in the matter I shall not be shie in it It is and ever was the Law of England that the sole supream Government Command and Disposition of the Militia and of all Forces by Sea and Land and of all places of Strength is and ever were the undoubted Right of His Majesty and of his Royal Predecessors Kings and Queens of England Or else what means that of Fitz-Herbert Nat. Brev. p. 113. It is the Right of the King to defend his Kingdom To make Leagues and denounce War only belongs to the King 7 Coke 2â— as a Right of Majesty which cannot be conferred upon any other And how can he do it without the power of the Sword that is the sole Command of the Militia To levy War within the Realm without Authority from the King unto whom it only belongeth Id. Coke 3 Inst 9. was High Treason at the common-Common-Law before the Statute de proditionibus 25 Ed. 3. And a latter Statute not introductive of a new Law but declaratory of the old Law has the very Words touching the sole Command of the Militia 13 Car. 2. c. 2. c. before-mention'd with this farther That both or either of the Houses of Parliament cannot nor ought to pretend to the same nor can or lawfully may raise or levy War offensive or defensive against his Majesty his Heirs and lawful Successors Short View c. Fol. 86. And was confest by themselves when they acknowledg'd the Militia an inseparable Flower of the Crown and subject to no command but his Authority And yet contrary to this known Law these two Houses not only Petition the King That the Tower of London c. as before be forthwith put into such Hands as shall be recommended to him by both the Houses but upon his recess from Whitehall send him a Peremptory Petition That unless the King by those Commissioners then sent assure them of their former desires Mar. 1. 1641. Rushw Col. Fol. 92. they shall be enforced to dispose of the Militia by the Authority of both Houses which upon the King's refusal Sir Will. Dugdale 's Short View p. 85. they Vote a Denial and dispose of it themselves And now they begin to unpin the Mask and publish a Declaration wherein they say That what the Houses declare for Law ought not to be question'd by the King That the Sovereign Power resides in both Houses That the King ought to have no Negative Voice That Treason cannot be committed against the King's Person otherwise than as he is entrusted with the Kingdom and discharges that Trust and that they have a Power to judge whether he hath discharged that Trust or not 7 Coke 11. Fine dainty Law And the Spencers Treason in Edward the Second's time but better improv'd In the May following they fall a-branching it into nineteen Propositions Rushw 307. V. The Statutes at large many of which are but the substance of those Acts pass'd by Edward the Third in the fifteenth of his Reign and revoked by him the same Year as derogatory to his Crown and send them to the King which being refus'd by him they Vote The King intended a VVar upon them and thereupon raise an Army and suffering the Mask to drop off make Essex General thereof 12 Jul. 42. and farther Vote They will live and die with him On which the King sets up his Standard at Nottingham the August following Nor will I carry it further at present because I design not a History but only to shew which of the two the King or the Houses intended a Civil VVar and whether they did not undoe what they found well done In short their Endeavours were to strip the King of what God and the Law had given him the King 's was but to keep what he ought to have and therefore viewing both by a true light How can the King be justly charg'd with intending a VVar when it was in a manner but a suing for his own CHAP. VI. Vpon his Majesty 's retirement from Westminster WITH what unwillingness saith His Majesty I withdrew Westminster let them judge who unprovided of Tackling and Victual are forced to Sea by a Storm yet better do so than venture splitting or sinking on a Lee-Shoar And if the Parallel held not in all its Parts our Answerer had done well to have shewn in which it fell short whereas instead thereof he only says He was about to have found fault with the Simile as a garb somewhat more Poetical than for a Statist and finds it the strain of other of his Essays But what 's this to the matter farther than that in the Words His Essays a Truth slipt from him unawares in confessing them to have been written by the King and not by his Houshold Rhetorician as before But to the Argument saith he and I follow him with this by the way to my Reader That he would consider how the Houses had depriv'd the King of his Friends disrobed him of his Power trampled his Authority affronted his Person baited him with a Rabble and left him nothing but what could not be taken from him a good God and the satisfaction of a Conscience founded on a Compositum jus fasque animo Sanctosque recessus Mentis incoctum generoso pectus honesto And then tell me in what condition he was when he left Westminster I stay'd at Whitehall saith His Majesty till I was driven away by Shame more than Fear to see the barbarous rudeness of those Tumults c. a thing so true for matter of Fact that being not able to deny it our Answerer turns it thus That in the whole Chapter next but one before this the King affirms That the danger wherein his Wife his Children and his own Person were by those Tumults was the main cause that drove him c. Whereas what the King and that but in one place of that Chapter says of it is this That he thought himself not bound to prostitute the Majesty of his Place and Person and the safety of his Wife and Children to those who are prone to insult most when they have objects and opportunity most capable of their rudeness and petulancy With this other from Digby as he calls him who knew his Mind as well as any That the principal cause of his Majesty's going thence was to save them from being trod in the Dirt. And where in the name of Goodness lies the Contradiction The Tumults were such they might have been call'd Legion and well make a King asham'd to see them and not be able to disperse them But a direct Fear it could not be in him whom Ille timorum Maximus hand urget Lethi timor and who refused Life at the price of an inglorious Submission And yet in the Case of a private Person was not this ground enough to apprehend a danger and the consequence of it to be trod in the Dirt How much more then in the Case
Limitations Though our Accuser thinks it enough for him to have said Those Limitations were not more dangerous to him than he was to their Liberty and Religion His next is that Antichristian Hierarchy which was there vowed to be cast out of the Church c. Whether God planted it or not is not the question the King's Progenitors had bountifully water'd it and the Law of England set a Hedge about it They held their Possessions in Barony the Statute pro Clero calls them Peers of the Realm and another of Queen Elizabeth 2â— Ed. 3. c. 6. 8 Eâ— c. 1. one of the greatest States of this Realm And for a Fag-end of a Parliament without the King's Consent nay contrary to his Will to take upon them to extirpate so ancient so establish'd an Order and dis-seize them of their Free-hold without a legal Trial whatever the Liberty or Religion of it might be I am sure it was contrary to Magna Charta And himself says it is a Point not to be argu'd but of a clear Moral Necessity to be done And a most expeditious Answer though it may seem much in the dark to every Man but himself and the Actors in it Nor was it saith his Majesty less than superfluous to enjoyn Oaths where former Religious and Legal Engagements bound Men sufficiently to all necessary Duties But it was saith he the Practice of all reforming Churches Israel were bound enough before by the Law of Moses to all necessary Duties yet with Asa their King entred into a new Covenant at the beginning of a Reformation c. And as well might he have prov'd it out of the first Words of Genesis Is the Beginning i. e. In the beginning of Formation the World was Created and in the beginning of Reformation the Covenant was produc'd But to give it a direct Answer This New Covenant of which he speaks was not about Pretended Privileges or disputable Liberties in matters of State nor any Conjectural Fancies in Point of Religion 2 Chron. 15.12.15 but to seek the God of their Fathers in which also the King joyn'd with them and it is said of it that God was found of them and gave them rest round about which cannot be said of ours And which may be further observable of all the Covenants made by the Jews there was no one of them ever Sworn against the Will of the Supream or at least Subordinate Rulers not opposed but rather countenanced by the Supream and the matter of their Covenant was always enjoyn'd by God himself And whereas he further says The Jews after the Captivity without Consent demanded of that King who was their Master took a Solemn Oath to walk in the Commandments of God See how he slurs it upon the unwary People That King c. The Jews from the Captivity to the coming of our Saviour had no Kings of their own but were govern'd by Deputies and Vicegerents who had not Supream Authority in themselves but as it pleas'd the Persian Monarchs and afterward Alexander and his Successors to assign them and these were call'd Heads or Princes of the Captivity of whom Zerobabel was the first and upon the Restauration of the Captivity by Cyrus came back again with them to Jerusalem and Judah and with him Nehemiah as one of the chief of the Fathers For in the third of Nehemiah ver 16. he is call'd a Ruler and in the fifth verse 14. Governour in the Land of Judah With this Nehemiah it was that the Princes and the Priests made the Covenant our Answerer speaks of Nehem. 10.1 and Nehemiah seal'd to it as the Tirshatha or Governour and the People clave to their Brethren their Nobles Ver. 29. and entred into an Oath to walk in God's Laws And now what need was there to demand that King's Artaxerxes Consent when his Vicegerent joyn'd with them In a matter too which terminated in themselves and their own Worship without the least design of extirpating their Masters the Syrians or Babylonians And when he calls it a Solemn Oath what other is it than to wheedle the People into an easier swallow of it and that the Solemn League and Covenant was just such another And yet our Answerer will not away with it when the King says They made their Covenant like Manna not that it came from Heaven as this did agreeable to every Man's Palate For the drift saith he is that Men should loath it Whereas if we truly consider the thing never was Comparison more aptly applicable Exod. 16.15 For when Israel first saw it they said one to another Manna or What is this for they wist not what it was Ver. 20. and if they kept it above a day it bred Worms and stank CHAP. XV. Vpon the many Jealousies rais'd and Scandals cast upon the King to stir up the People against him THere is a great deal of difference between Accusations and Calumnies the first necessary to all Popular States whereby to keep any one's growing too great for the rest as may be seen in the Athenian Ostracism or Banishment for ten Years and the Syracusian Petalism for five Years but Calumnies were ever exploded as the bane and destruction of Common Society And if they are so dangerous to Commonwealths what must they be to Monarchy which is never truly supported but by being at unity within it self And yet such were the Artifices of those times that they rais'd their Babel on no other Foundation and what the effect of it was we have all seen however it must not seem strange that our Answerer bred at the Feet of those Gamaliels should all along Copy so exactly after the Original But to pass his railing and come to his Matter which is so loose and thin that I was once going to throw it away till I better consider'd that the best way to undeceive the People was to undraw the Curtain and shew them how they had been deceiv'd and if in the doing it they have not tack'd together all the shreds and parings of Policy let any Man judge What the Plot of the Play was appears in their last Act and that was by the Murther of their Lawful Soveraign to transform and new model an ancient Monarchy into a Mushrome of a Commonwealth But many things were to be done by the way and without the People it was impossible to effect it They knew the People lov'd the King but had withal taken a discontent at somewhat but what that was not a Man of them could tell Nor were they to learn of what importance the aspersing a Prince is to boil up that discontent to a height fit for a Rebellion To have done this directly had been to betray themselves No they first commend him for a good Prince a King that would do any thing for his People But alas There are some about him The more 's the pity However God in his time can mend all And yet the less they spake of
should neither censure them rigidly nor deny them the same mildness with which we commiserate the Infirmities of other Men Or at least if we must be prying and poring be so just to our selves as not to publish the Miscarriage and suppress the Vertue In a word let him that would make a true Judgment of this oppress'd King first consider his Circumstances and then tell me whether where he stretch'd his Authority he had not been first necessitated to it by those that murther'd him and whether the worst of his Actions were not superabundantly expiated with many good which our Accuser has so every where endeavour'd to silence and supplied with Calumnies that I 'll close all with that Abstract of Seneca's Epistles Xerxes 's Arrows may darken the Day but they cannot stâ—â—ke the Sun Waves may dash themselves upon a Rock but not break it Temples may be Prophan'd and Demolish'd but the Deity still remains untouch't THE CONTENTS THE Introduction page 1 Chap. I. Vpon the King's calling his last Parliament p. 13 Chap. II. Vpon the Earl of Strafford's Death p. 29 Chap. III. Vpon his going to the House of Commons p. 36 Chap. IV. Vpon the Insolency of the Tumults p. 41 Chap. V. Vpon his Majesty's passing the Bill for the Triennial Parliaments and after settling this during the Pleasure of the two Houses p. 50 Chap. VI. Vpon his Majesty's retirement from Westminster p. 57 Chap. VII Vpon the Queen's Departure and Absence out of England p. 65 Chap. VIII Vpon His Majesty's repulse at Hull and the Fates of the Hothams p. 66 Chap. IX Vpon the Listing and raising Armies against the King p. 69 Chap. X. Vpon their seizing the King's Magazines Forts Navy and Militia p. 73 Chap. XI Vpon the Nineteen Propositions first sent to the King and more afterwards p. 76 Chap. XII Vpon the Rebellion and Troubles in Ireland p. 83 Chap. XIII Vpon the Calling in of the Scots and their coming p. 86 Chap. XIV Vpon the Covenant p. 91 Chap. XV. Vpon the many Jealousies rais'd and Scandals cast upon the King to stir up the People against him p. 98. Chap. XVI Vpon the Ordinance against the Common-Prayer Book p. 10â— Chap. XVII Of the differences between the King and the two Houses in point of Church-Government p. 10â— Chap. XVIII Vpon the Uxbridge Treaty anâ— other Offers made by the King p. 11â— Chap. XIX Vpon the various Events of the War Victories and Defeats p. 1â—â— Chap. XX. Vpon the Reformations of the Times p. 11â— Chap. XXI Vpon his Majesty's Letters taken anâ— divulg'd p. 11â— Chap. XXII Vpon His Majesty's leaving Oxford and going to the Scots p. 12â— Chap. XXIII Vpon the Scots delivering the King to the English and his Captivity at Holdenby p. 12â— Chap. XXIV Vpon their denying His Majâ—sty thâ— Attendance of his Chaplains viz. Dr. Juxon Bishop of London Dr. Duppa Bishop of Salisbury Dr. Sheldon Dr. Hammond Dr. Holdsworth Dr. Sanderson Dr. Turner Dr. Heywood p. 125 Chap. XXV Penitential Meditations and Vowâ— in the King 's Solitude at Holdenby p. 126 Chap. XXVI Vpon the Army's sâ—rprizâ—d of thâ— King at Holdenby and the ensuing Distraction in the Two Houses the Army and the City p. 127 Chap. XXVII To the Prince of Wales p. 134 Chap. XXVIII Meditations upon Death after thâ— Votes of Non-addresses and His Majesty's closer Imprisonment in Carisbrook-Castle p. 135 VINDICIAE CAROLINAE OR A VINDICATION OF 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Introduction IN every Action consider the End so shalt thou not be ashamed of thy Work was a wise Saying and had this Effect upon me That I no sooner resolv'd with my self to make some Reply to this Answer of Mr. Milton's than I began to consider three things and as I thought necessary for the better carrying it on Which in short are these 1. To what End this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was first Written 2. To what End and that after a forty odd Years interval it came to be reprinted at Amsterdam too and with an Advertisement before it 3. What end I propos'd to my self in making this Reply I. As to the first let the Book speak for it self and there are few Leaves in it but visibly declare that Milton's end was To justifie the unparallell'd Villainies of his own time Et quorun pars magna fuit Wherein the best of Monarchies was shook to pieces by the worst oâ— Men A King whose only Crime was his being King disarm'd by one Faction and in thaâ— condition left to the growing Designs of another and the merciless Cruelty of both Thâ— Fountain of all Law Justice and Honour publickly arraign'd sentenc'd and assassinated bâ— the Tail of the People and that too under the false detorted Names of Law Justice and Honour of the Nation and God as impiously brought in against himself to Patronize thâ— Parricide to defend the Tyrranny of an usurping Commonwealth against their naturaâ— Liege Lord and Sovereign to vindicatâ— those dreggs of Mankind from what thâ— World then thought them and a later Statutâ— has since declared them 1. Cor. 2. c. 14. viz. The most traiterous Conspiracies and armed power of Usurping Tyrants and Execrable Perfidiouâ— Traitors And lastly as if it were not enough to have murther'd Him in his Authority as 〈◊〉 King and his Person as a Man to murtheâ— Him over again in His Fame and Memory This Milton the Gall and bitterness of whosâ— Heart had so taken away his Taste and Judgment that to write and be scurrillous werâ— the same with him is dead 't is true and shoulâ— have been forgotten by me but that in thiâ— new Impression he yet speaketh To write and be scurâ—illous I said were the same with him Witness his Pro populo Anglicano Desensioâ— against Salmatius a learned Knight hiâ— Defensionem Regiam and who as such might have deserv'd the Civility of a modest Language Yet thus he begins with him Quamquam tibi vano homini ventoso multum arrogantiae multum superbiae Salmati c. and further calls him Grammaticaster Stramineus Eques and the like stuff which proves nothing but the insolence of the Writer That he wrote good Latin will be readily granted but with this remark That it was Billingsgate in Rome As also That he was a Person of a large thought and wanted not Words to express those Conceptions but never so truly as when the Argument and his deprav'd temper met together Witness his Paradise lost where he makes the Devil Who though fallen had not given Heaven for lost speak at that rate himself would have done of the Son of this Royal Martyr upon his Restauration had he thought it convenient when in his Paradise regain'd he is so indifferent poor and starvling as if he never expected any benefit by it But enough of him and I wish I had not met this just Occasion of having said so much II. To what end it was reprinted c. Glory had departed from the Israel of those
Self-will they broke down a Wall CHAP. V. Vpon His Majesty's passing the Bill for the Triennial Parliaments and after settling this during the Pleasure of the two Houses PArliaments saith Sir Robert Cotton are the times in which Kings seem less than they are His Reign of Hen. III. p. 1 and Subjects more than they should be A smart Character whether we respect those Paaliaments of Henry the Third of whom it was spoken or that Parliament of 1640. of which we are now speaking And yet they are become so congenial and as it were bred up and embodied with the English Temper which as it naturally relishes nothing but what comes from them so it rarely disputes any thing that is transacted by them that some have thought this might be one reason that inclin'd His Majesty to pass these Bills though for my part I 'll believe no Man against the King when he says That the World might be confirm'd in my Purposes at first to contribute what in Justice Reason Honour and Conscience I could to the happy Success of this Parliament which had in me no other design but the general good of my Kingdoms I willingly passed the Bill for Triennial Parliaments Which as gentle and seasonable Physick might if well applied prevent any Distempers from getting any head or prevailing especially if the Remedy prov'd not a Disease beyond all Remedy And as to the other for settling this during the Pleasure of the Houses An Act saith the King unparallell'd by any of my Predecessors yet granted on an extream Confidence I had that my Subjects would not make an ill use of an Act by which I declar'd so much to trust them as to deny my self so high a Point of my Prerogative c. Whereas saith our Answerer He attributes the passing of them to his own Act of Grace and willingness as his manner is to make Vertues of his Necessities he gives himself all the Praise and heaps Ingratitude upon the Parliament to whom we owe what we owe for those beneficial Acts but to his granting them neither Praise nor Thanks No! and by what Law I would fain know is the King obliged to pass every Bill that is offered him He swears 't is true to defend the Laws i. e. Such Laws as are then in being but that obliges him to no futurity in granting every thing whether good or bad that shall be offer'd him And therefore unless he had shewn at least some one Act of Parliament that had not the Royal Assent to it he might with more Modesty have acknowledged that it was in the King's Option whether to have passed these Acts or not Sir Ed. Coke 4 â—â—nst 25. because neither of the Houses singly not both of them together can make any binding Law without the King's Concurrence which gives the Embryo Life and quickens it into 〈◊〉 Law But saith he The first Bill granted lesâ— than two former Statutes yet in force by Edward the Third that a Parliament should be called every Year or oftner if need were Very well anâ— there being no more in it it is somewhat strange methinks how the King could be necessitated to the passing it or that the Houses eveâ—â— desired it When all that he says to it is Thaâ— the King conceal'd not his unwillingness in testifying a general dislike of their Actions and told theâ— with a Masterly Brow that by this Act he had obliged them above what they had deserved And truly if the King had said it or given thaâ— Masterly Brow for which yet he brings nâ— Voucher but himself those subsequent Acts oâ— Parliament which repeal'd both these Acts have sufficiently evidenc'd their particular dislike of them also in that they nulled them And how well they were pleas'd with their Persons or their Actions the Statute of the 12th of Charles the Second before-mention'd may satisfie any Man And as to the other Act for settling their sitting c. The King saith he had by his ill Stewardship and to say no worse the needless raising of two Armies intended for a Civil War beggar'd both himself and the Publick Left us in score to his greedy Enemies their Brethren the Scots to dis-engage which great Sums were to be borrow'd which would never have been lent if he who first caused the Malady might when he pleas'd reject the Remedy And from thence and other the like dross meerly thrown in to help out Weight which yet he never gives he comes to this That it was his Fear not his Favour drew that first Act from him lest the Parliament incens'd by his Conspiracies against them should with the People have resented too heinously those his doings if to the suspicion of their danger from him he had also added the denial of this only means to secure themselves And now to examine it a little he charges the King with the needless raising two Armies intended for a Civil War What the Houses then intended was afterwards visible by its Effects a Civil War But that the King should intend it and at the same time divest himself of his Power is manifestly ridiculous For as he says himself 1641. this Bill was pass'd in May whereas the King besides his Journey into Scotland retired not from Whitehall till above half a Year afterwards and when he left it considering their respective Conditions might have as truly said Cum baculo transivi Jordanum istum And how then could he intend a Civil War Having as our Accuser says so beggar'd himself For what concerns the King's Enemies and their dear Brethren I refer it to its proper Place And for what relates to the Sums of Money to be borrow'd besides what I have already shewn how they were dispos'd of Chap. 1 I add this That they could not have put the Kingdom into a Posture of a Defence i. e. â—â—â—'d a Rebellion without it And withal considering that the King set not up his Standard till the August following 1642. he must have been much shorter sighted than our Answerer all along endeavours to make him to have design'd a War without Sir Edward Coke's Materials Firmamentum belli Ornamentum pacis which the Houses having taken his Revenue into their Hands all the World knew he wanted But the 〈◊〉 â—ot yet run to the end of the 〈…〉 King taxes them for undoing what they found well done Yet knows they undid nothing but Lord Bishops Liturgy Ceremonies c. judged worthy by all Protestants to be thrown out of the Church But what Protestants were they that so judg'd it Those of the Church of England were I am sure of another Opinion and the temporal Laws of the Kingdom had sufficiently establish'd them And therefore since Interest had so blinded his Intellect that he world not see were he now living I could tell him wherein they had undone what they found well done And because there are many yet in being who perhaps may be willing enough to be satisfied
of a King A King of England of whose Predecessors the Parliament of England had declar'd That they could not assent to any thing that tended to the dis-inherison of the King and his Crown Sir Ed. Coke 4 Inst 14. whereunto they were Sworn But what could the wisest of Men say to it when the Parliament and the Rabble were both of a side And whether they were so or not witness those Tumultuary Routs from the Men of Essex Colchester Devon Somerset Middlesex Hartford Sir W Dagdale's Short View Fol. â—5 London Apprentices Seamen nay the very Women and all for putting the Kingdom into a Posture c On which follow'd those several Associations for suppressing the Popish Malignant Party though in truth it was to pursue the King with all vehemence Id. Dagd 113. for such are the Words of Essex's Letter to the Houses near that time Nor were the Black Cloaks less wanting to their Parts they could blow the Bellows well enough tho' they car'd not how little they wrought at the Forge And therefore seeing the Reverence of his Government was lost with the People and the Great Ones moving at another rate quam ut Imperantium meminissent 〈◊〉 As it was no less than time for His Majesty to retire and pray for fair Weather so our Answerer instead of snarling and catching at his Words might have suffer'd him to depart in Peace But to go on with him I am saith the King not further bound to agree with the Votes of both Houses than I see them agree with the Will of God my Rights as a King and the general good of my People And better for me to die enjoying this Empire of my Soul which subjects me only to God than live with the Title of a King if it carry such a Vassallage with it as not to suffer me to use my Reason and Conscience in which I declare as a King to like or dislike An use of Reason saith our Answerer If he thereby means his Negative Voice most reasonless and unconscionable and the utmost that any Tyrant ever pretended over his Vassals For if the King be only set up to execute the Law which is indeed the highest of his Office he can no more reject a Law offer'd him by the Common than he can new-make a Law which they reject And yet as reasonless and unconscionable as he pretends to make it this Negative Voice is and ever has been the undoubted Right of the Kings of England For besides what I had the occasion to speak to this matter before it is no Statute if the King assent not to it Because if it were all those Bills that have passed both Houses and for want of the Royal Assent lie buried in Oblivion might as occasion serv'd be trump'd up for Laws And if he may dis-assent it is a sufficient Proof of this Negative Voice and that he may refuse or ratifie as he sees cause And withal shews where this Legislation lies though the use of it be restrained to the consent of both Houses whose Rogation which is exclusive of all co-ordinate Power preceeds the Kings Ratification Then for his if the King be only set up c. If this if be false his whole matter falls with it And that it is so I thus prove it The Parliament-Roll 1 Edw. I. n. 8. says That upon the decease of King Richard the Second 9 Edw. 4. Fol. â— 6 the Crown by Law Custom and Conscience descended and belonged to Edmund Earl of March under whom King Edward the Fourth claimed And Henry the Fourth who had usurp'd upon King Richard the Second makes no other Title but as Inheritor to King Henry the Third Sir J. Hayward's 1st year of â—â—n 4. So the Parliament of the first of King James the First Recognize as say they we are bound by the Law of God and Man the Realm of England and the Imperial Crown thereof doth belong to him by Inherent Birthright and lawful and undoubted Succession The same also for Queen Elizabeth 1 Eliz â— 1. as to her Which shews that Kings are neither set up by the People nor have the Titles to their Crowns from the two Houses but by Inherent Birthright Which needs no setting up And so I think what depends upon this if sinks with it though I shall have a further occasion to speak to it in his next Paragraph And here he taxes the King for saying He thinks not the Majesty of the Crown of England to be bound by any Coronation Oath in a blind and brutish formality to consent to whatever its Subjects in Parliament shall require But where does the Law of England say the King is so bound Tho' yet out Answerer is pleas'd to say What Tyrant could presume to say more when he meant to kiâ—â— down all Law Government and Bond of Oath Least considering what his Majesty subjoyns viz. I think my Oath fully discharg'd is that Point by my Governing only by such Laws as my People with the House of Peers have chosen and my self consented to Nor did the Coronation Promise See the Oath in every Hist of his Reign or Oath oblige him to more than To hold and keep the Laws and rightful Customs which the Commonalty of this his Kingdom have and to defend and uphold them to the Honour of God so much as in him lay Whereas had there been any Obligation upon him to have consented to whatever the Parliament shall require it is not to be doubted but it would have been expressed in the Oath as it is not And yet our Answerer less doubts to say That that Negative Voice to deny the passing of any Law which the Commons chuse is both against the Oath of his Coronation and his Kingly Office in that he makes himself Superiour to his whole Kingdom which our standing Laws gainsay as hath been cited to him in Remonstrances That the King hath two Superiors the Law and his Court of Parliament An excellent Proof in the mean time But we 'll examine it a little The Common-Law saith Omnis sub Rege Sir E. Coke 1 Inst 1. c. Every Man is under the King and he under none but God And to the same purpose Bracton Lib. â— Ed. 55. 2 Inst 496. from whom he quotes it His Prerogative is a part of the Law of the Land All offences are said to be against the Peace of our Sovereign Lord the King c. The Laws of England are call'd the King's Laws The Parliament as is confess'd to my hand his Parliament And therein also the King is sole Judge 22 Ed III. 3. the rest but Advisers His is the power of Calling Proroguing and Dissolving them 4 Inst 46. Id. Inst 3. And by his Death they are dissolv'd of course And why all this but that the King is Principium Caput c. The beginning the head and end of a Parliament As he is also the Head of
the Commonwealth And of the Law 1 Inst 73. Id. Inst 99. which he is presum'd to carry in Scrinio pectoris sui And then for the statute-Statute-Law besides those Statutes that call the Kingdom the Kings Ligeance 27 Ed. 3. c. 1. 10 11. R. 2. c. 1. 25. H. 8. c. 3. the King Liege Lord the People his Leige Men it is further declared 16 R. 2. c. 5. That the Crown of England hath been ever so free that it is in no Earthly Subjection but subject to God in all things touching the Regality of the same Crown and to none other So that of Henry the Eighth which says That by sundry old Authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declar'd and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire govern'd by one Supream Head and King 24 H. 8. c. 12. unto whom both Spiritualty and Temporalty are bound and owen to bear next to God a natural and humble Obedience And in another of the same King 25 H. 8. c. 21. the Crown of England is called An Imperial Crown recognizing no Superiour under God but only your Grace i. e. the King Which Statutes being declaratory Statutes as others of that kind made in affirmance of the common-Common-Law are a guide in praeteritis 2 Inst 308. as saith Sir Edw. Coke and shew us what the Law as before the making of those Statutes Which I the rather urge because our Answerer makes such a sputter about the old Law though as well here as generally throughout his Book he has an odd way with him of keeping it to himself However if this be to have a Superiour be the Superiour he that will and keep it without Envy And for what concerns me I hope I have prov'd that the King of England has no Superiour but God and that neither the Law nor his Coronation-Oath require his undeniable Assent to what Laws the Parliament agree upon but that he may well refuse them without the Imputation of Incomparable Arrogance aâ—â—Vnsufferable Tyranny as he is pleas'd to term it One thing I had forgot Suppose the King had never been Crown'd by which means he could not have taken the Coronation Oath was he the less King for that I should think not And if I am mistaken 3 Inst 7. Sir Edw. Coke was mistaken before me when he says The King iâ— King before Coronation So 7 Coke Calvin's Case and Coronation is but an Ornament or Solemnity of Honour Which in other Words may amount to this That he promises no more at that time that what he was morally pre-oblig'd to do viz. To discharge that Duty honourably which the Laws of God and Nature had requir'd of him without that Royal Promise CHAP. VII Vpon the Queen's Departure and Absence out of England AND truly this Chapter being but a kind of Re-capitulation of the mutual Endearments between the King and his Queen whose Sympathy with his Afflictions had assur'd him and might the World that she lov'd him and not his Fortunes might one would think if not for the King 's have for her own sake escap'd his Venom but poor Lady she was the King's Wife and Malice like Fear where it finds no real Object will be sure to create one And truly it was once in my Thoughts to have spoken more at large to it and had done it but that I fear'd even Truth it self might incurr the suspicion of Flattery What my end was in making this Reply I have already shewn it was to vindicate that good King from this ill Man's Calumnies and the Method I have taken in it has been from the History of that time and the Prior Law of the Land as it came in my way and therefore not to break that Method as I find him hereafter running wide of that Matter I shall purposely leave him as I do at present CHAP. VIII Vpon His Majesty's repulse at Hull and the Fates of the Hothams THIS my repulse at Hull saith the King was the first overt Essay to be made how patiently I could bear the loss of my Kingdoms The hand of that Cloud which was soon after to over-spread the whole Kingdom and cast all into disorder and darkness Which how Prophetically true it was the miserable effects of it both before and since the Restauration have too visibly spoken it And yet our Answerer thus slubbers it over That Hull a Town of great Strength and Opportunity both to Sea and Land Affairs was at that time the Magazine of all those Arms which the King had bought against the Scots The King had left the Parliament and was gone Northward The Queen into Holland where she pawn'd and set to Sale the Crown Jewels a Crime heretofore counted Treasonable in Kings and to what purpose the Parliament was not ignorant and timely sent Sir John Hotham Knight of that County to take Hull into his Custody and some of the Train'd-bands to his Assistance and seeing the King's Drift in raising a Guard for his Person send him a Petition that they might have leave to remove the Magazine of Hull to the Tower of London which the King denies and soon after goes to Hull with Four Hundred Horse and requires the Governour to deliver him up the Town whereof the Governour prays to be excused till he could send notice to the Parliament who had entrusted him and the King being incens'd at it Proclaims him a Traytor before the Town Walls and demands Justice of them as upon a Traytor who declare that Sir John Hotham had done no more than his Duty and therefore was no Traytor And this is the Substance of his 57. 58. 59 Pages How and by their own Authority which was none the Houses had rais'd an Army and made Essex General I have already shewn and though the King had not yet set up his Standard he knew he had a Magazine at Hull which might either help to defend himself or certainly annoy him if it fell into his Enemies Hands and therefore in order to a Self-Preservation takes a Journey to York where the Parliament had been before him with a Committee then lying there as Spies upon his Actions However upon Petition of that County to have the Magazine of Hull to remain there for the greater Security of the Northern Parts His Majesty thought fit to take it into his own Hands and appointed the Earl afterwards Duke of Newcastle to be Governour of Hull but the Townsmen had been so influenc'd by that Committee that they refused the Earl The Queen also had borrow'd some Moneys of the Hollanders upon the Crown Jewels a Crime heretofore counted treasonable in Kings but not a word of when or by what Law not in the least considering the Crown it self was the King's or how the King of England could commit Treason against himself The Houses during this time wanting no Intelligence from their Committee nick the Opportunity and send down Sir John Hotham who was receiv'd as
That all Kings are the Lord 's Anointed it were yet absurd to think that the Anointment of God should be as it were a Charm against Law I know not what he means by that all Kings Saul was David was and particularly laments the fall of Saul As if he had not been anointed with Oil. 2 Sam. 1.11 And I never found any reason to doubt but that all Christian Hereditary Kings are the same too and consequently exempt from the Law forasmuch as concerneth the coactive force of the Law though not forasmuch as concerneth the directive Power of the Law Lord â—leâ—meâ—'s post â—â—ti 106. Subjects are bound to fullfil the Law by necessity of Compulsion but the Prince only by his own Will in regard of the common good For seeing the Law is but a kind of Organ or Instrument of the Power that governeth Hist of the World 29â— it seems saith Sir Walter Rawleigh that it cannot extend it self to bind any one whom no humane power can controul or lay hold of And therefore till I find better Authority for this his Iustice than he has yet given I shall look upon it as I do on the rest of his Book a thing meerly stuffed out to deceive the People If Subjects also by the Law of the Church so much approv'd by this King be invested with a Power of Judicature both without and against their King it will be firm and valid against him though pretending and by them acknowledg'd next and immediately under Christ Supream Head and Governour But what King or Queen of England besides Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth and Queen Mary for her two first Years ever us'd that word Head Or in what Age was it that the Church of England ever pretended a power of Judicature both without and against their Kings He says if they are invested with such a Power but shews not that they are and instead thereof tells us that St. Ambrose excommunicated Theodosius the Emperour which he calls a Spiritual putting to death The like did St. German by Vortiger And two other Kings of Wales excommunicated by their respective Bishops Subjects of those Kings And admitting it I never heard that any of those Bishops ever perswaded the People that it was lawful to Murther those Kings or how does it make out this his Iustice against the King 'T is a shrewd sign a Man is sinking when he takes hold of Twigs Then he comes up with the particular Laws and Acts of Greece Athens Sparta Rome c. But what 's that to England must we be govern'd as they were Their Laws were for it the Laws of England directly against it Nor is there any Country whatever but has its particular Laws or Customs If a Man steal an Oxe or a Horse in the Isle of Man it is no Felony 4 Inst 285. for having no Woods the Offender cannot hide them but if he steal a Capon or a Pig he shall be hang'd for it But what need we saith he search after the Laws of other Lands for what is so fully and so plainly set down lawful in our own Where antient Books tell us Bracton Fleta and others that the King is under the Law and inferiour to his Parliament As for Bracton the Words that he means may be perhaps these Rex habet Superiorem Deum scilicet Item Legem per quam factus est Rex Item curiam suam viz. Comites Barones The King hath a Superiour to wit God But doth not say Superiours in the Plural Number Also a Law by which he is made King i. e. He hath a Law but says not a word of Punishment Also his Court to wit his Earls and Barons Not a Court as if it were of some others Constitution but a Court of his own Where the word habet in Propriety of Latin is necessarily understood 1 Inst 1. Or otherwise he would be contradictory to himself when he saith Omnis sub Rege Bra. l. 4. c. 24. S. 5. c. Every Man is under the King and he is under none but God He is not inferiour to his Subjects and hath no Peer in his Realm But saith no where that he is under the Law and inferiour to his Parliament which word his sufficiently denotes where the Superiority lies And for Fleta he saith Lib. 1. c. 17. f. 16. None can judge in Temporal Matters but only the King and his Substitutes Id. F. 66. And he hath his Court in his Council in his Parliaments c. And for the Mirrour of Justice a Book written in Edward the First 's time that says Mirâ— 232. Jurisdiction is the chief Dignity that appertains to the King And for what concerns the King's Oath it has been several times altered since that And what this King's Oath was I have particularly shewn before Chap. 6 Those objected Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy we swore not to his Person but as it was invested with his Authority The same said the Spencers in Edward the Second's time but it was condemned for Treason by two Acts of Parliament 7 Coke 11 12. And Sir Edw. Coke calls it a damnable detestable and execrable Treason For Corps natural le Roy politique sont un Corps Plowd 213.234.242 and are inseparable and indivisible for both make but one King 4 Inst 46. The death of the King dissolveâ— a Parliament Now if this referr'd only to his politick Capacity the Parliament would continue after his Death because a Body Politick never dies And now as the Covenant once help'd the Houses at a dead lift it must do our Accuser the like Job at parting or this his Iustice will be little beholding to it Certainly no discreet Person can imagine it should bind us to him in any stricter Sense than those Oaths formerly And truly I must approve him when he deals ingenuously no certainly it did not for they broke all three The intent of the Covenant as it was to extirpate Prelacy to preserve the Rights of Parliament and the Liberties of the Kingdom so they intended so far as it might consist with these to preserve the King's Person and Authority but not otherwise for that had been to swear us into Labirynths and Repugnancies We vow'd farther to bring Delinquents to open Tryal and condign Punishment So that to have done so by the King hath not broke the Covenant but it would have broke the Covenant to have sav'd him the chief Actor as they thought him at the time of taking that Covenant Ye have heard what he says and I leave it to every Man to apply it as he pleases But because this matter has already taken up a whole Chapter between us I referr my Reader to what I have there said Chap. 14 And now to close all and if there be any Man has a Mind to learn how to break Oaths by Providence and forswear himself to the Glory of God To say Grace to the action be it never so ungodly and give Thanks for the Success be it never so wicked To carry on a Design under the name of Publick Good and make the slavery of a Nation the liberty of the People Or in a word to hold forth any useful though notorious Untruth with convenient Obstinacy until he believes it himself and so renders it no Sin let him read this Book of Mr. Milton's and if he does not improve upon it he may thank God for it FINIS
Alij diutius Imperium tenuerunt nemo tam fortiter reliquit Tacit. Histor Lib. 2. c. 47. p. 417 VINDICIAE CAROLINAE OR A DEFENCE OF ἘΙΚΩΠΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ THE Portraicture of his Sacred Majesty in his Solitudes and Sufferings IN REPLY To a BOOK Intituled ἘΙΚΟÎΟΚΛΑΣΤΗΣ Written by Mr. Milton and lately Re-printed at Amsterdam Vere magnum habere fragilitatem hominis securitatem Dei Seneca London Printed by J. L. for Luke Meredith at the Angel in Amen-Corner MDCXCII THE PREFACE OUR Author has forespoken his Reader with a long Preface and Custom has so obtain'd that not to take notice of it were to allow it for Truth yet as long soever as it is I may be the shorter in mine in regard there are some things we shall not much differ about As when he begins to discant on the Misfortunes of a Person fallen from so high a Dignity who has also paid his final Debt both to Nature and his Faults is not of it self a thing commendable And I come so near him that I deem it in no wise commendable much less to defend a Party by whose Injustice he fell For Revenge and Envy stop at the Grave and however our Lives are at the Mercy of others even Fortune herself has no Dominion over the Dead But when he says And his Faults and that it is not the intention of his Discourse I referr my Reader to this of mine wherein from the Ordinances of that time and the Law of the Land I have I hope acquitted the King and for the other whatever his intention might be prov'd his Book contrary to what he gives out here He further supposes it no Injury to the Dead but a good Deed rather to the Living to better inform them by remembring them the Truth of what they themselves know to be mis-affirm'd And I agree with him for if a Man may not make the Blind to go out of his way there is this Charity due to a Short-sighted Multitude to point them at least where they first went astray and by bringing them back to the old Paths both shew them how they lost their Way and set them right for the future Yet agree as we will we must part at last for instead of not discanting on the Misfortunes of his murther'd Sovereign and of better informing the People of what he slily insinuates themselves know to be mis-affirm'd by the King the whole drift of his Book is to blast the one and spread a Mist before the other whereas mine is to vindicate the King and what in me lies to clear the Air of that Pestilent Vapour In the mean time and until I come to it I shall briefly consider the matter of his Preface and the manner of putting it together As to the former it is an abstract of his Book written in Scandal to the King's Book and himself And saith he for their Sakes who thro' Custom Simplicity or want of better Teaching have not more seriously consider'd Kings than in the gaudy name of Majesty in behalf of Liberty and the Commonwealth That is to say Licentiousness and Democracy words altogether foreign to the English whose Constitutions know nothing but an Hereditary Imperial Monarchy recognizing no Superiour under God but only the King unto whom both Spiritualty and Temporalty are bound and owe a Natural Obedience Unto which his Notions are directly contrary for if the Soveraignty lay in the People the King were not Supream but himself subject to that Power which is transcendent to his as appertaining to them and then the State of England were Democratical if it lay in the Nobles then were it Aristocratical or if in either or all of them it were in no wise Monarchical which both the Common-Law and Statute-Law of England have ever declar'd this Kingdom to be as shall be shewn in its proper place And yet he doubts not to impose upon his Reader That the People heretofore were wont to repute for Saints those faithful and couragious Barons as he calls them who lost their Lives in the Field making glorious War against Tyrants for the common Liberty As Simon de Monfort Earl of Leicester against Henry the Third Thomas Plantagenet Earl of Lancaster against Edward the Second And truly Siqua est ea Gloria England wants not wherein to Glory though I think neither of these comes under his Character For the first of them a Frenchman by Extraction ran into open Rebellion against Henry the Third whose Sister he had first vitiated then Married Took the King Prisoner and carried him about in the Army as Cromwell did this King and made him own all his the Earl's Actions as the Parliament but ineffectually endeavour'd it also and was at last slain in actual Rebellion at the Battle of Evesham by the Prince our English Justinian the Man who by rescuing oppress'd Laws taught the Crown of England not to serve and first deliver'd it from the Wardship of the Barons These Barons the Descendants of those where the Devil in the Father turn'd Monk in the Son for being conscious to themselves that whatever they had whether of Honour or Possessions had been commenc'd in Conquest and Rapine what better way of securing both than by siding with the People who had by this time forgotten they were the Posterity of those who had beggar'd their Ancestors And for the other of Lancaster he also was taken in a like Rebellion against Edward the Second and being thereof Convicted was Beheaded at Pomfrect nor other than Rebellion do I find any Remark of him but that his Name was Plantagenet and the Mobb call'd him King Arthur And therefore the most that can be said of them is what Aaron of his Calf These be thy Gods O Israel And having laid this Foundation for Matter who could expect his manner of doing it should be better more than that Grapes may be gathered of Thorns or Figs of Thistles Nor has he in the least deceiv'd me in it when though there 's a decency of Language due to the meanest of Men and Mankind insults not over a Slave in Misery yet neither in his Preface or his whole Book doâ—s he ever mention the King or his â—ctions without that irreverence as would put a modest Man to the Blush in reading it What the particular Expressions are I forbear to mention them where I may possibly avoid it and referr the Reader to them as they every where occur lest otherwise I be like him that pretends to answer a Seditious Book and Prints that with his answer that it may be remembred cum Privilegio However this from the whole though the Scripture calls Princes Gods that Prince is yet to be born whose some action or other did not confess Humanity and require Candour Moses was King among the Righteous and David a Man after God's own Heart and yet it cannot be said of either of them In nullo erratum est And therefore instead of raking the Graves of Princes we
times at what time it pleas'd God in Mercy to these Kingdoms to restore King Charles the Second to the Throne of his murther'd Father but that they yet expect the Advancement of the Sceptre and that as obstinately as the Jews their Messias were there no other Argument the very re-impression of this Book may seem sufficient to evince especially if we consider the following Circumstances 1. That it bears the Impress from Amsterdam a Popular State to the freedom of whose Presses we are beholding for many things we had otherwise miss'd However whether it were that Amsterdam or another of the same Name in or near London as Printers have a way to themselves it matters not its Principles are altogether Republican and whoever he were that thus shuffled it into the World took the right course in chusing darkness rather than light because his Way was evil To have offered at a Commonwealth directly had been Madness and yet who knew how he might turn it about by a Side Wind 2. That a Book which from its first impression had been Waste-Paper and never read by any good Man without Contempt should after an interval of two and forty Years be raked out of its forgotten Embers if the design at bottom had not been to re-mind the People of the days of old and hint to them how the same Cards may be play'd over again as God shall enable them i. e. as opportunity shall offer And if this be not the drift of it let any Man judge when in bespattering that good King it represents to them by a false Glass what they may expect from other Kings and in effect tells them A Lyon is still a Lyon and tho' his laws be pared they 'll grow agen 3. That as if there had been some private agreement between them it was seconded by another to the same Tune intituled A Letter from Major General Ludlow to Sir E. S. which whether it were his or his Name only made use of to serve a turn will not be much in the Case tho' it confirm the Design The name is yet a popular name among that Faction and himself a daring Man witness his late regress into England and that not Incognito but in the face of the Sun in Westminster-Hall a Parliament and Judges then sitting where once he sate Judge himself and had there been a third of Mr. Jenkins's to have rung All-in What wonder if the Sheep had followed their Bell-weathers And if this were not the Design strange it seems and no small breach of Politicks to have thrust it on the World at a time when three of the Grand-Children of that King are yet Living and two of them in possession of the Throne It was one of Milton's Sarcasms to Salmatius Patrem defendis ad fillum mirum ni causam obtineas You defend the Father to the Son no wonder if you carry the Cause But on the other hand how can any of His Posterity think themselves secure while the murther of the Grandfather is yet mention'd without abhorrence When in a manner it hints the Faction with the Proverb Stultus qui patre caeso pepercit liberis tandem aliquando patriae necis futuros vindices He 's a Fool that kills the Father and spares the Children who some time or other will be sure to revenge it But malicious and nothing but malicious could be the Printing the Advertisement at the end of his Preface grounded it seems upon a Memorandum of the Earl of Anglesey's Viz. King Charles the Second and the Duke of York did both in the last Session of Parliament 1675. when I shewed them in the House of Lords the Written Copy of this Book meaning â—con Basilica wherein are some corrections and alterations written with the late King Charles the First 's own Hand assure me That it is none of the said King 's compiling but made by Dr. Gawden Bishop of Exeter which I here insert for the undeceiving others in this point by attesting so much under my hand Anglesey And that the Earl might have left such a Memorandum as is said I do not doubt because I have heard of it so often but what end the first Publisher of it had I cannot devise unless it were to Crucifie his Lord again and by putting in his Stab to His Memory expose him a second time which the more merciful Jews did but once to our Saviour with a Behold the Man and yet notwithstanding all this I doubt not to evince it to every unbiass'd Man that this The Portraiclure of his Sacred Majesty King Charles the First in his Solitudes and Sufferings was an Original drawn by Himself and not by any other Hand or Pencil For 1. He was able to do it as having been early bred up to Letters in design if Prince Henry had lived to be King for the Archbishoprick of Canterbury To which if it be said He had some little difficulty of Speech I answer Jer. 1.6 Exod. 4.10 Nescivit Jeremias loqui and Moses himself was Impeditioris Linguae And what of that It is the Office of a Steward to see the Provision be good and that the Family have it in due Season but I think no Man will say to Cook it himself 2. These Meditations are written feelingly and carry with them the Sense and Language of a Person under such Circumstances Jeremiah in his Prophecy denounceth Judgments to others and speaks with the Tongue of him that sent him but in his Lamentations we see him in distress himself and his Stile is as mournful as the City he bewails And he that reads Job with due consideration instead of doubting whether he wrote it himself cannot but sit down and weep with him Especially taking this with it that the Holy Ghost in his Pen labours more to describe that affliction than ever it did the Felicities of Solomon 3. Neither the Thought nor Stile are in the least like that of Bishop Gawden nor is it to be doubted if he had been the Author of so well a design'd Service to the Memory of a distress'd Father but that he might on the Son's Restauration have reasonably deserv'd a better Bishoprick than that of Exeter especially when so many of those Vacancies were fill'd with Covenanters Whereas on the other hand do but compare this Icon with his Majesty's Speeches in Parliament with his Discourse about Religion with the Marquess of Worcester His Papers with Henderson touching Episcopacy His Letters to the Queen Those his frequent tho' fruitless Messages to both Houses from Hampton-Court and the Isle of Wight when he was under restraint debarr'd of every one that might assist or comfort Him and the Company obtruded upon Him was more sad than any Solitude could be compare I say this Icon Icon. Basâ— 195. and them together and then tell me whether they do not all breathe the same Soul and consequently whether they can justly be denied to have proceeded from the same Pen. And for
what the Memorandum further says That King Charles the Second and the Duke of York did assure him it was none of the said King 's compiling c. An Earl it is said wrote it and I dispute it not but this I say That neither the King nor the Duke could speak it of their own knowledge but as by report from others because the King then Prince of Wales from his Expedition into the West with General Ruthien from whence he went off to France could not have seen His Father in near four Years before His death and therefore it seems improbable that the King should have shewn him a Letter To the Prince of Wales and at the same time told him it was not of his own compiling when yet the Letter says Id. Iâ—â—n 221. Son if these Papers come to your hands c. and concludes Farewel till we meet if not on Earth yet in Heaven And if the King did not tell him so then what he assured the Earl could not be of his own knowledge And for the Duke of York he was under Thirteen at the Surrender of Oxford from whence he was brought to St. James's where he made his Escape for Dort so that except when he saw his Royal Father at Hampton-Court which could not be often he could not have seen him in two Years and an half before his Death Nor seems it probable that the King should communicate his Thoughts with a Person of those Years albeit a Prince and his Son but not his next Heir But on the contrary more probable for both that what they so spake was but by report which young Princes are but too apt to take up from those who to cover their own Ignorance perswade them it smells too strong of the Pedant for a King to take up a Pen when yet the greatest of former Ages are oftner remmembred by their Pens than their Swords Caesar yet lives in his Commentaries M. Aurelius in his Philosophy and we may read Trajan by his Epistles to Pliny But to come nearer home Our Henry the first is as well known by the Name of Beauclerke as of King of England Henry the Eighth's Pen not his Sword gave him the Title of Defender of the Faith And this the Royal Portraict of our murther'd Sovereign shall outlast every thing but it self and Time Lastly And if there yet want some living credible Testimony of that time or matter of Record since Sir William Dugdate an indefatigable Searcher of our English Antiquities and perfect Master of the Transactions of his own Time gives us this gradual account viz. That these Meditations had been begun by His Majesty in Oxford long before he went from Oxford to the Scots under the Title of Suspiria Regalia That the Manuscript it self written with his own Hand being lost at Naseby was restored to him at Hampton-Court by Major Huntington who had obtain'd it from Fairfax That Mr. Thomas Herbert who waited on His Majesty in his Bed-Chamber in the Isle of Wight and Mr. William Levett a Page of the Back-stairs frequently saw it there and not only read several parts of it but saw the King divers times writing farther on it And that that very Copy was by his Majesty's direction to Bishop Duppa sent to Mr. R. Royston a Bookseller at the Angel in Ivy-Lane the 23d of December 1648. who made such Expedition that the Impression was finish'd before that dismal 30th of January on which the King was bereft of his Life As may be better read from himself Sir W. Dugdâ—â—â—'s Short View c. p. 380 381. in his Short View of the late Troubles in England And this further I speak of my own Knowledge That the very next Morning after that horrid Act I saw one of them and read part of it under the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which it now bears And for matter of Record and that the World may the more undeniably be convinc'd that both King Charles the Second and King James the Second did believe this Book was written by their Royal Father let him that doubts it but look upon Reliquiae Sacrae Carolinae Printed it the Year 1662 or any Impression of this Book since that time and he will find prefix'd to them a Privilege or Patent of King Charlâ— the Second to the said Mr. Royston his Executors c. for the sole Printing and Publishing the Book intituled Reliquiae c. and all other the Works of his said Royal Father and moâ— especially mentions these most excellent Meditation and Soliioquies by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it so happening that most of that Impression in 1662. coming to be lost in the Fire of London whereby the Book became very dear anâ— scarce to be had King James the Second upon his coming to the Crown reciting those former Letters Patent grants him the like Privilege for the Printing and Publishing the said Book as it had been in the Year 1662. And now what shall an honest Man do in such a Case sâ—aâ— he give Credit to a bare Memorandum of what another said and as 't is most probable by report only or say the Circumstances before were not of weight to two Records For my part I take the King's Certificate to be of high nature yet I should hardly believe thâ— King himself against any one single Record against which the Law of England admits no Averrment and therefore I think no Man ought to make more of a Posthumous Memorandum than what the Law makes of it In a word these Pathetick Meditations no sooner came abroad than the Nation was undeceiv'd concerning the Author the Scales were fallen from their Eyes and they religiously look'd on Him whom in the simplicity of their Hearts they had pierced These our Pharisees saw and confest it themselves but said they if we let it alone the Romans will come and take away our City And therefore finding they could not suppress them they made it their Eusiness what in them lay to blot them Nay to that impudence they were arrived that and I saw it my self this Icon was exposed to Sale bound up with the Alcoran III. What end I proposed to my self in making this Reply And that 's easily shown nor is it forbidden any Man to burn Incense where the Air 's infected That this Royal Martyr has been calumniated is but too visible but how justly I am coming to examine In which I have this advantage to my hand That Time the Mother of Truth has justified her Daughter concerning Him and might have stopt the Rancour of his most inveterate Enemies but that nothing how evident soever can affect those that have a secret against blushing To be short my end is to vindicate this Good this Just however Unfortunate Prince to blow off that Froth that has been thrown on his Memory and according to my strength deliver him to the World as he was A great if not the only steddy
oâ— which that Parliament was dissolv'd by Commission Whereas this Accuser would peâ—swade the World that the King broke off thâ— Parliament for no other cause than to proteâ—â— the Duke against them who had accused him 〈◊〉 no less than the poisoning his Father And trâ—ly I was once wondring why he said nothing touching the Parliament of the third of King Charles till I considered it was in that Parliament that the King past the Petition of Right with Soit Droit sait come il est desire He found it was not for him and therefore resolv'd iâ— should make nothing against him When oâ—â— the contrary he reproaches the King with illegal Actions to get Money least considering iâ— was the Art of that time to reduce the King to Necessity to the end that being forced to extraordinary means he might attract a popular Odium And here also he quarrels at Straws and rather than not want matter he 'll find a Knot in a Bullrush For what other can he make of those Compulsive Knighthoods Milt p. 2. when the King had the Statute of 1 Edw. 2. De militibus to warrant it In like manner for the Ship-money The Dutch in the Year 1634. had encroach'd upon the Royalty of the Northern Seas upon which the King so loath was He to do any thing that might but seem illegal writes to the Judges and demands their Opinions in Writing whether when the good or safety of the Kingdom in general is concern'd the King may not by Writ under the Great Seal command all His Subjects of this Kingdom to furnish a certain number of Ships and Men for such time as the King shall think fit and by Law compel the doing it in case of refusal And whether in such a case he is not the sole Judge both of the danger of the Kingdom and when and how the same is to be prevented and avoided V. The case and all the Arguments on both sides Printed in 4 to As also in the said Annals from p. 550. to p. 600. To which every one of the twelve Judges repeating the very Words of the King's Letter subscribed their names in the Affirmative And though J. Hutton and J. Crooke afterwards fell off yet upon arguing the matter by all the Judges in the Exchequer-Chamber in the Case of Mr. Hambden the majority of them gave their Opinions for the Writs on which the Barons gave Judgment Then for Monopolies every thing is not a Monopoly that may be call'd so and therefore because he gives no particular instance either as to them or the King 's seizing Naboth's Vineyard as he calls it Inheritances under the pretence of Forest and Crown-Lands and Corruption and Bribery compounded for I say no more but this that Generals imply nothing and consequently deserve no particular Answer But this I know that in the Parliament of 44 oâ— Queen Elizabeth a Bill was preferr'd for Explanation of the Common Law in certain cases of Letters Patents V. Sir Simon D'ewe's Journal of the Commons 44. Eliz. viz. touching Monopolies and was strongly bandied on both sides Oâ— this the Queen sends them a Message That a she was not conscious to herself she had granted Letters Patents of any thing that was Maluâ— in se V. Townsend ' s Câ—llections 44. Eliz. so when it should appear that she had made any such Grant it should be revok'd or otherwise redressed on which the Common make her an humble Address of Thanks and a Grant of Subsidies and yet I do not find the Queen ever did any thing in it But what the King did as to the Grievances for that was the Word I shall come to shew presently The next thing he trumps up is The King'â— having the second time levied an injurious War against his Native Country Milt p. 3. Scotland a Waâ— saith he condemned and abominated by the wholâ— Kingdom and which the Parliament judged one oâ— their main Grievances Nor without reason for that was a cover'd Dish and had been long before cooking for their own Tooth They knew it would keep cold for another time and the King was not yet become necessitous enough to have it opened at present But to observe the wording it The King levied an unjust War c. As if a King might not defend himself against the Rebellion of his natural Lieges For such and no other was the case here But the Story is thus The King in the Sixteenth of his Reign had call'd another Parliament which opened 13. April 1640. at which time the Scots with an armed Force lay upon the Borders His Majesty by Sir J. Finch Lord Keeper tells them of the Scots Insurrection the Summer before V. Rushw Coll. 16. Car. 1. which he had pass'd by upon their Protestations of their future Loyalty instead of which they had now address'd to the King of France to put themselves under his Protection and causes an intercepted Letter of theirs signed by the heads of those Covenanters one of whom was then in Custody to be publickly read and therefore demands a Supply The Commons consider of it and pay it with complaints Innovation in Religion Grievances against Liberty Property and Privilege of Parliament The King sends several times to the Houses and presses to them the danger of the Scots Army but the question is which shall have the Precedency The Supply or Grievances The Lords are for the former and that the King ought to be first trusted The Commons are so long a tuning their Instrument that the King in despair of any good Musick from 'em dissolves them the Fifth of May following From which our Accuser thus infers that strong Necessities and the very pangs of State Milt p. 3. not his own Choice and Inclination made him call this Monstrum Horrendum Informe Ingens last Parliament which began the third of November 1640. when yet he brings nothing to back his Assertion but the scurrillous Language of the General Voice of the People almost hissing him and his ill-acted Regality off the Stage That it was impossible be should incline to Parliaments who never was perceived to call them but for the greedy hope of a National Bribe his Subsidies and never lov'd fulfill'd or promoted the true end of Parliaments the redress of Grievances of which himself was indeed the Author Not doubting also to call it a natural Sottishness fit to be abused and ridden And if this be the Reverence due to Majesty this the Respect we pay the Vicegerent of God sure Job was mistaken when he says Is it fit to say to a King Thou art Wicked and to Princes Job 34.18 Ye are ungodly The interrogation is in the Affirmative and concludes in the Negative No certainly it is not fit St. Paul checks a bare slip of his Tongue toward the High Priest Acts 25.5 Jude v. 9. Zach. 3.2 and the Arch-Angel in Jude brought not a railing Accusation even against the Devil And yet when
His Majesty says He hop'd by his Freedom and their Moderation to prevent Mis understandings See how Spider-like he draws Poison from what the Beâ— would have suck'd Honey And wherefore saith he not by their Freedom and his Moderation But Freedom he thought too high a Word for them and Moderation too mean a Word for him Insolence and if this as it seems to be were the early Moderation of his Masters I the less wonder how they broke down that Wall which at once adorn'd and defended their way However for reply to it the Kingdom was fallen into a Distemper that required a Cordiaâ— more than a Corrosive somewhat to cool not heighten the Fever And if His Majesty did not contribute his part to it let any Man judge When besides his granting The Petition of Right of which before he denied this Parliament nothing they had the confidence to ask him Witness his passing the Bill for a Triennial Parliament Vid. Scobel's Collection of Acts and Ordinances from 1640. and the Statutes at large 16 and 17 Car. 1. For the continuance of this Parliament during the Pleasure of both Houses than which what more could they have demanded but the Kingdom also For the raising Moneys for the disbanding of the Armies of England and Scotland It was but a modest disarming the King and for the Scots they wanted not the Bait to get them together again The taking away the several Courts of the Star-chamber the Presidencies of Wales and the North Dutchy of Lancaster and the Exchequer of the County Palatine of Chester The High Commission and Oath Ex Officio Limiting the Stannary Courts Setting Bounds to Forests The Bill against Ship-Money And what our Answerer calls compulsive Knighthoods Add to this his Consent to a Bill for Two Hundred and Twenty Thousand Pounds for the Supply of the Occasions of our Brethren of Scotland For pressing Soldiers for Ireland Borrowing Four Hundred Thousand Pounds for the necessary defence and great affairs of England and Ireland And another for the encouragement of Adventurers for Ireland So that in effect there remain'd little more for them to ask or His Majesty to grant And now to use the Parable of the Prophet touching his Vineyard Isa 1. v. 1. to v. 8. A Vineyard in a very fruitful Soil He fenced it and gathered out the Stones thereof and planted it with the choicest Vine c. And he looked that it should bring forth Grapes and it brought forth Wild Grapes Judge I pray between the King and his Vineyard the Kingdom What could have been done more to it thaâ— he had not done in it And he look'd foâ— Judgment but behold Oppression for Righteousness but behold a Cry Judge I say between the King and them when they had no sooner gotten an Army anâ— Money together and that for the reducement 〈◊〉 Ireland Vid. His Majesty's Answer to their Irish Papers as was pretended than they drove thâ— King from While hall by Tumults and fought hiâ— at Edge-Hill with those individual Forces They tax'd the King of illegal exactions anâ— grievances which he readily redressed Weâ— see now how they mended it themselves Shiâ— Money which was about Ten Shillings a Month out of a Thousand Pounds a Year was a greaâ— Burthen to the Country and the King took it of They set up the Excise in the room of it whicâ— was Two Hundred Thousand and Ninety fiâ—â— Pounds for one Year besides Eight Thousand Sixty three Pounds paid in the Country to thâ— Army The Country groan'd under Coat aâ—â— Conduct-Money See more of this chap. 13.15 They brought in an Army oâ— One and Twenty Thousand Scots instead oâ— ' em The King granted that Right be donâ— They secur'd Property in Sequestring Mens Estates In a word the Court went awaâ— in the City's Debt They made an Ordinancâ— for the Publick Faith of the Kingdom for the repayment of publick Debts that is such Moneys as they had borrow'd for the carrying oâ— of their Rebellion And for fear the King lightning their Burthens should make the People grow wanton they began with an Assesâ—ment for the twentieth part of their Estates and all this too for the Ease of the Nation And lastly to consider what return they made him Quis talia fando Temperet They first stripp'd him of his Royal Authority and having dealt with the Monarchy it self like Gold-beaters beaten it so thin that there remain'd no more of the Substance than the empty appearance They accuse him in the name of all the Commons of England in which case how could any of them be as Witness when they were both Accusers and Judges Try him with a ridiculous Pageantry that had neither Equal nor Superiour in his Realm Traiterously sentence him and as ignominiously murther him before his own Palace And to fill up the measure of their Wickedness abolish Kingly Government and proscribe his Posterity And so judge also whoever he be that reads me whether they deserv'd not what the Prophet says he will do to his Vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof and it shall be eaten up and break down the Wall thereof and it shall be trodden down I will lay it waste it shall not be pruned nor digged but there shall come up Briars and Thorns I will also command the Clouds that they rain no Rain upon it But to return to our Answerer The King in his wonted Sincerity says The Odium and Offences which some Mens rigour or remissness in Church and State had contracted upon his Government he resolved to have expiated with better Laws and Regulations A healing Proposition one would have thought and a fair step to an Accommodation A King said it nor is it for Princes that they should Lye and therefore could not but be credited by every Honest Man for he that is Vertuous himself believes the same of another But this Answerer according to the fullness of his Heart vomits out these and the like Expressions And yet saith he the work of Misdemeanours committed by the worst of all his Favourites he hath from time to time continued owned and taken upon himself by publick Declarations as often as any of his Instruments felt themselveâ— over-burthen'd with the Peoples Hatred And ye as publick as they are he instances not in any one Particular by which to have examin'd it A Favourite is the same to a King that a Friend is to a Private Man he may unburthen himself to him and it is not the Crowd but agreement makes the Company Nor are all Men of like Merit more than they are of Face and therefore if a King say Euge bone Serve must our Answerer's Eye be evil because the King 's is good But the point lies not there They are not piqu'd that the King might have Favourites but that themselves are not those Favourites and consequently wanting Vertue in themselves not only envy it in others but strike at the Prince through the Sides
rebuke them sharply from one of themselves even a Prophet of their own In a word true Morals and good Thoughts lose nothing of their Innate Excellence from whencesoever they are handed to us The Devil had not been the Enemy but Friend of Mankind if he had spoke no worse in Paradise than he did at Delphos viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know thy self And therefore admitting the Accusation were true where lies the Scandal Nor will he have done while there 's a drop yet left The King says He call'd this Parliament with an upright Intention to the Glory of God and his People's good Our Answerer makes this of it That there be some whom God hath given over to Delusion whose very Mind and Conscience is defil'd of whom St. Paul to Titus makes mention To which I say there is not any one such Expression in the whole Epistle but others there are whom he calls Evil Beasts Slow-bellies and Lions With which I leave him and proceed to the second Section CHAP. II. Vpon the Earl of Strafford's Death I Looked upon my Lord of Strafford saith His Majesty as a Gentleman whose great Abilities might make a Prince rather afraid than asham'd to employ him in the greatest affairs of State Yes saith our Answerer He was a Man whom all Men look'd upon as one of the boldest and most impetuous Instruments that the King had to advance any violent or illegal design He had rul'd Ireland and some Parts of England in an Arbitrary manner Had endeavour'd to subvert Fundamental Laws and Parliaments To make Hostility between England and Scotland And Counselled the King to call over that Irish Army of Papists to reduce England For which and many other Crimes alledged and proved against him iâ— twenty eight Articles he was Condemned of High Treason by the Parliament The Commons by the far greater number Cast him The Lords likewisâ— agreed to the Sentence and the People cry'd out foâ— Justice c. Only the King saith he was not satisfied in his Conscience to Condemn him of High Treason In reply to which I think he might morâ— truly have said not prov'd but alledg'd as I shalâ— come to shew presently That he was oncâ— the Darling of the Commons His Tryal of Tho. Earl of Strafford Fol. 763. to 769. we have several Instances of it in Mr. Rushworth But alas the King had made him Lord Deputy of Ireland and the heighth of that Sphere contracted Envy in the Great Ones and an Odium in the People nor is it every one that can say nâ—â—pluribus impar Though during that his Government he improv'd the Revenue of that Kingdom which before his time had been rather 〈◊〉 Charge than Advantage to this and procur'd of the King that all Impropriations then in thâ— Crown be restor'd to the Church of that Nation and supplied it with Learned Men out oâ— England upon the Scottish Invasion in 1639 he counsell'd the King 't is true to fight them out Vox Reipub honesta sibi anceps as Taciâ—â— of Galba on the like Occasion for the Scotcâ— Commissioners not long after preferr'd that Charge in Parliament against him before-mention'd And then for the Irish Army of Papists c. that brings me naturally to the Article themselves which were as is said Twentâ— Eight in number Some of which were for matters of Fourteen Years standing some of them as the First Seventeenth Eighteenth not insisted on and others as the Fourteenth Twenâ—y first Twenty Second Twenty Fourth not â—rg'd Dr. Nalson's impartial Collect Part 2. Fol. 8. And to disable him of the Testimony and Assistance of Sir George Ratcliffe his quondam Secretary and now Friend he also was charged with High-Treason and Confederacy with him and sent for out of Ireland The Earl had now been under five Months Imprisonment when the 22d of March 1640. he was brought to his Tryal which held till the 13th of April following and in which he defended himself so well that since there was neither Matter nor Proof enough against him to take off his Head by the Common-Law it was resolv'd a Bill of Attainder should The pinching Article against him was the Twenty third and is the main Particular mention'd in the said Bill viz. That he advis'd the King that he was loose and absolv'd from the Rule of Government and that he had an Army in Ireland by which he might reduce this Kingdom A shrewd Article no doubt and sufficiently evidences their Crime that without the King's Consent afterwards brought the Scots into England But let us see how this was proved There had been an old grudge between Sir Henry Vane the Father Secretary to the King and my Lord of Strafford touching the Title of Baron of the Castle of Raby of which Vane was Proprietor and endeavour'd the Honour to himself notwithstanding which the King had given it to the Earl of Strafford And is so happen'd that the said Sir Henry having a sudden occasion to make use of a Paper gave his Son young Sir Henry Vane the Key of his Cabineâ— where lay another Key which open'd a Tilâ—â— in which he found some short Notes of a Committee of eight of the Privy-Council of whicâ— the said Earl was one upon this Question Whâ—ther the War with Scotland should be offensive or defensive In which there were Words 〈◊〉 spoken by the said Earl somewhat to that puâ—pose but still relative to the War with Scoâ—land However young Sir Henry carries it 〈◊〉 the Lords and makes it an Article of the Additional Charge against him which upon fuâ—â— Evidence of such of the said eight as were noâ— in Prison terminated in this The Earl oâ— Northumberland being interrogated touchinâ— these Words absolutely denied that ever hâ— heard the said Earl speak them Mr. Treasurer Sir H. V. shuffled in his Evidencâ— forward and backward The Tryal Fol. 563. and at last said hâ— thinks they were spoken positively or to thaâ— effect And a shrewd Evidence for the proof of a Bond The Lord Treasurer declar'd that he never heard the said Earl speak thâ—â— said Words or any thing like it The Lord Cottington to the same purpose and thinkâ— the Earl might say The Parliament had noâ— provided for the King and that the King ought to seek out all due and lawful ways to employ his Power and Authority Caste Candide which Words he very well remembers The Marquess Hamilton that he hath often heard the said Earl use those last Words to the King for otherwise said the Earl it were unjust and oppressive And to the same purpose the Lord Goring â—ll Nelson Fol. 87. and Sir Thomas German in behalf of the said Earl However die he must and to that end a Bill of Attainder was prepar'd by both Houses to which the King May the first in the House of Lords the Commons then present declar'd That in his Conscience he could not condemn him of Treason On which a City armed Rabble of
cause them and having all along begg'd the Question as to the first makes the other as a consequence of the former The King saith he having both unwillingly call'd this Parliament and as unwillingly from time to time condescended to their several Acts first tempts the English Army with no less Reward than the Spoil of London to come up and destroy the Parliament But that being discover'd makes the like bait to the Scotch Army with the Addition of four Northern Counties to be made Scottish with Jewels of great value to be given in Pawn the while which they with much Honesty gave notice of to the Parliament Besides this a malignant Party was grown up The Rebellion of Ireland broke out a Conspiracy in Scotland had been made while the King was there against some Chief Members of that Parliament numbers of unknown seditious Persons resorted to the City the King upon his return from Scotland dismisses that Guard the Parliament thought necessary to have about them and appoints another which they discharge the People therefore lest their worthiest and faithful Patriots should want aid came in Multitudes tho' unarm'd to witness their Fidelity to them c. The King sends a Message into the City forbidding such Resorts the Parliament Petition the King for a Guard out of the City to be commanded by the Earl of Essex the King refuses it and the next day comes to the House of Commons and begins to fortifie his Court many are wounded whereof some died and so concludes it was no Tumult Or if it grew to be so the Cause was in the King himself who both by hostile Preparations and an actual assailing the People gave them just cause to defend themselves Which saving the scandal of his wording it is the full substance of his 24th 25th 26th 27th Pages Wherein also how far he has begg'd the Question I appeal to every unbiass'd Reader How willingly the King call'd this Parliament Chap. 1 I have already shewn And why he so unwillingly pass'd the Bill of Attainder against the willingly pass'd the Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford I have not been wanting to it and if he had never condescended to several of the Bills pass'd this Parliament Chap. 2 and since repeal'd he had not with one hand cut off the other But when he calls them their Acts I am to seek what he means The office of the two Houses is Preparative and Consultive but the Character of the Power rests in the final Sanction which is the King The passing a Bill is but the granting a Request the two Houses make the Bill but the King makes the Law and 't is the Stamp not the Matter that makes it currant Then for that ridiculous Sham of the Spoil of the City of London c. He might as well have added the blowing up the Thames and drowning the City and altogether as probable unless he had prov'd at least somewhat towards it The Rebellion of Ireland 't is true was broke out and they had gotten Four Hundred Thousand Pounds towards the reducing it but what they did with those Moneys I have shewn before And for the Conspiracy of Scotland c. A malignant Party growing up unknown seditious Persons resorting to the City c. Why added he not the Pope's Marrying thâ— Great Turk's Sister For who besides himself ever heard of this Scottish Conspiracy against any but the King And for that new coinâ— Word Malignant Party if he means the King Friends they had an Act of Parliament foâ— their Warrant 11 Hen. 7. c. 1. but for those unknown Seditioâ—â— Persons 't is somewhat strange methinks 〈◊〉 should call them Seditious and not know wâ—â— they were unless it were in Contradistinction 〈◊〉 his own Party whom all the World visibly faâ— to be such And for the King 's discharging those Guarâ— the Parliament thought necessary c. And thâ—â— discharging those other that he had appointed the. They were legally conven'd by the King'â— Writ and the same Law was a full Security tâ— them But by what Law they could take Guard to themselves without the King's Coâ—sent I think the best of our Lawyers may bâ— yet to learn And when to gratifie their Inclâ—nations the King had appointed them anotheâ— which they discharg'd what was it but to spâ—â— a defiance in his Face For my part I speaâ—â— plain English and let my Reader judge between this our Answerer and me whether his Therefore the People came in Multitudes c. be a suffâ—cient Justification of those Riots The King saith he forbad those Resorts c. and no doubt justly for it was no more thaâ— what the Law had forbidden to his Hand 〈◊〉 call'd them Riots but take it thus Theâ—â— came to the assistance of that Parliament whâ—â—â— were then compassing and imagining to levâ—â— a War against the King the overt act of which was That they did actually levy it I 'll run it no higher Though I have heard it said Fascinus quos inquinat aequat However the Parliament Petition the King for a Guard out of the City c. Which because it falls more naturally under the subsequent Matter I leave it till then and in the mean time ask any Man whether from these Premises he has rightly concluded that they were no Tumults or if they grew to be so the cause was in the King himself c. more than as an honest Man fighting with a Thief in defence of his Purse and is kill'd by him may be said to be the cause of his own death And thus Men like Pythagoras's Scholars take things by the wrong Handle whereas if they took it by the right it would be quite another Matter and as near as I can I 'll open the truth of this The Scottish Invasion had been accommodated at Rippon some Months before this Parliament sate nor had the King yet lost the Reverence he had in the Hearts of his People who all stood waiting what this Parliament would do when instead of healing the Breaches they rather widen'd them in falling upon the old Trade of Grievances Popery and Arbitrary Power and that they might the better single him from his Friends and thereby deprive him of such as had either Wisdom Authority or Courage to prevent or oppose their further Designs they first fall upon those that had either Written or Preach'd in defence of those Rights of the Crown they intended to Usurp and arraign his Actions in his Ministers some of which are Imprison'd others fly And on the other hand set at liberty such as had been sentenc'd for Seditious Writing and Preaching against him and bring them to London in Triumph to trâ—â— how the People would be pleas'd with it anâ— consequently how their endeavours to draw thâ—â— Peoples Affections from the King had already succeeded and the general Applause on this occasion gave them no weak assurance of it And now having gotten from the King thâ—â— Eyes of Argus
and to themselves the Hands of Briarius they think themselves able enough to lessen him in his Power and as preparatory to it they first procure an Act of Parliament that they should not be Dissolv'd or Prorogu'd but by Act of Parliament And which is remarkable that very day on which his Majesty Sign'd the Commission for giving his Assent to the Bill for the Earl of Strafford's Attainder And having in a manner necessitated him not to deny any thing they get his Assent to those several Bills before mentioned Chap. 1 Concessions one would have thought might have satisfied any sort of Men but those that were Pre-resolv'd not to be satisfied with any thing Nor did the King in the least doubt their being satisfied and therefore makes a Journey into Scotland to satisfie his Subjects there Aâ—â— 1641. as he thought he had done here and they all seem'd to be so especially as to the matter of Episcopacy which they saw was tumbling beyond a Recovery During this His Majesty's absence the Houses adjourn to the 20th of October three days after which the Rebellion of Ireland broke out The 25th of November the King returns to London as yet welcom'd with the full Acclamations of the People tho' he met not any suitable Reception from the Parliament who instead of having swept out the old Leven had prepar'd new However the King having call'd them together the Second of December recommends to them the raising Succours for Ireland and on the Fourteenth again press'd it and withal told them he took notice of a Bill that was then in agitation to assert the power of Levying and Pressing Soldiers to the two Houses which he was content should pass with a Salvo jure to him and then because the present time would not admit the disputing it and one would have thought that when the King came so near they might have met him half way But instead of that they send him a Remonstrance the next day in which they complain of the Designs of a Malignant Party which by their Wisdom had been prevented and running on with the old Cry against Papists Bishops and Evil Counsellors magnifie themselves in what they had done for the good of the Kingdom and cause it to be Printed About this time it was that the King had come to the House and they adjourn'd into London as before when upon their return to Westminster they Petition the King for a Guard out of the City to be commanded by the Earl of Essex a Gentleman who upon the account of his Father in Queen Elizabeth's time the business of the Nullity in King James's time and the little notice that had been taken of him at Court till now of late he had been made Lord Chamberlain was a Discontent July 29.1641 and conseâ—uently a Darling of the People as pretending â—â—ey could not otherwise sit it safety Which â—â—e King as well he might thought not fit to â—ant inasmuch as it look'd so like a Force against himself and afterwards prov'd so when they made him their General But withal let them know that if there were any such occasion he would command such a Guard to wait upon them as he would be responsible for to God Almighty On this the Militia of Westminster by Petition to the House of Commons offer them their Service Id. Nalson Part 2. Fol. 839 and 840. when it shall please them to commanâ— it The Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council of the City of London by Petition to the King representing amongst other things His going to the House c. Pray thaâ— the Tower may be put into confiding Hands anâ— a Guard be appointed for the Parliament or of the City which was insolently seconded bâ— the disorderly conflux of a Rabble about White hall and Westminster And that the House might not be wanting while the Iron was hoâ— they Petition the King that the Tower 〈◊〉 London all other Forts and the whole Militâ—â— of the Kingdom be put into the Hands of sucâ— Persons as should be recommended to him 〈◊〉 both Houses Which his Majesty as justly bâ— might refused to grant and for the Security of his Person withdrew to Hampton-Court And now from the whole let any indiffereâ— Man say for me first whether these disordeâ—â— Proceedings were not Tumults and next 〈◊〉 they grew to be so how the King can be said to be the cause of them himself For though those hostile Preparations and actual assailiâ— the People which our Answerer says gave the just cause to defend themselves might perhapâ— have been somewhat in the Case if those Peoplâ— had not been the Aggressors yet when as himself confesses the King had sent a Message into the City forbidding such Resorts what made they there Nor can these Hostile Preparations and actual assailing the People be other than what the Lord Mayor c. in their Petition to the King represent viz. His fortifying Whitehall and the wounding some Citizens Which His Majesty thus answers Id Nalson Part 2. Fol. 839 and 840. That as to the former his Person was in danger by such a disorderly conflux of People and withal urges their Seditious Language even at his Palace Gates And for the other that if any were wounded it was through their evil Misdemeanours And therefore to make it no more than the Case of a common Person every Man's House is his Castle and if a confus'd Club-rabble gather about it Cum kickis friskis horribili sonitu the Gentleman of the House commands his Servants to beat them off and in the doing it some of the Assailants are wounded nay put it further kill'd And what can the Law make of it That it was an unlawful Assembly I should not have minc'd it a Rout it is manifest and that what the Servants did was in defence of their Master is also as evident Sir Ed. Coke 3 Inst Let the Rule of Law cut between us Quod quis ob tutelam Corporis sui fecerit id jure fecisse videtur Whatever a Man does in defence of his Person the Law presumes it to have been done Legally O but you 'll say It was not the Master himself A Thief assaults a Gentleman in his House or upon the Road the Gentleman's Servant in defence of his Master kills the Thief he forfeits nothing And if this holds in the case of a common Person how much more then in Case of the King And lastly where he says Instead of Praying for his People as a good King should do he Prays to be deliver'd from them as from wild Beasts Inundations and Raging Seas that had overborn all Loyalty Modesty Laws Justice and Religion God save the People from such Intercessors I think A gente inimica dolosa libera me Domine From an evil and perverse Generation deliver me O God! might have very well become any honest Man's Prayer concerning them For in their Malice they slew their King and in their
Governour and upon the King 's coming before Hull attended only with his own Servants and some Gentlemen of the Country audaciously shut the Gates against Him and standing upon the Wall denied him Entrance Upon which the King as by Law he might proclaim'd him Traytor A Cholerick and revengeful Act says our Answerer to proclaim him Traytor before due process of Law having been convinc'd so lately before of his Illegallity with the five Members Goodly goodly and yet at the same time doubts not to tax the King of a Treasonable Act in borrowing Moneys upon his own Jewels Not unlike the Parliament 41 Hen. 3. who took notice of the Lye given to Montfort Daniel's Hist of Eng. 171. and 175. Earl of Leicester by William of Clarence but not of the Lye given the King by the said Leicester But the Point between us lies narrow A Man with Train'd-Bands holds and defends a place of Strength against the King The question is whether this be a levying of War within the Statute of the 25th of Edward the 3d. Sir Edward Coke shall answer for me 2 Inst 10. If any with Strength and Weapons invasive and defensive doth hold and defend a Castle or Fort against the King and his Power this is levying of War against the King within the Statute of 25 Edward 3. And in the leaf before he says It was High Treason by the Common Law to levy War for no Subject can levy War within the Realm without Authority from the King for to him only it belongeth Le Roy de droit doit saver defender son Realm Fitz. N. B. 113. a. c. And therefore this being the Case wherein may it be said that the King was to blame And lastly for what concerns this Gentleman's Catastrophe and whether Hotham were more infamous at Hull or at Tower-Hill no less ignominiously pretended to be answer'd it may be enough to satisfie any Impartial Man that he repented and came in though it were at the last Hour and for the rest he stood and fell to his own Master CHAP. IX Vpon the Listing and raising Armies against the King I Find saith His Majesty I am at the same Point and Posture I was when they forced me to leave Whitehall What Tumults could not do an Army must which is but Tumults listed and enroll'd to a better order but as bad an end To which our Answerer thus replies It were an endless work to walk side by side with the verbosity of this Chapter only to what already hath not been spoken convenient Answer shall be given But what that Answer is see He begins again with Tumults all the demonstration of the Peoples Love to the Parliament was Tumult their Petitioning Tumult their defensive Armies were but listed Tumults and will take no notice that those about him those in a time of Peace lifted in his own House were the beginners of all these Tumults abusing and assaulting not only such as came peaceably to the Parliament at London but those that came Petitioning to the King himself at York Neither abstaining from doing Violence and Outrage to the Messengers sent from Parliament himself countenancing or conniving at them Which is the Substance of what our Accuser says to this verbose Chapter as he calls it An old Figure in Politicks to Calumniate stoutly till somewhat stick to a Prejudice But where lay this Love of the People that they must needs express it in such a Tumultuary way God Almighty is more pleased with Adverbs than Nouns and respects not so much the Justice or Lawfullness of the thing as that it be Justly and Lawfully done and I think the Case was not such here Three or more gather'd together do breed a disturbance of the Peace Mr. Lambert ' s â—irenarchâ— Lib. 2. c. 5. either by signification of Speech shew of Armour turbulent Gesture or express Violence so that the peaceable sort of Men be disturbed or the lighter sort embolden'd by the Example It is Turba a Rout And it has been said Decem So Kitchen page 20. multitudinem faciunt Ten make a Multitude What then must ten times ten not to say Hundreds and Thousands arm'd with Swords Clubbs Staves as many of these Demonstrators of their Love were Chap. 4 and throwing out Seditious Language as I have shewn before the did O but their Business was Petition The same said the Barons and Commonalty at Running-Mead in the 17th of King John But what came these for What but Matters that no way concern'd them Justice Justice against the Earl of Strafford Chap. 2 yet the Parliament of the 14th of Char. the 2d calls them arm'd Tumults as before For putting the Tower of London into confiding Hands Chap. 4 A City Guard for the Parliament And the Kingdom into a Posture of Defence c. But still what was this to them As if a Parliament must be beholding to a Fescue And their defensive Armies saith he were but listed Tumults So that now as a last Shift he turns the Question to a Quis prior induit arma When all the World knows That the Defensive part of it was the King's and the Parliament were the Aggressor's in that they had made their Associations rais'd an Army some Months before and made Essex General thereof the 12th of July 1642. Whereas the King set not up his Standard until the August following But stay say the King in defence of his Right had first drawn his Sword what Law of England warranted theirs When besides what Sir Edward Coke of whom so lately says No Subject can levy War without Authority from the King it appears that the ancient Law of England was ever such or the Parliament had never declar'd That both 1 Cat. 2. c. 2 or either of the Houses of Parliament neither can or lawfully may raise or levy War offensive or defensive against the King c. And will take no notice that those about him were the beginners of those Tumults That the King had his Guards about him was no more than what became the Majesty of a King and that the Loyal Gentry made their Appearances at Whitehall when they saw it beset with a kind of Gebal and Ammon and Ameleck a confus'd conflux of People which also the King had forbidden was but the least of their Duty But when he talks of listing and abusing and assaulting such as came peaceably to the Parliament and doing Violence to the Messengers sent from them it is such a Rapsodie of Stuff that no Man can credit upon his single Authority And therefore I leave it as I do the rest of this Matter it being either such as I have before spoken to or such as no Man that had not a hand in those Mischiefs had ever vented Yet before I go off to another I cannot but take notice how he says The King twits them with his Acts of Grace Proud and unself-knowing Words in the Mouth of any King who
That the Lord High-Steward of England Lord High-Constable Lord Chancellor Nine other Principal Officers the Two Chief Justices and Chief Baron be always chosen with the Approbation of Both Houses and in the Intervals of Parliament by the Major Part of the Council The same may be said to this as to the First with this farther that though the like had been often attempted it never continued longer than the Rebellion that set it on foot 4. That the Government of the King's Children be committed to such as Both Houses shall approve of and in the Intervals of Parliament by the Privy Council And the Servants then about them against whom the Houses have just Exception to be removed This had been to abridge the King of that Privilege which the meanest of Subjects has in his Family nor had themselves yet try'd it in theirs 5. That no Marriage for any of them be treated or concluded without Consent of Parliament The same also here as to the Fourth 6. That the Law in Force against Jesuits Priests and Popish Recusants be strictly put is Execution And where had the King ever refused it 7. That the Votes of Popish Lords in the House of Peers be taken away This had been to take away their Birth-right a Right as ancient as any thing but the Monarchy it self 8. The the King will be pleased to reform the Church-Government and Liturgy as both Houses shall advise This had been already settled by several Acts of Parliament 9. That he would rest satisfied with what they have done for ordering the Militia and recall his Declarations and Proclamations against it This confesses an Usurpation upon the King 's Right and in that who began the War For if it were not so what need was there for the King to recall his Declarations c. when in doing it he had made himself Guilty of the War and all the Blood therein spill'd 10. That such Members as have been put out of any Place or Office since this Parliament began be restored or have Satisfaction But how does this agree with the Self-denying 11. That all Privy Counsellors and Judges take an Oath to be settled by Act of Parliament for the Maintenance of the Petition of Right and certain Statutes made by them The Judges are ex Officio oblig'd to take notice of a General Act of Parliament and such the Petition of Right is but who knew what those Acts of this Parliament might be 12. That all Judges and Officers plac'd by Approbation of the Houses may hold their Places quamdiu se bene gesserint To the intent that if any Confiding Person how Ignorant or Factious soever had been approv'd by them it should not be in the King's Power to remove him without a Sute at Law in which themselves or their Creatures were sure to be Judges 13. That all Delinquents whether within the Kingdom or fled out of it and all Persons cited by either House may appear and abide the Censure of Parliament That is all such Persons as upon an innate Honour according to their Duty and the Statute of the 11th of Henry VII had stood firm and Loyal to the King against their Usurpation 14. That the General Pardon offered by his Majesty be granted with such Exceptions as shall be advised by Both Houses But who knew what those Exceptions might be Saving this that they intended them not to any of themselves A thing that carried Rancour and Venom in it and which was his Majesty's whole drift to take off 15. That all Forts and Castles be put into such Hands as the King with Approbation of Both Houses shall appoint That is to keep them in their own Hands as they were when yet the Undoubted Right was the King's and the Grant of it had given away the Sovereignty An old Trick which together with the Three first Propositions they borrow'd from Montfort's Rebellion in Henry III.'s Time 16. That the King 's Extraordinary Guards 〈◊〉 discharg'd and none rais'd for the Future but according to Law in Case of actual Rebellion and Invasion Like the Wolves in the Fable that would come to no Terms with the Sheep unless they first discharg'd their Dogs Whereas his Majesty had not rais'd those Guards but according to Law in the Case of an actual Rebellion a◠Home and a then threatning Invasion from the Scots 17. That his Majesty enter into a more strict Alliance with the Vnited Provinces and other Neighbour Protestant Princes and States The King is the only Supream Arbiter of Peace and War and what honourable Alliance with any of them had he ever refus'd 18. That his Majesty be pleased by Act of Parliament to clear the Lord Kimbolton and the Five Members If they were Guilty why should they be less brought to Tryal than were Canterbury and Strafford And if they were Innocent what need of an Act of Parliament to clear them 19. That a Bill be passed for restraining Pears made hereafter from sitting or voting in Parliament unless they be admitted with Consent of Both Houses The King is the Fountain of Honour and to have granted this Article had been if not to damm up that Fountain to turn it into another Channel Nor could the King have done it without a manifest Contradiction to himself I have blessed him said Isaac and he shall be blessed Such were these Propositions this at Least the true Substance of them which if his Majesty had conceded to what other were it than as himself says of it As if Sampson should have consented not only to bind his own Hands and cut off his Hair but to put out his own Eyes that the Philistines might with the more Safety Mock and Abuse him He had rendred himself not a half Duke of Venice nor much better than that Inutile lignum of which Horace speaks who Serm. l. 1. Sat. 8. tho' he were God of the Gardens could not keep a Crow from muting upon his Head Nor ought they says his Majesty to have been obtruded upon him with the Point of a Sword nor urg'd with the Injuries of a War To which our Answerer in his bold Way And which of the Propositions were obtruded upon him with the Point of the Sword till he first with the Point of the Sword thrust from him both the Propositions and the Propounders Which how egregiously and scandalously False it is let any Man judge Rush 2. part 307. when these Propositions were not sent the King till the Second of June 1642. Five Months before which they had not only forced him from Whitehall but disposed of the Militia as appears by the Ninth Proposition where they pray the King that he would rest satisfied with what they ordered in it As resolv'd it seems that Will or Nill he should And thence he runs off again to the Coronation Oath and That the Parliament is the King 's Superiour Chap. 6 Touching which I have said so much already and not from any
single Opinion of my own but the Authority of the Law that I think it needless actum agere Only when he says The Noblest Romans when they stood for that which was a kind of Regal Honour the Consulship were wont in a submissive manner 〈◊〉 go about and beg that Highest Dignity of the Meanest Plebeians which was call'd Petitio Consulatûs He would have done well to have cover'd his Hook a little better if he ever expected to catch any Fish If he had said they chuse their Consuls as we do our Knights of the Shire he that has most Voices carries it bating the Ambitus it had been well enough But when he speaks of a King of England what Mischief brought it into his Head to confound the Irregular Practices of a Democratical State with the settled Constitutions of an Hereditary Imperial Monarchy which this of England is or those several Statutes as well as Common Law of which before are grosly mistaken And therefore for the rest it bring but mere catching at Words whereby to wrest the Sence I had as good leave it and go to somewhat else CHAP. XII Vpon the Rebellion and Troubles in Ireland IT is the Nature of Flies to be ever buzzing and blowing upon any thing that is raw and has been the only design of our Answerer throughout his whole Book not to deliver Things as they truly were but to rake together old exploded Forgeries that having dress'd up the King as like a Tyrant as he can he may have the more to say in Defence of the Parricide It is the Way of Witches to foretell those Storms themselves intend to move Nor had the Contrivers of ours been wanting to that Part of it but the Earl of Strafford's Watchful Eye lay so close for them that nothing could be done unless they first brought his Masts by the Board And having gotten that Point of him and the Rebellion of Ireland falling close upon it they only make an advantage of it and buzze the People that it was done with the King's Privity at least if not by his Commission Whereby to represent him to the World as the more Inhumane and Barbarous Nor is this our Accuser less wanting to insinuate it over again when he says That it cannot be imaginable that the Irish guided by so many Italian Heads should have so far lost the Vse of Reason and common Sense as not supported with other Strength than their own to begin a War so desperate and irreconcilable against both England and Scotland at once without some Authority from England or great Assistance promised them and assurance which they had in private that no remedy should be apply'd against them All which being merely conjectural by the same Reason it may be true by the same Reason also it may be false without there were somewhat more than Words to evince the Truth of it And so taking that for granted which should have been first proved he audaciously Charges the King as the Prime Author of that Rebellion though both here and elsewhere he denies it with many Imprecations but no solid Evidence And how solid his on the other hand are may be worth the viewing It is most certain saith he that the King was ever friendly to the Irish Papists and in his Third Year against the plain Advice of Parliament sold them Indulgences for Money and engaged them in a War against the Scotch Protestants What he means by that Sale of Indulgences I know not nor does any History of ours that I yet met direct me to it The Irish were his Majesty's Subjects as well as the Scots and if he was friendly to them though Papists he did but the part of a prudent Father who seldom chucks one Child more than another for fear of breeding a Quarrel in the Family And besides though the Scots were Protestants there is not any one English Law against Papists i◠Force in Ireland and Sanguinary Law none◠But that the King engaged them in a War against the Scots wants Proof and as such I pass it To this he adds That several of the most active Papists all since in the Head of that Rebellion were in great Favour at Whitehall and in Private Consultations with the King and Queen and that he gave them more than Five Irish Counties at an inconsiderable Rent And for the Proof of all this quotes a Scotch Author but says not a Word who or what this Author was Tho' if he had call'd him Squire Meldrum the Cherry and the Sloe or David Lindsey against Side-Tails it had past not a Jot the worse with the People If they were in great Favour at Court it was no more than what the Scots also were if they had private Consultations c. Charity would have presum'd the best and that it was in order to the Quiet and Peace of that Kingdom and if the King gave them Five Counties he gave but his own which if he had shared among the Five Members we had not perhaps heard a Word of the Story But that they should ungratefully rebel against him how could he more foresee it of them than he did of the Scots And after this if any Vnderstanding Man yet doubts who was the Author and Instigator of that Rebellion I referr them saith he to that Declaration of July 1643 concerning this Matter Very good The Word of a King is but the bare denial of one Man and what is one Man against the Credit of Both Houses though they were Judges Witnesses and Parties I offerred saith his Majesty to go my self in Person upon that Expedition But happy it was that his going into Ireland was not consented to saith the other for certainly he had turn'd his intended Forces against the Parliament Whereas it seems more probable that without this Rebellion in Ireland they could never have rais'd their Rebellion in England For upon the Credit of the Acts for the borrowing of 400000 l. for the necessary Defence of England and Ireland Both of them 17 Car. 1. and for the Encouragement of Adventurers for the reducing the Rebels in Ireland they got ready Moneys into their Hands V. His Majesty's Answer to their Irish Papers In his Large Book f. 537. and rais'd Forces as was pretended for the Relief of that Kingdom but in truth fought the King with them at Edge-hill But enough of this Matter CHAP. XIII Vpon the Calling in of the Scots and their coming AND here again our Answerer lays his Foundation to this Chapter upon what he has so often run off to before and been by me and I hope fully answered That the first Original and Institution of Kings was by the Consent and Suffrage of the People and calls them the entrusted Servants of the Commonwealth but in his wonted way says not a Word how they came by this Power of choosing i. e. whether it were given them by God or they took it themselves If God gave it them he ought one
would think to have prov'd where when and how at least rendred it probable that there was once some such thing done though the Grant be lost And if they took it themselves it was Unjust in its Original and consequently they had no more Right to chuse their Kings than Children have to chuse their Fathers And yet from this false Position magisterially determines That Kings do no Acts of Grace and Bounty but in discharge of their publick Duty The Sum of the King's Discourse saith he is against settling Religion by violent Means and yet never did thing more eagerly than to molest and persecute the Consciences of most religious Men and made a War and lost all rather than not uphold an Hierarchy of persecuting Bishops That Consciences are not to be forced but to be reduced by force of Truth aid of Time and use of good Means of Instructions and Perswasions was his Principle as well as Queen Elizabeth's but saith Sir Francis Walsingham concerning the Queen's proceedings in the like Cases Causes of Conscience when they exceed their Bounds V. Hist of the Reform Part 2. f. 418. and grow to be matter of Faction lose their Nature and Sovereign Princes ought distinctly to punish their Practices and Contempt though colour'd with the pretences of Conscience and Religion And according to this saith he the Queen proceeded And if the King also did distinguish Faction from Conscience and Tenderness from Singularity blame the Law not him But He obtruded new Ceremonies upon the English and a new Liturgy upon the Scots with his Sword Saving the Reverence of the Thing it is Indifferent whether a Man Preach with his Hat on or hung upon a Pin the Hugonots have one way and the English another The same also may be said of Ceremonies but how indifferent soever they are in themselves when they are once commanded the indifferency ceases in the Law that enjoyns them And for that other of the Liturgy upon the Scots the King obtruded it not on them much less with his Sword because it was sent them at their own Request as I have shown before But admitting their Kirk liked it not what had they to do with a Church that did Or what Authority had Tweed to reform Thames least of all to give Law to their King and that too with beat of Drum and Colours displayed Especially when one of their own Acts of Parliament says Continuation of Sir R. Baker f. 514. That it should be damnable and detestable Treason in the highest Degree to levy Arms or any Military Forces upon any pretext whatever without the King 's Royal Commission Nor is this all For their National Covenant oblig'd them to his Defence or else what means this Expression in it Sir W. Dudg his short View f. 132. That whensoever his Majesty's Honour and Interest should be in Danger they would as one Man obliged by the Laws of God and Man apply themselves to his Succour and Defence And the Chancellor and others the Lords of that Kingdom had by their Letter of 1. July 1643. assured his Majesty That no Arms should be raised without his special Commission And after all this and contrary to the Common tye of Nature to run into open Rebellion against him What may it mean I 'll tell ye This Matter had been hatching ever since the Third of his Reign and though the Chick appear'd not till the Year 1637 yet it could run about with the Shell upon its Head and it wanted not Friends in England to keep it alive till it could feed it self and if it liked not one Barn-door take to another The Metaphor is too visible to need Application There was a kind of a Kirk Party in England that finding the King firm to his Principles knew there was no better way to deal with him than by reducing him to Necessities to the end that being forc'd to extraordinary means for Supply he might disgust the People and consequently attract an Odium But what 's a Bow without a Bowman The Scots and they made but one Kirk Money was the Nerve that would keep them together and what need many words among Friends Nor were they long without the occasion of shewing their Fidelity The new Liturgy as before had been sent to Edinburgh The Scots presently take the Alarm are quieted again but lost nothing by it and in return make the King all Protestations of future Loyalty How comes it then you 'll say that it was not long after that they invaded England and after that took Arms for the Parliament against the King The Case is plain the King had no Money the Houses had or at least knew where to get it Nor will it be unworth any Man's while to see what that was They had as a Relief to the Scots for their Losses 17 Car. 1. and a supply of our Brethren of Scotland for so the Act words it 220000 l. rais'd for them by Act of Parliament By an Ordinance of Lords and Commons Vid. Hughes's Abridgement of Acts and Ordinances p. 92. 27 Octob. 43. 66666 13 4. for their Brotherly Assistance in the defence of the common cause of Religion and Liberty By a like Ordinance Feb. 20. 1644. 21000 l. per Mens Id. p. 178. for the maintenance of the Scots Army under the Earl of Leven Further confirm'd Id. p. 197. June 13. 1645. Continued for four Months more Id. p. 220. 25 Aug. 1645. By a like Ordinance Id. p. 201. June 20. 1645. 130000 l. for enabling the Scots Army to advance Southward And by a like Ordinance Decem. 3. 1645. 31000 l. Id. p. 237. for payment of the Scots Army Besides all which I find in the continuation of Sir Richard Baker Fol. 611. Several other Moneys rais'd for the Scots which because they agree neither in Sum nor time I thought fit to transcribe and leave it to my Reader to judge of it as he thinks fit Taxed by them in 16 Car. 1. 350 l. per diem on the Bishoprick of Durham and 300 l. per diem on the County of Northumberland on the penalty of Plundering In the 20th they were impowered by Parliament to assess for themselves the twentieth part of the North c. In the 21st sent them 30000 l. to induce them to besiege Newark In the 22d 200000 l. more for delivering up the King And another 200000 l. secur'd them out of the publick Faith And 16000 l. allowed them for the charge of their Carriages All which I leave as I said to my Reader to judge and whether notwithstanding all that cry of Religion and Loyalty it far'd not with them like Atalanta in the Fable Declinat cursus Ovidâ—◠〈◊〉 l. 10. Fâ—â— 15. aurumque vâ—luâ—ile tollit And truly considering all if they were not well paid for their Pains I wish they were CHAP. XIV Vpon the Covenant UPON this Theam saith our Answerer his Discourse is long his Matter little
it the better which was as much as if they had been bidden to tell no body but Folk of it This Foundation thus laid they suppress the Vertue and lay open the defects of the Government The dissolution of Parliaments The Cales Expedition The Peace with Spain Loan-Money Ship-Money Enlargement of Forests Fines Imprisonments c. by the Star-Chamber Acts of Council-Table Selling of Offices Insolence of Bishops and muzzling the Mouths of painful Teachers and what not So that where lay the difficulty of raising what Super structure they pleas'd or wonder as it is said of Absalom's Rebellion that the People went with them in their Simplicity â— Sam. 15.11 and knew not any thing Till from one thing to another they came at last to devolve the pretended faults of the Officer upon the Office Nor was the matter yet come from Words to Blows when his Majesty had gratified them in most of those Particulars but now that they had gotten an Army it is not what the King would grant but what the Houses will be pleased to accept The King also begins to have an Army which because it appear'd more considerable than they imagin'd Loyalty without Money could have ever brought together they take up another Artifice and clamour it to the People That the King made use of Papists against them That all might be at Peace if it were not for Evil Counsellors And for themselves that their Intentions were the liberties of the Kingdom as the King in this Chapter particularly takes notice of and our Answerer in his wonted Scurrility runs off to other matter yet e're he was aware confesses The Sum is they thought to regulate and limit his Negative Voice and share with him in the Militia which in the Eighty fifth Page of his Book he owns to have been wrung out of his Hands And yet while they thus charge the King with making use of Papists against them they stifle that Army of Sectaries themselves brought against him An Army so diversified in Opinion that had any one Regiment of them been to have entred the Ark the Flood might have sooner come than Noah suited them into Pairs And now Clodius accusat Moechos Does Simeon accuse Levi I should think he ought not especially if we come to the order of the House that admits no Man to criminate another till he shall have first clear'd himself But allowing it to be true Those Papists were the King's Subjects and by the Law of the Land equally oblig'd to serve the King as well as Protestants who yet fought against him But did the Houses never make use of Papists I am sure they would have done it or otherwise what means that Declaration of theirs That if any Papists would bring in any considerable Sums of Money upon the Propositions Oct. 6. 1642. it should be receiv'd and for matter of Fact that they did so They hired Owen Roe O Neal to raise the Siege of London-Derry in Ireland then beleagur'd by His Majesty's Forces And then for his hearkning to Evil Counsellors a thing so often charg'd upon him by the Parliament But who were these Evil Counsellors during His Majesty's Imprisonment and when they lock'd him up so that no-body could come at him and yet still the same Man But we are off the Scent Themselves were not those Counsellors and if they had been perhaps we had heard no more of it The Lord Cottington was a desperate Delinquent but had the Grace to know where his Delinquency lay He gave up his Mastership of the Court of Wards to a confiding Lord and for that time Cantavit vacuus The Beast Castor takes his Name a Castrando and when the Hunters have gotten what they Hunted him for they take off their Dogs And lastly for what concerns their own so much boasted Preservation of the Rights and Liberties of the Kingdom it may be much doubted whether they did so or not but this I dare say if they merited Heaven by it it was by an Antiperistasis for how strong soever they found the Blessing of Judah upon this Land they brought it down to that other of Issachar As besides what I have said before witness their Committees in every County under their Power for the seizing and imprisoning Malignants i. e. Such as refused to give them the 25th part of their Estates and because the County Gaols were too few to hold them erecting others in most Cities and throwing the most considerable of them on Ship-board Their Sequestring the Estates of the Royal Party and denying them the benefit of the Statute that indempnified them 11 Hen. 7. c. 1. Forcing some to Compound and selling the Estates of such as refus'd it Their frequent Headings and Gibbettings Their Sale of King's Queen's Princes Church-Lands c. Add to this those heavy Burthens which without any Authority and contrary to Law they laid upon the People with a saving nevertheless to the Members of either House and the almost incredible Sums of Money they rais'd thereby Contin of R. Baker Fol. 610. See the Ordin of both Houses Mar. 1642. As witness that their Weekly Assessment of Thirty three Thousand Nine Hundred Eighty one Pounds Thirteen Shillings upon England and Wales which for the Year came to One Million Seven Hundred Sixty Seven Thousand Forty five Pounds Sixteen Shillings The vast Sums of Money they made of the Plate Rings nay even Sir W. Dugd. Short View Fol. 96. Bodkins and Thimbles brought into Goldsmiths-Hall which in London Essex and Middlesex came to eleven Millions The Moneys lent upon publick Faith The Profits of those Lands and Estates so seiz'd and the many Millions they got by the Sale of them Besides those By-jobbs through most Counties for the raising Horse Foot and Dragoons See Hughes 's Abridg. for the years 1643 1644 1645. the maintaining of them the defence of some Garrisons and the reducing of others And all this for the preserving the Rights and Liberties of the Kingdom which puts me in mind of that of Tully Nomina rerum perdidimus Ad Attiâ—um Licentia Libertas vocatur we have lost saith he the names of things and Licentiousness is call'd Liberty And yet the Tabernacle of the Robbers prosper'd Job 12.6 and those that provok'd God were secure CHAP XVI Vpon the Ordinance against the Common-Prayer-Book IT is no News saith his Majesty to have all Innovations usher'd in with the name of Reformations in Church and State by those who seeking to gain Reputation with the Vulgar for their extraordinary Parts or Piety must needs undo whatever was formerly settled never so well and wisely And less News it is saith our Answerer to have all Reformation censur'd and oppos'd under the name of Innovation by those who being exalted in high Places above their Merit fear all change though of things never so ill or so unwisely settled Which is no more than so many Words stitch'd together without he had
shewn wherein this Book had been so ill or unwisely settled But were there That had been to question the Godliness and Wisdom of the Compilers of it whom Mr. Fox calls Martyrs or what was worse 2 and 3 Ed. 6. c. 1. run foul of the Statute that says It was concluded by the aid of the Holy-Ghost But says he Edward the Sixth confesses it was no other than the Old Mass-Book done into English and modell'd no farther off it lest by too great an alteration they should incense the People And prudently one would think because to run farthest from what one was last may be a sign that he has altered his Opinion but no Argument that it is for the better But the point lies elsewhere The Universities had thrown more Truants abroad than the Church of England either could or thought fit to provide for to have gone back again they were too well known and to set up in the Country there requir'd no more but a few Notes at St. Mary's and a double Portion of Lungs and Confidence for Words says he will follow of themselves And if they had the knack of laying Damnation home to them whom should the People run after but those that could save them As if a Man had a Sore Leg and he should go to an honest judicious Chirurgeon and he should only bid him keep it warm and anoint it with such an Oil an Oil well known and that would do the Cure haply he would not much regard him because he knows beforehand the Medicine is but ordinary But if he should go to a Quack that should tell him your Leg will Gangrene in three days and must be cut off or you 'll die unless you do something that I could tell you what listning would there be to this Man Oh for the Lord's Sake tell me what it is I will give you any Content for you Pains And such was the Trade of these Men they cry'd down the Common-Prayer not that they could justly find any fault with that Dose of prepar'd Words as he calls it but make the better way for their own Enthusiasms whereas there seems no reason why a Man may not as well Pray in a Set-Form which is commanded as Sing in a Set-Tone which was never so much as recommended But we 'll examine it a little It is the advice of the Preacher Be not rash with thy Mouth Eccles 5. v. 2. and let not thy Heart be hasty to utter any thing before God For God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth therefore let thy Words be few And when the Disciples besought our Saviour to teach them to Pray Luke 11.1 as John also taught his Disciples how easy had it been for him if he had approv'd this Extemporary way to have bade them take no care for what they should say for it should be given them in that Hour Whereas on the contrary Math. 6.7.9 he not only forbade them the use of vain Repetitions as the Heathen do but laid an Injunction on them to pray after this manner Our Father which art in Heaven c. And denounced Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees for devouring Widows Houses under a Pretence of long Prayer Mar. 12.40 In a word and if the Authority of Holy Writ be of any force I think our Gifted Men may make up their Packs unless they produce some equal Authority to counterbalance it and if they shall not there was besides that Authority an Act of Parliament in the Case which no Ordinance could ever amend much less abrogate but least of all were Cranmer Ridley Latimer c. alive would they thank him for saying this English Mass-Book was Composed for ought we know by Men neither Learned nor Godly CHAP. XVII Of the differences between the King and the two Houses in point of Church-Government TOuching the Government of the Church by Bishops saith His Majesty the common Jealousie hath been that I am earnest and resolute to maintain it not so much out of Piety as Policy and reason of State And saith our Answerer hath been so fully prov'd from the Scriptures to be vicious and usurp'd that whether out of Piety or Policy maintain'd it is not material With this further that we may have learnt from Sacred Story and times of Reformation that the King 's of this World have both ever hated and instinctively feared the Church of God But that they have been so prov'd to be as he says he takes it for granted that his Assertion is Proof enough for other he gives none unless it be that Pharaoh when he grew jealous least the Israelites should multiply and fight against him his Fear stirr'd him up to afflict and keep them under And to the same drift this King and his Father found the Bishops most Serviceable And now 't is all out and we see what that Church of God he means is viz. The Seditious Exorbitancy of Ministers Tongues which his Father and himself and Queen Elizabeth before them so Instinctively nor without just cause had reason to suspect A sort of People which King James the first calls Proud Puritans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 65. who cry we are all but vile Worms and yet will judge and give Law to their King but will be judged nor controul'd by none And some Leaves before Id. p. 30. Informing the People that all Kings and Princes were naturally Enemies to the Liberty of the Church and could never patiently bear the Yoke of Christ Id. p. 31. and therefore saith he take heed my Son to such very Pests in Church and Commonweal whom no deserts can oblige neither Oaths nor Promises bind breathing nothing but Sedition and Calumnies aspiring without measure railing without reason and making their own Imaginations without any Warrant of the word the Square of their Conscience Nor were they of less disturbance to Queen Elizabeth than they had been to him as witness that Letter of Sir Francis Walsingham's before-mention'd Chap. 13 And the Lord Keeper Puckering's Speech in Parliament where by the same name of Puritans he charges them to have persecuted Her Majesty so vigorously that they thereby open'd the Door to the Spanish Invasion and warn'd the Parliament from her Majesty to give no Ear to their wearisome Sollicitations for while in the giddiness of their Spirits they labour to advance a new Eldership they do nothing but disturb the good Repose of the Church and the Commonwealth And how they dealt with his Majesty there are few Men sure can be so much Strangers at home as not to know And therefore if the Bishops as Cicero in his Consulship says of himself Eos qui otium pertuban◠reddam otiosos took his way of Silencing that Seditious Exorbitance of their Tongues they were Serviceable I must acknowlege it but wherein did they exceed the Obligation of their Office But to proceed What the Bishops by the Laws and Constitutions of this Kingdom were and are
to wish them beware the Son who comes among them with a firm belief that they Sold his Father In the former Chapter he gibes them with their Brotherly Assistance and here to whet them against the Son of that Father he lays at their Door an Infamy so foul that if they do not Vindicate it themselves no one else he is sure can do it for them And why all this but to tell them in other Words Scelere velandum est Scelus they had gone too far not to go farther and therefore cannot be secure till they do as much by his Son Whatever it be I think this may be said in the Matter That as Trust is the Sinew of Society Truth is the Pledge of it And therefore as they were his Majesty's Countrymen and Sworn Subjects in Confidence of which he had intrusted his Person with them as the keeping that Oath impeded no moral Good a distinction yet which every Man will not allow as the Person to whom they swore was not incapable of an Oath which is much the same as he came not to incline them to any thing but that Duty which was incumbent upon them and if he had no voluntary Rule in their Hearts he wanted Power to gain a Coersive If they had not thought fit to defend him they should not have put him in a worse Condition than they found him He was their King and wanted no Letters of Safe-Conduct and therefore as he came free they ought to have set him as free out of his Enemies reach 2 Kings 16.22 Thou shalt not smite them said Elisha to the King of Israel concerning the Syrians he had then in his Power for thou neither tookest them with thy Sword nor thy Bow But set Bread and Water before them that they may eat and drink and let them go And the kindness prevailed with the King of Syria though had the Case here been that they had taken him I know not how they could have deliver'd him up And memorable to this Purpose is that of James the Fourth of Scotland who when Perkin Warbeck had fled to him for Protection from our Henry the Seventh not only protected him but rais'd an Army for him him with whose Head he might have made what Peace he would with King Henry his profest Enemy And when at last a Peace was concluded between the Kings upon the Marriage of King James with Margaret Eldest Daughter of Henry the Seventh by whose Issue came the Union of the Crowns he not only refused to deliver up the said Perkin but gave him a safe Transport for himself and his Followers There remains yet to have spoken to that other part of the Title of this Chapter His Captivity at Holdenby but because our Answerer takes no notice of it neither I think ought I. CHAP. XXIV Vpon their denying his Majesty the Attendance of his Chaplains viz. Dr. Juxon Bishop of London Dr. Duppa Bishop of Salisbury Dr. Sheldon Dr. Hammond Dr. Holdsworth Dr. Sanderson Dr. Turner Dr. Heywood THERE seems somewhat in it more than of Chance that his Majesty thus Names the particular Persons Whose Service and Assistance he both needed and desired in that Solitude they had confin'd him to and where the Company they had obtruded on him was more sad than any Solitude could be that more sober Times enquiring into the Ground of it might the better judge whether this his desire was more reasonable or their denying it him more barbarous A Mercy which not Religion only allows but even the Rigor of the Law never denied the meanest and greatest Malefactors Yet see how shamelesly this Accuser takes upon him to Answer it A CHAPLAIN a thing so diminutive and inconsiderable that to take up such room in the Discourses of a Prince if it be not wondred is to be smiled at The Scripture owns no such Order In State perhaps they may be listed among the Vpper Serving-Men The Sewers or Yeomen Vshers of Devotion The Implements of a Court Cup-board c. And what ail'd this King that he could not chew his own Mattins without the Priest's Oremus Which with the rest of this his Chapter has so out-gone even scurrility it self that though I had once resolv'd to have pass'd it over I could not yet but desire my Reader to consider the Persons of whom this Character is given and then tell me how well the Character of any one of them agrees with the Person And therefore let the World Censure me how they list I purposely avoid the further medling with this his Chapter as for the same Reason also I shall say less to the next CHAP. XXV Penitential Meditations and Vows in the King's Solitude at Holdenby HIS Majesty in this Chapter may seem to have had holy David in his Eye when he said Lord remember David and all his Troubles Psal 132. How he sware unto the Lord and vowed a Vow unto the Almighty God of Jacob. And yet this Accuser so maliciously detorts those Meditations that unless one run into the same Excess with him it will be impossible to get up with him which having for my part resolv'd not to do I leave him to run by himself and only desire my Reader to collate these Two Chapters of the King 's with those of our Answerer and then judge as he thinks fit and whether I have done other or less in this Matter than what became me to have done CHAP. XXVI Vpon the Army's Surprizal of the KING at Holdenby and the ensuing Distractions in the Two Houses the Army and the City THIS surprize of me saith his Majesty tells the World that a KING cannot be so low but he is considerable adding weight to that Party where he appears What the Presbyterians have hunted after the Independants now seek to catch for themselves And as an Argument that they are manumitted from the Rivals Service assume my Person into the Armies Custody without any Commission but that of their own Will and Power To which our Answerer To give an Account to Royalists what has been done with their Vanquish'd King 's yielded up into our i. e. the Peoples Hands is not to be expected from them whom God hath made Conquerors And for Brethren to debate and rip up their falling out in the Ear of a Common Enemy is neither wise nor comely To the King therefore were he living or to his Party yet remaining as to this belongs no Answer No! and why not Because those that had a Mind to be satisfied in the Action might desire to know by what just Means the King came into their Hands How Subjects whom the Law of England never call'd Enemies could be said to have conquer'd him How God came intituled to it when it was so directly contrary to the Law of God And how the Law of the Land which was their common Cry to defend could justifie that Rebellion and Parricide which it every where condemns And is it enough think ye
the Power of levying Money to maintain it for twenty Years 2. That the King justifie the Proceedings of the Parliament in the late War and that all Declarations c. against them be declared void 3. That all Titles of Honour conferr'd by the King since the Great Seal was carried to Oxford in May 1642 be taken away 4. That the Parliament might adjourn themselves when where and for what time they pleas'd But the King refusing to grant them the Parliament Vote there should be no more Addresses made him And upon Cromwell's laying his Hand upon his Sword and telling them the People expected their Safety from them and not from a Man whose Heart God had hardned the Vote of Non-Addresses was made into an Ordinance and that it should be High-Treason to receive any Message from him And now Compassion for the King's Sufferings with the discovery of their Hypocrisie had begotten such a general Indignation against the Parliament that all Wales declare for the King The Surrey Men Petition the Parliament for a Personal Treaty the same was Kent coming up to have done but seeing how evilly those of Surrey had been Treated they threw away their Petition and took Arms under the Earl of Norwich The same did others at Maidstone Black-heath Kingstone c. Which though they were all defeated yet the Houses seeing how the Inclinations of the Kingdom went and Cromwell being out of the way in securing Edinburgh they revoke their Ordinance of Non-Addresses and send the King new Propositions not much easier than the former and upon his Answer to them they sent Commissioners to treat with him at Newport in the Isle of Wight Sept. 2. 16â—â— the Treaty to be transacted with Honour Freedom and Safety in which the King made such Concessions Decemb. 5. 16â—â— that it was resolv'd upon the question by the Commons That the King's Answers to the Propositions of both Houses are a ground for the House to proceed upon for the settling the Peace of the Kingdom But it seems they had been so long dodging about Trifles that Cromwell was come to London before any thing was done Nov. 20. 1648. For Fairfax and the General Officers had remonstrated and amongst other things requir'd That the Capital and grand Author of our Troubles the Person of the King be brought to Justice for the Treason Blood and Mischief he is therein guilty of c. But the Presbyterian Party standing strong to the Resolve aforesaid a Guard is set upon the House the major part of the Members are excluded and the King made a closer Prisoner in Carisbrook-Castle which brings me to these His Majesty's Meditations upon Death In which as from the precedent of several of his Predecessors both of England and Scotland well he might he makes this Judgment That there are but few steps between the Prisons and Graves of Princes And now we 'll see what this Accuser says when having lopp'd off more than three quarters of the Title that he may bring the rest to his own Model he goes on All other humane things are disputed and will be variously thought of to the World's end but this business of Death is a plain Case and admits no Controversie Nevertheless since out of those few mortifying Hours he can spare time enough to inveigh bitterly against that Iustice which was done upon him it will be needful to say something in defence of those Proceedings And makes this his Justice the Justification of that horrid Parricide from that universal Law Whosoever sheddeth Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed And that other of Moses Ye shall not take Satisfaction for the Life of a Murtherer No exception in either of them And well may he call it Iustice when he so often blasphemes God in making him the Favourer of those the before unheard-of Villainies of that Usurpation and Tyranny as here also so wretchedly detorts Scripture to give it a Colour Whereas it was Injustice it self in its very Foundation as being directly contrary to the Law of God the Law of the Land and the Practice of the Jews from whom he draws his Authority To the Law of God whereby we are commanded First Negatively not to think ill of the King Curse not the King Eccles 10.20 no not in thy Thoughts Much less then may we speak it Thou shalt not speak Evil of the Ruler of thy People Exod. 22.18 Least of all may we do him hurt Touch not mine Anointed Secondly Affirmatively Psal 105.25 To Honour him as by the fifth Commandment and that with a Blessing annex'd to it That thy Days may be long in the Land To keep his Commandments Eccles 8.2 4. and that in regard of the Oath of God Neither may we give him any cause of Anger Prov. 20.2 for he that provoketh him sinneth against his own Soul And if thus far be true then I am sure it was Injustice to murther him To the Law of the Land Where besides what I have before said to the Soveraignty of the Crown of England to imagine the King's Death Chap. 6 To levy War against him in his Realm 25 Ed. 3. c. 2. or adhere to such as do so that it proveably appear by some Overt Act is High-Treason 3 Inst 12. The like is the Preparation by some Overt Act to take the King by force and strong hand and imprison him until he hath yielded to certain Demands And what must it then be to sit in Judgment upon him â— Ed. 3.19 who having neither Equal nor Superiour in his Realm cannot be Judged And greater than this what must it be to murther him And lastly contrary to the Practice of the Jews from whom he draws his Authority The Israelites had a hard Bondage under the Egyptians 〈◊〉 12 37. and yet that Moses whom he quotes and Six Hundred Thousand Footmen with him besides Children and a mix'd Multitude fled from Pharaoh 1 Sam 22.2 but did not rebel against him David in the head of an Army and those if we consider the Persons desperate enough fled from Saul And Eliah from Jezabel Seven Thousand Men yet left in Israel who had not bow'd their Knees to Baal 1 Kings 19.18 So that if Scripture Law or Practice have any Authority I think I need not labour the matter to prove it execrable as well as unjust Besides with what common Modesty could he tax the King with Blood when the Houses had form'd an Army so long before him as I have shewn before And therefore who shall be or was ever said to be guilty of the Blood spilt in a War the Aggressor or the Defendant when the Law chiefly regards the Original act Nor will Success more be able to alter the Nature of it than as says His Majesty The prosperous Winds which often â—ill the Sails of Pyrates do justifie their Pyracy and Rapine And were that true saith he which is most false