Imputations to make something stick upon His Majesty whether true or false 3. With what Confidence can they accuse his Majesty if he had been guilty of that wherein they themselves lie so grosly open to Exception Quis tulerit Gracchos c. Their whole Practise hath been Prevarication Breach of Oath and Trust both with God and Man Have but a little patience to eye their deportment towards all men they have had to deal with In relation to the King Have they not broke the Oath of Allegiance wherein they have sworne to beare faith and true Allegiance to His Majesties person and to defend the same against all Conspiracies c Have they not broke the Oath too of Supremacy wherein they have professed testified and declared him the onely supream Head and Governour over all Persons in all Causes within these His Dominions both which Oaths they must and doe take before they can legally sit and Vote in that House Have they kept the Protestation better which provided for the Kings honour Power and Safety before their Priviledges And have they kept their owne solemne Covenant either in this or any Branch thereof Nay hath it not been resembled to an Almanack out of date by one of their own Members Martin in his Answer to the Scots Declaration and that without a check How have they deceived and abused this poor Nation in reference to the King when they conjur'd us up to rescue the Kings Person among other things out of the hands of his Evill Counsellours and to fetch him home gloriously to his Greatest and most faithfull Counsell Themselves How well have they answer'd that very great Trust the King reposed in them when to please them if possible he tied up his owne hands from the dissolving this Session of Parliament without their Consent the greatest Breach of Trust that ever the King made if we may believe John Lilburne How have they acquitted their Engagements to the Scots as touching the King Nay have they not disclaimed their owne Declarations as Obligatory and told the Scots since That they were framed published and made use of as Affaires then stood and that they may alter them now and in another place that they are alterable at pieasure although they were Promissory and that upon the most sacred Invocation possible as you may see in the Scots Papers We professe in the sight of Almighty God which is the strongest obligation that any Christian and the most solemne Publick Faith that any State can give Husbands Book of Decl. p. 587. 663. the like That no trouble nor successe should change their resolutions ib. And how they have made good these following Expressions of the Army for now I must charge the Parliament with the Doublings of the Army who rule the roast there Whereas there is a scandalous Information presented to the Houses importing as if His Majesty were kept a Prisoner amongst us and barbarously and uncivilly used We cannot but declare that the same and all other Suggestions of that nature are most false scandalous and absolutely contrary not onely to our declared desires but also to our Principles c. and a while after We clearly professe we doe not see how there can be any Peace to the Kingdome firme and lasting without a due consideration of and provision for the Rights Quiet and Immunity of His Majesty His Royall Family c. Remonst from Ex. and A. Jun. 23. 1647. in another place That untill the settlement His Majesty may find all personall Civility and Respects with all reasonable Freedome in the Letter from Sir Tho Fairfax besides many more which applied to their present practice doe lowdly proclaime their odious Prevarication toward His Majesty In relation to the Kingdome How strangely have they falne short of their Trust Can their Consciences flatter them that they were entrusted by us with the least thought that they should enthrone themselves during life in those Chairs and entaile their Places on their Posterity yet many of them being put to it have intimated thus much nay in the House it hath often dropt from them That it was dangerous to pitch upon a time of Dissolution though within these ten or twenty yeares Some of them have been so ingenuous as to say If they give way Another Parliament must be call ' within these three years and the Kingdome is so totally corrupted that it is Ten to one but That would attaint the Members of This. Many of them who are Fathers have by their Power and Interest already brought in not onely their eldest Children some in their Nonage and Children indeed but two or three as the Lord Say who hath three of his owne Sons in the House of Commons They were entrusted by the people I trow to ease them of their Grievances establish the liberty of their Persons settle the propriety in their Estates yet let me bespeak them in the words of one that hath lost his bloud in their service Mr. Lilburne by name I challenge them to shew one Act they have done for the benefit of the people We feel their little finger heavier then the Loynes of the King with all his Predecessours They have brought us from the Government of one King who was bound up by law to the Tyranny of 5 or 600 of themselves nay every petty Committe-man every insolent Officer whose Will and Lust is their Law so into an Aegyptian Vassalage a condition worse then that of the Peasants of France of the Boores in Flanders of the Slaves in Turkie to use a mans word of their owne side What can we call our owne if one of the Grandees or his Friends mouth waters after it If they Vote to pocket up our Estates to take away our Wives our liberties our very lives who can stand before their Omnipotency Let their Officers and Army's be heard what measure hath bin meted out to them They were promised Golden Mountains The Parliament would stand and fall live and die with them Yet when the first Army had set them up and broke the ice for them how dis-honourably was the Lord Generall how unthankfully were the rest laid aside even without their wages which they could never obtaine to this day This last Army had the same doome but they tooke better Courage and knew their owne strength The Scots however stroakt with the name of Brethren to this day were serv'd with the self-same sauce and put to retreat faster then was for their Ease from Newarke toward their own Confines with a great Body of Horse at their heels The City unto whose bloud and treasure they owe their beeing and whatever they have rings again of their breach of Trust and faith with them Instead of Signall marks of the Enlargement of their Priviledges Recompences for all their offices of love Their Works are demolished The Tower is wrested from their hands Themselves besieged in a manner A Garrison threatned to be put upon them their armes to be taken
severall and indeed irreconcileable designes therein unto themselves Nor can it be doubted that the supream sole Power and Authority was the Apple of contention as well between them now thus divided as formerly between the King and them conjoyned what gawdy Colours soever are cast over and specious Pretences made to stalke before it Truth is This is the generall Ground of most Quarrels every man inheriting that ambitious Humour of our first common Parents even from the Disciples in their Poverty who were projecting for the Right-hand and for the Left and in a kingdome too unto the greatest States-men Nay a wise Gentleman of our Age observ'd it to be the Itch even of kitchin-boyes who should be the greatest Now the Independents though inconsiderable at the first even to Contempt being not above six among fourscore in the Assembly nor double that number visible in both Houses have plaid their Cards so well and follow'd their businesse so close that they have got the Purse of the kingdom at their command the whole Strength of it at their devotion and now grasp at the Authority also and seek to establish their Iniquity by a Law But by what steps and Degrees they have climb'd thus high is very difficult to discover exactly the foundation being laid deep under ground and carried up with as much Art as ever Building of that nature was Nor is it much materiall The greatest and onely unquestionable Authority of this Kingdome is of the King and His two Houses of Parliament to this their Ambition did aspire But having strugled in vain in the Houses for a good while they found the wind to sit too strong in their faces there and an impossibility for them to begin that way as the Temper of the Houses stood If the King were but in their hands being stript of all strength and in some desperate apprehension of Himself then their Hopes would handsomely smile upon them In order to this therefore a Quarrell is pickt with the Parliament the King's Person seized on and soon after the Parliament is most shamefully despised abused disgraced made to double at pleasure to eat up their owne Ordinances and Decrees perfectly over-awed and even trampled on So farre that one of their owne Members in the House openly told them That he could not call them a House of Parliament but a company of Gentlemen met together to fulfill the Iust of an Army Yet were they so wise and commenced their quarrell so cunningly as that they might keep two strings to their Bow and as the Beast which hath two holes to his den can stop or open either as the weather sits even so were their Proposals and Declarations contrived and sent abroad that by changing or interpreting one word they might comply with the King to destroy the Parliament if they should find themselves unable to mould it after their own Humour Or if once it were under their Girdle then afterward to bring the King to their Bent or lay him quite aside and by binding his Hands to establish the whole Power and Authority of the Kingdome in their owne And either of these Cards they drew as they had Occasion and convers'd with men of different Interests In the meane time they handle the King with much Civility and shewes of Indulgence allowing him the service of his Chaplains and the free use of the Liturgy which was denyed him by the Houses bearing him in hand that they preferr'd Episcopacy before the Presbyterian way and tickling him with ambiguous Promises to mollifie his hard Conceits toward them or at least to harden him the more against the Presbyterians and make that breach wider They had likewise the wit for to humour and stroak the Royall party by a thousand pretty devises and Artifices entertaining some of them in their bosomes allowing them Seats even in their Councels of War carefully forbearing in their Declarations to stigmatize them with that so familiar brand of Malignancy and filling them with hopes and expectations of I know not what great favours which they meant to perform when two Sundayes met together Thus having well divided the Kings party from the Presbyterians they had then a smooth and easie way to victory The City opens the Gates The Parliament trembles The chiefe Leaders of both Houses either flie for 't or withdraw for a while and play least-in-sight Which was fore-seen when Cromwell stole privately to Newmarket from London and asking Whether they had the King in their hand Being assured of that told some of the Officers That then they had the Parliament in their pockets Those who are of private spirits and for their owne either safety or designes constantly swamme with the streame and Tyde began now to tack about and to do Journy-worke for the stronger side and Vote with the prevailing party of which I will give but one Instance by the way and that is of Colonell Hervy who three daies before would undertake to beate them three miles into the Ground but upon their admission into the City was their first Advocate When the House was thus brought in a great measure to be at their devotion the last Rub in their Alley was the King He persisted in his Obstinacy and would not yeild up the Bucklers into their hands nor the power to protect his people Wherefore to bring His Majesty under the more advantage by insinuations both of danger to His Person and of an impossibility in them to save Him from the Agitators whom yet they countenanced for that purpose and withall by secret promises of faire complyance he is juggled into the Isle of Wight After that Bills are provided with pretence of condescension lest they should seeme to invade the Throne per saltum but in very deed such as would have stript him bare of all Soveraignty and of power to protect His Subjects and established themselves by a Law in an absolute domination and Tyranny over us The King not more for his owne interest and safety then for the benefit of his Subjects refusing to comply with their desires herein is immediately confined and that in such a manner as it is hard to find a Parallel His Wife Children Friends Servants all the Comforts of life kept from Him a course formerly pronounced barbarous and inhumane even in a Subjects case By-and-by the prodigious Votes forbidding all intercourse of Letters to Him or from Him under the penalty of High-Treason so cutting off all possibility of Accommodation were carryed in the House Last of all to render Him as black as was possible and so utterly to alienate the affections of his people this goodly Declaration first set on foot in the Army and allowed the Agitators to please themselves withall so to divert them from more dangerous designes as the Chesse at the siege of Troy to keep Souldiers from mutiny is thought upon and taken up by the Grandees lick'd into a better forme so expos'd unto publick view that besides their aime
spent their Powder Poor King Charles How is he burdened and even pressed downe upon whom not his own Actions onely are charged but those of his Servants those of his Courts those of Strangers nay and those of meer fortune and Contingency If this expedition of the Spaniard were by the Kings contrivance or privity why did he sit still permitting them to be assaulted within his own Harbours why did he suffer his owne Ships to be idle Spectators of their Ruine How comes it that there never followed thereupon the least expostulation for so great a losse from the King of Spaine It is well knowne the Spaniards were wasted in Flanders the Natives began to know their owne strength and were in hand with a Machination to shake off the Spanish yoake from their necks in emulation of their Brethren of the Vnited Provinces There was but need then of a recruit which could not be compassed without sending a strong Fleet to convey men into Flanders And this was the Fleet which we quietly beheld beaten and scatterd Mean time what miserable shifts are these men at home put unto when they are glad to catch after such shadows thereby to bring an envy and hate upon their King The whole Charge of Tyrannicall Government made good upon Themselves 1. If it be exemption from Accompt which constitutes a Tyrannicall Government the two Houses cannot wash their hands of it by their owne Rules no men pretending to higher Priviledge therein no men seeking to fortifie themselves more against all possibility of being reckoned withall 2. If the Characters which Aristotle in the 4. of his Politicks chap. 10. assigneth and most other States-men unto Tyrannicall Rule be true the Parliament have out-done all Tyrants in all Ages The Badges are these First To acknowledge no Boundary of Law to their Actions besides their own will 2. To rule by violence over their Equals and Superiors 3. To regard mainly their owne private Vtility not the Publick Examine their Proceedings by these Marks and you shall find them sutable to a hairs breadth Is not much of this quarrell for the repeal of Lawes formerly established Doth not the King continually invite provoke them to this Touch-stone Nay what law that stood in their way have they not suspended or annulled Their whole Ecclesiasticall Government is besides nay against clear law Their Secular hath been altogether Arbitrary for what law warrants their Militia their dealing thus with His Majesty their Imprisonments Oppressions Extortions And what law had they for alienating the Bishops lands not only from the Bishops but from the whole Clergy for ever Lastly that I be not infinite what Law to cut off Canterbury's Head to murther Tomkins Challoner c. 2. How could they possibly maintaine their Power without an Army do they not trample and revel it over their Lords and Masters we will say nothing now of His Majesty their Soveraigne whom they insult upon Have not they set their feet upon the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdome ruin'd and undone them whereas themselves for a great part are of the basest among the people Among whom except what they can reckon their Places at a hundred cannot make one thousand pounds by the yeare 3. What have they done for the Publick Though it be a bold I feare it is a true Challenge John Lilburne makes which I am tempted once more to observe I here challenge them to shew me one deed they have done from the beginning of their Convention for the benefit of the people We are sure they have not been wanting to themselves All Places of profit are distributed among their Members Our monies to the summe of 3 or 400000l are put up in their bags Our Persons are at their devotion Their Priviledges are what they list The truth is All the evidences of tyranny against all the Kings of England untill this present age could not amount unto so much as the two Houses have bin guilty of within these very few years Nay it was impossible for all the Kings of England ever to attaine unto it so true a Prophet was even Master Hampden who when some expressed much Impatience at the want of a Parliament wished them to pray for a good one for nothing could undoe England but a Parliament The fourth Personall Charge That he hated Parliaments That he was a Hater of Parliaments they do back with these Proofs 1. That he never called any in twelve years 2. Prohibited all speech of any 3. Dissolved them at his pleasure 4. Searched the Closets and Pockets of the Members after Dissolution 5. Imprisoned others which prov'd the occasion of their death 6. Even in Parliament charged 5 of their Members 7. Offered them violence in his owne Person attended by a Train of Papists and others 8. Endevoured to over-awe them by bringing the Northern Army to London and that when he had declared against it 9. Called a Mock-Parliament at Oxford 10. Raised War against this Parliament which never King did against any but He. 11. Vpbraided his owne at Oxford with the Name of a Mungrell-Parliament The Improbability of this Charge 1. This cannot be easily admitted for a truth That the King should hate a Parliament if you consider 1. That he was an Advocate for them in his Fathers time and by his Endevour procured many good Laws for them in his days which was confessed in the Parliament as you may find in the Journall thereof 2. That to give them satisfaction he pressed his Father against his Resolution and Reason to begin a War with the House of Austria and obtained it though King James like a Prophet told him That it was not their Hate toward the House of Austria nor their Zeale to the Protestant Cause which moved them to put him upon that suit But a designe to bring him into a Noose that being in distresse by reason of it they might desert him and then make their Markets of the Crowne And he did particularly acquaint him with the steps and Gradations which they would proceed in first question and strip him of his Tonnage and Poundage then bind his hands from making other Provision for himself afterwards bring him upon his knees to them 3. Since his Reigne never any King called more Parliaments then He for so short a space notwithstanding those twelve years Intermission 4. All the Kings of England never offered more compliance or performed more Acts of Grace then He did 5. Lastly few Kings have testified a greater desire of correspondence with or of condescention to a Parliament then His Majesty hath done by this 1. In resigning up his faithfull Servants to be disposed of according to their will even against his Conscience 2. In offering them as it were a Blanke Jan. 20. 1640. which is to be seen in their own Book of Declarations 3. In giving up so many Bishops whose Votes for the most part were at his devotion to be expelled the House of Lords 4. Lastly In
ambition might have tempted them to demand without any provision for His owne Honour or His owne and his peoples safety For every man can tell himself this plain truth That who so wears the Sword by right Investiture needs no other Law or Logick and as the Wiseman answered Craesus He that brings the better Steel will quickly be Master of the Gold and Silver 5. The Treaty was not promised to be Personall but by Commissioners and that at the Isle of Wight who should have been coopt up within such Rules and Instructions that they should not dare transgresse in a word or tittle without recourse to their Masters at Westminster and His Majesty treated withall as in a Prison which must have invalidated the Conclusions between them and given his Posterity an advantage which the King himself was not willing to that he might establish the peace of the Kingdome upon the surer Basis and foundation 6. The Persons most likely to have been designed for this Imployment were engaged perhaps to represent the worst sense of the Transactions to make it their chief work to incense the Parliament and to infuse into them a new Quarrell against the King as those did who being to account for the Passages at the delivery of the Propositions at Hampton-Court the King having importuned them to intercede for a Personall Treaty and in his earnestnesse letting fall this Expression If I may obtain that with my Parliament all the Devils in Hell shal not hinder a good Agreement did thus mis-report his words If I cannot obtain a Personall Treaty with my Parliament all the Devils in Hell shall not defeat me of my Resolutions I forbear to tell how the Passages were clipt and the worst part only related in the House of Commons by the major part of those to whom that charge was given from the Isle of Wight The Charge in reference to the Scots Their Charge against the King in reference to the Scots is the first of those that relate to foraine Estates and this is it 1. That there was a new book of Common-Prayer and Canons imposed on them 2. An Army was raised to force them to receive these Innovations 3. The Articles of Pacification were broken and burnt by the hand of the Hang-man 4. A new War was leavied c. The Answer to that Our Answer is 1. This was ever before the Impeachment of Strafford and Canterbury and others esteemed the Action of Evill Counsellours about His Majesty 2. If it were a crime those men have expiated it by their death it being a great part of that burden that sunk them even to the Block 3. The Scots themselves are satisfied and why we in England should be so officious as to take up their Quarrell when they sit down themselves I know not 4. These Passages are buried by an Act of Oblivion which although these men break thus for their own ends we shall better observe And though the King might be acquitted from what they tax him with herein yet we had rather suffer those sparks to die of themselves then kindle the flame a-new or blow abroad the ashes The Charge concerning Ireland In their Charge concerning Ireland we find they are Industrious omitting nothing that can be imagined whereby to fasten on His Majesty an Allowance at least if not a positive command of the Rebellion there and because they set so much of their Rest upon that you shall have most of it and in their own words It is well known 1. what Letters the King sent into Ireland by the Lord Dillon immediately before the Rebellion 2. Where the Great Seal of Scotland was and in whose hands when that Commission was sealed at Edenburgh to the Irish Rebels who dispersed Copies thereof with Letters and Proclamations And we have a Copy thereof attested by Oath with Depositions of those who have seen it under the Seal 3. Which was promised by the confession of some of the chiefest of the Rebels to the Irish Committee at London being most part Papists which was thought a good Omen and since most active Rebels 4. Vpon whose private mediation the King gave away more then 5 Counties saying he expected they should recompence him This answered To wipe off this Calumny 1. It is clear by their own Testimonies and by the confession of divers among the Rebels That this Rebellion hath been upon the Anvill these many years some of their Priests acknowledging themselves had travailed therein above seven years others six c. which you may learn from Sir Jo. Temple in his discourse of the Irish Rebellion p. 67. which Book I shall often and the more chearfully urge because he was a Privy-Counsellour in Ireland present there at the time of the Insurrection and long after a person dis-obliged by the King a Parliament-man here and one that hath given up his name to their Faction that run most at randome Now how can this be admitted by any prudent man that the King should be so infatuated as to conjure up such Devils to disturbe his Kingdome when it was in peace to destroy his Subjects who had no thought of Dis-loyalty toward him of whom those that are yet left for the greatest part continue firm still to ruinate the wealth of that people which afforded him a considerable Revenue which also was to be improved 2. The same Author is confident that though their Intentions in Ireland might be to set up the Popish Government yet their prime Aime in this Rebellion was to shake off the English yoake to settle the power wholly in the hands of the Natives the other they made use of only to draw in poor ignorant people to sacrifice their lives for them p. 83. 66. And he gives one reason for their Encouragement hereunto That the Scots had by their Armes and wise management drawn His Majesty to condescend unto their entire satisfaction both in Discipline of the Church and the Liberties of the Kingdome And these things are attested on Oath by divers As in the Examination of one Cooke who deposed that Tirlogh Brady should say All the Irish were risen against the King and the Counsell That the Irish would within a fortnight have a King of their own the Examination of Alice Tibbs p. 50. The same deposed by Avis Bradshaw that they had a new King by R. Bartar p. 51. Of the like nature were many other Examinations taken That they had the Scots for a president They would have the Kingdome in their own hands Laws of their own Deputy of their own without molestation from another Nation this was sworn by J. Bigar that he heard one Eustace a Commander professe p. 19. with many other of like importment in a Book called a Remonstrance of Passages in Ireland presented to the Commons of England and recommended by the Justices and Councell of that Kingdome Now they that can think the King should concur in a design to devest himself of one of his own
THE REGALL APOLOGY OR The DECLARATION of the Commons Feb. 11. 1647. Canvassed WHEREIN Every Objection and their whole Charge against His Majesty is cleared and for the most part retorted Eccles 10.20 Curse not the King no not in thy thought Hosea 10.3 4. For now they shall say We have no King because we feared not the Lord what then should a King do to us They have spoken words swearing falsly in making a Covenant Prov. 28.2 For the iniquity of a land many are the Princes thereof Printed in the yeare 1648. The PREFACE THis hath been an Accusative age in England and the Prince of Darknesse was never more imitated by us in that Epither notwithstanding our new lights Yet for the most part our Accusations have been but like the crackling of thornes under a pot And our Accusers like the Mountaines which swelled into that bulke as it summon'd the expectation of the world and were delivered of a poore Mouse You cannot name us many Charges which either have not been quite withdrawn or sunk into a lower streame Pray what Delinquent as they terme them Abate us but the Tragedie of Strafford and Canterbury with the Hothams and a very few more who fell in a fit of Justice and were sacrificed to Revenge and Passion hath been brought to a Period commensurate to his Charge How did the Impeachment of the Judges eccho through the kingdome yet some of the chief were not only permitted to sit on those Chaires which it was pretended they dâ—d prostitute but offer'd Preferment also What a terrible Mouth was opened upon the twelve Protesting Bishops yet the turn being serv'd and the Votes against their whole Order passed in the House they were not onely acquitted of their Charge but also dismiss'd from Custody How high ran the Tyde once against the Monopolists what ease from other Burdens did not the People believe they should have by the squeezing of those swolne Spunges yet who among them hath received the measure of his Desert Nay which of them that would nimbly dance after the Pipe of his great Accusers hath not been even hugg'd in their Bosome protected from the lawfull Attempts of injur'd and oppressed Subjects What Haranges have been made against evill Counsellors How was the Kingdome born in hand with hopes of some exemplary Punishment upon or some severe Admonition at the least unto them And yet name but one single Privy-Counsellor ever questioned for ill advice formerly given to the King Of late what a Charge was entred against the 11. Members some of them Persons of eminent Integrity and Merit the Pillars of their respective Houses yet we hope well in their behalf It will not stand with the Justice of a Parliament to install one the Earle of Pembroke again upon the Bench and make him their Judge when his hand was to all the Warrants for Leavy's and bring them to the Bar condemn them for Traytors who signed but onely one whose fault was in comparison but looking over the Hedge while the Other Stole the Horse What hath been said against the late Lord Maior and the Aldermen Stars of the first Magnitude in their Orbe whose influences have strongly contributed unto the prosperity of the Parliament's Cause yet we despair not but that they also may be dismiss'd if they would but fairly sit downe themselves For we are not ignorant of the under-hand Offers which have been made them and the Devices which have been in Agitation to come off with them handsomly And it is a good Omen that Alderman Culham whose guilt if it were any was greater then any of his Brethrens is discharged upon his humble submission These are Instances enough to prove what I proposed and Both sufficient to convince any judgement That it was not Publique Justice nor Reliefe of the Kingdomes grievances which were the springs of these actions but sinister and private designes of their owne Something like that of Absalom Oh that I were made Judge or rather Tyrant in the Land that every man which hath a suit or a cause might come unto me and I would doe him justice But all these former Proceedings are but rude Essays in comparison of this last Grand accusative Declaration against the KING which we are asham'd of already and after-Ages will condemne as the Top of malicious Villany and an unspeakable Scandall to our Religion And that which boils up the Iniquity to the height the King is debarr'd the Priviledge of His meanest Subject of the greatest Malefactor which is to Plead for Himselfe and to wipe off these black Aspersions whereby His Honour is so deeply wounded Nay to heare or know His Accusation Let me therefore be pardon'd the Presumption if in this case the unworthiest of millions of His people I become an Advocate for my oppressed Soveraigne and with a few sparkes which I shall strike as neere as is possible from the Rock of Truth afford some Evidence of His Innocencie untill the Searcher of all Truth shall bring forth his righteousnesse as the light and his judgement as the noone day The Method of the Apology In my discourse upon this Argument I shall proceed this way 1. I shall premise somewhat which may serve for a discovery of the Grounds and Designs of the Declaration 2. I shall give some generall Answers to the Declaration in grosse 3. A distinct particular Answer to each Article or part thereof In which last part I shall speak to the Title first The Votes after Then to the Particular Charges as they are reducible to certain Heads The first of what the King is pretended to have committed in relation to this Kingdome of England The second to what he did in relation to Forraigne Estates To the first I shall reduce all which were done 1. Before his Reigne untill he wore the Crowne 2. From His Coronation untill this Rupture between His Majesty and the Parliament whether they relate more immediately to His owne Person or to His Officers and Ministers as the Privie-Councel men His Councel at Law and Servants or to His Courts of Justice 3. All Passages since the Rupture To the second Head or Classis I shall reduce whatsoever is objected concerning 1. Scotland 2. Ireland 3. the Protestants in Rochel and all France In which if any particular relate to more heads then one we shall to avoid repetion treat upon it under that which it is most proper unto In the Discourse I shall first repeat the Charge then give an Answer and where it is their owne doing lay the charge before their owne doores The Ground and Designe of the Declaration discovered It is well knowne to all the world That from the beginning of our War to trace the pedigree of them no higher there have been two main parties in the Parliament to omit their sub-divisions commonly distinguished by the names of Presbyterians and Independents who though in the generall they concurr'd in beating down the power of the King yet had
by a Minister why Religion was made a cause of it gave this account that the people would not stir else yet Master Martin hath in the House and divers other places bin so ingenuous as to tel them They need not lie for a good Cause It was not Religion they fought for but Liberty 1. The Charge from the Letter to the Pope answer'd 1. For the Letter to the Pope It is so fully answered in a Book called Vindiciae Caroli and in another Treatise called The Pre-eminence and Priviledge of Parliament that I need not insist thereon The Prince being upon a Match with Spaine it could not be passed in regard of the difference of his Religion but by a Dispensation from the Pope Yet although he had left all that Transaction to the Spaniard to avoid entercourse with him yet the Pope taking his advantage writes a Letter to the Prince Being at this ward I see not how even in Civility especially considering the Precisenes Punctuality of that Nation in all Courtship and Complement as also in safety as being in the hands of Strangers and to the securing of the Match the maine Businesse he came for he could forbeare to answer it Yet was it done by him with that Wisdome and Care as it might give no offence and by the severest Censure of an un-byassed Reader that understands the Language not smell at all of any Complyance in Religion Moreover that it might beare no ill sense as of a clandestine Correspondence he was pleased to publish it to the world It is no strange thing to write even to the Turke which the two Houses have offered our Merchants to doe for them or to the King of Morosco that are Mahumetans to Princes of what Nation or Religion soever But if you doe observe it this their owne Weapon wounds themselves and makes for the King for what needed a Dispensation if the King had been of that Religion 2. The Charge from the Articles of Mariage with Spaine and France Answered The Articles of Marriage with Spain and France are fully satisfied in that fore-mentioned Book Vindiciae Caroli yet if any have not seen or perused that Book Let him take this short account here 1. That a particular Toleration had a former president even in Q. Elizabeth whom they never durst accuse for a favourer of Papists in those Articles of Marriage which were consented to with the Duke of Anjou Where by the way you may take notice that in her time Master Stubs a Lawyer but a great Professour and one Master Page had their hands cut off for writing a Tract against that Match which they had entituled The Mariage of a Child of God with the Son of Antichrist Camb. Elizab. An. 3 4 5 6. 2. That if the Intelligence were true which these Accusers take from an ordinary News-monger or Mercury of an universal Toleration agreed upon it was Intuitu majoris Boni The Palatinate was to be restored again and the Protestants of Germany to be re-enstated in their Possessions upon that Condition 3. That this was King James his Act not King Charles his who was onely passive therein and to whose hand these Articles were beaten before his comming into Spaine 4. That they were never any Prejudice to this Kingdome because the Match with Spaine was broken and therefore should be no Objection The Articles of the Mariage with France which went forward had the same reasons and so are answered 3. That of the Agent at Rome Answered 1. The Agent in Rome if any was from the Queen and not the King 2. Grant it to have been from the King which is not true he may surely claime as much liberty that way as Q. Elizabeth who had an Embassadour or Agent namely Sir Edward Carne with the Pope in Rome Camb. Eliz. 1559. at the beginning of her Reigne yet was never under any Suspition for it Kings have or ought to have their Espyals and Intelligencers in all places from which there is possibility of danger to their Dominions I have heard Q. Elizabeth had even in the Popes owne Family and in the Colledges of the Jesuits Their Projects against us could not better be dis-appointed then by thus picking the Locks of their very Bosomes 4. That of Toleration answer'd That he offer'd a Toleration to the Papists in Ireland contrary to his former Resolutions was but upon great and pressing Necessity which hath no Law and to that degree of Necessity the two Houses had driven him so the consequences were to be set upon their Score not his owne yet even then in his Letters about that Affaire published by themselves he doth insist on it That the Bargain may be made as good as can be for him But I have seen other Letters from one of his Secretaries to the Irish which I am ensur'd were true wherein were these Expressions after Expostulation of their delaies in his Assistance He is inform'd that taking advantage of his low condition you insist on something in Religion more then formerly you were contented with He hath therefore commanded me to let you know that were his Condition much lower you shall never force him to any further Concessions to the prejudice of his Conscience and of the true Protestant Religion in which he is resolved to live and for which he is ready to die and that he will joyne with any Protestant Prince nay with these Rebels themselves how odious soever meaning his two Houses rather then yeild the least to you in this particular The same retorted Besides herein the Parliament doth somewhat justifie him For if the Papists themselves may be believ'd they have been solicited formerly to serve the Parliament and were promised by some of their Agents an universall Toleration and a Repeale of the Penall Statutes which is the more credible because Henry Martin told them in the House not long since That he had a Petition from all the Papists in England for one and was their Advocate for it though unseasonably Nay many of the Independent Writers who never received check for it from the House doe in their Books not onely allow but give reasons for it And in the Compositions for Delinquency though the two Houses pretended them to be without Capacity thereof They were admitted nay and at lower Rates and with more favour then many zealous Protestants who had been lesse active in this warre 5. That of the Nuncio Answered 1. The Nuncio's businesse was meerly to the Queen and he a Lay-man 2. It is no Courtship to forbid an ordinary mans Wife all entercourse with those of her own Religion though different from that of her Husband nor is it the way to convert her I am perswaded divers of both Houses have been guilty of that Allowance Yet the Right of a Queen is greater and it was an Article of Mariage 3. It might have been afforded with lesse Regret for to smooth Her Majesty and to take off the Remembrance of the
banishment of her Priests 4. The Man was of so weak Parts and of so loose a life that his Company might have been borne withall the better to serve as a Disswasive from his Religion as the Lacedemonians used by the apish and uncouth behaviour of Drunkards to possesse their young Children with a perfect hatred of that vice 5. Assoon as it was discovered distastfull or of danger he had his Mittimus 6. That of the Blanks left with Windehank and of his Letters and Flight Answered 1. Whosoever knows the Custome of the Court knows it to be no strange matter of Trust with a Secretary of State to be imployed in any sudden emergency when there cannot be recourse unto the King especially when there are generall Instructions left and sometimes the very matter made ready the forme only referred to his discretion Nay further there are some of the House of Commons can testifie how familiar it is for a Secretary of State to entrust the same with his owne Secretaries and how impossible it is to dispatch businesses of haste and necessity without some such remedy I have heard the like is not unusuall with his Excellency the Lord Fairfax and other Great Commanders to give their Servants of Trust leave to subscribe their names for them in matters of common concernment I am sure Col. Mainwayring the Passe-maker which was the best Trade he ever drove in time of greatest danger to the City and affrightment also left his Hand and Seale with many of his Servants to fill up with the names of such Persons as they should think fit Nay but doe not the Houses themselves daily so or more in matters of high concernment by their Power delegated unto the Keepers of the Great Seale Privy-Seale and their ordinary Courts of Justice their Secretary of State and persons officiating in Trust under them 2. If he were a notorious favourer of Papists His Majesty might likely not know so much of him Servants being generally studious to conceale their faults from their Masters 3. If His Majesty did know it yet Places of Trust have been often delegated by Princes to such as have been of a Perswasion contrary to theirs whom they have found Persons capable thereof Even Q. Elizabeth her selfe did send the Viscount Montacute upon an Embassy to Spaine in behalf of the Scots and to justifie the Protestant Religion though he were a Papist as Camden hath it in her Life Now whereas it is added the King would not leave any such with his Parliament 1. The Case is different if it be meant with them for passing of Acts which were not repealable by himself whereas the Secretary was accomptable for his Transactions and his deeds They if not answerable to His Majesties desires capable of reversion by His Majesty 2. There was no need in so short an absence of His Majesty whilest Bills are so long in debate before they come to their Perfection For His Letters we can give no accompt unlesse we knew their purport He might run away justly and in providence which every man oweth to himself He saw the House of Commons begin to ramp upon him and he knew how easie it was for them to find a staffe to beat a dog withall and make a just quarrell when they had an edge against any man That of the Plot to destroy all the Protestants in England Answered But the Plot to cut all the Protestants throats is so brim-full of Malice that it confutes it self 1. It is well known there are not in all above 24000 Papists convicted in all England and Wales allow as many more without that capacity for sure when you shall have deducted the old decrepit Men and all the Women their number will not be much above Now how these Papists should procure Armes embody and no discovery be made of it so as to become considerable and if all in a Body accomplish the Ruine of above a Thousand for One is incomprehensible yea though each one had the hands of Gerion and Briareus and in each hand the Club of Hercules The Protestants had need first be tamer Creatures then these late Broyles have shewed them to be In Ireland where the Papists and Natives are five hundred to one what a tough piece of work have they found it to root them out and now we hope they may drink of the same Cup they provided for Others 2. The King in that case must be look'd on as void of common understanding who would devest himself of the Monarchy over so many Millions of men that he might have it only over 24000 to inhabit this spacious Territory nay and some of them like to come short home 1. That of the Queens pious Designe Answered The Queens pious Designe was knowne to be nothing more then a Contribution by way of Assistance to her Husband against the Scots whom he then look'd upon as his Enemies And to that Expedition divers of themselves divers of the Vpper House afforded their helping hand under the same notion Essex Holland Northumberland Salisbury c. And why was the fault greater in a Wife to assist her Husband then in Subjects their King 2. That of the Qu. Mothers Servant Answered The Q.M. servant for ought we know may lie as wel as swear If it be the Man we guesse at he is of little credit even among his own Nation Nay the Ministers and Protestants of their Churches here though the man pretend to be under the notion of a Convert and a Protestant now though formerly a Papist give him but a base report And we cannot think it is for nothing that he hath been bolsterd up in the murther of his own Wife under the pretence of Physick in the oppression of her Children which she had by a former Husband and in the prosecution of a worthy Gentleman her Brother 3. That of the suggestion to the Arch-bishop Answered The suggestion to the Arch-Bishop was by one Habernfield a Bohemian from a Priest in Rome first given to Sir William Boswell in Holland and so sent over in which the principall persons to be made away were the King and the Arch-Bishop for their being so much against the Romish Religion and purposes But this Circumstance is wisely enough conceald by these Accusers Can any reasonable man let his belief so run riot as to be perswaded the King should drive on a Plot apparently to his own destruction How blind will malice make whither will it not transport Of the Irish Rebels words we shal speak in a more proper place 4. That of the Armes in Papists houses Answered The Armes and Ammunition in Papists houses were a Bow and Arrows with one brown Bill This cals to our mind the Training under ground the blowing up of the Thames c. Is it not Impudence even to a Prodigie to think now the Scales are fallen from our eyes thus to mock and befool us still 5. That of the Ammunition and Preparations about White-Hall
King Parliament c. And we have read of an old Stratagem of Hannibal to plunder and ravage all other mens Lands and Estates except those of Fabius whom he most hated that he might by that meanes nurse up a Jealousie in the people against him 5. The suspence of the Proclamations Answered That it was long ere the Proclamations were issued and but 40 neither against them 1. 'T was the advice of His Councell there who knew the state of that Kingdome better then our Parliament and who hoped as Sir Jo. Temple intimates that they might have been reclaimed by gentle means whilst rough and hard usage might have made them desperately persist in and grow to a greater head of violence 2. Besides that They thought it wisdome to doe more themselves by giving Armes even to the Papists of the pale by dissembling their knowledge that they had been of the Conspiracy from the beginning by forbearing Acts of Hostility even against professed Rebels in their Country by kind Invitations of them when they had actually imbrued their hands in the Massacre 6. The Earle of Leicester's Delay Answered 1. The Delay of the E. of Leicester was not His Majesties fault but the Parliaments for when His Majesty had given him Commission and Instructions which the Houses called for examined and could not quarrell at yet was his Lordship kept here six weeks after without any dispatch or supply answerable to that imployment Afterwards going from hence to Chester upon promise that necessary supply should be speeded after him he staid there five or six weeks without any In which time this unhappy war brake out and occasioned the King to send for him for some time 2. It would have been disadvantagious to the Conquest while his single Person not attended with a power answerable would have rendered the Condition of this Kingdome despicable and have encouraged the Rebels to more impetuous Resistence whereas being in suspence and expectation of a greater supply against them then he could have brought they went on with more Caution and a slower pace 3. At least it could be no more dammage to the service then it was to supersede his son the Lord Lisle from execution of his Commission and voyage thither untill the time of it was neer expir'd as themselves did 7. Divers officers going over by the Kings Passe Answered That divers Officers and Papists of quality went over into Ireland by help of the Kings owne hand-writing who there proved active Rebels 1. Hath been often answered by the King 2. Might be done to a good purpose many of them being publike Persons and making great protestations of Loyalty might have done good service in moderating the rest The Lords of the Councell gave to Papists not onely Commissions but Armes as you may read in Sir John Temple that so they might engage them 3. Might be done by misprision or be counterfeited I have been credibly informed that more then 40 Priests and desperate Rebels went over in one Regiment of their own sending from Chester and I am deceived if some Booke printed by Licence from themselves doe not declare as much Nay we know at this very present that Colonell J. Barry besides others a notable Adjutant and Papist is lately allowed by a Passe from their Generall to goe over into Ireland These times have taught us that any Hand or Passe may be so handsomely dissembled that it will prove a hard taske to discover the Cheat. 8. The Kings refusing to give Commissions to the Lorn Wharton and Brookes Answered That the King refused to give Commissions to the Lord Wharton and Brookes as also that he intercepted Cloathes and Ammunition sent thitherward may have good satisfaction As 1. The War was on foot here Those two Lords were his avowed Enemies and of the Junto against him There were divers Regiments raised under that pretence which were intended imployed against him He had been really as weake as once they would have made us believe he was if he had cut his own throat with his own hands enabled his Enemies to ruine him under what pretence soever 2. It was neatly contrived to assigne Cloaths and Ammunition for Ireland if they were surpriz'd but to imploy them against him if they could arive in safety to their strengths Lastly there was order given to release them by His Majesty 9. Letters to Muskery Answered 1. The Letters from Court to Muskery were from Taaff and they might be without Commission 2. If they were allowed was it not good Policy to court them into divisions or rather back againe into their Duties The Earle of Ormond a thing notoriously knowne by that meanes blew Coales between the Rebels when they had encircled and distressed Dublin wherein he prevailed more by putting on the Fox's skin then he could have done by that of the Lyon and preserved the English interest in all that Province which of necessity must otherwise have been lost 10. The With-drawing of the Ships Answered The King did indeed with-draw some Ships from those Coasts but 1. It was for his owne necessary defence against them when they had seiz'd upon the rest of his Navy 2. The Posts assign'd to the Ships were not so obnoxious for importation from Spaine and other forraine places 3. It was not so great an advantage to the Rebels as their with-drawing contrary to Articles the Ships appointed to prevent the landing of Irish in Scotland which they make a shift to answer their Brethren 4. Besides we see they can receive Ammunition and other supplies even now too 11. The Commission to Glamorgan Answered The greatest Objction of a Commission to the Earle of Glamorgan and Antrim to raise Armies for the service of the King To which we Answer 1. That it is not well cleared the King did give any such Commission 2. That if he did it was but the imploying of his owne Subjects in his service to which they were obliged by their Allegiance and he was bound by the very law of Nature to make use of 3. It was upon a desperate pinch that he was put unto by the two Houses Men will catch at the very Nailes of a Planke to save themselves from being ingulph'd in the Waves hold even by Thornes to keepe above water He were a weake man sure that would make conscience of quenching a great fire in his Roofe by the hands of Thieves or Murderers 4. We have often heard and many too of these great Accusers professe as much that they would cast themselves upon any Nation I have heard Colonell Morley and others should say upon the Turke rather then let the King subdue them And yet their Case was different The whole Charge retorted Let 's now see whether all this may not be retorted upon the House of Commons and their Confidents Whosoever will seriously consider 1. The quarrell which the Irish made namely their Liberty and Religion and Redresse of Grievances the very same which our Parliament