Gods immediate Finger which commands Obedience to the Magistrate and paying his Duty to his King the most pious most vertuous and most sufficient of Princes As for the present King having been his Councellor he affirmed That he never saw greater Hope of Vertue in any young Person than in him great Judgment great Vnderstanding great Apprehension much Honour in his Nature and a very perfect English-man in his Inclination By which just Character he raised and renewed the Desires of the People after so deserving a Prince As for himself in Imitation of our blessed Martyr's Ingenuity about the Death of the Illustrious Strafford he confessed That he had given his Vote to that Bill that took away hâ—s Life which he greatly bewailed And at length having earnestly prayed for the King the People and his Murtherers he was indisputably added to the Number of the Blessed Norwich and Owen reprieved The Earl of Norwich and Sir John Owen both signal for their Loyalty and eminent Endeavours in the late War were likewise condemned to the Block but both reprieved by the glutted Votes of the House tho they will make other Examples in other parts of the Kingdom Beaumont a Minister was hanged at Pomfret Others in other parts put to Death being Chaplain to that Garrison Major Monday was shot to Death at Lancaster Morris dyed with no less Bravery than he had lived Nine Months in the Defence of Pomfret Poyer one of the Three revolted Grandees in Wales was likewise shot to Death his Comrades Laughorne and Powell escaping by Lot which was indulged to all by reason of their former great Services the to rebel-Rebel-Parliament There were also some others slaughtered upon the same accompt Unhappy Monuments of unfortunate Loyalty and the Regicides Cruelty Tho several considerable Persons eluding the Sagacity of their Keepers escaped as Col. Massey Sir Lewis Dives Mr. Holden the Lord Capell tho unfortunately betrayed into their Hands again the Lord Loughberow and others Nor was it only against the persons of Men that these Tyrants raged they also seized the King and the Churches Patrimony Revenues Pallaces c. and force such of the Cavaliers as they did not confiscate to a ruinous Ransom of their Estates And now to render the Peoples Obedience to the Usurpation more easy they absolve them from all Oaths made to their Sovereign and his Posterity but will enchange them with a more rigid one obtruding an Instrument upon them whereby they engage themselves to be true to the Common-wealth of England Several Acts of State without King or House of Lords And now having declared themselves a Free State make it Treason in any who by Word or Writing should dare to oppose them as such or should contrive the death of the General the Lieutenant General or kill any Member of their Parliament They also put a Period to their Monthly Fast God having indulged them what they fasted for the Death of the King and Possession of his Inheritance They had already made a new Great Seal with this Inscription In the first year of Freedom by God's Blessing restored 1648. They also took down the King's Statue from the West End of St. Paul's and that other in the Old Exchange putting this Inscription under the Niche in Letters of Gold tho with no less Falseness than Impudence Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus 1648. But they could perswade but half of their Judges tho all made such by them to comply with their Change however they easily supplied the Vacancies And now they proceed to another Act of State which was coyning of Monies markt with the Arms of England and Ireland on one Side and on the Reverse with the House of Commons to demonstrate thereby their Sovereignty where-ever their Traffick might extend The Scots in the mean Time in whose power it had once been to restore the late King to his Royal Throne exagitated with the Guilt of having sold him found the Infamy of it aggravated by his calamitous Murther They therefore to vindicate themselves from so black a Crime as they had declared their Dissent against His Majesty's Tryal so they protested highly against his Death and acknowledging the Succession of his Son Charles II. proclaim him King with great Pomp and Solemnity The Scots proclaim K. Charles II. which being done they dispatcht Commissioners to acquaint his Majesty with it who was then at the Hague attended by a noble Train of Peers and Gentlemen who followed his Fortunc It will be now Time to return to the Army The Faction had quite supprest the Fast and Perversness of the Presbyterians And with the same ease oppressed the Levelling Sect of those The Story of the Levellers who pretended to a Community and Equality of all Things The Souldiery actuated with the Leven of the Agitators did not only dream but consult of dividing the Possessions of the Kingdom amongst the Godly that is themselves Cromwell had brought them to his Lure with these kind of Baits before the King's Murther with the Hopes whereof they were grown numerous in the Army But seeing no Effects of these fine Promises began to be troublesome and tumultuous in so much that Lockier one of their Ring-leaders was shot to Death though sumptuously butyed by the Rable of his Party This Execution rather madded than appeased them and being too feeble a Remedy for so growing an Evil it was thought fit to separate them which was attempted by voting Eleven Regiments of these Mutineers for Ireland But this enraged them to that Height that perceiving that instead of enjoying those Happinesses they had been deluded with they were exposed to new Hazards and the Dangers of a starving War they absolutely declare they will not go for Ireland till the Peoples Liberties for which the Army first engaged were secured These also require that the so often promised Representative might be chosen They inveigh against the High-Court of Justice and Council of State as tyrannous not without blaming the Injustice and Illegality of the Regicide They add That the People had only changed not shaken off their Yoak and that the Rump's little Finger was heavier than the King's Loyns c. And because Discourses were fruitless they flye to Arms. Scroope's Regiment of Horse quartering at Salisbury having cashier'd all their Officers march with their Colors to joyn with those of Harrison Ireton Skippon and others confederated by the briguing of the Agitators which they had also done if they had not been prevented by the extraordinary Diligence of Cromwell and Fairfax who posting Forty Miles in one Day overtook them at Abington But being doubtful of the Event they offer a Treaty wherein satisfaction might be mutually given and till that were effected that neither Party might come within Ten Miles of each other Things being upon these Terms the Levellers march to Burford where resting secure upon the Engagement of those Twins of Perfidy and Ambition They are supprest the
being husht up by the Treaty of Breda The Plague did devour our People no more its Poison being extinct And the City lately of Wood was now by the King's Munificence rebuilt of Brick and Stone When one Titus Oates who had had his Education and Orders in the Reformea Church of England being afterwards reconciled to that of Rome passed over first into Flanders and thence into Spain Where under pretence of Religion and his Zeal for it he gained so much Favour with the Priests and Jesuits that he had Opportunities as he pretended to penetrate into their most secret Councils This new Proselyte changing Parties again returned into England where he informs the King of a Design of the Papists against his Life against the Reformed Religion and the present Government And naming several Lords as Bellasis Powis Peters Arundel Castelmain Stafford and other Men of Quality as prime Conspirators in this Treason gained so much Credit with the Parliament that the accused were all imprisoned the Papists commanded to remove Ten Miles from the City and all of them to be cashier'd out of all Employments both Military and Civil The mysterious Death of Godfrey inflamed the Parliaments Credulity to Vote That there was a Plot execrable and Hellish as they termed it Insomuch as the King at their instant Desires past a Bill to disable all Popish Peers or other Members so affected to fit in either Houses of Parliament Offering further to comply with any Expedient they should propose for the Security of the Protestant Religion so as they tended not to impeach the Right of Succession Coleman Ireland Pickering Groves Fenwick Whitebread Langhorn Staley Green Berry and Hill condemned by the Testimony of Oates and others of his Associates solemnly attested their Innocence at their Death Nor did so great Effusion of Blood suffice to remove the Jealousies they had of the Papists so that the Houses of Parliament to whom the King had granted all things for the security of Religion not contented with these Concessions proceeded so far as to press the King to remove the Duke of York from his Presence and Councils To this they added the Imprisonment of his Secretary Williamson without his Knowledge Which did so far irritate his Majesty that he dissolved this Parliament after it had continued Seventeen Years Fanaticism which had lurk'd for some Time under a Protestant Mask and infused its Contagion into the Parliament began now under Pretence of Godliness to appear more openly The King having dissolved the Parliament as is said had summon'd another from which he hoped for more good than he had hitherto experimented And lest the Presence of his Brother might prove any Obstacle he commanded him to retire until the Heat of the Faction did a little cool Which he obeyed without Repugnancy that he might in no wise occasion any the least Dissension betwixt the King his Brother and the Parliament But the King's Indulgence and the Duke's Observance were equally valu'd Nor could all his Concessions with those Limitations not meddle with the Succession or his Prerogatives satisfy their Contumacy year 1679 Nay he had dismissed his Privy Council as being ill look'd upon by the Parliament surrogating others in their rooms not so obnoxious to the Faction making the Earl of Shaftsbury President But all this was to no purpose for the Parliament omitting those Things which they were to have treated of and postponing the King's Demands of Subsidies they again attacked the Duke of York absent then in Flanders the Commons voting his Exclusion from the Succession But the King seeing the contumacious Animosity of the Party and not obscurely perceiving that he himself was aimed at through the Duke's Sides July 10. Octob. 17. dissolving this present Parliament commanded another to convene in October following Whilst these things are in Agitation in England the Tumults in Scotland flew higher Dr. Sharp the Arch-bishop of St. Andrews was most inhumanly murthered in his Coach by a Party of the barbarous Covenanters Which done the Rebellion they designed was by the Concourse of those Multitudes that flockt together suddainly formed into a considerable Army consisting of Sixteen Hundred Horse and above Four Thousand Foot Nor were the Royallists less active the King having sent the Duke of Monmouth thither as General who joying with the Scots Nobility they raised such a Force that fighting the Rebels at Bothwel-Bridge chey defeated them The Slaughter was not great for the Enemies Horse not being prest or pursued by the Connivance if not Command of Monmouth for he himself had other Designs as it afterwards appeared retreated in a Body at least Twelve Miles from the Place they had fought in and separating there dispersed themselves some of the Foot being slain A few of the Prisoners were punished for their improsperous Treason After this the King fell sick of a Fever at Windsor which was so violent that the Physitians despaired of his Recovery Upon News whereof the Duke hastened from Brussels to Court But it seemed otherwise good to the Almighty who was pleased to prolong his Life until he could leave the Kingdom agitated at present with so many Distractions settled and composed to his Successor Being restored to his Health the Joy of it was celebrated by the Universality at least the Good Part of the Nation the City also sending their Lord Mayor and Aldermen with a great Train with Thirty Coaches and a Troop of a Hundred Horse for their Convoy to Windsor to congratulate his Hapyy Recovery But Monmouth however illegitimate blinded with Ambition and not content with those great Honours and Places he enjoyed aspired to the Crown it self inviting and alluring with the Baits of Employments and Rewards some of the most interested to his Party But this caballing was discovered to the King by the Earl of Oxford who abhorring the Treason preferr'd his Loyalty before all the Offers of Ambition and Greatness The King being justly incensed against the Ingratitude and Vanity of the Pretender divested him of all those Dignities and Offices which he enjoyed and banished him the Kingdom Moreover to prevent the Chymerical Delusions which the Report of his being married or contracted to the said Duke's Mother might occasion his Majesty by repeated Declarations publickly emitted as also by Writings under his own Hand declared Vpon the Faith of a Christian and the Word of a King that he never Married nor gave any Contract to any Woman whatsoever but to Queen Katharine his Wife This the King did with so much Solemnity to prevent the Peoples being abused by these false and malitious Reports and lest the Factious might thereby mislead them to disturb the Publick Peace or violate the Rights of Succession Whereby also the vain Pretences of Monmouth and the ridiculous Machinations of the Seditious might be disappointed The Parliament 1679. 1680. which the King had summoned to meet in October being delayed by several Motogatives did not come together before the October
Necessities he would not only consent to remedy all their just Grievances but remit his Right to Ship-money for ever though adjudged to him by all the Justices of the Kingdom Nor did he thus obtain his desires the Parliament opposing them not only declaring that Tribute to be illegal but were also dissolved if they had not been prevented by their Dissolution upon the point of voting against the War they so much abominated There were many good Men who were much troubled at this unexpected Dismission of the Parliament fancying that the Heats and Differences betwixt the King and his People might have been dispelled by the Continuance of the Assembly which seemed now on the other side highly exaggerated The enraged Commonalty exclaimed mightily against the Authors of this Counsel Some attributed it to Marquiss Hamilton the ambitious Son of a Mother wholly devoted to the Covenanters Others to the Earl of Strafford But the greatest Crowd would have it to be the Archbishop of Canterbury and to be revenged on him about five Hundred of the Apprentices and Rabble furiously assault his Palace at Lambeth though without Success But the true Authors were the subtle Contrivers of the following Rebellion For Sir Henry Vane one of the principal of them then his Majesty's Principal Secretary being ordered by his Master to move for a Supply of Twelve Subsidies with Power to descend to Eight he when the House by an Offer of Five nay Six were mentioned to advance towards a Complyance peremptorily told them that less than Twelve would not do whereby he not only irritated the Seditious but the more modest part of the Assembly which seemed to be his Design by the Effect The factious were not displeased with the King's Necessities The King's Necessities which they themselves did from time to time contribute to since there were no Subsidies to be obtained but upon Conditions ruinous to Monarchy it self or by exposing his best Friends and Ministers to their Rage and Slaughter And thus they constrained the King though unwilling to unusual ways of supplying his wants that they might thereby expose him to the Contempt and Odium of an irritated People But the King raised Moneys by other means his Council the faithful Nobility and Gentry His Friends contribute to his Supply the Judges but more eminently the Clergy who contributed a fifth of their Revenues whence it was called the Bishops War largely supplying him The Earl of Strafford subscribed 20000 pounds which the Duke of Lenox also did as likewise others proportionably except Hamilton who pretended Poverty though the Author of his Memorials against the current of the English Writers delivers that he also subscribed 20000 pounds Being thus furnished the King raises another Army and marches against the Scots but slowly not supposing them so forward who had already passed the River Tweed near Berwick The Earl of Northumberland was General and Strafford Lieutenant-General of the King's Army but they being both absent the Lord Conway General of the Horse commanded lying with 3000 Foot and 1200 Horse to keep the Passage of the Tine at Newburne Lesley the Rebels General desired permission to pass with his Army with a Petition to the King but being denied he attempted the Passage with Three Hundred Horse which were repulsed Hereupon he plies his great Guns with such Success that the English Lesley forces his Passage at Newburne being for the most part Raw and Unexperienced throwing down their Arms ran away Commissary-General Wilmot made stout Resistance with the Horse till over-power'd by Numbers he was forced likewise to retreat The Scots possessed themselves of New-Castle the same Day being abandoned by Sir Jacob Ashly who sunk his Great Ordnance in the River for haste whilst the whole Army retreated in much disorder towards York Two Days after they took Durham with the same Facility and putting the Northern Counties under Contribution forced them to supply their Needy Troops with Provisions and Moneys in abundance The King Summons the Peers to York Makes a Truce with the Scots The King streightned with these Pressures summoned the Peers to meet him at York by whose Counsel or rather Faction a Treaty was commenced and a Cessation of Arms concluded upon very dishonourable Conditions The Four Northern Counties being allowed the Rebels for their Winter Quarters and 850 Pounds per diem during the Truce for their Maintenance Nor could it be otherwise hoped for since Eleven of those Sixteen Lords which the King had appointed to treat with the Scots were either Principal Leaders or Assertors of the Rebellion in the following War It will not be from the purpose to mention what further happened in this Convention The Scots seemed to wonder that they appearing in Arms upon the Invitation of the English Lords none of them unmindful of the Favour had made any mention of it affirming they had not come without the invitation of their Letters The English Lords surprized with this Reproach assured them That they had made them no Invitation at all The Scots being highly moved with this denial produced an Instrument subscribed with most of their Hands which strangely surprised them until upon a strict scrutiny they found it to be an Invention of the Lord Savil's who had really sent them the said Invitation counterfeiting the subsigned Hands which being now discovered by his own Confession it was thought fit seeing the Cheat had succeeded so well not to publish it Strafford alone did dare to advise against this sordid Compliance with the Enemy urging That the Scots were to be forced back with Steel not Gold He further advised the King to grant them no Conditions unworthy himself or the English Nation Let him but give him leave and he would upon peril of his Head oblige them to return to their Country and Duty to their Prince again This vigorous Advice did so far irritate the Scots that they prosecuted the Author of it to Death On the other side Hamilton suspected to favour his Countrymen perswaded a Peace to which the rest of the Peers did also assent upon a supposition that a Parliament and an Agreement were the securest Remedies against the impending Evil. The Cessation being thus concluded the main of it was referred to the Arbitration of a Parliament Nov. 3. 1640. The Rebel-Parliament meets which the King had already summoned to meet at Westminster And this is that fatal Convention which by the Predominancy of the Puritans in it consummated their Impiety and Disobedience by ruining the most Apostolick Church under Heaven and Murthering the best Prince that ever swayed the English Scepter The King might have expected better treating from this Meeting seeing he did not call it to use his own Words more by others Advice and the Necessity of His Affairs than by his own Choice and Inclination who always thought the right way of Parliaments most safe for his Crown as best pleasing to His Subjects and People In the
the Duke of Gloucester the King 's Youngest Brother as least obnoxious to the Wiles of the Enemy by reason of his tender Years but this also displeased and nothing was fixed upon In the mean time several Petitions out of the Counties were presented to Cromwell in which after an Enumeration of his Glorious Actions they earnestly desire That God having given him the Power of the Sword they might be eased of their Grievances by his and his Armies mediation Moved with these Supplications and his own Ambition he ceased not to press the Members singly and collectively to put an End to their odious Domination and permit the Election of a new Representative of Men singular for their Integrity and Holiness of Life to whom the Government might be transferred But these Conscript Fathers bewitcht with the Sweets of Empire turned every Stone to prevent their casheering and being vehemently urged to it promised that they would name a day for the ending of this Session But Cromwell raving with the Thoughts of Supremacy and looking upon every Delay as pernicious rushing into the House of Commons having taxed all with their Crimes pointing at several with his Finger accused some of Adultery some of Drunkenness others of Gluttony and not a few of Robbing the Common wealth And his Officers upon his stamping with his Foot which was the Signal crowding in to him he turned out this Hated Juncto putting a Period to that detestable Convention which had thus long abused the Sacred Name of Parliament And here we ought to adore the unsearchable Judgments of God seeing them who violated the Majesty of their own Lord become Slaves by as just Retribution to their own Servants 'T is scarce credible with what universal Applause this Dissolution was effected not that better Times unless the King were restored durst be hoped for but that People were willing to try every Change rather than longer to bear the Yoke of this odious Domination And thus this perfidious Servant subverted his equally perfidious Superiors and constituting a Council of State which should govern at his beck requires by Proclamation the Subjects Obedience and Submission under great Penalties to their Dictates Many eminent Men have acquired Dominion over their Fellows by Fortitude and Vertue and some by flagitious and detestable Crimes but very few by cheating and perhaps scarce another besides Cromwell who ever invaded and obtained the Supreme Power by Tears and Sighs and Lyes and Pretences of Religion And yet it was with these Arts that this Ambitious Trooper and False Prophet having deceived the Army he commanded being Fanaticks and gained the Independants by Benefits durst attempt what ever Power and Ambition could suggest The Mock-Parliament being turned out the Civil Employments in the Kingdom were by Proclamation confirmed in their Hands that enjoyed them whilst the Souldiery by Sea and Land as also the Armies in Scotland and Ireland did not only approve of this Change by their suffrages but by their congratulatory Addresses too protesting their Obedience to their Generalissimo and his Orders in all Things But Cromwell lest he might seem to arrogate the Supreme Power to himself and thereby offend the Dissenting Brethren and the better to delude the Democraticks with the jugglings of Appearances convened another Assembly by advice of his Officers to the number of one Hundred and Four and Twenty To these being Godly Men and chosen by himself out of the Provinces he devolved the Supreme Power who being Sectaries and Enthusiasticks met at Westminster and usurping the Name of a Parliament as most plausible began to manage the Affairs of the Kingdom But they performed nothing of consequence save that they endeavoured to take away Tythes and alienate the Revenues of the Church as Antichristian They attempted also to abrogate our Laws as Badges of the Norman Conquest imposed to enslave us to suppress our Vniversities and Publick Schools as savouring of Paganism and to annihilate Titles and Nobility as contrary to the Law of Nature and Christianity All which they had also effected if they had not been stopt in their Carreer by a suddain Dissolution Cromwell had many Privado's amongst this mad Rabble who seeing they could do no good with them by tempering their Obstinacy and considering that they acted by a precarious Authority and the Will of another the Speaker being likewise of their Cabal they took their time when many of the other were absent declaring that since no good was to be expected from the Common-wealth so constituted it seemed consonant to reason that the Parliament should be dissolved Which by the Speaker's leaving the Chair was done who marching in the Head of the rest of the Party to White-Hall they surrendered to Cromwell the Authority they had received from him opening thereby a Passage to that Supremacy he so eagerly thirsted after year 1653 Being then by a Decree of the Council of War and Consent of the Army Lambert contributing mainly to it for he also hoped to have his Turn in the Government after the Death of his General chosen Protector he was no less vigilant in conserving his Dignity than he had been industrious in acquiring it But first it was thought fit he should be installed in this New Dignity which was done in great state at Westminster-Hall Dec. 18. where he took an Oath according to the Tenor of an Instrument then presented to him To govern the Nations according to the Laws Statutes and Customs to seek their Peace and cause Justice and Law to be equally administred The Heads of the said Instrument were That the Protector should call a Parliament every Three Years which should sit Five Months That their Bills unless he consented to them in Twenty Days should pass without him That his Council should not exceed One and Twenty nor be under Thirteen who immediately upon his Death should choose another Protector but that no Protector after him should be General of the Army That he should have power to make Peace or War and with his Council make Laws in the intervals of Parliament that should be binding to the Subjects c. His Council for the present seemingly appointed by the Chief Officers but allowed by himself were Fourteen in Number Harrison and some others being disgusted with the Change being lest out tho they had hitherto strenuously but blindly contributed to it But the City not content to have testified their Joy by their Bells and Bonfires invited this New Dictator to a magnificent Feast at Grocers Hall where he Knighted Viner the Mayor but in his Return was saluted with a Brick-bat which light upon his Coach nothing else save a profound Silence accompanying this splendid Cavalcade But Cromwell not taken with Appearances in Order to his Settlement sends his Son Henry to Command in Ireland and General Monk into Scotland securing thereby the Three Kingdoms in his Power At home he discountenances Bradshaw the Regicide with Scot Vane and other Enemies to Monarchy and
declaring the Pacification null breaks out into Open War The City of London during these Traverses altho they had disapproved the Interruption of the Rump did openly refuse to joyn with the Army daring by Petitions and Tumults to manifest their Desires for a Free Parliament And truly such were the Sentiments of the whole Nation which enraged the Souldiery to that height that a great part of the Army was sent into the City to keep them in their Obedience denouncing Death and Ruine to the obstinate Nor did they thus attain the Ends of their Desires opposed by the contrary Strivings of the People who would be satisfied with nothing but the Restitution of This or the Convocation of a New Parliament Which they at length assented to but with most servile Restrictions There was nothing of moment happened this while upon the Borders Monk was resolved to delay and gain time which he also did by avoiding Battle and amusing his Adversaries with another Treaty at New-Castle But Fleetwood head of the Chymerical Republick unequal for so great a Weight as ignorant of his own Strength a Man neither constant to himself nor bravely perfidious thinks of laying down his Burthen Which he was the more inclined to as believing if Lambert returned with Victory his Reign would be but very short To this his Endeavours to reduce the Fleet had proved but vain and that the Souldiers sent against the Rebels at Portsmouth had revolted to them To all this he wanted Money for the Army he commanded the Souldiers being ready to Mutiny for want of Pay and would infallibly rage with all the Extravagancies of Sedition and Tumult Prest with so many Evils and dreading greater this miserable Holder-Forth wretchedly submits his Grandeur to the Rump which he had so lately routed and Dec. 26. with sordid Assentation permits his old Masters to return to their Assembly as before The Rump being thus restored their first Business was to remove Lambert by whom they had been disturbed from his Command Which was not difficult to effect for the Irish Brigades left him and Desborough's Regiment of Horse by the Example of Fleetwood's Souldiers had abandoned him which the rest of his Army likewise did upon receiving the Parliaments Pleasure and Orders for that purpose So that this General who so lately hoped for Triumphs by a strange Vicissitude of things was forced to search for a Retreat to hide himself not unworthy the Fate that attended him since he suffered himself to be deprived of so great an Army without the Circumstance of a Blow Moreover as most ample Conditions had been formerly presented to Oliver and his Son Richard upon returning to their Duty so no less Honours and Dignities with the same Arguments had been offered by the Lord Hatton in the King's Name to Lambert and not without Threats which proved Prophecies That if he refused this Opportunity the King's Restitution would be worught and that suddainly without him and against his Will He should therefore make use of the Occasion to render himself and Posterity great to after Ages But this Advice was in vain he as the rest being blinded with Ambition and the Frantick Desire of Rule Monk being glad that the Enemy was dispersed without a Blow enters England with his little Army of Five Thousand Men tho the Parliament had assigned him but Five Hundred sending the rest back with Morgan into Scotland All the several Parties and Factions had an eye upon his Motions The Rump presumed by his Means to tame the Contumacious City and the Citizens hoped that he would compel the Rump to admit of the Secluded Members again or fill the Vacancies with new Elections They had sent their Sword-Bearer to Complement him upon his coming into England and he was likewise congratulated by all the Provinces he past thro as also by Deputations from the most remote Counties The desires of all good Men were for a Free Parliament as the only remedy against the impending Evils and the true means to reduce the Common-wealth to its pristine Forms of Government and most holy Laws again Monk tho he was of the same Opinion did not as yet think it convenient to discover himself so far Lest therefore he might displease those for whose sake he had armed his Returns to those many Addresses to him were general and civil intimating that he would acquaint the House with their Petitions and recommend them but exhorts them for the present that they keep themselves quiet and within the Bounds of Modesty permitting the Disposal of Affairs to the Judgment and Prudence of the Parliament And thus he moves forwards with slow Marches forming the Garrisons and Forces in his Way to his own Humour The Rump troubled that he was come with more Forces than they had designed he pretending to secure them from all violence by them solicitous of the many Petitions and Addresses to the General and convinced of the Hate of all Men towards themselves not knowing where to fix send Two of their Members Scot and Robinson cunning Men to him under pretence of congratulating his Arrival in England but in effect to pry into his Actions and to see what was to be expected from him Monk received these Gentlemen with the greatest Observance imaginable very careful least he might betray himself by any Inadvertency to these crafty Discoverers Being come to St. Albans he was again saluted by a Splendid Embassy from the City which he received and dismissed with great Civility covering his Purposes with a profound Dissimulation On the Second of February he entered the City with his Army and took his Lodging at White-Hall against the Opinion of all Men. The Third Day being attended upon by Scot and Robinson into the House he refused the Chair appointed for him But leaning upon it after he had received the Speaker's Thanks and Complements for his great Service in restoring the Parliament by his Council and Arms he replyed in these Terms First having modestly declined so great praises since he had done nothing but what his Duty obliged him to He humbly offered to them That they would be pleased to satisfy the People's Expectations by a Vindication of their Laws and Liberties God having restored them not so much to study their own as the Publick Welfare He then desired them To remove the Jealousies some Men conceived of their Design of perpetuating themselves in the Government and that mindful of future Parliaments they would fix a Period to this Moreover he advised them Not to burthen the Subjects with New Oaths And finally That they should take heed to the Royallists and Fanaticks and commending Scotland and a Free State to their Care he finished There were they in the Assembly who fancied he spake more like a Dictator than an Orator and yet he left them loaden with Thanks and Congratulations to take his place appointed him in the Council of State Here he prudently declined the Oath of Abjuration presented to him
the Universality of Mankind for Quae Regio in Terris nostri non plaena Doloris did lament the undeserved Fate of this Prince Nay the outragious Faction it self did blush to approve the Infamy of so flagitious an Act. The Factions disapproving the Infamy of the Regicide impute it to each other The Presbyterians to shift the Envy of it from themselves threw it upon the Independants condemning upon the Stage what they had designed in the Tyring-room But whether out of true Sentiments of Repentance or that they could act no further let them look to that being equally Regicides in their Intentions though not in the Execution The Independants said That they only put to Death a Private Man and an Enemy The King had been long since killed by the Presbyterians as being despoiled of his Prerogative whereby he excelled others of the Militia wherewith he protected his Subjests and of his Freedom of Vote whereby he made Laws They also remembred How he had been divested and robbed of his Liberty as a Commoner of the Society of his Wife as a Husband of the Conversation of his Children as a Parent of the Attendance of his Servants as a Master Yea of every Thing that might render his Life comfortable So that there was nothing left for the Independants to do but to put an end to the Calamities wherewith this Man of Sorrow had been so cruelly overwhelmed and afflicted by the Presbyterians But who ever were the Authors of this Impiety we grieve at what they did which seeing it cannot be undone we may wish that the Memory of it may perish with them who designed and perpetrated so Hellish a Mischief Nor had the Scelerates of the Faction yet satisfied their Cruelty They were inhumanly barbarous to his Dead Corps Their Inhumanities after his Death His Hair and his Blood were sold by Parcels Their Hands and Sticks were tinged with his Blood And the Block now chipt as also the Sand sprinkled with his Sacred Gore were exposed to sale Which were greedily bought but for different Ends by some as Trophies of their slain Enemy and by others as precious Reliques of their beloved Prince It is certain that Cromwell to satisfy his greedy Eyes had caused the Coffin to be opened in White-Hall and did with his Fingers search the-Wound as if he had still doubted of the effecting of his Hellish Cruelty Nor did it suffice to have raged against him living and dead they will also for as much as in them lies kill his very Fame Which they endeavoured to do by the enslaved Pen of a needy Pedagogue one Milton Salmasius indeed had writ a Defence for the King but he being a Presbyterian as the other an Independant both very good Latin if we believe the Learned Hobbs and hardly to be judged which is better and both very ill Reasoning and hardly to be judged which is worst And thus both Houses as they had often sworn with hands lift up to Heaven did make him a Great and Glorious King by changing his Fading Crown which they had interwoven with Thorns into an Immortal and Incorruptible one They made him great indeed great in Suffering in Patience His Character and great in his Martyrdom Thus fell Charles the Great and Just Monarch of sometimes Three flourishing Kingdoms A great Example if any of both Fortunes The Best of Kings The Meekest of Men. His Countenance was Comely and Majestic He was Constant Valiant Pious Eloquent of infinite Reason and Reading His Integrity was entire and no Guile found in his Mouth His publick and private Vertues were eminent He had been born for the Good of Mankind if he had not fallen amongst Monsters not Men. The best of Princes the best of Men the best Parent the best Husband the best Master Famous for Patience for Piety for Chastity for Justice and of an unshaken Fidelity towards God and Man His Greatness only rend'red him Guilty being by the Suffrages of his most bitter Enemies worthy of Empire if he had not reigned The Royal Corps being embalmed and exposed for some Days to publick View at St. James's was afterwards delivered to Mr. Herbert And Funeral one of his Servants to be translated to Windsor He had earnestly solicited to have had it deposited in Henry VII's Chappel near to the Monument of King James But they refused it lest the Place as they said might be prophaned by the Superstitious Concourse of the People He was therefore carried â—o Windsor by the Direction of the Duke of Lenox the Marquess of Hartford and the Earls of Southampton and Linsey who had got leave â—â—om the Faction for the decent Enterrment of their â—ear Lord provided the Funeral-Charges did not â—xceed Five Hundred Pounds These Sacred Reâ—â—ques being then born by the Officers of the Garriâ—on attended on by the Four Lords were laid 〈◊〉 Henry VIII's Vault It is observable that â—â—ough the Air was serene when they set out â—efore they reacht the Chappel-Door the â—â—erse of Black Velvet which covered them was all White with Snow which seemed to fall to testify their Candor and Innocence But it troubled the Assistants that the Fanatic Governour would not permit them the Use of the Common-Prayer the Bishop of London attending there to do this Last Office to his Dearest Master So that he was interred with the Sighs and Tears of his Servants And thus Lam. C. 4. V. 20. the Breath of our Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their Pits of whom we said Vnder his Shadow we shall live among the Heathen COMMENTARIES ON THE REBELLION OF England Scotland and Ireland PART II. BOOK I. The Regicides prohibit the proclaiming of the Prince of Wales They abolish the House of Lords and the Government by Kings Choose a Councel of State Displace and Fine the Lord Mayor for refusing to publish the Act for abolishing of Monarchy Declare they will-maintain the Fundamental Laws Erect a High Court of Justice Hamilton Holland and Capell condemned by it and murthered Several Acts of State The Scots proclaim Charles II. Some Actions of the Levellers The King leaves Holland and goes by Brussels into France The Duke of Gloucester banished Continuance of the History of Ireland The King at Jersey Prince Rupert Sails from Kinsale to Portugal Loseth his Brother Prince Maurice by a Hurrycane The King at Breda Treats and Concludes with the Scots Montrosse's unfortunate End Fairfax routed and Cromwell General His Actions in Scotland The Scots barbarous Vsage of the King They are defeated at Dunbar The King crowned at Schone He enters England The Battle of Worcester The King 's miraculous Escape CHarles the Martyr being removed by a Parricide black as its Authors as is declared in our former Commentaries the Regicides endeavour with the same Fury to supplant his Son Heir of his Diadems and Vertues in order to which they immediately after his Fathers Death The Regicides prohibit the proclaiming of the
Prince of Wales made an Act prohibiting the proclaiming of the Prince of Wales without consent of Parliament and that under pain of High Treason This Decree being dispatched by swift Messengers into all Counties the High Sheriffs had likewise Orders sent them to see the same publisht with all Expedition which was likewise done Their next care was to disable the Secluded Members from being admitted to sit for the future which was performed by voting them quite out of the House as desiring no more sharers in their Oligarchy The House of Lords came next under consideration These had sent a Message to the Commons for a Committee to settle the Kingdom which upon no great Debate was refused Admittance They abolish the House of Lords and a Vote pass'd that the House of Peers in Parliament is useless and dangerous and ought to be abolished and consequently was laid aside being the less pittyed because they had so unnaturally abandoned their Sovereign Only they had this Comfort left that they might sit in the Lower House if they had the luck to be elected which some did as Pembrooke Salisbury Escreek This is in no wise mentioned to reflect upon those honoured Peers who attended the King in all his Fortunes those we honour for their eminent Courage and Loyalty but upon that hated Juncto that continued their Session even to this Moment And yet they will not separate without a Protestation against these Tyrannical Proceedings of the Commoners affirming And Monarchical Government their Treason and Insolencies exceeded those of the Malignants that is the Loyal Party And now the Kingly Government was likewise abolished under pretence that it was chargeable useless and dangerous And that Monarchy which had continued from the Beginning of Times changed into a detestable and many-headed Tyranny under the Chymerical Title of a Free State This being done the Pseudo-Parliament for they still abused the reverend Title of Parliament by assurning it as most grateful to the People to ease themselves of part of the Government choose a Councel of State upon which they transfer the Execution Part of the same Choose a Council of State These were Forty in Number chief Officers of the Army and other principal Sticklers of the party sufficiently infamous in their own Persons tho they had not chosen that execrable Parricide Bradshaw for their President whom they also gratify with the Donation of 2000 l. per Annum The City seemed all this while uneasie which put our Usurpers upon diminishing their Greatness which they did Reynoldson the Lord Mayor had refused to publish their Act for abolishing Monarchy which enraged them to that Height that they cast him into the Tower fine him 2000 l. and also put him from his Employment electing Alderman Andrews Displace and fine the Lord Mayor for refusing to proclaim the Act for abolishing Kingly Government one of the Regicides in his place They further empower any Ten of the Common Council which was modelled to their Design by new choice of young needy enthusiastick Fellows in stead of the grave and wealthy Citizens whom they had elected to convent this City-Senate where they pleased tho the Lord Mayor should not consent to it But as they had displeased some they would content others especially the Populace which they did by rescinding the old Laws against Heresy and Schism which opening a vast Door to Libertinism procured them very many Proselytes Abrogate Laws against Schism and Hereâ—y This Religious Indulgence in opinions strangely distracted the Common-wealth insomuch that they burst out into infinite Errors and Schisms being mainly animated by the Hystrionick preaching of their Itinerant Teachers industriously displaying the Doctrine of the Democraticks and holding forth a Liberty in Holy Things But upon more serious consideration lest these Concessions of Liberty might terminate in Confusion it was thought fit at least seemingly to countenance Presbytery as most popular but with a strict inhibition For these busy Ministers were curbed by an Act wherein according to the method of the Low Countries they were forbid under severe Penalties to meddle with any Affairs of State They moreover endeavour Allow of Presbytery to draw these Dissenters to their Fold promising generally to all their Preachers Settlements out of the Kings Revenue Nay further they tell these that differing from the King in Civil Interest puts them at a greater Distance from him than any Contests about Religion could do They add that the Presbyterians first raised War against him subdued him and delivered him to the Independants to be put to Death That his Successor therefore would consider them as equally noxious and criminal and therefore insinuate that they ought in Prudence for their own preservation to joyn with them in their common Defence Declare they will maintain he Fundamental Laws However they will flatter the People by declaring that they were fully resolved to maintain the Fundamental Laws of the Nation as to the preservation of the Lives Liberties and Properties of the Subject saving those Alterations concerning the King and House of Lords already made And yet at this very time they levyed Taxes by Souldiers permitting them free Quarters and contrary to all Laws erect a pretended High Court of Justice with the same bloody President But erect a High Court of Justice who being gorged with Royal Blood would not stick at any other Sacrifice how Sanguineous soever And now as they had subverted Monarchy the most excellent Form of Government by murthering their Prince so they will lay the Foundation of their new Republick in the Blood of his Nobles Hamilton Holland and Capel condemned and murthered by iâ— Duke Hamilton by the Title of Earl of Cambridge was the first that ascended this Fatal Tribunal of whom it was doubted whether his Ambition or Infidelity were greater The Earl of Holland the most ungrateful of Men followed him yet both deserving our Sentiments of Pity in this that when they would have been good they could not Both had pleaded Quarter but in vain tho Hamilton had offered vast Sums for his Ransom and Holland urged the many Sâ—â—vices he had formerly done for the Parliament The generous Lord Capell was the third in this Scene of Blood involved in the same Fate with the other but lamented with more real Sorrow because of his eminent Loyalty and Vertues He had not been wanting in his defence with those unmerciful Judges who had already resolved his Death chiefly insisting upon the Quarter given at Colchester but to no purpose Fairfax then in Court no less impiously than unsouldierly interpreting that the said Quarter regarded only the Military not the Civil Power His Colleagues had argued much in extenuation of the Crimes objected against them But he being brought to the Scaffold behaving himself with a most Christian Bravery looking upon the People with Assurance told them amongst other Things That he was brought thither for obeying the Fifth Commandment 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