The Plain Dealer AN ESSAY Wherein are some REMARKS upon Mr. THOMAS LONG But more particularly upon Dr. HOLLINGWORTH's Book WHERE The Character of King CHARLES the First is inserted from the Declaration of Mr. Alexander Henderson Which Book he calls A further Defence of the King 's Holy Book c. London Printed in the Year 1692. THE Plain Dealer THere has been a vile Bustle between one Richard Hollingworth Doctor and an unknown Author in two or three Answers to some Papers came abroad under the Name of Lieutenant General Ludlow The great Struggle is Whether Charles the First wrote that Book entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or was the Martyr asserted in the two last Reigns under Charles the 2d and that most Religious Merciful Brave and Wife Prince the late King James of Blessed Memory * In Mr. Henderson's Character of Ch. I. pag. 3. in Dr. Hollingworth's Remarks two Princes the hopefullest that ever were in these ingrate Nations The Doctor like a Politick Clergy-man to say no more of him has took the strongest Side and I must say the Gentleman that provoked him must be a bold Man whenever since Sixty the Time we date the Prosperity and Glory of these Nations when Luxury ceased when one of those hopeful Princes already mentioned exemplary in Piety Vertue Religion Chastity and Frugality influenced all about him a Law was on his Side a Man's Head was the Price of but Whispering against The Anniversary preaching up of the Martyrdom of Ch. I. of which the Clergy to whom the Doctor is related and who never fail to flatter Power were the Interpreters It signfies not much to our present Affairs though the Church-of England-men think themselves * Long in his Preface is in such a sury upon it that when he reads it in his calmer Temper he 'l blush to find his grey Head guilty of such intemperance ruffled to their undoing though in both with submission all the Arguments seem against the Doctor whether Charles the First wrote that Book or was the Martyr nor should either have made me set Pen to Paper had not the Doctor 's indirect and malicious course to have his Book gain Credit and the base Treatment he and Mr. Long make the Gentleman whose Name and they know it without his privity though he ought not to think himself affronted at it the Author there makes use of 〈◊〉 been the occasion As to the malicious ' part of which should I make Remarks of all the Doctor writes I should grow tedious and as Impertinent as our Clergy-man therefore I shall only observe the Doctor 's Darling his last Answer for which I expect Cannonading with double Shot if the Doctor out of his languishing Magazine has any left to the vile Book c. I protest it seems to me as ill-natured a Piece as any e're sent abroad and the Declaration in the Front the Doctor values so much wrote by a Man highly disobliged For there Pag. 3. Mr. Henderson's words are That which we esteem a God-like Kirk-Policy instituted by the Lord Christ and his Apostles is no better to them than a kind of Slavery and some do not stick to call it worse than the Spanish Inquisition nay even the greatest part of those who invited us to assist them in it and sent hither their Commissioners to induce us to enter into a solemn National Covenant for that Effect having served their Turn of us to throw down the King and the Prelatical Party and to possess themselves with the Supream Government both of Kirk and State are now inventing Evasions to be rid of us and to delude it some of them publishing openly in their Pulpits and Print that the Sacred Covenant was never intended for the Godly c. Was not the Doctor put to his last Stake sure he would never have inserted the Character of King Charles the First given by this Man apparently disgusted * Tho I have been lately informed this Character said to be Henderson's was not writ by him but soisted in by this or such another Author In one place of his Books the Doctor expresses vehemently an aversion to Presbytery and says He never was a Presbyterian in his Life and by God's Grace never will for I neither liked the Principles of that Government nor the Spirit of too many of that Party Yet the Doctor gives you a taste of what he may be upon occasion for though he says he will not be c. he makes use of one of the †Ridgedest worst of them to serve his Turn And I am afraid should the Government once turn upon that Point since the Doctor so profligately makes use of Presbyterian Prejudice was it for his Turn he would be perswaded to be one of them but whilst it is not I conclude with the Doctor that he will love the Constitution of the Church and the Sweets of the Church of England and as he says Pag. 22. what in him lies promote its true Interest while he has a Tongue to speak or a Pen to write But we will leave the Doctor to his Resolution and make some other Remarks may back our Opinion that this last Piece of our resolute Gentleman's has in it much of Malice and ill Nature for Pag. 15. he suggests nothing will satisfy the Person he pretends to answer and his Party but extirpating Monarchy the Church and all good Men for there he says barbarously enough the Ends of them are to destroy Church and State and therefore not one word of the Vertues of this Prince I warrant you But this is not the only rancor'd thing our good-natured Answerer has subtilly couched in this his notable Paper for Pag. 17 and 18 taxing the Author of the Lewd Book as the Doctor with his usual Rhetorick calls it for asserting that the Condescension of King Charles the First in passing so many Bills the first Year of the Parliament were no Favours nor deserved Thanks he observes for this Man and his Party must design against all Kings such an Assertion takes off all Obligations to their present Majesties and their Successors from the People as to any future Acts of Grace they grant for which says he he deserves no Thanks from the Crown and indeed for which he ought to be looked upon as a down-right Enemy to the future Intercourse and good Understanding betwixt their Majesties and their People and hopes the saucy Assertion will be taken notice of One may boldly aver here was our good-natured Doctor in Power saying should not gratify his Spleen but thanks be to the humble Sphere of our Divine though the Author has the Grinn he remains out of the reach of Biting Knowing little of the King's Book though I may as well pretend to write against it upon that little knowledg I have of it as the Doctor does for it having only seen under the Earl of Anglesey's own Hand that King Charles the Second and King
James when Duke of York denied it writ by their Father which Dr. Walker has made out to all but those that like the Doctor and Mr. Long will not be convinced I intended by this Paper only to arraign the Doctor 's malicious Bitterness to the Author and to the Gentleman his Book owes his Title to but there are two things in it so down-right false though asserted with the same Spirit of Confidence as runs through his whole Book that I had been an Enemy to Truth had they patted me I shall incur Censure for it and come under the Doctor 's unmannerly seventh Query viz. That all are great * They must be Knaves and Fools to use our civil Gentleman 's own words that do nor when the whole Nation then assembled in Parliament was of a contrary Opinion This I think is answering one of his Queries to the purpose And any one may guess what Honour the Doctor has by the following eighth Query who gives himself the trouble of reading it Fools or designing Knaves that believe any thing the Libeller writes against King Charles the First One is his asserting so boldly that Charles the First began not that unhappy War with the Parliament and mentions Pag. 21. the words of King Charles the First upon the Scaffold as his Argument for it It 's Christian-like to let the Ashes of the Dead rest And heartily I wish instead of raking therein a Vail drawn over the Actions of that unfortunate Prince might cause them never to be thought of more But our bold Divine should we use more modesty than he 's acquainted with upon mistake would presently conclude the Advantage his and bulkely in a conceited Triumph troublesomely appear again Therefore to do the Town a kindness without unexampled Impudence in hindering it it may be truly affirmed That the Doctor shuffles abominably when he taxes for it in the same Page our Author and that what the Doctor calls shuffing is an apparent Truth And the sending the Crown-Jewels into Holland let our Doctor sillily insinuate never so much that the Actions of Princes are above our reach and ought not as in the said Pag. 21. to be so narrowly pried into and his dare says c. was infallibly the beginning of that War for the Crown-Jewels were conveyed by the Queen into Holland in 1641 that with them and the Assistance of the Prince of Orange a sufficient Party might be raised for the King Whitlock the Doctor in several parts of his Book seems so plausible with being in this against him probably will not be allowed this Truth asserted in his Memoiers p. 52. He farther tells you Pag. 57. that a Ship of Ammunition was taken coming to the King from Holland and that both the carrying the Crown-Jewels and taking this Ship was before the Parliament had voted an Army should be raised Several other Instances of the beginning the War on the King's Side are there mentioned the least would convince any Man but those bribed and biassed ever since Sixty by the State upon the 30th of January with good Benefices to say the contrary and their Auditors implicitly contenting to these thus interested and influenced-Men who like these telling a false thing too frequently at last take it and tell it for true and steadily believe it so But let them go on with their Buffoonry they can I hope do little hurt now Time and the sad Effects of the last dissolute Reigns under the hopeful Branches of the Doctor 's great and vertuous Prince the Martyr has convinced many and will more the Government under him was not so regular as it should be And I am confident the time will come though there are * The bringing back the late King James Designs to hinder it possibly too by some of those Thirtieth-of-January-Men when the Government will think it scandalous to celebrate that Day and that none need to take pains to convince the World that the Unfortunate Charles the First was breaking through our Laws and Liberties in general nor for his Credit in particular that he both began that Unhappy War and countenanced that Rebellion in Ireland The excusing him of which last is the other of the two things in the Doctor 's Book I have already told you in this Paper is so apparently false for which there are at hand such Arguments and convincing Reasons that our Doctor ought to be told the World for the future notwithstanding the honest Account mentioned Pag. 21. he says he has given of himself will have no great Opinion of his Modesty or Integrity nor wonder at the falsity of any thing comes abroad with our Clever Divine's Name to it some of which were so obvious the most partial Writers of these Times cannot help taking notice of caressing and countenancing the Heads of that Rebellion long ☜ before it actually was so none does or can excuse nor after the admitting and incouraging the Negotiators of a Cessation so fatal to Ireland at a time when the whole Bent of his Arms for the Good of Mankind should have been for their Destruction Not only only Dunkirkers by their means having the King's Warrant for it but Sir John Pennington who commanded the King's Ships had Orders for it admitting of their Counsels for the interception of Provisions designed there when the miserable Necessities of that Place most wanted them and also for the Seizing and Imprisoning the Messengers of the Parliament and taking their Money from them raised in the Countrey by Loans intended for the Relief of that Afflicted Place and converting it to other Uses But probably this neither relishing with our Doctor he may according to his honest Education and old Sincerity be very plain with me in the Language he treats the Gentleman he pretends to answer and put this Paper among the scandalous Books in this Clergy-man's Opinion writ since the last Revolution against Church and State and with the utmost Effort of Malice as in Pag. 13. of his Book invoke the Arch-Bishops Bishops Nobility Gentry Clergy and Commons of the Nation for endeavouring with Trifles like these to sully the glossy Vertues of that Prince and if I tell him wherein is all the double-dealing in the World of Letters under this Prince's own Hand to the Marquess of Ormond for making Peace with the Irish Rebels some of which came over with Colonel Earnely to serve him to bring that Army which in the Irish Shambles had learn'd the Bloody Trade of cutting Throats into England Nay It is something unhappy for our Doctor that the Gentleman is yet alive that owns he returned the Money He is a Person of Learning Honesty and Honour and will be believed I would name him but have too great a value for him to do it without his leave I presume we may have the Doctor as gross against this as the other Truths of his Martyr's Reign if he is this Gentleman has no inferior Pen to our Doctor
were tied fast together in the same mischievous Design of putting Church and Kingdom into Combustion and Flame Jos Pleydell's Sermon p. 11. Aag the 7th 1681. printed for Joan. Broom 1681. sight of them yet can sneak cringe and flatter the Men they made such Villains of to a Reconciliation as soon as they wanted their Assistance but being out of Danger as soon forget all their Promises They preach'd up Passive Obedience for their Kings and as soon as one touched them to the quick deserted him contrary to a thousand Promises made in the presence of Heaven of Loyalty and Obedience The Gentlemen of 1640. The Villains these Men will not be compared to were never such they never professed Principles and left them The Gentleman our conceited and huffing Pamphleteer and his Reverend Crew call Traitor never forfeited his Morals his Honour nor Opinion he often bravely look'd Danger in the Face to justify 'em which Providence then and since has wonderfully appeared for nor would he ever having opposed those Designs of Charles the First be * He was offered Pardon by King Charles II. the Earldom of Essex and an Estate answerable when Lieutenant General in Ireland They make part of his Crime his addressing his Books to Sir Ed. Seymor chief Counsellor of State known and owned by Mr. Long Pag. 4. not write by him bribed into the Arbitrary Interest of Charles the Second from the True Interest of his Countrey when an Exile and from a plentiful Estate bended low as the Ground That the Doctor Mr. Thomas Long and the rest of their Coat should rail at and call this worthy Man Impious Regicide Insolent Defier of the Laws making barbarous Insinuations upon all those excusing him calling them by unheard-of Names for which we want their Explanation together with the Names of †Look Mr. Long 's Preface and beginning of his Book Villains Common-Wealth's-men Exploders of Monarchy and Episcopacy is no wonder having always opposed the topping Points that misled the late King to which this Nation if it happens owes its Ruin But at this time when the Blind at which these Men kick is removed Now we want all the Hands of faithful and brave Men that the Insinuations of these Grumblers for Interest Mr. Long 's Character of the Clergy Preface pag. 2. these stupor Mundi should influence the Parliament a great Number of whose Members are as worthy Men as this Kingdom ever had to Address to the King to issue out his Proclamation against a Gentleman with a Reward for his Head offering himself so seasonably To serve in Ireland where formerly he had been Lieutenant General that imploying him had in all probability saved thousands of Men and Pounds of whole Fidelity both to himself and these Nations the King was abundantly satisfied is so wonderful it is beyond all Belief and Example Though I have been a little warm in this Paper for which I think my self very excusable yet Heaven is my Witness though they seem not of my Opinion towards wards those they call Common Wealth's-men I intend nor desire their Ruin no not so much as Hurt to them all I intend is to convince if not them others that Interest is in their Thoughts more at least as much as Piety and that they are not so innocent as they unite to make themselves that their Church of England either had not that Purity in the last Reigns they boast of or if it had that they cease to be the Professors of it and I would gladly be the Occasion when they find themselves no whiter than others of their laying aside Bitterness and ill Language dividing their Power tho I am afraid this Advice will be taken as our Saviour's was to the young Rich Man in the Gospel and to come to that Temper promised those they think they cannot call worse than Common-Wealth's-men and not endeavour by that Name to bring the Government upon their Backs nor invite the Souldiers for that must be the meaning of Mr. Long in his Book pag. 4. to cut their Throats Such a Union will keep the Crown upon the Heads of our present King and Queen which Providence as Mr. Long in the Preface Pag. 4. of the said Book the only thing to be granted him through it by a Series of Miracles wonderfully has placed there to make us if we will our selves a happy People maintain Monarchy upon its old Basis and the Laws in their proper Channels keep out the old Dispensing Judges from filling again the Seats at Westminster to whom the Government and Posterity will wonder at it by the * The Power of these Men they still depend upon and after accused as false Interpreters of the Laws and hazarding three Kingdoms for which they stand excepted in an Act of Indempnity dare appear and are countenanced at those Bars they should be brought to as the greatest Criminals The Lord Chief Justice Hales was almost prophetick in his Opinion That there was more danger of introducing Arbitrary Power into these Nations by the Red-Coats in Westminster-Hall than by those without Wiles of the old True-paced Church-of England-Men has been too favourable to 't will break the Hearts of your Old and New Arbitrary Men who expect to enter at the Breach our eloquent Doctor and Mr. Long are unwarily making defeat Rome and France and may contribute much to the stopping of that Issue of Blood through Christendom Which that God of his infinite Mercy may grant with all Prosperity to our present King and Queen is the Prayer of one of those Common-Wealth's-men our Doctor and Mr. Long would have the Nation frighted at and I am sure 't was the Prayer of that worthy Man they gave such bad Language to his dying words affirm it for almost his last were Wishes for the Good of England and Peace of Christendom and all the Concern upon him was that he had not the Honour of having his Eyes closed in averting the Eminent Hazards he sensibly perceived too much threatned his Country He died in October last 1692 lamented and commended by all that knew him FINIS