blessing of Almighty God to you and your posterity according as your judgement of the life of the Earl of Strafford should be consonant with your heart in all integrity which I do not with any intention on my part to give occasion to any other to inferre that your Lordship went one hairs breadth beyond your own beliefe of the integrity of your heart therein I thank God I have learned my duty better and as I ought do confidently believe your Lordship hath too much of the fear of God in your heart to transgresse so much as a Mathematicall point willingly and wittingly in so solemne an execration But withall I know the danger of making such imprecations before his face who is greater then our hearts and knoweth more by us then they do And if it be true which I have heard from persons of honor that there was a time when Sir Thomas Wentworth solemnly wished that if ever he gave his consent to the levying of monyes on the Subject without their own consent in Parliament He might be set up as a Beacon on a hill for people to gaze at We all have occasion given us in this protesting Age diligently to call to remembrance and sadly to reflect upon what ever we may have inconsiderately uttered in that kinde having all I suppose seen or heard how his rash words have been verified upon him by the Bonefires were made on the tops of many hills in some Countries for his execution and this by a kinde of instinct in the vulgar sort of people without any direction from wiser men the like whereunto upon the like occasion I beleeve was never done in the World before Your Lordship will therefore I hope forgive me if out of my desire to make sure of keeping your Lordship from being hereafter scorched with the like flames I presume to advise you to enter into your own heart being I suppose like mine own deceitfull above all things and there to make the strictest enquiry all your wit and memory can whether the lying of one thing or other in the way did not hinder you from going to the bottome when you made that execration and so from discerning somewhat then which you may now possibly see in this businesse For to be plaine with your Lordship I am therefore a little jealous there might be some pretincture in your Lordshipps own eye because I observe you could so clearly see and distinctly describe all that might bloud-shot other mens eys in this case and yet for ought appears in your Speech never once took notice of any of those many other causes of vitiation of judgement which it concerned your Lordship more to have looked after Such were personall respects as the inclination of one great wit to take part with another of one Peere apparent to take compassion of another in being complying with the judgement of the King at that time hope of favour from His Majesty from thence feare of His Maiesties dislike of a person so able so willing and then as was believed in so neere expectance of opportunity to do service to the King and State For I will not wrong your Lordships Noblenesse by the lightest imagination that your eye saw the worse by looking a squint at any private advantage in a publike employment And I will forbeare the mention of something might be of more force with you then all I have yet touched because if it were so your Lordship must needs know it and I cannot minde you of it without preiudice to a third Person your nimble phansie will quickly represent all other to your memory by the hint of these I have set before you And they they my Lord and such other were the corruptive of iudgement of which you should have discharged your selfe to the uttermost of your power and not Lapwing like have made so great a cry with so many awayes there where your conscience was in no danger (a) Mistake me not I do not say but some other might have need of the warnings you gave and may yet have cause to reflect upon what you then sayd though they then gave right iudgement Neither do I thinke the worse of you for differing from so great a number of religious and conscionable Patriots Nay I should not have thought so well of you as I do if not having your understanding subdued you should have captivated your iudgement to theirs or if after you had wiped your heart on the side I have now shewed you and it may be you onely forgot to mention not to thinke on by your selfe upon the hearing of the Diametrall opposition between great Lawyers of the House in their opinions your Lordships mind stood in aequilibrio though this were an imperfection of iudgement I should do wrong to suppose in you yet if in truth it were so I pronounce you ought to have done as you did at least I should have done the same had I been in your place For I conceive that a minde in that posture is bound or at least hath liberty to encline to the safer side for it self though it may be the more unsafe for the State because a mans own soule is of more value to him then all the world And I humbly conceive that in all cases either of Counsell or of Judicature to one of which it may be all that come within the walls of either House may be reduced it is ever safest to encline to that side which goeth with him that is in possession which in this case of the Lord of Strafford was that which was against the Bill of Attainder After I had written thus much and more in answer to your Lordships Apologie the Kingdoms weekly Intelligencer his accompt of the last week came to my hands wherein he taketh notice of your Apologie and saith your Lordship therein forgot to mention the first matter by which your Honour was questioned in the House of Commons while you served there And then telleth a strange story which I cannot wonder enough I should never have heard of before Thus There were sayth he foure beside your Lordship of the close Committee concerning the Earle of Strafford There was a paper of much importance concerning the sayd Earle mislayd on a sodaine in a private roome where they were which was mist before they departed but could not be found yet next day they had it at Court Those foure Members particularly made their protestation in the presence of God and of the House of Commons that they were not privy to the conveying away of that paper His Lordship did the like and wished a curse upon him if he knew any thing of it Whether this writer were not to blame in concluding this story with this Epiphonema God is iust and its observable that this Lord hath not had many blessings befalne him since that his imprecation and asseveration I leave to the judgement of Divines As I do also whether that Writer himselfe if he
be a man that hath taken the Protestation hath not given as much cause of suspicion of his having violated that part of it wherein he in the presence of God vowed to maintain and defend the Kings Honor a word not to be found in the oathes of Supremacie or Allegiance by charging the Cavaliers to have thought to have circumvented part of the Earle of Essex Army and to have forced their passage through their quarters and to have seised on all the Ordnance and Ammunition in the Earles Army then at Hammersmith by breach of faith For that parenthesis reflecteth full upon the Kings Honor and being written after His Majesty hath given as to me it seemeth ample and full satisfaction to that fowle charge of the Writer of the speciall Passages (a) I conceive the Intelligencers crime is so much greater than his that I will be bold to adde That what Protester soever hath read his last weeks Intelligence and having opportunity shall not upon reading what I have now written make complaint as well of the Intelligencer as of the writer of the Passages his cousin Germane hath not so far as lawfully he may opposed and by all good wayes and means endeavoured to bring to condigne punishment all such as have done any thing contrary to any thing in the Protestation contained Not excepting your Lordship who I suppose hath taken the Protestation But as to the Intelligencers rude charge of your Lordship all I dare say is That your Lordship had very ill lucke to tell the story you have done in your Apologie of that which passed between you and a friend of yours who told you that you lost much of your credit by being observed to be so much at Court For if the about this time with which your Lordship beginneth that relation were the time about which this wicked paper was missing I forbear to tell your Lordship what inferences the City wits of this unhappy Age are like to make of the originall rise of your credit in Court though for my part I here professe all your Lordship hath written in your Apologie upon this occasion is to my understanding most just and reasonable and that I am so far of your minde that till the Court and Countrey be in truth all of a piece and that there be no more cause of jealousie between them neither the one nor the other of them can be happy nor the City neither I am also afrayd that those words in the Preface of your Lordships Speech to the Bill of Attainder of the Earle of Strafford I have had the honor to be employed by the House in this great businesse from the first hours that it was taken into consideration It was a matter of great trust and I will say with confidence that I have served the House in it with industry according to my ability but with most exact faithfulnesse and secrecie And that parenthesis in this part of your Lordships Apologie where you again say you had served the House of Commons with all faithfulnesse may do you no good especially if the mislaying of the above-sayd mischievous paper were in the time of the tryall of the Earle of Strafford and before the proceeding against him by Bill of Attainder which is the part where your Lordship hath inserted this parenthesis For your Lordship knoweth much better than I that the making of these voluntary Apologies to persons that do not charge a man with the faults which he goeth about either to excuse or acquit himselfe of are alwayes taken for confessions of guilt by suspicioâ—s hearers especially if the Apologizer himselfe take no notice of the crime whereof he is accused by common fame which I perceive was your Lordships case before you wrote this Apologie If the Intelligencers relation be true And now that by his helpe I have â—uggested all I can to â—our Lordship upon this occasion I humbly beseech you be not wanting to your selfe but lay your present condition to heart remember whence you are falne in your reputation in your hopes take heed of catching another more â—angerous fall now in the rode of good wiâ—s by thinking you are bound to maintain all that you have done or sayd be it right or wrong truth or error and that you are able to do it There is many times but one step between this and being given over to think evill good and to believe lyes I beseech God direct you to that course which may tend most to his glory your honor and the publick good Be not afraid to acknowledge any mistake or to take any shame to your selfe if there should be any occasion for you to do it which I hope there is not according to my duty though I thus write but believe stedfastly in his Omnipotence and truth that hath said and never yet brake his word Those that honor me I will honor and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed There is often a resurrection of the good names of good men in this life to give credit to the promise aforesayd and to support our faith of the perfect accomplishment thereof in that which we look for But the name of the wicked doth rot upon earth and in the great day of the Lord shall rise to universall and eternall confusion in the presence of God of his Angels and of his Saints God of his mercy and by his grace keep this for ever in your Lordships remembrance and minde and keep us also from despairing of his mercy if we should be guilty of so great a sin which there is no cause for There is no sin except that against the holy Ghost not the innocent bloud of a million of souls no not the being guilty of the bloud of the Son of God himselfe which may not be expiated by his bloud And yet I have observed that there could be no attonement for that sin wherewith the Intelligencer hath so fouly aspersed your Lordship without confession But upon confession of the sin there is a full promise that it shall be forgiven the offender not by vertue of the offerings enjoyned in the Law but by the relation they had to a better sacrifice which I pray God may through our faith be effectuall to all of us that may at any time find our selves to stand guilty of so grievous a crime which I doubt hath spread it selfe farther in this Kingdome than we are aware of and that the Land mourneth for it because we do not APOLOGY Under this weight â—nough to have broken a body and a mind better prepared for thâ—se exercises then mine I suffered till the rudenesse and violence of that Rabble drave both their Majesties for the safety of themselves and their children to Hampton Court whither by command I attended them In this short journey many Souldiers and Commanders who had assembled themselves joyntly to sollicite the payment of their arrears for the late Northern expedition from the two Houses of Parliament
very point Else it had not been possible that the Ambassadors of the Prince of peace one great part of whose instructions is to perswade all the Subjects of his Kingdome if it be possible and as much as in them lieth to have peace with all men should have opened their purses so wide on the on side and their mouths on the other to the beginning furtherance and continuance of so unnaturall a war And that no one of them that I have heard of being all I hope the sonnes of Abraham should have remembered us of whose words of his Let thâ—re be no strife I pray thee between me and thee nor between my hâ—rd-man and thy herd-man for we be brethren though the Canaanite and Perezite dwell in the Land and are in great expectance to continue their possession if not to drive us out through the advantâ—ge of this great contention between us for no greater a matter then I have sayd Else it had not been possible that learned and godly men of this Coat on both sides (a) whose onely businesse it is to preach the Gospell and to advance the Kingdome of Heaven should first have played the busie bodyes in taking upon them to resolve conscience in a cause depending meerly and entirely upon a point of our Law and then to have been so unhappy in this undertaking as to have done much more harme than good to that side respectively for which they have appeared if they also had not been as much blinded that have been misled by them Else it had not been possible that among so many wise and religious men versed in affairs of State as are to be found in this Kingdom one onely (b) to my knowledge seeing it thus misâ—rably distracted by the involuntary seduction of silly sheep following their seduced Shepheards should have put pen to paper to reduce them into the right way that he also shâ—uld have mistaken it who beside his saying that which is of great disadvantage to the cause for which he pleads hath layd such a foundation that the whole liberty of the Commons of England may be in danger to be overthrowne by that superstruction he hath set upon it And therefore as one of them I must here protest against his building for my part Else it had not bin possible that all the many sollicitous endeavours used by his Maiestie and the Parliament to prevent the kindling of a civill war while the fire was yet raked up in ashes and to extinguish it when it was but newly broken forth should by the encounter of a certaine fatall kind of Antiperistasis on both sides have rather encreased then abated the heat of the smothering fire and like water sprinkled to quench have made it rise up again into a more furious flame Else it had not been possible that so good a KING and so good a PARLIAMENT who had agreed in the enacting of more good Lawes for the ease of the Subject then ever any before them did in a like space of time should upon so small an occasion have come to disagree so far that they should have charged one another with a respective purpose to introduce an unlimited Arbitrary power over us and to destroy one another with the confessed apparent hazard of the kingdom of Irâ—land Else it had not been possible that Arms should have been taken up by King and Parliament in defence of all and every the very same things and that men who had taken a voluntary Protestation to defend all the same things and one another in the defence of them should thereby have thought themselves rather obliged to kill and slay one another as they did at Edge-hill and in many other places before and since in the pursuance of their own private respective sence then to Petition a publike agreement about the meaning of some words of great latitude and very extendible in the said Protestation and in the mean time for a peace about the thing signified by them To the reducing of all which incomprehensible possibilities into act our sins indeed had made this kingdom â—inder but the fiâ—st spark came from your Lordship in the generall belâ—ef of the peoplâ— And if I undeâ—stand their disposition your offer to put your sâ—lf upon your Tryall whether it were you or no whâ—n the fire which now rageth so fiercely shall be utterly extinguished will hardly obtain the charity you implore in the mean time If any thing will do it the notice may be taken of your bestirring your sâ—lf with all your might and diligence â—o help and get help to quench it if you shall really and fervently imploy your own and all your friends hands to that purpose is the most likely way to save your reputation with them Your Lordship knoweth what hath been râ—ported to His Majesty of a Speech of Master Pyms That what disservice soever any man hath done formerly if his present actions wâ—re such as brought benefit to the Commonwealth he ought not to be quâ—stioned for what was past but cherished and protected And his Majestie giveth an example of some persons by whose mis-information and advise the last unhappy meeting in Parliament was disolved who are now looked upon undeâ— another Character I suppose for their good service in this Up and be doing the like and the Lord be with you You cannot yet be charged to have so much as occasioned the dissolution of this once happy Parliament through mis-information Preserve it from the danger some wise men think it is in of being destroyd and all Parliaments in it and why may you not hope this good service may preserve you I know your Lordship can never incline to follow the example upon the unworthy principles of some men that have given it you have upon all occasions expressed a truly noble heart and such a one will never suffer you to entertain base thoughts of complying and striking in with those that have the favour of the time without any regard of the wayes taken by them or of making your self and your interest or subsistence the measure of your judgement and proceedings in affairs of State you say you walk by other rules and I beleeve it You have been then most zealous and fervent for the Liberties of the Subâ—ect when the power of the Court was most prevalent and for the rights of the Crown when popular License was most predominant And if there should be yet another revolution of those Orbs whereof I can make no good judgement in the low valley where I live but I do not like the Phaenonema which appear to me there I am confident the remembrance of the great comfort you received in your countries acceptation of your fiâ—st attempts in its service at a time when the Court was at highest will be an effectuall motive to engage you in the same course again the rather for your being so little indebted to the world for good usage in the time of your
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 sâ—lf by what demerit God is my judge I cannot guesse fallen from that proportion of esteem with my Couâ—try of which I was prouder then I can be of any worldly preferment into so â—minent a degree of disfavour with the representative body therâ—of upon whose wisdom and Authority no man hath looked with more revâ—rence and veneration that I was marked out as an Enemy to the Commonwâ—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 meâ— 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 refleâ—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 attemptsâ— 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 condiâ—ion To this Parliament I was sent on the bâ—half of the Country wherein I livâ—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 consciâ—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 indâ—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 confâ—sse for a while I gave my sâ—lf up with as much submisâ—â—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 â—ommonwealth we never differed in the least degree but in improvements in â—â—â—ll alterations which were to be governed by prudentiall motives we were â—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 â—o thrâ—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 â—aving not hardiâ—esse enough â—o incline to a mutation which would evidently have so great an inâ—â—uenâ—â— upon the peace prosâ—erity and interest of the whole kingdom And thus from tâ—e first debate of Eâ—iscopacy upon the London Petition all men 〈◊〉 the date of my unmâ—rited favour began to expire ANSWER MY LORD YOur Lordships Apology published the fourth of Ianuary hath at length found the way into the Wildernâ—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 serâ—â—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 contraryâ— 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
most and generally all other of whose affection to his service the King believeth well and who have ability to serve the State into a good reputation with his Parliament and people and every good man must put his hand and his tongue and his heart to this work without delay and cry mightily and incessantly to God for a blessing upon it or else in humane reason the sâ—n of our happy dayes is going down in a dismall cloud of blood I shall begin to others by doing my own duty upon the occasion of your Lordships Apology when I have first humbly prayed you to give me leave throughout to tell you plainlâ— for this work will never be done with dawbing how far I am satisfied therewith and what in my poor conceit remaineth further to be done by your Lordship that you may be firmly redintegrated in that esteem with your Countrey which you once had in so high a degree and I find knew how to value at a due rate And truely my Lord for ought that ever I have heard your Lordship hath rightly observed the time of the first declination you suffered in the favour of the representative body of the Kingdom which so long as matters are carryed there in the open manner they have bin in your time and mine for I have heard old very old men say it hath not bin alwayes so was to your Lordship and will ever be to all other an infallible indication of their proportionable declension in the good will of their Countrey But I beseech your Lordship to excuse me for asking whether you made this observation at that time For if you did I believe you will find cause to blame your self for publishing the Speech you then made touching Episcopacy in print which I have been told is a part of the late innovation in the proceedings of Parliament from the practise of ancient times and I doubt to no advantage of that high Senate or of the Members thereof the variety of whose opinions and their reasons for them it may be were better kept within the walls of the respective Houses or at least within the cognizance of wise men of their acquaintance then made the discourse of every idle youth silly woman and mean fellow that can but read English to the last of which our wise Ancestors found inconvenience in allowing so much as a voice in Elections and I believe it cannot be shewed that any of the first sort were elected in that time though in this latter age we have varyed from them in that point also for considerations I understand well enough but whether for the better or the worse I refer me to the Testimony of two dead men of known wisdom who they say are the best Councellors (a) But to return to your Lordship I pray reflect a little upon the censure of at least fifteen thousand gooâ— woâ—en of London you then passed by the printing of that Speech wherâ—in you have dissected their husbands Petition with so keen a kniâ—e and shewed your opinion of many â—â—morâ— and other diseases abounding therein and then imagine what a report such a clamor raysed upon you in the City would have and I assure you had in the Country Whereas if the noyse of that Speech had remained in the ears of them that heard it only I am not able to apprehend why or how the date of your before so well merited favours in that House whereof you were then a Member shouâ—d begin to expire thereupon For having perused it again exactly upon this occasion I do here make publike profession that I could readily observe many things in it much to the prayse of your Lordships excellent wisdom singular ingenuity precise honesty and of that tender care which every Parliament man ought to have of the honor of Parliaments as well as of the weale of his Country if I had a mind to flatter you But I can observe very little more then nothing in it either justly offensive or unseasonable or any other way unfit to have bin delivered by a man of your Lordships opinion And though I therein differ from your Lordship as much as that House hath yet declard it self to do yet as that diversity in my judgement doth not so much as tempt me to honor your Lordship any whit the lesse so your Lordship should wrong the Worthies of that Honourable Assâ—mbly if you should entertain the least suspition that any of them might for that reason be in any measure alienated in affection from your Lordship for this passage in that Speech of your Lordships deserveth to be written in letters of Gold What ever be the event I shall discharge my conscience concerning this Petition freely and uprightly unbiast by popularity as by Court respects Sir I could never flatter the sense of this House which I reverence so farre as to suppresse a single No that my heart dictated though I knew the venting of it might cast prâ—judices upon mâ— Had my fortune placed me neer a King I could not have flattered a King and I do not intend now to flatter a multitude Thus your Lordship I adde whosoever being of a contrary judgement at any time to that which he observeth to be the sense of the major part of that House and having some reason that swayeth him which hath not been put into the Ballance by any one of the minor part that hath spoken and yet doth notwithstanding sit still and not rise up boldly as your Lordship did to deliver his reason with modesty and submission for any respect whatsoever whosoever doth give any manner of interruption or but the least discountenance to such a person in the discharge of his duty And whosoever when the question is put in any matter of such importance as this of Episcopacy not to say in any the least businesse whatsoever doth either give other vote then according to his heart or doth give none at all for any consideration whatsoever doth as much as in him is to betray the honour of that House and something else he ought to maintain and defend and if he take a full view of the extent of the Protestation perhaps will hardly find how to acquit himselfe well of a willfull breach of that voluntary vow which is a crying sin and such a one as God who is alwayes true of his word will surely require So little ground is there for your Lordship to doubt as you seem to do that what you spoke in the businesse of the Church touching Episcopacy upon occasion of the London-Petition might in any measure diminish your interest in that House though the printing of it might well have such an influence upon vulgar minds as might be of force to turne the tide of your reputation among them I wish it were as well in my power to direct your Lordship to the doing of any thing that might cause a reflux of the strong currâ—Ì„t now runneth against you so strong indeed
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 Ecclesiâ—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 disâ—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 ouâ— 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 chargâ— 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 â—e â— sharp malignaty from some persons of much interest in the House which â—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 lesseâ— 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 â—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 piâ—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 comfortableâ— and â—minâ—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
much passion I desire to save a noble young Lord of such eminent abilities as may be of great use to the King and Kingdom from sincking in his reputation which will make them altogether uselesse to the publick I will adventure to take your Lordship by the hand and to try whether I can raise you out of this puddle also when I have first opened my selfe to be the same man that made the larger Answer to your Lps Speech to the Bil of Attainder of the sayd unhappy Lord which was intended to have been sent to you so timely that if your Lordship had thereby received satisfaction in your Scruples you might have acknowledged as much in the House of Commons whereof you were then a Member and so have escaped their censure in a fayrer way then you did by climbing up into the House of Peers at that time For so that is understood But the throng of lesser Pamphlets was so great that before this could passe the Presse which I am made believe it could not in a month and more your Lordships Speech ranne the fortune you know and another briefer Answer thereunto got through Of which misadventure I was much more sorry for your Lordships sake than mine own though by this meanes I also may possibly have been censured either for insulting upon a noble person cast down which I should hate my self for if it were true or for having taken the advantage of such a time to publish my Answer when it was not safe for your Lordship to make any Reply But since your Lordship hath adventured on other actions and writings more dangerous then your defence need to be as your Lordship may mannage it I humbly beseech your Lordship to take it into your consideration whether you may not do well to make a Replication thereunto for the reasons I shall now give your Lordship and which I am perswaded ought to have the same force with you which they have with me They are if that your Lordship do yet persist in your opinion that you had sufficient grounds to alter your first judgement of the Lord Straffords cause you ought to make a further clear deduction of them to the world partly for that unfortunate Lords sake partly for your owne a little for your servants and a great deale for your Countryes sake For to begin with the last as being of greatest concernment in it self and I beleeve in your Lordships esteem also If your Lordship who have now had good leisure and great cause to revolve all your late words and actions in your most serious thoughts and to bring all the stirrings of your conscience upon every one of them to a strict examination be still of the same mind you were when you so solemnly washed your hands from the blood of the Lord of Strafford which he at his death charged home upon this Kingdome (a) then it cannot be but you must needs fear that it lyes upon this Land and in your apprehension may be one cause of the present unhappy condition thereof which hath beene so well foreseen and expressed by my Lord your father (b) And may you then or can you in such a time as this keep the reason of your fears to your self which for ought you can know may have the same operation in the hearts of those to whom you then so lively represented the hainousnesse of the sin of committing murther with the sword of justice if you think you can convince them thereof I need not tell your Lordship the force of naked truth not to bee told when it comes armed with so compleat an eloquence as â—od hath given your Lordship And if you could thereby worke the like change in the rest of my Lord of Straffords Judges which was wrought in you have they not power to review their owne proceedings and to repeal the Bill of Attainder they passed in this cause your Lordship knowes this is usuall in the Republick of Venice and if there be no president in our State of any man restored to his blood by the same Parliament which attainted him which I am not learnd enough to know I conceive such a new president were well made as many other have been by the wisdom of this Parliament by 〈◊〉 and not by the examples of former every Parliament ought to be guided For me if your Lordship shall prove to me that your grouuds remain firm after all my endeavours to shake them and withall if with the helpe of the many great Lawyers were of your Lordships opinion you can make a satisfactory Answer to the learned argument of Mr. Solicitor by which I was much cleared and confirmed in the judgement unto which I was lead by meer reason without having the light of the Law I here professe that I shall hold my selfe much obliged to your Lordp. for disabusing me and bound in conscience to make a retraction of my Answer in Print since I gave way to the printing thereof And I believe Master Saint-Iohn will be of the same mind the fame I have heard of his Religion being no lesse then that of his Law and the alteration of his opinion may prove a principall verb in theâ— construction of the Parliament concerning that case Your Lordp hath therefore no want of forreign inducements to imploy your best thoughts in this disquisition By the same labour your Lordp. may rectifie your own reputation in this matter which ought to be more tender to you now then ever as I see it is And if you can make it appear that you were in the right you shall wrong the Parliament more then yet you have done by entertaining the least doubt that you may thereby hinder your repatriation with them which I wish you had not done by other courses It is ever better for the wisest Counsells and States as well as men to retract an error then to maintain it But if on the other side your Lordship doth now perceive that you might have condemned the Earl os Strafford with as free a heart as you accused or prosecuted him for a Traytor then my Lord a good conscience will need no prompter to tell you that you owe the King and Kingdom a publique confession of your judgement as now informed in reparation of that high wrong you did His Majestie and the Parliament by publishing your Protestation in print when you were of another minde nor that you have much worke to do at home which can be done by no other and which it doth infinitely concern you not to slubber over I need not tell you my reason yet because the most watchfull conscience may need jogging sometimes I most humbly beseech your Lordship to give me leave without offence to entreat you first to take a re-view of your Speech by the light you now have from Master Solicitor and then to set before your eyes that part of the preface wherin you wished peace of conscience to your selfe and the