was the beginning of his Troubles wherein he was as much out in his Politicks as in any of his other Actions for it could not be well expected that they who had swept their Church as clean from all the Rubbish of Rome as Geneva it self and more zealous and refined in their Doctrin than they would be easily imposed upon in Matters of Religion But it was the Pride of Bishop Laud who was ambitious of being the Founder of a new Popery and of seeing it accomplished in his days by driving too furiously that prevented the designed Mischief and so we find it confessed by our Queen Mother in Monsieur Siries Mercury the French Kings History Writer for the Affairs of Italy who tells us among many other things concerning England That when the Parliament in 1640. met the Pope had three Agents in England negotiating the reconciling our King to Rome viz. the Count of Roset Seignior Câ—â— and Seignior Pausaâ—iâ— reciting Roset's Remonstrance delivered the King to prove it his Interest to turn Papist whereupon the King asking if the Pope would dispense with his Subjects taking the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy she was told that if â—e would be a Catholick iâ— must be without Conditions But the Parliament getting a Sent hereof◠〈…〉 cloâ—e that Roset was forced to be confessed whilst disguising himself and then fled for Ireland a little before the 〈◊〉 where it 's said he died And it may be observed that at this time this King 's Chief Counsellors 〈…〉 Strafford and Laud were such as whilst living were suspected and at Death declared themselves Papists viz. Thomas Earl of Arrundle Lord Cottington and Sir Francis Windibanck Secretary of State and Laud's Kinsman and not long before Treasurer Weston died of the same Communion And the same Author where he writes of the Affairs of England tells us further that Bishop L. and Bishop N. by which must be meant the two Archbishops Laud and Neal profered the Pope to leave England and go to Rome and for the Credit of that See declare themselves Papists provided the Pope would allow them at Rome the value of their English Bishopricks which they computed each at 16000 Crowns per annum but received for answer from the Pope's Nephew Chief Minister of State who at that time was as I remember Cardinal Francisco Barbarino reputed a great Statesman that if their Conversion were real they might at Rome live comfortably of so many hundred Crowns per annum For the Cardinal was jealous that the bottom of Laud's design was a Patriarchal Popedom for England which would have been a bad Example for France and other Popish Countries If any are curious to know further concerning the Affairs of England at that time I refer them to the aforesaid Mercury which is writ in Italian In the succeeding eighteen years interval this Nation received not the least dishonour save what happened at Hispaniola in War with Spain during Cromwel's Usurpation For the greatest part of the rest of that time our Neighbours trembled when we frowned tho since that the Catastrophy hath been such that we have trembled at their Frowns occasioned by the misgovernment of Charles the 2d who yet came to the Administration of the Crown most advantageously not an Enemy daring to shew his Teeth excepting that mad freak of the 29 Fifth Monarchy Men he seeming to be the universal Delight of the People At Breda he promised Liberty of Conscience to those dissenting Ministers that were with others sent by Parliament to invite him into England and at his arrival made shew of being true to his Word by appointing at the Savoy in order thereunto a Conference betwixt the two Parties the Conformists and Dissenters but the latter being under hand discountenanced by him who was a great Minister of King James the First 's Art in King-Craft it came to nothing more than making their Burthens the heavier so that in a short time the Presbyterians who had been the chief Authors of his Restauration his own Party being then so inconsiderable that they cannot be said to have contributed more to it than as Servants to the other were most ungratefully used their Ministers turned out of their Livings their Families exposed to live in a great measure upon Charity and that by him whom they had brought from that Condition himself to the injoyment of three Crowns His first Parliament acted regularly with an eye to publick good and quiet passing an Act of Indempnity for all save some few excepted which he seemed to approve so much of that in his cunning and cajoling way he gave them the name of the healing Parliament and then dissolved it calling another more to his purpose after which how he kept his Indempnity appears by his usage of the great and incomparable Sir Henry Vane Alderman Ireton Mr. Samuel Moyer Major Gladman c. taking away contrary to Faith the Life of the first imprisoning others without cause till they redeemed their Liberty by great Sums like Slaves in Algiers others standing it out till the Habeas Corpus Bill came in use after the withdrawing of Chancellor Hide which for seven or eight years had been denied or from the Iniquity of the Times durst not be moved for were freed by Law without Fines He pretended great zeal for the Reformed Religion with an Abhorrence of Poperty yet in favour of the latter endeavoured to set the Conformists at the greatest difference with the Dissenters by several Acts against the latter and severe Prosecution thereupon And this whilst at the same time all proceedings against the Papists in the Exchequer upon Conviction were stopped to the preserving of them when Protestant Dissenters were many of them ruined by close Imprisonments where they died he designing all a long no less than Popery and Slavery even when he pretended the contrary His two unjust costly and causeless Wars with Holland being in order thereunto as was the burning of London and the Popish Plot discovered by Dr. Oats yet rather than be thought to have any hand in the latter he suffered about twenty persons which he is strongly suspected to have imployed in it to dye for it When the burning of London the frequent subsequent Fires in Southwark St. Katharines and several parts of the City c. would not serve his ends he contrived a Protestant Plot for murthering of himself and as he untruly suggested introducing a Commonwealth and as the most probable Instrument as he thought tho therein mistaken Mr. Clapol a Son-in-law of Cromwel must be charged with it and without the least ground clapped up in Prison in the closest way and had not the real Popish Plot broke out he had surely been sacrificed to give Credit to the Forgery but Mr. Capol's unsuitable Principles to such a Design was enough to detect the Fraud and Villany he having been in the Civil Wars reckoned all a long a Royalist and Anti-Republican And thus ill Men are sometimes caught in
Queen Elizabeth to proceed upon which had he lived would in all probability have been more perfect he seeming to have been inspired with an Holy Spirit for Reformation in purging the Church from all the fulsom Dregs and Rubbish of Popish Superstition and Idolatry and the cutting so early the Thread of his Life before he had accomplished his Design gives us great cause to reckon it a Judgment of God upon this Nation for their Sins and we have the more reason to believe his pious Intentions because Dr. Heilin a late Champion for the Church of England established by Law and Bishop Laud's great Creature tells us in his Preface to his Church-History at least to this Effect That it was a great Mercy to the Church that he was taken away otherwise he had surely reduced Episcopacy to Primitive Institution c. and since the Doctor could not be ignorant that the Papists were violently suspected to be the Authors of his Death we may by this observe the Doctor and his Patrons Inclinations Queen Elizabeth's Preservation in the Tower in the time of her Imprisonment is a remarkable Providence not to be forgot that when her bloody Sister had designed her Death she should be preserved by King Philip Queen Maries Husband who had not at that time besides his Queen his Fellow in Christendom for Cruelty and Persecution of the Reformed and was moved to the same not by Bowels of Compassion but upon a Politick account That should Queen Mary dye Childless as it seems he feared Queen Elizabeth being out of the way the Queen of Scots a Papist would come to the Crown who being inseparably joyned in League with France they both might be too hard for Spain and that his Lenity towards Queen Elizabeth could be upon no other score appears by putting his Eldest Son to death for no other cause than being too mercifully inclined towards the Protestants in the Netherlands And thus the Lord wrought for us when we could not help our selves in bringing her to the Crown and preserving her thorough her whole Reign against the perpetual Plots and Endeavours of the Papists for destroying her Queen Elizabeth having in her Fathers and Sisters Times tho averse to the gross Idolatry of Rome imbibed too great a liking of the gaudy Splendor of the Church insomuch that the pious Reformers of that Age could not bring her to that height of Reformation they desired as appears by Dr. Burnet's now Bishop of Salisbury's Letter from Zurick in Switzerland had it not pleased God in his Providence to furnish her with wise and moderate Counsellors as Sir Thomas Smith Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Burley Sir Francis Walsingham Earl of Essex and Sir Walter Rawleigh c. she might have proved more severe against the then Dissenters than she was but having had a true Love to the People of England and particularly to the City of London which scarce any of her four Successors have since had she reigned moderately some of those Acts of Parliament made in her time and since wrested against Dissenters being intended only against Papists Piety was by her and her Counsellors encouraged all Debauchery Blasphemy Atheism and Profaness discountenanced Honours places of Profit or Pensions never bestowed otherwise than for Merit by which all sorts being provoked to the study of Vertue and generous Actions Gentlemen were in that time in higher esteem and of greater Interest than many Noblemen at this day the benefit of which we found in a Blessing upon all our Undertakings the Nation not suffering the least dishonour in any of their Actions during her Reign tho ingaged in war upon the account of Religion with all her Neighbours with Spain in defence of the Protestants in the Netherlands with Scotland in the behalf of the Reformation there and with France in the assistance of the Reformed in that Kingdom in Ireland against the Rebels there and at home in suppressing the perpetual Plots of the Papists And having prevailed in all places with a small but well managed Revenue extravagant Sallaries Fraud and Cousenage unnecessary Pensions multiplying Offices and Officers to gratifie a Party for Popery and Arbitrary Government not being then known her and her Peoples interest being reckoned one and not separated as our Courtiers have since done she became glorious through the World so far as the Name of England was heard of insomuch that in honour of her the Emperor of Muscovia did voluntarily bestow extraordinary Immunities upon the English Nation When this Queen died the Renown of England seems to have died with her for since her time we have gon backward in Honour and Reputation having received many Eclipses None of our four suceeding Kings nor even Cromwel in his almost five years Usurpation having any one glorious Action to boast of save the concern the last had for the Protestants Liberty in Piemont which I confess ought not to be forgot tho his War with Spain and joyning with France is his Reproach James the 1st was a Scholar qualified for an University to make Harangues in the Schools but had nothing besides to brag of save Dissimulation which he called King-Craft but was really his blemish in that by it he so far lost all Reputation except that of a Pedant that no Princes or States could confide in him and for all his boasted Cunning was ever worsted in Foreign Treaties as in that with Spain about the Infanta with the Emperor about the Palatinate with Holland about the cautionary Towns not in delivering them up for that was but Justice but in the sum due to us for them and as a proof of his great Wisdom he spent that in fruitless Embassies which good Queen Elizabeth did in glorious Atchievements And therefore our flattering Clergy for their own ends stiling him a Solomon was groundless none ever having deserved it less his Diversions wherein he spent his time not being the Care of his People according to the duty of his Calling but in Hunting Masking and Drinking and to please the Ecclesiasticks by making their Sabbath-days-work easie in promoting the Profanation of that day in inviting the People by a Declaration to Sports and Games when they should have been either at Church or at home better employed as if the way to fit a People for Arbitrary Government was first to make them godless which Maxim hath been since improved This King was no sooner removed to England than forgetting the Methods of Church and State he had been bred to in Scotland aspired as much to Arbitrary Government as if he had never heard of any other Principles as appears by his hectoring Speeches in Parliament But it was the happiness of the People that his Bravery lay only in his Tongue and that the Nation was not then overrun with the Leprosie of Luxury and Lincentiousness nor the Ecclesiasticks and Judges corrupted as they have been since so that tho no means or tricks were neglected for compassing his Ends through Providence
And that such Evidence might pass with the Grand Jury both they and the Witnesses were heard in Court that the first might be brow-beaten and the latter countenanced and hear what one another said at least an unusual Method if not contrary to Law And to help all forward the Lord Chief Justice told the Grand Jury that they were not to enquire into the Credibility of the Witnesses whilst the Law in express Words speaks the contrary And to make all sure that none should escape whom the Court at Whitehall would have destroyed the Witnesses to an Indictment brought against a Combination of Rogues for Perjury and Subornation of Perjury to disable them for taking away the Lives of the Innocent the Lord Chief Justice refused to swear them because against the King's Evidence except the Attorney General would give leave who he could not but know was too much of the Court-Faction to do it By which means those Villains escaped Conviction and left at liberty to hang whom they pleased And tho Mr. Bethel then Sheriff complained publickly in Court that he had Affidavits to prove his Life so far designed against that those profligate Rascals offered in August 1681. to lay Wagers of Ten to One that they would hang him before Christmass following he could not procure any Proceedings against them But it is believed that his Complaint had this Effect that it hinder'd the Attorney General 's producing a Bag of Indictments he had then ready against several honest and innocent Persons against whom these Varlets should have been made use of And this was the Consequence of the Courts turning out and changing Judges till they had got Men for their turn who would make any thing Law the Court would have and who having by Pensions and Rewards got Witnesses to swear accordingly and by packing of Juries got such as would find what they would have found it was in the King's power to hang whom he pleased and that of a large List of Persons marked out for Destruction there were no more murthered must be ascribed to the over-ruling Hand of Providence The Lord deliver us from the like Times when Judges Juries Witnesses and Council all strive who should most signalize their Zeal for Tyranny by strains of Wit and wresting of Law as appears by Mr. Hawle's Remarks upon some of the Trials of those Times Besides ambitious Citizens Officers in Places of Profit Pensioners and Suitors for the like were all the same insomuch that it might in some measure be said that all Flesh had corrupted their Ways and if we should again hunt with the same Dogs they would start the same Hare The Parliament by several Acts hath judged the Lord Russel Colonel Sidney Alderman Cornish murthered voted Sir Thomas Armstrong the same reversed several unjust Verdicts to the perpetual Infamy of all those Juries and yet have pardoned most of the Murtherers and Oppressors by an Act of Indempnity which may well be feared will incourage the like in the future against all that shall stand in the way of Arbitrary Government if we have a King that shall affect it The corrupting and viciating the Nation had been long designed as necessary for introducing Popery and Slavery for whilst Men are virtuous and not afraid of the Laws they will expect and contend for the benefit of them but when by Debauchery and Immorality they stand in need of Indulgence for incouragement of their Lusts they will be careless of their civil Rights and therefore the lewdest Examples were thought fit to be given them with connivance at their Practice as in swearing whoring drinking atheistical and blasphemous Drollery discouraging all Religion save what consisted in meer formality without discouraging dissoluteness some of the worst of Men being made choice of to gratifie with Honours Pensions and places of Profit But of all the odious ways used to gain a Party none like that of teaching Youths to drink Healths with Huzzaes crying up the breach of Laws for Loyalty when nothing is such but Obedience according to Law the contrary being Disloyalty as was the publick feasting of the Apprentices of London with the Kings Venison not leaving it in the power of their Masters without making themselves obnoxious to forbid them that School of Vertue or command obedience in contradiction thereof and that this should be projected by the greatest of the Court who graced their Society with their presence may be reckoned for all their Wit an Error in Politicks in courting in such manner the Mobile or rather Rabble as it was no less in whom there is no constancy for being acted by present apprehensions or humor they are as uncertain as the Wind nothing being to be relied upon save honest unselfish Principles for such will in the end prevail in spite of all the Devils in Hell and in the Faith of this I shall dye tho I may not live to see it These and such like courses which most of our Conforming Parsons teaching from their Pulpits in Taverns and Coffee-houses the Doctrin of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance without limitation hath so poisoned the Nation that without an extraordinary Work of God a Recovery cannot be expected for tho I think the good People of England of all Communions are the best I believe the Profane as they are by ill Examples of late years brought unto are the worst of Men exceeding all others in wicked and immoral Practices which we owe chiefly to the two last Kings Examples their evil and pernicious Counsellors and Favourites It is a Maxim in our Law that the King can do no wrong which must refer only to Matters of State and not personal Actions for that it cannot be denyed but he that lies with another Man's Wife or kills his Neighbour c. doth them wrong but as the King in other cases must act by Instruments so it is but reasonable they should be answerable for miscarriages in Government because being free Agents what they do is of choice the Service of Princes being sought and not compulsed and were it not for evil Counsellors Princes would no be so bad as they often are Queen Elizabeth of famous Memory her Vertue appeared not only in her natural just and equal Principles but also in the election of suitable Counsellors Men at least morally honest aiming more at publick than their own private Benefit she incouraged Vertue making Honour the Reward of it and not of pimping and all manner of Vice she reproved her great Favourite that unhappy Earl of Essex whom she made General in her Expedition for Cadiz for conferring the honour of Knighthood upon some few whose Service at that time he judged deserved it when she thought a less Reward might have served In her time Knighthood was not expected voluntarily by any Citizens save the Lord Mayor nor was it thought of by the two succeeding Kings till Charles the First at his Return from Scotland in 1641. after failing in his design there
was by Oath obliged which causing him to abdicate the Government in running away and applying himself to the great Tyrant of the Earth for Help gave the People the Opportunity of asserting their natural Right in providing for their own Security by chusing King William and Queen Mary for their rightful and legal Sovereigns whom the Lord in Mercy bless with a long and prosperous Reign over us and whilst we give due Honour to the Instruments let us not forget ascribing the Praise and Glory due to Almighty God as the Author and Principal of our Deliverance and have always in a thankful Remembrance this and all other his saving Providences towards this poor Nation through several Reigns and Ages Whilst the Church of England was under Persecution in the Persons of the Bishops the President of Magdalen-College in Cambridge and the President and Fellows of Magdalen-College in Oxford they were full of Compassion and Brotherly Kindness towards Dissenters and ready to joyn with them for Redress of Grievances by the help of the Prince of Orange now King of England c. but were no sooner freed from their Fears of being superceded by Priests and Jesuits than headed by some who stood in need of a Party to render them considerable that thereby they might blot out the Remembrance of former Crimes than they forgot former Professions of Moderation and the Afflictions of their Brethren and to that degree that they caballed for increasing their Burthens and monopolizing all Employments to themselves by continuing the Sacramental Test though to the fatal detriment of the Kingdom for had not that Bar for trusting Dissenters been in the way Ireland in the Opinion of those that best know that Country might e'er this have been reduced to the saving most of the Blood and Treasure that hath been spent upon it and I fear the Blood so needlesly spilt will lie at their Doors that were the Authors of it It was the Dissenters that saved London-Derry and in that preserved Ireland for tho by the Artifice of some eminent Conformists the Honour was ascribed to Mr. Walker and his Party for which he got a Reward he did not deserve it appears by the Narrative of that Siege writ by Mr. Mackenzy Chaplain to a Regiment during the Siege and writ with that Candour and Faithfulness as carries its Testimony with it the Applause and Reward belonged to the Dissenters for even the Answer to this Book in behalf of Mr. Walker doth no way detect but rather gives it Credit But Mr. Walker being dead I shall forbear all farther Reflections upon him he having been a good-natured Man and what he did amiss being from the influence of others He confessed there were four Nonconformists in the Town for one Conformist and some say eight for one but the Authority being in the Church-men who were timerous if not worse you will find by Mr. Mackenzey's Relation that it was the Mobile who were Dissenters that saved the Place against the Will of the rest Now I suppose I may be censured as being discontented for want of Employment as not being able to qualifie my self To which I answer That those that know me know I never sought any Employment and if I had I have a Latitude to qualifie my self So that I may truly affirm that what I here write proceeds purely from Affection to my Country and the Cause of God The Town of London-Derry was at last relieved and as is said might have been six Weeks sooner with less difficulty and the saving of four or five thousand Lives which in that time died of Famine After the Relief of it Collonel Murrey and thirteen Troops of Horse who had done the greatest Service in defending of the Town were reduced and greatly suspected for no other Reason than because Dissenters and free from Debauchery tho we may observe that after Relief of the Town little of moment was done till His Majesty's happy Arrival save what was done by those called Inniskilling-men who tho not all Dissenters are much of their Judgment Friends to them and joyned with them which one would think might have recommended the rest of that sort to Employment in these difficult Times I do not aim herein at reflecting upon the Conformists in general for it must be confessed that there are many sober vertuous and religious Persons of that Judgment as London hath experienced in being contrary to what was designed by others providentially preserved by them as appears by the Opposition the present worthy and most deserving Lord Mayor hath met with from those that were Hectors for delivering up of Charters and joyning with Jeffreys c. in all Arbitrary and Tyrannical Ways and for no other Reason that we know than for his being next under God and Her Majesty by his wise Conduct in the Absence of the King the Preserver of this City and Nation in Peace and Safety for his Opposers were no sooner delivered by the Act of Grace from fear of Punishment for former Crimes than they returned with the Dog to his Vomit and with the Swine to the wallowing in the Mire of their corrupt Principles insomuch that I think one may without breach of Charity say That there is none who are not guilty of great ignorance that is for turning out the present Lord Mayor but such as would if they could turn out the King But I would not be understood in this to complain of any save the Bigots of the Church such as will not allow of any to be of their number who have Charity for those that are not of their Communion and have not the same Latitude in all Immorality as they have even to the taking away the Lives and Estates of innocent Men that are not of their minds by false Verdicts when it shall be in their power and that they may reach their own Members that exceed them in Vertue and Sobriety they nickname them with the Name of Common-wealths Men for since they cannot call them Drunkards Swearers nor Whoremasters they will call them something to render them as they think odious to the People and tho they have reason to know that from the experience the People have had of their Integrity and Uprightness they are not be cozened by injurious Names yet from Machivel's Rule That by calumniating boldly something will stick they continue their Reproach tho contrary to sense or reason Every Englishman that is not Knave or Fool being as much a Common-wealths Man as those they mean who are no more for a Republick than Magna Charta makes them But it hath had this effect to hinder the most useful Men from serving their King and Country to the great damage of both if it prove not their destruction in keeping up the way for advancing Folly Ignorance and Knavery by a bare restraining the choice of Officers to one Party which if continued must undo this Kingdom And for preventing the same it were to be wished that as in
he failed of his Design his tossing of Parliaments by Prorogations and Adjournments for bringing them to his bow not doing his work he projected for raising of Mony to supply the want of Parliaments the Dignity of Hereditary Baronets and to induce Gentlemen of the best Quality to give Credit to this pernicious Invention by accepting of it he gave them Precedence of all meerly Knights of the Bath and singly Knights Batchelors not being the younger Sons of Barons of whom they have no place but to make the Title more valuable and desirable he ingaged that the number should not exceed two hundred And all this under the Romantick pretence that every person accepting hereof should be obliged to maintain a certain number of Souldiers in Ireland to defend the Protestants against the Papists in that Kingdom and as a badge of their Duty adds a bloody Hand to their Coat of Arms yet with this Condition that each paying 1000 l. into the Exchequer they should be excused from that Service for notwithstanding the pretence in the Patent it was meerly a trick to get Mony without Parliaments As was the conferring Titles upon Women Scotch and Irish Titles upon Persons not having any Lands in either Country a thing not practised before And as to the Title of Baronet it may be observed that tho it is pretended against Papists those of that Religion were as forward to buy this Honour as others and thus he defrauded the People of the benefit of Parliaments by exposing for raising of Mony this and all other Honours to sale which hath been ever reckoned a mark of a depraved and corrupt Government And thus begun our governing by tricks hardly known before which continued till our present happy Change but this according to the Maxim of our Law That the King can do no wrong must refer to his evil Council and not to him This new Honour of Baronets was struck at by several succeeding Parliaments as illegal in the Institution as well as the end the first in being hereditary without annexing it to some place and the latter in depriving the Nation of their Security in the use of Parliaments But in a little time the Interest increased so much in the increase of their Number that nothing could be done to disannul this Project for notwithstanding the cajoling promise of not exceeding two hundred no limitation was observed the Number by falling the price to less than half tho obliged to have a Receipt out of the Exechequer for the whole 1000 l. being increased to near if not 1000. And in these and such like waies this celebrated Solomon spent a Reign of two and twenty years without bringing any Honour to the Nation but on the contrary through evil Counsel a Diminution of it to a great degree and when he had finished his Course left his Presidents to his Son Charles the 1st This King as no Man can deny followed his Fathers steps and in an higher degree affected absolute Monarchy wherein being obstinate it was fatal to him he was free from that open dissoluteness his two Successors have been since guilty of for the Nation not being then arrived at that impudent Profaness it is now come to the People were then modest in their Vices compared with these times yet Lewdness then as it hath ever since increased more and more helped forward by Bishop Laud's Advice in discouraging Piety and giving incouragement to Debauchery by aspersing sober Men with Nicknames as Puritans and Precisians c. promoting Arminianism the Doctrin of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance and then seconding this King's Father in publishing another Book of Sports giving Liberty on the Lords Day for all manner of Games as Foot-ball Cudgels c. injoyning the reading it in the Churches to the great grief of all serious Christians fearing God His Carriage in the State was as offensive as in the Church he called Parliaments meerly to serve his own turn without any eye to the Publick and when they did but enquire into any grievances as the Death of his Father who was violently suspected to be poisoned c. they were readily dissolved And in Ann. 1628. he forbid by Proclamation the speaking of Parliaments a high Arbitrary Act he passed indeed the Petition of Right asserting the Peoples Liberties but had no sooner given his Consent than he broke through all the Bonds of it illegally forcing the Payment of Tunnage and Poundage Ship-Mony Coat and Conduct Mony Knighthood Mony imprisoning Members for speaking in Parliaments To increase his Revenue monopolized contrary to Law most Commodities made an extrajudicial use of the Star Chamber to the fining and otherwise punishing of Gentlemen without cause removing them for their greater vexation out of their own Counties to Prisons in other Countries and to prevent Complaints had no Parliaments in twelve years nor then till compelled by the Troubles in Scotland to call one For though that Book falsly intituled this Kings for which his Admirers Saint him begins with his spontaneous calling of the Parliament in 1640. that Chapter made one of his own Party upon the reading of it throw the Book away saying If it begun with so known a Lie nothing less could be expected in it and therefore would not read it This Expression ought to be pardoned the King not being concerned in it both his Sons the two last Kings having confessed to the late Earl of Anglesea that their Father did not write the Book but that it was writ by Dr. Gaudin afterwards Bishop of Exeter He wrested the Statute for Forests to the Ruin of many by the inlarging them his Court was filled with Priests and Jesuits He caressed the Heads of that horrid and odious Rebellion in Ireland clapped up a Peace with them in order to bring those Cut-throats into England His Son Charles the 2d confessed that the Marquess of Antrim reckoned one of the massacring Rebels acted by his Fathers Commission and upon that account he had his Estate restored him by the Court of Claims he solicited the Duke of Lorain to bring his more than ordinary rude and wicked Army into England and all this besides his deserting Rochel after he had stirred them up to stand upon their defence promising them Relief to the ruin of the whole Protestant Cause as appears by the History of the Siege of Rochel These are but hints of some few of the Practices in his time which if not sufficient to suspend according to the Romish Rule the Sainting him till after an hundred years that his Vertues may be forgot Those that read Rushworth's Collections will find enough there for deferring the Solemnization thereof His Reign was so Arbitrary that I remember it was commonly said that the studying Proclamations which made a Volume as big as a Church-Bible was more necessary for Lawyers than their Books His endeavouring to impose a more superstitious and approaching Liturgy to Popery upon the Church of Scotland than ours in England