one of their Election And lastly he trusted them with his greatest strength of all with his Navie Royall and call'd home Pennington who had the guard of the narrow Seas so many yeares Peregrin Truly Sir I never remember to have heard or read of such notable acts of grace and confidence from any King but would not all this suffice Patricius No But they demanded all the Land Souldiery and military strength of the Kingdome to be disposed of by them and to be put into what posture and in what Equipage and under what Commanders they pleas'd And this was the first thing his Majesty ever denyed them yet he would have granted them this also for a limited time but that would not serve the turn Hereupon his Majesty grew a little sensible how they inch'd every day more and more upon his Royall Prerogatives And intending to go to his Town of Hull to see his Magazin which he had bought with his own money with his ordinary train he was in a hostile manner kept out Canons mounted Pistols cockt and leveld at him But whether that unlucky Knight Hotham did this out of his fidelity to the Parl. or out of an apprehension of feare that some about the King being mov'd with the barbarousnesse of the action would have pistold him I will not determine Peregrin I have read of divers affronts of this kinde that were offerd to the French Kings Rochell shut her gates more than once against Henry the Great and for the King now regnant they did not only shut him out of many of his Towns but upon the gates of some of them they writ in legible Characters Roy san Foy ville sans peur a faithlesse King a fearlesse Towne Yet in the greatest heat of those warres there was never any Towne refus'd to let in her King provided he came attended onely with his own traine and besides other people abroad I heard the Scot's nation did abhor that Act at Hull But I pray Sir go on Patricius His Majesty being thus shut out of one Towne he might justly suspect that an attempt might be made to shut him in in some other Therefore he made a motion to the Yorke-shire Gentlemen to have a gard for the preservation of his Person which was done accordingly But I am come to forward I must go backe and tell you how the King was driven from Westminster When His Majesty was return'd from Scotland he retir'd to Hampton Court whence upon the Lord Majors and the Cities humble solliciâ—…ation he came back to White-hal to keep his Christmas But when the Bill against Bishops was in agitation which businesse â—…asted neer upon ten weekes a crue of bold â—…turdie mechanicks and mariners came â—…rom the Citie and ruffled before White-hall and Westminster-hall and would have violated the Abby of Westminster so that for many â—…ights a Court of gard was forced to be kept â—…n the body of that Church the chiefest Sanctuary of the Kingdom Moreover His Majesty having impeached some of the Members of both Houses of High Treason and being denied to have them delivered up he went himself to the Lower House to demand them assuring the House they should have as faire and legall a triall as ever men had But as it pleas'd God they were not there but retir'd to London for refuge The Londoners grew starke wilde thereupon and notice being sent to all the adjacent Counties this act of the Kings though it wanted no precedents of former times was aggravated in the highest degree that possibly could be Hence you may easily inferre what small securitie his Majesty had at White-hall and what indignities he might have exposed himself unto by that which had pass'd already from the Rabble who had vilified and cried tush at his proclamations and disgorg'd other rebellious speeches with impunity therefore he retird to Hampton Court as we read our Saviour withdrew himselfe once from the multitude thence to Windsor Castle whence accompanying her Majesty with his eldest daughter to the sea side for Holland and having commanded the Prince to attend him against his return at Greenwich the Prince had been surpriz'd and brought to London had not the King come a little before Thence he removed to Yorke where he kept his Court all the Sommer But to returne to London the very next day after their Majesties departure the Countrey about especially Buckinghamshire being incited by the Câ—…tie and Parliament came in great swarmes and joyning with the London mechanicks they ruffled up and down the streets and kept such a racket making the fearfull'st riot that ever I beleeve was heard of in Parliament time so those Members which formerly were fled into the Citie were brought to the House in a kind of triumph being garded by land and water in warlike manner by these Champions After this sundry troops of horse came from all the shires near adjoyning to â—…he Parliament and Buckingham men were â—…he first who while they express'd their â—…ve to Hamden their Knight forgot their â—…worn oath to their King and in stead of feathers they carried a printed Protestation in â—…heir hats as the Londoners had done a litâ—…le before upon the Pikes point Peregrin This kept a foul noise beyond Sea I reâ—…ember so that upon the Rialto in Venice â—…t was sung up and down that a Midsummer Moon though it was then midst of Winter did raign amongst the English and you must â—…hink that it hath made the Venetian to â—…hrink in his shoulders and to look but ill-favouredly upon us since wee 'l have none of his currans But Sir I heard much of that Protestation I pray what was the substance of it Patricius It was penn'd and enjoyn'd by the Parâ—…iament for every one to take and it consisted of many parts the first was to maintain the tru Potestant Religion against all Popish innovations which word Popish as som think was scrued in of purpose for a loop hole to let in any other innovation the second was to maintain the Prerogative anâ—… Honour of the King then the power and priviledge of Parliament and lastly the Propriety and Liberty of the subject for threâ—… parts of this Protestation the people up anâ—… down seem'd to have utterly forgotteâ—… them and continue so still as if their consciences had bin tied only to the third viz the priviledge of Parliament and never was ther a poor people so besotted never waâ—… reason and common sence so baffled in anâ—… part of the world And now will I go to attend His Majesty at York where as I told you before being loth to part with his Sword though he had half parted with his Scepter before by denying the Parliament an indefinite time to dispose of the Militia alleadging that as the Word so the thing was new He sends forth his Commissions of Array according to the old Law of England which declares iâ—… to be the undoubted Right and Royall Signorie of the King to arm or disarm any
for his time play'd his Cards more cunning than ever Count Gondomar did knew well and therefore as I heard som French men say he got Letters of Revocation before his designed time but it seems strange to me that the King who is the Protectour of the Law and Fountain of Justice cannot have the benefit of the Law himself which the meanest of his vassals can claim by right of inheritance 'T is strange I say that the Law shold be a dead letter to him who is the Life of the Law but that for omission of some punctillio in the form of the Processe the charge of high Treason shold be so slightly wav'd specially Treason of so universall a concernment that it may be call'd a complication of many Treasons for if in every petty State it be High Treason to treat only with any Forrein Power without the privity of the Prince it must needs be Treason of a higher nature actually to bring them in And hereof I could alleadge you many pregnant instances ancient and modern but that I do not desire to interrupt you in your relation Patricius The Parliament as I told you before armed apace it was not fitting then His Majesty shold sit idle therfore he summons those Nobles and others who had an immediate relation unto him by Office or Service to attend him at York according to their particular obligation and oath But it seems the Parliament assumed power to dispence with those oaths and excuse their attendance which dispensation prevail'd with som tender consciences yet the Great Seal posted to Court and after it most of the Nobles of the Land with the flower of the Gentry and many of the prime Members of the Commons House so that were it not for the locall priviledge the Parliament for number of Members might be said to be ever since about the King These Nobles and Gentlemen resenting His Majesties case and what practices ther were on foot to alter the Government both of Church and State not only advised His Majesty to a royall war for defence of his Crown and Dignity but contributed very chearfully and have stood constant to the work ever since Peregrin They have good reason for it for the security of the Nobility and Gentry depends upon the strength of the Crown otherwise popular Government wold rush in like a torrent upon them But surely those Nobles and those Parliament Gentlemen and others som of whom I understand were reputed the wisest and best weigh'd men for experience and parts thorowout the whole Kingdom and were cryed up in other Parliaments to be the most zealous Patriots for the propriety and freedom of the Subject wold never have stuck so firmly to His Majesty had they not known the bottom of his designs that it was far from his thoughts to bring in the Pope or French Government for therby they shold have betrayed their own posterity and made their children slaves Patricius To my knowledge these Nobles and Gentlemen are still the very same as they were in former Parliaments wherin they were so cryed up for the truest lovers of their Country and best Common-wealths-men yet now they are branded and voted to be Seducers and Traytors because according to their oaths and consciences they adhere to the King their Master and Liege-Lord for maintenance of that Religion they were baptized and bred in Those most Orthodox and painfull Divines which till this Parliament began were accounted the precisest sort of Protestants are now cryed down for Papists though they continue still the very same men both for opinions and preaching and are no more Papists than I am a Pythagorean In fine a tru English Protestant is put now in the same scale with a Papist and made Synonyma's And truly these unhappy Schismaticks could not devise how to cast a greater infamy upon the English Protestant than they have done of late by these monstrous imputations they wold fasten upon him such opinions which never entred into his thoughts they wold know ones heart better than himself and so would be greater Kardiognosticks than God Almighty But to draw to a conclusion The Parliaments Army multiplyed apace in London the Kings but slowly in the North so that when he displayed his Royal Standard at Nottingham his Forces were not any thing considerable so that if the Parliaments Generall Essex had then advanced towards him from Northampton he had put him to a very great strait they encreased somthing at Derby and Stafford but when he was come to Shrewsbury the Welch-men came running down the mountains in such multitudes that their example did much animate the English so that his army in lesse than a month that the Court continued in Shrewsbury came to near upon twenty thousand Horse and Foot not long before the Nephew Princes came over and the first encounter Prince Rupert had with the Parliaments Forces was at Worcester where he defeated the flower of their Cavalry and gave them a smart blow At Shrewsbury His Majesty took a resolution to march with His whole Army towards London but after seven days march he understood the Parliaments Forces were within six miles side-long of him and so many miles he went out of His road to find them out and face them Upon Sunday morning he was himself betimes upon Edge-Hill wher the Enemies Colours plainly appear'd in vale before Keinton it was past two in the after-noon before all his Infantery could get to the bottom who upon sight of the Enemies Colours ran as merrily down the Hill as if they had gone to a Morris dance So His Majesty himself being Generalissimo gave command the great Ordnance shold flye for a defiance so the battell began which lasted above three hours and as some French and Dutch Commanders who were engag'd in the Fight told me they never remembred to have seen a more furious battail for the time in all the German wars Prince Rupert pursued the Enemies Horse like a whirl-wind near upon three miles and had ther bin day enough when he came back to the Infanterie in all probability a totall defeat had bin given them So that the same accident may be said to fall out here as happened in that famous battell at Lewis in Henry the thirds time where the Prince of Wales afterwards Edward the first was so eager and went so far by excesse of courage from the body of the Army in pursuance of the Londoners that it was the fatall cause of the losse of that mighty battail His Majesty to his deserved and never-dying glory comported himself like another Caesar all the while by riding about and encouraging the Souldiers by exposing his person often to the reach of a Musket-bullet and lying in the field all that bleak night in his Coach Notwithstanding that many lying Pamphlets were purposely printed here to make the world believe that he had retir'd himself all the time of the fight what partiall reports were made in the Guild-Hall to the
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
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
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
those watery fogs and mists which are drawn up out of fennie and rotten low grounds here upon earth so in the Region of the mind the ill vapors which ascend to the brain from rotten and impostumated hearts from desperate and malâ—…-contented humorists are the causes of all civil commotions and distempers in State But they have much to answer for in the world to come though they escape it in this who for any private interest or respect whatsoever either of Promotion Vain-glory Revenge Malice or Envie will embroyl and plunge their own native Country in any publick ingagement or civil war by putting a partition-wall betwixt their soverain Prince and their fellow-subjects Truely in my opinion these may be called the worst kind of Betrayers of their Countreys But I am too far transported from satisfying your request in relating the true causes of these calamities I will now fall to work and bring you to the very source of them Ther is a pack of perverse people composed for the most part of the scummie and basest sort multiplied in England who by a kind of natural inclination are opposit so point blank to Monarchy in State and Hierarchy in Church that I doubt if they were in Heven whither 't is to be fear'd they run a great hazard ever to enter it being a rule that he who is rotten-hearted to his King can never be right-hearted to his Creaâ—…or I say if these men were in Heven they wâ—…uld go near to repine at the Monarchical power of God Almighty himself as also at the degrees of Angels and the postures of holiness in the Church triumphant They call every Crotchet of the brain tenderness of conscience forsooth which being well examined is nothing else but a meer spirit of contradiction of malice and disobedience to all higher powers which possesseth them Ther are no constitutions either Ecclesiastical or Civil can please them but they wold cast both into such and such a mould which their crack'd brains wold fain devise yet are never able to bring to any perfection They are ever labouring to bring Religion to the dock and to be new trimm'd but they wold take down her fore-Castle and scarce allow her the Kings Armes to adorn her They are great listners after any Court-news and prick up their ears when any thing is spoken of King Queen or Privie Councellour and are always ready though upon loose trust to take up any report whereby they may whisper in conventicles and corners and so traduce the Government These great Zâ—…lots use to look upon themselves most commonly through multiplying glasses which make them appear to be such huge Santons that it renders them not onely uncharitable in their opinions of others but Luciferian-like proud in their own conceit insomuch that they seem to scorn all the world besides beleeving that they are â—…he only Elect whose souls work according â—…o the motion of the Spirit that they are â—…he true Children of promise whose faces alone look towards Heven They are more pleased with some new reach or fancy that may puzzle the pericranium than a Frenchman is in some new faction in cloathing They are nearest to the nature of the Jew of any people upon earth and will converse with him sooner than with some sort of Christians And as in their pharisaicall Dispositions they symbolize with the Iew so in some of their positions they jump pat with the Iesuit for though they are both in the extremes and as contrary one to the other as the points of a diameter yet their opinions and practises are concentrique viz. to depresse regall power Both of them wold bind their Kings in Chaines and the Nobles in links of Iron They both deny all passive obedience and as the one wold have the morter of the Temple tempred with blood so the other wold beat Religion into the brain with the poleaxe Their greatest master-piece of policy is to forge counterâ—…eit news and to divulge and disperse it as far as they can to amuse the world for the advancement of their designs and strengthing their party But the Iesuit doth it more cunningly and modestly for he fetcheth his news from far so that before the falshood of it can be contrould his work is commonly done and the news forgotten But these later polititians use to raise lies hard by home so that the grosseness and palpablenesse of them is presently discovered Besides to avoid the extremes of the other these later seem to fall into flat prophanness for they may be called a kind of enemies to the very Name Crosse and Church of Christ. Touching the first They repine at any reverence to be done unto the name of Jesus though spontaneous not coercive For the second which was held from the beginning to be the badg and Banner of a Christian they cry up the Crosse to be the mark of the bâ—…ast And for the last viz. the Church they wold have it to be neither beautifull holy nor amiable which are the three main properties that God requires in his house To conclude when any comes to be season'd with this sower leaven he seems to degenerat presently from the nature and garb of a Gentleman and fals to be of a sordid and low disposition narrow hearted and close handed to be timerous cunning and jealous and far from the common freedom and sweetness of morall society and from all generous and loyal thoughts towards his King and Country These these have bin the chiefest machinators and engeneers Englands unhappy divisions who Viper-like have torn the entrailes of their own mother their dear Country But ther were other extern concurrent causes and to find them out I must look Northward for there the cloud began to condense first You know Sir the Scot's nation were ever used to have their King personally resident amongst them and though King Iames by reason of his age bounty and long breeding there with other advantages drew such extraordinary respect from them that they continued in good conformity yet since his death they have been over-heard to mutter at the remotenesse and absence of their King and that they shold become now a kind of province by reason of such a distance some of their Nobles and Gentry found not at the English Court nor at his Majesties Coronation in Edenburgh that Countenance Familiarity Benefit and Honours which haply they expected and 't is well known who he was that having been denied to be lorded David Lesley took a pet and went discontented to his country hoping that some title added to the wealth he had got abroad should have purchased him more respect These discontented parties tamperd with the mercenary preachers up and down Scotland to obtrude to the pâ—…ple what doctrines they put into their mouthes so that the pulpits every where rung of nothing but of invectives against certain obliquities and Solaecismes and I cannot tell what in government and many glances they had upon the English Church
in the intervall Then after other choice portions of Scripture and passages relating to our Redemption and endearing unto us the merits of it with a more particular Confession of our Faith we are dismissed with a Benediction So that this Liturgy may be call'd an Instrument of many strings whereon the sighing soul sends up varions notes unto heaven It is a posie made up of divers flowers to make it the more fragrant in the nostrills of God Now touching your Bishops I never knew yet any Protestant Church but could be content to have them had they meanes to maintaine the Dignitie which the Churches of France with others have not in regerd the Reformation beg an first among the people not at Court as here it did in Engl. For unlesse ther be som Supervisers of Gods house endowed with eminent authority to check the fond fancies and quench the false fatuous fires of every private spirit and unlesse it be such an authority that may draw unto it a holy kind of awe and obedience what can be expected but confusion and Atheisme You know what became of the Israelites when the wonted reverence to the Ark and the Ephod and the Priest began to languish amongst them For the braine of man is like a garden which unlesse it be fenced about with a wall or hedge is subject you know to be annoyed by all kinde of beasts which will be ready to runne into it so the braine unlesse it be restrain'd and bounded in holy things by rules of Canonicall authoritie a thousand wild opinions and extravagant fancies will hourely rush into it nor was there ever any field so subject to produce Cockle and Darnell as the human brain is rank and ready to bring forth tares of Schism and Heresie of a thousand sorts unlesse after the first culture the sickle of Authority be applyed to grub up all such noisom weeds Patricius Yet this most antient dignity of Bishops is traduced and vilified by every shallow-pated petty Clerk and not so much out of a tru zeal as out of envy that they are not the like And touching our Liturgy wherof you have bin pleas'd to give so exact a Character people are come to that height of impiety that in som places it hath bin drown'd in other places burnt in som places torn in pieces to serve for the basest uses nay it hath bin preached publickly in Pulpits That it is a piece forg'd in the devils shop and yet the impious foul mouth'd Babbler never was so much as questioned for it Nor did the Church only eccho with these blasphemies but the Presse was as pregnant to produce every day som Monster either against Ecclesiasticall or Secular Government I am asham'd to tell you how som bold Pamphleters in a discourse of a sheet or two wold presume to question to dispute of and determin the extent of Monarchik jurisdiction what sturdy doubts what sawcy Quaeries they put what odd frivolous distinctions they fâ—…am'd That the King though he was Gods Anointed yet he was mans appointed That he had the commanding not the disposing power That he was set to rule over not to over-rule the people That he was King by human choice not by divine Charter That he was not King by the Grace of God so much as by the suffrage of the people That he was a Creaturâ—… and production of the Parliament That he had no implicit trust nor peculiar property in any thing That populus est potior Rege That Grex lege lex est Rege potentior That the King was singulis major universis minor wheras a successive Monarch Uno minor est Iove Sometimes they wold bring instances from the States of Holland sometimes from the Republick of Venice and apply them so impertinently to absolute and independant Royalty But I find that the discourse and inferences of these grand Statists were bottom'd upon four false foundations viz. That the King of whom they speak must be either a Minor and Idiot an insufferable Tyrant or that the Kingdom they mean is Elective None of all which is appliable either to our most gracious and excellently qualified King or to his renowned Kingdom which hath bin always reputed an ancient successive Monarchy govern'd by one Suprem undeposeable and independent head having the Dignity the Royall State and power of an Imperiall Crown and being responsible to none â—…ut to God Almighty and his own 〈◊〉 â—…or his actions and unto whom a Body â—…olitick compacted of Prelates 〈◊〉 and all degrees of people is naturally subject but this is a theam of that transcendenâ—…y that it requires a serious and solid Tractat rather then such a slender Discourse as this is to handle But I pray excuse me Sir that I have stept aside thus from the road of my main narration I told you before how the clashing 'twixt the Commission of Array and the Militia put all things in disarray throughout the whole Kingdom The Parliament as they had taken the first Military gard so they began to arm first and was it not high time then for His Majesty to do some thing think you yet he essayed by all ways imaginable to prevent a war and to conquer by a passive fortitude by cunctation and longanimity How many overtures for an accommodation did he make How many Proclamations of pardon How many elaborat Declarations breathing nothing but clemency sweetness and truth did drop from his own imperious invincible pen which will remain upon Record to all ages as so many Monuments to his eternall glory Yet som ill spirit stept still in between his Grace and the abused Subject for by the peremptory Order of Parliament O monstrous thing the said Proclamations of Grace and other His Majesties Declarations were prohibited to be read fearing that the strength and truth of them wold have had a vertue to unblind or rather unbewitcht for Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft the poor besotted people What deep Protestations and holy Vowes did he reiterate that the main of his designs was to preserve the tru Protestant Religion the known Lawes of the Land and the just priviledges of Parliament How often did he dehort and woo the City of London his imperiall Chamber from such violent courses so that she may be justly upbraided with the same words as the Prince of peace upbraided Ierusalem withall London London How often wold I have gathered thee as a â—…en doth her chickens under her wings yet thou wouldst not How often did he descend to acknowledg the manner of demanding the one and five Members in his publick Remonstrances and if ther was an errour in the proceedings how oft did he desire his Great Councell to direct him in a course how to go on in the Empeachment which they never did but wold reserve the priviledge to themselves to be judge and party Peregrin Can your Parliament protect high Treason I am sure the character of an Ambassadour cannot which the late French Ambassadour who
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
protestation when opportunity of time and place shall be offered CHARLES par la Providence de Dieu Roy de la grand ' Bretagne de France et d' Irlande Defenseur de la Foy c. A tous ceux qui ceste presente Declaration verront particulierement a Ceux de la Religion Reformee de quelque Nation degreou condition qu'ils soient Salut AYant receu advis de bonne main que plusieurs faux rapports lettres sont esparses parmi les Eglises Reformees de là la mer par la politique ou plustost la pernicieuse industrie de personnes mal affectionnes a nostre government que nous auons dessein a receder de celle Religion que Nous auons professè pratiquè tout le temps de nostre vie iusques a present de vouloir introduire la papautè derechef en nos Dominions Laquelle conjecture ou calumnie plustost appuyee sur nul fundement imaginable a suscitè ces horribles tumultes allumè le feu d' une tressanglante guerre en tous les quatre coins de ceste fleurissante Monarchie soubs pretexte d' une chymerique Reformation la quelle seroit incompatible avec le governement les loix fondementales de ce Royaume Nous Desiâ—…ons quil soit notoire a tout le monde que la moindre pensee de ce faire nâ—… a pas entree en nostre imagination de departir ancunement de cell ' Orthodoxe Religion qu' auec la Couronne le sceptre de ce Royaume Nous sommes tenus par un serment solennel sacramentaire a proteger defendre Ce qu' appert non seulement par nostre quotidienne presence es Exercies de la dite Religion avec tanâ—… d' asseverations a la teste de nos Armees la publicque Attestation de nos Barons avec le soin que nous tenons en la nourrituredes princes princesses nos ensans Mais le tres-heureux mariage que nous avons conclu entre la nostre plus aisnee le tres-illustrie prince d' Orenge en est encore un tres-evident tesmoignage par la quell ' alliance il appert aussy que nostre desir est de n' en faire pas vne nue profession seulement dicelle mais de la vouloir estendre corroberer autant qu' il nous est possible Cest ' Orthodoxe Religion de leglise Anglicane Ordonnee par tant de conventione de Teologues confirmee par tant de arrests d' Parlement fortifie par tant d' Edicts royaux auec la discipline la Lyturgiâ—… a elle appartenant laquelle discipline Lyturgie les plus celebres Autheurs Protestants tant Francois qu' Allemands tant Seudois que Suisses tant Belgiens que Bohemiens approuent entierement non sans quelqu envie en leur escrits particulierement en la Synode de Dort ou un de nos Euesques assistoit la Reverence precedence deue a sa dignite Ecclesiâ—…stique luy fut exactement rendue Ceste tres-sainte Religion que nostre feu pere de â—…res-heureuse memoire aduoue en sa celebre Confession de la Foy addressee come nous faisons ceste Declaration a tous Princes Chrestiens Nous Protestons que moyennant la grace de Dieu nous tascherone de conseruer ceste Religion inviolable en son entier selon la mesure de puissance que Dieu amis entre nos mains Et nous requerons commandons a tous nos ministres d' estat tant Ambassadeurs que Residens Agens ou messagers a tous autres nos subjects qui fontleurseiour es paysestrangers de communiquer maintenir adouuer cestenostre solennelle Protestation toutes fois quantes que l' ocasion se presentera APOLOGS OR FABLES MYTHOLOGIZ'D Out of whose Moralls the State and History of the late unhappy Distractions in Great Britain and Ireland may be Extracted Some of which Apologs have prov'd PROPHETICAL Nil est nisi Fabula Mundus LONDON Printed in the Year 1661. To my Honored and known friend Sir I. C. Knight SIR AMongst many other Barbarismes which like an impetuous Torrent have lately rush'd in upon us The interception and opening of Letters is none of the least For it hath quite bereft all ingenious Spirits of that correspondency and sweet communication of fancy which hath bin alwaies esteemed the best fuel of affection and the very marrow of friendship And truly in my judgement this custom may be termed not only a Barbarisme but the baâ—…est kind of Burglary that can be 't is a plundering of the very brain as is spoken in another place We are reduced here to that servile condition or rather to such a height of slavery that we have nothing left which may entitle us free Rationall creatures the thought it self cannot say 't is free much less the tongue or pen. Which makes me impart unto You the traverses of these turbulent times under the following fables I know you are an exquisite Astronomer I know the deep inspection you have in all parts of Philosophy I know you are a good Herald and I have found in your Library sundry books of Architecture and Comments upon Vitruvius The unfolding of these Apologues will put you to it in all these and will require your second if not your third thoughts and when you have concocted them well I believe else I am much deceived in your Genius they will afford you som entertainment and do the errand upon which they are sent which is to communicate unto you the most material passages of this long'd-for Parlement and of these sad confusions which have so unhing'd distorted transvers'd tumbled and dislocated all things that England may be termed now in comparison of what it was no other then an Anagram of a Kingdom One thing I promise you in the perusal of these Parables that you shall find no gingles in them or any thing sordid or scurrilous the common dialect and disease of these times So I leave you to the gard and guidance Of God and Vertu who do still advance Their Favorits maugre the frownes of Chance Your constant servant I. H. The great CONJUNCTION OR Parlement of STARS UPon a time the Stars complained to Apollo that he displayed his beams too much upon some malignant Planets That the Moone had too great a share of his influence and that he was carryed away too much by her motion They complained also that the constellation of Libra which holds the ballance of Justice had but a dim light and that the Astrean Court was grown altogether destructive with divers other grievances Apollo hereupon commanded Mercury to summon a generall Synod where some out of every Asterisme throughout the whole Firmament were to meet Apollo told them I am placed here by the finger of the Almighty to be Monarch of the skie to be the Measurer of Time and I goe upon his errand round about the worlâ—…
powerful as precedents The said example of Scotland wrought wonderfully upon the imagination of the Irish and filled them as I touched before with thoughts of emulation that They deserved altogether to have as good usage as the Scot their Country being far more beneficial and consequenly more importing the English Nation But these were but confused imperfect notions which began to receive more vigour and form after the death of the Earl of Strafford who kept them under so exact an obedience though som censure him to have screwed up the strings of the Harp too high insomuch that the taking off of the Earl of Straffords head may be said to be the second incitement to the heads of that insurrection to stir Adde hereunto that the Irish understanding with what acrimony the Roman Catholicks in England were proceeded against since the sitting of our Parliament and what further designes were afoot against them and not onely against them but for ranversing the Protestant Religion it self as it is now practised which som shallow-braind 〈◊〉 do throw into the same scales with Pâ—…pery They thought it was high time for them to forecast what shold become of Them and how they shold â—…e 〈◊〉 in point of conscience when a new Deputy of the Parliaments election approbation at least shold come over Therfore they fell to consult of som means of timely prevention And this was another moâ—…ive and it was a shâ—…ewd one which pâ—…sht on the Irish to take up Arms. Lastly that Army of 8000. men which the Earl of Strafford had raised to be transported to England for suppressing the Scot being by the advice of our Parliament here disbanded the Country was annoyed by som 〈◊〉 those stragling Souldiers as not one in twenty of the Irish will from the sword to the spade or from the Pike to the plough again Therfore the two Marquesses that were Ambassadors here then for Spaine having propounded to have som numbers of those disbanded forces for the service of their Master His Majesty by the mature advice of his privy Counsell to occur the mischiefs that might arise to his Kingdom of Ireland by those loose casheer'd Souldiers yielded to the Ambassadors motion who sent notice hereof to Spain accordingly and so provided shipping for their transport and impressed money to advance the business but as they were in the heat of that 〈◊〉 His Majesty being then in Scotland 〈◊〉 wâ—…s a sudden stop made of those promised troops who had depended long upon the Spaniards service as the Spaniard 〈◊〉 doâ—…e on theirs And this was the last though noâ—… the least fatal cause of that horrid insurrection All which particulars well considered it had bin no hard matter to have bin a Prophet and standing upon the top of Holy-Head to have foreseen those black clouds engendering in the Irish aire which broâ—…e out afterwards into such fearful tempests of bloud Out of these premises it is easie for any common understanding not transported with passion and private interest to draw this conclusion That They who complyed with the Scot in his insurrection They who dismissed the Irish Commissioners with such a short unpolitick answer They who took off the Earl of Straffords head and delayed afterwards the dispatching of the Earl of Leicester They who hindered those disbanded troops in Ireland to go for Spain may be justly said to have bin the tru causes of the late insurrection of the Irish and consequently it is easie to know upon the account of whose souls must be laid the bloud of those hundred and odde thousands poor Christians who perished in that war so that had it bin possible to have brought over their bodies unputrified to England and to have cast them at the doores and in the presence of som men I believe they wold have gushed out afresh into bloud for discovery of the tru murtherers The grounds of this insurrection being thus discovered let us examine what means His Majesty used for the suppression of it He made his addresses presently to his great Counsel the English Parliament then assembled which Queen Elizabeth and her progenitors did seldom use to do but only to their Privy Counsel in such cases who had the discussing and transacting of all foreign affaires for in mannaging matters of State specially those of war which must be carryed with all the secrecy that may be Trop grand nombre est encombre as the Frenchman saith too great a number of Counsellours may be an incumber and expose their results and resolutions to discovery and other disadvantages wheras in military proceedings the work shold be afoot before the Counsels be blazed abroad Well His Majesty transmitted this business to the Parliament of England who totally undertaking it and wedding as it were the quarlel as I remember they did that of the Palatinate a little before by solemn vote the like was done by the Parliament of Scotland also by a publick joynt Declaration which in regard ther came nothing of it tended little to the honour of either Nation abroad His Majesty gave his royal assent to any Propositions or acts for raising of men money and arms to perform the work But hereby no man is so simple as to think His Majesty shold absolutely give over his own personal care and protection of that his Kingdom it being a Rule That a King can no more desert the protection of his own people then they their subjection to him In all his Declarations ther was nothing that he endear'd and inculcated more often and with greater aggravation and earnestness unto them then the care of his poor Subjects their fellow-Protestants in Ireland Nay he resented their condition so far and took the business so to heart that he offered to passe over in person for their relief And who can deny but this was a magnanimous and King-like resolution Which the Scots by publick act of Counsel did highly approve of and declared it to be an argument of care and courage in his Majesty And questionless it had done infinite good in the opinion of them that have felt the pulse of the Irish people who are daily ore-heard to groan how they have bin any time these 400. years under the English Crown and yet never saw but two of their Kings all the while upon Irish ground though ther be but a salt 〈◊〉 of a few hours sail to pass over And much more welcom shold His Majesty now regnant be amongst them who by general tradition They confess and hold to come on the paternal side from 〈◊〉 by legal and lineal descent who was an Irish Prince and after King of Scotland wheras the title of all our former Kings and Queens was stumbled at alwaies by the vulgar His Majesty finding that this royall proffer of engaging his own person was rejected with a kind of scorn coucht in smooth language though the main businesse concerned himself nearest and indeed solely himself that Kingdom being his own hereditary Right
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
subsidies and the King inclinable to take them The said Vane being the Secretary of State stood up and said His Majesty expected no less then twelve which words did so incense and discompose the House that they drew after them that unhappy dissolution His Majesty being reduced to these straits and resenting still the insolence of the Scot proposed the busines to His Privy Councell who suddenly made up a considerable and most noble summe for his present supply whereunto divers of his domestick servants and Officers did contribut Amongst others who were active herein the Earl of Strafford bestir'd himself notably and having got a Parliament to be call'd in Ireland he went over and with incredible celeritie raised 8000. men who procured money of that Parliament to maintain them and got over those angry Seas again in the compasse of lesse then six weeks You may infer hence to what an exact uncontrollable obedience he had reduced that Kingdom as to bring about so great a work with such a suddennes and facilitie An armie was also raised here which marched to the North and there fed upon the Kings pay a whole Summer The Scot was not idle all this while but having punctuall intelligence of every thing that passed at Court as farre as what was debated in the Cabinet Councel and spoken in the bed-chamber and herein amongst many others the Scot had infinite advantage of us He armed also and preferring to make England the stage of the warre rather then his own countrey and to invade rather then to be invaded He got over the Tweed and found the passage open and as it were made for him all the way till hee came to the Tine and though there was a considerable army of horse and foot at Newcastle yet they never offered so much as to face him all the while At Newburgh indeed there was a small skirmish but the English foot would not fight so Newcastle gates flew open to the Scot without any resistance at all where it is thought he had more friends then foes and who were their friends besides for this invasion I hope Time and the Tribunall of Justice will one day discover His Majesty being then at York summoned all his Nobles to appear to advise with them in this exigence Commissioners were appointed on both sides who met at Rippon and how the hearts and courage of some of the English Barons did boil within them to be brought to so disadvantageous a Treatie with the Scot you may well imagin So the Treatie began which the Scot wold not conform himself to do unless he were first unrebell d and made Rectus in Curia and the Proclamation wherein he was declared Traitour revoked alledging it wold be dishonorable for His Majesty to treat with rebels This treaty was adjourned to London where this present Parliament was summoned which was one of the chiefest errands of the Scoâ—… as some think And thus far by these sad and short degrees have I faithfully led you along to know the tru Originals of our calamities Peregrin Truly Sir I must tell you that to my knowledg these unhappy traverses with Scotland have made the English suffer abroad very much in point of National honour Therefore I wonder much that all this while ther is none set a work to make a solid Apologie for England in some communicable language either in French or Latin to rectifie the world in the truth of the thing and to vindicat her how she was bought and sold in this expedition considering what a party the Scot had here and how his comming in was rather an Invitation then an Invasion and I beleeve if it had bin in many parts of the world besides some of the Commanders had gone to the pot Patricius It is the practise of some States I know to make sacrifice of some eminent Minister for publick mistakes but to follow the thred of my Discourse The Parliament being sate His Majesty told them that he was resolved to cast himself wholly upon the affection and fidelity of his people whereof they were the Representative body Therfore he wished them to go roundly on to close up the ruptures that were made by this infortunat war and that the two armies one domestick the other forrain which were gnawing the very bowels of the Kingdom might be dismissed Touching grievances of any kind and what State was ther ever so pure but some corruption might creep into it He was very ready to redresse them concerning the Ship-money he was willing to pass a Bâ—…ll for the utter abolition of it and to establish the property of the subject therefore he wished them not to spend too much time about that And for Monopolies he desired to have a list of them and he wold damn them all in one Proclamation Touching ill Counsellours either in Westminster-Hall or White-Hall either in Church or State he was resolved to protect none Therefore he wished that all jealousies and misunderstandings might vanish This with sundry other strains of Princely grace he delivered unto them but withall he told them that they shold be very cautious how they shook the fram of an ancient Government too far in regard it was like a Watch which being put asunder can never be made up again if the least pin be left out So ther were great hopes of a calm after that cold Northern storm had so blustered and that we shold be suddenly rid of the Scot but that was least intended untill som designs were brought about The Earl of Strafford the Archbishop of Canterbury the Iudges and divers Monopolists are clapt up and you know who took a timely flight Lord Finch to the other side of the Sea And in lieu of these the Bishop of Lincoln is enlarged Bastwick Burton and Prynn are brought into London with a kind of Hosanna His Majesty gave way to all this and to comply further with them he took as it were into his bosom I mean he admitted to his Privy Councell those Parliament Lords who were held the greatest Zelots amongst them that they might be witnesses of his secret'st actions and to one of them the Lord Say he gave one of the considerablest Offices of the Kingdom by the resignation of another most deserving Lord upon whom they could never fasten the least misdemeanour yet this great new Officer wold come neither to the same Oratory Chappell or Church to joyn in prayer with his Royall Master nor communicat with him in any publick exercise of devotion and may not this be called a tru Recusancie To another he gave one of the prime and most reposefull Offices about his own Person at Court The Earl of Essex and thereby he might be said to have given a Staff to beat himself Moreover partly to give his Subjects an Evidence how firmly he was rooted in his Religion and how much he desired the strenthning of it abroad The treaty of marriage went on 'twixt his eldest daughter and the young
Prince of Orenge Hereunto may be added as a speciall argument of compliance and grace the passing of the Bill for a Trienniall Parliament and lastly which is the greatest Evidence that possibly can be imagined of that reall trust and confidence he reposed in them he passed that prodigious Act of Continuance Peregrin Touching the Trienniall Parliament there may come some whole some fruit out of it will keep all Officers in awe and excite the Nobilitie and young Gentrie of the Kingdome to studie and understand the Government of the land and be able to sit and serve their countrey in this great Senate But for this Act of Continuance I understand it not Parliaments are good Physick but ill meat They say abroad that England is turned hereby from a Monarchy to a Democracy to a perpetual kind of Quingentumvirat and whereas in former times ther was a Heptarchy of seven Kings in her they say now she hath seventy times seven But in lieu of these unparallell'd Acts of grace and trust to the Parl. what did the Parliament for the King all this while Patricius They promised specially upon the passing of the last Act That they would make him the most glorious the best beloved and richest King that ever reigned in England and this they did with deep protestings and asseverations But there intervened an ill-favoured accident which did much hurt viz. A Discourse for truely I think it was no more but a discourse which some green heads held to bring up the Northern armie to check the Puritan partie and the rabble of the citie This kept a mightie noyse and you know who fled upon it and much use was made of it to make that cloud of jealousie which was but of the breadth of a hand before to appear as big as a mountaine Yet his Majestie continued still in passing Acts of grace and complying with them in every thing Hee put over unto them the Earle of Strafford who after a long costly triall wherein he carried himself with as much acutenesse dexteritie and eloquence as humane braine could be capable of for his defence hee was condemned to the Scaffold and so made a sacrifice to the Scot who stayed chiefly for his head which besides those vast summes of money was given him to boot Peregrin Touching the Earle of Strafford 't is tru he was full of ability elocution and confidence and understood the lawes of England as well as any yet there were two things I heard wherein his wisdom was questioned first that having a charge ready against his chiefest accusers yet he suffered them to have the priority of sute which if he had got he had thereby made them parties and so incapable to be produced against him Secondly that during the time of his tryall he applyed not himself with that compliance to his Iury as well as to his Iudges for he was observed to comply only with the Lords and not with the House of Commons Patricius Howsoever as some say his death was â—…esolved upon si non per viam justitiae saltem per viam expedientiae which appears in regard the proceedings against him are by a clause in the Act not to be produced for a leading case or example to future ages and inferiour Courts I blush to tell you how much the rabble of the City thirsted after his blood how they were suffered to strut up and down the streets before the royal Court and the Parliament it self with impunity They cried out that if the Common Law fail'd club law should knock him down and their insolency came to that height that the names of those Lords that would not doome him to death should be given them to fix upon posts up and downe And this was the first tumult that happened this Parliament whereof so many followed after their example being not onely conniv'd at but backed by authoritie for there were prohibitions sent from the Parliament to hinder all processe against some of them These Myrmidons as they termed themselves were ready at a watchword so that one might say there was a kind of discipline in disorder Peregrin Were ther any troubled for delivering their votes in the Houses I thought that freedom of opinion and speech were one of the prime priviledges of that great Nationall Senat. Patricius Yes Those that were the Minions of the House before became now the subjects of popular malice and detraction as the Lord Digby now Earl of Bristol for one because against the dictamen of their consciences they would not vote the Earl of Strafford to death and renounce their own judgments and captivate it to the sense of others yet they stood firm to their first grounds that he was a delinquent in a high nature and incapable ever to beare office in any of His Majesties dominions Peregrin I perceive Sir by your speeches that one of the chiefest causes of these combustions may be imputed to the Citie of London which may be called the Metropolis of all these evils and I little wonder at it for it hath been alwaies incident to all great Townes when they grow rich and populous to fall into acts of insolence and to spurne at government where so many pots so many braines I meane are a boyling ther must needs be a great deal of froth but let her look to her self for Majesty hath long arms and may reach her at last But the truth is that London bears no proportion with the size of this Island for either the one shold be larger or the other lesser London may be well compared to the liver of a cramm'd Italian goose whose fatning emacerates the rest of the whole body and makes it grow lean and languish and she may be well term'd a goose now more then ever for her feathers are pluck'd apace but now that you have done with the Earl of Strafford what is become of all the rest who were committed Patricius They are still in durance and have continued so these two years and upward yet are not proceeded against nor brought to their answer to this very day though all the Courts of Justice have bin open ever since Many hundreds more of the best sort of Subjects have bin suddenly clapt up and no cause at all mentioned in many of their commitments and new Prisons made of purpose for them where they may be said to be buried alive and so forgotten as if ther were no such men in the world wherof the Author was one And how this can stand with Magna Charta with the Petition of Right to vindicat which ther was so much pains taken the last Parliament let any man of a sane judgment determin Yet one of the Judges who hath an Impeachment oâ—… High Treason still lying Dormant against him though he be not Rectus in Curia himself is suffered to sit as Judge upon the highest tribunall of England whereas another for a pretended misdemeanour only is barr'd from sitting ther. Others who were at first