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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

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

at the same instant or at least before His Maiesties return from thence was this unlucky Tenet of your Lordships taken up again to induce His Maiesty to declare his fixed Resolution by a writing under his own Royall hand continue and maintaine Episcopacy in this Kingdome Which unexpected stop of the torrent of some mens hopes as well as desires of a like through Reformation in this Kingdom was in my observation who looke on at a great distance the first stirring cause of that fierce flood which rising soone after spread it selfe farre and wide and is now growne to such violence and height that it carries all before it And yet for their sakes with whom I concur in the desire of such a reformation I hope this will not at last prove the Cause now in so hot dispute between the King and His Parliament though I have observed that His Majestie chargeth a Faction in Parliament with a violent and undue purfuit of an absolute destruction of the Ecclesi●sticall Government of this Church So much hurt hath come to the Churches of God in this Iland by that Tenet of your Lordships Neither hath it stayed there For by that design which was begun to be out in practise in Scotland in a wrong climate God confounding the councells of some who in corners did not spare to vent their dis●steem of all other reformed Churches abroad as having no Priests because they have no Bishops it may too probably and without breach of charity be doubted that they had yet more abhominable projects in their heads although I believe they are commonly believed to have been yet more abhominable then they were Which is an Argument I must not divert into here Your Lordship seeth how many mischiefs as well as absurdities I have followed upon the entertaining of one erronious Principle your Lordship thought fit to be put into our Catechisme which I humbly pray you to take into consideration as an aggravation of that errour For if upon the whole matter you shall be reduced but to the temper of the good Archbishop Whitgife and of Mr. Hooker who as your Lordship knows though they held the Government of the Church by Bishops to be more agreeable to the Scriptures then any other yet have fully declared themselves to be of opinion that no form of Church Regiment is so set down there but that it may be lawfull to alter it even for a worse upon Civil respects I am then very confident that upon a new ballancing of the account of the inconveniencies of the removing or retaining Episcopacie in this Church as things now stand your Lordship will be inclined to an alteration thereof For in truth my Lord that we cannot put down a Bishop in a Diocesse without setting up a Pope in every Parish and that no other Church Government is compatible either with Monarchy or with ou● Common Law are meer imaginations of your Lordships and some other men sufficiently confuted by the experience of other Churches and Kingdoms that of Scotland by name which not to insist on the two former as evident to every man hath a Common Law as well as ours as also other Kingdoms and States in Europe have all though there be a popular groundlesse perswasion of many wise men to the contrary And if upon a review your Lordship should finde sufficient reason to change your minde concerning the inconvenience as well as concerning the unlawfulnesse of abolishing Episcopacie in this Church that so ours may be reduced to an Uniformity with that of Scotland since the reduction of theirs to the likenesse of ours which was lately made a matter of great importance is now impossible the publication thereof may well repatriate your Lordship in the good graces of all that have had their mouths opened against you upon this occasion except it be of a few over hot Zelots For many wise and religious men differing from your Lordship in your opinion touching Episcopacie and concurring with me in mine are yet of your minde that it is better to begin with such a Reformation thereof whereunto there is a happy unity of Opinions not onely in the Representative but almost throughout the Lay part of the true body of the Kingdom then to attempt the doing of it all at once till the humours yet very crude shall be further prepared for such a sweeping purgation which for my part I hold to be a politique that is a doubtfull Probleme And so your Lordship hath my thoughts upon that first point which hath held me too long APOLOGY Then came on the tryall of the Earl of Suafford in the which I must say I failed not of my duty in proving the charg● and evidence before those who were to judge of both In the discharging of that duty it was my fortune by the unluckie acception of some expressions of mine to draw upon ●e ● sharp malignaty from some persons of much interest in the House which ●ever fail to manifest it selfe after that accident upon every the least occasion About this time I was told by a Friend that I lost much of my credit by being observed to be so much at Court I replied that I had not then the same justice with other men who were there more than I though they avowed it lesse● that it was a principall joy to me to see those persons who had been the prime Actors in the happy Reformation of this Parliament so acceptable at Court and like to have so great a share in the chiefe ●lucs there and the conduct of affairs for the future That since it bad pleased His Majesty to give so plenary a Redresse to all the grievances of His Subjects and to secure them for ever from the like invasions by such a wall of brasse as the Trienniall Bill I conceived that thence forward there was no more to be thought on but how in a gratefull return to His Majesty to advance His Honor and plenty according as before such happy settlements I had often heard those principall intendents of the puqlike good most solemnly professe and consequently that the Court and Countrey were in truth now to be all of a pi●ce and there would hereafter be no more cause of jealousie between them Lastly that howsoever I thought my selfe as likely to do good there as do good there as to receive hurt The first evidence I had of the disfavour of the House of Commons where I had served with all faithfulnesse diligence and humility was upon the printing of my Speech to the Bill of Attainder of the Earle of Strafford As for the Good-Fridayes exercise which the delivery of it in the House procured me I reputed that a most comfortable● and ●min●nt testimony of the continuance still of much justice and favour towards me in that Honorable House since after a dozen distinct charges upon the severall passages of that Speech urged against me with great strictnesse and acrimony by that number of the most