Sir Edward Coke to Harangue the Lords upon the same Subject whose first and chief Exception was that 't was ordered after their Summons a sufficient Proof there could be no ill Design by it although it might likewise be considered that the Parliament was not so free to grant the King Supplies as he to Summons them and further yet that there were several Projects propounded to the King which he would never rashly close with but refer to the Consideration of his Counsel no mean Instance of his Prudence and Goodness too above what we deserv'd to recommend such as their Wisdoms and best Iudgments should find to be most convenient in a Case of this inevitable Necessity For those be the express Words in the Commission And hereto agrees what the Lord Keeper reported to the House of Lords That their Lordships had reason to be satisfied with what was truly and rightly told them by the Lords of the Council that this Commission was no more but a Warrant of Advice which his Majesty knew to be agreeable to the Time and the manifold Occasions then in Hand but now having a Supply from the Loves of his People he esteems the Commission useless and therefore though he knows no Cause why any Iealousies should have risen thereby yet at their Desires he is content it be cancelled and hath commanded me c. Yet I know this Reply will not pass tho upon his Majesty's Royal Word unless we can take off that potent Allegation of 30000 l. remitted over to Sir William Balfour and Dalbeir in Holland to raise a Thousand German Horse to enforce the Payment of this Excise and aw the Parliament soon to be Assembled as most of the Libellers expresly declare That such a Sum was remitted to raise Horse is certainly true but to be imploy'd here at home to the Ends aformention'd as certainly false to the making good whereof I must observe that the Low-Countries were at that time not only the School but Shop of War which furnish'd all the rest of Europe even the Spaniards themselves for a good Market with Arms Ammunition and whatever else was requisite to that Bloody Trade Neither was any thing more usual in Queen Elizabeth's Time than to take such English Forces as had been exercis'd and flesh'd in their Service when upon any great Expedition against Spain or elsewhere and supply them with new rais'd Men to maintain their Garrisons According to this Method the Lord Wimbleton was supply'd about two Years before in his Expedition against Spain And these 1000 Horse were doubtless design'd upon some Enterprise in defence of Rochel or otherwise to Annoy the French which upon new Councils and perhaps a Prospect of Peace for about that time it began to be secretly Agitated was laid aside To be sure had his Majesty design'd any thing of force upon this Nation he made choice of very improper Instruments in those two Commanders who notwithstanding their great Obligations to the King when the War brake out in 41. took Imployments under the Parliament because they had most Mony I presume and did them cursed Service The Defence saith Dalbeir was a Papist to reflect upon the King doubtless without considering what he did afterwards for his Parliament of 40. He was a German and had serv'd under Count Mansfield so that 't was more likely he was Lutheran or Calvinist But of what concern is that Man's Religion who Acts without a Principle of Gratitude or Common Honesty And therefore to attend the Fate of this unworthy Person a little farther when he had wrought Iourny-Work for the Parliament as long as the War lasted he was laid aside which regretting as a Souldier of Fortune ought to do engag'd upon the King's Account with the Duke of Bucks Lord Holland c. in that Design at Kingston which miscarrying they were persued to St. Neots in Huntingtonshire where some escap'd some were taken but Dalbeir was cut in pieces by his Brethren the Parliamentarians because he had been of their Side If Balfour did not come to the same End 't was pity for he was a true Covenanting Scot betray'd the King in the great Trust of the Tower committed to him and from thenceforward sided with the Parliament I had not been so Prolix in my Account of these two Men but to shew that had there been any such Design as an Excise and these German Horse to enforce the same 't is impossible but the two chief Commanders must have been privy thereto and would have consequently divulg'd it to their Patrons the Parliament indearing themselves more thereby than all their other Bloody Services I must beg leave to make this one Observation farther That it had been altogether as impossible for one Thousand Horse to enforce a General Excise as double the Number of the foremention'd Irish to Massacre the whole Nation Yet they had a more impertinent Maggot in 41 that there were Forces kept in Grots and Caves under Ground that should in the Night break out into the City and cut all their Throats And what was more prodigious and though ridiculous yet saith my Author had not a few Believers in London That there were Designs by Gun-Powder to blow up the Thames and choak them with the Water in their Beds May it not be here a necessary Quere Whether the Invention or Credulity be more Astonishing CHAP. V. No reason to complain of Favourites and evil Counsellors FAvourites and evil Counsellors were another of their Common-place Complaints with how little Reason or Truth is next to be made appear The Lord Bacon in his Essay of Friendship observes as a strange thing The high rate great Kings and Monarchs have set thereon and that not only the Weak and Passionate but the Wisest and most Politick that ever Reign'd whereof he gives several Instances To be sure at this time most Courts in Christendom had particular Favourites who notwithstanding the great Figure they made were really Participes Curarum as the foremention'd Lord judiciously terms them Drudges of State Screens of popular Odium and Discontent as in most if not in all Places they were made to find And hereunto amongst the rest King Iames seem'd very much dispos'd as appear'd by one or two in Scotland And in process of time his Inclination continued the same Bend here whereof one Car a Scotchman his Page was the first Instance who having a comely well built Outside the King hop'd he might be as well furnish'd within and accordingly took much pains in the Improvement of his Mind directed him in his Studies and all other things requisite to the Accomplishments of such a Person as he wish'd and hop'd he might prove All which is an extraordinary Instance of a good Master and a good Nature too And yet to make him appear a better Prince when he found all he had done was in vain that this new Creature of his was a Blockhead Insolent Ill-natur'd wretchedly Penurious and intollerably
De Propaganda Fide would take care enough should be insisted upon but that any such thing was comply'd with or hearken'd to as there is nothing extant to make it appear which would have been highly acceptable and most pestilently advantageous to the Faction's Calumnies so matter of Fact speaks quite the contrary For as soon as they came to be capable of Instruction their Education was wholly at the King's Direction and perform'd with extraordinary Care Piety and Judgment And whatever Clamours or Conjectures may be made to the contrary I have been inform'd by very judicious Observers that the Queen was very Passive therein and carried her self with a great deal of Deference to what the King Ordered If any of them Warp'd afterwards it was upon our compelling them into Exile and for that as I said before our selves must bear the Blame to force Princes abroad can never turn to Account for this Nation That other Libel too King Charles no Saint c. makes a mighty Pudder about the Match and gives us the precise Sums allowed to the several Ecclesiasticks of her Train amounting so high in the Total as I fancy it is nigh as much as the King could allow for the Expence of her whole Court which indeed ought to be somewhat Splendid in respect to both her Qualities Daughter of France and Queen of England yet was it withall very Regular and confin'd to such a Proportion as the King 's great Exigencies and small Revenue would admit He owns likewise upon the insolent Deportment of her French Domesticks the King dismist them a sufficient Argument she had not that Ascendent over him these Foul-mouth'd Blockheads prate of But that they return'd again to their former Post is absolutely false her Retinue for the future were mostly English and of that Communion too Neither from that time forward for the French did some ill Offices of that kind was there ever known a more agreeable Understanding between King and Queen or indeed any other Man and Wife than them two all the Obligations of Conjugal Love Respect and Duty so inviolably observ'd on either side as they were an Example to many and a Reproach to others in the Court and ought to have been so to the whole Kingdom thorough The Exposing his intercepted Letters shall be hereafter consider'd as the Unworthiest Act the basest Men could be guilty of One thing farther I shall propound to these Negative Make-bates who so violently oppos'd his Matching either with Spain or France Where would they have had him Match'd 'T was high time as to his Age and more highly requisite in that he was the only Male of the Royal Line that he should be dispos'd of somewhere and to what purpose was it for People to cry a Protestant Princess had been better when they could find none such agreeable to his Quality nor that mutual intercourse which such Alliances generally produce For tho' 't is true Kingdoms never Marry and we find a War broke out soon after and partly hereupon yet it might be also the sooner Accommodated upon the same account To be sure if there be few private Families of any Degree but have some Consideration of this Nature when they dispose of their Children we must allow the same to Crown'd Heads both in respect to one another and their several Neighbour Potentates who are never without Caballing Interests and other Intriegues of State Neither could that liberty of the Romish Rites indulg'd her and those of that persuasion in her Family have been any ways prejudicial had they who made such a Noise so violently complain'd against it jointly concur'd in the Confinement thereof to its proper Bounds or Modestly Address'd his Majesty whenever exceeded but the Froppishness of that Crooked Generation was for perverting every thing that Good Man did to the utmost extremity as he complains in the Declaration when his third Parliament was Dissolv'd Seu bene seu male facta premunt with Mischievous Men once Ill-Affected whatsoever seem'd Amiss is ever Remembred but good Endeavours never Regarded So likewise for the Nobility and Gentry of that Persuasion if they had any favour more than usual it was not so much from the Queen's Sollicitation tho' that was commonly objected as for that they frankly proffer'd to Advance Money towards the King's Necessities and thereby exasperated the Parliament as well in crossing their Designs as upbraiding their Refractory Humour although 't was rather their Iealousy than any real Effects the Loyal Gentlemen found of Kindness 'T is true there was a Commission issued out and Commissioners appointed to Treat with them about Arrears of Forfeitures and an Advance upon the same account for some years to come but 't is false what Rushworth saith That in pursuance of this Commission the Recusants did make their Composition upon very easy Terms as was afterwards complain'd of in Parliament for this Project never took effect Sir Iohn Savile to whom the Management thereof was chiefly entrusted thought it more Advantageous and therefore Advisable to Collect the Arrears of Thirds due to the King by Law which they the more willingly paid in Consideration of the Exigencies he then lay under and being generally as well bred and Understanding Gentlemen as most in the Kingdom must not be blam'd if they had some prospect of Advantage as well as Duty Yet whatever respect the King shew'd their Persons we see it would not excuse their Purses nor procure any Countenance to their Perswasions for whenever the Management of any young Heirs in such Families came under his hands either as Wards or otherwise there was effectual care taken of their Education amongst which that every way most Eminent the late Duke of Ormond was one But Popery was the Main Spoak in that Wheel of Revolution these pretended Government Menders were so bent to bring about and therefore tho' they made many a Faint yet would never close effectually with the King in suppression thereof Thus when both Houses Petition'd the King against Recusants propounding a provisional Law that their Children might be brought up in our Religion his Majesty most readily comply'd therewith and earnestly recommended the preparation of a fitting Law to that effect which notwithstanding the Debate fell asleep and was never after reassum'd And after the first heat as little Notice was taken of that Letter found amongst the Clerkenwell Iesuits whereby nevertheless it appear'd they equally studied the King's Ruine with the Naetions Confusions as Secretary Cook inform'd them from him and withall how the French Ambassador told his Master at home what he had wrought here last Parliament namely Divisions between King and People and he was rewarded for it A full discovery whose Tools they were whose Game they play'd which nevertheless they continued on so that one would think there was a design to accept the Iesuits Challenge and venture all upon a Trial of Skill whether were the best Artists in Mischief the
generally been all the World over and in all Ages where a Kingdom was look'd upon no otherwise than a larger Family from whence at first they all came and the Master thereof as the Pater Patriae the common Father of the Country and when otherwise the Children have been oftner to blame than the Parent though when the Breach was once made nothing could be more natural than for both Sides to run into Extreams Farther yet we should consider all earthly Powers and every Individual under them are subordinate to the Almighty Sovereign of the Universe who in a secret and wonderful manner arbitrates and controuls all humane Undertakings according to the infinite Wisdom of his own unsearchable Will and when provok'd to high Displeasure by some enormous National Crimes hath been then observ'd more especially to interpose and give a People over to such cursed Infatuations as to violate all Rules of common Discretion as well as Duty and precipitate their own Ruin whereof farther on we may have too sad Occasion to make Application And however towards the End of the last Century and Beginning of this several Parts of Europe were mad upon this Republican Humour and many amongst us are so foolish as still to continue the Freak yet I have sometimes thought with my self from the few Instances we have in History of this kind of Government and them them that were mostly founded upon the Ruin of Monarchies continued all the Time of their being in perpetual Disorders and Convulsions of State till at last they resolv'd into a Monarchy again This I say hath made me think that they all took their Beginning from the foremention'd Displeasure of the Almighty for inverting that Oeconomy wherein he had plac'd the World and maugre all their Conceits and Oppositions would have it so continue For the Great King of Heaven is jealous both of his Honour and Prerogative and when a few fancyful Novellists will dare to set up the Right of their Sovereign Lords the People in Opposition to his Ordinances and eternal Establishments the Decision may be easily foreseen if with Reverence duly attended his infinite Wisdom and Patience so wonderfully operating and in so secret a manner upon their hard and impenitent Hearts as to make themselves the Instruments of his Wrath and Vengeance And from the same Power and secret Will it is that the Parties themselves are so little sensible of the Iudgment as to maintain their Opinion with more Earnestness than ever and so may continue without Controul for having withal the Command of Legions no wise Philosopher will dare to dispute his best against them However God is not mocked and so they will find at last But then secondly If we consider this in Hypothesi and bring it home to our own Case we shall find a very black Account for after all their Noise and Clamors the little Finger of this Upstart Commonwealth prov'd heavier to the whole Nation than the Loyns of the most rigid Monarch that ever sate upon the Throne Nay 't is farther certain by most dear bought Experience that there was more Arbitrary Power and illegal Commitments exorbitant Taxes Rapine and Plunder Sequestrations and Sacrilege with whatever else could be most Unjust and Tyrannical voted and put in practice during the twenty Years Usurpation of the several Iunto's than by all the Crowned Heads ay and their Favorites too to take off all Allegations of that kind since the Conquest I might add since the Creation did our Histories reach so far 'T is modestly express'd by our Author that notwithstanding their other Helps the Charge at Sea and Land was so great as they were forc'd to lay a Land-Tax of 120000 l. per Mensem Which notwithstanding if we may believe him the People pay'd very freely Now let us examin a little what these other Helps were They had seiz'd not only upon all the Crown but Church-Lands and dispos'd of them at Pleasure They had the free Contributions of the City Dames and all others well affected as far as their Quarters extended even to the poor Country Wenches Bodkins and Thymbles They had the Sequestration of all the Loyal Nobility and Gentry whose Estates they dispos'd of amongst themselves to several 1000 l. per Annum They had rais'd the Customs much higher than ever they were in the King's Time And in humble Imitation of their Brethren the Dutch retrench'd the Excesses of Good Fellowship by an Excise which the Nation was never acquainted withal before and now must never be without Besides 25 th Parts Decimations with numberless other Ways of squeezing the People who notwithstanding must think all too little for that happy Liberty this Free State had brought them into One thing farther I must observe in Reference to the Land-Tax that as it was collected according to the Lunary or as the Term then went Military Months so they would not rest there but were so good at Multiplication as to repeat that Monthly Assessment sixteen or seventeen times in a Year Whereas the Sum which two or three of these Months amounted to was as much as was ever given to or expected by any King before and would have made Charles I. the happyest Prince and continued us the easiest People under Heaven Can we be pityed to have it brought to more Millions than that made 100000 ls and a Necessity of continuing the same So fatal a thing it is not to take the Man's Advice but instead of that Fear to God and Honour to the King which he recommends be medling with such as are given to change the most troublesome Generation of Men any Nation was ever plagu'd withal for whatever Improvements our Royal Societies may make as to Natural Knowledg Oso's in Politicks or Religion are most intollerable their Chymical Heads will never forbear trying Experiments till both evaporate in Smoak and Confusion Had Sir T.'s Alphonso the Wise liv'd in these mutable Times to those four Old Things he gave so great a Preference there doubtless had been added a fifth and that is Old Government CHAP. III. King James and Charles I. design'd nothing of Arbitrary Power IN Confirmation of what I said That Arbitrary Power is the Grand Topick of the Faction Our Author Ludlow begins his spiteful Charge there Those who make any Enquiry into King Iames's Reign will find that tho his Inclinations were strongly bent to render himself Absolute yet he chose rather to carry on that Design by Fraud than Violence But King Charles having taken a nearer View of Despotick Government in his Iourny to France and Spain tempted with the glittering Shew and imaginary Pleasures of that empty Pageantry Immediately after his Ascent to the Throne pull'd off the Mask and openly discovered his Intentions to make the Crown absolute and Independent pag. 1 2. Audacter Calumniari goes a great way in any bad Cause To be sure this Calumny hath been so frequently urg'd so constantly inculcated as several worthy Gentlemen otherwise
well affected to Monarchy in general as well as the Memory of those two Princes are yet prone to suspect they might have some Inclinations that way and for their Satisfaction more especially it is I give them and my self this Trouble To shew therefore how little Ground there was or is for this Suspicion King Iames call'd Parliaments as often as any Prince ever did and courted them as much perhaps more than was requisite considering the Temper they were of And so did his Son at first as Ludlow owns 'T is true he call'd some in the first Years of his Reign But then makes this malicious Reflection The People soon perceiv'd he did it rather to empty their Purses than redress their Grievances The Truth of it is there was such a Spirit of Innovation and Faction got abroad such groundless Suspicions and Distrusts every where not only whisper'd but openly proclaim'd throughout the Nation as 't is equally unaccountable how Men should have the Confidence to forge such gross Untruths and the People suffer themselves to be so absurdly impos'd upon Altho as to this latter nothing can seem incredible to such as observ'd what a Fright the whole Nation was abus'd into the other Day as if between two and three thousand Irish for that was their utmost Number could fire all their Habitations and cut all their Throats Yet by such Artifices as these altogether as groundless and improbable the People were kept up in a continual Ferment so foolishly prejudic'd and so freakishly peevish as no Reason could be heard nor Truth prevail upon them whereunto both the foremention'd Kings were too forward to appeal and too condescending in giving an Account of themselves and Actions by frequent Proclamations Declarations c. considering they had to do with the most petulant malicious Generation ever any Age or Climate produc'd As to the present Charge of affecting Arbitrary Power I cannot but remark in the first place the different Method these two Kings are suppos'd to propound in order to bring about the same King Iames by Fraud King Charles by Force As to the former whatever King-Craft he pretended to every discerning Eye hath all along discovered him to be the most open easie Prince this Nation ever had studied nothing but his People's Peace and therein his own Quiet the Enjoyment of himself Such a bold I may say desperate Undertaking must have a Prince that is active daring and resolute of a subtile Head and hollow Heart understanding all the Arts of Dissimulation and Wheadle so as to fool the People out of their Mony and therewith maintain an Army to support his Usurpation with many such like bad Qualities as opposite to Iames's Temper and Genius as one Pole to the other For to speak freely he laboured under the contrary Extream wanted Courage to exert his just Rights stoop'd Majesty too low would expostulate and reason where he ought to have commanded which blind Side the Faction in his several Parliaments once finding out grew wresty thereupon would neither lead nor drive but their own Pace and Way What I remark in the second Place is the Inducement our Author assigns of King Charles's attempting the same by Violence the nearer View of a Despotick Power in his Iourny to France and Spain What will not a Republican's Rebel Spite catch hold of His Iourny was not in but thorough France which he consummated in ten or twelve Days and riding Post had great Opportunities of being taken with Glittering Shews and Imaginary Pleasures c. And his Business in Spain was of another Nature and took up so much Time as he had little Leisure to make Observations and less Reason to be enamour'd with any thing there observ'd to be sure upon Enquiry he could not but find that the several Courts or Councils there have as great a Restraint upon the Crown as our Parliaments have here though they are a sober wise Nation and seldom or never found to extend their Privileges beyond Right and Reason I shall not reflect upon the Prudence and Policy of that Design only observe it was hard for a young Amorous Prince to attend the tedious Delays of old Statesmen wherewith having been so long kept in Suspence this Adventure was thought the only Expedient for a final Issue Desperate enough which notwithstanding he manag'd so dexterously as to weather all Difficulties and come off with Honour and Safety contrary to the Expectation of the whole World I cannot forbear to mention the Account Rushworth gives of his Deportment there The Prince for his part had gain'd an universal Love and was reported by all to be a truly noble discreet well deserving Prince His grave Comportment suited with the very Genius of that Nation and he carryed it from the first to the last with the greatest Affability Gravity Constancy and at his Farewel with unparallell'd Bounty Yet this excellent Prince we murder'd and forc'd his Sons to travel for Security of their Lives and if during that Royal Exile they depended chiefly upon Papists for their Subsistence and observ'd how a Neighbour Prince weathering the like Storm from his three Estates as their Father met with for all Rebellions do not prosper as in England took the Government solely into his own Hand I say if upon these Obligations and Observations they return'd home less affected to the Protestant Religion and our Old Establishments of civil Government than could be wish'd Who can we blame but our selves Upon the Prince's Return home and making a Report to his Father what slippery Statesmen the Spaniards were especially as to his Sister 's Concerns King Iames at the earnest Request of the Parliament brake off that Match who engaging him in a War for Recovery of the Palatinate promis'd all the Assistance could be desired which was soon after by his Father's Death devolv'd upon King Charles and a Parliament thereupon summon'd de novo whom he bespake with all Affection and Tenderness imaginable acquainting them how The Eyes of all Europe were upon that his first Attempt and what a Blemish it would be to sustain a Foyl Hereupon a Supply was voted which serv'd the present turn and that was all For in the next Session which was at Oxon that unquiet Spirit which had been so troublesome most part of his Father's Reign began to let him see what little Hope there was of better Terms from them Immediately those old Cavils of Grievances evil Counsellers and what not were brought upon the Carpet and of these the first insisted upon was the Increase of Recusants the Growth of Popery which was presented in a Petition shewing the principal Causes of their Increase and properest Remedies to suppress them whereunto his Majesty gave an Answer so full and satisfactory that all undesigning Members were abundantly satisfied therewith and resolv'd to acquiesce therein and fell immediately upon a Supply which the adverse Party unable to oppose seemingly comply'd likewise but with a Back Blow
Royal Authority that the Causes for which they were restrain'd might be high and Dangerous that her Majesty lik'd not such Questions neither did it become the House to deal in such Matters Upon which saith my Author the House desisted from interposing any farther in their behalf but left them wholly to the Queen by whom Wentworth was continued Prisoner some Years after 'T is probable indeed the others viz. Bromly Welch Stephens might be discharg'd sooner Thus did this Wise Princess hold the Reins of Government with so streight a Hand as whenever she found it biting the Bit and attempting to take head a suddain Check put a stop to the design'd Curreere Whereas King Iames was no sooner mounted but he left them strangely Loose and in effect gave them up his first Parliament where Roger Coke tells us the Commons in their Apology to him took notice of the Queen's Restraining their Debates as to several Matters and pray'd it might be no precedent for the future but that their Debates in Parliament might be free which the King however charg'd by the foremention'd Roger with Rehoboam's Stiffness so far comply'd with or was negligent in as that designing Faction got ground upon him every Day to his own and all his Ministers great Uneasiness with his Son's and Kingdoms ruin And this the foremention'd Letter too prophetically foretold that prevailing in one thing would but encourage them to attempt another till they had pull'd out all the Feathers of his Royalty and from impeaching his Ministers call him to an account for any thing he undertakes which doth not prosperously succeed For thus at last he himself was the Evil Counsellor and charg'd with all those Villanies and Mischiefs these Sons of Violence had brought upon the Nation CHAP. VI. Innovations in Religion never design'd BUt our pretended Patriots could not thoroughly have express'd their care unless they had made it the concern of God as well as the King for which Reason Religion must be taken in and every thing call'd an Innovation which tended to support the Church or conduc'd in any respect to Decency and Order in the Externals of Divine Worship And this Clamor of Redressing Religious Grievances altho by degrees it threw all open and brought in upon us an universal Deluge of Licentiousness Prophaneness Enthusiasm Atheism and what not yet the Factions are so impudent as to continue the Charge and with that false Mother care not how the Church be torn or cut in pieces so they may have their spiteful Wills Thus Ludlow will have it that the Clergy's influence upon the King was alwaies greater than could consist with the peace and happiness of England p. 2 d. whereas it was never happier than then and nothing but a regular Establishment in the Church could continue it so as the King knew very well which made him so earnest to Support it and the other Party knew it too which made them so earnest to pull it down Roger Coke likewise inveighs as much against the Arminian Bishops and Clergy of this King's Reign as his Grandfather when Attorny General did against Sir Walter Rawleigh Who is said by Osborn and the Tryal speaks as much to have Bawl'd him out of his Life And so in the same Manner the little Pamphletteers like Country Curs bark for Company Ye take too much upon you was that General and grand Charge Corah and his Accomplices brought against Moses and Aaron the Prince of the People and Priest of God And notwithstanding the Almighty's Vengeance so signally appear'd in that Quarrel as to send them all quick into Hell yet the Terror thereof hath not been able to affright such Children of Disobedience from Repeating their Provocations The Gates of Hell are continually Opening upon the Church and though never able to prevail against the whole may have sometimes Permission to chastise a part and do whatever else God in his Secret purposes hath resolv'd upon to which Unsearchable Will alone it must be referr'd That the Anointed of the Lord the great Defender of our Faith who best understood and best practis'd the Christian Religion of any Prince since the Prince of Peace was taken in their Nets and as the other Crucified so this by such like wicked Hands most barbarously slain And if the same Sovereign Disposer in this his great Displeasure proceeds farther to remove our Candlestick declare he hath no pleasure in us neither will accept an offering at our Hands we must notwithstanding acknowledge he is Righteous in all his Ways and Holy in all his Works For unto very nigh these Circumstances the many Sub and Super-Reformers have reduc'd what under the Auspicious care of its Royal Defender was the Glory of the whole Earth That therefore it may be known there was such a thing as the Church of England and as I said in a most flourishing Condition till these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many Physitians or Quacks rather would be shewing their Skill I shall take leave to make a Retrospect and represent upon what bottom she was first fix'd at the Reformation what false Brethren they were who interrupted and disturb'd this Establishment and likewise by what Arts and Degrees they engag'd I may say bewitch'd the People to assist them in such Confusions as were at length brought upon her Though the Reformation of our English Church was founded and carried on upon those infallible Truths the Primitive Times and Antient Fathers had practis'd from Scripture without any regard to Foreign Proceedings or if any rather Luther and Melancthon than Calvin and Beza had the Preference yet the two latter would be frequently putting their Sickle into our Harvest and partly by Corresponding but more especially by conversing with several Exiles both Clergy and Lay retired into those Parts during Queen Mary's Persecution gain'd too many Admirers who returning home upon Queen Elizabeth's coming to the Crown cry'd up the Geneva Model as the very Pattern which the Lord had shown from that Mount and according to which the whole Reformation must be carried on or no Blessing from him would attend it It would be here too tedious to relate what Arts they us'd and what Interests they made in Country City and Court As they began to think of setting up their darling Discipline and that in so insolent a manner as to declare That if the Government would not assist therein they must do it whether the Queen and State will or no insinuating how many Thousands their Party consisted of and threatned if not comply'd with such Courses as should make all their Hearts to ake Queen Elizabeth had too great a Value for her own well weighed Estalishments to have them Superseded by every Factious Caprice and thereupon resolv'd firmly against them And nothing but that steady Resolution of hers could preserve both Church and State from being even then ruin'd For these pretended Children of Light had so much of this World were so wise in their
Generation as besides their many Abettors amongst the Common People were not unprovided of some in the House of Commons which Mr. Cambden tells us the Queen took Notice of and much dislik'd their unquiet Humor greedy of Novelty and forward to root up things well Established to prevent which for the future she commanded the Severity of the Laws to be every where put in Execution And sometime after procured two New Acts one against the Papists and another against the Puritans on purpose to restrain the insolency of both Factions and by which several of them were afterwards adjudg'd to Death But such Turbulent Spirits are not so easily quell'd the same Historian continues the Complaint in a following Parliament 85. But nothing so much irritated her great Mind as their Villanous Deportment in 88. for thinking they had the Queen at an Advantage upon the Rumor of a Foreign Invasion beset her with greater Importunities than ever and play'd their Affairs with so much Confidence as if of Confederacy with the Spaniard never as Cambden goes on with the Complaint did contumacious Impudency and contumelious Malepertness advance it self more insolently giving an account what Scandalous Books they writ Belching forth such Calumnies and Reproaches therein as the Authors seem'd rather to be Scullions in a Kitchen than followers of Piety The present Course she thought fit to take with such unnatural Beautifeus was only to secure some of the most busy and chief amongst them in Wisbich Castle where many of the leading Papists were likewise secur'd But as soon as that Storm was over she resolv'd upon a more effectual Course to keep a constant Calm at home for in Feb. 92. a Parliament was call'd amongst other things to Enact such Laws as might restrain those Insolencies wherewith the Patience of the State had been so long exercis'd Wherein the Puckering's Speech to both Houses of Parliament is very Remarkable which amongst other things lets them know that they were Especially commanded by her Majesty to take heed that no ear be given nor time afforded to the wearysom Solicitations of those that commonly be called Puritans wherewithall the last Parliaments have been exceedingly importun'd which sort of Men whilst in the Giddyness of their Spirit they labor and strive to advance a new Eldership they do nothing else but disturb the good repose of the Church and Commonwealth And as the Case standeth it may be doubted whether they or the Iesuit do offer more danger or be more speedily to be redress'd with much more to the same purpose even Prophetical of the Mischiefs they have since produc'd Hereupon followed that formidable Act Tricesimo Quinto Elizabethae which was so closely hook'd into the Nostrils of this Spiritual Leviathan as though frequently endeavour'd they were never able to get it out till they had at one desperate Plunge freed themselves from all Regal Power as well as Ecclesiastical Discipline To be sure the remaining ten Years of this great Queen's Reign the swelling Humor of that haughty Faction was so taken down as they never made the least effort towards those Innovations either in Church or State which had been so uneasy to the Government before and so Fatal since In this Excellent Posture and Regular Subordination did this Prudent Princess leave an exact and practicable Model of the English Monarchy that her Successor as I observ'd before did not tread in the same steps take the same care and shew the like Courage Hinc Illae Lachrymae For coming to the Crown with a General Applause on every Side it was never considered that the brightest Sun-rise is soonest intercepted by a Cloud that Hosanna's from the Vulgar as well Great as Small naturally run into the contrary extream unless that Mercury of theirs be fix'd by such a well weigh'd Politick as knows how to temper them in both It was likewise no small Prejudice to our English Church that the King came accompanied with so great a Retinue of his own Country whose Kirk-Leven put our Puritans into a fresh Ferment made them Swell and Domineer with their usual insolence upon the least Countenance of Connivance from such as are in Power or have an Interest in the Government Upon this account I cannot but take Notice of a Passage in Hacket's Life printed before his Sermons He was born of Scotch Parents dwelling in London during the Queen's Time They were both true Protestants great Lovers of the Church of England constantly repairing to the Divine Prayers and Service thereof and would often bewail to their young Son after the coming in of their Country-men with King James the seed of Fanaticism then laid in the Scandalous neglect of the Publick Liturgy which all the Queen's time was exceedingly frequented the People then resorting as Devoutly to Prayers as they would afterwards to hear any famous Preacher about Town And his Aged Parents often observ'd to him that Religion towards God Iustice and Love amongst Neighbours gradually declin'd with the disuse of our Publick Prayers This Observation was made at first which we have since seen Fatally verify'd and cursedly Improv'd It was likewise no small prejudice to the Interest of our English Church that a Scotch Peer Top'd an Archbishop upon her no ways qualify'd with parts or principles for so great a Trust The Story stands thus Upon Bancroft's Death such as wish'd well to the Church Bishops and other great Men about Court recommended Bishop Andrews a Person every way unexceptionable to the King who approv'd so well of him as they thought their Business fix'd and neglected to press it further when the Earl of Dunbar a powerful Minister with the King saith my Author put in for his quondam Chaplain Abbot and got the King's Hand for passing the Instrument before the Matter was discover'd and then too late to prevent God grant Scotch Peers may never more recommend English Prelates Indeed the less any of them have to do with our Church the better although in this great Time of Tryal amongst them where all Religious Order is run into Enthusiasm and Madness there are several have signalis'd themselves with a Zeal truly Primitive not only to the spoyling their Goods but the loss of all their Fortunes and of some of their Lives For our New Metropolitan when in Place he fell very much short of what his own Admirers expected to be sure his Remiss Government and unexcusable Partiality towards the Puritans neglecting all those worthy Methods his two Predecessors Whitgift and Bancroft had prosecuted introduc'd those many Desolations Fractions and Schisms which the Church hath not yet and 't is a Question whether will be ever able to weather for whilst several worthy Prelates in his Time and his Successor who next came in Place endeavour'd to continue or revive such Articles Injunctions and Canons as had been fram'd in Q. Elizabeth's Time and to reduce the Church to the same Order and Regimen in which Abbot found it These forsooth must
be all exclaim'd against for Innovations and a Moulding of her to a nearer compliance with the See of Rome as Ludlow suggests which I shall farther take notice of in the next Paragraph and for the present only mention what Archbishop Laud told a Friend of mine when in the Tower That he endeavoured the Repair of an Old House but it had been so much neglected and run to ruin as to fall about his Ears in the Attempt However for the former part of King Iames's Reign things went smoothly on in an easy careless course without any considerable rub or disturbance the first Grumblings of Discontent arose from the Spanish Match which the King had set his Heart upon and People as much against the truth of it is our Crown had generally Married there or in France but as there had been no Occasion for such an Alliance since the Reformation so the different Perswasions now on foot as to Religion made it very difficult to accomodate that Matter The English Papists were extreamly Zealous therein beyond the bounds of Common Discretion which made the rest of the Nation suspect there could come no good from what they were so forward to promote and herein the Puritan would be sure to Lead the Van who clamour'd and made a noise as if the Pope had been as nigh our Gates as Hannibal was sometime those of Rome and ran down all as that way dispos'd who would not be as Mad and violent as themselves believe Impossibilities or fly in the face of Royal Authority And about this time it was they began that popular charge of Innovations which had the same Malicious effect upon all Orthodox Eminent Divines as that of Grievances upon Ministers of State the proof whereof must likewise depend upon Common-fame or which is worse a Common Appellation of their own fixing as to some particular School or rather Philosophical points most innocent and harmless in themselves yet so manag'd by a well-contriv'd spight as the People became possest that an Arminian was as dangerous as a Papist and as nigh an Affinity between them as there prov'd afterwards to be between Puritan and Rebel Upon this account one Mr. Mountague was first had Coram Nobis in K. Iames's last Parliament as Learned a Man and Solid a Divine as our or perhaps any other Church had but having severely Gagg'd the Predestinarian Brotherhood and conduc'd very much to the bringing K. Iames off from those Rigours they could find no better way to be reveng'd than by setting their Party in the House of Commons about his Ears which Roger Coke after so long a time revives with a fresh prosecution not considering how much both the Temper and Opinions of Men are since alter'd that the heats about those points have been very much cool'd or diverted so that he might have as well inveigh'd that Ruffs and Farthingals were not still worn for they and Calvenism went out of Fashion together none at this time of Day but a few of the more Hare-brain'd Dissenters can dream of being Engin'd up to Heaven by a Chain of Predestination whereof the Elect are so well Secur'd as the grossest Crimes cannot deprive them However their proceedings then were with something of deference to the Church remitting the whole matter to the Archbishop whom they knew more than enough prejudic'd for the Puritan and their Reprobation Doctrine and perhaps were assur'd aforehand that he resolv'd upon an Admonition which was accordingly done But then the King was his Ordinary to whom with the Convocation an Appeal lay and there the Derniere Resort rested and thither he Address'd himself in a fresh piece called Appello Caesarem which made fresh work in K. Charles's first Parliament the second Session whereof being remov'd to Oxon by reason of the Sickness in London the Commons sat in the Divinity Schools and their Speaker in or nigh the Professor's Chair whereby whether they thought themselver inspir'd or were rather possest as my Author would have it I shall not concern my self to be sure from that time forward we never find them without a Committee for Religion and no such Committee but would undertake to determine the deepest Controversies and Reform whatever they were pleas'd to call Abuses till by degrees they fell upon the Divines Sequestring and Imprisoning them by whole Centuries and so having expos'd and trampled under-foot the Doctrine Discipline and Governours of the Church they introduc'd the most Extravagant Licentiousness that ever was known in any part of the World call'd Christian. These indeed were Innovations to purpose But who introduc'd them And what would Queen Elizabeth have said thereto Mr. Rushworth gives us at large the Articles Professor Pym Exhibited against Richard Mountague Clerk which upon some search he could not find Answered as indeed What wise Man would reply to the Ipse Dixit of so many hundreds Or what Influence could a Reply have when the Conclusion was resolv'd upon without any Consideration of the Premisses However the Letter he mentions before which upon this Occasion Three Bishops writ to the Duke gives a true State of the whole matter and Iudiciously distinguish between such Opinions as are expresly the resolv'd Doctrines of the Church and such as are fit only for the Schools and left at liberty for Learned Men to abound in their own Sense so they keep themselves peaceable and distract not the Church This Letter Mr. Rushworth might have given at large as well as the Articles but for a bad reason best known to himself omitted it nevertheless we have it in the Cabala to be sure the few foremention'd words carry great Soundness and Judgment in them and must be acknowledg'd the only expedient could be fix'd upon either to Silence the Controversy or let them Brawl it out in its proper place 'T is a pleasant conceit of Mr. Osborn who tells his Son The Clergy have work enough cut out till Doomesday to resolve which is least sutable to the Divine Essence to have bound the hands of Men or left them at liberty yet hereby a constraint must needs be put upon us or our Maker Now this Gordian Knot which all our Clergy never could nor ever will be able to Untie our many Alexanders in the House resolve to Cut asunder by one Simple Vote yet this Weapon of theirs however very Keen had but a thin Edge and was turn'd before it got thorough so that it remains still indissoluble whether we drive or whether we are driven as I find the Question stated by one of our Comoedians so well that few of the Schools come up to it An unseen hand may determine our freest Actions and the deepest laid designs move Retrogade when we think the quite contrary But that the Almighty Sovereign the Author and Disposer of All things should Damn Men before he makes them Create many Millions of Beings with design to Reprobate them into Eternal Misery and found one main part of
only to lose all his Offices and Estate but his Life which last at the Queen's Intercession was spared though he Died soon after as thought of Grief and Sorrow Can any thing on this side Hell be more base and spiteful than such a procedure as this Who can give Credit to whatever he Relates or Collects Upon discovery of so vile a Studium Partium which seems brought in on purpose to Contradict or Detract from what had been immediately before Recorded in the Lincoln's high and just Elogium of K. Iames more especially those last Words to his Son in order to his future Marriage whom he advis'd To Marry like himself and Marry where he would But if he did Marry the Daughter of that King he should Marry her Person but not her Religion CHAP. VIII Of the Lent Ships Rochel and the French War THe Iealousies between the French King and Hugonots were so great on either side that all their Accords seem'd rather as a Cessation to take Breath till a convenient opportunity might serve for a fresh Breach than any real design of a lasting Peace King Iames frequently labour'd herein and did many good Offices for the Protestant Interest and King Charles whilst the Match was in Agitation by his Ministers there patch'd up a Treaty between them that thereby the French might be at more leisure to divert the Spaniard then our Enemy both in Italy and the Mediterranean In order whereunto they agreed with us for the Loan of Seven Ships on Man of War and six Merchants as they had with the Dutch for twenty which joyning their Fleet there might block up Genoa and all other ways annoy them as occasion should serve But whilst this Design was carried on and the Army march'd towards Italy Sobiez the most considerable Chief of the Hugonots next his Brother the Duke of Rohan alledging a certain Fortress was not demolish'd according to Agreement got together some small Ships Seiz'd upon the Isles Rhee and Oleron with what Vessels they found there and so set up for a Piratical War having Rochel and those Isles or their Retreat This made the French Court alter their Measures ordering their Land-Army back upon these New Revolters and Memorancy the French Admiral having got together what Ships they could of their own after a great deal of Wheadle and many Protestations had ours consign'd him the Dutch making no demur nay as some say had by a New Treaty agreed thereunto with all which he went directly against Sobiez and disabled him for ever appearing at Sea again recovering both Isles and Ships but a few which got under Rochel And in the same manner they prosecuted their Attacks at Land so vigorously as though it cost them longer time yet in the end they carried all for which the Rochellers and other Hugonots could justly blame none so much as themselves not only in that they broke the Treaty as soon as made but afterwards when our King appear'd in their Defence they refus'd to comply with such Resolutions as in the Judgment of Sobiez and their other best Officers were most proper thereunto However this Misemployment of our Ships was highly resented by his Majesty and many severe Expostulations arose thereupon that our Ships should be diverted from their intended expedition against Spain which was solely design'd and promis'd whereto the French King reply'd That he had no Enemies then but the Spaniard and his intent no other witness the like Contract with the Dutch Ships but his Rebellious Subjects the Rochellers starting this necessity upon him he was enforc'd to suppress the dangerous Consequence with the advantage of those Ships against Rebellion which he conceives and he hoped all Christian Princes conclude such Subjects the greatest Enemies to all Sovereignty With this and the return of our Ships fully satisfied for their Hire these Heats for the present were allay'd though with other Discontents and Provocations the next year they broke out into an open War Which Ludlow with his Common-wealth Charity tells us The King engag'd in not upon the account of those of the Reformed Religion as was pretended but grounded upon personal Discontents to gratify the Revenge and Lust of his Favourite Pag. 3. There is nothing more advantageous in any Relation whether true or false than in hanging things well together Malum ex qualibet particulari a Lye is quite spoil'd if taken triping in any one particular and 't is the most Judicious part of the best Historians to have a clear Consistency in whatever account they give with an easy Transition from one matter to another Let us then according to this Rule examine the Judgment Candour and Integrity of this great Dictator He tells us in the precedent Paragraph of several Steps he would have the King set in order to the Establishing an Arbitrary Power which we have already taken notice of more especially the Committing of several Members as he saith For complaining of the Grievances of the Nation as others for their Riotous Deportment in the House Locking up the Door holding the Speaker in the Chair till they had pass'd what Votes they thought fit with many such like Heats upon an intimation of their Dissolution Now what we are here to take notice of is his Transition from this Relation to the next The King having thus assum'd this extraordinary Power resolv'd to make a War with France whereas the French War was begun before that Parliament was call'd and in a fair prospect of being ended when those Gentlemen were so unhappily committed He had likewise intimated in the precedent Page that the French Match was in order to their Assistance as to an Arbitrary Power which his next Breath Blasts with a War and when there was so much done towards the Relief of Rochel and such Regret in the King that he could not be Assisted to do more with several other just Resentments for which the War was entred upon that he should assign it to the Revenge and Lust of a Favourite to say no more is like the Man his good Nature and Loyal Principles and agreeable to the Party for whose Satisfaction he writ it who will Swallow any thing that tends to Defame the Monarchy though it hangs together like a Rope of Sand. But to come to the War the King had too just Grounds to engage therein tho' too mean a Fund to go through therewith and the one in all probability had not been given but that they saw how unlikely it was he should ever be supply'd as to the other The not suffering Count Mansfield's Army to land in France and joyning with them according to promise was the Ruin thereof and highly prejudicial to the Protestant Interest in Germany And which was worse gave occasion to the Male-Contents here at home to complain of Mismanagement and the No-Fruits of their Subsidies given to recover the Palatinate when it all proceeded from the little Faith and less Honour of our Allies And there was
Earl of Lindsey never attempted to break their Diques open the Passage and put in Relief All which this vile Wretch affirms in one Breath tho' every Historian even to their Authentick Rushworth positively affirm it The continued course of impudent Untruths wherewith these Weeders nay Forgers of History have so long wearied my Patience makes me at last resolve upon this I hope innocent Revenge whenever for the time to come I meet any Person relating a most improbable Malicious Falshood from me he shall not have that common Opprobrium of a Lyer but of a Fanatick Common-wealth Historian CHAP. IX Of the Palatinate Bohemia and that Queen AND here before I leave the Defence by which term I all along mean that Libel which Undertakes to Justify the Parliament of Forty and all their Adherents there is one Stretch must be taken Notice of which as Physicians term it is a Nostrum of his Own never urg'd by any of his Brother Libellers viz. That the Eight Ships for so he will have it tho' really but Seven lent the French were Equipp'd with the Subsidies given for the Relief of his distressed Protestant Sister the Electress Palatine and the poor oppressed Protestants in the Palatinate Pag. 3. 'T is in a Parenthesis and so might have been left out as likewise for another Reason because not true which nevertheless must not pass here lest it should set aside the whole Pamphlet But I would gladly know what Subsidies he relates to those granted King Iames were more than expended upon raising the 10000 Men for Count Mansfield and those of Charles's first Parliament were only Voted not Rais'd when the Ships Lent which to clear the Matter the French Equipp'd at their own Expence and paid moreover for the use of Hull and Rigging 'T is Odd in the mean while to observe what a Compass these Fellows will fetch to gain one Point of Calumny which too after all they fail to Make. But because Roger Coke likewise Throws a great deal of Dirt upon the Memory of these two Kings Iames and Charles the First in Reference to that Unhappy Enterprize and thereby that Unhappy Family I shall here take care to wipe it off in making it appear they both did what possibly could be done to Retrieve so desperate an Affair Mr. Coke very desirous to make the Prince Elector a good Title to the Kingdom of Bohemia rambles into Hungary Poland and whither not And runs into more Mistakes than he pretends to Correct and quarrels at his Friend Rushworth whom he never fails to follow but when in the Right To be sure he stumbles at the very Threshold in saying before Ferdinand Brother to Charles the Fifth That Kingdom was Elective whereas Uratislaus their first King was made so from Duke by the Emperour Henry the Fourth who always after had a right of Nomination but his Power in those troublesome Times throughout Germany being very Precarious and his Avocations elsewhere not Suffering him to attend the Transactions of so many several Districts the People or States oftentimes assum'd that Power to themselves where notwithstanding they generally had regard to the Royal Family though not immediate Successor some other more prevalent with the Mob and their Leaders carried his own Business by promising to carry theirs better Nay to shew further that the greatest Sticklers for the People's Right had regard to the Royal Line when they chose this Unfortunate Frederick Elector Palatine a Descent was fram'd for him from Sophia Sister to Ladislaus the Second 'T is likewise a gross Mistake that the German Emperours were not Chosen till the Turks became great in Europe Charles the Fourth was chosen 1346. at which time the Turks had not set one foot there and so in the same manner his Three immediate Successors Wencislaus Sigismund and Albert when he was not come nigh nor any ways fear'd by the Western Empire though very formidable to the Eastern yet these Four are produc'd as Instances thereof At which rate he runs on without any regard to Truth or History and let them that will follow him I shall not but only observe at this very time when the Elector was made the Peoples Property there had been four Kings successively of the House of Austria Ferdinand Maximilian Rodolphus and Matthias Ferdinand the Second Adopted Son of Matthias doubting the Mob's Majority got himself Nominated without them according to the Original Institution and having both Prescription and Possession two strong Titles when those others put in their Claim it was Baffled at the Swords Point and the Kingdom hath been the quieter ever since But not to think with our Enthusiasts that Success is always an Argument of Right I shall refer it to what King Iames told Archbishop Abbot 'T was a Faction in Religion set up his Son there and God would never Prosper them And so likewise the Duke of Saxony sent Frederick word That he had often represented what Ruin was like to attend him by taking another Crown and for his own part he was bound to chastize the Rebels so that it seems he look'd upon them as such and 't is probable refus'd the Crown upon that Account for it was profer'd both him and the Duke of Lorrain which tend little to the Reputation of a Calvinist Prince that he should accept what a Lutheran and Papist whether out of Conscience Policy or both thought not fit to venture upon If this new King took that Crown in hopes of Assistance from his Father in Law here he was much mistaken for whatever Mr. Coke thinks he thought better and had asserted the Right of Crown'd Heads so far as he could upon no account give way to have them transferred upon every Mob Caprice Nay supposing a just Title I cannot imagine what Supply could been have given him Mony must have come from the Parliament who had been very backward upon other Occasions and would have been soon weary here and for Men there was no way of conveying them unless some Dutch Conjurer would have undertaken it in a Cloud through the Air no Neighbour Princes care to have such Cattle march through their Country and half a Score at least must have been treated with in Order to this Expedition most if not all of which might have served us as the French and Dutch did the Ten Thousand sent under Count Mansfield give fair Words but permit them not to come on Shore till more than half were perished on Ship-board So that to spend no more Words nor time upon Suppositions as matters really stood without Good Cause Good Courage or Good Conduct what could King Iames do more than he did treat with the House of Austria for an Accomodation of the most Rash Indiscreet ay and Unjustifyable enterprise ever any Prince engag'd in whatever the Zealous party did then or hath ever since said to defend it amongst which is Arch-Bishop Abbot's Letter so carefully recorded by Mr. Rushworth which after
doth say of man so it is in hazzard to be verified concerning the whole Religion and service of God The time thereof may peradventure fall out to Threescore and Ten years or if strength do serve unto Fourscore what followeth is like to be small joy for them whosoever they be that behold the same Now whoever makes the Computation will find it exactly 80 years from that Regular Establishment of our Church in the first of Queen Elizabeth to the setting up their Dagon the Covenant in Thirty Eight Which Caledonian Paw as Rushworth terms it or Northern Storm attended even to Observation with bad weather and worse designs sending forth its pestilent vapours and Blasting the whole Island with the thick Mists and dark Foggs of Sedition and Disobedience to the first disturbance of our Martyr's happy Reign and the Nation 's as happy Peace it will be requisite to begin with those Commotions show how groundless and unreasonable they were when that unhappy people suffered themselves to be so cursedly possest with the witchcraft of Rebellion then and how the same Spirit seems still to engage our several Setts of Commonwealth Libellers in reviving the like confusions and to state the whole proceedure in as true a light as such Dark designs will admit take it in these following Particulars 1. The Scotch Nation by King Iames's pacifick deportment whilst there and too obliging bounty whilest her had enjoy'd with great plenty a continued peace for above forty years which none of their Records can give an account of for so long a time before though they pretend to go as far back as most other Nations now in being except China and who ever observes how frequent their Feuds have been amongst themselves and Factious oppositions against their Kings and Faithful Adherents may rather admire they should remain so long quiet than now break out into open Rebellion especially having their old Allye of France to Back and Bribe them 2. Pretence of Religion had been the Common Theme of Contention amongst them ever since the Reformation whereas in too many other places the sincere indeavours of such as design'd a Regular and Orthodox Establishment met with too many obstructions from the Sacrilegious on the one hand and the Factious on the other However the Sober Party prevailed so far as when in the Minority of King Iames a Consultation was held for setling the Polity of the Church there was great regard had to Primitive Episcopacy and several Articles agreed upon for authorizing the same all which Roger Coke is forc'd to own The Hierarchy of the Church of Scotland as they were esteemed one of the States in Parliament was not then nor after taken away he should rather have said was continu'd as Arch Bishop Spotswood tells according to a former draught where the term Superintendent was used for Bishop in imitation of some Lutheran Churches though their Office was during Life and Power Episcopal And here to show our Friend Roger's great consistency with himself I must cursorily observe that in the same Page where he owns the foremention'd Hierarchy he tells us Their Reformation was purely after the mode of Calvin and Church of Geneva Indeed there was a Mob Reformation always on foot amongst them and so will be unto the end of the world unless better care be taken and the Abetting Great ones made sensible of their infatuations not to call them worse yet this very attempt according to the Reverend Spotswood was some years after viz. 1575. In the Church saith he this year began the Innovations to break forth that to this day have kept it in continual unquietness Andrew Melvin who was lately come from Geneva hot and eager upon any thing he went about laboured with a burning desire to bring into the Church the Presbyterian Discipline of Geneva c. So that it seems in this judicious Historians opinion the Geneva model was an Innovation in the Kirk of Scotland and doubtless is no less in the Church of Christ. Iohn Knox indeed had attempted something of the same kind several years before fram'd a policy partly in imitation of the Reformed Churches in Germany partly of that he had seen at Geneva which a Temporal Lord called a Devout imagination altogether unpracticable and a Spiritual gave a severer charge but this was in their first recess from Rome when no setled Establishment was fix'd upon insomuch as the year before upon condition Queen Elizabeth would assist them in expelling the French they engaged to recieve our English Liturgy all which Buchanan owns Scoti ex servitute Gallica Anglorum auxiliis liberati eisdem Ritibus cum Anglis communibus subscripserunt Lib. 19. And as it appears from Knox's History this was really put in practice and a Constitution ordered thereupon but their turn was no sooner serv'd both their Enemies and Friends departed but they immediately fell off from what 't is probable very few intended ever to observe Neither could it be expected they should long accord to any thing from us who had so little amongst themselves what with Deposing their Prince and Opposing one another the many Contests amongst the Nobility and Factions amongst the Clergy it was several years ere they could fix upon that little Settlement aforemention'd which when agreed to the Rapine of Sacrilege and Rage of Sectaries abetting each other little good effect came thereof the sincere indeavours and serious admonitions of those few who design'd well were no more heard amongst the many intriguing clamors than a whisper in the Cyclops's Den perhaps no Nation but themselves can parallel such continu'd Distractions both in Church and State as they then abounded with and upon every occasion are still ready to fly into 3. These confusions continu'd all the Minority of King Iames with such other insolencies and affronts to his Royal Person Crown and Dignity as no Crown'd-head ever met with but there some of their Neighbours indeed have been their sordid Imitators since however as he got years he got ground too brought them to something of temper before he left that Kingdom and when fix'd here in England establish'd the Hierarchy by Primitive Ordination and retreiv'd some of it's Revenue from those greedy Harpies which oppos'd it for that very reason procur'd those commonly call'd the Five Articles of Perth to pass the General Assembly and afterward the Parliament being very well pleas'd in so nigh an approach to the Church of England which he despair'd not to carry on further as to Liturgy and Canons the only thing wanting to the perfecting the Ecclesiastical Union his heart was very much set upon for 4. At the foremention'd Assembly of Perth there was an order to have a Liturgy fram'd and Canons made for the Church of Scotland as appears by the proceedings of that Assembly pag. 40. and 68. so that it was a great mistake in Bishop Hackett or something worse in his Patron Williams who must be his informer
free exercise of their Religion and the abolition of such Laws as render the Catholicks uncapable of any Office Place Commodity or Profit to the extraordinary decay of their Estates Education and Learning From whence it is clear That tho' the design was laid before yet as to the Conduct and Management thereof they exactly copyed their Neighbours the Scots and the Devil could not furnish them with any other Precedent more proper for their Design The King likewise was proportionably abus'd in his Concessions and Favours for the leading men in this Rebellion having appear'd against the great Earl of Strafford and been countenanc'd by our violent Factions here in their Complaints of Grievance and Heavy Impositions the Lords Iustices who were then in the Supream Power must be order'd to caress the Gentlemen and comply in whatever insolent demands they should insist upon by which means some of the Popish Lawyers Members of that House of Commons the better to carry on that Rebellion they had in design were so impudent as to lay down these Maxims and vouch them for Law 1. That any one being killed in Rebellion tho' found by matter of Record would give the King no forfeiture of Estate 2. That tho' many thousands stood up in Arms working all manner of Destruction yet if they profess not to rise against the King that it was no Rebellion 3. That if a man were Outlaw'd for Treason and his Land rested in the Crown or given away by the King his Heir might come afterwards be admitted to reverse the Outlawry and recover his Ancestor's Estate These and many such like Rebel Tenents were publish'd that Session after the Murder of the Earl of Strafford an abundant confirmation how requisite his strict Hand was for such a loose People which to astonishment the Government did not see or would not take notice of till the Knife was at their Throats and many thousands of them cut although they must have all a-long observ'd how uneasie the Irish had been under their Conquest tho' better govern'd perhaps than had it been in their own hands how strangely influenc'd by their Priests and bigotted upon that account so that they might alledge the same pretence of Religion and Property with their Neighbours and have just the same reason to Rebell that is none at all But that which surpriseth me most is that these People should have liberty to sit in Parliament Comptrol and Vote against whatever Sanctions had been or were farther to be enacted in order to keep them the better in subjection the freedom of their Consciences might surely have been thought enough but the Freedom of Governing too must bring all to confusion as it here happen'd to a horrid degree But 't is not my Province to take notice of this or any of their other Rebellions farther than the Reputation and Memory of our Royal Sufferer is concern'd whose treatment as to these Irish Affairs was more barbarous and inhumane than all the rest as well from the Forgeries on their side to inveigle and abuse the People as the villainous spreading of them here where it requir'd some time to procure a right Information We must know therefore That when the Faction here had actually drawn their Sword against their Sovereign amongst many other Calumnies and Detractions laid to his charge in the several Declarations and Answers they sent abroad there were few without some secret Reflections as if the Rebellion in Ireland began by his Knowledge and Connivance from which intimations their impudent Agents and Emissaries the allow'd Scriblers and News Prints the Pest of that and all other Ages where permitted would have those many Massacres and Murders laid at his Door which the Good Man's Heart more unfeignedly lamented than all the Members of both Houses Nevertheless as His Majesty himself foretold concerning the many Iealousies rais'd and Scandals cast upon him by his Enemies his Reputation like the Sun after Owls and Batts have had their Freedom in the Night and darker times brake forth and recover'd it self to such a degree of Splendor as those Feral Birds griev'd to behold and were unable to bear for as no good man believ'd any of those Calumnies at first so the next return or two of Post or Ship they were blown away with the same Wind which brought them hither and the Faction forc'd to rack their Wits for a fresh reproach wherewith the Devil never fail'd to supply them But that after several years of happy Sunshine another Sett of those nasty Birds should appear again hooping and howling the same notorious falsehoods to a Generation which was not then born and too little considering the mischiefs then wrought looks very ominous and God grant it doth not bode a greater darkness than any we then lay under The first reproach which this false and feather Bird Ludlow howls forth against the King is That whilst in Scotland he had News of the Irish Rebellion how the Papists throughout the Kingdom were in Arms c. and then closeth the Relation with this Villainous hearsay The News of this Rebellion as I have heard from persons of undoubted Credit was not displeasing to the King though it was attended with the Massacre of many thousands of the Protestants there p. 17. Though we are not to take his word for the Credit of the persons who related this yet we may take our measures from his relation that they were equally to be credited with himself that is not all for all this is gratis dictum without the least Authority any thing of a reason or so much as probable conjecture for so hellish an Aspersion Whereas there is express matter of Fact even to demonstration that never any thing more sensibly affected him in that upon the first notice thereof he sent Sir Iames Stewart to the Lords of the Privy-Council at Dublin with Instructions what he thought most proper to be done and furnish'd them with all that Money his present stores could supply He mov'd also the Parliament in Scotland to a speedy help but they desir'd to be excus'd till the States of England were consulted who if they thought fit to use any of their men propositions should be made in order thereunto designing to make a Market to themselves of their Neighbour Nations miseries wherein notwithstanding many of their own Countrymen were concerned At the same time likewise he sent Post to the Parliament of England where several Resolves were taken and Votes made but little effectually done till the King's Return To speak truly had Ludlow's reflection been made upon them there had been much more Credit for it since they laid hold of all advantages thereby not only to slander and abuse his Majesty but to help themselves forward in that Rebellion they were just ripe for acting as will by and by be made appear With the same Owl-light Credit he proceeds and tells us About this time great numbers of English Protestants flying from the Bloody hands
care taken of them as 't is beyond expression to relate how miserably they suffered for want of Victuals Stores Clothes Pay indeed whatever was requisite to their subsistence as Men or accommodation as Soldiers The Parliament being so wholly intent upon their English Rebellion could spare no time nor charge to prosecute that just War upon which scandalous neglect all Parties concerned more especially the Commanders and Soldiers earnestly begg'd leave of the King that they might be remov'd and engag'd against any Enemy whatsoever but Hunger And this amongst other inducements was the chief of that Cessation Ludlow inveighs so bitterly against p. 65. as likewise that the Earl of Leicester staid so long and did not go at last for he was always hastned by the K. and every thing restor'd more than he had occasion for or was really design'd thither But he meeting with many complaints from thence and observing how difficult it was to get a Supply by his Solicitation here and how much worse when gone thither upon that account did not stir What Ludlow further saith as to the Cessation that the King agreed to it contrary to his Engagement with both Houses not to treat with the Rebels unless they concurred p. 65. is of no validity that agreement was before the English were in actual Rebellion and his Majesty thought such compliance might prevent it but falling out otherwise 't is a pretty Supposition that when a Prince hath two Nations in Rebellion he must ask the one whether he shall treat with the other 'T is also absolutely false that this Cessation in Ireland induced the Parliament to treat with their Friends in Scotland to march to their assistance into England 't was the Prospect thereof induced the King to the Cessation which he was always advised of that notwithstanding the Condescentions he had yielded to and Protestations made by them they design'd only to take breath and would be ready at the first clinking of the English Money and if they had pretended no more there might have been something said as they were men of Fortune by way of Apology that having not repented their Rebellion the Lucre thereof might oblige their continuance but to continue the making Religion their property to Rebel against their King for imposing the English Liturgy or somewhat like it and now invade his Kingdom to impose their cursed Covenant is such a procedure as none but their own Country can give an instance of At Uxbridge Treaty the Irish concern was one main head wherein the Parliament as indeed in all other matters were so refractory and haughty as to exclude the King from being any ways concerned either in the management of War or Peace he must not so much as nominate his Deputy or one single Officer which therefore coming to an end without effect his Majesty had all the reason in the world to press that Cessation into a Peace wherein the Duke of Ormond and several of his Friends there were imploy'd as likewise Commissioners from them treating at Oxon but what with the Nuncio's Insolence and Bigottry of the Ecclesiasticks all came to nothing whereas would that Priest-ridden Nation have understood their own Interest and acted for their safety they might have expiated somewhat for their former bloodshed whereof many of their own Party were very much asham'd obtain'd a reasonable Liberty of Conscience with other immunities and prevented that utter desolation they were afterwards so justly brought into On the contrary they shuffled at such an idle rate play'd the Bogtrotters in Politicks too imposing upon every necessity they saw his Majesty really or likely to be under and so shuffled off and on till they lost him and in him themselves to a most deplorable condition as bloody Savages as they were And if there yet wants a farther confirmation of this our Martyr's Integrity and Detestation as to the premisses take this farther account Dr. Nalson in the Preface to his Collections mentions a Letter still to be seen in the Paper Office intercepted by a Party of the Parliament Army very much a propo it was from the Lord Digby by the Kings order to the Irish Catholicks as they must be termed or no treating with them wherein he lets them know how prejudicial their standing off had been to his Affairs and most prophetically foretells that Destruction the prosperous Rebels here wou'd bring home to their own doors Declaring withal that were the condition of his Affairs much more desperate than it is he would never redeem them by any concessions of so much wrong to his Honour and Conscience and yet his Affairs were now at a very low Ebb this being written soon after the Fatal blow at Naseby The Dr. relates farther that he found this Letter had been before the Committee which perus'd such as might most expose the King by being Printed and Indors'd with Rushworth's own hand that faithful Collector of whatever tends to Treason and Mischief Quere as to the Printing this Letter and a little after needless to be Printed 'T is much they did not order it to the Fire since 't is an irrefragable Testimony of the most unbyassed Sincerity any but the King of Kings could propound to walk by and this will stifle the last Effort of our Author 's rancorous spite in reference to the Irish Affairs who tells us the Earl of Glamorgan was impowred by private Instructions to promise the Liberty of the Romish Religion with diverse other advantages to the Irish Rebels c. P. 163. the Earl of Glamorgan was a zealous Romanist and had put himself very forward to be tampering in that Affair but still the Marquiss of Ormond was Supream in that Government and finding him to exceed his Commission confined him as Guilty of High-Treason and whatever he writ to his Lady had not all things gone to confusion would never have been able to justifie his proceedings nor Ludlow that vile suggestion that the Officers and Soldiers in Dublin obliged the Marquess of Ormond to treat with the Parliament Commissioners for putting that City into their hands P. 164. I know not what flam stories Sir Francis Willoughby might think to gratify Ludlow withall when he was Paramount in Ireland but cannot believe it was in his power to deliver that Castle without the Marquess's consent To be sure the whole matter was adjusted between the King and him some time before things came to the Extremity for we find in Doctor Burlace this intimation of his Majesty's pleasure That if it were possible for the Marquess to keep Dublin and the other Garrisons under the same intire Obedience to his Majesty they were then in it would be acceptable to his Majesty But if there were or should be a necessity of giving them up to any other Power he should rather put them into the hands of the English than the Irish which was accordingly done An Evidence even to Demonstration that though the King treated with the Irish and might
and Conscience the two last were not kept for he was pressed to settle Religion as they desir'd wherewith his Conscience was not satisfy'd Next his Subjects had not free access to him but Proclamations were issued out forbidding them to come to him neither was the Ceremony due to him as King suffer'd to be paid him at his entry to New-Castle And lastly his Servants were not suffer'd to wait on him And his Majesty attested Montrevil if those Conditions were not made to him who confidently affirm'd it in all their Presence and that he had the Authentick Assurances in French The Commissioners retired to think of an Answer but when they return'd they desired his Majesty would put Montrevil to it to declare what those Assurances were and who gave them but this was not done Next they said they would not treat with the King in his Presence nor admit the Interposition of any Foreign Agent between them and their Native Prince And the Commissioners of the Army resolv'd that no suspected Person should be suffer'd to wait on the King with which his Majesty was highly displeas'd and for some Days would not eat in Publick but only in his Chamber This last Passage I have from an unexceptionable Authority whose Affection to his Native Country could give Place to nothing but Truth and therefore he seems to palliate the Matter a little on their behalf that Montrevil did not declare what the Assurances were nor who gave them which yet seems not to be his Fault for that they fully resolv'd against his Presence and Interposition for the future in any such like Affairs And upon the same account he declares further on it did not appear what Grounds Montrevil had for giving the King those Assurances and must be very slight and only from single Persons not any Iunto or Iudicatory Such a secret Transaction could not be done with all the Formalities of a Solemn Treaty yet doubtless Montrevil had his Assurances from Levens with most of the other General Officers and Scotch Commissioners then before Newark which was a considerable Iunto and I humbly conceive Iudicatories have little to do in concerns of that Nature But it had been all one though never so exactly drawn up and would have been as little observ'd as the first Pacification or last promise of never drawing Sword against him more But my particular Business is to trace Ludlow who tells us The Commissioners of Parliament joyning with those who were before with the King endeavour'd to perswade him to agree to the Propositions of the Parliament but he disliking several Things in them and most of all the abolition of Episcopacy to which Interest he continu'd obstinately stedfast refused his consent upon private Encouragement from some of the Scots and English to expect more easy Terms or to be received without any at all p. 183 The Encouragement he mentions is only a Flam of his own the Scots kept too strict a Guard upon him to have any but his Enemies to converse with nay which is worse they oblig'd him to discharge all his Friends then in Arms not only here in England but Montross in Scotland and Ormond in Ireland Neither was the Abolition of Episcopacy the main Obstacle although it was hard when he alone by himself had so shamefully bafled their great Champion Henderson upon that Subject to be so violently press'd from a Truth they could so little disprove But setting aside this Fellow's Spite who would needs make this the chief obstacle the King in his brisk Answer to the whole body of their Propositions from Newcastle August 1. 46. tells them They were such as did import the greatest Alterations in Government both in Church and Kingdom yet these were positively sent for his Majesty's Concurrence without allowing the Commissioners to give Reasons for their Demands or the hearing the King's Reasons against them which occasion'd his smart Reply upon their saying They had no Power to treat that saving the Honour of the Business an honest Trumpeter might have done as much To these Propositions Ludlow tells us the Scots Commissioners especially Lord Lowdon press'd the King very earnestly to comply telling him that though they were higher in some Particulars than they could wish yet if he continu'd to reject them he must not expect to be received in Scotland whither they must return and deliver him up to the Parliament in England But whatever they or the English said made no impression c. p. 184. The Truth of it is after all the Scotch Rodomantades Lowdon's in particular how much it was against the Laws of Nature Nations and Hospitality to Deliver and betray those that had fled to any for Succour their Brethren at Westminster knew how much there was of Iudas amongst them and having reduc'd their demand of a Million to 400000 l. agreed upon the Payment of one Moyety and the Publick Faith for the other to have the King Deliver'd to them who good Man laments that his Price should be so much above his Saviours And to clear himself from the base Reflections they made upon his Steady well grounded Resolves he declares what they call Obstinacy I know God accounts honest Constancy from which Reason and Religion as well as Honour forbid me to recede For you must know the Scots whilst in their Hands not only permitted but encourag'd the most Rigid of their Kirkmen to bait him at an impudent Rate as well from the Pulpit as otherwise as positively denouncing him damn'd for refusing the Covenant as 't is to be fear'd might fall to their lot for forcing it In the next Paragraph p. 186. Ludlow Commenceth a Quarrel with all the World both at Home and abroad for upon the French Embassador's coming over to endeavour a Reconciliation between King and Parliament he tells you how it was rejected they resolving to determin it themselves without the interposition of any an infallible sign of a just Cause where no body but themselves must Iudge having experienc'd that most of the Neighbouring States especially the Monarchical were at the bottom their Enemies That they were not their Friends was certain but that they should be so little their Enemies was a great Shame that so many Crown'd Heads should stand by and see a Brother Monarch Dethron'd and Murther'd at so barbarous a rate was a Sign that which is call'd Antient Honour was at a very low Ebb and the Sacro-Sancta Mrjestas left destitute of all Appeal but to the King of Kings who for ought we know may be still making Inquisition for that Blood this Son of Belial so much thirsted after and never at rest till poured forth and therefore henceforward 't is his sole Business to enveigh against all that would not go along with him and his Crew in that horrid Perpetration first he falls upon the Parliament for their frequent Overtures of Peace made to the King though he had not a Sword left wherewith to oppose them p. 187.