bloud in open field one brother seeks to cut the others throat they have put division 'twixt master and servant 'twixt Land Lord and Tenant nay they have a long time put a sea of separation 'twixt King and Queen and they labour more and more to put division 'twixt the Head and the Members 'twixt His Majesty and his politicall Spouse his Kingdom And lastly they have plung'd one of the flourishingst Kingdoms of Europe in a war without end for though a Peace may be plaister'd over for the time I fear it will be but like a fire cover'd with ashes which will break out again as long as these fiery Schismaticks have any strength in this Island so that all the premisses considered if Turk or Tartar or all the infernal spirits and Cacodaemons of hel had broken in amongst us they could not have done poor England more mischief Sir I pray you excuse this homely imperfect relation I have a thousand things more to impart unto you when we may breathe freer air for here we are come to that slavery that one is in danger to have his very thoughts plundered Therfore if you please to accept of my company I will over with you by Gods help so soon as it may stand with your conveniency but you must not discover me to be an Englishman abroad for so I may be jeer'd at and kickt in the streets I will go under another name and am fix'd in this resolution never to breathe English aire again untill the King recovers his Crown and the People the right use of their Pericraniums THE SECOND PART OF A DISCOURSE ' TWIXT PATRICIUS AND PEREGRIN TOUCHING The DISTEMPERS OF THE TIMES LONDON Printed in the Year 1661. A DISCOURS or PARLY Continued betwixt Patricius and Peregrin Upon their landing in France touching the civil Wars of England and Ireland Peregrin GEntle Sir you are happily arrived on this shore we are now upon firm ground upon the fair Continent of France we are not circumscrib'd or coopt up within the narrow bounds of a rhumatick Island we have all Europe before us Truly I am not a little glad to have shaken hands with that tumbling Element the Sea And for England I never intend to see her again in the mind I am in unlesse it be in a Map nay In statu quo nunc while this Faction reigns had I left one eye behind me I should hardly returne thither to fetch it therefore if I be missing at any time never look for me there There is an old Proverb From a blacke German a white Italian a red Frenchman I may adde one member more and from a Round-headed Englishman The Lord deliver us I have often Crossed these Seas and I found my self alwaies pitifully sick I did ever and anon tell what Wood the Ship was made of but in this passage I did not feele the least motion or distemper in my humors for indeed I had no time to taink on sicknesse I was so wholly tsken up and transported with such a pleasing conceit to have left yonder miserable Island Peregrin Miserable Island indeed for I thinke there was never such a tyrannie exercised in any Christian Countrey under Heaven a tyrannie that extends not onely to the body but to the braine also not only to mens fortunes and estates but it reaches to their very soules and consciences by violented new coercive Oaths and Protestations compos'd by Lay-men inconsistent with the liberty of Christians Never was there a Nation carried away by such a strong spirit of delusion never was there a poor people so purblinded and Puppified if I may say so as I finde them to be so that I am at a stand with my selfe whether I shall pitie them more or laugh at them They not onely kisse the stone that hurts them but the hands of them that hurle it they are come to that passive stupidity that they adore their very persecutors who from polling fall now a shaving them and will flay them at last if they continue this popular reigne I cannot compare England as the case stands with her more properly then to a poor beast sicke of the staggers who cannot be cur'd without an incision The Astronomers I remember affirme that the Moone which predominates over all humid bodies hath a more powerfull influence o're your British Seas then any other so that according to the observation of some Nevigators they swell at a spring tide in some places above threescore cubits high I am of opinion that that inconstant humorous Planet hath also an extraordinany dominion over the braines of the Inhabitants for when they attempt any Innovation whereunto all Insulary people are more subject then other Citizens of the world which are fixed upon the Continent they swell higher their fancies worke stronglier and so commit stranger extravagancies then any other witnesse these monstrous barbarismes and violencies which have bin and are daily offered to Religion and justâ—…ce the two grand supporters of all States yea to humane Reason it self since the beginning of these tumults And now noble Sir give me leave to render you my humble thanks for that true and solid information you pleased to give me in London of these commotions During my short sojourne there I lighted on divers odde Pamphlets upon the Seamstresses stalls whom I wondred to see selling Paper sheets in lieu of Holland on the one side I found the most impudent untruths vouch'd by publike authority the basest scurrilities and poorest jingles of wit that ever I read in my life on the other side I met with many pieces that had good stuff in them but gave mee not being a stranger a full satisfaction they look'd no further then the beginning of this Parliament and the particular emergences thereof but you have by your methodicall relation so perfectly instructed and rectified my understanding by bringing me to the very source of these distempers and led me all along the side of the current by so streight a line that I believe whosoever will venture upon the most intricate task of penning the story of these vertiginous times will finde himself not a little beholden to that Relation which indeed may be term'd a short Chronicle rather then a Relation Wee are come now under another clime and here we may mingle words and vent our conceptions more securely it being as matters stand in your Countrey more safe to speake under the Lilly then the Rose wee may here take in and put out freer ayre I meane we may discourse with more liberty for words are nought els but aire articulated and coagulated as it were into letters and syllables Patricius Sir I deserve not these high expressions of your favourable censure touching that poor piece but this I will be bold to say That whosoever doth read it impartially will discover in the Author the Genius of an honest Patriot and a Gentleman And now methinks I look on you unfortunate Island as if one look upon a
INQUISITION AFTER TRUTH WHo vindicats Truth doth a good office not onely to his own Country but to all Mankind It is the scope of this short discourse viz. to make som researches after Truth and to rectifie the world accordingly in point of opinion specially touching the first Author and Aggressor of the late ugly war in England which brought with it such an inundation of bloud and so did let in so huge a torrent of mischiefs to rush upon us Ther be many and they not only Presbyterians and Independents but Cavaliers also who think that the King had taken the guilt of all this bloud upon himself in regard of that Concession he passed in the preamble of the late Treaty at the Isle of Wight The aim of this Paper is to clear that point but in so temperat a way that I hope 't will give no cause of exception much lesse of offence to any the bloud that 's sought after here shall not be mingled with gaule much lesse with any venom at all We know ther is no Principle either in Divinity Law or Philosophy but may be wrested to a wrong sense ther is no truth so demonstrative and clear but may be subject to cavillations no Tenet so plain but perverse inferences may be drawn out of it such a fate befell that preambular Concession His Majesty passed at the Transactions of the late Treaty in that he acknowledg'd therin that the two Houses of Parlement were necessitated to undertake a war in their own just and lawful defence c. and that therfore all Oaths Declarations or other public Instruments against the Houses of Parlement or any for adhering to them c. be declared null suppressed and forbidden 'T is true His Majesty passed this grant but with this weighty consideration as it had reference to two ends First to smoothen and facilitate things thereby to open a passage and pave the way to a happy peace which this poor Iland did so thirst after having bin so long glutted with civil blood Secondly that it might conduce to the further security and the indemnifying of the two Houses of Parlement with all their instruments assistants and adherents and so rid them of all jealousies and fear of future dangers which still lodg'd within them Now touching the expressions and words of this Grant they were not his own nor did he give order for the dictating or penning thereof the King was not the Author of them but an Assentor only unto them nor was He or his Party accus'd or as much as mentioned in any of them to draw the least guilt upon themselves Besides He pass'd them as he doth all Lawes and Acts of Parlement which in case of absence another may do for him in his politic capacity therfore they cannot prejudice his person any way I am loth to say that he condescended to this Grant Cum strict a novacula supra When the razor was as it were at his throat when ther was an Army of about thirty thousand effectif Horse and Foot that were in motion against him when his Person had continued under a black long lingring restraint and dangerous menacing Petitions and Papers daily obâ—…ruded against him Moreover His Majesty pass'd this Concession with these two provisos and reservations First that it should be of no vertu or validity at all till the whole Treaty were intirely consummated Secondly that he might when he pleas'd inlarge and cleer the truth with the reservednesse of his meaning herein by public Declaration Now the Treaty being confusedly huddled up without discussing or as much as receiving any Proposition from himself as was capitulated and reciprocall proposalls are of the essence of all Treaties it could neither bind him or turne any way to his disadvantage Therfore under favour ther was too much hast us'd by the Parlement to draw that hipothetick or provisional Concession to the form of an Act so suddenly after in the very heat of the Treaty without His Majesties knowledg or the least intimation of his pleasure Add hereunto that this Grant was but a meer preambular Proposition 't was not of the essence of the Treaty it self And as the Philosophers and Schoolemen tell us there is no valid proof can be drawn out of Proemes Introductions or Corollaries in any science but out of the positive assertions and body of the Text which is only argument-proof so in the Constitutions and Laws of England as also in all accusations and charges forerunning prefaces preambles which commonly weak causes want most are not pleadable and though they use to be first in place like gentlemen-Ushers yet are they last in dignity as also in framing nor had they ever the force of Laws but may be term'd their attendants to make way for them Besides ther 's not a syllable in this preface which repeals or connives at any former Law of the Land therefore those Laws that so strictly inhibit English Subjects to raise armes against their Liege Lord the King and those Lawes è contrario which exempt from all dangers penalties or molestation any Subject that adheres to the person of the King in any cause or buarrell whatsoever are still in force Furthermore this introductory Concession of the Kings wherein he is contented to declare That the two Houses were necessitated to take Armes for their defence may be said to have relation to the necessity à parte pòst not à parte antè self-defence is the universall Law of Nature and it extends to all other cretures as well as to the Rationall As the fluent Roman Orator in that sentence of his which is accounted among the Critiques the excellentest that ever drop'd from Cicero Est enim haec non scripta sed nata Lex quam non didicimus accepimus legimus verum ex natura ipsa arripuimus hausimus expressimus ad quam non docti sed facti non instituti sed imbuti sumâ—…s ut si vita nostra in c. For this meaning self-defence is not a written but a Law born with us A Law which we have not learnt receiv'd or read but that which we have suck'd drawn forth and wrung out of the very brests of Nature her self A Law to which we are not taught but made unto wherwith we are not instructed but indued withall that if our lifes be in jeopardy c. we may repel force by force Therfore when the House of Parliament had drawn upon them a necessity of self defence And I could have wish'd it had bin against any other but their own Soverain Prince His Majesty was contented to acknowledge that necessity As for example A man of war meets with a Marchant man at Sea he makes towards him and assaults him The Marchant man having a good stout vessell under him and resolute generous Seamen bears up against him gives him a whole broad-side and shoots him 'twixt wind and water so there happens a furious fight betwixt them which being ended the
three things which are inalienable from the Person of the King They are 1. The Crowne 2. The Scepter 3. The Sword The one He is to carry on His Head the other in His Hand and the third at His Side and they may be termed all three the ensignes or peculiar instruments of a King by the first He Reignes by the second He makes Lawes by the third He Defends them and the two first are but bables without the last as was formerly spoken 1. Touching the Crown or royal Diadem of England ther is none whether Presbyterian Independent Protestant or others now in action but confess that it descends by a right hereditary Line though through divers Races and som of them Conquerours upon the Head of Charles the first now Regnant 't is His own by inherent birth-right and nature by Gods Law and the Law of the Land and these Parliament-men at their first sitting did agnize subjection unto Him accordingly and recognize Him for their Soveraign Liege Lord Nay the Roman Catholick denies not this for though there were Bulls sent to dispense with the English Subjects for their allegiance to Queen Elizabeth yet the Pope did this against Her as he took Her for a Heretick not an Usurpresse though he knew well enough that She had bin declared Illegitimate by the Act of an English Parliament This Imperial Crown of England is adorned and deckd with many fair Flowers which are called royal Prerogatives and they are of such a transcendent nature that they are unforfeitable individual and untransferrable to any other The King can only summon and dissolve Parliaments The King can only Pardon for when He is Crowned He is sworn to rule in Mercy as well as in Justice The King can only Coyn Money and enhance or decry the value of it The power of electing Officers of State of Justices of Peace and Assize is in the King He can only grant soveraign Commissions The King can only wage War and make Out-landish Leagues The King may make all the Courts of Justice ambulatory with His Person as they were used of old 't is tru the Court of Common Pleas must be sedentary in som certain place for such a time but that expired 't is removeable at His pleasure The King can only employ Ambassadours and Treat with forraign States c. These with other royal Prerogatives which I shall touch hereafter are those rare and wholsom flowers wherewith the Crown of England is embellished nor can they stick any where else but in the Crown and all confess the Crown is as much the King 's as any private man's Cap is his own 2. The second regall Instrument is the Scepter which may be called an inseparable companion or a necessary appendix to the Crown this invests the King with the sole Authority of making Lawes for before His confirmation all results and determinations of Parliament are but Bills or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are but abortive things and meer Embryos nay they have no life at all in them till the King puts breath and vigour into them and the ancient custome was for the King to touch them with His Scepter then they are Lawes and have a vertue in them to impose an obligation of universall obedience upon all sorts of people It being an undeniable maxime That nothing can be generally binding without the King 's royall assent nor doth the Law of England take notice of any thing without it This being done they are ever after styl'd the Kings Lawes and the Judges are said to deliver the King's judgments which agrees with the holy text The King by judgment shall stablish the Land nay the Law presumes the King to be alwaies the sole Judge Paramount and Lord chief Justice of England for he whom He pleaseth to depute for His chiefest Justice is but styl'd Lord chief Iustice of the Rings â—…ench not Lord chief Justice of England which title is peculiar to the King Himself and observable it is that whereas He grants Commissions and Patents to the Lord Chancellour who is no other then Keeper of His Conscience and to all other Judges He names the Chief Justice of his own Bench by a short Writ only containing two or three lines which run thus Regina Iohanni Popham militi salutem Sciatis quod constitutmus vos justiciarium nostrum Capitalem ad placita coram nobis terminandum durante beneplacito nostro Teste c. Now though the King be liable to the Laws and is contented to be within their verge because they are chiefly His own productions yet He is still their Protector Moderator and Soveraigne which attributes are incommunicable to any other conjunctly or separately Thus the King with His Scepter and by the mature advice of His two Houses of Parl. which are His highest Councel and Court hath the sole power of making Laws other Courts of judicature doe but expound them and distribute them by His appointment they have but Iuris dati dictionem or declarationem and herein I meane for the Exposition of the Lawes the twelve Iudges are to be believed before the whole Kingdom besides They are as the Areopagites in Athens the chief Presidents in France and Spaine in an extraordinary Iunta as the Cape-Syndiques in the Rota's of Rome and the Republique of Venice whose judgments in point of interpreting Lawes are incontroulable and preferred before the opinion of the whole Senate whence they received their being and who hath still power to repeal them though not to expound them In France they have a Law maxime Arrest donné en Rebbe rouge est irrevocable which is a Scarlet Sentence is irrevocable meaning when all the Judges are met in their Robes and the Client against whom the Cause goes may chafe and chomp upon the bit and say what he will for the space of twenty foure howers against his Judges but if ever after he traduces them he is punishable It is no otherwise here where every ignorant peevish Client every puny Barister specially if he become a Member of the House will be ready to arraign and vie knowledge with all the reverend Judges in the Land whose judgement in points of Law shold be onely tripodicall and sterling so that he may be truly call'd a just King and to rule according to Law who rules according to the opinion of his Judges therefore under favour I do not see how his Majesty for his part could be call'd injust when he leavied the Ship-money considering he had the Judges for it I now take the Sword in hand which is the third Instrument of a King and which this short discours chiefly points at it is as well as the two first incommunicable and inalienable from his Person nothing concernes his honor more both at home and abroad the Crown and the Scepter are but unweildy and impotent naked indefensible things without it There 's none so simple as to think there 's meant hereby an ordinary single sword
Jewish Rabbi to say lately that it seems the grand Turk thrives extraordinarily in his devotions it being one of his prime prayers to Mahomet that he shold prevaile with God Almighty to continue disentions still among Christian Princes And truly as the case stands one may say that the Europaean world is all in pieces you know well with what fearfull fits of a high burning fever poor Germany hath been long shaken which hath wrought a Lethargie in some of her members by wasting of the vital spirits which shold diffuse themselves equally through that great body and how she stâ—…ll â—…ostereth a cold Northern Guest the Swed within her bosom and is in 〈◊〉 fear of a worse from the Levant In the Netherlands one shall hear the half-starv'd souldier murmur in every corner and railing against his King and ready to mutiny for want of pay In France you shall see the poor Asinin Peasan half weary of his life his face being so 〈◊〉 grownd ever and anon with new tallies You know ther are som Soverain Princes who have a long time wandred up and down in exile being outed of their own antiâ—…nt Patrimoniall Territories and little hopes yet God wot of restoring them The world knows how Savoy is become of late a kind of Province to France Nay Spain who hath been so dexterous to put her neighbours ogether by the eares and to foment war a far off to keep her own home secure is now her self in the midst of two fearfull fires kindled on both sides of her by quite-revolted subjects viz. the Portugues and Cat alan which so puzzles her that shee cannot tell what Saint to pray unto The Venetian also with the pope and all the Princes of Italy are arming apace the Hollander onely Salamander like thrives in these flames and as I have heard of some that by a long habituâ—…l custom could feed on poyson and turn it to nourishment so Hans alone can turn War to a Trade and grow fat by it Now Sir being weary of eating my bread in such a distracted world abroad and hoping to take some sweet repose in England I find that shee is in as bad a case if not worse then any other So much news I give you in a lump I will be more particular with you som other time if you please to spare me now Patricius I hear not without much resentment these pithy expressions you have been pleased to make of the torn estate of Europe abroad and since you mention that blazing Star I remember what a Noble Knight told me some yeers ago That the Astronomers who lay sentinel to watch the motion and aspect of that Comet observ'd that the tail of it having pointed at divers Climats at last it seem'd to look directly on these North-west I lands in which posture it spent it selfe and so extinguish'd as if thereby it meant to tell the world that these Islands should be the Stage whereupon the last act of the Tragedie should be play'd And how many Scenes have passed already both here and in Ireland we know God wot by too too wofull and fresh experience Peregrin There is a saying When your neighbours house is on fire by it's light you may see in what danger your own stands And was England so blind and blockish as not to take warning by so many fearfull combustions abroad When I took my leave last of her I left her in such a compleat condition of happines both in Court Country City and Sea that shee was the envie of all Europ in so much that that Golden Verse might be fiâ—…ly applied to her then Golden times Mollia securae perageâ—…ant otia Gentes The Court was never so glorious being hanselld every yeer almost with a new Royaâ—… off-spring the Gentry no where more gallanâ—… and sportfull the Citizen never more gorgeous and rich and so abounding with treasure bullion and buildings that no age can parallel Commerce inward and outward was never at that height the customes increasing every yeer to admiration the narrow Seas were never guarded with braver Ships nor the navie Royall for number of vessels and magazines of all sorts of materials was ever so well replenished the Universities had never such springing dayes and lastly the Church did so flourish that amongst the rest of the reformed Churches of Christendome I have heard her call'd the Church triumphant Besides Ireland was arriv'd almost to the same degree of prosperity for all the arrerages of the Crowne were paid and not a peny sent hence for many yeeres to maintain the standing army there or for any other publick charge as formerly Trafique came to that mighty height of encrease that in few years the Crown customes and imposts came to be five times higher In fine Ireland was brought not only to subsist of her selfe but inabled to contribut towards the filling of the English Exchequer and to make some retribution of those vast expences the Crown of England hath been at any time these 400 yeeres to reduce her to civility her boggs were almost all dry'd up and made good land her mudde-walls turn'd apace to Brick in divers places so that in one Sommer that I fortun'd to be there above 50. new Brick-houses were built in one Towne But it hath been the fate of that Island to be 〈◊〉 neer a condition of a setled happiness and yet to have some odd accident still intervene to crosse it In conclusion there wanted nothing to make England and her united Crowns so exactly blessed that she might have assumed the title of one of the Fortunat Islands Good Lord how comes it to passe that she is now fallen into such horrid distempers and like a distracted body laying hanâ—…s upon her self would thrust the sword of civil war into her own bowels I beseech you Sir impart unto me the true cause of this change for I know none so capable to do it as your self Patriciuâ—… Infandum Peregrine jubes renovare dolorem First Sir in the generall you know that it is with the Regions upon Earth as it is with those of the Ayre sometimes we have a clear azur'd skie with soft gentle ventilations and a sweet serenitie the whole Hemesphere over at other times we know the face of the heavens is over-cast with frowns with Frog vapors and thick clouds of various shapes which look like Monsters hovering up and down break at last into thunder and fulgurations and so disquiet and raise a kind of war in the Aereall Common-wealth Just so in the Regions that are dispers'd up and down this earthly Gloâ—…e peepled with men which are but a composition of the Elements you have sometimes a gentle calm of peace and quietude with a general tranquillitie all the Countrey over at other times you have ugly mishapen clouds of jealousies fears and discontentments rise up which break out at last into acts of disobedience rebellion and fury And as those Aereall Meteors and Monsters above are ingendered of
cryed up and branded to be the most infamous Projectors and Monopolizers of the land as Hamilton Holland c. are not only at liberty but crept into favour and made use of Peregrin Hath the house of Commons power to commit any but their own Members without conference with the Lords Or hath any Order or Ordinance of one of the Houses singly or of both conjunctly power to enjoin a virtual binding generall obedience without the Royal consent Patricius The power of Parliament when King Peers and Commons which is the whole Kingdom digested as it were into one volum is indefinit but what either of both Houses can do of themselves singly or joyntly without the King who is the life of the Law especially when a visible faction reigns amongst them I will not determin tantas componere lites non opis est nostrae But for my own opinion I think it is as impossible for them to make a Law without the King as it was for Paracelsus to make a human creture without coition of both sexes The results of Parliament without the Royall consent are as matches without fire And it is an incontroulable principle that the old Law must be our guide till new be made nor is any Act of the Subject justifiable but what is warranted by the old But to proceed in the tru discovery of these Domestick scissures my Lord of Stafford being gone we hop'd fair weather wold follow He who was the cause of the tempest as they pretended being thrown over-board but unluckie mists of jealousie grew thicker and thicker Yet the Scots were dismist having had Fidlers fare meat drink and money for eleven long moneths together So His Majesty went to Scotland where the Parliament ther did but ask and have any thing though it be the unquestionable Prerogative of Majesty to grant or deny Petitions and to satisfie his conscience before any Councell whatsoever But during his sojourn ther this formidable hideous Rebellion brok out in Ireland which though it may be said to be but an old play newly reviv'd yet the Scene was never so Tragicall and bloody as now for the Barbarismes that have bin committed ther have bin so sanguinary and monstrously savage that I think posterity will hold them hyperbolicall â—…when History relates them The Irish themselves affirm ther concurr'd divers causes to kindle this fire One was the taking off of Strafforâ—…s head who awd them more then any Deputy ever did and that one of his Accusations shold be to have used the Papists ther too favourably Secondly the rigorous proceedings and intended courses against the Roman Catholiques here in England Lastly the stopping of that Regiment of Irish who was promised by His Majesties Royall Word and Letter to the King of Spain who relying upon that employment rather then to beg steal or starve turned Rebels And that which hath agravated the Rebellion all this while and heightned much the spirit of the Irish was the introduction of the Scot whom they hate in perfection above all people els And intended lastly the design spoken of in our Parliament to make an absolute Conquest and Nationall Eradication of them which hath made them to make vertue of necessity and to be valiant against their wills Peregrin Indeed I heard that Act of staying the Irish Regiment considering how the Marquesses de Velada and Malvezzi and Don Alonso de Cardenas who were all three Ambassadours here for the King of Spain at that time having by reliance upon the sacred Word and Letter of a King imprested money and provided shipping for their transport and bin at above 10000. Crowns charges I say this Act was very much censured abroad to the dishonour of His Majesty and our reproach Patricius I am very sorry to hear it Well Sir His Majesty by His presence having setled Scotland was at his return to London received with much joy and exultation but though he was brought in with a Hosanna at one end of the Town he found a Crucifige at the other For at Westminster ther was a Remonstrance fram'd a work of many weeks and voted in the dead of night when most of the moderat and well-thoughted Members were retired to their rest wherein with as much aggravation and artifice as could be the least moat in Government was exposed to publick view from the first day of His Majesties Inauguratâ—…on to that very hour Which Remonstrance as it did no good to the Publick but fill peoples heads with doubts their hearts with gall and retard the procedure of all businesse besides so you may well think it could expect but cold entertainment with His Majesty who hoped his great Councel according to their often deep protestations had done something for his welcom home that might have made him the best beloved King that ever 〈◊〉 amongst his people Peregrin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ther is no Government upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 up of mâ—…n but is subject to corruption there is no Court of judicature so cleane but some cobwebs may gather in it unlesse an Act of Parliament could be made to free and exempt men from all infirmities and errour It cannot be denied but Scotland might have something to complaine of though I think least of any and so leapt first into the pooll to be cur'd and what she fish'd besides in those troubled waters 't is too well known England also no doubt might have some grievances which his Majestie freely offered not onely to redresse for the present but to free her of all feares for the future from falling into relapses of that kinde but to redresse grievances by Armes by plunging the whole countrey into an intestine warre this makes the remedy worse then the malady it is as if one would go about to cure a sick body by breaking his head or let him blood by giving him a dash on the nose it is as mad a tricke as his was who set the whole House a fire to roast his egs But truly Sir in my opinion his Majesty at his return from Scotland might have justly expected some acts of compliance and gratitude from his Parliament considering what unparallel'd acts of grace he had pass'd before Patricius His Majesty did not rest there but complied further with them by condescending to an act for putting down the star-chamber Court the high Commission the Court of honour nay he was contented his own Privy Councell should be regulated and his forests bounded not according to ancient Prerogative but late custome nay further he pass'd a Bill for the unvoting and utter exclusion of the Spirituall Lords from the Parliament for ever whereby it cannot be denied but by the casheering of 25 votes at a clap and by excluding the Recusant Lords besides who subsist most by his grace he did not a little enervat his own prerogative Adde hereunto that having placed two worthy Gentlemen Biron and Lunsford Lieutenants of the Tower he remov'd them both one after the other and was content to put in
and incontroulably tru lawful that it must be believed by an implicite faith as proceeding from an in-erring Oracle as if these Zealots were above the common condition of mankind to whom errour is as hereditary as any other infirmity though the thing it self encroach never so grosly both upon the common liberty the states and souls of men But if any thing bear the stamp of royal Authority be it never so just and tending to peace and the publick good yea though it be indifferent to either side it is presently countermanded cryed down and stifled or it is calumniated and aspersed with obloquies false glosses and misprisions and this is become now the common Theam wherwith their Pulpits ring Which makes me think that these upstart politicians have not long to reign for as the common Proverb saith Fraud and Frost end foul and are short-lived so that policy those Counsels which are grounded upon scandals reproaches and lies will quickly moulder and totter away and bring their Authors at last to deserved infamy and shame and make them find a Tomb in their own ruines Adde hereunto as further badges of their nature that black irreconcilable malice and desire of revenge which rageth in them the aversness they have to any sweetness of Conformity and Union the violent thirst they have of bloud which makes me think on that disâ—…ique of Prudentius who seemed to be a Prophet as well as Poet a tru Vates in displaying the humors of these fiery Dogmatists this all-confounding faction which now hath the vogue to the punishment I will not say yet the perdition of this poor Island Sic mâ—…res produnt animum mihi credite junctus Semper cum falso est dogmate Coedis amor Thus in English Manners betray the mind and credit me Ther 's alwayes thirst of bloud with Heresie THE SWAY OF THE SWORD OR A DISCOURS OF THE MILITIA Train'd-Bands OR COMMON SOLDIERY OF THE LAND PROVING That the Power and Command therof in chief belongs to the Ruling Prince and to no other Sine Gladio nulla Defensio The Author's Apology T Is confefs'd that the subject of this Discours were more proper to One of the long-Robe which I am not I am no Lawyer otherwise then what nature hath made me so every man as he is born the child of Reason is a Lawyer and a Logitian also who was the first kind of Lawyer This discoursive faculty of Reason comes with us into the world accompanied with certain general notions and principles to distinguish Right from Wrong and Falshood from Truth But touching this following Discourse because it relates somthing to Law the Author wold not have adventured to have exposed it to the world if besides those common innate notions of Reason and some private Notes of his own he had not inform'd and ascertain'd his judgment by conference with som professed Lawyers and those the Eminentest in the Land touching the truth of what it Treats of therfore he dares humbly aver that it contains nothing but what is consonant to the fundamentall and fixed Constitutions to the known clear Lawes of this Kingdom From the prison of the Flcet 3. Nonas Mail 1645. I. H. Touching the POLEMICAL SVVORD And command in chief of The MILITIA c. GOVERNMENT is an Ordinance of God for Mans good the kinds of Government are ordinances of men for Gods Glory Now among all Woâ—…ldly affairs there is not any thing so difficult and fuller of incertitudes as the Art of Ruling man For those nimble spirits as it is spoken elswhere who from Apprentices have been made Freemen of the Trade and at last thought themselves Masters having spent their Youth their Manhood and a long time of old age therein yet when they came to leave the World they professed themselves still to be but Novices in the Trade There is a known way to break guide and keep in awe all other Animals though never so savage and strong but there is no such certaine way to govern multitudes of men in regard of such turbulences of spirit and diversity of opinions that proceed from the Rational Faculty which other cretures that are contented only with sense are not subject unto and this the Philosopher holds to be one of the inconveniences that attend humane reason and why it is given man as a part of his punishment Now why the Government over men is â—…o difficult there may be two main reasons alledg'd The first is the various events and World of inexpected contingencies that attend humane negotiations specially matters of State which as all other sublunary things are subject to alterations miscarriages and change this makes the mindes of men and consequently the moulds of policy so often to alter scarce one amongst twenty is the same man as he was twenty yeares ago in point of judgement which turns and changeth according to the successe and circumstances of things The wisedome of one day is the foolishnesse of another Posterior Dies est prioris Magister the Day following becomes the former dayes Teacher The Second Reason is the discrepant and wavering fancies of mens braines specially of the common peeple who if not restrained are subject to so many crotchets and chymeras with extravagant wanton desires and gaping after innovations Insulary peeple are observed to be more transported with this instability then those of the Continent and the Inhabitants of this I le more then others being a well-fed spriteful peeple In so much that it is grown a Proverb abroad that The Englishman doth not know when he is well Now the true Polititian doth use to fit his Government to the fancy of the peeple the ruler must do as the rider some peeple are to be rid with strong bitts and curbs and martingalls as the Napollitan and French our next neighbour which is the cause that a kind of slavery is entail'd upon him for the French Peasant is born with chains Other Nations may be rid with a gentle small bridle as the Venetian and the Hollander who hath not such boiling spirits as others A bridle doth serve also the Spaniard who is the gretest example of stability and exact obedience to authority of any peeple for though Spain be the hottest Countrey in Christendom yet it is not so subject to Feavers as others are I mean to fits of intestin commotions And this was never so much tryed as of late yeers for though the present King hath such known frailâ—…ies though he hath bin so infortunat as to have many Countreys quite revolted and rent away from him though the ragingst Plague that ever was in Spain under any King happen'd of late yeers which sweep'd away such a world of peeple though his Taxes be higher then ever were any though he hath call'd in and engrossed all the common coyn of the Countrey and delivered but the one halfe back again reserving the other half for Himself though there 's no legall Instrument no Bond Bill or Specialty can
upon his affections then I beleeve they will ever do hereafter But to proceed the King having bin a good while prisoner to the Parlement the Army snatch'd him away from them and som of the chiefest Commanders having pawn'd their soules unto him to restore him speedily in lieu thereof they tumbled him up and down to sundry places till they juggled him at last to that small Ile where now he is surrounded with a gard of strange faces and if happly he beginns to take delight in any of those faces he is quickly taken out of his sight These harsh usages hath made him become all gray and oregrown with hair so that he lookes rather like som Silvan Satyr then a Soverain Prince And truly my Lord the meanest slave in St. Marks gallies or the abjects Captif in Algier bannier is not so miserable as he in divers kinds for they have the comfort of their wifes children and frends they can convey and receive Letters send Messengers upon their errands and have privat discours with any all which is denied to the King of great Britain nay the young Princes his children are not permitted as much as to ask him blessing in a letter In so much that if he were not a great King of his passions and had a heart cast in on extraordinary Mould these pressures and those base aspersions that have bin publiquely cast upon him by the Parlement it self had bin enough to have sent him out of the world e're this and indeed 't is the main thing they drive at to torture his braine and tear his very heart strings if they could so that whereas this foolish ignorant peeple speak such horrid things of our Inquisition truly my Lord 't is a most gentle way of proceeding being compar'd to this Kings persecutions As the King himselfe is thus in quality of a captif so are all his Subjects becom perfect slaves they have fool'd themselfs into a worse slavery then Iew or Greek under the Ottomans for they know the bottom of their servitude by paying so many Sultanesses for every head but here people are put to endless unknown tyrannical Taxes besides plundering and Accize which two words and the practise of them with storming of Towns they have learnt of their pure Brethren of Holland and for plundrings these Parliamenteer-Saints think they may robb any that adheres not to them as lawfully as the Iewes did the Egyptians 'T is an unsommable masse of money these Reformers have squandred in few years whereof they have often promis'd and solemnly voted a publick account to satisfie the Kingdom but as in a hundred things more so in this precious particular they have dispens'd with their Votes they have consumed more treasure with pretence to purge one Kingdom then might have served to have purchas'd two more as I am credibly told then all the Kings of England spent of the public stock since the Saxon Conquest Thus have they not only begger'd the whole Island but they have hurld it into the most fearfull st Chaos of confusion that ever poor Countrey was in they have torn in pieces the reines of all Government trampled upon all Lawes of heaven and earth and violated the very Dictamens of nature by making Mothers to betray their Sons and the Sons their Fathers but specially that Great Charter which is the Pandect of all the Laws and Liberties of the free-born Subject which at their admission to the House they are solemnly sworn to maintain is torn in flitters besides those severall Oaths they forg'd themselfs as the Protestation and Covenant where they voluntarily swear to maintain the Kings Honour and Rights together with the established Laws of the Land c. Now I am told that all Acts of Parlement here are Lawes and they carry that Majesty with them that no power can suspend or repeal them but the same power that made them which is the King sitting in full Parlement these mongrell Polititians have bin so notoriously impudent as to make an inferiour Ordinance of theirs to do it which is point-blanck against the very fundamentals of this Government and their own Oaths which makes me think that there was never such a perjur'd pack of wretches upon earth never such Monsters of mankind Yet this simple infatuated peeple have a Saint-like opinion of these Monsters this foolish Citie gards them daily with Horse and Foot whereby she may be sayd to kisse the very stones that are thrown at her and the hand whence they came which a dogg would not do But she falls to recollect her self now that shee begins to be pinch'd in Trade and that her Mint is starv'd yet the leading'st men in her Common-Councell care not much for it in regard most of them have left traffiquing abroad finding it a more easie and gainefull way of trading at home by purchasing Crown or Church lands plunder'd goods and debts upon the Publick Faith with Soldiers debenters thus the Saints of this Iland turne godlinesse into gaine Truly my Lord I give the English for a lost Nation if they continue long thus never was ther a more palpable oblaesion of the brain and a more visible decay of Reason in any race of men It is a sore judgment from heaven that a people shold not be more sensible how they are become slaves to Rebells and those most of them the scumm of the Nation which is the basest of miseries how they suffer them to tyrannize by a meer arbitrary extrajudicial power o're their very souls and bodies o're their very lifs and livelihoods how their former freedom is turn'd to fetters Molehills into Mountains of grievances Ship-money into Accize Justice into Tyranny For nothing hath bin and is daily so common amongst them as imprisonment without charge and a charge without an accuser condemnation without apparance and forfeitures without conviction To speak a little more of the King if all the infernal fiends had ligu'd against him they could not have design'd or disgorged more malice They wold have laid to his charge his Fathers death as arrand a lie as ever was forg'd in hell they wold make him fore-know the insurrection in Ireland wheras the Spanish Ambassador here and his Confessor who is a very reverend Irish-man told me that he knew no more of it then the grand Mogor did they charge him with all the bloud of this civil war wheras they and their instruments were the first kindlers of it and that first prohibited trade and shut him out of his own Town They have intercepted and printed his privat Letters to his Queen and Hers to him Oh barbarous basenesse but therin they did him a pleasure though the intent was malitious their aim in all things being to envenom the hearts of his people towards him and this was to render him a glorious and well-belov'd Prince as likewise for making him rich all which they had vow'd to do upon passing the Act of Continuance But now they have made
a rough account of a rambling Noctivagation up and down the world I may boldly say that neither Sir Iohn Mandevile or Coryat himself travell'd more in so short a time whence you see what nimble Postillions the Animal Spirits are and with what incredible celerity the imagination can crosse the Line cut the Tropiques and pass to the other Hemisphere of the world which shews that humane souls have somthing in them of the Almighty that their faculties have a kind of ubiquitary freedom though the body be never so under restraint as the Authors is They erre as much who think all Dreams false As They who think Them alwayes tru In the prison of the Fleet 3. Idus Decembris 1645. I. H. A VINDICATION OF HIS MAJESTY Touching a Letter He writ to Rome from the Court of Spain in Answer to a Letter which Pope Gregory the 15th had sent Him upon passing the Dispensation for concluding the Match with the Iâ—…fanta Which Letter Mr. Pryn mention's in his Book call'd the Popish Royal Favorit wherby the World is apt to beleeve that His Majesty had Inclinations to Popeâ—…y Ther goe's also herewith A clearing of som Aspersions that the said Mr. Pryn cast's upon the Author hereof in the same Pamphlet viz. That he was a Malignant and no friend to Parlements WHERBY He takes occasion to speak somthing of the first Rise And also of the Duty as well as the Authority of Parlements To my worthily honor'd friend Sir W. S. Knight SIR I Have many thanks to give you for the Book you pleased to send me called the Popish Royal Favorite and according to your advice which I value in a high degree I did put pen to paper and somthing you may see I have done though in a poor pamphleting way to clear my self of those aspersions that seem to be cast upon His Majesty But truly Sir I was never so unfit for such a task all my Papers Manuscripts and Notes having bin long since seized upon and kept from me Adde hereunto that besides this long pressure and languishment of close restraint the sense wherof I find hath much stupified my spirits it pleased God to visit me lately with a dangerous fit of sickness a high burning fever with the new disease wherof my Body as well as my Mind is yet somwhat crazie so that take all afflictions together I may truly say I have passed the Ordeal the fiery Tryal But it hath pleased God to reprieve me to see better daies I hope for out of this fatal black Cloud which now ore-sets this poor Island I hope ther will break a glorious Sun-shine of peace and firm happinesse To effect which had I a Jury a grand-Jury of lives I wold sacrifice them all and triumph in the oblation So I most affectionately kiss your hands and rest Your faithfull though afflicted Servant From the Prison of the Fleet. I. H. The Pre-eminence and Duty OF PARLEMENT Sectio Prima I Am a Free-born Subject of the Realm of England wherby I claim as my native Inheritance an undoubted right propriety and portion in the Laws of the Land And this distinguisheth me from a slave I claim likewise protection from my Soverain Prince who as He is my Liege Lord is obliged to protect me and I being one of His Liege peeple am obliged to obey Him by way of Reciprocation I claim also an interest and common right in the High National Court of Parlement and in the power the priviledges and jurisdiction therof which I put in equal ballance with the Laws in regard it is the fountain whence they spring and this I hold also to be a principall part of my Birth-right which Great Councell I honour respect value and love in as high a degree as can be as being the Bulwark of our liberties the main boundary and bank which keeps us from slavery from the inundations of tyrannicall Rule and unbounded Will-government And I hold my self obliged in a tye of indispensable obedience to conform and submit my self to whatsoever shall be transacted concluded and constituted by its authority in Church or State with the Royal assent whether it be by making enlarging altering diminishing disanulling repealing or reviving of any Law Statute Act or Ordinance whatsoever either touching matters Ecclesiastical civil common capital criminall martial maritime municipall or any other of all which the transcendent and uncontrollable jurisdiction of that Court is capable to take cognizance Amongst the three things which the Athenian Captain thank'd the gods for one was That he was born a Grecian and not a Barbarian For such was the vanity of the Greeks and after them of the Romans in the flourish of their Monarchy to arrogat all civility to themselves and to terme all the world besides Barbarians so I may say to rejoyce that I was born a vassall to the Crown of England that I was born under so well-moulded and tempered a Government which endows the subject with such Liberties and infranchisements that bear up his naturall courage and keep him still in heart such Liberties that fence and secure him eternally from the gripes and tallons of Tyranny And all this may be imputed to the Authority and wisedome of this High Court of Parlement wherein there is such a rare co-ordination of power though the Soveraignty remain still entire and untransferrable in the person of the Prince there is such a wholsom mixture 'twixt Monarchy Optimacy and Democracy 'twixt Prince Peers and Commonalty during the time of consultation that of so many distinct parts by a rare co-operation and unanimity they make but one Body Politick like that sheaâ—…e of arrows in the Emblem one entire concentricall peece the King being still the Head and the results of their deliberations but as so many harmonious diapasons arising from different strings And what greater immunity and happinesse can there be to a Peeple than to be liable to no Laws but what they make themselves to be subject to no contribution assessement or any pecuniary erogations whatsoever but what they Vote and voluntarily yeeld unto themselves For in this compacted Politick Body there be all degrees of peeple represented both the Mechanick Tradesman Merchant and Yeoman have their inclusive Vote as well as the Gentry in the persons of their Trustees their Knights and Burgesses in passing of all things Nor is this Soveraign Surintendent Councell an Epitome of this Kingdom only but it may be said to have a representation of the whole Universe as I heard a fluent well-worded Knight deliver the last Parliameut who compared the beautifull composure of that High Court to the great work of God the World it self The King is as the Sun the Nobles the fixed Stars the Itineant judges and other Officers that go upon Messages 'twixt both Houses to the Planets the Clergy to the Element of fire the Commons to the solid Body of Earth and the rest of the Elements And to pursue this comparison a little