Chap. V. 'Ihe HI ST 0 R Y of the PuitiTANS. 597 The convention parliament being 1 diffi 1 oiv;d, fa new oneb wa 1 s :IeB:,edll:, Ch~:;;,rr and fummoned to meet May 8. T e 001e o commons y t 1e mtere 1661 • of the court party, had a confiderable majority of fu~h ~s were zealo~s~ enemies of the preibyterians, and abettors of the prmc1ples of archb1- Charatler of lhop Laud· many of whom having impaired their fortunes in the late 1 1~' newt par- ' . 1amen. wars, became tools of the minill:ry in all their arbitrary and vJOlent mea- Rapin, fures. The court kept above one hundred of them in conll:ant pay, who went by the name of the club if voters, and received large fums of money out of the Exchequer, till they had almoft fubverted the conll:itution; and then, becaufe they would not put the finilhing hand to what they had unadvifedly begun, they were diibanded. The king acquainted the houfes at the opening of the feilions, that, The king's ,, he valued himJe!fmuch upon keeping his word, and upon making good ~vhat- cd lord • "Joever he had promifed to hisjitijeCls." But the chancellor who corn- ./P~~;~~don s mented upon the king's fpeech, fpoke a different language, and told the K. Chr. p. houfe, " that there were a fort of patients in the kingdom that deferved 437· " their utmoft feverity, and none of their lenity; thefe were the Jedi- " tious preachers, who could not be contented to be difpenfed with for '' their full obedience to fome laws ell:ablilhed, without reproaching and " inveighing againft thofe laws how efl:abliilied foever; who tell their au- " ditories that when the apofl:le bid them ftand to their liberties, he bid " them ftand to their arms, and who by repeating the very exprefiions, cc and teaching the very doctrines they fet on foot in the year I 640, fuf- " . ficiently declare that they have no mind that twenty years lhould put " an end to the miferies we have undergone. What good chriftians can cc think without horror, of thefe minifters of the gofpel, who by their " funuion {hould be meffengers of peace, but are in their prauic;e " only the trumpets of war, and incendiaries towards rebellion?-- And " if the perfons and place can aggravate their offence, fo no doubt it does " before God and man. Methinks the preaching rebellion and treafon " out of the pulpit, lhould be as much worfe than advancing it in the " market, as poifoning a man at a communion, would be worfe than " killing him at a tavern--:-" His Iordlhip concludas thus: " If you " do not provide for the thorough quenching thefe firebrands; king lords " and commons lhall be the meaner fubjeCls, and the whole kingd.om " will be kindled into a general flame." This was a home thruft at the preibyterians; the chancellor did not explain himfelf upon the authors of thefe feditio.us fermons, his defig? bein.g not to accufe particular perfom, but to obtam a general order whtch mtght fupprefs all preachers who were n~t of th~ church of England; and the parliament was prepared to run bhndfold m to all the court meafures ; for in this feilions the militia was K. Chron. ~iven abfolutely to the kiog -:- thefllenm league and covenant was. de- P· Sto, su. clared
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