would now quiet his eager Spirit but to put it to the question whether the Lordships were not content to open their Doors wide and to let all the Bishops out if they would The Lord Keeper Replied with a prudent Animosity That if he were Commanded he would put it to the Question but to the King and not to the House of Peers For their Lordships as well Spiritual as Temporal were call'd by the King 's Writ to sit and abide there till the same Power dissolv'd them And for my Lords Temporal they had no Power to License themselves much less to Authorize others to depart from the Parliament With which Words of irrefragable Wisdom that Spirit was conjur'd down as soon as it was rais'd But when the House was swept and made clean it returned again in our dismal Days with seven other Spirits worse than it self The Motion was then in the Infancy and we heard no more of it till it was grown to be a Giant and dispossessed our Reverend Fathers of their ancient Possession and Primigenious Right by Club-Law Let my Apostrophe plead with our Nobles in no Man's Words but Cicero's to Cataline In vastitate omnium tuas possessiones sacrosanctas futuras putas Could your Lordships imagine to limit Gun-Powder and Wild-Fire to blow up one half of the Foundation and to spair the other half When the Pillars of the Church were pluckt down could the Pillars of the State be strong enough to support the Roof of their own Dignity They should have thought upon it when they pill'd the Bark off the Tree that the Tree would flourish no more but quickly come to that Sentence Cut it down Why cumbereth it the Ground 92. Our Forefathers when they met in Parliament were wont to auspicate their great Counsels with some remarkable Favour of Priviledge or Liberality conferr'd upon the Church And because the Prelates and their Clergy were more concern'd than any in the Benefit of the Statutes made before the Art of Printing was found out they were committed to the Custody of their Religious Mansions The Reward of those Patriots was like their Work and God did shew he was in the midst of them They began in Piety they proceeded in Prudence they acted marvelously to the Maintainance of the Publick Weal and they Concluded in Joy and Concord But since Parliaments of latter Editions have gone quite another way to hearken to Tribunitial Orators that defamed the Ministry to encourage Projectors that would disseize them of their Patrimony when the Nobles from whom better was expected wax'd weary of them who were Twins born in the same Political Administration Samnium in Samnio We may look for England in England and find nothing but New England How are we fallen from our ancient Happiness How Diseased are we grown with the Running Gout of Factions How often have those great Assemblies been cut off unkindly on both sides before their Consultations were mellow and fit for Digestion We look for much and it came to little Was it not because the Lord did blow it away Hag. 1.9 It is not good to be busie in the Search of Uncertainties that are not pleasing yet they that will not trouble themselves to consider this Reason may find divers Irritations to Jars in the Causes below but I believe they will not reduce them better to the Cause of Causes from above From hence came Fierceness and Trouble upon this Session and God sent evil Angels among them Psal 78.49 For the House of Commons seem'd to the King to step out of their Way from the Bills they were preparing into the Closet of his Majesty's Counsels which put him to make Answer to them in a Stile that became his Soveraignty The King's Son-in-Law taking upon him the Title of King of Bohemia sore against the Father-in Law 's Mind the Emperor being in lawful Possession of that Kingdom over-run the greatest part of the Palatinate with some Regiments of Old Soldiers whereof the most were Spanish under the Conduct of Marquess Spinola Our King received the Injury no less than as a deep Wound gash'd into his own Body And all true English Hearts which did not smell of the Roman Wash were greatly provoked with the Indignity Prince and People were alike affected to maintain the Palsgrave in his Inheritance but several Ways They that are of one Mind are not always of one Passion The King assay'd to stop the Fury of the Imperialists by Treaty The Votes of the bigger Number of the House of Commons propounds nothing but War with Spain and this they could not do but in Civility they must first break off the Treaty of Marriage then in Proposition between the King 's dearest Son and the Infanta Maria. Neither of which pleased his Majesty in the Matter and but little in the Form that his Subjects should meddle in those high Points which he esteemed no less than the Jewels of his Crown before he had commended them to be malleated upon their Anvil The Matter that the Match with the Spanish Princess should be intended no more was dis-relishable because he esteemed her Nation above any other to be full of Honour in their Friendship and their Friendship very profitable for the enriching of Trade The Lady her self was highly famed for Virtue Wisdom and Beauty The Noble House of which she came had ever afforded fortunate Wives to the Kings of this Land and gracious with the People Her Retinue of her own Natives should be small and her Portion greater than ever was given with a Daughter of Spain And in the League that should run along with it the Redintegration of the Prince Elector in the Emperors Favor whom he had offended should be included Therefore his Majesty wrote thus to the Parliament We are so far engaged in the Match that we cannot in Honour go back except the King of Spain perform not such things as we expect at his Hands Some were not satisfied of which more in a larger Process that our Prince should marry a Wise of the Pontifician Religion For as Man's Soul contracts Sin as soon as it toucheth the Body so their severe and suspicious Thoughts were as consident as if they had been the Lustre of Prophetick Light that a Protestant could not but be corrupted with a Popish Wedlock Therefore the King took in hand to cure that Melancholy Fit of Superstitious Fear with this Passage that he sent in his Message at the same time If the Match shall not prove a Furtherance to Religion I am not worthy to be your King A well-spirited Clause and agreeable to Holy Assurance that Truth is more like to win than lose Could the Light of such a Gospel as we profess be eclips'd with the Interposition of a single Marriage A faint hearted Soldier coming near in his March to an Ambush unawares Plut vit Pelop. Cry'd out to his Leader Pelopidas Incidimus in hostes We are fallen among the Enemy No Man says his
did now Imprison and Execute the Rigour of his Laws against the Roman Catholics I must deal plainly with your Lordship our Viperious Country-men the English Jesuits in France to frustrate those pious endeavours of his Majesty had many Months before this Favour granted retorted that Argument upon us by Writing a most malicious Book which I have seen and read over to the French King Inciting him and the three Estates to put all those Statutes in Execution against the Protestants in those parts which are here Enacted and as they falsly inform'd severely Executed upon the Papists I would therefore see the most subtle State-monger in the World chalk out away for 〈◊〉 Majesty to mediate for Grace and Favour for the Protestants by Executing at this 〈◊〉 the Severity of his Laws upon the Papists And that this Favour should 〈…〉 Toleration is a most dull and yet a most devilish misconstruction A Toleration looks forward to the time to come This favour backward to the Offences past If any Papist now set at Liberty shall offend the Laws again the Justices may Nay must recomm◠him and leave Favour and Mercy to the King to whom they properly belong Nay let those two Writs directed to the Judges be as diligently perused by these rash Censurers as they were by those Grave and Learned Men to whom his Majesty referred the Penning of the same and they shall find that these Papists are not otherwise out of Prison then with their Shackles about their Heels sufficient sureties and good recognizances to present themselves again at the next Assizes As therefore that Lacedaemonian opposed the Oracle of Apollo by asking his Opinion of the Bird which he grasp'd in his hand whether it were alive or dead So it is a matter yet controverted and undecided whether these Papists clos'd up and grasp'd in the Bands of the Law be still in Prison or at Liberty Their own demeanour and the success of his Majesties Negotiations are the Oracles that must decide the same If the Lay-Papists do wax insolent with this Mercy insulting upon the Protestants and Translating this favour from the Person to the cause I am verily of Opinion that his Majesty will remand them to their former State and Condition and renew his Writ no more But if they shall use these Graces modestly by admitting conference with Learned Preachers demeaning of themselves Neighbourly and Peaceably praying for his Majesty and the prosperous success of his Pious Endeavours and Relieving him bountifully which they are as well able to do as any other of his Subjects if he shall be forced and constrained to take his Sword in Hand Then it cannot be denied but our Master is a Prince that hath as one said plus humanitatis poene quam hominis And will at that time leave to be merciful when he leaves to be himself In the the mean while this Argument fetch'd from the Devils Topics which concludes a concreto ad abstractum from a favour done to the English Papists that the King favoureth the Popish Religion is such a Composition of Folly and Malice as is little deserved by that Gracious Prince who by Word Writing Exercise of Religion Acts of Parliament late Directions for Catechising and Preaching and all Professions and Endeavours in the World hath demonstrated himself so Resolved a Protestant God by his Holy Spirit open the Eyes of the People that these Airy Representations of ungrounded Fancies set aside they may clearly discern and see how by the Goodness of God and the Wisdom of their King this Island of all the Countries in Europe is the sole Nest of Peace and True Religion And the Inhabitants thereof unhappy only in this one thing that they never look up up to Heaven to give God Thanks for so great an Happiness Lastly for mine own Letter to the Judges which did only declare not operate the Favour it was either mispenned or much mis-construed It recited four kinds of Recusants only capable of his Majesties Clemency Not so much to include these as to exclude many other Crimes bearing among the Papists the Name of Recusanties as using the Function of a Romish Priest seducing the King's Liege people from the Religion established Scandalizing and Aspersing our King Church State or present Government All which Offences being outward practises and no secret Motions of the Conscience are adjudged by the Laws of England to be meerly Civil and Political and excluded by my Letter from the benefit of those Writs which the bearer was imployed to deliver unto my Lords the Judges And thus I have given your Lordship a plain Accompt of the Carriage of this business and that the more suddenly that your Lordship might perceive it is no Aurea Fabula or prepared Fable but a bare Narration which I have sent unto your Lordship I beseech your Lordship to let his Majesty know that the Letters to the Justices of the Peace concerning those four Heads recommended by his Majesty shall be sent away as fast as they can be exscribed I will not trouble your Lordship more at this time c. Your Lordships I. L. C. S. 105. The Letter as it exceeds in length so it excells in Judgment Yet thrusting into the midst of the Throng to part the Fray he got a knock himself For because he was principally employ'd by his Office to distribute the King's Favours to some of the adverse Sect he was Traduc'd for a Well-willer to the Church of Rome nay so far by a ranting fellow about the Town that he was near to receive a chief promotion from that Court no less than a Cardinals Hat At the first Bruit of this Rumor the Scandal was told him and one Sadler the Author discover'd which he despis'd to prosecute and pass'd it by with this moderation ' That the Reporters saw the Oar under Water and thought it was ' Crooked but he that had it in his hand knew that it was whole and streight An admirable Similitude to reconcile contraries to a good meaning for the Eye were not right if the Oar under Water did not seem broken to it And the Judgment were not right if it had not a contrary Opinion So the people that are upon the Shore judge one way for they look upon things beneath the Water But States-men judge another who work at the Oar or guide the Bark The Error of the former is tolerable the Sense of the other is Magisterial and unquestionable So great were this Lord's disaffections to that corrupt and unfound Church that he watch'd their Ministers more narrowly then any Counsellor when they shot beyond the Mark of his Majesties late indulgences It was ever the unlucky diligence of those that were Proctors to agitate the Recusants Cause to importune his Majesty for those things which they did not hope to obtain but the very offer of them with their Arts and Graceless Carriage would make the Council Table odious contribute much to embitter the Subjects
by K. Philips Servants and too little by the Servants of his own Master Finally our English and Irish Papists who fill'd the Courts of Rome and Spain with Narratives of their grievous Persecutions which they did only fear and Petitions to conditionate the Match with their mitigation These were the main Sticklers to do a real mischief only to satisfie a Fantastical Jealousie The Tears of their Lamentation dropt upon the Popes tender heart so that to comply with them many a bitter Kernel was in the Core of the dispensation And I have Reason to suspect they were some Grains the worse that the French employ'd at Rome at that time did the worst Offices they could as the Lord Herbert our Kings Embassador in France wrote hither Cabal pag. 301. Those of the King of France's Councel at Rome will use all the means they can to the Pope in whom they pretend to have very particular Interest not only to interrupt but to break Your Majesties Alliance with Spain Many Rattle-Heads as well as they did bestir them to gain-stand this Match But as Pliny said in his Age Nat. Hist l. 29. So may I in our time Ingenicrum Italiae slata impellimur the Italian Wits are they that will take it in scorn if they bear not all before them For Example in this Dispensation How acute they thought themselves in their Policy and how Imperious I am sure they were in their Arrogancy It came to the Nuncio Residing at Madrid in April who was commanded to observe this Form in the Delivery That it should not be Open'd and Communicated before the King of Spain did take an Oath to be a Surely That the King of England should really perform all things required therein or if he fail'd in such performance or in any of them then the King of Spain with all his might and Power to take Arms against him What Though the Italians are so Witty for their own part do they suppose all people beside are fallen into a strong Delirium Had they cast our Water so ill to think us so Weak that before one Article was Publish'd or known we would be beholding to Sureties to undertake for us Or that we would submit to all with indefinite and undiscoursed Obedience It hapned fortunately that the Lord Keeper had dealt before with Mr. George Gage a full Romanist in Religion but a Faithful Subject to his King to be diligent in the Court of Rome and to spare no Cost upon his Purse to get a Copy of the Articles as soon as the Dispensation was Bulled and to send them under hand by the greatest speed to the Prince In which Mr. Gage did not fail 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Golden Key will open the strongest Lock in the Gates of Hell By this Providence his Highness knew what it was the Nuncio held so close in his Fist as soon as himself Yet took no Notice as if he had seen particulars but as if at adventure bad him suspend the Delivery of the Powers as long as he would for he knew that his Father would fly from that Offer That the King of Spain should Engage for him because his Majesties Conscience and his Writings divulg'd as far as Learning reach'd would not permit him to Subject himself to the Popes Propositions which he had no Authority to obtrude upon Free Princes no nor upon any Man â—ut of the Verge of his Suburbicary Jurisdiction So much Gâ—ndamar could have told them one that fate in the Spanish Junto out of the Lord Keepers Letter for it is his though his Name is omitted Cab. p 236. in these Remarkable Words His Majesty hopes that you are not Ignorant that the Treaty is between Him and your Master He hath no Treaty with Rome neither lies it in his way to dispute with them upon this Question It troubled the Nuncio that the Peremptory Clause which the Dispensation brought with it was thus slighted and it would keep stale no longer business was in such Haste Therefore they come to those who were our Princes employ'd Councellors to require of them to give their best help to rowl away this Stone which was the main Obstruction On our Part therefore we ask'd two Questions First Whether King Philip could take such an Oath for another King Guardians may take Oaths in the behalf of Minors whom they Govern'd for it was in their Power and it lay upon their Charge to perform that which they swore for Minors till they came to Age. We had heard of some who were wont in some places that procured the Causes of their Clients in Civil Courts to take an Oath in Animam Domini sui vel in Animam constituentis but such as Weighed Religion more by Conscience then by Custom detested it For who can Swear before God to oblige the Soul of another Since an Oath must be taken in Judgment as well as in Truth Jerem. 4.2 The Spaniards were be-gruntled with these Scruples And their Recourse was to a Convention of their soundest Divines to deliver their sentence upon it who walk'd as slowly and gingerly as if they had been founder'd They toss'd over Books they search into the Code the Casuists and Canonists Read tedious Lectures and cast up a Trench of a hundred Scruples to Besiege this little Question The Prince whose Humanity and Wisely-Govern'd Temper was admir'd of all took the wast of time that these Divines made in great Offence Now was the first time that he spake that unkind Word to Olivares That he was Wrong'd and wish'd himself in his own Court again Olivares Chased as fast that their Fatherhoods with their Mountains of Learning sate so long to bring forth a Mouse and blamed himself as it was reported in our Parl. Anno 1624. That the Devil put it into his mind to call that Assembly For all this the Divines would be known in their Place and would not break up their meeting till they had Resolv'd after twenty days what they determined to Conclude from the first hour That King Philip might take the Oath wherein yet we gained thus much on our part that a Point which was Resolved by the Pope and his Conclave subscribed by them all Committed to the Nuncio to be Advanced with St. Peters Authority might be disputed twenty days by a Chapter of private Divines Let them sit twenty days more to satisfie us whether it were good Theology or good manners to serve him so whose decisions they say are inerrable When the Grave Doctors of Salamanca had acquitted themselves so learnedly his Highness's Ministers moved another Question Whether King Philip would take the Oath as Procurator for our King who nor requir'd it nor was privy to any thing that was stuff'd into the Procuration To which a present Answer was given and no bad one it could not be Resolved before the Spanish Counsel saw how far our Prince and his Counsel would yield in points of Religion And how can we tell you that said
Infanta what you have merited and to accommodate all other Mistakes here concerning that Proceeding If your Grace would reconcile your Heart I would not doubt but with the Conclusion of the Match to compose all things to your good Satisfaction and to bring them to a true Understanding of you and of their Obligation unto you But his Lordship knew what he had deserved and that it was not possible to look for good Quarter from them So he cut off the Thread of the Match with these Scissors The Love of the English must not be lost the Love of the Spaniard could not be gain'd But it was passing ill done of him to deal so with his dear Master to whom he owed more than ever he could pay for whom he should not have been nice to hazard his Preservation He knew the bottom of the King's Bosom that his Majesty accounted this great Alliance to be the Pillar of his present Honour and the Hope of his future Prosperity That all his Counsels with foreign States turned upon that Hinge That he looked for golden Days with it which would fill our People with rich Traffick and spread Peace over all the Borders of Europe He knew his Lord the King desired to live but to see it finished and car'd not to live after he saw it vanished Crediderim tunc ipsam fidem humanam negotia speculantem maestum vultum gessisse Valer. lib. 6. Let the Duke have his deserved Praises in other things great and many but let Fidelity Loyalty and Thankfulness hide their Face and not look upon this Action Let his Friends that did drive him to it and wrought upon his flexible Disposition bear much of the Obloquy For it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not Man but God that made the Law He that kindled the Fire let him make Restitution Ex. 22.6 148. He that hateth the Light loves not to come to the Light lest his Deeds should be reproved Joh. 3.20 The Politici that carried the Duke athwart with their excentrick Motion were very impatient to be discovered They thought they had beat their Plot upon a quilted Anvil and that their Hammer could not be heard But time is a Blab which will tell all Secrets and spared not this The Lord Keeper was much maligned as the Author of the Detection Yet he deserved not the Glory for it was the King himself by this Occasion The Embassadors of the Catholick King pressed that the Articles assented to by the Prince and those about him should be ratified And Preparation was made to give them Satisfaction So the Lord Keeper assures the Duke Cab. P. 78. The King is resolved to take certain Oaths you have sent hither and I pray God afterwards no further Difficulty be objected These Oaths being brought to discussion at the Council-Table there were among the Lords that supprest their Consent till better knowledge did warrant them and some Aspect of Necessity did make them resolute to Agreement While these few of the Lords were suspensive in their Judgment it was brought to the King that some profest Servants and Creatures of the Duke's cavilled at certain Articles in the matter of the Oath and were very busie to puzzle those who had not yet compleatly deliberated upon them The King laid this to other things he had heard and he was able to put much together in a Glance of Imagination and called one of them that was employed in this unacceptable Office to a private Conference whom his Majesty handled with such searching Questions conjured with such Wisdom wound into him with that Sweetness that he fetcht out the Mystery yet giving him his Royal Word to conceal his Person Sic suo indicio periit sorex So the Rat was catcht by his own Squeaking This his Majesty imparted to the Lord Keeper and Marquiss Hamilton and was not a little discomforted upon it for here was a Danger found out but not a Remedy Yet he went on chearfully to all seeming to that which was come to a ripe Head and gave Command to the Lord Keeper to prepare all things for the solemn Confirmation of the Covenants that were brought from Spain He went went about it and had about him those three Qualities which run together in St. Paul Rom. 12.11 Not slothful in Business fervent in Spirit serving the Lord That is Diligence Courage Conscience Zealots who are favourable to themselves that they think they have among them the Monopoly of Conscience had been able to discourage another who in common Discourse laid no less Crime than Atheism no Religion upon him that should give Furtherance to a Popish Marriage much more if for Reasons of State-Compliance he should refresh the Party adherent to Rome with any Mercy or Favour But this man regarded not Rumors before Reason God had given him a Spirit above Fear which he would often say had the greatest Influence in the Corruption of two brave things Justice and good Counsel So he was resolved as Illustrius says of Theod 〈◊〉 the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to spend or cast away some Wisdom not only for the Intelligent but for their Sakes that were ignorant and knew not how to use it The Precedent for this Work he conceived would be to turn over the Paper Stories of Queen Elizabeth's Reign when the first and second Dukes of Anjou were propounded for Husbands to that glorious Lady of whom the latter came so near to speed that wise Burleigh with others that had gray Hairs and grave Heads drew up a Book for the Consummation of the Marriage Lay that Treaty with the French Monsieur and this of Spain together and there needs no striving to bring them to great Resemblance in the Comparison There was as much Disparity in Religion between the one Pair as the other The Duke of Anjou came as unexpectedly to the Queen at Greenwich as the Prince came unlooked for to Madrid The Duke brought but two or three in Train Camb. Eliz. Fol. P. Ann. 1579. no more did the Prince The French Treaties continued eight years to obtain the Queen the same Term of time had been spent in the Prince's Behalf to enjoy the Infanta Eight years past and nothing past beside for both the Lovers were non-suited in the end The Duke of Anjou courted the Queen when her People regretted that he besieged the Protestants in Rochel at the same time Gladio ejus eorum cruore intincto qui eandem quam Angli profitentur Religionem Camb. An. 1573. Our Prince solicited for his Mistress in Spain when the Palatinate was wasted with Fire and Sword by Spinola which was dearer to us by far than Rochel Finally Take three things more in a Twist together Did some of our good People fear a Prejudice to Religion by the Prince's intended Match even so Religionis mutationem ab Andino Angli nonnulli timuerunt Did a Bride from Spain go against the vulgar Content So did a
Honour and Safety could not approve 187. After this says the Reporter my Lord Duke hath informed you of the Dispensation the Whirly-Gig of the Dispensation which run round from Pope to Pope and never could be said to settle And though an orbicular Motion is fittest for the Spheres of Heaven yet a circular Motion which is ever beginning and never ending is stark naught for dispatch of Affairs on Earth Both the Dispensation and the Labour of the Junto of Divines upon it and their Fumbling Fingers were never fit to tye a Love-Knot Nay the Conde Duke brake out into such a Chase against their Theologues that he said the Devil put it into his Head to commit the Matter to their Learning So that it seems the Resolution of the Divines came quite contrary to the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost The next thing says he reported out of his Grace's Digestions was the Loathing that the Prince did take at the Length of the Treaty as well as the Matter but chiefly at that In the Matter that he was offered the present Conducting of the Lady into England so he would sell his Soul for the Favour and be a Client to Saints and Images to beg a Blessing of them upon his Marriage And whereas his Highness had travelled into so far a Country as well to relieve a Sister and her Posterity as to fetch a Wife he was at such a loss about the Loss of his Sister's Inheritance that the Spanish Council would fasten upon nothing to content him Hereupon his Highness declared himself plainly to the Conde in these Words Look to it Sir for without this you must not conclude of either Marriage or Friendship For I must go to my Father and acquaint him with your Resolution Here the Lord Keeper grew warm and besought their Lordships to observe how constant his Highness remained to the principal Ground of all the Restitution of the Palatinate which was the Hinge upon which all his subsequent Actions did move Look to it for neither Marriage nor Friendship can be made without the Restitution of that Dominion Which Protestation effecting little good his Highness look'd homeward But his Purposes and Preparations for his Return were often slackned But because the King of Spain expected a Betrothing with his Sister before his going away the Conde Duke revived the Treaty for the Restitution of the Paltz And after Conference with the Emperors Ambassadors there was projected a Restitution of the Country to the Son upon a Condition of a Marriage with the Emperors second Daughter which the Prince entertained But then the stabbing Condition comes after That for his Religion he must first be bred in the Emperors Court at which his Highness stopt his Ears But for the Electorate it was a thing in Nubibus out of their Power and it seems out of their Affections for they would not be drawn to meddle in it And whereas they had once made a chearful Proffer To assist us with the Arms if the Emperor did not keep his Word to put the Prince Palatine into his own again Now they slew back and confest the Emperor had been inconstant and did not deal well with them but if he would beat and buffet them they would not promise to employ a Leavy of Forces against the House of Austria 188. Now says the Voice of the Reporter since his Highness could prevail for nothing to come on well his wisest Project was to take care that himself might come off well For which there is not one of your Lordships I presume but would have given much and done much And it cost you nothing but the Perturbation of some Suspicions and Fears I say Fear was the worst you susser'd For Religion God be thanked suffer'd not at all though it was greatly mistrusted There the Lord Keeper delighted their Expectations in that which they listned after how the Kings Ministers and himself principally for he shrunk not in his Head did proceed from time to time in the last Summer about the Pardon and Dispensation about which the Spanish Ambassadors struggled for the Recusants sake In Contemplation whereof the Prince had a free and friendly Dismission yet not a Joint of Religion sprained nor a Law actually dislocated But as a Wound that is cured by a Weapon Salve sine contactu so the Law was never touch'd only the Point and Edge of the Weapon a little anointed and by the Operation of it our Noble Prince past the Pikes of Danger and is come Home to his Fathers House from a far Land without a Pater peccavi GOD be thanked he neither sinned against Heaven nor against his Father nor against you nor against the Laws or Religion for which we have cause to offer up a great Thanksgiving to GOD because there is not a spot in the Sacrifice He goes on then as the Tract of my Lord the Duke did lead him and enters into a large Field to rip up that which had been told them before how near the Prince and the Infanta were drawn together where the Marriage staid and upon what Conditions they parted Which though it had been many Years in Destination as we were credulous and do not yet lay down our Faith yet if Conde Olivarez may be trusted until they had seen the Gallantry of the Prince and his Deservings being daily now in their Eyes they held us with fair Words before but Performance till then was never meant Which he made good at least to his own Opinion by two Letters the first bears date Nov. 5. 1622. it was the late King of Spain's as the Conde said read over six times by his Highness and Sir Walter Aston and presently out of their Memories for they were not permitted to excribe it set down in Writing and I hope says the Lord Keeper when you consider the Notary you will hold it authentical The second Letter is written with Olivarez his own Hand Novemb. 8. 1623. Translated by the Prince himself very neatly and exactly Let the Clerk read them both These declare the Resolution of the Spanish Court at least in my Opinion that the great Conde's Heart was not with us till the Prince lodg'd in their Palace and sate in Council with them himself the last Summer But by that opportunity their Eyes were opened and they perceiv'd that their Lady whom they magnifie so much could never make a more happy Wife than with so brave a Husband So that no doubt the Desposorios and perhaps the Nuptials had been past by this time with mutual liking if the scandal of invading the Palatinate had been removed out of the way This the Duke's Grace says the Lord Reporter hath impartially spread out holding a just Balance in his Hand And most prudently knowing that he spake in the hearing of the wisest in the Kingdom and most faithfully for as Valerian said of Posthumius in the History of Pollio if Posthumius deceive us Sciatis nusquam gentium reperiri qui
Considerations of Delay aside I humbly desire your Grace that no Universal Alteration may be made of the Tenure of the Crown Lands And First Because the Money got thereby will not be much and will instantly be gone Secondly The Infamy in Chronicles will be eternal upon our most gracious Master Thirdly The Prince cannot cordially assent thereunto or if he do it is impossible his Wisdom considered but that hereafter he should repent him and much abhor the Authors and Actors of this Counsel Lastly If the Prince should be of the same Mind with his Father yet their Successors will have good Pretences to prosecute everlastingly the Names and Posterities of all such Advisers In this It may be seen that it is common with Projectors to Angle for Wit and catch Folly to spread their Nets for a Draught and to drag up nothing but Weeds and Mud. What Brokerly Bargain was here about to be made How unsuiting to the King of Great Britain fitter for a poor Merchant that was sunk to sell all he had and fly his Country What! depart with all to make two or three merry Years of it Is it not like the Man that burnt his House in a cold Winter which should shelter his Head for ever to warm his Hands Would those Vermine that did eat up the Wealth of the Court expose their Master to that Tyranny to have him live wholly upon the Common Spoils when he had made away his own Substance and was driven to that Necessity And were they not worthy to be thought upon that should live in the next Generation Our Fore-Fathers were good Stewards and treasured up for their Children and shall we undo Posterity before they are born and spend their Part as well as our own as if we wish'd the World might die with us One good Heathen was worthy twenty such Christians in Zeal to the eternal flourishing of a Common-wealth Says Tully in the Mouth of his Laelius Non minori mihi curae est qualis post mortem Respub futura sit quà m qualis est hodie Those that were not publick Spirits but contrary to the succeeding Glory of this Monarchy the Lord Keeper could not brook but as he had got Honour by being Wise and Faithful so he was resolved to be Wise and Faithful though he lost his Honour 209. The next Design made this sick Man hasten to come out of his Chamber a Letter would not suffice to oppose it There is no Script of it remaining in the Cabal nor in any other Pamphlet that I have read It was a Mischief not better prevented than concealed from the World that it was prevented But the Relation of the Lord Keeper to him that heard it of him when it was fresh and in motion hath been preserved in the Desk and comes forth now to publick Knowledge Rem tibi auctorem dabo as Plautus says whereby the Men of these times may see how the Sale of Church-Lands was plotted before they were swept away with an Ordinance and that Earnest was offered for them long ago Dr. Preston the Master of Emanuel Colledge entred far into such a Proposition a shrewd wise Man a very Learned and of esteemed Piety but zealous for a new Discipline and given to Change When I see good Parts not always well used or a worthy Scholar not well affected to the Church that begat him in Christ and nursed him up I cannot but remember a Tale in Baronius Ann. 513. com 27. thoug I care not for believing it That Theodorus Bishop of Seleucia was much in love with the strict Life and Piety of a Monk a Syrian by Nation that cared not for the Communion of the Church at which Theodorus was scandalized that so vertuous a Man should incline to be a Schismatick till God satisfied him in a Vision for says he Vidi columbam super caput ejus stantem fuliginosam squalidam he saw the Holy Ghost come upon him but in the Shape of a rusty sooty coloured Dove But before the Artifice of Dr. Preston be display'd Judgment must pass how the great Duke was prepared to be wrought upon When all men talkt jocundly upon the next Session of Parliament appointed for April they that were watchful for the Duke's Safety saw Cause to fear least the Predestination of that Session might turn to be his Grace's Reprobation The King his Master was too Politick to seem weary of him now become the most affected of his Son but half an Eye might discern he was not fond of him The Earl of Bristol who had seen much Abroad and knew much at Home was charged in his Absence from his Mouth with great Errors that he had deluded the King with Hopes of a Marriage from Spain never intended and with Crimes that he had if not Counselled the Prince to alter his Religion yet to temporize as if he held it in a slip Knot and could pass it easily from him if his Highness might win the Garland he came for The Earl in his Replication defied the Duke and vowed to charge upon his Head that in his Expedition to Spain he had done the worst Service and the highest Wrongs that a Subject could do to a Soveraign His Majesty umpir'd between both with that fatal Indifferency that he would hear Buckingham against Bristol and Bristol against Buckingham before the two houses in due time And his manner of Justice was not unknown that he would shelter no man against the General and Concluded Sentence of a Parliament Antoninus was a wise Emperor that never stood out against the Common Vote of the Senate and never varied from that Saying says Capitolinus Aequum est ut ego tot ac talium amicorum consilium sequar quà m ut tot tales amici mei unius voluntatem sequantur And if the King should shrink from him the Peers and Commons were like to receive him unkindly His Greatness though it wained with the Father it increased with the Son and was like to flourish ever by this latter Spring but the more it grew the worse it was lik'd He was the Top-sail of the Nobility and in Power and Trust of Offices far above all the Nobility Whither the Lords maligned this because they did not share or whither they conceived it dangerous to the State their own Hearts knew best One thing is sure that many of them did not palliate their Dis-relish but girded at it upon all Occasions It was come to pass that he only turned the Key to all that were let in to the King or Prince And his multiformous Places compell'd such a swarm of Suitors to hum about him that the Train that continually jogged after him look'd like the Stream of a Blazing Star fatal and ominous Therefore it was studied by the wisest of those that were upheld by his Grace and resorted most unto him that either his Lordship must hope in a War and that speedily and be flush of Money to be prodigal among the
memory and they may repent it when they want us Now what banding here was on every side to ruin the greatest Saint that ever ruled our Nation God was in them that came about him with their homage in such a time of hazard Magna negotia magnis adjutoribus egent Paterc And I am sure the Metropolitan of York was none of the meanest of David's Worthies for Plot and Direction He was fit for the Service and obliged to assist it For as Scipio Nasica very well No good man is a private man most of all if the weal publick needs him 172. But the King's Condition at York was not in such strength and readiness as it deserved though the brave and resolute Spirits about him thought not so They perswaded themselves that the very Name of a King would supply the want of Power and that they were on the right side as sure as God's Word could warrant them Causáque valent causamque tuentibus armis Ut puto vincemus Luca. l. 8. For all that the Parliament had made better preparation for a War First A most deluded People made to believe that his Majesty had gathered a Popish Army to change Religion Quod sibi probare non possunt id persuadere aliis conantur Cic. pro Rose Com. But upon this false Fame their great Preacher St. Marshall tells them pag. 6. of his Letter That they may secure their Religion against their King with a good Conscience Next they had the Nerves of War all the Money of London at their command and which was the worst of all Infelicities they had cheated his Majesty of his Navy and seized on his Magazines It was not sit that the King should stay out their Provocations and when they had soaled then see what was in their Belly Dubia pro veris solent Timere Reges Sen. Oedi. And it was not reasonable to abide their Courtesie who had voted for Delinquents all that did Service to their Lord and Master They did all they could to disturb the tranquillity of a Soul most excellently composed and to tire him out of his Principles He held out the first Olive-branch and sought Peace from them by a most gracious Message who in right should have begun But as Lasicius notes of the sullen-proud Russians Ni prior ipse salutaveris non salutaberis Theol. Mosc p. 64. They salute none that do not first uncover and salute them It was not once or twice that his Majesty sent but he persisted yet all in vain to draw a dutiful Answer from them And what 's more tedious than to cast all day and not to throw a good Chance Since nothing would serve them but to rally the Sons of the Earth the Titans of their Tumults and to fill up an Army with them the King retired into his deep Thoughts what was best to be done Hic magnus sedet AEneas secúmque volutat Eventus belli varios Aen. l. 10. A Prince of so much Religion and Mercy was not to learn That it was sit to be slow in an Enterprize of so high a nature For Kingdoms in their Channels safely run But rudely overflowing are undone says our English Horace It is Marcianus his Maxim in Zonaras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A King must never fly to Arms if a noble nay if a tolerable Peace may be had Yet again he did not forget that a prosperous Wind might blow away a Storm that was gathering before the Shower fell upon him Fest inandum antequà m cresceret invalida conjuratio paucorum Tacit. Hist l. 1. Be sudden before a Conjuration strengthen it self and give it no day And Pliny brings it for the Advice of Apollo's Oracle Biduo citiùs messem potiùs facere quam biduo seriùs Lib. 18. c. 3. Begin Harvest two days too soon rather than two days too late Alluding not to the Rural but the Politick Harvest Another and a good Genius too would say to the contrary What! will you embroil the Land in a Civil War Every Life that is slain in it on either side is the King's damage And the blood of Christians shed in rebellion is poured on the Devil's Altar Every Field and Town and Castle that 's spoil'd is the Kings loss who hath the dominion of all the Earth that serves him though not the Property His Majesty knew the worth and good Governance of many in his List Pacisque boni bellique ministri Aen. l. 11. But who could promise for so many hot Bloods as were upon the place that they would not rob and ransack the Innocent and make the Army odious by too much Cruelty upon the Nocent All are not a King's Friends that follow him so do Flies the smell of strong Drink but they that will maintain his Honour with Obedience as well as his Quarrel with Manhood If the Headstronger should be more in number Such an If is enough to discourage any one to be the Captain of a Civil War Nam in civilibus bellis plus militibus quà m Duci licet Tacit. Hist lib. 2. Their Commander dare not displease them so much he fears Revolt or Treachery And his Majesty's great Wildom could not like it that his Cavaliers were too consident and Secure Contemnendis quà m cavendis hostibus aptiores Idem Hist l. 4. No man could perswade them that there was either number wit skill or valour among the Rebels But says a Master of Military Art Veget. l. 3. Ille difficile vincitur qui de suis adversarii copiis rectè potest judicare It was safer for the Royal Battalion to know that the Enemy multiplied fast and pleased divers by laying themselves forth abroad to to all shew of Sobriety and Holiness though sincere Honesty had no Charge of them And Despair will make Chicken-hearted Souldiers couragious They that had drawn their Sword against their Soveraign must throw away the Scabbard They must purple their hands with slaughter in the Field or be hang'd in Ignominy What would they do to break all the Bands of the Law in sunder the King's Name and Authority which would not allow them their Book to save them These things might be so deliberated in the King's Camp or Cabinet I cannot definitely say it For after the Archbishop departed from Westminster to the North I never saw him more to confer with him from whom before I learnt all things in effect that I knew But as Tully writes L. de Senec. of L. Maximus Illud divinavi quod jam evenit illo extincto fore unde discerem neminem After I mist him who was wont to tell me not barely what was done but the reasons the fitness or incommodities of it I have heard somewhat but I understand little And I make as much moan for the want of him as St. Basil did for Martinlan Ep. 379. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What skills it to hear many Discourse one after another when this one had gathered as much Experience and Wisdom as them all
then himself For why should he render himself as an Hostage to Fortune when he needed not Or what could mend his present Condition but a contented Mind Pol si est animus aequus tibi satis habes qui vitam colas Plaut Aul. He that hath much and wants nothing hath yet as little as comes to nothing if he wants Equanimity It was generously spoken of Esau Gen. 33.9 I have enough my Brother And they that lose a good Portion which they had before because their Appetite did over-drive them let them look upon Children playing at a petty Game they will not stand but ask for another Card which puts them out Though these things were so maturely considered an Occasion came about which did lead him quite aside yet it was in the King's High-way He was at Royston in Attendance on the King and in the Marquess his Absence The King abruptly without dependance upon the Discourse on foot asked him When he was with Buckingham Sir says the Doctor I have had no business to resort to his Lordship But wheresoe'er he is you must presently go to him upon my Message says the King So he did that Errand and was welcom'd with the Countenance and Compliments of the Marquess and invited with all sweetness to come freely to him upon his own Addresses Who mark'd rather from whom he came then to whom he was sent And gather'd from the King's Dispatch That His Majesty intended that he should seek the Marquess and deserve him with Observance From henceforth he resolved it yet not to contaminate his Lordship with Bribery or base Obsequiousness but to shew himself in some Act of Trust and Moment that he was as sufficient to bring his Lordship's good Ends to pass as any whom he employed both with readiness to do and with judgment to do well Which thus succeeded to his great Commendation My Lord Marquess was a Batchelor and ripe for a gallant Wedlock His Youth his comely Person his Fortunes plentiful and encreasing his Favour he held with the King being as much or more then the Cardinal-Nephews in the Pope's Conclave What Graces could be sweeter in the Girdle of Venus that the Poets speak of Cestum de Veneris sinu calentem Martial He could not seek long to be entertained who was so furnished for a Suitor The Lady with whom he desired to match was Lady Katherine Manners Daughter and only Child surviving to Francis Earl of Rutland Hereby he should marry with a Person of Honour her Family being very anciently Noble and draw to his Line an access of Wealth and Revenue as the like not to be expected from the Daughter of any Subject in this Realm The Motion was set on foot in the beginning of the Year 1520 which stuck at two Objections The Earl of Rutland was slow or rather fullen in giving way to this lusty Woer who came on the faster directed it seems by Proverbial Wisdom That faint Heart never won fair Lady Certain it is that he kept not such distance in his Visits as was required Which put the Earl into so strong a Passion that he could not be mitigated though great Ones had attempted the Pacification In this distraction Dr. Williams took the opportunity to go between the great Men and to Umpire the Controversie He had often in former times made Journeys from Lincoln to visit the Earl at his Castle of Belvoir who was Lord-Lieutenant of the County of Lincoln and held some Leases of that Church whereof the Doctor was a Residentiary and Precentor The Earl had found him so true and fortunate in many Offices of Service which he had manag'd for his Lordship's sake that he prefer'd him before all his Neighbours for Wisdom and Fidelity Therefore he gave him very patient Hearing to his Propositions about the Lord Marquess his Amours and took down the heat of Inflammation with cool Advice All youthful Dalliances were clear'd from sinister Jealousie and had Allowance to be inoffensively continued To speak all together The Doctor brought the Earl about so dextrously with his Art and pleasant Wit that his Lordship put it into his hands to draw up all Contracts and Conditions for Portion and Joynture which he did to the fair satisfaction of both sides the noble Earl being so glad of a good Understanding between him and the Lord Marquess that the Counsellor at his Elbow induced him to settle more upon the Marriage then the Marquess and his Mother had demanded The first Door that was shut against the young Lord in Cupid's Court was thus opened to him Nothing is so good to soften that which is hard as the Language of a discreet Man Therefore the old Gauls did carve the God of Eloquence not after the shape of Mercury but of Hercules says Lucian carrying his Club in one hand his Bow and Shafts in the other But innumerous small Rings were drawn through his Tongue to which a multitude of Chains were fasten'd that reach'd to the Ears of Men and Women to which they were tied meaning by this Picture that he performed all his hard Labours by his Tongue and not by his Club 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that which the Doctor brought to pass in the preceding Matter is fit for the Application of the Apologue Of whose Performance the Mother-Countess her Noble Son with the Ladies of the Kindred gave the best Account to the King that Thankfulness could make 51. The King commended it and was right glad that they were well out of the Mire where they all stuck before And now the Progress of the Suit seemed so easie as if a pair of Doves might draw the Chariot of Love when His Majesty put a strong Spoke into the Wheel which I may call The Second Obstruction For the Lady Katherine though she and her Family were not rigid forbearers of our Church yet she was bred a Papist This was no Straw at which the King stumbled For he knew it would sad the Spirit of some good People most tender of the Religion established when they should hear that the Noble-man in whom His Majesty did most delight was wedded to a Lady of that disaffected Superstition Therefore he liked not that the Marquess should proceed in that Marriage till the Lady were tried with sweet Perswasions to serve God together with her Husband constantly and without Hypocrisie after the Confession of the Reformed Church of England So His Majesty called for Dr. Williams and laid his strict and highest Commands upon him to use his best Skill upon the Conscience of that tender Lady misled by Education to make her a true Proselyte Before that was done He would be loth to give his Blessing to the Nuptials This He required of him before all his other Chaplains as well because he had the Ear of the Family more then any Man of his Coat whereof Proof was made in his late Actions as because he knew he had the Gift of Wisdom mixed with Learning to cure
a Corruption in Opinion Sir says the Doctor I obey Your Commands with all my heart and with belief of some Success But in case upon the first or second Conference I bring the young Madam to some Access towards the Church of England without a total Recess from the Church of Rome will Your Majeshy discomsit a good Beginning and stay the Marriage whose Consummation is every day desired because the Party is not brought to the perfection of an absolute Convert To which the King answered I know that commonly Grace proceeds by degrees in conception and building up its Features as well as Nature but though you walk slow walk sure I cannot abide to be cozen'd with a Church-Papist So the Doctor received his Commission chearfully from His Majesty the rather because though he cunningly concealed how far he had entred yet he had assayed before to bring the Lady Katherine into a good liking of our Church with many strong and plausible Arguments and found her Tractable and Attentive She easily perceived that Conjugal Love would be firmest and sweetest when Man and Wife served God with one Heart and in one way and were like the two Trumpets of Silver made of an whole Piece Num. 10.12 And quickly she was confirmed by divers and solid Representations to confess that our Cathechism was a plain Model of Saving Truth and the Form of Matrimony in our Liturgy pleased her abundantly being as pious and forcible as any Church could make to bind up a sanctified and indissoluble Union And after some Prayers made to God for his secret Breathings into her such easie Demonstrations were spread before her that she confess'd our Ministers were fit Dispensers of the Ordinances of God and all Gospel-Blessings from Christ Jesus So the second Obstruction was master'd by the good Spirit of God and this Doctor 's Industry The Remotion of two such Impediments is not commonly accompass'd by one Head-piece Sometimes it is seen as Macrobius says yet very seldom Ut idem pectus agendi disputandi facultate sublime sit Lib. 2. de Som-Scrip c. 17. Now all things being made smooth for Love and Concord on the 16th day of May 1620. the Nuptials were celebrated between the Lord Marquess and his Bride the Lady Katherine Manners at Lumly-House on Tower-Hill where the Earl of Rutland lay Dr. Williams joyned them together with the Office of our Liturgy all Things being transacted more like to Privacy then Solemnity to avoid the Envy of Pomp and Magnificence I have been no larger then there was cause in this Report for the Negotiation in this Marriage said the Negotiator often unto me was the last Key-Stone that made the Arch in his Preferment 52. It behoved him therefore to spare no Pains nor Study to season the new Marchioness with such a measure of Knowledge as might keep her found in the Integrity of Truth He needed not a Remembrancer to keep his Diligence waking Yet the King was so intent that the Lady should become an upright and sincere Protestant that he proposed to his Chaplain now her Ghostly Father to draw up a pretty Manual of the Elements of the Orthodox Religion with which she might every day consult in her Closet-Retirements for her better confirmation A Book was Compiled accordingly but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put forth and not put forth Twenty Copies were printed and no more and without the Author's Name in a Notion common to many By an old Prebendary of the Church of Lincoln The Copies were sent to the Lord Marquess and being no more are no more to be found for I have searched for one but with lost Labour I can truly say I have seen one and read it about 30 Years since which being in a negligent Custody is miscarried It contents me better that I have a written Copy out of which it was printed by which the Author could set it in order for the Press surer then I can now If I should miss to digest the Expunctions Interlinings and Marginal References as they were intended I should make the Work differ from it self though quite against my will But because it is a Golden Medal and sit to be worn like an Amulet against Seducers when this Web is spun and woven which I have in hand I will try my best Skill though a weak Aristarchus to fashion it into Native Contexture And if I can truly affirm it to be the very Mantle which fell from Elijah it shall be forth-coming in a Wardrode in the end of the Book If I fail in that I do not despair let this Letter sent with the 20 Copies to the Lord Marquess discover what sappy Kernels were in that Pomegranate My most Noble Lord MY most humble Duty and all due Respects remembred I have at the last according to His Majesties Intimation and your Lordship's made up for my Ladies private Use a little Stock as it were in Divinity and divided the same into three small Treatises The first to furnish her how to speak unto God by Invocation The second how to speak unto her self by Meditation And the third how to speak unto those Romanists that shall oppose her by way of Answer and Satisfaction Prayers are the most necessary for the obtaining Principles for the augmenting and Resolutions in these days for the defending of her Faith and Profession I held these three in some sort and more I held not to have been necessary The Prayers I have Translated from ancient Writers that her Ladyship may see we have not coyned a new Worship or Service of God Of the rest I received my best Grounds from His Majesty and such as I protest faithfully I never could read the like in any Author for mine own satisfaction If I be out in my Descant upon them I hope your Lordship will the rather pardon it because the Book is but private whereof 20 Copies only are imprinted and as many of them to be suppressed as your Honour shall not command and use I make bold to send these Books to your Lordship because I hope they will be more welcom and acceptable to both the great Ladies coming immediately from your Honour I humbly thank your Honour for affording me this occasion to do your Lordship any little Service who am in all affectionate Prayers and best Devotion Your Honour 's true Creature and Beadsman JOHN WILLIAMS From Your College at Westminster this 28th of November 1620. 53. I perceive by the Date of this Letter that the Book was printed six months after it was bespoken which could not be help'd because the Author was taken up almost all that Summer in making a progress to survey the Lands of the College of Westminster whereof he was become Dean by the Lord Marquess's Favour and Installed July 12. 1620. Dr. Tolson who preceded a man of singular Piety Eloquence and Humility in the March before had the Approbation of the King and the Congratulation of good Men for the Bishoprick
which he had in a Monastery called Becc in Normandy and that Hospitality kept him when he fled out of England and all the Revenues of his Mitre failed him Stephen Gardner Bishop of Winton and Lord-Chancellor held the Mastership of Trinity-hall to his Dying-day and though he gave forty better Preferments to others he would never leave his Interest in it and did not conceal the Cause but said often If all his Palaces were blown down by Iniquity he would creep honestly into that Shell They that will not be wise by these Examples Ia Teâ— I will send them to School to a Fable in Plautus Cogitato mus pusillus quà m sit sapiens bestia AEtatem qui uni cubili nunquam committit suam Qui si unum ostium obsideatur aliud perfagium quaerit So in the upshot he said Walgrave was but a Mouse-hole yet it would be a pretty Fortification to Entertain him if he had no other Home to resort to He was not the only Prophet of that which is fallen out in these dismal Days many such Divinations flash'd from others who saw the Hills of the Robbers afar off who have now devoured the Heritage of Jacob and say they are not Guilty and they that have sold us and bought us say Blessed be the Lord for we are rich Zech. 11.5 74. Whom I leave to a Day of Account having an Account to give my self how Prosperous the Lord-Keeper was in the King's Affections at this time to whom His Majesty measured out his accumulated Gifts not by the Bushel or by the Coome but by the Barn-full It was much he had compacted his own Portion to such advantage but it was not all for being warm in Favour he got the Royal Grant for the Advancement of four more who are worthy to be named He spake and sped for Dr. Davenant to be made Bishop of Salisbury who had plowed that I may allude to Elisha 1 King 19.19 with twelve yoke of Oxen and was now with the twelfth when this Mantle was cast upon him Twelve years he had been Public Reader in Divinity in Cambridge and had adorn'd the Place with much Learning as no Professor in Europe did better deserve to receive the Labourer's Peny at the twelfth Hour of the Day Beside what a Pillar he was in the Synod of Dort is to be read in the Judgment of the Britain Divines inserted among the public Acts his Part being the best in that Work and that Work being far the best in the Compilements of that Synod The Bishopric of Exon being also then void it came into the Lord-Keeper's head to gratifie a brace of worthy Divines if he could attain it his old Friends who had been both bred in the House of Wisdom with the Lord-Chancellor Egerton Dr. Carew who had been his Chaplain a man of great Reason and polish'd Eloquence and Dr. Dunn who had been his Secretary a Laureat Wit neither was it possible that a vulgar Soul should dwell in such promising Features The Success was quickly decided for these two prevailed by the Lord-Keeper's Commendation against all Pretenders the Bishopric of Exeter was conferred upon Dr. Carew and Dr. Dunn succeeded him in his Deanery of St. Paul's The See of St. David's did then want a Bishop but not Competitors The Principal was Dr. Laud a Learned Man and a Lover of Learning He had fasten'd on the Lord Marquess to be his Mediator whom he had made sure by great Observances But the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had so opposed him and represented him with suspicion in my judgment improbably grounded of Unsoundness in Religion that the Lord Marquess was at a stand and could not get the Royal Assent to that Promotion His Lordship as his Intimates know was not wont to let a Suit fall which he had undertaken in this he was the stiffer because the Arch-Bishop's Contest in the King's Presence was sour and supercilious Therefore he resolved to play his Game in another hand and conjures the Lord-Keeper to commend Dr. Laud strenuously and importunately to the King 's good Opinion to fear no Offence neither to desist for a little Storm Accordingly he watch'd when the King's Assections were most still and pacisicous and besought His Majesty to think considerately of his Chaplain the Doctor who had deserved well when he was a young Man in his Zeal against the Millenary Petition And for his incorruption in Religion let his Sermons plead for him in the Royal Hearing of which no Man could judge better then so great a Scholar as His Majesty 75. Well says the King I perceive whose Attorney you are Stenny hath set you on You have pleaded the Man a good Protestant and I believe it Neither did that stick in my Breast when I stopt his Promotion But was there not a certain Lady that forsook her Husband and married a Lord that was her Paramour Who knit that Knot Shall I make a man a Prelate one of the Angels of my Church who hath a flagrant Crime upon him Sir says the Lord-Keeper very boldly you are a good Master but who dare serve you if you will not pardon one Fault though of a scandalous Size to him that is heartily Penitent for it I pawn my Faith to you that he is heartily Penitent and there is no other Blot that hath fullied his good Name Vellcius said enough to justifie Murena that had committed but one Fault Sine hòc facinore potuit videri probus You press well says the King and I hear you with patience neither will I revive a Trespass any more which Repentance hath mortified and buried And because I see I shall not be rid of you unless I tell you my unpublish'd Cogitations the plain Truth is that I keep Laud back from all Place of Rule and Authority because I find he hath a restless Spirit and cannot see when Matters are well but loves to toss and change and to bring Things to a pitch of Reformation stoating in his own Brain which may endanger the steadfastness of that which is in a good pass God be praised I speak not at random he hath made himself known to me to be such a one For when three years since I had obtained of the Assembly of Perth to consent to Five Articles of Order and Decency in correspondence with this Church of England I gave them Promise by Attestation of Faith made that I would try their Obedience no further anent Ecclesiastic Affairs nor put them cut of their own way which Custom had made pleasing unto them with any new Encroachments Spotswood p. 543. Marquess Hamilton the King's Commissioner in the last Parliament that ever he kept in Scotland having Ratified the Five Articles of Perth by Aâ—â— of Parliament assured the People that His Majesty in his days should not press any more Change on Alterations in matters of that kind without their Consent Yet this man hâ—th pressed me to invite them to a nearer conjunction with the
angry at the least Slackness of his Ministers and was us'd to say They might provoke him with Negligence but never molest him with double Diligence for he could read as much in an Hour as they would write to him in a Week Mr. W. Boswel his Secretary and Custos of his Spirituality and chief Servant under him in this Work was all in all sufficient for it eximious in Religion Wisdom Integrity Learning as the Netherlands know where he was long time Agent and Embassador for King Charles Through Mr. Boswell's Collection and narrow Search the Diocesan of so large a Precinct together with the Names of every Parson and Vicar was able to speak of their Abilities and manner of Life which I think no Memory could carry away but that it is credible he had some Notes affixed to every one of their Persons For he could decipher the Learning of each Incumbent his Attendance on his Cure his Conformity his Behaviour as well as most men knew them in their respective Proximities I do not say he had a passive Infallibility but that he might be abused with untrue Relations But for the most part a good Head-piece will discover a counterfeit Suggestion and crush the Truth out of Circumstances The Sum is He did as much as a Bishop could do while for the space of four Years and a half Necessity would not suffer him to reside with his Clergy whom they knew not that they mist him till he removed from London to live among them and made a large Amends for his Absence when he setled at Bugden In the mean time his Apocrisarii they to whom he had committed his Trust and Authority were among them to hear their Complaints and to Judge Right Now it is a good Rule in St. Cyprian to a laudable Purpose though the Father applies it for once to a Bad Epist 61. Non potest videri certasse qui vicarios substituit qui pro se uno plures succidaneos suggerit He that fills his Office with a good Co-adjutor his Absence may be dispenc'd with for a time upon reasonable Cause For a good Substitute is not a Shadow but a Substance Howsoever whether his Abode were within his Diocess or without it he knew that the Calling of a Bishop went along with him in every Place And whatsoever the standing Weight of his Business was that lay upon him he remembred to stir up the Gift of God that was in him by the Putting on of Hands He Preached constantly in the Abby of Westminster at the great Festivals of our Saviour's Nativity Resurrection and Whit-Sunday On which high Days he sung the Common Prayers Consecrated and Administred the Sacrament the Great Seal of the Righteousness of Faith besides the Sermon which he Preach'd every Lent in the King 's Royal Chappel Which was Work indeed being so learnedly performed For when he put his Hand to that Plough no man cut up a deeper Furrow that came into the Pulpit 99. Such Examples of Preaching were necessary for this time but very ill follow'd For there were Divines more Satyrical than Gospel-spirited chiefly some among the Lecturers in populous Auditories that were much overseen Banding their Discourses either under the Line or above the Line against the quiet Settlement of present Government Some carried their Fire in Dark-Lanthorns and deplor'd the Dangers that hung over us Some rail'd out-right and carried the Brands end openly in their Mouth to kindle Combustion Both did marvellously precipitate slippery Dispositions into Discontents and Murmurings The Treatise about the Spanish Match was the Breize that bit them and made them wild That was such a Bugbear that at the Motion of it some that were conscientious and some that seem'd so thought that the true Worship of God was a Ship-board and Sailing out of the Realm True Religion is the Soul of our Soul and ought to be more tender to us than the Apple of our Eye But we all know what will grow out of that Religion when it is marked with Charity It is not easily provok'd thinketh no evil beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things 1 Cor. 13. It is not distrustful of it own fastness as if so good a Fortress could be push'd down with a bruised Reed It will not raise Tumults and Tragedies from Misapprehensions that float upon the idle Lake of Suspicion That the Orthodox Church of England should totter upon this Occasion God be thanked it was not in proof nor could be made evident Sometimes Jealousie is too watchful sometimes it is fast asleep When the French Marriage was in Treaty when it was concluded when the Navy was under Sail to Land the Royal Bride the Preachers were modest and made no stir not one Zealot complain'd of for jerking at it with unadvis'd passion And yet the Daughter of France was a Daughter of the Roman Chair no less then Donna Maria. She never had Commerce nor ever like to have with the Hugonots The Swarms of her own Train all Papists by Profession were ready to abound in our Land far more than from the Spanish Coast Because of the short and easie passage from Calis to Dover their Shavelings would fly over as thick as Wasps about a Honey-Pot This was mightily dreaded when the Mariage was in some forwardness between Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjoy and opposed strongly by some that were hot in the Mouth to their cost But now no Leprosie was suspected but from Spanish Popery Which was aggravated with such Insolencies by some Ecclesiastical Fencers against the King's Honor and the Sincerity of his Oath which he had taken to maintain true Religion that they were at the height of Rage to profess Come and let us smite him with the Tongue Jerem. 18. Vers 18. So that his Majesty rouzed up like a Lyon silenc'd some of the Offenders imprison'd some threatned to arraign some for their Lives Yet after he was come to more Serenity of Passion the Lord Keeper who thought as hardly of their Indiscretion as the King himself did was Advocate for them all undertook to settle their Brains and procur'd them their Liberty and their Livings Among the rest he invented a merry Contrivance in the behalf of a very learned and misguided Scholar a Prisoner upon that score He told the King that he had heard that some idle Gossips complain'd of him grievously and did not stick to curse him Why What Evil have I done to them says the King Sir says the Lord-Keeper Such a Man's Wife upon Tidings of her Husband's Imprisonment fell presently in Labour and the Midwifes can do her no good to deliver her but say it will not be effected till she be comforted to see her Husband again For which the Women that assist her revile you that her Pains should stick at such a Difficulty Now Weal away says the King send a Warrant presently to release him lest the Woman perish There was none that was worse to be tamed
they will loose much of their Thanks If they cloy us with new Articles upon Advantage that they have the Prince among them they have lost their Wits or Honesty and will loose their Purpose Of which yet I have but half a Doubt and his Majesty none at all I have also taken liberty in that Letter to speak of your Lordship I hope without Offence I leave the rest to Sir George Goring's Relation and your Lordship to God's Protection Now was the time now when my Lord of Buckingham was in this eminent Imployment that he did most need a Wife and a trusty Counsellor For an Error in so great a Eusiness would be worse interpreted than the wilful Comission of a Fault in a smaller thing As Tully says Lib. 4. de fin If a Ship be wreckt by Negligence Majus est peccatum in auro quam in palcâ Hereof the Lord Keeper was more sensible than any of his Lordship's Creatures and quite contrary to those that had private Ends to make use of the Lord Marquess at Home and called importunately for his Return he alone was bold to give him his sage Opinion not to stir from his Charge withal enheartning him with the Comfort of the King 's constant Favour that it was kept for him against his Return in as great or higher measure as he enjoy'd it when he took his Leave And to Count Gondamar he gave a Character of his Lordship which he desired the Count would make known to the greatest Counsellors of King Philip that none did exceed him in Generosity and Sweetness of Nature that he deserved extraordinary Civilities for his own Worth and according to the Favour with which his Master tendered him and that he would pawn his Life upon it that no Man should go before him in Honorable Acknowledgments for Noble Usage These good Offices were part of the Lord Keeper's Retribution to his Advancer which he deposited as fast as he could lay them out For perfect Thankfulness never leaves bearing never thinks it hath paid its utmost Debt 132. Now to follow the Chase As Counsel and Forecast were very busie at the Loom here so Tidings from Spain did promise that there was a good Thread spun there All Expresses related that the Entertainment was very pompous and Kingly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Alexander in Plutarch I have said all when I said it was done like a King chiefly like a King of Spain But two Negatives were better than this Affirmative First That his Highness should not be attempted to recede from the Religion in which he was grounded Secondly That he should not be â—ned with unwelcome Prorogations Nay That a short time should 〈…〉 the Nuptials Truly In defiance to Emulation or Detract◠〈…〉 be granted that the first Stone was well laid His Highness's Welcome 〈◊〉 full of Cost and Honour which was Decorum for no Tree will bear Fruit in Autumn unless it blossom kindly in the Spring The Entertainment was compleat in all Points of Ceremony and Ceremony is a great part of Majesty It will suffice to set down a little that is published herein and never contradicted Cabal P. 14. The King of Spain and the State studied to do the Prince all the Honour that might be The first Decree that the Council of State made was That at all Occasions of Meeting he should have the Precedency of the King That he should make Entry into the Palace with that Solemnity which the Kings of Spain do on the first day of their Coronation That he should have one of the chief Quarters of the King's House for his Lodgings One hundred of the Guard to attend him All the Council to obey him as the King 's own Person And upon all these Particulars Mr. W. Sanderson is exactly copious in the Reign of King James P. 545 in laying the Relation with other high Civilities which were very true That a general Pardon was proclaimed of all Offences and all prisoners within the Continent of Spain released and all English Slaves in the Gallies for Piracy or other Crimes set at Liberty and this manifested to be done in Contemplation of the Prince's Welcome The Windows of the Streets were glorified with Torches three Nights together by Proclamation Most costly Presents and of diverse Garnishing brought to him were Testimonies of Heroick Hospitality such as were wont to be bestowed in Homer's Age yet far beyond them and whose like none could give but he that was Master of the West-Indies Abroad and of the best Artificers at Home That which weighed most of all was That infinite Debt of Love and Honour which the King profest to be due unto him with this long-wing'd Complement which flew highest That he had won his Sister with this brave Adventure and deserved to have her thrown into his Arms. This was the Cork and Quill above and I know of no Hook beneath the Water Some imagine it but turning over all Dispatches that came to my Hand I know of none and that which outgoes my Knowledge shall never undergo my Censure To speak out the Truth where could the Spanish Monarch have done better for his Sister or for himself that is for Love or Policy since it was a Business mixt of both There was not a Deturdigniori among the Sons of Kings in Europe to whom he could give the Golden Aple And in Conjunction with the Prince the next Planet under him the Lord Marquess had a Lustre of much Grace and Observance darted upon him At first he was much esteemed says the Intelligencer Cabal P. 16. and remembred with Presents from the bravest of both Sexes Says another He was a Person whose Like was not to be seen among the swarthy and low-growth'd Castilians For as Ammianus describes a well-shap'd Emperor Ab ipso capite usque ad unguium summitates reétâ erat lineamentorum compage From the Nails of his Fingers nay from the Sole of his Foot to the Crown of his Head there was no Blemish in him And yet his Carriage and every Stoop of his Deportment more than his excellent Form were the Beauty of his Beauty Another Sisinnius as Socrates the Ecclesiastick shews him out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Setting of his Looks every Motion every Bending of his Body was admirable No marvel if such a Gallant drew Affections to him at Home and Abroad especially at Madrid which was a Court of Princes But can that Nation pass over such a Triumph as this Entertainment without Pumpian Words and ruffling Grandiloquence 't is impossible Therefore one Andres de Mendoza wrote a Relation of all these Passages which he dedicated to Don Juan de Castilià wherein he pities us poor English that we had seen nothing but Country Wakes or Popit-Plays compared with these Rarities which were the seven Wonders of Bravery And that King Philip did vouchsafe to make King James happy with his Alliance as C. Caesar honoured Amiclas the Water-man called Pauper Amyclas Lucan Lib.
5. to be wasted over into Italy in his Bark Thus he went on with other flatuous Disparagements One Copy of this and no more came to the Leiger Embassador of the Catholick King of which the Lord Keeper had the Use and would never deliver it again but wrote to my Lord Marquess April 20th to bid the Earl of Bristow to take care either to stifle it if it were not divulg'd or to cause it to be called in if it were published Such Scriblers should be informed against in the Ragguaglia's of Pernassus and amerced to pay for the the Loss of our Time 133. Aste the gaudy Days of the Royal Welcome were past over my Lord of Buckingham obliged the Lord Keeper greatly unto him with a Letter Dated March 26 and came about the Declining of April for the Comfort of the Contents which were these My good Lord HOwsoever I wrote so lately unto you that I have not since received any Letter from your Lordship yet because you shall see that I let slip no Opportunity I do it again by this Conveyance and must again tell you the good News of his Highness's being in perfect Health I cannot doubt but many idle and false Rumors will daily be there spread during the Absence of his Highness which I know your Lordship and the wiser sort will easily contemn and believe only that which you shall find avowedly advertised from hence And here let me thus far prevent with your Lordship any sinister Report that shall be made in the main Point which is the Prince's Religion assuring you that he is no way pressed nor shall be perswaded to change it for so is it clearly and freely professed unto him I hope I shall shortly be able to advertise your Lordship of the Arrival of the Dispensation which will be the Conclusion of our Business And thus wishing your Lordship all Honour and Happiness c. The Pearl which came in this Letter is that Satisfaction purchased of God with the Prayers of all devout Men that the Prince should not be inveigled in Conferences or unquieted with Disputes to strip himself of the Wedding-Garment of that incorrupt Faith in Christ which he had professed from a Child for that Wedding sake which he came to conclude How impudently have some Trash-Writers out-faced this Truth as if the Prince had been beset on all sides to make Shipwrack of his Religion in the Gulph of Rome Ar. Wilson of all others is the most forward Accuser and therefore the Falfest Tast him in these Parcels P. 230 that the Earl of Bristow insinuated it with this crafty Essay to his Highness That none of the King 's of England could do great things that were not of that Religion Yet he interfears in that same Page That Gondamar prest the Earl of Bristow not to hinder so pious a Work assuring him that they had Buckingham's Assistance in it Then belike Gondamar was jealous of Bristow that he was contrary to that which he called a pious Work the Prince's Perversion Certainly he knew Bristow as far as a Friend could know a Friend And as many Bow-shots wide is he from my Lord of Buckingham's Sincority in that Action as a Lyar is from Heaven Is not his Lordship's Hand-writing so solemn'y mention'd an uncontroulable Testimony The same Author slanders Conde d'Olivares and makes him utter that which never came from him That if the Prince would devote himself to their Church it would make him â—th way to the Infanta's Afflictions and if he seared the English would rebel he should be assisted with an Army to reduce them The Conâ—e Duke carried no such threatning Fire in one Hand nor at that time any of his Holy Water in the other For he committed nothing to offend his Highness's Ears in that â—ind till his Passions made him forget himself about three Months after Not contented with this he makes the Prince say that which he never thought as that when the Conde Duke propounded That if his Highness would not admit of a sudden Alteration and that publickly yet he would be so indulgent to litten to the Infanta in Matters of Religion when they both came into England Which the Prince promised to do But what says true hearted Spotswood P. 544. That the Prince was stedfast and would not change his Religion for any worldly Respect nor enter into Conference with any Divines for that purpose Utri credetis Is there any Choice which of these two should rather be believed I am careful to praemonish conscientious Readers against Serpentine Pens least their nibling should ranckle A Serpent you know from the beginning was a Lodging for the Devil Gen. 3. and so is a Slanderer The Manual of Romish Exorcisms says Instruct 2. that it is presumed for a sign that he is possest with a Devil Qui linguam extorquet miris modis eandem exerit ingenti oris hiatu I translate that to the Manners of the Mind which is meant there of the Body And let the Living learn the dead Man whom I speak of can take no Warning it is a divelish thing to loll out the Tongue of Contumely These being fore Times to out-face the Truth and willing to listen to Defamations no marvel if some take the Liberty to Lye and have the Confidence to be believed But that Sectaries that have quite overthrown the Church of England a right and pleasant Vineyard of Jesus Christ that these should be the Men who for the most part have challenged the Prince and the chief Ministers that laboured to effect the Spanish Match for being luke-warm at the best and unfastned from the Religion then profest is very audacious The Accused were Innocent and never gave ground to any pernicious Alteration but themselves the Accusers have trodden down that Religion of which in their deep Hypocrisy they would seem to be Champions The Prince and Buckingham were ever Protestants those their Opposites you know not what to term them unless Detestants of the Romish Idolatry As if all were well so they be not Popified though they have departed from the Church in which they were Baptized and a Church I will not say as sound as it was in its Cradle in the Apostles Times but as pure and Orthodox in Doctrine and Government as far as they were maintained to be of Divine Right and Constitution as it was in its Childhood in the time of their Disciples even that next succeeded them And are these the Declamers for Religion and the Temple of the Lord Ex isto ore Religionis verbum excidere an t clabi potest as Tully said of Clodius Orat. pro domo suâ ad Pontif. and so I give them no better Respect at parting 134. But what will be said when one that is greatly affected to our poor demolish'd Church doth concur with those Snarling Sectaries of his own accord That in the flagrant expectation of that Match some for hope of Favour began to Favour the Catholick
Cause It is the Author of the Observations upon H. L. his History of the Reign of King Charles pag. 137. He hath not bestowed his Name upon his Reader but he hath a Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Homer Odyss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I ought not to put him to the first Question of our Catechism Quo nomine vocaris For good Writers nay Sacred Pen-Men do not always Inscribe their Names upon their Books Scholars do invariably Father the Work and some of them say they have it from the Printer upon one that hath Wrote and Publish'd much favoring of Industry and Learning And they give Reasons which will come into the Sequel though a great while deferr'd why he blotts the good Name of King James Why he grates so often upon the mild Nature and matchless Patience of King Charles And if Fame have taken the right Sow by the Ear it is one that had provok'd the then Bishop of Lincoln in Print with great Acrimony Twenty years ago and that Anger flames out in him now as hot as ever Panthera domari nescia non semper saeuit Yet when that Bishop came out of the Tower and this Adversary sought him for Peace and Love because the Bishop was then able to do him a Displeasure he found him easie to be Reconciled What should move this Man to forget that Pacification so truly observ'd on the Bishops part who was the greater and the offended Party Naturale est odisse quem laeseris And Malice is like one of the Tour Things Prov. 30.15 That never say it is enough 'T is Degenerous for the Living to Trample upon the Dead but very Impious that he that was once a Christian nay a Christian Priest should never cease to be an Enemy The Words with which he wounds the Spanish Match through his side though otherwise he is one that witheth it had succeeded are these That that Bishop being in Power and Place at C◠the time of King James made himself the Head of the Popish Faction because he thought the Match with Spain which was then in Treaty would bring not only a Connivance to that Religion but a Toleration of it And who more like to be in Favour if that Match went on than such as were most zealous in doing Good Offices to the Catholick Cause Here 's a Knot of Catter-Pillars wrapt in a thin Cobweb so easie it will be to sweep them of The accused Person was always free of Conference Let any now living say that heard him often Discourse of the adverse Church if he did not constantly open himself not for a Gainsayer only but for a Stiff Defier of their Corrupt Doctrines although he was ever pitiful for Relaxation of their Penalties And would that Party cleave unto him for their greatest Encourager Encouragement was the least their Head could give them Beside the Thing is a Chimaera I never knew any Head of the Popish Faction in this Kingdom Others and Bishops in Rank above him have been traduced in that Name but who durst own that Office especially in the end of King James his Reign when every year almost was begirt with a Parliament and every Parliament procreated an inquisitive Committee for Matters of Religion What Mist did he walk in that neither Parliament nor Committees did detect him for Head or Patron or Undertaker call it what you will of the Pseudo-Catholick Cause could nothing but the goggle Eye of Malice discover him 135. Perhaps the Contemplation of the Spanish Match might embolden him so this Author would have us think It could not it did not take a little in the highest Topicks to both It could not For as the Anteceding Parliament was much taken with King James's Words That if the Match should not prove a fartherance to our Religion he were not Worthy to be our King so this his Majesties near Counsellor knew his meaning of which he often discours'd that when the Holy-Days of the Great Wedding were over his Majesty would deceive the Jealousies of his Subjects and be a more vigorous Defender of the Cause of the True Faith than ever And Judge the Bishop by his own Words in his Sermon Preach'd at the Funerals of that Good King that his Majesty charg'd his Son though he Married the Person of that Kings Sister never to Marry her Religion I said likewise he did not Look back to the first Letters he dispatch'd into Spain but much more let every Reader enjoy the Feature of his own Piety and Wisdom which he put into the Kings Hand to have his liking while his Majesties Dear Son was in Spain to Cure popular Discontents and sickly Suspicions which had come forth with Authority in October following if the long Treaty had not Set in a Cloud The Original Draught of his Contrivances yet remaining is thus Verbation That when the Marriage was Consummated and the Royal Bride received in England His Majesty should Publish his Gracious Declaration as followeth First To assure his Subjects throughout his three Kingdoms that there is not one word in all the Treaty of the Marriage in prejudice of our own Religion Secondly To Engage himself upon his Kingly Word to do no more for the Roman-Catholics upon the Marriage than already he did sometime voluntarily Grant out of Mercy and Goodness and uncontroulably may do in disposing of his own Mulcts and Penalties Thirdly That our Religion will be much Honoured in the Opinion of the World that the Catholic King is content to match with us nor can he Persecute with Fire and Sword such as profess no other Religion than his Brother-in-Law doth Fourthly That His Majesty shall forthwith advance strict Rules for the Confirmation of our Religion both in Heart and in the outward Profession 1. Common-Prayer to be duly performed in all Churches and Chappels Wednesdays and Fridays and two of every Family required to be present 2. Every Saturday after Common-Prayer Catechising of Children to be constantly observed 3. Confirmation called Bishopping to be carefully executed by the Bishop both in the General Visitations of his Diocese and every Six months in his own House or Palace 4. That Private Prayers shall no Day be omitted in the Family of him that is of the Degree of an Esquire else not to be so named or reputed 5. All Ladies and all Women in general to be Exhorted to bestow two hours at the least every Day in Prayer and Devotion 6. All our Churches to be Repaired and outwardly well Adorned and comely Plate to be bought for the Communion-Table 7. Dispensations for Pluralities of Livings to be granted to none upon any Qualification but Doctors and Batchelors in Divinity at the least and of them to such as are very Learned Men. 8. Bishops to encourage Public Lectures in Market-Towns of such Neighbouring Ministers as be Learned and Conformable 9. A Library of Divinity-Books to be Erected in every Shire-Town for the help of the poorer Ministers and Leave shall be
my power to advertise you of all Particulars though it would be very useful to me I end c. If one should say to this That young Heads hope for the best upon all Expectations because Experience hath not taught them to Distrust I take it up and Answer That there was nothing then in appearance to be distrusted no not the Remora of the Pontifical Dispensation when it should come with all its Trinkets about it The Prince had excellently prevented it For as it was Reported before the Lords and Commons in our ensuing Parliament 1624. his Highness did utterly refuse to Treat with the King of Spain or his Council until he was assured he might go on with the Marriage if he satisfied them to his Power and Conscience in all Particulars to be Debated without respect to any orders that should come from Rome This was granted to his Highness before he would sit in Consultation which caused the Lord Marquess unto that time to bear up with chearfulness 137. The month of May coming in with its Verdue his Lordship had a Garland sent him the most eminent Title of a Duke to shew says the Lord-Keeper in his Dispatch May 2. That His Majesty is most constant and in some degrees more enslamed in his Affections to your Grace than formerly and which is better than all unaffectedly to remunerate your Diligence in the great Negotiation and that being the Princes right hand by the Trust you are in your Honour might be no less than the Conde Duke Olivares the Great Privado of King Philip. It may be 't is so small a Circumstance that I have not searched about it that the Patent came with the Ships that carried the Prince's Servants into Spain to attend his Highness who went with the King's Order and their own great Desire a most specious Train of them to visit their dear Master and to serve him in all Offices of his Family Among these two were his Highness's Chaplains who were sent over to Officiate to him and his Court in the Worship of God These were Dr. Maw and Dr. Wrenn both of prime Note for Learning and Discretion very Learned to defend their own Religion and very Discreet to give no wilful Offence to the opposite part in a Foreign Dominion The Spanish liked not their company yet they took it not so ill for they could not but expect them as that there was not one Romish Catholic declared for such a one among all his Highness's Attendants Cabal p. 15. Tully states the Proverb in the Feminine Sex Lib. 5. ad Att. Ep. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As you would say Such as Diana her self such are her Nymphs about her But it is better paralell'd in King David's Person He that walketh with a perfect heart he shall serve me Psal 101.6 These were the Chorus of the Scene that sung in Tune with the chief Actor and seconded his Part with their Symplasma as it is called by ancient Musicians in their adherence to sincere Religion Yet some of these brought Instructions with them to the Duke of Buckingham from his secret Intelligencers which not only disturbed all posteriour Treaties but made the Prince return for England with the Willow Wreath Because the King and they that were faithful to his meaning knew not of it till July next after let it squat till then and it that order be started up In this place it sufficeth to glance at it that the Duke was cunningly dealt with and underhand by some whom he had lest behind to be as it were the Life-Guard of his Safety who were to send him notice of common Talk or secret Whispers that might concern him These perswaded him to set the Match back by degrees and in the end to overturn it That this was the desire of most Voices in England And his Grace must look to stand by the love of the People as well as of the King Or if he could not prevail in that let him be sure to joyn the Restitution of the Palatinate with the Marriage in the Capitulations or the Unsatisfaction which all would take that pitied the King's Daughter and her Children would undo him Upon these and their subtile Arts Sir W. Ashton Reflects in this Passage Cabal p. 32. I believe that your Grace hath represented to you many Reasons shewing how much it concerns you to break the Match with all the force you have This was the Junto at London that had done his Grace this Office and had guilded their Councils over with flourishing Reasons That these would procure him a stable continuance in Power and Sublimity with everlasting Applause Well every thing that is sweet is not wholsom Cael. Rhodoginus says lib. 23. c. 25. That at Trevisond in Pontus the Honey that Bees make in Box-Trees breeds Madness if it be eaten So I mean that the Urgencies of those Undertakes who pretended so far to the Duke's Prosperity were no better than Rhodoginus his Box-Tree Honey-Combs Yet after they had given the Qu now began the Duke to irritate the Spaniard to shut out or to slight the Earl of Bristow in all Councels to pour Vinegar into every Point of Debate to fling away abruptly and to threaten the Prince's Departure These boistrous Moods were not the way to succour the Prince's Cause for Favour cannot be forc'd from great Spirits by offering Indignities And the Temper of the Business in hand was utterly mistaken For they were not met at a Diet to make Articles of Peace and War but to Woo a fair Lady whose Consent is to be sought with no Language but that which runs sweet upon the Tongue As Q. Cicero wrote to his Brother de Peti Consul Opus est magnopere Blanditiâ Quae etiamsi vitiosa turpis sit in caeterâ vitá tam in Petitione est necessaria All Suitors are ty'd to be fair spoken but chiefly Lovers 138. No doubt but at this time in the Prime of May the Duke with such such others as the Prince did take into his Council sate close to consider upon the Overtures that came with the Dispensation For all thought that was the Furnace to make or to mar the Wedding-Ring and it asked Skill and Diligence to cast it well It is a Gibe which an Heathen puts upon an Amorose that wasts his whole time in Dalliance upon his Mistress 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Love is an idle Man's Business But there was Business enough beside Courtship and Visits which came thick to keep this Love from being idle The Dispatches that were sent from Spain to employ those that were in Commission here to direct the great Negotiation were many First The Dispensation came to the King from the Prince his Son May 2. But it came to scanning a good while after as will appear by this Letter of the Lord Keepers to the Duke dated May 9. May it please your Grace IT is my Fortune and I thank God for it to be ever rendring
Bridegroom from France In Anglià optimi cujusque animum ab Andini nuptiis esse aversum In the behalf of the Spanish Consulto did some of our Counsellors become odious as if they betray'd both Church and Kingdom so all that wished the Queen to the French Gallant Quasi ingrati in patriam principem sugillantur Camb. An. 1581. All as like as may be Mercury is as like Sosia as Sosia is like himself And the People are like themselves in all Ages who commonly suspect some Evil from their Governours when they will be wiser than they So that it is very rare to look to the Publick as it ought and to be in Possession of most Hearts but as Tul. Orat. pro Flacco said of a mutinous Concourse of the Trallians Patiamini me delicta vulgi à publicâ causà separare So I think not the worse of any Place if the Herd of the People break further than good Manners and Obedience They know not how to Rule nor is it fit they should know how they are Rul'd For they have Noses and smell not The Wisdom of a Kingdom is to be valued after it is calcinated from the Opinion of the multitude 149. Which presently is to be Tried For the Articles gain-said by a great Out-cry came to the Touch-Stone July 20. being Sunday and were presented before to His Majesty to Swear unto and to the Lords of the Council to subscribe their Approbation which were of two sorts Some belong'd to the Infanta and her Train of Houshold and no further Some belong'd to all the English that had taken the Mark of the Church of Rome in their Hand Of the former three and no more did seem to be Litigious First That the Princessa and her Servants should enjoy the Use of their own Religion without Trouble or Molestation and a Chappel to be built adjoyning to her Court for the more full and decent Exercise of it which held little dispute for the provident Councel of Q. Eliz. made no scruple to consent to the like in express Words Dux sui modo non sint Nativi Angliae Subjecti suam liberi Religionem exerceant in constituto aliquo loco in suis aedibus sine impedimento so the Foundation was laid of the Chappel adjoyning to St. James's place Secondly That the Princessa should be trusted with the Education of the Children lawfully begotten between them till they came to Ten Years of Age. A string that grated harshly yet heard by Wise-men with more Laughter then Fear For Childhood is not apt to take any perilous impression in intellectual Points and they would be often with the Father and those about him and unlearn corrupt Principles Chiefly it was foreseen that it was a Gratification that would die out of it self and expire in process of so long a time And in all Councils much must be ascrib'd to the Foresight of Prudence as Nepos says in the Life of Atticus Facile intelligi potest prudentiam esse quandam Divinationom Prudence sees so far before it that it comes not short of a kind of Divination Much more was allow'd to the Duke of Anjoy in the page Appealed to before Camb. anno 1558. p. 320. Si Dux supervixeru Roginae habebit tutelam liberorum si masculi non excesserint decimum Octavum Annum feminae decimum quintum I think those Counsellors ran too far into Temptation I am sure we were far more Cautelous and Restrictive Thirdly That the Clergy waiting upon the Princessa should be subject to no Laws or Statutes of England already made or that should be made hereafter Methinks no Honest man that lives in Humane Society should ask such an Immunity though it were possible to be Granted Yet their Clerks do not ask it but Arrogate it So Bellar. lib. 1. de Cler. c. 18. Clericks are not under the Laws of secular Princes by Obligation compulsory but directory That is they do well to conform to the Establish'd Laws of any Nation where they live for the maintenance of Peace and usual Commerce But if it seems better to them to avoid those Laws and not observe them they cannot be punish'd by no nor cited to the Courts of Secular Magistrates This Article K. James eraced out not only by his own but by St. Paul's Authority Rom. 13. Let every Soul be Subject to the Higher Powers to those Higher Powers that Receive Tribute and bear not the Sword in vain if any do Evil. Herein I commend the States of the Netherlands for that which I find in a Book call'd The Revolutions of the United Provinces p. 175. A Peace but few years since being brought to Conclusion between them and the King of Spain they agree that the Subjects of the King of Spain may Converse and Negotiate in all their Territories but with an express Prohibition of all Ecclesiastical Persons for the Plenipotentiary of the King of Spain maintain'd in a great Diet held at Munster that they were none of the K. of Spains Subjects or Subject to any Secular Power but only to the Pope of Rome A good work to thrust them out for Wranglers as our King thrust out this Article All Concessions that were thought Honourable and needful for the Infanta being pass'd over a contract steps forth in the behalf of all those in these Dominions that were of her Highness's Religion meaning so much and no more as was to be presently put in use It is almost not credible what strange Rumors ignorant Fear or perhaps malicious had buzz'd abroad That some of our fairest Churches Parochical nay Cathedral must be devoted to Assemblies of Papists for their Publick Use That Cloysters for Votaries Male and Female should be Erected c. Mensuraque Ficti Crescit audit is aliquid novus adjicit autor Ovid. The Demands were bad enough yet much under that presumption As they came from the Embassadors they were comprized under two Heads The First That a general Pardon should pass under the Great-Seal for the benefit of all Papists in this Land to acquit them from the Penalties of such Statutes as might take hold of them for the time past in case of Religion To which good words were given and after many Rubs and Reservations as shall be shewn the Seal was put to an Instrument for that purpose but kept in Lavender The other was the Gorgon's Head which Frighted the Lookers on that a Patent should be drawn up copiously with the same Seal to it to save the Recusants Ecclesiastical and Lay from the Penalties of all Statutes made against them for the time to come This is the Star call'd Wormwood that fell into the Waters of Debate Revel 8.11 Wherein the Spanish Agents were put off with many Delays and Wise Representations till in the End the Lord Keeper reduced it to this Issue That all Magistrates should be warned by Letters sent to them severally not to molest the Roman Catholicks upon any Statute till His Majesty
unto him He complains further of want of Expedition in the Letters to be written by your Lordship to those principal Officers to whom it pertains for the Suspension of all Trouble and Molestation to the Roman Catholicks his Majesty's Subjects in matter of their Conscience His Majesty marvails not a little that the Pardon and Dispensation are so long delayed before they be delivered and the Letters so long before they are written His Majesty being troubled and offended that Cause should be taken upon these Delays by the Embassador to call into Jealousie his Majesty's Roundness and Integrity in Proceeding In all which Points his Majesty now prays you to give all possible Expedition that his Majesty may be no more soiled with the Jealousies and Suspitions of the Embassador nor importuned with their Requests for those things so entirely resolved on Albeit this Letter is so strict and mandatory the Lord Keeper presumed on the King's Goodness to write a Remonstrance to Mr. Secretary Conway flat against the Mandate with sundry Reasons to shew the high Expedience that the Instruments demanded should not yet be delivered To the which on the 9th of September Mr. Secretary sends back word Right Honorable I Have represented yours of the 18th to his Majesty who interprets your Intentions very well and cannot but think it good Counsel and a discreet Course had the State of the Business been now entire But as Promises have been past the Truth of a King must be preferred before all other Circumstances and within three Days you must not fail to deliver the Exemplification of the Pardon and Dispensation with the Coppy of the Letters c. Two Days after see the Hand of God September 21 a Post brought Intelligence that the Prince was departed with fair Correspondencies from the Court of Spain was certainly long before that time on Shipboard and would weigh Anchor as soon as Wind and Weather served him So in good Manners all Solicitations were hush'd and attended his Highness's Pleasure against he came into England These are the Performances of the Lord Keeper upon the Immunities which the Papists contended for to be derived to them by the Prince's Marriage with the Daughter of Spain Whither any States-man could have contrived them better I leave it to be considered by the Senators of the Colledge of Wisdom in my Lord Bacon's new Atlantis If it be possible for any to disprove these excellent Excogitations of Prudence with his Censure he will force me to say in this Lord's Behalf what Tully did for the Pontiss of old Rome Orat. pro resp Aurus Satis superque prudentes sunt qui illorum prudentiam non dicam assâ—qui sed quanta fuerit perspicere possint The Collection of all the precedent Passages were gathered by that Lord himself and stitched up into one Book every Leaf being signed with the Hands of Sir George Calvert and Sir Edward Conway principal Secretaries to his Majesty If it be asked to what end was that provided it was to shew he had a Brest-Plate as well as an Head-Piece It was to defend his Integrity against any Storm that dark Days might raise about the Spanish Matters It was a gathering thick when my Lord of Buckingham caused Mr. Packer his Secretary to write a Letter of Defiance to him Cab. P. 87. wherein every Penful of Ink is stronger than a Drop of Vicriol Take a Line of it That in the Spanish Negotiation he had been dangerous to his Country prejudicious to the Cause of Religion which he above all others should have laboured to uphold But rip up all his Actions turn the Linings outward shew any Stain-Spot in his Fidelity in his Innocency chiefly in his Maintainance of the Reformed Religion Therefore he met the Lord Duke couragiously Pag. 89. I do not in the least beg or desire from your Grace any Defence of me if it shall appear I betray'd my King or my Religion in Favour of the Papist or did them any real Respect at all beside ordinary Complement Therefore I appeal to all Posterity who shall read this Memorial how a Minister in his Office and intrusted with the whole weight of such a ticklish Negotiation could come off better with more Honour with lâ—ss Prejudice Photius in his Biblioth says of Saluslius the Cynick that he was a worthy Man but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He had listed himself into that Sect of Philosophy which was carved out or exposed to Reproach and Contumiâ—y So this noble Councellor was as Harmless as he was Wise as Honest as he was Active But the Business which he underwent for his great Master and the Prince was Planet-struck with an ill Opinion of many and could look for no Thanks but from a few that were the Wisest 167. Especially most circumspect and diligent Endeavours if superior Providence hath decreed to make them barren shall not be pitied as they deserve but be insulted upon because they cannot reach their End The best Angler that is we commonly think he fish'd ill if he catch'd nothing Inde plaerumque eadâ—m sacta modò diligentiae modò vanitatis modò libertatis modò furor is nomen accipiunt Plin. lib. 6. Ep. Lucky Success makes a Fool seem wise and a wise man that is unfortunate shall be called a Fool. It is a hard Task to dig into the Mines of Poâ—icy when Event shall be the Measure both of Reward and Praise Yet all this must be endured after his Highness took his Leave of Spain the Donna Hâ—rmesa left behind the Stock of Love spent and in a while the Credit of it protested Our King was not ill disposed to the News that is Son made preparation to come Home The People began to be churlish that he staid so long And his Majesty look'd for no Good from that Part of the World while our Duke was in it He found that so long as he was so remote from his Tutorship he was heady a Novice in carrying Business and very offensive to the Crown of Spain The Prince was desirous to make haste from them that would make no better haste and could no longer endure the Pace of a dull Spanish Mule As a weary Traveiler's Inn seems still to go further from him so his Highness had attended long for a sweet Repose in Wedlock till it made him impatient and think that every Consuito cast him further back from the Fruition of his Joys The Junto of the Spanish States-men were very magisterial and would not bate an Inch but that every thing should be timed to a day as they designed it These were the Links of the Chain by which they pluck all Power to themselves First A Disposorios or Contract must go before the Marriage For that 's a Rule from which their Church doth never vary unless good Order be broken by clandestine Marriages To the Contract they could not go on in this Case till the Dispensation from the new Pope gave Authority for it That came to
being Resolute to out Face envy and as secure as a former prosperous Life could make him to suspect no Ignominy or Infelicity 180. The week that stayed the Parliament being over it met as it were in the Temple of Concord Common presagements seldom fail It came so welcom to all Men that they rejoyced for it according to the Joy of Harvest The Solemnity began with a Sermon in the Abby of Westminster made by Dr. Carew Bishop of Exon. Even Idolaters did not omit to enter upon any great Work without some Ceremony of Religion Omnia levius casura rebus Divinis procuratis Tull. l. 2. de divin The Bishops Theme upon which he raised his Exhortations very prudently was out of the Words of dying Jacob to the Head of one of the Tribes Gen. 49.13 Zabulon shall dwell at the Haven of the Sea c. From which he Preach'd and Pray'd earnestly it might be considered Zabulon juxta mare positus aliorum videt naufragia sed ipse salvus est How Zabulon might thank God that he saw Wars abroad and none at home and that he saw many Shipwrack'd at Sea while he was safe in his Haven But the Stream of Opinion was then against his Doctrine For we think every thing good whose Evil we have not felt Immediately from thence the Train removed to the Higher House where the King being set under his State the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and other Assistants of the Court Attending his Royal person and the Lower House being admitted to the Audience of that which was to be said his Majesty Feasted them with a Speech then which nothing could be apter for the Subject or more Eloquent for the matter All the helps of that Faculty were extreamly perfect in him abounding in Wit by Nature in Art by Education in Wisdom by Experience Mr. George Herbert being Praelector in the Rhetorique School in Cambridg anno 1618. Pass'd by those fluent Orators that Domineered in the Pulpits of Athens and Rome and insisted to Read upon an Oration of King James which he Analysed shew'd the concinnity of the Parts the propriety of the Phrase the height and Power of it to move Affections the Style utterly unknown to the Ancients who could not conceive what Kingly Eloquence was in respect of which those noted Demagogi were but Hirelings and Triobulary Rhetoricians The Speech which was had at the opening of this Parliament doth commend Mr. Herbet for his Censure Which yet I Engross not here for the Reader that is Conversant in Books will find it often Printed The Sum of it was to ask Advice of the Lords and Commons what was fittest to be done for Advancement of Religion and the good of the Common Wealth how the Treaty of the Princes Match would agree with these and the good of the Children of the Palatine for restoring them to that which they had lost As the whole Contexture was a right Purple Robe that became Majesty so there were three Golden Nails or Studs in it which even dazled the Eye with their Splendor In the First he touchld modestly that his Reign had not been unhappy to us But says he You have found the Fruits of my Government if you consider the Peace which my Kingdoms Enjoy in the midst of the Miseries our Neighbours are afflicted with And though I cannot say my Government hath been without Error yet I can avouch before God and his Angels never King Govern'd with a more pure sincerity and Incorrupt Heart In the Second he Purgeth himself from the Detraction of a false Rumor Jealousies says He Are of a strange Depth but let them be far from you It hath been Talked of my Remissness in maintenance of Religion and Suspicion of a Toleration But as God shall Judg me I never thought or meant it nor ever in Word Exprest any thing that Savour'd of it It is true That at times best known to my self I did not so fully put those Laws in Execution but did Wink and Connive at some things which must have hindred more weighty Affairs Yet I never in all my Treaties agreed to any thing to the overthrow and disagreeing of these Laws For as it is a good Horsman's Part not always to use the Spur ot keep strict the Reins but sometimes to spare the Spur and to hold the Reins more slackly so it is the part of a wise King and my Age and Experience have inform'd me sometimes to quicken the Laws with strict Execution and at other times upon just occasion to be more Remiss Thirdly The Shells of a Cockle could not lye closer and evener to one another then these last last words clasp'd with the Parliament God is my Judg and I speak it as a Christian King never any wayfaring men in the Burning Dry and Sandy Deserts more Thirsted for water to quench his Thirst then I Thirst and Long for the Happy Success of this Parliament that the good Issue of this may expiate and acquit the Fruitless Issue of the former The King having spread this Banquet to the Tast of their Judgments the Lord Keeper pro formâ set on the Grace Cup as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen all YOU have heard his Majesties Speech and find the extraordinary Confidence his Majesty reposeth in the Wisdom and loving Affections of this present Parliament You do hot expect I am sure any Repetition or reiteration of the same A Lacedemonian being invited to hear a Man that could counterfeit very well the Notes of a Nightingale put him off with these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have heard the Nightingale her self And why should you now be troubled with the Croaking of a Chancellor that have heard the loving Expressions of a most Eloquent King And indeed for me to gloss upon his Majesties Speech were nothing else then as it is in the Satyr Annulum aureum ferreis Stellis ferruminare to Enamel a Ring of pure Gold with Stars of Iren. I know his Majesties Grave and weighty Sentences have left as Aâ—schines Orations were wont to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of Prick or Sting in the Hearts and Minds of all the Hearers It is not fit that with my Rude Fumbling I should unsettle or discompose his Elegancies For as Pliny Observes of Nerva That when he had Adopted the Emperor Trajan he was taken away forthwith and never did any Publick Act after it Ne post illud Divinum immortale factum aliquid mortale faceret Least after so Transcendent and Divine an Act he should commit any thing might relish of Mortality So is it fit that the Judicious Ears of these Noble Hearers be no further troubled this day Ne quid post illud Divinum immortale dictum mâ—rtale audirent I will only put you in mind of your Ancient and laudable Custom to Elect one to be your Common Mouth or Speaker And whom his Majesty Assigns unto you for his Liking and Presentation Mr. Secretary will declare 181. So
that refuse to serve God with the King and his liege People either already they know a better way or they do not If they do Why do they complain as if they were brought to the utmost Extremity of Perishing for want of Instructions If they do not Why do they choose a contrariant Religion blindfold Christians commonly thirst for Knowledge not perceiving that the chief thing they want is Obedience This Itch hath descended from our Blood Royal from the Top of our Kindred in Paradise I amplifie my self further that I may not give Scandal as if I did not magnifie Knowledge and how shall they know and hear without a Preacher Rom. 10.14 I do subscribe it is the Powerful Ordinance to beget Children unto Christ to enliven them that are dead in their Sins and to keep them to the Motions of Sanctity that are raised up to Newness of Life Whosoever may enjoy that Blessing and out of Pride contemns it or out of Sloath difuseth it it will beget in him an erroneous Understanding a decaying Faith and a corrupt Life And where the holding out of that Light is withdrawn from a Church by Darkness of Persecution it is God's Curse upon a Nation And where it begins to clear up again after the Interposition of a Total or a partial Eclipse God call it his great Mercy Thy Teachers shall not be removed into a Corner any more but thine Eyes shall see thy Teachers Isa 30.20 But where Christians know the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ both for Faith and Holiness yet are restrained by Laws whether Just or unjust is all one to this Argument from Church Officers to be among them do they look to be believed when they say they are quite starved because none are among them in their Sense lawfully sent to feed them with the Bread of the Gospel Is there no way to preserve that which is committed to them by Meditation by Conference by Reading We exact severely upon them as they cry out because we permit them not the Tongues of some Men to edifie them But who are more hard-hearted Who are they that in such a Case of Destitution will not allow them the Reading of the Scriptures that is the Voice of God to speak to them As the Rock of which the Israelites drank is said to go along with them in the Wilderness And the Rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 So the Essence of a Church goes every where with them that nourish the Tradition of the true Faith in their Heart I say the Church and Christ ruling in it is with such wheresoever they live wheresoever they wander though it be not Organized as a complete Church should be with Bishops and Teachers Our English Merchants Trade many Years together at Sevile Madrid Alicant and in other places wanting the Angels of those Churches to whose Trumpets only they will hearken Yet whether they live or die many of the most Virtuous are well prepared for the Lord because they carry his true Church with them He may go along in the strength of the Spiritual Food which he hath eaten who was fed like Elijah by an Angel sent from Heaven Let the Plant that is newly set be staked to prop it up let it be water'd every Day Doth a grown Tree require such Tendance and Labour So a People that have lived always in Gentilism and Idolatry but have given admittance to Evangelists newly to enter in among them let them be swift to hear And those happy Messengers that bring the Glad-tydings of Salvation into those Regions of Darkness let them be as swift to speak Who would not blow hard to make green Wood kindle If I were in their Room that came to lay the Foundation of Faith where no Builder had been before I should allow my self no intermission of Preaching but for small Repast and necessary Rest If I were in such a City as Athens that worshipp'd an unknown God I hope I should do as St. Paul did at the same Athens Acts 17.17 He Preach'd not only to the Jews and deveut Persons in their Synagogues but in the Market daily with those that met with him But to be instant with that Importunity where a People is sufficiently enrich'd already in all Knowledge some perhaps would apply the old Proverb unto it That it were to bring Owls to Athens I thank your Lordship with all humbleness for your Patience and Attention And I am sure your Lordship understands that it is not to be expected that a Nation should disorder the frame of their Laws to heap Teachers for every Sect in Religion 223. But the finest slight to make the restraint of Priests odious is upon the necessary use of their Hand to confer the Sacraments And they that are contented with no less than seven will pretend sooner to miss their Administration than we that give God thanks for two My Lord I will give no offence to your Lordship upon any thing that is controverted Dogmatically between us and you nor maintain a vexatious Problem in your hearing I leave you to the management of your Sacraments in France and Italy as they are constituted in such Nations by the Laws of Holy Church Sail in what Vessels you will in your own Seas I consider now I have done it often before and with the joint advice of most judicious Scholars whether those Disciples of the Roman Church that live upon our Soil are so streitned in the use of their own Religion in this Land that they should account themselves to be violently and as it were sacrilegiously kept from the Kingdom of Heaven as in those words some of them have complain'd and your Lordship seems to think no less except that some of the Order of Priesthood be permitted to be Conveyors of the Sacraments of Grace unto them Which I conceive is not suitable to the Provisions of Cases exempt and milder Concessions of their own Doctrine The Lord Ambassador had been offer'd a Chair before and refused it But the Point coming as it were to the Cuspis or Horoscope of Fortune he accepted it and said My Lord Keeper your smooth Wit hath search'd far into many Scruples but this Knot will not be unloosed with a gentle Hand but with Violence which is foul Play to be used to the strictest Bonds of Eternal Life To which I return'd I fear no prejudice where so much Reason fits Judge as your Lordship brings with you So I went on That Sacrament which is the Introduction into Membership of the Church of Christ is Baptism The Apostles and their Successors were appointed Stewards of it by Christ to impart it to all Nations which were call'd first to be his Disciples This is the direct way Yet it is agreed in your Schools That if any Christian Man or Woman Baptize an Infant with the Element of Water in the right form that is in the Confession of the Holy Trinity the Child is sufficiently Baptized and is not
have seen a Manuscript of Arch-Bishop Abbots stating the Reason of his own Relegation to Ford in Kent the Papers were written with his own Hand to my knowledge wherein he paints the Fickleness of the great Duke to set up and pluck down with these Lines First He wanted not Suggestors to make the worst of all Mens Actions whom they could misreport Secondly He loved not that any Man should stick too long in a Place of Greatness He hit the Nail in that For this Keeper continued the longest in a great Office of any that he had lifted up and did live to use them Which proceeded not from his Grace's Constancy but from the good-liking of the old King But as Symmachus said of Polemio Lib. 2. Ep. 14. Sic amicis utitur quasi sloribus tam diu gratis quà m diu recentibus So my young Lord chang'd his Friends as Men do Flowers he lik'd a Scent no longer than it was fresh Indeed he lookt from his Vassals for more than they could do and hurried to make tryal of those that would do more Thirdly says the Arch-bishop again He stood upon such fickle Terms that he feared his own Shadow and desperately adventur'd upon many things for his own Preservation Too true for by this time he had lost the People in whose good Opinion he thought he stood for the space of Nine Months Alas he had a slight fastning in them for he never got their Love further than his Hatred to Spain procur'd it And that was spent out upon an exacter Information of his bearing at Madrid This was the Jealousie which gave the Lord-Keeper the deadly Stoccada who would not abuse his own Knowledge so far to extol my Lord for his Spanish Transactions which broke the Peace the Credit the Heart of his King and his Patron never to be requited Therefore that he was fallen in less than a Year from the abundance of a great Esteem he thought he might thank the Keeper whose down-right Honesty gave the Example More may be said but once more shall suffice the Duke had attempted with King James that which he threatned now but his Majesty that then was did not allow of it and charged them both to unite and to work friendly together for his Service But that mighty Lord waited the opportunity to root up the Tree which he had gone about to unfasten For commonly the offended Person is an Eye-fore to him that did offend him And such as have done great wrongs are afraid of those whom they have provok'd and can never after affie in them So it was among the Rules of Michael Hospitalius the best of the Chancellors of France and yet in a Pet cashiered from keeping the Great-Seal as Thuanus remembers it Anno. 1568. Principum documentum esse ut iis nunquam serio reconcilientur quos temerè offenderint This as it is related was our Duke's Temper And the Keeper understood that no Peace was to be had from an Adversary seeded with such Qualities All that he could do to help himself was not by preventing but by retarding a Mischief For though with the Stoick's Fate was inevitable Yet Servius says in 8. Lib. Aen. that his great Poet thought it might be deferr'd though not avoided Two things stuck to the Keeper like Sorrows and gave him all the unrest that he had First He wish'd that his deposing might have come from any hand but his Patrons that raised him before whom he would fall rather than wrestle with him as an Enemy Secondly He had read much to teach him and seen the Proof of it that when Princes call back their Honours more Misery ensues But as yet he stood his ground and did become his Place as well as ever 4. He never made use so much of his whole stock of Worth and Wisdom as in matter of Religion which appears before in the Mazes wherein he led the Spanish Embassador with whom he shisted so cunningly that they could obtain nothing for the Toleration of Popish Recusants but Delays and Expectations from time to time Neither could the Monsieurs squeeze any more out of him against the Ratification of the French Marriage as appears in a bare Fortnight before K. James died witness the Letter written to the Duke March 13. 1624. Cabal p. 105. If your Grace shall hear the Embassador complain of the Judges in their Charges of their receiving Indictments your Grace may answer that those Charges are but Orations of course opening all the Penal Laws And the Indictments being presented by the Country cannot be refused by the Judges But the Judges are ordered to execute nothing actually against the Recusants nor will they do it during the Negotiation And your Grace may put him in mind that the Lord-Keeper doth every day when his the Embassadors Secretary calls upon him grant forth Writs to remove all the Persons Indicted in the Country into the Kings-Bench out of the Power and Reaches of the Justices of Peace And that being there the King may and doth release them at his Pleasure In all this there is no bar against the common Course of Law but Mercy reserv'd to the Royal Pleasure Now what cause had my Lord Duke to defie him by his Secretary Cab. p. 87. That his Courses were dangerous to his Country and prejudicial to the Cause of true Religion Forsooth because he proffer'd a Gap to be opened to the Immunities of the Papists in a desperate Plunge to bring the Prince home safe out of Spain where he stuck fast for want of such a Favour to be shewn to those Complainants Which was a liberal Concession in Promise but no Date set nor observ'd for the Expedition of it And so all that Indulgence which hung in nubibus and never dropt down is frankly granted now and he is commanded by this Warrant that follows to signifie to all Officers to suspend the Laws which are grievous to the Romish Profession dated 1 Car. May the first Charles Rex RIght Reverend and Right Trusty c. Whereas we have been moved in Contemplation of our Marriage with the Lady Mary Sister of our dear Brother the most Christian King to grant unto our Subjects Roman Catholicks a Cessation of all and singular Pains and Penalties as well Corporal as Pecuniary whereunto they be subject or any way may be liable by any Laws Statutes Ordinances or any thing whatsoever for or by reason of their Recusancy or Religion and every matter or thing concerning the same Our Will and Pleasure is and we do by these presents Authorize and Require you That immediately upon the receipt hereof you do give Warrant Order and Directions as well unto all our Commissioners Judges and Justices of the Peace as unto all others our Officers and Ministers as well Spiritual as Temporal respectively to whom it may appertain that they and every of them do forbear all and all manner and cause to be sorborn all and all manner of Proceedings against our said
an actual King you also shall be known by advancing his nay your Enterterprize to be a valiant faithful and obedient People And now you are directed to choose your Speaker and present him to his Majesty Which was Sir Thomas Crew so well tryed for his worth in the Precedent Parliament that he was elected again in this To whose Oration the next day the Lord-Keeper answer'd as followeth Mr. Speaker YOU have endeavour'd to excuse yourself from this place of great Trust But I perceive by his most Excellent Majesty that I was not much amiss when I took you to be in the same Case that Evathlus was to Protagoras as Gellius reports it Lib. 5. c. 11. That is sure to be denied and to lose your Cause whether you argued strongly or faintly St. Paul was called Mercurius by the Lycaonians because he was the chief Speaker Acts 14.12 But to whom shall I liken you Truly to nothing but to yourself who have spoken more too learnedly and pithily the manner whereof hath confuted the Matter and your Rhetorick hath spoil'd your Logick For no Man that hath heard you speak can believe your unfitness to be a Speaker His Majesty therefore doth applaud and confirm your Election and commands me to return an Answer to some parts of that you have delivered Which though it was as all great and excellent Bodies are observ'd to be round and sphaerical in the Composition without a nook or a corner for a Man to lay hold upon yet as some late Mathematicians have born us in hand that they can find Quadraturam circ uli some corners in a Circle so for Method and Memory's sake Aut inveniam aut faciam where I do not find you must give me leave to make some parts and to run them over briefly distinctly and orderly You have said somewhat concerning yourself somewhat concerning the last Parliament somewhat of the Primus motor and Divine Intelligence which enliv'd the same somewhat of his Majesty's Entrance upon his Government and that in five several Respects First in respect of the Way which is by Parliament Secondly in respect of his Blood as the Son of Nobles Thirdly in respect to Succession to so worthy a Father Fourthly in respect of our Hopes of a rare and religious Government And Lastly in respect of his great Delivery in his famous Journey by Sea and Land Somewhat also you have said of our Religion as much recommended unto the King and much prosperous and profitable to the People Somewhat of the ancient Common-Law somewhat of cherishing our Friends abroad Somewhat of abating our Foes at home Somewhat of the Four Petitions presented to all Kings Immunity of Persons Liberty of Speech readiness of Access and benign Interpretation the four corner Stones which bear up the Structure of the House of Parliament I shall from his most Excellent Majesty make answer to these things according to your Sense and with my Method as they lie in order 11. First for your self you say little but you do much in yielding thus to his Majesty's Pleasure You offer'd a Sacrifice before the Sacrifice of your Lips an excuse from this Service and that was refused Now you offer up Obedience and that is amply accepted For Obedience is better than Sacrifice Quod felix faustumque sit a most happy Concatenation to open a Parliament when the Hearts of the People are in the Hands of the King and the Heart of the King in the Hand of God Secondly for the last Parliament it was happy indeed so accompted by our late so esteemed by our present Sovereign so denominated by the Effects which it produced For therein as you well observe those male-sida foedera and unfaithful Treatises were dissolv'd the King and his People indissolubly united the Flowers of the Crown a little pruned but with the Love of the Subjects better scented and perfumed Lastly if not more Bills of Grace yet surely more Bills from pure Grace passed and were enacted than in that Session of Magna Charta Gratia enim non est gratia si non sit gratis data And surely as Pliny said of Nerva Debebatur maximo operi haec veneratio ut novissimum sit autorque ejus statim consecraretur It became a Prince who was now ready to be Sainted in Heaven to close in that manner his Government here on Earth For I could never learn in all my Reading any other way for King or Subject than this one by the Kingdom of Grace to pass along to the Kingdom of Glory Thirdly for the part the King our Master bore in the late Parliament surely he was Actus primus the very proper Soul of that Politick Body Tota in toto tota in quâlibet parte now in the Committees as in the Members by and by with the Lords as in the Heart anon with the King his Father as in the Head of the Body and every where the principal Author of Life Motion and Resolution So that we may say to our now Sovereign as the Romans did by their Orator to the Emperor Trajan that he is no stranger to our Assembly Meminit quae optare quae sit queri solitus he cannot forget the Desires of the Commons nor the â—ishes of the upper House of Parliament Fourthly your five Circumstances for so I number them of his Majesty's Entrance into his Reign are very well noted and observ'd 1. That he begins it with a Parliament It is a sign indeed of his Love to that way Those Actions of Men are most pure and sincere Quae singendi non habent tempus that are done in such haste as admits no Fiction His Majesty was scarce proclaimed when the Writs went out and before the Solemnities of his Coronation behold him present in the midst of his People 2. That he comes into it with the Blood of Nobles Yes Mr. Speaker Deus est in utroque parente No King in Europe that breaths this day can shew so fair and so Royal a Pedigree 3. That by his Succession he hath sweetned much our loss of his Father A great and a glorious Act indeed And such an act as I will be bold to say in his Majesty's hearing could never have been done by any King not by himself had he been the Son of his Body only and not withal of his Mind and Vertues Herein indeed he equals his Father Neque enim de Caesaris actis Ullum majus opus quà m quòd Pater extitit hujus 4. For our hopes they have good cause God make us thankful to him for the same to sore high and to expect a King that shall exceed Hezekias in Policy of State for our Master I hope will never discover the Secrets of his Dominion to Foreigners and Strangers and equal him at the least in the Advancement of Religion You heard his Profession the last day His God above him his People under him his Heart within him and his Kindred about him must enflame his Zeal to this
true Religion Et pater Aeneas avunculus excitat Hector Lastly for his great delivery by Sea and Land which so filled our Mouths with Laughter and our Tongues with Joy it shew'd him betimes a Child of King James and withal a Child of God and being so Nolite tangere no Evil might touch him As God was with Moses so he was and will be with him non deseret aut derelinquet he will never fail him nor forsake him To the which Prayer all we his representative Kingdom will never fail to say Amen 12. What you said of the true Religion is most apparently true that it hath been very piously charged upon our King and hitherto full of Blessings upon our Kingdom For the first his Majesty well remembers what I ill forgot in another occasion that the last Blessing of all his Father gave him and I think upon a Motion of mine was with a Recommendation of his Religion and of his People to his special Care Love and Protection And I nothing doubt but that Blessing shall so bless him that he shall see Jerusalem in Prosperity all his Life long And for the effect of our Religion it hath hitherto produced in this Kingdom a very Kingdom of Heaven not only after this Life but even in this Life for the space of sixty Seven Years wherein it hath been most constantly professed All that time Peace hath been within our Walls and plenteousness within our Palaces Non fecit sic omni nationi God hath not dealt so with many nor with any Nation in Europe that I know or read of Sixthly what you recommended to the King concerning the Laws of the Land the King hath already in private and doth now in publick recommend to his Judges and by them to the Professors and Students of the Laws to wit that they would spend their time as their Fore-fathers did in the ancient Common-Laws of the Kingdom and not altogether as the Complaint hath been of late in Statutes new Cases and modern Abridgments In the former Studies you meet with Reason created by God in the latter with Opinion only invented by Men. Here you find peradventure some strong Conclusions but upon weak Grounds and Premises there you learn strong Premises that can never produce a weak Conclusion In a word to borrow the Simile of St. Basil there like Ulysses you Court Penelope herself here like the foolish Wooers but her Hand-maids only Seventhly that just Resentment you express of the Dishonour of our Nation in that hostile Acquisition and Detension of the Palatinate you cannot imagine Mr. Speaker how much it contents his most Excellent Majesty Now he finds indeed his People to be lively Members of this Politick Body because they sympathize so seelingly with the grievous Pains and Troubles of their Head And surely he is no true Part but an Excrescency or dead Flesh upon the outside of the State that is not sensible of his Majesty's Sufferings in those Affairs God forbid against all these Professions this Kingdom should prove to a People so allied either a Meroz as you term it for Inhumanity or an Aegypt for Infidelity or a whit inferior to Caesar himself to aid and relieve them You heard the full Measure of the King's Resolution the last day Ire oportet vivere non oportet He doth not desire to live otherwise than in Glory and Reputation And so he cannot live you know it well enough till somewhat be vigorously effected in that great business of the Palatinate Eightly for the abandoning of those Sons of Bichri the Priest and Jesuits his Majesty returns you this Answer As he doth approve your Zeal and Devotion herein and acknowledgeth that of St. Ambrose to be true Quod in religionem committitur in omnium vertitur injuriam that the meanest Subject in this Kingdom hath a great right and Interest in the Religion so being appointed by and under God Custos utriusque tabulae the Guardian and Keeper of both the Tables he desires you to trust him whose Zeal was never yet questioned or suspected with the ways and means to propagate the same Yet in this Petition of yours his most Excellent Majesty doth absolutely grant the Effect and the Matter that is to be most careful of our Religion or which you more desire to improve and better the Form and Manner But as St. Austin saith of God himself Non tribuit aliquando quod volumus ut quod malimus attribuat Lastly for your four ordinary Petitions for Immunity of Persons liberty of Speech readiness of Access benign Interpretation his most Excellent Majesty grants them all and will have them limited by no other bounds than your own Wisdom Modesty and good Discrietion So his Majesty bids God Speed the Plow 13. I look upon him that spake so well for the King two days together as Antiquarius did upon the L. Picus Mirandula Ratio oratio cum ipso ex côdem utero natae videantur Ep. 279. Here 's strong Mettle and a keen Edge able to cleave the hardest Knot Here 's Reason to convince Judgment with store of Eloquence to delight the Affections Which could not be past over without this censure for it is an ill thrift to be parsimonious in the praise of that which is very good The King reposed much upon the Success of this Meeting because his Mind was so well deliver'd and so strongly put on The Cause of the War was made the Kingdoms The Counsel that began it was the Parliaments and were they not bound to find the Succours As our Poet Mr. Johnson says upon Prince Henry's Barriers He doth but scourge himself his Sword that draws Without a Purse a Counsel and a Cause But the Registers of all Ages I believe will not shew a Man in whom Vertue was more perpetually unfortunate than in this King The Influence of those ill Stars that reigned over all his Reign began thus soon The Parliament was told as if a Dictator had been nominated for this War that all must be consulted and executed together that the present Sacrifice must be eaten in haste like the Lord's first Passover for in that juncture slow help was no help Yet in five Weeks so long they sat at Westminster there was not an Arrow to any purpose shot towards that Mark. These were they that thrust his Majesty upon a War to the mortifying of his Father's part and now his Enemies were awak'd with the Alarum they let him shift for himself Being told enough that there must be Gold as well as Iron to play this Game and that a good Purse made a good Army they gave him such discouragement that they dropt no more than two Mites into the Corban An incredible disproportion between what was found and what was lookt for and suitable to a Passage in an Italian Comedy where a Guest complains of his ill Entertainment at a Miser's Table that there was not enough to make a good Supper nor scarce
enough to make a good Salad 14. Yet the hardest Remedy had been the best Patience For by the second Week in July the Plague was in its rage about London and Westminster The Members of both Houses were half slunk home and they that staid it out wisht every hour the Session were ended The King was in a mervellous strait neither knew how to hold them nor to let them go His mind was much upon it to try them though not there yet some where else for an augmentation of Supply Whose excuse was the same which the Queen of Carthage made to Aeneas Lib. 1. Aen. Res dura novitas regni me talia cogunt Moliri His Majesty thought change of Air would do good and proposed to some of his Council at Hampton-Court July 10. to adjourn to Oxford against the first of August A Proposition mainly favour'd by the Lord-Duke so that he grinn'd at the Lord-Keeper all the while he disswaded it But take away liberty from Speech and take away Bitterness from Wormwood nay take away Spirit from Wine Yet he went on and spake to these two Heads that it was not another place but another time that must speed the Work First the Infection of the Pestilence had overspread the whole Land that no Man that travell'd from his own home knew where to lodge in safety that the Lords and Gentlemen would be so distasted to be carried abroad in such a Mortal time that it is likely when they came together they would Vote out of discontent and displeasure that his Majesty was ill counsell'd to give Offences though small ones in the bud of his Reign Quae nulli magis evitandae sunt quà m juveni Principi cujus gratia cum aetate debet adolescere as Symmachus Lib. 1. Ep. writes to his Master Theodosius Secondly the Parliament hath given two Subsidies at Westminster though they remove to Oxford it is yet the same Session and if they alledge it is not the use of the House to give twice in a Session though I wish heartily they would yet how shall we plead them out of their Custom if they be so stiff to maintain it It is not fit for the Reputation of the King to fall upon a probable hazard of a denial The Duke who had heard this with impatience said That publick Necessity might sway more than one Man's Jealousie Hereupon the Keeper besought that he might commit a few words to the King's Ear in private which was granted And he acquainted his Majesty That the Lord-Duke had Enemies in the House of Commons who had contrived Complaints had made them ready to be preferr'd and would spend the time at Oxford about them And what folly it were to continue a Session that had no other aim but to bring the Duke upon the Stage But if your Majesty think that this is like a Hectick quickly known but hardly cur'd My humble Motion is that this Malady or Malice call it which you will may sleep till after Christmas There is no time lost in whetting the Sythe well For I hope to give such account by that time by undertaking with the chief Sticklers that they shall supersede from their Bitterness against your great Servant and that Passage to your weighty Councils shall be made smooth and peaceable And why do you conceal this from Buckingham says the King Good Lord Sir says the Keeper fain I would begin at that end but he will not hear me with moderation Which was rightly foreseen Erasmus in an Epistle to one Gonel asks How a good turn can be worse bestowed than upon ungrateful Men Yes says he Magis perit quod praestatur non intelligentibus 'T is worse placed upon them that will not understand Because it was the mishap of this Man to give the first notice of that Storm that was a gathering the Duke as in defiance bid him and his Confederates do their worst and besought that the Parliament might be continued to confront that Faction though he lookt upon himself in that innocency that he presum'd they durst not question him Here began the Downfall of the Lord-Keeper mistrusted to set that Wheel a going whose Motion he discover'd and offer'd to put a Spoke into it But Truth faileth And he that departeth from Evil maketh himself a Prey Isa 59.15 And here began the Troubles of mighty Buckingham who would not gain six Months time which might have made Mischiefs mellow and rot But to shew the Greatness of his Power he made haste to destroy himself being in one Character too like to Pope Julius the Second Nunquam ab eo ad quod ingenio feroci impellebatur recedendum putavit He would never retreat from that to which the Violence of his Passions hurried him 16. He had his Will and August the 1st the Session continued at Oxford Of which place it may be said as Cassiodor did of Athens Aëris puritate peruncta lucidissimos sensus ad contemplationem felici largitate praeparavit But it appears by experience it hath been more renown'd for good Wits than for good Parliaments The Commons sat in the Divinity-School who for the most part begin with a Grievance about increase of Popery And on the first Morning no sooner had the Speaker taken his place but a Western Knight enlargeth the Sense of his Sorrow that he had seen a Pardon for six Priests bearing Test July 12. Whereas but the day before it when they were to part from Westminster the Lord-Keeper had promis'd in the King's Name before them all that the Rigor of the Laws against Priests should not be deluded Many of the Members were sore offended and veyed who should blame it most What! their Hope 's blasted in one Night What the King 's Promise so early broken Nunquam major spes est quà m in bonorum Principum sponsione Symmachus Ep. to Theodos Lib. 1. But for a Lord-Keeper that brought the King's Message and knew it best and for a Bishop to set the Seal to such a Warrant for him to do that wrong to Religion it was enormous But for his part he was secure enough Indeed it was a Pit-fall set to crush him but it fell upon another God had given him Wisdom to know the Violence of Winds and the Reasonings of Men Wisd 7.20 The Warrant was twice brought to him but he would not pass it Mr. Bembo a Servant to the Clerk of the Crown confest before the House that he brought the Writ to be sealed but it was stopt Mr. Devike Servant to Sir Edward Conway confest he brought it from his Master but it could not speed It was my Lord Buckingham's hard Hap to move the King to command the Warrant to be Sealed in his sight at Hampton-Court the Sunday following which being evidenced the Vote of the Commons turn'd about to clear the Keeper and to commend him which did him hurt at Woodstock the Court was there to please the Parliament which had not pleas'd the King
worse to answer for I will depart with this mournful matter adding only that the Duke being taken away our Bishop never desisted to do Observance and such Help as he could to his desolate Kindred and Family which the Countess of Denby his Sister would often confess to me and speak of it to his great honour At this time presently upon the dismal Tydings he dispatch'd a most melting Letter to the Countess his Grace's Mother whose Answer to his begins thus My Lord IT is true Nobleness that makes you remember so distressed a Creature as I am and to continue a true Friend in harder Fortunes You give me many Reasons of Comfort for which I kindly thank you for I have need of them all The rest is long and very choicely endited under her own Hand which I pass over more willingly because her Ladiships revolting to the Romish Religion was none of the least causes that brought her Unfortunate Son into the distaste of the People Pace tuâ fari haec liceat Rhamnusia Diva Catullus 81. The Duke being now at rest in his Grave it was conceived this Good at least would come of it that the next Session of Parliament would be very quiet which began on the 20th of January Yet they that thought the Ship was lightned of Jonas saw the Storm encreased Let them that will know the occasion of a wide Breach read it in the Histories and Life of King Charles especially in His Majesty's Declaration to all his loving Subjects printed 1628. wherein the intelligent shall find that the Commons were rather stubborn than stiff rather violent than eager against the King's Affairs and that the King was so provok'd with the heat of one morning that he would not allow a day nor an hour to let them cool again but dismist them with Menaces and thrust them away from him with such displeasure that in twelve years he sent out no Writs to call another Parliament It is too late to wish it had been better then it is not too late to give Warning that it may be better hereafter Who did best or worst many will take the liberty to determine as their addictions carry them to loyal Duty or popular Liberty I judge neither so high above me in their potential Orbs but relate what the Prudent did observe upon their Passages This was the Bishop of Lincoln's Opinion who wept the ruine of the State and was able to see through the present to the future that it was ill in the People to offend so good a King and unhappy for the King to close again no sooner with a bad People The open face of both these shall be seen The Commons were no sooner come together but like Ajax's Rhetorick in the Poet Proh Jupiter inquit they were as hot as an Oven in their exordium and spake loudly That the Petition of Right was not maintain'd because Tonnage and Poundage were taken and Merchants Goods distrein'd for non-payment a Revenue not due to the Crown till pass'd by Bill The King's Council shew'd Presidents that it had been taken in a provisional way before the Parliament had granted it but that His Majesty did desire to receive it by the Grant of his People and pray'd a Bill might confirm it to remove this Block out of the way in which all Controversies would be sopited Hereupon it was promis'd it should be considered and the framing of a Bill be referr'd to a Committee yet they drew back their Hand till they had gather'd a Particular of things distasted in the Ecclesiastical and Civil Government An Affectation which Appius Claudius discover'd in the Tribunes Liv. dec 1. lib. 5. Qui semper aegri aliquid in Rep. esse volunt ut sit ad cujus curationem à vobis adhibeantur Which the King hath put into English Declar. p. 25. Like Empericks that strive to make new Work and to have some Diseases on foot to keep themselves in request Their Inspections about Religion were not only troublesome to make the Bill stick in the Committee the only means to keep all quiet but so inauspicious that I fear God was not near Arminianism was complained of that it was openly maintain'd not suiting with the Articles of the Churches of England and Ireland A strange Spell which raised up the Spirit that it would conjure down As they that mark the encrease of Nile can tell at what day it will begin to overflow so they that watcht the encrease of Arminianism say considently that from this year the Tyde of it began to come in Then they complain'd that the Bishops of London and Winton prevail'd to advance those to great Preferments that spread those Errors while the orthodox part was deprest and under inglorious disdain Never was this verified by a clear and notorious distinction till this Challenge was made That all Preferments were cast on that side Then it began to be palpable that there was no other way to fly over other mens Heads in the Church but with those Wings And here the forlorn part might say to the Parliament as Balak said to Balaam What hast then done unto me I took thee to curse mine Enemies and behold thou hast blest them all together Numb 23.11 Thirdly They did regret at the obtruding of some Ceremonies which waxed in more request and authority upon that opposition as some Flowers open the more when the Wind blows strongest upon them I believe such Remorse as was in Joseph's Brethren would make some of them say We saw the arguish of the King when he besought us and would not hear therefore this Distress is come upon us that all our Counsels are improsperous The prosecution of Civil Grievances miscarried as much and as wise men guess'd because Sir John Ellict stood up to manage them Few lead on to remove the publick Evils of a State without some special feelings and ends of their own Nor was it any better now so far as an action may be known by vulgar passes and every bodies Discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Menander High Probability is the second degree of Truth Sir J. Elliot of the West and Sir Tho. Wentworth of the North both in the prime of their Age and Wits both conspicuous for able Speakers clasht so often in the House and cudgel'd one another with such strong Contradictions that it grew from an Emulation between them to an Enmity The L. Treasurer Weston pick'd out the Northern Cock Sir Thomas to make him the King's Creature and set him upon the first step of his rising which was Wormwood in the taste of Elliot who revenged himself upon the King in the Bill of Tonnage and then fell upon the Treasurer and declaimed against him That he was the Author of all the Evils under which the Kingdom was opprest Some body must bear that Burden as the Duke had done yet this Lord was not like to be the man who had been in his great Place but about six months
They that did intend to imploy him in their Faction did repent in one day that ever he came among them For it was in so little time that one of them said aloud We have conjur'd up a Spirit I would we could lay him down again No harm will come to his Honour that some in printed Books have lifted at him as A. Wil. p. 197. gibe him for closing again with the King and shuggling when he saw the Ax laid to the Root of Episcopacy For he staid not to long to declare himself till the Hare was started out of the Bush But S. A. W. goes further p. 175. for thus he Censures We may observe the Judgment of God on him for flying from the Parliament his Protector to give wicked Counsel to to the King his former Prosecutor Those Temporary Judgments and Ruins were probably foreseen but woe be to him that looks not further to the Judgment of the great Day Those that troubled the Land like him not as he was truly himself but in such a Character as they had framed of him to themselves Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as they self Psal 50.21 It was St. Austine's Fortune to be so misconstrued and he defends himself wittily Ep. 7. ad Marcel Non me diligunt si non quod sum sed quod non sum diligunt They love not me but another for me that mistake me It is not strange if those Members of Parliament were weary of him I am sure he was more out of taste with them As who could choose when he met with all fort of Brain-sick Factions combined in one Couplement It was better for him after thirteen months to be cast out and lock't up again in Imprisonment than to continue in the gathering together of the Froward and insurrection of wicked Doers In hoc res devoluta erat ut nisi quis malus fuerit salvus esse non possit Salvi l. 5. No Safety for any within those Walls nor scarce without but to run Horse and Man to Hell with Decius not to save their Country but to ruin it 133. What a giddy Pin man's life is turn'd upon Here 's a Prisoner and a Freeman in the Peoples favour and out with them repulsed from the Court and brought to the King's Presence and to kiss his Hand and all this variety in two days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diod. Sic. lib. 18. The rowlings and reciprocations of Fortune were strong on both sides Though his Restraint was over his Liberty was still dangerous as Salmasius says of Ambustius Valerius p. 840. in Solm Quem condemnatio non perdidit nec absolutio liberavit Misfortune exercised him as Original Sin doth the Just The Condemnation of it was taken away but not the Malignity The outcry was among the revolted Lords That he was good for nothing Not for the Commonwealth for he did maintain what the King had done for our Liberties Not for Religion for he was rivetted fast to the Hierarchy of the Church Not for himself for they expected he should have been a strong Accuser of divers whom they hated and knew he had matter enough for a heavy Information but they saw he was like a man dumb and in whose mouth were no reproofs Psal 38.14 Not a word came from him that he had been Prosecuted Censur'd Imprison'd Sequestred Riffled but he stood like one in the same point that had enjoyed quiet and honour fifteen years before Hereupon both Houses despised him as one that would contribute nothing to their ends and what should they do with this Gamaliel in their Council for when they had plotted to slay some principal Counsellors and Servants of the King and this Bishop would bring no Proofs to make them guilty men his Sentence was in effect Refrain from these men and let them alone Acts 5.38 Himself being now safe and by God's Mercy free from Impeachments it was a comfort to him to see nay to procure the Safety of his Enemies Sunt haec quidem magna sed in alio in hoc verò minima si caeteris virtutibus comparentur Plin. Ep. l. 3. How fain would some say the like for those whom they adorn with their praise But to revenge no wrongs to requite them with no retaliation that had bitterly provok't him it was so ordinary with him that in such a man it riseth to no remarkable Observation And truly it was no time to punish for a particular quarel but to look to the security of a tottering Kingdom Prudence might Challenge somewhat to make him remiss as well as Charity Yet the Injuries done him with their mischief in one aggregate deserv'd a Trial that would have made as loud a noise as ever came to a Bar. For the Practisers as the Fox said of his Cubs If there be one good in the litter there was never a bad For the practices they were such as could not have seen the light but would have brought palâ—ness on the Actors And which was worst of all the Bishop could see no Appearance which might efface his Apprehension but that if his Adversaries were in power again they would shew no penitency for the evil they had done him Yet when their Agents came to him to feel his Pulse they sound it beat so calm and even that he sent them Messages to enhearten them That if they had no wâ—rse Foes then 〈◊〉 they might fear no harm and that he saluted them with the Charity of a Bâ—â—â— p. This was home and as far as moral sweetness could go It a 〈…〉 at non ignoscere videaris sed absolvere says Sencca So his bencht was so compleat that he did rather seem to absolve those Nocents as a Judge then to paâ—â—ion them as a private Man So confident were his Malevolents to play with his Gentleness that Kilvert durst come to him without a Mediâ—oâ— to crave Pardon and Indempnity for all wrongs he had done Says the Bishop I assure you pardon for that you have done before but this is a new fault that you take me to be of so bâ— sâ— a Spirit as to file my self with tredding upon so mean a Creature Live still by Petty-fogging and Impâ—â—ching and think that I have forgotten you Yet he kept Kilvert two hours in private with him before he let him go and then he sent him to his Cellar with his Servants but with this Censure upon the Discourse which had past between them That his Enemies could not be so bad as that Fellow made them but for Kilvert 's part he was worse in treachery and readiness to do all devillish Offices then he could have imagined Thus far to the demonstration of his Christian Mind and his Continency that he would not render evil for evil that he would not gratifie the Parliament with Complaints against his Persecutors The not doing or suspension of such an act is as much or more praise-worthy than the doing of divers things that are very
and give ear to nothing So you have the first and the last part of the Presbyterians Actings with the other Divines whom the Lords appointed for a Sub-committee There may well be a Suspicion when their Deeds do make a Confession that they would prevail by Force when they could not by Argument And thus began the downfal of Episcopacy which was never heard never suffer'd to plead at the Bar of the Parliament in its own Cause but as one says pertinently It was smother'd in a Crowd 141. Anatomists observe that the thinnest Membrane is that which covers the Brain that no weight might stop it from production of Notions and Phancies Certainly it was so in our Bishop's Head-piece who was consulted every day in weighty Affairs and had a Task at this time concurrent with all that went before to look to the Case of the noble but unfortunate Earl of Strafford A Charge of great Crimes was hastily drawn up against him that he had been a Tyrant in Ireland and stirred up His Majesty to raise an Army to oppress his Subjects in England and Scotland Haec passim Dea soeda virum diffudit in ora AEn 4. These were the Fictions of Fame and no more but made the People cast about distrustful and disloyal Doubts The Earl a man of great Wit and Courage knew not whether the King and all his Friends could save him In a rebellious nation wrath is set on fire Ecclus 16.6 And to the shame of Subjects bewitch'd with the new Spirit of that Bedlam rage neither the King nor his Justice could protect any man Too well do I remember that of Justin lib. 30. Nec quisquam in regno suo minùs quà m rex ipse poterat Some say of the French luke-warm in Religion that they kneel but with one Knee at Mass a great number in our rigid Parliament would not do so much the locking Joynt of their Knee was too stiff to bend at all Rebellion is a foul word yet they blush'd not at the deed who were ashamed of the Title Then the Scots were resolved not to disband till this brave Lord was headless Who hath seen a Hedge hog rouled up into a Ball The whole lump is Prickles do but touch it and you hurt your Hand Convolvuntur in modum pilae ne quid possit comprehendt praeter aculeos Plin l. 8. c. 37. So Lessly and his Tykes were bloody and imperious fastned with much confidence in one body Who could remove them Nay who could touch them or go about to mollitie them and get no harm Then the Tumults of Sectaries Corner-creepers and debauch'd Hang-by's that beset the dutiful Lord and Commons with Poniards and Clubbs were worse than an Army far off These call'd for Justice that is for the Life of the Earl What had they to do with Justice which if it might have fate upon the Bench and tryed them every Mothers Son of them had been condemned to the Gallows But it was safer to sit still with Prudence than to rush on with Courage Plus animi est inferenti periculum quà m propulsanti Liv. lib. 38. The Affailant that comes to do a Mischief puts on desperately and is fiercer than the Defendant And there is no equal temperature or counterpoise of Power against the strong Ingredient of a Multitude I will not say but many of this Scum invited themselves unbidden to do a Mischief but there was a Leader a Presbyter Pulpiteer that bespoke them into the Uproar from Shop to Shop Lucius Sergius signifer seditionis concitator tabernariorum Cic. pro dom ad Pont. I need not a Lime-hound to draw after him that was the chief Burgess of the Burrough who gathered this vain People to a head that had no Head Silly Mechanicks Horum simplicitas miserabilis his furor ipse Dat veniam Juven Sat. 2. But what will he answer that knew his Master's Will and ran headlong against it Now here 's the Streight of the Earl of Strafford expos'd to the greatest popular Rage that ever was known All that his good Angel could whisper into him in Prison was to trust to God and a righteous Defence But whereon should he bottom his Defence He could not upon the known Law which is the Merastone to limit and define all Causes for Life Limb Liberty or Living He must stand to a Tryal whether parcels of petty Offences will make an accumulative Felony and be arraigned upon a notion of Treason which could be wrested out of no Statute nor be parallel'd with any President The Treason was rather in them that call'd such things Treason to which no English Subject was liable by his Birth-right In populo scelus est abundant cuncta furore Man lib. 2. The Law was too much his Friend to bring him before the face of it Anocent man fears the Law an innocent man fears Malice and Envy O vitae tuta facultas Pauperis angustique laris O munera nondum Intellecla Luc. lib. 5. O the security and sound sleeps of a private Life If this Earl had not climb'd as high as the Weather-cock of Honours Spire he had not known the Horror of a Precipice Isocrates would never meddle with a publick Office says the Author of his Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Athenians were so spightful at their Magistrates that he would not trust them Demasthenes was employed in great Places and died untimely by a Poyson which he had confected for an evil time Says Pausan upon it in Atti. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is entrusted to govern the people when he hath serv'd their turn seldom dyes fortunately But this is the man whose Troubles gave the Bishop occasion to shew his Abilities in two points First About the circumstance of the examination of the Cause Secondly About the Judges of the Cause that is Whether Bishops might be such in causâ sanguinis There is much of it I confess but the Learning will recompence the length And I shall not blemish his Reputation to say of him what the Orator said of L. Aquilius Orat. pro Caecinnâ Cujus tantum est ingenium ita prompta fides ut quicquid haurias purum liquidúmque haurire censeas 142. Before I draw up to the Bishop's Reports there is more to be premised as That there was much ado to score out the Hearing of Strafford with a straight Line and a Form to give some satisfaction as a Child is often set upon its Legs before it can go His Adversaries toss'd it about many ways and manag'd it chiefly by two persons Mr. St. John the King's Sollicitor one that did very bad Service to the King his Master and the Church his Mother yet of able parts therefore I will write the Inscription of his Tomb-stone on the wrong side and turn it downward to the Earth The other was John Pym Homo ex argillâ luto factus Epicuraeo as Tully said of Piso that is in Christian English a painted Sepulchre
the body v. 20. but now are they many Members yet but one Body v. 21. And the eye cannot say unto the hand I have no need of thee nor again the head unto the feet I have no need of you So far our brave Speaker and all this is exscribed faithfully out of his own Copy Let another take his room and let him that is wisest perform it better The Success was that he laid the Bill asleep for five months for I confess that by over-sight I have not kept the just order of time for it should have been referred to the middle of May before the King went into Scotland and was in a trance by the charm of this Eloquence till November after which shews how like he was to Athanasius Nazian in Orat. pro codem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanasius was an Adamant not to be broken with violent blows and a Load-stone to draw them to him that were of a contrary Opinion Now mark the Partiality upon which the Speaker much insisted That the Lords would grant Interest to noble Persons in Holy Orders to act in Secular Affairs but to none beside As Grotius fits it with a passage Annal. p. 5. Castellani quantumcunque usurpent ipsi libertatem in aliis non serunt The Castilians are great encroachers upon liberty for themselves but will not tollerate it in any beside To the main Cause I yield that that was easie to be defended on the Clergies part as learned Saravia shews de Christian Obed. p. 169. not only from Moses's Law but from the Custom general of the most orderly among the Heathen Gaulish Druids Persian Magi Egyptian Heirophants and so forth by induction from all places to make it amount even to a natural Law that Priests were no where excluded from honourable Imployments in Secular Affairs I will appose two Quotations for it and very remarkable The first from the Judgment of the Scottish Presbytery R. Spotswood Hist p. 299. 449. That they contended for that Priviledge that some Ministers should give Voice in Parliament in the behalf of the Church And some to assist the King in Parliament in Council and out of Council Doth the Wind blow so from the North The other taken from Ludo. Molin Paraen c 4. And he no well-willer to our Hierarchy in that Book least of all to their Consistories Deus Pastori Evangelico non detrahit jus potestatem Magistraturae nec magistratum prohibet ministerio si ad utrumque factus comparatus est But this Bill that went no further when it was first set on foot in May began to enlarge its strides and mend its Pace in the end of Autumn Either because this fiery Parliament saw that Confusion begun must be carried on with acting greater or because the King was suspected that he tamper'd with the Scots and they framed an Injury from his Neglect to leave them so long or how it was that their thoughts were whiâ—'d about with the Wheel of swift Perswasions themselves knew best but their Spleen began to shew it self with stronger fits than ever against the Clergy who were never safe so long as the Bill we have heard of was not cancell'd For the Spanish Proverb tells us That Apple is in great danger that sticks upon the prickles of an Hedge-hogg But if the Sum of the Bill had been right cast the now most noble Marquess of Dorchester and more noble because most learned told his Peers May 21. Which of your Lordships can say he shall continue a Member of this House when at one blow six and twenty are cut off This was sooth nay Sooth-saying and Prophesying but it was not attended 167. When all ways had been tried to pass this Bill of Dishonour upon the Clergy chiefly the Bishops and it hung in the House of the Lords the event methinks is like that which we read I Kings 22. v. 21. There came forth a Spirit and stood before the Lord and said I will perswade them And the Lord said Wherewith And he said I will go forth and I will be a Spirit of clamour and tumult in the mouth of all the People And the Lord said Thou shalt perswade them and prevail also Go forth and do so There had been an unruly and obsteperous concourse of the People in the Earl of Strafford's Case But a Sedition broke forth about Christmas that was ten times more mad Ludum jocumque dices fuisse illum alterum prout hujus rabies quae dabit Terent. Eunuch which took heat upon this occasion The King came to the House of Commons to demand five of their Members to Justice upon impeachment of Treason His Majesty it seems was too forward to threaten such persons with the Sword of Justice when he wanted the Buckler of Safety How far those five were guilty I have nothing to say because plain Force would not let them come to a Tryal But if they were innocent why did they not suffer their Practices to see the Light It had been more to their Honour to be cleared by the Law than to be protected against the Law And that Cause must needs be suspected which could not put on a good outside I am sure the King suffer'd extreamly for their sakes All Sectaries and desperate Varlets in City and Suburbs flock'd by thousands to the Parliament Diogenes was ask'd What was to be seen at the Olympick Sports where he had been Says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laert. in Vit. Much People but few Men. But here were no Men but all Beasts who promised one another Impunity by their full body of Rebels and where there is no fear of Revenge there is little Conscience of Offence Quicquid multis peccatur inultum est Lucan The Rake-hells were chaffed to so high a degree of Acrimony that they pressed through the Court-gates and their Tongues were so lavish that they talk'd Treason so loud that the King and Queen did hear them Let the five Members be as honest as they would make them I am certain these were Traytors that begirt the King's House where his Person was with Hostility by Land and Water He that speaks of them without detestation allows them and makes way for the like Sometimes they called out for Religion sometimes for Justice Ex isto ore religionis verbum excidere aut clabi potest as Tully of Clodius pro Dom. Was the sacred term of Religion sit to come out of their Mouths Did it become them to speak of Justice Sarah cried out to Abraham The Lord judge between me and thee when her self was in the fault Gen. 16.5 Every Tinker and Tapster call'd for Justice and would let the King have none who is the Fountain of it What did the great Parliament in the mean while Give Freedom to their Rage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Odyss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their Friends in their ragged rows were too many to be childden they were more afraid of them than of the
Bishops and Divines were whom God stirred up to frame our happy Reformation Their Sanctity Learning Humility Martyrdom compel us to believe that they sought the Truth and the hand of God upon their works that none did ever prosper in this Land with their new frame of Worship to deface their Foundation will perswade us that they found the Truth Let these words of the Orator be dedicated to their blessed memory De arusp resp Sat is superque prudentes sunt qui illorum prudentiam non dicam asscqui sed quantà suerit perspicere possint We know who jear at this and think they are far before all our Predecessors to chalk out the right Line of Gospel Purity the Presbyter Divines and their Elderships As Cato the Censor strived to keep the Athenian Philosophy and Learning out of Rome for says he Quandocunque ista gens literas suas dabit omnia corrumpet Plin. l. 29. c. 1. So we have had Cato's and prudent Senators who have spared for no pains to crush the turbulent Presbyterians yet they have continued to surprise the Judgments of unquiet Opiniators and they flowed in by shoals in our Civil Wars Schismatica pravitas semper bello ardente maximè luxuriat says Camden Eliz. Anno 1588. and he speaks it of these men These are they that are striving to wind up higher in Reformation which makes me insert what I read since I wrote this As if Religion were intended for nothing else but to be mended Sirs shall we change and change till all be satisfied that 's to put us off for Peace to the Greek Calends When you tell us which in your Brains is the best and final Reformation we will tell you another thing as impossible which is the greatest number They troubled Queen Elizabeth and King James with their Platforms of Christ's Kingdom and were repulsed for who could give an eaven poise to such uneaven Humours chiefly perceiving that a Monarchy would not consist with their Consistories their Pretences running one way and their Practices another and indeed their Encroachments are not only upon Royal Authority but upon the Civil Magistrate whosoever he be Now they would enforce their Scottish or Geneva Changeling upon King Charles who was swift to run to any good and when he stopt it was because Religion and Reason could go no further This stinking Elder lately shot up he could not Authorize Who can forget Pisistratus how he toss'd and turn'd the Athenian Commonwealth over and over and yet would perswade them that he changed not their Native Laws but reduced them to those that Solon was the Author of which none could disprove so much they were forgotten So they that put on this Change were impatient to hear that it was a Mushroom of late growth but boasted it was the constitution of the Apostles but lasted so short a Time that History cannot make it out to justifie it The discreet King was sure that the Gospel was planted over much of the Heathenish World by Bishops that they rooted up Idolatry supprest Herefies edified all places with the glorious Vertues of Faith and Charity and that God would not go along with a corrupt Hierarchy in such manifold and great Mercies And should he set up another Government from whose alteration he knew not what would proceed was it not Prudence to owe unto Ignorance still rather than to try it Nihil in specie fallacius quà m prava religio says Posthumius in Liv. lib. 9. Religion though the best thing yet the name of it is the greatest Cheat if you take not heed of Hypocrisie 184. But who can dispute with them that will fly to Inspiration and when they have no other Argument will boast that they have talk'd with GOD 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisd 7.14 which is in our Margin They have enter'd friendship with God Then all that Reason shall say to the contrary is prophane and underneath them There is an Objection to be answer'd with Grief That some learned and painful men did promote this Discipline I will say to their Praise and Pity as much as Tully did of the Gracchi Orat. de acus resp Quòd dolerent boni omnes illa tanta ornamenta and meliorem mentem voluntatemque non esse conversa Their Pains in some were very laudable in some little more than Lungs and Language A little Gold comes to more in payment than a great deal of Copper Money Pliny lib. 16. c. 27. speaks of some Vines that bore thrice a year yet the Vineyard-dresser lost by it Insana vitis trifero proventu sed evanida luxurians There were Auditors that extoll'd such Preachers and would say They could profit by no other So Amnon pretended he could eat no Meat unless his Sister Tamar dress'd it The Plot came to light in our days that these were they that rung the Pan in the Pulpit and then the Bees swarm'd to Rebellion But that which is of God must have its Foundation in Humility its Rising in Obedience and its Continuance in Peace View the Success of Presbyterism where it takes a little root here and there what Shoots do grow by it or out of it Anabaptists Antinomians Familists all Mr. Edwards's Gangreen beside Quacks and Quakers Mahumetan Dervises of a raging not a ravishing Spirit among all these the Independents their young Brothers by Burrough-Tenure have got the Estate from them I will borrow a strain of his Wit that said there went but a pair of Sheers between them That the Independents would not have a King so much as in name the Presbyters would have no more than the meer Name of a King But O how these blasphemed the Name and slander'd the Footsteps of God's Anointed who laid our good King forth as a Papist to their Rabble since he would neither be for the Consistorians nor Congregationers Nihil est audere relictum Manil. lib. 5. Blessed Saint how firm was he to the Antipapal Doctrine of this Church which he maintain'd against the Marquess of Worcester in the greatest agony of his Troubles and trusted his Soul upon it at the agony of Death Most of all that Calumny came from Hell that he gave privy leave to the Irish Hell-hounds to commit that horrid Massacre upon so many Innocents Men Women and Babes Did not Muscerry and Philem O Neal tell the contrary at their Execution and pawned their Salvation upon it when it was no time to dissemble They the Parliament contributed much to that Assassinate who cut off Strafford for an evil Counsellor the only man of Courage and Counsel to have prevented the Troubles of Ireland A Passage shall decide it clearly that came to my own knowledge I was so scrupulous to forget nothing of it that before I stirred I wrote down the Speaker the Words the Place the Year the Day On July 24. ann 1654. at Rygate in Surrey I had Conference about this Defamation with that excellent Primate of Armagh Dr. Usher says he
Clergy of England as being neither Parsons Vicars nor Curates be Licenced henceforward in the Court of Faculties only with a Fiat from the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and a Confirmation under the Great Seal of England And that such as transgress any one of these Directions be suspended by the Lord Bishop of the Diocess or in his Default by the Lord Arch-Bishop of the Province Ab officio beneficio for a Year and a Day untill his Majesty by the Advice of the next Convocation shall prescribe some further Punishment 102. These Orders were well brought fourth but Success was the Step-Mother Destinata salubriter omni ratione potentior fortuna discussit Curtius lib. 5o. Crossness and Sturdiness took best with the Vulgar and he was counted but a Cockney that stood in awe of his Rulers No marvel if some were brought to no State of Health or toward any Temper of Convalesence with these Mandates Nothing is so hardly bridled as the Tongue saith St. James especially of a mis-guided Conscience when their Bladder if full of Wind the least Prick of a Thorn will give it eruption A Fool traveleth with a Word as a Woman in Labour of a Child Ecclus. 19.11 Restraint is not a Medicine to cure epidemical Diseases for Sin becomes more sinful by the Occasion of the Law Diliguntur immodice sola quae non licent says one of the Exteriors Quintil. decl 1a. The less we should the more we would Curb Cholerical Humours and you press out Bitterness as it is incident to those that are strait-lac'd to have sower Breaths The Scottish Brethren were acquainted by common Intercourse with these Directions that had netled the aggrieved Pulpitarians And they says Reverend Spotswood P. 543. accuse them to be a Discharge of Preaching at least a Confining of Preachers to certain Points of Doctrine which they call Limiting of the Spirit of God But the Wiser Sort judged them both necessary and profitable considering the Indiscretion of divers of that sort who to make Ostentation of their Learning or to gain the Applause of the Popular would be medling with Controversies they scarce understood and with Matters exceeding the Capacity of the People But what a Pudder does some make for not stinting the Spirit or Liberty of Prophecying as others call it They know not what they ask Such an indefinite Licence is like the Philosopher's Materia Prima a monstrous Passive Subject without Form A Quid libet which is next to nothing Indeed it is a large Charter to pluck down and never to build up Every Man may sling a Stone where he will and let it light as Luck carries it But how can the House of God be built unless the Builders be appointed to set up the Frame with Order and Agreement among themselves according to the Pattern which was shewn in the Mount Try it first in Humane Affairs and see how it will sadge with them before we proceed to Heavenly Dissolve the publick Mint let every Man Coin what Money he will and observe if ever we can make a Marchandable Payment Their Confusion is as like to this as a Cherry to a Cherry Give their Spirit as much Scope as they ask Let them Coin what Doctrine they will with the Minting-Irons of their own Brain They may pay themselves with their own Money but will it pass with others for Starling Will it go for current Divinity To meet them home Suppose this Priviledge were allow'd yet every good Spirit will limit it self to lawful Subjection Yet these would not Then what Remedy in earnest none was try'd It is the height of Infelicity to be incurable As Pliny in his Natural History said of Laws made against Luxury in Rome which would not be kept down therefore the Senators left to make Laws against it Frustra interdicta quae vetucrant cernentes nullas potiùs quam irritas esse Leges maluerunt 103. Neither were uncharitable Suspicions like to mend For the Unsatisfied that sung so far out of Tune had another Ditty for their Prick-Song The King's Letters were directed to the Lord Keeper to be Copy'd out and sent forth to the Judges and Justices to afford some Relaxation of our Penal Laws to some but not all Popish Recusants Which made sundry Ministers interpose very harshly and in the Prophet Malachy's Stile Chap. 2. Ver. 13. To cover the Altar of God with Tears and Weeping and Crying but the Lord regarded not the Offering neither received it with Good-will at their Hands What could this mean as they conjectured but the highest Umbrage to the Reformed Religion and â—at Toerâ—ion of Popery Leave it at that cross way that they knew not whither this Project will turn Nay Should they not hope for the best Event of the Meaning A King is like to have an ill Audit when every one that walks in the Streets will reckon upon his Councels with their own casting Counters It is fit in sundry Occurrences for a Prince to disguise his Actions and not to discover the way in which he treads But many times the Wisdom of our Rulers betrays them to more Hatred than their Follies because Idiots presume that their own Follies are Wisdom Plaurus displays these impertinent Inquisitors very well in Trinummo Quod quisque habet in animo aut habiturus est sciunt Quod in aurem Rex Reginae dixerit sciunt Quae neque futura neque facta sunt illi sciunt Yet these Fault-sinders were not jear'd out of their Melancholly though they deserv'd no better but were gravely admonished by his Majesty Vivâ voce in these Words I understand that I am blamed for not executing the Laws made against the Papists But ye should know that a King and his Laws are not unfuly compared to a Rider and his Horse The Spur is sometime to be used but not always The Bridle is sometime to be held in at other times to be let loose as the Rider finds Cause Just so a King is not at all times to put in Execution the Rigor of his Laws but he must for a time and upon just Grounds dispense with the same As I protest to have done in the present Case and to have conniv'd only for a time upon just Cause howbeit not known to 〈◊〉 If a Man for the Favour shew'd to a Priest or Papist will judge me to be inclining that way he wrongs me exceedingly My Words and Writings and Actions have sufficiently 〈◊〉 what my Resolution is in all Matters of Religion That Cause not known to 〈…〉 in part unfolded by that grave Father Spotswood where I quoted him 〈◊〉 Says he The Better and Wiser Sort of his Country-men who considered 〈…〉 Estate of things gave a far other Judgment thereof than the Discontented 〈…〉 then our King was treating with the French King for Peace to the Protestants of France and with the King of Spain for withdrawing his Forces from the Palatinate At which time it was no way fitting that
he should be Executing the Riger of his Laws against Papists at Home while he did labour for Peace to them of the Religion Abroad The most likely way to obtain what he did seek of those Princes being a Moderation of the Severity of Laws against Priests and Papists at least for a time Thus far that wise man but the Reason was stronger than he enforc'd it For in sundry Places beyond our Seas the Churches of the most disconsolate Reformed were never so near if not to an Extirpation yet to an utter Dispersion Those in Bohemia and Moravia were hunted from Hole to Hole by the Emperor's Men of War The King of Spain was Victorious over the persecuted Servants of Christ in the Val-Teline The King of France prepared to lay Siege to Rochel and to all his fenced Cities that were in the Hands of the Protestants The Duke of Savoy was suspected that he would watch this time to surround Geneva with an Army while Cuspis Martis shin'd so sinistrously upon their Brethren every where Now what Remedy was more ready to pacifie these destroying Angels for their Sakes with whom we walk'd in the House of God as Friends then to begin in Clemency to those among us that carry their Mark Can a Kingdom be governed without such Correspondencies Salmasius in his Notes upon Simplicius introduceth Aristides Sirnamed the Just that he was compell'd to unpeg his Rigor and to make it go to a softer Tune in rugged Times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he translates it Quod rationibus patrae se accommodaret quae multâ injustitiâ opus habert Necessity is so great a Part of Reason that that is Justice which looks like Injustice because of Necessity Our good People forsooth would have the Protestants suffer no Ill Abroad under the Dominions of the Pontificians and yet mitigate no Severity to Pontisicians under the Dominion of Protestants Hand stulte sapis siquidem id est sapere velle id quod non potest contingore says the Comaedian This is wisely laid if a thing may be wisely laid which can never be effected I am not able to express this so well as the Lord Keeper hath done in his Sermon preached at King James's Funeral P. 49. This Blessed King in all the time I serv'd him did never out of deep and just reason of State and the bitter Necessity of Christendom in these latter Times give way to any the least Connivance in the World towards the Person of a Papist for to his Doctrine he never did he never would do nor was there any Consideration under Heaven would have forc'd him thereunto but he strictly guided himself in the same by some notable Precedent of Queen Elizabeth the Load-Star of all his greatest Actions and that in the very Point and bath'd his Favours in Showers of Tears I speak it in the Presence of Almighty God least those Intendments of his for the apparent Good of the State might scandalize for all that in an oblique Line his weak but well-meaning Subjects in their Religion and Doctrine This was a Testimony of the Integrity of these Proceedings almost three years after But for present and full Satisfaction here followeth a long Letter anticipated in the Cabal but here inserted in its proper Place which was written to the Lord Viscount Anan by the same Hand Sept. 17. 1622 declaring the Nature and Reason of the Clemency at that time extended to the Lay-Recusants of England Right Honourable 104. I Owe more Service to that true Love and former Acquaintance which your Lordship hath been pleased to afford me now these full ten years then to be sparing or reserved in satisfying your Lordship about any doubt whatsoever The Resolution whereof shall lie in my Power Concerning that Offence taken by many people both this side the Borders and in Scotland from that Clemency which his Majesty was pleased to extend to the Imprisoned Lay-Recusants of this Kingdom And my Letter Written to the Justices for the Reigling of the same which your Lordship did intimate unto me yesterday at Mr. Henry Gibb his House out of some News received from a Peer of Scotland This is the plainest return I can make unto your Lordship In the general as the Sun in the Firmament appears unto us no bigger then a Platter and the Stars but as so many Nails in the Pomel of a Saddle because of that Esloinment and Disproportion between our Eyes and the Object So there is such an un-measurable distance betwixt the deep Resolution of a Prince and the shallow Apprehension of Common and Ordinary people that as they will be ever Judging and Censuring so they must be Obnoxious to Error and Mistaking Particularly for as much as concerns my self I must leave my former Life my Profession my continual Preaching my Writing which is extant in the Hands of many my private Endeavours about some great Persons and the whole bent of my Actions which in the place I live in cannot be conceal'd to Testifie unto the World what favour I am like to importune for the Papists in point of Religion For the King my Master I will tell you a Story out of Velleius Paterculus A Surveyor bragging to M. Livius Drusus that he would so contrive his House Ut libera à conspectu immunis ab omnibus Arbitris esset That it should stand Removed out of sight and be past all danger of Peeping or Eaves-dropping was answer'd again by Drusus Tu vero si quid in te artis est ita compone domum meam ut quicquid agam ab omnibus conspici possit Nay my good Friend if you have any devices in your head contrive my House after such a manner that all the World may see what I do therein So if I should endeavour to flourish up some Artificial Vault to hide and conceal the intentions of his Majesty I know I should receive the same Thanks that the Surveyor did from M. Drusus I was not called to Counsel by his Royal Majesty when the Resolution of this Clemency to the Lay-Recusants was first concluded But if I had been asked my Opinion I should have advised it without the least Hesitation His Majesty was so Popishly addicted at this time that to the incredible exhaustments of his Treasury he was a most Zealous Interceder for some Ease and Refreshment to all the Protestants in Europe his own Dominions and Denmark only excepted Those of Swethland having lately provoked the Pole had no other hope of Peace Those of France of the Exercise of their Religion Those of the Palatinate and adjoyning Countries of the least connivency to say their Prayers then by the earnest Mediation of our Gracious Master And advised by the late Assembly of Parliament to insist a while longer in this milky way of Intercession and Treaty what a preposterous Argument would this have been to desire these mighty Princes Armed and Victorious to grant some Liberty and Clemency to the Protestants because himself