7 1645% other Victory gained by General Fairfax against An. 21 Car. I. the Lord Goring, at Langport, in Somerfetfhire, for which another Day of Thanksgiving was appointed. July 15. A Letter from General Fairfax was read to the Lords, containing a short Account of the foregoing Action, To the Right Honourable the Lord GREY of My Lord, July. Account of his IT T pleafed God, on Thursday laft, by this Army, to General Fairfax's give General Goring a Defeat. After he re-defeating General tired from Taunton he lay with his Army at Lang- Goring in Somerport; where, with the Advantage of the River and fethire. feveral Garrisons that lay upon it, he put us to great Straits to find a Way how to engage with him; tho' he had great Advantages of Paffes, yet his Over-confidence in them proved rather ours than his; Whilft he fent away his Ordnance and Carriages to Bridgewater, he fronted us with his Army, and passed 1000 Mufqueteers thro' a narrow Valley that was betwixt us; but we forced them to retreat with ours, and the Horfe feconded them and put the Army into a Rout, pursuing them almoft into Bridgewater, Two Thousand taken Prifoners, few flain. We also have taken good Storeof Arms, two Pieces of Ordnance, with many Colours both of Horfe and Foot, We are marching to Bridgewater, and shall make the best Ufe we can of this good Succefs God hath given us. I defire your Lordship's Pardon for this hart Relation. This Bearer, Major Harrifon, can fatisfy your Lordship more fully in Particulars, jo take Leave to remain Your Lordship's Chedfoy, July 11, 1645. moft humble Servant, THOMAS FAIRFAX, Next Major Harrison was called in, and made B 3 Lords 1645. July An. 21 Car. I. Lords gave him Thanks for his good Service done in this Bufinefs, and ordered that the Speaker do write a Letter to Sir Thomas Fairfax from that Houfe, to congratulate his good Success in the late Victory, and to give him Thanks for his great Vigilancy in the Carriage of this Action. July 18. The Commons, by a Committee, had been all this Time in Examination of the Business, Mr. Cranford relating to what Mr. Cranford had declared, con fined by the Com- cerning the Defection of fome of their Members (a); mons, for afperf- and unanimously refolved, That the faid Report ing feveral of their Members; was falfe and fcandalous: That the Words he had Lord Saville's Charge against spoken against Mr. Crewe, Mr. Pierpoint, Mr. Solicitor St. John, and Sir Henry Vane, jun. were alfo falfe and fcandalous: That he fhould pay to each of the faid Gentlemen the Sum of 500l. as Damages, for their Reparation: That he fhould make an Acknowledgment for his Offence, and exprefs his Sorrow for the fame, at the Bar of the House of Commons; and that he should be committed Prifoner to the Tower during the Pleasure of the House. The next Day, July 19, the Commons proothers difmifs'd. ceeded upon the Report concerning Lord Saville's Paper, wherein Mr. Holles and Mr. Whitlocke were taxed with Treachery, when they acted as the Parliament's Commiffioners at Oxford, and agreed that it should be finally laid afide: But, at the fame Time, it was ordered, That thofe Gentlemen might profecute the Lord Saville if they thought fit. Mr. Holles and Mr. Whitelocke being extremely particular in their respective Narratives of this Bufinefs, we fhall pafs it by with a Reference to their Memorials (b). Nothing worth Notice, either Civil or Military, relating to these Inquiries, occurring in the Tranfactions of this Month, we fubjoin an Extract from the Lord Journals, of July 23, of a Complaint (a) See before, in Vol. XIII. p. 425, 499, &c. plaint made, by the Affembly of Divines again a blafphemous Book lately published. That House cenfured it to be burnt by the Hands of the common Hangman, and ordered the Affembly to draw up a Deteftation against such Blafphemies; a Copy whereof here follows: Houfe of Lords, A S it hath pleased the Honourable Houses of A Declaration of Parliament, out of their pious Care for the Affembly of Divines against a preferving Religion pure from the Leaven of blafphemous pernicious and blafphemous Doctrine, to order Book, burnt by the Burning of this moft fcandalous Book; fo Order of the have they farther ordered us to declare the Abominableness thereof unto the People; and we ⚫ doubt not but every good Chriftian, as foon as ♦ he shall hear the Scope and Contents of it, will, together with us, deteft the horrid Blafphemy therein afferted; and acknowledge the godly Zeal, Wisdom, and Juftice of that Authority, in commanding it, as an execrable Thing, to be taken ⚫ away, that it may not remain amongst us to provoke God's Wrath, and produce fuch perilous and pernicious Fruits, whereby the Souls of many may be corrupted to their everlafting Destruction: For whereas that moft vile and blafphemous Affertion, whereby God is avowed to be the Author of Sin, hath hitherto, by the general Confent of Chriftian Teachers and Writers, both ⚫ ancient and modern, and these as well Papifts as • Proteftants, been not only disclaimed, but even detefted and abhorred; yet, in this Book, it is not loosely intimated, or occasionally hinted, or inconfiderately or through Inadvertency ftumbled upon, but openly and in exprefs Terms, and in a very foul Manner, propounded and maintained purposely at large, and profecuted, in the fol lowing Paffages, viz. Page 35 That God is the Author of, Hand in, the Sinfulness of his People. Page 36. That he is the Author, Actions alone in which Sin is, but B 4 and hath an not of those An. 21 Car. I. Pravity of Ataxy, Anomy, Irregularity, and Sinfulnefs itself which is in them. 1645. July. Page 37. That God hath more Hand in 'Men's Sinfulness than they themselves. Page 38. That the Creature's Sin doth produce the greatest Good, either in God's Glory or in the Creature's Happiness, as the next Caufe thereof; and that all that Good is only brought about by Sin. Page 39. That it is as incongruous and inconvenient to make God the Author of the Afflictions of his Creatures as of their Sins. Page 48. That by Sin Believers are as much nurtured and fitted for Heaven as by any thing elfe: Page 49. That God fits Believers for his Service in this World by leading them into Sin. Page 52. That no Courfe is fo ready to remove or prevent finful or pernicious Trouble for Sin, as this locking upon God as the Author of it, and the Good which he brings about by it; which, because it is rarely done by Believers, and indeed hardly known, he therefore profefleth to have enlarged ⚫ himself upon it, and in these and many other like Terms hath fet forth this blafphemous Doctrine: And further, he condemneth our Orthodox • Writers, for that they have only granted, that God is willing Sin fhould be, and that he per• mits it, and orders Circumstances about its Production, and over-rules it, and hath an Hand in it, and is the Author of the phyfical or moral Act in and with which Sin is; faying, That they "have herein erred on the other Hand, and made Sin more of the Creature and itfelf lefs from God than it is. Befides, the main Scope of the Book is to perfuade Men not to be oppreffed or perplexed in Heart by any thing whatfoever that befall's them, either in Sin or Affliction, as if our Saviour, when he faith, Let not your Hearts be troubled, (for that is the Ground upon which he builds) had intended to dehort his Disciples from 1645. July. being troubled for their Sins: Very great is both An. 21 Car. I. the Danger and Scandal which would from fuch sa deteftable Pofition as this arife, if it should be fuffered, without Controul, to be published and difperfed abroad; especially in fuch a Time as this, when, on the one Hand, Multitudes make ufe of the fpecious Name of Liberty for a Cloak of Naughtinefs, and of admitting and profeffing many perverfe and corrupt Opinions, exceeding contrary to the Gofpel of Chrift and to the Power of Godliness; and, on the other Hand, many watch for our Halting, and glory in nothing more against us, than in thofe Advantages which the Weakness and Inftability of fuch as are carried about with every Wind of Doctrine, and are not fettled and rooted in the Truth, doth moft unhappily minifter unto them; to the unfpeakable Prejudice of the Church of Chrift, and obftructing that bleffed Reformation, which is, by all good Men, fo earnestly defired. Exceeding dangerous it is unto the Souls of Men, both as a Means to instill into them Blafphemies and impure Conceits of the Majefty of our most holy God, as alfo by working them to a flighting or difregarding of Sin, and confequently letting loofe the Reins to all corrupt and licentious Living; for by how much the less the Trouble is after Sin committed, by fo much the greater ufually is the Boldness of the Commiffion of it; and, by the Scandal hence arifing, is every whit as great in regard of the Offence which is hereby given unto the Reformed Churches; who, in their public Confeffions, make Satan and Man himfelf the only Caufes and Authors of Sin; and fome of thein do, in thofe Confeffions, by Name damn this wicked Pofition; and alfo in regard of the great Advantages that it gives our common Adverfary the Papifts, who have hitherto, calumniously only, charged the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches with fo odious a Crime; in the mean Time con • feffing, |