Clergy of England as being neither Parsons Vicars nor Curates be Licenced henceforward in the Court of Faculties only with a Fiat from the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and a Confirmation under the Great Seal of England And that such as transgress any one of these Directions be suspended by the Lord Bishop of the Diocess or in his Default by the Lord Arch-Bishop of the Province Ab officio beneficio for a Year and a Day untill his Majesty by the Advice of the next Convocation shall prescribe some further Punishment 102. These Orders were well brought fourth but Success was the Step-Mother Destinata salubriter omni ratione potentior fortuna discussit Curtius lib. 5o. Crossness and Sturdiness took best with the Vulgar and he was counted but a Cockney that stood in awe of his Rulers No marvel if some were brought to no State of Health or toward any Temper of Convalesence with these Mandates Nothing is so hardly bridled as the Tongue saith St. James especially of a mis-guided Conscience when their Bladder if full of Wind the least Prick of a Thorn will give it eruption A Fool traveleth with a Word as a Woman in Labour of a Child Ecclus. 19.11 Restraint is not a Medicine to cure epidemical Diseases for Sin becomes more sinful by the Occasion of the Law Diliguntur immodice sola quae non licent says one of the Exteriors Quintil. decl 1a. The less we should the more we would Curb Cholerical Humours and you press out Bitterness as it is incident to those that are strait-lac'd to have sower Breaths The Scottish Brethren were acquainted by common Intercourse with these Directions that had netled the aggrieved Pulpitarians And they says Reverend Spotswood P. 543. accuse them to be a Discharge of Preaching at least a Confining of Preachers to certain Points of Doctrine which they call Limiting of the Spirit of God But the Wiser Sort judged them both necessary and profitable considering the Indiscretion of divers of that sort who to make Ostentation of their Learning or to gain the Applause of the Popular would be medling with Controversies they scarce understood and with Matters exceeding the Capacity of the People But what a Pudder does some make for not stinting the Spirit or Liberty of Prophecying as others call it They know not what they ask Such an indefinite Licence is like the Philosopher's Materia Prima a monstrous Passive Subject without Form A Quid libet which is next to nothing Indeed it is a large Charter to pluck down and never to build up Every Man may sling a Stone where he will and let it light as Luck carries it But how can the House of God be built unless the Builders be appointed to set up the Frame with Order and Agreement among themselves according to the Pattern which was shewn in the Mount Try it first in Humane Affairs and see how it will sadge with them before we proceed to Heavenly Dissolve the publick Mint let every Man Coin what Money he will and observe if ever we can make a Marchandable Payment Their Confusion is as like to this as a Cherry to a Cherry Give their Spirit as much Scope as they ask Let them Coin what Doctrine they will with the Minting-Irons of their own Brain They may pay themselves with their own Money but will it pass with others for Starling Will it go for current Divinity To meet them home Suppose this Priviledge were allow'd yet every good Spirit will limit it self to lawful Subjection Yet these would not Then what Remedy in earnest none was try'd It is the height of Infelicity to be incurable As Pliny in his Natural History said of Laws made against Luxury in Rome which would not be kept down therefore the Senators left to make Laws against it Frustra interdicta quae vetucrant cernentes nullas potiùs quam irritas esse Leges maluerunt 103. Neither were uncharitable Suspicions like to mend For the Unsatisfied that sung so far out of Tune had another Ditty for their Prick-Song The King's Letters were directed to the Lord Keeper to be Copy'd out and sent forth to the Judges and Justices to afford some Relaxation of our Penal Laws to some but not all Popish Recusants Which made sundry Ministers interpose very harshly and in the Prophet Malachy's Stile Chap. 2. Ver. 13. To cover the Altar of God with Tears and Weeping and Crying but the Lord regarded not the Offering neither received it with Good-will at their Hands What could this mean as they conjectured but the highest Umbrage to the Reformed Religion and â—at Toerâ—ion of Popery Leave it at that cross way that they knew not whither this Project will turn Nay Should they not hope for the best Event of the Meaning A King is like to have an ill Audit when every one that walks in the Streets will reckon upon his Councels with their own casting Counters It is fit in sundry Occurrences for a Prince to disguise his Actions and not to discover the way in which he treads But many times the Wisdom of our Rulers betrays them to more Hatred than their Follies because Idiots presume that their own Follies are Wisdom Plaurus displays these impertinent Inquisitors very well in Trinummo Quod quisque habet in animo aut habiturus est sciunt Quod in aurem Rex Reginae dixerit sciunt Quae neque futura neque facta sunt illi sciunt Yet these Fault-sinders were not jear'd out of their Melancholly though they deserv'd no better but were gravely admonished by his Majesty Vivâ voce in these Words I understand that I am blamed for not executing the Laws made against the Papists But ye should know that a King and his Laws are not unfuly compared to a Rider and his Horse The Spur is sometime to be used but not always The Bridle is sometime to be held in at other times to be let loose as the Rider finds Cause Just so a King is not at all times to put in Execution the Rigor of his Laws but he must for a time and upon just Grounds dispense with the same As I protest to have done in the present Case and to have conniv'd only for a time upon just Cause howbeit not known to 〈◊〉 If a Man for the Favour shew'd to a Priest or Papist will judge me to be inclining that way he wrongs me exceedingly My Words and Writings and Actions have sufficiently 〈◊〉 what my Resolution is in all Matters of Religion That Cause not known to 〈…〉 in part unfolded by that grave Father Spotswood where I quoted him 〈◊〉 Says he The Better and Wiser Sort of his Country-men who considered 〈…〉 Estate of things gave a far other Judgment thereof than the Discontented 〈…〉 then our King was treating with the French King for Peace to the Protestants of France and with the King of Spain for withdrawing his Forces from the Palatinate At which time it was no way fitting that
gained divers Beneficed Men to conform who had stumbled at that Straw that the Lord Keeper could do no less then compound the Troubles of so Learned and Industrious a Divine And I aver it upon the Faith of a good Witness that after this Bishop Harsnet acknowledged that he was as useful a man to assist him in his Government as was in all his Diocese Another Rank for whose sake the Lord Keeper suffer'd were scarce an handful not above three or four in all the wide Bishoprick of Lincoln who did not oppose but by ill Education seldom used the appointed Ceremonies Of whom when he was certified by his Commissaries and Officials he sent for them and confer'd with them with much Meekness sometime remitted them to argue with his Chaplain If all this stirred them not he commended them to his Old Collegiate Dr. Sibbs or Dr. Gouch Who knew the scruples of these mens Hearts and how to bring them about the best of any about the City of London If all these labour'd in vain he protracted the hearing of their Causes de die in diem that time might mollisie their refractory Apprehensions But had it not been better said some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stop the mouth of the unruly Tit. 1.11 I Answer Their mouth was slept in St. Paul's meaning Estius hath begun the distinction and it is easily made up Alind est silontium indicere quod est imperamis Alind ad metas saciturnitatis reduccre quod est docte redarguentis They were not imperiously commanded to be silent but enough was spoken wifely to their Face to put their Folly to silence Men that are found in their Morals and in Minutes imperfect in their Intellectuals are best reclaimed when they are mignarized and strok'd gently Seldom any thing but severity will make them Anti-practise For then they grow desperate Facundus Dominus quosdam aâ—fugam cogit quosdam ad mortem says Seneca And they are like to convert more with their sufferings then with their Doctrine He that is openly punish'd whatsoever he hath done he shall find Condolement But I will spend no more Words to wipe away this stur of Puritanism it needs not a laborious Apology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Proverb is in Athenaeus Let Lubbars Talk of it over a Winter Fire when they Droll out Tales 107. Yet I want not matter how to wash out this spot of Jealousie by great Actions In this year 1622 he began to expend a great Sum upon St. John's College the Nurse of his hopeful breeding A right stampt Puritan is not a Founder but a Demolisher of good Works He laid the platform of his Beneficence on this Wife Four Scholars he Added to the 40 Alumni in the College of Westminster For their Advancement he provided and endowed four Scholarships in St. John's College upon their Maturity and Vacancy of those places to be Translated to them Two Fellowships he Newly Erected in that House into which only out of those four the best were to be chosen Withal he purchas'd the Patronage of four Rich Benefices to receive those Scholars and Fellows of his Foundation upon the Death or other Cessation of the Incumbents But the Chief Minerval which he bestowed upon that Society was the Structure of a most goodly Library the best in that kind in all Cambridge And as he had pick'd up the best Authors in all Learning and in all plenty for his own use so he bequeathed them all to this fair Repository This was Episcopal indeed to issue out his Wealth as the Lord brought it in in such ways This is the Purse that Mr. H. L. says he Ran away withal after he had departed with the Great Seal wherein we see how far the Portion of over-flowing wast which 〈◊〉 from Great Ones and is spilt if it were sav'd and well bestow'd would 〈◊〉 the Land with all sort of Monumental Bravery What a good Steward he was for his Master Christ Jesus's Houshold and how provident to put none into part of the Care but such as were Obedient to Civil and Sacred Rulers appears most in his happy choice of those upon whom he confer'd the livings that fell into his Patronage They were ever pick'd out of the best Learned the best Qualified the most Cordially affected to our most Godly Liturgy and to the Government of the Prelates Within these Apostatizing times wherein so many have departed from them without Cause I cannot remember any of his preferring but kept their Traces and to their best Power never run out of the Ring I have a short Story to tell and then I leave this Subject Among the poor distressed Protestants in Bohemia many of them were Braziers by their Occupation These sent sent some messengers from them with a Petition to his Majesty that they might Transplant a Colony into England London especially Men Wives Children and their full Families Signifying that they would bring with them to the Value of two hundred Thousand Pounds in Coin and Materials of their Trade That their Substance and Labour should be subject to all Customs and Taxes for the King's profit They desired to live in a Body of their own Nation and to serve Christ Jesus in that Church Discipline which they brought with them from Bohemia Though they had inclin'd his Majesty to admit them being a great Swarm of People and bringing Wax and Honey along yet the Lord Keeper diverted it from the Example of the Dutch and French that were setled among us These brought commodious Manufacture into the Realm but they brought a Discipline with it according to the Allowance of their Patent which was a Suffocation to the Temperate Crisis of our own Church Government Which Peril of Distemper would be increased by the Access of the Bohemick Congregation A great Forecast to keep our Hierarchy found from the Contagion of Foreigners and he was more Religious to keep the Church of England in its Sabbath and Holy Rest than to help out the Neighbours Ox that was fallen into the Pit Yet I have somewhat to alledge in the Behalf of the Bohemians I have in my little Library a Book printed 1633 eleven years after the Lord Keeper appear'd against their Petition called Ratio Disciplinae ordinisque Ecclesiastici in unitate sratrum Bohemorum Their Platform in that Piece comes so near to the old Protestant Church of England above all the Reformed that for my part I wish we had had their Company This is sufficient I am sure against those Opposite and Self-overthrowing Aspersions Let them do their worst there is one Metal that will never be the worse for them of whose Property this Lord partak'd It is Gold of which Pliny writes Lib. 33. N. H. c. 3. that nothing makes it more precious Quam contra salis aceti succos domitores rerum constantia The Spirits of Salt and Vinegar the most biting and sowrest Reproaches cannot hurt it with their Tartness That which corrodes all
he desired Leave from his Father that he might assay to depart from Madrid as secretly as he came thither Quando optima Dido Nesciat tantos rumpi non speret amores Aeneid 4. The Lord Keeper indeed had emboldned the Prince in February before to that Course but the King thought the Motion was not so seasonable at that time For his Highness was attended in Spain with a great Houshold of Followers and God knows whither the Sheep would be scattered or into what Pin-sold they should be thrust if the shepherd were gone And his Majesty still dreamt of of winning the Game and profest he saw no such Difficulties but that Patience after a while would overcome Perversness Howsoever it would be inglorious for the Prince of Wales to run away from the Frown of the Spaniards But least the Safety of so dear a Person should seem to be slighted or his Welcome Home retarded the Lord Keeper besought the King upon his Knees that his Majesty would write his Fatherly and Affectionate Letters to require his Son's Return giving them no Date but leaving that to be inserted when Business was crown'd with Opportunity This Counsel hit the Pin right and was followed and by God's Will who hath the Hearts of Kings and Princes in his Hand it pleased on this side and beyound the Seas 147. Great was the Expectation what the Month of July would bring forth as well in England as in Spain My Lord Duke had thrust himself into the greatest Employment that was in Europe when at first he had no Ground now no Mind to accomplish it A sorry Apprehension taken from Mr. Endi Porter carried him forth in all hast to make up the Match but there were others who desired his Grace to gratifie them with Concealment for their Good-will that sent Instructions into Spain to adjure him to do his utmost to prevent the Espousals Their Reasons were the two principal Places of Divine and Humane Wisdom God's Glory and his own Safety For God's Sake to keep our Orthodox Religion from the Admixture of that Superstition which threatned against the Soundness of it And no Corrosive so good to eat out the Corruption of Romish Rottenness creeping on as to give the Spaniard the Dodg and to leave the Daughter of Spain behind To his own Safety this Counsel was contributed These who made it their Study and were appointed to it to maintain the Grandeur of his Lordship met frequently at Wallingford-house to promote the Work Who had observed that some Impressions were gotten into the King's Mind and they knew by whom that his Majesty was resolved to be a Lover of Parliaments that he would close very graciously with the next that was called nor was there Likelihood that any private Man's Incolumity though it were his Grace himself should cause an unkind Breach between him and his People Therefore the Cabinet-men at Wallingford-House set upon it to consider what Exploit this Lord should commence to be the Darling of the Commons and as it were to re-publicate his Lordship and to be precious to those who had the Vogue to be the chief Lovers of their Country Between the Flint and the Steel this Spark was struck out that all other Attempts would be in vain unless the Treaty for the great Marriage were quasht and that the Breach of it should fall notoriously upon the Lord Buckingham's Industry For it was not to the Tast of the English if you will number them and not weigh them fearing some Incommodation to the Protestant Religion These Jonadabs 2 Sam. 13.3 the Subtle Friends of beauteous Absalom drew the Duke out of the King's High-way into the By-path of Popularity The Spaniards also stir'd up his Fire to struggle and appear against them For as the Earl of Bristol writes Cab. P. 20. He was very little beholding to them for their good Opinion Withal he was so head-strong that all the Ministers of our King that were joyned with him could not hold him in He had too much Superiority to think them his Fellow Servants that were so indeed And having nothing in his Tast but the Pickle of those new Counsels which his Governing Friends in England insus'd into him he pluckt down in a few Weeks which the other Part had been raising up in eight Years Centum doctúm hominum concilia sola devincit Dea Fortuna Plaut Pseud Act. 2. This unfortunate Accident did both contravene and over-match the Counsels of a hundred wise Men. A fatal thing it hath been always to Monarchs to be most deceived where they have trusted most Nay If they had all the Eyes of Argos their chiefest Confidents are able to abuse them on the blind Side Therefore the Observator is most injurious that puts a low Esteem upon King James's Wisdom P. 14. That he was over-witted and made use of to other Mens ends by almost all that undertook him So he may put the Fool upon Solomon who was cousen'd in Jeroboam whom he made Ruler over all the Charge of the House of Joseph 1 King 11.28 A Solomon may be mistaken in a Jeroboam and like his seeming Faithfulness and Sufficiency to the Undoing of his Posterity Little did the old King expect that the Man of his Right-hand whom he had made so strong for his own Service upon all Occasions would forget the Trust of his Gracious Master and listen to the Voice of Hirelings Which of the Members of my Partition will make the Duke excusable in point of Honour and Conscience Did he do it for the best to the King Did he think the Spanish Alliance would be fruitful in nothing but Miseries and that it would be a thankful Office to lurch the King in his Expectation of it Evil befall such double Diligence Perhaps it may be shifted off with the Name of a good Intent when it tampers with a Branch or Circumstance of an Injoyment but when it raiseth up the very Body of Instructions 't is no more competent with Obedience than Light with Darkness The Heathen would not brook it that had a grain of Philosophy in their Disposition that a Minister should alter the Mandates of his Superior upon Supposes to the better Ne benè consulta Religione mandati soluta corrumperentur Gell. lib. 1. c. 13. They thought that those Services which wanted the Religion of Obedience let their Aim be never so honest would prove improsperous Or did this great Lord do it for the best to himself I believe it If the Hope of the Match died away he lookt to get the Love of the most in England but if it were made up he lookt for many Enemies for he had lost the Love of the best in Spain Sir Wal. Aston foresaw wisely that there was no fear but that the Princely Lovers might joyn Hands in Sacred Wedlock if that Fear of the Duke could be removed So he writes Cab. P. 32. Would your Grace would commit it to my Charge to inform the
to that Treatise as follow Let the World take notice if it may concern any your Honour is be unto whom next unto His most Sacred Majesty my most Gracious Sovereign and Master I owe more then to all the World beside Professing unseignedly in the word of a Priest Fâ—cisti ut vivam moriar ingratus 81. The Lord-Keeper being so great a Dealer in the Golden Trade of Mercy and so successful he followed his Fortune and tried the King and the Lord Marquess further in the behalf of some whom their dear Friends had given over in Despair to the Destiny of Restraint And those were of the Nobles For he carried a great regard to their Birth and Honour and knew it was good for his own safety to deserve well of those high-born Families The East of Nerthumberland had been a Prisoner in the Tewer above 15 years His Confidents had not Considence and a good Heart I say not to Petition but to dispute with the King how ripe the Earl was for Clemency and Liberty 〈◊〉 Majesty was very merciful but must be rubb'd with a Fomentation of hi◠〈◊〉 Oyl to make him more supple This dextrous Statesman infuseth into 〈…〉 how to compass the Design with what Insinuations and Argum◠〈…〉 were improved with the Earl's demulcing and well-languag'd Phrases And when it came to strong Debate the Lord-Keeper got the better of the King in Reason So the Physic wrought as well as could be wish'd and on the 18th of July the Earl of Northumberland came out of the Tower the Great Ordnance going off to give him a joyful Valediction Who turned his Thoughts to consider the Work of God that a Stranger had wrought 〈◊〉 Comfort for him in his old Age whose Face he had ne 〈…〉 never purchased by any Benefit nor courted so much as by the meâ—age of a Salutation Which his Lordship compared to St. Peter's Deliverance by the Angel of God Acts 12. when Peter knew not who it was that came to help him Though not in order of Time yet in likeness of Condition the Earl of Oxford's Case is to be ranked in the same File It was in April in the year following that he was sent to the Tower betrayed by a false Brother for rash Words which heat of Wine cast up at a merry meeting His Lordship's Enemies were great and many whom he had provoked yet after he had acquainted the Lord-Keeper with the long Sadness of his Restraint in a large Letter which is preserved he wrought the Earl's Peace and Releasment conducted him to the King's Chamber to spend an hour in Conference with His Majesty from whence a good Liking was begot on both sides Whom thereupon that Earl took for his trusty and wisest Friend using his Counsel principally how to Husband his Estate and how to employ his Person in some Honourable Service at Sea that the Dissoluteness of his Hangers-on in the City might not sink him at Land The Lord-Keeper did as much for the Earl of Somerset in Christmas-time before bringing him by his mediation out of the House of Sorrow wherein he had continued above five years that he might take fresh Air and enjoy the comfort of a free Life which was affected by him to gratisie the splendid and spreading Family of the Howards And they were all well pleased with him as were the greatest part of the Grandees except the Earl of Arundel for a Distast taken of which the Lord-Keeper need not be ashamed 82. Within Six Weeks after he was settled in that Office the Earls Secretary brought two Patents to be Sealed the one to bestow a Pension of 2000 l. per annum upon his Lord out of the Exchequer which was low mow'n and not sit to bear such a Crop beside the Parliament which was to meet again in the Winter could not choose but take Notice what over-bountiful Issues were made out of the Royal Revenue to a Lord that was the best Landed of all his Peers Yet the Seal was put to with a dry assent because there was no stopping of a Free River With this Patent came another to confer the Honour of the Great Marshal of England upon the same Noble Personage The Contents of it had scarce any Limits of Power much exceeding the streit Boundaries of Law and Custom The Lord Keeper searching into the Precedents of former Patents when the same Honour was conser'd found a great inequality and doubted for good Cause that this was a device to lay his unfitness for his great place Naked to the World if he swallowed this Pill But nothing tended more to the praise of his great Judgment with His Majesty He writes to my Lord of Buckingham to acquaint the King that he thought His Majesty intended to give to greater Power than the Lords Commissioners had who dispatch'd Affairs belonging to that Office joyntly before him and that all Patents refer to the Copy of the immediate Predecessors who were the Earls of Essex Shrewsbury and Duke of Somerset but my Lord leap'd them over and claim'd as much as the Howards and Mowbries Dukes of Norfolk did hold which will enlarge his Authority beyond the former by many Dimensions There is much more than this in the Cabal of Letters p. 63. And much more than I meet there in his own private Papers The King was much satisfied with the Prudence and Courage of the Man that he had rather display these Errors than commit them for fear of a mighty Frown so the Earls Counsel were appointed to attend the Lord Keeper who joyning their hands together examin'd the Obliquities of the Patent and alter'd them What would have follow'd if it had pass'd entire in the first Draught For being so much corrected and Castrated yet the proceedings of the Court of Honour were a Grievance to the People not to be supported The Decrees of it were most uncertain most Arbitrary most Imperious Nor was there any Seat of Judgment in the Land wherein Justice was brought a bed with such hard Labour Now I invite the Reader if he please to turn to the 139 pag. of Sir An. Wel. Pamphlet and let him score a Mark for his Remembrance at these Lines That Williams was brought in for this Design to clap the Great Seal through his Ignorance in the Laws to such things that none that understood the danger by knowing the Laws would venter upon This Knight when he is in a Course of Malice is never out of his Way but like an egregious Bugiard here he is quite out of the Truth For the New Lord Keeper walk'd so Circumspectly that he seem'd to fear an Ambush from every Grant that was to pass for the use of encroaching Courtiers if any thing were Ambiguous or Dangerous he was not asham'd to call for Counsel If any thing were prest against Rule he was inexorable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eth. He kept constant to Justice in its Flat Square I could be Luxuriant in instances nothing is
he had dazled the World with that false Light he never pleas'd his Judges that had secretly tried the Constitution of his Conscience Sir Edward Sackvile who shortly succeeded his Brother Richard in the Earldom of Dorset was at Rome Ann. 1624. and had Welcom given him with much Civility in the English College so far that he presum'd to ask rather out of Curiosity than Love to see this Prisoner de Dominis Mr. T. Fitz-herbert the Rector did him the Observance to go with him to the Jayl He found him shut up in a Ground-Chamber narrow and dark for it look'd upon a great Wall which was as near unto it as the breadth of three spaces Some slight forms being pass'd over which use to be in all Visits says Sir Edward My Lord of Spalato you have a dark Lodging It was not so with you in England There you had at Windsor as good a Prospect by Land as was in all the Country And at the Savoy you had the best Prospect upon the Water that was in all the City I have forgot those things says the Bishop here I can best Contemplate the Kingdom of Heav'n Sir Edward taking Mr. Fitz-Herbert aside into the next Room Sir says he tell me honestly Do you think this Man is employ'd in the Contemplation of Heav'n Says the Father Rector I think nothing less for he was a Male-content Knave when he fled from us a Railing Knave while he liv'd with you and a Motley parti-colour'd Knave now he is come again This is the Relation which that Honourable Person made Ann. 1625. which I heard him utter in the hearing of no mean Ones 113. But by this time Spalat was dead either by his fair Death or by private strangling Gallo-Belgicus that first sent the News abroad knew not whither But he knew what became of his Body that it was burnt at the same place in Rome where Hereticks do end their Pain It is a Process of Justice which is usual with their Inquisition to shew such abhorrence to Hereticks that were so in their sense to call them to account though they be dead and rotten First They are so Histrionical in their Ceremonies as if they made a Sport of Barbarousness that they cite the dead Men three several Days to appear or any that will answer for them but happy they if they do not appear then their Carkasses or Bones are brought forth and burnt in the common Market with a Ban of Execration The latest that were used so among us were Reverend Bucer and Fagius at Cambridge Anno 1556. And Dr. Scot Bishop of Chester one of Cardinal Pole's Visitors defended it before the University Haud mirum videri debeat si in mortem quoque ista inquisitis extendatur Bucer Scrip. Angl. p. 925. Sic postulare sacros Canones p. 923. This is their Soverity from which the Dead are not free Now by the Blaze of that Bonfire in which De Dominis his Trunk was consum'd we may read an Heretick in Fiery Characters I mean as he was entred into the black Book of the Roman Slaughter-House He lived and died with General Councils in his Pate with Wind-Mills of Union to concord Rome and England England and Rome Germany with them both and all other Sister-Churches with the rest without asking leave of the Tridentine Council This was his Piaculary Heresie For as Aâ—orius writes Tom. 1. Moral Lib. 8. Cap. 9. Not only he that denies an Article of the Roman Creed but he that doubts of any such Article is an Heretick and so to be presented to Criminal Judgment Si quem in foro exteriori l gitime allegata proâ—ata probaverint in rebus Fidci scienter voluntarie dubitasse arbitrer cum ut v re propriè haeretiâ—um puniendum Therefore if Spalat had return'd a Penitent in their Construction and imbodied himself into that Church as only true and Apostolical he could not have suffered in his Offals and Carkass as an Heretick So the same Azorius confesseth Lib. 8. Cap. 14. And Alphonsus à Castro is angry with Bernard of Lutzenburg for holding the contrary Lib. 1. Cap. 9. Quis unquam docuit eum esse dicendum haereticum qui errorem sic tenuit ut monitus conviclus non crubuerit palinodiam cantare This was the success of the variable Behaviour of M. Antonius de Dominis De Domims in the plural says Dr. Crakanthorp for he could serve two Masters or twenty if they would all pay him Wages He had an Hearing as it is mention'd before in our High Commission To countenance the Audience of so great a Cause the Lord Keeper gave attendance at it I began at that end of his Troubles and having footed all the Maze am come out at the other 114. Johosaphat distinguisheth between the Lord's Matters and the King's Affairs 2 Chron. 19.12 So do I in the Subject before me I have given some Says of his Church-Wisdom in the former Paragraph I go on to set the Sublimity of his State-Wisdom in the latter I must look back to a small Service which he did perform in Michaelmas-Term 1621. for as much as the Conjunction of some things which rais'd a Dust in the Year following are sit to go together Upon the solemn Day when the Lord Cranfield then Master of the Wards and immediately created Earl of Middlesex took his Place as Lord Treasurer in the Exchequer-Chamber the Lord Keeper gave him his Oath and saluted his Admission with a short Speech following My Lord You are called to serve his Majesty in the Place of a Lord Treasurer by the most Honourable and most Ancient Call in this Realm the delivery of a Staff to let you know that you are now become one of the surest Staffs or Stays that our great Master relies upon in all this Kingdom And these Staffs Princes must lean upon being such Gods as die like Mon and such Masters as are neither omni-sufficient nor independent For St. Austin writing upon that place of the Psalm I have said unto the Lord Thou art my God my Goâ—ds are nothing unto thee observes that God only is the Master that needs no reference to his Servant All other Masters and Servants are proper Relatives and have a mutual Reciprocation and Dependence Eges tu Domino tuo ut det panem Eget te Dominus tuus ut adjuves labore As the Servant wants a Master to maintain him so the Master wants a Servant to assist him For the present supplying of this want in his Majesty I will say as the Historian did of the Election of Tiberius Non quaerendus quem eligeret sed eligendus qui emineret The King was not now to think of one whom he should choose but to choose one who was most eminent For as Claudian said of Ruffinus Taciti suffragia vulgi Vel jam contulerant quicquid mox addidit Aula You were stated in this Place by the Votes of the People before you understood the Pleasure
c. to forbear any Moleslation of his said Subjects in respect of their Religion To send them forth with as much speed as conveniently may be that his Majesty may be freed from the Complaints of the Ambassadors Thrice again he was charg'd with the same Command To all which he answer'd He could do nothing without a private Warrant for it and that it was not possible to be agreed upon till he spake with his Majesty On the 6th of September the same Secretary writes again That an Exemplification of the Pardon should be deliver'd to the Ambassadors under the Great Seal That 's not hard to be done But upon what Limits and Conditions So the Lord Keeper rejoyns Sir G. Calvert is troubled again to satisfie that Scruple That no Copy of it should go out to any of the Roman Catholicks nor any of them be permitted to sue out their Pardons until his Majesties Pleasure be further known This came Sept. 8. The Lord Keeper held back yet till he knew what Assurance he should have from the Ambassadors to keep those Conditions Which held a Contest till Sept. 19. When Mr. Secretary Conway writes from Theobalds His Majesties Pleasure is That you deliver unto the Marquiss Inoiosa an Exemplification of the Pardon and Dispensation And his Majesty would not that you should press him for a Note of his Hand for Secresie and Stanchness for giving of Copies of the Pardon or Dispensation but only by Word to refresh his Memory of the faithful Promises he hath made in that Point to the King upon which his Majesty will relie Indeed it was order'd at Windsor Sept. 7. as appears in a Letter of Secretary Conways that when Marquiss Iniosa had the Exemplication all the Crast was in Catching that he should communicate them to none nor give Copies of them till we had knowledge from Spain of the Marriage or Desponsories There was nothing about these days that mitigated the Embassador more than a Trick that in sine did him least good Properly and without Levity it may be called a Flop with a Fox-Tail The Lord Keeper closed in with him not to be so hasty for Exemplifications which the Clerks of the Crown must write over soft and fairly A Matter of more weight should presently be set on foot not of Words but of real Benefit and Performance to his Party and to the Choice of them a Pardon for the Romish Priests that were imprisoned about which there had been struggling and yet nothing effected As the Lord Keeper seemed forward so to see the ill Luck it was cramp'd by a Letter from Sir Edward Conway Sept. 6. Dat. Windsor Right Honorable HIS Majesty hath signed the Warrant that was sent for the enlarging of the Priests out of Prison that he may shew the Reality of Performance on his Part in all that is to be done Yet his Majesty commits the Warrant to your Keeping without further Use to be made save only to pass the Great Seal which you may be pleased to expedite till important Considerations be provided for and satisfied As First That his Majesty receive Advertisement of the Marriage or Desposories Secondly That Provision be taken for these Priests that have expressed their Duties to the King either in Writing in his Defence or in taking the Oaths whose Protection his Majesty holds himself bound to continue and not to suffer them to incur any Danger for that their Conformity Thirdly That Order be taken that such Priests enlarged be not left at Liberty to execute their Functions publickly or at their Pleasure but only under such Limitations and Restraints as by the Pardon and Dispensations are provided 166. Of these three Caveats entred to modifie the Liberty which was Petitioned for and promised to the Priests the middlemost was a brave one wherein the Lord Keeper revenged himself on Inoiosa for all his Forwardness It aimed at one man Mr. Preston a Secular Priest Honest and rarely Learned The Author of the Works under the Name of Roger Widrington for the Oath of Allegiance The Author of that solid Piece called The last Rejoynder to T. Fitzherbert Bellarmine's Sculckenius and Lessius his Singleton upon that Subject Printed An. 1619. This Man for his own Preservation lay quiet in the Marshalsea his Death being threatned by the rigid Papalins This was he that was set forth as the only Evidence of his Majesty's Royal Mercy toward those that were in Holy Orders of that Religion the present Pattern of his keeping Promise according to the Articles But such a Priest as that if Marq. Inoiosa had been consulted for his Release perhaps he would have cried out Not him but Barabbas Preston had Leave that Summer twice or thrice to come to the Lord Keeper at Nonsuch where I saw them together discoursing as long as Leisure and Business would permit That Interview procured the Warrant for his Pardon from the King as followeth James Rex TO the Reverend Father in God Our Right Trusty and Right Well-beloved Counsellor Jo. Lord Bishop of Lincoln Lord Keeper of Our Great Seal of England Right Trusty and Right Well-beloved Counsellor We Greet you well These are to will and require to pass one Pardon and Dispensation according unto the Warrant directed unto you concerning the Roman Catholicks of this Kingdom in general for the Use and Benefit of Preston a Secular Priest now a Prisoner in our Prison of the Marshalsea And delivering unto the Spanish Embassador an Exemplification of the same Pardon under the Great Seal to keep the Original so Sealed under your own Custody untill you shall receive from Us some further Order Given at Our Court at Windsor Sept. 8. c. The Releasment of Preston was accordingly dispatched the first Fruits of the Common Grace expected by others sent as a Present to Don Inoiosa nay a Precedent for consequent Releasments So Secretary Conway to the Lord Keeper Sep. 17. His Majesty's Order to your Lordship was That the Pardon for this one Man should be exemplified as the Limitation and Rule to the Form of all the rest So as without Dispute or Controversie that was a present Possâ—ssion an Act performed by the King to be executed alike to each one to whom it appertains at the Time and upon the Conditions before specified the Sight whereof might give the Embassador Contentment But it was far from that Don John the Marquiss durst not say he was mocked but he fum'd like Lime that is slack'd with Water to see of all the Priesthood that man only enlarged whom above all he most hated Therefore his Violence augmented press'd the King so far that his Majesty caused the same Secretary to write again very roundly the next day to the Lord Keeper Right Honorable HIS Majest hath received from the Spanish Embassador a large Declaration of his Grievance by the great Delays he finds from your Lordship in point of the Pardon and Dispensation an Exemplification of which your Lordship hath Order to deliver
Subjects Roman Catholicks and every of them as well by Information Presentment Indictment Conviction Process Seisure Distress or Imprisonment as also by any other ways or means whatsoever whereby they may be molested for the Causes aforesaid And further also That from time to time you take notice of and speedily redress all Causes of Complaints for or by reason of any thing done contrary to this our will And this shall be unto you and to all to whom you shall give such Warrant Order and Direction a sufficient Warrant and Discharge in that behalf There was no scrupling of this Order but it must be dispatch'd For though as a great Counsellor the Keeper was to be watchful over the Voices and Affections of the People and that he knew this was not the Course to keep the Subject in terms of Contentment yet he had no power to stop the Tide as in former days My Lord of Buckin would not stay to hear the Arguments of his Wisdom Altissimo orbe praecipuâ potentiâ stella Saturni fortur Tacit. 1 list lib. 5. The Planet of Saturn was in the highest Orb and ruled all the Influence of the Court Where was now the Cavil against the Spanish Match that in the Treaty for it it encroach'd too far upon Religion Indeed my Lord of Kensington writes from Paris Cab. p. 275. The French will not strain us to any unreasonableness in Conditions for the Catholicks And as much again p. 284. Their Pulse in matter of Religion beats temperately So he told us in another Pacquet p. 292. That the French will never abandon us in the Action for the recovering the Palatinate Which of these Engagements were broken last a more solid Question than to ask Which of their Promises were kept first They kept none Some chop out Promises as Nurses tell Tales to Children to lull them asleep As it is in the neat Phrase of Arnobius Somno occupari ut possint leves audiendoe sunt naenioe The Histories of Spain and the Netherlands as well as of England do not spare to touch that Noble Nation that none have taken greater liberty to play fast and loose with Articles and Covenants And as the French were inconstant to us so new Symptoms and new Apprehensions made us variable and inconstant to our selves Now a Letter must be sent to all Magistrates Spiritual and Temporal to cause them to suspend the Execution of all Laws against the Papists At the Term at Reading in November following Divulgation is made in all Courts under the Broad-Seal that all Officers and Judges should proceed against them according to Law After the Second Parliament of King Charles was broken up that is in the Summer that followed the Term at Reading by the Mediation of the French Embassador Marshal Bassampere new Letters come from the King to redintegrate Favours to the Recusants and that all Pursevants must be restrained and their Warrants to search the Houses of Papists taken from them And this continued but till Winter It was safe and just to return quickly again into the High-way of the Law for the shortest Errors are the best Especially in God's Cause Which Vincen. Lirin well adviseth Nos religionem non quo volumus ducere sed quò illa nos ducit sequi debemus We must take up the Train of Religion and come after it and not lead it after us in a String of Policy 5. Private Men may better keep this Rule than such as are publickly employed in the State But though the Keeper had no remedy but the preceding Warrant must be obeyed Yet he tryed his Majesty how his Service would be taken in stopping a Warrant upon another occasion bearing date May 23. Because the sumptuous Entertainment of the Queen and her magnificient Convoy being ready to land would be very chargeable he thrust in his Judgment to advise the King against disorderly Liberality And though he knew the Secretary Conway for no other than a Friend yet he lik'd not his Encroachment upon the Royal Bounty but signifies it in this manner Most dread Sovereign and my most gracious Master I Received this Morning a Warrant from your most Excellent Majesty to pass a Grant under the Great-Seal of England of the Sum of Two thousand Pounds out of the Court of Wards to my Lord Conway for Twenty One Years to come The which I durst not for fear of infringing my Duty to your Majesty and drawing some danger upon my self pass under the Great-Seal before I had made unto your most Excellent Majesty this most humble Representation First The issuing of so great a Lease of such a vast Sum of Money is under your Majesty's Favour and Correction disadvantageous to your Majesty's Service in regard of the time being in the face of that Parliament from which your Majesty is to expect a main Supply Secondly It is I believe without Prsident or Example that Pensions have been granted in Contemplation of Services for Years But for the Party's Life only My Lord of Middlesex his Lease of the Sugars is the only President in that kind which hath hapned during the time of my Service in this Place Thirdly The Assigning of this Pension upon the Court of Wards or any other Place than the Receipt of the Exchequer is directly against the Rules and Orders taken upon mature deliberation by your Father of Blessed Memory Fourthly This great Lord for so be is indeed is in the Eye and the Envy of many Men as your Majesty I fear it will hear e're long As having received more great Favours within these two Years than any Three Subjects within this Kingdom Although I do believe looking up to the hands that conferred them he may well deserve them all Most gracious Sovereign I am not ignorant of the danger I incur in making this Representation But I have put on an irremoveable Resolution that as long as you are pleased to continue me in your Service I will never from this time forth out of Contemplation of mine own Safety or any other carnal Respect neglect voluntarily any part of my Duty to my God or my King Which I suppose I had greatly forgotten without presenting your most Excellent Majesty with this Remonstrance And having perform'd this part of my Duty I shall most punctually obey your Majesty's Direction in this particular For this good Service it was well he had no check yet he had no gra-mercy to seem wiser than those that had prepared the business And though the Patent for that Pension was a flat Violation of good Order yet the Plea was it would be unkind to revoke it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch in the Life of Agis observes it in some Mens Humours Though a thing be ill undertaken it is held a shame to go back This Lord Secretary was the Keeper's cold Friend upon it but he lived not long and quitted his Office before he ceased to live Only some deckings of empty Titles were given him
and known to Thousands Nam lux altissima fati-occultum nihil essesinit Claud. Paneg. 4. Honor. What Spight is this to be silent in that which was certainly so and to engrave with a Pen of Steel that which was ignominous uncertain nay a falsity which hath travelled hither out of the Mountains 200 Miles So Jos Scaliger revealed his Disdain against some Criticks in his Notes upon Manil. p. 175. Ubi reprehendendi sumus tunc nominis nostri frequens mentio alià s mirum silentium I need no Pardon that I could not hold in to leave this Admonition behind at the last Stage of his Episcopal Work his general Visitation which was applauded much by all except two sorts of men Some that had not done their Duty and were mulcted Quid tristes querimoniae si non supplicio culpa reciditur Horat. Od. 24. lib. 3. such could not escape Censure who suffer'd with moderation by one that appeared in his temperate Judicature rather to be above the Faults than above the Men. Two others and of the Ministry were sullen because they did not speed in their Presentments according to their mind the reason was the Complainants were found to be rugged and contentious not giving good Example of Yielding and Peace 62. Let me cast in a small handful of other things fit to be remark'd In adject is mensura non quaeritur The Bishop of Lincoln is a Visitor of some Colleges by their local Statutes in both Universities This Bishop visited Kings-College in Cambridge upon the Petition of the Fellows thereof anno 1628. when he shew'd himself to be a great Civilian and Canonist before those learned Hearers but the Cause went for the right worthy Provost Dr. Collins in whose Government the Bishop could perceive neither Carelesness nor Covetousness The most that appeared was That the Doctor had pelted some of the active Fellows with Slings of Wit At which the Visitor laugh'd heartily and past them by knowing that the Provost's Tongue could never be worm'd to spare his Jests who was the readiest alive to gird whom he would with innocent and facetious Urbanity The Provost of Orial-College in Oxford Dr. Tâ—lson with others of his Society visited the Bishop at his Palace of Bugdâ— with a Signification to the Bishop that they might eject one of the Members of their Foundation Mr. Tailour The Bishop saw there was small reason to raise such a Dust out of a few indiscreet words yet he satisfied Dr. Tolâ—on that Mr. Taâ—our should depart so it were with a farewel of Credit and he liked Mr. Tadour so well that he took him into his own House till he had provided the Living of Hempsted for him As 〈◊〉 said of his own Brother in Erasm Epist p. 417. Illius mores tales sunt ut omnibus possint congruere A benevolent Nature will agree with all men and please the Adversaries of both sides Those of young and tender years were much in his Care as appeared that he seldom travelled but Notice being given before he staid at some Town or Village to confirm such as were but even past children to lay his Hands on them and to bless them and did it ostener than the 60 Canon requires An ancient and an admirable Order when such were presented as were before made ready by being exactly catechized And for Childrens sakes he listen'd much what good Schoolmasters he had in his Diocess that bare the irksome and tedious Burden to rear up a good Seminary for Church and State such he valued and thought their Place was better than is usually given them in the World They are the tertia that make up a happy Corporation as Charles the Fifth thought who entring into any Imperial City or Burough was wont to ask the Recorder that did congraturate him Have you a good Magistrate Have you a good Pastor Have you a good Schoolmaster If he said Yes Then all must be well among you said the Emperor Our Bishop had the opportunity to consecrate Churches new re-edisied and Chappels erected which he perform'd with much Magnificence and Ceremony that the Houses of God his Houses of Prayer might be had in a venerable regard Nothing was more observ'd in that Performance than that at the hallowing of a Chappel belonging to the Mansion-place of Sir Gostwick in Bedfordshire the Knight's Son and Heir being born deaf and dumb and continuing in that defect no sooner did the Bishop alight and come into the House but the young Gentleman kneeled down and made signs to the Bishop that he craved his Blessing and had it with a passionate Embrace of Love A sweet Creature he was and is of rare Perspicacity of Nature rather of rare Illumination from God whose Behaviour Gestures and zealous Signs have procur'd and allow'd him admittance to Sermons to Prayers to the Lord's Supper and to the Marriage of a Lady of a great and prudent Family his Understanding speaking as much in all his motions as if his Tongue could articulately deliver his Mind Nor was any of the Prelacy of England more frequented than this Lord for two things First by such as made Suit unto him to compound their Differences that they might not come to the chargeable and irksome attendance of the Courts of Law Aversos solitus componere amicos Horat. Serm. 5. And so many Causes were referred to him and by no mean ones that he continued like a petty Chancellor to arbitrate Contentions Secondly Sundry did appeal to his Judgment for Resolution of Cases of Consciences and most in Matrimonial Scruples and of intricate Points of Faith as about Justisication and Predestination in which when he thought the doubting Person would not be contented with Discourse he gave them his Resolutions very long and laborious in Writing which gathered together and as I have seen them digested would have made an handsome Tractate but the worst Visitor that ever came to a Bishop's House seized on them and never restored them This was Kilvert a vexatious Prosecutor of many in the Court of Star-chamber for the King whose Lineaments are drawn out in the Ninth Book of Apul. Metam Omnia prorsus ut in quandam comorum latrinam in ejus animum vitia consluxerunt Every Beast hath some ill Property this Beastly Fellow had all He stands too near so good a Subject as is in hand for this is the lively Image of a renowned Bishop the Image but of one though the good Parts of many may be concentred in this one as the Agrigentine Painter made Juno by the Pattern of five well-favour'd Virgins All that I have drawn up of his Pastoral Behaviour was seen in the Day-light therefore as St. Paul said of the Corinthians whom he had commended so I may with Modesty apply it to my Subject If I have boasted any thing of him to you I am not ashamed 2 Cor. 7.14 Nor is this all of him in that Holy Charge not by a great deal but so much as is preserved in
Parliament and had stood up to defend him where there was openly such defiance of Enmity between them he had been censur'd by all Judgment for double-mindedness or sawning And as Lanfrank charged one of his Predecessors Remigius Bishop of Lincoln Quod officio emerat Episcopatum So the World would have censur'd this Prelate that he kept his Place by Service Simony as Mr. Fuller calls it And with what Safety and Liberty he could appear let one Passage demonstrate The Duke demanded that the Attorney-General might plead for him in the House of Peers against the Charge transmitted by the Commons which was opposed because the Attorney was one of the King 's Learned Council and sworn to plead in Causes concerning the King and not against them And the King is supposed to be ever present in the noble Senate of the Lords It was rejoyn'd That His Majesty would dispense with the Attorney's Oath It came to be a Case of Conscience and was referr'd to the Bishop's Learning Some of them judged for the Duke that this was not an Assertory-Oath which admits no alteration but a Promissory-Oath from which Promise the King if he pleas'd might release his Learned Counsel Bishop Felton a devout man and one that feared God very learned and a most Apostolical Overseer of the Clergy whom he governed argued That some Promissory-Oaths indeed might be relaxed if great cause did occur yet not without great cause lest the Obligation of so sacred a thing as an Oath should be wantonly slighted And in this Oath which the Attorney had taken it was dangerous to absolve him from it lest bad Example should be given to dispense with any Subject that had sworn faithful Service to the Crown for which plain Honesty he was wounded with a sharp Rebuke And the reverend Author told me this with Tears Yet the Archb. Abbot said as much and went farther for whom Budaeus would stand up a great Scholar and a Statesman De Asse lib. 3. fol. 102. Neque turpe esse credo cos homines observare quibus apud Principem gratiâ slagrare contigit si non cosdem apud populum ordines infamiâ invidiâ slagrare videamus As who would say it is Duty to love a Favourite for the King's sake and it is Duty to desert him when he becomes a publick Scandal For no man will be happy to stick to him who is so unhappy to become a common Hatred All that Parliament was a long Discontent of eighteen weeks and brought forth nothing but a Tympany of swelling Faction and abrupt Dissolution whereby the King saved that great Lord who lost His Majesty in some expeditions Honour abroad and the love of his People at home This was another Fire-brand kindled after the former at Oxford to burn down the Royal House and the most piously composed Church of England For a wife Oratour says it is Isocr Orat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 243. The cause of an Evil must not be ascribed to things that concur just at the breaking out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to the forerunning Mischiefs which were soaking long to ripen the Distempers Well was it for Lincoln that he had no hand in this Fray for as the Voyagers to Greenland say When the Whale-fishing begins it is better to be on the Shore and look on E terrâ magnum alterius spectare laborem than to be employed in the Ships to strike them and hale them to Land 71. Say then that he neither did harm nor receive any by being shut out of this turbulent Parliament Yet his Advice had been worth the asking because of the Plunges that His Majesty was put to upon the Dissolution but he heard of no Call to such a purpose For no man looks on a Dyal in a cloudy day when the Sun shines not on it God's Mercy was in it for he sate safer at home than he could have done at the Council-Board at this time where much Wisdom was tryed to help the King's Necessities out of the Peoples Purses by a Commandatory Loan and with the least Scandal that might be for not to run into some Offence was unavoidable Pindar the Poet was call'd out of his House to speak with some Friend in the Street Castor and Pollux says the Tale-teller searce was his Foot over the Threshold when the Building sunk and all that were within perish'd Thus upon a time the least Shelter gave the most Safety as did the lesser Honour procure this man the more Peace But as Camillus in Livy thrust out of Rome and retired to Ardea prayed that they that had cashier'd him might have no need of him so this forlorn Statesman would have been satisfied to have his place at the Council-Table supplied by others if the King's Affairs had not wanted him at this instant when he suddenly slid down from his former value in the love of this People The Bishops most likely it came from them advised His Majesty first to fly to God and to bid a publick Fast first at Court then over all the Land about the fifth of July Bish Laud whose Sermon was printed preach'd before the King upon the 21st Verse of the 17th Chapter of St. Matthew This kind goeth not out but by Prayer and Fasting The Preface of the Book and the Exhortation publish'd to the observing that solemn Fast stirred up all good Christians to entreat God not to take Vengeance on the Murmurings of the People to keep their Spirits in Unity to divert the plague of immoderate Rain like to corrupt the Fruits of the Harvest and chiefly to preserve us from the Bloody Wars that Spain intended against us Intended says the Book for depredation of Merchants Ships was the worst they had done us Let the Reader gather this by the way That a publick Fast had not been indicted before by the Supreme Authority upon the Alarums of our Enemies Preparations In Eighty eight an Order came out call'd A Form of Prayer necessary for the present Time and State to be used on Wednesdays and Fridays that is certain Collects to be added to the Common Prayer Yet no Fast was bidden saving thus far That Preachers in their Sermons and Exhortations should move the People to Abstinence and Moderation in their Dyet to the end they might be more able to relieve the Poor c. The first Form to be used in Common Prayer with an Order of publick Fast for every Wednesday in the week for a time was set out by Queen Elizabeths special Command in Aug. 1563. when the Plague called The Plague of New-haven was rise in London In which Book is a passage to illustrate our Common-Prayer-Book for the first Rubrick prefixt to the Order for the Holy Communion That so many as intend to be Partakers of the Holy Communion should signifie their Names to the Curate over night or else in the morning either before the beginning of Common Prayer or immediately after That immediately after means that in
another Sentiment of Wrongs then common People Yet one Rulo is as good for them as for their Vassals to let Counsels mellow and to grow unto a taste by leisure waiting for time and opportunity are such advantages as tire out the spirits of others till we have melted their metal As every sweet thing mixt with Oil will keep its odour the longer so Deliberations the longer they are compounded with Patience in the end they will be the sweeter The King says for himself Declar. p. 40. He would have expected longer if there had been any hope in them to return to their duty It is as the Spanish Proverb says A crooked Cucumber will never grow straight But are all crooked What was in his heroick Mind to think that no Parliament would be right for ever after which appeared because he summoned none in twelve years nor then but when extremity forc't him When did he expect a better Generation that despaired of all for so many years This was to fall out with a whole Nation But says Cyrus to Cyaxares in the Cipher of an absolute King Lib. 5. Cyr. P. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a great fault in a Ruler to be at odds with all his Subjects He may have his will by taking all Empire into his own hands but with no good will of others The last Tarquin rob'd the Senate of their power omnia in domo regiâ privatim tractabantur Mach. Resp lib. 3. cap. 5. for which Brutus and his party take up Arms till they prosper'd in their sin In more recent memory H. Grotius writes Hist Belg. lib. 1. p. 7. That the disusing of the Assemblies of the States by Philip the Second was the beginning of the Revolt of the Netherlands Discontents that fell in should not abolish Courts fundamental for the Maintainance of Justice We have had most corrupt general Councils for some Ages in the Church therefore shall we never hope to obtain a good one Well did Warsovius speak in his Oration to Stephen King of Polonia Millies licet homo defraudetur ab homine utique hominem cum homine vivere debere Though we have been cheated over and over we must trade again with men It is to be prais'd and admir'd that while Parliaments were laid asleep so long we could not say that we wanted Justice Peace and Plenty much less the true worship of God But for want of that politick Court the People thought they were under a new shaped Monarchy like to an Arbitrary Government which lost the King their Affections more then he could lose them by a seditious Parliament For better to endure frowardness then hatred As Suetotonius says of Caesar De ampliando imperio plura majora indies cogitabat so great Ones both Male and Female carried such Tales out of the Bed-chamber that a more absolute Empire was intended then England had known since the Norman Line All that the King 's incomparable Vertues could plead for him would not satisfie for that Suspicion Men love themselves and like a good Governour better then a Godly Our Bolton writes That not a year of Nero ' s Reign but was stained with some foul fact of manners but the Senators finding content in his Government he was redeem'd into their sufferance and the tolerable Opinion of the People Faults of an impious Life oppress not the Subjects but oblique ways of Government gall them Holy King Charles was full of constant and great Vertues all of them Pearls of a clear water but he did not study to oblige the Generality to gratifie to insinuate nay to go down so low as to slatter them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Eth. lib. 5. cap. 3. That is some are of rare worth take them single and alone that fall short of that persection in those things which they do that relate to others Our King would not buy Applause so cheap as with Blandishments and Courtesie He would not dissemble with the Nobles that had offended him and win them in with Art to recover them He would not purchase the People with fineness of words but purpos'd a more real satisfaction Yea a few drops of water infused into Wine makes it not cease to be Wine nor do a few drops of Cunning â—â—er the Essence of Honesty A King of a most nice Conscience shall still â—â—â—â—in the Servant of God and yet by the verdict of wise men he should be the Servant of the People The Duke of Millain the King of Naples about our Grandfathers days lost their Principalities for not woing their Citizens and espousing their hearts strongly to them The Scepter of the old Latin Princes was a Lituus an Ensign of Majesty crooked at the stronger end because a little bending Policy is necessary in a Magistrate Which Xenophon makes to be the Opinion of his exact Cyrus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 8. That sometime he must couzin the Multitude into good frame and quiet obedience So might our Josiah have done with good success and sincerity of heart preserv'd Such as saw to what he was inclin'd made him abhorrent the more from Parliaments by remembring them with all disadvantage of flirts and contumelies And what did they in it but piss into the common Well from whence all the Neighbourhood drew water John Major pleading for the Authority of a General Council breaks off and says he knew that many more would plead very stiffly for the Pope Quia Concilium rarò congregatur nec dat dignitates Ecclesiasticas Councils met seldom and gave no Preferments as the Pope did So Flatterers and Ambitious Persons stuck to the surer side and desired the King would forget Parliaments and act all himself for the King could promote them so could not a Parliament But in fine to say a very little upon the whole case as St. Austin is quoted by Gratian for this Sentence That it is too great an attempt for Church Discipline to excommunicate a Nation of People so it was no fit Punishment to exterminate or lay aside the Parliaments of a Nation No Parliament for twelve years and too much Parliament for twelve years put all out of order 84. Which Court formidable to Opposers being like a Bow so long unbent some eminent ones that abused the greatness of their power and some ignoble ones that lived upon the impurity of secure Times seared not the Arrows of its Jurisdiction nor to come under account for their Actions at that Tribunal Says Quintilian lib 12. Quaedam animalia in angustiis mobilia in campo deprehenduntur Some Creatures can shift in their own holes but are snapt up easily in the open Fields So such as could do mischief in their Court had no hope to escape in so publick Examination The Bishop of Lincoln felt it who fell into troubles not for want of Innocence but for want of a Parliament to keep him from Malef icence The cause of his uncessant Molestations for twelve years would
and Representation of the Clergy a third estate if we may speak either with Sir Edw. Coke or the ancient Acts of Parliament have been in possession hereof these Thousand years and upward The Princes of the Norman Race indeed for their own ends and to strengthen themselves with Men and Money erected the Bishopricks soon after the Conquest into Baronies and left them to sit in the House with their double Capacities about them the latter invented for the profit of the Prince not excluding the former remaining always from the beginning for the profit and concernment of the poor Clergy and the State Ecclesiastical which appears not only by the Saxon Laws set forth by Mr. Lambert and Sir H. Spelman but also by the Bishops Writs and Summons to Parliament in use to this very day We have many President upon the Rolls that in vacancy of Episcopal Sees the Guardian of the Spirituals though but a simple Priest hath been called to fit in this Honourable House by reason of the former Representation and such an Officer I was my self over that See whereof I am Bishop some 25 years ago and might then have been summoned by Writ to this Honourable House at that very time by reason of keeping the Spirituality of that Diocess which then as a simple Priest I did by vertue of the aforesaid Office represent And therefore most noble Lords look upon the Ark of God's Representative that at this time floats in great danger in this Deluge of Waters If there be any Cham or unclean Creature therein out with him and let every man bear his own Burden but save the Ark for God and Christ Jesus sake who hath built it in this Kingdom for saving of People And your Lordships are too wise to conceive that the Word and Sacraments the means of our Salvation will be ever effectually received from those Ministers whose Persons shall be so vilified and dejected as to be made no Parcels or Fragments of this Common-wealth No faith Gregory the last Trick the Devil had in this World was this that when he could not bring the Word and Sacraments into disgrace by Errors and Heretical Opintens he invented this Project and much applauded his Wit therein to cast Slight and Contempt upon the Preachers and Ministers And my noble Lords you are too wise to believe what the common people talk that we have a Vote in the election of Knights and Burgesses and consequently some Figure and Representation in the noble House of Commons They of the Ministry have no Vote in these Elections they have no Representation in that Honourable House and the contrary Assertions are so slight and groundless as I will not offer to give them any answer And therefore R. Hon. Lords have a special care of the Church of England your Mother in this point And as God hath made you the most noble of all the Peers of the Christian World so do not you give way that our Nobility shall be taught henceforth as the Romans were in the time of the first and second Punick Wars by their Slaves and Bond-men only and that the Church of God in this Island may come to be served by the most ignoble Ministers that have ever been seen in the Christian Church since the Passion of our Saviour And so much for the first thing which this Bill intends of sever from Persons in Holy Orders viz. Votes and Representations in Parliament The next thing to be severed from them by this Bill is of a meaner Mettal and Alloy sittings in Star-Chamber sittings at Council-Table sitting in the Commissions of Peace and other Commissions of Secular Affairs which are such Favours and Graces of Christian Princes as the Church may have a being and subsistence without them The Fartunes of our Greece do not depend upon these Spangles and the Soveraign Prince hath imparted and withdrawn these kind of Favours without the envy or regret of any wise Ecclesiaâ—ical Persons But my noble Lords this is the Case our King hath by the Statute restored unto him the Headship of the Church of England and by the Word of God he is Custos utriusque tabulae And will your Lordships allow this Ecclesiastical Head no Ecclesiastical Senses at all No Ecclesiastical Person to be consulted withal not in any circumstance of Time and Place If Cranmer had been thus dealt withal in the minority of our young King Josias King Edward the Sixth of pious memory what had become of the great Work of our Reformation in this flourishing Church of England But I know before whom I speak I do not mean to Dine your Lordships with Coleworts the harsh Consequents of this Point your Lordships do understand as well as I. The last Robe that some Persons in Holy Orders are to be stript of hath a kind of Mixture of Freehold and Favour of the proper Right and Graces of the King which are certain old Charters that some few Bishops and many Ancient and Cathedral Churches have purchased and procured from the ancient Kings before and since the Conquest to inable them to live quiet in their own Precincts and close as they call it under a Justice or two of their own Body without being abandoned upon every slight occasion to the Injuries and Vexations of Mechanical Tradesmen of which your Lordships best know those Country Incorporations do most consist Now whether these sew Charters have their Foundation by Favour or by Right I should conceive under your Lordships savour it is neither Favour nor Right to take them away without some just Crime objected and proved For if they be abused in any particular Mr. Attorney-General can find an ordinary Remedy to repair the same by a Writ of Ad quod damnum without troubling the two Houses of Parliament And this is all I shall speak to this Point 165. And now I am come to the fourth part of this Bill which is the manner of Inhibition heavy every way heavy in the Penalty heavier a great deal in the Incapacity For the weighing of the Penalty will you consider I beseech you the small Wyres that is poor Causes that are to induce the same and then the heavy Lead that hangs upon those Wyres It is thus If a natural Subject of England interessed in the Magna Charta and Petition of Right as well as any other yet being a Person in Holy Orders shall happen unfortunately to Vote in Parliament to obey his Prince by way of Counsel or by way of a Commissioner be required thereunto then he is presently to lose and forfeit for his first offence all his means and livelyhood for one year and for the second to forfeit his Freehold in that kind for ever and ever And I do not believe that your Lordships ever saw such an heavy weight of Censure hang upon such thin Wyres of Reason in an Act of Parliament made heretofore This peradventure may move others most but it does not me It is not the Penalty
SCRINIA RESERATA A MEMORIAL Offer'd to the Great Deservings OF John Williams D.D. Who some time held the Places of L d Keeper of the Great Seal of England L d Bishop of Lincoln and L d Archbishop of York CONTAINING A SERIES OF THE Most Remarkable Occurrences and Transactions of his LIFE in Relation both to CHURCH and STATE Written by JOHN HACKET Late Lord Bishop of LITCHFIELD and COVENTRY 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz. de laudibus Athanasii Vita mortuorum in memoriâ vivorum est posita Cicero Philip. nonâ IMPRIMATUR Nov. 27. 1692. JO. Cant. In the SAVOY Printed by Edw. Jones for Samuel Lowndes over against Exeter-Exchange in the Strand M. DC XC III. THE PROEM READER Paragr 1. BOOKS are sown so thick in all Countries of Europe that a new one which one adds more to the former Gross had need of an Apology The easie Dispatch of so many Sheets in a day by the readiness of Printing hath found the World a great deal more Work then needs Many that love Knowledge both Industrious and of sound Judgment are not nice to say that Repletion of Authors hath begat Loathing Which is a Reason likewise or a Pretence that divers who are Learned and full Men contain their Liquor in their Vessels and never broach it in the Press to make it Publick because they think it is Folly to contribute to Waste and Excess I am one of those I confess that wish it were possible that a Moses could be raised up to restrain us from bringing more either of our Pamphlets or Volumes to the Work of the Tabernacle For the Stuff already is sufficient for all the Work to make it and too much Exod. 36.7 2. How shall I answer it therefore Or how shall I defend that I am constant to mine own Judgment in this Design that I thrust my Labours into the World What Warrant can I plead that I build a new Cottage upon the Waste I conceive that it will stand for satisfaction that I set forth an History of Things not travers'd before but of memorable Passages running through the Channel of one Man's Life in our present Age. It is a Debt owed to Posterity to furnish them with the true Knowledge of sore-gone Occurrences worthy to be Registred as I believe these ensuing are A Tradition must be kept of famous Exploits especially moving upon the Stage of turbulent Times For when it is skilfully drawn through the Acts of famous Men it will rouze up our Children by Emulation as much as by Precept and give them double advantage to seek Virtue and Glory But better it will be to have it coarse spun then quite omitted For such will serve for Cork to keep a Net from sinking 3. This Century of our Account from Christ's Birth wherein we live now wasting beyond the middle hath been happy in this That it hath brought forth in our Kingdom of England many of great Renown Wise and Eloquent deep in Learning and sage in Counsels in a word to be praised as much as the best of their Forefathers yet granting to all both former and latter an Allowance for some Grains of Frailties It were pity their Memorial should perish with them Caesar was a large seeker of Glory yet grudge no Man a share in Glory as testifies that little which remains of his Oration for the Bithynians saying It is a Duty required from the surviving Generation to keep them alive in their good Name who deserv'd it and can endure the Censure of the World for ever I listen to his Encouragement yet measuring my Strength by mine own Meet-wand I task my self to set up a Pillar but for one Man's Memory The Event will clear me that I stint not my self to this one Theme to do but little But First Because there is so much Kernel in one Shell I must set forth a great Bishop a great Judge a great Counsellor in all these Capacities most active in most active Times Such a Mill will not go with a little Water Beside the Turnings and Returnings of his Fortune multiformous Changeableness rather Prodigious then Strange by Honour and Dishonour by Evil Report and good Report 2 Cor. 6.8 Which will draw considerate Thoughts for no little time to this one Center As Pliny writes of the Emperor Augustus his Life interwoven with much Glory Lib. 7. Nat. Hist c. 45. and much Misfortune Si diligenter aestimentur sancta magna sortis humanae reperiantur volumina So it is highly remarkable that in this one Piece a diligent Eye may discern all the Colours of human Inconstancy and Instability 4. Secondly I spend all my little Skill upon this Subject for I can draw no Picture so like because I knew none so well I noted his Ways and Worth in the University when I was but young I observ'd him in his earliest Preferments when he came first sledge out of the Nest I was taken into his Houshold Service as soon as he ascended to his highest Office And commencing from that time till thirty Years expired with his Life I trespass not against Modesly if I say I knew his Courses as much and saw them at as near a distance as any Man beside I have as much Intelligence from an Eye-witness Information and from his familiar Conference with me as can be expected from any Writer of the Memorials of a great Statist Qui audiunt audita dicunt qui vident planè sciunt says Plautusvery well He that reports but what he hears must confess he is at uncertainty he that sees a Thing done can relate it perfectly Pliny hath cast down a great deal of that which he built up in the seventh Book of his Natural History with this Passage in his Proem Nec in plerÃsque corum obstringam sidem meam potiúsque ad autores relegabo He would make Faith for little of that which he wrote but turns his Reader over to such Authors as himself did not trust in I am far from such Prevarication I drew the knowledge of those things of most moment which I shall deliver from the Spring-Head And I trust in God that I have incorporated them into this Frame with Integrity This then is my confidence to make this Compilement that my Tools were whetted at home I need not repair to the Allophyli or Philistins to sharpen my Axe at their Grind-stone 5. Thirdly I am full of willingness to be the Father of this Child And nothing is apter for a Man to undergo then that which is agreeable to his Delight I profess it is not the least of my drifts to sweeten my Master's Memory with a strong composed Perfume and to carve him out in a commendable but a true Figure Suffer me to put one Day to his Life after his Decease When a worthy Man's Fame survives him through their help that light a Candle for that use that others in succession of Ages may perfectly behold him it is
much I may Excuse it Or Secondly How I may Recompence it with some other Praise A MEMORIAL Offer'd to the Great Deservings OF JOHN WILLIAMS D.D. Who sometimes Held the Places of the LORD-KEEPER of the GREAT-SEAL of England c. PART I. Paragraph 1. EDMOND WILLIAMS Esq of Aber. Conway in the County of Carnarvan was the Son of William Williams Esq of Coghwillanne near adjoyning and of Dorothy Daughter to Sir William Griffith Knight of Penrhyn This Edmond took to Wife Mary Daughter to Owen Wyn Esq and by her had five Sons and two Daughters Of the Male Children John was the youngest the Womb of his Mother ceasing to bear when it had done its best This John whose Memory deserves to be Dignified in a lasting Story was born at Aber-Conway a Sea-Town in Carnarvanshire about or upon the Feast-day of our Lady the Blessed Virgin March 25. 1582. The Shire wherein he drew his first Breath is notorious for the highest Hills of this Island Snoden Penmanmaur Creig-Eriri and others It is not unlikely that it hath much Riches under the Earth but it is Barren above Ground As Pliny speaks of the Orobii certain Mountainers in Italy Lib. 3. c. 17. Etiam nomine prodentes se al. tius quà m fortunatiùs sitos Their Situation was rather high than prosperous But what the Region wants in Fatness of Soil is requited by the Generous Spirits of the Inhabitants a far greater Honour than much Clay and Dirt. I light upon it in the Invention of a Masque Presented before King James at Whitehall An. 1619. that our Laureat-Poet Ben. Johnson hath let some weighty Words drop from him to the Honour of that Nation and I take them as a serious Passage and will own them That the Country is a Seed-Plot of honest Minds and Men. What Lights of Learning hath Wales sent forth for our Schools What Industrious Students of our Laws What Able Ministers of Justice Whence hath the Crown in all times better Servitors more Liberal of their Lives and Fortunes And I know I have their good Leave to say That the Honour of Wales shin'd forth abroad in the Lustre of such a Native as this and I add what Pliny writes to Sabinus of the Firmians among whom he was born Credibile est optimos esse inter quos tu talis extiteris Lib. 6. Epist 2. For Carnarvanshire in particular says Reverend Mr. Cambden the Ordovices lived there of old who held the Romans Play to preserve their Liberties the longest of all our Britains and forced the Roman General Suetonius Paulinus to fix his Head-Quarter there desiring to keep them his first and surest Friends who were his last subdued Enemies Afterward the Saxons had the longest and stoutest Repulses in North-Wales that they felt in all their Battels which made them bloody their Swords most barbarously in the Bodies of those resolute Defendants 3. Among the Champions of greatest Note and Valour that did the best Feats of Chivalry against the Saxons was a gallant Commander the Top of the House of Williams which is preserv'd in Memory to this day because the Family of that Name doth until this time bear in their Coat three Saxons Heads De tree pen Saix they call it in Welch I think a noble Testimony of the Valour of the Chief of that Stock that sought manfully for his Country and preserv'd it from the Invasion of the Saxons when their Armies had march'd over the Ground of England now so called with Slaughter and Conquests And since the best Men of the ancient Houses in Wales did manage War so valiantly in maintenance of Glory and Liberty it is no marvel if the Inhabitants are noted in the current Ages ever since to have almost a Religious Care in preserving the Pedigrees of their Gentry Who could excuse them from Ingratitude if they should not garnish Heraldry with the Genealogies of such Worthies 4. Among their copious Stems and far-fetch'd Descents the Pedigree of the House of Williams of Coghwillanne hath as many brave Strings in the Root and spreads as wide in the Branches as I have seen produced from the Store-house of their Cambrian Antiquities It grows up in the top Boughs to the Princes of North-Wales in King Stephen's days as it is deducted by Authentick Records which I have seen and are formalized into a comely shape by Evan Lloyd of Egloyvach in the County of Denbigh and Jacob Chaloner of London Gent. Men faithful and expert in such Monuments of elder Years The same Authors demonstrate that Williams of Coghwillanne hath continued his Coat of three Saxons Heads constantly and without any the léast alteration from Edneuet Vychan Lord-Steward of Wales an 1240. and of Hen. 3. his Reign an 25. to this day It hit right indeed for a Coat of Arms says the neat Wit of Mr. Hugh Hotland when one of that Lineage was advanced to be Lord-Keeper of the Great-Seal as he couched it in an elegant Distic engraven on his Lordship's Silver Standish as I found it there Qui sublime fori potuit consâ—â—ndere tignum Par suit hunc capitum robur habere trium Meaning it was a sign he had the Abilities and Brains of three Heads whose good Parts lifted him up to that Honour to set Chief Judge in the highest Court of the Kingdom But I need neither the light Air of Poetry much less the empty Wind of Vain-boasting to blow it about the World that he was Anciently and Nobly descended there are so many Proofs for it as there are Offsprings of Gentry in North-Wales being all of his Blood and Alliance to whom a Catalogue might be added of Great and Honourable Persons in England Which King James was aware of when he was sworn his Counsellor for He told him pleasantly that He thought not the worse of him nor suspected his Fidelity though He knew well enough that Sir William Stanley then living a great Traitor to his Prince and Country was his near Kinsman I could insist more upon this but it is the Rule of a wise Author that whosoever will search into a Man prudently and Philosophically Nunquam cunabula quaerit Et qualis non unde satus I close it up therefore that his Pedigree of Ancestors gave a good Lustre to his Birth but he gave a greater to them Howsoever I receive it for a Moral Truth as well as a Mathematical that the longest Line is the least of all quantitive Dimensions 5. Now to begin with my Subject from the first time that he was able to go without the hand His Education was like to be Prosperous for not only his Parents but his Grandmother the Lady Griffith his Grandmother Lois as well as his Mother Eunice contributed her Care to give him Godly and Learned Breeding It fell out well for their purpose that their Pious Country-man Gabriel Goodman Dean of Westminster had about that time founded a Publick School at Reuthen and had placed a good Grammarian in it under whom
it was happy for him when five years after Lime-Hounds were laid close to his foot-steps to hunt him and every corner searched to find a little of that Dust behind his door Eut it proved a dry scent to the Inquisitors for to his Glory and the Shame of his Enemies it could never appear that the least Bird-lime of Corruption did stick to his Fingers And now I have shewn what was the rich Portion which he brought when he was wedded to the Office of the Great-Seal these are convictive and day-light Evidences To one or two Writers of late that have gone another way I have nothing to answer because in those things wherein they calumniate they address not themselves to prove any thing Enough to give them up to the censure of that Infamy which they merit Qui notitiam viri non ex bonis gestis dictisque sed ex minus probabilibus fieri volunt quo quid nequius says the Author called Zeno of Verona When such candid Authors as Sir T. Moore Sir J. Hayward S. Daniel and Renowned Camden wrote the Lives of Princes they drew the Characters of Men by their Actions and Speeches not out of Obloquies and Suspicions the Brats of rotten Fame that have no Father But in Sick or rather Pestilentious Times when no Wares are set forth so much as Untruths and Malice too many are not more bold to Lie then confident to be Believed Never with no People under the Sun did Veracity suffer so much as by the Pen of Sir A. Wel. whose Pamphlet is Perpetuus Rhotacismus one snarling Dogs-Letter all over which I condemn therefore as Philoxenus the Poet censured Dionysius the Syracusan's Tragedy A fronte ad calcem unâ liturâ circumduxit Correct it with one Scratch or Score from the beginning to the end 66. Such as he are not in my way why then should I loiter one Line to jostle them out Yet since discreet Persons and they that extol'd the Dean and confess'd that his Soul carried a great freight of Worth did think their Exceptions weighty against his undergoing that great Office I will not dissemble as if I were a Stranger to them The Words of the Wise are as Nails fastned by the Masters of Assemblies Eccles 12.11 Yet some Nails are not so fast in but they may be wrench'd out Many alledged that he had Dedicated himself to the Church in an holy Calling Why should he take his hand from his own Plow to preside in Secular Affairs Indeed when the Harvest was great and the Labourers few it was the Summum bonum of a Labourer to ply that Harvest for nothing could be better then to Plant the Gospel among those that had not believed But where an whole Nation is gained so far as to believe in Christ and the Message of Salvation known to all that Church is preserved unto Christ by other means beside Preaching They that attend their Charge in Prayer Exhortation and dispensing the Sacraments in all Quarters of the Land had need to have some of their own Coat in Places of Power and Dignity to preserve their Maintenance from Sacrilege and their Persons from being trodden down with dirty Feet Such as God hath bless'd to go in Rank with the Chiefest to help their Brethren whether in public Office or in Attendance on their Sovereign in his Chappel Closet Eleemosynary Trust or the like they are as much in the Harvest as they that labour in the Pulpit St. Ambrose in his sundry Embassages for his Lord the Emperor the Father of Gr. Nazianzen a Bishop of whom his Son says in his Epitaph that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 employed in Pre-eminency and Honour and Government Euseb de vit Constanti l. 4. c. 27. Sozom. l. 1. c. 9. mention the Rescript of Constantine to Ablavius the Praetorian Praefect Ut pro Sanctis semper venerabilibus habeatur quicquid Episcoporum fuerit sententiâ terminatum idque in cansis omnibus quae vel Praetorio vel civili jure tractantur Which large Concession of Constanstine was restrained indeed by Gratian and Valentiman an 376 Ad causas quae ad Religionis observantiam pertinebant All the Prelates to whom the Emp. Constantine the Great referred the Hearing of Causes by Appeals which they discharged to the gaining of great Love and Praise these were not out of their Sphere but served the Church when they did that which ingratiated the Church and made the Christian Name to be venerable Some never speak of Secular Policy but as of a Prophane thing whereas a worthy Man may manage a Civil Tribunal with that maintenance of Virtue with that galling of Vice and evil Manners so as many good Pulpit-Orators put together might give God thanks if their Success were equal Councils it is true may be produced as to be brief the Quin-Sext in Trullo can 11 which forbids Priests and Deacons it names not Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to handle worldly Principalities I am struck with Reverence to the Council but not Convicted by its Reason which is fetch'd out of one Scripture that no Man can serve two Masters Tell this to the Ecclesiastics of Rome who are wholly buried in Things not only different but contrary to the Ministry Instituted by Christ Opposite Masters cannot be served by one faithful Servant subordinate may for we may love both and hate neither The King's Service in a Righteous way is not opposite to Christ's Evangelical Administrations but co-incident And a Supreme Governor doth not lose his Right in a Subject that is made a Priest or Bishop but may employ him under him as he pleaseth since the compacture of the whole Commonwealth together is but one Christian Oeconomy ABP Spotswood p. 299. In the Articles proponed to the Parliament at Sterling by Mr. Andrew Melvin an 1578. this is the 17th of the 11th Cap. We deny not that Ministers may and should assist their Princes when they are required in all things agreeable to the Word of God whether it be in Council or Parliament or out of Council providing always that they neither neglect their own Charges nor through flattery of Princes hurt the public State of the Church A Caution that their own Charges be not neglected is most Pious otherwise the Indulgence is very indefinite Many Zealots are as kind to themselves in England to serve their own turn I never saw any of our Ministry more abstracted from their Studies continually progging at the Parliament-Door and in Westminster-Hall for many years together having no Calling but that of an Evil Spirit to raise Sedition then those that were most offended at a Bishop for bestowing some part of his Time in a Secular Place And yet a considerate Judge will not say that the Lord-Keepership is an Employment merely Secular To mitigate the strict Cases of the Law with the Conscience of the King in whose Place he sits is it not as fully Ecclesiastical as a Consistory of teaching and ruling Elders
he should be Executing the Riger of his Laws against Papists at Home while he did labour for Peace to them of the Religion Abroad The most likely way to obtain what he did seek of those Princes being a Moderation of the Severity of Laws against Priests and Papists at least for a time Thus far that wise man but the Reason was stronger than he enforc'd it For in sundry Places beyond our Seas the Churches of the most disconsolate Reformed were never so near if not to an Extirpation yet to an utter Dispersion Those in Bohemia and Moravia were hunted from Hole to Hole by the Emperor's Men of War The King of Spain was Victorious over the persecuted Servants of Christ in the Val-Teline The King of France prepared to lay Siege to Rochel and to all his fenced Cities that were in the Hands of the Protestants The Duke of Savoy was suspected that he would watch this time to surround Geneva with an Army while Cuspis Martis shin'd so sinistrously upon their Brethren every where Now what Remedy was more ready to pacifie these destroying Angels for their Sakes with whom we walk'd in the House of God as Friends then to begin in Clemency to those among us that carry their Mark Can a Kingdom be governed without such Correspondencies Salmasius in his Notes upon Simplicius introduceth Aristides Sirnamed the Just that he was compell'd to unpeg his Rigor and to make it go to a softer Tune in rugged Times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he translates it Quod rationibus patrae se accommodaret quae multâ injustitiâ opus habert Necessity is so great a Part of Reason that that is Justice which looks like Injustice because of Necessity Our good People forsooth would have the Protestants suffer no Ill Abroad under the Dominions of the Pontificians and yet mitigate no Severity to Pontisicians under the Dominion of Protestants Hand stulte sapis siquidem id est sapere velle id quod non potest contingore says the Comaedian This is wisely laid if a thing may be wisely laid which can never be effected I am not able to express this so well as the Lord Keeper hath done in his Sermon preached at King James's Funeral P. 49. This Blessed King in all the time I serv'd him did never out of deep and just reason of State and the bitter Necessity of Christendom in these latter Times give way to any the least Connivance in the World towards the Person of a Papist for to his Doctrine he never did he never would do nor was there any Consideration under Heaven would have forc'd him thereunto but he strictly guided himself in the same by some notable Precedent of Queen Elizabeth the Load-Star of all his greatest Actions and that in the very Point and bath'd his Favours in Showers of Tears I speak it in the Presence of Almighty God least those Intendments of his for the apparent Good of the State might scandalize for all that in an oblique Line his weak but well-meaning Subjects in their Religion and Doctrine This was a Testimony of the Integrity of these Proceedings almost three years after But for present and full Satisfaction here followeth a long Letter anticipated in the Cabal but here inserted in its proper Place which was written to the Lord Viscount Anan by the same Hand Sept. 17. 1622 declaring the Nature and Reason of the Clemency at that time extended to the Lay-Recusants of England Right Honourable 104. I Owe more Service to that true Love and former Acquaintance which your Lordship hath been pleased to afford me now these full ten years then to be sparing or reserved in satisfying your Lordship about any doubt whatsoever The Resolution whereof shall lie in my Power Concerning that Offence taken by many people both this side the Borders and in Scotland from that Clemency which his Majesty was pleased to extend to the Imprisoned Lay-Recusants of this Kingdom And my Letter Written to the Justices for the Reigling of the same which your Lordship did intimate unto me yesterday at Mr. Henry Gibb his House out of some News received from a Peer of Scotland This is the plainest return I can make unto your Lordship In the general as the Sun in the Firmament appears unto us no bigger then a Platter and the Stars but as so many Nails in the Pomel of a Saddle because of that Esloinment and Disproportion between our Eyes and the Object So there is such an un-measurable distance betwixt the deep Resolution of a Prince and the shallow Apprehension of Common and Ordinary people that as they will be ever Judging and Censuring so they must be Obnoxious to Error and Mistaking Particularly for as much as concerns my self I must leave my former Life my Profession my continual Preaching my Writing which is extant in the Hands of many my private Endeavours about some great Persons and the whole bent of my Actions which in the place I live in cannot be conceal'd to Testifie unto the World what favour I am like to importune for the Papists in point of Religion For the King my Master I will tell you a Story out of Velleius Paterculus A Surveyor bragging to M. Livius Drusus that he would so contrive his House Ut libera à conspectu immunis ab omnibus Arbitris esset That it should stand Removed out of sight and be past all danger of Peeping or Eaves-dropping was answer'd again by Drusus Tu vero si quid in te artis est ita compone domum meam ut quicquid agam ab omnibus conspici possit Nay my good Friend if you have any devices in your head contrive my House after such a manner that all the World may see what I do therein So if I should endeavour to flourish up some Artificial Vault to hide and conceal the intentions of his Majesty I know I should receive the same Thanks that the Surveyor did from M. Drusus I was not called to Counsel by his Royal Majesty when the Resolution of this Clemency to the Lay-Recusants was first concluded But if I had been asked my Opinion I should have advised it without the least Hesitation His Majesty was so Popishly addicted at this time that to the incredible exhaustments of his Treasury he was a most Zealous Interceder for some Ease and Refreshment to all the Protestants in Europe his own Dominions and Denmark only excepted Those of Swethland having lately provoked the Pole had no other hope of Peace Those of France of the Exercise of their Religion Those of the Palatinate and adjoyning Countries of the least connivency to say their Prayers then by the earnest Mediation of our Gracious Master And advised by the late Assembly of Parliament to insist a while longer in this milky way of Intercession and Treaty what a preposterous Argument would this have been to desire these mighty Princes Armed and Victorious to grant some Liberty and Clemency to the Protestants because himself
other Bodies cannot dissolve the Constancy of Gold 108. How faithfully and with what Courage like himself he adventur'd to maintain Orthodox Religion against old Corruptions and new Fanglements will be a Labour to unfold hereafter One thing remains that is purely of Episcopal Discharge which I will salute and so go by it before I look again upon his Forensive or Political Transactions When he was Dean of Westminster he had a Voice in the High Commission Court and so forth when he was in higher Degrees For as Nazianzen commends Athanasius pag. 24. Encom he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 skiiful in all the various Arts of Government He appear'd but once at Lambeth when that Court sat while he was Dean A sign that he had no Maw to it For he would say that the Institution of the Court was good without all Exception That is to Impower the Kings of England and their Successors by Statute to issue out that Authority under the Great Seal which was annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm to assign some as often and to so long time as the King should think fit to be Judges for the Reformation of great Abuses and Enormities But that this Power should be committed from the Kings and Queens of this Realm to any Person or Persons being Natural born Subjects to their Majesties to overlook all Ecclesiastical Causes correct punish deprive whether one or more whether Lay or Clergy whether of the vilest as well as the noblest nay whether Papist as well as Protestant as no harm was to be feared from good Princes albeit they have this Liberty by the Tenure of the Act 1 Eliz. Cap. 1. So if God should give us a King in his Anger who would oppress us till our cry went up like the Smoke out of a Furnace this Statute would enable them to enact Wickedness by a Law This was a Flaw to his seeming in the Corps of the Statute which gave Vigour to the High Commission But in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and her two blessed Successors God be praised we were never the worse for it Better Commissioners than were appointed in their Days need not be wish'd What ail'd this wise Church-man then to be so reserv'd and to give so little Attendance in that Court He was not satisfied in two things Neither in the Multiplicity of Causes that were pluck'd into it nor in the Severity of Censures It is incident to Supream Courts chiefly when Appeals fly unto them to be sick of this Timpany to swell with Causes They defraud the lower Audiences of their Work and Profit which comes home to them with Hatred What a Clamor doth Spalat make Lib. 5. Eccl. Reip. c. 2. ar 28. That the Judicatories at Rome lurch'd all the Bishops under that Supremacy of all Complaints that were promoted to their Consistories Eò lites omnes cò dispensationes trahuntur Fluviorum omnium tractus ad suam derivat molam nobis quod sugamus nihil relinquitur The Affairs of all Ecclesiastical Tribunes were little enough to drive that Mill So the Consistories of all the Suffragans in the Province of Canterbury became in a manner Despicable because the Matters belonging to every Diocess were followed before the High Commission That it might be said to the neglected Praelates at Home Are ye unworthy to Judge the smallest Matters 1 Cor. c. 2. It seems ill Manners increas'd apace For I heard it from one that liv'd by the Practice of that High Court An. 1635 That whereas in the last Year of Arch-Bishop Whitgift eight Causes were left to be discuss'd in Easter-Term there were no less than a Thousand depending at that time This was one of his Exceptions That the High Court drew too much into its Cognizance The other Reason which made him stand a loof from it was That it punish'd too much Arch-Bishop Abbot was rigorously Just which made him shew less Pity to Delinquents Sentences of great Correction or rather of Destruction have their Epocha from his Predominancy in that Court. And after him it mended like sowre Ale in Summer It was not so in his Predecessor Bancroft's Days who would Chide stoutly but Censure mildly He considered that he sate there rather as a Father than a Judge Et pro peccato magno paululum supplicii satis est patris He knew that a Pastoral Staff was made to reduce a wandering Sheep not to knock it down He look'd upon St. Peter in whom the Power of the Keys was given to the Unity of all the Officers of the Church who incurr'd a great Offence in the Hall of the High Priest let the Place be somewhat consider'd but his Action most Ut mitior esset delinquentibus grandis delinquens Saith St. Austin It being the most indubitate Course of that Commission to deprive a Minister of his Spiritual Endowments that is of all he had if Drunkenness or Incontinency were prov'd against him I have heard the Lord Keeper who was no Advocate for Sin but for Grace and Compassion to Offenders dis-relish that way for this Reason That a Rector or Vicar had not only an Office in the Church but a Free-hold for Life by the Common Law in his Benefice If a Gentleman or Citizen had been Convicted upon an Article of Scandal in his Life was it ever heard that he did Confiscate a Mannor or a Tenement Nay What Officer in the Rolls in the Pipe in the Custom-house was ever displac'd for the like Under St Cyprian's Discipline and the Rigor of the Eliberitan Canons the Lay were obnoxious to Censures as much as the Clergy But above all said he there is nothing of Brotherhood nor of Humanity in this when we have cast a Presbyter cut of Doors and left him no Shelter to cover his Head that we make no Provision for him out of his own for Term of Life to keep him from the Extremities of Starving or Begging those Deformed Miseries 109. These Reasons prevailing with him to be no ordinary Frequenter of that Court yet an Occasion was offered which required his Presence Mart. 30. 1622 which will draw on a Story large and memorable M. Amonius de Deminis Arch Bishop of Spalato made an Escape out of Dalmatia an English Gentleman being his Conductor he posted through Germany and came safe into England in the end of the Year 1616. The King gave him Princely Welcome Many of the Religious Peers and Chief Bishops furnished him with Gold that he lack'd for nothing He seem'd then for all this Plenty brought in to be covetous of none of these things but was heard to say That the Provision of an ordinary Minister of our Church would suffice him For in the end of June as he was brought on his Way to the Commencement at Cambridge a Worthy and a Bountiful Divine Dr. John Mountfort receiv'd him for a Night in his Parsonage-House of Ansty Where Spalat noting that Dr. Mountfort had all things about him orderly and handsome like
they of our part before you bring forth the whole Plump of your Articles No Fence could thrust by this Question but that it would stick fast in the Cause So we gained again that King Philip was restreined from making Faith for King James And although the Froathy Formality of promulging the Dispensation was kept back yet the Articles came into Play that the Commissioners on both sides might fall to a Session 142. But from Strife of Tongues from Fundamental Contradictions from Clashings every day what Fruit could be look'd for Do Men gather Grapes of Thorns If you will believe the Parties what this Lord objected against that Lord there was none that did Good no not one If you will believe their respective Defences to those Objections there was none that did amiss I cannot take up all the Blots they made with my Pen lest I make them bigger None of those Peers hath Justified himself so well in his Letters Apologies and Reports but that strong Inferences may be drawn from some Parts to disprove the rest What was spoken at the Conference of the Junto was within the Veil and under Covert but what is published out of it is most uncertain For the Lord Keeper after he had consulted with the Prince and searched all Papers to pass his Judgment what Countenance the Business should put on when the Parliament looked upon it but ten days before Feb. 2. 1623 He writes thus to the Duke Cabal P. 90. That all the Reckoning must not be cast up before the Parliament for fear they should fall to particular Dispatches wherein they cannot but find many Contradictions After whom I glean up this Handful He that writes upon this Subject what is reserved in the Memorials of those Days writes after the Canon of Integrity but when he is monished that there are Contradictions in those Memorials he can never be secure that he hath compiled an uncorrupt History Upon this Staff he may rest That when the Chief Counsellors fell out among themselves like the Midianites every Man's Hand against his Brother as worthy Actors as I count them to be yet every one was out in his Part. Nay He that will adjust the Course of any one in this high Transaction in all things will burn Truth in the Hand and spare the Guilty He that aspired to be Dioscorus the most preeminent in the Company let him be first considered That is Conde Olivarez the Abner in the Service of his Master Ishbosheth whose Humor would brook to be crost by no Man ingrained in Nature to be Aristotle's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great Opiniator a costive Counsellor that would hold the Ground where he stood and move for no Perswasion By the fortunate Gale of Court-Favour he had lived in continual Custom to carry all before him without being stopt As Velleiâ—s says of M. Agrippa Parendi sed uni scientissimus aliis sanè imperandi cupidus so he was very servile to please King Philip and look'd that all beside should be as servile to please him Such a Spirit is intolerable in Counsel and not to be coapt with that thinks it an indignity unless he speak for all and Vote for all Such a States-man is like to bring nothing to a good End but himself to an ill one Our Princes Reports may be held of all other to be most Authentical from whom take it thus His Highness representing the Treatise of Spain to the Lords of the Privy-Councel at St. James's Octob. 30. 1623. Begins that the first man that did give him great Profession of welcom into Spain was this Olivares and in the interview in the Garden assured him that all business should be dispatch'd as fast as his Highness wish'd That the Temporal Articles should straightway be Concluded and the Spiritual Articles about Religion should cause no delays but be remitted to the Wisdom of the King his Father and his Gracious Promises But says his Highness The longer I staid the less I found him my Friend and the oftner I spoke with him the less he kept his Word But our Duke of Buckingham after a little acquaintance found the Conde Duke a great deal worse to him They came in no place but with shews of disdain at one anothers Persons and like two great Caraques in a foul Sea they never met in Counsel but they stemmed one another In every Proposal if one said so the other said no if one lik'd it the other slighted it Could it be expected that the Counsels of the whole Table should not be at a Fault when the two Presidents appear'd in Hostility of Opinions When the Malady of disaffection lay not hid in the Veins but broke out in the Body When they never brought their Offers within compass of Probability One Observes for their parts that run Races Alex. lib. 2. c. 21. Quanto minor in corpore splen foret tanto perniciores homines esse He that hath the least Spleen will make the best Footman So in all Negotiations he that is most Calm will dispatch most work but put Wise-Heads together yet where there is much Spleen there will be little done There was no likelihood but the Northern and Southern Favourites as the Lord Keeper foretold would look proudly one upon another when they met in the same Cock-Pit Courtesie was quite out of fashion with them that he that receiv'd it might not seem the greater Emulation was all in Fashion to dim each others Light by casting Shadows of Opposition Only these Animosities between two high Spirits so ill Match'd were the Seed of the Quarrel which I press against a vulgar and a scandalous Error made Table Talk in all England that our Duke had Attempted the Chastity of the Condessa Olivares and was Cheated with a diseased Strumpet laid in his Bed c. This is grosly contumelious The Lady was never solicited by Buckingham to defile her Honour with him as Sir Wal. Aston will Testifie in a Postscript of a Letter to the Duke Cabal p. 33. The Condessa of Olivares bids me tell you that she Kisseth your Grace's Hands and does every Day Recommend you particularly by Name in her Prayers to God which Salutation she durst not have sent to his Lordship no not for her Life if the Duke had offer'd toward that Indignity to make her a Strumpet And for the Rest of this Obscene Tale the worthiest Gentlemen that waited upon his Person in that Journey have assur'd me that as well in Spain as when he came from thence into England his Body was Untainted from that Loathsomness not to be Named the just Recompence of Rotten Lust Yet perhaps more will Read these Reasons then believe them though they cannot Answer them Few have been so happy to be Redeemed from the Rumor of a common Slander For as the most Eloquent of Men says Orat. pro Plancio Nihil est tam volucre quà m Maledictum nihil facilius emittitur nihil citius excipitur nihil latius
Opinion with his Highness and now a very fair and favourable Aspect from my Royal Master May I never enjoy the one or the other any longer than I shall return them both to their first Orignal and employ them to the last Drap in your Grace's Service Having not yet spoken with Sir Francis Cottington I shall not deliver my Opinion of the State of your Negotiation but go on with my Baeds and pray still unto God to bless and prosper it Only we have here many odd Relations of the same agreeing in this That the grand Business is much short of the Forwardness we expected and at this time in part dis-joynted First Some Distasts between your Lordship and Count d'Olivarez are reported to be of late in some sort skinned over rather than healed 2. Your casting of the Earl of Bristol from all Employment before suspected only is now freely discoursed 3. That Porter drew on your Grace and that your Grace drew on the Prince and pressed the King's Assent unto this secret Voyage and all upon a Foundation either imagined or mis-apprehended by Porter the first Mover Upon these Suspitions and five Weeks Silence taking a little Advice with my Lord Hamilton whom I observed most faithfully constant unto your Grace I touched upon his Majesty this Day Seven-night to feel how his Majesty stood affected in case you should return without your Errand And taking occasion to recommend that vigorous and active Course your Lordship was reported to run in pressing and forcing some speedy Resolution and averring that however it sped it was the only true Service an Agent could now do unto his Majesty His Majesty replied instantly That he did so interpret it and that none bat Fools or Knaves could otherwise censure it Which I profess before God I was glad at the Heart to hear fall from his Majesty And your Grace may do well to keep this Intelligence by you If I have offended in being thus bold I crave your Pardon it was the fervency of my Love and Affection And if I offend in the other Extream which is in omitting to say or do what I ought to do in your Service impute it to your own Silence and Reservedness your Grace being defective to your self and injurious to my Lord Hamilton and me if you shall not impart unto us freely and timely any ill Success which Good keep off that shall befall in this Negotiation For the good News I am content to take it upon Retail from Pauls but the worst I shall expect to hear at the first from your Grace I beseech your Lordship to take some Occasion to salute in a Letter to my Lord President the Lords of the Council who have ever been very observant in publick of you and yours and are much dejected with notice of some Letters wherein your Grace should intimate the contrary In good Faith your Grace hath found all Respect with the Body of the Council in all this time of your Absence And I hambly beseech you to take heed what Words you let fall concerning the Lord Treasurer All that are about you stand in need of his Favour as the World now goeth And in good Faith I never observ'd him since his coming to this Office more respectful to your Lordship and your Friends than he is at this Instant c. Truly no Proceeding could be more genteel to win the Hearts of all the Great Ones to his Grace and to keep them sure unto him than to perswade him that he had no Enemy 146. The Latter of the two Letters is come abroad in Cab. P. 78. whose Date should be June 28 whereof because it is in many Hands some Jaggs will suffice to be recited MY Love makes me sometimes write and many times fear fondly and foolishly for the which I hope your Grace will pardon me I have been srighted more three Weeks since about Quarrels and Jars which now Dick Greyham hath related in part to the King than at this present I am For God's-sake be not offended with me if I exhort you to do that which I know you do to observe his Highness with all Lowliness Humility and dutiful Obedience and to piece up the least Seam rent which Heat and Earnestness may peradventure seem to produce If the great Negotiation be well concluded let all private Disagreements be wrapped up in the same and never accompany your Lordship into England I beseech you in your Letter to the Marquess Hamilton intimate unto him your Considence and Reliance upon his Watchfulness and Fidelity in all Turns which may concern your Grace I have often said unto his Lordship that your Grace hath in many of my Letters expressed as much and so have pacified him for the time I have had an hours Discourse with his Majesty yesterday Morning and do find so disposed to yourdship as my Heart desireth yet hath been informed of the Discontentments both with the Conde d'Olivarez and the Earl of Bristol c. 'T is confest that these Advertisements so dutifully presented were sullenly taken It offended that the Lord Keeper look'd through his Grace's Infirmities with a quick Eye though with a noble Sadness He might have wrote somewhat else if he had been less Wise or less Honest Yet still he wrote for the Valuation of the Duke's Goodness to him was so great that the Sowerness of present Unkindness must be dipt in the sweet Sawce of former Benefits It is intoninus the Emp. Similitude cast Dirt into a pure Fountain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it will purge it out and supply clear and wholesome Water Immemiately before that is while the former of these Letters was upon the Way the Duke entrusted the Prince's greatest Secret and his own to the Lord Keeper with a Charge to carry it with him to the King being cautious that no Foot-step of it should remain under his own Hand or any other Therefore thus he salutes the Lord Keeper June 17. My Dear Lord THIS inclosed is a Letter from his Highness to His Majesty I pray you deliver it with your own Hands and read it likewise to him but when you are alone with him If you show him this Letter he will I am sure give you leave When it is read the Prince bids you either burn it or keep it for him I beseech you excuse me for not writing oftner I shall now every day be so busie that I shall have less Leisure than before Yet I pray you let me hear sometimes from you and how his Majesty uses you in my Absence for I am sure he knows you my Friend which I shall strive while I live to continue c. That which was sit to be kept in tenebris for that time may now come to light without Injury by his Gloss upon it who the King excepted only knew it Our Prince either was weary or was perswaded to be so with Articles upon Articles and Additions upon Additions in that Spanish Junto Therefore
the Letter for upon the Death of the late King of Spain being sent from his Master our Soveraign to the King of Spain that now is to understand his Mind upon the Treaty of Marriage he receiv'd this Chearful Answer That he was sorry he had not the Honour to begin it but now he would pursue it with all Alacrity The Earl of Bristol is another Witness Cab. p. 27. I insisted that Two Millions for the Portion were by the last King settled and agreed with me That this King had undertaken to pursue the Business as it was left by his Father and to make Good whatsoever he had promised Thereupon I desired that the Original Papers and Consultoes of the last King might be seen which very honestly by the Secretary Cirica were produced and appeared to be such that I dare say there was not any Man that saw them that doubteth of the last Kings real Intention of making the Match So I leave these Contradictions to blush at the sight of one another But to me Olivarez his Fidelity is the Leg that halts For as Tully said of Roscius the Comoedians Adversary Quod sibi probare non possit id persuadere alteri conatur he could never persuade that vigorously to another which he disbelieved himself It is a tedious thing to be tied to Treat with one that cares not for his own Honour nor regards his Modesty with whom he Treats I mean that same Person that Bashaw of King Philip the Conde Duke who entramel'd as many Devices as his Pate could bring together to raise a Dust and made Demands meerly to satisfie his own Pride that he might boast he had ask'd them though his discretion taught him that he could never obtain them When Sir Fr. Cottington return'd to Madrid with the great Article procur'd to suspend the Penal Statutes of England in favour of Recusants he presented it to the Conde and expected as the Casttlian Phrase is Las Albricias a reward for bringing of good News the Conde stoop'd not so low as to give Thanks but having perused the Paper told Sir Francis it would be expected the Prince should Negotiate a plain Toleration for the Protestants that endured that which was in his Hand would patiently endure more Sir Francis Answered him with the Old Simile That his Lordship was no good Musician for he would peg the Minikin so high till it crack'd Concerning his Attemptings upon the Prince my supply is out of private Letters that came from Friend to Friend The Conde had Oblig'd his Honour to his Highness when he came First to the Court of Spain never to meddle with him about his Religion He kept not his promise but solicited his Highness that as he lov'd his Soul he would return to England a Catholic in his Sense Well my Lord says the Prince You have broken your Word with me but I will not break my Faith with God Another time he besought his Highness to afford his Company at a Solemn Mass No Sir says the Prince I will do no ill nor the suspicion of it Once more this Idern told his Highness that he would accomplish all that he could desire from the Crown of Spain if he would profess himself a Son of the Roman Church he should not only carry home the bravest Lady for Beauty Birth and Vertue that was but be made as great a King in Riches and Power as was in Europe But as the Prophet says Isa 63.5 Excandiscentia mea fulcivit me my Fury it upheld me so the Prince was heated at the Offer and gave this provocation to him that had provok'd him that it was such a another Rhadomontade as the Devil made to Christ All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and Worship me Next to matters of Religion the stiffest thing that was tugg'd for in this Month was about the Restitution of the Palatinate The Secretary of the Elector came to Madrid with Letters to the Duke about it which were not first imparted to the King his Father-in-Law But all that shall be drawn up into one Process in the Transactions of August 155. But in all Disputes for Sacred or secular Matters the Ministers of our King were the more Naked and Unarm'd when they came to the push of the Spanish Subtleties because they kept not the correspondence with themselves If my Lord of Buckingham could have fashion'd his mind to draw the same yoke with the Earl of Bristol who was most conversant upon the place and best knew the Arts of that Nation success had been more Fortunate But those Civil Discords were the Cause of many disorders and incivilities Therefore the King imposed on the Lord Keeper to use his Pen once more to reconcile them which he did not fail to do the very next day which was his Majesties Remove to begin the Western Progress July 22. May it please your Grace I would not be troublesom with this Second Letter but chiefly to let your Grace know that you never stood in your Life more uprightly in his Majesties Favour then at this instant and that I shall need to pour out no other Prayers unto God but for the continuation of the same For Gods sake Write to my Lord Hamilton and acquaint his Lordship with some Passages of your Affairs For my self I shall be content to Rove and guess at them And I hope your Grace will be pleased to pardon this Excursion that is my running this second or third time into business which I am told but cannot by any means believe it hath already drawn your Grace's Offence against me It is a most Humble Zealous and earnest Petition to your Grace to Seal up and really confirm that agreement and reconciliation which to the great Contentment of all your Friends but the Regret of some among us you have made with the Earl of Bristol What I wrote formerly might be ill placed and offend your Grace but all proceeded from as true and sincere a Heart unto your Grace as you left behind you in all this Kingdom But the renewing of it now again hath a Root from a higher Power who hath observ'd your Grace his Favour so abounding towards me and my acknowledgments so far as my poor ability permitteth so returned to your Grace that he was pleased to say unto me this Morning upon this Theme That he knew you would regard any Representation that I should recommend unto you In good Faith his Majesty is more then Zealous not only of fair Terms of Friendship but of a near Alliance formerly spoken of between your Grace and that Earl Of whose Sufficiencies and Abilities I perceive His Majesty to retein an extraordinary good Opinion which in all Humility I thus leave to your Lordships Wisdom and Consideration The Earl of Bristol had heard how the Lord Keeper had ventur'd to make this Pacification and writes to him Cab. p. 20. That the Friendship of the Duke was a thing he did
which all Convenencies that were formerly thought upon will cease The Remedy which he propounds to fail without all these Shelves I never did light upon out of this Letter 'T is thus The Emperor as your Majesty knows by his Embassador desires to Marry his Daughter with the King of England ' s Son and I doubt not but he will be glad to Marry his Second Daughter to the Palatine's Son So all the Conventencies of Alliance will be as full in this For it accommodates the Matter of the Palatinate and the Succession of his Grand-Children without Blood or Treasure Here is a new Bride appointed for his Highness the eldest Daughter of the Emperor which is unlikely to be intended because it comes from none but such an Author as Olivarez and in as much as when Count Suartzenburg came about eighteen Months before Embassador to our King from Caesar this was not moved at that Oportunity and when the Prince came to Spain no shadow of it remained but it was vanished like a Morning-mist before the Sun Now follow their Whimsies and their In and Ou ts at the Consulto when the Prince was among them The first Onset that Olivarez gave was That they were ready to follow all the Demands of the King of Great Brittain concerning the Match for his Son to the Demands for his Son-in-Law he said they were not in their Power to effect his Country was extended upon by the Emperor his Electoral Dignity invested in the Duke of Bavaria And within this Charm they kept us long till we were weary with their Obstinacy and sate down a while as when Boys Scourge a great Top till they make it sleep At last the Prince's Highness offended that he could gain nothing by this Alliance for his dear Sister 's Good offered to give King Philip a Farewel that he might look timely at Home for the Relief of her Misery On this no man courts his Highness to stay so much as Olivarez and to slacken his Return revives the Consult of the Restitution promiseth the strongest Mediation that the King his Master could make with the Imperialists and Bavarians which if it were rejected but they hoped better he would be forward for his Part to stir up his Catholick Majesty to give his Brother the King of England Assistance by Arms to procure him his Satisfaction Yet whatsoever he said his Heart lay a thought farther and he had a Trick to redeem himself out of this Promise for he told his Highness in a Weeks space after that he found their Nation so linked to the Love of the House of Austria that they would never march chearfully into the Field against it For all this the Weather-cock turn'd and he was affrighted in a moment into a good Mind again So did his Highness report at St. James's that a false Alarum being brought to Madrid that Count Tilly with his whole Body of Foot and Horse was routed in Germany instantly the Conde Duke came with as much Fear as Hast unto the Prince and with as much Lowliness as his Knee upon the Ground vowed he would give him a Blank for the Restitution of the Palsgrave's Interest but when the Second that is the worst News came that the Duke of Brunswick was quite defeated the Mood was changed with the Man and he spake as loftily from that Matter as if the great Armada had been failing again upon our Brittish Ocean Into how many Paces did Hipocrisie put him Sincerity would have got him Honour dispatch the Work and saved him all this Trouble for with the same Study nay with far less men may attain to be such as they ought to be which they mis-spend in seeking to be such as they are not Quibus id persuasum est ut nihil mallent se esse quà m bonos viros iis reliquam facilem esse doctrinam Cic. de orat lib. 3. After that great Don Jasper had put himself to the Expence of all this Folly he riveted in two Straws more like than Wedges to cleave the Knot First Let the Marriage be Consummated and then despair not but the Princess Infanta would beg the Palatinate with her earnest Prayers that she might be received with Honour and Applause among her Husband's People That is Seal their Patent and we shall have an empty Box to play with Or else marry the Lady and leave her behind till the Business for the Palsgrave's Patrimony were accommodated which is like Velez's Trick in Gusman of Alfarach to 〈◊〉 away both the Bride and the Bride-Cake The great Projector held close to one Proposition at the last that since Prince Frederick the Elector had highly offended Caesar in the Attempt and Continuance of it in the Matter of Bohâ—mia no Account should be had of his Person but Restitution should be made to his Eldest Son by Marrying the Second Daughter of the Emperor in which Clause the Prince concurred But the Sting in the Tail was that he should be bred up in the Emperor's Court to mold him into a Roman Catholick Upon which his Highness broke off the Earl of Bristol as a sharp Letter chargeth him written by the Prince Cab. Pag. 17. swallowing down that Difficulty at a Gulp because without some such great Action neither Marriage nor Peace could be had But Sir Wal. Aston flew back saying He durst not give his Consent for fear of his Head Now we have the Duke Olivarez in all his Party-colours who knew that the Breach of Alliance with England would be transcendently ill for Spain yet he would hazard a Mischief unless he might tear a Princely Limb from the Protestant Religion not unlike to the Paeotlans in Justin lib. 8. Tanto edio Phoâ—sunn ardentes ut obliti cladium 〈◊〉 perire ipsi qâ—à m non perdere eos praeaptarent How the Duke Olivarez smoothed it a Letter of his which would make a Pamphlet for the length will manifest which to this day hath lain in Obscurity but is worthy to come abroad It follows 161. HIS Majesty being in the Escurial I desired these my Lords the Embassadors that they wou'd repair hither to the end that we might treat of perfecting those things which concern the Palatine forasmuch as might be done from hence wherein we procure as you know to give Satisfaction to the King of Great Britain through whose Intercession together with that of the most Excellent Prince his Highness we have procured to dispose things in Germany and have used those Diligences which you know The Means which hath ever seemed most easie and apt for the well addressing of this Business is to Marry the Eldest Son of the Palatine to the second Daughter of the Emperor bringing him up in the Court of his Caesareal Majesty whereby the Restitution both of the States and Electorate to the said Son might be the better and more satisfactorily disposed And in this Conformity we have ever understood and treated and propounded it here But now coming close to
for Legal Notions When the Lord Keeper had done with the Living he began with the Dead and scrupled how their Dead should be Interr'd so as to give no offence nor be obnoxious to be offended The Resolution was brought to him that sent it That their Burials should be in their private Houses as secret as might be and without any sign of Manifestation but Notice to be given to the Parish-Clerk of their departure 164. Never was Man so entangled in an Els-lock all this while that could not be unravell'd as Marquiss Inoiosa till he publish'd his Choler in all sorts of Impatiency The Reader may take in so small a matter by the way that the Writer of these Passages said to the Lord Keeper That the Marquiss was the most surly unpleasing Man that ever came to his House His Lordship answer'd They were his Manners by Nature But he had been so vain to profess That he came an Enemy to us into England and for this Dowty Cause His Father was a Page to King Philip the Second while he lived here with Queen Mary and was discourteously used in our Court perhaps by the Pages Which was a Quarrel of Seventy Years old and bearing date before the Marquiss was born Which will cause a Passage of Dionysius the Tyrant of Sicily to be remembred who had robb'd and spoil'd some of the Islands under the Protection of Athens and when the Injury was expostulated he told them Their Countryman Ulysses had used the Sicilians worse 700 Years before as he believ'd it to be very true in Homer This Ambassador was a restless Man and held the Lord Keeper so close to turn and plow up the fallow of this Business that he would not give him the Jubilee of a Day to rest Yet the time do what he could had run at waste from the 20th of July to the end of August Then and no sooner the Frames of the Pardon and Dispensation were contriv'd and dispatch'd Yet the Mill would not go with this Water The Ambassadors call'd for more That two general Commands should be issued forth under the Great Seal the first to all the Judges and Justices of Peace the other to all Bishops Chancellors and Commissaries not to execute any Statute made against the Papists Hereupon the Spanish Faction was suspected that they had no hopes to bring some secret Drifts to pass but by raising a general hatred against our Government The Lord Keeper repulsed the Motion and wrote to the King being at Aldershot That whatsoever Instance the Ambassador makes to the contrary there was no reason why his Majesties Wisdom should give place to them He propounded That a private Warrant might be directed to himself to will him to write to the respective Magistrates fore-nam'd to acquaint them with the Graces which his Majesty had past for Recusants in that Exigence and to suspend their Proceeding till they heard further For as the Civilians say Cessant extraordinaria ubi ordinariis est locus Thus he contriv'd it that the King as much as might be should escape the Offence and let the Rumour light upon his private Letters For which he never put the King to stand between the People and his Errour nor besought him to excuse it to the next Parliament But as Mamertinus in Paneg. said of his own Consulship Non modò nullum popularium deprecatus sum sed ne te quidem Imperator quem orare praeclarum cui preces adhibere plenissimum dignitatis est Yet lest the Ambassador should complain of him to the Prince in Spain he writes to the Duke Cab. P. 8. Aug. 30. THat he had prevailed with the Lords to stop that vast and general Prohibition and gave in three Days Conference such Reasons to the two Ambassadors although it is no easie matter to satisfie the Capriciousness of the latter of them that they were both content it should rest till the Infanta had been six Months in England For to forbid Judges against their Oath and Justices of Peace sworn likewise not to execute the Law of the Land is a thing unprecedented in this Kingdom Durus sermo a harsh and bitter Pill to be digested upon a suddain and without some Preparation But to grant a Pardon even for a thing that is malum in se and a Dispensation with Poenal Statutes in the profit whereof the King only is interested is usual full of Precedents and Examples And yet this latter only serves to the Safety the former but to the Glory and Insolency of the Papists and the magnifying the service of the Ambassadors too dearly purchas'd with the endangering of a Tumult in three Kingdoms His Majesty useth to speak to his Judges and Justices of Peace by his Chancellor or Keeper as your Grace well knoweth And I can signifie his Majesties Pleasure unto them with less Noise and Danger which I mean to do hereafter if the Ambassador shall press it to that effect unless your Grace shall from his Highness or your own Judgment direct otherwise That whereas his Majesty being at this time to Mediate for Favour to many Protestants in Foreign Parts with the Princes of another Religion and to sweeten the Entertainment of the Princess into this Kingdom who is yet a Roman Catholick doth hold the Mitigation of the Rigour of those Laws made against Recusants to be a necessary Inducement to both those Purposes and hath therefore issued forth some Pardons of Grace and Favour to such Roman Catholicks of whose Fidelity to the State he rests assur'd That therefore you the Lord Bishops Judges and Justices each of those to be written to by themselves do take Notice of his Majesties Pardon and Dispensation with all such Poenal Laws and demean your selves accordingly This is the lively Character of him that wrote it Policy mixt with Innocency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Nazianzen Cunning enough yet not divided from Conscience For Wit when it is not sheathed as it were in the fear of God will cut like a sharp Razor 165. All his Art would be requir'd to reconcile two things That the Ambassador should be put off no longer for so the King had now commanded by Dispatches from both the Secretaries And that he would finish nothing till he had heard either his Highness or the Duke's Opinion upon the Proceeding The general Pardon and the Dispensation were both sealed So he began But kept them by him and would not open the least Window to let either Dove or Raven fly abroad The King being return'd to Windsor signification was given that none of the Lords should come to him till he sent for them and was ready for Matters of moment No Superstructure could go on very fast when that Stone was laid From Windsor Sept. 5. Sir G. Calvert writes to him My very good Lord His Majesty being resolv'd to extend his Gracious Favour to the Roman Catholicks signifies his Pleasure That your Lordship should direct your Letter to the Bishops Judges
Madrid Novemb. 12. says Sir Wal. Aston whom I believe though others say later The tenth day after the Dispensation made known in the Church let the Betrothing be Solemnized and the tenth day after it the Marriage Then the Prince may take his own Time to return when he will but the Lady could not make ready for the Seas considering her Train that must attend her till March. The Prince did not like the Arithmetick of this Counting-Table More time than the first Week of September he was resolved not to spend in that Land The Coming of the Dispensation he would not await which might be failing thither upon the idle Lake in the Fary Queen â—oth slow and swift alike did serve their turn To stay and Consummate the Marriage in his own Person he knew was unfit in two Respects He must take a Blessing from one of their Bishops in the Face of their Church and submit to their Trinckets and Ceremonies which he had rather hear than see Then if the Infanta had Conceived they would keep her it is likely till she was delivered The Child must stay till it was strong to endure the Seas so it might come to pass to be bred up and Naturalized a Spaniard in Religion and Affection When the Clock would not go right with those Plummets the Junto cast the i me out ino another Figure that his Highness would out of Courtship wherein he excelled and out of great Love to his Mistress which he professed perfect the Desponsation in his own Person and trust no other with it the Marriage and the Lady should follow after that is upon the Certificate of their Embassador out of England that Conditions were performed there to which the King of Great Briâ— ain had engaged To this his Highness was short That he would linger no longer and play at Cards in King Philip's Palace till the Messenger with the Port-mantick came from Rome Neither would he depend upon Embassadors and their Reports when the Illustrious Damosel should begin her Journey towards England Embassadors might certifie what they pleased and inform no more than their great Master's Counsel inspired them At last his Highness took upon him to deside the Wrangling and cast out the sacred Anchor from the Stern to keep their Counsels from further Floating that he would be burdensom to the K. of Spain no longer the magnetick Vertue of his own Country drew him to it Yet to confirm that he lest his Heart behind with his Beauteous and high born Mistress he would Sign a Proxy and Assign it to K. Philip or his Brother Don Carlo or either of them which should remain in the Custody of the Earl of Bristol that the Espousals between him and the Infanta might be ratified within ten days after the dispensation unstopt the way unto them and he would leave it to the Princessa to shew her Cordial and Amorcuolous Affections how soon she would prepare to follow after him 168. Which stood for a Decree agreed and obey'd The King of Spain would have been glad if the Prince might be perswaded to stay longer in his Court But since after Six Months continuance there his Highness defir'd to breath again in his Native Air King Philip caused preparation to be made for it for freedom is the Noblest part of Hospitality and was dismiss'd with as much Honour and Magnificence as he was Receiv'd The Earl of Briâ—ol who certainly knew the day when he took his Leave writes to the Lord Keeper Cab. p. 21. That he would begin his Journey for England the 9th of Sept. others set it three days back and adds the day before I Conceive the contract will be which is false Printed it should be That the Day before he would Sign and Seal his Procuration for the Contract which Intelligence is Authentick being so Corrected Now looking upon those that were the Magnificoes of Spain when the Prince took his farewel of them and how dear they held him how they Voiced him beyond the Skies for the most express Image they had seen of Vertue and Generosity methinks his Highness should have behold it with his Eyes open and have inferred out of it that he could not be more happy then to marry with that Blood and to keep Friendship with that Nation He was most Gracious in the Eyes of all Great and under Great Never Prince parted with such Universal Love of all Cab. p. 16. and Bristol to the Lord Keeper p. 21. The Love which is here born generally to the Prince is such as cannot be believ'd by those that daily hear not what passeth from the King and his chief Ministers The most concern'd was the rare Infanta of whom says one out of the Spanish Reports Sander p 552. That she seem'd to deliver up her own Heart at parting in as high Expressions as that Language and her Learning could with her Honour set out Let not this Essay of her sweetness be forgotten that when the Prince told her His Heart would never be out of Anxiety till she had pass'd the intended Voyage and were safe on British Land She Answered with a modest Blush That if she were in danger upon the Ocean or discompos'd in Health with the rowling brackish Waves she would chear up herself and remember all the way to whom she was going For which she deserves to be Honour'd with Theogena the Wife of Agathocles for that saying Se nubendo ci non prosperae tantùm sed omnis fortunae iniisse Societatem Just lib. 20. When it came to the King her Brothers turn to Act his part of Royal Civility he carried the Prince with him to his most gorgeous and spacious Structure of the Escurial There he began That his Highness had done him favour beyond all compass of requital that he had Trusted the safe-guard of his Person with him and given him such an occasion in it to shew his Honour and Justice to part with him with as much Fidelity as his Highness desir'd or expected that there he was ready to perfect the Alliance so long in Treaty that he might call him Brother whom above all in the World he loved as a Friend The Prince Answered He had a better Heart to conceive then a Tongue to signifie how much he owed to his Majesty He hop'd the incomparable Infanta would thank him for the unparallel'd Courtesie shewn to him And because a drop of true meaning was better then a River of Words his Highness being encircled with the Noblest Witnesses of that Kingdom produced and Read his Proxy interpreted by the Earl of Bristol and committed to his Charge but first Attested to by the Hand of Secretary Cirica as a Notary of the greatest Place That this much pass'd it is certain Much more is Reported but it is contentious This Obligation intending to the Contract was thus dispatch'd in the Escurial of which let me say hereupon as Valerius of the Senate House of Rome lib. 6. Illam Curiam
their Clutches that by Arms or cunning Treaties do Usurp it But the way and Manner in Discovering the Couchant Enemy in preserving that handful of our Friends in laying down some Course of Diversion and the like you do most wisely and modestly refer to the proper Oracle His Majesties Wisdom and Deep Counsel Yea but I must tell you Mr. Speaker Vinci in amore turpissimum the King cannot endure to be outvyed by his People in Love and Courtesies What you in Duty do refer to him his Majesty in Confidence of your Wisdom and Loving Assections returns upon You. You say you would have the King betake him to sound Counsel You are his Counsel Consilium magnum his Main and Principal Counsel It is very true That since the begining of Harry the 8th the Kings of England have reserved those Matters to their own Conisance and Resolution But it is as true that from Harry the First until that Harry the Last our Kings have in every one of those Questions Repaired to and received Advice of their Parliaments Id verum quod primum Our Master means to follow the former Precedents His Majesty Commands me to yield unto you Hearty Thanks for your just Resentments of his Sufferings in this Cause and to tell you withall that because the main of the Expedition is to be born by the Persons and Purses of the People whom you do represent He is pleased to accept of the Advice of the House of Commons concerning the finding out of this secret Enemy the re-inforcing of our remaining Friends and by what kind of Diversion we shall begin the Enterprize And God the Holy Ghost be present with you in all your Consultations 184. In the Ninth Place That Well of Wood our Navy Royal wherewith you well observed this whole Island to be most strongly fortified we must all attribute the well Rigging and good Condition of it to the great Cost Care and Providence of his Sacred Majesty Hic tot sustinuit hic tanta negotia solus And yet as that Carver that beautified the Temple of Diana although he wrought upon other Mens Charges was suffered notwithstanding to engrave his own Name in some eminent Places of the Building So surely can it be denied by Envy it self but that most Noble Lord who is now a compleat Master in his Art and hath spent his seven years Studies in the Beautifying of the Navy should have a glorious Name enstamped thereupon though in a sitting Distance from his Lord and Master whose Princely Majesty A longe sequitur vestigia semper adorans Lastly For the Reformation of Ireland this I am bidden to deliver Pliny commending the Emperor Trajan to the utmost reach of Eloquence says That the most laudable and most remarkable Point in all his happy Government was That his Care was not consined to Italy alone but Instar solis like the Beams and Influence of the Sun it shed it self to many other Countries Surely his Majesty's Providence is of a large Extent for where the Sun scarce darteth his Beams his Majesty hath shined most gloriously by the Execution of wholsome Laws engrafting Civility and Planting true Religion And let this be our Soveraign's Comfort that though this poor Kingdom though never so reformed shall add very little to his Crown of Temporal Majesty here on Earth it will be an Occasion of an immense Access to his Crown of Glory hereafter in Heaven And now for your four Petitions Mr. Speaker his Majesty grants them all in one Word What Priviledge Liberty Access or fair Interpretation was ever yielded to the Members of that House his Majesty grants them to the Knights and Burgesses now assembled fully and freely without the least Jealousie Qualification or Suspicion I will only add a Memorandum out of Valerius Maximus to cut an even Thred between King and People Quid Cato sine Libertate Quid libertas sine Catone What is Wisdom without Liberty to shew it And what is Liberty without Wisdom to use it 185. Hitherto the King spake to the People by the Lord Keeper's Mouth and then the House rose All rejoyced that such gracious Concessions were returned to Mr. Speaker's Motions which were the Beam that held up the insequent Counsels till the Roof was covered with Agreement And it took the more that it was inlaid with such Mosaick Work not to the Eye but to the Ear by a perfect Orator It was the greatest and the knowingest Auditory that this Kingdom or perhaps the World afforded whose general Applause he carried away to as much as Modesty could desire Isocrates extolling the famous Acts of Evagoras before the full Celebrity of the Athenians exulted that Evagoras was approved by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose good Opinion was more honorable to him than all the Earths beside It was a happy sight at that time to see the Patriots of both Houses depart with Hands held up to God and with Smiles in their Looks that you might think they said one to another as the Princes of the Congregation and the Heads of the Thousands of Israel said to the Children of Reuben and Gad c. This day we perceive that the Lord is among us Jos 22.31 The Lord Keeper was summoned in three days after to a fresh Business and a larger Task than the former So fine a Tongue was sure not to want Work The Lords and Commons were brought into the Banqueting-House at White-Hall Feb. 24. where the Duke of Buckingham spake unto them leading them into the Maeanders of the Spanish Treatise and lead them out of them by the Clew of his own Diligence as he spared not to give himself the Honour of it For this time he was the Alcibiades that pleased the Common-wealth His Zeal and unremovable Pertinacy not to cope with the Spaniard in any Proposition unless the Prince Elector might be brought into his own Land again with an honorable Post liminium did enter inwardly and into the Marrow of all pitiful Affections But when he unfolded how strong the Prince was to the Principles of the right Faith and how attendant and dutious himself was to see that no Emissaries should poyson his Highness's Heart the general Suffrage was that the Prince had march'd valiantly like a Captain of Holy Truth and that the Duke deserved a great Name as a Lieutenant that maintained the Cause of God under him For it was ever easie to strike the good People of England half blind with the Dazling of Religion So much did the Parliament thirst for the Report of this Narration that it was imposed on the Lord Keeper to make it the next day All that might be done was that he took him to his Memory and to his Pen and drew up three Sheets of Paper upon it in a fast and scarce legible Hand He must proceed by the Pattern My Lord Duke's Oration was the only part of Speech he must follow and like a wise Man whatsoever he thought he must make
good the time So he spent four hours in Repetition without Halt with such Assurance such Gesture such Carving and Gilding that he might wonder at himself what Spirit was in him that day All that took the height of his Report by a skilful Parallax concluded that he had striven with his former Peices and had outgone himself Yet the fourth Part will suffice to be remembred because the Flower of it is anticipated in the Spanish Transactions after a monthly Method Beside I cannot help the Reader to that which I never saw the several Letters which were read to the stronger Confirmation of every Particular Business the Contents of them must be supplied by him that is Wise to make Conjecture and not by my Pen. For though it be not according to Nature yet it is agreeing to Honesty Vacuum potius relinquere quà m verum to leave a void Space rather than to fill it up with a Fable as Barrenness is incomparably to be less blamed than Adultery So I go on to make such Room as is fit for the Heads of that long Report which should not seem to be unsavory Coleworts sod too often for their Tast to whom they are well known already Debet enim talibus in rebus excitare animos non cognitio solum rerum sed recordatio as Tully speaks Philip 2. 186. The Lord Keeper plotted his Conceptions into that Order wherein the Duke of Buckingham the Discoverer had gone before him beginning from Michaelmas 1622 when the King sitting close with his Council at Hampton-Court the Dispatches of Sir Richard Weston his Majesty's Ambassador at Brussels were scanned before them Sir Richard being a Man in whose Election to that Place the Spanish Ministers were greatly pleased and commended the King's Wisdom that he did light upon him Yet Sir Richard sent Packet upon Packet that he found nothing from the Arch-Dutchess but inconstant and false Dealing For though she acknowledged she had Power from the Emperor to cause Cessation of Arms in the Palatinate and undertook to put that Power forth yet with the same Breath she blew hot and cold For at that Instant when no Excuse could be made for the Cheat Tilly fell to it spightfully to besiege Heidelburg when the War was now between the Emperor and our King for they had no body to invade but his Majesty's Subjects and Servants that kept it And what spark of Patience could be left us when by every Post we received comfortable Words from Spain and contrary Effects from Brussels Hereupon Mr. Porter was sent to Madrid and commanded to stay in that Court but ten Days for an Answer The Letters that he carried with him were to signifie that this should be the last Sending if no less would serve the Emperor's Revenge but the utter Extermination of his Majesty's Children both in Honour and Inheritance That the Neighbour Kings and States of Christendom did malign the Match between the Prince and the Insanta and laboured to stop that Conjunction which would make England and Spain formidable to them But they should not need to contrive a way to prevent it This unsufferable Unkindness would bring it to pass to their hand For what Comfort could the Prince have in such a Wife the nearest of whose Blood had utterly ruined his Sister and her Progeny The Messenger carried this Arrand with him to the President of all Affairs in that Kingdom Conde Olivarez one that may justly be censured to have more of Will than of Wit one that play'd foul with us and could not hide it Sometimes he would run back from our Propositions as if he would never come near us sometimes he would run into our Arms as if his Heart and all his Powers did grow unto us Nec constans in side nec constans in persidiâ Mr. Porter came back from him with a half-sac'd Satisfaction but withal the King of Spain's Letters which were there read contained a Talent of Hope but we found not a Grain of Reality Upon this Journey Porter did so well remember somewhat that sell carelestly from the Conde Duke wishing the Prince himself were there to see how ready the King his Master was to fasten an indissoluble Knot of Amity and embrace Alliance with him that his Excellent Highness I speak in his Presence what he knows hearing it with more Attention than was imagined put on that heroick and undauntable Boldness craved Leave of his Father that he might visit the great Ingeneers at their own Forge to see what they were working and how they would receive him and as we use to say Either win the Horse or loose the Saddle Here again says the Reporter my Lord Duke acquainted us how acceptable at the first the Arrival of the Prince did seem to Olivarez who in the Enterview in the Garden assured with great Oaths that all should be dispatched with sudden Resolution and that his Highness should be pressed to nothing that was not agreeable to Conscience and Honour and stood not with the Love of the People of England Then it was related That King Philip seemed most sensible of the Courtesie that such a Guest had visited him and that he would permit all to his own Asking as he did express it at their Meeting in the Prado The Lord Duke was very copious upon all the Negotiations in Spain from his Highness's Arrival to his Parting and the Lord Keeper mist not one Particular but beautified all and gave it Lustre which may here be spared in Repetition because nothing was added in Substance to that which is methodized upon it in the Months of the former Summer Much of the Day was spent to shew how deceitful Conde Olivarez was who like a crafty Marchant he gave a Tast of one Wine and upon the Bargain would sell of another Swear us often into the Possession of the Palatinate and yet embroiled us at the same Instant more and more with an Army Waved all Differences of Religion between us and them at the first and presently turned the Wheel from the Top to the Bottom and fell into insolent Propositions that the Prince could not make a fit Husband for their Lady unless he would become a Papist Sometimes he would aggravate how far we differed from the Catholick Confession of Faith as if the Gulph reach'd from Heaven to Hell Sometimes he colleagued as if we were near upon a Point and but a little Stride between us Et Stoica dogmata tantùm A cynicis tunicâ distantia Juvenal Then the Articles for the Marriage were brought in play and with what a number of new ones his Highness's Commissioners were surcharged and how irrespectively they stuffed the Book with strange and undisputed Additions and commonly the last which they presented were the worst Verres secum ipse certat id agit ut semper superius suum facinus novo scelere vincat Tul. Act. 7. in Verrem But our Ministers rejected those bastard Slips and all that Conscience English
hopeful Marriage When the Eyes of all our 〈◊〉 were set upon the Infanta of Spain he took into his House as it is formerly remembred a Spaniard by Birth and a Scholar John Taxeda by whose Conversation he grew expert in the Spanish Grammar in the Castilian Pronunciation and in the Knowledge of those Authors that in Ten Weeks he could not only understand the most difficult Writers of that Nation but was able to Entreat with the Ambassadors without an Interpreter How much will Fruit upon in one Mans Intellectuals before anothers who hath the advantage of so much Sun and Warmth in his Brains Now when the Glorious Nuptial Torch was in Election to be lighted from the Neighbour Kingdom of France he endeavour'd to make himself expert in that quaint and voluble Language and by parling often with a Servant whom he had listed into the Check of his House for that purpose a Frenchman that was continually at his Elbow in Three Months he was as ready at it to Read Write or Speak as he that had lyen Liegier Three years for it at Paris And to Evidence that he had a publick Soul in every thing where he put his Finger as he had caused a Translation of our Liturgy out of Latin into Spanish to be finish'd by Taxeda and Printed it at his own Costs so to go no less in his Preparations for this French Association he encourag'd a most able Divine Mr. Delaun Minister of the French Church in Norwich to turn that Excellent Liturgy into his Country Language which was effected and the accurate Translator greatly both Commended and Rewarded Hereupon how it hapned that our Liturgy now made legible to the French did clear the Church of England even to the Conscience of its Enemies especially from the gross Slanders of Fugitives that had gone out from us is a passage that may challenge Publication with the Attendance of its Circumstances 216. His Majesty having in the behalf of his Son begun the woing part to Madam Henrietta Maria with due Ceremony of State The Queen Mother Moderatrix of this and all other Solemn Negotiations in France at that time bethought seriously to have this Happiness and high Honour setled upon her Daughter And her First prudential forecast was not to loiter out time with a Spanish Pause nor to endanger the forfeiture of a Bond of such Royal Love for want of payment of Courtesie at the due day Therefore she dispatch'd Marquess Fiatte afterward the great Financer and Monsieur Villoclare one of the principal Secretaries Embassadors extraordinary into England to remove all Obstructions by their Commission and wise management of it and to entwine the Rose and Lilly upon one Matrimonial Stem When they Landed the King had removed himself from New-Market to Trinity College in Cambridge where he gave Audience to those Embassadors providing to their welcom this Grace more then ordinary That he receiv'd them where his choicest Darlings the liberal Arts were round about him Now that the Conferences about this Marriage were gone so far and seemed as it were to be over the last Fire and sit for Projection his Majesty would have the Lord Keeper taken into the Cabinet and to make him known by a Mark of some good Address to the French Gallants upon the return of the Embassadors to London he sent a Message to him to signifie that it was his pleasure that his Lordship should give an Entertainment to the Embassadors and their Train upon Wednesday following it being Christmass-Day with them according to the Gregorian Prae-occupation of ten days before our Account The King's Will signified the invitement at a Supper was given and taken Which was provided in the College of Westminster in the Room Named Hierusalem Chamber but for that Night it might have been call'd Lucullus his Apollo But the Ante-past was kept in the Abby as it it went before the Feast so it was beyond it being purely an Episcopal Collation The Embassadors with the Nobles and Gentletlemen in their Company were brought in at the North-Gate of the Abby which was stuck with Flambeaux every where both within and without the Quire that strangers might cast their Eyes upon the slateliness of the Church At the Door of the Quire the Lord Keeper besought their Lordships to go in and to take their Seats there for a while promising in the Word of a Bishop that nothing of ill Rellish should be offered before them which they accepted and at their Entrance the Organ was touch'd by the best Finger of that Age Mr. Orlando Gibbons While a Verse was plaid the Lord Keeper presented the Embassadors and the rest of the Noblest Quality of their Nation with our Liturgy as it spake to them in their own Language and in the Delivery of it used those few Words but pithy That their Lordships at Leisure might Read in that Book in what Form of Holiness our Prince Worshipp'd God wherein he durst say nothing savour'd of any Corruption of Doctrine much less of Heresie which he hoped would be so reported to the Lady Princess Henrietta The Lord Embassadors and their Great Train took up all the Stalls where they continued about half an Hour while the Quire-men Vested in their Rich Copes with their Choristers sung three several Anthems with most exquisite Voices before them The most honourable and the meanest persons of the French Attended all that time uncover'd with great Reverence except that Secretary Villoclare alone kept on his Hat And when all others carried away the Looks of Common Prayer commended to them he only lest his in the Stall of the Quire where he had sate which was not brought after him Ne Margarita c. as if had forgot it 217. At the same time among those Persons of Gallantry that came into England to make up the Splendor of the Embassage and were present at this Feast d'Amours as some of themselves call'd it there was an Abbat but a Gentleman that held his Abbacy â—lla mode de France in a lay Capacity He had receiv'd the Gift of our Service Book and to requite the Doner having much of a Scholar and of ingenuous Breeding he laid aside all other business to read it over Like a Vowed Person to another Profession he was not hasty to praise it but suspended his Sentence till he might come in Place to see the practice of it It was well thought of by him that the Tryal of the soundness in Religion consists not all together in the Draught of a Book but in the motion likewise and Exercise of it The Abbat made his mind known to the Lord Keeper by Sir George Goring now Earl of Norwich that he would gladly be present in the Abby of Westminster upon our Christmass Day in the morning to behold and hear how that great Feast was solemnized in our Congregations which heard very ill beyond the Seas for Profaneness Whereas the Book for Uniformity of Publick Prayer which he had receiv'd though
and which I did not look for by one and no more I hope devoted to those Corollaries of Theology which in this last Age are named from the Belgick Doctor Arminius It is the Observator on H. L. If King James had not stopt the Current of those Opinions especially as he says P. 23. in his Declaration against Vorstius Or if for Reasons of State he had not joyned himself to his dear Confederate Maurice Prince of Orange to call the Synod of Dort to suppress a Party under the Countenance and Command of Jo. Olden Barnevâ— by him used to undermine the Power of Maurice I doubt not but he had scap'd free from the Observator's Censure But since he was vigilant to attend the Affairs of the Protestant Churches in all their Harbors and looked circumspectly to quell Commotions in the Netherlands he must by no means pass for Great-Britain's Solomon nay it is no hard matter to prove that he was over-witted and made use of to other Mens ends by almost all that undertook him This is too large a Field to run over but many wise Princes have been abused in some Treaties as Queen Elizabeth at St. Quintins about the Restoring of Calis in 88 by the dodges of the Prince of Parma and over and over by King Henry the Fourth of France So was this King foiled at Madrid about the Marriage of his Son upon which his Chief Plots did depend by the Croâ—ness of his own Ministers I have heard some observe like this Censurer that his Wisdom wanted Pertinacy and Severity which proceeded from the Gentleness of his Nature not apt to keep others in so hard as he should In this Kingdom I am sure his greatest and most dangerous contriving Enemies found his Wisdom that maugre all Devices to oppose his Title he took the Crown of England so quietly and enjoyed it so peaceably that it was the Amazement of all Princes Ireland found his Wisdom so admirably civiliz'd so enriched with Trade by the Plantation at London-Derry so furnished with true Religion and excellent Learning and Means to nourish it so quiet from Rebellion in all his Days that whoso doth not praise it must be stupid or envy it Scotland found his Wisdom whose Borders he scoured from Thieves whose Fewds he reconciled whose Ecclesiastical Government he setled whose Mouths a small few excepted he kept from Murmering and whose Swords he kept sheathed so ready to be drawn upon every Alarum that those Days were Halcyonian Days from Tweed to the Orcades But for England says the Observator he neglected the Affairs of State and Care of Government to hunt after Pleasures deserting the Imperial City to sport himself at Roiston and Nowmarket and such obscure Places which were to him as the Isle of Capreae was to Tibarius Caesar What! the Isle of Capreae where Tiberius practised his odious Lasts not to be named which the well-moralized Romans did abhor Hac vâ—rò ni P. Clodius dixit unquam Cic. Phil. 2. The Devil and the Jesuits durst not say so the most venemous Scorpion did never touch him with that Sting And did ever any Christian in the first Ages of the Church when their Blood was shed like Water on every side did ever any of them stigmatize the most loathsome-liv'd Emperor and Tyrant with such Words Never And let the great Annalist be heard Baron an 75. com 4. Nunquam in tot acerbissimis ab Imperatoribus illatis in Christianos persecutionibus quem piam illorum ob diccitatem conventum esse judicio quis poterit invenire I will give this Complaint over though it deserves a long Invective for I treat of a most merciful King who was most remissive of Wrongs no Spiller of Blood but of Beasts in Hunting that never shewed himself unsavory with the Froward 2 Sam. 22.27 Nec quicquam est gloriosius Principe impune Lesâ— Senec. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 233. It is said but mistaken that Government was neglected at those Hunting-Houses and by the way Why are they called obscure Places Royston and Newmarket petty if compared with London but they are Market-Towns and great Thorow-Fares where the Court was so frequented both for Business and Recreations that many of the Followers could not find a Lodging in that Town nor scarce in the Villages round about it I held Acquaintance with some that attended the Principal Secretaries there who protest they were held to it closer and sate up later in those Retirements to make Dispatches than at London The King went not out with his Hounds above three Days in the Week and Hunting was soon over Much of the time his Majesty spent in State Contrivances and at his Book I have stood by his Table often when I was about the Age of Two and twenty Years and from thence forward and have heard learned Pieces read before him at his Dinners which I thought strange but a Chaplain of James Mantague Bishop of Winton told me that the Bishop had read over unto him the four Tomes of Cardinal Bellarmine's Controversies at those Respites when his Majesty took fresh Air and weighed the Objections and Answers of that subtle Author and sent often to the Libraries in Cambridge for Books to examine his Quotations Surely then whatsoever any Caper witted Man may observe neither was the King's Chastity stained nor his Wisdom lull'd asleep nor his Care of Government slackned by Lodging in those Courts remote from London where he was freer from Disturbances But as Iâ—ocrates said of Evagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He had the Dexterity to purchase less Labour with much Ease and to shift the Toil of a King sometimes into the Pleasure of a Scholars Studies Neither would I have had the Observator tax him that he ict loose the golden Reins of Discipline held by his Predecessors with so strict a Hand and opened the first Gap unto these Consusions and what Discipline King James is charged to slacken the Observator best knows his own Meaning I am no Phormio to teach Hannibal how to Govern But to draw our fatal Confusions from the Prosperity enjoyed by his Mildness and Peace must be stretch'd out of long spun Deductions like that in Tully Wo to the Mountain Ida where the Trees grew whose Timber made the Ships that carried Paris to Rape Helen which stir'd up the Greeks to revenge it and to Sack Troy Or thus Wae be to Joseph that sent for his Father and Brethren and planted them in Aegypt in a fat Soil where their Stock increased whose Increase was dreaded which caused the Male Children to be drowned and the Israelites to be oppressed by Pharaoh's Task-Masters This was visible before our Eyes the precious Things of Heaven and the precious Things of the Earth and the Fulness of the Earth abounded in his Reign and many years after by the Good-will of him that dwelt in the Bush All that hath fallen out since is from the Hand of the Lord upon a People the most Unthankful and
the most Guilty of their own Ruine that ever was heard of in any History And now let a Man of more Authority Judgment and Experience than the Observator speak upon the Wisdom of my Lord the King It is the most Reverend Spotswood in his last Page He was the Solomon of his Age admired for his wise Government and for his Knowledge of all manner of Learning for his Wisdom Moderation Love of Justice for his Patience and Piety which shined above all his other Vertues and is witnessed in his Learned Works he left to Posterity his Name shall never be forgotten but remain in Honour so long as the World indureth We that have had the Honour and Happiness many times to hear him discourse of the most weighty Matters as well of Policy as of Divinity now that he is gone must comfort our selves with the Remembrance of those Excellencies and reckon it not the least Part of our Happiness to have lived in his Days It is well that King James passeth for a Solomon with that Holy Bishop and wise Counsellor Now that I may decline an over-weening Opinion of any mortal Man Nazianzen minds me very well Orat. in laud. Athenas that among God's Worthies he commends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solomon in some things not in all No Man ruled the least Principality so well much less three Kingdoms with Isles adjacent and remote but the Modest and Impartial might have required somewhat to be amended in the Administration for it is true what Pliny says in his Paneg. Nemo extitit cujus virtutes nullo vitiorum confinio laederâ—mur If small Motes be discerned by piercing Eyes yet such Minutes are easily covered over with egregious and heroical Vertues And the hard Heart of Sir An. W. softned into this Confession at last Take him all together and not in pieces such a King I wish this Kingdom have never any worse on the Condition not any better 234. I have borrowed thus much Room to set up a little Obelisk for King James out of that which is only intended to the Memorials of his Lord Keeper which Servant of that King's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if he had any Sense of it would be willing to lend that and more to his good Master With whose Death the Day of the Servant's Prosperity shut up and a Night of long and troublesome Adversity followed Which if I can compass in my Old Age and decay'd Health to bring into a Frame for the Reader to behold he may say as Socrates did of Antisthenes in Laertius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that two Athenians would not make up one so Noble as Antisthenes And two Men would never have discharged those two Parts so well as this one Man performed them Which Representation may meet with some perchance that will not be favourable to it whom I wish to take heed of the Character which Theophrastus gives of an impure Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will lengthen it thus he acts his own Part ill that Hisseth at him that deserves to be applauded FINIS A MEMORIAL Offer'd to the Great Deservings OF JOHN WILLIAMS D.D. Who sometimes Held the PLACES of LORD-KEEPER of the GREAT-SEAL OF ENGLAND Lord Bishop of LINCOLN AND Lord Arch Bishop of YORK Written by JOHN HACKETT Late Lord Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield PART II. Isocrates ad Evagoram pag. 80. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salust de Caio Caesari In te praeter caeteras artem unam egregiè mirabilem comperi semper tibi majorem in adversis quà m in secundis rebus auimum esse pag. 171. LONDON Printed for Samuel Lowndes over-against the Exchange in the Strand MDCXCIII A MEMORIAL Offer'd to the Great Deservings OF JOHN WILLIAMS D.D. Who sometimes Held the Places of the LORD-KEEPER of the GREAT-SEAL of England c. PART II. CAmerarius Writing the Life of Melanchthon Paragraph 1. the Darling of the Champions of the Reformed Religion divided his Work into two Parts and gave no reason for it but because he would make his Web of a new piece after the Death of Luther It is the Pattern which I set before me to make a new Exordium as he did upon the Subject which I handle after the Death of King James Especially since I must take his Shadow whom my Pens draws forth no more by a Noon-tide Light but by an Evening declension Manilias His Prosperity or shall I say his Honours and Court-Favours were now in their Tropick Cum lucem vincere noctes incipiunt But Vertue is not Fortune's Servant He rose with great Light and he set with as great Brightness as he rose And as Paterculus writes of Mithridates I may refer it to him Aliâ—uando fortunâ semper animo maximus He was once high in Fortune but always strong in Courage and great in Worth 'T is common to see a Stock ingrafted with two forts of Fruits The Almighty Planter shews greater differences when he pleaseth in Moral than in Natural Plantations As he ordain'd the Noble Williams to become two contrary Parts as well as any Man had perform'd them in five Ages before him keeping the golden Mean in the Tryals of the Right-hand and of the Lest being neither corrupted with the Advancements nor the Persecutions of the Times As Paul and Barnabas were neither transported with the Honours which the Lycaonians did intend nor deterr'd with the Stones which they cast at them Acts 14. But the latter is most to be remarked For if this Lord-keeper had not drest himself with Vertue when he was clad in Honour nor rendred a sweet Air in every Close when the Diapason of Peace Wealth and the King's Love were all in tune he had abus'd Fortune which had given him his pay in hand Nec tam meruit gloriam quà m effugit flagitium as Pliny hath it But to stand upright when he was dismounted to cross his Crosses with Generosity and Patience to pass through a hot Furnace of Afflictions which was heated with all kind of Malice and no smell of Fire to remain upon him Dan. 3. v. 27. this deserves to be Canonized and will keep green in the Memory of more Ages than one From the Forty third Year of his Life to the full term of his Sixty eighth Year trouble upon trouble mischief after mischief had him in chase and yet the Huntsmen those Salvaggi could never blow the Death of this well-breath'd Hart. Fifteen Years the pursuit came from them that made use of the Frown of the King When they were a fault But when were they otherwise One Woe was past but there came two Woes or rather a thousand after it Apoc. 9.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Parliament of Destruction or of absolute Reprobation Sine praeviso peccato which spared none supprest him opprest him and he was under that Sufferance ten Years Was not the Ship well built Were not the Ribs of it heart of Oak which endured a Storm of twenty five Years and in that
close unto his Theme and Subject For as Pliny made his censure of Homer and Virgil Brevis uterque est sed facit quod instituit Either of them seem to be short for they do their work so succinctly there falls not a word besides the purpose His Majesty hath himself abundantly exprest the substance of what he offers to your Consideration at this Meeting Some few Circumstances I shall by his Royal Command add thereunto as touching the time the manner and the end of that loving and dutiful Expression which his Majesty may without any fear of Immodesty as he conceives promise unto himself from this first Session of his first Parliament The main reason of his calling the Parliament at this time beside the looking upon the Faces of his Subjects in this perfect representation which he is resolv'd to make his most pleasant Theater under Heaven as long as God shall give him Life is to let you understand those deep Engagements for the recovery of the Palatinate that is for the Honour of the British Nation by Leagues Alliances Diversions Wars by Sea and by Land which his aying Father hath imposed upon the King or peradventure the King in part upon his Father or rather to speak truly and historically your selves but upon grave and just Consideration upon them both For the breaking of both the Treaties with that potent King that of the Alliance and that of the Restitution moved originally from you mediately by the King our Sovereign finally to the King his Father of Blessed Memory accompanied in all the Ways and Passages with your Promise and Assurance to feed the Enterprize from time to time with all fuâ—ing and necessary Supplies Hereupon our late Sovereign that is with God to the very time of his recovering Heaven had no other Object of his Consultations Resolutions and Actions than the recovery of the Palatinate The Foreign Treaties and Alliances the Supply of the Low Countries the Forces under the Conduct of Count Mansfield the Reparation of the Forces in England the Troops sent over into Ireland lastly this great and by God's Assistance invincible Fleet and Navy though they shew like so many Lines scattered and divided in the Circumference yet do they meet and unite themselves in the Recovery of the Palatinate as in the Center that bears and supports them all These great Designs the Holy Ghost I hope hath inspir'd into you you to the King our Sovereign he and you to the King his Father He before his Death had so ripened and prepared as the King our Master finds himself so wrapped and engaged in the Enterprize as it fares with his Heroical Heart as with that Pompey Necesse est ut eam non ut vivam He would more willingly go on to his Grave which God of his Goodness will not permit than not go onward with this brave Design Now all your Subsidies and Fifteens and fully to speak in measure and compass as much more of the Means of the Crown being spent in the Preparation forward the Action cannot move without a new Support and Supply which is the Substance of all which his Majesty hath now recommended unto you 9. The first Circumstance remembred unto you is that of Time A most pressing and important Circumstance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Sophocles calls it the greatest Commander of all our Actions For as Dion Cassius observes Lib. 11. Non rebus tempora sed res temporibus inserviunt Actions do not govern Times but Times govern Actions be they never so weighty And as Quintilian says wisely Plaerumque sera pro nullis sunt That Supply which comes too late proves many times no supply at all His Majesty knows very well that you are wise and provident to observes Times and Seasons You cannot but observe that Europe stands this day like the Pool of Bethesda the Waters are stirred every where and we hope by a good Angel The Honour of England which hath languished for these late Years stands at the brink and now or not in haste is to be healed and repaired His Majesty therefore desires you to conceive that this Meeting in this Session is but as a Meeting in a General 's Tent a Consultation in the heat of an Action which will endure no long Debate He expects therefore that you will be pleased to bestow this Session upon him or rather upon this Action and to hasten for that Cause And his Majesty will appoint the next as soon and as long as you please for yours and our own home Affairs This much concerning Time The second Circumstance is for the Manner which looks upon the Time as the Time doth upon the Action For if the manner of gathering this Supply should prove heavy and slow Time as Callistratus in his Statutes sets him forth hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Pair of Wings at his Feet and will quite out-run it If therefore in your own Judgments and Resolution you shall find the usual way and manner of Supplies by Subsidy to be too slow and backward for these present and undelayable Occasions his Majesty no friend to Innovation Etiam cum illi necessitas lenocinetur not now when necessity might seem to priviledge the same doth rather desire to hear and to receive from you then to project and propound unto you the manner of supplying this present Action This is the second Circumstance The Last is the End and the Issue of the Action which hath no meaner Consequence than the Fame and Reputation of our sweet and gracious Sovereign for many Years after For as Theodoricus that brave King of Lombardy was wont to say Ipsa initia plantare debent Principis nominis famam as a King sows his Reputation in his first Actions so shall he reap his Harvest of Glory in the Progress of his Life And therefore I must say of our gracious Master as the Orator said of himself Haec actio illi aures hominum haec famae januam patefaciet His Majesty at this time puts his Fame and Reputation that is all that he hath of a King For what is a King without these very much upon your Love and Affections And this not as Caesar upon his Army at all Adventures with a Jacta est alea a Mum-chance a cast of a Dye but with the greatest Confidence and Assurance that ever was plac'd by a loving King on a most loving and indulgent People Witness that Posie of his in his new stamp'd Coin not to be engraven as it is in Silver or Gold but in the solid Substance of Loyal Hearts Amor civium regis munimentum shewing that he cares little for other Forts being so well assured of the Love of his People And therefore as in Nature Rex subditus the King and the People are proper Relatives and consequently simul naturâ of one and the same Date and Existence So doth his Majesty little doubt that as soon as himself shall be known in Europe to be
An Error like to that of Adrians in Spartianus Non admisit Terentium Gentianum est eò vehementiùs quod à Senatu diligi eum videret But the Commons while they were in heat ask'd a Conference with the Lords Afternoon in Christ's-Church-Hall where Sir Edward Coke opened the Complaint sharply against Secretary Conway and like an Orator did slide away with a short Animadversion upon the Duke It was not so well for his Grace that the noise of the Grievance had entred into both Houses Arcus cum sunt duplices pluviam nuntiant says Pliny Lib. 2. N. H. c. 59. If our Rain-bow multiply another by its Reflection it prognosticks a Shower And the Storm burst out in the lower Region when he was rather declam'd against as I would call it than accus'd because the Gentlemen that did prosecute contain'd themselves in generals The most upon which insistance was made was that he held the most and the most important Offices of Trust and Honour by Sea and Land Though it was foolish and superstitious in the Heathen Romans to think it was not for the Majesty of their Common-wealth to serve but one God Majestatem imperii non decuisse ut unus tantùm Deus colatur Tull. Orat. pro Flacco Yet it were to be desir'd if it might be dutifully obtain'd that one Subject should not possess all those Places which require the Sufficiency of many to discharge them Much to this purpose is that of the Lord Herbert Harry 8. p. 318. That it was a great Error that such a multitude of Offices was invested in Woolsey as it drew Envy upon the Cardinal so it derogated not a little from the Regal Authority while one Man alone seems to comprehend all The King may be satisfied to settle the Choice of his high Promotions in one Minion so will never the People And the Advanced is sure to be shaken for his height and to be malign'd for over-dropping He that sees a Stone-wall swelling looks every day when it will fall And one Stalk is not strong enough to hold a cluster of Titles hanging at it Salmasius hath a Note upon the first Book of Solinus That if a Man grow so fast that it exceeds the usual way of Nature he will fall into sickness His Instance is in the Son of Euthymenes that grew three Cubits in three Years Et immoderatis aegritudinum suppliciis compensasse praecipitem incrementi celeritatem But what Grandee will believe this Because there is more in our corrupt Nature that will obey Ambition than Wisdom 16. Yet to speak to the other side Might not this have been forborn to be objected by the Parliament to this great Lord at this time When his Head and his Hands were wholly taken up to prepare that War which was their own Creature He was at their Plough he was under their Yoke if it were well remembred Now Grotius marks well from the old Law Deut. 21.3 That Beasts that had been put to labour might not be sacrificed Elisha's Act was hasty and singular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he quotes it out of Chaeremon They were priviledged by the Work in which they had been profitable Nay could it be objected as a Fault at any time I say as a Fault for I plead not for the Convenience What Pharisee would be so corrupt to ask Master who sinned This Man or his Parent that he was made a Duke as Lord Admiral a Master of the Horse c. No Inch of Sin is in ten Cubits of Honour that are lawfully conferr'd But there is a Fault for which Budaeus knew no direct Name Lib. 2. Pandec fol. 10. Cum milites Imperatori infensi vincere nolunt Let it be termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says he when Souldiers will lose a Victory wilfully because they are discontented at their General All was tending much this way at Oxford The great Expedition in hand and the Fleet ready at Plimouth lost its season the Souldiers and Sailors dishearten'd for want of Pay yet not the Supply of a Subsidy could be drawn to give courage to the Onset because the Generalissimo that manag'd the Voyage had lost their Favour Numbers there were some Friends some Flatterers that brought Fuel to the Fire to enflame the Duke against these Dealings The Lord-Keeper was not sought to Yet came and offer'd himself to confer about it And certainly all that knew him would say no Man could pluck the Grass better to know where the Wind sat no Man could spie sooner from whence a Mischief did rise I 'll begin thus My Lord I come to you unsent for and I fear to displease you Yet because your Grace made me I must and will serve you though you are one that will destroy that which you made Let me perish Yet I deserv'd to perish ten times if I were not as earnest as any Friend your Grace hath to save you from perishing The Sword is the Cause of a Wound but the Buckler is in fault if it do not defend the Body You have brought the Two Houses hither my Lord against my Counsel My Suspicion is confirm'd that your Grace would suffer for it What 's now to be done but wind up a Session quickly The occasion is for you because two Colledges in the University and eight Houses in the City are visited with the Plague Let the Members be promis'd fairly and friendly that they shall meet again after Christmas Requite their Injuries done unto you with benefits and not revenge For no Man that is wise will shew himself angry with the People of England I have more to say but no more than I have said to your Grace above a Year past at White-hall Confer one or two of your great Places upon your fastest Friends so shall you go less in Envy and not less in Power Great Necessities will excuse hard Proposals and horrid Counsels St. Austin says it was a Punick Proverb in his Country Ut habeas quietum tempus perde aliquid At the Close of this Session declare your self to be the forwardst to serve the King and Common-wealth and to give the Parliament satisfaction Fear them not when they meet again in the same Body whose ill Affections I expect to mitigate but if they proceed trust me with your Cause when it is transmitted to the House of Lords and I will lay my Life upon it to preserve you from Sentence or the least Dishonour This is my Advice my Lord. If you like it not Truth in the end will find an Advocate to defend it The Duke replied no more but I will look whom I trust to and flung out of the Chamber with Minaces in his Countenance Yet the other did not think he had play'd the Game ill though he lost his Stake by it Dangerous Faithfulness is honester than cunning Silence And once more he was bold to wrestle with this Potentate in high Favour before he fell The Commons of this Parliament was censur'd at Woodstock
in Psychom upon the Persecuted Church Yet though nothing was alter'd in him to appearance when he was doom'd to resign his Office with such a plausible Dismission pruning away the Circumstances of it I cannot see how the substance of the Act could choose but displease him For whether it come from a white or a black Whip the Wound will be blew The Transactions with which all that remain'd were wound up were first between the Lord Conway and the Lord-Keeper Lastly with his Majesty if they belong let him skip them that doth not like them He that would satisfie Posterity knows not how to leave them out And it will be worth the noting to learn from a wise Man how to manage a broken Fortune One of the first things that Comines praises in King Lewis his Master is Optimòrationem tenebat ex adversis rebus eluctandi To be fallen into great disfavour and yet to come off with no blot of Credit proves him that could do it a great Master in State-wisdom A Boat-swain will tell you That a rotten Ship had need of a good Pilot. On the 15th of October the Lord Conway came to the Lord-Keeper's Lodgings in Salisbury and began thus My Lord His Majesty some four days ago gave me a Command to deliver a Message unto you the which because it was sharp and there might be occasion for change of Councils I forbore to deliver till this Morning That is That his Majesty understanding that his Father who is with God had taken a Resolution that the Keepers of the Great-Seal of England should continue but from three Years to three Years and approving very well thereof and resolved to observe the Order during his own Reign he expects that you should surrender up the Seal by Allhallowtide next alledging no other cause thereof And that withal that having so done you should retire your self to your Bishoprick of Lincoln Answer I am his Majesty's most humble Servant and Vassal to be commanded by him in all things whatsoever The Great-Seal is his Majesty's And I will be ready to deliver up the same to any Man that his Majesty shall send with his Warrant to require it And do heartily thank God and his Majesty that his calling for the Seal is upon no other ground No indeed said Mr. Secretary no other ground that I know Only this last Clause seemeth strange unto me that I should be restrained to my Bishoprick or any place else And I humbly appeal to his Majesty's Grace and Favour therein Because it is no fault in me that his Majesty or his Father hath made such a Resolution Nor do I dispute against it although the King that dead is continued me in the Place after the three Years ended and the King that now is deliver'd me the Seal without any Condition or limitation of Time And therefore deserving no restraint I humbly desire to be left to my discretion which I will so use as shall be no way offensive to his Majesty Lord Conway I conceive it not to be a restraint but to mount in effect that his Majesty intends not to employ you at the Table but leaves you free to go to your Bishoprick Answer My Lord I desire your favourable Intercession for an Explanation of that Point And I beseech your Lordship to move his Majesty that I may attend upon him considering there is no offence laid to my charge to present unto his Majesty two humble Petitions nothing concerning this business in hand but in general the one concerning my Reputation and the other my maintenance Lord Conway I shall move his Majesty in the best Fashion I can for your content therein Answer I thank your Lordship and I doubt not of it and the rather because I vow before God I am not guilty of the least Offence against his Majesty and am ready to make it good upon my Life And I make the like Protestation for any unworthiness done against the Duke whose Hand peradventure may be in this Business Lord Conway I am ever ready to do good Offices and if my Lord of Middlesex had been perswaded by me I believe I had saved him I am the Duke's Servant but no Instrument of his to destroy Men. My Lord I being latly demanded by a great Personage if it were true that your Lord was guilty of such unworthy Practices towards the Duke I answer'd plainly I knew of no such things For which my Lord Conway having receiv'd due Thanks from me he repeated my Answers and my Petition to the King in few words that he might not be mistaken At the parting my Lord Conway spake about the time of Resignation I said it was all one to me if it were before Christmas as good soon as late Then I ask'd his Lordship if I was restrained from the Board before the delivering of the Seal His Lordship answer'd He knew of no such Intent 25. October 16. Waiting on his Majesty by my Duty and Place to go to Church my Lord Conway told me He was now for me I thank'd him and past on to the Church heard the Sermon and at the Anthem after Sermon desir'd him to tell me my Answer He said Well do you long for it And so we went on to the upper-end of the Quire and said to this effect This Morning entring into our dispatches with his Majesty I desir'd him to stay a while that I might relate your Answer to him I told his Majesty that you yielded to his Command with all possible Obedience that you said the King remanded but his own which you were very willing and ready to restore That for the Condition of three Years you would not dispute against it being a way that once you had your self recommended to the late King his Father But for the Clause of retiring to your Bishoprick which seemed to be a restraint and no cause of Offence exprest it wounded you much and you sent it back to his Majesty's Consideration Then I acquainted his Majesty with your Lordship's desire to wait upon him and to present his Majesty without touching upon things settled and resolv'd two Petitions the one concerning your Reputation the other concerning your Estate His Majesty said for the first which is your retiring he meant no restraint of Place but for some Questions that might be renewed and for some Considerations known to himself he intended not to use your Service at the Council-Table for a while until his Pleasure should be further known And for your Estate you had no Wife and Children You had a Bishoprick and his Father to help you to bear the Dignity of your Office gave you leave to hold the Deanry His Majesty intended not to debar you of any of these until he should provide you of a better But he was content to admit you to speak with him when you pleas'd so as you endeavour'd not to unsettle the former Resolutions I gave his Lordship hearty thanks for his friendly and faithful
Moriar ego sed me mortuo vigeat ecclesia Let me retire to my little Zoar but let your Gracious Majesty be pleas'd to recommend â—â—â—o my most able and deserving Successor an especial Care of your Church and Church-men To call upon the Judges who God's Name be prais'd are ready enough to hear such Motions to relieve the poor sort of Church-men publickly affronted in their Persons by factious and insolent Justices or judicially wrong'd in their Causes by wilful and partial Jurors Likewise to entertain and countenance their just Plaints in that great Court of Chancery the which of all the rest in Westminster-Hall as not proceeding upon the Verdicts of Lay and Country Juries hath been ever by those of my Coat held most equal and indifferent Also to mingle always some few of the Clergy of best Means and Discretion in the Commission of the Peace who with their very Presence and sitting in that place are a great Countenance to their poor Brethren And withal to keep and preserve poor Ministers from the Oppressions of malicious Informers in that great and chargeable Court of the Star-Chamber Lastly to afford all the Clergy of England that Solace and Relief which his Lordship knoweth well they will expect from your Majesty such a Son of such a Father So may God make your Majesty more victorious than David more wise than Solomon and every way as good a King as your Majesty's blessed Father It shall be the continual Prayer of Your Majesty's poor Subject and Chaplain JO. LINCOLN Foxly Octob 25. This is the Dirge with which that Swan expir'd Being careful of nothing but that his poor Brethren might not be trampled upon over his back especially those that served in Country Cures among bad Pay-masters and narrow-hearted contentious Chuffs So I have done with the ex-authorized Lord-Keeper not fall'n in his worth or in himself though fall'n from a great Place Be it justly ascrib'd to him which Pliny doth to M. Cato lib. 29. c. 1. Cujus autoritati triumphus atque censura minimum conferunt tanto plus in ipso est There was enough in him still to keep him as great as King James had made him 31. The Subject which is now under the Quill is the Bishop of Lincoln A few late Writers who want the Polishing of Humanity and the Meekness of Christianity have done him high reproach in some Occurencies They shall answer for it to God I will only put this little Syrup into the Reader 's Mouth to take away the ill relish of those Defamations that the Fire of Envy would have gone out by this time but that there is a Pile of Vertue left behind to keep it burning Yet even those Men have scarce given him a little scratch or no more anent his Episcopal Administration of his Diocess He made that Office a good Work 1 Tim. 3.1 Neither did he hold any Preheminence of Place without an eminence of Worth and Prudence For four Years after his Consecration he was not in Condition through the great Burthen of other Imployments to appear among his Clergy But it is well known to them that lived under his Charge in those days that both Ministry and Laity were greatly satisfied with his Government For his Encouragements to the Best-deserving were very kind his Dispatches were never intermitted and his Directions strictly look'd after to be observ'd by those that were under him in any part of his Jurisdiction Yet to reach no further than Truth from this time forward his Presence wrought more than his Substitutes in his absence his Light shin'd clearer and the Influence of it was stronger when he was six'd and resident in his own Orb. As Columella commends it wittily to an Owner to live upon his own Ground if he would thrive says he Fimus optimus in agro est Domini vestigium So the Vineyard of Christ in every part of it will prosper best when the Vine-dresser himself doth walk about the Field Or to go higher as Moses said of the promised Land Deut. 11.12 It is a Land which the Lord thy God cares for the Eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it from the beginning of the Year to the end So it runs like a Verse set to the same Tune to say that the Eye of God is all the Year long upon that Portion of his Church where the Diocesan is not a Stranger but a Co-habitant or if you will a Companion with his Brethren And the Bishop having now no more to do with civil Distractions bethought him instantly of the Duty of his Pastoral Staff made Provision for an Houshold which attended him in a great Retinue and removed from Barkshire without touching at London to Bugden in Hunting donshire His Privacy at Foxly conceal'd his Double-diligence to make haste to be gone lest more Anger should shower upon him if he tarried Wherein I espy into Salmasius his Note upon Solinus p. 327. That a Lion never runs away fast from his Enemies but when he hath got into a shady Wood and cannot be seen Ubi virgulta sylvasque penetravit acerrimo cursu fertur velut abscondente turpitudinem loco Beside he that felt the Frowns or rather the Despight of the Court by being near to it knew it was wholsome to change Air to be rid of that Disease as well as Hippocrates prescribes it for the worst Symptoms of the Body Aphor. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To go to a new Soil is good to mitigate an old Sickness No question but being lodg'd now in his Episcopal Palace his most proper Watch-Tower he found it best for the best Health that of a quiet Mind and a good Conscience He was in the way to know himself better when he was more alone to himself than in late Years He was at rest to make use of the Verse of a judicious Heathen Tacitum sylvas inter reptare salubres Horat. Curantem quicquid dignum sapiente bonoque est He might now do as well as know the meaning what the Scriptures intend when they say that Rulers go in and out before the People For how can they go out unto them that are never in among them Else they may be out but never in Here this History hath found him and shall recount things most memorable that there concern'd him speaking after the rate of enough and not a jot beyond it This many both Friends and Strangers to him have desired often from the Author of this Piece to be informed in And it is a quaint Rule which fell from Pliny Lib. 35. c. 2. N. H. Nullum majus est felicitatis specimen quà m omnes scire cupere qualis fucrit aliquis He is happy that hath lived so that many desire to know how he lived Into which every one that looks will like this Order to proceed by to rank things praise-worthy on the right-hand as it were by themselves and all things on the other hand which fell upon him by
publick and the further it extends it gives the greater Lustre Whereof the Candle put upon the Hill that could not be hid was his own Example directing his Clergy to their Duty by his own often Preaching Injunctions Articles Orders Advertisements and the like I have heard wise Men say expire with the Prince's Life that appointed them saving that their Prudence and Equity do never expire But Canons oblige till they be lawfully repeal'd The first Canon among us that I know past by Convocation and confirm'd by Royal Authority is that of 1571. That all Bishops should diligently teach the Gospel not only in their Cathedral Churches which they govern but also in all the Churches of their Diocess where they shall think it most needful And principally they shall exhort their People to the Reading and Hearing of the Holy Scripture c. Which Canon this Bishop did awake in his frequent Practice He had good Gifts to preach withal and good Gifts are given to prosit others None of God's Talents must be hid in a Napkin nor in a Rochet And who doth hide them Qui percepto dono sub otio torporis abscondit says Gregory Past cu. Lib. 1. c. 9. Which Sin had been the greater in this great Divine who was so apt to teach so able by found Doctrine to exhort and to convince Gainsayers Who excell'd his Brethren in that Faculty as much as he did transcend them in Dignity It is not to set him forth at an Hyperbolical rate but that this Testimony may be given him that the best that were famous in the Pulpit might learn Method and Perspicuity from him He had not his fellow in that Point of Art And he spake as one that deliver'd the Oracles of God 1 Pet. 4.11 His Notions were not vulgar but found and weighty smelling of Pains and of Piety Many a Sabbath-days Journey he took to the adjacent Towns to let them see and hear their Diocesan not omitting the Punctilio of the Canon to stir them up to the Reading and Hearing of Holy Scriptures but taught it with much variety from Luk. 16. v. 31. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead The sound of Aaron's bells were to be heard when he went into the holy place and when he came out that he died not Exod. 28.35 Iram judicii exigit si sine sonitu praedicationis incedit says Gregory again Lib. 2. c. 3. Be it that place be eminently meant of Christ our High Priest who was heard of God in his Mediation and of the People in his Instruction Yet it belongs by way of Pattern to all them whom Christ hath sent as his Father sent him Sweet is the Sound of their Golden Bells Gold doth not give a shrill noise like sounding Brass or tinkling Cymbals but it is rich and precious The Multitude by ill custom look for Clamour strong Lungs and weak Doctrine But happy are those Auditors that can try which is a golden Bell upon the Touch-stone of their Understanding and run not giddy after them whose words are hot in the Mouth and cold in digestion Those Ages did afford the best Disciples that learnt their Principles from the gravest Fathers And the People did profit most where the Bishops preacht most As St. Austin says that so long as he staid at Millain every Sunday he heard the great Doctor St. Ambrose Millain or any other City Bethany or any Hamlet would forsake others to hear them It was so with us in England to the brink of our great Change High and low of all sorts and degrees came with their greatest Attention to hear the Sermon of a Bishop Their very Habit which set them forth with Comeliness did affect some the Authority of their high Calling did move others the Contemplation of their Learning and Wisdom which had advanc'd them did work more their painfulness in their Duty did please all Upon which of these hinges the Delight of the People did turn I dispute not It is enough that it was apparent that the Message of God was heard with most reverence when it was deliver'd by one that look'd like an extraordinary Embassador Above all those chief Pastors were the best Trumpets to sound a Retreat from Innovations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As I take it from Longinus p. 10. New-fangledness makes us giddy at first and in time mad and none were so powerful as the good Prelates to warn the People of them Experience and Age and Knowledge did plead on their side that they best knew the Tradition of the Fathers 42. Nor could it but have sped well if it had been consider'd that constant or at least frequent Preaching would have made our Bishops been rightly understood that their Judgments adhered to the Doctrine of the Church of England as it is settled in opposition to Popery Some of our Reverend Fathers that stated our Controversies moderately and with no more than due distance which is an infinite advantage to a Disputant were had in Jealousie for almost Apostates by those that shot wider from the Mark which both aimed to hit A Jealouâ—ie which some Diligence in the Pulpit had prevented For when did you hear of a Lecturer suspected for it But this is the Imperfection of mortal Affairs that when one inconvenience is removed another will rise up in the room For the good Office of Preaching perform'd often by a Bishop was call'd Puritanism by some in those times that fomented such a Faction that made the Name of Puritan the very Inquisition of England Not using it as formerly to preserve the good Order and Discipline of the Church but to cast any Man out of Favour that was so innocent as not to be able to be charged with any thing else Thrust a worthy Man between the first and second Censure and how hard did we make it by such uncharitable Traducings to live evenly in the indivisible Point of Protestantism This Bishop being not indiligent to preach the Gospel for which St. Paul and our own Canons had provided was decipher'd to the King for an upholder of Non-conformitants Neque sapere Principi potest quod his praegustatoribus non ante placitum sit probatum Bud. Pand. Lib. 2. c. 14. The King's Tasters had disrelish'd him to his Majesty with that unsavory report that he could not be believ'd with proof sufficient made against the prejudice Which made no alteration in him but that he would follow the Plough to which he had put his Hand Like the Resolution of Alexander Curt. Lib. 9. that would not be deterr'd with Rumors from finishing his Expedition in Asia for says he Fugissemus ex Asiâ si nos fabulae debellare potuissent So stout Lincoln would give no ground to Scandals taken but mistaken No Discouragements could remove him from great Designs from two especially The former that he began and purpos'd to go on to write a Comment in Latia upon
worse to answer for I will depart with this mournful matter adding only that the Duke being taken away our Bishop never desisted to do Observance and such Help as he could to his desolate Kindred and Family which the Countess of Denby his Sister would often confess to me and speak of it to his great honour At this time presently upon the dismal Tydings he dispatch'd a most melting Letter to the Countess his Grace's Mother whose Answer to his begins thus My Lord IT is true Nobleness that makes you remember so distressed a Creature as I am and to continue a true Friend in harder Fortunes You give me many Reasons of Comfort for which I kindly thank you for I have need of them all The rest is long and very choicely endited under her own Hand which I pass over more willingly because her Ladiships revolting to the Romish Religion was none of the least causes that brought her Unfortunate Son into the distaste of the People Pace tuâ fari haec liceat Rhamnusia Diva Catullus 81. The Duke being now at rest in his Grave it was conceived this Good at least would come of it that the next Session of Parliament would be very quiet which began on the 20th of January Yet they that thought the Ship was lightned of Jonas saw the Storm encreased Let them that will know the occasion of a wide Breach read it in the Histories and Life of King Charles especially in His Majesty's Declaration to all his loving Subjects printed 1628. wherein the intelligent shall find that the Commons were rather stubborn than stiff rather violent than eager against the King's Affairs and that the King was so provok'd with the heat of one morning that he would not allow a day nor an hour to let them cool again but dismist them with Menaces and thrust them away from him with such displeasure that in twelve years he sent out no Writs to call another Parliament It is too late to wish it had been better then it is not too late to give Warning that it may be better hereafter Who did best or worst many will take the liberty to determine as their addictions carry them to loyal Duty or popular Liberty I judge neither so high above me in their potential Orbs but relate what the Prudent did observe upon their Passages This was the Bishop of Lincoln's Opinion who wept the ruine of the State and was able to see through the present to the future that it was ill in the People to offend so good a King and unhappy for the King to close again no sooner with a bad People The open face of both these shall be seen The Commons were no sooner come together but like Ajax's Rhetorick in the Poet Proh Jupiter inquit they were as hot as an Oven in their exordium and spake loudly That the Petition of Right was not maintain'd because Tonnage and Poundage were taken and Merchants Goods distrein'd for non-payment a Revenue not due to the Crown till pass'd by Bill The King's Council shew'd Presidents that it had been taken in a provisional way before the Parliament had granted it but that His Majesty did desire to receive it by the Grant of his People and pray'd a Bill might confirm it to remove this Block out of the way in which all Controversies would be sopited Hereupon it was promis'd it should be considered and the framing of a Bill be referr'd to a Committee yet they drew back their Hand till they had gather'd a Particular of things distasted in the Ecclesiastical and Civil Government An Affectation which Appius Claudius discover'd in the Tribunes Liv. dec 1. lib. 5. Qui semper aegri aliquid in Rep. esse volunt ut sit ad cujus curationem à vobis adhibeantur Which the King hath put into English Declar. p. 25. Like Empericks that strive to make new Work and to have some Diseases on foot to keep themselves in request Their Inspections about Religion were not only troublesome to make the Bill stick in the Committee the only means to keep all quiet but so inauspicious that I fear God was not near Arminianism was complained of that it was openly maintain'd not suiting with the Articles of the Churches of England and Ireland A strange Spell which raised up the Spirit that it would conjure down As they that mark the encrease of Nile can tell at what day it will begin to overflow so they that watcht the encrease of Arminianism say considently that from this year the Tyde of it began to come in Then they complain'd that the Bishops of London and Winton prevail'd to advance those to great Preferments that spread those Errors while the orthodox part was deprest and under inglorious disdain Never was this verified by a clear and notorious distinction till this Challenge was made That all Preferments were cast on that side Then it began to be palpable that there was no other way to fly over other mens Heads in the Church but with those Wings And here the forlorn part might say to the Parliament as Balak said to Balaam What hast then done unto me I took thee to curse mine Enemies and behold thou hast blest them all together Numb 23.11 Thirdly They did regret at the obtruding of some Ceremonies which waxed in more request and authority upon that opposition as some Flowers open the more when the Wind blows strongest upon them I believe such Remorse as was in Joseph's Brethren would make some of them say We saw the arguish of the King when he besought us and would not hear therefore this Distress is come upon us that all our Counsels are improsperous The prosecution of Civil Grievances miscarried as much and as wise men guess'd because Sir John Ellict stood up to manage them Few lead on to remove the publick Evils of a State without some special feelings and ends of their own Nor was it any better now so far as an action may be known by vulgar passes and every bodies Discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Menander High Probability is the second degree of Truth Sir J. Elliot of the West and Sir Tho. Wentworth of the North both in the prime of their Age and Wits both conspicuous for able Speakers clasht so often in the House and cudgel'd one another with such strong Contradictions that it grew from an Emulation between them to an Enmity The L. Treasurer Weston pick'd out the Northern Cock Sir Thomas to make him the King's Creature and set him upon the first step of his rising which was Wormwood in the taste of Elliot who revenged himself upon the King in the Bill of Tonnage and then fell upon the Treasurer and declaimed against him That he was the Author of all the Evils under which the Kingdom was opprest Some body must bear that Burden as the Duke had done yet this Lord was not like to be the man who had been in his great Place but about six months
was that if he would be bandied no more in Star-chamber 1. He must leave his Bishoprick and Deanry and all his Commendams and take a Bishoprick in Ireland or Wales as His Majesty pleased 2. He must recant his Book 3. Secure all his Fine 4. Never question any that had been employed by His Majesty against him Strange Physick as ever was prescribed for it was a Pill as big as a Pumpion and whose Throat could swallow it down Non est pax sed servitutis pactio Tul. Philip. 12. The worst that all the Courts in England could do could not impose such Terms upon him Beside to yield thus far were to fly the Field and to receive an inglorious wound in his Back Then he falls upon other Thoughts that he would please the King by making an unparallel'd Submission to him And were it not best to be content with half a Ruine to prevent a whole He must be a loser yet a man spends nothing that buys that he hath need of So he wrote back to the same Earl that he would lay his Bishoprick and Deanry at His Majesty's Feet but excused his going into Ireland To the second That he could not recant his Book which contain'd no Doctrine that he was not ready to justifie To the third He would pay his Fine as he was able To the fourth he submitted Not this not all this was accepted The very L. Drusus in Paterculus Meliore in omnia ingenio animoque quà m fortunà usus His noble Wit and good Parts were still destituted by Fortune He received this Return from the Earl That His Majesty was not contented to receive his Bishoprick and Deanry from him his Residency in Lincoln and Rectory of Walgrave are requir'd to be voided and to Ireland or no Peace To the second No Doctrin should be recanted but Matters of Fact c. The Bishop wonders at this who look'd for Praise that he had stoop'd so low yet rather than contest with his Soveraign he resolves with David Adhuc ero vilior And the common Rule of Polybius was observ'd by all men lib. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of two good things chuse the greatest of two Evils chuse the least He offers to resign all he hath in the Church of England but still will live in England for the Book he pleaded so well for it that the King was satisfied with a conditional submission as If any thing contained in it offended His Majesty he was sorry But to the third about the Fine he found very imperfect and unsolid Proposals and No Ground that 's good is hollow Since he must be stript of all that he had in the Church he would know how much should be left him of his Lands and Leases to live upon that the King 's Fine-gatherers might not snatch up all And he craves an Answer whether that Pension of 2000 Marks per ann bought of the E. of Banbury by His Majesty's Direction and for his Service and Profit being then Prince of Wales and 24000 l. in Arâ—ears for the same should be consider'd towards the King's Payment The Rejoynder began at the latter Clause That Pensions are not paid to men in disfavour the E. of Bristol being the Example for it For the Proportion what he should have to live upon rising out of his own Estate he must know nothing till he had wholly submitted From that hour the false Glass wherein the Bishop saw a shadow of Peace was broken And he writes to the Earl in the Stile of a man That it were a tempting of God to part with all he had willingly and leave himself no assurance of a Livelihood That his Debts if he came out of the Prison of the Tower would cast him into another Prison no better provision being made for them than he saw appearance for That he would never hazard himself into a condition to beg his Bread Truly he had cause to look for better Offers and since they came not he would lay his Head upon the Pillow of Hope till he had slept his last He had not suffer'd as an Evil man his Conscience bore him witness whereby he was not obnoxious to Infamy Majore poenâ affectus quà m legibus statutum est non est infamis a Maxim of Reason and of Law in our Kingdom To surrender up all he had were to suffer as a Fool. Plato is made the Author of the Saying That he had rather leave somewhat to his Enemies when he died than stand in need of his Friends who might prove no Friends while he lived But this is surely Plato's in Apol. pro Socr. That when Socrates was ask'd how he felt himself affected when he was wrongfully condemn'd he said he could give no Answer till he met with Palamedes and Ajax 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till he had ask'd them how they took the Sentence of unrighteous Judges he was not fully provided to satisfie them Our bishop consulted day and night at his Study with Histories of Saints in by-past Ages and knew they had suffer'd more than he had done and was sorry for his human frailty if they could bear it better Now I am confident that the Prudent will collect that this Bishop was never deaf to Conditions of Agreement and that no man living could offer a greater Sacrifice than he did for a Peace-Offering unless he would have stript himself of all and not have left off his own two Mites in all the World to cast into the Corban 129. But if the Parly for Peace were nothing but Thunder and Thunder-bolt how will the Bishop endure it when it comes to strokes God be praised his Warfare in these Causes was at an end Flebile principium melior fortuna secuta est Metam lib. 7. The Chamber of Horror and its Star did not shine malignantly upon him again A time and times and half a time had pass'd over and these things were finisht Dan. 12.7 For three year and half he continued in the Tower and in that space lived as if he had drank of Homer's Cup Odyss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he had represented and not felt the part he acted For except that so many Suits interrupted his Studies he lack'd nothing that could be perceived of Health Solace and Alacrity Benè dormit qui non sentit quà m malè dormiat a Fragment of Publius Mimus He wanted not good Society for I must ever praise his constant Friend Dr. Alabaster who took up a Lodging in one of the Mint-master's Houses to be with him continually While he was so many months shut up from the action of the World he began to hear of some Occurrences abroad which made him not dread his chief Enemy at Lambeth at all The Archbishop had entangled himself in his own Webb nay the King and all England and Scotland with him In illa liturgiâ infelicissimè ad Scotos missâ says wise Mr. Selden de Syn. Jud. par 2. His Majesty's Expedition into the
plausible and may run well with the close of Beza's Epigram in Parodie Quod tu fecisti sit licet ingens At quod non saceres hoâ— ego miror opus 134. But the Injuries done to private Man were Trifâ—les to the great Affairs that were in hand His Majesty's Affairs which were in great decadence took him up wholly and how could he be safe A good Subject cannot make any difference between the King's Fortunes and his own A full Declaration of the Storms that were rais'd concerns not this piece It was apparent that the Scotch were at one end of the Fray in the North and the Presbyterians about London at the other end in the South both confederate to root up cast down syndicate controul and do what they lust and let them have their own will it would scarce content them Our wise Church-man knew that he that fears the worst prevents it soonest Therefore he did not lose a minute to try all his Arts if he could quench the flame amongst the heady Scots whose common sort were like their Preachers Tumidi magis animi quà m magni as Casaubon notes it in the Atherians Lib. 1. Athen. cap. 20. rather of a swelling than a noble Spirit Their own polite Historian says more Dromond Jam. 5. p. 161. That Hepburn Prior of St. Andrews the Oracle of the Duke of Albany told him That he must remember that the People whom he did command for he was Regent were ever fierce mutinously proud and know not how to obey unless the Sword were drawn What hope then of their Submission when they had framed Covenants Articles gathered a Convention no less in Power no less in Name than a Parliament without their Prince's leave and became Assailants to maintain that and what they would have more with the Sword Let all Ages remember that this sprung from no other occasion but that the King invited them to prayer in publick in such a Form of Liturgy as himself used putting no greater burden upon their Conscience than upon his own The Peccatulum was that there wanted a little in mode and usual way to commend the Book unto them Perhaps the Error went a little further that King James his Promise was not observ'd as the Reverend Spotswood doth not conceal it p. 542. That the Lord Hamilton King James his Commissioner having ratified the Articles of Perth by Act of Parliament assured the People that his Majesly in his days should never press any more change and alteration in matters of that kind without their consent Admit this Promise calculated for the days of King James was obliging as far as the Meridian of King Charles yet nothing was presented to them against true Doctrine or Divine Worship for all the Learning of their Universities could never make the matter of the Liturgy odious And let it be disputed That the Book was not authoritative without the publick Vote and Consent of the Nation in some Representative Yet if a Prince so pious so admirable in his Ethicks did tread one inch awry in his Politicks must the Cannon be brought into the Field and be planted against him to subvert his Power at Home and to dishonour him abroad was it ever heard that upon so little a Storm Seamen would cut Cabble and Mast and throw their Cargo over-board when there was no fear to shipwrack any thing but Fidelity and Allegiance God was pleased to deprive us of Contentment and Peace for our own wickedness or Civil Discords that lasted near as long as the Peloponnesian War had never risen from so slender an occasion The merciful and soft-hearted King could have set his Horse-feet upon their Necks in his first Expedition which stopt at Barwick if he had not been more desirous of Quietness than Honour and Victory I guess whom Dromond means in the Character of Jam. 3. p. 118. That it is allowable in men that have not much to do to be taken with admiration of Watches Clocks Dials Automates Pictures Statues But the Art of Princes is to give Laws and govern their People with wisdom in Peace and glory in War to spare the humble and prostrate the proud Happy had it been if his Majesty had followed valiant Counsel to have made himself compleat Conquerour of those Malapert Rebels when they first saw his face in the North. But the Terms of Pacification which they got in one year served them to gather an Army and to come with Colours display'd into England the next year which was the periodical year of the King's Glory the Churches Prosperity the Common Laws Authority and the Subjects Liberty Threescore and eighteen years before when England and Scotland were never at better League Abr. Hartwell passeth this Vote in his Reginâ literatâ more like a Prophet than a Poet Nostráque non iterùm Saxo se vertat in arva Non Gallus sed nec prior utrôque Scotus 135. And what could Lesly have done then with a few untrain'd unarmed Jockeys if we had been true among our selves The Earl of Southampton spake heroically like a Peer of an ancient Honour That the Bishop of Durham with his Servants a few Millers and Plowmen were wont to beat those Rovers over the Tweed again without raising an Army If the People had not imprudently chosen such into our Parliament as were fittest to gratifie the Scots day had soon cleared up and Northern Mists dispersed But our foolish heart was darkned and any Scourge was welcome that would chastise the present Government we thought we could not be worse when we could scarce be better We greedily took this Scotch Physick when we were not sick but knew not what it was to be in health An Ounce of common Sense might have warned us That a Kingdom may consist with private mens Calamities but private mens Fortunes cannot consist with the ruin of a Kingdom The Love of Money is the Root of all Evil. Many in England thought they sat at a hard Rent because of Ship-money and would fire the House wherein their own Wealth was laid up rather than pay their Landlord such a petty Tribute as was not mist in times of Plenty but in short time their Corn and Plate went away at one swoop when their stock was low The exacting of Ship-money all thought it not illegal but so many did as made it a number equivalent to all And a Camel will bear no more weight than was first laid upon him Nec plus instituto onere recipit Plin. lib. 8. cap. 18. This disorder'd the Beast and being backt with some thousands of Rebels march't on as far as Durham made him ready to cast his Rider The Royal part was at a stand and could go no further than this Question What shall we do As Livy says of the Romans catch't in an Ambush at Caudis Intuentes alii alios cum alterum quisque compotem magis mentis ac consilii ducerent In such a Perplexity every man asks his Fellow What 's best
and give ear to nothing So you have the first and the last part of the Presbyterians Actings with the other Divines whom the Lords appointed for a Sub-committee There may well be a Suspicion when their Deeds do make a Confession that they would prevail by Force when they could not by Argument And thus began the downfal of Episcopacy which was never heard never suffer'd to plead at the Bar of the Parliament in its own Cause but as one says pertinently It was smother'd in a Crowd 141. Anatomists observe that the thinnest Membrane is that which covers the Brain that no weight might stop it from production of Notions and Phancies Certainly it was so in our Bishop's Head-piece who was consulted every day in weighty Affairs and had a Task at this time concurrent with all that went before to look to the Case of the noble but unfortunate Earl of Strafford A Charge of great Crimes was hastily drawn up against him that he had been a Tyrant in Ireland and stirred up His Majesty to raise an Army to oppress his Subjects in England and Scotland Haec passim Dea soeda virum diffudit in ora AEn 4. These were the Fictions of Fame and no more but made the People cast about distrustful and disloyal Doubts The Earl a man of great Wit and Courage knew not whether the King and all his Friends could save him In a rebellious nation wrath is set on fire Ecclus 16.6 And to the shame of Subjects bewitch'd with the new Spirit of that Bedlam rage neither the King nor his Justice could protect any man Too well do I remember that of Justin lib. 30. Nec quisquam in regno suo minùs quà m rex ipse poterat Some say of the French luke-warm in Religion that they kneel but with one Knee at Mass a great number in our rigid Parliament would not do so much the locking Joynt of their Knee was too stiff to bend at all Rebellion is a foul word yet they blush'd not at the deed who were ashamed of the Title Then the Scots were resolved not to disband till this brave Lord was headless Who hath seen a Hedge hog rouled up into a Ball The whole lump is Prickles do but touch it and you hurt your Hand Convolvuntur in modum pilae ne quid possit comprehendt praeter aculeos Plin l. 8. c. 37. So Lessly and his Tykes were bloody and imperious fastned with much confidence in one body Who could remove them Nay who could touch them or go about to mollitie them and get no harm Then the Tumults of Sectaries Corner-creepers and debauch'd Hang-by's that beset the dutiful Lord and Commons with Poniards and Clubbs were worse than an Army far off These call'd for Justice that is for the Life of the Earl What had they to do with Justice which if it might have fate upon the Bench and tryed them every Mothers Son of them had been condemned to the Gallows But it was safer to sit still with Prudence than to rush on with Courage Plus animi est inferenti periculum quà m propulsanti Liv. lib. 38. The Affailant that comes to do a Mischief puts on desperately and is fiercer than the Defendant And there is no equal temperature or counterpoise of Power against the strong Ingredient of a Multitude I will not say but many of this Scum invited themselves unbidden to do a Mischief but there was a Leader a Presbyter Pulpiteer that bespoke them into the Uproar from Shop to Shop Lucius Sergius signifer seditionis concitator tabernariorum Cic. pro dom ad Pont. I need not a Lime-hound to draw after him that was the chief Burgess of the Burrough who gathered this vain People to a head that had no Head Silly Mechanicks Horum simplicitas miserabilis his furor ipse Dat veniam Juven Sat. 2. But what will he answer that knew his Master's Will and ran headlong against it Now here 's the Streight of the Earl of Strafford expos'd to the greatest popular Rage that ever was known All that his good Angel could whisper into him in Prison was to trust to God and a righteous Defence But whereon should he bottom his Defence He could not upon the known Law which is the Merastone to limit and define all Causes for Life Limb Liberty or Living He must stand to a Tryal whether parcels of petty Offences will make an accumulative Felony and be arraigned upon a notion of Treason which could be wrested out of no Statute nor be parallel'd with any President The Treason was rather in them that call'd such things Treason to which no English Subject was liable by his Birth-right In populo scelus est abundant cuncta furore Man lib. 2. The Law was too much his Friend to bring him before the face of it Anocent man fears the Law an innocent man fears Malice and Envy O vitae tuta facultas Pauperis angustique laris O munera nondum Intellecla Luc. lib. 5. O the security and sound sleeps of a private Life If this Earl had not climb'd as high as the Weather-cock of Honours Spire he had not known the Horror of a Precipice Isocrates would never meddle with a publick Office says the Author of his Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Athenians were so spightful at their Magistrates that he would not trust them Demasthenes was employed in great Places and died untimely by a Poyson which he had confected for an evil time Says Pausan upon it in Atti. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is entrusted to govern the people when he hath serv'd their turn seldom dyes fortunately But this is the man whose Troubles gave the Bishop occasion to shew his Abilities in two points First About the circumstance of the examination of the Cause Secondly About the Judges of the Cause that is Whether Bishops might be such in causâ sanguinis There is much of it I confess but the Learning will recompence the length And I shall not blemish his Reputation to say of him what the Orator said of L. Aquilius Orat. pro Caecinnâ Cujus tantum est ingenium ita prompta fides ut quicquid haurias purum liquidúmque haurire censeas 142. Before I draw up to the Bishop's Reports there is more to be premised as That there was much ado to score out the Hearing of Strafford with a straight Line and a Form to give some satisfaction as a Child is often set upon its Legs before it can go His Adversaries toss'd it about many ways and manag'd it chiefly by two persons Mr. St. John the King's Sollicitor one that did very bad Service to the King his Master and the Church his Mother yet of able parts therefore I will write the Inscription of his Tomb-stone on the wrong side and turn it downward to the Earth The other was John Pym Homo ex argillâ luto factus Epicuraeo as Tully said of Piso that is in Christian English a painted Sepulchre
Members an ordinary Punishment of the Goths and Vandals who then lived in Spain but never heard of here with us of many years before the Reign of Hen. II and therefore not sitly pressed to drive Bishops from sitting as Peers in the case of the Earl of Strafford who is not to be sentenc'd to any mutilation of Members True it is that in the Council it self being the Eleventh Council of Toledo Can. 6. they are forbidden Quod morte plectendum sit sententiâ propria judicare to sentence in any Cause that is to be punish'd with Death Whereas in the Fourth Council of Toledo Can. 31 under Sisinandus not long before held anno 633 it is said That the Kings do oftentimes commit to Priests and Bishops their Judicature Contra quoscunque Majestatis obnoxios against all Treasons howbeit they are directed not to obey their King in this particular unless they have him bound by Oath to pardon the Party in case they shall find reason to mediate for him And thus the Canon-Law went in Spain but no where else in Christendom in that Age. 148. But these Bishops at Westm travelled not so far as Toledo to fetch in this Canon into their Synod but took it out of Gratian then in vogue for he lived in the time of Hen. Beu-clerk Grandfather to this Hen. II. who in the second part of his Decrees Cap. de Clericis saith thus Clericis in sacris ordinibus constitutis ex concil Tolet. Judicium sanguinis agitaro non licet And so this Canon was fetch'd from Spain into these other parts of Europe above four hundred years after the first making thereof upon this occasion Pope Gregory the Seventh otherwise called Hildebrand who lived in the time of William the Conqueror having so many deadly Quarrels against Hen. IV. Emperor of Germany to make his part good and strong laid the first ground which his Successors in their Canons closely pursued to draw the Bishops and other great Prelates of Germany France England and Spain from their Lay-Soveraigns and Leige-Lords to depend wholly upon him and so by colour and pretence of Ecclesiastical Immunities withdrew them from the Services of their Princes in War and in Peace and particularly from exercising all Places of Judicature in the Civil Courts of Princes to the which Offices they were by their Breeding and Education more enabled than the martial Lay-Lords of that rough Age and by their Fiefs and Baronies which they held from Kings and Emperors particularly bound and obliged And therefore you shall find that whereas the Bishops of this Island before the Conquest did still joyn with the Thanes Aldermen and Lay-Lords in the making and executing of all Laws whatsoever touching deprivation of Life and mutilation of Members Yet soon after when the Norman and English Prelates Lanfrank Anselm Becket and the rest began to trade with Rome and as Legati nati to wed the Laws and Canons cried up in Rome and to plant them here in England they withdrew by little and little our Prelates from these Employments and Dependencies upon the Kings of England and under the colour of Exemptions and Church-Immunities erected in this Land an Ecclesiastical Estate and Monarchy depending wholly upon the Pope inhibiting them to exercise secular Employments or to sit with the rest of the Peers in Judicatures of Life and Members otherwise than as they list themselves and hence principally did arise those great heats between our Rufus and Anselm which Eadmer speaks of and those ancient Customs of this Kingdom which Hen. II. pressed upon Becket in the Articles of Clarendon that the Prelates ought to be present in the King's Courts c. Which Pope Alexander a notable Boutefeu of those times in the Church of God did tolerate though not approve of as he apostyles that Article with his own Hand to be shewn to this day in the M. S. extant in the Vatican Library And although I shall not deny but the Popes did plead Scripture for this Inhibition as they did for all things else and allude unto that place 2 Tim. 3.4 which they backed with one of the Canons of the Apostles as they call them the seventh in number Yet it is clear their main Authority is fetch'd from this obscure Synod of Toledo where eighteen Bishops only were convened under Bamba the Goth who of a Plowman was made a King and of a King a Cloyster'd Monk as you may see in the History of Rodericus Santius par 2. c. 32. This is all the goodly Ground that either Gratian in his Decrees or Innocent III in the Decretals or Roger Hoveden in his History alledges against the Ecclesiastical Peers their sitting as Judges in Causes of Blood to wit this famous Gothish Council of Toledo The first that planted this Canon here in England was Stephen Langton a Cardinal the Pope's Creature as his Holiness was pleased to stile him in his Bull and thrust upon the See of Canterbury by a Papal Provision where he continued in Rebellion against his Soveraign as long as King John lived This Archbishop under colour of Ecclesiastical Immunity for so this Canon is marshall'd by Linwood at Osney near Oxford did ordain Ne quis Clericus beneficiatus vol in sacris Ordinibus constitutus praesumat interesse ubi judicium sanguinis tractatur vel exerceatur And this is the first Canon broach'd in this Kingdom to this effect that of Othobone being subsequent in time and a meer Foreign or Legantine Constitution See it at large in Linwood Constit lib. 3. ad sinem And by vertue of a Branch of this very Constitution the now Archbishop two years since sined the Bishop of Gloucester in the High-Commission because he had given way in time of Pestilence only that a Sessions a Judgment of Blood might be kept in a sacred place which was likewise inhibited in this Canon But this admits of a multitude of Answers First 149. Quod haec dictio Clericus ex vi verbi non comprehendit Episcopum Linwood lib. 3. de locat is conductis Secondly the irregularity incurr'd by Judicature in Causes of Blood is only Jure positivo and therefore dispensable by the Pope saith Covarruvias in Clemen si furiosus p. 2. com 5. n. 1. and here in England is dispens'd with in Bishops by the King who in his Writs or Summons to the Parliament commands the Lords Spiritual without any exception of Causes of Blood to joyn in all Matters and Consultations whatsoever with the Temporal Peers of the Kingdom their Summons being unto them a sufficient Dispensation so to do And Othobon himself inhibiting other Clerks to use these Secular Judicatures hath a Salvo to preserve the Priviledges of our Lord the King whereby he may use any of their Services in that kind when he shall see cause Tit. ne Clerici Juris saec exerceant And Linwood upon that Text doth instance in the Clerks of the Chancery and others Nor are these Writs that summon the
and to stand to their Courtesie when they would resign them again Nec missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo Hor. Art Poet. It could be for no small time that they itch'd to hold the Reins and having govern'd so long they would never be brought to obey The Fox in the Fable crept into a Granary of Corn and staid till his Belly was so full that he could not get out It is a wise Note of Spartianus upon Did. Julianus Reprchensus in eo praecipuè quod ques rogere auctoritate suâ debuit praesules sibi ipse fecit When the prudent Augustus saw he could not shake off a standing Senate he saw no way but to divide the Provinces of the Empire between him and them and to take the worst half the remotest to himself But did the King think to escape so well with an indissoluble Parliament Balsack writes prophanely That the World ought not to end until the French King's Race should fail And it proved by this concession to continue the two Houses to sit as long as they would that the Glory of the Crown should fail before they would endure their old Stump to be rooted up When a Swarm of luxurious men that made love to Penelope wasted Ulysses's Substance in his absence Homer breaks out Odyss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let no King henceforth be gracious and kind for he shall fare as ill as the worst So let no King suppose to oblige his Subjects with the greatest Trust that was ever committed to men for he shall speed the worse for his considence in them The Bishop of Lincoln but two days before ask'd the King If his wise Father would have suffer'd such a thing to be demanded much left have granted it And Whether it would be possible for his truest Lieges to do him Service any more So bold he was and ply'd his good Master to the last with new Motives to dehort him from it I know not what ill Star scouled upon so good a King to listen to no good Counsel in that point There was one that thrust him on whose Advices were more loving than lucky And on a Sunday May 9. he signed the indefinite continuance of the Parliament as it is commonly voiced and Strafford's Execution with the same drop of Ink. A sad Subject and as I found it so I leave it 155. Wisdom and Reason were not wanting in that noble King Fortune was Darius called Codomann was the best of all the Kings of the Porsian Race from Cyrus downward to himself yet under him the Persian Monarchy was ruined and fell to the Macedonians Destinatus sorti suae jam nullius salubris consilii patiens says the Historian Curt. lib. 5. It cuts my Heart to say that this agrees to a far better Monarch than himself King Charles makes ready in the Summer for a Journey into Scotland hoping to bring over the Seditious there to love him with Sweetness and Caresses by Bounties as he was able by Honours bestow'd on some by Promises and by the gracious Interview of his presence for we owe Affection naturally to them that offer us Love Or if all this wrought not he was so oversway'd with Disdain to be near to Westminster where his Person his Justice his Court or his Clergy were slander'd every hour that he would ride far enough from the strife of Tongues and not be near the Furnace where the steam was so hot I heard one of his Bed-chamber say That nothing made him remove so far from his Court and Council as the tediousness of Intelligence brought to him every minute with variety of Glosses and Opinions upon it As Adrian the Emperor said in his last Sickness that he had too many Physicians about him to be cured so our King thought he had too many Counsellors at London to take distinct Advice Walk in the Spring-Garden in May and what Bird can you listen to particularly when there is not a Bough but hath a Bird upon it that warbles his own Note There is pleasure in that But those that press'd so thick upon the King came with some ill Augury Seraque fatidici cecinerunt omnia vates AEn lib. 5. Howsoever Home is homely says the Country Adagy and this Journey to Scotland was not begun in a good day There was never any Parliament like it which now fate that bewrayed openly so many foolish Fears raked up in the cold Embers of Distrust and Guiltiness Quae pueri in tenebris pavitant sing untque futurâ Therefore a Jealousie was straightway in their Heads that this Journey could not be good for them Why What can a King do to be good for himself and pernicious to his People Well said the Persians Xen. lib. 8. Cyr. paed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cyrus can undertake nothing and make it good for himself alone and not for us But upon their Jealousie they resolve to give the King such a Welcome home as should offend him O Hypocrites that seem to be afraid of the King when none had more cause than he to be afraid of them Watchful Lincoln had dived into the Secrets of the Masters of the private Assembly Hannibali omnia hostium non secus ac sua nota sunt Liv. lib. 22. Every man knows his own mind a wise man like Hannibal will know his Enemies if he can The Bishop coming to the King besought His Majesty that for his sake he would put off his Scotch Journey to another season His written Notes in my keeping are long and impersect the sum is thus He besought His Majesty to consider that the Scotts were Sear-boughs not to be bent whatsoever he said to them they would reveal it to their Cronies at Westminster for there was a Trade and Exchange that ran currently among them Some of them and not the meanest make it a slight thing to be persidious and will laugh at it when they are derected They have distinctions for it from their Kirk which straddle so wide that flat Contraries Yea and Nay Truth and Lyes may run between them K. James the Fourth had the knack of such Devices who having made a strong League of Peace with Harry VIII and yet invaded England with an Army remember it was at Flodden-Field Drummond p 142. said He did not break his League with England but departed from it The Bishop pray'd the King to remember that those Lowns had been in Hubbubs and Covenants and Arms two years together could they be converted of a sudden without a Miracle Integrum non est ad virtutem semel reliclam remigrare Cic. Lelius It will be a long time before Rebels find their Fidelity again when they have lost it They have shew'd their Despight so lately that it is too soon to offer them Courtesie they know in what condition your Majesty is and they will not take it for Kindness but Fear Keep near to the Parliament all the Work is within those Walls win them man by man inch
this Common-wealth is no more in being it sufficeth it hath been once and that planted by God himself who would never have appointed persons in Holy Orders to intermeddle with things they ought not to intermeddle withal I will go on with my Chronology of persons in Holy Orders and only put you in mind of Ely and Samuel among the Judges of Sadock's Employment under K. David of Jehojada's under his Nephew King Joash and would sain know what Hurt these men in Holy Orders did by intermedling in Secular Affairs of that time Now we are returned from the Captivity of Babylon I desire you to look upon the whole Race of the Maccabâ—s eveâ— to Antigonus the last of them all taken Prisoner by Pompey and 〈◊〉 afterwards by M Antony and shew me any of those Princes a Woman or two excepted that was not a Priest and a Magistrate 161. We are now come to Christ's time when methinks I hear St. Paul 23. of the Acts excuse himself for reviling of the High-Priest I wist not Brethren that he was the High-â—iest for it is written Thoushalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy People Where observe that the word Ruler in the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very same word that is used by St. Paul Rom. 13.3 where this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is translated by Beza Magistrates Then you must be pleased to imagine the Church asleep or almost dead under Persecution for almost 300 years until the happy days of the Emperor Constantine and not expect to find many Magistrates among the Christians Yet you shall find St. Paul 1 Cor. 6.5 offend against this Bill and intermeddle Knuckle-deep with Secular Affairs by inhibiting the Corinthians very sharply for their Chicanery their Pettisoggery and common Barretry in going to Law one with another Besides that as all learned men agree both the Apostles and Apostolical men that lived presently after them had a miraculous power of punishing exorbitant Crimes which supplied the power of the ordinary Magistrate as appears in Ananias and Sapphira the incestuous Corinthian and many others But then from Constantine's Age till the Reformation began by Luther Churchmen were so usually employed in managing of Secular Affairs that I shall confess ingenuously it was too much there lying an Appeal from the Courts of the Empire to the Bishops Judicatory as you shall find it every where in the Code of Justinian So it was under Carolus Magnus and all the Carolovingian Line of our neighbour Kingdom of France So and somewhat more it was with us in the Saxon Heptarchy the Bishop and the Sheriff sitting together check by jowl in their Turns and Courts But these exorbitant and vast Employment in Secular Affairs I stand not up to desend and therefore I will hasten to the Reformation Where Mr. Calvin in the fourth Book of his Institutions and eleventh Distinction doth confess that the holy men heretofore did refer their Controversies to the Bishop to avoid Troubles in Law You shall find that from Luther to this present day in all the flux of Time in all Nations in all manner of Reformations persons in Holy Orders were thought fit to intermeddle in Secular Affairs Brentius was a Privy-Councillor to his Duke and Prince Functius was a Privy-Councillor to the great Duke of Borussâ—a as it is but too notoriously known to those that are versed in Histories Calvin and Beza while they lived carried all the Council of the State of Geneva under their own Gowns Bancroft in his Survey c. 26. observeth that they were of the Council of State there which consisteth of Threescore And I have my self known Abraham Scultetus a Privy-Councillor to the Prince Palatine Reverend Monsieur Du Moulin for many years together a Councillor to the Princess of Sedan his Brother-in-law Monsieur Rivet a great learned Personage now in England of the Privy-Council of the Prince of Orange You all hear and I know much good by his former Writings of a learned man called Mr. Henderson and most of your Lordships understand better than I what Employment he hath at this time in this Kingdom And truly I do believe that there is no Reformed Church in the World settled and constituted by the State wherein it is held for a point in Divinity that persons in Holy Orders ought not to intermeddle with Secular Affairs Which is all I shall say of this Duty of Ministers in point of Divinity 162. Now I come to the second Duty of men in Holy Orders in point of Conveniency or Policy and am clearly of opinion that even in this Regard and Reâ—ection they ought not to be debarred from modestly intermeddling in Secular Affairs for iâ— there be any such Inconvenience it must needs arise from this That to exercise some Secular Jurisdiction must be evil in it self or evil to a person in Holy Orders Which is neither so nor so for the whole Office of a subordinate civil Magistrate is most exactly described in Rom. 13. v. 3 4. and no man can add or detract from the same The Civil Power is a Divine Ordinance set up to be a Terror to the Evil and an Encouragement to Good Works This is the whole compass of the Civil Power And theresore I do here demand with the most learned Bishop Davenant that within a few days did sit by my side in the Eleventh Question of his Determinations What is there of Impiety what of Unlawfulness what unbecoming either the Holiness or Calling of a Priest in terrifying the bad or comforting the good Subject in repressing of Sin or punishing of Sinners For this is the whole and entire act of Civil Jurisdiction It is in its own nature repugnant to no Person to no Function to no fort or condition of Men let them hold themselves never so holy never so seraphical it becomes them very well to repress Sin and punish Sinners that is to say to exercise in a moderate manner Civil Jurisdiction if the Soveraign shall require it And you shall find that this Doctrine of debarring persons in Holy Orders from Secular Employments is no Doctrine of the Reformed but the Popish Church and first brought into this Kingdom by the Popes of Rome and Lambeth Lanfrank Anselm Stephen Langton and the rest together with Otho and Ottobon and to this only end that the man of Rome might withdraw all the Clergy of this Kingdom from their obligation to the King and Nobility who were most of them great Princes in those times and thereby might establish and create as in great part he did Regnum in Regno a Kingdom of Shavelings in the midst of this Kingdom of England And hence came those Canons of mighty consequence able to shoot up a Priest at one shot into Heaven as that he must not meddle with matters of Blood that he must not exercise Civil Jurisdiction that he must not be a Steward to a Noble-man in his House and all the rest of this Palea and
Garbage That is in plain English the Priest must no longer receive Obligations from either King or Lords but wholly depend upon his Holy Fathers the Pope of Rome and the Pope of Lambeth or at least wise pay him soundly for their Dispensations and Absolutions when they presume to do the contrary In the mean time here is not one word or shew of Reason to inform an understanding man that persons in Holy Orders ought not to terrisie the Bad and comfort the Good to repress Sin and chastise Sinners which is the summa totalis of the Civil Magistracy and consequently so far forth at the least to intermeddle with Secular Affairs And this is all that I shall say touching the Motive and Ground of this Bill and that persons in Holy Orders ought not to be inhibited from intermeddling in Secular Astairs either in point of Divinity or in point of Conveniency and Policy 163. The second Point consists of the Persons reflected upon in this Bill which are Archbishops Bishops Parsons Vicars and all others in Holy Orders of which point I shall say little only finding these Names huddled up in an Heap made me conceive at first that it might have some relation to Mr. 〈◊〉 Reading in the Middle Temple which I ever esteem'd to have been very inoffentively deliver'd by that learned Gentleman and with little discretion question'd by a great Ecclesiastick then in Place for all that he said was this That when the Temporal â—ords are more in Voices than the Spiritual they may pass a Bill without consent of the Bishops Which is an Assertion so clear in Reason and so often practis'd upon the Records and Rolls of Parliament that no man any way vers'd in either of these can make any doubt of it nor do I though I humbly conceive no Preâ—ident will be ever sound that the Prelates were ever excluded otherwise than by their own Folly Fear or Headiness For the point of being Justices of Peace the Gentleman confesseth he never meddled with Archbishops nor Bishops nor with any Clergyman made a Justice by His Majesty's Commission In the Statute made 34 Edw. 3. c. 1. he finds Assignees for the keeping of the Peace one Lord three or four of the most valiant men of the County the troublesome times did then so require it And if God do not bless us with the riddance of these two Armies the like Provision will be now as necessary He finds these men included but he doth not find Churchmen excluded no not in the Statute 13 Rich. II. c. 7. that requires Justices of Peace to be made of Knights Esquires and Gentlemen of the Law of the most sufficient of each County In which words the Gentleman thinks Clerks were not included and I clearly say by his favour they are not excluded nor do the learned Sages of the Law conceive them to be excluded by that Statute If the King shall command the Lord Keeper to fill up the Commissions of each County with the most sufficient Knights Esquires and Gentlemen of the Law shall the Lord Keeper thereupon exclude the Noblemen and the Prelates I have often in my days received this Command but never heard of this Interpretation before this time So that I cannot conceive from what ground this general Sweepstake of Archbishops Bithops Parsons Vicars and all others in Holy Orders should proceed I have heard since the beginning of my Sickness that it hath been alledg'd in this House that the Clergy in the Sixth of Edw. 3. did disavow that the Custody of the Peace did belong to them at all and I believe that such a thing is to be sound among the Notes of the Privileges of this House but first you must remember that it was in a great Storm and when the Waters were much troubled and the wild People unapt to be kept in order by Miters and Crosier-staves But yet if that noble Lord shall be pleased to cast his Eye upon the Roll it self he shall find that this poor Excuse did not serve the Prelates turns for they were compelled with a witness to defend the preservation of the Peace of the Kingdom for their parts as well as the Noblemen and Gentry And you shall find the Ordinance to this effect set down upon that Roll. I conclude therefore with that noble Lord's favour that the sweeping of all the Clergy out of temporal Offices is a motion of the first impression and was never heard in the English Common-wealth before this Bill 164. I come in the third place to the main part of this Cause the things to be severed from all men in Holy Orders which are as I told you of three kinds 1. Matters of Free-hold as the Bishops Votes in Parliament and Legislative Power 2. Matters of Favour to be a Judge in Star-chamber to be a a Privy-Councillor to be a Justice of Peace or a Commissioner in any Temporal Affairs 3. Mixt Matters of Free-hold and Favour too as the Charters of some Bishops and many of the ancient Cathedrals of this Kingdom who allow them a Justice or two within themselves or their Close as they call it and exempt those grave and learned men from the Rudeness and Insolency of Tapsters Brewers Inn-keepers Taylors and Shoe-makers which do integrate and make up the Bodies of our Country-Cities and Incorporations And now is the Ax laid to the very Root of the Ecclesiastical Tree and without your Lordships Justice and Favour all the Branches are to be lopt off quite with those latter Clauses and the Stock and Root it self to be quite grubb'd and digged up by that first point of abolishing all Vote and Legislative Power in all Clergymen leaving them to be no longer any part of the People of Rome but meer Slaves and Bond-men to all intents and purposes and the Priests of England one degree interiour to the Priests of Jerâ—boam being to be accounted worse than the Tail of the People Now I hope no English-man will doubt but this Vote and Representation in Parliament is not only a Freehold but the greatest Freehold that any Subject in England or in all the Christian World can brag of at this day that we live under a King and are to be govern'd by his Laws that is not by his arbitrary Edicts or Rescripts but by such Laws confirmed by him and assented to by us either in our proper Persons or in our Assignees and Representations This is the very Soul and Genius of our Magna Charta and without this one Spirit that great Statute is little less than litera occidens a dead and useless piece of Paper You heard it most truly opened unto you by a wise and judicious Peer of this House that Legem patere quam ipse tuleris was a Motto wherein Alexander Severus had not more interest than every true-born Englishman No Forty-shillings-man in England but doth in person or representation enjoy his Freedom and Liberty The Prelates of this Kingdom as a Looking-glass
turn'd to be in five months after Better be alone than ill accompanied And if that World last still they will never wear out the Disgrace by Repealing that infamous Bill I were wicked if I wisht it not otherwise but foolish if I did hope it I bewail not York more than I do the rest Nihil est praecipuè cuiquam dolendum in eo quod accidit universis Cic. lib. 6. Ep. ad Torquatum Now when the worst was done the merciful Judges in Parliament gave the Bishops their Liberty And most of those Grey-heads sled from London or were imprison'd in no long distance of time upon it In May after York went away privily to seek the King and never return'd again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diodor. Sic. lib. 13. Few men ever lived whose lives had more Paradoxes in them But from that day his Afflictions were constant to him and never lent him pause or intermission of Peace Qui per virtutem peritat pol non interit The Gail of Anguish is the Cup of Salvation to him that gives thanks unto the Name of the Lord. 171. London was no place to contain the Lords and Gentry that remembred they were sworn to be faithful to the Crown when it was known that the King had sat down in the City of York Many came seasonably thither many made ready for it and were stopt abundance sent their Purse the Poor and well-meaning sent their hearts who would have failed beyond the Cape of Neutrality and cast Anchor on the King's shore if their Company could have brought profit or service Our Archbishop of that Province came with the first being as restless as Tully was to leave Rome in the stirs of Pompey Hinc ipse evolare cupio ut aliquo perveniam ubi nec Pelopidarum nomen nec facta audiam Lib. ep fam He had been translated from Lincoln to this Dignity seven months before He that gives a Promotion to a worthy man obligeth all men and this was marvellously well taken by all the Clergy of the Diocess Until that day he had not seen the place from which he was entitled which he had proposed to be the Scene wherein he would do the part of an Archbishop in great splendor His Means were sufficient his Inclinations very hospital Provisions abundant in that Country the Gentry addicted to Liberality or rather Profuseness no man was ever so cut out to please them since Alex. Nevil's days for magnificence But God prevented it that he could never settle his Houshold in Yorkshire as he desired He found every thing looking with a face of Confusion the gallantry of the South poured into the North not to begin a War but ready for the defensive part as was expected There are Mischiefs approaching when common bodings misgive them which were not discerned soon enough through fatal Security before they were ripened As Budaeus writes of France upon the first breaking out of Wars at home That France wanted eyes and ears and which is strange they wanted a Nose Qui cladem adventantem odorari ante non potuimus quà m ab eâ oppressi Lib. 4. de Asse fol. 110. The Presbyterians those Scalda-banco's or hot Declamers had wrought a great distast in the Commons at the King and at all that had his ear and favour The Age growing Learned and Knowledge puffing up Scholars grew more impudent and malapert with us and in every state than did become their Function Our much Peace which had lasted almost two Jubilees was seeded with great Vice in our manners Young men lived idly which made them want and therefore were ready for Bustles and Commotions to boot-hale and consume they that proposed to themselves no laborious kind of Life expected Alterations and then to have enough to lavish And not a few of these were of good Houses decayed that as one says Had ancient Coats of all colours but lack't Argent and Ore Tempestuous weather was sit for their Harvest And when Wars broke out they crept out of their Cranies like the Cimici in the Houses of Italy not of rotten Bedsteds But the Parliament our continual Hectick did lend their Arm to all Mischief to usher it in They could not bow the King to all their Votes and abase him to be contented with a shadow of Soveraignty therefore they ranged every thing to a War as palpably as if their Drums and Colours had been in the Fields Bacchae Bacchanti si velis adversarier Insanam insaniorem facies feriet saepiùs Plauti Frag. Their Motions now were not Mutinies à mutiendo but Vociferations as lowd as an Herald could proclaim them But God will never suffer the abuse of fiduciary Power which a good but an improvident King had past away to go unpunisht in themselves or in their Children Perditissimi est hominis fallere eum qui laesus non esset nisi credidisset Cic. Off. l. 2. The King deserv'd the better from them that reposed upon their duty both his own honour and the weal of all his Subjects The more publick the Person is the more he must betake him to trust many Nay none so private no Action that comes abroad so mean but you must believe in the fidelity of some As Russinus very well upon the Creed Nihil est quod in vitâ geri possit si non credulitas ante praecesserit The City of London came in for a great share to encourage the drawing of the Sword provided that the War came not near their Lines of Communication This City the Epitome of England marr'd all England as S. Hierom plays upon the River Pactolus that it hath golden Sands but unwholesom water Ditior caeno quà m fluento that the Mud was the best part of their River Ep. ad Mar. Alex. So muddy Wealth was the best thing that the Chuffs of the City had much else was but Dish-water except some few of the old store Sir H. Garrway Sir Ri. Gurney and their like who were poured into the Kennel for their fidelity But the worst of them all durst never have been so stout if the Parliament had not held up their Spirit in their wickedness And there was a Nation that shall not scape me that whistled to the Jades that plowed up the Furrows of our Land and gave them Provendore I mean the French to whom yet I will ascribe what Magius the Patavine doth Gens bellicosissima honorisque appetontissima It hath a stock of very noble Gentry but sick of two faults they abhor the Spaniards hate the English and wish the Confusion of both which may turn upon themselves They object how we assaulted them at Rhee but forget what we did for them at Amiens and Calis They remember King Charles his Navy at Rochel but take no notice of Queen Elizabeth who advanced Harry the Fourth to the Crown in spite of the Leaguers These kindled the Brands that set their Neighbours House on fire which lyes sleeping under the Ashes of our
general is S. Paul's Rule That covetousness is the root of all evil England was never more wealthy than when this War broke out In fourteen years now spent the great ebb of Coin and decay of Trade is a deep wound in the State There was Employment to get a living for all that were industrious Cup-boards were full of massy Plate all Pay was in Gold if it were to buy the Ware but of a Pedlar All this is sunk vanisht consum'd Sanctarum digestas opum partaeque per omnes Divitiae populos magnique impendia mundi Statius Armies maintain'd east west north and south have wasted it which do not shear but slay the miserable People Our Shields of Gold are converted into Brass as when Shisack rob'd Jerusalem and the Temple 1 Kings 14.27 Brigades and Garrisons of Beggars are become the sufficient Men that can lend hundreds and thousands Here 's right Quin. Varus in Paterc Syriam pauper ingressus invenit divitem dives pauperem reliquit Treasurers of the Army Excise-men Collectors of Taxes Victuallers of the Navy Committee-men with their Scribes Officers of all forts abundance of decayed Fortunes nay Scoundrels not worth a Groat before are swell'd into vast Estates progging and prowling every way in purveyance for themselves Will not these choose War rather than Peace against Foe or Friend For the Wheel will run easily into any mischief when it is well greased Who are they says Polybius that prefer a Soldiers life before any Lib. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They that loved to eat upon other mens cost and to live upon their Country-men So sensible are all men of this fatal and general empoverishing because we are so far from having the wound healed that the Arrow is not pluckt out but sticks still in our side To bring but part of their Rapines to an audit the Members of Parliament voted all rich Offices to themselves which the Licinian and Aebutian Law among the old Romans would not have suffered Ne quis Senator commodum sibi suis acquireret ex lege quam ferendam rogaret But these Members gave vast Sums Offices Forfeitures of Delinquents Lands and Goods one to another like Brutus and Cassius that committed an horrid act to make their Republick free and then invaded Provinces to themselves without the privity of the Government and took up all Moneys by their own power which the Questors had gathered for the aerarium And it will never be better when freedom is driven on in a popular uproar Now lest themselves in the House the Red-coats in the Field or their Intelligencers abroad should want pay they voted fifty Subsidies at one chop upon the City of London imposed a fifth and twentieth part upon all Lands and Moveables gathered ninety thousand pounds a month upon the Substance of all the Subjects then beside Customs superinducted Excise upon divers Wares which hath raised the prices of all things never to be brought down alas these are but flea-bits to the exaction of anipmoney Intestine War is a Market that will grow dearer and dearer as I will transcribe an Example for it out of Meursius Fortu. Atti. p. 55. Bellum Peloponnesiacum quo diutiùs duravit eo majora vectigalia imposita sunt bello sub Aristide moderata magna sub Pericle majora sub Alcibiade aucta sunt sub Lycurgo sub Demetrio admodum crevere Yet for every Peny of theirs our Tyrants impos'd a pound it is beyond the reckoning of Sums and Ciphers for these godly Patriots upon a mistake of Conscience at the worst must have all the Cavaliers Estates all the Kings and Churches Revenues pay no Debts no Tythes no Lords Rents no Copy-holds War was their gains and the Box swept in all Every one that would be innocent and live by the known Laws was devoured In the sad words of Salvian Eo res devoluta est ut nisi quis malus sit salvus esse non possit Many that loathed the Rebellion in their hearts listed themselves into it being before reduced to beggery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diodor. l. 18. p. 594. who adventur'd to die every day that they might live They were lost unless they could save themselves in the publick Ruin Sed it a se res habet ut publicâ quisque ruinâ malit occidere quà m sua proteri Paterc lib. 2. Desperate men had rather be undone in the Kingdoms ruin than in their private Fortune Some Noddies thought that a general Innovation would set them higher than they were Very sententiously the great Livy lib. Omni praesenti statu spes cuique res suas novandi est blandior Collect all into this misery when every man may reap the Field that will though he never sowed what will become of the Harvest 192. No wonder now if a right noble and harmless King was beaten with all his Part out of his strong holds for his Enemies were hired unto it with as much pay and spoil being well husbanded as would have beaten the Turk out of Europe The plunder and pillage that was made of private persons would have payed twenty thousand men for five years In conjunction with them or out of conjunction round or rattle if he were rich he must be a booty or a compounder There was but one thing that escap't their Claws which Plutarch hath exempted in the Life of Demetrius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 War will plunder no man of his Vertue it is a Commodity now grown an Incommodity not regarded Every thing else must pay tribute to the Sword Videbitis oppida in quibus nibil aliud est quam cadavera quae lacerantur corvi qui lacerant as Petromus of the like times every one was a Raven or a Carkass Or much like the riffling of Ptolemais in Aegypt by the woful experience of Synesius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was a night scuffle no distinction could be made between friends and foes which made some of the faction attrite if not contrite and sing their sorrows to a pitiful tune that they did ever concur to give the power to such perfidious usurpers o planetblasted wits to think their cargo could be preserved in the shipwrack of the whole kingdom In vastitate omnium tuas possessiones sacrosanctas futuras putas as Tully told Catiline to his face In this havock and torrent of Spoil none smarted more than the Clergy and their Patrimony Their persons were laid fast in Prison their Churches were unroost and desaced An abomination which the Switzers will not commit in their Wars You may believe their Historian Semler lib. 2. Perpetua lex est jam olim à nostris sancita ut in omni bello nulla vis injurta sacris locis inferatur But what do we talk of Law Vis colitur jurisque locum sioi vendicat cnsis Sil. l. 2. What Law is there to recover the Plate and Ornaments torn away from the Cathedrals No Law can restore the Bishops Palaces crazed to turn all