Ship toss'd up and down in distresse of wind and weather by a furious tempest which the more she tugs and wrastles with the foamie waves of the angry Ocean the more the fury of the storme encreaseth and puts her in danger of shipwrack and you must needs thinke Sir it would move compassion in any heart to behold a poore Ship in such a desperate case specially when all his kindred friends and fortunes yea his Religion the most precious Treasure of all are aboard of her and upon point of sinking Alas I can contribute nothing now to my poor countrey but my prayers and teares that it would please God to allay this tempest and cast over board those that are the true causers of it and bring the people to the right use of Reason againe It was well observed by you Sir That there is a Nationall kinde of indisposition and obliquity of mind that rageth now amongst our people and I feare it will be long ere they returne to their old English temper to that rare loyalty and love which they were used to shew to their Soveraigne for all the Principles of Monarchie are quite lost amongst us those ancient and sacret flowers of the English Diadem are trampled under foot nay matters are come to that horrid confusion that not onely the Prerogative of the crown but the foundamentall Priviledge of the free-born subject is utterly overthrowne by those whose Predecessors were used to be the main supporters of it so that our King is necessitated to put himself in Armes for the preservation not only of his own Regall rights but of Magna Charta it self which was neuer so invaded and violated in any age by such causlesse tyrannicall imprisonments by such unexampled destructive taxes by stopping the ordinary processes in Law and awing all the Courts of Justice by unheard-of forced oaths and Associations and a thousand other acts which neither President Book-case or Statute can warrant whereof if the King had done but the twentieth part he had been cryed up to be the greatest Tyrant that ever was Peregrin Sir I am an Alien and so can speak with more freedom of your Countrey The short time that I did eate my bread there I felt the pulse of the people with as much judgement as I could and I find that this very word Parliament is become a kind of Idoll amongst them they doe as it were pin their salvation upon 't it is held blasphemie to speake against it The old English Maxime was The King can do no wrong another Nominative case is now stept in That the Parliament can do no wrong nor the King receive any And whereas ther was used to be but one Defender of the Faith ther are now started up amongst you I cannot tell how many hundreds of them And as in the sacred profession of Priest-hood we hold or at least wise shold hold That after the Imposition of hands the Minister is inspired with the Holy Ghost in an extraordinary manner for the enabling of him to exercise that Divine Function so the English are grown to such a fond conceit of their Parliament Members that as soon as any is chosen by the confus'd cry of the Common people to sit within the walls of that House an inerring spirit a spirit of infallibility presently entereth into him so that he is therby become like the Pope a Canon animatus though som of them may haply be such flat and simple animals that they are as fit to be Counsellours as Caligula's Horse was to be Consull as the Historian tells us Patricius Touching Parliament ther breaths not a Subject under Englands Crown who hath a higher esteem of it then I it makes that dainty mixture in our Government of Monarchy Optimacie and Democracy betwixt whom though ther be a kind of co ordination of power during the sitting of Parliament yet the two last which are composed of Peers and People have no power but what is derived from the first which may be called the soul that animates them and by whose authority they meet consult and depart They come there to propose not to impose Lawes they come not to make Lawes by the sword they must not be like Draco's Lawes written in bloud Their King calls them thither to be his Counsellors not Controllers and the Office of Counsell is to advise not to inforce they come thither to intreat not to treat with their Liege Lord they come to throw their Petitions at his feet that so they may find a way up to his hearâ—… 'T is tru I have read of high things that our Parliament have done but 't was either during the nonage and minority of our Kings when they were under protectorship or when they were absent in a forrain war or in time of confusion when ther were competitors of the bloud-royall for the Crown and when the number of both Houses was compleat and individed but I never read of any Parliament that did arrogate to it self such a power Paramount such a Superlative superintendence as to check the Prerogative of their Soverain to question his negative voice to passe things not only without but expresly against his advice and royall command I never heard of Parliament that wold have their King being come to the Meridian of his age to transmit his intellectualls and whole faculty of reason to them I find som Parliaments have bin so modest and moderat Now moderation is the Rudder that shold steer the course of all great Councells that they have declined the agitation and cognizance of som state affaires humbly transferring them to their Soverain and his privy Counsell a Parliament man then held it to be the adaequat object of his duty to study the welfare to redresse the grievances and supply the defects of that particular place for which he served The Members then us'd to move in their own Inferior sphere and us'd not to be transported by any Eccentric motions And so they thought to have complyed with the Obligation and discharged the consciences of honest Patriots without soaring above their reach and roving at random to treat of universals much lesse to bring Religion to their bar or prie into the Arcana Imperti the cognizance of the one belonging to the King and his intern Counsell of State the other to Divines who according to the Etymologie of the word use to be still conversant in the exercise of speculation of holy and heavenly things Peregrin I am clearly of your opinion in these two particulars for secrecy being the soul of policy matters of State shold be communicated but to few and touching Religion I cannot see how it may quadrat with the calling and be homogeneous to the profession of Lay-men to determine matters of Divinity who out of their incapacity and unaptnesse to the work being not pares negotio and being carryed away by a wild kind of Conscience without Science like a Ship without a Helm fall upon dangerous quick-sands
happinesse and wanton kind of prosperity This City of London was grown to be the greatest Mart and mistress of trade of any in the world Insomuch as I have been certainly inform'd the King might have spent meerly upon His customes 4000 crowns a day Moreover she had a vast bank of money being made the scale of conveying the King of Spains treasure to Flanders Insomuch that in a few yeers she had above ten millions of his moneys brought hither which she might have remitted in specie or in marchandize and for which this King had five in the hundred for coynage Yet could he not get beforehand with the world having a sister with so many Nephews and neeces having a Queen with diverse children of His own at least 16 of the Blood-Royall to maintaine with divers profuse Courtiers besides which made Him more parsimonious then ordinary The Warres then growing more active 'twixt Spaine and France as also 'twixt Holland and Spaine both by Land and Sea and divers great Fleets of Men of War as well French who were growne powerfull that way as Dunkerkers Spaniards Hollanders and Hamburgers appearing daily in His narrow Seas and sayling close by His Chambers the world wondred this King had no greater strength at Sea in case that any of the foresaid Nations should doe him an affront as some of them had already done by denying to dash their Colours to his Ships Insomuch that in Holland and other places he was pasquill'd at and pourtrayed lying in his cradle lullaby'd and rock'd asleep by the Spaniard Hereupon being by advertisements from his Agents abroad and frequent advice of His Privie Councell at home made sensible of the danger and a kind of dishonour he was faln into and having intelligence that the French Cardinall began to question his title to the Dominion of the narrow Seas considering He employed no visible power to preserve it He began to consult of meanes to set forth a royall Fleet but in regard the Purse of the Crowne was lightly ballasted and that he had no mind to summon the three Estates because of some indignities he had received in former Parliaments by the Puritan party a race of people averse to all Kingly Government unlesse they may pare it as they please his then Atturney Generall Noy a great cryed-up-Lawyer put it in his Head to impose an old Tax called Ship-mony upon the Subject which the said Lawyer did warrant upon his life to be Legall for he could produce divers Records how many of his Progenitors had done the like The King not satisfied with his single opinion refer'd it to his learn'd Council they unanimously averred it to be agreeable to the Law of the Land yet this would not fully satisfie the King but He would have the Opinion of His twelve Judges and they also affirmed by their single vouches the said Tax to be warrantable Hereupon it was imposed and leavied but some refusing to pay it there was a suite commenc'd during which all the Judges were to re-deliver their opinions joyntly and the businesse being maturely debated and canvased in open Court divers months and all arguments produc'd pro con nine of the said twelve Judges concluded it legal Thereupon the King continued the imposition of the said Tax and never was mony imployed so much for the Honour and advantage of a Countrey for he sent out every Summer a royall fleet to scowre and secure the Seas he caused a Galeon to be built the greatest and gallantest that ever spread saile Nor did he purse up and dispose of one peny of this money to any other use but added much of his own Revenues yeerly thereunto So the world abroad cried up the King of England to be awake againe Trade did wonderfully encrease both Domestic and forrein in all the three Kingdomes Ireland was reduced to an absolute Settlement the Arrears of the Crown payed and a considerable Revenue came thence cleerly to the Exchequer of England every year the salaries of all Officers with the pay of the standing Army â—…here and all other Charges being defrayed by Ireland her self which was never done before Yet for all this height of pappinesse and the glorious fruites of the said Ship-money which was but a kind of petty insensible Tax a thing of nothing to what hath hapened since there were some foolish peeple in this Land which murmured at it and cryed nothing else but a Parliament a Parliament and they have had a Parliament since with a vengeance But before this occasion it was observed that the seeds of disobedience and a spirit of insurrection was a long time engendring in the hearts of som of this peace-pampred People which is conceived to proceed from their conversation and commerce with three sorts of men viz. the Scot the Hollander and the French Huguenot Now an advantage happened that much conduced to necessitate the convoking of a Parliament which was an ill-favoured traverse that fell out in Scotland For the King intending an Uniformity of Divine worship in all His three Kingdoms sent thither the Liturgy of this Church but it found cold and course entertainment ther for the whole Nation men women and children rise up a gainst them Here upon the King absolutely revoked it by Proclamation wherein He declared 't was never His purpose to press the practise therof upon the Consciences of any therfore commanded that all things shold be in statu quo prius but this wold not serve the turn the Scot took advantge hereby to destroy Hierarchy and pull down the Bishops to get their demeans To which purpose they came with an Army in open Field against their own Native King who not disgesting this indignity Mustred another English Army which being upon the confines of both Kingdoms a kind of Pacification was plaistred over for the present The King returning to London and consulting His second thoughts resented that insolency of the Scots more then formerly Hereupon He summons a Parliament and desires aid to Vindicat that Affront of the Scot. The Scot had strong Intelligence with the Puritan Faction in the English Parliament who seemed to abet his quarrel rather then to be sensible of any national dishonour received from him which caused that short-lived Parliament to dissolve in discontent and the King was forced to find other means to raise and support an Army by privat Loanes of His nobler sort of Subjects and Servants The Scot having punctual Advertisements of every thing that passed yea in the Kings Cabinet Councel was not idle all this while but rallies what was left of the former Army which by the Articles of Pacification a little before should have bin absolutely dismissed and boldly invades England which he durst never have done if he had not well known that this Puritan party which was now grown very powerful here and indeed had invited him to this expedition wold stand to him This forein Army being by the pernicious close machinations
farther as the heavenly Bodies when three of them meet in Conjunction do use to produce some admirable effects in the Elementary World So when these three States convene and assemble in one solemne great Iunta some notable and extraordinary things are brought forth tending to the welfare of the whole Kingdom our Microcosme HE that is never so little versed in the Annals of this I le will find that it hath bin her fate to be four times conquered I exclude the Scot for the scituation of his Country and the Quality of the Clime hath been such an advantage and security to him that neither the Roman Eagles would fly thither for fear of freezing their wings nor any other Nation attempt the work These so many Conquests must needs bring with them many tumblings and tossings many disturbances and changes in Government yet I have observed that notwithstanding these tumblings it retained still the forme of a Monarchy and something there was always that had an Analogy with the great Assembly of Parlement The first Conquest I find was made by Claudius Caesar at which time as some well observe the Roman Ensignes and the Standard of Christ came in together It is well known what Lawes the Roman had He had his Comitia which bore a resemblance with our Convention in Parlement the place of their meeting was called Praetorum and the Laws which they enacted Plebiscita The Saxon Conquest succeeded next which were the English there being no name in Welsh or Irish for an English man but Saxon to this day They also governed by Parlement though it were under other names as Michel Sinoth Michel Gemote and Witenage Mote There are Records above a thousand years old of these Parlements in the Reigns of King Ina Offa Ethelbert and the rest of the seven Kings during the Heptarchy The British Kings also who retain'd a great while some part of the Isle unconquered governed and made Laws by a kind of Parlementary way witnesse the famous Laws of Prince Howell called Howell Dha the good Prince Howell whereof there are yet extant some British Records Parlements were also used after the Heptarchy by King Kenulphus Alphred and others witnesse that renowned Parliament held at Grately by King Athelstan The third Conquest was by the Danes and they govern'd also by such generall Assemblies as they do to this day witnesse that great and so much celebrated Parlement held by that mighty Monarch Canutus who was King of England Denmark Norway and other Regions 150 years before the compiling of Magna Charta and this the learned in the Laws do hold to be one of the specialst and most authentick peeces of antiquity we have extant Edward the Confessor made all his Laws thus and he was a great Legis-lator which the Norman Conquerour who liking none of his sons made God Almighty his heir by bequeathing unto him this Island for a legacy did ratifie and establish and digested them into one entire methodicall Systeme which being violated by Rufus who came to such a disastrous end as to be shot to death in lieu of a Buck for his sacriledges were restor'd by Henry the first and so they continued in force till King Iohn whose Reign is renowned for first confirming Magna Charta the foundation of our Liberties ever since which may be compar'd to divers outlandish graffes set upon one English stock or to a posie of sundry fragrant flowers for the choicest of the British the Roman Saxon Danish and Norman Laws being cull'd and pick'd out and gathered as it were into one bundle out of them the foresaid Grand Charter was extracted And the establishment of this great Charter was the work of a Parliament Nor are the Lawes of this Island only and the freedome of the Subject conserved by Parlement but all the best policed Countries of Europe have the like The Germanes have their Diets the Danes and Swedes their Rijcks Dachs the Spaniard calls his Parlement las Cortes and the French have or should have at least their Assembly of three States though it be growne now in a manner obsolete because the Authority thereof was by accident devolv'd to the King And very remarkable it is how this happened for when the English had taken such large footing in most parts of France having advanced as far as Orleans and driven their then King Charles the seventh to Bourges in Berry the Assembly of the three States in these pressures being not able to meet after the usuall manner in full Parlement because the Countrey was unpassable the Enemy having made such firme invasions up and down through the very bowels of the Kingdom That power which formerly was inhaerent in the Parlementary Assembly of making Laws of assessing the Subject with Taxes subsidiary levies and other impositions was transmitted to the King during the war which continueth many years that entrusted power by length of time grew as it were habitual in him and could never after be re-assumed and taken from him so that ever since his Edicts countervaile Acts of Parlement And that which made the businesse more feasable for the King was that the burthen fell most upon the Communalty the Clergy and Nobility not feeling the weight of it who were willing to see the Peasan pull'd down a little because not many years before in that notable Rebellion call'd la jaquerie de Beauvoisin which was suppressed by Charles the wise the Common people put themselves boldly in Arms against the Nobility and Gentry to lessen their power Adde hereunto as an advantage to the work that the next succeeding King Lewis the eleventh was a close cunning Prince and could well tell how to play his game and draw water to his own mill For amongst all the rest he was said to be the first that put the Kings of France Hors de page out of their minority or from being Pages any more though therby he brought the poor peasans to be worse than Lacquays and they may thank themselfs for it Neverthelesse as that King hath an advantage hereby one way to Monarchize more absolutely and never to want money but to ballast his purse when he will so ther is another mighty inconvenience ariseth to him and his whole Kingdom another way for this peeling of the Peasan hath so dejected him and cowed his native courage so much by the sense of poverty which brings along with it a narrownesse of 〈◊〉 that he is little usefull for the war which put 's the French King to make other Nations mercenary to him to fill up his Infantery Insomuch that the Kingdom of France may be not unfitly compared to a body that hath all it's bloud drawn up into the arms breast and back and scarce any leâ—…t from the girdle downwards to cherish and bear up the lower parts and keep them from starving All this seriously considered ther cannot be a more proper and pregnant example than this of our next Neighbours to prove how infinitly necessary
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
such as ev'ry one carrieth by his side or som imaginary thing or chymera of a sword No 't is the polemicall publique sword of the whole Kingdom 't is an aggregative compound sword and 't is moulded of bell-metall for 't is made up of all the ammunition and armes small and great of all the military strengths both by Land and Sea of all the Forts Castles and tenable places within and round about the whole I le The Kings of Engl. have had this sword by vertue of their royall signory from all times the Laws have girded it to their sides they have employed it for repeling all foren force for revenging all forren wrongs or affronts for quelling all intestine tumults and for protecting the weal of the whole body politicke at home The peeple were never capable of this sword the fundamentall constitutions of this Kingdom deny it them 't is all one to put the sword in a mad mans hand as in the peeples or for them to have a disposing power in whose hands it shall be Such was the case once of the French sword in that notorious insurrection call'd to this day La Iaqueris de Beauvoisin when the Pesants and Mechanicks had a design to wrest it out of the Kings hand and to depresse all the Peers and Gentry of the Kingdom and the businesse had gone so far that the peasans might have prevail'd had not the Prelats stuck close to the Nobility But afterwards poor hare brain'd things they desire the King upon bended knees to take it againe Such popular puffs have blowen often in Poland Naples and other places where while they sought and fought for liberty by retrenching the regall power they fool'd themselfs into a slavery unawares and found the rule right that excesse of freedom turns to thraldom and ushers in all confusions If one shold go back to the nonage of the world when Governers and Rulers began first one will find the peeple desir'd to live under Kings for their own advantage that they might be restrain'd from wild exorbitant liberty and kept in unity Now unity is as requisit for the wel-being of all naturall things as entity is for their being and 't is a receiv'd maxime in policy that nothing preserves Unity more exactly then Royal Government besides 't is known to be the noblest sort of sway In so much that by the Law of Nations if Subjects of equal degrees and under differing Princes shold meet the Subjects of a King shold take precedency of those under any Republique But to take up the Sword again I say that the Sword of public Power and Authority is fit only to hang at the Kings side and so indeed shold the Great Seal hang only at his girdle because 't is the Key of the Kingdom which makes me think of what I read of Charlemain how he had the imperial Seal emboss'd alwaies upon the pommell of his Sword and his reason was that he was ready to maintain whatsoever he signed and sealed The Civilians who are not in all points so great friends to Monarchy as the Common Law of England is say there are six Iura Regalia six Regal Rights viz. 1. Potestas Iudicatoria 2. Potestas vitae necis 3. Armamenta 4. Bona adespota 5. Census 6. Monetarum valor to wit Power of Iudicature Power of Life and Death all kind of arming masterless goods Sâ—…issements and the value of money Among these Regalia's we find that Arming which in effect is nought else but the Kings Sword is among the chiefest and 't is as proper and peculiar to his person as either Crown or Scepter By these two he drawes a loose voluntary love and opinion only from his Subjects but by the Sword he draws reverence and awe which are the chiefest ingredients of allegiance it being a maxime That the best mixture of Government is made of fear and love With this Sword he conferrs honor he dubbs Knights he creates Magistrates the Lord Deputy of Ireland the Lord Mayor of London with all other Corporations have their Swords from him and when he entereth any place corporate we know the first thing that is presented him is the Sword With this Sword he shields and preserves all his people that every one may sit quietly under his own Vine sleep securely in his own House and enjoy sweetly the fruits of his labours Nor doth the point of this Sword reach only to every corner of his own dominions but it extends beyond the seas to gard his Subjects from oppression and denial of justice as well as to vindicate the publick wrongs make good the interests of his Crown and to assist his confederates This is the Sword that Edward the third tied the Flower deluces unto which stick still unto it when having sent to France to demand that Crown by maternal right the Counsell ther sent him word that the Crown of France was not tied to a distaff to which scoffing answer he replied that then he wold tie it to his sword and he was as good as his word Nor is this publick sword concredited or intrusted by the peeple in a fiduciary conditionall way to the King but it is properly and peculiarly belonging unto him as an inseparable concomitant perpetual Usher and attendant to his Crown The King we know useth to maintain all garrisons upon his own charge not the peeples he fortifies upon his own charge not the peeples And though I will not averr that the King may impresse any of his Subjects unlesse it be upon an actuall vasion by Sea or a sudden irruption into his Kingdom by Land as the Scots have often done yet at any time the King may raise Volunteers and those who have received his money the Law makes it felony if they forsake his service Thus we see there 's nothing that conduceth more to the glory and indeed the very essence of a King then the Sword which is the Armes and Military strength of his Kingdom wherfore under favour ther cannot be a greater point of dishonour to a King then to be disarmed then to have his Sword taken from him or dispos'd of and intrusted to any but those whom he shall appoint for as à minori ad majus the Argument often holds if a private Gentleman chance to be disarm'd upon a quarrell 't is held the utmost of disgraces much greater and more public is the dishonor that falls upon a King if after som traverses of difference 'twixt him and his Subjects they shold offer to disarm him or demand his Sword of him when the Eagle parted with his talons and the Lion with his teeth and ongles the Apolog tells us how contemptible afterwards the one grew to be among Birds the other among Birds the other among Beasts For a King to part with the Sword politic is to render himself such a ridiculous King as that logg of wood was which Iupiter let down among the froggs for their King at the importunity of
ther never happen'd such strange shocks and revolutions The great Emperour of Ethiopia hath bin outed he and all his children by a petty companion The King of China a greater Emperour than he hath lost almost all that huge Monarchy by the incursion of the Tartar who broke ore the wall upon him The grand Turk hath bin strangled with 30. of his Concubines The Emperour of Muscovy hath bin content to beg his life of his own vassals and to see before his face divers of his chief Officers hack'd to pieces and their heads cut off and steep'd in strong water to make them burn more bright in the market place Besides the above mentioned this King hath also divers enemies more yet he bears up against them all indifferently well though with infinit expence of treasure and the Church specially our Society hath stuck close unto him in these his exigents whence may be inferr'd that let men repine as long as they will at the possessions of the Church they are the best anchors to a State in a storm and in time of need to preserve it from sinking besides acts of charity wold be quite lost among men did not the wealth of the Church keep life in them Hereupon drawing a huge pair of Beads from under his cloak he began to ask me of my Religion I told him I had a long journy to go so that I could not stay to wait on him longer so we parted and me thought I was very glad to be rid of him so well My soul then made another flight over an Assembly of hideous high hills Pyreneys and lighted under another Clime on a rich and copious Country France resembling the form of a Lozenge but me thought I never saw so many poor peeple in my life I encountred a Pesan and asked him what the reason was that ther shold be so much poverly in a Country wher ther was so much plenty Sir they keep the Commonalty poor in pure policy here for being a peeple as the world observes us to be that are more humerous than others and that love variety and change if we were suffered to be pamper'd with wealth we wold ever and anon rise up in tumults and so this Kingdom shold never be quiet but subject to intestine broils and so to the hazard of any invasion But ther was of late a devillish Cardinal whose humour being as sanguin as his habit and working upon the weaknes of his Master hath made us not only poor but stark beggars and we are like to continue so by an eternal war wherein he hath plung'd this poor Kingdom which war must be maintained with our very vital spirits but as dejected and indigent as we are yet upon the death of that ambitious Cardinal we had risen up against This who hath the Vogue now with whom he hath left his principles had not the fearful example of our next transmarin Western neighbours the English and the knowledg we have of a worse kind of slavery of those endles arbitrary taxes and horrid confusions they have fool'd themselfs lately into utterly deterr'd us though we have twenty times more reason to rise then ever they had yet our great City Paris hath shew'd her teeth and gnash'd them ill-favouredly of late but we find she hath drawn water only for her own Mill we fare little the better yet we hope it will conduce to peace which hath bin so long in agitation I cannot remember how I parted with that Peasan but in an instant I was landed upon a large Island and methought 't was the temperat'st Region I had bin in all the while England the heat of the Sun ther is as harmless as his light the evening sereneâ—… are as wholsom ther as the morning dew the Dog-daies as innocuous as any of the two Equinoxes As I rang'd to and fro that fair Island I spyed a huge City London whose length did far exceed her latitude but neâ—…ther for length or latitude did she seem to bear any politicall proportion with that Island she look'd methought like the Iesuits hat whom I had met withall before whose brimms were bigger then the crown or like a peticoat whose fringe was longer then the body As I did cast my eyes upwards methought I discern'd a strange inscription in the aire which hung just over the midst of that City written in such huge visible characters that any one might have read it which was this Woe be to the bloudy City Hereupon a reverend Bishop presented himself to my view his gray haires and grave aspect struck in me an extraordinary reverence of him so performing those complements which were fitting I asked him of the condition of the place he in a submiss sad tone with clouds of melancholy waving up and down his looks told me Sir this Island was reputed few years since to have bin in the completest condition of happiness of any part on earth insomuch that she was repin'd aâ—… for her prosperity and peace by all her neighbours who were plung'd in war round about her but now she is fallen into as deep a gulf of misery and servitude as she was in a height of felicity freedom before Touching the grounds of this change I cannot impute it to any other then to a surfet of happiness now there is no surfet so dangerous as that of happinesse Ther are such horrid divisions here that if they were a foot in hell they were able to destroy the Kingdom of Satan truly Sir ther are crep'd in more opinions among us about matters or Religion then the Pagans had of old of the Summum bonum which Varro saith were 300. the understandings of poor men were never so puzzled and distracted a great while there were two opposit powers King and Parlement who swayed here in a kind of equality that peeple knew not whom to obey many thousands complyed with both as the men of Calecut who adore God and the Devil Tantum Squantum as it is in the Indian language They adore the one for love the other for fear ther is a monstrous kind of wild liberty here that ever was upon earth That which was complained of as a stalking horse to draw on our miseries at first is now only in practice which is meer arbitrary rule for now both Law Religion and Allegiance are here arbitrary Touching the last 't is quite lost 't is permitted that any may prate preach or print what they will in derogation of their annointed King which word King was once a Monosyllable of som weight in this I le but 't is as little regarded now as the word Pope among som which was also a mighty Monosyllable once among us the rule of the Law is that the King can do no wrong ther is a contrary rule now crept in that the King can receive no wrong and truly Sir 't is a great judgement both upon Prince and peeple upon the one that the love of so many of his
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
one of their Election And lastly he trusted them with his greatest strength of all with his Navie Royall and call'd home Pennington who had the guard of the narrow Seas so many yeares Peregrin Truly Sir I never remember to have heard or read of such notable acts of grace and confidence from any King but would not all this suffice Patricius No But they demanded all the Land Souldiery and military strength of the Kingdome to be disposed of by them and to be put into what posture and in what Equipage and under what Commanders they pleas'd And this was the first thing his Majesty ever denyed them yet he would have granted them this also for a limited time but that would not serve the turn Hereupon his Majesty grew a little sensible how they inch'd every day more and more upon his Royall Prerogatives And intending to go to his Town of Hull to see his Magazin which he had bought with his own money with his ordinary train he was in a hostile manner kept out Canons mounted Pistols cockt and leveld at him But whether that unlucky Knight Hotham did this out of his fidelity to the Parl. or out of an apprehension of feare that some about the King being mov'd with the barbarousnesse of the action would have pistold him I will not determine Peregrin I have read of divers affronts of this kinde that were offerd to the French Kings Rochell shut her gates more than once against Henry the Great and for the King now regnant they did not only shut him out of many of his Towns but upon the gates of some of them they writ in legible Characters Roy san Foy ville sans peur a faithlesse King a fearlesse Towne Yet in the greatest heat of those warres there was never any Towne refus'd to let in her King provided he came attended onely with his own traine and besides other people abroad I heard the Scot's nation did abhor that Act at Hull But I pray Sir go on Patricius His Majesty being thus shut out of one Towne he might justly suspect that an attempt might be made to shut him in in some other Therefore he made a motion to the Yorke-shire Gentlemen to have a gard for the preservation of his Person which was done accordingly But I am come to forward I must go backe and tell you how the King was driven from Westminster When His Majesty was return'd from Scotland he retir'd to Hampton Court whence upon the Lord Majors and the Cities humble solliciâ—…ation he came back to White-hal to keep his Christmas But when the Bill against Bishops was in agitation which businesse â—…asted neer upon ten weekes a crue of bold â—…turdie mechanicks and mariners came â—…rom the Citie and ruffled before White-hall and Westminster-hall and would have violated the Abby of Westminster so that for many â—…ights a Court of gard was forced to be kept â—…n the body of that Church the chiefest Sanctuary of the Kingdom Moreover His Majesty having impeached some of the Members of both Houses of High Treason and being denied to have them delivered up he went himself to the Lower House to demand them assuring the House they should have as faire and legall a triall as ever men had But as it pleas'd God they were not there but retir'd to London for refuge The Londoners grew starke wilde thereupon and notice being sent to all the adjacent Counties this act of the Kings though it wanted no precedents of former times was aggravated in the highest degree that possibly could be Hence you may easily inferre what small securitie his Majesty had at White-hall and what indignities he might have exposed himself unto by that which had pass'd already from the Rabble who had vilified and cried tush at his proclamations and disgorg'd other rebellious speeches with impunity therefore he retird to Hampton Court as we read our Saviour withdrew himselfe once from the multitude thence to Windsor Castle whence accompanying her Majesty with his eldest daughter to the sea side for Holland and having commanded the Prince to attend him against his return at Greenwich the Prince had been surpriz'd and brought to London had not the King come a little before Thence he removed to Yorke where he kept his Court all the Sommer But to returne to London the very next day after their Majesties departure the Countrey about especially Buckinghamshire being incited by the Câ—…tie and Parliament came in great swarmes and joyning with the London mechanicks they ruffled up and down the streets and kept such a racket making the fearfull'st riot that ever I beleeve was heard of in Parliament time so those Members which formerly were fled into the Citie were brought to the House in a kind of triumph being garded by land and water in warlike manner by these Champions After this sundry troops of horse came from all the shires near adjoyning to â—…he Parliament and Buckingham men were â—…he first who while they express'd their â—…ve to Hamden their Knight forgot their â—…worn oath to their King and in stead of feathers they carried a printed Protestation in â—…heir hats as the Londoners had done a litâ—…le before upon the Pikes point Peregrin This kept a foul noise beyond Sea I reâ—…ember so that upon the Rialto in Venice â—…t was sung up and down that a Midsummer Moon though it was then midst of Winter did raign amongst the English and you must â—…hink that it hath made the Venetian to â—…hrink in his shoulders and to look but ill-favouredly upon us since wee 'l have none of his currans But Sir I heard much of that Protestation I pray what was the substance of it Patricius It was penn'd and enjoyn'd by the Parâ—…iament for every one to take and it consisted of many parts the first was to maintain the tru Potestant Religion against all Popish innovations which word Popish as som think was scrued in of purpose for a loop hole to let in any other innovation the second was to maintain the Prerogative anâ—… Honour of the King then the power and priviledge of Parliament and lastly the Propriety and Liberty of the subject for threâ—… parts of this Protestation the people up anâ—… down seem'd to have utterly forgotteâ—… them and continue so still as if their consciences had bin tied only to the third viz the priviledge of Parliament and never was ther a poor people so besotted never waâ—… reason and common sence so baffled in anâ—… part of the world And now will I go to attend His Majesty at York where as I told you before being loth to part with his Sword though he had half parted with his Scepter before by denying the Parliament an indefinite time to dispose of the Militia alleadging that as the Word so the thing was new He sends forth his Commissions of Array according to the old Law of England which declares iâ—… to be the undoubted Right and Royall Signorie of the King to arm or disarm any
Court at Bartholmew-Fair ther being all the essentiall parts of a true Parliament wanting in this as fairnesse of elections freedome of speech fulnesse of Members nor have they any head at all besides they have broken all the fundamental rules and Priviledges of Parliament and dishonoured that high Court more then any thing else They have ravish'd Magna Charta which they are sworn to maintain taken away our birth-right therby and transgressed all the laws of heaven and earth Lastly they have most perjuriously betrayed the trust the King reposed in them and no lesse the trust their Country reposed in them so that if reason and law were now in date by the breach of their Priviledges and by betraying the said double trust that is put in them they have dissolved themselves ipso facto I cannot tell how many thousand times notwithstanding that monstrous grant of the Kings that fatall act of continuance And truly my Lord I am not to this day satisfied of the legality though I am satisfied of the forciblenesse of that Act whether it was in his Majesties power to passe it or no for the law ever presupposeth these clauses in all concessions of Grace in all Patents Charters and Grants whatsoever the King passeth Salvo jure regio salvo jure coronae To conclude as I presume to give your Lordship these humble cautions and advice in particular so I offer it to all other of your rank office order and Relations who have souls to save and who by solemn indispensable Oaths have ingaged themseves to be tru and loyall to the Person of King Charls Touching his political capacity it is a fancy which hath bin exploded in all other Parliaments except in that mad infamous Parliament wher it was first hatched That which bears upon Record the name of Insanum Parliamentum to all posterity but many Acts have passed since that it shold be high and horrible Treason to separat or distinguish the Person of the King from His Power I believe as I said before this distinction will not serve their turn at the dreadful Bar of divine justice in the other world indeed that Rule of the Pagans makes for them Si Iusjurandum violandum est Tyrannis causâ violandum est If an Oath be any way violable 't is to get a Kingdom We find by woful experience that according to this maxime they have made themselves all Kings by violation of so many Oaths They have monopoliz'd the whole power and wealth of the Kingdom in their own hands they cut shuffle deal and turn up what trump they please being Judges and parties in every thing My Lord he who presents these humble advertisments to your Lordship is one who is inclin'd to the Parliament of Engl. in as high a degree of affection as possibly a free-born Subject can be One besides who wisheth your Lordships good with the preservation of your safety and honour more really then he whom you intrust with your secretest affaires or the White Iew of the Upper House who hath infused such pernicious principles into you moreover one who hath some drops of bloud running in his veins which may claim kindred with your Lordship and lastly he is one who would kiss your feet in lieu of your hands if your Lordship wold be so sensible of the most desperat case of your poor Country as to employ the interests the opinion and power you have to restore the King your Master by English waies rather then a hungry forrein people who are like to bring nothing but destruction in the van confusion in the rear and rapine in the middle shold have the honour of so glorious a work So humbly hoping your Lordship will not take with the left hand what I offer with the right I rest From the Prison of the Fleet 3. Septembris 1644. Your Lordships truly devoted Servant I. H. HIS Late MAJESTIES Royal DECLARATION OR MANIFESTO TO ALL FORREIN PRINCES AND STATES Touching his constancy in the Protestant Religion Being traduced abroad by some Malicious and lying Agents That He was wavering therin and upon the high road of returning to Rome Printed in the Year 1661. TO THE Unbiass'd REDER IT may be said that mischief in one particular hath somthing of Vertue in it which is That the Contrivers and Instruments thereof are still stirring and watchfull They are commonly more pragmaticall and fuller of Devices then those sober-minded men who while they go on still in the plaine road of Reason having the King and knowne Lawes to justifie and protect them hold themselfs secure enough and so think no hurt Iudas eyes were open to betray his Master while the rest of his fellow-servants were quietly asleep The Members at Westminster were men of the first gang for their Mischievous braines were alwayes at work how to compasse their ends And one of their prime policies in order thereunto was to cast asspersions on their King thereby to alienat the affections and fidelity of his peeple from him â—…notwithstanding that besides their pubâ—…ick Declarations they made new Oaths and protestations whereby they swore to make Him the best belov'd King that ever was Nor did this Diabolicall malice terminat only within the bounds of his own Dominions but it extended to infect other Princes and States of the Reformed Churches abroad to make Him suspected in his Religion that he was branling in his belief and upon the high way to Rome To which purpose they sent missives and clandestine Emissaries to divers places beyond the Seas whereof forren Authors make mention in their writings At that time when this was in the height of action the passage from London to Oxford where the King kept then his Court was so narrowly blockd up that a fly could scarce passe some Ladies of honor being search'd in an unseemly and barbarous manner whereupon the penner of the following Declaration finding his Royal master to be so grosly traduced made his Duty to go beyond all presumptions by causing the sayd Declaration to be printed and publish'd in Latin French and English whereof great numbers were sent beyond the seas to France Holland Germany Suisserland Denmark Swethland and to the English plantations abroad to vindicat his Majesty in this point which produc'd very happy and advantagious effects for Salmtisius and other forrin writers of great esteem speake of it in their printed works The Declaration was as followeth CAROLUS Singulari Omnipotentis Dei providentia Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Rex Fidei Defensor c. Universis et singulis qui praesens hoc scriptum ceu protestationem inspexerint potissimum Reformatae Religionis cultoribus cujuscunque sint gentis gradus aut conditionis salutem c. CUM ad aures nostras non ita pridem fama pervenerit sinistros quosdam rumores literasque politica vel perniciosa potiùs quorundam industriâ sparsas esse nonnullis protestantium ecclesiis in exteris partibus emissas nobis
of som mongrel Englishmen aforementioned entred into the Bowels of the Country the King was forced to call this present Parliament with whom he complyed in every thing so far as to sacrifice unto them both Iudge Bishop Councellor and Courtier yea He yielded to the tumbling down of many tribunals of Justice which were an advantage to his Prerogative He assented that the Prelates who were the most Ancient and Prime Members of the upper House and had priority of all others since the first constitution of Parliament in the enrollment of all Acts He assented I say that these who were the greatest prop of His Crown shold be quite outed from among the Peers He granted them also a Trienniall Parliament and after that this Perpetuall which words to the apprehension of any rational man carry with them a grosse absurdity in the very sense of the thing And touching this last Grant I had it from a good hand that the Queen was a friend to this Parliament and your Eminence knows how they have requited Her since but the main open Councellor to this fatall Act was a Scot. Now the reason which they alledged for this everlasting Parliament was one of the baldest that ever I heard of it was that they might have time enough to pay the Scots Army wheras in one morning they might have dispatched that by passing so many Subsidies for that use and upon the credit of those they might have raised what money they wold The Parliament finding the King so plyable and His pulse to beat so gently like ill-natur'd men they fall from inches to ells in seeking their advantages They grew so peremptory as to demand all the Military strength of the Kingdom the Tower of London with the whole Royal Navy which they found in an excellent equipage gramercy ship-money so that the benefit of ship-money which they so clamoured at turned most to their advantage of any thing afterwards The Scot being Fidler-like returned to his Country with meat drink and money the King went a while after to keep a Parliament ther wherein he filled every blank they did but ask and have for He granted them what possibly they could propound both for their Kirk and State many received Honour and they divided Bishops Lands amongst them for all which unparallel'd Concessions of Princely grace they caused an Act already in force to be published viz. that it shold be damnable Treason in the highest degree that could be for any of the Scots Nation conjunctly or singly to levy armes or any Military Forces upon any pretext whatsoever without His Majesties royal Commission and this they caused to be don by way of gratitude but how they perform'd it afterwards the world knowes too well The King returning to London in lieu of a welcom to his two Houses of Parliament to whom also before his departure he had passed more Acts of Grace then all his Progenitors take them all in a lump they had patch'd up a kind of Remonstrance which was voted in dead of the night wherein they expos'd to the world the least moat in former government and aggravated to the very height every grievance notwithstanding that the King had redressed all before and this Remonstrance which breath'd nothing but a base kind of malice they presented as a nosegay to their Soveraign Prince to congratulat his safe return from a forein Countrey which Remonstrance they caus'd to be printed and publish'd before he could give any answer thereunto The King finding such a virulent spirit still raign in the House and knowing who were chiefly possess'd with it viz. Those whom he had impeach'd before but saw he could get no justice against them in such an extremity he did an act like a generous Prince for taking the Palsgrave with him he took the first Coach he met withall at his Court-gate and went to his House of Commons in person to demand five Members which he wold prove to be Traitors in the highest degree 〈◊〉 to be the Authors of all these distempers protesting upon the word of a King that they shold have as fair legal a tryal as ever men had in the interim he only desir'd that their persons might be secur'd The walls of both Houses and the very stones in London street did seem to ring of this high cariage of the Kings and the sound went thence to the Country whence the silly Plebeians came presently in whole herds to this City who strutting up and down the streets had nothing in their mouths but that the Priviledg of Parlement the priviledg of Parlement was broken though it be the known clear Law of the Land that the Parlement cannot supersede or shelter any Treason The King finding how violently the pulse of the grosly seduced people did beat and ther having bin formerly divers riotous crues of base Mechaniques and Mariners who had affronted both his own Court and the two Houses besides which the Commons to their eternal reproach conniv'd at notwithstanding that divers motions were made by the Lords to suppresse them the King also having privat intelligence that ther was a mischievous plot to surprize his person remov'd his Court to the Countrey The King departing or rather being driven away thus from his two Houses by this mutinous City he might well at his going away have ubraided her in the same words as H. the 3. did upbraid Paris who being by such another tumultuous rabble driven out of her in the time of the Ligue as he was losing sight of her he turn'd his face back and said Farewel ingratefull City I will never see thee again till I make my way into thee through thy Walls Yet though the King absented himself in person thus from the two Houses he sent them frequent messages that they wold draw into Acts what he had already assented unto and if any thing was left yet undon by him he wold do it therfore he will'd them to leave off those groundless feares and jealousies wherwith they had amus'd both City and Country and he was ready to return at all times to his Palace in Westminster provided that his person might be secur'd from the former barbarisms and outrages But in lieu of a dutiful compliance with their Prince the thoughts of the two Houses ran upon nothing but war The King then retiring into the North and thinking with a few of his servants only to go visit a Town of his Hull he was denyed entrance by a fatal unlucky wretch Hotham who afterwards was shamefully executed with his Eldest Son by command of his new Masters of the Parlement The King being thus shut out of his own Town which open'd the first dore to a bloudy war put forth a Declaration wherin he warn'd all his people that they shold look to their proprieties for if He was thus barr'd of his own how could any privat Subject be sure to be Master of any thing he had and herein he was as much Prophet
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
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
Parliament by force and remove ill Counsellours from about him long before he put up his Royal Standard and the Generall then nam'd was to live and die with them and very observable it is how that Generalls Father was executed for a Traytor for but attempting such a thing upon Queen Elizabeth I mean to remove ill Counsellors from about her by force 'T is also to be observed that the same Army which was rais'd to bring him to his Parliament was continued to a clean contrary end two years afterwards to keep him from his Parliament 'T is fit it should be remembred who interdicted Trade first and brought in Forraigners to help them and whose Commissions of War were neere upon two moneths date before the Kings 'T is fit it should be remembred how His Majesty in all His Declarations and publick Instruments made alwaies deep Protestations that 't was not against his Parliament he raised Armes but against some seditious Members against whom he had onely desired the common benefit of the Law but could not obtain it 'T is fit to remember that after any good successes and advantages of his he still Courted both Parliament and City to an Accommodation how upon the Treaty at Uxbridge with much importunity for the generall advantage and comfort of his peeple and to prepare matters more fitly for a peace he desired there might be freedom of Trade from Town to Town and a Cessation of all Acts of Hostility for the time that the inflammation being allayed the wound might be curâ—…d the sooner all which was denyed him 'T is fit to remember how a Noble Lord The Earl of Southampton at that time told the Parliaments Commissioners in His Majesties Name at the most unhappy rupture of the said Treaty That when he was at the highest he would be ready to treat with them and fight them when he was at the lowest 'T is fit the present Army should remember how often both in their Proposalls and publick Declarations they have inform'd the world and deeply protested that their principall aime was to restore His Majesty to honour freedom and safety whereunto they were formerly bound both by their own Protestation and Covenant that the two Commanders in chief pawn'd unto him their soules thereupon Let them remember that since he was first snatch'd away to the custody of the Army by Cromwells plot who said that if they had the Person of the King in their power they had the Parliament in their pockets I say being kept by the Army He never displeas'd them in the least particular but in all his Overtures for Peace and in all his Propositions he had regard still that the Army should be satisfied let it be remembred that to settle a blessed Peace to preserve his Subjects from rapine and ruine and to give contentment to his Parliament He did in effect freely part with His Sword Scepter and Crown and ev'ry thing that was proprietary to him Let it be remembred with what an admired temper with what prudence and constancy with what moderation and mansuetude he comported himself since his deep afflictions insomuch that those Commissioners and others who resorted unto him and had had their hearts so averse unto him before return'd his Converts crying him up to be one of the sanctifiedst persons upon earth and will not the bloud of such a Prince cry loud for vengeance Bloud is a crying sin but that of Kings Cryes loudest for revenge and ruine brings Let it be remembred that though there be some Precedents of deposing Kings in his Kingdom and elsewhere when there was a competition for the right Title to the Crown by some other of the bloud Royall yet 't is a thing not onely unsampled but unheard of in any age that a King of England whose Title was without the least scruple should be summon'd and arraign'd tryed condemned and executed in His own Kingdom by His own Subjects and by the name of their own King to whom they had sworn Alleagiance The meanest Student that hath but tasted the Laws of the Land can tell you that it is an unquestionable fundamentall Maxime The King can do no wrong because he acts by the mediation of his Agents and Ministers he heares with other mens eares he sees with other mens eyes he consults with other mens braines he executes with other mens hands and judges with other mens consciences therefore his Officers Counsellors or favorites are punishable not He and I know not one yet whom he hath spar'd but sacrificed to Justice The Crown of England is of so coruscant and pure a mettall that it cannot receive the least taint or blemish and if there were any before in the person of the Prince it takes them all away and makes him to be Rectus in curia This as in many others may be exemplified in Henry the Seventh and the late Queen Elizabeth when she first came to the Crown 't was mention'd in Parlement that the attainder might be taken off him under which he lay all the time he liv'd an Exile in France it was then by the whole house of Parlement resolv'd upon the question that it was unnecessary because the Crown purg'd all So likewise when Queen Elizabeth was brought as it were from the Scaffold to the Throne though she was under a former attainder yet 't was thought superfluous to take it off for the Crown washeth away all spots and darteth such a brightnesse such resplendent beams of Majesty that quite dispell all former clouds so that put case King Iames died a violent death and his Son had been accessary to it which is as base a lie as ever the devil belch'd out yet his accesse to the Crown had purged all This businesse about the playster which was applyed to King Iames was sifted and winnow'd as narrowly as possibly a thing could be in former Parlements yet when it was exhibited as an Article against the Duke of Buckingham 't was term'd but a presumption or misdemeanure of a high nature And 't is strange that these new accusers shold make that a parricide in the King which was found but a presumption in the Duke who in case it had been so must needs have been the chiefest Accessary And as the ancient Crown and Royall Diadem of England is made of such pure allay and cast in so dainty a mould that it can receive no taint or contract the least speck of enormity and foulenesse in it self so it doth endow the person of the Prince that weares it with such high Prerogatives that it exempts him from all sorts of publique blemishes from all Attainders Empeachments Summons Arraignments and Tryalls nor is there or ever was any Law or Precedent in this Land to lay any Crime or capitall charge against him though touching civill matters touching propertie of meum and tuum he may be impleaded by the meanest vassall that hath sworn fealty to him as the Subjects of France and Spaine may against
their Kings though never so absolute Monarchs In the Constitutions of England there are two incontroulable Maximes whereof the meanest mootman that hath but saluted Littleton cannot be ignorant the first is Rex in suis Dominiis neque habet parem nec superiorem The King in his own Dominions hath neither Peer or Superior The other is Satis habet Rex ad poenam quod Deum expectet ultorem 't is punishment enough for a King that God will take revenge of him Therefore if it be the Fundamentall Constitution of the Land that all just Tryalls must be by Teers and that the Law proclaimes the King to have no peer in his own Dominions I leave the world to judg what capacity or power those men had to arraign their late King to be in effect his Accusers and Iudges and that an exorbitant unsampled Tribunall should be erected with power and purpose to condemn All to cleer none and that sentence of death should passe without conviction or Law upon Him that was the heard and protector of all the Lawes Lastly that They who by their own confession represent but the Common people should assume power to cut off Him who immediately represented God Cui dabit partes scelus expiandi Iupiter Well we have seen such portentous things that former Ages never beheld nor will future Ages ever be witnesse of the like Nay posterity after a Century or two of yeers will hold what is now really acted to be but Romances And now with thoughts full of consternation and horror And a heart trembling with amazement and sorrow for the crying flagrant sins of this forlorn Nation specially for that fresh Infandous murther committed upon the sacred Person of his Majesty I conclude with this Hepastick wherein all cretures though irrationall that have sence yea the very vegetalls seeme to abhor so damnable a fact So fell the Royal Oake by a wild crew Of mongrel shrubs which underneath Him grew So fell the Lion by a pack of Currs So the Rose witherd 'twixt a knot of Burrs So fell the Eagle by a swarme of Gnatts So the Whale perish'd by a Shoale of Spratts In the prison of the Fleet 25. Febr. 1648. I. H. ADVICE Sent from the prime Statesmen OF FLORENCE HOW ENGLAND may come to HERSELF again Which is To call in the KING Not upon ARTICLES But in a Free confident way Which Advice came immediatly upon the Readmission of the Secluded Members And Coppies therof being delivered to the Chiefest of Them It produc'd happy Effects A Letter sent from the City of Florence Written by a Great Counsellor there touching the present Distempers of England wherein He with som of the Prime Statesmen in Florence passe their Iudgements which is the onely way to compose the said Distempers To my Honored and most Endeared Patron IT is no small diminution to my former happinesse that I have not receiv'd your commands any time these two moneths which makes me lodg within me certain apprehensions of fear that som disasteâ—… might befall you in those new Distractions therefore I pray be pleased to pull this thorn out of my thoughts as speedily as it may stand with your conveniency We are not here so barren of Intelligence but we have weekly advice of your present Confusions and truly the severest sort of speculative persons here who use to observe the method of Providence do not stick to say that the hand of Heaven doth visibly stirre therein and that those Distractions in Army State and City are apparent judgements from above for if one revolve the Stories of former Times as I have done many but you more he will find that it hath been alwaies an inevitable Fate which useth to hang over all popular Insurrections to end in confusion and disorders among the chief actors themselfs at last And we have had divers examples thereof here among us which hath caus'd us to be so long in quietnesse and peace But truly Sir give me leave to tell you that your Nation hath lost much of their Repute abroad all the World over in statu quo nunc Som do laugh at you Others do scorn and hate you And som do pitty and comiserat you They who laugh at you think you are no better than Mand men having strange Magots in your brains bred out of the fat of so long wanton plenty and peace They who scorn and hate you do it for your Sacriledge your horrendous Sacrileges the like whereof was never committed on Earth since Christianity had first a hole to put her head in They who pitty you are few and We are of the nomber of Them as well in the common sense of Humanity as for the advantages and improvement of Wealth which this State hath receiv'd by your Trading at Ligorne for that Town doth acknowledge her prosperity and that she is arrived to this flourishing Estate of Riches of Buildings and bravery by the correspondence she hath had this latter Age with England in point of Commerce which yet we find doth insensibly impair every day and I believe you feel it more Therefore out of the well-wishes and true affections we bear unto England some of the most serious and soberest Persons of this place who are well seasoned in the World and have studyed men under divers Climes and conversed also much with Heavenly Bodies had lately a private Junto or meeting whereunto I was admitted for one and two of us had been in England where we received sundry free Civilities Our main businesse was to discourse and descant upon these sad confusions and calamitous condition wherein England with the adjoyning Kingdomes are at present involved and what might extricate Her out of this Labyrinth of Distractions and reduce Her to a setled Government Having long canvased the businesse and banded arguments pro con with much earnestnesse all our opinious did concenter at last in this point That there was no probable way under Heaven to settle a fast and firm Government among you then for the Men that are now upon the Stage of power to make a speedy application to their own King their own Liege Lord and Soveraigne whom God and Nature hath put over them Letâ—… them beat their brains scrue up their witts and put all the policy they have upon the tenterhooks as farre as possibly they can yet they will never be able to establish a durable standing Government otherwise They do but dance in a circle all this while for the Government will turn at last to the same point it was before viz. to Monarchy and this King will be restored to His Royall Inheritances maugre all the Cacodaemons of Hell Our Astrologers here specially the famous Antonio Fiselli hath had notes to look into the horoscope of his Nativity and what predictions he hath made hitherto of him have proved true to my knowledge He now confidently averrs with the concurrence of the rest that the aspect of all the starrs and conjunction of