Britannicus His Pill TO Cure MALIGNANCY, OR frenzy, now reigning amongst divers English Protestants, which will not see the danger that their Religion and Liberties now lie in:  
BEING The whole progress of the Adversaries long, and continued Plots, briefly laid open, and discovered; whereby the archest Malignant will be either convinced, or condemned, and the weakest of the well-affected sufficiently strengthened and encouraged with all vigour to proceed with the Parliament in the defence of Religion and Liberty.  
Published by Authority.  
London Printed for Robert White, 1644.   

Britannicus his Pill to cure Malignancy.  
I will begin with His majesty's reign, A strange Wife is prepared, which according to the Scripture is a dangerous Preparative for a strange God, surely they will turn their hearts after their Gods, 1 Kin. 11. 2. This groundwork being laid, they endeavour to persuade the King by fraud and subtlety to bring in Popery and Slavery, for the effecting whereof, observe first the design of the bringing in the German Horse, the Billiting of soldiers, the frequent and untimely breaking and disolving Parliaments, setting before his majesty the example of France and his broken Parliaments in full power as an object of Emulation: Then the Bishops and their episcopal Creatures have publicly preached, and in their discourse and writing endeavoured to maintain that opinion and argument, That all we have is the Kings, and he ought to do what he pleaseth; as if God made all the world for a few Kings, and not for the people, and persuaded Him that Parliaments and Puritans were His majesty's chiefest enemies: Moreover look what endeavours have been used by the Bishops to cheat us of our Religion by degrees and pauses; to set up Popery at one time would have made too great a noise, but with a gentle hand, and to do it so as it might steal upon us insensibly, 
The destructi●e way.  and should devour us, but we should neither know nor see; To have suspended all Orthodox preachers at once, that would have been too conspicuous, but by degrees; First to suspend all Lectures, as an order of Vagrants not to be tolerated in the Church. Next forbid all Pastors preaching in their own Churches in week days: Then inhibit preaching on the Lord's day in the afternoon, under pretence of advance of Catechis●e; soon after forbid all Praying but in the words of the Canon. After this the Communion Table must be 
The ●dstructive way.  railed in; soon after it must be set in Altar Posture, Then all must be compelled to come and kneel before it or not receive the Sacrament, than it must be cried up as Sanctum Sanctorum, and that all men's faces must be towards it in Prayer: Secondly to press the Examples and practices of some as a great means to bring on the rest, to dazzle the eyes of the less judicious people of the kingdom, as my Lord Archbishop, or Bishop bow versus Altare, the Lords of the must honourable Order of the Garter at their instalment bow towards the Altar, His majesty's chapel is thus and thus adorned: Thirdly an Edict for Recreation up on the Lord's day is procured, and it must be read by the Ministers: Fourthly to Cast all out of the ministry that will not be punctual and full Conformists to the old Ceremonies, Fiftly enjoining a farthel of new and unheard of Ceremonies and injunctions: Sixtly Prayers must be made and Proclamations read against our brethren the Scots: lastly the new and unparelled oath for Episcopacy: Thus you see how by degrees, stratagems and Engines they endeavoured to work out those Arch-heriticks as they called all good and godly Ministers out of the Ministry, As it was sometimes said to Eliah. 1 Kings 19 him that escapeth the sword of Hazaell, shall Jehu slay, and him that escapeth the sword of Jehu, shall Elisha slay; so had they said, him that escapeth the dint of the Ceremonies, shall the book of sports slay, and him that escapeth the book of sports, shall the Proclamations slay, and him that escapeth the Proclamations, shall the Oath slay: The chiefest and greatest fomenters and promoters of these s●cessive Stratagems we all know, neither can any Malignants or Atheists deny but the Late Earl of Strafford and the Archbishop of Canterbury were the two great engines of this work, and what manner of favourites both of them were at Court, and what interests they had in His majesty and the Queen is apparent enough, and by the events it doth too notoriously appear: The Archbishop was he that held Correspondency with Rome, as by several Letters may appear, and to whom the Cardinal's Cap from Rome was sent, and he that endeavoured to be papa alterius orbis, This is he that altered the oath to be taken by the King at His Coronation, and endeavoured to overthrow and annihilate Magna Charta, and to bring in tyranny and Popery, as by these and several other Articles which are proved against him in the house of Peers, by which his design is sufficiently apparent what he intended, for which it is hoped he shall receive suddenly his just reward.  
Since these private designs was discovered, and the War against the Scots became frustrate, than broke out the Irish in Rebellion, who are now esteemed his majesty's best and faithful Subjects; although it is apparent that the Irish Nation, bears not only an inveterat hatred to the British Nation and our Religion, but even to the very beasts and Plants of the English by their cruel torments and massacres of two hundred thousand Protestants, and the wastes and spoils made upon the English Plants and Cattle, as by several Depositions taken upon Oath doth, and may appear; and in their general discourse, they say they have, and had the King's Commission for what they have done, or do, and the horses, or other Cattle they took away from the Protestants there, they marked with the Queen's mark, and usually called themselves the Queen's soldiers: You may remember the Oath they have taken, with all their power to uphold and maintain the free exercise of the Roman Catholic Faith and Religion, and to obey and ratify all the Orders and Decrees made, and to be made by the supreme council of the Confederate Catholics: you may likewise take notice that thousands of Proclamations and Declarations, how speedily and quickly they were read against the Scots, but when the Irish Rebellion broke out first, it was a long time, near two months before any Proclamation could be obtained against them, though often pressed and desired by the Parliament, and when obtained, the Printer of the Proclamation by special command must print but forty, such favour, such countenance had that barbarous and most horrid Rebellion: Remember also general Munro writ, that about a year since the Earl of Antrim being going over out of England into Ireland, was taken at Sea, and about him was found several papours and instructions, whereby it doth plainly appear (as he writes) that the design was to root out, and wholly extirpate the Protestant Religion in all the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, since which time the Earl of Antrim escaped, and is now preferred to be a great Officer in Ireland, and since made a marquis: Moreover the Generals of the Irish forces in Ulster did offer to my Lord Munro the Parliaments general there, to appeal to the King, which of them had the truest Commission, and which his Majesty would aver to be his best and most faithful Subjects, and according to such his majesty's determinations, to quit or hold their employment, if my Lord Munro would promise the same, to stand to such his majesty's determination: And further, none can deny but the Irish papists Commissioners were the persons extraordinarily favoured & countenanced at their late being at Oxford, and their bloody and unheard of cruelties passed over with a painted peace, and seeming Cessation, and the Protestant Commissioners then there also at the same time, were slighted and neglected; will not this, and many other passages make it clear, that the war was raised here in England, to hinder this kingdom from sending any supplies of men, money, arms, and ammunition into Ireland, against the Irish Rebels: Then consider the Kings coming to the Parliament (as supposed by the Queen's persuasion) to accuse the five Members of high Treason, was not here the great and most dangerous beginning of these wars in this Nation, which if the five Members had been delivered up, you may soon conjecture what Acts of Parliament would have passed even the next day, to the greater slavery and misery of this Nation, then by the thoughts of man can be imagined, but by the providence of God they were protected by the worthy Citizens of this famous City of London, and we hope will be protected by each other, until their foes be subdued unto them.  
Next the Kings going to York to raise a guard to defend his Person, than his going to see Hull, the great Magazine of the kingdom: Then the Queen she pretends to go over into Holland to see her daughter, when indeed she intended nothing more than to bring over arms and Ammunition, though it were with the sale of the Crown Jewels. Besides his Majesty tells you at first, no Papist must come nigh his person, and were exempted out of the Warrants for putting the Commission of Array in execution: but soon after they were allowed to buy arms for their defence, contrary to the known laws of the Land, and were then desired to send their horses, and his Majesty would set Protestant Riders upon them, and now behold who more employed in places of Trust, and countenanced by honours and preferments, and esteemed his best Subjects, kept for Reserves in most dangerous Assaults and employments, and whose counsels at Court more prevalent, predominant, and over ruling then the Papists, and Irish Rebels, who work together, with, and for the Spanish Faction in that Court.  
See how active the Queen is for promoting her Cause, and what power and interests she hath with his majesty, and his counsels, which cannot be expressed in words, and what dependence she hath to Rome, and all the Priests and Jesuits both in foreign Nations, and in England, consider also what Motives and prayers have been made amongst all the Roman catholics all over Christendom, for the good success of the King's Armies, also I could go back and tell you of the poisonning of Marquis Hamilton, &c. the Popes Nuntioes' residing here, and if Windebanke and others of their Orders, and Warrants in favour of Priests and Jesuits, and also their intended Massacre against the chiefest Pillars of Scotland, the Marquis of Argile, the Earl of Lowden, and Earl of Leven and many others when the King was in Scotland, the very same day the Rebellion in Ireland broke forth.  
Consider also the subtle engagements of divers of the children of the Palatinate in this war against the Parliament and Kingdom, a design of the Jesuits, fetched from Hell, to make an inveterate hatred in this Kingdom to that family, thereby if it were possible, to take away all hopes of ever recovering the Palatinate again for the right owners.  
Look upon the persons that side with the King in this war, if not for the most part, almost generally Papists, Bishops, and their adherents, Monopolizers, delinquents to the State, beggarly Gentry of this Kingdom, and of the better sort of Nobles, and Gentlemen, terrified and frighted with the lion's Skin, and Foxes Cunning, some gained with terror, others with hope of honour, and preferment; this hath much increased that party amongst the Gentry, and none but know that his majesty's storehouse of Common soldiers, he raiseth from the dark corners of the Land, where ignorance, blindness, and libertinism is prdominant and a pious godly ministry very scarcely to be heard of, where the Lord's day is known by a few Common Prayers in the morning, and by dancing, drinking, and rioting about a maypole in the afternoon.  
I have now traced and touched upon some of the heads of those abuses and false pretences, and black engines which our enemies have wrought withal to cousin, and cheat us of our Religion, and Liberties, and any understanding man by this discourse may easily discern Popery, and Slavery was intended: And now courteous Reader, since so many stratagems and Traps have been laid to ensnare thy Conscience, and to bereave thee of thy Religion and Liberty, and fully laid open by the blessing of God, in this fixed Parliament, who have laboured well nigh four years against Mountains of dangers and difficulties, and have also cased you of many burdens of shipmoney, High Commission Court, Monopolizers, and have set thee at Liberty from the Iron yoke of Bishops, and their Hierarchy, and dependants, and are striving, and wrestling to settle the in thee true Protestant Religion, in the purity thereof, to be governed by laws, and not by Horses, and Garrisons, as in other Nations: nor according to the fancy, and will of the Prince or his favourite, and also endeavouring to save three kingdoms from a dying, and sad Condition they are now in, which will best appear, and be discerned when the present Wars is over, when we shall enjoy what we now so much contend for: Therefore my advice is, that every man that loves his Religion or Liberty, to use his utmost, in their Prayers, in their purses, and persons, to uphold the Spirits of such as faithfully stand for theirs, and the Kingdoms good, to their calling in Parliament, though some of their Members be turned apostates, and rotten, being tossed, and shaken away, with the anger of the King, or enticed away by preferments, or such like vanities; are these things worth the Religion and Liberty of the Nation? In a word I dare boldly say, that man which doth not cordially uphold, and defend Parliaments in times of try all, doth as much as in him lies, to destroy the same, and then I appeal to every man's conscience; If in destroying Parliaments, thou dost not as much, as in thou liest, destroy Religion and Liberty of the kingdom, which God grant we may never live to see.  
FINIS.