of the Scotish service to be seen, his other writtes also are in our hands, making manifest that the beginning and continuance of that cursed worke hath no spring without his braine? When the King himselfe after ripe advisement and all about him both English and Scots had returned in peace, who incontinent did change the face of the Court and revive that fire, which in the heart of the Prince and all his good Subjects was once closse dead.
That a … of England will not only let such Wee … to instruct by the … of our partie their unsupportable crimes.a man and his complices goe free, but to serve his humour, will be content to ingadge their lives and estates for the overthrow and inslaving of us their best neighbors, that over our carcases a path-way may be made for Bishops now, and at once for the Pope and Spaniard to tred on the neck both of their bodies & souls, we cannot beleeve. Yet if any such things should be propounded (for what darenot effronted impudence attempt) we would require that sage Senat before they passe any bloudy sentence of war against us to consider a little the quality of that party for whose cause they take armes, we offer to instruct to the full satisfaction of the whole world offree & imprejudicate minds, not by fleeing reports, not by probable likelihoods, not by the sentences of the gravest and most solemne judicatories of this land, our two last generall assemblies & late parliament, who at far greater length & with more mature advisement did cognosce of those causes, then ever any Assembly or Parliament amongst us, since the first founding of our Church and Kingdome did resolve upon any matter whatsoever: All those means of probation we shall set aside and take us alone to the mouth of our very adversaries. If by their owne testimony we make it evident, that beside books, ceremonies, and Bishops which make the proper and particular quarrell of this nationall Kirk against them, they are guilty of grosse Arminianisme, plain Popery, and of setting up of barbarous tyrannie, which is the common quarrell of the Kirk of England, of all the reformed Kirks, and of all men who delite not to live and die in the fetters of slavery. If we demonstrate, not so much by their preachings and practises amongst us, … by their maximes printed with … among your selves, which to this day, though oft pressed thereto, they have never recanted. If we shew that yet still they stifly avow all the articles of Arminius, a number of the grossest abominations of Popery, specially the authority of the sea of Rome, that they vrge conclusions which will … you without any …, so much as by a verball protestation, not onelyonly to give way unto any iniquitie whatsoever, either in kirk or state, whereto they can get stolen the pretext of the Kings name; but also to lay downe your neck under the yoke of the King of Spaine, if once he had any footting in this Ile, without any farther resistance; though in your church by force that Tyrant should set up the Latine Messe in place of the Bible, and in your state for your Magna Charta and acts of Parliament, the lawes of Castile, though in your eyes he should destroy the whole race of the royall family, though the remainder of the Nobility and Gentry in the land should be sent over by him, some to worke in fetters in his Mines of Peru, Others in chaynes to row all their dayes in his gallayes in the Mediterrane, for all these or any other imaginable acts of tyrannie that could escape the wicked head of any mad Nero, of any monstrous Caligula; these men doe openly take upon them to perswade that no kind of resistance for defence can be made by the whole States of a land, though sitting in Parliament, with a most harmonious consent, no more nor the Jewes might have done against Nabuchadnezer, or the Christians of old against the Pagane Emperours, or the Greek Church this day against the grand Signieur in Constantinople, that all our forbeares both English and Scots in their manifold bickerings against the misleaders of their Princes, against the tyrannizing factions of Court, were ever Traytors and Rebels, and ought to have losed their heads and lands for their presumption to defend their liberties, against the intolerable insolencies of a pack of runigat Villanes, and for their boldnesse, to fasten the tottering Crowne upon the head of their Kings: all such Services of our Antecessours to King and Country, were treacherous insurrections.
If for all these their crimes I make speak before you no Arme, … taken in so evill a cause can not but end in an ….other witnesses then their … tongues, J trust there shall not remain in your minds the least shadow of any scruple to believe my allegations, nor in your wils the least inclination to joine with the counsels of so polluted and self-… persons: And if to men whose open profession in their printed bookes, let be secret practises, leades to so wicked ends so far contrare to the glorie of God, to the honour and safety of our King, to the well of us all, whether in Soule, body, …, children, or any thing that is deare to …, … lead your armes against us; we believe the Lord of …, the righteous Judge would be … to you, and make hundreds of your … in so … a cause … before ten of ours: Or, if it were the profound and unsearchable pleasure of the God of Armi s, to make you for a time a scourge to beat us, for our manifold transgressions, yet when yee had obtained all the Prelats …, when wee for our other sins were tred under your …, we would for all that hope to die with great comfort … courage, as defenders of the truth of God, of the liberties and lawes of our …, of the true good and honour of the … and Royall Familie: All which as wee take it, one of the most wicked and unnaturall … that ever this Isle did …, … manifestly …: yet certainly, we could not but leave in our Testament to you our unjust oppressors the legacie of an untimous …; for when yee have killed thousands of us, and banished the rest out of the Isle, when on the back of our departure, your sweet … the Bishops have brought the Pope upon you and your children; when a French or Spanish invasion doth threaten you with a slavish conquest; will yee not then all, and above all our gracious Prince regrate, that he hath beene so evill advised, as to have put so many of his brave Subjects to the cruell sword, who were very able & most willing to hauehave done him noble service against these forraine usurpers? Would not at such a time, that is too likely to be at hand, if our Prelates advises now be followed, both his Majestie, and all of you who shall … in life, he most earnest recallers not onelyonly of your owne Country-men, (many thousands whereof yee know have lately by Episcopall tyranny beene cast out from their …, as far as to the worlds end, among the savadge Americans) but also the reliques of our ruine from their banishment, with as great diligence as in the time of Fergus the second, the inhabitants of this land did recall our ancestors, when by the fraud and force of a wicked faction they were the most part killed, and the rest sent over Sea in banishment. It were better by much, before the remedilesse stroke be given, to be well advised, then out of time to sigh, when the millions of lost lives, when the happinesse of our true Religion, when the liberties of both the nations, once thrown away by our owne hands, can not againe bee recovered.
To the end therefore that such lamentable inconveniences In this … of time very poore … without presumption may venture to speake to Parliaments.may be eshewed, and your Honors the more animate to deny your power to those, who now possibilie may crave to have it abused against us without cause, beside numbers of pressing reasons, wherewith I doubt not every wise man amongst you is come well enough … from his owne considerations, and which J trust shall be further presented in plenty by these of our Nation, who have ever beene at the head of our affaires, whom God hath still enabled to cleare the justice and necessitie of all our proceedings hitherto, to the minds of all, save our infatuat adversaries, whom superstition and rage hath blinded. If it might be your Honours pleasure when all the rest have ended, I could wish that euen vntounto me, a little audience were given: my zeale to the truth of God, to the peace of this Isle, to the honour of our deare and gratious Soveraigne, imboldeneth me to offer even my little myte of information. This is a period of time, when the obstinate silence of those who are most obliged by their places and gifts to speake, must open the mouths of sundrie, who are not by much so able; verie babes, yea stones must finde a tongue when Pharisees deny their testimonie to CHRIST: `Dumbe men will get words when a father, when a King, let bee a whole kingdome, by the wickednesse of a few, is put in extreme perrill of ruine: An Asse will finde … when the devouring sword of an Angel if drawne against the Master. Nothing more common in the Roman Annals, then the speaches of very Oxen, before any calamitie of the Common-wealth: The claiking of Geese did at a time preserve the …: Amiclae was lost by too much silence: The neglect of the voice of a Damosel, the contempt of Cassandraes warning, the casting of her in bands, for her true but unpleasant speach, did bring the Trojane horse within the wals, and with it the quick ruine both of the city and Kingdome.
J hope then that the greatnesse of my undertaking An offer de. serving … audience.may … me a little audience: for J offer to make you all see with your owne eyes, and heare with your owne eares the Canterburians to declare by their owne tongues, and write downe under their own hands their cleare mindes, to bring in our Church Arminianisme, and compleet Popery, and in our State a slavery no lesse then Turkish. If yee finde that I prove my offer, I trust I may bee consident of your Wisedomes, that though Cicero himselfe, and with him Demosthenes as a second, and Orpheus with the … of his tongue and harp, as a third marrow, should come to perswade, yet that none of you shall ever bee moved by all their oratorie, to espouse the quarrels of so unhappy men. If I faile in my faire undertaking, let me bee condemned of temeritie, and no houre of your leasure be ever again imployed, in taking notice of any more of my complaints: But till my vanity bee found, I will expect assuredly from your Honours one hearing, if it were but to waken many an able wit, and nimble pen, in that your venerable House of Convocation; Numbers there, if they would speake their knowledge, could tell other tales then ever I heard in an out-corner of the Isle, farre from the secrets of State, and all possibilitie of intelligence how many affaires in the World doe goe.
It is one of … of the World, how many The silence of the … Divines is ….of the English Divines can at this time be so dumbe, who could well, if they pleased, paint out before your eyes with a Sun-beame all the crimes Ispeake of … that head and members. It is strange that the pilloring of some few, that the slitting of Bastwickes and … nose, the branding of Prinnes cheeke, the cutting of Lightouns eares, the scourging of Lylburne through the City, the close keeping of Lincolne, and the murthering of others by famine, colde, vermine, stinke, and other miseries in the caves and vaults of the Bishops houses of inquisition, should bind up the mouthes of all the rest of the learned. … wont not in the dayes of hottest persecution, in the very Marian times, to be so scant of faithfull witnesses to the truth of Christ, we can not now conjecture what is become of that zeale to the true Religion, which we are persivaded lyes in the heart of many thousands in that gracious Kirk; we trust indeed that this long lurking, and too too long silence of the Saints there, shall breake out at once in some hundreths of trumpets and lampes, shining and shouting, to the joy of all the reformed Churches, against the campe of these enemies to God, and the King; that quickly it may be so, behold I here first upon all hazards doe breake my pitcher, doe hold out my lampe, and blow my trumpet before the Commissioners of the whole Kingdome, offering to convince that prevalent faction by their owne mouth, of Arminianisme, Poperie, and tyrannie.