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A46391 A Just vindication of the honour of King James of blessed memory against the vile aspersions cast upon it and him by a late pamphlet printed by B. Took : and pretended to be presented by the grand jury for the town and borough of Southwark, &c. 1683 (1683) Wing J1243; ESTC R35424 6,064 4

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A JUST VINDICATION OF THE Honour of King James Of Blessed Memory Against the vile Aspersions cast upon it and Him by a late Pamphlet Printed by B. Took And pretended to be Presented by the Grand Jury for the Town and Borough of Southwark c. THERE is nothing so Sacred but Detraction will Blaspheme it nothing so High but Envy will Attack it nothing so Excellent but Ignorance will Persecute it If the Dignity of the Regal Office The Majesty of the Person The Acuteness of Parts and Understanding could have given Priviledge and Protection to Princes the Honour of King James had been Impregnable But the blind Beetle durst once Assault the Royal Eagle when it had taken Sanctuary in Jupiters Bosome This Wise and Learned Prince out of a pious and politick Design to season the tender Years of his Son Prince Henry then Heir Apparent of his Ancient Kingdom of Scotland And that he might not onely leave him a Kingdom to Govern but qualifie him for the Art of Government Composed that Excellent Piece Stiled Basilicon Doron or His Majesties Instructions to his Dearest Son Henry the Prince This Incomparable Book his Majesty thought no ways convenient nor comely to be Proclaimed to all which to one onely appertained And therefore for the more secret and close keeping of it He onely permitted Seven to be Printed the Printer being first sworn to Secresie But notwithstanding all his circumspection and caution whether through the treachery of the Printer or the mistaken Zeal of some Courtiers who would not have the World depriv'd of so rich a Treasure as from its own innate worth which like the Diamond shone most in the Dark the Book was made Publick and thereby became subject to every Man's Censure So Great a King could not want Enemies The Sun it self is obscured by those ungrateful Vapours which are raised out of the Earth by his Influence but amongst all his Enemies none were more concern'd out of Interest to Asperse his Pious Intentions than the Jesuits and particularly Becanus who have greedily laid hold on some few passages in the Book to Reproach the Puritans by which Title they branded in those days all Reformed Protestants It is very true that the Papists had a deeper reach in their Calumniating that Great King than every one could discover for they knew him to have been well grounded in the Protestant Religion by Education Confirmed therein by his own judgment and engaged to espouse it by his true Interest and that he had a Pen that was able to Defend it and knowing in their Consciences with regret That upon the Death of Queen Elizabeth he must by undoubted Right and Title Succeed her in the Crown of England and that such Succession would prove a fatal blow to their conceiv'd hopes and pretensions of Establishing their long since exploded Religion Hereupon they employ all their Engines Summon all their Artifices and rowze up all their fury and policy to Bespatter him as a Person of a Vindictive Spirit that would Avenge upon the English his Mothers Quarrel and as a Person not well fixed in the Principles of Religion And herein they were wickedly subtil for by the former Slander they hoped to engage against him all those Grandees and Statesmen in England that might any ways be supposed to have had a finger in the Death of his Mother and by the latter they fancied they should prejudice him in the thoughts of those Persons who were commonly though falsly called Puritans in England who were no inconsiderable Party for Number Interest or Piety Nor did Jesuitical Malice rest here but they set on foot many false Titles to the Crown Imperial of this Realm some to amuse the Vulgar others to engage the Spaniard and all of them to hinder his Just Succession here if either Heaven would have favoured them of Hell could have kept them That passage which their Malice fixed upon in his Instructions to his Son the Prince to exasperate the Minds of many Sober Protestants in England against his coming to the Crown did serve their Turns pretty well for indeed it sounded harshly in common Ears and carried some Intimation of his Displeasure against that sort of People with those who onely lookt upon the surface of the Words and were not privy to the Design of his Majesty But the King being timely Informed of the Scandal taken and that he might obviate the Design of it caused his Book which before had been Printed privately and under an Oath of Secresie to appear Publickly and that praemunited with a Preface written by his own Hand wherein with marvellous Clearness he Vindicates his Royal Intentions from those Sinister Constructions put upon them and therein has said so much as might have silenc'd Detraction knockt out the teeth of Envy and set his Name right in the thoughts of all good Men for ever And this Preface was added to his Reprinted Book in the Year 1603. at London by Felix Kingston for John Norton And now it might have been expected That after Fourscore Years lying in the Grave the Calumny had been Rotten and the Memory of that Learned King might have Survived in his Writings since Envy which commonly preys upon the Living uses yet to spare the Ashes of the Dead When contrary to all our hopes A late Pamphlet Printed by one B. Took revives the Reproach as if it would challenge the King 's Sacred Dust to awake and rise up in their own just Vindication For we meet every where in the Streets A Paper which pretends to the Title of Presentments of the Grand-Jury of the Town and Borough of Southwark Which begins thus We the Grand-Jury Summoned and Sworn for this present Sessions of the Peace holden for the Town and Borough of Southwark do with all humble deference to our Superiours Present as followeth viz. THat the Wise and Learned King James His Majesties Royal Grand-Father of blessed Memory has from his own observation and sad Experience among other things so Solemnly Asserted in his Excellent Book of Instructions to his Eldest Son Prince Henry concerning the Puritans of that Age may as truly be affirmed of the generality of the Sectaries of our time to wit That they are the very Pests in the Church and Common-wealth whom no deserts can oblige neither Oaths nor Promises bind breathing nothing but Sedition and Calumnies Aspiring without measure Railing without reason and making their own Imaginations without any Warrant of the Word the square of their Consciences and that ye shall never find with any High-land or Border-Thieves greater Ingratitude and more Lies and Perjuries than with these Phanatick Spirits I shall not need to observe how the Pamphlet suppresses those Words in the entrance of the Paragraph which had given some light to his Majesties meaning Take heed therefore my Son to such Puritans Implying that there were another sort of Men who though they were invidiously branded with that Name yet were nothing akin to
their Sentiments or Principles nor shall I need to note how he advises the Prince to beware alike of both the Extremities As well as ye Repress the vain Puritan so not to suffer the proud Papal Bishops Nor shall I concern my self whether ever there was such a People in the World called a Grand-Jury that Presented this matter though I confess it highly Improbable That Persons of their Character should ever have read much less understood Bazilicon Doron and it 's utterly incredible that Men of Inferior Trades most of them Mechanicks should venture upon a Point so Tender when 't is more than an even Wager not two of them could Read the Title nor am I to dispute how they could Present it upon their Oaths That what King James Asserted of those Puritans may as truly be Affirmed of the generality of Sectaries of our Times because it 's scarce Imaginable that such Persons have been able through the narrowness of their Employments to understand what the Principles of the generality of the Prosestant Dissenters are so well as King James who had advantage to search into the Principles and Practises of those Puritans whom he so severely and yet justly lashes Nor yet can I debate it how these Men can do this that they have done with all humble deference to their Superiors although it 's a Question to some Whether they understand the meaning of the Word Deference any more than that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or how their Conductor has Inspired a Salter or a Plummer a Brawers Clark or a Drummer a Meal-man or a Baker a Talley-man or Comb-maker a Vinegar Merchant or a Cartwheel-maker or a Smoothing-Iron-maker c. that they should ever profound into the secrets of State or dive into the meaning of that Learned King But there is that which I am concerned to make out That the Words of King James are grosly mistaken or wilfully misapplyed That he means not by those Puritans such as the generality of Dissenters now are and that he has in his Preface to his said Book abundantly satisfied the World of his true and pious Intentions A brief Account whereof I shall now give the Reader that he may learn if ever it should be his misfortune to come upon a Jury to which Matters out of his reach and depth should be offer'd for his Subscribing Swearing and Presenting to demean himself with that Prudence and Uprightness that becomes a Christian 1. Let us then hear King James himself his Royal Comment upon his own Royal Text The first Calumny says he in his Preface is grounded upon the sharp and bitter words that therein are used in the description of the Humours of the Puritans First then as to the Name of Puritans I am not ignorant that the Stile thereof doth properly belong to the vile Sect among the Anabaptists call'd The Family of Love because they think themselves onely Pure and in a manner without Sin the onely True Church and onely worthy to be participant of the Sacraments and all the rest of the World to be but Abominable in the sight of God of this special Sect I principally mean when I speak of Puritans And partly indeed I give this stile to such Brain-sick and heady Preachers their Disciples and Followers as refusing to be call'd of that Sect yet participate too much of their Humours in maintaining the above-mentioned Errors Very good I would humbly ask then How a Grand-Jury can Swear in Knowledg Judgment and Righteousness with Truth and a Good Conscience That those words of the King may as truly be Affirmed of the generality of Protestant Dissenters here in England at this day as they were asserted of those Puritans so described by His Majesty in his times It is very well known to all the World though it be not expected from men of mean Occupations to know it That the Dissenters do generally detest the thoughts of imagining themselves the Onely Pure People or to be without Sin or to be the Onely True Church in opposition to other Reformed Churches of France Holland Germany and England but do perfectly Harmonize with that whole Body of Protestants in all the Articles of Faith and Fundamental Points of Religion nay it is most apparent that his Majesty would be Interpreted to speak of none but the Family of Love or such as maintained their Error wherein the generality of Protestant Dissenters are not in the least concerned or involved However let His Majesty proceed It is onely of this kind of Men in this Book says the King that I write so sharply but all that other part N. B. I protest upon mine Honour I mean it not generally of all Preachers or others that like better of the single form of Policy in our Church the Church of Scotland than of the many Ceremonies of the Church of England That are perswaded that THEIR Bishops smells of a Papal Supremacy That the Surplice the cornered Cap and such like are the outward badges of Popish Error May we then believe His Majesty's Words Then how can they justifie their Oaths who Swear and Declare That the Kings Words may as truly be affirmed of the present Dissenters whom the Pamphleteer is pleased to stile Sectaries as of those Puritans when the King who doubtless understood his own meaning better than these Men of Blow Aprons openly declares the contrary and has left it upon Record under his own hand to Posterity Let us then for once suppose that the generality of Dissenters among us in England should judge That the plain simple Form of Government used in Scotland in those days was more desirable than many Ceremonies at that time or since used in the Church of England Suppose if you please That the generality of Dissenters should think that the English Bishops did a little smell of Papal Supremacy Suppose further that they should fancy that their Surplice their cornered Cap and such like usages as the Cross in one Sacrament Kneeling in the other were Badges of Popish Errors however they may be mistaken yet King James will acquit them of having any share upon that Account in those severe Characters he then gave of that kind of Puritans No says he I am so far from being Contentious in these things which for my own part I ever esteemed as indifferent as I do equally love and honour the Learned and Grave Men of either of these Opinions it can no ways become me so he goes on to pronounce so lightly of so old a Controversie He knew as well as any man that the difference had been from the Infancy of the Reformation Nay he knew that it had generally obtained in his Church of Scotland He adds We all God be praised do agree in the grounds and the bitterness of Men upon such questions doth but trouble the Peace of the Church or give advantage and entry to the Papists by our Division Let the Matter then be Refer'd to the Impartial Reader or