should have questioned him for his life And to sound King Charles his heart it is probable King Charles was in his heart a Papist by the Queens perswasion and her mother for after going from the Parliament he sent Pardons for divers Priests condemned who ingeniously finding this would make a rupture 'twixt King and Parliament the Prisoners petitioned the Houses sending the Pardons to the House and desired rather then there should be a breach between them to suffer death for which prudence the Parliament would not let them die In both these kings times swearing was in such esteem principally from king Iames his example cursing the People with all the plagues of Egypt though king Charles granted twelve pence an Oath through the Kingdome to Robin Lashly which was observed more to get money then suppress swearing for such a negligence was in the Magistrates seeing the great Courtiers garnished their mouthes with God-dammees as if they desired Damnation rather then Salvation Bribery the nurse of Justice was so rife in those days that right was not distributed to the owner a vice augmented by Knights of the Post very frequent in City and Country And Lawyers would take sees and never plead for their Clients and sometimes on both sides insomuch as in a Suit depending 'twixt my self and my Son we gave fees to one and the fame person Wherefore on these times God hath brought on us a lamentable war Now let all the world behold how king Charles violated the rights of Parliaments coming into the House with great power to carry away the five members To prove how great a breach of priviledge of Parliament this was the Author hereof wrote a discourse against it affixing his hand it being taken in his Waggon at Banbury by the kings party for which he was condemned to die by Sir Robert Heath and his Estate given away I will not repeat how much he hath suffered for being faithful to Parliaments both afore since the access of this onely I will rehearse that being taken Prisoner by the Cavaliers he lost four hundred pounds in money apparel waggon and fourty horses and likewise in Wiltshire at Broad Choak in houshold-stuff four hundred pounds which was carried into Langford after a Garrison taken by Colonel Ludlow for the Parliament which he had never restored although he often petitioned Another wrong long since he had when Sir Robert Heath had inclosed two thousand acres of Common as Lord of Soham one named Anne Dobbs was kept with bread and wain Cambridge Castle by a Justice of Peace a Creature of Sir Roberts to confess the Author of this Discourse counselled her with others to pull down the Enclosure taken from the Common by that means to take away his life as a Rebel when it was well known he had no hand in it but then was sitting in Parliament as a member By this it appeares the king chose good Judges and Justices which were so corrupt The reason was that the Author being condemned he might forfeit a Mannor next adjacent This Justice of Peace was a mortal enemy of his Sir Robert Heath having bought four hundred pound a yeer of the Justice where the accused was Lord that Sir Robert might beg it of the king And if we examine the king of Denmark brother of Queen Anne the first time he was entertained into England what debauchedness was exercised in his welcome to king Iames to add punishment to the family who both were so drunk at Theobalds as our king was carried in the armes of the Courtiers when one cheated another of the Bed-chamber for getting a grant from king James for that he would give him the best Jewel in England for a Jewel of a hundred pound he promised him and so put king Iames in his arms and carryed him to his lodging and defrauded the Bed-chamber-man who had much ado to get the king into his Bed And Denmark was so disguised as he would have lain with the Countess of Nottingham making horns in derision at her husband the high Admiral of England which caused a deep discontent between them And generally the Courtiers were then so debauched in that beastly sin as at that time in the wayters chamber at supper a Courtier was found dead on the Table the wine foaming out of his mouth a horrid sight to behold And it is worthy of observation to consider the carriage of the king of Denmark and his Son usually in his own Country for at my being there I saw the old king as his custome was to call for the Master of his houshold when he made a voyage or progress wrote on a Pastboard what he should doe and so took the waggon to go to his Boares houses and eat Martlemas Beef powdred pork bacon or such like as they had ready and after repast took for a collation the handsomest daughter kinswoman or servant in the house al her kindred adorning her with all sorts of wearing ornaments whom the King carried to one of his Guest-houses where he had not above three or four Lodgings and a Kitchen and solaced himself with this jewel so long as he pleased and after brought her home A fruition made her in much esteem with her friends after so adulterous a fact Likewise it was the custome of his Son to ride on a Sled drawn with horses bells fastned to them which tingled as he passed through the Townes the noise caused the women to run out of doors the Prince beholding one more amiable then the rest beckning to her with his finger presently she came to the Sled and accompanied him to some Hostery till he had satisfied fully his lust Also their usual course is to prophane the Sabbath in such sort as all the Carpenters in the Kingdom that day work gratis to make the Kings ships and the people go to Church in their worst cloaths making no difference 'twixt the Lords day and other daies who in stead of Godly exercises use much prophaness Give me leave to repeat that this King ordinarily would be drunk and namely one time Sir Iohn Peoly being his Servant after an Inhabiter at Wroungay in Norfolk he commanded Pooly to ask any gift to the value of half his Kingdome and he should have it But he finding his Master so beastly out of tune demanded a great pair of Stags hornes for which after so moderate a request the king bestowed on him three thousand Dollars Is it not known to all Germany that his drinking out of reason with his Commanders lost many battels to the Emperous General Wallestine which proved a disaster to the united Protestant Princes so that he was faine to submit to the Emperour with much loss and disgrace to the prejudice of the cause of God In which war his brother king Iames proved a Coward to back a religious cause for he would not raise men nor money yet the Parliament incited and urged him thereto to whom he made this answer He would
not give so bad an example to support his Son-in-law against the Emperour Whereas the Laws of the Empire were If the Emperour did unjustly the seven Electors might depose him for certainly the joyning of Bohemia with the Count Palatine of Rhine might have been a chief prop to support the Protestant party which by Denmarks fault and King Iames his wilfulness the Emperour got the Mastery of though after God raised Gustavus Adolchus King of Sweden to turn the scales to the united Princes side yet in conclusion the Swedes have sought more their owne interest then Gods Behold if we examine Queen Mary she cannot cleare her reputation with Harry Jermine for if king Charles had not been so blinded it had been discovered long ago and she punished or divorced but the king being guilty of the same crime winked at it which made him purblind and count it a venial sin as the Papists terms them but swallowed the mortal yet urged by an Earl much with him if he would not believe the unsutable behaviour between the Queen and Jermine if he would go into her Chamber he might be satisfied and behold Jermine sitting upon the bed with the Queen so the King and the Lord went in and found her and Jermine in that posture The King presently more ashamed of the act then blaming her departed without speaking a word yet for all this the queen was very jealous of the King insomuch as he loving a very great Lady now alive whom he had for a mistress to the intent he might have more freedome with her sent her Lord into the Low-countries in the mean while daily courts her at Oxford in her husbands and the queens absence but the Lord returning the King diverted his affectionate thoughts to another marryed Lady of whom the queen was jealous at her return from France so that on a time this Lady being in queen Maries presence and dressed a la mode the queen viewing her round told the Lady she would be a better Mistris for a king then a wife for a knight The Lady replyed Madam I had rather be Mistris to a King then any mans wife in the world For which answer she was constrained to absent her self from Court a long time Now as all men and their affaires are subject to mutation by a heavenly providence punishing sinners for sin the wheel turns greatness from top to bottome of which I have given you a notable Lantskip in the fraile condition of the Imperiall family of the Stuarts who raised to a glittering glory by the succession of many kings are now tumbled from the mount of ambition and highest authority over three kingdomes at last reduced not to be Lord of a visible molehill whose heat of fiery pride hath consumed into ashes of ruine their felicity Let us mark the shipwrack of those who will not vaile the sailes of Tyranny and oppression they shall not avoid a tempest of Gods anger for precipitation In this revolution God had a special hand who when he determined to bring this family to destruction accomplisheth it not only by poor and weak means but by his mightiest thunderbolts of vengeance This truth manifesteth it self perspicuously in this Tragical History who have made the flourishing condition of three kingdoms stumble by advancing and giving ear to corrupt instruments of State placed at the helm who wept not for our common calamity but in the tears of inferiours and therefore I demonstrate that never shall justice be so well done as by Parliamentary proceedings to settle this Commonwealth upon a pious basis where they proceed in justice to banish oppression that property may fall into the right channel and holy men advanced and rewarded and wicked punished to the end that the people may be lulled asleep in the cradle of ease and tranquillity so shall love of Governors be in such estimation as body and purse may be at command for fear poysons a Nation with distrust and hatred the first makes firme and stable the foundation of any State the last brings it by insensible steps to fal and moulder away like a crazie building Provided alwayes until the State have a perfect cure there may be armed Chirurgeons to cut off the gangren'd part which might putrifie the head resembled to wise Counsellors who will preserve the whole body so they endeavour that taxes be moderated as the temper of the pulse and health shall appear And therefore I beseech you give me leave to turn my pen out of the Road with a counsel from my heart not impertinent to my dear countrymen to profit by the storm past reduced by Gods providence to a calme to make a pious use of his great miraculous deliverance I being a man can speak by experience who hath been most justly worryed by the hand of the Almighty for sins therefore let them consider that The chidings of a friend are better than the kiss of an enemy a proverb of Solomon which if we shall confide in we may be stiled children converted to good if not may be accounted despisers of the rod which maxime I illustrate the truth of by the Grecian Alcibiades by how much his banishment was more cruel by the Athenian Ostracisme by so much more his qualities and worth were esteemed The skill of the Mariner is not at all observed in a calme but in a Tempest the wise Ulysses had perished if he had not been in danger of ruine pleasures blunt and strangle piety when adversity moulds the will and humors to a by as of fearing God inclines us to know our selves and understand the end of Creation and birth to the glory of God and good of our Country we are not born for our selves Our eyes are closed with delights open in chastisements in the one sin draws more punishment in the other we see clearly our aberrations as spots in a glass We are here on a Theatre for every one to play his part the tragical seems more difficult by hatred envy and jealousie the slaves of Reason yet in truth are banished in troubles when God loves the afflicted better who as a Soveraigne resembleth the Ocean which receives that it gives to the end the revenging justice of heaven turn not wrath against them but the Divel enemy of repose inchants us in Luxury when affliction imitates nature by degrees from a little to more and from more proceeds to a humane perfection in piety I heartily desire you take this advice above a humane the command of God Be subject to the higher powers for they are of God Wherefore I beseech you respect those set at the Helme whom God hath made instruments of our happiness for naturally we are hooded and cannot see that God hath done miraculous works look not upon them as men but as Gods instruments to execute his will brought out of the shop of his Almighty work-house to accomplish his determination and are not to be laid aside till by Gods appointment they
the Queen with his voice made her think there was no happiness but in his approach into her Cabinet a place wherein she continually resided but from thence the Lord Darnel was banished above nine months divorced from her in joy although he sought divers means in vaine At last for a medicine to remedy his discontent one Dowglas administred Physick for his cure to amove Ritsoe from the Queen and put the Lord her husband into her armes So violent was the Ingredience that Ritsoe was taken from this Princess by twelve arrived Lords and their retinue who put her into the Lords armes killing Ritsoe laid his dead body on the same trunk was his bed the first night he arrived to the Queens service But there was much adoe afore this Tragedy was acted To understand this better this Dowglas an Agent for the twelve banished Lords out of Scotland to return could not effect it unless the Lord Darnel undertook the accomplishment upon the former condition to dispatch Ritsoe from Court But they being jealous of Darnels promise not fixt in other Puntilio's would not believe him till pricking his fingers he wrote an assurance under his hand with blood in a paper really to effect it which was acted when the Queen leaned on Ritsoes shoulder at the game of Primero with the Earl of Morton Chancellor of Scotland who cherished this unlawfull familiarity a verity justified on Oath by Darnel and one of the twelve Lords the Lord Ruthin at his execution on the Scaffold a place where dying men speak true This Lady very sorrowful retiring to Sterlin Castle shortly after was brought abed of King James but took no delight in her husbands company for the Lord Bothwel became a new Corrival in her affection who both consented as Germanicus wife with Sejanus after she had been lascivious with him to blow up her husbands body with Gun-powder who was cast dead on a tree next morning a spectacle made Scotland amazed at so fearful a murder By this most wicked designe she grew so contemptible to her Realm that she was fain to flee to Queen Elizabeth for succour but lo some yeers afore severall Treasons were here discovered that this Mary set the Traytors awork to take away our late Queens life who were afore condemned for Traytors and suffered death for this Mary was the next pretender to the Crown from Henry the seventh but God prevented it by her Privy Council counted the wisest of all Europe who counselled Elizabeth to condemn her to free England from Treasons against her Person But the sage Princess conjectured if the death should be by her Edict it might raise the hatred of forraine Princes against her and therefore caused the sentence onely to be ratified by Act of Parliament the Vote of the whole Realm insomuch that a mock-Secretary called Davison was chosen to go to Fotheringham where she was rewarded with a Hatchet a just Judgement of God on her After this King James being about sixteen yeers old was crowned and had for Tutor one Bohannon called amongst us Buchanan a learned Divine and wise to train up young Princes whose Books are famous through this part of the world This prudent Schoolmaster observing the young Prince's facility to signe any Grant for his Servants without reading by which means he had pardoned many murthers and passed other Instruments of damnable consequence to the Commonwealth in which this Tutor imitated Theodosius's godly fraud to discerne the hearts of his Courtiers soundness in Religion who having taken great pains with the King from his childhood desired a boon which King Iame was willing to grant therefore one morning the king going out early a hunting Buchanan brought an absolute resignation of his kingdom with all Immunities to it which was signed without aspect At night returning from field-sports retiring usually afore supper to read some profitable Author which his Schoolmaster chose all shut out of the Cmhaber Buchanan sate down in the kings Chair and told him that he was king giving him the writing to peruse which reading he shed tears for his folly yet Buchanan after comforted him and charged his Scholar not to signe any Grant but what was just and so threw the Grant of all Scotland into the fire About this time Queen Anne was brought out of Denmark for a match a Lady of a goodly presence beautiful eyes and strong to be joyned with a Prince young and weak in constitution an union unsutable for a Virago to couple with a Spiny and thin Creature a course made her fancy work as a Fat for to further a female content and placed in her delight one Master Stuart of the house the Earle of Murry His haunting her Chamber too sedulously bred such a jealousie in King Iames for to impart his thoughts to Marquess Huntly and get dispatched this Stuart out of the way burning his house and himself in it After whose death the Queen found others to satisfie her unruly appetite as namely the Earle of Gowry a Lord of a comly visage good stature and of an attracting allurement who upon King Iames suspition of often society with the Queen converted to the Poyson of hatred the friendship and love of the Earl causing Ramsey after Earl of Holderness with others to murther Gowry in his own house giving it out for a stale that the Earl with others would have killed him And to make his falshood appear odious in shape of truth appointed the fifth of August a solemne day of Thanksgiving for his supposed delivery and in this mocked the God of Heaven After this the Queen entertained into her service one Mr. Beely a Dane to whom she bore an affection this Gentleman came with her into England and grew more entire in her thoughts with whom I had a familiarity to be a Commissioner for him in a Grant his Mistress procured for him of King Iames of felons goods in divers Counties who in great secrecie discovered to me he was naturall Father of King Charls but waxing old the Queen took two proper Gentlemen of the House of Bohannon to her service these being partners in her affection fell out in a Duell and killed one another for priority in her love Not long after Gowries death Prince Henry was born at Edinburgh whereupon Queen Elizabeth sent the Earl of Sussex Ambassadour to congratulate this birth and be Godfather with a gallant retinue but Scotland being poor and the king wanting money to discharge the glory of such a Royal entertainment the Earl of Orkney a Bastard of the former king's pawned his Estate in the Islands of Scotland to raise a great sum to discharge the Christening Behold how King James did not onely not disengage this Morgage but suffered this Earle to die in Prison at Blackness neer Edinburgh-Castle an ingratitude indelible for after-ages to detest I omit the Murders Inchantments Witcheries committed by his Predecessors of weight enough without more to pull down that House But Henry the
opinion disavowed by all Orthodox Divines And many other false opinions were maintained in that age as that Solomon was damned an Amanuenses of the Scripture The second example is the Lord Riches Lady named Penelope who was divorced to make way for the Lo. Montjoy's lust Earl of Devonshire What shall I say more Did not king Iames his minions and favorites rule the kingdom in the person of the king who were five in number since his approach upon English ground to wit Sir George Humes Earl of Dunbar Sir Philip Herbert after Earl of Montgomery and Pembrook Sir Iames Hayes Earl of Carlile and Sir Robert Car Earl of Sommerset who defiled his hands in Overbury's death that wicked divorce ushering the murther This Sommerset being elected of the Council furnished his Library onely with twenty Play-books and wanton Romances and had no other in his Study A Lord very like to give wise counsel This Lord with his Lady were questioned for the murther and the Lieutenant of the Tower Sir George Elloways was hanged but for concealing of it king Iames being willing with this accusation to make passage for another favorite which was Sir George Villiers after Duke of Buckingham who by his greatness vitiated many gentile and noble virgins in birth though vitious for yeelding to his lust whose greatness opened the door to allure them more To please this favorite King Iames gave way for the Duke to entice others to his will Two examples I will recite first the King entertained Sir Iohn Crafts and his Daughter a beautiful lass at Newmarket to sit at the Table with the King This he did then to procure Buckingham the easier to vitiate her Secondly Mrs Dorothy Gamay being a rare creature King Iames carried Buckingham to Gulford to have his will on that Beauty but Sir Nicholas Bacon's Sons conveyed her out of a window into a private chamber over the leads and so disappointed the Duke of his wicked purpose In which cleanly conveyance the Author had a hand with the Knights Sons Truly that day a sober man was hard to be seen in King Prince and Nobles Moreover it was an art King Iames used for these favourites to be skreens to decline the hatred of his People when complained of in Parliament and when questioned they were spunges to be squeezed to to fill his Coffers One story I wil relate more remarkable then the rest the king very timerous of death from the contrivings of Pope and Spaine wrote a Letter to the Pope that he would tolerate Popery when he brought affaires to his bent in Great Britaine The Letter discovered by a lucky chance to the seven yeers Parliament and complained of in the Remonstrance to the king he made the Scotish Secretary own this act and affirm it was his and not the kings promising him to take him off at last with advancement but contrary it occasioned the Secretaries ruine Here by the way I must play the Cook to lard three several occurrences not impertinent to the matter in hand The first was that Secretary Winnode took a bribe of 20000 pound to redeliver the four Cautionary Townes in Holland to the Dutch which we now may see might have curbed the States from prejudicing England Another was king Iames his weakness to give way to Gundamore to take away Sir Walter Rawliegh's life who might have vexed Philip the second of Spaine A third was to sell Iron Ordnance discover the art of their Carriages which all the world was ignorant of This last favourite George Duke of Buckingham advanced to such power with his Mother rewarded the king with poyson by a poysoning water and a plaister made of the Oyle of Toads This Duke from a private Gentleman with an annuity of thirty pound a yeer for life was raised to such a mount of glory and power to be Master of Horse Master of the Wards Liveries Admiral of England and Lord Warden of the Cinq-ports A Lord tall of stature amiable countenance who like a ravenous kyte ingrossed all into his hands to inrich and advance his kindred and to place and displace whom he listed so that this Lord was grown so potent his Master stood in awe of him in such sort that when the king was sick of the Gout he would remove him from place to place at pleasure against the kings will who to work his ends wrought into favour with the rifing Phebus king Charles The king prying into this way of his Successor set a bold Courtier Doctor Turner a float to bring the Earl of Bristol then out to launch into favou but the Duke complying with Turner perceived the plot against him wrought by a countermine by Charles the chief Engineer but the Dukes drift was after king Iames his death to make himself king of Ireland and therefore he was stiled Prince of Typeraria an appendix to that Throne This made the Duke swell like a Toad to such a monstrous proportion of greatness in vast thoughts as muitiplying to an ocean from the rivers of pride power and ambition he sate as a Gyant on the shoulders of king Iames and drowned his power limiting no bounds to his overflowing will whose vertue and good nature being corrupted by so wicked a life turned love into hatred obedience into rule for after he had dispatched the Duke of Richmond Marquess Hamilton the Earl of Southampton and his son by poyson as by Doctor Eglestons relation plainly appeared to the Parliament whom he caused to be killed in forrâ—ine parts for discovering the villany Thus filled with venome of greatness he made no bones to send his Master packing to another world as appeared plainly in Parliament by the witness of divers Physitians especially Doctor Ramsey in full hearing at a Committee Wherefore for this other crimes he was impeached in the beginning of King Charles his Government and though King Charles was bound to prosecute King Iames and the other Lords death committed contrary to all the laws of God and Nations yet King Charles to save the Duke dissolved the Parliament and never after had the truth tryed to clear himself from confederacy or the Duke from so hainous a scandal Now let all the world judge of Charles his carriage whether he were not guilty of conniving at so foul a sin though not of the death so that covering his Lyon-like disposition with appearance of a Lamb he proved like Nero the Tyrant that in the Parliament of the Petition of right shewing himself in his lively colours for displaying the Banner of Tyranny he put an end to the meeting imprisoned divers members so that Sir Iohn Elliot dyed and the rest remained in durance because they had been faithful to their Countrey and to add to cruelty he sent Sergeant Glanvile Sir Peter Hayman and Colonel Purify into forraine parts to consume their fortunes and hazard their lives calling not a Parliament long after By this time Sycophants so inlarged the Monarchy without bounds
which meanes the Clergy were the eyes eares hands legs and above all the braine to support the Kings insupportable Tyranny To this head I will reduce their Idolatrous cringing to the altar bowing at the name of Jesus and making Churches Idolatrous usually kneeling and praying in them when no service of God was used and their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reverence at the Eucharist was to no other purpose but to support Antichristian Episcopacy what honour was done in the Church was placed on them transferring the honour done from the place to the persons administring service a cause made King Charles take them into his intimacy to support his absolute Monarchy to do what he pleased with Subjects property real personal and vital as also finding the Papacy conduced more to Regality he favoured them more then Protestants for when the Justices in all parts persecuted the Papists upon the Statutes they were disgraced and removed and the Protestant persecuted and punished and the Priests delivered out of Prison In which rout amongst others was Secretary Windebank a principal Agent to get in favour with Queen Mary insomuch that I knew divers Papists brought out of Newgate and their pursuers punished This last-recited Secretary was a Creature to Laud both brothers in iniquity to accomplish such matters Did not king Charles his Letter written in Spain to the Pope shew his Inclination to set up Popery if the Pope would grant him a dispensation to marry the Infanta yea certainly it cannot be denied by any rational man if he considers fully the bent of those times he must be convinced by a truth I shall utter When the king came from Greenwich with the Queen on a Tuesday morning a little afore the last Parliament she landing at Sommerset-House where she lodged the king arriving at Whitehall a day he used to hear a Sermon the Queen drew him from the Sermon to Sommerset-House insomuch as a Lord to whom I gave a visit told me when he came not to the preaching at twelve of the clock long expected in anger that the king was then at Mass and reconciled to the Pope and so this Lord in haste went after Mass-time to Sommerset-house and there dined It is therefore no marvel why the Almighty sent so much misery upon these three Kingdomes and wrought such a fatal Catastrophe to turn the spoakes of the Wheel upside down raising the humble out of the dust and abasing the proud and high-minded By this as by a prospective glass we may behold how king Charles erected the Fabrick of his potency or rather the structure of his ill government For it will appear plainly that king Charles negotiated with the Pope to reduce England to Popery privately therefore it is known to all that king Charles entertained three Nuncio's from the Pope Gregorio Pansano Signeur Con and another under pretence to regulate the Popish Clergy under the Bishop of Calcedon appointed by Barbareno the Popes Nephew protector of the English Catholicks when the purpose was to reduce to any union the Protestant Clergy with the Roman And was not Arthur Bret appointed to go Embassador to Rome from king Charles who dyed by the way and after there was sent Sir Iames Hambleton of the House of Abercorn To make a step further I will inform the Reader After Buckingham's death the Earl of Holland was highest in favour with king Charles who bestowed on him neer one hundred and fifty thousand pound in few yeers and he was no less esteemed of the Queen being her Agent to receive moneys forfeited and compositions given her by her consort as namely to free Sir Giles Alington's punishment for marrying his neece twelve thousand pound was paid to Holland for the use of the Queen they sharing money and delights together This made the Kings love of Holland not alwayes firm for a suspition arose as a Devil to be the bane of friendship which thus happened such was the intirety twixt the Queen and this Lord she having sent Letters into France to one Monsieur de Ierre then in prison she inclosed a Letter unsealed in Hollands Letter sealed which was intercepted by the Ambassador the Lord Ierome Weston resident in Franc and sent to his Father the Lord Treasurer by whom it was shewn to the king a matter made him so passionately jealous of Holland as he was confined to Kensington Whereupon the Queen was so discontented as she bedded not with the King some nights and was so inraged for Hollands confinement as till the king released him she would not entertaine him to her bed But as Nature is frail so she flying imbraces made the husband more earnest to persue her fruition so that at last Hollands enemies are chid and he brought into favour These are the devices of cunning Dames when silly men being horn-beaten oftentimes are cured without a plaister he had better have put them into his pocket After this the Queen advertized of Charles his lubricity with divers Ladies his Mistresses which appeared because he was jealous of a Lord handing a Countess he dearly loved through the court of Whitehall at which he shewed much indignation for a great time In the mean time there were not people wanting who nourished each in suspition so that both seeing themselves peccant one had freedome of Mistresses and the other of Servants Now I must crave your pardon if I have not observed so punctually the times this being rather a Rhapsody then a continued History and therefore I am constrained to patch up the post with the prior faults being all of one batch of Tyranny as Ben. Volington Wist Stroud and Eliot Mr. Hambden Sir Iohn Corbet Sir Iohn Hevingham were confined for being faithfull in Parliament Moreover for discovering the designe of a thousand German horse the Earl of Sommerset the Earl of Clare dead Sir Robbert Cotton dead my Lord Saint Iohn Mr. Selden and Mr. Iames were sent to the Tower The occasion was this as I remember Pickerni Master-Falconer found the written project in the kings Cabinet it being open who took it out and brought it to Sommerset and so it came to the hands of Sir Robert and the other four usually meeting but Sir Robert had a man would take his cups freely and at a Taverne told it to a false brother who betrayed them all for which cause the five were brought aurium tenus into the Star-chamber because it was discovered afore it was acted But it is more memorable how king Charles was angry with the Parliament of the petitions of Right as he was so far from punishing Sir Richard Plumly for pulling a Knight Hubard out of a Coach and beating him so that he dyed and to shew his hatred to Hubard who was one of them held the then Speaker of the Parliament Sir Iohn Finch in the Chair that he advanced this Plumly to be Admiral of the Irish Seas and made him a Knight for his service for killing Hubard when justly he
turn into the tyring-house for certainly we have great cause to give thanks to God for the Parliaments valourous success of Army and Navy both for General Lieutenant-General Sergeant-Major Generals Colonels Officers and Souldiers as for the Admirals and Captaines at Sea whom God hath miraculously preserved to prevaile over the enemies of the State and so let God have the glory and we tranquillity all our dayes But when I revolve in my thoughte the opinion most are possessed with as with a Divel that Parliament and Army are a punishment for their sins and attribute so great Victories to chance I may justly suspect their Atheisme whose lives I never see more amended by Gods immediate hand on us to make the omnipotent Father of spirits to have no hand in it or if acknowledged in words return not from iniquity and are not thankful for arriving to so safe a harbour as they are in nor see that God is about to mould the world in another fashion as he hath declared by his Prophets of old and so like swine look down to the earth and not to heaven to see a divine cause of a mighty alteration Now to shew that the Parliament proceeded justly in this war I will prove it by arguments Divine and Humane Reason and Law First if we regard the Scripture we shall finde Rehoboam the son of Solomon justly lost the ten tribes because he laid such heavy burdens on the Jews who declared they had no share in David wishing Israel to depart to their tents although God had made a Covenant with David that his posterity should sit on the throne for ever on condition they continued to serve the Lord as they ought which Covenant Rehoboam broke by sins in such sort as God punished sin with sin suffering him to oppress and impose more heavy taxes on the people then his father a reason God disswaded the children of Israel refused God and would have kings to rule over them to enthral them to his will but they persisted not to follow the Counsel of the Almighty therefore it was just the kingdome should be divided for their disobedience or if King Rehoboam did wickedly he could not be stiled Gods vicegerent over the twelve tribes for God whom Governors represent never oppresseth his people but for sin When kings cease to imitate God they cease to Govern or be Governers and represent not God when they are not Gods Deputies they insult over the people without authority for this is an infallible rule not to be gaine said in Scripture that if the people sin against God and the king do not oppose it but yeeld to it they are punished and if the king sin and they concur with him they are punished so that if the Parliament had not opposed king Charles God would have been revenged on them Now when a father wrongfully injureth his children his love to them is at an end and so is his paternal power for children are bound to be obedient to Parents not to be ruined by them so that subjects are bound to obey the Sovereign so long as he keeps himself in bounds of justice and doing right but if the king would destroy his people they are no more his subjects nor are they bound to obey but he is a Tyrant God never punished a pious king that used his people well otherwise God should be unjust If God were Author of the conquest over king Charles is so many battels who is the God of Sabbaths that is of battels if he were not the cause of our Victories he were not God of battels in which belief they should give a Deity to the Parliament forces which is blasphemy for they conquered over the Cavaliers By which it appears God sent this as a punishment on the king and the Victory was not a punishment on the Parliament who defended the people in their rights Kings are ordained for the good of their subjects not for their hurt nor were people brought into the world to have kings over them but to honour and glorifie God God is not glorified when inferiours are oppressed by their superiours a sin God highly punished in the Jewes God were the Author of oppression if kings had such a deputation from him This Prince committed a great fault in adhering too much to his unbridled will preferring his passion above the good of his people there may be excuses in youth for want of experience in stealing for the occasion in killing for injuries offered in adultery for perswasions of love and heat of youth in Rebellion for defence but for offences against the Commonwealth there is not satisfaction but a block or a gibbet For a shepherd to sheare the fleeces off his flock may be tolerable but to flea them and cut their throates is abominable before God and man For kings should have the care of a Master love of a Father tenderness of a Protector diligence of a Shepherd to preserve their subjects from wrong for without a Parliament kings have no ears nor eyes to see the injuries of the publicke but by their favorites who for to encrease Wealth raised from nothing are like blood-suckers to drain the people make themselves rich If every member of the commonwealth ought to preserv the State above his own life much more a King is chosen Gods vicegerent on earth to preserve his people committed to his charge in safety Therefore God took from Rehoboam and Belshazzar their kingdoms by his instruments the people and Nebuchadnezzar and Sennacherib both for pride and wronging the Jews the one was reduced to grass with the beasts and the other was overthrown in battel with hundred thousands The example of Attilius Regulus is commendable who rather then the honour of the Roman Senate should suffer prejudice performed his promise and returned to Carthage to undergo exquisite torments If subjects much more a King God hath intrusted with his people should have care of his Parliament and People then much more should be take care of the lives of the people Wherefore the Parliament seeing King Charles did raise an Army to defend ill counsellors and ruine his people the Parliament rather then the king should ruine the people first they employed the Army to take away from him bad Counsellors and bring them to condigne punishment but King Charles justified their destructive advice by a war to ruine the authority Parliaments and by this made himself an enemy of Commonwealth Therefore it was just the Parliament should defend themselves by a war yea subdue the kings power which would destroy the Representative which maintained the liberty of the subject and property of their personall and reall estates And though it may be objected he had most of the gentry and Nobility yet I answer They had the major part of the Electors sided with the Parliament in their purses Also some object that the king had many Members of Parliament but for certaine if they would depart from the lawfully-called
Parliament to ruine the people the remainder in the house were the Representative to adjourn the Parliament from day to day for otherwise it had been sine die and ipso facto dissolved the Parliament then had the whole Nation remained slaves and vassals for ever at the kings mercy And therefore it was most to subdue and put king Charles to death as a mortal enemy who laboured to destroy the Common-wealth with all his power for if a member who hath an inclusive right ought to have sentence of death much more a king who hath an impositive care from God ought to have sentence of death for kings now are not the anointed of God as David was but by the Scripture every Saint is annointed which by the Popish Clergy was usurped to them and after by their policy attributed fasely to kings to maintaine their Hierarchy Whrefore we may justly argue that the Author of spirits had a long time continued patient in suffering three several families to be Superintendents over three kingdoms five hundred yeers when he raised the several houses to the Throne to make an essay of their behaviour to bring up the people in the fear of God whose time was long spent in Idolatry and after reduced to a prophanness and then to a peece and little part of a reformed way and not to a total partly serving Baal and partly God which caused Gods arrows at last to flie abroad and shot the last Prince with a mortal blow for it is manifest a king could not make a war with his Parliament till it were ended and the king passed an Act not to end it till all the three Estates were agreed and when it ended all he could do should be to indict them by a Jury to finde them guilty but by making a War he leaves them at liberty to defend themselves so that what he did amiss should be complained of in the next Parliament after In the war the kings purpose could not be to make them obedient which is too harsh a way for in so doing he becomes their enemy and then they are out of his protection Or if the subjects war with the king and he oppose they are not subjects A king is not a king when he makes a war against his subjects but he is a Tyrant and they are not Rebels no more then when a king treateth with his subiects are they not subjects by such a war he ratifieth them to have a right and power to contest with him as the fifteen Provinces were made by the king of Spaine in a Negotiation a free State much more the reason holds in a war How many times did the Parliament court the king yea humbly petition him and treated with him by Commissioners to do divers things most necessary for the good of the then kingdom and he remained obdurate If he were so obstinate when he was under the power of the Parliament as in the Isle of Wight how averse would he be or rather domineer over and ruine them when they were in his clutches As if a Partridge being neer to a Faulcon intangled with his varvels might peck and tach her yet would not she yeeld to smal a bird what could the Faulcon do when he had her trussed surely plume on her and at last wring off her head How many times have the people in this Nation assumed the power to themselves for kings over-flowing the rules of moderation as in the times of Henry the third Edward the second Richard the second Henry the sixth and after upon good behaviour they resigned the keyes of Soveraignity to the intrusted keepers as namely in choosing the supream Officers which of right be longed to the Parliament and a long time since by intrusion kept in the hands of the Diadem but in a Parliamentary orbe wherein when the great Officers were fixed they kept their course from Retrogradation by their Aromatical influence upon the good of the people but after they were at the devotion of the chief by that derivation they wronged the people and augmented the power of invassalage as who in name of the Upper insulted over the Inferiour that all the English world was conformed to an incompatible subjection and submission too unjustly imposed Therefore it was impossible that Charles which had his hands in the blood of hundred thousands by his instruments should after that carriage be free from Cruelty Indignation and Injustice no more then a Leper can be made pure or a Blackamore white or a Leopard clear from spots Therefore I will justly conclude the cup of Gods vengeance was filled to the blim for king Charles his family to drink the dregs Now if the war of France and Germany were just especially the last when the Emperour transgressed the laws of the Empire to make the united Princes to raise an Host to defend themselves and rectifie what was amiss by ingrafting another Cion in the Empire which continued too long in one house of Austria much more just is that of the Parliament which hath Legislative power and authority to draw Acts for the good of the Subject to which the king is alwayes injoyned not to end the Assembly till he had signed such Acts and reformed all abuses complained of If the king should retire from the great Counsel and not signe Bils of Right twelve of the Lords and twenty four of the others were to repaire to him to know the cause of his absence and urge the king to signe such bils and remove grievances If he did not sign nor come in the space of fourty days they ought to chuse a Protector And if he did persist in his absence they might justly depose him as appears in the book of the manner and fashion of holding Parliaments And this was the reason of the former kings removal If a master of a Family who hath wife children servants stock and cattel in a madness should go away from his house and bring a force to destroy his family kill his children take away his cattel off his own ground and burn his house he were a mad man and fitter for Bridewell then to be a master of a family as likewise a Protector who ought to protect his people if he would destroy them because they would have a pious and vertuous government he is to be accounted a destroyer no protector But some will say The king had a number of his subjects and the better part But they were such as supported a Power would take away the property of their real personal and vital estates which the King might do if he conquered if there were not Parliaments a check on the Soveraigne to protect inferiours such kingly power would grow to such a height as no moderation might be 'twixt Mercy and Tyranny I have often heard the Cavaliers say They meant not to take away Parliaments knowing they were for their good and benefit But if the King had prevailed by their means they should
to the Records of Parliament sometime there was added to and sometime diminished from what was in the Roll of Parliament and somewhat put in that might be advantageous to the kings and put out was for the benefit of the Subject as I have observed by my comparing the printed book with the Record And truly if there were a Committee to examine the Records it should be necessary to see the right of the Subject And in decimo octavo Iacobi king James sent and took what was done that Parliament from Master Wright Clerke of the Parliament So likewise the king by his power and the great Lords of Court made Courtiers Burgesses and sometime knight of the Shire by letters who hindred much the proceedings in Parliament by their vote it being the policy of the Dukes of Cornwall in the Stannaries to have multitude of Burgesses to make themselves potent in Parliament which now the Parliament will prevent by providing that the Representative may be equally chosen from all parts Likewise it was usual for king James and King Charles if any did speak in the behalf of the Commonalty in Parliament against the prerogative to make them Sheriffs or impose other burthensome Offices on them as my self and Sir Guy Palmes were served after that Parliament of 18 Iacobi or to be revenged on them some other way for doing their duty in Parliament as then was invented by projectors as I could recite divers examples in my time The Courtiers also laboured to make good patriots Courtiers as Sir Dudley Digs was made a Courtier and Master of the Rolls who was faithful to the Parliament and dyed before a Parliament came this was to draw their affection from the multitude to the Soveraignty so that by those means Tyranny was increased and the right of the people waved which now will be redressed and reformed by Gods blessing and prudence of the State Now I will draw a short Lantskip by way of Epitome to examine what good king Iames and King Charles have done since Anno Domini 1603. The seven yeers Parliament was a sage and wise Parliament and laboured to do much good for the then-kingdome and as a new broom sweepeth clean at first king Iames granted some good Laws but the Court of Wards they endeavoured to pull down which had ruined infinite families upon offer to give the king two hundred thousand pound in deposito and annually two hundred thousand pound but it was opposed by Robert Earl of Salisbury otherwise a very good Commonwealths-man as too great a thing for the king to part with And truly that Parliament took great pains to reform abuses in Church and State but not much was done for the good of the Subject but great sums granted and a good Government hoped for rather then in fruition For king Iames spent much time in his pleasures and much money in Embassies to make himself great so that there was some good for the Merchants but Tonnage and poundage given by Parliament was for Guarding the Seas which was imployed to the Royal purse onely so that although complained of the Merchants were at a double charge in wafting their goods After king Iames wronged the fisher-men and us much by granting to his brother Henry the fourth king of France for his moneth to fish on our coast who under that colour took away the very earth and spawn of the fish of Rotchet Gurnet Cunger and Hadduck to Deep where they have abundance and we want King Iames granted the Hollanders to fish on our coasts and for a smal petty rate the Island of Lewis in Scotland and other Isles of Ireland to dry their fish by which they have inriched themselves above fourty millions Sterling In that Parliament of seven yeers they laboured to reform abuses in Church and Commonwealth and that the pious Ministers might not be tyed to subscribe to the unlawful Ceremonies of the Bishops which was not granted but in nono Iacobi at Hampton Court were divers pious men as Reynolds Kniwstabs Clerk and other reverend Divines to dispute about ceremonies but that the Divines had not freedome of speech for all went on the Bishops sides a cause England in all parts after were deprived of pious men which were silenced imprisoned and put out of their Lectures and livings so that want of teaching caused profaneness to get the preheminence The Parliament of duodecimo Iacobi was onely for undertakers to raise money for king Iames some Bishops were questioned as Bilson and others but the Parliament dissolved without doing any thing Then was the Parliament of 18 Iacobi where Heath was for the Commons Sir Thomas Wentworth and Christopher Wansford and others were for the kings side where also Sir Iohn Bennet Sir Giles Mumpesson and Sir Iohn Mitchel were condemned and the Parliament so dissolved in which Parliament Serjeant Grimston called me out of the house to the Earl of Bedford the Earl of Westmorland and Sir Francis Vane dead to the little Room in the Lobby where they offered me ten thousand pound or 500. a yeer which I would choose not to oppose the bill of the Fens in the house I answered no money nor estate would make me betray the country This Parliament was made voide and 32 patents called in by king Iames and so he pleased the people with a toy Many and divers were convented by the Councel-table to pay certain sums or to be imprisoned whereof I was one being brought before the Councel when Sir Albert Morton waited Then came the Parliament of 21 Iacobi a little afore king Iames his end where were some good Laws enacted the Lord Keeper Bacon and the Earl of Middlesex condemned for bribery A little afore this I being Custos Rotulorum of the County of Cambridge by Buckingham was put out and Sir Iohn Cuts put in when I had that Office under the broad seal which could not legally be taken away from me unless I had committed some fault thereby to have forfeited the same Now there remaineth no more for the Parliament to do but faithfully to keep what they have justly gotten by Gods Divine providence and his will in a valourous Conquest to the end that when they have setled the building of the State upon a right and firme Basis they may further inlarge the kingdome of the Lord Jesus by their indeavours through Europe which I am fully assured God hath appointed and will certainly bring to pass that all the world may see Gods determination in every climate of this part of the world After this new State is put into the cradle of ease and tranquillity to make it have a full gtowth there will be nothing to hinder the establishment thereof no titles upon marriage as in Monarchy because the power is in the people and they chuse a Representative that shall govern every two or three yeers making an election of Members of Parliament that every one may Govern by vicissitude and therefore there would
be no need of a William the Conquerour to interrupt the proceedings of the State and dissettle it by establishing of new Laws there will be no William Rufus in a hunting voyage to be slaine no king Iohn to be poysoned at Swinsted Abbey by a Monke nor there will be no beautiful Rosamonds to hinder a pious government no Mortimers to entice to his bed and lust the wives of princes there will be no unnatural mothers like that French Lady who killed her own son Edward the second in Pomfret Castle by the power of a French pride there will be no Pearce Gaviston nor Spencers to draw a mighty State into their own hands by ruine of the people there will be no Alice Pearce who sat at the pillow of King Edward the third and kept a privy Councel out that should advise a king for the good of his people there will be no wanton Courtezan to pass by the Court-chambers and loose her garter to be a means to settle an Order there will be no Iohn of Gant to deny the inheritance of his first children and settle it upon his second wives there will be no Richard the second to send a number of the Nobility to be murdered at Calice to satisfie the unsatiable desires of Princes nor striving to ruine Parliaments though it be to his own deposing nor no Judges to counsel the Soveraigne to ruine his people there will be no factions betwixt the houses of Yorke and Lancaster to imbroyle the people in War nor no Barons wars to make a distraction in the Nations there will be no working to have Burgesses in Stannaries by Dukes of Cornwall nor no imprisonment of a Speaker Thorpe out of Parliaments nor factions for their private interests to ruine the publike there will be no killing of Henry the sixth in a Chamber as Richard the third did no alluring of Iane Shores to Princes lustful beds no murthering of Princes and smothering them as was in the Tower no Empsons and Dudleys to raise an Estate for kings by the ruine of the people no pretences to make a war to gather wealth to peal and pole the subject and after to compose the war and keep the money in his own purse as Henry the seventh did nor pride to put down the right title of a wife and set up his own first that was after it no Perkin Warbeck to be an Impostor to put by a right title no Henry the eighth to make void a Katherines bed to make way for another wife no chopping off the heads of wives to make way for other beauties for lust nor no terrifying of Parliament if they do not give way to pass an Act to enrich his Coffers as Henry the eight did in the case of Abbeyes no Cardinal Woolseys to set up their Armes afore their Masters to make way for a Popedom and too too late repentance that he had not served God so faithfully as his Master by which he came to a Tragical end to poyson himself no poysoning of Edward the sixt by great Northumberlands to make way for the Diadem no Leicesters to grow so potent as to set up a school to vitiate Ladies nor no drawing of Parliament men from their fidelity to their country as hath been used in king Iames and king Charles his time nor none so ambitious as to make themselves Darlings of the multitude to make way for their own interests above the publick nor for kings to take favorites to overthrow their principals none unworthy without merit shall be imployed none shall grow lawless by vertue of Princes humors Surely all kingdomes have a period as the Babylonian Medes and Persians Grecian and Reman look in the history of all these and you shall understand that Ambition oppression Tyranny and Injustice have been the changers of Government to some other way or persons It is probable that the determination of God is to destroy all Monarchy in Christendome for if we begin with France we shall finde they have always adhered to the Romish Government except a little handful of those they call Reformed Protestants How much have they wronged us in our title which belongs truly to us and though they seeme to be Governed by a Salique Law yet notwithstanding they have not kept the order thereof which they ought to have done but have foisted in some males which ought to have been last afore others which ought to have been first and the Maiors of the Palace at Paris have set up kings at their pleasure and not respected the right of those that ought to have had it The persecuting of the holy men of Towers and the Albigenses the true Apostolick descendants who ever hated the Roman Heresies that horrible and unheard of massacre at Paris in Henry the thirds time of France by the device of the house of Guise and Queen Katherine who was a Witch and made Julips of young children snatched up in the night to maintain her lust as Comines doth testifie and Hen. 4. turning his Religion from the Protestant side after God Almighty had blessed him with one and twenty Victories over the Popish League Lewis the thirteenths making a war against the Protestants to murder a number of them though it was with the loss of five thousand of the Nobility of Erance The Duke of Bouillon the Duke Tremelly and divers others changing their Religion and Cardinal Richeliu giving Authority and command in Armes on purpose to destroy the Hugonots though God blessed them to be the best Commanders in France All these I say and many more I could repeat will be a means to showre down Gods vengeance to destroy that Monarchy Let us therefore cease from wondering at Gods works for if a Sparrow fals not to the ground without his special providence then much less is it wanting in turning topsy-turvy principalities and kingdomes Certainly if this vicissitude were not sin would have more abounded piety or at least morality would be banished and men would forget the end of their Creation and think there were no God to punish sin nor reward the righteous but do as the great fishes devoure one another This makes me affirme that it is not probable that God can bless Charles the now supposed King of Scots from his predecessors if we examine the mothers side the Grandmother was proved by the Parliament of Paris to have made abortive her sons bed eleven times by help of a Spanish Emperick as by Will. Murreys Ambassie appeared who returned this answer to King Charles and therefore it was not convenient to yeild that she should return into France and also his Grand-father turned his Religion and was killed like a Calf by Ravilliac his mother for too much familiarity with Buckingham Holland and Jermine for the Duke for fear the French Ladies should tell tales of George often mounted on his steed sent them into France contrary to the Articles of marriage so that the Queen was shut up in the Chamber