but Repetition and therefore soon answered And truly here he is better than his Word for either he gives it no Answer at all or where he does it is so perfunctory that he only justifies the Proverb of Canis ad Nilum As witness that Repetition of which he shews not one and for the Matter which is full and unanswerable he mumbles it as a Cow does Thistles but dares not chew it for fear of pricking his Chops But we 'll see what he says After an abusive and strange apprehension of Covenants as if Men pawn'd their Souls to them with whom they Covenant he digresses to plead for Bishops first from the antiquity of their Possessions here since the first Plantation of Christianity in this Isle next from an universal Prescription since the Apostles till this last Century But what saith he avails the most primitive Antiquity against the plain Sense of Scripture which if the last Century have best follow'd ought in our Esteem to be first And yet it has been often prov'd c. that Episcopacy crept not up into on Order above Presbyters till many years after the Apostles were deceas'd Abusive he said But wherein For neither is it the way of his Majesty's Pen nor can any forc'd Interpretation bring the words to any thing like it For if the Contrivers and Imposers of the solemn League and Covenant did not reciprocally pawn their Souls to each other they call'd God as a Witness and Avenger of the Perfidy When Laban and Jacob made a Covenant between them they set up a Pillar and a heap of Stones And Laban said to Jacob Behold this Heap Gen. 31. v. 51 52 53. and behold this Pillar be they a Witness betwixt me and thee and the God of our Fathers judge betwixt us And Jacob Swore by the Fear of his Father Isaac i. e. By that God whom Isaac his Father fear'd whereas Laban on the other hand was an Idolater And yet the Oath was Religious and binding for it was not the God of Nahor or the Pillar and heap of Stones that made any thing in it but the true God that was represented by it Not that I say that the Covenant was Religious or obligatory to any but the exacters of it as I shall shew presently but to take notice of that Saying of our Answerer As if Men pawn'd their Souls to them with whom they Covenant Which in other words make this As if any Man should be so ridiculous as to believe the Houses who knew the Scots were afraid of being left in the lurch and therefore would not come in without it meant any thing more by it than to serve a turn And truly so far he was in the right for there is a great deal of difference between a Heart-Oath and a Lip-Oath a Book-blowing as the Scots call it and the Tragedian more expressively Jurata lingua est mente juravi nihil Nor have I sooner got over one if than another lies in my way The King saith he pleads for the Bishops from their Antiquity c. But what avails Antiquity against Scripture which if the last Century have best follow'd ought in our esteem to be first But if they have not best follow'd it what then And if he has not prov'd that they have so done as he has not I say he has said nothing to the purpose But the matter concerns Churchmen and I leave it to them with this for my self St. Paul left Titus in Crete Tit. 1.5 That saith he thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting and ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed thee And when the Presbyters shall shew half that Authority for Jurisdiction and Ordination I shall begin to believe there may be something in it and that the Words Bishop and Presbyter are but Synonoma's though in the mean time I am and shall be Nullius in verba The next thing he takes notice of is that His Majesty says He is unsatisfied with many Passages in the Covenant some referring to himself with very dubious and dangerous limitations for binding Men by Oath and Covenant to the Reformation of Church Discipline and Government To which our Answerer says First those Limitations were not more dangerous to him than he to our Liberty and Religion and cunningly slips the Cart before the Horse for well he knew Religion was but the Pretence whereas the design was under the name of Liberty to warrant Licentiousness and therefore it was but good Manners that the Hand-maid waited on the Mistress Next that which was there vowed to be cast out of the Church an Antichristian Hierarchy which God had not planted but Ambition and Corruption had brought in Apoint not to be argued but of Moral Necessity to be forthwith done And whether the King had not ground enough for the words before let any Man judge They Swear to endeavour to preserve the Rights and Privileges of Parliament Art 3. c. without the least Limitation or so much as stating what they are where by the way we may note that the Privileges of Parliament whatever they be have got the Precedency of His Majesty's Person But when they come to the King they swear to endeavour to preserve and defend the King's Person and Authority in the Preservation and Defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms i. e. So long as they shall say he defends them Which is not so much as they Swear to do for any ordinary Person that enters into this Covenant Art 6. whom they vow absolutely to assist and defend but here they undertake no more than barely to endeavour to defend the King and that with a Limitation Now suppose the certain safety of the King's Person came in competition with any of their real or pretended Privileges Which was to have the Preference Or that the Houses having gotten all the Power into their Hands should have said as they did afterwards that he did not preserve and defend the true Religion and the Liberties of the Kingdoms might they not also have said We are free of this Oath and so rather suffer his Person to perish or actually to destroy him than violate a Privilege For my part I take them to be doubts well worth the solving And for the dangerous part of it there is an Article in it Art 4. To bring all Delinquents to such Punishment as the Supream Judicatories of both Kingdoms respectively shall judge convenient Nor was that Article put in to no purpose Milton 202. and Cromwel nick'd his business with it when to bring on the Commons to those Votes of Non-addresses he told them they were obliged by the Covenant to bring all Delinquents to Punishment And I saith he impeach the King as the grand Delinquent of the Nation And now tell me any Man where the King judg'd amiss when he said some Passages in this Covenant referr'd to himself with very doubtful and dangerous
oâ— which that Parliament was dissolv'd by Commission Whereas this Accuser would peâ—swade the World that the King broke off thâ— Parliament for no other cause than to proteâ—â— the Duke against them who had accused him 〈◊〉 no less than the poisoning his Father And trâ—ly I was once wondring why he said nothing touching the Parliament of the third of King Charles till I considered it was in that Parliament that the King past the Petition of Right with Soit Droit sait come il est desire He found it was not for him and therefore resolv'd iâ— should make nothing against him When oâ—â— the contrary he reproaches the King with illegal Actions to get Money least considering iâ— was the Art of that time to reduce the King to Necessity to the end that being forced to extraordinary means he might attract a popular Odium And here also he quarrels at Straws and rather than not want matter he 'll find a Knot in a Bullrush For what other can he make of those Compulsive Knighthoods Milt p. 2. when the King had the Statute of 1 Edw. 2. De militibus to warrant it In like manner for the Ship-money The Dutch in the Year 1634. had encroach'd upon the Royalty of the Northern Seas upon which the King so loath was He to do any thing that might but seem illegal writes to the Judges and demands their Opinions in Writing whether when the good or safety of the Kingdom in general is concern'd the King may not by Writ under the Great Seal command all His Subjects of this Kingdom to furnish a certain number of Ships and Men for such time as the King shall think fit and by Law compel the doing it in case of refusal And whether in such a case he is not the sole Judge both of the danger of the Kingdom and when and how the same is to be prevented and avoided V. The case and all the Arguments on both sides Printed in 4 to As also in the said Annals from p. 550. to p. 600. To which every one of the twelve Judges repeating the very Words of the King's Letter subscribed their names in the Affirmative And though J. Hutton and J. Crooke afterwards fell off yet upon arguing the matter by all the Judges in the Exchequer-Chamber in the Case of Mr. Hambden the majority of them gave their Opinions for the Writs on which the Barons gave Judgment Then for Monopolies every thing is not a Monopoly that may be call'd so and therefore because he gives no particular instance either as to them or the King 's seizing Naboth's Vineyard as he calls it Inheritances under the pretence of Forest and Crown-Lands and Corruption and Bribery compounded for I say no more but this that Generals imply nothing and consequently deserve no particular Answer But this I know that in the Parliament of 44 oâ— Queen Elizabeth a Bill was preferr'd for Explanation of the Common Law in certain cases of Letters Patents V. Sir Simon D'ewe's Journal of the Commons 44. Eliz. viz. touching Monopolies and was strongly bandied on both sides Oâ— this the Queen sends them a Message That a she was not conscious to herself she had granted Letters Patents of any thing that was Maluâ— in se V. Townsend ' s Câ—llections 44. Eliz. so when it should appear that she had made any such Grant it should be revok'd or otherwise redressed on which the Common make her an humble Address of Thanks and a Grant of Subsidies and yet I do not find the Queen ever did any thing in it But what the King did as to the Grievances for that was the Word I shall come to shew presently The next thing he trumps up is The King'â— having the second time levied an injurious War against his Native Country Milt p. 3. Scotland a Waâ— saith he condemned and abominated by the wholâ— Kingdom and which the Parliament judged one oâ— their main Grievances Nor without reason for that was a cover'd Dish and had been long before cooking for their own Tooth They knew it would keep cold for another time and the King was not yet become necessitous enough to have it opened at present But to observe the wording it The King levied an unjust War c. As if a King might not defend himself against the Rebellion of his natural Lieges For such and no other was the case here But the Story is thus The King in the Sixteenth of his Reign had call'd another Parliament which opened 13. April 1640. at which time the Scots with an armed Force lay upon the Borders His Majesty by Sir J. Finch Lord Keeper tells them of the Scots Insurrection the Summer before V. Rushw Coll. 16. Car. 1. which he had pass'd by upon their Protestations of their future Loyalty instead of which they had now address'd to the King of France to put themselves under his Protection and causes an intercepted Letter of theirs signed by the heads of those Covenanters one of whom was then in Custody to be publickly read and therefore demands a Supply The Commons consider of it and pay it with complaints Innovation in Religion Grievances against Liberty Property and Privilege of Parliament The King sends several times to the Houses and presses to them the danger of the Scots Army but the question is which shall have the Precedency The Supply or Grievances The Lords are for the former and that the King ought to be first trusted The Commons are so long a tuning their Instrument that the King in despair of any good Musick from 'em dissolves them the Fifth of May following From which our Accuser thus infers that strong Necessities and the very pangs of State Milt p. 3. not his own Choice and Inclination made him call this Monstrum Horrendum Informe Ingens last Parliament which began the third of November 1640. when yet he brings nothing to back his Assertion but the scurrillous Language of the General Voice of the People almost hissing him and his ill-acted Regality off the Stage That it was impossible be should incline to Parliaments who never was perceived to call them but for the greedy hope of a National Bribe his Subsidies and never lov'd fulfill'd or promoted the true end of Parliaments the redress of Grievances of which himself was indeed the Author Not doubting also to call it a natural Sottishness fit to be abused and ridden And if this be the Reverence due to Majesty this the Respect we pay the Vicegerent of God sure Job was mistaken when he says Is it fit to say to a King Thou art Wicked and to Princes Job 34.18 Ye are ungodly The interrogation is in the Affirmative and concludes in the Negative No certainly it is not fit St. Paul checks a bare slip of his Tongue toward the High Priest Acts 25.5 Jude v. 9. Zach. 3.2 and the Arch-Angel in Jude brought not a railing Accusation even against the Devil And yet when
and to themselves the Hands of Briarius they think themselves able enough to lessen him in his Power and as preparatory to it they first procure an Act of Parliament that they should not be Dissolv'd or Prorogu'd but by Act of Parliament And which is remarkable that very day on which his Majesty Sign'd the Commission for giving his Assent to the Bill for the Earl of Strafford's Attainder And having in a manner necessitated him not to deny any thing they get his Assent to those several Bills before mentioned Chap. 1 Concessions one would have thought might have satisfied any sort of Men but those that were Pre-resolv'd not to be satisfied with any thing Nor did the King in the least doubt their being satisfied and therefore makes a Journey into Scotland to satisfie his Subjects there Aâ—â— 1641. as he thought he had done here and they all seem'd to be so especially as to the matter of Episcopacy which they saw was tumbling beyond a Recovery During this His Majesty's absence the Houses adjourn to the 20th of October three days after which the Rebellion of Ireland broke out The 25th of November the King returns to London as yet welcom'd with the full Acclamations of the People tho' he met not any suitable Reception from the Parliament who instead of having swept out the old Leven had prepar'd new However the King having call'd them together the Second of December recommends to them the raising Succours for Ireland and on the Fourteenth again press'd it and withal told them he took notice of a Bill that was then in agitation to assert the power of Levying and Pressing Soldiers to the two Houses which he was content should pass with a Salvo jure to him and then because the present time would not admit the disputing it and one would have thought that when the King came so near they might have met him half way But instead of that they send him a Remonstrance the next day in which they complain of the Designs of a Malignant Party which by their Wisdom had been prevented and running on with the old Cry against Papists Bishops and Evil Counsellors magnifie themselves in what they had done for the good of the Kingdom and cause it to be Printed About this time it was that the King had come to the House and they adjourn'd into London as before when upon their return to Westminster they Petition the King for a Guard out of the City to be commanded by the Earl of Essex a Gentleman who upon the account of his Father in Queen Elizabeth's time the business of the Nullity in King James's time and the little notice that had been taken of him at Court till now of late he had been made Lord Chamberlain was a Discontent July 29.1641 and conseâ—uently a Darling of the People as pretending â—â—ey could not otherwise sit it safety Which â—â—e King as well he might thought not fit to â—ant inasmuch as it look'd so like a Force against himself and afterwards prov'd so when they made him their General But withal let them know that if there were any such occasion he would command such a Guard to wait upon them as he would be responsible for to God Almighty On this the Militia of Westminster by Petition to the House of Commons offer them their Service Id. Nalson Part 2. Fol. 839 and 840. when it shall please them to commanâ— it The Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council of the City of London by Petition to the King representing amongst other things His going to the House c. Pray thaâ— the Tower may be put into confiding Hands anâ— a Guard be appointed for the Parliament or of the City which was insolently seconded bâ— the disorderly conflux of a Rabble about White hall and Westminster And that the House might not be wanting while the Iron was hoâ— they Petition the King that the Tower 〈◊〉 London all other Forts and the whole Militâ—â— of the Kingdom be put into the Hands of sucâ— Persons as should be recommended to him 〈◊〉 both Houses Which his Majesty as justly bâ— might refused to grant and for the Security of his Person withdrew to Hampton-Court And now from the whole let any indiffereâ— Man say for me first whether these disordeâ—â— Proceedings were not Tumults and next 〈◊〉 they grew to be so how the King can be said to be the cause of them himself For though those hostile Preparations and actual assailiâ— the People which our Answerer says gave the just cause to defend themselves might perhapâ— have been somewhat in the Case if those Peoplâ— had not been the Aggressors yet when as himself confesses the King had sent a Message into the City forbidding such Resorts what made they there Nor can these Hostile Preparations and actual assailing the People be other than what the Lord Mayor c. in their Petition to the King represent viz. His fortifying Whitehall and the wounding some Citizens Which His Majesty thus answers Id Nalson Part 2. Fol. 839 and 840. That as to the former his Person was in danger by such a disorderly conflux of People and withal urges their Seditious Language even at his Palace Gates And for the other that if any were wounded it was through their evil Misdemeanours And therefore to make it no more than the Case of a common Person every Man's House is his Castle and if a confus'd Club-rabble gather about it Cum kickis friskis horribili sonitu the Gentleman of the House commands his Servants to beat them off and in the doing it some of the Assailants are wounded nay put it further kill'd And what can the Law make of it That it was an unlawful Assembly I should not have minc'd it a Rout it is manifest and that what the Servants did was in defence of their Master is also as evident Sir Ed. Coke 3 Inst Let the Rule of Law cut between us Quod quis ob tutelam Corporis sui fecerit id jure fecisse videtur Whatever a Man does in defence of his Person the Law presumes it to have been done Legally O but you 'll say It was not the Master himself A Thief assaults a Gentleman in his House or upon the Road the Gentleman's Servant in defence of his Master kills the Thief he forfeits nothing And if this holds in the case of a common Person how much more then in Case of the King And lastly where he says Instead of Praying for his People as a good King should do he Prays to be deliver'd from them as from wild Beasts Inundations and Raging Seas that had overborn all Loyalty Modesty Laws Justice and Religion God save the People from such Intercessors I think A gente inimica dolosa libera me Domine From an evil and perverse Generation deliver me O God! might have very well become any honest Man's Prayer concerning them For in their Malice they slew their King and in their
Self-will they broke down a Wall CHAP. V. Vpon His Majesty's passing the Bill for the Triennial Parliaments and after settling this during the Pleasure of the two Houses PArliaments saith Sir Robert Cotton are the times in which Kings seem less than they are His Reign of Hen. III. p. 1 and Subjects more than they should be A smart Character whether we respect those Paaliaments of Henry the Third of whom it was spoken or that Parliament of 1640. of which we are now speaking And yet they are become so congenial and as it were bred up and embodied with the English Temper which as it naturally relishes nothing but what comes from them so it rarely disputes any thing that is transacted by them that some have thought this might be one reason that inclin'd His Majesty to pass these Bills though for my part I 'll believe no Man against the King when he says That the World might be confirm'd in my Purposes at first to contribute what in Justice Reason Honour and Conscience I could to the happy Success of this Parliament which had in me no other design but the general good of my Kingdoms I willingly passed the Bill for Triennial Parliaments Which as gentle and seasonable Physick might if well applied prevent any Distempers from getting any head or prevailing especially if the Remedy prov'd not a Disease beyond all Remedy And as to the other for settling this during the Pleasure of the Houses An Act saith the King unparallell'd by any of my Predecessors yet granted on an extream Confidence I had that my Subjects would not make an ill use of an Act by which I declar'd so much to trust them as to deny my self so high a Point of my Prerogative c. Whereas saith our Answerer He attributes the passing of them to his own Act of Grace and willingness as his manner is to make Vertues of his Necessities he gives himself all the Praise and heaps Ingratitude upon the Parliament to whom we owe what we owe for those beneficial Acts but to his granting them neither Praise nor Thanks No! and by what Law I would fain know is the King obliged to pass every Bill that is offered him He swears 't is true to defend the Laws i. e. Such Laws as are then in being but that obliges him to no futurity in granting every thing whether good or bad that shall be offer'd him And therefore unless he had shewn at least some one Act of Parliament that had not the Royal Assent to it he might with more Modesty have acknowledged that it was in the King's Option whether to have passed these Acts or not Sir Ed. Coke 4 â—â—nst 25. because neither of the Houses singly not both of them together can make any binding Law without the King's Concurrence which gives the Embryo Life and quickens it into 〈◊〉 Law But saith he The first Bill granted lesâ— than two former Statutes yet in force by Edward the Third that a Parliament should be called every Year or oftner if need were Very well anâ— there being no more in it it is somewhat strange methinks how the King could be necessitated to the passing it or that the Houses eveâ—â— desired it When all that he says to it is Thaâ— the King conceal'd not his unwillingness in testifying a general dislike of their Actions and told theâ— with a Masterly Brow that by this Act he had obliged them above what they had deserved And truly if the King had said it or given thaâ— Masterly Brow for which yet he brings nâ— Voucher but himself those subsequent Acts oâ— Parliament which repeal'd both these Acts have sufficiently evidenc'd their particular dislike of them also in that they nulled them And how well they were pleas'd with their Persons or their Actions the Statute of the 12th of Charles the Second before-mention'd may satisfie any Man And as to the other Act for settling their sitting c. The King saith he had by his ill Stewardship and to say no worse the needless raising of two Armies intended for a Civil War beggar'd both himself and the Publick Left us in score to his greedy Enemies their Brethren the Scots to dis-engage which great Sums were to be borrow'd which would never have been lent if he who first caused the Malady might when he pleas'd reject the Remedy And from thence and other the like dross meerly thrown in to help out Weight which yet he never gives he comes to this That it was his Fear not his Favour drew that first Act from him lest the Parliament incens'd by his Conspiracies against them should with the People have resented too heinously those his doings if to the suspicion of their danger from him he had also added the denial of this only means to secure themselves And now to examine it a little he charges the King with the needless raising two Armies intended for a Civil War What the Houses then intended was afterwards visible by its Effects a Civil War But that the King should intend it and at the same time divest himself of his Power is manifestly ridiculous For as he says himself 1641. this Bill was pass'd in May whereas the King besides his Journey into Scotland retired not from Whitehall till above half a Year afterwards and when he left it considering their respective Conditions might have as truly said Cum baculo transivi Jordanum istum And how then could he intend a Civil War Having as our Accuser says so beggar'd himself For what concerns the King's Enemies and their dear Brethren I refer it to its proper Place And for what relates to the Sums of Money to be borrow'd besides what I have already shewn how they were dispos'd of Chap. 1 I add this That they could not have put the Kingdom into a Posture of a Defence i. e. â—â—â—'d a Rebellion without it And withal considering that the King set not up his Standard till the August following 1642. he must have been much shorter sighted than our Answerer all along endeavours to make him to have design'd a War without Sir Edward Coke's Materials Firmamentum belli Ornamentum pacis which the Houses having taken his Revenue into their Hands all the World knew he wanted But the 〈◊〉 â—ot yet run to the end of the 〈…〉 King taxes them for undoing what they found well done Yet knows they undid nothing but Lord Bishops Liturgy Ceremonies c. judged worthy by all Protestants to be thrown out of the Church But what Protestants were they that so judg'd it Those of the Church of England were I am sure of another Opinion and the temporal Laws of the Kingdom had sufficiently establish'd them And therefore since Interest had so blinded his Intellect that he world not see were he now living I could tell him wherein they had undone what they found well done And because there are many yet in being who perhaps may be willing enough to be satisfied
would think to have prov'd where when and how at least rendred it probable that there was once some such thing done though the Grant be lost And if they took it themselves it was Unjust in its Original and consequently they had no more Right to chuse their Kings than Children have to chuse their Fathers And yet from this false Position magisterially determines That Kings do no Acts of Grace and Bounty but in discharge of their publick Duty The Sum of the King's Discourse saith he is against settling Religion by violent Means and yet never did thing more eagerly than to molest and persecute the Consciences of most religious Men and made a War and lost all rather than not uphold an Hierarchy of persecuting Bishops That Consciences are not to be forced but to be reduced by force of Truth aid of Time and use of good Means of Instructions and Perswasions was his Principle as well as Queen Elizabeth's but saith Sir Francis Walsingham concerning the Queen's proceedings in the like Cases Causes of Conscience when they exceed their Bounds V. Hist of the Reform Part 2. f. 418. and grow to be matter of Faction lose their Nature and Sovereign Princes ought distinctly to punish their Practices and Contempt though colour'd with the pretences of Conscience and Religion And according to this saith he the Queen proceeded And if the King also did distinguish Faction from Conscience and Tenderness from Singularity blame the Law not him But He obtruded new Ceremonies upon the English and a new Liturgy upon the Scots with his Sword Saving the Reverence of the Thing it is Indifferent whether a Man Preach with his Hat on or hung upon a Pin the Hugonots have one way and the English another The same also may be said of Ceremonies but how indifferent soever they are in themselves when they are once commanded the indifferency ceases in the Law that enjoyns them And for that other of the Liturgy upon the Scots the King obtruded it not on them much less with his Sword because it was sent them at their own Request as I have shown before But admitting their Kirk liked it not what had they to do with a Church that did Or what Authority had Tweed to reform Thames least of all to give Law to their King and that too with beat of Drum and Colours displayed Especially when one of their own Acts of Parliament says Continuation of Sir R. Baker f. 514. That it should be damnable and detestable Treason in the highest Degree to levy Arms or any Military Forces upon any pretext whatever without the King 's Royal Commission Nor is this all For their National Covenant oblig'd them to his Defence or else what means this Expression in it Sir W. Dudg his short View f. 132. That whensoever his Majesty's Honour and Interest should be in Danger they would as one Man obliged by the Laws of God and Man apply themselves to his Succour and Defence And the Chancellor and others the Lords of that Kingdom had by their Letter of 1. July 1643. assured his Majesty That no Arms should be raised without his special Commission And after all this and contrary to the Common tye of Nature to run into open Rebellion against him What may it mean I 'll tell ye This Matter had been hatching ever since the Third of his Reign and though the Chick appear'd not till the Year 1637 yet it could run about with the Shell upon its Head and it wanted not Friends in England to keep it alive till it could feed it self and if it liked not one Barn-door take to another The Metaphor is too visible to need Application There was a kind of a Kirk Party in England that finding the King firm to his Principles knew there was no better way to deal with him than by reducing him to Necessities to the end that being forc'd to extraordinary means for Supply he might disgust the People and consequently attract an Odium But what 's a Bow without a Bowman The Scots and they made but one Kirk Money was the Nerve that would keep them together and what need many words among Friends Nor were they long without the occasion of shewing their Fidelity The new Liturgy as before had been sent to Edinburgh The Scots presently take the Alarm are quieted again but lost nothing by it and in return make the King all Protestations of future Loyalty How comes it then you 'll say that it was not long after that they invaded England and after that took Arms for the Parliament against the King The Case is plain the King had no Money the Houses had or at least knew where to get it Nor will it be unworth any Man's while to see what that was They had as a Relief to the Scots for their Losses 17 Car. 1. and a supply of our Brethren of Scotland for so the Act words it 220000 l. rais'd for them by Act of Parliament By an Ordinance of Lords and Commons Vid. Hughes's Abridgement of Acts and Ordinances p. 92. 27 Octob. 43. 66666 13 4. for their Brotherly Assistance in the defence of the common cause of Religion and Liberty By a like Ordinance Feb. 20. 1644. 21000 l. per Mens Id. p. 178. for the maintenance of the Scots Army under the Earl of Leven Further confirm'd Id. p. 197. June 13. 1645. Continued for four Months more Id. p. 220. 25 Aug. 1645. By a like Ordinance Id. p. 201. June 20. 1645. 130000 l. for enabling the Scots Army to advance Southward And by a like Ordinance Decem. 3. 1645. 31000 l. Id. p. 237. for payment of the Scots Army Besides all which I find in the continuation of Sir Richard Baker Fol. 611. Several other Moneys rais'd for the Scots which because they agree neither in Sum nor time I thought fit to transcribe and leave it to my Reader to judge of it as he thinks fit Taxed by them in 16 Car. 1. 350 l. per diem on the Bishoprick of Durham and 300 l. per diem on the County of Northumberland on the penalty of Plundering In the 20th they were impowered by Parliament to assess for themselves the twentieth part of the North c. In the 21st sent them 30000 l. to induce them to besiege Newark In the 22d 200000 l. more for delivering up the King And another 200000 l. secur'd them out of the publick Faith And 16000 l. allowed them for the charge of their Carriages All which I leave as I said to my Reader to judge and whether notwithstanding all that cry of Religion and Loyalty it far'd not with them like Atalanta in the Fable Declinat cursus Ovidâ—◠〈◊〉 l. 10. Fâ—â— 15. aurumque vâ—luâ—ile tollit And truly considering all if they were not well paid for their Pains I wish they were CHAP. XIV Vpon the Covenant UPON this Theam saith our Answerer his Discourse is long his Matter little
Limitations Though our Accuser thinks it enough for him to have said Those Limitations were not more dangerous to him than he was to their Liberty and Religion His next is that Antichristian Hierarchy which was there vowed to be cast out of the Church c. Whether God planted it or not is not the question the King's Progenitors had bountifully water'd it and the Law of England set a Hedge about it They held their Possessions in Barony the Statute pro Clero calls them Peers of the Realm and another of Queen Elizabeth 2â— Ed. 3. c. 6. 8 Eâ— c. 1. one of the greatest States of this Realm And for a Fag-end of a Parliament without the King's Consent nay contrary to his Will to take upon them to extirpate so ancient so establish'd an Order and dis-seize them of their Free-hold without a legal Trial whatever the Liberty or Religion of it might be I am sure it was contrary to Magna Charta And himself says it is a Point not to be argu'd but of a clear Moral Necessity to be done And a most expeditious Answer though it may seem much in the dark to every Man but himself and the Actors in it Nor was it saith his Majesty less than superfluous to enjoyn Oaths where former Religious and Legal Engagements bound Men sufficiently to all necessary Duties But it was saith he the Practice of all reforming Churches Israel were bound enough before by the Law of Moses to all necessary Duties yet with Asa their King entred into a new Covenant at the beginning of a Reformation c. And as well might he have prov'd it out of the first Words of Genesis Is the Beginning i. e. In the beginning of Formation the World was Created and in the beginning of Reformation the Covenant was produc'd But to give it a direct Answer This New Covenant of which he speaks was not about Pretended Privileges or disputable Liberties in matters of State nor any Conjectural Fancies in Point of Religion 2 Chron. 15.12.15 but to seek the God of their Fathers in which also the King joyn'd with them and it is said of it that God was found of them and gave them rest round about which cannot be said of ours And which may be further observable of all the Covenants made by the Jews there was no one of them ever Sworn against the Will of the Supream or at least Subordinate Rulers not opposed but rather countenanced by the Supream and the matter of their Covenant was always enjoyn'd by God himself And whereas he further says The Jews after the Captivity without Consent demanded of that King who was their Master took a Solemn Oath to walk in the Commandments of God See how he slurs it upon the unwary People That King c. The Jews from the Captivity to the coming of our Saviour had no Kings of their own but were govern'd by Deputies and Vicegerents who had not Supream Authority in themselves but as it pleas'd the Persian Monarchs and afterward Alexander and his Successors to assign them and these were call'd Heads or Princes of the Captivity of whom Zerobabel was the first and upon the Restauration of the Captivity by Cyrus came back again with them to Jerusalem and Judah and with him Nehemiah as one of the chief of the Fathers For in the third of Nehemiah ver 16. he is call'd a Ruler and in the fifth verse 14. Governour in the Land of Judah With this Nehemiah it was that the Princes and the Priests made the Covenant our Answerer speaks of Nehem. 10.1 and Nehemiah seal'd to it as the Tirshatha or Governour and the People clave to their Brethren their Nobles Ver. 29. and entred into an Oath to walk in God's Laws And now what need was there to demand that King's Artaxerxes Consent when his Vicegerent joyn'd with them In a matter too which terminated in themselves and their own Worship without the least design of extirpating their Masters the Syrians or Babylonians And when he calls it a Solemn Oath what other is it than to wheedle the People into an easier swallow of it and that the Solemn League and Covenant was just such another And yet our Answerer will not away with it when the King says They made their Covenant like Manna not that it came from Heaven as this did agreeable to every Man's Palate For the drift saith he is that Men should loath it Whereas if we truly consider the thing never was Comparison more aptly applicable Exod. 16.15 For when Israel first saw it they said one to another Manna or What is this for they wist not what it was Ver. 20. and if they kept it above a day it bred Worms and stank CHAP. XV. Vpon the many Jealousies rais'd and Scandals cast upon the King to stir up the People against him THere is a great deal of difference between Accusations and Calumnies the first necessary to all Popular States whereby to keep any one's growing too great for the rest as may be seen in the Athenian Ostracism or Banishment for ten Years and the Syracusian Petalism for five Years but Calumnies were ever exploded as the bane and destruction of Common Society And if they are so dangerous to Commonwealths what must they be to Monarchy which is never truly supported but by being at unity within it self And yet such were the Artifices of those times that they rais'd their Babel on no other Foundation and what the effect of it was we have all seen however it must not seem strange that our Answerer bred at the Feet of those Gamaliels should all along Copy so exactly after the Original But to pass his railing and come to his Matter which is so loose and thin that I was once going to throw it away till I better consider'd that the best way to undeceive the People was to undraw the Curtain and shew them how they had been deceiv'd and if in the doing it they have not tack'd together all the shreds and parings of Policy let any Man judge What the Plot of the Play was appears in their last Act and that was by the Murther of their Lawful Soveraign to transform and new model an ancient Monarchy into a Mushrome of a Commonwealth But many things were to be done by the way and without the People it was impossible to effect it They knew the People lov'd the King but had withal taken a discontent at somewhat but what that was not a Man of them could tell Nor were they to learn of what importance the aspersing a Prince is to boil up that discontent to a height fit for a Rebellion To have done this directly had been to betray themselves No they first commend him for a good Prince a King that would do any thing for his People But alas There are some about him The more 's the pity However God in his time can mend all And yet the less they spake of
his Children and of a Master in rewarding his Servants And so what between pretended want of Instructions and the twenty days spun out to nothing the Treaty broke off as well it might with them that came prepar'd not to yield any thing However his Majesty's Commissioners desir'd an Enlargement of time but it would not be granted And to Salve it on their side our Answerer runs to his common Topick That the King had nothing no not so much as Honour but of the People's Gift yet talks on equal terms with the grand Representative of that People for whose sake he was made King And is one of the modestest Expressions of his whole Book and which I have so fully answer'd before Chap. 6 that I need not add any thing farther to it here CHAP. XIX Vpon the various Events of the War Victories and Defeats THIS Chapter relates nothing to the History of those times and is a brief but pathetical Account of his Majesty under those varieties of Events wherein he acquitted himself Justum tenacem propositi virum Quem Civium ardor prava jubentium Mente non quassit solida And verified his own Words That he wish'd no greater advantage by the War than to bring his Enemies to Moderation and his Friends to Peace As also those other That if he had yielded less he had been oppos'd less and if he had denied more he had been more obey'd And if the Word of a King may not pass in his own Case take in all Histories of him and you 'll find him so little made up of Accidents or subject to them that he sacrific'd his Particular to the advantage of the whole and more regarded an honest Life than a safe one Nor has our Accuser's railing given me Ground to take notice of him in this Chapter other than when he says His Lips acquitted the Parliament not long before his Death of all the Blood spilt in this War which also he had said before and to what I then urg'd I only add this now That His Majesty at the Treaty of the Isle of Wight seeing the unreasonableness of their demands made some Queries upon them of which this was one See tho King's Book in Folio Fol. 608. Whether his acknowledgement of the Blood that had been spilt in the late Wars nothing being yet concluded or binding could be urg'd so far as to be made use of by way of Evidence against him or any of his Party And whether this be an acquitting the Parliament for other I am sure there is none I appeal to any Man His Majesty came as near the Wind as with Honour he could till finding at last that nothing would do as stripp'd as he was of every thing but his Vertue and the Freedom of his Mind he justified to the World that however he was within the common Chance he was not under the Dominion of Fortune CHAP. XX. Vpon the Reformations of the Times I Need not tell my Reader the Argument of this Chapter the Title speaks it and As his Majesty was well pleas'd with this Parliament's first Intentions to reform what the indulgence of Times and corruption of Manners might have deprav'd so saith he I am sorry to see how little regard was had to the good Laws establish'd and the Religion settled which ought to be the first Rule and Standard of Reforming But our Answerer will by no means hear those two Bugbears of Novelty and Perturbation an Expression his Majesty uses in this Chapter the ill looks and noise of which have been frequently set on foot to divert and dissipate the Zeal of Reformers Aâ— it was the Age before in Germany by the Pope and by our Papists here in Edward the Sixth's time Whereas Christ foretold us his Doctrine would 〈◊〉 be receiv'd without the Censure of Novelty and many great Commotions But with his Favour he neither shews us that this Parliament had the same Authority which our Saviour had or that they proceeded his way For besides that He came not to destroy the Law Mat. 5.17 but to fullfil it in all Righteousness he commanded this to his Disciples Habete sal in vobis Mar. 9.50 pacem inter vos Have Salt i. e. Wisdom in your selves and Peace one with another And as he knew God was the God of Order not of Confusion he left the Care of his Church to his Disciples but no where that I find to reform it by Tumults or under the Face of Religion to destroy the Power of it as must inevitably follow when against known settled establish'd Laws Men shall take upon them to reform by the Lump without discerning what things are intermingled like Tares among Wheat Lord â—â—â—on which have their Roots so wrapp'd and entangled together that the one cannot be pull'd up without endangering the other and such as are mingled but as Chaff and Corn which need but a Fan to sift and sever them And that his Majesty was not averse to a due Reformation appears in this when he says I have offer'd to put all differences in Church-affairs and Religion to the free Consultation of a Synod or Convocation rightly chosen So offered saith our Answerer all Popish Kings heretofore And let it be produced what good hath been done by Synods from the first times of Reformation And truly if he knows none I offer none Though methinks he ought not in Gratitude to have forgotten their own Assembly of Divines Men of unknown Parts and so Instrumental to the carrying on of the Cause that if they had not kept blowing the Coals the Fire would have quickly gone out of it self But what talk we of Gratitude to a Man of those Times the Fish was caught and what more use of the Net And yet if the Houses had with the King submitted those differences to a Synod rightly chosen where had been the hurt Flannel-Weavers I must confess are not the best at making Love yet we have an old Proverb fabrilia fabri Every Man in his own Trade And who more fit to judge of Church-matters than Churchmen But this had been to uphold an Antichristian Hierarchy and what need that when scarce a Man of our Reformers but was a Church by himself Câ—mb Brit. Fol. 509. And why might not they bid as fair now as the Army of God and the Church in King John's time the Holy League in France the Sword of the Lord John Knox and Gideon in Scotland John of Leyden and Knipperdoling in Germany Tantum Religio potuit That successful Pretence of Mankind Religion Absalom mask'd his Rebellion with a Vow at Hebron and Herod his design of Murther with another of Worship CHAP. XXI Vpon His Majesty's Letters taken and divulg'd I Have heard of a malicious Stab that contrary to the intent of the hand that gave it open'd an Impostume And such was the barbarity of this Action of which also it may be as truly said Vna eademque manus
to say no Answer belongs to it He knew there was none to be given and therefore Magisterially slighted it He holds it also neither wise nor comely that the falling out of Brethren be debated before a Common Enemy and tacitly implies his Reason least the Uncircumcised rejoice But I think I can tell ye a better When Presbytery rode the fore-Horse no one kept up with it more than himself but when he found it began to faulter he was loth to lose Company and jogg'd on with the rest The first leading Men that carried on the War were Presbyterians and their General upon the New-Model was as right as they could wish to have had him And yet he was in the Hands of the Army and that Army in the Hands of his Lieutenant-General Cromwell A grand mistake of theirs in thinking to Settle Presbytery with an Army of Anabaptists Independents Fifth-Monarchy-Men and what not Bone of their Bone and Flesh of their Flesh 't is true but as Mortal Enemies to them as were the Jews to the Samaritans and yet both of them had Abraham to their Father And for Cromwell though no one could say of what Religion he was besides that he ever match'd the Colour that was in Fashion he still protested Obedience and Fidelity to the Parliament and by that Means got his Ends of the King and them And whether our Answerer took it not right judge when he says Some of the former Army touch'd with Envy to be out-done by a New Model and being prevalent in the House of Commons took advantage of Presbyterian and Independant Names and the War being ended thought slightly to have discarded them without their due Pay and the reward of their invincible Valour But they i. e. the Independants who had the Sword yet in their hands disdaining to be made the first Objects of Ingratitude and Oppression after all that Expence of their Blood for Justice and the Common Liberty seiz'd the King their Prisoner whom nothing but their matchâ—ess Deeds had brought so low as to surrender his Person By which we see the Bottom of this Good Old Cause when the only quarrel was about dividing the Spoil And truly when they that once had it could not keep it what had our Answerer to do to gape after them any longer And brings into my Head that Story of the Friars Crucifixus est etiam pro nobis But to go on with the Matter The King is now in the Army's Hands but our Answerer thinks not fit to say a Word to the Distractions in the Two Houses the Army and the City that ensued it but has left it out of his Title And why but that it must not be spoken in Gath when yet every Man here is not a Dweller of Askalon Cromwell found that the Parliament out-carded him as having gotten the King their Prisoner May 4 1646. and put the Militia of London into the Hands of a Committee of Citizens whereof the Lord Mayor for the time being to be One and therefore unless he could give them the Cross-bite and bring the Army to mutiny against their Masters he knew he must expect no better of them than what Essex had found from them To this purpose he and Ireton his Son-in-Law take advantage of a Vote of theirs 25. May 1647. for Disbanding the whole Army excepting Five Thousand Horse and One Thousand Dragoons and some Fire-locks to be kept up for the Safety of the Kingdom and some to be sent for Ireland and spread a Whisper through the Army that the Parliament now they had the King intended to Disband them to cheat them of their Arrears and send them into Ireland to be destroy'd by the Irish And it ran like Wild-fire for the Army were so inrag'd at it that they set up a new Council among themselves of Two Private Soldiers out of every Troop and Foot Company to consult for the Good of the Army and to assist at the Council of War and advise for the Peace and Safety of the Kingdom And these they called Agitators or Adjutators it matters not which for whatever Cromwell who yet stood unsuspected by the Houses had a mind to be done there needed no more but putting it into these Agitators Heads And the Effect of their first Consultation was to take the King from Holmby where upon his being deliver'd up by the Scots Feb. 16. 1646. the Parliament had lodged him with Colonel Graves and bring him to the Army Amongst these there was one Joyce a stubbed bold ignorant Enthusiastick Journey-man Taylor who from the Service of Denys Bond had gone out to the Assistance of the Lord against the Mighty and much about this time made a Cornet of Horse And however the matter was contriv'd for Commission he had none he went off by Night in the Head of a Thousand Horse and having surpriz'd the Parliament-Guards at Holmby early in the Morning importunately demands admittance into the King's Bed-Chamber as from the Army and was hardly prevail'd upon to stay so long as till the King could get up but being come in told his Majesty he was sent by the Lieutenant-General to secure his Person from his Enemies and bring him to the Army On which the King demanding to see his Commission Joyce opens a Window and points to the Body of Horse that stood drawn up on the Side of the Hill before the House An undeniable Argument says his Majesty and so went with him who brought him to the Head-quarters at New-Market Cromwell seems no less surpriz'd at it than the King however since he was among them assur'd him he should have no Cause to repent it and in a seeming passionate Manner promis'd him to restore him to his Right against the Parliament On this the Parliament send to the General to have the King redeliver'd to their Commissioners and this the rather for that the General by his Letters to them had excus'd himself and Cromwell and the Body of the Army as ignorant of the Fact and that the King came away willingly with those Souldiers that brought him And yet instead of giving them an Answer Jun. 23. 1647. the Army send a Charge against Eleven of their Members all active leading Men and require them to appoint a Day to determine this Parliament and in the mean time to suspend the Eleven Members sitting in the House to which last they only answer and say they could not do it by Law till the Particulars of the Charge were produced and were soon replied to with their own Proceedings against the Earl of Strafford and the Archbishop of Canterbury The London Militia had been yet in the Cities Hands till Cromwell taking the opportunity of a thin House Jul. 26. 1647. procures the Ordinance of the Fourth of May aforesaid to be revok'd and the Militia put into other Hands more favourable to the Army On which a Rabble of Apprentices and Disbanded Soldiers headed by the Sheriffs under the
Name of a Petition beset the Houses and force them to resettle it as it had been on the Citizens Hereupon the two Speakers with forty of the Lower House five Earls one Viscount and three Lords run off to the Army and Vote with them in their Council of War in the Nature of a Parliament and engage to live and die with the Army And a Mercy it was says our Answerer that they had a Noble and Victorious Army so near at hand to fly to The remains of the Houses on the other hand chuse new Speakers and raise an Army in the City and declare in Print it was in Order to his Majesty's being free and in a capacity of treating which yet they made use of but as a Stale to the Faction The Army-Soldiers also engage to Fair fax that they will live and die with him the Parliament i. e. such of the Houses as had fled to them and the Army who set out a Declaration of the Grounds of their march towards London and denying them to have been a Parliament since the said 26 of July at what time they were under a force call them the Gentlemen at Westminster and by a Letter to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen reproach them with those Tumults and demand the City to be delivered into their Hands to which purpose they were now coming to them To be short the Forces the City had raised were able and willing enough to have fought the Army but the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermens Hearts failing them they open their Gates and let them march through the City And now the first thing was to replace the Speakers and purge the Houses Aug. 6. 1647. which being accordingly done and a holy Thanksgiving appointed they declare all that had past in the Houses from the said 26 of July to the 6 of August to be null and void And the Army in their way impeach some imprison others demolish the Line of Communication and take every thing into their own Hands And yet to sweeten the People on the other side they treat the King now at Hampton-Court with more Liberty and Respect than had been shewn him by the Parliament's Commissioners for they not only allow him his own Chaplains and permit his Children and some Friends to see him but pretend to establish him in his just Rights to call Committees and Sequestrators to an account and free the People from Excise and Taxes and now who but the Army and Cromwell Tertius è coelo cecidit Cato Such as well as I could put them together were the Distractions in the two Houses the Army and the City that ensued the Army's surprisal of the King at Holmby And here they ended for this time what became of them afterward I shall come to show in the last Chapter CHAP. XXVII To the Prince of Wales HIS Majesty's Father King James the First who might have truly said Many and evil have been the days of my Pilgrimage thought it not enough to have pass'd those Windings himself without leaving his Son some Clue to direct him and therefore wrote that his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Instructions to his Son Henry the Prince And by his Fatherly Authority charges him to keep it ever with him as carefully as Alexander did the Iliads of Homer And the same seems this the King's Letter to the Prince of Wales A Manual penn'd by the best of Men and may be a Guide to the best of Princes For as to himself it is so ad fidem Historiae and as to the Prince so ad exemplar justi Imperii that whoever he be that opens it without prejudice cannot to use his Majesty's Words measure his Cause by the Success nor his Judgment of things by his Misfortunes And truly when I came to this Letter I was thinking to my self what our Accuser could say to it till having perused his Answer I was thus far satisfied that he deceiv'd not my Expectation for instead of giving it any solid Answer he only catches at Words Et minutiis rerum pondera frangit And had he gone no farther how blamable soever he might have been he had been less Ignominious But when he rakes those Kennels of his own making and throws his dirt-balls to blacken what he cannot destroy what is it but a spitting against the Sky where the Spittle returns upon his own Face In short this Letter might have shewn him if he had pleas'd how when some Mens Consciences accuse them for Sedition and Faction they stop its Mouth with the name and noise of Religion and when Piety pleads for Peace and Patience they cry out Zeal When on the contrary all good Men know that this is a Religion not proceeding from the Spirit but a Worm of their own breeding how devoutly i. e. Enthusiastically soever they vent it to the People for neither is every Dream new Light nor every Whim Prophecy And what the sad Effects of this has been we cannot sure have so soon forgotten When God was brought in to the worst of Actions the King abus'd in the affections of his People Religion wounded with a Feather of its own and the State fired with a Coal from the Altar CHAP. XXVIII Meditations upon Death after the Votes of Non-addresses and His Majesty's closer Imprisonment in Carisbrook Castle WHAT our Accuser says to this last Chapter and whether his Majesty had not a more particular ground for these Meditations will best appear if we look back to the latter end of the twenty sixth Chapter where I left the People in an Hosannah or now save us to the Army and Cromwell And now what might he not do before he was discover'd Or if he were the Army was in his Hands the Parliament in his Pocket the City at his Feet and which of them was there durst first say to him What art thou doing There stood nothing now in his way but the King he had no more need of him and how should he dispose of him To keep him in the Army was troublesome to let the Presbyterians get him had been a Bar to his design and to have murthered him had nothing further'd it for as yet he was but Lieutenant General The best way therefore was to let him escape beyond Sea To which purpose private Letters are slipp'd into his Hand that the Agitators had a design upon his Life which coming also to his Ear from report and the Guards purposely disposed for it the King in a dark rainy Night makes his escape from Hampton-Court but the Vessel that should have carried him over sailing he unfortunately fell into the Hands of Colonel Hammond Governour of the Isle of Wight who secures him in Carisbrook-Castle and sends to the Parliament to know their Pleasure concerning him From thence His Majesty sends to the Houses his desires for a Personal Treaty Decemb 6. 1647. which they refuse unless he first pass four Bills 1. That the Parliament have the Militia and
about Six Thousand tumultuously flock to Westminster crying Justice Justice against the Earl of Strafford Which within a day or two they second with a Petition On which the Earl less valuing his Life than the quiet of the Kingdom writes a Letter to the King whereby to set his Conscience at Liberty and by his own Consent prays him to pass the Bill which in a few days after was by Commission to the Earl of Arundel and three other Lords accordingly done with this Proviso That no Judge or Judges c. shall adjudge or interpret any act or thing to be Treason nor hear or determine any Treason any other way than they should or ought to have done before the making of this Act and as if this Act had never been had or made A modest Confession and that nothing but an Act of Parliament could affect him Nor unlike that Clause in an Ordinance of the King and Lords for the Banishment c. of the Lady Alice Pierce a Favourite of King Edward the Third's viz. That this Ordinance in this Special Case Mr. Seldâ—n's Privilege of Baronage 71 which may extend to a Thousand other Persons shall in no other case but this be taken in Example However after the Bill was pass'd the King as deeming They will reverence my Son wrote a Letter to the House of Lords with his own Hand and sent it by the Prince of Wales in which he interceeds for that Mercy to the Earl which many Kings would not have scrupled to have given themselves But 't was resolv'd and nothing would do And thus between Accumulative and Constructive Treason nor better prov'd than I have shewn before Sic inclinavit heros caput Taken from Mr. Cleveland Belluae multorum Capitum Merces favoris Scottici praeter pecunias Nec vicit tamen Anglia sed oppressit Or if my Reader had rather have it in English take it from that happy Flight of Sir Richard Fanshaw on that Occasion And so fell Rome herself oppress'd at length By the united World and her own Strength And yet not to leave his Memory in the Dust there is an Act of Parliament that vindicates all I have said in the matter and that is The Act for reversing this Attainder 13 14. Car. 2. c. 29. which says thus That the Bill of Attainder was purposely made to Condemn him upon Accumulative and Constructive Treason none of the said Treasons being Treason apart and so could not be in the whole if they had been prov'd as they were not And the Act further says It was procured by an armed Tumult the names of Fifty nine of the Commons that opposed the Bill posted by the name of Straffordians and sent up to the Peers at a time when a great part of them were absent by reason of those Tumults and many of those present protested against it For which Causes and to the end that Right be done to the Memory of that deceased Earl it was enacted c. That the said Act c. be repeal'd c. And all Records and proceedings of Parliament relating to the said Attainder be cancell'd and taken off the File c. to the intent the same may not be visible in after-Ages or brought in Example to the prejudice of any Person whatever Provided that this Act shall not extend to the future questioning of any Person c. however concern'd in this Business or who had any hand in the Tumults or disorderly procuring the Act aforesaid c. A shrewd suspicion that they thought that Act of Attainder was not so regularly obtain'd as it ought to have been for if it had what needed that Proviso And having duely considered this Act I think the Wonder will cease why the King was so dissatisfied in his Conscience touching the giving his Assent to that Bill of Attainder His Speech on the Scaffold or that the Lord Capel so publickly begg'd forgiveness of God for having given his Consent toward it At least I presume it may startle any Man that from such repeated Calumnies has not yet come to be of our Answerer's Opinion That there may be a Treason against the Commonwealth as well as against the King only A Treason not mention'd in 25 Edw. 3. or in any Statute since saving those of the late Usurper's making inasmuch as no Estate or Estates of the Realm make any thing of themselves but as joyned to their Figure the King And therefore passing the King 's most detested Conspiracy as he calls it against the Parliament and Kingdom by seizing the Tower of London bringing the English Army out of the North c. I leave him and his Stuff together and come to the Third CHAP. III. Vpon His going to the House of Commons I Said ere-while His Majesty might think the Lords would reverence his Son nor was in to be doubted whether the Commons would himself Especially considering the business he went about It was faith the King to demand Justice upon the Five Members whom upon just motives and pregnant grounds I had charged and needed nothing to such Evidence as could have been produced against them save only a free and legal Tryal which was all I desired Which fill'd indifferent Men with Jealousies and Fears yea and many of my Friends resented as a motion rising rather from Passion than Reason See says our Answerer He confesses it to â—an act which most Men whom he calls his Enemies cried shame upon indifferent Men c. as before He himself in one of his Answers to both Houses made profession to be convinc'd that it was a plain breach of their Privilege Yet here like a rottâ— Building newly trimm'd over he represents it speciously and fraudulently to impose upon the simple Reader c. Words insolent enough without adding the rest though it had not been from his Matter if he had told that simple Reader in which Answer of his Majesties he might have found that Profession However for the discovery of the Truth on both sides it may not be amiss to make a few steps backward that considering the occasion we may the better judge of the thing It had been advis'd to the King by the then Privy-Council of Scotland to send the Book of Common-Prayer to be receiv'd and us'd in all Churches of that Kingdom The King's Declaration 1639. which was accordingly order'd And in the Month of July 1637. publickly read in the great Church of Edinburgh The Kirkmen took fire at it nor wanted there some in England to fan the Flame which in a short time got that head that they invade England but finding the design not ripe enough yet they humbly submit and the business is smother'd Whereas had those smoaking Brands been sufficiently quench'd they had not made a greater Eruption the next Year During this time the King had gotten into the matter and calls this Parliament with a real intention of quieting all They begin where the last Parliament
left Complaints of Grievances Innovations in Religion Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Power and single out the Earl of Strafford for an example of their Justice The King I said was got into the matter and had discover'd whose Correspondencies and Engagements they were that had embroil'd his Kingdoms and ordered his Attorney to draw a Charge of High-Treason against the Lord Kimbolton Mr. Pym Mr. Hanbden Mr. Hollis Sir Ar. Haslerigg and Mr. Strode Which was accordingly done and the substance of it is this That they have Traiterously endeavour'd to subvert the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom Saudeâ—sin's Hist of K.C.I. Fol. 473. and to deprive the King of his Power That they have endeavoured by foul Aspersions to alienate the Peoples affections from the King That they have traiterously invited and encourag'd a foreign Power to invade His Majesties Kingdom of England That for the compleating their traiterous designs they have actually rais'd and countenanc'd Tumults against the King and Parliament And that they have traiterously conspired to levy and actually have levied War against the King Nelson 2d Part F. 811. ad idom On this the King having first demanded them of the House by a Serjeant at Arms a Warrant is granted to apprehend them but missing their Persons Id. Fol. 514. their Trunks are seiz'd and seal'd up While this was yet doing the Commons had notice of it and thereupon Vote That on all like occasions for the future any Member might call a Constable to his assistance defend himself and seize all such Persons The next Morning the King goes to the House with part of his ordinary Guard of Pensioners and orders them to stay without and having rested himself in the Speaker's Chair told them He came to demand five Persons whom he had accused of High Treason Id. Sander Fol. 474. And though no King that ever was in England could be more tender of their Privileges that yet they knew there was no Privilege against Treason So Sir Fâ— Coke a â—â—st 25. And looking round him I see faith he they are gone But assured them in the word of a King that he never intended any force but to proceed against them in a legal fair way and therefore expected the House would send them to him and so went off Nor was he yet out of hearing when the general Cry was Privilege Privilege And the next day they Vote this coming of the King a breach of Privilege and adjourn for a Week into London there to sit as a General Committee pretending they were not safe at Westminster and though the King afterwards wav'd their Prosecution would not be satisfied unless he also discover'd who gave him that Counsel to come to the House as if it were not enough that he for bore his Enemies without he also betray'd his Friends Upon this Tumult upon Petition and Petition upon Tumult daily encreasing the King Queen Prince and Duke retire to Hampton-Court the Members in the mean time passing to and from Westminster with Hundreds of Boats Flags Seamen Rabble and Huzza's as they pass'd by Whitehall And now again judge any sober Man between the King and them The King to avoid the ill consequence of a denial gave his Assent to the Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford He demands Justice against the five Members and 't is refus'd him If they were guilty why were they protected against him And if not guilty why did they not clear themselves The King came to the House with an attendance short of his ordinary Guard and it was Voted a Breach of Privilege They had their armed Tumults of Six Thousand at a time to awe the King's Friends and no notice taken of it but rather encourag'd Whereas it is Lex consuetudo Parliamenti That wheresoever the Parliament is holden Sir F. Coke 3 Inst 160. there ought to be no wearing of Armour exercise of Plays games of Men Wothen or Children much less Riots What shall I add They in the Year 1647. submitted eleven of their Members to the impeachment of an Army after that their House to be garbled and when contrary to the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom they had voted themselves the Legislative Power of the Nation as tamely submitted to be turn'd out by their Journey-Men And yet when the safety of the Nation was at stake insolently contend nay mate it with their Sovereign And therefore weighing altogether in a true Balance judge I say wherein the King was to blame or where lay this breach of Privilege And for what His Majesty's Intention in this matter was besides what has been before urg'd take this further from himself where he says If he purpos'd any Violence or Oppression against the Innocent then let the Enemy persecute my Soul tread my Life to the Ground and lay my Honour in the Dust To which this Accuser thus What needs there more disputing He appeal'd to God's Tribunal and behold God hath judged and done to him in the sight of all Men according to the Verdict of his own Mouth Whereas in Common Humanity as a Man Charity as a Christian Reverence to him as a King and Duty as his King he might and that truly have said 2 Sam. 3.34 As a Man falleth before wicked Men so fell'st thou The Breath of our Nostrils Lam. 4.10 the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their Pits of whom we said under His shaddow we shall live among the Heathen CHAP. IV. Vpon the Insolency of the Tumults WHat and how frequent the Tumults of London and Westminster that follow'd the convening of this Parliament were is obvious enough to every Man that knows the least of our own Story and how aptly His Majesty has compar'd them not to a Storm at Sea which yet wants not its Terror but an Earthquake which shakes the very Foundations of all may be also as visible from the too sad effects of them Earthquakes the more general they are do less hurt by reason of the united weight which they offer to subvert whereas narrow and particular Earthquakes have many times overturn'd whole Towns and Cities And such was the Case here The Kingdom as yet stood well enough witness those the Nobility and Gentry who out of a principle of Honour and Honesty adhered to the King Some humours t is true might glow and estuate in the Body but they were not yet got into the Head That Ricketty Head that was already swoll'n too big for the Body But when they once discover'd that Vent all gather'd to it and shook those Foundations which the Wisdom of so many Centuries had been laying and securing as I shall come to show presently In the mean time our Answerer for what concerns the King's Words says The matter here is not whether the King or his Houshold Rhetorician have made a Pithy Declamation against Tumults but first whether they were Tumults or not next if they were whether the King himself did not