what the Memorandum further says That King Charles the Second and the Duke of York did assure him it was none of the said King 's compiling c. An Earl it is said wrote it and I dispute it not but this I say That neither the King nor the Duke could speak it of their own knowledge but as by report from others because the King then Prince of Wales from his Expedition into the West with General Ruthien from whence he went off to France could not have seen His Father in near four Years before His death and therefore it seems improbable that the King should have shewn him a Letter To the Prince of Wales and at the same time told him it was not of his own compiling when yet the Letter says Id. Iâ—â—n 221. Son if these Papers come to your hands c. and concludes Farewel till we meet if not on Earth yet in Heaven And if the King did not tell him so then what he assured the Earl could not be of his own knowledge And for the Duke of York he was under Thirteen at the Surrender of Oxford from whence he was brought to St. James's where he made his Escape for Dort so that except when he saw his Royal Father at Hampton-Court which could not be often he could not have seen him in two Years and an half before his Death Nor seems it probable that the King should communicate his Thoughts with a Person of those Years albeit a Prince and his Son but not his next Heir But on the contrary more probable for both that what they so spake was but by report which young Princes are but too apt to take up from those who to cover their own Ignorance perswade them it smells too strong of the Pedant for a King to take up a Pen when yet the greatest of former Ages are oftner remmembred by their Pens than their Swords Caesar yet lives in his Commentaries M. Aurelius in his Philosophy and we may read Trajan by his Epistles to Pliny But to come nearer home Our Henry the first is as well known by the Name of Beauclerke as of King of England Henry the Eighth's Pen not his Sword gave him the Title of Defender of the Faith And this the Royal Portraict of our murther'd Sovereign shall outlast every thing but it self and Time Lastly And if there yet want some living credible Testimony of that time or matter of Record since Sir William Dugdate an indefatigable Searcher of our English Antiquities and perfect Master of the Transactions of his own Time gives us this gradual account viz. That these Meditations had been begun by His Majesty in Oxford long before he went from Oxford to the Scots under the Title of Suspiria Regalia That the Manuscript it self written with his own Hand being lost at Naseby was restored to him at Hampton-Court by Major Huntington who had obtain'd it from Fairfax That Mr. Thomas Herbert who waited on His Majesty in his Bed-Chamber in the Isle of Wight and Mr. William Levett a Page of the Back-stairs frequently saw it there and not only read several parts of it but saw the King divers times writing farther on it And that that very Copy was by his Majesty's direction to Bishop Duppa sent to Mr. R. Royston a Bookseller at the Angel in Ivy-Lane the 23d of December 1648. who made such Expedition that the Impression was finish'd before that dismal 30th of January on which the King was bereft of his Life As may be better read from himself Sir W. Dugdâ—â—â—'s Short View c. p. 380 381. in his Short View of the late Troubles in England And this further I speak of my own Knowledge That the very next Morning after that horrid Act I saw one of them and read part of it under the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which it now bears And for matter of Record and that the World may the more undeniably be convinc'd that both King Charles the Second and King James the Second did believe this Book was written by their Royal Father let him that doubts it but look upon Reliquiae Sacrae Carolinae Printed it the Year 1662 or any Impression of this Book since that time and he will find prefix'd to them a Privilege or Patent of King Charlâ— the Second to the said Mr. Royston his Executors c. for the sole Printing and Publishing the Book intituled Reliquiae c. and all other the Works of his said Royal Father and moâ— especially mentions these most excellent Meditation and Soliioquies by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it so happening that most of that Impression in 1662. coming to be lost in the Fire of London whereby the Book became very dear anâ— scarce to be had King James the Second upon his coming to the Crown reciting those former Letters Patent grants him the like Privilege for the Printing and Publishing the said Book as it had been in the Year 1662. And now what shall an honest Man do in such a Case sâ—aâ— he give Credit to a bare Memorandum of what another said and as 't is most probable by report only or say the Circumstances before were not of weight to two Records For my part I take the King's Certificate to be of high nature yet I should hardly believe thâ— King himself against any one single Record against which the Law of England admits no Averrment and therefore I think no Man ought to make more of a Posthumous Memorandum than what the Law makes of it In a word these Pathetick Meditations no sooner came abroad than the Nation was undeceiv'd concerning the Author the Scales were fallen from their Eyes and they religiously look'd on Him whom in the simplicity of their Hearts they had pierced These our Pharisees saw and confest it themselves but said they if we let it alone the Romans will come and take away our City And therefore finding they could not suppress them they made it their Eusiness what in them lay to blot them Nay to that impudence they were arrived that and I saw it my self this Icon was exposed to Sale bound up with the Alcoran III. What end I proposed to my self in making this Reply And that 's easily shown nor is it forbidden any Man to burn Incense where the Air 's infected That this Royal Martyr has been calumniated is but too visible but how justly I am coming to examine In which I have this advantage to my hand That Time the Mother of Truth has justified her Daughter concerning Him and might have stopt the Rancour of his most inveterate Enemies but that nothing how evident soever can affect those that have a secret against blushing To be short my end is to vindicate this Good this Just however Unfortunate Prince to blow off that Froth that has been thrown on his Memory and according to my strength deliver him to the World as he was A great if not the only steddy
Alij diutius Imperium tenuerunt nemo tam fortiter reliquit Tacit. Histor Lib. 2. c. 47. p. 417 VINDICIAE CAROLINAE OR A DEFENCE OF ἘΙΚΩΠΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ THE Portraicture of his Sacred Majesty in his Solitudes and Sufferings IN REPLY To a BOOK Intituled ἘΙΚΟÎΟΚΛΑΣΤΗΣ Written by Mr. Milton and lately Re-printed at Amsterdam Vere magnum habere fragilitatem hominis securitatem Dei Seneca London Printed by J. L. for Luke Meredith at the Angel in Amen-Corner MDCXCII THE PREFACE OUR Author has forespoken his Reader with a long Preface and Custom has so obtain'd that not to take notice of it were to allow it for Truth yet as long soever as it is I may be the shorter in mine in regard there are some things we shall not much differ about As when he begins to discant on the Misfortunes of a Person fallen from so high a Dignity who has also paid his final Debt both to Nature and his Faults is not of it self a thing commendable And I come so near him that I deem it in no wise commendable much less to defend a Party by whose Injustice he fell For Revenge and Envy stop at the Grave and however our Lives are at the Mercy of others even Fortune herself has no Dominion over the Dead But when he says And his Faults and that it is not the intention of his Discourse I referr my Reader to this of mine wherein from the Ordinances of that time and the Law of the Land I have I hope acquitted the King and for the other whatever his intention might be prov'd his Book contrary to what he gives out here He further supposes it no Injury to the Dead but a good Deed rather to the Living to better inform them by remembring them the Truth of what they themselves know to be mis-affirm'd And I agree with him for if a Man may not make the Blind to go out of his way there is this Charity due to a Short-sighted Multitude to point them at least where they first went astray and by bringing them back to the old Paths both shew them how they lost their Way and set them right for the future Yet agree as we will we must part at last for instead of not discanting on the Misfortunes of his murther'd Sovereign and of better informing the People of what he slily insinuates themselves know to be mis-affirm'd by the King the whole drift of his Book is to blast the one and spread a Mist before the other whereas mine is to vindicate the King and what in me lies to clear the Air of that Pestilent Vapour In the mean time and until I come to it I shall briefly consider the matter of his Preface and the manner of putting it together As to the former it is an abstract of his Book written in Scandal to the King's Book and himself And saith he for their Sakes who thro' Custom Simplicity or want of better Teaching have not more seriously consider'd Kings than in the gaudy name of Majesty in behalf of Liberty and the Commonwealth That is to say Licentiousness and Democracy words altogether foreign to the English whose Constitutions know nothing but an Hereditary Imperial Monarchy recognizing no Superiour under God but only the King unto whom both Spiritualty and Temporalty are bound and owe a Natural Obedience Unto which his Notions are directly contrary for if the Soveraignty lay in the People the King were not Supream but himself subject to that Power which is transcendent to his as appertaining to them and then the State of England were Democratical if it lay in the Nobles then were it Aristocratical or if in either or all of them it were in no wise Monarchical which both the Common-Law and Statute-Law of England have ever declar'd this Kingdom to be as shall be shewn in its proper place And yet he doubts not to impose upon his Reader That the People heretofore were wont to repute for Saints those faithful and couragious Barons as he calls them who lost their Lives in the Field making glorious War against Tyrants for the common Liberty As Simon de Monfort Earl of Leicester against Henry the Third Thomas Plantagenet Earl of Lancaster against Edward the Second And truly Siqua est ea Gloria England wants not wherein to Glory though I think neither of these comes under his Character For the first of them a Frenchman by Extraction ran into open Rebellion against Henry the Third whose Sister he had first vitiated then Married Took the King Prisoner and carried him about in the Army as Cromwell did this King and made him own all his the Earl's Actions as the Parliament but ineffectually endeavour'd it also and was at last slain in actual Rebellion at the Battle of Evesham by the Prince our English Justinian the Man who by rescuing oppress'd Laws taught the Crown of England not to serve and first deliver'd it from the Wardship of the Barons These Barons the Descendants of those where the Devil in the Father turn'd Monk in the Son for being conscious to themselves that whatever they had whether of Honour or Possessions had been commenc'd in Conquest and Rapine what better way of securing both than by siding with the People who had by this time forgotten they were the Posterity of those who had beggar'd their Ancestors And for the other of Lancaster he also was taken in a like Rebellion against Edward the Second and being thereof Convicted was Beheaded at Pomfrect nor other than Rebellion do I find any Remark of him but that his Name was Plantagenet and the Mobb call'd him King Arthur And therefore the most that can be said of them is what Aaron of his Calf These be thy Gods O Israel And having laid this Foundation for Matter who could expect his manner of doing it should be better more than that Grapes may be gathered of Thorns or Figs of Thistles Nor has he in the least deceiv'd me in it when though there 's a decency of Language due to the meanest of Men and Mankind insults not over a Slave in Misery yet neither in his Preface or his whole Book doâ—s he ever mention the King or his â—ctions without that irreverence as would put a modest Man to the Blush in reading it What the particular Expressions are I forbear to mention them where I may possibly avoid it and referr the Reader to them as they every where occur lest otherwise I be like him that pretends to answer a Seditious Book and Prints that with his answer that it may be remembred cum Privilegio However this from the whole though the Scripture calls Princes Gods that Prince is yet to be born whose some action or other did not confess Humanity and require Candour Moses was King among the Righteous and David a Man after God's own Heart and yet it cannot be said of either of them In nullo erratum est And therefore instead of raking the Graves of Princes we
times at what time it pleas'd God in Mercy to these Kingdoms to restore King Charles the Second to the Throne of his murther'd Father but that they yet expect the Advancement of the Sceptre and that as obstinately as the Jews their Messias were there no other Argument the very re-impression of this Book may seem sufficient to evince especially if we consider the following Circumstances 1. That it bears the Impress from Amsterdam a Popular State to the freedom of whose Presses we are beholding for many things we had otherwise miss'd However whether it were that Amsterdam or another of the same Name in or near London as Printers have a way to themselves it matters not its Principles are altogether Republican and whoever he were that thus shuffled it into the World took the right course in chusing darkness rather than light because his Way was evil To have offered at a Commonwealth directly had been Madness and yet who knew how he might turn it about by a Side Wind 2. That a Book which from its first impression had been Waste-Paper and never read by any good Man without Contempt should after an interval of two and forty Years be raked out of its forgotten Embers if the design at bottom had not been to re-mind the People of the days of old and hint to them how the same Cards may be play'd over again as God shall enable them i. e. as opportunity shall offer And if this be not the drift of it let any Man judge when in bespattering that good King it represents to them by a false Glass what they may expect from other Kings and in effect tells them A Lyon is still a Lyon and tho' his laws be pared they 'll grow agen 3. That as if there had been some private agreement between them it was seconded by another to the same Tune intituled A Letter from Major General Ludlow to Sir E. S. which whether it were his or his Name only made use of to serve a turn will not be much in the Case tho' it confirm the Design The name is yet a popular name among that Faction and himself a daring Man witness his late regress into England and that not Incognito but in the face of the Sun in Westminster-Hall a Parliament and Judges then sitting where once he sate Judge himself and had there been a third of Mr. Jenkins's to have rung All-in What wonder if the Sheep had followed their Bell-weathers And if this were not the Design strange it seems and no small breach of Politicks to have thrust it on the World at a time when three of the Grand-Children of that King are yet Living and two of them in possession of the Throne It was one of Milton's Sarcasms to Salmatius Patrem defendis ad fillum mirum ni causam obtineas You defend the Father to the Son no wonder if you carry the Cause But on the other hand how can any of His Posterity think themselves secure while the murther of the Grandfather is yet mention'd without abhorrence When in a manner it hints the Faction with the Proverb Stultus qui patre caeso pepercit liberis tandem aliquando patriae necis futuros vindices He 's a Fool that kills the Father and spares the Children who some time or other will be sure to revenge it But malicious and nothing but malicious could be the Printing the Advertisement at the end of his Preface grounded it seems upon a Memorandum of the Earl of Anglesey's Viz. King Charles the Second and the Duke of York did both in the last Session of Parliament 1675. when I shewed them in the House of Lords the Written Copy of this Book meaning â—con Basilica wherein are some corrections and alterations written with the late King Charles the First 's own Hand assure me That it is none of the said King 's compiling but made by Dr. Gawden Bishop of Exeter which I here insert for the undeceiving others in this point by attesting so much under my hand Anglesey And that the Earl might have left such a Memorandum as is said I do not doubt because I have heard of it so often but what end the first Publisher of it had I cannot devise unless it were to Crucifie his Lord again and by putting in his Stab to His Memory expose him a second time which the more merciful Jews did but once to our Saviour with a Behold the Man and yet notwithstanding all this I doubt not to evince it to every unbiass'd Man that this The Portraiclure of his Sacred Majesty King Charles the First in his Solitudes and Sufferings was an Original drawn by Himself and not by any other Hand or Pencil For 1. He was able to do it as having been early bred up to Letters in design if Prince Henry had lived to be King for the Archbishoprick of Canterbury To which if it be said He had some little difficulty of Speech I answer Jer. 1.6 Exod. 4.10 Nescivit Jeremias loqui and Moses himself was Impeditioris Linguae And what of that It is the Office of a Steward to see the Provision be good and that the Family have it in due Season but I think no Man will say to Cook it himself 2. These Meditations are written feelingly and carry with them the Sense and Language of a Person under such Circumstances Jeremiah in his Prophecy denounceth Judgments to others and speaks with the Tongue of him that sent him but in his Lamentations we see him in distress himself and his Stile is as mournful as the City he bewails And he that reads Job with due consideration instead of doubting whether he wrote it himself cannot but sit down and weep with him Especially taking this with it that the Holy Ghost in his Pen labours more to describe that affliction than ever it did the Felicities of Solomon 3. Neither the Thought nor Stile are in the least like that of Bishop Gawden nor is it to be doubted if he had been the Author of so well a design'd Service to the Memory of a distress'd Father but that he might on the Son's Restauration have reasonably deserv'd a better Bishoprick than that of Exeter especially when so many of those Vacancies were fill'd with Covenanters Whereas on the other hand do but compare this Icon with his Majesty's Speeches in Parliament with his Discourse about Religion with the Marquess of Worcester His Papers with Henderson touching Episcopacy His Letters to the Queen Those his frequent tho' fruitless Messages to both Houses from Hampton-Court and the Isle of Wight when he was under restraint debarr'd of every one that might assist or comfort Him and the Company obtruded upon Him was more sad than any Solitude could be compare I say this Icon Icon. Basâ— 195. and them together and then tell me whether they do not all breathe the same Soul and consequently whether they can justly be denied to have proceeded from the same Pen. And for
of his Favourites I thought to have pass'd that The King 's Reverend Statute as he calls it for Dominical Jiggs and Maypoles publish'd in his own Name and deriv'd from the Example of his Father James And had so done but that it being spoken to the People upon the Wall I also thought it could be no hurt to undeceive them in the matter Statute I am sure there is none in the case and if there were Where lies the Blame But thus it is The Sabbatarians and Anti-Sabbatarians the one holding the Fourth Commandment to be simply moral and everlastingly oblig'd Christians as well as the Jews the other that it was the same with other days and to make it a Jewish Sabbath was but Will-worship had come from Pens to Blows nor would the labouring sort of People who had no other time of Recreation be depriv'd of that And thereupon the King sets forth a Declaration for tolerating Sports on the Lord's Day in the Afternoon Wherein as it is confess'd he was not without Precedent at home and has ever been and now is the Practice of Holland and Geneva And why all this Cry Godwin's Jewish Antiquity p. 112. Even the Jews had their Sabbath-days Journey and for my part I should sooner trust a Man that after the Service of the Day is over takes a harmless Diversion on a Sunday than him that runs from Sermon to Sermon and cheats his Neighbour when he comes home The Baker of Banbury that whipp'd his Cat for killing a Mouse on the Lord's Day came ofter to Sessions than any two of the Trade And this saith this Accuser is the Substance of his first Section till we come to the devout of it which he calls the Lip-work of every Prelatical Liturgist clapp'd together and quilted out of Scripture-Phrase c. And makes it the Policy of a Tyrant to counterfeit Religions As for Example Andronicus Comnenius the * Constantinople Bizantine Emperor who by A constant reading of Saint Paul's Epistles had so incorporated the Phrase and Stile into his familiar Letters that the Imitation seem'd to vie with the Original Yet this avail'd not to deceive the People of that Empire who notwithstanding his Saint's Vizard tore him to pieces for his Tyranny To the Malice of which I shall only make this return That as he travail'd with Iniquity he hath conceiv'd Mischief Psal 7.14 and brought forth Falshood When yet if he had gone no farther than his own time he might have spoken Truth though not cum Privilegio For what were all the Actions of those his Masters but Theatrical Hypocrisie A mere Shell and outside of Religion and Rebellion blanch'd and varnish'd with dissembled Sanctity And therefore instead of Andronicus he might have better instanc'd in Oliver Cromwell who had it to a Hair and never so fervently sought God as when he acted most strongly against him What he might have been at his Pen I know not but for knocking his Breast lifting up his Eyes attesting God and invoking Imprecations on himself if he did not that which he never intended he should have given Andronicus a Barr and an half and out-thrown him too though this by the way I must take leave to say it was not altogether Andronicus's Tyranny but his Usurpation and Murther of his Predecessor and Nephew Alexius Comnenius that gave him that Tragical Exit And again for he cannot speak without bitterness where the King says I intended not only to oblige my Friends but my Enemies also exceeding even the desires of those that were Factiously discontented if they did but pretend to any modest and sober Sense He says thus Poets never put more pious Words in the Mouth of any Person than of a Tyrant and I shall not instance an abstruse Author wherein the King might be less conversant but one whom we well knew was the Closet-Companion of these his Solitudes William Shakespear who brings in Richard the Third speaking in as high a strain of Piety and Mortification as is in any Passage of this Book c. And what 's this but mere Malice to expose the King to the Censure of the Rabble How A King and have such Books in his Closet As if he alone were confin'd to The Crumbs of Comfort The Sick-man's Salve and The Minc'd-meat of Divinity When Alexander for the most part carried Homer in his Pocket and Virgil Horace Terence were not least in request with Augustus nor do I think but there are many things in Mr. Shakespear that may be safer read than a Seditious Sermon Lastly he as opprobriously as infamously endeavours another blot to his Memory in rendring His Majesty so insensible of that sad hour which was upon him as immediately before his Death to pop into the Hand of that grave Bishop who attended him a Prayer stollen Word for Word from Sir Philip Sidney 's Arcadia a vain amatorious Poem as he calls it and that in a Language estrang'd to Humanity which never insults over even a Slave in Misery And therefore passing that Scurrillity for fear of being infected my self I say thus It seems improbable that he to whom as Solomon says of himself God had given to speak as he would Wisd 7.15 and conceive as is meet for the things to be spoken of should be guilty of so open a borrowing without some acknowledgment at least to the Author I said ere while that I saw and read a part of the King's Book the very next Morning after that execrable Murther to which I add this now and with that regard as if it were my last that it was not many days before I bought it my self and frequently read it with the best attention I waâ— capable of nor do I remember to have met iâ— in that Quarto Impression And I have an Oâ—ctavo of a later Edition now before me in which it is not However it first came into the Book it makes so little to the purpose in this Place that nothing but Envy Hatred Malice and alâ— Uncharitableness had ever thought of it unlesâ— as Malitia supplet aetatem Malice supplies Years he also did it for want of Argument But stay And I 'll suppose for once thaâ— His Majesty did give this Prayer to the Bishop and if he did where lies the Scandal The Prayer 't is true is the Prayer of Pamela under Imprisonment Sir Ph. Sid. Arcadia 248. but withal so Divine a Meditation that it speaks the Soul of the Honourable Composer What is that Thought of Mr. Sherley's Only the Actions of the Just Smell sweet and Blossom in their Dust the worse that it is in one of his Plays Or is it a just Quarrel to the English Liturgy that it is taken out of the Roman Missal St. Paul convinces the Athenians of the unknown God Arts 17.28 whom they ignorantly worshipp'd from their own Poets Titus 1.12 And in his Epistle to Titus does not bid him Cretizare cum Cretensibus but
should neither censure them rigidly nor deny them the same mildness with which we commiserate the Infirmities of other Men Or at least if we must be prying and poring be so just to our selves as not to publish the Miscarriage and suppress the Vertue In a word let him that would make a true Judgment of this oppress'd King first consider his Circumstances and then tell me whether where he stretch'd his Authority he had not been first necessitated to it by those that murther'd him and whether the worst of his Actions were not superabundantly expiated with many good which our Accuser has so every where endeavour'd to silence and supplied with Calumnies that I 'll close all with that Abstract of Seneca's Epistles Xerxes 's Arrows may darken the Day but they cannot stâ—â—ke the Sun Waves may dash themselves upon a Rock but not break it Temples may be Prophan'd and Demolish'd but the Deity still remains untouch't THE CONTENTS THE Introduction page 1 Chap. I. Vpon the King's calling his last Parliament p. 13 Chap. II. Vpon the Earl of Strafford's Death p. 29 Chap. III. Vpon his going to the House of Commons p. 36 Chap. IV. Vpon the Insolency of the Tumults p. 41 Chap. V. Vpon his Majesty's passing the Bill for the Triennial Parliaments and after settling this during the Pleasure of the two Houses p. 50 Chap. VI. Vpon his Majesty's retirement from Westminster p. 57 Chap. VII Vpon the Queen's Departure and Absence out of England p. 65 Chap. VIII Vpon His Majesty's repulse at Hull and the Fates of the Hothams p. 66 Chap. IX Vpon the Listing and raising Armies against the King p. 69 Chap. X. Vpon their seizing the King's Magazines Forts Navy and Militia p. 73 Chap. XI Vpon the Nineteen Propositions first sent to the King and more afterwards p. 76 Chap. XII Vpon the Rebellion and Troubles in Ireland p. 83 Chap. XIII Vpon the Calling in of the Scots and their coming p. 86 Chap. XIV Vpon the Covenant p. 91 Chap. XV. Vpon the many Jealousies rais'd and Scandals cast upon the King to stir up the People against him p. 98. Chap. XVI Vpon the Ordinance against the Common-Prayer Book p. 10â— Chap. XVII Of the differences between the King and the two Houses in point of Church-Government p. 10â— Chap. XVIII Vpon the Uxbridge Treaty anâ— other Offers made by the King p. 11â— Chap. XIX Vpon the various Events of the War Victories and Defeats p. 1â—â— Chap. XX. Vpon the Reformations of the Times p. 11â— Chap. XXI Vpon his Majesty's Letters taken anâ— divulg'd p. 11â— Chap. XXII Vpon His Majesty's leaving Oxford and going to the Scots p. 12â— Chap. XXIII Vpon the Scots delivering the King to the English and his Captivity at Holdenby p. 12â— Chap. XXIV Vpon their denying His Majâ—sty thâ— Attendance of his Chaplains viz. Dr. Juxon Bishop of London Dr. Duppa Bishop of Salisbury Dr. Sheldon Dr. Hammond Dr. Holdsworth Dr. Sanderson Dr. Turner Dr. Heywood p. 125 Chap. XXV Penitential Meditations and Vowâ— in the King 's Solitude at Holdenby p. 126 Chap. XXVI Vpon the Army's sâ—rprizâ—d of thâ— King at Holdenby and the ensuing Distraction in the Two Houses the Army and the City p. 127 Chap. XXVII To the Prince of Wales p. 134 Chap. XXVIII Meditations upon Death after thâ— Votes of Non-addresses and His Majesty's closer Imprisonment in Carisbrook-Castle p. 135 VINDICIAE CAROLINAE OR A VINDICATION OF 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Introduction IN every Action consider the End so shalt thou not be ashamed of thy Work was a wise Saying and had this Effect upon me That I no sooner resolv'd with my self to make some Reply to this Answer of Mr. Milton's than I began to consider three things and as I thought necessary for the better carrying it on Which in short are these 1. To what End this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was first Written 2. To what End and that after a forty odd Years interval it came to be reprinted at Amsterdam too and with an Advertisement before it 3. What end I propos'd to my self in making this Reply I. As to the first let the Book speak for it self and there are few Leaves in it but visibly declare that Milton's end was To justifie the unparallell'd Villainies of his own time Et quorun pars magna fuit Wherein the best of Monarchies was shook to pieces by the worst oâ— Men A King whose only Crime was his being King disarm'd by one Faction and in thaâ— condition left to the growing Designs of another and the merciless Cruelty of both Thâ— Fountain of all Law Justice and Honour publickly arraign'd sentenc'd and assassinated bâ— the Tail of the People and that too under the false detorted Names of Law Justice and Honour of the Nation and God as impiously brought in against himself to Patronize thâ— Parricide to defend the Tyrranny of an usurping Commonwealth against their naturaâ— Liege Lord and Sovereign to vindicatâ— those dreggs of Mankind from what thâ— World then thought them and a later Statutâ— has since declared them 1. Cor. 2. c. 14. viz. The most traiterous Conspiracies and armed power of Usurping Tyrants and Execrable Perfidiouâ— Traitors And lastly as if it were not enough to have murther'd Him in his Authority as 〈◊〉 King and his Person as a Man to murtheâ— Him over again in His Fame and Memory This Milton the Gall and bitterness of whosâ— Heart had so taken away his Taste and Judgment that to write and be scurrillous werâ— the same with him is dead 't is true and shoulâ— have been forgotten by me but that in thiâ— new Impression he yet speaketh To write and be scurâ—illous I said were the same with him Witness his Pro populo Anglicano Desensioâ— against Salmatius a learned Knight hiâ— Defensionem Regiam and who as such might have deserv'd the Civility of a modest Language Yet thus he begins with him Quamquam tibi vano homini ventoso multum arrogantiae multum superbiae Salmati c. and further calls him Grammaticaster Stramineus Eques and the like stuff which proves nothing but the insolence of the Writer That he wrote good Latin will be readily granted but with this remark That it was Billingsgate in Rome As also That he was a Person of a large thought and wanted not Words to express those Conceptions but never so truly as when the Argument and his deprav'd temper met together Witness his Paradise lost where he makes the Devil Who though fallen had not given Heaven for lost speak at that rate himself would have done of the Son of this Royal Martyr upon his Restauration had he thought it convenient when in his Paradise regain'd he is so indifferent poor and starvling as if he never expected any benefit by it But enough of him and I wish I had not met this just Occasion of having said so much II. To what end it was reprinted c. Glory had departed from the Israel of those
about Six Thousand tumultuously flock to Westminster crying Justice Justice against the Earl of Strafford Which within a day or two they second with a Petition On which the Earl less valuing his Life than the quiet of the Kingdom writes a Letter to the King whereby to set his Conscience at Liberty and by his own Consent prays him to pass the Bill which in a few days after was by Commission to the Earl of Arundel and three other Lords accordingly done with this Proviso That no Judge or Judges c. shall adjudge or interpret any act or thing to be Treason nor hear or determine any Treason any other way than they should or ought to have done before the making of this Act and as if this Act had never been had or made A modest Confession and that nothing but an Act of Parliament could affect him Nor unlike that Clause in an Ordinance of the King and Lords for the Banishment c. of the Lady Alice Pierce a Favourite of King Edward the Third's viz. That this Ordinance in this Special Case Mr. Seldâ—n's Privilege of Baronage 71 which may extend to a Thousand other Persons shall in no other case but this be taken in Example However after the Bill was pass'd the King as deeming They will reverence my Son wrote a Letter to the House of Lords with his own Hand and sent it by the Prince of Wales in which he interceeds for that Mercy to the Earl which many Kings would not have scrupled to have given themselves But 't was resolv'd and nothing would do And thus between Accumulative and Constructive Treason nor better prov'd than I have shewn before Sic inclinavit heros caput Taken from Mr. Cleveland Belluae multorum Capitum Merces favoris Scottici praeter pecunias Nec vicit tamen Anglia sed oppressit Or if my Reader had rather have it in English take it from that happy Flight of Sir Richard Fanshaw on that Occasion And so fell Rome herself oppress'd at length By the united World and her own Strength And yet not to leave his Memory in the Dust there is an Act of Parliament that vindicates all I have said in the matter and that is The Act for reversing this Attainder 13 14. Car. 2. c. 29. which says thus That the Bill of Attainder was purposely made to Condemn him upon Accumulative and Constructive Treason none of the said Treasons being Treason apart and so could not be in the whole if they had been prov'd as they were not And the Act further says It was procured by an armed Tumult the names of Fifty nine of the Commons that opposed the Bill posted by the name of Straffordians and sent up to the Peers at a time when a great part of them were absent by reason of those Tumults and many of those present protested against it For which Causes and to the end that Right be done to the Memory of that deceased Earl it was enacted c. That the said Act c. be repeal'd c. And all Records and proceedings of Parliament relating to the said Attainder be cancell'd and taken off the File c. to the intent the same may not be visible in after-Ages or brought in Example to the prejudice of any Person whatever Provided that this Act shall not extend to the future questioning of any Person c. however concern'd in this Business or who had any hand in the Tumults or disorderly procuring the Act aforesaid c. A shrewd suspicion that they thought that Act of Attainder was not so regularly obtain'd as it ought to have been for if it had what needed that Proviso And having duely considered this Act I think the Wonder will cease why the King was so dissatisfied in his Conscience touching the giving his Assent to that Bill of Attainder His Speech on the Scaffold or that the Lord Capel so publickly begg'd forgiveness of God for having given his Consent toward it At least I presume it may startle any Man that from such repeated Calumnies has not yet come to be of our Answerer's Opinion That there may be a Treason against the Commonwealth as well as against the King only A Treason not mention'd in 25 Edw. 3. or in any Statute since saving those of the late Usurper's making inasmuch as no Estate or Estates of the Realm make any thing of themselves but as joyned to their Figure the King And therefore passing the King 's most detested Conspiracy as he calls it against the Parliament and Kingdom by seizing the Tower of London bringing the English Army out of the North c. I leave him and his Stuff together and come to the Third CHAP. III. Vpon His going to the House of Commons I Said ere-while His Majesty might think the Lords would reverence his Son nor was in to be doubted whether the Commons would himself Especially considering the business he went about It was faith the King to demand Justice upon the Five Members whom upon just motives and pregnant grounds I had charged and needed nothing to such Evidence as could have been produced against them save only a free and legal Tryal which was all I desired Which fill'd indifferent Men with Jealousies and Fears yea and many of my Friends resented as a motion rising rather from Passion than Reason See says our Answerer He confesses it to â—an act which most Men whom he calls his Enemies cried shame upon indifferent Men c. as before He himself in one of his Answers to both Houses made profession to be convinc'd that it was a plain breach of their Privilege Yet here like a rottâ— Building newly trimm'd over he represents it speciously and fraudulently to impose upon the simple Reader c. Words insolent enough without adding the rest though it had not been from his Matter if he had told that simple Reader in which Answer of his Majesties he might have found that Profession However for the discovery of the Truth on both sides it may not be amiss to make a few steps backward that considering the occasion we may the better judge of the thing It had been advis'd to the King by the then Privy-Council of Scotland to send the Book of Common-Prayer to be receiv'd and us'd in all Churches of that Kingdom The King's Declaration 1639. which was accordingly order'd And in the Month of July 1637. publickly read in the great Church of Edinburgh The Kirkmen took fire at it nor wanted there some in England to fan the Flame which in a short time got that head that they invade England but finding the design not ripe enough yet they humbly submit and the business is smother'd Whereas had those smoaking Brands been sufficiently quench'd they had not made a greater Eruption the next Year During this time the King had gotten into the matter and calls this Parliament with a real intention of quieting all They begin where the last Parliament
I have already shown And therefore for answer to what he says Chap. 14 That many Western Churches settled above Four Hundred Years ago in France c. have not admitted of Episcopacy among them The reason is obvious not that they would not admit Episcopacy but that they liv'd in a Catholick Country and so must either have Catholick Bishops or govern themselves as well as they might And if they have no Bishops they have something else that has the Power of Bishops though it be in many and thirty single Pence with us make a Half-Crown In a word they that would pull down Bishops and erect a new way of Government do as he that pulls down an old House and builds another of a new Fashion there 's a great deal of doe and a great deal of Trouble the old Rubbish must be carried away and new Materials must be brought Workmen must be provided and perhaps the old one might have serv'd as well CHAP. XVIII Vpon the Uxbridge Treaty and other Offers made by the King I look upon Treaties saith his Majesty as a retiring from Fighting like Beasts to argue like Men. And though I could seldom get the Opportunity I never wanted either desire or disposition to it And if says our Answerer he look'd upon Treaties as a retiring from Bestial Force to Humane Reason his first Aphorism here is in part deceiv'd for Men may treat like Beasts as well as fight When through dilatory purposes they come from fighting to undermining Thereby insinuating that such and no other was the end of all the King's Treaties But whos 's that degenerous way was and whether the King 's or the Houses we come to examine with this by the way that the Houses never desir'd any Treaty but when they were making their Recruits or foresaw the King would be upon them before they were ready for him if they could not divert him by a Treaty And such was this their Petition to him at Colebrook to vouchsafe a Treaty The Story lies thus The King had set up his Standard at Nottingham at which time Essex lay with his Army at Worcester to attend his Motion who finding his Forces not sufficient enough to give Essex Battle he went to Shrewsbury where he was quickly furnish'd and having appointed the Earl of Lindsey to be General marches towards London Essex seems to take no notice of it and makes no offer to stop him but as soon as he was gone by keeps close in his Rere The King to avoid being hemm'd in between Essex and the City of London turn'd upon him and gave him Battle at Edgehill in which whoever had the better of it Essex thought fit to get back for London which was so frighted that they had shut up their Shops and the Houses caused all the Train'd-Bands and Auxiliaries to be drawn together The King on the other hand unfortunately struck off to Oxford but continuing his former Resolves for London he again advances towards it and is met with the Petition before-mention'd at Colebrook but finding it nothing but a design to get time he forceth his way at Branford where he cut off three of their Regiments and by what Fate or Council I know not was again diverted for Oxford whither the North being generally reduc'd to his Obedience the Queen return'd from Holland His Arms successful in the West their own affairs half under Water and they Scots not yet come to their Assistance they send Commissioners to Treat but with such Propositions as they were sure would protract time but never be yielded unto And if he will not Essex and Waller had two Armies and they appear before Oxford but the design having been smelt before the Queen is sent into the West and himself marched towards Worcester on which Essex and Waller divide their Armies Essex goes into the West and Waller follows the King who turn'd upon him at Copredy Bridge and gave him a total Rout and forthwith follow'd Essex into Cornwall from whence Essex got off in a Boat for Plimouth and his Horse having broke through in the Nigâ—t the Foot were forc'd to lay down their Arms and upon conditions never more to bear Arms against the King were suffer'd to depart The King before this time had from Eveshaâ— desir'd and propounded a further Treaty for the full ending the matters in question July 4. 1644. but they had two Armies as was said before and thought it below them to return him an Answer However the King after this double Success thinks it no dishonour to renew his desires of a Treaty Sept. 8. 1644. and by a Message from Tavestock does it but to no purpose For what with the remains of Waller's Army Essex's Horse that broke through and the Foot whom they had Preach'd into new Arms by perswading them the Conditions were unlawful and consequently invalid the Train'd-bands and Auxiliaries they had form'd a considerable Army before the King could get out of the West but there also being disappointed in the Success a Treaty is appointed at Vxbridge Jan. 30. 1644. where the Commissioners on both sides met but those for the Houses limited to twenty days This Treaty is the Argument of this Chapter and though I have been longer in coming to it than might regularly become the shortness of a Reply yet because it contributes much to the discovery of the Intrigue and where the fault lay and whether the King or the Houses may be charg'd more justly with it I may be the more excuseable To be short the Treaty began and the King made such large Concessions that if they had met him one third of the way See the Treaty at large in the Folio Book of the King's Works Ecl. 512 it was impossible but it must have concluded in a Peace For it was as also says our Answerer come to these three Heads Episcopacy the Militia and Ireland To which His Majesty's Commissioners thus answer'd That the first as it was propos'd took off all dependency of the Clergy upon His Majesty proposing only the Bishops Lands to be settled on him subject nevertheless to the disposal of the Houses whereas all the Lands of Bishops Deans and Chapters c. if those Corporations must be dissolv'd belong to the King in his own Right As to the Militia as it was proposed the King was so totally divested of the Regal Power of the Sword that he would be no more able to defend any of his Allies than his own Dominions from Rebellion and Invasion and consequently the whole Power of Peace and War the acknowledg'd and undoubted Right of the Crown is taken from him And as to Ireland the Power of nominating the Lord Lieutenant c. and other Officers there and in that the dependency of that Kingdom would as it was propos'd be taken from him And to add to all it was farther propos'd to bereave him of the Power of a Father in the Education and Marriage of
his Children and of a Master in rewarding his Servants And so what between pretended want of Instructions and the twenty days spun out to nothing the Treaty broke off as well it might with them that came prepar'd not to yield any thing However his Majesty's Commissioners desir'd an Enlargement of time but it would not be granted And to Salve it on their side our Answerer runs to his common Topick That the King had nothing no not so much as Honour but of the People's Gift yet talks on equal terms with the grand Representative of that People for whose sake he was made King And is one of the modestest Expressions of his whole Book and which I have so fully answer'd before Chap. 6 that I need not add any thing farther to it here CHAP. XIX Vpon the various Events of the War Victories and Defeats THIS Chapter relates nothing to the History of those times and is a brief but pathetical Account of his Majesty under those varieties of Events wherein he acquitted himself Justum tenacem propositi virum Quem Civium ardor prava jubentium Mente non quassit solida And verified his own Words That he wish'd no greater advantage by the War than to bring his Enemies to Moderation and his Friends to Peace As also those other That if he had yielded less he had been oppos'd less and if he had denied more he had been more obey'd And if the Word of a King may not pass in his own Case take in all Histories of him and you 'll find him so little made up of Accidents or subject to them that he sacrific'd his Particular to the advantage of the whole and more regarded an honest Life than a safe one Nor has our Accuser's railing given me Ground to take notice of him in this Chapter other than when he says His Lips acquitted the Parliament not long before his Death of all the Blood spilt in this War which also he had said before and to what I then urg'd I only add this now That His Majesty at the Treaty of the Isle of Wight seeing the unreasonableness of their demands made some Queries upon them of which this was one See tho King's Book in Folio Fol. 608. Whether his acknowledgement of the Blood that had been spilt in the late Wars nothing being yet concluded or binding could be urg'd so far as to be made use of by way of Evidence against him or any of his Party And whether this be an acquitting the Parliament for other I am sure there is none I appeal to any Man His Majesty came as near the Wind as with Honour he could till finding at last that nothing would do as stripp'd as he was of every thing but his Vertue and the Freedom of his Mind he justified to the World that however he was within the common Chance he was not under the Dominion of Fortune CHAP. XX. Vpon the Reformations of the Times I Need not tell my Reader the Argument of this Chapter the Title speaks it and As his Majesty was well pleas'd with this Parliament's first Intentions to reform what the indulgence of Times and corruption of Manners might have deprav'd so saith he I am sorry to see how little regard was had to the good Laws establish'd and the Religion settled which ought to be the first Rule and Standard of Reforming But our Answerer will by no means hear those two Bugbears of Novelty and Perturbation an Expression his Majesty uses in this Chapter the ill looks and noise of which have been frequently set on foot to divert and dissipate the Zeal of Reformers Aâ— it was the Age before in Germany by the Pope and by our Papists here in Edward the Sixth's time Whereas Christ foretold us his Doctrine would 〈◊〉 be receiv'd without the Censure of Novelty and many great Commotions But with his Favour he neither shews us that this Parliament had the same Authority which our Saviour had or that they proceeded his way For besides that He came not to destroy the Law Mat. 5.17 but to fullfil it in all Righteousness he commanded this to his Disciples Habete sal in vobis Mar. 9.50 pacem inter vos Have Salt i. e. Wisdom in your selves and Peace one with another And as he knew God was the God of Order not of Confusion he left the Care of his Church to his Disciples but no where that I find to reform it by Tumults or under the Face of Religion to destroy the Power of it as must inevitably follow when against known settled establish'd Laws Men shall take upon them to reform by the Lump without discerning what things are intermingled like Tares among Wheat Lord â—â—â—on which have their Roots so wrapp'd and entangled together that the one cannot be pull'd up without endangering the other and such as are mingled but as Chaff and Corn which need but a Fan to sift and sever them And that his Majesty was not averse to a due Reformation appears in this when he says I have offer'd to put all differences in Church-affairs and Religion to the free Consultation of a Synod or Convocation rightly chosen So offered saith our Answerer all Popish Kings heretofore And let it be produced what good hath been done by Synods from the first times of Reformation And truly if he knows none I offer none Though methinks he ought not in Gratitude to have forgotten their own Assembly of Divines Men of unknown Parts and so Instrumental to the carrying on of the Cause that if they had not kept blowing the Coals the Fire would have quickly gone out of it self But what talk we of Gratitude to a Man of those Times the Fish was caught and what more use of the Net And yet if the Houses had with the King submitted those differences to a Synod rightly chosen where had been the hurt Flannel-Weavers I must confess are not the best at making Love yet we have an old Proverb fabrilia fabri Every Man in his own Trade And who more fit to judge of Church-matters than Churchmen But this had been to uphold an Antichristian Hierarchy and what need that when scarce a Man of our Reformers but was a Church by himself Câ—mb Brit. Fol. 509. And why might not they bid as fair now as the Army of God and the Church in King John's time the Holy League in France the Sword of the Lord John Knox and Gideon in Scotland John of Leyden and Knipperdoling in Germany Tantum Religio potuit That successful Pretence of Mankind Religion Absalom mask'd his Rebellion with a Vow at Hebron and Herod his design of Murther with another of Worship CHAP. XXI Vpon His Majesty's Letters taken and divulg'd I Have heard of a malicious Stab that contrary to the intent of the hand that gave it open'd an Impostume And such was the barbarity of this Action of which also it may be as truly said Vna eademque manus
That all Kings are the Lord 's Anointed it were yet absurd to think that the Anointment of God should be as it were a Charm against Law I know not what he means by that all Kings Saul was David was and particularly laments the fall of Saul As if he had not been anointed with Oil. 2 Sam. 1.11 And I never found any reason to doubt but that all Christian Hereditary Kings are the same too and consequently exempt from the Law forasmuch as concerneth the coactive force of the Law though not forasmuch as concerneth the directive Power of the Law Lord â—leâ—meâ—'s post â—â—ti 106. Subjects are bound to fullfil the Law by necessity of Compulsion but the Prince only by his own Will in regard of the common good For seeing the Law is but a kind of Organ or Instrument of the Power that governeth Hist of the World 29â— it seems saith Sir Walter Rawleigh that it cannot extend it self to bind any one whom no humane power can controul or lay hold of And therefore till I find better Authority for this his Iustice than he has yet given I shall look upon it as I do on the rest of his Book a thing meerly stuffed out to deceive the People If Subjects also by the Law of the Church so much approv'd by this King be invested with a Power of Judicature both without and against their King it will be firm and valid against him though pretending and by them acknowledg'd next and immediately under Christ Supream Head and Governour But what King or Queen of England besides Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth and Queen Mary for her two first Years ever us'd that word Head Or in what Age was it that the Church of England ever pretended a power of Judicature both without and against their Kings He says if they are invested with such a Power but shews not that they are and instead thereof tells us that St. Ambrose excommunicated Theodosius the Emperour which he calls a Spiritual putting to death The like did St. German by Vortiger And two other Kings of Wales excommunicated by their respective Bishops Subjects of those Kings And admitting it I never heard that any of those Bishops ever perswaded the People that it was lawful to Murther those Kings or how does it make out this his Iustice against the King 'T is a shrewd sign a Man is sinking when he takes hold of Twigs Then he comes up with the particular Laws and Acts of Greece Athens Sparta Rome c. But what 's that to England must we be govern'd as they were Their Laws were for it the Laws of England directly against it Nor is there any Country whatever but has its particular Laws or Customs If a Man steal an Oxe or a Horse in the Isle of Man it is no Felony 4 Inst 285. for having no Woods the Offender cannot hide them but if he steal a Capon or a Pig he shall be hang'd for it But what need we saith he search after the Laws of other Lands for what is so fully and so plainly set down lawful in our own Where antient Books tell us Bracton Fleta and others that the King is under the Law and inferiour to his Parliament As for Bracton the Words that he means may be perhaps these Rex habet Superiorem Deum scilicet Item Legem per quam factus est Rex Item curiam suam viz. Comites Barones The King hath a Superiour to wit God But doth not say Superiours in the Plural Number Also a Law by which he is made King i. e. He hath a Law but says not a word of Punishment Also his Court to wit his Earls and Barons Not a Court as if it were of some others Constitution but a Court of his own Where the word habet in Propriety of Latin is necessarily understood 1 Inst 1. Or otherwise he would be contradictory to himself when he saith Omnis sub Rege Bra. l. 4. c. 24. S. 5. c. Every Man is under the King and he is under none but God He is not inferiour to his Subjects and hath no Peer in his Realm But saith no where that he is under the Law and inferiour to his Parliament which word his sufficiently denotes where the Superiority lies And for Fleta he saith Lib. 1. c. 17. f. 16. None can judge in Temporal Matters but only the King and his Substitutes Id. F. 66. And he hath his Court in his Council in his Parliaments c. And for the Mirrour of Justice a Book written in Edward the First 's time that says Mirâ— 232. Jurisdiction is the chief Dignity that appertains to the King And for what concerns the King's Oath it has been several times altered since that And what this King's Oath was I have particularly shewn before Chap. 6 Those objected Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy we swore not to his Person but as it was invested with his Authority The same said the Spencers in Edward the Second's time but it was condemned for Treason by two Acts of Parliament 7 Coke 11 12. And Sir Edw. Coke calls it a damnable detestable and execrable Treason For Corps natural le Roy politique sont un Corps Plowd 213.234.242 and are inseparable and indivisible for both make but one King 4 Inst 46. The death of the King dissolveâ— a Parliament Now if this referr'd only to his politick Capacity the Parliament would continue after his Death because a Body Politick never dies And now as the Covenant once help'd the Houses at a dead lift it must do our Accuser the like Job at parting or this his Iustice will be little beholding to it Certainly no discreet Person can imagine it should bind us to him in any stricter Sense than those Oaths formerly And truly I must approve him when he deals ingenuously no certainly it did not for they broke all three The intent of the Covenant as it was to extirpate Prelacy to preserve the Rights of Parliament and the Liberties of the Kingdom so they intended so far as it might consist with these to preserve the King's Person and Authority but not otherwise for that had been to swear us into Labirynths and Repugnancies We vow'd farther to bring Delinquents to open Tryal and condign Punishment So that to have done so by the King hath not broke the Covenant but it would have broke the Covenant to have sav'd him the chief Actor as they thought him at the time of taking that Covenant Ye have heard what he says and I leave it to every Man to apply it as he pleases But because this matter has already taken up a whole Chapter between us I referr my Reader to what I have there said Chap. 14 And now to close all and if there be any Man has a Mind to learn how to break Oaths by Providence and forswear himself to the Glory of God To say Grace to the action be it never so ungodly and give Thanks for the Success be it never so wicked To carry on a Design under the name of Publick Good and make the slavery of a Nation the liberty of the People Or in a word to hold forth any useful though notorious Untruth with convenient Obstinacy until he believes it himself and so renders it no Sin let him read this Book of Mr. Milton's and if he does not improve upon it he may thank God for it FINIS