government of Church and state into what mold they pleased and ingrosse the chiefest offices to themselves And from these imaginary invisible dangers proceeded these visible calamities and grinding palpable pressures which hath accompanied this odious Warre ever since Peregrin Herein methinks your statists have shewne themselves politique enough but not so prudent honest for Prudence Policy though they often agree in the end yet they differ in election of the meanes to compasse their ends The one serves himself of truth strength of Reason integrity and gallantnesse in their proceedings the other of fictions fraudulence lies and other sinister meanes the work of the one is lasting and permanent the others worke moulders away and ends in infamy at last for fraud and frost alwaies end foule But how did they requite that most rare and high unexampled trust his Majesty reposed in them when he before passed that fatall Act of continuance a greater trust then ever English King put in Parliament How did they performe their solemn promise and deepe Protestations to make him the most glorious at home and abroad the richest and best belovedst King that ever raigned in that Island Patricius Herein I must confesse they held very ill correspondence with him for the more he trusted them the more diffident they grew of him and truly Sir herein white differs not so much from black as their actions have been disconsonant to their words Touching the first promise to make him glorious if to suffer a neighbouring Nation the Scot to demand and obtain what they pleased of him if to break capitulations of peace with a great forrein Prince the French King by the renvoy of the Capuchins and divers other Acts if to bring the dregs and riffraffe of the City to domineere before his Court-gate notwithstanding his Proclamations of repressing them if to confront him and seek his life by fire and sword in open field by open desiance and putting him upon a defensive war if to vote his Queen a Traytresse to shoot at her to way-lay her to destroy her if to hinder the reading of his Proclamations and the sleighting of his Declarations enclosed in Letters sign'd and seal'd with his own hand for fear they shold bring the people to their wits again if to call them fetters of gold divellish devises fraught with doctrines of division reall mistakes absurd suppositions though ther never dropt from Princes pen more full more rationall and strong sinewy expressions if to suffer every shallow-brain'd Scolist to preach every Pamphletter to print every rotten-hearted man or woman to prate what they please of him and his Queen if to sleight his often acknowledgment condissentions retractions pronunciations of Peace and proffers of Pardon if to endeavour to bring him to a kind of servile submission if to bar him of the attendance of his Domestiques to abuse and imprison his messengers to hang his servants for obeying his Commission if to prefer the safety and repute of five ordinary men before the honour of their King and being actually impeach'd of Treason to bring them in a kind of triumph to his House if for subjects to Article Treat and Capitulate with him if to tamper with his Conscience and make him forget the solemn sacramentall oath he took at his Coronation if to devest him of all regall rights to take from him the election of his servants and officers and bring him back to a kind of minority if this be to make a King glorious our King is made glorious enough Touching the second promise to make him the richest King that ever was if to denude him of his native rights to declare that he hath no property in any thing but by way of trust not so much property as an Elective King if to take away his customs of inheritance if to take from him his Exchequer and Mint if to thrust him out of his own Towns to suffer a lowsie Citizen to lie in his beds within his Royall Castle of Windsor when he himself would have come thither to lodg if to enforce him to a defensive war and cause him to engage his Jewells and Plate and so plunge him in a bottomlesse gulph of debt for his necessary defence if to anticipate his revenue royall and reduce him to such exigents that he hath scarce the subsistence of an ordinary Gentleman if this be to make a rich King then is our King made sufficiently rich Concerning their third promise to make him the best belovedst King that ever was if to cast all the aspersions that possibly could be devised upon his Government by publique elaborat remonstrances if to suffer and give Texts to the strongest lung'd Pulpiteers to poyson the hearts of his subjects to intoxicat their brains with fumes of forg'd jealousies to possesse them with an opinion that he is a Papist in his heart and consequently hath a design to introduce Popery if to sleight his words his promises his Asseverations Oaths and Protestations when he calls heaven and earth to witnesse when he desires no blessing otherwise to fall upon himself his wife and children with other pathetick deep-fetcht expressions that wold have made the meanest of those millions of Christians which are his vassals to be believed if to protect Delinquents and proclaim'd Traytors against him if to suscitate authorise and encourage all sorts of subjects to heave up their hands against him and levy armes to emancepate themselves from that naturall allegiance loyalty and subjection wherein they and their fore-fathers were ever tyed to his Royall Progenitors if to make them swear and damn themselves into a rebellion if this be to make a King beloved then this Parliament hath made King Charles the best beloved King that ever was in England Peregrin I cannot compare this Rebellion in England more properly then to that in this Kingdom in King Iohn's time which in our French Chronicle beares to this day the infamous name of Iaquerie de Beauvoisin The Peasans then out of a surfeit of plenty had grown up to that height of insolency that they confronted the Noblesse and Gentry they gathered in multitudes and put themselves in armes to suppresse or rather extinguish them and this popular tumult never ceased till Charles le Sage debell'd it and it made the Kings of France more puissant ever since for it much increased their Finances in regard that those extraordinary taxes which the people imposed upon themselves for the support of the war hath continued ever since a firm revenue to the Crown which makes me think of a facecious speech of the late Henry the Great to them of Orleans for wheras a new imposition was laid upon the Townsmen during the league by Monsieur de la Chastre who was a great stickler in those wars they petitioned Henry the fourth that he wold be pleased to take off that taxe the King asked them Who had laid that taxe upon them they said Monsieur de la Chastre during
highly magnified in some of your publick Speeches who were at first brought in for Hirelings against the King for them offer themselves now to come in against them for the King Your Lordship cannot be ignorant of the sundry clashes that have bin 'twixt the City and their Memberships and 'twixt their Memberships and their men of War or Military Officers who have often wav'd and disobeyed their commands How this tatterdimallian Army hath reduc'd this cow'd City the cheated Country and their once all-commanding Masters to a perfect passe of slavery to a tru Asinin condition They crow over all the ancient Nobility and Gentry of the Kindom though ther be not found amongst them all but two Knights and 't is well known ther be hundreds of privat Gentlemen in the Kingdom the poorest of whom is able to buy this whole Host with the Generall himself and all the Commanders But 't is not the first time that the Kings and Nobility of England have bin baffled by petty companions I have read of Iack Straw Wat Tyler and Ket the Tanner with divers others that did so but being suppressed it tended to the advantage of the King at last and what a world of examples are ther in our story that those Noblemen who banded against the Crown the revenge of heaven ever found them out early or late at last These with a black cloud of reciprocall judgments more which have come home to these Reformers very doors shew that the hand of divine justice is in 't and the holy Prophet tells us When Gods judgments are upon earth then the inhabitants shall learn justice Touching your Lordship in particular you have not under favour escap'd without some already and I wish more may not follow your Lordship may remember you lost one Son at Bridgenorth your dear Daughter at Oxford your Son-in-Law at Newbury your Daughter-in-Law at the Charter-house of an infamous disease how sick your Eldest son hath bin how part of your house was burnt in the Country with others which I will not now mention I will conclude this point with an observation of the most monstrous number of Witches that have swarm'd since these Wars against the King more I dare say then have bin in this Island since the Devil tempted Eve for in two Counties only viz. Suffolk and Essex ther have bin near upon three hundred arraign'd and eightscore executed as I have it from the Clerks of the Peace of those Counties what a barbarous devilish office one had under colour of examination to torment poor silly women with watchings pinchings and other artifices to find them for Witches How others call'd spirits by a new invention of villany were conniv'd at for seizing upon young children and 〈◊〉 them on shipboard where having their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were so transform'd that their 〈◊〉 could not know them and so were carryed over for new schismaticall Plantations to New-England and other Seminaries of Rebellion My Lord ther is no villany that can enter into the imagination of man hath bin left here uncommitted no crime from the highest Treason to the meanest Trespasse but these Reformers are guilty of What horrid acts of prophanes have bin perpetrated up and down the Monuments of the dead have bin rifled Horses have bin watered at the Church Font and fed upon the holy Table Widows Orphans and Hospitals have bin commonly robb'd and Gods House hath bin plunder'd more then any with what infandous blasphemies have Pulpits rung one crying out that this Parliament was as necessary for our Reformation as the comming of Christ was for our Redempâ—…ion Another belching out that if God Almighty did not prosper this Cause 't were fitting he shold change places with the Devil Another that the worst thing our Savoour did was the making of the Dominical prayer and saving the Thief upon the Crosse. O immortal God is it possible that England shold produce such Monsters or rather such infernal fiends shap'd with humane bodies yet your Lordship sides with these men though they be enemies to the Cross to the Church and to the very name of Iesus Christ I 'le instance only in two who were esteem'd the Oracles of this holy Reformation Petrs and Saltmarsh The first is known by thousands to be an infamous jugling and scandalous villaine among other feats he got the Mother and Daughter with Child as it was offered to be publickly proved I could speak much of the other but being dead let it suffice that he dyed mad and desperate yet these were accounted the two Apostles of the times My Lord 't is high time for you to recollect your self to enter into the private closet of your thoughts and summon them all to counsel upon your pillow consider well the slavish condition your dear Country is in weigh well the sad case your liege Lord and Master is in how he is bereav'd of his Queen His Children His Servants His Liberty His Chaplains and of every thing in which there is any comfort observe well how neverthelesse God Almighty works in Him by inspiring Him with equality and calmnesse of mind with patience prudence and constancy How Hee makes His very Crosses to stoop unto Him when His Subjects will not Consider the monstrousnesse of the Propositions that are tendred him wherein no lesse then Crown Scepter and Sword which are things in-alienable from Majesty are in effect demanded nay they would have him transmit and resign his very intellectuals unto them not only so but they would have him make a sacrifice of his soul by forcing him to violate that solemne sacramentall Oath hee took at his Coronation when hee was no Minor but come to a full maturity of reason and judgement make it your own case My Lord and that 's the best way to judge of His Think upon the multiplicity of solemne astringing Oathes your Lordship hath taken most whereof directly and solely enjoyne faith and loyalty to his Person oh my Lord wrong not your soule so much in comparison of whom your body is but a rag of rottennesse Consider that acts of loyalty to the Crown are the fairest columns to bear up a Noblemans name to future ages and register it in the temple of immortality Reconcile your self therefore speedily unto your liege Lord and Master think upon the infinit private obligations you have had both to Sire and Son The Father kiss'd you often kisse you now the Sun lest he be too angry And Kings you will find my Lord are like the Sun in the heavens which may be clouded for a time yet he is still in his sphear and will break out againe and shine as gloriously as ever Let me tell your Lordship that the people begin to grow extream weary of their Physitians they find the remedy to be far worse then their former disease nay they stick not to call some of them meer Quacksalvers rather then Physitians Some goe further say they are no more a Parliament then a Pye-powder
every foure and twenty houres I am also the Fountaine of Heate and Light which though I use to dispence and diffuse in equall proportions through the whole Universe yet there is difference 'twixt objects a Castle hath more of my light then a Cottage and the Cedar hath more of me then the Shrub according to the common axiom Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipâ—…entis But touching the Moon the second great Luminary I would have you know that she is dearest unto mee therefore let none repine that I cherish her with my beams and confer more light on her then any other Touching the malignant Planets or any other Star of what magnitude soever that moves not in a regular motion or hath run any excentrick exorbitant course or that would have made me to move out of the Zodiak I put them over unto you that upon due legall examination and proof they may be unspher'd or extinguished But I would have this done with moderation I would have you to keep as neer as you can between the Tropiques and temperate Zones I would have things reduced to their true Principles I wold have things reformed not ruin'd I would have the spirit of malice and lying the spirit of partiality and injustice the spirit of tyranny and rigour the base spirit of feare and jealousie to be farre from this glorious Syderean Synod I would have all private interests reflecting upon revenge or profit to be utterly banished hence Moreover I would not have you to make grievances where no grievances are or dangers where no dangers are I would have no creation of dangers I would have you to husband time as parsimoniously as you can lest by keeping too long together and amusing the world with such tedious hopes of redress of grievances you prove your self the greatest grievance at last and so from Starrs become Comets Lastly I would have you be cautious how you tamper with my Soveraign power and chop Logicke with mee in that point you know what became of Him who once presumed to meddle with my Chariot Hereupon the whole Host of Heaven being constellated thus into one great Body fell into a serious deliberation of things and Apollo himself continued his presence and sate often amongst them in his full lustre but in the meane time whilest they were in the midst of their consultations many odde Aspects Oppositions and Conjunctions hapned between them for some of the Sporades but specially those mongrel small vulgar stars which make up the Galaxia the milkie way in Heaven gather in a tumultuous disorderly manner about the body of Apollo and commit many strange insolencies which caused Apollo taking young Phosphorus the Morning-Star with him to retire himself and in a just indignation to withdraw his Light from the Synod so all began to be involv'd in a strange kind of confusion and obscurity they groaped in the dark not knowing which way to move or what course to take all things went Cancer-like retrograde because the Sun detained his wonted light and irradiations from them MORALL Such as the Sun is in the Firmament a Monarch is in his Kingdom for as the Wisest of men saith In the light of the Kings Countenance ther is life and I believe that to be the Morall of this Astrean Fable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR The Great Councell of BIRDS UPon a time the Birds met in Councell for redresse of som extravagancies that had flown unto the volatill Empire Nor was it the first time that Birds met thus for the Phrygian Fabler tells us of divers meetings of theirs And after him we read that Apollonius Thyaneus undertook the interpretation of their language and to be their Drogoman They thus assembled in one Great Covie by the call of the Eagle their unquestioned hereditary King and by vertue of his Royal Authority complaints were brought that divers Cormorants and Harpies with other Birds of prey had got in amongst them who did much annoy and invade the publick liberty sundry other Birds were questioned which caused some to take a timely flight into another aire As they were thus consulting for advancement of the common good many Rooks Horn-Owles and Sea-Gulls flock'd together and â—…luttered about the place they were assembled in where they kept a hideous noise and committed many outrages and nothing cold satisfie them but the Griffons head which was therfore chopt off and offered up as a sacrifice to make them leave their chattering and to appease their fury for the time They fell foul afterwards upon the Pies who were used to be much reverenced and to sit upon the highest pearch in that great Assembly they called them I dolatrous and inauspitious Birds they hated their mix'd colour repined at their long train they tore their white feathers and were ready to peck out their very eyes they did what they could to put them in Owles feathers as the poor Sheep was in the Woolfs skin to make them the more hated and to be star'd and hooted at whersoever they passed The Pies being thus scar'd presented a Petition to the royall Eagle and to this his great Counsell that they might be secured to repaire safely thither to sit and consult according to the ancient Lawes of the Volatill Empire continued so many ages without controllment or question in which Petition they inserted a Protest or Caveat that no publique act shold passe in the interim This Supplication both for matter and form was excepted against and cryed up to be high Treason specially that indefinite Protest they had made that no Act whatsoever shold be of any validity without them which was alledged to derogate from the High Law-making power of that Great Counsell and tended to retard and disturb the great Affaires which were then in agitation so the poor Pies as if by that Petition they had like the Black-bird voided Lime to catch themselves according to the Proverb Turdus cacat sibi malum were suddenly hurryed away into a Cage and after ten long Moneths canvassing of the point they were unpearch'd and rendered for ever uncapable to be Members of that Court they were struck dumb and voice-less and suddenly as it were blown up away thence though without any force of powder as once was plotted aginst them But this was done when a thin number of the adverse Birds had kept still together and stuck close against them and also after that the Bill concerning them had bin once ejected which they humbly conceived by the ancient order of that Court could not be re-admitted in the same Session They Petitioned from the place they were cooped in that for heavens sake for the honour of that noble Counsell for Truth and Justice sake they â—…eing as free-born Denisons of the aiery Region as any other Volatills whatsoever their charge might be perfected that so they might be brought to a legall triall and not forced to languish in such captivity They pleaded to have
Understanding also what base sinister use ther was made of this insurrection by som trayterous malevolent persons who to cast aspersions upon His Majesty and to poyson the hearts of his people besides publick infamous reports counterfeited certain Commissions in His Majesties name to authorize the businesse as if he were privy to it though I dare pawn my soul His or Her Majesty knew no more of it then the great Mogor did Finding also that the Commissioners imployed hence for the managing and composing matters in that Kingdom though nominated by the Parliament and by their recommendation authorized by His Majesty did not observe their instructions and yet were conniv'd at Understanding also what an inhumane design ther was between them and the Scot in lieu of suppressing an insurrection to eradicat and extinguish a whole nation to make booty of their lands which hopes the London Adventurers did hugge and began to divide the Bears-skin before he was taken as His Majesty told them an attempt the Spaniard nor any other Christian State ever intended against the worst of Savages The conceit wherof inâ—…used such a desperate courage eagerness and valour into the Irish that it made them turn necessity into a kind of vertu Moreover His Majesty taking notice that those royal Subsidies with other vast contributions wherunto he had given way with the sums of particular Adventurers amongst whom som Aliens Hollanders were taken in besides the Scot to share the Country were misapplyed being visibly imployed rather to feed an English Rebellion then to suppress an Irish Nay understanding that those charitable collections which were made for the reliefe of those distressed Protestants who being stripped of all their livelihood in Ireland were forced to fly over to England were converted to other uses and the Charity not dispensed according to the Givers intention Hearing also that those 5000. men which had been levyed and assigned to goe under the Lord Wharton the Lord of Kerry Sir Faithfull Fortescue and others were diverted from going to the west of Ireland and imployed to make up the Earl of Essex Army And having notice besides that the Earl of Warwicke had stayd certaine ships going thither with supplies and that there was an attempt to send for over to England some of those Scottish Forces which were in Ulster without his privity Lastly His Majesty finding himself unfitted and indeed disabled to reach those his distressed Subjects his owne royal armie all his navall strength revenues and magazines being out of his hands and having as hard a game to play still with the Scot and as pernicious a fire to quench in England as any of his Progenitors ever had Receiving intelligence also daily from his Protestant Nobility and Gentry thence in what a desperate case the whole Kingdome stood together with the report of the Committee that attended His Majesty from them expresly for that service who amongst other deplorable passages in their petition represented That all means by which comfort and life should be conveyed unto that gasping Kingdome seemed to be totally obstructed and that unlesse 〈◊〉 reliefe were afforded His loyall Subjectâ—… there must yeeld their fortunes for a prey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a sacrifice and their Religion for a 〈◊〉 to the mercilesse Rebels His Majesty as it was high time for 〈◊〉 taking into his Princely thoughts those wofull complainrs and cryes of his poore Subjects condescended at last to appoint some persons of honour to heare what the Irish could say for themselves as they had often petitioned and God forbid but the King of Ireland should receive his Subjects petitions as well as the King of Scotland But His Majesty being unsatisfied with what they propounded then the Lord Marquess of Ormond marched with considerable Forces against them and though he came off with honour yet no reliefe at all comming thither for many moneths after from the Parliament here who had undertaken the businesse and had received all the summes and subsidies with other unknown contributions to that end matters grew daily worse and worse To sum up all His Majesty receiving express and positive advice from his Lord Justices and Counsell of State ther that the whole Kingdom was upon point of utter perdition which was co-intimated the same time to the Parliament here by a special letter to the Speaker I say His Majesty finding that he had neither power of himself it being transmitted to others and that those Trustees did misapply that power and trust he had invested in them for the time to make good their undertaking for preservation of that his fruitfull Kingdome being impelled by all these forcible reasons His Majesty sent a commission to the Lord Marquesse of Ormond his Lievtenant Generall a most known sincere Protestant to hearken to a treaty according to their petition and if any thing was amisse in that treaty in poynt of honour as it shall appeare by comparing it with others there was none we know whom to thank For out of these premises also doth result this second conclusion That they who misapplied those moneys and mis imployed those men which were levyed with His Majesties royall assent for the reduction of Ireland They who set afoot that most sanguinary design of extirpating at least of enslaving a whole ancient Nation who were planted there by the hand of Providence from the beginning They who hindred His Majesties transfretation thither to take cognizance of his own affairs and expose the countenance of his own royall person for composing of things They They may be said to be the true causes of that unavoydable necessity and as the heathen Poetsings The Gods themselvs cannot resist Necessity which enforced His Majesty to capitulat with the Irish and assent to a Cessation It was the saying of one of the bravest Roman Emperours and it was often used by Henry the Great of France Her Majesties Father That he had rather save the life of one loyall Subject then kill a hundred Enemies It may well be thought that one of the prevalentst inducements that moved His Majesty besides those formerly mentioned to condescend to this Irish Cessation was a sense he had of the effusion of his own poor Subjects blood the hazard of the utter extirpation of the Protestants there and a totall irrecoverable losse of that Kingdome as was advertised both in the petition of the Protestants themselves the relation of the Committee imployd thither to that purpose and the expresse letters of the Lords Justices and Counsell there To prove now that this Cessation of arms in Ireland was more honourable and fuller of Piety Prudence and Necessity then either the Pacification or Peace with the Scot. I hope these few ensuing arguments above divers others which cannot be inserted here in regard of the force intended brevity of this Discourse will serve the turne 1. In primis When the Pacification was made with Scotland His Majesty was there personally present attended on by the floure of His English Nobility
such as ev'ry one carrieth by his side or som imaginary thing or chymera of a sword No 't is the polemicall publique sword of the whole Kingdom 't is an aggregative compound sword and 't is moulded of bell-metall for 't is made up of all the ammunition and armes small and great of all the military strengths both by Land and Sea of all the Forts Castles and tenable places within and round about the whole I le The Kings of Engl. have had this sword by vertue of their royall signory from all times the Laws have girded it to their sides they have employed it for repeling all foren force for revenging all forren wrongs or affronts for quelling all intestine tumults and for protecting the weal of the whole body politicke at home The peeple were never capable of this sword the fundamentall constitutions of this Kingdom deny it them 't is all one to put the sword in a mad mans hand as in the peeples or for them to have a disposing power in whose hands it shall be Such was the case once of the French sword in that notorious insurrection call'd to this day La Iaqueris de Beauvoisin when the Pesants and Mechanicks had a design to wrest it out of the Kings hand and to depresse all the Peers and Gentry of the Kingdom and the businesse had gone so far that the peasans might have prevail'd had not the Prelats stuck close to the Nobility But afterwards poor hare brain'd things they desire the King upon bended knees to take it againe Such popular puffs have blowen often in Poland Naples and other places where while they sought and fought for liberty by retrenching the regall power they fool'd themselfs into a slavery unawares and found the rule right that excesse of freedom turns to thraldom and ushers in all confusions If one shold go back to the nonage of the world when Governers and Rulers began first one will find the peeple desir'd to live under Kings for their own advantage that they might be restrain'd from wild exorbitant liberty and kept in unity Now unity is as requisit for the wel-being of all naturall things as entity is for their being and 't is a receiv'd maxime in policy that nothing preserves Unity more exactly then Royal Government besides 't is known to be the noblest sort of sway In so much that by the Law of Nations if Subjects of equal degrees and under differing Princes shold meet the Subjects of a King shold take precedency of those under any Republique But to take up the Sword again I say that the Sword of public Power and Authority is fit only to hang at the Kings side and so indeed shold the Great Seal hang only at his girdle because 't is the Key of the Kingdom which makes me think of what I read of Charlemain how he had the imperial Seal emboss'd alwaies upon the pommell of his Sword and his reason was that he was ready to maintain whatsoever he signed and sealed The Civilians who are not in all points so great friends to Monarchy as the Common Law of England is say there are six Iura Regalia six Regal Rights viz. 1. Potestas Iudicatoria 2. Potestas vitae necis 3. Armamenta 4. Bona adespota 5. Census 6. Monetarum valor to wit Power of Iudicature Power of Life and Death all kind of arming masterless goods Sâ—…issements and the value of money Among these Regalia's we find that Arming which in effect is nought else but the Kings Sword is among the chiefest and 't is as proper and peculiar to his person as either Crown or Scepter By these two he drawes a loose voluntary love and opinion only from his Subjects but by the Sword he draws reverence and awe which are the chiefest ingredients of allegiance it being a maxime That the best mixture of Government is made of fear and love With this Sword he conferrs honor he dubbs Knights he creates Magistrates the Lord Deputy of Ireland the Lord Mayor of London with all other Corporations have their Swords from him and when he entereth any place corporate we know the first thing that is presented him is the Sword With this Sword he shields and preserves all his people that every one may sit quietly under his own Vine sleep securely in his own House and enjoy sweetly the fruits of his labours Nor doth the point of this Sword reach only to every corner of his own dominions but it extends beyond the seas to gard his Subjects from oppression and denial of justice as well as to vindicate the publick wrongs make good the interests of his Crown and to assist his confederates This is the Sword that Edward the third tied the Flower deluces unto which stick still unto it when having sent to France to demand that Crown by maternal right the Counsell ther sent him word that the Crown of France was not tied to a distaff to which scoffing answer he replied that then he wold tie it to his sword and he was as good as his word Nor is this publick sword concredited or intrusted by the peeple in a fiduciary conditionall way to the King but it is properly and peculiarly belonging unto him as an inseparable concomitant perpetual Usher and attendant to his Crown The King we know useth to maintain all garrisons upon his own charge not the peeples he fortifies upon his own charge not the peeples And though I will not averr that the King may impresse any of his Subjects unlesse it be upon an actuall vasion by Sea or a sudden irruption into his Kingdom by Land as the Scots have often done yet at any time the King may raise Volunteers and those who have received his money the Law makes it felony if they forsake his service Thus we see there 's nothing that conduceth more to the glory and indeed the very essence of a King then the Sword which is the Armes and Military strength of his Kingdom wherfore under favour ther cannot be a greater point of dishonour to a King then to be disarmed then to have his Sword taken from him or dispos'd of and intrusted to any but those whom he shall appoint for as à minori ad majus the Argument often holds if a private Gentleman chance to be disarm'd upon a quarrell 't is held the utmost of disgraces much greater and more public is the dishonor that falls upon a King if after som traverses of difference 'twixt him and his Subjects they shold offer to disarm him or demand his Sword of him when the Eagle parted with his talons and the Lion with his teeth and ongles the Apolog tells us how contemptible afterwards the one grew to be among Birds the other among Birds the other among Beasts For a King to part with the Sword politic is to render himself such a ridiculous King as that logg of wood was which Iupiter let down among the froggs for their King at the importunity of
their croaking 't is to make him a King of clouts or as the Spaniard hath it Rey de Havas a Bean King such as we use to choose in sport at Twelfnight But my hopes are that the two present Houses of Parliament for now they may be call'd so because they begin to parley with their King will be more tender of the honour of their Soveraign Liege Lord which together with all his Rights and Dignities by severall solemn Oaths aud by their own binding instruments of Protestation and Covenant not yet revok'd they are sworne to maintaine and that they will demand nothing of him which may favour of Aspertè or force but what may hold water hereafter But now touching the Militia or Sword of the Kingdom I think under favour the King cannot transfer it to any other for that were to desert the protection of his people which is point blank against his Coronation Oath and his Office What forren Prince or State will send either Ambassador Resident or Agent to him when they understand his Sword is taken from him What reformed forein Church will acknowledg Him Defendor of the Faith when they hear of this Nay they who wish England no good will will go near to paint him out as not long since another King was with a fair velvet Scabbard a specious golden hilt and chape but the blade within was of wood I hope that they who sway now will make better use of their successes Many of them know 't is as difficult a thing to use a victory well as to get one ther is as much prudence requir'd in the one as prowesse in the other they will be wiser sure then turn it to the dishonor of their King it being a certain rule that the glory of a Nation all the world over depends upon the glory of their King and if he be any way obscur'd the whole Kingdom is under an eclipse I have observed that among other characters of gallantry which forein Writers appropriat to the English Nation one is that they use to be most zealous to preserve the Honor of their King I trust that they who are now up will return to the steps of their Progenitors both in this particular and divers other that their successes may serve to sweeten and moderat things and suppress the popular Sword which still rages And it had bin heartily wished that a suspension of Arms had preceded this Treaty which useth to be the ordinary fore-runner and a necessary antecedent to all Treaties for while acts of hostility continue som ill-favour'd newes may intervene which may imbitter and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor can it be expected that the proceedings will go on with that candor and confidence while the old rancor is still in action 't is impossible a sore shold heal till the inflamation be taken away To cast water into a wound instead of oyle is not the way to cure it or to cast oyle upon a fire instead of water is not the way to quench it poor England hath had a consuming fire within her bowels many years she is also mortally wounded in all her members that she is still in a high Fever which hath made her rave and speak idle a long time and 't is like to turn to a Hectic if not timely prevented I pray God she may have no occasion to make use of the same complaint as Alexander the Great made when he was expiring his last Perii turba Medicorum too many Physitians have undon me To conclude in a word ther is but one only way under favor to put a period to all these fearful confusions it is to put the great Master-wheel in order and in its due place again and then all the inferior wheels will move regularly let the King be restor'd and ev'ry one will come to his own all interests will be satisfied all things quickly rectified till this be done 't is as absurd to attempt the setling of peace as if one shold go about to set a Watch by the gnomen of an horizontall Diall when the Sun is in a cloud I. H. AN ITALIAN PROSPECTIVE Through which GREAT BRITAIN Without any MULTIPLYING ART May cleerly See Her present DANGER And foresee Her future DESTRUCTION If not timely prevented Perditio tua ex Te Anglia Paraenesis Angliae O England specially thou besotted City of London if Thou be'st not quite past cure or grown careless and desperat of thy self if the least spark of Grace or ray of Reson be yet remaining in Thee be warn'd be warn'd by this stranger who having felt thy pulse and cast thy water very exactly discovers in Thee symptoms of inevitable Ruine if thou holdst on this cours Divers of thy own children oftentimes admonish'd Thee with tears in their eyes and terror in their hearts to recollect thy self and return to thy old road of obedience to thy Soverain Prince But They have bin little regarded Let a Foreiners advice then take place and make som impressions in Thee to prevent thy utter destruction From the prison of the Fleet 2. Aug. 1647. I. H. AN ACCOUNT OF THE Deplorable and Desperat condition THAT ENGLAND stands in Sent from LONDON Anno 1647. To the LORD FRANCISCO BARBERINI Cardinal of the most holy Apostolick See and Protector of the English Nation at his Palaces in Rome MY last to your Eminence was but short in regard I had been but a short time in this Countrey I have now made a longer sojourn here and taken a leisurely information of all matters therefore I shall give your Eminence an account proportionably For by conversation with the most indifferent and intelligenc'd men and by communication with the Ambassadors here resident I have taken some paines to pump out the truth of things and penetrat the Interest of all parties And truly I find that That angry star which hath lowr'd so long upon Europe in generall hath been as predominant and cast as direfull aspects upon this poor Iland as it hath done upon any other part Truly my Lord in all probability this peeple have pass'd the Meridian of their happinesse and begin to decline extreamly as well in Repute abroad as also in the common notions of Religion and indeed in the ordinary faculty of Reason I think verily the Ill Spirit never reign'd so much in any corner of the earth by those inhumane aud horrid things that I have observ'd among them Nor is it a petty Spirit but one of the greatest Cacodâ—…mons that thus drives them on and makes them so active in the pursuance of their own perdition To deduce matters from their Originall Your Eminency may please to understand that this King at his accesse to the Crown had deep debts to pay both of His Fathers and his own he was left ingaged in a fresh warre with Spain and had another presently after which France and both at one time but he came off well enough of those Afterwards never any Countrey flourished in that envied
as Prince For the Parlement-men afterwards made themselfs Land-Lords of the whole Kingdom it hath bin usual for them to thrust any out of his freehold to take his bed from under him and his shirt from off his very back The King being kept thus out of one of his Townes might suspect that he might be driven out of another therfore 't was time for him to look to the preservation of his Person and the Country came in voluntarily unto him by thousands to that purpose but he made choice of a few only to be his gard as the Parlementeers had done a good while before for themselfs But now they went otherwise to work for they fell a levying listing and arming men by whole Regiments and Brigades till they had a very considerable Army afoot before the King had one Musqueteer or Trooper on his side yet these men are so notoriously impudent as to make the King the first Aggressor of the war and to lay upon Him all the bloud that was split to this day wherein the Devil himself cannot be more shamelesse The Parliamenteers having an army of foot and horse thus in perfect Equipage 't was high time for the King to look to himself therefore he was forced to display his royal Standard and draw his sword quite out Thus a cruel and most cruentous civil war began which lasted near upon four years without intermission wherein there happen'd more batta les sieges and skirmishes then passed in the Nether-lands in fourscore years and herein the Englishmen may be said to get som credit abroad in the world that they have the same bloud running in their veines though not the same braines in their sculls which their Ancestors had who were observed to be the activest people in the field impatient of delay and most desirous of battaile then any Nation But it was one of the greatest miracles that ever happen'd in this Land how the King was able to subsist so long against the Parlamenteers considering the multiplicity of infinite advantages they had of him by water and land for they had the Scot the Sea and the City on their side touching the first he rushed in as an Auxiliary with above 20000. Horse and Foot compleatly furnish d both with small and great ammunition and Arms well cloth'd and money'd For the second they had all the Kings ships well appointed which are held to be the greatest security of the Island both for defence and offence for every one of them is accounted one of the moving Castles of the Kingdom besides they had all the other standing stone-Castles Forts and tenable places to boot Concerning the last viz. the City therein they had all the wealth bravery and prime ammunition of England this being the only Magazin of men and money Now if the K. had had but one of these on his side he had in all probability crush'd them to nothing yet did he bear up strangely against them a long time and might have done longer had he kept the campane and not spent the spirits of his men before Townes had he not made a disadvantagious election of som Commanders in chief and lastly had he not had close Traitors within dores as well as open Rebels without for his very Cabinet Councel and Bed-Chamber were not free of such vermin and herein the Parlementeers spent unknown sums and were very prodigal of the Kingdoms money The King after many traverses of war being reduced to a great strait by crosse successes and Counsels rather then to fall into the hands of the Parlementeers withdrew himself in a Serving-mans disguise to the Scots army as his last randevous and this plot was manag'd by the French Agent then residing here A man wold think that that Nation wold have deem'd it an eternal honour unto them to have their own King and Countrey-man throw himself thus into their armes and to repose such a singular trust in them upon such an Extremity but they corresponded not so well with him as he expected for though at first when the Parlamenteers sollicited their dear Brethren for a delivery of the Kings person unto them their note was then if any forein petty Prince had so put himself upon them they could not with honour deliver him much less their own native King yet they made a sacrifice of him at last for 800000. Crownes wherupon Bellieure the French Ambassador being convoyed by a Troop of horse from the King towards London to such a stand in lieu of larges to the souldiers he drew out an half Crown piece and ask'd them how many pence that was they answered 30. He replyed for so much did Iudas betray his Master and so he departed And now that in the cours of this Historical Narration I have touch'd upon France your Eminence may please to understand that nothing almost could tend more to the advantage of that K. then these commotions in England considering that he was embark'd in an actuall war with the House of Austria and that this Iland did do Spain some good offices among other by transport of his treasure to Dunkerk in English bottomes whereunto this King gave way and sometimes in his own Galeons which sav'd the Spaniard neer upon 20. in the hundred then if he had sent it by way of Genoa so that som think though France made semblance to resent the sad condition of her Neighbour and thereupon sent the Prince of Harcour and the foresaid Monsieur Bellieure to compose matters yet she never really intended it as being against her present interest and engagements yet the world thinks it much that she shold publiquely receive an Agent from these Parlamenteeres and that the French Nobility who were us'd to be the gallantest men in the world to vindicate the quarrels of distressed Ladies are not more sensible of the outrages that have bin offer'd a daughter of France specially of Henry the greats But to resume the threed of my Narration the King and with him one may say England also being thus bought and sold the Parlamenteers insteed of bringing him to Westminster which had put a Period to all distempers toss'd him up and downe to private houses and kept the former Army still afoot And truly I think there was never Prince so abus'd or poor peeple so baffled and no peeple but a purblind besotted peeple wold have suffred themselves to be so baffled for notwithstanding that no Enemy appeer'd in any corner of the Kingdome yet above 20000. Tagaroones have bin kept together ever since to grind the faces of the poor and exhaust the very vitall spirits of town and Countrey and keep them all in a perfect slavery Had the Parlament-men when the Scots were gone brought their King in a generous and frank way as had well becom'd Englishmen to sit among them and trusted to him which of necessity they must do at last as they had gain d more honor far in the world abroad so they had gain'd more
farther as the heavenly Bodies when three of them meet in Conjunction do use to produce some admirable effects in the Elementary World So when these three States convene and assemble in one solemne great Iunta some notable and extraordinary things are brought forth tending to the welfare of the whole Kingdom our Microcosme HE that is never so little versed in the Annals of this I le will find that it hath bin her fate to be four times conquered I exclude the Scot for the scituation of his Country and the Quality of the Clime hath been such an advantage and security to him that neither the Roman Eagles would fly thither for fear of freezing their wings nor any other Nation attempt the work These so many Conquests must needs bring with them many tumblings and tossings many disturbances and changes in Government yet I have observed that notwithstanding these tumblings it retained still the forme of a Monarchy and something there was always that had an Analogy with the great Assembly of Parlement The first Conquest I find was made by Claudius Caesar at which time as some well observe the Roman Ensignes and the Standard of Christ came in together It is well known what Lawes the Roman had He had his Comitia which bore a resemblance with our Convention in Parlement the place of their meeting was called Praetorum and the Laws which they enacted Plebiscita The Saxon Conquest succeeded next which were the English there being no name in Welsh or Irish for an English man but Saxon to this day They also governed by Parlement though it were under other names as Michel Sinoth Michel Gemote and Witenage Mote There are Records above a thousand years old of these Parlements in the Reigns of King Ina Offa Ethelbert and the rest of the seven Kings during the Heptarchy The British Kings also who retain'd a great while some part of the Isle unconquered governed and made Laws by a kind of Parlementary way witnesse the famous Laws of Prince Howell called Howell Dha the good Prince Howell whereof there are yet extant some British Records Parlements were also used after the Heptarchy by King Kenulphus Alphred and others witnesse that renowned Parliament held at Grately by King Athelstan The third Conquest was by the Danes and they govern'd also by such generall Assemblies as they do to this day witnesse that great and so much celebrated Parlement held by that mighty Monarch Canutus who was King of England Denmark Norway and other Regions 150 years before the compiling of Magna Charta and this the learned in the Laws do hold to be one of the specialst and most authentick peeces of antiquity we have extant Edward the Confessor made all his Laws thus and he was a great Legis-lator which the Norman Conquerour who liking none of his sons made God Almighty his heir by bequeathing unto him this Island for a legacy did ratifie and establish and digested them into one entire methodicall Systeme which being violated by Rufus who came to such a disastrous end as to be shot to death in lieu of a Buck for his sacriledges were restor'd by Henry the first and so they continued in force till King Iohn whose Reign is renowned for first confirming Magna Charta the foundation of our Liberties ever since which may be compar'd to divers outlandish graffes set upon one English stock or to a posie of sundry fragrant flowers for the choicest of the British the Roman Saxon Danish and Norman Laws being cull'd and pick'd out and gathered as it were into one bundle out of them the foresaid Grand Charter was extracted And the establishment of this great Charter was the work of a Parliament Nor are the Lawes of this Island only and the freedome of the Subject conserved by Parlement but all the best policed Countries of Europe have the like The Germanes have their Diets the Danes and Swedes their Rijcks Dachs the Spaniard calls his Parlement las Cortes and the French have or should have at least their Assembly of three States though it be growne now in a manner obsolete because the Authority thereof was by accident devolv'd to the King And very remarkable it is how this happened for when the English had taken such large footing in most parts of France having advanced as far as Orleans and driven their then King Charles the seventh to Bourges in Berry the Assembly of the three States in these pressures being not able to meet after the usuall manner in full Parlement because the Countrey was unpassable the Enemy having made such firme invasions up and down through the very bowels of the Kingdom That power which formerly was inhaerent in the Parlementary Assembly of making Laws of assessing the Subject with Taxes subsidiary levies and other impositions was transmitted to the King during the war which continueth many years that entrusted power by length of time grew as it were habitual in him and could never after be re-assumed and taken from him so that ever since his Edicts countervaile Acts of Parlement And that which made the businesse more feasable for the King was that the burthen fell most upon the Communalty the Clergy and Nobility not feeling the weight of it who were willing to see the Peasan pull'd down a little because not many years before in that notable Rebellion call'd la jaquerie de Beauvoisin which was suppressed by Charles the wise the Common people put themselves boldly in Arms against the Nobility and Gentry to lessen their power Adde hereunto as an advantage to the work that the next succeeding King Lewis the eleventh was a close cunning Prince and could well tell how to play his game and draw water to his own mill For amongst all the rest he was said to be the first that put the Kings of France Hors de page out of their minority or from being Pages any more though therby he brought the poor peasans to be worse than Lacquays and they may thank themselfs for it Neverthelesse as that King hath an advantage hereby one way to Monarchize more absolutely and never to want money but to ballast his purse when he will so ther is another mighty inconvenience ariseth to him and his whole Kingdom another way for this peeling of the Peasan hath so dejected him and cowed his native courage so much by the sense of poverty which brings along with it a narrownesse of 〈◊〉 that he is little usefull for the war which put 's the French King to make other Nations mercenary to him to fill up his Infantery Insomuch that the Kingdom of France may be not unfitly compared to a body that hath all it's bloud drawn up into the arms breast and back and scarce any leâ—…t from the girdle downwards to cherish and bear up the lower parts and keep them from starving All this seriously considered ther cannot be a more proper and pregnant example than this of our next Neighbours to prove how infinitly necessary
one of their Election And lastly he trusted them with his greatest strength of all with his Navie Royall and call'd home Pennington who had the guard of the narrow Seas so many yeares Peregrin Truly Sir I never remember to have heard or read of such notable acts of grace and confidence from any King but would not all this suffice Patricius No But they demanded all the Land Souldiery and military strength of the Kingdome to be disposed of by them and to be put into what posture and in what Equipage and under what Commanders they pleas'd And this was the first thing his Majesty ever denyed them yet he would have granted them this also for a limited time but that would not serve the turn Hereupon his Majesty grew a little sensible how they inch'd every day more and more upon his Royall Prerogatives And intending to go to his Town of Hull to see his Magazin which he had bought with his own money with his ordinary train he was in a hostile manner kept out Canons mounted Pistols cockt and leveld at him But whether that unlucky Knight Hotham did this out of his fidelity to the Parl. or out of an apprehension of feare that some about the King being mov'd with the barbarousnesse of the action would have pistold him I will not determine Peregrin I have read of divers affronts of this kinde that were offerd to the French Kings Rochell shut her gates more than once against Henry the Great and for the King now regnant they did not only shut him out of many of his Towns but upon the gates of some of them they writ in legible Characters Roy san Foy ville sans peur a faithlesse King a fearlesse Towne Yet in the greatest heat of those warres there was never any Towne refus'd to let in her King provided he came attended onely with his own traine and besides other people abroad I heard the Scot's nation did abhor that Act at Hull But I pray Sir go on Patricius His Majesty being thus shut out of one Towne he might justly suspect that an attempt might be made to shut him in in some other Therefore he made a motion to the Yorke-shire Gentlemen to have a gard for the preservation of his Person which was done accordingly But I am come to forward I must go backe and tell you how the King was driven from Westminster When His Majesty was return'd from Scotland he retir'd to Hampton Court whence upon the Lord Majors and the Cities humble solliciâ—…ation he came back to White-hal to keep his Christmas But when the Bill against Bishops was in agitation which businesse â—…asted neer upon ten weekes a crue of bold â—…turdie mechanicks and mariners came â—…rom the Citie and ruffled before White-hall and Westminster-hall and would have violated the Abby of Westminster so that for many â—…ights a Court of gard was forced to be kept â—…n the body of that Church the chiefest Sanctuary of the Kingdom Moreover His Majesty having impeached some of the Members of both Houses of High Treason and being denied to have them delivered up he went himself to the Lower House to demand them assuring the House they should have as faire and legall a triall as ever men had But as it pleas'd God they were not there but retir'd to London for refuge The Londoners grew starke wilde thereupon and notice being sent to all the adjacent Counties this act of the Kings though it wanted no precedents of former times was aggravated in the highest degree that possibly could be Hence you may easily inferre what small securitie his Majesty had at White-hall and what indignities he might have exposed himself unto by that which had pass'd already from the Rabble who had vilified and cried tush at his proclamations and disgorg'd other rebellious speeches with impunity therefore he retird to Hampton Court as we read our Saviour withdrew himselfe once from the multitude thence to Windsor Castle whence accompanying her Majesty with his eldest daughter to the sea side for Holland and having commanded the Prince to attend him against his return at Greenwich the Prince had been surpriz'd and brought to London had not the King come a little before Thence he removed to Yorke where he kept his Court all the Sommer But to returne to London the very next day after their Majesties departure the Countrey about especially Buckinghamshire being incited by the Câ—…tie and Parliament came in great swarmes and joyning with the London mechanicks they ruffled up and down the streets and kept such a racket making the fearfull'st riot that ever I beleeve was heard of in Parliament time so those Members which formerly were fled into the Citie were brought to the House in a kind of triumph being garded by land and water in warlike manner by these Champions After this sundry troops of horse came from all the shires near adjoyning to â—…he Parliament and Buckingham men were â—…he first who while they express'd their â—…ve to Hamden their Knight forgot their â—…worn oath to their King and in stead of feathers they carried a printed Protestation in â—…heir hats as the Londoners had done a litâ—…le before upon the Pikes point Peregrin This kept a foul noise beyond Sea I reâ—…ember so that upon the Rialto in Venice â—…t was sung up and down that a Midsummer Moon though it was then midst of Winter did raign amongst the English and you must â—…hink that it hath made the Venetian to â—…hrink in his shoulders and to look but ill-favouredly upon us since wee 'l have none of his currans But Sir I heard much of that Protestation I pray what was the substance of it Patricius It was penn'd and enjoyn'd by the Parâ—…iament for every one to take and it consisted of many parts the first was to maintain the tru Potestant Religion against all Popish innovations which word Popish as som think was scrued in of purpose for a loop hole to let in any other innovation the second was to maintain the Prerogative anâ—… Honour of the King then the power and priviledge of Parliament and lastly the Propriety and Liberty of the subject for threâ—… parts of this Protestation the people up anâ—… down seem'd to have utterly forgotteâ—… them and continue so still as if their consciences had bin tied only to the third viz the priviledge of Parliament and never was ther a poor people so besotted never waâ—… reason and common sence so baffled in anâ—… part of the world And now will I go to attend His Majesty at York where as I told you before being loth to part with his Sword though he had half parted with his Scepter before by denying the Parliament an indefinite time to dispose of the Militia alleadging that as the Word so the thing was new He sends forth his Commissions of Array according to the old Law of England which declares iâ—… to be the undoubted Right and Royall Signorie of the King to arm or disarm any
in the intervall Then after other choice portions of Scripture and passages relating to our Redemption and endearing unto us the merits of it with a more particular Confession of our Faith we are dismissed with a Benediction So that this Liturgy may be call'd an Instrument of many strings whereon the sighing soul sends up varions notes unto heaven It is a posie made up of divers flowers to make it the more fragrant in the nostrills of God Now touching your Bishops I never knew yet any Protestant Church but could be content to have them had they meanes to maintaine the Dignitie which the Churches of France with others have not in regerd the Reformation beg an first among the people not at Court as here it did in Engl. For unlesse ther be som Supervisers of Gods house endowed with eminent authority to check the fond fancies and quench the false fatuous fires of every private spirit and unlesse it be such an authority that may draw unto it a holy kind of awe and obedience what can be expected but confusion and Atheisme You know what became of the Israelites when the wonted reverence to the Ark and the Ephod and the Priest began to languish amongst them For the braine of man is like a garden which unlesse it be fenced about with a wall or hedge is subject you know to be annoyed by all kinde of beasts which will be ready to runne into it so the braine unlesse it be restrain'd and bounded in holy things by rules of Canonicall authoritie a thousand wild opinions and extravagant fancies will hourely rush into it nor was there ever any field so subject to produce Cockle and Darnell as the human brain is rank and ready to bring forth tares of Schism and Heresie of a thousand sorts unlesse after the first culture the sickle of Authority be applyed to grub up all such noisom weeds Patricius Yet this most antient dignity of Bishops is traduced and vilified by every shallow-pated petty Clerk and not so much out of a tru zeal as out of envy that they are not the like And touching our Liturgy wherof you have bin pleas'd to give so exact a Character people are come to that height of impiety that in som places it hath bin drown'd in other places burnt in som places torn in pieces to serve for the basest uses nay it hath bin preached publickly in Pulpits That it is a piece forg'd in the devils shop and yet the impious foul mouth'd Babbler never was so much as questioned for it Nor did the Church only eccho with these blasphemies but the Presse was as pregnant to produce every day som Monster either against Ecclesiasticall or Secular Government I am asham'd to tell you how som bold Pamphleters in a discourse of a sheet or two wold presume to question to dispute of and determin the extent of Monarchik jurisdiction what sturdy doubts what sawcy Quaeries they put what odd frivolous distinctions they fâ—…am'd That the King though he was Gods Anointed yet he was mans appointed That he had the commanding not the disposing power That he was set to rule over not to over-rule the people That he was King by human choice not by divine Charter That he was not King by the Grace of God so much as by the suffrage of the people That he was a Creaturâ—… and production of the Parliament That he had no implicit trust nor peculiar property in any thing That populus est potior Rege That Grex lege lex est Rege potentior That the King was singulis major universis minor wheras a successive Monarch Uno minor est Iove Sometimes they wold bring instances from the States of Holland sometimes from the Republick of Venice and apply them so impertinently to absolute and independant Royalty But I find that the discourse and inferences of these grand Statists were bottom'd upon four false foundations viz. That the King of whom they speak must be either a Minor and Idiot an insufferable Tyrant or that the Kingdom they mean is Elective None of all which is appliable either to our most gracious and excellently qualified King or to his renowned Kingdom which hath bin always reputed an ancient successive Monarchy govern'd by one Suprem undeposeable and independent head having the Dignity the Royall State and power of an Imperiall Crown and being responsible to none â—…ut to God Almighty and his own 〈◊〉 â—…or his actions and unto whom a Body â—…olitick compacted of Prelates 〈◊〉 and all degrees of people is naturally subject but this is a theam of that transcendenâ—…y that it requires a serious and solid Tractat rather then such a slender Discourse as this is to handle But I pray excuse me Sir that I have stept aside thus from the road of my main narration I told you before how the clashing 'twixt the Commission of Array and the Militia put all things in disarray throughout the whole Kingdom The Parliament as they had taken the first Military gard so they began to arm first and was it not high time then for His Majesty to do some thing think you yet he essayed by all ways imaginable to prevent a war and to conquer by a passive fortitude by cunctation and longanimity How many overtures for an accommodation did he make How many Proclamations of pardon How many elaborat Declarations breathing nothing but clemency sweetness and truth did drop from his own imperious invincible pen which will remain upon Record to all ages as so many Monuments to his eternall glory Yet som ill spirit stept still in between his Grace and the abused Subject for by the peremptory Order of Parliament O monstrous thing the said Proclamations of Grace and other His Majesties Declarations were prohibited to be read fearing that the strength and truth of them wold have had a vertue to unblind or rather unbewitcht for Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft the poor besotted people What deep Protestations and holy Vowes did he reiterate that the main of his designs was to preserve the tru Protestant Religion the known Lawes of the Land and the just priviledges of Parliament How often did he dehort and woo the City of London his imperiall Chamber from such violent courses so that she may be justly upbraided with the same words as the Prince of peace upbraided Ierusalem withall London London How often wold I have gathered thee as a â—…en doth her chickens under her wings yet thou wouldst not How often did he descend to acknowledg the manner of demanding the one and five Members in his publick Remonstrances and if ther was an errour in the proceedings how oft did he desire his Great Councell to direct him in a course how to go on in the Empeachment which they never did but wold reserve the priviledge to themselves to be judge and party Peregrin Can your Parliament protect high Treason I am sure the character of an Ambassadour cannot which the late French Ambassadour who
bloud in open field one brother seeks to cut the others throat they have put division 'twixt master and servant 'twixt Land Lord and Tenant nay they have a long time put a sea of separation 'twixt King and Queen and they labour more and more to put division 'twixt the Head and the Members 'twixt His Majesty and his politicall Spouse his Kingdom And lastly they have plung'd one of the flourishingst Kingdoms of Europe in a war without end for though a Peace may be plaister'd over for the time I fear it will be but like a fire cover'd with ashes which will break out again as long as these fiery Schismaticks have any strength in this Island so that all the premisses considered if Turk or Tartar or all the infernal spirits and Cacodaemons of hel had broken in amongst us they could not have done poor England more mischief Sir I pray you excuse this homely imperfect relation I have a thousand things more to impart unto you when we may breathe freer air for here we are come to that slavery that one is in danger to have his very thoughts plundered Therfore if you please to accept of my company I will over with you by Gods help so soon as it may stand with your conveniency but you must not discover me to be an Englishman abroad for so I may be jeer'd at and kickt in the streets I will go under another name and am fix'd in this resolution never to breathe English aire again untill the King recovers his Crown and the People the right use of their Pericraniums THE SECOND PART OF A DISCOURSE ' TWIXT PATRICIUS AND PEREGRIN TOUCHING The DISTEMPERS OF THE TIMES LONDON Printed in the Year 1661. A DISCOURS or PARLY Continued betwixt Patricius and Peregrin Upon their landing in France touching the civil Wars of England and Ireland Peregrin GEntle Sir you are happily arrived on this shore we are now upon firm ground upon the fair Continent of France we are not circumscrib'd or coopt up within the narrow bounds of a rhumatick Island we have all Europe before us Truly I am not a little glad to have shaken hands with that tumbling Element the Sea And for England I never intend to see her again in the mind I am in unlesse it be in a Map nay In statu quo nunc while this Faction reigns had I left one eye behind me I should hardly returne thither to fetch it therefore if I be missing at any time never look for me there There is an old Proverb From a blacke German a white Italian a red Frenchman I may adde one member more and from a Round-headed Englishman The Lord deliver us I have often Crossed these Seas and I found my self alwaies pitifully sick I did ever and anon tell what Wood the Ship was made of but in this passage I did not feele the least motion or distemper in my humors for indeed I had no time to taink on sicknesse I was so wholly tsken up and transported with such a pleasing conceit to have left yonder miserable Island Peregrin Miserable Island indeed for I thinke there was never such a tyrannie exercised in any Christian Countrey under Heaven a tyrannie that extends not onely to the body but to the braine also not only to mens fortunes and estates but it reaches to their very soules and consciences by violented new coercive Oaths and Protestations compos'd by Lay-men inconsistent with the liberty of Christians Never was there a Nation carried away by such a strong spirit of delusion never was there a poor people so purblinded and Puppified if I may say so as I finde them to be so that I am at a stand with my selfe whether I shall pitie them more or laugh at them They not onely kisse the stone that hurts them but the hands of them that hurle it they are come to that passive stupidity that they adore their very persecutors who from polling fall now a shaving them and will flay them at last if they continue this popular reigne I cannot compare England as the case stands with her more properly then to a poor beast sicke of the staggers who cannot be cur'd without an incision The Astronomers I remember affirme that the Moone which predominates over all humid bodies hath a more powerfull influence o're your British Seas then any other so that according to the observation of some Nevigators they swell at a spring tide in some places above threescore cubits high I am of opinion that that inconstant humorous Planet hath also an extraordinany dominion over the braines of the Inhabitants for when they attempt any Innovation whereunto all Insulary people are more subject then other Citizens of the world which are fixed upon the Continent they swell higher their fancies worke stronglier and so commit stranger extravagancies then any other witnesse these monstrous barbarismes and violencies which have bin and are daily offered to Religion and justâ—…ce the two grand supporters of all States yea to humane Reason it self since the beginning of these tumults And now noble Sir give me leave to render you my humble thanks for that true and solid information you pleased to give me in London of these commotions During my short sojourne there I lighted on divers odde Pamphlets upon the Seamstresses stalls whom I wondred to see selling Paper sheets in lieu of Holland on the one side I found the most impudent untruths vouch'd by publike authority the basest scurrilities and poorest jingles of wit that ever I read in my life on the other side I met with many pieces that had good stuff in them but gave mee not being a stranger a full satisfaction they look'd no further then the beginning of this Parliament and the particular emergences thereof but you have by your methodicall relation so perfectly instructed and rectified my understanding by bringing me to the very source of these distempers and led me all along the side of the current by so streight a line that I believe whosoever will venture upon the most intricate task of penning the story of these vertiginous times will finde himself not a little beholden to that Relation which indeed may be term'd a short Chronicle rather then a Relation Wee are come now under another clime and here we may mingle words and vent our conceptions more securely it being as matters stand in your Countrey more safe to speake under the Lilly then the Rose wee may here take in and put out freer ayre I meane we may discourse with more liberty for words are nought els but aire articulated and coagulated as it were into letters and syllables Patricius Sir I deserve not these high expressions of your favourable censure touching that poor piece but this I will be bold to say That whosoever doth read it impartially will discover in the Author the Genius of an honest Patriot and a Gentleman And now methinks I look on you unfortunate Island as if one look upon a
protestation when opportunity of time and place shall be offered CHARLES par la Providence de Dieu Roy de la grand ' Bretagne de France et d' Irlande Defenseur de la Foy c. A tous ceux qui ceste presente Declaration verront particulierement a Ceux de la Religion Reformee de quelque Nation degreou condition qu'ils soient Salut AYant receu advis de bonne main que plusieurs faux rapports lettres sont esparses parmi les Eglises Reformees de là la mer par la politique ou plustost la pernicieuse industrie de personnes mal affectionnes a nostre government que nous auons dessein a receder de celle Religion que Nous auons professè pratiquè tout le temps de nostre vie iusques a present de vouloir introduire la papautè derechef en nos Dominions Laquelle conjecture ou calumnie plustost appuyee sur nul fundement imaginable a suscitè ces horribles tumultes allumè le feu d' une tressanglante guerre en tous les quatre coins de ceste fleurissante Monarchie soubs pretexte d' une chymerique Reformation la quelle seroit incompatible avec le governement les loix fondementales de ce Royaume Nous Desiâ—…ons quil soit notoire a tout le monde que la moindre pensee de ce faire nâ—… a pas entree en nostre imagination de departir ancunement de cell ' Orthodoxe Religion qu' auec la Couronne le sceptre de ce Royaume Nous sommes tenus par un serment solennel sacramentaire a proteger defendre Ce qu' appert non seulement par nostre quotidienne presence es Exercies de la dite Religion avec tanâ—… d' asseverations a la teste de nos Armees la publicque Attestation de nos Barons avec le soin que nous tenons en la nourrituredes princes princesses nos ensans Mais le tres-heureux mariage que nous avons conclu entre la nostre plus aisnee le tres-illustrie prince d' Orenge en est encore un tres-evident tesmoignage par la quell ' alliance il appert aussy que nostre desir est de n' en faire pas vne nue profession seulement dicelle mais de la vouloir estendre corroberer autant qu' il nous est possible Cest ' Orthodoxe Religion de leglise Anglicane Ordonnee par tant de conventione de Teologues confirmee par tant de arrests d' Parlement fortifie par tant d' Edicts royaux auec la discipline la Lyturgiâ—… a elle appartenant laquelle discipline Lyturgie les plus celebres Autheurs Protestants tant Francois qu' Allemands tant Seudois que Suisses tant Belgiens que Bohemiens approuent entierement non sans quelqu envie en leur escrits particulierement en la Synode de Dort ou un de nos Euesques assistoit la Reverence precedence deue a sa dignite Ecclesiâ—…stique luy fut exactement rendue Ceste tres-sainte Religion que nostre feu pere de â—…res-heureuse memoire aduoue en sa celebre Confession de la Foy addressee come nous faisons ceste Declaration a tous Princes Chrestiens Nous Protestons que moyennant la grace de Dieu nous tascherone de conseruer ceste Religion inviolable en son entier selon la mesure de puissance que Dieu amis entre nos mains Et nous requerons commandons a tous nos ministres d' estat tant Ambassadeurs que Residens Agens ou messagers a tous autres nos subjects qui fontleurseiour es paysestrangers de communiquer maintenir adouuer cestenostre solennelle Protestation toutes fois quantes que l' ocasion se presentera APOLOGS OR FABLES MYTHOLOGIZ'D Out of whose Moralls the State and History of the late unhappy Distractions in Great Britain and Ireland may be Extracted Some of which Apologs have prov'd PROPHETICAL Nil est nisi Fabula Mundus LONDON Printed in the Year 1661. To my Honored and known friend Sir I. C. Knight SIR AMongst many other Barbarismes which like an impetuous Torrent have lately rush'd in upon us The interception and opening of Letters is none of the least For it hath quite bereft all ingenious Spirits of that correspondency and sweet communication of fancy which hath bin alwaies esteemed the best fuel of affection and the very marrow of friendship And truly in my judgement this custom may be termed not only a Barbarisme but the baâ—…est kind of Burglary that can be 't is a plundering of the very brain as is spoken in another place We are reduced here to that servile condition or rather to such a height of slavery that we have nothing left which may entitle us free Rationall creatures the thought it self cannot say 't is free much less the tongue or pen. Which makes me impart unto You the traverses of these turbulent times under the following fables I know you are an exquisite Astronomer I know the deep inspection you have in all parts of Philosophy I know you are a good Herald and I have found in your Library sundry books of Architecture and Comments upon Vitruvius The unfolding of these Apologues will put you to it in all these and will require your second if not your third thoughts and when you have concocted them well I believe else I am much deceived in your Genius they will afford you som entertainment and do the errand upon which they are sent which is to communicate unto you the most material passages of this long'd-for Parlement and of these sad confusions which have so unhing'd distorted transvers'd tumbled and dislocated all things that England may be termed now in comparison of what it was no other then an Anagram of a Kingdom One thing I promise you in the perusal of these Parables that you shall find no gingles in them or any thing sordid or scurrilous the common dialect and disease of these times So I leave you to the gard and guidance Of God and Vertu who do still advance Their Favorits maugre the frownes of Chance Your constant servant I. H. The great CONJUNCTION OR Parlement of STARS UPon a time the Stars complained to Apollo that he displayed his beams too much upon some malignant Planets That the Moone had too great a share of his influence and that he was carryed away too much by her motion They complained also that the constellation of Libra which holds the ballance of Justice had but a dim light and that the Astrean Court was grown altogether destructive with divers other grievances Apollo hereupon commanded Mercury to summon a generall Synod where some out of every Asterisme throughout the whole Firmament were to meet Apollo told them I am placed here by the finger of the Almighty to be Monarch of the skie to be the Measurer of Time and I goe upon his errand round about the worlâ—…
him poorer then the meanest of all his vassals they have made him to have no propriety in house goods or Lands or as one may say in his wife and children 'T was usual for the father to hunt in his Park while the son hunted for his life in the field for the wife 〈◊〉 lie in his bedds while the husband layed wait to murther him abroad they have seiz'd upon and sold his privat Hangings anâ—… Plate yea his very Cabinets Jewels Pictures Statues and Books Nor are they the honorablest sort of peeple and men nobly extracted as in Scotland that do all this for then it were not so much to be wondred at but they are the meanest sort of Subjects many of them illiterat Mechaniques wherof the lower House is full specially the subordinat Committees who domineer more o're Nobles and Gentry then the Parliament Members themselfs their Masters use to do Touching those few Peers that sit now voting in the upper House they may be said to be but meer Cyphers they are grown so degenerat as to suffer the Commons to give them the Law to ride upon their backs and do most things without them Ther be many thousand Petitions that have bin recommended by these Lords to the lower House which are scornfully thrown into corners and never read their Messengers have us'd to dance attendance divers hours and days before they were vouchsafed to be let in or heard to the eternal dishonour of those Peers and yet poor spirited things they resent it not The Commons now command all and though as I am inform'd they are summon'd thither by the Kings Original Writ but to consent to what the King and his Great Counsel of Peers which is the tru Court of Parlement shall resolve upon The Commons I say are now from Consenters become the chiefest Counsellors yea Controulers of all nay som of this lower House fly so high as to term themselfs Conquerors and though in all conferences with the Lords they stand bare before them yet by a new way of mix'd Committees they carry themselfs as Collegues These are the men that now have the vogue and they have made their Priviledges so big swoln that they seem to have quite swallowed up both the Kings Prerogatives and those of the Lords These are the Grandees and Sages of the times though most of them have but crack'd braines and crazy fortunes God wot Nay som of them are such arrand Knaves and coxcombs that 't is questionable whether they more want common honesty or common sense nor know no more what belongs to tru policy then the left leg of a joynt-stool They are grown so high a tiptoes that they seem to scorn an Act of Amnestia or any grace from their King wheras som of them deserve to be hang'd as oft as they have haires upon their heads nor have they any more care of the common good of England then they have of Lapland so they may secure their own persons and continue their Power now Authority is sweet though it be in Hell Thus my Lord is England now govern'd so that 't is an easie thing to take a prospect of her ruine if she goes on this pace The Scot is now the swaying man who is the third time struck into her bowels with a numerous Army They say he hath vow'd never to return till he hath put the Crown on the Kings head the Sceptâ—…r in his hand and the sword by his side if he do so it will be the best thing that ever he did though som think that he will never be able to do England as much good as he hath done her hurt He hath extremely out-witted the English of late years And they who were the causers of his first and last coming in I hold to be the most pernicious Enemies that ever this Nation had for t is probable that Germany viz. Ponterland and Breme will be sooner free of the Swed then England of the Scot who will stick close unto him like a bur that he cannot shake him off He is becom already Master of the Englishmans soul by imposing a Religion upon him and he may hereafter be master of his body Your Eminence knows there is a periodicall fate hangs over all Kingdoms after such a revolution of time and rotation of fortunes wheele the cours of the world hath bin for one Nation like so many nailes to thrust out another But for this Nation I observe by conference with divers of the saddest and best weighdst men among them that the same presages foretell their ruine as did the Israelites of old which was a murmuring against their Governors It is a long time that both Iudges Bishops and privy Counsellors have bin mutter'd at whereof the first shold be the oracles of the Law the other of the Gospell the last of State-affaires and that our judgments shold acquiesce upon theirs Here as I am inform'd 't was common for evry ignorant client to arraign his Iudg for evry puny Curat to censure the Bishop for evry shallow-brain home-bred fellow to descant upon the results of the Councell Table and this spirit of contradiction and contumacy hath bin a long time fomenting in the minds of this peeple infus'd into them principally by the Puritanicall Faction Touching the second of the three aforesaid I mean Bishops they are grown so odious principally for their large demeanes among this peeple as the Templers were of old and one may say it is a just judgment fallen upon them for they were most busy in demolishing Convents and Monasteries as these are in destroying Cathedralls and Ministers But above all it hath bin observ'd that this peeple hath bin a long time rotten-hearted towards the splendor of the Court the glory of their King and the old establish'd Government of the land 'T is true there were a few small leakes sprung in the great vessel of the Stâ—…te and what vessel was ever so â—…ite but was subject to leakes but these wise-akers in stopping of one have made a hundred Yet if this Kings raign were parallell'd to that of Queen Elizabeth's who was the greatest Minion of a peeple that ever was one will find that she stretch'd the Prerogative much further In her time as I have read in the Latin Legend of her life som had their hands cut off for only writing against her matching with the Duke of Aniou others were hang'd at Tyburn for traducing her government she pardon'd thrice as many Roman Priests as this King did she pass'd divers Monopolies she kept an Agent at Rome she sent her Sergeant at Armes to pluck out a Member then sitting in the House of Commons by the eares and clapt him in prison she call'd them sawcy fellowes to meddle with her Prerogative or with the government of her houshold she mannag'd all forren affaires specially the warrs with Ireland soly by her privy Counsell yet there was no murmuring at her raign and the reason I conceave to be
was the cause he was pitched upon the fewd continued long for among others a Northern King took advantage to rush in who did a world of mischiefs but in a few yeers that King and Hee found their graves in their own ruins neer upon the same time but now may heaven have due thanks for it there is a peace concluded a peace which hath bin 14. long yeers a moulding and will I hope be shortly put in execution yet 't is with this fatall disadvantage that the said Northern people besides a masse of ready money we are to give them are to have firme footing and a warm nest ever in this Countrey hereafter so that I fear we shall hear from them too often upon these words this noble personage fetch'd a deep sigh but in such a generous manner that he seem'd to break and check it before it came halfe forth Thence my soul taking her flight o're divers huge and horrid cacuminous mountaines the Alpes at last I found my self in a great populous Town Naples but her buildings were miserably battered up and down she had a world of Palaces Castles Convents and goodly Churches as I stepped out of curiosity into one of them upon the West side there was a huge Grate where a creature all in white beckned at me making my approach to the Grate I found her to be a Nun a lovely creature she was for I could not distinguish which was whiter her hue or her habit which made me remember though in a dream my self that saying If Dreams and wishes had been tru there had not been found a tru maid to make a Nun of ever since a Cloyster'd life began first among women I asked her the reason how so many ugly devastations shold befall so beautifull a City she in a dolorous gentle tone and ruthfull accents the teares trickling down her cheeks like so many pearles such pearly teares that wold have dissolv'd a Diamond sobb'd out unto me this speech Gentle Sir 't is far beyond any expressions of mine and indeed beyond humane imagination to conceive the late calamities which have befallen this faire though infortunat City a pernicious popular Rebellion broke out here upon a sudden into most horrid barbarismes a Fate that hangs over most rich popular places that swim in luxe and plenty but touching the grounds thereof one may say that rebellion entred into this City as sin first entred into the world by an apple For our King now in his great extremities having almost halfe the world banding against him and putting but a small tax upon a basket of fruit to last only for a time this fruit-tax did put the peeples teeth so on edge that it made them gnash against the Government and rush into Armes but they are sensible now of their own follies for I think never any place suffered more in so short a time the civill combustions abroad in other Kingdomes may be said to be but small squibs compar'd to those horrid flakes of fire which have rag'd here and much adoe we had to keep our Vest all fire free from the fury of it in lesse then the revolution of a yeer it consum'd above fourscore thousand soules within the walls of this City But 't is not the first time of forty that this luxurious foolish peeple hath smarted for their insurrections and insolencies and that this mad horse hath o'rethrown his Rider and drawn a worse upon his back who instead of a saddle put a pack-saddle and Panniers upon him but indeed the voluptuousnesse of this peeple was grown ripe for the judgement of heaven She was then beginning to expostulat with me about the state of my Country and I had a mighty mind to satisfie her for I could have corresponded with her in the reâ—…ation of as strange things but the Lady Aâ—…adesse calling her away she departed in an â—…nstant obedience seem'd to be ther so precise and punctual I steer'd my course thence through a most delicious Country to another City that lay in the very bosom of the Sea Venice she was at first nothing els but a kind of posie made up of dainty green Hillocks tied together by above 400. bridges and so coagulated into a curious City though she be espous'd to Neptune very solemnly once evry â—…eer yet she still reserves her maydenhead â—…ad bears the title of the Virgin City in that part of the world But I found her tugging mainly with a huge Giant that wold ravish her He hath shrewdly set on her skirts and a great shame it is that she is not now assisted by her Neighbours and that they shold be together by the ears when they shold do so necessary a work considering how that great Giant is their common Enemy and hath lately vow'd seven yeers wars against her specially considering that if he comes once to ravish her he will quickly ruin her said Neighbours She to her high honor be it spoken being their only rampart against the incursion of the said Giant and by consequence their greatest security From this Maiden City mee thought I was in a trice carried over a long gulf and so through a Midland Sea into another Kingdom Spain where I felt the Clime hotter by some Degrees a rough-hew'n soile for the most part it was full of craggy barren hills but where there were valleys and water enough the country was extraordinarily fruitful whereby nature it seems made her a compensation for the sterility of the rest Yet notwithstanding the hardship of the soyl I found her full of Abbeys Monasteries Hermitages Convents Churches and other places of devotion as I rov'd there a while I encountred a grave man in a long black cloak by the fashion whereof and by the brimms of his hat I perceived him to be a Iesuit I clos'd with him and question'd him about that Country He told me the King of that Country was the greatest Potentat of that part of the world and to draw power to a greater unity they of our Order could be well contented that he were universall Head over Temporalls because 't is most probable to be effected by him as we have already one universall Head over Spiritualls This is the Monark of the Mines I mean of Gold and Silver who furnishes all the world but most of all his own enemies with mony which mony foments all the wars in this part of the world Never did any earthly monark thrive so much in so short a tract of time But of late yeers he hath been ill-favouredly shaken by the revolt and utter defection of two sorts of Subjects who are now in actual arms against him on both sides of him at his own doors Ther hath bin also a long deadly feud 'twixt the next tramontan Kingdom France and him though the Q. that rules there be his own sister an unnaturall odious thing But it seems God Almighty hath a quarrel of late yeers with all earthly Potentats for in so short a time