Divers Historicall DISCOURSES Of the late Popular INSURRECTIONS In Great BRITAIN And IRELAND Tending all to the asserting of Truth in Vindication of their MAJESTIES By Iames Howell Esquire Som of which Discourses were strangled in the Presse by the Power which Then SWAYED But now are newly retreev'd collected and Publish'd by Richard Royston The first TOME LONDON Printed by I. Grismond 1661. Belua multorum capitâ—…m Plebs vana vocatur Plus satis Hoc Angli â—…uper docuere Popelli 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I H The People is a Beast which Heads hath many England of late hath shew'd This more then any TO HIS MAJESTY SIR THese Historical Discourses set forth in such variety of dresses having given so much satisfaction to the world for the asserting of Truth in Vindication of Your Royal Father of ever blessed Memory and som of them relating also to Your Majesty I humbly conceiv'd might be proper for Your Majesties perusal Patronage Concerning the Author therof his name needed not to have bin prefix'd He being so universally well known and distinguishd from other Writers both at home and abroad by his stile which made one of the Highest Wits of these Times say of Him Author hic ex Genio notus ut Ungue Leo. God Almighty blesse Your Majesty with a continuance of Happiness and daily encrease of Glory so prayeth Your Majesties most loyal and humble Subject ROYSTON A Catalog of the severall Peeces that are here contain'd I. A Dialog twixt Patricius and Peregrin presently after Kintonfield Battaile which was the first Book that came forth for Vindication of His Majesty II. The second part of that Discours III. A seasonable Advice sent to Philip late Earl of Pembrock to mind him of the severall solemn Oaths wherby he was bound to adhere to the King IV. A Manifesto sent in His Majesties name to the Reformed Churches and Princes beyond the Seas touching His Religion V. Apologs and Emblemes in whose Moralls the Times are represented VI. Of the land of Ire or a Discours of that horrid Insurrection in Ireland discovering the tru Causes therof VII The Sway of the Sword or a Disurs of the Common Militia or Soldiery of the Land proving That the Command therof in chief belongs to the Ruling Prince VIII An Italian Prospective through which England may discern the desperat condition she stands in IX A Nocturnall Progresse or perambulation of most Countries in Christendom X. A Vindication of His Majesty touching a Letter He writ to Rome from Madrid in Answer to a Letter which Pope Gregory the 15th had sent Him upon passing the Dispensation for concluding the Match XI Of the Trety of the I le of Wight and the Death of His Majesty XII Advise from the prime Statesmen of Florence how England shold come to Her self again which can be by no other means under Heaven but by calling in the King and that in a free confident way without Articles but what He shall be pleas'd to offer Himself THE TRU Informer WHO DISCOVERS To the World the first grounds Of this ugly REBELLION And Popular TUMULTS In England Scotland and Ireland Deducing the Causes therof in an Historicall Discours from their Originall Neutrum modò Mas modò Vulgus Written in the Prison of the Fleet Anno 1642. CASUALL DISCOURSES AND Interlocutions BETWIXT Patricius and Peregrin Touching the Distractions of the Times VVith the Causes of them Patricius SUrely I shold know full well that face and phisnomy O Heavens 't is Peregrin Gentle Sir you are well met and welcom to England I am heartily glad of your safe arrivall hoping now to apprehend some happie opportunity whereby I may requite part of those worthy favours I received from you in divers places t'other side side of the Sea Peregrin Sir I am as joyfull to see you as any friend I have upon earth but touching favours they deserve not such an acknowledgment I must confesse my self to be farr in the arrear therfore you teach me what I shold speak to you in that point But amongst other offices of Friendship you have bin pleased to do me from time to time I give you many thanks for the faithfull correspondence you have held withme since the time of our separation by intercours of Letters the best sort of fuell to warm affection and to keep life in that noble vertue Friendship which they say abroad is in danger to perish under this cold Insulary clime for want of practise Patricius Truely Sir you shold have had an account of matters hence more amply and frequently but that of late it hath bin usuall and allowed by authority to intercept and break open any Letters but private men need not complain so much since the dispatches of Ambassadors whose Pâ—…ckets shold be held as sacred as their Persons hâ—…ve bin commonly open'd besides some outrages offered their houses and servants nay since their Majâ—…sties Letters under the Cabinet Signet have bin broke up and other counterfeit ones printed and published in their names Peregrin Indeed I must confesse the report hereof hath kept a great noise abroad and England hath suffered much in point of national repute in this particular for even among Barbarians it is held a kind of sacriledge to open Letters nay it is held a baser kind of burglary then to break into a House Chamber or Closet for that is a plundering of outward things onely but he who breaks open ones Letters which are the Idea's of the mind may be said to rip up his brest to plunder and rifle his very brain and rob him of his most pretious and secretest thoughts Patricius Well let us leave this distastfull subject when these fatall commotions cease this custom I hope will be abhorred in England But now that you are newly arrived and so happily met I pray be pleased tâ—… make me partaker of some forraign news and how the squares go betwixt France and Spain those two great wheels that draw after their motion some more some lesse all the rest of the Western world and when you have done I will give you account of the state of things in England Peregrin I thought you had so abounded with domestick news that you had had no list or leisure to hear any forrain but to obey your commands you know that I have been any time these six years a Land-loper up and down the world and truly I could not set foot on any Chrâ—…stian shore that was in a perfect condition of peace but it was engagâ—…d either in a direct 〈◊〉 or collaterall war or standing upon it's guard in continuall apprensions and alarmes of fear For since that last flaming Usher of Gods vengeance that direful Comet of the yeer 1618. appear'd in the heavens some malevolent and angâ—…y ill-aspected star hath had the predominance ever since and by it's maligne influxes made strange unusuall impressions upon the humors of subjects by inciâ—…ing them to such insurrections revolts and tumults which caused a
those watery fogs and mists which are drawn up out of fennie and rotten low grounds here upon earth so in the Region of the mind the ill vapors which ascend to the brain from rotten and impostumated hearts from desperate and malâ—…-contented humorists are the causes of all civil commotions and distempers in State But they have much to answer for in the world to come though they escape it in this who for any private interest or respect whatsoever either of Promotion Vain-glory Revenge Malice or Envie will embroyl and plunge their own native Country in any publick ingagement or civil war by putting a partition-wall betwixt their soverain Prince and their fellow-subjects Truely in my opinion these may be called the worst kind of Betrayers of their Countreys But I am too far transported from satisfying your request in relating the true causes of these calamities I will now fall to work and bring you to the very source of them Ther is a pack of perverse people composed for the most part of the scummie and basest sort multiplied in England who by a kind of natural inclination are opposit so point blank to Monarchy in State and Hierarchy in Church that I doubt if they were in Heven whither 't is to be fear'd they run a great hazard ever to enter it being a rule that he who is rotten-hearted to his King can never be right-hearted to his Creaâ—…or I say if these men were in Heven they wâ—…uld go near to repine at the Monarchical power of God Almighty himself as also at the degrees of Angels and the postures of holiness in the Church triumphant They call every Crotchet of the brain tenderness of conscience forsooth which being well examined is nothing else but a meer spirit of contradiction of malice and disobedience to all higher powers which possesseth them Ther are no constitutions either Ecclesiastical or Civil can please them but they wold cast both into such and such a mould which their crack'd brains wold fain devise yet are never able to bring to any perfection They are ever labouring to bring Religion to the dock and to be new trimm'd but they wold take down her fore-Castle and scarce allow her the Kings Armes to adorn her They are great listners after any Court-news and prick up their ears when any thing is spoken of King Queen or Privie Councellour and are always ready though upon loose trust to take up any report whereby they may whisper in conventicles and corners and so traduce the Government These great Zâ—…lots use to look upon themselves most commonly through multiplying glasses which make them appear to be such huge Santons that it renders them not onely uncharitable in their opinions of others but Luciferian-like proud in their own conceit insomuch that they seem to scorn all the world besides beleeving that they are â—…he only Elect whose souls work according â—…o the motion of the Spirit that they are â—…he true Children of promise whose faces alone look towards Heven They are more pleased with some new reach or fancy that may puzzle the pericranium than a Frenchman is in some new faction in cloathing They are nearest to the nature of the Jew of any people upon earth and will converse with him sooner than with some sort of Christians And as in their pharisaicall Dispositions they symbolize with the Iew so in some of their positions they jump pat with the Iesuit for though they are both in the extremes and as contrary one to the other as the points of a diameter yet their opinions and practises are concentrique viz. to depresse regall power Both of them wold bind their Kings in Chaines and the Nobles in links of Iron They both deny all passive obedience and as the one wold have the morter of the Temple tempred with blood so the other wold beat Religion into the brain with the poleaxe Their greatest master-piece of policy is to forge counterâ—…eit news and to divulge and disperse it as far as they can to amuse the world for the advancement of their designs and strengthing their party But the Iesuit doth it more cunningly and modestly for he fetcheth his news from far so that before the falshood of it can be contrould his work is commonly done and the news forgotten But these later polititians use to raise lies hard by home so that the grosseness and palpablenesse of them is presently discovered Besides to avoid the extremes of the other these later seem to fall into flat prophanness for they may be called a kind of enemies to the very Name Crosse and Church of Christ. Touching the first They repine at any reverence to be done unto the name of Jesus though spontaneous not coercive For the second which was held from the beginning to be the badg and Banner of a Christian they cry up the Crosse to be the mark of the bâ—…ast And for the last viz. the Church they wold have it to be neither beautifull holy nor amiable which are the three main properties that God requires in his house To conclude when any comes to be season'd with this sower leaven he seems to degenerat presently from the nature and garb of a Gentleman and fals to be of a sordid and low disposition narrow hearted and close handed to be timerous cunning and jealous and far from the common freedom and sweetness of morall society and from all generous and loyal thoughts towards his King and Country These these have bin the chiefest machinators and engeneers Englands unhappy divisions who Viper-like have torn the entrailes of their own mother their dear Country But ther were other extern concurrent causes and to find them out I must look Northward for there the cloud began to condense first You know Sir the Scot's nation were ever used to have their King personally resident amongst them and though King Iames by reason of his age bounty and long breeding there with other advantages drew such extraordinary respect from them that they continued in good conformity yet since his death they have been over-heard to mutter at the remotenesse and absence of their King and that they shold become now a kind of province by reason of such a distance some of their Nobles and Gentry found not at the English Court nor at his Majesties Coronation in Edenburgh that Countenance Familiarity Benefit and Honours which haply they expected and 't is well known who he was that having been denied to be lorded David Lesley took a pet and went discontented to his country hoping that some title added to the wealth he had got abroad should have purchased him more respect These discontented parties tamperd with the mercenary preachers up and down Scotland to obtrude to the pâ—…ple what doctrines they put into their mouthes so that the pulpits every where rung of nothing but of invectives against certain obliquities and Solaecismes and I cannot tell what in government and many glances they had upon the English Church
Court at Bartholmew-Fair ther being all the essentiall parts of a true Parliament wanting in this as fairnesse of elections freedome of speech fulnesse of Members nor have they any head at all besides they have broken all the fundamental rules and Priviledges of Parliament and dishonoured that high Court more then any thing else They have ravish'd Magna Charta which they are sworn to maintain taken away our birth-right therby and transgressed all the laws of heaven and earth Lastly they have most perjuriously betrayed the trust the King reposed in them and no lesse the trust their Country reposed in them so that if reason and law were now in date by the breach of their Priviledges and by betraying the said double trust that is put in them they have dissolved themselves ipso facto I cannot tell how many thousand times notwithstanding that monstrous grant of the Kings that fatall act of continuance And truly my Lord I am not to this day satisfied of the legality though I am satisfied of the forciblenesse of that Act whether it was in his Majesties power to passe it or no for the law ever presupposeth these clauses in all concessions of Grace in all Patents Charters and Grants whatsoever the King passeth Salvo jure regio salvo jure coronae To conclude as I presume to give your Lordship these humble cautions and advice in particular so I offer it to all other of your rank office order and Relations who have souls to save and who by solemn indispensable Oaths have ingaged themseves to be tru and loyall to the Person of King Charls Touching his political capacity it is a fancy which hath bin exploded in all other Parliaments except in that mad infamous Parliament wher it was first hatched That which bears upon Record the name of Insanum Parliamentum to all posterity but many Acts have passed since that it shold be high and horrible Treason to separat or distinguish the Person of the King from His Power I believe as I said before this distinction will not serve their turn at the dreadful Bar of divine justice in the other world indeed that Rule of the Pagans makes for them Si Iusjurandum violandum est Tyrannis causâ violandum est If an Oath be any way violable 't is to get a Kingdom We find by woful experience that according to this maxime they have made themselves all Kings by violation of so many Oaths They have monopoliz'd the whole power and wealth of the Kingdom in their own hands they cut shuffle deal and turn up what trump they please being Judges and parties in every thing My Lord he who presents these humble advertisments to your Lordship is one who is inclin'd to the Parliament of Engl. in as high a degree of affection as possibly a free-born Subject can be One besides who wisheth your Lordships good with the preservation of your safety and honour more really then he whom you intrust with your secretest affaires or the White Iew of the Upper House who hath infused such pernicious principles into you moreover one who hath some drops of bloud running in his veins which may claim kindred with your Lordship and lastly he is one who would kiss your feet in lieu of your hands if your Lordship wold be so sensible of the most desperat case of your poor Country as to employ the interests the opinion and power you have to restore the King your Master by English waies rather then a hungry forrein people who are like to bring nothing but destruction in the van confusion in the rear and rapine in the middle shold have the honour of so glorious a work So humbly hoping your Lordship will not take with the left hand what I offer with the right I rest From the Prison of the Fleet 3. Septembris 1644. Your Lordships truly devoted Servant I. H. HIS Late MAJESTIES Royal DECLARATION OR MANIFESTO TO ALL FORREIN PRINCES AND STATES Touching his constancy in the Protestant Religion Being traduced abroad by some Malicious and lying Agents That He was wavering therin and upon the high road of returning to Rome Printed in the Year 1661. TO THE Unbiass'd REDER IT may be said that mischief in one particular hath somthing of Vertue in it which is That the Contrivers and Instruments thereof are still stirring and watchfull They are commonly more pragmaticall and fuller of Devices then those sober-minded men who while they go on still in the plaine road of Reason having the King and knowne Lawes to justifie and protect them hold themselfs secure enough and so think no hurt Iudas eyes were open to betray his Master while the rest of his fellow-servants were quietly asleep The Members at Westminster were men of the first gang for their Mischievous braines were alwayes at work how to compasse their ends And one of their prime policies in order thereunto was to cast asspersions on their King thereby to alienat the affections and fidelity of his peeple from him â—…notwithstanding that besides their pubâ—…ick Declarations they made new Oaths and protestations whereby they swore to make Him the best belov'd King that ever was Nor did this Diabolicall malice terminat only within the bounds of his own Dominions but it extended to infect other Princes and States of the Reformed Churches abroad to make Him suspected in his Religion that he was branling in his belief and upon the high way to Rome To which purpose they sent missives and clandestine Emissaries to divers places beyond the Seas whereof forren Authors make mention in their writings At that time when this was in the height of action the passage from London to Oxford where the King kept then his Court was so narrowly blockd up that a fly could scarce passe some Ladies of honor being search'd in an unseemly and barbarous manner whereupon the penner of the following Declaration finding his Royal master to be so grosly traduced made his Duty to go beyond all presumptions by causing the sayd Declaration to be printed and publish'd in Latin French and English whereof great numbers were sent beyond the seas to France Holland Germany Suisserland Denmark Swethland and to the English plantations abroad to vindicat his Majesty in this point which produc'd very happy and advantagious effects for Salmtisius and other forrin writers of great esteem speake of it in their printed works The Declaration was as followeth CAROLUS Singulari Omnipotentis Dei providentia Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Rex Fidei Defensor c. Universis et singulis qui praesens hoc scriptum ceu protestationem inspexerint potissimum Reformatae Religionis cultoribus cujuscunque sint gentis gradus aut conditionis salutem c. CUM ad aures nostras non ita pridem fama pervenerit sinistros quosdam rumores literasque politica vel perniciosa potiùs quorundam industriâ sparsas esse nonnullis protestantium ecclesiis in exteris partibus emissas nobis
for his time play'd his Cards more cunning than ever Count Gondomar did knew well and therefore as I heard som French men say he got Letters of Revocation before his designed time but it seems strange to me that the King who is the Protectour of the Law and Fountain of Justice cannot have the benefit of the Law himself which the meanest of his vassals can claim by right of inheritance 'T is strange I say that the Law shold be a dead letter to him who is the Life of the Law but that for omission of some punctillio in the form of the Processe the charge of high Treason shold be so slightly wav'd specially Treason of so universall a concernment that it may be call'd a complication of many Treasons for if in every petty State it be High Treason to treat only with any Forrein Power without the privity of the Prince it must needs be Treason of a higher nature actually to bring them in And hereof I could alleadge you many pregnant instances ancient and modern but that I do not desire to interrupt you in your relation Patricius The Parliament as I told you before armed apace it was not fitting then His Majesty shold sit idle therfore he summons those Nobles and others who had an immediate relation unto him by Office or Service to attend him at York according to their particular obligation and oath But it seems the Parliament assumed power to dispence with those oaths and excuse their attendance which dispensation prevail'd with som tender consciences yet the Great Seal posted to Court and after it most of the Nobles of the Land with the flower of the Gentry and many of the prime Members of the Commons House so that were it not for the locall priviledge the Parliament for number of Members might be said to be ever since about the King These Nobles and Gentlemen resenting His Majesties case and what practices ther were on foot to alter the Government both of Church and State not only advised His Majesty to a royall war for defence of his Crown and Dignity but contributed very chearfully and have stood constant to the work ever since Peregrin They have good reason for it for the security of the Nobility and Gentry depends upon the strength of the Crown otherwise popular Government wold rush in like a torrent upon them But surely those Nobles and those Parliament Gentlemen and others som of whom I understand were reputed the wisest and best weigh'd men for experience and parts thorowout the whole Kingdom and were cryed up in other Parliaments to be the most zealous Patriots for the propriety and freedom of the Subject wold never have stuck so firmly to His Majesty had they not known the bottom of his designs that it was far from his thoughts to bring in the Pope or French Government for therby they shold have betrayed their own posterity and made their children slaves Patricius To my knowledge these Nobles and Gentlemen are still the very same as they were in former Parliaments wherin they were so cryed up for the truest lovers of their Country and best Common-wealths-men yet now they are branded and voted to be Seducers and Traytors because according to their oaths and consciences they adhere to the King their Master and Liege-Lord for maintenance of that Religion they were baptized and bred in Those most Orthodox and painfull Divines which till this Parliament began were accounted the precisest sort of Protestants are now cryed down for Papists though they continue still the very same men both for opinions and preaching and are no more Papists than I am a Pythagorean In fine a tru English Protestant is put now in the same scale with a Papist and made Synonyma's And truly these unhappy Schismaticks could not devise how to cast a greater infamy upon the English Protestant than they have done of late by these monstrous imputations they wold fasten upon him such opinions which never entred into his thoughts they wold know ones heart better than himself and so would be greater Kardiognosticks than God Almighty But to draw to a conclusion The Parliaments Army multiplyed apace in London the Kings but slowly in the North so that when he displayed his Royal Standard at Nottingham his Forces were not any thing considerable so that if the Parliaments Generall Essex had then advanced towards him from Northampton he had put him to a very great strait they encreased somthing at Derby and Stafford but when he was come to Shrewsbury the Welch-men came running down the mountains in such multitudes that their example did much animate the English so that his army in lesse than a month that the Court continued in Shrewsbury came to near upon twenty thousand Horse and Foot not long before the Nephew Princes came over and the first encounter Prince Rupert had with the Parliaments Forces was at Worcester where he defeated the flower of their Cavalry and gave them a smart blow At Shrewsbury His Majesty took a resolution to march with His whole Army towards London but after seven days march he understood the Parliaments Forces were within six miles side-long of him and so many miles he went out of His road to find them out and face them Upon Sunday morning he was himself betimes upon Edge-Hill wher the Enemies Colours plainly appear'd in vale before Keinton it was past two in the after-noon before all his Infantery could get to the bottom who upon sight of the Enemies Colours ran as merrily down the Hill as if they had gone to a Morris dance So His Majesty himself being Generalissimo gave command the great Ordnance shold flye for a defiance so the battell began which lasted above three hours and as some French and Dutch Commanders who were engag'd in the Fight told me they never remembred to have seen a more furious battail for the time in all the German wars Prince Rupert pursued the Enemies Horse like a whirl-wind near upon three miles and had ther bin day enough when he came back to the Infanterie in all probability a totall defeat had bin given them So that the same accident may be said to fall out here as happened in that famous battell at Lewis in Henry the thirds time where the Prince of Wales afterwards Edward the first was so eager and went so far by excesse of courage from the body of the Army in pursuance of the Londoners that it was the fatall cause of the losse of that mighty battail His Majesty to his deserved and never-dying glory comported himself like another Caesar all the while by riding about and encouraging the Souldiers by exposing his person often to the reach of a Musket-bullet and lying in the field all that bleak night in his Coach Notwithstanding that many lying Pamphlets were purposely printed here to make the world believe that he had retir'd himself all the time of the fight what partiall reports were made in the Guild-Hall to the
esse animum consilium ab illa Orthodoxa Religione quam ab incunabulis imbibimus ad hoc usque momentum per integrum vitae nostrae curriculum amplexi sumus recedendi Papismum in haec Regna iterum introducendi Quae conjectura ceu nefanda potius calumnia nullo prorsus nixa vel imaginabili fundamento horrendos hosce tumultus rabiem plusquà m belluinam in Anglia suscitavit sub pretextu cujusdam chimericae Reformationis regimini legibusque hujus Dominii non solum incongruae sed incompatibilis VOLUMUS uttoti Christiano Orbi innotescat ne minimam quidem animum nostrum incidisse cogitatiunculam hoc aggrediendi aut transversum unguem ab illa Religione discedendi quam cum corona septroque hujus regni solenni sacramentali juramento tenemur profiteri protegere propugnare Nectantum constantissima nostra praxis quotidiana in exercitiis praefaâ—…ae Religionis praesentia cum crebris in facie nostrorum agminum asseverationibus publicisque procerum hujus Regni testimoniis sedula in regiam nostram sobolem educando circumspectione omissis plurimis aliis argumentis luculentissimè hoc demonstrat sed etiam faelicissimum illud matrimonium quod inter nostram primogenitam illustrissimum principem 〈◊〉 sponte contraximus idem fortissimè attestatur Quo nuptiali faedere insuper constat nobis non esse propositum illam profiteri solummodo sed expandere corroborare quantum in nobis situm est Hanc sacrosanctam Anglicanae Christi Ecclesiae Religionem tot Theologorum convocationibus sancitam tot comitiorum edictis confirmatam tot Regiis Diplomatibus stabilitam una cum regimine Ecclesiastico Liturgia ei annexa quam liturgiam regimenque celebriores protestantium Authores tam Germani quam Galli tam Dani quam Helvetici tam Batavi quam Bohemi multis elogiis nec sine quadam invidia in suis publicis scripâ—…is comprobanâ—… applaudunt ut in transactionibus Dordrechtanae Synodus cui nonnulli nostrorum praesulum quorum Dignitati debiâ—…a prestita fuit reverentia interfuerunt apparet Istam inquimus Religionem quam Regius noster pater beatissimae memoriae in illa celeberrima fidei suae Confessione omnibus Christianis principibus ut haec praesens nostra protestatio exhibita publicè asserit Istam istam Religionem solenniter protestamur Nos integram sartam-tectam inviolabilem conservaturos pro virili nostro divino adjuvante Numine usque ad extremam vitae nostrae periodum protecturos omnibus nostris Ecclesiasticis pro muneris nostri supradicti sacrosancti juramenti ratione doceri praedicari curaturos Quapropter injungimus in mandatis damus Omnibus ministris nostris in exteris partibus tam Legatis quam Residentibus Agentibusque nunciis reliquisque nostris subditis ubicunque Orbis Christiani terrarum aut curiositatis aut comercii gracia degentibus hanc solennem sinceram nostram protestationem quandocunque sese obtulerit loci temporis oportunitas communicare asserere asseverare Dat. in Academia et Civitate nostra Oxoniensi pridie Idus Maii 1644. CHARLES by the special Providence of Almighty God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defendor of the Faith c. To all who profess the tru Reformed Protestant Religion of what Nation degree and condition soever they be to whom this present Declaration shall come Greeting WHeras We are given to understand that many false rumors and scandalous letters are spread up and down amongst the Reformeâ—… Churches in forein parts by the Pollitick or rather the pernitious industry of som ill-affected persons that we have an inclination to recede from that Orthodox Religion which we were born baptized and bred in which We have firmly professed and practised throughout the whol course of our life to this moment and that We intend to give way to the introduction and publick exercise of Popery again in Our Dominions Which conjecture or rather most detestable calumny being grounded upon no imaginable foundation hath raised these horrid tumults and more then barbarous wars throughout this flourishing Island under pretext of a kind of Reformation which wold not only prove incongruous but incompatible with the fundamental Laws and Government of this Kingdom We do desire that the whol Christian world shold take notice and rest assured that We never entertained in Our imagination the least thought to attempt such a thing or to depart a jot from that holy Religion which when We received the Crown and Scepter of this Kingdom VVe took a most solemn Sacramental Oath to profess and protect Nor doth Our most constant practise and quotidian visible presence in the exercise of this sole Religion with so many Asseverations in the head of Our Armies and the publick attestation of Our Barons with the circumspection used in the education of our Royall Off-spring besides divers other undeniable Arguments only demonstrate this But also that happy Alliance of Marriage VVe contracted 'twixt Our eldest Daughter and the Illustrious Prince of Orenge most clearly confirmes the reality of Our intentions herein by which Nuptial ingagement it appears further that Our endeavours are not only to make a bare profession thereof in Our own Dominions but to inlarge and corroborate it abroad as much as lieth in Our Power This most holy Religion of the Anglican Church ordained by so many Convocations of learned Divines confirmed by so many Acts of National Parliaments and strengthned by so many Royal Proclamations together with the Ecclesiastick discipline and Liturgy therunto appertaining which Liturgy and discipline the most eminent of Protestant Authors as well Germans as French as well Danes as Swedes and Swittzens as well Belgians as Bohemians do with many Elogies and not without a kind of Envy approve and applaud in their publick Writings particularly in the transactions of the Synod of Dort wherin besides other of Our Divines who afterwards were Prelates one of our Bishops assisted to whose dignity all due respects and precedency was given This Religion We say which Our Royal Father of blessed memory doth publickly assert in His famous Confession addres'd as we also do this our Protestation to all Christian Princes This this most holy Religion with the Hierarchy and Liturgy therof We solemnly protest that by the help of Almighty God we will endeavour to Our utmost power and last period of our life to keep entire and inviolable and will be careful according to Our duty to Heaven and the tenor of the aforesaid most sacred Oath at Our Coronation that all Our Ecclesiasticks in their several degrees and incumbences shall preach and practise the same VVherfore VVe enjoyn and command all Our Ministers of State beyond the Seas aswell Ambassadors as Residents Agents and Messengers And VVe desire all the rest of Our loving subjects that sojourn either for curiosity or commerce in any forein parts to communicate uphold and assert this Our solemn and sincere
Gentry and Servants and the enemy was hard by ready to face Him At the concluding of the Irish Cessation His Majesty was not there personally present but it was agitated and agreed on by his Commissioner and it hath been held alwaies less dishonourable for a King to capitulate in this kind with his own Subjects by his Deputy then in his own person for the further off he is the lesse reflects upon him 2. Upon the Pacification and Peace with Scotland there was an Amnestia a generall pardon and an abolition of all by-passed offences published there were honours and offices conferred upon the chiefest sticklers in the War At the Cessation in Ireland there was no such thing 3. When the Pacification and Peace was made with the Scots there was mony given unto Them as it is too well knowne But upon the setling of this Cessation the Irish received none but gave His Majesty a considerable summe as an argument of their submission and gratitude besides the maintainance of some of his Garrisons in the interim and so much partly in point of honour 4. At the concluding of the Pacification and Peace with Scotland there was a vigorous fresh unfoiled English Army a foot and in perfect equipage there wanted neither Ammunition Armes Money Cloaths Victuals or any thing that might put heart into the Souldier and elevat his spirits But the Protestant Army in Ireland had not any of all these in any competent proportion but were ready to perish though there had been no other enemy then hunger and cold And this implies a farre greater necessity for the said Cessation 5. In Ireland there was imminent danger of an instant losse of the whole Kingdome and consequently the utter subversion of the Protestant Religion there as was certified both to King and Parliament by sundry letters and petitions which stand upon record There was no such danger in the affairs of Scotland either in respect of Religion or Kingdome therefore there was more piety shown in preserving the one and prudence in preserving the other in Ireland by plucking both as it were out of the very jawes of destruction by the said Cessation We know that in the Medley of mundane casualties of two evils the least is to be chosen and a small inconvenience is to be born withall to prevent a greater If one make research into the French Story he will find that many kinds of Pacifications and Suspensions of Armes were covenanted 'twixt that King and som of his Subjects trenching far more upon regall dignity then this in Ireland The Spaniard was forced to declare the Hollanders Free-states before they could be brought to treat of a truce And now the Catalans scrue him up almost to as high conditions But what need I rove abroad so far It is well known nor is it out of the memory of man in Queen Elizabeths raign that in Ireland it self ther have bin Cessations all circumstances well weighed more prejudiciall to Majesty then this But that which I hear murmured at most as the effect of this Cessation is the transport of som of those Souldiers to England for recruting His Majesties Armies notwithstanding that the greatest number of them be perfect and rigid Protestants and were those whom our Parliament it self imployed against the Irish. But put case they were all Papists must His Majesty therfore be held a Favourer of Popery The late King of France might have bin said as well to have bin a Favourer of Hugonotts because in all his wars he imployed Them most of any in places of greatest trust against the House of Austria wheras all the World knows that he perfectly hated them in the generall and one of the reaches of policy he had was to spend and waste them in the wars Was it ever known but a Soveraign Prince might use the bodies and strength of his own naturall-born Subjects and Liege men for his own defence When His person hath been sought and aimed at in open field by small and great shot and all other Engines of hostility and violence When he is in danger to be surprized or besieg'd in that place wher he keeps his Court When all the flowers of his Crown his royal prerogatives which are descended upon him from so many successive progenitors are like to be plucked off and trampled under foot When ther is a visible plot to alter and overturn that Religion he was born baptized and bred in When he is in danâ—…er to be forced to infringe that solemn Sacramental Oath he took at his Coronation to maintain the said Religion with the Rights and Rites of the holy Anglican Church which som brain-sick Schismaticks wold transform to a Kirk and her Discipline to som chimerical form of government they know not what Francis the first and other Christian Princes made use of the Turk upon lesse occasions and if one may make use of a Horse or any other bruit animal or any inanimat Engine or Instrument for his own defence against man much more may man be used against man much more may one rational Creature be used against another though for destructive ends in a good cause specially when they are commanded by a Soveraign head which is the main thing that goes to justifie a war Now touching the Roman Catholicks whether English Welsh Irish or Scottish which repaire to his Majesties Armies either for service or security He looks not upon them â—…s Papists but as his Subjects not upon their Religion but their allegiance and in that â—…uality he entertains them Nor can the Paâ—…ist be denyed the Character of a good Subject all the while he conforms himself to the Lawes in generall and to those lawes also that are particularly enacted against him and so keeps himself within the bounds of his civil obedience As long as he continues so he may challenge protection from his Prince by way of right and if his Prince by som accident be not in case to protect him he is to give him leave to defend himself the best he can for the law of nature allowes every one to defend himself and ther is no positive law of man can annul the law of nature Now if the Subject may thus claim protection from his Prince it followeth the Prince by way of reciprocation may require assistance service and supplies from the Subject upon all publick occasions as to suppress at this time a new race of Recusants which have done more hurt then ever the old did and are like to prove more dangerous to his Crown and regal Authority then any foreign enemy But whosoever will truly observe the genius and trace the actions of this fatal Faction which now swayes with that boundless exorbitant arbitrary and Antinomian power will find that it is one of their prime pieces of policy to traduce and falsifie any thing that is not conducible to their own ends Yet what comes from them must be so magisterial it must be so unquestionably