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
Cordiall a Protestant as any that breathes under his three Crowns which besides his publick deep Protestations and his constant quotidian exemplary open practise many other convincing private reasons induce me to believe and it is in vain to think the Pope can take footing here to any purpose without the Kings leave You know as well as I Sir that of all the Reformed Churches in Christendom the Lutheran retains most of the Roman both in his positions and practise and comes much nearer to him then we do yet I have observed that from the first day of his Reformation to this He is as averse and as far off from Rome as the rigidest Calvinist that is And shall I think because ther are som humble and hansom postures and decent vestures revived in our Church for they were never abolished because the Communion table stands in the East end where it ever stood since Christianity came in all our Cathedralls which shold be a rule to all inferiour Churches though the Seperatist cries it up most falsly to be an Innovation because the Queen hath a few simple Capuchins fewer then was allowed by the Matrimoniall Capitulations whither to retire sometimes Because Schismaticks were proceeded against with more care and the Government of the Church born up â—…ately with more countenance shall I beâ—…ieve out of all this that the Pope must preâ—…ently come in shall I believe the weakness â—…f our Religion to be such as to be so easily â—…aken and overturn'd Yet I believe ther was a pernicious plot to introduce a new Religion but what I pray not Popery but Presbitry and with it to bring in the doctrine of Buchanan and Knox for civill government and so to cast our Church and State into a Scots mould Peregrin Indeed I heard the English much derided abroad for resigning their intellectualls in point of Religion to the Scots whom from Infidels they made Christians and Reformed Christians first and now for the English to run to them for a Religion and that the Uniformity reformation shold proceed from them having disdain'd us formerly what a disparagement is it thinke you to the Anglican Church This with other odd traverses as the eclipsing the glory of the King and bringing him back to a kind of minoritie the tampering with his conscience I will not say the straining it so farre the depriving him of all kind of propertie the depressing of his Regall power wherein the honour of a nation consists and which the English were us'd to uphold more then any other for no King hath more awful attributs from his subjects as Sacred Sovereigne gracious and most Excellent Majestie nor any King so often prayed for for in your morning Liturgie he is five times prayed for whereas other Princes are mentioned but once or twice at most in their's I say that this with interception of letters some incivilities offered Ambassadors and the bold lavish speeches that were spoken of the greatest Queenes in Christendome and his Majesties late withdrawing his Royall protection from some of his Merchant-Subjects in other countreys hath made the English lose much ground in point of esteeme abroad and to be the discourse I will not say the scorne of other people They stick not to say that there is now a worse maladie fallen upon their minds then fell upon their bodies about an age since by the Sweating sicknesse which was peculiar onely unto them and found them out under all Climes Others say there is a pure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst them that they are turn'd to Wolves as you know it is a common thing in Lâ—…pland that the old Adage is verified in them Homo homini lupus Nay our next neighbours give out that the saying was never truer then now Rex Anglorum Rex Diabolorum Nor is it a small disrepute to the English that the word Cavalier which is an attribute that no Prince in Christendome will disdain and is the common Appellation of the Nobilitie and Gentrie in most parts of the world is now us'd not onely in Libels and frivolous Pamphlets but in publicke Parliamentarie Declarations for a terme of reproach But truely Sir what you have related touching the Pulpit and the Presse transformes me into wonder and I should want faith to beleeve it did you not speak it upon your knowledge but the English when they fall to worke upon a new humour use to overdoe all people Patricius You have not yet the tithe of what I could give you you would little think that Coachmen and Feltmakers and Weavers were permitted to preach up and down without controulment and to vent their froth and venome against Church and State to cry downe our Hierarchy and Liturgie by most base and reviling speeches Peregrin Touching your Lyturgie I have heard it censur'd abroad by the regidest Calvinists of Generva and Dort yet I never heard any other Character given of it but that it is a most Pious Pathetick and perfect peece of devotion both for the matter and forme of it which I have been a little curious to observe It begins with some choise passages of holy Scripture and a previous Declaration or Monitory to excite us to the worke in hand The first addresse wee make to God is by an humble and joynt Confession which is appliable to any conscience and comprehends in it all kind of sins Then followeth a pronuntiation of Gods promises and pronesse to pardon and absolve us We goe on to the Lords Prayer which having bin dictated by our Saviour himself we often use and is as Amber throwne in amongst our Frankincense to make the Sacrifice more precious and pleasing unto God Then we proceed to som choice Psalms and other portions of holy scripture taken out of the old and new testament Then we fall to the Symbole of faith whereof we make a solemn joynt confession in such a posture as shews a readinesse and resolution in us to defend it and so to the Letany wherein the poor penitent peccant soul may be said to breath out herself into the bosome of her Saviour by tender ejaculations by panting groans eviscerated ingeminations and there is no sin no temptation whatsoever that humane frailty is subject unto but you shall find a deliverance from it there it is so full of Christian charity that there is no condition of people but are remembred and prayed for there Then wee proceed by holy alternatif interlocutions whereby wee heare our selves speak as well as the Minister to some effectuall short prayers because in long prayers the minde is subject to wander as some Zelots now a dayes use to bring their Hearers into a Wildernesse by their Prayers and into a Labyrinth by their Sermons Then goe we on to the Decalogue and if it be in a Cathedrall there is time enough for the Hearer to examine himselfe while the Musick playes where and when he broke any of Gods holy Commandements and ask particular forgivenesse accordingly
Divers Historicall DISCOURSES Of the late Popular INSURRECTIONS In Great BRITAIN And IRELAND Tending all to the asserting of Truth in Vindication of their MAJESTIES By Iames Howell Esquire Som of which Discourses were strangled in the Presse by the Power which Then SWAYED But now are newly retreev'd collected and Publish'd by Richard Royston The first TOME LONDON Printed by I. Grismond 1661. Belua multorum capitâ—…m Plebs vana vocatur Plus satis Hoc Angli â—…uper docuere Popelli 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I H The People is a Beast which Heads hath many England of late hath shew'd This more then any TO HIS MAJESTY SIR THese Historical Discourses set forth in such variety of dresses having given so much satisfaction to the world for the asserting of Truth in Vindication of Your Royal Father of ever blessed Memory and som of them relating also to Your Majesty I humbly conceiv'd might be proper for Your Majesties perusal Patronage Concerning the Author therof his name needed not to have bin prefix'd He being so universally well known and distinguishd from other Writers both at home and abroad by his stile which made one of the Highest Wits of these Times say of Him Author hic ex Genio notus ut Ungue Leo. God Almighty blesse Your Majesty with a continuance of Happiness and daily encrease of Glory so prayeth Your Majesties most loyal and humble Subject ROYSTON A Catalog of the severall Peeces that are here contain'd I. A Dialog twixt Patricius and Peregrin presently after Kintonfield Battaile which was the first Book that came forth for Vindication of His Majesty II. The second part of that Discours III. A seasonable Advice sent to Philip late Earl of Pembrock to mind him of the severall solemn Oaths wherby he was bound to adhere to the King IV. A Manifesto sent in His Majesties name to the Reformed Churches and Princes beyond the Seas touching His Religion V. Apologs and Emblemes in whose Moralls the Times are represented VI. Of the land of Ire or a Discours of that horrid Insurrection in Ireland discovering the tru Causes therof VII The Sway of the Sword or a Disurs of the Common Militia or Soldiery of the Land proving That the Command therof in chief belongs to the Ruling Prince VIII An Italian Prospective through which England may discern the desperat condition she stands in IX A Nocturnall Progresse or perambulation of most Countries in Christendom X. A Vindication of His Majesty touching a Letter He writ to Rome from Madrid in Answer to a Letter which Pope Gregory the 15th had sent Him upon passing the Dispensation for concluding the Match XI Of the Trety of the I le of Wight and the Death of His Majesty XII Advise from the prime Statesmen of Florence how England shold come to Her self again which can be by no other means under Heaven but by calling in the King and that in a free confident way without Articles but what He shall be pleas'd to offer Himself THE TRU Informer WHO DISCOVERS To the World the first grounds Of this ugly REBELLION And Popular TUMULTS In England Scotland and Ireland Deducing the Causes therof in an Historicall Discours from their Originall Neutrum modò Mas modò Vulgus Written in the Prison of the Fleet Anno 1642. CASUALL DISCOURSES AND Interlocutions BETWIXT Patricius and Peregrin Touching the Distractions of the Times VVith the Causes of them Patricius SUrely I shold know full well that face and phisnomy O Heavens 't is Peregrin Gentle Sir you are well met and welcom to England I am heartily glad of your safe arrivall hoping now to apprehend some happie opportunity whereby I may requite part of those worthy favours I received from you in divers places t'other side side of the Sea Peregrin Sir I am as joyfull to see you as any friend I have upon earth but touching favours they deserve not such an acknowledgment I must confesse my self to be farr in the arrear therfore you teach me what I shold speak to you in that point But amongst other offices of Friendship you have bin pleased to do me from time to time I give you many thanks for the faithfull correspondence you have held withme since the time of our separation by intercours of Letters the best sort of fuell to warm affection and to keep life in that noble vertue Friendship which they say abroad is in danger to perish under this cold Insulary clime for want of practise Patricius Truely Sir you shold have had an account of matters hence more amply and frequently but that of late it hath bin usuall and allowed by authority to intercept and break open any Letters but private men need not complain so much since the dispatches of Ambassadors whose Pâ—…ckets shold be held as sacred as their Persons hâ—…ve bin commonly open'd besides some outrages offered their houses and servants nay since their Majâ—…sties Letters under the Cabinet Signet have bin broke up and other counterfeit ones printed and published in their names Peregrin Indeed I must confesse the report hereof hath kept a great noise abroad and England hath suffered much in point of national repute in this particular for even among Barbarians it is held a kind of sacriledge to open Letters nay it is held a baser kind of burglary then to break into a House Chamber or Closet for that is a plundering of outward things onely but he who breaks open ones Letters which are the Idea's of the mind may be said to rip up his brest to plunder and rifle his very brain and rob him of his most pretious and secretest thoughts Patricius Well let us leave this distastfull subject when these fatall commotions cease this custom I hope will be abhorred in England But now that you are newly arrived and so happily met I pray be pleased tâ—… make me partaker of some forraign news and how the squares go betwixt France and Spain those two great wheels that draw after their motion some more some lesse all the rest of the Western world and when you have done I will give you account of the state of things in England Peregrin I thought you had so abounded with domestick news that you had had no list or leisure to hear any forrain but to obey your commands you know that I have been any time these six years a Land-loper up and down the world and truly I could not set foot on any Chrâ—…stian shore that was in a perfect condition of peace but it was engagâ—…d either in a direct 〈◊〉 or collaterall war or standing upon it's guard in continuall apprensions and alarmes of fear For since that last flaming Usher of Gods vengeance that direful Comet of the yeer 1618. appear'd in the heavens some malevolent and angâ—…y ill-aspected star hath had the predominance ever since and by it's maligne influxes made strange unusuall impressions upon the humors of subjects by inciâ—…ing them to such insurrections revolts and tumults which caused a
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
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
esse animum consilium ab illa Orthodoxa Religione quam ab incunabulis imbibimus ad hoc usque momentum per integrum vitae nostrae curriculum amplexi sumus recedendi Papismum in haec Regna iterum introducendi Quae conjectura ceu nefanda potius calumnia nullo prorsus nixa vel imaginabili fundamento horrendos hosce tumultus rabiem plusquà m belluinam in Anglia suscitavit sub pretextu cujusdam chimericae Reformationis regimini legibusque hujus Dominii non solum incongruae sed incompatibilis VOLUMUS uttoti Christiano Orbi innotescat ne minimam quidem animum nostrum incidisse cogitatiunculam hoc aggrediendi aut transversum unguem ab illa Religione discedendi quam cum corona septroque hujus regni solenni sacramentali juramento tenemur profiteri protegere propugnare Nectantum constantissima nostra praxis quotidiana in exercitiis praefaâ—…ae Religionis praesentia cum crebris in facie nostrorum agminum asseverationibus publicisque procerum hujus Regni testimoniis sedula in regiam nostram sobolem educando circumspectione omissis plurimis aliis argumentis luculentissimè hoc demonstrat sed etiam faelicissimum illud matrimonium quod inter nostram primogenitam illustrissimum principem 〈◊〉 sponte contraximus idem fortissimè attestatur Quo nuptiali faedere insuper constat nobis non esse propositum illam profiteri solummodo sed expandere corroborare quantum in nobis situm est Hanc sacrosanctam Anglicanae Christi Ecclesiae Religionem tot Theologorum convocationibus sancitam tot comitiorum edictis confirmatam tot Regiis Diplomatibus stabilitam una cum regimine Ecclesiastico Liturgia ei annexa quam liturgiam regimenque celebriores protestantium Authores tam Germani quam Galli tam Dani quam Helvetici tam Batavi quam Bohemi multis elogiis nec sine quadam invidia in suis publicis scripâ—…is comprobanâ—… applaudunt ut in transactionibus Dordrechtanae Synodus cui nonnulli nostrorum praesulum quorum Dignitati debiâ—…a prestita fuit reverentia interfuerunt apparet Istam inquimus Religionem quam Regius noster pater beatissimae memoriae in illa celeberrima fidei suae Confessione omnibus Christianis principibus ut haec praesens nostra protestatio exhibita publicè asserit Istam istam Religionem solenniter protestamur Nos integram sartam-tectam inviolabilem conservaturos pro virili nostro divino adjuvante Numine usque ad extremam vitae nostrae periodum protecturos omnibus nostris Ecclesiasticis pro muneris nostri supradicti sacrosancti juramenti ratione doceri praedicari curaturos Quapropter injungimus in mandatis damus Omnibus ministris nostris in exteris partibus tam Legatis quam Residentibus Agentibusque nunciis reliquisque nostris subditis ubicunque Orbis Christiani terrarum aut curiositatis aut comercii gracia degentibus hanc solennem sinceram nostram protestationem quandocunque sese obtulerit loci temporis oportunitas communicare asserere asseverare Dat. in Academia et Civitate nostra Oxoniensi pridie Idus Maii 1644. CHARLES by the special Providence of Almighty God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defendor of the Faith c. To all who profess the tru Reformed Protestant Religion of what Nation degree and condition soever they be to whom this present Declaration shall come Greeting WHeras We are given to understand that many false rumors and scandalous letters are spread up and down amongst the Reformeâ—… Churches in forein parts by the Pollitick or rather the pernitious industry of som ill-affected persons that we have an inclination to recede from that Orthodox Religion which we were born baptized and bred in which We have firmly professed and practised throughout the whol course of our life to this moment and that We intend to give way to the introduction and publick exercise of Popery again in Our Dominions Which conjecture or rather most detestable calumny being grounded upon no imaginable foundation hath raised these horrid tumults and more then barbarous wars throughout this flourishing Island under pretext of a kind of Reformation which wold not only prove incongruous but incompatible with the fundamental Laws and Government of this Kingdom We do desire that the whol Christian world shold take notice and rest assured that We never entertained in Our imagination the least thought to attempt such a thing or to depart a jot from that holy Religion which when We received the Crown and Scepter of this Kingdom VVe took a most solemn Sacramental Oath to profess and protect Nor doth Our most constant practise and quotidian visible presence in the exercise of this sole Religion with so many Asseverations in the head of Our Armies and the publick attestation of Our Barons with the circumspection used in the education of our Royall Off-spring besides divers other undeniable Arguments only demonstrate this But also that happy Alliance of Marriage VVe contracted 'twixt Our eldest Daughter and the Illustrious Prince of Orenge most clearly confirmes the reality of Our intentions herein by which Nuptial ingagement it appears further that Our endeavours are not only to make a bare profession thereof in Our own Dominions but to inlarge and corroborate it abroad as much as lieth in Our Power This most holy Religion of the Anglican Church ordained by so many Convocations of learned Divines confirmed by so many Acts of National Parliaments and strengthned by so many Royal Proclamations together with the Ecclesiastick discipline and Liturgy therunto appertaining which Liturgy and discipline the most eminent of Protestant Authors as well Germans as French as well Danes as Swedes and Swittzens as well Belgians as Bohemians do with many Elogies and not without a kind of Envy approve and applaud in their publick Writings particularly in the transactions of the Synod of Dort wherin besides other of Our Divines who afterwards were Prelates one of our Bishops assisted to whose dignity all due respects and precedency was given This Religion We say which Our Royal Father of blessed memory doth publickly assert in His famous Confession addres'd as we also do this our Protestation to all Christian Princes This this most holy Religion with the Hierarchy and Liturgy therof We solemnly protest that by the help of Almighty God we will endeavour to Our utmost power and last period of our life to keep entire and inviolable and will be careful according to Our duty to Heaven and the tenor of the aforesaid most sacred Oath at Our Coronation that all Our Ecclesiasticks in their several degrees and incumbences shall preach and practise the same VVherfore VVe enjoyn and command all Our Ministers of State beyond the Seas aswell Ambassadors as Residents Agents and Messengers And VVe desire all the rest of Our loving subjects that sojourn either for curiosity or commerce in any forein parts to communicate uphold and assert this Our solemn and sincere
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
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