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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25601	An Answer to the Lord George Digbies apology for himself published Jan 4, Anno Dom. 1642 put in the great court of equity otherwise called the court of conscience, upon the 28th of the same moneth / by Theophilus Philanax Gerusiphilus Philalethes Decius.	Decius, Theophilus Philanax Gerusiphilus Philalethes.; Bristol, George Digby, Earl of, 1612-1677. Lord George Digbie's apology for himself.; Bristol, George Digby, Earl of, 1612-1677. Two letters, the one from the Lord Digby, to the Queens Majestie ; the other from Mr. Thomas Elliot.; Elliot, Thomas.	1642 (1642)	Wing A3421; ESTC R8961	70,751	74

that a man may sooner lose himself then save you that hath the courage to attempt it by going against the stream yet I have so much compassion of your undeserved sufferings in this matter except in that point of discretion I have already noted that I am resolved to adventure my se●● in hope your Lordship will not be wanting either to ●●●r selfe or to me in case your Lordship should chance to see me carryed down in another as violent a channell or it may be in the same for doing my good will to help you Which that I may do with the lesse hazard and more hope of successe I must first give the world notice of an error of your Lordships in this matter of Episcopacy from which all the other you have since committed in that businesse have bin derived although I observe that as well in that Speech as in your present Apology your Lordship hath studiously concealed that mistaken principle which hath bin so fertile of other mistakes in you and of you And that is the opinion that Episcopacy was erected by the Apostles and consequently in your Lordships judgement so authorized Iure Divino that it may not be altered whereof your Lordship was once so confident that you wisht it might be made a part of the Catechisme of our Church if I do not misremember For it stands so in my memory ever since I had a cursory sight of the Letters which pass'd between your Lordship and your Cousin Sir Kellam Digby having at that time observed it an hyperbollicall expression which in matters of Religion it is not alwayes safe to use If your Lordship be still of the same judgement which I hope you are not let me presume humbly to advise you to resume the study of both those points by an impartiall perusall of the Bookes have been partly written and partly set forth in the liberty of these last yeers which I am therefore in hope will be sufficient to alter your mind in that matter because they have done mine in the former which is the fairer of them who came to the reading of the Arguments against it with as much prejudice as your Lordship can do having contracted it in part by the great reverence I ever did and do yet bear to the great wisdom learning and piety of Mr. Hooker whom I knew and heard when I was a boy and with whom some friends of mine who in their time were in the number of the ablest men of this Kingdom for wisdom and learning had extraordinary friendship and were also of the same judgement with him In part by the like reverence I bore to Doctor Downham since Bishop in Ireland who put forth a Sermon to shew the Jurisd●ction of Bishops over Presbyters was instituted by the Apostles when I was a young man at Cambridge where he was before that in great and good fame but chiefly by the presumption that the Addresses make at the foot of the Epistles to Timothy and Titus as B●shops were of Saint Pauls own writing because I found them in my Greek Testament For if that be first admitted there is some appearance of their having beene Diocesans by the authority thereby given them to appoint and rule over Presbyters in the Churches committed to their charge But if this be an abuse as I have been convinced that it is since I returned with an hoary head to a new examination of this Book controversie when the sword was taken up to decide it in Scotland then there will be no firme ground for a Diocesan Bishop found in the whole Scripture but much to the contrary as hath been learnedly proved by Master Bayne that succeeded Mr. Perkins at Cambridge in the Answer he made to Doctor Downham written soon after which I never saw till these last yeers brought it to light but hath bin the Treasury out of which the Scriblers of this licentious age have stollen almost all they have of worth to which they have added little besides unfit language which they had not from him whose name I cannot suffer to passe my pen without this Elogy that he was the most accomplished Preacher I ever yet heard in all my life having heard very many of many Nations and the man that to mee seemed most in Heaven while he prayed that my eyes ever saw I beseech your Lordship to take the paines to read his short Tract upon my recommendation and that of Gersom Bucer upon the same subject not despising the rest which have shewed themselves on either side in this controversie since some of our Prelates have not been ashamed indicere bellum Episcopale and then to do me the honour to let me know whether you persevere in that you wrote to your Cousin Sir Ken●lme for I have cause to believe it is a tenet set on foot in our Church at the beginning of the raign of of our late Soveraign of famous memory not because it was believed by them that directed others to broach it among us but out of a politique design wherein the Jesuits had an unseen hand invented first out of fear that his Majesty who had abolished Episcopacy in Scotland might at one time or other bee ingaged to doe the like in this Kingdom and when they found it tooke with his Majesty then imployed further to work upon his pious and bountifull heart for the reintroducing of Episcopacy in that Kingdom an Act of Royall magnificence and princely piety and if your Lordships opinion of the necessity of Episcopacy in all Churches as founded in divine right can be maintained at the height as no doubt was powerfully instilled into his Majesty an Act as well pleasing to God as glorious before men And in the raigne of the King our Soveraign that now is whom God long preserve it is evident that the same Doctrine hath been imployed to the ingaging of his Maje●ty notwithstanding all the reluctancy of his most eminent clemency to undertake a War against our brethren and his most loyall subjects of that his native Countrey with an upright heart For admitting your Lordships Tenet which it is manifest was infused into the King as an undoubted truth there could be no question of the justice of that War on his Majesties part of which I forbear to make any further mention least it should prove a controvension of the Act of oblivion although I humbly conceive there is something besides exceeding necessary to be thought upon by His Maiesty and that Kingdom and this seeing God Almighty is not bound by that act O Lord whether do we run through the darknesse that is in us if we once depart but a little from the light of thy holy word And where can we stay our wandring steps When both the war with this and the troubles in that Kingdom were through his Maiesties goodnesse and wisdom at length sweetly composed by an utter and eternall abolition of Episcopacy there as Antichristian in the opinion of that Church yet

AN ANSWER TO The Lord George Digbies Apology for Himself Published JAN 4. Anno Dom. 1642. Put into the great Court of Equity Otherwise called THE COURT OF CONSCIENCE upon the 28th of the same Moneth BY Theophilus Philanax Gerusiphilus Philalethes Decius Woe to the world because of offences for it must needs be that offences come but woe to the man by whom they come MATTH. 18.7 Woe to thee that spoilest and thou wast not spoiled when thou shalt cease to spoil thou shalt be spoiled ISAY 33. 1. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword Here is the patience and faith of the Saints REV. 13. 10. Neverthelesse when the son of man cometh shall he finde faith on the earth LUKE 18. 8. LONDON Printed for A. R. 1642. THE ANSVVER TO THE Lord George Digbies Apology for himself published JAN 4. Anno Dom. 1642. LORD DIGBIES APOLOGY IT may be wondred at that after well nigh a yeers groaning under the most insupportable burthen of publike displeasure and censure I should now consider my self so much as in a generall calamity to make an Apologie to the world or should hope that at a time when so great clouds of jealousie and disesteem hang over persons of the most cleer and unblemished reputations any thing I can say may reconcile me to those affections which have been transported with so much violence to my prejudice But whosoever knoweth me well and the great trouble of minde I indured when I found my s●lf by what demerit God is my judge I cannot guesse fallen from that proportion of esteem with my Cou●try of which I was prouder then I can be of any worldly preferment into so ●minent a degree of disfavour with the representative body ther●of upon whose wisdom and Authority no man hath looked with more rev●rence and veneration that I was marked out as an Enemy to the Commonw●alth I am sure cannot but expect from me some discovery of that sence and that I should at least indeavour to distinguish my misfortunes from my faults whereby such who are not engaged in a peremptory uncharitablenesse may finde cause to change the Opinion they have taken upon trust of me Nor am I out of hope that the experience men have since had of the times inclination to calumny by declining of so many persons of Honour and integrity in the popular estimation may at the last open a way to so much justice and ingenuity on my behalf that all me● may discern in their own right that if they shall so credulously consent upon geeerall discourses to sacrifice a third mans honour and reputation they shall open a door to let in ruine to themselves and may quickly lose the advantage of their own innocence I shall begin my unfortunate story from the beginning of this Parliament refle●ting no further back upon the precedent then in a remembrance of the great comfort I then received in my Countries acceptation of my first attempts● in its service at a time as some were pleased to expresse it when the Court was at the highest whether to work upon mens ambitions or fears Before that time I am sure I was as unacquainted with Action as with Envie having kept more company with books then with men and being so well content with that society that I had as little ambition as merit to improve my condi●ion To this Parliament I was sent on the b●half of the Country wherein I liv●d and truly if I brought any passion or affection thither with me it was my former warmth improved against those pressures and the persons who begot those pressures which were grievous to the people and against these I will without vanity say that I brought as great a resolution to discharge my consci●nce and my duty as any man in that Assembly and had the happinesse for some moneths to receive that testimony My conversation was and I made or ind●avoured to make my friendships with those whose experience and abilities were most eminent for the publike service and to the reputation and authority of these men I conf●sse for a while I gave my s●lf up with as much submis●●on as a man could without resigning the use of his own understanding In any thing that was necessary or but probably pretended to be necessary for the ●ommonwealth we never differed in the least degree but in improvements in ●●●ll alterations which were to be governed by prudentiall motives we were ●ot alwayes of one minde And whosoever remembreth the passages of that time must call to minde that the first declination I sufferd from the interest I seemd to have was in the businesse of the Church in which having bad frequent consultations with the chiefest agents for a Reformation and finding ●o thr●e men to agree upon what they would have in the place of that they all resolved to remove I agreed not with the prevailing sense ●aving not hardi●esse enough ●o incline to a mutation which would evidently have so great an in●●uen●● upon the peace pros●erity and interest of the whole kingdom And thus from t●e first debate of E●iscopacy upon the London Petition all men 〈◊〉 the date of my unm●rited favour began to expire ANSWER MY LORD YOur Lordships Apology published the fourth of Ianuary hath at length found the way into the Wildern●sse where I dwell and I shall hereby give your Lordship and the world an account of the effect it hath upon me with that freedome which becometh a most humble but faithfull ser●●nt of your Lordships and a man that hath sit consideration of a thing which certainly is sufficiently understood by all men and yet by the little regard had thereunto may seem a mystery of State which is that as this Kingdom remaining in that admirable constitution wherein it hath been founded and maintained by the wisdom of our Ancestors cannot be happy till there be a perfect right understanding settled between the King and the Parliament so there is little hope of our recovering such an intelligence between them so long as those persons which are in most credit with the one are still in least with the other rising in their respective favours like Buckets in a Well which hath hitherto been the peculiar infelicity of his Majesties Raign as the contrary● was the felicity of that of Queen Elizabeth of glorious memory which His Majesty and we all sigh after and a great part of the cause thereof If therefore we have enough of the present miseries under which we lye groaning almost at the last gaspe in stead of pursuing private animosities and fomenting publick jealousies which hath bin our work too long the Court ought to use all possible endeavours to possesse His Majesty with a good opinion of the Parliament and of the eminent persons in both Houses thereof and they ought to labour as hard to bring His Majesty and those Ministers of his upon whom he reposeth

advantaged by your absence If the King should declare Himselfe and retire to a safe place you should be able to wait upon him from thence as well as out of any part of England over and above the service which you might do his Maiesty there in the meane time In the same letter to Sir Lewis from Middleburg you declare that your purpose to remain in that retired place and condition was only till you received instructions from their Maiesties which sure were not very necessary for your employment in a retired private life you desire him to hasten your sayd instructions unto you by some safe hand you desire him to send you a Cypher of which there could be no great need for your giving him an account how you spent your vacant hours Or if there were yet sure that was not the reason why you besought the Queens Maiesty to vouchafe you a Cypher or why you would not adventure to write to her Maiesty but by expresses till such time as you had a Cypher But why do I wast time and paper in making such inferences In that letter of your Lordships to her Maiesty dated from Middleburg the 21 of January you shew your selfe indeed very confident that if His Maiesty after all he had lately done should betake himself to the easiest and compliantest way of Accommodation you should serve his Maiesty more by your absence then by all your industry to which darke expression I will give no light But withall you shew that if the King should betake himselfe to a safe place you should then live in impatience patience and misery till you wayted on her Maiesty so short-breath'd was your resolution to lead a private retired life on that side the Sea Yet truely how long you lived in that manner I have not heard But it should seeme it was not many weeks for by the tenth of March your Lordship had been so long at the Hague that you thought your selfe very sufficiently instructed and able to informe her Maiesty of the state of that place both in point of affection and interest Quaere in relation to what which considering the many Provinces and towns and persons to be enquired after there before any good judgement could be made of the state of that place in either of the respects above mentioned and the reservednesse of that Nation especialy toward strangers I dare say would have asked some other very busie man three very busie weeks But God hath given your Lordship much quicknesse of wit and your great industry and paines in the study of books hath made the study of men a sport to you in which it is certain that some man may do more in a day thē another man can do in a yeer There is therefore no certain inference to be made of the time you had spent at the Hague by the number of talents you had gained there in comparison of the improvement might have been made by some other man But when in your letter to the Queens Majesty dated at the Hague before her Majesties coming thither you say you had not so much as mentioned any businesse to her Majesty since you left England may we not thence lawfully inferre that there was some businesse committed to your knowledge at least which you might have mentioned to her Majesty And sure my Lord when your Lordship wrote to the Kings Maiesty with that hardinesse which you thought his affairs and complexion required though every body knowes your Lordship never had the honour to be a Counsellor yet I believe most men will believe that you either presumed to interpose in his Maiesties affairs without being questioned which you say you never did or that His Maiesty had entrusted you with some part of his affairs on that side the sea from whence you wrote or which is worst for you that in some affairs then on the Carpet your Lordship was a very secret and a principall Counsellor if his Maiesty sent to Zealand or Holland to demand your good advice about them having my Lord your father and so many other able Counsellors at that time not farre from him But I will enquire no further what businesse you had or did beyond the sea though perhaps it were possible to make an unhappy guesse at it by the two notes of armes found among your papers I come to your Letters written from thence the falling whereof into hands they were not directed to I shall be very willing to cast up in the number of your misfortunes so your Lordship will not forget to put this into your reckning that no misfortunes happen to any man without the speciall providence of God whose hand many men thinke they see in making your own an instrument to discover more against you then could easily have beene found out otherwise though the falsehood of a person you trusted and other accidents were used as meanes to bring this to passe I dare not be so peremptory in my observation or censure but leaving the consideration thereof to your Lordship whom it concerneth crave your leave to say that these Letters of yours are so full and clear an evidence of your being an excellent Courtier and as excellent a Secretary that I doubt the world wil nere admit your being ill in either for a good excuse of the faults have been found in some expressions of your Letters I shall instance but in one not in respect of the unworthy you therein put upō your Countrey wch notwithstanding I conceive will be judged by those to whom you appeal to have been but a wild piece of civillity to asperse a whole Nation especially your own with the fault of some few and this in an addresse to a Lady of so great eminence and of another Nation not much given to over-value ours but if that should be suffered to passe for an ill made complement I beseech your Lordship what good construction can be made of your saying it was the first contentment you had been capable of a long time that Her Majesty was safely arrived in Holland withdrawn from a Country unworthy of her Which that her Maiesty had any not pleasing occasion to do I beleeve was an exceeding great discontentment to many other good Subiects and good English men no lesse for her Maiesties sake then their owne this having beene taken by all men that had understanding of the times for a shrewd prognostick of the storme which was then gathering and now lyes so sore upon us in the foresight whereof I hope your Lordship took no contentment though your words might with little force be wrested to such an interpretation But to passe by other expressions and come to the matter of your Letters and examine whether any wrong hath been done you in the Glosses and Comments with which you observe they have been published to the world to informe the people how much of the dangerous and perni●ious Counsells pretended to be then and still on foot had passed