THE LIVELY CHARACTER OF THE MALIGNANT PARTY: WHEREIN Their Persons, who they are; their Actions, what they have already done, and do daily further attempt; with their Intentions, at what ends they aim, are sufficiently set forth, fully described, and plainly evidenced to the indifferent Judgement of any ordinary man, who hath had but a reasonable view of the strange Passages of these later times.  
By one who cordially affects his Sovereign, and really respects the Parliament: Which illustrious and renowned SENATE, hath (for the safety of the King, and preservation of the Kingdom) Resolved upon the Question, That in this Malignant Party, they may not, must not, will not, cannot confide.  
Published and Printed in the year of Fears and Jealousies, plots, projects, and policies, designs, dangers, and discoveries. 1642.   

THE MALIGNANT PARTY.  
THat there is a Malignant Party, is confessed of all; but who this Malignant Party is, that hath generated and fomented all the present distempers and distractions of this now languishing Kingdom, His labour, hoc opus est. In the first place, I will demonstrate who these are. According to their common appellation, they are a company of malevolent, or illaffected persons to the peace of this Church and State: And these are so many for their multitude, that (like the Devil himself) they may be termed Legion, as properly as the wicked man. These Egyptian Locusts swarm in every corner of the Kingdom; the Hydra of this Malignant Party doth daily multiply and is now become such an Epidemical disease, that like a Leprosy, it hath overspread the whole body of this Nation. I shall only nominate the chief of them. who have been (and are still designed) main Actors in the fearful Tragedy of this lamentable Age.  
In the first Scene, ye may behold if ye please) Papists, persons popishly inclined, their Accomplices and Adherents, all the members of the Antichristian Hierarchy, as Jesuits (the incendiaries of all Christendom) and others of that Romish faction; They are always christie after blood, affecting rapine, torture, oppression, and cruelty; Their machinations have been mischievous, and their designs are still destructive. They have ever plotted the promoting of hortid war, as the only means to advance the Catholic cause, whose end and mark they aim at, is to recover and re-establish the Romish Religion here within this Kingdom. Was not the war with Scotland, and the insurrection there two years ago, incited and fomented by them? Was not the Rebellion in Ireland the last year, begun, framed, and contrived by them? And is not this unnatural, civil war, now in England, occasioned and maintained by them? But they who have instigated his Majesty to such a barbarous and bloody war against his Parliament and people, (which is of a confounding nature to the three Kingdoms at once) what are they but most desperate Traitors to their King and Country, most execrable Vipers to God and his Church? they hatch Cockairioe eggs, and wove the Spider's web; their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands; their feet run to evil, and they hast to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction is in their paths; the way of peace they know not; and there is no judgement in their go. They have made them crooked paths; whosoever goeth therein, shall not know peace, Isa. 59 5. Their throat is an open Sepulchre, with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of Asps is under their lips; their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes, Rom. 3. 13. They have for many years together had an impious design, to alter Religion, to defile the purity thereof, and to introduce Popery, superstition, ignorance, the only way to an arbitrary and tyrannical Government, and to change the frame and constitution of this Government both in Church and State: The Masterpiece of all their Stratagems (a new engine which they have invented to heighten the destruction of this Kingdom) was to prevail with his Majesty by that Proclamation to leavy forces against the Parliament, and the King's loyal Subjects, by that means to put this Land into a certain combustion, inevitable confusion by civil war, and perpetual slavery upon the surviving part of a then miserable Kingdom; For if the power of the sword should come once into their hands (which God forbidden) nothing can be then expected, but the most wretched ruin and desolation of this Kingdom, and the savage massacre of the Protestants.  
In the next Scene, enters upon the Stage, to be presented to your view, the Prelatical Party, who have acted a great part in this Tragical Story of the Malignant Party. These Popish Prelates have corrupted the pure fountain rather than they would be depressed in power; They have brought various innovations into our Church, sundry alterations into our Liturgy and Rubric, (contrary to the Act of Parliament, whereby the Book of Common Prayer is established) vain Ceremonies, Altars, and many strange (never before heard of) doctrines into our Church, to make us more consonant to the Church of Rome. Amongst these ye may (if ye please) take notice of Laudles Will of Canterbury, and wretched Wren of Norwich, both fellow-prisoners in the Tower. To these may be added (as a Malignant Party) all Arminians, an ambitious, dissolute, and male contented Clergy, corrupt and scandalous Ministers, (their creatures) Delinquents obnoxious to the Justice of Parliament; who are so fare from being pastors, that they are altogether Impostores; not Pastors, but Impostors: Some of them are superstitiously corrupt in their judgements, holding and teaching strange Doctrines; others of them ambitious of preferment; many of them conscious and guilty of gross and foul crimes; all of them male contented with the Parliament, and their proceed, and so vitiated with idleness, ease, and plenty, with the cursed love of lucre and covetousness, that they would be glad with all their hearts, to see the Parliament dissolved, hoping thereby to recover what they have lost, or at least to hold fast what they have got. They make no conscience to starve the souls of their flock, so they may pamper their own bodies.  
The third Scene, contains great Personages, part of the Nobility and Gentry, that either fear reformation, or else seek to lay the foundation of their own honour and preferment, in the very ruin of the Kingdom. They have a long time lived in a dissolute way of liberty, without restraint of their sensual pleasures, and therefore are now unwilling to admit of such Reformation, the Parliament in discharge of their duty and conscience, think expedient should be imposed upon them. These being temerarious, rash, and unvised in their attempts and actions, (though Protestants, if of any Religion) have endeavoured to bury the happiness of this Kingdom in the downfall and overthrow of the great Counsel thereof. Their precedent intentions (to destroy the Parliament, and with it the whole Kingdom) are manifested and clearly evidenced by their subsequent actions, in overrunning several Counties, compelling the Trained Bands, executing the illegal Commission of Array, enforcing them to come in and join with them, or disarming them, and putting their Arms into the hands of lewd and desperate persons, thereby turning the Arms of the Kingdom against the Kingdom: So that by this means all we have, all that is near and dear unto us, our Estates, Laws, Liberties, and lives, are in danger; nay, that which is the life of our lives, our Religion is in danger; the King's sacred person, his royal progeny, and his whole Kingdom by this means is in danger: For who knows not, that his Majesty is at this time circled and surrounded, environed as it were by those, who carry him upon his own ruin, and the destruction of his Kingdom, by fomenting and cherishing this unnatural and illegal war against his own people. This Malignant Party of the Nobility, gather unto them the decayed Gentry of several Countries, who have by prodigality, riot, excess, and horseraces, run their progenitors estates out of breath, and think hereby to recuperate them, for they conceive civil war to be the best way suddenly to raise their fortunes equal to their descents; and therefore what care they (being many of them necessitous Courtiers, and giddy brained as they are) to satisfy the appetite of their desire, and the insatiate thirst of their ambition, though they sacrifice a whole Kingdom, delighting to behold their native Country suffer in the martyrdom of a civil war. The end that this Malignant Party doth tend to, is the destruction of the present Parliament, in it all future Parliaments, and together with them, the alteration of Religion, the subversion of the Laws of this Kingdom, with the utter abolition of the just liberties of the Subjects, and the final extirpation of the rightful privileges of Parliament. They would have all subject to will and power, and betray their Country to serve the Court. 'Tis evident by their love (or rather indeed inveterate hatred) they bear to this present Parliament, that they have combined to destroy it, and with it the whole Kingdom. The masterpiece of their machinations they aim at, is to be Masters of our Religion and Liberties, to make us slaves, in altering the government of this Kingdom, and reducing it to the sad condition of some other Countries, which are nor governed by Parliaments, and so consequently not by Laws, but by the will of the Prince, or rather of those who are about him, who of late have studied to possess the world of an absolute and unlimited power in Princes, so that Voluntas Regis, is Lex populi.  
The fourth Scene in this Tragedy of the Malignant Party, consists of Delinquents to the Parliament, and Fugitives from the Parliament. These for the most part have had their dependence, countenance and encouragement from the Court, where they have flattered and seduced the King, calumniated and traduced his Council, abused and injured his people. They have endeavoured to undermine the Peace of the Kingdom; and their constant practice hath been to set at variance not only the Princes of several Nations, but each Kingdom against itself, dividing betwixt Prince and people, and incensing subject against subject, that so they might with more facility accomplish their impious intentions in our divisions. They have invited and encouraged the enemies of our Religion, and the State in foreign parts, to the attempting and acting of their evil designs and determinations towards us. These persons are guilty, not Parliament-proof but such as fear the Justice of that high and Honourable Assembly in the due execution of Laws against them, for the evils and mischiefs the Commonwealth hath sustained and suffered by them; therefore to secure themselves from condign punishment, they are willing to put themselves under the King's protection, and under the specious (but unjust) pretence of defending the King's Right and Prerogative, to engage themselves, their lives and fortunes in a bloody war; thereby to set the whole Kingdom in a general combustion. These are the Enemies to the peace of this Kingdom, and justly to be suspected to favour the Rebellion in Ireland. They have often attempted to fetch in fotrain forces to invade us, and provided great supplies of Ammunition beyond Seas to destroy us. Their complying, contriving and plotting with Papists, Atheists, Runaways, and other notorious Delinquents, are not only evidences of their designs, but do firmly testify that they have been visible Actors in them. Such a one was the Lord Digby, who at first persuaded the King to retire himself into some strong place, and in the mean time promised to do his Majesty service abroad, having procured store of Arms, with which he came in the ship called, The Providence. I could nominate more of that party, but I now will not; for there is none so great a peregrine in our Israel, as is ignorant who they are.  
The fifth contains evil Counsellors, accompanied with corrupted Judges, and ambitious Lawyers, whose fears and jealousies do arise out of a guilt of their own vile actions, and just fears of their deserved punishment. These are the only bones of our unhappy divisions. They have endeavoured to beget and increase distrust and disaffection between the King, and his Parliament, and his people. These wicked spirits of division, and mischievous instruments of dissension, have advised the King to suffer divers unjust scandals and imputations upon his Parliament; And (which aggravates their impiety) these evil Counsellors have fixed their dishonour upon the King, by making his Majesty the author of those wicked actions, which are the effects of their own impious counsels. They have advised the King to absent himself from his Parliament, whose malicious designs and practices are masked and disguised with the false colour of their earnest zeal to vindicate his Majesty's Prerogative from the supposed oppression of the Parliament. These unfaithful Ministers have often plotted to break the neck of this honourable Assembly; for which purpose they have made such an unpleasant breach as now is between the King and his great Council. They have most injuriously taken all occasions to multiply gross calumnies upon the Houses of Parliament, to defame, and indeed to arraign the proceed of both Houses. Through their deceitful suggestions and fraudulent insinuations, they have engaged the King in desperate designs, and pernicious practices: Their private counsel hath incensed, misinformed, and misled his Majesty against his general Counsel, conspiring unanimously to ruin the very being of Parliament, (which is the fountain of the Law) making it contemptible and of less esteem than the meanest Court, to which all other Courts are inferior. Hence it is that they have dared to cast upon this Parliament such a charge as is inconsistent with the nature of that great Council: They have caused a great interruption in, and obstruction to the proceed of Parliament: They have struck at the very being both of the Head and Body, depriving his Majesty in his own apprehension of their fidelity, and them of his protection, which are the two mutual bands of Government and subjection. By secret plots, and open force, they have bred all the late uproars, mutinies and disturbances in most of the Counties of this Kingdom, especially in the Northern parts: The besieging of Hull not long since was an egg likewise of their hatching. Their plots failing, they have attempted (what no age will ever believe, unless it be as impious as this) to render odious and suspected to the people, the Parliament, which is the only sanctuary of their Religion, Laws Liberties, and properties. They have betrayed Church and State, by corrupting the Doctrine and Discipline in the one, and subverting the Laws and form of Government in the other. Their greatest influence is upon the King's Counsels; And such is the malignity of these lewd Counselors, (being arrived at the very height of impudence) that they are not ashamed to engross and monopolise his Majesty to themselves altogether from his Parliament, by whose mischievous counsels he is wholly diaffected from his Parliaments faithful advices and counsels, which by the constitution of this Realm is his greatest and best Council. Thus as Christ our Lord and Saviour was led aside into the wilderness to be tempted; so Charles our Lord and Sovereign is misled from his great Council, (in which there is strength, prudence and safety) into a wilderness of weakness, errors, and dangers.  
In the sixth Scene ye may behold with the eye of your Intellect, the Hotspurres of the Times, who are called the Cavaliers; a name of hatred in the present age by their practices, and fit to be made a terror to future ages by their punishment. Their practices in themselves are as high and as insolent, as any Subjects ever ventured on. They would (if they could) by arms and violence overrule the judgement and advice of the Parliament, and by force determine the Questions there depending concerning the government of the Kingdom. They have been the chief Actors in the Kingdom's Tragedy, and have presumed to put that dishonour and affront upon both Houses of Parliament, to make them the countenancers of Treason; enough to have dissolved all the bands and sinews of confidence between his Majesty and his Parliament. They would (if they durst come near it) besiege London, as they lately did Hull; and long ago have they swallowed up in their thoughts our Religion, Laws, and Liberties; the former by alteration, and the latter by subversion. Amongst these, Captain Leg a Delinquent to the Parliament, now a captive fast enough in the Gatehouse, endeavoured manibus pedibusque, in that treasonable practice to bring up the Army against the Parliament. Many of these incendiaries and firebrands of combustion are the same now that were formerly between us and our neighbour Nation, and their designs of confusion of both Nations are the same, altering only the method, beginning in England now with hope to end in Scotland: whereas formerly they began there, with purpose to end here. Most of them are such mercenary swordmen, as no Nation nor Age ever expected faith or piety from; whose continual assertious are wounds and blood (horresco referens) I tremble to relate it, God dam me, sink me, or Heavens refuse 'em, if they be not revenged upon these rascally Roundheads. Thus they have God of ten-times in their mouths. but their hearts are far from him. As they are criminous in their lives, so they are penurious in their estates; whose good husbandry is to put all upon their backs, and shift for their bellies, their lands, houses and revenues being above in the air. Though it be true, that many of them are Gentlemen well descended, valiant, of good natural parts, literature, and education, yet for the most part men of mean estates, odious lives, and desperate fortunes: whose end is to plunder and pillage wheresoever they come, and enrich themselves upon the spoils of any. This covetous desire of rapine, to make a prey of people, hath been the great offence committed by our common Soldiers of late, as well as by the Cavaliers, who as they first began to practise it, so they are (I suppose) more expert at it; for they have neither fear of God, nor respect of men before their eyes; but would swim through a Sea of blood to their hoped haven; and that they have violently and illegally taken away from his Majesty's subjects their goods before their faces, 'tis irrefragably evident. To draw all these lines to their centre; from these premises the Inference is this, These grand Apostates to the Commonwealth must not expect to be pardoned in this world, till they be dispatched to the other. I could nominate many more of the malignant party, as Projectors, Pattentees, and other prerogative parasites. Humanarum calamitatum mercatores, as one ingeniously styles them, who care not to undo a whole Kingdom, so they may get benefit to themselves. As also a giddyheaded multitude in the Land, who are only Time-servers, and (like weathercocks) will turn at any time to serve their own turn; in the mean time by reason of ignorance and inability to discern what may be the issue and success of those beginnings are led on simply to their own ruin. But because I will not trench too fare upon the Readers patience, I here desist.  
Thus as in a Map ye may plainly see the Malignant Party, who they are, what they have done, and at what they aim. For the close of all, let us all shun their persons, abstain from their actions, and hate their intentions. Though they be malignant to the whole Kingdom, yet let not us be malevolent to ourselves; and let us not be so uncharitable to them as not to pray for them, that either God would be pleased to convert or confound them. Pray we therefore to the King of kings, that he would take away those wicked ones from before the King, that his Throne may be established in righteousness. To draw this Tract to a period, May they, who have endeavoured to divide the Head and the Body, (the King and his great Council, the Parliament) like Strafford, have their heads divided from their shoulders; or like Achitophel, be hanged up by the neck. This is the wish of one, who is neither Papist, Brownist, Anabaptist, nor Atheist, but a Protestant, and son of his Mother the Church of England.  
FINIS.