26 The LlFEof the I.,IB.Iö rather than they that provide not for their Families° when Infidels have not thought theirLives too good tofave the Commonwealth. And as for a War, the danger of it may be avoided : It is a thing uncertain, and therefore a prefect certain Ruine, and that by our own hand, is not to be chofen to avoid ir. TheeKing may fee thedanger of it as well as we, and avoid it on better Terms : Or if he were willing, he maynot be ableto do any great harm : Do you think that the People of England are fo mad, as to fight agar& chafe whom they have chofen to reprefent them ? to deltroy themfelves, and the hopes of their Pofterity ? Do they not know that if Parliaments be deftroyed, their Lives and Effaces are meetly at the Will and Mercy of the Conquerour ? And do not you fee that the People are every wherefor the Parliament? And for Revenge; what need we fear it when the Parliament maycontinue till it content to its Diffolution ? And fure they will not confect till they fee themfelves out of the danger of Revenge]. Such as theta' were the Reafonings of that Partywhichprevailed. But otherstold them, That thofe that adhered to the Bithops , and were offend- ed at the Parliaments Church Reformations, would be many ; and the King will never want Nobility andGentry to adhere to him ; and the Common People will follow their Landlords, and beon the Itronger fide: and the intelligent part, who underhand their own Intereffs, are but few : And when you begin a War , on know not what you do]. Thus were Mens minds then in a Divifion: but fume unhappy means fell out to unite them fo as to caufe them to proceed to a War. 4 39. The things that heightned formerDifpleafures to a miferable War were fuch as follow, on both Parts: On the Parliamentspart were principally, e. The Peoples indifcretion that adhered to them; 2. The imprudence and violence of fòme Members of the Houle, who went too high : 3. The great Diffidence they had of the Kingwhen they had provoked him. On the other fide it was battened, r. By the Calling up of the Northern Army. 2. By the King's impofrng a Guard upon the Houfe. 3. By his entring the Houfe to accufe Come Members. 4. By the mifcarriage ofthe Lord Digby and other of the King's Adherents. y. But above all by the terribleMaffacre in Ireland, and the Threatnings of the Rebels to Invade England. A littleof every one of thefe. 440 r.Thofe that delred the ParliamentsProfperity were ofdivers forts.Somewere calm andtemperate, and waited for the Fruitsof their Endeavours in their feu. fon : And Tome were lò gladof the hopes of a Reformation, and afraid left their Hearts andHands lhould tall for want of Encouragement, that they too much boalted of them, and applauded them : which mutt needs offend the King, to fee the People rejoyce in others astheir Deliverers, and as faving them from him ; and fo to feethem preferred in Love and Honour before him. But force wereyet more indifcreet : The remnant of theold Separatifts and Anabaptifts in Londonwas then very fmall, and fcarce confiderable; but they were enough to ftir up the younger and unexperienced fort ofReligious People, tofpeak toovehemently and intempe- rately againft the Bithops and the Church and Ceremonies, and to jeer and deride at the Common Prayer, and all that was againft their minds : (For the young and raw fort ofChriftians are ufuallyprone to this kind of Sin; to be fed:conceited, petulant, wilful,- cenforious, and injudiciousin all their management of their Dif- ferences in Religion, and in all their Attempts of Reformation) : Earning and clamouring at that which they think evil, they ufually judge a warrantableCourte: And it is hard finding any fort of People in the World, where many of the more unexperienced arenot indifcreet, and proud and paflionate. Thefehired up the Apprentices to joyn with them in Petitions , and to go in great numbers to Wefimanfler to prefent them : And as they went they met with Lome of the Bithops in their Coaches going to the Houle ; and (as is ufual with the paflìonate and indifcreet when they are in great Companies) they too much forgot Civility, and cried out, NoBii)hspr ; which either put them really into a fear, or at leaft fo difpleafed them, as gave them occafion to meet together, and draw tip a Proteftation againft any Law which in their Abfence fhould be palled in the Parliament, as having themfelves a place there, and being, as they faid, de. terred fromcoming thither by thofe Clamours and Tumults. This Proteftarionwas lb illtaken by the Parliament, as that the Subfcribers of it were voted Delinquents, and feet to Prifon, as going about to deftroy the pow- er of Parliaments ; (and among them even Bithop Halt himfelf). There
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