they think if it were overheard all hopes of further Preferment is almost defunct as if Roman was a needless Epithite and as if none were Catholicks in the World but only that barbarous and bloody Sect because like the Devil in the Possessed their Name is Legion for that they are many and numerous more is the pity yet blessed be God if you go to tell Noses in Europe or all the World over Protestants are the major part as well as the better part though you throw to the Papists side all our Tantivees into the bargain Come come Rome loses ground every day let the Pope the Jesuits and the Devil do what they can in Combination I told you they have got but one Main-pillar and that is crazy and rotten almost as great a blunder as they keep Tant Why do you think we shall not carry all before us Whigg Yes you will some of you at least be advanc't as high as Haman if the learned Mr. Selden Prophecyed true for when Doctor Worral Chaplain to the Bishop of London Licensed Sybthorp's said Sermon he scratch't his Name out and suffered not so much as any Sign of the Letters of his Name to remain on the Paper by advice of Mr. Selden to whose better Judgment and for further advice he sent Sybthorp's Pamphlet call'd a Sermon after he had Licens'd it but Mr. Selden said to him What have you done you have allowed a strange Book yonder which if it be true there is no Meum or Tuum no man in England hath any thing of his own if ever the Tyde turn as it did with a Vengeance to the Toryes and Tantivees you will be Hang'd for Publishing such a Book But what the Chaplain upon second thoughts would not do his Master the Bishop of London did Licensing the same with his own hand the good man being not willing that any thing should stick with him that came recommended from the Court. Tant From the Court or Queen what skills it I commend him the same Bishop also Licensed a Book called The Seven Sacraments with all its Errors made by Doctor Cosens Bishop Laud's Confident and yet neither he nor any of them did ever declare themselves to be Papists openly Whigg No no I know it they were the wiser neither did Mountague whom they all upheld and advanc'd and yet he made the Church of England a Schismatick if the Church of Rome be a true Church and alwayes kept the Faith as Mountague asserts and the said Bishops did abett him and Preferr'd him and so did the D. of Buckingham magnifying him as a well Deserving man and when the King Charles 1. was Marryed to his Queen a Daughter of France Letters were sent to the High Commission-Court and other Courts to suspend and take off all Execution of the Laws against Papists then by Proclamation upon the Parliaments Remonstrance a quite contrary Command was published under the broad Seal of England and after the Parliament was Dissolved then all the Popish-Priests fourteen or fifteen at a time are set at Liberty again such great variation of the Compass was found in the same Climat and Longitude sometimes the Laws being put in Execution at a force-put and then again slackning the Reins and following natural inclination Tant What Opinion had Archbishop Abbot of those times and those Transactions Whigg When the allowance of Sybthorp's Pamphlet was put upon him he said He had some reason out of the grounds of that Sermon that the Duke had a Purpose to turn upside down the Laws and the whole Fundamental Courses and Liberties of the Subject and to leave us not under the Statutes and Customs which our Progenitors enjoyed but to the pleasure of Princes Tant That is brave it is al-a-mode d' France but when the Duke was Stabb'd did the same Arbitrary Courses go on Whigg Yes Loans and Monopolies Privy Seals and such Projects were continued and some say the Earl of Strafford begun to assess Souldiers upon the People that would not pay his Arbitrary demands in Ireland chiefly to make way the better for the like Project other-where yet he was a wise man and a right Englishman once 'till he became infected afterwards with Ambition and Court the fate and occasion of the Ruine of Bishop Laud as well as of him and of one more of more worth than both of them Besides Said the Archbishop Abbot Now it came in my heart that I was present at the Kings Coronation where many things on the Princes part were solemnly Promised which being observed would keep all in order and the King should have a loving and gracious People and the Commons a kind and gracious King But I am loth to plunge my self over head and ears in these difficulties the Loans c. that I can neither live with quietness of Conscience nor depart out of the World with good Fame and Estimation And perhaps my Soveraign if he looked well into this Paradox would of all the World hate me because one of my Profession Age and Calling would deceive him and with base Flattery swerve from the Truth Tant Then you think that the Kings Minions Buckingham Laud and Strafford were the Kings greatest Enemies and that of all the World he had most Cause to hate them Whigg No doubt on 't if their Councels came out of their own Heads or was not rather Instill'd and put into their Heads by I know who Tory. Oh! I apprehend you Whigg But whether it be the Devil or man that possesseth men with evil the Sinners that received the Temptation the Baits of Ambition and Avarice as they are Instruments of wonderful Mischief and Blood ought to pay dear for their Sycophantry Tant Pay dear do you say Strafford and Laud lost their Heads on Tower-hill and Buckingham was Stabb'd at Portsmouth by Felton you said But you did not tell me what mov'd him to this bloody Fact Whigg Felton neither fled for it nor denyed the Deed but said he Killed him for the Cause of God and his Countrey and when it was replyed that the Surgeons said there might be hopes of his Life Felton answered and said It is impossible I had the force of forty men assisted by him that guarded my Hand that he did not kill him for any private Interest whatsoever that the late Remonstrance of Parliament published the Duke so odious that he appeared to him deserving Death which no Justice durst Execute Tant But we say seldom comes a better Whigg Nay there was not much to choose for the same Councils were still carryed on so that the Duke was not look't upon as the Original but rather an Instrument to execute Perplext Counsels and when he was Kill'd there wanted not others that would venture in his room though all History tells us those little by-wayes and illegal wayes prove as fatal now a-dayes as of old in the dayes of Gaveston and the two Spencers Suffolk c. There was a Paper found tack't
But how will you mend your selves if I get some of it for secret Service Whigg Thou art capable of any secret Service but Pimping Tant Pimping that becomes not my Coat Whigg True but I could tell you a time when Pimping and Conniving at Whoredom and Adultery has been as ready a road to a Bishoprick as ever Sybthorp Manwaring or Mountague took Tant In what time I pray Whigg In what time Catch-pole in no good time Tant Well say tho' in what time good Whigg Whigg When Popish Councils prevail'd most and Popish Interest Tant Oh! a great while ago Whigg Yes yes Man-Catcher how fain thou wouldst find me tripping Tant But did King Charles 1. take Tunnage and Poundage and Imprison the refusers without Authority of Parliament for the first 15 years of his Reign Tory. Yes indeed Mr. Richard Chambers was Imprisoned for refusing to pay Customs and had also 7060 Pounds of his goods taken from him and was fined 2000 l in the Star-chamber Tant See what it is to be obstinate and Rebellious Whigg What language these Tantivees have Obstinate and Rebellious when it was Voted and Declared by the honourable House of Commons Anno 1627. 1628. That whosoever shall Counsel or Advise the taking or Levying of the Subsidy of Tunnage and Poundage not granted by Parliament or shall be any Actor or Instrument therein shall be reputed an Innovator in the Government and a capital Enemy to the Kingdom and Common-wealth And if any Merchant or Person whatsoever shall voluntarily yield or pay the said Subsidy of Tunnage or Poundage not being granted by Parliament they shall likewise be reputed Betrayers of the Liberties of England and Enemies to the same As may appear by the said Order upon Record Now good Tantivee what shall a Subject do in this Case he must necessarily be ground-crusht between two Mill-stones if he Payes not the Kings party take all from him and if he Payes the Parliament punishes him for Betraying the Liberties of England and as a common and capital Enemy Tant There is but Right and Wrong in the World which of them were in the Right Whigg Neither of them would acknowledge themselves in the Wrong I 'le warrant 'till the longest Sword decided the Quarrel Tant But might not Mr. Chambers have been Pardoned if he would have Recanted these words They meaning the Merchants are in no parts of the World so screw'd and wrung as in England and that in Turkey they have more Incouragement Whigg Recant yes they brought him a Recantation to Subscribe and then he should be Released of his Fine 2000 l But the draught of Submission he Subscribed thus All the abovesaid Contents and Submission I Richard Chambers do utterly abhor and detest as most unjust and false and never 'till Death will acknowledge any part thereof Richard Chambers Also he underwrit these Texts of Scripture instead of Submission namely That make a man an Offender for a word and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate and turn aside the just for a thing of nought Wo to them that devise Iniquity because it is in the Power of their hand and they covet Fields and take them by Violence and Houses and take them away so they Oppress a man and his house a man and his heritage Thus saith the Lord God let it suffice you Oh Princes of Israel Remove Violence and Spoil and execute Judgment and Justice take away your Exactions from my People saith the Lord God If thou seest the Oppression of the Poor and violent perverting of Judgment and Justice in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they Per me Richard Chambers Tant But did He that is higher than the highest regard and shew his Displeasure in this Affair Whigg It is neither safe nor easy to unriddle the meaning of Gods Providence by the Events But as to matter of Fact History tells us that Richard Chambers notwithstanding his vast Losses for which he never had considerable Reparation when time serv'd so thankless an Office it is to be a State Martyr as to the gratitude of men but by Gods goodness to him he liv'd to be Sheriff of London and a worshipful Alderman thereof but his Judges in the Star-Chamber many of them did not come to the Grave in Peace but went out of the World as naked as they came into it stript of all before they were bereav'd of Life yet the Lord Treasurer Weston dyed of his fair death flying beyond Sea and withall he dyed a professed as before he was vilely suspected and taken upon suspition for a Masquerade Papist Tant You Whiggs thought him a Covert-papist or a Protestant in Masquerade when he was so preferr'd at Court from Chancellor of the Exchequer to be the great Lord Treasurer Whigg He was a Creature of Buckingham's making and Bishop Laud's Confirming Tant Do Bishops confirm Lord Treasurers Whigg Sometimes as well as turn Lord Treasurers themselves as they used to be Tant The worst of the Disciples carryed the Bag. Whigg That Rule holds not always true Tant But if the said Treasurer did Dye a profest Papist that looks not well on our side Tory. Nor can it surely be deny'd and the Commons were so sensible of it that they agreed upon this ensuing Petition to his Majesty concerning Recusants long before Weston grew so high in these words To the Kings most Excellent Majesty YOUR Majesties most Obedient and Loyal Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled do with great Comfort remember the many Testimonies which your Majesty hath given of your Sincerity and Zeal for the true Religion Established in this Kingdom and in particular your gracious Answer to both Houses of Parliament at Oxford upon their Petition concerning the Causes and Remedies of the Increase of Popery that your Majesty thought fit and would give Order to Remove from all Places of Authority and Government all such Persons as are either Popish Recusants or according to direction of former Acts of State justly to be suspected which was then Presented as a great and principal Cause of that Mischief but not having received so full redress herein as may conduce to the Peace of this Church and safety of this Regal State they hold it their Duty once more to resort to your Sacred Majesty humbly to Inform you that upon Examination they find the Persons underwritten to be either Recusants Papists or justly suspected according to the former Acts of State who now do or since the Siting of the Parliament did remain in places of Government and Authority and Trust in your several Counties of this your Realm of England and Dominion of Wales The Right Honourable Francis Earl of Rutland Lieutenant of the County of Lincoln Rutland Northampton Nottingham and a Commissioner of the Peace and of Oyer and Terminer in the County of York and Justice of Oyer
Vnhappy Expeditions and sometimes by Lending them to France in a time when we had more need to Borrow and by such Whimzees but the Parliament gave it a worse name calling them Treasons they reduc'd the King and Kingdom into great Straits weakness and necessities which was the design of the Popish Plot the Favourites were only the Instruments and perhaps saw not what they did But they did so many Irrational Senseless and Destructive Acts that almost all lay at Stake as you have heard and was just upon the go What must be done That was the Question in these Necessities and Straits To call a Parliament was the proper natural true certain and only English Remedy Tory. Ay so it was I must needs say Whig Well and so the King found too late but the Minions had done such unanswerable things that in all their Consultations they did as all Private Councellors do stear their course with an Eye and main respect to their own particular Safeties and welfare and not to the general good welfare and Salvation of the Ship of the Commonwealth that they guided at the Helm and they were so Conscious of their own wickedness that the Earl of Strafford very prudently foreseeing his own destruction when the Parliament was called humbly craves excuse from attending it chusing rather to stay with his Army in the North. Tory. He had nothing else to trust to but an Army and Force for by Force and an Army he Ruled in Ireland and nothing but the same methods could possibly preserve him nor indeed any Tyranny and Oppression Whig True Violence only can justify Violence not could his sins be safe but by attempting greater yet he had something else to Trust to besides an Army Tant What I pray let me hear that Whig The Royal Word and the Promise of a King who to perswade him to come to the Parliament besides the Peremptory Command that would take no denyal or excuse but come he must the King engaging and promising that as he was King of England he was able to secure him from any danger and that the Parliament should not touch one Hair of his Head Tant But they did reach every Hair of his Head and the Head also the King also Passing the Bill But what said the Earl when he first heard that the King had past the Bill against him as in a Complemental Letter he gave him leave Whig He held up his Hands as Coleman did at the Gallows when he saw he must go to it not using the very words that Coleman did There is no Truth in men but to the same Tune lift up his Eyes to Heaven and laying his Hand on his Heart said Put not you Trust in Princes nor in the Sons of men for in them there is no Salvation Tant Ay Coleman indeed was left in the Lurch some thought by his last words And thus the Devil Huggs the Witch But at the Gallows leaves the Wretch To the Embrace of Squire Ketch Laughing when her Neck does Stretch That he her Soul to Hell may Fetch Tory. But what said King Charles in his own excuse For giving up Strafford contrary to Promise Whig He was Sorry for it but it could not be help'd it was so lately done but the King nevertheless sent a Letter by the Prince to the Lords written with his own Hands Intreating them that they would Confer with the House of Commons to spate the Life of the Earl and that it would be a high Contentment to him Tant And what did the Lords thereupon Whig Just nothing at all as to sparing his Life but so confirm'd the King that he said also Fiat Justitia But the King in a Speech a little before he Signed the Bill of Attainder against the Earl told both the Houses of Parliament that in Conscience he could not Condemn the Earl of High Treason that he Answered for as to the most of the main particulars of the Charge against him Tory. Ay ay the Earl did not durst not have attempted such things as he did if some body had not been privy to it besides himself Whig The King also told the two Houses at the same time that neither Fear nor any other respect should make him go against his Conscience Tant But it seems his Royal Resolution was Changeable Whig Yes and yet he was naturally constant to his Opinions and Tenacious of them some thought even to Offence sometimes But the Crimes against the Earl's Arbitrary Government Arbitrary Sway Arbitrary Councels Arbitrary Force Arbitrary Taxes and Ruling by an Army and making his Will his Law was so Apparent that the fault mustly upon some body and upon whom more fit than upon such an evil Instrument and evil Councellor as Strafford was whom the very King himself could not deny to be guilty as he publickly acknowledged to both Houses in his Speech aforesaid of such Misdemeanors that he thought the Earl not fit to serve him or the Commonwealth in any place of Trust no not so much as a Constable and concluded his said Letter with these words If no less than his Life can satisfie my people I must say Fiat Justitia which words he repeated when the Lords in Answer to his Majesties said Letter denyed to spare his Life as unsafe for the King and Royal Family Tory. I am clear too of Opinion that either the King was privy to his Misdemeanors before that time as the King intimated as aforesaid or else he and all other Kings may think the better of Parliaments as long as they live for representing men in their true colours and letting them see that the Persons and chief Favourites Admirals and Generals of their Armies and when they trust as King Charles did Strafford with the management of their chief Affairs are really and truly such wretches that they are not fit for the meanest Trust no not so much as worthy to be Petty Constable Whig That Dilemma is unanswerable Tant But Prythee Whigg what Opinion had men in those days of the Court as to Arbitrary Government Popery or Affection to Popery Whig Men strangely differ'd in Opinion in those days as now which bred that great difference amongst men as it seems was not to be decided without Blood great unnatural and uncivil Bloodshed Tory. We that were Cavaliers believed the King when he took the Sacrament upon it and pass'd so many Acts of Parliaments against Popery and Papists and promis'd to proceed Vigorously against Papists and that he also did abhor the Thoughts of Arbitrary Government Really we believ'd so many Oathes Sacraments Vowes and Royal Words and Promises publick and private Declarations and Proclamations Whig Ay ay so you did we Whiggs too have a great deal of Faith if we let upon a belief we will not to our own Eyes give Credit we are for Implicite Faith sometimes as well as you Tory. Well but Answer to the purpose was not the King counted a Gracious good King Whig Yes
all Kings are called so especially whilst they Live and to their Heads for a King can do no wrong And all men acknowledged that King Charles I. of his own Natural Temper was inclined to Goodness and Mercy and Justice and Righteousness and the keeping of Faith with men and observing his Word fulfilling his Promises and keeping stedfast to Religion and therefore they think that he knew nothing of the matter when Popish-Books or Books in Favour of Popery as Mountagues Book aforesaid and the Authors of such Books and the Books for Arbitrary Government and the Authors of them Sybthorp aud Manwaring were the men and the Books the Tenents Doctrines and Opinions that were prefer'd advanc'd extoll'd cry'd up and Countenanc'd at Court above all other men and Books were really Orthodox and according to Law nay some think the King knew not that Mountague and Manwaring were not only Pardon'd but made Bishops since the Parliament had judg'd them unmeet for their demerits which no man in England durst publickly own or vindicate to this day and vile wretchedness and false Doctrines to be uncapable of the meanest Benefices yet these must be the chief Shepheards the Flocks were like to be well govern'd and Bishop Land that abetted and Countenanc'd the said Authors and Books Licensed their false Doctrines and impure as well as Illegal Principles and got their Books Licensed was made Archbishop and who but he with the King and Court The King knew nothing of all this nor that Papists great Papists were put into Commission all the Kingdom over nor that Arbitrary Government in Loanes Knighthood-Money Tunnage and Poundage Ship-Money Assessing and Billeting of Souldiers c. The King knew nothing of all this these were Deeds Deeds not Words Deeds that made the Kingdom groan Deeds that Affrighted the Parliament and the Kings best Subjects with too much cause of Jealousies and Fears of Popery and Arbitrary Government when it was really practic'd in so many particulars and the Councellors and Favorites that abetted the same the only men in Favour and nothing was said against them in Parliament but it prov'd the ruine of the men though Parliament-men that might Parler le ment speak their minds freely and lawfully and also prov'd to be the Dissolution of those Parliaments 'till the Kings Necessities and Straits were so great and the Dissolutions so frequent and on the strange occasions aforesaid that the Parliament would do nothing 'till the King not only had Promis'd but had granted it by Statute that they should not be Dissolv'd but by their own Consent Tory. It is the greatest wonder in the world to me that any King should Dissolve a Parliament but by their own Consent or 'till all Grievances be Redress'd for the King is Pater Patriae the Father of the Country and what an odd Humour is it if a Father that has a Child or Children troubled with griefs or Grievances and had a Prerogative that could but would not remedy them nay nor suffer them that would remedy his Children is this Father like or like something else The King is the chief Shepheard of his People his Flock but what an odd humour is it if a Shepheard when he sees Doggs and Wolves tear and rend his Sheep shall neither according to the duty of his place deliver his Sheep out of their Jaws nor yet suffer others to do it but contrarily side with the Doggs and defend the Worried Sheep much more if he see the Currs on worse if he shall go Snips in the Booty and Prey Whigg I am glad to hear this of you Mr. Tory you have been us'd to Language that has less of Sense Reason or Law in it Tant But all this while Mr. Whigg you do not tell us any thing in Answer to this excuse the Favourites made namely Necessity the Kings necessities required that which indeed ought not to be done by Law Whig Necessity Pish this excuse aggravates their Offence for thus they dispute in a Carcle and justify their wickedness by greater by links and chains of evil consequences First the Kings Affairs by their Evil Councel and Managements is brought into Straits and Necessities the effect of them then these evil effects are made the Cause of the continuance of worse effects World without end But thank God for a Parliament The Pretence of this same Whimzey Necessity hath ruin'd the Liberties and Properties of the French-men in Normandy to this day For they were ruled once by as good Laws as we are but being opprest with some Grievances contrary to their Charters Customs and Franchises they made their Complaint to Lewis the Tenth who by his New Charters in the year 1314. acknowledged their Rights and Customs aforesaid and confirmed them Confessing also that they had been unjustly grieved and wrong'd but by the said New Charter did provide that from thence forward they should be free from all Subsidies and and Exactions to be imposed upon them without their own Consents but with this saving or small exception Si necessitis grand ne le requiret namely except great necessity required the contrary Which little business Mr. Necessity has done their business and broke the neck of all their Laws Charters and Franchises and of Subjects they are become Slaves and Vassals little differing from Turky-Gally-Slaves for no man can say any thing is his own if necessitye le Grand that is the King require the same nay they dare not now say That their Souls are their own so great is the Encroachment of Tyranny Covetousness and Oppression if you give it an Inch it will take an Ell and thefore you Toryes are a base generation for you hate your Friends most of all and Spaniard-like at the same time basely Fawn Wagg your Tails and Cringe base Currs to the Hand that beats you most nay you 'l Fight to Blood in pursuit of your Sycophantry poor Slaves And your Tantives will Preach your People all out of Church rather than not Preach up the said false Doctrine of Sybthorp Mountague and Manwaring Oh most unworthy Treacherous and Easy-bought Hirelings That for to be made a Shepheard or chief Bishops of Souls would betray them and Sell them all and your own to boot into the bargain in defyance of the Laws of God and the Realm which the King is Sworn and bound to obey perform observe and keep The Throne cannot have it has been found by woful experience worse Friends nor greater Traytors than such Sycophants and Wretches as you are Tant We are as much obliged to you Mr. Whigg for your good Opinion of us Whig 'T is according to your Merits Is it not enough that this Kingdom and Commonwealth should be once in one Age undone by the same kind of men the same Sell Truths the same Illegal Principles and Tantivee-Practices and Parasitical Flatteries and Slye Insinuations under the Vizard of Divinity Loyalty and the Church the Church and yet not one in a hundred of
the Strangest Law in the World if it should give a Prerogative to destroy it self and so become felo de se it s own Executioner having so carefully fenc'd against Arbitrary sway in all Ages and so Industriously and zealously too have our Ancestors stood up for the same to the last drop of their Bloods as chusing rather to leave us no Lands Charters Priviledges and Fields rather than Akeldama's as one calls them Fields of Blood and such as we must like them be forc'd to Fight for their Defence and our own against Arbitrary Projects Whig There needs no Fighting for them if we make the good Old Laws the Arbitrator of the Good Old Cause For the Law alone gives the King his due and his Subjects their due but because men naturally encline to do what they list without controul wonder not if even the best of Kings surrounded with so many Parasites and pimping Sycophants have been tempted to rule and do as he list without Check-mate of Bishops and Knights and Lords in Parliament Tant Why Has Parliaments then been as Old a Constitution as Kings of England Whig Yes for ought can be known to the contrary The said Famous Old Book the said Mirrour of Justice shows that Parliaments were before a single King Ruled England namely during the Heptarchy when there were seven Kings rather than fail to rule England Tant I shall never have enow of Kings I do so love them Whig Ay but seven Kings were accounted more than enough and after the Heptarchy when the King of the West-Saxons namely Cornwall Devonshire Dor setshire Sommer setshire Wiltshire Hampshire and Barkshire had swallowed up all the rest Parliaments still were or Senates as long before this during the Reign of the Senate and Caesars of Rome here in England So also after Egbert when the Bishop of Winchester Ethelwolph his Eldest Son with much ado was perswaded to leave his Bishoprick and a Religious Life for a Kingdom after he had purchas'd a Pardon from the Pope for breaking his Religious Vow And yet he had much ado to keep his Crown upon his head for breaking but one poor Law for if he had not by death timely death cheated his Lords they had certainly Depos'd him for placing his Queen in a Chair of State which was then contrary to Law made ever since Queen Ethelburg by chance Poison'd her Husband King Birthrick by a Venemous Potion which she said at least she had prepared for another but being a Handsome Whore she fled into France 'till by frequent Adulteries she died Miserably and like a Rotten Whore and for her sake the West-Saxons ordained whence Note they were Law-makers in these days a Law that no Kings Wife should hereafter have the Title or Majesty of a Queen which Law as aforesaid King Ethelwolph being so bold as to dispense with and break the Lords would certainly have Depos'd him but that his Grave prevented them Tant Then belike it was not safe for Kings to break Laws in those days Whig Judge you and long after Stout King Edward I. told the Bishops plainly that he could not being but one Member of the Body though the Head undo what the whole Body had done and Enacted as is before remembred Tant You are full of your Old Storyes to maintain your Whiggism Whig I invent none I write nothing but what I have Authentick Histories and Records to Vouch and Attest the Truth And thus Parliaments continued in the short Reign of Ethelbald Successor to his Fathers Crown and Bed for to his Eternal shame he Married Judith his Fathers Widdow So also in the Reigns of Ethelbert Ethelred and Alfred the four Sons of Ethelwolph who Successively Reigned one after another which Alfred was as Learned as Valiant and first Founded the University of Oxford one of the Oldest Universities in the World Tant I thought Universities had been as Old as Christianity What could Christianity and the Ministry continue in the World nine hundred years in its greatest splendor without an University and an Academian Whig Yea so it seems without either Oxford-Scholar Bloxford-Schollar or Cantabrigian Alas alas Universities were at first the Pope's Invention so also were School-men School-Divinity and Canon-Laws with which he has so defac'd Christianity with his Painting Glazings Glossings Comments Arguments Syllogismes Fallacies Fripperies and Metaphysical-Fopperies that Schollars are forc'd to Fool away a great deal of time in Cracking these Insipid Shells and Outward Rindes that their Teeth are broke and worn out before they come to Taste true and Solid Learning or Christianity nay the Majority never come at the Kernel and Marrow of true Divinity and useful Learning during their whole Life not much unlike that Popish Doctor that had been nine years Doctor of Divinity before he saw a Bible Tant Doctor Subtilis I 'le warrant Tory. Prythee Parson do not thus Interrupt Mr. Whigg with your Impertinent Parenthesis Go on Whigg Whig To serve you Tory I will and will let you know that there were Parliaments to which Knights and Burgesses were Summon'd after the Heptarchy in the Reigns aforesaid and the Reigns of Alfred's Sons King Edward as Stout a man as his Father not so Book-Learn'd but more Successful through the help of his Sister Madam Elfled the Wife of Ethelred Earl of Mereia to whom when she had brought him one Daughter with Grievous Pains in her Travel she turn'd Souldier and Virago helping her Brother most Manfully against the Welsh and Danes and brought them all under her refusing the Nuptial Bed of her Husband saying It was a floolish pleasure that brought with it so Excessive Pains Tant Few of our women now a dayes are of her mind they 'l venture again and again Tory. This Parson is always Interrupting us with his Idle Notes Commentaries and Observations Proceed good Mr. Whigg there is some profit and understanding to be learn'd by you Parson hold your Tongue if it be possible for a Prating Circingle to leave his Impertinence in Company Whig This Old Fundamental frame continued in the Reigns of Athelstone Edgar Ethelred Canutus Harold William the Conqueror c. So that Parliaments are part of the Frame of the Common-Law which no Kings can defeat frustrate or make void nor did ever any attempt the same but it proved Fatal to him nay proved to be his ruine Witness all the Unhappy Reigns and Violent Deaths of English Kings that have broke loose and made Rapes and violent attempts upon the known Chast and Sacred Laws of England the Common-Law to King and People fram'd in the Law and Light of Nature Right Reason and Holy-Writ Secondly According to the said Law made in the Reign of King Alfred Parliaments are to Sit frequently Right and good Reason I do not say as often as you take Physick Spring and Fall at least but however so often as the Noxious Humours abound above the Boundaries Banks and Limits of the Law and
THE SECOND PART OF THE History of Whiggisme OR THE Whiggish-PLOTS PRINCIPLES and PRACTICES Mining and Countermining THE TORY-PLOTS PRINCIPLES and PRACTICES In REIGN of King CHARLES I. TORY ONce more well met Mr. Tantivee and honest Whigg Tantivee Whigg We come on purpose to hear the Continuation of your History of Whiggisme Tory. I neither am able nor do I pretend to tell you any thing but what is to be found in Chronicles Histories and at large already in Print Tant Ay but I have not Money to buy them nor Leisure to read large Volumes give us onely an Abridgment out of those vaster Collections in relation only to the Whiggisme of them Tory. With all my heart where left I off Tant At Mr. Moor's Release and Discharge by his Gracious Majesty Charles 1. and the Imprisonment and Release of the Earl of Arundel Tory. Oh! 'T is Right Whigg But was not that part of the Kings Answer about the Imprisonment of the Earl of Arundel namely My Lords By this I do not mean to shew the Power of a King by diminishing your Priviledges ill resented by the House of Lords Tory. It plainly Intimated that the King thought He had such a Power or some about him made him believe he had such a Power of a King to Diminish their Priviledges but he did not mean to show it Tant No the more Gracious King He. Tory. However the House of Lords were so Allarum'd at the Expression that lest they should happen to have a King that was less Gracious or of a worse Meaning they would not meddle with any Business 'till they had secured as well as claim'd their Priviledges by another Tenure than what was meerly Arbitrary Ad libitum Regis and therefore Adjourn'd in Disgust resolving unanimously to take nothing into Consideration 'till they had Contrived how their Priviledges might be Secur'd to Posterity which being perceiv'd the Earl of Arundel as you have heard was Releas't to them for which he was thankfull Tant Ay that was right Tory-like and most Loyally done some Whiggs would not so Religiously have Kist the Rod that whips them Whigg 'T is somewhat against the Grain of Humanity to fawn Spaniel-like upon the Hand that beats them Tant Some men are so Loyal as to make a Legg at every Box of the Ear Who may say to a King what dost thou Whigg Misapply'd and Misconstru'd Scriptures make up a Tantivee and makes a man be a Tantivee Tant Why Is not the King's Will a Law Whigg In France they say and in Turkey not in England for so the Barons of England told the two Cardinals whom the Pope sent to Reconcile the Differences betwixt King and People about Magna Charta Liberties and Prerogative That there were many Worthy and Learned men in the Kingdom whose Council they would use and not Strangers who knew not the cause of their Commotion in the Reign of K. Edward 2. Tory. No I must confess that Forreigners unacquainted with the Fundamental Constitution of our Government and Laws are no Competent Judges of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of Contests betwixt King and People Whigg Ay the English were alwayes tender of their Liberties Tant But if English Kings did Invade their Liberties they used no Remedy I hope but Prayers and Tears Whigg And Bows and Arrows and long Swords until the Kings were Contented to Rule them according to their Oath and the Law of the Land Tant Ay Perhaps when they happened to have some easie weak timerous and condescending King Whigg No In such a juncture they were alwayes the calmer but grew rough raging high and boysterous the more vehement strong and tempestuous their Kings were as for Instance in Edw. 1. another Saul for he was higher and taller than ordinary men by the Head and Shoulders and as Tyrannical too as King Saul was He at one time at the Instigation of William Marchian then Lord Treasurer fetch 't all the Riches out of the Churches and Religious Houses and put it into his own Exchequer Loans Benevolences the Writ of Trailbaston great Fines were used by him in the Seventeenth Year of his Reign he Fined all his Judges pretending for Corruption the least of them one thousand Marks an immense Summe in those dayes but some of them two thousand some three thousand some four thousand some six thousand and the Chief Justice Sir Ralph de Hengham seven thousand Marks the Chief Baron Sir Adam Stratton four and thirty thousand Marks but from Thomas Wayland all his Goods and whole Estate Confiscate and himself Banish't and just so he used the Jews which were then in England very rich and very numerous 'T is said of K. Hen. 8. that he never Spared Man in his Anger nor Woman in his Lust but King Edw. 1. was as resolv'd as he as Couragious and Stout leaving the Marks of his personal Valour the Trophies of his Victories in the Holy-land before he was King but he could Disguise his furious Resentments and Adjourn Revenge seven and seven Years 'till he could safely Execute it Tant Safely why who should or durst say to that most Couragious and Victorious King that thrice Conquer'd Scotland France and Wales What dost thou Whigg His own People and Subjects forc't him to reason and to Rule them according to Law his Oath and Magna Charta the Parliament-men came to his Parliament Attended with Armed men very numerous at Stamford 28 Edw. 1. to make him fulfill and Execute the Charter of the Forrest says Walsingham and Knighton two Famous Historians of those times Rex Angliae sub his diebus Parliamentum tenuit Stamford ad quod convenerunt Comites Barones cum equis armis co prout dicebatur proposito ut Executionem Chartae de Foresta hactenùs dilatam extorquerent mind that ad plenum Tant Ay but how did the Stout King Edward Treat these Armed Petitioners Whigg They ask't nothing but what the Laws and his own Oath ought to have Compelled him unto and the King yielded to their Requests Rex autem eorum Instantiam Importunitatem attendens eorum voluntati in omnibus condescendit Knighton sayes De quâ re Rex Integrè plenè eorum voluntatem Implevit ad vota in which matter the King fully and wholly granted their Desires to their Wishes Tant It was very civilly done of him Whigg It was wisely and honestly done and as his Coronation Oath Equity Reason Conscience and the Laws from none of which English Kings pretend to be exempt did adjure him and Constrain him and they are devillish Councellors and the Kings worst Enemies and Traitors that perswade him to act contrary to Law Power is high enough without being wanton and lasts longest when it is not Stretcht to the height or Over-stretcht 't is a wonder that a thing so uneasie should please Tory. Ambition and Covetousness know no bounds and I have read King Edward got the Pope to set him free from the
Magna Charta is such a fellow that he will have no Soveraign I wonder this Soveraign was not in Magna Charta or the confirmations of it If we grant this by Implication we give a Soveraign power above all these Laws mind that for all Power and Liberties and Prerogatives are bounded and limited by the Laws and though they be great as the Sea yet have their bounds the Law saying Hitherto shalt thou go and no further and here shall thy proud Waves be stay'd no Prerogative is infinite in England nor any power omnipotent except that of God alone the Law limits and bounds us all from the greatest to the least And therefore Sir Eward Cook goes on telling the House That Power in Law is taken for a power with force The Sheriff shall take the power of the County what it means here God only knows It is repugnant to our Petition that is the King shall not Billet Souldiers raise Money by Privy Seals Loans Imprison without cause in Law shewn c. saving by his Soveraign Power our Petition is a Petition of Right grounded on Acts of Parliament Our Predecessors would never endure a Salvo Jure suo no more than the Kings of Old could endure for the Church Salvo Honore Dei Ecclesiae we must not admit of it and to qualifie it is impossible Let us hold our Priviledges according to the Law that Power that is above this it is not sit for the King and People to have it disputed further Tant The Oath of Allegiance binds us all to maintain the Kings Prerogative Whigg No doubt on 't and let it be for ever Sacred let no Prophane Hand or Tongue touch it no nor so much as think upon it Irreverently both it and the Peoples Liberties as aforesaid are vast and great but they are not Infinite they have their known Bounds and ancient Land-marks and Cursed is that evil Councellor that makes such a Stir to Encroach or Remove them extend them or Stretch them such deserve to Stretch for it For 't is certain that there is no Soveraign Power or Prerogative wherewith any King of England hath been intrusted either by God or Man but what is for Edification not for Destruction for the Weal of his People and for their Protection Safety and Happiness Tant Our Gracious Soveraign in his late Declarations pretends to no other Prerogative but what is legal Whigg All the better for him and us his Royal Father of Gracious Memory seem'd to Disgust his Lords as aforesaid when he told them that he meant not to shew the Power of a King by diminishing their Priviledges Tory. He wanted not bad Instillers sometimes as he Confest afterwards Whigg The Summer shall want Flies e're the Crown want Sycophants swarming about it yet like Musketoes too they usually Burn their Wings in the Flame to this sort some ascribed those words in the Kings Speech I owe the account of my Actions to God alone c. But as for Tunnage and Poundage it is a thing I cannot want Tant No why should he Whigg The matter of taking it was not so much the question as the manner of taking it namely taking it before and without the gift thereof to the King by them that had the only power to dispose thereof Tant Then there was hard Measure to some as well as hard Imprisonment if the Parliament had the only power to give Tunnage and Poundage for the Kings Commission to the Customers begins thus C. R. WHereas the Lords of the Council taking into Consideration our Revenue and finding that Tunnage and Poundage is a principal Revenue of our Crown and has been continued for these many Years have therefore Order'd all those Duties of Subsidie Custom and Import as they were in the Twenty first of King James and as they shall be appointed by Us under our Seal to be Levyed Know ye that we by the Advice of our Lords Declare our Will that all those Duties be Levyed and Collected as they were in the time of our Father and in such manner as we shall appoint and if any Person refuse to Pay then our Will is that the Lord Treasurer shall Commit to Prison such so Refusing 'till they Conform themselves And we give full Power to all our Officers from time to time to give Assistance to the Farmers of the same as fully as when they were Collected by Authority of Parliament Whigg This occasion'd Debates that ended in the Dissolution of that Parliament after which the King call'd no more of eleven long Years and Straits and Necessities were urgent and remediless without a Parliament and woful work in Conclusion Tant Why did the Parliament meddle with the Customers Whigg Because they collected Customs in Tunnage and Poundage without Authority of Parliament Tant King James had them before they were given to him in Parliament Whigg King James had them by Authority of Parliament from the day before his first Parliament begun but the Statute gave him Power so to do but not from the first day of his coming to the Crown for he came to the Crown March 24. 1602. His first Parliament began at Westminster March 19. 1603. and took many things into Consideration and Enacted them before they took into consideration Tunnage and Poundage but 1 Jac. cap. 33. the Commons by the Advice and consent of the Lords gave the King the Subsidy of Tunnage and Poundage at a very low rate namely but three Shillings a Tun for Wine and so proportionably for quantities greater or lesser than a Tun but this expir'd with the Kings Life his only Son and Successor took it without Authority of Parliament as his Father took it by Authority of Parliament to the great Disgust of his Parliament who did at length grant him Tunnage and Poundage upon certain Trusts and Confidences from the 9th of August 1641. for about three months 16 Car. 1.22 Tant What no longer Whigg Not at one loose then by 16 Car. 1.25 they trusted the King with the Customs from November 30. 1641. to February 1. namely for two Months longer Then the other Hitch for five Months namely from February 1. 1641. until July 2. 1642. Then they continued it for some little time by 16 Car. 1. c. 29. cap. 31. cap. 36. Tant But did the Free Free-Parliament in 12 Car. 2.4 give it to our gracious King for no longer time Whigg Yes yes for his Life but upon trust too so sayes the Act namely The Commons Assembled in Parliament reposing Trust and Confidence in your Majesty in and for the Guarding and defending of the Seas against all Persons intending or that shall intend the Disturbance of your said Commons in the Intercourse of Trade and the Invading of this Realm c. Tant Then it was granted for these Uses and Considerations belike and should be made Use of for no other end you would say Whigg Yea I do say so as the said Statute sayes Tant
said the Duke in his own Justification and Defence in the Star-Chamber Tory. He denyed it and examined divers Witnesses about the matter Tant And what then Tory. Nothing more the Cause never came to Judicial Hearing in that Court Tant Then let us hear no more of it I am sick of it my self I never heard so much before Go on Tory. After the Parliament was Dissolv'd and things well husht the Privy Council Order'd all Customs to be paid and the Refusers Punisht by Fines Imprisonment this was deem'd one New-council and Loans another Tant Loans prythee Tory what were they Tory. The King sent to the Rich a Letter beginning Trusty and Well-beloved c. under the Privy Seal requiring him or them to send him within twelve dayes so much Money as for Example in the West-riding in York-shire to Sir Thomas Wentworth 20 l Sir Francis Fuljam 20 l Sir Edward Osburn 30 l Godfrey Copley Esquire 15 l promising in the Name of the Kings Majesty his Heirs and Successors to repay the Money so lent Tant Ay when le ts hear that Tory. Within eighteen Months Tant And was the Money Repayed Tory. Pish that 's a silly question then of the City of London the King bid them lend him a hundred thousand pound Tant Well said a few such Summs from Towns or Cities would do the business but did they lend the Money Tory. No the City desir'd to be excused Tant And what then Tory. Then the Privy-Councel required them all excuses set apart to return a Direct and speedy Answer to his Gracious Majesty or in default thereof that his Majesty may frame his Councils as appertaineth to a King in such extream and Important occasions Tant And were they not afraid and apprehensive of the Innuendo Tory. The Commands rested not here for they also commanded the City to Equippe twenty of their best Ships in the River with all manner of Tackle Sea-stores and Ammunition men and Victuals for three Months Tant And did they do it Tory. They grumbled at it saying it was without President as did also the Deputy-Lieutenants and Justices of Peace at Dorset having received the Kings Commands for setting forth Ships from Pool Weymouth and Lime but the Council checkt them for daring to dispute Orders instead of obeying them and whereas they mention presidents they might know that the presidents of former times were Obedience not Direction Whigg It would puzzle a good Historian to find presidents of Obedience in England to Arbitrary-sway and Orders of Privy-Council for Impositions without Law to back them Tory. How Did not stout King Edward 1. Command Roger Bigot Earl of Norfolk and Lord Marshal of England and several other Lords to go to the Wars in Gascoygne in France which they refusing except the King himself went also in Person But the King threatned then to take away their Lands and their Lives saying to the Lord Marshal and Swearing By God Sir Earl you shall either Go or Hang. Whigg Ay but the Earl answered the King at the same moment I Swear by the same Oath I will neither Go nor Hang and so without leave went out of the Room and departed and shortly after he and Humphrey Bohun Earl of Hereford and other Lords and Noble-men Assembled and other their Friends to the number of thirty Bannerets one thousand five hundred men at Arms well appointed and stood upon their Guard but the King Dissembled his Resentments at that time being about to go to Flanders where he spent much Money and for recruit Summons a Parliament to meet at York promising from thenceforth never to charge his Subjects otherwise than by their Consents in Parliament and also to Pardon all such as had denyed to attend him in this Journey Tant And did they trust the Kings word Tory. Yes but he broke it and all his other Oaths and Confirmations of the Peoples Charters made in Parliament two Years after having obtained and bought a Pardon for so doing as aforesaid of his Holiness nay he begun to play his Arbitrary Pranks long before that for in 8 Edw. 1. he sent out his Writ of Quo Warranto a fine Engine to get Money to examine by what Title men held their Lands which upon flaws found in their Charters and pryed into by the Lawyers brought him in much Money 'till John Earl of Warren stopt the Current and stem'd the Tyde for calling upon him to show his Title He drew out an old rusty Sword and said He held his Land by that and by that would hold it to Death and having many Backers it made the King desist from his Project Tant An old rusty Sword dost say that was more than the old Christian Weapons Prayers and Tears Tory. And stopt the Kings Tyranny and lawless Usurpations more than a thousand Petitions Prayers and Tears Tant Still I say Subjects Christian Subjects should use no Weapons but Prayers and Tears Whigg What not against Robbers Thieves and Murderers Tant Not against Magistrates that Rob by Law Whigg Thou talk'st like an Asse every day more than other Rob by Law a Contradiction in terminis if there be Law for it it is not Robery Theft nor Murder and if it be against Law or without Law all violent taking of mens Goods one Subject from another is Theft and Robbery except the Law enjoyn it and may lawfully be Resisted without all doubt in like manner and with such Weapons as the Onset or Assault is made Tant What in an Officer a Commission-Officer Whigg No man can be Authoriz'd to do an ill thing or an illegal thing by any mans Commission much less by the Kings Commission or the Broad-Seal for the King can do no wrong if it be wrong it stands for nothing it is not the Kings act nor the Kings Commission but Surreptitious and punishable Tant And who shall Judge of its Legality or the legality of the Resistance Whigg The Judges and the Law and the Juries Tant Nay then we are well enough yet Whigg If you be well keep you so whil'st you are well but remember Belknap Tresilian c. many Judges have been Hang'd right right and good Reason for corrupt and false Judgment there are they that shall judge the Judges Tant Ay but when at the day of Judgment Whigg Yes yes no more on 't but this Doctrine of resisting with other Weapons than Prayers and Tears Force with Force Violence with Violence in our own just Defence seems so strange to the new Tantivee-men that herein join with the old Error of the Anabaptists condemned in the 37 Article of the Church of England as also the Family of Love who Condemned all Wars as did the Manichees nay the learned Ludovicus Vives saith Arma Christianum Virum tractare nescio an fas sit I know not whether or no it be lawful for a Christian to Fight at all or go to the Wars and wear Weapons Lactantius also was against all Killing right and
fear of Hell and Purgatory does affright Tant Brave doings In Athens Themistocles was Governour and Rul'd the City his Wife rul'd him and her Son rul'd her where then were lodg'd the Reyns of Government Tory. What 's that to us here in England good Impertinent Whigg Do not interrupt us you Parson with your Nonsensical Prate out of old Notes which you read devoutly out of Sybthorp Manwaring and Mountague do not mistake your self you think the People of Athens had a brave time on 't luscious doings if you had liv'd there you would have known where and to whom you would make your special Addresses and close Applications Tory. Archbishop Abbot was quite out of play for refusing to License that doughty Sermon to which he made many rational exceptions as namely in Page 2. to these words And whereas the Prince pleads not the power of Prerogative and in page 8. The Kings Duty is first to direct and make Laws and page 10. If nothing may excuse from active Obedience but what is against the Law of God or of Nature or Impossible How does this agree with Page 5. That all Subjects are bound to all their Princes according to the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom wherein they live he might have honestly added and no otherwise and Page 12. yea all antiquity to be absolutely for absolute Obedience to Princes in all Civil and Temporal things Tant Hey day this is like Pope Boniface to Philip the fair of France Sciat te in Temporalibus Spiritualibus nobis subjacere Whigg They do not say in Spiritual things they would have their Prince absolute over all but themselves but is that Position agreeable to the great Charter and many more Acts of Parliament in Edw. 1. and Edw. 3. That the Subjects shall not be grieved to sustain any Charge or Aid but by the Common Assent and that in Parliament and the Petition of Right at large Confirms the same by the Repetition of many more Statutes to that purpose Tory. Enough Enough of this Tant What Opinion had Archbishop Abbot of Dr. Laud Tory. He soon found him and said his Life in Oxford was to pick quarrels in the Lectures of the Publick Readers and to give notice of them to the Bishop of Durham that he might fill the Ears of King James with Discontents against the honest men that took Pains in their Places and settled the truth which he called Puritanisme in their Auditors It was an Observation what a sweet man this was like to be that the first observable Act that he did was the Marrying the Earl of D. to the Lady R when it was notorious to the World that she had another Husband King James did for many years take this so ill that he would never hear of any great Preferment of him The Bishop of Lincoln Doctor Williams got him at length advanc't to the Bishoprick of St. Davids which he had not long enjoy'd before he began to undermine his Benefactor Tant That Ingratitude is inexcusable Tory. He continued his Rancour against him to his utmost to the very last Whigg Ay Archbishop Abbot that had woful cause to know him gave this Character of Land that such was his aspiring nature That he would underwork any man in the World so that he might gain by it Tory. The little man had a high towring Spirit which made the Kings Jester Archee who would needs say Grace before the King when little Bishop Laud was present in these words Great Praise be given to God and little Laud to the Devil Whigg The worst Crime that was laid to his Charge was the Countenancing Arbitrary and illegal Taxes recommended by Sybthorp and Manwaring and abetting these Sycophants which some call Crimen lesae majestatis Legis Regis There cannot be a greater Treason than an endeavour to rob the King of his Goodness Truth Conscience Trust and fidelity to his People nor a readier Road to Ruine The Kings Prerogative is the guard of the Subjects Liberties and Peace he has no Prerogative but what the Law gives him much less any Prerogative against Law Equity Reason Conscience and Justice though Sycophants for vile ends would so have stretch't it They wore the old Text thredbare Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars in those Tantivee-dayes Tant Why so Whigg If you will not be Angry Parson I 'le tell you a Story a true one of my own certain knowledge and remembrance that will for ever Spoyl hereafter all your Tantivee-Sermons on that Text. Tant Nay if it be such a spoyl-Sermon-story keep it to your self for I have four Sermons upon that Text ready writ and they will last me with Repetitions you know and eeking out two whole Months Tory. Prythee Whigg let 's hear your story however let the Parson storm as he pleases or be disappointed Whigg Before one of the wisest Kings that ever England had King James did one D. Harsnet Preach a Tantivee-Sermon on that Text Give unto Caesar but his Sermon poor man instead of getting thanks for the same had the Hap that afterwards befell Manwarings Sermon it happened to be Burnt by the common Hangman Tant Hard Hap what was the matter Whigg Onely for asserting as thou hast done twenty times That all mens Goods and Moneys are Caesars for which the Parliament though the Sermon was Preached in the Kings Chappel at Whitehall call'd my Gentleman coram nobis taking great offence thereat Tant What was that Doctor Harsnet Whigg He was afterwards made Bishop of Chichester and then Bishop of Norwich just as Mr. Mountague leapt and perhaps upon the same rise and advantage of the ground Tantiviisme and for the same Covetous reason too because the Norwich Bishoprick is the richer and then leapt to Yorks Archbishoprick Tory. But King James disown'd the Doctor in that affair and did not own him therein Whigg Yes yes I told you he was a wise King and used to say that he was a Tyrant that did not rule according to Laws and calmed the business moderating thus and saying that the Bishop onely failed in this When he said the Goods were Caesars he did not add they were his according to the Laws and Customs of the Country wherein they did live Tory. I do not deny but the Bishops had great Sway and influence over affairs both in Church and State if the Lord Faukland's Speech in Parliament to that purpose was well Calculated for those times Tant I have heard much Discourse of the Speech of that Lord so fam'd for his Learning and Loyalty as well as Nobility but I could never get a sight of it Whigg It was call'd the true Picture of those times pourtraying that modern Episcopacy to the life Anno 1640. and here it is Tant Read it Whigg The whole would be tedious I 'le read part of it thus he begins MAster Speaker he is a great stranger in Israel who knows not that this Kingdom hath long laboured under many
People in breaking his Coronation Oath and Kingly trust he lost his Peoples Hearts and cousequently his own Life and Roger Mortimer was Kill'd in the Queens Embraces and both Court and Church suffered in the other Instance Tant Did the City of London joyn with the Queen and the Confederates Whigg Yes and the Londoners to shew their good will to the Queen and the Confederate Lords with great despight Beheaded Walter Stapleton Bishop of Exeter and Lord Treasurer in rancour and hatred to the King with many others that they thought lov'd that unhappy King his Kingdom as well as himself suffering beyond all Patience for his Folly and Perfidiousness in breaking his Word Oath and Royal Trust and by Gods heavy Judgments and Displeasure there being in the eighth Year of this silly Prince's Reign such a Dearth or scarcity of Provisions that Horses and Dogs were eaten and Thieves in Prison pluck't in Pieces those that were newly brought in and had got some flesh of their backs and eat them them half alive Tant Sure that King was an ill-natur'd man Whigg No quite contrary he was fair of Body and of great Strength given much to Drunkenness but not much to Women Kind and Loving but unfortunate in pitching his Affections upon bad Men and evil Counsellors which was his Ruine and theirs too Tory. Some Men are not capable of good advice Quos Deus intendit perdere dementat prius Whom Heaven does Hate to their own wayes It leaves them Then Strips them of their Wits and then Bereaves them Whigg Some thought he deserv'd a better fate than he found to be Depos'd by his Parliament and Murther'd by the means of those that made him a Cuckold or Bishop Tarleton the Court-Pimp to the Queen and Mortimer others said Honi soit qui mal y pense Let evil befall to evil men Tory. Well we have enough of him to return to Archbishop Abbot who told little Doctor Land then Bishop of Bath in a Conference with him about Sybthorp's Sermon and this Passage therein viz. All Antiquity to be absolutely for absolute Obedience to Princes in all civil or temporal things that such Cases as Naboth's Vineyard may fall within this Whereupon the little-great-man was as a Man in a Rage and fell a Huffing saying that it was an odious Comparison for it must suppose that there must be an Ahab and a Jezabel and I cannot tell what Sons of Belial for false Witnesses and a Judge for the nonce c. But the Archb told him that Reviling and Railing does not answer his Argument All Antiquity taketh in Scripture and if there has been an Ahab or a Jezabel that which has been is possible to be again many years hence and if sayes Doctor Abbot I had allowed that Proposition for good I had been justly beaten with my own Rod For if the King the next day had commanded me to send him all the Money and Goods I had I must by my own Rule have obeyed him and if he had commanded the like to all the Clergy-men and Gentlemen Yeomen and Commons in England by Sybthorp's Proportion and my Lord of Canterbury's allowing the same they must have sent in all and left their Wives and Children in a miserable Case Tory. What care the Courtiers for your Wives and Children Whigg True but the wonder is that any Englishman that has an Estate though he got it by Pimping should desire any Tantivee-wayes or Arbitrary-sway lest he lose it as suddenly Tant Or that any of us Clergy-men should be Tantivees you would say is a wonder too Whigg You say right but greedy Dogs that can never have enough so they have but at present to please their rav'ning Appetite they gulp and swallow all but never consider how it will Digest or do them good Tory. Nay It is impossible to do them good for it never digests or breeds good blood but bad humours in abundance that overflowes them if it do not stick in their Throats at the first going down as many times it does and choaks them before they taste the Sweetness of their Morsels the Reward of their Spaniel-like fawning and Sycophantry Whigg I am glad to hear this from you Mr. Tory. Tant So am not I if Toryes leave Tantivees to shift for themselves what will become of us losing our main Props Whigg Then make use of your Main-sail and Skud over the Water where you all strive to be and whither you seem to drive might and main for Popery and Arbitrary Government are Inseperable at least Arbitrary Plants cannot thrive in England except they be water'd and besprinkled with Popish Exorcismes and Holy-water Some Bishops of the Church of England have said that there is but a very little little difference betwixt Popery and us our Holy-dayes our Service in English theirs in Latine but word for word in most parts thereof our Priests Vestments Church-musick Candles Altars Bowing Cringing the very same Tant Right but we have not Auricular Confession nor hold we Transubstantiation Whigg You mean you cannot perswade the People to come to Auricular-Confession but for the real presence many Preach it up but by a distinction Metaphysical a distinction without a difference they only deny the corporal presence Tant So then you 'l say we differ therein from the Papists only in nice words and terms of distinction Whigg If it be more than words wherein you differ in this point then that thing you bow to at the Altar is really nothing for if it be a real thing it is a corporeal thing if it take up its residence in one place of the Church more than the other and on the Altar and the East more than on the Pulpit and the West Nay some Preachers that Bow very reverently to the Altar at Service-time turn their Back-sides to it all the while they are Preaching very undecently if there be something there to be reverenc't more than on the North West or South-side where no Altars are Tant You are a Perillous Whigg Whigg And you are either a fool for bowing to nothing constantly or a Papist in heart for bowing to some real thing that takes up its Lodging on the Altar in the East which as yet you dare not name Tant Then you would make us believe that between the two Religions there went but a pair of Shears Whigg Far be it from me to say so but between some of the Priests and Bishops of the two Religions there has scarce gone so much as the Lord Faulkland said It is all that a good Living or 1500 l per annum can do to keep some of them from declaring themselves openly and professedly to be Papists these Fellowes never speak of the worst the darkest the blackest the bloodyest Superstition in the World under the known name of Popery Papists c. but mildly and gently they only call it the Church of Rome the Catholicks c. and if sometimes they call them Romanists and Roman Catholicks
them can tell what or who is the Church but usually by the Church they mean themselves the Clergy that is the promoted and Dignifyed Clergy-men and how the Vilest and worst of Clergy-men came to be promoted by their Vileness and Villanies you have heard for no other Clergy-men could be found so to Debauch their Consciences the Laws of England and the Protestant Religion and these are the men Forsooth whose Spitle we must all lick up and be punish'd if we speak never so little against them Ten thousand times more than when by Curses and Oaths we Blaspheme the Holy Name of God Oh brave World and brave Holy Religion and bravely managed Tant You are warm upon us Whig Is this a time to be Meally-mouth'd To sit weeping and wailing and wringing of hand with Prayers and Tears only when Tant When what Speak out Whig I will not Catch-pole you do but ly at lurch to undo a man for speaking Truth if you can but by hook or Crook drill him in and bring him within the reach or swing of some Old Stretch'd Law to colour as well as vindicate safely the private Spleens and Revenge every body sees you and yet you think you walk invisible and now too having got Tory here to be a Fellow-witness with you Oh how you will Strain a word and your own Consciences To bring a man that Thwarts your Evil purpose to be Maul'd by Law especially when you get which is not difficult a Jury and for your Turns Tory. You speak feelingly Whigg Jeet on and mark the end on 't there is an over-ruling Providence and God of Justice the very Heathens apprehend it and the Wheel of Fortune comforted the Captive Prince that drew the Conqueror's Chariot the Wheels whereof turning round and the upmost side forthwith undermost and the undermost again uppermost comforted and cheer'd his Captivity with the certain incertainty inconstancy and vicissitude of things And therefore good Rampant Tory let not him that putteth on his Armour boast himself yet you think you have got the World in a string and since the days of Blessed Mary Popery Coleman says had never so fair and likely a Prospect Tant I am not for Popery Whigg No not for the Name I believe thy Religion is 1500 l per Annum call it by what Name any body pleases Tory. But did not you say Whigg that you would prove by Common-Law Statute-Law Reason and Equity that the Law determines how and when Parliaments shall sit or be Dissolv'd How long they shall sit and when they shall be called all which I understand lay no where but in the Hallow of the Kings-Breast His Will and Pleasure Whig No Acts of Justice as a King lyes so incertainly only as at the will and pleasure of the King so as not to be determined by Law though some Acts of Mercy and Pardon are purely Arbitrary to adorn the Throne For if that did all our other Laws are nothing worth but at the good pleasure of the King and His Ministers Arbitrarily For for all their Transgressions none can call Evil Ministers to Account but a Parliament at least none more properly And if they can stave off a Parliament at pleasure and Dissolve it at pleasure we hold all our other Liberties Charters and Properties at pleasure which they have often oppress'd and invaded as aforesaid and when a Parliament call'd them to a Reckoning and Account for their Roguery and worse than march them off Here the Remedy by this Rule is left to the mercy and good will and pleasure of the Disease when Evil Ministers Disease the Common-wealth and this Disease may not be inquired into by the only Physitians the Parliament For Alas the Judges know who gives them and continues to them their Places and Soft Seats Tory. You see as aforesaid in King Charles I. his Speeches his Declarations c. Still he inculcates and bids them remember that the Calling Adjourning Prorogueing Holding and Dissolving Parliaments are in his Power Whig I believe you mistake for the Houses usually if not always do Adjourn themselves but they are Prorogued and Called and Dissolved by the King so all Criminals or so suspected are Indicted by the King that is in the Kings Name but the Law directs it both how and wherefore Tory. So you would say the Law directs the formal part also of Calling and Dissolving of Parliaments to be by the King in His Name but the wherefore or cause of Calling and Dissolving Parliaments is limited and determined by the Law and the time of Intervals which the King cannot pass or dispute with Whig Yes surely or else the great foundation of our Laws Parliaments the banks that limit and bound the out-ragious swellings and overflowings of Arbitrary and unlimited dominion would be strangely deficient and lame in not providing first and especially for its own Preservation against Arbitrary Will and Pleasure Tant Nay I suppose you are a Learned and Stout Champion for the Laws and for the Laws of Parliament and much Skill'd in them Whig I pretend to no Skill therein nor to the Honour of it all I have to say or have said on this Subject is only as an Historian of Whiggism a bare summary Collection of what others have done and said as to these particulars in the Reign of King Charles I. to rub up your memory with my brief Notes not to tell you any thing you have not heard before but with little Cost and Charge give you the Marrow of greater and more Elaborate works at an easier rate and minute Expence both of Money and Time Tant Well said I like that very well for I have not much of either to spare but first say what the Common Law enjoynes as to the Holding or Dissolving Parliaments Whig Few know what the Common Law is Coke says it is founded in the Immutable Law and Light of Nature agreeable to the Law of God requiring Order Government Subjection and Protection containing Ancient usages warranted by Holy Scripture and because it is generally given to all King and People Poor and Rich Lords and Commons it is therefore called Common Now consider that never any King of England had any Prerogative but what the Common-Law or Statute-Law gives them nor any Liberty or Priviledge but by Law The Prerogative is a Royal Priviledge Privilegio quasi privatae Leges Priviledges are Private Laws which always yields to the Common-Law Common-weal and Common-Benefit The King has no Priviledge or Prerogative contrary to the Publick-weal Order Government and Protection of the People Apply this to the question in hand concerning Holding or Dissolving of Parliaments And therefore in the Mirror of Justice a Book so commended by the Lord Coke that he saith it contains the whole Frame of the Ancient Common-Laws of this Realm from the time of King Arthur till near the Conquest Citesout of it one Law Concerning Parliaments made Reg. R. Alfred Anno Dom. 880.