many petty Republikes amongst them so that they begin to smell rank of a Hans-town Poor simple Annimals how they suffer their pockets to be pick'd their purses to be cut how they part with their vitall spirits every week how desperately they post on to poverty and their own ruine suffering themselves in lieu of Scarlet-gownes to be governed by a rude company of Red-coats who 'twixt plundering assessements and visits will quickly make an end of them I fear ther is som formidable judgment of regall revenge hangs over that City for the anger of a King is like the roaring of a Lyon and I never read yet of any City that contested with her Soverain but she smarted soundly for it at last The present case of London bears a great deal of proportion with that of Monpellier here in France in Charls the seventh's time for when that town had refused the publishing of many of the Kings Edicts and Declarations murthered som of his Ministers and Servants abused the Church and committed other high acts of insolency the Duke of Berry was sent to reduce the Town to obedience the Duke pressed them with so hard a siege that at last the best Citizens came forth in procession bare-headed bare-footed with white wands in their hands and halters about their necks to deliver the keys of all the gates to the Duke but this wold not serve the turn for two hundred of them were condemned to the gallies two hundred of them were hang'd and two hundred beheaded the King saying he offered those as victimes for the lives of his servants whom they had murthered with the false sword of Justice But Sir I much marvell how your Church-government which from all times hath been cryed up to be so exact is so suddenly tumbled into this confusion how your Prelates are fallen under so darke a cloud considering that divers of them were renowned through all the Reform'd Churches in Christendome for their rare learning and pietie At the Synod at Dort you know some of them assisted and no exception at all taken at their degree and dignity but took precedence accordingly how came it to passe that they are now fallen under this Eclypse as so be so persecuted to be push'd out of the House of Peers and hurried into prison I pray you be pleased to tell me Patricius Sir I remember to have read in the Irish Story That when the Earl of Kildare in Henry the eighth's time was brought before the Lord Deputy for burning Cassiles Church he answered My Lord I would never have burnt the Church unlesse I had thought the Biship had been in it for 't was not the Church but the Bishop I aim'd at One may say so of the Anglican Church at this present that these fiery Zelots these vaporing Sciolists of the times are so furiously enraged against this holy Primative order some out of Envie some out of Malice some out of Ignorance that one may say our Church had not been thus set on fire unlesse the Bishops had been in 't I grant there was never yet any Profession made up of men but there were some bad we are not Angels upon earth there was a Iudas amongst the first dozen of Christians though Apostles and they by our Saviours owne election Amongst our Prelates peradventure for I know of no accusation fram'd against them yet some might be faulty and wanting moderation being not contented to walk upon the battlements of the Church but they must put themselves â—…pon stilts but if a golden chaine hath happily a copper link two or three will you therefore breake and throw away the whole chaine If a few Shoâ—…makers I confesse the comparison is too homely but I had it of a Scots man sell Calfes skin for Neats leather must the Gentle-Craft be utterly extinguish d must we go bare foot therefore Let the persons suffer in the Name of God and not the holy Order of Episcopacy But good Lord how pittifully were those poor Prelats handled what a Tartarian kind of tyranny it was to drag twice into prison twelve grave reverend Bishops causâ adhuc inaudita and afterwards not to be able to frame as much as an accusation of misdemeanor against them much lesse of Treason whereof they were first impeach'd with such high clamors But I conceive it was of purpose to set them out of the way that the new Faction might passe things better amongst the Peers And it seemes they brought their work about for whilest they were thus reclused and absent they may be sayed to be thrust out of doores and ejected out of their owne proper ancient inheritance And the Tower wherein they were cast might be called Limbo patrum all the while Peregrin But would not all this with those unparallell'd Bills of Grace you mentioned in your first Discourse which had formerly passed suffice to beget a good understanding and make them confide in their King Patricius No but the passing of these Bills of grace were term'd Acts of Duty in his Majesty they went so far in their demands that 't was not sufficient for him to give up his Tower 〈◊〉 Fleet-Royall his Magazines his Ports Castlâ—… and Servants but he must deliver up his sworâ—… into their hands all the Souldiery Military forces of the Land nay he must give up his very Understanding unto them he must resigne his own Reason and with an implicit Faith or blind Obedience he must believe all they did was to make him glorious and if at any time he admonished them oâ—… prescribed wayes for them to proceed and expedit matters or if he advised them in any thing they took it in a kind of indignation and 't was presently cryed up to be Breach of Priviledge Peregrin Breach of Priviledge forsooth There is no way in my conceit to make a King more inglorious both at home and abroad then to disarme him and to take from him the command and disposing of the Militia throughout his Kingdome is directly to disarm him wrest the Sword out of his hand and how then can he be termed A Defendor how can he defend either himself or others 't is the onely way to expose him to scorn and derision truly as I conceive that demand of the Militia was a thing not only unfit for them to ask but for him to grant But Sir what shold be the reson which mov'd them to make that insolent proposall Patricius They cry'd out that the Kingdom was upon point of being ruin'd that it was in the very jawes of destruction that there were forreign and in-land plots against it all which are prov'd long since to be nothing else but meere Chymera's yet people for the most part continue still so grossely besotted that they cannot perceive to this day that these forg'd feares these Utopian plots those publick Idea's were fram'd of purpose that they might take all the martiall power into their hands that so they might without controulment cast the
subsidies and the King inclinable to take them The said Vane being the Secretary of State stood up and said His Majesty expected no less then twelve which words did so incense and discompose the House that they drew after them that unhappy dissolution His Majesty being reduced to these straits and resenting still the insolence of the Scot proposed the busines to His Privy Councell who suddenly made up a considerable and most noble summe for his present supply whereunto divers of his domestick servants and Officers did contribut Amongst others who were active herein the Earl of Strafford bestir'd himself notably and having got a Parliament to be call'd in Ireland he went over and with incredible celeritie raised 8000. men who procured money of that Parliament to maintain them and got over those angry Seas again in the compasse of lesse then six weeks You may infer hence to what an exact uncontrollable obedience he had reduced that Kingdom as to bring about so great a work with such a suddennes and facilitie An armie was also raised here which marched to the North and there fed upon the Kings pay a whole Summer The Scot was not idle all this while but having punctuall intelligence of every thing that passed at Court as farre as what was debated in the Cabinet Councel and spoken in the bed-chamber and herein amongst many others the Scot had infinite advantage of us He armed also and preferring to make England the stage of the warre rather then his own countrey and to invade rather then to be invaded He got over the Tweed and found the passage open and as it were made for him all the way till hee came to the Tine and though there was a considerable army of horse and foot at Newcastle yet they never offered so much as to face him all the while At Newburgh indeed there was a small skirmish but the English foot would not fight so Newcastle gates flew open to the Scot without any resistance at all where it is thought he had more friends then foes and who were their friends besides for this invasion I hope Time and the Tribunall of Justice will one day discover His Majesty being then at York summoned all his Nobles to appear to advise with them in this exigence Commissioners were appointed on both sides who met at Rippon and how the hearts and courage of some of the English Barons did boil within them to be brought to so disadvantageous a Treatie with the Scot you may well imagin So the Treatie began which the Scot wold not conform himself to do unless he were first unrebell d and made Rectus in Curia and the Proclamation wherein he was declared Traitour revoked alledging it wold be dishonorable for His Majesty to treat with rebels This treaty was adjourned to London where this present Parliament was summoned which was one of the chiefest errands of the Scoâ—… as some think And thus far by these sad and short degrees have I faithfully led you along to know the tru Originals of our calamities Peregrin Truly Sir I must tell you that to my knowledg these unhappy traverses with Scotland have made the English suffer abroad very much in point of National honour Therefore I wonder much that all this while ther is none set a work to make a solid Apologie for England in some communicable language either in French or Latin to rectifie the world in the truth of the thing and to vindicat her how she was bought and sold in this expedition considering what a party the Scot had here and how his comming in was rather an Invitation then an Invasion and I beleeve if it had bin in many parts of the world besides some of the Commanders had gone to the pot Patricius It is the practise of some States I know to make sacrifice of some eminent Minister for publick mistakes but to follow the thred of my Discourse The Parliament being sate His Majesty told them that he was resolved to cast himself wholly upon the affection and fidelity of his people whereof they were the Representative body Therfore he wished them to go roundly on to close up the ruptures that were made by this infortunat war and that the two armies one domestick the other forrain which were gnawing the very bowels of the Kingdom might be dismissed Touching grievances of any kind and what State was ther ever so pure but some corruption might creep into it He was very ready to redresse them concerning the Ship-money he was willing to pass a Bâ—…ll for the utter abolition of it and to establish the property of the subject therefore he wished them not to spend too much time about that And for Monopolies he desired to have a list of them and he wold damn them all in one Proclamation Touching ill Counsellours either in Westminster-Hall or White-Hall either in Church or State he was resolved to protect none Therefore he wished that all jealousies and misunderstandings might vanish This with sundry other strains of Princely grace he delivered unto them but withall he told them that they shold be very cautious how they shook the fram of an ancient Government too far in regard it was like a Watch which being put asunder can never be made up again if the least pin be left out So ther were great hopes of a calm after that cold Northern storm had so blustered and that we shold be suddenly rid of the Scot but that was least intended untill som designs were brought about The Earl of Strafford the Archbishop of Canterbury the Iudges and divers Monopolists are clapt up and you know who took a timely flight Lord Finch to the other side of the Sea And in lieu of these the Bishop of Lincoln is enlarged Bastwick Burton and Prynn are brought into London with a kind of Hosanna His Majesty gave way to all this and to comply further with them he took as it were into his bosom I mean he admitted to his Privy Councell those Parliament Lords who were held the greatest Zelots amongst them that they might be witnesses of his secret'st actions and to one of them the Lord Say he gave one of the considerablest Offices of the Kingdom by the resignation of another most deserving Lord upon whom they could never fasten the least misdemeanour yet this great new Officer wold come neither to the same Oratory Chappell or Church to joyn in prayer with his Royall Master nor communicat with him in any publick exercise of devotion and may not this be called a tru Recusancie To another he gave one of the prime and most reposefull Offices about his own Person at Court The Earl of Essex and thereby he might be said to have given a Staff to beat himself Moreover partly to give his Subjects an Evidence how firmly he was rooted in his Religion and how much he desired the strenthning of it abroad The treaty of marriage went on 'twixt his eldest daughter and the young
subject The Parliament sends out clean countermands for executing the said Militia so by this clashing 'twixt the Commission of Array and the Militia the first flash of this odious unnaturall war may be said to break out The pulse of the Parliament beats yet higher they send an Admirall to the Sea the Earl of Warwick not only without but expresly against the Kings special command They had taken unto them a Military gard from the City for their protection without His Majesties consent who by the advice of the Lord Keeper and others had offered them a very strong gard of Constables and other Officers to attend them which the Law usually allows yet the raising of that gard in York-shire for the safegard of His Majesties person was interpreted to be leavying of war against the Parliament and so made a sufficient ground for them to raise an Army to appoint a Generall the Earl of Essex with whom they made publick Declarations to live and die And they assumed power to confer a new Appellation of honour upon him Excellency as if any could confer Honour but the King And this Army was to be maintain'd out of the mixt conâ—…ribution of all sorts of people so a great masse of money and plate was brought into the Guild hall the Semstresse brought in her silver Thimble the Chamber-maid her Bodkin the Cook his Spoons and the Vintner his Bowles and every one somthing to the advancement of so good a work as to wage war directly against the Sacred person of their Soverain and put the whole Countrey into a combustion Peregrin Surely it is impossible that a rationall Christian people shold grow so simple and sottish as to be so far transported without some colourable cause therfore I pray tell me what that might be Patricius The cause is made specious enough and varnished over wonderfull cunningly The people are made to believe they are in danger and a prevention of that danger is promised and by these plausible ways the understanding is wrought upon and an affection to the cause is usher'd in by aggravation of this danger as one wold draw a thred through a needles eye This huge Bugbear Danger was like a monster of many heads the two chiefest were these That ther was a plot to let in the Pope And to 〈◊〉 the civil Government into a French frame It is incredible to think how the Pulpits up and down London did ring of this by brainsick Lecturers of whom som were come from New-England others were pick'd out of purpose and sent for from their own flock in the Countrey to possesse or rather to poison the hearts of the Londoners to puzzle their intellectualls and to intoxicat their brains by their powerfull gifts It was punishable to preach of Peace or of Caesars Right but the common subject of the pulpit was either blasphemy against God disobedience against the King or incitements to sedition Good Lord what windy frothy stuff came from these fanatick brains These Phrenetici Nebulones for King Iames gives them no better Character in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who may be said to be mad out of too much ignorance not knowledg who neverthelesse are come to that height of prophaness and pride that they presume to father all their doctrines all their non-sense raptures and ravings upon the holy Spirit Nor did the Pulpit only help to kindle this fire but the Presse also did contribute much stubble What base scurrilous Pamphlets were cryed up and down the streets and dispersed in the 〈◊〉 What palpable and horrid lies were daily printed How they multiplied in every corner in such plenty that one might say tâ—…er was a superfaetation of lies which continue unto this day One while the King of Denmark was comming over from the Sound Another while the King of France had a huge Army about Calais design'd for England Another while ther was an Army of Irish Rebels comming over with the privity of the King Another while a plot was cryed up and down to burn London Another while ther were subterranean invisible troups at Ragland Castle mustered under ground in Wales and thousands of Papists armed in Lancashire and divers reports of this nature were daily blown up and though the Authors of them were worthlesse and mean futilous persons yet the reports themselves had that credit as to be entertain'd and canvas'd in the High Court of Parliament But these false rumors produc'd one politick effect and it was the end indeed for which they were dispers'd they did intimidat and fill the peoples hearts with fears and dispose of them to up roars and so to part with money Peregrin I know ther be sundry sorts of Fears ther are Conscientious Fears and ther are â—…annick Fears ther are Pusillanimous Fears and ther are Politick Fears The first sort of Fear proceeds from guilt of Conscience which turns often to Phreâ—…cy The second sort of Fear may be call'd a kind of Chymera 't is som sudden surprizall or Consternation arising from an unknown cause Pusillanimous Fear makes a mountain of a mole-hill and proceeds from poverty of spirit and want of courage and is a passion of abject and degenerous minds and may be call'd Cowardise and this Fear is always accompanied with jealousie Politick fear is a created forg'd Fear wrought in another to bring som design about And as we find the Astronomers the comparison is too good do imagin such and such shapes and circles in the Heavens as the Zodiak Equinoctiall Colures Zones and Topiques with others though ther be no such things really in nature to make their conclusions good So the Polititian doth often devise and invent false imaginary Fears to make his proceedings more plausible amongst the silly vulgar and therby to compasse his ends And as the Sun useth to appear far bigger to us in the morning then at noon when he is exalted to his Meridian and the reason the Philosophers use to give is the interposition of the vapours which are commonly in the lower Region through which we look upon him as we find a piece of silver look bigger in a bucket of water then elsewhere so the Polititian uses to cast strange mists of Fear and fogs of jealousie before the simple peoples eyes to make the danger seem bigger But truly Sir this is one of the basest kinds of policy nor can I believe ther be any such Polititians amongst the Cabalists of your Parliament who pretend to be so busie about Gods work a Glorious Reformation for you know ther is a good Text for it that God needeth not the wicked man he abominats to be beholding to liers to bring about his purposes But I pray Sir deal freely with me do you imamagin ther was a design to bring in the Massâ—… again Patricius The Masse You may say ther was a plot to bring in Mahomet as soon to bring in the Alchoran or Talmud as soon For I dare pawn my soul the King is as
Londoners and by what persons W. and Strode I am ashamed to tell you But that His Majesty was victorious that day a day which I never thought to have seen in England ther be many convincing arguments to prove it for besides the great odds of men which fell on their side and Cannons they lost som of their Ordnance were nayl'd by the Kings Troops the next morning after in the very face of their Army Moreover the King advanc'd forward the next day to his former road and took Banbury presently after but the Parliamenteers went backwards and so from that day to this His Majesty continueth Master of the field 'T is tru that in som places as at Farnham Winchester and Chichester they have prevail'd since but no considerable part of the Royall Army was ther to make opposition and I blush to tell you how unworthily the Law of Armes was violated in all those places Peregrin Good Lord how can the souls of those men that were in the Parliaments Army at Keinton Battell dispense with the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegeance besides the Protestation you speak of they had taken to preserve the Person Honour and Prerogative of the King when they thus actually bandy against his Person and appear in battel with all the engines of hostility against him Patricius I wold be loth to exchange consciences with them and prevaricate so palpably with God Almighty Touching the Cavaliers they may be said to comply with their duties both towards God and their King according to the Oaths you mention Moreover ther was a strong Act of Parliament for their security which was never as much as questioned or controverted much lesse suspended or repeal'd But always stood and yet stands in as full validity and force as it was the first day it was Enacted and as much binding to an universall obedience which Act runs thus 13. Octobris Anno undecimo Henrici Septimi Anno Dom. 1496 IT is Ordained Enacted and Established by the King Our Soverain Lord by the Advice and Assent of the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by Authority of the same That from henceforth no manner of person or persons whatsoever he or they be that attend upon the King and Soverain Lord of this Land for the time being in his person and do him tru and faithfull service of Allegiance in the same or be he in other places by his Commandment in his wars within this Land or without That for the said Deed and tru duty of Allegiance he or they be in no wise Convict or attaint of High Treason nor of other offences for that cause by Act of Parliament or otherwise by any processe of Law whereby he or any of them shall lose or forfeit Life Lands Tenements Rents Possessions Hereditaments Goods Chattels or any other things But to be for that Deed and Service utterly discharged of any Vexation Trouble or loss And if any Act or Acts or other processe of the Law hereafter therupon for the same happen to be made contrary to this Ordinance That then that Act or Acts or other processe of the Law whatsoever they shall be stand and utterly void Provided alwayes that no person or persons shall take any benefit or advantage by this Act which shall hereafter decline their said Allegiance Peregrin This is as plain and fair as can be for securing both the Person and Conscience of the Cavalier but was ther ever any Act or Oath or any thing like an Oath that oblig'd Englishmen to be tru unto or fight for the Parliament Patricius Never any but these men by a new kind of Metaphysicks have found out a way to abstract the Person of the King from his Office to make his Soveraigntie a kind of Platonick Idea hovering in the aire while they visibly attempt to assaile and destroy his Person and Progeny by small and great shot and seek him out amongst his life-Gard with fire and sword yet they give out they fight not only not against him but for him and that their army is more loyall unto him than his owne who they say fight only for the name King though they have his person really amongst them commanding and directing Thus they make Him a strange kind of Amphibium they make in one instant a King and no King of the same Individuum a power which the Casuists affirme God Almighty never assumed to himself to doe any thing that implies a contradiction Peregrin Noble Sir you make my heart to pant within me by the Pathetick relation you have been pleas'd to make mee of these â—…uthfull times But one thing seems to me to be no lesse then a miracle how his Majestie hath beene able to subsist all this while considering the infinite advantages the averse partie hath had of him for they have all the tenable places and townes of strength both by land and sea They have the Navie royall they have all the Amunition and Armes of the Crown they have all the Imposts and Customs Poundage and Tonnage which they levie contrary to their former Protestation before the Bill be pass'd They have the Exchequer at their devotion and all the Revenue of the King Queen and Prince and lastly they have the citie of London which may be eall'd a Magazin of money and men where there is a ready supplie and superfluitie of all things that may seed clothe or make men gay to put them in heart and resolution Truely considering all these advantages with divers others on their side and the disadvantages on the Kings it turnes me into a lump of astonishment how his Majestie could beare up all this while and keep together so many Armies and be still master of the Field Patricius I confesse Sir it is a just subject for wonderment and we must ascribe it principally to God Almightie who is the Protectour of his Anointed for his hand hath manifestly appear'd in the conduct of his affaires Hee hath been the Pilot who hath sate at the helme ever sâ—…nce this storme began and will we hope continue to steer his course till he waft him to safe harbour againe Adde hereunto that his Majesty for his own part hath beene wonderfully stirring and indefatigable both for his body and minde And what notable things HER Majesty hath done and what she hath suffered is fitter for Chronicle then such a simple Discourse Hereunto may be added besides that his Majestie hath three parts of foure of the Peeres and Prime Gentrie of the Kingdom firme unto him and they will venture hard before they will come under a popular government and mechanicall corporations or let in Knox or Calvin to undermine this Church and bring in their bawdy stool of Repentance Peregrin Truely Sir amongst other Countreys I extreamly long'd to see England and I am no sooner come but I am surfeited of her already I doubt the old Prophecie touching this Island is come now to be verified
bloud in open field one brother seeks to cut the others throat they have put division 'twixt master and servant 'twixt Land Lord and Tenant nay they have a long time put a sea of separation 'twixt King and Queen and they labour more and more to put division 'twixt the Head and the Members 'twixt His Majesty and his politicall Spouse his Kingdom And lastly they have plung'd one of the flourishingst Kingdoms of Europe in a war without end for though a Peace may be plaister'd over for the time I fear it will be but like a fire cover'd with ashes which will break out again as long as these fiery Schismaticks have any strength in this Island so that all the premisses considered if Turk or Tartar or all the infernal spirits and Cacodaemons of hel had broken in amongst us they could not have done poor England more mischief Sir I pray you excuse this homely imperfect relation I have a thousand things more to impart unto you when we may breathe freer air for here we are come to that slavery that one is in danger to have his very thoughts plundered Therfore if you please to accept of my company I will over with you by Gods help so soon as it may stand with your conveniency but you must not discover me to be an Englishman abroad for so I may be jeer'd at and kickt in the streets I will go under another name and am fix'd in this resolution never to breathe English aire again untill the King recovers his Crown and the People the right use of their Pericraniums THE SECOND PART OF A DISCOURSE ' TWIXT PATRICIUS AND PEREGRIN TOUCHING The DISTEMPERS OF THE TIMES LONDON Printed in the Year 1661. A DISCOURS or PARLY Continued betwixt Patricius and Peregrin Upon their landing in France touching the civil Wars of England and Ireland Peregrin GEntle Sir you are happily arrived on this shore we are now upon firm ground upon the fair Continent of France we are not circumscrib'd or coopt up within the narrow bounds of a rhumatick Island we have all Europe before us Truly I am not a little glad to have shaken hands with that tumbling Element the Sea And for England I never intend to see her again in the mind I am in unlesse it be in a Map nay In statu quo nunc while this Faction reigns had I left one eye behind me I should hardly returne thither to fetch it therefore if I be missing at any time never look for me there There is an old Proverb From a blacke German a white Italian a red Frenchman I may adde one member more and from a Round-headed Englishman The Lord deliver us I have often Crossed these Seas and I found my self alwaies pitifully sick I did ever and anon tell what Wood the Ship was made of but in this passage I did not feele the least motion or distemper in my humors for indeed I had no time to taink on sicknesse I was so wholly tsken up and transported with such a pleasing conceit to have left yonder miserable Island Peregrin Miserable Island indeed for I thinke there was never such a tyrannie exercised in any Christian Countrey under Heaven a tyrannie that extends not onely to the body but to the braine also not only to mens fortunes and estates but it reaches to their very soules and consciences by violented new coercive Oaths and Protestations compos'd by Lay-men inconsistent with the liberty of Christians Never was there a Nation carried away by such a strong spirit of delusion never was there a poor people so purblinded and Puppified if I may say so as I finde them to be so that I am at a stand with my selfe whether I shall pitie them more or laugh at them They not onely kisse the stone that hurts them but the hands of them that hurle it they are come to that passive stupidity that they adore their very persecutors who from polling fall now a shaving them and will flay them at last if they continue this popular reigne I cannot compare England as the case stands with her more properly then to a poor beast sicke of the staggers who cannot be cur'd without an incision The Astronomers I remember affirme that the Moone which predominates over all humid bodies hath a more powerfull influence o're your British Seas then any other so that according to the observation of some Nevigators they swell at a spring tide in some places above threescore cubits high I am of opinion that that inconstant humorous Planet hath also an extraordinany dominion over the braines of the Inhabitants for when they attempt any Innovation whereunto all Insulary people are more subject then other Citizens of the world which are fixed upon the Continent they swell higher their fancies worke stronglier and so commit stranger extravagancies then any other witnesse these monstrous barbarismes and violencies which have bin and are daily offered to Religion and justâ—…ce the two grand supporters of all States yea to humane Reason it self since the beginning of these tumults And now noble Sir give me leave to render you my humble thanks for that true and solid information you pleased to give me in London of these commotions During my short sojourne there I lighted on divers odde Pamphlets upon the Seamstresses stalls whom I wondred to see selling Paper sheets in lieu of Holland on the one side I found the most impudent untruths vouch'd by publike authority the basest scurrilities and poorest jingles of wit that ever I read in my life on the other side I met with many pieces that had good stuff in them but gave mee not being a stranger a full satisfaction they look'd no further then the beginning of this Parliament and the particular emergences thereof but you have by your methodicall relation so perfectly instructed and rectified my understanding by bringing me to the very source of these distempers and led me all along the side of the current by so streight a line that I believe whosoever will venture upon the most intricate task of penning the story of these vertiginous times will finde himself not a little beholden to that Relation which indeed may be term'd a short Chronicle rather then a Relation Wee are come now under another clime and here we may mingle words and vent our conceptions more securely it being as matters stand in your Countrey more safe to speake under the Lilly then the Rose wee may here take in and put out freer ayre I meane we may discourse with more liberty for words are nought els but aire articulated and coagulated as it were into letters and syllables Patricius Sir I deserve not these high expressions of your favourable censure touching that poor piece but this I will be bold to say That whosoever doth read it impartially will discover in the Author the Genius of an honest Patriot and a Gentleman And now methinks I look on you unfortunate Island as if one look upon a
the time of the League the King replyed Puis que Monsieur de la Chatre vous à liguè qu'il vous destigue since Monsieur de la Chastre hath leagu'd you let Monsieur de la Chastre unleague you and so the said taxe continueth to this day I have observed in your Chronicles that it hath bin the fate of your English Kings to be baffled often by petty companions as Iack Straw Wat Tyler Cade Warbecke and Symnel A Waspe may somtimes do a shrewd turn to the Eagle as you said before your Island hath bin fruitfull for Rebellions for I think ther hapned near upon a hundred since the last Conquest the City of London as I remember in your Story hath rebelled seven times at least and forfeited her Charter I know not how often but she bled soundly for it at last and commonly the better your Princes were the worse your people have been As the case stands I see no way for the King to establish a setled peace but by making a fifth Conquest of you and for London ther must be a way found to prick that tympany of pride wherwith she swells so much Patricius 'T is true ther has bin from time to time many odd Insurrections in England but our King gathered a greater strength out of them afterwards the inconstant people are alwayes accessary to their own miseries Kings Prerogatives are like the Ocean which as the Civilians tell us if he lose in one plaâ—…e he gets ground in another Cares and Crosses ride behind Kings Clowds hang over them They may be eclypsed a while but they will shine afterwards with a stronger lustre Our gracious Soverain hath passed a kind of Ordeal a fiery triall he while now hath bin matriculated and serv'd part of an Apprentiship in the School of Affliction I hope God will please shortly to cancell the Indenture and restore him to a sweeter liberty then ever This Discourse was stopp'd in the Press by the tyranny of the Times and not suffer'd to see open light till now A SOBER and SEASONABLE MEMORANDUM SENT TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE PHILIP late Earl of Pembrock and Montgomery c. To mind Him of the particular Sacred Ties besides the Common Oath of Alleageance and Supremacy wereby he was bound to adhere to the King his Liege Lord and Master Presented unto Him in the hottest brunt of the late Civill Wars Iuramentum ligamen Conscientiae maximum LONDON Printed in the Year 1661. To the Right Honourable PHILIP Earl of Pembrock and Montgomery Knight of the Bath Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter Gentleman of His Majesties Bed-chamber And one of His most Honorable privy Counsell c. My Lord THis Letter requires no Apology much lesse any pardon but may expect rather a good reception and thanks when your Lordship hath seriously perused the contents and ruminated well upon the matter it treats of by weighing it in your second and third thoughts which usually carry with them a greater advantage of wisdom It concerns not your body or temporall estate but things reflecting upon the noblest part of you your soul which being a beam of Immortality and a Type of the Almighty is incomparably more precious and rendereth all other earthly things to be but bables and transitory trifles Now the strongest tye the solemnest engagement and stipulation that can be betwixt the soul and her Creator is an Oath I do not understand common tumultuary rash oaths proceeding from an ill habit or heat of passion upon sudden contingencies for such oaths bind one to nought else but to repentance No I mean serious and legall oaths taken with a calm prepared spirit either for the asserting of truth and conviction of falshood or for fidelitie in the execution of some Office or binding to civill obedience and Loyaltie which is one of the essentiall parts of a Christian Such publick oaths legally made with the Royall assent of the Soveraigne from whom they receive both legalitie and life else they are invalid and unwarrantable as they are religious acts in their own nature so is the taking and observance of them part of Gods honor and there can be nothing more derogatory to the high Majesty and holinesse of his name nothing more dangerous destructive and damnable to humane souls then the infringment and eluding of them or omission in the performance of them Which makes the Turks of whom Christians in this particular may learn a tender peece of humanity to be so cautious that they seldom or never administer an oath to Greek Jew or any other Nation and the reason is that if the Party sworn doth take that Oath upon hopes of some advantage or for evading of danger and punishment and afterwards rescinds it they think themselves to be involved in the Perjury and so accessary to his damnation Our Civill Law hath a Canon consonant to this which is Mortale peccatum est ei praestare juramentum quem scio verisimiliter violaturum 'T is a mortall sin to administer an Oath to him who I probably know will break it To this may allude another wholesome saying A false Oath is damnable a true Oath dangerous none at all the safest How much then have they to answer for who of late yeares have fram'd such formidable coercive generall Oaths to serve them for engins of State to lay battery to the Consciences and Soules of poor men and those without the assent of their Soveraign and opposit point blank to former Oaths they themselves had taken these kind of Oaths the City of London hath swallowed lately in grosse and the Country in detaile which makes me confidently beleeve that if ever that saying of the holy Prophet The Land mournes for Oaths was appliable to any part of the habitable earth it may be now applied to this reprobate Iland But now I come to the maine of my purpose and to those Oaths your Lordship hath taken before this distracted time which the world knowes and your conscience can testifie were divers They were all of them solemn and some of them Sacramentall Oaths and indeed every Solemn Oath among the Antients was held a Sacrament They all implyed and imposed an indispensible fidelity Truth and loyalty from you to your Soveraign Prince your Liege Lord and Master the King I will make some instances Your Lordship took an Oath when Knight of the Bath to love your Soveraign above all earthly Creatures and for His Right and dignity to live and die c. By the Oath of Supremacy you swear to beare faith and true allegeance to the Kings Highnesse and to your power to defend all â—…urisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities belonging to his Highnesse c. Your Lordship took an Oath when Privie Counsellor to be a true and faithfull Servant unto Him and if you knew or understood of any manner of thing to be attempted done or spoken against His Majesties Person Honour Crown or Dignity you swore to let
highly magnified in some of your publick Speeches who were at first brought in for Hirelings against the King for them offer themselves now to come in against them for the King Your Lordship cannot be ignorant of the sundry clashes that have bin 'twixt the City and their Memberships and 'twixt their Memberships and their men of War or Military Officers who have often wav'd and disobeyed their commands How this tatterdimallian Army hath reduc'd this cow'd City the cheated Country and their once all-commanding Masters to a perfect passe of slavery to a tru Asinin condition They crow over all the ancient Nobility and Gentry of the Kindom though ther be not found amongst them all but two Knights and 't is well known ther be hundreds of privat Gentlemen in the Kingdom the poorest of whom is able to buy this whole Host with the Generall himself and all the Commanders But 't is not the first time that the Kings and Nobility of England have bin baffled by petty companions I have read of Iack Straw Wat Tyler and Ket the Tanner with divers others that did so but being suppressed it tended to the advantage of the King at last and what a world of examples are ther in our story that those Noblemen who banded against the Crown the revenge of heaven ever found them out early or late at last These with a black cloud of reciprocall judgments more which have come home to these Reformers very doors shew that the hand of divine justice is in 't and the holy Prophet tells us When Gods judgments are upon earth then the inhabitants shall learn justice Touching your Lordship in particular you have not under favour escap'd without some already and I wish more may not follow your Lordship may remember you lost one Son at Bridgenorth your dear Daughter at Oxford your Son-in-Law at Newbury your Daughter-in-Law at the Charter-house of an infamous disease how sick your Eldest son hath bin how part of your house was burnt in the Country with others which I will not now mention I will conclude this point with an observation of the most monstrous number of Witches that have swarm'd since these Wars against the King more I dare say then have bin in this Island since the Devil tempted Eve for in two Counties only viz. Suffolk and Essex ther have bin near upon three hundred arraign'd and eightscore executed as I have it from the Clerks of the Peace of those Counties what a barbarous devilish office one had under colour of examination to torment poor silly women with watchings pinchings and other artifices to find them for Witches How others call'd spirits by a new invention of villany were conniv'd at for seizing upon young children and 〈◊〉 them on shipboard where having their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were so transform'd that their 〈◊〉 could not know them and so were carryed over for new schismaticall Plantations to New-England and other Seminaries of Rebellion My Lord ther is no villany that can enter into the imagination of man hath bin left here uncommitted no crime from the highest Treason to the meanest Trespasse but these Reformers are guilty of What horrid acts of prophanes have bin perpetrated up and down the Monuments of the dead have bin rifled Horses have bin watered at the Church Font and fed upon the holy Table Widows Orphans and Hospitals have bin commonly robb'd and Gods House hath bin plunder'd more then any with what infandous blasphemies have Pulpits rung one crying out that this Parliament was as necessary for our Reformation as the comming of Christ was for our Redempâ—…ion Another belching out that if God Almighty did not prosper this Cause 't were fitting he shold change places with the Devil Another that the worst thing our Savoour did was the making of the Dominical prayer and saving the Thief upon the Crosse. O immortal God is it possible that England shold produce such Monsters or rather such infernal fiends shap'd with humane bodies yet your Lordship sides with these men though they be enemies to the Cross to the Church and to the very name of Iesus Christ I 'le instance only in two who were esteem'd the Oracles of this holy Reformation Petrs and Saltmarsh The first is known by thousands to be an infamous jugling and scandalous villaine among other feats he got the Mother and Daughter with Child as it was offered to be publickly proved I could speak much of the other but being dead let it suffice that he dyed mad and desperate yet these were accounted the two Apostles of the times My Lord 't is high time for you to recollect your self to enter into the private closet of your thoughts and summon them all to counsel upon your pillow consider well the slavish condition your dear Country is in weigh well the sad case your liege Lord and Master is in how he is bereav'd of his Queen His Children His Servants His Liberty His Chaplains and of every thing in which there is any comfort observe well how neverthelesse God Almighty works in Him by inspiring Him with equality and calmnesse of mind with patience prudence and constancy How Hee makes His very Crosses to stoop unto Him when His Subjects will not Consider the monstrousnesse of the Propositions that are tendred him wherein no lesse then Crown Scepter and Sword which are things in-alienable from Majesty are in effect demanded nay they would have him transmit and resign his very intellectuals unto them not only so but they would have him make a sacrifice of his soul by forcing him to violate that solemne sacramentall Oath hee took at his Coronation when hee was no Minor but come to a full maturity of reason and judgement make it your own case My Lord and that 's the best way to judge of His Think upon the multiplicity of solemne astringing Oathes your Lordship hath taken most whereof directly and solely enjoyne faith and loyalty to his Person oh my Lord wrong not your soule so much in comparison of whom your body is but a rag of rottennesse Consider that acts of loyalty to the Crown are the fairest columns to bear up a Noblemans name to future ages and register it in the temple of immortality Reconcile your self therefore speedily unto your liege Lord and Master think upon the infinit private obligations you have had both to Sire and Son The Father kiss'd you often kisse you now the Sun lest he be too angry And Kings you will find my Lord are like the Sun in the heavens which may be clouded for a time yet he is still in his sphear and will break out againe and shine as gloriously as ever Let me tell your Lordship that the people begin to grow extream weary of their Physitians they find the remedy to be far worse then their former disease nay they stick not to call some of them meer Quacksalvers rather then Physitians Some goe further say they are no more a Parliament then a Pye-powder
Understanding also what base sinister use ther was made of this insurrection by som trayterous malevolent persons who to cast aspersions upon His Majesty and to poyson the hearts of his people besides publick infamous reports counterfeited certain Commissions in His Majesties name to authorize the businesse as if he were privy to it though I dare pawn my soul His or Her Majesty knew no more of it then the great Mogor did Finding also that the Commissioners imployed hence for the managing and composing matters in that Kingdom though nominated by the Parliament and by their recommendation authorized by His Majesty did not observe their instructions and yet were conniv'd at Understanding also what an inhumane design ther was between them and the Scot in lieu of suppressing an insurrection to eradicat and extinguish a whole nation to make booty of their lands which hopes the London Adventurers did hugge and began to divide the Bears-skin before he was taken as His Majesty told them an attempt the Spaniard nor any other Christian State ever intended against the worst of Savages The conceit wherof inâ—…used such a desperate courage eagerness and valour into the Irish that it made them turn necessity into a kind of vertu Moreover His Majesty taking notice that those royal Subsidies with other vast contributions wherunto he had given way with the sums of particular Adventurers amongst whom som Aliens Hollanders were taken in besides the Scot to share the Country were misapplyed being visibly imployed rather to feed an English Rebellion then to suppress an Irish Nay understanding that those charitable collections which were made for the reliefe of those distressed Protestants who being stripped of all their livelihood in Ireland were forced to fly over to England were converted to other uses and the Charity not dispensed according to the Givers intention Hearing also that those 5000. men which had been levyed and assigned to goe under the Lord Wharton the Lord of Kerry Sir Faithfull Fortescue and others were diverted from going to the west of Ireland and imployed to make up the Earl of Essex Army And having notice besides that the Earl of Warwicke had stayd certaine ships going thither with supplies and that there was an attempt to send for over to England some of those Scottish Forces which were in Ulster without his privity Lastly His Majesty finding himself unfitted and indeed disabled to reach those his distressed Subjects his owne royal armie all his navall strength revenues and magazines being out of his hands and having as hard a game to play still with the Scot and as pernicious a fire to quench in England as any of his Progenitors ever had Receiving intelligence also daily from his Protestant Nobility and Gentry thence in what a desperate case the whole Kingdome stood together with the report of the Committee that attended His Majesty from them expresly for that service who amongst other deplorable passages in their petition represented That all means by which comfort and life should be conveyed unto that gasping Kingdome seemed to be totally obstructed and that unlesse 〈◊〉 reliefe were afforded His loyall Subjectâ—… there must yeeld their fortunes for a prey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a sacrifice and their Religion for a 〈◊〉 to the mercilesse Rebels His Majesty as it was high time for 〈◊〉 taking into his Princely thoughts those wofull complainrs and cryes of his poore Subjects condescended at last to appoint some persons of honour to heare what the Irish could say for themselves as they had often petitioned and God forbid but the King of Ireland should receive his Subjects petitions as well as the King of Scotland But His Majesty being unsatisfied with what they propounded then the Lord Marquess of Ormond marched with considerable Forces against them and though he came off with honour yet no reliefe at all comming thither for many moneths after from the Parliament here who had undertaken the businesse and had received all the summes and subsidies with other unknown contributions to that end matters grew daily worse and worse To sum up all His Majesty receiving express and positive advice from his Lord Justices and Counsell of State ther that the whole Kingdom was upon point of utter perdition which was co-intimated the same time to the Parliament here by a special letter to the Speaker I say His Majesty finding that he had neither power of himself it being transmitted to others and that those Trustees did misapply that power and trust he had invested in them for the time to make good their undertaking for preservation of that his fruitfull Kingdome being impelled by all these forcible reasons His Majesty sent a commission to the Lord Marquesse of Ormond his Lievtenant Generall a most known sincere Protestant to hearken to a treaty according to their petition and if any thing was amisse in that treaty in poynt of honour as it shall appeare by comparing it with others there was none we know whom to thank For out of these premises also doth result this second conclusion That they who misapplied those moneys and mis imployed those men which were levyed with His Majesties royall assent for the reduction of Ireland They who set afoot that most sanguinary design of extirpating at least of enslaving a whole ancient Nation who were planted there by the hand of Providence from the beginning They who hindred His Majesties transfretation thither to take cognizance of his own affairs and expose the countenance of his own royall person for composing of things They They may be said to be the true causes of that unavoydable necessity and as the heathen Poetsings The Gods themselvs cannot resist Necessity which enforced His Majesty to capitulat with the Irish and assent to a Cessation It was the saying of one of the bravest Roman Emperours and it was often used by Henry the Great of France Her Majesties Father That he had rather save the life of one loyall Subject then kill a hundred Enemies It may well be thought that one of the prevalentst inducements that moved His Majesty besides those formerly mentioned to condescend to this Irish Cessation was a sense he had of the effusion of his own poor Subjects blood the hazard of the utter extirpation of the Protestants there and a totall irrecoverable losse of that Kingdome as was advertised both in the petition of the Protestants themselves the relation of the Committee imployd thither to that purpose and the expresse letters of the Lords Justices and Counsell there To prove now that this Cessation of arms in Ireland was more honourable and fuller of Piety Prudence and Necessity then either the Pacification or Peace with the Scot. I hope these few ensuing arguments above divers others which cannot be inserted here in regard of the force intended brevity of this Discourse will serve the turne 1. In primis When the Pacification was made with Scotland His Majesty was there personally present attended on by the floure of His English Nobility
their croaking 't is to make him a King of clouts or as the Spaniard hath it Rey de Havas a Bean King such as we use to choose in sport at Twelfnight But my hopes are that the two present Houses of Parliament for now they may be call'd so because they begin to parley with their King will be more tender of the honour of their Soveraign Liege Lord which together with all his Rights and Dignities by severall solemn Oaths aud by their own binding instruments of Protestation and Covenant not yet revok'd they are sworne to maintaine and that they will demand nothing of him which may favour of Aspertè or force but what may hold water hereafter But now touching the Militia or Sword of the Kingdom I think under favour the King cannot transfer it to any other for that were to desert the protection of his people which is point blank against his Coronation Oath and his Office What forren Prince or State will send either Ambassador Resident or Agent to him when they understand his Sword is taken from him What reformed forein Church will acknowledg Him Defendor of the Faith when they hear of this Nay they who wish England no good will will go near to paint him out as not long since another King was with a fair velvet Scabbard a specious golden hilt and chape but the blade within was of wood I hope that they who sway now will make better use of their successes Many of them know 't is as difficult a thing to use a victory well as to get one ther is as much prudence requir'd in the one as prowesse in the other they will be wiser sure then turn it to the dishonor of their King it being a certain rule that the glory of a Nation all the world over depends upon the glory of their King and if he be any way obscur'd the whole Kingdom is under an eclipse I have observed that among other characters of gallantry which forein Writers appropriat to the English Nation one is that they use to be most zealous to preserve the Honor of their King I trust that they who are now up will return to the steps of their Progenitors both in this particular and divers other that their successes may serve to sweeten and moderat things and suppress the popular Sword which still rages And it had bin heartily wished that a suspension of Arms had preceded this Treaty which useth to be the ordinary fore-runner and a necessary antecedent to all Treaties for while acts of hostility continue som ill-favour'd newes may intervene which may imbitter and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor can it be expected that the proceedings will go on with that candor and confidence while the old rancor is still in action 't is impossible a sore shold heal till the inflamation be taken away To cast water into a wound instead of oyle is not the way to cure it or to cast oyle upon a fire instead of water is not the way to quench it poor England hath had a consuming fire within her bowels many years she is also mortally wounded in all her members that she is still in a high Fever which hath made her rave and speak idle a long time and 't is like to turn to a Hectic if not timely prevented I pray God she may have no occasion to make use of the same complaint as Alexander the Great made when he was expiring his last Perii turba Medicorum too many Physitians have undon me To conclude in a word ther is but one only way under favor to put a period to all these fearful confusions it is to put the great Master-wheel in order and in its due place again and then all the inferior wheels will move regularly let the King be restor'd and ev'ry one will come to his own all interests will be satisfied all things quickly rectified till this be done 't is as absurd to attempt the setling of peace as if one shold go about to set a Watch by the gnomen of an horizontall Diall when the Sun is in a cloud I. H. AN ITALIAN PROSPECTIVE Through which GREAT BRITAIN Without any MULTIPLYING ART May cleerly See Her present DANGER And foresee Her future DESTRUCTION If not timely prevented Perditio tua ex Te Anglia Paraenesis Angliae O England specially thou besotted City of London if Thou be'st not quite past cure or grown careless and desperat of thy self if the least spark of Grace or ray of Reson be yet remaining in Thee be warn'd be warn'd by this stranger who having felt thy pulse and cast thy water very exactly discovers in Thee symptoms of inevitable Ruine if thou holdst on this cours Divers of thy own children oftentimes admonish'd Thee with tears in their eyes and terror in their hearts to recollect thy self and return to thy old road of obedience to thy Soverain Prince But They have bin little regarded Let a Foreiners advice then take place and make som impressions in Thee to prevent thy utter destruction From the prison of the Fleet 2. Aug. 1647. I. H. AN ACCOUNT OF THE Deplorable and Desperat condition THAT ENGLAND stands in Sent from LONDON Anno 1647. To the LORD FRANCISCO BARBERINI Cardinal of the most holy Apostolick See and Protector of the English Nation at his Palaces in Rome MY last to your Eminence was but short in regard I had been but a short time in this Countrey I have now made a longer sojourn here and taken a leisurely information of all matters therefore I shall give your Eminence an account proportionably For by conversation with the most indifferent and intelligenc'd men and by communication with the Ambassadors here resident I have taken some paines to pump out the truth of things and penetrat the Interest of all parties And truly I find that That angry star which hath lowr'd so long upon Europe in generall hath been as predominant and cast as direfull aspects upon this poor Iland as it hath done upon any other part Truly my Lord in all probability this peeple have pass'd the Meridian of their happinesse and begin to decline extreamly as well in Repute abroad as also in the common notions of Religion and indeed in the ordinary faculty of Reason I think verily the Ill Spirit never reign'd so much in any corner of the earth by those inhumane aud horrid things that I have observ'd among them Nor is it a petty Spirit but one of the greatest Cacodâ—…mons that thus drives them on and makes them so active in the pursuance of their own perdition To deduce matters from their Originall Your Eminency may please to understand that this King at his accesse to the Crown had deep debts to pay both of His Fathers and his own he was left ingaged in a fresh warre with Spain and had another presently after which France and both at one time but he came off well enough of those Afterwards never any Countrey flourished in that envied
him poorer then the meanest of all his vassals they have made him to have no propriety in house goods or Lands or as one may say in his wife and children 'T was usual for the father to hunt in his Park while the son hunted for his life in the field for the wife 〈◊〉 lie in his bedds while the husband layed wait to murther him abroad they have seiz'd upon and sold his privat Hangings anâ—… Plate yea his very Cabinets Jewels Pictures Statues and Books Nor are they the honorablest sort of peeple and men nobly extracted as in Scotland that do all this for then it were not so much to be wondred at but they are the meanest sort of Subjects many of them illiterat Mechaniques wherof the lower House is full specially the subordinat Committees who domineer more o're Nobles and Gentry then the Parliament Members themselfs their Masters use to do Touching those few Peers that sit now voting in the upper House they may be said to be but meer Cyphers they are grown so degenerat as to suffer the Commons to give them the Law to ride upon their backs and do most things without them Ther be many thousand Petitions that have bin recommended by these Lords to the lower House which are scornfully thrown into corners and never read their Messengers have us'd to dance attendance divers hours and days before they were vouchsafed to be let in or heard to the eternal dishonour of those Peers and yet poor spirited things they resent it not The Commons now command all and though as I am inform'd they are summon'd thither by the Kings Original Writ but to consent to what the King and his Great Counsel of Peers which is the tru Court of Parlement shall resolve upon The Commons I say are now from Consenters become the chiefest Counsellors yea Controulers of all nay som of this lower House fly so high as to term themselfs Conquerors and though in all conferences with the Lords they stand bare before them yet by a new way of mix'd Committees they carry themselfs as Collegues These are the men that now have the vogue and they have made their Priviledges so big swoln that they seem to have quite swallowed up both the Kings Prerogatives and those of the Lords These are the Grandees and Sages of the times though most of them have but crack'd braines and crazy fortunes God wot Nay som of them are such arrand Knaves and coxcombs that 't is questionable whether they more want common honesty or common sense nor know no more what belongs to tru policy then the left leg of a joynt-stool They are grown so high a tiptoes that they seem to scorn an Act of Amnestia or any grace from their King wheras som of them deserve to be hang'd as oft as they have haires upon their heads nor have they any more care of the common good of England then they have of Lapland so they may secure their own persons and continue their Power now Authority is sweet though it be in Hell Thus my Lord is England now govern'd so that 't is an easie thing to take a prospect of her ruine if she goes on this pace The Scot is now the swaying man who is the third time struck into her bowels with a numerous Army They say he hath vow'd never to return till he hath put the Crown on the Kings head the Sceptâ—…r in his hand and the sword by his side if he do so it will be the best thing that ever he did though som think that he will never be able to do England as much good as he hath done her hurt He hath extremely out-witted the English of late years And they who were the causers of his first and last coming in I hold to be the most pernicious Enemies that ever this Nation had for t is probable that Germany viz. Ponterland and Breme will be sooner free of the Swed then England of the Scot who will stick close unto him like a bur that he cannot shake him off He is becom already Master of the Englishmans soul by imposing a Religion upon him and he may hereafter be master of his body Your Eminence knows there is a periodicall fate hangs over all Kingdoms after such a revolution of time and rotation of fortunes wheele the cours of the world hath bin for one Nation like so many nailes to thrust out another But for this Nation I observe by conference with divers of the saddest and best weighdst men among them that the same presages foretell their ruine as did the Israelites of old which was a murmuring against their Governors It is a long time that both Iudges Bishops and privy Counsellors have bin mutter'd at whereof the first shold be the oracles of the Law the other of the Gospell the last of State-affaires and that our judgments shold acquiesce upon theirs Here as I am inform'd 't was common for evry ignorant client to arraign his Iudg for evry puny Curat to censure the Bishop for evry shallow-brain home-bred fellow to descant upon the results of the Councell Table and this spirit of contradiction and contumacy hath bin a long time fomenting in the minds of this peeple infus'd into them principally by the Puritanicall Faction Touching the second of the three aforesaid I mean Bishops they are grown so odious principally for their large demeanes among this peeple as the Templers were of old and one may say it is a just judgment fallen upon them for they were most busy in demolishing Convents and Monasteries as these are in destroying Cathedralls and Ministers But above all it hath bin observ'd that this peeple hath bin a long time rotten-hearted towards the splendor of the Court the glory of their King and the old establish'd Government of the land 'T is true there were a few small leakes sprung in the great vessel of the Stâ—…te and what vessel was ever so â—…ite but was subject to leakes but these wise-akers in stopping of one have made a hundred Yet if this Kings raign were parallell'd to that of Queen Elizabeth's who was the greatest Minion of a peeple that ever was one will find that she stretch'd the Prerogative much further In her time as I have read in the Latin Legend of her life som had their hands cut off for only writing against her matching with the Duke of Aniou others were hang'd at Tyburn for traducing her government she pardon'd thrice as many Roman Priests as this King did she pass'd divers Monopolies she kept an Agent at Rome she sent her Sergeant at Armes to pluck out a Member then sitting in the House of Commons by the eares and clapt him in prison she call'd them sawcy fellowes to meddle with her Prerogative or with the government of her houshold she mannag'd all forren affaires specially the warrs with Ireland soly by her privy Counsell yet there was no murmuring at her raign and the reason I conceave to be
Marchant cannot deny but that the man of war though the first Assailant was necessitated to fight and that justly in his own defence which necessity he drew upon himself and so was excusable à posteriori not à priori As the Civilians speak of a clandestine marriage Fieri non debuit sed factum valet It ought not to have been but being done 't is valid wherunto relates another saying Multa sunt quae non nisi per acta approbantur Ther are many things which are not allowable til they are pass'd The Kings of France have had sundry civil wars They have had many bloudy encounters and clashes with their Subjects specially the last King Lewis the thirteenth which turn'd all at last to his advantage Among other Treaties in that of Loudun he was by force of Article to publish an Edict Dont lequel le Roy approuvoit tout le passé comme ayant esté fait pour son service c. Wherin the King approv'd of all that wâ—…s pass'd as done for his service c. and these concessions and extenuations are usuall at the close of most civil wars but ther was never any further advantage made of them then to make the adverse party more capable of grace and pardon as also to enable them to bear up against the brunt of Laws and secure them more firmly from all after-claps They were pass'd in order to an Act of Abolition to a generall pardon and consequently to a re-establishment of Peace now Peace and War we know are like Water and Ice they engender one another But I do not remember to have read either in the French History or any other that such Royal Concessions at the period of any intestin war were ever wrung so hard as to draw any inference from them to cast therby the guilt of bloud or indeed the least stain of dishonour upon the King For Royal Indulgences and grants of this nature are like nurses breasts if you presse them gently ther will milk come forth if you wring them too hard you will draw forth bloud in lieu of milk And I have observed that the conclusion of such Treaties in France both parties wold hugg and mutually embrace one another in a gallant way of national humanity all rancor all plundrings sequestration and imprisonment wold cease nor wold any be prosecuted much lesse made away afterwards in cold bloud Touching the Comencer of this monstrous war of ours the world knows too well that the first man of bloud was Blew-cap who shew'd Subjects the way how to present their King with Petitions upon the Pikes point and what visible judgements have fallen upon him since by such confusions of discord and pestilence at home and irreparable dishonour abroad let the world judge The Irish took his rise from him and wheras it hath bin often suggested that His Majesty had foreknowledge therof among a world of convincing arguments which may clear him in this particular the Lord Maguair upon the ladder and another upon the Scaffold when they were ready to breath their last and to appear before the Tribunall of heaven did absolutely acquit the King and that spontaneously of their own accord being unsought unto but only out of a love to truth and discharge of a good conscience but touching those cruentous Irish wars in regard ther was nothing wherof more advantage was made against His late Majesty to imbitter and poyson the hearts of his Subjects against him then that Rebellion I will take leave to wind up the main causes of them upon a small bottom as was spoken elsewhere 1. They who kept intelligence and complyed with the Scot in his first and second insurrection 2. They who dismiss'd the first Irish Commissioners who came of purpose to attend our Parlement with som grievances with such a short unpolitic harsh answer 3. They who took off Straffords head which had it stood on that Rebellion had never been and afterwards retarded the dispatch of the Earl of Leicester from going over to be Lord-Lievtenant 4. Lastly they who hindred part of that disbanded Army of 8000 men rais'd there by the Earl of Strafford which His Majesty in regard they were souldiers of fortune and loose casheer'd men to prevent the mischiefs that might befall that Kingdome by their insolencies had promised the two Spanish Ambassadors the Marquesses of Veloda and Malvezzi then resident in this Court which souldiers rise up first of any and put fire to the tumult to find somthing to do They I say who did all this may be justly said to have bin the tru causes of that horrid Insurrection in Ireland and consequently 't is easie to judge upon the account of whose souls must be laid the bloud of those hundred and odd thousand poor Christians who perished in that war and had it bin possible to have brought o're their bodies unputrified to England and to have cast them at the lower House door and in the presence of som Members which are now either secluded or gone to give an account in another world I believe their noses wold have gush'd out with bloud for discovery of the tru murtherers Touching this last fire-brand of war which was thrown into England who they were that kindled it first the consciences of those indifferent and unbiassed men are sittest to be judges who have bin curious to observe with impartial eyes the carriage of things from the beginning I confesse 't was a fatal unfortunat thing that the King shold put such a distance 'twixt his Person and his Parlement but a more fatal and barbarous thing it was that he should be driven away from it that there should be a desperate designe to surprize His Person that Ven with his Myrmidons and Bourges with his Bandogs for so they calld the riffraff of the City they brought along with them should rabble him away with above four parts in five of the Lords and near upon two parts in three of the Commons Yet 't is fit it should be remembred what reiterated Messages His Majesty sent from time to time afterward That he was alwaies ready to return provided there might be a course taken to secure his Person with those Peers and other who were rioted away from the Houses 'T is fit it should be remembred that there was not the least motion of war at all till Hotham kept His Majesty out of His own Town Kingston upon Hull for the Name whereof shew'd whose Town it was where being attended by a few of His meniall Servants he came onely to visit her having peaceably sent the Duke of York and the Palsgrave thither the day before which act of Hotham's by shutting the gates against him was voted warrantable by the House of Commons and it may be call'd the first thunderbolt of War 'T is fit it should be remembred that a while after there was a compleate Army of 16000. effectif Horse and Foot inrolled in and about London to fetch him to his
Parliament by force and remove ill Counsellours from about him long before he put up his Royal Standard and the Generall then nam'd was to live and die with them and very observable it is how that Generalls Father was executed for a Traytor for but attempting such a thing upon Queen Elizabeth I mean to remove ill Counsellors from about her by force 'T is also to be observed that the same Army which was rais'd to bring him to his Parliament was continued to a clean contrary end two years afterwards to keep him from his Parliament 'T is fit it should be remembred who interdicted Trade first and brought in Forraigners to help them and whose Commissions of War were neere upon two moneths date before the Kings 'T is fit it should be remembred how His Majesty in all His Declarations and publick Instruments made alwaies deep Protestations that 't was not against his Parliament he raised Armes but against some seditious Members against whom he had onely desired the common benefit of the Law but could not obtain it 'T is fit to remember that after any good successes and advantages of his he still Courted both Parliament and City to an Accommodation how upon the Treaty at Uxbridge with much importunity for the generall advantage and comfort of his peeple and to prepare matters more fitly for a peace he desired there might be freedom of Trade from Town to Town and a Cessation of all Acts of Hostility for the time that the inflammation being allayed the wound might be curâ—…d the sooner all which was denyed him 'T is fit to remember how a Noble Lord The Earl of Southampton at that time told the Parliaments Commissioners in His Majesties Name at the most unhappy rupture of the said Treaty That when he was at the highest he would be ready to treat with them and fight them when he was at the lowest 'T is fit the present Army should remember how often both in their Proposalls and publick Declarations they have inform'd the world and deeply protested that their principall aime was to restore His Majesty to honour freedom and safety whereunto they were formerly bound both by their own Protestation and Covenant that the two Commanders in chief pawn'd unto him their soules thereupon Let them remember that since he was first snatch'd away to the custody of the Army by Cromwells plot who said that if they had the Person of the King in their power they had the Parliament in their pockets I say being kept by the Army He never displeas'd them in the least particular but in all his Overtures for Peace and in all his Propositions he had regard still that the Army should be satisfied let it be remembred that to settle a blessed Peace to preserve his Subjects from rapine and ruine and to give contentment to his Parliament He did in effect freely part with His Sword Scepter and Crown and ev'ry thing that was proprietary to him Let it be remembred with what an admired temper with what prudence and constancy with what moderation and mansuetude he comported himself since his deep afflictions insomuch that those Commissioners and others who resorted unto him and had had their hearts so averse unto him before return'd his Converts crying him up to be one of the sanctifiedst persons upon earth and will not the bloud of such a Prince cry loud for vengeance Bloud is a crying sin but that of Kings Cryes loudest for revenge and ruine brings Let it be remembred that though there be some Precedents of deposing Kings in his Kingdom and elsewhere when there was a competition for the right Title to the Crown by some other of the bloud Royall yet 't is a thing not onely unsampled but unheard of in any age that a King of England whose Title was without the least scruple should be summon'd and arraign'd tryed condemned and executed in His own Kingdom by His own Subjects and by the name of their own King to whom they had sworn Alleagiance The meanest Student that hath but tasted the Laws of the Land can tell you that it is an unquestionable fundamentall Maxime The King can do no wrong because he acts by the mediation of his Agents and Ministers he heares with other mens eares he sees with other mens eyes he consults with other mens braines he executes with other mens hands and judges with other mens consciences therefore his Officers Counsellors or favorites are punishable not He and I know not one yet whom he hath spar'd but sacrificed to Justice The Crown of England is of so coruscant and pure a mettall that it cannot receive the least taint or blemish and if there were any before in the person of the Prince it takes them all away and makes him to be Rectus in curia This as in many others may be exemplified in Henry the Seventh and the late Queen Elizabeth when she first came to the Crown 't was mention'd in Parlement that the attainder might be taken off him under which he lay all the time he liv'd an Exile in France it was then by the whole house of Parlement resolv'd upon the question that it was unnecessary because the Crown purg'd all So likewise when Queen Elizabeth was brought as it were from the Scaffold to the Throne though she was under a former attainder yet 't was thought superfluous to take it off for the Crown washeth away all spots and darteth such a brightnesse such resplendent beams of Majesty that quite dispell all former clouds so that put case King Iames died a violent death and his Son had been accessary to it which is as base a lie as ever the devil belch'd out yet his accesse to the Crown had purged all This businesse about the playster which was applyed to King Iames was sifted and winnow'd as narrowly as possibly a thing could be in former Parlements yet when it was exhibited as an Article against the Duke of Buckingham 't was term'd but a presumption or misdemeanure of a high nature And 't is strange that these new accusers shold make that a parricide in the King which was found but a presumption in the Duke who in case it had been so must needs have been the chiefest Accessary And as the ancient Crown and Royall Diadem of England is made of such pure allay and cast in so dainty a mould that it can receive no taint or contract the least speck of enormity and foulenesse in it self so it doth endow the person of the Prince that weares it with such high Prerogatives that it exempts him from all sorts of publique blemishes from all Attainders Empeachments Summons Arraignments and Tryalls nor is there or ever was any Law or Precedent in this Land to lay any Crime or capitall charge against him though touching civill matters touching propertie of meum and tuum he may be impleaded by the meanest vassall that hath sworn fealty to him as the Subjects of France and Spaine may against