most and generally all other of whose affection to his service the King believeth well and who have ability to serve the State into a good reputation with his Parliament and people and every good man must put his hand and his tongue and his heart to this work without delay and cry mightily and incessantly to God for a blessing upon it or else in humane reason the sâ—n of our happy dayes is going down in a dismall cloud of blood I shall begin to others by doing my own duty upon the occasion of your Lordships Apology when I have first humbly prayed you to give me leave throughout to tell you plainlâ— for this work will never be done with dawbing how far I am satisfied therewith and what in my poor conceit remaineth further to be done by your Lordship that you may be firmly redintegrated in that esteem with your Countrey which you once had in so high a degree and I find knew how to value at a due rate And truely my Lord for ought that ever I have heard your Lordship hath rightly observed the time of the first declination you suffered in the favour of the representative body of the Kingdom which so long as matters are carryed there in the open manner they have bin in your time and mine for I have heard old very old men say it hath not bin alwayes so was to your Lordship and will ever be to all other an infallible indication of their proportionable declension in the good will of their Countrey But I beseech your Lordship to excuse me for asking whether you made this observation at that time For if you did I believe you will find cause to blame your self for publishing the Speech you then made touching Episcopacy in print which I have been told is a part of the late innovation in the proceedings of Parliament from the practise of ancient times and I doubt to no advantage of that high Senate or of the Members thereof the variety of whose opinions and their reasons for them it may be were better kept within the walls of the respective Houses or at least within the cognizance of wise men of their acquaintance then made the discourse of every idle youth silly woman and mean fellow that can but read English to the last of which our wise Ancestors found inconvenience in allowing so much as a voice in Elections and I believe it cannot be shewed that any of the first sort were elected in that time though in this latter age we have varyed from them in that point also for considerations I understand well enough but whether for the better or the worse I refer me to the Testimony of two dead men of known wisdom who they say are the best Councellors (a) But to return to your Lordship I pray reflect a little upon the censure of at least fifteen thousand gooâ— woâ—en of London you then passed by the printing of that Speech wherâ—in you have dissected their husbands Petition with so keen a kniâ—e and shewed your opinion of many â—â—morâ— and other diseases abounding therein and then imagine what a report such a clamor raysed upon you in the City would have and I assure you had in the Country Whereas if the noyse of that Speech had remained in the ears of them that heard it only I am not able to apprehend why or how the date of your before so well merited favours in that House whereof you were then a Member shouâ—d begin to expire thereupon For having perused it again exactly upon this occasion I do here make publike profession that I could readily observe many things in it much to the prayse of your Lordships excellent wisdom singular ingenuity precise honesty and of that tender care which every Parliament man ought to have of the honor of Parliaments as well as of the weale of his Country if I had a mind to flatter you But I can observe very little more then nothing in it either justly offensive or unseasonable or any other way unfit to have bin delivered by a man of your Lordships opinion And though I therein differ from your Lordship as much as that House hath yet declard it self to do yet as that diversity in my judgement doth not so much as tempt me to honor your Lordship any whit the lesse so your Lordship should wrong the Worthies of that Honourable Assâ—mbly if you should entertain the least suspition that any of them might for that reason be in any measure alienated in affection from your Lordship for this passage in that Speech of your Lordships deserveth to be written in letters of Gold What ever be the event I shall discharge my conscience concerning this Petition freely and uprightly unbiast by popularity as by Court respects Sir I could never flatter the sense of this House which I reverence so farre as to suppresse a single No that my heart dictated though I knew the venting of it might cast prâ—judices upon mâ— Had my fortune placed me neer a King I could not have flattered a King and I do not intend now to flatter a multitude Thus your Lordship I adde whosoever being of a contrary judgement at any time to that which he observeth to be the sense of the major part of that House and having some reason that swayeth him which hath not been put into the Ballance by any one of the minor part that hath spoken and yet doth notwithstanding sit still and not rise up boldly as your Lordship did to deliver his reason with modesty and submission for any respect whatsoever whosoever doth give any manner of interruption or but the least discountenance to such a person in the discharge of his duty And whosoever when the question is put in any matter of such importance as this of Episcopacy not to say in any the least businesse whatsoever doth either give other vote then according to his heart or doth give none at all for any consideration whatsoever doth as much as in him is to betray the honour of that House and something else he ought to maintain and defend and if he take a full view of the extent of the Protestation perhaps will hardly find how to acquit himselfe well of a willfull breach of that voluntary vow which is a crying sin and such a one as God who is alwayes true of his word will surely require So little ground is there for your Lordship to doubt as you seem to do that what you spoke in the businesse of the Church touching Episcopacy upon occasion of the London-Petition might in any measure diminish your interest in that House though the printing of it might well have such an influence upon vulgar minds as might be of force to turne the tide of your reputation among them I wish it were as well in my power to direct your Lordship to the doing of any thing that might cause a reflux of the strong currâ—Ì„t now runneth against you so strong indeed
that a man may sooner lose himself then save you that hath the courage to attempt it by going against the stream yet I have so much compassion of your undeserved sufferings in this matter except in that point of discretion I have already noted that I am resolved to adventure my seâ—â— in hope your Lordship will not be wanting either to â—â—â—r selfe or to me in case your Lordship should chance to see me carryed down in another as violent a channell or it may be in the same for doing my good will to help you Which that I may do with the lesse hazard and more hope of successe I must first give the world notice of an error of your Lordships in this matter of Episcopacy from which all the other you have since committed in that businesse have bin derived although I observe that as well in that Speech as in your present Apology your Lordship hath studiously concealed that mistaken principle which hath bin so fertile of other mistakes in you and of you And that is the opinion that Episcopacy was erected by the Apostles and consequently in your Lordships judgement so authorized Iure Divino that it may not be altered whereof your Lordship was once so confident that you wisht it might be made a part of the Catechisme of our Church if I do not misremember For it stands so in my memory ever since I had a cursory sight of the Letters which pass'd between your Lordship and your Cousin Sir Kellam Digby having at that time observed it an hyperbollicall expression which in matters of Religion it is not alwayes safe to use If your Lordship be still of the same judgement which I hope you are not let me presume humbly to advise you to resume the study of both those points by an impartiall perusall of the Bookes have been partly written and partly set forth in the liberty of these last yeers which I am therefore in hope will be sufficient to alter your mind in that matter because they have done mine in the former which is the fairer of them who came to the reading of the Arguments against it with as much prejudice as your Lordship can do having contracted it in part by the great reverence I ever did and do yet bear to the great wisdom learning and piety of Mr. Hooker whom I knew and heard when I was a boy and with whom some friends of mine who in their time were in the number of the ablest men of this Kingdom for wisdom and learning had extraordinary friendship and were also of the same judgement with him In part by the like reverence I bore to Doctor Downham since Bishop in Ireland who put forth a Sermon to shew the Jurisdâ—ction of Bishops over Presbyters was instituted by the Apostles when I was a young man at Cambridge where he was before that in great and good fame but chiefly by the presumption that the Addresses make at the foot of the Epistles to Timothy and Titus as Bâ—shops were of Saint Pauls own writing because I found them in my Greek Testament For if that be first admitted there is some appearance of their having beene Diocesans by the authority thereby given them to appoint and rule over Presbyters in the Churches committed to their charge But if this be an abuse as I have been convinced that it is since I returned with an hoary head to a new examination of this Book controversie when the sword was taken up to decide it in Scotland then there will be no firme ground for a Diocesan Bishop found in the whole Scripture but much to the contrary as hath been learnedly proved by Master Bayne that succeeded Mr. Perkins at Cambridge in the Answer he made to Doctor Downham written soon after which I never saw till these last yeers brought it to light but hath bin the Treasury out of which the Scriblers of this licentious age have stollen almost all they have of worth to which they have added little besides unfit language which they had not from him whose name I cannot suffer to passe my pen without this Elogy that he was the most accomplished Preacher I ever yet heard in all my life having heard very many of many Nations and the man that to mee seemed most in Heaven while he prayed that my eyes ever saw I beseech your Lordship to take the paines to read his short Tract upon my recommendation and that of Gersom Bucer upon the same subject not despising the rest which have shewed themselves on either side in this controversie since some of our Prelates have not been ashamed indicere bellum Episcopale and then to do me the honour to let me know whether you persevere in that you wrote to your Cousin Sir Kenâ—lme for I have cause to believe it is a tenet set on foot in our Church at the beginning of the raign of of our late Soveraign of famous memory not because it was believed by them that directed others to broach it among us but out of a politique design wherein the Jesuits had an unseen hand invented first out of fear that his Majesty who had abolished Episcopacy in Scotland might at one time or other bee ingaged to doe the like in this Kingdom and when they found it tooke with his Majesty then imployed further to work upon his pious and bountifull heart for the reintroducing of Episcopacy in that Kingdom an Act of Royall magnificence and princely piety and if your Lordships opinion of the necessity of Episcopacy in all Churches as founded in divine right can be maintained at the height as no doubt was powerfully instilled into his Majesty an Act as well pleasing to God as glorious before men And in the raigne of the King our Soveraign that now is whom God long preserve it is evident that the same Doctrine hath been imployed to the ingaging of his Majeâ—ty notwithstanding all the reluctancy of his most eminent clemency to undertake a War against our brethren and his most loyall subjects of that his native Countrey with an upright heart For admitting your Lordships Tenet which it is manifest was infused into the King as an undoubted truth there could be no question of the justice of that War on his Majesties part of which I forbear to make any further mention least it should prove a controvension of the Act of oblivion although I humbly conceive there is something besides exceeding necessary to be thought upon by His Maiesty and that Kingdom and this seeing God Almighty is not bound by that act O Lord whether do we run through the darknesse that is in us if we once depart but a little from the light of thy holy word And where can we stay our wandring steps When both the war with this and the troubles in that Kingdom were through his Maiesties goodnesse and wisdom at length sweetly composed by an utter and eternall abolition of Episcopacy there as Antichristian in the opinion of that Church yet
afflâ—ction which will be an excellent Foil to set off the lustre of your magnanimity And in the mean time what can be more noble then for your Lordship to become the secret advocate of those men of whom by common fame you stand charged to have been the secret Accuser Or who can be so powerfull an Advocate for them with his Majestie Or wherein can you do the King more true service then in doing them good offices to His Majesty so far as you may with truth I hope with truth so much may be sayd by your Lordship of them and by them of your Lordship as may satisfie the King and Kingdom of all your loyalties to His Majestie and to your Countrey if you were once put into that way which I wish some abler man would endeavour but I will shew my good will to the work The time is not long since your conversation was and you made or endeavoured to make your friendships with those whose experience and abilities were most eminent for the publick service Some of the accused Members in all appearance were some of those men I will not despair to live to see your friendship with them redintegrated the more firmly by the great breach hath hapned between you In any thing that was necessary or but probably pretendâ—d to be necessary for the Common-wealth you never differed in the least degree If this be true as by that I have heard otherwise for my part I beleeve it they have opportunity and ability to make it knowne to the two Houses of Parliament and how the repoâ—t of this is like to spread and be multiplyed among the Common people in all Countries if it were once dâ—rivablâ— from such considerable Authors your Lordship hath had experience by the contrary But in improvements in reall alterations which were to be governed by prudentiall motives you were not alwayes of one mind I am sorry for it but I do not wonder at it I should have had greater suspition of you and them if you had not sometimes differed in such points I know a man to whom our late Soveraign King Iames of famous memory gave a great Schooling for his presuming to differ from his Maiestie in hiâ— iudgement of his affairs that either answered or had much ado to forbear answâ—ring that although his Maiestie was incomparably the most politick and best Prince in Europe yet he that made shew of being allwayes in all things of his mind in his affairs of State was either a foole or a knave The reason of which Apothegme may satisfie his Maiesty that now is and all his people of your and their wisdome and integrity to both their service the rather in respect of the variety of your opinions concerning it Your Lordship it seemeth went by a good rule not to be too hardy to incline to great mutations in State But he was one of the wisâ—st men of his age (a) for judgement that observed that Time is the greatest innovator and then asked if time of course alter things to the worse and wisdom and Counsell shâ—ll not alter them to the better what shall be the end My Lord no man is a greater admirer of the wisdom our Ancâ—stors have shewed in the ancient constitutions of this Kingdome than I according to the small measure of my understanding in them And yet since time hath made so great an alteration in the Domestick grounds of some of their prudent constitutions and our neighbour Kingdomes are so much altered too from what they were in former ages I will be bold to say That neither the King nor Kingdome can attain to that greaâ—nesse nor happinesse which all good Subiects ought to wish unto them both without a great alteration by mutuall free consent in things concerning them both from ancient customes and present Statutes By that light your Lordship and the publicke proceedings have given me I guesse that in this point your Lordship was too short in thinking that as soon as the Trienniall Bill was passed in the procuring whereof you had so great a part all our other desires would effect themselves and that we were freed from all publick fears And they on the other side after the passing of the Act for the continuance of this Parliament were perhaps too long before they came to be of your mind That there was then no more to be thought on but how in a gratefull return to his Ma to advance his honour and plentyâ— as you have often heard those principall Intendents of the publicke good most solemnly professe they intended But I will not engage my selfe in this so bold discourse further than this That if your Lordship be as I am absolutely of opinion that they do yet most sincerly intend what they so solemnly professed your Lordship ought to do them right to his Majesty in that point wherein you shall do as much to your selfe Your Lordship relateth no particular difference but one in the bâ—sinesse of the Church and to that I will restrain my selfe In that you say having had frequent consultations with the chiefest Agents for a Reformation and finding no three men to agree upon what they would have in the place of that they all resolved to remove you agreed not with the prevailing sence having not hardinesse enough to incline to a mutation which would evidently have so great an influence upon the peace prosperity and interest of the Kingdom This very reason of your Lordships would have prevailed with me to incline to a mutation yet if this were your only consideration which I should beleeve if I had not heard of another mentioned at the beginning of this Answer Or if this and that joyned together were all your motives to stand so stiff for the retention of Episcopacy what honest wise man can blame you for it For me I have not wit enough to find your fault And yet I am so much of another iudgement that I conceive the peace and prosperity of this Kingdom diseased as now it is will not be perfectly recovered without an utter abolition of Episcopacy though a reduction thereof to the pattern of the primitive institution of Diocesans may possiâ—ly be a fitter remedy for the present distemper between which two â— am much divided in my own thoughtsâ— but I rather propeâ—â—d to an abolition I think the reasons which have been given by the Church and Counsell of Scotland (b) to this purpose very considerable But that which moveth me mâ—st is the great swarm of Sectaries wch is up among us which certainly will ner'e be well hâ—ved under an Archbishops Pall or a Bishops Miterâ— if peradventure they may be gotten under any government which I conceive to be a matter of infinite importance to the quiet of this Church and â—tate And I see it is so apprehended by his Maiestie For they are all agreed that Bishops are Antichristian The two small Books of one Non-conformist have operated more
much passion I desire to save a noble young Lord of such eminent abilities as may be of great use to the King and Kingdom from sincking in his reputation which will make them altogether uselesse to the publick I will adventure to take your Lordship by the hand and to try whether I can raise you out of this puddle also when I have first opened my selfe to be the same man that made the larger Answer to your Lps Speech to the Bil of Attainder of the sayd unhappy Lord which was intended to have been sent to you so timely that if your Lordship had thereby received satisfaction in your Scruples you might have acknowledged as much in the House of Commons whereof you were then a Member and so have escaped their censure in a fayrer way then you did by climbing up into the House of Peers at that time For so that is understood But the throng of lesser Pamphlets was so great that before this could passe the Presse which I am made believe it could not in a month and more your Lordships Speech ranne the fortune you know and another briefer Answer thereunto got through Of which misadventure I was much more sorry for your Lordships sake than mine own though by this meanes I also may possibly have been censured either for insulting upon a noble person cast down which I should hate my self for if it were true or for having taken the advantage of such a time to publish my Answer when it was not safe for your Lordship to make any Reply But since your Lordship hath adventured on other actions and writings more dangerous then your defence need to be as your Lordship may mannage it I humbly beseech your Lordship to take it into your consideration whether you may not do well to make a Replication thereunto for the reasons I shall now give your Lordship and which I am perswaded ought to have the same force with you which they have with me They are if that your Lordship do yet persist in your opinion that you had sufficient grounds to alter your first judgement of the Lord Straffords cause you ought to make a further clear deduction of them to the world partly for that unfortunate Lords sake partly for your owne a little for your servants and a great deale for your Countryes sake For to begin with the last as being of greatest concernment in it self and I beleeve in your Lordships esteem also If your Lordship who have now had good leisure and great cause to revolve all your late words and actions in your most serious thoughts and to bring all the stirrings of your conscience upon every one of them to a strict examination be still of the same mind you were when you so solemnly washed your hands from the blood of the Lord of Strafford which he at his death charged home upon this Kingdome (a) then it cannot be but you must needs fear that it lyes upon this Land and in your apprehension may be one cause of the present unhappy condition thereof which hath beene so well foreseen and expressed by my Lord your father (b) And may you then or can you in such a time as this keep the reason of your fears to your self which for ought you can know may have the same operation in the hearts of those to whom you then so lively represented the hainousnesse of the sin of committing murther with the sword of justice if you think you can convince them thereof I need not tell your Lordship the force of naked truth not to bee told when it comes armed with so compleat an eloquence as â—od hath given your Lordship And if you could thereby worke the like change in the rest of my Lord of Straffords Judges which was wrought in you have they not power to review their owne proceedings and to repeal the Bill of Attainder they passed in this cause your Lordship knowes this is usuall in the Republick of Venice and if there be no president in our State of any man restored to his blood by the same Parliament which attainted him which I am not learnd enough to know I conceive such a new president were well made as many other have been by the wisdom of this Parliament by 〈◊〉 and not by the examples of former every Parliament ought to be guided For me if your Lordship shall prove to me that your grouuds remain firm after all my endeavours to shake them and withall if with the helpe of the many great Lawyers were of your Lordships opinion you can make a satisfactory Answer to the learned argument of Mr. Solicitor by which I was much cleared and confirmed in the judgement unto which I was lead by meer reason without having the light of the Law I here professe that I shall hold my selfe much obliged to your Lordp. for disabusing me and bound in conscience to make a retraction of my Answer in Print since I gave way to the printing thereof And I believe Master Saint-Iohn will be of the same mind the fame I have heard of his Religion being no lesse then that of his Law and the alteration of his opinion may prove a principall verb in theâ— construction of the Parliament concerning that case Your Lordp hath therefore no want of forreign inducements to imploy your best thoughts in this disquisition By the same labour your Lordp. may rectifie your own reputation in this matter which ought to be more tender to you now then ever as I see it is And if you can make it appear that you were in the right you shall wrong the Parliament more then yet you have done by entertaining the least doubt that you may thereby hinder your repatriation with them which I wish you had not done by other courses It is ever better for the wisest Counsells and States as well as men to retract an error then to maintain it But if on the other side your Lordship doth now perceive that you might have condemned the Earl os Strafford with as free a heart as you accused or prosecuted him for a Traytor then my Lord a good conscience will need no prompter to tell you that you owe the King and Kingdom a publique confession of your judgement as now informed in reparation of that high wrong you did His Majestie and the Parliament by publishing your Protestation in print when you were of another minde nor that you have much worke to do at home which can be done by no other and which it doth infinitely concern you not to slubber over I need not tell you my reason yet because the most watchfull conscience may need jogging sometimes I most humbly beseech your Lordship to give me leave without offence to entreat you first to take a re-view of your Speech by the light you now have from Master Solicitor and then to set before your eyes that part of the preface wherin you wished peace of conscience to your selfe and the
blessing of Almighty God to you and your posterity according as your judgement of the life of the Earl of Strafford should be consonant with your heart in all integrity which I do not with any intention on my part to give occasion to any other to inferre that your Lordship went one hairs breadth beyond your own beliefe of the integrity of your heart therein I thank God I have learned my duty better and as I ought do confidently believe your Lordship hath too much of the fear of God in your heart to transgresse so much as a Mathematicall point willingly and wittingly in so solemne an execration But withall I know the danger of making such imprecations before his face who is greater then our hearts and knoweth more by us then they do And if it be true which I have heard from persons of honor that there was a time when Sir Thomas Wentworth solemnly wished that if ever he gave his consent to the levying of monyes on the Subject without their own consent in Parliament He might be set up as a Beacon on a hill for people to gaze at We all have occasion given us in this protesting Age diligently to call to remembrance and sadly to reflect upon what ever we may have inconsiderately uttered in that kinde having all I suppose seen or heard how his rash words have been verified upon him by the Bonefires were made on the tops of many hills in some Countries for his execution and this by a kinde of instinct in the vulgar sort of people without any direction from wiser men the like whereunto upon the like occasion I beleeve was never done in the World before Your Lordship will therefore I hope forgive me if out of my desire to make sure of keeping your Lordship from being hereafter scorched with the like flames I presume to advise you to enter into your own heart being I suppose like mine own deceitfull above all things and there to make the strictest enquiry all your wit and memory can whether the lying of one thing or other in the way did not hinder you from going to the bottome when you made that execration and so from discerning somewhat then which you may now possibly see in this businesse For to be plaine with your Lordship I am therefore a little jealous there might be some pretincture in your Lordshipps own eye because I observe you could so clearly see and distinctly describe all that might bloud-shot other mens eys in this case and yet for ought appears in your Speech never once took notice of any of those many other causes of vitiation of judgement which it concerned your Lordship more to have looked after Such were personall respects as the inclination of one great wit to take part with another of one Peere apparent to take compassion of another in being complying with the judgement of the King at that time hope of favour from His Majesty from thence feare of His Maiesties dislike of a person so able so willing and then as was believed in so neere expectance of opportunity to do service to the King and State For I will not wrong your Lordships Noblenesse by the lightest imagination that your eye saw the worse by looking a squint at any private advantage in a publike employment And I will forbeare the mention of something might be of more force with you then all I have yet touched because if it were so your Lordship must needs know it and I cannot minde you of it without preiudice to a third Person your nimble phansie will quickly represent all other to your memory by the hint of these I have set before you And they they my Lord and such other were the corruptive of iudgement of which you should have discharged your selfe to the uttermost of your power and not Lapwing like have made so great a cry with so many awayes there where your conscience was in no danger (a) Mistake me not I do not say but some other might have need of the warnings you gave and may yet have cause to reflect upon what you then sayd though they then gave right iudgement Neither do I thinke the worse of you for differing from so great a number of religious and conscionable Patriots Nay I should not have thought so well of you as I do if not having your understanding subdued you should have captivated your iudgement to theirs or if after you had wiped your heart on the side I have now shewed you and it may be you onely forgot to mention not to thinke on by your selfe upon the hearing of the Diametrall opposition between great Lawyers of the House in their opinions your Lordships mind stood in aequilibrio though this were an imperfection of iudgement I should do wrong to suppose in you yet if in truth it were so I pronounce you ought to have done as you did at least I should have done the same had I been in your place For I conceive that a minde in that posture is bound or at least hath liberty to encline to the safer side for it self though it may be the more unsafe for the State because a mans own soule is of more value to him then all the world And I humbly conceive that in all cases either of Counsell or of Judicature to one of which it may be all that come within the walls of either House may be reduced it is ever safest to encline to that side which goeth with him that is in possession which in this case of the Lord of Strafford was that which was against the Bill of Attainder After I had written thus much and more in answer to your Lordships Apologie the Kingdoms weekly Intelligencer his accompt of the last week came to my hands wherein he taketh notice of your Apologie and saith your Lordship therein forgot to mention the first matter by which your Honour was questioned in the House of Commons while you served there And then telleth a strange story which I cannot wonder enough I should never have heard of before Thus There were sayth he foure beside your Lordship of the close Committee concerning the Earle of Strafford There was a paper of much importance concerning the sayd Earle mislayd on a sodaine in a private roome where they were which was mist before they departed but could not be found yet next day they had it at Court Those foure Members particularly made their protestation in the presence of God and of the House of Commons that they were not privy to the conveying away of that paper His Lordship did the like and wished a curse upon him if he knew any thing of it Whether this writer were not to blame in concluding this story with this Epiphonema God is iust and its observable that this Lord hath not had many blessings befalne him since that his imprecation and asseveration I leave to the judgement of Divines As I do also whether that Writer himselfe if he
you have had but equall dealing with others And as for the amendment of the charge I believe your Lordship may one day find that your assembling of Cavaliers at Kingston upon Thames for in those words it is expressed in the third Remonstrance of the Parliament was understood by the Lords and Commons at that time to be a sufficient discovery of your mind to engage His Majesty into a civill war So sufficient that his Majesties coming to the House of Commons in the manner he did His retiring from London to Hampton Court and the appearing of those persons in a warlike manner at Kingston upon Thames who having been so assembled by your Lordship waited upon his Majesty thither were by the Parliament both Houses being then full thought sufficient grounds for the committing of the custody of the Town of Hull and of the Magazine there to Sir Iohn Hotham and for his possessing himselfe thereof by their Authority Notwithstanding his Majestie having sent my Lord the Earl of Newcastle to take the government of that Town upon him all which you may observe in the Remonstrance above mentioned As you may also another passage I suppose very worthy to be seriously reflected upon by your Lordship amounting to that on their own part which my Lord your father calleth ultimam admonitionem on his Majesties part to wit That if those malignant spirits your Lordship by perusing the place may see whom they intend shall ever force us to defend our Religion the Kingdome the Priviledges of Parliament and the Rights and Liberties of the Subject with our swords the blood and destruction that shall ensue thereupon must be wholly cast upon their account God and our consciences tell us that we are clear and we doubt not but God and the whole world will clear us therein By this your Lordship may fully discern that the charge intended to be made good against you is no lesse then having been an instrument at least of some other greater malignants to incite His Majesty to the beginning of a civill war which will not fayle to prove levying War against the King if it can be proved against you And how far those Letters of your Lordships in which you are so confident that upon an impartiall survey there will not be found so much as an opinion as unto peace or war yet being layed to other evidences may serve to induce your Peers to find you guilty of the making of such a Warre may be seene in time the great bringer of truth to light APOLOGY Since that time other Letters of mine or Copies of Letters possibly never sent have had the same fortune and been published to the world and to shew the follies and indiscretions of a man enough in her disfavour before with Glosses and Comments to informe the people how much of the dangerous and pernicious Counsells pretended to be then and still on foot had passed through my hands and how great an enemy I am to Parliaments to this latter most grievous and venemous imputation I hope God will have preserved me some kind of Autidote in mens memories of what part I had the happinesse to bear in the passing of the Trienniall Bill and to it I shall only say thus much that I have had the honour to be a Member of the one House and must presume to think My self still a Member of the other that I value the honour the dignity and the priviledges of both infinitely above the pleasures and benefits of life and if I ever wilfully contributed or shall ever consent to the prejudice of either I wish the desires of all my enemies may fall upon me To that of my having had so great a hand in ill Counsells which are expressed to be of his Majesties removing from London to a place of safety and the like I shall be bold to say that the Letter to the Queens Majesty from whence my enemies would make the inference hath not with any confidereâ— the least propending of advice any way but is meerly an account of mine own intentions to apply my self to His Majesties service either by absence or attendance according to course that His Majesty in his wisdom should thinke fit to take Every body knowes I never had the honor to be a Counsellor neither have I presumed without being questioned by his Majesty to interpose in his affairs when he hath graced me with any question I have answered with the freedom of a Subject and a Gentleman But had I been a Counsellor having seen what I have seen and heard what I heard I who have known such Members of both Houses marked out by the multitude for blessings and such for sacrifice I who can say with truth that such of that Rabble cryed out the Kings is the Traitor such that the young Prince would govern better I who can prove that a Leader of those people in the heat and violence of the tumult cryed out that the King was not fit to live Had I been a Counsellor what had I been as the learning of Treason was then understood should I not have advised his Majesty to withdraw to a place of safety not from his Parliament but from that insolent and unruly multitude who had already brought into so much hazard the persons and the liberty of this till then most happy Parliament and not staying there did so lowdly threaten ruine even to the sacred person of the King Advertise his Majesty I did of the danger advise him I could not I had neither the ability nor the authority In my Letter to the Queen at her first coming into Holland it was observed that in that expression of welcoming her from a Country not worthy of her I â—â—ewed much venime and rancour to my own Nation I meant it not and must appeale to those who are best acquainted with the Civility of language whether the addresse might not be comely to any Lady of quality who should upon any not pleasing occasion leave one Country for a while to reside in another And I hope ere long to wellcome Her Majesty back from a place not so unworthy of her unto this Nation most worthy of her without either disparagement to Holland or complement to those to whom the unworthy of that Letter was intended For the charge of boldnesse and presumption in some expressions of those Letters though I might be glad to compound my treason for incivilitie since the suspicion of that depends upon the right understanding of language and connexion of words it will be no disrespect to any through whose hands they have passed to believe that as they were otherwise intended by me so that they are capable of other interpretation However if in truth mis understanding or ill breeding bath produced the other I hope the conclusion will only be that I am an ill Courtier or an ill Secretary both which I do humbly confesse not that I am no good English man no good Subject If in any
Ministers of the City and Country may not be the dreggs of that cup of the Prelates vengeance which your Lordship hath so lively expressed in your Speech concerning them (c) or at the worst may not be imputed to the impatience of those their former sufferings you have so largely set forth which is an excuse his Majesty hath been gratiously pleased to make for others in as great a fault And lastly say that for the Letters of the accused Members which you have sayd for your own and then upon the whole matter judge whether without breach of charity which begins at home you may not conceive it possible they may be as innocent as you know your selfe to be and then I hope they may judge the like of you and the King and Kingdome may be of your mind and theirs But how then came they and you and the King and Parliament to have such strange impressions of one another Oh that it were a world to be merry in I should then dare to say pleasantly that I doubt the story of this last yeer may at last prove a Romans of the Devils making in a great part of it But I must be serious and I will therefore say soberly The envious man hath sowne these tares of jealousie and calumny which ever grow up together while his Majestie and his Parliament slept and the watch-men of our Israell slept also in part and in part were otherwise too busy and I and such as I thought good seed sowne in so good a season and ground would spring up of it selfe though we neither watcht nor prayed and it may be gloried and trusted more in those noble Worthies for that name we had given them and it may be they may have been too ready to assume it then in God that instructed them how and when and what to cast into the ground Ex illo sluere retro sublapsa referri Spes c. How should the Devill have upheld his Kingdom if he had not divided this when King and Parliament and priest and people were so well agreed and in some sort almost all inclined to advance the Kingdome of Jesus Christ in it When the Parliament had procured from his Majesty such redresses of the grievances of the Subject as were to their and the Kingdomes abundant satisfaction and yet his Majesty of his superabundant grace desired and desired and urged and pressed to know what they desired more by his so often reiterated Message of the 20. of Ianuary which will be a more lasting monument of his wisdom and goodnesse then any can ever be errected for him by the Prince his Son and when the Kingdom thus far secured and offered to be secured at home at the same time enioyed so universall a peace abroad that it had no visible enemy in the whole world either infidell or Christian as hath been well observed by my Lord your father how should this envious enemy of mankind have hindred us of this Nation from being happy but by kindling fomenting iealousies and dissensions at length blowing them up into a war among our selves What is there never a Loyall Subiect in this Kingdom so famous for Loyalty Are the best men in it become the worst Subiects Are all the godly Ministers in our Church suddenly grown to be Popishly or Seditiously affected Is the most clement of our Kings turned enemy to his Parliament that is to â—is people that is to Himselfe Hath the best Parliament we ever had a mind to traduce to revile to destroy their King Are the many persons of honor and integrity in this Nation all in disesteem with King or Parliament Shall the accused Members one of them (f) being a true Israelite in the beleef of all Israel be made guilty of the treasonable words utterd by any base fellow or other person without their knowledge by an advantage of Law through your Lordships suggestion Or shall your Lordship be found a Traytor through their or any of their instigation for the desperate words vented by any Ruffian that mingled himselfe in his Majesties train without His or your Lordships consent or approbation or for any such like matter Now the Lord rebuke thee O Sathan yea the Lord that hath often miraculously saved this Kingdom rebuke thee The great dexterity your Lordship hath to manage these things I have now suggested and many more will arise in your own thoughts to the same purpose may possibly be so well imployed by the good instructions you may receive from one known to be as able and who may be as willing to have his hand in all this as Ioab was to prepare the widdow of Tekoah to tell her well made tale that his Maiesty may once more be gratiously pleased not only to have the supposed fault of the accused Members wrapped up in the bundle of the unwilling and unknowing errors of his Subjects and so pardoned among the rest but to receive them into his favour Your Lordship remembers your own words that it was a principall â—oy to you to see those persons who had been the prime Actors in the happy Reformation of this Parliament so acceptable at Court Pray to God to give you the same ioy again The Kings admirable clemency hath produced many as great wonders in his Raign My Lord your father is an example in the very point And the Kings heart is still in the same hand that turned it towards him after as great an aversation And if your Lordship once find this great block that lyeth in the way of the peace of the Kingdom begin to stir then put all your own and your friends strength to it Have no doubt that you shall not receive the like favour from the accused Members though you never convey to them the least knowledge of that you have done in their behalfe Solomon hath observed that when a mans wayes please the Lord he maketh his enemies to be at peace with him And a wiser then Solomon hath made a further observation that with what measure we meet it shall be measured to us again which it may be your Lordship or they have found already in ill measure He hath also promised that almes done in secret shall be rewarded openly Stay not here but do your debvoir towards his Maiesties speedy returne to London in reparation of the ill advise you were thought to have given about his withdrawing from thence And if this breach between your Lordship and them the first wound in the representative body of the Kingdom were once perfectly consolidated by a generall pardon and Act of Amnesty why might not his Maiesty safely take his place where he sits as head over that his body without the enacting of any more of these new Laws which one hath lately propounded (g) I hope in respect of the hardnesse of mens beleef as Moses did his Bill of divorce else I must differ from him also in them But I wholly agree
with him in this that the most necessary action to be first done before or on the day of His Majesties and his Parliaments meeting were a most solemne humiliation for the blood hath bin shed which can never be so put off from one to another but it will still lye on the Land and for the many robberies have been â—ommitted not by Prince Rupert who is least guilty of them but by one English-man one Christian one Protestant upon another And in sum for all those sins wherewith we and it may be the King and Parliament have provoked our God to jealousie As we have cause to feare in respect of the spirit of jealousie he hath sent among us and between theâ— for the iudgements of God on men do not seldome point to that sin wherewith they first grieved him This will well set off the action of thanksgiving no lesse necessary to be performed for such a happy meeting And here may be some thing more yet needfull to be done for the doing whereof as no subject is so able so in some respect no man is so fit as my Lord your father and which if I be not mistaken would make him as acceptable to the people as his extraordinary experience and abilities have rendred him to his Majesty which for the Kingdomes sake I wish he were though I have no obligation to him and some great persons to whom I am infinitâ—ly obliged think they have had as little to him as I. Heark me thinkes I heare a noyse of ten thousand times ten thousand people making the earth to shake and the mountaines Eccho with ioyfull acclamations God save the King God save the Queen â—od save the Prince And after a due pause then a confused murmur of as many thousands saying one to another See how their Maiesties and His Highnesse reioyce in the ioy of the two Houses of Parliament waiting on them and in the ioy of all their People Glory be to â—od on high for the peace he hath given us And after this a whisper of many asking every on of his neighbour Which is the Lord Kimbolton which is the Lord Digby which are the five Members of the House of Commons Are they also reconciled and become better friends for their late bitter falling out And may we hope that all the Noblemen â—entlemen and all other sorts of people in the Kingdom will take up the same fashion This is the Lords doing blessed be his holy name Am I not deceived No I am not I will quit my Eremites weed to go see this great sight and to give my Plaudite to this happy Catastrophy of our Tragicall Comedy then returne to my Cell and to my only ambition there to attain to that Heaven upon Earth (a) which the great Philosopher of our Age and Nation hath expressed in his language that is in the best was ever spoken by English man To have my mind move in charity rest in Providence and turne upon the Poles of Truth Madame I Shall not adventure to write unto your Majesty with freedome but by expresses or till such time as I have a cipher which I beseech your Majesty to vouchsafe me At this time therefore I shall only let your Majesty know where the humblest and most faithfull servant you have in the world is Here â—â—Middleborough where I shall remain in the privatâ—st way I can till I receive iâ—structions howâ— to serve the King and your Majesty in these parts If the King betake Himsâ—lfe to a saâ—e placâ— where he may avow and protect his servants from rage I meâ—n and viâ—lence for from justice I will never implore it I shall then live in impatience and in misery till I waite upon you Buâ—â—f after all he hath done of late he shall betake himselfe to the easiâ—st and complyantest wayes of accommodation I am confident that thâ—n I shall serve him more by my absence then by all my industry and it will be a comfort to me in all calamities if I cannot serve you by my actions that I may do it in some kinde by my sufferings for your sake haâ—ing I protest to God no measure of happinâ—sse or misfortune in this world but what I derive from your Majesties value of my affection and fidelity Middleborough the 21. of Ianuary 1641. The Supscription of the Letter For my Worthy friend Sir Lewes Divâ—s Knightâ— at the Earle of Bristolls house i◠〈◊〉 LONDON Deare Brother I Hope you will have received the Letter which I wrote unto you from aboord Sir Iohn Peâ—â—ington wherein I gave you account of the accident of O Neals man and why I thought fitting to continue my journey into Holland going still upon this ground 〈◊〉 if things go on by way of accommodâ—tion by my absence the King will be advantaged Iâ— the King declare Himselâ—e and â—â—tire to a safe place I shall be able to wait upon him from hâ—â—â— as well â—s out oâ— any part of England ovâ—r â—nd above the service which I may dâ— Him here in the mean time Besides that I â—ound all the Ports so strict that if I had not taken this opportunity of Sir Iohn Penningtons forwardnesse in the Kings seâ—vice it would have bin impossible for me to have gotten away at any other time I am now here at Middleborough at the Golden-fleece upon the Market at one Geoâ—ge Pâ—â—râ—oâ—s hâ—usâ— where I will remain till I receive from you advertisement of the state of things and likewâ—se instâ—uctions from their Majâ—stiâ—s which I desire you to hasten unto me by some safe handâ— anâ— withall to sâ—nd unto me a cyphâ—r whereby we may write unto one anothâ—â— frâ—â—ly If you knew how â—asie a passage it were you would oâ—fer the King to come â—ver for some few dayes your sâ—lfe God knows I have not a thought towards my â—ountry to â—ake â—e blush much lesse criminall but where Traitors have so great a sway the â—onestâ—st thoughts may prove most treaâ—onable Let Duk Sâ—â—â—lty be diâ—patcht hiâ—hâ—râ— speedily with such black clothes and lâ—nnen as I 〈◊〉 and let your letters be directed to the Baron of Sherborn for by that name I live unknown Let care be taken for Bils of Exchangâ— Middleborough Ian. 20. 1641 Yours The Lord DIGBYES Letter to the Queens Majesty Madam HAGUE March 10. 1642. IT is the first contentment that I have been capâ—ble of this long time That your Majestie â—â— safely arrived in HOLLAND Withdrawn from a Country so unworthy of you I should have waâ—ted the first upon you both to have tendred my duty according to my preâ—â—dence of obligâ—tion abovâ— others and to hâ—ve informed your Majesty the timeliest of the state of this place wither you are coming both in point of affectâ—ons and inâ—erests but that there flie about such reports that the Parliament hath dâ—sirâ—d your Majesty not to admit me to your Presence as I daâ—e not presume into it without particular permâ—ssion The grouâ—d of their malâ—volence towards
me in this particular is said to be upon some Letters which they have presumed to open directed unto your Majesty from me which I proâ—esse I cannot apprehend for I am certain that I have not written to your Majestie the least word that can be wrested to an ill sensâ— by my greatest enâ—mies having not so much as mentioned â—ny businesse to your Majesty since I left England To the King I wrâ—te onâ—e with that hardinesse which I thought His aâ—â—aires and complexion required but that Lâ—tter was sent by so safe hands as I cannot apprehend the miscarrying of it However Mâ—â—am if my misfortune be so great as that I must be deprived of the sole comfort of my 〈◊〉 of waiting on Your Majesty and following Your fortunes I beseech You let my doome be so signified unto me as that I may retire with the least shame that well may be to bewaile my unhappinesse which yet will be supportable if I may be but assured that inwardly that genâ—rous and princely hearts preserves me the place of MADAM Your Majesties most faithfull and most affectionate humble servant Master Ellyots Letter to the Lord DIGBY My Lord YOu have ever been so willing to oblige that I cannot despair of your favour in a businâ—sse wherâ—in I am much concerned The King was pleased to employ me to London to my Lord Keeper for the Seals which though after two hours consideration he refused yet being resolved not to be denied my importunity at last prevailed which service the King hath declared was so great that he hath promised a reward equall to it it may be the King expects I should move him for some place which I shall not do being resolved never to hâ—â—e any but the Queen being already so infinitely obliged to her for her favours that I confesse I would owe my being onely to her nor shall I ever value that life I hold but as a debt which I shall ever pay to her commands The favour which I desire from yourâ— Lordship is That you will engage the Queen to write to the King that he would make me a Groome of his Bed-chamber which since I know t is so absâ—lutely in her power to doe I shall never think of an other way for which favour neither her Majesty nor your Loydship shall ever finde a mâ—re reall servant For our affairs they are now in so good a condition that if we are nor undone by hearkning to an A commodation there is nothing else can hurt us which I feare the King is too much enclined to but I hâ—pe what he shall receive from the Queen will make him so resolved that nothing but a satisfaction equâ—ll to the injuries he hath received will make him quit the advantage he now â—â—th which I do not doubt will be the means oâ— bringing your Lordship quickly hither where you shall finde none more ready to obey your Commands Yorke the 27 of May 1642. Then your most faithfull and humble servant THO: ELLIOT Observations upon the same Letters THe Lords and Commons have commanded these ensuing Letters and Votes to be printed The copy of a Letter writtâ—n by the Lord Digby to the Queen the 10 of Mâ—â—châ— last of his own hand-writing An originâ—ll Letter wâ—itten to the Lord Digby by Mâ—stâ—â—Thomas Eliot from Yâ—â—ke the 27 of May last Two notes of Arms the one of which is partly His Majâ—sties own hand both found among my Lord Digbâ—â—s papers In the Letter of the Lord Digby to the Quâ—â—n it may be observâ—d how he discovers his venomous hâ—â—rt to this Kingdom in that malicious censure thâ—t we are a Countrâ—y unworthy of hâ—â— unworthy indeed to be so often designed to â—uine and destruction to be undermined and circumventâ—d by so many plots and devillish projects of Iesuits and Priests and other the most factious and malignanâ— spirits in Christâ—ndome by which we had been often ruined and destroyed iâ— Gods wonderâ—â—ll mercy had not preserved usâ— and we call his Divinâ— Majesty to witnâ—sse thâ—t we have nâ—ver done any thâ—ng agâ—inst the personall safety or Honor of Hir Majesty onely we have desired to be secured from such plots from such mischiâ—â—â—us Engineâ—â— thâ—t thâ—y migâ—t not have the favour of the Court and such a powerfull influence upon His Majesties Councels as they have had to the extream hazard not onely of the civill Liberty and Peace of the Kingdom but of that which we hold deâ—rer much than these yea then the very being of this Nation our Religion whereupon depends the Honor of Almighty God and salvation of our souls Let this Lord who wâ—s long amongst us and knew the grounds of our proceedings and most secret consultations produce any thing if he can of undutifulnesse or dis-respect to her Majesty exprest or intended by us Another discovery in the Letter is this That this Lord confesâ—eth that he writ to His Majesty with the hardinesse which he thought His afâ—airs and complexion required what this was may well be perceived in a Letter from himselfe to the Queen heretofore printed by our direction his affairs in the judgement of this Lord required that he should withdraw Himselfe from His Parliament betake Himselfe to some place of strength such was the counsell he then gave Him and how well it hath bin followed every man may perceive but what His Majesties Complexion required that may seem a greater mystery and yet this may be collected out of that Letter That His Majesty in the apprâ—hâ—nsion of this Lord was too inclinable to an Accommodation with His Parliament which in a kinde of scorn in that Letter is called the easie or the sage way this Complexion so beseeming a good Prince required such a hardy and vehement provocation to wrath and war against His Subjects as this Lord presumed to expresse in that Letter and besides his treachery to the Kingdom we may herein observe a great degree of insolence and contempt towards His Majesty that he shoulâ— dare in a Letter to the Queen to tax His Majesties Complexion with so much as mildnesse towards His people must needs be required such hardy and bold Counsâ—ll In Master Eliots Letter it may be first observed That whilest His Majesty contests with His Parliament for some questionable Prerogatives concerning the Common-wealth His own servants do really deprive him of an undoubted Prerogative of being the Soveraigne disposer of favours and preferments in His own Family which this Gentleman doth expresse in that resolution never to have any place about His Majesty but by the Queen and may be further observed what these desperate Counsels about the King are most afraid of and what they think most huâ—tfull to themselves that His Majesty should be inclined to an Accommodation with His people By this they fear to be undone that is to lose that prey the estates of the Parliament men and other good Subjects which they have already devoured in their own fancies and that they expect to
be preserved from this undoing by the Queens interposing By these two Notes may be observed that at the time whilest so many Declarations were published in His Majesties Name with solemne Protestations of His Majesties intentions of raising onely a Guard for His own Person all sorts of Provision for an Army were made beyond the seas and this poore Kingdom designed to the misery and confusion of war and under the disguise of defending the Protestant profession an Army to be raised in the intention of these wicked Counsellors for the suppressing and destruction of the Protestant Religion A Note of the Arms sent for by the KING from Amsterdam C. R. Two hundred fire-locks 4 peeces of Cannon for battery viz. 1 Cannon 1 Demi-Cannon 2 whole Culverin 2 Mortars 4 Petards 10 field-peeces of 6 pound bullet mounted One hundred Barrels of powder Round shot and case proportioned to the severall Pieces Two thousand pair of Pistolls One thousand Carbines Three thousand Saddles Three thousand Musquets One thousand Pikes C. R. Iran de gerre a Amsterdam Bartholetti Agent de la langravine de Hen. Wickford Die Lunae 1. Augusti 1642. Ordered that the Letters from the Lord Digby and M. Thomas Elliot and the Note of arms sent for by the King from Amsterdam be printed And that it be referred to the Committee for the Defence of the Kingdom to prepare a Preâ—mble and to make some Observations upon these Letters H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com. Postscript TO give my self the honor of becoming your Lordships Gentleman-Vsher in the way of retractation I shall not blush freely here to confesse that when I made that mine Answer to your Lordships Speech to the Bill of Attainder I had not observed that the breach of the Sabbath among the Iews was punishable by death by any Command of God before that which was given upon the occasion of the gatherer of sticks which was a manifest ignorance in me For Exod. 31. 14. we find these words Ye shall keepe the Sabbath for it is holy unto you every one that defiles it shall surely be put to death for whosoever doth any worke therein that soul shal be cut off from among his People Whereby it seemeth that the question about the stick-gatherer was in the regard of the lightnesse of the work he had done or of some other occasion now unknown to us but that makes no difference in the case in respect of the use I made of the example And upon this occasion I cannot forbear to observe that the grossâ— breaches of all the Commandements of the first Table were made Capitall by God which is a matter worthy of much consideration by them that have the Legislative power in all Christian States There is yet another greater slipp in that Answer of minâ— Where having that in my thoughts which your Lordship hath so well expressed as I have recited it in the beginning of that page There is in Parliament a double power of life and death by Bill a judiciall power and a Legislative powerâ— the measure of the one is what is legally just of the other what is prudentially and pollitickly fit for the good and preservation of the whole I â—n my Answer thereunto expressed my selfe too short in these words But in either of those cases to deny unto that Representâ—tive body the High Court of the Kingdome a liberty to do any thing not unjust in it self though not as yet legally declared to be just for the preservation of that greâ—â—er body it represents when according to the sincere judgement of prudence and pollicy it cannot be suffciently secured by Laws already made is neither agreed â—e to the Law of nature â—or of the Land nâ—r of God nor to a rule of your Lordships own Whereas I should have sâ—yd to do any thing by Bill For so it was propounded by your Lordship and intended by me having your words in my phancy and such was the case of the Lord Straffords Attainderâ— which I was to maintain against whom the House of Commons thought better to proceed by Bill even after a judiciall hearing to avâ—yd the inconvenâ—â—nce of affirming or seeming to affirme an arbitrary power in the House of Peers in their proceedings by way of judiâ—â—ture in the câ—se of Treason The use whereof their Lordships themselves have I think allwayes â—s carefully declined ever since the Statute of 25. Edw. 3. whatsoever power by that Statute may be thought to remain in them The Printer made many faults which being none of mine I will not trouble my selfe to â—mend nor those he may have made in this my Answer to your Lordships Apology But for my own if in the hâ—st it was written any may have escaped me which may give the leâ—st offâ—nce either to the King my most gracious Soveraign or to the Parliament or to eithâ—r Hâ—use thereof or to your Lordship or to any man dead or lâ—ving I do here humbly crave their pardon who may take the offence and retract â—â— as having happened beâ—ide my intention and against my will To the READER I Should do ill to print a half truth whereof I pretend to be an intire lover I must therefore here give notice that the three former parts of this Answer were in his hands to whom I râ—commended the care of the printing according to the date in the Title which he can testifie but I could not resolve to let the fourth go after them so soon for reasons concerning others and not my sâ—lf And in the mean time I made many great alterations in this last part and it hath still grown under my hand at length to the bulk it now bears which I will not excuse because I could not mend Non sunt longa quibus nihil est quod demere possis Sed tu Cosconi Disticha longa facis This passage hath reference to the Marginall note in fol. 6. at the latter end When my Lord of Essex stood in favour the Parliaments were calm Nay I finde it a true observation that there was no impeachment of any Nobleman by the Commons from the Raign of King Henry the sixth untill the eighteenth of King Iames nor any intervenient president of that nature not that something or other could be wanting to be said while men are men For not to go higher we are taught easily so much by the very Ballads and Libels of Leicestrian time But about the aforesaid yeer many yong ones being chosen into the House of Commons more then had been usuall in great Councells who though of the weakest Wings are the highest Flyers there arose a certain unfortunate and unfruitfull Spirit in some places not sowing but picking at every stone in the Field rather then tending to the generall Harvest And thus far the consideration of the Nature of the Time hath transported me and the occasion of the subject FINIS ERRATA PAge 9. line 19. for it an read it as an hyperbolicall p. 12. l. 26.
dele I. p. 13. l. 11 12. read as all other kingdoms and States in Europe have also p. 18. l. 5. for if that read that if p. 20. l. 14. for the Law read our Law p. cad. l. 16. for retraction read retractation p. 21. l. 2. after you did adde or at least was done p. 24. l. pen after written adde and cousenting thereunto p. 27. l. 21. for minde read mine p. 32. l. 2. for were read was p. cad. l. 20. for tare read care Lesser faults may be amended by every Reader (a) And truly though much may be said in praise of Her magnanimity and dexterity to comply with Her Parliaments and for all that come off at last with honor and profit yet wee must ascribe some part of the commendation to the wisdom oâ— the times and the choice of Parliament men For I finde not that they were at any time given to any violent or pertinacious dispute elections being made of grave and discrâ—et persons not factious and ambitious of fame such as câ—me not to the House with a malâ—volent spirit of contention but with a preparation to consult on the publike good and rather to comply then to contest with Her Majesty Neither do I finde that the House was at any time weakned andâ— pestered with the admission of too many yong heads as it hath been of later times which remembers me of Recorder Martiâ—s Speech about the tenth of our late Soveraign Lord K. Iames when there were accounts taken of forty Gentlemen not above twenty and some not exceeding sixteen which moved Him to say that it was the ancient custome for old men to make Laws for yong ones but that then he sâ—â— the case altered and that there were children elected unto the great Councell of the Kingdom which came to invade and invert Nature and to enact Laws to govern their Fatheâ—s Vide râ—liquâ— Sir Robert Naunton his Fragm. Râ—gal p. 9. There is a like passage in Sir Henry â—ootens paralel between the late Duke of Buckingham and the late Lord of Essâ—x (a) I wish this Kingdom all the prosperity and happinesse in the world I did it living and now dying it is my wish I do now professe it from my heart and do most humbly recommend it unto every man here and wish every man to lay his hand upon his heart and consider seriously whether the beginning of the happinesse of a Kingdome should be written in letters of blood I fear you are in a wrong way and I desire Almighty God that no one drop of my blood may rise in judgement against you viz. Lord of Straffords Speech at his death (b) My Lords what I have yet sayd unto you hath bin chiefly grounded upon the apprehensions and feares of our future dangers I shall say something of the unhappinesses of our present estate wich certainly standeth in as much need of relief and remedy as our fears doe of prevention for although the King and People were fully united that all men that now draw severall wayes should unanimously set their hand to the work yet they would finde it no easie task to restore this kingdom to a prosperous and comfortable â—ondition If we take into our consideration the deplorable estate of Ireland likely to drain this kingdom of men and treasure if we consider the debts and necessities of the Crown the ingagements of the kingdom the great and unusuall Contributions of the people the which although they be not so much to their discontent for that they have been legally raised yet the burthen hath not been much eased Let us likewise consider the distractions I may almost call them confusions in point of Religion which of all other distempâ—rs are most dangerous and destructive to the peace of a State Besides the publique calamities let every particular man consider the distracted and discomfortable estate of his own condition for mine own part I must ingenuously profâ—sse unto your Lordship That I cannot finde out under the different Commands of the King and the Parliament any such course of caution or warinesse by which I may promise to my self security or safety I could give your Lordship many instances of the inconsistencie and impossibility of obeying these Commands But I shall trouble you onely with one or two The Ordinance of Parliament concerning the Militia now in so great agitation commandeth all persons in Authority to put it in execution and all others to obey it according to the Fundamentall Laws of the land The King declareth it to be contrary to the Fundamentall Laws against the Liberty of the Subject and Rights of Parliament And commandeth all His Subjects of what degree soever upon their Allegiance not to obey the said Ordinance as they will answer the contrary at their perills So likewise in point of the Kings commanding the attendance of divers of us upon His person whereunto we are obliged by severall relations of our services and oaths In case we comply not with His Commands we are liable to His displeasure and the losse of those places of honour and trust we hold under Him If we obey His Commands without the leave of the Parliament which hath not alwayes been granted we are liable to the censure of Parliament and of both these we want not fresh Examples So that certainly this cannot but be acknowledged to be an unhappy and uncomfortable condition I am sure I bring with me a ready and obedient heart to pay unto the King all those duties of loyalty allegiance and obedience which I owe unto Him And I shall never be wanting towards the Parliament to pay unto it all those due Rights and that obedience which we all owe unto it But in contrary Commands a conformity of obedience to both is hardly to be lighted on The Reconciliation must be in the Commanders and the Commands not in the obedience or the person that is to obey And therefore untill it please God to blesse us with a right understanding betwixt the King and Parliament and a conformity in their Commands neither the Kingdom in publique nor particular men in private can be reduced to a safe or comfortable condition Earl of Bristolle Speech May 20. 1642. Vide reliqua (a) Let every man purge his heart clear of al passions I know this great and wise body politicke can have none but I speak to individuals froÌ„ the weaknesse which I find in my selfe Away with al personal animosities Away with all flatteries to the people in being the sharper against him because he is odious to them Away with all fears lest by the sparing of his bloud they may be incenst away with all such considerations as that it is not fit for a Parliament that one accused by it of Treason should escape with life Let not former vehemence of any against him nor fear from thence that he cannot be safe while that man lives be an ingredient in the sentence of any one of us Of all these
corruptions of judgement Mr. Speaker I do before God discharge my selfe to the utmost of my power L. Dig. Speech April 21. 1641. (a) The same night after the Messengers were gone certaine information was brought to us that the same day the Earle of Essex had drawn his Forces with great store of Ordnance out of London toward us upon which a Councell of War bâ—ing present and we having there considered upon debate Our present Condition That being already almost surrounded by his Forces some at Windsor some at Kingston and some at Acton if we suffered the remainder to posâ—esse Brainceford we should be totally hemmd in and our Army deprived of all convenience of either moving or subsisting yet how necessary soever it appeared we could not obtain our own consent to advance towards Brainceford and either prepossesse it or dispossesse them of it till we had satisfied our selves that it was as lawfull as necessary and fully wayed all that not onely Reason but Malice it sâ—lf which we knew to be very watchfull upon our actions could object against it We considerd first that it could not reasonably bee esteemed an Aversion from Peace and an Intention to interrupt the Treaty then in expectation since on the other side we had cause to believe by the former rejection of our offers of Treaty when we were supposed to bee in no condition of strength That if wee would not thus preserve our selves from being so encompassed as to come into their powers the very possibility of a Treaty would immediatly vanish Wee considered next that much lesse could it be interpreted any breach of faith since willingnesse to receive Propositions of Treaty was never held to be a suspension of Arms Since otherwise we must bâ—cause a mention of a Treatie had been once made by the same Logick have been bound not to hinder them to encompasse us on all parts to Colebrook Towns end Since no word to that purpose of any suspension was in our Answer Nay since in that by wishing their Propositions might be hastened to prevent the Inconveniences which would intervene we implyed That by this Arms were not suspended And since their own Votes of proceeding vigorously notwithstanding the Petition and their now actions in sending after their Messengers great store of Forces with Ordnance so neer to us having before gift us in on all other parts and sent Men and Ordnance to Kingston after the safe Conduct asked of us implyed the same The Declaration of the Kings true Intentions in advancing to Brainceford pag. 4. Levit. 5. verse â—â— 10. (a) Cicero in Orat. ad Quâ—ri post reditum Pro me praesente senatuâ— hominumque praeterea vigenti nullia vestem mutaverunt Paulo post Quum omnes boni non recusarent quin vel pro me vel mecum pâ—â—irent armis decertare pro nica salute nolui quod vnicerc vinci lactuosum reipublicae â—erc putavi vide Relique (a) The Resolving of conscience by Henry Ferne Doct D. Sermon of Ier. Buroughs â—ntituled The Lord of Hosts c. New Plea for the Parliament And the Reserved Man resolved So resolved by him that if he will keep a good conscience and observe his principles then as he hath put the case and pleaded for the Parliament the Reserved Man must aâ—â—â—st the King which I conceive would please the pleader worse then his Newtrallity (b) Fuller Answer to a Treatise written by Doctor Ferne wherein the originall frame fundamentalls of this government of England togethâ—r with these two Texts of Scripture Rom. 13. 1. 1. Pet. 2. 13 are sufficiently cleared (a) Francisâ—ord Verulam (b) The Scots Declaration of August 3. 1642 printed Sep. 1. by the order of our Parliam together with an Extract of the Acts of the secret Councell of Scotland Aug. 18. (a) That if it stand with order of Parliaments wee may desire that there may be a starding â—ommittee of certain Members of both Houses who with a number of suâ—h Learned Ministers â—as the Houses shal nominate for assistants may take into consideration all the Grievances springing from the misgovernment of the Church and advise of the best way to settle peâ—ce and satisfaction in the government thereof to the comfort of all good Christians and of all good Commonwealths men Lord Digbies Speech concerning Bishops (a) No wood is neerer to rottennesse then some that seemeth to shine (c) Me thinks the vengeance of the Prelates hath beene so laid as â—f 't were meant no generation no degree no complexion of mankind should escape it Was there a man of a nice and tender conscience Him have they afflicted with scandall in Adiaphoris imposing on him those things as necessary which he thinks unlawfull and they themselves knew to be but indifferent Was there a man of a legall conscience that made the establishments by Law the measure of his Religion Him have they nâ—ttled with innovations with fresh introductions to Popery Was there a man of a meâ—k and humble spirit Him have they trampled to dirt in their pride Was there a man of a proud and arrogant nature Him have they borest with indignation as their superlative insolence above himâ— Was there a man peaceably affected studious of the quiet and tranquility of his Countryâ— Their incendiariship hath plagued him Was there a man faithfully addicted to the right of the Crown loyally affected to the Kings Supremacy How hath he been galled by their new oath a direct Covenant against it Was there a man tenacious of the liberty and propriety of the Subject Have they not set forth books or Sermons oâ— Canons destructive to them all Was there a man of a pretty sturdy conscience that would not blâ—nch for a little Their pernicious oath hath made him sensible and wounded or I fear prepared him for the Devill Was there a man that durst mâ—tter against their insolences Hee may enquire for his luggs they have bâ—en within the Bishops Viâ—â—tation as if they would not onely derive their brandishment of the spirituall Sword from Saint Peter but of the materiall one too and the right to cut off ears Lord Digbies Speech touching Bishops (f) M. Hampâ—â—n which Testimony I give him meerly for love of truth having beene much disobliged by him in my owne particular (g) Considerations upon the present State of the Kingdom dedicated to the City of London in December 1642. (a) Francis Lord Vâ—rulant
eminent persons there both in abilities and interests and at a time when certainly most men of my opinion were at their Devotions they were not able after four houres debate to expose me either upon the mayne matter or upon the bye unto the least reprehension For the thing it selfe I will say no more of it but that it happened to be upon a very unpopular argument but the cause and circumstance of the printing it was this I did not finde only that it was unfaithfully reported and uncharitably interpreted but was informed that Copies went abroad of it so falsely and maliciously collected as made the whole Speech a justification of my Lord of Straffords innocence and Sir Lewis Dives having beard of such a Copy in the house of a Citizen of good quality where he heard me mentioâ—â—d as a person fit to have his name fixt upon posts that I might be torn in pieces by the people upon that reason earnestly desired me to give him a true â—opy of what I had sayd in that Argument which I did and he forthwith gave direction for the printing it without any privity of mine Yet if I had consented to it and directed it I professe I should little have imagined that 〈…〉 when there was such an universall licence taken to print every thing of how great irreverence so ever â—ither to Church or State with impunity a Speech made in the House of Commons a Speech so narrowly and severely sifted and examined there and yet let passe without the least censure either on the Speech it self or the Author that the printing of such a Speech should rise to so high a nature as to make me for ever uncapable of any Honor or employment in the Common wealth I professe could hardly have salnâ— within my reason or fears to suspect And yet three months after the fact committed after the printing of an hundred Speeches more by other men after my having severall times sued and pressed for a hearing whilest I was of the House of Commons after by His Majesties favour I had sate six or seven weeks a Member of the House of Peers after all this no lesse a judgment as far as the vote of the House of Commons could contribute to it passed upon me unheard over and above the shame of having the Speech it selfe burned by the hand of the Hangman How I bore this affliction with what anxiety of minde to my selfe with what temper and submission to that Honorable Assembly from whence the blow came as many of my near friends can testifie the first so the envy or maâ—ice of no man can reasonably and justly â—ax me as unto the other How other young men upon no greater a stock of innocence than mine might have suffered themselves to be transported upon such misfortunes not to give them any other term I leave to those to judge who have not been so long brought up in the school of affliction As this censure sell upon me for many months after the fault objected so it rested within those walls where it begun without ever desiring a concurrence from that Court where I was onely to be judged and where I could onely answer for my selfe and hope for a vindication which encreased my sufferings to an unspeakable height that I could by no means â—lar my selfe in the place where I received the wound nor could take notice of it where I might be cleared by my Peers for fear of breach of priviledge of Parliament Though my censure were known to all the Kingdom yea I may say my infamy in print with forreign Nations ANSWER As touching your Lordships carriage in the Tryall and Attainder of the Earl of Strafford I must not conceal from you that the report of the latter made a much deeper gash in your Fame with us in the country and I believe in the City and in the Parliament too And yet the making of that Speech your Lordship did to the Bill of Attainder was no fault for ought I know and accordingly your Lordship need not ascribe it to the Favour but meerly to the Justice of that Honorable House that after a dozen distinct charges upon the severall passages of that Speech urged against you with great strictnesse and acrimony by that number of the most eminent persons there both in abilities and interests and in your absence upon a Good-Friday to you yet they were not able after four hours debate to expose you unto the least reprehension either upon the main matter or upon the bye The offence was the publishing it in print after the passing of the Bill and the execution of that great Lord which your Lordship may please to believe me gave exceeding great scandall in the country where I live and where the reasons given by your Lordship for your absolving Vote were by many maintained to be unanswerable And by this your Lordship may guesse what harm it did in other countries at home and abroad where you cannot be ignorant how apt some are to censure the proceedings of their neighbours and to take every advantage to speak the worst they can of them nor that they did so upon this occasion ministred by your Lordship So that if your censure were known to all the Kingdom and your infamy were in print with forreign Nations yet your Lordship therein received no more wrong then the King and Parliament and your Country did by your occasion I do therefore humbly intreat your Lordship to resist all temptation to thoughts of discontent for the censure which passed upon you and that Speech of yours in the House of Commons and to do it equall Justice by distinguishing their misfortunes in this and other occasions from their faults as you desire other should do in your case For presuming that the Speech was printed without your privity as you now relate I can find no fault in any man touching this matter but in Sir Lewis Dives and he besides the affection of a brother to a brother and the reason he had to do what he did hath the common license of the times for his almost sufficient excuse But an extreame misfortune it was as well to the House of Commons as to your Lordship that you should be censured by them for the fault of another man which invincible error of theirs it is very probable they might come to find after they had committed it and for that reason forbore the prosecution of their charge with the Lords to the diminution of their misadventure but the encrease of your Lordships in this affair because in my poor opinion as well in your Lordships neither you nor the House of Peers it selfe could take notice of what had beene done in the House of Commons without a breach of their priviledges since it was never by them brought up to the Lords which I write under correction so as your Lordships misfortune in this matter may seem irremediable And yet to shew your Lordship with how