cryed up and branded to be the most infamous Projectors and Monopolizers of the land as Hamilton Holland c. are not only at liberty but crept into favour and made use of Peregrin Hath the house of Commons power to commit any but their own Members without conference with the Lords Or hath any Order or Ordinance of one of the Houses singly or of both conjunctly power to enjoin a virtual binding generall obedience without the Royal consent Patricius The power of Parliament when King Peers and Commons which is the whole Kingdom digested as it were into one volum is indefinit but what either of both Houses can do of themselves singly or joyntly without the King who is the life of the Law especially when a visible faction reigns amongst them I will not determin tantas componere lites non opis est nostrae But for my own opinion I think it is as impossible for them to make a Law without the King as it was for Paracelsus to make a human creture without coition of both sexes The results of Parliament without the Royall consent are as matches without fire And it is an incontroulable principle that the old Law must be our guide till new be made nor is any Act of the Subject justifiable but what is warranted by the old But to proceed in the tru discovery of these Domestick scissures my Lord of Stafford being gone we hop'd fair weather wold follow He who was the cause of the tempest as they pretended being thrown over-board but unluckie mists of jealousie grew thicker and thicker Yet the Scots were dismist having had Fidlers fare meat drink and money for eleven long moneths together So His Majesty went to Scotland where the Parliament ther did but ask and have any thing though it be the unquestionable Prerogative of Majesty to grant or deny Petitions and to satisfie his conscience before any Councell whatsoever But during his sojourn ther this formidable hideous Rebellion brok out in Ireland which though it may be said to be but an old play newly reviv'd yet the Scene was never so Tragicall and bloody as now for the Barbarismes that have bin committed ther have bin so sanguinary and monstrously savage that I think posterity will hold them hyperbolicall â—…when History relates them The Irish themselves affirm ther concurr'd divers causes to kindle this fire One was the taking off of Strafforâ—…s head who awd them more then any Deputy ever did and that one of his Accusations shold be to have used the Papists ther too favourably Secondly the rigorous proceedings and intended courses against the Roman Catholiques here in England Lastly the stopping of that Regiment of Irish who was promised by His Majesties Royall Word and Letter to the King of Spain who relying upon that employment rather then to beg steal or starve turned Rebels And that which hath agravated the Rebellion all this while and heightned much the spirit of the Irish was the introduction of the Scot whom they hate in perfection above all people els And intended lastly the design spoken of in our Parliament to make an absolute Conquest and Nationall Eradication of them which hath made them to make vertue of necessity and to be valiant against their wills Peregrin Indeed I heard that Act of staying the Irish Regiment considering how the Marquesses de Velada and Malvezzi and Don Alonso de Cardenas who were all three Ambassadours here for the King of Spain at that time having by reliance upon the sacred Word and Letter of a King imprested money and provided shipping for their transport and bin at above 10000. Crowns charges I say this Act was very much censured abroad to the dishonour of His Majesty and our reproach Patricius I am very sorry to hear it Well Sir His Majesty by His presence having setled Scotland was at his return to London received with much joy and exultation but though he was brought in with a Hosanna at one end of the Town he found a Crucifige at the other For at Westminster ther was a Remonstrance fram'd a work of many weeks and voted in the dead of night when most of the moderat and well-thoughted Members were retired to their rest wherein with as much aggravation and artifice as could be the least moat in Government was exposed to publick view from the first day of His Majesties Inauguratâ—…on to that very hour Which Remonstrance as it did no good to the Publick but fill peoples heads with doubts their hearts with gall and retard the procedure of all businesse besides so you may well think it could expect but cold entertainment with His Majesty who hoped his great Councel according to their often deep protestations had done something for his welcom home that might have made him the best beloved King that ever 〈◊〉 amongst his people Peregrin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ther is no Government upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 up of mâ—…n but is subject to corruption there is no Court of judicature so cleane but some cobwebs may gather in it unlesse an Act of Parliament could be made to free and exempt men from all infirmities and errour It cannot be denied but Scotland might have something to complaine of though I think least of any and so leapt first into the pooll to be cur'd and what she fish'd besides in those troubled waters 't is too well known England also no doubt might have some grievances which his Majestie freely offered not onely to redresse for the present but to free her of all feares for the future from falling into relapses of that kinde but to redresse grievances by Armes by plunging the whole countrey into an intestine warre this makes the remedy worse then the malady it is as if one would go about to cure a sick body by breaking his head or let him blood by giving him a dash on the nose it is as mad a tricke as his was who set the whole House a fire to roast his egs But truly Sir in my opinion his Majesty at his return from Scotland might have justly expected some acts of compliance and gratitude from his Parliament considering what unparallel'd acts of grace he had pass'd before Patricius His Majesty did not rest there but complied further with them by condescending to an act for putting down the star-chamber Court the high Commission the Court of honour nay he was contented his own Privy Councell should be regulated and his forests bounded not according to ancient Prerogative but late custome nay further he pass'd a Bill for the unvoting and utter exclusion of the Spirituall Lords from the Parliament for ever whereby it cannot be denied but by the casheering of 25 votes at a clap and by excluding the Recusant Lords besides who subsist most by his grace he did not a little enervat his own prerogative Adde hereunto that having placed two worthy Gentlemen Biron and Lunsford Lieutenants of the Tower he remov'd them both one after the other and was content to put in
Ship toss'd up and down in distresse of wind and weather by a furious tempest which the more she tugs and wrastles with the foamie waves of the angry Ocean the more the fury of the storme encreaseth and puts her in danger of shipwrack and you must needs thinke Sir it would move compassion in any heart to behold a poore Ship in such a desperate case specially when all his kindred friends and fortunes yea his Religion the most precious Treasure of all are aboard of her and upon point of sinking Alas I can contribute nothing now to my poor countrey but my prayers and teares that it would please God to allay this tempest and cast over board those that are the true causers of it and bring the people to the right use of Reason againe It was well observed by you Sir That there is a Nationall kinde of indisposition and obliquity of mind that rageth now amongst our people and I feare it will be long ere they returne to their old English temper to that rare loyalty and love which they were used to shew to their Soveraigne for all the Principles of Monarchie are quite lost amongst us those ancient and sacret flowers of the English Diadem are trampled under foot nay matters are come to that horrid confusion that not onely the Prerogative of the crown but the foundamentall Priviledge of the free-born subject is utterly overthrowne by those whose Predecessors were used to be the main supporters of it so that our King is necessitated to put himself in Armes for the preservation not only of his own Regall rights but of Magna Charta it self which was neuer so invaded and violated in any age by such causlesse tyrannicall imprisonments by such unexampled destructive taxes by stopping the ordinary processes in Law and awing all the Courts of Justice by unheard-of forced oaths and Associations and a thousand other acts which neither President Book-case or Statute can warrant whereof if the King had done but the twentieth part he had been cryed up to be the greatest Tyrant that ever was Peregrin Sir I am an Alien and so can speak with more freedom of your Countrey The short time that I did eate my bread there I felt the pulse of the people with as much judgement as I could and I find that this very word Parliament is become a kind of Idoll amongst them they doe as it were pin their salvation upon 't it is held blasphemie to speake against it The old English Maxime was The King can do no wrong another Nominative case is now stept in That the Parliament can do no wrong nor the King receive any And whereas ther was used to be but one Defender of the Faith ther are now started up amongst you I cannot tell how many hundreds of them And as in the sacred profession of Priest-hood we hold or at least wise shold hold That after the Imposition of hands the Minister is inspired with the Holy Ghost in an extraordinary manner for the enabling of him to exercise that Divine Function so the English are grown to such a fond conceit of their Parliament Members that as soon as any is chosen by the confus'd cry of the Common people to sit within the walls of that House an inerring spirit a spirit of infallibility presently entereth into him so that he is therby become like the Pope a Canon animatus though som of them may haply be such flat and simple animals that they are as fit to be Counsellours as Caligula's Horse was to be Consull as the Historian tells us Patricius Touching Parliament ther breaths not a Subject under Englands Crown who hath a higher esteem of it then I it makes that dainty mixture in our Government of Monarchy Optimacie and Democracy betwixt whom though ther be a kind of co ordination of power during the sitting of Parliament yet the two last which are composed of Peers and People have no power but what is derived from the first which may be called the soul that animates them and by whose authority they meet consult and depart They come there to propose not to impose Lawes they come not to make Lawes by the sword they must not be like Draco's Lawes written in bloud Their King calls them thither to be his Counsellors not Controllers and the Office of Counsell is to advise not to inforce they come thither to intreat not to treat with their Liege Lord they come to throw their Petitions at his feet that so they may find a way up to his hearâ—… 'T is tru I have read of high things that our Parliament have done but 't was either during the nonage and minority of our Kings when they were under protectorship or when they were absent in a forrain war or in time of confusion when ther were competitors of the bloud-royall for the Crown and when the number of both Houses was compleat and individed but I never read of any Parliament that did arrogate to it self such a power Paramount such a Superlative superintendence as to check the Prerogative of their Soverain to question his negative voice to passe things not only without but expresly against his advice and royall command I never heard of Parliament that wold have their King being come to the Meridian of his age to transmit his intellectualls and whole faculty of reason to them I find som Parliaments have bin so modest and moderat Now moderation is the Rudder that shold steer the course of all great Councells that they have declined the agitation and cognizance of som state affaires humbly transferring them to their Soverain and his privy Counsell a Parliament man then held it to be the adaequat object of his duty to study the welfare to redresse the grievances and supply the defects of that particular place for which he served The Members then us'd to move in their own Inferior sphere and us'd not to be transported by any Eccentric motions And so they thought to have complyed with the Obligation and discharged the consciences of honest Patriots without soaring above their reach and roving at random to treat of universals much lesse to bring Religion to their bar or prie into the Arcana Imperti the cognizance of the one belonging to the King and his intern Counsell of State the other to Divines who according to the Etymologie of the word use to be still conversant in the exercise of speculation of holy and heavenly things Peregrin I am clearly of your opinion in these two particulars for secrecy being the soul of policy matters of State shold be communicated but to few and touching Religion I cannot see how it may quadrat with the calling and be homogeneous to the profession of Lay-men to determine matters of Divinity who out of their incapacity and unaptnesse to the work being not pares negotio and being carryed away by a wild kind of Conscience without Science like a Ship without a Helm fall upon dangerous quick-sands
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
one of their Election And lastly he trusted them with his greatest strength of all with his Navie Royall and call'd home Pennington who had the guard of the narrow Seas so many yeares Peregrin Truly Sir I never remember to have heard or read of such notable acts of grace and confidence from any King but would not all this suffice Patricius No But they demanded all the Land Souldiery and military strength of the Kingdome to be disposed of by them and to be put into what posture and in what Equipage and under what Commanders they pleas'd And this was the first thing his Majesty ever denyed them yet he would have granted them this also for a limited time but that would not serve the turn Hereupon his Majesty grew a little sensible how they inch'd every day more and more upon his Royall Prerogatives And intending to go to his Town of Hull to see his Magazin which he had bought with his own money with his ordinary train he was in a hostile manner kept out Canons mounted Pistols cockt and leveld at him But whether that unlucky Knight Hotham did this out of his fidelity to the Parl. or out of an apprehension of feare that some about the King being mov'd with the barbarousnesse of the action would have pistold him I will not determine Peregrin I have read of divers affronts of this kinde that were offerd to the French Kings Rochell shut her gates more than once against Henry the Great and for the King now regnant they did not only shut him out of many of his Towns but upon the gates of some of them they writ in legible Characters Roy san Foy ville sans peur a faithlesse King a fearlesse Towne Yet in the greatest heat of those warres there was never any Towne refus'd to let in her King provided he came attended onely with his own traine and besides other people abroad I heard the Scot's nation did abhor that Act at Hull But I pray Sir go on Patricius His Majesty being thus shut out of one Towne he might justly suspect that an attempt might be made to shut him in in some other Therefore he made a motion to the Yorke-shire Gentlemen to have a gard for the preservation of his Person which was done accordingly But I am come to forward I must go backe and tell you how the King was driven from Westminster When His Majesty was return'd from Scotland he retir'd to Hampton Court whence upon the Lord Majors and the Cities humble solliciâ—…ation he came back to White-hal to keep his Christmas But when the Bill against Bishops was in agitation which businesse â—…asted neer upon ten weekes a crue of bold â—…turdie mechanicks and mariners came â—…rom the Citie and ruffled before White-hall and Westminster-hall and would have violated the Abby of Westminster so that for many â—…ights a Court of gard was forced to be kept â—…n the body of that Church the chiefest Sanctuary of the Kingdom Moreover His Majesty having impeached some of the Members of both Houses of High Treason and being denied to have them delivered up he went himself to the Lower House to demand them assuring the House they should have as faire and legall a triall as ever men had But as it pleas'd God they were not there but retir'd to London for refuge The Londoners grew starke wilde thereupon and notice being sent to all the adjacent Counties this act of the Kings though it wanted no precedents of former times was aggravated in the highest degree that possibly could be Hence you may easily inferre what small securitie his Majesty had at White-hall and what indignities he might have exposed himself unto by that which had pass'd already from the Rabble who had vilified and cried tush at his proclamations and disgorg'd other rebellious speeches with impunity therefore he retird to Hampton Court as we read our Saviour withdrew himselfe once from the multitude thence to Windsor Castle whence accompanying her Majesty with his eldest daughter to the sea side for Holland and having commanded the Prince to attend him against his return at Greenwich the Prince had been surpriz'd and brought to London had not the King come a little before Thence he removed to Yorke where he kept his Court all the Sommer But to returne to London the very next day after their Majesties departure the Countrey about especially Buckinghamshire being incited by the Câ—…tie and Parliament came in great swarmes and joyning with the London mechanicks they ruffled up and down the streets and kept such a racket making the fearfull'st riot that ever I beleeve was heard of in Parliament time so those Members which formerly were fled into the Citie were brought to the House in a kind of triumph being garded by land and water in warlike manner by these Champions After this sundry troops of horse came from all the shires near adjoyning to â—…he Parliament and Buckingham men were â—…he first who while they express'd their â—…ve to Hamden their Knight forgot their â—…worn oath to their King and in stead of feathers they carried a printed Protestation in â—…heir hats as the Londoners had done a litâ—…le before upon the Pikes point Peregrin This kept a foul noise beyond Sea I reâ—…ember so that upon the Rialto in Venice â—…t was sung up and down that a Midsummer Moon though it was then midst of Winter did raign amongst the English and you must â—…hink that it hath made the Venetian to â—…hrink in his shoulders and to look but ill-favouredly upon us since wee 'l have none of his currans But Sir I heard much of that Protestation I pray what was the substance of it Patricius It was penn'd and enjoyn'd by the Parâ—…iament for every one to take and it consisted of many parts the first was to maintain the tru Potestant Religion against all Popish innovations which word Popish as som think was scrued in of purpose for a loop hole to let in any other innovation the second was to maintain the Prerogative anâ—… Honour of the King then the power and priviledge of Parliament and lastly the Propriety and Liberty of the subject for threâ—… parts of this Protestation the people up anâ—… down seem'd to have utterly forgotteâ—… them and continue so still as if their consciences had bin tied only to the third viz the priviledge of Parliament and never was ther a poor people so besotted never waâ—… reason and common sence so baffled in anâ—… part of the world And now will I go to attend His Majesty at York where as I told you before being loth to part with his Sword though he had half parted with his Scepter before by denying the Parliament an indefinite time to dispose of the Militia alleadging that as the Word so the thing was new He sends forth his Commissions of Array according to the old Law of England which declares iâ—… to be the undoubted Right and Royall Signorie of the King to arm or disarm any
three things which are inalienable from the Person of the King They are 1. The Crowne 2. The Scepter 3. The Sword The one He is to carry on His Head the other in His Hand and the third at His Side and they may be termed all three the ensignes or peculiar instruments of a King by the first He Reignes by the second He makes Lawes by the third He Defends them and the two first are but bables without the last as was formerly spoken 1. Touching the Crown or royal Diadem of England ther is none whether Presbyterian Independent Protestant or others now in action but confess that it descends by a right hereditary Line though through divers Races and som of them Conquerours upon the Head of Charles the first now Regnant 't is His own by inherent birth-right and nature by Gods Law and the Law of the Land and these Parliament-men at their first sitting did agnize subjection unto Him accordingly and recognize Him for their Soveraign Liege Lord Nay the Roman Catholick denies not this for though there were Bulls sent to dispense with the English Subjects for their allegiance to Queen Elizabeth yet the Pope did this against Her as he took Her for a Heretick not an Usurpresse though he knew well enough that She had bin declared Illegitimate by the Act of an English Parliament This Imperial Crown of England is adorned and deckd with many fair Flowers which are called royal Prerogatives and they are of such a transcendent nature that they are unforfeitable individual and untransferrable to any other The King can only summon and dissolve Parliaments The King can only Pardon for when He is Crowned He is sworn to rule in Mercy as well as in Justice The King can only Coyn Money and enhance or decry the value of it The power of electing Officers of State of Justices of Peace and Assize is in the King He can only grant soveraign Commissions The King can only wage War and make Out-landish Leagues The King may make all the Courts of Justice ambulatory with His Person as they were used of old 't is tru the Court of Common Pleas must be sedentary in som certain place for such a time but that expired 't is removeable at His pleasure The King can only employ Ambassadours and Treat with forraign States c. These with other royal Prerogatives which I shall touch hereafter are those rare and wholsom flowers wherewith the Crown of England is embellished nor can they stick any where else but in the Crown and all confess the Crown is as much the King 's as any private man's Cap is his own 2. The second regall Instrument is the Scepter which may be called an inseparable companion or a necessary appendix to the Crown this invests the King with the sole Authority of making Lawes for before His confirmation all results and determinations of Parliament are but Bills or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are but abortive things and meer Embryos nay they have no life at all in them till the King puts breath and vigour into them and the ancient custome was for the King to touch them with His Scepter then they are Lawes and have a vertue in them to impose an obligation of universall obedience upon all sorts of people It being an undeniable maxime That nothing can be generally binding without the King 's royall assent nor doth the Law of England take notice of any thing without it This being done they are ever after styl'd the Kings Lawes and the Judges are said to deliver the King's judgments which agrees with the holy text The King by judgment shall stablish the Land nay the Law presumes the King to be alwaies the sole Judge Paramount and Lord chief Justice of England for he whom He pleaseth to depute for His chiefest Justice is but styl'd Lord chief Iustice of the Rings â—…ench not Lord chief Justice of England which title is peculiar to the King Himself and observable it is that whereas He grants Commissions and Patents to the Lord Chancellour who is no other then Keeper of His Conscience and to all other Judges He names the Chief Justice of his own Bench by a short Writ only containing two or three lines which run thus Regina Iohanni Popham militi salutem Sciatis quod constitutmus vos justiciarium nostrum Capitalem ad placita coram nobis terminandum durante beneplacito nostro Teste c. Now though the King be liable to the Laws and is contented to be within their verge because they are chiefly His own productions yet He is still their Protector Moderator and Soveraigne which attributes are incommunicable to any other conjunctly or separately Thus the King with His Scepter and by the mature advice of His two Houses of Parl. which are His highest Councel and Court hath the sole power of making Laws other Courts of judicature doe but expound them and distribute them by His appointment they have but Iuris dati dictionem or declarationem and herein I meane for the Exposition of the Lawes the twelve Iudges are to be believed before the whole Kingdom besides They are as the Areopagites in Athens the chief Presidents in France and Spaine in an extraordinary Iunta as the Cape-Syndiques in the Rota's of Rome and the Republique of Venice whose judgments in point of interpreting Lawes are incontroulable and preferred before the opinion of the whole Senate whence they received their being and who hath still power to repeal them though not to expound them In France they have a Law maxime Arrest donné en Rebbe rouge est irrevocable which is a Scarlet Sentence is irrevocable meaning when all the Judges are met in their Robes and the Client against whom the Cause goes may chafe and chomp upon the bit and say what he will for the space of twenty foure howers against his Judges but if ever after he traduces them he is punishable It is no otherwise here where every ignorant peevish Client every puny Barister specially if he become a Member of the House will be ready to arraign and vie knowledge with all the reverend Judges in the Land whose judgement in points of Law shold be onely tripodicall and sterling so that he may be truly call'd a just King and to rule according to Law who rules according to the opinion of his Judges therefore under favour I do not see how his Majesty for his part could be call'd injust when he leavied the Ship-money considering he had the Judges for it I now take the Sword in hand which is the third Instrument of a King and which this short discours chiefly points at it is as well as the two first incommunicable and inalienable from his Person nothing concernes his honor more both at home and abroad the Crown and the Scepter are but unweildy and impotent naked indefensible things without it There 's none so simple as to think there 's meant hereby an ordinary single sword
of som mongrel Englishmen aforementioned entred into the Bowels of the Country the King was forced to call this present Parliament with whom he complyed in every thing so far as to sacrifice unto them both Iudge Bishop Councellor and Courtier yea He yielded to the tumbling down of many tribunals of Justice which were an advantage to his Prerogative He assented that the Prelates who were the most Ancient and Prime Members of the upper House and had priority of all others since the first constitution of Parliament in the enrollment of all Acts He assented I say that these who were the greatest prop of His Crown shold be quite outed from among the Peers He granted them also a Trienniall Parliament and after that this Perpetuall which words to the apprehension of any rational man carry with them a grosse absurdity in the very sense of the thing And touching this last Grant I had it from a good hand that the Queen was a friend to this Parliament and your Eminence knows how they have requited Her since but the main open Councellor to this fatall Act was a Scot. Now the reason which they alledged for this everlasting Parliament was one of the baldest that ever I heard of it was that they might have time enough to pay the Scots Army wheras in one morning they might have dispatched that by passing so many Subsidies for that use and upon the credit of those they might have raised what money they wold The Parliament finding the King so plyable and His pulse to beat so gently like ill-natur'd men they fall from inches to ells in seeking their advantages They grew so peremptory as to demand all the Military strength of the Kingdom the Tower of London with the whole Royal Navy which they found in an excellent equipage gramercy ship-money so that the benefit of ship-money which they so clamoured at turned most to their advantage of any thing afterwards The Scot being Fidler-like returned to his Country with meat drink and money the King went a while after to keep a Parliament ther wherein he filled every blank they did but ask and have for He granted them what possibly they could propound both for their Kirk and State many received Honour and they divided Bishops Lands amongst them for all which unparallel'd Concessions of Princely grace they caused an Act already in force to be published viz. that it shold be damnable Treason in the highest degree that could be for any of the Scots Nation conjunctly or singly to levy armes or any Military Forces upon any pretext whatsoever without His Majesties royal Commission and this they caused to be don by way of gratitude but how they perform'd it afterwards the world knowes too well The King returning to London in lieu of a welcom to his two Houses of Parliament to whom also before his departure he had passed more Acts of Grace then all his Progenitors take them all in a lump they had patch'd up a kind of Remonstrance which was voted in dead of the night wherein they expos'd to the world the least moat in former government and aggravated to the very height every grievance notwithstanding that the King had redressed all before and this Remonstrance which breath'd nothing but a base kind of malice they presented as a nosegay to their Soveraign Prince to congratulat his safe return from a forein Countrey which Remonstrance they caus'd to be printed and publish'd before he could give any answer thereunto The King finding such a virulent spirit still raign in the House and knowing who were chiefly possess'd with it viz. Those whom he had impeach'd before but saw he could get no justice against them in such an extremity he did an act like a generous Prince for taking the Palsgrave with him he took the first Coach he met withall at his Court-gate and went to his House of Commons in person to demand five Members which he wold prove to be Traitors in the highest degree 〈◊〉 to be the Authors of all these distempers protesting upon the word of a King that they shold have as fair legal a tryal as ever men had in the interim he only desir'd that their persons might be secur'd The walls of both Houses and the very stones in London street did seem to ring of this high cariage of the Kings and the sound went thence to the Country whence the silly Plebeians came presently in whole herds to this City who strutting up and down the streets had nothing in their mouths but that the Priviledg of Parlement the priviledg of Parlement was broken though it be the known clear Law of the Land that the Parlement cannot supersede or shelter any Treason The King finding how violently the pulse of the grosly seduced people did beat and ther having bin formerly divers riotous crues of base Mechaniques and Mariners who had affronted both his own Court and the two Houses besides which the Commons to their eternal reproach conniv'd at notwithstanding that divers motions were made by the Lords to suppresse them the King also having privat intelligence that ther was a mischievous plot to surprize his person remov'd his Court to the Countrey The King departing or rather being driven away thus from his two Houses by this mutinous City he might well at his going away have ubraided her in the same words as H. the 3. did upbraid Paris who being by such another tumultuous rabble driven out of her in the time of the Ligue as he was losing sight of her he turn'd his face back and said Farewel ingratefull City I will never see thee again till I make my way into thee through thy Walls Yet though the King absented himself in person thus from the two Houses he sent them frequent messages that they wold draw into Acts what he had already assented unto and if any thing was left yet undon by him he wold do it therfore he will'd them to leave off those groundless feares and jealousies wherwith they had amus'd both City and Country and he was ready to return at all times to his Palace in Westminster provided that his person might be secur'd from the former barbarisms and outrages But in lieu of a dutiful compliance with their Prince the thoughts of the two Houses ran upon nothing but war The King then retiring into the North and thinking with a few of his servants only to go visit a Town of his Hull he was denyed entrance by a fatal unlucky wretch Hotham who afterwards was shamefully executed with his Eldest Son by command of his new Masters of the Parlement The King being thus shut out of his own Town which open'd the first dore to a bloudy war put forth a Declaration wherin he warn'd all his people that they shold look to their proprieties for if He was thus barr'd of his own how could any privat Subject be sure to be Master of any thing he had and herein he was as much Prophet
upon his affections then I beleeve they will ever do hereafter But to proceed the King having bin a good while prisoner to the Parlement the Army snatch'd him away from them and som of the chiefest Commanders having pawn'd their soules unto him to restore him speedily in lieu thereof they tumbled him up and down to sundry places till they juggled him at last to that small Ile where now he is surrounded with a gard of strange faces and if happly he beginns to take delight in any of those faces he is quickly taken out of his sight These harsh usages hath made him become all gray and oregrown with hair so that he lookes rather like som Silvan Satyr then a Soverain Prince And truly my Lord the meanest slave in St. Marks gallies or the abjects Captif in Algier bannier is not so miserable as he in divers kinds for they have the comfort of their wifes children and frends they can convey and receive Letters send Messengers upon their errands and have privat discours with any all which is denied to the King of great Britain nay the young Princes his children are not permitted as much as to ask him blessing in a letter In so much that if he were not a great King of his passions and had a heart cast in on extraordinary Mould these pressures and those base aspersions that have bin publiquely cast upon him by the Parlement it self had bin enough to have sent him out of the world e're this and indeed 't is the main thing they drive at to torture his braine and tear his very heart strings if they could so that whereas this foolish ignorant peeple speak such horrid things of our Inquisition truly my Lord 't is a most gentle way of proceeding being compar'd to this Kings persecutions As the King himselfe is thus in quality of a captif so are all his Subjects becom perfect slaves they have fool'd themselfs into a worse slavery then Iew or Greek under the Ottomans for they know the bottom of their servitude by paying so many Sultanesses for every head but here people are put to endless unknown tyrannical Taxes besides plundering and Accize which two words and the practise of them with storming of Towns they have learnt of their pure Brethren of Holland and for plundrings these Parliamenteer-Saints think they may robb any that adheres not to them as lawfully as the Iewes did the Egyptians 'T is an unsommable masse of money these Reformers have squandred in few years whereof they have often promis'd and solemnly voted a publick account to satisfie the Kingdom but as in a hundred things more so in this precious particular they have dispens'd with their Votes they have consumed more treasure with pretence to purge one Kingdom then might have served to have purchas'd two more as I am credibly told then all the Kings of England spent of the public stock since the Saxon Conquest Thus have they not only begger'd the whole Island but they have hurld it into the most fearfull st Chaos of confusion that ever poor Countrey was in they have torn in pieces the reines of all Government trampled upon all Lawes of heaven and earth and violated the very Dictamens of nature by making Mothers to betray their Sons and the Sons their Fathers but specially that Great Charter which is the Pandect of all the Laws and Liberties of the free-born Subject which at their admission to the House they are solemnly sworn to maintain is torn in flitters besides those severall Oaths they forg'd themselfs as the Protestation and Covenant where they voluntarily swear to maintain the Kings Honour and Rights together with the established Laws of the Land c. Now I am told that all Acts of Parlement here are Lawes and they carry that Majesty with them that no power can suspend or repeal them but the same power that made them which is the King sitting in full Parlement these mongrell Polititians have bin so notoriously impudent as to make an inferiour Ordinance of theirs to do it which is point-blanck against the very fundamentals of this Government and their own Oaths which makes me think that there was never such a perjur'd pack of wretches upon earth never such Monsters of mankind Yet this simple infatuated peeple have a Saint-like opinion of these Monsters this foolish Citie gards them daily with Horse and Foot whereby she may be sayd to kisse the very stones that are thrown at her and the hand whence they came which a dogg would not do But she falls to recollect her self now that shee begins to be pinch'd in Trade and that her Mint is starv'd yet the leading'st men in her Common-Councell care not much for it in regard most of them have left traffiquing abroad finding it a more easie and gainefull way of trading at home by purchasing Crown or Church lands plunder'd goods and debts upon the Publick Faith with Soldiers debenters thus the Saints of this Iland turne godlinesse into gaine Truly my Lord I give the English for a lost Nation if they continue long thus never was ther a more palpable oblaesion of the brain and a more visible decay of Reason in any race of men It is a sore judgment from heaven that a people shold not be more sensible how they are become slaves to Rebells and those most of them the scumm of the Nation which is the basest of miseries how they suffer them to tyrannize by a meer arbitrary extrajudicial power o're their very souls and bodies o're their very lifs and livelihoods how their former freedom is turn'd to fetters Molehills into Mountains of grievances Ship-money into Accize Justice into Tyranny For nothing hath bin and is daily so common amongst them as imprisonment without charge and a charge without an accuser condemnation without apparance and forfeitures without conviction To speak a little more of the King if all the infernal fiends had ligu'd against him they could not have design'd or disgorged more malice They wold have laid to his charge his Fathers death as arrand a lie as ever was forg'd in hell they wold make him fore-know the insurrection in Ireland wheras the Spanish Ambassador here and his Confessor who is a very reverend Irish-man told me that he knew no more of it then the grand Mogor did they charge him with all the bloud of this civil war wheras they and their instruments were the first kindlers of it and that first prohibited trade and shut him out of his own Town They have intercepted and printed his privat Letters to his Queen and Hers to him Oh barbarous basenesse but therin they did him a pleasure though the intent was malitious their aim in all things being to envenom the hearts of his people towards him and this was to render him a glorious and well-belov'd Prince as likewise for making him rich all which they had vow'd to do upon passing the Act of Continuance But now they have made
that there was neither Scot or Puritan had then any stroke in England Yet for all their disobedience and grumblings against their Liege Lord the King this peeple are exactly obedient to their new Masters of the House of Commons though they sit there but as their Servants and entitle themselfs so and also though in lieu of the small scratches which England might happily have receiv'd before all which the King had cur'd these new masters have made such deep gashes in her and given her such deadly wounds that I believe are incurable My Lord I find by my researches that there are two great Idolls in this Kingdom the greatest that ever were they are the Parliament and the Pulpit t is held High treson to speak against the one and the whole body of Religion is nailed unto the other for there is no devotion here at all but preaching which God wot is little better then prating The abuse of these two hath bin the source of all the distempers which now raign touching the latter it hath serv'd as a subvervient Engin to prop up the power and popularity of the first these malicious Pulpit-men breath out nothing thence but either sedition schisme or blasphemy poor shallow brain'd Sciolists they wold question many things in the old Testament and find Apocrypha in the New And such is the violence wherewith the minds of men and women are transported towards these Preachmen and no other part of devotion besides that in all probability they will in time take a surfet of them so that give this giddy peeple line enough ther will be no need of Catholique Arms to reduce them to the Apostolick Church they will in time pave the way to it themselves and be glad to return to Rome to find out a Religion again There was here before as I am informed a kind of a face of a Church there were some solemnities venerations and decencies us'd that a man might discover som piety in this peeple there was a publick Lyturgie that in pithy Pathetical prayers reach'd all occasions the Sacraments were administred with som reverence their Churches were kept neat and comly but this nasty race of miscreants have nothing at all of sweetnesse of piety and devotion in them 't is all turn'd to a fatuous kind of zeal after more learning as if Christianity had no sobriety consistence or end of knowledg at all These silly things to imitat the Apostles time wold have the same form of discipline to govern whole Nations as it did a chamberfull of men in the infancy of the Church they wold make the same coat serve our Savious at 30. yeers which fitted him at three 'T is incredible how many ugly sorts of heresies they daily hatch but they are most of them old ones newly furbish'd they all relate to Aerius a perfect hater of Bishops because he could not be one himself The two Sectaries which sway most are the Presbyterians and Independents the Presbyterian is a spawn of a Puritan and the Independent a spawn of the Presbyterian there 's but one hop 'twixt the first and a Iew and but half a hop 'twixt the other and an Infidell they are both opposit to Monarchy and Hierarchy and the latter wold have no Government at all but a parity and promiscuous confusion a race of creatures fit only to inhabit Hell and one of the fruits of this blessed Parlement and of these two Sectaries is that they have made more Jewes and Athiests then I think there is in all Europe besides but truly my Lord I think the judgments of Heaven were never so visible in any part of the Earth as they are now here for there is Rebell against Rebell House against House Cittie against Army Parlement against Scot but these two Sectaries I mean the Presbyterian and Independent who were the fire-brands that put this poor Iland first in a flame are now in most deadly feud one against the other though they both concur in this to destroy government And if the King had time enough to look only upon them they would quickly hang draw and destroy one another But indeed all Christian Princes shold observe the motions and successes of these two unlucky Incendiaries for if they shold ligue together again as they have often plaid fast and loose one with another and prevail here this Iland wold not terminat their designs they wold puzzle all the world besides Their Preachmen ordinarily cry out in the Pulpit ther is a great work to be done upon earth for the reforming all mankind and They are appointed by Heaven to be the chief Instruments of bringing it about They have already bin so busie abroad that with vast sommes of money they brought the Swed upon the Dane and the very Savages upon the English Cavaliers in Virginia and could they confederat with Turk or Tartar or Hell it self against them they wold do it they are monstrously puff'd up with pride that they stick not to call themselfs Conquerors and one of the chief ringleaders of them an ignorant home bred kind of Brewer was not ashamed to vant it publiquely in the Commons House that if he had but 20000. men he wold undertake to march to Constantinople and pull the Ottoman Emperour out of the Seralio Touching the other grand Idoll the Parlement 't is true that the primitive constitution of Parlement in this Iland was a wholesom piece of policy because it kept a good correspondence and clos'd all ruptures 'twixt the King and his peeple but this thing they call Parlement now may rather be term'd a cantle of one or indeed a Conventicle of Schismatiques rather than a great Counsell 't is like a kind of headless Monster or som estropiated carkas for ther is neither King nor Prelat nor scarce the seventh part of Peers and Commons no not the twelfth part fairly elected nevertheless they draw the peeple specially this City like so many stupid animalls to adore them Yet though this institution of Parlement be a wholsom thing in it self there is in my judgment a great incongruity in one particular and I believe it hath bin the cause of most distempers it is That the Burgesses are more in number than the Knights of the Shires for the Knights of the Shires are commonly Gentlemen well born and bred and vers'd in the Laws of the Land as well as forren Governments divers of them but the Burgesses of Towns are commonly Tradesmen and being bred in Corporations they are most of them inclining to Puritanism and consequently to popular Government These Burgesses exceeding the Knights in number carry all before them by plurality of Voices and so puzzle all And now that I have mentioned Corporations I must tell your Lordship that the greatest soloecism in the policy of this Kingdom is the number of them especially this monstrous City which is compos'd of nothing els but of Corporations and the greatest errors that this King specially his Father
committed was to suffer this Town to spread her wings so wide for she bears no proportion with the bignes of the Iland but may fit a Kingdom thrice as spacious she engrosseth and dreins all the wealth and strength of the Kingdom so that I cannot compare England more properly than to one of our Cremona geese where the custom is to fatten only the heart but in doing so the whole body growes lank To draw to a conclusion This Nation is in a most sad and desperat condition that they deserve to be pittied and preserved from sinking and having cast the present state of things and all interests into an equal balance I find my Lord ther be three ways to do it one good and two bad 1. The first of the bad ones is the Sword which is one of the scourges of heaven especially the Civill sword 2. The second bad one is the Treaty which they now offer the King in that small Island wher he hath bin kept Captif so long 〈◊〉 which quality the world will account him still while he is detain'd there and by thaâ—… Treaty to bind him as fast as they can anâ—… not trust him at all 3. The good way is in a free confiding brave way Englishmen-like to send for their King to London where City and Country shold Petition him to summon a new and free full Parlement which he may do as justly as ever he did thing in his life these men having infring'd as well all the essentiall Priviledges of Parlement as every puntillio of it for they have often risen up in a confusion without adjournment they had two Speakers at once they have most perjuriously and beyond all imagination betrayed the trust both King and Country repos'd in them subverted the very sundamentals of all Law and plung'd the whole Kingdom in this bottomless gulf of calamities another Parlement may haply do som good to this languishing Island and cure her convulsions but for these men that arrogat to themselfs the name of Parlement by a local puntillio only because they never stir'd from the place where they have bin kept together by meer force I find them by their actions to be so pervers so irrational and refractory so far given over to a reprobat sense so fraught with rancor with an irreconcileable malice and thirst of bloud that England may well despaire to be heal'd by such Phlebotomists or Quack-salvers be sides they are so full of scruples apprehensions and jealousies proceeding from blacâ—… guilty souls and gawl'd consciences that they will do nothing but chop Logic with their King and spin out time to continue their power and evade punishment which they think is unavoidable if ther shold be a free-Parlement Touching the King he comports himself with an admired temper'd equanimity he invades and o're-masters them more and more in all his answers by strength of reson though he have no soul breathing to consult withall but his own Genius he gains wonderfully upon the hearts and opinion of his peeple and as the Sun useth to appear bigger in winter and at his declension in regard of the interposition of certain meteors 'twixt the eye of the beholder and the object so this King being thus o're-clouded and declined shines far more glorious in the eyes of his people and certainly these high morall vertues of constancy courage and wisdom come from above and no wonder for Kings as they are elevated above all other peeple and stand upon higher ground they sooner receive the inspirations of heaven nor doth he only by strength of reason out 〈◊〉 them but he wooes them by gentlenesse and mansuetude as the Gentleman of Paris who having an Ape in his house that had taken his only child out of the cradle and dragged him up to the ridge of the house the parent with ruthful he art charmed the Ape by fair words and other blandâ—…ments to bring him softly down which he did England may be said to be now just upon such a precipice ready to have her braines dash'd out and I hope these men will not be worse natur'd then that brute animal but will save her Thus have I given your Eminence a rough account of the state of this poor and pittifully deluded peeple which I will perfect when I shall come to your presence which I hope will be before this Autumnal Equinox I thought to have sojourn'd here longer but that I am grown weary of the clime for I fear there 's the other two scourges of heaven that menace this Island I mean the famin and pestilence especially this City for their prophanness rebellion and sacriledge It hath bin a talk a great while whether Anti-Christ be come to the world or no I am sure Anti-Iesus which is worse is among this people for they hold all veneration though voluntary proceeding from the inward motions of a sweet devoted soul and causing an outward genuflection to be superstitious insomuch that one of the Synodical Saints here printed and published a Book entitling it against Iesu Worship So in the profoundest posture of reverence I kisse your vest as being London this 12 of August 1647. My Lord Your Eminences most humbly devoted I. H. A NOCTURNAL PROGRES OR A PERAMBULATION Of most COUNTREYS IN CHRISTENDOM Perform'd in one night by strength of the Imagination Which progresse terminats in these North-West Iles And declares the woful Confusions They are involv'd at present The progress of the Soul by an usuall DREAM IT was in the dead of a long Winter night when no eyes were open but Watchmens and Centinels that I was fallen soundly asleep the Cinq-out-Ports were shut up closer then usually for my senses were so trebly lock'd that the Moon had she descended from her watry Orb might have done much more to me then she did to Endymion when he lay snoaring upon the brow of Latmus Hill nay be it spoken without prophanenesse if a rib had bin taken out of me that night to have made a new moâ—… of a woman I shold hardly have felt it Yet though the Cousin German of death had so strongly seiz'd thus upon the exterior parts of this poor Tabernacle of flesh my inward parts were never more actif and fuller of employments then they were that night Pictus imaginibus formisque fugacibâ—… adstat Morpheus variis fingit nova vultibus ora Methought my soul made a sally abroad into the world and fetch'd a vast compas she seem'd to soar up and slice the air to cross seas to clammer up huge Hills and never rested till she had arriv'd at the Antipodes Now som of the most judicious Geometricians and Chorographers hold that the whole Mass of the Earth being round like the rest of her fellow Elements ther be places and poizing parts of the Continent ther be Peninsulas Promontories and Ilands upon the other face of the Earth that correspond and concenter with all those Regions and Iles that are upon this superficies which we read
farther as the heavenly Bodies when three of them meet in Conjunction do use to produce some admirable effects in the Elementary World So when these three States convene and assemble in one solemne great Iunta some notable and extraordinary things are brought forth tending to the welfare of the whole Kingdom our Microcosme HE that is never so little versed in the Annals of this I le will find that it hath bin her fate to be four times conquered I exclude the Scot for the scituation of his Country and the Quality of the Clime hath been such an advantage and security to him that neither the Roman Eagles would fly thither for fear of freezing their wings nor any other Nation attempt the work These so many Conquests must needs bring with them many tumblings and tossings many disturbances and changes in Government yet I have observed that notwithstanding these tumblings it retained still the forme of a Monarchy and something there was always that had an Analogy with the great Assembly of Parlement The first Conquest I find was made by Claudius Caesar at which time as some well observe the Roman Ensignes and the Standard of Christ came in together It is well known what Lawes the Roman had He had his Comitia which bore a resemblance with our Convention in Parlement the place of their meeting was called Praetorum and the Laws which they enacted Plebiscita The Saxon Conquest succeeded next which were the English there being no name in Welsh or Irish for an English man but Saxon to this day They also governed by Parlement though it were under other names as Michel Sinoth Michel Gemote and Witenage Mote There are Records above a thousand years old of these Parlements in the Reigns of King Ina Offa Ethelbert and the rest of the seven Kings during the Heptarchy The British Kings also who retain'd a great while some part of the Isle unconquered governed and made Laws by a kind of Parlementary way witnesse the famous Laws of Prince Howell called Howell Dha the good Prince Howell whereof there are yet extant some British Records Parlements were also used after the Heptarchy by King Kenulphus Alphred and others witnesse that renowned Parliament held at Grately by King Athelstan The third Conquest was by the Danes and they govern'd also by such generall Assemblies as they do to this day witnesse that great and so much celebrated Parlement held by that mighty Monarch Canutus who was King of England Denmark Norway and other Regions 150 years before the compiling of Magna Charta and this the learned in the Laws do hold to be one of the specialst and most authentick peeces of antiquity we have extant Edward the Confessor made all his Laws thus and he was a great Legis-lator which the Norman Conquerour who liking none of his sons made God Almighty his heir by bequeathing unto him this Island for a legacy did ratifie and establish and digested them into one entire methodicall Systeme which being violated by Rufus who came to such a disastrous end as to be shot to death in lieu of a Buck for his sacriledges were restor'd by Henry the first and so they continued in force till King Iohn whose Reign is renowned for first confirming Magna Charta the foundation of our Liberties ever since which may be compar'd to divers outlandish graffes set upon one English stock or to a posie of sundry fragrant flowers for the choicest of the British the Roman Saxon Danish and Norman Laws being cull'd and pick'd out and gathered as it were into one bundle out of them the foresaid Grand Charter was extracted And the establishment of this great Charter was the work of a Parliament Nor are the Lawes of this Island only and the freedome of the Subject conserved by Parlement but all the best policed Countries of Europe have the like The Germanes have their Diets the Danes and Swedes their Rijcks Dachs the Spaniard calls his Parlement las Cortes and the French have or should have at least their Assembly of three States though it be growne now in a manner obsolete because the Authority thereof was by accident devolv'd to the King And very remarkable it is how this happened for when the English had taken such large footing in most parts of France having advanced as far as Orleans and driven their then King Charles the seventh to Bourges in Berry the Assembly of the three States in these pressures being not able to meet after the usuall manner in full Parlement because the Countrey was unpassable the Enemy having made such firme invasions up and down through the very bowels of the Kingdom That power which formerly was inhaerent in the Parlementary Assembly of making Laws of assessing the Subject with Taxes subsidiary levies and other impositions was transmitted to the King during the war which continueth many years that entrusted power by length of time grew as it were habitual in him and could never after be re-assumed and taken from him so that ever since his Edicts countervaile Acts of Parlement And that which made the businesse more feasable for the King was that the burthen fell most upon the Communalty the Clergy and Nobility not feeling the weight of it who were willing to see the Peasan pull'd down a little because not many years before in that notable Rebellion call'd la jaquerie de Beauvoisin which was suppressed by Charles the wise the Common people put themselves boldly in Arms against the Nobility and Gentry to lessen their power Adde hereunto as an advantage to the work that the next succeeding King Lewis the eleventh was a close cunning Prince and could well tell how to play his game and draw water to his own mill For amongst all the rest he was said to be the first that put the Kings of France Hors de page out of their minority or from being Pages any more though therby he brought the poor peasans to be worse than Lacquays and they may thank themselfs for it Neverthelesse as that King hath an advantage hereby one way to Monarchize more absolutely and never to want money but to ballast his purse when he will so ther is another mighty inconvenience ariseth to him and his whole Kingdom another way for this peeling of the Peasan hath so dejected him and cowed his native courage so much by the sense of poverty which brings along with it a narrownesse of 〈◊〉 that he is little usefull for the war which put 's the French King to make other Nations mercenary to him to fill up his Infantery Insomuch that the Kingdom of France may be not unfitly compared to a body that hath all it's bloud drawn up into the arms breast and back and scarce any leâ—…t from the girdle downwards to cherish and bear up the lower parts and keep them from starving All this seriously considered ther cannot be a more proper and pregnant example than this of our next Neighbours to prove how infinitly necessary
INQUISITION AFTER TRUTH WHo vindicats Truth doth a good office not onely to his own Country but to all Mankind It is the scope of this short discourse viz. to make som researches after Truth and to rectifie the world accordingly in point of opinion specially touching the first Author and Aggressor of the late ugly war in England which brought with it such an inundation of bloud and so did let in so huge a torrent of mischiefs to rush upon us Ther be many and they not only Presbyterians and Independents but Cavaliers also who think that the King had taken the guilt of all this bloud upon himself in regard of that Concession he passed in the preamble of the late Treaty at the Isle of Wight The aim of this Paper is to clear that point but in so temperat a way that I hope 't will give no cause of exception much lesse of offence to any the bloud that 's sought after here shall not be mingled with gaule much lesse with any venom at all We know ther is no Principle either in Divinity Law or Philosophy but may be wrested to a wrong sense ther is no truth so demonstrative and clear but may be subject to cavillations no Tenet so plain but perverse inferences may be drawn out of it such a fate befell that preambular Concession His Majesty passed at the Transactions of the late Treaty in that he acknowledg'd therin that the two Houses of Parlement were necessitated to undertake a war in their own just and lawful defence c. and that therfore all Oaths Declarations or other public Instruments against the Houses of Parlement or any for adhering to them c. be declared null suppressed and forbidden 'T is true His Majesty passed this grant but with this weighty consideration as it had reference to two ends First to smoothen and facilitate things thereby to open a passage and pave the way to a happy peace which this poor Iland did so thirst after having bin so long glutted with civil blood Secondly that it might conduce to the further security and the indemnifying of the two Houses of Parlement with all their instruments assistants and adherents and so rid them of all jealousies and fear of future dangers which still lodg'd within them Now touching the expressions and words of this Grant they were not his own nor did he give order for the dictating or penning thereof the King was not the Author of them but an Assentor only unto them nor was He or his Party accus'd or as much as mentioned in any of them to draw the least guilt upon themselves Besides He pass'd them as he doth all Lawes and Acts of Parlement which in case of absence another may do for him in his politic capacity therfore they cannot prejudice his person any way I am loth to say that he condescended to this Grant Cum strict a novacula supra When the razor was as it were at his throat when ther was an Army of about thirty thousand effectif Horse and Foot that were in motion against him when his Person had continued under a black long lingring restraint and dangerous menacing Petitions and Papers daily obâ—…ruded against him Moreover His Majesty pass'd this Concession with these two provisos and reservations First that it should be of no vertu or validity at all till the whole Treaty were intirely consummated Secondly that he might when he pleas'd inlarge and cleer the truth with the reservednesse of his meaning herein by public Declaration Now the Treaty being confusedly huddled up without discussing or as much as receiving any Proposition from himself as was capitulated and reciprocall proposalls are of the essence of all Treaties it could neither bind him or turne any way to his disadvantage Therfore under favour ther was too much hast us'd by the Parlement to draw that hipothetick or provisional Concession to the form of an Act so suddenly after in the very heat of the Treaty without His Majesties knowledg or the least intimation of his pleasure Add hereunto that this Grant was but a meer preambular Proposition 't was not of the essence of the Treaty it self And as the Philosophers and Schoolemen tell us there is no valid proof can be drawn out of Proemes Introductions or Corollaries in any science but out of the positive assertions and body of the Text which is only argument-proof so in the Constitutions and Laws of England as also in all accusations and charges forerunning prefaces preambles which commonly weak causes want most are not pleadable and though they use to be first in place like gentlemen-Ushers yet are they last in dignity as also in framing nor had they ever the force of Laws but may be term'd their attendants to make way for them Besides ther 's not a syllable in this preface which repeals or connives at any former Law of the Land therefore those Laws that so strictly inhibit English Subjects to raise armes against their Liege Lord the King and those Lawes è contrario which exempt from all dangers penalties or molestation any Subject that adheres to the person of the King in any cause or buarrell whatsoever are still in force Furthermore this introductory Concession of the Kings wherein he is contented to declare That the two Houses were necessitated to take Armes for their defence may be said to have relation to the necessity à parte pòst not à parte antè self-defence is the universall Law of Nature and it extends to all other cretures as well as to the Rationall As the fluent Roman Orator in that sentence of his which is accounted among the Critiques the excellentest that ever drop'd from Cicero Est enim haec non scripta sed nata Lex quam non didicimus accepimus legimus verum ex natura ipsa arripuimus hausimus expressimus ad quam non docti sed facti non instituti sed imbuti sumâ—…s ut si vita nostra in c. For this meaning self-defence is not a written but a Law born with us A Law which we have not learnt receiv'd or read but that which we have suck'd drawn forth and wrung out of the very brests of Nature her self A Law to which we are not taught but made unto wherwith we are not instructed but indued withall that if our lifes be in jeopardy c. we may repel force by force Therfore when the House of Parliament had drawn upon them a necessity of self defence And I could have wish'd it had bin against any other but their own Soverain Prince His Majesty was contented to acknowledge that necessity As for example A man of war meets with a Marchant man at Sea he makes towards him and assaults him The Marchant man having a good stout vessell under him and resolute generous Seamen bears up against him gives him a whole broad-side and shoots him 'twixt wind and water so there happens a furious fight betwixt them which being ended the
yet all this while there was not matter enough for an insurrection nor to dispose the peoples hearts to a mutiny until by the policy as some affiâ—…med of the said discontented party the English Lyturgie was sent thither this by the inâ—…itement of those fiery pulpiteers was cryed up to be the greatest I doll that possibly could be brought into their Kerke insomuch that when it was first offer'd to be read the woman and baâ—…er sort of mechaniks threw stooles and stones at the Bishops heads and were ready to tear them in peeces And here began the storm 〈◊〉 Majesty having notice hereof sent a most gracious proclamation signifying that whereas he had recommended that Book to be practis'd amongst them wherein he himself served God Almighty twice a day he did it out of a pious endeavour to breed an uniformity of publick Divine service in all his dominions specially in that his native Kingdom But since it had produced such dangerous effects he was contented to revoke it absolutely for it was never his purpose to press the practise of the said book upon the consciences of any he did onely commend not absolutely command the use of it Therefore he exhorted and required that every one unto whom it had given any scandal shold return to his pristine obedience and serve God as formerly offering herewith a gracious pardon and to passe an Act of Amnestia for an abolition of all faults passed Peregrin And would not this suffice In naturall motions we find that the cause being taken away the effect ceaseth and will not this hold in civil Actions Patricius No this wold not serve the turn but 〈◊〉 was a further reach in it and for an inch to take an ell you know the Scots since 〈◊〉 single Lion came to quarter with our three are much elevated in their spirits more respected emploied and trusted abroad they are heightned in their resolutions and aims and will questionless be daily more and more You have heard of a Mine that reach'd from our exchequer to Edenburgh And I beleeve you have not forgot Boccolinies balance that was shewed us in Italie wherein Lorenzo de Medici weighed all the states of Christendom and throwing in England amongst the rest you know how much he made her to weigh less by this addition The former Proclamation I say and Pardon would not suffice but they took opportunity to fish in those troubled waters and vent their spleen further by an utter extirpation of Episcopacy and by trampling the mitre under their feet hoping to have som of the birds plumes being pluckâ—… to feather their own nests And they brought their work about Good Lord what a deal of dirt was presently thrown into the Bishops faces by every Rurall pettie Clerk what infamous ballads were sung what a thick clowd of Epidemical hatred hung suddenly over them so far that a dog with black and white spots was called a Bishop amongst them up and down the streets The chiefest contrivers of this up-roare â—…inding their design to go on so well and perceiving the whole Country so eagerly bent against Bishops and what artifices and suggestions were us'd to render them so odious is incredible but finding withall his Majestie unwilling to alter the government his father of so fresh and famous memory had left him and to which he had bin sworn at his Coronation they put themselves in arms and rais'd forces to beat down the mitre with the sword if the scepter would not do it To the frontiers they came with a great Army not half so great as was bruted pretending they came as Petitioners though they brought their Petition upon the pikes point Some of the great ones about the King grew cold in the action And what a pacification was then shuffled up and how a Parliament was called thereupon in Scotland with other passages is a fitter subject for a story then a discourse Peregrin I could have wished two things that either His Majesty had given them battail then having the flower of his Nobility and Gentry with him who I understood came with all cheerfulnesse and pomptitude to attend him or else that after the said pacification His Majestie had shaken off all jealousies and with a royall freedom and a commanding confidence gone amongst them to hancell their new Parliament House at Edenburgh for it is probable it had averted those showers and cataracts of â—…miseries which have fallen â—…pon us since but I pray Sir proceed Patricius As they say there is no wind but blows some-body good so it was thought this Northern clowd did England some advantage for a Parliament was summond hereupon a Parliament do I call it it was rather an Embryo of a Parliament an Ephemeran of 20 days In this sitting His Majesty declared unto both Houses the indignities he had received by His Scotch Subjects and therefore propos'd a supply to be made of twelve subsidies to suppress that Rebellion and in lieu thereof he was willing to forbear and utterly to abolish the Ship-money which he had reason to think legall at first being advised thereunto by Noy his Attorney Generall who had such a mighty repute in the Law yet he would not rest ther but he advised further with his learned Councell who concurred in opinion with Noy Nor wold he rest ther also but he had the approbation of all the Iudges singly and afterwards of nine of the twelve jointly upon a demur This was enough to induce his conscience to hold it legall all this while It was clearly proved that the moneys levied this way were employed to no other but the intended service the garding of the narrow Seas and not onely for that but to preserve his right of Dominion in them being the fairest flower of his Crown which was not onely discoursed of abroad but began to be questioned by the French Cardinall And touching danger how could England be but in apparant dangers consideriâ—…g how all her next neighbours were in actuall hostility which made huge fleets of men of war both French Dunkerkers Hamburgers and Hollanders to sail and flaunt ever and anon in her Channells and hard before her royall Chambers nor came ther one penny of that publick contribution to his privat coffers but he added much of his own demeans for the maintenance of a royal fleet every sommer yet he was ready to passe any Bill for the utter abolishing of the said Ship-money and for redressing of aâ—…y other grievances provided they wold enable him to suppress this Scots Rebellion some say the House was inclinable to comply with his Majesties demands but as the ill spirit wold have it that Parliament was suddenly brok up and I wold they who gave that Counsel had bin then in Arabia or beyond the Line in their way to Madagascar who neverthelesse have got to be in high request with this present Parliament Among others old Sir Harry Vane was one who when the House seem'd willing to give six
Prince of Orenge Hereunto may be added as a speciall argument of compliance and grace the passing of the Bill for a Trienniall Parliament and lastly which is the greatest Evidence that possibly can be imagined of that reall trust and confidence he reposed in them he passed that prodigious Act of Continuance Peregrin Touching the Trienniall Parliament there may come some whole some fruit out of it will keep all Officers in awe and excite the Nobilitie and young Gentrie of the Kingdome to studie and understand the Government of the land and be able to sit and serve their countrey in this great Senate But for this Act of Continuance I understand it not Parliaments are good Physick but ill meat They say abroad that England is turned hereby from a Monarchy to a Democracy to a perpetual kind of Quingentumvirat and whereas in former times ther was a Heptarchy of seven Kings in her they say now she hath seventy times seven But in lieu of these unparallell'd Acts of grace and trust to the Parl. what did the Parliament for the King all this while Patricius They promised specially upon the passing of the last Act That they would make him the most glorious the best beloved and richest King that ever reigned in England and this they did with deep protestings and asseverations But there intervened an ill-favoured accident which did much hurt viz. A Discourse for truely I think it was no more but a discourse which some green heads held to bring up the Northern armie to check the Puritan partie and the rabble of the citie This kept a mightie noyse and you know who fled upon it and much use was made of it to make that cloud of jealousie which was but of the breadth of a hand before to appear as big as a mountaine Yet his Majestie continued still in passing Acts of grace and complying with them in every thing Hee put over unto them the Earle of Strafford who after a long costly triall wherein he carried himself with as much acutenesse dexteritie and eloquence as humane braine could be capable of for his defence hee was condemned to the Scaffold and so made a sacrifice to the Scot who stayed chiefly for his head which besides those vast summes of money was given him to boot Peregrin Touching the Earle of Strafford 't is tru he was full of ability elocution and confidence and understood the lawes of England as well as any yet there were two things I heard wherein his wisdom was questioned first that having a charge ready against his chiefest accusers yet he suffered them to have the priority of sute which if he had got he had thereby made them parties and so incapable to be produced against him Secondly that during the time of his tryall he applyed not himself with that compliance to his Iury as well as to his Iudges for he was observed to comply only with the Lords and not with the House of Commons Patricius Howsoever as some say his death was â—…esolved upon si non per viam justitiae saltem per viam expedientiae which appears in regard the proceedings against him are by a clause in the Act not to be produced for a leading case or example to future ages and inferiour Courts I blush to tell you how much the rabble of the City thirsted after his blood how they were suffered to strut up and down the streets before the royal Court and the Parliament it self with impunity They cried out that if the Common Law fail'd club law should knock him down and their insolency came to that height that the names of those Lords that would not doome him to death should be given them to fix upon posts up and downe And this was the first tumult that happened this Parliament whereof so many followed after their example being not onely conniv'd at but backed by authoritie for there were prohibitions sent from the Parliament to hinder all processe against some of them These Myrmidons as they termed themselves were ready at a watchword so that one might say there was a kind of discipline in disorder Peregrin Were ther any troubled for delivering their votes in the Houses I thought that freedom of opinion and speech were one of the prime priviledges of that great Nationall Senat. Patricius Yes Those that were the Minions of the House before became now the subjects of popular malice and detraction as the Lord Digby now Earl of Bristol for one because against the dictamen of their consciences they would not vote the Earl of Strafford to death and renounce their own judgments and captivate it to the sense of others yet they stood firm to their first grounds that he was a delinquent in a high nature and incapable ever to beare office in any of His Majesties dominions Peregrin I perceive Sir by your speeches that one of the chiefest causes of these combustions may be imputed to the Citie of London which may be called the Metropolis of all these evils and I little wonder at it for it hath been alwaies incident to all great Townes when they grow rich and populous to fall into acts of insolence and to spurne at government where so many pots so many braines I meane are a boyling ther must needs be a great deal of froth but let her look to her self for Majesty hath long arms and may reach her at last But the truth is that London bears no proportion with the size of this Island for either the one shold be larger or the other lesser London may be well compared to the liver of a cramm'd Italian goose whose fatning emacerates the rest of the whole body and makes it grow lean and languish and she may be well term'd a goose now more then ever for her feathers are pluck'd apace but now that you have done with the Earl of Strafford what is become of all the rest who were committed Patricius They are still in durance and have continued so these two years and upward yet are not proceeded against nor brought to their answer to this very day though all the Courts of Justice have bin open ever since Many hundreds more of the best sort of Subjects have bin suddenly clapt up and no cause at all mentioned in many of their commitments and new Prisons made of purpose for them where they may be said to be buried alive and so forgotten as if ther were no such men in the world wherof the Author was one And how this can stand with Magna Charta with the Petition of Right to vindicat which ther was so much pains taken the last Parliament let any man of a sane judgment determin Yet one of the Judges who hath an Impeachment oâ—… High Treason still lying Dormant against him though he be not Rectus in Curia himself is suffered to sit as Judge upon the highest tribunall of England whereas another for a pretended misdemeanour only is barr'd from sitting ther. Others who were at first
in the intervall Then after other choice portions of Scripture and passages relating to our Redemption and endearing unto us the merits of it with a more particular Confession of our Faith we are dismissed with a Benediction So that this Liturgy may be call'd an Instrument of many strings whereon the sighing soul sends up varions notes unto heaven It is a posie made up of divers flowers to make it the more fragrant in the nostrills of God Now touching your Bishops I never knew yet any Protestant Church but could be content to have them had they meanes to maintaine the Dignitie which the Churches of France with others have not in regerd the Reformation beg an first among the people not at Court as here it did in Engl. For unlesse ther be som Supervisers of Gods house endowed with eminent authority to check the fond fancies and quench the false fatuous fires of every private spirit and unlesse it be such an authority that may draw unto it a holy kind of awe and obedience what can be expected but confusion and Atheisme You know what became of the Israelites when the wonted reverence to the Ark and the Ephod and the Priest began to languish amongst them For the braine of man is like a garden which unlesse it be fenced about with a wall or hedge is subject you know to be annoyed by all kinde of beasts which will be ready to runne into it so the braine unlesse it be restrain'd and bounded in holy things by rules of Canonicall authoritie a thousand wild opinions and extravagant fancies will hourely rush into it nor was there ever any field so subject to produce Cockle and Darnell as the human brain is rank and ready to bring forth tares of Schism and Heresie of a thousand sorts unlesse after the first culture the sickle of Authority be applyed to grub up all such noisom weeds Patricius Yet this most antient dignity of Bishops is traduced and vilified by every shallow-pated petty Clerk and not so much out of a tru zeal as out of envy that they are not the like And touching our Liturgy wherof you have bin pleas'd to give so exact a Character people are come to that height of impiety that in som places it hath bin drown'd in other places burnt in som places torn in pieces to serve for the basest uses nay it hath bin preached publickly in Pulpits That it is a piece forg'd in the devils shop and yet the impious foul mouth'd Babbler never was so much as questioned for it Nor did the Church only eccho with these blasphemies but the Presse was as pregnant to produce every day som Monster either against Ecclesiasticall or Secular Government I am asham'd to tell you how som bold Pamphleters in a discourse of a sheet or two wold presume to question to dispute of and determin the extent of Monarchik jurisdiction what sturdy doubts what sawcy Quaeries they put what odd frivolous distinctions they fâ—…am'd That the King though he was Gods Anointed yet he was mans appointed That he had the commanding not the disposing power That he was set to rule over not to over-rule the people That he was King by human choice not by divine Charter That he was not King by the Grace of God so much as by the suffrage of the people That he was a Creaturâ—… and production of the Parliament That he had no implicit trust nor peculiar property in any thing That populus est potior Rege That Grex lege lex est Rege potentior That the King was singulis major universis minor wheras a successive Monarch Uno minor est Iove Sometimes they wold bring instances from the States of Holland sometimes from the Republick of Venice and apply them so impertinently to absolute and independant Royalty But I find that the discourse and inferences of these grand Statists were bottom'd upon four false foundations viz. That the King of whom they speak must be either a Minor and Idiot an insufferable Tyrant or that the Kingdom they mean is Elective None of all which is appliable either to our most gracious and excellently qualified King or to his renowned Kingdom which hath bin always reputed an ancient successive Monarchy govern'd by one Suprem undeposeable and independent head having the Dignity the Royall State and power of an Imperiall Crown and being responsible to none â—…ut to God Almighty and his own 〈◊〉 â—…or his actions and unto whom a Body â—…olitick compacted of Prelates 〈◊〉 and all degrees of people is naturally subject but this is a theam of that transcendenâ—…y that it requires a serious and solid Tractat rather then such a slender Discourse as this is to handle But I pray excuse me Sir that I have stept aside thus from the road of my main narration I told you before how the clashing 'twixt the Commission of Array and the Militia put all things in disarray throughout the whole Kingdom The Parliament as they had taken the first Military gard so they began to arm first and was it not high time then for His Majesty to do some thing think you yet he essayed by all ways imaginable to prevent a war and to conquer by a passive fortitude by cunctation and longanimity How many overtures for an accommodation did he make How many Proclamations of pardon How many elaborat Declarations breathing nothing but clemency sweetness and truth did drop from his own imperious invincible pen which will remain upon Record to all ages as so many Monuments to his eternall glory Yet som ill spirit stept still in between his Grace and the abused Subject for by the peremptory Order of Parliament O monstrous thing the said Proclamations of Grace and other His Majesties Declarations were prohibited to be read fearing that the strength and truth of them wold have had a vertue to unblind or rather unbewitcht for Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft the poor besotted people What deep Protestations and holy Vowes did he reiterate that the main of his designs was to preserve the tru Protestant Religion the known Lawes of the Land and the just priviledges of Parliament How often did he dehort and woo the City of London his imperiall Chamber from such violent courses so that she may be justly upbraided with the same words as the Prince of peace upbraided Ierusalem withall London London How often wold I have gathered thee as a â—…en doth her chickens under her wings yet thou wouldst not How often did he descend to acknowledg the manner of demanding the one and five Members in his publick Remonstrances and if ther was an errour in the proceedings how oft did he desire his Great Councell to direct him in a course how to go on in the Empeachment which they never did but wold reserve the priviledge to themselves to be judge and party Peregrin Can your Parliament protect high Treason I am sure the character of an Ambassadour cannot which the late French Ambassadour who
for his time play'd his Cards more cunning than ever Count Gondomar did knew well and therefore as I heard som French men say he got Letters of Revocation before his designed time but it seems strange to me that the King who is the Protectour of the Law and Fountain of Justice cannot have the benefit of the Law himself which the meanest of his vassals can claim by right of inheritance 'T is strange I say that the Law shold be a dead letter to him who is the Life of the Law but that for omission of some punctillio in the form of the Processe the charge of high Treason shold be so slightly wav'd specially Treason of so universall a concernment that it may be call'd a complication of many Treasons for if in every petty State it be High Treason to treat only with any Forrein Power without the privity of the Prince it must needs be Treason of a higher nature actually to bring them in And hereof I could alleadge you many pregnant instances ancient and modern but that I do not desire to interrupt you in your relation Patricius The Parliament as I told you before armed apace it was not fitting then His Majesty shold sit idle therfore he summons those Nobles and others who had an immediate relation unto him by Office or Service to attend him at York according to their particular obligation and oath But it seems the Parliament assumed power to dispence with those oaths and excuse their attendance which dispensation prevail'd with som tender consciences yet the Great Seal posted to Court and after it most of the Nobles of the Land with the flower of the Gentry and many of the prime Members of the Commons House so that were it not for the locall priviledge the Parliament for number of Members might be said to be ever since about the King These Nobles and Gentlemen resenting His Majesties case and what practices ther were on foot to alter the Government both of Church and State not only advised His Majesty to a royall war for defence of his Crown and Dignity but contributed very chearfully and have stood constant to the work ever since Peregrin They have good reason for it for the security of the Nobility and Gentry depends upon the strength of the Crown otherwise popular Government wold rush in like a torrent upon them But surely those Nobles and those Parliament Gentlemen and others som of whom I understand were reputed the wisest and best weigh'd men for experience and parts thorowout the whole Kingdom and were cryed up in other Parliaments to be the most zealous Patriots for the propriety and freedom of the Subject wold never have stuck so firmly to His Majesty had they not known the bottom of his designs that it was far from his thoughts to bring in the Pope or French Government for therby they shold have betrayed their own posterity and made their children slaves Patricius To my knowledge these Nobles and Gentlemen are still the very same as they were in former Parliaments wherin they were so cryed up for the truest lovers of their Country and best Common-wealths-men yet now they are branded and voted to be Seducers and Traytors because according to their oaths and consciences they adhere to the King their Master and Liege-Lord for maintenance of that Religion they were baptized and bred in Those most Orthodox and painfull Divines which till this Parliament began were accounted the precisest sort of Protestants are now cryed down for Papists though they continue still the very same men both for opinions and preaching and are no more Papists than I am a Pythagorean In fine a tru English Protestant is put now in the same scale with a Papist and made Synonyma's And truly these unhappy Schismaticks could not devise how to cast a greater infamy upon the English Protestant than they have done of late by these monstrous imputations they wold fasten upon him such opinions which never entred into his thoughts they wold know ones heart better than himself and so would be greater Kardiognosticks than God Almighty But to draw to a conclusion The Parliaments Army multiplyed apace in London the Kings but slowly in the North so that when he displayed his Royal Standard at Nottingham his Forces were not any thing considerable so that if the Parliaments Generall Essex had then advanced towards him from Northampton he had put him to a very great strait they encreased somthing at Derby and Stafford but when he was come to Shrewsbury the Welch-men came running down the mountains in such multitudes that their example did much animate the English so that his army in lesse than a month that the Court continued in Shrewsbury came to near upon twenty thousand Horse and Foot not long before the Nephew Princes came over and the first encounter Prince Rupert had with the Parliaments Forces was at Worcester where he defeated the flower of their Cavalry and gave them a smart blow At Shrewsbury His Majesty took a resolution to march with His whole Army towards London but after seven days march he understood the Parliaments Forces were within six miles side-long of him and so many miles he went out of His road to find them out and face them Upon Sunday morning he was himself betimes upon Edge-Hill wher the Enemies Colours plainly appear'd in vale before Keinton it was past two in the after-noon before all his Infantery could get to the bottom who upon sight of the Enemies Colours ran as merrily down the Hill as if they had gone to a Morris dance So His Majesty himself being Generalissimo gave command the great Ordnance shold flye for a defiance so the battell began which lasted above three hours and as some French and Dutch Commanders who were engag'd in the Fight told me they never remembred to have seen a more furious battail for the time in all the German wars Prince Rupert pursued the Enemies Horse like a whirl-wind near upon three miles and had ther bin day enough when he came back to the Infanterie in all probability a totall defeat had bin given them So that the same accident may be said to fall out here as happened in that famous battell at Lewis in Henry the thirds time where the Prince of Wales afterwards Edward the first was so eager and went so far by excesse of courage from the body of the Army in pursuance of the Londoners that it was the fatall cause of the losse of that mighty battail His Majesty to his deserved and never-dying glory comported himself like another Caesar all the while by riding about and encouraging the Souldiers by exposing his person often to the reach of a Musket-bullet and lying in the field all that bleak night in his Coach Notwithstanding that many lying Pamphlets were purposely printed here to make the world believe that he had retir'd himself all the time of the fight what partiall reports were made in the Guild-Hall to the
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
That the Churchman was the Lawyer is and the Souldier shall be I am afraid the English have seene their best dayes for I find a generall kind of infatuation a totall Eclipse of reason amongst most of them and commonly a generall infatuation precedes the perdition of a people like a fish that putrifieth first in the head Therefore I will trusse up my baggage and over again after I have enjoyed you some dayes and received your commands Patricius Dear Sir If you seriously resolve to crosse the Seas againe so soon I may chance beare you company for as you have since the short time of your sojourn here judiciously observed a national defection of reason in the people of this Island which makes her so active in drawing on her own ruine so by longer experience and by infallible Symptomes I find a strange kind of Vertigo to have seized upon her which I feare will turne to the falling sicknesse or such a frenzie that will make her to dash out her own braines Nor are her miseries I feare come yet to the full It is the method of the Almightie when he pleases to punish a people to begin with roddes to goe on with scourges and if they will not do he hath Scorpions for them Therefore I will breath any where sooner then here for what securitie or contentment can one receive in that Countrey where Religion and Iustice the two grand Dorique Columnes which support every State are fallen down which makes all conditions of men all professions and trades to go here daylie to utter ruine The Churchman grows every day more despicable as if he had no propertie in any thing nor is there any way left him to recover his Tithe but by costly troublesome sutes The Civilian a brave learned profession hath already made his last Will And the Common Lawyers case is little better The Courtier cannot get his Pension The Gentleman cannot recover his rents but either they are sequestred by a high hand of unexampled power or else the poor tenant is so heavily assess'd or plundred that he is disabled to pay them in All kind of Comerce both domestick and forrein visibly decayes and falls more and more into the hands of strangers to the no small dishonour of the wisedome of this Nation nor can the Tradesman recover his debts Parliamentary Protections continue still in such numbers so that it is a greater priviledge now to be a footman to the meanest of the Lower House then to be of the Kings Bed chamber Prentiâ—…es run away from their masters and against their fathers intent turn souldiers and for money which is the soul of trade I beleeve since the beginning of this Parliament above one half of the treasure of the Kingdome is either conveyed to'ther side of the Sea or buried under ground whence it must be new digg'd up againe Moreover all things are here grown Arbitrary yet that word took off the Earle of Straffords head Religion Law and Allegiance is growne Arbitrary nor dares the Iudge upon the Tribunall according to his oath do justice but he is over-awed by Ordinance or els the least intimation of the sense of the lower House is sufficient to enjoyne him the contrary so that now more then ever it may be said here Terras Astraea reliquit peace also hath rov'd up and downe this Island and cannot get a place to lay her head on she hoped to have had entertainment in York-shire by the agreement of the best Gentlemen in the Countrey but an Ordinance of Parliament beat her out of doores Then she thought to rest in Cheshire and by a solemne Covenant she was promis'd to be preserv'd ther the principal Agents of that Covenant having protested every one upon the word of a Gentleman and as they did desire to prosper both themselves their tenants and friends shold strictly observe it but the like Ordinance of Parliament battered down that Agreement Then she thought to take footing in the West and first in Dorcetshire then in Cornwall and Devonshire and by the holy tie of the blessed Sacrament she was promised to be preserved ther but another Ordinance of Parliament is pursuing her to dispense with the Commissioners of the said Agreement for their Oaths Lastly His Majesty is mainly endeavouring to bring her in again thorowout the whole Land but the furious phrentique Schismaticks will have none of her for as one of them besides a thousand instances more preach'd in one of the most populous Congregations about the City It were better that London streets ran with bloud and that dead carkasses were piled up as high as the battlements of Pauls than peace should be now brought in And now that Peace is shut out Learning is upon point of despair her Colledges are become Courts of Gard and Mars lieth in Mercuries bed Honour also with her Court lieth in the dust the Cobler may confront the Knight the Boor the Baron and ther is no judicial way of satisfaction which makes Monarchy fear she hath no long time of abode here Publick Faith also though she had but newly set up for her self is suddenly become Bankrupt and how could she choose for more of the Kingdoms treasure hath bin spent within these thirty moneths than was spent in four-score yeares before but she hopes to piece up her self again by the ruines of the Church but let her take heed of that for those goods have bin fatall to many thousand families in this Kingdom yet she thinks much that those publick summs which were given to suppresse one rebellion in Ireland shold be employed to maintain another rebellion in England And lastly methinks I see Religion in torn ragged weeds and with slubber'd eyes sitting upon Weeping-Crosse and wringing her hands to see her chiefest Temple Pauls Church where God Almighty was us'd to be serv'd constantly thrice a day and was the Rendezvouz and as it were the Mother Church standing open to receive all commers and strangers to be now shut up and made only a thorow-fare for Porters to see those scaffolds the expence of so many thousand pounds to lie rotting to see her chiefest lights like to be extinguished to see her famous learned Divines dragg'd to prison and utterly depriv'd of the benefit of the Common Law their inheritance Methinks I say I see Religion packing up and preparing to leave this Island quite crying out that this is Countrey fitter for Atheists than Christians to live in for God Almighty is here made the greatest Malignant in regard his House is plunder'd more than any Ther is no Court left to reform heresie no Court to punish any Church Officer and to make him attend his Cure not Court to punish Fornication Adultery or Incest Methinks I hear Her cry out against these her Grand Reformers or Refiners rather that they have put division 'twixt all degrees of persons They have put division 'twixt husband and wife 'twixt mother and child The son seeks his fathers
so that whilest they labour to mend her they marr her whilst they think to settle her they confound her whilst they plot to prevent the growth of Popery they pave the way to bring it in by conniving at and countenancing those monstrous Schismes which I observed to have crept into your Church since the reign of this Parliament so that one may justly say These your Reformers are but the executioners of the old project of the Jesuits the main part wherof was and is still to hurle the ball of discord and hatch new opinions still 'twixt the Protestants to make factions and scissures between them and so render their religion more despicable and ridiculous But methinks matters are come to a strange pass with you in England that the Iudges cannot be trusted with the Law nor the Prelats with the Gospell whereas from all times out of their long experience and years these two degrees of men were used to be reverenced for the chief Touch-men and unquestionable Expositors of both which another power seems now to arrogate to it self as the inerring Oracle of both but I pray God that these grand Refiners of Religion prove not Quack-salvers at last that these upstart Polititians prove not Impostors for I have heard of some things they have done that if Machiavell himself were alive he wold be reputed a Saint in comparison of them The Roman ten and Athenian thirty were Babies to these nay the Spanish Inquisition and the Bloet-Rade that Councell of bloud which the Duke of Alva erected in Flanders when he swore That he wold drown the Hollanders in their Butter-tubs was nothing to this when I consider the prodigious power they have assumed to themselves and do daily exercise over the bodies the estates and souls of men In your former Discourse you told me that amongst multitudes of other mischiefs whâ—…ch this new Faction hath wrought they have put division 'twixt all sorts and sexes 'twixt all conditious both of men and women one thing more I may say they have done in this kind for they have laboured to put division between the Persons of the holy Trinity by making the first Person to be offended at that voluntary genuflection and reverence which hath bin from all times practised in the Christian Church to the name of the second Person so that Iesu worship as I have read in some of your profane Pamphlets is grown now to be a word of reproach amongst you But to the point ther is one thing I can never cease to wonder at that whereas at the beginning of this Parliament ther were as able and experienced as stout and well spoken Gentlemen as any in the whole Kingdom that sate in the House and made the far major part I wonder I say that they wold suffer this giddy-headed Faction to carry all before them in that violent manner that they did not crush this Cocatrice in the shell Patricius First Sir you know ther is nothing so agreeable to the nature of man as novelty and in the conduct of humane affaires it is always seen that when any new design or faction is a foot the Projectors are commonly more pragmaticall and sedulous upon the work they lie centinell to watch all advantages the Sand of their brains is always running This hath caused this upstart Faction to stick still close together and continue marvellously constant to their ends they have bin used to tyre and out-fast to weary and out-watch the moderate and well-minded Gentlemen sometimes till after midnight by clancular and nocturnall sittings so that as His Majesty saies in one of his Declarations most of their Votes may be said to be nought else but Verdicts of a starv'd Iury. Another reason is That they countenanced the flocking together of the promiscuous rabble from London notwithstanding the two severall motions the Lords made unto them that they might be suppressed by Parliamentary Order This riotous crue awed the wonted freedom of speech in both Houses cryed up the names and confronted many of their Members yet these new Polititians not only conniv'd at them but call'd them their friends and so they might well enough or rather their Champions for they had ordered the matter so that they were sure to have them ready at their devotion at the heaving of a finger and from this tumultuous mongrell crue they derived their first encouragements to do such high prodigious insolencies they have committed since Adde hereunto that they complyed exceedingly besides with the Common Councell of the City they used to attend them early and late to knock heads together and if any new thing was to passe in the House they wold first wait on them to know their pleasure and afterwards it shold be propounded and put to Vote in the House And how derogatory it is to the high Law-making-councell to make their chiefest Members wait from time to time on the Magistrates of the City who in former times were used to attend them upon all occasions in Westminster I am ashamed to think on nor am I lesse ashamed to remember those base Artifices and indirect courses that were practis'd at the election of this pretended Major here they tack'd about to a second choice after the first was legally made and how the Common-Councell was pack'd up of the arrandest Schismaticks up and down the City And to that mutinous wealth-swoln City and the said unbridled pack of Oppidans seconded afterwards by the Countrey clownes who offered such outrages to Gods House the Kings house and the Parliament house may be ascribed all miseries and the miscarriage of things for they caused His Majesty to forsake his own standing palace to absent himself from his Parliament and make that unpleasing pâ—…ogresse up and down his Kingdom ever since which put all Counsells at a stand and to be involv'd in a confusion Peregrin But let me tell you that your Britannick Sun though he be now ore-set with these unlucky clouds engendred of the vapours of distempered brains and the rotten hearts of many of his own meniall servants who have proved like the Sons of Serviah unto him ingratefull monsters yet is he still in his own Orb and will when this foul weather 's passed and the aire cleared a little by thunder shine more gloriously and powerfully then before it being a maxime of State That Rebellion suppressed makes a Prince the stronger Now Rebellion durst never yet look a Prince long in the face for the Majesty of Gods anointed useth to dart such fulgent piercing beams that dazle the eyes of disloyalty and strikes her stark blind at last And truly as you say I am also clearly of opinion that these ingratefull Londoners as they were the comencers so have they been the continuers and contrivers of this ugly Rebellion ever since They seem to have utterly forgotten who hath given them the sword and by and from whom they hold their Charter Their Corporations are now grown body politicks so as
government of Church and state into what mold they pleased and ingrosse the chiefest offices to themselves And from these imaginary invisible dangers proceeded these visible calamities and grinding palpable pressures which hath accompanied this odious Warre ever since Peregrin Herein methinks your statists have shewne themselves politique enough but not so prudent honest for Prudence Policy though they often agree in the end yet they differ in election of the meanes to compasse their ends The one serves himself of truth strength of Reason integrity and gallantnesse in their proceedings the other of fictions fraudulence lies and other sinister meanes the work of the one is lasting and permanent the others worke moulders away and ends in infamy at last for fraud and frost alwaies end foule But how did they requite that most rare and high unexampled trust his Majesty reposed in them when he before passed that fatall Act of continuance a greater trust then ever English King put in Parliament How did they performe their solemn promise and deepe Protestations to make him the most glorious at home and abroad the richest and best belovedst King that ever raigned in that Island Patricius Herein I must confesse they held very ill correspondence with him for the more he trusted them the more diffident they grew of him and truly Sir herein white differs not so much from black as their actions have been disconsonant to their words Touching the first promise to make him glorious if to suffer a neighbouring Nation the Scot to demand and obtain what they pleased of him if to break capitulations of peace with a great forrein Prince the French King by the renvoy of the Capuchins and divers other Acts if to bring the dregs and riffraffe of the City to domineere before his Court-gate notwithstanding his Proclamations of repressing them if to confront him and seek his life by fire and sword in open field by open desiance and putting him upon a defensive war if to vote his Queen a Traytresse to shoot at her to way-lay her to destroy her if to hinder the reading of his Proclamations and the sleighting of his Declarations enclosed in Letters sign'd and seal'd with his own hand for fear they shold bring the people to their wits again if to call them fetters of gold divellish devises fraught with doctrines of division reall mistakes absurd suppositions though ther never dropt from Princes pen more full more rationall and strong sinewy expressions if to suffer every shallow-brain'd Scolist to preach every Pamphletter to print every rotten-hearted man or woman to prate what they please of him and his Queen if to sleight his often acknowledgment condissentions retractions pronunciations of Peace and proffers of Pardon if to endeavour to bring him to a kind of servile submission if to bar him of the attendance of his Domestiques to abuse and imprison his messengers to hang his servants for obeying his Commission if to prefer the safety and repute of five ordinary men before the honour of their King and being actually impeach'd of Treason to bring them in a kind of triumph to his House if for subjects to Article Treat and Capitulate with him if to tamper with his Conscience and make him forget the solemn sacramentall oath he took at his Coronation if to devest him of all regall rights to take from him the election of his servants and officers and bring him back to a kind of minority if this be to make a King glorious our King is made glorious enough Touching the second promise to make him the richest King that ever was if to denude him of his native rights to declare that he hath no property in any thing but by way of trust not so much property as an Elective King if to take away his customs of inheritance if to take from him his Exchequer and Mint if to thrust him out of his own Towns to suffer a lowsie Citizen to lie in his beds within his Royall Castle of Windsor when he himself would have come thither to lodg if to enforce him to a defensive war and cause him to engage his Jewells and Plate and so plunge him in a bottomlesse gulph of debt for his necessary defence if to anticipate his revenue royall and reduce him to such exigents that he hath scarce the subsistence of an ordinary Gentleman if this be to make a rich King then is our King made sufficiently rich Concerning their third promise to make him the best belovedst King that ever was if to cast all the aspersions that possibly could be devised upon his Government by publique elaborat remonstrances if to suffer and give Texts to the strongest lung'd Pulpiteers to poyson the hearts of his subjects to intoxicat their brains with fumes of forg'd jealousies to possesse them with an opinion that he is a Papist in his heart and consequently hath a design to introduce Popery if to sleight his words his promises his Asseverations Oaths and Protestations when he calls heaven and earth to witnesse when he desires no blessing otherwise to fall upon himself his wife and children with other pathetick deep-fetcht expressions that wold have made the meanest of those millions of Christians which are his vassals to be believed if to protect Delinquents and proclaim'd Traytors against him if to suscitate authorise and encourage all sorts of subjects to heave up their hands against him and levy armes to emancepate themselves from that naturall allegiance loyalty and subjection wherein they and their fore-fathers were ever tyed to his Royall Progenitors if to make them swear and damn themselves into a rebellion if this be to make a King beloved then this Parliament hath made King Charles the best beloved King that ever was in England Peregrin I cannot compare this Rebellion in England more properly then to that in this Kingdom in King Iohn's time which in our French Chronicle beares to this day the infamous name of Iaquerie de Beauvoisin The Peasans then out of a surfeit of plenty had grown up to that height of insolency that they confronted the Noblesse and Gentry they gathered in multitudes and put themselves in armes to suppresse or rather extinguish them and this popular tumult never ceased till Charles le Sage debell'd it and it made the Kings of France more puissant ever since for it much increased their Finances in regard that those extraordinary taxes which the people imposed upon themselves for the support of the war hath continued ever since a firm revenue to the Crown which makes me think of a facecious speech of the late Henry the Great to them of Orleans for wheras a new imposition was laid upon the Townsmen during the league by Monsieur de la Chastre who was a great stickler in those wars they petitioned Henry the fourth that he wold be pleased to take off that taxe the King asked them Who had laid that taxe upon them they said Monsieur de la Chastre during
Court at Bartholmew-Fair ther being all the essentiall parts of a true Parliament wanting in this as fairnesse of elections freedome of speech fulnesse of Members nor have they any head at all besides they have broken all the fundamental rules and Priviledges of Parliament and dishonoured that high Court more then any thing else They have ravish'd Magna Charta which they are sworn to maintain taken away our birth-right therby and transgressed all the laws of heaven and earth Lastly they have most perjuriously betrayed the trust the King reposed in them and no lesse the trust their Country reposed in them so that if reason and law were now in date by the breach of their Priviledges and by betraying the said double trust that is put in them they have dissolved themselves ipso facto I cannot tell how many thousand times notwithstanding that monstrous grant of the Kings that fatall act of continuance And truly my Lord I am not to this day satisfied of the legality though I am satisfied of the forciblenesse of that Act whether it was in his Majesties power to passe it or no for the law ever presupposeth these clauses in all concessions of Grace in all Patents Charters and Grants whatsoever the King passeth Salvo jure regio salvo jure coronae To conclude as I presume to give your Lordship these humble cautions and advice in particular so I offer it to all other of your rank office order and Relations who have souls to save and who by solemn indispensable Oaths have ingaged themseves to be tru and loyall to the Person of King Charls Touching his political capacity it is a fancy which hath bin exploded in all other Parliaments except in that mad infamous Parliament wher it was first hatched That which bears upon Record the name of Insanum Parliamentum to all posterity but many Acts have passed since that it shold be high and horrible Treason to separat or distinguish the Person of the King from His Power I believe as I said before this distinction will not serve their turn at the dreadful Bar of divine justice in the other world indeed that Rule of the Pagans makes for them Si Iusjurandum violandum est Tyrannis causâ violandum est If an Oath be any way violable 't is to get a Kingdom We find by woful experience that according to this maxime they have made themselves all Kings by violation of so many Oaths They have monopoliz'd the whole power and wealth of the Kingdom in their own hands they cut shuffle deal and turn up what trump they please being Judges and parties in every thing My Lord he who presents these humble advertisments to your Lordship is one who is inclin'd to the Parliament of Engl. in as high a degree of affection as possibly a free-born Subject can be One besides who wisheth your Lordships good with the preservation of your safety and honour more really then he whom you intrust with your secretest affaires or the White Iew of the Upper House who hath infused such pernicious principles into you moreover one who hath some drops of bloud running in his veins which may claim kindred with your Lordship and lastly he is one who would kiss your feet in lieu of your hands if your Lordship wold be so sensible of the most desperat case of your poor Country as to employ the interests the opinion and power you have to restore the King your Master by English waies rather then a hungry forrein people who are like to bring nothing but destruction in the van confusion in the rear and rapine in the middle shold have the honour of so glorious a work So humbly hoping your Lordship will not take with the left hand what I offer with the right I rest From the Prison of the Fleet 3. Septembris 1644. Your Lordships truly devoted Servant I. H. HIS Late MAJESTIES Royal DECLARATION OR MANIFESTO TO ALL FORREIN PRINCES AND STATES Touching his constancy in the Protestant Religion Being traduced abroad by some Malicious and lying Agents That He was wavering therin and upon the high road of returning to Rome Printed in the Year 1661. TO THE Unbiass'd REDER IT may be said that mischief in one particular hath somthing of Vertue in it which is That the Contrivers and Instruments thereof are still stirring and watchfull They are commonly more pragmaticall and fuller of Devices then those sober-minded men who while they go on still in the plaine road of Reason having the King and knowne Lawes to justifie and protect them hold themselfs secure enough and so think no hurt Iudas eyes were open to betray his Master while the rest of his fellow-servants were quietly asleep The Members at Westminster were men of the first gang for their Mischievous braines were alwayes at work how to compasse their ends And one of their prime policies in order thereunto was to cast asspersions on their King thereby to alienat the affections and fidelity of his peeple from him â—…notwithstanding that besides their pubâ—…ick Declarations they made new Oaths and protestations whereby they swore to make Him the best belov'd King that ever was Nor did this Diabolicall malice terminat only within the bounds of his own Dominions but it extended to infect other Princes and States of the Reformed Churches abroad to make Him suspected in his Religion that he was branling in his belief and upon the high way to Rome To which purpose they sent missives and clandestine Emissaries to divers places beyond the Seas whereof forren Authors make mention in their writings At that time when this was in the height of action the passage from London to Oxford where the King kept then his Court was so narrowly blockd up that a fly could scarce passe some Ladies of honor being search'd in an unseemly and barbarous manner whereupon the penner of the following Declaration finding his Royal master to be so grosly traduced made his Duty to go beyond all presumptions by causing the sayd Declaration to be printed and publish'd in Latin French and English whereof great numbers were sent beyond the seas to France Holland Germany Suisserland Denmark Swethland and to the English plantations abroad to vindicat his Majesty in this point which produc'd very happy and advantagious effects for Salmtisius and other forrin writers of great esteem speake of it in their printed works The Declaration was as followeth CAROLUS Singulari Omnipotentis Dei providentia Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Rex Fidei Defensor c. Universis et singulis qui praesens hoc scriptum ceu protestationem inspexerint potissimum Reformatae Religionis cultoribus cujuscunque sint gentis gradus aut conditionis salutem c. CUM ad aures nostras non ita pridem fama pervenerit sinistros quosdam rumores literasque politica vel perniciosa potiùs quorundam industriâ sparsas esse nonnullis protestantium ecclesiis in exteris partibus emissas nobis
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
Gentry and Servants and the enemy was hard by ready to face Him At the concluding of the Irish Cessation His Majesty was not there personally present but it was agitated and agreed on by his Commissioner and it hath been held alwaies less dishonourable for a King to capitulate in this kind with his own Subjects by his Deputy then in his own person for the further off he is the lesse reflects upon him 2. Upon the Pacification and Peace with Scotland there was an Amnestia a generall pardon and an abolition of all by-passed offences published there were honours and offices conferred upon the chiefest sticklers in the War At the Cessation in Ireland there was no such thing 3. When the Pacification and Peace was made with the Scots there was mony given unto Them as it is too well knowne But upon the setling of this Cessation the Irish received none but gave His Majesty a considerable summe as an argument of their submission and gratitude besides the maintainance of some of his Garrisons in the interim and so much partly in point of honour 4. At the concluding of the Pacification and Peace with Scotland there was a vigorous fresh unfoiled English Army a foot and in perfect equipage there wanted neither Ammunition Armes Money Cloaths Victuals or any thing that might put heart into the Souldier and elevat his spirits But the Protestant Army in Ireland had not any of all these in any competent proportion but were ready to perish though there had been no other enemy then hunger and cold And this implies a farre greater necessity for the said Cessation 5. In Ireland there was imminent danger of an instant losse of the whole Kingdome and consequently the utter subversion of the Protestant Religion there as was certified both to King and Parliament by sundry letters and petitions which stand upon record There was no such danger in the affairs of Scotland either in respect of Religion or Kingdome therefore there was more piety shown in preserving the one and prudence in preserving the other in Ireland by plucking both as it were out of the very jawes of destruction by the said Cessation We know that in the Medley of mundane casualties of two evils the least is to be chosen and a small inconvenience is to be born withall to prevent a greater If one make research into the French Story he will find that many kinds of Pacifications and Suspensions of Armes were covenanted 'twixt that King and som of his Subjects trenching far more upon regall dignity then this in Ireland The Spaniard was forced to declare the Hollanders Free-states before they could be brought to treat of a truce And now the Catalans scrue him up almost to as high conditions But what need I rove abroad so far It is well known nor is it out of the memory of man in Queen Elizabeths raign that in Ireland it self ther have bin Cessations all circumstances well weighed more prejudiciall to Majesty then this But that which I hear murmured at most as the effect of this Cessation is the transport of som of those Souldiers to England for recruting His Majesties Armies notwithstanding that the greatest number of them be perfect and rigid Protestants and were those whom our Parliament it self imployed against the Irish. But put case they were all Papists must His Majesty therfore be held a Favourer of Popery The late King of France might have bin said as well to have bin a Favourer of Hugonotts because in all his wars he imployed Them most of any in places of greatest trust against the House of Austria wheras all the World knows that he perfectly hated them in the generall and one of the reaches of policy he had was to spend and waste them in the wars Was it ever known but a Soveraign Prince might use the bodies and strength of his own naturall-born Subjects and Liege men for his own defence When His person hath been sought and aimed at in open field by small and great shot and all other Engines of hostility and violence When he is in danger to be surprized or besieg'd in that place wher he keeps his Court When all the flowers of his Crown his royal prerogatives which are descended upon him from so many successive progenitors are like to be plucked off and trampled under foot When ther is a visible plot to alter and overturn that Religion he was born baptized and bred in When he is in danâ—…er to be forced to infringe that solemn Sacramental Oath he took at his Coronation to maintain the said Religion with the Rights and Rites of the holy Anglican Church which som brain-sick Schismaticks wold transform to a Kirk and her Discipline to som chimerical form of government they know not what Francis the first and other Christian Princes made use of the Turk upon lesse occasions and if one may make use of a Horse or any other bruit animal or any inanimat Engine or Instrument for his own defence against man much more may man be used against man much more may one rational Creature be used against another though for destructive ends in a good cause specially when they are commanded by a Soveraign head which is the main thing that goes to justifie a war Now touching the Roman Catholicks whether English Welsh Irish or Scottish which repaire to his Majesties Armies either for service or security He looks not upon them â—…s Papists but as his Subjects not upon their Religion but their allegiance and in that â—…uality he entertains them Nor can the Paâ—…ist be denyed the Character of a good Subject all the while he conforms himself to the Lawes in generall and to those lawes also that are particularly enacted against him and so keeps himself within the bounds of his civil obedience As long as he continues so he may challenge protection from his Prince by way of right and if his Prince by som accident be not in case to protect him he is to give him leave to defend himself the best he can for the law of nature allowes every one to defend himself and ther is no positive law of man can annul the law of nature Now if the Subject may thus claim protection from his Prince it followeth the Prince by way of reciprocation may require assistance service and supplies from the Subject upon all publick occasions as to suppress at this time a new race of Recusants which have done more hurt then ever the old did and are like to prove more dangerous to his Crown and regal Authority then any foreign enemy But whosoever will truly observe the genius and trace the actions of this fatal Faction which now swayes with that boundless exorbitant arbitrary and Antinomian power will find that it is one of their prime pieces of policy to traduce and falsifie any thing that is not conducible to their own ends Yet what comes from them must be so magisterial it must be so unquestionably
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
happinesse and wanton kind of prosperity This City of London was grown to be the greatest Mart and mistress of trade of any in the world Insomuch as I have been certainly inform'd the King might have spent meerly upon His customes 4000 crowns a day Moreover she had a vast bank of money being made the scale of conveying the King of Spains treasure to Flanders Insomuch that in a few yeers she had above ten millions of his moneys brought hither which she might have remitted in specie or in marchandize and for which this King had five in the hundred for coynage Yet could he not get beforehand with the world having a sister with so many Nephews and neeces having a Queen with diverse children of His own at least 16 of the Blood-Royall to maintaine with divers profuse Courtiers besides which made Him more parsimonious then ordinary The Warres then growing more active 'twixt Spaine and France as also 'twixt Holland and Spaine both by Land and Sea and divers great Fleets of Men of War as well French who were growne powerfull that way as Dunkerkers Spaniards Hollanders and Hamburgers appearing daily in His narrow Seas and sayling close by His Chambers the world wondred this King had no greater strength at Sea in case that any of the foresaid Nations should doe him an affront as some of them had already done by denying to dash their Colours to his Ships Insomuch that in Holland and other places he was pasquill'd at and pourtrayed lying in his cradle lullaby'd and rock'd asleep by the Spaniard Hereupon being by advertisements from his Agents abroad and frequent advice of His Privie Councell at home made sensible of the danger and a kind of dishonour he was faln into and having intelligence that the French Cardinall began to question his title to the Dominion of the narrow Seas considering He employed no visible power to preserve it He began to consult of meanes to set forth a royall Fleet but in regard the Purse of the Crowne was lightly ballasted and that he had no mind to summon the three Estates because of some indignities he had received in former Parliaments by the Puritan party a race of people averse to all Kingly Government unlesse they may pare it as they please his then Atturney Generall Noy a great cryed-up-Lawyer put it in his Head to impose an old Tax called Ship-mony upon the Subject which the said Lawyer did warrant upon his life to be Legall for he could produce divers Records how many of his Progenitors had done the like The King not satisfied with his single opinion refer'd it to his learn'd Council they unanimously averred it to be agreeable to the Law of the Land yet this would not fully satisfie the King but He would have the Opinion of His twelve Judges and they also affirmed by their single vouches the said Tax to be warrantable Hereupon it was imposed and leavied but some refusing to pay it there was a suite commenc'd during which all the Judges were to re-deliver their opinions joyntly and the businesse being maturely debated and canvased in open Court divers months and all arguments produc'd pro con nine of the said twelve Judges concluded it legal Thereupon the King continued the imposition of the said Tax and never was mony imployed so much for the Honour and advantage of a Countrey for he sent out every Summer a royall fleet to scowre and secure the Seas he caused a Galeon to be built the greatest and gallantest that ever spread saile Nor did he purse up and dispose of one peny of this money to any other use but added much of his own Revenues yeerly thereunto So the world abroad cried up the King of England to be awake againe Trade did wonderfully encrease both Domestic and forrein in all the three Kingdomes Ireland was reduced to an absolute Settlement the Arrears of the Crown payed and a considerable Revenue came thence cleerly to the Exchequer of England every year the salaries of all Officers with the pay of the standing Army â—…here and all other Charges being defrayed by Ireland her self which was never done before Yet for all this height of pappinesse and the glorious fruites of the said Ship-money which was but a kind of petty insensible Tax a thing of nothing to what hath hapened since there were some foolish peeple in this Land which murmured at it and cryed nothing else but a Parliament a Parliament and they have had a Parliament since with a vengeance But before this occasion it was observed that the seeds of disobedience and a spirit of insurrection was a long time engendring in the hearts of som of this peace-pampred People which is conceived to proceed from their conversation and commerce with three sorts of men viz. the Scot the Hollander and the French Huguenot Now an advantage happened that much conduced to necessitate the convoking of a Parliament which was an ill-favoured traverse that fell out in Scotland For the King intending an Uniformity of Divine worship in all His three Kingdoms sent thither the Liturgy of this Church but it found cold and course entertainment ther for the whole Nation men women and children rise up a gainst them Here upon the King absolutely revoked it by Proclamation wherein He declared 't was never His purpose to press the practise therof upon the Consciences of any therfore commanded that all things shold be in statu quo prius but this wold not serve the turn the Scot took advantge hereby to destroy Hierarchy and pull down the Bishops to get their demeans To which purpose they came with an Army in open Field against their own Native King who not disgesting this indignity Mustred another English Army which being upon the confines of both Kingdoms a kind of Pacification was plaistred over for the present The King returning to London and consulting His second thoughts resented that insolency of the Scots more then formerly Hereupon He summons a Parliament and desires aid to Vindicat that Affront of the Scot. The Scot had strong Intelligence with the Puritan Faction in the English Parliament who seemed to abet his quarrel rather then to be sensible of any national dishonour received from him which caused that short-lived Parliament to dissolve in discontent and the King was forced to find other means to raise and support an Army by privat Loanes of His nobler sort of Subjects and Servants The Scot having punctual Advertisements of every thing that passed yea in the Kings Cabinet Councel was not idle all this while but rallies what was left of the former Army which by the Articles of Pacification a little before should have bin absolutely dismissed and boldly invades England which he durst never have done if he had not well known that this Puritan party which was now grown very powerful here and indeed had invited him to this expedition wold stand to him This forein Army being by the pernicious close machinations
ther never happen'd such strange shocks and revolutions The great Emperour of Ethiopia hath bin outed he and all his children by a petty companion The King of China a greater Emperour than he hath lost almost all that huge Monarchy by the incursion of the Tartar who broke ore the wall upon him The grand Turk hath bin strangled with 30. of his Concubines The Emperour of Muscovy hath bin content to beg his life of his own vassals and to see before his face divers of his chief Officers hack'd to pieces and their heads cut off and steep'd in strong water to make them burn more bright in the market place Besides the above mentioned this King hath also divers enemies more yet he bears up against them all indifferently well though with infinit expence of treasure and the Church specially our Society hath stuck close unto him in these his exigents whence may be inferr'd that let men repine as long as they will at the possessions of the Church they are the best anchors to a State in a storm and in time of need to preserve it from sinking besides acts of charity wold be quite lost among men did not the wealth of the Church keep life in them Hereupon drawing a huge pair of Beads from under his cloak he began to ask me of my Religion I told him I had a long journy to go so that I could not stay to wait on him longer so we parted and me thought I was very glad to be rid of him so well My soul then made another flight over an Assembly of hideous high hills Pyreneys and lighted under another Clime on a rich and copious Country France resembling the form of a Lozenge but me thought I never saw so many poor peeple in my life I encountred a Pesan and asked him what the reason was that ther shold be so much poverly in a Country wher ther was so much plenty Sir they keep the Commonalty poor in pure policy here for being a peeple as the world observes us to be that are more humerous than others and that love variety and change if we were suffered to be pamper'd with wealth we wold ever and anon rise up in tumults and so this Kingdom shold never be quiet but subject to intestine broils and so to the hazard of any invasion But ther was of late a devillish Cardinal whose humour being as sanguin as his habit and working upon the weaknes of his Master hath made us not only poor but stark beggars and we are like to continue so by an eternal war wherein he hath plung'd this poor Kingdom which war must be maintained with our very vital spirits but as dejected and indigent as we are yet upon the death of that ambitious Cardinal we had risen up against This who hath the Vogue now with whom he hath left his principles had not the fearful example of our next transmarin Western neighbours the English and the knowledg we have of a worse kind of slavery of those endles arbitrary taxes and horrid confusions they have fool'd themselfs lately into utterly deterr'd us though we have twenty times more reason to rise then ever they had yet our great City Paris hath shew'd her teeth and gnash'd them ill-favouredly of late but we find she hath drawn water only for her own Mill we fare little the better yet we hope it will conduce to peace which hath bin so long in agitation I cannot remember how I parted with that Peasan but in an instant I was landed upon a large Island and methought 't was the temperat'st Region I had bin in all the while England the heat of the Sun ther is as harmless as his light the evening sereneâ—… are as wholsom ther as the morning dew the Dog-daies as innocuous as any of the two Equinoxes As I rang'd to and fro that fair Island I spyed a huge City London whose length did far exceed her latitude but neâ—…ther for length or latitude did she seem to bear any politicall proportion with that Island she look'd methought like the Iesuits hat whom I had met withall before whose brimms were bigger then the crown or like a peticoat whose fringe was longer then the body As I did cast my eyes upwards methought I discern'd a strange inscription in the aire which hung just over the midst of that City written in such huge visible characters that any one might have read it which was this Woe be to the bloudy City Hereupon a reverend Bishop presented himself to my view his gray haires and grave aspect struck in me an extraordinary reverence of him so performing those complements which were fitting I asked him of the condition of the place he in a submiss sad tone with clouds of melancholy waving up and down his looks told me Sir this Island was reputed few years since to have bin in the completest condition of happiness of any part on earth insomuch that she was repin'd aâ—… for her prosperity and peace by all her neighbours who were plung'd in war round about her but now she is fallen into as deep a gulf of misery and servitude as she was in a height of felicity freedom before Touching the grounds of this change I cannot impute it to any other then to a surfet of happiness now there is no surfet so dangerous as that of happinesse Ther are such horrid divisions here that if they were a foot in hell they were able to destroy the Kingdom of Satan truly Sir ther are crep'd in more opinions among us about matters or Religion then the Pagans had of old of the Summum bonum which Varro saith were 300. the understandings of poor men were never so puzzled and distracted a great while there were two opposit powers King and Parlement who swayed here in a kind of equality that peeple knew not whom to obey many thousands complyed with both as the men of Calecut who adore God and the Devil Tantum Squantum as it is in the Indian language They adore the one for love the other for fear ther is a monstrous kind of wild liberty here that ever was upon earth That which was complained of as a stalking horse to draw on our miseries at first is now only in practice which is meer arbitrary rule for now both Law Religion and Allegiance are here arbitrary Touching the last 't is quite lost 't is permitted that any may prate preach or print what they will in derogation of their annointed King which word King was once a Monosyllable of som weight in this I le but 't is as little regarded now as the word Pope among som which was also a mighty Monosyllable once among us the rule of the Law is that the King can do no wrong ther is a contrary rule now crept in that the King can receive no wrong and truly Sir 't is a great judgement both upon Prince and peeple upon the one that the love of so many of his
a rough account of a rambling Noctivagation up and down the world I may boldly say that neither Sir Iohn Mandevile or Coryat himself travell'd more in so short a time whence you see what nimble Postillions the Animal Spirits are and with what incredible celerity the imagination can crosse the Line cut the Tropiques and pass to the other Hemisphere of the world which shews that humane souls have somthing in them of the Almighty that their faculties have a kind of ubiquitary freedom though the body be never so under restraint as the Authors is They erre as much who think all Dreams false As They who think Them alwayes tru In the prison of the Fleet 3. Idus Decembris 1645. I. H. A VINDICATION OF HIS MAJESTY Touching a Letter He writ to Rome from the Court of Spain in Answer to a Letter which Pope Gregory the 15th had sent Him upon passing the Dispensation for concluding the Match with the Iâ—…fanta Which Letter Mr. Pryn mention's in his Book call'd the Popish Royal Favorit wherby the World is apt to beleeve that His Majesty had Inclinations to Popeâ—…y Ther goe's also herewith A clearing of som Aspersions that the said Mr. Pryn cast's upon the Author hereof in the same Pamphlet viz. That he was a Malignant and no friend to Parlements WHERBY He takes occasion to speak somthing of the first Rise And also of the Duty as well as the Authority of Parlements To my worthily honor'd friend Sir W. S. Knight SIR I Have many thanks to give you for the Book you pleased to send me called the Popish Royal Favorite and according to your advice which I value in a high degree I did put pen to paper and somthing you may see I have done though in a poor pamphleting way to clear my self of those aspersions that seem to be cast upon His Majesty But truly Sir I was never so unfit for such a task all my Papers Manuscripts and Notes having bin long since seized upon and kept from me Adde hereunto that besides this long pressure and languishment of close restraint the sense wherof I find hath much stupified my spirits it pleased God to visit me lately with a dangerous fit of sickness a high burning fever with the new disease wherof my Body as well as my Mind is yet somwhat crazie so that take all afflictions together I may truly say I have passed the Ordeal the fiery Tryal But it hath pleased God to reprieve me to see better daies I hope for out of this fatal black Cloud which now ore-sets this poor Island I hope ther will break a glorious Sun-shine of peace and firm happinesse To effect which had I a Jury a grand-Jury of lives I wold sacrifice them all and triumph in the oblation So I most affectionately kiss your hands and rest Your faithfull though afflicted Servant From the Prison of the Fleet. I. H. The Pre-eminence and Duty OF PARLEMENT Sectio Prima I Am a Free-born Subject of the Realm of England wherby I claim as my native Inheritance an undoubted right propriety and portion in the Laws of the Land And this distinguisheth me from a slave I claim likewise protection from my Soverain Prince who as He is my Liege Lord is obliged to protect me and I being one of His Liege peeple am obliged to obey Him by way of Reciprocation I claim also an interest and common right in the High National Court of Parlement and in the power the priviledges and jurisdiction therof which I put in equal ballance with the Laws in regard it is the fountain whence they spring and this I hold also to be a principall part of my Birth-right which Great Councell I honour respect value and love in as high a degree as can be as being the Bulwark of our liberties the main boundary and bank which keeps us from slavery from the inundations of tyrannicall Rule and unbounded Will-government And I hold my self obliged in a tye of indispensable obedience to conform and submit my self to whatsoever shall be transacted concluded and constituted by its authority in Church or State with the Royal assent whether it be by making enlarging altering diminishing disanulling repealing or reviving of any Law Statute Act or Ordinance whatsoever either touching matters Ecclesiastical civil common capital criminall martial maritime municipall or any other of all which the transcendent and uncontrollable jurisdiction of that Court is capable to take cognizance Amongst the three things which the Athenian Captain thank'd the gods for one was That he was born a Grecian and not a Barbarian For such was the vanity of the Greeks and after them of the Romans in the flourish of their Monarchy to arrogat all civility to themselves and to terme all the world besides Barbarians so I may say to rejoyce that I was born a vassall to the Crown of England that I was born under so well-moulded and tempered a Government which endows the subject with such Liberties and infranchisements that bear up his naturall courage and keep him still in heart such Liberties that fence and secure him eternally from the gripes and tallons of Tyranny And all this may be imputed to the Authority and wisedome of this High Court of Parlement wherein there is such a rare co-ordination of power though the Soveraignty remain still entire and untransferrable in the person of the Prince there is such a wholsom mixture 'twixt Monarchy Optimacy and Democracy 'twixt Prince Peers and Commonalty during the time of consultation that of so many distinct parts by a rare co-operation and unanimity they make but one Body Politick like that sheaâ—…e of arrows in the Emblem one entire concentricall peece the King being still the Head and the results of their deliberations but as so many harmonious diapasons arising from different strings And what greater immunity and happinesse can there be to a Peeple than to be liable to no Laws but what they make themselves to be subject to no contribution assessement or any pecuniary erogations whatsoever but what they Vote and voluntarily yeeld unto themselves For in this compacted Politick Body there be all degrees of peeple represented both the Mechanick Tradesman Merchant and Yeoman have their inclusive Vote as well as the Gentry in the persons of their Trustees their Knights and Burgesses in passing of all things Nor is this Soveraign Surintendent Councell an Epitome of this Kingdom only but it may be said to have a representation of the whole Universe as I heard a fluent well-worded Knight deliver the last Parliameut who compared the beautifull composure of that High Court to the great work of God the World it self The King is as the Sun the Nobles the fixed Stars the Itineant judges and other Officers that go upon Messages 'twixt both Houses to the Planets the Clergy to the Element of fire the Commons to the solid Body of Earth and the rest of the Elements And to pursue this comparison a little
the Parlement is to assert to prop up and preserve the publick liberty and national rights of a peeple with the incolumity and well-fare of a Countrey Nor doth the Subject only reap benefit thus by Parlement but the Prince if it be well consider'd hath equal advantage therby It rendreth him a King of free and able men which is far more glorious than to be a King of Cowards Beggars and Bankrupts Men that by their freedom and competency of wealth are kept still in heart to do him service against any forrain force And it is a tru maxime in all States that 't is lesse danger and dishonour for the Prince to be poor than his people Rich Subjects can make their King rich when they please if he gain their hearts he will quickly get their purses Parlement encreaseth love and good intelligence 'twixt him and his peeple it acquaints him with the reality of things and with the tru state and diseases of his Kingdom it brings him to the knowledg of his better sort of Subjects and of their abilities which he may employ accordingly upon all occasions It provides for his Royal Issue pays his debts finds means to fill his Coffers and it is no ill observation That Parlementmoneys the great Aid have prospered best with the Kings of England It exceedingly raiseth his repute abroad and enableth him to keep his foes in fear his Subjects in awe his Neighbours and Confederates in security the three main things which go to aggrandize a Prince and render him glorious In summe it is the Parlement that supports and bears up the honour of his Crown and settles his Throne in safety which is the chief end of all their consultations For whosoever is entrusted to be a Member of this High Court carryeth with him a double capacity he sits ther as a Patriot and as a Subject as he is the one the Country is his object his duty being to vindicat the publick liberty to make wholsom Lawes to put his hand to the pump and stop the leaks of the great vessel of the State to pry into and punish corruption and oppression to improve and advance trade to have the grievances of the place he serves for redressed and cast about how to find somthing that may tend to the advantage of it But he must not forget that he sits ther also as a Subject and according to that capacity he must apply himself to do his Soveraignt businesse to provide not only for his publick but his personall wants to bear up the lustre and glory of his Court To consider what occasions of extraordinary expences he may have by encrease of Royal Issue or maintenance of any of them abroad To enable him to vindicat any affront or indignity that might be offered to his Person Crown or Dignity by any forrain State or Kingdom or intestin Rebellion To consult what may enlarge his honour contentment and pleasure And as the French Tacitus Comines hath â—…t the English Nation was used to be more â—…orward and zealous in this particular than â—…ny other according that to ancient eloquent speech of a great Lawyer Domus Regis vigiâ—…a defendit omnium otium illius labor omniâ—…m deliciae illius industria omnium vacatio â—…lius occupatio omnium salus illius periculum â—…nium honor illius objectum omnium Eveâ—… one shold stand Centinell to defend the Kings house his safety shold be the danger of 〈◊〉 his pleasures the industry of all his ease â—…old be the labour of all his honour the obâ—…ct of all Out of these premisses this conclusion â—…ay be easily deduced That the principall â—…ntain whence the King derives his happiness and safety is his Parlement It is that great Conduit-pipe which conveighes unto him his peoples bounty and gratitude The truest Looking-glasse wherin he discernes their loves now the Subjects love hath been always accounted the prime Cittadell of a Prince In his Parlement he appears as the Sun in the Meridian in the altitude of his glory in his highest State Royal as the Law tells us Therfore whosoever is averse or disaffected to his Soveraign Law-making Court cannot have his heart well planted within him he can be neither good Subject noâ—… good Patriot and therfore unworthy to breath English aire or have any benefit advantage or protection from the Laws Sectio Secunda BY that which hath bin spoken which is the language of my heart I hope no indifferent judicious Reader will doubt of the cordiall affection of the high respects and due reverence I bear to Parlement as being the wholsomest constitution and done by the highest and happiest reach of policy that ever was established in this Island to perpetuate the happinesse therof Therfore I must tell that Gentleman who was Author of a Book entituled the Popish Royal Favorite lately printed and exposed to the world that he offers me very hard measure nay he doth me apparent wrong to term me therin No friend to Parlement and a Malignant A character which as I deserve it not so I disdain it For the first part of his charge I wold have him know that I am as much a friend and as reall an affectionat humble servant and Votary to the Parlement as possibly he can be and will live and die with these affections about me And I could wish that he were Secretary of my thoughts a while or if I may take the boldnesse to apply that comparison his late Majesty used in a famous speech to one of his Parlements I could wish ther were a Chrystal window in my breast through which the world might espye the inward motions and palpitations of my heart then would he be certified of the sincerity of this protestation For the second part of his Charge to be a Malignant I must confesse to have som Malignity that lurks within me much against my will but it is no malignity of mind it is amongst the humors not in my intellectuals And I believe ther is no naturall man let him have his humors never so well ballanced but hath som of this Malignity reigning within him For as long as we are composed of the four Elements whence these humors are derived and with whom they symbolize in qualities which Elements the Philosophers hold to be in a restlesse contention amongst themselves and the Stoick thought that the world subsisted by this innated mutual strise as long I say as the four humors in imitation of their principles the Elements are in perpetual reluctancy and combate for praedominancy ther must be som malignity lodg'd within us as adusted choler and the like wherof I had late experience in a dangerous fit of sicknesse it pleased God to lay upon me which the Physitians told me proceeded from the malignant hypocondriacall effects of melancholy having bin so long in this Saturnine black condition of close imprisonment and buryed alive between the walls of this fatal Fleet These kinds of malignities I confesse are very
beams reverberate never so strongly and dwell never so long upon the myry lake of Maeotis the black turf'd moores of Holland the aguish woose of Kent and Essex or any other place be it never so dirty Though Spaine be a hot Countrey yet one may passe and repasse through the very Center of it and never be Sun-burnt if he carry with him a Bongrace and such a one His Majesty had Well after his Majesties arrivall to Madrid the treaty of Marriage went on still though he told them at his first comming that he came not thither like an Ambassador to treat of a Marriage but as a Prince to fetch home a Wife and in regard they were of different Religions it could not be done without a dispensation from the Pope and the Pope would grant none unlesse some Capitulations were stipulated in favour of the Romish Catholikes in England the same in substance were agreed on with France Well when the dispensation came which was negotiated solely by the King of Spains Ministers because His Majesty would have as little to do as might be with Rome Pope Gregory the fifteenth who died a little after sent His Majesty a Letter which was delivered by the Nuncio whereof an answer was sent a while after Which Letters were imprinted and exposed to the view of the world because His Majesty would not have people whisper that the businesse was carried in a clandestine manner And truly besides this I do not know of any Letter or Message or Complement that ever pass'd twixt His Majesty and the Pope afore or after some addresses peradventure might be made to the Cardinalls to whom the drawing of those matrimoniall dispatches was referred to quicken the work but this was only by way of civil negotiation Now touching that responsory Letter from His Majesty it was no other than a Complement in the severest interpretation and such formalities passe 'twixt the Crown of England the great Turke the Mogor and divers Heathen Princes The Pope writ first and no man can deny but by all morall rules and in common humane civility His Majesty was bound to answer it specially considering how punctual they are in those Countries to correspond in this kind how exact they are repaying visits with the performance of such Ceremonies And had this compliance bin omitted it might have made very ill impressions as the posture of things stood then for it had prejudiced the great work in hand I mean the Match which was then in the heat and height of agitation His Majesties person was ther engaged besides and so it was no time to give the least offence They that are never so little vers'd in businesse abroad do know that ther must be addresses compliances and formalities of this nature us'd in the carriage of matters of State as this great businesse was wheron the eyes of all Christendom were so greedily fix'd A businesse which was like to bring with it such an universal good as the restitution of the Palatinat the quenching of those hideous fires in Germany and the establishing of a peace throughout all the Christian World I hope none will take offence that in this particular which comes within the compasse of my knowledg being upon the Stage when his Scene was acted I do this right to the King my Master in displaying the Truth and putting her forth in her own colours a rare thing in these days TOuching the Vocall Forrest an Allegorical Discourse that goes abroad under my name a good while before the beginning of this Parlement which this Gentleman cites and that very faithfully I understand ther be som that mutter at certain passages therin by putting ill glosses upon the Text and taking with the left hand what I offer with the right Nor is it a wonder for trees which ly open and stand exposed to all weathers to be nipt But I desire this favour which in common justice I am sure in the Court of Chancery cannot be denyed me it being the priviledge of every Author and a received maxime through the World Cujus est condere ejus est interpretari I say I crave this favour to have leave to expound my own Text and I doubt not then but to rectifie any one in his opinion of me and that in lieu of the Plums which I give him from those Trees he will not throw the stones at me Moreover I desire those that are over criticall Censuâ—…ers of that peece to know that as in Divinity it is a rule Scriptur a parabolica non est argumentativa so it is in all other kind of knowledg Parables wherof that Discourse is composed though pressed never so hard prove nothing Theâ—… is another Rule also That Parables must be gently used like a Nurses breast which if you presse too hard you shall have bloud in stead of milk But as the Author of the Vocall Forrest thinks he hath done neither his Countrey nor the Common wealth of Learning any prejudice therby That maiden fancy having received so good entertainment and respect abroad as to be translated into divers Languages and to gain the publick approbation of som famous Universities So he makes this humble protest unto all the World that though the designe of that Discourse was partly Satyricall which peradventure induc'd the Author to shrowd it of purpose under the shadowes of trees and where should Satyres be but amongst Trees yet it never entred into his imagination to let fall from him the least thing that might give any offence to the High and Honourable Court of Parlement whereof he had the honour to be once a Member and hopes he may be thought worthy again And were he guilty of such an offence or piacle rather he thinks he shold never forgive himself though he were appointed his own Judge If ther occur any passages therin that may admit a hard construction let the Reader observe That the Author doth not positively assert or passe a judgement on any thing in that Discourse which consists principally of concise cursory narrations of the choisest Occurrences and Criticismes of State according as the pulse of time did beat then And matters of State as all other sublunary things are subject to alterations contingencies and change which makes the opinions and minds of men vary accordingly I will conclude with this modest request to that Gentleman of the long Robe That having unpassionately perus'd what I have written in this small Discourse in penning wherof my conscience guided my quill all along as well as my hand he wold please to be so charitable and just as to reverse that harsh sentence upon me To be no Friend to Parlements and a Malignant A GLANCE UPON THE I LE of WIGHT AND Upon the unparallell'd Concessions of GRACE HIS MAJESTY pass'd in that Trety c. Concluding with the horrid Murther committed afterwards upon His Sacred Person Cui dabit partes scelus expiant Iupiter A GLANCE UPON THE I LE of WIGHT OR AN
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
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
such as ev'ry one carrieth by his side or som imaginary thing or chymera of a sword No 't is the polemicall publique sword of the whole Kingdom 't is an aggregative compound sword and 't is moulded of bell-metall for 't is made up of all the ammunition and armes small and great of all the military strengths both by Land and Sea of all the Forts Castles and tenable places within and round about the whole I le The Kings of Engl. have had this sword by vertue of their royall signory from all times the Laws have girded it to their sides they have employed it for repeling all foren force for revenging all forren wrongs or affronts for quelling all intestine tumults and for protecting the weal of the whole body politicke at home The peeple were never capable of this sword the fundamentall constitutions of this Kingdom deny it them 't is all one to put the sword in a mad mans hand as in the peeples or for them to have a disposing power in whose hands it shall be Such was the case once of the French sword in that notorious insurrection call'd to this day La Iaqueris de Beauvoisin when the Pesants and Mechanicks had a design to wrest it out of the Kings hand and to depresse all the Peers and Gentry of the Kingdom and the businesse had gone so far that the peasans might have prevail'd had not the Prelats stuck close to the Nobility But afterwards poor hare brain'd things they desire the King upon bended knees to take it againe Such popular puffs have blowen often in Poland Naples and other places where while they sought and fought for liberty by retrenching the regall power they fool'd themselfs into a slavery unawares and found the rule right that excesse of freedom turns to thraldom and ushers in all confusions If one shold go back to the nonage of the world when Governers and Rulers began first one will find the peeple desir'd to live under Kings for their own advantage that they might be restrain'd from wild exorbitant liberty and kept in unity Now unity is as requisit for the wel-being of all naturall things as entity is for their being and 't is a receiv'd maxime in policy that nothing preserves Unity more exactly then Royal Government besides 't is known to be the noblest sort of sway In so much that by the Law of Nations if Subjects of equal degrees and under differing Princes shold meet the Subjects of a King shold take precedency of those under any Republique But to take up the Sword again I say that the Sword of public Power and Authority is fit only to hang at the Kings side and so indeed shold the Great Seal hang only at his girdle because 't is the Key of the Kingdom which makes me think of what I read of Charlemain how he had the imperial Seal emboss'd alwaies upon the pommell of his Sword and his reason was that he was ready to maintain whatsoever he signed and sealed The Civilians who are not in all points so great friends to Monarchy as the Common Law of England is say there are six Iura Regalia six Regal Rights viz. 1. Potestas Iudicatoria 2. Potestas vitae necis 3. Armamenta 4. Bona adespota 5. Census 6. Monetarum valor to wit Power of Iudicature Power of Life and Death all kind of arming masterless goods Sâ—…issements and the value of money Among these Regalia's we find that Arming which in effect is nought else but the Kings Sword is among the chiefest and 't is as proper and peculiar to his person as either Crown or Scepter By these two he drawes a loose voluntary love and opinion only from his Subjects but by the Sword he draws reverence and awe which are the chiefest ingredients of allegiance it being a maxime That the best mixture of Government is made of fear and love With this Sword he conferrs honor he dubbs Knights he creates Magistrates the Lord Deputy of Ireland the Lord Mayor of London with all other Corporations have their Swords from him and when he entereth any place corporate we know the first thing that is presented him is the Sword With this Sword he shields and preserves all his people that every one may sit quietly under his own Vine sleep securely in his own House and enjoy sweetly the fruits of his labours Nor doth the point of this Sword reach only to every corner of his own dominions but it extends beyond the seas to gard his Subjects from oppression and denial of justice as well as to vindicate the publick wrongs make good the interests of his Crown and to assist his confederates This is the Sword that Edward the third tied the Flower deluces unto which stick still unto it when having sent to France to demand that Crown by maternal right the Counsell ther sent him word that the Crown of France was not tied to a distaff to which scoffing answer he replied that then he wold tie it to his sword and he was as good as his word Nor is this publick sword concredited or intrusted by the peeple in a fiduciary conditionall way to the King but it is properly and peculiarly belonging unto him as an inseparable concomitant perpetual Usher and attendant to his Crown The King we know useth to maintain all garrisons upon his own charge not the peeples he fortifies upon his own charge not the peeples And though I will not averr that the King may impresse any of his Subjects unlesse it be upon an actuall vasion by Sea or a sudden irruption into his Kingdom by Land as the Scots have often done yet at any time the King may raise Volunteers and those who have received his money the Law makes it felony if they forsake his service Thus we see there 's nothing that conduceth more to the glory and indeed the very essence of a King then the Sword which is the Armes and Military strength of his Kingdom wherfore under favour ther cannot be a greater point of dishonour to a King then to be disarmed then to have his Sword taken from him or dispos'd of and intrusted to any but those whom he shall appoint for as à minori ad majus the Argument often holds if a private Gentleman chance to be disarm'd upon a quarrell 't is held the utmost of disgraces much greater and more public is the dishonor that falls upon a King if after som traverses of difference 'twixt him and his Subjects they shold offer to disarm him or demand his Sword of him when the Eagle parted with his talons and the Lion with his teeth and ongles the Apolog tells us how contemptible afterwards the one grew to be among Birds the other among Birds the other among Beasts For a King to part with the Sword politic is to render himself such a ridiculous King as that logg of wood was which Iupiter let down among the froggs for their King at the importunity of