generall which was took at the beginning of the Parliament to defend the Kings life and Honour that is to be understood only so long as the Kingly and Supreame power remained in him but that being once removed the Pretestation bindes us no longer to regard His Person and Honour but the Persons and Honours of them only in whom the said Supremacy is now seated And therefore all the world knows that the Parliament or great Councell never raised War against the King never suffered any to take away His Name Honour or to seize upon His revenews so long as the Supream power was in Him for that had been rank Rebellion in them indeed but now since themselves were invested in the same they set to their businesse as lawfully they may to establish the Kingdom upon themselves and their successours First by putting forth their Remonstrance against the King to loosen all the bands of ancient Loyalty and then by seizing upon the Militia of the Kingdome the Forts Castles Ships and Townes as their proper Rights and all the Kings Goods and Houses as being now in regard of their Supremacy solely at their disposing and then too after all this they thought fit in wisdome to Vote the King to be one that intends the ruine of three Kingdomes that abhors His Great Councell which speakes nothing but Safety and Honour to Him Yea and in very deed He doth Envy those worthies that Honour strength rule and dignity which now by Gods Providence is so happily cast upon them even as Richard the Third did grutch at those two innocent Princes whose by right the Kingdome was and thereupon did murder them to get the Scepter into His own Hands and the Crown upon His own Head So this man aymes at the destruction of the most blessed Parliament whose the Kingdome now by right is and in whose Hand all Power and Authority is lodged and fastned and there like to remain so long as a drop of bloud is left in the veines of English-men who shall fight for them to maintain it therefore let all men remember Richard the Third what peace the Land had after long Wars when he was once killed and let them expect the same now if this Man who is worse then He could be taken away And no man need scruple to do it for the Supreame Authority now above-board doth allow it and that is able to make sin no sin when it listeth that hath declared him to speake destruction to the Kingdomes to abhorre the Parliament and never any English King did so but he spake Destruction to himself thereby therefore let him have it we dare boldly say and assure that safety and Honour is not his portion but destruction from the Lord is appointed to him the Parliament so judgeth and blessed shall he be that shal divide it out unto him And thus all scruples of Consciences are removed I have been the larger in opening the meanings of these men that I might withall express the ground of their uncouth opinions and let no good people who have a Charitable conceit of them think that I stretch their words beyond their intentions I would not force any mans faith beyond his judgement much lesse against the same wherefore let these few following particulars be considered upon and I beleeve it will be evident to every reasonable man that I have spoken nothing but the reall desires of their hearts and spirits 1. Consider the Nature of the Crimes which most maliciously and falsly they lay to the Kings Charge that He hath neglected His office Forsaken His place that He Abhorreth the Parliament Walks onely in the Councell of the ungodly that he seeks the Destruction of three Kingdomes and is ascended to the highest pitch and throne of wickedness The seat of the scornfull and there hath Bound himselfe to sit and continue what is all this in effect but Away with him from the Earth 't is not fitting he should live 2. Consider of some of their Tenents which to this purpose they have been a buzzing a long while and whispering into the mindes of people viz. That the King is but onely for the peoples good He is but their Bayliff their Servant and that the Parliament without him is above him may wage war against him may depose him and turn him out of his Office if he be not for their turn that they can give Commission to any to apprehend yea to kill him if He doth oppose them that evill may be done to further the Publik good and in respect of the end aymed at it is not to be accounted evill and many such like Tenents they have which let any man consider of together with their accusations of him as also what they have done against him and then say whether all this doth not signifie that they would gladly be rid of him if any would take upon them but to kill him 3. Consider what high Holinesse Wisdome Justice care of the Kingdome is affirmed abroad and taught to be in them who take upon them the name of the great Councell or Parliament at Westminster How infallible they are preached to be in their judgements how unerring in their Votes and Censures when in Consultation together though perhaps as particular men they may chance to Erre sometimes for 't is confessed all men are subject to Errour yet when they are in Cathedris in their seats as Parliament men they are all as infallible as the Pope and have a power as well as he to do what they please to make Evil Good and Good Evil to make Rebellion and Treason to be Duty and Loyalty and Duty and Loyalty to be Rebellion and Treason to Vote Sacriledge Murder and Theft to be no sins Killing Slaying and Destroying to be acts of zeale and Christian Duty Yea what ever they shall authorize with approbation as they have done this Libel must be received without scruple and haesitation as pious and godly though as full of Blasphemy as this same is Nay what man living will not conceive but they who have Authorized this book against the King will also warrant any man to kill him to prevent his Capacity of punishing them hereafter for it and whosoever beleeves it was no sin in them to Authorize the one will not think it a sin in them to warrant the other 4. Consider how since that Act of Continuation of the Parliament they have plainly denyed the Supreame power to be in the King and affirme the same to be in themselves how they have suppressed the ancient Oath of Allegeance and Supremacy and disclaimed them both and have in the place of them framed a new Oath and Covenant which they have put upon the Subjects of this Kingdome to sweare adherence and allegiance to themselves how they have made a New great Seal as if the old one with the King were of no longer use How they have seized upon all the Royalties of the Crown and upon all the Kings
he had received it did He spend it in Luxury upon Himself or unprofitably to the damage of His Subjects Was it not imployed for the dignity and preservation of the Nation Were not the Ships built therewith the strength of the Kingdome Were we not by meanes of them become formidable to all about us Surely from hence it was that our Merchants sailed with more freedom at Sea and their Factors did negociate with more success and regard abroad hence it was that the inhabitants by the Sea Coasts slept more securely in their beds the worshipers of Mahomet durst not revell so neere them nor venture to steal their Children from them as alas of late dayes they have done In a word by the meanes of those ships had they still continued under the Kings Command all our poor Christian Brethren had been pulled ere this out of Bondage and Slavery from Turkish Dens through Gods assistance as diverse of them before had been yea and as was noted before all the people of this Kingdome had been interested in that so Pious and Christian a work by such their Contributions of Ship-money yet this was it they called their great grievance And thus I have shewn in brief the main things for which the King was clamoured against at large Now let all the world speak whether the Church and State were unhappy under his Government whether in the whole course of his Reigne he hath not approved himself a Defender of the true Faith a tender Father of his Country and sincerely affected to his Protestant Subjects And whether these men be not highly ingratefull both to God and him for their suggesting the Contrary But say they in these Letters are things unbeseeming a Prince who professeth himselfe to be such a Defender such a Father and so affected and a perfect Malignant they pronounce him to be that denieth this or cannot see it SECT XII 1. The Adversaries industry to find somewhat unbeseeming the King in his Letters 2. Certaine Christian Considerations propounded to the Readers evidencing them to be free from any such matter 3. Of the Adversaries pertinacy in their Rebellious way their endeavours that their Kings promises might neither be beleeved nor performed TO which we Answer and say That were the King but an ordinary man and did we observe such things in his Letters as they pretend yet remembring the benefits enjoyed by him the personall vertues shining in him throughout the time of his prosperity we should think it disagreeing both from Christianity and Humanity to publish such our observations against him in his adversity But considering him withall to beâ—our King our Soveraigne we are confident if we did see any thing unbeseeming that we are not bound to say we saw it or to tell others of it nor doe we indeed hold it lawfull but rather to hide it or to make the best of it Apelles was not bound openly to paint Alexanders skar it was allowable for him to lay his finger on it nor was that other Painter obliged plainly to paint Alphonsus wry necked it was lawfull for him to make it so as if he were looking up to Heaven for Alexander and Alphonsus were both Kings and so is Charles and by Gods grace shall still continue so to be in despight of all opposers But in our view of these his Letters we finde that which we conceived might have made their hopes desperate of doing his Majesty hurt by their publication of them and surely we think had not their confidence been great in that strong infection which they suppose their own Notes upon them doe carry with them the world had never seen them for whereas heretofore their endeavours were to darken and disparage the intellectuall vertues of their Soveraigne and peradventure his Majesties easiness at first in beleeving them to be Honest men upon their Religious Pretences and Protestations gave too great a furtherance to that designe David upon like grounds was so deceived in Achitophel But now these his Letters have quite dampt that business for they discover in him such Strength of judgement such Abilities of minde and Dexterity of parts that we are confident in this their divulging of them an everlasting check is given to that malignant Accusation And now his Morall Vertues onely are the Objects of their spleene which by their tongues and pens they hope to blemish and defile and from these his Letters they hope somewhat may be made use of to their assistance But what that Somewhat is will be seen hereafter In the mean time I shall be bold to propose a word of advice to the Readers of these Letters to be observed by them in their perusall of them For as my Duty doth constraine me to defend my Soveraigne so my Conscience and Charity doth perswade me to advise my Brethren for their good though I know the Enemies think to scare me and all men else with the name of Malignants for performing either these men in their impudent Notes have one speciall passage amongst others to this purpose Page 46. Their words are these The King wil declare nothing in favour of his Parliament so long as he can find a party to maintain him in his opposition nor perform any thing which he hath declared so long as he can find a sufficient party to excuse him for it We guess to what purpose this is spoken viz. To intimate that all such who out of conscience or duty shal indevour to vindicate the King from their unjust Caluminations and to preserve people from their snares shal be accounted Maintainers of opposition and excusers of sin and as such persons they intend either secretly or publickly to murder and massacre them But we hope through Gods good grace that neither their tongues nor their swords shal ever terrifie us from discharging our Consciences and we are confident that our God whom we serve who is the God of Peace and Truth wil witness for us that we neither delight in maintaining strife nor yet in excusing sin And for this advise which shal be propounded let the Readers examine it by the Gospel and if it be not agreeable unto that let no man follow it or regard it It is this If they meet in these Letters with any thing which in their apprehensions seems to speak a failing on his Majesties part in performing what he had formerly promised which indeed is one main thing that these King-accusers labour to fasten upon the Readers faith before they imitate these his Enemies and passe a sentence peremptory and condemnatory against their Soveraigne let them but consider of these three particulars 1. Whether the King was Able to keep his word in those things wherin he is apprehended to have failed whether the cause of that failing was not rather Lack of power then want of wil and whether his disâ—oyal Subjects who are most apt to accuse him were not they that robbed him of his power and on set
that truth and Loyalty which themselves also once professed and we stil maintain truly we have had such an ample experience already of their goodness in our preservation that we publickly profess to all the world we daily find in England what our poor captive Brethren do feel at Argier that there is no such cruel Turk as the Renegado Christian. When the sole power of the Sword or Militia was in the Kings Hand the poor Country-men as wel as the rich and Noble lived in peace slept securely under his own roof and without any fear did eat his bread with gladness he could say that what he had bought and payed for was his own and if any did injure or oppress him the Law was open to do him right But since these new Preservatours as they call themselves are risen up those Golden days are vanished and Iron times are come upon us Judgment is turned away backward and Justice standeth a far off Truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter Yea truth faileth and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey Esay 59. 14. 15. Our Nobles and Gentry are debased our Rich-men are beggered and many thousands of all sorts are killed or starved the whole Commonalty of the Kingdom in the General are in the same Condition with the Asses of France thought fit for nothing but blows and burdens no man can now command the use of his proper goods or the service of his own Children we hear daily of rapes and robberies burning of houses depopulation of Towns violence and oppression reigns in all places and confusion is poured out in ful measure among us insomuch that our wel-ordered Common-wealth that was is translated into a very Conjuration of Tyrannies by the means of these men whose aims and endevours are only to keep us in perpetual slavery Militari Jure by the Militia which yet forsooth they desire may be setled in their good hands for the peoples security and preservation 'T is true the people at first chose them and now they feel them and have cause to know them and to confess of them that they are very Scorpions to them and that their little finger is ten times heavier then the Kings Loynes The people chose them to be Arbytratours on their side against their King to comprimize as it were on their behalf some matter between the King and them for under that notion do the people commonly chuse their Parliament men and such shal only be carried on their shoulders whom they apprehend wil be most stiffe against their Soveraign as if he were the only great Enemy to their welfare and prosperity But by this time the greatest part of them we believe are otherwise instructed and as some of them have confessed their apprehensions of the King and Parliament as they stand now in the tearms contradistinct and opposite is like that which the Heathens have of God and the Devil as those adore the Devil with gifts and sacrifices for fear of mischief from him so do these the Parliament but God say the Heathens is good and wil do us no harm so say these is the King and therfore they neglect to do him service And doubtless might people have but liberty now to speak their minds freely they would utterly renounce the preservation of those their Arbitratours and desire again the Kings protection after the manner of former times And wheras these new Governours desire to have the Militia of three Kingdoms setled in their own hands for our greater security we must needs apprehend from the proof they have given us of what they promised us that this their pretence is but one of those bitter flouts which in scorn at our simplicities for thinking them to be honest men they cast upon us Sed Deus vindex God shal one day sit in judgment on them 4. They have said It would be to the Kings great glory to let them have the whole and perpetual managing of the Militia for then they should be fully able to make him the most glorious Prince in Christendome which thing they have a long time promised purposed and endevoured and all this fighting must be belâ—eved to be to that very end for had the King but tamely at first delivered up into their hands what God committed into his trusted them for ever with that Power and Authority wherwith God hath trusted him Had he but for their sakes denied God to be the only Ruler of Princes and acknowledged them his Governours and Guardians Had he but resigned unto them what King John his Predecessour once did unto the Pope they would have made the Pope their President in this as wel as they do in many other things and have returned it back again to him as he did to King John and so the King holding his Kingdom from thenceforth immediately of them they would have done more for him I that they would then ever his old Land-lord God Almighty either did or meant to do For wheras God made him King but only of England Scotland and Ireland they would have given him moreover all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them so that had not the King stood in his own light they had Conquered for him long ere this the Kingdoms of France and Spain and the Empire of Germany yea and the last year they had pulled out old Antichrist by the ears and burnt the whore Babylon with fire together with all of her Trinkets and at this very instant they had bin stepping over unto Constantinople for to ding down the great Turk and in the next half year the Mogull of Persia had bin taught to submit himself and then also the King of China had bin summoned to an account for his usurping the Title of Filius Coeli which is proper to no man living but only to those of their faction and by that time the Grand Chams of Tartary would have learned so much wit as to forbear calling themselves Domini Dominantium and to leave that stile wholly unto these superlative Abamocchoes And now who wil not say it had bin a Glorious thing to the King for the world to take notice that so great a brood of such mighty Alexanders should like that Cadmeyan Progeny start up on the sodain at one time in his Kingdom But it seems the King wanted faith and thought such great Acts might be sooner purposed then performed or else was jealous of these his Worthies that in their subduing of these Kingdoms they would not have dealt with him as Joab did with David at the taking of Rabbah and yeilded to him the glory of the Conquest Now whether the King were too blame or no in so thinking let wise men judge But let me reason a little with these men about this their reason Suppose the King should settle as they would have him the Militia of the Kingdom in their hands and then they should chance to Vote Bonum est
clandestine proceedings against us here c. SECT XVI 1. Of the Enemies late sufferings 2. Of their strange Patience 3. Of their extraordinary great successe and the true grounds of it 4. Successe no Argument of a good cause 5. The worst men have alway made most use of it HEre is much remarkable stuffe in these few words which I shal endevour to discover First say they Were our cause altered as it is not or we worse Rebels then formerly as none can affirm c. We granted them before that their cause is stil the same in specie as it was at first and so are they themselves no whit altered from what they were but only a malo in pejus from bad to worse and the Moralists account this an Alteration And let any one that hath the use of sense and reason judge whether Age doth not make some difference in sinful men as wel as it doth in Satan himself who in the beginning of the world was a Serpent as these at the beginning of the war were Rebels and it is true he is but a Serpent stil but he is come to be now an old Serpent so called Rev. 12. and that is aliquid amplius Antiquity in evil speaks both a further ability to evil and a larger measure of iniquity and in this respect he may be called a worse Devil then at the first and so may they worse Rebels But I wil not with Arguments either prevent or assist those proofs too sufficiently given of themselves by their own actions I had rather spend time to pray them better But they tel us of Notice to be taken of late sufferings which they have undergon and of some strange Patience which it seems as they say hath manifested it self of late to be in them Yea even now since the discovery of these Papers Truly we must confess our errour we have not hitherto observed any such thing but we are resolved upon this intimation to make inquiry first after their late Sufferings and then after their strange Patience These Sufferings of theirs we find upon Consideration began about the year 1642. some certain months before the â—â—rth of those 19. Propositions about the time of the Kings first removal North-ward which as we imagine and remember was Lent time and therfore most accursed doth that superstitious season deserve to be and for ever to be blotted out of John Bookers Almanack as wel as Christmas day because therin did begin their late great Sufferings Then O then most sadly they fel into the same Condition that Richard the third was in when alas ful sore against his wil the whole care and burden of the Kingdom was cast upon his shoulders then alas and from thenceforth wo and alas they were forced out of meer Necessity to begin to seize upon the Kings Magazines His Forts Towns and Castles His Navy of Ships Houses and all he had to their great discomfort and displeasure And how hath all their very Senses since that time bin continually troubled and molested their Ears O lamentable have bin loaden with the most offensive acclamations and Honourings of the people their Gust and Smel hath bin tormented daily with the perfumes and feastings of the City their Eies and Touch have bin most vexatiously tortured with those so loathed heaps of Plate and Monies which from all parts of the Kingdom have come trowling in unto them While the King in the mean time hath bin in great prosperity wandring up and down in Fields and Mountains Cold and Wet Weak and Weary Faint and Hungry with few friends and little mony Yea while he hath had time and opportunity to get himself a Stomack they good souls have bin wel nigh surfeited with good cheer and done to death with abundance Yea poor creatures they have bin constrained to sit warm and to lie soft to be served in state to drink Wine in bowles to be behonoured be worshipped to be crouched and kneeled unto and so forth Wherfore if that Pope of Rome when he lay beaking himself in the midst of his Luxuries had cause to cry out Heu quantum patimur pro Christo then great reason have these Complainants to cry out also of their late great Sufferings Yea and besides all these corporal calamities their very spirits have bin also distracted many times with most frightful fears and Jelousies as of Plots strange Plots under ground Regiments great Regiments of Subterranean Horses lay in wait for them Conspiracies dangerous conspiracies were contrived against their corporal welfare as that honest Tailour that sate close in Moor-fields can abundantly witness which doleful matters have oft-times put them into as pittiful a plight as that good Alderman of London their friend was in when he thought himself to be shot in the breeches Nor is here all yet these fears of theirs have bin followed with increase of cares also to provide plenty of Prisons and strong holds to hamper and restrain the Ministers of God those great enemies to their undertaking to devise means how to destroy both them and their doctrine and all that with them adhere fast to the testimony of Jesus concerning obedience to God and Caesar. These and such like have bin the late sufferings and great troubles of these men And they are indeed as we now confess the more remarkable because sufferings of this kind are seldom the portion of Gods children as these call themselves nor had we apprehended that this kind of life which they have lived had bin a suffering if themselves had not so called it and put us in mind so to account of it Indeed some of the Brethren of the Independent faction as M. Edwards that free-spoken Presbyterian in his Book detecting their late manner of living in Holland doth inform the world did call such a kind of life themselves living it a Persecution and a suffering otherwise we have not heard that appellation given unto it before But indeed these are new times and many other things have new names Loyalty is called Treason and Treason Loyalty Obedience Rebellion and Rebellion Obedience Truth Falshood and Falshood Truth and why may not as wel a pleasant life be called a life of sufferings and a suffering life a life of pleasure if it please the new Omnipotency now above-board so to ordain and establish No man must move the lip open the mouth or so much as peep against it And thus at last they may see we have taken notice of their late sufferings and confess them rare Now we shal view their patience too which themselves call strange specially that which they have shewn even now after the discovery of these Papers Indeed their publication of them together with their Preface and Notes upon them after their discovery is testimony sufficient of the strangeness of their patience And yet we must tel them that we conceive by the effects of this their patience that we have read of such a like patience before now in
here I think my self bound in Conscience not to let slip the means of setling that Kingdom if it may be fully under my Obedience Now if to preserve the lives of Protestant Subjects impossible otherwise to be done if to keep Religion and Regal Power from subversion be not two sufficient grounds to excuse at least a Christian Prince in a disabled condition for the Consenting to a present Peace with the vilest Murderers in the World I know not what is Yea and beside if the Conditions be observed which the King in his low estate requires to have this Peace granted upon perhaps they may speak the same very commendable 1. It must be such a Peace as must not be against His Conscience and Honour 2. The Penal laws against Appeals to Rome and Premunire must stil stand The Accusers themselves confesse these two 3. It must be on this Condition or so far forth as the Irish remain in their due Obedience to him and lend him their faithful assistance against his enemies as becometh Subjects This is apparent Paper 19. However these Calumniatours please to interpret to me it seemeth that this Peace with the Irish is like that which Solomon made with Shimei That wise King laid such an injunction upon him for the grant of his life as he foresaw he was likely to break and so would come afterward to a due punishment of his former offences and even so hath our King done in that his grant for doubtlesse it is as hard a thing for the Irish to abstain from appealing to Rome or to continue long in their due obedience as it was for Shimei to forbear going to Gath when he heard his servant was run thither and by that time the King through Gods assistance may be able to do justice upon them according to their merits Kings what ever people think have choice spirits differing from those of other men are better guided as being in a special sort in Gods hand which directs them in using a connivent lenity where a sharp insight or notice may work a greater damage for the present In matters of Government which every one that can find fault with skilleth not in such accidents fall out somtime that the Prince must not stand to ask what may be done by law but must do what is necessary to be done in that case If a Cholerick man as one saies be about to strike I must not go about to purge his Choller but to break his blow So doth the King in this case He labours to break the blows of the Murderous Irish that they may fall no longer so heavy upon his Protestant Subjects Time was when He would have gone in person to have purged their Choller and to let them bloud and so have redeemed his poor afflicted people from their fury in a more Kingly way only his good Subjects here that take upon them to command him would not give him leave so to do wherefore he must now do as he may and not as he would And surely if those Abbots of Westminster that sit there at ease fatted with the wealth and pleasures of the Kingdom sporting themselves with reports of bloud and slaughter had but any sensible feeling of those miseries which our poor Protestant Brethren in Ireland do indure by the continuation of that War they would be glad of a peace upon any condition so it were but with the enjoyment of Conscience and Religion But they as is conceived were the first kindlers of the fire there thereby to gain advantage to themselves of raising combustions here and as their phrase so their fashion is to go through with the work Ergo til there be a total ruine and desolation of all they wil admit of no peace in either Kingdom wherefore the King as the case then stood went the only right way at that present by a pacification with the rebellious Irish to inable himself to suppresse the rebellious English those roots of war and seeds-men of sedition and so to recover a Capacity sufficient to correct all offenders and settle a firm tranquility among all his Subjects But these Accusers at the end of their Notes Pag. 55. do object divers of the Kings expressions against the doings of the Irish which as they apprehend this his consent to agree with them did contradict His words say they once were these We hope the lamentable Condition of Ireland wil invite us to a fair intelligence and unity that we may with one heart intend the relieving and recovering of that unhappy Kingdome where those barbarous Rebels practice such inhumane and unheard-of outrages upon our miserable people that no Christian eare can hear without Horrour nor Story parallel And at another time say they thus the King speaketh We conjure all our Subjects by the bonds of Love Duty and Obedience that are precious to good men to joyn with us for the recovery of that Kingdom Also in July say they at the Siege of Hull He conjures both Houses as they wil Answer the contrary to Almighty God to unite their force or recovery of Ireland And in December the King answers some Irish Protestants thus Since the beginning of that monstrous Rebellion I have had no greater sorrow then for the bleeding Condition of that Kingdom Truly their bare repetitions of these pathetical expressions and desires of their Soveraign with which themselves were no whit moved to unite with him in so pious and Charitable a work doth plainly discover them to be none of that number of good men whom the King conjured nor to have any fear in their hearts of Almighty God And doing the same to this end viz. as they hope to disgrace the King who at the end of their relation they blush not to tax for his laying the blame of the Irish miseries upon the Parliament i. e. upon the faction so called which if he should not do he would sin highly against God and the Truth I say to repeat those his expressions to this end as they do doth witnesse them to be given up to Reprobate sense and to remain in the most hardened condition of impenitency And thus have I done also with the fourth particular There remains now only to observe the other Circumstances annexed to this their Charge for aggravation taken from the manner of working whereby these things are said to be effected in a close trading way and from the end for meer particular advantage I shal answer both these together in a word thus The King writes Letters to his Wife and his Wife to him again wherin they communicate their hearts and minds to each other Now because they did not shew those their Letters to the faction at Westminster before they sent them and crave their approbation of what they had written therefore they are here accused to go in a close trading way and to ayme at their own particular advantage by certain men who as must be supposed did never do any
deportments towards her been such as our Religion commandeth she might ere this in all probabilities have preferred the same before her own even as she hath done our Nation many have heard her at a wel furnished Table say one of these Dishes in England with my Husband and Children might I but enjoy it there in peace would please me better and be sweeter to me then all this plenty in this place So great is her affection to our Nation whose great ingratitude and unkindnesse to her so unbecoming the Gospel the Lord pardon Let the Reader pardon this digression her Majesties wronged Innocence and the truth did extort it from me I return now to her Accusers from whom I learn That her Majesties main and proper fault is Loving her Husband and this I confesse they Evidence at large from many quotatious out of her several Letters as first they say she performs the office of a Resident for him in France and is restlesse even to the neglect of her own health to assist him against them his Enemies 2. She vows they say to die by famine rather then fail him in her faithful endevours 3. She confines not her Agency to France but sollicites other Princes also for shipping in his aid 4. She sends Armes into Scotland to Mountrosse and many such like particulars they alleage which doth abundantly evidence this her fault of loving her Husband Nay and the most heinous matter of all is the Counsels which she gives him namely to be suspicious in his Treaties with them who have deceived him so much already to take heed of his own safety amongst them and not to think himself safe any longer then he defends his friends that have served him for which they quote Pap. 31. these they call Counsels of very pernicious Consequence of which nature also is that manifestation of her Judgment that peace cannot be safe to the King without a Regiment for his Guard a la mode de France say they they might as wel have said a la mode du Parliament and of all this they alleage their punctual proofs out of these Letters wherefore 't is very plain that the Queen is guilty of a most dear and tender affection to the King her Husband and in order to him she desires the welfare of all his friends and for this cause is deemed by these men a fit object of abuse and hatred But truly if I did not evidently see them to be given up to blindnesse of mind by reason of that malice which is in them I should much admire at their folly in these their exceptions against the Queen I dare say that Henry Burtons Wife or John Basticks Wife might have done ful as much for their husbands when time was had they bin in a like capacity and bin no whit blamed by these men for the same Nay they should have been commended rather for such Testimonies of their faithfulnesse and affection O but the Queens fortune is to be the Kings Wife and therefore she must not look to find such grace and favour in the eyes of these jolly men as to have that in her not censured for a fault which in mean women is entitled virtue Nay I am further confident that if this truly royal Mary Wife to our Soveraign Charls had like that Queen Isabella wife to our Edward the 2d. joyned issue with some of the Enemies against the King her Husband she should have bin in as high account with these as that other was with the Rebels of those days her difference in Religion should have bred no dis-affection at all in them towards her for 't is not so much an unity in that which they desire and aime at as to all is plainly apparent from that multiplicity of Religions allowed amongst them if there be but a facile community another way in things more sensible it wil abundantly serve the turn to give satisfaction to these blessed Reformers But because the Queen is Chara fidaque marito dear and faithful to her Lord and Husband therefore must she be exclaimed upon and hated yea hunted and forced out of the Kingdom by certain wise and wel-bred Gentlemen as they would be accounted that rule the rost at Westminster who if they could but lay hands upon her would also murder her for with open mouth they have charged her already with no lesse then Treason Treason against the New-state forsooth even for her affectionate adherence unto the King her Husband in these times of his affliction Observe it I beseech you and consider well of it O all ye Princes and Nobles of the world and all you that are true Gentlemen of what Nation and Kingdome soever and say whether you ever read or heard of the like Behold here a most Royall Lady of most noble and high Vertues and incomparable parts Great Henries Daughter Sister to the late French King and Aunt unto the present and Queen of England who hath been defamed sclandered reviled railed upon shot at persecuted and driven to banishment brought upon the publick Stage for a Traitour condemned and threatned with death and forced to fly into other Countries to preserve her selfe in being like that woman in the Revelation from the face of the Dragon and all this onely for her faithfulnesse and loyal affections to her Husband in his distresse consider of this thing I beseech you and speak your minds And you my Country-men of England in general examine your thoughts and then say Hocciâ—e est Humanum factum aut inceptum Is there any Generosity nay any Humanity in such dealings Can you imagine that such demeanours towards such a personage will be ever chronicled to our Nations praise or read by posterity with approbation Was ever such harsh and hellish usage offered by the hands of English men before now to a daughter of France Duke Reiners Daughter Wife to that good though most unfortunate King Henry the 6. was used much better by Richard the third she had no such despights offered to her person because a woman and though she brought much forrein aid into the Kingdome yet was she not as I read ever accused of Treason for the same she was raâ—her interpreted to have done thereby her proper duty to her Husband no man I am sure can say that our Protestant Religion allows of this behaviour or that our holy Mother Church did ever feed any of her Children with such nourishment as should cause them to break out into such exorbitancies Her milk was alwaies seasoned with the Doctrines of Humility Reverence Civility Gentlenesse Affability and gratiousnesse of conversation to people of all sorts even to inferiours and to enemies Much more to superiours and to friends Surely if this our once most generous and courteous Nation had not now in too great a measure layed aside common Humanity as well as grace were there but this one reason which I shall name it would be abundantly enough to make this Queen most dear
did hurt or harme unto us they that brought you into these miseries however they courted and encouraged you before will reject your complaints with a quid haec ad nos you should have looked to these things before hand for Pharisees will be Pharisees unto the worlds end It is a fearefull thing to be given up to shed bloud King James would say if God should leave him to kill a man he would think God did not love him and I believe your selves were of the same opinion all the while the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which commandeth love to enemies did season your hearts but what a strange alteration is there now in your dispositions since the Doctrine of Devils hath been preached unto you for no other is this of butchering your brethren of killing slaying and destroying then the doctrine of him who is a murtherer from the beginning you would not have been hired heretofore to have acted the executioners part which is a lawfull office upon a Malefactor condemned by lawfull Authority so tender you were of shedding bloud but now you make no scruple at all of it you are greedy and thirsty many of you to spill the bloud of Innocents only for their constancy in that Doctrine of Obedience and Loyalty to the King which your selves also in Christs Schoole have been instructed in meerly upon the temptation and motion of them you call the Parliament who have no more Authority over the lives of men without the Kings allowance then your servants have over yours nay which is more strange yet you are bewitched by their seduction to think that in killing your Brethren you do God service though our Saviour fore-speaking of this very particular shewes the ground of this ill opinion to be only ignorance of God and want of knowledge Nay not only those that have been Agents or Souldiers in this Rebellion but in like manner all you who have willingly contributed Plate Moneyes Horses or any thing tending to the advancement of it I feare you are under the guilt of bloud and will be indicted one day at Gods barre as accessaries to all these evills that have been committed against the King and against your brethren all the men and all the women that brought in their Salts Spoones Rings and Thimbles by the suggestion and perswasion of false Teachers must hold up their hands at Gods Tribunall as guilty persons for doing things by the seduction and example of others so cleane contrary to that light of the Gospell which so many years together had been taught unto them O friends strong and strange is the delusion that is fallen upon you and thick is the veile that is over your eyes farre are you gone without looking back and most difficult is it yet to perswade you to it I have often feared with my selfe that place in Esay to have too neer a relation to you The hearts of this people are made fat their eyes dim and eares heavie and to continue so till the Cities be wasted without an inhabitant the houses without man and the Land be utterly desolate I beseech you in the bowels of Jesus Christ think seriously upon the matter O that I could perswade you to it while there is time for repentance and save your selves at length yet from this untoward generation break their yoak from off your necks renounce their societies have no more to doe with them read mark and ponder upon that place Prov. 1. 10. to the 20. Verse and remember from whence you are fallen and return to your Loyalty O Countrey-men Return return and to provoke you more earnestly hereunto consider with your owne hearts of these particulars 1. Whether this way wherein you have gone be not directly opposite both to Christs Doctrine and example doth not the Gospell command to give tribute to whom Tribute is due feare to whom feare and Honour to whom Honour belongeth and doth it not teach that all these appertain to the King and yet have they not all been with-held from him was not our Saviours practice in this particular most remarkable for our imitation He wrought but one money miracle while he was on the Earth and that was to have wherewithall to pay Caesar his Homage and himselfe sayes he did it least he should offend so carefull was he not to displease the King and being tempted at another time to give some countenance for with-holding the Kings Rights disclaimed the motion and cryed out redde Caesari quae sunt Caesaris Deo quae sunt Dei inferring that God and Caesar in such matters go together to injure the one is to wrong the other for God hath commanded that Caesar be honoured and that all which is his be rendred to him Now whether you and your Leaders have done according to this doctrine and example let your own consciences judge 2. Consider whether this way wherein you have gone be not also contradictive to the Law of the Land The denyall of the Kings Supremacy in this Kingdome hath been wont to be accounted so heinous an offence that he who is guilty of it is judged by the Law to die as a Traytor And the doing of any thing in prejudice of the Kings Authoritie as the raising of Forces without him nay the having but thoughts of mischief towards him though they never breake forth into Action is reckoned by the Law for no lesse then High Treason and some have suffered death for such things nay further yet the bare instilling misconceits of the King into the people to with-draw their affections from him hath even in this very Parliament been cald High Treason Now whether the Kings Supremacy not only in things Spirituall but also Temporall be not denied and whether by your opposition to his Majesties Person and commands and by whispering yea by open speaking evilly of him and consenting to what hath been written against him you have not made your selves guilty of that grand Crime let your own consciences also determine unto you 3. Consider whether it be not against common equity to practice the taking away from any one that which comes unto him by lawfull inheritance succession or just election whether you would not so judge it if any should divest you of what was left you by your Parents and whether the Kings Authority and Revenews which you with others have endeavoured to dispossesse him of be not of the same Tenure and held by the best Title indeed if men come to power and Authority by fraud and violence as your new Masters have done the case is otherwise lives lost in conspiring the downfall of such may be reckoned well sold every man in common equity were there no tie of duty or allegeance is to help him to right that suffers wrong but to concurre in oppressing the Supreme Magistrate and in taking from him what belongs unto him if conscience be suffered to make report it will be confessed to be the
highest injustice for as to detract from the Standard which is the rule of measures is the greatest sinne so is it to detract from the King who is the Standard of righteousnesse in his Kingdome 4. Consider whether the demand of having the Militia out of the Kings hand wherein his Authority and Power consists which your Leaders and you insist upon be not against piety and a plaine urging the King to act Esau's part in resigning up his birth-right and whether you think in earnest as some of your Preachers have suggested that you have a sufficient ground to expect Gods blessing upon your undertaking though it be unlawfull because Jacob was blessed afterward though the means which he used to accomplish his design were not approvable nay seeing the King is not like Esau so easily drawn to part with his birth-right but rather like Naboth will keep his inheritance for feare of Gods displeasure consider I pray whether you in going about to force him thereto by violence are not all the while acting the parts of Ahab and Jezabel who were persons that had sold themselves to work wickednesse nay whether you are not more deep in the evill then they were in regard the King is not to you as Naboth was to Ahab a subject nor have you as he did tendred an answerable exchange or rather a better for what you demand from him consider I beseech you and thinke well in your owne hearts of this particular 5. Consider and call to mind whether those Teachers who have been most active and busie in drawing you into this your way have not hereby contradicted their own former Doctrines It was said of Stephen Gardiner that no man in the daies of Hen. 8 had spoken better for the Kings Authority then he had done in his Book de vera obedientia and yet no man more violent then he was in Queen Maries time in persecuting those that held fast to the same truth and Doctrine may not the like be said and affirmed of many of your Preachers that no man taught the duty of Obedience better or inveighed more against Rebellion and shedding of bloud then they heretofore have done but now none more violent then themselves in opposing those that practice according to the same Doctrine if it be lawfull to resist defame and oppresse the King now why did they then speak against such doings or if good language of him as their Soveraign and humble obedience to him was true Doctrine then how comes it to passe that 't is not preached still now there is such need of it truth is unalterable They tell you of a certaine New Light received which it seems was an attendant upon the Militia for till this was seized on by their Faction that was not seen and had not this been first obtained probably that had been still concealed may not this New Light therefore be suspected and the rather because 't is so contrary to that which Gods Word holds out unto us which as a sure and certaine guide we are commanded to take heed unto Esay affirmes that whoever speaks not according to the written Testimony bath no light in him And Saint Paul is resolute that if an Angell from Heaven shall teach contrary to that Gospell himselfe had preached which was the Doctrine of obedience to Princes and of love to his Brethren he ought to be held accursed wherefore consider seriously in your own hearts whether you have done well in suffering your selves to be thus led by your new lighted Teachers 6. Consider whether they doe not onely oppoâ—e their owne former Doctrines but also their own former doings and perswade you to goe with them in those wayes which heretofore they exclaimed much upon others for going in did not they complaine much against forcing tender Consciences and against urging subscription to things of an indifferent nature though allowed by Law because scrupled at affirming the same to be against Christian Liberty and yet do not they now countenance farre greater violence in pressing of things more directly unlawfull As for example would not they have the King forced against his Conscience to consent to the altering of that Church-Government which he in his soule is perswaded to be most Orthodox and agreeable to Gods Word and to the State of this Kingdome and which this Church and Nation hath so thrived under yea and which himselfe at his Coroâ—ation took a solemn Oath to maintain And have not their very selves been the chief Instruments of urging their Brethren to the taking of new and unlawfull Covenants and when unto tender and scrupulous Consciences the offensive Oath hath been tendred in one hand and an Halter in another with a furious Commination that they should have the one if they did not presently accept of the other a course which the Bishops never used have not some of these Ministers approved of this rigorous dealing yea and when some of the members of Christ have been at the place of Execution to be murthered and Martyred by their Faction for their Loyalty to their Prince or for falling off through trouble of Conscience from their ungodly Covenant and way have not some of their Preachers stood barking at them on purpose to disturb their spirits and to hinder their quiet passage out of this miserable World even as that bawling Fryer did doe unto Archbishop Cranmer when some have seen or heard them acting their parts in this manner they have thought of that Fryers Picture as it standeth there in the Book of Martyrs And here by the way let me exhort all men to read that Book often in these times and they shall find a very great resemblance between the bloudy Persecutors of those dayes and these now and a great similitude in their courses it was not doubtlesse without a speciall providence that the said Book was of late twice reprinted that so there being a greater plenty of them we in these times might being many of us be more enlightned supported and comforted in our sufferings And I would have you observe among many other things that Note of Mr. Fox How Henry the Fourth that deposed Richard the Second was the first of all English Kings that began the mercifull burning of Gods Saints for their standing against the Papists so that we may thence learn that 't is no new thing for them to be given up to the acting of cruelties against Gods Church and people who have first given up themselves to practise Rebellion against their Soveraign these two sinnes as it seemes before now have gone together But I return Did not many of those your Ministers complain most fearefully in times past for the meer change and alteration of some few phrases and expressions in the Common-Prayer-Book holding it then as it seemed so perfect a platform of Church-Service as that no word or sillable ought to be altered in the same and yet now upon the suddain have not
A VINDICATION OF KING CHARLES OR A LOYAL SUBJECTS DUTY MANIFESTED In Vindicating his Soveraigne from those Aspersions cast upon Him by certaine persons In a scandalous Libel Entituled The Kings Cabinet Opened And published as they say by Authority of Parliament Whereunto is added A true Parallel betwixt the sufferings of our Saviour and our Soveraign in divers particulars c. By EDW SYMMONS A Minister not of the late confused New but of the Ancient Orderly and True Church of England Remember Lord the reproach of thy servant how he beareth in his bosome the reproach of all the mighty wicked people Wherewith thine enemies have rep2roached O Lord wherewith they have reproached the foot-steps of thine Anointed PSAL. 89. 50 51. His Enemies will I clothe with shame but upon Himselfe shall his Crown flourish PSAL. 132. 18. Even so Amen REV. 22. 20. But thou O Lord how long PSAL. 6. 3. Printed in the Yeere 1648. To all that truely feare God into whose hands this Booke shall come Christian Friends THis Book here tendred to your view was for the most part of it made in Cornwal in the year 1645. I was quickned in my undertaking by a noble Gentleman of great faithfulnesse and Loyalty that County hath many such Before it was quite concluded the Enemy like a flood brake in thither Whereupon to preserve and finish it I went to France but by so doing I had almost lost it for my Cloak-bag which contained it and all I had beside passed by accident in one Ship and my self went in another and we landed an hundred miles asunder that was Plundred and nothing therein returned unto me but onely these Papers they by meer fortune some six weeks after Which speciall Providence in their particular preservation spake them to my heart Gods will to have them published to my hopes his purpose to grant a blessing Hereupon I fitted them for the Presse with all speed and they were ready in May 1646. nor was the fault in my will that they were not then committed to the same But perhaps God had a speciall Providence in this also peoples hearts were not then so capable to receive a Vindication of their Soveraign from a fellow-Subject as now they are even forced to be by that illustrious eminency of his graces which hath beamed forth in his dark condition even to the conviction and admiration of all reasonable creatures Since the finishing hereof I had occasion to see and observe the manners and conditions of the French Nation both those of the Romish and of the Reformed Religion and my speciall care was to understand what sense they had of the present differences in our Church and Nation which truly to remember is but to renew that griefe I had in observing In briefe they both conjoyntly rejoyced at our follies and as appeared to me desired our ruine And this did chiefly occasion the writing my Post-script which was done the last Spring at my returne into the hither parts of that Kingdome where I understood also of His Majesties restrained condition at Holdenby About the time of his deliverance from that place by Gods direction and merciful protection I came back safe into England but fancying the season to be then past for publication of my Book in regard of those great alterations which had happened since its first composall and withall some hopefull reasons offering themselves to my thoughts at my first arrivall made me conceive it would not be so needfull Therefore I resolved to lay it aside But after some moneths expectance those new hopes being likely to prove tympanous I was solicited by some friends from the farthest part of the Kingdome to put it to the Presse now I was in a place where the same might be done who also informed me that in their apprehensions vulgar hearts wanted satisfaction in nothing concerning the Kings integrity but only in the matter of those Letters which did still scruple many of them Wherefore they conjured me if I rendred His Majesties Honour indeed that I should give the world a speedy view of what I had writ to that particular These Arguments easily prevailed with a willing mind which was encouraged farther by that free liberty which I saw daily used by others in writing speaking against those sins and sinners which this Book reproveth though to my griefe withall I saw in many Papers wickednesse rather scoffed at then pursued with such grave and home rebukes as the case requireth and sin thereby I perceived was rather made a matter of laughter then of sorrow even to the most guilty through that impudence which is in them and yet I doubt not too but ingenious lashes are sufficiently distastfull to galled spirits because there is truth as well as wit in them they haply may be as rods to rotten hearts but Gods Word if closely applyed as I hope in some measure t is in this Book done will prove unto them as a very Scorpion if those make them hisse and spit this will make them even rage and roare for the more Divinity a proofe carryes with it or in it the more tormentfull it is alwayes unto the wicked Sic scriptum est may haply silence Satan but t is not alwayes so powerfull upon the spirits of proud men The Pharisees were so far from being quieted by Christs doctrine that they grew more inraged and were incensed thereby to seek his ruine and had no rest till they had procured it though they got none by it And let any one practice Christ or follow him in his way as close as he can he shall doubtlesse meet with those that will practice the Pharisees and follow them a great deale closer It was in my thoughts I confesse to have concealed my name as you may see in the following Preface and for what reasons but I have altered my resolution concerning that particular from these considerations First if I had not owned my work I had done that which I dislike and incurr'd the blame which I object to others I had hazarded my Book to be entitled a Libel and exposed my selfe to be reckoned in the number of night-birds that love darknesse yea I had receded from my former self for when the King was in a condition visibly Potent I prefixt my name to all I writ and if I should forbeare to do so now I should appeare as faln in my zeal and abated in my dutifull affections by the increases of his Afflictions I read of Nicodemus who affecting secresie while Jesus was at liberty came to him by night but when he was in restraint he thought it his duty to discover himself in his behalf and so he did more then ever All Scripture is written for our learning Secondly I held my self bound to attest my Keeping as I had done my Taking the Protestation and that was by writing my name For this my Book is nothing else but the discharge of my Conscience and Duty in that
their very names as well as their acts unto Posterity as Fox hath done the Persecutors in Q. Maries time to their eternall infamie For my selfe I doe not name any person unlesse those that have named themselves in Print already nor doe I speak so expresly of any particular as they in their Libel doe of the King although there is never a villany cruell act or blasphemous expression quoted in this Discourse but the persons by whom spake or done and the places where might have been set down punctually But my opposition is not against Men but Sinne which I hate in all and in the best most I pray for the persons of the worst and I desire all men to joyne with me in so doing for these Reasons First Christ commands us to pray for them that despightfully use us 2. We are Christians in whom as the sight of an enemies misery must awaken pity so of his sinne must kindle Prayer 3. They are our Countrymen as those Israelites were to S. Paul that thirsted for his blood therefore like him we must endeavour their salvation 4. They have deserved this duty at our hands though unawares unto themselves for by their ill usage of us they have thrust us farther under Gods wing then we were before and made us more sensibly to feele the heat of his love and to taste the comfort of his Providence to be better acquainted with God and Christ then ever perhaps we should have been had we alwayes lived at Peace in our possessions Many of us had learned to abound before though not to want but these have taught us that too and to see the vanity and ficklenesse of earthly prosperity they have loosned our hearts much from the world and made us think of heaven more seriously and doth not all this deserve our prayers Nay and farther God expects we should as by this course we may discover a better spirit to be in us then is in them and that we serve a better Master And againe his Gospel being now under foot he looks that we should raise up its honour from the dust againe in praying for these very men according to the tenour of it we have cause to suspect they have sinned the sin against the holy Ghost at least many of them but we are not certaine thereof and therefore we are bound to pray for them this is mine exhortation to all men and the grounds of it upon which I build mine owne practice and let not any think notwithstanding my zeale against mens sins that I dare be otherwise affected then thus unto their persons Last of all if any shall think me worthy of blame for not plainly expressing mine own name seeing that I find fault with the Authors of the Libel for concealing theirs Let such know that t is not because I am ashamed of it or of my worke but my reason is this I am an obscure and meane person and my name can no whit advance the credit of my labours but perhaps even debase it rather yea amongst too many of our owne side as they are accounted who having fleshed themselves with the monies of the King or the spoiles of his people can wallow in luxury while he is in misery and deride at meane persons for being affected for him Besides the subscribing my name in regard of my low condition is likely to be more vexatious to the great men whom I seeme to oppose then perhaps my Book it self may be for this by Gods grace may be conceived as it truly is but a defiance against their ungodly courses whereas that may be taken as a contemptuous affront against their very persons nor would I willingly increase sin or rage in any If any desire to know what I am let this satisfie I am one of those weak and despised things which God sometimes makes use of to confound the Mighty A Member I am and a Minister of the Ancient and true Church of England One that equally hates Idolatry and Superstition in Gods Worship and Service as I doe Indecency and Profanenesse I am one that can live under another Church-Government in a State where 't is established by the Supreame Magistrate with more quietnesse I believe then they can or will doe that fight for an alteration in this Kingdome although in my judgement I doe and shall prefer Episcopal Government above any other in the world as being in my conscience most Scripturall and Orthodoxall I am one that loves not to hear Calvin railed upon by them that never read him for I judge him to have been a great instrument of Gods glory though I think him not infallible I entitle not my self unto him nor to any man else I am a Christian and that 's my glory I have bid defiance by Gods grace to the worlds malice and to the Devils works and have manifested the same against one of them in this my Vindication which I here commend to the candid acceptance of all you my fellow-subjects of England Scotland and Ireland for whom I pray that you may be all such excepting in sins and miseries as my selfe am Phil'anax Philopatris May 30. 1646. In regno nati sumus Deo parêre libertas est The Protestation Ordered to be generally taken Die Merc. 5. Maii. 1641. I A. B. doe in the presence of Almighty God Promise Vow and Protest to maintain and defend as far as lawfully I may with my life power and estate the true Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the doctrine of the Church of England against all Popery and Popish Innovations within this Realme contrary to the same Doctrine and according to the duty of my Allegeance His Majesties Royall Person Honour and Estate As also the Power and Privileges of Parliament The lawfull Rights and Liberties of the Subject and every person that maketh this Protestation in whatsoever he shall doe in the lawfull pursuance of the same And to my power and as far as lawfully I may I will oppose and by all good wayes and meanes endeavour to bring to condigne punishment all such as shall either by Force Practice Councels Plots Conspiracies or otherwise doe any thing to the contrary of any thing in this present Protestation contained And further that I shall in all just and honourable wayes indeavour to preserve the Union and Peace between the three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland And neither for hope feare nor other respect shall relinquish this Promise Vow and Protestation A VINDICATION OF KING CHARLES OR A Loyall Subjects duty c. SECT I. 1 Of the supposed Authors of the Libell 2. Of the Authorizers thereof and their speciall Order How fit the same should be recalled A president propounded to that purpose 3. A serious expostulation with them about the same and of their maintaining a base fellow to deride and scoffe at their Soveraigne in his affliction THe first thing observable in that disloyall pamphlet is the plurall manner
Let themselves call to minde whether there was not an Act which is more then a bare Order both made and nulled in the same Session since the Beginning of this Parliament though perhaps not dashed by that full Authority which did establish it yet was it not set aside as needlesse and vain or at least as not sufficiently advised upon beforehand The Act which I mean was that which concerned the Fleet or Navy against the Turkish Pirats to redeem our Christian Country-men from Bondage For their better remembrance of which I shall beg leave of the Readers to make a little digression in the relation of some few circumstances and if I rightly apprehend it the matter in brief was thus Our good King in his piety and pity to those poor Captives had formerly with that Ship-money so grudgingly paid built and sent out diverse Ships to the same purpose and God assisting a work so Religious and becoming a Christian Prince he provailed therewith against the Pyrats of Sally and freed many of his Subjects from barbarous slavery in that place whereupon he made preparation also against those of Argyer intending the like mercy for the Christians there but was prevented in his designe by the Scottish insurrection which forced him Northward And before his intentions could return to motion for that Southern Expedition this unhappy Parliament by his authority met at Westminster where that it might be conceived some others had Bowels as well as He a Bill was preferred and disputed upon concerning a Fleet to the fore-mentioned end for the maintenance of which though it might easily have been concluded by settling of Ship-money in a Parliamentary way with an Order for the manner of levying the same to the Subjects liking which had been a more safe and sensible kinde of payment then many disbursments extorted since and might have been a mean to continue Gods nationall blessing upon the whole Kingdome by interessing in that sort all mens hearts and hands in so charitable and Christian a work yet because it was a path wherein the King had trod and they had no purpose to deal either with or for him in any such friendly or Loyall way as might shadow his apprehended haltings from his peoples eyes by making that cleerly Legall which had formerly appeared somewhat warping Besides there wanted matter or stuff to fill up the belly of that monstrum horrendrum or ungospel-like Remonstrance which was purposed to be made against his Government by which the people were to be taught to beleeve that the King did never doe any thing well therefore by all meanes Ship-money must be damned and cryed down for ever in perpetuam Regis ignominiam if mouth can doe it And for the intended Navy another course was concluded upon to advance monies to maintaine that viz. from the importation and transportation of commodities But by the way while these things were in agitation amongst the wise the King having had more sincere and serious thoughts about that businesse then other men desiring and hoping to further and speed the designe with his advice and Councell sent them his judgement concerning some particulars about the matter only to consider upon and to follow if they so pleased or otherwise to proceed according to their own discretions which advise of his had they taken in good part from their Prince and Master they had shewn no more respect unto him then Job was wont to shew to his meanest servant but they lest they might seem to need his help by a civill acceptance of his Councel were so far from relishing of it that they presently voted the same to be an obstruction cast in on purpose to stop the businesse nay a plain refusall of the King to confirme the Bill Whereupon his Sacred Majesty being armed with meeknesse against affronts leaving them wholy to their own devises did presently signe their Bill and in that fashion as they would have him so discovering to all his people if they would see that a Vote of Parliament may be fallible And now behold to return to the matter when this Act was thus finished according to their desires and all Religious hearts raised to an high expectation of seeing their poor brethren quickly redeemed from Turkish thraldome whether from their dislike of the Kings readinesse unto so Christian a work or because they had some other imployment intended for the Merchants money here at home I cannot tell but that Act was never as I heard put in execution to this day but even quite set aside and as we may say so much as in them lay quite nullified cancelled and repealed and free leave given to the Turks thereby not onely to take our Country-men at sea but also to come into the very havens of our Kingdome and to carry away our Children to the ruine of Christian souls for ever insomuch that whereas there was but the number of some 2000. English in slavery when this so adored Parliament did begin there is now November 1645. above 5000. in most lamentable bondage our King being robbed and despoyled by his loving Subjects Who consult as they say to advance Christs Kingdome of his Shippes and Navy wherewith he was wont to defend his Realme from such Pyracies This is that Act which I spake of and the reason of my remembring it at this time is to helpe the Authorizers of this venemous Pamphlet with a president for the recalling their speciall Order whereby 't is published And now before I return to my work in hand let me assume the boldnesse to expostulate a little with these men I am one of Gods Ambassadours Jesus Christ who shall be their Judge is my Master and in his Name let me reason with them about this matter for I hope I may presume to speak unto them at a distance as they are like my self but Dust and Ashes Let me ask you a question in the first place O you superlative men Suppose some of your Novices and under-hand workers as alas you have too many such I feare even about the King should by this Pamphlet which you whom they think infallible have by speciall Order authorized or by any other of like nature published under your Protection be moved to act Jaques Clements part or Raviliacks part upon the Sacred person of their Soveraigne can you imagine that the same will not be set on your score as well as that of those Regicides was laid to the charge of the Jesuites whose custome it was as your selves well know while the doctrine of King-killing was appropriate to their order to inspire men to the perpretation of that supream villany by sending forth such conditioned books as this is which you have authorized wherein with most reproachfull language they would paint out the Prince designed for slaughter as if he were the greatest Tyrant promise-breaker and oppressor of his people in the world and a person in no sort fit to live that so it might be apprehended
a most Heavenly work to rid the earth of him and a service most acceptable unto the Lord when Raviliack was demanded by his examiners to declare the reason moving him to his attempt he answered That the reasons why it was requisite to kill the King they might understand by the Sermons and Pamphlets of the Preachers Wel Sirs we all know the meaning both of you and of your Prophets and therefore as Elias from the Lord did charge Ahab with the death of Naboth because the letters provoking to it were signed with his seal so do I from the same Lord charge you with all those evil opinions and hard conceits which are already kindled in the mindes of any against the King by the meanes of this Pamphlet because 't is published by your Authority Yea if any further mischief shall befall his Sacred Majesty upon the same at your hands will the Judge of Heaven and Earth require it and know you further that the guilt of all the blasphemies reproaches scornes slanders which are spit out against the King either in this book or any other published by your leave and Order without your deep repentance and humiliation shal be heaped upon your Souls at the day of Reckoning even as if your own selves had been the Authors of them for nil interest sceleri an faveas aut facias to favour and to doe in this case is all one nay the Apostle speaks as if those who appove of other folks ill doings were in a degree worse then the Actors themselves and given up in a further measure to a Reprobate sense Qui non vetat peccare cum potest jubet saies the wise Heathen not to prevent a mischief when one may is directly to command it to be done Gentlemen for as your souls friend I would fain have you recover again that Title I charge you before the living God and Jesus Christ who shall one day sit in judgement upon you to ask your Consciences in secret whether it be not a sin and a wickednesse to speake evil of the Ruler of the people to act Shimei's part against Gods Anointed whether to write or publish such Pamphlets as this be the way to Honour the King in the eyes of his people Whether you have thus learned Christ from the Church of England Whether you ever met in Gods word with any saying or example to warrant you in this way of proceeding And I require you also as you will answer it before the Lord to ask your own hearts whether to Authorize such a work as this to the Kings defamation be a Christian work Honourable and becoming the dignity of a Parliament whose actions ought al to be glorious and presidentiall Nay is it an Act prudentiall in you thus publikely to own and countenance this prolem populi this abominable thing which the very Parents and Authors of are ashamed to father What will you say 't is one of the Priviledges of Parliament you fight for to Authorize things against the King against your own Allegeance end Protestation surely ab initio non fuit sic former Parliaments disdained to own such a Priviledge to tread in such pathes Or will you say you are more Omnipotent then those your Predecessours were who never had those brave advantages that you have true nor never did desire them But can your new Omnipotency make that which is evil in it self turn good by your Authorization I pray where had you this large Commission Who gave you this Authority Christ in whose hand is all power never did let your Chaplains prove it if they can or your Consciences affirm it if they dare Nor will that Writ which called you together and fixt you in your Spheare at Westminster tell you that the King the fountain of power under God did place you there in this sort to exercise your Activity against him your Patent therefore by which you have Authorized this work of darknesse must needs come ab Inferno And can you expect that the Judge of quick and dead will at the great day pronounce well done good and faithfull Servant unto you for doing Satans work for executing his Commission O how much better will you finde then it had been if you had wrapt up your Talents in a Napkin and in the meane time how much more had it been to the dignity of that High Court of Parliament which you pretend so much to stand for if you had but left out the name Parliament and said Published by speciall Order of the Rebellious faction in the two Houses at Westminster But now I have begun to take upon me to speak unto you O you lofty men let me ask you a question more to a like purpose What reward or commendation can you expect at Gods hand for maintaining your Beadsman Britanicus to libell against his Soveraigne to teach and excite by his weekly books the ignorant and seduced vulgar throughout the Kingdome to joyn with him in reviling and laughing to scorn their publike Father now your selves have most unjustly thrust him into affliction Dare you say his expressions are not vile O let me beg pardon of my Soveraigne and of all modest men if to the shame of these mens faces and to the increase of indignation in all godly spirits against their courses I doe with detestation repeate over here one of his passages published to the world on Monday the 4. of August 1645. Where is King Charles What is become of him Some say when he saw the storme comming after him as far as Bridgewater he came away to his dearly beloved in Ireland Yes they say he ran away out of the Kingdome very Majestically Others will have him erecting a new Monarchy in the Isle of Anglesey A third sort say that he hath hid himselfe it were best send Hue and Cry after him If any man can bring any tale or tidings of a wilfull King which hath gone astray these four yeares from his Parliament with a guilty Conscience bloudy hands and a heart full of broken vowes and protestations if these marks be not sufficient there is another in his mouth for bid him speak and you will soon know him then give notice to Britanicus and you will be payd for your paines GOD SAVE THE PARLIAMENT O you Men of Westminster is this your Beadsman that prayes for you that works for you that is maintained and cherished by you then these are the scornes of your hearts the flouts of your Spirits that are vomited up by his mouth and pen if not why have you not hang'd the villain or rather torn him in pieces with wild horses Are not you they that call your selves the Kings most Humble most dutifull and most Loyall Subjects Are not you they that would be accounted the Holy just most Christian and unerring Parliament have you not talked much of reforming our Church and Government and will you countenance and favour such persons Is this the Reformation you
life and tranquility to his poore people who are most mercilesly butchered and abused by their fellow-subjects I am confident you will all yeeld that these expressions of the King in these his private letters do discover sufficient affections to his people and doubtlesse you will judge too that those who are not of the same opinion are onely they who desire to denude him of that Kingly right and dignity which God alone hath invested him withall Yea and of his life it self iâ—â— possibly they can Sed providebit Deus God we trust will still protect him And then further yet in his directions to his said Commissioners concerning Ireland the King infers that he is willing to consent to any thing that shall be desired or devised may but a cleare way be shewed him how his poore Protestant Subjects there may probably at least defend themselves and that himselfe shall have no more need to defend his Conscience and Crown from the injuries of this English Rebellion I do not doubt but all men of Religion and Reason will acknowledge in the Kings behalf that these be ample Testimonies of his true Affections and yet these men speak as if the King wanted affections to his people I confesse there be a Company got above-board in these times who call themselves His people and Gods people yea his onely good Subjects and Gods onely good Children but in very deed their works speak them neither to belong to God nor Him Loammi may their name title properly be The King may happily shew his dislike of them and their wayes but this speaks no disaffection in him to his own people any more then our Saviours dislike of the Pharises their conditions did speak disaffection to his disciples those onely are the Kings people that yeeld him their obedience But they tell us also that in his Letters we shall see what Language and Titles the King bestowes upon his great Councell they meane the prevailing faction at Westminster whom they cal Great because they are so strong at this present and so powerfull for Rabsakeh upon this ground called his master the Great King and Nimrod also was called Great from a like reason he had by cruelty and oppression as these have done got the upper hand of all his neighbours 't is the nature of some to affect greatnesse and to manifest the same whereas Gods delights are to shew his goodnesse rather Had that Great Councell which they speak of been of Gods minde and endeavoured in Gods way to have proved themselves the Kings good Councell there would have been no exceptions about Language or Titles Great we yeeld them and wish with our soules they were as good But we conceive not how that Great Councell can be the Kings great Councell as these call it unlesse onely in that sence as those Husbandmen in the Gospel were their Lords servants when having already killed and beaten many of their fellows they had entred into a Consultation to murder the Heire himself and to seize on his inheritance for themselves when their Lord did first commit his vineyard to their care to dresse and keep while they laboured for his benefit and advantage he might acknowledge them for his servants but when once they failed in their trust sought their own ends only and his damage there was no reason he should esteem of them any longer Lucifer and his Companions were at their first Creation Sons of the Morning all bright Angels glorious Creatures beloved of God but when they entertained aspiring thoughts disdained their equalls separated from them and thought much that He who made them should be above them they fall from their Honour and no longer abode in their Primitive Condition so when mutable men alter from what they were they leave their former Names and Titles We for our parts cannot conceive how the meere place or bare walls in a Councell Chamber can make or continue men to be of the Kings Councell nor can we be perswaded that the outward taking of an Oath or Protestation to defend the Kings life Honour and Estate without a faithfull discharge thereof and fulfilling the trust imposed doth speak men to be the Kings good Councellours Good Councellours as we apprehend are such as study sincerely and are most specially carefull to maintain their Prince his Crown and Dignity to prefer his Honour fair and splendent as being the very life of His Majesty when there is any miscarriage in Government they will rather take the fault upon themselves then suffer it in the least degree to have reflection upon their Soveraigne they will though to their own losse endeavour to acquit him of all blame and to uphold his reputation in the hearts of his people did ever any Honest Politician propound such rules to be observed by a Kings Great Councell or ever any States-men or Councellours who were Christian and Religious order their practice according to such Precepts as these that follow 1. Promise at your first meeting to make your King the most Glorious prince in Christendome and take a Protestation to defend his life Honour and Estate that so he may give the more credence to you and the Common people may have the better opinion of your Love and Loyaltie and so be more apt to do any thing that you will have them 2. When you have done this labour by all meanes to make a strong faction amongst your selves against the King and if any of your fellows be so scrupulous in Conscience that they will not joyn with you be sure that by all-meanes you force them from the Councel-house and if you cannot otherwise effect it set the Common people to threaten and assault them as Enemies to the State and Kingdome 3. Pretend Jealousies and Feares and hereupon with all speed possesse your selves both of the Militia and Navy of the Kingdome and see to it that in no hand you suffer the King to have any thing to do with either 4. Seize upon all the Kings Rents and Revenews and starve Him if you can suffer Him not to have the common comforts of an ordinary man to enjoy the Society of the wife of His bosome or any house of His own to Lodge in if he be a Christian put Him into his Lords Condition that he may say the foxes have holes and the birds of the Aire have nests but I have not where to hide my Head 5. Lay all the Miscarriages that your selves or any other inferiour Officers have committed since the beginning of His Reigne to His Charge in a large Remonstrance do what ever else you can possibly devise to make Him odious unto his people 6. Study to Vex and Grieve his Spirit upon all occasions by all meanes pervert and misconstrue on purpose all His sayings letters and doings and yeeld not to His desires in any thing be it never so just and reasonable but tempt and urge Him to perjure Himself and to commit
they should not Effect to vex him to death or some way or other to bring him to his grave all their labour would be in vain and to little purpose and how can they consider of this without great grief and sorrow of heart But these good men our subtile Brethren doe here pretend that their sorrow is because their Prince is Seduced out of his proper spheare yet verily we on the other side do consider of this with more true Sorrow I dare say then they do for we confess never was Prince so far seduced out of his proper sphear as he was when He took them who now call themselves his great Counsell to be Honest men when He gave so much credit to their promises and protestations as to be perswaded by them to signe the Bill for the Continuation of that unhappy Parliament then O then be was seduced indeed from his proper spheare wherein his Father set and left him with this caution Alwaies to be suspicious of the Puritanicall faction and never to trust them above all people in the world as being for ingratitude lyes and perjuries surpassing the High-land theeves and Borderers His Seduction from this Paternal advise was the root and cause of all our Miseries and therefore with sorrow of heart we his Loyall Subjects cannot but thinke upon it But to do these men right they mention their sorrow here for the Kings Seduction to another purpose namely as a Preface to that which follows M. Dike in his book of the deceitfulness of mans heart sets down not for imitation as these take it but for discovery the method of a cunning Hypocrite in his venting a slander First saies he to gain Credit with the hearers he pretends great affection to the party against whom he is minded to speak professing that with great grief and sorrow of heart he doth think of him hoping yet that he is onely missed and seduced and so makes a long Preamble to this purpose as if the fault he intends to mention were as grievous to him as a blow with a Cudgell and then at last out comes the slander which his viperous tongue layes on with as much spight as malice is able these I remember are M. Dikes words Now after this very manner and in the same Method do these our subtile Brethren speake to us concerning their Soveraigne whom they are about to slander and defame First they tell us in some obscure and generall terms of strange Titles which the King bestowes upon his great Councell which say they we return not again but consider with sorrow that it comes from a Prince not so Naturally inclined as we hope for we would fain think better of him but Seduced from his proper spheare misled by ill Councell And so much for the Preface Now to the main businesse and let all Christian people observe it well how these good Sorrowfull men that promised even now to give no opprobrious Language will describe their Soveraigne He is say they One that hath left that seat in which he ought and hath bound himself to fit to sit as the Psalmist saies in the Chaire of the scornfull and to the ruine almost of three Kingdomes hath walked in the Councells of the ungodly Now 't is out and it conteines in our apprehensions these 6 Articles against the King 1. That the King hath not only neglected to perform his Office but voluntarily and upon no occasion moving hath left and forsaken his proper place and duty 2. That in the roome thereof he hath made choice of the Scorners Chaire which is the highest seat or throne of wickedness 3. That he hath even bound himself Prentice as it were by oath and Covenant to that trade of scorning 4. That he hath resolved to follow that profession so long as he lives for he hath bound himself to sit yea to sit scil for ever in the Chaire of the scornfull 5. That his aymes and endeavours only are and have been to ruine three whole Kingdomes which even almost he had effected 6. That to this very end and for no other reason as must be supposed he hath abandoned the Society of most Holy and good men and linked himself by a indissolvable tye to the Society of the wicked whose ungodly counsell he alwaies walketh in These are the particulars in this their first charge against the King but my purpose being to uncase these Hypocritical and blasphemous men I shall first lay open to the world the full meaning of their hearts in a true Paraphrase upon their words and then I shall shew how false and scandalous they be in every respect against his Majesty unto whom they naturally owe and solemnely have sworne obedience But first let me beg pardon of my Lord and Soveraigne and crave of all Loyall hearts that it be not imputed for an indecorum or want of Reverence in me to Kingly Honour if some of my words concerning His Sacred person do sound unseemly and unbecomming Let it be considered that I speak not my self but other men whose Hellish intentions toward their Prince are so black that 't is impossible to expresse them in a language meetly Reverend He that openeth rotten sepulchers may though unwillingly be offensive Secondly I desire of all men that I may not be thought by my manner of speaking to intend the working of any contempt in peoples hearts against the High Court of Parliament which being called in the Kings name by his Writ and acting under the obedience of just and regall power are with all Honour and Reverence to be thought upon and spoken of Yea and God knowes my heart abhors to be an instrument of working disesteem against any persons of this present Assembly who have pious and loyall affections in them as I beleeve there be divers even in this very Body that do truly detest the present proceedings of some of their fellow-members I do here profess to all the world though I use the name of Parliament and Great Councell in answer to these Libellers yet I meane onely the present swaying and prevailing faction in the two Houses who are and have been the Countenancers of all these abuses against their Soveraigne and the causers of all our sorrowes and who they in particular are I doubt not but in due time God the Supreame Judge will Evidence to this whole Kingdome This with all Humility premised and implored I proceed as followeth SECT IV. 1. The Nature of their Charge opened 2. Their vilanous and bloudy Scope therein clearely Evidenced and proved 3. How perfectly in their Tenents they hold with the Jesuites in the points of King-killing and King-deposing fully declared THe Charge or Bill of Attainder against the King together with the Reason why 't is thus published to us and to the people by these His most dutifull and loving Subjects who take upon them to be His Accusers according to their own full and clear meaning may be rendred more at
large thus That the King or rather he who was once in that office hath voluntarily and freely without being urged by any occasion in the world forsaken his place wherein he ought to have remained and which to His great content He might still have enjoyed had he so pleased being not only obliged thereunto by His Duty but also importuned by the most Humble supplications and prostrate intreaties of His Great Councel But He meerly out of his own ill disposition is departed thence and hath taken up not onely a standing but a Seat yea hath bound Himselfe by obligation entred into a covenant with Hell to sit to sit we say as the Psalmist speake for we would have all the Common people know that we have Scripture for what we say in the Seat of the Scornfull that is as our Prophets interpret to remain for ever in the Highest Throne and degree of wickednesse that man or Devill can reach unto whereby it appeares that Ahab-like he hath sold himselfe to work all evill even with greedinesse and is past all hope of recovery Moreover he hath intentionally and on set purpose been already the ruine almost of three whole Kingdomes and had been so altogether ere this had not His Great Councell a company of most Holy Chast Innocent Wise and infallible good men sitting now at Westminster in their great pitty and commiseration of spirit and out of their abounding piety and meere natural goodnesse interposed themselves whereby thanks only to them the three Kingdomes are yet kept in being which before they put to their helping hands were at the very brim of destruction And yet notwithstanding this wilful King hath left their most Sacred sweet and peaceable society out of a pure hatred to them and to their vâ—rtues and hath not onely stepped unawares but hath even eat and drunk with Publicans and Sinners yea and walked deliberately in the Councels of the wicked and ungodly Insomuch that it is to be thought the total ruine of the three Kingdomes will shortly be accomplished do what the Great Councel can to the contray unless some Noble Brutus some Valiant Cassius out of love to their Countries Liberty will take the paines to stab this Cesar some devout Raviliack in his zeal unto Religion wil do God the service or the kindnesse rather to free the world and Church of this destructive Tyrant for 't is better as Scripture saies that one man should die then that all the People perish then that three whole Kingdomes should be destroyed We refer the matter to their own Consciences whether this be not the true sense of their spirits and whether they would not have the people thus to understand their words against the King And to prevent scruples which may arise in the hearts of any about the Businesse which they would have done they adde to the former the words following saying And though in our Tenents we annex no infallibility to the seat of a King in Parliament as the Romanists do to the Papall Chaire since all men are subject to Errour yet we dare boldly say that no English King did ever from that place speak destruction to His people but safety and Honour nor any that abhorred that seat and Councell but did the contrary These words I say are added to their foregoing description of the King not only to further the Businesse aymed at but also in way of prevention for some might make a scruple of Conscience as David did to kill the King notwithstanding these suggestions because He is the Lords Anointed Wherefore these circumspect mâ—n being ad omnia parati do signifie further in these words that no man need be precise in that respect for say they in effect thus We in our Tenents which are all the truth and the very truth and the truth indeed and so to be apprehended by all men living doe make no more of a King then we do of another man the seat of a King in Parliament it self is no more then the seat of Cesar in the Senate-house it may as well be empty as not were there but no King at all for 't is not so much his Presence there which we desire and quarrell about as his Nullity that He might be no where we hold there is no more virtue in the Seat of a King in Parliament then in the seat of an ordinary Burgesle no nor half so much neither we neither do nor wil in our Tenents annex infallibility to the Kings Seat for should we make a Pope of the King No no He is but a man subject to Errours as others be and therefore liable to be punished for his faults as well as others specially since the Soveraignty is transmitted into the hands of the Parliament which was done as the Parliaments own self judgeth when the Bil of perpetuâ—ty was signed It is granted indeed before that time the Supream power was in Him and we were all his Subjects and then perhaps some might Scruple to out his throat for there were lawes then in force against Regicides but now since his Resignation for so in our Tenents we hold this Act to be there is no scruple to be made those lawes against King-killers are suspended and he is now become as Samson was without his strength even like another man any of the wel affected Philistines may fall upon him mock him kil him or use him as they please if their new Lords that is to say the worthy members of the Parliament do but give leave for he is now but their subject their slave they are able by the infallibility of their Votes to make him a malefactor and then to order him if they can catch him as such a one for infallibly we grant is an Attendant on the Supreame power we do not indeed annex it to the Kings seat because the supreame power is now removed from thence while this was in the King the Parliament it self as appeares in some of their Expresses did use to speak as the Law did modestly of the King and to say he could not erre but now the case is altered with him the Supreame power being transferred unto other persons infallibility stil attends the same and not the Kings person And hence it was that after the aforesaid Act there was a large Remonstrance made which the Authours of durst never make before whilst the power was in the Kings hand it may be called the Parliaments Act of Gratitude for the Kings Act fore-named in which they declare sufficiently their judgement to be that the King may now be imputed fallible and unfit to manage the Supreame power from thenceforth any longer And hence also it is that a new Oath of Allegeance and Obedience to the Parliament is tendred to the People of this Land which plainly shewes that the Supreame power is concluded to dwel in them and that the old Oath is quite void and out of date together with the King And for the Protestation
Personall Estate to be disposed of as their own How they have executed all Regall Prerogatives How they call all those that do adhere to the King Rebells and Traitours and pursue them as such with fire and sword How they Hunt the King up and down the Kingdome as if he were become an out-law seeking to murder and destroy him How they now of late do all in the name of the Parliament Onely though at first til the people were fully seduced by them and ingaged with them they did use the Kings Name together with it doth not at all this speak plainly that they thirst to drink the Kings bloud and desire to have it shed or spilt 5. Consider how in their Notes in this their accursed Libel pag. 44. they tax the King as faulty for his Soliciting the King of Denmark and other Protestant Princes as they speak to assist for the supporting of Monarchy doth not this plainly infer that they have concluded against the Government here in England and so by Consequence against the Monarch himself Doth it not evidently declare that they account him King no longer and that all the Supremacy is now in themselves Which being supposed and withal that he according to their Votes seekes the ruine of his people whose safety above all things must be regarded It follows of necessity that they desire the Kings Destruction and would have it apprehended that they do but their duty to the Kingdome in desiring it 6. Consider how they do as in their Pamphlets and Sermons compare the King to Saul Ahab Nero and the like so in their malicious Notes upon his Letters here pag. 48. they compare him to Richard the third the most bloudy and unjust man that ever swayed the English Scepter which plainly speaks that they would have people take him to be such a one and to have no more true right to the Crown then that Richard had and that themselves would be as glad of his death as Hen. the 7. was of the death of that Tyrant If these particulars amongst many others that might be propounded be considered on I doubt not but all reasonable men wil yeeld that I have done the Authours of this Libell right in my interpretation of their intentions expressed in those their words against the King But that I might not leave the least scruple in the hearts of any wel-meaning people that yet remain drunk with a good opinion of their Honesties and do in Charity think it impossible that men pretending so fair and having so great a name in the world for Religion should be so Diabolical and have such Hellish designes I wil further yet indeavour their satisfaction for I doe publikely profess mine aymes are to do the work of Christ in laying open mens Hypocrisie that mine abused Country-men for whom Christ died might not longer be deceived which work by Gods grace I shal faithfully pursue though I meet in the end with Christs reward at their bloudy hands for my labour Wherefore I wil shew First that there is no impossibility at all in the matter notwithstanding their specious pretences which they make and then it wil further Evidence the verity of what I have said from their own Tenents My Argument for the first is this Whatever hath been already may possibly be again for sayes Solomon The thing which hath been is that which shall be and that which is done is that which shall be done But such men there have been who had a name to be alive when they were dead in trespasses and sins who said they were Jewes called themselves Gods people and were so accounted by others when in very deed they were of the Synagogue of Satan therefore 't is not impossible but such men may be also in these dayes which are the last dayes and therefore the worst the very dregs of time For proof of the Assumption let us remember the Scribes and Pharisees in the Gospel they had as great a name in the world then as these persecutors of the King have now and were as wel thought on by the vulgar in whose opinions they were farre enough from those villanies which notwithstanding Christ did sufficiently discover to be in them Nay the people though themselves were imployed as under-instruments in the very business were so bewitched with a good conceit of their Pharisaical rulers whom they counted the Worthies of their Nation that they would not at first beleeve that they had any purpose to kill Christ for when he said why goe ye about to kill me the people replied Thou hast a Devill Who goeth about to kill thee they good folkes conceived that their Holy and wise Rulers did onely provide for the safety of Church and Common-wealth and endeavoured Christs Reformation whom they apprehended to be an irregular man one that would not submit His Judgement to the Great Councell at Jerusalem nor be ruled by their Votes and Orders Nay the very Pharisees themselves like these our men would not owne their own malice against Christ for when Pilate would have delivered him into their hands to have done with him as they pleased O no cry they 't is not lawfull for us to put any man to death they had rather some body else should doe it for them we are too holy to defile our selves with His bloud out of pure love to piety and to the peace of the Kingdome we have proceeded thus far against Him and have been at great Charges with the Souldiers to apprehend Him and though you can finde no fault in Him yet you may be sure on it if he had not been a Malefactor we would not have brought him before you No no if we could otherwise have reformed Him we would not have troubled your Lordship with Him But will you please to heare His Conditions Why He would be a King and Rule over us and if He be let alone He wil ruine the whole Kingdome and bring destruction upon the Temple too and to spoyl our Religion He bestowes strange Language and Titles upon us the Great Councell the Worthies of the Nation who are a company of Holy and unblameable men witnesse all the people He calls us Hypocrites Vipers and Painted Sepulchers and the like which we return not again but consider with sorrow that these expressions come from a Jew Seduced out of his proper spheare One that hath left the Society He ought to be withall and keeps Company onely with publicans and Sinners ungodly persons whose counsells he followes and hath set himself in the seat of the scornfull For we take all his Sermons against our Ordinances and doings to be but onely invectives and scornes against us whereby He exposeth us to be contemned of the people as if according to His saying we made the Law of God of none Effect by our Traditions When indeed none can be more zealous for it then we are and thus you see what a Person He is and what
His Merits are Beleeve it Sir unlesse some speedy course be taken with Him Caesar in whom the Supreame power is now seated and whose servants the people now are will be wronged and the whole Church and Kingdome wasted and destroyed and this we will boldly say who ever doth not joyn with us against bim is neither a friend to Caesar nor to the Common-wealth we are all for the Publick good and to preserve that we desire that this our King or rather this man that says he is our King may be crucified To this purpose was the Pharisees accusation against our Saviour of this disposition were their Spirits against the Son of God as Scripture teacheth notwithstanding their Religious pretences and that opinion of holinesse which the world had of them it need not therefore be thought an impossible thing that there should be men of a like spirit and of a like esteem in these days and that they should endeavour a like mischief against their Soveraigne Nothing but the Heart bloud of Christ would satisfie those his Enemies and can it be any thing but the very heart bloud of the King which these men thirst after indeed they do not lay any worse things to the Kings charge for I will do them no wrong then those others did to the charge of Christ And this for the first There is no impossibility in the matter 2. The truth of my interpretation of their meaning is Evident from the Tenents which they mention as proper to themselves at least as differing from ours Wee say they in our Tenents do annex no Infallibility to the seat of a King in Parliament as the Romanists doe to the Papall Chaire since all men are subject to errours These men desire as we learned by their Pulpit Doctrines of us that people should beleeve that those who are for the King do think of him as the Romanists do of the Pope that he cannot Erre which opinion by these their words they would have the world know that they disclaim and truly so do we as much as they for we never did nor yet ever dare we give the King so undue an Attribute nor would His Majesty suffer the same were any of us so sinfully disposed For we boldly affirm that never King was more Christian then He in yeelding himselfe culpable even in some matters wherein others could see no errour that so if possible he might give his Enemies satisfaction and purchase peace unto his people But whether it be so or no they conceive and report that to be our Tenent and we on the other side apprehended theirs to be that infallibility is rather in the Parliament without a King then in the Seat of a King in Parliament And our Reason is there hath been more Infallibility professed in Parliament since the Kings absence from Westminster then ever was before when either himself or any of His Predecessours have been there And though the Parliament hath been erroneous and faulty herefore by reason of the Kings faction mixt therein for by that name are modest and Loyal Gentlemen now called yet that being now purged away and driven from thence Errour also is vanished with it and Infallibility hath taken up its dwelling there ita praedicant ita clamitant And yet by the way we must tell the world we beleeve the King hath some friends still within the wals at Westminster even as Christ had at the Jews Councell Table although like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea they are over-powred and reviled when they speak truth and Conscience But to the matter We must tell these men that Scripture affords us better Testimony for the Kings not Erring then it doth them for theirs Solomon saies The Kings Heart is in Gods Hand and a Divine sentence is in His Lips His mouth transgresseth not in judgment We finde not the like expressions in behalf of an headlesse Parliament but because Solomon was a King himselfe He spake they say in his own case and therefore not much to be regarded but we will not contest with them at this time about his Authority we rather yeeld because all men are subject to Errour that a King may Erre and we adde further that a Parliament consisting of men may erre too and this Combination of Conspirators which to the high disgrace of the Supreamest Court some call the Parliament doth Erre most abominably both from Gods Law and the Law of the Land and this in very deed is our Tenent And let them deal ingenuously with us say whether they do not so hold of the Parliament though not of the King as the Romanists doe of the Pope whether by their Tenents the Parliament hath not the same power over Kings and Kingdomes as the Pope hath by the Tenent of the Jesuits The Jesuites hold that the Pope may dispose of Princes and Crownes for the service of God the good of the Church and salvation of Souls And do not these hold that the Parliament may both order the King and dispose of His Kingdome as they shall think meet for the advancement of their Cause which they call Gods pro salute populi Romanas Episcopus Zacharias Regem Franciscorum non tam pro suis iniquitatibus quam pro eo quod tantae potestati erat inutilis à regno deposuit c. By vertue of which Canon say the Jesuits the Pope hath power to depose Kings be they Hereticall or Catholick of vicious or vertuous lives if in his judgment he findes them unfit and some others more capable of Government And do not these men beleeve the Authority of Parliament to be as irresistable as that of the Pope and their Votes to be as ful of vertue as his Canons and altogether as Authentick even to the deposing of Kings and disposing of their Kingdomes Eudaemon Johannes in his Apologie for Henry Garnet teacheth that Subjects may be loosed from their Oath of Allegeance and then they cannot as Emanuel Sa affirmeth be held guilty of Treason though they conspire the Kings death because He against whom they conspire is not their Master or Lord they being formerly absolved from his obedience And hath not the same Doctrine been both taught and practised by these our opposers Have not they loosened people from their Oath of Allegeance to the King and then put them in Armes perswading them that 't is no Rebellion to fight against Him The Jesuits in their Chamber of Meditation taught as John Chastell who gave Hen. the 4. of France a stab in the mouth confessed upon examination that it was lawfull to kill that King and that He was now member of the Church nor ought to be obeyed or held for King untill he had received approbation from the Pope And one of them in his Apology for the said Chastell hath these words vulnerando Henricum Burbonium non voluerit laedere ant occidere Regem etiamsi se talem dicebat in quo praeter imaginem
nihil Regis quam quod genere Regio ortus erat In striking Henry of Burbon his intention was not to kill the King howbeit he called himselfe King sithence he had nothing left but the appearance of a King being of the bloud Royall Our Anabaptisticall Crew have their Chambers of Meditation too or their Conventicles where they meet with their disciples to whom they suggest as also they do in their Pamphlets and Sermons that the King is no true member of the Church because he dissents from them but a persecutor of it and is no longer to be obeyed or held for King then the Parliament or representive Body of the Kingdome in whom the Supreame power is inherent shall allow him so to be and therefore being now deciared by them to be an enemy to the Kingdome and one that seeks the peoples ruine he is to be accounted but as another man and hath but the bare Name or Title of a King as being borne of that family and stocke which formerly swayed the Scepter Now my Argument from all this stands thus who ever maintains that the Pope or Parliament may at pleasure alter Kingdomes exempt people from their Oath of Allegeance and arm them against their Prince do maintain that people in such a case may kill their King But this as appeares by their doctrine and practice is the Tenent of these men as well as of the Jesuites Ergo these men also by their Tenents hold it lawfull to kill the King The minor is proved already and the major is evident to sense and reason for no man wil doubt but a King from whom offer is made to take away his Kingdome will take Armes to maintaine his right and will labour to reduce them to Loyalty that stand armed against him and in so doing 't is impossible but he must run the hazard of his life since in defending himself he is resolute as in Conscience he is bound to be not to lose his Kingdome which God hath committed to his care without the loss of his life it self But perhaps some wil say that in some of their books and Sermons they disclaim killing the King yea though he were an Heretick or a Tyrant I answer the Romish Jesuites their Brethren in some of their books also have condemned not onely the murdering of Princes but also Rebellion against them though Hereticks and Tyrants but they meane sine permissu superiorum it is not lawful for a private man to do it say they of his own head untill he be permitted by his superiours but having leave and countenance from them if sentence and judgement be once passed that the King is a Tyrant or an Heretick or not capable to govern then obedience to the said judgement is to be given as to the voice of Christ So these when they speak against King-killing and Rebellion are to be understood until the King be declared by Parliament to be an Enemy to the Kingdome and to seek the ruine of it but when this is done then men may not onely arm themselves against him but kill him if possibly they can and by so doing they do but the Command of God and helpe the Lord against the mighty These be the nicetyes of Romish Jesuites and English Pharisees by which they inchant men they protest Solemnly that they allow not the murdering of Kings No not they but herein lies the craft they acknowledge none for Kings but whom themselves please to allow and maintain that to kill a King whose Government they cannot brook is not to kill a King but a man as they say masked under a Regall Title But indeed some of their faction have been more plain in their expressions and disclaiming this jugling distinction have declared their Tenents in down right English even as Parry of old affirmed that because Elizabeth stood excommunicated by the Pope he might lawfully kill her And as Catesby stood to it openly that because the Pope had not allowed the Catholiks to receive James for King the Powder-Treason was a work of Piety And as Raviliak affirmed that He had reason to kill Henry of Burbon because he would make warre against the Pope and so by consequent saies he against God for the Pope was God even so in this plain downright fashion we have had some of our Parliamentarians express their judgements and intentions that because the Parliament hath declared against the King 't is no sin to kill him yea they have professed that themselves would do it if they could reach him so long as he is in this condition not received or allowed on by the Parliament yea Raviliack-like they have affirmed that He wars against the Parliament and so by Consequent against God and therefore it would be a work not onely lawfull but also pious for to kill him such expressions have often fallen from the lips of many severall persons among them who might be named if we did Belligerare Hominibus magis quam vitiis And thus the people do now see how those who pretend to keep them from Popery do lead them into the deepest ditch and most Hellish puddle thereof themselves call the Jesuites the worst of Papists and yet hold with them in their worst of Tenents onely the difference is this the Jesuites place power and infallibility in the Pope and these place it in the Parliament for though these our Subtile Brethren will not like Romanists make a Pope of the King yet they will make one of the Parliament whose members are as perfect in their Seats as Pontifex is in Cathedra But I remember a distinction which the Secretary of Charles the 5. used to some English Ambassadours who upon his complaint of Pope Julius the 3. his foul play with the Emperour demanded of him how he being a Papist could excuse this unkindnesse of the Pope towards his Master He answered that the Pope was an honest man but Julius the 3. was an Arrant Knave so saving the Honours of the Right worshipfull as they are Members peradventure as they are men they may be subject to errours and be esteemed of according to their merits SECT V. 1. The falsity and injustice of the said Charge against the King manifested in all the particulars 2. Who they are that sit in the Scorners Chair 3. The Enemies reasons and ends of Charging the King with their own Conditions BUt we having now seen the Nature of their Charge we will consider also the Verity of it or the falsity rather for we apprehend it as false as foul as injurious as High were it all true yet according to Christian Religion and the doctrine of the Bible it were a great sin in them thus to object it For is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked or to Princes ye are ungodly When Saint Paul understood Ananias to be the Ruler he confessed he had done ill in calling him whited wall though indeed he was no better But
seeing there is no more truth at all in the matter then can be infused thereinto by vertue of a Vote We are most confident that at the Generall Audit when all things and men shall be judged as they are and have been it will be found a most malicious and transcendent wickednesse in these men thus to have slandred and belyed the Lords Anointed their own dread Soveraigne Themselves know well that the King did not leave his place or seat at Westminster but was most violently forced and driven away from thence full sore against his will for the safeguard of his life by the rude multitudes who were set on work to be so irreverend towards him by them that took the Protestation to defend him And they know too that if the King could by his requests and messages have obtained to have had a restraint of those so high affronts offered to him he had not withdrawn himself from thence But because we have not to this very day heard of any person punished or so much as checked for that contemptuous and rebellious behaviour by them whom they call the Parliament and the Kings Great Councell we do beleeve that when all Secrets shall be opened it wil be found that even they who have now authorized this Libell and in it this impious Charge against the King did then countenance those very contempts against him on purpose to force him from them Wherefore though the King must not be suffered to enjoy the Priviledge of a King or of a Man yet they might permit him without blame or grudging to have the Liberty of the meanest Creature in endeavouring to preserve his own life and being And say they He hath not onely left his place but also as they would have it beleeved hath rejected it for ever hath bound himselfe to come no more there Yea And do all his proffers of pardon all his endeavours for Treaties all his desires of Accommodation speak onely so much and no more Do his private instructions to his Commissioners at Uxbridge before mentioned evidence this and nothing else Do his intentions to make his Queene the Happy instrument of renewing the meeting if he could have had but any demonstration that the Rebells would yeeld to Reason Paper 2. discover nothing but this Truely we doe apprehend rather all these particulars to be Arguments of the contrary when God the wronged Party doth beseech the wicked world to be reconciled to himselfe we apprehend he is willing to pardon all offences and to be friends with his enemies if they would beleeve him So when an abused Christian King doth imitate God in this particular we conceive it rather a signe that He would be again at unity with His Rebellious Subjects then that His purpose is still to keep himself at a distance We do finde that such an Accusation or Slander as this is was once laid to the Charge of God himself by a most disloyall and Hypocriticall people who having forced the Lord from them by their wickednesse and driven Him away by their ill usage and thereby made themselves most miserable did notwithstanding as these do very mannerly lay all the fault upon Him as if themselves had been the most innocent and wel-deserving people in the world and his departure had been altogether causless and on set purpose to bring upon the Heads of his people all those sorrows which their own ungodly doings alone had effected and procured Sion said the Lord hath forsaken me my God hath forgotten me Nay it seemes they had charged him as these doe their King that he had even quite divorced himself from them bound himself to come no more at them nor to own them for his people for God argues the case with them upon such their Charge and that first in a mild way as our King hath often done with His enemies and tels them he had not forgotten them what ever they said of him no A mother could sooner forget the child of her wombe then he could forget them though they deserved not to be so well remembred by him And then in the beginning of the next Chapter he comes more home unto them and challengeth and urgeth them to bring their proof to shew the Bill of Divorcement whereby they said he had cast them off So may our King call upon these his Accusers to produce the Bonds they talk of the Obligations whereby he hath tyed himselfe to fit elsewhere surely they that read this their Libell may easily beleeve that if either the Authors or Authorizers of it had any thing to this purpose tending to the Kings further disgrace or defamation they would not fail to publish the same in Print that all the world might see it But as those Accusers of God failing in their Evidence had the blame retorted upon themselves Behold for your iniquities have you sold your selves So may these Accusers of the King thus Charging their own faults upon Him without any injury have the same returned upon their own Heads the miseries which are upon the Kingdome by reason of the Kings absence they may thank their own selves for And as the Lord in that place doth further convince them of the wrong they did him by declaring his continuall readinesse to help them out of those miseries whereinto they had brought themselves if they would but heare him beleeve in him and trust unto him which he proves by minding them of what he had done formerly what Acts of grace he had passed already for their good inferring thereby that he was both able and willing to do as much again if they would but give him leave by taking his word So may the King and so hath the King by the very same wayes and meanes evidenced his innocency and freedome from those their unjust accusations what readinesse hath he alwayes shewed in denying himselfe to satisfie them What Acts of grace hath He already passed never any King hath done the like Let the bitterest of His Enemies deny it if they can what could be desired by reasonable men which he hath not offered and promised unto them if they would but beleeve him and trust unto him But this they wil not be brought unto for it is one of the most difficult things in the world for a Person that hath been so highly wronged as He hath been and intends well to gain credit from them that have abused him their owne guiltiness makes them incredulous and without Faith 't is impossible that either God or the King should be able to do any people good as it was said by our Saviour that himself could doe no mighty works in a certain place because of the peoples unbelief So may it be said of the King he cannot do that good he would unto his people because of their unbelief As God is better then man can conceive him to be so the King is better then these men will beleeve him to be yea
in regard of their abuses of him I may say then they can beleeve him to be It was the saying of a good Subject since these wars begun O that the people of England did but know their King they would love him they would beleeve him they would not abuse him But we must not wonder to see a good King in Gods condition We proceed therefore to their next particular where they Charge the King to have settled himself in the seat of the Scornful and we will see their truth in that The Psalmist informes us that those onely that are at ease have leasure to take up a sitting in that place and not those that are in an afflicted condition Did the King live the life of the men of Westminster and had all the wealth and pleasures of this Kingdome at his command and were he withall of their disposition indued with their spirits to act their parts there might be some probability of truth in this particular but it being cleane contrary with them there is no likelyhood at all in it 1. Had He been a Subject and by good fortune chosen Burgesse of some Corporation or Knight of some Shire and sate in the House of Commons amongst them at this present and had concurred first in pretending to settle Religion to make a glorious Church to advance Christ and then afterward in consulting how to take away the Churches maintenance to slight the places of Gods Worship that they might be of no more esteem then common Houses Alehouses Barns and Stables in persecuting banishing and imprisoning the Fathers of the Church and Ministers of Jesus those in special who have been the greatest opposers of Antichristianity and Popery and in giving liberty to all Sects and Religions save only to the true one which commands Humility Loyalty and Obedience had he I say been such a man and thus imployed then he might justly indeed have been said to sit in the Chaire of the scornfull and to have exercised his scoffes and scorns against God himselfe Or 2. had he been one of those that under pretence of advancing the Liberty and Happinesse of the Subject should vote away the Subjects right to his own goods sometimes a twentieth part sometime a fifth part sometime all under a pretence of taking away Monopolies and Illegall payments should bring in such new toles and taxations as the Nation was never acquainted with excize upon bread beere butter cheese flesh and all Commodities that are used for the life of man under pretence of being one of the good Patriots and preservers of their country should raise Wars cause desolations burne houses hire strange Nations with their Countries money to come to kill their Country-men under pretence of keeping tender Consciences from unnecessary matters should force upon them unlawfull Oathes ungodly Covenants even to the taking up of Armes against their Soveraigne to whom they have sworne Allegeance to the damnation of their souls for ever without deep Humiliation and Repentance Had the King I say beene one of these men and done thus He might deservedly have been said to have sate in the Scorners Chaire and to have laughed to scorne a whole Nation Or 3. had He been one of that number who talke of making the King a glorious Monarchie and yet take from Him all His Power Authority not suffer Him to have so much as the choice of His own Servants the Rule of His own Family the disposall of His own Children the society of His own Wife That promise to make Him the richest Prince in Christendome yet rob Him of all His Goods and Revenews and not allow Him so much if they can help it as shall buy Him bread to eat or cloathes to wear that call themselves His most Humble and obedient Subjects yet obey Him in nothing but study to vex and crosse Him in every thing hire fellowes to hunt Him to shoot at Him and if they can to kill Him that avouch great love and affection to Him desires to advance His Honour and yet Authorize Libells and base Bookes to defame slander and reproach Him If the King were one of this Generation and should concurre in such Actions He might be said to sit in the seat of the Scornfull indeed and to bestow His Scornes before all the world upon His Soveraigne Or lastly were He one of them that partly by fraud partly by violence having stripp'd their Soveraigne of all His Weapons Castles Ships and Townes and of the Hearts of many of His People and scarce left Him a place to hide His Head in in three Kingdomes should maintaine a cursed villaine to proclaime up and down the world that He is runne away very Majestically to set up a new Monarchy in the I le of Anglesey this indeed were to sit in and to fill up the Seat of the Scornfull for this is right Hail King of the Jewes which was plaine scorning in the Hall at Jerusalem according to Scripture and so doubtlesse if Scripture might be Judge it is in the Hall at Westminster We doe confesse and beleeve that were the King in this sort qualified conditioned and exercised then that imputation of theirs might be laid upon him But it being with him as it is we see no reason above-board why they should entitle him to the scorners Chaire unlesse his Magnanimity and Christian Courage bearing his burden of affliction be taken to be a contemning and scorning at their malice But yet they have a reason doubtlesse and ends too for this their charging the King though they think it fit for to conceale them I am one appointed of God to detect the devices of Satan and to unkennell the thoughts of the wicked and I dare be bolder with them then they for their own Credit sake dare be with themselves and therefore I shall discover them First their Reason I apprehead is this they know themselves worthy to be both abhorred and scorned of all men and doe beleeve they are so in the Hearts of all the wise for their most abominable and grosse hypocrisie yea they know in their Consciences that God scornes at them they being exercised as those are whom Scripture affirmeth God holdeth in derision and therefore they speake of the Kings scorne at them from the guilt of their own merits and deservings Then their Ends I conceive are these first to make His Majesty appeare abhominable unto the world which is the main scope of all their endeavours for t is said the Scorner is an abhomination unto men And secondly that the blinde and seduced vulgar might not think them to be guilty of that sinne which with so much boldnesse and bitternesse they doe first of all charge upon the King It is the knowne policy of a wicked harlot to call her honest neighbour whore first and of a pick-purse pursued to cry stop the Theef that himself might not be suspected to be the man You take too much
upon you Moses and Aaron cryed those Grand Rebells when themselves onely did so And one who had sold himselfe to work wickednesse layed it to the charge of good Elias that he troubled Israel because his guilty Conscience told him that the Prophet and all other honest men beside had cause to accuse him for so doing and this is the very case of these men who as we see have done nothing in this particular without President and example though we confesse in respect of the Circumstances these men are more bitterly scornfull then ever any were that we read of in Scripture or elsewhere It was bitterly done of the Philistimes when they had weakned Sampson and brought him into an afflicted condition to mock and scorne at him in his misery yet they did not in those their mocks charge him with scorning them And the Persecutors of our Saviour did deal bitterly with him when in derision they Crown'd him with Thornes put a Reed into his hand in stead of a Scepter called him King bowed the knee to Him and then advanced him upon a Crosse instead of a Throne yet they did not at that time in their scoffing and flouting expressions say that His Crosse was the Chair of the Scornfull and that he being fastened to that did sit in the Scorners seat and scorne at them But these men are pleased even thus to deale with their King and Soveraigne as all the world may see by their Language so that the King hath cause to complain in the words of the Psalme Our soule is exceedingly filled with the scornings of them that be at ease and with the contempt of the proud And we his Subjects will pray in his behalfe as the Psalmist in another place Let the lying lips be put to silence O Lord which thus cruelly thus disdainfully and thus despightfully speake against the Righteous And we are confident as the Wiseman sayes that the High and Holy God scorneth at these scorners and hath prepared heavy judgements for them SECT VI. First of the Kings Errour in following evill Councellours and who they were His Majesty scorn'd at by the Libellers for his tendernesse of Conscience and hopes in Gods Justice 2. The folly and falshood of the Libellers Charge against Strafford and Canterbury 3. The Enemies acquit the King of having a voluntary hand in Straffords death 4. They hint the right Reason of his withdrawing from Westminster THe next particular which these honest and good men as they would be accounted doe charge their King withall is that He hath walked in the Councells of the ungodly to the ruine almost of three Kingdomes Indeed it cannot be denyed the King hath been exceeding unhappy in his Councellours and himselfe doth intimate that his walking after their advise hath been a main cause of Gods judgment upon this Kingdome His words to this purpose are these Paper 22. Nothing can be more Evident then that Straffords Innocent bloud hath been one of the great causes of Gods Judgement upon this Nation by a furious Civill Warre both sides being hitherto almost equally punished as being in a manner equally guilty but now this last crying bloud being totally theirs I beleeve it is no presumption hereafter to hope that his hand of Justice must be heavier upon them and lighter upon us looking now upon our Cause having passed by our faults This Christian and pious ackowledgement of the King these men scoff at in their Notes upon it and deride at that remorse of Conscience which his Majesty discovers for his permitting the shedding of Straffords bloud He left him say they to the Block against Conscience as is now alleadged and again Remorse of Conscience suggesteth to the King c. Yea and they doe seem to glory in what themselves did do to the spilling of it and to rejoyce that none but themselves had a hand in the death of Canterbury Yea and further how slightfully if not scoffingly doe they speak of the Kings mentioning Gods Hand of Justice in the businesse Their words are these Pag. 49. The King in his Letter of Jan. 14. takes it as evident that Straffords innocent bloud has brought the Judgement of this Civill warre equally upon both sides both being equally guilty thereof His meaning is that he and his side was as guilty in permitting as the Parliament was in prosecuting But now for Canterburies bloud that being totally put upon the Parliaments score he doubts not but the Hand of Justice will from henceforth totally lay the weight of this guilt upon the Parliaments side Yet the Kings words are I beleeve it is no presumption hereafter to hope that his hand of Justice must be heavier upon them Considering the time when this their scornfull Comment upon the Kings expressions came forth viz. immediately after their Victory at Nazeby field by their Victorious Sir Thomas Fairfax for so they call him we understand their sence to be this The King talks of Gods Hand of Justice and doubts not but the same will from the time of Canterburies death lay the weight of the guilt of bloud totally upon our side Victorious Sir Thomas Fairfax hath answered him sufficiently in that particular and declared to the world what his hopes in Gods Justice are come to well let him please himselfe still in those fancies so long as we have the â—â—nd of Victorius Sir Thomas Fairfax on our side we will give him leave to flatter himself in that Hand of Justice he speaks of c. And yet let these scoffers of these last times that say Where is the promise of his comming for since the father fell a sleepe all things continue as succesfull as they did before let them I say know that Gods Justice may awaken soon enough to their Confusion Quod defertur non aufertur the longer the blow is in comming the heavier will its fall be Fortuna belli semper ancipiti in loco est the day of the Lord will come suddenly upon them as a thief in the night Quos dies vidit veniens superbos hos dies vidit fugiens jacentes But they go on in that place and inform us who those ungodly ones were whose Councell in this other place they say the King has followed to the ruine almost of three Kingdomes Their words are these The truth is Strafford and Canterbury were the chief firebrands of this war the two ill Councellours that chiefly incensed the King against the Scots and endeavoured to subject all the three Kingdomes to a new Arbitrary Government and are now justly executed for attempting the subversion of that Law which the King has perfected since Because dead folkes cannot speak for themselves and because it is so Voted therefore Strafford and Canterbury were the chief fire-brands of this war and so for truth it must be taken though one of them was quite extinct a year before this war begun and the other kept by his
Accusers in so close obscurity that his sparkes if he had any in him to this purpose could not possibly flie abroad But let me ask a question did not the wisemen of the Kingdome quench these fire-brands to prevent the flame how came it then to break forth after they were extinguished had they lived been both at liberty and afforded their full concurrence could possibly the flame have been more great and detrimentall Againe why was not the imputation proved at least against Canterbury who lived almost three years after the war was begun when they wanted matter to put him to death Surely the Law hath so well provided in a case of this Nature that if there had been any such matter His Enemies should not have needed to solicite for the peoples Votes and Hands to get him dispatched But it was Canterburyes Honour to drink of his Masters cup The voices of the people and of the Priests prevailed And indeed these quenched fire-brands were so farre from kindling this fire that we apprehend rather they were quenched to this end lest they should have hindred it from being kindled When Charles was King and Strafford Deputy of Ireland and Canterbury Metropolitan of this Church we had no warres in England Straffords bloud we grant was a fire-brand which we with the King beleeve still burnes upon us his Prayers at his death to the contrary could not stop the cry of it from pulling downe of vengeance And Canterburyes bloud we feare will cry louder yet against the people of this Land who by giving their Votes where the Law gives none to take away his life have cryed out against themselves His bloud be upon us and upon our Children But say these men who never slandred any but their betters Strafford and Canterbury were two evill Councellours and yet Strafford and Canterbury dyed like two Christian Martyrs and might the latter end of their Accusers be but like theirs it would be their happinesse in one kinde and ours in another They chiefly incensed the King against the Scots but they did not stir up the Scots against the King in provoking them to an insurrection nor did they hinder the Kings Act of mercy and pardon towards them afterwards much lesse did they after that Act of Pacification with that Nation send for those Scots into England and hire them with English money to cut the throats of English men Had they been Councellours in such matters they had been ill Councellours indeed But say they Strafford and Canterbury endeavoured to submit all these three Kingdomes to a new Arbritrary Government and were duely executed for attempting that subversion of Law which the King hath perfected since It was wel they did but endeavour a new Arbritrary Government not erect it they did but attempt a subversion of Law not effect it but some others since their times have gone further and turned all Law into Vote and all Justice and Reason into Violence and Will For if there be this day in Europe a more Arbritrary cruel and butcherly Government then hath been exercised in England by some since Strafford and Canterbury were set aside from having to doe in the world my reading failes me if to take away lands estates goods good name and lives from men without any allegation of Law or reason but only the Parliament judgeeth so or the People will have it so if this be not Arbritrary Government I know not what is therefore if Strafford and Canterbury were justly executed as these say for attempting let all men judge how deservedly ought these others to be executed for accomplishing such designes But these men tell us further that the King hath since perfected that subversion of Law which those his ill Councellours had formerly attempted 'T is too well known that the customary way of these mens Honouring the King is by casting on him the scandall of their owne doings The Law we confesse is subverted and overthrown but the King can no more be said to have done the same then David could be said to have killedd Abner and Amasa because he was the Soveraigne to those sons of Zeruiah who did the deed and were so subtile and strong that he could neither restrain them from it nor bring them to condigne punishment for it And let all modest and ingenuous men observe how desperate and bold these men are in their aspersions against the King they affirme He hath subverted Law and walked in the Councell of the ungodly to the ruine almost of 3. whole Kingdomes They could have said no more if when the Militia and Power were in his sole hands things had been as now they are But we and themselves too can all witnesse that when the Parliament met no drop of bloud was yet spilt in Ireland no Commotions were stirring in Scotland for the King by his Grace and Goodnesse had allayed all nor was there any complaining of Souldiers nor plundering in the streets of England all the three Kingdomes were in peace and to continue them therein the King calls a Parliament and gives power to the Members thereof and encouragement withall to settle all things both in Church and Common-wealth for the Subjects benefit even as firmly as themselves who were intrusted and chosen by their fellow Subjects for that purpose could possibly devise He denyes them nothing in pursuance thereof suffers them to call all suspected officers and persons to account not excepting Strafford or Canterbury and further to assure His people of His strong desires to continue their happinesse He settles a Trienniall Parliament as the most speciall mean to prevent ill Councellours in after-times yet these Accusers tax the King of perverting the Law and speak as if the three Kingdomes had been at the very brim of destruction and quite ruined ere this if the power had not been taken out of His Hands by those who by their meeknesse wisdome and frugality have put all the said Kingdomes into a more hopefull condition of preservation as it must be beleeved though against all sense and experience then they were in before Indeed had those undertakers done that work for which they were summoned and called together the Kings good Subjects in all His Kingdomes might have had cause of mentioning their names with perpetuall Honour but they as it seemeth envying that happiness which their fellow Subjects were likely to enjoy by those new enacted Lawes and especially by the Trienniall Parliament fairly pretending other matters did get the same Act presently made uselesse by another for the continuation of this which hath created themselves as they suppose and intend perpetuall dictators and all their fellow Subjects perpetuall slaves For let these perpetuall great Councellours approve themselves never so evill and detrimentall to-Church and State yet the poore Subject must be forced by the Militia which they have got into their hands to beleeve them unerring for He shall have no benefit by the Trienniall Parliament to examine their doings
And hence also it is that they have balked the triall of men by established Law and conceiving themselves above it have shunned to punish for those faults which the Law condemneth and to shew the Omnipotency of their power have passed sentence of death where the Law condemneth not though Scripture teacheth that where is no Law there is no Transgression the giving way to which very thing was and is a trouble to the Kings Conscience and the cause of His first dislike of their Courses witnesse their owne words which are to this purpose The King adjudged Strafford worthy of death yet not for Treason as it was Charged upon him but not being able to save his life without using force and finding force very dangerous He left him to the block against Conscience as is now alleadged That the King adjudged Strafford worthy of death for any thing is more then we heard before nor have we any reason to beleeve the same now upon the bare report of these men yet to doe them a courtesie we may suppose it to be as they say for the present and then it followes as all may see that they doe not Charge the King for desiring to save Straffords life absolutely for they say the King himself judged him worthy of death but for being against his suffering for Treason So that in brief the Kings sinne only was according to the Testimony of His most deadly Enemies He would that Strafford should have suffered death only for his faults and not for that whereof he was not guilty As became a righteous Judge the King would have had His Great Councell to have done Justa Juste Righteous things in a Righteous manner as conceiving that way of proceeding to be most acceptable unto God and most likely to continuate his blessings upon the Kingdome but being not able by faire meanes to perswade them to that and considering that to use force might be a remedy worse then the disease the bloud of many innocent persons might be spilt to save one and yet perhaps the power and the malice of the Adversary being so High that one not saved neither He was constrained against His Conscience to leave him to the block and for His being so tender Conscienced in this case He is thought worthy of Scorne by these men His most Religious Obedient and loving Subjects He left him to the Block against Conscience say they as is now alleadged But indeed they have sufficiently by these their words acquitted the King to the whole world of having a voluntary hand in the spilling of Straffords innocent Bloud for so it may be called because he was innocent of that for which he suffered though in some other respects if it were true as they say he might be adjudged guilty and like them that cried his bloud be upon us and upon our Children they take the matter wholly upon themselves for which we thank them and for which we beleeve that God in his due time will remember them By those their words they have also well hinted to our understandings how farre and in what sort the King hath walked in the Councells of the ungodly to the ruine as they say almost of three Kingdomes To which purpose they proceed further in the same place and say Canterbury remaines in the same case and now remorse of Conscience or rather the old Project of altering Law Suggests to the King that if no restraint be used Straffords President will cast Canterbury and Canterburies all the rest of the Conspiratours and so the people will make good their Ancient freedome still Had these men remembred where all the old Projectors and Monopolizers now sit and on which side they doe Militare or had they bethought themselves how unable they are to instance in any one good Law which the King did ever alter they would certainely have omitted their malicious Parenthesis But by their putting it in they give us to see that they will not forget their old Project of casting their owne faults upon the Innocent But what doth the Old project of altering Law suggest to the King Why say they that Straffords President would cast Canterbury But had not they provided a remedy against that suggestion by ordering that Straffords President should be no President to cast others by in after times If there be any vertue in their owne Order or rather Honesty in them that made it we cannot see how Straffords President could be any prejudice to Canterbury For who shall urge it against him but onely themselves that made it uncapable of being urged We cannot possibly suppose that were the King such an alterer of Law as they would have it beleeved that he should desire an alteration of that Ordinance to the dammage of Canterbury nor is there any other Law capable of alteration as we conceive whereby Straffords President might hurt him But when that Ordinance was made the Authors of it had respect only unto themselves for intending then to go in those wayes for which they had condemned Strafford they did wisely provide that his President should not be in force in after-times against themselves Nor indeed did they then know they should need to make any use of Straffords President against Canterb or against any other of the Conspirators which they talk of the mens heads were full of businesse they could not fore-see or fore-think of all things at once nor did they remember things past when this particular passage was written and authorized to be published but it makes for my purpose and helps me well to evidence to the world what good Hearts they beare unto their Soveraigne And what strong Arguments they have to prove him to be an Alterer of Law But the main thing we learn from those their words is this though Hatred will not let them speak it in modest termes when the King perceived by their proceedings with Strafford what the Course was which they would take with Cauterbury and the rest whom malice and faction would make Delinquents and observed their designe to have him to concurre with themselves in condemning the Righteous which he found his Conscience would never digest for it being of a more Divine and tender temper then theirs was smitten with sad remorse for what was already done though sore against his will and fearing if he walked any longer though by enforcement in those their Councells Gods wrath might fall down more heavily yet upon him and his three Kingdomes He therefore removed himself from their Assembly this is the thing which they intimate unto us And here let us with Reverence and admiration observe the hand of the Almighty God over-ruling the tongues and pens of these men they had formerly taxed the King for leaving and abborring as they were pleased to speake his seat in Parliament which they suggested he did on purpose to speake destruction to his people but here unawares it seemes unto themselves God makes them declare
the true reason of his departure thence to be that he might not speake destruction to his people but safety and Honour still if possible that he might not imbrew his hands in the bloud of innocent and Loyall Subjects against Law and Conscience yea surely lest the rest of that guilt of bloud which he saw was likely to be spilt should be charged upon the Head of him and his posterity He withdrew himselfe from their society and did for the present even abhorre to be amongst them When God pleaseth we see he can make men speak truth whether they will or no. And truly let any man who hath Conscience judge in the matter whether the King did not do prudently and conscientiously in his forsaking them when he perceived their purpose and resolution was to have him sit there amongst them onely with a Reed or Pen in his Hand to signe and own as his Act and Deed whatever they alone should vouchsafe to do that so they might cast the blame and Odium of all their Injustice afterwards upon him which is most apparent they would have done if he had stayed for being by his departure frustrate of such their intentions they seem to cast it all upon the people by those words if no resistance be used Straffords President will cast Canterbury and Canterburies all the rest of the Conspiratours and so the people will make good their ancient freedome still As if the people of their own accords without being requested thereunto or sollicited by others for the upholding and making good some Ancient Priviledge which they formerly had enjoyed and now if the King were able to make resistance were in danger to be deprived of Had desired that those men Strafford and Canterbury should be put to death onely by their Votes and not by Law Indeed I read that in Heathen Rome the People had such a Custome to voice men to death and such men they should commonly be as had done the Common-wealth best service and from the Custome perhaps it was that Pilat a Romane Magistrate did permit the people of the Jewes against all Law and right to voice Christ to be crucified But I never heard that the people of England were wont to do so in any age till this new Arbritrary Government was set up And we beleeve it will be easier for these Libellers to make the people as the world now goes with many of them Pagans and Jewes in such desires then to prove that any such Custome did ever yet hitherto belong unto them nor will it availe much to the peoples comforts at the great day or to their own securities in the mean while if now they should purchase any such Priviledge But I leave the People to consider of this matter themselves and returne to these King-accusers who have themselves well answered their own accusation against their Soveraigne and declared the true Reason of his leaving his Seat at Westminster to which they might have added another viz. Gods calling him from thence both by his Word and Providence 1. By his Word which a King as well as another man is bound to observe and give heed unto My Sonne if sinners entice thee consent thou not if they say let us lay wait for bloud let us lurke privily for the innocent without cause c. My sonne walke not thou in the way with them refraine thy foot from their path for their feet run to evill and make haste to shed bloud 2. By his Providence in his permitting the tumultuous people to rise against him and to force him from thence Consule providentiam Dei cum verbo Dei sayes one and when with the Word Providence concurs there is doubtless a speciall call from heaven But the King having these grounds of withdrawing himselfe some may wonder why in that former place they so heavily charge him to have walked to the ruine of his three Kingdomes by abhorring his Seat and Councell as if his leaving that were the sole cause of all our woe I answer in a word Their reason I conceive is because the King being of a soft and tender conscience is unwilling to beare the guilt therefore he shall whether he will or no if they can help him to it beare all the blame being unchargeable of reall evils he shall be burdened with imaginary the Devill and his Members desire no greater advantage against those they hate then to see them meekly scrupulous nor doe they please themselves better in any thing then in loading with slanders and tormenting the righteous when they see them to be in an afflicted condition Shimei cursed his Soveraigne and falsly called him A bloudy man and the destroyer of Sauls house because â—e saw him in a low condition So these men fancie they may say any evill against their King because he is in an afflicted condition they may speak to his farther griefe because he is already grieved But as David in that place sayes so say we It may be the Lord will look upon the affliction of his Anointed and will requite good the sooner to him even for these their accursed and false scandals of him And O our God our eyes are towards thee we will waite for thy salvation And thus I hope I have now made it apparent that there is as little of Verity as there is of Piety in that reproachfull Charge which these ill disposed Libellers these Martin Mar-kings have cast upon their Soveraigne now we shall observe how they proceed They address their speech to the Reader in generall whom they suppose to be either a Friend or an Enemy to their cause and say If thou art well affected to the Cause of Liberty and Religion which the two Parliaments of England and Scotland now maintain against a Combination of all the Papists in Europe almost especially the bloudy Tigres of Ireland and some of the Prelaticall Court Faction in England thou wilt be abundantly satisfied with these Letters here Printed and take notice how the Court hath been Cajold by the Papists and we the more beleeving Protestants by the Court SECT VII 1. What that Liberty is which the pretended Parliament doe maintaine 2. And what that Religion may be which they are about to set up Reasons to shew it may haply be the Popish or peradventure the Turkish 3. Six Arguments to prove it cannot be the Christian Protestant THe Reader may be well affected to that Reformed Religion which Gods holy and pure Word teacheth which the Church of England this fourscore yeares last past hath pulikly professed and to that Liberty which Christianity alloweth which the Subjects of this Land above any other in the World most happily have enjoyed under their Soveraigne Princes and which the Parliaments of this Kingdome before this have concurred in the establishing of and yet no way affected to that cause of Liberty and Religion which these men speake of Nay if the Reader may judge of Liberty and Religion by its
thereof but more of this hereafter 2. Concerning the Bloudy Tigres of Ireland we doe abhorre their Cruelties and beleeve that their damnation sleepeth not but shall in Gods due time over-take and over-whelme them But we must adde farther that the Tigres of England even many of those whom they call the Parliament side have been full as Bloudy nay more Bloudy and base then those of Ireland who have persecuted with fire and sword from among them those only that were of a differing Religion and Nation unto themselves but these here have handled them of their own Country and Religion after the same manner never any Tygres so thirsted after the Bloud of their nearest kindred and best friends as these in England have done nor can any villany be named that was acted by them in that Kingdome which hath not been done and out-done by those in this these also have raised a Rebellion against their Soveraigne and in pursuance thereof have killed slaine and destroyed men women and children in some places where they have come these also have stripped people of both Sexes naked and then shut them up in Churches together or other places and afterward have come and in a barbarous and beastly maner have whipped and scourged them these also have rosted Christians at the fire and burnt them by piece-meales their toes from their feet and their fingers from their hands striking up halfe a dozen Drums in the meane time that the shreeks and cryes of the tormented might not be heard to move pitty in any towards them which was the custome of them in old time that Sacrificed Children unto Moloske was it ever heard that the Tigres of Ireland or the Spaniards in the Indies did ever act any such Cruelties upon them of their owne Faith and Nation Indeed modesty restraines from expressing all their doings and did I delight to make men odious as well as sinne I could name the Persons by whose Command and Authority some of these things have been Acted and the places where they have been done And confident I am if Master Fox were now alive to search into all the places where these Parliament Tigres have come and to write their doings the volume would be three times as big as his former and repleat with as Savage Actions as ever yet were recorded by the Pen of Man Onely this I must say further I have not heard that the Tigres of Ireland have shewn so much immediate spight against God and Christ in demolishing all markes of Christianity in destroying polluting and defiling the Temples of Gods Worship as these of England have done t is true we hear that since they have got our Churches into their possessions they have in their superstitious way consecrated them anew And truely had our Tigres of England been there and used the Churches of that Kingdome as they have done them in this there had been great need of a new Consecration Wherefore concluding this particular I will only speak to these men who have thus mentioned the Tigres of Ireland as our Saviour in the Gospell did to some of like Conditions You Hypocrites can you see Tigrely doings in your Brethren of Ireland And can you not discern these more Tigrely and bloudy Actions which are committed by your selves Amend first for shame your own doings and then you may speak with more credit against the Evills of others 3. Concerning the third sort viz. those some of the Prelaticall and Court Faction in England which these men cry out also upon to be of the Combination we doe confesse there hath been and perhaps still are some about the Court or that have too near a relation to it whom we doe dislike as much and more too then these men doe and we have reason for it they are such as neither serve God nor the King so faithfully as they ought to doe but are either secret pensioners unto his enemies pursuing their ends notwithstanding their pretendings and engagements to His Majesty or else they are slaves to their owne proper lusts making provisions only for their owne Flesh and Belly notwithstanding Gods wrath upon the Kingdome and from these is the speciall cause that the Kings affaires goe on so badly as they doe these be the men who by their Power and Authority have countenanced and advanced the vile even to abuse spoile and dishearten the good lest the Lustre of inferiours merits should discover the worthlesnesse of those that are in place above them and give too happy a progresse to His Majesties businesse Of which sort are they who when by their Treacheries Indiscretions Negligences or ill Governed behaviours Townes and Countrys are lost good undertakings nulled or made frustrate can very unreverendly and undutifully lay the fault upon the Kings ill fortune yea and tax His Majesty of this or that so making his Candour the Napkin as it were to wipe the filth from their own Noses These men we would that all the world should know we do dislike and perfectly abhorre for such their workes sake even as we doe the Irish Tigres or the Men of Westminster themselves But we do beleeve and know that besides these the King hath a Company belonging to him both of the Nobility of the Gentry and of the Clergy our subtile Brethren may call them a faction if they will or even what else they please that are both truly Religious and truly Loyall that have sacrificed their fortunes and are every one ready to sacrifice their lives too in defence of their holy Protestant Religion and of their King and Country that do truly mourn for the miseries of this Church and State yea many of them stand like Mary and John as being able perhaps to do little else looking with watery eyes upon their innocent and righteous Soveraigne whom they behold in their Saviours Condition Crucified between Theeves on both sides And of this flock we do professe our selves to be and to it we resolve by Gods Grace to adhere for ever although we should see every of them to be in the Kings very case and Condition wronged every way and abused by both their parties even as he no we will not leave to be on their side in this cause though we beleeve them to be the men whom together with the King the Heads of the Association made at London have vowed to destroy We know that the Lord whom we serve is able to deliver us from their cruell hands but if not let all the People know that we will never fall down before that many-Headed Idoll which they have set up or rather which hath advanced it selfe to be adored by the People And this is our Answer to these subtile men who by a tale of strange Combination did think as it seemes to perswade us to forsake the King and to adhere to his Enemies But they tell the Reader further Thou say they wilt be abundantly satisfied with these Letters here Printed and take
of them being sent by the rest into the Country to pick their neighbours purses whilest they have been perswading the poor Country-man to new Loanes and Charges for the maintenance of this unchristian and unnatural War Providence as must be pretended did usually at the very instant time send some Letter or other wherein was related with thanks to the people for their former assistance what a great Victory by the help of God and them the Parliament had lately obtained against the Kings Forces with little or no loss to themselves so that now the work was in a manner quite done one Contribution more would finish the Business These Letters were suspected even by the abused people themselves to be but meer forgeries devised on purpose to cozen them of their Monies when afterward they understood there had been no such Victories at that time verily those that dare belie Gods Providence and forge Letters from that may be suspected wil be as bold with the King in pursuance of their own designs against him But say they if the Parliament were guilty of any such forgery the King in his Letters which have been intercepted would have objected the same The word intercepted might have been omitted for if in any of the Kings Letters which have by Accident come into their Hands any such thing were objected yea and sufficiently proved yet we are confident of their wisdome so far that we dare say for them they would never have divulged the same nor suffered the world to know of it if they themselves could help But for their whole Argument 't is only negative and therefore weak and fallible The King hath not accused them of forgery Ergo they are not guilty thereof is no necessary consequent There is many a Malefactor in the Kingdom that deserves hanging yet was never brought to his trial is he therefore innocent As it doth not follow that they are most faulty that are most ill spoken of no more doth it on the contrary that they are most free from blame that are least taxed But if the King hath not objected forgery unto them the more is his goodness and wisdome he that desires peace with his Adversary is sparing even in his just objections that no obstruction be cast in by him as a bar to union whereas they that love strife though themselves have already offered most wrong yet are stil most ful of clamours and when they can find no faults to object they 'l invent some to keep the fire burning doubtless if the New great Seal be remembred it must be acknowledged by all men that the King hath had more cause to accuse them of forgery then ever they had yet to Accuse him of Perjury but by their own Confession we see the King hath been more careful of their credit then they have been of his Honour or of their own Souls But being conscious of the weakness of their Argument they hope to strengthen it with a second which is nihil ad nos as the other was nihil ad rem 't is their appeal to the Kings own Conscience who say they cannot disavow his own handwriting this may indeed be aliquid ad regem but what is it to the Reader Would they have every one in these Kingdoms and beyond the Seas to whom they have dispersed these Copies make a journy to ask the King whether these Letters were of His own Hand-writing And to this second they adde a third which is even like the former they tel the Reader that all the Ciphers Letters all the Circumstances of time and fact and the very hand by which they are Signed so generally known and now exposed to the view of all will aver for them that no such forgery could â—e possible And yet the Reader all the while sees nothing but only that which comes from the hand of the Printer or did he see the very Cyphers or original Letters they speak of were the hand wherewith they were Signed exposed generally to the view of all could all men know it to be the Kings or swear it were nto forged I suppose not unless He had first submitted his faith and judgment to believe only as the Parliament Voteth In a word I conceive that not withstanding all they say to the contrary they who forged the Kings Seal may possibly forge Letters under the Kings Name I do not Accuse any to have so done only I speak thus to shew that their Arguments are not so convincing as themselves think Forgery in this case might be possible But they come to the second objection which they believe may be made against their Notes upon these Letters and say As to our Comments and Annotations if there be not perspicuity and modesty in them there is no common Justice nor place for credit left among mankind SECT X. 1. Of that perspicuity and Modesty which the Libellers boast to be in their own Annotations 2. Their pretty confident way of perswading all men to be of their Opinions 3. Their Reasons why they did not publish all they had against the King IF any shal dislike these Comments and Annotations upon the Kings Letters He is confuted in these words very substantially for the Authors of them say that they are all very good and we know men can best judge of their own works they can give the fairest interpretation of their own doings the Crow can see beauty in her own bird though none else can so these men can see perspicuity and modesty in their own Notes yea so confident they are that their sight is good their judgment true that they dare boldly conclude there is no Common Justice or faith left amongst men if all mankind be not of their Opinion in this particular Was not this stoutly spoken Are not these valiant men We see they are resolved to hold their own though all mankind say to the contrary Truly upon this their commendation their Notes have been read over again and again and I profess I can see no perspicuity at all in them unless of spight and malice which indeed I find set forth with the Highest and most transcendent impudency against Soveraign Majesty as I believe ever Mankind saw Nay I dare affirm it that never any Protestant Christian Subjects did discover the like under Countenance of such an Authority as these pretend And I require these boasters to shew but one word or expression savouring of true modesty and Christian reverence to their King in all their Annotations and I promise them it shal excuse with me a multitude of their other errours Nay let their own Consciences speak concerning this perspicuity which they talk of whether they did not on purpose transpose these Letters in this their publication of them inverting the Order wherein they were written setting some that were first last and some that were last first that so their dependance upon each other being broken they might be lesse perspicuous to the Reader
of the Kingdome more frequently taught or better fed did they ever in any Nation under the Sun injoy more Peace and Happiness then they did all the time of His Reigne untill this unhappy Parliament turned all things up-side down and so made us of all Christians in the world well-nigh the most miserable and disconsolate Certainly though the Parliament Ministers are pleased to cry out in their Rethorick O the Affliction the Misery the Wormwood and the Gall of those times Yet Posterity in after Ages will acknowledge that the Nobility Gentry Clergy Citizens and Common-people of this Nation in the General did all arrive at the height of earthly happiness in King Charles his time whilest he alone did sway the English Scepter It is true there were Particular grievances from particular men both in Church and Common-wealth and can it be expected otherwise while we live in this world and some good men haply did suffer some hard usage at the hands of evill but did the King ever stop His eares at any Petition Did He ever deny Justice to any that did require it Or did He ever harden His Heart from shewing mercy where ere it was needful There was perhaps much whispering abroad and murmuring in Corners but was there alwayes a cause Mans Nature is apt some time to complaine for nothing even when there is more reason to be thankfull I will name the main particulars of offence and let the world judge what matter of blame did truly arise from them unto the King 1. The Bishops were cryed out upon to be too Rigorous but hath not the carriages of that faction which the Bishops did oppose since they have gotten Head largely acquitted them of that imputation in the judgement of all wise men surely they forefaw the mischief which we all now feel and did labour as became them in their places to prevent the same Perhaps every of them did not go the best way to work nor did use such apt Instruments as the case and time required I justifie no man in all particulars and perhaps too some of us who are now imprisoned banished and divested of all we have by this Reforming Parliament did in those dayes suffer more molestation from some of their unworthy Officers then many of those did who since that time have been most revengefull Three factious fellows had their ears clipt by the sentence of the Lords in the Star-Chamber and were set in the Pillory and this was exclaimed upon for great cruelty in the Bishops because they having been abused by them did not beg their pardon but how truly their necks also deserved the Hâ—lter hath well appeared by the late temper of their spirits and the little good use they have made of that their too small and gentle chastisement 2. The Star-Chamber and high Commission were two great Eye-sores for many great and heavy fines were layd on men for their sins sake in those Courts by the Kings Nobles and Judges some of whom are now great men with His greatest Enemies But how many of those fines did His Majesty in His tendernesse and goodnesse afterwards remit or cause to be mitigated and since the people would so have it He hath now given way even before the Act of continuing the Parliament that those Courts should be suppressed and so be no more offensive 3. Many people of the Kingdome voluntarily departed hence to New-England and this was pretended persecution from some who differed in opinion from them whom they called their Antichristian Enemies but now t is plainly apparent by that spirit which stayed behind in some of their fellowes that the true cause of their departure was only pride In themselves Cesar-like they could allow of no superiour either in Church or State no Bishop no King perhaps some of them might have tender Consciences through weaknesse or mis-information and some of the plainer sort might be honest men and went for company with the rest they knew not whither in the simplicity of their Spirits But t is well known they had all the countenance of the King and Councell to further them in the voyage and Plantation they carryed their Wealth and Goods with them and had supply of relief sent them continually from this Kingdome afterward untill this Warre caused the returne of many of them to help forward the destruction of their native soile and Country Indeed some are of opinion that they went to New-England only to learn and inure themselves to shed mans bloud we hear of few of the Heathens converted by them but of many masacred and by accustoming themselves to slaughter Infidells they have learned without scruple to murder Christians are better proficients then the Spaniards themselves in destroying those of their own Nation and Religion But as was said when they went first from hence they were suffered to carry their wealth with them they were not used as they and their faction use us who now suffer at their hands for our Conscience and the Gospell sake They take away all our goods make us beggars and then afterward if they do not murder us or starve us in prison they banish us into strange and desolate places with scarce cloaths on our backs to seek our fortunes 4. Great Complaints also there was of monopolies people payed an halfpenny more for a thousand of Pins then they were wont to doe and almost half a farding more for a pound of Sope and Starch then in former times when money was not so plentifull and such like heavy grievances did mightily oppresse them and made them weary of the Kings Government because He did permit of such things And yet the Excize upon bread and beer and flesh and cloathes and such like things as are sold in the market for mans use or spent in families was not then set up the Monopolizers durst not be so detrimental to the poor Subjects of this Kingdom while the King had the sole power in His Hands But since they got to be Members and Favourites of the Parliament they with their fellowes have Epimetheus-like opened this Pandorâ—'s Box and let loose amongst us all those Dutch miseries and they say the people are content to have it so though perhaps when they have been pilled or milked a few yeares longger by these new-State men it will be confessed that the Old Government viz. that of the King was far the better and the more easie 5. But the greatest complaint of all was Ship-money Ship-mony O that was a grievous burden indeed not to be stood under for a twentieth Part a fift Part weekly Contributions billetting of Souldiers seizing on Rents plundring of houses cutting of throats ravishing of women deflowring of Virgins and such like matters were not yet in fashion nor yet felt or known by the people of the Kingdome and therefore Ship-mony that was the great grievance But was not Ship-mony disputed and judged Legall before His Majesty did require it And when
reason of the Abolition of Episcopacy that the Fathers of Gods Church might not have power to punish and suppress such kind of offenders 2. Because Episcopacy is the upholder of truth and order this is evident enough to be another reason themselves cannot deny that the same was first ordained established in the Church for a Remedy against Heresies Sects and Schismes which even in the Primitive times began to spring up among Christians the Smectymnists themselves confesse this and also for the maintaining of Order and Decency in Gods worship and service wherfore truth and order being the things which these men purpose to suppresse and destroy as appeares by that in-let which they have given to all false Doctrines and Teachers and by that confusion which they have set up in all places therefore a necessity lyes upon it Episcopacy must be Abolished as being a main obstruction to that their intendment or undertaking This is the second 3. Because Episcopacy is a great friend to Monarchy a maine supporter of it King James upon experience and observation was wont to say No Bishop no King which saying those that found most fault with it do now endeavour to make good unto the full for they intend the utter destruction of Monarchy in this Kingdome as will appeare by their words anon a form of Government indeed which their Faction have alway maligned and laboured to destroy King James in his Basilicon Doron pag. 4. which he made before he was King of England complaines of the men of this faction then in Scotland how they did use to calumniate him in their popular Sermons not sayes he for any evill or vice in me but because I am a King which they think the Highest evill and againe they informed saies he the people that Kings and Princes were naturall enemies to the Liberty of the Church and could never patiently beare the yoake of Christ which hath been the very Doctrine of these times Wherefore that wise King was most specially carefull all his dayes to countenance and establish Episcopacy in all His Kingdomes not onely as the main preserver of Religion but also as the speciall upholder of Monarchie and he layes it as a charge upon his Son to imitate him therein And indeed these innovators know full well that they cannot bring their designes to effect against Monarchy without the Abolition of Episcopacy for this keeps downe those unruly fiery spirits of the Ministry which are used as chief incendiaries in all State Combustions this restraines them from reproaching their betters and Speaking evill of Dignities this maintaines that Common form of Prayer in this Church established by the use whereof as by a daily Sermon of obedience peoples hearts are seasoned with Duty and Loyaltie in that they are taught continually to acknowledge God to be the onely Ruler of Princes and the Kings Heart to be in Gods Hand who alone must be sought unto to guide and dispose the same in that also we are all taught as we are subjects daily to consider that it is Gods Authority which the King hath and that we are faithfully to serve Honour and humbly obey Him in God and for God Viz. because God hath so commanded and because He is in Gods own stead by his appointment and ordination over the people And by many other such like Divine and Godly expressions people are taught in their use of that book to make profession of their Duty Loyaltie unto their Prince all which make directly against these men and their designes therefore Episcopacy the upholder of this book as the main impediment to their Project down the Common-prayer Book too without any reason at all alleadged on their parts that take upon them to be the Abolishers In a word Episcopacy with her Common-Prayer Book will not admit Treason to stand in the first rank of Christian vertues as these new-Reformers would have it nor be held the fairest and shortest way to Heaven Ergo She and that too must be both Abolished to make way for the downfall of Monarchy in this late most flourishing and happy Kingdom This is the third Reason The 4. is because the King at His Coronation did take a Solemne Oath to maintain Episcopacy it being the Government then established in the Church and the endeavours of these men are not only to destroy the Kings Honour by their Tongues and Pens His Body and Estate by their violence and oppression but also His Soul if they can possibly by forcing upon Him the guilt of perjury which if they could effect beside that unappeaseable grief which in so tender a Conscience as the Kings is they know they should create they would also purchase to themselves an Argument for confirmation of those their slanders already cast out against him to the same purpose viz. that he is regardlesse of keeping his Oath and Promise And besides too if they can make him their Instrument to ruine the Church of God which he loves so dearly and to destroy Monarchy and Kingly Government whereby himself and his posterity are supported if they can make him their Agent to ruine himself it will speake them admirable gifted and to have out-gone all the Machivillians that ever were before them most worthy therefore and fit to enjoy the Supremacy in the State and to be feared of all people And then further yet if they can get the King at their motion to Abolish Episcopacy they shall occasion him to break the Charge which his Father layed upon him to the contrary in his Basilicon Doron which he calls his Testament The Charge and Caveat there given is in these words Take heed my sonne of those Puritanâ— which aime â—t a parity who are the very pests in Church and Common-wealth whom no deserts can oblige no Oathes or promises binde they breathe nothing but Calumny and Sedition aspiring without measure railing without reason and making their own imaginations without warrant of the Word the square of their Conscience I protest before the Great God and since I am here as upon my Testament t is no place for me to lie in that you shall never finde with any Hye land or Border-theeves greater ingratitude more lies and viler perjuries then with these phanatick spirits And suffer not the Principals of them to brooke your Land if ye like to sit at rest except you would keep them for to trye your Patience as Socrates did an evill wife These were the words of the Kings Father wherefore should His Majesty let these men with his good will and approbation be principall in the Church and yeild for this purpose to their desires in abolishing Episcopacy God doubtless would be much offended with him for not minding the Commandement of his Father Yea and peradventure too these his tempters would goe neer afterward to suggest unto his Subjects for they have mouth and fore-head enough to do it that the King like his Predecessour Edward the
second had neglected to observe his Fathers Testament and therefore as one under Gods curse ought meritoriously to be dealt withall as Edward the second was first deposed and then put to death and so would they make use of that Act of his in fortifying themselves another way to do him a further mischief but God we trust will prevent them and guide him And thus we have seen the true reasons of their first Proposition concerning Abolition of Episcopacy And we hope if His Majesty be forced as Henry the third was to subscribe to any thing against his will he will do as some of the Martyrs have don in a like straite first of all require of them that urge these unreasonable propositions upon him before he signes them to imprecate publikely and in a solemn manner upon themselves and posterities all the demerit of guilt and sin which shall be incurred at Gods Hand by such a subscription If their Consciences think there be no sinne in the matter they will easily doe it but if they refuse it will manifestly appear to the whole world that they are most devillishly minded thus to presse the King to things unlawfull In the next place they require the settling of the Militia of the three Kingdomes in good hands by advise of Parliament SECT XIIII 1. Their unreasonablenesse in desiring the Militia to be in their sole disposall Four weak and dangerous pretences for it 2. Four true Grounds of this their demand 3. How sinfull and dangerous a thing it would be to the Church People and Kingdome if the King should grant it IT is to be noted the Militia not of one but of three Kingdomes they must have all or none as Moses would not leave an Hâ—ofe behinde with King Pharoah so these will not leave a weapon with the King They will have the whole Militia of the 3. whole Kingdomes settled say they in good hands But what Hands are those If gentle peaceable and Religious hands are such then was the Militia of the Kingdome in good hands before untill by the fraud and violence of these demanders it was wrested thence But if by good Hands they mean such as have now griped the same into their possession God forbid that the King should ever willingly yeild it should be setled there or that the people of the Kingdome should ever consent thereto for so they might pull the guilt of that Innocent bloud which hath already and is still likely to be shed by it while so setled upon their owne heads It was alwayes till now without scruple beleeved for an undoubted truth that those hands were the best which Gods Word and the Law of the Land so judged and committed the Militia into and those were only the Kings no law Common or Statute can be shewed whereby it was ever setled elsewhere And in Gods Word Kings though Heathens are intituled Gods sword-bearers in respect of their office to execute punishment upon evil doers In the story of Israels Government we read of King Sauls selected band which himselfe alone made choice of and of Davids Worthies and of his appointing Captaines over hundreds and over thousands the Militia it seemes was in his sole hands then Himselfe made Joab the Generall of his Hoste and displaced him again at his own pleasure Indeed we know that the forme of Government in the Jewish Common-wealth is much slighted and scorned at by our new State-mongers as weak unperfect and unfit for this Nation the Government of Heathen Rome is in their Judgements the most absolute and this is that say they which they aspire after But we are of opinion that God Almighties wisdome is better then theirs is or then that of the Heathens was and we believe that those State-Governments are the only best and most fit for Christians that come neerest unto that which God himself contrived and prescribed unto his own people and we well remember when ours here held a neer conformity unto that we best flourished Nor can we conceive why the same we had should be more unsuteable to the Nation now all upon the suddain then heretofore but only because these Innovators have at the present unfitted people for Gods Yoak by making them Rebellious And for this reason it seemes we must now forsake the direction of Gods Word and of Law established to listen after a certain new advise from these few men who call themselves the Parliament who as if all wisdom were lodged in them must take upon them to Nominate some New good hands to settle the Militia of the Kingdoms in for after-times But we are confident before-hand they wil like him that chose himself Pope determine only for themselves and judge their own hands the best of all others though alas the whole Kingdom hath felt the Contrary by smarting experience But may it not be imagined that men so excessively wise are ful of reason what therfore may the grounds be of this unreasonable demand the like to which I never met with in any story and doubtless should it be granted the King as himself says wel should remain But the outside but the picture but the sign of a King For in the Militia of the Kingdom consists the Kings power his Authority and to yeild to the setling of this in any hands but his own were to yeild up his Crown it self his very Kingdom Now therfore by what right or reason they should claim the Kings Crown I cannot imagine unless perhaps they have bargained for that right which the Pope had therunto by King Johns resignation The story saies that the King received it back of the Pope to hold from thenceforth in fee farm of Him and his Successours for the yearly rent of a 1000 Marks Now perhaps upon the Kings non-payment of the said rent they have gotten the Popes right conveyed to them and do bottom this their demand upon it and that strict intelligence which Lenthall the Speaker brags that himself keeps with the Cardinall Mazarine may peradventure be about the setling of the said conveyance but this is a secret which the people must not know of or wil not believe nor wil I press it upon them and therfore they have other pretences and say they demand it 1. Because those good Hands which the Parliament wil make choice of to settle the Militia in are sure hands that is hands that may be trusted which wil never part again with what they have once griped or laid hold upon never a pack of Knaves in the world shal be able to cheat them of their Magazines their Ships their Towns and Castles if once the whole power of the Kingdom be at their disposing they wil not take mens words nor believe their Oaths nor credit their Honesties as the King hath done nor wil they be so scrupulous as he hath bin of giving occasions of suspicion to his inferior Subjects Besides themselves being as themselves say Gods Children have
all power and authority and what ever else is good upon the earth of right belonging unto them as their proper inheritance though hitherto it hath bin kept from them by usurpers such as Kings and Princes are and all others that be not of their Faction therfore if now by any means they can but be stated in their own rights it is very probable that they wil see the whole Kingdom destroyed rather then part with the same again for the Israelites did never deliver back the Aegyptian Jewels after they had once borrowed them nor did they ever resigne to Og the King of Basan his Kingdom any more when once they had gotten possession of it Ergo because these good hands are such sure hands such hold-fasting hands they would have the Militia setled in them Indeed we do remember that for the space of two seven years before this unhappy Parliament did begin vulgar hearts were seasoned with this Doctrine that Gods people only have a right to the things of this life and all others Kings and all are but usurpers of what they do enjoy and therfore may justly be dispossessed of the same by them who call themselves the people of the Lord. But we do not believe this to be a true Doctrine because Christ hath said His Kingdom or that which properly belongs to his people is not of this world Therfore we conceive the Argument and reason built upon the same to be neither substantial nor sufficient but only a bare pretence to gul the ignorant and to seduce the simple 2. They desire as they say to have the disposal of the Militia that so they may go through-stitch with their Reformation as they call it For say they it is an hard task we have undertaken and like to he long in doing for we shal meet with many rubs and therfore have need of Power to remove obstructions Indeed we grant that Rome was not built-in one day it was many years before she had gained her present height of wickedness and before â—he could reach the same she did wrest the Militia out of the Emperours hands wherby she was able to bring her Soveraigns neck under her Popes feet by making him glad to hold the stirrup And now a like design being here on foot it must be pursued in a like method the Militia must first be seised upon beside the doctrine of Christian obedience hath bin so long rivetted into peoples hearts that though it be shrewdly shaken already by these Militia-men yet it is likely to settle and appear again unless they have the strength continued in their violent hands to suppress and keep under the growth therof And then further too that Publick form and manner of worshipping God wherin people have bin bred and nourished in the Church hath bin so decent and Reverend that this beastly and slovenly way which these New Reformers as they call themselves would introduce in the room therof is never like to be wel digested and therfore as the Papists on the one side have need of a bloudy Inquisition to uphold their ridiculous fopperies and superstitious vanities in their worship of God so these on the other side have as much need of the Militia to maintain and force their unhandsome carriages and proud undecencies in their serving of him But these men pretending to reform a Christian Church do they not make use of a wrong instrument Was the Militia of kingdoms ever appointed of God to such an end We have always believed that the Word was the ordained mean for such a purpose the Sword of Christs mouth and not of mens hands must both cut sin from Christs members and subdue his enemies Had these men set up a faithful teaching Ministry in all parts of the Kingdom we might have hoped for some good by them but as that Pope who cast away his Keys and betook himself to his Sword so do they betake them to their iron and steel they desire the Militia of the Kingdom with which they persecâ—te and destroy the faithful Preachers and this they call Reformation Indeed Antichrist and Mahomet went this way to work for the erection of their Religions and our men coveting and exercising a like power to a like end may be truly called their Disciples whom they imitate we would fain have them declare unto us how this course which they take and which it seems by this their desire they are resolved to proceed in can possibly consist with that Religion whose root is truth whose branches are charity and whose fruit is good deeds both towards friends and enemies we find in Micah the Lord complaining of some wicked Heads of the people and false Prophet who jugling together did endevour to build up Sion with bloud and Jerusalem with iniquity and had got the Power and Militia into their hands to that purpose and that the silly people might think that God was wel pleased with that their way they would saies the Text lean upon the Lord and were so impudent as to say the Lord is among us or on our side But how did the Lord take this at their hands It follows in the next Verse For your very sakes saies God to them Sion shal be plowed like a field and Jerusalem shal become heaps and by those unfit means wherwith they pretended to build up the same was brought to pass its destruction Wherfore doubtless this second Reason which is alleaged to get the Militia setled in their Hands is not only weak but extreamly wicked and tendeth not to Reformation but to the destruction and ruine of Christian Religion and of the Nation Thirdly They pretend it would be for the Peoples greater preservation to have the Militia of the Kingdome setled in their own good Hands for say they we stand for the People we are the men whom the People have chosen and therfore it is most likely that we shal imploy the strength of the Kingdom best to the Peoples safety which above all things is to be looked unto Thus they speak and wel have they evidenced their pretended care for us the People since they got the sword into their hands for therwith the first thing they did for our preservation was Mustapha or Mahomet or Amurath-like to cut off fair Irenes head with whom indeed the whole Nation had formerly too much wantonized and what have they done beside but often strewed our fields and high-ways with heaps of mangled carkasses and filled our Channels with the spilt-out bloud of our murdred Country-men O wo wo and alas they have done that quod nulla posteritas probet quod nulla taceat what true English heart without most bitter Lamentation can think or speak of their doings What persecution What banishment What confiscation of goods What corporal bondage Yea What cruel tortures What merciless burnings What secret murders What publick massacres have they committed upon the people of this Nation only because they refused to renounce
nobis esse hic 't is better to stay at home and play 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then to adventure abroad How would the King then appear so abundantly glorious Do they imagine it could be any thing to his glory to have it reported in the Courts of forrein Princes that the Monarch of Great Brittain after twenty years managing his inheritance left him by his predecessours and weilding the Scepter of three Kingdoms to the great prosperity and wealth of his Subjects hath submitted himself to Pupillage under the Command of a few ordinary Gentlemen his own vassals at their requests who think themselves wise enough and therfore take upon them as his Tutors and Guardians to Govern not only himself and his Kingdom but also his very Family and Houshold they appoint him what Servants shal wait upon him and have power to dispose of his Children in marriage without his consent or if they please against his wil. Can any man think that such a report would speak the King in a Glorious Condition Would not Strangers reply and say Is this the Honour of the English King and his great Priviledge above other Princes He may enjoy it sure without Emulation no man wil ever envy him this glory But is this indeed the English mens kindness to their Common Father their gratitude for all their happiness and peace under him Is this the upshot of all their great promises to him Is this that Royal Prerogative that happy freedom which those who stand so much upon their own liberty can in their good nature find in heart to afford unto their Soveraign Would not the meanest of them all disdain to be in that Condition What Neither have Command over his Subjects nor yet over his houshold servants Neither have power to chuse a Wife for his Son nor to bestow his Daughter in marriage Must the Right Worshipful his Tutors and Guardians have the sole disposing of his Children No doubt but they wil have a care to match them into such Haggard stocks that the English Nation shal never more be blessed with any Right-bred Eagles Thus would Forreiners descant upon our Kings Condition should he yeild to the desires of these men and this they would have us believe would be to his great glory Yea and furthermore they have bin teaching the People ever since the Parliament began that the Kings office properly is but only to put in Execution what the Parliament shal Decree to see offenders punished according to the minde and pleasure of his great Councell From whence we learne that there is a preferment waiting for him if he have but a care to please his little Great Masters well and be dilligent to come when they call to go and do as they bid in lieu of his settling the Militia of the three Kingdomes in their hands they will bestow upon him the grand Executionership of the Kingdome which He and His after him shall hold of them and their successours quà m diù se benè gesserint which may be an Office not onely of profit in such Tyrannicall times as we are like to have under their Government but also of pleasure if the King will but put off his mercifull disposition and learne of them to delight in slaughter and shedding of bloud And thus we see what great Dignity and Glory upon his resignation of the Militia is like to be conferred upon Englands King But what man now not void of Reason considering withall the tearmes these Demanders stand in at the present with the King will not conclude this their pretence of making the King Glorious to be onely one of their Flouts which in their pride and bitterness they are pleased to put upon their Soveraigne even for his easiness and goodness in giving credit at first so far to their Oathes and Honesties as to suffer them already to over-reach him truly as a plain scorn we apprehend it for let them Answer us a question or too Would dutifull and loyall Subjects as they call themselves desire any thing in earnest of their Prince and not first lay down their Harness Do not these their weapons speak that by violence or dread they intend to obtain their purpose Have not these very men seized already by fraud and force upon that very thing without the Kings leave which they require of him to grant them Do they not by calling themselves the Militia declare Evidently that they account themselves the everlasting Masters of it Do they intend if the King shall think meet to deny their request to yeeld up presently that possession which they have already of the same We suppose not for they claime in their Tenents all earthly power and Authority to be theirs by right as they are Gods Children They are so bold as to say Gods Providence hath cast into their hands that strength of the Militia which by unjust meanes they have seized upon and they have entred into an Oath and Covenant in effect to keep the same in despight of the King and with it to suppress and destroy all them that shall ayde and assist the King to recover His own again And what is all this but as Micha speakes to oppresse a man and his House Yea a King and his Heritage and to resolve to continue in so doing even because they have gotten a power into their Hands But tell us O you pretenders to Piety where in the meane time is that Subjection to the King for Conscience sake which S. Paul calls for and that obedience for the Lords sake which Saint Peter requireth will you all hold as some of your fellow-members have maintained that these Precepts were onely in date in the Primitive times when the People of God lived under Heathen Persecutors and are of no concernment in these dayes now Gods people have got strength Or do you think the bare calling your selves His Majesties most Dutifull and Loyall Subjects a sufficient observance of those injunctions We beleeve neither of these excuses will satisfie Christ Jesus at the reckoning day But in the interim doth not your desiring the King that the Militia may be setled in your hands plainly infer that in your own Consciences you have done him wrong in seizing already upon it without his leave Surely if the right of settling it be now in him the right of seizing upon it before was not in you but you did a manifest injury to His Majesty in meddling with it against his will and a far greater yet you intend to do him by your resolving still to keep it by force if you may not have it confirmed by his Approbation unlesse you will yeeld that this your demand proceeds from the scorners Chaire you must of necessity grant us thus much But in very deed these men have other reasons for this their unreasonable request though they are ashamed to name them I shall do it for them for mine aymes are like those of Christ my Master in his preaching
which they pretend they would inflict upon the Irish Rebells for that Protestant bloud shed by them would but the King give them leave so to do Truly if they would go themselves and fight it out with those Rebels in Ireland we dare affirm they shal have not only free leave but thanks too yea and moreover they shal have not only the usual boon of such Malefactors as act the executioners part upon their fellows viz. the grant of their own lives but by our consent they shal also be the very great Oes of Ireland and they shal hold this Dignity by their dearly affected Irish Law of Tanistry which is That he who is best able by force and violence to wrest unto himself the estates of others shal be the Chief Commander among them We perceive by their doings that they would set up that Law here in England in stead of all others which they have put out of date or use But we conceive it is not so suteable for this Nation where men have bin wont to enjoy their own and to leave their inheritance to their own Children and therfore we suppose it wil be an hard matter for them to introduce and settle the same here But in Ireland it is a custome established to their hand Yea and further yet upon Condition that they wil go thither and so we in this land may be rid of their Companies we wil all supplicate the King for a further favour in their behalf viz. that every great O amongst them may have the Honour to give the Earl of Tyrones own Arms which is a bloudy Hand for their own proper and most deserved Cognizance and that they may also be all Barons of that Strong Iland which Tyrone fortified and called Fough-na-Gaul the Hate of English-men For in very deed no man living did ever better merit that Title then they have done But alas we have read that Ireland harbours no venimous Vipers therfore we are confident the great Oes of Westminster wil never adventure thither in their own persons But if they can get the Militia of the Kingdom setled by the King wholly in their Hands that so they may fear no rising here against themselves they wil therwith force and press all the English people who wil not take their unlawful and ungodly Covenant which is in effect to renounce the Doctrine of Christs Gospel and their obedience to the King for ever and send them thither where they wil expose them to be starved or slaughtered as many thousands have bin already and therfore let all the Countries that have stood out longest in their Loyalty and at last accepted of these New Lords expect to be thus punished for their tardiness in Apostacy And for those lusty Club-men in the Counties of Wilts Somerset and Devon and the like let them look for this reward at the hands of their Militia-Masters for taking part with them against the Kings men Such fellows as wil gather together and make head against those that wrong and abuse them wil be dangerous to live in a New State They that did thus against the Cavaliers may do as much against the Round-heads when they are but a while as wel acquainted with their Conditions They that wil be forced from their Duty to their Soveraign and natural Liege-Lord by such wrongs and oppressions as in these troublesome times are offered to them by the unruly Soldiers wil be easily driven upon a like sensible occasion to make resistance against tyrannical usurpers those Beasts that wil decline from their Allegiance to the Kingly Lyon wil never long rest contented under the obedience of Cat-a-Mountains therfore a timely course must be taken with such persons they shal all be sent into Ireland out of hand and be hampered there for Ireland must be the continual Spain or Carthage to our New Rome to rid her of all such mutinous and tumultuous persons and then shal these Saints these Bloudy Butcherly Saints have free Elbow-room to inherit this land and having neither truth nor King nor Enemy left for to disease them they shal be at leisure if Pride and faction wil give them leave to live at peace together And thus have we seen the scope of the third demand also which concerneth Ireland Now from what hath been said concerning these matters let any man judge whether these men have not reasons to pursue their desires without giving back an hairs bredth from their first proposals and whether the King hath reason or no to consent unto them Nay whether the Subjects of England have cause to wish the Kings complyance with them in all these things for my part I profess sincerely in the sight of God I apprehend their demands to be the most unreasonable that were ever made and therfore do hope that God wil ere long awaken in the Kings behalf for such hath bin his wont formerly in cases of like nature When Nahash the Ammonite required of the men of Jabesh Gilead to purchase a quiet bondage under him that he might pul out their right Eys So when Benhadad required of the king of Israel his Strength Treasures Houses Wives Children and what ever was dear and pleasing unto him when Senacherib required of the people of Jerusalem to forsake their own natural King and to submit their necks under his yoak to yeild up themselves into his hands to be carried from their own good Land they knew not whither We find that God did continually awake in the behalf of each of these distressed and most severely punished every of these unreasonable demanders and doubtless he did so for the very unreasonableness of those their requests And shal not we believe that he wil awake now also when all these unreasonable demands proceed together at once and from the same men who first require the Abolition of Episcopacy there is Nahash request to pluck out our right Eies Secondly they require the Militia of the three Kingdoms that is Benhadads request for all that the King and his friends have Thirdly under the title of Vindicating the Irish Rebels they require that the people of this Kingdom should be at their disposal to translate from their own Native Country and never to see it any more there is Senacheribs request Therfore Awake Awake as in times of old O Lord our strength arise for our succour at this present and redeem us for thy mercies sake Behold O God our shield and Look upon the face of thine Anointed as thou art the Judge of all the Earth and helpest them to right that suffer wrong Amen Amen I now proceed to Answer these men who in their Libell go on and say But were our cause altered as it is not or were we worse Rebels then formerly as none can affirm that takes notice of our late sufferings and our strange patience even now after the discovery of these Papers and our late extraordinary success in the field Yet stil this
intelligence with the Cardinall Mazarine Though I will not swear saies he that Lenthall says true yet I am sure 't is fit for thee to know Pap. 1. Here was another Clandestine businesse And further he doth consult with her about supplies of Men Monies and Powder for defence of his life against them of Westminster Pap. 3. and gives her direction for the conveyance of it in some other Papers a businesse Clandestine and shrewd too And in Paper 6. he assures her in private that Hertogen the Irish Agent was an arrant Knave a particular which might concerne the men of Westminster and touch them more close then perhaps every body will yet beleeve Besides in most of these Letters we shall finde the King and his Queen comforting and supporting each other under their heavy burdens with mutuall intimation of perfect love and patheticall expressions of conjugall affection All which are notable proceedings indeed against them at Westminster and great obstructions to their endevours which are to breake the Hearts of both and sinke them to their graves presently And thus we see the nature and danger of the first particular in the Charge concerning Clandestine proceedings which are so evident that we can say nothing against it The 2. followes the proof whereof is more and obscure and that is condemning all that are in any degree Protestants in Oxford by which they would have it beleeved that the King is so great an Enemy to Protestant Religion that his very friends at Oxford who have forsaken all they had for his sake are hated by him for their Religion sake so many of them as are Protestants in any degree But how this is manifest in these his Papers we are to seek for though these men have forehead enough to affirme it yet their fortune is not good enough to prove it Indeed we find the King in his Letters to Ormond Paper 16. and in his Directions to his Commissioners at Uxbridge taking great care and giving strict Charge for the preservation of his Protestant Subjects in Ireland but in no place can we see so much as a sillable tending to the condemnation of Protestant Religion But these men cannot leave their old trade of Taxing the King with their own Conditions Heaven and Earth can witnesse that never was there in England greater enemies to Protestant Religion then themselves have been never was there so much Protestant Bloud spilt in this Nation since the beginning of the world as hath been by their meanes within these foure years Never was London so full of Prisons never the Prisons so full of Protestant Divines Protestant Nobles Gentry and Christians of all sorts as they have been since these good men kept Court at Westminster Besides how they have Countenanced and brought into the Church all kinde of Sects and Heresies to the ruine of Protestantisme which the King for the Honour and Health thereof was alwayes carefull to suppresse and keep out How have they maintained and preached Doctrines of Devills scil of strife murder of Brethren Rebellion against Princes oppression of neighbours and practised the same which are all directly opposite to the Religion of the Protestants How have they abolished the Book of Common-Prayer established by Parliament to be the Protestants publick forme of Worshiping and serving God in this Kingdome Had the King done but any one of these things or were he not himselfe a most constant and zealous Professour of Protestant Religion in his daily practice these men might happily have had some Colour for this their confident Charge against him and so to have created suspitions of him But seeing all things are so cleare contrary we learne onely thus much from this particular on their charge that they are men whose hearts are not overspiced with honesty They passe not what they say nor with what face so they say no truth The third particular which they load their King withall is Tolleration of Idolatry to Papists which they speak as if Idolatry sub eo nomine were already allowed and set up by the Kings Authority in contempt of God and true Religion and so doubtlesse they would have it apprehended Reasonable men will yeild that there is a difference betwixt Idolatry and the Penalty thereof the penalty may be suspended altered or taken away for the time and yet the sinne it selfe not tollerated or allowed These doubty Champions will not yeild that their Parlia have granted a tolleration to Adultery though they have abrogated the penal Lawes against that sin and so taken away the meanes to punish it Nor can they prove that the King hath promised any more to Papists then the Parliament hath already granted to fornicatours In their after-notes where they make repetition of this matter they referre the Reader to Paper the 8. for their ground of it In which we finde the King relating to His Queen how the English Rebells had transmitted the Commands of Ireland from the Crowne of England to the Scots an expression worthy by the way to be observed by all Englishmen that regard the honour of their Nation considering that the King Himself is a Scot and that the men of Westminster intend if they cannot kill Him to thrust Him and His Children as some of their Hang-bies have whispered to His Ancient Inheritance in Scotland when they have made use of His People of that Nation to help to destroy His Kingly Power here not one Scot of them all shall have any footing or any more to doe in this Kingdome I say considering this every true Englishman hath cause most highly to reverence the King for His Justice unto and His care of the dignity of the English Crown But to proceed the King tells His Queen that by that Act that base and ignoble act He found Reformation of the Church not to be as they pretended the end of this Rebellion and concludes it would be no piety but presumption rather in Himselfe not to use all lawfull meanes to maintaine His righteous Cause And as one mean to that purpose not thought of before He gives His Queen leave to promise in His Name that all penall Lawes in England against Roman Catholicks shall be taken away as soone sayes He as God shall inable me to doe it upon this Conditiion so as by their meanes I may have so powerfull assistance as may deserve so great a favour and inable me to doe it Now how truly from these words that accusation is collected let the Readers Judge Here they see is no absolute grant or tolleration of Idolatry as they pretend but only a conditionary promise of withdrawing the penall Statutes against the Papists His Subjects if by their meanes He may be delivered from this bloudy raging and malicious persecution of the Puritans and settled in His power and throne again And well may the Papists expect as much favour from the King for such a service as Adulterers have had already from the Parliament gratis Nor perhaps
meanes the land is restored to tranquility and the King to his Crown and dignity For doubtlesse the Religion of the Papists is as dear to them as the Religion of Miles Corbet Edmund Prideaux and Zouch Tate the three chief examiners of the Kings Letters is to them and may with as little detriment to any Church or State be tollerated And besides the Penalty which the King promiseth to take away is not as I conceive to be levied upon the Papists meerely because such for it may be exacted upon others also though of another Religion if they be guilty of these particulars Scil. if they shall refuse to take the Oath of Supremacy and Allegeance to the King 2. If they shall Raise disturbance in the Church or State 3. If they shall Seduce the Kings Subjects from their Religion and Obedience 4. If they shall Refuse to come to Church once in a month at least or to hear Divine service 5. If they shall many of them together Keep private Conventicles and meetings in such cases onely as I conceive the Laws are in force against Papists and against all men else as equally of what Religion soever Wherefore let any man of understanding and justice speak whether these fault-finders themselves be not under the same Penalties as deeply as ever were the Papists Have not they renounced the Oath of Supremacie and Allegeance to the King by making a new Oath and placing the Supremacy in the Heads of their faction Have not they raised such distractions and Rebellions in Church and State as the like was never known Have not they had their private meetings in all places of the Kingdome and seduced thousands of the Kings Subjects from their duty and obedience Do not they refuse to come to Common-Prayer Nay have they not Abolished the same out of Churches that no man at all might come unto it May they doing these things and indeavouring the Kings destruction withall be freed from the Penalty of these Laws And may not the Papists remaining in their due obedience and assisting their Soveraigne against his Enemies according both to Law and duty reasonably enjoy the same freedome though peradventure they come short of one of the particulars which perhaps too is not so much out of Malice as in these others but out of ignorance and mis-information and that is not coming to Common-Prayer to which neither can they come now if they had a mind because it is taken away by those very men who would have the Statutes still in force against the Papists for not allowing of that which themselves with all contempt and scorn have abolished But in the last Page of their Notes they Object in this case also the Kings resolution and promise not to Abolish these Lawes but to joyn with his Parliament in suppression of Popery In answer to which let what hath been said already be well remembred and withall how they that call themselves His Parliamant have not suffered the King to concurre with them but have opposed and persecuted him ever since he declared that his Resolution to the end he might not be able to pursue the same Yea How themselves have compelled him in the continuance of his affliction to do that which they cry out upon him for have endeavoured all they could to force him further had not a great measure of Divine grace upholden him He may justly complaine of them as David did of some in his time They have driven me out from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord saying go serve other gods They have done what they could to violence him from his Religion and to force him to be a Papist according as they voiced him Never Prince had greater temptations and inforcements yet never Prince was more constant in his Religion blessed be the Majesty of Heaven for him A perpetuall disgrace will it questionlesse be to Protestant Religion in the eyes of all the world beside that any pretending to it should shew themselves so unworthy as to suffer so gratious a Prince to stand in need of Papists to defend him much more that they should by ill usage force him with such promises to seek their ayd but that they should accuse him also for doing the same after they have inforced him to it we must needs cry out O nullo scelus credibile in aevo quodque posteritas neget the Height of their villany is the only advantage they have that it wil not be believed by posterity Wel I say let all those particulars be thought upon by all sober men of this Age and if they be not sufficient in their judgments to plead the King Excusable in this case then let them remember as they were advised before that the King is a man as others are and in his extremity he declared himself to be the Son of David and the Son of Abraham SECT XVIII 1. The Kings granting indempnity to the murderous Irish another Slander The necessity and Reasons of the Kings yeilding to a Peace at that time with the Irish And the Conditions upon which that Peace was to be granted This Act not contradictive to any of his former expressions against their detestable doings 2. The Vanity of their Charge against the King for going in a close trading way Two sufficient Evidences of His Majesties sincere and constant affection to the Protestant Religion 3. The whole Charge against the King most truly retorted upon the Objectors WE come now to the fourth particular in their Charge which is say they granting indempnity to the murderous Irish. This is collected as they tel us in their after-notes from the Kings Letters to Ormund Pap. 16. 17. 18. 19. in all which I assure the world there is no such word or phrase to be found as I wil or I do grant indempnity to the murderous Irish Indeed I find therein his Majesty consenting to a peace with the Irish and he sets down the reasons necessitating him thereunto which these honest Observatours have totally omitted to take notice of lest there should have bin no appearance of blame at all in their accusation in which they do altogether as wisely as Satan did when he spake Scripture to our Saviour for he did omit but only so much of the sentence as would if expressed have made that part alleaged nothing to his purpose And of this all men shal judge for I wil set down in the Kings own words the grounds moving him to write to that purpose unto Ormund Paper 16. Ormund THe impossibility of preserving my Protestant Subjects in Ireland by a continuation of the War hath moved me to give you these powers and directions that is one ground A 2. follows in these words It being now manifest that the English Rebels have as far as in them lyeth given the Command of Ireland to the Scots that their aym is at a total subversion of Religion and regal power and that nothing else wil content them or purchase Peace
four things scil Of Clandestine proceedings against the Honour and being of Parliament Of condemning all that be Protestants in any degree Of granting a Tolleration to Idolaters And of indempnity to Murderers or that goes in a close trading way to effect those things for meer particular advantage cannot be defended by any but such as deserve the imputation of the worst men And therefore I am of opinion that all those who take upon them to defend the men now above-board who under the name of Parliament have not only undermined the King their Soveraign but also the Parliament it self in destroying its Priviledges which they pretend to stand for who have condemned all to be Popishly affected that are in any degree Protestants at Oxford calling them by the odious names of Malignants Papists Devils and Dogs who have not only granted a Tolleration of Idolatry but set it up and persecuted with fire and sword banishment and confiscation all that wil not commit the same themselves whom they call the Parliament are the Idol whom all the people of the Kingdom must fall down unto and worship who have also granted indempnity to the murderous Irish. For I would have them but speak out and say of what Nation and Religion their Plunket is of Nay let them tell the world if they dare what promises have been made from them by their Instruments in a close trading way unto that Plunket and Muskerry whom they Tax their King for shewing countenance unto upon condition they would but sit still and not helpe their Soveraign Who also have further yet in a close trading way cozened us their fellow Subjects of all we had that was dear unto us our Religion Liberty Peace Wealth and Friends for their own meere particular advantage that themselves might rule alone and bear the sway over our Soveraign and our selves over our Consciences and Estates which they spoile and sell away according to their pleasures I say I doe verily beleeve that whoever they be that shall take upon them to defend these men under what colour and pretences soever are as bad as the worst of men yea falser then the Papists then the Jesuites But we will listen now to what these men adde farther they say Hitherto the English have had Commission to Chastize the Irish and the Irish have had the like to Chastize the English both have spilt each others bloud by the Kings Warrant yet as both hath been in part owned so both hath been in part disowned and the King himself hath not appeared with open face in the Businesse SECT XIX 1. The Enemies malitious devises to Scandalize the King with favouring the Irish Rebellion detected and confuted 2. The Kings requiring secresie of the Queen and Ormond in the matters writ to them Justified The Libellers Blasphemy against Gods Providence â—and in as king Gods Blessing upon their Libell noted THe English have had Commission to Chastize the Rebellious Irish and the Irish have had the like to Chastize the Rebellious English both have spilt each others bloud by the Kings warrant and what harm is there in all this The King is the Minister of God and bears the sword sayes the Apostle to execute wrath upon them that do evill and therefore so far forth as the same hath been managed to the punishment of Rebellion whether by English or by Irish under his command and Authority the King hath with open face owned it But in as much as the same hath been used by the one or other against himself His Crown and Dignity against the Law against His Loyall Protestant subjects to the hurt or damage of them and their Religion the King hath both secretly and publikly disowned ever and still doth For why should he sinne against God His own Conscience and honour in taking upon himselfe the scandall of others doings as those that call themselves his great and wise Councell desire he should who themselves commit the sinne and would have him beare all the blame for this is their way of Honouring their Soveraigne in the eyes of His people And to this purpose when at first by decolation of Strafford the Irish Governour they had put that wild and unruly people into a fit Capacity and proximate potentia of Rebelling and perhaps too in their close trading way wherein for their own particular advantage they are of all men living most skilfull had helped to draw that power into Act to the end the people of this Kingdom whom they were to use to another purpose might not so soon suspect them guilty of so much evill they published abroad that the Rebells in Ireland had the Kings warrant for all their bloudy doings to put some colour upon this devilish slander they printed certain examinations as they cal'd them of certain inferior men women who reported as they tell that they heard some say they heard from others who received it perhaps from 3. or 4. persons that some Commanders among the Irish Rebells had affirmed that themselves had the Kings Commission for what they did Which thing if any of the Irish Rebells did say or affirme what wonder is it do not all Rebells use to pretend the best authority for their own wicked doings have not even they of Westminster themselves rais'd all their forces of men and monies against the Kings person under the Kings own name was not the King and Parliament the onely word in use with them at the first though now the Kings name is left out for they apprehend the people to be so deeply lock'd with themselves in guilt and bloud that they dare not leave them I dare boldly affirme it that many thousands of our English had never been ingulpfed in those Rebellious wayes wherein they are had they at first but been acquainted with the devises of Rebellious Heads but now things are come to that height that they know not how to disingage themselves without a present ruine from them who have engaged them But hence I say it plainly appeares to be no wonder if the Irish Rebels did pretend the Kings Authority also in the beginning of their accursed undertaking though whether they did or no I cannot tell for I did not hear them only this I am sure of that they who published and printed those reports in this Kingdome did hope thereby to work as indeed they did a disaffection in many people against their Soveraigne that so themselves might be strengthned with their concurrence in their intended project against him and all his friends that sided with him with whom I may affirme they have even dealt as the Cyclops in Homer did with Ulisses and his Associates who findeing no reason to misuse them yet having a great desire to feed upon them would needs perswade that they were Pyrats So these not knowing any sufficient reason to quarrell with the King and his friends or to stir up the people against them yet having a great hunger after
That 't is an heinous crime and sin in the King to endeavour to maintain Monarchy or to solicite any Princes though Protestants and of his owne nearest bloud and Alliance beside to aide him therein 3. That all Princes are contained and included in the King of Denmarke for in the Kings soliciting him he solicites all them Whence by the way we may also observe how provident these times are in providing for the credit of their future Clergy for 't is doubtlesse for their sakes that an Argument à singularibus ad universalia is here amongst other like stuffe made paâ—â—able and good by Authority and speciall Order of Parliament Concerning the Religion of these men it hath been made apparent already that the fruits and effects of it speake it to be such a one as deserves the hatred of all men though it cannot under any proper name be the object of the Kings opposition for no man can directly say what it is themselves are not yet resolved upon it nor what to call it But whatever is the ground of the Kings opposing them 't is evident that the Cause of their resisting him which I hope all Christian Princes will take speciall notice of is for Monarchy sake he would maintaine Monarchy He will not tamely admit the downfall of Monarchy in this noble Kingdome which these men as appears by their owne words would faine effect and therefore they thus persecute him and exclaim upon him nor are they either ashamed or affraid to intimate the same to the whole world let all the Monarchs of the Earth take it as an open defyance if they please they thinke themselves able to grapple with them all yea they and their faction where ere they prevaile are resolved not to leave a Monarch standing I desire of all you His Majesties Subjects of Great Brittain and Ireland who have unfortunately been seduced by this faction but to observe well this discovery which themselves have made by this passage of their own intentions they have told you oft and perhaps may tell you againe by some impudent speech or declaration that they intend still to maintaine true Religion and Monarchy in this Kingdome to have a King over them and that they be only ill tongues Enemies to Parliaments that say otherwise c. But I beseech you beleeve not a word they say to this purpose for God hath here made their owne tongues and pens to betray their Hearts for your sakes that you might speedily withdraw your selves from their seduction and not be their Instruments to embrew your hands in the bloud of your Soveraigne and to take from him his Inheritance who hath alway defended you in yours with peace and plenty till by their fraud and violence he was disabled and how have you enjoyed your selves and comforts since let your experience speak it to your owne Hearts Be you assured from what you have felt that Monarchy is the Protection of this Nation and of you the good people in it call but to minde the daies past when a Monarch only had the Militia in his disposing quà m placide poâ—ens dominusque vitae how pleasingly powerfull was he in the use of it with what innocent hands did he sway the Scepter How unbloudy was his whole raigne How tender and sparing of the lives of his Subjects Populus iste non bella nôrâ—t non tubae fermituâ— truces non arma gentes cingeres assuêrant suas muris nec urbes we knew not what Warres or Alarums meant nor did we need weapons to protect our selves nor Walls to defend our Cities pervium cunctis iter every man might travaile safely communis usus omnium rerum fuit there was a common use of all Common blessings yea and every man beside without disturbance enjoyed the comfort of his own Labours But since Monarchiall Government hath been obscured by these mens introduction of themselves upon the Stage of Action what hath been in practise amongst us but all kind of Oppression Tyranny Injustice and Villany whereof I heartily wish that your Experience did need my further information wherefore I pray take speciall notice of this passage 't is published you see to the world by Authority of Parliament yea by their speciall Order and therefore you have reason to beleeve it to be the true intent of their Hearts and the rather because 't is so agreeable to all their Actions yea though the contrary should be told you hereafter by the same Authority Be it known I say unto you all and remember it well the end of all these warres and fightings against the King is to destroy Monarchy in this Kingdome and to keepe you the free-borne Subjects of it in this turbulent slavish and underly condition whereunto a few of your Tyrannicall fellow-Subjects have already brought you they tell you sometimes that 't is the Militia of the Kingdome onely which they would have settled in good hands and the King shall be King still but your experience have taught you that no hands are so good as his neither can the Kings bare Title be able to defend you in your possession They tell you that they will defend you but you have payed for so much wit as to judge of what you shall have by what you have had already from them therefore as no man having tasted old wine straightway desireth new viz. if he be also acquainted with the relish of the new for he saies the Old is better so you having had a sufficient tast of both Governments the Monarchicall and the other new one which we cannot yet tell by what name to call have no reason by any meanes to allow of this since you are so sure that the old is better In a word let this Conclusion be rooted in your Hearts which experience hath in part confirmed unto your senses that as the Moone and Starres would fall infinitly short of that bright Lustre which now they have if the Sunne were stripped of his abundant shining so take from the King his Royall Prerogative let him be as a King and no King and all the people great and small will quickly feel that from his flourishing Condition proceeded all their happinesse I shall not here need to spend time in shewing the Excellency of Monarchy above all other Governments and the fitnesse of it for this Nation abler Pens have done that abundantly since the beginning of this unreasonable Rebellion only this I say to introduce any other forme into this Kingdome is a new thing never yet in being here and therefore I apprehend such an Act to be a perfect opposition unto Gods revealed will whosoever be the Agents in it for as the saying is Qui mala introducit voluntatem Dei oppugnat revelatum in verbo qui nova introducit voluntatem Dei oppugnat revelatum in rebus and therefore I advise all Statesmen consulere providentiam Dei cum verbo Dei to take Councell of Gods Providence as well as of
his Word in cases of this Nature But I returne again to these men Who would have us by these their words of His Maj. soliciting the King of Denmark and in him all other Princes to take notice that he calls in forraign Aide which fault they amplifie over and over in other places for though themselves may without offence or sinne call in another Nation and hire them with I know not how many 1000. Pounds a moneth to help them cut the throats of their Country-men yea and may make use of any forreiners in the world of what Nation Religion or Spirit soever they be to help them to destroy and pull down Monarchy yet the King may not without exclamation desire the aide of a Protestant Prince no not of his neerest Kinsman the King of Denmark to uphold the same But what is the reason that the King must be confined to this restraint themselves walk so much at Liberty Why they tell us at the end of their notes that the King had made resolutions and promises that he would never bring in forreine forces Which themselues indeed never did nor ever intended for doubtlesse they resolved at first to bring their defignes to passe by any meanes and rather then faile to get assistance Flectere si superos nequeunt Acheroâ—â—a movere and therefore themselves are free and do as they please whereas the King is entangled in his own promises They say Pag. 58. As to the bringing in of forrain forces The King Mar. 9. 1641. in his Declaration from Newmarket saith Whatsoever you are advertised from Rome Venice Paris of the Popes Nuncios soliciting Spain and France for forrain â—ydes We are confident no sober honest man can beleeve Us so desperate or senselesse to entertain such designes as would not onely bury this Our Kingdome in soddain destruction and ruine but Our Name and Posterity in perpetuall scorn and infamy Also they tell us of other words which the King spoke some three weeks after to the same purpose which indeed as I take it do expresse the inward ground and Motive that caused him to speak the former viz. We have neither so ill an opinion of Our own Merits or the Affections of Our Subjects as to think Our self in need of forraigne force Also August the 4. in his speech to the Gentry of York-shire the King acknowledgeth say they that He is wholly cast upon the Affections of his people having no hope but in God His just cause and the love of his Subjects Now these observators having quoted these three expressions of the King do conclude saying What distinction can now satisfie us that neither Irish French Lorraiâ—ers Dutch Danes are forreiners To which I answer First for the Irish they are no more forreiners then the Scots are nor in some respect so much for Ireland hath been a dependant unto the Crown of England many hundred yeers before Scotland was and then for French Lorraiâ—ers Dutch and Danes I shall answer concerning them when they are landed for the Kings assistance and in the meane time it would be but just that they should satisfie us that neither the Irish Scots French Burgâ—ndiâ—â—â— Dutch Wallâ—ns Italiâ—ns that are already in their Armies are neither Papists nor Forreiners as I said before the time and place is known to many where neere 30. of their men being taken were examined and found to be of six severall Nations all forreiners and all Papists But these words of the King alleadged by these men against Him do plainly discover to every honest eye that His Majesties designe was never to use any but His own Subjects nor did He think it possible and the rather in regard of His own good merits that people so long instructed in Protestant Religion should ever prove so ungratefull as to force Him their Prince to stand in need of forreigne assistance and therefore the Heads of the faction having in their malicious policy to work feares and jealousies against Him told the people that the Popes Nuncio that great Bulbegger was soliciting both in Spain and France the Kings businesse for forreigne aides and of this they said they were advertized from Venis and Paris yea and from Rome it self with which it seems they held intelligence even from the very beginning Now to remove this foolish vanity and to retaine a clearnesse in His peoples hearts the King expressed himself in that sort unto them assuring them that they were all forgeries against Him and that he did wholly cast Himself upon the Affections of His people and was confident that no sober man could beleeve Him so senselesse as to entertaine such a designe which would have been so detrimentall both to Himself and His Kindom and in very deed if before he had tryed his own people he had called in such Armies of Forreiners as they reported it must needs have been confessed a desperate part in him a mean to have brought a suddain Destruction upon his Kingdome and a perpetuall Infamy upon His Name But if after three yeares as long as was allowed to the fig-tree in the Gospell the King finding his Subjects unfaithfull and cold in their affections towards him Nay more perceiving by so long experience that their endeavours were to take from him both his Life and his Inheritance yea and his Honour too and that they abused his good opinion of them by mis-interpreting his professions unto them and conceiving him tyed thereby from using others help for defence of himselfe and Monarchy I beleeve if he had or should alter his Resolution and call in any Prince in Christendome to his assistance in the maintenance of Regall Authority which God hath intrusted him withall and of that Government which as the most absolute God established among his own people and hath alway blessed this Nation under He being utterly disabled to do it otherwise it should be reckoned by the Almighty at the great day if any fault at all but among his infirmisies Yea and if destruction thereby should fortune to come to the whole Kingdome the whole infamy and guilt thereof should be charged upon the Heads of these his most perverse and injurious people even as that of Jerusalem by Titus Vespasian is laid upon the seditious that were therein even unto this day But my humble prayer to the Almighty is that he would yet please to spare us and to bestow his grace at length upon the people of this land that they might cease provoking his Divine Majestie to punish that way this so Horrid a sin and so High abuses to his own Annointed And thus I have done also with this particular SECT XXIII 1. The Libellers Cavills at the word Mongrill Parliament At the Commissioners for the Treaty at Uxbridge At the Kings pawning His Jewels answered 2. His Majesties Affection and Goodnesse to His Subjects for want of other matters objected as a fault against Him by these Libellers IN the third place they accuse the
soon after they tell us the King sent them a message to state the differences between them on both sides promising that when they shall be digested into a body fit to be judged of it shall appeare what He will do In this sure the King was in a great errour thus to send to them about composing differences when their intended work was to make and widen them rather wherefore wholly neglecting that particular The House of Commons say they the Lords refusing to joyne did onely in Answer thereto requiâ—e the Tower of London to be at their disposing and withall for the King ever saved as little by delaying to grant their first demands as by yeelding to them they require now that the Militia of the whole Kingdome be put into such hands as they should recommend to which the King makes a reply which is also to be reckoned among the rest of his faults in these words as themselves testifie That the Militia by Law is subject to no Command but His owne which He will reserve to Himself as a principall and inseparable Flower of His Crowne and professes to take care of peace and the rights of the Subject equally with His life or the lives of His dearest Children He further also conjures them by all Acts of Duty and favour received by hopes of future mutuall happinesse by their love of Religion the Peace both of this Kingdome and Ireland not to be transported with feares and jealousies Surely here was enough from the mouth and hand of a Religious King to have prevailed with any that had not before entred into a Covenant with Hell But say these men the Parliament could not because they would not beleeve themselves secured by these professions and asseverations and the King would not because He could not understand that the setling the Militia at this time in confiding Hands to prevent Civill War was any other then the taking the Crown from his Head Hinc illa Lacrymae say they So they are resolved it seemes at the very first to raise a Civill War unlesse the King would beleeve that he might put more confidence in other men then in himselfe and that he might maintain his Crown and dignity without having any Command over the Militia Well yet notwithstanding all these affronts put upon His Majesties faithfulnesse and these contempts of His gratious Asseverations The King say these men neverthelesse persists to declare his abhorrence of the Irish Rebellion frequently inciting the Parliament to send succours which made them more averse thereto lest the King should please himself in thinking they regarded Him or his desires in any thing which indeed would have been a very Grand errour in him Then they relate How the King abjures any privity to plots and designes against the Laws and makes strict Proclamation for putting them in execution against Papists who were reported to be the plotters that so if possible He might give satisfaction But the Parliament being resolved do still pursue their own designe and as if it had been the onely Businesse for which the King by his Writ did call them together they still urge Him to settle the Militia upon them And as they remember us upon his refusall so to do thoughts of peace being laid aside they seazed upon the Towne of Hull His Magazine of Armes without his leave and held it out against Him and so taught him to seize upon New-Castle And now say they the Warre being thus far advanced yet it is not agreed which part was put to the Defensive and as it seemes to resolve this the 19 Propositions were dispatched to the King which indeed were the meanes of Light to thousands in this Kingdome of discovering the scope of their intentions namely to be to ruine the King and to bring him into a worse Condition then his meanest vassals Many men whereof my self was one did conceive from the grosnesse of them that they had been divulged by the speciall endeavoâ—rs of the Kings friends in the House for to discover to the world the unreasonablenesse of the then growing turbulent faction to the end that peoples spirits might be awakened to appear generally against the same in the defence of the Honour the Rights and Liberty of their Soveraign SECT XXV 1. Their Pretences of bringing Delinquents to punishment made a ground of the Warre The King acknowledged by his Enemies to be on the defensive part 2. His Majesties good opinion a long time of the Parliament objected as a fault against Him by themselves 3. The King makes no Warre against His Parliament Evidenced This Conspiracy of Traitours at Westminster no true Parliament fully proved The Conclusion of the Answer to the Libell BUt the maine thing in those 19. Propositions say these men were Reformation of Church-Government that power Military and Civill might be put into confiding Hands and that Justice of Parliament might passe upon Delinquents We grant they were for these three containe all the rest But here I must beg leave of the Reader to digresse a little to speake a word of this last particular having discussed at large of the two first already They had or have two Reasons for their requiring of the King that Justice of Parliament might passe upon Delinquents 1. To punish the Kings Errour in his requiring the Justice of Law against six of their Members it shall cost Him the Estates and lives of all his friends if they can bring it to passe that He may the better remember hereafter to do no more so His fault was so great and high in desiring that half a dozen of them might be tryed by Law that it cannot be expiated without His yeelding up many thousands of his friends yea of all that love him to be condemned without Law by bare Vote which they call Justice of Parliament from which Good Lord deliver us 2. To out-voice the Kings demand forementioned for if they should not shew zeal against sinne in calling themselves for punishment to be done upon Delinquents the world would think that the six Members whom they rescued from a legall triall which the King would have had them unto might be very faulty and that His Majesty had just reason to take Armes to bring both them and their abetters to it but to prevent this they by affirming they take up Weapons to bring Delinquents to punishment do avow the War to begin on their side and so leave the King to be Defender Although I must tell the world that this devise of bringing Delinquents to Punishment was resolved upon to be a chief ground of the Warre some certaine moneths after the War was begun I beleeve I could name the place and time when it was first taken into Consideration and upon what occasion and though I nominate not the Persons yet I may tell the story Upon a time diverse of the Members were met together at a certaine easie Lords House in the Kingdome who was also in his Country one
against all sence and reason nay they have plainly inferred as hath been observed that they seek his ruine because he is a King and would maintaine Monarchy He that makes himselfe a Monarch or a King is no friend to the Parliament Well when he is dead as I think no wise man expects otherwise but that they will murder him openly or secretly shorten his dayes if they can get him and God doe not in a miraculous manner againe deliver him for as nothing but Christs Crucifixion would please the Jewes of old so nothing but the Kings extinction will satisfie the malice of some in this Age but I say when he is dead we shall in this one thing imitate Pilate and publish to all the world his accusation and cause of his death This shall be his Title Carolus Gratiosus Rex Angliae CHARLES the Gratious King of England was put to death by the Pharisaicall Puritans of his Kingdome only because he was their King and in many respects so like unto Jesus Christ the Worlds Saviour I wish with my soule and I pray with my heart that they may yet at length prevent us in this by their unfeigned Humiliation for the wrongs they have done him and by their right acceptance of him and obedience to him Thus have I shown in many particulars how fitly the Kings sufferings doe parallel with those of Christ I might instance in more but I hope the well disposed from this which hath been said will of themselves make observation of the rest I might here also evidence on the other side How his Majesties Enemies doe resemble him whom themselves call Anti-christ in their conditions yea I could by comparing their doings in this their generation with the worst Acts of the worst of Popes in severall Ages demonstrate to the world that these men of all men are most like them but mine aymes are not so much to decypher them as to offer a true presentment of the King unto his people to declare his vertues and wrongs which they labour to conceale is rather my work then to proclaim their ungodlinesse which indeed speaks it selfe loud enough without my discovery And truly had it been possible for me to have healed the wounds made by them upon my Soveraignes Honour without laying open their corruptions I should not have mentioned them so much as I have done for my delights are not to be stirring in such obscene and stinking puddles But all men know that he who takes upon him to justifie the Righteous must of necessity condemne the wicked the goodnesse of the one cannot be vindicated unlesse the vilenesse of the other be detected specially when they thus stand in competition wherefore omitting what might be spoken of them to this purpose I shall rather as Christs Minister apply my selfe to speake unto them after I have uttered a few words to those well-meaning Common people who have been seduced by them whom in the first place I desire to listen to mee SECT XXVII A serious and Brotherly Discourse to the seduced and oppressed Commons of this Nation their dangerous condition related divers and necessary considerations propounded to their thoughts to disswade them from persisting in their present way Their Objection of keeping their late Oath and Covenant Answered COuntrey-men and fellow-Subjects you see I have dealt with you as Pilate did with these people of the Jewes whom the subtill Pharisees had prevailed with to be their instruments in seeking Christs ruine for the desiring to divert them from further proceeding in so evill a way against so just a Person brought him forth before their eyes crowned with Thorns and arrayed with sorrowes and bad them Behold the man supposing that the sight of his griefs already suffered by the wrongs and abuses already offered would make them desist from offering more So I desiring with my soule as God is my witnesse to stop you in this your ungodly way which the craftie Pharisees of these times have thrust you into and to stay you from furtheir endeavouring your Kings destruction have set him before your eyes in the same sad and afflicted condition that Christ was in and whereinto your selves alas have helped to bring him Now I beseech you all Behold the man consider how much you have wronged his innocence already and abused his goodnesse and whether you have not shewne unkindnesse enough unto him who hath been unto you the Author of so much good so many yeares together You will say had we lived in the dayes of Christ we would not have joyned with the Pharisees in persecuting and abusing him and his Disciples and yet you are partakers in the like evills will you disallow of such things against your Saviour and yet act them against your Soveraigne Have you any other evidence against the King then those people had against Christ the bare testimony and report of his deadly enemies or have you any better warrant from Gods Word to rise up and cry out against the one then those had to do so against the other surely you have not O foolish people therefore and unwise who hath bewitched you who hath perverted you I know you 'l say even they whom we thought we were bound to follow scil our Teachers and our Leaders true and God shall require your bloud at their hands but in the meane time if you die in this way you will die in your sin for as Esay sayes the Leaders of this people cause them to erre and they that are led by them are destroyed that is are in the undoubted way unto destruction and what will you doe at the end thereof Perhaps your consciences are yet asleep so was Judasse's till his worke was quite done his Master murthered and himselfe received his wages but then it began to open indeed and so to roare within him that it debarred him quite from all contentment in his money for he brings that back to them who had employed him and makes his moan unto them and perhaps expects comfort from theâ—â— but they having served their turnes of him left him in the bryers whereinto they had brought him and rejected his complaint with a quid hoc ad nos what is it unto us see you to it their owne consciences did not yet stirre nor had they any respect at all to the troubles of his spirit Now truly friends this will be the condition of many of you when you have damn'd your soules in serving the lusts of these men and think to enjoy comfort in that wages of iniquity the Estates of other men which you gape after and is promised unto you as the price of bloud then will the doores of your consciences be unlocked the sence of your guilt will make you as sick as he was both of your rewards and lives and then if you lament and cry we have sinned in spilling innocent bloud the bloud of our Soveraigne or the bloud of our Countrey-men that never
trembled at his word yea and for their successe against them in these their mischiefes and unjust doings they praised God and said The Lord be glorified they had dayes of Thanksgiving to that very purpose Therefore since it hath been the usuall custome of the grandest Hypocrites to doe after this fashion you have no reason now to think any whit the better of these men for their outside professions Last of all consider the relation which these men the Members of the Commons House I mean do stand in unto your selves whom they command and to your Soveraign whom they oppose to your selves they are publick Servants chosen by you to agitate for you in Gods way and according to Law your common affaires scil to confirme your Religion Peace and Possessions to you and not to raise warres to the destruction of all these To the King they are sworn Subjects bound by Oath and Protestation to preserve his Person Estate and Honour safe and intire against all people in briefe they are the grand Jury-men of the Kingdome and nothing else and their office is not to judge or passe sentence against any persons but to enquire after the grievances of the Countrey and to make presentment of them with all humility unto the King who is the Judge so deputed of God and to the Nobles of the upper House who are with him as Justices upon the Bench and to supplicate of them in whom the only power judicative is resident a redresse of things amisse and then when a good Law is made to give their assent unto it and notice of it to the Countreys or places whose Deputies they are and to stirre them up to honour their King and to praise God for him who is so ready to do Justice and to shew grace unto them this is the proper office and work of the House of Commons in the discharge of which only you are to shew countenance unto them but if they shall doe things out of spleen or unbecoming their places you are to withdraw your favour from them and to bestow your frowns upon them for if the Grand Jury at an Assizes in stead of doing that duty whereto by Law they are designed should fall to pull the Justices from the Bench and to beat the Judge out of Town and to imprison and kill their Neighbours as good men perhaps as themselves would you think it fit to take their parts in such their doings would you not rather all joyn to lay hands upon them and bring them to be punished for their misdemeanours and desire to have them put out of their places and wiser men appointed in their stead that know how to behave themselves better I pray consider well of these things and remember at length what you have done and what you have now to doe under whose fealty you were born and to whom you have sworn Allegiance and observe what intimation our Saviour gives in that saying of his if my Kingdome were of this world then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jewes or to them that seek to take away my life doth he not plainly inferre thereby that the Subjects of earthly Princes who have Kingdomes in this world ought to fight for their Soveraign to endeavour his deliverance from injustice and wrong and not to suffer him in any sort to be rendred up into the hands of his enemies and be you certain of it that so long as the King Gods Deputy and your Protector under God is thus abused and kept from his Rights you shall never enjoy peace or prosperity nor the quiet possession of what is yours for Gods heavie Curse will so long hang over this Nation and Kingdome Well think of it well and doe accordingly Confident I am Brethren that the major part of you did Associate your selves with these ill disposed men as they of old did with Absalom and Achitophel in the simplicity of your Hearts by giving too much credit as they did to those false reports which in their wicked policy they cast out against the King and Government you were perswaded before you were instructed and in your good zeale you have walked thus far to the extirpation as you hoped of Popery and prophanenesse which alas you have exceedingly increased though sore against your wills and are likely to thrust your selves into it or into other as deep errours you have heard say that zeale without knowledge is very dangerous and let me tell you further that the highest Heresies have risen from misguided zeal Arrius upon detestation of Gentilisme least he should seem to acknowledge more Gods then one by confessing a Co-equality of Christs Divinitie with his Father denied the same and Sabellius in detestation of Arrius fell into the other extreme and denyed the distinction of Persons And be your selves the Judges do not many of you measure what is good and holy by its opposition to the Constitutions of the Church of Rome accounting most perfect what is most opposite thereunto and that polluted which participateth in any thing with the same doe you not thinke your selves rightest when unlikest the Papists and nearest to Heaven when furthest from them though perhaps then you may be nearest to them in substance even when most opposite in Ceremony somwhat in this Book hath been discovered to this purpose but that is not the right rule to go by well consider I beseech you of what I have said unto you and desist from having any further hand against your King and from labouring the extirpation of that Government you were born under which to doe doubtlesse is a most heinous sinne if a man were borne in another Land where is a Government lesse perfect then ours is he ought not by any meanes to joyne in fighting for the destruction of it nor is our Posteritie so strictly bound by such strong engagements of Conscience to endeavour the restauration of this if by these violent and unlawfull courses it should be altered which God forbid as we are now to uphold and maintaine the same or to prevent the Change thereof Wherefore I beseech you all remember your selves think what you have alreadie done what you are in doing and stay your hands Object Perhaps some of you will say but we have taken an Oath a Covenant which our Preachers put us often in minde of to persevere in our way and not to forsake those men with whom we have entred into Association Answ. Master John Goodwin one of your Ministers doth enform you in his 12. Serious Considerations that to violate an abhominable and an accursed Oath out of Conscience to God is an holy and blessed Perjury Now therefore if I prove that your Oath and Covenant is abhominable and accursed then it will follow that as it was an high sinne to take it so is it an higher to keep the same and according to the Doctrine of one of your own Teachers an holy and blessed Perjury will
not likely to be quickned by such endeavours yet our duty is to have respect to after Ages to prevent that the spirits of Posterity be not stained with a false opinion of our King as doubtlesse they also are like to be by those Bookes and Libels of the enemy conveyed unto them unlesse as much or more of ours be left too to present him in his true character to their knowledge Without question we that are now alive shal never scape the censure of succeding Generations viz. to have been too basely sluggish and faint-heared if such transcendent villanies should be acted in our dayes against our King our Religion and so many of us and many of us should not be found to have layed open the enemies basenesse to their faces nay when they that come after us shall apply themselves to write the History of these our times how will they be able truly to depaint these superlative Hypocrites in their due colours if plenty of our Books be not extant to this purpose to hint the notice of their true conditions Let no man therefore plead that writing will do no good as if silence could doe more or had done any I know indeed that much hath been writ already more a great deal then hath or may be read for the enemie hath set forth many threats and orders against such as shall sell or buy the same and hereupon many are discouraged from writing more And perhaps too many have feared to Publish what they have further written lest they prove obstructers to a desired Peace and so doe dammage to the Publike in regard of the enemies height and greatnesse but sure these men know not the spirits of this kinde of enemies with whom we have to doe who are such as will neither know nor own the way of peace but having made themselves crooked wayes to walk in as the Prophet speaks have no judgement in their goings their condition is Satan-like to triumph most where least opposed and to be most vexatious where they have least occasion resist the Divell and he will flie so hold these at open defiance let them know you scorn and contemn them for all their greatnesse as vile persons set the glasse of Gods word before their eyes make them know themselves and let the World know them 't is the only way to make them calmer and to bring them into order whereas say nothing against them and they 'le proclaime that 't is because we have nothing to say and that our consciences tell us they are in the right and so we are silent against our wills Surely the best and most Christian charity that can be shewn them is to reach unto them the proper fruit of their own wayes to feed upon for could they be but fild with shame they might be brought to seeke God And suppose they turn again and rend us for our love and use us the worse for our endeavouring to make them better what new thing shall they doe did not the Pharisees even the same in their dealings with our Saviour and shall not they by doing so confirm more fully to the world that to be true which we have written of them should they chase us up and down the Kingdome with their bloud-hounds to destroy us would it not become them better to hunt fleas then to hunt Kings nor could it be to the advantage of them at all or of their cause but of the truth rather and of us if they should prevaile against us even to kill us upon this occasion that which we maintaine is not the first of Gods truths that hath been sealed with bloud some think that every of his commands at one time or other must be so confirmed and why may not the fifth Commandement at this time as well as the second was in the dayes of Queen Mary to every thing there is an appointed season Whosoever is in the streight and narrow way must look for oppositions and discouragements but faith which over-commeth the world is able to carry through all them Christ was opposed in all he did as much as possible he could be by man he met with contradictments in all his intendments and undertakings even from friends sometimes as well as enemies Master spare thy selfe sayes Peter to him the like must we expect if we follow him but should not this rather evidence the divinity and justice of our way unto our own consciences then be any case of damping to our spirits Non nobis nati sumus we are not our owne nor must we be men of private spirits specially in these times Nay we must take paines and be content not to see the fruit of our labours but that others should reape the benefit of our sowings when we are gone After the death of Christ and his Apostles their Doctrine and Writings did most good in the world and so perhaps may ours when we have ceased to be are no more seen God hath promised his blessing first or last to honest endeavours but we must tarry Gods time Wherefore you in the first place to whom God hath given inward abilities up and be doing with the same and be confident the Lord will be with you Remember how they that imployed their gifts had more comfort at the reckoning day then he had who had hid his talent in a napkin You secondly that have outward strength be not backward to assist the weak in bringing to light unable births give none occasion to think or say those that had or look to have the greatest share in the Kings happinesse when the sun shines upon him are least regardfull of his Honour when the times are dark and cloudy You thirdly that refuse to further or countenance works of this nature I beseech you also doe but disdaine to hinder And you lastly who ere you be that look for salvation from the Lord rest your selves in him wait patiently for him fret not because of evill doers nor be you envious against the workers of iniquity for their present prosperity in their way they shall erelong be cut down like the grasse and wither as the green hearb be you in the fear of the Lord all the day long and be certain your expectation shall not be cut off He that testifieth these things saith surely I come I come quickly Amen even so come Lord Jesus The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all Amen The End The Contents of the chief particulars discoursed of in this Booke PREFACE The Reasons 1. Of the Authors undertaking this worke and at this time 2. Of his speciall zeale against the sins of this faction which he opposeth 3. Of his prayers for their persons 4. Of his former intentions to conceale his name Sect. I. OF the supposed Authors of the Libell Of the Authorizers thereof and their speciall Order How fit the same should be recalled A president propounded
of all those Sects and Heresies to the destruction of Christian Protestation Religion which by their crafty and violent seizing upon the Militia were but only let in to the Church May it please His Sacred Majesty and all His Loyall Subjects to remember when the Pope of Rome these mens Grandsire for however in words they disclaime kindred with Him yet are they wholly like Him in Conditions they tread in His steps observe His method end in all their undertakings when He I say after the fashion of these His Nephews had fraudulently forceably seized upon the Militia of His Soveraign the Emperour then did all Corruption and false Doctrine make entrance into that Church the light grew dim And when the Emperour afterward gave his Consent that the said Pope and his conclave formerly His Subjects should have that His power and Authority which at first indeed he laboured to recover againe unto himselfe settled in their hands then was all that wickednesse formerly but admitted confirmed and established and the faithfull Church became from thenceforth a very Harlot Let Story be observed and it will be found that the fall of the Empire the rise of the Pope-dome above it and the spring of Mahumatisme happened all about one time and the two last might be permitted of God for a punishment of the first For it is no small sinne for the Supream Magistrate to part with that depositum out of his hands which the Almighty hath intrusted solely with him Histories doe sufficiently testifie what extreame molestations the Emperour hath been put unto and what base affronts have been put upon him by his proud Subjects of Rome Since he gave his consent that the Militia of that City and Country should be settled in their Hands Himselfe is there now but vox non significativa He hath the Title of Roman Emperour and no more And such must be the condition of our King if he be not warned by the Emperours example He must be content to be only an unsignificant voice too in his own Kingdom yea and to be regulated in his expences if he have leave to live yet he shall be so ordered that he doe not live profusely or have wherewithall to dare to practice ought to their prejudice Yea and he must learne to hold the Stirrup too to kisse the Toe to bow the Knee to the Supremacy or Popes of the Lower House if they shall at any time please to frown upon him or to Vote him a Delinquent Well let but these things be seriously and with judgement thought upon by moderate men and then let reason speak whether it be fit that the King should yeild to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they would have him whether it be meet he should suffer the Sword to be carryed before the Gran Concilii rather then still before himselfe and should settle the Militia of the three Kingdomes in their hands which are good onely by their own Testimony But I have been perhaps too tedious in scanning the Reasons of this their second demand we come therefore to advise a little upon the third Proposition which say they concernes the Vindication of the Irish Rebells SECT XV. 1. Of their Vindicating the Irish Rebells How fully they have done it in one sense 2. And how glad should we be if themselves would go and do it in the other Their true intention in that demand opened TO Vindicate in the most vulgar acception is to Justifie and acquit from blame and if they take the word in that sense they have Vindicated them too sufficienly already and much more then hath become men of their Profession For as God by his Prophets tells Jerusalem that she had multiplyed her abominations more then her sisters Sodome and Samaria she had justified them in all which they had done in her going beyond them in wickednesse and that she was a Comfort to them so may it be said of these men they have multiplyed their transgressions more then their Brethren the Rebells of Ireland they have Justified them in what ere they have done they have been a Comfort to them Surely the Irish doings shall not be remembred in the day that the impieties of those of this Nation are reckoned up Did the Irishâ—ob â—ob kill and roste Christians So have these done did they burn Houses strip Men and Women naked scourge them and expose them to the wide world These have not been behinde in such doings did the Irish Rebell against their Soveraigne These have both overtaken and also gone beyond them in this sin for though nothing should cause men to Rebell yet to say the truth the Irish lived formerly under a more hard bondage which might provoke their corruptions whereas these Jesurun-like rebelled out of meere wantonnesse Nor did those Irish execute their savage Cruelty as was noted before on those of their own nation and Religion as these English have done they did not defile their own Churches nor kill and abuse their own Priests but these have delighted to prophane and destroy those places where themselves had formerly met to worship God and have offered most speciall despight to the Ministers of their own Religion who baptized them and preached Gods truth unto them Besides the Religion which the Irish Rebells professe is not so directly opposite to such barbarous Cruelties which they have committed as is that which these of England pretend unto nor have they been so bold as those to entitle God unto all their outrages they think they need a pardon both from God and the King for their inhumanityes and Rebellions whereas these stand upon their Justification and have often despised the Kings mercy when tendered to them nor have they in Ireland persecuted and pursued the Kings Sacred person they have not reviled nor railed upon him as these have done Never any such reproachfull Libell as this which we oppose doe we read was sent abroad by the Rebells of Ireland against their Soveraign nor yet did we hear that ever those Irish took so solemn a Protestation at the beginning of their Parliament as these English did to maintain the Kings person Honour and Estate In a word Those Irish are not so impudent as these hard-fore-headed English are as to call them Rebells and Traitours who according to their Oath of Allegeance and Protestation do labour to maintain the Kings life and right against them but they yeeld themselves to be or to have been in a Rebellion Wherefore who will not say that the English Rebells have out gone the Irish and by committing evils in a more abominable way have even Justified those their Brethren as Jerusalem did her sisters Sodome and Samaria And yet as if all this were nothing these good men desire to be still Vindicating the Irish Rebells and would have the Militia of the three Kingdomes settled in their own good hands to the same purpose But perhaps by Vindication these mean punishment and revenge