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A44221
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The character of King Charles I from the declaration of Mr. Alexander Henderson ... upon his death-bed : with a further defence of the King's holy book : to which is annex'd some short remarks upon a vile book, call'd Ludlow no lyar : with a defence of the King from the Irish Rebellion / by Rich. Hollingworth.
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Hollingworth, Richard, 1639?-1701.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing H2500; ESTC R3222
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23,130
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41
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THE CHARACTER OF King Charles I. From the Declaration of M R. ALEXANDER HENDERSON Principal Minister of the Word of God at Edenburgh and Chief Commissioner from the Kirk of Scotland to the Parliament and Synod of England Upon his DEATH-BED WITH A Further DEFENCE of the KING 's Holy Book To which is Annex'd Some Short Remarks upon a Vile Book call'd Ludlow no Lyan With A Defence of the KING from the Irish Rebellion By Rich. Hollingworth D. D. London Printed and are to be Sold by R. Tayler by Amen-Corner 1692. LICENSED July 28th 1692. Rob. Midgley To the Right Honourable THE MARCHIONESS of Carmarthen Madam THE Defence of Good and Innocent Men and the Vindicating of their Memories from those base and barbarous Aspersions they are many times loaden withal by men under whose tongues is the poyson of Asps are Employments every way becoming those who are Disciples of the HOLY JESUS and have solemnly promised to follow His Example and which I am certain will speak Peace and Comfort to them when others who give themselves the liberty to detract and defame to scandalize and ill-report the Best of Men will sink at last under the Load of their own Guilt and the Terrours of their angry and discontented Minds The sense of which has been a very great support to my self ever since I have undertaken the Vindication of the Name and Memory of King CHARLES I. and has enabled me in some good sort to scorn and live above all those Reproaches that by a certain Faction have been without Truth or Modesty so freely fastned upon me and I am so far from being weary of the Task I have engaged in that I thank God every fresh Provocation gives me the Pleasure as well as Advantage of knowing and understanding the incomparable Merits of that Great Man better and the Courage to communicate them to others And amongst many other things that have come to my hand since I began the Defence of this Great PRINCE This for the sake of which I make bold to give Your Ladyship this Trouble at present is one of the greatest and fullest that I ever saw and no doubt will be satisfactory to all sorts of Men because of the Person who was the Author of it Namely The chief Person of the Presbyterian Party in Scotland and the most employed by them for setting up and Vindicating their Kirk-Discipline I have shewn it since I had it to several Persons of great Names and at great Posts in our Church who were all as mightily taken with it so desirous it should be Reprinted that the World might see how unjustly this Great Persons Name is dealt withal by too great a Number of many Bad Men of this Age which as soon as I resolved to Reprint I at the same time resolved it should with Your Ladyships Leave come out under Your Honours Umbrage and Protection which You have a Right to not onely upon the score of Your own Zeal for that Great Prince 's Memory and Vertues but also upon the Account of the Faithfulness and Integrity the Loyalty and Steadiness of Your Ancestors to the CROWN and Dignity thereof for it is well known That Your Noble Grandfather lost his Life as General of His Majesties Forces at the first Fight against the Rebels at Edgelvill for his Great Master's Just and Righteous Cause and that Your as Noble Father was at the same time imprison'd for his steady Adherence to the Royal Interest and that both of them as they ventured their Lives so they greatly impaired a vast Estate But however that in the mean time they Acted becoming Good Men Good Christians and True Lavers of the Religion and Laws of their Country which includes their being Good Subjects and consequently took the better and more Justifiable Part this ensuing Narrative I am sure will make good and clear to all Men who are not resolved let what will be said to continue their base and ill designed Prejudices The Declaration is this The Character of King CHARLES I. VVHereas the greatest part of the distempered People of these miserable distracted Kingdoms have been and are wofully abused and misled with malicious misinformations against his sacred Majesty especially in point of Religion and moral-Wisdom whereof I confess with great grief of heart my self to have been amongst many moe of my coat none of the least who out of Imaginary fears and jealousies were made real Instruments to advance this un-natural War wherein so much Innocent Protestant Blood hath been shed and so much downright Robbery committed without fear or shame of sin to the scandal of the true Reformed Religion as cannot but draw down heavy Judgements from Heaven upon these infatuated Nations and more particularly upon Us who should have instructed them in the way of Truth Peace and Obedience I conceived it the duty of a good Christian especially one of my profession and in the condition that I lie expecting God Almighty's Call not only to acknowledge to the All-merciful God with a humble sincere remorse of Conscience the greatness of this offence which being done in simplicity of Spirit I hope with the Apostle Paul to obtain Mercy because I did it through Ignorance But also for the better satisfaction of all others to publish this Declaration to the view of the World to the intent that all those especially of the Ministery who have been deluded with me may by God's Grace and my example though a weak and mean Instrument not only be undeceived themselves but also stirred up to undeceive others with more alacritie and facilitie that the scandal may be removed from our Religion and Profession and the good King restored to his just Rights and truly honoured and obeyed as God's Anointed and Vicegerent upon Earth and the poor distressed Subjects freed from those intollerable Burdens and Oppressions which they lye groaning under piercing Heaven with their Tears and Cries and a solid Peace settled both in Kirk and Common-wealth throughout all His Majesties Dominions to the Glory of God and of our blessed Mediator and Saviour the Lord Christ I do therefore Declare before God and the World That since I had the Honour and Happiness to Converse and Confer with His Majesty with all sort of freedom especially in Matters of Religion whether in relation to the Kirk or State which like Hypocrates Twins are lynked together that I found him the most intelligent Man that ever I spoke with as far beyond my Epression as Expectation grounded upon the Information that was given me before I knew him by such as I thought should have known him I profess that I was oft-times astonish'd with the solidity and quickness of his Reasons and Replies wondred how he spending his Time so much in Sports and Recreations could have attained to so great Knowledge and must confess ingenuously that I was convinc'd in Conscience and knew not how to give him any reasonable Satisfaction yet the sweetness of his Disposition
Assertions and I am sure this man in this particular if any man believe him must be beholden to his blind Credulity and not to his Skill in History Another thing I call this man to Account for is his bold asserting the Kings burning by the Hang-man his own Pacification with the Scots when he came to London which I refute by a Passage out of Bishop Burnets Memoirs of the two Hamiltons it is true the Figures are mistaken but the Story is truly related as it is in that Bishops Book but to convince the World of the Malice as well as Falseness of this Reflection I shall present them with a greater Authority than the Bishops and that is an Act of State against the Scots concerning a scandalous Paper dispersed by them which the Reader may find at large in the Council Table-Book On Sunday the Fourth of August 1639. His Majesty being in Council was pleased to acquaint the Lords with a Paper he had seen at Barwicke Entituled Some Conditions of His Majesties Treaty with his Subjects of Scotland which Paper being in most parts full of falshood dishonour and scandal to His Majesties Proceedings in the late Pacification All which Consider'd the whole Board unanimously became humble Petitioners to His Majesty that this false and scandalous Paper might be burnt by the Hang-man to which Petition the Earl of Pembrooke Salisbury and Holland afterward known Enemies to the King's Cause Consented And now I hope this will stop this mans and his Friends mouths as to this particular for the time to come though considering the Malice of the man to the Memory of King Charles I am apt to question it As to what he and I both say concerning the Proclamations about the Irish Rebellion I shall pass it by at present and refer thee Reader to the Vindication I make by two undoubted Papers of the King's Innocency as to that horrid Rebellion at the latter end of this Paper The last thing I assert in the behalf of this Great and Vertuous Prince is what he says himself upon the Scaffold as to the first beginning of that unhappy and indeed needless War on the Parliaments side where he Clears himself by calling GOD to Witness unto whom he was shortly to give an Account that they began the War with him for the Truth of which he refers to the Dates of both their Commissions to which I have not one Word of Answer from this bold Libeller but in a shuffling way talking of pawning Crown Jewels which for what ends it was done or designed to be done it is not fit for him and I to judge for the Actions of Princes are above our Reach and ought not to be so narrowly pryed into yet I dare say it was not to begin a War because the Good Man so often protests against any Intention of War because so small a Sum of Money in comparison would so little have answered an Undertaking against so great and powerful an Enemy as the Parliament then was and though the King afterwards made that use of the Money after the War was actually commenced against him yet that is no Argument That that was the Primary Design And now Reader having given thee these short Remarks upon this filthy and scurrilous Book I have little more to entertain thee withal than to tell thee That this Author has with a great deal of Boldness and Falshood declared notwithstanding the honest Account I have given of my self from the Age of Twenty One and of my being Ordained by the hands of Bishop Saunderson as soon as by Law I was capable namely at the Age of Twenty Three that I was a Presbyterian but to Answer this in short I do here declare in the Presence of God that I never was a Presbyterian in my Life and further by God's Grace that I never will be one for I neither like the Principles of that Government nor the Spirit of too many of that Party for I abhor all Bitterness and Cruelty As for what he repeats out of Manvel which were made against Dr. Parker I pray God forgive him it is a Description that belongs not at all to me as all those know who have been acquainted with the course of my Life nor yet do Dr. Wildes Verses against Dr. Lee reach me at all for I bless God ever since I came to a competent Understanding I have loved the Constitution of the Church of England and done what in me lay to promote its true Interest and which I will never cease to do as long as I have Tongue to speak and a Pen to write I shall conclude this part of my Discourse with hearty Prayers to God for my Adversary that God would open his Eyes and change his Heart before he dies that so this Iniquity may not be for his Eternal Ruine The Irish Rebellion falsly and scandalously imputed to King CHARLES the First TO make good which I onely desire thee Reader carefully to peruse the Two following Accounts The one is a Letter by that Kings own Order by the Hands of Secretary Vane to the Lords Justices of Ireland Borelase and Parsons above half a year before the Rebellion giving them to understand the Intelligence the King had from abroad of some dangerous Designs by the Popish Party against the Peace of that Kingdom that so they might be awakened to take all possible care to prevent them The other is an unfolding the whole Mystery of the pretended Commission with the King 's Broad Seal to it which the Enemies of that King have and do still charge that gracious Prince withal and by Vertue of which they do lay all the innocent Blood then so barbarously spilt at his door and consequently do endeavour thereby to render his Name odious to all succeeding Generations the Account is by Dr. Ker Dean of Ardagh and as I am assured by a considerable Dignitary of that Kingdom yet alive Sir Henry Vane's Letter to the Lords Justices concerning some Informations of Danger in Ireland Right Honourable HIS Majesty hath Commanded me to acquaint your Lordships with an Advice given him from abroad and confirm'd by his Ministers in Spain and elsewhere which in this Distemper'd Time and Conjuncture of Affairs deserves to be seriously consider'd and an especial care and watchfulness to be had therein which is That of late there have passed from Spain and the like may well have been from other Parts an unspeakable number of Irish Church-men for England and Ireland and some good old Souldiers under pretext of asking leave to raise Men for the King of Spain whereas it is observed among the Irish Friars there a whisper runs as if they expected a Rebellion in Ireland and particularly in Connaght Wherefore His Majesty thought fit to give your Lordships this notice that in your Wisdoms you might manage the same with that Dexterity and Secresie as to Discover and Prevent so pernicious a Design if any such there should be and to have