enjoyned with an c. was several Years after that is in Forty and shall then be consider'd as a full Testimony what little Nothings they would catch at to Augment the Quarrel And I likewise defy him and all his Party to make appear where one single Holy-day tho he says many was Introduc'd and requir'd to be observ'd with all possible Solemnity but this however False was a necessary Antithesis to that grand Charge which follows At the same time that they were encourag'd to profane the Lords Day by a Book commonly call'd The Book of Sports Printed and Publish'd by the King 's especial Command This Book of Sports is a large Volum which the Defence by the help of a Big Character makes Four Pages in Quarto being Two Declarations one of this King the other of his Father and whoever look into them which not one of Ten thousand that rail at them hath ever done consider the Liberty there given the Restraints laid down and reasons of both must acknowledge all contain'd therein to proceed from a truly Christian dispotion and absolutely necessary in reference to that Superstitious Iudaising Humour the Puritan Party were then running the whole Nation into and there was no way to stop but by examining what Premises they had for such Conclusions what Authority for turning back to those Weak and Beggarly Elements Be again in Bondage to Moses Observe Days c. which all Expositors relate to the Jewish Sabbath and not rather Stand fast in that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us Free Here therefore whether with their leave or without I shall presume to enquire First how this Iudaising Spirit came to possess so many of the Brotherhood amongst us Secondly Represent how inconsistent it is with the Nature of Christian Religion and Universal Practice of the truly Christian Church so that Thirdly what both the Kings enjoyn'd was Agreeable to their Title of Defending that Truly Catholick Apostolick Doctrine For what is First to be considered it was for some time to my surprise that the Puritan party who in all other Things so violently oppos'd Iohn Calvin's Reformation to that of our Church should notwithstanding wholly recede from him in the Doctrine and Observation of the Lord's-day for when our Author was at Geneva and that they say was his first City of Refuge he could not but observe how the Elder Men Bowl'd the Younger exercis'd their Arms or us'd some other Innocent Recreations after the Publick Duties of the Day were over with as much freedom as our Kings allow in their Declarations for all which Calvin gives very good Reasons in his Institutes and most severely reflects upon all those Sabbatarian Zealots we are now discoursing of as three times worse than Iews Qui crassâ carnalique Iudaismi Superstitione ter Iudaeos Superant But upon second Thoughts 't was easy to resolve that their respect to Calvin must always give way when an opportunity serves of prejudicing our Church which they set themselves in all things to contradict and herein had a Vile prospect of prevailing upon the People for a wide Breach so that however the Calvinist quatenus Calvinist hath no more regard for the Fourth Commandment than the Fifth or the Romanists for the Second yet by starting this Notion of a Divine Ordinance founded solely upon the Morality thereof as strictly Obliging us as the Iews they got an Occasion from thence to cavil at and run down all the other Fasts and Festivals of the Church as mere Human Inventions though most of them Apostolical and the rest in the Ages immediately succeeding and that without ever considering that by the same Authority our Christian Sabbath was Translated from the Last to the First Day of the Week and therefore by keeping so strictly to their Mosaical Mumpsimus they ought all to comply with what their Disciple Brabourne propounded and go back to the Saturday Sabbath to the Observance whereof he gain'd a Party and writ a Book in its Justification and tho the High Commission brought him to a Retractation wherein 't is said he persever'd yet many of his Followers continued their Fopperies a long time after and perhaps to this very Day I am sure in the Year 65 there was a small English Congregation of them at Roterdam where a Physician of some Eminency especially in Female concerns was Master of the Synagogue and under no little Perplexity at that time for as much as there came in or started up amongst them some New Lights who declared besides their Observation of the Iewish Sabbath there was one thing farther wanting to Perfection and that was Circumcision whereunto some of the young strong body'd Fellows submitted but the Old Members would be no such Abrahams and moreover by their Interest in the Magistrates prevail'd to have those others sent a further Pilgrimage This I have cursorily mention'd to show how easy it is from some plausible Pretences and Superstitious pervertings of Holy Scripture for Men to glide gently on and sink into the Abyss of Iudaism recommend their Sanctity by no other Performances than the Superficial rigours of Pharisaical Ostentation for none but Men under such Arrogant Infatuations could presume to affirm and that Publickly in the Pulpit as my Author declares it was at a Market Town in Oxfordshire That to do any servile Work or Business on the Lord's day was as great a Sin as to kill a Man or commit Adultery Another in Somersetshire That to throw a Bowl on the Lord's day was as great a Sin as to kill a Man A third in Norfolk That to make a Feast or dress a Wedding Dinner on the Lord's Day was as great a Sin as for a Father to take a Knife and cut his Child's Throat A fourth in Suffolk That to Ring more Bells than one on the Lord's Day was as great a Sin as to commit Murder of all which Particulars Mr. Rogers in the Preface to his Treatise upon the Thirty Nine Articles assures us from certain Informations and Knowledge being present when the last was conven'd before his Ordnary for the same And moreover with great Satisfaction declares that by his means these Sabbatarian Errors and Impieties were first brought to Light and discovered to the State and this Good ensued thereupon That all Books which contain'd the above-mention'd and many more such fearful and heretical Assertions were call'd in and forbidden any more to be Printed and made Common Archbishop Whitgift by his Letters and Visitation did the one Anno 1599. and Sir Iohn Popham Lord Chief Iustice did the other Anno 1600. at Bury in Suffolk Yet neither could this nor several other prudent Courses both Ecclesiastical and Civil either satisfy the Scruples or restrain the Follies of those Men who had embrac'd these New Sabbath Doctrines but that they still went forward to advance that Business and made it part of the Common-Cause no Book being publish'd by them either as to Moral Piety or Systematical
Prince rather afraid than asham'd to employ him in the greatest Affairs of State which he first discover'd in the House of Commons was very happily brought into Court where through several Stages of eminent Trusts and Council he arriv'd at the highest Command our Crown hath to dispose of that in Ireland which he manag'd and improv'd in so prodigious a manner as all Men of Sense and Business were astonish'd in their Acknowledgments thereof And this sufficiently appear'd at his Tryal for though 't is true there were several Articles of a very high Nature brought against him yet none prov'd And herein Ludlow discovers his Commonwealth Ingenuity to tell us he was accus'd of Governing Ireland in an Arbitrary Manner of retaining the Revenue of the Crown without giving an Account of promoting and encouraging the Romish Religion c. p. 14. whereunto though English and Irish Puritans and Papists his open Enemies and false Friends were encourag'd to give Evidence they could make nothing of it nor of that High Charge which our Author mentioning more than once would have instar omnium how he advis'd the King That since the Parliament had deny'd him such Supplies as he demanded he was at Liberty to raise them by such means as he thought fit and that he had an Irish Army should assist him to that end All which had but one single Witness to prove it Sir H. Vane who hesitated very much and though at last would have had the Irish Army imploy'd in England all Circumstances speak otherwise the very Council sitting upon the Scotch Affairs and every Member thereof averring the contrary the Earl of Northumberland more especially that he had heard the Earl of Strafford often say that that Power was to be us'd Candide et Caste and that the Kingdom could not be Happy but by a good Agreement between the King and his People in Parliament So that after a great deal of Art and Eloquence by the best parted bad Men Westminster-Hall ever sent into the House of Commons with Father Pym c. this Great Person so clearly bafled all their Allegations and Evidences as they were forc'd to turn the Tables pursue another Method and Vote him guilty by Bill of Attainder which not only precluded all further Arguments according to the Regular Course of Iustice but made themselves Accusers Parties and Iudges throughout the whole Procedure both as to Matter of Fact and Law an odd and unusual Course for they say it had been discontinu'd from Henry VIII's Time whose grough Humour too often made use of this when he could not otherwise gain his Point that is his Will But when laid in his Cold Tomb that Men might freely speak their Minds next the Barbarous Treatment of his Queens this is the foulest Blot upon his Memory And as he then made his Parliament the Properties in this ungrateful ay and unjust Procedure so the Parliament here were as hot and violent in forcing it upon the King and that with so great Precipitancy as the Bill was read thrice in one Day and consequently pass'd with an earnest Request when carried up to the Lords of the like quick Dispatch But they were more Deliberate as well upon his as their own Account which made the Commons fall to their then a la mode Course of Rabble and Tumults 5 or 6000 whereof assembled at Westminster crying for Justice and Execution with many other intollerable Insolencies as shall be by and by related upon which Account many of the Lords dar'd not to appear at the House and of those few that did being 45 it was carried but by 7 Votes 19 giving their not Content to the 26 that gave their Content to the passing this Fatal Bill And this brought the King into that inextricable Perplexity being to use his own incomparable Words perswaded by those that wish'd him well to choose rather what seemed safe than just preferring the outward Peace of my Kingdom with Men before that inward exactness of Conscience before God and this made a continu'd Remorse in his Soul for ever after incessantly complaining of that bad exchange to wound a Man 's own Conscience thereby to salve State-Sores to calm the Storms of popular Discontents by stirring up a Tempest in a Man 's own Bosom whereas in all likelyhood I could never have suffer'd with my People greater Calamities yet with greater Comfort had I vindicated Strafford's Innocency and not gratify'd some Mens unthankful importuning so cruel a Favour In fine the whole Chapter is so great in its self as we find nothing so sincerely to express the true Remorse of a Penitent Soul since David pen'd the 51 Psalm and withall gives so high and just a Character of this great Man as no People which us'd them both so Barbarously ought ever to be bless'd with such a Prince or Minister Yet one thing I must further observe from his Majesty how that after-Act vacating the Authority of the Precedent for future Imitation sufficiently tells the World that some Remorse touched even his most implacable Enemies as knowing he had very hard Measure and such as they would be very loth should be repeated to themselves The return likewise that virulent Faction made to his Majesty when he had oblig'd them with so much Regret to himself is worth taking Notice which was only this hath he given us Strafford then he can deny us nothing And accordingly at the same time this cursed Bill was past there past another to make that cursed Parliament perpetual whereupon I find this Remark that as the one was for the Earl's present Execution so the other prov'd in the Event for the Kings One thing more and I have done when the Nation came to its Wits again in the Year 60 An Act was pass'd for reversing the Attainder of this great Worthy wherein are enumerated the several unjust and irregular Practiecs for obtaining that Bill as well from Lords as King together with the Illegality and untruth of the Charge it self 'T is pity there had not been a Clause likewise that whosoever should dare to Libel and belye his but more especially his Master 's Sacred Memory or indeed any others who unjustly Suffer'd in that just Cause should forfeit their Ears at last if not have their Breath stop'd at Tyburn what a company of Spill-Paper Rascals would this have freed the Press or the World of But since 't is thought fit to permit them we must be Content with discovering thereby their sordid Temper and base Principles and accordingly discriminate them from such vertuous Understanding Souls as will not be afraid of any euil Tidings but have the Righteous in everlasting Remembrance Arch-Bishop Laud shall be here likewise consider'd for tho they did not take away his Life till about three Years after yet was he forc'd to Linger it out all that time in an unjust Confinement kept on purpose as one would think to serve another turn with the Scots For as they would
he believ'd or would have it thought there was any thing of Democracy in the Iudges Regency it is a gross Mistake indeed when the Monarchy was interrupted upon the Death of Ioshua we find no Successor appointed by him as Moses had done nor fix'd upon by the People and 't is probable every Tribe became a State Provincial in their several Allotments for the Text saith The People served the Lord all the days of Joshua and of the Elders that out-liv'd Joshua who had seen all the great Works the Lord did for Israel Judg. 2. 7 8. But when all that Generation were gather'd to their Fathers there arose another Generation which knew not the Lord nor the Works he had done but followed other Gods of the People that were round about them and bowed themselves unto them and provoked the Lord to Anger and here indeed I take them to be a true Commonwealth a Free-State with a General Toleration every one doing what was right in his own Eyes But this admired Liberty pleas'd none but themselves nor themselves long neither for the Text further adds the Anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he delivered them into the Hands of the Spoilers that spoiled them c. vers 14. till sensible of their Folly and Ingratitude upon their humble Address unto the Lord he raised up Iudges and was with the Iudges and dilivered them out of the Hand of the Enemy all the days of the Iudges vers 18. Yet to see how steady all popular Resolves are the next Verse declares when the Iudge was dead they return'd and corrupted themselves more than their Fore-fathers in following other Gods c. they ceased not from their own doings and their stubborn ways vers 19. Whereupon I shall take leave to make this general Observation That when God designs to curse a People into Misery and Ruin he leaves them to their own evil and foolish Ways which will never be redress'd without true Repentance and a return to such Establishments as are agreeable to his Will And therefore Thirdly 't is an abominable Mistake to urge that Text in Samuel as an Argument against all Monarchy in general whereas the Charge God brings against them the People of Israel was their rude and undutiful Deportment their Mutinous manner of demanding a King and the reason they gave for it that they might be like other Nations which he had taken all possible care they should not be and most strictly enjoyn'd them not to imitate any of their Practices and this is clear for that as their Government had been always Monarchical when under God's Hand so he foresaw and consequently caution'd them against such popular tumultuary Heats Deut. 17. 14 c. when thou art come unto the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee c. and shalt say I will set a King over me like as all the Nations which are about me Thou shalt in any wise set him a King over thee whom the Lord thy God shall Chuse God was well content that they should have a King but reserv'd the Election to himself he would have no transferring of Rights no mutual Contracts but chuse his own Representative He proceeds to his other Topick That it was no ways conducing to the Interest of the Nation viz. Monarchy was endeavour'd to be prov'd by the infinite Mischiefs and Oppressions we have suffer'd under it 'T is the modestest Expression in his whole Book to say it was endeavour'd to be prov'd since it hath been already made appear that the little Finger of these Commonwealth-Iobbers prov'd heavier to the whole Nation than all the Monarchs which ever sat upon the Throne So likewise further on he tells us The Question in dispute between the King's Party and us being as I apprehend it whether the King should Govern like a God by his own Will c. or the People be govern'd by Laws made by themselves c. p. 267 If he will apprehend things wrong it cannot be help'd for neither the King nor his Party ever intended the People should be otherwise Govern'd than by their own Laws 't was what they stood up for and endeavour'd to preserve according to all antient Establishments but God thought not fit to give them a present Success that the People might experimentally find the Madness and Folly of their Innovations Mr. Thomas Farnaby who had been the famous School-Master of those Times was committed by an Order of the House in 41. for saying he believ'd we should find it better to live under one King than 500 how Legal that Commitment was is easily resolv'd yet went they on in the same Arbitrary Course for five or six Years together Committing whomsoever they dislik'd or so much as suspected to dislike them Did not these Men govern by their own Wills Yes surely though more like Devils than God Neither yet did it rest here the 500 were reduc'd to a Rump of less than 50. and they over-aw'd by a Military Rabble of more than twice 15 Thousand Were not the Good People of England excellently represented now Their Laws and Liberty in a hopeful Condition And their Purses free when the Soldiers commanded them And this is the next Diabolical Intrigue our Author very frankly declares they design'd to enterprise for however the several Iuntos had hitherto jointly concurr'd nay even contended who should make the greatest Invasions not only upon the Peoples but there Prince's Liberty yet now hath become divided within its self a major part of the House being not willing to concurr with the Army in Murdering that Person whom they had nevertheless both agreed to Un-King and this as Ludlow tells us occasion'd another Meeting between some Members and Officers of the Army wherein it was resolv'd to purge the House once more of all such Members as should attempt to frustrate what these Sons of Belial were resolv'd to go through with p. 266 and to justify himself herein he brings another Text of Scripture whether with more Impudence or Folly let the Reader judge that Blood defileth the Land and cannot be cleansed but by the Blood of him that shed it Numb 35. 33. I have already observ'd if the Wolf may be Judge no Sheep shall be Innocent and as these Beasts of Prey began the Chace and worried all that would not go with or dar'd to oppose them till their Blood was shed like Water round about the Land so that Royal Effusion in the end must doubtless have brought such a Stain upon it as we may justly fear will never be washed out whereof several worthy Loyal Patriots in the Parliament 60. were so Religiously sensible as they propounded that not only the rest of the Regicides should have receiv'd their due Reward but that for every one of the King's Party who suffer'd by their pretended Forms of Iustice there should have been a Retaliation upon the same Number of such as had been most forward in those base and unjust
Impertinency he continues But recollecting himself a little he put on his Scarf and other Furniture and went to the King where having read the Common-Prayer and one of his old Sermons he Administred the Sacrament to him c. pag. 282. Could any thing like a Christian or indeed a Man play the Buffoon at so silly a rate upon so solemn and sad an Occasion Whether the Sermon was old or not is more than he knows to be sure it was very much to the Purpose that is of the final Iudgment when God shall judge the Secrets of all Men by Iesus Christ whereat had Ludlow or any of his Confederates been there is no doubt but their guilty Souls would have Trembled as much as Felix did but withal too persever'd as little in their Recognitions With like impious Contempt he reflects upon the Holy Sacrament most ignorantly cavils at and as profanely Ridicules it a true Saint of the new Edition above Ordinances in their Lives and without them at their Deaths according to that great Author in the Book of Wisdom As for the Mysteries of God they knew them not neither hoped they for the Wages of Righteousness nor discerned a Reward for blameless Souls 'T is represented likewise according to his no Understanding of such Religious Preparations as if all these Holy Offices were hudled together on that fatal last Day whereas the Bishop was with the King on Saturday had the Sermon and Sacrament on Sunday where Mr. Herbert the only Person they permitted to attend his Majesty was another Communicant with them however the foolish Fellow flouts and considers not what Dispensations are allow'd upon such sad Necessities But since he is for relating Circumstances as to this worthy Prelate's holy Performances there is one which tho all good Men must be well acquainted with ought never to be omitted when upon this Subject viz. That the last Lesson his Majesty heard read in that Morning Office of his Suffering was the History of our Saviour's Passion in the 27 th of Matth. which he suppos'd the Bishop had made Choice of as most applicable to his present Condition till he otherwise inform'd him that it was the proper Lesson for the Day as appear'd by the Kalender wherewith saith Mr. Herbert then present his Majesty was much Affected and doubtless received great Consolation thereby Others have gon further and made several Parallels between their Sufferings which I shall only mention in general that as there was never a more barbarous Act since that Lord of Life was Crucified so neither a more Innocent Soul through his Merits and Satisfaction assum'd into the Regions of Bliss So that a certain Lord upon the Seaffold the Noble Capel I think it was had great Reason to say that if he were to wish his Soul in any ones stead it should be in his and Sit anima mea cum Carolo Heaven cannot be so if he be not there And therefore to take my leave of this worst of Men Ludlow it shall be in the Words of the foremention'd Author of the Book of Wisdom where declaring that the Souls of the Righteous are in the Hands of God however in the Sight of the unwise and wicked they seem'd to die he adds For though they be punished in the sight of Man yet is their hope full of Immortality And having been a little chastised they shall be greatly rewarded for God proved them and found them worthy for himself This strange and never before heard of Procedure against the Sacred Person of their Monarch being thus accomplish'd and in him the Ancient Monarchy of England totally Subverted our Author is too intent upon their new Project of Liberty-Keeping to persue his Calumnies any further and therefore relating how his Body was Interred at Windsor by some Good Men Noble and Worthy Persons who attended it thither he might have added the Lamentation made over it not only by them but the whole Kingdom thorough for doubtless never was there greater for any Prince in the World whether as I said from the many Designs his projecting Head was carrying on or to shew that Humanity had not totally Abdicated his Breast he lets it rest there without farther Disturbance But that pitiful Fellow Roger Coke was so Spiteful as to rake into those Sacred Ashes and not permit so much as the Grave to give them rest Can any thing be more base than to reflect that the Office of our Church was not suffer'd to be read at his Enterment A Man of Sense of Virtue and Loyalty might have been justly severe upon the Governor who refus'd so innocent a Request but his Majesty's very Memory must be thereby the more Eminent in that their Baseness persued him so far as not to permit his dead Corps the External Rites of Religion And as he was buried without an Office so his next Insult is that he lies without a Monument and thereupon relates how the Commons had Voted 50. he saith but 't was really 70000 l. for the Charge of taking up the King's Body with making a Solemn Funeral and Monument which yet came to nothing Whereto he Maliciously adds that 't was said his Son forbid it which indeed was likely to be said for Lying with Whiggism began about that Time to be much in Vogue and several Plots there were on Foot to serve the Son as they had done the Father but the People were not then mad enough to follow their Lure and it was the Old Loyal Party and Principle which preserv'd the King at that Time But for the 70000 l. in order to a Monument the true Account stands thus That Session in which it was Voted rose in some Heat without passing any Bills whereby this amongst the rest was Obstructed And at their next Meeting their continu'd Heats cool'd this worthy Design the rather for that a certain busy Female assum'd the Honor of having it first mov'd Although 't is likewise probable that the Old Faction which with their young Spawn began about this Time to be very busy in the House might not be wanting to put by so ungrateful a Memorial of their Villany And thus the Court was too justly repaid for the Care they took at the Restauration to Sweeten the Sowr-humor'd Fanatick and amongst other things that their Consciences should not be over-jogg'd by too many Remembrances of this Eternal Reproach which though an Indempnity pardon'd no Oblivion will ever be able to deface and this occasion'd a worthy Divine in this Critical Juncture most eminently deserving of the English Church preaching at White-Hall upon that cursed Day to tell them freely They had added to his Ignominy by Burying his Funeral To be sure had the least motion for a Monument been made in those early Days it would have pass'd without Control but in that Juncture we were mighty fearful of offending those who could never be oblig'd Dr. Donne in that odd Poem of his The Progress of the Soul when
would undertake the Fleet might be much better manag'd both as to Conduct and Charge and thereupon fell most rudely upon the Duke not sparing his Majesty in some By-reflections who perceiving their Heats to rise every Day higher than other and that no Supply was to be had unless he yielded to their unreasonable Cavils which no body could foresee how far they would extend or where end He sent a Commission to some of the House of Lords and dissolv'd them That he was not without great Regret forc'd upon this 't is easie to imagine considering the Posture of his Affairs and that Want of timely Supply detain'd his Fleet from going out till it should have been return'd into Harbor And indeed the Delays he met with where there was least Reason to expect them had they considered the Honor and Interest of the Kingdom not to say of the King tho they pretended much to both was the chief if not sole Cause of several Miscarriages which according to the Genius of that Age were otherwise very well design'd However giving some strict Orders about Recusants and whatever else there was any Shadow of an Exception against as likewise hoping on the other side those fiery Spirits might be somewhat cool'd and brought to a sober Consideration of their own and the Nation 's Reputation Another Parliament was call'd within the same Year which prov'd no Changlings beginning where they left off with Miscarriages Misgovernment Misimployment in short they would have all amiss whereas there was nothing so but themselves Neither could his Majesty's Letter to the Speaker have any Influence upon them tho' most passionately representing his pressing Occasions and how unfit it was to depend any longer upon Uncertainties whereby the whole Weight of the Affairs of Christendom was like to break in upon us on the suddain to the Dishonor and Shame of the Nation assuring them moreover that having satisfied his reasonable Demands he would continue them together at this Time as long as the Season will permit and call them shortly again to apply fit and seasonable Remedies to such just Grievances as they shall present unto him in a dutiful and mannerly way without throwing an ill Odor upon our present Government or upon the Government of our late blessed Father and if there be yet who desire to find fault we shall think him the wisest Reprehender of Errors past who without reflecting backward can give us Counsel how to settle the present Estate of things and provide for the future Safety and Honour of the Kingdom This was very much to the purpose but withal too home and true to meet with that Reception it ought to have had Neither had the Lords better Success in a Message they sent desiring them to take into Consideration the Safety of the Kingdom receiving this grough Answer That they desire to have a good Understanding with their Lordships and will be ever careful of the Safety and Defence of the Kingdom and maintain their own Privileges as is fitting And having sent this they immediately fell upon the Duke of Buckingham in order whereunto we find one Turner a Doctor of Phisick and Member of the House made the Factions Tool or rather Log to break the Ice by starting six Quaeres against the Duke grounded only upon common Fame and this produc'd another Quaere indeed a very requisite one Whether an Accusation upon common Fame be a Parliamentary Way And thereupon it was resolv'd That common Fame is a good way of proceeding for this House from whence alone that great Body of Articles was usher'd up to the Lords with as much Pomp and Rhetorick as give them their Due that House ever was or will be Masters of Yet no more than requisite to supply the Place of Argument for whoever considers impartially the Duke's Answer will find it so clear and apposite to every Particular alledg'd so consistent with the Reason of Things and Series of Affairs there mention'd as'tis more than probable their Impeachment was design'd only as a Ducquoy to get him into the Tower and then instead of proving their Articles would have proceeded by Bill of Attainder and voted it accumulative Treason as we know it was afterwards most barbarously done in the Earl of Strafford's Case In the mean while commend me to any Man or Body of Men who can have the Confidence to declaim against Arbitrary Power and yet proceed upon common Fame which was ever thought hard and therefore discontinued both in Civil and Canon Law where for some time it took place especially in an Age where Calumny and Slander were so scandalously rise as no honest Man could escape the devouring Words of their false Tongues Methinks such a Proceedure as this has some Affinity with that old Land Story of the Cook serving his Dog who said he would not hang him only give him an ill Name and thereupon threw him into the Street and cry'd a Mad Dog which made all the Rabble of two as well as four legg'd Curs fall upon and worry him to Death Yet how far this way of Prosecution might have been brought into Practice had these Gentlemen continued Rex no one can tell to be sure in the next Parliament when Neal Bishop of Winton and Laud of London were inveigh'd against by Sir Iohn Eliot and others an honest Gentleman stood up and said Now we have nam'd these Persons let us think of some Causes why we did it whereunto Sir Edward Coke reply'd Have we not nam'd my Lord of Buckingham without shewing Cause and may we not be as bold with them Common Fame would do the Business thoroughly But to return to the Duke they thought it enough to shew their Teeth for surely if they could have bit they would not have postpon'd the making good their Articles against him when he press'd them so earnestly thereto which notwithstanding they did as well as the King's Supply and fell to hammering a new Remonstrance which his Majesty having notice of anticipated by their Dissolution We shall have Occasion hereafter to observe what pass'd between this and the next Parliament which was March 17 th 1627. when his Majesty at their first assembling plainly told them That if his present calling them together did not answer the Quality of his Occasions they did not their Duties and he must rest content in the Conscience of doing his and take other Courses for which God had impower'd him to save that which the Folly of particular Men might hazzard to lose Hereupon they fell into long and tedious Debates whether a Supply or Grievances should first take place At length the former had the Preference out of Complement though last consummated for that Vote was no sooner pass'd but the People's Liberty must immediately be consider'd which produc'd the so much celebrated Petition of Right wherein the King humour'd them to every Punctilio though nothing but a Spirit of Opposition could have excepted against his first
have leave to Exercise if not upon the Sundays and Holy Days seeing they must apply their Labour and win their Living in all working Days All which in no more than their Common Practice at Geneva as hath been already mention'd and it ought further to be consider'd so strict a Confinement from all Diversions of Body and Mind cannot but by degrees oppress and darstardise Men's Spirits of English Mastiffs make them in the end become Setting-Dogs to some Foreign Power To these King Charles adds a 3d. The rather because of late in some Counties of the Kingdom we find that under pretence of taking away abuses there hath been a general Forbidding not only of ordinary Meetings but of the Feasts of the Dedication of the Churches c. which besides preserving the Memorial thereof as he was certainly inform'd tended very much to Civilising the People composing of Differences by the Mediation of Friends encreasing Love and Unity by those Feasts of Charity with Relief and Comfort to the Poor the Richer part in a manner keeping open House Although what is mention'd just before in this Corroborating part of King Charles might probably prevail more with him than all the rest viz. Out of a Pious Care for the Service of God and for suppressing any Humors that oppose Truth being too sensible how those judaising Dogmatists by inculcating to the People a strict and sole Observance of this Legal Institution design'd thereby to exclude all those Christian Feasts and Festivals which have been constantly Commemorated ever since the Gospel was Preach'd to Mankind as the Birth Passion Resurrection and Ascension of Christ with the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles by which Miraculous Gifts Almighty God impowr'd them to Preach the Gospel to the whole World bringing Life and Immortality to Light and the Church accordingly hath ever pay'd a thankful Acknowledgment of those their indefatigable Labors Exemplary Lives and Cruel Deaths till these Enemies to all Antiquity as well as Order and Gratitude must have them superseded by such Iewish Observances as neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear And it was much to my Surprise that when some late Acts pass'd for the more strict observing the Lord's Day the Fathers of our Church when it came into their House did not endeavour at least that some little regard might be had to the foremention'd Fasts and Festivals the Canon took care to joyn them all together for due Celebration of Sundays and Holy Days and God forgive those who conniv'd at a Separation such an Omission could not have pass'd in Charles the 1 st Time and one would think their proceedings then should be Matter of greater Caution now for having dar'd to lift up their Hands against that true Defender they stuck at nothing which might hinder a thorough Reformation began indeed at the Holy Days but Liturgy and Bishops soon follow'd To give one Instance of many how cursedly they affected to run Counter against whatever our Church did practise when in the Heat of the Rebellion Christmas Day fell on a Sunday as it must in Course every four or five Years that Coryphaeus of the Faction old Calamy lest he should be thought to regard the Festival of our Saviour's Nativity preach'd upon a Passion Text. Eli Eli Lamasabachthani How violent a Current we have bene dar'd to Stem is neither our Ignorance nor our Fear Truth is a Rock which repels the Force at the same time it causes their Noise and Foamings Yet not to be mistaken herein which is very Natural for them to do I shall most readily comply in the strictest Observation of the Lord's Day they can think fit to prescribe provided it be upon a Christian not Iewish Bottom and with a due Deference to what the Wise and Good have in the best Ages of the Church resolv'd therein Otherwise to make Exclamations and enveigh against every one who will not walk by their killing Letter of the Law hath too great Affinity to those Pharisaical Rigours which were continually carping at and Censuring our Saviour for the many Miracles he wrought on the Sabbath Day whilst their hard and impenitent Hearts could not understand what that meant I will have Mercy not Sacrifice as likewise that the Sabbath was made for Man not Man for the Sabbath And that the many Reproaches rais'd against the two forementioned Princes upon their sincere Endeavours for a right Information herein as well as their other good Deeds for the House of God and Offices thereof proceeded from the like perverse Disposition of Spirit can be little doubted by any one who reflects how exactly they parallell'd the Iews in Murdering the one and continue still most implacable against the Memories of both CHAP. XI Of Ship-Money WHen a Man hath a Subject will bear an Argument and is sure of an easy and ready Attention to run out into bitter Invectives and false Suggestions argues as great a defect of Judgment as good Nature to be sure nothing has rais'd a stronger Suspicion of this Prince's sincere Intentions amongst the soberest and best disposed People in the Nation than his Levying Ship-Money which therefore Ludlow might have kept close to without continuing his Excursions against the Clergy but they must answer for all to which end he tells That divers of them entred the List as Champions of the Prerogative asserting that the Possessions and Estates of the Subjects did of Right belong to the King and that he might dispose of them at Pleasure thereby Vacating and Annulling as much as in them lay All the Laws of England that secure a Propriety to the People p. 5. Now to prove or make appear one Syllable of this Virulent Charge is beneath the Authority of his Memoirs 't will pass with the Party upon his Word and whoever affirms nay proves the contrary shall be no more credited by them than they will be at the Last Day The Iesuits where they have Power are not more severe in their Inquisitions than our well-scented Demagogues upon all Transactions of the Loyal Clergy yet excepting those few indiscreet Expressions of Sibthorp and Manwaring which has been already spoke to they could find nothing else worth catching hold of otherwise we should not have been so often hit in the Teeth with them two 'T is true the Clergy all along stood firm to the Prerogative and thought themselves bound both in Duty and Interest to support it's just Rights against the many Invasions every Day attempted to that and the Kingdoms Ruin which Steadiness and Resolution of theirs was the pretended Crime and grand Motive for those little Crorespondents with the Prince of the Air to raise and procure so many Storms against them But that they had any Thoughts of stretching the Prerogative beyond its due Bounds much less of Annulling all nay any of the Laws of England none but a Republican Confidence could affirm and hath no more of Truth than that Ludlow was an