plausible and may run well with the close of Beza's Epigram in Parodie Quod tu fecisti sit licet ingens At quod non saceres hoâ— ego miror opus 134. But the Injuries done to private Man were Trifâ—les to the great Affairs that were in hand His Majesty's Affairs which were in great decadence took him up wholly and how could he be safe A good Subject cannot make any difference between the King's Fortunes and his own A full Declaration of the Storms that were rais'd concerns not this piece It was apparent that the Scotch were at one end of the Fray in the North and the Presbyterians about London at the other end in the South both confederate to root up cast down syndicate controul and do what they lust and let them have their own will it would scarce content them Our wise Church-man knew that he that fears the worst prevents it soonest Therefore he did not lose a minute to try all his Arts if he could quench the flame amongst the heady Scots whose common sort were like their Preachers Tumidi magis animi quà m magni as Casaubon notes it in the Atherians Lib. 1. Athen. cap. 20. rather of a swelling than a noble Spirit Their own polite Historian says more Dromond Jam. 5. p. 161. That Hepburn Prior of St. Andrews the Oracle of the Duke of Albany told him That he must remember that the People whom he did command for he was Regent were ever fierce mutinously proud and know not how to obey unless the Sword were drawn What hope then of their Submission when they had framed Covenants Articles gathered a Convention no less in Power no less in Name than a Parliament without their Prince's leave and became Assailants to maintain that and what they would have more with the Sword Let all Ages remember that this sprung from no other occasion but that the King invited them to prayer in publick in such a Form of Liturgy as himself used putting no greater burden upon their Conscience than upon his own The Peccatulum was that there wanted a little in mode and usual way to commend the Book unto them Perhaps the Error went a little further that King James his Promise was not observ'd as the Reverend Spotswood doth not conceal it p. 542. That the Lord Hamilton King James his Commissioner having ratified the Articles of Perth by Act of Parliament assured the People that his Majesly in his days should never press any more change and alteration in matters of that kind without their consent Admit this Promise calculated for the days of King James was obliging as far as the Meridian of King Charles yet nothing was presented to them against true Doctrine or Divine Worship for all the Learning of their Universities could never make the matter of the Liturgy odious And let it be disputed That the Book was not authoritative without the publick Vote and Consent of the Nation in some Representative Yet if a Prince so pious so admirable in his Ethicks did tread one inch awry in his Politicks must the Cannon be brought into the Field and be planted against him to subvert his Power at Home and to dishonour him abroad was it ever heard that upon so little a Storm Seamen would cut Cabble and Mast and throw their Cargo over-board when there was no fear to shipwrack any thing but Fidelity and Allegiance God was pleased to deprive us of Contentment and Peace for our own wickedness or Civil Discords that lasted near as long as the Peloponnesian War had never risen from so slender an occasion The merciful and soft-hearted King could have set his Horse-feet upon their Necks in his first Expedition which stopt at Barwick if he had not been more desirous of Quietness than Honour and Victory I guess whom Dromond means in the Character of Jam. 3. p. 118. That it is allowable in men that have not much to do to be taken with admiration of Watches Clocks Dials Automates Pictures Statues But the Art of Princes is to give Laws and govern their People with wisdom in Peace and glory in War to spare the humble and prostrate the proud Happy had it been if his Majesty had followed valiant Counsel to have made himself compleat Conquerour of those Malapert Rebels when they first saw his face in the North. But the Terms of Pacification which they got in one year served them to gather an Army and to come with Colours display'd into England the next year which was the periodical year of the King's Glory the Churches Prosperity the Common Laws Authority and the Subjects Liberty Threescore and eighteen years before when England and Scotland were never at better League Abr. Hartwell passeth this Vote in his Reginâ literatâ more like a Prophet than a Poet Nostráque non iterùm Saxo se vertat in arva Non Gallus sed nec prior utrôque Scotus 135. And what could Lesly have done then with a few untrain'd unarmed Jockeys if we had been true among our selves The Earl of Southampton spake heroically like a Peer of an ancient Honour That the Bishop of Durham with his Servants a few Millers and Plowmen were wont to beat those Rovers over the Tweed again without raising an Army If the People had not imprudently chosen such into our Parliament as were fittest to gratifie the Scots day had soon cleared up and Northern Mists dispersed But our foolish heart was darkned and any Scourge was welcome that would chastise the present Government we thought we could not be worse when we could scarce be better We greedily took this Scotch Physick when we were not sick but knew not what it was to be in health An Ounce of common Sense might have warned us That a Kingdom may consist with private mens Calamities but private mens Fortunes cannot consist with the ruin of a Kingdom The Love of Money is the Root of all Evil. Many in England thought they sat at a hard Rent because of Ship-money and would fire the House wherein their own Wealth was laid up rather than pay their Landlord such a petty Tribute as was not mist in times of Plenty but in short time their Corn and Plate went away at one swoop when their stock was low The exacting of Ship-money all thought it not illegal but so many did as made it a number equivalent to all And a Camel will bear no more weight than was first laid upon him Nec plus instituto onere recipit Plin. lib. 8. cap. 18. This disorder'd the Beast and being backt with some thousands of Rebels march't on as far as Durham made him ready to cast his Rider The Royal part was at a stand and could go no further than this Question What shall we do As Livy says of the Romans catch't in an Ambush at Caudis Intuentes alii alios cum alterum quisque compotem magis mentis ac consilii ducerent In such a Perplexity every man asks his Fellow What 's best
adversum Salust p. 109. Sic est vulgus ex veritate pauca ex opinione multa judicat Cic. pro Dom. And Grotius proves out of the Caesarean Law in Matt. 27.23 That when Pilate enclined to hear the People who would have Christ condemned he acted contrary to Caesar's Law Vanas populi veces non audiendar Imperatores pronunciarunt O those of the right Heroical Race were dead and gone who would not have endured to be directed by the Off-scourings of their greatest Enemies Nec bellua tetrior ulla est Quam vulgi rabies in libera colla frement is Claud. in Eutrop. The other catch of the Pincers was their Lordships Legislative Vote and their odds in number above the Bishops if you counted men by Noses Power should be a divine thing this was only Strength as Aristotle says 2 Rhet. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Tully hath put in good sence and good words pro Quinc Arbitrantur sine injuriâ potentiam levem atque inopem esse Some think it is not Power unless they make us feel that it can do an Injury Now methinks their Lordships should have mark'd that their House was alter'd in its Visage very much when the Bishops sate no longer with them And Hippocrates says That sick man will not recover whose Face is so much changed that it is drawn into another fashion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And did the Lay-Peers look to last long when the Aspect of their House was so metamorphos'd It is a vulgar Error If you pluck up a Mandrake you will dye at the Groan of it Though it be but a Fable let them remember it that are for Extirpation and ware them whose turn is next Take away one Leg from a Trevit it may make a scurvy Stool to sit on but it is no longer a Trevit And take away the third Estate of Bishops be it nominal or real a Convention it may be but I doubt whether it be a Parliament And as a bungling Painter said of a Beast he had not drawn well It would not make a good Lyon but he could turn it into a good Calf There was a time when the whole Academy of Philosophers was banish'd out of Athens but they were soon miss'd and he was well fined that was their Enemy Sequenti anno revocati multa 5 talentorum Sophocli Archonti indita Moeur fort Att. p. 65. But for them that thrust the Bishops out of their ancient Right the Injury avenged it self upon them for it was not long when the Commons served the Temporal Lords in the same kind Nec longum laetabere te quoque fata prospectant paria AEn lib. 10. They were not only thrust out but an Engagement like a Padlock clapt upon the Door to keep them out for ever and to their great dishonour the other House made to resemble the Peers of the Land Duxit Sacerdotes inglorios Optimates supplantat Mark their Sympathy in the words of the vulgar Latin Job 12.19 Which retribution measure for measure the Bishops did neither wish nor rejoice in but committed their Innocency to be justified by the Holy God Seek no other reason why they had so many Enemies but because Christianity was mightily faln among us both as to the credenda and the agenda A mighty part had a Religion I mean equivocally called so that was a Picture looking equally upon all Sects that pass'd by it and as indifferent as Gusman â—s Father that being taken by the Pirates of Argiers for quietness sake and as one that had not the Spirit of Contradiction renounced Christ and turned Turk But when the Cause of the Bishops for other Immunities and to keep their undoubted Right and Place in the Lords House was in the hottest dispute Sentence ready to be call'd for and like the last bidding for a thing at the Port-sale York at a Committee of the Lords stands up for his Brethren Murique urbis sunt pectore in uno Sil. lib. 7 and delivers him in the long Harangue that follows 159. I shall desire as much Water or Time of your H. Lordships as your Lordships can well afford in a Committee because all I intend to speak in this business must be to your Lordships only as resolved for mine own part to make hereafter no Remonstrance at all to His most excellent Majesty for these several Reasons First That I have had occasion of late to know that our Soveraign whom God bless and preserve is I will not say above other Princes but above all Christian men that ever I knew or heard of a man of a most upright dainty and scrupulous Conscience and afraid to look upon some Actions which other Princes abroad do usually swallow up and devour I know for I have the Monuments in my own custody what Oath or rather Oaths His Majesty hath taken at his Coronation to preserve all the Rights and Liberties of the Church of England and you know very well that Churchmen are never sparing in their Rituals and Ceremonials to amplisie and swell out the Oaths of Princes in that kind Your Lordships then know right well that he is sworn at that time to observe punctually the Laws of King Edward the first Law whereof as you may see in Lambert's Saxon Laws is to preserve entirely the Peace the Possessions and the Rights and Privileges of the Church And truly I shall never put my Master's Conscience that I find resenting and punctilious when it is bound up with Oaths and Protestations to swallow such Gudgeons as to sill it self with these Doubts and Scruples My second Reason is That if His Majesty were free from all these Oaths and Protestations I duâ—t not without some fair Invitation from himself advise His Majesty to run Shocks and Oppositions against the Votes of both these great Houses of Parliament Lastly If I were secretly invited to move His Majesty to advise upon the passing of this Bill yet speaking mine own Heart and Sence and not binding any of my Brethren in this Opinion if I found the major part of this House to pass this Bill without much qualification I should never have the boldness nor desire to sit any more in any judicial place in this most honourable House And therefore my H. Lordships here I have sixt my Areopagus and dernier Resort being not like to make any further Appeal which makes me humbly desire your Patience to speak for some longer time than I have accustomed in a Committee in which length notwithstanding I hope to use a great deal of brevity some length in the whole and much shortness in every particular Head which I mean so to distinguish and beat out that not only your Lordships but the Lords my Brethren may enlarge themselves upon all the particulars which neither my Abilities of Body can perform nor doth my Intention nor Purpose aim at at this time I will therefore cast this whole Bill into six several Heads wherein I
Garbage That is in plain English the Priest must no longer receive Obligations from either King or Lords but wholly depend upon his Holy Fathers the Pope of Rome and the Pope of Lambeth or at least wise pay him soundly for their Dispensations and Absolutions when they presume to do the contrary In the mean time here is not one word or shew of Reason to inform an understanding man that persons in Holy Orders ought not to terrisie the Bad and comfort the Good to repress Sin and chastise Sinners which is the summa totalis of the Civil Magistracy and consequently so far forth at the least to intermeddle with Secular Affairs And this is all that I shall say touching the Motive and Ground of this Bill and that persons in Holy Orders ought not to be inhibited from intermeddling in Secular Astairs either in point of Divinity or in point of Conveniency and Policy 163. The second Point consists of the Persons reflected upon in this Bill which are Archbishops Bishops Parsons Vicars and all others in Holy Orders of which point I shall say little only finding these Names huddled up in an Heap made me conceive at first that it might have some relation to Mr. 〈◊〉 Reading in the Middle Temple which I ever esteem'd to have been very inoffentively deliver'd by that learned Gentleman and with little discretion question'd by a great Ecclesiastick then in Place for all that he said was this That when the Temporal â—ords are more in Voices than the Spiritual they may pass a Bill without consent of the Bishops Which is an Assertion so clear in Reason and so often practis'd upon the Records and Rolls of Parliament that no man any way vers'd in either of these can make any doubt of it nor do I though I humbly conceive no Preâ—ident will be ever sound that the Prelates were ever excluded otherwise than by their own Folly Fear or Headiness For the point of being Justices of Peace the Gentleman confesseth he never meddled with Archbishops nor Bishops nor with any Clergyman made a Justice by His Majesty's Commission In the Statute made 34 Edw. 3. c. 1. he finds Assignees for the keeping of the Peace one Lord three or four of the most valiant men of the County the troublesome times did then so require it And if God do not bless us with the riddance of these two Armies the like Provision will be now as necessary He finds these men included but he doth not find Churchmen excluded no not in the Statute 13 Rich. II. c. 7. that requires Justices of Peace to be made of Knights Esquires and Gentlemen of the Law of the most sufficient of each County In which words the Gentleman thinks Clerks were not included and I clearly say by his favour they are not excluded nor do the learned Sages of the Law conceive them to be excluded by that Statute If the King shall command the Lord Keeper to fill up the Commissions of each County with the most sufficient Knights Esquires and Gentlemen of the Law shall the Lord Keeper thereupon exclude the Noblemen and the Prelates I have often in my days received this Command but never heard of this Interpretation before this time So that I cannot conceive from what ground this general Sweepstake of Archbishops Bithops Parsons Vicars and all others in Holy Orders should proceed I have heard since the beginning of my Sickness that it hath been alledg'd in this House that the Clergy in the Sixth of Edw. 3. did disavow that the Custody of the Peace did belong to them at all and I believe that such a thing is to be sound among the Notes of the Privileges of this House but first you must remember that it was in a great Storm and when the Waters were much troubled and the wild People unapt to be kept in order by Miters and Crosier-staves But yet if that noble Lord shall be pleased to cast his Eye upon the Roll it self he shall find that this poor Excuse did not serve the Prelates turns for they were compelled with a witness to defend the preservation of the Peace of the Kingdom for their parts as well as the Noblemen and Gentry And you shall find the Ordinance to this effect set down upon that Roll. I conclude therefore with that noble Lord's favour that the sweeping of all the Clergy out of temporal Offices is a motion of the first impression and was never heard in the English Common-wealth before this Bill 164. I come in the third place to the main part of this Cause the things to be severed from all men in Holy Orders which are as I told you of three kinds 1. Matters of Free-hold as the Bishops Votes in Parliament and Legislative Power 2. Matters of Favour to be a Judge in Star-chamber to be a a Privy-Councillor to be a Justice of Peace or a Commissioner in any Temporal Affairs 3. Mixt Matters of Free-hold and Favour too as the Charters of some Bishops and many of the ancient Cathedrals of this Kingdom who allow them a Justice or two within themselves or their Close as they call it and exempt those grave and learned men from the Rudeness and Insolency of Tapsters Brewers Inn-keepers Taylors and Shoe-makers which do integrate and make up the Bodies of our Country-Cities and Incorporations And now is the Ax laid to the very Root of the Ecclesiastical Tree and without your Lordships Justice and Favour all the Branches are to be lopt off quite with those latter Clauses and the Stock and Root it self to be quite grubb'd and digged up by that first point of abolishing all Vote and Legislative Power in all Clergymen leaving them to be no longer any part of the People of Rome but meer Slaves and Bond-men to all intents and purposes and the Priests of England one degree interiour to the Priests of Jerâ—boam being to be accounted worse than the Tail of the People Now I hope no English-man will doubt but this Vote and Representation in Parliament is not only a Freehold but the greatest Freehold that any Subject in England or in all the Christian World can brag of at this day that we live under a King and are to be govern'd by his Laws that is not by his arbitrary Edicts or Rescripts but by such Laws confirmed by him and assented to by us either in our proper Persons or in our Assignees and Representations This is the very Soul and Genius of our Magna Charta and without this one Spirit that great Statute is little less than litera occidens a dead and useless piece of Paper You heard it most truly opened unto you by a wise and judicious Peer of this House that Legem patere quam ipse tuleris was a Motto wherein Alexander Severus had not more interest than every true-born Englishman No Forty-shillings-man in England but doth in person or representation enjoy his Freedom and Liberty The Prelates of this Kingdom as a Looking-glass
Ulpian did not stick to say of all the grave Senators that sate upon the Bench to decide Right from Wrong Nos meritò juris sacerdotes à quòdam dicti sumus siquidem sanctissima res est civilis sapientia This Heathen was pleased to have them styled Priests of the Law because the Wisdom of Civil Judicature was an holy Thing Much more it agrees in a Chancellor who directs that part which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle says Eth. 5. the mitigating of public Justice when it breaths Intemperate Rigour Happy are the People who are governed by full and exact Laws which make them liable as little as may be to the Errors and Passions of Arbitrary Moderation Yet because a Law is a General Rule and that it is not possible that a General Rule should provide sufficiently to satisfie all particular Cases therefore as the same Philosopher said again Polit. 3. Let the Laws have the chief Power yet sometimes let one or more Judges have the Power of the Laws which in effect is the merciful Voice of God to mollifie the Strictness and Inconveniencies of the Voice of Man And we living in a Christian State how can that be incongruous nay any way unseemly in his Person that is an Ambassador of Christ 67. It was said also that he was illiterate in the knowledge of the Laws being bred up in other Studies and very unprepared to discharge this Function But it was quickly unsaid as soon as the Court had trial of his Abilities There have been others besides Peter Gallaudes that have been capacious of all Sciences and Learning of whom Turnebus Advers l. 2. c. 1. Omnium rerum capax natura quam it a facile regebat versabat ut quicquid ageret unum illud curae habere tractaréque putaretur So this man had a mind of such a Glebe by the felicity of Nature and so manured that it could bring forth a plentiful Crop whatsoever Seed or Grain was cast into it and whatsoever he addicted himself to convey into the Store-house of his Brain he was never long at suck but had it with much more speed then other men Though he was never a Practitioner in the course of the Law yet he had been an hard Student in the Tenures Reports and other Compilements of that Profession But no marvel if others were diffident of him for he was very diffident of himself Therefore he humbly besought the King he might be a Temporary Lord-Keeper nay a Probationer and no more as it is divulged in the Cabal p. 56. and of the rest of that in a sitter place Nay he besought that His Majesties free and unlook'd-for Election might bear the blame of his Infirmities as Gregory the Great wrote to Mauritius the Emperor when he did in a manner enforce Gregory to be Bishop of Rome Lib. 1. Ep. 5. Necesse est ut omnes culpas meas negligentias non mihi sed tuae pietati populus deputet qui virtutis Ministerium infirmo commisit The Chancellorship of England is not a Chariot for every Scholar to get up and ride in it Saving this one perhaps it would take a long day to find another Our Laws are the Wisdom of many Ages consisting of a world of Customs Maxims intricate Decisions which are Responsa prudentum Tully could never have boasted if he had lived among us Si mihi vehementer occupato stomachum moverint triduo me jurisconsultum profitebor Orat. pro Mar. If the Advocates of Rome anger'd him though he were full of business he would pass for a Lawyer in 3 days He is altogether deceived that thinks he is fit for the Exercise of our Judicature because he is a great Rabbi in some Academical Authors for this hath little or no Copulation with our Encyclopaidy of Arts and Sciences Quintilian might judge right upon the Branches of Oratory and Philosophy Omnes Disciplinas inter se conjunctionem rerum communionem habere But our Law is a Plant that grows alone and is not entwined into the Hedge of other Professions yet the small insight that some have into deep Matters cause them to think that it is no insuperable Task for an unexpert man to be the chief Arbiter in a Court of Equity Bring Reason and Conscience with you the good stock of Nature and the thing is done Aequitas optimo cuique notissima est is a trivial Saying A very good man cannot be ignorant of Equity And who knows not that extreme Right is extream Injury But they that look no further then so are short-sighted For there is no strein of Wisdom more sublime then upon all Complaints to measure the just distance between Law and Equity because in this high Place it is not Equity at Lust and Pleasure that is moved for but Equity according to Decrees and Precedents foregoing as the Dew-beaters have trod the way for those that come after them What was more Absolute then the Power of the Pretorian Courts in Rome Yet they were confined by the Cornelian Law to give Sentence Ex edictis perpetuis to come as near as might be to the Perpetual Edicts of former Pretors And wherefore Of that Budaeus informs us Ne juris dicendi ratio arburaria praetoribus esset pro eorum libidine subinde mutabilis In Pandec p. 205. To keep Justice to certâ—in and stable Rules for every man will more readily know how to find his own when he trusts to that Light which burns constantly in one Socket This is to keep the Keeper from Extravagancies of his own Fancies and Affections and to hold him really to Conscience and Conscience as it is in Queen Elizabeth's Motto is Semper eadâ—m It is ever the same No all this doth adorn and amplisie the great Wisdom of the Dean that being made the Pilot in the chief Ship of the Political Navy a Pilot that had never been a Mariner in any Service of that Vessel before yet in all Causes that ever he heard he never made an improsperous Voyage For from his first setting forth to his last Expedition the most Envious did never upbraid him with Weakness or scantiness of Knowledge Neither King James King Charles nor any Parliament which gave due Hearing to the frowardness of some Complaints did ever appoint that any of his Orders should be retexed Which is not a Pillar of Honour but a Pyramid Fulgentius hath Recorded the like upon the Wonder of his Age Father Paul of Venice that being Provincial of his Order and hearing many Causes none of the Judgments that he gave which were innumerable were ever Repealed upon Instance made to higher Judgment Neither do I find that any of his Fraternity did maunder that the Frier was a Strippling but 28 years old and therefore but a Novice to make a Provincial who is a Judge and a Ruler over his Fellows He had better Luck in that then our Dean who was 39 years old when he atchieved this
up the greatest part of the Time in speaking to the Redress of petty Grievances like Spaniels that rett after Larks and Sparrows in the Field and pass over the best Game Therefore his Majesty to loose no time drew up a Proclamation with his own Pen Feb. 20 to this end that certain of the Lords of the Privy Council should have Power and special Commission to receive the Complaints of all the good People of this Land which should be brought before them concerning any Exorbitances Vexations Oppressions and Illegalities and either by their own Authority if it would reach to it to see them corrected or to give Orders to cut them off by the keenest Edge of the Laws That Complainants should be encouraged to present their Grievances as well by the Invitement of the Proclamation as by the Signification of the Judges to the Country and Grand Juries in their respective Circuits The Draught of this the Features of his Majesty's own Brain came by Post to pass the Great Seal Yet for all that Hast the Lord Keeper took time to scan it and sent it back with Advice that the Project would be sweeter if it were double refined presuming therefore that his Majesty would not be unwilling to stop a little at the Bar of good Counsel he wrote this ensuing Letter to the Court Feb. 22. May it please Your most Excellent Majesty 120. I Do humbly crave Your Majesties Pardon that I forbear for two or three days to seal Your Proclamation for Grievances until I have presented to Your Majesty this little Remonstrance which would come too late after the Sealing and Divulging the Proclamation First As it is now coming forth it is generally misconstrued and a little sadly look'd upon by all men as somewhat restreining rather than enlarging Your Majesties former Care and Providence over Your Subjects For whereas before they had a standing Committee of all the Council-Table to repair unto they are now streitned to four or five only Most of which number are not likely to have any leisure to attend the Service Secondly I did conceive Your Majesty upon Your first Royal Expression of Your Grace in this kind in a Resolution to have mingled with some few Lords of Your Privy-Council some other Barons of Your Kingdom Homines as Pliny said of Virginius Rufus innoxiè Populares Whose Ears had been so opened to the like Grievances in the time of Parliament as their Tongues notwithstanding kept themselves within the compass of Duty and due Respect to Your Majesty as the Earls of Dorset and Warwick the Lord Houghton Dr. Morton the Lord Dennie the Lord Russel the Lord North. And among the Lords Spiritual the Bishops of Lichfield Rochester and Ely and especially unless Tour Majesty in Your deep Wisdom have some Reasons of the Omission Dr. Buckeridge the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury This mixture would produce the these Effects ensuing First An Intimation of Your Majesties Sincerity and Reality in this Proclamation Dr. Felton Secondly A more free and general Intimation to Parties Aggrieved who will repair soonear to these private Peers then to the great Lords of Your Majesties Council Thirdly The making of these Lords and the like Witnesses of Your Majesties Justice and good Government against the next ensuing Parliament and the stopping of their Ears against such supposed Grievances at that time as shall never be heard of in their Sitting upon this Commission Fourthly and Lastly The gaining of these Temporal Lords to side with the State being formerly much wrought upon by the Factious and Discontented If Your Majesty shall approve of these Reasons it is but to Command Your Secretary to interline these or some of these Names in the Commission which in all other respects is already wisely and exceeding well penn'd with two short Clauses only First That these Lords shall attend very carefully and constantly in Term-time when they are occasion'd to be at London Secondly That they be instructed to receive all Complaints with much Civility and Encouragement giving them full Content and Redress according to the merit of their Grievances For nothing will sooner break the Heart of a People or make them lose their Patience than when hopes of Justice are frustrated after the Royal Word is engaged But if Your Majesty in Your high Wisdom will overpass these Particulars which I have dutifully presented upon the return of the Proclamation as it is it shall be sealed and divulged with all expedition But these Reasons were not overpass'd Both the Proclamation and private Orders to the Lords Commissioners were reformed by the Contents of that weighty Letter His Majesty greatly inclining to the Lord-Keeper's Readiness and espying Judgment in all Consultations For as Laertius in Zeno's Life said of a famous Musician 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Ismenias could play well upon all Instruments So this was another Ismenias who had the Felicity to make all Deliberations pleasing and tuneable especially he had that way above all that I knew to make sweet Descant upon any plain Song that was prick'd before him It will be to the Profit of the Reader if I rub his memory with one Passage of the Letter for it is but one though it come in twice which presseth the King to Sincerity and Reality to fix his Word like the Center of Justice that cannot be moved Righteous Lips are the delight of Kings Prov. 16.23 And a King of Righteous Lips is most delightful Since the coercitive part of the Law doth not reach him upon what Nail shall those Millions that stand before his Throne hang their Hopes if his Word do not bind him A People that cannot give Faith to their Sovereign will never pay him Love It seems that the ancient Latin Kings did profess to use Crookedness and Windings of Dissimulation in their Polity therefore their Scepter was called Lituus because it bent in toward the upper end But the Scepter of thy Kingdom says David of GOD is a right Scepter A right one indeed For Contracts and Promises bind God to Man much more must they oblige the King to his People An Author of our own Dr. Duck in his very Learned Treatise De usu Juris Civilis p. 44. hath well delivered this Morality Princeps ad contractum tenetur uti privatus nec potest contractum suum rescindere ex plenitudine potestatis cum maximè in eo requiratur bena sides Falshood is Shop-keepers Language or worse but 't is beneath Majesty 121. A Parliament being not far of either in the King's Purpose or in Prospect of Likelihood Serj Crooke Cvew Finch Damport Bramston Bridgman Crawly Headly Thin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Authurst Blng. Dâ—y the Lord Keeper was provident that the Worthies of the Law should be well entreated Their Learning being most comprehensive of Civil Causes and Affairs they had ever a great Stroke in that Honorable Council Therefore he wrought with his Majesty to sign a Writ for the Advancement of some
at Chattam and to ride near to St. Anderos to bring the Prince for England if there were a rupture in the Treaty But if they should suddenly strike Hands and make a Bargain my Lord Duke had his Thoughts upon a Question which if it should be ask'd he would not be surpriz'd as if he were ignorant what to answer that is What Dowry should be granted to the Princely Bride Therefore he consulted the Lord Keeper and required Satisfaction to be brought by a Courier that must not spare Horse-Flesh who was hied away as fast as he could be with this Answer May 14. My Illustrious Lord THe Dowry about which your Grace requires the speediest Direction must consist in some of the Kings fair Mansion Houses and in Revenue For both which the Mannor-Houses and the just Sum of the Joynture I must refer to you and can do no otherwise to my Lord of Bristol's former Conclusions with that Council But whether it should be allotted in Land or other Revenue I cannot yet convince mine own Judgment fully which were better Sometimes I consider it were good that a great part were named out of Customs and such other Incomes lest our Poverty in Crown-Lands be discovered Sometimes I find it for certain more advantageous to his Highness to have all the Joynture in Land and that the choicest of our Kingdom because being once in the Joynture it is sure to be preserv'd in the Crown and no longer subject to be begg'd or begger'd by Fee-Farms and unconscionable Leases And I believe your Lordship will so advise it Or if you please the Sum being agreed upon you may suspend the rest till you return that Counsel in the Law on all sides may put their Cases upon it Your Grace will give me leave to observe that now is the first time that any Daughter-in-Law of this Crown had any other set Maintenante than was granted to her voluntarily by her Husband But your Grace may reply That this is the first Portion of so great a Bulk And it is no way inconvenient for his Highness that she have a Copious Maintenance confirm'd to her in present as I could tell your Grace at large if I were present with you All is right here to your Lordship's Good and I will be vigilant to keep it so Nor will I serve his Majesty in that place wherein I shall not be so heedful as to be able to yield an account of any Disservice or Offer that way which may concern your Grace c. By the same Messenger at the same time another Dispatch was posted to the Prince in answer to his Highness who had signified his Pleasure was That the Recusants should be gratified for his sake warily and not by broad Day-light to shew that he was sensible of those Hospital Civilities which he then received from some Cards of their Suit Whereupon the Lord Keeper writes May it please your Highness I Would I had any Abilâ—â—â—â—â— to serve your Highness in this place wherein you have set me and what far more Grace and Favour Countenanced and Encouraged me To observe your Highnesses Commands I am sure the Spanish Ambassador resiant must testifie that since your Highnesses Departure he hath been denied no one Request for Expedition of Justice or ease of Catholicks although I usually hear from him twice or thrice a Week which I observe the more Superstiticusly that he might take knowledge how sensible we are of any Honour done to your Highness And yet in the Relaxation of the Roman Catholicks Penalties I keep off the King from appearing in it as much as I can and take all upon my self as I believe every Servant of his ought to do in such Negotiations the Events whereof be hazardous and uncertain God Bless your Highness as in all other so especially in this present Business of so main Importance c. These are the Negotiations which the Lord Keeper for his Share at this Season brooded under the Wings of Fidelity and Prudence How well let the Wise and Unbiassed be Judges Such will not be Cajol'd into a wrong Belief by Corruptors of History as Heraclides serv'd his Scholars Quos duplo reddidu sluitiores quam acceperat ubi nihil poterant discere nisi Ignorantiam Cicer. Orat. pro Flacco 140. It is enough declared how the great Matters about the Match went here The Dispensation of Pope Gregory the XV. turn'd them round in Spain till they were giddy with the Motion It was expected it should come in the common Church Style an absolute and Canonical Dispensation and no more only for her Sake that was in Submission to his Laws But it was Compounded with so many Reservations and ill-visag'd Provisoes that it swell'd like a Tympany The Pope knew with home he had to deal For there are none in the Earth more Superstitious to do him Honour then the King of Spain and his People That King would make the Pope too big for a Priest that the Pope might make him too great for a King Nor is there any other intent to make that Patriarch of the West the sole capacious Fountain from which all Pipes of Grace and Indulgence Ecclesiastical should be fill'd and run abroad but principally to Water his own Garden What between the Nuncio Resiant at Madrid who was Commanded to stop all Proceedings till safety were granted nay and put in Execution both for English and Irish Catholicks as much as they ask'd What with the Charge given to the Inquisitor General to use all possible diligence to draw the Prince to his Holiness's Obedience What with Olivarez's frowardness of whom the Duke could not obtain to put a Postscript in his Letter to the Pope that to add these new and un-relish'd Conditions with which the Dispensation was Clogg'd would be interpreted the worst of Unkindness what with all these together his Highness might say Fat Bulls of Basan have compassed me in on every side A little Honey God wot a little was allowed to to the Lip of the Cup if he would Taste of that Potion that was that from thenceforth his Highness might have access to his Dearly Affected Mistress not as formerly a bare Visitant but now as a Lover so some of their chief States were in presence to hear all their Conference a Rule which they say is never Infring'd in the grave way of the Castilian Wooing The old Man Gregory the XV. gave light himself to his Friends and Servants in Spain what they should do by the Flame of his own Zeal For he sent a Letter to the Prince Signed with the Signet-Ring of St. Peter to exhort his Highness with many words to reduce himself and the Kingdoms of which he was the Heir to the Subjection of the Roman See Hereupon some of our Hot-Heads in England made it a Quarrel and a Calumny that the Prince sent an Answer of Civility to the Popes Epistle Civility though it is a thing unknown among the Plebeians and Clowns
the first Day shut up And Saturday following the 21st of that Month was but a day of Formality to the Parliament yet material to this History because the Lord Keeper had the greatest share about the Work of it who is my Scope and this Parliament no further then as he is concern'd in the Actions and Occurrencies of it On that day the King Sitting under his State in the Lords House incircled with the Senatorian Worthies of the higher and lower Order the Commons Presented Sir Tho. Crew Serjeant at Law for their Speaker As the Knights and Burgesses were Chosen for the publick Service out of the best of the Kingdom so this Gentleman was Chosen for this Place out of the best of them He was warm in the Care of Religion and a Chief among them that were popular in the Defence of it A great lover of the Laws of the Land and the Liberties of the People Of a stay'd Temper sound in Judgment ready in Language And though every Man it is suppos'd hath some equals in his good Parts he had few or no Superiors This was the Character which the Lord Keeper gave of him to the King whereupon he was pointed out to this Honorable Task Yet with all this Furnishment out of a Custom which Modesty had observ'd Sir Thomas Deprecated the Burthen as Moses did when the was to be sent to Pharoah O my Lord I am not Eloquent send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou wilt send Exod. 4.13 And he humbly besought the Royal Favour to Command a new and a better Choice for so weighty a Charge Whereupon the Lord Keeper going from his Seat to His Majesty and Conferring with Him upon his Knee after a short time returned to his Place and spake as followeth Mr. Speaker I Am Charg'd to deliver unto you that no Man is to be excus'd from this Service that can make so good an Excuse as you have done His Majesty doth observe that in you which Gorgias the Philosopher did in Plato Quod in Oratoribus irridendis ipse esse Orator summus videbatur That in Discoursing against Orators he shewed himself the greatest Orator of them all So fares it in this Appeal of yours unto the Throne of His Sacred Majesty Descendis ut Ascendas te ad sidera tollit humus By falling down in your own Conceipt you are mounted higher in the Opinion of all others By your own excusing to be a Speaker you shew what a Worthy Speaker you are like to be The Truth is His Majesty doth not only approve but highly Commend the Judgment of the House of Commons in your Election And Quod felix faustumque sit for an Omen and good luck to all the ensuing Proceedings of that Honorable Assembly he doth Crown this first Action of theirs with that Exivit verbum ex ore Regis that old Parliamentary Approbation Le Roy le Veult Then Sir Thomas Crew Bowing down to the Supream Pleasure which could not be declin'd offred up his first Fruits for about the time of half an Hour in a way between Remonstrance and Petition smoothly and submissively yet with that Freedom and Fair-Dealing as became the Trust committed to him He could not wish more Attention than he had from the King who heard him favorably to the end For the Dispatch of that Work presently the Lord Keeper went to His Majesty who Conferr'd together secretly that none else heard and after a quarter of an hour or better the L. Keeper return'd to his Place and answer'd the Speakers Peroration in His Majesties Name Which Answer will enough supply what was said by them both for it contains all the solid parts of Mr. Speakers Harangues Mr. Speaker 182. HIs Majesty hath heard your Speech with no more Patience then Approbation You have not cast up the same to any General Heads no more will I. And it were pity to pull down a Frame that peradventure cannot be set up again in so fair a Symmetry and Proportion Yet as the Mathematicians teach that in the most flowing and continued Line a Man may imagine continual Stops and Points so in this round and voluble Body of your Speech I may observe for Methods sake some distinct and articulated Members Somewhat you have said concerning your self somewhat concerning the King somewhat concerning Acts of Parliament whereof some are yet to be framed in the Womb and others ready to drop into their Graves somewhat of the Aberrations of former Assemblies somewhat of the Common Laws in general somewhat of the ordinary supply of Princes somewhat and very worthily for the increase of True Religion somewhat of the regaining of that of our Allies somewhat of preserving our own Estate and somewhat of the never sufficiently commended Reformation of Ireland These I observed for your material Heads The formal were those Four usual Petitions For Privileges to come unto the House For liberty of Speech when you are in the House For Access to His Majesty for the informing of the House And for a fair Interpretation of your Proceedings when you shall leave the House I shall from His Majesty make Answer to these Things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 step by step as they lie in order First For your self the King hath not only stretched out His Scepter but lifted up his Voice with Ahasuerus Quae est Petitiae tua dabitur tibi He hath granted all that you have desired and assureth you by me of His Special Grace and Favour from the beginning to the end of your present Employment Secondly Concerning the King it may not be doubted but Gods Blessing of us and our Blessing of God for his Royal Generation his quiet Coronation his peaceable Administration his Miraculous Preservation in this very Place and this our most comfortable Pledge of his future Succession ibunt in saecula shall flow unto Posterity and be the Hymns and Anthems of Ages to come Thirdly For those Statutes of Learning which were here framed 32 Henr. 8. which you call Parliamentum Doctum And those Statutes of Charity 39 of the late Queen which you Term Parliamentum Pium The Devout Parliament And those Statutes of Grace digested and prepared in the last Convention which His Majesty would have had been Gratiosum Parliamentum The Gracious Parliament And 〈◊〉 That large Pardon you expect this time which may make this Assembly Munificum Parliamentum The Bountiful Parliament The King gives you full Assurance of His Princely Resolution to do what shall be fitting and convenient to keep Life in the one and to bring Life to the other so as you do scitè obstetricari play the Midwives in them both as you ought to do Fourthly For the Abortion of some late Parliaments from the which His Majesty is most free a Parliament Nullity as you Tâ—rm it is a strange Chimaera a word of a Monstrous Compesition I never heard of the like in all my Life unless it be once in the new Creed Credo
Prince his Heir and the whole Flower of the Realm with that Infernal Powder-Plot Not reveal it said I Yes more it was hatch'd in their Brain and confirm'd with their Blessing If Clanculary Confession was cast out of the Church of Constantinople for one Mans Lust What just cause have we to gagg it for forty Mens Treason I would have him hang'd for his Wit that should invent a way to discharge a Pistol that might give no Report Now let me forfeit my Credit if wise Men will not say That Conspiracies buzzed into the Ear and imposed never to be detected upon the deepest Obligations of Faith Church-Love Merit c. are far more dangerous than Powder and Shot that kill and crack not Would you in good earnest have us Repeal our Laws of Correction against such dangerous Flambeaux Were not that to break down our Walls and to let in the fatal Horse with his Belly-full of Enemies If they plead that there is no such danger in them now Let them tell it to deaf Men. We know and can demonstrate that the most of Contrivances against our State have been whetted upon the Grind-stone of Confession Our Sages that made the Laws to blow away the Locusts into their own Red-Sea have given us a taste of their Malice in the Preface of the Statute Eliz. 27. That they came into the Land to work the Ruine Desolation and Destruction of the whole Realm Therefore marvel not if some have lost their Lives that have tempted the Rigour of those Laws Neither doth it move us that our Fugitives thereupon have sprinkled their Calenders with new Martyrs What if Jeroboam's Priests had pass'd their own Bounds and come to Jerusalem where it is likely they would have been cut off for Enemies and Rebels should their Names have been crowded into the Catalogue of the good Prophets that were stoned by Tyrants Beshrew your Superiours beyond Seas that Conjure up such Spirits to come into our Circle It grieves us God knows our Hearts to Execute our Laws upon one ot two in Seven Years for a Terror to others But Prudence is a safer Virtue then Pity And it is far better our Adversaries should be obnoxious to our Tribunal then we to theirs by the Thraldom of our Nation which is the drift of those unnatural Emissaries And if the Venetians that are under the Obedience of your Church have banish'd some of that Stamp and irrevocably out of their Territories Nay if your selves in France did sometimes Expel the same Faction accept it favorably from us who will never be under that Obedience if we Banish all 227. Hold out your Great Courtesie my Lord to a few Words more The Answering of an Objection or two will not stay you long And before I conclude I will deal you a good Game to make your Lordship a Saver if you will follow Suit You please your self Sir because you ask no more Liberty for your sacrifical Priests in our Land then the Reformed Ministers enjoy with you in France But the Comparison doth not consist of equal Terms The Protestants receive a benefit of some Toleration in your Realm to stop the mischief of Civil Wars and to settle a firm Peace among your selves It is the Reason which your Wisest and most candid Historian Thuanus doth often give and Mounsieur Bodin before him p. 588. Reip. Ferenda ea Religio est quam sine interitu reip auferre non potest If you did not so you would pull up much of your own Wheat with that which you call Tares But such a Toleration in this Kingdom would not only disturb Peace but with great Probability dissolve it In the next place you urge that such a memorable Favour might be done to gratifie the sweet Madam our intended Princess upon the Marriage O my Lord you are driven by Blind Mariners upon a Rock If this could be Granted by the King which you contend for and wereeffected Sweet Lady she would be brought in the Curses of this Nation and would Repent the day that she drew the Offence of the whole Land upon her Head Let me say on the Husbands Part what your Country-man Ausonius says for the Wife Saepe in conjugiis fit noxia si nimia est dos If the Prince should make a Joynter to his Wife out of the Tears and Sorrows of the People it were the worst bargain that ever he made His Majesties Consort of Happy Memory Queen Ann did not altogether concord with our Church Indeed the Diversity between us and the Lutherans among whom she was bred is as little as between Scarlet and Crimson The Colours are almost of the same Dip. But she carried it so prudently that she gave no notice of any dissention Neither ever did demand to have a Chaplain about her of the Lutheran Ordination This were a Precedent for the most Illustrious Madam to follow rather to procure the love of the generality then of a few Male-contents from whom you your self my Lord will have Cause to draw off when I tell you all They deal not with your Lordship sincerely They thrust your whole hand into the Fire and will not touch a Coal with one of their own Fingers They that incite and stir these Motions behind the Curtain dare not upon pain of their Lives ask it in Parliament where they know the Power Rests and no where beside to ratifie the Grant And when they Solicite your Lordship to obtain these indulgences for them in the Court they know you beat the wrong Bush Upon my Faith the Bird is not there Noli amabo verberare Lapidem ne perdas manum Plaut in Curcul Knock not your Fingers against a Stone to Grate them Perchance my Lord you think I have pinch'd you all this while with a streit Boot which you can neither get on nor off Your Lordship shall not depart from me with little Ease if Truth and plain dealing will purchase me to be called your Friend None can Repeal our Laws but his Majesty with the Votes of the three Estates as you term them the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the people And to dispense with the Execution of a Law absolutely and unrestreinedly is as much as to Repeal it which if the King should assay it were null in Law and in Revenge of it in the next Parliament it would be faster bound and perchance the Rigour of it increased But Favour and Mercy may be shewn Praeter sententiam legis in some exempted Cases and to some particular persons Clemency against the Capital Sentence of the Laws is the Kings Prerogative the Life of his Subject when it is forfeit to him he may choose whether he will take the forfeiture Every Varlet says Seneca may kill a Citizen against the Law but then he turns to the Emperor Servare nemo praeter te c. None but the Supreme Majesty can save a Life against the Law Work upon that my Lord and it were a good days work to
that he might not faint The most that was disliked in the Letter was that it warn'd the Secretary that he was like to hear himself nam'd among the Grievances of the ensuing Parliament Wherein he did not fail It was no hard thing to Prognostick such a Tempest from the hollow murmuring of the Winds abroad There was not such a Watch-man about the Court as the Keeper was to espy Discontents in the dark nor any one that had so many Eyes abroad in every corner of the Realm What hurt was it Nay Why was it not call'd a Courtesie to awaken a Friend pursued by danger out of prudent Collections Says a wise Senator Tul. Act. 7. in Verrem Judex esse bonus non potest qui suspicione certâ non movetur He is no sound judge of Rumors that gleans not up a certain Conclusion out of strong Suspicions 6. To speak forward After the Queen had been receiv'd with much lustre of Pomp and Courtship which had been more if a very pestilentious Season in London and far and wide had not frown'd upon publick Resorts and full Solemnities a Parliament began Stay a while and hear that in a little which concerns much that followed This is the highest and supereminent Court of our Kings The University of the whole Realm where the Graduates of Honour the Learned in the Laws and the best Practicers of Knowledge and Experience in the Land do meet Horreum sapientiae or the full Chorus where the Minds of many are gather'd into one Wisdom And yet in five Parliaments which this King call'd there was distance and disorder in them all between him and his People Amabile est praeesse civibus sed placere difficile as Symmachus to his Lord Theodosius Our Sovereign had not the Art to please or rather his Subjects had not the Will to be pleased And we all see by the Event that God was displeas'd upon it If he had won them or they had won him neither had been losers Pliny's Fable or Story of the Two Goats Lib. 8. c. 50. Suits the Case The Two Goats met upona narrow Bridge the one laid down his Body for the other to go over him or both had been thrust into the River In the Application who had done best to have yielded is too mysterious to determine Both or either had done well But now we see and shall feel it I believe it is not Love nor Sweetness nor Sufferance that keeps a Nation within the straits of due Obedience it must be Power that needs not to entreat The Scepter can no more than propound the Sword will carry it This Truth was once little worn but now it is upon our backs and we are like to wear it so long till we are all Thread-bare Thucyd. lib. 2. says of Theseus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theseus govern'd Athens being as potent as wise His Wisdom taught the Athenians to keep a good pace but Awe and Potency did bridle and compel them to suffer their Rider or else they would have thrown him King Charles knew how to govern as well as Theseus But he was not so stout I am sure not so strong His Condition in the present stood thus When he was Prince he was the Messenger and the Mediator from the Parliament to extort a War against Spain from his Father Of which Design he was but the Lieutenant before is now become the Captain He sets the Action on foot and calls for Contribution to raise and pay an Army Instead of satisfaction in Subsidies two alone granted towards the charge of the great Funeral past and the Coronation to come they call for Reformation in Government One lifts up a Grievance and another a Grievance and still the Cry continues and multiplies As they spake with many Tongues so I would they could have taken up Serpents and felt no harm The plain Sense of it is those subtile Men of the lower House put the young King upon the push of Necessity and then took advantage of the Time and that Necessity They had cast his Affairs into want of Money and he must yield all that they demanded or else get no Money without which the War could not go on Here was the Foundation laid of all the Discontents that followed A capite primùm computrescit piscis says the Proverb If they had answer'd with that Confidence and Love as was invited from them England had not sat in sorrow as at this day And I will as soon die as retract these words that all Affairs might have been in a most flourishing Estate if the People in that or in any Parliament had been as good as the King Optimos gubernatores hand mediocriter etiam manus remigum juvat Symmach p. 128. The Pilot spends his breath in vain if the Oar-men will not strike a stroke A good Head can do nothing without their Hands If I should hold yet that this King was to be blam'd in nothing I should speak too highly of Humane Nature They that pass through much business cannot choose but incur Errors which will fall under Censure yet it were better under Pardon The most that aggrieved the Council of Parliament was that the King's Concessions for the good of the People came not off chearfully He wanted a way indeed to give a Gift and to make it thank-worthy in the manner of bestowing A small Exception when one grave Sentence from his Mouth did mean more reality than a great deal of Volubility with sweetness and smiling to which I confess they had been fortunately used But when all is done as the Poets say The Muses sing sweeter than the Syrens and a sullen something is better than a gracious nothing 7. And these are instead of Contents For the Chapter that is the business of the Capitol follows The Parliament began and the whole Assembly stood before the King So there was a day when the Sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord Job 1.6 but there was another thrust in among them What his Majesty spake than is printed more then once It was not much but enough it was not long but there wanted nothing Good Seed it was yet it came not up well although it was water'd with two showers of Eloquence by the Lord-Keeper the first directed to the Lords and Commons the other to Sir Thomas Crew the Speaker Which will tell the Reader more Truth than is yet come abroad whom I would have to remember Baronius's Caution in his Epistle to the first Tome of his Annals Nihil periculosius est in historiâ quà m cuivis scribeâ—â— in quâcunqae re fidem habere But hear what the King willed to be publish'd to his Parliament by the Mouth of his great Officer My Lords and Gentlemen all YOU have heard his Majesty's Speech though short yet Full and Princely and rightly Imperatorious as Tacitus said of Galbas Neither must we account that Speaker to be short Qui materiae immoratur that keeps himself
to this Visitation And those are either my Brethren of the Clergy or my good Friends and Neighbours of the Laity When I have spoken somewhat to either of these in general and recommended to the Clergy a particular I have in charge I shall trouble you no longer but go on to the business of the day 54. The Visitation of Bishops is no Jonas gourd no filia noctâ—s started up in a Night of Popery but a Tree set by the Apostles themselves and water'd from time to time by the Canons of general Councils in the fairest Springs of the Primitive Church For so I find Protestants of no mean Esteem to wit the Four Writers of the Centuries to retrieve the Root hereof from Acts cap. 14. And if you will observe the Place there is scarce one particular prescrib'd by the Canon Law as essential to a Visitation but you shall find it put in Execution in that Chapter you have them first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 22. they that confirm'd the Souls of all the Disciples must among them confirm Children Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 laying hands on Priests and Deacons v. 23. Thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 24. Peragrantes saith Beza a Word used for a Bishop's Visitation in the Council of Chalons under Charles the Great Fourthly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 25. making their Sermons or Collations And Lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 returning back to Antioch from whence they came v. 26. Nor are we now forced to such a leap as Dr. Mocket out of Gratian would put upon us for the Visitations of Bishops To wit from these Acts of the Apostles to the Synodus Tarraconensis or the fourth Council of Toledo which is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a huge wide Gulf of more than Five Hundred Years but are able to trace them all along in that interim of time in most Authentical Authors and Histories For to say nothing of those Books of Clemons Romanus call'd by the Ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Circuits of St. Peter because they were abused by old Hereticks as Epiphanius and Athanasius often tell us that is most certain that many Years after the Epocha of the Acts of the Apostles St. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where you have the Word of art used to this day did often visit Pontus and Bithynia says Epiphan in his 27 Heresie which is that of the Carpocratians And about the Year One hundred after the Death of the Emperor Domitian Eusebius reports out of Clemens Romanus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Tale and no Tale but an unquestion'd History that St. John leaving Pathmos went up and down Asia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 setting Churches in order Lib. 3. Hist c. 23. From hence indeed I must transport you to the 57 Canon of the 3 Counc of Carthage that you may hear Aurelius and his Brethren excuse themselves for not visiting Mauritania and those other Provinces But you must not dwell upon this Council being by the Canon it self turn'd back again for four or five Years to that famous Council of Hippo which opened to St. Austin as yet a Priest Famae januam the first Gate and Entrance as it were to his Fame and Glory For in this great Council at Hippo saith that other Council of Carthage it had been expresly determin'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that every Province or Diocess should be visited in the very time of holding the Synod Which Words are to be well observ'd For the Canon doth not say they were to be visited at the Synod or the Synod sitting For the Law doth not admit of that Quia multùm operatur persona The Person of the Prelate bears a special part in this kind of Visitation But a general Synod was first call'd and therein the manner of the Reformation was settled and agreed upon Presently after that the Fathers did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sever themselves as Zonaras writes upon that Canon and fall in hand with their peculiar Visitations And here I have brought you without all question to the Fountain and Well head of our Canon Law which requires according to this Revisement of the Council of Hippo that a Synod of the Diocess or Province be first called before they begin the Episcopal Visitation And however the Synods themselves be much out of use in this Kingdom especially where none can be held but by leave of the Prince yet may you still find upon your Accompts some few Splinters and Remainders of the same when you do not pay your Procurations only but your Cathedraticals and Synodals also From this Third Council of Carthage the righting of these Visitation was taken up by the Synodus Tarraconensis by the Council of Bracara by the Fourth Council of Toledo and divers others in their Ages From these Councils they were fetch'd by Gratian into his Decrees from the Decrees by the Popes into their Epistles and Decretals and so continue to this day our Jus Commune our ordinary Law in that behalf Nor were these Visitations of Bishops sooner enjoyn'd by the several Popes in their Laws and Decretals but as things of sovereign and principal use they were taken up and incorporated into the Municipal Laws of all our chief and best order'd Monarchies Hence we find them commanded the Prelates of Spain in the first Partida of King of Alfonso's Laws Title 22. Hence likewise enjoyn'd the Bishops of France by Charles the Ninth Henry the Third and Fourth in those general Estates of Orleance Bloise and Paris Hence also Visitations were to have been erected here in England by our Statute Laws if those Thirty two Persons had ever met as appears by those preparations made by Arch-bishop Cranmer and others Titulo de Visitationibus Lastly Upon the beginning of the Reformation in Saxony they kept a Visitation by the Super-intendents An. 1527. much approved of by the Lutherans of those times Osiander and Bucholzerus And therefore we may not conceive of these Visitations as of some imperfect and equivocal Creatures begotten but the other day ex fimo limo out of the Dregs and Corruptions of the Church of Rome but as of things of a more noble and ancient Descent begun by Paul and Barnabas when they were Apostles continued by St. Peter and St. John as great Bishops settled and righted in the Council at Hippo Anno. 393. From thence transcrib'd into the Third Council of Carthage Anno. 397. From thence revived at Tarraco under Hormisda An. 517 From thence received into the Council of Braccara Anno. 602. From thence into the Fourth of Toledo Anno. 633. From those Councils they were taken in by Gratian into his Decrees So into the Decretals and from the Decretals and their Glosses infused into the municipal or common Laws of all the chiefest Christian Monarchies So much of a Visitation in general 55. In the second place I am to make a short Exhortation unto you my Brethren of the Clergy The Effect whereof shall be
Creator and the Creature the next between Husband and Wife the third between Parents and Children the fourth between Lord and Servants From all which forenamed respects there did arise that most high sacred and transcendent Relation between King and Subjects A strange Expression which calls the last a transcendent Relation arising out of all the former when the first of the four was between the Creator and the Creature God is a great God a King above all Gods A good King indeed is a petty God as a Tyrant is a great Devil but far be it from us to call the King's relation to his People transcendental the Maker of all things and his Workmanship being brought in before Yet let that go not for a wilful Fault but for an unwary Expression In the 19th Page he breaks out thus into a transcendent Error If any King shall command that which stands not in opposition to the Original Laws of God Nature Nations and the Gospel though it be not correspondent in every Circumstance to Laws National and Municipal no Subject may without hazard of his own Damnation in rebelling against God question or disobey the Will and Pleasure of his Soveraign for as a Father of the Country he commands what his Pleasure is and out of Counsel and Judgment So on to the end of that Leaf The first words If any King have a great failance as if all Kings all alike had the same Command over their Subjects without distinction of Government meer and absolute from mixt and restrained The body of the Doctrin is worst of all that it concerns us upon our Loyalty nay upon our Salvation for else Damnation is threatned to yield not only Passive Obedience which is due but Active also if the King's Will and Pleasure be notified in any thing not opposite to the Law of God and Nature Wherein if he had insisted upon those same things that do not appear to be yet determin'd and have no evil Sequel it might be allow'd him But that we are bound to act whatsoever a King requires where the Law and his Will are diametrically opposite and be damn'd if we draw back or question it is as corrupt as it 〈◊〉 ble Under the same Monarchy in Spain an Arragonian will not believe that he is obliged to those Edicts of his King which are directed to a Castilian the Laws have differenc'd them in the mode of their Duties What Privilege is it to be born Free and not a Bond-man but that the Free-man knows how far he is to serve and a Bond-man doth not If Subjection is due as much to the King's Pleasure as to his Laws there is no bottom in Obedience Says Stamford the learned Lawyer Misera servitus est ubi jus est vagum incognitum And is it but a Complement that a King swears at his Coronation to govern by his Laws Nay sure if Contracts and Promises bind GOD to Man much more they bind the King to his People The Anchor at which Obedience rides is the Law it is good Divinity Where there is no Law there is no Transgression And it is good Morality Vir bonus est quis Qui consulta patrum qui leges juraque servat This Dr. tells us again pag. 26. That this Sacred and Honourable Assembly is not ordain'd to contribute any Right to Kings to receive Tribute which is due to them by natural and original Law and Justice That our meeting is only for the more equal imposing and exacting of Subsidies If the supreme Magistrate upon Necessity extream and urgent require Levies of Moneys beside the Circumstances which the Municipal Laws require he that doth not satisfie such Demands resists the Ordinance of God and receives Damnation to himself The Foundation is well laid but his Superstructure is crazy for where it were Sin to say that Reliess and Aids were not due to some persons it is no Sin to say they should not be their own Carvers Testatus a great Bishop a great Counsellor a great Scholar writes upon the noted place De jure regio 1 Sam. c. 8. That Tribute is due to a Prince by his original Right but with moderation for the quantity and with the Consent of the Subjects for the manner time and other circumstances Says St. Paul Who goes a warfare at his own charges 1 Cor. 9.7 yet as well the General as the Rout of the Army must not prescribe their Pay but be contented with their Wages as John Baptist told them Luk. 3.14 A Son doth not honour his Father if he do not succour him in his Poverty but the Son is not bound to let him take what he will in purveyance for himself The Author whom this Dr. quotes Saravia hath instanc'd in Samoisius in the Poets Iliads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was slain a young man and liv'd not long because he did not cherish his Parents A Passage to make us think that Homer had read the first Command of the second Table Those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fostering Allowances were due to Parents because they were Parents yet by free apportionating them according to the Duty and Wisdom of the Children as they might provide for their own Posterity 75. More of this is ingeminated in the second Sermon from pag. 24 to 26. as in these words Religion doth often associate God and the King First from the communion of Names Secondly from the near bordering of Offences that reflect upon God and the King Thirdly from the parity of Beneficence which men enjoy from God and sacred Kings Upon this last he doth expatiate in three points 1. That as Men cannot in way of Justice recompence God nor Children their Parents so nor Subjects their Kings for legal Providence 2. Justice so properly call'd intercedes not between GOD and Man nor between the Prince being a Father and the People as Children It cannot be a Rule or Medium to give God and the King his Right 3. Justice is only between Equals To begin at the last this Position Justice is only between Equals is a mistaking of Arist lib. 5. Eth. c. 6. Who there makes them Equals which are not under one man for that he denieth totidem verbis but under one Law to the which he doth subject the Magistrate as all the School-men do the King that is to the direction of it not to the penal coaction And if Justice be not but between Equals how can there be any Justice at the Kings-bench Exchequer Star-chamber Court of Wards c To go back now to his other two Positions mingling them together observe two things First All that he speaks of God and his being unrecompensable by ordinary way of Justice he borrows it out of Suarez as his Margin confesseth lib. 3. de Relig. c. 4. and of his own Head applieth to the King without Suarez or any other Writer Nor can Suarez Reason be applied to the King which is this Man for his weak Condition in comparison
Lives to be liable and disposable by this Soveraign Power and not turn England into the case of Turky And if you affirm that a man may be taken and imprison'd by a Soveraign Power wherewith a King is trusted beside the Law exprest in the Statute why should you not grant as well the Law being one and the same that a man may be put out of his Lands and Tenements disinherited and put to death by this Soveraign Power without being brought to answer by due process of Law I conceive this Reason may be more fortified but will never be answer'd and satisfied Bore one hole into this Law and all the good thereof will run out of it Next I shew that nothing was ever attempted against the Magna Charta without great Envy and Grudging Now since a man's Liberty is a thing that Nature most desires and which the Law doth exceedingly favour the 29th Chapter of that Charter says Nullus liber homo imprisonetur nisi per legem terrae What word can there be against these words Why it was said here with Resolution and Confidence That Lex terrae is to be expounded of Actions of the King 's Privy Council done at the Council-Table without further Process of Law But did ever any Judge of this Land give that interpretation of Lex terrae in Magnâ Chartâ Indeed a great learned Lord in this House did openly say That all Courts of Jurisdiction in this Land establish'd and authorised by the King may be said to be Lex terrae Which is granted by me although it was denied by implication by the resolution of the House of Commons But then the Question still remains whether the Council-Table at Whitehall be a forum contentiosum a Court of Jurisdiction I ever granted they may commit to Prison juxta legem terrae as they are Justices of Peace and of other legal Capacities And I grant it also that they may do it praeter legem terrae as they are great Counsellors of State and so to provide where the Laws are defective ne quid detrimenti respub capiat Secondly It was much prest that my L. Egerton did expound this Lex terrae to be Lex regis which must mean somewhat in his Post-nati pag. 33. I have read the Book and it is palpably mistaken That great Lord saith only this That the Common-Law hath many Names secundùm subjectam materiam according to the variety of Objects it handles When it respects the Church it is called Lex Ecclesiae Anglicanae When it respects the Crown Lex Coronae and sometime Lex Regia When it respects the common Subject it is called Lex Terrae Is not this his plain meaning It must be so by his instance p. 36. That the cases of the Crown are the Female to inherit the eldest Son to be preferr'd no respect of Half-blood no disability of the King's Person by Infancy If his Lordship should mean otherwise his Authorities would fail him Regist fol. 61. the word Lex Regia is not nam'd that 's my Lord's Inference but the Title is Ad jura Regia that is certain Briefs concerning the King's Kights opposite to Jura Papalia or Canonica all of them in matters ecclesiastical as Advousons Presentations Quare-impedits c. all pleaded in Westminster-hall things never heard of in the King 's dwelling Court since the fixing of the Courts of Justice Thus much for the Authorities Now the reason offer'd out of them which will never be answer'd is this By the Lex Terrae in Magna Charta a man may be not only imprison'd but withal outlaw'd destroy'd try'd and condemn'd but a man cannot be outlaw'd destroy'd try'd and condemn'd by any Order of the Lords of the Council therefore the Orders of the Lords of the Council are not Lex Terrae At this and upon other occasions the Bishop spake to this matter till the Petition was most graciously consented to by the King in all the Branches of it and was more attended to upon the Experience of his Knowledge and Wisdom than at least any of his Order And as Theocritus says of his principal Shepherd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From that day Daphnis was accounted the Chief of his Calling which filled the Court with the Report But some men are in danger to be traduced with too much Praise 79. One thing struck in unhappily which made this Session rise without a good close in the shutting up it was a Remonstrance presented to the King by the House of Commons of many Complaints the most offensive being those that were personal against two Bishops that were about the King and against the L. Duke That his excessive Power and abuse of that Power was the cause of all Evils and Dangers among us Though this came very cross to the King's Affections yet the worst word that he gave to the Remonstrance was That no wise man would justifie it How many Kings of England had treated both Houses more sharply upon less provocation Yet now the chief Tribunes spake their Discontents aloud That they had given a bountiful Levy of five Subsidies and were called Fools for their labour The Gift was large the Manner the Allegiance the Willingness were better than the Gift yet might not His Majesty touch mildly upon a Fault without such a scandalous Paraphrase The Galatians would have pulled out their own Eyes to do Paul good yet he spared them not for it but upon Errors crept into the Doctrine of their Faith he called them foolish Galatians The sowrest Leaven not seen in the Remonstrance but hid in the House was That some seditious Tongues did blab their meaning to cut off the payment of Tonnage and Poundage by the concession of the Petition of Right against which His Majesty spake and declar'd That his Predecessors had quietly enjoy'd those Payments by the Royal Prerogative which both Houses did protest to leave inviolable That the Grant of the Petition did meet with Grievances said to entrench upon the Liberty and Property of the People to give them assurance of quiet from paying Taxes or Loans without Order of Parliament To go further it was not his Meaning nor their Demand The Bishop of Lincoln appeared very much to concur with the King's Interpretation and was very zealous to have had an Act past for it before the Parliament was prorogued Nay he forbore not to chide his Friends in the lower House whose Metal he found to be churlish and hard to be wrought upon Ut erat generosae indolis nihil frigidè nihil languidè agebat as Clementius says of renowned Salmasius in his Life p. 61. But the Bishop's Motion was laid by and with no good meaning Yet since it was seen that his Endeavours were real to have wound up the Bottom at that time without that scurvy knot in it he had the Favour to kiss the King's Hand and to have Words both with His Majesty and with the Duke in private O hard Destiny this he had
Bishops Dispensations only but Mandates also And those Bishops have been fined at the Kings Bench and elsewhere that absented themselves from Councils in Parliament without the King 's special leave and licence first obtained Thirdly When they are forbidden interesse to be present the meaning is not in the very Canons themselves that they should go out of the room but only that they should not be present to add Authority Help and Advice to any Sentence pronounced against a particular or individual Person in cause of Blood or mutilation If he be present auctorizando consilium opem vel operam dando then he contracts an irregularity and no otherwise saith our Linwood out of Innocentius And the Canon reacheth no further than to him that shall pronounce Sentence of Death or Mutilation upon a particular Person For Prelates that are of Counsel with the King in Parliament or otherwise being demanded the Law in such and such a Case without naming any individuum may answer generaliter loquendo That Treason is to be punisht with Death and a Counterseiter of the King's Coin Hostien lib. 2. eap de fals monet allowed by John Montague de Collatione Parliamentorum In Tracta Doctor Vol. 10. p. 121. Fourthly These Canons are not in force in England to bind the King's Subjects for several Reasons First Because they are against his Majesty's Prerogative as you may see it clearly in the Articles of Clarendon and the Writ of Summons and therefore abolished 25 H. 8. c. 8. It is his Majesty's Prerogative declar'd at Clarendon that all such Ecclesiastical Peers as hold of him by Barony should assist in the King's Judicatures until the very actual pronouncing of a Sentence of Blood And this holds from Henry the First down to the latter end of Queen Elizabeth who imployed Archbishop Whitgist as a Commissioner upon the Life of the Earl of Essex to keep him in Custody and to examine him after that Commotion in London And to say that this Canon is confirm'd by Common Law is a merry Tale there being nothing in the Common Law that tends that way Secondly It hath been voted in the House of Commons in this very Session of Parliament That no Canons since the Conquest either introduced from Rome by Legatine Power or made in our Synods had in any Age nor yet have at this present any power to bind the Subjects of this Realm unless they be confirmed by Act of Parliament Now these Canons which inhibit the Presence of Church-men in Cause that concerns Life and Member were never confirm'd by any but seem to be impeach't by divers and sundry Acts of Parliament Thirdly The whole House of Peers have this very Session despised and set aside this Canon Law which some of the young Lords cry up again in the same Session and in the very same Cause to take away the Votes of the Bishops in the Case of the Earl of Strafford For by the same Canon Law that forbids Clergy-men to Sentence they of that Coat are more strictly inhibited to give no Testimony in Causes of Blood Nee ettam potest esse test is vel tabellio in causâ Sanguinis Linw. part 2. sol 146. For no Man co-operates more in a Sentence of Death than the Witnesses upon whose Attestation the Sentence is chiefly past Lopez pract crim c. 98. distl 21. and yet have the Lords admitted as Witnesses produced by the House of Commons against the Earl of Strafford the Archbishops of Canterbury and Armagh with the Bishop of London which Lords command now all Bishops to withdraw in the agitation of the self same Case Bishops it seems may be Witnesses to kill ont-right but may not sit in the Discussion of the Cause to help in case of Innocency a distressed Nobleman Whereas the very Gothish Bishops who first invented this Exclusion of Prelates from such Judicatures allow them to Vote as long as there is any hope left of clearing the Party or gaining of Pardon 4. Conc. Tol. Can. 31. And by the beginning of that Canon observe the use in Spain in that Age Anno 633. as touching this Doctrine Saepe principes contra quoslibet majestatis obnoxios Sacerdotibus negotia sua committunt Binnius 4. Tom. Can. Edit ult p. 592. Lastly In the Case of Archbishop Abbot all the great Civilians and Judges of the Land as Dr. Steward Sir H. Martin the Lord Chief Justice Hobart and Judge Doderidge which two last were very well versed in the Canon Law delivered positively when my self at first opposed them That all Irregularities introduced by Canons upon Ecclesiastical Persons concerning matters of Blood were taken away by the Reformation of the Church of England and were repugnant to the Statute 25 II. 8. as restraining the King 's most just Prerogative to imploy his own Subjects in such Functions and Offices as his Predecessors had done and to allow them those Priviledges and Recreations as by the Laws and Customs of this Realm they had formerly enjoy'd notwithstanding the Decree de Clerico venatore or the Constitution nae Clerici Saeculare c. or any other in that kind 150. The only Objection which appears upon any Learning or Record against the Clergies Voting in this Kingdom in Causes of Blood are two or three Protestations entred by the Bishops among the Records of the upper House of Parliament and some few Passages in the Law-Books relating thereunto The Protestation the Lords now principally stand upon is that of William Courtney Archbishop of Canterbury 11 Rich. 2. inserted in the Book of Priviledges which Mr. Selden collected for the Lords of the upper House In the Margin whereof that passage out of R. Hovenden about which we spake before about Clergy-mens agitation of Judgments of Blood is unluckily inserted and for want of due consideration and some suspicion of partial carriage in the Bishops in the case of the Earl of Strafford hath been eagerly pressed upon the Bishops by some of the Lords in such an unusual and unaccustomed manner that if I my self offering to speak to this Objection had not voluntarily withdrawn the rest of the Bishops and I had been without hearing voted out of the House in the agitation of a Splinter of that Cause of the Earl of Strafford's which came not near any matter of Blood An act never done before in that honourable House and ready to be executed suddenly without the least consideration of the merit of the Cause The only words insisted upon in the Protestation of Courtney's are these Because in this present Parliament certain matters are agitated whereat it is not lawsul for us according to the Prescript of holy Canons to be present And by and by after they say These matters are such in the which Nec possumus nec debemus interesse This is the Protestation most stood upon That of Archbishop Arundel 21 Rich. 2. is not so full and ample as this of Courtney's For the Bishops going forth left their Proxies with the
in the Records of the Tower can be produced to exclude the Lords Spiritual from sitting and voting in Causes of Blood Sometimes by the great Favour of the King Lords and Commons not otherwise they were permitted to absent themselves never before now commanded by the Lay-Lords to forbear their Votes in any Cause that was agitated in Parliament So our Law Books say That the Prelates by the Canon-Law may make a Procurator in Parliament when a Peer is to be tryed Which is enough to shew their Right thereunto This is to be seen 10 Edw. IV. f. 6. placit 17. And That it is only the Canon-Law that inhibits them to vote in Sanguinary Causes Stamford Pleas of the Crown f. 59. And saith Stamford the Canon-Law is a distinct and separated notion and not grown in his Age to any such Usance or Custom as made it Common-Law or the Law of the Land 152. Coming now to an end it moves me little what some object That many worthy Fathers of this Church-reformed and Bishop Andrews among the rest did forbear to vote in Causes of Blood and voluntarily retired out of the House if such things came in question nor did offer to enter any Protestation I do not doubt but they had pious Affections in it though they did not fully ponder what they did I have heard that a main Reason was that of the Record and Statute of 11 Rich. II. That it is the honesty of that Calling not to intermeddle in matters of Blood Now the French word Honesty signifies Decency and Comeliness As though it were a butcherly and a loathsom matter to be a Judge or to do Right upon a Malefactor to Death or loss of Members But this is an imaginary Decency never known in Nature or Scripture as I said before but begotten by Tradition in the dark Foggs and Mists of Popery Such an Honesty of the Clergy it was to have a shaven Crown to depend on the Pope to plead Exemptions and to resuse to answer for Felonies in the King's Courts All these were esteemed in those days the Honesty of the Clergy And such an Honesty it was in the Prelates of England in the loose Reign of Rich. II to absent themselves when they listed from the Aslembly of the Estate contrary to the King's Command in the Writ of Summons and to the Duties of their places as Peers of Parliament Yet they had more insight into what they did than some of our Bishops for they never offer'd to retire themselves in those days before their Protestation was benignly received and suffer'd to be enter'd upon the Parliament-Roll by the King the Lords and the House of Commons I know those excellent men that are with God proposed other Scruples to themselves they doubted not of the Legality or Comeliness for an Ecclesiastical Peer of the Kingdom of England to vote in a Judgment of Blood they did it continually in passing all Appeals and Attainders in Parliament but it startled them because it is not the practice of Prelates in other parts of the Christian Church so to do and thought it better to avoid Scandal and the Talk of other Nations That there being in the High Court of Parliament and Star-chamber Judges enough beside them they might without any prejudice to their King and Country forbear voting in those Judicatures somewhat the rather because all our Bishops in England are Divines and Preachers of the Gospel and consequently to be employ'd in Mercy rather than in Judgment who never touch upon the sharpness of the Law unless it be to prepare mens Hearts to relish and receive the comfort of the Gospel Let the Piety then and the Good-meaning of those grave Fathers be praised but I say they forgot their Duty to the Writ of the King's Summons and the use and weight of their Place And now to close I protest without vaunting I cannot perceive how this can be answer'd which I have digested together And if so many Bishops cannot obtain their Right which is so clear on their side God send the Earl of Strafford better Justice who is but a single Peer 153. Blame not my Book that there is so much of this Argument I hope the Ignorant will not read it at all but let a knowing man read it again and when he hath better observ'd it he will think it short Some History-spoilers have detracted from our Bishop that though he pleaded much in Parliament to his own Peril in the behalf of E. Strafford yet he wrought upon the King to consent to give way to his beheading Says our Arch-Poet Spencer lib. 3. Can. 1. st 10. Great hazard were it and Adventure fond To lose long-gotten Honour with one evil Hand But he shall lose no Honour in this for first as Nazian Or. 27 rejects them that had raised an ill Report of him whom he praised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can you prove that they were sound in their mind that said so if any will believe it from such authors a good man hath lost his thanks Ego quod bené fec◠malè feci quia amor mutavit locum Plautus That which was well done is ill done because it is not lovingly requited Hear all and judge equally Both the Houses of Lords and Commons by most Voices found the Earl guilty of Treason they made the greater Quire but those few that absolved him sung better The King interceded by himself by the Prince his Son to save him craved it with Cap in Hand Being founder'd in his Power he could go no further the Subjects denied their Soveraign the Life of one Man so Strafford must be cast away Opimii calamitas turpitudo Po. Rom. non judicium fuit Cic. pro Plancio Whose Calamity is the shame of English Justice His Majesty for divers days could not find in his Heart to set his Hand to the Warrant for Execution for Conscience dresseth it self by its own light And I would he had been as constant to his own Judgment in other things that we might remember it to his Honour as Capitolinus testifies for Maximus Non aliis potiùs quà m sibi credidit The fate of it was that the Parliament would not grant Mercy to the Earl and would have Justice from the King according to their Sentence whether he would or no They threaten and were as good as their Word to sit idle and do nothing for publick Safety and Settlement the whole Realm being in distraction till the Stroke was struck All the Palace-Yard and Hall were daily full of Mutineers and Outcries His Majesty's Person was in danger the roguy Off-scum in the Streets of Westminster talk'd so loud that there was cause to dread it Though there is nothing more formidable than to fear any thing more than God yet the most eminent Lords of the Council perswaded His Majesty to make no longer resistance Placeat quodcunque necesse est Lucan lib. 4. Not he but Necessity should be guilty of it If he did
that saving unto themselves all their Rights and Interests of Sitting and Voting in the House at other times they dare not Sit or Vote in the House of Peers until your Majesty shall further secure them from all Affronts Indignities and Dangers in the Premisses Lastly Whereas their Fears are not built upon Phantasies and Conceipts but upon such Grounds and Objects as may well terrifie men of good Resolutions and much Constancy They do in all duty and humility protest before your Majesty and the Peers of the most Honourable House of Parliament against all Laws Orders Votes Resolutions and Determinations as in themselves null and of none effect which in their absence since the 27th of this Instant-month of Decemb. 1641 have already passed As likewise against all such as shall hereafter pass in that most Honourable House during the time of their forced and violent absence from the said most Honourable House Not denying but if their absenting of themselves were wilful and voluntary that most Honourable House might proceed in all the Premisses their Absence or this Protestation notwithstanding And humbly beseeching your most Excellent Majesty to command the Clerk of that House of Peers to enter this Petition and Protestation amongst his Records They will ever pray to God to bless and preserve c. Subscribed by Joh. Eborac Tho. Dunelm Ro. Cov. and Lich. Jos Norwicen Joh. Asaphensis Gul. Bath Wellen. Geo. Hereford Rob. Oxen. Matth. Elien Godfr Glocestr Job Petroburg Maur. Landoven 169. Hear and admire ye Ages to come what became of this Protestation drawn up by as many Bishops as have often made a whole Provincial Council They were all call'd by the Temporal Lords to the Bar and from the Bar sent away to the Tower Nonne fuit satius tristes formidinis iras Atque superba pati fastidia A rude World when it was safer to do a Wrong than to complain of it The People commit the Trespass and the Sufferers are punish'd for their Fault 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athen. lib. 9. A Proverb agreeing to the drunken Feasts of the Greeks If the Cook dress the Meat ill the Minstrils are beaten That day it broke forth that the largest part of the Lords were fermentated with an Anti-episcopal Sourness If they had loved that Order they would never have doomed them to a Prison and late at night in bitter Frost and Snow upon no other Charge but that they presented their Mind in a most humble Paper to go abroad in safety Ubi amor condimentum inerit quidvis placiturum spero Plaut in Casin Love hath a most gentle hand when it comes to touch where it loves Here was no sign of any silial respect to their Spiritual Fathers Nothing was offer'd to the Peers but the Substance was Reason the Style lowly the Practice ancient yet upon their pleasure without debate of the Cause the Bishops are pack'd away the same night to keep their Christmas in Durance and Sorrow And when this was blown abroad O how the Trunch-men of the Uproar did fleer and make merry with it But the Disciples of the Church of England took it very heavily not for any thing the good Bishops had done but for that they suffer'd for a Prisoner is not a Name of Infamy but Calamity Poena damnati non peccati Cic. pro Dom. Estque pati poenam quà m meruisse minùs Ovid. lib. 1. de Pont. Nothing can be more equal than to lay the Objections the Lords made and York's Answers for the Protestation together as they go from Hand to Hand to this day in Town and City And let the Children judge what their Fathers did if they read this hereafter Obj. 1. That the Petition is false the Lords did not sit in Fear as my Lord of Worcester Winchester London Nor was it the Petition of all the Bishops about London and Westminster not of Winchester London Rochester Worcester 〈◊〉 If this were true yet were it not Treason against any Canon or Statute-Law but the Fact is otherwise First the Fear complained against is not for the time of their Sitting in the House but for the time of their coming unto and going from the said House and it is easie to prove they were then in Fear Secondly They know best whether they were in Fear or no who subscribed or agreed to the Petition And my Lord of Winchester agreed in it as much as the rest and instanced in the cause of his Fear his chasing to Lambeth Thirdly For the other part of the Objection the Bishop of London was then at Fulham Rochester in Kent Worcester at Oxford nor doth the Title of the Petition comprehend them as not being about London and Westminster Winchester did agree thereunto and came thither to subscribe and it was resolved his Name should have been called for ere ever it was to be solemnly preferred to the King which was never intended to be but when the King sate in the Upper House of the Lords which the Bishops intended to pray His Majesty to do And this appears by the Superscription of the Petition Obj. 2. The nulling of all Laws to be made at this time that the Kingdom of Ireland was in jeopardy was a conspiring with the Rebels to destroy that Kingdom and so amounted to Treason or a high Misdemeanour 〈◊〉 1. A Protestation annulleth no Law but so far as the Law shall extend to the Parties protesting Nor so far but in case that the Parties protesting shall afterward judicially prove their right to annull that Law So that it was impossible any Protestation of the Bishops should actually intend to hinder the Relief of Ireland 2 The Relief of Ireland by 10000 Scots and 10000 English was voted and concluded long before this Protestation and all the Particulars of that great business referr'd to a Committee of both Houses and the Bishops unanimously assented thereto So that the Relief of Ireland comes not within the Date and Circumscription of this Protestation And the Bishops call God to witness they never conceived one Thought that way 3. The Bishops protested against no Laws or Orders at all to be annulled absolutely and for all the time of this Session of Parliament simply but for that space of time only wherein they should be forcibly and violently kept from the said Parliament by those rude and unruly People So that as soon as the King and the Lords did quiet their passage unto Parliament which the Lords did do before this Petition was read in Parliament and that any of the Bishops were present there the Protestation was directly null and of none effect so as indeed the Protestation was void and dead in Law before the L. Keeper brought the Petition in question into the House because the Bishop of Winchester and some others had even then quiet access unto that Honourable House And the Bishops conceived the Protestation void in such a case and do most humbly wave and revoke the same and humbly desire both
a Writer Gisbert Voetius of Utrecht learned indeed but bitter minded against our King and the old Settlement of our Church this man the Assembly of Divines did easily gain unto them and for their Interest he states a Question Disput tom 2. p. 852. How Subjects may quell their King and pull him down by force of A◠Which is intended for our English Case cut out into as many Exceptions almost as there he words in the Thesis and all the Particulars wrongly applied to our ungodly Distempers His Hammer strikes thus upon the Forge Primo quaestio est an à Proceribus Statibus Ordinibus Magistratibus Superioribus Infericribus qui pro ratione regiminis publicâ auctoritate instructi sunt palea 2. Regi Principi limitato conditionato palea 3. In extremo necessitatis casu palea 4. Post omnia frustra tentata palea 5. Secundum leges pacta fundamentalia principatus palea 6. Defensivè armis resisti palea 7. Ut respub ab interitu conservari possit palea First When had our Peers our Magistrates superiour and inferiour Power to bring His Majesty by Fear or Force into Order Never 2. When was his Empire limited or made conditional otherwise than to charge his Conscience before God to keep his Laws Never 3. Were we brought by ill administration to the brink of extream Necessity No such thing 4. Or were all dutiful means tryed to obtain the King's Consent to honest Demands Widest of all from Truth 5. Or have we Pactions sundamental between the King and People to constrain him to concur with their Proposals 'T is a meer Chimera 6. Did the Parliament wage the defensive part of the War Quite mistaken 7. Was there no other way but by such a rout of Russians to keep our native Country from Ruin Nay was it in the least danger of Ruin Not at all not till these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these Club-Lawyers silled the whole Land with Blood and Burning What cutting and carving hath this Dutch Workman made to bring us to worship the Idol of Rebellion And when all is said we know that an Idol is nothing in the World 1 Cor. 3.4 and as it follows there is no other God but one and none but that one God above the King against whose punitive Justice and none beside K. David offended 178. Many things were alledged to commence and continue this fatal War Quae prima querar Quae summa gemam Pariter cuncta deslere juvat Sen. Her Fur. One thing made a loud cry far and wide That His Majesty had left his Parliament and that the Members fate in great danger This was a Scandal taken which did raise such Enemies whom nothing else could have tempted from their Loyalty He lest his Parliament yes but consider it intelligently not till he had granted as much as was abundant for our Liberty Peace and Welfare not till he had yielded up more Branches of his Soveraignty and Revenue than all his Predecessors had granted in 300 years before not till he had trusted them to spend out that Parliament at their own leisure and yet they would trust him with nothing An Affront of deep Indignity Dare they not trust him that never broke with them And I have heard his nearest Servants say That no man could ever challenge him of the least Lye But as Probus said of Epaminondas Adeò veritatis diligens ut ne joco quidem mentiretur Was it square dealing to protest against him that would pay them all due Debt if they would let him I am sure when he left them he left a great many traces of Fame and Glory a great many Benefits of Obligation behind him And this Case will prove the same or much like to the Objection of the Pontificians They say we made a Schism in departing from the Church of Rome We say that the Schism was on their part for they that give the Cause for which it is necessary to abandon Communion they are the Authors of the Schism We continued in the Fellowship of Christ's Church and retreated from the Errors of an incorrigible corrupted part and from the Affrightments and Censures of them that were turned our open Enemies Say over the same to this Parliament and it will be the King's Apology They made the Schism that offer'd him Bills unfit to be pass'd with Clamoring Menacing and undutiful Violence which he must sign or fly far enough Sed qui mali sensu aut metu extorquere assensum velit eo ipso ostendit se argument is diffidere Grot. lib. 6. de Christi Relig. They made the Schism that used his Royal Name with Irreverence a King must not be contented with mediocrity of Respect but their Manners were gross and Plebeian They made the Schism that heard the highest Indignities against his Crown with Patience when Sir Harry Ludlow spake Treason and was not question'd To cut off a great deal they received his ample Concessions with no Thanks and degreed to further Demands and more unreasonable that fill'd the Palace the Hall their Stairs their Doors with such as forbore not to bring in doubt the Safety of his Sacred Person When so many were chased to such a barbarous Boldness what wise man would stand it out and not prevent it What security hath the Earthen Pitcher against an Iron Pot He that fears the worst prevents it soonest 179. The High Court of Parliament one House or both under the Saxon Monarchs or in a few Descents after was created to assist the King to be his great Council When he pleased he call'd it when he pleased he dismiss'd it In succession of days none fate there before he had taken an Oath to bear true Ligance to him and his Heirs and to defend His Majesty against all Perils and Assaults Never was it intended to obtrude upon him with force to compel him to take out his Lesson which they taught him as in a Pedagogy but to propound and advise with due distance and humility Introducta in alicujus utilitatem in ejus laesionem verti non debent if I may believe the Civil Law That which was instituted for the Soveraigns benefit in common sence must not be elevated above him to unthrone him A right Parl. is the Mind of many gathered into one Wisdom this look't rather like the petulancy of many breaking out into one frowardness The form that gives essence to every thing was gone when they that silled the places of Counsellors would transcend and give Law to Majesty If yet they dare criminate him upon Schism tell them that Christ came to the lost Sheep of the House of Israel yet when they took up stones to stone him he went away through the midst of them There is King Charles his Pattern Wherefore then did they hunt after him in warlike Terrour as if they would fetch him in by Proclamation of Rebellion Had he seen the Tyde ebb but an inch I should guess by the
201. First let the magnanimous Junto be heard who would try the hazard of War to the last and had rather lose their Heads than put them under the Girdle of a Presbyterian Conventicle It is enough quoth they to lend our Ears to a dishonourable Advice but shall we buy Peace with Dishonour We will never rent it for so much He that fears Death doth not enjoy his Life It was an Ignominy in the Athenians which they will never blow off Just lib. 5. Imminente periculo belli major salut is quà m dignitatis cura fuit Faint Hearts that in a sore War had more respect to their Safety than their Dignity We are not of Athens but of England and what are they under whose Authority we should truckle Heady arrogant implacable that look upon their Speaker's Mace as if it were the Scepter that sway'd the whole World Adeo est natura multitudinis aut servit humiliter aut impotenter dominatur Liv. lib. 23. One of the three things that disquiet the Earth says Solomon is an Handmaid that is Heir to her Mistriss Prov. 30.23 But it will disquiet the Earth a great deal more to have such Vassals exalted to be Kings and while His Majesty lives to become Heirs to their Master We 'll not cap and kneel to them we 'll meet them on Hounslow-health Totidem nobis animaeque manusque Aen. 10. We cannot believe that God will suffer such Foes and Furies to prosper any longer Fortune hath served them and will soon be weary of that Service Nulli fortuna tam dedita est ut multa tentanti ubique respondeat Senec. lib. 1. de irâ c. 3. We are great Sinners we confess yet we are obedient to the Church loyal to the King faithful to our Laws and Country Non potest baerere in tam bonâ causâ tam bonis civibus tam acerba injuria Cic. Orat. pro Caecinnâ Our fellow-Subjects in London and most about in all places have been entranced or bewitch'd Neighbour-Princes are drowsie and supine not aware that their turn will come shortly if they endure a Rebellion so near them and not advance to correct it The Crown of England hath never wanted Aid in the most desperate plunges Regum afflictae fortunae multorum opem alliciunt ad misericordiam quod regale nomen magnum Sanctum esse videtur Orat. pro le Manil. But whatsoever becomes of us God forbid the King should leave himself to the will of the Kirk and John Knoxe's Scholars The Indignities they shew'd to his Grandmother will never be forgotten Trust these broken Reeds Parthis fides dictis faclisque nulla nisi ubi expedit Just lib. 21. They are lovers of their own Faction falâ—e to all the World beside In fine this is a Knot not to be unloosened with our Tongue as if we were Boys at Blow point but we will cut it asunder with our Swords This was strong and rough But to this one of the Lords of the Moderation would be like to reply That it were pity such redoubted Valour should not be reserved for Service of more likely Success Quantum ipse feroci Virtute exuperas tantò me impensiùs aequum est Consulere atque omnes mâ—tuentem expendere casus Aen. 11. Our Sins have brought us to this dejection to ask Quarter of them when it was our Right to have given Mercy and Life to them when they had beg'd it I expect these will shew no Generosity to their Betters upon the close Omne â—l justum censent quicquid superior contra inferiorem decerneret as Augustus said of the Pannenians Dion lib. 44. The baser their Carriage shall be to His Majesty and his Friends the worse it will be for themselves for it will make their Tyranny more odious Do you imagine when we yield so far but that we foresee their own Pride and Demerits will in a little time cast them out of possession and we are confident ere long all will revert into its former Channel God seâ—â—geth us by them to let the People feel the difference between the Reign of a sweet King and the Violence of a sort of Mahumetan Bashaws As in the like case God says 2 Chron. 12.8 Nevertheless they shall be Shisach ' s servants that they may know my service and the service of the Kingdoms of the Countries Gentlemen you see much Hope to raise up the King but where in that Courage that is within your selves I cannot see it abroad Trust not in Princes nor in any Child of Man The next-neighbour King the French I mean might and ought to assist His Majesty by alliance of Blood and I think I say not amiss that he is his greatest Enemy I remember the words of a Stranger that writes our History Polyd. Virg. lib. 23. Hine colligere licet Aethiopem posse priùs mutare pellem quà m qui terram incolunt Gallicam valde multum diligere Anglos At home in our own Country the silly People every day fall away apace Si labant res lassae itidem amici collabaseunt Plaut in Styc And we our selves are in part guilty of it Most look to govern Garrisons and to take Contributions of the Villages to the quick and to spend them lavishly as Diodor says lib. 5. That the Dogs at Cuma leave the scent of the Beasts they hunt and stoop to smell at the Flowers of the Meadows Therefore I say before we be quite abandoned and our Fortunes stoop lower give this Sop to Cerberus give them a Blank and we shall bleed fewer ounce of Wealth and Honour I would I knew once the worst that shall be imposed on us It is better to grieve for what we bear than to fear at Uncertainty what we may bear Doleas quantum scias accidisse timeas quantum potest accidere Plin. lib. 8. Grief is finite but Fear is infinite That Parliament dare not but receive the King with all outward Gratulations they have made so much protestation to it already and the Law of God and Nations extort it For if the People rebel and be tired out to submit the King is still bound to keep his Oath and to govern them by his known Laws And if the King be wearied out in a Civil War and let the People win the Day the People must still perform their sworn Allegiance to the King You hear my Judgment different from worthy persons in a great case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is an honourable Error to be mistaken in so great a matter Marvel not that my words appear the fruits of a low Spirit marvel that the Anger of God hath compelled us to it I reckon not my self in the motion but the King his Posterity and his Kingdoms Wisdom is not the same thing at all times neither is Truth always of the same stature Hear Tully because he never spake better Orat. pro Planc Hoc de sapientibus clarissimis viris accepi non semper easdem sententias ab
His Majesty for a Pension to support them in their sequestred Sadness where they might spend their Days in Fasting and Prayer It was vehemently considered that our Hierarchy was much quarrel'd with and opposed by our own Fugitives to the Church of Rome who would fasten upon this Scandal and upon it pretend against our constant Succession hitherto undemolish'd with all the Malice that Wit could excogitate And indeed they began already For the Fact was much discoursed of in Foreign Universities who were nothing concerned especially our Neighbours the Sorbonists at Paris ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 4.15 over-busie to have an Oar in our Boat Disputing it three several times in their Schools and concluded the Accident to amount to a full Irregularity which is an Incapacity to exercise any Ecclesiastical Act of Order or Jurisdiction His Majesty upon the eruption of these Scruples was called up to think seriously that his Sweetness and Compassion did not leave a Slur upon this Church which himself under Christ had made so Glorious It belonged to the four Bishops Elect to be most Circumspect in this matter expecting their Consecration shortly and to be informed whether they should acknowledge that the Power of an Arch-Bishop was Integral and Unblemish'd in a casual Homicide and submit to have his Hands laid upon their Heads Dr. Davenant shewed Reason That it behoved him not to be seen in the Opposition because the Arch-Bishop had Presented him to the rich Parsonage of Cotnam not far from Cambridge It was well taken for among honest Pagans a Benesiciary would not contend against his Patron Howsoever such as knew not the wherefore were the more benevolous to the Arch-Bishop's misfortune because so great a Clerk stood off and meddled not The Rhodian's Answer in Plutarch was not forgotten who was baited by his Accusers all the while that the Judge said nothing I am not the worse for their Clamours says the Defendant but my Cause is the better that the Judge holds his peace Non refert quid illi loquantur sed quid ille taceat The other three without Davenant stirred in it the most they could to decline this Metropolitan's Consecreation not out of Enmity or Superstition but to be wary that they might not be attainted with the Contagion of his Scandal and Uncanonical Condition The Lord-Keeper appearing for the rest writes thus to the Lord Marquess as it is extant Cabal p. 55. MY Lord's Grace upon this Accident is by the Common-Law of England to forfeit all his Estate to His Majesty and by the canon-Canon-Law which is in force with us irregular Ipso facto and so suspended from all Ecclesiastical Function until he be again restored by his Superior which I take it is the King's Majesty in this Rank and Order of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction I wish with all my heart His Majesty would be as Merciful as ever He was in all his Life But yet I hold it my Duty to let His Majesty know by your Lordship that His Majesty is fallen upon a Matter of great Advice and Deliberation To add Affliction to the Afflicted as no doubt he is in Mind is against the King's Nature To leave a Man of Blood Primate and Patriarch of all his Churches is a thing that sounds very harsh in the old Councils and Canons of the Church The Papists will not spare to descent upon the one and the other Heave the Knot to His Majesties deep Wisdom to Advise and Resolve upon A gentler Hand could not touch a Sore yet I think of his Judgment in this Point as Sealiger did of the sine Poet Fracostorius Ab suâ ipse magnitudine descendisse credi potest aliquando He flew lower at this Game then the pitch of his wonted Wisdom For the Question did hang yet upon this Pin Whether there were a Sore to be cured His Lordship had look'd attentively into the Canonists whom he could cite by rote with his happy Memory Their Decretals and Extravagants Un-bishop a Man that kill'd a Man and meant a Beast nay further if the Bishop's Horse did cast the Groom that water'd him into a Pond and drown'd him But if we Appeal from them to higher and better Learning their Rigour will prove Ridiculous The Fact is here confess'd But is Sin in the Fact or in the Mind of the Facient Omne peccatum in tantum est peccatum in quantum est voluntarium This is the Maxim of the Schools upon actual Sins and a true one A guilty Mind makes a guilty Action An unfortunate Hand concurs often with an innocent Heart Quis nomen unquam sccleris errori indidit Put the Case that these Writers are very inclinable to have Absolution granted incontinently to such Contingencies but to keep a bustle whether Absolution is to be given or not when there is no fault is to abuse the Power of the Keys Irregularities in that Superstitious Latin Church are above Number what have we to do with them That we did cut them off we did not name it indeed in our Reformation under Edward the Sixth c. for they were thrown out with Scorn as not to be mention'd among ejected Rubbish For we perceived they were never meant to bind but to open I mean the Purse He that is Suspended may entangle himself from the Censure with a Bribe The Canonists are good Bone-letters for a Bone that was never broken their Rubrics are filled with Punctilio's not for Consciences but for Consciuncles Haberdashers of small Faults and palpable Brokers for Fees and Mercinary Dispensations Therefore those plain-dealing and blunt People among the Helvetians otherwise Clients of the Roman Party serv'd them very well as Simler hath Page 64. of his History Cum Papa Rom acceptà pecuniâ Matrimonium contra canones concesserat populus recognitâ statuit Si divitious pecunià numeratâ hoc licitum sit etiam pauperibus absque pecunid fas essc And a little before Pag. 135. when those poor Cantoners could not enjoy their own in quiet for the Rent-gatherers of the Court of Rome they bid them keep off at their own peril with this popular Edict Si pergant nundinatores bullarum jus urgere in vincula conjiciontur ni huic renuntient aquis submorgantur scilicet ut ita bullae bullis eluantur Such resolute Men as these were too rude to be cozen'd So Irregularities should be used which are invented for the Prosit of Dispensative Graces having nothing in them to Unsanctisie the Order of a Bishop by Divine Law or the Law of Nature because they can be wiped away with a Feather if it be a Silver Wing and the Feathers of Gold But because these double Doctors of Canon and Civil Laws will pretend to some Reason in their greatest Folly it is not amiss to repeat the best Objection with which they stiffen their Opinion Thus they divide the Hoof That if one by chance-medly kills a Man being then employed in nothing that is evil
to that Treatise as follow Let the World take notice if it may concern any your Honour is be unto whom next unto His most Sacred Majesty my most Gracious Sovereign and Master I owe more then to all the World beside Professing unseignedly in the word of a Priest Fâ—cisti ut vivam moriar ingratus 81. The Lord-Keeper being so great a Dealer in the Golden Trade of Mercy and so successful he followed his Fortune and tried the King and the Lord Marquess further in the behalf of some whom their dear Friends had given over in Despair to the Destiny of Restraint And those were of the Nobles For he carried a great regard to their Birth and Honour and knew it was good for his own safety to deserve well of those high-born Families The East of Nerthumberland had been a Prisoner in the Tewer above 15 years His Confidents had not Considence and a good Heart I say not to Petition but to dispute with the King how ripe the Earl was for Clemency and Liberty 〈◊〉 Majesty was very merciful but must be rubb'd with a Fomentation of hi◠〈◊〉 Oyl to make him more supple This dextrous Statesman infuseth into 〈…〉 how to compass the Design with what Insinuations and Argum◠〈…〉 were improved with the Earl's demulcing and well-languag'd Phrases And when it came to strong Debate the Lord-Keeper got the better of the King in Reason So the Physic wrought as well as could be wish'd and on the 18th of July the Earl of Northumberland came out of the Tower the Great Ordnance going off to give him a joyful Valediction Who turned his Thoughts to consider the Work of God that a Stranger had wrought 〈◊〉 Comfort for him in his old Age whose Face he had ne 〈…〉 never purchased by any Benefit nor courted so much as by the meâ—age of a Salutation Which his Lordship compared to St. Peter's Deliverance by the Angel of God Acts 12. when Peter knew not who it was that came to help him Though not in order of Time yet in likeness of Condition the Earl of Oxford's Case is to be ranked in the same File It was in April in the year following that he was sent to the Tower betrayed by a false Brother for rash Words which heat of Wine cast up at a merry meeting His Lordship's Enemies were great and many whom he had provoked yet after he had acquainted the Lord-Keeper with the long Sadness of his Restraint in a large Letter which is preserved he wrought the Earl's Peace and Releasment conducted him to the King's Chamber to spend an hour in Conference with His Majesty from whence a good Liking was begot on both sides Whom thereupon that Earl took for his trusty and wisest Friend using his Counsel principally how to Husband his Estate and how to employ his Person in some Honourable Service at Sea that the Dissoluteness of his Hangers-on in the City might not sink him at Land The Lord-Keeper did as much for the Earl of Somerset in Christmas-time before bringing him by his mediation out of the House of Sorrow wherein he had continued above five years that he might take fresh Air and enjoy the comfort of a free Life which was affected by him to gratisie the splendid and spreading Family of the Howards And they were all well pleased with him as were the greatest part of the Grandees except the Earl of Arundel for a Distast taken of which the Lord-Keeper need not be ashamed 82. Within Six Weeks after he was settled in that Office the Earls Secretary brought two Patents to be Sealed the one to bestow a Pension of 2000 l. per annum upon his Lord out of the Exchequer which was low mow'n and not sit to bear such a Crop beside the Parliament which was to meet again in the Winter could not choose but take Notice what over-bountiful Issues were made out of the Royal Revenue to a Lord that was the best Landed of all his Peers Yet the Seal was put to with a dry assent because there was no stopping of a Free River With this Patent came another to confer the Honour of the Great Marshal of England upon the same Noble Personage The Contents of it had scarce any Limits of Power much exceeding the streit Boundaries of Law and Custom The Lord Keeper searching into the Precedents of former Patents when the same Honour was conser'd found a great inequality and doubted for good Cause that this was a device to lay his unfitness for his great place Naked to the World if he swallowed this Pill But nothing tended more to the praise of his great Judgment with His Majesty He writes to my Lord of Buckingham to acquaint the King that he thought His Majesty intended to give to greater Power than the Lords Commissioners had who dispatch'd Affairs belonging to that Office joyntly before him and that all Patents refer to the Copy of the immediate Predecessors who were the Earls of Essex Shrewsbury and Duke of Somerset but my Lord leap'd them over and claim'd as much as the Howards and Mowbries Dukes of Norfolk did hold which will enlarge his Authority beyond the former by many Dimensions There is much more than this in the Cabal of Letters p. 63. And much more than I meet there in his own private Papers The King was much satisfied with the Prudence and Courage of the Man that he had rather display these Errors than commit them for fear of a mighty Frown so the Earls Counsel were appointed to attend the Lord Keeper who joyning their hands together examin'd the Obliquities of the Patent and alter'd them What would have follow'd if it had pass'd entire in the first Draught For being so much corrected and Castrated yet the proceedings of the Court of Honour were a Grievance to the People not to be supported The Decrees of it were most uncertain most Arbitrary most Imperious Nor was there any Seat of Judgment in the Land wherein Justice was brought a bed with such hard Labour Now I invite the Reader if he please to turn to the 139 pag. of Sir An. Wel. Pamphlet and let him score a Mark for his Remembrance at these Lines That Williams was brought in for this Design to clap the Great Seal through his Ignorance in the Laws to such things that none that understood the danger by knowing the Laws would venter upon This Knight when he is in a Course of Malice is never out of his Way but like an egregious Bugiard here he is quite out of the Truth For the New Lord Keeper walk'd so Circumspectly that he seem'd to fear an Ambush from every Grant that was to pass for the use of encroaching Courtiers if any thing were Ambiguous or Dangerous he was not asham'd to call for Counsel If any thing were prest against Rule he was inexorable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eth. He kept constant to Justice in its Flat Square I could be Luxuriant in instances nothing is
Cook in his Jurisdiction of Courts looks no higher than 28. of Edw. 3. This Lord Keeper cites a Precedent out of his own Search of Records of a Baron Fin'd and Imprison'd by it in the 16th of Edw. 2. as it is quoted Cabal P. 58. Of what standing it was before for the Evidence doth not run as if then it were newly born to me is uncertain For the Dignity that famous Judge I mentioned lifts up his Style that it is the most honourable Court our Parliament excepted that is in the Christian World Jurisdic P. 65. The Citations of it are to cause to appear Coram Rege Concilio for the King in Judgment of Law is always in the Court when it fits and King James did twice in Person give Sentence in it The Lords and others of the Privy Council with the two Chief Justices or two other Justices or Barons of the Exchequer in their Absence are standing Judges of that Court. For in Matters of Right and Law some of the Judges are always presum'd to be of the King's Counsel The other Lords of Parliament who are properly De magno Concilio Regis are only in Proximâ poteentiâ of this Council and are actually Assessors when they are specially called These Grandees of the Realm who cannot fit to hear a Cause under the Number of Eight at the least ennoble this Court with their Presence and Wisdom to the Admiration of Foreign Nations and to the great Satisfaction of our selves for none can think himself too great to be Try'd for his Misdemeanors before a Convention of such Illustrious Senators And as Livy says Nihil tam aequandae libertati prodest quà m potentissimum quemque posse causam dicere As touching the Benefit that the Star-Chamber did bring thus that Atlas of the Law the Lord Cook Et cujus pars magna fuit says in the same Place That the right Institution and ancient Orders thereof being observed it keepeth all England in Quiet Which he maintains by two Reasons First Seeing the Proceeding according to the Laws and Customs of this Realm cannot by one Rule of Law suffice to punish in every Case the Enormity of some great and horrible Crimes this Court dealeth with them to the end the Medicine may be according to the Disease and the Punishment according to the Offence Secondly To curb Oppression and Exorbitancies of great Men whom inferior Judges and Jurors though they should not would in respect of their Greatness be afraid to offend Indeed in every Society of Men there will be some Bashawes who presume that there are many Rules of Law from which they should be exempted Aristotle writes it as it were by Feeling not by Guess Polit. 4. c. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They that were at the Top among the Greeks nor would be rul'd nor would be taught to be rul'd Therefore this Court profest the right Art of Justice to teach the Greatest as well as the Meanest the due Construction of Good Behaviour I may justly say that it was a Sea most proper for Whale-Fishing little Busses might cast out Nets for Smelts and Herring So says the great Lawyer Ordinary Offences which may sufficiently be punished by the Proceeding of the Common Laws this Court leaveth to the ordinary Courts of Justice Ne dignitas hujus Curiae vilesceret 96. Accordingly the Lord Keeper Williams having Ascended by his Office to be the first Star in the Constellation to illuminate that Court he was very Nice I might say prudent to measure the Size of Complaints that were preferred to it whether they were knots fit for such Axes A number of contentious Squabbles he made the Attorney's Pocket up again which might better be compounded at home by Country Justices It was not meet that the Flower of the Nobility should be call'd together to determine upon Trifles Such long Wing'd Hawks were not to be cast off to fly after Field-Fares The Causes which he designed to hear were Grave and Weighty wherein it concern'd some to be made Examples for Grievous Defamations Perjuries Riots Extortions and the like Upon which Occasions his Speeches were much heeded and taken by divers in Ciphers which are extent to this day in their Paper Cabinets To which I Appeal that they were neither long nor Virulent For though he had Scope on those Ocasions to give his Auditors more then a Tast of his Eloquence which was clear sententious fraught with Sacred and Moral Allusions yet he detested nothing more then to insult upon the Offendor with girds of Wit He foresaw that Insolencies and Oppressions are publick provocations to bury a Court in it's own Shame And what could exasperate more then when an unfortunate man hath run into a Fault to shew him no humane Respect Nay to make him pass through the two malignant Signs of the Zodiaque Sagitary and Scorpio That is to wound him first with Arrows of sharp-pointed Words and then to Sting him with a Scorpiack censure Indeed if there be an extreme in shewing too much mercy I cannot Absolve the Lord Keeper For many I confess censur'd him for want of deeper censures said he was a Friend to Publicans and Sinners to all delinquents and rather their Patron then their Judge 〈◊〉 was so oftentimes when he scented Malice in the Prosecution It was so sometimes when he laid his Finger upon the Pulse of humane Frailty Brethren if a Man be overtaken in a Fault we which are Spiritual Restore such a one in the Spirit of meekness considering thy self least thou also be Tempted Galat. 6.1 Pliny the younger had been faulted that he had excus'd some more then they deserv'd Whereupon he Writes to Septitius lib. 7. Ep. Quid mihi invident felicissimum Errorem Ut enim non sint tales quales à me praedicantur ego tamen Beatus quod mihi videntur Which is to this meaning Why do you grudg me this Error they are not so good as I accounted them but I am happy in my Candor that I account them better then they are But first he never condemn'd an Offender to be Branded to be Scourg'd to have his Ears cut Though that Court hath proceeded to such censure in time old enough to make Prescription yet my Lörd Cook adviseth it should be done sparingly upon this Reason Quod Arbitrio judicis relinquitur non facile trahit ad effusionem Sanguinis They that judge by the light of Arbitrary Wisdom should seldom give their sentence to spill Blood He would never do it and declin'd it with this plausible avoidance as the Arch-Bishop Whitgift and Bancroft and the Bishop of Winton the Learned Andrews had done before him that the Canons of Councils had forbidden Bishops to Act any thing to the drawing of blood in a judicial Form Once I call to mind he dispens'd with himself and the manner was pretty One Floud a Railing Libelling Varlet bred in the Seminaries beyond Seas had vented Contumelies bitterer then Gall against many
find by his own Confession remaining in some Schedules that he was beholding to Lord Egerton's Directions to fill up the Worth of that Place which were these First To open his sincere and intimate Mind in all Advice which is indeed to give Counsel and not Words For he that speaks against his Conscience to please the King gives him a dry Flower to smell to Secondly Whatsoever was propos'd to examine primarily if it were just For he that dare make bold with God for Reasons of State is not to be trusted by Man There can be no Reason against Right Velleius says that Cato the Heathen was of that Opinion Cui id solum visum est rationem habere quod haberet justitiam 2. If it were for the Honour of the King for Crown-wisdom must not be soil'd with the Dust of Baseness but aim at Glory 3. If it were profitable as well for the Ages to come as for the present Use for present Occasions are mortal but a Kingdom is immortal If it hit not every Joynt of Just Honourable and Profitable he voted to lay it aside He kept other Rules at the Table but more dispensable As to mature great Matters with slow Deliberation at least to give them a second Hearing after himself and his Colleagues had laid their Heads upon their Pillows Next he called upon the King to follow the beaten Tract of former Precedents For new ways are visibly the Reproach of ancient Wisdom and run the Hazard of Repentance New Stars have appeard and vanish'd the ancient Asterisms remain there 's not an old Star missing Likewise it was his modest but frequent Motion that Counsels should not be whispered by one or two in a Corner but delivered openly at the Board by the sworn Ministers For what avails it when a Globe of Senators have press'd sound Judgment if some for their own Ends shall overthrow it who have made Blastus their Friend in Agrippa's Chamber Act. 12. The Lord Cooke's Jurisdiction of Courts Pag. 57. gives it for a special Note of his own Observation when he was a Privy Counselsellor that when a thing upon Debate and Deliberation is well resolv'd at the Council-Table the Change thereof upon some private Information is neither safe nor honourable As Seneca says Lib. 2. de Benif Vota homines parciùs faccrent si palam facienda essint If all Prayers were made in the Hearing of a publick Assembly many that are mumbled in Private wou'd be omitted for Shame So if all Counsels offer'd to Princes were spread out before many Witnesses Ear-Wiggs that buzz what they think fit in the retir'd Closet durst not infect the Royal Audience with pernicious Glozing for fear of Scandal or Punishment Well did the Best of our Poets of this Century decipher a Corrupt Court in his Under-woods Pag. 227 When scarce we hear a publick Voice alive But whisper'd Counsels and these only thrive Lastly He deprecated continually and obtained that private Causes should be distinguished from Publick that Actions of Meum and Tuum should be repulsed from the Council-Board and kept within the Channel of the common-Common-Law But to run along with the Complacemia of the Multitude with that which was most cry'd up in the Town by our Gallants at Taverns and Ordinaries he defy'd it utterly Populo super â—canea est calliditas says Salust The Peoples Heads are not lin'd with the Knowledge of the Kingdoms Government 't is above their Perimeter When they obey they are in their Wits when they prescribe they are mad Excellently King James in one of his Speeches Who can have Wisdom to judge of things of that Nature arcana imperii but such as are daily acquainted with the Particulars of Treaties and the variable and fixed Connexion of Affairs of State together with the Knowledge of the secret Ways Ends and Intention of Princes in their several Negotiations Otherwise small Mistakings in Matters of this Nature may produce worse Effects than can be imagined He gave this Warning very sagely to his People what Warning he received from his faithful Servant the Lord Keeper shall be the Close of this Subject His Majesty being careful to set his House within himself in good Order against he came to the Holy Communion on the Eve before he sent for this Bishop as his Chaplain to confer with him about Sacred Preparation for that Heavenly Feast who took Opportunity when the King's Conscience was most tender and humble to shew him the way of a good King as well as of a good Christian in these Points First To call Parliaments often to affect them to accord with them To which Proposal he fully won his Majesty's Heart Secondly To allow his Subjects the Liberty and Right of the Laws without entrenching by his Prerogative which he attended to with much Patience and repented he had not lookt into that Counsel sooner Thirdly To contract his great Expences and to give with that Moderation that the Prince his Son and his succeeding Posterity might give as well as He. In short to contrive how to live upon his own Revenue or very near it that he might ask but little by way of Subsidy and he should be sure to have the more given him But of all the three Motions there was the least Hope to make him hear of that Ear. For though he would talk of Parsimony as much as any yet he was lavish and could keep no Bounds in Spending As Paterculus observes of an Emperor that wrote to the Senate Triumphum appararent quà m minimo sumtu sed quantus alias nunquam fuisset To be a great Saver and a great Spender is hard to be reconciled for it toucheth the Hem of a Contradiction But since the Benefit of that Counsel would not rest upon the Head of the King the Honesty of it returned again to him that gave it 98. Who had the Abilities of two Men in one Breast and filled up the Industry of two Persons in one Body He satisfied the King's Affairs in the Civil Theatre and performed the Bishops Part in the Church of Christ As 〈◊〉 and Jehojada were great Judges in the Land and ministred before the Lord to their Linnen Ephods The Custody of the Great Seal would not admit him so long as he kept it to visit his Diocess himself but though he was not upon the Soil of the Vineyard he was in the Tower of it to over-look the Vine-Dressors Though he was absent in his Body he was present in the Care and Watchfulness of his Spirit and as our Saviour said of the Woman that poured her precious Spikenard upon him Quod potuit fecit Marc. 14.8 So I doubt not but God did accept it from him that he did what he could He heard often from those whom he had surrogated and appointed in Office to give him Information and was so assiduous to enquire after all Occurrences in those many Parochial Towns that were under his Pastoral Power that he would be very
Spur and Incentive to all the Students of the Law that they might more easily concoct those otherwise insupportable Difficulties and Harshness of their Studies in hope one Day to attein unto those Honours wherewith all of you by his Majesties Favour and your own Merits are now to be Invested Those outward Decorums of Magnificence which set forth your Exaltation this Day are very specious and sparkle so much in the Eyes of the young Fry that swim up after you that they cannot but make very sensible Impression in their Minds to follow your Industry that they may attein to your Dignity That Gold which you give away secundum Consuetudinem regni in hoc casu implies that by your faithful Labour and Gods Providence you have attein'd to the Wealth of a fair Estate And Wisdom is good with an Inheritance Eccles 7.11 Nay I wish heartily that all wise Men had plentiful Inheritances and that the Silly and Sottish were not so fortunate in gathering Treasure For a Rich ignorant Man is but a Sheep with a Golden Fleece Then your great and sumptuous Feast is like that at a Kings Coronation At which you entertain the Ambassadors of Foreign Kings now Resident about the City and the prime Officers and Nobility of this Realm But to ascend higher King Henry the Seventh in his own Person did Grace the Sergeants Feast held then at Ely-Palace in Holborn So estimable was your Order in those Days to that Mighty Monarch I should be too long if I should speak of the Ornament of your Head your pure Linen Coif which evidences that you are Candidates of higher Honour So likewise your Librata Magna your abundance of Cloth and Liveries your Purple Habits belonging antiently to great Senators yea to Emperors all these and more are but as so many Flags and Ensigns to call up those young Students that fight in the Valleys to those Hills and Mountains of Honour which you by your Merits have now atchieved Neque enim virtutem amplectimur ipsam Praemia si tollas 124. Gentlemen I have told you from the Explanation of your Title what you are by Denomination You must be dutiful and respect my Lords the Judges because you are but Servientes Servants And you must be Reverenced by all of your Robe but the Judges because you are Servientes ad Legem Journey-Men of the Law whereas the rest though call'd to the Bar are no more than Discipuli in Justinian's Phrase or as your own Books term Apprenticii mere Apprentices You serve in that Law which is of excellent Composure for the Relief of them that seek Redress in this Nation through all Cases And of rare Privilege it is above the Tryals of all other Kingdoms and States for the Tryal of those that are under Criminal Attainder by a Jury of their own Peers Which I find as one to have used in antient Polities but Cato major in his own Family Supplicium de Servo non sumsit nisi postquam damnatus est conservorum judicio He punish'd none of his Bondmen unless they were cast by the Verdict of their fellow Bondmen To be elected the prime Servants of our most wise and most equal Laws supposeth in you great Reading great Reason great Experience which deservedly casts Honour upon your Persons Emulous I may say Envious Censurers speak scornfully of your Learning and Knowledge that it is gainful to your at Home in your own Country but of no use or value abroad For what is a Sergeant or Counsellor of these Laws if he get Dover Cliffs at his back So I remember Tully in his Oration pro Murenâ being more angry than he had cause with Sâ—lpitius who was Vir juris consultissimus disdains his Skill with this Taunt Sapiens existimari nemo potest in eâ prudentiâ quae extra Romam nequicquam valet That was a wise Art indeed which was wise no further than the Praetors Courts in Râ—e Let Sulpitius answer for himself But in your behalf I have this to answer That beside your Judicious Insight into the Responsa Prudintum and the laudable Customs of this Kingdom which are proper with our statute-Statute-Laws to our own People I say beside these the Marrow of the whole Wisdom of the Caesarcan Transmarine Law is digested into our Common and Statute-Laws as wiâ— easily appear to him that examines the Book of Entries or Original Writs Which makes you sufficient to know the Substance and Pith of the Civil Law in all Courts through Europe So that you would be to seek in their Text not in their Reason and in their Traverses and Formalities of Pleadings which are no prejudice to the Worthiness of your Function Now I have told you as a judge that you are Servants but Honourable Servants of the Law before I conâ— let me admonish you as a Bishop that you are in your highest Title the Servants of God Therefore keep a good Conscience in all things Serve that holy Law which bids you Not to pervert the Right and Cause of the Innocâ— I know it is very hard to discern the Right from the Wrong in many Suits till they come to be throughly sisted and examin'd So truly did Quimilian say Lib. 2. Cap. 8. Potest accidere ut ex utráque parte vir bonus dicat An honest Man in many Pleaâ— may be entertain'd on either side Therefore it is no discredit to your Profession that as the Aetolians in Greece of old and the Suitzers in the Cantâ—ns at this Day are often Auxiliaries of both sides in a pitcht Battail so you should be Feed to try your Skill either for Plaintiff or Defendant But when you discern a Clients Cause is rotten then to imploy your Cunning to give it Victory against Justice is intolerable The more vulgar that Iniquity is the more it is odious As Pliny said Lib. 8. Episto ad Russiuum Decipere pro meribus temporum prudentia est It was the great Blindness and Corruption of the Times when Cheating past for Wisdom He that labours by Witty Distortions to overthrow the Truth he serves Lucre and not God he serves Mammon and not the Law You know you cannot serve those two Masters for they are utterly opposite But to conclude three Masters you may nay you ought to serve which are subordinate Serve God Serve the King Serve the Law Ite alacres tantaeque precor confidite Causae I have ended The Fear of God go with you and his Blessing be upon you 125. All things upon this Festival Day of the new Sergeants were answerable to this Eloquent Speech Yet every Day look'd clowdy and the People were generally indisposed to Gawdy Solemnities because the Prince was in a far Country Others may undertake to write a just History of that Journey into Spain and a just History gives Eternity to Knowledge I fall upon no more than came under the dispatch of one Person upon whom I insist Yet some Passages upon the whole Matter will require their
for Legal Notions When the Lord Keeper had done with the Living he began with the Dead and scrupled how their Dead should be Interr'd so as to give no offence nor be obnoxious to be offended The Resolution was brought to him that sent it That their Burials should be in their private Houses as secret as might be and without any sign of Manifestation but Notice to be given to the Parish-Clerk of their departure 164. Never was Man so entangled in an Els-lock all this while that could not be unravell'd as Marquiss Inoiosa till he publish'd his Choler in all sorts of Impatiency The Reader may take in so small a matter by the way that the Writer of these Passages said to the Lord Keeper That the Marquiss was the most surly unpleasing Man that ever came to his House His Lordship answer'd They were his Manners by Nature But he had been so vain to profess That he came an Enemy to us into England and for this Dowty Cause His Father was a Page to King Philip the Second while he lived here with Queen Mary and was discourteously used in our Court perhaps by the Pages Which was a Quarrel of Seventy Years old and bearing date before the Marquiss was born Which will cause a Passage of Dionysius the Tyrant of Sicily to be remembred who had robb'd and spoil'd some of the Islands under the Protection of Athens and when the Injury was expostulated he told them Their Countryman Ulysses had used the Sicilians worse 700 Years before as he believ'd it to be very true in Homer This Ambassador was a restless Man and held the Lord Keeper so close to turn and plow up the fallow of this Business that he would not give him the Jubilee of a Day to rest Yet the time do what he could had run at waste from the 20th of July to the end of August Then and no sooner the Frames of the Pardon and Dispensation were contriv'd and dispatch'd Yet the Mill would not go with this Water The Ambassadors call'd for more That two general Commands should be issued forth under the Great Seal the first to all the Judges and Justices of Peace the other to all Bishops Chancellors and Commissaries not to execute any Statute made against the Papists Hereupon the Spanish Faction was suspected that they had no hopes to bring some secret Drifts to pass but by raising a general hatred against our Government The Lord Keeper repulsed the Motion and wrote to the King being at Aldershot That whatsoever Instance the Ambassador makes to the contrary there was no reason why his Majesties Wisdom should give place to them He propounded That a private Warrant might be directed to himself to will him to write to the respective Magistrates fore-nam'd to acquaint them with the Graces which his Majesty had past for Recusants in that Exigence and to suspend their Proceeding till they heard further For as the Civilians say Cessant extraordinaria ubi ordinariis est locus Thus he contriv'd it that the King as much as might be should escape the Offence and let the Rumour light upon his private Letters For which he never put the King to stand between the People and his Errour nor besought him to excuse it to the next Parliament But as Mamertinus in Paneg. said of his own Consulship Non modò nullum popularium deprecatus sum sed ne te quidem Imperator quem orare praeclarum cui preces adhibere plenissimum dignitatis est Yet lest the Ambassador should complain of him to the Prince in Spain he writes to the Duke Cab. P. 8. Aug. 30. THat he had prevailed with the Lords to stop that vast and general Prohibition and gave in three Days Conference such Reasons to the two Ambassadors although it is no easie matter to satisfie the Capriciousness of the latter of them that they were both content it should rest till the Infanta had been six Months in England For to forbid Judges against their Oath and Justices of Peace sworn likewise not to execute the Law of the Land is a thing unprecedented in this Kingdom Durus sermo a harsh and bitter Pill to be digested upon a suddain and without some Preparation But to grant a Pardon even for a thing that is malum in se and a Dispensation with Poenal Statutes in the profit whereof the King only is interested is usual full of Precedents and Examples And yet this latter only serves to the Safety the former but to the Glory and Insolency of the Papists and the magnifying the service of the Ambassadors too dearly purchas'd with the endangering of a Tumult in three Kingdoms His Majesty useth to speak to his Judges and Justices of Peace by his Chancellor or Keeper as your Grace well knoweth And I can signifie his Majesties Pleasure unto them with less Noise and Danger which I mean to do hereafter if the Ambassador shall press it to that effect unless your Grace shall from his Highness or your own Judgment direct otherwise That whereas his Majesty being at this time to Mediate for Favour to many Protestants in Foreign Parts with the Princes of another Religion and to sweeten the Entertainment of the Princess into this Kingdom who is yet a Roman Catholick doth hold the Mitigation of the Rigour of those Laws made against Recusants to be a necessary Inducement to both those Purposes and hath therefore issued forth some Pardons of Grace and Favour to such Roman Catholicks of whose Fidelity to the State he rests assur'd That therefore you the Lord Bishops Judges and Justices each of those to be written to by themselves do take Notice of his Majesties Pardon and Dispensation with all such Poenal Laws and demean your selves accordingly This is the lively Character of him that wrote it Policy mixt with Innocency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Nazianzen Cunning enough yet not divided from Conscience For Wit when it is not sheathed as it were in the fear of God will cut like a sharp Razor 165. All his Art would be requir'd to reconcile two things That the Ambassador should be put off no longer for so the King had now commanded by Dispatches from both the Secretaries And that he would finish nothing till he had heard either his Highness or the Duke's Opinion upon the Proceeding The general Pardon and the Dispensation were both sealed So he began But kept them by him and would not open the least Window to let either Dove or Raven fly abroad The King being return'd to Windsor signification was given that none of the Lords should come to him till he sent for them and was ready for Matters of moment No Superstructure could go on very fast when that Stone was laid From Windsor Sept. 5. Sir G. Calvert writes to him My very good Lord His Majesty being resolv'd to extend his Gracious Favour to the Roman Catholicks signifies his Pleasure That your Lordship should direct your Letter to the Bishops Judges
Ecclesiam Romano-Catholicam Parliaments naturally begat Entities and the want of Parliaments produceth Nullities Surely God and the King are must averse to such Parliaments Mark Gods Parliament the first Parliament in the World wherein the Three Persons in Trinity are consulting together Faciamus Hominem and you shall find it was to beget Entities Therefore God is scarce present in that Consultation that brings forth Nullities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher begins his Ethicks Every Consultation is for some Good some End some Entitie and most opposite to an Abortion or Nullity And therefore you may applaud those former Laws of Learning Piety Grace and Bounty which you handled before In my Opinion Mr. Speaker you have kept the good Wine and the best Law of them all till now which is Solon's Law Lex Oblivionis A Law of Forgetfulness That by His Majesties Grace and Favour freely offer'd unto us the last day all the Memory of these Unfortunate Abortions may be Buried in the River Lethe and never be had in any further Remembrance I will put you in Mind of a Story which Tully relates out of Thucydides and leave the Application to this Honourable Auditory When the Thebans having gâ—t the better of the Lacedaemonians Erected a Brazen Trophy for that Victory they were complain'd of apud Amphictyonas that is before the common Council of Greece Eo quod aeternum inimicitiarum Monumentum Graecos de Graecis Statuere non oportuit Because it was most unfit that between Greek and Greek there should remain any Record of perpetual Enmity Fifthly For the Common Law of England if we regard the Meridian for which it is Erected it is a Law as was said of those of Lycurgus Disciplinae Convenientissimae of a most apt and convenient Frame and His Majesty hath ever so approved of it Nay He is so precisely affected and disposed in this kind that as Paterculus writes of Cato Id solum ei visum est rationem habere quod haberet Justitiam He could never allow of any Devise or Project how plausible soever that was not justifiable at the Common Law 183. Sixthly For the Supply of Princes in this Kingdom His Majesty makes no Question but that by Parliament and Subsidy is the most Comfortable to the King and most Favorable to the Subject It Comforts the King as issuing from the Heart and it Easeth the Subject as brought by the Hands not of one or two but of all the People That which you call Benevolence or Good Will brings unto His Majesty neither so much Good nor so much Will as the other support And therefore the Kings of this Land though it hath been accepted by most of them have made of Benevolence but Anchoram Sacram a help at a dead lift when Parliaments being great Bodies and of slow Motions could not soon be Assembled nor Subsidies issuing from the Purses of Particulars be so suddenly Collected And it is very well known with what Reluctancy His Majesty was drawn to shoot out this Anchor never Assenting thereunto until he was in a manner forced by those intolerable Provocations from without and those general Invitations from whithin the Kingdom Remember therefore that good Lady in whose Defence the Money was spent that inimitable Pattern once of Majesty but now of Patience to the Christian World and you will say no Man can be found of that Malevolence as to find fault with this one Benevolence Seventhly His Majesty Returns you most hearty Thanks for your Care and Zeal of the True Religion And is much Rejoyced to hear That this Lower House as it is now Compos'd is such another Place as Tully describes the Town of Enna Non Domus sed fanum ubi quot Cives tot Sacerdotes It is no vulgar House but as Originally a Sacred Chappel wherein are Assembled in regard of their Zeal and Devotion look how many Men so many Church-Men And his Majesty gives you full assurance that he nothing so much Regards the Airy State or Glory of this Life as he doth that inestimable Jewel of our Religion which is to remain his only Ornament after this Life If there be any Scandals to the contrary not given but taken for want of due Information his Majesty wisheth as Aphonso the Wise King of Aragon did Omnes populares suos reges fuisse That every one of his People had been a King for then they might soon understand and be as soon satisfied with the Reasons of Estate His Majesty hath never spared the Execution of any Law but for the Execution of a greater Law to wit Salus Reip. the Good the Peace and Safety of the Church and Common Wealth And you know that is the ultimus finis all the rest are but fines sub fine For as the Orator well Observes Nemo Leges legum causâ salvas esse vult sed Reipublicae We do not desire the Observing of our Laws for the written Laws but for the Common-Wealths sake And for those Statutes made for the preservation of Religion they are all as you heard last day from that Oracle of Truth and Knowledg in full force and in Free Execution Nor were ever intended to be connived with in the least Syllable but for the further propagation of the same Religion What knowest thou O Man if thou shalt save thy Wife was a Text that gave no Offence in St. Paul'stime Remember the King's Simile which indeed is God's Simile Zach. 6. Kingdoms are like to Horses Kings resemble the Riders the Laws the Spurs and the Reins by which Horsemanship is managed A good Rider carries always a sure but not always a Stiff Hand But if Agar grow insolent by those Favours then in Gods Name out with the Bond-woman and her Sons For his Majesty is fully Resolv'd That as long as Life remains in his Body and the Crown upon his Head the Sons of the Bond-woman shall never be Heirs in this Island with the Sons of the Free-woman And our Royal Master gives us his Chaplains free leave to put him in mind of that of Synesius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is still careful of the Good of Kings and Kings cannot be too careful of the Good and Service of God In the Eighth place his Majesty exceedingly comforted with the just Feeling and Resentment you express against the Usurpation of that invading Enemy who hath expell'd our most sweet Princess from her Jointure and her Olive Branches from their Rightful Inheritance Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor Surely if the Rule be true Attollit vires in milite causa That a good Cause makes good Souldiers it is no such impossibility to regain the Palatinate You say Sir Cato was positively of Opinion Carthaginem evertendam That whatever became of other designs Carthage must be overthrown And you are of Opinion and so are all good Men besides Palatinatum reglutinandum That the Palatinate must be Glued again to the Right Owner and pluck'd out of
dare Swear it was he that bolted the Flower and made it up into this Paist Sir says the Prince I was precluded by my Promise not to Reveal him but I never promis'd to tell a Lye for him Your Majesty hath hit the Man And God do him good for it says the King I need not tell you both what you owe him for this Service and he hath done himself this Right with me that I discern his sufficiency more and more All this the Prince Related at his next Meeting to the Lord Keeper This passage so memorable hath pluck'd on a Prolix Narration for divers Reasons It was a secret manag'd between few persons though the greatest and likely to be buried for ever unless it rise from the Dust where it was smother'd upon this occasion It will expound to inquisitive Men why after this time the old King never retrieved the Spanish Match as if suddenly it were sunk and set beneath the Horizon of his Thoughts it demonstrates why in a year after being the First of King Charles there was such Willingness in the young King and such Readiness in the Duke to Rigg a great Navy and to send it with Defiance of Hostility to Cales for though the Grandee Inoiosa received a sharp Rebuke here to vex his Gorge and suddenly pack'd up his portable Gods and went to his own Country in a Fume yet he received no Disfavour or Frown upon it from the Court of Spain Nihil nefas est malitiae It tells you what a Stone of Offence was laid before the King able to make him to Dissolve the Parliament just upon the Expectation of a happy Winding up if the Lord Keeper had not removed the Jealousie away which is one of the best Offices of a Christian for it is God's own Attribute in the Prophets to be a Repairer of Breaches Lastly His Wit was in Conjunction with the Safety of his great Friend the Duke Et vincente Odenato triumphavit Gallienus says Pollio The Keeper had Content enough that the Duke triumphed over those Foes whom he had vanquished for him 206. Soon as those Hobgoblins which haunted the King to fright him were frighted away themselves and the Magicians which conjured them up were rendered odious his Majesty was never in a better Mood to please his Subjects and the Subjects in Parliament never from that day to this in so dutiful a Frame to please their Soveraign Fatebimur regem talibus ministris illos tanto rege fuisse dignissimos Curt. l. 4. As Alexander deserved such brave Commanders under him so they deserved to be commanded by so brave a Prince as Alexander Their long Counsels which had been weather bound came to a quiet Road and their Vessel was lighted of those Statutes which are of immortal Memory The wise Men of those times ask'd for good Laws with Moderation for Moderation had not yet out-liv'd the Peoples Palate and they were brought forth with Joy and Gladness And that which was gotten with Peace and Joy will out-last that were it ten times more which is extorted in a Hurly-burly There were no Rents no Divisions among the Members much less did the Stronger Part spurn out the Weaker The Voices went all one way as a Field of Wheat is bended that 's blown with a gentle Gale One and all And God did not let a general Concurrence pass without a general Blessing Sic viritim laboraverunt quasi summa res singulorum manibus teneretur Nazar Paneg. The Laws devised were confirmed in Clusters by the Royal Authority And though one of them about the strict Keeping of the Sabbath was then stop'd the Name of Sabbath being unsatisfactory to the King's Mind yet Amends were made that the Kingdom had a Sabbath granted it from many Suits and Unquietnesses That which Crowned all was the Pardon the most general that ever was granted which was the sooner got because the Pillars of the Common-wealth had discharged their publick Trust without Offence The next Session of this Parliament was appointed in April following and this Session shut up with the End of June The Lord Keeper was not a little joy'd with the sweet Close of it for which he had gained a noble Report Praeter laudem nullius avarus Horat. Ar. Poet. And after three years Experience having now spent so much time in the High Court of Chancery his Sufficiency was not only competent but as great as might be required in a compleat Judge He was one of them in whom Knowledge grew faster upon him than his Years As Tully praised Octavius Cesar Ex quo judicari potest virtutis esse quà m aetatis cursum celeriorem Philip 8. In eminent Persons Virtue runs on swifter than Age. And it is a Slander whereof late Writers are very rank in all Kinds which one hath publish'd that this Man's Successor the Lord Coventry reversed many of his Decrees and corrected his Errors I do not blame Lawyers if they would have us believe that none is fit for the Office of Chancellor but one of their own Profession But let them plead their own Learning and able Parts without traducing the Gifts of them that are excellently seen in Theological Cases of Conscience and singularly rare in natural Solertiousness Lord Coventry was a renowned Magistrate and his Honour was the Honour of the Times wherein he liv'd the vast Compass of that Knowledge wherein he was always bred and his strong Judgment in searching into those Causes did transcend his Predecessor yet not to obscure him as if he were wanting in that which was required to his Place A good Carpenter knows how to frame a House as well as the Geometer that surveyed the Escurial Let me quote a couple of Witnesses what they asserted herein and they are rightly produced as God the great Witness of all things knows The Duke of Buckingham in the beginning of the next Term at Michaelmas perswaded the Lord Chief Justice Hobart either to deliver it to the King with his own Mouth or to set it under his Hand that Lord Williams was not sit for the Keeper's Place because of his Inabilities and Ignorance and that he would undertake thereupon to cast the Complained out and himself should succeed him My Lord says Reverend Hobart somewhat might have been said at the first but he should do the Lord Keeper great Wrong that said so now After this Grave and Learned Lord I bring forth Mr. G Evelin one of the Six Clerks and in his time the best Head-piece of the Office who delighted to divulge it as many yet living know that Lord Keeper Williams had the most towring sublime Wit that he ever heard speak magnified his Decrees as hitting the White in all Causes and never missing That Lord Coventry did seldom after any thing he had setled before him but upon new Presumptions and spake of him always in Court with due Praise and Justification of his Transactions He that hath insinuated the contrary aiming to
Majesty Commanded the Keeper to draw up the Discourse lately past between the French Embassador and him and to bring it with him which he finish'd carefully but with Enlargements in some Places as he can remember that turn'd his Books and assisted the Expedition In some things more in some things less was spoken at first but thus goes the Draught which the King received My Lord Embassador Villoclare gave me a Breviate of the Instrument of Grace which he agitated to pass in the Behalf of the Romish Recusants When he supposed I had read it almost to the End he spake thus to the Matter That it would be a great Token of Assurance that their Lady and Mistress should be received into this Realm with the Love of the King the Prince and all good English People if the distressed Catholicks combined with her Highness's Obedience to the same Church might obtain for her Sake Indemnity from our grievous Laws live in security of Conscience for hence forth from continual Persecution and call this Year the Jubilee of the long afflicted and the end of their Oppression I told him to this that I should reply to him in stanumering and ill pronounced French but with clear English Satisfaction Our Laws said I against 〈◊〉 whose Clientele you undertake have been disputed both by Church-men and States 〈◊〉 the Books are well known And by Debate of Arguments we have justified the Wisdom and Moderation of our Parliament to all that can correct prejudice by Reason What Law is rigid which impendent Danger extorts for the Safety of the People The Storms lookt black over our Heads in those times when such Statutes past so offensive to your Lordship and were enacted not out of Revenge for Wrongs sustained but out of Forecast against Harms to be prevented not out of Spleen towards Adversaries but out of Charity to our selves So much and without Pause or Faultring I am compelled to say for our Laws because I am a principal Judge by the Favour of the King my Master and sworn to the Maintainance of the Law This Answer though neither tart nor umbragious yet it set my Lord Ambassador's Teeth on edge and he rose up to these high Words at one pitch That he could not imagine how our Laws could have been sharpned with more Cruelty against the Catholicks For it would look like Mercy to take away their Lives or rather than to cut them so low with the Sickle of Penal Statutes that they had scarce Stubble to maintain their Bodies and their Souls were utterly starved for want of Priests to instruct them none of them daring to adventure to hold out Breasts of Apostolick Doctrine to feed them with sincere Milk but that resolved to be ript up and quartered for their Holy Duty Yet he goes on I bewail not so much those Excellent Servants of God executed upon your Gibbets they are recompensed with the Crown of Martyrdom But you murder the Souls of the Lay-Catholicks and if you pity them not to the Good of their Salvation all other pretended Favours light upon them like Mildews which are not a fruitful but a fatal Moisture You know my meaning Sir you are Learned in Cases of Divinity and need not to be told that the Use and Fruition of the Sacraments are the vital Part of Christian Religion in our Catholick Apprehension Who shall celebrate them Who shall impart them to this People robbed of Christ Who shall satiate their Souls with those Comforts if the Priests the Dispensers of those Mysteries be utterly kept from them You commonly say you have done well for the Generality of Catholicks that they have Liberty of Conscience I say your Gift is useless if you permit them not Teachers that are set over their Conscience We are more clement to the Churches of Hugonots and allow them their Ministers Without that Favour a Rush for all the rest Should I send Cloth and Food enough to a Fraternity of Religious Men What Good shall they reap from that Charity if none shall be suffered to make them Garments with that Cloth None permitted to dress the Meat that is sent them Or let me spread before you your Unmerciful Dealing in this Similitude you have not made a Law to pull out their Eyes but you have past a Law that they shall have no Light to see by My Lord Why should I make it a Labour to contest with you to have no such Statutes in Force Methinks it is enough to prompt you that such Incongruities of very bad Fame Abroad should be supervised and corrected upon so demulcing an Occasion as this Marriage Thus far my Lord Secretary To whom I said in this Manner 221. Provident Men and the Learnedest in all Faculties voted those Laws to be in Power and at some times to be put in ure which your Lordship condemns with a very stinging Invective At which I less marvail because you are a Stranger here and not acquainted with the Reasons and Motions that produced them And since you know not how they rose you are no competent Judge when they should fall In Fifty Years after they were first ordained they that have succeeded in Power and Authority have not repented of them but all to whome the Care of the Kingdom 's Welfare is committed have continu'd them Being nevertheless as pitiful as any that have soft Hearts and Christian Principles For though the Terror of the Laws is great yet the Execution hath been gentle Such as are convict of Recusancy who are no great Number in this Land they alone pay Pecuniary Mulcts but upon such easie Compositions that they have both the Crust and the Crumb of their Estates to themselves and the King hath scarce the Chippings The Disbursments of the Crown are great and the more under a most Munificent King so that the Exchequer sometimes expects the Aid of a plentiful Tribute Yet these your Lordship's Clients never contributed the Fifth Part of that which might have been called for least they should say We have made Abraham rich But my Lord most Men live as if they lived to this World only and therefore never think they have enough of Wealth I am willing to refer it to this Disease which is common to most in corrupted Nature that they that put on this Complaint fill your Lordship's Ears with Whining that their Purses are no fuller If they say they are become indigent or Bankrupts by the Issues of slender and mitigated Payments the Lye is written in their Fore-heads We live with them we know their Possessions Their Seats are well repaired and bravely furnished their Credit is good with our Marchants They give Portions in Marriages with their Daughters as great as the best of the King's Subjects considered to have equal Estates of Wealth Their Gallantry their Feasting their Revelling and Gaming are seen in the broad Day-light They bear their Heads as high as their Equals in all Expences These then are no Symptoms of Poverty
Meditation as also to Repulse those who crept much about the Chamber Door he was sure for no good Nay and into the Chamber They were of the most addicted to the Church of Rome whom he controuled for their Sawciness and commanded them as a Privy Counsellor further off Impostors that are accustom'd to bestow Rubrick Lies upon the best Saints of God and whom they cannot pervert living to challenge for theirs when they are Dead So being rid of these Locusts he was continually in Prayer while the King linger'd on and at last shut his Eyes with his own Hand when his Soul departed Whatsoever belong'd to Church Offices about the Royal Exequies fell to his part afterward He perform'd the Order of Burial when the Body was reposed in the Vault of King Henry the Sevenths Chappel appointed only for that famous King's Posterity and their Conforts He Preach'd the Sermon at the Magnificent Funeral out of the 2 Chron. c. 9. v. 29.30 and part of the 31. Now the rest of the Acts of Solomon First and Last are they not written in the Rock of Nathan the Prophet and in the Prophesie of Ahijah the Shilonite and in the Visions of Iddo the Seer against Jeroboam the Son of Nebat And Solomon Reigned in Jerusalem over Israel Fourty Years And Solomon slept with his Fathers and was Buried in the City of David his Father and no further Out of which Text he fetch'd two Solomons and Match'd them well together And I conceive he never Studied any thing with more care to deliver his mind apud honores exactly to the Truth and Honour of the King He enquired after the Sermon which Bishop Fisher made at the Funeral of King Henry the Seventh and procur'd it likewise for the Oration which Cardinal Peron made for King Henry the Fourth of France and had it by the means of Dr. Peter Moulin the Father These he laid before him to work by and no common Patterns 'T is useless to Blazon this Sermon in the Quarters take it altogether and I know not who could mend it It is in the Libraries of Scholars that are able to judg of it And such as Read it shall wrong King Charles his Son if they conceive any Passage Reflects upon him because Eloquence in the Body of the Sermon and in the Margent is commended in King James and Extoll'd to be very useful in Government Doth this derogate from the Honour of the Succeslor Chrisippus non dicet idem nec mite Thaletis ingenium Juvenal Sat. For King Charles might be allowed for an Elegant Speaker and choice in his matter if he had not stood so near to his Fathers Example 230. To whose Memory I stand so near having been carried on to Record his Happy Departure that I am prest in Conscience to do some right to his Worthiness He was a King in his Cradle Aequaevâ eum Majestate Creatus Nullaque privatae passus contagia sortis As Claudian of Honorius Paneg. l. 7. As he was born almost with a Scepter in his Hand so he had studied long to use it which made him much contest to keep Regal Majesty intemerated which was as good for us as for him Summum dominium est Spiritus vitalis quem tot millia Civium trahunt says Grotius out of Seneca de Ju. B. P. l. 2. c. 9. con 3. Which will Expound that Phrase in the Book of Lamentations That Josiah is call'd the Breath of the Jews Nostrils Some thought that the good King studied to Enthral the people far from his mind God wot But his speculation was that Northern Nations love not a Yoke upon their Necks and are prone to Anarchy that they will ruin themselves if they be not held down to a good temper of Obedience and that by too much Liberty Liberty it self will Perish It is is an Excellent Speech which Artabanus makes to Themistocles in Plutarch We hear of you Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that you love Liberty and Parity but among many good Laws this is the Chief in Persia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. To Honour our King and to Worship him as the Image of God And I trow the Persian Monarchs have lasted longer then the Burgo-Masters of Greece The Grast will have no Cause to Repent that it is bound close to the Stock it will grow the better But as King James did rather talk much of free Monarchy then execute it So no people did ever live more prosperously then we did under him and he made no ostentation of it If all were not turn'd upside downward of late I might declame out of the Paneg. to Constantine Quis non dico reminiscitur sed quis non adhuc quodam modò videt quantis ille rebus auxerit ornaritque rempub To what an immense Riches in his time did the Merchandize of England rise to above former Ages What Buildings What Sumptuousness What Feastings What gorgeous Attire What Massy Plate and Jewels What Prodigal Marriage Portions were grown in fashion among the Nobility and Gentry as if the Skies had Rained Plenty The Courts of Laws Civil and Common never had such practise nor the Offices belonging to them such Receipts upon their Books The Schools in the Universities and the Pulpits with Wits of all Arts and Faculties never flourish'd so before over all the Land Let Zion and the Clergy be joyful in the Remembrance of their King God bestowed with him upon the Land the Gift which Homer says Jupiter promised to Ulysses his Reign in Iâ—haca 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Odyss a. Enough of Wealth and Peace And they that suck at those two Breasts and are forward they know not what is good for them and are insensible of a Benefit Let them keep silence with shame enough that Ball aloud we were corrupted by them whose Fault was that Therefore God hath taken them away from us and will give them to a people that will use them better Neque jugi pace aut longo otio absoluta ingenia corrumpis says Capitol of M. Antonius A Soul of good Metal will never Rust in the Scabbard of Peace O with what mony would we be content to buy so many years of Peace again now Wars have trodden us under foot like Dirt If there be a Milky Circle upon Earth a Condensation of many comfortable and propitious stars it is Peace which this Peace-maker preserv'd at home and pursued it for his contemporary Potentates abroad till his Son-in-Law made an Attempt upon Bohemia unfortunate to himself and to all Christiandom But what says Ar. Wil. to this p. 160. His maintaining of Peace howsoever the World did believe it was out of a Religious Ground yet it was no other but a Cowardly disposition that durst not adventure Like as when L. Opimius had supprest C. Gracchus with the rascal Rabble that follow'd him and Opimius having pacified the uproar Dedicated a Temple to Concord The Seditious flouted it with this Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Employment by and from your excellent Majesty First your Majesty knoweth I was threatned before your Majesty to be complained of in Parliament on the third Day of your Reign And though your Majesty most graciously promis'd to do me Justice therein Yet was I left under that Minacy and the Minacer for ought I know left to his course against me 2. My Lord-Duke confest he knew the Complaints and Complainants and gave me leave to suspect his Grace which indeed I had cause to do if within three days and three days he should not acquaint me with the Names of the Parties Which I desir'd to know not to expostulate but to watch and provide to defend my innocency His Grace failed me in his promise herein I employed Sir Charles Glemham and Mr. Sackvile Crowe to press him for an Answer which was such as they durst not in modesty return unto me 3. Sir Francis Seymore a Knight whom I know not by sight told many of that House who imparted it unto me that upon his first coming to Oxford he was dealt with by a Creature of my Lord-Dukes whom I can name to set upon the Lord-Keeper and they should be backed by the greatest Men in the Kingdom Who gave this Answer That he found nothing against the Lord-Keeper but the Malice of those great Men. 4. Sir John Eliot the only Member that began to thrust in a Complaint against me the Lord-Viscount Saye who took upon him to name Sir Thomas Crew to succeed in my Place Sir William Stroud and Sir Nathanael Rich whom my Friends most noted to malice me were never out of my Lord-Duke's Chamber and Bosom 5. Noble-men of good Place and near your Majesty gave me often intelligence that his Grace's Agents stirred all their Powers to set the Commons upon me 6. I told the Lord-Duke in my Garden that having been much reprehended by your Majesty and his Grace in the Earl of Middlesex's Tryal for thanking the last King at Greenwich for promising to protect his Servants and great Officers against the People and Parliament I durst not be so active and stirring by my Friends in that House as otherwise I should be unless your Majesty by his Grace's means would be pleas'd to encourage me with your Royal Promise to defend and protect me in your Service If I might hear your Majesty say so much I would venture then my Credit and my Life to manage what should be entrusted to me to the uttermost After which he never brought me to your Majesty nor any Message from you Standing therefore upon these doubtful terms unemploy'd in the Duties of my Place which were now assign'd over to my Lord Conway and Sir J. Cooke and left out of all Committees among the Lords of the Council which I know was never done by the direction of your Majesty who ever conceiv'd of me far above my Merit and consequently fallen much in the Power and Reputation due to my place I durst not at this time with any Safety busie my self in the House of Commons with any other than that measure of Zeal which was exprest by the rest of the Lords of the Privy-Council Gracious and dread Sovereign if this be not enough to clear me let me perish 19. The King was a Judge of Reason and of Righteousness and found so much in that Paper that he dismist him that presented it graciously for that time his Destiny being removed two Months further off though it was strongly urg'd not to delay it for a day But in St. Cyprian's words Nemo diu tutus est periculo proximus About a Fortnight after at Holdbery in New-forrest the Duke unfast'ned him utterly from the good Opinion of his Majesty and at Plimouth in the midst of September obtain'd an irrevocable Sentence to deprive him of his Office If the Queen could have stopt this Anger he had not been remov'd with whom he had no little Favour by the Credit he had got with the chief Servants of her Nation and by a Speech which took her Majesty very much which he made unto her in May upon her coming to White-hall and in such French as he had studied when he presented his Brethren the Bishops and their Homage to her Majesty His Friends of that Nation shew'd themselves so far that Pere Berule the Queen's Confessor and not long after a Cardinal was the first that advertis'd him how my Lord-Duke had lifted him out of his Seat 'T is custom to Toll a little before a Passing-bell ring out and that shall be done in a Moral strode as Chaucer calls it Such as would know the true Impulsion unto this Change shall err if they draw it from any thing but the Spanish Negotiation Not as if the Lord-Keeper had done any one much less many ill Services to the Duke as one mistakes For I take the Observator to be so just that he would have done as much himself if he had been in place King James was sick'till that Marriage was consummated and died because he committed it to the Skill of an Emperick The Keeper serv'd the King's directions rather than the cross ways of the Duke which was never forgiven Though the late Parliament had wrought wonders to the King 's Content as it gave him none this innocent Person had receiv'd the Blow which was aimed at him before the Parliament sat He bestirr'd him in the former King's Reign to check the encroaching of the Commons about impeaching the great Peers and Officers of the Realm which the Duke fomented in the Earl of Middlesex's Case Since that House began to be filled with some that were like the turbulent Athenians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meursius Ath. Attic. p. 79. It grieved him at the Heart that more time was spent by far to pluck up an honest Magistrate than to plant good Laws There was no Sin I think that he hated more than that Epidemick violence which he saw was come about that the People extoll'd them most as it was once in the Days of Marius that endeavour'd to thrust down the most noble Patricians This is the right Abstract what was and what was not the Cause of this Mutation 20. There were yet other things that did concur to precipitate his Downfall First My Lord of Buckingham's honest Servants would say that he gave their Master constantly the best Counsel but that he was too robustious in pressing it Vim temperatam Dii quoque provehunt in majus Horat. lib. 3. Od. Well I do not deny it But the more stout in that Point the more true and cordial He that loses such a one that comes to prop him up who had rather offend him than not save him Navem perforat in quâ ipse navigat Cicer. pro Milone he sinks the Bark wherein himself fails The Scythians were esteemed barbarous but this is wise and civil in them as Lucian reports in his Toxaris They have no wealth but he is counted the richest Man that hath
Lord Protector and the rest of the Council which are printed in the Book of Martyrs In the Injunctions of King Edward in the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth And especially in that Act of Parliament still in force which enables the King from time to time to add what Ceremonies and Decencies he shall hold sitting for the awful and reverend as well administring as receiving of this heavenly Sacrament And be not afraid to be accounted herein too too diligent and ceremonious For we know that in Mysteries of this high Nature Ceremonies wait close upon the Substances They may as well say and peradventure will ere long that an Action of this kind may be done without a Priest as without a troublesome solemn Ceremony Gerson in his Sermon de Coenâ Domini saith Spiritualia sine temporalibus diu esse non posse that things Spiritual would wax cold without things temporal was a Proverb cried up by the worst of the Prelates but I am sure that in these high Mysteries Spiritualia sine temporalibus esse non posse that the Spiritual Graces not essentially for want of any Vertue in them but accidentally by reason of such Weakness and Imperfection in us will fail of their Operations without temporal Ceremonies is the Doctrine not of the worst but of the best both of the Greek and Latin Fathers 57. Fourthly You that are the Seers of Israel must see into the Lives and Manners of your People Which is the sooner done if you look well to your own For it is most true on this case what Gerson saith Vox operum fortiùs sonat quà m vox verborum the sound of your Sermon strikes nothing so shrill in the Ears of your Parish as the sound of your Life and Conversation Take heed therefore you do not Linguâ struere manu destruere as St. Bern. speaks build with the Tongue and pull down with the Hand For the Woman's Frump which Gerson often cited writes of runs as well in English as in other Languages who being demanded Si sermo factus esset if the Sermon was done answered the Sermon was ended but it was not done Dictus quidem est sermo sed non factus It was said by rote but it was not done Dicunt emm hic sacerdotes non faciunt For the Priests with them us'd only to say but seldom to do or to perform their Sermons Fifthly If you be those Seers the Canons require you must see to your Peoples peace quietness and good agreeing That your Neighbours do not spend their Bodies their Minds their Estates and Childrens Bread in brabbles quarrelling and Law-suiting Truly I am afraid that Church-men in England have much to answer for the Calamities of the Laity in this kind Yet have you one by one by the Pole as it were in the Presence of God and your Mother the Church promised the Bishop better things at your Ordinations to wit that you would as much as lay in you maintain Peace and Quietness among all Christian People and especially among those that were committed to your Charge your Friends and Neighbours of the Parish And I shall not need to strain my Logick to let you see how properly and essentially this civil part of a Justice of Peace is woven into the Duty of every Pastour and Minister For without this Peace-making you may preach indeed but in effect to no Parish or Congregation Because Country-men distracted with Law-suits receive little good by you And being sometime in the midst of the Church are as though they were not there Let them say what they will it is too true that in saying the Lord's Prayer after you they pray for Forgiveness without forgiving and too often God knows hear your Sermons with little heed or listning For the poor Souls all that while the Hour-glass runs have Manum in Aetolis animum in Cleopidis as it is said of one in Plutarch they have their Eye it may be upon the Preacher but their Mind upon their Attorney Proctor or Sollicitor Yea but you are most of you learned Men and can undeceive your People from these Phantasies You can shew them out of School-men Quodlibets and Casuists that Men may go to Law and yet be in charity And I must be bold to tell you back again that People will be People for all your distinctions and unless you can perswade them to be in Charity without Law for all your School-men Quodlibets and Casuists the poor Swains will be as they were in Law without charity To conclude this Point where Brother goes to Law with Brother and Neighbour with Neighbour about Matters of small moment I dare not say as St. Paul doth that there is not a wise Man but I will be so bold as to suspect that in that unhappy Town there is scarce a wise and conscientious Minister Lastly If you be Seers of Christ's Flock do as Jacob did that thriving Shepherd look well to your Sheep when they are in conceiving What Colour and Tincture you give them in that hint you shall know them by it for many Years after Never look that that Man should profit at a Sermon whom you never season'd in his Principles of Christianity A Sermon saith St. Cyril is a good thing but not so condition'd as a Catechism Some Lessons forgotten in the one are but loose Stones in a Wall which may be fasten'd again upon a second opportunity but Ignorance in those Principles is a certain great Stone mis-lay'd in the Foundation which hazards the ruine of the whole Building And again says that Father the erecting of a Christian is like the planting of a Tree if you give it not Earth and rooting at the first you can never repair it with watering and pruning Catechism as St. Basil calls it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the preparing Colours wherein you must dip the People without the which for all your Sermons you shall never find them Purple in grain but pale and wan as long as they live as ill-grounded Colours use to do ever and anon staining fading and decaying I will conclude this Point with an Observation of that grave Divine Jo. Gerson in a Sermon of his which I find also in a little Book of Peter de Aliaco De reformatione ecclesiae Ecclesiae reformatio debet inchoari à parvulis If ever you will reform this Church of Men you must begin with that Church of Children And this is all that I shall say unto you in general my good Brethren of the Clergy 58. For you my honest Friends and Neighbours of the Laity I shall say nothing to you of any Particulars whereunto you are to answer by reason of your Offices but transfer you wholly in that respect to those Articles which you have already receiv'd But by way of general Exhortation I am by the ancient Forms of Visitations in this kind to recommend unto you for your Souls good two principal Instructions the one in point of Belief the
and known to Thousands Nam lux altissima fati-occultum nihil essesinit Claud. Paneg. 4. Honor. What Spight is this to be silent in that which was certainly so and to engrave with a Pen of Steel that which was ignominous uncertain nay a falsity which hath travelled hither out of the Mountains 200 Miles So Jos Scaliger revealed his Disdain against some Criticks in his Notes upon Manil. p. 175. Ubi reprehendendi sumus tunc nominis nostri frequens mentio alià s mirum silentium I need no Pardon that I could not hold in to leave this Admonition behind at the last Stage of his Episcopal Work his general Visitation which was applauded much by all except two sorts of men Some that had not done their Duty and were mulcted Quid tristes querimoniae si non supplicio culpa reciditur Horat. Od. 24. lib. 3. such could not escape Censure who suffer'd with moderation by one that appeared in his temperate Judicature rather to be above the Faults than above the Men. Two others and of the Ministry were sullen because they did not speed in their Presentments according to their mind the reason was the Complainants were found to be rugged and contentious not giving good Example of Yielding and Peace 62. Let me cast in a small handful of other things fit to be remark'd In adject is mensura non quaeritur The Bishop of Lincoln is a Visitor of some Colleges by their local Statutes in both Universities This Bishop visited Kings-College in Cambridge upon the Petition of the Fellows thereof anno 1628. when he shew'd himself to be a great Civilian and Canonist before those learned Hearers but the Cause went for the right worthy Provost Dr. Collins in whose Government the Bishop could perceive neither Carelesness nor Covetousness The most that appeared was That the Doctor had pelted some of the active Fellows with Slings of Wit At which the Visitor laugh'd heartily and past them by knowing that the Provost's Tongue could never be worm'd to spare his Jests who was the readiest alive to gird whom he would with innocent and facetious Urbanity The Provost of Orial-College in Oxford Dr. Tâ—lson with others of his Society visited the Bishop at his Palace of Bugdâ— with a Signification to the Bishop that they might eject one of the Members of their Foundation Mr. Tailour The Bishop saw there was small reason to raise such a Dust out of a few indiscreet words yet he satisfied Dr. Tolâ—on that Mr. Taâ—our should depart so it were with a farewel of Credit and he liked Mr. Tadour so well that he took him into his own House till he had provided the Living of Hempsted for him As 〈◊〉 said of his own Brother in Erasm Epist p. 417. Illius mores tales sunt ut omnibus possint congruere A benevolent Nature will agree with all men and please the Adversaries of both sides Those of young and tender years were much in his Care as appeared that he seldom travelled but Notice being given before he staid at some Town or Village to confirm such as were but even past children to lay his Hands on them and to bless them and did it ostener than the 60 Canon requires An ancient and an admirable Order when such were presented as were before made ready by being exactly catechized And for Childrens sakes he listen'd much what good Schoolmasters he had in his Diocess that bare the irksome and tedious Burden to rear up a good Seminary for Church and State such he valued and thought their Place was better than is usually given them in the World They are the tertia that make up a happy Corporation as Charles the Fifth thought who entring into any Imperial City or Burough was wont to ask the Recorder that did congraturate him Have you a good Magistrate Have you a good Pastor Have you a good Schoolmaster If he said Yes Then all must be well among you said the Emperor Our Bishop had the opportunity to consecrate Churches new re-edisied and Chappels erected which he perform'd with much Magnificence and Ceremony that the Houses of God his Houses of Prayer might be had in a venerable regard Nothing was more observ'd in that Performance than that at the hallowing of a Chappel belonging to the Mansion-place of Sir Gostwick in Bedfordshire the Knight's Son and Heir being born deaf and dumb and continuing in that defect no sooner did the Bishop alight and come into the House but the young Gentleman kneeled down and made signs to the Bishop that he craved his Blessing and had it with a passionate Embrace of Love A sweet Creature he was and is of rare Perspicacity of Nature rather of rare Illumination from God whose Behaviour Gestures and zealous Signs have procur'd and allow'd him admittance to Sermons to Prayers to the Lord's Supper and to the Marriage of a Lady of a great and prudent Family his Understanding speaking as much in all his motions as if his Tongue could articulately deliver his Mind Nor was any of the Prelacy of England more frequented than this Lord for two things First by such as made Suit unto him to compound their Differences that they might not come to the chargeable and irksome attendance of the Courts of Law Aversos solitus componere amicos Horat. Serm. 5. And so many Causes were referred to him and by no mean ones that he continued like a petty Chancellor to arbitrate Contentions Secondly Sundry did appeal to his Judgment for Resolution of Cases of Consciences and most in Matrimonial Scruples and of intricate Points of Faith as about Justisication and Predestination in which when he thought the doubting Person would not be contented with Discourse he gave them his Resolutions very long and laborious in Writing which gathered together and as I have seen them digested would have made an handsome Tractate but the worst Visitor that ever came to a Bishop's House seized on them and never restored them This was Kilvert a vexatious Prosecutor of many in the Court of Star-chamber for the King whose Lineaments are drawn out in the Ninth Book of Apul. Metam Omnia prorsus ut in quandam comorum latrinam in ejus animum vitia consluxerunt Every Beast hath some ill Property this Beastly Fellow had all He stands too near so good a Subject as is in hand for this is the lively Image of a renowned Bishop the Image but of one though the good Parts of many may be concentred in this one as the Agrigentine Painter made Juno by the Pattern of five well-favour'd Virgins All that I have drawn up of his Pastoral Behaviour was seen in the Day-light therefore as St. Paul said of the Corinthians whom he had commended so I may with Modesty apply it to my Subject If I have boasted any thing of him to you I am not ashamed 2 Cor. 7.14 Nor is this all of him in that Holy Charge not by a great deal but so much as is preserved in
Bishop is censured for over-doing his part in Popularity yet only by such as will calumniate all that act not according to their mind Some things were offer'd at him which might have transported him to that excess for the Van-curriers of my L. Duke's Militia had prepar'd Petitions to disorder him in a light Skirmish but were never preferr'd Since no Fault could be charg'd upon him when he delivered up the Seal to the King Malignants had small encouragement to slander his Footsteps before a Parliament To borrow Pliny's Similitude lib. 28. c. 2. A scorpione aliquando percussi nunquam postea à crabronibus vespis apibusque feriuntur He that happens to be stung of a Scorpion and escapes it the smaller Insecta of Hornets Wasps and Bees will never trouble him Beside in Equity they could not have blamed him to be sure to himself since that Lord that preferr'd him and that Bishop whom himself had preferr'd did push with all their Violence against him Yet his Good bearing between the King's Power and the Subjects Rights the great Transaction of the high Court at this time needed no such Answers Though he was earnest yet he was advised in all his Actions and constant as any man living to his general Maxims Tua omnia gest a inter se congruunt omnia sunt uná forma percussa says Casaubon to K. Henry the Fourth before his Edition of Polybius So the Bishop never varied whether in favour or out of favour in his Counsels to the King to hang the Quarrel even upon the Beam of Justice between him and the Common-wealth As it was his Saying to K. James so he went on with the like to K. Charles Rule by your Laws and you are a Compleat Monarch your People are both sensibly and willingly beneath you If you start aside from your Laws they will be as sawcy with your Actions as if they were above you The Fence of the great Charter was lately thrown down by taking a Loan by Commissioners without a Statute to authorize it And says the Remonstrance of Decemb. 15 1641. Divers Gentlemen were imprisoned for refusing to pay it whereby many of them contracted such Sicknesses as cost them their Lives p. 10. When the Body of the Lords and Commons were at work to redintegrate the empailment of the Laws if the Bishop had not appeared that the King would return to walk upon the known and trodden Cawsey of the Laws he had forsaken himself and left the nearest way to do him Service His care was that no Dishonour should be cast upon His Majesty's Government nor Censure upon the Commissioners of the Loan his Ministers and yet to remove the publick Evils of the State To mend them would bring a Reformation to be blush'd at not to mend them a continued Confusion to be griev'd at The Bishop had the Praise from the Wisest that his Dexterity was eminent above any of the Peers to please all parties that would be pleas'd with Reason He distinguish'd the Marches of the two great Claims the Prerogatives of the Crown and the Liberties of the People and pleaded for the King to make him gracious to all as it is in his Sermon on the Fast p. 55. That he was a man as like Vertue it self as could be pattern'd in Flesh and Blood and justified him for good Intentions in all his Proceedings The Errors that were to come to pass he named them to be Errors for what Government was ever so streight that had no crookedness With this Cunning Demetrius appeared for his Father Philip of Macedon before the Roman Senate Justin lib. 32. The Senate accused his Father for violation of the last Articles of Peace to which Demetrius said nothing but blush'd Et veniam patri Philippo non jure defensionis sed patrocinio pudoris obtinuit And how unreasonable was it that the emulous Bishop who did upon all occasions derogate from this man blamed this person to the King for doing no more good to his Cause whereas himself did him no good at all Like to Critias in Xenophon and his Dealings against Theramenes lib. 2. Hist says Theramenes I labour to reconcile divided Factions and he calls me a Slipper to fit the right Foot and the left because I set my self to please all sides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What shall I call him that pleaseth no side that can do a pleasure to no side They that were present at all Debates did discern that no Service could be done to the Crown without a mixture of Moderation A dram of such Wisdom was worth a pound of Flattery For as one says wittily A besmeared Dog doth but dirty him upon whom he fawns 74. When the Commons fell roundly to sist the exacting of the Loan the Ill-will gotten by it touch'd none so near as the Clergy So ill was it taken that their Pulpits had advanc'd it and that some had preach'd a great deal of Crown Divinity as they call'd it And they were not long to seek for one that should be made an Example for it But to make that which was like to be by consequent less offensive they unanimously voted a Gist of five Subsidies before the King's Servants had spoke a word unto it A Taste of Loyalty and Generosity that willing Supplies should rather come from a sense of the King's Wants than be begged Straitway they called Dr. Maynwaring the King's Chaplain before them for preaching but rather for printing two Sermons deliver'd before the King the one at Oatland's the other at Alderton in the Progress in July neither of them at St. Giles in the Fields as Mr. W. S. might have found in the Title Page of them both These being in print no Witnesses needed to be deposed the Doctrine was above the Deck sufficiently discover'd The Sermons both preach'd upon one Text Eccles 8.2 are confessedly learned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein Art and Wit have gone about to make true Principles beget false Conclusions It was not well done to hazard the dangerous Doctrine in them for the Learning sake to the view of the World for not the Seeds of a good Melon but the good Seeds of a Melon should be preserved to be planted No notice was taken of the King 's Special Command to publish these Tractates but severing the Author by himself he is design'd to be censur'd as Keepers beat Whelps before their Lions to make them gentler And the Charge is brought up to the Lords That the Sermons were scandalous feditious and against the good Government of this Kingdom The Reverend Bishops one and all left him undefended Yet that was not enough to correct the Envy which the Clergy did undergo upon it so the Bishop of Lincoln stood up and gave reprehension to some Points of both his Sermons in this manner In the former of these Sermons pag. 2. Dr. Maynwaring begins his Work upon the Loom with these Threads That of all Relations the first and original is between the
illa quibus conciliatur plebis animus cò usque ne differantur donec ea praestare cogi videantur Passing right is Sir J. Haward's Hist of H. IV. p. 4. says he The Multitude are more strongly drawn by unprofitable Courtesies than by churlish Benefits Among those that argued for this Petition de Droit I shall remember what past from two eminent Prelates Archbishop Abbot offer'd his own Case to be consider'd banish'd from his own Houses of Croydon and Lambeth confin'd to a moorish Mansion-place of Foord to kill him debarr'd from the management of his Jurisdiction and no cause given for it to that time harder measure than ever was done to him in his Pedagogy for no Scholar was ever corrected till his Fault was told him But he had fuller'd the Lash in a Message brought by the Secretary and no cause pretended for it And what Light of Safety could be seen under such dark Justice The Bishop of Lincoln likewise promoted the Petition but he was a great Stickler for an Addition that it might come to the King's Hands with a mannerly Clause That as they desir'd to preserve their own Liberties so they had regard to leave entire that Power wherewith His Majesty was entrusted for the Protection of his People which the Commons disrelish'd and caused to be cancell'd This caused the Bishop to be suspected at first as if he had been sprinkled with some Court-holy-water which was nothing so but a due Consideration flowing from his own Breast that somewhat might be inserted to bear witness to the Grandeur of Majesty A Passage in Xenophon commends such unbespoken Service lib. 8. Cyrip says he Hystaspus would do all that Cyrus bade but Chrysantus would do all which he thought was good for Cyrus before he bade him 77. In the Debate of this great matter among the Lords this Bishop hath left under his own Pen what he deliver'd partly in glossing upon a Letter which His Majesty under the Signet sent to the House May the 12th partly in contesting with the chief Speakers that quarrel'd at the Petition As to the former First the King says That his Predecessors had never given Leave to the free Debates of the highest Points of Prerogative Royal. The Bishop answered The Prerogative Royal should not be debated at all otherwise than it is every Term in Westminster-hall Secondly the Letter objects What if some Discovery nearly concerning Matters of State and Government be made May not the King and his Council commit the Party in question without cause shewn For then Detection will dangerously come forth before due time Resp No matter of State or Government would be destroyed or defeated if the Cause be exprest in general terms And no danger can likely ensue if in three Terms the Matter be prepared to be brought to Trial. Ob. 3. May not some Cause be such as the Judges have no Capacity of Judicature or Rules of Law to direct or guide their Judgment Resp What can those things be which neither the Kings-bench nor Star-chamber can meet them Obj. 4. Is it not enough that we declare our Royal Will and Resolution to be which God willing we will constantly keep not to go beyond a just Rule and Moderation in any thing which shall be contrary to our Laws and Customs And that neither we nor our Council shall or will at any time hereafter commit or command to Prison for any other cause than doth concern the State the Publick Good and Safety of our People Resp Not the Council-Table but the appointed Judges must determine what are Laws and Customs and what is contrary to them And this gracious Concession is too indefinite to make us depend upon that broad Expression of Just Rule and Moderation Especially be it mark'd That all the Causes in the Kingdom may be said to concern either the State the Publick Good or the Safety of the King and People This under Favour is abundantly irresolute and signifies nothing obtain'd Obj. 5. In all Causes hereafter of this nature which shall happen we shall upon the humble Petition of the Party or Signification of our Judges unto us readily and really express the true cause of the Commitment so as with Conveniency and Safety it be fit to be disolosed And that in all Causes of ordinary Jurisdiction our Judges shall proceed to the delivery or bailment of the Prisoner according to the known and ordinary Rules of this Land and according to the Statutes of Magna Charta and those six Statutes insisted on which we intend not to abrogate or weaken according to the true intention thereof Resp To disclose the cause of Imprisonment except Conveniency and Safety do hinder are ambiguous words and may suffice to hold a man fast for coming forth And if all Causes be not of ordinary Jurisdiction as I hope they are who shall judge which be the extraordinary Causes We are lost again in that Uncertainty So likewise for the Intention of Magna Charta and the six Statutes who shall judge of the true Intention of them That being arbitrary we are still in nubibus for any assurance of legal Liberty So the Concessions of His Majesty's Letter were waved as unsatisfactory 78. And the Bishop went on to shew that the Contents of the Petition were suitable to the ancient Laws of the Realm ever claimed and pleaded expedient for the Subject and no less honourable for the King which made him a King of Men and not of Beasts of brave-spirited Freemen and not of broken-hearted Peasants The Statute in 28 Edw. 3. is as clear for it as the day at Noon-tide That no man of what state or condition soever shall be put out of his Lands or Tenements nor taken nor imprison'd nor disinherited nor put to death without being brought to answer by due process of Law I know one Lord replied to this lately That the Law was wholsom for the good of private men and sometime it might be as wholsom for the Publick Weal that the Soveraign Power should commit to Custody some private man the cause not being shew'd in Law upon more beneficial occasion than a private man's legal Liberty And though the Hand of Power should seem to be hard upon that one person a Benefit might redound to many First be it consider'd if no Law shall be fixt and inviolable but that which will prevent all Inconveniencies we must take Laws from God alone and not from men Then be it observ'd that to bring the exception of a Soveraign Power beside the Laws in Cases determined in the Laws takes away all Laws when the King is pleas'd to use and put forth this Soveraign Power wherewith he is trusted and makes the Government purely arbitrary and at the Will of the King So shall this Reason of State eat up and devour the Reason of Laws Shew me he that can how the affirmation of a Soveraign Power working beside the Law insisted upon shall not bring our Goods and our
1. That the Certificate from the Country layeth nothing to my charge 2. That I never gave Direction for receiving of any Fees but took those only which were deliver'd to me by the Register 3. That I conceived the Fees of Lincoln Diocess to be much lower than of any other in England which the L. Wentworth seemed to confess to be so 4. That if the Register did receive 23 s. 4 d. of every Clerk instituted for the Bishop's Fee it was no more than the Table allow'd 5. That the Fees question'd were received by my four immediate Predecessors Bishops Mountain Neale Barlow Chaderton Which four Bishops take up a space of time which extends beyond the Table of Fees And the L. Wentworth said he believed as much and promised to report it 6. My L. of Winchester is able to assure as much that these are the ancient Fees of the Diocess and that I believe my â—â— of London who was beneficed and dignified in this Diocess and hath twice or thrice paid the said Fees in his own person can and I doubt not will be ready to testifie as much 7. That for mine own part and mine own time I was ready to lay all my Fees being God wot a most contemptible Sum at your Majesties Feet to be disposed of as your Majesty pleased Nor had I ever in my Life toucht one Penny of the same but given it away from time to time to mend my Servants Entertainment 8. That the 135 th Canon mentioned by the Commissioners refers the examination of all Fees in question not settled by Acts of Parliament to the Archbishop only and the Cognizance ecclesiastical who is the only proper Judge of these Questions Therefore I humbly beseech your Majesty that I may not be drawn to contest with my Soveraign in a Suit of Law of so mean and miserable a Charge as this is but rather if those two reverend Prelates shall not be able to satisfie your Majesty you will be pleased to hear me your self or transmit the Cause to the Lords of the Council or where it is only proper to be heard to the Archbishop of the Province and that Mr. Attorny-General may stay the Prosecution elsewhere which I shall embrace with all humble Duty and Thankfulness c. Which reference to the Archbishop was granted who did authorize the receiving of those Fees for the present De benè esse only And after Sir H. Martin and others had examin'd the Tables Registries and Witnesses of Credit and Experience for the Antiquity of the same upon their Report the several Fees were ascertain'd by his Grace's Subscription for the time to come So true is that of Euripides in Supplic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that was low in Favour got the better of him that was great in Power in a good Cause 93. Remember that in this petitionary Letter the Bishop calls himself the King's Chaplain but not his Counsellor for about a year by-gone the King had commanded that his Name should be expunged and not remain in the Catalogue of those honourable persons And who is so faithful among all thy servants as David 1 Sam. 22.24 Yet so it was decreed he must not challenge the Privilege nor keep the Ceremony of the Name and more he had not in four years before No worse an Author than Sir E. Coke tells us in Jurisd of Courts p. 54. By force of his Oath and Custom of the Realm he that is a Privy Councillor is still so without any Patent or Grant during the life of the King that made choice of him But before whom can this be tryed And who shall decide it It will scarce come within the Law and when a King will hold the Conclusion he will be too hard for any man in Logick Let the Masters of the Republick contend about it whose Counsellors have changed as fast as the quarters of the year Surely His Majesty shewed himself much offended in this action yet it is better for a King not to give than to take away which Xenophon put into Cyrus's Mouth lib. 7. C. Paid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It imprints more Offence in a man's Mind to be deprived of that he had than to be pretermitted in some Kindness which he never had Since it was no better the Bishop thought he might ask a noble Friend in Good-manners it was the Earl of Holland what had kindled the King's Anger that he would not allow him the empty Title of a Counsellor The Earl answer'd him home and ingenuously That he must expect worse than this because he was such a Champion for the Petition of Right and that there was no room at the Table for those that would abide it Which was like the Fortune oâ— Poplicola Honoris sui culmen insregit ut libertatem civitatis crigeret Symma p. 3. He forfeited his Honour to maintain the Laws which being not maintained the People are not only Losers but a Kingdom will look like a Tabernacle taken down whose Pins are unfastened and the Cords of it broken To gall our Bishop with assiduous recurrent Umbrages for Pismires wear out Flints with passing to and fro upon them the Christening of Prince Charles being celebrated in the Chappel of St. James's House Jun. 27. 1630. and all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal about London being invited thither to make the Splendour eminent the Bishop of Lincoln only was left out and not admitted to joyn in Prayer and Joy with that Noble Congregation The more sharp Diseases suffer not the lesser to be perceived yet this Omission light as it might seem did twinge him even to outward demonstrance of Dejectedness that in so good a day wherein the Clemency of the King should have run at waste to all men that then he should be separated from his Countenance and this Solemnity But says he in one respect it was well for I would not have said Amen to Bishop Laud 's Prayer which he conceived for the Royal Infant and was commended to all Parish-Churches in that passage Double his Father's Graces O Lord upon him if it be possible No Supplication could be better than to crave encrease of Grace for that Noble Branch for when a Prince is very good God is a Guest in a human Body But to put in a Supposal whether the Holy Ghost could double those Gifts to the Child which he had given to his Father and to confine the Goodness and Almightiness of the Lord it was three-piled Flattery and loathsome Divinity Let Cartwright and all his Part shew such an Exception against any line in our Common-Prayer and I will confess they have some Excuse for their Non-subscription To carry on mine own Work When it was known what small esteem His Majesty had of this Bishop it raised him up the more Adversaries who catcht at every thing that was next and turn'd it to a Weapon to strike him of which Sir Robert Osborn High-Sheriff of Huntingtonshire
incommoda si cui dolor major accesserit as Sidonius setcheth it out of Hippocrates p. 163. When such Wounds are made in our Body little Scratches should be insensible 104. The same Author hath listed up the Quarrel again which was fallen about the Place of the Holy Table I would it stood in any place of the House of God so it might be used but it is extreamly disused Was there ever such a negligence among Christians before Sometimes the Pope hath interdicted the Churches of a Nation for a year or more the greater was his Sin But I will make Affidavit that some Parishes among us have been interdicted from the Lord's Supper by the Hirelings that teach them from anno 1642. to anno 1659. and this Famine of the holy Bread is like to continue among them Is this a Season to renew what past anno 1637. between the Bishop and him how the Table should stand Deficilis est exitus veterum jurgiorum Sym. Ep. p. 17. I speak as well assured that the Dr. hath been often since that time prostrate at that sacred Banquet why then doth he break out into old Grudges for their Quidlibets First the Bishop did desire to satisfie his Reader where the holy Table should stand when the Communion Service was celebrated Secondly where it should continue when that pious work was over For the first he durst not decide it but as the Liturgy hath it To stand in the body of the Church or Chancel in the Communion-time where Morning and Evening-Prayer be appointed to be said And as the Advertisements state it That Common-Prayer the Communion being the supereminent part be said or sung decently and distinctly in such place as the Ordinary shall think meet for the largeness and straightness of the Church and Quire so that the People may be most edisied And as Canon 82 doth enjoyn When the Holy Communion is to be administred it shall be placed in so good sort within the Church or Chancel as thereby the Minister may be more conveniently heard of the Communicants in his Prayer and Ministration and that they may conveniently and in more number communicate with the Minister And therefore the Bishop sums it up Ep. p. 59. That this Liberty for a convenient place of Church or Chancel is left to the Judgment of the Ordinary and that the King in his Princely Order about St. Gregory's Church did leave it to the Law to the Communion book to the Canon and Diocesan The Law refers to Salus populi to the edifying of the People which was never respected under Popery for their Mass was mutter'd at high Altars far remote from the Auditory Which Harding maintains H. T. p. 204. That they never meant the People should understand any more than what they could guess by dumb Shews and outward Ceremonies In old Liturgies it appears that not only the Clerks but where a Church had no more than one Clerk to officiate the People made answer in Versicles and Suffrages an excellent way to keep them in godly action of which Privilege and Comfort they have been robb'd in corrupt times Erasmus says p. 216. of his Ep. That King Harry 8. defended that no Prayer was to be expected from the People Praeteream quae ment is cogitatione Deum alloquitur And that is it which is intended in Cardinal Pool's Articles of his Visitation anno 1556. Whether the People be contemplative in holy Prayer But we have not so learned Christ whose Communion is so order'd that all that are present may hear and be edisied every one say the Confession of Sins after him that pronounceth it every one professes as he is invited to lift up his Heart unto the Lord. Let the Table stand so commodiously for the benesit of Receivers when it is employ'd and it is not here or there whether the Minister stand at the North side as the Church in terminis directs it or at the North end as Altar-contrivers contend for it So we are told that the Table stands and unremovably under the East Window in the King's Chappel And says the Doctor Antid p. 41. That which is wisely and religiously done in the Chappel-Royal why should it not give Law to Parish-Churches The King's Chappel I should say was but my Heart will not let me is a sacred Oratory of great regard and ancient mention Constantine the Great had one portable with him in his Camp In Charles the Great 's time the Chappel of his Palace is samous Luitprandus King of the Lombards had one in his Palace Baron anno 744. p. 23. And in the Reign of our William Conquestor we read out of his Mouth Mea Dominica Capella Selden Eadm p. 165. Such Chapels if like to our King 's in all his Courts were of no great dimension the holy Board could not stand no where inconveniently in them but that all might hear therefore one constant site was most decent for it where it deserv'd the highest Room it being the Fabrick on which the principal Service Evangelical is solemniz'd The Bishop p. 182. remembers out of Suarez that Altars in Oratories and Chappels among them who are the Mint-masters of Ceremonies are not agreeable in situation to the Altars in Churches Therefore private Chappels nay even the Kings cannot be the Directories for all places because very often Parish Chancels being but a few strides broad and long cannot contain the multitude of all the People that come to take the Holy Mysteries And when the Belfrey is between the Chancel and the Nave of the Church as at Carshalton in Surrey the Minister can neither be heard nor seen unless he officiate in the Church where all may enjoy the Exhortations behold the Consecration and joyn in Prayer Therefore the Bishop answers prudently H. T. p. 34. It is not His Majesty's Chappel but his Laws Rubricks Canons Proclamations which we are to follow in outward Ceremonies 105. Neither can the Opponent appeal to Rubrick and Canons but he betakes him to an Order wherein the King's Majesty was present at the Council-Table Nov. 3. 1633. This is quoted at length Antid p. 62. and in some of his latter Works for approving the Table to be removed from the middle of the Chancel to the upper end and there to be placed Altar-wise If the King had intended that the like should be observed in all Parochial Churches the Question had been decided against the Bishop's Letter Nec turpe est ab eo vinci quem vincere esset nefas as Tigranes says of Pompey Velle lib. 1. The Bishop subscribes p. 163. That the addition of any more Ceremonies than are prescribed in our Book is referred to the person of the King by Act of Parliament The Contention remains whether that Order of His Majesty with his Council hath influence upon other places beside the particular of St. Gregory which occasion'd it The Dr. himself says no such matter directly but Antid p. 36. The King did not command but
would witness against me for my Council-Table Opinion I would say to him as Gallus did to Tyberius Caesar Good Sir speak you first for I may mistake and you may witness against me for it in the next Parliament Some did make Laws with Ropes about their Necks What Must men give their Counsel as it were with Ropes about their Necks Solomon says When thou comest to a rich man's table put a knife to thy Throat But what 's here When we give Judgment as we are able among the Lords of the Council must we put an Ax to our Necks Beware of such Traps pittying the case of human Weakness 145. The fourth Question is thus comprized Whether some Members of the House of Commons may be present at the Examination Judicially they cannot the Judicature is in your Lordships but whether organically and ministerially is the Scruple to be satisfied I will be brief in my Conceptions what is against the claim of the House of Commons and what is for them This is not for them That 50 Edw. 3. one Love was a Witness in Lord John Nevile's Case Love denied what he had confest before two Knights Members of the Lower House The House of Commons send them to the Lords to confront Love which they did and Love was thereupon committed Now their being here was only to confront not to assist the Lords either judicially or ministerially Many things make for them why they may be there ministerially at least First Originally both Houses were together and so the Commons heard all Examinations Considerent inter se Modus ten Pl. and sate so till Anno 6 Edw. 3. by Mr. Elsing's Collections which are not over-authentick Secondly After that time they have all the House of Commons been present when Witnesses were sworn here Anno 5 Hen. IV. Rot. 11. swears his Fealty before the Lords and Commons and two or three days after by the same Oath and before the same persons clears the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Duke of York from a Suspicion of Treason laid to their charge The Commons were by and heard all this The third Reason is Mr. Attorny-General if this Lord were arraigned of Treason as I pray God bless him from deserving it would be by and observe his Defence and such Witnesses as he should produce for himself and would no doubt bring Counter proofs Sur le Champ and upon the sudden against the same if he were able The House of Commons is in this case the King's Attorny who make and maintain the charge So far out of brief Notes for take them to be no other you have a strong Judgment pass'd upon four Questions Says Tully in his Brutus of Caesar's Eloquence Tabulam benè pictam collocat in bono lumine He draws his Picture well and hangs it out to be well seen So here 's a Piece well drawn and placed in the light of Perspicuity His next Argument is very long but of that use to the Reader that he shall not sind so much Learning in any Author on that Theme that I know a Scholar would not want it They that fostered deadly Enmities against E. Strafford laboured to remove the Bishops from the hearing of his Cause This Bishop and his Brethren minding to him all the Pity and Help they could shew him the Opposites began to vote them out of Doors and would not admit them in the Right of Peers in this Cause because it was upon Life and Blood Lincoln maintains that the Lords did them Injury and that Bishops in England may and ought to vote in causâ sanguinis That they were never inhibited by the Law of this Land never by the Peers of the Land before this time That their voluntary forbearance in some Centuries of the Ages before proceeded from their Fears of the Canons of the Court of Rome and by the special Leave of the King and both Houses who were graciously pleased to allow of their Protestations for their Indemnity as Church-men when the King and Parliament might have rejected their Protestations if they had pleas'd And much he insisted upon it that the opponent Lords grounded their Judgment upon the corrupt Canons of the Church of Rome Indeed I find in my own Papers that the Monks of Canterbury complain'd against Hubert their Archbishop to the Pope for sitting upon Tryals of Life and Blood They could not complain that he went against the Laws and Customs of England but their Appeal was to the Pope's Justice and it was more tolerable for Monks to rake in the Rubbish of the Roman Courts than for English Barons And say in sooth must not Divines of the Reformed Church meddle in Cause of Blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amph. Would they be laugh'd at for this Hypocrisie or abhorr'd For who more forward to thrust into the Troops of the late War than the Ministers whom they countenanc'd Have I not seen them prance about the Streets in London with Pistols in their Holsters and Swords by their sides And so for Edg-hill and Newberry c. Could they rush into so many Fights and be clear from cause of Blood Nay the Pontisical part make but a Mockery of this Canon for anno 1633 a Book was printed in Paris sill'd with a Catalogue of Cardinals Bishops and Priests who had been brave Warriours most of them Leaders in the Field the Author a Sycophant aimed to please Cardinal Richlieu and a Fig for the Canons Reason Canons Parliamentary Privileges nay Religion are to corrupt men as they like them for their own ends Now hear how this Bishop did wage his Arguments for the affirmative 146. It is to be held for a good Cause against which nothing of moment can be alledg'd such is this concerning the Right of Bishops to vote in causâ sanguinis First It is not prohibitum quia malum not any way evil in it self no more than it is an evil thing in it self to do Justice Secondly It was in use from the Law of Nature when the eldest of the Family was King Priest and Prophet Thirdly It was in use under Moses's Law and so continued in the Priests and Levites down to Annas and Caiaphas and after Christ's death till the Temple was destroyed as appears by the scourging of the Apostles by the stoning of Stephen and commanding St. Paul to be smitten on the Mouth Fourthly It was in use in the persons of the Apostles themselves as in that Judgment given upon Ananias and Saphira in the delivery up to Satan as most of the ancient Fathers expound that Censure to be a corporal Vexation And generally in all the Word of God there is no one Text that literally inhibits Church-men more than Lay-men to use this kind of Judicature For that Precept to be no striker 1 Tim. 3.3 is no more to be appropriated to a Bishop distinct from the rest of Christian men than that which is added not to be given to Wine that is immoderately taken Proceed we
to Practice and Use in our own Country Why it was in use in this Island before the Romans entred the same when the Druids gave all the Sentences in Causes of Blood Si coedes facâ—e pâ—as constituunt Caesar Bel. Gai. li. 6. And see Mr. Selden's Epinomis c. 2. Nor is it like that the Romans when they were our Masters should forbid it in Priests whose Pontifical College after they had entertain'd the twelve Tables meddled in all matters of this kind Strabo Geogr. lib. 4. And it is as unlike that the Christian Religion excluded Bishops in this Island from Secular Judicatures since King Lucius is directed to take out his Laws for the regulating of his Kingdom by the Advice of his Council ex utráque pagina the Old and New Testament which could not be done in that Age without the help of his Bishops See Sir H. Spelman's Councils p. 34. Ann. Dom. 185. And how the great Prelates among the ancient Britains were wholly employ'd in these kind of secular agitations you may see in the Ecclesiastical Laws of Howel Dha set forth by Sir H. Spelman pag. 408. anno 940. And a little before this Howel Dha lived K. Aetheljtan in the second Chapter of whose Ecclesiastical Laws we have it peremptorily set down Hinc debent Episcopi cum Saeculi Judicibus interesse judiciis and particularly in all Judgments of the Ordeals which no man that understands the word can make any doubt to have been extended to Mutilation and Death Sir H. S. Counc p. 405. ann 928. And that the Bishops joyned alwaies with the secular Lords in all Judicatory Laws and Acts under the whole reign of the Saxons and Danes in this Island we may see by those Saxon-Danish Laws or rather Capitularies which among the French and Germans do signifie a mixture of Laws made by the Prince the Bishops and the Barons to rule both Church and Common-wealth set forth by Mr. Lambert anno 1568. See particularly the ninth Chapter of St. Edward's Laws De his qui ad judicium sorri vel aquae judicati sunt fol. 128. And thus it continued in this Kingdom long after the Conquest to wit in Henry Beu-clerk's time after whose Reign it began to be a little limited and restrained for at Clarendon anno 1164 8 Calend. Febr. 11 Henr. 21 a general Record is agreed upon by that King 's Special Command of all the Customs and Liberties of this Kingdom ever since Hen. the First the King's Grandfather as you may see in Matth. Paris p. 96 of the first Edition where among other Customs agreed upon this is one Archbishops and Bishops and all other persons of this Kingdom which hold of the King in capite are to enjoy their Possessions of the King as a Barony and by reason thereof are to answer before the Judges and Officers of the King and to observe and perform all the King's Customs And just as the rest of the Barons ought for it was a Duty required of them as the King now by his Summons doth from us to be present in the Judgments of the King's Courts together with the rest of the Barons until such time as they shall there proceed to the mangling of Members or Sentence of Death 147. Observe that there is a diversity of reading in the last words for Matth. Paris a young Monk that lived long after reads this Custom thus Quousque perveniatur ad diminutionem membrorum vel ad mortem Which may be wrested to the first agitation of any Charge tending that way but Quadrilogus a Book written in that very Age and the original Copy of the Articles of Clarendon which Becket sent to Rome extant at this day in the Vatican Library and out of which Baronius in his Annals anno 1164 transcribes it reads the Custom thus Usque perveniatur in judicio ad diminutionem membrorum c. which leaves the Bishops to sit there until the Judgment come to be pronounced amounting to Death or Mutilation of Members And as this was agreed to be the Custom so was it the Practice also after that 11th year to wit in the 15th year of Henry the Second at what time the Lay-Peers are so far from requiring the Bishops to withdraw that they endeavour to force them alone to hear and determine a matter of Treason in the person of Becket Stephanides is my Author for this who was a Chaplain and Follower of that Archbishop The Barons say saith that Author You Bishops ought to pronounce Sentence upon your selves we are Laicks you are Church-men as Becket is you are his fellow-Priests and fellow-Bishops To whom some one of the Bishops replied This belongs to you my Lords rather than to us for this is no ecclesiastical but a secular Judicature We sit not here as Bishops but as Barons Nos Barones vos Barones hic Pares sumus And in vain it is that you should labour to find any difference at all in our Order or Calling See this Manuscript cited by Mr. Selden Titles of Honour 2 Edit p. 705. And thus the Custom continued till the 21st year of the same King Henry II. at what time that Provincial Synod was kept at Westminster by the Archbishop of Canterbury and some few of his Suffragans which Roger Hoveden mentions in his History p. 543. And it seems Gervasius Dorobernensis which is a Manuscript I have not seen The quoting of this Monk in the Margin of that Collection of Privileges which Mr. Selden by command had made for the Upper House of Parliament is the only ground of stirring up this Question against the Bishops at this present intended by Mr. Selden for a Privilege to the Bishops not for a Privilege to the Lay Peers to be pressed against the Bishops The Canon runs thus It is not lawful for such as are constituted in Holy Orders Judicium sanguinis agitare to put in execution Judgment of Blood and therefore we forbid that they shall either in their own persons execute any such mutilation of Members or sentence them to be so acted by others And if any such person shall do any such thing he shall be deprived of the Office and Place of his Order and Function We do likewise sorbid under the peril of Excommunication that no Priest be a secular Sheriff or Provost Now this is no Canon made in England much less confirmed by Common Law or assented to by all the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury or by any one of the Province of York but transcribed as appears by Hovenden's Margin out of a Council of Toledo which in the time that Council is supposed to be held was the least Kingdom in Spain and not so big as York-shire and consequently improper to regulate all the World and especially this remote Kingdom of England Beside as this poor Monk sets it down it doth inhibit Church-men from being Hang-men rather than from being Judges to condemn men to be thus mutilated and mangled in their
hope to comprehend all that I shall say or any man else can materially touch upon in this Bill The first is the Rise or Motive of this Bill which is the Duty of men in Holy Orders for the words are Persons in Holy Orders ought not to intermeddle c. And this Duty of Ministers may be taken in this place two several ways either for their Duty in point of Divinity or for their Duty in point of Convenience which we commonly call Policy In regard of either of these Duties it may be conceived that men in Holy Orders ought not to intermeddle in Sacred Affairs c. and this is the Motive Rise and Ground of this Bill The second point are the persons concerned in the Bill which are Archbishops Bishops Parsons Vicars and all other in Holy Orders The third point contains the things inhibited from this time forward to such persons by this Bill and they are of several sorts and natures First Freeholds and Rights of such persons as their Suffrages Votes and Legislative Power in Parliament Secondly Matters of Princely Favours as to sit in Star-chamber to be call'd to the Council-board to be Justices of the Peace c. Thirdly Matters of a mixt and concrete nature that seem to be both Freeholds and Favours of former Princes as the Charters of some of the Bishops and some of the ancient Cathedrals are conceived to be And these are all the matters or things inhibited from those persons in Holy Orders by this present Bill The fourth point is the manner of this Inhibition which is of a double nature first of a severe Penalty and secondly under Cain's Mark an eternalkind of Disability and Incapacity laid upon them from enjoying hereafter any of those Freeholds Rights Favours or Charters of former Princes and that which is the heaviest point of all without killing of Abel or any Crime laid to their Charge more than that in the beginning of the Bill it is said roundly and in the style of Lacedaemon That they ought not to intermeddle in Secular Affairs The fifth point is a Salvo for the two Universities but none for the Bishop of Durham nor for the Bishop of Ely not for the Dean of Westminster their next Neighbour who is establish'd in his Government by an especial Act of Parliament that of the 27 of Queen Elizabeth The sixth and last point is a Salvo for Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Barons or Peers of this Kingdom that either may be or are such by Descent Which Clause I hope in God will prove not only a Salvo to those honourable persons whereof if we of the Clergy were but so happy as to have any competent number of our Coat Quot Thebarum portae vel divit is ostia Nili this Bill surely had perish'd in the Womb and never come to the Birth but I hope that this Clause will prove this Bill a felo de se and a Murtherer of it self and intended for a Salvo to noble Ministers only prove a Salvo for all other Ministers that be not so happy as to be nobly born because the very poor Minister for ought we find in Scripture or common Reason is no more tyed to serve God in his Vocationâ— than these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and nobly-born Ministers are And therefore I hope those noble Ministers will deal so nobly as to pull their Brethren the poor Ministers out of the Thorns and Bryars of this Bill And these are all the true Heads and Contents of this Bill And among these six Heads your Lordships shall be sure to find me and I shall expect to sind your Lordships in the whole Tract of this Committee And now with your Lordships honourable Leave and Patience I will run them over almost as briefly as I have pointed and pricked them down 160. For the first the Rise and Motive of this Bill which is the Duty of Men in Holy Orders not to intermeddle with Secular Affairs must either rise from a point of Divinity or from a point of Conveniency or Policy And I hope in God it will not appear to your Lordships that there is any Ground either of Divinity or Policy to inhibit men in Orders so modestly to intermeddle with Secular Affairs as that the measure of intermeddling in such Affairs shall not hinder nor obstruct the Duties of their Calling They ought not so to intermeddle in Secular Affairs as to neglect their Ministry no more ought Lay-men neither for they have a Calling and Vocation wherein they are to walk as Ministers have they have Wife and Children and Families to care for and they are not to neglect these to live upon Warrants and Recognizances to become a kind of Sir Francis Michel or a Justus nimis as Solomon calls it Eccles 7.16 That place 2 Tim. 2.4 No man that warrs entangles himself with the affairs of this life will be found to be applied by all good Interpreters to Lay-men as well as Church-men and under favour nothing at all to this purpose Besides that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth point at a man that is so wholly taken up with the Affairs of this Life that he utterly neglects the Offices and Duties of a Christian man And so I leave that place as uncapable of any other Exposition nor ever otherwise interpreted but by Popes Legates and Canonists that make a Nose or Wax of every place of Scripture they touch upon But that men in Holy Orders ought not in a moderate manner together with the Duties of their Calling to help and assist in the Government of the Common-wealth if they be thereunto lawfully called by the Soveraign Prince can never be proved by any good Divinity for in the Law of Natâ—e before the Deluge and a long time after it is a point that no man will deny me That the Eldest of the Family was both the Priest and the Magistrate Then the People were taken out of Aegypt by Moses and Aaron Moses and Aaron among his Priests as it is in the Psalm Then there was a Form of a Common-wealth setch'd from Heaven indeed and planted upon the Earth and judiciary Laws dictated for the regulating of the same Nor do I much care though some men shall say That persons in Holy Orders ought not to intermeddle in Secular Affairs when that Great God of Heaven and Earth doth appoint them to intermeddle with all the principal Affairs of that estate witness the exorbitant Power of the High-Priest in Secular Matters the Sanhedrim the 23 the Judges of the Gate which were most of them Priests and Levites And the Church-men of that Estate were not all Butchers and Slaughter-men for they had their Tabernacle their Synagogues their Prayers Preaching and other Exercises of Piety In a word we have Divinius but they had operosius ministerium as St Austin speaketh Our Ministry takes up more of our Thoughts but theirs took up more of their Labour and Industry Nor is it any matter that
sweetness of his Patience that he would have tarried with them and hop'd for better But moderate men did see no likelyhood And why should a gracious Prince imbrier himself any longer in Thorns and do no good but leave his Wooll behind him There are a sort of People in Gusman's Hospital that when a Friend stays long whom they had waited for look often out of the Window to spy him as if he would come the sooner for that impertinency Plautus hath drawn it up elegantly in his Stychus Si quem hominem expectant eum solent provisere Qui herclè illâ causâ nihilo citiùs veniet Would you have a wife King one of this ridiculous Hospitals And it was not wisdom only but heroick Magnanimity that he would not seem to deserve any thing by those Favours in passing their ill-fram'd Bills which he verily thought would be pluck't up by the Roots when the Day of the Lord should come to redeem us Matter so corrupt and the manner so compulsory must needs fall to the ground upon review in sober Times Quae in pace latae sunt leges bellum abrogat quae in Bello pax It is Livies Else cast it into this Answer His Majesty discern'd that he himself had marred both Houses and he would do them no more harm to concur with them in their Excess of Disobedience and Profaneness For what made them stretch themselves beyond their Power but the King's Act which gave them liberty to sit beyond lawful measure A Session sitting long grows sour and stale and is like to Theophrastus's Date-tree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When it is young the Fruit it bears is without a stone in it but if it grow long a Date-stone is so hard that it will break good Teeth to crack it So this Convention being durable against Dissolution wax't very corrupt surly and tyrannical There were worthy Men among them some very learned in the Laws other Gentlemen well experienced in the Nature of the People of whom some were tired out and gone and much that remained was Lumber and Luggage tumbled together in a waste Room which brought up at last their final farewel and expulsion so generally applauded as Ballads and Pasquils did testifie Behold Sidonius his Judgment Lib. 1. Ep. 7. upon Arvandus a great Officer in his days Non eum aliquando cecidisse sed tamdiu stetisse plus miror qui primam praefecturam gubernavit cum maximâ popularitate sequentem cum maximâ populatione So our imperious Masters were flatter'd at first for Popularity and hated in the end for Depopulation And to put a signal Remark of Disgrace upon them it is not forgotten before they were carried out of their House like empty Casks with a Brewers sling 180. Some Pieces of Apology are patch't into this old Garment which in my Judgment make the Rent worse When things were gone so far out of Order it was a hard thing for a man to speak truth to himself Hear them howsoever for sometimes there is likelyhood in that which is a lye and sometimes Truth in that which is unlikely It is not amiss to alledge that the Authority of Parliaments hath been venerable from times of old but it is most certain that the Majesty Royal was evermore venerable For the King is God's Representative and the most part of their Patriots but the Representatives of the People But they would teach us That the Judgment of the whole Land speaks in the mouth of their Parliament I cannot be their Disciple in that I am sure their sense was not the sense of thousand thousands abroad and the Parliament indeed supplies our Political Capacity but they do not carry with them our Personal Wisdoms Says another Were we not frank of our Loyalty when we promis'd we would make his Majesty a great King This Spot at first made a shew of a good Card but to their shame I rejoyn there was a great disparity between the Promises and the Sequels Antisthenes so Laertius came to see Plato being sick just after his Physick had wrought Says Antisthenes I see your Choler in the Bason but not your Pride so every plain man might read the slattery of the Promise but not find the fraud They make him a great King It was God that made him a King and in that Title made him great Inde potestas illi unde spiritus Tertul. Apol. And by what sign did it appear they would make him great or what did they not do to make him a great Underling To give him Law to subject him to their Votes is the greatness of a Tympany which swells and kills The Sophistry in which they gloried most was extracted out of the Jesuits Learning That they were faithful to the Regal Office which remained in the two Houses albeit his departure but contrary to this man in his personal Errors and if they obey in his Kingly Capacity and Legal Commands against his Person they obey himself All this beside words is a subtle nothing For what is himself but his Person Shall we against all Logick make Authority the Subject and the Person enforcing it a have Accident It sounds very like the Parodox of Transubstantiation where◠〈◊〉 qualit â— of Bread and Wine are feigned to subsist without the Inherence of a substance With these Metaphysicks and Abstractions they were not Legal but Personal Traitors If an Undersheriff had arrested Harry Martin for Debt and pleaded that he did not imprison his Membership but his Martin ship would the Committee for Priviledges be sob'd off with that distinction Learnedly â—aravia de ob Christ p. 51. Eundem hominem partiri Jurisconsulti nesciunt ut idem homo sibi imperet parâ—at Whatsoever a man's relations be they are so conjoyned to the Suppositum that you cannot treat with him partly in honour partly in dishonour as in terms of opposition And sometime there is not so much as a notional Difference between Imperial and Personal Respect St. Paul instructs the Christians at Rome That every Soul should be subject to the higher Powers The higher Power under which they lived was the meer Power and Will of Caesar bridled in by no Law Pliny in his Panâ—g speaks it openly to Trajan Ipse te legibus subjecisri Caesar quas nemo Principi scripsit This was too much For Kings should not Rule without limitation of Laws as Claudian to Honortus Primus jussa capi tune observantior aequi Fit populus But if they fail who shall judge them but God To obey the King is God's Law to obey our Laws is the Ordinance of Man therefore the Bodies and Estates of the Subjects are obnoxious to the Common Laws and the King to nothing but his Conscience It is God only that avengeth the violation of Conscience it is above the Judgment of Men. But I return to St. Paul There was no distinction then in the Roman Empire between a Legal and Personal Capacity yet Let every Soul be
by inch somewhat may be gotten out of small pieces of business nothing out of supervacaneous And Sir says he I would it were not true that I shall tell you Some of the Commons are preparing a Declaration to make the Actions of your Government odious if you gallop to Scotland they will post as fast to draw up this biting Remonstrance Stir not till you have mitigated the grand Contrivers with some Preferments But is this credible says the King Judge you of that Sir says the Bishop when a Servant of Pymm 's in whose Master 's House all this is moulded came to me to know of me in what terms I was contented to have mine own Case in Star-chamber exhibited among other Irregularities And I had much ado to keep my Name and what concerns me out of these Quotations but I obtain'd that of the fellow and a Promise to do me more Service to know all they have in contrivance with a few Sweetbreads that I gave him out of my Purse What is there in all that the Bishop said especially in the last touch that look'd not like sober Warning Yet nothing was heeded The King saw Scotland and I know not what he brought thence unless it were matter to charge the five Members of Treason who were priviledg'd from it with a Mischief His Majesty being returned to London Nov. 26. That which the Commons called The Remonstrance of the state of the Kingdom came forth by their Vote Decemb. 15. to besoil His Majesly's Reign with studied bitterness And this was a Night-work and held the Members Debate all Wednesday night and till three of the Clock in the Thursday morning Synesius spake his worst of Trypho's Tribunal Lib. de Prov. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did not administer justice in the day-time but in the night a time more proper for thieves to go to work and for the beasts of the forrest to come out of their dens and get their prey if the loyal part had staid it out who appeared the greater number in the beginning of the question they had cast it out for a vile desamation but the one half of that part had slunk away and were gone to bed as st Peter stood to his Master stoutly till midnight but railed him by the second crowing of the Cock If these had kept the wise Rules of the Roman Senate the one part had been frustrate in all they obtained in the dead of the night and long after Says Budaeus Senatus consultum ante exortum post occasum solis nullum fait lib. 1. in Pand. p. 231. And the other part had been fined for departing away Senatori qui non aderit aut causa aut culpa esto Cic. de Leg. But their Apology is That those were no Juridical hours either for a Roman or an English Senate Birds of Day keep not time with Screetch-owls But these Libertines had leave to sit as long as they would by night or day Magna sumendo majora praesumimus Sym. Ep. p. 9. Great Concessions are the cause of greater Presumptions 156. During some part of the time that the King was in the North Miseries came trooping all at once upon the Church The Reverend Fathers every day libelled and defamed in the Press durst not come in to help The Times did make it appear what Blood was about mens Hearts They that feared to diversifie from the received Doctrine and Discipline of the Church before dreading Ecclesiastical Consistories and the High-Commission Court encreased into so many Sects almost as there were Parishes in England And as Aventine said lib. 8. Annal. of the Schoolmen newly sprung up in his days Singulae sectae judicio multarum sectarum stultitiae cowvincuntur But what were we the better when every Spark kindled another to make a general Combustion Our Case in God's House was as bad as that of the Gauls in Caesar's time lib. 6. Bel. Gal. Non solùm in omnibus civitatibus atque in omnibus pag is partibusque sed in singulis domibus factiones sunt The Parliament which saw the Body of Christ wounded look'd on and passed by on the other side Luke 10.32 as if they did but smile at the variety of Throngs and Dispositions I think they durst net pour in Wine or Oyl to heal the Wounds of Religion for that reason which Dr. Owen gives Praef. to Vind. p. 36. For by adhering to one Sect professedly they should engage all the rest against them Only Lincoln for all this universal Contempt of Episcopacy visited his great Diocess in October not by his Chancellor but in his own person Naequid expectes amicos quod tute agere possies so cited out of Ennius Trust not to your Friends when you can do your Work your self A Bishop is lazy that doth his Duty by a Proxy Pontificium significat potestatem officium says a Critick Heral in Arnob. p. 115. The Etymology of a Pontificate imports Power and Office They are both Yoke-fellows Says another Critick and a good Judge indeed Salmas in Solin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Age of Christian Emperors were Visitors that went from Church to Church like Paul and Barnabas to set things in order who long before that were Physicians that were sent from Village to Village to cure the Sick This Labour our Bishop undertook personally to heal the Maladies of Brain-sick Distempers at Boston Lester Huntington Bedford Hitchin the last Visitation that was held in either Province to this day And God grant he might not say as Synesius did of his Diocess of Ptolomais when he and all the Bishops of Aegypt were ejected by a conquering Party 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O my Ptolomais am I the last Bishop that ever thou shalt have But I hope better things Hope is the common Revenue of the Distressed they have much of that who have nothing else I go on with our Bishop who so long as he was in Place and for a while that his Words were remembred brought those Counties to a handsom state of quietness Cocus magnum abenum quando fervet paulâ confutat truâ When a Cauldron of hot Liquor boils and is ready to run over a Cook stays it by casting in a Ladle of cold Water No man could comprize his Exhortations in better Harmony than this Oratour and set several Instruments in tune one to another and the Voice to them all Eloquium tot lumina clausit Meta. l. as Mercury lull'd Argos asleep with all his Eyes for says he much to this meaning Countrymen and Neighbors whither do you wander Here are your lawful Ministers present to whom of late you do not refort I hear but to Tub-preachers in Conventicles There is a Penalty for this and no Power can protect you against the Statutes in force which are not yet repealed but you are bound in Conscience to keep those Laws which are not Fetters upon your Hands but Bracelets they are the
Vote of all the People in the Representatives of your Forefathers and you are obliged as good and honest men to maintain what your selves have done It is not possible that all your Disagreements blown abroad should incorporate then either you will devour your selves with Despight at last or Strangers will deâ— us all Dumque esse putamus Nos facimus miseros Grot. Poem Lock back from the beginning of Q Elizabeths Reign to this day Can you wish the Gespel to frand better against the Church of Rome than it hath done so long under the Bishop 〈◊〉 and Canons That flattering word Liberty puts our whole frame out of joyur Non dominari instar servitutis est Many of the lowest fortune are so proud that they complain of Servitude if they may not govern nay if they may not domineer Out of this Idol of imaginary Liberty which you worship you will make so many Masters to your selves that we shall be all Slaves It is a popular word but in the abusive sonce of it like Homer 's Moly black in the Root though white in the Flower They that live in the lower Orb of Obedience please God as much as their Rulers and shall be blessed alike if they quietly follow the motion of the higher Sphere of Authority Our Doctrine is consonant to the Consessions of all Reformed Churches and every Nation enjoy their own Ceremonies without opposition only we excepted They are wiser than we who consider duly that they are the greater things of Faith and a Holy Life for which we shall be tryed before the Judgment of Christ and not for a sew unvaluable Rites of Circumstance and Comeliness which yet cannot well be spared My Brethren I here can tell you out of Naz. Orat. 23. that Hero a peaceable Bishop said often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that piety consisted not in small things If you require more Justice from Christian Counts or that scandalous and dumb Ministers should be displaced it may be done without Sedition But because you think you do not find so much Good as you look'd for in the old way you would set up a new one not foreseeing how much evil you shall find in that Non quod habet numerat tantum quod non habet optat Manil. lib. 4. But let me tell you you will quickly love the Winding-sheet of the old Wedlock better than the Marriage-sheets of the new Enjoy that real Blessing which you possess rather than an Utopia found no where but in the Distempers of the Brain A little small Meney in the Purse is better than a dream of Gold and a Cottage to live in is better than a Castle in the Air. First seek for Piety to God Loyalty to the King and Peace with all men and all things else will be added unto you These were the Lenitives with which the Bishop prevailed more than could have been done with Censures and Menaces As in the Old Testament a Cake of unleaven'd Bread was better made ready with Ashes than with Fire Beside the more hurt they could do the less to be forced to Extremity And marvel not if a man of so losty a Spirit could humble himself so far as to speak so correctedly in such Auditories full of ignoble Sectaries and high-shone Clowns For even Alexander taking the Kingdom upon him after the murther of his Father Philip Diodor. lib. 17. p. 487. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was fain to collogue with the People to get their Benevolence with fair words And he that gets a good Bargain with Courtly Language buys it with Money which is soon paid and quickly told 157. No sooner had our Bishop dispatch'd his Visitation and was come again to sit in the face of the Parliament but he heard of a muttering against him from the Lower House not only for visiting his Diocess in such a time of unsettlement but because he had said in divers places That no Power could protect them against Statutes still in force that sell into Disorders and Deviations against them So he took his opportunity at a Conserence that was between the two Houses in the Painted Chamber as well to justifie the labour he had undergone to uphold the Rights of holy Government as to silence them that were unlicens'd Preachers and presumed to say and do what they would as if all Government were dissolved Non minùs turpe est sua relinquere quà m in aliena invadere injust um ambitiosum Salust Bel. Jug He maintained he had done God good Service to unmask them to their shame that were ignorant Laicks yet preach'd privately and publickly to the corruption and dishonour of the Gospel Nay all would be Teachers in the gatherings of the Sectaries scarce a Mute in the Alphabet of these new Christians but all Vowels Every one puts Hand to Christ's Plough that neither know Seed Soil nor Season Souldiers as the Heathen feign may come up like Cadmus Teeth Seed in the Morning and grow Men by Noon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes Dio. Sativos Theologos nulla hactenus fabula prodigiosè finxit Nay these Praedicants were never so much as potentially Seed but Mushrooms Christ is brought in Luk. 2.46 being but Twelve years old sitting in the midst of the Doctors hearing and asking Questions Ne infirmus quis docere audeat si ille puer doceri interrogando voluit Montag Orig. par 2. p. 299. Christ could learn nothing of them but we learn of him that ignorant men must not presume to teach since he that knew all things conformed himself to our Weakness as if being young he would be taught by Questions It is a lame Excuse to say in the behalf of some of these Upstarts that they are gifted men Who reports this but such as are as blind as themselves They have bold Foreheads strong Lungs and talk loud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. 8. Sympos An empty Cask will make a great sound if you knock upon it They have sounded it sweetly when their Disciples are Anabaptists Familists Brownists Antinomians Socinians Adamites any thing but Orthodox Christians yet a world of these unstable People flock after these Coachmen-preachers Watchmaking-preachers Barber-preachers and such addle headed Companions Pliny says of Dates taken just at their ripeness lib. 13. c. 4. Tanta est musteis suavitas ut fims mandendi non nisi periculo fiat So â—entices and Country-folk hunt after these Teachers and are ready to burst their Bellies with new Dates But worst of all these silly Bawleâ—s qualifying themselves for the Peoples Favour vent such Politicks as are by odds the most dangerous part of their Discourses encroaching so far upon Allegiance that they cut off all Duty which St. Paul would have given to the higher Powers But what if they were guilty of such Gists as some would seem to observe in them Is there nothing else that goes to the making of a Minister of God's Word The Woman that reckoned the Charge of her Brewing forgat the