A SECOND DEFENCE OF King Charles I. BY Way of Reply to an Infamous Libel CALLED LUDLOW'S LETTER to Dr. Hollingworth Let the lying lips be put to silence which cruelly disdainfully and despitefully speak against the righteous Psal. 31. As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness 1 Pet. 2. LONDON Printed for S. Eddowes under the Piazza's of the Royal Exchange and are to be Sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1692. TO THE Most Reverend and Right Reverend Fathers in GOD the Lords Archbishops and Bishops of the Provinces of Canterbury and York to the Nobility Gentry Clergy and Commons of England who have any Honour for the Pious Memory of King CHARES the First My Lords and Gentlemen c. THE Dutiful and Devoted Children of the Church of England having in the late Reign with so much Zeal and Courage as well as with such variety of Learning defended the Doctrines and Reasons of the Reformation against all the Accusations of her Romish Adversaries and some of them also exposing themselves to great Dangers rather than truckle to Will and Power against the Laws and Liberties of their Country did together with many others think when their Present Majesties came to the Throne that great Numbers of those who had sucked in Prejudices against the Church by reason of their Education would either have come into her Communion as now being convinced the Clamours against her were false or else at least would have treated her and her Members with a greater Civility and Respect then through their false Conceits of Things they did before but we quickly found ourselves mistaken and that the AEthiopian could not change his Skin nor the Leopard his Spots for presently hoping they had an opportunity to play over their Old Game again out comes two Books the one against Diocesan Episcopaty and the other against Liturgies two things they themselves knew the most moderate amongst us that are honest will not part withal these Books were carried up and down in Triumph and the poor Church of England had met with a Blow that not only stunn'd her but quite knocked her on the Head but in a convenient time they had their just Doom and were I may with great Truth say unanswerably answered the one by Dr. Comber the present Dean of Durham the other by the late Dr. Maurice Professor of the Chair at Oxford After this that the State might have a state of their Civility and Breeding as well as the Church a leud Pamphlet against King Charles the First was sent out into the World under the name of Ludlow whom an Act of Parliament calls one of the most detestable Traytors that ever was and this dedicated to Sir E. S. Kt. which Libel was spread abroad and cried up with all the Zeal imaginable and according as it was designed it had its effects and the Party who have left the Communion of our Church in all Places and Companies opened their wide Mouths against the Name and Memory of that excellent Prince upon hearing of which both in my own private and accidental Conversation and from many of my Friends whose Reports I durst credit I having by Reading the Actions and Sufferings of that King received other Impressions of him was resolved if no better Pen prevented me to vindicate that Great Man and accordingly the latter end of the last Year put out a little Book in the Defence of that Prince having nothing more in my eye then by so doing to preserve the Honour and Safety of the Present Government in Church and State which Book no sooner was spread but I was loaden with a thousand Reproaches which I thank God I was the less affected withal because of the Cause I was engaged in and withal because I had provided myself against them and within three Months after as if Hell had broke loose out comes a Letter under the same Name of the Traytor Ludlow directed to myself and as pretended occasioned by my honest Defence which Letter when I seriously read over I could not contain myself from wonder and amazements yea I found myself in various Passions to wit of Anger and Grief I of Ioy too not I assure you for the sin of the Book for that I abhor but that by the Book the Government might see the Spirit of the Party and how far to trust and when to suspect them Now My Lords and Gentlemen c. you would admire to hear how this Libel was brought up lent from one hand to another with the Character of a delicate and unanswerable Book and the well-meaning Author of King Charles's Defence was a Knave and a Fool and utterly lost as to his Credit and Interest in the New and True Friends of King William and Queen Mary and the Good Old Cause was now revived and upon its Legs again and glorious Days are coming and all by Virtue of the Influence of this Letter from Ludlow Well in a few days I set myself to a more close Consideration of the Book and presently found the Author an Imposer upon his Reader and that he had belyed King Charles in plain Matters of Fact upon which I was resolved to expose him and in a convenient time by a close application I drew up this Reply which I now present to you hoping thereby to have done something to prevent the spreading of this vile Man's Poyson And now my Lords and Gentlemen c. give me leave to be so plain as to tell you That if this Spirit be not discouraged but once again get within the Walls of St. Stephen's Chappel back'd and assisted with Power it will my Lords Spiritual Vote you presently out of the House of Peers and soon after out of your Bishopricks and afterwards will vindicate its barbarous usage of you by declaring you the Catterpillars of the Earth and the Locissts that ascend out of the bottomless Pit And for you my Lords Temporal Gentry Clergy and honest Commoners it will after it has branded you with the Names of Malignants Popish Counsellors and Adherents to the Interest of the Beast this Spirit I say when in the Chair will force you to Compositions Sequestrations Decimations Banishment Imprisonment and some of you to a Scaffold at Tower-hill or the Palace-yard and therefore I cannot but upon this Account open my whole Heart to you and tell you and I care not what Censures I undergo for it that next to the Eternal Laws of Nature and the Reasonableness and Excellency of the Christian Religion founded in and purchased by the Blood of Christ God Man I think we ought to be zealous in the Defence of this Great King upon whose Reputation or Dishonour and the Principles that maintain the one or those that propagate the other depend the Being and Well-being of our present Church and State and consequently of the Life and Preservation of our present King and Queen together with all their Successors in the English Throne and
there was for a War with so condescending and gracious a Prince and how little the Nation was beholden to those pretended Patriots who commenced a War which hath proved so destructive and fatal to the Nation the Effects of which not only we but our Posterity will feel also I fear for many Generations And now Sir I am ready to take my leave of you but before we part I must needs reckon with you upon the score of a Reflection you have made upon my self You are pleased to say You understand before I came to my Dotage I was a Presbyterian Minister in Essex which Words as often as I have read in the midst of my Sorrows for your scurrilous usage of King Charles have almost forced me to a smile and I cannot but believe that some crafty Knave finding you ready to pick up any Story whereby you might serve your Cause had a mind to put a trick upon you and to expose the Truth of the rest of your Books by this one so well known a Falshood And Sir let me tell you because since the late Persecution in Scotland by that Party of Men it is a greater Scandal to be called a Presbyterian than it was before and because I find abundance of Men have run away with such a Belief of me I will therefore give the World a true Account of myself I was betwixt four and five Years of Age when the Covenant was taken and Twenty one when the King was restored at which time I was a Student in Cambridge in 62 after I had taken time to consider the Nature and Terms of Conformity which by my former Education I was wholly a Stranger to I was Ordained by the Sacred Hands of Bishop Sanderson in the same Church in which I was baptized in 63 I was Licensed by the Bishop of London Dr. Sheldon to a Lecture in London upon the Personal Recommendation of the late Arch-bishop of York Dr. Dolben in which City I continued till 71 when I was presented by King Charles the Second to the Vicarage of Westham in Essex where how I acted like a Presbyterian let the four Tracts I writ and all in the Defence of the Church of England testifie from this place I was removed by Letters Pattents under the Broad Seal of England from King King Charles the Second to the Chaplain-ship of Aldgate which is so called in the Original Deed upon Record in the Rolls and for the Service of which the King has reserved out of the Impropriation an Annual Stipend where how I have lived and discharged my Duty in some sort I leave to the whole Parish to declare It is true Sir I have always been kind to Dissenters and have conversed with all sorts of Men with an equal Freedom and when the great Storm Eight and Nine Years ago fell upon the Dissenters in City and Country I preserved my own Parish from Charge and Trouble to the great endangering of myself which many of them have a grateful Sence of to this day tho' some others have quite forgot it but that is because they are too like your dear self for I never found Gratitude together with many other necessary Vertues amongst Men of your Kidney 't is no part of your Religion And now Sir what satisfaction will you make me for this scandalous Reflection Why truly all I expect is nothing but further Calumnies and Reproaches Backbiting and Slandering of me for that is the proper Trade and Employment of Antimonarchial Men but however Sir let me beg of you but to let the Memory of King Charles the First alone and then I will pardon as well as patiently bear all you can say against me and the more willingly because I think it an Honour to be abused by such Persons as you are Sir I am just upon concluding only spare me one word or two more Whereas you call me in your Epistle An hungry Levite I would have you know I scorn it and here tell you That the Goodness of the Cause I am engaged in carries me above the hopes of adding to what I have and above the fears of losing it all and whereas you say Mr. Love lost his Head upon Tower-hill which you are confident I will never do for any Cause Sir I tell you that by the Grace and Assistance of God had I a thousand Lives I would lose them all at Tower-hill or at another place which you have so long deserved before I would either compose or publish such an infamous Libel against the Piety the Honour and Memory of King Charles the First a Libel which I cannot think you could have writ unless you had been acted by Seven Devils worse than yourself and then I am sure they are Devils indeed And so Sir I take my leave of you praying the God of Heaven if he has not given you over for your past Sins and Provocations to a Reprobate Sence that he would open your Eyes and soften your Heart and cause you to see the evil of your ways that so you may return to him with weeping and fasting and more particularly if you live so long upon the next Thirtieth of Ianuary And hoping this Prayer will not be in vain I subscribe myself Your Soul's Well-wisher Richard Hollingworth Postscript READER WHen thou meetest with any Expressions or Reflections that look too sharp and severe in this Reply I must beg of thee to consider who it is I write against one that has behaved himself thoroughout his whole Libel rather like a Beast of Prey or an infernal Fiend than either a Man or a Christian And what Man can avoid Indignation and suitable Resentments when he accounts with a Monster who is so lost both to Truth and Good Manners as to call that Excellent and Pious Prince and Martyr a proud Nimrod an hardened Pharaoh and a merciless Tyrant READER There is an excellent Book called Vindicae Carolinae an Answer to Milton's scurrilous Book against K. Charles which came out the last Year worthy to be in every good and true English-man's hand And withal there is another Book called A Vindication of King Charles Printed in 48 by that true and steady Divine Mr. Edward Symmonds to whom the King committed the Correcting and Publishing his Incomperable Book which deserves a new Edition and which if no Man's Property for there is none mentioned in the Title-page I will take care to see it Re-printed in which Book there is an admirable Defence of the King and Queens Letters taken at Naseby from p. 174 to p. 185 which I will take care if the Executor of Mr. Royston or any other who has the Right to the King's Works will give me leave to Print some of the King's Declarations to Print with them And Reader I hope I shall have the Assistance of some better Pens than my own for this Cause must not be starved for I am sure upon it depends the Being and Well-being of King and Queen Church and State and every thing else that belongs to a true Lover of Old England indeed FINIS The Armies Petition Ibid. p. 563.
stile themselves The Commons of England and raising Money at Will and Pleasure upon their Fellow-Subjects contrary to the Fundamental Constitution of the Kingdom as for such as these you may take them to yourself and make much of them for I assure you they are in no Credit with us who are true Lovers of Old England indeed You begin your Epistle with a prophane Piece of Wit such as Men of your loose and irreligious Temper are always fond of the Subject of namely the Church and the Clergy but the best of it is but borrowed and truly I being so dull as you report me to be shall not undertake to reply to it for fear I should run into the same wicked folly both you and the Author of it have always been apt to be guilty of And besides Sir your hideous and base Reflections upon King Charles the First have made me too melancholly to indulge the gayety of my Fancy if I was naturally given that way I do not cast my eye upon any part of your Book without horrour and consternation of Mind to think there is yet in the World a grey haired Man with one Foot in the Grave provoking God by shooting out his bitter and poysonous Arrows into the Sides of a Person whose Memory is so precious to so vast a Number of the devout and serious part of the Nation and therefore I shall betake myself with all the brevity I can to consider your various Charges you so impudently draw up against the King and Queens Grandfather both in your Epistle and in the Book it self which is more than I am concerned to do because I only undertook to defend the last Eight Years of his Life and acknowledged Mistakes in his Government before which I proved he not only offered but actually rectified and therefore I thought we ought all to imitate God who pardons a Sinner and calls his Errors no more to a remembrance when he testifies his Repentance by a thorough Reformation But God Sir it appears by your Spirit and Actions is none of your Pattern but rather then you will not gratifie your Lusts against this Great King you will look into every part of his Life and arraign him for every particular Error nay will pick up every ill-natured Lye and false Suggestion that his sworn Enemies endeavoured to blast his Credit amongst his Subjects withal and in the mean time not shew so much good Nature or common Christianity as to speak of one of his Vertues tho' so many were conspicuous in him thorough his whole Reign No Sir that would not serve your Ends nor answer the Design of your Party which the wise Men of the Nation are sufficiently aware of and I hope will take Care to prevent In your Epistle you tell us of a Letter which the Prince wrote to the Pope which from the beginning to the end savours of Popery and you mention four Particulars to prove it First You tell us That he prosesses nothing could affect him so much as Alliance with a Prince that had the same Apprehensions of True Religion with himself For God's sake Sir read over the Letter again and tell me where there is such a word or any thing like it I have the Letter now before me as it is in Rushworth and I assure you upon reading it again and again I find nothing like it and I hope I am not so dull but I understand Common Sence and if it was not for the unmannerliness of the expression I would I am justly provoked to say Leave your L Secondly What Sir You say That he calls Popery the Catholick Apostolick Roman Religion all others Novelty and Faction In what part of the Letter find you this Sir I tell you it is false there is not one Syllable of this nature throughout the whole and I challenge the whole World of Malice to shew me any thing like it in the Letter And now again Sir who ought to leave there L Thirdly You say That he protested he did not esteem it a matter of greater Honour to be descended from great Princes than to imitate them in the Zeal of their Piety who had often exposed their Estates and Lives in the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. And pray where is the fault in this I hope any Man that knows what the Holy Cross means in its proper sence which is nothing else but the Christian Religion purchased upon the Cross by the Blood of Jesus will say that this Protestation is so far from blackning this Great Prince that it redounds to his Credit and Honour And truly Sir he that considers his Life and Death will say He made this good to a tittle for he lost both not only for his standing up for the Laws of his Country but for the Defence of the best constituted Christian Church in the World Fourthly You say That he solemnly engaged to the Pope to spare nothing in the World even to the hazarding of his Life and Estate to settle a thing so pleasing to God as Unity with Rome Surely Sir you are past all manner of shame and a Man would think you was possess'd for there is not one word of this in the Letter and none but a Person who cares not what Falsities he obtrudes upon the World in order to deceive the silly and credulous part of Mankind would have so boldly Printed such a notorious Falshood as this is and who ought to leave his L Sir And as for his Reply to the Pope's Nuncio which you mention after these Falshoods pray tell me in what Authentick Author I may find it for I assure you you have put so many false things together before that you have so much lost your Credit with me that I will believe nothing of your bare assertion and I do not doubt but every Body that reads us both will be of my mind Come come Sir had you done like an honest Man that was resolved to serve Truth and not a Faction you would have told the World that when the Great Spanish Favourite at his first coming to Madrid began to talk of his changing his Religion he answered He came for a Wife and not for a Religion you would have told us what Mr. Rushworth does pag. 83. That when they used so many various Arts to allure him to Popery that he remained steadfast to his Religion neither did he express any shew of change further you would have told what Mr. Iohnson the Scotch-man in his Latin History of those times acquaints us withal namely that when the Romish Divines came about him and pressed him to profess the Romish Religion and desired that he would hearken to those Reasons they would give him against those who had disturbed their Ancient Religion he positively denied it and let them know He was so setled in his Religion that he would not be pluckt from it you would have further have told When they found all their Attempts upon him in
vain they inveighed against Gondomar because he had informed the King and State that the Prince had a Disposition easie to be wrought upon to be made a Catholick Caba p. 329. But Sir these are real Truths and therefore not fit for the Pen of such a designing Demigogue as you are your business is by degrees to destroy the Monarchy and hope the wounding of this Great and Good Man's Reputation will contribute toward it and therefore no wonder we hear of none of his Vertues and in particular that of his constancy to the Religious Perswasions of his Mind It may be now you expect I should give myself the trouble to answer your first Letter but I will spare my self the labour because I understand it is recommended to a better Hand who understands the Records and Transactions of those times thoroughly and who I do not doubt in time will do you and your leud Book Justice for so I will still call it because it was leudly designed and had as leud an effect for it was the occasion of most of those unmannerly and undutiful Reflections that have been lately made against this excellent Prince both in City and Country which indeed was the only thing that provoked me to the Defence of that King and therefore Sir you that unprovoked began the Quarrel and stirred the Coles are the Makebate and not I who honestly defended a wronged and injured Person which is the Duty of every good Christian Man and will have the Answer of a good Conscience let such as you are rage and foam at Mouth never so much at it The next thing I shall take Notice of is the punishment of Doctor Leighton by representing of which in the blackest Colours you would beget in your Readers bad Thoughts of this excellent Prince and his Reign Sir It may be I am something of your mind that he met with hard Fate and such as if I had been in the World and one of his Judges with my present sence of things I should not have consented to But after all this Sir let me tell you Dr. Leighton was a great Transgressor and deserved a severe Punishment if it be true what Mr. Whitlock writes as I do not in the least question but it is for Mem. p. 14. he tells you his Crimes in these words Dr. Leighton a Scotchman for his Book entituled Sion's Plea dedicated to the last Parliament counselling them to kill all the Bishops by smiting them under the Fifth Rib and railing against the Queen calling her a Canaanite and Idolatress had the Sentence of the Star-Chamber Good Sir must it be Persecution to call such a foul-mouthed Person to an Account and to punish him Why truly then Laws and Governments are very silly and precarious things and Men may say and do what they lift which will certainly make a blessed World and the King's Reign must be bloody that secures itself against the Violence and Railing of the worst of Malefactors Sir Had any Man said or writ at this rate against your beloved Rump I know what Fate he must have met withal and you yourself would have called it Justice and not Persecution And now Sir before I come to your Scotch Affair a few words with you about Pryn Bastwick and Burton whose Story you recite at large in your Book and all with a design to blacken this Prince Sir I have looked into the Story of these three Men with some care and here if you please I will make you my Confessor And I must tell you it is no Credit to you for if I was to choose one for Modesty and Honesty I would as soon pitch upon a Jesuit as your self I do upon a full Consideration of the whole wish from my Heart that their Punishment had been some other way I do not think if it be lawful for a private Person as I am to pass a Judgment upon the Publick Actions of a then Legal Court that the way of punishing those Persons was not at all politick or prudent because not for the Interest as things then stood either of the King or the Church it gave too great an occasion for the designing Men of that Age to open their mouths and thereby to alienate the Hearts of the Common People from the Government and consequently prepared them to joyn with them in any Action of Revenge when time and opportunity should serve and if Bishop Laud had kept in his Study at that time and not appeared at all either to hear the Tryal or assist in the Sentence it had been better both for him and those Designs of Uniformity he had so much set his Heart upon Yet Sir for all that I do not think these three Men were wholly to be passed by because of their several Characters and Professions or that the Justice of the Nation ought to have been afraid of accounting with such bold Men as they shewed themselves Pray let any Man read over their several Writings which were the occasion of those severe Censures and if he be an unprejudiced and undesigning Person and yet commend them I will forfeit a great deal more than I am willing to lose Certainly more violent rude and unbecoming Reflections were never uttered such Sarcasms and Invectives such bare-faced Abuses as if they had got a Pattent from the Powers below to speak evil of Dignities Mr. Burton speaking of the Bishops instead of Pillars calls them Catterpillars instead of Fathers Step-Fathers with abundance of other Aspersions that truly are not fit to be named Dr. Bastwick breathes nothing but Fire and Brimstone and throws down his Thunderbolts upon the Heads of the Bishops as if he was the great Commander of the Clouds And I beg the Reader to take a taste of all the rest from one particular passage which I find in Mr. Whitlock Mem. p. 25. in his Answer to the Information against him in the Star-Chamber you have these words That the Prelates are Invaders of the King's Prerogative Contemners and Despisers of the Holy Scripture Advancers of Popery and Superstition Idolatry and Prophaneness also they abuse the King's Authority to the Oppression of his Loyal Subjects and therein exercise great Cruelty Tyranny and Injustice and in execution of those impious Performances they shew neither Wit Honesty nor Temperance nor are they either Servants of God or the King but of the Devil being Enemies to God and of every living thing that is good Which the said Dr. Bastwick is ready to maintain and Mr. Whitlock adds immediately to shew the wilfulness of the Man That none of his Friends could prevail with him to expunge this and other-like passages out of his Answer Now Sir pray tell me who can plead for such a Spirit as this is or what Government can suffer such Indignities and Provocations as these are As for Mr. Pryn he lived to see and rectifie a great many of his Errors and to be a Thorn in the sides of such Men as
their Heads And this is all I think good to say by way of Answer to your Scotch Affairs and truly I think it is enough of all reason to convince the World what Defenders of the Christian Faith and the Rights and Laws of their Country these Covenanters were God bless the Kingdom of Scotland I and England to from such Reformers as these are and I hope the greatest part of the People of both Nations will say Amen to it with all readiness and cheerfulness And thus Sir without any Obligations on my side for as I Told you in my Defence I only would concern myself with the last Eight Years of King Charles I have run through and proved your Accusations spiteful and false which you have so liberally vented to defame this Great and Good Man and I hope I have given the World a just satisfaction how much you are to be credited as to all the other things you assert you I say who rather than you will not serve your Cause will offer to the World the greatest Lyes and Untruths in Nature I come now Sir to apply myself Sir to the Defence of what I have said in my Book in the behalf of King Charles from your rude Impleadings of them and Reflections upon them And here Sir I will be plain with you I am not at leisure to play the Buffoon by making a Return to your Raillery and little Witticisms wherewith you entertain your Reader in the beginning of your Libel but will follow the Advice of a wiser and honester Man than either you or any of your Party are or will be that is King Solomon namely Not to answer a fool according to his folly least I be like unto him You say That those gracious Acts which I mention were bought of him And what then What hath been more usual ever since Parliaments had a Being in England Pray look into the Statute-Book and tell me what gracious Favours can you find bestowed by the several Kings of this Realm upon their People that those People have not made their Acknowledgments for them by presenting their Soveraigns with great Sums of Money And how comes this to be a fault in King Charles more than in all his Predecessors But buy these Acts did they Pray who had the disposal of the Money How was it laid out Was it given to the King to do what he lifted withal No Sir you know the contrary and that amongst the rest of the Uses it was put to you know a great part of it was bestowed upon the Scots for the good Service they did in rebelling against their King and putting two Kingdoms into a flame and they returned home by the Favour of your Friends loaden with the Nation 's Treasure when if they had had their deserts they had gone back with Halters about their Necks as a sign of what was due to them for so traiterously invading a Kingdom they had nothing to do withal But however to shew he did nothing willingly as to these condescending Acts you tell us when he past the Poll-Bill he demurred to the passing of the Bills for taking away the Star-Chamber and the High Commission And what then May not King's take time to consider as well as other Men Must they who considering the Charge God hath entrusted them withal ought to have better Eyes in their Heads than other Men must they I say only act like Bruits and do things without previous thoughts without a Why or Wherefore Who would sit in a Throne if the Condition of it must be the divesting himself of the Reason and Consideration of a Rational Creature But Sir I will answer this Aspersion in the King 's own Words to the Two Houses and then leave the Reader to judge whether you have done fairly to lessen his Grace upon this Account his Words are these I must tell you That I cannot but be very sensible of those Reports of Discontent that I hear some have taken for not giving my Consent on Saturday Methinks it seems strange that any one should think I could pass two Bills of that importance as these were without taking some fit time to consider of them for it is no less than to alter in a great measure those Fundamental Laws Ecclesiastical and Civil which many of my Predecessors have established And truly I hope this will satisfie tho' not you and such as you are yet any good Man who is not resolved for a Party as to this paticular Reflection Another thing you reflect upon me for is saying That his signing the Bill for taking away my Lord Strafford's Life offered violence to the peace and quiet of his Mind all the Days of his Life And here Sir I cannot but take Notice how you endeavour to make sport with this good Man's Conscience but let me tell you I have always observed that those Men who make sport with other Mens Consciences have none of their own and I am sure you have shewn none throughout this scurrilous Letter unless Lying ad Slandering be the signs of Grace ad Good Conscience in a Common-wealth's-man Pray Sir why might not the King scruple this Do not you know what unusual Arts and Methods were made use of before they could agree upon a Bill to take away this Great Man's Life Do not you know how many of the House of Commons protested against it how thin the House of Lords was when it passed there how the Rabble were brought down to threaten the House and in a clamorous way which you call peaceable to cry Iustice Iustice and how they posted up the Names of the Protestors in order to expose them to the fury ad danger of the discontented and designing part of the City And do not you know after all they were so little satisfied with the Legality of their Proceedings that they in the very Bill itself inferred a Clause that this should not be made use of as a Precedent for the time to come and after all this might not a pious and compassionate King scruple the signing of such a Bill from a very good Conscience Come Sir to answer this to the full and vindicate the King's scruple I will here present to the World for their satisfaction the Sence not of a House of Peers consisting of Seventeen or Eighteen Members nor of a House of Commons consisting of not many above an Hundred but the Sence of two full Houses of Lords and Commons who took off the Attainder of that Noble Earl the Words in the Act are those WHereas Thomas late Earl of Strafford was Impeached of High-Treason upon pretence of endeavouring to subvert the Fundamental Laws and called to a Publick and Solemn Arraignment and Tryal before the Peers in Parliament where he made a paticular Defence to every Article objected against him insomuch that the Turbulent Party then seeing no hopes to effect their unjust Designs by any ordinary way and method of proceedings did at last resolve to